• If you would, please turn to the person beside you and tell that person, “I HAVE FAITH.”
• If you can not say that, turn to that person and say, “I am going to listen real close to this sermon because I do not have any faith.”
Life can be compared to the restless sea in many ways. How often have we all wished that life could be filled with mountain top experiences?
Instead, like the sea, life has its good and bad times -- up and down.
Illus: Every BUSINESS PERSON knows the frustration of operating a business. One month it looks as though sales are going through the ceiling and the next month they fall through the basement.
Every FARMER knows the frustration of farming. One year he has a bumper crop and the next year he has to borrow money to keep from loosing his farm.
Because life is this way, I believe our text, in Mark 4, can be an enormous blessing to all of us. Perhaps it will help us to know that in order for life to make any sense, we have to understand that God has a purpose for all that He allows to come our way. For example, the storm we read about in our text was allowed for at least THREE reasons for His disciples then, and His followers today.
1. IT DEMONSTRATES WHO CHRIST WAS -- THE SOVEREIGN LORD WHO HAS POWER OVER EVERYTHING!
2. IT STRENGTHENS THE FAITH OF HIS DISCIPLES.
3. IT UNVEILS HIS LOVE AND CONCERN FOR HIS DISCIPLES AS THEY FACE THE STORMS OF LIFE.
Illus: It might be some of you are saying today, “Preacher, I do not need this message because everything is going great in my life today."
My advice to you is, listen, and fasten your seat belt. I can promise you that you will face some severe storms. It may not be today, but it could happen soon.
Illus: Someone said this about life. When it comes to the “storms” of life we can all say one of the following:
-We have just come out of one.
-We are in the middle of one.
-We are about to face one.
Every person who has been living very long can vouch for the truthfulness of that statement.
Let me show you TWO things in this passage of scripture that will reveal to us how we can be SURVIVORS through the storms of life. Look first at...
I. THE SITUATION.
Look at verses 35-36, “And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship." And there were also with him other little ships.”
As we look at these verses we see...
A. The Savior.
The Savior we see is completely exhausted. Many people do not realize that Jesus became tired in His body the same way we become tired in ours.
Jesus was 100% God, and He was also 100% man. In our text we can first see the human side of the Lord Jesus.
-He had been teaching all day long.
-He had been having to fight His way through the crowds all day long.
-His critics had been following Him for the purpose of listening to every word He said to try to find a contradiction.
-His body was tired.
-His mind was tired.
Jesus was completely exhausted!
You see, God became FLESH and dwelt among us. His body had the same limitations that any person’s body has. There were times He had to withdraw Himself from the crowd because if He had not, his body would have collapsed the same way ours would under such a load.
The reason I am making a point of this is because there are people today who feel that because a man is a preacher of the gospel he never needs any time off to rest.
I trust no one here would be so foolish as to believe that. Even Jesus had to withdraw from the people to find rest.
The disciples also often withdrew from the people to get some rest. If Jesus, and the disciples, had to find a quiet time away from the people for rest back then, why would anyone be so foolish as to think the minister of the gospel would not need some time to relax?
The disciples could look at Christ and tell that fatigue had set in. Look at these words in verse 36. We read, “...they took him even as he was...” It would almost seem as if they had to literally pick Him up and take Him to the ship.
In His work the Lord set the example for all of us. If you are going to be a follower of His you cannot be a slothful person. When He was taken aboard the ship He was so exhausted that He immediately went to sleep. In fact, He was so tired that even the severe storm did not wake Him up.
However, notice, before we leave verse 36, in the last part of that verse we read, “...And there were also with him other little ships.”
Why does Mark mention that?
Because Christ was going to show mankind that He was the all-powerful Son of God and that He had power over even nature. When Christ stood on the deck of that ship, with the wind blowing and the rain beating into His face, and said, “Peace be still,” He wanted others there to document what He had done.
We hear so many things today from the pulpits of our churches being passed off as the truth that cannot be documented.
Do not believe those things that can not be documented.
The Lord was going to reveal His power over nature, but He wanted to make sure there were more people there than just His disciples to confirm what He had done.
We have seen the exhausted Savior. Now let us look at...
B. The storm. It was at this time, when the Lord was completely exhausted and a storm was raging, that the disciples wondered if they would be able to SURVIVE!
The good news is this: no matter how severe a storm might be, if we have Christ “aboard” we can survive.
Illus: After hurricane Hugo came through the South, many people began wearing T-shirts with “I SURVIVED HUGO” printed on them. What they should have put on those shirts was, “GOD ALLOWED ME TO SURVIVE HUGO!”
The one thing the disciples had going for them in the midst of that storm was they had the Lord aboard their ship.
That was THE SITUATION. Now look at...
II. THE SAVIOR.
Look at verse 37. We read, “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.”
It does not take a merchant marine to know that the disciples were in trouble. The Bible says that the wind and waves were so strong the water was beating into the ship and the ship “...was now full.” We all know that a storm can come up very quickly.
Illus: The story is told of one case in Tampa, Fla., in the 60’s when a tornado struck that lovely town. After the storm, the reporters from the local television station were interviewing some of the people who had survived it. One lady said she had not gotten out of bed yet and she heard a sound like a freight train coming through her house. Her house began to shake and she looked out of her front window and saw her car tumbling across her yard.
The point is this: storms can come very quickly. That was what seemed to be the case with the disciples. Look at the word “arose,” in verse 37. It implies something they were not expecting.
This is usually true of spiritual “storms” also. When we least expect it, they strike.
-You can wake up one morning with the sun shining in your face and a nice soft breeze blowing against your body and think, “What a lovely day,” and by nightfall you can be standing beside the casket of a loved one that you had breakfast with.
-You know why people hate to go to the doctor? Because they know they can make one trip to his office and all of a sudden they could be facing the storm of death, face to face and be told they only have six months to live.
-You can be traveling down the highway with your family and someone can make one wrong turn and you are facing one horrendous storm.
We never know when a storm might suddenly arise in our life. The Bible says in verse 37, “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.”
This passage shows us that storms come suddenly. Our text SHOWS US WHY THEY COME.
All of the storms of life come from three places. Sometimes...
-WE BRING THEM ON OURSELVES.
Illus: A young girl may go with a boy and get pregnant. Then that girl, with a child in her arms, says, “Well this is the cross I must bear.” She can not attach any religious significance to what she did. Her having that child is not a “cross” to be “born.” What she is doing is paying for her promiscuity all because she would not listen to God or the ones who loved her and told her not to get involved in pre-marital sex.
Many are facing some tremendous storms in their lives today that they have brought upon themselves.
-SOMETIMES THE DEVIL BRINGS THEM.
Satan knows how God wants to bless us and use us and sometimes He will send a storm in our direction to keep us from being used of God.
Illus: We see that in the life of the apostle Paul. In 1 Thess. 2:18, we read, “Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.”
The devil sends all kinds of storms across the path of the godly to keep them from being used of God.
-SOMETIMES THE LORD ALLOWS THEM.
Actually, He allows all of them, but sometimes He sends “storms” to teach us specific spiritual lessons. This is the situation in our text. Christ was going to teach the disciples that no matter how severe the storms of life may be, all they had to do was keep their faith in Him.
Look at verse 35. Before they ever boarded the boats, he said, “Led us pass over unto the other side.”
All they had to do was believe they were going to do what He said.
-Someone said, “It LOOKS as if we are about to drown!” Those disciples should have said, “It does not matter how it looks, He said, ‘Let us pass over to the other side.’”
-Someone said, “I BELIEVE we are about to drown!” Those disciples should have said, “I do not care what you believe, He said, “Let us pass over to the other side.’”
-Someone said, “I FEEL that we are going to drown!” Those disciples should have said, “I do not care how you feel, He said, ‘Let us pass over to the other side.’”
The Lord allowed that storm to come up because He knew His disciples lacked faith. When they woke Him up from the nap that He so desperately needed, He said, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”
They had seen the Lord do all kinds of miracles and still when that storm of life came, they were fearful just as if they believed that He did not care if they perished.
In fact, they even accused Him of not caring. They said, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?”
What was the Lord teaching them?
• Look at verse 37. We see the STORM AROSE
• And then look at verse 39, we see that HE AROSE.
Did you know that every time a storm arises in our lives, the Lord arises also?
Conclusion The Lord allowed his disciples to be in that storm for a specific purpose. How would they know that He was the all-powerful Son of God had they not seen Him calm it? They did see and they exclaimed, “WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS?"
The blessings of life that we ENJOY are the blessings that are to draw us to Him.
Illus: Many of us can remember there was a day when a child got a spanking, he got a spanking! Most of the dads in those days used the same technique. They would position that disobedient child with one hand, and with the other they would swing that switch, or belt, in such a manner that it warmed that child’s posterior to the point that child promised himself he would never transgress again.
The smart child discovered the best way to keep that belt from hurting so bad was to get as close to dad as he could. Then the dad could not bring that stroke down quite so hard.
Did you know that the best way to face the storms of life is to get as close to God as you can. That way those storms will not seem quite so severe. I will confess to you that I do not understand why God allows all the storms that come our way. I do know that you can rest assured that God does not make mistakes.
Illus: Some of you ladies gather several ingredients together when you get ready to bake a cake. Someone could come along and taste most of those ingredients separately and they would not taste good. However, you can mix all of those ingredients together and add some sugar and make a very tasty cake out of them.
One day all of these pieces of life that puzzle us are going to be put together and we are going to understand why God allowed some of the storms we faced. In the mean time, we are to trust in God’s Word. We can make it because we have Him aboard.
I. THE SITUATION
II. THE SAVIOR
