The Mighty Power of Christ – Mark 4:35-41
BACKGROUND: Please open your Bibles to Mark 4:35. As we look into our next section of Scripture from the gospel of Mark, I want you to remember, that up to this point, Mark has emphasized the mighty power of Christ. Jesus Christ had a supernatural power that proved He was the divine Son of God. Mark testifies that Jesus Christ had:
1. the power and authority to cast out demons;
2. the power and authority to cleanse a leper;
3. the power and authority to forgive the sins of the paralytic and command him to rise and walk
4. the power and authority to heal a man on the Sabbath who had a withered hand;
But Mark also testifies that Jesus Christ was compassionate and merciful, and as the Divine Son of God, Jesus taught with an authority that was unlike that of the scribes and the Pharisees. Last week, we looked at how He taught about God’s Sovereign election and how He spoke to the hard hearted in parables, but to His those who were given to Him, He spoke the word of faith clearly. And so using a farming analogy, He spoke of the different soils and how the seed, which is the Word of God, falls on different types of soils of the heart:
1. Sometimes the Word of God is like the seed that falls upon the road; and Satan snatches it away
2. Sometimes the Word of God is like the seed that falls upon the rocky ground where there is very little soil and there is no depth for the Word of God to take hold
3. Sometimes the Word of God is like the seed that falls among the thorns and just like weeds around the good plants, the cares of the world, and deceptive riches, and various lusts suck all the moisture from the soils and the seed does not bear fruit.
4. Sometimes the Word of God is like the seed that falls on the good soil, the heart that has been tilled and turned by the Holy Spirit, and the seed bears the fruit of eternal life in those who will put their trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
So Mark paints us a picture that was true then and it is true now: Jesus Christ is the Divine Son of God, mighty in power, possessing all authority, and merciful to those who will call upon His name.
In our text today, we find the Lord Jesus has finished up with His teaching for the day. He was in a boat by the water’s edge, and the crowds were there, listening to Him. Some were on the land and some were in boats around Him, but we find now that the sun is waning and Jesus has a lesson, not for the multitudes, but for His twelve disciples. But it is also a lesson for you. It is another lesson about faith. This is my translation from the original Greek. Will you follow along and hear as I read from Mark 4:35 – 41?
35 And on that day, when evening had come, He said to them, "Let us pass through into the beyond."
36 And having left the crowd, they took Him as He was in the boat, and other boats were with Him.
37 And a great wind storm came and it cast the waves into the boat, so that now, it was filling the boat.
38 And He Himself was in the stern sleeping on the cushion. And they raised Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
39 And having been aroused completely, He rebuked the wind, and He spoke to the sea, "Quiet! You be silent!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
40 And He said to them, "Why are you cowardly? You still have no faith?"
41 And they feared with great fear and they said to one another, "Who, then, is this, that even wind and the sea obey Him?" (My translation from the original)
PRAYER – Oh kind and merciful Father, grant that Your Holy Spirit will cause Your Word to be planted firmly in the hearts of all who are within the hearing of my voice. I pray that the soil of their hearts will be softened and furrowed to receive the seed implanted; that You will tenderly water and nourish the seed to full maturity and that the fruit will bring honor and glory to Your Son, Jesus Christ. And all God’s people said: AMEN.
INTRODUCTION: The people had seen all of these miraculous things that Jesus was doing and yet, most were still not believing, and even though Jesus had called His 12 disciples and they too had seen His miracle power and heard His wonderful teaching, they really didn’t understand Who He was. Jesus’ disciples really didn’t have a faith that was strong enough to trust Him completely. So we find in this text this morning that Jesus is going to show His disciples who He really is. He is going to show them how powerful He really is; and He is going to show His disciples something about themselves – that since He has the power to heal the sick, power over the demons and power over the wind and the sea, He must be the Divine Son of God, and they must trust in Him!
35 And on that day, when evening had come, He said to them, "Let us pass through into the beyond."
36 And having left the crowd, they took Him as He was in the boat, and other boats were with Him.
“they took Him as He was in the boat” – a phrase that points all the way back to verse 1 of the chapter, where Jesus first got into the boat for the purpose of teaching the crowds of people that day.
But it wasn’t just Jesus and the twelve out there in the water…there were other boats, other disciples who were willing to take extraordinary measures to be with Jesus and to follow Him wherever He went.
So Jesus told His disciples to head out for the other side of the sea of Galilee. His purpose when He gets there is to heal the demon possessed man in the land of the Geresenes. A man enslaved and ravaged by Satan and he is dwelling in the tombs. We’ll study that next week, but Jesus, in His humanity, is now tired from teaching all day and so He has gone to the rear of the boat to rest. (Believe me, preaching and teaching saps one’s energy!)
It is inevitable that crises come.
The Crisis – The Raging Sea
37 And a great wind storm came and it cast the waves into the boat, so that now, it was filling the boat.
38 And He Himself was in the stern sleeping on the cushion. And they raised Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? (What a question to ask God?)
Apparently the sea of Galilee is notorious for abrupt changes in wind patterns because of the geography of the area. Many of these guys were career fishermen. No doubt they had experienced storms before, but Mark emphasizes that this was a great wind storm. So now we can picture the waves rolling and the boats rocking and shifting on the waves.
The fact that the storm came up suddenly is interesting because while the text does not say it, I would submit to you that there is a possibility that there may be more than a natural or physical cause of this storm. It is quite possible there was a spiritual cause of this storm.
Stretch your mind a little bit and think about two possibilities:
(1) Consider this: just because Satan was not victorious in tempting Jesus in the wilderness, we should not conclude that he was finished trying to thwart Jesus’ redemptive plan, or even kill Him. I really don’t think he in any way had the power to do that, but we must remember that Satan himself is a deceived creature. He is a fallen creature and he fell from God’s glory because of pride, and pride is deceptive. Pride even has Satan convinced that he could win.
Think about what Luke says about the devil, after he had finished tempting Jesus in the wilderness:
“And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. (Luke 4:13 NAS)
That obviously means that more trials for Jesus were to come. He was constantly being tempted by the lawyers, the scribes and the Pharisees. He was even tempted by Peter immediately after he had made the great confession that Christ was the living Son of God. In Matthew sixteen, Jesus told His disciples that His mission required Him to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die.
Peter rebuked the Lord saying, “God forbid, Lord. This shall never happen to You.” Peter didn’t understand, that it was the mission of Christ from the very beginning, to take upon human flesh and go to the cross for our sins. So Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get behind Me Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” So we must remember that Jesus was completely obedient to the will of the Father His whole life and through all of His ministry.
(2) Secondly, consider the fact that Satan, was given authorization from God to inflict harm to Job’s possessions and his family (Now that is an example of God’s permissive will and not His decretive will.) God’s decretive will is when He decrees that something must happen. God is not the author of sin. James 1:13 says “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”
So what did Satan do? You can read about it in Job chapter one:
1. He caused the marauding bands of the Sabeans to kill Job’s oxen, donkeys and the servants who were plowing in the fields. (v. 15)
2. He caused fire to come down from the sky to kill his sheep and the servants who were watching them. (v. 16)
3. He caused the Chaldeans to steal his camels and kill the servants who were watching them. (v. 17)
4. He caused a great wind to destroy the house of his oldest son with the rest of his family. (vv. 18-19)
So given these examples, it is quite reasonable to believe that Satan was given some leeway to cause this storm on the sea just when Jesus and His disciples were out on it in a boat and not coincidently, when Jesus was sleeping after a long day of preaching and teaching.
[Question:] Most of us have experienced storms of some kind in our lives. Maybe at some time in your life, you have experienced a test or a trial that has come in one form or another and suddenly without warning. Think about the circumstances of that experience. Maybe you can explain it now, maybe you can’t, but as you think about it, how did you respond to the circumstance you were in?
The disciples said, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” The “we” could mean they were concerned for their own lives or, it could mean they also included Jesus in their concern.
I think the question of the disciples is no different than the question we have when we are facing a test. We may be thinking: “Jesus, don’t You care?” Well of course He cares! But the problem is that when we face uncertain times, when the winds are blowing against us and the waters of difficulty or sorrow are flooding all around us, we have this tendency to focus on the problem rather than the Problem Solver…and as a result, we are fearful…just like the disciples.
You see, there are two aspects of this we must remember:
1. Fear and faith stand in opposition to one another.
2. Jesus is in the boat with us.
In a way, I think we believe we are strong enough to face trials on our own. We think Jesus is far away or in essence, He is asleep like He was in the boat with the disciples. Nevertheless, they went to Him and prayed for Him to wake up.
Notice what verse 39 says Jesus did:
39 And having been aroused completely, He rebuked the wind, and He spoke to the sea, "Quiet! You be silent!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
He said, “Quiet! You be silent!” Isn’t that what He said to the demons when they spoke?
So Jesus showed Him mighty power to the disciples. But hear His gentle rebuke in verse 40:
Verse 40 – "Why are you cowardly? You still have no faith?"
Jesus is not surprised by their lack of faith, but He is asking this in such a way that it is a mild rebuke and all the while He is trying to teach them that they have every reason to trust Him. I must emphasize the word “trust” here because sometimes we pass over the word faith, we even diminish its meaning sometimes, when we need to understand that faith is trusting. Faith is the kind of trust that is based upon knowledge. That is why we must be people who read the Bible always, because in the Word of God about:
1. God and
2. we learn how those who have gone before us, who have experienced troubles as well have overcome by trusting in God.
Hebrews 11 shows us a list of imperfect people who still had faith. They still trusted in God, and some of them went through some very serious times!
I think it is interesting how in the Matthew account of this story, Jesus called them “men of little faith.” In the original language, that phrase is represented by one word and He only used it to refer to His disciples: oligopistos – (McDonald Idiomatic Translation says: “microbelievers”)
In Matt. 6:30 and Luke 12:28 Jesus speaks of how the Father provides for what we need - "But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? (oligopistos;)
Matt. 8:26 - And He said to them, "Why are you timid, you men of little faith?" Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and it became perfectly calm. (oligopistos)
Matt. 14:31 - And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (oligopistos),
Matt. 16:8 - But Jesus, aware of this, said, "You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread? (oligopistos)
Finally, notice the response of the disciples, after Jesus calmed the wind and the sea:
Verse 41 And they feared with great fear and they said to one another, "Who, then, is this, that even wind and the sea obey Him?"
Don’t be a microbeliever! Trust in the Lord.
ONLY TRUST HIM
Come, every soul by sin oppressed there’s mercy with the Lord,
And He will surely give you rest by trusting in His Word.
For Jesus shed His precious blood rich blessings to bestow;
Plunge now into the crimson flood that washes white as snow.
Yes, Jesus is the truth, the way, that leads you into rest;
Believe in Him without delay and you are fully blessed.
Only trust Him, only trust Him, Only trust Him now;
He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now.
