Luke 8:22-56 & 9:1-17 - A Theology of Sinking

I want to give you, I want to give you this morning a theology of sinking.

A theology of sinking.

One of the biggest mistakes in preaching and teaching in the Bible, probably in the last hundred years, maybe, give or take, is that we think every Bible verse, every Bible story is primarily about us.

And the biggest objective of preaching and teaching has been how do we make this about us?

About mankind?

Who's your Goliath?

What sea in your life do you need God to part?

What miracle do you want Jesus to do for you?

So you get the idea.

And I would say there's been a healthy pushback against some of that understanding and teaching, that methodology.

And we understand that God's word is primarily about God.

It reveals his character.

David defeated Goliath because God used David.

It was God.

The Red Sea was parted, and the Israelites walked across on dry land because God promised Israel that he would deliver them, he would rescue them.

Jesus did miracles in order to show his compassion and his power.

But sometimes we look at Scripture and we don't make the connection between what the Scripture is about and us.

At best we're making that first step, the primary connection, which is good.

What does this teach us about God?

But then making the next connection, what does this mean for me, that can be challenging.

So, a theology of thinking.

You know, as we've been in the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, we've talked about this, how Luke is revealing the upside-downness of the kingdom, how God's kingdom works in ways that are contrary to the ways of the world.

For the most part, what seems like wisdom to the world is foolishness to the citizens of heaven.

And for the most part, what the Bible calls wisdom, the world rejects as foolishness.

The compass of the Bible puts us on a different heading and it takes us to a different place.

I want to look through this passage this morning.

I want to apply it to our lives.

There's two points.

The first point is, who then is this?

I want to talk about who Jesus is.

At the end of this passage that I read for us, Jesus and the disciples say, who then is this?

Well, first we know that Jesus is fully God and fully man.

This passage is a wonderful example of this.

That Jesus is fully man.

He's human.

He needs sleep.

This is a Savior who is going to save the world but also needs some sleep.

Now I don't, I know, I think in every season of my life, anyway, I felt like I just can't get enough sleep.

You know?

When you're young and you're in your teens or you're in college, your social calendar's full and things are busy, and you just think, I just can't wait until I get out of this season, maybe.

And or when I get older, I'll get more sleep then.

Then you get older and you get married, you have kids, and you don't really know what sleep is for a while.

You hear about it, it's this thing, but where is it?

And then I think you get older, and this is, I'm speaking now from what I hear from others.

Your kids get older.

Your kids are out with their friends, so you still don't sleep.

And then your kids move out and they're doing life, and then you're concerned about them, but the things of life come weighing in.

I think we're just a tired people.

So meeting up with a brother this week, and he's just like, hey, how are you doing?

Which I appreciated the question.

I said, Man, I'm just tired.

And as I said it, I realized I'm always saying that.

I'm tired of saying I'm tired.

Probably need to fix my mind on something else.

But there is just a weariness about life that's real and genuine.

Jesus experiences this.

He's ministering, things are happening.

But he can relate to us in our tiredness.

This is a savior who can relate because he's human.

Now, sometimes we don't want to be related to.

We don't want to be relatable.

We want to be unique, just us, and nobody understands my struggles, and nobody knows what I'm going through, and nobody understands.

And there's some understanding, some truth to that in a sense.

Some advice I remember hearing from Josh McDowell one time.

He said, never tell someone, oh, I know exactly what you're going through.

Because you don't.

Even if you've been through a very similar thing, you don't know what they are going through, particularly.

But then there's the flip side of that is that when we are struggling or suffering or going through things in life, how sweet it is to have someone who can relate to us.

Someone who knows something about what we've been going through.

What we've been struggling with, or what we've been working on, or what we're facing in life.

One of the many, many famous quotes by C.S.

Lewis, he talks about friendship.

He says, friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, What?

You two?

I thought I was the only one.

This kindredness, and we appreciate that.

And this is all the more true in the midst of suffering and tremendous hardship.

When someone else knows and they have a glimpse of what you're going through.

See, Jesus is compassionate in a unique way because he is human.

Hebrews chapter 4, verses 15 and 16 say, For we do not have a high priest, Jesus, who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus knows what it is to be tired, to be hungry, to be alone, to be forsaken, to be tempted, to be human.

You know, here in the boat, the storm is raging and they're sinking, and Jesus is asleep, and the disciples are panicking.

But there will come another time on dry land in the still calm night where Jesus is praying so intensely that he's sweating blood.

And he asks his disciples to pray with him, but they are the ones sleeping.

Jesus is human, like you and like me.

And it's hard for us to wrap our minds around that, and I think we are right to be like cautious about that and how we articulate those things.

But he is fully manned, church.

But he's also fully God, and we see in this passage his divinity.

We see Jesus calm the storm.

He woke up, rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased.

And there was a calm.

What an amazing thing.

Mark in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, everybody counts Jesus standing up and saying, Peace.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Be still.

Be still.

See, Jesus, if you didn't know this, created the world.

He created all things.

This in Genesis 1.

We read it in Colossians 1.

We read it in Hebrews 1.

We read it in 1 John 1.

Among other passages, Jesus created the world.

So when you think about if he's the one who created all things, it's not that amazing of a feat for him just to stand up and say, chill out, right?

Calm.

Peace.

Be still.

But the disciples, they're learning these things.

It's obvious that the disciples didn't know who Jesus was, or they have forgotten who Jesus was.

I love how J.C.

Ryle puts it.

He says, they forgot everything, but the sight and sense of present danger, and under the impression of it, could not even wait till Christ awoke.

It is only too true that sight and sense and feeling make men very poor theologians.

When we rely on our sight, our senses, our feelings.

We are just that.

We're poor theologians.

We have bad thoughts, unhelpful thoughts, untrue thoughts about who God is and what He has done.

What has He done?

He's calmed the storm, the raging storm.

But this is one of those passages, it's also kind of tricky.

This is a passage where you feel like the disciples kind of get rebuked, like, where's your faith?

Which makes sense.

I mean, they're in a boat with God.

You know, God's probably gonna take care of this.

But at the same time, at the same time, this is real.

The boat is filling with water.

Their danger is real.

Their panic is, in a sense, warranted.

And they come to Jesus and they say, Well, listen, you gotta do something or we're gonna die.

This is a real thing.

And Jesus says, calms the storm in a moment and says, Where is your faith?

See, then the normal, again, natural, rational thing to do when a boat is sinking is to probably kind of panic.

Right?

Like that's just that's normal human behavior.

If this goes down, and this isn't like a lake like Apple Valley, where there's just, you know, you can see the shore on both sides, and there's boats going around.

Like, if the boat goes down, they're in trouble.

There's this natural reaction, this real danger.

But Jesus kind of acts like it wasn't a big deal.

Like they're just kind of on a casual tour around the lake and some water splashing the boat and they're freaking out.

She's like, hey guys, like, come on, chill out, right?

It feels like Jesus' questions, his question is kind of harsh.

But the reality is, if you've been following God around for several years, watching him literally resurrect people from the dead, and then you have this storm scene, and the boat hasn't sunk, no one's died, no one's perished.

The very being who created the world is asleep in the boat with you.

It makes sense.

Jesus is like, why are you trusting me?

Like, where's your faith?

Relax, this is gonna be okay.

This rebuke.

It's a challenge to their faith.

And we see this throughout the gospels, this kind of narrative of this challenging of their faith.

Do you really believe this?

Don't you understand what's really going on here?

It seems, it feels like the disciples and and and those who are following Jesus have just blinders on.

They're not really able to see all that God is doing.

But even as Christians today, we can struggle with this.

We can say we're Christians, we belong to God, we believe in these things, we follow the Bible, and that's good while things are good, while things are nice, while people like us, while our values are being honored, and while things are going well, and all of our hopes and dreams are happening.

And then reality comes in, then a storm comes in and destroys all those things.

What's left?

What's still there?

We talked last couple weeks ago earlier in the passage.

The parable of the sowers.

Jesus sowing seed and some grows and some's choked out by the thorns, and some is eaten by the birds, and some by the rocks, and come and are planted in the rocks and they don't grow.

The sun comes and kills them.

Some in good soil.

And it's easy for us to think, just assume, I'm in good soil because I'm here.

Right?

I must be a Christian because I'm in the church and we follow God's word and we hold high the things of God.

But then when the moment of crisis comes, what's there?

Another, I think, helpful quote by Ryle.

Where is where was the profit and the benefit of believing?

If they could not believe in the time of need?

Where was the real value of faith unless they kept it in active exercise?

Where was the benefit of trusting if they were to trust their master in sunshine only, but not in the storms?

You've been a Christian for really almost any amount of time.

You realize that storms will come.

And they often test our faith.

And then what they're revealing is there's this active exercising.

Is this someone who has faith that's put into action?

Do they believe it?

When their hopes and their dreams are crushed, and things don't go as they want them to.

Do they believe these things?

Calls into question.

So there's this theology, if you will, of sinking.

That Jesus is real.

That Jesus is sovereign, meaning he's over everything, he has control over everything, and that Jesus is good.

And as Christians, we belong to Jesus.

So when we understand that Jesus is real, he's sovereign, he's good, and as Christians, we belong to him, then we can have this theology of sinking.

It's really saying, well, it might look to the world like we're sinking, and it might feel to our natural human bodies like we're in danger.

But the reality is we belong to God.

And God is good, and he's sovereign, and he's real.

He will hold us fast.

So we're talking about what this passage reveals about God.

He's Jesus is fully man, he's fully God, he's sovereign, he's compassionate.

He's calling his people to faith, to trust him.

Not to trust the things of this world, but to trust him.

I want to take some time and just apply this to us in a couple particular areas.

You know, one thing that is sinking around us is our culture.

Our culture is sinking.

I don't know if you've realized that or not.

If you have it, that's a problem.

It's sinking.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk, the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk is one of the loudest alarms to the fact that our society is sinking.

And so much hate and evil has been revealed since then.

Evil is real.

And I have been, as I think most Christians, very encouraged in praising God that in recent weeks the gospel has been shared so publicly and articulately on television and social media, but in millions and millions of conversations.

Anytime, church, the good news goes out.

Anytime the good news goes forth.

We praise God for that.

Response as Christians should be bold.

We should boldly declare the truth of Jesus Christ, not be ashamed and fearful.

And if we genuinely believe the Bible, this is going to shape how we live, what we do, what we think is right and wrong.

And again, don't be ashamed for what God has clearly said.

We stand for truth and for righteousness.

And what faithful Christians understand is that the blessing, or excuse me, the light of Christianity is a blessing for everyone.

The values of Christianity are a blessing, even to the unbelievers and the pagans.

The values that we hold to as we shape culture, those are a blessing to unbelievers and to pagans.

But ultimately, they need the source of light.

They need Jesus Christ.

Valuing common sense, hard work, and natural order are good things.

But they will not and they cannot save.

Applying our theology of sinking, our natural senses, when we look around our culture, is to say, danger, panic.

Do this or do that.

And there are people, even Christians, who are either very mature or they're not actual Christians, who are trying to get other people to panic and do this and do that.

Church, Jesus Christ created all things.

Amen.

Jesus Christ will hold us fast.

He's got this.

Jesus is real.

Jesus is sovereign.

Jesus is good.

As a Christian, we belong to Jesus.

So be bold, be hopeful, don't fear.

Because Jesus has you.

Another point of application is our own personal lives.

Storms in your life, in my life.

In the church, one of the blessings is that we get to be there in one another's lives sometimes when these storms are raging.

And we get to remind one another when we want to panic.

When we want to forget what God has said and who God is.

We have faithful brothers and sisters who love God, who love us to say, no, no, no, don't panic.

Trust in Jesus.

Storms often rage.

The death of a loved one, a broken marriage.

They're just tragedies they strike.

Times come that are confusing and difficult.

And the storms just seem to rage on.

Why won't my children repent and follow Jesus?

Why is it that my marriage ended the way it did?

Why is it that this person had to die?

All these people got to live and this person died?

How is that fair or just or good?

And what we see, our perspective, is that the boat is filling with water.

And how will this ever be made right?

I thought God was with us.

Why has God forsaken me?

Following Jesus, belonging to Jesus means that he will rescue us.

There isn't.

Christianity is so different than every other kind of belief system in the world.

Christianity doesn't say.

There's good and there's evil, and I share hope with the end, good wins out.

Christianity doesn't say I'm putting my hope in Jesus, I'm putting all my chips in on the God of the Bible, and I just I sure hope he can pull all this off.

That's completely opposite of what the Bible says and who God is.

If you're a Christian, it's taken care of.

It's done.

The war is over.

Sure, there's some battles here and there, but it's finished, church.

It's our responsibility, our task, the joy and the pleasure of our life is following a king who has already conquered our enemies, who has already defeated our foes.

It's done.

Our hope.

It's secure.

It's not that kind of hope of like, man, I hope this happens.

Maybe I'll get that gift at Christmas time.

This is a hope that's done.

There isn't anything more finished or solid or reliable.

It's done.

We have confidence in that.

He will rescue us.

But this often doesn't happen the way that we want it to happen.

Doesn't always go the way we want it to go.

And I cannot answer how God will deliver us.

Or whatever the storm is in your life, whatever's raging around you.

I can't tell you how God will deliver you from that and how he will take care of that, and how he will restore broken relationships, or how he's gonna heal when a loved one or a child or a parent or a sibling has died.

I can't tell you that because I don't know.

But I can tell you, what I do know is that he will make all things right.

This is his promise.

See, the good news of the gospel isn't that God's just gonna come into your life and fix it the way that you want it, and then you'll go on your way and your problems will be better.

The gospel is that you were not just sinking.

Friend, you were dead in your sins.

You were lost, completely, blind and without hope.

Then Jesus came to live a perfect life in your place.

He lived the life that you could not live, and then he died on the cross, the death that you could not die, paying the price for your sins.

Specifically.

No sin is arbitrary to God.

No sin is just kind of like it was a you know the conglomerate of sins over there, and I'm gonna pay for them.

They were specific, covered by the blood of Christ.

So what do we do?

We follow Jesus as the Lord of our life.

We surrender our life to him, trust him as the savior of the world.

This means repenting, turning from sin, stop rebelling against him and following him.

I've said this many times.

If we could just pull off the scales and understand how amazing this is.

That you should worship what you want to worship, whatever you find fulfilling.

And God's saying, you're made to worship me.

So come.

But there's this problem here, this sin issue, because God's holy and righteous and just, and nobody can come to the Father except through Christ.

It's the only way.

It's the only way.

Not because Jesus was just a good person, had a good message, and was really loving.

All true.

The reason that we can come to the Father, the reason we can do the very thing where we're created to do, is that Jesus stood in our place to pay the price for our sin.

So that as Christians, when we die, we will not go into judgment standing in our righteousness.

You will not stand in your righteousness when you go to glory if you're a Christian.

You will stand in the righteousness of Christ.

You will be wearing his righteousness that he's given to you.

He's put on to you, he's imputed it to you.

Because on the cross, Jesus took on your unrighteousness, your evil, your sin.

And that's the amazing thing in the gospel is that it enables us to do the very thing our heart truly desires to do.

Worship God.

It frees us from all the lies and the deceit of this world and the enemy that this is about us.

It does all these things for us.

On top of that, it takes all the brokenness in this life.

All the hurt, all the pain.

And I don't know how he does this, but he promises he does this.

And he makes it right.

So that for eternity we spend with God in joy, delighting in him and what who he is.

Jesus questioned them about their faith.

Where is your faith?

Is it in Jesus for a when times are good?

Is it in yourself?

Are you one of those people here who appreciate Christianity, but I'm pretty sure I can figure this out on my own?

Is it in your hopes and your dreams, your political agendas?

Or is it in God?

In closing, I want to read a rather lengthy passage.

I want you to join me.

Turn your Bibles to Hebrews 11.

Very famous passage on faith.

Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews is, if you don't know, it's in the New Covenant, toward New Testament, excuse me, toward the the back.

Beginning in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

For by it the people of old received their commendation.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are invisible.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commanded as righteous, commended, excuse me, as righteous.

God commended him by accepting his gift.

And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him.

Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God.

And without faith it is it is impossible to please him.

For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists, that he rewards those who seek him.

By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive an inheritance.

He went out not knowing where he was going.

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents without with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven, and as many as as in the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

These all died in faith, not having received things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear, they are seeking a homeland.

If they had been thinking of the land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Excuse me.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of his sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the Exodus of the Israelites and gave direction concerning his bones.

By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God and to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who was invisible.

By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been circled for seven days.

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

And what more shall I say?

For a time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of the lions, quenched the fire the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received back their dead by resurrection.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so they might rise again to a better life.

Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword, they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though commended through their faith and not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Our hope is in Christ.

Their hope was in Christ.

It's all in Christ.

The faith that we have in Christ.

Let's pray.