Luke 8:22 - 25
22 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 out, 23 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. 24 And they went 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. 25 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?”
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Why was Jesus did Jesus question their faith? What were they supposed to do?
2. Why were they afraid after Jesus calmed the storm?
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/04/mark-435-41-35-that-day-when-evening.html says:
ReplyDeleteMy 2 cents:
On the surface of it, it's pretty amazing the disciples response to Jesus' calming the storm. I think that perhaps this response was coming from the fishermen contingent of the boat. These disciples used to make their living from the sea. They were very familiar with storms and the dangers of them. The weather was the most powerful force in their lives. They were, probably, in their hearts, superstitious of the weather, and perhaps even worshiped it a little.
When Jesus proved His mastery even over the weather, this was far more personal to them than anything else. This is when it became real. Now, there was something more to fear than their greatest fear.
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So, in the very familiar territory of the Sea of Galilee which isn't really a sea, it's a fresh water lake and today it's known as Lake Kinneret in Israel. It is the lowest fresh water lake on the planet. It is 682 feet below sea level. There literally three stratifications of the water that go down a hundred and fifty feet and those stratifications have a lot to do with the surface of the lake at various times of the year. They have a lot to do with the content of algae which has a lot to do with the content of fish. In 1896, one fishing boat alone brought in 92 hundred pounds of fish. It is a prolific lake for the production of fish and having that kind of water and that kind of resource in Galilee was a great blessing to the people who live there.
Mount Herman is up in the north on the Lebanon border at 92 hundred feet. So the water flows about ten thousand feet down to fill up this lake in this bowl. It is such pristine fresh water that it provides even today about fifty percent of the water for the nation Israel.
It is different than all other bodies of water in the world. And what particularly makes it unique is the fact that it is subject to very, very severe winds. And both in the summer and the warm part of the year and in the winter in the cold part of the year, it experiences these kinds of winds. The winds that come in the summer are the Sirocco winds from the east. They'd be like our Santa Ana winds, only they typically come every day from noon to six o'clock.. They're pretty predictable. The wind comes down hard off the Golan Heights and a little north of that and it comes down and it turns the lake in to a boiling caldron and it's pretty much the routine every day during the summer. These make it a very treacherous place to be in a boat at the wrong time.
The winter is even worse because the winter winds are cold winds that come from the north and the northwest. And when the cold air comes down and it hits the warm air that naturally sits in the bowl, it creates a turmoil. The cold air goes through the warm air and causes tremendous turmoil on the lake.
Between, I guess, November and April, that is the most dangerous, treacherous time. And in very unexpected ways those winds can come, those cold winds and the waves can get anywhere from five to ten feet and that just doesn't happen on a lake, but it happens there and it can be a very terrifying experience.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/04/mark-435-41-35-that-day-when-evening.html continued:
ReplyDelete------
Relief from the storm is not the best thing that can happen to you. The best thing that can happen is for you to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. The enemy can use the storm to make you anxious, afraid, hurt, and discouraged. God can use it to make you fearless, secure, and steadfast.
Jesus can calm the storm in your life. But even if he does not, you can trust that he will uphold you, you can believe that he will transform you, and you can know that he loves you.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:16-17)
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Attempting to answer the questions:
1. Why didn't Jesus stay with the crowds? You can't disciple thousands of people. It's just like a church. You have a Sunday morning service, but the real work takes place in small groups.
2. Why did Jesus calm the storm? To bring glory to His Father and to Himself. Apparently, the disciples really didn't know or believe who He was. Now they did, and it was important that they did know.
3. Why are the disciple so amazed? The first comment from the Matthew blog covered this pretty well. There probably was some superstition and awe about the weather, especially from the fishermen. Jesus/God suffers no idols in our lives. He put Himself above what could have been His biggest competition in the minds of His disciples. The disciples may have "knew" Jesus before, but now their eyes were really opened.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary says:
ReplyDeleteSteven Cole - 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 derive any comfort in trials by denying God’s sovereignty. True, God may use Satan to bring trials, as He did in the case of Job. But God clearly states, “I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these” (Is 45:6-7). You will find comfort in trials only if you affirm both God’s absolute sovereignty and His unfailing love. Note several features of life’s storms as seen in this storm:
Storms hit suddenly and without warning. 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.
Storms hit believers. Just because you’re in Jesus’ boat doesn’t mean that it’s going to be smooth sailing. Christians are not exempt from trials.
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! These men, who had committed their lives to serve Christ, obeyed. And He 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. I have often found that the most severe times of testing have come right after I have taken a new step of obedience.
Sammy Burgess - I believe that our Lord does things in proper order; and He does what He does for particular reasons.
1) The Teaching That Is Excellent
2) The Test That Is Experienced - There are going to be times after Jesus teaches us His Word that He will then put His children through a test and see if they have learned anything that He has taught them. Jesus wants us not only to be “hearers” of His Word, He wants us to be “doers” of His Word.
3) The Trust That Is Expected - The Lord will put His children in a situation to where they have to trust Him. Jesus expects us to trust Him, even when we don’t understand why we are in the circumstance we are in.
As Warren Wiersbe would say, “When we can’t trace God’s Hand, we can always trust God’s heart.”
II. THERE IS THE MISERY OF THE STORM
When the storm threatened the lives of the disciples, they did what you and I would do, THEY WENT TO THE LORD FOR HELP!
III. THERE IS THE MASTER OF THE STORM
A. There Is The Power Of The Lord Over The Storm
B. There Is The Presence Of The Lord In The Storm
C. There Is The Promise Of The Lord For The Storm
I want you to learn 2 valuable lessons from this story.
(1) The Boat Could Not Sink Because Jesus Was On Board.
(2) The Storm Wasn’t Going To Last Forever.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteOne can fault their faith, but to Whom did they come when the storm came?
Mk 4:38+ adds that the disciples' cried out “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Of course Jesus cares! They simply did not have enough faith to believe He really cared. And perhaps since He was still sound asleep they saw that as lack of concern. In either event it was clearly a reproach of Jesus, by His closest human associates.
MacArthur - Skeptics, determined to deny the miraculous at all costs, have pointed out that storms on the Sea of Galilee often stop as rapidly as they start. But while the wind might have died down almost at once, it would have taken much longer for the waves to subside. When Jesus commanded the wind and waves to stop, both did so instantly, and it became absolutely calm.
NET Note - Who has authority over the seas and winds is discussed in the OT: Ps 104:3; 135:7; 107:23–30. When Jesus rebuked the wind and the raging waves he was making a statement about Who He was.
The story of the stilling of the storm is not, of course, meant to tell us that Christ will never allow any believer to perish by drowning, or by any other natural disaster. Many believers have so perished. It does demonstrate that he is Lord of the physical forces in the universe, that for him nothing happens by accident, and that no force in all creation can destroy his plan for our eternal salvation or separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (see Rom. 8:38–39).
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteit was God "Who establishes the mountains by His strength, Being girded with might; Who stills the roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples.) (Ps 65:6-7) Clearly the implication is that Jesus is the Lord over Creation.
Guzik observes that "In the span of a few moments, the disciples saw both the complete humanity of Jesus (in His tired sleep) and the fullness of His deity. They saw Jesus for who He is: truly man and truly God."
Brian Bell - Jesus gives three purposes behind the plans God has for us.
(1) To deal with our fear.
(2) To grow our faith.
(3) To increase our awe.
The storm made them afraid but the power of Christ made them petrified. If Jesus did that to the forces of nature, what would He do to them?
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-8-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteSteven Cole - We must trust Jesus the Lord in the storms of life. The fact is,
A. Storms often expose how we are not trusting in the Lord. 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.
Storms reveal our distorted view of the problem. 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. 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. 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. 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. That’s why, by faith, we must always affirm two things in our trials: God’s sovereignty and His love (1Pe 5:6-7). Thus we often think that we’re trusting in the Lord until a storm hits. It reveals to us how we’re not really trusting Him.
B. Storms should drive us to trust in the Lord of the storm. 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 (Col 2:6-7).
The better we know the Lord, the better we can trust Him. 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. Not a breath of wind or a drop of water can defy His sovereign will. The better we know Him, the better we can trust Him in our trials.
The bigger the storm, the more the Lord will be glorified when we trust Him. 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. If you actively trust the Lord Jesus in your current trial, your faith will be strengthened to trust Him in the next storm.
Conclusion 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 (Ac 12:1-17). 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.”
Questions and findings:
ReplyDelete1. Why was Jesus did Jesus question their faith? What were they supposed to do?
They were supposed to be concerned about the storm. It was swamping their boat. Jesus does not expect us to ignore real problems. The disciples problem was not in waking Jesus up and asking for His help. Their issue of faith came in two ways: They accused Jesus of not caring and they did not believe that there was a plan for Jesus and themselves.
The moral of the story is to ask in belief.
2. Why were they afraid after Jesus calmed the storm?
I think this is the first time they really realized who Jesus was. It was proved before their eyes that God was standing before them, and it terrified them (rightly). (It was widely known that only God could do certain things, and controlling the weather was one of them).