Sunday 2nd February 2025. Reformation Sunday.

Pastor Pete Myers explains Matthew 8:23-27.

Why give up everything to follow Jesus?

Why give up everything to follow Jesus?

Why give up everything to follow Jesus?

There are so many costs to following Jesus. Last week, we talked about how God calls us to give up certain behaviours or lifestyles that we may be very attached to.

Every member of Manchester Lutheran Church has faced the cost of being a Christian.

And you don’t need to look at the Christian faith for more than 2 mins to realise that following Jesus means suffering with him in this life.

Why on earth would someone do this?

Matthew chapters 8 and 9 illustrate the themes of the sermon on the mount in chapters 5-7, and so is full of miracles and events about following Jesus. And in the passage immediately before, Jesus has warned people about the cost of following him, v. 20:

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

And Jesus then tells a disciple who wants to bury his father that he won’t even have a chance to pay this basic respect to his closest family. So, the immediate context of this passage issues this incredible challenge: following Jesus means giving up everything for him.

Why on earth would you do that?

What’s more, this passage describes the weird behaviour of Jesus sleeping during a life-threatening storm, and seeming not to care. But, the great ancient doctor of the church, John Chrysostom, in his sermon on this event explains that this weird detail also connects to the theme of following Jesus. He says:

Jesus took the disciples with Him, not for no reason, nor randomly, but in order to make them spectators of the miracle that was to take place. For like a most excellent trainer, He was teaching them two things: not to be scared by dangers, and to be humble. This is why he allows them to suffer the storm; so that they would be disciplined to experience suffering nobly.

Therefore He also sleeps… He sleeps, to allow them to experience fear, and so that they would perceive what was happening more clearly. Because we understand things differently when we experience them. So, He permits the storm, in order that by being saved from it they might better understand the benefits of following him.

And John goes on to explain that this is also why Jesus doesn’t do this miracle in front of the crowds: so that when he exposes the disciples’ lack of faith they would not be humiliated.

Which throws this question on us as we read Matthew’s account: Given that following Jesus involves suffering, why would we follow him?

Why give up everything to follow Jesus?

There are two parts to Matthew’s answer:

Fear sees only what it experiences

But Jesus’ Word reshapes reality

Fear sees only what it experiences

The first of those, Fear sees only what it experiences

Please look again at vv. 23-24:

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 swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.

Verse 23 connects us to Matthew’s main theme in chapters 8-9 of following Jesus:

his disciples followed him.

Nearly half the occurrences of that word in Matthew’s Gospel are in chapters 8 and 9.

And the reality of our lives, whether we are followers of Jesus or not, is that they are full of storms.

One problem many people have with the Gospel, is they falsely believe that the fact that everyone suffers proves that God doesn’t exist.

The Bible says the exact opposite: The bible tells us to expect suffering, that it is a universal experience, Job 5:7:

man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.

And this explicitly includes God’s people, Psalm 34:19:

The righteous person may have many troubles

In fact, Christians are called to suffer with Christ, Romans 8:17:

[We are] heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

And precisely because there are so many people around us saying the opposite to this, then I feel cannot stress this enough: Suffering is normal.

This is why in my conversations with you all, I try to be open about the difficulties struggles I have… to avoid presenting a false picture that the Christian life is one of constant victory; while at the same time not constantly moaning.

I’m sure I get that balance wrong all the time: but let’s all keep doing that with one another, let’s all of us talk honestly with one another, and help keep affirming realistic expectations: Suffering is normal.

And Jesus leads the disciples into this particular storm, and allows himself to fall asleep, because he wants to teach them something important about how we respond to suffering.

The disciples’ response demonstrates their lack of faith, because one major theme that Matthew is teaching about following Jesus is that the opposite of faith is fear.

And the disciples experience fear here because Fear sees only what it experiences

Faith is trust in what God says, not in what we see.

The disciples fear because their sense of security and wellbeing is rooted in their experience, not what God says to them.

Fear limits our understanding, lowers our horizons, and makes us blind to God’s promises, which are beyond our experience.

This is why Paul describes those immature in the Christian faith as being like:

tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

We will be thrown around by crazy and deceitful ideas, that feel to us persuasive simply because they connect with our experience:

  • If I just had more stuff I’d be happy.
  • The government are secretly poisoning our food.
  • You can be anything you want to be.
  • Technology and electricity is evil and out to get us.
  • If I’m true to my feelings, I’ll make the right choice.
  • Society is about to collapse because of some symbolic image in the book of Revelation.

This story challenges us: Fear or faith? Will we fear because our view of the world is rooted only in what we experience? Will we have faith in what God commands and promises to us in his Word?

But Jesus’ Word reshapes reality

So, Fear sees only what it experiencesBut Jesus’ Word reshapes reality

Please look again at vv. 25-26:

And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 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.

Jesus has absolute authority over all things. He is God in the flesh. With him, nothing is random, nothing is by accident. There is no chaos. There is no unpredictable. He controls all things.

And that is why the disciples fear, because of their lack of trust in Jesus and who He is.

And each one of us has difficult experiences in our lives… …storms, hardships, sufferings, disappointments. In the midst of those, God’s Word says to you: Jesus is Lord.

We often hear that sentence, and don’t think about the implications. But consider what it means in the negative:

  • Your situation is not Lord: Jesus is Lord.
  • That diagnosis is not Lord: Jesus is Lord.
  • The debt you owe is not Lord: Jesus is Lord.
  • Your failures are not Lord: Jesus is Lord.
  • That sin you keep remembering is not Lord: Jesus is Lord.
  • Those words that person said to you you remember at night are not Lord: Jesus is Lord.
  • Jesus is Lord: even the wind and the waves obey him.

And so think about what that means for your Bible. The power you hold in your hands, when you have God’s Word: If Jesus’ Word can calm storms, then it reorders the world.

This Word is how Christ exercises his power and re-writes reality.

Remember in our Bible study in Acts last week… The disciples faced persecution for speaking about Jesus. They carried on speaking about Jesus, and the Jewish authorities gave up trying to oppose it.

Jesus’ Word changes the circumstances, transforms the world.

Hebrews 11:1:

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Hebrews 1:3:

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

As Lutherans we emphasise God’s Word… …and for good reason: because everywhere in scripture we are told this is how God exercises his power.

And we have to keep emphasising this, because so many Christians talk as though God’s power lies in something else: prayer, Christian living, fellowship, music.

These things are wonderful, but the means of God’s Grace is his Word.

Because while Jesus is Lord over all things, we and our friends and our family can only understand His Lordship and trust him as His Word comes to us.

Please look again at v. 27:

And the men marvelled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

Right there in front of them, Jesus performed the most incredible miracle. Proving himself. Showing his power. Displaying his authority.

And yet still the disciples did not understand it.

Because a display of Christ’s power is not enough, without His Word we will never have faith.

This is maybe the biggest misunderstanding people have about faith: “If only I saw such and such a thing, I would believe.”

But, several times in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will say: “No! Seeing is not believing!”

Matthew 12:39:

An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Matthew 16:3:

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

God gives us plenty of signs—but without his Word we will never understand them. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says this:

“If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

Jesus’ Word has incredible power: through it God made the world; through it, Jesus upholds the universe; through it, Jesus reshapes reality.

And Jesus’ Word is necessary: There is no other way people can have faith. His Word is an absolute necessity for people to have faith.

So what will we do with Jesus’ Word this week? If you simply speak it: His Word will change people.

What does Paul command Timothy his appreciate in 2 Timothy 4:1:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word;

Amongst us as a church body, we have nothing other than this. And it is a blessed advantage that we are still a small and new church.

Because there are so few other things we can be tempted to trust in.

We are not large. We are not rich. We are not impressive. But! We have the Word of Christ.

Why give up everything to follow Jesus?

So… Why give up everything to follow Jesus?

Yes, following Jesus comes at a cost… …we suffer for him …we serve for him.

Fear sees only what it experiences

Let’s talk honestly with one another about our suffering, and yet not let our experiences define our beliefs. Don’t be tossed to and fro by false doctrines based on experience, but hold firmly to what God has said.

Because: Jesus’ Word reshapes reality

None of your struggles are Lord: Jesus is Lord. The God become man who loves you and controls all things. His Word has power, to create, to sustain, and to reshape. His Word alone has power to bring people to faith: And so, keep speaking this Word of Christ.

And trust him. This God-man who suffered for you… …who became weak for you… …who was humiliated for you… …who died for you… …even though the winds and waves obey him.