well if you have your bibles
with you open up to mark chapter 4 mark chapter 4 and this morning's
sermon title is jesus is lord of the storm and so this past
week 36 of us were in israel and we had the privilege of taking
a boat ride across the sea of galilee and this is one of the
passages that we looked at while we stopped in the middle of the
Sea of Galilee and that we had a great tour guide with us and
a great a great worship leader was actually leading this boat
tour across the sea and we stopped and just saying praise and worship
songs and hymns for about 20 or 30 minutes that was definitely
a highlight to see our group worshiping the risen Savior on
the Sea of Galilee and so I thought at that moment you know what
I'm going to preach this sermon about Jesus being the Lord of
the storm. So we're in Mark chapter 4. We'll
be looking this morning at verses 35 through 41. On that day when
evening had come, he said to them, let us go across to the
other side. And leaving the crowd, they took
him with them in the boat just as he was, and 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. But he 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? And he
awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. and the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. And he said to them, why are
you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And
they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who
then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Let's pray together. Father,
we wanna ask that question along with the disciples this morning.
Who is this that even the wind and the seas obey you? I pray
this morning you would help us to see you as Jesus, Lord of
the storm. Open our eyes, encourage our
hearts, confront our faithlessness, increase our fear, allow us to
be changed this morning by grace and by grace alone. I pray this
in Jesus' name, amen. Jesus Christ is Lord of the storm
the one who controls every element of its raging force Not only
is he the creator of the world and all that is in it He is the
sustainer by the word of his power and by the will of his
sovereign nature he determines who will enter into the storm
and Who will withstand it? He providentially brings the
storm and wisely uses the storm in the lives of His disciples
for His glory and for their good. He powerfully controls the storm
according to His perfect timing. He precisely ordains the duration
of the storm. The storm will never exceed His
sovereign control. The wind will never blow one
mile an hour harder than God has determined it will blow.
The waves will never rise one inch higher than God has chosen
to allow them to arise. The lightning only strikes where
he permits, and the thunder only claps at his conduction. All of the stages of the storm
and all of the parts of the storm are under His supreme authority. Christ has eternal purposes for
all of His disciples and the storms which blow into their
lives. And just as there is not one
word of Scripture which is without purpose, neither is there one
storm in your life that is without purpose. If you seek the glory
of God, you will see that everything in which He ordains, which is
all things are for your good. And sometimes we have to understand
that He uses storms to discipline us. And sometimes He uses the
storms to bring other people to faith in Himself. But most
of all, He uses the storms to test our faith and to mold us
and to make us more like Jesus. God intentionally puts us into
storms that are far beyond our control. He often puts us into
storms where we find ourselves in the deepest of waters and
we cannot touch the bottom. That's where your faith is tested.
when you go beyond what you could ever possibly do or control and
where you are held in the hand of God and it's in that moment
that you'll know where your faith really lies. Because the storms
reveal in a moment and in an instant where our faith is and
where our focus is and where our trust is and where our priorities
are all in a moment in the midst of a storm. The storm reveals
whether our faith is temporary or lifelong. Whether we will
abandon God's Word or whether we will abide in God's Word. Whether we will accuse God of
not doing what is best or we will ask God to help us trust
in His infinite wisdom. The storms in life reveal if
we are living what we are learning. This is exactly what's going
on at the end of Mark chapter 4. The disciples had just been
sitting under and apparently learning from the master teacher
as he explained four parables in such a clear and delightful
manner that their faith should have been growing like an oak
tree planted by the streams of water. first part of mark chapter
4 jesus taught the parable of the soils and then he taught
about the parable of the lamp hidden under the basket and then
he taught about the parable of the mysterious power and growth
of the seed and then right before our passage in verses 30 through
34 he teaches on the parable of the mustard seed and each
one of these parables is carefully crafted to teach a certain aspect
of the kingdom of God but also calls each believer into a specific
act of faith and obedience. now he's going to put the disciples
to a test to see whether or not they are living what they are
learning as the disciples have been sitting under the extraordinary
teaching of the infallible inerrant word of the Lord Jesus this question
now comes into view and the question is this will they now live the
truth in which they have been instructed it's not enough you
see to know the truth one must grow in the truth. It's not enough to learn the
truth. One must live in the truth. And this is the purpose of the
storm, which we encounter in Mark chapter four. And that's,
it is that they might directly behold Christ's sovereign Lordship
and His supreme authority over every aspect of their lives as
they move out and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They must
know that heaven and earth and hell are all under His matchless
power and they are controlled by His glorious providence. They must also have their faith
strengthened and they must have their faith sharpened and they
must have their faith strengthened by the glory of their Savior.
This is what the Lord is doing in their lives, and this is what
the Lord wants to do in your life today. You see, this lesson
that Christ teaches to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee was not
intended only for them, but for you this very day, that you may
learn that Jesus Christ really is Lord of the Storm. It's not
just a great story about Jesus calming the tempest, but it's
everyday life where you live in the midst of the storm. You
see, He's still sending out His disciples into the night, into
the deep, into the storms of life so that you might find yourself
in situations where in a moment you discover what you really
are. You discover whether or not you're
able to stand on the rock bed of the teaching of the Lord Jesus
Christ, or when you're in over your head, your faith begins
to falter. Because if you have true faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you're under the teaching of
the Word of God, then your faith will be revealed to you in your
trial. That's how you'll know what you
really are. It's in the storms of life. And so as we look at
this miracle in Mark chapter 4, which is the calming of the
storm, it is interesting to note that this is actually the first
of four miracles. And so I just told you about
four parables that he does leading up to this storm at the end of
chapter 4. In chapter 4, and then going
into chapter 5, there are then 4 miracles that the Lord Jesus
Christ does. He will do this miracle, the
calming of the storm, and then in chapter 5, verses 1 through
20, Paul tells us of Jesus' authority not only over difficulties, but
over demons. And then in Mark chapter 5 verses
21 through 34, there is His authority over disease. And finally, at
the end of Mark chapter 5, there is Jesus' authority over death. There you have it. He has authority
over difficulties, over demons, over diseases, and over death. This is the Lord that we serve,
the one who is truly Lord over all, one who has unparalleled
and unrivaled authority over all things, including the storms
that He brings into your life. This morning, we're gonna look
at Jesus's authority over difficulties in the calming of the storm. I wanna give you five headings
in the form of an outline that will help give you a clear understanding
of the story of how the sea was made still. The first major heading
is this, the strategic withdrawal. Look at verses 35 and 36, on
that day when evening had come, he said to them, let us go across
to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took
him with them in the boat, just as he was, and other boats were
with him. Now, first, I want to point out
in your first blank here, we're talking about a busy ministry. That's what Jesus is involved
in, a very busy, fast-paced ministry. In fact, look at how verse 35
starts, on that day. Stop right there. What day are
we talking about? Well, if you'll notice, back
in chapter 3, turn back to chapter 3 and verse 13, we read this,
and He went up on the mountain and called to Him those whom
He desired, and they came to Him. So this is the day that
Jesus did what? He called His 12 disciples. He
formally called all 12 and appointed them to serve Him. This occurrence
of the calming of the storm happened actually on the same day. In
fact, we read in chapter 3, verse 20, then when He went home and
the crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And
so we see the busyness of this day begins to pick up the pace
as He returns home. what we believe to be Capernaum,
the headquarters of His ministry on the northwestern shore of
the Sea of Galilee. In fact, just this past week
we were able to visit Capernaum. We were able to go to Jesus'
hometown, His headquarters of the ministry that He did while
He lived in Galilee. It's amazing to stand there as
Joshua Clutterham taught us in a first century synagogue parts
of the words of Jesus Christ that He taught in Capernaum. We're able to see even a house
that was excavated to believe to have belonged to Peter, to
Peter's mother who Jesus healed of a sickness and then she began
to serve Him. It was fascinating to be there
in Capernaum where Jesus launched His earthly ministry and where
He would come to rest. But there's no rest for Him on
this particular day because we read in verse 20 again of chapter
3 that they came and they crowded them and they couldn't even eat.
And so if you go on to the end of chapter 4 he teaches these
four parables and then it's on that same day when evening had
come. It's when evening had come that
he's now ready to cross the Sea of Galilee. He was in such an
incredible pace of his ministry that he would work by day and
he would sometimes travel by night. Now, the Jewish word for
the word evening could be talking about a Jewish evening that begins
in mid-afternoon and goes to sundown. Or it could be talking
about that part of the Jewish evening that starts at sundown
and goes all the way until it's dark. Either way, this trip was
starting very late in the day, and Jesus is directing His disciples
to take Him over to the other side. And I would just say to
you that every person in ministry needs to at some point get away. At this point in Jesus' busy
day, He's now ready to get on a boat with His disciples and
to get away. In fact, that's your next blank,
a need to get away. Now, you've got to understand,
the Sea of Galilee is only about 13 miles from top to bottom,
and it's about 7 1⁄2 miles from east to west. And Jesus was on
the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and He wished
to travel to the eastern shore across the lake. And in chapter
5, we see when He gets there, He casts out the demons of that
man there in the country of the Gerasenes, and the legion of
demons leaves that man enters into the 2,000 pigs and they
run off of that cliff down into the Sea of Galilee and drown.
So he's about to go from the northwestern shore of the Sea
of Galilee over to the eastern side. And notice the text says
that he is getting away somewhat leaving the crowd, the first
part of verse 36. So he wants to get away from
the crowd at least for a moment as they travel by night or by
evening in this little boat as they set out on their voyage.
And it's interesting, while we were there in Capernaum and while
we were there on the northwestern side of the Sea of Galilee, we
were able to go to what archaeologists have actually found, which was
the hull of a fishing boat. And they found this just a few
years ago in 1986. There was a famine or a in Israel
or I should say a drought in Israel where the water had receded
and some fishermen were out there and they kind of came upon this
boat that they then had to creatively figure out how to surface and
put polyurethane all around it so it didn't just crumble and
disintegrate. And it's actually on display right there at a museum
at the northern side of the Sea of Galilee. Nobody's saying that
this is the boat that Jesus was in. They're just saying it would
have been a boat like this. It's a boat that was 27 1⁄2 feet
long. It was 7 1⁄2 feet wide. It was
4 1⁄2 feet high. It could hold about 15 people.
It would have been a typical boat of the 1st century used
for fishing. Now, I suspect that Jesus would
have been in a boat like that where He was attempting this
strategic withdrawal just with His disciples to get away. But
notice He's not able to totally get away because verse 36 then
says that the other boats were with Him. And so people began
to travel with Him even at night to go with Him to the next place.
Right or wrong, these people wanted to be close to Jesus.
They wanted to travel with Him whether it was to see another
miracle or to be fed another meal. They didn't want to miss
one single thing. This was revival in the first
century. It kind of reminds me of that
story of George Whitefield. well-known English preacher and
revivalist who came to North America and while he was preaching
in Philadelphia he mounted a horse and began to travel to New York
by way of New Jersey and some 1,000 men hopped on their horses
and followed him to the next spot just to hear him preach
one more time. That's revival when people want
to be around the man of God preaching the Word of God that their hearts
would be changed by the Spirit of God These people, right or
wrong, we don't know all of their hearts, but they wanted to follow
Jesus. But notice, there are times again
where every Christian would benefit to get away from a busy ministry. You need a strategic withdrawal
with the Lord. You need time away. This is so
true for every pastor. And for every seminary student,
I would say for every person who's involved in any ministry,
you need time away. In many ways, that's what Israel
was like for me just these last nine days to just sit and soak
under the reading of God's Word and to see the places was so
invigorating and refreshing. Sometimes it's good just to get
away from the hustle and bustle of life to refresh and to recoup
from your normal schedule. And that's exactly why here at
Placerita Bible Church we schedule things on purpose like our women's
retreat and our man camp and D-Now and Winter Camp and Summer
Camp. This is why we encourage you
to go off to conferences that would teach you and are designed
to be a place where you could meditate on the greatness of
God and your need for Him in your life. And I would say in
addition to all of these things that we schedule, you just personally
need time away. you and I need time to rest. And the best place to do that
might just be the personal rest that you find in the quietness
of your own home as you get up and spend time with Jesus in
the Bible. The best place to get away is
in the word of God. Even sometimes when you're traveling,
like we got back from Israel, the last day we were there, we
had communion at the garden tomb. And I was just impressed by the
Lord to challenge our group to say, hey guys, We've been rushing
from site to site to site, up every morning at 6 a.m., one
site after another, and this is our last day. And as we take
communion on this day, I want to challenge you, what have you
learned? But I also want to challenge
you, what about you will be different when you get back? Because the
purpose of our trip wasn't just to gain a lot of biblical knowledge. Surely that was part of our purpose.
But the purpose of our trip was to become more like Christ. And if we go through our life
just learning, learning, learning, but not learning to really live
and meditate on the changes God wants to make in us, then we're
missing out on what God has for us because there's no rest like
the rest of casting your burdens on the Lord. And I want to just
encourage you as a Bible church that we get away not only to
learn more, but to sense the presence of God through His Word
by His Spirit to transform you into feeling a greater passion
for the glory of God in your life. I mean, if you can't sing
songs like we sang this morning with a great passion and an internal
amen, then it's concerning that we would just go through the
motions of singing hymns or worship songs or reading scriptures and
hearing Bible stories without being stirred up So, let me encourage
you, if you haven't been on a strategic withdrawal in a while, maybe
you need to get on one. Well, let me move on to the second
heading, if I can, the sudden storm. Let's look and see what
happens here in verse 7. And a great windstorm arose,
and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was
already filling. Now, the Sea of Galilee is some
690 feet below sea level. That's pretty low, second only
to the Dead Sea, which is even lower than that. Just to put
it into comparison, downtown Los Angeles is about 305 feet
above sea level. Here in Santa Clarita, we're
about 1,200 feet above sea level. So this sea was 690 feet below
sea level. And just to the north of the
Sea of Galilee, about 30 miles away, is Mount Hermon, the highest
point in all of Israel. In fact, it had snowed where
we could not really see Mount Hermon that well because it was
a cloudy day. But we were told by our guide, if it was a clear
day, you would see the snow today on Mount Hermon. Now, that's
significant because a cold front coming down off of Mount Hermon
would oftentimes meet a warm front of the hot evaporated air
off the Sea of Galilee. And if you add to that some of
the air coming in from the Mediterranean, it's not hard to see that all
of a sudden you could be in a great storm. Like when Jesus began
to cross on the boat, it was probably a good day for sailing.
It's probably an appropriate day or they never would have
boarded the boat. But when you have this particular area where
these storms could happen, it could just happen in an instant.
In fact, right next to the Sea of Galilee on the north side
again are the cliffs of Arbel, which are about 3,000 feet high.
So the Empire State Building in New York City is 1,500 feet. So imagine two Empire State Buildings
on top of each other. You're standing on top of that
and you're looking down and the wind is just blowing up as these
fronts begin to move and collide with one another. The point is
It didn't take long for a fierce gale of wind to cause a storm
in Galilee of near hurricane proportions. It could quickly
disrupt the calm waters of the sea in a matter of minutes, certainly
far less than one hour. So this was no spring shower.
This was a stunning storm, somewhat like a hurricane, which frightened
these experienced fishermen so that they were scared to death.
I mean, these guys had been on a boat before. They knew what
it was like, and they weren't just riding this one out. They
were scared to death. This fisherman's vessel was filling
up with water so fast that each wave lunged at this helpless
boat as if it were a toy to be tampered with on the water. Here,
the disciples of Jesus are in the middle of the night, in the
middle of the Sea of Galilee, in such a predicament that they
didn't know what to do. I mean, there was no Coast Guard
to call. There were no life jackets to pass out. There were no life
rafts to get into. The goal was simply to hang on
for dear life. And if the boat were to have
capsized, it surely would have meant instant death by drowning
for them all. I had the privilege of being
in somewhat of a similar situation in Brazil back when I was in
college. I went on a trip to Brazil for
a month. We flew into Manaus. We got our
hammocks and we hung them on this Brazilian riverboat to which
we were to spend the next 24 hours. We tracked down the Rio
Negro. We got to the point where it
joins with the Amazon River and then we were in the middle of
the night and then you just kind of get into your hammock. And
so when you first get on the boat you hang your hammock. You're
like, fighting for your space and all these people are hanging
hammocks up and they had big hammocks and small hammocks and
hammocks that the whole family could get into and hammocks for
babies and hammocks for newlywed couples and hammocks just for
for singles and they have all these shapes and so at night
after we finally you know that the jet lag started to set in
we had just flown in we were just like i can't believe we're
on the amazon that we finally grabbed uh got into our hammocks
that we had set up and then it happened in the middle of the
night we're sloshing back and forth and my bottom and my hammock
is literally banging up against the people next to me. We're
just like, bam, bam, bam. And we're like, what is going
on? And I opened my eyes and it's like thunder and lightning. And I see all these people running
around on this riverboat speaking in Portuguese. And I'm like,
man, this doesn't look too good. So I look for my buddies and
they're just like hanging on in their hammock, you know, as if
that's going to help. And these, I see these dads that when I
really got scared is when I see dads grabbing life preservers
and putting them on their wives and on their kids and they're
buttoning them up, you know, pulling this cord and they're
all like ready for like, we're going down. I'm like, Oh Jesus
help us. now i just remember praying like
i don't know what's going on but this is not good and after
an hour or two the the storm finally passed our boat did not
capsize i'm here today as your pastor praise god we made it
through but i can tell you i was scared to death and there's no
doubt that's exactly what these disciples felt like on this particular
trip you know the storms can come up like this in your life
in a moment In a flash, in the blinking of an eye, cars whizzing
by you at 100 miles an hour, a phone call to report cancer
or a heart attack of a loved one, a family member lost at
war, somebody got hit by a drunk driver or was involved in a freak
accident, life is full of storms. And you are either just coming
out of one, or you are in the midst of one, or you're about
to head into one. And you better have some storm
theology to get you through. You better be grounded in God's
Word so that you will not capsize. You better be in the fertile
soil with a deep root system so that you won't be uprooted
when the storms and the trials come into your life. And so you
know there are some things here that maybe the disciples forgot
which led to their fear. May I just propose to you that
maybe these three things that happened, let's look at them
in your outline. The first one is maybe they forgot that Jesus
said let us go to the other side. Maybe they forgot that simple
comment that Jesus had clearly spoken, let us go to the other
side, which would mean come hell or high water, you're going to
get there. If Jesus is telling you we're
going to go to the other side, sometimes we forget about the
promises that God makes. Sometimes we forget about that
when we start getting anxious, don't we? We start getting really
anxious and we forget that Christ's promise in this world, you will
have troubles, but take heart for I have overcome the world."
We start to get a little anxious and we forget about the fact
that Philippians reminds us to be anxious for nothing but in
everything by prayer and supplication. Submit your request to the Lord
and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard
your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Sometimes we get so wound
up about the anxieties of this day we forget Christ's teaching
on the Sermon on the Mount. where he said basically that,
you know, today has enough, tomorrow has enough troubles of its own,
right? That you just trust in the Lord. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these things will be
added unto you. And so when you're in the midst
of fear and anxiety, which comes upon us daily, don't forget about
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is it also possibly, secondly,
that they forgot that Jesus was actually with them? I mean, it
wasn't like they were out on the water by themselves. Jesus
was with them in that very boat. I'm so encouraged by the Lord's
account of the Great Commission at the end of Matthew 28, where
he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And then what? And behold, I am with you always. I am with you always to the end
of the age." Do we forget sometimes that Jesus is with us in our
boat? Now as trite as that may sound,
you have to understand that is good theology. Jesus is with
you every moment of every day and He will comfort you in the
midst of the storm. Don't forget that Christ is right
there. Third thing the disciples may
have forgotten was simply this, Jesus was a miracle worker. He was a miracle worker. Had
these disciples forgotten what Jesus had already done? Just
in the previous chapters of this short book of Mark, we would
have read about Jesus's miraculous powers. He had cast out an unclean
spirit. He had healed Peter's mother-in-law.
He cast out demons out of many. He healed a leper. He healed
a paralytic. He healed a man with a withered hand. He had
healed multitudes of people with all kinds of problems. had they
forgotten the miraculous work of Jesus that not only had he
promised we'll get to the other side in one way or another not
only was he with them in the boat that he was a miracle worker
while in your storm as sudden as it may come upon you don't
forget that you have the Lord who is sovereign over the storm
who can work miracles in your life Jesus is Lord of the storm
the third heading that we need to look at this morning is number
three the sleeping savior you say great jesus is with them
but he's like asleep that's how i feel in my life sometimes you
say he's with me but you see what he's doing here in verse
38 he was with them he was in the stern asleep on a cushion
and they awoke him and said to him teacher do you not care that
we are perishing so here we see first the contrast of strength. Possibly Mark is recording for
us a little bit of a contrast here. The point of an extreme
contrast might be that there is a difference between the incredible
strength of this brute storm and the apparent weakness of
a sleepy Savior. Now look, Jesus was God but He
was also man and I believe He was tired from an incredibly
long day of ministry because of exhaustion He may have fallen
asleep. In fact, he even had a cushion.
You might ask, well, where did he get that from? Well, the word
cushion may be describing a headrest or a leather cushion from the
stearman's seat that would have been used of the boats of that
time. And of course, we know that there
is no real weakness with Jesus, that He will calm the sea by
His very words. So it's not like Jesus is getting
whooped up on here. He's just simply sleeping in the peace
of God. And we also see a contrast here
between the contrast of, can we call it obedience, the contrast
of obedience. You say, Adam, what are you talking
about? Well, not only is there a contrast in the chaos of the
storm and the peaceful rest of the Savior, but if we looked
at the Bible in its entirety, we will also find a contrast
between this story of the Lord Jesus Christ and the story of
Jonah. turn with me, if you will, to
Jonah chapter 1. There's another man in a boat
who was asleep. And there are amazing comparisons
and contrasts that I think would be helpful for us to make as
we examine this this morning. And so Jonah is at the end of
your Old Testament, a little hard to find sometimes. They're
in the Minor Prophets right after Obadiah, which is after Amos,
which is after Joel, which is after Hosea. Is that helpful?
So there you are in the book of Jonah. Chapter 1. You know
the story well. God had called Jonah to go to
Nineveh to share the gospel and call to repentance the Assyrian
people. Jonah did not want to. So he
was in Joppa, which we also traveled by just south of the Caesarea. And he got on a boat and he headed
where? He wanted to head to Tarshish,
which was the westernmost portion of the world at that time as
they knew it, at least of the civilized world. So he hops in
this boat, pays good money to go to Tarshish across the Mediterranean
Sea and he is going to get as far away from God as he can.
But we read this starting in verse 4. 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. When 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.
But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship, and
he had laid down, and he was fast asleep." Interesting. Jonah's asleep in his ship as
the storm comes. Jesus is asleep in his ship as
the storm comes. So, the captain came and said
to him, what do you mean you sleeper? arrives call out to
your God perhaps the God perhaps the God will give a thought to
us that we may not perish and they said to one another come
let us cast lots that we may know on whose account this evil
has come upon us so they cast lots and a lot fell on Jonah
then they said to him tell us on whose account this evil has
come upon us what is your occupation And where do you come from? And
what is your country? And of what people are you? And
he said to them, I am a Hebrew. And I fear the Lord, the God
of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men were
exceedingly afraid and said to him, what is this that you have
done? For the men knew that he was
fleeing from the presence of the Lord
because he had told them. Then he said to them, What shall
we do to you that the sea may quiet down for us? For the sea
grew more and more tempestuous. And he said to them, Pick me
up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea will quiet down
for you. For I know it is because of me
that this great tempest has come upon you. Nevertheless, the men
rode hard and tried to get back to dry land, but they could not,
for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 44
Therefore they called out to the LORD, 44 O LORD, let us not
perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood. 45 For you, O LORD, have done
as it pleased you. 46 So they picked up Jonah and
hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 47 Then the men feared the LORD
exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD, and
made vows. Now, while their bodies, both
Jonah and Jesus, both being Hebrews, were sleeping in the boat in
the midst of a storm, what was in their hearts was totally different. One was sleeping in fear. The
other was sleeping in faith. One was out of the will of God.
The other was following God's will. One was running away from
ministry. The other was running to ministry. One had a haughty attitude and
one had a humble attitude. One calmed the sea by being thrown
out of the boat. The other calmed the sea while
still in the boat. You see, you can be asleep in
the boat in sin, Or you can be asleep in the boat in the arms
of your trusting Savior. Just because you're asleep in
the trial doesn't mean it's all bad. And just because you're
asleep in the trial doesn't mean it's all good. The purpose of
the trial would be to refine you and to test you to see who
you really are. And if you're sleeping in sin,
trying to escape the plan of God in your life, then you are
in the boat of Jonah. But if you're trusting in Christ
in your storm, knowing that He's in the boat with you, and that
He will somehow make a way, then you are in the boat with Jesus.
Which boat are you in this morning? Are you in a boat of disobedience,
running away from God, or are you in a boat of obedience, trying
to follow what you believe the Lord will be calling you to do?
And when you think about Jesus being asleep, When the storm
rises in your life, just remember this, the Lord does not truly
slumber, not in the ultimate sense, because Psalm 121 verses
three and four remind us, he will not let your foot be moved.
He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will
neither slumber nor sleep. So if you're in the boat with
Christ and you feel like he's asleep, remember he's really
not. And He's able to rebuke the wind and the waves in a moment.
But don't you rebuke Him for not helping you, which is exactly
what they do at the end of verse 38. They woke Him and said, Teacher,
do you not care that we are perishing? It's almost like they're like,
Jesus, come on. I mean, where are you? We're
about to die in this tempest in the Sea of Galilee. Now, before
you criticize the disciples too much, have you ever felt like
that? When you were in your storm, when you were in the deep, in
the night, and you couldn't touch bottom, were you tempted for
a moment to say, God, come on, like, where are you? The answer
would be, he's right there. He's right there. He doesn't
need you to chide him. He doesn't need your help to somehow awaken
him in an ultimate sense. He's right there. Trust in Jesus,
who is the Lord, of the storm. We also see, in number four,
the sovereign authority. Here we read about Jesus, and
this is your next blank, is Lord over creation. Notice what happens
in verse 39, and He awoke and rebuked the wind and the sea
and said, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm and so here jesus is showing that not only
is he lord over his church he is lord over all creation he
is the author of the universe and he certainly has the power
to calm the sea with a whisper jesus speaks to his creation
with authority he says peace be still literally be silent
or like a dog owner slipping a muzzle over a dog to control
the barking which results in complete silence. So can Jesus
in an instant muzzle the worst storms effortlessly resulting
in perfectly calm waters. The verb tense here in the original
gives a hint that it is most likely that this was an immediate
miracle. I mean if you've ever been on
a lake when there was a storm. It takes a while for it to calm
down. Have you ever been in a wave pool when it stops making the
waves or you stop making the waves with your floaties? You
know, it takes a while, right, for those waves to kind of calm
down and the sea to be calm. Well, the indication here is
instantly. Jesus said, Hush, be still. And it was like instant glass. This is a miraculous work of
our Savior who is sovereign over creation. But not only this,
we also see that Jesus is Lord over your crisis. If He is Lord
over creation, then certainly He is also Lord over your crisis. Whatever you're facing on this
moment or any given day, Jesus is Lord. And just as soon as
the storms arise in your life, they can also blow over or be
terminated in a flash by one word. from the Savior's lips. And if he chooses to allow the
storm to continue, you can change your attitude in a split second
by dwelling on the truth of the goodness and the grace of God.
In other words, Christ could determine in one moment, be still,
or he could say, let the storm continue. If he says, let the
storm continue, then you could still find your peace in his
care for you and in his truth in his word. For example, Colossians
3, 2 and 3, set your minds on things above, not on the things
that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden
with God in Christ. So in the midst of the storm,
if Christ allows you to stay, you can still find comfort in
God. Or how about what we read about James and trials counted
all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness
and the steadfastness when it has its full effect. that you
may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." You know, we have to follow the
Lord's providence about how long He wants us to be in the storm
or whether He chooses to save us from the storm. I mean, speaking
of Jesus being the Lord over your crisis, nobody knew that
more than Horatio Spafford, the writer of the great hymn, It
Is Well With My Soul. One of the great surprises of
being in Israel is I never knew that Horatio Spafford came to
Jerusalem. In fact, one half mile from the
hotel where we stayed for three nights in Jerusalem was called
the American Colony Hotel. Apparently, Horatio Spafford,
after he had written this hymn, started this residence as a Christian
community. And on the inside of this hotel
you walk into the foyer and there to the left they have the actual
words of the page of paper that Horatio Spafford wrote this hymn. There's a brochure there on the
counter that told the story in more detail than I'd seen before.
It goes like this, in 1871 Horatio Spafford, a young lawyer, and
his Norwegian wife Anna and their four little girls were living
happily in Chicago when the whole center of the city was devastated
by fire. This was the beginning of a series
of events which eventually led to them getting to Jerusalem
to make their home in that building which is now the American Colony
Hotel. In the great fire's aftermath
of poverty and homelessness the Spaffords threw themselves into
the task of helping out as many families as they could who were
in distress. A little bit later, in 1873,
physically and emotionally exhausted by their work, they decided to
take the family for a holiday in Europe. Horatio, being detained
on business at the last moment, sent Anna and the four little
girls on ahead. On the night of November the
21st, when most of the passengers and crew were peacefully in bed,
disaster struck. Another ship rammed the steamer
and the ship sank in minutes. Of the hundreds on board, only
47 were rescued by another passing ship. Anna was picked up unconscious
on a floating spar. The four little girls were lost
at sea. Anna landed eventually in Paris
and she cabled her husband with the awful news, quote, saved
alone. Horatio immediately took the
next ship over the Atlantic to bring his wife back home. One night, the captain called
him to his cabin and told him quietly, a careful reckoning
has been made and I believe we are now passing the place where
the ship was wrecked. In the depth of a sorrow, Horatio,
a man of strong religious faith, wrote on a piece of notepaper
from the hotel which he stayed in the night before he set sail,
the words of the hymn which have since given hope to so many,
it is well with my soul. We were able to see that sheet
of paper framed in the lobby of that hotel and to see his
own handwriting on that sheet of paper. It looked to me, I'm
no songwriter, But it looked like to me that God just gave
him the words in a moment, and he just wrote down these verses.
As you know, the first one reads, when peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot,
thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. Do you believe that Jesus is
Lord over creation? Do you also believe that Jesus
is Lord over your crisis? Do you believe with Horatio Spafford
that it can be well with your soul? Well, the text goes on
a couple more verses. We read number five, this sharp
rebuke in verses 40 and 41. We would kind of think that it
would stop right there. This is a great story. Peace
be still. There's a great calm, problem
solved. But we then read in verse 40
and 41, he said to them, why are you so afraid? Well, you
would think their fear would be gone. The storm's gone. So
why are they still afraid? He's asking, why are you still
afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great
fear and said to one another, who then is this that even the
wind and the sea obey him? You see, we could say it this
way in your next blank, there is a greater fear. There is a
greater fear. Notice, the disciples are now
more afraid of the fact that Christ, Lord of creation, is
in the boat with them than they were of the crisis which they
faced. There's something that you ought
to fear greater, Jesus is teaching us, than conflict and trials
in your life. In fact, Jesus says it this way,
Matthew 10 28 and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot
kill the soul rather fear him who can destroy both soul and
body in hell you know what Christ is teaching that if you're here
this morning and you have great conflict and great trial there's
something you ought to fear greater than that and that is the judgment
of God which is why we would invite you this morning each
and every one of you that if you're in a conflict or in a
trial or if you don't know Christ that you would fear God with
this healthy fear of all and respect and that you would trust
him and repent of your sin and come to the risen Savior. and
experience the salvation that He has provided through Christ
for all who will come to Him through repentance and faith.
It may be that you're in a trial this morning that God sovereignly
has put in your life so that you could wake up and see Jesus
for who He really is. He's the Lord over that crisis,
but He's also the Lord over all things and over the souls of
those that repent and believe. And so Jesus then is reminding
him secondly that there's a greater faith. There's a greater fear
that they have, but there's a greater faith. As he says, why are you
so afraid? Have you still no faith? And
they were filled with great fear and said, who is this that even
the wind and the waves obey him? I think when Jesus is asking
them, where is your faith or why are you so afraid? Have you
still no faith? I think that it's like what he's
saying would be something like this. Do not be afraid and have
faith for I am in control. He, in a sense, in the midst
of their fear, is not just providing simple comfort here. You realize,
you would think, well, Jesus is a loving Savior, and He's
just comforting His disciples. Well, He's actually rebuking
them. He's actually rebuking them for not trusting in Him
with a greater faith. And the faith that he refers
to here, I think, is not saving faith necessarily, but more sustaining
faith, that day-by-day trust in God so that in the deepest
and the darkest parts of your life that your faith is not waning,
but rather it's growing. Maybe you see more of yourself
this morning in the lives of these disciples than you thought.
Maybe you also need to be corrected. by the gentle, loving confrontation
of Christ that you're thinking would be changed this morning,
that you would be growing in a greater and greater faith,
that you would humbly follow the Lord of the storm, even when
it doesn't make sense. On this passage, J.C. Ryle has written this, quote,
if we are true Christians, we must not expect everything smooth
in our journey to heaven. We must count it no strange thing
if we have to endure sickness, losses, bereavements, and disappointments
just like other men. Free pardon and full forgiveness,
grace along the way, and glory at the end, all this our Savior
has promised to give. But He never promised that we
shall have no affliction. He loves us too much. to promise that by affliction
he teaches us many precious lessons which without it we would never
learn by affliction he shows us our emptiness and weakness
draws us to the throne of grace purifies our affections weans
us from the world makes us long for heaven in the resurrection
morning we shall all say it is good for me that I was afflicted. We shall thank God for every
storm. I wonder if you would agree with
J.C. Ryle about his theology of storms in your life. Let me
give you just a couple of things to think about in your take-home
section there. What do the storms of this life
reveal about your heart? As we talked about, it's not
about how well you do during the Bible teaching. And on a
Sunday morning, it's more about how do you do when you're on
your own and you're in the midst of the storm, where is your heart
in the crisis? Number two, what do you believe?
Do you believe that if Jesus is in control of the seas, that
he is also sovereignly in control of your situation? I mean, if
God can control heaven and earth because He created it, certainly
He's sovereignly in control of your situation, no matter how
big or how small it may seem. Number three, what or who do
you fear more, the storm or the Lord of the storm? I think if
we had to be honest, many of us would say we feel the trial
more than we feel the Savior. We feel the storm more than we
fear the Lord of the storm. And so be encouraged this morning
by His sovereign control of the storms in your life. And may
your faith be refined and may you consider them all pure joy
as you come to know and trust even better in the author of
the universe. Who is this that even the winds
and the waves obey Him? This is Jesus, Lord of the storm. Let's pray together. God, thank
you for this awesome reminder of your power on the Sea of Galilee
so many years ago. God, thank you for all the application
that's dripping from this passage. We never want to treat it as
trite, but rather as truthful. And the truth is you are Lord
of the storm. And I pray God that we would
be a church that would run to the security of our Lord, that
we would not rebuke you, but rather we would be rebuked by
you when we need to be for not having the faith to trust in
our risen Savior who has conquered death and hell and the grave,
not to have the faith to trust that somehow this world should
grow strangely dim in your glory and in your grace. And so we
pray God that this day you would cause this passage to wreak havoc
in our lives, that we would never look at our trials the same again,
that we would begin to grow with a deeper faith and a deeper affection
for the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would birth revival in our
hearts because of our understanding of your holy word and of your
holiness and of your power over all things, that Jesus Christ
truly is Lord of the storm. I pray for those who are hurting,
Those who are in the midst of the storm and say, Adam, I wanna
trust, but I just can't. I wanna believe and sing along
with Horatio Spafford, but I have no strength. God, would you give
strength to those who are weary this day? Would you rekindle
a greater love for you and a greater faith for you and a greater fear
for you than of the things of this world? God, we beg you to
help us see this passage fresh and anew. We would know you for
who you are, Lord of the storm. It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.