to find the text in today's order of worship. We're looking at verses 35 through 41. I say, do you hear the word of God? On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And the other boats were with him. And a great wind storm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. And they woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another. Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him? Let us pray. Father, I pray that you would come this morning and open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the death. Teach us what it means to be with you in the midst of the storm. And I pray that you would be in my head, in my thinking, in my heart, in my understanding, and in my mouth, and in my speaking. In Christ's name, we pray these things, amen, and amen. Well, today in the Gospel of Mark, if you've been around for the past few months, we've been looking at the Gospel of Mark, and I was thinking about it last night as a matter of fact, when you read the Gospel of Mark, it's sort of like the theological version of playing bumper cars. In other words, you drive and you get going for a while, and then you hit something, you bump, and you're in a completely different direction. And yet, it's one part of one big hole, and today we changed directions again. Remember last week, we're past few weeks we've been talking about parables, and today, Mark is going to change directions again. And it's helpful to understand that, you know, this past Friday night, I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden there were no kids in the house. And Judy was reading, and I was waiting to go pick the girls up from a basketball game or something, and I was trying to kill some time, and so I was flipping through the channels, and I watched two shows back to back that were so, they were the same topic, but the way they handled the topic were so utterly different. It was genuinely amazing to me. The first show that I watched was Dog Whisperer. If you know the Dog Whisperer's Caesar Milan on one hand, and in the second show after it, I'm not going to tell you the name of the show, I'm just going to call it the Dog Coddler, okay? You got the Dog Whisperer and the Dog Coddler, and what both shows have in common is that they take dogs that are completely without hope, if you will. Dogs that other people are about to give up on, and they reform them. What's different is the methodology that they use, Caesar, the Dog Whisperer, walks into a room with any dog. Now, I'm sure maybe their dogs off screen that had been vicious and attacked them, and he's lost too, but every show, when he walks into a room no matter what the dog is like, here's what Caesar does to fix the situation. The dog comes at him, dog grunts, dogs, and within a minute, the dog is sitting there going, what do you want me to do? The other show, the Dog Coddler, opened with the woman walking there's a crate with a dog running around, and since she walked in the crate, the dog attacked her. And the dog is gnawing on her arm, and she's like, oh, this is a really hard case. Oh, the dog's pulling her over. I can take six months of, yeah, de-psychologizing this dog, he's probably been abused. Sure, there's a whole thing, six months. Now here, it only asks you this question. Someone throws you into a cage with a vicious rabid rot wiler. Do you want someone who comes and says, yeah, it's gonna be about six months to take care of this thing? Or do you want someone who goes and says, and it's over? You see the difference in the two methods is I could discern it, is one had to do with being a buddy to the dog, and the other has to do with authority. In other words, Caesar has the philosophy, I guess that I've always had, is that I'm the pack leader and that's a dog. Simple as that. I'm the one with authority. The dog doesn't have authority. And so the one with authority simply needs to assert his authority. And when you look at the Gospel of Mark, where Mark changes gears today, he spends an awful lot of time showing us the authority of Jesus. In other words, Jesus isn't the wind codler. We're gonna see today. He doesn't coddle the storm. He's the wind whisperer. He's the storm whisperer. Mark is gonna look over the next few weeks. He looks at Jesus' authority in four different areas. One is his authority over nature. The other is his authority over the demonic world and the other is his authority over disease and finally his authority even over death. Do you wanna trust yourself to someone who can talk you through something or do you wanna trust your life to someone who has actual authority and is able to do something about the problems? That's the question we're gonna ask the next four weeks. We're gonna look at two things this morning and the text I read to you. The first thing we're gonna look at is the authority of Jesus, that's point number one. Second thing we're gonna look at is the discombobulation of the disciples. I just use that word because I like saying it. You can put confusion there or you can put perplexity. It was hard to find something like that that had a D. Discombobulation. They're undone. They don't know what to do after the events that take place here. First, let's look at the authority of Jesus. Verse 35, it says on that day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took with him, took him with them in the boat just as he was and the other boats were with him, okay? So the first two verses are really giving us some context. It says on that day, he said, let us go to the other side of the lake. Remember Jesus had been teaching in Capernaum and Mark wants us to believe, I guess, in this particular passage that all of the parable teaching that has happened the day before has been in one day during the course of the day. And now it's the end of the day. And Jesus has let us go to the other side of the lake. And if you also remember, the way that Jesus was teaching these huge crowds is he was standing in a boat. Just offshore, the water would have carried his voice, more people could have heard him, but he was in the boat. And that's what is also indicated here. When they said, leaving the crowd, they took him with him in the boat just as he was. In other words, they didn't go to the shore and get on another boat. He was in the boat. And basically Jesus says, let's pull away from the shore and let's go to the other side of the lake. So that's the context. And in verse 37, it says, a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern asleep on a cushion and they woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are parishing? Okay, so a great windstorm arose. On one hand, windstorms in the ancient areas and the sea of Galilee were apparently pretty common. And the reason that they were so common is because if you look at a map and you look at the sea of Galilee, it's basically surrounded on the north and the east and the west with mountains, particularly on the northeast. Mount Hermon is up there and cold air comes down from the mountains into this bowl. And then the Jordan Valley is at the south end and warm air blows up through the Jordan Valley and when the cold air and the warm air meet together, it causes a lot of wind apparently. This storm must have been even worse than that. You see the boat they were in, if they've actually found boats on the bottom of the sea of Galilee and they were about 26 and a half feet long by seven and a half feet wide by about four and a half feet deep and they seeded about 15 people. And they had a little area that was covered in the stern and in the bow of these boats and each had two places to row on each side. And what's interesting about this text is you notice how the disciples get so incredible, you know it's the worst storm that has ever happened on the sea of Galilee for one reason because the disciples are so afraid. Why is that important? If you remember, at least four, maybe as many as six half of the disciples are experienced sailors. Half of the disciples are experienced fishermen. They would have been on that lake every single day of their lives. They would have seen every storm that could have possibly been seen and yet for some reason this storm had them afraid. This storm had them fearing for their lives and it says that the waves were coming over the ship and it was so much so that the waves were filling the ship with water or the boat with water. And so that's the situation. Here they are, the greatest storm, the most furious squall they've ever experienced. And where do you find Jesus? He's asleep. And did you notice I've always told you the most important word in the Bible is butt? And that's the word used there. Everything is just going crazy all around them, but he, that is Jesus, was in the stern, asleep on a cushion and they woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And so you have to ask this question, why was Jesus sleeping in the stern in the midst of the greatest storm possibly in the history of the sea of Galilee? Well, the easy one, the easy answer could have been that he's just bone tired. He'd been teaching all day, I'm pretty tired after preaching a couple of sermons on Sunday. Jesus had been teaching all day from a boat, no amplification, he was bone tired. Let me tell you the real reason I think or what Jesus is doing here when he's sleeping. Why is Jesus sleeping in the midst of this huge storm? And the answer I think is simple as him being bone tired. It's just this, Jesus is leading by example. Jesus is leading by example in the midst of this big storm. What do I mean by that? Here they are in the worst storm of their life and Jesus is leading by example by doing what? Sleeping. How is he leading? Well, among other things, Jesus knows that nothing can harm him until he has accomplished the mission for which God has sent him. We know that. I mean, Jesus had it more of an inside track than we do, but Jesus knew what his mission was, his mission ultimately would be to give his life for the sins of humanity on the cross. And since this was not that time, since he was not on the cross, he could be perfectly calm knowing that God was going to see them through this so he could sleep. Is that how you are? Whenever anything happens in your life, whenever any kind of trouble comes that would harm you, do you just say, you know what? This is just another opportunity to get some shut eye. No matter what's happening in my family, no matter what happens with my job, no matter what happens with the economy, no matter what happens at the state of the union address, no matter what happens with any of these things, I'm sleeping soundly why? Because I know that God has everything securely in his hands. There's nothing that escapes his sovereign purpose. And as far as my own personal safety and my own personal harm, he is not going to take me until I've accomplished that, which he has set me to do. Do you have that kind of faith? Jesus did. What's interesting is the disciples' question of him. As you know, they ask him a question, but they're really not asking him a question. It's one of those questions that's more like a rebuke. In other words, the disciples, they're asking him something, but do they ask him a question because I think he can do something about it? Were they asking him a question in order to make a point? Let me look at that quickly. They woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are parishing? There's a couple of things there as I was studying this week, I noticed. The first is this, it's did you notice that Jesus here, he reminded me of a mother when with a newborn child, mothers with newborn babies are usually often justifiably incredibly tired and they could sleep through anything until they hear their baby cry. That's one of those weird mysteries of life. And here Jesus can sleep through the most terrible, horrendous, crazy storm in the world, and yet he wakes up at the nervous touch of one of his disciples. His care is still there and they say to him, teacher, do you not care that we are parishing? And there's two ways to read this. Either they're saying, teacher, do you not care that we all are parishing, including you? Do you not care that we're going down? The second way to look at this is teacher, do you not care that we, that is we disciples are parishing? They don't say Jesus, can you do something all they're concerned about? They're basically making an accusation that A, you don't care about us or B, you don't care about any of this or you can't do anything about it. Then why are you bothering me? Why are they going to Jesus? Are they going to Jesus because they think he can help them or they're going to Jesus simply to complain? Are they going to Jesus because either Jesus can't do anything in their minds or he doesn't care. And neither of those two things is true. They're gonna find out in a minute. You see, this storm might have been something that they've never seen anything like it. Well, that was the beginning of the end for them. The beginning of the great things for them to see because what does Jesus do? Jesus doesn't answer them. I think that's important to notice too. Jesus doesn't get up sort of all growing. You know, what's going on? And then Peter fills them in. Both filling up and we're about to die here and you know, Andrew's down there. He's been with the bucket for two hours. Is there anything we can do? They wake him up and say don't you care that we are parishing and it says he awoke. Look at the verse 39 and he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm. He woke up and rebuked the wind and the sea. He didn't ask them what was wrong. He knew what was going on. And what Jesus does here to the wind in the ways is he basically, he sort of pulls a Yosemite Sam on him. You guys know I love you, somebody Sam. Yosemite Sam, there's always in one of the episodes where he's either riding a dragon or a camel or a horse and he says, whoa, whoa. And at some point he gets off of the horse and he'll run around in front of it and club it on the head. And he says, whoa, that mean, whoa. That's what the Greek here says. I'm not kidding. Jesus says, be still and stay still. When I say, whoa, I mean, whoa. And all of the sudden there was great calm. And the language Jesus uses here by the way is a bit odd because it's the same language he uses when he rebukes demons and when he casts out demons. What's Mark's point here? What is Jesus doing here? Jesus is doing here something that only God himself can do. Jesus is doing something here that only God himself could do in the book of Exodus. Command the wind in the waves and push the red sea apart. When Israel crossed the Jordan, when Jonah was at sea, Jesus is doing something here that only God can do. And what's the response to that? Verse 40 has, we move on to the sort of discombobulation of the disciple that says, he said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? So what does Jesus do? He wakes up, he rebukes the wind and the waves and then he turns to the disciples and he starts asking questions of them. What's the first thing he says? Why are you so afraid? Why are you so afraid? Have you no faith? By the way, the remedy to the first question is found in the second question. The remedy to fear is found in faith. What's interesting here, though, is what the verb tense that Jesus uses. In other words, you would think, okay, they're going crazy. You know, their hearts are pumping cool aid in the midst of this storm. They don't know that they're going to live. Jesus wakes up and he says, peace be still and it's still and you would think they're not afraid anymore. But they're more afraid after Jesus calms the wind in the waves than they are before. Jesus says, why are you afraid? He doesn't say, why were you afraid? He doesn't say, why were you afraid? You knew I would have handled it. He says, why are you afraid now? Have you no faith? And the language there says, and they were filled with great, or they feared with exceedingly great fear and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind in waves obey him? See, there are a lot of questions there at the end, but the answers are found in the questions themselves. He says, what are you afraid of? Have you still no faith? Ask yourself that question. What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of what people think about you? If you're human, you are at some level. Are you afraid what's going to happen at your job? Are you afraid how your kids are going to turn out? Are you afraid what's going on in the economy? Are you afraid that somehow God has forsaken the United States because of all of our sins? What are the things you are afraid of? Are you afraid? And the question you have to ask yourself is, have you any faith? You see, the answer to fear is faith. Because when you're afraid, you're saying, God, I don't really believe that you either care about what's going on or that you know what's going on. The same thing that the disciples had. So think of any problem in your life. Is it finances? And you ask God, God is it that you don't care about me or is it that you don't know about me? And the answer from God is, I both know about you and care about you. Have you no faith? Will you trust me? And the answer is, if you're like me, the answer most of the time is no. You know, I don't sleep a lot of times. And if I'm honest with myself, it's because I'm thinking about things that probably I should turn over to God and say, God, it's yours. Now sometimes I turn it over to him and it doesn't take it right away and I'm still awake, but either way. Do you tell yourself that? Do you preach the gospel to yourself? Because when you say, you know, have faith in what? Well, the answer is in the last question. It's a rhetorical question, I think. Remember the original audience to this book were probably Christians who are being persecuted in Rome. And when you're being persecuted and you're going through all sorts of trouble, you have to wonder, is God indifferent to my suffering? And here Jesus has just calmed the wind and the waves he has shown his authority over nature and what's the last question in that passage? Who then is this? That even the wind and waves obey him. He's the one in whom we are to have faith. He's the one who can calm the storm. He's the one who, if he doesn't calm the storm, he is in the storm with us. And that maybe is the big question you need to ask yourself. Can you smile at the adversity in your life? Can you smile at all the ups and downs? Can you smile at all the hardships? Knowing that Jesus is in the boat with you. You know, one thing that's easy to miss in this text is Mark is the only one that records it. It's rough at the very beginning. It says, let us go across, verse 36, it says, in leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was and other boats were with him. Now think about it. There are all these boats out on the sea of Galilee. The furious storm comes, the likes of which no one has ever seen, one of the boats has Jesus in it. All the rest of the boats do not have Jesus in it. You're going through a storm, you're going to go through storms, which one of those boats do you want to be in? If you had a choice. Knowing that you're going to be on the sea and knowing that there's going to be a great and furious storm, do you want to be in the boat with Jesus or do you want to be in the boat by yourself? Because guess what? You're going to be on a boat and you're going to be in the midst of a storm. The question is, who are you going to be with? Are you going to be with the one who has authority over the storm? Are you going to cast your lot in by yourself? And don't be deceived because I think, you know, this is way my ADD brain works. I was thinking, imagine how funny it would be, or not really funny. If people on other boats are sort of praying to little wooden gods at the same time, the disciples say, what are you going to do? And Jesus wakes up and says, peace be still. No one hears it because it's so loud and they're looking at their little wooden god and all of a sudden it becomes still. And they look, see, I told you, that's not true though. It might look as if that was true, but in the reality, at the end of the day, the one with authority is Jesus. Who then is this? And you know that last line, I'll close with this. It sort of reminds me of what, at least my brain goes through when you get an odd Facebook request. Right? I know most of you are probably not on Facebook because if you were, you would have friended me. However, if you're familiar with Facebook, right? It's basically the social networking system. And people will send a request. You know, can I be your friend because they have to be your friend in order to see your information and all that stuff. And you get friend requests. And every now and then, I get a bizarre friend request. Or at least someone I never heard of. Who then is this? How do you figure it out? Well, the first thing I do is you click up. Who are the friends we have in common? Right? If you're here and you're trying to figure out who Jesus is, go places start. Who knows Jesus that knows you. What are they like? Who are they? What friends do you have in common? And the next thing, the other thing you do, if you're curious, is you send them a message. Who are you? Tell me something about yourself. If you're here and you're not a Christian and you're wondering, I don't know about this stuff. Who is this guy? Send Jesus a message. Pray to him. Ask him. Jesus, if you're real, show yourself to me. My prayer for you, as that you would friend him, that you would accept his request, because he's constantly sending that request. Please accept me. Embrace me. And for those that do, trust Jesus. How often do you chat with him? How often do you sort of remind yourself and comfort yourself with the fact that he is either in the boat with you or he is authority over the storm, because that's the fact. Think about that, let's pray. Father, I pray that you would continue to help us understand that not only that there will always be storms, but the fact that you are not only with us through the storm, but you have authority over the storm. I pray that you would also show your authority in our lives. Christ, name, we pray these things. Amen. Amen.