Who Is This

"WHO IS THIS/"

Mark 4:35-41

MK 4:35 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!"

MAIN TEXT

41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

ILL.- In his sermon, the new preacher at a church in Tennessee preached against gambling at horseraces. One of the deacons pulled him aside and said, "Folks didn’t appreciate that sermon. You see, a lot of race horses are raised in this part of the country."

The next Sunday the new preacher preached about the evils of smoking. That same deacon came to him and said, "There are many people around here who grow tobacco. You can’t preach about that."

The third Sunday the new preacher preached about the evils of drinking booze only to be told that there was a large still less than a mile from the church house where some of the church members worked.

The new, frustrated preacher said, "Well, what in the world can I preach about?" The deacon replied, "PREACH AGAINST THEM HEATHEN WITCHDOCTORS. THERE AIN’T ONE OF THEM WITHIN A THOUSAND MILES OF US."

INTRODUCTION

The disciples asked quite an interesting question here, “Who is this?” I have found that this is a question many of us need to have answered from time to time.

 I have found that as our view of Jesus becomes more accurate, so does our view of ourselves and other people.

So, let me answer the same question that the disciples asked, “Who is this?"

I. A GOD WHO IS POWERFUL

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.

A. This was a very severe storm! Keep in mind who was in the boat…experienced fishermen who

had been through all kinds of storms at the sea.

B. Jesus was able to speak to the elements and calm the storm

Illustration Skepticism of the Miraculous

Nine-year-old Danny came bursting out of Sunday school like a wild stallion. His eyes were darting in every direction as he tried to locate either mom or dad. Finally, after a quick search, he grabbed his Daddy by the leg and yelled, "Man, that story of Moses and all those people crossing the Red Sea was great!" His father looked down, smiled, and asked the boy to tell him about it.

"Well, the Israelites got out of Egypt, but Pharaoh and his army chased

after them. So the Jews ran as fast as they could until they got to the Red Sea. The Egyptian Army was gettin’ closer and closer. So Moses got on his walkie-talkie and told the Israeli Air Force to bomb the Egyptians. While that was happening, the Israeli Navy built a pontoon bridge so the people could cross over. They made it!

By now old dad was shocked. "Is THAT the way they taught you the story?" Well, no, not exactly," Danny admitted, "but if I told you the way they told it to us, you’d never believe it, Dad."

1. DON'T LIMIT GOD! HE IS GREATER THAN ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF !He is greater than anything you can think of!

Illustration: On Christmas Day 1968, the three astronauts of Apollo 8 circled the dark side of the moon and headed for home. Suddenly, over the horizon of the moon rose the blue and white Earth garlanded by the glistening light of the sun against the black void of space. Those sophisticated men, trained in science and technology, did not utter Einstein’s name. They did not even go to the poets, the lyricists, or the dramatists. Only one thing could capture the awe-inspiring thrill of this magnificent observation. Billions heard the voice from outer space as the astronaut read it: "In the beginning God"--the only concept worthy enough to describe that unspeakable awe, unutterable in any other way. "In the beginning God created"--the invasive, the inescapable sense of the infinite and the eternal.