Sermons from the Gospel of Matthew

The Authority of Christ (I)

Matthew 8:23-34

March 9, 2003

Christ's authority can be easily lumped in with a host of attributes that belong to Him as the God-Man. He is loving, some might say, gentle, kind, full of authority, selfless, etc. Authority gets lost in the crowd. But for Matthew, the authority of Jesus Christ is critical for a foundation of sound faith. Even at the end of his Gospel, Matthew records our Lord's declaration, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth," and so in recognition of this authority, as His disciples, we can therefore carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Apart from believing His authority we would be far too timid to embark on such a task.

Matthew seeks to illustrate examples of Christ's authority in every realm of life so that we might in turn trust Him in every realm of life. Faith does not just affect one's eternal destination. Faith changes the way we live day-by-day. Certainly, when I use the term faith I do not mean a generic faith or a belief in a higher power or a feeling that things will eventually work out in my favor. Faith is ever focused upon the revelation of God so that the believer trusts or rests in the Lord to be faithful to His revelation. Faith looks to the Lord, embraces Him, leans upon Him, and finds deepest satisfaction in relationship to the Lord. At the heart of this kind of faith is a certainty of Christ's authority in every realm of life. Matthew wants us to see this authority from every angle so that whatever circumstances we face we might do so with confident faith in the Lord Jesus Christ - here and in eternity. How does the issue of Christ's authority affect one's faith in Christ?

I. The authority of Christ for those with little faith

Though the description is slight, just reading the words of our text give us the feel of being in the small fishing boat with Christ and the disciples. After being almost swallowed by the crowd, Jesus gave commandment to cross the Sea of Galilee in order to find a bit of solitude. "When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him." The boat probably lacked a sail and was steered by a rudder with a few oars generating the movement. Ten or twelve men would have filled the boat. "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." The word describing the "great storm" [seismos megas) is the Greek term from which we get the word seismic, which is used to describe the tumultuous upheaval of the plates of the earth causing earthquakes. The Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Gennesaret and Sea of Chinnereth, was nearly 700 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea. It was surrounded by rugged terrain that slopped to the Sea creating something of a vacuum effect. It was only about 13 miles long and 7 miles wide, so it was not a large body of water. But when the winds swooped down from the mountains and across the plains upon the Sea it could churn with great agitation. The interesting thing about this particular storm of seismic proportions was that it scared even the experienced fishermen in the boat. This was no ordinary storm! John Broadus quotes another writer that witnessed a similar storm on this same Sea of Galilee.

All the day there had not been a breath of air, the sultry heat had been that of a furnace, but now a cool breeze came off the table land, and rushing down the ravines that descend to the lake, began to ruffle its placid bosom. As it grew darker, the breeze increased to a gale, the lake became a sheet of foam, and the white-headed breakers dashed proudly on the rugged beach; its gentle murmur has now changed into the wild and mournful sound of the whistling wind and the agitated waters. Afar off was dimly seen a little barque struggling with the waves, and then lost sight of amidst the misty rack [Selected Works: Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, 186-187].

It was in the setting of a natural phenomenon that we find the struggle of faith exposed and the authority of Christ magnified. The disciples had witnessed many acts of Christ during their brief time with Him but they still did not grasp His authority over all things. That strategic error in their spiritual perception stunted their faith and limited their confidence in Christ in all of life. They had faith as we shall see, but theirs was "little faith," as described by Christ.

What these stories impress upon us is that faith in Christ is not just for our salvation, but also for every detail and demand of life. Some have allegorized this text, giving it a meaning not clearly stated by the Gospel writer, yet to do so is to impoverish us in understanding how our relationship to Christ touches every facet of life. So let us place us for a few moments in the little boat with the disciples, and see if seeing the authority of Christ over nature can enlarge our own little faith.

1. Analyzing faith

Matthew has just recorded the deficient faith of two men that professed desire to follow Christ. One would follow, if he could be comfortable; the other would follow when it was convenient. Both lacked the abandon to Christ that should characterize our faith. Though they had witnessed our Lord healing the sick and casting out demons in fulfillment of Isaiah's Suffering Servant prophecy (Isa 53), they still failed to see that faith in Christ is not an addition to our life but the focus of our life.

As we analyze their faith, we must admit that the faith of the disciples did not doubt the power of Christ - hence their plea, "Save us, Lord" - but it lacked clarity on the person of Christ - and so the question, "What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" They knew that Jesus Christ was powerful! Who could heal the dreadfully sick lady immediately, and then host a crowd that came to Him for healing and deliverance, and succeed in all that He did without being powerful? Something was missing. It is not enough to just believe that Jesus Christ is powerful. Few would doubt that even in our day and even among false religionists. Just consider the impact of Christianity upon the world and no one can doubt that Christ is powerful in the lives of multitudes. Yet the power of Christ is not limited to the multitudes or even to the compliant and obedient, as we shall consider in the next story (8:28-34). He does not wield power as though He owned special talents or possessed magical abilities in a few arenas. The power of Christ acts out of His nature and character. He is powerful in healing the sick and delivering the possessed because He has subdued through His death the power of sin that lies at the root of these effects of the Fall. But He is also powerful in the realm of nature because He is in His own being both Creator and Sustainer of all nature.

"What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" Their question belied their understanding of Christ. Yes, He was powerful; they believed this. But they had not grappled with His nature as God, so when they faced the ominous scene on the Sea of Galilee, they could appeal to the power of Christ in hope that He might prevail in such a setting, but they did not rest in the Person of Christ as the Creator Himself that slept in their boat. For this reason, Jesus reproves their dull-mindedness. "Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?" The word "afraid" is better translated as "timid or cowardly." It implies cowardice as opposed to bravery or manliness, and hence it is a shrinking back due to fear of harm or hurt. It lacks the abandon of robust faith. It suggests that the disciples were focused upon themselves and not upon Christ. In all of the four uses of this word in Matthew's Gospel (6:30, 8:26, 14:31, 16:8), the disciples are reproved for not believing Christ's authority in some realm of life, whether as our Provider, Protector, or Sustainer.

The scene is amazing, so we are not surprised that "the men were amazed" when "He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm." Matthew's language uses the same adjective to describe both the storm and the calm: the sea was greatly shaking, and now with the rebuke of Christ it was greatly calm. The disciples were learning of Christ's authority. Surely they saw the favor and blessing of God on His work. They witnessed some aspects of His Messianic office. But they had not put all this together to see Christ as the Creator and Sovereign Lord exercising authority over the realm of nature. It is one thing to call Jesus "Lord" in the sense of a title; it is yet another to believe that He is Lord who possesses omnipotent prerogatives. Christ's demonstrations of authority over the physical, spiritual, and natural realms were to lay the foundation for an immoveable faith. They are recorded for us to think upon and be strengthened in our own faith in Him.

2. Refining faith

When the frantic disciples had experienced enough of their stormy trial, they cried out in short, terse words (only three words in the Greek, Kurie, soson, apollumetha), "Save us, Lord, we are perishing!" They had no time for discussion. They were desperate, and desperate times call for dependence upon the mighty Sovereign who rules over heaven and earth. They were certainly right in calling out to Christ but they did so in such a fretful way as to expose the weakness of their faith. But I'm glad that they did because it helps us to see something of how we too might have a similarly timid faith that needs refining.

The disciples' faith might have been little ("you men of little faith" or literally, "little faith ones"), almost overcome or swamped by their fears, and yet Christ graciously answered their cry. I do not take the words of Christ to the disciples to be a rebuke as much as it was reproving and correcting deficiency in their faith. "Why are you afraid," connects the dots for them: why, with the Creator of the winds and the sea in the boat, are you afraid? Later, John could declare, "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being" (John 1:3). Do you suppose that under his breath John thought, 'and that includes storms and wild waves'? "The power that made the storm," wrote Charles H. Spurgeon, "was the very power to which they had to trust" [MTP, vol 49, 482]. This was His storm for He is sovereign. It could not swallow up the Sovereign Lord of Creation! They rightly called upon the Lord to do something but they failed to understand that as Sovereign, it was His storm and they were safe because the Sovereign Lord was with them in His storm.

Here is the kind of faith that the Lord refines in each of us. Remember the scene that Daniel and his three friends faced? In both situations, they encountered dread situations, fiery furnace and a lion's den, and yet their confidence and even calmness came because they believed that by their Sovereign Lord's design, this was His fiery furnace and His lion's den. And they belonged to the Lord, so they found rest by abandoning themselves to their gracious Sovereign Lord. That is faith. It remained in embryo fashion in the disciples, but soon they too emerged with refined faith so that even when they were imprisoned and beaten for the sake of Christ they could rejoice that He would consider them worthy to suffer for His name's sake (Acts 4:13-31). "What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" Before long they learned "what kind of man" this is as they thought deeply upon Christ. The more they learned of Him the more their faith was refined and developed for life's toughest demands.

Alexander Maclaren wisely explains, "Christ yields to the cry of an imperfect faith, and so strengthens it. If He did not, what would become of any of us?" [Expositions of Holy Scripture, vol 6, 414-415] This is why I do not take Christ's words to be a stern rebuke. He saved that for the winds and the sea. Though they had "little faith," they did have faith in Christ. And even imperfect and weak faith is adequate for the compassionate Christ to arouse Himself to meet our need. John Calvin points out that the disciples' fear was beyond the boundary of being helpful. He called it "immoderate dread, the tendency of which is not to exercise their faith, but to banish it [faith] from their minds." He further explains, "Besides, those who are not affected by a sense of calamities, so as to fear, are rather insensible than firm." There is a level of fear that promotes faith. But here the disciples carried their fear of calamity beyond proper bounds to a dread of hurt or harm. "Thus we see that fear, which awakens faith," wrote Calvin, "is not in itself faulty till it go beyond bounds. Its excess lies in disturbing or weakening the composure of faith, which ought to rest on the word of God." So the problem of fear comes when it grows to the point of blocking our minds from the revelation of God so that we are consumed by the object of fear, and not consoled by the promises of God. "Yet we ought to beware that it is not every kind of fear which indicates a want of faith, but only that dread which disturbs the peace of the conscience in such a manner that it does not rest on the promise of God" [Calvin's Commentaries, vol 16, 425].

So let us cry out to the Lord even with our imperfect faith. And let us discipline our minds to think upon our Sovereign Lord that rules even in the storm that confronts us. Let us contemplate His presence and purpose in the storm. Let us find great comfort in knowing that the storm is His storm no less than we are His people. But let us find greater satisfaction in His promises that remain consistent with His character.

II. The authority of Christ for those with no faith

The scene moves from timid, weak-in-faith disciples to the story of two demoniacs that had no faith at all. No one brought the demoniacs to Christ. It seems that instead Christ went to them. There was no more ministry in that region except that of the two demoniacs. The other Synoptics (Mark & Luke) mention only one demoniac, probably because he was the most severe and dominant, and since that was all that was needed to explain their story of Christ's authority over the spirit realm. Christ pursued these two men to deliver them even though they had no faith to help them along the way.

1. Divine compassion

As the story unfolds, we witness Christ crossing the Sea of Galilee to avoid the crowd until He arrived in a region that was dominated by Gentiles. The fact that pigs were raised indicates this to be a Gentile region rather than Jewish. Jesus was met by "two men who were demon-possessed," i.e., they were under the control, domination, and authority of demons. Their minds, wills, and emotions belonged to the demons and not to themselves. To be "possessed" is to be under complete domination. The Greek is probably better translated as "demonized." The Synoptists describe their strength being such that men could not bind them with chains. They struck fear in all that attempted to walk near them. "They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way." But the One possessing all authority did not balk at the sight of these demoniacs.

"What business do we have with each other, Son of God?" The disciples had just asked themselves a question when the stormy sea was immediately stilled at the rebuke of Christ, "What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" Now two demonized men answer their question, "Son of God." This was no ordinary man but the only man with an unmixed, unmingled divine nature. The demons recognized the Son of God so much so that they could not flee His power, but were constrained to bow before Him (Mark 5:6). The demoniacs' question is more literally, "What to us and to you?" The Hebrew idiom suggests that Jesus and the demons have nothing in common - that's an understatement! We would say that they are not even on the same page. They are interested in torturing the men they possess and destroying all that comes their way. Christ brings peace to troubled, sinful lives, and wholeness out of destruction. The demons leave their victims in mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual shambles. The poor men lived among the tombs, had no friends, and cried day and night in their misery. But Jesus Christ transforms so that the whole man is affected by the power of the gospel. The demons were right - they had nothing in common with Christ. Their second question concerns their understanding that Jesus Christ is the Judge. "Have You come here to torment us before the time?" In this case, "the time" has nothing to do with chronological time but rather with the concept of an event - presumably the time of judgment at the consummation of the ages.

That sets the stage for us to consider the compassion of Christ in the display of His authority. Here were two men that could do nothing for themselves. They had no interest in Christ because their minds were filled with hatred, bitterness, anger, lust, greed, and every vile thing imaginable. They had no will that would desire Christ or turn to Christ because their will was under demonic governance. No one could talk these men into turning over a new leaf or even to consider the gospel. They would not listen. They could not listen. But the authority of Christ stopped them dead in their tracks. Though inwardly clawing in the other direction, Jesus Christ subdued the two men by His power. With irresistible might, He conquered the mind, will, and heart of these men. His omnipotence claimed them for His own!

Though our hearts may not have been filled with demons as with these men, we were nonetheless under the dominion of the prince of the power of the air, as Paul explains (Eph 2:1-3). Our minds were darkened as was our understanding, and with great callousness we gave ourselves over to every kind of sin in rebellion against the law of God (Eph 4:17-19). But then the omnipotent Christ subdued us! It was not that our wills first turned to Him and gave Him an invitation to work in our lives. Such an idea denies the sinfulness and callused condition of our hearts apart from God's grace. But like the demoniacs, we got a glimpse of the "Son of God" and felt the blow of His judgment upon us. Fear of His righteous wrath crushed us. But then in great compassion He made us His own. "Go!" Jesus demanded of the demons, and they rushed into the herd of swine while the demonized men were set free. Mark comments that the city people saw the demon-possessed "sitting down, clothed and in his right mind" (5:15). Transformed from the inside out, the man sat before Christ as a new disciple, ready and willing to follow Christ wherever He went. In obedience to Christ, this new believer returned to his home region proclaiming the great things that Jesus had done for him (Mark 5:20).

Here is the compassion of Christ displayed by His authority to subdue the unwilling and make them His disciples. The human will lacks the strength to overcome the power of sin and darkness apart from God's compassion and grace. And so we rejoice that we have an omnipotent Lord that subdued our own hearts so that we might believe in Him.

2. Demonstrative power

Being a barbequed pork fan, I must admit that I've thought often about those 2000 pigs rushing down the steep bank into the sea and their death. Some have questioned the story's legitimacy because they thought it either cruelty to animals or an economic waste. But this shows just how much our minds are skewed by the world's way of thinking. Two thousand pigs could not begin to compare in value to the two souls of the delivered men. Even though the townspeople preferred the pigs to the men, Jesus Christ valued them far more than the pigs. The townspeople have their kinsmen in our day that cry "foul" if the least thing is done to a snail darter or whale or even a rat but shrug their shoulders at the abortion of a precious child or the continued destruction of multitudes through the promotion of all manner of sinful practices.

But there's another reason that the demons were given leave to enter the pigs. Some would declare that the demoniacs were really not demon-possessed but only had psychosomatic illnesses or poor mental health, and only needed a little human kindness therapy to render them harmless. A pig might wallow in mud but he will not run into clear, deep water. Upon the command of Christ, "Go," the demons "came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters." Pigs would not be spooked into water. They fled by the power of the demons that subdued their wills just as they had the two men. In contrast, the two men now stood whole as new creatures in Christ.

Here is the simple point of this story. If Jesus Christ delivered these men that were so subdued and dominated by the power of demons, He has the authority to subdue your will and mind that you might be set free from your sin. Are there sins in your life that you think Christ cannot conquer? Are there desires that you think are beyond His control? Hear Him that said, "Go," and two men were freed, and who now says, "Come," and drink the water of life freely through Him.

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