Faith and Miracles: Jesus' Power Over the Storms of Life

Also, by those that are listening today via podcast, I encourage you to read

Luke chapter 8, verses 22 through 56.

Luke 8:22–56

That's a little bit longer passage, but I encourage you to read that as we go

forward before listening to the rest of this.

I think it'll give you a broader picture, although we're going to cover all

of it and we're going to look at it today.

But Luke now here in Luke chapter 8, verses 22 is where we pick up.

Luke 8:22

Luke now transitions from the importance of listening to Jesus's teaching to

focusing on Jesus's actions.

You see, the second half of Luke chapter 8, it consists of three dramatic stories, okay?

Luke 8 · chapter mention

And they're covering four of Jesus's miracles.

And each story actually emphasizes, is as we see today, Jesus's power and his authority.

And it really just implicitly calls for a response from those who hear about

it. And guess what? That includes us today, amen?

That includes all of us. And we're gonna first of all see today, power over the storm.

So verse 22, it says, one day at Jesus's suggestion, he and his disciples actually

set out to sail across the Sea of Galilee.

And after Jesus fell asleep, a violent squall came up and put the boat in grave

danger, it tells us in verse 23.

And just imagine today, with some of the veteran fishermen in their midst,

this was not their first storm, right?

So for these fishermen, I want you to be reminded, to be fearful meant that

this was some kind of storm, right?

Maybe like they had never seen before. And so the disciples were well-equipped

to determine the degree of danger this storm presented.

And their panicked reaction, as we see, and we heard Ms.

Sharon read earlier in verse 24, it indicates here that the situation, y'all, was dire.

And they cry out to Jesus for help.

Master, master, we're going to drown. I mean, y'all, they thought they were going down.

There's no doubt. And even though their panic is more than a little unseemly, guess what?

Jesus responds, and you know this from reading the passage and from before, he responds by what?

Calming the storm with what? A word.

Jesus doesn't do anything. He doesn't put up his arms and hold the storm back symbolically.

You know what he does? He just simply tells the storm to stop and it obeys him.

Wow. Anyone who has experienced a storm at sea, anybody here ever been at sea on a storm?

If anybody's experienced that, you'll be able to feel the tremendous impact

of this story because when Jesus speaks, the raging waves, all that,

the winds, the tempest, it gives way to quiet.

And when Jesus rebukes the storm, the pitching, the rolling of the ship,

guess what? Also goes to calm.

Church, when Jesus is present, guess what? Terror gives way to peace.

Terror gives ways to peace when Jesus is present.

You see, Luke's brief account here ends in verse 25 with complimentary questions,

questions that invite us all to think about and to apply to ourselves, right?

The disciples asked this question after this happens. Do you see it in the passage?

They said, who is this?

Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.

Well, the answer they know is that only God can control these kinds of forces.

Well, let's look at the passage in Scripture here. Let's see what it says.

It says, The Lord does whatever pleases him in the heavens and on the earth,

in the seas and all their depths.

He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the

rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

That's Psalm 135, verses 6 and 7.

Psalms 135:6

God controls the weather and Jesus, for his part, wonders where the disciples'

faith has gone. Do you remember?

And so the implicit question for us too is, where's your faith or what kind of faith do we have?

What kind of faith do we have? You know, it's easy to trust God when the sailing is smooth, is it not?

In fact, sometimes we just take it for granted, right?

It's easy to trust God, though, when the sailing is smooth, we enjoy God's help.

We enjoy his blessings when we

can see how everything is going to work out well. It's all going smooth.

But you know what? I want y'all to get this today. We can tell a great deal

about what we really believe about Jesus's identity, who he really is,

when we see how we respond in a time of crisis.

Think about it. How do you respond in a time of crisis?

Do you panic? Do we panic and wonder if he really cares about us?

Are we able to trust him, church, in the storms of life?

We need to feel that challenge today. And then we need to remember the good news, right?

That Jesus helps the disciples as he did here and us, by the way,

even though they fail to trust him in the way that they should.

And how many times do we fail to trust him in the way that we should, right?

I mean, he is God. He is Jesus. He is God. Just like the song we heard this morning, right?

I mean, and then also not only power over the storm, but we see power over demons.

Power over demons in this next slide. Jesus moves from a storm at sea, where?

To a storm in the life of a truly wretched man.

Arriving on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, this is largely a Gentile region.

Look at verse 27 of Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

Jesus, it says here, is met by a demon-possessed man from the town.

So Luke's already mentioned that Jesus had a ministry of casting out demons.

We saw that back in Luke 4 and Luke 6, right?

But this man's condition, as we see in this passage, is by far the most vivid

and pathetic picture that we have recorded anywhere in scripture of what it

looks like to be afflicted by a demon.

And to make matters worse, this man was not simply possessed by one singular demon.

Instead, he was possessed, it says in verse 30, by many demons,

so many that they could call themselves legion.

And roughly that's akin to the idea of a battalion.

This man lived, get the picture here again, this man lived in the tombs outside

the city where he would roam around unclothed, as we would say in the style, naked, right?

He would roam among the tombs this way, it says in verse 27.

And it tells us that he was unable to be shackled for his own benefit or the

safety of others in verse 29.

So you got this wild, crazy guy who's possessed by all these demons,

who strips down, he's naked, he's in the tombs.

Nobody can chain him down.

Now, that's a pretty strong individual, right? When the townspeople can't chain him down.

And this story has an almost, if you think about it, almost this cinematic feel to it, right?

Something like that showdown scene. Some of you might remember this one.

Remember that movie, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly?

We can imagine Jesus here, stepping off the boat, right?

The ecstasy of gold, so to speak, playing in the background, right?

And that the calming of the sea has just come here and he's getting off to battle

this battalion of demons.

But there's not a battle, is there? Come on, there's not a battle.

This isn't a fair fight between equal powers.

Not at all. Instead, the man here, as we see in the passage,

at the behest of the demons, what does he actually do in verse 28?

Falls down at Jesus' feet, right? I mean, the Greek word here that Luke uses,

that proskune, it denotes really bowing down before something in worship.

You see, the demons fall down before Jesus in recognition of his authority,

church, calling him the son of the most high God.

So get the picture here. Here's a Gentile dominated area, a platoon of demons

strong enough to kill, as we're going to see in this passage,

2,000 pigs bows down before Jesus and proclaims his unique identity as the son of the only God.

Grasp that for a moment. The posse of demons cowers before Jesus.

Begging, as you see in this passage, repeatedly not to be sent into the realm

of the dead or the abyss in verse 31, and acknowledging him as the son of the most high in verse 28.

Y'all, Jesus exhibits his power by interrogating them and giving them permission,

to enter this large herd of pigs, all of whom promptly, what do they do?

Rush into the lake and drown, as we see in verses 32 and 33.

You know, some people object to Jesus's actions here on ethical grounds, you know.

Surely he could perform this miracle without the loss of pig life, right?

And the financial consequences that would have followed from these innocent,

you know, swine herders, right, who just lost their livelihood.

Those questions may be natural to

us in this world but they they just

represent a spectacular example of missing

the point right and this was the pharisee specialty

by the way hope it's not yours they could

react to the healing of a blind man by complaining about making spit mud on

the sabbath day brother ronnie that we find that in john 9 they could celebrate

the healing of a cripple by raging that he had used his newfound health to actually

carry a mat on the Sabbath day, as we see in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

There are good reasons, probably good responses here to objections about Jesus's

actions in this passage.

One of them I think of is the priority of human life over animal life. Amen?

But they're really not necessary because, I just want to say this today just

straight up, if a man conquers with a mere word a posse of demons that couldn't

be restrained by chains from this town,

he doesn't need to defend his actions. He's God. I am.

We're the ones that need to put the hand over our mouth, right?

In any event, though, the exorcism had its effect.

We see in Luke chapter 8, verse 36, the man was cured, right?

Luke 8:36

And restored to his right mind, it says in verse 35.

And when Jesus went to leave, the man actually had a request.

What was his pleading for?

Verse 38, yes, to go, he wanted to go with Jesus.

Man, he wanted to get on this road trip with Jesus, right?

Maybe he wanted to learn from Jesus, perhaps, or maybe because he understood

that Jesus could protect him from anything like this in the future.

Instead of bringing the man along, though, what does Jesus tell him in verse 39, I believe it is?

What does he want him to do? He actually commissions him, right?

He commissions him as a witness to the power and mercy that he's received.

And it goes on to tell us that he actually does that and spreads the news all

through that town. In fact, we go a little deeper in this in our series, Made for Mission.

I encourage you to listen to that because it tells us of the impact.

It just reveals the impact this man that was cured of demon possession had on

this town when Jesus returns.

But this former lunatic is now, think about it, a trophy, a trophy of grace,

amen, to the power and grace of the Son of the Most High.

He serves as an example, Eastwood, to all of us who've experienced the mercy of Jesus.

Let us declare today how much Jesus has done for us out of a grateful,

thankful heart, church.

Well, let me just challenge us today. Be afraid, but don't be afraid.

There's a fascinating trajectory, I think, in both of these miraculous events,

because if you stop and think about it a minute, at the outset, what do we see?

We see people who are consumed by fear.

First, remember, a raging storm, and then a raging group of demons.

And next, guess what happens? A relative calm is established after Jesus exercises

incredible power and authority.

But then from that calm, as we see in this passage, grows seemingly even greater

fear, but this time of who?

Look at verse 25. Who? Wow.

Once the sea, Eastwood, had been calmed, the disciples, it says,

were gripped by fear and amazement.

And when the townspeople hear, they hear the eyewitness report of the swine

tenders in verse 34, they come to see for themselves what Jesus has done in verses 35 and 36.

In verse 37, instead of responding to Jesus's help with gratitude and worship,

they asked Jesus to what?

To leave because they were overcome with fear.

Can you imagine the whole town after Jesus had just done all this,

saying, would you please leave?

Please leave. They just overcome with fear.

What accounts for those strange responses?

We've already seen Peter's desire for Jesus to depart from him after the miraculous catch of fish.

You remember that in Luke 5? Peter was the same way.

And in a similar way here, the disciples and the townspeople are probably justified

in feeling fear in light of these manifestations of divine power and authority.

They realize how great a power and authority it took to calm that raging storm

and to deal with this demon-possessed man.

And the disciples have a question too.

Look at it in verse 25 of Luke 8. What do they ask again? Who is this?

It's answered in verse 28, by the way, by an unlikely source.

He is the son of the Most High.

You know who told us that, right? The demons.

Right? He is the son of the most high God as they fell down on his feet.

But their fear, church, does seem to, I think, misunderstand the whole fundamental

point of Jesus's presence here.

And I get this. It may well be terrifying for sinners to be in the presence of God.

Example given, Isaiah 6, 5. But the son of the most high, I don't want you to miss this.

The son of the Most High took on flesh, not to terrify people, but to save them.

He wants to save us. And the arrival of God in our midst, guess what?

It's good news, as it says in Scripture, that will cause great joy.

It told us that back in Luke chapter 2, amen?

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Not terror, because it's evident that God is for us, Eastwood, not against us.

It's evidence that He is not remote. He's not disinterested in our suffering,

as the disciples probably surely wondered when Jesus actually slept through the raging storm.

You talk about, I mean, being in control. Almighty God, I am present on the boat.

He takes a nap. Wow.

If he were our enemy, God would be terrifying. and unmitigated fear would most

certainly be called for.

The demons are correct to be afraid. I want y'all to see that.

But since God is for us, church, in Christ, his power is actually, guess what?

A wonderful antidote to fear, Brother Ronnie.

He's for us, not against us. I mean, what exactly, church, do we have to worry

about if Jesus, the powerful son of the most high, is on our side?

If Jesus can calm a raging storm and conquer a host of demons,

what problems in your life or my life are beyond his power to help us?

Zero, right? If you're overcome with fear, maybe Jesus would ask you and I the

same question that he asked the disciples.

In verse 25, you guessed it, where is your faith? Where is your faith?

Want you to know there's power for the desperate. Power for the desperate.

In this final section here of chapter 8, we see Luke pulls out the stories of

two very different individuals that we're going to look at quickly.

Jesus actually met upon his return to the Galilean side of the lake in verse 40.

Look at verse 41 there. The first individual was a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader.

Look, that was a formal position in the life of the synagogue.

It carried with it a host of practical

responsibilities that he had for spiritual life of the community.

And as such, you can imagine, Jairus was undoubtedly an important and respected member of society.

And so we also see that the woman that we meet in verse 43 has a drastically

different situation in life.

She's an unnamed woman whose condition

was beyond all hope she was subject to bleeding

for 12 years that's basically a euphemism

for some sort of gynecological malady that no one could heal right and to make

matters worse this woman's condition actually if you remember would have meant

that she was an outcast from society and because of her bleeding her issue of

bleeding she was ceremonially unclean as well.

It tells us that in Leviticus 15, it describes that.

So, and it would pass her uncleanness as well to anybody who touched her.

And if she was a young woman, then this condition very well,

I want you to get this, could have prevented her from having children.

A particularly isolating condition in that society that was looked down upon, right?

And in short, if we think about this today, as we look at this passage,

you'd be hard-pressed to find two more different people in that little town

than Jerish and this unnamed woman.

But they have one very important thing in common.

Know what it is? They're both suffering terribly. They're both at the end of

their rope, church, with no other options here.

They need Jesus's help badly.

And for Jairus, remember, despite all of his responsibility,

all of his position, he has a desperate problem. What is it?

His 12-year-old daughter is dying, right? We see that in verse 42.

He throws himself at Jesus's feet, and he pleads for his assistant in verse 41.

And so these two very different people find themselves at the same place at

the same time, both wanting Jesus's help.

And Jesus was on his way to help Jairus, was he not?

The woman approached him to touch his cloak, it tells us.

And it's not clear why she thought that touching his cloak would heal her.

But surprisingly enough, it was effective.

Immediately her bleeding stopped, it says in verse 44. And in just a moment,

12 years of frustration and futility.

Guess what, church? Did you see it? It's all reversed.

It's all reversed. Jesus didn't see the woman who touched him in the pressing crowd, we're told.

But guess what he did notice in verses 45 and 46?

He noticed that power had gone out from him.

Y'all, I think I mentioned this a little bit before, but I'll say it again.

The symbolism here in meeting, in this meeting here, it's remarkable. Think about it.

Blood flows from the sick woman, but the power to heal flows from Jesus.

Her touch was supposed to transmit

uncleanness, but instead Jesus's touch transformed her and made her clean.

Wow. Y'all, we have a God who delivers. Amen.

We have a God who is there for us. In fact, it seems that this woman wanted

nothing to do with an actual encounter with Jesus.

Because at first she didn't admit that she had done this in verse 45.

She might have just hoped to sneak in without creating a commotion to get her healing, right?

And get out without anybody realizing what had even happened.

But y'all know this as well as I do, probably looking at scripture,

Jesus won't let her slip away quietly, will he?

He's not content just to dispatch a miracle because he wants an encounter with a person.

And so finally, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, it says in verse 47, what did she do?

She came trembling to Jesus to tell him the truth.

Imagine how her heart, though, must have leapt inside of her.

Jesus starts talking to her, and the first word out of his mouth was a gentle

word. What was it? Daughter.

Come on, daughter. Jesus was looking for her so that he could correct her misunderstanding

of what had just happened.

She might've thought, think about it for a minute. She might've thought that

she was healed by touching Jesus's cloak as if by magic.

But Jesus wants this woman to

know that it was actually her faith that healed her as we see in verse 48.

And we saw even back in Luke seven, verse 50, it talks about this type of thing.

So this joyous scene here is brought to a screeching halt, though,

by a messenger, if you remember, from Jairus' house. What is the crushing news that he delivers?

His daughter is dead, verse 49. And it actually seems, just for a brief moment,

y'all, that Jesus' kindness towards this sick woman may have cost the little

girl her only chance at living.

But Jesus here, y'all, you see it in the passage, he is totally undeterred by the report.

And he proceeds to Jairus' house anyway, taking a few of the disciples and the

girl's parents inside with him. We saw that in verse 51.

And his command to the mourners is what?

Stop wailing. And his assertion was that she was merely asleep in verse 52.

And that would have seemed ludicrous, by the way. Surely they knew a dead body

when they saw one, right?

Verse 53, they talk about it. But in reality, they were right.

The girl's spirit had departed from her body. We see in verse 55,

but we should understand, I believe, Jesus' comment about her being asleep to

mean that she's going to soon wake up.

I mean, she is asleep in the Lord, right? As soon as I'm going to wake her up.

Those that we know who have gone on before us, maybe family members,

loved ones, all those, friends, they know Christ.

They're asleep in the Lord. Be absent from the body. Paul says to be present with the Lord. Amen.

And so just as in the creation account, yep, go all the way back to Genesis 1, verses 1 through 31.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

God's word, church, has power to bring life into being.

So Jesus' command here, what does it do? It actually imparts life to this young girl in verse 54.

His instruction, if you notice, what's the first thing he told them?

Give her something to eat.

Y'all just have to say this, by the way, I forgot to eat any breakfast today.

And I'm like, give me something to eat, okay? I mean, that was the first command.

And that really signifies, I don't know if you called it, a return to a completely functioning life.

Her parents were astonished, it says in verse 56.

Jesus ordered them something, though. What did he tell them to do? Not to tell anyone.

And it's like, well, I mean, really? I mean, I don't understand.

I mean, he just told this guy that he healed from the demons to go.

He commissions him to go tell. Isn't that interesting?

Most likely, though, to prevent the crowds from getting wrong-headed ideas in

this situation about him coming to establish a political kingdom.

But Luke's account of these two miracles, y'all, it should leave us breathless.

Because in the span, if you notice today, of just a few short verses,

we're taking on that rollercoaster ride from sorrow to joy to despair back to joy again.

And all of these events make for a perfect conclusion, I think, to this chapter.

For yet again, we see the issue of fear come to the surface, don't we?

Like the disciples, think about it. Like the disciples in the boat,

both sufferers, both of the sufferers here are understandably fearful in the

storms of their life. They're both fearful.

The sick woman trembles at Jesus' presence. We saw that in verse 47.

Jairus is afraid that his daughter's lost forever in verse 50.

But yet again, as would Jesus's bearing and actions invite us all to come to

him in faith when we're consumed with suffering or fear, whatever it is,

he's powerful, church. He is kind.

He's come to bring an end to our fear.

He's powerful enough to do it, y'all. And he welcomes us to come to him in our time of need.

Think about it today. I just want you to take a moment as we stand,

you bow your heads for just a moment. Think about this.

Are you operating in your life in fear?

Do you realize who Jesus is, the Son of the Most High?

Is there something going on in your life or heart or situation or whatever it

might be where you're just consumed with that instead of realizing that,

Jesus is God Almighty. He has the power to calm the storm with the word in your life.

He has the power, yes, to raise the dead.

If our God can do that with the word and with a touch, y'all,

what can he not do in our lives?

Nothing is impossible for our God. Nothing.

That means whatever burden you're carrying today, whatever thing you're facing

in your life, that is not an impossibility for God.

God is Lord over all of it.

And I encourage you today, we're going to pray in just a moment,

but as we pray together, I encourage you, don't let the enemy rob this moment from you.

If there's some business you need to do with God, maybe it's just this altar,

maybe there's a decision you need to make.

I don't know what your heart is today. I don't know how God's moving in your

heart, but I know one thing's for sure.

He's promised that his word would not return void.

So I encourage you today, be obedient. To obey is better than sacrifice.

Be obedient to your master.

Surrender to him. Cast your cares upon him because he certainly cares for you.