Scenario 1. Your name is Peter and you’re in a boat . Not a very big boat. Big enough for you and a few friends; not big enough to do well in “a great storm on the sea.” Oh yeah, imagine that too — you’re in a not very big boat in a severe storm. And the waves are crashing, the boat is “being swamped”, and it looks like you’re going to go under. Oh, one more detail I forgot to mention . . . In the boat with you is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things (including raging seas and crashing waves and not so big boats and such). And what’s He doing?

He was asleep.      (Matthew 8:23 ESV)

Huh.

Scenario 2. You go to the next reading in your reading plan, and your name is still Peter but now you’re in a prison. You’ve been arrested by an unpredictable, despot king who has an unprecedented, deranged ego. Arrested in order to be executed (because the last execution was received really well and your popularity increased in the polls because it “pleased the Jews”). So, you’re in prison. And you’re sandwiched between two prison guards. And you’re bound with not one but two chains. And, just in case you try anything (after all you are a fisherman by trade), there’s two more sentries guarding the door. So, what are you doing?

Peter was sleeping.      (Acts 12:6 ESV)

Hmm . . .

This morning two readings intersect to create one take away thought, those who believe are able to sleep the sleep of Jesus.

Though Jesus was asleep in the boat in the raging sea, Peter wasn’t. Peter was bailing. Peter was anxious. Peter was fearful. So, Peter desperately woke Jesus up, saying “Save us, Lord; we are perishing” (Mt. 8:25). And Jesus “awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm” (Lk. 8:24). And then Jesus turned to Peter and the others in the boat . . .

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

(Matthew 8:26 ESV)

So how come, maybe ten years later, Peter’s now able to sleep on death row? Maybe because Peter’s faith had grown.

Faith founded on going through a raging sea or two with Jesus and seeing firsthand that “even winds and sea obey Him” (Mt. 8:27). Faith fostered by standing before the cross of Jesus and then inspecting His empty tomb and then seeing Him enter a closed room and eating breakfast with Him on a sandy shore. Faith fueled by the poured-out Spirit of God. Faith fed by every person Peter had seen who had believed the gospel and had been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of heaven.

Peter slept that night in that prison tucked between those guards by faith. And so, Peter could sleep the sleep of Jesus.

I’ve knelt before the blood-stained cross. I’m convinced of the empty tomb. I’ve been through a storm or two and know what it is to cry out in fear. I’ve also known the storm calmed — at least within my soul — and have known the peace that passes understanding. I’m indwelt with His Spirit. I’ve witnessed the power of the gospel to rescue, redeem, and restore. I have faith.

I believe. Lord, help my unbelief (Mk. 9:24). So that I too would sleep the sleep of Jesus.

By Your grace. For Your glory.