Following Jesus: Mark 4 Series

Following Jesus (4)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 1/22/2017

For the past few weeks we’ve been on a journey through the Gospel of Mark in hopes of seeing Jesus more clearly and following Him more nearly.

Although the threat of ice prevented us from meeting together last Sunday, many of you joined me online for the third installment in this series. In Mark 3:1-6, Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath to the aggravation of his enemies. In this short, simple story, we saw the compassion of Jesus, the criticism of the legalistic religious leaders, and the compliance of a disabled man with a deformed hand.

Following this wonderful miracle, Jesus continues His mission, appointing twelve of his followers for the special task of being apostles. He then continued healing people and casting out demons, which once again garnered the attention of the religious establishment. The scribes and Pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Jesus recognizes their claim for what it is—a nonsensical accusation. They accused Jesus of blasphemy, but ironically they were guilty of that very sin when they looked Jesus in the face and identified Him with Satan.

On the heels of that encounter, Jesus tells the parable of the Sower. The farmer sows seed indiscriminately over four types of soils—some good, some bad. Of course, Jesus is the Sower and the seed is God’s word. The point is—not everyone will accept the Word of God and not everyone will hold tightly too it when life gets busy or difficult. The challenge for us is making sure our hearts and lives are good soil.

That brings us to our passage for today—Mark 4:35-41. It’s a familiar story that so many of us can relate to. So if you have a Bible or an app on your phone, you can open it up or just follow along on screen.

As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.

Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the water, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!” (Mark 4:35-41 NLT)

The lake which they had set out to cross was the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake in northern Palestine. It was about 13 miles long, 8 miles wide, 680 feet below sea level and shaped like a heart—a place of inspiring beauty. However, with mountains surrounding most of the lake, the fierce downdrafts of cold air from the higher elevations to the warm air of the sea, often made it victim to violent storms—which was the case this particular night. For these veteran fishermen to be afraid for their lives means that this was no ordinary storm. This was a raging tempest with gale-force winds. The sky rumbled above them, the water churned beneath them. Their fishing boat bounced and spun on the white-tops of angry waves.

It’s no wonder they were afraid. Fear often gets the better of us. We’ve found some strange things to be afraid of. For instance, psychologists say one of the most common fears today is nomophobia, which is the fear of not having your cell phone with you. Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns. My favorite is Arachibutyrophobia, which is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. However, the trophy goes to Luposlipophobia, first coined in a Far Side comic strip, it involves the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.

Most of our fears aren’t quite so funny. We fear failure, foreclosure, and being forgotten. Maybe you’re afraid of being abused, abandoned, or alone. Every sunrise brings fresh reasons for fear.

But did you notice Jesus’s question? “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Faith, Jesus seems to say, is the antithesis of fear. Faith is the solution to fear. And faith is essential to following Jesus because, as the disciples learned it won’t always be smooth sailing.

But when we look closely at this story, I think we can find at least three reasons to have faith even in the midst of life’s storms. First, we can have faith in Jesus’s plans.