WWUTT 2157 Jesus Calms the Storm (Mark 4:35-41)

Jesus was with his disciples in the boat, and as they were crossing the sea, a big storm came up. Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves, and it became perfectly calm. And this even scared the disciples when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Jesus Calms the Storm in Mark 4

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Mark, we're finishing up Chapter 4 today, and we're getting back into the miracles of Jesus. We've been reading about parables through most of Chapter 4, but today we read of Jesus calming the storm.

And I'm going to pick up reading in verse 35 and go to verse 41 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And on that day, when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, Let us go over to the other side.

And leaving the crowd, they took him along with them in the boat, just as he was, and other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling up.

And Jesus himself was asleep in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. And they got him up and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Silence, be still.

And the wind died down, and it became perfectly calm. And he said to them, Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith? And they became very afraid and were saying to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Jesus Asleep in the Boat

Now, as we get back into Jesus performing miracles here, this miracle actually goes right along with the next part. So you've got to pretend that there's not a chapter break. We're reading of miracles, and here in this miracle, Jesus has command over the wind and the sea.

He controls even nature, the natural, the natural world. In the next miracle, it is demonstrated the power and the control he has over the supernatural, as he's going to encounter unclean spirits and have command even over them.

So today, we read of the natural here. And in this particular account, there are three main elements. Of course, as a Baptist preacher, you've got to expect of me that I'm going to break this up into three parts.

Well, this isn't so much breaking up into three parts. That's not really the structure that I'm looking at here, but that there are three things to focus on. We've got Jesus, the disciples, and the wind and the sea.

So there's our three elements. And we can even be a little more specific than that. You have Jesus who is asleep in the boat. You have the disciples who are panicking in the boat. And then you have Jesus being awakened and rebuking the wind and the sea so that it remains calm, so that it returns to calm.

So those are the three portions of this particular account. We start here in verse 35 with evening coming upon them. And Jesus says to them, let us go over to the other side. So they are leaving the crowds whom Jesus has taught by way of parables.

He's taught the disciples' parables and revealed things to them that he did not reveal to the crowds. That was something that we had just read yesterday as we closed out the parable. Verse 34 says he explained everything privately to his own disciples.

And even what we're going to see here with Jesus calming the storm, this is a private miracle. It's not something that everybody got to see, but the disciples certainly got to witness the power that Christ has even over creation itself.

So on that day, evening came, and he says to them, let us go over to the other side. It's pretty convenient to be able to travel at night in a boat. You don't really have to see where you're going. You don't have to worry about running into anything.

And if there's a moon out or even the stars, there's just enough light to be able to see what's out there on the sea and even where land is. Now, notice something here. There were other boats, verse 36, leaving the crowd.

They took him along with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. So oftentimes when you see this depicted either in movies or TV shows or something like that, or if you've seen an illustration, a painting, or drawings, I don't know that I've ever seen this story recounted with multiple boats depicted.

Anybody seen one before? You can send it to me if you've seen this before where somebody's actually painted a picture or something where there's multiple boats as this wind comes up on Jesus and his disciples.

But they were apparently distributed into several different boats, and it may have been more than just the 12. So it wasn't just the 12 disciples that were with Jesus. It could have been that there were dozens more.

We know that there were other disciples other than the 12, but Jesus had that inner core of the 12. So there are several disciples with Jesus, and they are in several boats. As I've said before, the word disciple simply means learner.

So disciple is not necessarily limited to the 12, and sometimes we'll have the delineation given to us in Scripture. Jesus was with the 12, or he was with his disciples, something like that. So multiple boats together in this group that is crossing over to the other side of the sea.

And incidentally, these boats will oftentimes just be there on the shore. You might have to wonder, do they just travel around with a boat? How do they just have boats with them that they're ready to just hop in a boat and go to the other side of the sea?

Well, there were these community boats that were shared, especially among the fishermen, that any time somebody wanted to go fish, you just grabbed a boat and pulled it out there onto the water and did your fishing and came back in.

And so they were considered to be community boats shared by anyone. And here they're piling into these boats and are crossing over to the other side, doing this for purpose of transportation, not to go fishing, but to get from one place to the other.

The Disciples’ Fear and Lack of Faith

And it says in verse 37, a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling up. Now tell me, be honest, whenever you picture this story, you usually picture it with a lot of lightning and rain, right?

That's the other way this often gets depicted. It's a big storm. It's like a thunderstorm. But that's not described here at all. It's just a big windstorm. It doesn't even really say that it's cloudy, but just that the wind is blowing fiercely and the sea is so stirred up that it's even coming into the boat.

It's filling up the boats. It doesn't say that it's necessarily happening with all the boats, but it's certainly happening with the one that Jesus is in with his disciples. And they come to him, and they say to him, well, let me not get ahead of myself, verse 38, Jesus himself was in the stern, and he was sleeping on the cushion.

And they got him up and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? The stern is in the rear of the boat, by the way. And it could have been that the stern was kind of, it had a platform on it, so it was a little more high.

You've surely seen this in present-day boats. Maybe you have that uncle that's got the motorboat you like to take out on the lake or something like that, and he's got that. The back of the boat has a little bit more elevation to it than the rest of the boat, most of the time.

And so it was the same with these boats. And it could have been in the bow as well, at the front of the boat, that there was kind of more of a raised area. The interior part of the boat is where everything is deep.

You're hauling fish in, and they would fill up the lower portion of the boat. But in the front and in the back, somebody could sit down there or be out of the deep part of the boat. And so Jesus is there in the stern on a cushion asleep, and so the water coming into the boat wouldn't be disturbing him.

But Jesus is at peace here. He's perfectly calm, even though chaos is going on around him so that the disciples are even panicking about what is happening. So Jesus is asleep. They go to Jesus, and they say to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

And I don't know about you, but I actually think of Jonah when I read this. If you'll remember, when Jonah was trying to escape from God, he was trying to get away from the responsibility that God was giving him to go to Nineveh and preach to the people, warning them of judgment that was to come.

Well, Jonah didn't want to go do that, lest they repent and be spared. He wanted Nineveh to be destroyed. So he gets in a boat heading the complete opposite direction, and he's trying to get as far away as possible, all the way to Tarshish.

And as the ship is on the sea, a great storm comes up, and it's such a fierce storm that it threatens to rip the boat apart, this ship that Jonah is on. And so the crew go down into the cargo hold, and they wake Jonah up, and they're like, How can you sleep in the midst of this?

We're all going to die if we don't do anything. And so they bring Jonah up to the top, and they're trying to come up with a solution to save them from the storm. Now, as you know the story of Jonah, Jonah eventually reveals himself as being the cause of this storm.

God has caused this storm to come upon you because I'm running away from Yahweh. That's why this is happening. So if you want to save yourselves, you've got to throw me overboard. Jonah gets thrown overboard.

He gets swallowed by the fish, which barfs him back up onto the land after three days and three nights. And Jonah then resumes his journey to Nineveh, as he was supposed to do in the first place. But Jonah is asleep in the cargo hold of the ship.

And as I've preached through that before, as I've preached on Jonah, one of the things I demonstrate is that Jonah is perfectly comfortable with his sin, with his rebellion against God, and that he's able to sleep through this and is not bothered by it at all.

The storm that he knows has come upon this ship because of his sin, because he is not obeying God. And yet he is so content with his own rebellion that it doesn't even bother him. And he remains there in the cargo hold, able to sleep through all of this.

And so I think of something similar, but not quite the same reason, as Jesus is asleep here in the boat. Now, Jesus is sinless. He's not done anything wrong. He's the only sinless person that has ever lived.

But Jesus has such a calm and a trust about his heavenly father, that he's not bothered by the fact that they're in a boat, that a storm is going to come upon. Jesus, in his humanity, is able to be at peace with it and sleep.

Nothing is going to happen to them. Because, as Jesus has said to his disciples previously, it's not yet his time. It's not time for the people to know these things yet. But it's not time for him to go to his death.

And so he's certainly not going to die here in this boat. Jesus knows that. And so he's perfectly at peace for another reason. Where Jonah was at peace with his sin, Jesus is at peace with his father.

And knowing that his father loves him and is providing for not only he, but even the disciples that he is with. And Jesus is going to be safely delivered to the other side. And it's not just trust in his father, of course.

Jesus knows who he is. He knows that he has the power and the authority to stand up and rebuke the wind and the waves. And that's exactly what he does. So the disciples are in a panic. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

When they should have trusted in God the whole while. He's right there in the boat with them. Why do they not believe? Why would they think that anything would happen to them as long as they are with God?

And Jesus wakes up and he rebukes the wind and says to the sea, Silence, be still. And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And Jesus said to them, Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith?

They should have believed in who he is. They should have known who he is. And having seen the miracles that he has performed even up to this point, a lot of miracles have happened, even though we're only four chapters into Mark.

But a lot of miracles have been talked about here. They've seen him perform miracles. We've been reading miracles from chapter one. And yet they still don't have faith in who he is. That he would protect them.

That he would provide for them. And there was no cause for alarm. Jesus was allowing them to go through this chaos so that they would rely on him. And when chaos is going on all around us, it seems like all of heaven and earth are coming apart.

And it's just a matter of time until we are going to get swept up in all the chaos. And it's going to destroy us. It could be things are happening at work that are really bad. It could be friends that are turning on you.

It could be you're looking at the economy. And the way the economy is going, how are we going to survive? How are we going to manage this? It could be some sickness or illness that has come upon you. It could be any number of things.

Whatever is happening in the world that feels like the storms of life are starting to pour into your boat. And are threatening to capsize or threatening to turn you over. And you're going to perish in the midst of this storm.

Unless somebody does something. But God is putting you through this. He is indeed putting you through this. So that you would learn to trust in him. I come back to this passage often. But it's so very applicable to so many situations.

Where the Apostle Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 1. How he and his missionary brethren had been through so much. They thought they had received the sentence of death. But that was to make them rely not on themselves.

But on God who raises the dead. And so for you, are you going through so much chaos. That you feel like this is it. How am I going to get out of this? How are we going to make this work? And this is to teach you to rely not on yourself.

But on God. Maybe you even feel alone. Maybe it's that I can't find any friends, companionship, relationships. Or I do have relationships. But they're all so shallow. And I just feel so empty. And I don't feel like I have anyone.

This itself can even be a storm. That comes upon your life. Something emotional. Something traumatic. Something depressing. And yet in these things, they are meant to draw us closer to Christ. That we would be fully satisfied in Him.

That we would trust in Him. And know that He is God. And He will deliver us out of the midst of these things. He loves us. We are His children. He's not going to let us be destroyed. And even if it should so happen that whatever is coming upon us does take our life.

That it does destroy our body. It might destroy our body. But we won't be destroyed in our souls, in our spirits. We will go to be with the Lord. God upholds us with His mighty hand. And so indeed a day is going to come in which our body is going to give out.

Maybe it will be suddenly in some kind of an accident. Maybe it will be gradually over time by some kind of illness. Maybe you'll die of old age. But whatever it might happen to be that takes our life.

We have nothing to fear even of death. Because God will deliver us into His eternal kingdom. For all those who believe in Jesus. Psalm 37. Be still in Yahweh and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of Him who prospers in His way.

Because of the man who carries out schemes of wickedness. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret because it leads only to evil doing. For evildoers will be cut off. But those who hope in Yahweh will inherit the land.

That goes back to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew chapter 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. It's in Psalm 46 verse 10 that we read. Be still and know that I am God.

You know that passage right? In the Legacy it reads a little bit different. Psalm 46 verse 10. Cease striving and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

Yahweh of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. But it's almost as if the disciples forgot that. They forgot that Yahweh of hosts is with us. And so they get Him to wake up. But He rebukes the waves and the sea.

Again it's not a storm. There's not thunderstorms. It's not rain. It's just wind. But He rebukes it and it is still. And He says to the disciples. Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith? Everything that He had just taught them about faith in the parables.

And saying to them. Why do you have no faith? In verse 41. They became very afraid. That's a common reaction. That we see in Mark's gospel to Jesus doing something miraculous. The people are afraid. It strikes them with fear.

A reverent fear. We are in the presence of the power of Almighty God. The one who can even control all of nature with His voice. Of course Jesus can. He brought it into existence with His voice. And so they tremble with fear.

And they say to one another. Who is this? That even the wind and the sea obey them. They do not yet fully know. They will know later. But they don't yet realize that they are in the presence of the Son of God Himself.

The one who spoke to Moses through the burning bush. The one who brought plagues upon Egypt and delivered His people out of slavery. The one who by an utterance of His word brought all nature into existence.

So that what is seen has been made out of things that are unseen. That is the power of Yahweh. Of Jesus Christ. The Lord of hosts. As Jesus shows Himself as having command even over all of nature. And like I said, the next parable that comes along demonstrates Jesus' power over the supernatural.

And that's what we will consider tomorrow. But again, as the disciples had to learn this, so it's something that we must learn as well. Who do you trust in? Jesus is not just your religion because you need a religion.

And Christianity just happened to be the dominant religion in the United States where I was born. So that's why I'm a Christian. Or wherever it is you might happen to live. Whatever country that you are in.

You were born into a situation. Maybe you heard the gospel. And so this is the religion that I choose. Jesus is not just our religious belief. We believe in the God. The One who sits enthroned over all creation.

Who brought all of creation into existence by a word. And you have been brought into fellowship with Him. Through Jesus Christ. Our access to God. Our fellowship with God Himself. Do you know that in that relationship with Jesus.

You have direct access to the creator of all things. And so what reason do you have to fear. When you know that the One who can calm the wind and the waves with His voice. Is with you. Right now. And may that even be enough to convict us to abstain from sin and walk in holiness.

You know maybe the boat in your life is your own heart. And it is filling up with the chaos from outside. All the stuff that's happening in the world is starting to get in there. And tempt you. And try to pull you into doing sinful things.

This is so that you would draw near to Christ. As James says in James 4. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. So even knowing that we are in fellowship with the creator of all things.

He who is holy.

Holy. Holy.

As the angels proclaim Him to be. May that even draw us away from sin and nearer to the Savior. That we may walk godly and upright lives before Him in the present day. Not fearing anything that may happen.

Because our friend is the One who controls the wind and the waves. Heavenly Father we thank you for what we've read here today. And I pray it continues to be a comfort and a reminder to us. That we would rely upon Jesus.

And when stuff gets rough. As it certainly will. The storms of life are going to come against us. We go to Christ. We draw near to Him. There's no need for panic. For as the Apostle Paul even instructed to the Philippians.

Do not be anxious. But with thanksgiving present your request to God. So we don't need to come with anxiety. We are coming to the One we know. Who is in control of all things. And that gives us peace.

Still coming to Christ. But being at peace knowing that the One that we are coming to. Is the God of the universe. Control the wind and the waves in our lives today. And may we continue to serve you in the midst of all things.

It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

Closing Announcements

Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts. Alerting readers to false teachers. And offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website www .tt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow. As we continue our study in God's word. When we understand the text.