Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Luke 8:22-25, NASB
- Series: Luke (2025-2027), no. 22
- Date: Sunday, June 29, 2025 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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What Tests Reveal
How would you feel if I told you that you had to take a major test today? You might have some questions about what kind of test, right? Did any of you like tests in school?
That is because you are normal. Most of us do not enjoy tests. I didn’t mind them so much, but I didn’t celebrate. “Wonderful, there is a test today.”
In school, there was that one kid, that one overachiever that was excited about tests, and I don’t know why, but that wasn’t me or most of the people I know or I guess anybody in this room. Tests are helpful because they show us what we know, what we do not know, and what we are qualified to do. They reveal shortcomings or deficiencies that need attention.
I will tell you the hardest test I ever took in my entire life was not my Greek final in seminary. It was not the ACT. It was not the SAT.
It was not the state insurance exam. I should not even call it a test I took, because it was so difficult that I never actually took it. The hardest test I ever encountered was the one required to become a school bus driver.
Kristie says yes. Years ago, I was helping with a church plant. We had recently moved into the community.
We were looking for ways to get involved in the community. Someone suggested that I become involved with the school district. I said, well, that sounds like a good idea.
I did not want a teaching position at that time because it would have conflicted with my responsibilities at the church. I thought driving a school bus would allow me to work early in the morning and again in the afternoon, leaving time between routes. And so I went down and talked to them about a job driving the school bus.
They were excited because the district urgently needed school bus drivers. Here’s the problem. I don’t know how much of what I was given was the test for the CDL and how much was just the test for the district.
They handed me a large stack of material that I had to learn and memorize. And I got through chapter one. I got through chapter two.
I got through chapter three. Okay, it’s making some sense. By chapter four, they expected me to understand every aspect of the suspension and braking systems throughout their fleet.
Is that CDL or is that just district? Oh my goodness. Okay, I’m never trying that again.
You need a commercial driver’s license to operate a vehicle carrying more than fifteen passengers. The church better not ever drive a bus or buy a bus. I won’t be able to drive it.
They expected applicants to know the different suspension systems, and I stared at the diagrams as though I were reading hieroglyphics. I was not even sure I was holding the book correctly. Finally, I prayed, “God, You will have to show me something else. I am not smart enough to be a school bus driver.”
I failed that test before I even took it. But you know what? I learned something.
I learned that was not what God was calling me to do at that point, was be a school bus driver. It was better to discover that early. We all face tests in life. As unpleasant as they may be, they clarify where we are and reveal what may be keeping us from where we want to be.
This morning, we’re going to look at a test, one of the first major tests that the disciples faced in their walk with Jesus in a familiar story to most of you about a time that they were on the Sea of Galilee with Jesus and a storm came. Luke 8:22–25 records: Now one of those days Jesus and his disciples got into a boat, and he said to them, Let us go over to the other side of the lake. So they launched out.
But were sailing along, he fell asleep, and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. They came to Jesus and woke him up, saying, Master, Master, we are. .
. I should read that with a little more intensity. Master, Master, we are perishing.
And he got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And saying to one another, who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?
Reading that again, perhaps for the hundredth time, the disciples’ reaction still strikes me as surprising. The way they say, who then is this? Who did they think they had been following all those months?
When Faith Meets the Storm
And they just are starting to recognize there’s something different about this man. This storm for them was unexpected. This storm for them was something that was scary, that caught them off guard.
But God knew this was going to happen. God the Father knew it was going to happen. God the Son, who was there sleeping on the boat, knew it was going to happen.
This was a test. They did not realize that the storm would test their faith. And that’s the case in a lot of circumstances like this. Life’s most difficult moments test the soundness of our faith.
Sometimes we go through moments, seasons, or events and wonder, “What is the purpose of this?”
And God may have a purpose in mind for the difficult moments we face that we may never understand on this side of eternity. But one thing that a lot of those moments have in common is that they’re tests. They’re tests of our faith.
They test the strength of our faith. They test whether our faith rests in the right Person and the right place. Now, this story clearly displays Jesus’ power and his authority.
The main point of the story is Jesus displaying His power and authority by commanding the natural world. Nature bent to his command. That’s not something that you or I can do.
I heard a story about somebody that with their kids, when their kids were little, this was not me, although it might be fun to try, that when their kids were little, they’d be driving and every time they’d see an overpass. I always confuse the terms overpass and underpass. I guess it depends on which side you’re on.
But when they’re about to go under another road on the highway and it was raining, they would tell their kids, I’m about to make it stop raining in three, two, one, and then it would stop for a second. But I can only do it for a second because it makes me tired. Okay.
That’s about the extent of our ability to control the weather. We live in Oklahoma. We know that we have no control over what the weather does.
Yet Jesus simply commanded the storm to be quiet. That is not a direct quotation, of course. But nature bent to his command.
This was an incredible moment, but we can’t pretend like this just came out of nowhere for them either. I do not want to be too harsh on the disciples, because you and I would likely have been in the same boat—both literally and spiritually. we would have the same crises of faith that they had.
So I don’t want to pretend like we’re better than they are. But you look at this, you can’t pretend that this just came out of nowhere, his ability to control storms. This miracle may have exceeded what they had seen before, but they had watched Him perform miracles repeatedly. Luke, just Luke by itself records numerous miraculous stories leading up to this point of things that Jesus had done, Jesus’ power, Jesus commanding sick people to be healed, Jesus commanding withered limbs to grow back, Jesus commanding dead people to live.
They’ve seen all of these things. Looking back, it is remarkable that His power over the storm surprised them. But what makes this story stand out from those other stories about Jesus’ power and authority is the test that’s involved here.
This is one of the first places where the disciples are directly confronted with the choice to respond in faith or unbelief to what Jesus is able to do after what they’ve all seen. In previous sections, Jesus has encouraged them to believe Him and obey just in chapter 8 alone that we’ve studied the last few weeks. If you go back to the parable of the sower.
He talks about the good seed and the good soil being those who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast. Basically, those who have taken his word to heart, they’ve believed it. And when he says in verse 18, it’s what we talked about last week, take care how you listen. Are you paying attention to God’s Word and taking it to heart and believing it?
And now they have the opportunity to do just that. They have the opportunity in a real and a tangible way in a life-altering situation potentially to put their faith in Jesus. And so they face a moment that’s going to require them to make that decision either to trust Jesus or not.
And they had enough faith to get into the boat with Jesus. The Sea of Galilee is not a place where these kinds of storms are uncommon. It’s been years since I’ve done any kind of in-depth study into the geology and geography of that area, but I do remember you have winds coming from the east, and they come down off the cliffs, and they drop several hundred feet, and there’s turbulence, and it stirs up the waters as it goes into this deep depression, and storms are not uncommon, and crazy wind coming from different directions is not uncommon.
They had enough faith to enter the boat with Jesus, but the real test did not come while everything was calm. The real test is when the storm starts. And that’s true for other kinds of storms as well.
That’s true in our lives as well. It’s one thing to have faith in Jesus. It’s one thing to trust Him when everything’s going well, when the boat is steady and we’re just going along the sea.
It’s easy to trust Jesus when we’re walking along and we’re seeing Him do miracles and the crowds are cheering. It’s another thing altogether to trust Jesus when you get into those moments of storm where you’re not sure what’s happening or what’s about to happen to you. And I’ll tell you, I’m not going to stand up here and say I’m super spiritual and, oh, these are just wonderful tests of our faith.
When we go through storms in life, I hate it. Many times I have held a pity party before the Lord and complained about my circumstances. But God doesn’t put us through those moments to be cruel.
Reasons Life Gives Us to Doubt
As I said at the outset of this, he has a purpose that we may or may not understand on this side of eternity. But one thing that’s common to many of these storms in life is that it’s an opportunity to test the soundness of our faith. And so we keep that in mind as we look at the story, the test that they went through, and we see in the midst of this test, in the midst of this storm, that life will gladly hand us reasons not to trust Jesus.
When we enter a moment or season of storm, we face the decision whether to trust Jesus. For believers, that is a deliberate choice. You say, oh, well, you know, it was just in the moment. In that moment, we can remind ourselves who Jesus is, return to reality, and say, “I will trust Jesus in this circumstance whether I feel like it or not.”
I’m going to trust him. We can make that commitment, but life will, when we come to those moments of decision, whether we’re going to trust Jesus with the storm we’re about to sail through or not. Life will gladly hand us reasons not to trust Jesus.
When the Storm Looks Bigger Than God
And this passage outlines some of the reasons why they might have not trusted Jesus, some of the reasons why we might not trust Jesus, some of the examples from the disciples’ experience that caused them to doubt, that would cause us to doubt. Our storms are big. The disciples were not merely afraid of distant thunder.
I know sometimes kids are scared of thunderstorms. I don’t think any of mine have ever acted scared of probably because they’ve lived their whole lives in Oklahoma. Thunderstorms are simply normal to them. Living in Lawton, however, we sometimes cannot tell what we are hearing. Charla and I sometimes sit downstairs in the living room at night and play a game called “artillery, thunder, or someone out of bed,” because we cannot tell what we are hearing overhead.
But this wasn’t just the sound of thunder in the distance kind of getting them a little nervous. They were in the middle of an actual storm. They were in the middle of lightning and thunder and wind and waves that were tossing their boat around like it was a toy.
The storm was big. The storm was real. It says a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake. And when that happened, a boat of any size was in danger.
Folks, it may be a literal storm that tests our faith. Lord, why did this happen to us? Why did this happen to our house?
But in many cases, it’s a less literal storm that you and I face, but it’s no less real and it’s no less big. Sometimes the storm comes in the form of a diagnosis. Sometimes the storm can come in the form of a broken relationship.
Sometimes it can come in the form of a prodigal child. Sometimes it can come in the form of a financial hardship. Any number of things.
I would imagine for each of you this morning, something different has come to mind. Either a storm you’re going through right now or a storm you’ve been through. The storms we face can be enormous.
And even if somebody else is facing a bigger storm, the storm can still be big to you. Part of the problem we face, though, is when we’re in the middle of the storm, we look around and all we see is the storm. And so it looks like the whole world is a storm.
Our storms are big to us, and that can persuade us not to trust Jesus because we’re more focused on the size of the storm than we are on God. We look around and see the gravity of the problems we face. We see the enormity.
We see the complexity. We may see no imaginable solution to the storm. And if we look at that, we look at all of those things that we think this can’t possibly be fixed, and that’s where our focus is, it pulls our focus off of God and makes it more likely that we’re not going to trust Him and that our faith will waver.
Our storms can be real and overwhelming, but that is not a reason to stop trusting Him. Second thing we see here is that our danger is real. They were not overreacting when they said, we’re in real danger here. They began to be swamped and to be in danger.
That’s not just a direct quote from them. That’s commentary from the Holy Spirit through Luke. They were swamped and in danger.
Their boat was sinking. A sinking boat would have been dangerous enough, but in the middle of that storm, some or all of them could have died. Sometimes our problems present a real danger to life, to property, maybe just to life as we know it. And when we are in a situation like that where we’re genuinely at risk, it’s easier to doubt God than when the cost of faith is minimal. It’s easy to trust God.
It’s easy to walk in faith when everything’s wonderful. But in a moment where there’s a real cost, our faith is put to the test. Do we really believe this or not? I think of brothers and sisters all over this world this morning who are in real risk of life and limb for worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. And in a way that you and I don’t understand, they have a real choice every day.
When Fear Takes Control
“Do I trust Him and walk the road He has called me to, or do I focus on the danger?” We may face lesser dangers, but their reality can still provide an excuse not to trust Him. Our fears are overwhelming.
Part of their problem is that they weren’t thinking clearly because they were afraid. But you know what? That’s my problem too.
I do that often. During volunteer training at the pregnancy center several years ago, one of the most valuable lessons concerned fear. People who come through the door facing an unplanned or unexpected pregnancy are often overwhelmed by it. Fear begins driving their decisions and reactions.
Fear is in the driver’s seat of reactions. And so your number one job is to try to calm down the fear so that you can think clearly. I have found that more helpful than almost any training I’ve ever been to on anything in ministry in my life.
And sometimes I have to have that conversation with myself. “You are reacting out of fear. Stop and slow down.”
But sometimes our fears will convince us. They will overwhelm us and they will convince us God can’t handle this situation. “I know He made promises, but He could not have meant this situation.”
“God could not have foreseen this.” When your fears start telling you God can’t or God hasn’t, they’re lying to you. But in their fears in verse 24, they were saying, Master, Master, we are perishing.
When Knowledge Has Not Become Trust
They were not perishing, because Jesus was still in the boat with them, but but fear can invade the mind until we cannot think clearly. And I think a lot of it comes down to our knowledge of Jesus hasn’t become trust yet. I was listening to an interview with a professor talking about this idea of faith in the scriptures the other day.
He explained that we often reduce the biblical concept of faith to mere belief that something is true. “I believe that Jesus can. I believe that Jesus did.”
Biblical faith goes beyond that. The biblical idea of faith, that’s part of it, but it’s so much more. And he likened it to getting married.
He compared it to marriage, where saying “I do” means, “I am fully committed. I trust this person.” It resembles the old story of a conquistador landing in Mexico and ordering his men to burn the ships because there would be no retreat. We’re here.
That’s faith. It’s not just belief that something is true. It’s trust in that fact.
And I’ve been thinking about what that man was talking about. And as it applies to this, our relationship with Jesus is intimately connected to our trust in Him. Because trust isn’t just part of a relationship.
Trust lies at the heart of the relationship. Any meaningful relationship we have is based on trust. There is a spectrum, but the depth of any relationship is tied to the trust placed in the other person. When I walk into Chick-fil-A, I trust that no one has put anything strange in my sandwich.
I don’t know those people, most of them, but I have at least the amount of trust that they didn’t do something to my food. On the far other end of the spectrum, I trust my wife implicitly. I trust my wife more than anybody else on this planet.
She is the one person to whom I can say whatever is on my mind without fearing judgment or resentment. All of our relationships require trust. Being a church family also requires trust. And I look around and I see people I trust. I see Kristie, with whom I can discuss and work through ministry matters.
And sometimes we have disagreements, but we figure it out. And I trust her, and I know she’s got my back. I think of people I have trusted to care for my children. That requires a great deal of trust. I look at Rick. Well, I would look at him, but he’s out there.
I look at Rick. I’ve traveled across the country with Rick. So what kind of trust does that require?
We would not go to Stripes, choose a stranger, and take a road trip together. No, we don’t do that. But I look at people that I know and we trust each other.
Many of you have spoken with me privately—in my office, the fellowship hall, this room, or over coffee—about struggles in life or questions concerning God’s Word. You trusted me enough to bring those matters to me. And in many cases, I’ve entrusted stories back to you. Even the relationships we have together are built on trust. The relationship we have with Jesus is not just built on belief that He is.
That’s the foundation of it. But we have a trust in Him because we believe that He is. Our relationships have to be based on trust. Sometimes we struggle to walk by faith because our knowledge of who Jesus is, what He said, and what He did has not yet become trust in our minds and hearts. And I think that’s where they were, because they came and woke Him up.
They came and woke Him up, and one of the other Gospels tells us, Matthew records that they actually asked Him, save us, Lord. They’re calling out to Him. Save us, Lord, we’re perishing.
But they had enough belief in him to ask him for help. But the fact that they were so afraid, they were so surprised when he actually did something and it worked. And the way Jesus handled the situation tells us that there wasn’t a real trust. They seemed to call on Him as a last resort rather than resting in Him.
It was more of a head knowledge that he could than something that had translated into actual trust. And I think sometimes that’s where we are in our walk with the Lord. We read the book. We know what he said.
Reasons Jesus Gives Us to Trust
We know what he did. We know what He is capable of, but we have not yet become convinced that He can and will act according to His will. On the other hand, Jesus has given us plenty of reasons why we should trust him.
First of all, his past performance. I don’t know why the phrase has stuck in my head, but when you would see, I watched a great deal of the History Channel before its programming shifted toward aliens and swamp creatures. But they used to have back in the 90s these commercials for stock brokerage firms, and they would always say, past performance does not guarantee future results.
Okay, they have to put that on there so they don’t get sued, but Past performance is often the best indicator of future results in ordinary life. And you can look at the past performance of Jesus and know who He is and know what He’s capable of. Why should I believe He can handle my situation? Because of everything He has handled before.
And if we go to verse 22, it says, now one of those days, Jesus and His disciples got onto a boat. That phrase may seem insignificant, but it tells us that the day began like any other day of walking with Jesus and witnessing His works. This was nothing out of the ordinary.
These men had for months been walking with Jesus and seeing the things He had done, seeing the healings, seeing the raising from the dead, hearing him teach with authority, and just being awestruck by everything that he had done. And if you look at that, if you’re less focused on the storm, and instead you’re looking at everything Jesus has done up to this point, that will bolster your faith like nothing else. I will tell you, moments of fear when I start thinking God can’t handle, and I would never say it like that, but this situation’s too big.
This is not going to work out. This is not going to get fixed. This is going to be a catastrophe.
Part of calming down is remembering the ways God has proven faithful before. The Israelites did this repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. Every time they were called to step out on faith, right before that, somebody stepped up and began recounting the stories of how God had been faithful to their nation.
That’s why they built monuments. That’s why they would build altars at places God had done a miracle because they wanted to remember. We can go through God’s Word, and we can see the things that Jesus has handled before.
And our faith can be strengthened through that. But you can also look at your own life and the things that He’s done for you up until now. You look at His past performance, like the disciples who should have looked at everything that had happened up to this just one day we got on the boat and seen the past performance.
That is why our faith is not a leap in the dark. It’s based on evidence. It’s rooted in who He is and what He’s always done.
But his past performance gives us reason to trust him. Also his promises. And you might say, well, where did he make a promise?
I missed it myself through several readings. But look at verse 22. He said to them, let us go over to the other side of the lake.
If they believe that he meant what he said, and if they believe that he had the power to do all the things he’d done up until now, he already told them where they’re going. He did not merely say, “Let us take a boat ride and see where we end up.” They already had the promise that they were going to the other side of the lake.
In the preceding events of Luke 8, Jesus emphasized trusting His Word and now his word said they were going to the other side. So sometimes when we’re walking through a storm and we find it difficult to trust him we don’t stop at looking back at how he’s come through before in scripture and in our own lives. We also take a look back at the scriptures and say what has he promised?
He has never promised that every situation will be resolved exactly as we desire. I might wish otherwise, but He does not work for me; I work for Him.
But he has made promises to us in his word. He’s told us that he’s working things out for our good and for his glory. Now his definition of good may look different from ours.
Consider the promise of Romans 8:28. I believe in Romans when he says he’s working all things together for good, for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. In context, good points toward God using circumstances to make us more like Jesus, which is quite different from promising that everything will be pleasant.
But see, we have certain promises that he’s given in his word that we can fall back on because he’s always kept his promises. And then the final reason I see in this text of reasons he’s given us why we can trust him is his presence. They should have paid attention to the fact that Jesus was with them in the boat.
They were sailing and he fell asleep. Jesus wasn’t worried about this. Jesus wasn’t worried about the storm.
And rather than notice that, they get mad. Rather than taking comfort in His presence, they almost seemed annoyed. You don’t care that we’re perishing, they ask in another one of the Gospels.
But He was still with them. His presence remains with us. Now, not in the same way as them, but for one thing, He’s given us His Holy Spirit.
The Bible calls the Holy Spirit a seal and a pledge—a down payment. How do we know He hasn’t abandoned us? How do we know He hasn’t left us and forgotten about us?
Two Questions for Every Storm
Because He’s given us the Holy Spirit. His presence is still with us. I want to leave you with two vital questions.
I think there are two vital questions that are asked in this passage that you and I need to consider when we go through storms. And maybe even when the skies are fair, we ask ourselves these in preparation for the storms. The question Jesus asks in verse 25, where is your faith? Is our faith rooted in Jesus? Is it a biblical faith that comes from a place of trusting Him have walked with Him long enough to know that we can trust Him?
Has our faith moved from merely believing facts about Jesus to trusting in Him? And then the question they asked in verse 25, who then is this? Who is this man that He commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him?
If we answer that question rightly, it will help us answer Jesus’ question, “Where is your faith?” The most important question Jesus ever asked His followers is, who do you say that I am? And if we stop and ask ourselves, who is he?
Trusting the Savior
Who do I believe Him to be? Who do I know Him to be? That’s going to go a long way towards strengthening our faith to come through the storms. That is also the question with which our relationship with Him begins.
Who is he? Is he a good moral teacher? Is he just a historical figure?
Is he a man with some good ideas? Or is he who he claimed to be? When He claimed to be God in the flesh, the One who came to die for our sins, rise again by the Father’s power, and forgive sins, do you believe in that Jesus?
The relationship begins not merely with believing facts about Him but with trusting in Him. Trusting that when Jesus claimed to be our one and only Savior, that he really is that person. To recognize that you and I have sinned against a holy God, that that sin incurs a penalty, and the only way that penalty could be paid and our debt could be cleared was for Jesus to be the sacrifice.
And so he went to the cross, he shed his blood, he died paying for your sins and mine in full, and rose again, so that you and I could be forgiven if we would put our trust in him.
