Life of Christ #6- Jesus Went After the One Everyone Forgot | The Compassion of Christ

They were on the Lake of Galilee, and one of these things rolled in. The Lord is asleep, and the boat is being swamped, which means there’s so much water in it that it’s sinking, and they can’t get the water out fast enough. They wake him up. I don’t know whether they woke him up so He could be awake when He drowned, or because they had had some sense He might be able to do something about it, or because it just seemed to be the logical thing to do at the moment. But they said, “Lord, do You not care that we perish?” I’m going to pass over the miracle. It’s obvious that He’s master of wind and rain and sea and storm. This story clearly shows that He has power over the elements. I want to focus on His rebuke. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

If you had faith, why are you fearful? You of little faith. If you had faith, you could have done exactly the same thing. Now, brothers and sisters, is that true? I believe 99% of us would read that and preach it that way. I may be wrong, but I’d like to tilt the scale a little. The lack of faith is over the word fear. It is not over stilling the winds and the sea. But was He telling them they should be able to do it? Audience: No.

Well, I think the typical Pentecostal sitting out there would say yes. So, we’re going to talk about this. We’re going to talk about it in the light, not in some pulpit on Sunday morning backed up by some wild story. If they should have been able to do it, then we have to assume that one day they graduated and did do it, and I recognize that the apostles performed miracles, but I have no record of them ever stilling the waters. Well, I know you know about someone who did. So, I’m going to tell the story myself.

There was a ship going to the New Hebrides, which, if I’m not mistaken, is right above Scotland, between Scotland and the North Pole, and the ship was in great trouble, and there was a Christian lady there, and she went out on the deck, and she called out to the winds and the seas, and instantly it was calm. I’m not even questioning that happened; I wouldn’t question that for a moment. My question is the impression that we leave that she could do that anytime she wanted to, and that if she were out there again today, she’d do it again. If that woman had that much faith to do that, I ought to be able to hear about her on the radio and television right now because she should be able to maintain that faith to do all sorts of things.

I hear wonderful and marvelous stories about people raised from the dead and this and that, but I ask, “Where is the maintenance of these things? They are more like bolts of lightning that seem sometimes to strike in a man’s life, and he does perform a miracle, but he can’t pull them off at will like Jesus Christ can. I would ask you to bring me that human being and show him to me. He has never existed in human history, and not even in the first century.

There are moments, there are seasons when we seem to be able to grasp the unseen realm and have power over it, but walking around and constantly handling the elements is not a consistent gift the Lord has given any of us. Even the Lord Jesus seems to have only done this once, and yet He said, “Oh, ye of little faith.” I want to point out that it’s “Oh, ye of little faith,” and your lack of faith is the fear.  Lack of faith that he could do it? I’m not sure; it’s lack of faith in that you’re fearful, that’s it, period. You are fearful.

Would those men, in their old age, caught in that same storm without Jesus Christ, and all 12 of them had gotten up there and rebuked the wind, and nothing happened, have been fearful? I think I can give you a resounding no; I don’t think they would have been, and if the ship had gone down and they had sunk and drowned all 12 of them on the Sea of Galilee, we’d have a big monument out there today commemorating the place where all 12 apostles drowned. I believe those men would have died without fear because of something within their veins. Brothers, I’m not certain about this, but this Scripture says nothing more than, “Oh, we lack faith, brothers, to move mountains.” Find some other Scripture than this one.

When He finished, He said, “Where is your faith? How is it you have no faith?” What was He talking about? I do not know, but He doesn’t say either. They seem not to have understood, and I’m not sure they did when they recorded this. One thing was certain: they were dumbfounded in the presence of this Man. They were astonished by this Creature in front of them, and they were beginning to catch a glimpse of what they had hold of here in the way of a human being. And this mysterious, forgive me for using a term many years ahead of time, but this mysterious Christian life that they had just launched out into.

Well, I’m going to say no more of the incident there except to say that, when you read it, keep it confined to where it is. It is simply a question of why you don’t have faith, and there’s a strong possibility He is addressing the element of terror here, as He’s asking why you don’t go and rebuke that thing.

Mike just said, “We have to look at this and remember who it was who told them to get into that boat.” And it was Jesus Christ who told them to get into the boat. So if the Lord tells you to get into the boat, there’s no room for fear. Thank you, brother; I appreciate that.

It’s very possible we have a third reason: to give them the opportunity to have more faith in Him. Alright, we now have three. One of them: He took care of His rest. The second one was that He gave these brothers a lesson in faith. And possibly the third one would be the one we are coming to now. Or all of the above. Four possibilities.

Alright, I’m going to project a little imagination here, all based on one word: pity. The Lord is teaching the parables on one side of the Sea of Galilee, and by the way, if this is north and this is south, and the Lord is here on this side of the Sea of Galilee. He’s crossing over straight this way, eastward to the area of the Decapolis or at least to Gerasene or the area of the Gerasenes.  He moved this way across the lake by boat.