I would like you to think with me
briefly of three scenes here.
We see the disciples first of all entering
the storm, then we are going to see
them in the storm itself, and then perhaps
we'll have a few words to say about
their attitude subsequent to the storm, beyond the
storm.
First of all, entering the storm.
We have a sense of urgency according to
the gospels, a sense of urgency.
Our Lord summoned his disciples together, hurriedly it
would appear, whilst the 5,000 men, folks,
together with women and children, over and above
that number, are trying to weigh up the
significance of the feeding, the miracle of the
feeding of the 5,000.
Jesus knew what was in their hearts.
We don't go into that detail now.
Knowing what was in their hearts, he called
his disciples together, and he did something which
was contrary to his habit.
He himself dismissed the crowd.
It was usually the other way around, he
left his disciples to dismiss the crowd.
He himself dismissed this crowd and he told
them quickly, he says, go into the boat
and cross over to the other side of
the lake.
That had been a remarkable episode, the feeding
of the 5,000, the four gospels tell
us about it.
They had a very meagre little handful of
provision to start off with.
And yet when all had been satisfied, they
had 12 baskets full of crumbs.
Now when you realize that what they had
at the beginning could have been neatly packed
into one basket, with plenty of room to
spare, it's all the more wonderful that there
should have been 12 baskets full of crumbs
left over at the end.
That's the miracle.
And the whole 5,000 are talking about
it, and I guess the women jerked in
too, if not the boys and the girls.
Oh, to have a man like this as
king, and John tells us this is what
they were after.
They wanted to make him king, and probably
that's why Jesus called his disciples, tells them,
get away to the other side of the
lake, I'll dismiss the crowd, and with a
kind of hurry, both he and his disciples
evade the multitude from that point forward.
Now we note therefore, and this is the
point I'm getting to, we note therefore that
this little group, the little group that is
to feature in this episode in a storm,
are one, his disciples.
Two, not only is it a group of
disciples, it is a group of disciples that
are actually doing their Lord's bidding.
They're entering the boat because they were told
to.
They're going in the direction they were summoned
to go.
In other words, they are a company of
obedient disciples, actually involved in doing what they
were told to do by their Lord Jesus
Christ.
Now I think this is basic, this is
essential to an understanding of the passage.
They're not here because of self-will.
They were not caught in the storm because
they disobeyed.
They're not caught in the storm because the
judgment of God is upon them.
They were disciples.
They were obedient disciples.
They were involved in the very thing the
Master had them do.
Yet they ran into a storm.
Now this incident teaches us therefore that not
all the storms of life are encountered in
the process of disobedience and flagrant violations of
the divine law.
Oh, I remember Isaiah's words.
The wicked are like the tossing sea.
There is no peace, says my God, to
the wicked.
I remember that and that is so.
One also remembers the fact that there are
storms encountered on the pathway of disobedience.
Jonah learnt that to his consternation.
He did not want to declare the message
to Nineveh and he chose his own way
and there was a storm on the way
of disobedience.
Indeed, Simon Peter was to learn that a
little later on when he went to the
high priest's courtyard when Jesus had told him
specifically not to follow him then.
There are storms on the way of disobedience.
But my friend, we've got something different here.
This is the storm, this is a storm
that was encountered in the process of obeying
the master's behest.
They were doing his will.
They were going to the place he had
appointed for them.
They were his own very people doing his
own will and yet they meet the storm.
Now I shouldn't be at all surprised that
this morning somebody needs to be told this.
They do us a great disservice and they're
usually found in evangelistic circles, very evangelistic circles.
They tell us that the Christian life is
all sunshine.
It's like travelling in a marvellous limousine with
all the comforts inside, whatever it's like outside.
You don't worry about the hills.
There are no hills and there are no
clouds in the sky.
There's no up and down.
It's all straight.
In fact, it's downhill.
And you have all the comforts and all
the provisions.
There's no battle, there's no wrestling, there's no
dimension that would involve you in a problem
or a cross.
President, it's no mere misrepresentation.
It's a sheer, unmitigated lie.
And even though it comes from the lips
of an evangelist or a pastor, it's a
lie.
Did not Jesus say, if any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, take
up his cross, and in another gospel he
adds, take up his cross daily and follow
me.
Now you don't take up the cross and
say, you know, something attractive, and you put
it on your breast, ha, look at me,
that's not the cross.
It's not something in your lapel.
A cross is a thing on which you're
going to die.
And the New Testament speaks of a cross,
it speaks of blood and suffering.
When Jesus said, he that will come after
me, he must take up his cross, he
meant there is sorrow, there is suffering, there
is dying daily.
As Paul says, I die daily, he says.
Our Lord and his apostles were constantly telling
their prospective followers of this.
There is no way in the footmarks of
a crucified Lord in a world that is
fallen without encountering the fury of the world
that crucified him.
If we are loyal to him in a
fallen world, sooner or later we shall be
wounded, be it in spirit or in body.
Now that is the first thing.
These people were obedient, and of course, it
is relevant to us, you see.
I have met many dear Christians, and I'm
quite sure that the storms that had overtaken
them were not because of disobedience.
But they've been taught, if you're sick, you've
necessarily sinned.
If a storm has come upon you, you've
necessarily broken the law of God.
Not necessarily.
All sickness and all calamity in this world
is here ultimately because we're in a fallen
world.
And when God has finished with this world,
there shall be no tears, there shall be
no heartache, there will be no sighing, there
will be no sobbing.
That's quite a different thing from saying that
the storm that overtakes the saints of God
and the way of obedience means really that
they're not obeying.
Quite a different thing.
Here we have disciples obeying their Lord, and
yet they run into a storm.
I think it is not without some significance
that this prayer letter came into my hand
this week from David Lundy.
Some of you have read it.
May I just refer to one incident?
He refers here to a young man who
after a period of active consideration of the
issue has become a Christian.
And having shown how he received Christ as
saviour, then he says that is only the
beginning of the story.
Yogish, that's his name, has gone home to
his orthodox Hindu family only to be beaten
and kicked out of his home.
He had been warned that it was costly
to follow Christ here in his New Testament
evangelism.
Even his college friends tried to poison him,
but still he shared his new joy and
peace with others as he had been taught
to do.
Now that's not the end of the story
because his father accepts him in the end.
But you see, there were sorrows, storms on
the way of obedience.
And I want to tell you dear Christian
people this morning you may encounter storms on
the very path of obedience into the storm.
These were obedient in the storm.
As evening shadows lengthen, we see that little
group of men making for the other side
of the lake and then suddenly, it's dark,
suddenly it overtakes them.
One of those boisterous, totally unexpected storms that
would brew on the Sea of Galilee and
does of course to this very day.
It's because of the location of the sea
itself being so far below sea level and
so forth.
When evening came, we read, the boat by
this time was many furlongs distant from the
land, eaten by the waves, for the wind
was against them.
Now Mark adds this little type.
They were distressed, says Mark in Romans.
Matthew focuses attention upon the fact that it
was really a terrifying little storm.
We say little from our vantage point because
we knew it was soon to end.
It wasn't a long drawn out thing but
of course they did not know how long
it was going to last.
Matthew focuses our attention upon the winds and
upon the waves, but Mark says they were
distressed.
They, the rowers, the disciples, they were distressed.
They were really about to pack it in.
That's the significance.
Fishermen, though some of them were, they were
floundering terribly and they were not a little
abreast.
Now we want this morning particularly to focus
attention not so much on the storm but
rather upon the Savior in the storm.
The Savior coming, dealing with his disciples and
meeting them.
You see the question very naturally arises.
It especially emerges in the thoughts and in
the minds of those who are not committed
Christians.
But it also emerges in the minds of
thoughtful Christian people.
All right.
He has sent his disciples this way.
He knew the storm was brewing probably.
This is how it is put.
He knew the thought was brewing.
Where is he when they are in the
storm?
What is the Savior doing when his servants
are caught in this fury, in this gap?
Now my friends I want you to notice
what the passage tells us and this is
really the message I would like to get
across this morning.
What is he doing when his saints are
in the storm?
I want to say three things.
One, the passage tells us that he is
watching over them.
Let me read verses 23 to 25, sections
of them anyway.
And after he had dismissed the crowds, that
is the 5,000 fed a little earlier
on.
After he had dismissed the crowd he went
up into the hills by himself to pray.
But the boat by this time was beaten
by the waves for the wind was against
it.
He is praying on the side of the
hill yonder.
They are down there in the water on
the Sea of Galilee.
They are in the storm.
He is on the slopes of the mountain
over here.
Now Mark adds again another little touch which
is very significant.
Mark says in 6.48, And he saw
that they were distressed in rowing.
Says Matthew, they were distressed in rowing.
Says Mark, he saw that they were distressed
in rowing.
What a difference, isn't it?
He saw.
There on the hillside, overlooking the scene of
his disciples' distress, their Lord and their Savior
was watching and praying.
Praying and watching.
Communing with his heavenly Father.
He was also out of that communion with
his Father supervising the progress of his people
in this little boat stormed by.
It's a wonderful picture.
Just get it.
Don't miss this.
There on the Palestinian hills is the Son
of God watching over his own.
But not alone.
He is involving his Father on the slopes
on the throne of glory so that the
Son on the Palestinian hill and the Father
on the throne of glory are together talking
about it.
Together looking on.
Together watching the storm.
Together listening to the sobs and the sighs
and the fears and the unexplained and unexplicable
forebodings of those disciples in the boat.
Together they keep vigil.
I must say this grips me.
Through the first watch of the night.
Through the second watch of the night.
And the third.
Into the fourth watch of the night before
they ultimately decide to do something.
But they're watching all the time.
He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
The Father and the Son are watching the
saints in the struggle with the storm.
Oh my friends, let us get it.
It needs to be said and it needs
to be embraced by every man and woman
of faith.
Your Lord and mine is not careless of
what's happening to you and to me.
And though physically withdrawn from us he is
not actually away from us.
Of course, taking this against the background of
the whole New Testament truth, we should really
be preaching the doctrine of the paraclete of
the Holy Spirit of the other self.
That has not been yet revealed in the
progress of divine revelation but it is all
there.
And we understand this in the light of
that great doctrine.
But he, he is not careless of the
needs of his people.
He's watching.
I've always loved that.
And especially sung to a well-student.
Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus.
Spread his praise from shore to shore.
How he loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore.
How he watches all his loved ones, died
to make them all his own.
How for them he intercedeth, watches all them
from the throne.
And here we have a faint picture of
what is now proceeding in the glory.
We have the Savior, the Son of God,
tucked away up there somewhere in a lonely
place where no man, no human being is
with him.
But where he is in communion with his
Father and engaging his Father as well as
himself in watching all his people in the
storm.
It was a young girl, rescued by two
well-to-do people from the slums of
a certain town, sent to have a first
-class education and who had ultimately graduated.
It was from her lips that I heard
this song, first of all.
I know he watches me.
His eye is on the sparrow, and I
know he watches.
Men and women going out into the fray
and into the storm of life because you're
obedient to your Lord, know this will you,
his eye never hidden, he watches.
If time permitted us, I would like to
go to the book of the Revelation.
You know, to each church in the book
of the Revelation, the risen, ascended Lord says
this, I know you.
Now you have it in Revelation, chapter 2,
verses 2, 9, 13 and 19.
Chapter 3, verses 1, 8 and 15.
To each of the seven churches, he wants
them to know, I know.
I know everything about you.
I know your circumstances.
I know your enemies.
I know your problems.
I know it all.
I'm looking on.
Oh, how we need to know that.
Watching.
The second, waiting to intervene.
Watching over them and watching over us.
Secondly, waiting to intervene.
Now it may seem a little strange to
our ears that he should wait to intervene.
Did we not begin by stressing the fact
that these were his disciples?
We did.
Did we not likewise stress the fact that
they were actually doing his bidding and he
meant them to get to the other side?
We did.
Well then, why pause?
Why wait to intervene?
Surely he should have stepped in as soon
as the storm began.
No, my friend.
No, no, no, no.
Because you see, the storm that he permits,
he so permits because he is able to
use it to a high end.
The storm that our Lord plans or permits,
he plans or permits in order to use
it to bring something out of it.
I find it difficult to learn this lesson.
I can learn it for a moment and
then I tend to forget it.
And when the storm comes, you know, I've
forgotten it again.
It's like the devil taking the seed away.
But you know, it is true.
This is what the book says.
This is Christian testimony.
The storm that my Lord either allows or
plans, it doesn't matter which, he allows or
he plans because he is able to make
it the means of grace.
There is something that I can have in
the storm he allows that I could never
have if the storm did not come.
Now you obedient people, you folk who are
going out on the king's business this week,
you who are going to seek the law,
you who are going to be witnesses and
you mean to be his loyal servants, my
dear people, let's take this to heart.
If he allows a storm to rise on
your little lake, even though it may threaten
to suck you under, that storm is allowed
because there is something that you can get
out of that storm you could not get
if you didn't get into the storm on
the way of obedience.
Well, what is it?
What is it that they can learn?
Well, I suppose one necessary lesson that we
all need to learn in every storm is
the point that there are so many things
in life that we are incapable of negotiating
alone without him.
You see, that's a trifling thing, that.
To allow a storm to come into our
life, just to teach us that we can't
do it ourselves by our way of obedience.
You know, this is one of life's major
lessons from the Christian point of view.
Said our Lord Jesus Christ in that great
John chapter 15, you know, he says to
the disciples, apart from me, severed from me,
you know, he says, you can actually do
nothing.
And the problem with so many of us
Christians is this, that we think that we
can do so much without our Lord.
That's why we don't pray more.
That's why we are not really involved in
the business of intercession.
We really believe, oh, well, it's not all
that important, we know what we ought to
be doing, we've got the Bible, we'll tell
the truth, we'll do this, that, and the
other, and we'll do it on our own.
So, it is necessary, and it was necessary
here for one thing, to see that even
though some of them were fishermen, in somebody's
own personal boat, probably Simon, as a guest,
in familiar waters, even so the storm that
has come is such that they cannot negotiate
themselves.
Over and over again we have to learn
this lesson, and you know, many, many of
the times of waiting for divine intervention in
the experience of God's people, many such times
are due to this.
We have to come to the place which
Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians chapter 1,
where we have the sentence of death in
ourselves.
And where we see we can't do it.
There is more than that here.
There are certain lessons that are to be
imparted in the storm, which can only be
imparted right there, imparted right there, on the
sea, in the midst of the fury, in
the midst of the gale, in the very
teeth of the challenge of the hour.
And that brings me to the third theme,
and it will be our last this morning.
Watching and waiting, now walking towards them, as
yet they have not learnt, you see, they
have not learnt to expect the unexpected from
their Omnipotent Lord.
At this stage, their knowledge of Jesus Christ
was imperfect.
We are now living, we are now pursuing
them as they were living in the early
months, the early period of his ministry.
And even though they had been with him
for so many months, as yet their knowledge
of him, or shall I say, their convictions
concerning his person were not fully matured.
There's a world of difference between a hunch
and a conviction.
There's all the difference in the world between
something that is emerging, a kind of notion
that you have, and a conviction that it
is so.
What I'm saying is this, that these truths
that are emerging, these convictions in the bud
have not yet matured.
And so, they've not yet learnt to expect
the unexpected from him.
Have you?
Now this comes out here, you see, because
even though they've seen him feed the five
thousand men beside women and children out of
a few loaves and a couple of fish,
they've forgotten all about it when they get
into the storm.
And they become so obsessed with the storm,
they've forgotten the significance of the miracle.
They've forgotten that he's Lord of Nature.
And that was the meaning, that was the
meaning of the miracle.
Now, take a good look at what happens.
I can only give it to you in
picture in order to begin.
Here it is.
He comes majestically, walking sovereignly upon the very
billows that threaten their disaster.
And whereas the sea is sucking them down
into the briny ocean, he's walking sovereignly, majestically,
unafraid, in total command of what threatens them.
It's a marvelous picture.
And mark you, he's coming unsolicited.
We don't think that there was any prayer,
any plea for help.
If Jesus answered any plea, it was the
plea of fear rather than the plea of
faith.
You know, I'm glad about that.
Glad and yet sad, if you know what
I mean.
He hears our expressions of fear sometimes and
comes to us when we have no faith
to bid him come.
They did not ask him to come.
They did not know where he was.
They did not pray.
They did not pee, according to the record.
But there was fear in their hearts.
He knew the fear, and he came.
And they were afraid.
And here he comes in regal majesty, unsolicited,
knowing all that was going on.
And he comes, first of all, to bring
the voice to a storm, to a conclusion,
and then to impart peace to their hearts.