If I were to write down a list of the things that I'm afraid of, water would be on it. Not that I have a general phobia of water in every case, and I can drink a bottle of water all by myself with no hesitation. I guess I shouldn't say it's water itself that I'm afraid of. No, it's rather large bodies of water when the weather turns nasty. I'm fine in a hot tub with all the jets going, but you get me in a boat in the middle of a lake, and the wind starts to kick up a bit, and I am a man longing for dry ground like...
Well, like a guy in a boat in a storm that really doesn't want to be there anymore. Honestly, I love a good boat ride as much as the next guy on a nice, calm, glassy lake. But when that wind starts howling and the whitecaps show up, when that boat crests each wave and drops into the troughs beneath with a bone-jarring jolt that makes your ribs feel like they're dislocating, and the noise of the boat slapping the water begins to resemble the sound of a gunshot, I'm out. Except I'm not, because I'm stuck in a stupid boat in the middle of the lake. My name is Aaron, and I am an associate pastor at Mountain View Church. We're working our way through a preaching series called Like No Other, in which we're highlighting the attributes of Jesus that set him apart from any other human that's walked the earth. Today, we're looking at a passage from Scripture that shows the sheer power of Jesus and is evidence that he is like no other man in history, but also that he is much more than just a man. Hi, my name is Elena, and today I'm reading from Mark chapter 4, verses 35 to 41.
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
I love reading, and there are many authors that write great adventure stories about epic sea voyages. C.S. Forrester in particular has this 12-book series following the seagoing adventures of the naval officer Horatio Hornblower. Classic. Read through him twice. Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson. These are all wonderful adventures that I found myself lost in since I was a kid, but adventures that I read about from the safety of dry land. Even going back to the ancient Greek poet Homer's Odyssey, humans have been fascinated with writing about and reading about the sea.
Now, they're all stories of braver people than I embarking on dangerous voyages, campaigns, and adventures, but they all share one common, terrifying theme. And it's not the battles, or the foreign peoples, or the strange lands that evoke the most fear in the characters and the reader. It's not even the prospect of sea monsters, which have caused fear in humans since we started mapping out the seas. What causes the most fear in those that ship out to sea is that the sea itself can be a monster. Nature and the power of the sea have gripped us for as long as we've had boats. From the sea, we harvest many wonderful kinds of food, treasures like pearls, and the sea is often the straightest line between two points, making it a prime travel method. But we reap the bounty of the seas, oceans, and lakes at our own peril. And when that wind kicks up and whitecaps appear, man shudders. Our passage today is a story of human fear of the power of the wind and the waves and of a greater power still, the power of Jesus.
We're going to move through this passage from the book of Mark and examine what is happening here that shows the disciples the great power that Jesus has. We will also see how Jesus reveals himself to be more than just a man, but also we'll see in the passage that it shows us that Jesus, though he is like no other man and he is more than a man, he is also indeed human. Over the centuries since Jesus' ministry on earth, there have been heretical groups who have popped up who have tried to attack Christianity and tried to delude it or change it or deny or twist the truth of who Jesus was and indeed still is. There have been many who have denied that he was God or that he is God, like the 4th century Arians, for example. There's those who still do that for that matter, like atheists or Jehovah's Witnesses. But there have also been those who have denied that he was a man, like the 1st and 2nd century proponents of Docetism or the ancient Gnostics. In this passage, we see evidence that he's both. Jesus is fully man and fully God. He is like no other.
Now, we begin with some context. In order to appreciate the account, we need to understand what happens leading up to it. This is crucial when reading the Bible. Context is paramount, and understanding surroundings and the preceding parts of the story and who's who in the narratives is very key to understanding what's going on in Scripture. So often, people will just pull out a single verse or a passage from the Bible in order to make a point, and although they have some good intention of teaching some piece of Scripture to someone else, they can really make a mess. Even if we get the words written on the page right, we can easily miss the point.
and we, at best, end up confusing ourselves, or worse, we can mislead others. We can also end up with a very distorted view of what our lives as Christians will look like, which may lead to crises of faith down the road. This passage, the one we're talking about today, can easily be taken out of context or misapplied, and if you ever hear anyone use it to say something like, if you have Jesus, you will no longer have any storms in your life. They're probably about to try and convince you to give them a bunch of your money to ensure Jesus protection or something like that. Don't buy what they're selling. That is very much not what this passage is saying at all. In fact, Jesus makes it very clear that his followers will not have easy, storm-free lives. You can probably guess which passage we're talking about by now if you've read the Bible. Up until this point in the gospel narrative, Jesus has slowly been building his ministry and his following. He's chosen his 12 apostles to travel with him and learn from him the gospel, the truth about the kingdom of God, and eventually they start to see that Jesus, as God himself, come to walk this earth with his creatures.
Now, he has begun to show them glimpses of his power through various signs and wonders, miracles as we would call them, all the while keeping an air of mystery about exactly who he is from the population at large. He's not yet ready for everyone to know his true identity, but he has been dropping clues, so to speak. So if the disciples who follow him and the religious authorities, if they're paying attention, they should be piecing together this bigger picture that he is the promised Messiah, and that he's not just a man, not just a good teacher or a clever preacher. Now, he has just finished teaching a series of parables to crowds of Jewish people who are following him on one side of the lake, and it's time to move from a Jewish crowd to a region on the other side of the lake where non-Jewish people or Gentiles reside. I recommend you go back and read the first four chapters of Mark to get an idea of what I'm talking about, but that's where we're at in the story. Now, Elena has already read the passage we're looking at, and it's a pretty cool story, but let's look a little closer at some of the things that make this a very telling moment in more ways than one.
The first few verses tell us that he's finished teaching for the day. And if we go back and read Mark up until this point, we can see that he's been doing a heck of a lot in not a lot of time. And so they all get in the boat that they're going to use to cross the lake. And what does Jesus do? Well, in Mark 4, 37 and 38a, when we say a, that just means the beginning part of the verse. It says, And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. So we see that before the storm, Jesus promptly found a comfortable spot, and he crashed out. He falls asleep.
This wouldn't have seemed strange to the disciples who at this point know that though he's no ordinary man, they do see him as a man. And he does human things around them all the time. He eats, he sleeps, no doubt he burps and yawns too. So to them, it makes sense that he would need a nap. However, when we read this, it should very loudly remind us that Jesus is fully man. We, having the complete scriptures and knowing the full picture regarding Jesus being God, can easily forget that he's also fully man. A man who knows exactly what it's like to be us, to be tired, to be hungry.
to be annoyed, tempted, emotionally drained, sad, happy, frustrated, all the things that we go through every day. He knows intimately what it's like to live within a limited, broken world. So you can be assured that the fact that he is sleepy is a reminder to each of us that God is not out of touch with our lived experience. He too has lived it. He has felt life from our perspective, and he understands more than we would expect an almighty God to understand about his creatures.
This should bring us great assurance that nothing about our inabilities or shortcomings or our experience surprises him. He gets what it's like to walk around in a body like yours and mine. Our Lord gets us. He has already shown his power in some pretty cool ways, as documented by Mark. Again, go back and read the first four chapters. But once he's been awoken by his panicked disciples, Jesus is about to take things to a whole new level. If he had them in awe during previous examples of what he's capable of, he floors them this time. The storm is raging, the boat is filling up, and they're close to being sunk, and his boys are freaking out.
Mark 4, 38b, the second half of the verse says, And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? As I related in the beginning of this message, the sea, or a really big lake, the Sea of Galilee is actually a large lake, can be a terrifying place to be when the wind shows up. Again, with an eye to context, we know that a bunch of these guys are fishermen who have spent their lives on the water. They've seen a lot of squalls, and you know things are bad when the pros lose hope. The fact that the disciples are losing it, given what many of them did for a living previous to following Jesus, should give us an idea of how bad this storm was and how close to disaster they were.
Sailors and fishermen have great courage to face the seas regularly. And there's nothing here to make us think that these guys are wimps. Those who know the water fear what it can be. They would not have ventured across the lake if things looked bad. And this squall is a bad one. It's taken them by surprise. And it has filled them with dread. This is their state of mind as Jesus wakes up. But then Jesus does the impossible. He speaks and nature itself obeys. Mark 4.39 says, And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was great calm.
This astounds the disciples. However, though they've never seen anything like this before, this display of power would have had a familiar ring to their ears in a more profound way than the obvious craziness of the situation and what we can get out of it from a surface level reading of scripture. The important thing to point out, again, in regard to context, is that the disciples are Jewish men who would have been taught the Old Testament. They would have known the Psalms and they would have been taught them since childhood. They would have had an idea of the power of the Almighty God from passages like Psalm 106.9, which says, he rebuked the Red Sea and it became dry and he led them through the deep as through the desert. Or Psalm 89.8-9, which says, O Lord, God of hosts, who is as mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you? You rule the raging sea. When its waves rise, you still them.
The point is not that these Psalms are direct prophecies relating to the events that are unfolding that night on the Sea of Galilee. They aren't speaking about this at all, necessarily. In fact, Psalm 106 is very clearly speaking of God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. However, there's one common factor between these Psalms and the current moment that would not have been lost on the disciples. They grew up learning the accounts of how great and powerful God is. They knew that only he has the power to control the wind and the waves. They knew this in the abstract from teachings they had learned since childhood, and now, right in front of them.
They're seeing such control and power play out. And it is a screaming beacon that in their boat, rebuking the storm, was God. It could be no other. Now, they still don't quite get it, but the wind and the waves obey. The creator rules his creation. Let's take a closer look at some of the words here from the original Greek to show us what's happening. When we translate from Greek to English, we lose some of the nuance. We lose some of the finer meanings of the word. This causes the true meaning to be lost. But it would have been lost to the men in a boat that night. Now, first of all, Jesus rebukes the wind.
And the word rebukes in scripture is epitamau, which is to reprove or to censure. So this is what Jesus is doing to the wind. He's reproving the wind. Picture a man rebuking a small yappy dog or sternly warning someone else to shut up. So first Jesus rebukes the wind, but then he commands the sea. And this is what the disciples would have heard. Then Jesus says, peace, be still to the sea. Now peace is translated from the original word, siopau. And I'm sorry, I'm probably translating that or pronouncing that terribly. But what that means is be quiet, silence. So he tells the sea to be quiet. And then he says, be still, which is translated femo.
Be still, be quiet, but it has this connotation of being muzzled. He muzzles the sea. This command, Fimo, shows up elsewhere in scripture. In Mark 1, 25 and Luke 4, 35. Now these are the only other times Jesus says this command. And in these cases, he says it directly to a demon. The same command he uses to absolutely shut down and dominate the spiritual forces of evil in an exorcism, he says to shut down nature from acting out of line. He can shut down the power of evil spirits and the power of nature itself. So what does this tell us about his power?
In the Pillar commentary on the New Testament, James R. Edwards says this. He says, The description of the stilling of the storm in the language of exorcism is intended not simply to demonstrate that Jesus possesses power over nature as well as over illness and demon possession. Its ultimate purpose is to show that Jesus does what only God can do. Why the sea? Why does Jesus choose to reveal his power with control of the sea specifically?
Well, as we said, a lot of these guys, some of these guys at least are fishermen. Fishermen respect the sea and the fear these men show provides evidence as to the ferocity of the storm. So the disciples stuck in that boat with a storm raging all around them, they know that they're in a place where only God can help them. I think God chose this moment in this setting because it would resonate on multiple levels. So they knew that they were in a helpless, hopeless position that only God could deliver them from. And they also knew the examples of God's power over the sea from the Old Testament. So what better setting for Jesus to show his deity?
This brings us to something that I think the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to write specifically to get the attention of the readers of Mark's gospel, you and I. There's one more shocking similarity, one more word or phrase. It's regarding the words Mark uses in the passage to describe the disciple's state of mind. And it brings us back to another story in the Old Testament. The disciples would have known this story, of course. However, because the phrase is used by Mark in his role as narrator to tell us about the moment, as opposed to words that Jesus said directly to his disciples, this one's just for us. It's for the readers to grasp.
The last part of our passage shows us the disciples' reaction to Jesus' power over the storm. And it doesn't say, and they were like, whoa, and it was so cool, and everybody gave Jesus high fives, and they had a great day. It doesn't say anything like that. It says, and they were filled with great fear. They were filled with great fear and his mastery over the elements. They feared the storm and nature's power. Now they fear him, for he has shown his power to be greater. This wording, filled with great fear, shows up elsewhere in Scripture in a situation that has distinct similarities to this one. And this is what I think Mark was doing.
it's brought up again in the story of Jonah. Now, we don't have time to read that whole account today, but to summarize very quickly, in the Old Testament, God calls Jonah to be a prophet, to go to Nineveh and warn them of God's impending judgment. Jonah doesn't want to go, and he bails, and he tries to run away via ship, or sail away, as it were. God causes a storm. Jonah realizes that God is mad at him, and he convinces the crew that their only hope of survival lies in throwing him, Jonah, overboard, which eventually they do, and then God calms the storm. The men are filled with great fear, that phrase. In the Greek translation of the OT, of the Old Testament, rather, the words used are strikingly familiar.
James Edwards says this. It is a fearful thing to see something impossible play out before your eyes and know that spiritual force is on display. In this account, during these events, all of their senses would have been engaged in this situation. So this is not just something playing out before their eyes. They're in it. Their eyes, yes, are seeing certain doom in the waves. The howling wind assaulting their ears. The smell and the taste of lake water spraying everywhere. The feeling of it on their skin. The feeling of the boat being tossed about would have been almost unbearable. The disciples, any person really, would have been completely overwhelmed. First, the fear of death on account of the storm and all the feelings that came with that would have taken their courage away. But then...
then they would have been cowed even more by the fear that humanity experiences in the presence of the awesome power of God. When God flexes, we become acutely aware of how weak we are and just how powerful he is. One more time, James Edwards goes on to say, ironically, the terror of the disciples at what Jesus has done exceeds their initial fear of the storm. The presence of the supernatural is more frightening to humanity than the most destructive of natural disasters. We hear often in scripture about how good it is for us to fear the Lord, to have fear of the Lord.
These men feared God because they, in their respective moments of witness to God's awesome power, fully realized the truth of who we are in relation to God. We are small. God is beyond big. We are wise to respect, revere, and yes, fear the Lord. That gets dumbed down a lot and deluded a lot, but we are to fear the Lord. The men in Jonah feared the Lord as they saw the storm calm. The men in Mark feared the Lord Jesus as they're beginning to understand who he is by his calming of the storm.
Now they've been given a lot of evidence up until this point, but they're slow on the uptake. So let's recap what the disciples have witnessed, and us as readers of Mark have seen Jesus do in just the first four chapters that have brought us to this point of Jesus controlling the weather. So first he convinces a gaggle of misfits to uproot their entire lives and leave to follow him, not having a clue what their future holds, but just knowing that he's worth following. Then he overpowers and banishes a demon, and the demon refers to him as Holy One of God. He heals many people of illnesses and casts out many demons. He cleanses a leper, a person with the incurable disease leprosy. He heals a paralytic, makes a man walk who could not walk. Imagine seeing this. But even more shocking is that he forgives this man his sins. No one can forgive someone else their sins but God. He goes on to restore a man's withered hand. He bestows on others, his disciples, the authority over demons and the ability to cast them out. And then he calms the storm. He literally dominates the weather itself. Do you know what miracles are?
They're God showing us that to him, the impossible is possible. To him, impossible isn't a thing. This is one factor that wholly distinguishes him from us. Our limitations are ours alone. God is unlimited. And to him, miracles are just doing God stuff. And Jesus is the only man doing God stuff. And it's blowing the minds of everyone around him because he is possibilizing. Pretty sure that's a word. Don't look it up. He's possibilizing the impossible. That, my brothers and sisters, is making the impossible possible. That is real power.
It is power over the very fabric of reality, the very rules that govern the universe and the very limits of time and space themselves. These all bind us. Nothing binds him. Creating everything and then putting in place rules and limits for us to live within so that we can survive and then overcoming, rearranging, and dominating that creation by sheer force of will and speech to change things in an impossible way is to do the impossible. And Jesus is power itself. Now, one of the biggest arguments that you'll hear against Christianity from people who haven't really dug deep in the Bible is that Jesus, well, Jesus never said the words, I am God.
He didn't have to. He showed it. And anyone actually paying attention to what he did, if they're honest with themselves, can come to no other conclusion. The power of Jesus shows us that he is a man like no other. Fully man, fully God, God with us. So in closing, what does this mean? God with us. How does that look for me? How does that look for you? Who are we to him? Does he even care about us? Well, I'll tell you what. The God who rebukes the wind and muzzles the waves says he loves and values you.
The power of Jesus is matched by the immensity of his love. He loves you so much that he died for you and carried your sin with him to the grave. His power over the sin of his followers was exercised on the cross when he paid for it himself. Then on the third day, his power over death was exercised when he stopped being dead and rose from the grave, ensuring eternal life for his own. You have so much value to God who has the power over all things. You are his. And though this world will continue to be fallen,
And what's left of this life will continue to bring you trials. If you're a Christian, you are forevermore in the arms of the God who has overcome all of it. I want to close with one more passage. And this is Paul encouraging the believers in Rome. And it's one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible because it speaks of how nothing can overpower his love for his own. In Romans 8, 38 and 39, Paul talks about God's love. He says, For I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers.
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Christian, you are in good, powerful hands. Let's pray. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for so much evidence in scripture of the power of Jesus. So much evidence in scripture that Jesus is so much more than just a man, but that he was also human. And so we know that you can relate directly to what it's like to be us. That gives us great comfort in the moments when we can't stand ourselves, Lord.
I pray that you would continue to remind us that your love for us cannot be overpowered by anything in creation because you rule over all of it. Lord, I pray you would sink this deep into our hearts so that when we're troubled, when we're overwhelmed, we don't lose hope because our hope is in Christ. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you so much for joining us at Mountain View Church. If you have a prayer request or are looking to connect with the faith community, connect with us. Go to our website, mountainview.church slash connect or search at Mountain View Whitehorse on your preferred social network.
Now, just a reminder to parents out there that I want to highlight our children's program called Base Camp that we offer in-house on Sunday mornings at both of our 9.30 and 11 a.m. gatherings. However, if you're watching online, you'll find activity downloads and lessons for your kids at mountainview.church. Also, for teens out there, we offer a youth program on Sunday evenings from 6 to 8. We alternate between senior and junior high, and tonight is junior youth.
If you'd like to keep up with all that's happening at Mountain View and you're watching online, be sure to follow and subscribe so future messages will appear in your feed. And now, your discussion questions. So I did a question for you all to talk amongst yourselves about how does knowing Jesus' power over all creation help you to trust in him? And then the prayer this week would be that we would all remember that he has power over anything that would try and separate us from his love. Thank you so much for tuning in. God bless you. And tune in next week for Pastor Jeremy to talk about Jesus' compassion. See ya.
If you prayed to receive Jesus today or would like to connect with our church community, visit mountainview.church and click the connect link. If this podcast and radio ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider partnering with us or making a tax-deductible donation at mountainview.church. Thanks for listening to Mountain View Church Audio. Join us next week for more Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City of Whitehorse UConn.