WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.360 Well, I think it would be fair to say that most of our society are becoming quite cynical 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:11.160 ! when it comes to people, public figures, public institutions who ask for our trust. 00:00:12.099 --> 00:00:12.240 ! 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:36.280 You've got the politicians with their expenses, their duck houses and second homes, their 00:00:36.280 --> 00:00:43.399 mortgages, their affairs. They ask for our votes and then they let us down. You've got 00:00:43.399 --> 00:00:48.320 the celebrities who we thought were brilliant and then you get the scandals and the tabloids. 00:00:49.120 --> 00:00:55.400 You get Operation Utrecht. And then there's the bankers. Perhaps we never trusted them 00:00:55.399 --> 00:01:02.000 too much, but at least we gave them our money and now we're not so sure. All these people 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:08.759 asked for our trust, but they never lived up to our expectations. They didn't live up to 00:01:08.759 --> 00:01:14.379 our expectations and now I'd suggest that as a society we're a little wary of trusting 00:01:14.379 --> 00:01:20.939 people. We're a little wary of giving people our trust. And the disciples in the passage 00:01:20.939 --> 00:01:25.079 we're looking at today have a similar crisis of confidence. They've got a similar crisis 00:01:25.079 --> 00:01:30.679 of confidence. They've left everything they had to follow Jesus. They've given up, being 00:01:30.679 --> 00:01:35.799 fishermen mainly, to follow him. They've gone and they've followed him on his ministry. 00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:42.579 They've seen him preach. They've seen him heal other people. But now they're in trouble themselves 00:01:42.579 --> 00:01:49.500 and he doesn't seem to care. He doesn't seem to do anything. And they panic. Can we trust 00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:53.180 him with our lives? Can we really trust this man? Will he live up to our expectations? 00:01:53.180 --> 00:01:59.560 And Jesus, as I hope we're going to see this evening, if you'll forgive the pun, completely 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:05.540 blows their doubts out of the water. He's got no time for that. And by the end of the passage 00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:09.920 they're asking a different question altogether. And we're going to look at it today in two 00:02:09.920 --> 00:02:17.000 couplets almost. So first we're going to see in verses 35 to 38 the panic. You'll notice 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:23.080 all of these begin with a P somehow. Verses 35 to 38 the panic. Then in verse 40 Jesus 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:28.460 diagnoses the problem. The panic and the problem. And then on the other side we have in verse 00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:35.360 39 the power, which gives rise to a puzzle in verse 41. The panic and the problem and then 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:43.420 the power and the puzzle. So let's begin with the panic. Jesus by this stage is in full flow 00:02:43.419 --> 00:02:48.419 in his public ministry. He's been preaching for a while now and large crowds have been 00:02:48.419 --> 00:02:53.799 following him through the area he's preaching in. Large crowds gather to hear him preach, 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:58.659 to bring the sick to him, to be healed. And he's been doing incredible things. And at the 00:02:58.659 --> 00:03:02.179 point we are here in Mark's Gospel, he's just come to the end of a whole day of preaching 00:03:02.179 --> 00:03:07.759 by the lake, by the Sea of Galilee. And he's worn out, understandably. It's been a busy day 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:14.039 for him. A busy few weeks. So he asks the disciples to cast the boat off to go to the other side 00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:18.959 of the lake where he has other business to do, as we find out if we went on to chapter 00:03:18.959 --> 00:03:25.859 five. So the disciples cast the boat off and they head out into the lake. And a storm rises, 00:03:25.979 --> 00:03:31.039 doesn't it? On that day when evening had come, he said to them, let us go across to the other 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:36.359 side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was, and 00:03:36.359 --> 00:03:41.739 other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the 00:03:41.739 --> 00:03:43.840 boat, so the boat was already filling. 00:03:45.340 --> 00:03:50.459 Now the Sea of Galilee isn't really a sea. So we might be thinking this isn't all that 00:03:50.459 --> 00:03:56.500 bad. But it may not be a sea, it's not a duck pond either. It's about 13 miles by 8 miles, 00:03:56.500 --> 00:04:00.759 which I'm not very spatially aware of. That's apparently about the same size as Birmingham. 00:04:01.219 --> 00:04:05.419 So it's a big sea, it's a big lake. And if you're stuck in the middle of it in a storm, 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:11.539 you're in trouble. And you can hear the trouble, can't you? You've got a windstorm. You've got 00:04:11.539 --> 00:04:16.139 waves breaking into the boat, so the boat was already filling. You can imagine the disciples 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:20.079 tipping the fish out of their buckets and using them to scoop the water out of the boat. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:26.480 It's a terrifying experience. It's noisy. It's panic in the boat. The wind, the wind, 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:32.560 the waves are coming in. And the disciples don't know what to do. The disciples, they're 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:38.340 afraid. And that's when we know this is serious. These men are fishermen. They've grown up on 00:04:38.340 --> 00:04:44.400 the Sea of Galilee, and yet they're turning to a carpenter for help. It's got to be a serious 00:04:44.400 --> 00:04:49.819 problem, hasn't it? It's got to be a serious storm. The lake they grew up on as kids, the 00:04:49.819 --> 00:04:55.800 lake where their parents taught them how to sail, is scary. It's a serious storm. And they 00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:03.420 cry out for help in verse 38, don't they? But somehow Jesus has slept through this. Maybe 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:08.259 he's just exhausted from the storm. Maybe he's making a point. But Jesus has slept through 00:05:08.259 --> 00:05:14.960 all the noise. He's just asleep on a cushion. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves are 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:20.400 breaking into the boat, so the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern asleep on the 00:05:20.399 --> 00:05:24.699 cushion. And they woke him, and they said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are 00:05:24.699 --> 00:05:31.679 perishing? So we have the storm. We have the panic. And the fishermen rush to Jesus. They 00:05:31.679 --> 00:05:36.120 rush to him. They cry out for help. But they give themselves away in their words, don't they? 00:05:36.659 --> 00:05:41.919 You can hear where their hearts are by their words. This story's in three of the Gospels. 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:46.060 It's in Matthew and Luke as well. And in the other two Gospels, the account's slightly 00:05:46.060 --> 00:05:52.640 briefer. And they don't focus so much on the motivations of the disciples. In Matthew, the 00:05:52.640 --> 00:05:57.740 words are recorded as, Save us, Lord. We are perishing. Similarly in Luke, Master, Master, 00:05:57.900 --> 00:06:02.259 we are perishing. But there's a nuance in Mark's Gospel that's missing in these other two. 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:10.780 Do you not care that we are perishing? Do you not care that we're perishing? Come on, Jesus, 00:06:10.779 --> 00:06:15.639 what are you doing asleep in the boat? We're doing everything we can. Don't you care? Don't 00:06:15.639 --> 00:06:20.859 you care? There's doubt in their voices, isn't there? There's doubt. This man who they followed, 00:06:20.979 --> 00:06:27.859 who they trusted in, what's he doing now? Doesn't he care? There's accusation in the voice. They're 00:06:27.859 --> 00:06:32.339 not just doubting his ability to do anything. They're doubting his character, aren't they? 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:36.459 They're doubting whether he cares for them. Don't you care that we're dying? Are you just 00:06:36.459 --> 00:06:43.439 going to sleep there while we die? Don't you care that we're perishing? These are shocking 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:47.839 words. You can imagine if you were one of the first readers of Mark's Gospel, and you'd 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:51.599 started from the beginning, and you'd seen with the disciples all the things that had 00:06:51.599 --> 00:06:57.299 happened. You get to this point, and these words are shocking. The disciples have travelled 00:06:57.299 --> 00:07:01.759 with Jesus everywhere he's gone. They've heard his preaching. And when he's taught difficult 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:06.399 things, he's taken them aside. He's given them private tuition. They know better than 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:11.839 anyone else what's going on at the moment. They've seen mass healings. They've seen demons 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:18.039 cast out. They've seen one of the disciples' mother turn from being on her deathbed with 00:07:18.039 --> 00:07:26.459 fever to busily serving them tea. They've seen Jesus so filled with compassion that he would 00:07:26.459 --> 00:07:32.039 even reach out and touch a leper to heal him. With all the things they've seen, it seems 00:07:32.039 --> 00:07:38.519 remarkable that they can have these words, doesn't it? But don't you care? Don't you care, 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:47.959 Jesus? They're outrageous words. But what we'll see also is that this is the first time that 00:07:47.959 --> 00:07:53.039 they've been the ones in trouble. If you read through the Gospel, they've seen plenty of other 00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:58.460 people healed, but they've not been the ones in danger. They were fine when it was other 00:07:58.460 --> 00:08:03.160 people in danger. They can encourage other people, go to Jesus, he can heal you. But when 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:10.980 it's their turn, they panic. They panic when they're afraid. Don't you care? It's outrageous, 00:08:11.140 --> 00:08:15.560 isn't it? But it's very human. And I think if we're honest, this is probably the reality 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:20.520 of most of our Christian lives, isn't it? We know the stories in the Bible. We've read 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:26.959 them before. We know about what Jesus has and can do. We know the theology. Perhaps we're 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:33.620 great on our catechism. Perhaps we know the theory of what's going on. And very often we're 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:38.559 good at believing things for other people, aren't we? We'll give people advice. You just 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:42.980 need to trust God on this one. You need to pray about this. We'll tell other people what 00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:50.700 they need to do. We'll pray for people too. And we'll see our prayers answered. But every 00:08:50.700 --> 00:08:56.639 now and then, when it comes to our own problems, we panic, don't we? We get sick. We lose our 00:08:56.639 --> 00:09:04.740 jobs. We get lonely. We run out of money and we panic. And we cry out to God, but rather 00:09:04.740 --> 00:09:11.240 than saying save me, we say, don't you care? Haven't you forgotten me? It's a very human 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:17.440 response, isn't it? We see our lives and we feel let down by Jesus. We wonder whether he's 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:23.220 any better than most politicians. Don't you care? Don't you care? So there's the panic. 00:09:23.379 --> 00:09:30.419 In the panic, they doubt Jesus. And that leads on to the problem, doesn't it? Jesus doesn't 00:09:30.419 --> 00:09:34.500 beat around the bush with this. He's very, very direct to them in verse 40, isn't he? 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:41.679 He said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? Why are you so afraid? 00:09:41.959 --> 00:09:48.740 Have you still no faith? Slightly surprising words. Jesus has just calmed the storm. And 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:53.459 you'd expect there might be other things that he'd say first. Is everyone okay? He might 00:09:53.459 --> 00:09:58.839 count them. Are there still 12 of you? You can imagine there will be other things that 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:02.600 he might say. But he doesn't beat around the bush. He gets directly to the point, have 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:10.240 you still no faith? Jesus has a habit in the Gospels, doesn't he, of saying the unexpected. 00:10:11.340 --> 00:10:16.360 We're expecting him to do one thing, to say something, and he says quite the opposite. And 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:21.639 often what this does is reveals what really drives him, what really motivates him. You see, 00:10:21.700 --> 00:10:28.139 he's clearly got the power to deal with our immediate problems, to deal with the storm. 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:34.300 To deal with the healings. He's got the compassion to do it too. He's got the compassion and the 00:10:34.300 --> 00:10:39.259 power to deal with all these problems. But his real passion is to deal with the spiritual 00:10:39.259 --> 00:10:44.620 needs of these people. We see it time and time again. People come to Jesus with an immediate 00:10:44.620 --> 00:10:50.840 physical need. Think just two chapters before, we have a lame man who comes to Jesus. And rather 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:57.240 than the first thing Jesus says being, I'll fix your leg, be healed. The first thing he 00:10:57.240 --> 00:11:03.740 says is, your sins are forgiven. Similarly here, Jesus turns things around. Yes, you have 00:11:03.740 --> 00:11:09.019 an immediate problem, the storm. Yes, that was very frightening. But the real problem I 00:11:09.019 --> 00:11:14.000 want to deal with here is your faith, is your spiritual problem. Why were you so afraid? 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:20.340 Do you still have no faith? Jesus has all this power, all this compassion to deal with the 00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:26.440 immediate needs. But his drive, his motivation is the gospel, which he preaches in Mark throughout. 00:11:26.860 --> 00:11:32.460 Repent and believe, the kingdom's here. That's what he wants to deal with. So although the 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:36.860 disciples may think their problem was this storm, was this frightening windstorm, the problem 00:11:36.860 --> 00:11:42.700 Jesus wants us to focus on is their faith. Do you still not believe? That's his concern. 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:48.120 And I think there's two things we could notice here about what Jesus says, about the faith 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:53.440 that Jesus is questioning about. Do you notice first that Jesus seems to be taking this extremely 00:11:53.440 --> 00:12:02.679 personally? He seems to be almost offended. Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:09.259 There's almost a tone of indignation, of frustration. I've shown you so much. You've been with me 00:12:09.259 --> 00:12:16.139 so long and you still don't believe? He takes it personally. And I think we might struggle 00:12:16.139 --> 00:12:23.000 with that if we took a modern view of what faith is. If you read the newspapers, if you 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.059 listen to what people normally say that faith is, it's a kind of alternative to science. 00:12:28.980 --> 00:12:35.759 It's religious thinking. It's perhaps knowing enough religious stuff. It might be a spiritual 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:40.480 practice. Perhaps it's meditating in a certain way. Perhaps it's thinking about life in a certain 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:48.440 way. Faith has taken on this nebulous meaning that's got so complicated it's become completely vacuous. 00:12:49.139 --> 00:12:54.000 We don't really know what it means anymore. It's this kind of mystical, superstitious, fuzzy feeling. 00:12:54.700 --> 00:12:58.120 How can you take that personally? How can you tell someone off for not having enough of that? 00:12:58.220 --> 00:13:03.399 That sounds completely useless. Well, Jesus is talking about faith in a much simpler way here. 00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:08.320 A much more simpler, back to basics kind of way. He basically means trust, doesn't he? 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:16.460 Do you still not trust me? Do you still not trust me? That's the problem here. They don't trust him. 00:13:17.280 --> 00:13:22.360 So the first thing is that this faith is a personal thing. It's whether they trust him, whether they 00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:30.120 know who he is and they'll trust him. The second thing is that it's not blind. People often accuse 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:34.480 Christians, won't they, of having something they call blind faith. I'm not really sure what 00:13:34.480 --> 00:13:39.899 that is, but it's faith that goes without reason. You come into church and you've left your brain at 00:13:39.899 --> 00:13:44.039 the door and now you're sitting here doing faith a bit. You can pick your brain up on the way out. 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:50.139 That's not what Jesus is saying here, is it? That's not what he's saying at all. Do you notice he says, 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:57.420 have you still no faith? What does he mean by have you still? Well, he's saying you've seen all sorts of 00:13:57.419 --> 00:14:04.339 things already. You've heard me teach. You've seen me heal the sick. You've seen me have compassion. 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:11.240 You've seen me cast out demons. You know who I am. He's referring them back to their experience 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:18.299 and to what they've seen. He's referring them back to facts. You know the facts. Do you still have no faith? 00:14:18.299 --> 00:14:25.759 This isn't a nebulous, airy-fairy concept. This is personal. And it's also not unthinking. 00:14:26.859 --> 00:14:32.620 In fact, it's quite the opposite. He's really saying, wake up, think about this. Do you not trust me? 00:14:33.459 --> 00:14:41.659 Do you not know who I am? This faith is personal and it isn't blind. But the problem is, 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:47.939 the disciples don't trust Jesus. They don't trust Jesus that, yeah. So there's the panic and there's 00:14:47.940 --> 00:14:56.920 the problem. But do notice here, Jesus doesn't wait to fix the problem before he acts. I think 00:14:56.920 --> 00:15:02.400 I should point this out. I have taken the story out of order to make this work. He doesn't wait 00:15:02.400 --> 00:15:10.060 until they've got faith before he acts. He calms the storm before they have faith. He calms the storm 00:15:10.060 --> 00:15:17.320 in spite of their unbelief, perhaps we could say. I think it would be fair to say that sometimes we 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:21.560 get a little confused about the cause and the effect when it comes to spiritual things. 00:15:22.300 --> 00:15:31.780 I think sometimes we see faith as a bargaining chip. God, if I have faith, then fix this for 00:15:31.780 --> 00:15:37.800 me. Or perhaps we think of it as a kind of spiritual muscle. If I drum up enough faith in 00:15:37.800 --> 00:15:44.360 me, then God's going to go and do something for me. But we've got the cause and effect the 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:51.300 wrong way around here. We don't have faith so God acts. God acts so that we can have faith. 00:15:52.100 --> 00:15:58.560 God acts so that we can have faith. Jesus acts first here so that we can believe. The best 00:15:58.560 --> 00:16:05.460 example of this is the cross, isn't it? Did Jesus go to the cross because you or I had faith? 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:11.940 No, none of us were born. Jesus didn't go to the cross because we had faith. He went to cross 00:16:11.940 --> 00:16:16.880 the cross well before we had faith so that we could believe. While we were still sinners, 00:16:17.540 --> 00:16:22.100 while we still didn't know him, he died for us. That's exactly what happens here as well, 00:16:22.160 --> 00:16:27.420 isn't it? While they're still doubting him, even as they're saying the words, he wakes up 00:16:27.420 --> 00:16:36.500 and he calms the storm. He deals with it before he challenges them. Perhaps you doubt with the 00:16:36.500 --> 00:16:42.039 disciples. I would imagine you do. I'd imagine we all doubt with the disciples. We all have those 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:46.379 moments of panic, don't we? When we think perhaps Jesus doesn't care for us after all. 00:16:47.620 --> 00:16:53.240 Well, Jesus calls us to have faith, but he's a gracious Lord. He's a gracious Lord. He's already 00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:59.720 done everything that needs to be done for us to be saved. He's not going to let us fall away or destroy 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:06.860 us or have us die in the storm simply because our faith wasn't good enough. He's already done it for 00:17:06.860 --> 00:17:14.880 us. He's already calmed the storm. He's already died at the cross. So there's the puzzle. Sorry, 00:17:15.180 --> 00:17:22.940 I've got my peas confused. There's the panic and the problem. But we come to the power. We come to the 00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:27.940 power because if Jesus is going to ask us to trust him, we need to know who it is we're trusting, 00:17:27.940 --> 00:17:33.820 don't we? Who is this man who's demanding our faith? Who is this man that's demanding our trust? 00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:42.920 We read in verse 37, and a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:48.460 the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:55.259 to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the 00:17:55.259 --> 00:18:04.200 sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased. And there was a great calm. There's waves and there's wind. 00:18:04.319 --> 00:18:14.519 There's noise and there's panic. And Jesus is asleep. The disciples wake him up. In all this noise, he just 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:21.000 speaks. And there's silence. He just speaks and it all stops. He speaks and nature obeys. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:28.079 It's strange in this account. It's an incredible miracle, but it seems very understated. I haven't 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:34.519 quite worked it out, but it doesn't look like 20% of the passage, does it? It's a tiny amount of the 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:41.359 passage actually given to the miracle. It's a very understated miracle. And you think, with all this 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:47.720 noise around him, he doesn't shout. He doesn't holler. He doesn't yell. He speaks. He just speaks. 00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:54.579 Jesus' power is emphasised here, isn't it, by how understated it is, how easy it is, how effortless. 00:18:55.380 --> 00:19:03.400 He wakes up from his sleep, speaks, and nature is silenced. Nature obeys. And it's interesting if you look at 00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:12.160 the words used here to describe what he says. Do you see he rebukes the wind? He rebukes the wind. He tells it off. 00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:18.860 He's like a teacher walking into the classroom. The children are throwing around their paper 00:19:18.860 --> 00:19:24.460 aeroplanes. They're chatting. They're yelling. And the head teacher walks in. And everyone's silent. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:32.640 Jesus rebukes the wind. He tells it off like a teacher speaking to children. And then he speaks 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:42.640 to the waves, doesn't he? Peace. Be still. Peace. Be still. That word be still is literally be silent. 00:19:43.280 --> 00:19:52.520 Or be muzzled. Put your muzzle on. It's like he's talking to his dog. Stop it. Stop it now. Heal. Down. 00:19:52.519 --> 00:20:00.819 Jesus speaks to the wind like a teacher talking to children. And he speaks to the waves like a master 00:20:00.819 --> 00:20:09.279 speaking to his dog. He commands nature. No one can do that. No one can do that. What's going on? 00:20:12.339 --> 00:20:17.160 There's a parallel story to this which I think Mark wants us to pick up on. A story where something 00:20:17.160 --> 00:20:22.420 very similar happens at the beginning but the end's completely different. I don't know if you 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:28.180 found yourself asking as you hear the story through. Who can sleep through a storm? That's 00:20:28.180 --> 00:20:32.740 what I was thinking anyway when I read it through recently. Who can sleep through a storm? Well 00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:39.259 Jonah managed it, didn't he? Jonah managed it a couple of centuries before. Jonah was asleep 00:20:39.259 --> 00:20:45.060 as he sat on his boat definitely in the wrong direction away from Nineveh. And the captain 00:20:45.060 --> 00:20:51.560 rushes down to him. What do you mean you sleeper? Sounds like the disciples, doesn't it? Don't 00:20:51.559 --> 00:20:58.819 you care? Don't you care that we're going to die? And Jonah gets up. But he can't do what 00:20:58.819 --> 00:21:04.059 Jesus did, did he? Jonah was at the mercy of the wind and the waves. Ultimately he was 00:21:04.059 --> 00:21:08.419 thrown overboard. He was at the mercy of the wind and the waves and of the Lord of heaven 00:21:08.419 --> 00:21:15.940 and earth who controls the wind and the waves. Jonah couldn't fix the storm. But as Jesus 00:21:15.940 --> 00:21:22.539 said something greater than Jonah is here, something greater than Jonah is here. The end of this 00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:27.620 story is completely different. This is no mere prophet. This is someone who can tame the 00:21:27.620 --> 00:21:37.200 sea. This is someone who can rebuke the wind. Jesus here is shown to be unique in his power 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:45.460 and authority. There's none like him. No prophet in the Bible compares. So it seems natural that 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:51.460 the power we see here leads on to the disciples' puzzle. The power leads automatically on to 00:21:51.460 --> 00:21:59.740 the puzzle in verse 41. And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who 00:21:59.740 --> 00:22:09.000 then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? I don't think Mark expects us to 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:13.259 take this as a proper question. It's rhetorical, isn't it? The answer is obvious. There's only 00:22:13.259 --> 00:22:19.400 one person who can do this. Only one person who can command nature like this. And that's 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:28.299 God. King Canute is famous, isn't he? He's famous for foolishly thinking otherwise. Actually 00:22:28.299 --> 00:22:33.500 people unfairly told the story a little wrong. King Canute was a Danish warlord. He's the 00:22:33.500 --> 00:22:38.639 kind of person that only exists in storybooks normally. His dad was called Sven Forkbeard. 00:22:39.259 --> 00:22:46.419 It's wonderful. He was a Danish Viking warlord who took over England in 1016. By the end of 00:22:46.419 --> 00:22:51.460 his life he was the king of England, Denmark and Norway. It sounds a bit obscure, but apparently 00:22:51.460 --> 00:22:57.480 at the time that was a big deal. King of England, Denmark and Norway. Can't say what happened 00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:03.180 to Wales and Scotland there, but anyway. And one day he decided he'd go down to the beach 00:23:03.180 --> 00:23:08.440 to prove the extent of his power. He took his throne down and he sat on the edge of the 00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:15.500 beach and he commanded the tide not to come onto his land. Stop it. He rebuked it. Peace, 00:23:15.620 --> 00:23:20.700 be still. And nothing happened. At the end of the day his trousers got shog soggy and he 00:23:20.700 --> 00:23:27.039 went home. Now the standard story is that he made a fool of himself. But according to 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:33.440 Henry of Huntingdon, a contemporary of his, this is what he said after the event. Let all 00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:39.580 the world know that the power of kings is empty and worthless. And there is no king worthy 00:23:39.580 --> 00:23:49.160 of a name save him by whose will heaven and earth and sea obey eternal laws. There is no 00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:55.400 one worthy of the name of king save him by whose will heaven and earth and sea obey eternal 00:23:55.400 --> 00:24:01.420 laws. Even the Vikings knew it. Even the king of England, Denmark and Norway can't stop the 00:24:01.420 --> 00:24:07.560 sea. Only God can do that. Only God can do that. The Vikings knew it. The Jews knew it 00:24:07.560 --> 00:24:13.300 too. Did you notice in Psalm 65, which we read earlier, the Jews knew this fact too. Only 00:24:13.299 --> 00:24:22.440 God can control the seas. Psalm 65 is a hymn to the God of our salvation. Verse 5, by awesome 00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:28.960 deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation. And then verse 7, who stills 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:34.519 the roaring seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who 00:24:34.519 --> 00:24:40.799 dwell at the end of the earth are in awe at your signs. There's only one person who can 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:46.079 still the sea. There's only one person who can calm the waves and tell the wind to shut 00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:54.419 up. And that's God. That's God. So the disciples must know that when they ask this question. 00:24:55.279 --> 00:25:01.099 The disciples are well brought up Jews. They should know that only God can do this. So 00:25:01.099 --> 00:25:07.919 why do they ask him? Who is this? What is it that baffles them so much? In Matthew's gospel, 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:13.000 the word is written slightly differently. So the question is posed, what manner of man 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:19.080 is this? What manner of man is this that can do this? Do you notice there's a slight difference? 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:23.820 We know the answer to who can do this. Only God can do this. What kind of man can do this? 00:25:24.779 --> 00:25:30.180 Well, no normal man. You see, they ask the question because they've just seen Jesus asleep. 00:25:30.420 --> 00:25:36.039 He's clearly a man like other men. He gets tired. He needs to sleep. But clearly he's so much 00:25:36.039 --> 00:25:41.339 more than that. He's a man who can calm the storm. He's so much more than even the greatest 00:25:41.339 --> 00:25:47.759 of prophets could have been. He's the man that calms the storm with a word. So who is 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:54.339 this? Who is this that the wind and the waves obey him? That's the question which they end 00:25:54.339 --> 00:26:01.139 up with at the end of the passage. Do you see they started with, don't you care? And they 00:26:01.140 --> 00:26:07.759 end up in fear, not of the storm, but of Jesus and marvelling at him. Who are you? Who is this? 00:26:08.520 --> 00:26:12.600 Who is this that's calling us to trust in him? Who is this that's calling us to have faith? 00:26:13.220 --> 00:26:18.120 Who is this that even the wind and the rain and the waves obey him? 00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:26.220 What makes Jesus different to all those others who demand our trust? All those other people 00:26:26.220 --> 00:26:31.539 who we thought about earlier who let us down. The politicians who demand our votes and then 00:26:31.539 --> 00:26:38.640 buy duck houses for themselves. The journalists who end up phone hacking. The endless people 00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:45.000 who require our attention, demand our trust, and then let us down. Well, Jesus is the only 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:50.660 one of them who can calm the storm with a word. He's the only one of them who is God. 00:26:50.660 --> 00:26:58.300 I think sometimes we forget that. I think sometimes, even as Christians who come to church every 00:26:58.300 --> 00:27:03.240 week, we forget who Jesus is, don't we? It's effectively what the disciples did at the 00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:09.400 beginning. And I think we do it quite often. I think sometimes we see him as someone weak, 00:27:09.820 --> 00:27:15.259 someone unable to do what we need him to. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, 00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:19.640 but if you look at art, now I don't want to get into debate as to whether we should draw 00:27:19.640 --> 00:27:24.599 pictures of Jesus, but if you look at the paintings there are of Jesus, have you noticed 00:27:24.599 --> 00:27:30.859 that in the majority of them he's weak? He's either the baby in the manger, or the baby being 00:27:30.859 --> 00:27:38.099 held by Mary, or the wounded one being helped off the cross. He's never strong in the paintings, 00:27:38.220 --> 00:27:44.000 is he? He's always weak. But the Jesus of the Bible is very different to that. He's the 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:50.380 one who calms the storm. He may have been a baby. He may have been the one who taught 00:27:50.380 --> 00:27:57.960 on the mountain. He may have been the one who died on the cross. But who was he when he 00:27:57.960 --> 00:28:03.220 was doing those things? He was the one who calmed the storm. The one who was crucified and 00:28:03.220 --> 00:28:08.839 died, the one who rose again, was the one who calmed the storm. Not some weak man, not 00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:15.439 some unfortunate prophet, but God himself. The one who calls us to follow him, the one 00:28:15.439 --> 00:28:21.319 who calls us to trust him, to give everything to him, to take up our cross and to follow 00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:27.959 him, is the one who calms the storm. He's the one who the wind and the waves obey. 00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:37.759 So perhaps when we're next worrying at home, maybe we're lying in bed afraid of the dark 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:43.740 or whatever it is that makes us worry, and we're panicking and we think, well, do you 00:28:43.740 --> 00:28:49.840 not care? We should replace the question with this, who is this? Who is this who calls me 00:28:49.839 --> 00:28:57.659 to follow him? Who is this who commands me? It's the one who the wind and the waves obey. 00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:08.959 One final thought. Do you notice that we often think that perhaps becoming a Christian would 00:29:08.959 --> 00:29:13.720 make these things go away completely? Becoming a Christian would make life easy. If we're 00:29:13.720 --> 00:29:18.839 following the one whom the winds and the waves obey, life will be easy. That's not the promise 00:29:18.839 --> 00:29:25.599 of this passage. Did you notice that Jesus takes them into the storm to start with? At 00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:29.720 the very beginning, on that day when evening came, he said to them, let us go across to 00:29:29.720 --> 00:29:35.720 the other side. It's Jesus who took them there. Now, I don't want to read too much into the 00:29:35.720 --> 00:29:40.599 providence here, and we should never be trying to read providence on the way. We can't really. 00:29:40.699 --> 00:29:44.779 We'll make a mess of it. But what we do see here is that Jesus may command us to do very 00:29:44.779 --> 00:29:48.819 difficult things. He may call us into the hard things. You think of the Beatitudes. 00:29:48.839 --> 00:29:53.019 The things he called us to. Blessed are the peacemakers, for there is the kingdom of God. 00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:59.399 That's a hard call, isn't it? Or when he commands us to turn the other cheek. Or when he commands 00:29:59.399 --> 00:30:04.539 us to take up our cross and follow him. All those things are hard things. But the one who 00:30:04.539 --> 00:30:09.079 calls us to do them, the one who takes us into the storm, as it were, is the one who can 00:30:09.079 --> 00:30:12.619 calm it. He's the one whom the winds and the waves obey. 00:30:12.619 --> 00:30:13.059 Amen. 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.059 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:13.159 Amen.