Sunday, August 12, 2018

amazement

In Matthew 8:

23 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping. 25 And the disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us, we are going to die!” 26 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 there was [at once] a great andwonderful calm [a perfect peacefulness]. 27 The men wondered in amazement, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
My next sermon must be about this text. Matthew is saying "Jesus is the Messiah, the king". He is the king of heaven and he reigns over the creation. He is awesome.
Some preachers will put emphasis on the "little faith" saying that everything can be accomplished by faith, even the supernatural controlling of the nature. Is it really the emphasis of the Matthew book? The gospel is proclaiming Jesus as king, as the savior, the lamb of God; but the gospel is not proclaiming that we may achieve everything by faith in achieving everything. Satan said something similar in the Edem: "rebel and you will become like god".
So why Jesus said:
“Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?”
He said that if the disciples had more faith, they would not be afraid.
But faith in what?
It must be faith in Jesus, in whom He is. I mean that, because it combines with the gospel.
It must not be faith in achieving my will by faith... because it doesn't combine with the gospel and with the Holy Bible.
So the question could be read as:

Why don't you trust in me? I am in the boat and there is nothing to be afraid of.
I am convinced that these kinds of miracles that Jesus performed were pointers, signals to Jesus as the Messiah. I am not seeing these kinds of miracles that defy the law of physics today. (I am almost quoting R C Sproul.)













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