Mark chapter four and verse 35. And the same day when the even
was come, he said unto them, let us pass over unto the other
side. And when they had sent away the
multitude, they took him, even as he was in the ship, and there
were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it
was now full. 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? 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. And he said
unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly,
and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even
the wind and the sea obey him? Amen. May the Lord bless to us
the reading of his word. What manner of man is this? There are two mistakes that we
must always endeavour to avoid when we think about the Lord
Jesus Christ. We must not forget he is God
when we think about his humanity. And we must not forget he is
man when we consider his divinity. Both the Lord's humanity and
divinity are seen in our verses today. And I want us to take
note of both as we consider what manner of man is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Both, I think, will supply help
and comfort and understanding to the Lord's people, the Lord's
little flock, his sheep. And we're going to be touching
upon these aspects in the next couple of minutes. The disciples
had had a busy day. We've remarked already in our
study of this passage that they are students. They are students
and they are receiving an education from the Lord in spiritual matters
especially and particularly to do with the kingdom of God. And we've remarked that the kingdom
of God is the gospel church. It's the Lord's people. And it is the way in which the
Lord's people are gathered in through the preaching of the
gospel. And the Lord has taught the disciples
much today with respect to this gospel work and the nature of
their apostolic work that they were called to fulfil. And I say it's today because
right from the very start of this day that we have seen in
Mark chapter 4, it has been full of lessons. Four parables were
the most recent part of the Lord's instruction, each bringing out
an aspect of the work of the apostles, their behaviour and
the way in which they were to carry the gospel to the ends
of the earth and to serve the Lord in the gathering in of his
kingdom. And we've spent time thinking
about those, we're not going to go over them again today. But here the Lord had another
lesson for them. And before the night was out,
he was going to teach them something that would shake them to the
very core of their being. Something, a lesson that was
going to bring them face to face with their own mortality. and
reconfirm to them the true character of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want us all just to pause
for a moment and take stock of this, because there is a lesson
here, and I'm just in the introduction, but already I want to make, as
it were, an application, because there's a lesson here for all
of us. Under God's providence, many of us have been blessed
over the years with sound gospel teaching. We've had faithful preachers
who have led us to a greater knowledge of the Saviour and
a greater knowledge of ourselves under the Saviour's direction. And I want to challenge you today
And to say to you this, that all of those things that the
Lord has taught you are lessons that have been given to you for
a purpose. And you have the responsibility
to apply those lessons practically in your life. That's what the
whole point of this day's education for the disciples had been. He
had taught them parables, but now he was putting them in a
situation where there was also going to be practical application
of the very truths that they had been learning. Spiritual
growth and spiritual development is not an end in itself. But
it can only be tested and proved in the storms of life. And I
don't know what those storms are going to be for you. Maybe
you've had plenty of storms so far. Maybe you still have storms
to go through. But it's what you have learned
of the Lord already. that will help you and enable
you to face the challenges that are yet to come. And I want you
to think about that. I want you to think that this
hour, this day is preparatory. This isn't just a casual listening. This is equipping. This is you being brought to
know what the Lord has got in store for you and equipping you
for the challenges that lie ahead. Every lesson for that moment
when our faith will be tried and tested and it will come. So my prayer for us all today
is that we will learn Something today that will be of help and
support in our coming day of trouble. Now there's nothing
complicated in these seven verses that we have read today. It's
just a narrative. It's a simple account of what
happened on the lake that night. Yet I have no doubt that these
seven verses have, in their simplicity, given help and comfort to generations
of believers who have seen the Lord dispelling their troubles
with these words, peace be still. And I'm going to take three headings
today to unpack a few thoughts on these seven verses that I
trust will be of help to each of us who are listening. My headings
could not be easier either. I want us to think about the
Lord, I want us to think about the disciples, and I want us
to think about you and me. So here we're about to think
about the Lord. We have in this passage, in this
little passage of the Lord crossing from Capernaum to the land of
the Gadarenes in this little ship, wonderful evidence of the
twofold nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, his divinity and his
humanity. Here we see the all-powerful,
divine sovereignty of our great God being manifested so that
the very powers of nature, perhaps the greatest powers of nature,
the wind and the water, evidently bow to his sovereign power. He controls them. He controls
the wind and he controls the waves. Powers so vast and mighty
in this world that we as humans can do no more than cower before
them. When they rage, when they spill
over, we see the devastation that they can cause. But here
the Lord Jesus Christ manifests his divinity and his omnipotence
so that the very wind and waves obey his voice. And he shows
that the power of life itself, life and death, resides in his
hands. And while the wind and while
the waves would have taken the lives of these men in the boat
that day, the Lord Jesus Christ preserved them by the word of
His mouth. Yet in His flesh, in His body,
we find that the Lord is tired. We find that He is fatigued,
even to the point of sleeping through a storm at sea. that the eternal God, who never
slumbers or sleeps, but keeps watch over his people, according
to the Psalmist in Psalm 121 verse 4. He keeps watch over
his people, never slumbering or sleeping. In his physical
body, he feels his mind slipping into slumber. and he feels his
muscles demanding rest so that all he can do is lie down in
the back of a boat and go to sleep. And who doesn't ponder
that, these two aspects coming together in this one person,
Jesus of Nazareth? Who doesn't wonder about that? It is indeed the wonder of the
ages that the Holy God, for the love of His people, for the redemption
of their souls, became a man. A man. A man of flesh and blood. A man of the same bones and body
and soul and spirit as we have sitting here right now. Who united
Himself with us. in order that he might represent
us before the holiness of God's law and substitute himself for
us in our place. Do what no one else could do and stand in our place before
his father. This is what we call the plan
of salvation. This is what we call the covenant
of grace being outworked. This is what Rebecca saw so many
years before. This was the fulfilment of the
promises that had been given to Abraham and to Isaac and to
Jacob. This was the fullness of all
that the Lord's people in days gone by had looked forward to. The Messiah, the one who came
to establish the kingdom of God. And this is what the Lord Jesus
Christ had been teaching his apostles about all day in these
four consecutive parables. This is Christ's motivation.
Paul says with respect to this great purpose of the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 6, who, the
Lord Jesus Christ, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men, and being found in fashion as a man He humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And yet he did not stop being
God. And here the wind and the waves knew his voice. And devils and demons knew his
voice. Death released its victims. at the sound of his voice. And
yet daily, men and women ignore his overtures in the gospel of
grace and invitations of mercy. We neither believe the word is
God, neither will we have this man, this man who now resides
in glory, Having died, been buried, and risen again, we will not
have this man to reign over us. The writer to the Hebrews says,
see that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped
not to refused him that speak on earth, much more shall not
we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. So we've thought about the Lord,
and I want us also to think in the context of these few verses
about the disciples. I wonder if, like me, you wonder,
why? Why did the Lord take them into
this? Why did the Lord say at the end
of this day, this full day, this busy day, this day when everyone
was exhausted, why did he say, let's cross over to the other
side? Now, when we get into chapter
five, we will learn that there are reasons for that, but I'm
not going to chapter five today. I want us to think about what
the Lord's purposes was with respect to the disciples here
and now. Why did the Lord order them to
go across the lake? Why did the Lord execute this
incident upon that little party? What was the purpose? And why
was there an audience to witness what it was that was happening?
I wonder if you noticed that. In verse 36, the end of verse
36 it says there, and there were also with him other little ships. So there wasn't just the ship
in which the Lord Jesus Christ slept and in which the disciples
travelled. There were other little ships
together with them on the lake that night. And let me mention
this as we think about these disciples for a few moments.
Everything that the Lord taught, everything that the Lord did
and said was for a purpose. I don't ever want us to imagine
that in some way These events and circumstances and the parables
and the miracles and the things that were done and the places
that were gone to and the people that were encountered and met
was simply noise in the system of the real purpose of the Lord
Jesus Christ going to the cross. Now certainly the Lord Jesus
Christ came in order to go to the cross. And the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, while
the benefits of those things flow to us, were primarily directed
towards His Father. Towards the holiness of God and
the justice of God and the righteous demands of the law of God. But
everything else is for us. Everything else is for the church.
Everything else is for believers. It's not even for the whole world.
It's for the church. And three years the Lord spent
ministering to these disciples that we might benefit from his
words, from his actions, from his encounters. And let us remember
that this whole day has been a day of instruction concerning
the kingdom of God and the disciples' role in that kingdom as seeds
men and as preachers in order to sow the seed, sow the word,
which would be the means by which the church was gathered and established
in the days and the years and indeed the centuries that were
yet to come. So therefore let me suggest a
few reasons as to why the Lord acted in this way and brought
his disciples into this experience. The first one is this. It was
the Lord's purpose to individually challenge these men at the point
of their greatest confidence. Okay, now that's a little bit
complicated, but let me try to explain it and do try to follow
me because I think that it's important for your life and for
mine. It was the Lord's purpose to
individually challenge these men at their point of greatest
confidence. Here's what I mean. Many of these
men were fishermen. Now that's, I know it's not entirely
true, but probably at least half of them were. And certainly there was a familiarity
amongst them and a knowledge amongst them about the water
and about the lake and about activities on the lake. Now I
don't know whether this was their own boat or probably it was a
hired boat. But I'm sure that these men were
well inside their comfort zone when they climbed into that boat
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Well within their comfort zone
as they took out from the land out into the water. But you see
what the Lord was doing was he was taking them to their place
and to their point of self-assurance and literally blowing it away. And it's not the only time that
the Lord did that with these men, although I agree that the
other times what happened was that the Lord left them awestruck
rather than terrified. He amazed them. rather than petrifying
and causing them fear. Remember the occasions when the
disciples fished all night and caught nothing? Then the Lord
said to them, launch out into the deep and let down your nets
for a draft. They had been doing their job. These men were professional fishermen
and they had toiled all night and caught nothing. And the Lord
Jesus said, just go out there and let your nets down on the
other side of the boat. Disciples could have said, really? You don't know what you're talking
about. But they did it anyway. and they caught such a load of
fish that their nets started to break. They had to call for
their friends to come and help them. That was one occasion,
that was when in Luke chapter 5 when some of the disciples
were being called away from being fishers of fish to be fishers
of men. Another occasion was in John
chapter 21. After the Lord had been crucified
and buried, the disciples said to one another, I'm going fishing.
And the Lord met them in the early morning, when again they
had toiled all night and not caught anything. And he said,
cast your net on the right side, and ye shall find. You know,
I don't know whether we want to necessarily talk about humour in the context of the
word of God. But I think there was some irony
in the fact that the Lord used the experiences of these men
to teach them lessons in the very place where they were most
at home and self-confident. And that's what he was doing
in the lake this night. He was demonstrating his power
above their abilities in the very place where they were most
at home. He was recommending himself to
them and his service above their chosen trade. He was saying to
them, don't be satisfied with fish. I've got something greater
for you. My service, my work, my calling
will be greater and my help in that calling will be your strength. They could not deliver themselves
at the very point of their imagined skills and therefore they learned
a lesson that their weakness, they learned that their weakness was present where they thought
themselves to be the strongest. Sometimes the Lord has to teach
us things like that. In the very areas where we imagine
that we are most impregnable, there is where he causes us to
stumble, there is where he causes us to fall, there is where he
causes us to feel our weakness, because he will show us where
our true strength has to lie. Another reason why the Lord may
have taken these men out onto the lake that night was so that
they each might personally experience a miracle. I don't know whether
you've ever thought about that but here are these men, the Lord's
12 disciples and they are watching miracles being performed on this
man and this lady and this child And this group of people, and
whether it's feeding or healing or bringing them from the dead,
they are watching miracles being performed on all these people
around about the Lord. But this was the occasion when
they felt a miracle for themselves. Do you remember when the Lord
called Nathanael to be a disciple? In John 1, verse 50, Jesus answered
and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the
fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things
than these. Thou shalt see greater things
than these. Now, no doubt the disciples learned much sitting
at the feet of Jesus for three years. they learned a lesson
that night that they never forgot. They learned about being plucked
from death. About being saved from a watery
grave. They learned about being saved. About going down into the pit
and being brought back again to life. You know, we never hear
about these men making a decision for the Lord, or getting converted,
or giving their lives to Christ. That's not language, that's not
the way in which God dealt with these men. They knew nothing
about this free will, come to the front evangelism that we
see so prevalent in our church societies today. But that night,
they received a graphic, tangible, physical experience of what spiritual
new life really is. It's life from the dead. This wasn't just a tricky situation
that they'd got into. This was the end. They knew enough
about life on the water to know that and that's why they were
so fearful when they ran to the Lord and pleaded for his help.
I doubt these men were ever the same again. They knew from personal
experience what it meant to be given life from the dead and
what it was to be the recipient of a miracle at the lips of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm not saying that these
men had no faith before this, although the Lord states as much
in his rebuke of them at the end of the passage, but rather
they were given an object lesson that night, and they were the
object. It had been quite a day, four
parables and an object lesson. Here's a third reason why the
Lord took them onto the water that night. He took them because
it was part of their preparation for His service. If the Lord
brought them up out of the depths of the sea, what could He not
do? What situation was too hard,
too dangerous, too much? Was this not to embolden the
disciples for the days that lay ahead? Was this not to prepare
them for the challenges that they would face? A soldier, when
he trains, he has to train to the very limit. An athlete pushes
themselves to the limit. and the gospel preacher can better
understand the hopelessness of a sinking soul when he has tasted
the saltiness for himself. If a man who has seen the power
of Christ, who has felt his hand in the midst of the storm, who
has heard his voice, over the sound of the wind and the waves,
and experienced the calming effect of grace in his own soul, and
has experienced the peace of forgiveness in his own heart,
and the joy of acceptance with God, and the warmth of reconciliation,
and being gathered to the Lord. If such a man has experienced
these things, then he can sympathise and he can empathise with all
who are fearful. and panicked and fretting and
troubled in this world about the state of their own soul. For all who are burdened with
sin, fearful of death, anxious about eternity outside of Christ,
such a man can say, is the wind stronger? Is the waves higher
than your ship can handle? Let me tell you about my Saviour. Let me tell you about my Lord.
And may the Lord whisper in your ear as he once whispered in mine,
peace, be still. Let me finally think about you
and think about me. Let's make a personal application
about these verses and this little incident. And this is sobering. If you are one of the Lord's
elect, one for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has died and for
whom he has shed his blood, and not all men and women are, but
if you are one and yet you are not a believer yet in the Lord
Jesus Christ, let me tell you this. You will not fail to hear
the voice of Christ, nor will you be allowed to ultimately
perish. Of that I am sure. But I can
tell you this, that the Lord will get your attention. And
it may be that he will have to take you into the very depths,
and he will have to sink you before you'll cry like the psalmist. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Only in the finished work of
Jesus Christ is true peace to be found. I implore you, friend,
stop running. Stop trying to earn righteousness. Stop trying to win salvation
by your own efforts. May the Lord Jesus Christ rebuke
our human pride and give peace to our soul. May he be gracious
to his people. The storms of life equally are
not confined to unbelievers. The Lord's people, as these apostles,
learn by experience what it is to go down into the depths. And I know, I know that some
of you today have had to walk in the depths of dark experiences. And sometimes, like the apostles,
you may wonder if the Lord even cares about your situation. Lord, don't you care that we're
drowning? Don't you care that we're in
the depths here? Don't you care that we're in
the midst of this storm? And you wonder if the Lord is
sleeping in the back of the boat. Perhaps you feel overwhelmed
by a situation in your life. or in the life of someone that
you love. I know from our correspondence
that some of our listeners are bereaved. Some are anxious and
desperate for the well-being of their children. Some are in
physical pain. Some have anxieties for the future. I say this to you, brothers and
sisters, you who love the Lord, Our Saviour loves us and His
love is greater than you know. He will hear when we cry. Take your trouble to the Lord
and call out for his help as these disciples did. Do it! Do it! Even if it seems that
he's not there, even if it seems that he's asleep, even if it
seems that time has expired, that the loss has come. Test
him. Test him. There is a peace that
passeth understanding. There is a stillness that enters
into the soul of a man or a woman that none but Christ, the Prince
of Peace, can give. Maybe you find yourself anticipating
your own mortality, as it were, to be about to be on that final
passing over to the other side. Maybe you think about what is
it going to be like for me? What is it to say about the waters
of Jordan as they start to rise above our ankles? Are you afraid? What if it'll be stormy? What
if it's more than my ship can bear? Well let me ask you, is
Christ in the ship? Christ is in the ship and he
is both God to save and man to comfort. He is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. Do your sins worry you? His blood
cleanses. Does your faith falter? His faith
is strong to save. Do you fear that you're not fit? He is fit and His righteousness
is all that you will ever need. Do you have a fear of the unknown?
Nothing is unknown when we know Jesus Christ. The sailors in the boat with
the disciples The little ships that sailed alongside the boat
that the Lord was in. The disciples themselves, in
their panic, they learned a lesson that night. They learned that
with Jesus in the ship, they were safe, though all hell should
break upon them. And they wondered, what manner
of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? He's
the God-Man. He's willing to save. He's able
to save. The God-Man successful to save. The rock of our salvation. May the Lord speak peace in the
midst of our storms. Amen.