Jump Start # 495 

Luke 8:25 “And He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ And they were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him?’”

  The three years that the disciples traveled with Jesus were unlike any thing they had ever witnessed before. Nearly every day there was something astonishing. I don’t know how they slept. Jesus said amazing things. No one taught like He did. Demons were cast out, the blind had their sight restored, the crippled walked. How do you witness these things and not talk and talk about them for hours on length. Jesus multiplied food and fed thousands or more than one occasion. Peter walked on water. The dead were raised. Event after event crammed in those three short years. Jesus had a schedule and knew what He was doing. The disciples were along for the ride, it was a faith changing and faith building ride.

  Our passage today is yet another page from those three years. Jesus and the disciples are crossing the sea. They did that often. They are caught in a storm. That had happened before. Somehow Jesus sleeps. The storm is very serious. They do all they can but that’s not enough. They fear that they are not going to make it. What a terrible feeling that is, when a person feels that all hope is gone. I’d expect Matthew was the first to lose it. He was a tax collector. He had a desk job. He didn’t know the sea like Peter and John did. But when Peter and John get scared and lose hope, panic struck them all. Jesus is awakened. He’s asked, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” Then our verse. Jesus calms the storm but that didn’t calm the hearts of these disciples. They add another “wow” page to their travels with Jesus.

  How is it that He can speak to a storm and the storm obeys Him? No one has done that before. Jesus on other occasions spoke to the dead and they heard Him and came to life. Jesus is adding layer after layer of proof that He is the God of Heaven and Earth. If indeed He has all authority, then all things obey Him. Diseases obey Him. Demons obey Him. The sprit word obeys Him. The weather obeys Him. There is no force, no power, no person that is an equal to Jesus. The laws that govern us, did not govern Him. The forces that confine us, did not confine Him. He could walk on water. He could return from the dead. He has all authority in Heaven and Earth.

  It’s one thing to say that, it’s something else to show it and prove it. He had to get these disciples to see that. There is nothing Jesus could not have done. At the cross, all He had to say was one word and thousands of angels would appear. He didn’t do that, but He reminded them that He could. I expect if He needed to pull the moon right over to the earth so the apostles could touch it, He could have. He was unlimited. He had all authority. That’s on the edge of hard to believe. It was for the disciples.

  There is only one area that Jesus left alone—that was human faith. He never forced it. He could have. He never made someone believe. The winds, the waves, the demons, the diseases were all obedient to Him by His command. He wants us to choose Him. He wants us to come to Him because we want to. He demands obedience, but He doesn’t force it.

  Jesus wants you to experience what these disciples did, a journey of faith. The Scriptures provide for us the proof that we need. Jesus is God. He has all authority. There is nothing that Jesus could not do. When we get that, we believe. When we get that we obey. When we get that we are ready for Jesus to be our Lord.

  I am amazed at the apostles. They were just going through life as you and I do, raising their families, going to work when Jesus came into their lives. They followed when He told them to. They saw things nearly every day that no one else ever had. It was one or two isolated things. These miracles happened nearly every day, and in nearly every place they went to. Witnessing these things changed their lives. They went everywhere telling people about this Jesus.

  And the greatest miracle of all, was saving us from our sins! That is something we could not do. That is something that He continues to do. That is something I witnessed last evening as a young lady gave her life to Jesus and was baptized. The miracle worker. The one who could do what no one else could. The Lord. Our God. The one who has all authority—everywhere!

  Reading the gospels ought to make you say over and over, “Incredible.” “How did He do that?” Another miracle. Another example of all authority. Another “wow” page in the journal and journey with Jesus.

  Roger