This passage was assigned in the preaching course I’m taking. It is extra to any assignment in the book:

Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 3^rd Edition by Bryan Chapell

It’s preface is Jesus’ response to an unnamed disciple asking leave to bury his father: Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.¹

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.² 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 they³ went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we⁴ 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 marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

And when he came⁵ to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,⁶ two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O⁷ Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons⁸ begged (παρεκάλουν, a form of παρακαλέω) him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away⁹ into the herd of pigs.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters [Table]. The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet¹⁰ Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged (παρεκάλεσαν, another form of παρακαλέω) him to leave their region.¹¹

The assignment was to determine the SOS, EMP, CTA and RTC for this passage. These acronyms are my Pastor’s technique for establishing a Fallen Condition Focus (FCF). The acronyms mean: Source of Sorrow (SOS), Empowering Grace (EMP), Call to Action (CTA) and Road to Christ (RTC).

Source of Sorrow (SOS)

No one but the demons recognized Jesus as God in human flesh: two demon-possessed men met¹² Jesus and cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?¹³ In the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text they even called Him by name: Jesus (ιησου).

John made it clear that Nathanael was a possible exception (John 1:47-49 ESV):

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus¹⁴ answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered¹⁵ him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the¹⁶ King of Israel!”

But Nathanael, perhaps better known as Bartholomew, was either not present or profoundly silent in these two stories. Matthew acknowledged Peter and John as potentially among those disciples who followed him (ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ) into the boat¹⁷ (Matthew 4:18-22 ESV).

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen [Table]. And he said to them, “Follow me (δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου), and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him (ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ). And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him (ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ).

The Holy Spirit had not yet revealed Jesus’ identity to Peter (Matthew 16:15-17 ESV):

[Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven [Table].

It would be many years before John wrote his majestic description of Jesus (John 1:1-5, 14 ESV):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

At this particular time Peter and John were apparently among the men (ἄνθρωποι, a form of ἄνθρωπος) who marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this (ποταπός ἐστιν οὗτος), that even winds and sea obey (ὑπακούουσιν, a form of ὑπακούω) him?”¹⁸ It caught my attention that Matthew and the Holy Spirit called them men here rather than disciples. It reminded me of Paul’s complaint to the Corinthians over a different issue: are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way (κατὰ ἄνθρωπον, another form of ἄνθρωπος)?¹⁹ Presumably, the men continued to accompany Jesus, but disciples followed him as Lord and Christ, the Son of God in human flesh.

Jesus’ disciples are not mentioned again in Matthew’s Gospel account until he was called by Jesus (Matthew 9:9, 10 ESV).

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples (τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ).

Empowering Grace (EMP)

Jesus is God in human flesh (Matthew 17:1-9 ESV).

…Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light [Table]. And behold, there appeared²⁰ to them Moses²¹ and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make²² three tents here, one for you and one for Moses²³ and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell²⁴ on their faces and were terrified (ἐφοβήθησαν σφόδρα). But Jesus came and touched²⁵ them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear (φοβεῖσθε, another form of φοβέω).” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

And as they were coming down²⁶ the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised²⁷ from the dead.”

I’m more like Peter than I want to admit. Confronted with an unimaginable circumstance, his mind scrambled to make sense of it by latching on to an application, what he could, or should, do to make sense of it all. Whether I will make (ποιήσω in the NA²⁷ and NA²⁸) or let us make (ποιησωμεν in the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text) is the more original text, the point is the same: Peter alone will make, or enlist James and John and lead them to make, three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.²⁸

As he made Jesus equal to Moses the lawgiver and Elijah the prophet who was taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud²⁹ gave Peter the true understanding of the vision: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.³⁰ And the voice terrified Peter with the true application, what he should do in response to this vision: listen to him.³¹

Matthew recorded an incident which occurred the night Jesus was arrested: And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.³² It is easy, perhaps, to muddle the significance of this action. Only John, many years later named the assailant of the high priest’s servant: Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear.³³

Peter had made his motive and intent quite clear to Jesus (Matthew 16:21, 22 ESV):

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”

And Jesus had made his assessment of Peter’s motive and intent quite clear to Peter (Matthew 16:23 ESV):

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me (ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου), Satan (σατανᾶ, a form of σατανᾶς)! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” [Table].

Matthew also recorded Jesus’ response to Peter’s drawn sword (Matthew 26:52, 53 ESV [Table]):

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

I have no idea if Peter thought that or not. He had seen Jesus demonstrate his power and authority over the winds and the sea (Matthew 8:26b ESV) and over demons (Matthew 8:32b ESV). I assume he thought that Jesus, if properly motivated, could end all that transpired that night with a word. But Peter had also witnessed how patient and gracious Jesus was in response to the pleas of his frightened disciples (Matthew 8:25-26), demons (Matthew 8:29-32) and even Gentile villagers who begged Him to leave (Matthew 8:33-34). The postscript to these two stories reads (Matthew 9:1 ESV):

And getting into a³⁴ boat he crossed over and came to his own city.

Call to Action (CTA)

The Call to Action is implied in the first verse of the passage: his disciples followed him (Matthew 8:23b ESV), bolstered by the preface, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”³⁵ But how?

Peter followed Jesus literally for a few years. A voice from a bright cloud warned him to listen to Jesus after he had rebuked Jesus for saying that He would be killed, and on the third day be raised. Later Jesus said, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”³⁶ But Peter’s drawn sword indicates that he held fast to his own religious belief: This shall never happen to you.

Jesus had instructed his disciples earlier that night (Matthew 26:31, 32 ESV):

“You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered’ [Table]. But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”

He applied the prophetic Scripture to his disciples (Zechariah 13:7 [Table]):

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the Lord of hosts.
“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.

Peter listened neither to Jesus nor the prophet Zechariah (Matthew 26:33 ESV):

Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away” [Table].

So Jesus prophesied to Peter (Matthew 26:34 ESV):

Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”

But Peter refused to listen to Him and encouraged, if not led, the rest of Jesus’ disciples to follow his mutiny (Matthew 26:35 ESV):

Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

Frankly, I’ve never heard a sermon on Peter’s denial of Christ that didn’t at least imply an application that Peter should have played the man and proved both Jesus’ word and the Scripture false. Peter and the other disciples had one simple task to perform that night: Scatter. Stay alive. And then they were to regroup in Galilee three days later after Jesus’ resurrection.

So now, I see Peter, standing with his drawn sword, defying the will of God, the prophetic Scripture and Jesus Christ. Had he succeeded in his mission he would have become the enemy of every person alive at that time, every person who had ever lived up to that time, and every person who will live since that time, by robbing them of God’s salvation through his Son Jesus the Christ. Jesus didn’t let Peter succeed as his, and our, “enemy” or “adversary.”

He asked Peter a question (Matthew 26:54-56 ESV):

“But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me [Table]. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

Road to Christ (RTC)

Peter’s time with Jesus wasn’t wasted. Once he and Jesus’ other disciples received the indwelling Holy Spirit sent by the Father, they were dramatically changed that very day. And here my likeness to Peter abruptly ends. Though I had received Jesus’ Holy Spirit after asking to know God, though I received a voracious appetite for the Bible after I received his Holy Spirit after I asked to know God, it wasn’t long before my religious mind came roaring back with a vengeance.

“Follow me,” Jesus’ oft repeated³⁷ command stirred me but didn’t seem particularly practical since his ascension. I squandered most of my appetite and the God-given energy to satisfy that appetite in the early years searching the Bible for applications: rules I could obey to prove what I could do for God.

It took many years to realize that I could sit down with God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and follow Him through the Bible, and get to know Him through the Scriptures. Duh! It took even more time to realize that knowing Him through his word and his Spirit transformed me into his likeness far better than any desire or effort of mine. And it took many more years for me to stop feeling guilty about all the time I “wasted” studying the Bible with Him when I “should” have been “doing” something “more productive.”

A voice from a bright cloud commanded Peter, James and John: listen (ἀκούετε, a form of ἀκούω) to him. Luke recorded a story about a woman who did just that, though she had never heard a voice from a bright cloud (Luke 10:38-40 ESV):

Now³⁸ as they went on their way, Jesus³⁹ entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.⁴⁰ And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened (ἤκουεν, another form of ἀκούω) to his teaching [Table]. But Martha was distracted with much serving (πολλὴν διακονίαν, a form of διακονία). And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve (διακονεῖν, an infinitive form of διακονέω) alone? Tell her then to help me.”

Jesus’ answer to Martha played no small role in helping me overcome my guilt studying the Bible, for Martha was directly serving Jesus’ immediate needs when he answered her (Luke 10:41, 42 ESV):

But the Lord⁴¹ answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled⁴² about many things, but one thing is necessary (χρεία). Mary⁴³ has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from⁴⁴ her.”

I recall being moved by a sermon on this story when I was young. It’s difficult to date when, but I must have been between nine and eleven. I could read the Bible and I was still talking to my mother about things like my reactions to a sermon. She hadn’t liked it. I don’t remember her words, only the emotional response I had to them; namely, that Jesus was unnecessarily harsh with Martha, and ultimately unfair to her. I did notice that preachers and Sunday school teachers covered for Jesus quite often, when He seemed unnecessarily harsh and ultimately unfair to people. Over time, I suppose, I just began to assume that Jesus was unnecessarily harsh and ultimately unfair to people.

I should probably get back to the text I’m supposed to be studying (Matthew 8:26a ESV):

And [Jesus] said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”

My assumption that Jesus was unnecessarily harsh and ultimately unfair to people coupled with the belief that faith was not a gift of God but entirely up to me, made Jesus’ words fairly meaningless. Rather, the meaning I ascribed to them had nothing to do with Jesus’ words. O you of little faith might as well have been “O you damned destined to burn in the lake of fire for all eternity!” That made his question unintelligible except as an expletive of utter exasperation, resignation or despair.

Who in his right mind would even want to hang out with this guy, much less follow him? But it is hard to imagine anything more painfully obvious in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry on earth than this: sinners liked to hang out with Jesus. It was those with religious minds who wanted Him dead.

Paul wrote, when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.⁴⁵ And I prove his word true every moment of every day I live. Eventually, the Holy Spirit got me to take on O you of little faith directly. Looking at Greek text was still kind of a new thing for me. My first thought was that the phrase wasn’t even there. But by carefully looking up every word in the verse, I discovered that the “phrase” was one word in Greek: ὀλιγόπιστοι, a plural form of the adjective ὀλιγόπιστος.

What!?

My high school French came to mind: “My little cabbage” may not be exactly what I want to be called by anyone, but it was received as an endearing term by enough French-speaking people that mon petit chou was taught in my first semester class. It began to dawn on me that ὀλιγόπιστοι was Jesus’ pet name for his disciples: “my little faiths, my incredulous.” Only then did I fully recognize that He didn’t refuse to calm the storm because his “little faiths” were afraid: Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.⁴⁶

I want to consider this storm before taking on Jesus’ question directly. I don’t spend much time on the water. I’ve spent most of my life in the middle of the United States of America. So, apart from the occasional tornado, a storm is something that happens in the sky. They are usually enjoyable to watch if one has the time. The Greek word translated storm in this passage was σεισμὸς, the etymological origin of the English word seismic. The disciples weren’t admiring some phenomenon happening afar off in the heavens. They were riding out an earthquake in the sea: great waves mounding up over their heads, crashing mountains of water down upon them, swamping their boat—and Jesus was asleep.

When I first moved to Florida, I had a mostly sleepless night through my first hurricane. I’ve lived through tornadoes, even two I heard right overhead. The Lord protected me and all that was mine. Driving in the dark through the Texas panhandle, my phone alerted me that a tornado had been sighted between mile marker x and y—my exact location. There was no place to pull off and hide. So I sped up and prayed until I got safely to Amarillo, where I could stop for the night. But a hurricane was a new experience. In the morning, however, I realized I’d wasted the night awake. I had slept through worse storms in both St. Louis and Chicago.

Be that as it may, whenever a hurricane was forecast and I was expected to drive recording equipment to a show from my home in Florida, I left early at my own expense to make sure the job got done. Regardless of the harm one may or may not suffer from a hurricane, traffic and travel times could be disrupted. And “at my own expense” usually meant that I stayed in hotels on points I had received from hotels paid for by my employer, and ate in restaurants on leftover per diem from other shows.

I assume then that Jesus’ question—Why are you afraid—was not about prudence. “We have an innate drive to survive this storm and until You woke up and calmed the storm things were not looking promising” would not have been a valid answer. The Greek word translated afraid was δειλοί, a plural form of δειλός: “timid, fearful, cowardly, fainthearted; miserable, wretched, worthless; deserving pity, deserving contempt.” Perhaps, the easiest way to answer Jesus’ question is to consider why Jesus, in exactly the same circumstance, was not “timid, fearful, cowardly, fainthearted; miserable, wretched, worthless; deserving pity, deserving contempt.”

Jesus was conceived (γεννηθὲν, a form of γεννάω)…from the Holy Spirit (ἐκ πνεύματος ἐστιν ἁγίου): As Joseph considered divorcing Mary because she was pregnant with Jesus behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear (φοβηθῇς, a form of φοβέω) to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.⁴⁷

He was in the world, John wrote of Jesus, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born (ἐγεννήθησαν, another form of γεννάω), not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ θεοῦ).⁴⁸

Jesus received the Spirit of God ([τὸ] πνεῦμα [τοῦ] θεοῦ): And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him [Table]; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”⁴⁹

Now when they heard [Peter preach after he had received the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-36)] they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent (μετανοήσατε, an imperative form of μετανοέω) and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (τὴν δωρεὰν τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος) [Table]. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls [Table].⁵⁰

Jesus was led (ἀνήχθη, a form of ἀνάγω)…by the Spirit (ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος) and believed the Scriptures (Matthew 4:1-10 ESV):

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man⁵¹ shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” [Table].⁵²

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple [Table] and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”⁵³

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”⁵⁴ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’” [Table].⁵⁵

For all who are led by the Spirit of God (πνεύματι θεοῦ ἄγονται, a form of ἄγω) are sons of God,⁵⁶ Paul wrote to the Romans. But I say, he wrote To the churches of Galatia,⁵⁷ walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do [Table]. But if you are led by the Spirit (πνεύματι ἄγεσθε, another form of ἄγω), you are not under the law⁵⁸ (Romans 8:2-4 ESV):

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death [Table]. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Follow me, Jesus—conceived from the Spirit, having received the Spirit of God, led by the Spirit and believing the Scriptures—said. And so, I return with the tempter’s Scriptural applications still ringing in my ears, to Peter, standing with his drawn sword, forcing his “heart and nerve and sinew”⁵⁹ not to be “timid, fearful, cowardly, fainthearted; miserable, wretched, worthless; deserving pity, deserving contempt.”

But at that particular place, at that particular time, there was only one meaningful way to follow Jesus, one relevant application: “Scatter.” And at that particular place, at that particular time, none of Jesus’ disciples had the faith in the word of the only true God, or in Jesus Christ whom He sent, to do so willingly. Rather, they fled against their wills, contrary to their own stated beliefs or intentions, because God is faithful.

I find it to be a law that when I want to do right (τὸ καλόν, a form of καλός; i.e., “the beautiful”), evil lies close at hand.⁶⁰ Given that, if I attempt to do right by following a complicated list of sometimes contradictory applications—I, or anyone else, has derived from Scripture—I am as likely as not to think, say or do the wrong thing at the wrong place at the wrong time. And it is completely unnecessary since now we can enter by the new and living way that he opened for us through⁶¹ his death and resurrection; He who was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.⁶² Follow Him.

According to a note (118) in the NET, Jesus alluded to Psalm 32:2 in John 1:47. A table comparing the Greek of Jesus’ allusion with that of the Septuagint follows.

Tables comparing Matthew 8:22; 8:25; 8:28, 29; 8:31; 8:34; John 1:48, 49; Matthew 17:3, 4; 17:6, 7; 17:9; 9:1; Luke 10:38 and 10:41, 42 in the KJV and NET follow.