Security in a world of fear

As Wes says, the reading is taken from the Matthew’s Gospels that you have on your chairs, from page 20, chapter 8, verse 23 to 27.

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him, and behold, There arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

And the men marvelled, saying, what sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?

Well, Lee, thank you very much indeed, and thanks for sharing so openly. It’s great to hear your story, and may I welcome you very warmly, especially if you’re here as a guest for the first time today. It’s, it’s lovely to have you with us, and I hope this might be the first of many visits. Tuesday or Thursday. We look at the same passage, very much the same kind of material, on a Thursday.

So if ever you miss out on a Tuesday, you can come on a Thursday. Now, the subject we’ve been asked to look at today is security in a world of fear. A number of years ago, I was put next to a city financier at lunch, and his name was Jonathan Ruffer. Some of you may know of Ruffer’s PLC. And he explained to me as a novice that 2 things really drive the city, and you will have heard this many times.

Greed and fear, and I made the mistake of asking him which he thought drove me, and without a moment’s pause for thought, he just said greed. Well, there can be no doubting today that fear is dominant, whether it’s 2008, the GFC, Brexit, Trump, Putin, Kim Jong-un, whether it’s Grenfell Tower or ISIL or the prospect of Boris or Corbyn. Fear, of course, does come in many shapes and sizes, and there’s the personal fear that comes from the next visit to the consultant, or from the partner’s tongue or temper, the fear of discovery, a summons from the HR department. And then there’s the kind of corporate fear that stalks the street in the light of an impending flu epidemic. I cycle everywhere in London when I possibly can.

Once in a while I travel on the Tube. One time I was travelling on the Tube just after the bird flu scare. Somebody sneezed and there was fear in the carriage. Then there’s the nagging, gnawing fear that keeps us awake night after night, and then there’s the sudden fear that produces a rush of adrenaline. There have been a number of occasions in my life where I’ve experienced that.

The day I wrote off my first car, I think it was a kind of degree of difficulty 15, triple axel, double loop. Onto the central reservation of the M3. The day I was chased by a bull and later, not on the same day, by a bull elephant. The day I lost control of a tractor on a 1-in-4 hill down in the West Country. And I once worked for a boss who used to drink half a bottle of whisky every evening, and that, I tell you, employment was not without its fears.

Then fear, however, is not always altogether a bad thing. So I think I mentioned before, I live in a square in South London. There’s a balustrade round at the 4th floor, outside the, the top level of the square, where you can walk around a gutter kind of thing. I came out of my house one day and I looked up to the square at number 2, number 3 up in the square there. There on the 4th floor on the gutter walking around, a 4-year-old child.

Fear is not altogether a bad thing. Such a thing as good fear. In fact, in the Bible, over 500 references to fear, by no means all of them are negative. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And what I want us to do today is to look at just one brief period, one incident in the life of Jesus.

We can only look at one incident, we haven’t got time for more in this short lunchtime. And I want us to see the power of Jesus Christ and his offer of security. And then I want us to see the challenge of Jesus Christ that comes with that power. And the place of security. So the power of Christ.

I want us to see here that if we follow Jesus Christ, we can have ultimate security today. That Jesus scatters fear. Because Jesus has absolute authority, because he is the supreme power in the universe, both in this life and in the next, if we belong to Jesus, we need not fear. He controls the past, he orders the present, He governs the future. And in a sense, the whole of this little book that you have in your hand is about the authority of King Jesus.

The final words Jesus says come in 50— a group of 51 words. And he begins his statement like this. Having been raised from the dead, Jesus announces to his disciples, he says this, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

But the incident I want us to examine, which is really part of the whole piece in all of this little account of Jesus’ life at the bottom of page 20 there. So make sure you’ve got page 20 open. And I want to suggest there’s no doubt that it actually happened. We need not doubt that it actually happened. So this incident, the famous calming of the storm, is recorded independently both by Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And Mark, in his Gospel account, tells us that there were other boats on the lake, not just the one we read of here. So it was widely witnessed. Also, doesn’t it read like an eyewitness account? Just have a look at sentence 24 through to 26. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves.

But he was asleep. And they went and woke Jesus, saying, Save us, Lord! We are perishing. And Jesus said to them, Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Now I’m neither a sailor nor a meteorologist. I fear the sea. But I’m told that the Galilean Lake is a sea of considerable size, of such size that fierce and violent storms are frequent, that they come up suddenly and they’re sufficiently powerful to sink a boat even of experienced fishermen. And Jesus’ disciples were certainly that. But this storm is beyond them.

They reached the limit of their human powers and in their terror, realising they’re about to be destroyed, they scramble to the back of the boat and wake Jesus. There are a number of aspects to note. The first is this, that Jesus is asleep. Now, would you ever have put that in if you were making this story up? It wouldn’t have occurred to you to put something like that in, that he was asleep.

It speaks of Jesus’ humanity and absolute exhaustion. But secondly, that Jesus simply speaks. Look at the second half of verse 26, he rose, He rebuked the winds and the sea. There was a great calm. This speaks of absolute authority, as the one who has stepped in as Lord of this creation, the Creator himself, stepping in from outside and able to order the elements.

So that the elements rise up in uncontrollable chaos and Jesus has total and supreme command. What authority! It’s as if Jesus were standing in Florida as one of the autumn hurricanes broke— Harvey, Irma, Maria, Nate.

Be still.

It’s as if Jesus were in PNG, or on the streets of Christchurch, New Zealand, or on the Nepalese foothills as the first tremors were felt. Down.

And notice the immediacy of the calm. At the end of verse 26, there was a great calm, glassy flat, not a ripple, peace. I was surfing at Senna Cove. It’s not a pretty sight, but, I mean, Senna Cove is beautiful, but I was surfing down there a number of years ago and it was sort of ferocious waves. It’s down just down by Penzance.

And I said to one of the locals, how come the waves are so big today? Oh, there’s been a hurricane, and they mentioned some far-flung land on the other, other side of the Atlantic. I said, what, waves? Oh yeah, that’s what happens, isn’t it? They roll on out.

But when Jesus speaks, great calm, immediate.

Now either this is simply made up— would you make something like this up if you were an experienced fisherman? You just wouldn’t. It’s beyond belief. Or here is the divine being, the creator of the universe, who has stepped into his created order with supreme authority and power, and like a trainer with a puppy, or an adult with an obedient child, which not all of us know much about, just with a word.

And if you doubt the power of it, try it. One of my favourite beaches in the West Country is a place called Lantic Bay. It used to be totally secluded, and then unfortunately the Daily Telegraph ran a kind of holiday supplement on it, and now you all go there, so it’s less secluded. But anyway, it used to be great. And when I go there in the winter, there’s never anybody there.

You know, you used to go and jump the waves with the kids and all that sort of stuff. But because I often speak on this passage, whenever I go there, in order to keep it fresh, I always nip behind one of the big rocks on Lantic Bay and I say to the stormy wind and waves, be still! And you know what happens? Nothing. Unless somebody comes and overhears, in which case I get carried away by the men in white coats.

But I think the most surprising thing that we find here is to be found in the first half of verse 26.

He said to them, why are you afraid, O you of little faith?

In other words, to Jesus, to know him, to have him with you, is to need no fear. If you’ve really thought hard, engaged your brain, actually reasoned it through, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. He has power as Creator over everything, then we need not fear.

Now please, this is not suggesting that with Jesus you and I will never suffer fallout from the credit crunch. This is not suggesting that we shall never be caught up in an earthquake or a storm at sea. Patently not. That’s exactly what’s going on. In fact, this time last year I was in the Southern Hemisphere in New Zealand and sat with a couple who had actually been in Christchurch that day when the second— when the first and the second earthquake struck.

And you know liquefaction, geologists, you know, the rocks turn to liquid? And Jay talked about wading knee-deep through the liquid rock. To try and make contact with each of his 3 children at different schools in Christchurch, New Zealand. So this isn’t a kind of, you know, get-out-of-jail card, a kind of free pass from any future difficulties. But rather, with Jesus, if only we will recognise who he is, then we really need fear no greater power, because he controls the past, he orders the present, He governs the future.

There is a God. His name is Jesus. He is the supreme and only true power in this universe. He has broken in. And if we come to him, ultimately he scatters all fear.

Now this point here in embryo, it’s in the early part of Matthew’s account, it is driven home supremely by Jesus’ his resurrection from the grave. I mean, really, what is the ultimate fear? Death, isn’t it? Somebody just said to me at the beginning of this meeting, we’re all in the queue for the crem. Yeah, that’s absolutely right.

We all are. Every single one of us. Some of us entertain ourselves for a moment or two by playing footy. Some of us play a bit of golf. But you’re still in the queue for the crem.

What is the ultimate fear? Death. Jesus conquers death, rises from the grave, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. So that if I’m with him, there is no ultimate fear. Now I’ve been in my job as a clergyman since 1991, just short of 27 years.

And I’ve been with men and women in every circumstance of life: sickness, personal family trauma, job loss, the uncertainty of recession. And I’ve sat with men and women quite literally as they have walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

Do you know that famous Psalm 23? I think huge numbers of people know it. I used to sing it with the soldiers when I was in the army. They used to say to me when we were coming back from a night out or something like that, go on, boss, it’s your turn, you lead us in a song. We used to sing Psalm 23.

They all knew it from all over parts of England. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I need fear no evil, for you are with me.

Of course, without this reality, without Jesus the Lord of the universe, you’re alone.

You should be afraid.

You have no help. You are at the whim of whatever whirlwind next whips up.

Come across Jacques Monod, the man on whose much of Richard Dawkins’ writing is based, a famous secularist from the 1960s, a French guy. Man must at last wake to his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He is like a gypsy living on the boundary of an alien world. Deaf to his music, indifferent to his hopes, his sufferings and his crimes. Is that what you believe?

There is no God? You’re alone? You should be frightened.

But we can’t leave this incident here. So what I want us to do now is to move from the power of Jesus and his offer of security in a world of fear, To what I’m going to call, and I’d love you to think about this, chew this over, to what I’m going to suggest is the challenge of Jesus and the place of security in a world of fear. So the power and the offer, the challenge and the place. Because what Matthew has done, and we’re going to have to look once again closely at this text here, what Matthew has done in his account of Jesus’ life is to group together a set of incidents that demonstrate his absolute authority. And all the time Matthew is telling us what we should do about it.

So the different things Jesus does here are called collectively the works of the Christ, the deeds of the Messiah. And the different things that Jesus does to demonstrate his power and authority can be seen from the headings just running through. So look at page 20, you see the first one there, he calms the storm. That is, he has authority over this disordered creation. And then look over the page to page 21.

He heals 2 demon-possessed men. We’re going to look at this next week. In other words, he has authority over the devil. Bottom of page 21, he heals the paralytic. In other words, he has authority over disease.

He actually promises the paralytic pardon. And then across the page again, at the top of page 23, a girl restored to life. He has authority over death. But look at what comes through the incidents, like a kind of seam running through it. Page 20 again, verse 18, the cost of following Jesus.

When Jesus saw a great crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe came to him and said, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Another disciple said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Follow me.

Leave the dead to bury their own dead. In other words, follow. He has all authority, but that authority demands discipleship. You can’t have freedom from fear with the one with all power without a summons from the one with all power to act upon it. Turn the page again to page 22 and sentence number 9.

Jesus calls Matthew. That’s the author of this Gospel. As Jesus— are you there? Page 22, Jesus calls Matthew. It’s top there.

You can see it. Verse 9. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, follow me. He rose and followed him. You see, there’s the power and the offer, but the power and the offer of security in a world of fear comes hand in hand, it has to, with the challenge and the place.

The point is very simple. There is an offer, ultimate security in a world of fear. Security in the face of death. Security in the face of this disordered creation. Security in the face of whatever disease is going to come your way.

Security in the face of whatever demonic force will enter into your or my life. Ultimate security. But with ultimate security, if there’s any security, has to come the authoritative command to follow. Any power to deliver comes with a demand for discipleship. Any strength to save comes with a summons to surrender.

It has to. Forgive a trite illustration. I hope you’ll forgive this one. Mark O’Donoghue used to work here. His twin brother is still very much at the heart of the work here.

But Mark was here for a while. Mark has 3 kids and his oldest boy is called Jack. And Jack and I used to have a little— I don’t know what it was in Jack. Every time he saw me he used to roar at me. Why?

I don’t know. I’d say, stop making a noise like a cat, and then he would roar louder. One day when I thought Jack was old enough, I turned round, puffed myself up, and roared at him. And he fled screaming to his father, grasped him round the thigh, and then stood there shaking and weeping.

I don’t know what it was. I’ve always thought I’m reasonable, you know, don’t look that bad, but anyway, he clearly didn’t things. But you see, Jack, in the face of fear, clung to the place of absolute security. Now of course the illustration doesn’t quite work because Mark O’Donoghue is not the one who controls the past, the present, and the future, whatever he might think, or his son. But you see, if Jesus really is God, if he controls the future and orders the present and has authority over the past, then absolute security will only come as I cling to him.

For so long as I stand apart from him, I’m on my own. But if he has authority, then that authority comes inevitably. It has to. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, says Jesus. I have conquered death, says Jesus.

Stop this silly belief that there is no God out there. It’s an extraordinary faith position for you to have, that all of this came from nothing. I simply couldn’t imagine such a thought. It’s an extraordinary position of faith that you have. Jesus has entered into our creation.

He’s demonstrated his power and authority. And now he commands us, follow me.

And doesn’t that make sense of Jesus’ rebuke that you find back on page 21? Look at the top of page 21. Again, it’s a remarkable thing for Jesus to say. Verse 26, top of the page there, why are you so afraid?

Don’t you realise who I am? Can’t you see my absolute authority? You’re safe with me. Why won’t you acknowledge me? Why are you so afraid?

And may I say, we are safe with him.

He says to the paralytic, that you may know that the Son of Man— that’s Jesus— has authority on the earth to forgive sins, I say to you, take up your mat and walk. And if you— I’d love to persuade you to read the rest of this Gospel. You’ll find in it that Jesus goes to his death on a cross to carry God’s judgement of everything we’ve done wrong as we carried out our silly little resistance apart from God. And in his kindness, he entered into the world to die on a cross so that we can be forgiven, so that as we run to him, as we cling to him, as we follow him, we’re following the one of ultimate goodness. Why wouldn’t you follow him?

We’re safe with him. Well, I’ve been thinking about fear. In preparation. I thought of a number of other sorts of fear. The fear of not making progress.

I was speaking on this very passage down in Fleet Street once, and there was a young graduate there. And I sat down to him afterwards. I promise I won’t do this to you, okay, in case you sort of make a beeline for the door. I sat down next to this young graduate and I said to him, what are you frightened of? And he said, I’m frightened of not fulfilling my potential.

Extraordinary fear to have. So much on offer, paralysed.

You see, if you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, well, he will govern and lead you in your life. You’ll be related to God your Creator, and you will fulfil your potential not only in this life as he desires, but also in the next. Why wouldn’t you follow him?

And then I thought about it, you know, I remember interviewing a mother here on a Sunday morning, and she talked about Facebook fear. The thing about Facebook is you only ever put up the things that you’re really proud of. So our kids are growing up in the kind of world where everywhere they look, all they can see is success stories, and that produces the most phenomenal fear, hence the angst, what I call Facebook fear. And the mother said, it’s so wonderful to bring my children up that they know the Lord Jesus who knows the worst about them. Them and still loves them.

You see, security in the world of, well, what you might call career progress fear— frightened I won’t fulfil my potential— security in the world of Facebook fear, security in the fear, ultimate fear, of death. I had a great experience yesterday. I was asked by one of you to go and join them in the George and Vulture. George and Vulture, I mean, I see people nodding, you obviously spend every lunchtime apart from Tuesday there. This was a new experience for me.

We went right up to the top and we had lunch, and I was there with a man called Jeremy Marshall, and you can read his account in this book where there are 14 brief accounts of people’s lives who work here in the city, or many of whom were familiar names, and what it means for them to follow the Lord Jesus. You may know that Jeremy Marshall is former head of private banking at Credit Suisse, former CEO of Hawes Bank, and 2 years ago now he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 18 months to live. As we walked up the stairs, I said to him, oh, every time I see him, I think, see you, it’s a bit like meeting Lazarus, and he pointed out politely that he was not dead yet.

But he’s written up his story along with Gavin Peacock, the former Chelsea footballer and insurance CEO, PA’s executive and so forth. Listen to what he says.

The message about Jesus is not for good people, but for bad people.

The Bible says we all fail to live as we should. A Christian is someone who’s recognised they’re sick and they need a doctor, spiritually speaking. A Christian is someone who’s accepted the forgiveness Jesus has secured by dying in our place on the cross. Rescuing us from the judgement we deserve. And then he says this about his own approaching death: there is great peace in knowing that your life is in God’s hands and trusting him.

And you know, when you talk to Jeremy, he talks about, you know, his concerns for his kids and his wife and his fears about actually going through death itself. Itself. But you can only say there’s great peace.

And if you live on your own apart from God, you don’t have that. You can’t have that. You’re awash on the seas, an alien in a hostile universe, approaching death with no help.

Jesus gives us ultimate security. Well, my great desire is that you might explore, you know how the disciples finish it, who is this? That you might ask that question just like Dee did. Come and chat to me over, I’ll be sitting down over there somewhere. I won’t ask you what you’re frightened of unless you give me permission.

Come and have a chat to me. Talk to the person you’ve come with. Come next week as we look at evil and goodness, and the week after as we look at hope. Might I lead us in prayer as we close?

Follow me.

Our Father in heaven, forgive us for our independence and our reluctance to trust Jesus. I pray that you would help us to see more and more clearly just who he is.

Thank you for your kindness in coming into our world so that we need not walk through this life in fear.

And I pray that you would grant to each one of us this peace of God, which passes all understanding as we turn to Jesus Christ. In his name, amen.

Okay, right. I’m sorry to interrupt, and I will just— we’ll be finished at 10 to, and I’ve got— there’s some great questions here, some really excellent ones. Given Jesus is our security, is it wrong to invest time and energy learning self-defence? Good question. I’ll let you into a secret.

I keep a crowbar by my bed. Don’t tell anybody on the recordings, because if ever I had to use it, I’d be in terrible trouble. I keep a crowbar by my bed and an axe by my front door, because we live in a world of evil. Come back next week and we’ll be thinking about evil and goodness. And I’d love you to come next week.

For that. I’ve been thinking about this for this last few days. But no, because we do live in a broken world where evil still happens, and actually the Bible recognised that very clearly, that God has put in place authorities, governments, to help us in this world to keep peace and order. But there’s nothing wrong with, with defending yourself. There are too many stories we can talk about there which we won’t go into.

If Jesus has all the power, related question in one way, how come he doesn’t stop all the storms? Well, can I use the image of the boat, if I may, and just put it like this: because so many people don’t have Jesus in the boat of their life. So the greatest storm that there is in Matthew’s Gospel is actually in the Sermon on the Mount. And you may remember, the Sermon on the Mount finishes with Jesus saying the person who has not built their life with Jesus at the centre of it is like a person who builds a house on shallow foundations, on sand, and when the storm comes it gets washed away. That storm is talking about final judgement.

One day Jesus will eradicate all evil. We’re going to look at that next week. Please come back. Because Matthew recognises that what we’re seeing here is a snapshot of the future where Jesus eradicates all evil. Until the point that he does that, we’re living in a world which is troubled by all sorts of storms.

The greatest storm of all is the storm of judgement. Judgement Day. And unless I have Jesus with the forgiveness that he offers, if you like to— if you’ll forgive this slightly quaint way of putting it— in the boat of my life, I’m not safe. And so that’s the reason why he hasn’t stopped all the storms. He will do.

But the day he does that, when he eradicates it all, will be the Day of Judgement. And there’ll be people in this room who are not ready yet for that day, because you haven’t turned to follow Jesus. You’re not safe. You see. And so he’s waiting for you to follow him.

How can we feel safe when we face the very real threat, e.g., terrorist attacks on the way? I agree with you. Boy, do I agree with you. I’ll talk about this again next week. Yeah, don’t you think that?

You think, what’s going to happen next? But there is a deep, ultimate security that comes from knowing where I will be at the end. I mean, let’s imagine the worst happens. This building gets blown up at 9 minutes to, when we’re just leaving, OK? If you are safe with Jesus, you go to be with Jesus for eternity in a new creation where there is no evil at all.

And so actually, OK, let’s imagine the worst happens. You know, the worst they can do is kill us. And for the person who knows and loves the Lord Jesus, tremendous concern for one’s family and those we left behind. But actually you can have this deep security and Christians know it. Is to follow Christ to say a prayer?

What else does it involve? Well, do you know this booklet is designed by Matthew who wrote it, I happen to believe, very early after the death and resurrection of Jesus. So that you know what it looks like to follow Jesus, and I know too. So I would encourage you, if you have said, yes, I will follow Jesus, now follow. Start to learn what it looks like.

And that will be a lifelong process, I can tell you that. Fear brings out so many emotions, good and bad. How does Jesus guide us to control our emotions, to calm a situation rather than to inflame it? Well, he does. He comes to live within us, by the power of his Holy Spirit.

And if we pray and ask him to help us, he gradually does begin to change us. And I could point to— I wouldn’t point to anybody, but I could ask any number of people, and any Christian would say, he’s begun to help me, he’s begun to help me. Maybe a slow work, a work in progress, but he’s begun to help me. Time to finish. It’s 9 minutes to.

Thank you so much for coming. Please come back next week. We’re looking at evil and goodness. And it’s a terrific passage. Hope to see you next week.