Webster defines fears as an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. However this definition only seems to scratch the surface. Because if you have experienced extreme fear you realize that it is this and so much more. Fears are the irrational beliefs about how an object, event, happening, or feeling will result in negative, disastrous, life threatening, disturbing, or unsettling consequences for you. They are the disabling beliefs you carry in yourself that prevent you from living a productive, healthy, and growth-enhancing life or they can take the form of excuses behind which people hide to avoid change or growth. Fear can immobilize the decision making process. Fears can prevent you from overcoming your insecurity, prevent you from trusting in others, and prevent you from being willing to become vulnerable in order to grow. They can prevent you from being willing to let go of old habits or ways of thinking in order to change. Fear is a powerful and crippling force that can damage our lives, as well as our emotional and spiritual well being. The trials that often result in extreme fear and anxiety have the ability to allow us to be seen in our truest and deepest dimensions. Ernest Hemingway wrote, “Trials do not make or break the individual, they merely reveal the individual.” This powerful statement that Hemingway makes comes into the spotlight in our text as the disciples are faced with a tremendous trial as the wind, waves and rain threaten to rip apart their small boat as they made their way across the Sea of Galilee. It was in the midst of this frightening storm that their true colors were revealed. This prompts Jesus to ask the question, “Why are you so afraid?”
I. Bringing the fears and anxieties that plague us into focus.
A. Trials and their accompanying fears are something that plagues all of us.
1. Approximately 6.3 million American adults, or about 4.4 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have some type of specific phobia.
2. There are 535 known specific phobias. Let me share some of my favorites with you.
a. Consecotaleophobia-fear of chop sticks
b. Coulrophobia-fear of clowns
c. Clonophobia-fear of going to bed.
d. Chronometentrophobia-fear of clocks
e. Anthrophobia-fear of flowers.
f. Bufonophobia-fear of toads.
3. Anxiety disorders are the most common metal illness in the U.S. with 19.1 million adults suffering from some form. That is 13.3% of the population.
4. Worry and fear seems to increase with age. Because young people feel like it will never happen to them and older people realize the nasty turns that life can unexpectedly take.
5. The reality is that a good portion of our society is living with some type of fear.
B. All the fear has caused us to become one of the most worrisome cultures to ever live upon the face of the earth.
1. The anxiety comes into our lives and steals our joy and replaces it with panic.
2. We worry about everything from relationships to the environment.
3. The fear and worry causes us to develop numerous physical symptoms such as chest pains, headaches, dizziness and even cancer.
4. Last year more than $22.84 billion dollars were spent on medical treatment by those with anxiety disorders seeking relief from physical symptoms that mimic physical illness.
5. Even as Christians we are not immune to all these worries and fears, even if they are real or imagined.
II. A text book example from the first century of the effects of fear and anxiety.
A. Even Jesus’ disciples fell apart when things seemed to be beyond their control.
1. This is the first of three scenes in Mark in which the disciples have a special learning experience with Jesus while crossing the Sea of Galilee. The lake was one place where Jesus and the disciples could be alone—although in this first instance, there were other boats with them. We are not told what happened to the other boats. Perhaps they were lost in the storm or driven back to the western shore of the lake.
2. The geographic location of the Sea of Galilee makes it particularly susceptible to sudden, violent storms. It is situated in a basin surrounded by mountains and 680 feet below sea level. Though at night and in the early morning the sea is usually calm, when storms come at those times, they are all the more treacherous.
3. The storm that arose must have been a major storm to strike fear into even experienced Galilean fishermen.
4. In fact this storm was so severe that Matthew in his account of this event uses the word seismos to describe it, the same Greek word used for earthquake.
B. Most readers probably find the disciples’ fear understandable. Jesus did not.
1. Jesus, tired from a long day’s teaching, was in the stern of the boat, asleep on a "cushion" while all the excitement was going on.
2. Perhaps Jesus simply wanted to escape from the crowds for a little while and renew his strength. The disciples responded to Jesus’ request by taking Jesus "just as he was, in the boat". This presumably means "without going to shore." That is, Jesus wanted to go directly to the other side of the lake in the same boat he had been teaching the people from and without the delay his first going ashore might have caused.
3. The cushion was apparently the only one on board, and Jesus used it as a pillow for his head. This is the only place in the Gospels where Jesus is said to have slept; but he did, of course, get tired and need sleep like any other man. He must have been very tired to have slept through such a violent storm.
4. The disciples’ rebuke of Jesus—"Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?"—indicates that they did not know who he really was. Such a rebuke of the Son of God was entirely inappropriate. Both Matthew and Luke eliminate the rebuke.
5. Jesus rebuked the wind and spoke to the waves. The result was that "the wind died down and it was completely calm". The sovereign Lord spoke and his creation immediately responded. Mark alone records the words Jesus used.
6. If they had had faith, they would not have been afraid. Presumably he meant faith in his identity as the Christ, the Son of God. If they knew who it was that accompanied them in the boat, they would not have feared death in the waves.
7. The last verse underscores the fact that they did not know Jesus’ true identity. They were now filled with a new kind of fear or terror—awe at the marvelous power of Jesus. In the four miracles of 4:35–5:43, Mark seeks to lead the reader into deeper faith and less fear.
8. They experienced a greater fear because there was a power greater than the storm standing before them.
9. In this case the disciples’ fear stemmed from a real understanding that somehow the divine had met them in this teacher.
III. Some appropriate applications for us dealing with these feelings today.
A. This account is obviously jam packed with analogies that relate beautifully to the worrisome culture that we are a part of.
1. We should never let the peaceful, predictable circumstances that often surround us lull us into a false sense of security. Because calm evenings frequently lead to stormy nights.
2. It does not take long for circumstances that seem to be in our control to suddenly turn into furious storm. Sudden surprises can often turn into an uncontrollable storm.
3. Even though there are storms around us that God does not calm, He is always there to throw us a lifeline. So do not misinterpret His silence as unconcern.
4. We can take in the sail, man the oars and bail the water but only the Lord can calm the storms that rage around us. There is no situation too impossible that He cannot calm.
B. The next time anxiety strikes and the fear overwhelms you, use the Lord’s three part prescription for fear.
1. Refuse: We need to refuse to allow ourselves to be controlled by our circumstances.
2. Remind: We must remind ourselves of what we believe and what we know.
3. Replace: We must replace our fear with faith in the unseen.
4. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1—NIV)
5. Jesus is the master of the wind and the waves, and as sure as He calmed the storm on the sea, He can calm the storm in your life.
6. Whatever fear you face right now, you have two choices. You can worry and assume that Jesus no longer cares or you can overcome that fear by placing your trust in Him.
Some months prior to the Chicago Fire of 1871, Horatio Gates Spafford had invested heavily in real estate on the shore of Lake Michigan, and all his holdings were destroyed by this disaster. Just before this he had experienced the death of his son. Desiring a rest for his wife and four daughters, Spafford planned a European trip for his family in 1873. In November of that year due to some unexpected last minute business developments, he had to remain in Chicago; but he sent his wife and four daughters ahead as schedule on the S.S. Ville du Havre. He expected to follow them in a few days. On November 22, the ship was struck by the Lochearn, an English vessel and sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors were finally landed at Cardiff, Wales. When ashore Mrs. Spafford sent her husband a telegram that simply said, “Saved alone” which indicated that their four daughters had lost their lives in the disaster. Shortly afterwards Spafford left by ship to join his grief stricken wife. It is believed that that on the sea near the area that it was thought that his daughters had drowned, Spafford wrote the following words that so vividly describes his own personal grief. “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll—Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. These words not only expressed Spafford’s deep grief but the trust he had in God to calm his troubled soul.
