Why Jesus Calmed the Storm: The Mark Series pt 15 (4:35-41)

tonight we're going to talk about a frequently abused passage I think this passage is actually really regularly abused and we don't want to overly allegorize it because that's that's the abuse that I often see with this passage of Jesus calming the waters right there in the boat there's a storm Jesus's peace be still so this is the problem here is that people miss the main point of the passage and it's not about Jesus getting you through the storms of your life I'm sorry I'm not saying that's not a point I'm saying that's not the main point and so I want to give do to the main point of the passage it's not about the storms of my life actually it's about who Jesus is so pretty profound stuff pretty neat stuff we're in mark chapter 4 verse 35 this is the mark series part 15 if you're watching online you can get the playlist in the description down below for the entire mark playlist as we go verse by verse through the whole book we're just gonna start now by reading the whole section it's marked for 35 through 41 I'm just gonna read through it get it like sort of stored up in your mind freshly in your mind then we're gonna go over it more slowly so here we go verse 35 on that day when evening came he said to them let us go over to the other side there in the Sea of Galilee so he's like let us go over to the other side of the sea leaving the crowd they took him along with them in the boat just as he was and other boats were with him and there arose a fierce Gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up Jesus himself 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 got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea hush be still and the wind died down and it became perfectly calm and he said to them why are you afraid how is it that you have no faith they became very much afraid and said to one another who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him and all the like the bare bones we need to understand what just happened is right here in the passage like it's right there in the passage but um let me just remind us where I think the the abuse the misuse of this pass sometimes happens and I'm not saying there's nothing true in this I'm saying that when you make this the whole thing you've missed the passage the focus is usually on help God helping us through trials Jesus is with us in the storm that's the idea and if he's asleep and he's at peace than you can be at peace too but I can't imagine what would have happened if all the disciples just went to bed right then and there on the boat they'd all be dead now I mean I'm not just saying it doesn't perfectly parallel the you know the application that it's been given so this can be helpful the problem is this is not the primary focus of the passage that's the first problem the second problem is this it can lead us to stretching the text of Scripture and it's a habit that sometimes helps our hearts but it doesn't help us understand God's Word and so I'm gonna go ahead and just kind of confront that a little bit at least to the best of my ability why I think that this is not the the proper method of Bible study to just immediately go to the storms of your life with this passage it can actually hurt your ability to read and study the Bible if you too often allegorize everything so that it's about whatever you're going through in the moment because the Bible is sometimes about what you're going through in the moment but it's not always just that and you can miss out on the theology or beings hot because you're only reading it to find one thing how is this going to get me through my day and then you can be missing out on all these other layers of meaning and stuff that are in the text so what is the main focus the main focus is the identity of Jesus we get this because at the very end they say who then is this this is the response to all this stuff in verse 41 they're like well then who is this who's who who's Jesus that this event that just happened revealed something about who Jesus is and that's the thing that we might miss and I'm gonna get into that because it's actually really neat stuff so let's dig in with that in mind I do want to apply to our lives and it will affect our allegorical storms I just want to when we get to that section towards the end I want to talk about how we just are cautious about applying it to things like that and we do it thoughtfully rather than recklessly at least that's my understanding of the scriptures so mark 4:35 says on that day when evening came he said to them let us go over to the other side okay this is already interesting because the stuff that's about to happen is trigger because Jesus himself says this is the plan we're gonna go and cross over we're gonna go to the other side the time of days evening this is a potentially more dangerous time to get up on the Sea of Galilee is in the evening time Jesus he's not a fisherman but he is in charge right there the fisherman they know the Sea of Galilee like nobody else does and they know the perils of the sea and all that kind of thing but it's already inserted because Jesus is the one that says hey let's let's get in the boats and cross over at that time then verse 36 says leaving the crowd now I say leaving the crowd let's just remind ourselves of what happened last week we were going through mark and we're looking at Jesus he's preaching these parables he's in a boat possibly at a place called soars Cove in the Sea of Galilee and he's in this boat and he's preaching to the crowd that's up on the land kind of a natural amphitheater in this area of Galilee so he's sitting in the boat the crowds there he's dismisses the crowd he's like now let's just get in the boat and go the other way so leaving the crowd they took a uh they took him along with them in the boat just as he was and other boats were with him and here's two phrases that I think are interesting in verse 36 just as he was why just as he was what does this mean just as he was is it like just uh just as he was because if you take Jesus you better take him just as he is well be like well that's a good application but it probably isn't what this is about you know it's true you gotta better take the real Jesus as he really is but I don't think that's the application it probably means Jesus was already in the boat so then they get in and they're like just let's go so they take him just as he is already in the boat that is probably the application right there because he spoke to the crowd from the boat it says also that other boats were with him and this is something that nobody ever talks about did you ever notice this passage there's other boats wait to these other boats like go through this storm they don't seem to be around at the end of the storm did they just uh you know they like run away at some point or did they travel for a bit and then go back and there's just no details that I see in Scripture to tell us what happened to these other boats now here's why I find this interesting I don't know what happened to these other boats you know maybe they just turn back but what's interesting about it is it reads like a memory it reads like someone's recounting this is just what happened like they're telling the story and they're like oh yeah so as he was in the boat we took him in that there were other boats with them and they don't even come back to that to talk about it again but when you report memories this is what you do - I remember it was a Tuesday yeah oh yeah and I had that dumb sweater that I got for Christmas on I remember that you know and you just have these little details you throw in there because it's a memory recall thing whereas if you're fabricating a story those little details tend to be all left out and so I think that's just interesting in the text of mark because it's like a memory a random detail of memory retold nothing else about them later then in verse 37 it says and there arose a fierce Gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up Jesus himself 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 so again we don't know what happened to the other boats now it's just the one boat with Jesus and the disciples the Sea of Galilee to understand this a little bit better it is known for perilous sudden storms this is actually something that's known for especially during certain times of year and so there's records even recently of boats being lost to sudden storms boats of fishermen who know their business on the lake you know they know what they're doing so they knew the risks and again evening trips in particular are a little more risky than others the Sea of Galilee itself is about 700 feet below sea level so it sits in like a deep valley the Jordan River flows downhill into it it flows into the sea at about 700 feet sea level the Jordan River flows out of the sea at the south point and flows down to the Dead Sea which is much even lower it's the Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater body of water on earth the Dead Sea is the lowest saltwater body of water on earth interestingly but there's great fishing there and it's a really neat environment you can grow food there really easily because of this lower altitude and there's just the dynamics of the environment however there's these mountains around it and there's these winds that sometimes come racing down the mountains they meet they get the cool air coming off the mountains that meets the warm air on the on the sea and it can create sudden disturbances you know weather basically bad weather that can be very sudden now what's interesting is we actually found a boat in 86 in the Sea of Galilee that dates to the time of Christ many of you guys have heard of this you've seen the archaeology photos of this boat that they found it all collapsed out but there it was and it was about 26 feet long about seven feet wide originally not flattened out seven people hide but it but it would have fit about 15 guys using the boat working in the boat that could have fit to be traveling around so it fits with Jesus and His disciples this may have been kind of the style boat that they had perhaps this boat dated sometime between 120 BC and 40 ad so it's somewhere in that region that's what they think so Jesus's idea let's head out there let's go simple trip we're just gonna cross over we're just gonna cross over the Sea of Galilee made into this something that's very dangerous and very treacherous and I do feel like we get this kind of thing all the time you're going about life and you think you're just gonna do this simple thing and it's not simple and all the sudden it gets really bad and really hairy and really tough and so there's some application in our lives there but what I think is the most shocking thing that happens here is when they wake up Jesus and they say don't you care that we're dying that to me is extremely revealing I think the words are very important don't you care that we're dying I get this and I get this in my old life and I think you get it in yours when the trials you're going through have you asking does God even care about what I'm going through this is very different than help Lord I need help that's a very different kind of prayer help I need help that that's still a per faith that's still prayer of trust but this is more like I'm not even sure that you care about me this I think is I'll come to this later I think it's why they get rebuked for lack of faith this kind of hits hard and this is where I think application to all of us is pretty relevant you will go through times of life where there are struggles and there are trials and there are hardships and you would you may find that your faith in God's character not just his power his character his goodness his love for you that that is challenged because you see yourself in the middle of this hardship and you feel like he could stop this you could do something or not I get this and in this there's an application for us today for sure I think it's pretty big but let's let's come back to that a little bit later verse 39 verse 39 it says then he got up Jesus wakes he responds to them gets up rebuked the wind and said to the sea hush be still and the wind died down and it became perfectly calm so this is like a sudden change sudden boom it goes from crazy wind and dangerous storm to just nothing then in verse 40 he rebukes them and he said to them why are you afraid how is it that you have no faith that's a pretty strong rebuke that he gives them and then they became very much afraid and said to one another who then is this that even the wind and sea obey Him so it quickly calm like I said in verse 39 when it says it became perfectly calm it's in the the in the Greek there's these different I'm not gonna try and teach you guys Greek here but I just want to mention that I didn't make this up okay the Greek it does talk about there are different past tenses there it's the aorist is basically the way they say past tense and there's different senses in which you can have past tense past tense continual action action that stopped sometime in the past and so there's more nuance in the way they form a word in the Greek that we don't have in the English sometimes we can get some nuance out of it from the Greek the aorist since in verse 39 that the wind died down and became perfectly calm it implies a suddenness not a gradual dying down that's all I'm saying here suddenly so it would have been obvious to them this was in response to the command of Jesus boom he commands it it calms down suddenly this is obviously a miracle some commentators they want to take everything that happens in the Bible and try to make it a natural event now what sort of coincidence could occur here to explain this and this works for certain miracles right like when you read about certain stuff happening perhaps just a flood happening at the right time or even some of the descriptions of the Red Sea crossing about water is piling up early you know further on you read some of this stuff and you go yeah some of this can be explained with natural events in which case God's designing of the moment that it happened right when it was needed this sort of random unlikely event was the miracle other times this doesn't work at all right like Moses throws down his staff and it turns into a snake I'm like what is your natural naturalistic explanation for this like I don't think it was well some snakes get really hard and people can't tell that there's me I don't think that this is you know you can't explain this away and I think that part of it is a modern allergy to miracles we basically we just believe them without justification rather than as opposed to the opposite believing any miracle story without any investigation or any research both of these two are probably a bad place to be but here I'll say it is miraculous that's the point Jesus did an actual miracle right he commanded and it was it was stilled just like that others will say that when Jesus rebukes the wind that this is a demonic exorcism that Jesus is performing on the wind we heard that before this is what some some commentators will say it's a demonic exorcism Jesus is performing on the wind and I've read multiple commentaries it's funny is when it's always good if you're gonna read commentaries to read multiple commentaries because what one commentator says this is so obvious the next one's like that is so obviously the opposite of that right like in there everybody thinks it's so obvious no matter what their opinion is and you being reading only one common commentary can just get jerked around a little bit sometimes to be honest so let me expose you to two side to this issue some will say this is exorcism language because he he he says hush be still and so he says like be quiet to the wind hush like he told the demon to be quiet previously in mark the other word they they hook it on is verse 39 where he says he rebuked the wind and they say rebuke and be quiet these are things that speak of demonic extradition exorcism try saying that word too many times it just starts to turn into some sort of a tongue twister well I think that this is wrong and here's a couple reasons why one it's just two verbs rebuke and be quiet these words are not like fancy technical terms for exorcism in fact even in Mark G in fact even in his passage he rebukes the disciples he rebukes them we don't think well they were obviously possessed at that point like the word rebuke is frequently used having nothing to do with exorcisms so I don't think that this wind was demonic I don't think we're getting that from the passage I'll put it that way he did treat it like it's like it's personified in a sense but I think is speaking of his control over the weather and all that the other the other one is be quiet which he I mean he's just telling you what to do be quiet and I don't think there's anything about that that is ritualistically exorcism plus another point is this in the Gospel of Mark now okay in Jewish let me back up in Jewish texts from Jesus's time and they're about exorcism did have a lot of key words things you had to do think things that they would say rituals they would engage in and all that stuff is curiously missing from the Gospel of Mark when Jesus cast out a demon he's just like get out and it goes he doesn't do any of those things and mark as you look through mark he doesn't have this sort of ritual you know method that Jesus uses for exorcisms he's just responding like someone with authority that's it he just he has the authority he tells it what to do and that's what happens so Mark avoids this sort of exorcism terminology so it's weird to read it into this passage so I think that commentaries who say that Jesus is is exercising a demonic wind they just go way too far I think that we whatever the court because of the wind was there's not actually in question in mark it's just that Jesus has power over it that's the thing that's the thing others will say this passage represents Jesus and Jonah because Jonah was fleeing the presence of the Lord and a great storm arose and where was Jonah he was sleeping in the boat he went down to the depth of the boat and he was asleep there fast asleep I don't think that there's a strong connection here between Jesus and Jonah unless you want to make it a contrast and not a comparison because Jonah's rebelling against God and that's and he's sleeping in the boat probably the sleep of like depression because there's a different kind of sleep there whereas Jesus he's fulfilling the Father's will and here he is asleep in the boat is not judgment upon him or anything like that right Jonah gets thrown in to stop the storm Jesus just commands it so if you want to say there's a relation to Jonah then the typological relation is Jesus is better than Jonah that would be and that's consistent cuz Jesus is better than Abraham better than Aaron the high priest he's you better than you fill in the blank someone greater than Moses is here I'm greater than Solomon all of that so in that sense there could be a greater than comparison but here's the main point also all that's not the main point here's the main point who is this Jesus guy this is the thrust who then is this that even the wind and waves obey Him and we have to become a little Jewish and our thinking here to understand how profound what Jesus did is they see this action of Jesus rebuking the storm and controlling the weather they see that as revealing not just his power but his identity think about that for a second to the Jewish mind something he did made them think we already thought he's Messiah but wait a minute what he just did what he just did blows us away now we're like but who really is this so let's think about it a little more deeply the Old Testament context is this I'll summarize then I'm gonna give you several passages we'll look at psalms in particular the Old Testament idea is this God not man commands and controls the weather that's the general Old Testament context God commands and controls the weather and here's Jesus commanding and controlling the weather even when Elijah prayed and it didn't rain and then he prayed and it did rain he didn't command anything he just prayed and then he waited to see what God would do but Jesus does something far more aggressive and more authoritative than even Elijah did so in Psalm 65 verses 5 through 8 listen to listen to this I've read several Psalms now and hear the Jewish context about the one who can command the weather by awesome deeds this is a Psalm 65 5 by awesome deeds you answer us in righteousness oh god of our salvation you are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea who establish who establishes the mountains by his strength being girded with might who stills the roaring sees the roaring of their waves and the tumult of the peoples they who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of your signs you make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy God is the one who stills the Seas that's Psalm 65 the roaring of the waves Psalm 89 verses 8 and 9 say the following Oh Lord God of hosts who is like you o mighty Lord your faithfulness also surrounds you you rule the swelling of the sea when its waves rise you still them now this is interesting because it's not only saying God does this but it's one of the whose like you passages of the Old Testament these happen a lot right where they talk about something God does that nobody else does and the way they talk about it is they're like who's like you Lord you do this nobody's like that nobody does that but you got and the thing the example is he stills the roaring of the Seas job 38 I won't read the passage but God is recounting all these things only he does hey Joel were you there it's the were you there passage can you do this can you do that can you do this it's all these things job can't do that just show him his smallness before Almighty God and one of those things is that God can put limits on the seas and it's not like something people can do in several Psalms God rebukes the sea Psalm 1815 Psalm 104 verse 7 Psalm 106 verse 9 Isaiah 50 verse 2 Nahum chapter 1 verse 4 all of those passages I hope you wrote all that down real quick as I sorry you can have my notes later so God rebukes the sea in those passages it's god it's Yahweh is the God of all creation who controls and rebukes the seas but listen to this in Psalm 107 because Psalm 107 talks about God's control over various things interesting Psalms some of these things that God controls are types of Christ in some way they connect to Jesus as you travel through I love doing this with Psalms you read a psalm and you see how do how it connects us to Christ it's a fun thing to do actually but in Psalm 107 verse 23 this is what it says those who go down to the sea in ships who do business on the great waters they have seen the works of the Lord and his in the deep for he spoke and raised up the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea they rose up to the heavens they went down to the depths it's like this exaggerated these giant waves are going up and down right here hook to the heavens and out of the depths they're doing this their soul melted away in their misery they reeled and staggered like a drunken man and we're at their wit's end so it's describing sailors on the sea in the midst of a massive storm that God has brought upon verse 28 then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he brought them out of their distress he caused the storm to be still so that the waves of the sea were hushed then they were glad because they were quiet so he guided them to their desired haven let them get let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving-kindness and for his wonders to the sons of men this speaks to the identity of Jesus not just the source of his power who then is this Yahweh controls the waters God controls of the storms and Jesus just did this some people like to say that mark the Gospel of Mark knows nothing of the deity of Christ and I just think they just don't understand the Gospel of Mark because what's happening is we're ramping up the deity of Christ throughout the Gospel of Mark I mean he starts pretty strong when he seems to imply that Jesus is Yahweh in Chapter 1 have you talked about the beginning of mark Jesus then command diamond and they're calling him the Son of God he calls himself the Son of Man which we'll get to later at he even ramps up the meaning of Son of Man as having this the one who we worshiped by all nations and all this kind of stuff Jesus is in fact I'm gonna do it towards the end of the Mark series we're gonna do one day where we just do the deity of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark and just gonna survey all the stuff because I just want it all and one resource for people to have online I think it's powerful stuff so a lot of people say this and they use it to try to undermine the inspiration of Scripture oh yeah mark it had a whole different Jesus than the Jesus of John John thinks Jesus is deity did not mark and I'm like but that's the whole point of this passage we're in right here today is that mark is showing us showing us teaching us not with commentary but with telling us the stories of what Jesus did that he is he is the one so to speak he can calm the seas so this is why they're so scared all of a sudden think about this when they were scared of the water the word is that they were afraid in verse 40 they were afraid so they woke up Jesus right then he says why are you so afraid why are you afraid oh you you know why do you have no faith but in verse 41 after Jesus stills the waters and it's calm and they should be like oh cool things are great it says they were very much afraid they're more scared they're more scared after he does this than before now they were pretty scared before but also there's more to it it's a different kind of fear and hero will throw some Greek at you briefly because it's two different words for fear it's probably the same word in English right but there's two different words for fear one is a de LOI and de LOI means cowardly fearful or lacking courage and that's how they felt when the when the sea was raging they thought they were gonna die cowardly for your full lack of courage Jesus is why were you afraid I were you de LOI the next one is in verse 41 when it describes after they see what Jesus does and they were looking at him they're not scared of the water anymore but they look at him and they have a new fear a new reverence for him and that's the word that's used its fob on which can carry a connotation of intimidation or reverence so it's a different word that can have a different connotation to it and I can see it they're scared of these waves are gonna kill us but then when they see what Jesus does and they realize the implications of the deity of Christ of you know who is he he didn't even pray he just commanded he didn't call out to God he just did it who is he and they realize afresh who is this guy and it hits them they already thought he was Messiah this is different who is Messiah who is this Messiah and it blows them away to understand it better think of all the Old Testament Saints who had encounters with a theophany right they saw like the angel of the Lord in particular who we've talked about who's the theophany right or Christ off of me and when they realized that they were in God's presence they became scared and that was the natural reaction to realize whose presence they're in and this seems to be happening right here they suddenly realized something about Jesus and it freaks him out that Frank Simha freaks them out it's strengthened when we realized that this is not them being scared of the sea but them being scared of the revelation of who Christ is it blows him away blows them away now what's interesting about this is they saw miracles before like I've seen Jesus heal people they've seen him exorcise demons they've seen him do all kinds of things but this was different this is qualitatively different than the other miracles they'd seen Jesus do and we get that when we realize the Jewish context of who it is that calms the storms who it is it controls the weather even and that's why they say who is this that even the wind and sea obey Him like we know he's cast out demons we know he healed sickness but even the wind and sea this is like upir next-level healing demons wind and sea like they understand the the connotation that's being communicated here this isn't new to mark again in mark 1 he starts off by calling Jesus Yahweh the the whole concept of the Son of Man the fact that Jesus has the ability to forgive and it's gonna continue ramping up in mark 4 we're get this miracle here in mark 4 that's greater than some of the other stuff Jesus has done in the past in mark 5 we're gonna get an exorcism that's greater than any exorcism previously recorded right we are legion it's about the magnitude of what he's doing to demonstrate who he is and his power and control mark is about who Jesus is and what Jesus's mission is and how both of those things were not fully understood until it was revealed by Christ that's the mystery revealed the identity of Christ and the work of Christ in other words the gospel Jesus and what he does for us this is the thing that's being revealed now this led me to down this road that's the main point that's the main point I think in this passage this thing that focuses the identity of Christ recognizing Jesus for who he is our culture needs to hear this because our culture frequently looks at Jesus and decides to make him into whatever whatever our gut desires and just a watered-down version of Christ we don't realize that like we're in the boat with the Lord of all creation you know and there there's a proper sense of intimidation there's a proper godly godly fear not a terror like like he might unexpectedly kill me for no reason or something it's not like that it's not like we have terror because he has good character but there's a reverence for his his goodness his power his might that we we should have you know that's missing in a lot of people's mental theology they're they're sort of personal the Christian theology there's just no reverence for Jesus alike they like him but there's that reverence so so anyways moving towards application and stuff I want to ask this question what exactly was wrong with the fear of the disciples because I really puzzled over this as I was prepping in mark here what was wrong with their fear what was wrong with their fear in verse 40 Jesus says why are you afraid how is it that you have no faith this seems to be two sides of the same coin it's like hey you're afraid because you have no faith okay that's an easy answer they were lacking faith that's why they were scared I can testify that this is my life as well that when I'm fearful in that kind of fear you know the despair kind of fear that it is it is a lack of faith it is a lack of trust in God at that moment at that time that that is the case but what exactly was lacking were they supposed to believe they would survive like what was it they were supposed to believe that they weren't believing that's the question I kind of puzzled on for a while like what did the disciples fail to believe were they supposed to be like hey I don't care how bad the storm gets I know we're gonna survive because Jesus said we're gonna cross over so we're gonna cross over it that might be it there's something you're connecting it to some jesus said okay that that's a possibility I find this hard to apply into my life because God hasn't given me a special word that everything of my life is gonna work you know and I'm going through something and I'm thinking like well where's my lack its lack of faith Mike I'm like whoa Jesus told me I was gonna make it I'd trust him but he didn't tell me I was gonna make it through this you know I don't know what's gonna happen next and so I don't have like this word to hang on about about future prosperity or making it through a scenario I've other words to hang on God will work all things together for good right to godliness kook in Tim but he's with me so let me learn to be content with these I know he's using the trial in my life for his glory so these are things I hang on to but I can't be like but I will yet succeed because I don't really know what's gonna happen next and might happen am I not so I find that hard to apply into my life unless I apply it to the ultimate crossing over the ultimate crossing over into his presence and then I go care well that applies and now that's a storm of life for sure you know what I'm gonna be heading into his presence for sure it could be belief in God regardless of peril and this I think applies better to me and it fits the context the context is they wake Jesus up you don't care that we're gonna die not you're not helping us it's you don't care and that definitely applies to life scenarios where you go through struggles and you question you know your heart questions there's God care there's the Lord care about me or what I'm going through right now and you realize now your faith being tested faith isn't about believing I'll be successful in whatever I'm doing sometimes faith is about believing God is good regardless of what I'm going through trusting in his heart regardless of the circumstances at the moment and that I find applies all the time I think that's going on here teacher do you not care that we are perishing why do you have no faith what's the thing they should have done they should have believed that he cared that's one thing they should have done I believe that he cared I can maybe help this a little bit by asking a hypothetical question this helped me as I was trying to say it my hypothetical question is let's imagine the disciples are back in the boat the storms raging Jesus is asleep in the stern as he was on this pillow there he is sleeping they're back in the boat but this time they have faith they really have faith what do they do differently now that they have faith do they just say let Jesus sleep let's just keep on paddle and we'll be fine we got faith I think that maybe they would die if they have in their aptitude I'm thinking that the the faithful act wasn't don't wake up Jesus cuz we're fine I don't think that that was the faithful act I think that they would have woke Jesus up but they wouldn't have said don't you care and said they would have said lord help we we know we know you can help help us save us I think that would have been the act of faith so they weren't necessarily rebuked for calling out for help or deliverance from the scenario that it was the rebuke was because of not trusting in his character in His goodness in his kindness because trials can feel overwhelming and you can feel like God doesn't care and guess what your feelings can be wrong they frequently are my feelings are wrong a lot and I had to learn this and if they like sort of check yourself and be like I know I'm feeling this way it's wrong but I'm still feeling it but I don't trust my feelings right now there's a seasons where you can't rely on how you feel you have to rely on his goodness and his character so I think they would have asked him for help you could say well no if they had faith they would have commanded to see themselves Mike and I think that this is not true where do we ever see the disciples commanding whether and don't be like well they never had a chance well no they actually they do have chances to command the weather Paul the Apostle was in a massive storm for days where the people on the ship were like we're going to die they despaired of life they're like let's just Chuck the Chuck the prisoners over boards they'll get it so they don't escape they'd already thrown the tackle off the board they'd already done all these changes to the ship lost a lot of revenue and I thought we're all gonna die why didn't pol at any point just get up and be like peace be still I dare say because he doesn't have we don't inherit this power over weather like some people want to say that we have I don't think that's a biblical thing I don't think that that if I just had enough faith you know I think if God tells me he's gonna do that and inspires my heart with faith trust him for it then I'm gonna go for it but I'm gonna trust him to do that I don't think it's like a power that resides in me to stir up and force the weather I've tried I can't even get a light switch to flip on and off like that so so when Paul was going to this in acts 27 he never commands the weather instead he says this he receives a message from an angel and he says this in acts 27 23 for this very night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me saying do not be afraid Paul you must stand before Caesar and behold God has granted you all those who are sailing with you therefore keep up your courage men for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I've been told but we must run aground on a certain island we're gonna actually run aground the ship's gonna run the ground the storms gonna play out and finish what it's doing there's no like he had it he other words Paul has faith he has a word from God but it's not to stop the storm was just to weather it out and wait it out and we're gonna be okay and so I don't think that the act of faith would be for them to command the weather I don't think that's in the passage I bring this up because I hear people say this on television so yeah if they had faith they simply would not have said God you don't care you don't care Jesus you don't care about what I'm going through that's the lack of faith that's the challenge of faith I give you one more support for this in the book of Acts AGGA bus is a prophet and he's speaking prophetically to the church in the book of Acts and he prophesized that it'll be famine in the land some sort of major famine so the church gathers resources and they send it to Jerusalem resources to help the Saints there who were going through this hardship and famine why on earth didn't they just command it away well they because that's not how it works I mean it'd be cool if God just gave us all superpowers it wouldn't even require faith anymore right we just could command everything all the time no hardship whatsoever right I I just I command myself arrays I command my my back pain to disappear I command my my family it all gets saved and you just I just command everything I wouldn't need faith I would just be living the my own sort of creation world like we're all playing some sort of modified Minecraft thing all right so anyway think about that I think there's a perfect example of the kind of faith they should have had in Daniel chapter 3 I love this Shadrach Meshach and Abednego you know the story right these three are about to be thrown into the fiery furnace and here's what they say to Nebuchadnezzar and it would sound like a contradiction to some but it's not if you understand what it means to have faith in a scenario like this Daniel 3:17 they say because he's like I'm gonna destroy you no one can stop me they say in verse 17 if it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and he will deliver us out of your hand O king there's that proclamation of faith right God will deliver us but they go on but even if he doesn't did you ever catch when they said that I do but even if he doesn't let it be known to you O king that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you've set up this but even if he doesn't that's serious faith you know what I think God's gonna deliver me from this thing I'm going through but I'll tell you what even if he doesn't I still trust him I still rest in his promises and in His goodness and in his character and there's an act of faith there's an act of faith I think is that's fearlessness okay now I want to talk about the allegory allegory sing the allegories ations as you see I am I am definitely cool with saying hey you go through storms of life and this does apply to that but I think the main points the identity of Jesus the secondary point is about these trials we go through the question though is how far can we take this passage in an in the sense of allegory is it even fair for me to be like their storms equal your storms in some sense can I say that and I think we can't actually in Isaiah 43 there's an example of this you know Israel's gone through literal physical storms but Isaiah 43 applies it to metaphorical storms it's interesting Isaiah 43 verse 1 and 2 but now thus says the Lord your Creator Oh Jacob and he who formed you O Israel do not fear for I have redeemed you I have called you by name in your mind when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they will not overflow you and when you walk through the fire you will not be scorched nor will the flame burn you God's past deliverances of the people of Israel like Shadrach Meshach and Abednego like them going through the through the the Red Sea the crossing these things are taken as as allegory that God is with you and God will protect you and God will take care of you that's the allegory 40 is real the application is directly to them but I do think it's fair to say that the events that we read about are examples to apply to our lives that is something we should do the question is how far can we take it can I say Jesus will always call my storm we're like well no sometimes I'm gonna die in this storm like actually pass away like I'll get an illness that doesn't go away and I'll go to I'll go to my deathbed and I'll be like well he does something better than calming the storm he delivers me for to eternal life in his presence so I'm not we're not saying you can apply it in that sense simplistic way of God will always stop whatever really bugs me that obviously is not I don't think I think we flatten out God's plan for our lives when we say stuff like that so I see some truth in this asleep in the storm thing some say though when another application is Jesus is asleep in the boat and if he's asleep he's asleep because he's very calm and collected and Jesus was always calm and collected he was such a peaceful person he was such a peaceful man always calm and collected and therefore when I'm in the middle of stress and trials I should always be calm and collected and I just want to say like all it says is he was asleep all that other stuff I just added didn't I like it the other points on drawing from the text I'm drawing from the text right he says why are you fearful they said don't you care about us so I'm teaching on these points because they're right there in the text but there's nothing about Jesus being calm and collected what if he was just tired I mean we frequently would go all night in prayer he had just taught the crowds who were cramming in around him for who knows how long the evening comes and he crashes he's not that he's not the boat guy so he's sleeping while they're doing the work because that's not his job it's not his focus he might it has been really tired I've known people who sleep when they work hard and then they sleep they're out you know talking about what they could sleep like on in any circumstance I'm the opposite of this person right I just lay there not sleep and not sleep in fact I started exercising not too long ago and it actually helped me sleep so little help for you if you can't sleep start exercising more I know that's not the pill you wanted but I put it but it helps um so it's possible Jesus is just tired he's just sleeping and if you want to say Jesus was always calm and collected like no matter how bad things were around him he was always like a little a small grin you know and he was like I don't worry guys don't worry don't worry it's all good it's all good well there's times where Jesus is just in English right in the Garden of Gethsemane he's in anguish listen to what it says in mark same book verses chapter 14 verse 33 and 34 and he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be distressed and troubled that's Jesus he was distressed in troubled and he said to them my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death remain here and keep watch now Jesus was not scared like fearful like Oh what's gonna happen next I don't know he just knew that there was major suffering and hardship coming his way and he was aware of this and it was unpleasant so I don't have to like have this artificial peace I can be like I'm in anguish but I still trust God alright I'm struck down but I'm not destroyed we are we're we're living that situation so some I think they go too far with this about Jesus I've heard of teaching and I've heard it it and I'm gonna mention it the where I've heard it from because I've heard it repeatedly now but Bill Johnson from Bethel Church I would take exception to his interpretation of this passage with Jesus in the boat he says that Jesus had peace that's why he was asleep he was asleep in the boat because he had peace he was able to speak peace into the storm because he had peace to give like he tapped into some sort of peace thing that he has and he sort of let it out right he released that they liked the term release very a lot in this circle he released peace and the idea is that Jesus and to quote Bill Johnson he says Jesus lived in a realm of peace he was living in a realm of peace and I don't know what a realm of pieces or how to live there I think that I think that now we're getting very far away from Jesus was asleep that's all you read and now he's living in a realm there's a whole realm called peace now and you can live there somehow and and then you can access and I'm like this is all extra biblical stuff we're just adding things here that aren't in the text here's a quote from Bill Johnson he says when Jesus spoke peace to the storm it sat down he had the peace because he rested in conflict he did so by releasing what was within him until it redefined his environment this I would say is allegory to the point of bringing new teachings that aren't in the text of Scripture at all because the application he's going to give you is that if you have this kind of peace you can also do miraculous things it ties in with another teaching they have that um that you can't give what you don't have and even God according to their rules God doesn't even allowed to give things he doesn't have so God can't give disease because God's not diseased they're like well God gave tumors to the Philistines and God doesn't have tumors so I don't think that that rule applies to God he can give you a headache without having a headache if he wants God can do whatever he wants so it just seems strange and and this is where we're just going way beyond the text of Scripture it's cramming teaching into the Bible that just it may seem nice and it may be encouraging question is is it true we don't gauge the truthfulness of a teaching based on how nice it is but based upon whether it's biblically sound or not because to all this I could say what if Jesus was just tired and the point of the passage then becomes our trusting in God in trials not our trying to in you know become in a realm of peace where we have this sort of qualitative peace that can we can sort of let out and then it changes our environment and all that kind of thing there's elements of truth to this but it's way beyond probably what's warranted by reality or scripture the passage doesn't actually tell us why he was sleeping so in summary in summary in conclusion the right application is number one Jesus is divine Jesus is divine the divinity the glory the the magnificence of Jesus and the who he is who is this man he's divine and we should not always go to the text asking where am I in this passage we should ask what is it revealing what truth is it revealing to me then you can apply it to you if we start with the revelation of Jesus then the application s comes naturally and the application to us point number two is don't you year with that kind of terror trust in him trust in him I obviously think getting your eyes in a sense so that you're not just looking at this to the storm or the situation of the hardship of your life right now but you're also looking at the goodness of God and the character of God and the love of God so that you won't pray Lord did you even care because now you know it's all you of little faith trusting God's character trusting in the who in the middle of the what that's that's massive you're never gonna outgrow this lesson you're just gonna keep learning it over and over again in your life to trust in God and His goodness no matter what the scenario is no matter what's going on because circumstances are gonna constantly push this button to find out where your faith is and how much trust you have in him now if you feel like you failed so the disciples right here they failed and Jesus use it as a lesson and sometimes you're going through trials and you find yourself doubting even God's own goodness it's revealing that you've always had a problem with faith and God knew it I want to I want to kind of say like hey it's okay get up learn the lesson put your trust in who he is go from being in awe of how bad situations are to being in awe of how amazing God is His goodness let's pray father we we're recognizing right now that this does apply very directly into our lives into our situations storms so to speak we want to trust in you we want to trust in your goodness God you are the grounding of all reality you you couldn't be less than wonderfully good and trusting trustworthy your character and your love and your compassion Lord we want to trust that regardless of temporary pain or hardship or unexpected suffering that we might be going through and so Lord we say and we proclaim you are good you are holy we're in awe of you and we do appeal for help in our trials help and assistance in the suffering and the pain and all that kind of stuff but Lord we want to learn the lesson you were trying to teach the disciples and by virtue of them trying to teach us that we would trust you and your goodness and your character and realize that our situation is sometimes just being used by the enemy to get us to distrust who you are like you try with the job but may we be those who just humbly say yeah I don't understand what's going on but I know God is good and I trust in him and I wait on him in Jesus name Amen [Music] you

Channel: Mike Winger

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Keywords: Mike Winger, Jesus calms the storm, why jesus calmed the storm: the mark series pt 15 (4:35-41), why Jesus calmed the storm, when Jesus calmed the storm, Jesus commands the storm to cease, jesus commands the wind and the waves, Jesus controlled the weather, Mark 4, the mark series part 15, pt 15, Bible Study, jesus stopped the storm, jesus stopped the storm in the bible

Id: GzA1ru6BBWA

Length: 49min 25sec (2965 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 23 2019