Jesus Calms the Storm
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
In October of 1991, a storm stronger than any in recorded history hit the coast off of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
This storm created an almost apocalyptic situation in the Atlantic Ocean, where boats encountered waves of 100 feet...
The equivalent of a ten story building...
And winds of 120 miles an hour.
While this storm may not have been a threat to land or to the homes along the shore, it was however deadly to those men who were caught in the shipping and fishing lanes.
Many of the families of the small fishing towns surrounding Gloucester suffered the loss of friends or family members in what is now remembered as “The Perfect Storm.”
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Most of us will never face a situation like the one just described.
However, there will be times in the life when we all will come upon different type of storms...
The storms of life.
How will we handle those storms?
What is the attitude we as Christians should have in the midst of these storms?
Who must we turn to in these challenging times that will define us?
Let’s turn to the Word of God for the answer to those questions.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 8 and focus on verses 22 through 25.
Our message this morning is titled, “Jesus Calms the Storm”
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This message today will focus on the event when Jesus and His disciples came into contact with a major storm while crossing a lake...
Additionally, we will focus on the reaction of the disciples and Jesus response to the situation which reveals an essential detail about who Jesus really is.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
1) The Storm...
2) The Rebuke...
And...
3) The Messiah.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
Open our eyes and ears to see and hear the truth found in the Scriptures...
We are completely lost without You!
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Guide us in the storms of life...
Whether You calm the storm or strengthen us to get through it we trust Your perfect desire and will.
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Thank You for Your patience with us...
We were rebels and Your enemies but You showed us mercy...
You gave us grace...
You adopted us into Your royal family...
For all who put their trust in Your Son will never be disappointed
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
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?”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Storm
1) The Storm
Verses 22-23: 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, 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.
So, let’s start our study by covering a few historical facts...
And follow that by comparing the other accounts of the same event found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark...
This will help us get a clearer image of our scene.
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So, the “lake” in our passage refers to the Sea of Galilee...
The Sea of Galilee is 700 feet below sea level...
Which is the lowest freshwater lake on the planet...
And the Sea of Galilee is rimmed by mountains...
To the North, Mount Hermon rises 9,200 feet, and from May to October strong cool winds often sweep through the narrow surrounding gorges into this valley...
The interchange of cold air from the surrounding mountains and warm air rising from the surface of the lake often produces extremely sudden and violent storms...
Some of which produced hurricane force winds.
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In addition, as the air flows through the ravines and canyons it is compressed, and its speed intensifies...
Most powerful of all are the winds that flow from the eastern desert down off the large plateau region above the lake known as the Golan Heights...
In fact, in 1992 the winds from one such storm generated waves ten feet high that crashed into the city of Tiberias on the western shore, inflicting considerable damage.
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Now, if we look at the other Gospel accounts we get some more details to help fill out the rest of the scene...
For example, we know that this event occured at night as Mark 4:35 says:
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
We are also informed that there were other boats with them as it says in Mark 4:36:
36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
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We also know that this windstorm in particular was an intense one...
For the boat was swamped by waves as it says in Matthew 8:24:
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.
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Yet, despite the intense storm that was crashing waves into the boat...
The Word of God says that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was sound asleep.
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So, just before the disciples saw one of the most awesome displays of Jesus’ deity, they were given a touching picture of His humanity...
We must not forget that along with being fully God, Jesus was fully human...
Therefore He was subject to hunger, thirst, and fatigue.
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So, in this current event of our passage, due to the labors of a long and busy day of ministering to crowds and preaching...
Jesus was so weary and fatigued that not even the violent tossing of the boat awakened Him...
And again I must stress that this storm that was no ordinary storm, but one so severe as to be life threatening!
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Furthermore, as the MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Luke says:
“He was calmly, peacefully resting, despite knowing that the storm was coming.
Trusting in His Father’s plan, He was secure in the knowledge of His sovereign power and ability to calm the wind and waves.”
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So, we have an intense crazy life threatening storm occuring on the lake...
We have Jesus sound asleep in the boat...
What do the disciples do?
Let’s take a look at our second point for that answer.
2) The Rebuke
2) The Rebuke
Verses 24-25(a): 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. He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
We must keep this fact under consideration as we are studying our passage...
The disciples...
Some of whom where veteran fishermen...
Are completely terrified!
They know their in imminent danger...
They know this storm is the kind of storm that can sink a boat...
They know that the danger they are in is real...
And they awaken Jesus...
Furthermore, as the New International Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“The disciples, who were experienced fishermen and had already had to brave many a storm, did everything in their power to steer the boat right and to prevent its being filled with water and sinking.
But everything was in vain, and the danger of perishing seemed more and more threatening.
Nevertheless the Saviour, who was utterly fatigued in body after the constant work of the preceding day and days, continued to sleep on during the storm.
But ultimately His disciples, in utter despair, awoke Him and said in terror:
‘Master, master, we perish!’”
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In Mark’s account we get more detailed here as it says in Mark 4:38:
38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
So, we learn that Jesus is in the stern of the boat and sleeping peacefully on a pillow...
And all of a sudden the disciples come in and in a state of pure panic cry out to Him...
But they did not just ask Him to help...
In their state of fear they had little faith...
Little faith in the goodness of God...
Little faith in the care Jesus had for His disciples...
Jesus said, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.”
So, He was not going to let them perish before making to the other side of the lake...
If Jesus said they were going to make it to the other side of the lake then nothing was going to stop that.
But the disciples let fear rule over them.
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In life we too will experience the storms of life...
And we as His followers are expected to call out to Him...
But we are not to question His goodness and care for us...
If God wants us to accomplish something that is in His will then nothing will get in the way of that.
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We all have a purpose to fulfill as members of the Body of Christ...
Sometimes it is not clear the finer details of our assignment or how long we will be seving Him on this side of eternity...
But He knows!
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God will not call us home until we have accomplished whatever He has set before us.
As missionary John Gibson Paton once said:
“I realized that I was immortal till my Master’s work with me was done.
The assurance came to me, as if a voice out of Heaven had spoken, that not a musket would be fired to wound us, not a club prevail to strike us, not a spear leave the hand in which it was held vibrating to be thrown, not an arrow leave the bow, or a killing stone the fingers, without the permission of Jesus Christ, whose is all power in Heaven and on Earth.
He rules all Nature, animate and inanimate, and restrains even the Savage of the South Seas.”
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You see Beloved, we have a sovereign God who is in absolute control!
With a word our Lord creates...
With a word our Lord casts out demons...
With a word our Lord brings the dead to life...
With a word our Lord heals the sick...
And with a word our Lord can stop a raging storm in its tracks!
Just take a look with me at Mark’s account which reveals what Jesus actually said to rebuke the storm as recorded in Mark 4:39:
39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
The violent wind and waves stopped, and it became calm!
Instantly the wind and the waves obeyed the voice of their Creator!
That is the power of our God!
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As Proverbs 8:29 says:
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
Our God is sovereign over the borders of the sea!
For God to mark out the limits of the seas is as easy to Him like a person who circles a word in a crossword puzzle.
It is not a problem for God to calm a raging sea...
As Psalm 89:9 says:
9 You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.
So, most assuredly, the disciples had in their mind passages like this...
Most assuredly they were thinking of Psalm 107:28–30 when Jesus rebuked the life threatening windstorm:
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.
As David Gooding writes:
“We live in a universe that is lethally hostile to human life:
Only the miracle of creation and divine maintenance preserves our planet and its wonderful adaptations and provisions for the propagation of human life.
Within our earth itself wind, wave, lightning, storm, flood, drought, avalanche, earthquake, fire, heat, cold, germ, virus, epidemic, all from time to time threaten and destroy life.
Sooner or later one of them may destroy us.
The story of the stilling of the storm is not, of course, meant to tell us that Christ will never allow any believer to perish by drowning, or by any other natural disaster.
Many believers have so perished.
It does demonstrate that he is Lord of the physical forces in the universe, that for him nothing happens by accident, and that no force in all creation can destroy his plan for our eternal salvation or separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Now, the Gospel of Mark again has some more content for us to consider alongside what Luke records in our passage...
This time providing additional details in Jesus’ words to His disciples as found in Mark 4:40:
40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
As New Testament Theologian Darrell L. Bock says:
“The point here is clear: the disciples should be able to rest in God’s care and to trust Jesus’ ability to care for them.
The rhetorical form of the question (‘Where is your faith?’) really makes it a statement:
‘You should be more trusting.’
To overcome trial, one must have faith in God’s goodness.
The faith in view here is not initial faith, but an applied faith that functions in the midst of pressure.
It is a faith that has depth of understanding and can be drawn upon in tough times.
It is faith that ‘kicks in’ and recognizes that God is in control, even in the face of disaster.
It holds fast patiently.”
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When the storms of life feel like they are closing in on you...
Do not lose heart!
Do not lose any bit of faith in Him!
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Do not lose heart in the midst of a financial crisis...
Do not lose heart when you learn of a threatening health scare...
Do not lose heart when a close relationship ends...
Do not lose heart when loved one is gone...
Do not lose heart!
As 2 Corinthians 4:17 says:
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
As John Piper says:
“I’ll venture this:
Every millisecond of your pain — from fallen nature or fallen man — every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing a peculiar glory you will get because of that suffering.
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That’s a very controversial statement — and I believe it.
So if anybody says to me that a believer’s suffering was meaningless, I’ll be quiet probably because they’re hurting really bad right now.
I’m going to wait and see when the right time is, but I’m going to come back eventually and say, ‘It wasn’t meaningless.’
I don’t care if it was cancer or criticism.
I don’t care if it was slander or sickness — it wasn’t meaningless because 2 Corinthians 4:17 says that my light, momentary, lifelong, total affliction is doing something.
It’s doing something.
It’s not meaningless.”
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So Beloved, do no be ruled by your fears and anxiety...
Find your strength in God’s eternal and perfect trustworthy word!
Rest your head in a state of calm and peace on passages like Isaiah 41:10 which says:
10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Do not be crippled by fear!
Do not fear what this world can do to you!
Do not fear what others can do you!
Be strong and courageous for we have a God who saves His people!
We have a God who saves His followers!
We have a God who saves His children!
As Isaiah 35:4 says:
4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
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One only needs to look to the birds to know that God will never desert His children...
He provides for their needs!
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Don’t forget that the very hairs on your head are numbered by the one true God of all creation!
Consider this...
The average person has between 90,000 and 150,000 hairs on their head...
Additionally, you and I lose anywhere between 50 to 100 hairs each day and grow about the same amount...
Meaning our hair count is constantly changing...
And God still never loses count...
As Matthew 10:29–31 says:
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Likewise, Jesus said in Matthew 6:28–32:
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
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When we are anxious is is a sign of us having little faith in God...
When we fear “What shall we eat?”...
Remember, God will provide...
When we fear “What shall we drink?”...
Remember, God will provide...
When we fear “What shall we wear?”...
Remember, God will provide for His children!
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Beloved, our Lord has a peace that He gives us that is nothing like the world...
That is why we are not to let our hearts be troubled...
We are not to let our hearts be afraid...
Instead we are to fully trust Him...
As John 14:27 says:
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
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Now, after this amazing display of pure power by Jesus...
He left the disciples in a state of awe...
And they they asked a question we all must answer...
And this takes us to our third and final point!
3) The Messiah
3) The Messiah
Verse 25(b): 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?”
Let’s be clear, Beloved...
On the lake Jesus has done what only God can do; and equally like God, he does it without prayer...
Simply put, the calmed waves testify to Jesus’ identity.
As the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“The point is not to promise deliverance from these forces anytime they arise, but to show that when one is allied to Jesus, such forces can ultimately be overcome.
There is no enemy too great for Jesus.
Finally, the account is designed to call disciples to realize that, however great the peril, Jesus is aware and is able to deliver.
It may be deliverance through trial, rather than from it, but one is to apply faith in such situations.
Thus, the position of Jesus allows one to place trust in him.
This is the lesson of discipleship that the stilling of the storm teaches.
Without a Christology that recognizes Jesus’ authority, there can be no real hope in him, for otherwise the hostile waves in life will pull us down, and there is nowhere to turn.
The calming of the waves can come only from the one who has the power to restore order.”
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The miracles of nature that Jesus performed was meant as a sign to show that Hew was not just fully man but was also fully God...
For only God has complete mastery over nature...
As Psalm 135:7 vividly paints a picture for us of God’s authority over nature when it says:
7 He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
In fact, the laws of gravity bend to His will...
As easy as it is for us to walk across the room to get from one side to another...
It is just as easy for Jesus to walk on water as Mark 6:48-51 records:
48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them,
49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out,
50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded,
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The plants and trees obey the very words of Jesus...
Just take a look at what it says in Matthew 21:18-20:
18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”
The animals of the land and fish of the sea obey His words too...
Just look at what we covered earlier in our study when we expounded Luke 5:3-9 which says:
3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.
7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken,
Every aspect of nature bows down to His will with ease and in an instant!
Only the one true God has that kind of power and authority!
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In addition to these amazing examples, the Word of God is filled with other example of Christ’s divinity on full display...
For example, Matthew 12:8 says:
8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
For Jesus to be Lord of the Sabbath is for Him to rightly claim that He is God for only God is the Lord of the Sabbath!
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Eventually, the disciples understood this too...
And they went from having little faith to making bold confessions of faith like that found in John 20:28 which says:
28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
The Apostle Paul also make that truth explicitly clear when he said in Colossians 2:9:
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
Likewise, Titus 2:13 proclaims the title of God and Savior to Jesus as it says:
13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
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So, the answer to the million dollar question...
The answer to the question, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
The answer is God!
For Jesus is God in the flesh!
The Word of God leaves no doubt about that, Beloved!
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like to share this that I came across in my study this week:
Shipbuilders back in the days of sailboats would prepare the masts for their ships.
They would go to the forest and find an appropriate tree, then they would clear out all the surrounding trees and leave that one standing, leaving it exposed to the wind and storms.
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As the tree continued to mature, it would gain strength.
The kind of strength it would need to be able to stand up in the storms at sea while holding a large sail.
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But that tree would never gain that strength if it was just left among the other trees.
It developed strength because of the storms.
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If we build our lives on the solid rock of Jesus and his words, then when the storms come, we will not only survive, we’ll gain strength.
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Jesus is our solid rock, Beloved!
Without Him we would be doomed to eternal Hell...
But out of love He exchanged His righteousness for our filthy rags...
He embraced the cross with love in obedience to the Father...
And experienced the severe and harsh wrath of God that we deserved...
All so that we may one day live with Him for all eternity...
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And it is now about Christ’s sacrifice that we bring our attention to.
Communion
Communion
As we begin our communion service, I want to invite every genuinely born-again believer in the room to partake in this act together.
If you do not yet know the Lord and do not have a relationship with Him...
Or if you are under church discipline from this church or another church...
Then I will ask that you wait until you have resolved your issue before participating.
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As you came in you should have picked up a communion packet if you are joining us.
This has both the bread and juice in a convenient package.
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If you have not received one of these, please raise your hand and someone will get you one.
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Before we join in communion together, I would like us to consider 1 John 4:10:
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
In an article I found on Ligonier.org titled, “Does Jesus Love Me?,” author Keith Evans says:
“When we doubt the love of God in our lives, we must look to what Christ has objectively done for us, in that He came, He pursued, He sought us, He saved.
After all, this was the very reason Christ came into the world:
To seek and to save His people.
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This type of love, a love that originates entirely in God and not in our own loveliness, is at the heart of biblical ‘unconditional love,’ or agape love.
God’s perfect love flows from Him and is entirely of Him, as He places it upon us.
While we are devoid of everything lovable, excellent, praiseworthy, or beautiful, God lavishes His love upon us.
He did this ‘in order to make known the riches of his glory,’ as Romans 9:15–23 makes clear.
The love that God shows us, now His children in Christ, is entirely free and gracious, flowing from Him to us, not because of us, but entirely because of Him.
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Once we can comprehend this type of love, it is a glorious and encouraging reality.
Human love is so often grounded in the object of our love, which is why people speak of ‘falling in and out of love.’
What makes our hearts sing one day leaves us disappointed and despairing the next.
We can be so fickle.
Then we take our ever-changing, always-conditional love, and read our humanness back into God.
We think He loves like we love.
May it never be.
The unmerited love that God displays toward us is of an entirely different kind.
Listen to how Ephesians 1 describes it:
‘He chose us . . . before the foundation of the world . . . in love . . . according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.’
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He chose us in Christ.
He perfectly loves Jesus, described here as ‘the Beloved.’
That is who Christ is—the loved one of God.
And out of Himself, He loves us just as He loves Christ, and this from all eternity.
Could there be any greater news?
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If ever there is a question about whether God loves us, the biblical solution is not to look to ourselves, our love, or our faithfulness.
Instead, we are called to look at the objective reality of what God has done for us in Christ.
We are to ground our certainty and assurance of His love in who He is and what He has done—not in ourselves, which is ever-shifting sand.
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As biblical theologian Geerhardus Vos famously said, ‘The best proof that He will never cease to love us’ is ‘that He never began.’
Jesus has loved us from all eternity.
He has always and will always love His people—His sheep—His precious chosen ones.
As the children’s song so simply and profoundly puts it, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’
May this be all the answer to the question ‘Does Jesus love me?’ we ever need.
The answer, in Christ, is ‘yes.’”
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So, Beloved...
Let’s all take a moment right now in silent prayer to thank the Lord for all He did for us...
(MOMENT OF SILENCE)
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Tom will you pray before we partake in the bread:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:19:
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
(TAKE THE BREAD)
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Adrian will you pray before we partake in the cup:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:20:
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(TAKE THE CUP)
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With that we conclude the communion portion of our service.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray...
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Heavenly Father...
If anyone hearing this message right now does not know You in a saving way...
For Your name’s sake...
Open the heart of Your lost sheep...
Without You they have no hope in the raging storms of life...
Reveal Yourself to them in a saving way...
Present them with the knowledge of Your Son along with the desire to surrender to Him...
Give them that Damascus road experience that they desperately need!
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For those hearing this message who already know You...
Take their faith...
Whether it be small or plenty and increase it!
Remind us of Your past faithfulness...
Remind us of Your precious promises...
Remind us that You are sovereign over the whole natural realm...
And remind us You are sovereign over the spiritual realm...
Not a single thing exists that is not under your authority and may that truth give Your children a precious peace to rest in.
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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To God be all the glory.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.