Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What to Believe In | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 8.26-39

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

Want to join our 4-week Zoom Bible Study, "Are we living in the end times?" https://info.thecrossingchurch.com/zoom-online-bible-studies (Sign-up today). We start Friday April 3 from 12:00-12:30 with a 15-minute Q&A afterward. "So already there, you're finding out that the demons know more about who Jesus is than the disciples." Being a Christian isn't simply believing in Jesus. Did you know that? Luke 8.26-39 shows that even the demons believed in Jesus. But you still have to have faith. So what is it about? What should you believe in? See what the Bible says and how the verses connect as https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Keith) continues our series on https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/how-to-follow-jesus/ (Learning to Follow Jesus). Interested in more content like this? Make sure to listen to https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/how-to-deal-with-the-storms-of-life/ (How to Deal With the Storms of Life) for more context. To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TheCrossingCOMO (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. Before the episode starts, I want to invite you to a special online-only event with Keith and I. We are going to be doing a lunch Bible study on Friday, April 3rd, from 12 to 1230. We're going to do this for four weeks, actually. and we're going to be asking the question, are we living in the end times?

Right now I'm getting so many questions from people who are actually literally asking the question, you know is coronavirus a sign of the times? Or they're just wondering, what does the Bible say about these kinds of things? There's a lot of questions, a lot of misconceptions. We're going to address those. Again, we're going to put a link to that online event right at the top of our show notes. Pause it right now, click that link, sign up today, and you can join us on April 3rd from 12 to 1230 and a few weeks afterwards.

I want to try something a little bit different in our time together, in that not only do I want to see how stories in Luke chapter 8 apply to our life, but I also want you to see why Luke put them in the order that he did. What we're going to see is that the first story asks a question, and the second story answers that question, or at least goes a long way toward answering it. So the first story is a very famous one in Luke 8 about Jesus calming the storm. One day it says Jesus went to his disciples and said, let's go over to the other side of the lake.

So they got in the boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger. Now a storm on the Sea of Galilee was no surprise. The Sea of Galilee sits 700 feet below sea level. and is surrounded by hills and on one side a very steep mountain. So cold air comes over the mountain and it mixes with the warmer air on the surface of the lake, and that makes for sudden violent storms.

We know this storm is especially violent, unusually violent, because the fishermen who were used to these storms were afraid for their life. Verse 24, the disciples went and woke him, saying, master, master, we're going to drown. So Jesus gets up, calms the wind and waters, and the storm subsides. Then he turns and asks the disciples, where is your faith? Jesus takes everyday situations like crossing a lake and encountering a storm and turns them into learning opportunities. He watches how we react to the circumstances of our life and then asks us where that reaction comes from. He expects them to have had enough faith at this point.

in their relationship with him, to trust him in the middle of a storm. But why was this a matter of faith? What were they supposed to have faith in? Well, I think they were supposed to have faith in his word. He told them they were going to the other side and in his love. Remember when they woke him up, they said, Teacher, don't you care if we drown? So clearly they are doubting his love for them.

and if you don't have confidence in God's word, God's promises, and if you don't have confidence in his love for you, then you're never going to trust him with anything important in your life. But I think the climax of this story comes in the disciples' reaction to Jesus calming the storm. Verse 25, in fear and amazement, they asked one another, who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey. him. See, they are more afraid and amazed at Jesus than they were the storm. They were amazed, even fearful, because they've just witnessed Jesus do what the Old Testament said only God can do. Who is this? Well, that's the question that the disciples ask, but it's not answered in this story.

But it is answered in the next story. The next story is a story about a demon-possessed man living in the caves. We don't have time to explore the whole story, but there's something pretty cool here that I don't want you to miss. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the story of Jesus calming the storm is followed every time by the story of the healing of this demonized man. Why? Well, I think because it answers the question they asked. Who is this? See, the demon-possessed man, he lives in caves. He's barely clothed. He's continually trying to harm himself, and everyone is scared of him. He's been ostracized from the community. And when Jesus confronts these demons in this man, the demons ask, what do you want with us, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? So already there,

you're finding out that the demons know more about who Jesus is than the disciples. So Jesus cast the demons out and when the people living in the nearby town heard about it, they came to check out this demonized man, a man that they had probably grown up with, a man they had known for a very long time. Verse 35. The people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind and they were afraid. So do you see that they are afraid also? They're more afraid of Jesus who can cast out demons than this dangerous man, just like the disciples were more afraid of Jesus who can calm the waters and do what only God can do than they are of the violent storm

itself. There's so much going on in this story. First of all, this is a picture of the healing that Jesus brings into our life. This man had demons, but now they're gone. He hadn't worn clothes before, but now he's fully clothed. He'd lived in the caves among the tombs, but now he's been restored to his home. He had shouted at Jesus, but now he's sitting at the feet of Jesus. He was in his right mind. Jesus instructs this man to tell others how much God had done for him, and the man it says went around telling everyone who would listen how much Jesus had done for him. Did you catch it? Go tell how much God is done for you, and he went and told how much Jesus had done for him.

Well, the disciples asked, who is Jesus? And the man who was once demon-possessed answers that question by saying, Jesus is God. Jesus is the God who has power over the chaos of the storms in our world. Jesus is the God who has the power over the chaos in our life. We can trust him with the big things that are chaotic in our world and also all the personal things that are going on in our life. Jesus is the God who loves us, who cares about us, who is trustworthy.

We can believe his promises. Amen. Also, don't forget to sign up for you. for our online Zoom Bible study, Friday, April 3rd from 12 to 1230. Are we living in the end times? We're going to talk about questions people are asking right now and a lot of the misconceptions that come along with those things. Thanks for listening.

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