Jesus Can - Week 1 - The CORE - Pastor Mike Novotny
Jesus Can
Week 1 & The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
Well, if you weren't awake that base, we'll wake you up real fast. Happy Sunday. Welcome to our worship services. We kick off a great series I hope and I pray in the Miracles of Jesus called, “Jesus Can”.
Not too long ago. One of my really good friends went through something that was incredibly scary and Incredibly sudden. At the same time.
You went from having a really terrific Thursday to really terrifying Friday. Just like that.
On Thursday, his life is going well. He's kind of getting back on his feet, after a really crazy season of Life, he's starting this new chapter and he was Coming into church and connecting with our ministry. Meeting many of you as brothers and sisters in the faith attending Bible study, he was super hopeful and excited about the future.
But just a day later, he was dressed in orange. Sitting behind bars.
And despite his claim of innocence, he was facing not weeks or months, but years, if not decades, back in prison.
And when that really scary thing happened, really, really, suddenly, it was one of the greatest tests of faith that he had ever faced.
Yeah, it's true, isn't it? It's really hard to have a strong, unshakable faith filled with peace and joy. Kind of faith when you not just when you go through something scary. But when that's scary, happens really suddenly.
And we all wish that life wouldn't be like that God would just bless us and give us good things that we never have to go through anything concerning or anxiety-inducing but you know, like I do that. That's not true stuff happens in life.
But one of the biggest tests of faith is when that stuff happens and you don't see it coming. When you're having a good day and then suddenly, everything changes in an instant, is that happen to you before.
Yeah. Maybe it's happened to some of you financially where you thought you're okay financially you had money in the bank, you were paying your bills, everything was fine, and then, boom, just like that.
Um, the boss cuts back on your hours, something changes with the company. They downsize, they get bought out or there's some crazy expense you didn't see coming. There's a medical bill. Can't even believe how much it is. There's a car accident, someone hits you. And of course. they don't have insurance to pay for it. And there's a lawyer, you need to get that. You never thought you'd get and they're not charging, five bucks an hour. I mean you think you're fine then an instant you're not and it's so hard. It's almost impossible to not be afraid to not feel anxious to not be worried. When that really scary Financial things happen so suddenly.
Or maybe it's even worse is when it's at a financial thing, but when it's a physical thing,
Yeah, one day you're running around, doing errands, going to school, living life and then there's the snap or the crack with a pop.
And you're scheduling a surgery and you're going to the doctor and you're hobbling around with medical bills, you don't know how you're going to pay for it.
Maybe I thought it was just a routine checkup, and then the doctor comes back with that. Look on her face.
Maybe one day you're just taking a shower and you find a lump and so you know what? You're getting a drip drip, drip of a chemo appointment.
Man, that makes the financial stuff feel easy. But when your life is in serious Jeopardy, when it's in danger, where you might die,
How can you not be afraid of moments like that.
Or maybe it's even worse than the financial or the physical when that sudden scary thing is relational.
When you see some relationship that was okay you find out really fast that it's not maybe it's your best friend from school. Like the person that made school bearable and doable now suddenly their dad gets a job and they're moving before the semester is over.
I mean, it's someone at work that just makes Mondays. So much better and now they're getting transferred or pursuing a different career.
Or maybe it's that relationship that you know, wasn't perfect. You know, that you have issues and she has issues and Mom and Dad fight sometimes, but you never thought it was at that point. That you have to sit down and seriously think about a separation or a divorce. You just didn't see a comment until it happens.
Now, I'm not wishing that any of this stuff would ever happen to you, but I have a hunch at least once, if not twice, if not 10 times in your life, there's going to be some scary news. That is going to happen. So suddenly, and my big question for you, is what will your faith do in those suddenly scary moments?
Now, I don't want you but personally, as a Christian, I want to have the kind of faith. That even if I'm lamenting something that I lose, even if I'm grieving something that I can't get back. I want to have this kind of faith. I can stand up in those suddenly scary moments.
I don't want to be the kind of person who just loves God and praises him when life is good.
And turn on him when life gets bad. I don't want to shake my fists, that heaven, I don't want to question his love for me.
Now, I want to have the kind of faith that the Bible talks about a faith, that goes beyond understanding. A kind of piece that guards, my heart and mind that I could be shaken, but not stripped down.
I could weep and lament. But I still want to lose the most important thing about me. I want to have the kind of peace that endures through the highs, lows, the good, the bad, the blessing and the curse.
And I have a hunch that you do, too.
That's what today. I'm super excited to kick off this series where we focus on the miraculous power of Jesus who can.
After the next few weeks, we're going to get a close look at Jesus and that's my premise for you. That the closer you look at Jesus the stronger, your faith will be.
That the faster you look at Jesus, the faster you get back to peace and hope and joy that Jesus doesn't promise you, this bad stuff will never happen and then it won't happen suddenly but He does promise you that if your eyes are fixed on him. You too can have the kind of piece that goes beyond, understanding a piece that isn't shaken.
But the kind of piece that can be still.
I know that Jesus is God.
So today I want to kick off that discussion by going back to a really amazing story in the gospel of Matthew.
All right. So Matthew chapter 8, and it's right in the middle of a chapter where Jesus is doing more miracles than Taylor Swift has Grammys.
If you're not a Swiftie, that's a lot. I mean you can read the whole chapter after church Jesus starts out by healing a man with leprosy and incurable disease. And then Jesus heals a Roman Centurion's servant, not by some fancy Jesus magic. He just speaks a word and from a distance, the servant is healed. He meets people who are demon-possessed and incurable and with a single word he drives out. The demons people are lining up with their sicknesses and diseases and Jesus does Miracle after Miracle after Miracle after miracle after Miracle in Matthew chapter 8, until Jesus is absolutely cased.
He's a human being and he is out of gas.
Um, he's so if you ever spent a lot of time with people, you know, that as soon as the people leave after the party's over after the wedding reception is done. Your body just adrenaline tanks. That's what happens to Jesus.
And so he tells us closest friends like Matthew and Peter and James and John to get into the bow, to cross the Sea of Galilee which was near where Jesus lived to have a little time away from the crowds.
I'll get into the boat and they start crossing this now famous sea, something very scary happens very suddenly.
In fact, Matthew the Apostle, who was in the boat when it happens, he tells his first-hand account when he writes this, in Matthew chapter 8, verse 24.
He says, “Suddenly, a furious storm came up on the lake so that the waves swept over the boat.”
Do you know much about the geography of the Sea of Galilee?
Probably not. Which is in Northern Israel, actually sits below sea level.
And the further you get away from sea level and the closer you get to the center of the Earth, the warmer the surface temperature tends to be. So the the air above the Sea of Galilee, these a little bit warmer than the rest of the climate, and, right on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, this big cliff called Mount Arbell. And if you ever driven up in the mountains, you know, that the air is Is colder the higher, you get an elevation and so when the wind would come from the West and sweep over the the cool air of Mount Arbell, it would plunge down the cliff, it would hit the warm air of the Sea of Galilee and very suddenly furious storms, would happen.
In fact, you can Google this just 2022, there was such a furious storm on that very same seat caused, $50 million worth of damage. In a moment, it was fine and then in the next moment, it was not. That's exactly what happens. In fact, Matthew calls it a furious storm.
Um, here would say wrote this account in Greek and the Greek phrase for Furious storm is
Seismus. Megas.
You can understand that even if you don't speak Greek, Seismus is where we get the word seismic. It's only the word used in Greek for an earthquake.
In a seismus megas is a mega earthquake. It's this Mega. Shaking it. It's so bad. Actually, when Jesus talks about the end times, when there are wars and famines and earthquakes, she's just uses this exact same phrase that when the world is going to end. There will be seismus megas in the Book of Revelation. You know, everything is falling apart. Seismus Megas apparently. That's what happened. That day on the Sea of Galilee one day. It was fine. They were chilling in the boat. And the next moment, the sudden scary, Furious storm a Seismus Megas shook, the water.
And you all know Jesus was doing.
I'll show you get this crazy verse 24, but Jesus.
11:34 AM
Was sleeping.
How tired. How do you picture this? Let's be honest here. My picture Jesus like curled up, cuddled in the boat, fetal position, but it said just before the waves were sweeping over the boat, that means Jesus is sleeping is like this is man. Have to be the waves don't even wake him up. And that's why his friends did. Verse 25, the disciples went and woke Jesus saying, “Lord, save us. We're gonna drown.”
Now remember who these men were, these weren't some like white collar people who had never been out in nature before most of these guys, before Jesus called them were professional.
Fisherman and this was not some unfamiliar territory. They lived on the shore of the Sea of Galilee so these weren't out of towners or novice boaters. These were men who knew these waters well. But apparently, the seismus megas was a mega seismic that they freaked out.
And it shook Jesus away, we're gonna die.
In fact in Mark's gospel, they actually accused Jesus about not loving them. They say Jesus, don't you care? Don't you care if we die?
And what Jesus says, and does next is so insane. I probably wouldn't believe it unless Matthew had recorded it.
First, here's what Jesus says. Verse 26, Jesus replied, “You of little faith. Why are you so afraid?”
And if you were Philip or Peter. Is this a rhetorical? What, why are we so afraid? I don't know.
Drowning wasn't what I had in my schedule to do today. I mean, Thaddeus is over there wetting himself and “Dad, he says, like it was a wave. I didn't do that. That was the one. I mean, they're, why are we so afraid? We're about to die. But apparently, Jesus isn't satisfied by the situation. He says you have little faith, he rebukes them. And the original Greek, the word is, “You cowards.”
Wow, Jesus is being so apparently Jesus believed
That they shouldn't have reacted. The way that they did, they should not have been shaking with fear. They should not have been questioning his care and his love. He rebukes them. You have little faith. Why are you so afraid? He says as a storm rages and shakes around him.
And then this, then Jesus got up.
And rebuked the winds and the waves.
And it was completely calm.
I can imagine if someone tried this in the parking lot after church.
What would you think of that person? Whether of Wisconsin, I come at you. No, that'd be crazy but Jesus actually does it. He stands up. He speaks to Mother Nature, like she is his little sister.
Or like, He is her maker and her master. You need to calm down.
Sit. Stay in a trial base.
And I wish I could have seen the disciple's faces. Is on Matthew says in verse 27, that the men were amazed.
And they asked what kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him.
It's actually the right question to ask.
The answer, the apostles were still figuring out for themselves who, who is Jesus? What kind of man do you believe Him to be? That will determine your reaction when the scary things suddenly come.
So enough about those guys, let's talk about us.
But when those moments happen, when the expense hits you out of the blue, when the person has cancer and there's not time. Like you thought you would have with them when the relationship ends or your physical body breaks down when that sudden scary news happens, what's kind of the general thing that your heart does where do you run to first?
And one of my favorite artists, kind of depicted what happens to us in those moments. I'll show you a picture in those moments. There's often this really kind of dark, almost demonic, way of thinking that grabs our attention. and changes the things that we used to think and the faith that we used to believe in.
And my life is good. It's pretty easy to believe that God is good. But when the scary comes, Suddenly, our faith can get shaken really fast.
I'm not sure if this has happened to you, but um, sometimes we think like the apostles said God, don't you care?
My family's falling apart, another miscarriage, I finally get a job and now this,
Are you there? Are you listening? But you're God, right? You're supposed to care about me and love me and have the power to do anything for me and yet, You let this happen and you don't fix it, you don't cure it. You let me struggle and then this year is worse than last year. God, God, don't you care?
Now, we never say that on the sunny days, but when the seismus megas shakes her heart. You start to wonder about the very basic thing that God actually is love and that He loves you.
Or others of us could shake and not maybe by the fact that God might be bad. But that God might be mad.
That when you suffer, it's really easy and tempting to think. Oh, this is because God's getting me back.
You know, they talk about forgiveness in church, but and I paid for that abortion 21 years ago.
I messed up my relationship. I wasn't a good parent. I relapsed. Like God saw it. God didn't do anything in the moment but He was taken. No. And now this is the karma coming back around. This is the payback. For the thing that I did or said.
Or maybe you're tempted to believe something much more common.
Nothing good could come out of this the only way that God could bless you is if you would end it and stop it, that God will be worthy of praise once He likes stops the pain and fixes the situation because there's nothing good. There's no blessing that can happen in the process of it.
There's all kind of dark and disturbing thoughts. That happened to us in those moments.
Which is why I want to re-ask and Biblically answer the disciples question who Who is Jesus?
I want to propose to you today that if, you know, very, very clearly who Jesus is like his very identity when those scary things happen, even if they happen, suddenly, you will have the kind of faith that can endure and hold on to its peace and it's joy.
So I was rereading this section from Matthew chapter 8, and if you're taking notes in your program today, taking notes at home. There's four things that I found to answer this question. What do we learn from these 4 or 5 verses about the identity of Jesus?
Now, 2 of them are fairly obvious in my opinion, and 2 of them are kind of like Easter eggs that Matthew has hidden in his gospel. I want to share all of them with you today.
So here's the first thing I learned from Matthew chapter 8, about Jesus, I learned that Jesus is God. He's not a guy. He's not a prophet, he's not an example. He's not just the founder of a world religion. He is God of Nature. Submits to him the disciples know that they say “what kind of man the wind and the waves obey Him.”
Which is really what Jesus has been proving throughout the chapter. If demons submit to Him, and disease submits to Him and sickness submits to Him. If He can speak a single word and drive out a demon or heal a person's sickness from miles away, He can't just be another guy. He has to be God. Everyone.
Jesus is God. Number two. Jesus is man. He's fully human.
Or am I getting that? But Jesus was sleeping.
I'm the Old Testament says, I think it's Psalm 121 that God neither slumbers nor sleeps God doesn't get tired. He doesn't need a nap. But you do,
And I do because we're men and women we’re human. And Jesus was too. The Bible says He got tired because He was human. He got hungry because He was human, He slept, because He was human, the very identity of Jesus’ Christians have said this for ages, is that He has two Natures, divine and human. It's why some traditional churches have two candles on their altar. Because Jesus is not just God and not just man. He is THE God, man. Matthew, he teaches us, those two things.
Now, the Easter eggs, number three, Matthew's also trying to teach us that Jesus died.
And you might say, uh, what?
Oh, I didn't mention anything about death. I didn't see a cross. Here, just a boat.
But just remember the line Jesus was sleeping.
Do you know that sometimes in the Bible and even in the Gospel of Matthew, the word sleep, Means to be dead, temporarily.
It's your very next page in my Bible. This frantic father says, “Jesus, my little girl is sick” and she dies and Jesus gets to the house He's about to raise her from the dead. You remember what Jesus says He said, “the girl is not dead but she's asleep.”
So, Matthew wants you to know that to sleep, can mean to die? He's going to say that really clearly later in his gospel, that Jesus dies on a cross. But there's a little hint here that Jesus will sleep. He'll be temporarily dead.
And then number four, the last thing I want you to know is that Jesus Also Rose.
And you might question. Well, where are you getting that from? Um, the Greek word for rose like. In Matthew 28, where the angel shows up in Easter morning and said, Jesus says in the tomb, He has risen. That exact same word risen is the word used when the disciples wake Jesus up. Thirdly, they raised him, same verb.
And after Jesus said, you have little faith, it says, He got up. The phrase got up is the exact same verb. So Matthew is putting these little Easter eggs that just like Jesus, slept and got up in the boat.
So a few years later he would sleep on the cross. And get up from the empty tomb.
Well, that's not all who's ready to nerd out on the Bible show of hands.
All right, all four of us, let's do this. The phrase size must Mega is a super cool, the mega shaking the furious storm, it shows up two more times in Matthew's gospel. On the day that Jesus dies. And on the day that he rises, And for Jesus takes his last breath and it says an earthquake shook, the city of Jerusalem, the curtain of the temple to rent in two. The tombs broke open. That was a seismus megas a chapter later, an angel comes down from heaven to roll the stone away from Jesus's tomb. And he says there was a violent earthquake, which in Greek is seismus megas myth, Matthew is putting these little hints, these hyperlinks. If you read the whole Gospel that Jesus is not just God. And man, he's the God man, who died and rose. This is the Bible, amazing.
And think about this, if you would actually believe those four things that your Jesus is the god-man who died and rose.
What would happen the next time? A sudden and scary thing. Came into your life.
Let me help you connect those dots.
If Jesus is God. That means he knows about that thing.
He knows about the disease. He knows about the death, He knows about the bank account, He knows about your body, He knows about your marriage, He knows, and He as God is in absolute control of it.
The Bible says that Jesus sits on the throne that all things are under his feet. Like your biggest problem is not weighing down the shoulders of Jesus, he's kicking up like it's His Ottoman.
He's in absolute Sovereign control of it. That means he'll end it. If it's good for you or He'll use it. If it's better for you. He's God.
If that's not enough to help you with your fear. He's also man.
The Bible says that because Jesus is fully human, He gets it, He gets us.
He knows what it's like to feel that way. Book of Hebrews chapter 4 says that Jesus. He's able to sympathize and empathize with our weaknesses because He was human, He was tempted in every way.
If you're tired, Jesus gets it. If your spirit feels overwhelmed with life, Jesus gets it. If you've been betrayed by someone you thought you could trust, Jesus, gets it. If someone has criticized you, and you don't deserve it, Jesus gets it. Like, not only does he know about it, he can relate to it. And as God and man, he understands And yet is in total control of it.
And if that were enough, Jesus is the God-man who died.
So when you think God, why is this happening? Don't you care about me?
Um, yeah. If you, if God, came down from heaven to die for the forgiveness of your sins. I'm pretty sure he cares about you.
I'm pretty sure he loves you.
We're actually guaranteed that God is always after what's best for us. We don't always understand his ways, but we cannot look at the cross and doubt his love.
And if He died for us for the Forgiveness of your sins, what would God be mad at you? For God's getting back at me. This is payback. God's punishing for what?
If He died for your sins, your sins are gone. There's nothing to punish you for anymore, did you see if he's God? And man, and He died for you.
There's no punishment and there's no condemnation. There's just a god who sits on His throne and he is for you working out all things for the good. His people.
And then He rose.
Which means He’s alive which means you can pray to Him and talk to Him which means He's living an active, which means you don't have to fear death even if your story ends. No one really dies. We just sleep. The Bible says we take our last breath, and we wake up in an existent, that's infinitely better.
They think about that. The transmission goes out and you're ready to panic. Oh. But I worship Jesus. The god-man who died and rose.
Which means He knows about it. He's in control of it, He’s going to help me. He's going to love me. He's going to use it. He's going to end it.
You go through some personal loss and for sure we grieve and we weep and we lament what we don't exclude those things but we have just such an unshakable hope that can be still because we believe that Jesus is the god-man who died and rose.
And here's my favorite part. Did you catch from the story? The kind of people that Jesus saved from the storm.
The A Plus All-Star Christians.
So, I love this. You have little faith.
Then He got up and saved them.
And what a perfect picture of Christianity. Huh. Jesus isn't save in great people. He saving people who don't believe enough. He's saving flawed in perfect week, we're afraid and we shouldn't be Man, he wants us to have bigger faith and yet he still gives up and saves us despite our lack of Faith.
My friends, think about Jesus, who he is, the godman who died and rose to save, Sinners like us. And you will have the best Shield. Against the sudden and scary storms in your life, too.
Now, I have a new habit as a preacher.
Whatever, I think. I kind of got a sermon in my head. I open up a website called ChatGPT. I've heard of it. And I was type in my big idea to ChatGPT and I see what it says. It scores the internet for what people have said, over years and years on billions of web pages. So the other day I asked ChatGPT. Why are religious people still so afraid?
Like, If we as Christians believe in God, why is it so just instinctual for us to be afraid of things?
And the answer was fascinating. Here's the top two things that ChatGPT told me number one. People, even religious people may fear the unknown or the afterlife.
And number two, religious people adhere to a set of moral principles.
Fear of deviating from those principles and facing Divine judgment for wrongdoing can contribute to fear. You catch that?
I asked the internet, why do religious people get afraid? And the answer was because they're afraid that God will judge them for their sins which means they don't know what's going to happen to them after they die.
I wonder who could help with that.
Jesus can. The godman who died and rose. He erased every time that you and I have deviated from our moral principles and He said that if you believe in me you don't have to wonder what happens. Next, you take your last breath and then your afterlife is Paradise.
So friends the next time it happens. I don't want you to panic.
I don't the the enemy to pull your attention to the what-ifs and what-abouts and why God is as fast as you can. I want you to repeat the question. Say it to yourself, say it to your friends, who are losing their peace. What kind of man is Jesus?
And if you have the right answer, you'll get the right response. He's THE God. Man who died in Rose for the forgiveness of my sins.
Or maybe. If you need a little waking up this morning, I could conclude by describing it like this.
It's imagine you get that suddenly, crazy, scary news.
And just the waves of questions are crashing over your heart, robbing your faith, killing your joy, you're panicking and the devil is telling you why? Why is this happening? Why isn't God stopping this? Maybe God doesn't care. Maybe God has forgotten about you. But in those very moments, Jesus gets up and He says, “Be still. And on your heart, that I am God.”
