The passage this morning is from Mark, as we continue our series in Mark, this is chapter 4, verses 35 through 41. That day, when evening came, he said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side, leaving the crowd behind. They took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? They were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. This is God's word. Third through fifth graders, you are dismissed. Thanks, Dave. I'm not sure if I mentioned it. Friday was my birthday. Siding day. Choosing to embrace it. Maybe to the point of being obnoxious, I understand. You only did it once a year, right? I tell you, one of the things that strikes me about Mark as we look at it, and if you didn't already turn there in your Bible, we'll be looking at verse by verse in many ways, so make sure you want to do that or look at it in the bulletin. But Mark wants you to embrace the reality of who Jesus Christ is, more than anything else. From Mark to take the time to write a letter like this for him to write, as we've already mentioned before, what literary scholars have said, this was a new genre. There was no other writing at the time that was quite like this, written this way, no doubt inspired by the Holy Spirit as he's speaking here, writing here. But it would have consumed him the hours, the days, the weeks, maybe years it took, compiling the stories, and hearing, and getting the details down correctly. Writing it down, maybe having it proof-checked by others, you were saying, yeah, that's exactly what happened. That's what I remember in cross-referencing. Who knows how all that worked and went. But you could say nothing less than Mark was obsessed with who this guy Jesus was. And Mark probably had no idea that his letter, his testimony, would be given account, it would be added to the Holy Scriptures, it would be something that 2000 years later would be read and understood, as inspired by the very word of God. But I got to, can't help but think that Mark was so overwhelmed at the time, that looking back he would have been not surprised, maybe, in some ways, going, yeah, because this guy Jesus is the real deal. Because the accurate eyewitness testimonies of what happened, this is amazing. Mark has discovered the rest of the story, as he is with Jesus now. It's up to us, though, what the rest of the story will be for us as we look, as we encounter Jesus, and what we do with Jesus, as we look further into this story, this amazing guy here this morning. Well, this story is one that if you grew up in sunny school at all, going to church at all, you no doubt heard this because this is a favorite. Most kids books, if they're going to give stories of the Bible, your odds are this one's going to be in there because it's such a fun, such an amazing story. And there's no kid out there that doesn't want to be, especially at bedtime, comforted with the thought that there's somebody who's in control that can simply say the word in the problems disappear. The monsters under the bed disappear or in the closet or the challenges of life disappear. And there's no reason at all why we don't still continue to love it as adults, because we want to know there's that kind of power out there. We want to know that there's somebody that's in control of every single organism and micro-atom in the universe. And it bows and it worships the King of kings and Lord of lords, and the story no doubt tells us that. Well, let's look at it in more detail here this morning. Let's see what, indeed, we have to learn about who Jesus Christ is as he's revealed here in his scriptures. Look at verses 35 through 36 as we look at it kind of verse by verse. Once again, this is God's word. That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side, leaving the crowd behind. They took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. Well, here at the very first part of this passage, we hear Jesus already tells them the destination, doesn't he? He says, let's go over to the other side. His word comes out in the very beginning and tells them what the destination is. He's in the boat, he knows where they're going and how they're going to get there. And he says it right at front in this. He's confident about it. When Jesus speaks, it's not a suggestion or a statement of possibility. It's as good as done. That's true with anything Jesus said in the Bible. And I can guarantee you, and the reason why I made it in the story here is that these disciples look back and told Mark about it. Jesus told us from the very beginning, we're going to the other side, looking back, post-resurrection, and seeing who Jesus was, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is probably one of the favorite stories to tell around the campfire. Certainly to pass on to their children and to spread around. Is that Jesus told us if we had just took him at his word, he was right to question our faith. As he said, we're where we're going. If you were a follower of Jesus Christ this morning, I trust you've read part or maybe all of Revelation, but he's told you where you're going, and it is as good as done. Now he hasn't told you what every mile marker is going to be like. He hasn't promised how easy or difficult it's going to be, but he has made you other promises like, no I have seen, no ears heard, all that the Lord has prepared for those who follow him. He has given you promises that all things work together for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to his purposes. He has told you that he has plans for you to give you hope in a future not to harm you. He has told you in him his very last words and with you always, even to the end of the age. That means even when you can't see me, even when I'm not physically here on earth anymore, there is Holy Spirit, there is body of believers, which by the way, that's one of the things that's so important about us gathering. You know, statistically church attendance has become something that has really gone down in recent years. I'm not just saying this because I'm the pastor, I guess I am kind of saying it because I'm the pastor. It's part of my job here, but 30, 40 years ago, a regular church attender was there. Well, you know, we missed two or three times a year. Today, regular church attendance is like, well, you know, we're there maybe, you know, one or twice a month or regular. That's a very different mindset. But let me tell you something. The mindset would be radically different if you really understood that the presence of God is not just experience in the preaching of His Word as we look at it here this morning, not just in the presence of His Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit has poured out His gifts among His church. And there are aspects and there's angles of the reality of who Jesus Christ is that you won't see anywhere else except in His body. That's why he saw a little group following their ox for the university. I can't remember which one it was that actually died and passed away. But he said, you know, our group will never be the same, because there was a understanding that we had about one another that his personality brought out in our group. The way he acted, the questions he asked, the things he shared, brought a dynamic to our group that will never be there again, this side of eternity. See, it's loose, understood. The power of the body of Christ. I don't think we do in many ways. We miss that in so many ways. But Jesus is speaking to us and he is promising us. In the very words of Jesus, no matter what they are, come true completely in their fullness. And when Jesus says you're going to the other side, like he does in Revelation dust, let me tell you, you're going if you're a follower of Jesus Christ. And when he says, if you're not a follower of mine, you're not going to the other side, that is just as real as well too. He invites us. He challenges us to come and trust him. And the disciples were probably the storm hadn't hit yet or they probably wouldn't have ventured out. They had no idea what was about to hit along the way. And I guarantee you that you and I can't predict the things that are about to hit. I mean, I don't know how old you are now, but can't you look back on your life even if it's just teenagers here, you know, 13, 16 years, or those of us who are 43 years now looking back, can't you look back and go, you know, I never would have predicted that to happen or this to happen. I never thought I'd live in Orlando. In fact, I made a promise at one point that we will never live in Orlando. All right, that was after I'd been here for a few years in school thinking this place is hot and flat and, you know, there's no seasons and so on. Famous last words, but Jesus has a plan for us. And he had one for the disciples here this day as well. It goes on to say they took him along just as he was in the boat. Well, most people look at these details, these are details that by the way are another proof and evidence that it was a real eye witness account because you don't throw in little extra details unless you're truly an eyewitness account and you're caught up in the in the picture of what's going on here. But Mark throws these things in because he's getting eyewitness details. Jesus probably had just finished preaching some of the stories we just looked at. He's still there in the boat. Who knows how long he'd been telling stories, how long he'd been giving parables, how long he'd been teaching. But he was like, look, we got such a big crowd here. Let's just we can't go this way with the crowd. We got to go that way across the sea here and they just kept the boat going. They just go ahead and start a rowing and pull them out with that. Jesus was probably still in the boat and everything stepped out from the time he was teaching that day. It also says there were also other boats with them. Again, another reason here, the no detail, there's no reason why that detail would have been thrown in there necessarily unless there was somebody saying, look, I'm giving you the picture because people were there watching this. These are eyewitness accounts. They're a list of it that. You know, it's interesting. There we go. One of the things, there was actually, this is a replica of a boat that was found back in 1986 that was dug up from the from the ground to see a galley. And in fact, they call it the Jesus boat because they believe that it came back right to that first century time. So this is a good picture of what the boat probably looked like as they had looked at what they had found left and restructured it. Something like this with little dex kind of on the front and back and Jesus were told it was in the stern of the boat. He was probably laying back there. He had a cushion. He was back there, reclying somewhere back there. But this kind of gives you a picture of what kind of boat. And that is of the sea galley right there eight miles across, but they were trying to cross that night just to give you a picture. Well, let's keep reading verse 37 through 38. A furious squal came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, teacher, don't you care if we drown? That's the picture. And I bet they toned down the language a little bit probably to put in the letter, don't you think? After all, these are sailors out here. Well, here's a Rembrandt famous picture of a trail and what it might have looked like there with all the disciples in the boat and the big storm coming up here. Well, the furious squal that came up, the weren't squal can actually be translated hurricane if you wanted to in our modern language. That kind of storm. And all of us who are living here in 2004 know what that looks like to live through hurricanes. Not just one, but three or four that came either by or through or near us during that year. We've seen hurricanes up close with that. And these are sailors, by the way, who are experienced out on the sea who would not have been, certainly would not have been yelling and crying out that we're going to die if they didn't think this was a really intense storm. See, the sea galley is 700 feet below sea level. In fact, the Dead Sea, which is also part of the same ravine, which is, this is, you know, the saltwater and is what they call like a dead, dead water. This is the lowest area of freshwater on the entire earth because it's so low down in this ravine here of that 700 feet down. And the problem is with it being 13 miles long and 8 miles wide, there's this mount hernan, which is 30 miles north of it. That's 9200 feet high. So you got 9200 feet above the sea level with 700 feet below sea level. What happens between the cold air from the mountain top, the warm air from the from the water area coming up in mixture? Well, we know what happens here with, right, Florida thunderstorms with the breeze off the ocean coming and hitting with the warm air over the land. They create storms, incredible storms. And this was no normal, incredible storm. This was the mother of all storms. Because remember, these disciples are probably 30, 40, we're not sure exactly how old, but they're mature men with families and children. Okay, they've been around, they've seen, they've been through storms and they're scared for their lives thinking they're not going to make it out of this one because it was no ordinary storm. I've shared with you all before and I was there visiting in Israel and they're on the on the, they also call it Lake Kineret. But they're right there on the edge of the sea gallery that at night time, they call it the eastwardly wind that comes across. It is, the wind is blowing so hard on the shore that it's like your head sticking out the car window going 65 miles per hour. That's the intensity of the wind and that's in a non storm going on. And this is probably happening at night in an intense storm. Are you getting the picture of what's happening here and what they're walking through, what they're going through. This is one that terrified them as experienced sailors. And what's Jesus doing? He's sleeping in the back.
I remember I've wondered sometimes thinking, was he just kind of pretending to be asleep? My kids were just confessing this weekend when they were telling dad earthly stories about how they used to, there's Riley, how they used to pretend like they were asleep when I sent them in the room to come in and it was time for them to be disciplined. And they got away from it sometimes because I'd walk in and look like, well, they fall asleep. So nice, nice try. That worked. Okay. But now I realize they were faking it, right? You wonder if Jesus was faking it. Well, listen, there'd been no reason for Jesus to fake it. But you get a picture here of his humanity. You get a picture here. Here's a guy that yes, he's 100% God, which we're going to see in a second. But he's a 100% man. He is exhausted. He's been preaching to the crowds for days now. He's been preaching. We don't know how long at that point. Maybe he had not even had time to take, you know, time to eat or anything like that. He is to the point of exhaustion. And maybe some of you have been to that point sometimes where it's like, man, you fell asleep on the couch there and it was all kind of. The TV was on and the music was going, people came in, you're like, I didn't hear anybody. I bet some of you have slept so hard at some point, you know, that you've had an experience like that where you slept through something you had no idea it was going on because you were just purely exhausted. There's Jesus as well too. A guy who is completely honest and no reason to be deceiving or whatever. He's exhausted in here. You see his full humanity expressed here in this story as well as his deity in just a moment. In a scholars, by the way, I've looked at this and compared it to the story of Jonah because there's some very interesting connections between the two stories of Jonah. Remember, he started out, he ran away from God. The guy that told him to go to declare and to be an evangelist to Nineveh. And he said, like, no way. He headed out in the boat. Remember? And what? A big storm came up while they were on the boat. And what was Jonah doing? He was in the belly of the ship, knocked out, passed out, sleep. A lot of similarities in these two stories will look at some more as we go along. But they were both sailors who were experiencing some boat boats. Jonah's boat, as well as one Jesus was on, were experienced sailors and they were terrified at the storm that was around them at that time. Let's keep going. Let's look at verses 39 through 40. Tells us next that he got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Jesus wakes up and he wakes up to give a rebuk. In fact, the word rebuked here in the original language is the same actual word that's used in the earlier chapters where Jesus has rebuked an evil spirit in somebody or a demon in somebody. These aren't just little mild words or just little soft ones. Jesus is commanding authority when he is speaking and he rebukes the wind in the wave in a similar way that he did, evil spirits. It's very intense. Jesus meant business as he was getting up here. It's a word of authority. Notice he just says, the most simple of things, quit or quiet, be still. If you were thought about what it's like to be woken up from that kind of deep sleep, I don't know how you are just being woken up from a normal kind of a sleep. But if you ever woken up in the morning after a long night, and this happened a few times, I woken up and the Lord was like, can you open up the top of this jar? I'm like, all right, I get that to me. I'm like, I've got no grip. I can barely grip the thing hard, much less turn at hard. When you first woken up, you've got no strength in you. You just got to kind of get going whatever. I hate when people call on the phone and I haven't had a chance to speak yet. In fact, Alice Martin, I didn't tell her with Alice in here. He's the little secret. The Alice called me the other day. I hadn't talked to anybody. She's like, gosh, you sound like you're sick. He just woke up. I'm like, no, I don't want to say you're just the first person I've talked to yet. But my voice wasn't even going. It was just kind of this rule of kind of thing. I sound like I was sick. And your body's just not going when you wake up when you've been exhausted. And Jesus has probably, you don't know how long he's been had a chance to even get to sleep, but he's wiped out. He's exhausted. He gets up. He's not bewilder about what's going on. He's not like, all right, let me get going. Let me get ready. Kind of get my grip going. I'm saying, hello, hello. Get my voice going. He's not doing any of that kind of stuff. He's not rooming up some kind of incantation. He's not calling upon a higher power to come and do something in the place. He gets up and then the groggyness of his humanity and sleep and complete exhaustion gets up, gets to the edge of the boat, and simply has enough energy to say, quiet be still. Maybe something just to that intense.
That's the picture we get here of the context of what's going on here. I like Tim Keller's quote on this passage. He says, he didn't brace himself. He didn't roll up his sleeves and raise a wand. There were no incantations. He said, quiet be still. That's it. To a hurricane, Jesus simply says, quiet be still, just as you would talk to an unruly child. But the more astonishing thing is that the storm obeyed like a compliant child. And the original language that you miss in our English too, it's actually written to in second person singular form, second person. So it's almost like you say, hey, you quiet be still is the picture. It's the perfect passive imperative form in the Greek language here saying, hey, you be still and continue to be still. And he's saying it not as a suggestion. He's saying it with authority. One of the things that catches scholars' attention too is the fact that the language says the wind and the waves he addressed and then it says the wind died down and it was completely calm. It'd be one thing for the wind to stop blowing pretty quickly, but it stops on the dime, which by the way you never see wind out in the storm stop on the dime. It gradually slows down. Not this wind. It was as quick as it was there. It was gone. And even more amazing because you know after a storm, especially when on a boat or a cruise ship, those waves can rock for hours or even sometimes days after a storm. The water is completely flat. I mean the disciples were not knowing they were going to survive this storm. They were wondering if anybody was going to ever be able to see their face alive again. And a moment later after Jesus shows up and says, quiet be still, they can see their face in the reflection of a perfectly still sea. That's the picture. That's the power.
Scholars also go on and see that there's a comparison here too. There's something that Jonah had to do to calm his ocean. Jonah said, look, I'm the cause. I'm the problem here. Throw me into the water and the seals stop. And they did. And the sea stopped. Not differently here. Jesus didn't need to be thrown in the water. But Jesus would be weeks, few years later, thrown into the water for them. He would endure the cross. He would pay the penalty for our sin so that the greatest storm that we face of sin and death and judgment would be quiet and be still. Well, let's keep reading. Verse 41 says this, they were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. These guys were terrified. Do you get the picture though here? They are actually more terrified by the power inside the boat than they were about the power that was being displayed in the storm outside the boat at this point. There aren't comments like, I'm glad we made it through that one. Look at that water. Look how still that is. I mean, these are sailors that would have been chilly and thralled. This is amazing. But they're not looking at the water anymore. They're not looking around and feeling the wind and thinking about that anymore. They're thinking, who is this guy that's in our boat? That's what has their entire attention and this capture their imagination is, who is this guy? And if he can command, wind and water that stops on a dime, I'm not sure I'm feeling all that comfortable hanging out with him in the boat here. And if the wind and the water obey him like that, should I? Why don't I? What do I do with him? They were astonished. They were amazed. You know, I shared this story from a previous sermon, but it fits the story because it's about this story. It's a guy named Mark Golly who wrote in a book, Jesus, Meen and Wild. He's a pastor and he writes about his experience in sharing this story with some lay-ocean refugees. Let me just read his story in his words. He says, he says, a group of lay-ocean refugees who had been attending the Sacramento Church, I pastored, approached me after the service once, and he asked me to become, and asked if they could become members. Our church had sponsored them and they had been attending church only a few months. They had only a rudimentary understanding of the Christian faith. So I said, Jess, are we studying the gospel of Mark together for a few weeks to make sure they knew what a commitment to Christ is and knew what church membership entailed and they happily agreed. Despite their lay-oceans, lack of Christian knowledge, or maybe even because of it, the Bible studies were some of the most interesting I've ever led. After we read the passage in which Jesus calms the storm, I began, as I usually did, with more theological, sophisticated groups, I asked them about the storms and their lives. They were puzzled. They looked among my lay-ocean friends. So I elaborated, well, we all have storms. We have problems, we have worries, we have troubles, we have crisis, and this story teaches that Jesus can give us peace in the midst of those storms. So what are your storms, I asked? Again, more puzzled silence. Finally, one of the men hasn't really asked, do you mean that Jesus actually calmed the wind and the sea in the middle of a storm? I thought he was finding the story incredulous, and I didn't want to get distracted with the problems of the miracles. So I replied, yes, but we should not get hung up on the details of the miracle. We should remember that Jesus can calm the storms and our lives. Another stretch of awkward silence ensued until another reply, well, if Jesus calmed the winds and the waves, he must be a powerful man. At this, they all nodded vigorously and chattered excitedly to one another in lay-o, except for me, the room was full of wonder. I suddenly realized that they grasped the story better than I did. You see, if you understand and put yourself in the shoes of this story, you understand, yes, Jesus can calm storms in your life, but you realize that's not the point. The point is, look who he is. The point is he has all power and authority. The point is he's a king, and you want to ask him how to bless your finances? And you want him to make your children turn out okay and keep them safe and protect them, and you want to make sure your marriage works well and you want to have health and get through an illness or disease that you have. Those are all relevant things, relevant things that God cares about. But in this story, if you're in it, if you understand it, you're thinking, this is a king. This guy is all powerful. This is God. Of course, he can do those other things, but that's not the point. The point is he's here on earth. The point is he's in my boat. The point is he's calling me to follow him. The point is he's told me to be a fisher of men, and he's told me he's with me always at the end of the age. What else matters if that's who's calling you, if that's who's raining and king of your life? Parallels of Jonah's story as well too. In both stories, the sailors are more terrified after the storm than they are during the storm. Even after Jonah's story in this scene, it becomes perfectly calm. They're freaking out. In this story of Jonah, they're going, we've never seen this before. What was up with this guy? They're terrified. They start wanting to worship God. The disciples are more terrified after the storm passes because of who it is that's in the boat with them, because he has a personal relationship with them, because they're following him, because he's a Messiah. Matthew 12, 38 through 41. Listen to this text. It says, then some of the Pharisees and teachers of law said to him, Jesus, teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you. He answered a wicked and adulterous generation asked for miraculous sign, but none will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at a judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repent at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. You really think it's an accident for those stories are similar? I don't think so.
Every Jew would have been familiar with Jonah, and Jesus is saying there is something that's happening here far greater than that. There is one who created the heavens in the earth who is now exercising his opinion, his dominion over creation. Jesus asked his father and heaven on the night that he was betrayed. He said, father, if it is possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it, I'm sorry, he says, my father, if it is not impossible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. Jesus comes and endures our curse, our shame. He endures the weight and the consequences and the judgment of our sin by taking it on the cross. In ancient writings and literature, storms and oceans were always pictures because you know they didn't have submarines back then. They really didn't have snorkeling or anything like that. Nobody really knew what was underneath the ocean. It was big mystery. It represented chaos. It represented areas that were totally out of control like outer space would have been for them. In fact, then it was just this huge abyss and only person that could control that would be a God, a Poseidon. And here is the God, the true God, who has come. And in this mindset, this understanding has come. He's conquered the thing that has the most mysterious power that they know of at the time to see and the chaos that it represents and the depths and the unknown. He's conquered it. And Jesus is doing more than conquering fears of physical things here in earth. He's conquering our greatest enemy, sin and death. See, Jesus did not call the storm of judgment just alone, but he received it in our place. He embraced it because there was a great purpose for it. There was glory be given to God and the Father through it, therefore he embraced it. With the spoken word, Jesus created the universe. And with the spoken word, Jesus calmed the wind and the sea. And with the spoken word as well, he said on the cross, it is finished. Paid and full, your debt is cancelled. Do you ever associate that spoken word as as powerful as the ones that said, let there be light? And that said to a storm be quiet and be still, same voice, same words, same power, same results. Whatever God says is true and powerful. My question to you as we close here this morning is simply, do you know him? Is he your king? Is he your Lord? If he's not, he can be. Let's pray. While I just asked this morning that you would come and you would meet with your people, that you would meet and you would gather and draw our hearts to you, Father, would you come and remind us that we are in desperate need of forgiveness of a holy God, that we're in desperate need, as Don was sharing earlier, God to know that in our desperateness of sin, that there is one who has come and who has saved each of us, who are chief of sinners, and is given forgiveness. God, would you remind us of your power? Would you remind us of your spoken word and written word? God, would you come and would you draw us to worship you? And God, for those that maybe might hear that don't know you and don't have a relationship with you, God, would they find that this morning? Would they simply know that your word says if we believe and trust to follow you and turn from our sin and trust in your forgiveness and make your Lord and King and Savior, that you will indeed come in and you will be the Lord of our lives and you will pour out your spirit. So, Father, for those that are here, but that desire, would you come and do that this morning? And God, for those that are here that already know and walk with you, would you remind them once more who it is that has called them, who you are that calls us as your church, you are King, you are Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and God, may we follow you faithfully, may we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.