“The Next Step”
by Rev. James Tino
New Life Lutheran Church
Miramar, FL
Mark 4:35 - 41
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ;
“Where do we go from here?” Have you ever said that? (I’ll bet some of you were saying that yesterday evening, as you tried to find our house for the anniversary party). Sometimes in life, we just get stuck. All of our plans seem to lead to a dead end. The goal is out there, but it seems that there is no way to get there. We can’t figure out the next step.
That’s kind of where we are as a church right now. The way forward is not clear. Some of you may be in the same place in your personal lives – maybe you have some options, or maybe you are running out of options. What we need is some direction; a way forward; the next step.
What is your next step? What is our next step? In our text in v. 35, “(Jesus) said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’”
This was the end of a long day for Jesus. It was evening. As we read in Mark ch. 4, Jesus had spent the whole day teaching the people. According to the Scripture, a large crowd of people had gathered to hear Jesus teach – a “multitude”. There were so many people that Jesus taught from a boat, which was anchored just a little offshore. The people gathered along the shore of the sea of Galilee, and Jesus taught them.
Now it was evening, and Jesus said to the disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side.” The disciples didn’t know whay Jesus wanted to go to the other side of the sea of Galilee, because the other side was the region known as Gerasene. This was a sparsely-settled area – sometimes in the Bible it is called a “wilderness” area. In the next chapter of Mark, ch. 5, we read about what happened when Jesus got to the other side. In Gerasene was a man who was demon-possessed, and Jesus cast out the demons from the man, and the demons entered a herd of swine and then plunged over a cliff. That’s what was waiting for them on the other side.
But the disciples didn’t know that when Jesus said, “Let’s go to the other side”. They didn’t know what was in store. They just knew that Jesus wanted them to go from where they were, to somewhere else – to the other side.
Is Jesus asking you to go with Him to the ‘other side’? Maybe it’s time for you to move to a new level in your spiritual life. You have been hearing Jesus teach now for quite a while. You have heard His message of love and forgiveness. You know at least the basics of Scripture. You have listened to Jesus. Now what? Is Jesus saying to you, “Let’s go to the other side?”
“Let’s go to the other side” is an invitation to go with Jesus to the unknown. That “other side” will look a little different for each one of us. For some, it could be that Jesus is asking you to step up your prayer life. You have prayed in the past, but now it’s time to really dedicate yourself to prayer. For someone else, it could be that Jesus is moving you in a new direction in life. Maybe God is calling you to new levels of service. And for another person, maybe the “other side” is a call to a walk of faith, trusting the Lord to provide for you even when you don’t see how it could happen. We have been on the sea shore for a long time, and now Jesus is inviting us to go with Him to the other side; to another level; to do something that maybe we have never done before.
Our text continues: (READ v. 36).
There’s a lot in this verse for us today. The first thing I notice is that the disciples “left the crowd”. Not everyone was going to the other side. We don’t know who was in that crowd. Maybe some of the disciple’s family members were a part of the crowd. But even if they were all strangers, a crowd of people is comfortable and familiar; it’s safe. But the disciples left the crowd.
When Jesus calls you to go to the other side, that means that you will need to leave some things behind. You can’t take everything with you in the boat. Some things have to be left behind.
In order to move ahead in your faith life, what do you need to leave behind? What do you need to leave on the shore in order to grow in your spiritual life? We all probably have a different thing (or things) that need to be left behind, but let me make a few suggestions.
For some people, there is a sin that needs to be left behind. We know that all of us are sinners in need of forgiveness. But sometimes there is a particular sin that keeps coming back. It’s like a weight on our spiritual lives. If you leave that sin behind, you will be able to move ahead to the next level of your spiritual life, to the other side.
Sometimes there’s a schedule that needs to be left behind. We fill out lives with so much to do, that there ends up being no time for God. A crowded schedule can keep you on the shore. For some people, there’s a schedule that needs to be left behind. If you leave behind your schedule, you will find that you can move more freely as God directs you.
Sometimes there’s even a person that needs to be left behind. I’m not talking about married couples, here – I’m talking about some other person, a friend or an acquaintance who is presenting a stumbling block to your faith. If there is a person like that who is keeping you from following Jesus, maybe it’s time to leave that person behind so that you can move ahead to a deeper and richer spiritual life.
Jesus once said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” That’s another way of saying that when we move ahead with Jesus, some things need to be left behind. Spiritual growth will cost you something, but the things that you leave behind, you will later discover, are the things that you are better without.
The disciples left the crowd behind, and the text says, “they took Him with them in the boat, just as He was.”
That struck me as being a very curious way to say that they got in the boat with Jesus. It’s like Jesus was luggage – “they took Him with them, just as He was.”
There’s two important lessons for us here. The first one is this: don’t go anywhere without Jesus! Take Him with you. If you are a Christian, then that means that you have a living faith in Jesus Christ. The faith of a disciple is a 7-day-a-week faith; it’s a faith that influences our decisions and guides our actions. Christians don’t leave Jesus in church on Sunday for the week, and then come back the next Sunday and find Him there again. We need to take Jesus with us. To work, to school, to the friends’ house, to family gatherings, to the restaurant, and even to the night clubs. Because the truth is that Jesus is with us, whether we acknowledge it or not. Taking Jesus with you means allowing Jesus to lead you every day, not just on Sunday.
The other thing I see here is this: the disciples took Jesus “just as He was”. He didn’t change His clothes or fix His hair. He went with the disciples just the way He was.
When we go with Jesus, we need to be prepared to take Him just as He is. We don’t have the luxury of “fixing up” Jesus to make Him the way we would like Him to be. We don’t get to pick and choose the parts of Christianity that we like, and the ones that we don’t like. Jesus is what He is.
So, who is Jesus? That’s really the lesson that the disciples learned in this text. They got a close-up and personal lesson of who Jesus really is.
(READ vs. 37 – 41).
Look again with me at the last verse of this text. After Jesus calmed the storm, it says that the disciples “were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’”
When the disciples saw the power of Jesus, they were filled with fear. Sometimes we talk so much about the suffering Jesus, that we forget that Jesus is also the almighty, all-powerful God. We like to focus on the soft and fuzzy parts of Jesus. Jesus as our brother. Jesus as our friend. Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Jesus as our forgiving Savior. And all that is true about Jesus. But here, the disciples saw another side of Jesus, and what they saw made them afraid. They saw His power. They saw that Jesus is more than a man, more than a teacher, more than a prophet – He is the Lord of the universe!
What is there that the Lord of universe cannot do? Is there any limit to His power? Is there any limit to His might? Is there any limit to His understanding? In our OT reading, Job was questioning God’s wisdom, and God put Job in his place. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” Do you know how it was done? Were you there? “Or who shut in the sea… and prescribed limits for it… and said, ‘Thus far you shall come, and no farther?’” Do you know, Job? Can you tell me? At the end, Job realizes how small he is, and all he can do is repent before the Lord of the universe.
Who is Jesus? He is the God of all creation, the Lord of the universe, the One who can calm the wind and the waves with a single word. Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings; He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is the one who created everything out of nothing. There is no limit to His power, and there is no limit to His knowledge. God is not tricked, or manipulated – He does what He purposes to do. He is never confused, or stuck, or wondering what to do next. Jesus is the almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-living God! That’s who He is.
As Christians, we run into problems when we forget who Jesus is. Like the disciples on the boat, when we forget Who it is that we have with us, the storms of life overwhelm us. As the disciples were crossing the sea of Galilee, a tremendous storm came up. We live in South Florida – we know how quickly storms can come up, and how violent and dangerous they can be. Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat – He must have been exhausted from teaching in the sun the whole day. But even though a storm came up, it was OK. At least 4 of the disciples were fishermen. They had been out on the sea in storms before. They knew what to do in storms. They figured that they could handle it.
. Some of us are here today with a storm raging in your life. Others of us have a friend or loved ones who have a storm raging. Maybe it’s a health problem, or a marital problem, or an addiction problem, or a financial problem, or even the storm of the approaching death of a loved one. What do you do when the storm is raging? Do you remember who Jesus is, or do you try to solve it yourself?
I know what I do – I try to solve it myself. Even though you may not be aware of it, we here at New Life are in the middle of a storm. I have been your pastor for 5 years now. In those 5 years, a lot has been accomplished, but we have not grown in numbers as we had hoped. Now, the reality of our financial storm has caught up to us. Since December, we have not been paying the mortgage on our land. And now, we don’t have enough to pay our bills and to pay my salary. I have asked the Board of Officers to reduce my salary by 50%, and they have declined to do so. They want to take care of me, and I appreciate that, but I’m also frustrated by it. You see, I’m trying to get us out of the storm by myself.
What do you do in the storms of your life? Do you start bailing the boat like crazy? Or do you remember who Jesus is?
As the storm continued to intensify, the disciples finally realized that they needed help. They turned to Jesus, but the way that they asked Jesus for help is more revealing than perhaps they thought it would be. “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Has that ever happened to us? We get out there in the middle of life, and suddenly find ourselves in the midst of a storm. Problems or difficulties arise; unemployment, peronal problems, addictions, vices. At first, we are pretty sure that we can handle things ourselves. But when we get overwhelmed, we turn to Jesus. “Don’t you see what’s happening here, God? Don’t You care about me? Don’t You care that I’m drowning?” Our prayers for help can start to sound like accusations of negligence.
What’s happened? What’s happened to us, and what happened to the disciples? What happens is that in the midst of the storms of life, it’s easy to forget Who it is that we have with us in the boat!
So with a word, Jesus calmed the storm. Just like that – problem solved. At least, the problem of the storm was solved. The bigger problem still remained, and Jesus made sure that the disciples knew what the problem was. He said to them, “What’s the matter with you? Have you still no faith?”
Those words of Jesus are harsh reminders for us. “Have you still no faith”? After seeing all that God has done for you, have you still no faith? After being taught by the Word of God, have you still no faith? After being healed, being rescued by God, being comforted in loss, being forgiven for all of our mistakes and sins – have you still no faith?
We are in the midst of a storm – I am in the midst of a storm. Maybe you have your own storms going on. We worry about those storms, and how we will escape from them, and how things will turn out. Rather than turning to Jesus, we keep trying to bail the boat.
When finances get tight, we quit giving our offering to God. And Jesus says, “What’s wrong with you? Have you no faith?”
When life gets complicated, we quit coming to church. And Jesus says, “What’s wrong with you? Have you no faith?”
When difficulties arise, we take time from God in order to resolve our problems. And Jesus says, “What’s wrong with you? Have you no faith?”
When we get disappointed, we give up on God. And Jesus says, “What’s wrong with you? Have you no faith?”
When New Life runs out of money, the pastor starts looking for another job. And Jesus says, “What’s wrong with you? Have you no faith?”
What can we say? We’ve been watching the waves instead of remembering who Jesus is. The only thing we can answer is, “You’re right, Lord. I don’t have faith. Help me in my unbelief.”
The disciples were afraid because they were watching the storm - their attention was focused on the wind and the waves. They had no peace inside, only worry. They weren’t thinking about Who was with them; their concern was what was against them.
The problem for the disciples and our problem is not the storms of life but where our attention is focused. It’s hard to see the Christ in the boat when our attention is riveted on the waves outside the boat. When our attention is so consumed by the storms of life so that we cannot see Jesus, or turn to Him, or trust in Him, then there is no peace, no contentment, but only worry and despair.
In the midst of our storms, our very real storms and difficulties, it’s time to remember who Jesus is. In order to get on over to the other side, we need to look away from the storms and look to Jesus. We need to hear His words, the words He spoke to the wind and the waves: “Peace. Be still”. Peace comes from knowing who Jesus is. He is the Lord of the universe. He is the God of all creation. He can calm the wind and the sea. He is a living, loving, caring Savior, a God who is looking out for you. Jesus has a word for us in the storms of life, the same word that He spoke to the disciples as He ascended into heaven: “I am with you”. That’s all we need. Jesus is with us.
My friends, let’s remember who it is that is with us. Jesus is with us. He has invited us, you and I, to leave behind the comfort of the familiar and to cross on over to the other side. If we are going to get there, if we’re going to get to the next level of our spiritual journey, there’s only one thing to do: Stop bailing, and start believing. Amen.
