Misunderstanding God’s Authority will Lead to misplaced Faith!

In the many discussions I had in the last few weeks, since the eminent danger of this world wide pandemic crept ever closer to our peaceful existence, centred around faith. Many of the messages that I sent out to our congregation and close friends in the last month was drenched with the underlying topic of faith. The topic is no different today and the reason for that is because I firmly believe that our faith is being tested as children of God.

In fact I see this topic of utmost importance; how firmly we stand on our faith, will greatly determine the decisions we make and the decisions we make will in turn determine our future. The biggest mistake you can make today is to make your decisions based on human or worldly wisdom. In everything we have to please God first, and it is impossible to please Him without faith.

Jesus spoke on faith quite extensively while ministering on earth but still when He had a chance to speak to Peter alone before He was arrested in the garden, He spoke to him about his faith. If this is the last time I could speak to you, I would want to speak to you about your faith.

Let us read:

Mark 4:35-41

'On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”'

We will Face Windstorms

Windstorms are something we actually face on a regular basis in our lives. They come in a moment and they are gone in the next. We will regularly face them in our lives. Personally I have faced many different windstorms in my life, and I know you can tell me of the storms you have faced in yours.

We are not indemnified from storms, no matter how good we are, or how well we keep to Biblical morals, windstorms will at some point hit us. The local body where I serve, faced many windstorms in the past, and we will continue to face them. Let us take courage: they don’t last long.

Every now and again you will face a windstorm that will threaten your very existence, just like the disciples faced on that night. You see facing a windstorms on dry land versus facing it on the open ocean are two different things. That night tested the faith of the disciples. When a windstorm comes into your life; threatens your livelihood, shakes the foundation of your standard of living and beats down your pride so that nothing of you remains; your faith will be the first thing on display and the first thing up for testing.

Our Actions during Windstorms reveals our True Faith.

You can picture the scene; On the one hand you have Jesus, quietly asleep at the back of the boat on a comfy soft pillow and on the other hand you have people freaking out, spinning around in a frenzy trying to get the intrusive water, caused by this mighty storm, out off the boat.

Please bear in mind that at this point in the story of Jesus’s ministry on earth, these men have seen countless miracles. They had firsthand experience of what Christ has done, they have seen it with their own eyes, yet they are bobbing around in absolute chaos, when this storm hits them. Just a quick side note; it is one thing to see God move in the life of someone else and proclaim: God is good, but when you are stuck in dire straits, it is very difficult to apply that same amount of faith.

How Jesus dealt with the storm was amazing to say the least. He displayed through His actions absolute faith. Oh how I wish that I could look at the storms of my life and deal with the absolute power and confidence that Christ did that night. Wouldn’t we all love to sleep through our storms?

Let me tell you why the disciples truly failed in faith that evening.

They did not understand who He truly was. (Misunderstanding His Authority)

If you read the scripture you see that they addressed Him as “Teacher”. The Greek word is Didaskalos, which is translated as Master, Teacher, Rabbi, or one who instructs. This is the basic word that was used for any person that had the ability or authority to instruct or teach others in the Jewish community on the matters of doctrine. In their moment of distress they could have called Him anything they wanted, but they chose the word teacher. They could have said Lord, but they didn’t, they could have called Him Messiah but they didn’t, they could have called out "Son of God, please have Mercy!", but they did not. They called Him Teacher. The misunderstanding of His Authority caused them to misplace their faith. Instead of placing their faith in the Saviour, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, they only saw Him as a teacher, which in turn made their situation or problem bigger than the revelation they had of who He is. The fear they had in the potential outcome of their situation grew bigger because they lost sight of who He truly was; they misunderstood His true authority.

After Jesus rebuked the storm the disciples was amazed and their response was: “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”’ The revelation of who Christ truly is will bring you peace in the midst of the storm.

They expected Him to do things the way they do things.

When they approached Jesus they firstly misidentified the authority He had and secondly they questioned Him on doing nothing. Up to this point Jesus did nothing but sleep. The conditions (the storms of life) did not disturb Him. But the fact that the storm did not disturb Him, greatly disturbed the disciples. “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Sometimes we determine the level of faith people have by their level of doing or busyness. This is absolutely inaccurate. The opposite also isn’t true either; the sign of having great faith is not in doing nothing. Faith in Christ is dealing with situations like He would, waiting on Him before acting, trusting Him no matter the outcome. Faith in God produces godly character and hope (Rom 5:1-5). In the disciples eyes that evening, Jesus did nothing, therefor He did not care about them nor did He care about Himself.

So many people have this same attitude today; if Jesus loved me He would have saved my family from that accident; If Jesus really cared about the world, why doesn’t He do something about the poverty and global chaos, etc. They honestly believe that Jesus doesn’t care, because they don’t know who He truly is.

When we expect God to deal with our problems in the way we want Him to deal with it, we are unknowingly diminishing His power and authority and misplacing our faith.

• Palm Sunday - They worshiped him the one day crucified Him the next

• Peter - Fought for Him one minute, denied Him the next

• Jobs' Wife - Misplaced her faith because she did not know God, did not understand His authority

There are so many examples in God’s Word of people that turned their backs on God because He didn’t sort out their problems the way they wanted Him to deal with it. Jesus, in this story calls them out on that attitude and calls it “no Faith”. You see when we diminish the power and authority of God by wanting Him to deal with the problem as we see fit, we do have faith, it is just misplaced faith. The faith that should have been placed on God is now placed on something else.

Let me say this: Many would say that they had no faith, because Jesus said they had no faith (v40), but I would argue that they had faith, their faith was in their eminent destruction and death (v38). They honestly believed that they are perishing. Did Jesus get it wrong then? NO. Not at all. My point is this: If you place your faith in anything else than Jesus, in His eyes you have NO FAITH (in Him). Placing your faith in your earthly securities equals to no faith in God. Setting your eyes on man made, fleshly outcomes, equals to no faith in God. Seeing God move mightily in the lives of people around you, but yet you trust in yourself and the ways of man, equals to no faith in God. Not trusting God in the the things allowed in His infinite wisdom, even the things that hurt us, equals to no faith in God.

"God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent by His power."

- Graham Cook

Let us learn how to trust Him, even when it hurts, even when it seems as if we are going to lose our lives on earth. He has our best interest at heart and that best interest will not be played out here on earth, but in an eternal Kingdom. We will inherit all that He has promised, if we believe.

The Luxury of Looking Back

The difference between us today and the disciples in that small little boat, is that we have no excuse in doubting who Christ really is. We have the luxury of looking back at the cross and seeing what Christ had accomplished for us. They had to trust in a man that still had to go to the cross.

Today we can undeniably proclaim that Jesus is so much more than the best teacher that ever lived!

He is the creator of heaven & earth (John 1:1-4; Col 1:15-16)

He is the ruler of the universe (Isa 9:6)

He is the bright and morning star (Rev 22:16)

He is the saviour of every soul that believes in Him (1 Tim 4:10)

He is the healer of every decease (Ps 103:3)

He is the one who conquered death (2 Tim 1:10)

He is exalted above everything (Phil 2:9)

He is High and lifted up (Isa 57:15-17; John 12:32)

He sits at the right hand of God the Father (Heb1:3)

He is the truth (Joh 14:6)

He is all powerful (Col1:17)

He is the firstborn among many (Ps 89:27: Col 1:15)

He is the One who is present in all your trouble (2 Cor 1:4)

He is the One who provides in all your needs (Phil 4:19; 2 Cor 9:8)

He is the One who has called you by name (Eph 4:4: 1 Cor 1:9)

He is the One that saved you from eternal destruction (2 Thess 2:9-10)

Do not wonder who He is in times of crisis…NO

He is the One and true Word (John 14:6; John 1:1-5)

He is the One who satisfies (Ps 91:16)

He is the One who lifts you up (Luk 1:52; Ps 40:2)

He is the One that seated you in high places IN HIM (Eph 2:6)

He is God (Phil 2:5-6; Col 2:9-10)

He is almighty (1 Chron 29:11)

He is an all consuming fire (Heb 12:29)

He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5)

He is the Lamb that was slain for our sins (Rev 5:9)

He is the One who forgives (1 John 1:9)

He is the One that laid down His life (1 John 3:16)

He is the King of all kings & Lord of all other lords (Rev 17:14; Rev 19:16)

He is the commander of the heavenly Hosts (1 Kings 22:19-22)

He is forever and He is victorious (Rev 1:17; John 16:33)

He is Holy (Acts 3:14; Heb 7:26)

He is the ONLY One worthy of our praise and adoration. (Rev 4:1)

He is the only One to be feared (Luk 5:26; Eph 5:21)

His name is Jesus, King of my heart.

When we look back in belief at what Christ has done, and we receive a revelation of who He truly is, we can look forward to a life fully safe in the hands of Jesus. We have no reason to misplace our faith. We have no reason to doubt in His all powerful and magnificent wisdom. All we need to do is trust and believe as we obey His voice.

Take a moment and start praising God for who He is and start seeing your problems becoming smaller in the Majesty of the One who created you.