"The Storm Within!"
Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #28)
Pastor Jerry Ingalls
August 7, 2011
Today we conclude the 4th chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Let us read together the Word of God from Mark 4:35-41 (NAU), 35 On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side." 36 Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. 37 And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. 38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" 39 And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. 40 And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" 41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" [prayer]
God does not promise to deliver you from the storms of this life, but to use the circumstances of your life to bring peace to the storm within your heart. (2x) The storm of sin that brings hopelessness, faithlessness, defensiveness, insecurity, and fear.
Prayer: God, we pray today, that You will allow us to see Your presence and Your protection in the midst of the situations and circumstances. And Lord, whether or not, You calm the storm of our circumstances, would You please come and calm the storm that rages within our own hearts. Meet us O Lord, right now, through Your indwelling presence in our hearts, to heal us of insecurity, hopelessness, and fear. May Your perfect love drive out fear! May your perfect peace calm this storm! We pray this with the faith of a mustard seed that Your Kingdom promises will grow to provide shade for not only us, but to those who come near to us. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
To live in the victory of this promise, let's learn together from God's Word. First, GOD USES OUR CIRCUMSTANCES…
God promises this to be true--He will use all of our circumstances--and more than use our circumstances, He will work all things that happen to us for good. Whether intended for good or evil against us by the person or force who caused the circumstance is not the point; whether we like going through the circumstance is not the point; whether the circumstance makes sense to us or we can see the good that comes from it from our limited perspective is NOT the promise! The Bible promises in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
We live in a fallen world where sin, disease, and natural disaster are an everyday reality. With our free will and the world still under the curse of the Fall, it is true that God is sovereign (meaning He has authority over all things), yet He is not the cause of every specific circumstance of your life. God sees all, knows all, and has authority over all, and He sees you in the midst of your circumstances. He promises to bring good from them! God is not powerless nor has He abandoned you in the storms of your life, but He cares more about your eternal soul than your temporary circumstances. That means He will use all things for His purposes!
Let's return to our Scripture lesson. Mark 4:35-36 sets the context for our story, "On that day, when evening came, He said to them, 'Let us go over to the other side.' Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him."
First, notice the obvious context cues that connect this story to the evening of the same day when Jesus Christ poured out Himself teaching parables of the Kingdom of God and explaining everything privately to His disciples (Mark 4:1-34) from a boat on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in the vicinity of Capernaum in the region Galilee where Jesus' ministry has been focused so far.
This is a very important passage. Up until this time Jesus has been in Galilee proclaiming the Kingdom of God to a Jewish audience. He is now, without notice, stating to His disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Who is on the other side? Why the urgency? Does it surprise you that spirit of this world would attempt to thwart the advancement of God's Kingdom—in this story and in your life?
Jesus Christ is saying to good Jewish men that they are going "to the other side". OK, deep breath... If it hasn't been controversial enough already (ministering to and having fellowship with tax collectors and sinners, infuriating the religious leaders, and seemingly breaking long established cultural and religious laws) and if Jesus doesn't already have powerful men plotting to kill him because of His teaching, then let's guarantee a life of persecution, ridicule, and death by taking the Kingdom of God "over to the other side"! Jesus is taking these kosher Jewish men to the Gentile Decapolis, but not just any unclean Gentiles, he's going straight to the pig farm!
This is the Jesus of the Gospels, who is the Savior of the world! He is so mission-focused to be scandalous!
This Jesus will command you to do the same thing--to go to the other side! Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:18-20 prescribe and command that to do anything less is to fall short in our call as a disciple. Are you sure this is what you signed up for when you asked Jesus to be your LORD and Savior? Are you willing to be obedient?
Mark 4:37-38 continues the story, "And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?'"
These disciples have obediently followed Jesus Christ to go to a place that good Jewish men should not go to share a message that was supposed to be shared with people on the other side in theory only (Abraham was called and the Chosen People were created in order to be a blessing to all nations, but the religious leaders modeled and taught an exclusive faith separate from "unclean" people). And now, in the midst of following Jesus and being obedient a storm threatens to kill them…but, but I have been good…it's just not fair that things have turned out the way they have--this storm is going to kill us! I've been good, this isn't fair...this isn't supposed to work out this way... Sound familiar? Sound like thoughts many of us have thought at some point in our Christian lives?
In this story, we are dealing with at least four experienced fishermen in the boat who have been through many storms on the Sea of Galilee at night who are currently freaking out because they believe with all their heart they are about to die due to this storm. So what do they do, they woke up Jesus from a well deserved and much needed sleep to ask Him a question, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"
I read this question as one of personal request with a whole lot of fear and accusation wrapped into it. Jesus, we are out here because we're following you, remember, we're going to the other side, and now, we are all going to die. "Do You not care that we are perishing?"
Do you allow your circumstances to lead you to question God's presence and goodness in your life? How can God use hard times to grow you in your trust and obedience?
The Bible teaches us to look to God in times of hardship.
Psalm 121:1-4 promises, "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep."
I do not think the storm is the main emphasis of this story. I think it is the disciples' reaction to the storm and then how Jesus responds to them.
Jesus states in John 10:27-29, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand."
Do you trust Jesus' words spoken to you today in the midst of your circumstances? Yes, Jesus does care! He cared so much that He came so that we won't perish--John 3:16! But God does not promise to deliver you from the storms of this life, but to use the circumstances of your life to bring peace to the storm within your heart. To reconcile you to God through the forgiveness of sin (that is the raging storm that needs Jesus' peace!). To set you free from the captivity of the fierce forces of sin in your heart! And then to join Him in this mission to seek and save the lost. He is calling us to follow Him to the other side and fish for men…and there will be storms along the way…expect storms!
Disciples are called to follow Jesus and fish for men! We do not choose where (even into dangerous life-threatening circumstances) or when (with or without notice) in order to advance the Kingdom of God. Do you trust God enough to follow Him wherever and whenever He calls?
As I was preparing to serve as a military chaplain with our country being at war, we had some people counsel us to not follow such a dangerous route. My response was always the same, "It is safer to be in a war-torn disease-infested land than anywhere else in the world, if that is where God has called me to be." Brothers and sisters, don't let your circumstances determine your trust and obedience; let your trust and obedience determine your circumstances!
Because GOD USES OUR CIRCUMSTANCES TO BRING PEACE TO THE STORM WITHIN OUR HEARTS.
Mark 4:39 starts Jesus' response to being awoken from His sleep, "And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Hush, be still.' And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm."
I don't think this is the main part of Jesus' response, although we want to make it the standard of how God would respond every time. Can Jesus calm the storms in your life? Yes and absolutely He does according to His will! Will He do this every time so that we can build our expectations off of it? No, and in fact the evidence of the Bible shows more people being used by God in the midst of their storms than not (Joseph, David, prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul & the apostles). I think it is dangerous to build our Christian life around the mindset that God will calm the storms of our lives every time. We should ask and have confidence that He hears our cry for help! Yes, but it shouldn't surprise us that God uses our circumstances to bring peace to the storm within our heart through the storms that fiercely rage in our circumstances! His ways are not our ways!
Do you have circumstances in your life that you pray God will quiet? Let me ask…If God would calm that storm today, would that lead you to trust and obey Him more? Or would another circumstance just pop up and take its place in the unrest of your heart?
In this story, I believe Jesus calms the storm so that He can address His disciples lack of understanding--their fear of death; their fear of failure; their lack of faith in the Kingdom of God! Remember this event is on the heels of Jesus' day of teaching parables about the Kingdom of God and Jesus privately explaining everything to His disciples. Jesus did not do a long prayer. He said, "Peace" in a direct way like He did earlier in the Gospel of Mark when He silenced a demon. He silences the force that He knew would be unable to thwart God's mission in order to be able to deal with the real threat--the raging storm of fear within the hearts of His disciples! He knew this raging storm could stop them from being faithful and obedient disciples! It is not our circumstances that will prevent us from being faithful disciples; it is our fear and lack of faith!
Mark 4:40-41 concludes the story, "And He said to them, 'Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?' They became very much afraid and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?'"
A rhetorical question framed in a reverent awe and fear of the man who at one moment slept soundly through the storm and upon waking up this man He calmed the storm with the authority that only the God of Israel can wield. Jesus commanded with the authority that is His as the incarnate God of Israel--fully man and fully God!
Psalm 107:28-31 proclaims of the God of Israel, "Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet, so He guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men!"
Why did Jesus calm the storm? NOT because it posed any threat to the mission of God, to Jesus Himself, or even to the disciples (He knew that and that's why He could sleep!). Jesus calmed the storm within the disciples' hearts by planting the seed of peace that comes from knowing Jesus Christ as the Lord of the heavens and the earth.
Jesus is speaking this same peace into your life today. You may be listening hoping that God would hear your cry for help in the situations and circumstances of your life--finances, relationships, addictions, children, unemployment... Do you feel abandoned by God or feel like He has fallen asleep on you? Do you fear death? I am here to declare that God can do even more than you can imagine! God has the power to bring peace to the savage storm of sin. To bring hope where there was hopelessness; faith where there was faithlessness; truth where there was defensiveness; security where there was insecurity; and courage where there was fear.
Let me tell you that God has called you here today, in the midst of your life circumstances, to bring peace to your heart. Jesus speaks to you, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful" (John 14:27).
God does not promise to deliver you from the storms of this life, but to use the circumstances of your life to bring peace to the storm within your heart. Have you asked God to bring peace to the storm within your own heart? Jesus asks you personally, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
Respond and turn to God today; a God who will never leave you nor forsake you, a God who neither sleeps nor slumbers, and trust Him to bring peace into the storm within.
Let us pray…
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