WHEN STORMS STRIKE
Part 1
“There’s a Message in Your Storm!”
4/21/24
Matt. 8:23 “Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 25 Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” 26 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
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ILLUS: Some of you may remember the old emergency broadcast system that would suddenly interrupt your TV show.
A picture would appear on the screen and an announcer would say:
“This is a test. This in only a test. Important information will follow the tone.”
And then you would have that high frequency noise for about 30 seconds, followed by an “important announcement.”
—Jesus could easily have said to the disciples just before this storm hit:
“This is a test. This is only a test. Important information will follow this storm!”
And we’re going to see that it did!
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Now, the first thing we see in this story is:
I. Storms happen
They don’t send you a text message telling you they’re coming; they typically strike suddenly out of the blue!
Now, we note that the disciples in the story are only doing what Jesus said:
Mark 4:35 “Get into the boat and let’s go to the other side…”
So they’re following the Master’s directive!
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As their journey first begins, all is well:
They’re excited!
What new adventure is He taking us on now?
What miracles are we about to see?
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But about halfway across the sea things took a drastic turn.
Out of nowhere, a fierce storm struck.
It says, “…suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves.”—Matt. 8:24
The Greek word for tempest means, “A shattering, shocking, shaking event.
This was a fierce, stormy wind that stirred up waves that shook the ship, and the men that were in it.
So this storm was particularly frightening to the disciples!
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Now, let’s remember the context of when this happened.
One chapter earlier they had heard the SOM.
—At the end of His famous Sermon, Jesus talked about two houses that experience the very same storm.
The storm in his illustration represents the trials of life, and the house represents what we’ve built our life ON and what we’ve built it WITH.
It was an illustration showing how storms will come to us all, and will test the strength of our Christian life, symbolized by a house.
He described it as, “rain descending, floods arising, and fierce winds blowing and beating on that house…” (Matt. 7:25)
The storm tests every part of the house!
RAIN strikes the roof,
FLOODS test the foundation,
and WINDS push against the structure.
How well this house was built is tested in every way!
—And now in a storm at sea the disciple’s faith is likewise tested.
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And by their reaction we see that:
II. Storms reveal where our weaknesses are
Their faith took a nosedive.
Their trust in Jesus evaporated.
They cried out, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?”
ILLUS: A doctor doesn’t know the true condition of your heart until he gives you a stress test.
The stress test will reveal it’s weaknesses.
Likewise, you never know the true condition of your faith in good times.
It is the storms of life that reveal if there’s a leak in the roof of our faith!
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The next thing we see is that:
III. Jesus is silent in their storm
It says, “But He was asleep…”
In the storms of our own life the Lord sometimes seems to be asleep.
Of course, He’s not—He’s aware of everything going on!
But it SEEMS like He’s silent in our storm—like He’s a million miles away!
David the Psalmist experienced this very thing: “O LORD, you know all about this. Do not stay silent. Do not abandon me now, O Lord” (35:22)
We also see that for the great majority of the book of Job, God is totally silent—from the first chapter all the way to chapter 38!
For 38 out of 42 chapters God says nothing to Job.
Most everyone who has walked with God for any length of time has experienced the silence of God…
Perhaps in a long dry stretch, or in a great trial like Job’s.
The disciples were in the middle of a life-threatening storm and Jesus was silent!
Now, I believe one reason God does this is for US to see how well we’ve learned what He’s taught us.
He already knows, but we don’t.
ILLUS: Thinking about this reminded me how in a classroom during a test the teacher is silent.
Leading up to the test the teacher is regularly teaching and interacting with the students.
But at test time the teacher is silent—so he or she can find out how much we’ve learned!
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Remember, just one chapter before the disciples experienced this vicious storm, Jesus had told them that if they built their lives around His teaching, they would survive the storms of life!
Now…it’s test time and the teacher is silent!
So God’s silence is often a test to see how well we will walk in the Word He’s taught us!
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Then the next thing we see is:
IV. There’s a message in the storm
Remember that emergency broadcast we talked about, and that it says, “Important information will follow?”
Here it comes for the disciples!
It says, “Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm” (8:26).
Test time was over.
Now the Teacher addresses the roof leak the storm has revealed in their faith!
“Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”
Mark adds Him saying, “How is it that you have no faith?”
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The storm revealed that, after all He had taught them, they still didn’t trust Him!
Here’s some Good News—When a storm reveals a leaky roof in your faith, the Lord doesn’t give up on the house, He just fixes the weak spot.
This is what Jesus is doing here with His shaken disciples!
—Don’t you know I’ve got everything under control?
—Don’t you realize I’m watching over you?
—Don’t you yet understand Who it is you’re following?
The Bible says the disciples asked one another, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”—vs. 27
The answer to that question was “The important information” following their storm!
It dawned on them that they were following God Himself wrapped in a human body!
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One last thing we see here is:
IV. Your storm prepares you for your next level!
As soon as the shaken twelve reached the other side, they were confronted with the worst case of demon possession recorded in the Bible.
They had come to the land of the Gadarenes:
There met Jesus a desperate, tormented man:
—Who lived among the tombs
—Could not be constrained
—Who roamed the wilderness at night crying out and cutting himself with stones
As the demonized man approached Jesus, the lesson the disciples had just learned makes so much sense!
Their storm at sea had prepared them for what they were about to encounter—a confrontation with hell itself!
Notice! They didn’t run, cry out, or cower in fear at the sight of this horribly demon-possessed man.
They stood there rock solid in their faith while Jesus delivered him!
How did they do that?
Easy—They had just seen Jesus command the howling wind and waves and they obeyed Him!
I close with this:
What your storm is putting IN YOU is arming you for what is coming TOWARD YOU.
And there’s a message in your storm—I encourage you to ask God what He’s wanting you to learn.
—Storms reveal our weaknesses—Every storm has a message—Storms prepare us for the next level!