Mark 4
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Intro
Intro
Continuing in our study of Mark answering the question who is Jesus.
A major theme of Mark is that Jesus calls us to be disciples through a relationship with Him.
Tonight we will be in Mark 4:33-41 talking about just how great Jesus is and why He is worthy of our worship.
Pray
Pray
Have y’all ever been reading or studying something and then realize you haven’t been focusing for the last fifteen minutes and you have to go back and reread or restudy
Leading up to Mark 4 we know the disciples have been following Jesus and doing life with Jesus.
In fact the 12 were not the only ones to follow Jesus
Jesus had thousands of people that would follow Him around and listen to His teachings.
The last two weeks we have seen these crowds following Jesus around and even going to the place He was staying.
Jesus often taught the crowds that followed Him in parables.
Many of these parables were confusing or hard to understand and part of the reason was because they did not fully understand who Jesus was and what His purpose was here on this Earth.
Remember, many of the Jews saw the Messiah as a conquering hero, not the Son of God who would be slain
However… with the disciples Jesus would teach them exactly what the parables meant
But they still did not fully understand who Jesus was or just how great He is.
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
The them we are talking about is the crowds that followed Jesus
And in 34 we see Jesus explaining to His disciples what these parables meant.
Sidenote:
Christianity doesn’t make sense to unbelievers because they are blinded by their sin.
This doesn’t mean that non believers are dumb, but rather that sin blinds everyone and until someone gives their life to Christ they will not fully understand the relationship you have with God.
So if your friends don’t understand, or if they think you’re dumb for believing what you believe don’t get angry with them but instead pray for them to be saved, that they may see the truth clearly.
So as Jesus is walking around and teaching the crowds and the disciples He decides to go over to the other side of the sea of Galilee.
This is very interesting if you understand where they are in Israel.
Currently Jesus is walking around and doing ministry on the Jewish side of the sea of Galilee and He is telling them about sowing seeds of Faith
Which we understand as witnessing to non believers
He is telling them about the light they have and to let it shine for the all to see
Another example of witnessing to non believers
And then Jesus says to the disciples
Let’s go across to the other side of the sea to the area of the Decapolis
If you don’t know what the decapolis is, it was the region of the sea of Galilee that was Roman.
On one side of the sea you had Jewish believers and on the other side you had gentile non believers
And in this moment Jesus says let’s go over to the other side!
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
So they are going across this sea as Jesus is going to do ministry and witness to the gentile believers.
Jesus did not just come to save a certain group of people He came so that the whole world may be saved through faith in Him.
A couple more pieces of information for you before we dive in to the last few verses.
The sea of Galilee is surrounded by mountains and in fact even to this day it is known for having this powerful windstorms because the wind comes down the mountain and over the sea so fast that storms would just randomly occur.
Typically these storms were not as bad at night which is why they were leaving in the evening.
So these storms were to be expected and in fact that what we see here in verse 37
37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
First thing to point out is the word great.
This is the first of three greats that will be used and they are used to make a point.
If you see repetition in the Bible it typically has some sort of emphasis attached to it.
For instance: Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty means there is non greater in holiness that God.
In the last few verses of chapter 4 the word great will be used as a way of emphasizing how great Jesus is.
So this GREAT windstorm arose.
It must have been worse than what they were usually accustom to because the waves were crashing into the boat and the boat was filling with water.
In fact it was getting so bad that the disciples say to Jesus
38 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?”
So while this boat is in the storm Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat.
Notice here that just because the disciples were with Jesus it did not mean that they would be without trouble.
The disciples are caught in the middle of a storm with Jesus in the back of the boat.
Many times people wonder where God is when they are going through difficult times and I want to tell you that if that’s you He is right there beside you.
Jesus told us Himself
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
In this life you will have trouble that comes your way but Jesus is the one who provides peace.
But if you think Jesus is just here to make your life easy and comfortable then you… like the disciples have missed who Jesus is.
The disciples say to Jesus “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing”
They are crying out to Jesus (the King of the Universe) saying do you not care.
How many of us have done this before.
When we have it easy or when we don’t have any problems we love God and we’re so happy but as soon as we start struggling, or we have a rough week or we go through pain we ask “God do you even care about me?”
And don’t get me wrong, I know there are many of you who probably right now feel like you are drowning in problems and can’t find a way out.
The enemy likes to tell you that God doesn’t care, that He has left you but that’s simply not true.
There is peace in the chaos and that peace is found in Jesus Christ.
39 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.
So here we see the second word GREAT used
This time to describe the calm that happened when Jesus rebuked the wind and the sea.
The disciples were screaming at Jesus to wake up asking Him if He even cared if they died and Jesus stands and says “Peace! Be still!” and then a GREAT calm fell on the sea.
See what the disciples didn’t understand was that the creator of the Universe was sleeping in their boat.
If they would have understood this they would not have had any reason to fear.
Sometimes as believers we look at our God through the lens of our problems instead of looking at our problems through the lens of our God.
If the disciples would have understood who Jesus was they would not have any reason to fear.
Jesus is not just some prophet, or religious leader, or teacher, Jesus is the creator and sustainer of all things.
There is another place in the bible where we see God bring order to chaos and it’s in the VERY beginning
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
The words formless and void in this context implies a lack of order and content and over the next chapter we watch as God brings order to creation.
And here in Mark 4:39 we see the God of creation bringing order to chaos once again on a boat in the middle of a GREAT storm Jesus brings GREAT peace, because He is a great God
And if the disciples would have known who Jesus is they would not have had a reason to be afraid.
Jesus addresses this when he says in verse 40
40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 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?”
Jesus calms the storm and then asks them why they are so afraid in the midst of the storm
Answer: because they did not have faith
Because the disciples did not understand who Jesus was they were terrified
It says they were filled with GREAT fear.
In the Greek it is actually translated they feared with great fear
Why was their fear so great!
Because they had just watch the King of the Universe bring a GREAT calm to a GREAT storm because He is a GREAT God.
They did not understand who Jesus was.
In fact at the end of 41 they ask each other “who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him.”
Notice that Jesus didn’t ask them if they remembered His teachings, or if they remembered all the miracles He did.
He asked them why they had such little faith.
I have said this the last few weeks on Sunday and on Wednesday, salvation does not come by seeing God to miracles, or by being born into a family of Christians.
Salvation comes when you place your faith in Jesus because you recognize that He is Lord and King of all Creation.
Gospel
Gospel
PRAY
PRAY