[0:00] Well, the rain is on, if you can hear that. Yeah, if there's one thing that you want to go away thinking today, glory to Jesus, to Jesus our King, is a good thing.
[0:23] This morning we're going to have a wee look at Mark chapter 4, from verse 33 to 41. If you have a Bible, open it there.
[0:33] If not, it's going to be up on the screen. I'm going to read it out. And you may be familiar with the story. It's the account of Jesus calming the storm. Heavenly Father, as we open your word, we pray that you would speak to us by your Spirit to show us the glory of Jesus.
[1:06] Amen. Okay, Mark chapter 4, from verse 33. It says, With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.
[1:29] He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, Let us go across to the other side.
[1:44] And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with them. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
[1:59] But he was in the stern, asleep, on a cushion. And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
[2:11] And he awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be still.
[2:23] And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, that is his disciples, Why are you so afraid?
[2:36] Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear, and said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
[2:55] Amen. This is God's word, and we pray he'd bless the reading of it. Amen. I think a good question to always be asking yourself, wherever you are in the journey of faith, whether you believe, whether you don't believe, whether you have believed for a long time, or wherever you are, who do you think Jesus is?
[3:22] In fact, let me ask the more pointed question. What do you think you know about Jesus? To any one of us, even myself included, what do you think you know about Jesus?
[3:38] I want to tell you a story. When I was about 15 years old, I stayed in a ground floor flat that faced the road of the street with my family, and one day I went in the car with my dad to go to the shops.
[3:51] The car park was just round from the flat, and you had to pass by the flat to get to the shops. Everything was normal. Completely normal day. My family were in the house, and I went out with my dad to go to the shops in the car.
[4:04] And we came back from the shop, drove up the street, past the flat, as we normally do, to go round to the car park, as he normally does. I was in the passenger seat, which is in the left-hand side, and the flat was on my left.
[4:19] The living room window was right there, and we passed by. Everything was normal. But as we passed by the flat, I looked over, and I saw something through the living room window, and then a sinking feeling washed over me, and I began to question everything I thought I knew.
[4:41] So moving on, you're wondering what happened. What did I see? in the flat that really unsettled me. Well, we're driving up.
[4:56] My dad's on my right-hand side in the driver's seat. I'm in the passenger seat. My flat's there on the left. And as we drove up the hill, I looked into the flat, and through the living room window, I saw my mom, and I saw my dad in the flat.
[5:13] And very slowly, I began to turn around and look at the person I was sitting next to, who was clearly my dad.
[5:24] And I thought to myself, who am I in the car with? And I got this really sinking feeling, and I felt fear and confusion, and I thought, who am I in the car with?
[5:39] Now, that sounds really weird. I know. And it really was very strange. I was in the car with who I thought was my dad. Yet when we passed by the flat, I saw my dad in the flat with my mom.
[5:55] And now I'm wondering who on earth is in the car with me that looks an awful lot like my dad. But it can't be. And I'm sitting there and confusion on my face, my eyes are darting side to side.
[6:08] Preconceptions were shattered. I tried to make sense what happened. Now, we get out of the car, we walk to the flat, and it turns out my dad's brother was in the flat.
[6:21] And he doesn't actually particularly look like my dad. You know, he doesn't. But just at a glance, there was a very real sense that that was my dad in the flat.
[6:31] Just at a glance, it was so real that I thought, who is this guy that I'm in the car with? It was really strange, you know. But in a moment, it just confused me. Now, for the disciples of Jesus, Jesus' friends, his followers, they're in the boat with him, they think they know who Jesus is.
[6:50] They've spent years with him. They think they know who he is, and they have this moment like I had with my dad, a moment of terrifying confusion, where what you thought you knew about someone is thrown into question.
[7:05] I mean, they'd spent a lot of time with Jesus. A lot of time. They'd seen him eat. They'd seen him pray. They'd seen him sleep. He was sleeping right there in the boat. They heard him say controversial things.
[7:16] They even knew his family. He was their friend, their teacher, and he was a Jew, just like them. When you spend a lot of time with someone, you know what they can do, don't you?
[7:30] And more to the point, if you've ever spent any time with a man, if you're a woman, when you spend time with someone, you know what they can't do, don't you? When you spend time with someone, you know what they can do, and you know what they can't do.
[7:47] Now, Levi has this phrase that he uses with me sometimes, and he'll turn around to me and he'll say, you're not yourself. And usually, if I turn serious about something, you know, and he's just always wanting to have a laugh.
[8:02] He's just got a kind of upbeat spirit. He wants to have a laugh. And if I'm being serious about something, he'll be like, you're not yourself. When you get to know what someone's like, you know when they're their self or when they're not their self.
[8:14] You know what they can do, what they can't do. Now, not only were Jesus followers, they were familiar with Jesus, but they were also very familiar with the sea. A lot of them were fishermen.
[8:27] They were very used to the sea. They knew how to handle a boat in the Sea of Galilee. And enough of them were professionals. Yeah, that's what they did for a profession. They were professionals that spent every other day out at sea.
[8:39] They were not unfamiliar with choppy water and the odd storm here and there. And for them to say what they said at this moment must have been serious. Now, hands up if you've ever been in a stormy sea or choppy water.
[8:54] Right? Me and the family were up at Aviemore. We were at this swimming pool and they have one of these wave machines. And, jings, it wasn't much, but even that, you know, you get a bit kind of disorientated.
[9:07] But when you're on a boat and the sea's really going at it, it's not a joke. Even for seasoned fishermen, they faced a situation in which they were completely out of their depth as to what's going on outside the boat.
[9:22] And they are completely perplexed about who was inside the boat with them. The storm takes these men from what they thought they knew about Jesus back to the question itself.
[9:34] Who is this? They thought they knew Jesus, but this made them question all of that. And so no matter where you are with that question about who is Jesus, do you think that any of us know enough about Jesus that we cannot be surprised at Jesus?
[9:53] Any one of us in this room, can we no longer be surprised at Jesus? We live in a culture saturated with supposed knowledge.
[10:05] You don't need to go to the library anymore to find something out. No need to purchase encyclopedias. Yes, I'm old enough to remember encyclopedias. I mean, there's a phrase, isn't there?
[10:17] Just Google it. In fact, Google's becoming out of fashion. You just shout on Alexa. Alexa, tell me this. Alexa, tell me that. People talk about the sciences like we know everything now.
[10:32] We don't. As if it were an enlightened era, now we have less to learn than we already know. We've reached a point at which we know more than what's left to learn. But that's just ignorant and arrogant.
[10:46] We know so little. In fact, the combined minds and knowledge of the entire human race that has ever lived on the planet Earth still amounts to a drop in the ocean as to what there is to know.
[11:00] And that's just in relation to finite things, not even infinite things. Remember Jesus said to Nicodemus, if I speak to you about earthly things and you can't understand, how can I speak to you about heavenly things?
[11:14] Well, how then would that not be all the more true about Jesus himself and what we know or what we think we know about Jesus? Now, what we know, we can know for sure.
[11:26] God has revealed it. But that's not all there is to know about Jesus. You could be a Christian for a million years and still easily be surprised at who Jesus is.
[11:38] You could be his closest friend for all his life and still in a moment be brought to your knees in awe of him, which was the case for John, his close friend.
[11:49] The apostle John, perhaps closer to Jesus than any other human ever has been. In Revelation 1.17 said this, when I saw him, his friend, he knew who Jesus was and he said, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
[12:07] But he laid his right hand on me and said, fear not, I am the first and the last, the living one. I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. And so there's the answer to that song.
[12:19] If you've ever heard the song, I can only imagine. Well, you'll probably fall on your face as if you're dead, if that's the case for John. Don't discount the fact that there is more about Jesus that you and I could never imagine.
[12:37] What do you think you know about Jesus? Might there be more to know? And so imagine this scenario, right, in the boat with Jesus in this storm.
[12:50] Right, the storm is raging and there's Jesus sleeping. How can he sleep in a storm like this? I mean, he was probably exhausted, but also, I don't think he was worried.
[13:04] what would you think if you were in the boat? Think about that. What would you think if you were in this boat in this stormy sea? Maybe you weren't one of the fishermen, right, but maybe you were with Peter, James, and John, and Andrew, and you knew they were fishermen and you thought, maybe I'm just panicking here, maybe it's nothing.
[13:26] But you see these seasoned fishermen and they're in a right kerfuffle and you think, well, this is like kids. Kids think if they're worried, maybe I should worry. If they're crying, maybe I should cry.
[13:40] Imagine you were in this boat and you see these fishermen fearing for their lives and you think, maybe I should fear for my life. This event doesn't clarify the question for Jesus' disciples.
[13:53] It doesn't clarify the question. It confuses it. They think they know who Jesus is except everything they thought they knew is shattered, preconceived ideas. It shatters their preconceptions about Jesus.
[14:08] How do we have preconceptions? I mean, the world is full of preconceptions about Jesus, is it not? And by the end of this, the storm has settled but the disciples are incredibly unsettled.
[14:24] the sea is calm but now they have a storm raging inside their mind as to who on earth this man is. They're completely rattled by what he has done and it terrifies them.
[14:39] At least with the wind and waves, at least they know what they're dealing with. Yeah, they fear for their lives but they know what it is. This is a storm that's going to kill us. At least we know what we're dealing with but Jesus, who is this?
[14:53] Can you imagine? Can you imagine standing next to someone who can do something like this? There's no one like this anywhere on the planet or throughout history.
[15:05] There's no one like this. It's so easy to gravely underestimate who Jesus is. Wherever your imagination goes, he is always greater, always more glorious, always more powerful and always more terrifying than you will ever think.
[15:21] he is always, always accommodating us with who he is and with one little glance at his power we're completely undone. What do you think that Jesus' disciples were expecting when they woke him up?
[15:36] What do you think they were expecting? Teacher, do you not care? They weren't expecting him to do what he did. We don't know what they were expecting but we know that they were not expecting him to do what he did.
[15:51] And so my guess is that they probably don't even know what they were expecting. They probably didn't have an idea, they just wanted to wake him up. They're probably just scared students trying to wake up their teacher.
[16:07] Isn't that right? They wake him up and they say, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? They're just scared they're going to perish and they're waking up their teacher.
[16:21] They're taking the posture of students. I mean, it's crazy, isn't it? They're a bunch of professional fishermen waking up a carpenter in the middle of a storm.
[16:34] I think they're just scared students asking their teacher. I think they were looking for an answer to their problem. I think they're just perhaps looking for their teacher to have a plan where they have no plan because he's their teacher.
[16:53] Why is the teacher sleeping and leaving the students in grave danger? Would there not be a court case about this if this happened nowadays? Teacher gets sued for negligence sleeping on the job when the students are left in a storm.
[17:07] You can hear the headlines. This teacher didn't do a risk assessment before they left in the boat. It was his idea. It was the teacher's idea.
[17:19] It's his fault. What would you think if this were you? Maybe you would think that's right because I was thinking what would I think? And if I'm being honest I would probably think see if I didn't get in the boat with him I'd be fine.
[17:34] I should never have got in the boat. I should not have followed him into that boat. It's his fault and I shouldn't have listened. I'd have been better off without him. If I just didn't listen to him I wouldn't be in this danger.
[17:51] Now apply that to any situation that we face as Christians in life. Is this happening because I get in the boat with Jesus? Maybe I'd be better off without him. Maybe if I didn't listen to him I wouldn't be in this danger.
[18:05] Does he not care that we're perishing? Does he not care? Now here's the thing that we learn from this situation whatever you think of whatever you would be thinking you would not be thinking of the solution.
[18:22] You just wouldn't. If they didn't you wouldn't. Nobody expected what Jesus did. You wouldn't be waking up and saying yeah we know what you can do Jesus is going to do it. We'd be just filled with fear.
[18:36] Now think about someone you know well. Think about maybe one of your teachers in life maybe a mentor maybe a parent or maybe a teacher. Just draw draw into your mind a teacher someone who's taught you in the past and think about if you were in a situation like this with them.
[18:54] Now when I was in Cornhill when I was going through Bible college I went to Millport with the class. It wasn't my idea it was the teacher's idea. He told us to get on this boat to Millport.
[19:07] Nothing happened by the way but but I remember standing next to him on this boat right now he didn't sleep it was a short journey but if something went down I would be turning to him.
[19:22] I don't know much about boats but it was his idea to go on the boat and he's the teacher and he's he's just heaps more knowledge than I do. You think about someone in life who's just been wise and just being a good teacher a good example and you think I'm going to go to them if there's this problem.
[19:42] I would have asked him if he was sleeping on that boat and something happened I would have grabbed him and woke him up. I would have shook him vigorously. He's a good man he's pretty intelligent he's way more intelligent than I am he's actually a medical doctor so I know he's intelligent and he's a theologian.
[19:59] He knows way more than I do but do you know what I know that Andy that's his name I know that he's a man so whatever I think he could do I wouldn't expect him to do this.
[20:10] He's just a man. What's he going to do? Maybe he's going to go down and speak to the captain or whatever but imagine that person right imagine that person and you're on the boat and you're in a situation like this and they're sleeping and you wake them up and the first thing they do now I don't know what you do when you wake up especially if you're woken up my boys come through to me in the morning Dad I can't do anything right because I'm still half asleep the first thing that Jesus does he gets up and he turns to the sea and the wind and he says peace be still imagine that person in your life did that would that not change everything you thought you knew about them you'd be like who on earth is this who can do that name one person in human history that can do something like this the only person I can think of is in the pages of this book it's unbelievable
[21:15] I mean really think about what you would do in that situation who on earth are you you'd be thinking or as Levi says you're not yourself but does this situation not completely shatter all preconceptions about who Jesus is now the town out there is not short of preconceptions about who Jesus is we live in a world full of people like me and you who need our preconceptions shattered and the perplexing thing for these disciples is they're not outsiders remember at the start of our passage with many parables he spoke to people he didn't speak to people without a parable but privately to his own disciples he explained everything so they're on the inside they know and yet they get to this point where they just don't know anything who then is this who is this is that not us we are the ones that have things explained to us about Jesus yet could we not be surprised they knew he was a man he was a man
[22:34] Jesus was a man he was a real man he was fully man they saw him sleep they heard him laugh they saw him eat they felt his embrace they knew that everyone in the boat was a human everyone in the boat was a human but one of these things is not like the other here is a man doing things that men cannot do and they woke him up and Jesus didn't pray Jesus did not pray Jesus did not ask God to do anything he did not say anything to the disciples at first he simply got up and he turned and he rebuked the wind and commanded the sea and they listened and you might think the disciples are going hey that's Sir Jesus woohoo but no the preconceptions are shattered and they are filled with fear they're terrified would that not be terrifying would you not think like me with my dad in the car I'd say who is this something strange and creepy is going on here who is this now I did a little research about experiences of people on small boats and big storms and a number of times
[23:46] I would read them describing it like a washing machine the noise of the waves crashing being terrifying the noise of the boat slamming down every time it's flung up would seem like the boat's just going to get destroyed the darkness that comes over the lack of vision with the wind and the water the boat being tossed around and you being tossed around in the boat and the sheer size of the waves makes you feel small and powerless and even massive ships are at the mercy of the sea that's what it is you're just at the mercy of the sea the sea is incredibly powerful you don't mess with the sea no human messes with the sea and wins no human have we not just learned that in this recent thing with the titan sub you don't mess with the sea and win it's wild it's uncontrollable immensely powerful and untamable the sea is no respecter of persons doesn't matter who you are you can be rich doesn't matter in fact if you go all the way back to the titanic and the and the classes yeah there's the poor the middle class and the rich more poor perished some middle class and then a few of the rich perished the only difference was not the sea it was the people who took the places on the boats the sea is no respecter of persons imagine being on a boat with a person who can tell the sea to calm down and it does and we think of the sea as being this inanimate thing like the things of this world being inanimate but the bible talks about them as if they're living creatures that are wild and untamable except god comes in and he's like no they're just like a wee play thing to me
[25:40] I can tell it what to do and it does it it's wild and powerful and untamable to you but to me it's just like a play toy it's a violent storm this wild and powerful force is shushed with three words three words Levi likes the children's story of this by Saddleback Kids they do the children's cartoon of this event and Jesus gets up and he turns and he just goes and it all just goes calm three words just three words and everything the wind and the waves and the sea calm down I mean how many words do you spend on a crying baby more than three and you still can't calm it down the word here in Greek you know for this storm is megas like the word mega huge fierce terrible violent great large in the widest sense it's a mega storm a mega storm this is a mega storm
[26:49] I was watching an ITV video about these two young guys who rode from New York to Devon and they were caught in a cyclone storm 2000 miles out to sea now thankfully the type of boat they had they could just shut it up and seal it and just get flung about inside and it wouldn't it wouldn't sink it would stay floating but here are some of the words that the narrator and the the two guys used about this storm they were caught in there is nothing you can do about it nothing the friends were powerless you're being smashed and battered you have no power against the ocean no power against the ocean you are being tossed around with no control over what is happening yet here is this man just woken up in the middle of a mega storm and he actually does have control he actually does have power over the ocean and he says three words and everything stops just try and do that with a baby or a barking dog or anything else you're not going to do it who on earth can command the wind and the sea only Jesus he's a man but not like us something more about him suddenly it goes from mega storm to mega calm and the thing in between is him who is he he's a man but he's doing things that men cannot do and there's only someone there's only one person who can control the elements like this in all of creation and that's the one who created the elements that's the creator that's God himself you see
[28:53] Jesus reveals something about himself that he is man but he's doing things that only God can do only God can do this see the preconceptions that Jesus is someone separate from God is shattered people think that Jesus is just a good man he's just a good teacher a moral person a prophet but he's doing things that only God can do this thing shatters these preconceptions about who Jesus is he's someone separate from God yet he speaks and acts in a way that only God can speak and act the disciples are learning that with the man Jesus you do not get less than God himself the man Jesus you don't get less than God himself you see Paul says this imagine discovering when you wake up your teacher that it's not just your teacher that's in the boat with you but God himself imagine when you ask your teacher do you even care that you're asking God himself do you care that we are perishing imagine that you find out that you're including
[30:09] God in your supposed powerless situation you ever been in a situation where you feel powerless imagine God was with you and you still thought we have no power for this situation that's why Jesus turns to them and says have you got no faith because he's in the boat with them do you really think that you're going to perish if the son of God is in the boat with you you think the boat is going to go down with Jesus in it it's not that you'd really think the wind the waves and the sea the wildest storms on a little blue planet are a big problem for the creator of the universe you see Jesus not only shatters preconceptions but he smashes expectations whatever they wanted him to do it was far less powerful and spectacular than what he actually did do just when they thought that Jesus didn't care they find out that he will actually do far beyond what we can possibly imagine and is that not what Paul said in
[31:15] Ephesians 3 when he said to him who is able to do more abundantly than we can ask or imagine according to the power at work within us and the power is not our own it's the power of the one who is in the boat with us are you in the boat with Jesus you see the whole point of this passage is that you have this circumstance that seems completely out of control and hugely threatening now how many of us face things in life that seem completely out of control and hugely threatening we're in a situation the disciples are understandably fearful this could cause their life to end yet Jesus is somehow sleeping silent and doing nothing about it now maybe you haven't got in the boat with Jesus yet maybe you're not a follower how can you hope not to perish when the storm comes if Jesus isn't in the boat with you what's to stop the boat going down because with the disciples the thing that stops the boat going down is the fact that
[32:22] Jesus is inside the boat but even when you are in the boat with Jesus even for Christians can you relate to this have you ever found yourself in a situation whether big or small where you felt helpless where you felt powerless and where you wondered where God was in all of this you ever been in a situation and you like where are you Jesus why are you sleeping on me do you not care do you not care that we're going to perish does it ever feel like Jesus is silent and not doing a thing about it well then you're in good company with the disciples does he not care how can he be silent how can he be sleeping how can he not be doing something about this friends have faith have faith one day all storms will cease one day he will silence the wind and settle the waves one day he will call out at the right time and bring these threats to nothing even the threat of death not to happen but the threat that death is the end that death is going to hold you that you're going to perish trzy dollars lo next to and peace be still cease love love love will call out to sickness and say stop. One day he'll call out to pain and say be gone. One day he'll call out to sin and call out to death and say enough. It's only a matter of time. That's all it is. It's only a matter of time. Psalm 110 says, King David says of the Christ, the Lord says to my
[34:21] Lord, sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies your footstool. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
[34:34] As by one man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, be made alive. Each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits and then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. And then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God to the Father after destroying every rule, every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. You see, this account in Mark, this event is not just a glimpse at who Jesus is, but it's a glimpse at what he will do in the end and how we will see him for he really is. The command to us in the midst of the storm is to have faith, precisely because of who we are in the boat with. Nothing is going to overtake you that he cannot take you back out of. You're not going to perish when he's in the boat. Have faith.
[35:37] Nothing will cause you to perish. Does Paul not say, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor storms present, nor storms to come. No power or thing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing will pluck us out of his hand.
[36:00] Paul says, nor height, nor depth. Nor height, nor depth. That's the thing recently in the news with this sub. Humans shouldn't be going to that depth. What's that, like 12,500 feet? Humans cannot go to that depth. But there is no depth that anyone can go to that would separate them from Christ if they are in Christ. No depth, no height, nor depth can separate you. We will reach no depth that is out of his reach. He's in control. He knows the storms that you're going through. And he cares more than you could ever know. More than you could ever know. When you're afraid by what you face, have faith in who Jesus is. Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus, the Son of God. In his time, he will wake up. He will call out to the storm. Until then, we must remember that he has promised to be with us. Now, when I say in his time, he will wake up, he's not asleep. But the point is, it's only a matter of time.
[37:11] He knows what you're going through. Have faith. He is with us. How can we perish if he is in the boat? Not even death can hold us. And I think that's the point. You see, what is the ultimate test of faith for a Christian? Is the ultimate test of faith not when you're supposed to have eternal life that you enter into death, still holding on to the belief that you're going to have eternal life? That sounds crazy to the world. But does Hebrews not say that the devil holds the world in the fear of death? Yet for the Christian, death, what's that going to do? What's death going to do? What did death do to Jesus? Not very much. Not very much. So what's death going to do to you when Jesus is in the boat with you? Not very much. It might not seem like he's with us. It might not seem like he's powerful. It might not seem like he cares. You might be filled with fear. But have faith.
[38:28] This is the Jesus that we follow. He does care. He does things that exceed our expectations, our imagination. Who he is. We cannot fathom who he is. He's God. And when we see him do the things that he will do, it will be all glory to Jesus. It will. You see, Jesus will shatter every preconception.
[39:02] He will exceed every expectation. He will go beyond every imagination. Trust in him. And we will see him as he is. Let me pray. Oh, Lord our God, you know that we are fickle. You know that we are made of dust.
[39:29] You know that we are human. And we are imperfect. Often fearful. But even the tiniest bit of faith, the size of a mustard seed, in Jesus, help us to have faith.
[39:53] It is not the measure so much as the object of our faith. And so help us to have faith in Jesus that would calm our fear until he calms the storm. Help us to see who Jesus really is, to know that he is your Son, our Savior, and that he is with us.
[40:21] We pray for his sake and for his glory. Amen. Amen. Now let us sing a final song together.