“When the Storms Come”

Dan Newburg

First Baptist Church of Devine

Resilient Faith • Sermon • Submitted 4 months ago • Presented 4 months ago

Luke 8:22–25

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One of the most challenging experiences I faced in my life was when I worked in a call center taking insurance claims the night that Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005. In the days leading up to the storm making landfall, our managers prepared us for what they knew would be a challenging season for a team that was comprised of mostly college students. If you know anything about that hurricane, you’d remember that it strengthened to a category 5 storm just before it made landfall and it unleashed its devastating fury along the coast of Louisiana. The days that followed proved to be even more challenging as phone call after phone call revealed new ways the terrible storm devastated lives.

Storms aren’t fun, either from the comfort of a call center or when you’re facing them in life. Yet we learn lessons through storms that we never would learn if life were always calm. Storms certainly are not far off events, are they? From events that I know of just this week alone, calmness in life was interrupted in the lives of our own church family when on Friday water supply was interrupted to a dense population area here in town, followed by a transformer being lost and power going out for a significant portion of town, followed by a fire at a local gas station, then thunderstorms rolled through that many of us received beneficial rains from, but some in our church family received property damage from high winds. Storms comes in various shapes and sizes and I’m just telling you about the ones that affected us generally on Friday.

Why we start this way is to raise our awareness this morning that the Christian faith is not just to get us to heaven when we die. The Christian faith teaches us how to live in the here and now, especially when life gets stormy. This morning is the first in a new series of messages that we’re calling Resilient Faith. What we’ll be focusing on is the totality of the faith that the Lord Jesus invites us to enjoy as we live and die in relationship with him. When life backs you up against the wall or life knocks you down, it’s only faith in Jesus that will see you through those moments. It’s only Jesus who can pick you up and love you through not just those great moments in life, but those dark moments, too.

And the first passage we will study is Luke 8:22-25, which relates the miracle of Jesus calming the storm at sea as the first of a series of miracles that Luke was led of the Holy Spirit to record. These miracles have much to teach us about who Jesus is and what that means to us in the trials of life. This miracle shows us that …

We can trust Jesus in the storms of life because He is Lord over all

At the end of this brief story, the disciples remark with awe, Luke 8:25 “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

That is the question Luke wants us to consider together this morning. “Who then is this?” The clear answer is,

Jesus is Lord over all

In the beginning, Jesus spoke and created the universe. It was no big deal for him to speak to the wind and waves of his creation and have them obey him. Yet for the disciples, who were still growing in their awareness of who Jesus is, it was an amazing miracle. You’ve heard me say it so I am aware that many of you are aware that Jesus is Lord in our brains and we can repeat the phrase easily. But we often do not really know him as Lord in the practical, daily situations we encounter. So the Lord often does for us what he did for the disciples:

Jesus led them into this storm

Jesus said, Luke 8:22 “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” Did Jesus know what he was getting them into? Surely he did. He knows all things and so he knew they would encounter this storm. Although the disciples were veteran fishermen who knew this lake, they probably didn’t anticipate the storm. The Sea of Galilee that they go out upon is about 9 miles by 7 miles. It sits in a depression that is almost 700 feet below sea level, surrounded by mountains that rise to about 2,000 feet above sea level on the eastern side. When winds funnel down those hills, it can create sudden, violent storms. It was one of those unexpected storms that hit that evening—unexpected to the disciples, but not to the Lord Jesus. It must have been quite a storm, because even these seasoned fishermen feared for their lives. But even though it was so terrible, the sovereign Lord led them directly into it!

When serious trials hit, I often hear people say, “The Lord didn’t cause this trial; He only allowed it.” Somehow they think that they are getting God off the hook. Sometimes they will even say, “Satan, not God, caused this tragedy.” They think that by blaming Satan or by saying that God only allowed it, they preserve his love. But they do so at the expense of his sovereignty.

But the Bible clearly affirms that God is both loving and sovereign. You will not get any comfort in trials by denying God’s sovereignty. Elsewhere in the Bible, you’ll find that God uses Satan to bring trials, as he did in the case of Job. But God clearly states,

Isaiah 45:6–7 (ESV)

that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

You will find comfort in trials only if you affirm both God’s absolute sovereignty and his unfailing love. I want us to see several things about life’s storms as seen in this storm:

Storms hit suddenly and without warning

Parents of students at Devine know this to be true this week, don’t we?

Growing up, my dad would turn on the news out of San Antonio to get a traffic report. Sometimes the report would mention a fatal accident and I would think, “That person left home this morning to go to work, never thinking that there was just minutes to live. The family perhaps said an unenthusiastic good-bye, never imagining that they would never talk to their loved one again.” Life’s storms are like that: Right now everything is smooth sailing. In a matter of hours, without warning, you’re in the middle of a crisis.

Such a storm not only tests and develops your character; it reveals it. Hudson Taylor, who was a Baptist missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission, was once talking to a young missionary who was about to start work in China. “Look at this,” he said. He pounded his fist on the table. The tea cups jumped, and the tea spilled. While the startled young man was wondering what was going on, Taylor said, “When you begin your work, you will be challenged in numerous ways. The trials will be like blows. Remember, these blows will bring out only what is in you.”

So the time to develop resources to face the sudden storms that inevitably will strike is before they hit. If you don’t spend time with the Lord in the calm of life, you won’t know how to trust him in the storms. The next thing to see is that

Storms hit believers

This storm hit those with Christ in their boat as well as those without Christ in their boat. This surely wasn’t the only boat on the water, either. If this were a fairy tale, we might read that when the storm arose, the other boats were swamped, but the boat with Christ in it sailed as smooth as glass. That’s a false understanding of God and his purposes that make people assume that when times are good, they’re “living right” and when they’re not good, they brought the bad upon themselves. The fact is, Christians are not magically exempted from the storms of life. Just because you’re in Jesus’ boat doesn’t mean that it’s going to be smooth sailing. Christians are not exempt from trials.

Some think, “Yes, that’s true. But I’m serving Christ.” They think that being committed earns them special protection from storms. But let’s see one more thing about this storm:

Storms hit obedient believers who are serving Christ

In fact, this storm did not hit the disciples because they had been disobedient but, rather, because they had been obedient! Jesus said, Luke 8:22 “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” These men, who had committed their lives to serve Christ, obeyed. And Jesus led them straight into a storm! And in the same way, obediently serving Christ may place you smack-dab in the middle of storms you would have avoided if you had stayed on the shore.

And here’s something that I’ve learned in my walk with Christ… I have often found that the most severe times of testing have come right after I have taken a new step of obedience. I did what God told me and wham, an even more fiery trial comes my way.

The Apostle Paul was filled by the Holy Spirit and a wonderful example of obedience in the Lord. He preached Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. He planted churches all across southeastern Europe and Palestine. He trained new pastors all over. He organized people to address poverty situations. And with each step of faithfulness to our Lord and his kingdom, what was Paul met with? Financial gain? Was he a first century social media influencer? He was living right, wasn’t he?

Do you know what came Paul’s way for listening to the Lord? For all his obedience, Paul’s story saw him narrowly escaping a mob of people ready to kill him as he’s let down from a city wall in a basket. He was jailed on multiple occasions. His friend group as a young man put him on their most wanted list. He didn’t have much luck on boats either, finding himself shipwrecked and after surviving that, when he made it to the shore and he’s trying to just warm himself up by a fire, he’s bit by a snake. The point is, being obedient to the Lord does not exempt you from storms; it often leads you right into storms!

Do you know what’s really frustrating about the storms of life? When we’re in the middle of them, we’re convinced that God’s checked out and has just left us alone, right? Those on the boat with Jesus feel that.

This is the only incident in the Bible that mentions Jesus sleeping, and what a time to fall asleep! It would be one thing if Jesus had said, “Men, a storm is coming. Peter, you stay on the helm! John, make sure that sail is secure! James, get that gear tied down!” If Jesus had been actively involved, giving orders, telling them, “Hang in there, guys, we’re going to make it,” the storm would have been difficult, but bearable. But just when they needed Jesus’ calm leadership and assurance, where was he? Sacked out in the back of the boat, oblivious to their dire need!

Have you ever felt like that in the midst of a trial? You get into it and it seems as if the Lord checked out and left you all alone! You’re swimming like crazy, but the waves are winning. You’re about to go under, and you wonder, where is the Lord?

Jesus is with you in the storms

He’s always there, even though sometimes it seems as if he’s not. But often Jesus waits until we are at our wit’s end or he waits until we’ve exhausted our own strength or know-how, so that we sense how great our need really is. But even before the disciples called on him, Jesus was there with them in the boat, going through the storm with them. Jesus promised all who follow him, Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” As Paul triumphantly affirms, no trial can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).

I love the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who obeyed the Lord and found themselves in a storm of a different sort. For their faithfulness to God, they were thrown into the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. As he looked into the flames, Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 3:24–25 “was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”” I believe the fourth man was the Lord Jesus. He didn’t leave those faithful men alone in their trial, but went and stood with them in the flames.

Whenever you’re in a storm, even though you may think at first that the Lord is not there, He is there! The first thing we must do in the storms of life is to affirm that Jesus is Lord, even over the storms. Then,

We must trust the Lord Jesus in the storms of life

This lesson comes through with Jesus’ question, Luke 8:25 “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?”

Where is your faith this morning? Who is your faith in? You can answer those questions if you honestly answer this one: Who do you think will solve the problems you and I are facing today and will face tomorrow? The Sunday school answer is Jesus but if you’re practically looking to the next election to solve problems, your faith is misplaced. If you’re looking to someone in your family to solve problems, your faith is misplaced. Jesus is the answer in every last situation and circumstance.

And yet, panic and fear blinds us to this. And if there is ever a time when it seems as if panic would be legitimate, it’s when you’re in a major storm and your boat is being swamped. And yet Jesus rebuked not only the storm, but also the disciples’ lack of faith! The fact is,

Storms expose where we lack trust in the Lord

We all can fake it in calm waters. We can impress others with how together we seem to be. And, the disciples could cope with normal storms quite well. They had been in storms on this lake many other times. They were experts at handling their boat in rough waters. At first they probably thought, “No problem, we can handle it.” But this storm brought them to the end of themselves and showed them how they were trusting in themselves. Often, a crisis shows us a side of ourselves we were blind to. The Lord uses it to reveal new areas where we need to learn to trust him. We all must come to know our weakness so that we will rely on the Lord’s strength. Storms often show us things that we don’t see in calmer times:

Storms reveal our distorted view of the problem

The disciples excitedly cried, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” They thought they all were going to drown. But wait a minute! Who was on board with them? God’s promised Messiah! To think that God’s long-awaited Messianic kingdom could sink to the bottom of the Sea of Galilee was absurd! But in their panic, the disciples had a distorted view of the problem.

Not all fear is wrong, but Jesus rebuked the disciples because their fear was excessive. Some fear is useful because it leads us to take caution for our safety. Sometimes fear makes us spring into immediate action to save our own lives or the life of a loved one who is in danger. But fear is excessive and wrong when it causes us to panic so that we are not thinking carefully in light of God’s promises. If we’re so focused on the problem that we cannot see God’s control over it, then we’re not trusting him.

Storms reveal our distorted view of ourselves

“Master, Master, we are perishing!” That “we” probably included Jesus, but I’m not sure that he was their uppermost concern. They weren’t saying, “Hey, guys, if we don’t get out of this storm, the Messiah will die!” First and foremost they were fearing for their own lives.

Storms have a way of exposing our self-focus. We can put on a front of caring about others until we realize that it’s going to cost us. Suddenly, it’s every man for himself! Self-pity is another sure sign that we have a distorted view of ourselves. Any time we’re feeling sorry for ourselves, we’re too focused on ourselves. We need to stop and get the big picture of what God is doing.

Storms reveal our distorted view of the Lord Jesus

The disciples ask in awe, “Who then is this?” That was their problem—they really didn’t realize who Jesus is. If they had known, they would not have been so amazed at what happened. They underestimated his power.

We do the same thing when we panic in a crisis. We try to solve our problem by figuring everything into the equation—except the supernatural power of Christ. Our distorted view of the problem and of ourselves clouds our vision so that we fail to see the marvelous person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although Luke does not mention it, Mark’s account tells us that the disciples also said, “Lord, don’t you care that we’re perishing?” In a time of severe trial, it’s easy to doubt the Lord’s loving care for us. That’s why, by faith, we must always affirm two things in our trials: God’s sovereignty and God’s love.

We often think that we’re trusting in the Lord until a storm hits. But it’s the storm that reveals to us how we’re not really trusting him.

Storms should drive us to trust the Lord

The disciples may have protested, “We were trusting in the Lord! We called to him for help!” But they were not really calling to Jesus in faith or he wouldn’t have rebuked them by asking, “Where is your faith?” What they needed most in this dire situation was to trust in the living God.

That’s also what we need most in our trials. Sad to say, trusting God has fallen on hard times. How many of us, when trials come, turn to the Lord in prayer before we phone an expert? Trusting God in a crisis is not useless advice! It is what has sustained the saints in many horrible trials down through the centuries. If you don’t know how to trust God in the storms of life, you need to learn because we are commanded to walk by faith and to be built up in faith.

The better we know the Lord, the better we can trust Him

“Who then is this?” is the crucial question. Clearly, this Jesus is fully human. He had a body that got so exhausted that he could sleep in the midst of this storm. The full humanity of Jesus Christ should be of tremendous comfort to us when we are suffering from the limitations of our bodies. Hebrews 4:15 “…we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

But not only is our Lord fully human, he is also fully God. He merely had to speak the word and the howling winds ceased and the surging waves were instantly as smooth as glass. Just as Jesus’ full humanity encourages us because he understands, so his full deity should encourage us because he is powerful to act on our behalf. Nothing is too difficult for the living God. The better we know him, the better we can trust him in our trials.

The Lord will be glorified when we trust Him

We need always to keep in mind that our purpose is not to use God for our own happiness, but to glorify God no matter what happens to us. This storm revealed the glory of Christ in a way that would have been hidden had it not happened. The disciples got a glimpse of his majestic power, that “He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” The bigger the problem, the more our almighty Lord will be glorified when we trust him.

Corrie Ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place and survivor of the German concentration camps, said that people often came up to her and said, “Corrie, my, what a great faith you have.” She would smile and respond, “No, it’s what a great God I have.” Our faith in trials should point people toward our great God.

The more we trust Him in this storm, the more we will know Him and be able to trust Him in the next storm

The winds and the water obey Jesus without question, but we always have a choice. Sadly, we often fail to obey and trust him. But notice that first the disciples feared the storm; then, they feared the Lord. Their fear of the storm was due to their lack of faith. Their fear of the Lord stemmed from their new awareness of his awesome power.

Faith in the Lord is not an automatic thing. It is something that we must choose to exercise, often in the face of overwhelming circumstances that seem to scream. I would encourage those of you who are ten years and under in the Lord to have a mentor with over ten years in the Lord. Yes, that means you have to meet people and get to know them, and while not a one of us has arrived, there’s plenty of us who have weathered terrible storms who can testify to God’s faithfulness, God’s care, and God’s provision through it all. I think of so many of you who have shown me that if you actively trust the Lord Jesus in your current trial, your faith will be strengthened to trust him in the next storm.

I’ve heard Bible teachers say, “With Christ in the boat, you can smile at the storm.” Certainly there is a sense in which that’s true. But I don’t want to give you an overly rosy picture. We need to face squarely the fact that sometimes Jesus doesn’t calm the storm. Sometimes the boat does sink, even if we’re trusting in Jesus. John the Baptist wasn’t delivered from prison; he lost his head. Peter was miraculously delivered from prison, but James was put to death. So what should we do if we trust in the Lord, but the boat sinks? The miracle doesn’t come.

The answer is, “We trust in the Lord Jesus as we go under. We go down singing the doxology.” John Hus was burned at the stake for his faith, but he went out singing. Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer were burned at the stake together. As the fires were lit, Latimer cried out, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out!” Hudson Taylor lost his beloved wife Maria as they both sought to take the gospel to inland China. But he stood at her grave and sang, “Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art; I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.”

Do you know Jesus in that way? If not, don’t wait until the storm hits. Seek him now! Trust him as your Savior, your only hope for heaven. Trust him daily in the small problems you face. Then, whether he instantly calms the storm or whether your boat sinks, you will know peace that the world can’t know, the peace that comes from trusting in Jesus, the Lord over all of life’s storms.

Discussion Questions

Since the world is watching when storms hit us, to what extent can we show our grief?

Should we fake that we are calm?

A child is molested and murdered; a critic asks, “How can God be both sovereign and loving?” Your answer?

What has helped you fight feelings of self-pity in a time of trial?

Why is “Trust in the Lord” not worthless advice?

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