God. If there was ever a time when I wanted you to touch a message to cause us to almost feel the spray of the water in our face or hear the wind, it would be.
Now, that’s impossible. Of course, unless you touch our hearts and communicate it even in a more powerful way.
Father, as we looked at this portion of scripture in Luke eight, I pray to God that it would absolutely absolutely change our lives.
We ask you Lord in Jesus name and all God’s people said, amen, grab your bibles in and turn if you would to Luke’s gospel chapter eight.
Luke chapter eight. And we are in verses 19 to 25 this morning. Luke chapter 8, 19 to 25.
This portion of scripture has been known and revered as a portion of scripture where Jesus did the greatest of natural miracles.
Now, I don’t think a miracle as natural. I thought they were supernatural and they are.
But in regards to a natural setting, the environment, if there was ever a great miracle that Jesus did, I would have to say that it’s probably one of his works of raising someone from the dead.
Perhaps nothing is more greater than when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus has been dead for four days.
And as the Bible says, truly, he stink by now and Jesus called him forth and Lazarus came out of the tomb.
But if you had to look at a natural miracle, then here in Luke chapter eight is the record of this great miracle.
But listen, we’re looking at a message entitled, when it looks like God doesn’t care and I don’t know about you.
But in my life, there’s been times when it looks and feels and smells like God doesn’t care.
And yet if you, if you walk along with Jesus, long enough, you begin to realize that your feelings regarding that never change church.
Listen, there are feelings that tell us, scream at us that God doesn’t care.
There are things that our eyes take in that yell at us that God doesn’t care.
Every sense and every bit of discernment around us that we would in our natural mind be thinking about would declare God doesn’t care.
And we struggle with that as people, we fight that we cry out. Oh God.
Where are you in a moment of temptation or in a moment of sickness or weakness or peril God.
Where are you? And sometimes there’s that alone feeling where you feel just so alone.
Why do these things happen to a believer?
And what does it happen in our lives as Christians, if we give our lives to Christ, isn’t it just going to be easy?
Is it just going to be smooth? No, in the world?
The Bible says you will have difficulty, you will have hardship.
Jesus also told us that we need to be careful how we hear.
In fact, in Luke chapter eight verse 18, last week, he warned us therefore take heed how you hear why?
Because the word of God goes out and how we hear it matters because we need to apply it.
We can feel or think or say what we are discerning in our own natural man and we can give the indictment against God that He doesn’t care.
It feels like God doesn’t care and, and yet we’re not exempt from hardship and difficulty. Christian.
Listen, God never promised to relieve this stuff from us. God promised to hold our hand through it.
God promised that he would take us through to the other side of these things and that these very difficult things that you and I go through would actually have a purpose and a point to them that we would come out on the other side.
Different people, people ready and able to minister to other people about the wonderful power and love of our God.
The more and more I read the Bible, the more and more I’m falling in love with the goodness of our God.
I’m blessed by his goodness over and over again.
If you don’t know that dive into the Bible more and more and more read the Bible.
But Jesus said, take heed. How are you here? Now?
Listen, before we get into this study, there’s an interesting little what’s considered a parenthetical insert.
Remember in our last teaching together, Jesus had been teaching the parable of the sower and the seed and that was the word of God going out into the various hearts.
And he ends it by announcing in verse 18, be careful how you hear.
That is a warning to all of mankind concerning the Bible, concerning the word of God.
When you read it, be careful how you hear it. Give all diligence, give all attention to the Bible.
Listen carefully. Jesus is saying to how you hear it. Why?
Because in the end of our lives, God will demand a reckoning.
Did we do what we knew what we knew from God to do what we know of God in this life to obey what we knew in this life having lived it?
Did we do those things that is incumbent upon us?
And the more we know the more is expected of us.
Jesus gave warning to that so true is that we just touch on for a moment, verses 19 to 21.
And then we get into our study that’s entitled this morning when it looks like God doesn’t care.
It’s a very interesting thing that has caused a lot of debate and it shouldn’t. Are you ready?
Because I know some of you and you’ve never heard verses 19 to 21 before.
And uh you’re gonna be challenged here in a moment. Look at verse 19.
When we pick it up at the end of his teaching, it says here then his mother and his brothers came to him and could not approach him because of the crowd.
And it was told to him by son who said, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you.
But Jesus answered and said to them, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.
What is this? Well, first of all, these are his actual physical, his mother and his brethren is the word in the Greek.
I’ll give it to you more specifically in a moment.
It is Mary and his brothers or brethren more specifically. So where do we get that from?
Well, first of all, that’s exactly what it says right there in Luke chapter eight, the word and you can’t get away from it.
The announcement is made and I know that many of you have been taught in a denomination that you have been brought up in that Mary never had any Children after Jesus was born.
The Bible says the exact opposite of that tells us how many and gives us their names.
The Bible says that Joseph did not know Mary until Jesus was born that means after Jesus was born, Joseph knew Mary and this is what happened.
Matthew chapter 13 verse 55. You can jot it down or go there if you’d like Matthew 1355.
When Jesus was doing all of this great work. A question was given, is this not the carpenter’s son?
Well, who was the carpenter, Joseph, they are looking at him on a human plane and they’re saying, isn’t this the carpenter son Jesus?
Is it just him? The answer of course is yes.
In a sense, his adopted son Joseph didn’t have any of his blood in Jesus.
But look at this is not his mother called Mary and is his brothers, aren’t they James and Joseph and Simon and Judas are Jude in the Bible Verse 56.
And his sisters are they not all with us.
These are not brothers and sisters like you and I are brothers and sisters.
This is the actual Greek word that means these are jesus’, half brothers.
The word in Greek actually means and I’m not kidding. The word means womb, mates, not roommates but womb mates.
They shared the same womb. How many brothers? Well, the names are right here, James.
Hey, he’s the author, James, the brother of the Lord Jesus.
He is the author of the epistle of the, of James in the Bible, Joses Simon and Jude.
Jude is also the author of the epistle of Jude, found just before the book of revelation.
In fact, when Jesus rose again from the dead, the Bible tells us that his own family didn’t believe in him until after he had risen from the dead.
These are the ones that the Bible is referring to.
And then it says, are not his sisters with us. What do we know from this?
The word sisters in plural means more or two or more.
Could have been two, could have been three daughters to that family or three sisters.
Why do I say that?
Because the Bible makes reference to that, that his family came to him and tried to meet him.
And my point is this Jesus had been teaching and doing miracles all day long.
It is now late in the evening and they came, maybe who knows perhaps to rescue him from ministry and you’ll see how big of a day it was.
And Jesus says this amazing statement that’s not rude.
In fact, those of you who are Christians, you’re going to understand it very well.
Jesus said those who are of my mother or my brethren or those who do the word of God, they know it and they do it.
What does that mean? It means simply this if in this life, blood is thicker than water, do you know what that means?
Have you ever heard that saying before? That means kinship, blood relations is thicker than acquaintances.
If blood is thicker than water, then what could be thicker than blood spirit, if blood is thicker than water, then spirit is thicker than blood.
Jesus is saying that there is a truth that resides in the life of a believer that when they begin to enjoy what’s called the coin of the fellowship of God among believers, it transcends acquaintances and it transcends even blood.
Do we not know that in this fellowship? How close we are to one another?
We vacation together, we eat together, we have our times together. How is that true?
And how is it that we can be so close if there’s things that we don’t even share with physical family?
Because spirit is thicker than blood.
I have to tell you, I don’t know where I would be in this world if it wasn’t for the family of Christ.
I got to tell you when Lisa and I moved from Calvert Chapel Costa Mesa to Chino Hills.
You guys that was in 1986. You got to understand something in 1986.
Most of you didn’t live here except unless you were a cow or coyotes.
It was pretty rural and we thought we had never heard of this place before.
I had never seen this place before.
Uh If it wasn’t in the direction of the Pacific Ocean, if it didn’t smell like salt water, I wasn’t going to be near it.
And when we woke up on that next morning, he moved out here, I thought we had fallen off into Wyoming somewhere because I didn’t smell salt water.
I smelled cows later, I was corrected by a dairy man who said that’s not the smell of cows.
That’s the smell of money. I never knew money to smell like a cow, but apparently it does to some of you, there’s a relationship that transcends.
That’s what Jesus is saying. Listen the truth of the matter after all of the parabolic teaching regarding what he just gave.
And then he says to the disciples, watch out how you hear it, be careful how you incline your ears.
Here’s the truth of the matter.
There is a relationship that transcends that of this world and it is spirit and the disciples heard that they had seen the miracles, they had seen the work and that’s where we get into our study verse 22.
Now it happened on a certain day.
You’ll see that it is in fact that same day, a certain day that he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, let us cross over to the other side of the lake and they launched out and as they sailed, he fell asleep and a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and they were in jeopardy and they came to him and they woke him saying master, master, we are perishing.
Then he arose and he rebuked the wind and the raging of the water and they ceased.
And there was a calm but he said to them, where is your faith? And they were afraid?
And they marveled saying to one another who can this be for?
He commands even the winds and the water and they obey him.
This event is recorded in three of the four gospels, Matthew Mark and Luke.
And so whenever you’re reading, the Bible, people will ask, why is there four gospels?
Well, the short version is this, God delivers in technicolor, his message, there are things that only appear in one or two of the gospels for a reason based upon who the author is and the direction in which he is writing, it’s very key.
But listen, whenever you see more than one, more than two, maybe three, sometimes all four events are recorded in all four gospels.
Look at it this way, Christian and you’ll understand the Bible so much more clearly that when you look at Matthew, for example, let me put it to you like this.
If you’ve been to Disneyland, you know those vellum cartoons of Mickey Mouse, you know, when you’re going down main street on the left hand side, they have the Disney cartoonist that’s behind the glass there.
And the guy will draw Mickey in stick figure outline. He’s just a little empty Mickey.
He’s only pencil and he’s on a white background, but he’s drawn on a plastic villa and the artist picks up and lays it down onto the white background right.
He has no color. He’s got no nothing. He’s just a stick figure, so to speak, pencil drawing.
And then he draws on another Villa or uses water color.
And then he puts the vellum on top of the other villain on top of the white background.
And now Mickey has his pants and his suspenders and his shirt on.
Then he lays down another vellum on top of it.
And now Mickey has gloves and now a scenery appears behind Mickey.
Then he lays down another vellum layer upon layer.
The more layers you lay down, the more clear the picture is until the cartoon is complete.
The gospels are like that sandwiched one on top of another.
Whenever you look at an event, realize this when it’s recorded more than once, then there’s more to see than what one reporter’s opinion has given.
It doesn’t mean one reporter’s opinion is greater than the other. Matthew is not greater than Mark.
What Matthew does is shed a little bit more light onto what Mark has shown us earlier.
It’s a very wonderful way of teaching and of course, God gives us the four gospels point number one in our study this morning.
Is this as we look to it when it looks like God doesn’t care, jot it down.
Verses 22 to 23. We need to put the Lord back in our circumstance when we think God does not care when we begin to see things as though God doesn’t care.
We need to stop Christian and put the Lord right back in the circumstance that you and I are in many times when something happens, we panic and we run.
Have you ever seen a little kid when they’re scared? Where do they run?
Do they run down the street screaming?
I mean, they might, but that’s only if mom is down the street, don’t they run to mama or don’t they run to papa?
When a little child is scared, they immediately cling to mom and dad, they’ll push back from a stranger.
When difficulty comes, what Jesus is teaching is after all of this, that he gave the disciples needed to learn that they needed to put God right?
Always in the middle of the circumstance. And you might say, well, Pastor Jack, that’s great for them. No.
Listen, it’s something that we need to do right now today in our lives always because my friend listen, as we read about a storm, storms will come and go in our life.
And it doesn’t mean God doesn’t care. Why is my life so difficult?
It has no reflection or bearing upon God’s love for you.
Some of you have hardships in life and you’re thinking, what have I done wrong?
And you’ve done nothing wrong? Do you realize?
Especially in a church this size, there will be more than one, more than 10 people in need all the time.
Why those people in need are always God’s implants for us to test our hearts. How will we respond?
If you and I have two pieces of bread, will we give that other piece to the one that has nothing?
Whenever there’s the work of God working in the world, there will always be a need.
Jesus will see to it. Why to test our hearts? Are we a giving people?
Are we a loving people? Are we a caring people? What does that prove?
It proves number one and God will go to great lengths to get this across in our minds and in our hearts and in our lives will we do?
What the word of God says? That’s why these guys are in a boat by a storm is coming.
All right disciples. You just heard a great day of teaching you. You’ve seen miracles and applications.
Now do it. That’s what Jesus says. Every time we leave a sermon, every time we read our bible.
God is now saying, ok, now do that. That’s why the Christian life should never be boring.
Put the Lord back in the circumstances. How so? Well, number one realize that Jesus is with us.
You see Jake? That’s so simple. I know it’s simple.
Don’t you think Jesus being on the boat with the disciples is simple. How close was he to them?
They have unearthed these boats, by the way, you can go visit them in Israel 2000 year old boat.
It’s about 18 ft long. You got 12 guys and Jesus in the boat.
That’s 13 guys in a boat that’s 18 ft long. Chances are he’s not very far from you.
Is he keep that in mind? We need to realize that Jesus is with us.
And it says here in verse 22 now it happened on a certain day that he got into a boat with his disciples.
I want you to circle the word happened, circle the word certain and circle the word with now it happened.
It almost sounds like an accident. Huh? That just so happened. Oh no, it’s the exact opposite.
This word implies that it’s ordained of God. Oh Whatever is happening, it’s under God’s watchful eye.
Number two, I realized under this here, realizing that Jesus is with us is that it’s a certain day whenever you read in your Bible that Jesus met a certain woman, Jesus came to a certain village or it was a certain day, you better get ready, put your helmet on and read your Bible because something cool is coming.
There’s going to be something coming down.
Whenever the Bible says a certain person was, you got something cooking and we sure do right here.
And then the Bible says here that he got in the boat.
Did you see that with his disciples that’s going to become very important in a moment.
Realize that Jesus Christ is with us.
You and I panic in life situations because when things hit us, one of the first things we realize and I think we’re wrong in assuming this is how any evil can come to me.
When I’m a Christian, how can evil befall me?
Look, how many Christians have been beheaded in the last 10 years?
Are they Christians or were they not Christians?
They were killed for their faith and, and, and our mindset here in the west is, oh my goodness.
If I get a flat tire, did God, did you abandon me? The heavens are like brass. Why?
What happened? My hard drive seized up. I can’t handle this persecution.
Listen, we have something happening and we begin to think that God doesn’t love us anymore.
That is wrong thinking. I don’t know where it came from but it’s wrong.
Jesus said I will be with you.
He said I will be with you all the way to the end of the world and to the end of the age, he’ll be with us.
Says the Bible. Mark’s gospel tells us that Mark 35 or Mark 4, 35. Excuse me.
That on that day was the very same day when it was evening. He said to them.
So Mark this great miracles have been done. Jesus had been working very hard.
It’s late in the day now he made the announcement, those who do the word, they are my brothers, they are my mothers, they are my family.
And so now they get into the boat scripture here suggests that there had never been a day like this day in the ministry of Jesus, he had taught, he had healed, he had rescued, he had delivered, he had encountered opposition.
He expounded the word of God and he taught by illustrations to the parables.
But we need to put the Lord right back in the circumstances of our life by not only realizing but by listening to listen to what the Lord Jesus is saying to us to listen again, we take it so much for granted.
I heard, I heard. But are we listening, Jesus said, look, your Bible verse 22, the letters are written in red.
He said to them, let us cross over to the other side of the lake and they launched out.
I want to ask you, who do you think the them are, who are the thems?
Well, it’s the 13 of them. Who’s the US? Let us cross over?
Do you see any exception in that statement?
Now, in a moment, you’re gonna say, man, you’re, you’re splitting hairs, aren’t you? No, not at all.
We need to be careful of what Jesus says. Does he not say?
Let us cross over to the other side? That’s what he said. And so they launched it out.
You know what? I bet I’m, I’m, I’m just inserting this in my thought. Was Jesus a sailor?
No, what was he by trade carpenter? But were they sailors. They’re fishermen.
I bet they thought of course we can handle this. Jesus we have.
In fact, that’s a great idea. Jesus. You the preacher evangelist carpenter. Right? Get in the boat.
We’ll take you to the other side. We’re the fishermen. We know this lake. We got it.
You guys, I have fallen down more hard and being disappointed when I thought I could handle it.
It’s ok. God run the universe. Go help all those needy people.
I’ll take it from here and I don’t know about you but me and the Lord uses the, the simplest things to, to get my attention on this.
Oh man. Pastor and bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called when it looks like God doesn’t care.
We’re glad you took the time to be with us today here on Real Life Radio.
You know, this message today is just part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
Have you ever had that feeling that your future is behind you?
We often forget about the life that’s waiting for us.
Instead of focusing on heaven and the freedom we have to pursue Christ.
Our minds are only on the challenges that we’re facing right now.
If that sounds like you, we have a great way for you to stay focused on Christ.
It’s Pastor Jack’s desire that your relationship with the Lord takes on a whole new level and downloading the real life mobile app is a great place to everything that Pastor Jack has to offer media wise is right there on the app, including real life TV, podcasts, live streams and even our very own real life radio broadcasts.
You need encouragement, check out Pastor Jack’s messages, Bible studies and weekly devotions. Maybe you’re looking to connect.
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