I have been reminded over the past week of the incredible power of wind. We can’t see it but we can hear it. We can’t take hold of it but we can feel it. The wind is capable of causing massive devastation. As I walked around the neighborhood, following the storm earlier this week, I saw huge trees uprooted from the ground. The wind blew these trees over. No created thing was able to put a stop to it. When you consider the power necessary to uproot fully mature trees, just remember that it pales in comparison with the power of Almighty God. Our Lord, during his earthly ministry, was on a boat in the midst of a particularly bad storm, sleeping (Mark 4:37). His disciples were scared by the power of the storm and so they woke him, pleading with him to do something (Mark 4:38). The funny thing is when he did something they became scared again but for a different reason (Mark 4:39-41). This time the disciples were scared by Jesus’ power and authority. They wondered, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”[1] Christ is Lord over all of creation (Col. 1:15-18; cf. Job 38:10-14, 20-24). He has the power and authority to command the weather to do exactly what he wants. None of us have the power and authority to command a storm to stop. The Lord alone can do such things. He rules the wind and the waves.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, willingly came in the flesh to this earth (John 1:1-3, 14, 18). The same earth that he created, rules over, and sustains by his powerful word (Heb. 1:3). The Lord entered Jerusalem on a donkey, in fulfillment of the prophecy, to present himself as the King of Israel (Matt. 21:5; cf. Zech. 9:9). He allowed himself to be arrested, tried, and condemned (Matt. 27:24-26). Christ, who possesses all power, allowed himself to be crucified (Matt. 27:32-44). On the cross, he absorbed the wrath of the Father for our sins and died as our substitute (Rom. 3:21-26). Apart from his substitutionary death on the cross, we would remain dead in our sins (cf. 1 Peter 2:24; Rev. 1:5). This One, who commands the wind and the waves, willingly laid down his life on a Roman cross to redeem us. He did all of these things in obedience to the Father’s will (John 5:30; 6:38). Three days later, Christ rose again (1 Cor. 15:3-4). No one could stop him from doing so. Jesus possesses the power and authority necessary to rise from the dead (John 10:17-18; 2:19 cf. Acts 2:24). We do not possess that kind of power and authority. Jesus does.
Ephesians 1:19-21 reads, “And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” This is divine, resurrection power that the Lord possesses and exercises. Paul wrote in Philippians that he desired to know Christ and the power of his resurrection (Phil. 3:10). George Whitefield declared, “The power of his resurrection is as great now as formerly, and the Holy Spirit, which was assured to us by his resurrection, as ready and able to quicken us who are dead in trespasses and sins, as any saint that ever lived. Let us but cry, and that instantly, to him that is mighty and able to save; let us, in sincerity and truth, without secretly keeping back the least part, renounce ourselves and the world; then we shall be Christians indeed. And though the world may cast us out, and separate from our company, yet Jesus Christ will walk with, and abide in us.”[2] This is a powerful truth about a powerful Savior. The finished work of Christ reconciles repentant sinners to a holy God. The question is, do you have peace with God (Rom. 5:1; 8:1)?
The Lord defeated death through the resurrection. As a believer, your resurrection is assured because Christ has risen. He is alive and he is seated at the Father’s right hand in glory and power (Eph. 1:20-23). You can trust him with your eternal soul. Charles Spurgeon once preached, “In Christ, believers possess all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and grace, and power, and love. All things are yours, if you are Christ’s. From our union to Christ follows our sanctification: we cannot follow after sin, for Christ does not follow after it. He died unto sin once, and we are henceforth dead to it. He is risen by the glory of the Father, and we are risen with him into righteousness, and acceptance, and joy.”[3] If you can trust him with your eternal soul, you can trust him with the details of your life. The Lord, who controls the wind and the waves, is all-powerful and he is good.
I close with an excerpt from The Valley of Vision,
“LORD GOD, Thou hast commanded me to believe in Jesus, and I would flee to no other refuge, wash in no other fountain, build on no other foundation, receive from no other fullness, rest in no other relief… Let me not be at my own disposal, but rejoice that I am under the care of one who is too wise to err, too kind to injure, too tender to crush.”[4]
[1] Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Robert Murray McCheyne et al., A Treasury of Great Preaching: 5 Vol. Set (WORDsearch, 2020).
[3] C. H. Spurgeon, “Christ’s Resurrection and Our Newness of Life,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 37 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1891), 182.
[4] The Valley of Vision. (United Kingdom: Banner of Truth Trust, 2003), 42-43.