OPEN: A mother and her young daughter were at home alone. The father was gone on a trip for his company and night was coming on. Outside, it became increasingly dark and disturbing. The moon was out, but the wind howled menacingly in trees and the branches of some of those trees brushed ominously against the house. As old houses will in a fierce windstorm, the wood creaked and moaned as the house was nudged by the wind.
It was kind of scary, and the mother and daughter were both uneasy.
As the mother was putting her daughter to bed, the young girl looked out the window at the bright moon and asked her mother “Is the moon God’s night-light?”
The mother smiled and replied "Well, yes, you could say that".
Her daughter thought about that for moment – then asked: "Does God turn out his light when he goes to sleep?"
"Oh, no honey, God never sleeps."
"Oh," said the child quietly. "Well then, if God’s going to stay up all night, there’s no sense both of us staying awake." And with that, the little girl turned over in bed, pulled her blanket up to her neck and fell asleep.
APPLY: Now, why was that little girl able to go to sleep?
I mean, the night was still dark.
The wind was still blowing.
And she and her mother were still all alone in that house.
Everything was still the same…
Except something had changed.
What was different?
(wait for a response from the crowd).
That’s right…God was the difference.
GOD changed everything for this little girl.
Once she brought God into her bedroom, her fear faded and her faith grew. Once she thought about WHO God was, and WHERE He was, and what He was capable of, she reasoned: If God was going to be up all night anyway… she knew she’d be safe, and she could sleep.
In our text this morning, we find this simple verse:
“Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’” Mark 4:38
Jesus was sleeping???
To understand how bizarre this must have seemed to the disciples, visualize this with me:
Their boat is half way across the lake and a fierce storm begins to beat against their boat. The waves are so high they wash over them and begins to swamp their little ship. In other words – they’re beginning to sink. They’re bailing as fast as they can, but more water’s coming in than going out, and it’s obvious that if the storm doesn’t die down… they will die.
Many of the disciples are seasoned fishermen. They’ve known of boats that have gone down in this kind of weather. They’ve known of sailors who never came home. And they’re frightened. And they’ve got good reason to be frightened.
And here is Jesus… asleep.
How can He do that???
Well, two reasons:
Jesus knows WHO He is.
And He knows WHERE He is going.
So, Who was Jesus?
He was the Son of God.
And Where was He going?
He was going to the Cross. Jesus was not going to die until He’d fulfilled His destiny.
Because of those two facts - that ship wasn’t going down as long as Jesus was on board.
But the disciples were frustrated because they weren’t thinking that way. They weren’t thinking of Jesus as the Son of God. They weren’t thinking about Him about His going to the cross, to die for our sins and to rise from the grave.
As far as they were concerned…
• He was a great teacher
• He was a powerful healer…
• And He was a good friend.
But… that’s about it.
And now… here they are in the midst a dangerous storm and they had been bailing for hours for all they were worth.
They’re gonna go down.
They’re gonna die.
And here is Jesus … asleep.
The disciples wake him up and cry, "Teacher, Don’t You Care…?" Mark 4:38
Don’t you care???
And at that Jesus got up and He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?”
Now what just happened there?
Well, let’s start from the beginning.
Mark 4:35 says “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
Whose idea was it to go to the other side of lake?
(Wait for the audience to reply)
That’s right. It was Jesus’ idea.
Jesus was the one who said they should cross to the other side of the lake that night.
So, if it was Jesus’ idea, do you think Jesus knew this storm was coming? Of course He did. He’s God. He knows this stuff.
So why would Jesus send His disciples into the teeth of scary storm… and then go to sleep?
Answer: To see what they’d do.
This was a test.
A multiple choice quiz… if you will.
And in this test, the disciples had at least 3 choices:
1) They could bail and bail and bail until they sank.
2) They could remember that Jesus had done before and ask for Him to perform a miracle.
3) OR they could do what they did.
What did they do?
They went to Jesus and they complained.
They didn’t go to Jesus for help.
They didn’t look for Him to fix their problem.
They were anxious and worried they wanted Him to wake up… so that He can be worried along with them.
You could say - they flunked the test.
Jesus calms the wind and the sea then turns to them and asks:
“Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
ILLUS: Have you ever flunked a test?
I have.
I remember one time a teacher handed out a true/false quiz. At the top of the paper the instructions read: “Write true or false in answer to these questions.”
The test was a no-brainer.
I knew all the answers.
I zipped down through the questions “T”, “F”, T”, “F” and proudly handed in my paper.
I got the test back with a red “F” at the top.
I complained to the teacher that all my answers were correct.
He responded that I failed to read the instructions.
The instructions required me to write “True” or “False”. I had put “T”s and “F”s. I had failed the test because I had not followed the instructions.
I learned from a lesson from that test.
That’s the way Jesus taught.
In elementary school, or high school, or college, the teacher gives the lesson first, and then the test.
Jesus gave the test FIRST… then the lesson.
The test was the lesson.
And what lesson was Jesus teaching?
1st - If they were going to follow Him, they were going to need more faith than they had.
And 2nd - when He was finished with them –when they graduated from His school - they would be able to face the worst of storms with a peace the world wouldn’t understand.
Later in His ministry, Jesus told them: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27
Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi and taught them that if they did what Jesus wanted them to do they would have “…the peace of God, which transcends all understanding (His peace doesn’t seem to make any sense), will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7
ON the lake that night, Jesus was giving them an object lesson in the kind of peace He would supply in their lives. When the storm was at its worst, Jesus stood up and He spoke to the winds and the waves.
“PEACE, BE STILL”
And there was peace.
The night had been filled terrifying sounds.
The wind was howling, the waves were crashing, the mast creaking and threatening to break in two, sails ripping and tearing as the storm swept over them.
And the constant scary sounds… NEVER… SEEMED… TO QUIT!!!
But at the command of Jesus everything became calm and quiet.
There was peace.
Essentially, Jesus was teaching His disciples that when they reached the level of faith that He wanted them to have - this would be the kind of peace they’d have in their lives. A peace that could endure even the worst of storms.
When Jesus leads us through our storms this is the kind of peace we can have. It’s a peace that brought into our lives when we remember WHO Jesus is and WHAT He’s capable of doing in our lives.
And Jesus teaches us that kind of peace… by leading us through our storms.
ILLUS: One man once observed: “Jesus does not lead His children AROUND hardship, but leads them straight THROUGH hardship. But He leads! And amidst the hardship, He is nearer to us than ever before.” Otto Dibelius
Now, that (of course) is the point.
Our circumstances may not change, but when we’re led by Jesus, our attitudes do. And the main thing that changes when we’ve gone through those storms is the realization that Jesus is LEADING us.
ILLUS: Today, our communion meditation included this comment:
“The World drinks to forget. The Christian drinks to remember.”
The world comes face to face with storms and its solution is to try to forget the storm. Bars and taverns are one of the solutions of those who cannot face the difficulties and tragedies of life. They drink to forget.
But the Christians drinks of the communion cup to remember Who Jesus is, and What He has done for them. In that remembrance they call to mind that Jesus has already been through the storm and He is fully qualified to lead them through theirs.
Just imagine how different the attitudes of the disciples would have been if they had realized Who Jesus was and What He was capable of.
Mark 4:41 tells us that when Jesus calmed the seas:
“They were terrified and asked each other,
"WHO is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Did you catch that? They didn’t have a clue WHO He was!!
Now, as I prepared my sermon this week, I realized my tendency as I read this story, was to look at these fishermen who were with Jesus and think: how dumb could they be?
Hadn’t they seen all the miracles He’d performed?
Hadn’t they been there when He healed the sick, caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear? What were they thinking?
If they’d only realized Who Jesus was, and what He could do, just think how different this story would have been. Instead of becoming like little children who were terrified by the storm, they might have become like little children at a magic show.
ILLUS: At the end of this month, we’re having a Christian magician come in to entertain and teach our youth group. And I can just picture how those kids are going to act. They’re not going to sit in those expensive seats in the back of the auditorium, like so many church goers do. They’re going to crowd into the cheap seats up front. They’re going to want front row seats. And with each magic trick they’re going to have just one thought in their minds: what’s he going to do next? They’re enthralled! They’re excited! They’re filled with anticipation!
And I can see these disciples (had they known what we know).
I can see them going over to Jesus - shaking Him awake just like they did in this story. But this time it’s not in fear, but in anticipation. “Wake up Jesus. Wake up. There’s a storm swamping our boat… and we just want to know – what kind of miracle will you perform this time?”
But they didn’t do that!
They didn’t have that kind of faith.
They didn’t have any expectations of Jesus’ power.
And again I’m tempted to think: How dumb could they be?
But then I realized Jesus didn’t expect these disciples to pass this test. He thoroughly expected them to fail! Not only because of the lesson that they were to learn that day… but because of the lesson we could learn through them.
You see, too often we look at the great heroes and heroines of faith and we get the wrong lesson.
The lesson we get too often is - these folks were nothing like me. There was never a chance they’d fail. They were brave and courageous, and I can’t be anything like that.
We see Moses standing at the edge of the Red Sea – the armies of Egypt behind him and the unforgiving waters in front of him – and he takes his staff and slams it into the waters… and the waters part.
Or we see David face off against a giant who’s a trained warrior and has killed much bigger men than him – and David swings his sling around his head a few times and drops that giant where he stood.
Or we see Daniel standing bravely in the lion’s den, calmly facing hungry and ferocious lions without a touch of fear.
Or we see Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego telling the king that they will not bow down his golden idol, and then being marched into the fiery furnace.
You know, I’d love to be able to go back in time and watch Moses at the Red Sea. Or stand beside David as he felled that giant. Or spend the night with Daniel in the Lion’s den. Or walk with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace.
That would be great!
Because I know how the story turns out.
But they didn’t.
These great heroes of the Bible… didn’t have the script.
They had no idea how these things would play out.
I love the line Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego give the King:
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:17-18
Well, if they didn’t know how this would turn out.
HOW could they be so brave?
How could they be so brave? Because they all believed: “the God we serve is ABLE to save us”. But even if He doesn’t… it doesn’t matter. Because our God is still able to take us through this storm.
The Bible records this story about the disciples’ fears and failures in this storm so I could understand that God knows you and I struggle in our storms.
And the Bible is very clear about the fact that we’re gonna have storms in our lives. Jesus Himself told His disciples: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble…”
Translation: There will be storms.
There are going to be times of trouble/heartache/loss and disappointment.
But in the midst of those storms, Jesus says, we can have peace.
Why? Because Jesus is there with us.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
In another place we’re given this promise:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrew 13:5
You and I will suffer in this world.
You can be the best Christians this world has ever known. We can do great works of service and accomplish powerful works of ministry, but it won’t matter.
You and I will suffer in this world.
But take heart – Jesus WILL lead us through the storms.
When we realize Who is in the boat with us, and What He’s capable of doing, then the storms will not overwhelm us. And we will have experience His PEACE.
CLOSE: A teacher named Phyllis I. Martin told the true story of Tornado threat in her school.
Storm clouds and strong gusts of wind had come up suddenly and the Alpine Elementary School radio blared tornado warnings. It was too dangerous to send the children home. Instead, they were taken to the basement, where the children huddled together in fear.
We teachers were worried too.
To help ease the tension, the principal suggested a sing-along. But the voices were weak and unenthusiastic. Child after child began to cry – we could not calm them.
Then a teacher, whispered to the child closest to her, “Aren’t you forgetting something Kathie? There is a power greater than the storm that will protect us. Just say to yourself, ‘God is with us.’ Then pass the words on to the child next to you.”
As the words were whispered from child to child, a sense of peace settled over the group. I could hear the wind outside still blowing with the same ferocity of the moment before, but it didn’t seem to matter now. Inside, fear subsided and tears faded away.
What made the difference?
The storm still raged outside.
But knowing God was with them calmed their fears.
One person put it this way:
“Sometimes God calms the storm.
And sometimes He lets the storm rage and He calms His child.”
