Well, good afternoon, brothers and sisters.
I'll ask you to open your Bibles, please,
to Matthew, chapter 8, if you would.
Matthew, chapter 8.
As we come to the study of God's
Word, I remind you of a principle of
Bible study that is absolutely indispensable, a principle
we can never take for granted, a principle
we cannot live without, and that is total
reliance upon God's Holy Spirit.
Our Bible is like the Lord Jesus.
It's human and divine.
There's a human side, and for the human
side we need academics.
We need to understand words and paragraphs.
But on the divine side, only God can
reveal God, and He delights to unveil His
Son to our hearts.
Before we pray together, I'd like to share,
bring together two verses that have recently touched
my heart.
One is from the book of Matthew, chapter
12, 34.
Matthew 12, 34 says, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks.
The New American Standard says, the mouth speaks
out of that which fills the heart.
And I like to tie that together with
Hebrews 1 and verse 2.
God, in these last days, has spoken unto
us in His Son.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the
mouth speaks.
The mouth speaks out of that which fills
the heart.
God has spoken.
Doesn't He have an abundant heart?
Isn't His heart full to speak in these
last days unto us, Jesus?
Everything He has to say to us is
in His darling, in His dear Son, our
Lord Jesus.
I'm going to read a prayer from the
psalm, and then we'll add to that prayer.
It's from Psalm 43, verse 3 and 4.
O send out your light and your truth.
Let them lead me.
Let them bring me into your holy hill
and to your dwelling places.
Then I will go to the altar of
my God, to God my exceeding joy.
And upon the lyre shall I praise you,
O God my God.
Let's ask the Lord to send out His
light and truth.
Our Father, we do thank You so much
this afternoon that You have not left us
on our own to understand this book, but
You have put a resident Bible teacher in
our heart, the dear Holy Spirit, the life
of God.
And we know that He searches the depths,
the secrets of God and reveals them unto
us.
We ask, Lord, that You would unveil the
Lord Jesus to our hearts and take the
veil away from our heart, our eyes, and
enable us to behold Him in a living
way.
We thank You, Lord, that You delight to
do this.
It's Your pleasure to show us Your Son.
And so we do not need to wrestle
You for this, but we come as little
children and we simply ask in the all
-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Last night our brother Lance closed with the
words, followers of the Lamb.
And I suppose if I were to title
what I have on my heart, those would
be the words I would use.
What does it mean to be followers of
the Lamb?
What does it mean to follow the Lord?
The burden that I have to share with
you is really found in three places in
the Bible.
We'll focus on one of those three places.
It's in Matthew, it's in Mark, it's in
Luke.
But I'm going to draw on Mark and
Luke only to fill in the details.
We're going to try to stay with the
Matthew text.
And so let's follow along together as I
read from Matthew chapter 8 and beginning at
verse 18.
Now, when Jesus saw a crowd around Him,
He gave orders to depart to the other
side of the sea.
Then a scribe came and said to Him,
Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.
Jesus said to Him, the foxes have holes
and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay His head.
Another of the disciples said to Him, Lord,
permit me first to go and bury my
father.
But Jesus said to him, follow me, allow
the dead to bury their own dead.
And when He got into the boat, His
disciples followed Him.
And behold, there arose a great storm on
the sea, so that the boat was being
covered with the waves.
But Jesus Himself was asleep.
And they came to Him and woke Him,
saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing.
And He said to them, Why, are you
afraid, you men of little faith?
Then He got up and rebuked the winds
and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.
The men were amazed and said, What kind
of a man is this, that even the
wind and the sea obey Him?
In the Matthew account, there are these three
stories put together.
If you will just glance again at the
references, verse 18 to 20 is the story
of the scribe who volunteered to follow the
Lord Jesus.
And then in verses 21 and 22, we
have the story of the unnamed disciple.
He didn't volunteer.
He was called to follow Jesus.
And then in chapter 8, 23 to 27,
the story of our Lord Jesus asleep in
the boat on the stormy sea.
Now Luke adds one other story, and I
want to insert it.
Luke adds a story and inserts it between
story 2 and 3 of Matthew.
Luke 9, 61 and 62, another
also said, I will follow you, Lord, but
first permit me to say goodbye to those
at home.
But Jesus said to him, No one, after
putting his hand to the plow and looking
back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
And so, for our purposes this afternoon, there
are these four little stories.
A scribe volunteers to follow Jesus.
An unnamed disciple is called to follow Jesus.
Another person volunteers to follow Jesus.
And then the story of our Lord Jesus
asleep on the stormy sea.
Since these stories are unusual in several ways,
in order to get to the heart of
God, I want to make a couple of
simple observations right at the start, and then
we'll get into the text.
I think this will prepare us to look
in a proper way.
My first observation is this, that these stories
are gathered together logically, not chronologically.
They're in a logical connection, a logical order.
It looks like Matthew and Luke are describing
the same event.
The same people that come to Jesus and
talk about following the Lord.
But we're not sure exactly when that happened.
In Matthew's account, he places it as if
it took place during the Galilean portion of
the ministry of our Lord Jesus.
But Luke doesn't do that.
Luke takes the same events, the same people,
and puts it closer to the end, closer
to the cross.
He puts it right after the rejection of
the Samaritans.
I call attention to that to point out
that the context won't help you.
You can't read the context and say, now,
what was happening at this time?
We don't know if all these three people
came at the same time, or hours apart,
or days apart, or weeks apart.
We don't know.
But we know this, that the Holy Spirit
guided Matthew to bring them together to tell
us something.
And the Holy Spirit guided Luke to bring
those stories together to tell us something.
And so I'm suggesting to you that there's
a topical arrangement of these wonderful stories.
They illustrate a spiritual reality.
The second observation of these stories is this.
We come to a little bit of a
problem if we try to interpret what our
Lord Jesus said in a literal way.
It can't be 100% literal.
Now, we don't want to spiritualize everything.
We don't want to just come to the
Bible and allegorize everything.
But when it's absolutely impossible to take it
literally, then we know there must be something
more, and something deeper, and something hidden, and
something that God must reveal unto our hearts.
For example, in verse 20, Jesus said, See,
that's not 100% true.
Not literally.
He probably had more pillows than anyone that
ever lived.
You know, He could have gone to Bethany.
He had friends there.
He often went to the house of Lazarus,
and Martha, and Mary.
They would have given Him a pillow.
He would have had a place to lay
His head.
I have an idea.
Anyone He had done any work or any
ministry in their lives would have opened their
homes.
I can't imagine if He went to Jairus
and said, You know, I'm really tired.
I'd like a place to lay my head.
That Jairus would say, Oh, not in my
house.
Not after what the Lord had done for
that family.
He would have had a pillow.
And I know the centurion at one time
said, I'm not worthy, Lord, for You to
come under my roof.
But if he heard that Jesus didn't have
a place to rest, I have an idea
he would say, Come under my roof.
And some look at Mark chapter 2, verse
1.
Remember the story when they took the tiles
off the roof?
The Bible said when He was in His
house, some think He had a home in
Capernaum.
His own home.
I don't know about that.
That's all its own.
But I know He had many places to
lay His head.
You can't take it 100% literally.
Matthew was wealthy.
He would have opened his home.
Zacchaeus, my salvation had come to his home.
Certainly the Savior could come to his home.
Jesus had many, many places to lay His
head.
He must have meant something else.
And the same thing is true in the
second story in verse 22.
Let the dead bury the dead.
That can't be literal.
Or you'd have a corpse burying a corpse.
At least part of that has to be
symbolic.
There's something more here in this marvelous story
beyond those words.
And so it is in Luke's account of
the third story in chapter 9, verse 62.
Once you put your hand to the plow,
you can't let go.
You can't look back.
That can't be literal.
It has to be a plow.
It can't be a literal plow.
When would you eat if you couldn't let
go of the plow once you put your
hand to it?
When would you sleep and do other things?
Jesus' comments to these people who expressed a
desire to follow Him, these comments are little
parables.
They're invitations to look a little deeper, to
get beyond the words.
And then a third observation I'd make before
we look at the text has to do
with this seeking the heart of God.
On the surface, when you just read it
in a cursory way, it seems awfully harsh.
The words of our Lord Jesus seem awfully
strong.
In fact, some interpret His words to be
exactly that.
They say, well, now He's talking about the
cross.
He's talking about discipleship.
That's no easy road.
He has to use strong language.
Are you serious about wanting to follow Him?
Prepare to be homeless.
You really want to follow Him?
Prepare to offend your family.
Are you serious about following Him and go
all the way and no turning back?
See, some have that way of approaching and
interpreting these wonderful words, as if our Lord
Jesus was saying, you want to be My
disciple?
I only choose the best.
I only choose the loyal.
It's like He's gathering a delta force.
He just wants those who are going to
be true and loyal and sacrificial and so
on.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting
that discipleship does not include total commitment to
the Lord.
I'm not suggesting that there's not this unreserved
dedication to Him and solemn resolve to the
Lord and this unrelenting perseverance.
But is that what this text is about?
Is that what He's saying here?
If you follow Me, you must determine never
to have a home.
If you follow Me, you are not allowed
to go to any unsaved funeral.
You cannot say goodbye to your loved ones
if you follow Me.
I'm suggesting that there's probably a more excellent
way to interpret these precious words of our
Lord Jesus.
Sometime, approaching it like that sounds an awful
lot like salvation by works.
And may God deliver us from that.
Well, let's trust the Lord together to follow
what I believe God has put together, His
theme.
Glance again, if you would, at Matthew 8.
Let me underscore the recurring emphases.
For here, I think you'll see why God
used these men to group these stories together
with no context.
It's these stories, because He wants to tell
us what it means to follow the Lamb.
He wants us to understand what it means
to be a heart follower of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Chapter 8.22, Jesus said, well, let's, 8
.19 first, sorry.
A scribe came and said, Teacher, I will
follow you wherever you go.
Mark the word, I will follow.
8.22, Jesus said to him, follow Me.
Luke 9.61, I will follow you, Lord.
And then chapter 8.23, the clincher of
the whole section.
And when He got into the boat, the
disciples followed Him.
So important to understanding God's heart in this
passage.
I remember some years ago, I wanted to
share the importance and the glory of following
the Lord Jesus.
And a brother called me on it.
He said, Brother, I hope you won't be
offended, but, you know, you talk about following
the Lord.
We've gone beyond that here.
That's a baby truth.
We don't talk about following the Lord.
We don't talk about holding God's hand.
We don't talk about sitting on God's lap.
We used to talk that way.
We don't talk that way anymore.
Because, he said, that puts the Lord out
here, and we have discovered He's not out
here, He's in here.
So, if you don't mind, talk to us
about the indwelling Lord, and about the life
of God, and about life hidden with Christ
in God.
That's where we are.
Tell us about union.
Tell us about fellowship with God.
But don't talk about following Him as if
He's out here, and then we're behind Him,
following Him.
And the brother ended with these words.
Thank God He's my life, not my guide.
Now, what about that, brothers and sisters in
the Lord?
And may I encourage you not to hold
one precious truth of God at the expense
of another precious truth of God.
We are a needy people, and we need
every word, picture that God can give us.
One doesn't contradict the other.
Bless the Lord He lives inside of you.
Bless the Lord as a weaned child, you
can go on His lap as well.
Praise God He's in your heart.
And praise God the Almighty holds your hand
as well.
We're called to be followers of the Lord.
The truth in Jesus is beautiful.
Sometimes we make a caricature of the truth,
and it loses its wonderful beauty.
Don't let one truth of God rob you
from another truth of God.
I'm talking about following the Lord as Caleb
did.
Remember that verse, Numbers 14, 24?
He had a different spirit in Him.
He has wholly followed the Lord.
Sometime after that brother called me on that,
I was going through the wonderful book of
Revelation.
And I came to chapter 14, and I
saw those redeemed saints, the 144,000 after
they had seen the Lord in His glory
and so on.
And they were called followers of the Lamb.
Even in heaven, that's not a baby truth,
even in heaven we'll be followers of the
Lamb.
It's my, the burden of my burden, does
that make sense?
I want to share this whole idea of
following the Lord.
But I really want to get to verses
23 to 27, story 4.
That's what's on my heart.
That's what's burning in my spirit to share
with you.
But I want to say a few words
about the first three stories to prepare our
hearts for the revelation, the glorious revelation of
our Lord Jesus in that final story.
I think that will give us the background.
Glance again, if you would, Matthew 8, verses
18 to 20.
The story of the scribe who volunteered to
follow the Lord Jesus wherever He went.
I think one thing that would be good
to apply as just Christian charity when you
come to a passage like this.
We can't be more biblical than the Bible
is biblical.
Can't go beyond Scripture.
We don't know about this man's heart.
I'm amazed as I go through the commentaries
who are explaining that this man was not
sincere.
He was impulsive when he came to the
Lord.
He had been watching the miracles Jesus did,
and he got caught up in the emotion
of it.
And in a subjective impulse, he said, I'll
follow you wherever you go.
Well, now, maybe that's true.
But how do you know that?
Some of these Bible saints have enough problems.
And we don't have to read in between
the line and try to read their hearts.
Now, I think to understand the record, we
must assume that he came with a heart
that really wanted to follow the Lord.
He said, I'll follow you, Lord, wherever you
go.
We don't know where he was in his
life, what his motives were, what initiated that
comment.
We only know he made it, and our
Lord Jesus responded in these words.
Verse 20, the foxes have holes, the birds
of the air have nests.
The Son of Man has nowhere to lay
his head.
Sometime our Lord Jesus gave some very mysterious
answers.
Sometimes it's comical when you go through the
record and see how he responded.
People would ask him questions and he'd give
these.
Are you going to Jerusalem?
Are there not twelve hours in the day?
Of course.
Why didn't I think of that?
But underneath his marvelous statements was the heart,
the revelation of the Lord.
And I believe Jesus was saying as he
contrasted himself with the beast of the field
and the fowl of the air, if you're
serious, if that's your heart cry, if you
are really saying, Lord, I'll follow you wherever
you go, then you must give up all
dreams, every idea, you must give up every
hope of finding a pillow here because there
is no pillow here.
This is not your home.
You were created for more than this, redeemed
for more than this.
Animals, birds, beasts, this is their home.
This is all they have.
This is their destiny.
A bird to gather a few twigs and
build a nest and lay some eggs and
hatch the eggs and fly away and die.
This is their world.
This world is not my home.
I'm just a passing through.
And the Lord is saying here, I think,
my followers created in the image of God
and redeemed for the purpose of God in
Christ Jesus are pilgrims and strangers here.
He's not saying, if you follow me, you'll
be homeless.
I think as I look out in these
seats and I see you beautiful children of
God and some of you, the Lord has
worked wonderful things in your life.
Anybody here not have an address?
Do you all live someplace?
He wasn't saying, if you follow me, you
can't live anyplace.
There's no home.
He wasn't saying that.
What He was saying is this, there's nothing
here in this world to satisfy.
It's the very point our brother Lance made
on Monday evening when he called attention to
the verse in Ecclesiastes, God has planted eternity
in their hearts.
And there's nothing here to answer.
There's nothing here to satisfy, to fulfill.
Now, because the Old Testament gives the truth
in seed form and the Gospels give the
truth in bud form and it's only the
epistles and what comes later that gives the
truth in fully developed form.
This truth is not developed yet.
Jesus doesn't turn the coin over.
He doesn't fill us in on the other
side.
He leaves that for the day when the
Holy Spirit will come and lead His people
into all the truth.
He only says there's no pillow here.
There's no satisfaction here.
There's no fulfillment here.
But He doesn't unfold the reality.
Where then is my fulfillment?
And where is my satisfaction and my dwelling
place?
We find as it unfolds that the Lord
Jesus is saying, no pillow here.
If you're going to follow me, I must
be your portion.
I must be the spring, the fountain, the
well, the alpha, omega, the everything.
It's not a baby truth to follow our
Lord Jesus Christ.
And so He tells this first one who
volunteers to follow Him, I'll follow you.
Jesus said, understand this, there's nothing here.
There's no pillow here.
No place to call home.
No place to lay your head.
Not literally.
I must be your portion.
Verse 21-22 is the same kind of
thing.
When this disciple said, Lord, permit me first
to go bury my father.
We can't read his motives either.
So many love this idea because he said,
me first.
He was proud.
Let me first.
Ah, there's his problem.
Me first.
Maybe not.
We don't know if his father was already
dead and he wanted to go to the
funeral.
If his father was sick and dying.
If his father was just old and he
wanted to spend his last day.
We don't know the record.
We can't say this man was delaying his
following of the Lord Jesus because he considered
his honorable responsibility more important than the Lord's
work.
We don't have enough facts.
What do we have?
The amazing words of our Lord Jesus.
That's what we have.
Verse 22, follow me and let the dead
bury the dead.
Or as Luke 9, 60 words it, allow
the dead to bury their own dead.
As for you, go and proclaim everywhere the
kingdom of God.
What grand principle of following the Lord is
illustrated in these words?
I don't think the Lord Jesus was saying,
I don't like it that you want to
respect your family.
He wasn't saying that.
He wasn't removing responsibility from this man.
I don't think he was saying, let unsaved
people take care of funerals.
That's not for Christians to do.
Or don't go to a funeral.
Don't go to an unsaved funeral.
I don't think he's saying that.
I don't even think he was saying, my
ministry is more important than your family.
I don't believe that was on his heart
at that time.
I think he was touching on a reality
of following Him in blood form.
It's not developed, but I think he was
saying, not only if you follow me, must
you understand that there's nothing in this world,
there's no pillow here.
I must be your portion.
But I think he was also saying, if
you follow me, really follow me.
Increasingly, you will be detached from that which
is passing away.
Everything's passing away.
You'll be identified with life and not identified
with death.
And no matter how precious and how important
those things are, if they're just coming to
pass and to find their grave in this
world, increasingly you'll be detached from that.
Living people do living things.
And they're associated with life.
Dead people do dead things.
You don't have to have the full explanation.
You've set your heart to know the Lord.
And already you've probably left dead friends and
dead associations and dead habits and dead churches.
We know what it means to not associate
with death.
The world is passing away.
But there are things unshakable and things spiritual
and things eternal.
I think Jesus even caught them on the
Word.
I'll follow you.
Let me first bury my father.
He wasn't even using living words.
Bury?
Christians don't bury Christians.
They plant them.
They're sown.
They're perishable.
They're sown in dishonor.
They're sown in weakness.
They're sown a natural body, but they're raised
in incorruption.
And He's saying we must associate with life.
The spiritually dead are all wrapped up in
things that are passing away.
They bury the dead.
We sow the dead.
Life.
Once again, the full picture is not given.
There's no pillow here yet to be revealed.
I will be your portion.
We can't associate with death yet to be
revealed.
I will be your life.
Association with Christ Himself.
Luke 9, verse 61-62, this man who
wanted to say goodbye to his family.
Was Jesus refusing to let him say goodbye?
Does the desire to say goodbye suggest some
inordinate desire maybe to go back and get
caught and stay and not really follow the
Lord?
Sort of like Lot's wife when she looked
back with a desire to go back.
Is that what he had in mind?
Many have related this passage to 1 Kings
19 when Elijah called Elisha.
Elisha said, let me please go back and
kiss my family.
Is that what this is all about?
I think what he's saying is deeper than
don't say goodbye to your loved ones.
Don't say goodbye to your boss.
Don't say goodbye to your friends.
I think he's saying when you put your
hand to the plow, that's the work.
That's the ministry.
That's the will.
That's the purpose of God.
When you put your hand to the plow,
you have said goodbye.
He's not saying don't say goodbye.
He's telling you how to say goodbye.
And you say goodbye by laying hold of
Him and His purposes.
Now, let me illustrate it for you.
I won't call the name of this group
because I think there are some good things
connected with the group.
And you may know the group, so I
don't want to sour you on it.
But I was invited, not as a speaker,
but as a listener to a particular conference
in my early Christian life.
And the issue of the conference was being
filled.
And the theme was, you can't be full
until you're empty.
And so how to empty yourself in order
that God might fill you.
That was the theme of the whole conference.
And they used ping-pong balls.
I hate ping-pong balls.
I'll tell you why I hate them.
Because for seven years, ping-pong balls were
a great burden to me because of their
illustration.
They gave me, in the illustration, this big
pit.
And there's no way you could take a
ping-pong ball and throw it out.
It was too deep.
And there was a little bit of water.
And the idea was, we want to fill
this with the fullness of God.
But God won't begin to rain on you
until you get rid of the ping-pong
balls.
And then they went on, the ping-pong
balls are sin.
And you've got pride.
And you've got unbelief.
And you've got envy and jealousy and hate
and so on.
And the man actually had a rifle behind
the pulpit.
He took the rifle.
He said, I'll tell you how you got
to do it.
You aim at one ping-pong ball at
a time.
Since you can't get it out, you got
to sink it.
So you shoot pride until it's gone.
Boom.
I hate ping-pong balls.
For seven years, I was shooting that ping
-pong ball.
They go down here and come up here
and then they change forms.
I found a new way.
Somebody hand me the hose.
You fill that thing and watch where the
ping-pong balls go.
You don't have to be empty to be
full.
You have to be full in order to
be empty.
It's not the same thing.
It's a different direction.
And God has called us unto Him.
And it's by putting our hand to the
plow.
It's by identifying with Him and His purpose
and His will.
That is our goodbye.
When you really lay hold of the purpose
of God, you don't have to tell your
boss goodbye.
He knows it.
You don't have to tell your friends goodbye.
They know it.
You don't have to tell your family goodbye.
They know it.
And I believe our Lord Jesus was just
picturing these wonderful, wonderful principles on what it
means to follow Him.
Once again, He doesn't develop the truth.
He leaves that for the New Testament writers,
for the epistles to do that.
All we see is not separation from, but
separation unto.
And we see a plow.
He has yet to reveal that that plow
is God's heart, God's plan, God's will, God's
purpose, missions.
You want to follow the Lord?
There's no pillow here.
He must be your portion.
You want to follow the Lord?
Identification with life.
Everything's passing away.
It's passing away.
We're not connected with that anymore.
You want to follow the Lord?
Separation unto Him.
That's our introduction.
Now, I'll ask you to turn to Matthew
chapter 8, verse 23 to 27.
I think it would be extremely helpful if
we read this portion again.
Begin at verse 23, please.
When He got into the boat, His disciples
followed Him.
And behold, there arose a great storm in
the sea, so that the boat was being
covered with the waves.
Jesus Himself was asleep.
And they came to Him and woke Him,
saying, Save us, Lord, we're perishing.
He said to them, Why are you afraid,
you men of little faith?
And He got up and rebuked the winds
and the sea.
And it became perfectly calm.
The men were amazed and said, What kind
of a man is this that even the
wind and the sea obey Him?
That portion of the story is also found
in Mark 4 and in Luke 8.
Mark 4, 36 to 41.
And Luke 8, 22 to 25.
I love this because our Lord Jesus now
turns the conversation into a living object lesson.
I'll follow you, Lord.
Really?
No pillow here.
I'll follow you, Lord.
Really?
You've got to identify with life.
I'll follow you, Lord.
Really?
You've got to lay hold of the purpose
of God.
And then the Bible says that He turned
around and started to walk.
And His disciples followed Him.
Verse 23, His disciples followed Him.
And I could see Him walking down the
hill and they'd follow Him.
And I could see Him climbing up the
gangplank to the boat and they'd follow Him
up.
And I could see Him getting on the
boat and they'd follow Him on the boat.
And then He went down and went to
sleep and they didn't follow Him.
The theme of following the Lord continues with
this marvelous story.
This is the clincher.
He brings it to a climax in this
marvelous story.
Are you serious about following Me?
Let's test it.
And He leads them right into the storm.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, here we are.
This is the evidence.
This is the proof.
This is the manifestation.
It's easy to say, I am a follower
of the Lamb.
Let's test it.
As you know, some Christians think the opposite
of that is true.
The more spiritual you are, the more light
God gives you.
The further you go on in the Lord,
the more you're exempt from storm.
Some think if you follow the Lord, it's
pretty smooth sailing all the way to heaven.
They don't know about the car wash, do
they?
The true follower of the Lord Jesus is
instructed to expect storms and to expect storms
with Jesus in the boat.
All three of these accounts climax in the
same truth.
They climax in the truth of faith.
I'll show you that as we come to
the end.
I call attention to that because following the
Lord Jesus must climax with trusting Him.
Trusting in the Lord, depending upon Him.
Glance again at chapter 8.
Let me describe the scene and then we'll
press on to the heart of the Lord.
Verse 24, There arose a great storm.
The Holy Spirit wouldn't use the word great
in a meaningless way.
You say, what's a great storm?
A great storm is a great storm.
And it was a great storm.
Mark 4, 37 calls it a fierce gale
of wind.
The waves were breaking over the boat so
much that the boat was already filling up
with water.
That's a great storm.
Luke 8, 23 describes it as a fierce
gale of wind descending on the sea.
And that word descending is very graphic because
the Sea of Galilee was a natural target
for the sudden storm.
The way the mountains were around them, the
wind would get caught like a funnel in
those mountains.
And the temperature changed from the top of
the mountain to the sea.
One commentator said that a glassy sea would
become a boiling cauldron in five minutes.
The Expositor's Greek New Testament, in describing this,
uses the Greek word or calls attention to
the Greek word seismos.
That's what we measure earthquakes with.
That's the storm.
There was an earthquake in the sea.
It was a great storm.
You've got to remember that these men were
not novices.
They were seamen.
They were used to stormy sea.
And these men were terrified of this storm.
They wouldn't be afraid of a shadow of
danger.
It was a real danger.
Luke 8, 23 says, They began to be
swamped and were in danger.
Luke calls it surging waves.
I don't know if you've ever been in
surging waves.
I have been one time in surging waves.
I spent my time leaning over the edge
of my boat in surging waves.
And my wife enjoyed every minute of the
surging waves.
But it was a great storm.
If you follow the responses of the disciples,
you can see how desperate they were in
their hearts over this storm.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke each give a record
of the account in slightly different words.
The account is so different that some think
Matthew was saying they said this, and then
somebody else said this, and somebody else said
this.
And another commentator says, no, no, no.
They all came expressing the same emotion, but
they came one time and they left and
he didn't wake up.
And so they went back a second time
and they said this, and he still didn't
wake up.
And they went back a third time.
I'll leave that up to you to decide.
I incline to think they went three times.
There's only one way it could be different
than what I'm saying.
I could be wrong.
Matthew 8, 25.
Save us, Lord.
We are perishing.
Can you picture?
You need Dana up here for this or
Lance to describe this idea of him waking
up and saying, all right, all right, you
know.
It's not like it's time for dinner.
We're dying.
We're perishing.
And they come, save us, Lord, we're perishing.
And I can just hear those brothers describing
this as he rolls over and just goes
back to sleep.
Mark 4, 38.
They come again.
Teacher, don't you care that we're perishing?
And then they go off and do whatever
they do when their boat is sinking.
And then they come back again.
Luke 8, 24.
And you can see the frustration.
Master, Master, we are perishing.
And I think that's how it went.
It was an emergency for them.
Don't try to explain it away.
Don't try to make them less than human.
If you take away their panic, you're going
to miss the point of the Lord.
I actually read one account that said these
disciples weren't afraid at all.
They were trying to inform the Lord Jesus
about a point of theophagy.
When they said in Mark 4, 38, Lord,
save us, we are perishing.
They didn't mean we, fellow disciples.
They meant we, you too.
We are perishing.
Don't you know, Lord, that your plan's in
danger?
Don't you know that your mission's at stake
here?
You know what happens if you go down?
You can't save the world.
I'll tell you, they weren't trying to rescue
the Lord Jesus and His program.
They were trying to be rescued by the
Lord Jesus.
These boys were shaking in their boots.
They were afraid.
So much so, one of the brothers said
something about if we ever dare to hold
our God, His love, His wisdom in suspicion.
They had come that far, suspecting.
Don't you care?
Don't you see what's going on?
You've got to read this in the light
of their anxiety and their fear and their
panic and the emergency of the situation.
Now, brothers and sisters, I'm going to set
the story aside for just a moment in
order to give you a little parenthesis that
I think will shed light on the text.
Since this final story, following Jesus into the
boat, into the storm, climaxes with the truth
of faith.
And since our brother said some of these
Bible words can only be described and can't
be defined, certainly faith is one of those
words.
So, brothers, let me give you a description,
a generally accepted description of the indispensable characteristics
of true faith.
I'll give you three of them.
This is as viewed by most Christians.
Number one, coming to the end of self.
By the way, don't write it down unless
you have an eraser on your pencil.
Coming to the end of self.
Healthy faith comes to the end of human
resources.
I'm at my wit's end.
I come to the place where we say,
I have tried everything.
I can't.
I quit.
There's nothing else I can do.
I'm exhausted.
I've used every bit of wisdom, every bit
of power, all the resources, all my ingenuity.
I can't do anything.
The end of self.
Number two, the second indispensable characteristic of healthy
faith.
Not only coming to the end of self,
but coming to the Lord Jesus Christ as
the only solution to the problem.
Dumping everything on Jesus.
Coming to Him, committing the situation into His
hand, rolling the burden on the Lord.
Let go.
Let God.
Third characteristic of healthy faith.
After you've come to the end of yourself,
after you've given it all to Jesus, get
out of the way and watch Him work.
Don't try to help Him.
Don't try to assist Him.
Get out of the way and let God
do His thing.
All right, let's go back to Matthew 8.
Let me ask this question.
Did the disciples come to the end of
themselves?
In this story.
I believe they did.
I think they exhausted every one of their
bailing and sailing skills.
I think they had come to the end.
They came crying as helpless men who had
nothing else that they could do except drown,
except perish.
They were at the end of themselves.
The storm was great.
They were not great.
And they came to the end of themselves.
Did the disciples in this story give it
all to Jesus?
Was He the only possible solution?
Was He the only Savior?
Indeed, they came to Him.
Lord, save us, we beg.
There's no one else.
We can't turn to anyone else.
Did the disciples get out of the way
and watch Him do what only God can
do?
Indeed, they did.
8.24 says there was a great storm.
8.26 says there was a great calm.
The calm was every bit as great as
the storm was great.
The disciples would never forget this scene until
their dying day.
When the Lord Jesus aroused from His slumber,
came up on the deck, and stood there
with His arms outstretched, the wind and the
wave blowing in His face, and He said
from the Greek, He muzzled, He muzzled the
storm.
When it was over, the disciples stood on
the deck with their eyes opened wide in
amazement, and their mouths opened wide in amazement,
and they said, What kind of a man
is this that even the wind and the
seas obey Him?
They came to the end themselves.
They dumped it on the Lord.
They got out of the way and watched
Him do what only God can do.
Here is my second question.
Since they had come to the end of
themselves and given it all to Jesus and
gotten out of the way so that God
could do what only God can do, why
didn't Jesus give them an attaboy?
Why didn't He say, Well done, good and
faithful servants?
Why didn't He say, You blessed My heart.
You have the indispensable characteristics of healthy faith.
You have come to the end of yourselves.
You've given it to Me.
You've gotten out of the way so I
can do My thing.
You have satisfied My heart.
But instead of saying that, He rebuked them.
Matthew 8, 26, Why are you timid, you
men of little faith?
Little faith?
I thought that was healthy faith.
I thought that's the right way.
Come to the end of yourself.
Give it to Jesus.
Get out of the way.
And He said, Oh, you men of little
faith.
Matthew, or rather Mark 4, 40.
Little stronger.
Why are you so timid?
How is it you have no faith?
No faith.
I thought that was pretty good.
You come to the end of yourself.
Dump it on the Lord.
Get out of the way.
Watch Him do a miracle.
And His great heart says, No faith.
Luke words it this way.
Chapter 8, 25.
Where is your faith?
Little faith.
No faith.
Misplaced faith.
Oh, friends, dear brothers and sisters in Christ
Jesus, it looked, it appeared, it seemed so
spiritual, so right, so good.
But in the eyes of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who wanted to instruct them in what
it really means to follow the Lord, it
was not good.
It was not satisfying.
It hurt Him.
So much of our Christian life seems to
be so often the repetition of this process.
God brings a storm into our life.
We come to the end of ourselves.
We give it to Jesus.
We get out of the way.
And we're all set for a little while
until another storm comes.
We come to the end of ourselves.
We give it to Jesus.
We get out of the way.
God rescues us again.
And we think that's the Christian life.
That's not the Christian life.
May God deliver us from that.
There's something more.
There's something better.
There's something higher.
It's not that He strikes those things out.
It's not that He's saying, Don't come to
the end of yourself.
And don't give it to the Lord.
And don't get out of the way.
He's not saying, Get rid of that.
What He's saying is those realities are swallowed
up in Christ Jesus.
That's why He gave the first three stories
first.
Because if God has written in your heart
that there is no pillow here, there is
no satisfaction here, there's no fulfillment here, there's
no portion here, and you've turned to Him
and He has become your portion, if that
has happened in your life, you have come
to the end of yourself.
And if God has delivered you from those
things that are passing away and opened your
eyes to the spiritual world, and you embrace
Christ and He's become your life, you have
dumped it on the Lord.
And if God, even this week in this
conference, has risen you above this experience and
began to show you His will and His
purpose and His pleasure, and you've laid your
hand on that plow, you have gotten out
of the way so that He can do
His thing.
Laying hold of the Lord Jesus as your
portion, as your life, as your purpose, that's
healthy faith.
Laying hold of Him.
We've been hearing that all week.
It's Him.
It's the person.
It's God's darling.
It's His Son.
It's Jesus.
Unfortunately, that experience coming to the end of
self, dumping it on Jesus, getting out of
the way, we can do that and miss
the Lord.
You can do that and not know that
He is your portion.
You can do that and not know that
He's your life.
You can do that without having laid hold
of the great purpose of God, the everlasting
purpose in Christ Jesus.
May God deliver us from a Christianity that
is just this.
You have already, by embracing Christ, come to
the end of self.
It's a one-time act, but it's an
everlasting attitude.
Embracing Christ as your life.
Embracing His purpose for your life.
When the disciples followed the Lord Jesus into
the boat into the storm, it's so graphic.
They followed a sleeping Savior.
That's just a wonderful illustration of a resting
Savior.
Of a Savior that was at peace about
everything.
A Savior who was in control without anxiety,
without fear, without fretting, without any panic or
care, completely at rest.
You say, what should the disciples have done?
Followed Him.
Not literal sleeping, I'm not saying that, but
followed Him into rest to be sure.
You say, what's faith?
Faith after He has become your portion.
After He has become your life.
After God has enabled you to lay hold
of the everlasting purpose of God and you
put your hand to the plow.
Faith is letting Jesus sleep.
Letting Jesus sleep.
It's not the heart followers of Jesus who
continually wake Him up.
It's not the heart followers of Jesus who
continually hold His love and suspicion and need
to see an active God.
We need signs.
We need miracles.
We need wonders.
It's because we have not learned to be
heart followers of the Lamb that we wake
Him up.
Those who have come to see Him, who
have embraced Christ, they know that it's only,
it looks like He's unconscious.
It looks like He's not doing anything.
It looks like He's in a state where
He sees nothing, feels nothing, knows nothing, is
concerned about nothing, is aware of nothing, doesn't
care about us or the storm.
But those who have embraced the Lord, they
know that He's in control even when He's
not active, visibly active.
He's at rest and He calls us to
be at rest as well.
Wasn't it just beautiful the way Brother Lance
brought us last night into the Lord's presence?
And he opened up that revelation where the
Lamb of God went to God and took
the will out of His hand.
And when He took the will out of
His hand, He was holding as our Redeemer
kinsman the will of God.
Do you know, Lance then said, how safe
is the will of God in the hand
of the Lamb?
Do you know why Jesus can sleep?
Because everything's under control.
He has the will of God in His
hand.
No desperation.
He's called us to follow Him into His
rest.
Now, not a rest He gives.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about a rest He has.
He's at rest about everything.
Now, how concerned is Jesus over the storm
that's in your life right now?
Think He's worried about that?
Think He's concerned about that?
Is it possible this afternoon for me and
for you to be as completely free from
care as God is completely free from care
over everything that's going on in your life?
Exactly so, brother and sister in Christ.
If you have laid hold of the Lord
Jesus as your portion, if Christ has dawned
upon you as your life, if God has
enabled you to see the high purpose of
God in Christ Jesus, and you've laid hold
of His purpose and His will, you can
let Him sleep.
Everything's alright in my Father's house.
Everything is alright.
Jesus said, Be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world.
He didn't say, Be of good cheer, you
shall overcome the world.
It's His victory.
He's overcome the world.
Paul was continually always led about in his
triumph.
Not a triumph God gave Paul or any
believer.
God's not going to give you His Son
and something else called rest.
He's only going to give you His Son.
And if you have His Son, you have
rest.
I love that Jesus was sleeping in the
boat.
Now, let me wrap this up on a
hopeful note.
So, brothers and sisters in Christ, you belong
to Him.
You don't need to wake Him up.
But if you do, and you will, He
is so patient and so merciful and so
good.
I loved Dana's words this morning.
He said, It's at the moment of failure
that we become captured by His love.
He will never quit on you.
He will never quit on me.
And in that moment when that storm comes
and you run to the Lord Jesus, I'll
confess to you, I don't know anybody that
wakes the Lord Jesus more than I do.
You know, you can read these glorious things
and know the reality that it's Him, and
you can let Him sleep.
But then the storm comes, you get panicky,
and you run to the Lord Jesus, and
you just wake Him up.
Now, what will happen if you wake Him
up?
Well, He'll give you a gentle rebuke, and
then He will probably do some wonderful thing
for you out of which testimonies are made.
He may rise from His sleep, work some
mighty miracle before your eyes, change a great
storm to a great calm.
But be careful.
Don't say, Whoa, look what God did because
I had great faith.
No, look what God did because you were
weak and you failed.
That's when He rises up and does His
great thing.
And He may rise up and move and
heal and deliver and provide and restore and
revive and quicken and transform and do these
great things.
And then at night, someone will say, Any
testimony?
Let me tell you.
Oh, you won't believe it.
What God did for me.
I woke Him up, and He got up,
and He did this great miracle.
Yes, He did, and He'll continue to do
it because He loves you.
But He doesn't want you to live on
that level.
There's higher ground.
That's not the Christian life.
Continually coming to the end, giving Him the
problem, getting out of the way, looking at
a miracle and then waiting for the next
one.
He wants to lift us above all that
where He is our portion.
And He is our life.
And His purpose is our plow.
And then we can follow the Lamb into
rest.
We can let Him sleep.
We can move with the purposes of God.
May the Lord work these things in our
heart.
Let's pray together.
Our Father, we thank You so much for
Your precious Word.
Not what we think it might mean, but
all You inspired it to mean.
We ask You now to work that in
our lives.
Lift us up, we pray, to where the
Lord Jesus is in the heavenly places.
Thank You for Your patience and Your mercy
and Your grace.
Thank You that You don't get angry when
we wake You, when we come in the
family storm, when we come in the church
storm, when we come in the financial storm,
when we come in the physical storm.
You don't get angry, but You rise and
do marvelous things.
We worship You, Lord.
You're so good, so merciful.
But teach us what it means to be
true followers of the Lamb, that we might
rest where You rest.
We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.