The Lord of the Storm
Text: Mark 4:35-41
Core Idea: Jesus is the Lord of the storm – and He is inviting us not to see Him in light of our storms but to see our circumstances in light of His power and His loving commitment for us. We can ultimately do this because Jesus calmed the only storm that could truly drown us: God’s wrath and judgment against our sin.
INTRODUCTION
Good afternoon, Lighthouse. We’re looking at the Gospel of Mark which is about the life of Jesus. Each part of the story reveals a little more of who Jesus really is – His identity, His power, and His mission. And so far, we read that Jesus is not only powerful to cast out demons and heal diseases, but He’s also compassionate and loving towards sinners and the oppressed. He’s the Great Physician, the long-awaited Bridegroom, and the Lord of the Sabbath – the One who brings true rest to our souls. Can you imagine how amazing it would’ve been for the disciples to do life with Him every single day – to eat with Him, to converse with Him, to serve alongside Him, and just to be immersed in His loving presence? Now, what if you felt like there was a discrepancy between what you know to be true of Jesus and what you feel about Him – as in, you know Jesus is loving and caring yet your circumstances seem to challenge those truths, causing you to feel like He isn’t there, like He doesn’t care? What if, in the moments of difficulty, He responded in ways that were unexpected? How would you respond? That’s exactly what happened to the disciples in the passage we’re about to read. So, if you have your Bibles, please turn to Mark 4:35-41. Let me read this for us.
35 That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along, just as He was, in the boat. There were also other boats with Him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to His disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!”
Amen. This is the Word of God for you today.
Let’s think about the context here. Verse 35 starts with the words, “That day.” It’s the same day when a large crowd came to Jesus in chapter 3 – leading to a time of healing and casting out demons. Mark tells us that Jesus was so busy that He didn’t even have the time to eat. On the same day, an intense confrontation broke out with the religious leaders who accused Him of being demon-possessed, which then was followed by the tension with His own family who thought He was crazy. But this didn’t deter Him from continuing His ministry. In chapter 4, Mark tells us that because the number of those who gathered there was so large that Jesus had to get in a boat and go out a little into the water in order to teach them. We looked at the content of His teaching for the last two weeks – studying the parables of the Kingdom of God. Now, He must have taught for hours because it was already evening. So, He said to His disciples, “Let’s not go back to the shore where all the people were listening; let’s go over to the other side so that I can preach there also.” Verse 36, “Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along, just as He was, in the boat,” which sets the stage for one of the greatest miracles that Jesus performed. Then there are three things I want to address from this passage:
THE FEAR
THE POWER
THE RESPONSE
1) THE FEAR
The first thing we must notice is that the story is filled with details that might seem unimportant. For example, Mark tells us that Jesus travelled “just as He was” in verse 36. He didn’t have time to change His clothes or wash up; He travelled to the other side just as He was when He started the day. We’re also told that there were other boats that followed Him, that He was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. It’s true that Jesus was exhausted from a long day of ministry – so, it’s not surprising to see Him fast asleep. But why the details – like why do we need to know that Jesus was sleeping on a cushion? What do these things have to do with anything? Nothing. They don’t help us understand the story better or Jesus better. There’s no special meaning to the other boats following Him or that He was sleeping on a cushion. They were recorded because that’s what Peter saw. The scholars tell us that Mark wrote this Gospel based on Peter’s knowledge and experience. And here, Peter was just telling us what he remembered from that day. One biblical scholar writes that one of the marks of an eyewitness account is “irrelevant details” (Richard Bauckham). It’s true that fiction writers today add small details to make their stories sound more realistic. But that’s not how the novels were written back then – it was concise and straight to the point. In contrast, eyewitness reports often included needless details because they actually happened. Then the story that we just read isn’t a legend, it’s not fiction; it’s an eyewitness report. Why is this important for us to know? Because it shows us that the disciples were in real danger. Unfortunately, we often forget this obvious truth – that what we read in the Bible really happened in the real world, in real time, and in real history. And when this happens, we get tempted to disconnect ourselves from the story. We just read through it mindlessly, unmoved, uninspired. It may reach our heads, but it doesn’t stir our hearts or impact our lives. But by showing us that this really happened to the disciples, Mark was trying to help us see that what Jesus did here can be true for us as well in the storms of our lives. Mark wanted us to see that Jesus was and still is the Lord of the storm.
Then with that in mind, let’s dig deeper into the story. Verse 37 says, “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat.” The Greek literally says that it was a fierce, violent storm with hurricane-like winds. You could sense how serious the situation was because the disciples, many of whom were seasoned fishermen, were afraid; they were panicking; they really thought that they were going to die. This is what they did for a living. They must have seen countless storms; but this felt different. The boat was quickly filling with water and out of control with high waves crashing in; it was in the evening which meant that there was no light to guide their way; and to make matters worse, the one person that they thought could really help, their leader, their teacher, was sleeping on a cushion – seemingly unconcerned, not bothered by all that was happening around Him. So, they ran to Jesus, woke Him up and said desperately, almost in a rebuking tone, verse 38, “Teacher, don’t You care if we drown?” The Greek word for “drown” literally means “perishing or being destroyed.” They were essentially saying, “Jesus, we’re dying here. Can’t you see that the world is crashing around us? Don’t you care? Aren’t you concerned for us? We thought you loved us. Don’t just sleep like that; do something!” They were clearly overwhelmed by fear – the fear of death, the fear of losing control, the fear of uncertainty.
Listen to how Pastor Paul Tripp defines fear: “Fear is, by its very nature, an interpretation of life.” If this is true, then he’s telling us that it’s possible for us not to fear if we interpret the situation differently. In other words, the interpretation of our circumstance and our understanding of who God is can either bring fear or hope in our hearts. Fear ultimately comes when we’re so filled with the immediacy of our circumstances that we lose touch with God’s reality and God’s truth. And this was why the disciples were panicking. They completely forgot who Jesus was. Instead of seeing this storm in light of who Jesus was, they saw Jesus in light of this storm, which is why fear settled in, which is why they thought that Jesus was uncaring. In essence, they were losing faith in Jesus because of the storm.
I wonder if this was how some of the Christians in the first century were feeling. History tells us that many of them were facing severe persecution for their faith. They must have been scared, panicking to see what the Roman emperor would do to them. Things seemed out of control. They were confronted with hopelessness and helplessness as they had no power to change their circumstances whatsoever. And they must have asked, “Does Jesus really care about us? Why is this happening to us? Where is He?” No doubt Mark had them in mind when he was writing this book. But if we’re honest with ourselves, I wonder if some of us feel this way right now: “Jesus, I’m dying here. Can’t you see? Don’t you care?”
If this is you, I want you to see two things before we move to our next point. First, the disciples came to Jesus. In the middle of this storm, they cried; but they cried to Jesus. They complained; but they complained to Jesus. Even when they felt like He didn’t care, they turned to Jesus – and we should do the same. In the storms of our lives, we must learn to think through the truth and believe that He is good, that He cares, that He remembers, and that He is able. To put it differently, when we feel like drowning, it’s okay to wake Jesus up – not that He was really sleeping but that we should pray to Him and fight to remember that He sometimes lovingly allows us to experience the storm for His glory and for our sanctification. Second, remember how Jesus woke up. Jesus was sleeping when the storm raged on – to the point that we can’t help but wonder, “How in the world can He sleep through all that?” He must have been really tired. Regardless, the storm couldn’t wake Him up – but Jesus immediately woke up when the disciples cried to Him. Do you see that? A storm doesn’t wake Him up, but the cries of His frightened disciples did. Friends, no trouble or storm can faze Jesus – He’s not surprised by it; He will not panic over it. But our cries, our prayer will move Him – He will hear us. Then if you’re filled with fear, overwhelmed by the pressures, the troubles of life, don’t try to fix it on your own. Even in your doubt and questions, turn to Jesus. Cling to His promises. He will answer you.
2) THE POWER
How did Jesus respond? He restored their faith in two ways. First, He demonstrated His power to quiet the storm. When the disciples woke Him up, He simply got up and said two Greek words which literally says, “Be silent! You have been muzzled.” He was rebuking the wind with His words. And the crazy thing was that it listened. The wind died down and it was completely calm. Imagine that with me – at one point, there was this fierce storm and high waves, then there was nothing. There was no wind and waves – everything just stopped; water as smooth as glass, it became still. The point is this: there is power in His Word. Last two weeks, we looked at Jesus’ parables that were about the power of His Word – how if it’s planted in good soils, it has power to grow exponentially more than we could ever imagine. Then here, Jesus was demonstrating the power of His Word. It’s like He was saying, “Do you remember what I taught you? You thought that they were just nice stories. Let me show you what my Word can do.” He was giving a real-life illustration of the truthfulness of all the parables that He taught. Even through this raging storm, Jesus wanted to teach us, remind us of the power of His Word in our lives.
Friends, I want you to let this scene sink deep in your hearts. Put yourself in these disciples’ shoes – witnessing this incredible power before you. Jesus is the Lord of the storm, and He is the Lord over the storms of your life. Then I invite you to see your storms in light of this person, Jesus Christ – not the other way around. Don’t look at Jesus in light of your circumstances because if you do, you’ll not only misunderstand Jesus, but your hearts will also be filled with fear because you would not be able to find hope and help apart from Him. Fix your eyes on Jesus. This is the One who quiets the storms, heals diseases, and casts out demons; but this is also the One who invites us into a personal relationship with Him and says to us, “I’m with you always.” Then through this story, the Spirit is trying to bring us back to the greater truth and reality. The Spirit is telling us, “Don’t get stuck in your situation, because you’ll be blinded from seeing who Jesus really is. Remember who He is. Remember His power. Remember His love. Jesus is the Lord of the universe, and He is on your side.” Then I pray that your fears will begin to lose their grip over you as you begin to see Jesus more clearly. One Word from Jesus can silence the thousands of fears in our hearts.
Second, Jesus responded by asking questions. Verse 40, “He said to His disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” Now, we know that the tone of our voice can completely change the meaning of our words, which is why I was thinking through how Jesus might have asked these questions. Did it sound like a rebuke? Or was it more sarcastic? But I came to conclude that Jesus couldn’t have rebuked them or be sarcastic for being frightened in the midst of a life-threatening situation. They really thought they were going to die. And the Jesus we know would not do that – He is more loving and gracious than we could ever imagine. If He was going to rebuke them, I think He would’ve spoken to them like how He did to the storm, just commanding them, “Stop being scared! Just look at me! Fear not!” – but He doesn’t. Instead, I think He was lovingly inviting these disciples to process their fears with Him. He was essentially saying, “I get that it’s easy to be fearful especially in the middle of a storm. But I want you to think this out with me. Why are you so afraid? Do you remember what I did with that leper, the paralytic, and those who were demon-possessed? Do you still have no faith in me? Do you remember all the meals that we shared, the troubles we went through together, the way I defended you from those religious leaders, the way I loved you? Why would you question my love for you? Trust that I love you and that I care for you more than you’ll ever know.”
It’s true that there’s a real tendency in us to doubt and question Jesus in our troubles – His love for us; His power over our situation; His wisdom and goodness. But here’s Jesus inviting us, instead of doubting Him, questioning Him, to examine our own hearts. He understands why we would be fearful; but at the same time, He’s inviting us not to linger there, not to listen to our fears but fix our eyes on Him – His power and His loving commitment for us. He wants us to see that with Him by our side, all fears are irrational, illogical – it doesn’t make sense. In other words, through this story, He’s drawing us to see that it’s really not about the size of our faith but the object of our faith. I want to share what Pastor Tim Keller said that helped me understand this very clearly. “Imagine you’re falling off a cliff and sticking out of the cliff is a branch that is strong enough to hold you, but you don’t know how strong it is. As you fall, you have just enough time to grab that branch. How much faith do you have to have in the branch for it to save you? Must you be totally sure that it can save you? No, of course not. You only have to have enough faith to grab the branch. That’s because it’s not the quality of your faith that saves you; it’s the object of your faith. It doesn’t matter how you feel about the branch; all that matters is the branch. And Jesus is the branch.” Brothers and sisters, what’s the source of strength and courage in your fear, in your pain? Do you just say to yourself, “Suck it up!” or “Things will turn out okay if I just work hard”? Here, Jesus was saying, “Put your faith in me. Put your hope in me. Remember me. Spend time with me. Go deeper with me.” Friends, Jesus is refining you even through the storms of your life – and He’s drawing you closer and closer to Him. Then do you rest in Him in your moments of difficulty? Do you believe in His power to overcome what you couldn’t on your own? Let us continue to fix our eyes on Christ as we perceive our circumstances in light of Him.
3) THE RESPONSE
We saw that the disciples were afraid when the storm raged on. So, now that the storm was calm, you would expect them to be at peace. But Mark tells us in verse 41 that they were terrified, and they asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!” This is how Mark ends the story because this is the point of the story. It doesn’t end with a calm sea and rejoicing disciples, but it ends with the disciples’ realization that they were with the One who commands the wind and the waves. And they were frightened because they knew that only God was able to do this. Let me read from Psalm 107:23-29 which resembles the story that we just read in Mark. “Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the LORD, His wonderful deeds in the deep. For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.” The LORD mentioned in this passage is Yahweh, the covenant God. Only He can silence the storm with a whisper – no one else. So, for Jesus to do this with mere words, it must have dawned on the disciples that the person they’ve been doing life together is actually God Himself. And if that is true, how can they not be terrified – to be with the Creator God, the holy Judge of all people?
Brothers and sisters, this is something that we must pay close attention to. Do you have a healthy fear of God today? Think with me: Jesus rebuked the storm, and it obeyed; He exercised authority over diseases, and they obeyed; He spoke to demons, and they obeyed – then who are we to disobey Him? Are we mistaken to see His Word simply as good advice? Is that why there’s no urgency? Is that why we take His Word so casually? I said this before, but our faith is not a hobby – something that we enjoy doing but something that we do only when we have time and is convenient to us. This is our life. This is our identity. And we revolve around Christ. Friends, do we understand who Jesus really is? Because if we did, we wouldn’t treat Him this way. We need to recover a healthy fear of God. We need to learn to tremble before Him. He is the Lord of the universe.
But of course, the good news is that this fear doesn’t paralyze us because our fear of God is accompanied by His great love for us. Even though this is how this story ends, we know how the Gospel of Mark ends – Jesus willingly and joyfully offered Himself for us. We must understand that the greatest storm in our lives is not a storm of nature or even the storms of our life circumstances; the greatest storm of our lives is called sin. The waves of sin continually fill our hearts and we’ve been overtaken by it. And just like the disciples in that boat, we have no power whatsoever to overcome it on our own. We are helpless and hopeless against it – which is why on the cross, Jesus Christ perished in the storm called sin so that we wouldn’t have to be fearful before God, but to be confident because Jesus paid the price for our sin through His death. An amazing thing is that when we place our faith in Jesus, His Word becomes the anchor that secures us no matter what storm we might encounter, because His Word becomes the lens through which we see everything in life. For example, hear the Word of the Lord from John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” These are the words that can overcome a thousand fears and move us forward – we take heart because Jesus has overcome the world.
Now, let me be clear on one thing: this doesn’t mean that the storms of your life will end soon – it may, or it may never end. I don’t know. The Word never promises painless life for Christians, nor does it say that the storms will only last for a bit. But what the Word does promise is that no matter what storms we go through in life, Jesus Christ, who is able to command the wind and the waves and who is radically loving to give up His life for us, will always be in the boat with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. So, trust Him. Have faith in Him. Look at Jesus who was peacefully sleeping, resting in the storm – not because He didn’t care but because He knew that no storm could ever be a threat to His plan or His love for us. He doesn’t panic in our storms. He will listen to us when we cry to Him. And He will do one of two things: He will display His power either by delivering us from the storm of our lives or by strengthening us, encouraging us to endure the storm of our lives. Sometimes He’ll look at the storms of our lives and say, “Quiet! Be still!” but other times He’ll look at us and say, “Quiet! Be still and know that I am God. I am with you.”
Then let me finish with a question that Pastor J.D. Greear asks: “Who really got woken up in this story? Not Jesus. He knew what was going to happen from the very beginning. The disciples got woken up to His power and love. The storm in your life is to wake you up to His power.”
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, Jesus is the Lord of the storm – and He is inviting us not to see Him in light of our storms but to see our circumstances in light of His power and His loving commitment for us. We can ultimately do this because Jesus calmed the only storm that could truly drown us: God’s wrath against our sin. Jesus went down in the storm only to emerge three days later as the One who stilled the just and righteous wrath of God. He endured the storm so that you and I could find peace and be saved. Then in this truth, may all our fears be silenced, and our hearts be still, knowing that Jesus is the Lord of the storm.
Discussion questions
What if you felt like there was a discrepancy between what you know to be true of Jesus and what you feel about Him – as in, you know Jesus is loving and caring yet your circumstances seem to challenge those truths, causing you to feel like He isn’t there, like He doesn’t care? What if, in the moments of difficulty, He responded in ways that were unexpected? How would you respond?
Read verses 39-40. How does Jesus restore the faith of His disciples?
In what way would it be comforting to be in the presence of Jesus? In what way would it be terrifying? Why is it important for us to fear Him?