Jesus and Our Fears | Jesus the Redeemer | Pastor Joe Coffey

Luke 822 through 25.

One day he got into a boat with his disciples,

and he said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake.

So they set up, and as they sailed, he fell asleep,

and a windstorm came down on the lake,

and they were filling with water and were in danger.

And they wet and woke him, saying,

master, master, we are perishing.

And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased.

And there was a calm.

He said to them, where is your faith?

And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another,

who then is this, that he commands even winds and water,

and they obey him.

Everybody welcome to seek.

Really, really glad that you're here.

Thanks for coming.

All right.

We are in the seventh week of our ten week series.

We're calling Jesus the Redeemer.

We are spending

ten weeks moving through the Gospel of Luke,

and we will finish this series at Easter, which I am really looking forward to.

And this morning, we're going to look at a

pretty famous passage where Jesus calms the storm.

And it's in Luke chapter eight.

So if you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn to Luke chapter eight.

If you want to use one of our Bibles, it's on page 813, page 813.

And I have, loved this passage.

For a long time.

As Zach and I were talking earlier this week about preaching and,

we, we're saying that every passage is like a diamond,

and, a sermon only gets to cover one facet of the diamond, so you can hear

multiple sermons on the same passage and get something different each time.

It's one of the reasons I really look forward to this morning,

because throughout the week I've been learning, new stuff about this passage.

So let me just, walk you through it, and then I'll give you

the three points that I want to pull out of this passage.

All right.

So Jesus invites his disciples, takes him out on the Sea of Galilee

and the Sea of Galilee, by the way, is, can be misleading

because whenever I think of a sea, I think of a big body of water. But,

the Sea of Galilee was really a lake,

and it's not even a very big lake like

Lake Erie is 241 miles across.

That's a big lake.

The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles across.

And so it's not a big lake.

It is full of fish.

That's why

so many of the stories in the Bible are about fishing in the Sea of Galilee.

But on this particular instance, Jesus was not taking the disciples out to fish.

He was using the boat like a water taxi, just to take them from one side

of the lake to the other so they wouldn't have to walk all the way around.

Now Lake Erie is, or the Sea of Galilee is small.

It's also shallow,

but the thing that makes it so unique is that it's below sea level.

It's like 200ft below sea level, which means that it's very susceptible

to, sudden and fierce storms.

And the disciples find themselves in this sudden and fierce storm.

And one of the details

that we have is that Jesus was asleep, which will be important.

And you need to know that the boat was not very big.

So I don't want you to get in your head like a houseboat

where he could go below deck and there was a place to sleep there.

I'll mention that later on, but

Jesus is asleep, and, the disciples are scared to death.

Literally.

They think they're going to die and they wake Jesus up.

And in this passage they say, master, master, we are perishing.

And the gospel of Mark tells the same story.

And at least one of the disciples was a little more pointed

when they were shaking Jesus awake.

And he says, don't you even care

that we are about to die?

Jesus wakes up and then it says that he

he rebukes the wind and the raging

waves, and everything stops.

And then Jesus has a question for his disciples.

And the question is simply, where is your faith?

And the story ends with the disciples at least as afraid at the end of the story

as they were at the beginning of the story,

because by the end of the story, they have a question of their own.

And the question is, who is this?

That even the wind and the waves obey him?

All right, here are the three points that I want to pull out

as we look at the facet, this facet of this diamond of a passage,

I want to look at the storm,

the surprise and the question.

That's it.

The storm, the surprise and the question.

You need to know when Jesus was taking the disciples out on the Sea of Galilee,

he wasn't just going to teach them something.

The story made it into the Bible, which means that Jesus was doing

that whole thing to teach you something,

to teach me something.

So Jesus takes them out and they get hit by this unexpected storm.

And I say unexpected because

at least half of the disciples were professional fishermen.

So you have to know that just out of habit,

before they ever stepped into a boat, they looked around.

They looked at the horizon.

They looked at the clouds, and they decided it was okay

to go out on the lake.

And so they get in and they get hit by this storm.

And I found it in my own life.

The the worst storms are the storms I don't see coming

that I never saw coming.

And, you know, I know this was a physical storm,

but a storm is a great metaphor for the unpredictability,

for the insecurity of all of our lives.

We all know, you know, that you are one phone

call away from a storm.

You are one doctor's visit away

from the worst storm you've ever been in.

One car ride away from a storm.

And this is one boat ride away from a storm.

Storms come.

There's a psychiatrist named Scott Peck about 25 years ago.

Wrote a bestselling book called The Road Less Traveled, and I think it became

a bestselling book, in part because of the way he starts the book.

He starts the book with a three word sentence,

and the three word sentence is just this life is a difficult,

life is difficult.

And his premise is that the sooner we understand and actually accept

that life is difficult, the easier it becomes.

You know, I'm going to get to my second point in a minute, which is the surprise.

But the one thing we should never be surprised

that is when we find ourselves in the middle

of a storm.

Particularly if you've ever read the Bible.

Right?

Because when you read the Bible, every character in the Bible

goes through storms Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,

Joseph gets sold into slavery and then he gets thrown into prison.

Moses goes against Pharaoh, then out in the wilderness.

He's almost put to death by his own people.

You got David.

You got Daniel in the lion's den. You.

Elijah, Elijah, Peter, Paul, Mary.

You see what he did there, right?

Everybody is in a storm.

It's always a bit discouraging to me

when I find out that a person who was a Christian

has abandoned their faith

because they found themselves in a storm,

right? Jesus?

In John chapter 16, at the end of the chapter,

John 16 · chapter mention

he's talking to his disciples, and he says this

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation.

But take heart.

I have overcome the world.

Jesus says, you're going to have tribulation.

That's another word for storm.

Listen, don't pit those two things against each other.

Don't think if you have Jesus, you won't go through storms.

Don't think if you're going through a storm

you don't have Jesus.

That's at least one of the reasons we have the story,

right?

Because this time, Jesus, they were right with Jesus.

This isn't one of those times where they're on where Jesus is

on the shore and they're out in the boat, kind of far away from Jesus.

Now, to be sure, there are some storms

you can get into on your own when you're far away from Jesus.

I remember years ago sitting with a young woman in my office,

she was probably in her late teens.

She was pregnant, she was single, she was crying, and she was saying to me,

I, I don't understand why God would do this to me.

And I had to explain to her that her boyfriend probably had more to do with it

than God.

Right? There are things that we can get ourselves,

but this isn't one of those times.

Jesus was right there,

and they find themselves in a storm

that scares them to death.

And that brings me to my second point, which is the surprise.

And the surprise is that Jesus is asleep.

He's there, but he's asleep.

And that really frustrates the disciples, which is understandable, right?

If they had been through storms before, they were professional fishermen.

Even the ones that weren't grew up around the Sea of Galilee.

They knew about storms, but they'd never been through a storm with Jesus.

And I think they probably had expected more from Jesus.

Like maybe they expected him to tell them before they got the boat.

There's a storm coming,

or maybe stop the storm when it was just starting to blow.

Or maybe when it's ready to give them some advice, tell them what they should do,

but instead

he's asleep.

And I told you that, you know, the boat wasn't very bad.

When my wife Karen, and I were in Israel, we went to a museum and they had, a boat

that was preserved from that time, a fishing boat

that was used in the Sea of Galilee 2000 years ago.

And we were both shocked at how small the boat was.

It wasn't as big as this stage.

We wondered how you could fit 13 people

in that boat, let alone have one of them sleeping.

All right, so, Jesus, is this how tired

could he have been to be asleep in the middle of the storm, out on the lake?

You know, I,

when I go on a long car ride with my wife, I drive for as long as I can.

And then when I'm tired, like, I'll switch to the passenger seat and she'll drive.

But if she and I.

If I fall asleep, if she even taps the brake, right, I wake up with a jolt.

You might do the same.

Jesus is in a tiny boat.

It's rocking so much.

It's letting in so much water that

the fishermen think they're going to die.

And he's still asleep.

And I have to believe it's not just because he was tired.

He's trying to.

This is part of what he's doing to try to teach you something.

Try to teach me something.

Because if you've ever been in a storm, in a real storm,

where you have,

you know, I don't know, lost a child,

had a miscarriage,

and had your marriage dissolve,

got a terrible diagnosis for yourself

or somebody that you love.

If you have ever been through a real storm, then you have

at least thought

what that one disciple

said out loud in the gospel of Mark.

Don't you even care?

God? Don't you even care

that I'm in the middle of the storm?

Okay, a couple things.

One is up here in Northeast Ohio.

We have a lot of cloud cover.

That's probably an understatement.

And I have a pair of sunglasses in my car.

I can go weeks without ever putting on them.

I also have a couple of, grandchildren that are still toddlers.

And if, during a day where it was cloudy

or stormy, if one of them asked me if they said,

hey, Papa, where does where does the sun go?

I would say, oh no, the sun still there.

Clouds don't make the sun go away.

The sun is always there.

A storm doesn't make the clouds or the cloud.

The storm doesn't make the sun go away.

I mean, if the sun ever really went away, then the whole world would disintegrate

and you'd become a popsicle.

I think I scare my grandkids sometimes.

But sometimes I need to

remind myself in the middle of a storm

that God doesn't go anywhere.

If God ever quit caring

or ever went away,

the entire universe would disintegrate.

That's one thing.

The other thing is

that the disciples are frustrated with Jesus because of his timing.

Like they expected Jesus to act sooner.

Jesus waits until the boat is sinking before he does

anything.

And I have to be honest, after 40 years of ministry,

getting used to God's timing is still really difficult.

He's always God is always late.

He just seems like he's late.

And there's something I've learned after

these 40 years is that his timing is not my timing.

And thank goodness it's not.

Who in their right mind would want to hurry?

God, do I really think that I know more about a storm

and what it's supposed to do than than he does?

Do I really think that I understand

which storm I should be in, which storm I should not be in?

Listen,

I wouldn't hurry somebody who was working on the brakes of my car, let alone

try to hurry the God of the universe,

who knows everything about everything.

And that brings me to my final point, which is the question

that.

So Jesus takes his disciples out on the Sea of Galilee.

They get into this fierce storm

and they they shake Jesus awake.

And the passage says that he wakes up

and he rebukes the wind and the raging waves.

It's almost comical.

It's like like he he sits up and he goes, hey, hey, cut it out.

Right?

Like like a dad who's talking to toddlers that are bickering,

but unlike the toddlers who are bickering,

the wind and the waves obey Jesus

and everything stops.

And Jesus is

looking at the disciples who find themselves

in a calm with the boat gently rocking.

They're still soaked to the bone, the hair matted back, their eyes still wide.

The heart's still beating.

And Jesus says,

where is your faith?

He doesn't say, why didn't you wake me up earlier?

He says, where is your faith?

It's such an interesting question.

It's a it's a question that you can actually

look at two different ways, both of them could be true.

The first, Jesus could be saying, what have you been putting

your faith into?

What did you think was going to save you from the storm?

Did you think the boat was good enough?

Did you think your own strength was going to be strong enough?

Did you think the expertise of the best fisherman on this boat?

Were you hoping for a rescue boat?

Where were you putting your faith?

It could be one way.

You're probably like me, I.

I try to prepare for as many storms as I can.

I have contingency plans.

That's why I have a savings account.

So I have a retirement account.

So I have a, you know, a cabinet at home full of medicine.

It's why I try to exercise, try to eat kind of.

Well, right.

All those are just trying to make sure I keep

as many storms away as I possibly can.

And what Jesus is telling the disciples, if that's the way

he's asking the question, is, don't you realize,

didn't you know that a storm was going to come that was going to be so big

that nothing you could put your faith in would be good enough, bigger?

You can't get a big enough boat.

You can't have enough expertise.

You can't have enough money in your savings account.

You can't prepare enough that a storm is coming.

We need something bigger than the storm.

You need the Lord

of the storm.

That's one way.

The other way, Jesus.

When he says, where is your faith?

He could have been saying, you guys, where's your faith?

This is the time to pull it out in the middle of a storm.

Put it on me.

No, don't you see?

I've been.

I'm right here with you.

You've seen what I'm capable of.

This is Luke, chapter eight.

This is our seventh week.

You know, we have already seen.

And the disciples had already seen

Jesus heal people, cast out demons, raise the dead.

Jesus is saying, don't you see who you're with?

Don't you know what I'm capable of?

Where's your faith?

Take it out in the middle of a storm.

Put it on me. Always think of,

John, chapter 11 with the story of Lazarus.

John 11 · chapter mention

It's the same kind of story.

Like Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick.

Jesus takes his time.

He gets there wildly late because Lazarus has been dead for four days.

By the time Jesus gets there, Mary and Martha

both say, where have you been?

If you had been here, what they're saying is, you are so late.

Jesus goes to the tomb.

As the stone rolled away

and calls Lazarus out of the grave

by name.

Right?

I love that story, but I always wish that I knew more

about what Lazarus his life was like after that.

That you I just think he'd be a really tough guy to rattle.

Like, what are you going to threaten Lazarus with?

I mean, what would he ever be be afraid of?

Is there any storm that would come into Lazarus?

His life, where he'd be going? Where are you?

I don't think so.

You know why?

Because he'd seen

what Jesus was capable of.

He'd gone through the worst possible storm,

and Jesus called his name.

You know, whatever.

I'm in a storm now.

And I begin to doubt and to wonder where God is.

I don't go to the.

When I go to the Bible, I don't go to the Psalms, to a comfort

psalm, which is fine if that's where you go.

You know where I go.

I go to the resurrection.

That's why I'm looking forward

to Easter so much,

because the resurrection reminds me of what

Jesus is capable of.

And I always think, if I really believe that

there's so much evidence for the resurrection,

and if I really believe that,

and I really understand what Jesus is capable of,

then I feel like

I can live my life the way Lazarus must lived his life

would be really hard

to rattle me,

because I know when I go through

the last and great storm.

That I'm going to hear him call my name.

And when I hear him call my name,

everything will be call.

Everything will be good.

So if you're going through a storm right now and in a crowd

this size, I know there are plenty of you who are going through a storm.

Some of you may enter into a storm

this week that you don't see coming.

Can I just tell you this

with all your contingency plans and everything that you

have to try to keep you, there is going to be a storm that is bigger

than any plan you

have, than anything you can put your faith in.

What you need in that kind of storm

is the Lord of the storm.

You need to remind yourself of what Jesus is capable of

and that he is right there with you.

And when the greatest storm comes,

what you will hear

is Jesus calling your name so great

is Jesus, our Redeemer, so wonderful,

the Lord of the storm.

Would you pray with me,

father in heaven? Thank you.

Thanks for this story. I love this story.

I pray for every person here

that is in the middle of a storm right now.

I pray that you would,

remind them of who you are

in the middle of the storm.

You never disappear.

You never go away.

You never quit caring.

And we know that because you sent Jesus

and we have

the evidence for the resurrection.

So we can always remind ourselves

of what Jesus is capable of,

and that one day

we will hear him call our name.

And the storms will be no more.

Thanks.

Thanks for giving us such a wonderful Redeemer

and Savior and we pray this in his name.

Amen.