Peace. Be Still!

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August 7, 2022 | Steve Cortez on Mark 4:35-41.

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.
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Well, good afternoon. Welcome everyone to Grace Fellowship Church. It's good to see everybody. It's good to welcome visitors.
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Welcome. We're so happy to have you. If you guys can turn with me to Mark chapter 4, verse 35 to 41.
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This is what we're picking up in our text. Again, we're back in our study in the gospel of Mark. And I'm glad you can join us.
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As we're studying the gospel of Mark, we've been here for a couple of weeks. And there's a couple of themes that have arisen as we've been preaching and studying and going through it.
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And Lord willing, you guys have been doing this as well at home. One of the things that we want to take away from our study of the
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Bible just in general, but even the gospels as they differ from one to another. One thing that becomes kind of clear as we study this is that the authors had an intent, an agenda when writing.
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And this becomes really clear when you start to see the parallels between some of the other gospels. Today, we're only looking at six verses.
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We're only going from 35 to 41. By modern standards, this is a short story. Even for most people,
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I mean, this is not a long story. But when you're looking at God's word and you're looking at these six verses, there's so much here.
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There's a depth and a complexity and it's really quite amazing how much Mark packs into this short story.
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Six verses is not a lot by human standards. We can read this in a minute if you read it quickly.
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But it is so good. There's so much here. And actually, as we unpack that, hopefully you'll get to see that Mark has such an agenda as he dives into this story.
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We're going to get to see one of Christ's miracles as he calms the seas. This is one of Christ's most popular, most well -known miracles.
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But that shouldn't be what surprises us of this text. Actually, what might shock us a little bit more as we're looking at this text are some of the events that lead up to it.
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As we study the Gospels, as we look at not just Mark, but Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we see that Christ is surrounded by sinful men.
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He came to a fallen world, after all. In particular, as we see him relate with sinful men and the disciples, one thing that we start to notice is that their actions often reflect our own more than we would even like to admit.
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We start to see this reflection of the way that the disciples react to things and the way that we would look at them, we might scoff, but truthfully, we probably relate a lot more to them than we realize.
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Today we're going to examine what it looks like to have anxiety in the Christian faith. That's actually what one of our big topics today is.
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It's what the text intends to teach us. What is anxiety in the Christian life? So anxiety is something that we're all well -acquainted with.
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It probably isn't a more prevalent example, but having just come out of a pandemic, as just one really big example, there's been an abundance of fear.
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There's been information. If you turned anywhere in the last, turned on your phone, your computer, your news, anywhere in the last two years, you couldn't get away from anything.
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And anxiety and fear and everything was driving through the roof. That's just one example.
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You add on top of the stresses of work, you add on top of that school, and all the ways that the
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Christian life is to be lived and how anxiety permeates our sinful life, we start to see that anxiety plays a big role in our walk with the
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Lord. And the questions we might start to have is, what does that mean for us?
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Anxiety specifically, what does the Bible have to say about that? What about the sufficiency of Scripture?
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Does it speak on anxiety? Is what I'm feeling biblical? Is it sinful? What am
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I to do with this? Whether you've experienced it or you've seen it or you know someone, anxiety and fear is something that has gripped us all at one point or another.
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And the Bible has a lot to say on it. But again, we have to ask these questions. As we dive in the text, some things to have in the back of our mind is, so what does the
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Bible say about anxiety? Specifically, what is God trying to teach us or trying to steer us away from in His Word?
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What has sin done to affect our thinking, especially when it comes to anxiety? What's the correct understanding that we should have and the correct approach?
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And that's what we're going to look at. So our text today is going to focus on sinful human anxiety and what our response should be in light of a holy
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God. So in other words, this is what the text is driving at. The Lord wants to ease our anxieties by steering us towards faith in Christ.
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That's what the text is going to teach us. Because if we don't, if we lack faith, if we lack faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, if we don't do that, we become anxious and our peace is taken from us and we sin against our
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Lord. So think about those things as we get into the text. But before we get into the text, let's pray.
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Dear Father in Heaven, Oh Lord, we just sung such beautiful hymns, Lord, by faith.
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Father, give us faith. Lord, we need faith. Faith is a gift, Lord. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear.
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Lord, this is Your Word we're approaching, Father. This is Your holy Word. Father, allow it to speak to us,
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Father. Open up our hearts, Father, and by Your Spirit, Lord, take this good Word and implant it within us,
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Father, that we would understand, Lord, not just that we would understand, Lord, but that we would believe it, that we would have faith,
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Lord, that our anxieties, those things that plague us, that blur our sight of You, Lord, that get in the way between a completely unfiltered look of Christ, Father, that they would be gone.
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Lord, that we would not rest in that anxiety, that fear, that hopelessness, but that, Lord, that You would steer us towards Christ.
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Turn our eyes, Lord, if You have to, Lord. Forcefully, by whatever means You choose, Lord, focus us on Christ, Lord.
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Give us faith for this. Lord, we thank You. I thank You for those here, Lord. All those small in number, Father, great in Your Word, Lord.
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I'm blessed to be able to preach to them. Father, help them. Help me, Lord, as I preach Your Word.
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We thank You, Father. We pray this all in the sufficient name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, so if we're looking at our text, we're in verse 35.
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The first point, and some of these, I think you guys have empty headings here. The first point is God in our minds.
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So if you're taking notes, God in our minds. So we pick up our narrative in verse 35 to 38.
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We're just going to focus on those for our first point. It says, So I'm going to pause there.
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So Mark is setting up the story, the setting of the story. If you're reading in Mark chapter 4, if you go right to the very beginning, in verse 1,
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Jesus Christ has been teaching all the day long. Mark doesn't usually give us, in terms of time and setting, the gospel moves very quickly.
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The gospel of Mark is known for its immediacy. Immediately they went here. Immediately they went there. But in this particular case, chapter 4 focuses, what we can presume on a day of teaching, if not longer.
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If you're looking at Mark chapter 4, verse 1, it starts with this. It says, And the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
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So we get this image, this imagery that Jesus Christ has been teaching. He's been on the edge of the coast here where people are presumably on the sandy beaches.
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And Jesus Christ is teaching from a boat. So this is the setting of the story. When we look back at our verse, it says,
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So the daytime rolled in. Around sundown, Jesus and the disciples began to head towards the east.
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This is the country of Gerasenes. We'll pick this up in chapter 5. Shane's going to preach on this next week. But I want us to notice the immediacy.
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Again, this is the gospel of Mark we're talking about. And notice the immediacy in verse 36.
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Look at how it's rendered. It says, So Mark is very few with his words here, but we can presume that Jesus Christ has been preaching and teaching and has not left the boat.
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He is still there. He's preaching and teaching, and his needs have not been met. Throughout the gospel of Mark, we get this theme of the suffering servant.
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It's emphasized over and over and over again. Jesus Christ would totally be within his means to say,
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Okay, at this point, he needs a rest. He needs a break. He needs to eat. But Mark doesn't emphasize that. Mark emphasizes the suffering servant.
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And this theme continues to go on over and over and over again. And we see that Jesus has no rest.
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It's likely even that he's in the same boat with which he got in in Mark chapter 4 verse 1. So he's been teaching all day.
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If anyone who teaches, who works a long day, you know that eventually the body starts to wear and tear. You get tired.
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And Jesus Christ has continued without a complaint, without anything. He's continued to teach.
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So as we continue on in the text, as we kind of unravel the setting, at this point, they're crossing the
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Sea of Galilee. And interesting things I learned about the Sea of Galilee is that actually it's 700 feet below sea level.
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And actually, just the geography is kind of interesting. If you can imagine a canyon, for example, or a valley, it's kind of shaped like a
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V. And at the bottom of it is the Sea of Galilee. You have the Sea of Galilee at the bottom. And because it's lower than sea level, what happens is it's actually more susceptible to the changes in weather.
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It's actually you get more frequent winds, and things can happen quite quickly.
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Because of the way that the winds roll and the way that the temperature affects the Sea of Galilee, it can actually be very clear and calm waters one moment, and then very quickly it could be a stormy gale.
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If you can imagine for a moment, think of Drumheller or the Rocky Mountains. Think about as the winds whip around the mountains and the valleys, those places can get quite windy.
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And that's exactly what we see here. We see the stormy gale hit the Sea of Galilee as the disciples in Jesus Christ are crossing across the boat.
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It says in verse 37, it says, a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling.
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And that's what we see. So we see this storm come suddenly. Before we delve deeper into Mark, there's actually another story that follows a similar parallel.
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If you guys are familiar with Jonah, Jonah is actually, it has starking similarities that we see in this story as we see in the book of Jonah.
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And just for clarity, Jesus Christ likens himself to Jonah. If you're looking at Matthew 12, verse 38 to 42,
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Jesus Christ does just this. He says in chapter, in Matthew 12, verse 38, he says, then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.
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And he answered, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except for the sign of a prophet
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Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment of this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
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And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. So in this passage,
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Jesus Christ is comparing himself, is likening Jonah, the three days that he spent in the belly of the fish, to the three days and three nights that Jesus Christ will spend in the tomb.
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He's prophesying towards the cross and resurrection. But the comparisons don't end there.
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Actually, the comparisons begin as early as Jonah chapter 1. And if you guys are familiar with the story, you guys might know where I'm going with this.
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But if not, Jonah chapter 1, verses 1 to 5, paint a similar picture to what we see in Mark in our current, in our scripture today, but we need to focus on the differences.
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So I'm going to read a little bit from Jonah, starting in chapter 1, verse 1. It says, Now the word of the
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Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up against me or before me.
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And Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Jabba and found a ship going to Tarshish.
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So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with him to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. So we have similar settings.
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Jonah gets into the boat. There are differences and hopefully you're catching on to some of these. Verse 4,
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But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
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Then the mariners were afraid and each cried out to his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.
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But notice this. Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
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There are similarities here. The verse we're studying in Mark today. But I want us to note the differences.
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Jonah was fleeing from the Lord. Jonah was fleeing the commandment from God to go to Nineveh and to preach judgment against them.
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Instead of going to Nineveh where he's instructed, he goes in the opposite direction. He goes directly the opposite direction.
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And actually as he gets into the boat, he falls asleep. One commentator called him a sleeping sluggard.
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He's fleeing. He's sleeping. He shouldn't be sleeping. But he is.
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He's in disobedience. He should be in agony over his sin. But yet you see a picture of Jonah in the boat at the bottom.
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Despite this raging sea about him. He's sleeping. He's resting. Now look back at Jesus in the boat.
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Exhausted from all the work that he's done. Jesus exhausted. Absolutely drained. He's sleeping.
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He's resting. John MacArthur said it best. Listen to this quote. Just imagine the picture that's being painted here.
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He says, Just before the disciples saw one of the most awesome displays of his deity, they were given a touching picture of his humanity.
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He was so weary that not even the violent tossing of the boat awakened him. Even though the disciples feared they would drown.
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Think about the contrast in images here. Just imagine that for a moment. Jesus Christ is absolutely weary.
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He's beat. He's been teaching, preaching, healing the sick. The suffering servant is resting.
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If anyone deserves their rest, it's
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Christ. He deserves his rest. Not Jonah. But look how the disciples respond to him.
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Just look back at our text for a moment. Just note with me just the response with which they wake him.
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Verse 38, he says, But he was in the stern asleep on the cushion. And the disciples, they woke him and said to him,
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Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? I want to ask a couple questions here.
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Because I want us to solidify this. Who deserves their rest in these two scenarios?
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Who is walking in obedience? And who isn't? In other words, who is the storm for?
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Daryl, who is the storm for? Between Jesus and Jonah, who deserves the storm?
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Jonah deserves the storm. Not Jesus. Jesus is resting. Jesus is doing exactly what he should be doing.
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And yet the disciples, the first thing they do to him is they accuse him. They accuse him of callousness, of not caring.
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A lot is implied here. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Of course he cares.
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But that's not the way the disciples look at it. Having witnessed
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Jesus Christ firsthand, they're at his feet, whether in the boat, on the beach, as they travel to and from locations as Jesus Christ is ministering.
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They're at his feet. They're next to him. They're witnessing all that Jesus Christ is doing. They should understand, shouldn't they?
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Of all the people, they should. And yet, look with which attitude and the heart with which they wake
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Jesus Christ up. So, we come to the end of our first point and we have to think, well, what do we learn from this?
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What does this reflect in us? What does the scripture want us to learn from this? If there's a lesson to be learned, it's this.
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It's run to Christ. Run to Christ. While the disciples' lack of faith and reverence for Christ as he's sleeping, that might be the wrong attitude.
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I mean, I'm not about to make an excuse for the disciples. That is the wrong way of approaching it. Their actions are correct.
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At first sight of trouble, at the moment the storm becomes too unbearable, they run to Christ.
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They are running to him. When we first experience feelings of fear and anxiety, in whatever context that the
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Lord puts us in, we need to take this as a sign to run to the Lord. We need to run to him. Proverbs 18 .10
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says, The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it, and he's safe.
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1 Peter 5, verses 6 -7 says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.
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In the moments of fear, in the moments where we are gripped most with fear, in those instant moments, in those precious few moments where we start to realize what is taking place, we need to take action.
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Sometimes the prayer that the Lord honors the most is the shortest and most sincere. God help, please.
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God help me. Sometimes that's the prayer that God honors most effectively, most quickly.
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It's the one we see the answer to the most quickly. As soon as we're out of the situation, we thank the Lord that he has delivered us from whatever situation we have pleaded for him.
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And I really want to encourage you, brothers and sisters, that fear and anxiety, especially as we move through this passage, are defeated enemies.
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Fear and anxiety are defeated. They're enemies nonetheless. I'm not saying that we won't have anxiety or there won't be fear to deal with in the
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Christian life. Those things are real. But the first step in overcoming these things isn't in us.
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It is in Christ. It is in his word. So James 4 .7 says,
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Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So if we're going to look at how we examine anxiety, how we as Christians, as believers, as blood -brought
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Christians, how we're going to look at Christ, or sorry, look at anxiety, our first step is to run to him. So run to Christ.
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As we move on to the second point, actually there, you guys might know this, but over the summer, there are moments where when we have good weather, sometimes we'll go on the lake.
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I'm not much of a, I barely know how to swim, but I like to go on a boat for whatever reason. And we take these inflatable rafts and we love going out on the lake.
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That's something that we try to do as much as we can, especially with long winters and bad weather. But one thing that you, even this season, as you've come to learn, is that the temperature or the weather changes quickly.
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We'll be out on the boat and one thing you have to be mindful of and vigilant of is as you're on the boat, as you're out in the middle of the waters, you have to be watching at what the weather is like around you.
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What do the clouds look like? Where's the wind blowing? Because as you come to learn quite quickly, as we've learned even this season, that if you're out on the water when you shouldn't be, that's probably the last place you want to be.
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Because as you see the clouds rolling in, you need to be aware of your surroundings. You can't just see the warning signs and hope for the best.
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You just have to assume those are the warning signs and you gotta move. Because, I mean, we're in lakes here in Alberta.
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They're not exactly the most torrential of lakes, but I can imagine, I can have some idea that dealing with storms and dealing with the helplessness that comes with being on the lake, you're really at the mercy of God, and I mean that.
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Out there, there's no creature comforts. And actually, this is, as we look at our passage, we understand that the disciples were rightfully scared.
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They are rightfully scared, but we need to understand that they're not dealing with the right attitude, what it is anxiety wants us to deal with.
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We need to come to it with an honest understanding that Jesus Christ is in the boat with them. So if we're looking at our second point, our second point is
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God over nature. God over nature.
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So if we're looking at our Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, up until this point, Jesus has demonstrated that he's just not just a regular prophet.
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There are five that I could find, five displays of Jesus' authority and qualities of character that he's displayed up until this point that the disciples should have picked up on.
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Five things, we're going to go quickly. Mark chapter two, verse 10, Jesus Christ demonstrates his authority to forgive sin.
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That's not something a regular prophet can do. Then in Mark chapter two, 10, or sorry, 228,
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Jesus declares his authority even over the Sabbath. If you remember,
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Jesus Christ debated with the Pharisees. He corrected the Pharisees in their view of the
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Sabbath. Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. The third thing is, he has the power to heal the sick and cleanse diseases.
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We see that all throughout the Gospel of Mark. Look at the first two chapters even, and you see how many accounts of healing the sick, of healing the wounded, the weary, that we see
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Jesus Christ performing. And lastly, his teaching comes with power and authority.
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Just look at Mark 1 .27. I just want us to note there because this is pivotal to our passage today.
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Mark 1 .27, it says this, and they were all amazed, everyone listening to him teaching. They were all amazed and so that they questioned amongst themselves saying, what is this?
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A new teaching with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. Sorry, the last one is that he has authority even over the demons.
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So if his teaching has power, Jesus Christ has authority over the demons, over the spiritual realm.
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If you look back in Mark 3, Jesus Christ likens himself to the strong man who's able to bind
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Satan. He's the one who binds Satan. He binds the strong man and plunders his house. So Jesus Christ has displayed five things, five characteristics, opportunities of his authority.
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He's demonstrated these things to the disciples. At the very least, they're the ones paying attention. And today we're looking at the sixth one.
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And Jesus Christ shows his authority over nature itself. So we're looking back at our verse, verses 39 to 40.
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It says this, And he awoke and rebuked the wind and sea. Oh, sorry.
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He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
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He said to them, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? In this next two passages,
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Jesus is addressing two different parties here. He's addressing two people or two groups, I should say.
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How each one responds is important for us to understand. The first, in verse 39, the first party, the first person he addresses is actually creation itself.
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In verse 39, Jesus rebukes the wind and he says to the sea, Peace, be still.
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This is a command. This is an imperative. But actually, if you're looking at the
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Greek, I actually prefer a more literal translation of this. I actually prefer the more severe tone that Jesus Christ is using in this passage.
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In the Greek, it's better translated as silence, be muzzled. Jesus Christ silences the seas.
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The Greek translation is better described as a commandment with such intensity, it could almost be a threat.
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Anyone with strict parents kind of understands this, kind of implicitly. We know the difference when parents are playing around and when they're done messing around.
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We get that. We understand that. And as a result of Jesus Christ's severity, his severe tone, the waters are immediately stilled.
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The seas stop completely. I want, again, just to paint the mental picture that Mark is painting here.
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Suppose you're sitting on the boat in the water. As the winds pick up and water rushes into the boat, like we see in verse 39, or sorry, 38.
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The clouds are dark. There is no control in this boat. They really are at the mercy of God. They really are. A lake is not exactly where you want to be.
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You do not want to be on a body of water. Some of these disciples were fishermen.
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I think we need to remember that. These disciples, this isn't their first rodeo. They had been on the seas for most of their lives.
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They worked on the seas. They were fishermen. They fished. They knew the signs. They knew when to be on the water, when not to be on the water.
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And if they were on the water when they needed not to be, they had abilities and skills to deal with the issue. And even then, the tempest, the windstorm that's taking place is enough for them to lose hope.
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So we need to remember that. Hebrews 1, 3, thank you, brother, for reading Hebrews chapter 1.
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Such a beautiful piece of Scripture. Verses 1 to, chapter 1, 3 says this. He, Christ, upholds the universe by the word of His power.
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By the word of His power, Jesus Christ upholds the universe. And by His command, if we're looking at verse 39 of our text, the storm calms immediately.
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It just stops. If we're looking at the passage, if we're looking at it like first century readers and hearers of this gospel, this is profound.
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This is big stuff. Jesus speaks and nature obeys.
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Jesus commands the seas to still and it is quiet. What was once a stormy gale is now clear waters.
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There's nothing happening. The waters are silent. Jesus Christ did not need to repeat
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Himself. One commandment and it's done, even with a mighty storm. But then we look at the disciples.
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This is our second group. Let's look at the disciples. What about them? What does Jesus say to them?
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Verse 40, it says, He said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?
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This is the second group that He addresses in this point. He's addressing, first He addressed nature.
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Nature obeys. And now He's looking at the disciples. You see the sinful human man, the anxious heart.
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This is actually a loving rebuke, not just to the disciples, but to us, to me in particular, actually. Before we look at, we examine the disciples a little bit further.
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Earlier this week, I was actually meeting with Shane and we were talking about this passage and he was helping me help just break the passage through.
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But we were praying and we were talking about just some of the anxieties, actually, as the theme emerged of anxiety in the scripture.
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Just the anxiety of preaching, of what it looks like to love this church, what it looks like that this church is present and alive and that the
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Lord has given it to us. But just the anxiety that comes with this. And as we were speaking through this, we looked at 1
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Corinthians. We looked at 1 Corinthians 1. Paul says this, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
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See, Paul struggled as well. Paul wasn't the most eloquent speaker of his day, but he preached in power. He preached in the power of the word.
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And that is a great comfort to you and me because there are brothers that make preaching look a lot easier.
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They make it look a lot more effortless. But truthfully, this is, it's a spiritual process. It's a draining one.
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And this is one that does cause anxiety. When I look at this text, I look at what the
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Lord is saying to me because this is anxiety provoking. And one moment in particular, actually, if I remember, most of you might actually remember this.
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It was a moment last summer we were preaching through 1 Corinthians and I was preaching. And if my memory serves right,
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I actually didn't preach my best sermon. In particular, I was quite disheartened by it.
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You kind of just can tell. As you leave the pulpit, I was a little bit disheartened.
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And before I even stepped off of it, I was convinced I wouldn't even see, we had visitors in the crowd and I figured in my mind that this was going to be it.
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Well, we're going to not see them again, but they heard the gospel. Praise the Lord. And I left the pulpit. After the service,
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I spoke to these visitors and I spoke to them and they were really relieved actually. And they told me, and I remember this, and this is an amazing testament of the
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Holy Spirit. They said, we had missed really good preaching with tears in our eyes.
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And I remember thinking, he's saying this of my sermon, of my preaching. And that's a sinful attitude.
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I'll admit that. And we had those visitors come back again. And that family actually, those visitors that were here, through the
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Holy Spirit returned back to this church. And actually, those were our brothers and sisters, the
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Rhodes. I remember having been really discouraged, but that was a rebuke to me.
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What business do I have being anxious? Truly. Why am I so faithless?
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Why do I lack the faith of my God who is sovereign over all? Why do I lack faith in Him?
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Why do I put so much emphasis on my own abilities? Verse 40 is a rebuke to all of us who do this.
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He said, why are you so afraid? You still have no faith. Sorry, have you still no faith?
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This is a loving rebuke from our Lord. This is a gentle hand on an anxious heart. Why are we so faithless?
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So when we think about this text, we think about verse 39 to 40, how do we apply this? How do we change in light of this?
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We need to trust in the sovereignty of God. That is how we change here. We need to trust in His sovereignty.
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And this isn't just blind faith. I'm not talking about just believe, easy believism. This is trust in a
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God, in our Lord Jesus Christ, that what He says He will do is done. That there is a confidence that it is done.
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It's not just a felt love that we feel the love of God. That's important, but it's deeper than that.
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It's trusting and having confidence that the love of Christ is real, it has weight, action, and power.
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Hebrews 1 is so good, I'm going to go back to it, but I just, we have to read it again. It says, Christ is the radiance of the glory of God in the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.
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After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
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This isn't a callous faith. This isn't just an arm's length faith that says, I believe that God is good and that He is going to do things.
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No, this is a faith that believes the words and the works of Christ. This is a faith that digs its heels into the ground, into the foundation, and it pushes forward.
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It perseveres against anxiety. If you're able, turn with me to Romans chapter 8, verses 31 to 39.
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Just as you read these words with me, just let these be a comfort to you. Just think about just the magnitude of this verse that Paul is writing to the
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Roman church. He says in Romans 8, 31, he says, What shall we say then?
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What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare
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His own Son but gave Him up for us, up for us all, how will He not also be with us, also graciously give us all things?
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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?
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Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is an interceding for us.
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Think about this. Who can do this? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
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As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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Look at these last few verses. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
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For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. Paul was sure he was convinced of this. This isn't just a faith that Paul kept at arm's length.
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Paul was convinced Jesus Christ died on the cross and resurrected on the third day.
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So, brothers and sisters, we need to have confidence that Christ did what He said
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He would. We have to trust in the sovereign hand of God. Okay, so before we move on to our last point,
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I have a little bit of a word picture that helps illustrate this last point. I know that some of you might have heard this already so I have to apologize.
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I like this story but it really does illustrate the point as we look at what
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Mark is getting at here. So, I heard this actually this story from a brother of ours back when we were doing campus ministry and it just stuck with me.
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So, it's a story about a father and a son and they're both enjoying the summer weather and they're both, as the story goes, they're both sitting outside and they're enjoying the beautiful weather and then at one point the young son, the little boy asks his father,
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Daddy, how big is God? The father, he's silent for a moment but then he answers, well,
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God is like that plane and just in that moment a plane flies overhead and this tiny plane, as they're looking at it, the son is confused.
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This child is confused and he looks back at his dad and he says, I'm confused. I don't know how that tiny plane is like,
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God, I'm lost here. I don't get it. So, then the father replies to him and he says, okay, well then let me show you something.
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As they get into their vehicle and they make their way down their dusty road, they eventually wind up at an airport, a massive airport like we might see here in Edmonton.
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They have massive jumbo jets and sky buses. We have some plane nerds, I know. You probably know more about planes than I do but anyways, they got these massive planes, these massive things that can fill hundreds of people.
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The child is stunned and he looks at these planes and he says, these planes are huge. That little plane in the distance is like one of these and then the father explains to him, he says, well,
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God is kind of like this plane. The closer you get to it, the greater he appears.
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The more you keep God at a distance, the smaller he looks to you and the bigger you look but like these planes, the closer you get, the more majestic they are, the bigger they are.
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Now, this analogy breaks down because God is infinite and this plane is finite but I want you to keep that idea in mind because we're gonna move into our last point in verse 41 and the third point is,
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God in the boat. God is in the boat. So if we were looking at our first group of people that Jesus Christ is addressing in our passage, the next group of people that we're gonna look at is the disciples and this is their response.
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Jesus Christ has asked them, where is their faith and this is what they say, 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?
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When Jesus commanded the storm to stop, when he addressed nature of the wind, immediately calmed. This isn't a gradual slowing down.
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The wind ceased altogether but Jesus Christ speaking to a sinful soul, speaking to sinful disciples with anxiety in their hearts and souls, the results are really different, much different.
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We have to note their reaction. All throughout the Gospel of Mark, we hear this. We hear confusion.
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We hear confusion about who Jesus Christ is. They just don't get it. Who is this? We see this in verse 41.
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Who is this then? What teaching is this? We saw this in Mark 1 .27.
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What teaching is this? What authority is this? They're confused. He's challenged and he's mischaracterized by the
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Pharisees and the Sadducees and no one seems to understand him. His family doesn't understand him.
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They just don't get Jesus Christ but at this moment, we start to understand the disciples are, they are just starting to see who
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Jesus Christ is. They're just starting to realize the power of Jesus Christ. As the storm is calm, as the waters are completely still, there is no, these waters are quiet.
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There's nothing happening. According to Mark, the disciples are greatly afraid.
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They're terrified. This isn't just a man in the boat with them or even a great prophet, even a righteous man.
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This is God in the boat. God is in the boat with them. Only God is able to command the waters in the storm.
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This is the same power with which God made the universe in Genesis 1 -2. This goes back even to creation.
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The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
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If you knew your Old Testament like the first century church did or the
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Jews hearing this message possibly as it was being read to them, you knew that this is a massive deal.
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This has huge implications. If you turn with me to Isaiah 51, 9 -11, you see this.
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Isaiah 51, 9 -11, you see these allusions to nature, how only God is able to control this nature.
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These massive storms with great torrential power to destroy. Only the Lord controls these things.
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Isaiah 51, verse 9 -11, it says, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the
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Lord. Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut
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Rahab into pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea away for the redeemed to pass over?
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And the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.
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They shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Other references all over the place.
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You can even look at Exodus 15, chapter 1 -5 as the Israelites celebrate the miraculous deed of the
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Lord to be able to split the Red Sea and have the Israelite nation walk across it as a bare ground.
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This is a miracle. Only God can do this. This is not a work of a man, even a righteous man.
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This is God in the boat. Our God is not a small
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God. He is mighty. He is sovereign. He is great. So we need to revere
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Him with the reverence He deserves. So that's our application. It's the same attitude in part with what the disciples had here.
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We need to revere Jesus Christ. We need to revere Him. There's a healthy amount of fear and reverence.
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Well, so in this moment while the disciples and Mark may not have totally understood Jesus Christ, they don't totally get the image of Christ.
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They're standing with Him in the boat. They're terrified, but they get that much. They understand that He's holy.
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Proverbs 1 -7, or sorry, Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
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Fools despise wisdom and knowledge. We need to have a healthy fear of God. We need to fear
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Him rightfully because if we don't revere Him, we're going to sin against Him.
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And that can look like anxiety. That will look like the manifestation of fear in our lives. If we do not revere
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Christ as we should, although on this side of the cross, we're blessed.
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We know the grace of God and the forgiveness of sins. We live in a very special time that our forefathers in the
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Old Testament look to. They look to the cross. They look to Messiah. And we live on the other side is history.
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And we thank the Lord for that every day, and we should. But that intimacy with His mercy and His grace cannot lead to complacency.
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We can't be complacent about the mercy of God. We can't allow ourselves to diminish our view of Him.
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And we need to remember that He is infinite in power. We can't let this go by, brothers and sisters.
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Jesus Christ Himself formed against thinking low of God. He said, And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
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Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. That's Matthew 10, verse 28.
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God intends that we should not be anxious about anything. If there's something we're going to learn about this text today is that God does not want us to be anxious.
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The Lord Jesus Christ did not die for us to be anxious. Matthew 6, 33.
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Seek first His kingdom and righteousness and all these will be added to you. But you have to understand, brothers and sisters, that anxiety will not be a defeated enemy if we do not revere
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Christ with the power to overcome that. God is infinite in power and understanding and He needs to be rightfully understood.
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We can't look at Him any other way. We need to revere Him. I want to comfort you with Psalm 46, verses 1 -7.
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We sang, a mighty fortress is our God. Psalm 46 is a, I believe, is the basis for that hymn.
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It is a tremendous hymn and we think about just how mighty a fortress we rest in. Jesus Christ is that fortress.
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Let's read verses 1 -7 and just let these words wash over you, brothers and sisters. Starting at verse 1,
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God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam through the mountains trembling at its swelling.
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There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
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God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.
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The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters His voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us.
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The God of Jacob is our fortress. Let these words comfort you, brothers and sisters.
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Let this be a comfort, really. Our God is holy. We worship a holy, mighty
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God and we can't undermine that. We need to understand it and that demands that we worship
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Him and we revere Him for all that He is. As we look at the end of our text here, it's actually quite amazing as you study just the
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Bible and all it's worth. With what sophistication a lot of these authors write.
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You know, the Bible is truly a magnificent book. From a technical standpoint, as we get to the end of this, we have almost, we have a crescendo of this magnificent story and as it tapers off, we almost have a bit of a cliffhanger.
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We see the disciples are beginning to understand who Christ is. They don't fully get Him. They don't understand Him. But the fear and reverence that they show
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Jesus Christ is a pointer to what Jesus Christ will do. The cross is always in sight in the
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Gospel of Mark. It's always looming on the horizon. It's foreshadowed from the beginning to end and we see that just how amazing it is that we on this side of the cross, that we can read the
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Gospel, we can study it, we can know it. We already know the ending. You know, anybody who might have heard this read out loud in the first century may not have known what the
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Gospel is. I mean, we know it in this room and I pray that we lean into that. But just how amazing it is that we can look to this 2 ,000 years later and examine this and look at this and understand that all roads lead to Christ.
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That the cross is in the Gospel of Mark, all roads lead there. We see the beauty of the passage and that can't be missed.
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But we also can't miss the lessons that the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching us as we march our way to the cross.
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We can't allow our fear and anxiety, things that are sinful human inclinations. These are sinful human inclinations.
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We can't allow that to overcome us. I found this quote by George Mueller as I was studying and actually, we'll end here.
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Just think about this for a moment. The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith.
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The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith. And the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.
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Let's pray, brothers and sisters. Dear Father, Lord, thank you.
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Thank you, Lord, for this day. Thank you, Father, that you've given me the opportunity, Father, to once again read your word. Lord, how good and true are the words written in this book.
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Preserved throughout the ages, Lord, that we would not fear. Lord, that we would know truth. And that truth,
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Lord, would resonate within us to overcome the fearful anxiety of not knowing our assurance in Christ.
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Father, I pray for those in this room and those that will hear this message, Father, that they would come to know that Jesus Christ is true.
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Lord, that they would no longer fear, Father, that anxiety that plagues them, Father, is not from you.
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Lord, you desire peace for us. You desire, Lord, that we would have our rest in our Lord, Jesus Christ, our sabeoth rest.
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And it is in him, Father, where we will find the true victor of all these iniquities, Father, that we bring towards you.
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Lord, it is sinful for us to doubt you. It is sinful for us to doubt your goodness, for us to be faithless when you are faithful.
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Lord, help us. Give us faith. Give those in this room the ears to hear,
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Lord, the eyes to see, Lord, that Jesus Christ is good. Taste and see that the Lord is good.
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No longer turning to their own mechanisms, their own human schemes,
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Father, but turn to Christ. Run to Christ. Trust in him, Father, the holiness of Christ, that they would run to him.
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Lord, we thank you. We thank you for this day. I thank you for those that you've brought, Father. I pray that you would work this within them.
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In the mighty, precious, all -powerful name of the one who did calm the storm, the one interceding for us right now at this moment,