FAITH STILL STOPS THE WIND
Mk. 4:35-41
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Gusty Chartrand and her daughter Barb were hired to conduct in-depth surveys. “After a day of reading questions and writing responses we were getting weary, but we decided to finish the last two people before calling it a day.”
2. I dropped Barb at her final location and went to mine. I finished early, so I walked in on Barb just as she was finishing the personal data section, which included the question, “Religious affiliation.”
3. I knew a hard day’s work had finally gotten to Barb when I heard her ask, “And finally, what is your religious affliction?”
4. Yes, sometimes religion seems that way! Read along with me as we look at tonight’s text:
B. 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!”
C. THESIS
1. Tonight we’re going to consider an event in the disciple’s lives and what it means to us.
2. We’re looking at the Opposition we face, our Untapped Resource, and that the Same Faith is Available!
3. The title of tonight’s message is “Faith Still Stops the Wind!”
I. THE WIND = OPPOSITION
A. MEANING OF THE WIND
1. This account is both a real story and a parable of life.
2. Story of the disciples and the Lord on the Sea of Galilee.
3. The wind represents natural opposition/ difficulties of life, opposing our forward progress, especially in trying to obey and follow Christ.
4. Maybe that’s why the devil is known as the “Prince of the Principality of the Air.”
B. HINDRANCE OF THE DISCIPLES
1. Christ had commanded the disciples to go across. That was God’s will.
2. But the disciples could make no headway. Circumstances seemed to go against them.
3. Question: “If it’s God’s will, won’t everything work out?” No!
4. Worse, it appeared they would capsize. The ship of their faith was filling with water. They were going to drown/ go under!
5. “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.
“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” 2 Tim. 3:12.
C. HUMOR
1. A few days before Christmas, two next door neighbors decided to go sailing while their wives went Christmas shopping.
2. A storm arose while the men were sailing and they had great difficulty controlling. As they maneuvered toward land, they hit a sandbar.
3. Both men jumped overboard and began to push and shove the boat, trying to get it into deeper water.
4. Standing almost knee deep in mud, with the waves breaking over his head and slamming him into the side of the boat, one man yelled to the other, “This sure beats Christmas shopping doesn’t it?”
D. JESUS COULD HAVE PREVENTED THIS STORM!
1. Remember that the disciples were led into this storm by following their Master. v. 23 They followed Him right into a storm.
2. Some believe that storms come for the Christian only when they rebel or disobey God, but that’s not true. God’s will isn’t always smooth sailing.
E. STORMS HAVE A VARIETY OF CAUSES:
1. Sometimes we blow up our own storms.
2. Sometimes the Enemy, Satan, brew them up for us. Examples: Paul at Thessalonica; Job. Most Bible scholars believe this storm in Mark 4 was devil driven, because in v. 39 it says Jesus ‘rebuked’ the storm.
3. Some storms God creates Himself. But whatever the source, God is still the Master of the Storm!
II. THE UNTAPPED RESOURCE
A. WHERE’S THE LORD?
1. The NATURAL TENDENCY when something traumatic happens to us is to blame God for lack of care.
2. But the real truth is – the responsibility rested with the disciples. Once they called on Christ Jesus, He began to respond.
3. THIS IS THE ONLY TIME WE FIND JESUS ASLEEP & IT’S IN A STORM. Several other times we find the disciples sleeping when Jesus has important business, but this time He’s asleep and they are biting their nails to the quick!
4. SOMETIMES IT SEEMS LIKE GOD IS ASLEEP. He’s NOT! He declares he “never slumbers or sleeps.” He was just waiting for them to call on Him.
5. He was their untapped resource; their struggles and anguish could have been avoided by calling on Him earlier.
B. VOICE OF COMMAND: “BE SILENT”
1. Jesus arose and rebuked the winds and the waves.
2. Prov. 30:4, “Who has ascended up into heaven, or descended? who has gathered the wind in his fists? who has bound the waters in a garment? who has established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his Son's name, if you can tell?”
3. His faith muzzled them. They were instantly still and quiet. All this was the result of faith!
III. THIS SAME FAITH AVAILABLE
A. THIS FAITH CAN STILL STOP THE WINDS
1. “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain…” Mt. 17:20. Only a tiny amount can have an incredible effect.
2. Mt. 17:20 continues with the words, “Nothing will be impossible with you.”
3. A grain of mustard seed dislodging a mountain!
4. Faith in itself is powerless, but connected with God it becomes all powerful.
5. Like a chain, slipping over a crankshaft, sets a whole factory in motion, because it links the machinery with the engine.
6. Faith links the machinery of the universe to the great power of God.
B. EXAMPLES OF THIS FAITH ALTERING WEATHER
1. Moses – wind changed directions and blew the locusts back into the Sea.
-- Storm, hail, lightning.
2. Elijah – no rain 3½, then rained.
3. Samuel prayed & God sent a storm. Changing circumstances.
4. Faith still stops the Wind. Have faith in God. Believe in the miraculous! Call upon God and cry out to Him.
5. God has always been moved by desperate, determined seekers.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. The Northwestern University Wildcats shocked the world of college football in 1995 by making it to the Rose Bowl Tournament.
2. The man behind the team’s turnaround was coach Gary Barnett. Barnett was determined to prove that kids at the Big Ten’s smallest and most academically demanding school could play football.
3. He ordered a Tournament of Roses flag for the football building and kept a silk rose on his desk to remind everyone where they were heading.
4. “At the first meeting,” says kicker Sam Valenzisi, “he told us we needed belief without evidence. He asked, ‘Do you know what that is? That’s faith!’”
B. THE CALL
1. How we believe will determine how we behave. If we believe God doesn’t intervene, then we’ll develop learned helplessness. Do you want God to help you?
2. Circumstances don't make choices for people.
3. Matthew 4:1-10, God doesn't cause or tempt us to sin, but He will lead us through. What God leads you into, He will lead you through ("Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness.")
4. Slavery can become a comfort zone. [Like a TDC inmate who prefers prison bondage to freedom because in bondage he doesn’t have to worry about what kind of food he’ll eat or clothes he’ll wear – they’re lousy, but there’s no stress about it.]
