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Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
It's a very easy way. One of one of the easiest ways you can serve us as a church is whenever you get here, begin filling up the church from the front. We've got 2 new front rows. Begin filling up here and then working your way back. It makes it a lot easier for those who are coming in later to be able to find a seat.
Joel Brooks:And we wanna make sure they do. Sometimes we have families come in. They go downstairs. They check their kids And then they come up and they can't find a seat. And we've literally had to turn some families away.
Joel Brooks:They have to go back down, check their kids back out, and leave. We wanna make sure that that does not happen. So simple way to serve, come up front. You actually use the stages for foot rest. Look at that.
Joel Brooks:I mean, there's lots of advantages, plus all the gold stars you get in heaven. So Mark chapter 4, We'll begin reading in verse 35. On that day when evening had come, Jesus said to them, let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took with him 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.
Joel Brooks: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. He said to them, why are you so afraid?
Joel Brooks:Have you no or 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? This is the word of the Lord. If you would pray with me. Father, we've come together to ponder that question.
Joel Brooks:Who then is this? Who are you? Through your spirit and through your word, would you reveal yourself to us? I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. And, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So this is one of the most well known stories in all of the Bible. And it's a story that I actually think about, no exaggeration here, I think about every single day. And the reason that I think about it every single day is because Lauren and I, we have hanging on our living room wall a painting of this scene.
Joel Brooks:It's the painting. It's it's over a 150 years old, and it's of Jesus calming the storm. It's by far the nicest thing that we have in our house. I bought this as a gift to Lauren for our 10 year anniversary. I think it's the only possession we have that our kids will someday fight over when we're gone.
Joel Brooks:But but we love this painting. The painting itself is is rather dark because it's a storm, and so it it depicts the wind and the waves that are there. And you see Jesus standing, in the painting in the front of the boat, and his his arms are stretched out. And he's just beginning to speak. And sunlight is just beginning to pierce through the clouds.
Joel Brooks:It's the first thing I see every morning because I walk downstairs, and it's still dark, and the first light I turn on in the house is a light that illuminates that painting. So, literally, it's the first thing I look at every single morning. But the reason I'm telling you this is because although I I've looked at this painting, I've thought of this story every day for last 17 years, it really hasn't been to the last few years that I think I've understood what it actually means, because I had the wrong beginning. Usually, when I think of this story, I think of it beginning in the boat. I think it of it beginning as they're going out to sea, but that's actually not the beginning of the story.
Joel Brooks:The story starts by understanding what's actually happening on the other side of the sea. On the other side of the sea live the most wretched, desperate, hurting human you could ever imagine. We're gonna look at him in more detail next week, but you need to know he's there and you need to have him in mind. This man, he's not just possessed by a demon, he's possessed by a legion of demons, which is a 1,000 or 1,000 of demons possessing this one man. He spends his days in the tombs, he sleeps in a graveyard, he cries out night and day and misery, he hates his life so much that he finds sharp rocks and he cuts himself throughout the day.
Joel Brooks:People are powerless to help him. They've tried everything. They they can't help him, because this man is completely under the power of the devil. He's without hope and he certainly had to feel like if there was a God in this world, God had certainly forgotten about him, but God has not forgotten about him. I want you to think of this man because above all of the the howling wind and waves, what Jesus is listening to is the howling of this man.
Joel Brooks:And he says, I'm coming. Throughout all this storm, I want you to hear Jesus saying, I'm coming, I'm coming. No storm can stop me. Hell itself cannot stop me from coming to you. I'm coming.
Joel Brooks:This man is 100 percent the reason why Jesus got in the boat in the first place because we'll look at next week, he literally arrives on the shore, casts out the demon, gets back in the boat and goes right back. This man here is his mission. It's why he's in the boat. It's why there's the storm. And so, I want you to have this story of this man.
Joel Brooks:I want you to hear his howling above all the howling of the winds throughout to this story. It's why Jesus is going. Now, the story itself with Jesus and the boat and the storm and everything has all the, the earmarks of a of an eyewitness story. There's just so many unnecessary details you find in here that actually don't advance the story along. For instance, we find that Jesus, he was not just asleep, but he's described as asleep in the stern, which is the back of the boat.
Joel Brooks:I had to Google it. But he's in the back of the boat, And it says he's asleep on a cushion or a pillow. It's a random detail. Doesn't advance the story in any way. Next, we read that there were other boats with Jesus.
Joel Brooks:But then they're never mentioned again. And once again, they they don't advance the story in any way. Then at the very beginning of the story, we read that we don't read that Jesus got into the boat, but that he, that the disciples took him in the boat just as he was. Just as he was, meaning that he was already in the boat. Yeah, it's a small little detail, but what it means is Jesus was probably already teaching and preaching like he normally did, often in a boat just offshore, And instead of going back on shore, maybe getting some things, he was already in the boat, and they just said, let's go to the other side.
Joel Brooks:It's just a random, apparently not really important detail. It doesn't advance the story in any way. Why is it there? Just because somebody remembered it. Somebody who was there remembered it.
Joel Brooks:And only reason I I'm telling you all of this, and I could do this, like, through all of the stories of Mark, but I just thought I would just do it in this story just for a little bit, It's because it's tempting for us when we come across these miracles of Jesus, especially one as grand as this, we think, oh, it's just a it's a mere myth. It's just a legend, But you need to know that this doesn't have any of the earmarks of a legend. It's not how legends were written. C s Lewis, who knew a little about ancient literature and about legends and myths, he wrote this about this passage. I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends, myths, all of my life.
Joel Brooks:I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this. Of this text, there are only 2 possible views. Either this is reportage, or else some unknown writer in the 2nd century without any predecessors or any successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic realistic narrative, which wouldn't be developed till over 1500 years later. The only reason little details like this
Cole Ragsdale:are in there that don't advance the story
Joel Brooks:in any way is because somebody saw it. They remembered it. They wrote it down. This isn't a legend. So the story begins here with Jesus telling his disciples, take me to the other side of the lake.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't tell them why. They know nothing about the man howling in pain on the other side of that lake. He just tells him, we need to go. Set sail. Now you might be wondering why is this called sometimes a sea, the Sea of Galilee?
Joel Brooks:Why is it sometimes called a lake? My answer to you is I don't know. I wonder that too. There's actually not really a good answer for it. It's just a really large lake.
Joel Brooks:I've had the privilege of of going there and standing on the shore of the the Sea of Galilee, and, in its widest spot is 13 miles across. It's actually the lowest freshwater lake in the world. It sits 900 feet below sea level. Yet, the mountain range that surrounds it has mountains over 9,000 feet. That's a 10,000 foot difference.
Joel Brooks:I go to Montana most summers, and the mountains there are 10,000 feet, but to climb them, you start at 5,000. So you're only seeing a 5,000 foot elevation gain. This is a 10,000 foot. And can I tell you when there's just a 5,000 foot difference, wind rushes down the mountain in a fierce way? And that's what the Sea of Galilee was known for.
Joel Brooks:Cold wind from the mountains would rush down 10,000 feet, and it would interact with that warm water. And it had some of the most fierce violent storms you can imagine. If you're ever interested in this, just YouTube, storms in the sea of Galilee, and it will shock you as to how fierce they can be. And this wasn't an ordinary storm. These disciples, they they grew up fishing on this lake, some of them did.
Joel Brooks:They were experienced sailors, yet in the midst of this storm, they are terrified. So try to picture this scene here. You know, the wind is howling, waves are crashing into the boat, it's filling up with water, everyone's shouting, everyone's trying to bail water, they're in danger of capsizing, and then they look and Jesus is asleep. In the midst of all of that, he's sleeping curled up on a little pillow in the stern, the back of the boat. It's it's it's quite unbelievable that anyone could sleep through something like this.
Joel Brooks:And if you read through different commentaries, they'll talk about how this this really speaks to Jesus's divinity, which is true. But I also thinks I think it speaks to his humanity. Jesus is exhausted as a human. He has just spent days ministering to the crowds, and he gets into the boat and he collapses. Like we saw last week, he had been, tirelessly sowing his seed, and now he trusts God and he goes to rest.
Joel Brooks:Like we looked at last week, I don't care how strong you are, how strong willed you are, you will go unconscious every single day. And so even though Jesus's father might neither slumber nor sleep, Jesus as a human needed it. And so we find him exhausted and him going to bed. Now the disciples can't believe this, that anyone, let alone Jesus, could sleep in the midst of such a storm like this, in the midst of this chaos, and so they begin shouting at him to wake him up. And here, if you read through the gospel accounts, you're gonna get all these different accounts as to what is said.
Joel Brooks:You know, Matthew's gonna say, save us, Lord. You're gonna have Luke and the disciples gonna shout out, master, master, we are perishing. In Mark, you have the words, teacher, don't you care that we are perishing? And so some people like to point to that and be like, see, the gospels, they're you know, they all say different things. I just want to suggest that maybe a lot of things were being shouted in that moment.
Joel Brooks:Probably a lot of choice words that weren't written in here were being said at that moment. But I want us to focus on what Mark hears Jesus saying. But he he accounts for us. Because it really gets to the heart of what the disciples are feeling. Teacher, teacher, do you not care?
Joel Brooks:Do you not care that we are perishing? The disciples do not question Jesus's power. They question his concern over their lives. Has there ever been something that happened in your life, a storm if you will, that's made you wonder the same thing? Jesus, do you really care?
Joel Brooks:Now, we don't have this thought when it's smooth sailing, do we? When our life is smooth sailing, you know, we got the career we want, we're getting the money we want, we have the spouse we want, we're taking the vacations we want, Just smooth sailing. God loves me. I'm blessed. But then when all of a sudden a little speed bump comes or or something is thrown at us in life, Maybe our health fails, or maybe we lose our job, maybe our relationships become really hard.
Joel Brooks:Those things, then we begin to wonder, don't we? Jesus, do you do you actually care about me? Do you care about what's going on in my life? So we need to ask ourselves, what exactly does God's care for us look like? Well, the disciples assumed this, they assumed that if God truly cared for them, they would never go through a storm.
Joel Brooks:If God truly cared for them, they would never go through a storm like this. He would never allow them to suffer. But that is a false assumption. Because God as we know allows his children to undergo suffering. It's a way of him teaching us dependence, a way of developing our character.
Joel Brooks:Let me be clear at this. If God's love for us, was only expressed through us being healthy, wealthy, and prosperous, then God must have certainly hated the apostle Paul, who enjoyed none of those things. It's not evidence as to whether God cares for us or not, whether we're going through a storm or whether we're suffering through not. If you believe that, it's a false assumption about God's care. God never promises any of his children that they will not go through a storm.
Joel Brooks:He only promises that he'll be in the boat with them. They're not going to suffer alone. So Jesus is in the midst of the storm with us. So don't ever think that suffering means he doesn't care. Verse 39, we read that Jesus, he woke up, then he rebuked the wind, and he said to the sea, peace, be still.
Joel Brooks:And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. There are so many things that are remarkable about this this one verse. First, I just want you to notice what Jesus did not do. He didn't roll up his sleeves. He didn't put his arms out, you know, like I have in the painting at my house.
Joel Brooks:He didn't like do some incantation with a deep voice. He didn't pull out his wand, you know. He just simply like I'm I'm picturing it like he's wiping a sleep out of his eyes. And then he speaks to this fear storm like he would a child. Would you be quiet and stay quiet?
Joel Brooks:I think the message translate translated, shut up. Would you would you just shut up and be quiet? You know, we have this huge cold front that's coming in next week. I think Tuesday, it hits. Temperatures are plummeting down to like 10, 11 degrees.
Joel Brooks:Everything's gonna die again just like last year when this happened. So just imagine that this cold front's coming in and I go outside and I just talk to it like a person. Hey, cold front, need you to go away. People don't do that. And then I want you to imagine, like, after I did that, all of a sudden this warm 80 degree breeze just starts coming in.
Joel Brooks:No one does it. Jesus does it though. Jesus talked to this fierce storm like it was a child, and it obeyed him. We actually read that 2 things happened here. It it wasn't one thing.
Joel Brooks:2 distinct things happened here. The winds ceased, and there was a great calm. 1st, the winds stopped blowing, but we all know, anybody who has seen a storm raging at sea, even when the wind stopped blowing, even when it quits raining, does the sea stop raging? No. The the waves keep on going for days.
Joel Brooks:But here we read that the waves themselves become calm, and the word in Greek is actually mega calm. You could translate it flat. So what you see here is not just the the winds instantly ceasing, but then the sea itself becomes as smooth as glass. Could you imagine being in that boat? I mean, going from all the howling, fury, waves crashing, rocking you all around, everybody's screaming, yelling, Jesus, be quiet.
Joel Brooks:Stay quiet. And then dead calm, deafening silence. How would you respond in that moment? I think you'd be terrified. The disciples, they had been afraid during the storm, but they were terrified in the calm.
Joel Brooks:Because the only thing more frightening than being in a small boat in a powerful storm is being in a small boat with someone who is more powerful than the storm. There's nowhere they could go. The man who is more powerful than the storm is right there in the boat with them. And they panicked when Jesus was asleep, but they trembled in fear when he woke up. And they ask, who is this?
Joel Brooks:There is not a more important question than you can ask. Who is this? Can I just say, the Jesus that you picture, the Jesus you have in mind, if you have never once been afraid of this Jesus, you don't really know who he is? Because someone with such power, power like this, even if it's for you, has got to make you tremble. This reminds me of CS Lewis when he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, and there's the the discussion between Susan and the beaver.
Joel Brooks:It's a it's a famous section in his his book. And Susan is asking about Aslan, who is the Jesus character in his book. And she says this, when she finds out that Aslan is a lion, she asked, is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion. Safe?
Joel Brooks:Said mister Beaver. Who said anything about safe? Of course, he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you. Jesus isn't safe, but he is the king.
Joel Brooks:But a person with this type of power who can speak in the very forces of nature all obey him, you need to hear this crystal clear, you cannot control him. He controls you, he controls this world, but you will never control him. A person who could do something like this is not the type of person that you ask to just be the cheerleader of your life, He's not the person you go to and just ask advice from, He's the one you go and you surrender your life to. He's not safe, but He is good. And here we see that Jesus, his power is working mightily for our good, not just for the good of those there in the boat.
Joel Brooks:Once again, remember why he's in the boat. There is a man on the other side of that lake, a herding, desperate, bound by Satan man, and Jesus is going to free him. Above it all, above the howling wind is the howling of that man, and Jesus is saying, I'm coming. I'm coming. Hell itself cannot stop me from coming.
Joel Brooks:You see, I actually don't believe this was an ordinary storm. In verse 39, we do not read that Jesus spoke to the storm. We actually read that he rebuked it. To rebuke it implies you see an evil intent behind it. There's an evil intent behind the the ferocity of these these winds and the waves.
Joel Brooks:And then I know that the the ESV, our bibles, they translate what Jesus says as peace, be still. But you need to hear those words be still is actually the words be muzzled. It's just when translators come to that, and you're like, you can't muzzle a sea. It makes no sense. You just you you calm the sea.
Joel Brooks:You you you you just make it flat. You don't muzzle it, but but the word is clearly here be muzzled. What you hear is see here is Jesus rebuking the winds, commanding to the sea, shut up, be muzzled. Do you know where else in Mark Jesus talks this way? Only the demons.
Joel Brooks:He rebukes the demons, and he tells them to shut up and be muzzled. Now, I don't want to make too much of that, but at the same time, I don't wanna make too little of it. Remember Jesus is going. He's going to heal. He's going to deliver this, this hurting desperate man who has a 1,000 plus demons in him.
Joel Brooks:This man who has become a stronghold of Satan. And it certainly looks like all the powers of Satan are trying everything they could do to keep Jesus from reaching this man. They knew Jesus was coming, and they knew he wasn't coming over there just to have a picnic. They knew that Jesus was coming to assault them. This is like an amphibious assault.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is going there to storm the castle to set the prisoner free, and they realize they're absolutely powerless to stop him. I mean, they can't defend themselves against that power like that. I don't care how strong their defenses are. Satan is throwing everything he can at Jesus, And Jesus breaks through all of those defenses with a word. As a matter of fact, Jesus is so powerful, he could have just slept through it all.
Joel Brooks:It's his dang disciples who woke him up. Nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus. Nothing. Paul would say it this way in Romans 8, that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is fearless in his love and his pursuit of us.
Joel Brooks:I'm coming. I'm coming. Hell itself cannot stop me from coming. After Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves here, he asked his disciples a question. Why are you so afraid?
Joel Brooks:Have you still no faith? Now, to be completely truthful here, the the disciples had some faith. There's at least some. I mean, they're in the boat with Jesus after all. They've been following him for a while after all.
Joel Brooks:But the more I look at this text, the more I realize their faith only went backwards. It never went forwards. So they certainly believed that Jesus had healed people in the past. They had seen Jesus, you know, heal lame people. They had seen him cast out demons.
Joel Brooks:They had seen his miraculous power in the past. They believed it. They had faith in the past, but that faith did not translate to a faith in the future. That's what Jesus is getting at here. They only had a backwards faith that had no bearing on their future.
Joel Brooks:They didn't believe that Jesus could or would still do the miracles that he had done in the past. And I I I I think the modern church is right there in the boat with these disciples, And I think that the vast majority of our faith is actually a backward looking faith. You were to ask us about who Jesus was. Sure. We believe Jesus healed people.
Joel Brooks:We believe it. Sure. He cast out demons. 100%. Sure, Jesus calm the storm that we believe he he did.
Joel Brooks:Yes, Jesus rose from the dead. We we believe those things. Do we believe he still will? When the storms come up in our lives, do we believe he is still the same God? Do we have a forward looking faith or does it only look backwards?
Joel Brooks:The disciples should have known that the same man who did those miracles in the past was the same man in the boat with them now. And they should have known as long as Jesus is with us, nothing can harm us. Jesus had said, let us go to the other side of the lake. He didn't say, let us go to the middle of the lake and drown. Let us go to the other side of the lake.
Joel Brooks:They had his word, they're gonna go to the other side of the lake. They should have trusted it. Now, Jesus didn't say what the journey would look like. He didn't tell you there are there gonna be speed bumps. Is it gonna be smooth sailing, or is it gonna be storms?
Joel Brooks:He didn't clarify any of that, just that he would be with them, and they would go to the other side of the lake. They shouldn't have feared. Now, historically, the church has always seen itself in this story by they say it's a picture of the church. We're all in the boat together with Jesus, trying to reach the distant shore. I saw the church has always kinda traditionally seen this.
Joel Brooks:We're all in the boat, safe with Jesus as we try to reach the distant shore. But while we're in this boat, it's total chaos around us. It seems like everyone is trying to kill us. It feels like we're being battered and battered by every side. But we remember that Jesus is in the boat.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus has promised to take us safely to the other side. And I wanna end with just saying this, if you are here and you're hearing these words, and you're not not in the boat with Jesus, if you don't know the love and the forgiveness of Jesus, if you feel the bondage of sin, I want you to know that Jesus sees you, and he's coming. Call out to him. He sees your pain, and he's coming. Nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Jesus, you came all the way from heaven to earth. Trials, tribulations, storms they're going through, may they never doubt your care for them. Jesus, you're Lord of Nature. You're Lord of All.
Joel Brooks:And we surrender our lives to you, joyfully surrender. Thank you for coming to us. We pray this in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen.