WATER BAILERS OR STORM STOPPERS?
Mark 4:35-41
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: VINNIE’S BEALTED FATHER’S DAY GIFT
1. An old Italian man lived alone outside the city of Chicago. He wanted to dig his tomato garden, but it was too hard of work for him.
2. His only son, Vinnie, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son, "Dear Vinnie, I’m feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just too old to dig up that garden plot.
3. I know if you were here, my troubles would be over; you’d be happy to dig the plot for me. Love, Dad."
4. A few days later he received a letter from his son: "Dear Dad, don't dig up the garden. That's where I buried the bodies. Love, Vinnie."
5. At 4am the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.
6. That next day the old man received another letter from his son: "Dear Dad, go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances. Love you, Vinnie."
B. “THE UNSINKABLE SHIP”
1. At the sinking of the Titanic.
2. It was widely proclaimed “The Unsinkable Ship.” It was built in Belfast, Ireland.
3. When it sank it was a terrible blow. The shipping industry there was decimated.
4. Sixteen men from one church died in it. People wept openly in the streets. At the Commemoration Service, the cathedral was packed. Lords and bishops were in attendance.
5. The minister spoke on “The Unsinkable Ship”; not the Titanic, but the frail boat on the sea of Galilee, unsinkable because the Master of the land and sea was aboard.
C. TEXT
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.
There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 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?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mk. 4:35-41.
TITLE: “WATER BAILERS OR STORM STOPPERS?”
I. DESTINED FOR STORMS
A. PARABLE
From the earliest days of Christianity, this passage has been thought to also be a parable of the Church, which is destined for storms. (Tertullian, Ignatius).
B. “Let us go over to the other side”. Mk. 4:35.
1. Jesus had told them to go forward; it was His will.
2. The Church can’t fail, though the tempests toss it.
3. It will arrive at its destination, victoriously. The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church!
C. TRIALS WILL COME
1. In this account:
a. Great tempest arose, Vs. 24
b. Waves washed over ship repeatedly.
c. Ship became almost filled with water.
d. The disciples, though good sailors, were terrified.
2. “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” I peter 4:12.
3. Purposes:
a. To test the metal we’re made of.
b. To give us the opportunity to rise up in faith.
c. To drive us to God.
4. TRIALS ARE TO TEAR US DOWN, TO BUILD US UP
It is not that you never entertain a question, for as Frederick Buechner exclaimed: “Without somehow
destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.” Doubt does not bury faith, it gives birth to faith.
5. Joke – “Christians are like tea bags: you never know what kind you are until you get into hot water.”
II. CHRIST WAS ASLEEP DURING THE STORM
A. DOES JESUS CARE? SOMETIMES IT SEEMS LIKE GOD IS ASLEEP
1. Sometimes it seems like, when our trials hit, that Christ is asleep. We don’t hear His voice; we see little of His face; His eyes appear closed.
2. Mk. 4:38, “Master, don’t you care if we drown?” Sometimes we doubt God’s love for us. But Jesus was in the boat.
3. In pioneer days, a father sent his son alone to school, though he had to walk through thick woods. The boy felt vulnerable & afraid. But over time fear left him. One day, a bear approached him. Suddenly a shot rang out. His dad stepped out of the brush. “I followed you every morning, and waited, hidden, every afternoon. I’ve been with you the entire time”.
B. THEY CRY TO THE SAVIOR
1. Mighty distress often leads to mighty prayers.
2. How slack, complacent, compromising the church has been until the Lord has allowed some persecution.
3. The Lord didn’t hear the sound of the storm, He heard their cry for help; our’s too.
4. ILLUS. A man visited a sheep farm in Australia during sheering time. He asked the shepherd if he’d ever seen anything noteworthy about the sheep. He replied, “Yes! Watch this”.
He took one little lamb from the weaning pen (where the little sheep are encouraged to get off milk and begin
eating grass) and took it to a pasture with thousands of sheep. The noise of all those sheep bleating and baahing was almost deafening. He placed the little lamb down and walked away.
The lamb remained still for a while, then it cried, and its cry was answered by its mother at the other end of the pasture. Instantly, the mother and the little lamb began approaching each other and met in the middle of the enclosure.
The lesson the man learned was, “Don’t think that you are beyond the reach of God. He sees and hears you as if you were His only child in the world”.
C. STORMS YOU MAY BE EXPERIENCING
1. Loneliness 4.Rocky Relationship
2. Loss of loved one 5. A hurting child
3. Financial battle 6. Confusion/ fear
YOU MAY FEEL THAT GOD IS FAR AWAY, THAT YOU’RE DESERTED, BUT TRUTH IS, “HE WAS THERE ALL THE TIME”.
III. POINTED TO HIGHER FAITH
A. WHAT THE DISCIPLES HAD TRIED
1. The disciples had surely:
a. Tried to set the sails
b. Tried to steer around waves
c. Pulled at the oars
d. and bailed water
2. The disciples were:
…bailing water when they had Jesus in the boat!
…afraid, when they had Jesus in the boat!
…letting the winds & waves buffet them when they had Jesus in the boat!
3. ARE WE DOING THE SAME THINGS? Sometimes we just try to cover over the symptoms of our problems, instead of getting down to the root causes.
4. BUT JESUS DOESN’T WANT US TO BE WATER BAILERS, BUT STORM STOPPERS! Not just depending on the natural, but stepping up to experience the
supernatural! Will you take a chance?
B. CHRIST’S REBUKE
1. Christ did not at once stop the storm! First He rebukes the “little faith” of the disciples. (“little faith” Vs. “Great faith”)
2. In the O.T., water is often a type of opposition from outside circumstances.
3. Our spiritual forefathers, Heroes of faith, had taken authority over the natural elements by faith.
Moses – the Red Sea
Joshua – sun & moon to “hold still”
Elijah/ Elisha – the Jordan River
4. Lord Jesus was surprised when they didn’t use the power available to them. He often encouraged them to step out in faith:
a. Before He feed the 5,000, He challenged them, “You give them to eat” (Greek, Mk. 6:37).
b. He told Peter to walk on the water.
c. He told them to raise the dead & heal the sick.
5. How would God deal with your problem? Whatever God has done for others, He’ll do for us!
C. TRANSLATING THE WORD “BELIEVE”
1. A missionary in Africa experienced great difficulty in trying to translate the Gospel of John into the local dialect. He faced the problem of finding a word for believe. He continued to do his best, but he always had to leave a blank space when he came to that particular word.
2. Then one day a runner came panting into the camp, having traveled a great distance with a very important message. After blurting out his story, he fell completely exhausted into a nearby hammock. He muttered a brief phrase that seemed to express both his great weariness and his contentment at finding such a delightful place of relaxation.
3. The missionary, never having heard these words before, asked a bystander what the runner had said. "Oh, he is saying, ’I’m at the end of myself, therefore I am resting all of my weight here!’" The missionary exclaimed, "Praise God! That is the very expression I need for the word believe!" And so he was able to complete his
translation.
D. THE MIRACLE
1. "'σιωπα πεφιμωσο", “Be quiet! Be muzzled!” Mark 4:39
2. Immediately the sea became as smooth as glass.
3. When a storm subsides, a sea is usually turbulent for hours, if not for days.
4. Mark says, “The men feared greatly”. WHY? The Awesomeness of the miracle indicated that this was no mere man! But something much more.
IV. WHO IS THIS JESUS?
A. UNPARALLELED IN HUMAN HISTORY
1. “In infancy He startled a king; in childhood He puzzled the scholars; in manhood He commanded nature -- walking on waves as if on land, and hushing the sea to sleep. He healed the multitudes without medicine and fed huge crowds with a boy’s lunch.
2. He never wrote a book, yet all the libraries of the world couldn’t hold the books written about Him. He never founded a college, but all the world’s schools couldn’t hold his students. He never marshaled an army, but no army that ever marched could equal those who march with Him.
3. The names of the great men of the world of politics & science come and gone, but this man’s renown grows greater every year.
4. Herod could not destroy Him, the Romans couldn’t stop Him and the grave could not hold Him.
5. He stands forth as the most revered man of the human race: proclaimed of God, acknowledged by angels, adored by saints, and feared by devils -- the living, resurrected, victorious Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our Lord and Savior.” Lalachan Abraham (adapted)
B. WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?
1. Who can command NATURAL FORCES?
2. Who can supersede the laws of the universe –
Walking on water, ascending into heaven
3. Who commands evil spirits and they obey Him
4. Who fed 5,000 from a boy’s lunch
5. Who called people back to life – dead 4 days
6. Who healed sicknesses & diseases at will
C. ILLUSTRATION
1. When the first missionaries went to Japan, a young Japanese who wanted to learn English was given the Gospel of John to translate into his native language.
2. In a short time he became restless and agitated. At last he burst out with the question, “Who is this man about whom I have been reading, this Jesus? You call Him a man, but He must be God”.
3. He was right. He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, the Creator of all things, who holds all things in existence moment by moment!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: IMMENSE ASSETS AT YOUR DISPOSAL
1. At one time J. Wilbur Chapman experienced a great sorrow that nearly shook his faith. In addition, his finances were almost depleted just when it was necessary for him to take a long trip to the western United States.
2. One of the elders of his church who was a wealthy banker came to his home to offer a word of comfort and encouragement. As he left, he slipped a piece of paper into the pastor’s hand. Chapman looked at it and was surprised to find that it was a check made out to him and signed by this rich friend.
3. But the figures to indicate the amount of the gift were missing. "Did you really mean to give me a signed blank check?" he asked. "Yes," said the man. "I didn’t know how much you’d need, and I wanted to be sure you would have enough."
4. Later Chapman commented, "While I never had to use that check, it gave me a secure feeling to know that thousands of dollars were literally at my disposal."
B. ALTAR CALL
1. How many of you are facing a storm? Trial?
2. How many dealing with the symptoms instead of dealing with the root of the problem?
3. The key is trusting in Jesus: for your salvation, to solve your problems, to work a miracle where you need one. All who need Jesus, come forward!
