Seeing once again the Lord's
help, I'd like us to turn together to the chapter that we read,
Mark chapter 4, and the text you'll find in verse 38. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and say unto
him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? As we continue to look at the
parables, the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to
the first one really where he takes over or he controls the
creation itself as he speaks to the wind and he speaks to
the waves and there is a great calm. We see the first miracle
that Christ did as he turned the water into wine that he had
control over the elements of the world and we see as he begins
to minister in the surrounding areas. We see him healing those
who are sick, various diseases, some leprosy, some with deformations,
some unable to speak, some unable to see, some unable to walk.
We see him casting out the demons, we see the demons recognising
the Lord Jesus Christ as to who he was and the authority that
he had and then last week we saw Christ raising somebody from
the dead, the widows son and we saw that life and death is
under the control of God, that man does not have that ability
or the authority, the ability to give life and the authority
to take life. But here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ entering into a situation with his apostles and others
that were with him and he He's seemingly fast asleep in the
middle of a great storm and then he wakes up or he is woken up
and he speaks to the storm, the wind and the waves and there
was a great calm. And so again we see the authority,
the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ that he's both God and
man. He is fully God and he is fully
man at the exact same time when he is asleep he is no less God
and when he is commanding the waves and the sea he is no less
man. He is the God-man, God manifest
in the flesh, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ who came into
the world to live and to die and to be raised again for sinners. And so in this account we see
very clearly the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
in the hind part of the ship asleep on a pillow. That is something
that all of us can enter into this. All of us can appreciate
tiredness. All of us at the end of the day
can know what it is to be physically tired and want to lay down and
to go to sleep. We can all enter into this. natural
human experience that is set before us, the Lord Jesus being
asleep with his head resting upon a pillow seemingly oblivious
to all that is going on round about him and how it is normally
when we're asleep. We are completely unaware of
what is taking place round about us. That is why thieves want
to enter into our homes when we're asleep because we're unaware,
we're unconscious of what is going on round about. and the
Lord Jesus Christ is experiencing that natural tiredness that every
one, every human has been through. Very interesting that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If you search
on the internet for a picture of King Charles asleep or even
Queen Elizabeth asleep. You won't find any. Maybe they
might nod off in a ceremony but you'll never find a picture of
them laying down asleep. We have something in our minds
where we see that that is complete weakness. We don't like people
to realise that we've had a nap in the day. It's seen as a weak
thing to do and so there's no picture of King Charles asleep
on his bed or laying on a couch or sofa asleep or lying on the
floor asleep. But there's pictures of him sitting
on his throne in all his glory with his crown. Yet here we find
the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, laying in the hinder
part of the boat, asleep with his head upon a pillow. a simple human experience portraying
to us the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ is an essential truth by which the
church is to truly believe that Christ is both human and God
at the same time. The Gospel according to John
tells us there about the Lord Jesus and the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the
only begotten of the father full of grace and truth and so the
word of God who was with God who was God who was at the beginning
with God all things were made by the Lord Jesus Christ that
word was made flesh and dwelt among a sinful man. In Romans
chapter 8 there also it tells us in verse 3, for what the law
could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. And so God sent the Lord Jesus
Christ into the world. The scripture says, a body has
thou prepared for me, that Christ was made flesh in the likeness
of sinful flesh, yet he was without sin. And so Christ, without ceasing
to be God, began to be like you and I in every single way yet
without sin. And that is why when people were
round about him they could not fathom the things that he was
doing. They were looking at him and they were seeing a normal
man with skin and bones and hair and eyes and a man that they
could touch. them as they looked at him he
was just somebody who was completely normal just like them. Someone
whom they had seen grow up from a child. Someone whom they had
been a brother with. Someone whom Mary had given birth
to. The Lord Jesus Christ was or
had a body like unto our body yet he was without sin. You think of Adam. Adam was created from the dust
of the ground. God created him as a man. He breathed into him the breath
of life and he became a living soul. He was created in the likeness
of God and he was without sin. Adam was sinless until he sinned
against God and he became a sinner in the sight of God. He became
a lawbreaker, a rebel. He stepped over the line and
was cast out of God's presence. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
spoken of as the second Adam. He was not created from the dust
of the ground as Adam was, but he was conceived of the Holy
Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He is the Son of God. And he was brought into this
world the same way that you and I were brought into this world.
He needed to be fed. He needed to be cared for. He
needed to be clothed. He needed to be loved. in every
aspect that you and I were brought into this world so the Lord Jesus
Christ was brought into this world. He grew just like our
children grow. Yet he was different as we see
him reasoning with the scribes and the Pharisees in Jerusalem. The Bible tells us he was anointed
above measure with the Holy Spirit. He had a greater measure of the
gift of the Holy Spirit as he was baptised. And we see the
Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove and there John the
Baptist comes face to face with that realisation that this is
the beloved son of God in whom God is well pleased with. So there is one vital difference
between the Lord Jesus Christ and every other child that was
born on the face of the earth. Jesus was not in Adam. Therefore he was born without
sin. From the moment that he was conceived
his frame was sinless. As Adam had the ability not to
sin and the ability to sin yet he failed in the Garden of Eden
he chose to disobey God and to take and to listen to his wife
and to take what God had told him that he could not take. So
the Lord Jesus Christ in his humanity had the ability to sin
and the ability not to sin but he chose to walk in complete
obedience to the Father, to fulfil the whole law of God, to live that perfect life without
sin. If you think of when the Lord
Jesus was baptised and after He was driven by the Spirit into
the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil for 40 days. What did Satan tempt him with?
Satan tempted his human nature to sin. Because he knew if he
was able to cause Christ's human nature to sin, therefore he would
not be the holy spotless Lamb of God that could take away the
sin of the world. If he could tempt the Lord Jesus
Christ into disobeying the Father by going after the material things
of the world, tempt him to worship him, then he knew that Christ's
mission would have completely failed. Jesus was fasting or had been fasting for 40 days
and 40 nights and he was hungry. The humanity of the Lord Jesus,
his body, his physical body that was like unto our body needed
food to sustain it. He was hungry and Satan came
and tested him and went to the very pangs of hunger and then tempted him with his
divinity, if you are the son of God. If you are truly the God-man
then satisfy your hunger and use your almighty power, the
power of God, to make these stones bread. If thou be the Son of God, command
these stones be made bread. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ could have done that. It was within his power as God
to make the stones into bread. But he says it is written, man
shall not live by bread alone but every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. Christ did not have to prove
to Satan who he was by doing miracles. He was living by the
bread of life. He was living by the word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God. devil takes him into the
holy city and sets him on the pinnacle of the temple and says
unto him if thou be the son of god cast thyself down for it
is written he shall give his angels charge concerning thee
and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest thou at any
time dash thy foot against the stone and jesus said unto him
it is written again thou shalt not tempt the lord thy god if
we go back to the garden of eden where did satan start with eve
He started by doubt. He started by sowing seeds of
doubt into the mind. Has God said? What was he trying
to do to the Lord Jesus Christ if sowing seeds of doubt into
the humanity of Christ so that Christ would fail in his mission
to bring about salvation. It is written thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God. Don't put God to the test. God has promised to give his angels charge over
his people. But don't put yourself into dangerous
situations to prove the reality of God's promises. scientist who had a debate with
a Christian. And one of his arguments was
that in the book of Mark it says you shall drink poison and it
won't harm you. You shall take up snakes and
they won't bite you. And so he brought with him a
bottle of poison and told the Christian to drink it. and said
you know your God says you will drink poison and it won't hurt
you. But the Bible also says don't
tempt God, don't test God, don't put him to the test. You don't
go and drink poison just to prove the existence of God about if
somebody was to spike your drink and to try and poison you in
secret. It's within the ability of God
to stop that poison from having any effect upon you whatsoever. We witnessed in Kenya times when
poisonous snakes were within millimetres of our children and
yet they didn't strike and they didn't bite. Yet we would not
tell our children to go and pick up a poisonous snake because
God says that won't harm you. don't test God. And so Jesus
is saying to Satan, I know that God will protect me, but I'm
not going to test him. I don't have to prove the reality
of that promise because the Lord will do it and I won't force
him to do so. And then the devil takes him
up to an exceedingly high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms
of the world and the glory of them. and saith unto him, All
these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Jesus didn't want the kingdoms
of this world. Jesus had no need for the kingdom of this world.
Jesus says my kingdom is not of this world. This world is
a perishing kingdom. All the time it's constantly
decaying and changing. Satan's kingdom has a limit to
it. And Christ was not going to fall
down and worship Satan and to jeopardise his kingdom, his great
kingdom, and all those that would be with him in that kingdom.
And so he says, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. And so Christ was being tempted. being tempted by Satan, seeking
to cause his human nature to sin. We know that Christ as God,
it would be impossible for God to
sin, for God cannot abide sin, cannot look upon sin. Yet Christ's work was to be born
into this world underneath the law of God and to live as a man
in perfect obedience to God's holy law, in ceremonial and civil
and also in fulfilling every prophecy regarding himself. Though
in his humanity he sought to live in complete obedience to
the will of God, as we saw last week, to love his neighbour as
his self, but also to become that perfect Lamb of
God, that spotless Lamb of God without sin. And so as Adam failed
in the charge given to him as a head, a federal head of the
world, Christ did not fail. There is no spot, there is no
sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. as Satan failed in his temptation
with the Lord Jesus. Christ must fulfil all the law,
obey the Father so that he could atone, be that perfect atonement
for the sins of his people. And so here just in this little
picture that we have of Christ asleep on a pillow, We have his
humanity in every way like you and me yet without sin. But then in the same instance
we have his divine nature. As his disciples wake him up He then goes from this man who
is tired, asleep on a pillow, to a man who stands and speaks
and says, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. We know as living by the sea
that the wind can bring up a great storm. If that wind was to stop
in an instant, the sea would continue to rage for some time
as it's all churned up. But here we see in the Lord Jesus
Christ that power and authority that he has over the wind to
cause it to cease and even over the sea to cause it to become
a great calm. The Bible tells us, doesn't it,
that those things which are impossible with man are possible with God.
That we have become extremely clever. There's so many things that we
can do, that man can do. So many things that he can fix
and alter. So many lives have been spared
or lengthened because of the knowledge that has been given
to man. There are still things that we
are unable to do. We can predict earthquakes, we
may be able to predict volcanoes, we can predict the weather but
we cannot stop the weather. They do talk about cloud seeding
now but of flying into the clouds and I think they trail wires
and electrocute or pass electrical currents through the clouds in
the hope that it would rain and I think it does. But man is becoming
more and more self-sufficient. There are still things that he
can't do. And one of them is to speak to the storm and tell it to be
calm. And so Christ manifested his
divine nature. In the book of Timothy it tells
us there that great is the mystery
of godliness. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh,
or God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory. So it is a mystery. a complete
mystery that the human mind cannot grasp fully, yet we are called
upon to believe it by faith that Christ is both God and man, and
his humanity and his divinity are both seen in this account. If you remember when James and
John and Peter went up into the mountain with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the Bible tells us he was transfigured before them
he was changed and he was seen speaking to Moses and Elijah
regarding his death Moses symbolizing the law and
Elijah symbolizing the prophets and Christ displaying his glory
the voice from heaven comes this is my beloved son hear him. As we read in John that we beheld
his glory. Christ was always fully God and
fully man yet at times he manifested his divinity to those who were
round about him And especially upon the Mount of Transfiguration,
the scripture says he shined. Even his clothing, the glory
of God, shined out from him. That his glory was seen. But mostly it was veil. But we see in the accounts that
are written for us the Lord Jesus doing only what God can do. We see him forgiving sin. We see him raising the dead and
we see him stilling the storm. I expect you've all heard of
the King. He was the king who it was said
asked to be taken down to the sea and believed that he had
the power to stop the tide. As I was reading up on it yesterday
it seems that people have got the wrong end of the stick. He
was an extremely powerful king who ruled over a thousand years
ago in England, in Norway and Denmark and parts of Sweden.
And he was being elevated by his advisors round about him,
telling him that you're so powerful, you're so great. And so he asked
them to take him down to the beach. And there he explained to them
that I am just a mortal man. I do not have that power or ability
that God has. It is only God who has that ultimate
authority, that full power to be able to control the elements
of the world, to be able to control the to-ings and fro-ings of the
tide and the world around the sun. says my power is limited. My power is nothing compared
to the power of Almighty God who controls the whole world. And it is said that after he had relayed that message to his
advisors he took off his crown and he hung it upon a cross.
And there it remained until he died. He died when he was just
over 40 years old. What was he saying? Yes, I am
powerful. Yes, I govern England and Norway
and Denmark, but I'm not all powerful. Yes, I have authority,
but I don't have all authority. of nothing like the one who died
upon the cross. All power and all authority has
been given unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. And he needed
to be God-man. He needed to be fully human to
live under the law of God and to die as a substitutionary atonement
for sinners. He needed to be the perfect Lamb
of God. had to be God's son yet he also
needed to be fully God to be able to bear the wrath of God
for the penalty of the sins of his people. He needed to be fully
God to be able to bear the stroke of God for the sins of his people. If you think of boxing, in boxing
they have weights featherweight and heavyweight and a featherweight
cannot fight against a heavyweight. And so Christ had to be both
featherweight and heavyweight. Featherweight to live this fragile
life in a human flesh but also heavyweight to be able to bear
the stroke of almighty God upon the cross at Calvary for the
sins of his people. You think of our sin The penalty
for our sin is death. The wages of sin is death. That
is an eternal death under the wrath of God for all eternity. For one sin, for one person.
Yet the scripture tells us that all of those who are in Christ
Jesus are without number. I saw a multitude which no man
can number. And so Christ had to bear the
stroke of God for the sins of his people. His
humanity was to enable him to be the second Adam, a federal
head. But his divinity was to enable
him to bear the stroke of Almighty God. the one to reach out between
man and God and bring about that reconciliation, bring about that
calming of the storm of the anger of God for the sins of his people. And so as Christ is in this boat
asleep we see his humanity but also we see the the lack of knowledge of his
disciples. Their limited understanding of
who he is. They just see their teacher master
asleep on the pillow. They don't see his divine nature
and therefore they panic. Their boat is filling up with
water. And they believe that Jesus doesn't care because he's
fast asleep. Maybe they believe that he's
just like Jonah. Remember Jonah, the master of
the ship says, what meanest thou, O sleeper? Maybe they're thinking
why is he asleep and we're struggling trying to bail out the boat. And so they come to him with
a lack of understanding as to who he is. It exposes the futility
of their minds, their lack of faith. And Jesus says to them
that they have no faith. They didn't realise who he was
or what he had come to do. In Peter it tells us there 1 Peter chapter
5, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. They accuse Jesus of not caring. Don't you care that we perish? if they truly understood the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, if they truly understood who
he was that was with them in the boat, they would not have
accused him of a lack of concern. They would not have accused him
of worrying, why he was not worrying about them perishing. For what
had Jesus Christ come to do? His whole mission was to come
and to seek and to save those that were lost. His whole mission
was that one of love and of compassion. His whole mission was to bring
about the salvation of those who were perishing in their sin. so they use two words which are
completely opposite of any words that should be applied to that
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of him not caring and of him
not worrying about them perishing. Christ as we have seen already
is full of compassion, is full of care. So much so that he was born of
a woman to bring about the salvation of his people, to redeem them
that were perishing in their sin. And we are told to cast our care
upon him. What is the reason for that?
Because he cares for you. He is not an uncaring king. that he's a caring and compassionate
saviour. So even within their lack of
faith or no faith there is some evidence of faith because they
come to him with their concerns. Isn't that what casting our concerns
upon him is? You would not cast your concern
upon someone whom you knew would not be able to help you. We cast our concerns upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. We come to him because we understand
that he cares, that he is compassionate, that he is the God-man. that he is our high priest. Hebrews
tells us, Hebrews 2, Verily he took not on him the nature of
angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham, or human flesh. Wherefore in all things it behoved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. for in that
he himself has suffered being tempted he is able to succor
them that are tempted and so Christ in his humanities he put
on the seed of Abraham he's put on the flesh he's able to be
that high priest that is able to understand the frailty of
human flesh and the frailty or the difficulty of the temptations
which we pass through chapter 4 it tells us there. Seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into heavens,
Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast our profession for
we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we
are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. That is where we are to go. To
the throne of grace. As the Jew went to the temple
and dealt with a high priest that was continually changing
and maybe could not understand their individual circumstances
and situations and temptations Yet when we come to the throne
of grace we come to the true living unchanging high priest
who is able to understand our feelings and our infirmities
because he was tempted in all points as we are yet without
sin. We saw in his humanity all that
Satan put him through. And we see as he walked with
his apostles and disciples all that they loaded upon him, their
unbelief, their doubts, their fears. And as we saw recently
he remembers our frame, he remembers that we are dust. And so he says casting all your
care upon him for he careth for you in his human nature he understands
your individual weakness, your individual temptation, your individual
situation and with his divine nature he's able to deal with
that situation. There is nothing too hard for
the Lord. Nothing shall be called impossible with God. And he demonstrated that love
that he has towards you upon the cross at Calvary. There is no time in the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ where he ceased not to care for his
people and even now as he was the first fruit of the resurrection
he is there seated at the right hand of God the Father to intercede
for his people. And so if you feel that Jesus
doesn't care then go to the cross and that will show you how much
he cares. Yes your situation may be very very difficult and
very hard and you may feel that Jesus doesn't care. But what does it tell us? Take
that burden to the Lord Take that concern to the Lord and
speak to him. He's our high priest, a living
high priest, constantly there at the right hand of the Father,
never changing. And if you feel that life is
too hard, if you feel that he doesn't care, then come to the
throne of grace and speak to him. Tell him that this is too
hard. Tell him that you think that
he doesn't care. because the situation is so difficult,
so overwhelming. He's not a God like Elijah experienced
with the gods of Baal when he says to them, well, maybe they've
gone on a holiday. Our God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
never goes on holiday. Yes, it may feel like he is silent
to your cry. but that doesn't mean that he
doesn't care. He is working all things for your good. He was
testing his apostles as he was asleep on the pillow. He was
making them realise who he truly was. Son of man, son of God,
fully God, fully man. Maybe that's how he's working
with you. He's showing you. causing you to continue at the
throne of grace to continue pleading your case and then he will arise
and he will work all things for your good and he will show you
that he is your God that he is your saviour and that he is able
to just say peace be still and there will be a great calm And he was in the hinder part
of the ship, asleep on the pillow. And they awake him and say unto
him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose
and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace be still.
And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. May the Lord
add his blessing. Amen. Our final hymn is from Hymns
for Worship, number 50. Number 50. Passeth knowledge,
that dear love of thine, my Saviour Jesus, yet this soul of mine
would of thy love, in all its breadth and length, its height
and depth, its everlasting strength, know more and more. Number 50. you. Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave Redeeming to the living from
above, And ever I in simple faith draw nigh, And ever to the path
of life I will go to. Jesus, face to face I see, When
at His love, deep friend, I bow the knee. May all His love, in
all its breadth and length, May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and
communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with you each now and forevermore. Amen.