Transcript
Elyse Fitzpatrick encourages us to work through fear: “During the Second World War, God raised up a family of Dutch Christians who helped to hide Jewish people from the advancing German armies. This awe-inspiring story of sacrifice and courage is told in the book The Hiding Place, written by the family's only surviving daughter, Corrie ten Boom.
“As a young girl, Corrie came face to face with her own fears. A neighbor’s baby had died, and Corrie realized that anyone could die, even her beloved father. “You can’t die! You can’t!” she sobbed. This is how she described her father’s response to her fear:
Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. “Corrie,” he began gently, “when you and I go to Amsterdam—when do I give you your ticket?” I sniffed a few times, considering this. “Why, just before we get on the train.” “Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need—just in time.”
“Can you see what Corrie’s father was teaching her? When God calls you to face something frightening, whether it’s your own death, a tragedy in the family, or some other difficulty, it is then, and only then, that He provides you with the strength to live through it. Over the years, I’ve tried to remember that I don’t need the “ticket” of God’s strength and grace for a train that hasn’t or may never arrive. The only ticket I need is for the train that I must board right now, and God has promised to provide that ticket for me when I need it. “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” He has said to us (Hebrews 13:5). That means He’ll be there, holding our hand, no matter what train He has called into the station. (From Overcoming Fear, Anxiety, and Worry, pp.46-47)
I love that story because it reminds me of Corrie’s amazing story and because this sets us up perfectly for where we’re heading this morning. Part of the reality of God’s saving work in the lives of His people means that we get the privilege of following Jesus. What joy and comfort our lives know because our eyes are fixed on Him. The Psalmist would say, “Whom have I in heaven but You,” and the fact that Jesus is our Savior and Advocate before the Father is significant when we face suffering.
We’re returning to the story of Jesus and His disciples in the boat as Jesus calms the storm. Today’s section comes from Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew, the human author of this book, was one of the twelve disciples. His Gospel account focuses on a Jewish audience who must understand that Jesus is the Messiah, the King. The opening verse says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The book ends with Jesus telling us that all authority in heaven and on earth is His. He commissions His people. So, from start to finish, Jesus is the Christ, and His roots go back to His being the son of David and the son of Abraham. God’s promises are “Yes” and “Amen” in Jesus.
In Matthew 8, we pick up the story of Jesus calming the storm on the heels of the Sermon on the Mount. On top of that, we’ve seen some fantastic faith in chapter 8. Think of that Roman centurion of whom Jesus says, “Surely I have not found faith like this in all of Israel.” Yikes! Then, immediately before they get in the boat, “18 … Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” So, in a context like this, where Jesus has just intimated that following Him will be costly, we get our narrative today. Join me, then, as we see 3 connections between following Jesus and suffering…
Read Matthew 8:23-27 (This is God’s Word; thanks be to God)
3 connections between following Jesus and suffering…
First, one connection is that I. Following Jesus leads us into suffering. (23) 23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.
I love how obvious some truths are that we bristle at. And that’s the case if we look at v.23. When Jesus got in the boat, His disciples followed Him. Spurgeon summarized it well: “They were wise to follow him, and safe in so doing; but they were not therefore secure from trial. In the boat with Jesus is a happy place, but storms may come even when we are there.” Sometimes, we think facing a trial means that Jesus is NOT with us. It’s so easy to let our minds wander into ways of thinking that don’t line up with reality (and God’s Word).
Doesn’t this make sense after Jesus says that following Him will demand everything from us? Following Him “… is not merely another commitment which we add to the long list of our other commitments, but it is THE commitment—demanding a reordering of our lives from the bottom up.” So, you can follow Jesus, have your eyes firmly fixed on Him, and be led into troubling waters. I hope you find this as encouraging as I do. Of course, we sometimes face consequences for sinful choices or simply because we live in a fallen world that hasn’t been restored yet. But we shouldn’t conclude that suffering means we aren’t following Jesus or having our eyes fixed on Him. Following Him will lead us into suffering.
Secondly, another connection here is that II. Following Jesus leans into Him for help. (24-25)24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”
Again, this is a rather obvious point. Look at v.24. There was a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was swamped by the waves, but He was asleep. They went and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” When our hearts are overwhelmed, we can run to Him for help. But, again, our hearts are challenged by this reality. Listen to how J.C. Ryle provokes us to lean into Jesus more: “How many have faith and love enough to forsake all for Christ’s sake, and to follow him wherever he goes, and yet are full of fears in the hour of trial! How many have grace enough to turn to Jesus in every trouble, crying, “Lord, save us,” and yet not grace enough to lie still and believe in the darkest hour that all is well!” Ouch. This passage is beckoning us to lean in actively and passively. Actively, we’re invited to see that Jesus will help us. He’s not turning a blind eye or deaf ear to His children. He’s coming near us to help. And, passively, we can trust that He’s with us. We can lean into circumstances with confidence that He knows what we’re facing before we do at times. Just last week, I was lamenting to someone about my frustration about an issue, and they reminded me, “Jesus knows this; He’s with us and already at work. Lean into Him.”
There is also some unique language here in Matthew’s Gospel. As the disciples cross over to the other side with Jesus, the lake undergoes [literally, in the original language] a “great shaking” (we also find this wording in Matthew 24:7; 27:54, 28:2), which represents the upheaval of the powers of chaos that dwell in that realm. The boat is “hidden” by the waves, and the disciples rouse a sleeping Jesus with mournful pleas to save them from perishing. While it may be true, as some have suggested, that Jesus slept because he was exhausted by the demands of itinerant preaching and that he could sleep peacefully through storms because of his complete trust in God’s protective power, the description of the disciples having to rouse a sleeping Jesus points in another direction. Rest is a divine prerogative (see 11:28), and sleeping symbolizes divine rule in Ancient Near Eastern literature. Isaiah 51:9–10 provides an important backdrop to this story: “9 Awake, awake, put on strength, o arm of the Lord! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of long ago! Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? 10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to cross over?” The point is this: “The disciples do not ask Jesus to call on God to save them as the frightened sailors had implored Jonah (Jonah 1:6). They ask him directly to save them as if he had the power of God (8:25). Jesus’s rest is a sign of his divine sovereignty, and the terrifying power of chaos is promptly overcome when he arises.” This reality helps us to lean into Him. To put it another way, is there any situation you face that is too difficult for the Lord? What keeps you from leaning into Him for help? Following Jesus leads us into suffering and leans into Him for help. Third and finally, III. Following Jesus calls for faith over fear. (26-27) 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
This passage ends with the question of v.26, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” He arose, rebuked the winds and sea, and there was calm. And, the men marvel at Jesus’s power: “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him?” Verse 27 is the point of the story. “The disciples were good Jewish men, and they knew that only God (Yahweh in the Old Testament) is able to direct the wind and the waves. Psalm 89:9 says, “You rule the raging sea; when its waves surge, You still them.” Likewise, in Psalm 107:29 the psalmist announces, “He stilled the storm to a murmur, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” Jesus’ disciples marveled because they began to realize that the man in the boat with them was not just a man. God Himself was in the boat with them! That’s the point of the story: Jesus is God. The authority that belongs to God is the authority that belongs to Jesus.
Listen to David Platt bring this home for us: “Having seen the point of the story, we also need to see the promise in the story. The promise is not that all the storms in your life will end soon. The Bible does not guarantee this, nor can anyone else. Your cancer may not go away, and that struggle in your marriage may not end this week, or even this year. As a believer, your confidence is not that these storms will end very soon but that you will never be alone in the midst of the storms in your life. God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, will be with you every step in the midst of the storm.
“Faith is not confidence that trials won’t come your way. Faith is confidence that no matter what wind and waves come your way in this world, the God of the universe will be right there in the boat with you. His power and His presence will see you through. Christian, you are not alone, and ultimately you are safe in the presence of the One who has ultimate authority over all disaster.
Faith over fear is not a call to convenience. We have this cultural thing in America where we say faith over fear in a way to do whatever we want and build our lives as comfortably as possible. Indeed, you can see how this kind of thinking is worked against in this story, in the lives of the first disciples, and even those in the Bible who struggled with fear. Just peek over in Hebrews 11, the Bible’s Hall of Faith, to see how costly faith was for those banking on God coming through. Faith is always the issue for us as followers of Jesus. The early church father, Hilary of Poitiers, said, “When faith in Christ is awake, there is no need to fear the world's commotion.” Will you nurture an immense faith in Jesus? I love Sean O’Donnell’s definition: “Faith is … “courageous confidence” that believes “Jesus is [always] equal to the occasion,” he is always up to the issue at hand.” Ask God to increase your faith. Trust Him over fear.
In conclusion, today we’ve seen 3 connections between following Jesus and suffering…
I. Following Jesus leads us into suffering. (23)
II. Following Jesus leans into Him for help. (24-25)
III. Following Jesus calls for faith over fear. (26-27)
A song by Mary Baker captures the issue of following Jesus and suffering: “It pictures the disciples crying out:
Master, the tempest is raging;
The billows are tossing high!
The sky is o’ershadowed with blackness,
No shelter or help is nigh!
Carest thou not that we perish?
How canst thou lie asleep,
When each moment so madly is threat’ning
A grave in the angry deep?
To which Jesus replies:
The winds and the waves shall obey my will:
Peace! Be still!
Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea,
Or demons, or men, or whatever it be,
No water can swallow the ship where lies
The Master of ocean, and earth, and skies.
They all shall sweetly obey my will:
Peace! Be still! Peace! Be still!
They all shall sweetly obey my will:
Peace. Peace. Be still.
Jesus is always better than our fears. Moreover, our faith will be most stable if we center it on who Jesus is. Faith urgently needs to know not so much what Jesus will do or what promises He may have made that apply to this or that situation but who Jesus is. We must learn that knowing Jesus authentically strengthens faith. We discover with increasing delight that Jesus is always far more wonderful than anticipated. (Carson)
Will you trust in Him today? For some, this means going all in with Jesus and who He is and turning from our trust in ourselves. For others, this means giving our sufferings to Him and trusting that He’s with us and He is enough. Know Him and make Him known, even through your sufferings, that we may glorify and enjoy Him forever.
In this sermon, Phil Auxier helps give us hope for following Jesus in suffering.
Resource Info
