Don't Rock the Boat, Baby!

Steve Bowyer

Words & Works of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted 8 months ago • Presented 8 months ago

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It Only Takes 1 Storm

We’ve all seen the incredible power of nature in storms.

Around here, it’s forest fires and flash floods. Sadly, we can all relate too well to what happened in Lahaina, Maui, HI.

The violent wind of the hurricane passing nearby caused the power lines to fall and spark a fire that raged out of control until too many people died and instantly became homeless.

The scene from there is horrific and eerie.

It is also an important reminder for us next fire season. There is one road out of Lahaina and it was blocked. A number of ppl died in there cars waiting for the road to clear. Or, they ran out into the ocean. Some drowned there.

We have 1 road out of Munds Park. Please, if there is a fire bearing down on us, do not wait until the evac order to leave. Our best option if Pinewood, Oak, Fairway, Crestline, or the ramp I-17 gets blocked is to run out into the middle of the golf course. It stays watered. That’s our ocean and best chance of surviving a raging fire.

A few weeks ago I showed you the video of the flash flood behind the church from the March storms we had. The force of the water and the damage it did in the RV park and downstream.

Don’t mess w/ moving water. Do not drive into it. Turn around!

It is both awe-inspiring and terrifying to stand next to moving water like that.

Growing up in Wichita, and living so much of my life in tornado alley, it’s the sirens that get my anxst up and churning. The threat. The idea.

Just before we moved out here, Sara and I helped with storm clean up around a friend’s home just west of LR. An EF4 tornado cut a swath miles long. Huge trees snapped off and uprooted. His detached garage turned on its foundation. Broke the bolts holding it in place. It was totaled but not destroyed like their neighbor’s house.

That house was just sticks. You could see thru it.

There was a big reaction that his 1,000 lb gun safe that had been bolted to his garage floor was picked up and dumped in his front yard.

But then, the weather people explained that an EF4 has an up force of 400,000 lbs. Puny little gun safe.

But ppl may have the idea they can hang to something or someone and survive a storm like that.

There was a story out of Tuscaloosa a few years ago when a big tornado struck there. A young college couple, just started dating, were in their basement, safe space, and the tornado pulled the young woman out of his arms and carried her away. She died. He survived.

When I was in college, one summer I went to a month-long camp in CO put on by Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship. Discipleship camp for college kids.

One of the outings during the month was to hike up one of CO’s 14,000’ mountains. La Plata, if I remember right.

Anyway, our so-called expert mountaineers, started our hike at lunchtime. We summited at about 3 in the afternoon. Now, do you know what happens at 3 on a summer afternoon in the CO mountains?

The same thing that can happen around here. Monsoons.

There was probably 30 of us. We were taking pics and signing the book on the summit. At one point, the person taking a picture said their camera, which was made mostly of metal, started to vibrate. We experienced just about every type of weather there is on that summit. It was sunny. It rained. It sleeted. It poured. It lightninged and thundered.

Even for college kids, we demonstrated some wisdom and started our decent quickly.

It was all above timberline, no trail to follow, just a boulder field. A large group went one way, and I went my own way. About 30 yards away from the group. Later, one friend said she saw lightning strike about 100 yards below them.

I am making my way down toward the beginning of the trail we would follow back to our cars.

Suddenly, the draw string to the hood on my rain poncho started vibrating. I was terrified. I thought I was dead. Electricity in the air. It was going to come down and strike me.

I knocked my baseball cap off and got as small as I could. I heard stories of baseball players getting struck on the metal button on their cap. There was no place to hide. Just boulders. And you know lightning travels thru the ground. So even if it doesn’t strike me directly, if I’m even close, I’d dead.

As you can see, that bold never came out of the clouds. Here I am to tell you about it.

It only takes one storm to prove to us how little control we have over our life. Most of us endure multiple storms during our life. Maybe literal storms, maybe financial storms out of your control. Job loss. Market crash.

Maybe relationship storms. Or, health storms. Sara and I both now have had a doctor use the word cancer in a diagnosis. We didn’t do anything wrong. We don’t smoke.

The doctor tells me their best guess for a primary contributor to prostate cancer is processed food. But they just don’t know. I grew up on processed food. Raised by a single mother. Kraft singles, mac and cheese, refined sugar, white bread, all of it.

I didn’t do anything wrong to deserve to be thrust into this storm. Yet, here I am. I’m doing what I can do. But I have oh so little control over this.

It only takes one storm to prove how little control we have in life and how desperately we need to have a relationship w/ the One who does.

Jesus uses these storms to produce good things in us. He will take us from fear to faith; from terror to trust; and from panic to peace as we navigate our way through them.

The storms are natural occurrences in a fallen world. But, sometimes, Jesus sends the storm on purpose.

Today we are studying the first of 2 storms Jesus calms. In this one situation, we will see Jesus’s humanity, divinity, power and compassion as He does more to prepare the disciples, and us, to be more than observers and even casual participants in His kingdom program.

This situ is written about in 3 passage; Matthew 8, Mark 4, and Luke 8. We are spending most of our time in the Mark passage.

First, let me set the context.

Context

Context is so important to understanding what Jesus is doing.

Israel, as a nation, had rejected Him. Individuals are accepting, but the nation is rejecting.

Since they rejected him, He has postponed the kingdom He plans to set up on earth.

We just studied the parables that he used to teach about what kingdom life will be like for believers in this age, until it ends, when He returns to get back to the kingdom plan.

He has shifted gears in what He is teaching and how. He started using more parables. And, He has started more intentional teaching and training the discs to be more than observers. They are going the be the primary human pace setters, examples to follow, leaders of this new organization.

Jesus made it clear He is going to build the kingdom, but he’s going to use us to do it. There are many aspects to how. But he’s about to show them a very important aspect next.

He’s going to build up his kingdom. He’s going to use us to do it. He’s about to demonstrate His power over nature. Next week we will study the passage where He casts the legion of demons out of one man. He is more powerful than a legion of demons.

We’ve got to get our role, our limitations, Jesus’s role, and His infinite ability to do what He says He’s going to do.

Load Up & Cast Off

Mark 4:35–36 NIV

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.

After a long day of teaching the disciples w/ a large crowd around, Jesus decided he wanted to go over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It doesn’t say why. Maybe there were others to teach. Maybe He wanted a brief break. Maybe He had something special in mind for the discs.

Either way, they took him, “just as He was” probably exhausted. They didn’t stop to pack or prepare a snack for the boat ride.

Jesus was clear w/ his instructions. They were going to the other side. They were not going to die halfway across. That subtle fact escaped them when they were in the heat of the battle w/ the brewing storm.

That we have total control over our lives is a complete myth. We can hum along when the sailing is smooth under the false impression we have life by the tail.

But you know what the old TX cattle rancher said about that. “When you grab the bull by his tail, you’re going to get the horns, too.”

Their sailing started out smooth. But things changed dramatically in short order. Here is where Jesus takes a big step in preparing the discs to transition from being primarily observers to active participants in the kingdom plan.

A furious storm blew up quickly in the middle of the lake and in the middle of the night. They knew they were in trouble. Their reaction gave Jesus the opportunity to teach them an important lesson.

Panic on the Pond

Mark 4:37–38 NIV

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 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?”

If you fill up one of those orange Home Depot buckets w/ water and blow across the top you’ll cause barely a ripple. Then fill a dinner plate w/ water and blow across and you’ll cause a violent reaction on the water. The shallower the water, the easier it is to create a violent reaction.

The Sea of Galilee is a shallow lake surrounded by mountains that create a wind tunnel effect when a storm blows up. What would normally be a mild rainstorm can become a life-threatening squall when the wind whip thru the mountains and across the shallow lake.

Several of the discs were experienced boatsmen. They were fishermen and had seen storms just like this. But, likely never at night and rarely on the water.

Jesus had relaxed and fallen asleep in the front of the boat while the fishermen took charge of cruise across the sea.

The storm blew up fast and caught them all off guard. The sailors knew right away they were in trouble. They were a long way from shore, the storm was violent causing the boat to take on water, it was dark and late, and they began to panic.

They believed, rightly so, their lives were in grave danger. Gripped w/ fear. They rowed and bailed water w/ all the strength they had.

As their terror intensified just as the blinding storm in the darkness, the reality of their fate became clear. The boat was sinking and they were going to die barring any miracle.

Matthew and Luke write it as a statement, “We are going to drown.”

Mark poses it as question, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

Ironically, they call him teacher. Yet, they still don’t fully understand his teaching. These men had see Jesus raise a young boy from the dead and now they feared that He did not care enough to prevent their deaths.

He had taught them that they would play instrumental roles in the growth of the kingdom but they hadn’t had time, yet to even tune their instruments.

This is the first storm they faced. Up to this point they had mostly been observers, watching Jesus do His thing. Soon, they are going to become the ones doing their thing. They watched and listened as Jesus did most of the ministry.

Things are about to change. Jesus does not allow us to be spectators. He demands that we make decisions about Him that we commit ourselves to. This is the first demand like this that He is placing on these men. How would they respond?

Earlier, when everything seemed smooth and momentum was strong in the right direction, they responded quickly by getting into the boat had shoving off full of peaceful faith that everything would be smooth sailing.

Do you think Jesus didn’t know the storm was coming? Or, maybe, He brought the storm, on purpose. He said, we’re going to the other side. Whatever happens between cast off and “land Ho” will not change the fact that He said they were going to get to the other side.

What did they do wrong before the storm blew up that could have caused God to take their lives? Nothing. They were as faithful and obedient as they could have been up to that point. Their obedience could not have been better. Their faith, however, could have been deeper.

Not every storm we encounter is of our own doing.

And it looked to them like Jesus didn’t care they were in so much trouble. They had done everything Jesus asked of them and now faced the most terrorizing event of their lives.

The conflict w/in would have been intense. The fishermen knew they should never have left the shore had they known. But Jesus said ‘let’s go’. So they did. Was Jesus a fool, just ignorant, unaware?

He was calm enough to sleep thru the storm up to that point. If ignorance is bliss, Jesus was blissfully dreaming of His eventual kingdom.

The idea that Jesus, who died for us, would not care about our pain or anxiety or fear makes no sense. Yet this is the feeling many of us have, and we may feel this simply b/c of a storm in our life at the moment. But storms are a certainty.

We can mistakenly believe we are not supposed to have storms in our life. We believed in Jesus to avoid storms. Isn’t He supposed to keep everything calm and under control to protect us from such struggles?

While others struggle, aren’t we supposed t/b immune to it all, protected by Jesus from the hurt and pain and realities of life.

But this is why we respond anger, resentment, panic, fear, terror; when storms hit.

We see Jesus asleep in the boat and we react emotionally like He doesn’t care.

Or does He? Maybe there was something else at work here. Jesus may lead us into storms and then seem like he’s asleep at the switch and doesn’t care we’re in so much trouble. But He does. And it took this storm for the discs to understand how much he cares and how much he’s capable of.

The discs had been trying like crazy to save themselves. They are rowing and bailing for all they’re worth and getting nowhere but lower in the lake. Whatever control they thought they had of the boat long since sank and now they are completely depended on forces beyond them.

They are going to face horrible storms later in their life. Many are written about in Acts. Everyone one of them will be tortured and all but 1 will die a martyr. John lived out his life in exile on an island. No paradise.

Will they continue to try to save themselves? Paralyzed and prompted by fear and anxiety? Or, will they learn to stop short of the panic and ask Jesus for help? Sure, He was asleep. But He was right there the whole time.

Why did they wait so long? What could He do, anyway. They were about to find out.

Calm Down!

Mark 4:39–41 NIV

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Like the not so contemporary contemporary Xian song says, Sometimes Jesus calms the storm and sometimes He calms the saints.” In this case He did both.

When Jesus woke up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes He saw the terror in His discs eyes. He remained calm, and according to Matthew’s account, He scolded the discs before He calmed the storm.

He must not have been very concerned about their safety. It wasn’t that He didn’t care. It was that He was in complete control.

He commanded the storm to be quiet. Be still! Be still and know that I am Lord! (Ps. 46:10)

It was and it did. The calming was complete and immediate. Usually, when a storm passes it takes time for the wave and wind to die down completely. But not when Jesus commands it.

After He calmed the storm, He turned to the discs and asked, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

He already told them they were going to the other side. They had seen the power in His words many times. They just saw it again and realized their mistake. Now, they are afraid of Him. What might He say to them, about them, or command them that could hurt them?

If it’s the will of Jesus to get to the other side, then they are getting to the other side. No force of nature was going to prevent it. How could they have thought for a minute that they were not going to make it?

Despite all the time He had spent w/ them teaching them and doing miraculous things before them they still did not believe that the power and authority of God was present in Jesus who was in the boat w/ them.

He was calling them to faith in both His person and His authority when He asked where their faith was. In essence, they were right to wake Him in order to calm the storm, but the fact that they were so afraid for their lives showed their lack of faith.

He didn’t scold them for waking him out of his blissful dream. He scolded them for panicking.

They had seen the dead raised, demons cast out, and the sick healed; but this was too much. The force of a storm such as this one is awesome and it obeyed Jesus. Who is this? They still did not fully comprehend Who Jesus is and what He is capable of.

In time, they will need all of Who Jesus is and His capability to accomplish what He promised He’d do thru them and with them. Between the storm and this reality, the truth sunk in b/c the boat didn’t.

The theory of Jesus becomes reality to us in our storms.

You come to church Sunday after Sunday. You attend bible studies and discussion groups. You learn about Jesus, His words and works, yet, where is your faith?

Do you still think life is up to you? Do you think that you can handle life’s storms, that you have the wisdom and power and energy to be in control of everything? You wake me up in a panic and cry out to me in anger!

Where is your faith? Where is your Trust? Why don’t you have peace?

Who is Jesus? What do we know about Him?

In this storm we see His humanity, he was exhausted and needed to sleep.

We see His divinity. He has authority over the climate. No EF4 tornado, hurricane, forest fire, lightning strike nor sea squall can deny his authority and disregard His command.

We see His power to force the storm to be still. The calming was immediate and complete.

We see his compassion when he calmed the disciples.

Hebrews 4:15 NIV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

He is Lord, Savior, and Master. He is the Master controller.

The only way to gain control over your life is to trust the One Who can.

You knowledge about Jesus must become faith and trust in Him to find peace in your storm. And, the only way that happens is by going thru storms.

How is Jesus going to turn that little mustard seed into that huge plant that will accommodate people from all corners of the earth and all eras of history to find homes in it?

How can He used weak ppl like us to build such a massive thing as His kingdom?

How can we survive the life-altering and life-threatening storms that blow into our world?

Jesus will and we can by taking to heart the lesson in the message of this miracle. It will produce faith in us and the confidence that Jesus will enable us to endure the experiences that lie ahead.

He has taught us faith and His actions in our life authenticate His teaching and prove faith like this is possible when it’s placed in the right One.

As we look back at the storms we have survived, we see the power and authority of God calm them; and His compassion to calm us.

We can stand w/ confidence, knowing we will not leave this life until the work Jesus has for us is done. I was 1 lightning strike away from not graduating from college or seminary, marrying Sara, or being your pastor. Yet, here I am.

It only takes one good storm to prove how little control we have over our life. And that same storm will prove Who does have complete control.

He will turn your fear into faith, terror into trust, and panic into peace each time you survive another storm. And you’ll survive every one until you done doing everything God has for you to do.

Applications

Control

Are you a control freak? Welcome to another gathering of control freaks anonymous!

If you are, you must be very frustrated b/c you can’t really control much of anything or anyone.

The only way to gain control of you life is to trust in the One who can.

Stop trying to control.

If Jesus is your co-pilot you’re in the wrong seat. Move over and let Him have the wheel.

Storms

Storms are a regular reality living in a fallen world. Sometimes we bring them on ourselves. Sometimes they just happen. And, sometimes Jesus sends us into them.

Thru all of them, Jesus has the power to enable us to endure.

It can seem like He’s asleep and doesn’t care you’re in a dire situation.

Maybe, He’s just waiting for you to stop panicking and trying to bail out your own boat and ask Him for help. He’s right there w/ you. He knows your situ. He’s not panicking. it’s not that He doesn’t care, it’s that He’s in complete control.

Ask and expect Him to do exactly what you need for Him to do.

Faith over Fear

Don’t be afraid. Don’t panic.

Jesus uses the storms in our life to deepen our faith. Fear is the absence of faith. The situ of the discs was dire. They were going to die barring a miracle. It was serious.

We go thru serious situations. They can be dire. But, we don’t have to be afraid. It’s a choice you make.

Trust Jesus to enable you to get thru each storm.

Choose faith over fear

It only takes one storm to prove how little control we have in life and how desperately we need to have a relationship w/ the One who does.

It might be a lightning strike, forest fire, hurricane, or sea squall. But Jesus bigger and stronger than all of them. Your storm might be financial, relational, or a bad diagnosis.

And cancer is not going to take me out, either. Unless I’m done here. But I don’t think I am.

Jesus uses these storms to produce good things in us. He will take us from fear to faith; from terror to trust; and from panic to peace as we navigate our way through them.