The world of men, with their wars, and their politics, and their elections, and their controversies, is a turbulent sea. The disciples of the Lord were once in the boat with Him under challenging conditions, but it took them a while to learn what kind of authority the Lord Jesus actually has in the affairs of men. Even from within a vulnerable boat, He speaks to the wind and the waves, and they obey Him. If He can speak this way to the waters, how much more can he speak to the nations, who are, like Reuben, as unstable as water (Gen. 49:4)?
On another occasion, the disciples were having great difficulty rowing by night against a rough chop, and they looked out of their boat to see the Lord making as though He was going to pass right by them. He orders the wind and waves around, and He even walks on the waves. He treads them all under.
Who is this man, who walks with this kind of authority?
“The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: The depths also were troubled . . . Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.”
Psalm 77: 16, 19 (KJV)
Our task in the church is to recognize what God is saying, and to repeat the declarative Word. This man is the Lord. He has all authority, in heaven and on earth. He says the word, and the waters become like glass. He speaks, and the winds cease their moaning. He walks on the whitecaps, and nothing disturbs Him.
If this is what God has said about Him, our task in the church is to repeat what God has said, and glorify it all in and through our praises. He is the Son of God, declared to be such by His resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4). He will judge all the nations –those turbulent waves — and we know this because God raised Him from the dead (Acts 17: 31).
And so the resurrection of Christ from the grave is not the thing that must be proven. Rather, it is the reality that proves. If you doubt what we say, look at the turbulent waters that are so descriptive of human history. And then look at the history of the Church, and how we have learned to walk on that water.