25-0316a Transcript

Preacher: Jim Lokenbauer

(2:07) Good morning everybody. (2:11) Today’s lesson and this evening’s lesson I titled this, The Storm Without and the Storm Within. (2:19) It will be a two-part lesson.

The Storm Without is this morning’s lesson and this evening will (2:25) be the Storm Within. The two scripture readings this morning are the keys to weather these storms. (2:34) Peter explains that we all can be in these particular storms at any time and that it (2:41) should be understood by Christians these storms will arise in our life.

But to be patient and to (2:50) be faithful and God will see you through those storms and Isaiah spells it out to Israel and we (2:59) are the spiritual Israel by the way. So what God had to tell the Israelites is still valid for us (3:06) today. Though the law has been replaced those lessons we can learn from and the lesson is (3:13) is to trust and the Hebrew word for trust is basically faith.

Have faith in God and he’ll be (3:25) your rock. So there’s a lake in Israel and it’s one of the most unique lakes in the whole world. (3:36) It’s about 64 square miles in size with a maximum depth of 157 feet and looking at it from space it (3:46) has sort of a pear shape and is 13 miles long from north to south and seven miles wide from east to (3:55) west.

So it’s a good sized lake. The lake lies 686 feet below sea level. The lake provides warmth to the area (4:10) during the winter months making the average temperature in the winter around 57 degrees.

(4:18) So the region around the lake is semi-tropical and it can provide dates citrus fruit and bananas (4:27) in case that ever comes up on Jeopardy you’ll you’ll know that. Of course I’m talking about (4:33) the Sea of Galilee and this lake in the Old Testament times was known as Shinra if I’m (4:40) saying that right then later Lake Gennesaret. In Jesus' day the lake was sometimes referred to as (4:47) the Lake Tiberias but it’s most commonly called the Sea of Galilee and that’s what we pretty much (4:55) know it as too.

There was a theologian in the 1800s he was born in 1806 and he lived a good long life (5:04) in 1894 and his name was William Thompson, Dr. William Thompson and he wrote a book on the (5:14) called The Land and the Book meaning the book being the Bible. It is a book that describes (5:20) the customs and the scenery of the Holy Land and while describing the nature of the Sea of Galilee (5:28) he wrote, small as the lake is and placid in general as a molten mirror I have repeatedly (5:37) seen it quiver and leap and boil like a cauldron when driven by fierce winds from the eastern (5:45) mountains. Dr. Thompson described the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde nature of this lake.

One moment it’s (5:54) calm and placid reflecting the sun’s brilliance on the flat mirrored surface and the next moment (6:02) its waters are as turbulent as a boiling cauldron. This is because the lake has a natural bowl (6:10) shape and the water is below sea level and it gets heated by the sun during the day and by (6:20) evening time the cool air coming off the eastern mountains actually creates a cyclonic wind over (6:29) the lake and that convection action of the cool air being drawn down by moist hot air (6:38) from the lake rising up to meet it can stir up the lake differently than most lakes or oceans. (6:48) Lake Erie when the winds blow usually the waves are traveling in sets that are straight moving (6:57) one direction or the other same with the ocean but in this lake having a cyclonic (7:05) whipping action of the wind coming down from the mountains eastern mountains the waves tend to do (7:12) this and so you’ve got an actual boiling effect.

It’s hard to navigate a boat when the lake is (7:21) boiling so it can be a treacherous lake and during Dr. Thompson’s day and as we know it by today (7:31) those eastern mountains on the side of the lake we know them as the Golan Heights and you hear (7:38) about the Golan Heights quite often in the news. Lots of trouble in the Golan Heights (7:48) and the Golan Heights in Dr. Thompson’s day was part of Syria. Here’s a little Holy Land history (8:01) during his day the Holy Land also known as Palestine at that time was part of the Ottoman (8:08) Empire and as you know the Ottomans conquered a huge section of Asia and Europe including the (8:17) Holy Land so when World War I began the Ottomans aligned with Germany and ended up losing to the (8:25) allied nations.

The British Prime Minister Arthur Balfour issued a proclamation in 1917 (8:35) that displaced Jews from around the world could return to Palestine and he gave them over 50% (8:44) of the Palestine land that they could live in and the Jews never lived in peace there because (8:51) the Arab people never accepted them and wouldn’t leave them alone. At the same time the Jews around (8:59) the world were also being persecuted so more and more of them ended up returning to Palestine. (9:08) Again war broke out in Europe World War II and the United States once again bailed out the Europeans (9:15) and prevented them from all speaking German.

The allied victors led by President Truman divided up (9:23) the conquered lands and re-established the nation of Israel in 1948 giving them a country of their (9:33) own. Unfortunately they didn’t restore Israel’s lands to the borders that God gave them long ago (9:41) in the Old Testament times and the Golan Heights was not part of their newly established land it (9:49) was Arab territory again. So in 1967 when the Arab world couldn’t hold themselves back anymore (9:59) they went to war against Israel surrounding them and they tried to exterminate the Jews.

(10:07) They fought back and defeated the Arabs in six days and this was known as the Six-Day War (10:15) and they retook control of the Golan Heights and occupied it as their own to this day. (10:21) The spoils of war. In Christ’s day this region was under Roman rule but before the Romans got there (10:31) the Greeks, Greece had conquered it by Alexander the Great and left its influence behind in the (10:38) form of a common language that they all could speak.

This region on the east side of the lake (10:45) was called the Decapolis and was under the jurisdiction of Philip the Tetrarch. (10:52) The Decapolis as its name implies in Greek means ten cities. These cities were established (10:59) and then fortified with transplanted Greek citizens by Alexander the Great and then later (11:07) on after his death by his generals who took over that region.

So the east side of the Sea of Galilee (11:14) like Samaria had a large percentage of Gentiles living there. And like in Samaria some of the (11:23) Jews intermarried with these Gentiles. So throughout the various Biblical times this area and all its (11:30) earliest times was associated with Babylon, Moab, Aram, which is Syria.

But most significantly (11:41) during the Mosaic age this land was portioned out as an inheritance to the tribe of Manasseh (11:48) and on the east side of the Jordan. It was the east side portion of their inheritance. So the (11:55) land is legally by God’s authority the property of Israel and they reclaimed it in 1967.

And with (12:04) that brief history of the Holy Land let’s look into the storm without. The first part of our (12:12) lesson is a short story about a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee as told by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (12:20) I’ve combined all three of these gospel writers' accounts of this event.

Matthew 8, 23 through 27, (12:30) Mark 4, 35 through 41, and Luke 8, 22 through 25. They each had a unique take on the same story. (12:41) So I just gleaned through it and made it one big story.

And here’s how it reads. (12:46) You can try to follow along but it’s not going to sound exactly like the one story you’re reading. (12:51) So this is from all three.

Now when Yeshua saw the crowd around him and remember Yeshua (13:00) is Jesus. This was taken from the Tree of Life version. (13:11) He gave orders to go to the other side of the sea and leaving the crowd they took the boat, (13:17) they took him with them to the boat just as he was.

And when he got into the boat his disciples (13:23) followed him and the other boats were with him. So they set out and as they sailed he fell asleep (13:30) in the stern on a cushion. And behold there arose a great storm of wind that came down on the lake (13:38) and the waves beat into the boat so that the boat was already filling with water on the sea.

So the (13:47) boat was being swamped by the waves. And they were in danger and they went and woke him saying, (13:56) save Lord we are perishing. Don’t you care? And when he said to them, why are you afraid (14:04) oh men of little faith? Then he arose rebuked the winds and the raging waves and the sea (14:12) and said, peace be still.

And there was a great calm and the men marveled saying, (14:19) what sort of man is this that even the winds and sea obey him? (14:27) So what do I mean by titling this the storm without, without what? That’s not what I mean. (14:34) The storm on the outside is what I mean. As we go through life we’re going to be (14:40) challenged or as put in my past lessons, tested, tried, or tempted by events that are usually out (14:50) of our control.

When these events happen to us, we have to figure out how to best navigate through (14:59) them while applying the knowledge and experience we’ve gained through putting God’s word to use (15:07) in our lives. Those events are how God measures our spiritual growth and faith. (15:17) They are slightly different from the storm within which is when we are mentally or spiritually (15:23) afflicted in our mind or soul.

And we’ll examine the storm within in tonight’s sermon. (15:29) So let’s look at Jesus calming this storm and we’ll go by chunk by chunk. (15:36) Now when Yeshua saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to go to the other side of the sea.

(15:43) So on this particular day, to give you context, the Lord’s life, (15:49) in the Lord’s life, he had a super busy day. The day started by him climbing to the side of (15:56) a mountain where he could address thousands of people. From chapters 5 through 7 of Matthew, (16:02) we have the Sermon on the Mount recorded for us.

So he gave that. So for a large part of the (16:09) morning, he was teaching the people his gospel. Later, when he finished, he came down off the (16:16) mountain and a large part of that crowd followed him.

And a man with leprosy asked Jesus to heal (16:22) him, and he did. And then Jesus healed the centurion servant from a bar, if you remember. (16:29) Then he went to Peter’s house and healed Peter’s mother-in-law, who had a bad fever and was in bed.

(16:36) And after receiving refreshment from her, he spent the remainder of the day healing the sick people (16:44) until evening. So Jesus was probably exhausted. And that is why he said, let’s go to the other (16:52) side of the lake.

Get away from the crowds and from awful labor. The guy needs a break, right? (17:00) So next it says, and leaving the crowd, they took with him to the boat just as he was. And when he (17:08) got into the boat, the disciples followed him, and the other boats were with him too.

(17:13) So they set out, and as they sailed, he fell asleep in the stern on a cushion. (17:21) So Jesus had to leave the crowd, and his newly acquired disciples escorted them to their boats. (17:29) You know, this is shortly after they became disciples, by the way.

And he entered first. (17:35) And this was an honor to Christ, because the captain of the boat almost always enters the (17:47) boat, and it was them acknowledging that he was their leader and captain. So what did Jesus do? (17:56) He headed straight to the back of the boat, the stern, and he laid on the cushion there (18:02) and went to sleep.

So Jesus, being exhausted and needing sleep, speaks to his humanity. (18:11) Yes, he was God in the flesh, but our bodies have special requirements that can’t be ignored. (18:17) We need food, we need water, clothing, sleep, and exercise, just to name a few.

(18:24) So Jesus understands the weakness of the flesh personally. He needed sleep. It demands proper (18:32) care, and the Lord went to sleep.

Our Lord knew this and felt its effects, and said to himself (18:40) and to his friends, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So the small fleet of boats were (18:46) leaving from Capernaum on the west coast of the Sea of Galilee and headed to the eastern coast, (18:53) to the Decapolis. And other boats came along with them.

And Peter was a fisherman along with Andrew, (19:02) and they had their own ride. And then the sons of Zebedee, James and John, and perhaps even (19:09) Zebedee and his crew, had boats and they were with him. And it could be also that even some of the (19:17) people from the crowd came by boat to see Jesus.

So there was a little fleet leaving Capernaum, (19:25) and as they were crossing the lake, the wind started kicking up. But Jesus was able to sleep (19:36) and not be bothered by it. He had total faith in his Father in Heaven, knowing that his time wasn’t (19:42) up.

He didn’t feel any danger. He knew that he was in safe hands, in God’s hands. Next the text says, (19:52) and behold there arose, emphasis mine on the word arose, a great storm of wind that came down on the (20:01) lake.

And the waves beat into the boat so that the boat was already filling with water on the sea, (20:08) so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. And they were in danger. Many of the disciples of (20:19) Jesus made their living on this very body of water.

So they were well-seasoned sailors and were used to (20:26) the jekyll-hyde nature of this lake. But the storm was different. It came down with a fury.

All of the (20:37) writers of this story use the word arose. There arose a wind that came down. And the Greek word (20:49) for arose is genomiae, which means to cause or to generate.

So the idea is that something, or perhaps (20:57) someone, might I suggest caused or generated this storm. Think of our adversary, the devil. (21:07) What is one of his monikers? Is it not the prince of the air? And what were some of his past methods (21:16) of destruction? Was it not with whirlwind that he destroyed Job’s children? Wouldn’t have been a (21:25) brilliant stroke on Satan’s part to kill the Son of God and his disciples in one mighty storm? (21:34) I’m just saying.

It’s something to consider. The three gospel writers acknowledged that they were (21:42) in danger because of the boats were being filled with water and were going down. (21:49) Almost picture Peter sounding the clagstone.

We’re going down, Lord, save us. The boats were filling. (22:01) So continuing on with the text, next it says, and they went and woke him saying, (22:07) save Lord, don’t you care that we are perishing? And Mark says that we are dying.

(22:19) Ouch. Don’t we say stupid things when we’re in a highly agitated state and upset? (22:27) Doesn’t our mouth just let whatever comes off the top of our brain slip right out? (22:34) I know mine does. So I’d have probably been one of those disciples.

We’re dying, Lord. Don’t you (22:42) care about us? So perhaps half of the men with Jesus were seasoned sailors on that lake who had (22:55) firsthand storm experience on the lake. They and their boats had survived whatever turbulent wind (23:03) and water came their way up to this point.

So storms, they could handle that. They most likely (23:15) tried everything they knew to keep the boats afloat, keep the nose into the waves. Don’t go (23:21) down in the trough, but remember the cyclonic action of the lake made the waves not regular (23:30) sets of waves where you can just keep your nose, the bow of the boat into the waves and just go up (23:36) and down them.

They were on a roller coaster, crazy cedar point ride with water just dumping in (23:45) from all sides. They were in danger. This is something they hadn’t experienced quite like this.

(23:54) And that’s why seasoned sailors were in a state of hysteria, panic. Lord, save us. Don’t you care (24:01) we’re dying? You can imagine the Lord being in a total slumber, having his guys around him in a (24:12) state of panic.

So these guys were terrified. Continuing on with the text, Mark 4 39 says, (24:26) he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was (24:36) a great call.

He said to them, why are you fearful? Oh, you men of little faith. Our Savior, when he (24:46) awoke, addressed the danger immediately. I want us to notice now the order and language used by Jesus (24:56) As soon as Jesus woke up, he realized the danger at hand and addressed it, first by rebuking the wind.

(25:05) And again, notice the language. Rebuked the wind. This means things.

Words mean things. The Greek (25:12) word for rebuke is epitomeo, if I’m saying that right. I’m not a Greek expert, but I know how to (25:19) a book.

So I looked that up. And it means to censure or admonish by implication, forbid, (25:29) charge, or rebuke. So Webster says, you know, the main idea of this word, rebuke, is censure.

(25:38) And we’ve heard that in the news recently, haven’t we? And it means the act of blaming or finding (25:47) fault and condemning as wrong, applicable to the moral conduct or to the works of men. (25:56) When applied to persons, it is nearly equivalent to blame, reprove, reprehension, and reprimand. (26:05) So an example of this word censure, if you remember the bad behavior of Texas Congressman (26:13) Al Green, when President Trump was addressing Congress, he was standing up, mocking him, (26:21) shouting things.

Congress censured his behavior. Al Green was censured. He was rebuked (26:32) because of his bad moral behavior.

Now, let’s think about it. It wouldn’t make any sense to censure (26:43) a non-living object, such as the wind, as it stirred up the Sea of Galilee. The wind is not (26:50) responsible for its behavior.

It is simply following the natural laws of physics. Cold being attracted (27:00) to heat, hot moisture, cold dry air mixing creates a convection action which makes great wind. (27:10) It was just obeying physics, the very laws that God laid down from the beginning.

(27:19) Natural laws. So why apply a rebuke of moral conduct to the wind? Let me suggest that our Lord (27:32) was rebuking what was driving the wind to be abnormally violent. He was rebuking Satan for his (27:45) bad behavior.

Our Lord, as the angel of the Lord while in heaven, mediating for man during Old (27:54) Testament times, censured Satan. Before Satan could even make an accusation against Joshua, (28:05) the high priest, the Lord silenced him, censured him. In Zechariah 3.2, it says, (28:12) The Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuked you, Satan.

Or how about the example of God’s archangel, (28:20) Michael, censuring Satan, rebuking him. In Jude 1.9, it says, But even the archangel (28:28) Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring (28:34) a slanderous accusation against him, but said, The Lord rebuked you. So I personally believe (28:44) that as Jesus rose to rebuke the wind, he was actually rebuking the one demonstrating bad (28:52) moral behavior by exacerbating the wind with evil intent on destroying those in the boats.

(29:03) Don’t forget, Satan, after he was rebuked by the Lord in his last temptation in the desert, (29:12) left Jesus, Luke says, until a more convenient time. And perhaps this was one such convenient (29:20) time. Oh boy, I’ve got them all on the lake.

Let’s stir it up. The water wasn’t the villain (29:36) in this story, but it did pose the greatest danger to them. So our Lord commanded by word (29:44) that the sea be at peace and be still.

You can say that to an inanimate thing that’s agitated. (29:54) There’s no moral implication behind that. It’s just, he just settled it down with a word.

(30:02) Very much like in the beginning with the word, he brought our order out of chaos. (30:09) Our Lord, the creator, showed both his mastery and authority over the nature he made and over the evil one, (30:20) which he made in the beginning good, but that one chose to become bad. (30:27) Notice also that under normal circumstances, it would take turbulent waters time to settle down.

(30:36) You know, after a storm and Lake Erie’s raging, after the storm’s over, that lake still takes time (30:44) because of the wave action to settle down and finally get calm. (30:52) By Jesus' word, the waters immediately were still placid (31:00) and peace. Only God can do that.

That defies normal physics. That’s authority over creation. (31:15) Next, he addressed his disciples' behavior and said to them, why are you fearful, (31:22) oh you men of little faith? Was Jesus just, what Jesus just said speaks volumes and we can learn (31:32) from it and apply it in our lives.

Jesus was equating being fearful with having little faith. (31:43) There are several emotions that weaken our faith, fearfulness, worry and anxiety. (31:51) And all of these are symptoms of a Christian’s weak faith.

Jesus warns us against all these (31:59) emotions. He said, take no thought several times throughout his lessons in the gospels. (32:05) Take no thought about what you wear, what you’re going to eat, take no thought about (32:11) this, that and the other thing.

And that idea of take no thought comes from the Greek word (32:18) merineo. We got an M and an N together there. It’s kind of hard to get our tongues to obey Greek (32:25) language.

Anyhow, what that word means is to be anxious about or divided of mind. (32:34) So in a way, this is a form of being a double-minded man, like what James talks about (32:41) in chapter one of his letter. While we are in an anxious state of mind, our thoughts are focused (32:51) on a problem, whether it’s real or imagined, and our attention is off of things more deserving (32:57) of our attention, such as the things of God.

Worry is being overly concerned about something (33:05) and tends to clutter our minds, making it hard to focus on important things. (33:12) While anxiety, on the other hand, is like worry on steroids. It’s more visceral, arising out of (33:21) an impulse or sudden emotion rather than from thoughtful rationality.

We tend to feel anxiety (33:28) throughout our bodies the same way that guilt, shame, or sin that hasn’t been resolved in our (33:36) life can affect us in a negative way, such as heart palpitations, headaches, aching bones, (33:44) stomach disorders. David in Psalm 32 and 51 explains what he physically went through (33:52) when sin was unresolved in his life until he repented. But the disciples showed an immature (34:01) faith, a weak faith.

They hadn’t yet come to believe that Jesus truly was the Son of God (34:10) in the flesh, evident by their last statement of this story, (34:14) what sort of man is this that even the winds and sea obey him? (34:23) That’s an admission. They didn’t believe that he was actually God in the flesh. (34:28) Hadn’t dawned on them yet until this made them think about it.

(34:34) When life is turbulent all around you and things are out of your control, (34:39) do you trust Jesus or are you fearful and react to things rather than understand that (34:55) God is in control and let him take care of things? We have to exercise patience, (35:01) patience, understanding, and wait upon God. And like Peter said in our first reading, (35:12) sometimes you gotta go through turbulent things. That’s how God tests our faith.

(35:25) These guys were tested. They failed, but it’s something to learn from, both for them and for us. (35:35) They overreacted when they should have responded.

Lord, wake up, we’re going down, (35:43) need a little help, rather than acting like they’re freaking out. We’re gonna die, (35:51) don’t you care about us? Could you imagine saying that to God? Don’t you care about us? (36:00) Wow. But of course, God gives us lots of opportunities to get it right.

(36:09) Let me just read again, Isaiah 26, just verses 3 and 4 this time. (36:16) Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord is the rock eternal. (36:23) He will keep you in perfect peace, him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

(36:30) Don’t give up. Keep the faith. No matter what you’re going through, keep the faith and know (36:39) that God has a plan for you.

Sometimes you gotta go through the storm. He’s there with you. He (36:49) cares for you.

We offer the invitation. If there’s any need, let it be known.