Well, good afternoon, brothers and sisters.
I’ll ask you to open your Bibles, please, to Matthew 8. Matthew 8.
As we come to the study of God’s Word, I remind you of a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable—a principle we can never take for granted, a principle we cannot live without. And that is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
Our Bible is like the Lord Jesus: it is human and divine. There is a human side, and for the human side, we need academics. We need to understand words and paragraphs. But on the divine side, only God can reveal God, and He delights to unveil His Son to our hearts.
Before we pray together, I’d like to bring together two verses that have recently touched my heart. One is from Matthew 12:34:
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
The New American Standard says, “The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” I like to tie that together with Hebrews 1:2:
God, in these last days, has spoken unto us in His Son.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. God has spoken. Doesn’t He have an abundant heart? Isn’t His heart full, to speak in these last days unto us? Jesus—everything He has to say to us is in His darling, in His dear Son, our Lord Jesus.
I’m going to read a prayer from the Psalm, and then we’ll add to that prayer. It is from Psalm 43:3-4:
Oh, send out Your light and Your truth;
Let them lead me.
Let them bring me unto Your holy hill,
And to Your dwelling places.
Then will I go unto the altar of God,
Unto God my exceeding joy;
And upon the harp will I praise You, O God, my God.
Let’s ask the Lord to send out His light and truth.
Our Father, we do thank You so much this afternoon that You have not left us on our own to understand this Book, but You have put a resident Bible teacher in our heart: the dear Holy Spirit, the life of God.
And we know that He searches the depths, the secrets of God, and reveals them unto us. We ask, Lord, that You would unveil the Lord Jesus to our hearts. Take the veil away from our hearts, our eyes, and enable us to behold Him in a living way.
We thank You, Lord, that You delight to do this. It is Your pleasure to show us Your Son. And so we do not need to wrestle You for this, but we come as little children, and we simply ask in the all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Last night our brother Lance closed with the words, “Followers of the Lamb.” I suppose, if I were to title what I have on my heart, those would be the words I would use.
What does it mean to be followers of the Lamb? What does it mean to follow the Lord?
The burden that I have to share with you is really found in three places in the Bible. We will focus on one of those three places. It is in Matthew, it is in Mark, and it is in Luke. But I am going to draw on Mark and Luke only to fill in the details. We are going to try to stay with the Matthew text.
Let us follow along together as I read from Matthew 8, beginning at verse 18.
Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea.
Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”
But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”
And when He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.
And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.
And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!”
And He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?”
Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.
The men were amazed and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
In the Matthew account, there are these three stories put together. If you glance again at the references, verses 18-20 are the story of the scribe who volunteered to follow the Lord Jesus.
Then, in verses 21-22, we have the story of the unnamed disciple. He did not volunteer; he was called to follow Jesus. Then, in Matthew 8:23-27, we have the story of our Lord Jesus asleep in the boat on the stormy sea.
Now Luke adds one other story, and I want to insert it. Luke adds a story and inserts it between stories two and three of Matthew. Luke 9:61-62:
Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home.”
But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
So, for our purposes this afternoon, there are these four little stories:
Since these stories are unusual in several ways, in order to get to the heart of God, I want to make a couple of simple observations right at the start. Then we will get into the text. I think this will prepare us to look in a proper way.
My first observation is this: these stories are gathered together logically, not chronologically. They are in a logical connection, a logical order.
It looks like Matthew and Luke are describing the same event, the same people who come to Jesus and talk about following the Lord. But we are not sure exactly when that happened.
In Matthew’s account, he places it as if it took place during the Galilean portion of the ministry of our Lord Jesus. But Luke does not do that. Luke takes the same events, the same people, and puts them closer to the end, closer to the cross. He puts it right after the rejection of the Samaritans.
I call attention to that to point out that the context will not help you. You cannot read the context and say, “Now, what was happening at this time?” We do not know if all these three people came at the same time, or hours apart, or days apart, or weeks apart. We do not know.
But we know this: the Holy Spirit guided Matthew to bring them together to tell us something, and the Holy Spirit guided Luke to bring those stories together to tell us something. I am suggesting to you that there is a topical arrangement of these wonderful stories. They illustrate a spiritual reality.
The second observation is this: we come to a little bit of a problem if we try to interpret what our Lord Jesus said in a literal way. It cannot be one hundred percent literal.
Now, we do not want to spiritualize everything. We do not want to just come to the Bible and allegorize everything. But when it is absolutely impossible to take it literally, then we know there must be something more, something deeper, something hidden, and something that God must reveal unto our hearts.
For example, in Matthew 8:20, Jesus said:
The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.
That is not one hundred percent true—not literally. He probably had more pillows than anyone who ever lived. He could have gone to Bethany. He had friends there. He often went to the house of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. They would have given Him a pillow. He would have had a place to lay His head.
I have an idea anyone in whose life He had done any work or ministry would have opened their home. I cannot imagine if He went to Jairus and said, “You know, I am really tired. I would like a place to lay My head,” that Jairus would say, “Oh, not in my house”—not after what the Lord had done for that family. He would have had a pillow.
I know the centurion at one time said, “I am not worthy, Lord, for You to come under my roof.” But if he heard that Jesus did not have a place to rest, I have an idea he would say, “Come under my roof.”
Some look at Mark 2:1. Remember the story when they took the tiles off the roof? The Bible says, “When He was in the house.” Some think He had a home in Capernaum—His own home. I do not know about that; that is all its own. But I know He had many places to lay His head. You cannot take it one hundred percent literally.
Matthew was wealthy. He would have opened his home. Zacchaeus—salvation had come to his home. Certainly the Savior could come to his home. Jesus had many, many places to lay His head. He must have meant something else.
The same thing is true in the second story in Matthew 8:22:
Let the dead bury the dead.
That cannot be literal. You would have a corpse burying a corpse. At least part of that has to be symbolic. There is something more here in this marvelous story beyond those words.
So it is in Luke’s account of the third story in Luke 9:62. Once you put your hand to the plow, you cannot let go; you cannot look back. That cannot be literal. It has to be a plow, not a literal plow. When would you eat if you could not let go of the plow once you put your hand to it? When would you sleep and do other things?
Jesus’ comments to these people who expressed a desire to follow Him are little parables. They are invitations to look a little deeper, to get beyond the words.
A third observation, before we look at the text, has to do with seeking the heart of God. On the surface, when you just read it in a cursory way, it seems awfully harsh. The words of our Lord Jesus seem awfully strong.
Some interpret His words to be exactly that. They say, “Well now, He is talking about the cross. He is talking about discipleship. That is no easy road. He has to use strong language.”
“You are serious about wanting to follow Him? Prepare to be homeless. You really want to follow Him? Prepare to offend your family. Are you serious about following Him? Then go all the way and no turning back.”
Some have that way of approaching and interpreting these wonderful words, as if our Lord Jesus was saying, “You want to be My disciple? I only choose the best. I only choose the loyal.” It is like He is gathering a Delta Force. He just wants those who are going to be true and loyal and sacrificial, and so on.
Now, do not get me wrong. I am not suggesting that discipleship does not include total commitment to the Lord. I am not suggesting that there is not this unreserved dedication to Him, solemn resolve to the Lord, and unrelenting perseverance.
But is that what this text is about? Is that what He is saying here? “If you follow Me, you must determine never to have a home. If you follow Me, you are not allowed to go to any unsaved funeral. You cannot say goodbye to your loved ones if you follow Me.”
I am suggesting that there is probably a more excellent way to interpret these precious words of our Lord Jesus. Sometimes, approaching it like that sounds an awful lot like salvation by works, and may God deliver us from that.
Let us trust the Lord together to follow what I believe God has put together—His theme. Glance again, if you would, at Matthew 8. Let me underscore the recurring emphasis.
Here, I think you will see why God used these men to group these stories together with no context. It is these stories because He wants to tell us what it means to follow the Lamb. He wants us to understand what it means to be a heart follower of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 8:19:
A scribe came and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
Mark the words: “I will follow.” Matthew 8:22:
Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.”
Luke 9:61:
I will follow You, Lord.
Then Matthew 8:23, the clincher of the whole section:
And when He got into the boat, the disciples followed Him.
That is so important to understanding God’s heart in this passage.
I remember some years ago, I wanted to share the importance and the glory of following the Lord Jesus, and a brother called me on it. He said, “Brother, I hope you will not be offended, but you talk about following the Lord. We have gone beyond that here. That is a baby truth.”
“We do not talk about following the Lord. We do not talk about holding God’s hand. We do not talk about sitting on God’s lap. We used to talk that way. We do not talk that way anymore because that puts the Lord out here, and we have discovered He is not out here—He is in here.”
“So, if you do not mind, talk to us about the indwelling Lord, the life of God, life hidden with Christ in God. That is where we are. Tell us about union. Tell us about fellowship with God. But do not talk about following Him as if He is out here and we are behind Him, following Him.”
The brother ended with these words: “Thank God He is my life, not my guide.”
What about that, brothers and sisters in the Lord? May I encourage you not to hold one precious truth of God at the expense of another precious truth of God? We are a needy people, and we need every word picture that God can give us.
One does not contradict the other. Bless the Lord: He lives inside of you. Bless the Lord: as a weaned child, you can go on His lap as well. Praise God He is in your heart, and praise God the Almighty holds your hand as well.
We are called to be followers of the Lord. The truth in Jesus is beautiful. Sometimes we make a caricature of the truth, and it loses its wonderful beauty. Do not let one truth of God rob you from another truth of God.
I am talking about following the Lord as Caleb did. Remember that verse, Numbers 14:24? He had a different spirit in him. He had wholly followed the Lord.
Sometime after that brother called me on that, I was going through the wonderful Book of Revelation. I came to Revelation 14 and saw those redeemed saints, the one hundred forty-four thousand. After they had seen the Lord in His glory and so on, they were called followers of the Lamb.
Even in heaven, that is not a baby truth. Even in heaven, we will be followers of the Lamb.
That is the burden of my burden, if that makes sense. I want to share this whole idea of following the Lord, but I really want to get to Matthew 8:23-27, story four. That is what is on my heart. That is what is burning in my spirit to share with you.
But I want to say a few words about the first three stories to prepare our hearts for the glorious revelation of our Lord Jesus in that final story. I think that will give us the background.
Glance again, if you would, at Matthew 8:18-20, the story of the scribe who volunteered to follow the Lord Jesus wherever He went.
I think one thing that would be good to apply is Christian charity when you come to a passage like this. We cannot be more biblical than the Bible is biblical. We cannot go beyond Scripture.
We do not know about this man’s heart. I am amazed, as I go through the commentaries, at those who explain that this man was not sincere. They say he was impulsive when he came to the Lord. He had been watching the miracles Jesus did, got caught up in the emotion of it, and in a subjective impulse said, “I will follow You wherever You go.”
Well now, maybe that is true. But how do you know that?
Some of these Bible saints have enough problems. We do not have to read in between the lines and try to read their hearts. No, I think to understand the record, we must assume that he came with a heart that really wanted to follow the Lord.
He said, “I will follow You, Lord, wherever You go.” We do not know where he was in his life, what his motives were, or what initiated that comment. We only know he made it, and our Lord Jesus responded in these words:
The foxes have holes,
And the birds of the air have nests;
But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.
Sometimes our Lord Jesus gave some very mysterious answers. Sometimes it is comical when you go through the record and see how He responded. People would ask Him questions, and He would give these answers: “Are You going to Jerusalem?” “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” Of course. Why did I not think of that?
But underneath His marvelous statements was the heart, the revelation, of the Lord. I believe Jesus was saying, as He contrasted Himself with the beasts of the field and the fowl of the air, “If you are serious, if that is your heart cry, if you are really saying, ‘Lord, I will follow You wherever You go,’ then you must give up all dreams, every idea, every hope of finding a pillow here.”
Because there is no pillow here. This is not your home. You were created for more than this, redeemed for more than this.
Animals, birds, beasts—this is their home. This is all they have. This is their destiny. A bird gathers a few twigs, builds a nest, lays some eggs, hatches the eggs, flies away, and dies. This is their world.
This world is not my home; I am just passing through. The Lord is saying here, I think, that His followers—created in the image of God and redeemed for the purpose of God in Christ Jesus—are pilgrims and strangers here.
He is not saying, “If you follow Me, you will be homeless.” I think, as I look out in these seats and see you beautiful children of God, and some of you in whom the Lord has worked wonderful things in your life, “Anybody here not have an address? Do you all live someplace?”
He was not saying, “If you follow Me, you cannot live anyplace. There is no home.” He was not saying that. What He was saying is this: there is nothing here in this world to satisfy.
It is the very point our brother Lance made on Monday evening when he called attention to the verse in Ecclesiastes: God has planted eternity in their hearts. There is nothing here to answer, nothing here to satisfy, to fulfill.
Now, because the Old Testament gives the truth in seed form and the Gospels give the truth in bud form, it is only the Epistles and what comes later that give the truth in fully developed form. This truth is not developed yet.
Jesus does not turn the coin over. He does not fill us in on the other side. He leaves that for the day when the Holy Spirit will come and lead His people into all the truth. He only says, “There is no pillow here. There is no satisfaction here. There is no fulfillment here.”
But He does not unfold the reality: “Where, then, is my fulfillment? Where is my satisfaction and my dwelling place?” We find, as it unfolds, that the Lord Jesus is saying, “No pillow here. If you are going to follow Me, I must be your portion.”
I must be the springs, the fountain, the well, the Alpha, the Omega, the everything. It is not a baby truth to follow our Lord Jesus Christ.
He tells this first one who volunteers to follow Him, “I will follow You.” Jesus says, “Understand this: there is nothing here. There is no pillow here, no place to call home, no place to lay your head—not literally. I must be your portion.”
Matthew 8:21-22 is the same kind of thing. When this disciple said, “Lord, permit me first to go bury my father,” we cannot read his motives either.
So many love this idea because he said, “Me first.” They say he was proud: “Let me first.” Oh, there is a good problem—me first. Maybe not.
We do not know if his father was already dead and he wanted to go to the funeral; if his father was sick and dying; or if his father was just old and he wanted to spend his last days with him. We do not know the record.
We cannot say this man was delaying his following of the Lord Jesus because he considered his honorable responsibility more important than the Lord’s work. We do not have enough facts.
What do we have? The amazing words of our Lord Jesus. That is what we have.
Follow Me, and let the dead bury the dead.
Or, as Luke 9:60 words it:
Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.
What grand principle of following the Lord is illustrated in these words? I do not think the Lord Jesus was saying, “I do not like it that you want to respect your family.” He was not saying that.
He was not removing responsibility from this man. I do not think He was saying, “Let unsaved people take care of funerals. That is not for Christians to do,” or, “Do not go to a funeral. Do not go to an unsaved funeral.” I do not think He was saying that.
I do not even think He was saying, “My ministry is more important than your family.” I do not believe that was on His heart at that time.
I think He was touching on a reality of following Him. In bud form, it is not developed, but I think He was saying: “Not only must you understand, if you follow Me, that there is nothing in this world—there is no pillow here, I must be your portion—but also, if you follow Me, really follow Me, increasingly you will be detached from that which is passing away.”
Everything is passing away. You will be identified with life and not identified with that. No matter how precious and how important those things are, if they are just coming to pass and finding their grave in this world, increasingly you will be detached from that.
Living people do living things, and they are associated with life. Dead people do dead things. You do not have to have the full explanation. You have set your heart to know the Lord.
Already, you have probably left dead friends, dead associations, dead habits, and dead churches. We know what it means not to associate with death. The world is passing away, but there are things unshakable, things spiritual, and things eternal.
I think Jesus even caught him on the word: “I will follow You. Let me first bury my father.” He was not even using living words. Bury? Christians do not bury Christians; they plant them.
They are sown. They are sown perishable, sown in dishonor, sown in weakness, sown a natural body; but they are raised in incorruption. He is saying, “We must associate with life.”
The spiritually dead are all wrapped up in things that are passing away. They bury the dead. We sow the dead—life.
Once again, the full picture is not given. There is no pillow here—yet to be revealed, “I will be your portion.” We cannot associate with that—yet to be revealed, “I will be your life.” Association with Christ Himself.
Luke 9:61-62 tells of this man who wanted to say goodbye to his family. Was Jesus refusing to let him say goodbye?
Does the desire to say goodbye suggest some inordinate desire, maybe to go back, get caught, stay, and not really follow the Lord—sort of like Lot’s wife, when she looked back with a desire to go back? Is that what He had in mind?
Many have related this passage to 1 Kings 19, when Elijah called Elisha. Elisha said, “Let me please go back and kiss my family.” Is that what this is all about?
I think what He is saying is deeper than, “Do not say goodbye to your loved ones. Do not say goodbye to your boss. Do not say goodbye to your friend.”
I think He is saying that when you put your hand to the plow—that is the work, that is the ministry, that is the will, that is the purpose of God—when you put your hand to the plow, you have said goodbye.
He is not saying, “Go and say goodbye.” He is telling you how to say goodbye. You say goodbye by laying hold of Him and His purposes.
Let me illustrate it for you. I will not call the name of this group because I think there are some good things connected with the group. You may know the group, and I do not want to sour you on it.
But I was invited—not as a speaker, but as a listener—to a particular conference in my early Christian life. The issue of the conference was being filled, and the theme was, “You cannot be full until you are empty.”
So it was about how to empty yourself in order that God might fill you. That was the theme of the whole conference. They used ping-pong balls.
I hate ping-pong balls. I will tell you why I hate them. For seven years, ping-pong balls were a great burden to me because of their illustration.
They gave me an illustration of this big pit. There was no way you could take a ping-pong ball and throw it out; it was too deep. There was a little bit of water. The idea was, “We want to fill this with the fullness of God, but God will not begin to rain on you until you get rid of the ping-pong balls.”
Then they went on: the ping-pong balls are sin. You have pride, unbelief, envy, jealousy, hate, and so on.
The man actually had a rifle behind the pulpit. He took the rifle and said, “I will tell you how you have to do it. You aim at one ping-pong ball at a time. Since you cannot get it out, you have got to sink it. So you shoot pride till it is gone. Boom!”
I hate ping-pong balls. For seven years, I was shooting those ping-pong balls. They would go down here and come up here, and they would change forms.
I found a new way. Somebody hand me the hose.
You fill that thing and watch where the ping-pong balls go. You do not have to be empty to be full. You have to be full in order to be empty. It is not the same thing; it is a different direction.
God is calling us unto Him. It is by putting our hand to the plow, by identifying with Him and His purpose and His will, that we say goodbye.
When you really lay hold of the purpose of God, you do not have to tell your boss goodbye; he knows it. You do not have to tell your friends goodbye; they know it. You do not have to tell your family goodbye; they know it.
I believe our Lord Jesus was picturing these wonderful, wonderful principles of what it means to follow Him. Once again, He does not develop the truth. He leaves that for the New Testament writers, for the Epistles, to do that.
All we see is not separation from, but separation unto. We see a plow. He has yet to reveal that the plow is God’s heart, God’s plan, God’s will, God’s purpose, missions.
You want to follow the Lord? There is no pillow here. He must be your portion.
You want to follow the Lord? Identification with life. Everything that is passing away is passing away. We are not connected with that anymore.
You want to follow the Lord? Separation unto Him.
That is our introduction. Now I will ask you to turn to Matthew 8:23-27.
I think it would be extremely helpful if we read this portion again.
When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.
And behold, there arose a great storm in the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.
And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!”
He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?”
Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.
The men were amazed and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
That portion of the story is also found in Mark 4:36-41 and Luke 8:22-25.
I love this because our Lord Jesus now turns the conversation into a living object lesson.
“I will follow You, Lord.” “Really? No pillow here.” “I will follow You, Lord.” “Really? You have got to identify with life.” “I will follow You, Lord.” “Really? You have got to lay hold of the purpose of God.”
Then the Bible says that He turned around and started to walk, and His disciples followed Him. Verse 23: His disciples followed Him.
I can see Him walking down the hill and they follow Him. I can see Him climbing up the gangplank to the boat and they follow Him up. I can see Him getting on the boat and they follow Him on the boat.
Then He went down and went to sleep—and they did not follow.
The theme of following the Lord continues with this marvelous story. This is the clincher. He brings it to a climax in this marvelous story.
“You serious about following Me? Let us test it.” And He leads them right into the storm.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, here we are. This is the evidence. This is the proof. This is the manifestation. It is easy to say, “I am a follower of the Lamb.” Let us test it.
As you know, some Christians think the opposite is true. The more spiritual you are, the more light God gives you; the further you go on in the Lord, the more you are exempt from storms.
Some think if you follow the Lord, it is pretty smooth sailing all the way to heaven. They do not know about the car wash, do they?
The true follower of the Lord Jesus is instructed to expect storms—and to expect storms with Jesus in the boat.
All three of these accounts climax in the same truth: they climax in the truth of faith. I will show you that as we come to the end. I call attention to that because following the Lord Jesus must climax with trusting Him, trusting in the Lord, depending upon Him.
Glance again at Matthew 8. Let me describe the scene, and then we will press on to the heart of the Lord. Verse 24:
There arose a great storm.
The Holy Spirit would not use the word “great” in a meaningless way. You say, “What is a great storm?” A great storm is a great storm, and it was a great storm.
Mark 4:37 calls it a fierce gale of wind. The waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up with water. That is a great storm.
Luke 8:23 describes it as a fierce gale of wind descending on the sea. That word “descending” is very graphic because the Sea of Galilee was a natural target for sudden storms.
The way the mountains were around it, the wind would get caught like a funnel in those mountains, and the temperature changed from the top of the mountain to the sea. One commentator said that a glassy sea would become a boiling cauldron in five minutes.
The Expositor’s Greek New Testament, in describing this, calls attention to the Greek word seismos. That is what we measure earthquakes with. That was the storm. There was an earthquake in the sea. It was a great storm.
You have to remember that these men were not novices. They were seamen. They were used to storms, and these men were terrified of this storm. They would not be afraid of a shadow of danger. It was a real danger.
Luke 8:23 says they began to be swamped and were in danger. Luke calls it surging waves. I do not know if you have ever been in surging waves.
I have been one time in surging waves. I spent my time leaning over the edge of my boat in surging waves, and my wife enjoyed every minute of the surging waves. But it was a great storm.
If you follow the responses of the disciples, you can see how desperate they were in their hearts over this storm.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke each give a record of the account in slightly different words. The accounts are so different that some think Matthew was saying they said this, then somebody else said this, and somebody else said this.
Another commentator says, “No, no, no. They all came expressing the same emotion, but they came one time and left, and He did not wake up. So they went back a second time and said this, and He still did not wake up. Then they went back a third time.”
I will leave that up to you to decide. I incline to think they went three times. There is only one way it could be different than what I am saying: I could be wrong.
Matthew 8:25:
Save us, Lord; we are perishing!
Can you picture it? You need Dana up here for this, or Lance, to describe this idea of them waking Him up. “All right, all right.” It is not like it is time for dinner. We are dying. We are perishing.
They come: “Save us, Lord, we are perishing!” I can just hear those brothers describing this as He rolls over and just goes back to sleep.
Mark 4:38: they come again:
Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?
Then they go off and do whatever they do when their boat is sinking, and then they come back again. Luke 8:24: you can see the frustration:
Master, Master, we are perishing!
I think that is how it went. It was an emergency for them. Do not try to explain it away. Do not try to make them less than human. If you take away their panic, you are going to miss the point of the Lord.
I actually read one account that said these disciples were not afraid at all. They were trying to inform the Lord Jesus about a point of theology.
When they said in Mark 4:38, “Lord, save us, we are perishing,” they did not mean, “We, the disciples.” They meant, “We—you too. We are perishing. Do You not know, Lord, that Your plan is in danger? Do You not know that Your mission is at stake here? You know what happens if You go down: You cannot save the world.”
I tell you, they were not trying to rescue the Lord Jesus and His program. They were trying to be rescued by the Lord Jesus.
These boys were shaken in their boots. They were afraid. So much so, one of the brothers said something about if we ever dare to hold our God—His love, His wisdom—in suspicion. They had come that far.
Suspecting: “Do You not care? Do You not see what is going on?” You have got to read this in the light of their anxiety, their fear, their panic, and the emergency of the situation.
Now, brothers and sisters, I am going to set the story aside for just a moment in order to give you a little parenthesis that I think will shed light on the text.
Since this final story—following Jesus into the boat, into the storm—climaxes with the truth of faith, and since our brother said some of these Bible words can only be described and cannot be defined, certainly faith is one of those words.
Let me give you a description, a generally accepted description, of the indispensable characteristics of true faith. I will give you three of them. This is as viewed by most Christians.
Number one: coming to the end of self. By the way, do not write it down unless you have an eraser on your pencil.
Coming to the end of self. Healthy faith comes to the end of human resources. “I am at my wits’ end. I come to the place where I say, ‘I have tried everything. I cannot. I quit. There is nothing else I can do. I am exhausted. I have used every bit of wisdom, every bit of power, all the resources, all my ingenuity. I cannot do anything.’”
The end of self.
Number two: the second indispensable characteristic of healthy faith is not only coming to the end of self, but coming to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only solution to the problem.
Dumping everything on Jesus. Coming to Him, committing the situation into His hands, rolling the burden on the Lord. Let go. Let God.
The third characteristic of healthy faith: after you have come to the end of yourselves, after you have given it all to Jesus, get out of the way and watch Him work.
Do not try to help Him. Do not try to assist Him. Get out of the way and let God do His thing.
All right, let us go back to Matthew 8. Let me ask this question: did the disciples come to the end of themselves in this story?
I believe they did. I think they exhausted every one of their bailing and sailing skills. I think they had come to the end. They came crying as helpless men who had nothing else they could do except drown, except perish.
They were at the end of themselves. The storm was great; they were not great. They came to the end of themselves.
Did the disciples in this story give it all to Jesus? Was He the only possible solution? Was He the only Savior? Indeed, they came to Him: “Lord, save us; we are perishing. There is no one else. We cannot turn to anyone else.”
Did the disciples get out of the way and watch Him do what only God can do? Indeed, they did. Matthew 8:24 says there was a great storm. Matthew 8:26 says there was a great calm.
The calm was every bit as great as the storm was great.
The disciples would never forget this scene until their dying day. When the Lord Jesus arose from His slumber, came up on the deck, and stood there with His arms outstretched, the wind and waves blowing in His face, He said—in the Greek—“Be muzzled.” He muzzled the storm.
When it was over, the disciples stood on the deck with their eyes opened wide in amazement and their mouths opened wide in amazement. They said:
What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the seas obey Him?
They came to the end of themselves. They dumped it on the Lord. They got out of the way and watched Him do what only God can do.
Here is my second question. Since they had come to the end of themselves, given it all to Jesus, and gotten out of the way so that God could do what only God can do, why did Jesus not give them an attaboy?
Why did He not say, “Well done, good and faithful servants”? Why did He not say, “You blessed My heart. You have the indispensable characteristics of healthy faith. You have come to the end of yourselves. You have given it to Me. You have gotten out of the way so I can do My thing. You have satisfied My heart”?
Instead of saying that, He rebuked them.
Matthew 8:26:
Why are you timid, you men of little faith?
Little faith? I thought that was healthy faith. I thought that was the right way: come to the end of yourself, give it to Jesus, get out of the way. And He said, “Oh, you men of little faith.”
Mark 4:40 is a little stronger:
Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?
No faith. I thought that was pretty good. You come to the end of yourself, dump it on the Lord, get out of the way, watch Him do a miracle—and His great heart says, “No faith.”
Luke words it this way in Luke 8:25:
Where is your faith?
Little faith. No faith. Misplaced faith.
Oh, friends, dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, it looked, it appeared, it seemed so spiritual, so right, so good. But in the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ, who wanted to instruct them in what it really means to follow the Lord, it was not good. It was not satisfying. It hurt Him.
So much of our Christian life seems to be the repetition of this process. God brings a storm into our life. We come to the end of ourselves. We give it to Jesus. We get out of the way. We are all set for a little while until another storm comes.
Then we come to the end of ourselves, give it to Jesus, get out of the way, and God rescues us again. We think that is the Christian life. That is not the Christian life. May God deliver us from that.
There is something more. There is something better. There is something higher.
It is not that He strikes those things out. It is not that He is saying, “Do not come to the end of yourself, do not give it to the Lord, and do not get out of the way.” He is not saying, “Get rid of that.”
What He is saying is that those realities are swallowed up in Christ Jesus. That is why He gave the first three stories first.
If God has written in your heart that there is no pillow here, there is no satisfaction here, no fulfillment here, no portion here, and you have turned to Him and He has become your portion—if that has happened in your life—you have come to the end of yourself.
If God has delivered you from those things that are passing away, opened your eyes to the spiritual world, and you embrace Christ and He has become your life, you have dumped it on the Lord.
If God, even this week in this conference, has raised you above this experience and begun to show you His will, His purpose, and His pleasure, and you have laid your hand on that plow, you have gotten out of the way so that He can do His thing.
Laying hold of the Lord Jesus as your portion, as your life, as your purpose—that is healthy faith. Laying hold of Him. We have been hearing that all week. It is Him. It is the Person. It is God’s darling. It is His Son. It is Jesus.
Unfortunately, that experience—coming to the end of self, dumping it on Jesus, getting out of the way—we can do that and miss the Lord.
You can do that and not know that He is your portion. You can do that and not know that He is your life. You can do that without having laid hold of the great purpose of God, the everlasting purpose in Christ Jesus.
May God deliver us from a Christianity that is just this. You have already, by embracing Christ, come to the end of self. It is a one-time act, but it is an everlasting attitude.
Embracing Christ as your life, embracing His purpose for your life.
When the disciples followed the Lord Jesus into the boat, into the storm, it is so graphic: they followed a sleeping Savior.
That is just a wonderful illustration of a resting Savior, a Savior who was at peace about everything; a Savior who was in control, without anxiety, without fear, without fretting, without any panic or care, completely at rest.
You say, “What should the disciples have done?” Followed Him. Not literal sleeping—I am not saying that—but followed Him into rest.
You say, “What is faith?” After He has become your portion, after He has become your life, after God has enabled you to lay hold of the everlasting purpose of God and you put your hand to the plow, faith is letting Jesus sleep.
Letting Jesus sleep.
It is not the heart followers of Jesus who continually wake Him up. It is not the heart followers of Jesus who continually hold His love in suspicion and need to see an act of God. “We need signs. We need miracles. We need wonders.”
It is because we have not learned to be heart followers of the Lamb that we wake Him up.
Those who have come to see Him, who have embraced Christ, know that it only looks like He is unconscious. It looks like He is not doing anything. It looks like He is in a state where He sees nothing, feels nothing, knows nothing, is concerned about nothing, aware of nothing, and does not care about us or the storm.
But those who have embraced the Lord know that He is in control, even when He is not visibly active. He is at rest, and He calls us to be at rest as well.
Wasn’t it beautiful the way brother Lance brought us last night into the Lord’s presence? He opened up that revelation where the Lamb of God went to God and took the scroll out of His hand.
When He took the scroll out of His hand, He was holding, as our Redeemer-Kinsman, the will of God. Lance then said, “How safe is the will of God in the hand of the Lamb?”
Do you know why Jesus can sleep? Because everything is under control. He has the will of God in His hand. No desperation.
He has called us to follow Him into His rest. Now, not a rest He gives—I am not talking about that. I am talking about the rest He has. He is at rest about everything.
How concerned is Jesus over the storm that is in your life right now? Do you think He is worried about that? Do you think He is concerned about that?
Is it possible this afternoon for me and for you to be as completely free from care as God is completely free from care over everything that is going on in your life?
Exactly so, brother and sister in Christ. If you have laid hold of the Lord Jesus as your portion, if Christ has dawned upon you as your life, if God has enabled you to see the high purpose of God in Christ Jesus and you have laid hold of His purpose and His will, you can let Him sleep.
Everything is all right in my Father’s house. Everything is all right.
Jesus said:
Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
He did not say, “Be of good cheer; you shall overcome the world.” It is His victory. He has overcome the world.
Paul was continually, always led about in His triumph—not a triumph God gave Paul or any believer.
God is not going to give you His Son and something else called rest. He is only going to give you His Son. If you have His Son, you have rest.
I love that Jesus was sleeping in the boat. Now let me wrap this up on a hopeful note.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you belong to Him. You do not need to wake Him up.
But if you do—and you will—He is so patient, so merciful, and so good.
I love Vainer’s words this morning. He said, “It is at the moment of failure that we become captured by His love.” He will never quit on you. He will never quit on me.
In that moment when the storm comes and you run to the Lord Jesus, I will confess to you: I do not know anybody that wakes the Lord Jesus more than I do.
You can read these glorious things and know the reality that it is Him, and you can let Him sleep. But then the storm comes. You get panicky, run to the Lord Jesus, and just wake Him up.
What will happen if you wake Him up? Well, He will give you a gentle rebuke, and then He will probably do some wonderful thing for you, out of which testimonies are made.
He may rise from His sleep, work some mighty miracle before your eyes, change a great storm to a great calm. But be careful. Do not say, “Whoa, look what God did because I had great faith.”
No. Look what God did because you were weak and you failed. That is when He rises up and does His great thing.
He may rise up and move, heal, deliver, provide, restore, revive, quicken, transform, and do these great things. Then at night someone will say, “Any testimony?” “Let me tell you. Oh, you will not believe what God did for me. I woke Him up, and He got up and did this great miracle.”
Yes, He did, and He will continue to do it because He loves you. But He does not want you to live on that level. There is higher ground.
That is not the Christian life: continually coming to the end, giving Him the problem, getting out of the way, looking at a miracle, and then waiting for the next one.
He wants to lift us above all that, where He is our portion, He is our life, and His purpose is our plow.
Then we can follow the Lamb into rest. We can let Him sleep. We can move with the purposes of God. May the Lord work these things in our hearts.
Let us pray together.
Our Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word—not what we think it might mean, but all You inspired it to mean. We ask You now to work that in our lives.
Lift us up, we pray, to where the Lord Jesus is in the heavenly places. Thank You for Your patience, Your mercy, and Your grace.
Thank You that You do not get angry when we wake You, when we come in the family storm, when we come in the church storm, when we come in the financial storm, when we come in the physical storm.
You do not get angry, but You rise and do marvelous things. We worship You, Lord. You are so good, so merciful.
But teach us what it means to be true followers of the Lamb, that we might rest where You rest. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.