The Particulars (Matt. 8:23-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2021 11:22 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  “The Particulars”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference: Matthew 8:23-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “23 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 covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.”

 

            I want to include the last paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary as we begin this SD because we have been quoting from his sermon on the last two SD’s.  He often gives an outline as he ends his introduction.  “In Matthew 8:23-27 Jesus demonstrates His unlimited power over the natural world.  His stilling the storm is the first miracle of the second group of three miracles presented in chapters 8 and 9.”

 

            This miracle happened after he had confronted the three superficial fellows about the true cost of discipleship which we looked at earlier in the week, two from Matthew’s gospel account, and one from Luke’s gospel account.  Jesus was tired after His ministering and thus wanted to get into a boat and take a nap.  We certainly can see the humanness of Jesus in this section.

 

            I am not totally convinced that there was more than one boat in this story, but John MacArthur seems to think that there was as there were a few people trying to get across the lake.  Another thing to say is that it was very late in the evening or probably in the night when they left.

 

            I know that we have talked about the word “disciples” in earlier SD’s, but I do want to go over four categories of disciples as seen in the Gospels.  We talked about the broadest sense of disciples, those who followed Jesus around because of His many miracles, or to find out what exactly He was like.  There came a time in the sixth chapter of John’s gospel when many of them left.  “So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves” (John 6:53).  “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?’” (John 6:60).  “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore” (John 6:66).

 

            The second category of disciples included those who were intellectually convinced of Jesus’ divine message and of His power. Nichodemus was early on a part of this category, but later became a true believer in Jesus Christ. 

 

            Third was composed of secret believers.  The example of this would be Joseph of Arimathea as with boldness came to Pilot to ask to bury the body of Jesus, and he did it in his own tomb.

 

            Forth were the true and open believers, those who were publicly and permanently committed to Jesus, which of course was the small group of disciples who followed Him and was actually more than just the Twelve, and no doubt included all four kinds.

 

            Now as far as the description of the boat it was probably a small open fishing craft of the type that Peter and his family used for fishing. 

 

            The storm (sesmos) in the Greek was common on this lake, but this storm was much stronger as we can see from the Greek word as we get seismic, seismograph and related terms that track earth quakes.  This was a very bad storm that came down through the hills where the air was cooler and met with the warm air around the lake as it was below sea level.  Mark says that the boat was covered by the waves and here we read that Jesus was still asleep in the boat.  Jesus was totally exhausted from His ministering.  MacArthur concludes “Yet this was all part of the divine plan.  The storm was howling, the wind and waves were about to swamp the boat as it tossed about on the water like a cork—and the Creator of the world slept sourly in the midst of it all.  Although in His divinity He was omniscient, in His humanness He was at this time oblivious to the turmoil that surrounded Him.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I certainly can see that even though Jesus was asleep that He was still in control of things in the storm, and He is in control in the storms of my life too.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord in the storms of life.

 

4/16/2021 11:51 AM