Sermon for Sunday, July 27th, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Old Testament Reading:
[Jon 1:1-6 ESV] 1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. 4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
New Testament Reading:
[2Co 11:24-30 ESV] 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? 30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
Gospel Reading:
[Luk 8:22-25 ESV] 22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Sermon Text:
[Mat 8:23-27 ESV] 23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
Introduction
We come now to the familiar account of Jesus miraculously rebuking a great storm to produce a great calm.
Last week we saw how difficult it is to follow Christ, though he commands us to follow him. This was a brief break in a section on Christ’s miracles. And it is to those miracle that we now return.
But while we return to a miracle, there is also the continuation of that theme of the difficulty of following Jesus as the disciples follow Jesus into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee and come upon a great storm.
I. A Great Storm (v. 23-25)
A. The Sea of Galilee and its storms.
In our day they often warn travelers in Israel – especially in Jerusalem – of an all-too-common phenomenon. It is called “Jerusalem Syndrome.” Seeing the sights of the Bible and of the life of Jesus, people – with no previous history of mental illness – suddenly become psychotic, often even believing THEMSELVES to be the Messiah, Jesus Christ himself. The intensity of the religious experience send them over the edge.
While I avoided “Jerusalem Syndrome” in visiting the Holy Land back in 2016, I do remember an overwhelmed feeling in a few places, especially at the Sea of Galilee where I made sure to remove my shoes and step into the shallow beach waters which I remember covering over somewhat–slimy pebbles. “So THIS is the SEA OF GALILEE!”
Maybe I should caution against “Sea of Galilee Syndrome” as well. All of the Earth is the Lord’s. Maybe we should have awe all the time!
Well, the sea of Galilee is special and plays an important role in the area and in the New Testament accounts.
And it is a dangerous place. While it was calm when I was there, the Sea of Galilee is known for intense storms. The sea sits at an elevation of NEGATIVE 686 feet. That is 686 BELOW sea level. There are various mountains that surround the lake. Cool mountain air then comes crashing down into warm air that is over the lake, creating powerful storms with wind and waves.
The Greek of our passage uses the term “seismos” for the storm, which literally means “a shaking” and is, of course, the term from which we get “seismic” and “seismograph.” A very powerful storm.
Since our text treats this not as a miracle, we can MAYBE say that this storm occurs by natural factors. Yet, we know that God controls all things, and Jesus brings his disciples out into the storm intentionally, so that this episode recorded in the Gospels would occur for their benefit and ours.
So there is a very dangerous sea.
B. The boats of Galilee
And what do the disciples have to “combat” this dangerous sea. What is keeping them alive? What is keeping them afloat?
They have a boat.
That’s all.
No life jackets, no weather warnings, no coast guard cutters to rescue them.
They have a little, dinky, dinghy.
A small boat between them and death.
An archaeological discovery found one of these 1st century Sea of Galilee boats, perhaps much like that ones that disciple went on. It was sunk in the sea and covered with mud, preserving it until it was found in 1986. This was 27ft long by 7 ½ feet wide. Something like three or four of these pews together.
Of course, this was the type (and size) of boat that the fisherman were used to using, but they probably didn’t usually head so far out into the water for fear of a storm coming.
C. The disciples follow Jesus onto the boat.
So the disciples DO show significant faith in Jesus following him out into the sea, perhaps as much as 4 miles away from any land once you’re in the center of the lake.
So they trusted Jesus in getting into the boat. They followed him, the text says.
But would it be a whole-hearted faith in Christ?
And a whole-hearted following of Jesus?
That is the test that comes to them.
D. A Storm comes and Jesus is asleep!
“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that he boat was being swamped with waves, but he was asleep.”
Whenever the Bible says “Behold,” WATCH OUT! Something big is happening. Or something dangerous.
At the fall of man into sin:
Gen 3:22 – “Behold the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.”
At the covenant with Noah:
Gen 9:9 – “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you.”
And with Abraham:
Gen 17:4 – “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.”
Malachi 4:5 – “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord arrives.”
Matthew 1:23 – “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).
Those are some of the big ones.
Now we have “Behold, there arose a great storm on the sea.”
And, boy is there ever power in nature, especially in water. What have you seen? Experienced? I know from some canoeing situations that rivers are incredible powerful and dangerous. I’ve see a flood that, as a teenager with my family, left me stuck in Ohio (oh the dread) for 3 days. Maybe you’ve seen more.
And I enjoy watching the storms come in … when I’m safe on my porch!
And there’s one about storms that they remind us of. Storms remind you “you’re not in control.”
I love watching the storms come in. I love sitting on the porch feeling the wind and the power of it all. But one thing I’ve learned — that weathermen have long known — is that I cannot control the storm. Some times, many times, I’m disappointed when the storms just misses us. Other times, when I want it to be dry (to mow the lawn, for example) the rains come. But storms don’t care about what I want. They are powerful and out of our control.
So the disciples are faced with an apparently desperate situation beyond their control; the combination of the sea and the storm. And the water is coming up over their boat.
So what do they do?
What would you do?
E. The disciples call out of Jesus.
The disciples call out to Jesus.
Possibly even quoting from Psalm 3:7 – “Arise, O LORD! Save me, oh my God!”
First they wake him.
Jesus was sleeping through the storm.
Notable this is only time in the Bible that we read of Christ sleeping.
And, as a commentator says “this was a sleep, not of [false] security, like Jonah’s in a storm, but of holy serenity, and dependence upon his Father: he slept to show that he was really and truly man, and subject to the sinless infirmities of our nature: his work made him weary and sleepy, and he had no guilt, no fear within, to disturb his repose. Those that can lay their heads upon the pillow of a clear conscience, may sleep quietly and sweetly in a storm. He slept at this time, to try the faith of his disciples, whether they could trust him when he seemed to slight them. He slept not so much with a desire to be refreshed, as with a design to be awaked.
APPLICATION: How to sleep well at night.
I want to pause then for a minute to talk about good sleep. We struggle with insomnia in our modern times. And there are a lot of reasons. I don’t want to simplify the problem (and solution) so much that I look naive, but I want to note two scriptural points about “how to sleep well.”
The first, I often speak about, WORK HARD on 6 days, REST on the 7th. If you work hard, you’ll have no problem resting. People often can’t come to Sunday church because of some other obligation. That’s wrong. You need to put those obligations on some other day of the week, not the Lord’s Day. That is HIS day. You are to rest. And o will you enjoy that rest when you’ve worked hard 6 days.
Similarly, work hard all day, and you’ll sleep at night!
Then, the second point, which we see from our text, is that if you have a clear conscience you will sleep well at night. We are not sinless like Jesus, but we can sleep having forgiving others and asked forgiveness from them. “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” (Eph. 4:26).
Sleep well at night. Work hard. Do right. Its not about taking the right drugs, but about following the commands of the Lord.
Well, Jesus is sleeping, soundly through the storm. But, as the commentator noted, there is another reason for this. It is to test his disciples and to teach them truth.
And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”
Save us Lord, we are perishing. Isn’t that what we are so often to say! Drowning in our sins, “Save us, Lord!; we are perishing.”
But Jesus says to them “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?
In Luke’s Gospel he says “Where is your faith?”
Mark’s may be the hardest: “Have you still NO FAITH?”
Only then — only after he says this to his disciples — does Jesus calm the storm.
II. A Great Calm (v. 26-27)
So we have the second part of our sermon. We have “a great storm.” Now, we have “a great calm.”
And I hope now to answer the question, “Why did Jesus chastise his disciples?”
What is going on in this passage?
What is Jesus’s message?
The disciples had a FEAR that surpassed their faith. Jesus is calling them to a FAITH that surpasses their fear. [REPEAT]
Critically — and all should pay attention here — what is the first thing Jesus does when he wakes up? What is the first thing?
He doesn’t first rebuke the storm, he first rebukes the disciples! [REPEAT]
He is saying that FAITH is MORE IMPORTANT THAN LIFE!
Jesus rebukes their little faith before he rebukes the waves. Oh, that must have been difficult to bear.
A. Fear over faith.
The disciples had fear over faith.
Fear to an extent is natural, but it is not to push out faith.
He had just told them that there would be difficulties!
Here is the first storm. Literally.
Many more storms will come.
They believed that Jesus could save them. They cried out “Lord, save us.” They had SOME faith.
But yet, Jesus rebuked the disciples, “why are ye fearful, o ye of little faith?”
Matthew Henry says of Jesus, “He does not chide them for disturbing him with their prayer, but for disturbing themselves with their fears.” REPEAT
B. Faith over Fear
Jesus calls them instead to have faith over faith.
And then, he shows, by his power, that those who have faith in Him have no reason to be afraid of anything.
FDR famously said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
I’d change that some. The only thing we have to fear is GOD HIMSELF. Fear the Lord, have faith in Him, and don’t fear anything else.
It is true that we should have FAITH OVER FEAR.
But we struggle with having faith.
And ultimately, ANY command in scripture, any command for us to do something is in that category of “law.” And we can’t fulfill it; we can’t accomplish it fully and consistently.
We need Gospel.
And fortunately we have Gospel in our text.
Consider this:
Even though the disciples are lacking in faith, Jesus saves them.
C. Even though they are lacking in faith, Jesus saves them.
The disciples on the boat across the Sea of Galilee had “little faith” (Matthew), missing faith (Luke), or “no faith” (Mark), and yet Jesus saved them.
He saves them from the storm, NOT because of their faith.
He saves them DESPITE their lack of perfect faith!
Jesus tries the disciples, and they fail. But he saves them anyways.
And, there is more Gospel, because we find that Jesus is not afraid of death.
Jesus trusts his heavenly father even in the face of death, not only on the boat, but even in the face of death on the cross.
What the disciples could not do, Jesus does. He is powerful to save. He saves his disciples, and he saves us, ALL who believe, even though our faith is not perfect.
D. Who is this?
The main message of this text is to have Faith over fear, for the Lord is in control and gives you faith, and to know that salvation is by God’s grace that we may have faith in him as a gift.
But there is also another point we should consider in the final verse.
v. 27 “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
What sort of man is this?
“He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” (Mark 7:37)
What sort of man is this?
“He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. (Mark 1:27)
What sort of man is this?
“the crippled made healthy, the lame walking, the blind seeing.” (Matthew 15:31)
What sort of man is this?
This is the divine-human God-man Jesus Christ; the second person of the Trinity who has assumed flesh.
And that is what our text is telling us as we see the parallels, the fulfillment of Old Testament passages.
Jesus calmed the storm?
Who can do that?
Only God can calm the seas.
Only God, who is God of the land and the seas, can control all things.
He is … [Psa 65:6-7 ESV] 6 the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; 7 who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples,
Or consider Psalm 107:28-30
[Psa 107:28-30 ESV] 28 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 29 He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. 30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.
That sounds just like our passage IN MATTHEW!
Indeed Jesus is God.
He “rules the raging of the seas; when its waves rise, he stills them.” (Psalm 89:9)
He is God who says in the book of Job:
[Job 38:8-11 ESV] 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, 9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
Conclusion
This Jesus is God Himself.
Ultimately, I hope we can all say this: because Jesus is God who is in control of all things, I’d rather be in a storm with Jesus, than a calm sea without him.
The disciples were never in a safer position than being on that boat with Jesus who controls the wind and the waves.
And we have that safe perfect safety in the arms of our savior Jesus Christ, in whom we have faith. So we ought to pray for a faith so great that it overcomes all our fears, as we take comfort in Christ.
Let us pray.