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a church planter can walk 20 miles in a
day give him a bicycle and he can go
three times as far and be three times as
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effective well it is great to be back
together again as we are continuing our
Chronological Study through the entire
New Testament and I hope you have your
Bible if you don't we'll help you by
putting the verses on the screen but
here we are today once again in Matthew
chapter 8 and we're entering into a
brand new section of Matthew chapter 8
when when you think about it I mean
there there's so much packed into every
one of these chapters uh I mean any one
of these chapters could have been a
small booklet on its own right if all
the details were expanded upon we're
about to read an amazing story that's
recorded in all three of the synoptic
gospels Matthew Mark and Luke and each
one of these guys devotes this in you
know only just about five or six verses
to one of the most outstanding miracles
of Jesus's Ministry and thankfully we
can use our imaginations and we can make
some very calculated and educated
assumptions based upon the facts that
are presented but you get the feeling
that all three of the synoptic gospel
writers were just overwhelmed with all
the things that they could tell about
Jesus and so they truncated these
stories just to like brush on the
highlights and for goodness sake you
know there's so much more I I hope that
they were recording this on video so we
can watch it in heaven and see the
reruns because I would just love to see
what we're about to read you know as it
actually happen so got your Bible all
right I gave you enough time if you
haven't found Matthew chapter 8 just
give up cuz you're not going to find it
Matthew 8 and verse number 23 uh may I
just remind you though before we read
verse 23 just a few verses ago Jesus had
seen the crowds and he uh decided to go
to the other side he was in capernium on
the western side of the sea galy was
just going to cross over directly across
about a s mile boat ride to the other
side uh so verse 23 here we go when he
that's Jesus got into the boat his
disciples followed him may I stop there
just for a moment and point out the fact
that in Mark 4 and: 36 this identical
story we're told that other Boats were
with him so don't imagine in your mind
just one boat and Jesus there with the
disciples imagine you know several other
boats going across like an Entourage of
boats then verse number 24 and behold
there arose a great storm on the sea
this is the Sea of galile so that the
boat was being covered with the waves
but Jesus Jesus himself was asleep
Mark's gospel calls it a furious Gale of
wind that arose I've been to the SE
Galley a number of times over the years
and I remember one time going with a
tour uh with a tour guide in a boat it's
kind of a standard thing you go across
the sea of Galley you eat some fish
across the way and they call it St
Peter's fish whether it is the like the
fish that Peter caught or not and
everybody takes a little coin and puts
it in the mouth of fish and takes a
picture you know to get a biblical story
on film uh but this guy I remember him
telling us he said there have been
several occasions where he had started
out across the sea of Galley to go to
the other side on a tourist tour leading
a group of tourists a perfectly sunny
day you know no ominous clouds coming
over the horizon and he said we'd get
halfway across and without any kind of
warning all of a sudden huge winds would
whip down one of the sides of those
mountains that surround the major
majority of the Sea of galy and the boat
was facing such Rough Waters with those
tourists that it actually had to turn
around and go back to its Port near
capernium and so he's giving credence to
what happened right here you know just
an unexpected storm kind of out of
nowhere just descends upon them and they
find themselves in what was a
life-threatening situation I mean the
water is coming into the boat I'm
assuming they could swim but I don't
know amazingly the Lord Jesus is
sleeping in this boat that seems a
little bit miraculous to me there he was
dead dog tired but I I can't imagine
being that tired this was not like a big
uh cruise ship this was one of those you
know moderate siiz fishing boats at the
most maybe 18 or 24t long or something
and Jesus is asleep there and and and
waves are crashing over the boat I mean
I I have to assume that waves were
crashing on to Jesus he's getting wet
but he's asleep sleep seems like a
supernatural sleep one that could be
induced only by faith or by the direct
action of the holy spirit in any case
the disciples are quite concerned and
that's why they awaken him and we read
in verse number 25 they came to him and
woke him saying save us Lord we are
perishing um Mark records their question
or their statement as teacher do you not
care that we are perishing all right you
know so they were also amazed why is
Jesus asleep you know we're going to
drown out here we're going to die and
he's asleep so they wake him up and uh
you know the story we've all heard this
you know if you've been a Christian very
long you know the story but I'm just
asking you to you know kind of
superimpose yourself into that boat and
let your imagination go you know to
really kind of
visualize the scene in that boat that
day Jesus is awakened he said to them
verse 26 why are you afraid you men of
little faith and so the very first thing
that Jesus comes to his mind that he
addresses is these guys are are afraid
they're scared that something terrible
is going to happen to them and he's
saying that's not how it should be they
shouldn't be afraid he expected them to
not be afraid although they were afraid
and so he makes a remark you guys have
very little faith now I sympathize
myself with the disciples in this case I
mean don't you if I had been in that
same boat uh no pun intended I think
that I would have been afraid also I
think I've been the first one to awaken
Jesus there and ask him hey don't you
care that we're perishing you know help
us out here Jesus um but Jesus had a
different perspective and I'm not going
to argue with his perspective his
perspective is right um if you're
reading Luke's gospel
uh Luke emphatically States in Luke 8
and verse number 22 that Jesus said to
his disciples let us go over to the
other side of the lake and So based upon
that he declared his will let's go to
the other side the Son of God has spoken
huh and so it's as good as gold it's
better than gold we're going to make it
to the other side so they at least
should have believed somehow Jesus's
words are going to come to pass sorry at
a time I'll see you next
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time