The Storm-Stilling Savior (Luke 8:22–25) | The Gospel of Luke (Part 59)

Transcript

JRNT 110
6/7/2026
The Gospel of Luke (Part 58)
The Storm Stilling Savior
Luke 8:22-25
Jesse Randolph

Over the course of nearly 2,000 years of church history one of the simplest truths that has surfaced and resurfaced, over and over again throughout the ages, throughout the centuries, on many different continents, is how important it is to get Jesus right. How crucial it is to have a right and Biblically informed perspective of who Jesus is, and what He came to do, and what He actually accomplished. The Gnostics got Jesus wrong when they claimed that Christ only appeared to be human that He was some sort of phantom-like presence who floated around during the 1st century. The Monophysites got Jesus wrong when they claimed that Christ was of one substance with God the Father but not truly a man. The Monarchians got Jesus wrong when they claimed that Christ was a man in whom God’s power dwelled but that He was not God Himself. The Arians got Jesus wrong when they claimed that Christ was divine but that He was still a created being. The Apollinarians got Jesus wrong when they claimed that, yes Christ was God clothed in flesh but that none of His personhood came from Him having a true humanity – like we do.

Now, each of those heresies I’ve just mentioned came from the first few hundred years of church history. But the rotten root of those heretical teachings has produced rotten fruit in many modern heresies today. The rotten fruit comes forth in the Mormon church, the Latter-Day Saints, who teach that Jesus was a created being. Not an eternally divine being, but one who created by God the Father. That directly contradicts Scripture, which teaches that Jesus is eternal and co-equal with God the Father. That rotten fruit of those old heresies has shown it’s face in the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Watchtower Society, who also claim that Jesus is not the eternal, uncreated God. But instead, that He was a created being, the highest in the created order, which God Himself had created. The rotten fruit of those old heresies has come forth in the teaching of Islam which in the Qur’an, expressly limits Jesus to being human. In fact, teaches that anyone who would believe that Jesus is God incarnate, the Son of God; is guilty of the sin of shirk, which in the Muslim religion, is the unforgiveable sin of idolatry.

So again, note how important it is, how crucial it is, to get Jesus right. If heard some of those old heresies from church history that I was rattling off, you’ll likely have picked up on the fact that heresies about Jesus will fall into one of two ditches. You’ll either fall into the ditch of getting the divinity of Jesus wrong, the deity of Jesus wrong, His Godness wrong. Or you’ll fall into the ditch of getting something wrong about His humanity, His perfect Personhood. Well, the only way to get Jesus right to grasp who He is truly as God and to understand who He is truly in His humanity. Is to take everyone of our thoughts captive with every Word which has been breathed out to us, by the living God, on the pages of Holy Scripture. Because, in the Bible God’s Word Jesus is presented unequivocally as the eternal Word who became flesh. As the Son of God eternal, as God who is incarnate, as the perfect God-man who is fully and truly divine and fully and truly human.

In the passage of Scripture that we’re going to be considering this morning, in Luke 8 we’re actually going to see both on display. Turn with me, if you would, in your Bibles to Luke 8. We’re going to be in verses 22-25, where we’re going to see Jesus presented by Luke, the author of this Gospel as who He truly is, actually and truly human, fully human and actually and fully and truly divine. Now really, to think that heretics, ancient and modern have gotten Jesus wrong for all these centuries, with these words right under their noses, it’s actually quite baffling. Luke 8:22, God’s Word reads, “Now it happened that on one of those days He and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ So, they set sail. But as they were sailing along, He fell asleep, and a windstorm descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and in danger. And they came to Him and woke Him up, saying, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And He woke up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were fearful and marveled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?’”

This morning’s sermon is titled The Storm-Stilling Savior. I have four points for you. Each connected to the four verses we’ll be covering today.
Verse 22 we’ll look at The Fateful Trip; in verse 23, it’s The Furious Tempest; in verse 24, it’s The Forced Tranquility; and then in verse 25, it’s The Faithless Trepidation.

We’ll start, verse 22 with The Fateful Trip. Again, it reads: “Now it happened that on one of those days He and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’ So, they set sail.” Now, Luke, as he sets the stage for us here, he’s really being understated. There isn’t much of a hint up front here about how massive a scene this is actually going to be and what it’s going to reveal about Jesus and His person, and His power.

He begins with that standard transitional expression: “Now it happened” and then he says it was “on one of those days.” One of those days, one of which days? Well, the next major movement in Luke’s Gospel, geographically speaking is going to take place in Luke 9:51, where Luke reports that Jesus, at that point, “set His face to go to Jerusalem.” But at this point in the narrative, we’re still in Luke 8. What Luke is reporting on, is that Jesus was ministering primarily still to the region of Galilee. That area that hugs the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Which includes towns like Nazareth, the hometown of our Lord Capernaum, where we’ve been seeing a lot of these events take place and then Nain, where the widow’s son was resuscitated.

So, in “those days”, verse 22, meaning, in the days of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, before He went to Jerusalem. Now you see it there, “He [meaning Jesus] and His disciples” which, in context here is referring to a subset of His followers, most likely, the Twelve. Well, this group, we’re told, “got into a boat.” Now, to give us a little bit more context, turn with me, if you would, back to the Gospel of Mark, and specifically to Mark 4. So, we’re in the Gospel of Luke this morning to the left of Luke is the Gospel of Mark. And I want us to look at Mark 4:1. The very first verse of chapter 4 of Mark’s Gospel, where we see these words, Mark 4:1, it says, “And He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.” Now, if you look down just a bit, to verse 3, you see this this is Jesus speaking now, He says, “Listen to this! Behold the sower went out to sow.” Now, that ought to sound familiar, because just a few weeks ago, in our study of Luke’s Gospel we cam across this very same parable, the Parable of the Soils.

So, Mark has Jesus teaching the Parable of the Soils, while He’s sitting in this boat. There’s this crowd listening with rapt attention. They’re all on the seashore, while He is seated in a boat. Luke, though, doesn’t include that detail. Right? When we studied the Parable of the Soils a few weeks ago, we saw nothing about Jesus siting in a boat, while He delivered the parable. Well, that’s fine. That’s actually no big deal. Because, as we’ve seen throughout Luke and our study of Luke, already as God the Holy Spirit moved the different Biblical authors to write what they wrote each emphasized different little facets of the same accounts. Never contradicting one another, but rather, perfectly complementing one another.

Now, dropping down the page here in Mark 4, you’ll notice that Jesus’ Parable of the Soils is also recorded, really in the middle here of Mark 4. Then look at what we get here, down the page in verse 35. Mark 4:35, it starts like this: “And on that day” which day? Well, the very day that Jesus gave His Parable of the Soils from inside the boat. Then it goes on to say: “And on that day, when evening came.” Now, that’s a new detail, that it was now evening. Then it says: “He said to them [meaning His disciples] Let us go over to the other side.” Meaning to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Now, turn back with me, if you would, back to our passage, to Luke 8:22, where we’re starting here, it begins by saying: “Now it happened that on one of those days He and His disciples got into a boat.” Again, the phraseology here, the context here of “on one of those days” is Luke saying to Theophilus while Jesus was still in Galilee, before He went to Jerusalem, “on one of those days.”

But now, as we consider Luke’s words here alongside what we just saw in Mark 4, what we’ve discovered is that the boat that Luke mentions here in Luke 8:22, didn’t just pop up out of nowhere. No! Jesus had already been near the seashore as He delivered this Parable of the Soils. Then apparently, He went indoors for some period of time, on this same day. We know that, because last week, we saw in Luke 8:20, that He was told that “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside” waiting to address Him. Meaning, He was somewhere inside, as He continued to teach. Well, by the time “evening came”, that’s how Mark puts it in Mark 4:35 – “on that day, when evening came.” Look at what happened next. Still in Luke 8:22 “He and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake.’”

This is all happening in or around Capernaum. Somewhere along the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. If we jump ahead to where we’ll start next week, in Luke 8:26, just a few verses down the page. We see this language, “Then they sailed to the region of the Garasenes, which is opposite Galilee.” So, up to this point, Jesus’ ministry is largely confined to Galilee. But He’s going to launch over to the Gentile side of the lake, to the Gentile side of the sea pretty soon as He goes to visit the Garasenes.

Now, Galilee was this region, this district that again hugged the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum sat on the very northwestern end of that region. While the region of the Gerasenes, just to get ourselves some bearing geographically. The region of the Gerasenes sat on the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee. So, if I’m up here, and I’m reversing my orientation Galilee is up here. The Gerasenes are down here. Ok, He’s going from northwest, down to southeast. So, when Jesus says, here in verse 22: “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” He’s not referring to a short little jaunt across the lake, from due west to due east He’s saying, no, we’re going to go all the way from the far northwestern edge, all the way down to the southeastern edge. We’re making a journey of what would have been 5 or 6 miles, to be about 12 or 13 miles, nearly tripling the distance of the journey. That’s all wrapped into what He says here, when He says, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” He was going to take them on the furthest journey possible but for a purpose. Because, as we’ll see next week, there was a demoniac, there was a herd of pigs waiting for Him on the other side of this Sea. But we’ll get there next time.

So, He gives this command, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake” and His command, we see, was followed. End of verse 22, it says, “So they set sail.” A very nautical phrase. One we see, really all throughout the book of Acts. Paul “set sail” from Troas in Acts 16. Paul “set sail” from Ephesus in Acts 18. Paul and his associates “set sail for Syria” in Acts 20 and there are many other examples. And so, here in Luke’s Gospel, the idea is that Jesus and His disciples were going from land to sea, launching forth, shoving off the shore, setting sail for the other side of the lake.

Now, a little bit more about the Sea of Galilee. You know, I’ve been calling it by that name – the “Sea of Galilee.” But you see here in verse 22, it’s referred to by Jesus Himself, as a “lake.” He says, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” To be very clear, we’re talking about the same body of water here. The Sea of Galilee is also referred to in Scripture as the Sea of Tiberius. And it’s also referred to in Scripture as the “Lake of Gennesaret.” And Gennesaret is from a Hebrew word that means “harp.” Because the Sea of Galilee, if you look at it on a map, has a certain sort of harp shape to it. Now, properly speaking, this is in fact a lake. This is this picturesque, freshwater body of water, sitting some 700 feet below sea level. It has a steep bank of mountains on the east and it has these gentle slopes on the west. But as picturesque as this sea, or this lake can be – we also know, from meteorological data, and we also know from the Biblical record, that this body of water experiences some severely violent storms. In fact, look at verse 23, where we’re now going to have our second point this morning. We’ve just considered, verse 22 – The Fateful Trip. Now, we’re going to look at:

The Furious Tempest. Verse 23, it says, “But as they were sailing along, He fell asleep, and a windstorm descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and in danger.” So, Jesus and His Disciples are out there sailing along from Capernaum up in the northwest, down to the region of the Gerasene’s in the southeast when suddenly this massive storm hits the lake. As I just mentioned this would not have been out of ordinary experience for this body of water. Sudden storms were known to whip up this lake in a frenzy and to do so immediately. And how this would be caused, you know, I’m no weather person, but I’ve been in enough study of this and experienced the Friday-night storm we had here, that came out of nowhere. How this would be caused, when this massive type of storm would fall on the lake, would be a collision of a cold front of air with a warm front of air. What would happen in this region, these cold fronts would come swooping down from Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon sits about 30 miles north of this scene here. Mount Hermon is some 10.000 feet in elevation. What would happen is this cooler air from Mount Hermon would come hurtling down from these ravines or gorges that would make their way down to the Sea of Galilee. Bringing this cold air down to the lake. Now, at the same time, you had this warm air that was hovering above the lake, just kind of trapped above the lake. So, when this cool air would come down at that high rate of velocity or speed and hit the warm air that was trapped on top of the lake that collision between the two would produce these massive storms. These violent storms.

That is what we have here in verse 23, where we read that “a windstorm [ Luke tells us] descended on the lake.” Now, that word for “windstorm” can mean something a bit tamer sounding, like a gust of wind. But that word can also describe something that’s a lot more forceful and fearful like a hurricane or a tsunami and that appears to be more of the meaning here. This was a violent storm. This was an eye-opening gale. This was a furious tempest, one that was hurricane-like in effect. This storm was causing the wind to whip against the water. It was creating these massive waves that were splashing and sloshing and eventually making their way into the boat. Look at the end of verse 23, where Luke tells us that the disciples who were on this boat were beginning to be swamped, it says, and in danger. Now, this was no cruise ship, mind you. No, this is not like some Royal Caribbean vessel just kind of cutting its way through the sea making its way from Cancun to Puerto Rico, right? This is not some high-powered fishing boat or power boat that you’d see over on Table Rock or one of the lakes around here. No. A first-century fishing boat, I appreciated what a commentator I read this week said. He said a first-century fishing boat would be more like a glorified canoe. It gets you some perspective. This would have been a boat that would have been very primitive in its construction. It wasn’t made of fiberglass; it was made of wood. Yes, it could float, but it was also susceptible to having water come in. It was susceptible to leaking. This was a boat which, with Jesus and likely the twelve on it, would have been, at this moment, pretty much filled to capacity.

So, it was evening and these fishermen-turned-disciples had had this very long day. And then this massive storm hit, and the text tells us here, “they began to be swamped.” That’s a way of saying that “water started getting into the boat.” In fact, in Matthew’s account, in Matthew 8:24, it says,
“the boat was being covered with the waves.” In Mark 3:37 we’re told that “the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling up.” What each of these scenes is depicting is that of this relatively small boat, which is now being swallowed up by the sea. And accordingly, as Luke tells us here at the end of verse 23, they, the Disciples, were “in danger.” Yeah! That’s a true statement. When water starts entering the boat, you are, by definition, in danger.

Now, surely, Jesus was doing something about this storm, right? He was grabbing a bucket and plugging holes and doing everything He could do to get the water out of the boat. No. Look at the three words we skipped earlier in verse 23. Luke tells us that “as they were sailing along” this is earlier in the account “He fell asleep.” So, as the winds began whipping these waves into a frenzy. As these gale-force winds were blowing all around. As the shouts of the sailors were piercing through the evening air. As panic was setting in on this creaky little fishing boat. Jesus was sound asleep.

Going back to the beginning of the message. Jesus, we must remember, He was and is completely human. Fully human. Truly human. He experienced, we know from Scripture, a number of different human emotions. He experienced sadness at the death of Lazarus, as we’re told in John 11:25, that “Jesus wept.” We know that He experienced anger albeit righteous, sinless anger, which He directed most often toward the false religious teachers of His day. In Mark 3:5 we’re told that Jesus was “looking around at them [meaning those teachers, the Pharisees and the scribes] with anger.” Jesus experienced grief. He prayed from Gethsemane in Matthew 26:38, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.” So, He experienced human emotions. He experienced not only human emotions though, but He also underwent a number of different ordinary human experiences. He was born to a human mother, Mary. Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.” And being born, He took of flesh, and He lived among humans, as a human – “the Word became flesh, [John 1:14 says] and dwelt among us.”

In His humanity, Jesus grew and He developed this included during His early childhood. Luke 2:40 says, “Now the Child continued to grow and become strong, being filled with wisdom.” And that was true also, in His young adulthood. Luke 2:52 says, “And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” We know that in His humanity, Jesus experienced hunger. Matthew 4:2 tells us that, “after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.” He experienced thirst, from the cross, we’re told in John 19:28, He says, “I am thirsty.” And we know He grew weary. John 4:6, we’re told that He grew weary from His journey to Samaria.

Now, He experienced true humanity. Fully human. Fully divine. One of the ways He experienced humanity, as we see revealed in Scripture, is the account we have before us, the one reported by Luke, where we’re told that “He fell asleep.” He fell asleep in the boat. In Mark’s Gospel, we get a little bit more detail. We’re told that Jesus fell asleep in the stern, in the rear of the boat. That even had a cushion that He was sleeping on. Sounds kind of cozy and comfortable. But why? Why did Jesus fall asleep? Why do any of us fall asleep? Well, He was tired. He was weary. He had been teaching all day. He’d been teaching for days on end. And now that evening had come upon Him and knowing that there was more ministry awaiting Him in the land of the Gerasenes. More teaching and more healing, and more crowds and more requests and more demands. He took advantage of this relative period of peace on the Sea of Galilee as this little fishing boat gently bounced upon the waves and so, He conked out.

You know, I can’t help but read this account and think at least, in some ways, of the book of Jonah. We went through the book of Jonah a couple of years ago in our evening service. The book of Jonah begins this way, in Jonah 1:1, “Now the Word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before Me.’ [But then we’re told] Yet Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, and paid its fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.” Now here’s verse 4, Jonah 1:4, “But Yahweh hurled a great wind on the sea, and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship gave thought to breaking apart. Then the sailors became fearful, and every man cried to his god, and they hurled the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.” Then this, verse 5, “But Jonah had gone down below into the innermost part of the vessel, lain down, and fallen deep asleep.”

So, you have sort of a similar setup. You have a ship you have a storm, you have a spokesman for God in the Old Testament, it was Jonah in the New Testament, it was Jesus and both are sleeping while as the storm rages. But that’s about where the similarities end, right? I mean Jesus, of course, was no rebellious prophet like Jonah was. Jesus was no guilty fugitive the way that Jonah was. Jesus, rather, was the obedient Son of God and even in Matthew 12:41, we learn that He is “greater than Johan.” And while Jonah slept on the ship with seemingly a seared conscience unconcerned about the troubles he had brought about toward his crewmates, by running from God in the first place. Jesus, He slept on this boat as He crossed the Sea of Galilee simply because, in His humanity, He was tired.

Now, as God, in His deity Jesus was, in that very moment, the One who is controlling every element on that lake on that particular day. He upholds, we’re told in Hebrews 1:3 the very universe by the Word of His power, including everything that was happening on the Sea of Galilee on this occasion. You know, as God, in His deity, Jesus could never tire. We learn from Psalm 121:4, that the God of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps. He is always awake. He is always on the job. But though God, and while God, Jesus also, we know, from His incarnation and through His incarnation had taken on real humanity, true humanity, actual humanity and in His humanity, He experienced exhaustion. Though fully divine He was also fully human and He needed rest. Kent Hughes, writing about this passage, speaking of Jesus, says: “In Jesus weakness and omnipotence did not clash –rather, they coalesced in perfect harmony.” Indeed, and so, Jesus slept. He trusted the skills of these fisherman-disciples who were manning the ship and He dozed off.

Now, when His disciples found Him sleeping quite a bit had transpired by this point. They’re stirred up. They’re agitated. They’re in this state of panic. Look at verse 24, it says, “And they came to Him and woke Him up, saying, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And He woke up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm.” If you’re a note-taker, our third point is: The Forced Tranquility. We’ve seen The Fateful Trip, The Furious Tempest. Now it’s The Forced Tranquility

Now, remember many of these Disciples, Andrew and Perer and then James and John these were professional fisherman. They’d been out on this lake before. They knew how stormy it could get. But this was no ordinary storm. No. This was a storm which was leading these disciples to believe that their lives were truly in danger. And these disciples-slash-fishermen were in an absolute state of panic. Verse 24 again, they say, “Master, Master, we are perishing!’”

Now, before we go any further with this account. If you would, turn back with me to Luke 5, starting in verse 1. We were here a few months ago, where it says, “Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the Word of God, He was standing at the edge of the lake of Gennesaret.” Again, that’s another way of saying, the Sea of Galilee, with the say body of water. Verse 2, “and He saw two boats laying at the edge of the lake, and the fishermen, having gotten out of them, were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered and said, ‘Master, we labored all night and caught nothing, but at Your word, I will let down the nets.’ And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish. And their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying. ‘Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken.”

So here in Luke 5 we have this group of early disciples, fisherman-disciples. Some of the same fisherman-disciples who are now making this voyage from Capernaum, down to the land of the Gerasenes. And they had witnessed, had they not, Jesus’ power over the sea and this very sea. They had witnessed in this account in Luke 5, how Jesus had caused this miraculous haul of fish to take place. He had caused this school of fish to land on a specific side of the boat, on a specific day, after a night of fruitlessness out in the sea. The scene had been so powerful, as we read in Luke 5:8, that Simon Peter recognizing whose presence he was in said, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” But now, having witnessed that miracle, however many days or weeks before. Also having since witnessed many other miracles. The healing of the leper. The healing of the paralytic. The healing of the man with the withered hand. The healing of the centurion’s slave. The raising to life the son of the widow at Nain. To name a few. The Lord’s Disciples had no less reason, but actually more reason to trust Him. They had seen the Lord perform a miracle on this very lake, in bringing about that miraculous haul of fish. And so, they had every reason to believe that just as He had control over the fish that were swimming around under their feet, as they sat on that boat. That He had just as much control over the wind what was now ripping through the mast of their boat. And He had just as much control over the waves that were now crashing into and spilling over into that boat. But they were losing sight of it all. They were losing sight of this reality. They were losing sight of the reality of what Jesus had done for them – in their midst – in the not to far past.

I would say that this is that moment where we can sit back and look at this text and realize we’ve been there. We’ve been in the position that these disciples were, some 2,000 years ago. Right? Where we’ve seen God’s sovereign hand move in our lives in amazing ways. We’ve seen Him supply our needs. We’ve seen Him provide for us and care for us. We’ve seen Him line up certain meetings and certain relationships. We’ve seen Him walk us through and hold our hand and get us through different trials. But then another trial comes. Like the Disciples facing the storm in the boat here and suddenly we become forgetful. Suddenly we develop some form of spiritual amnesia. We’ve been in a similar bind before. We’ve seen the Lord’s faithfulness to us, but we forget. To use the language of this scene, and what’s happening here, we become so consumed with the storm that’s before us, that we forget the storms the Lord has brought us through in the past.

Back to our text, Luke 8:24, the disciples, “came to Him and woke Him up, saying ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’” The fact that they used the word “Master” repeatedly there, shows how dire and desperate they viewed their situation to be. Remember though, these are seafaring men. These who are men who were familiar with the lake of Gennesaret, the Sea of Galilee. They’d been caught, surely in many different squalls and storms before. So, the fact that they’re alarmed and panicking and on edge signals that they viewed this as being a real big problem. They really did believe that they were about to die. In fact, it gets personal. In Mark 3:39, in the parallel account to this, the Disciples were quoted as saying: “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” So, in Luke, they are recorded as saying, “We are perishing”, but in Mark, it’s “you don’t even care that we’re perishing.”

Well, back to our Gospel account, here in verse 24, Luke tells us He woke up: “And He woke up.” There’s no indication here that Jesus rubs sleep out of His eyes or made some sort of grumpy face as He woke up from the fog of being on that cushion of the stern of the boat. We’re simply told that “He woke up.” Then, look at what comes next. Having woke up, He “rebuked the wind and the surging waves.” Now that word “rebuked” is the same word Luke uses elsewhere to describe what Jesus would do when He would cause demons to come out of demon-possessed individuals. Luke 4:35, He “rebuked” a demon “saying, ‘Be quiet and come out of him!’” Luke 4:41, He was “rebuking them,” meaning demons, “He was not allowing them to speak.” Luke 9:42 we’re told that, “Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.” We’re also told, back in Luke 4:39, when Peter’s mother-in-law was ill, that Jesus “rebuked the fever, and it left her.”

So that word – “rebuke” – as used by Luke, can describe and portray, vividly, the authority that Jesus had and has over all sorts of forces fevers and demons and in this case, the wind and the waves. That language – He “rebuked the wind and the surging waves.” It really harkens back to the Old Testament where God, Yahweh is portrayed as not only having authority over the wind and waves rebuking them. Psalm 65:7, God is described as “still[ing] the rumbling of the seas, the rumbling of their waves.” Psalm 89:9, our scripture reading this morning says of God, “You rule the swelling of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them.” Psalm 106:9, we’re told that God, “rebuked the Red Sea and it dried up.”

So, piecing all of this together. What Luke is communicating in this account is that just as the God of Israel – Yahweh – was Lord over the seas so too is Jesus its Lord. Here, Jesus, the Lord of glory, He rebuked the wind and the waves, and all was calm. The wind and the waves had been storming, but when Jesus spoke, when He rebuked them, the storm went to sleep. Note, it wasn’t just the wind that died down when Jesus spoke. The waves did too. Verse 24, “And He woke up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves.” Then note this next part, it is the connected thought, “and they stopped” meaning the wind and the waves stopped “and it became calm.” So, just like that. The disciples go from witnessing this frightful, storming squall to the winds dying down completely. And not just the winds dying down but the very water itself. The wind and the waves – in an instant they synced up and suddenly became silent.

You know, moments earlier, waves had been crashing into the boat. But now, there was nothing but quiet, evening stillness on the water. The lake was now, suddenly like a mirror, it was like glass. This was a true miracle. The sudden stopping of the wind and the waves. To go from that sort of storm, to not even having a ripple on the lake that is something of God. For the Disciples, these fisherman-turned Disciples, this could have only meant one thing. That whatever Jesus had said to the wind and whatever He had said to the waves in rebuking them it worked. Behind Jesus’ words of rebuke to the wind and the waves, was divine power. The kind of power that can only be exercised by God Himself. The very God who controls the forces of nature. So, think about that. In His humanity, Jesus needed sleep and had been sleeping. But in His deity, in His Godness, His divinity He stilled the storm. Meaning, in this passage, what we have is this perfect account of this perfect blending of Jesus’ deity and humanity. That brings us to the closing portion of the account now, in verse 25, where Luke records this, “And He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were fearful and marveled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?’”

Our fourth point, if you’re a note taker, is The Faithless Trepidation.

The Faithless Trepidation. Note there are two questions here. One posed by Jesus, and one posed by the Disciples. First comes, from Jesus, “And He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’” A great question, considering what these men had already seen. Now, Jesus here wasn’t suggesting with that question that these Disciples didn’t have faith in Him at all. He wasn’t pointing the finger at them and saying that they abandoned their faith entirely. He wasn’t calling them apostate. But what He was asking them, with that question was where has your faith gone. Where has your faith gone, under these circumstances? Why hadn’t your faith shown up? I mean, they’d seen Him come through. They’d seen Him deliver. They’d seen Him on both land and sea, exercising His divine power. So, where was their faith? And again, that’s a good lesson for us to think about. To meditate upon. And to reflect on today.

Again, as we reflect on the Lord’s faithfulness to us in the past in whatever trials and difficulties. To become so forgetful when more trials and difficulties come our way today. But isn’t the same Jesus, who was in this boat, with these Disciples, the same Jesus who, if you put your faith in Him, has saved you? Isn’t this the same Jesus, who has carried you through all sorts of trials and difficulties in your life? Isn’t this the same Lord who has promised that He will never leave you nor forsake you? So, the question comes back to us, as believers sitting here today. The same question that was asked of the disciples in the first century “Where is your faith?”

Then, another question is posed here in this concluding verse. A question the Disciples were really asking each other. Note how Luke records it, he says, “They were fearful and marveled.” Now, they weren’t fearful of the storm at this point. Remember, all is calm now. No. They’re fearful and marveling because of who Jesus is. It’s yet again, starting to sink in for them, that sitting next to them on this little fishing boat is the very God of all things. The creator of the universe. Like Simon Peter, back in Luke 5:8, where he says, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” This group of Disciples in this scene, they are gripped with the fear and wonderment and amazement, as they realize yet again, that they’re in the presence of God Himself. And this left them very afraid. Not in the sense of holy reverence and awe but in this context, their fear is really one of hysteria. They are panicked. That’s the fear they were experiencing. Both as the storm was raging and now that the sea was calm. This was a fear of panic. This is not a noble fear they are experiencing, or a godly fear. This is a frightful fear. The fear they are experiencing led them to ask this question. Luke tells us that they were, “saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?’” Now, though that question, in the case of these Disciples was rooted in fear it’s still quite the profound question. A question that boils down to the very issue of Jesus’ identity.

Think of what the Disciples had already seen in Jesus, up to this point. What they’d heard Him say, up to this point. What they’d seen Him do. He had declared the ability to forgive sins and who can forgive sins, but God alone. He had declared Himself, in Luke 6, to be the Lord of the Sabbath and now, He has calmed the seas. Who is capable of doing such things? Now, Luke, brilliant writer that he is, teases us. Teases Theophilus. He leaves the question unanswered. He leaves Theophilus to ponder that question, by just leaving it with an open line, with a question mark.

Now, although Luke leaves it open, the other Biblical authors don’t. The other Biblical authors sate unequivocally, that Jesus is God. That He is the Creator. That He is the Sustainer of all things. John 1:3, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Hebrews 1:3, He, meaning Jesus “upholds all things by the word of His power.” Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

We’ll conclude here by noting that He was holding, Jesus was. Even in the moment He was sleeping, every molecule which made up the Sea of Galilee, on this particular day. He was holding together, in every gust of wind, which blew over the sea on this particular day. And for us today, what a comforting thought, to remember that He holds every aspect of our being in His hands. Every circumstance we come across. Every trial we experience. Every detail in our lives, He upholds it all.