Luke 8:22-25
Introduction:
It’s funny that Luke 8:22-25 should be our text for the day. At our small group meeting this week one of the groups was talking about how we need constant reminders not to be anxious and to rest in God.
I am one of those people who needs those reminders not to be anxious and to rest in God. It probably says something about me that two of the verses that I first memorized were Isaiah 26:3, 4 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”
I memorized those verses precisely because they can be challenging to put into practice. I’m certain I’m not alone in this, as there are many today who are prescribed anxiety medications, sleeping medications, and are subject to panic attacks. Anxiety afflicts many of us.
We creatures have a hard time resting in the truth that God has things under control, and it’s going to be OK in the end. In our text today, we will see Isaiah 26:3, 4 put perfectly into practice. And we will see Isaiah 26:3, 4 completely ignored.
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”
Like many teachings of Scripture, this is one of those things we do need frequent reminders of. At least, I believe the majority of us do. The truth is I could spend the next 30 minutes listing reasons to be anxious. That could be done in any country and at any time. It doesn’t matter who you are. Rich or poor, a high profile leader or with a desk job, perfectly healthy or sick, whatever your nationality or age of the world that you live in: there is something you could be anxious about.
But Jesus was able to sleep through a storm.
It turns out, the key to peace is not a change in circumstances, because some with the worst of circumstances have found peace and some with the best of circumstances continually search in vain.
“Martin Luther, (the reformer, not King Jr.) when he walked in the woods, used to raise his hat to the birds and say, ‘Good morning, theologians – you wake and sing, but I, old fool, know less than you and worry over everything, instead of simply trusting in the heavenly Father’s care.”
- Richard Wurmbrand
Richard Wurmbrand is a name some might know. He’s a frequent feature of the organization known as “The Voice of the Martyrs.” He was imprisoned in the USSR for preaching the Gospel and frequently tortured for Christ.
The same man, who quoted Martin Luther on the birds trusting God and singing, had this to say about his experiences as a prisoner:
“It was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners. It was understood that whoever was caught doing this received a severe beating. A number of us decided to pay the price for the privilege of preaching, so we accepted their terms. It was a deal; we preached and they beat us. We were happy preaching. They were happy beating us, so everyone was happy.”
How could he have peace and joy in such a situation, when others fail to attain it in the best of circumstances?
The key to peace and rest is faith in God’s sovereign power and goodness. X2
Text: Luke 8:22-25
Verses 22-23
This is the Sea of Galilee that they are on. Jesus spent the majority of His time ministering in the area around the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is actually a large lake north east of Jerusalem. They were on their way to “the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.” Given the size of the lake and that the Gerasenes were opposite of Galilee, the trip probably took a good bit of time. Mark tells us that it was evening time.
Knowing the kind of schedule that Jesus kept, it’s no surprise to me that He chose to fall asleep on the trip there! He had probably spent the day before in teaching and healing.
What is kind of surprising is that he managed to stay asleep in the midst of a storm where the boat was filling with water. The Bible does say that they were actually in danger. We could joke about this and say “wow! He was really tired!” but exhaustion isn’t the point. It’s a point of faith.
Jesus is living out Psalm 4:8 quite literally: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Jesus knows that He is safe. He has several assurances of this. First, as we shall soon see, Jesus Himself can command the wind and the waves to be calm and they will obey Him. With such authority, Jesus certainly has no reason to worry that this storm might get out of hand and consume Him. It’s hard to imagine, but Jesus was both fully man and fully God. I certainly have no idea the intricacies of how that all plays out! But though Jesus was asleep, I’m certain that, as God, He was still quite aware of the storm.
Jesus is also in perfect fellowship with God the Father, and knew what His mission on earth was. All things considered, He had no reason whatsoever to be concerned that He might die in a storm.
You might hear that and say: well, sure, Jesus had no reason whatsoever to be concerned that He might die in this storm – but what about His disciples. They weren’t nearly as in tune and in the know as Jesus was about these things. From their perspective, this is a deadly storm that will kill them if God doesn’t intervene. They have no idea of all of these things.
And you are exactly right and that is precisely the problem. The disciples weren’t in tune with God or trusting in Jesus to the extent they should have been. We are now many miracles into the book of Acts, Jesus has commanded the dead to come back to life, healed people from afar, cast out demons, and the disciples should know by now that if Jesus is sleeping in the middle of the storm, then it’s going to be OK. Failing that, they should at least know that God the Father is good, and if they end up perishing in the storm – it’s still going to be OK. They’ll go to be in heaven, which is much better.
They also had Psalm 4:8 to reflect upon “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Our safety is in God’s hands. It’s certainly not in our own. Better to rest and trust Him for it.
Crazy as it might sound, being next to One so powerful and authoritative as Jesus, they probably could have just laid down and enjoyed a good night of rest themselves!
Yeah, I couldn’t sleep through a storm either. That just goes to show we all need to grow. It’s easy to stand 2000 years past these events and criticize the disciples, but we are just like them and need the same lessons that they do.
Link: The disciples should have by this point developed an awareness of Jesus’ divine authority, but they had not.
Application 1:
Where does your knowledge of Jesus lie?
Do you have little to no knowledge of Him so that you are neither afraid nor at rest when you think about Him?
Are you aware of His deep love and benevolence but have neglected to consider His awesome power so that you do not have a proper respect for Him? Do you know that He loves you but somehow miss that He is able to take care of you in the storms?
Or on the other side, are you afraid of Him and not sufficiently aware of His love, care, protection, and grace? You know He has the power, but you aren’t sure if He is going to use it for your good or not.
Where we should be growing is in both: awareness of His awesome power, development of a deep respect admiration – maybe even a little bit of fear, but counterbalanced with a sure and intimate knowledge of His love, mercy, grace, and benevolence.
Think, pray, admire as you read through the Gospels. X2
Link: The disciples weren’t there yet. They didn’t have the faith they should have had, and so they were in fear for their lives even while they were in a boat with God the Son. And so…
Verses 24-25
What an amazing couple of verses. I can’t blame the disciples for being afraid. Can you picture the event in your mind? You’re in a wooden boat. Darkness surrounds you and tall dark waves. You and your companions frantically try repositioning the boat so it rides the waves rather than is mastered by them. But, the waves crash against the boat and little by little it begins to fill with water. That’s frightening. But the real frightening part is what happens next. You wake your leader up to let him know that the end approaches. He wakes up, tells the wind and waves to stop, and they stop. Abruptly it goes from tall waves to a calm sea because the person with you in the boat demanded that the wind and waves calm down. Now that is frightening. “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” Is there nothing Jesus cannot do? Is there no one or no thing that He cannot command?
When you imagine it vividly in your mind, you begin to understand why Peter would say in Luke 5:8 “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” It could very easily be uncomfortable for us sinful people to be so close to one as holy and powerful as Jesus.
The more you learn, the more you have to be afraid of. But, the more you learn, the more you realize that God is good. Jesus is benevolent and kind. He’s so much higher than us, but there is nothing better than being with Jesus – even if that means going with Him through a storm.
Application 2:
When you grow to a mature understanding of God and pair with that the discipline of focusing upon God rather than your circumstances – then you can have peace in the midst of a storm.
But at the root of it all, is that issue of faith. Do you trust God to take care of you or do you not? You trust God to save you from eternal punishment, why can’t you trust Him to work out what is best in a hard situation? It’s because faith needs to grow more, along with the discipline of focusing upon God rather than circumstances.