Mark 4:35-41 | Jonathan Lewis

Like, you know, you can answer this rhetorically and you think about this in your mind. If you saw, if you were driving into this and you were going in this direction, you saw that, what would be your first thought? Most folks would be like, turn around. Most folks would be like, run away. You know, unless you're like those crazy storm chasing people that would try to, like, drive into the storm. Like, most people are not like that. Most people are going to turn and run the opposite direction, drive away and get out of Dodge. Because the thing is, many times storms are scary. Like, you know, like, you know, many times as a kid, they'd be like, oh, you don't have anything to wear you up. But as you get older, you realize. You realize how scary storms can be. Storms are scary because they're, like, unpredictable. Like, before you know it, you could be in a storm. I'm especially not one of those individuals that, like, always keeps a watch on the weather. Like, before I know it, I'm in a storm. I'm like, oh, goodness, I never watched the weather today, right? So, like, you can be in trouble because it's unpredictable. Even with them telling you, with the forecast, the weather can do what it wants to do, right? But not only that, storms are, like, they're unstoppable. They're So, there is no, like, satellite scanners that, or that can just defuse a storm. They're like, hey, the storm is coming. I want you to just, like, make it dissolve. Like, the government can't just make a call to do that, right? They're unstoppable. They're going to happen. And storms are also scary because they breed uncertainty. You're like, man, I don't know if I'm going to make it through this one. If you were going through this thing, you saw this? Like, you would say, man, I hope that I make it home safely. You know, I used to watch Batman. I used to watch Batman growing up. And it would always, at the end of almost every episode, it would be like, to be continued. Because the Joker would have him. He would always get away. But it would be like, to be continued. Is he going to make it out? When storms come, you always think, am I going to make it out? What damage is this going to have on me? Like, am I going to be affected? How am I going to be affected in the long term? How am I going to be affected in the short term? Regardless of the storms we face, I'm going to give good news to you today. It's that Jesus still conquers storms. All right? I want you to, like. Look at the person next to you and just, like, tell them. Like, tell them with some conviction. Like, Jesus still conquers storms. Like, you got to tell them. And this is important. This is important. This is so important. Because, one, he's done it in the past. He's doing it in the present. And he's ultimately going to do it in the future. Like, one day when Jesus returns, like, he's going to shut everything down. He's going to return. He's going to establish his kingdom. He's going to, like, rid the world of evil. And it's going to be peace on earth. Right? So, he's going to conquer that storm. He's done it in the past. And he's doing it today. And understanding that Jesus still conquers storms, it gives us peace to know that we can face life without fear. It gives us peace to understand that we can walk in freedom. Like, I don't have to be bound to, like, my fear. To the scariness of storms. To the unpredictability of storms. To the unstoppable nature of storms. To the uncertain nature of storms. I can live above that. So, that's the crazy thing about understanding that Jesus. Jesus still conquers storms. And we're going to talk today a little bit about how Jesus conquered the storm in the past. And what we can learn from that in order so that we can go forward in the future. All right? So, turn to your Bibles. I want you to look at Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4. And we're going to be looking at verse 35 to 40. All right? 35 through 40. All right? So, can you throw that scripture on there real fast? Thank you. This is perfect. All right. So, take a look at this scripture. This is what it says. It says, On the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, Let us cross over to the other side. Now, when he had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was. And the other little boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? So, I want to give you a little background. I want to give you a little background on this. All right? So, let's look at the picture here. That one right there. Right there. I want you to look at this one. The old background of this passage is quite crazy. So, Jesus was like always, he was preaching, he was teaching, and he was at a point in which he was gaining a huge following. So, people were like pressing on Jesus. And like he was teaching folks, and he had to like step into the boat because people was all up on him. Like, anybody here is like one of them personal space type people, like, you know? There's nothing wrong with it. It's okay. You know, Jesus is like, these folks all up on me. I'm trying to teach you. Let me get up. And he got into the boat, and he was teaching them. And he taught like all day. So, he taught about the parable of the sower, you know, with all the different types of ground. He talked about the parable of the mustard seed. He talked about the parable of the growing seed. And he was teaching all day. And at the end of the day, Jesus was like tired. Yeah. Like, he was like done. Like, anybody ever been like in ministry and like ministered all day and you like sleepy at the end of the day? Or you worked all day? And you say, I just want to get up. I'm going to go home and go to sleep. Jesus was 100% God, but he was also 100% man. Okay? The theologians call that the hypostatic union. Okay? He was 100% man, understanding that, and he needed to go get some rest. Okay? So, after he got finished teaching, he was at the Sea of Galilee. He said, all right, we're going to go to the other side, guys. Told his 12 disciples, we're going to get in this boat. We're going to travel to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. All right? And something happens. All right? So, let's look at here.

As the disciples were going to the other side of the sea, being obedient to the word of Jesus, right? Because he said, let's go to the other side. They encountered a severe storm. All right. I want you to understand something. Key. Just because you're being obedient to Christ does not mean that storms of life will not arise. Okay? Relational storms. Vocational storms. Physical. Physical storms. Storms just in community. Storms that cause crazy circumstances to arise. Right? We're going to go through storms. Just because you're obedient doesn't give you a pass or a ticket out of going through storms. And it was not just a regular storm. It was a severe storm. The Sea of Galilee was known to have, like, crazy storms because it was surrounded by mountains. And it was, like, in a basin. It was, like, 144 feet deep. And as the warm air would hit the cold air, it would create storms. It would create some crazy windstorms. I mean, like, you're talking about 15, 20-foot waves coming in. All right? And these folks were in a storm. And they were terrified. Okay? I want you to understand this problem goes from bad to worse. Because it's one thing to be in a storm, right? Like, you ever been in your house in a storm? When you're in your house in a storm, it's all good. Because, you know, my kids are in a house in a storm. It'd be thunder. I'm like, you're going to be okay. You know? You're in a safe place. The house is strong. You're all right. But when you're in a storm on the sea, you got a problem. Because the sea makes the water churn and do all these crazy things. And the waves were, like, crashing into the boat. The waves were, like, swamping into the boat. And these individuals were scared. Now, you got to understand, these weren't just normal individuals. A lot of disciples were actually fishermen. So when you got fishermen on the boat, and the fishermen are scared, that's used to the waters, and they are fearing for their life, you got reason to be scared. Because these are the professionals. They know what they're doing. So if they're scared, I'm going to just be scared by default. If they were looking confident, I'm like, oh, we all right. You know? They got scared. You know, they were yelling. They were saying, Lord, don't you care if we drown? Because while all this stuff was going on, another crazy thing was happening. Jesus was asleep. All right? All right. Now, listen. Jesus must have been in a good one. He must have been in a real good sleep. Because says that a storm was happening. So storms are loud. Waves are crashing into the boat. And water is getting into the boat. And everybody's getting wet. Right? And Jesus is still asleep. So you're starting to wonder, are you like, is he even alive right now? Right? He's just like, you know. So people, they begin to round Jesus, and they say, Lord, don't you care if we drown? And the thing is, the disciples bring out a point that many times, we ask Jesus ourselves. We ask Jesus, Lord, don't you care if we drown? Like, because it seems like Jesus is in the situation at times. We could be going through storms. It seems like Jesus is in the situation. But at times, it seems like he's not doing anything. He's just in there getting wet with us. Sometimes it seems like Jesus is not even helping. Like, you know what fishermen would have started doing if water started getting in the boat? They would have started bailing water out of the boat. That means they would have started getting the fucking throwing water out as water was coming in. So Jesus is asleep. So he's not even bailing. He's not even bailing water out the boat. He's just getting wet with everybody else. So this situation has gone from bad, right? It's a physical issue to worse. Because we got a whole bunch of issues. Even my master, in which Jesus the rabbi was, is sleeping. So they're like, we're certainly going to die. All right? So let's look at this next scripture. Let's look at what it says in verse 39. So he said, Lord, don't you care if we drown? Verse 39. He arose and rebuked. He looked at the wind and said to the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him? Okay? I like people that have dogs. You know, I'm not really that much of a dog lover. But I like people that have dogs. And Jesus just spoke to the storm like it was his dog. You ever seen a dog bark? And somebody like, shut up. And then the dog just like, whoop. Jesus wakes up out of his sleep and said, peace be still. And the storm just stops. Okay? So I want you to understand something. This is some serious power. This is the same power that exists in the man. And he let people capture him. He let people crucify him on the cross. But this person has power over storms. I didn't even know that storms could be spoken to. Right? But it shows you the depths of the power that is within him and that he is able to conquer any storm. So it shows his mastery over every situation. See, it's a lot of things that people know about God. All right? Jesus is God in effect. It means that he's omnipotent. That means he has all power. He's omniscient. That means that he knows everything. Right? He's omnipresent. That means he's everywhere at the same time. But it's another thing that people usually forget. It's something called omnicompetency. That means Jesus is competent for every task. That we face. So there is nothing that you can bring to the table that he doesn't have mastery over. Okay? So that's what this proves. And that's why we always are able to have confidence understanding that Jesus still conquers storms. All right? Now, I want you to just bring out just three, four points real fast. And I'm going to just run through these real quick. Although the disciples had great reasons to fear, good reason to fear, they had greater reasons to trust Jesus regardless of the storm. And the same reasons they had then, we have the same reasons today. Because I was doing some thinking like, you know, Jesus told them, he said, you know, you're a little faith, you know, why did you doubt? I'd be like, because I thought I was going to die. I'll be honest, right? Look, first of all, my problem and my mom would attest to this. I always got to rebuttal for everything. I sometimes got to turn it off. Right? If Jesus was like, why did you doubt? I'd be like, because I was going to die. I don't know what I was supposed to do. Like, you know, like, but, but as you study the passage, you understand that Jesus was trying to teach them something. And he's trying to teach us something as we go through the storms of life. Although you have great good reason to fear, we have greater reasons to trust Jesus regardless of the storms that we face. So we got to lean into the greater reasons opposed to the reason to fear. All right. So look, they each had this first. It says they first had the presence of Christ. Okay. And because they had presence of Christ. Okay. They should have had confidence in his identity. Okay. They follow Jesus because they believe that he was the Messiah. All right. The Messiah of the world was in the boat and he was in the boat in order so that eventually he could go and save the world from his sins. So if Jesus, if Jesus was in the boat and he was, his job is to redeem the world from his sins. That means he can't die on the sea of Galilee. Right? That means there is a greater purpose for his life. There's a greater purpose and plan for him. So if he is with me, I don't have reason to fear because the boat can't go down if he's in it. Right? It's the same way with us, y'all. What has God given us? God has given us the Holy Spirit to anybody that has, that has accepted Jesus Christ into their life and has believed and put their faith in him. We have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us to enlighten us and empower us and to encourage us to go forth and live for Christ. Okay. So another name for the Holy Spirit. They used to call it the Spirit of Jesus. So when Jesus would say, lo, I'm with you even to the end of age, he exists on the inside of us through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. So we're always connected. The presence of Christ is always with us. So understanding that the presence of Christ is always with us, we never have reason to fear. Right? We never have reason to fear. Or we may have reason to fear. We have greater reasons to trust God. Understanding that. Our soul is secure in the midst of every situation. Our soul is secure. It's like, at the end of the day, it can't separate me from Christ. It can't separate me from God because ultimately my soul is secure if I have him. All right? So I want you to take a look at this. It was a time in my life which I couldn't swim. Okay? I'm still not a strong swimmer today. But it was a time in which I couldn't swim at all. But I used to want to do water sports, right? I used to want to do water sports. I always used to admire people. And they was on those jet skis, you know, doing their thing. And I used to But I want to do it too, you know? So I was like, you know, let me take it easy. Let me go do tubing, right? So I'm going to go tubing. I was over at Camp LeDor. Some of y'all know where Camp LeDor is at, right? So I'm like, you know, I'm going to go to Camp. I was at Camp LeDor. And they had a motorboat. And it's this big old long rope. And it's connected to a little tube. And they were driving on this motorboat. And I'm like, yo, man, take it easy on me. Don't be like, you know, stepping on the gas all crazy, right? And what he did was, he's like, yeah, you know, John, you know, I understand you're newbie. We ain't going to go too fast. This dude floored. I mean, right? He's like, you know, if you want to go faster, put your thumb up. Or if you want to go slower, put your thumb down. He was going so fast, I couldn't even put a thumb up or thumb down. Because I'm like, if I take my hand off of this thing, I'm going to go flying. This dude, nevertheless. He's still flooring it, right? And I fly off. I fly off. I'm flipping up in the air like I'm Simone Biles, right? And I'm like, what in the world just happened? This is why I don't do this. See, John, you shouldn't have did it, right? And I go into the water. So fear begins to, like, set in. Like, I mean, like, yo. I didn't, like, just go on the surface of the water. I'm like, I'm under. Under. I can look around and I can see I'm under. I feel like a little mermaid. Under the sea, all right? And so I'm under the water. And I started to panic a little bit. Just a little bit. People in the boat, they knew. And John ain't really no swimmer like that. You got to keep an eye on him, right? And they're like, chill, John. Chill, John. You got a life jacket on. You got a life vest on.

I do.

So I began to rest. And I began to trust the life jacket. And before you know it, I floated up to the top. And I'm like, man, get me out of this water. Get me out of this water. But you got to understand, y'all, as you go through the storms of life, all of that to say is that when you have Jesus with you, when you have the presence of Christ with you, you have a certain level of buoyancy that will always bring you to the top. And you have to trust that over trusting the fear of your circumstances. Understand that you had a life vest with you. And his name is Jesus, right? The life vest was in the boat, but they still gave way to fear. So it's all about keeping your confidence in the Savior. Amen? All right, let's move forward. Not only that, they had, not only did they have the presence of Christ, they also had the promise of Christ. All right? And understanding that they had the promise of Christ, they needed to have confidence in the certainty of his word. You got to understand, Jesus told them what? Let's go to the other side. He said, let's go to the other side. And then Jesus got in that boat and he went. He went to sleep. You got to understand, one of the things that the angel Gabriel said to Mary was, there is no word from God that will ever fail. I'm going to say it one more time. There is no word from God that will ever fail. Jesus, God in the flesh, he said, let's go to the other side. Understanding that he cast his word and understand that his word wasn't going to come back void. They should have trusted in his word that they were going to get to the destination that Jesus was going to get. Jesus had already commanded them to go. Just because he commanded them to go doesn't mean that it would be easy. Just because he commanded them to go doesn't mean that they wouldn't have some waves and storms to overcome. But when he sent them forth on a mission, his commands are his enablements. All right, I'm going to say that one more time. When Christ commands you to do something, it is his enablement and he will give you everything you need in order to accomplish the task despite the storms that you will face as you're going through. Understanding that we have, we have the same promises of Christ, guys. You got to understand, Jesus promised to save us from our sins. He promised to give us the Holy Spirit to live on the inside. He promised to return one day and bring us and gather us to himself. He said, I go to prepare a place for me so that where I am, you may be also. So with this in mind, we have to trust that the storms of life will not derail the word of God. So we got to make sure that we hold on to the word for dear life. The same way I was holding on that tube for dear life that I couldn't even lift my hand to tell the man to slow down, right? You got to hold on to his word the same way because his word will prevail despite the circumstances that may say otherwise because there's going to be a tons of circumstances in our life that will tell us that God's word isn't true. But we got to maintain and hold true to his word. All right, point three. So we got the presence of Christ. We got the promise of Christ. Thirdly, we have the peace of Christ. And that's confidence and the tranquility of his disposition. I want you to think about this. Jesus was on a boat. This was a very loud scene. It was a scene that engages all the senses, engaged the sound. You had the waves. You know, I'm sure they could smell the water and I'm sure they could feel the water, right? I'm sure they could see the giant waves that were coming. They were coming upon them and Jesus was asleep the whole time. And at the end of the day, he maintained his peace in the midst of a chaotic situation. And we got to understand ultimately, guys, this story is showing us how to keep our composure and to keep our confidence in the midst of chaos. And this is what the Lord is showing me on a daily basis. In the midst of chaos, you have to hold on to your confidence in Christ for dear life because the situation, the situation will try to rip it from you. It will try to pry it from your hands, but you got to be strong and say, I'm going to hold on to this peace. All right, I'm going to hold on to this peace. And it wasn't like this false sense of security. Like, you know, if you look in the Bible with Jonah, he fled from God, he was running from God and he was sleeping at the bottom of the boat, but he was asleep in disobedience. Jesus was fully in the will of God the Father. And he said, because I'm fully in the will of God the Father, I can go to sleep. I can go to sleep. I can go to sleep. I can go to sleep. He said, we're going to get to this destination because I already put it out there I'm going to make it to the other side. It says in Psalm 4, verse 8, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for you, Lord, only make me dwell in safety. Who lived that out? Jesus Christ. In the midst of a storm, he's saying, I'm sleeping here. And if Jesus is unfettered, if Jesus is unruffled, we need to be unruffled and unfettered as well. I should lay down like, you know, if the disciples knew what was good for them, they should have said, Jesus, move over, man. Move over. Let me rest in the midst of this situation because obviously he has it right and we have it wrong. All right? So I want you to take a look at this. Take a look at this image here. This is my family. Okay? And going from left to right, that's my Uncle Don. You know, God rest his soul. He's up with the Lord now. That's my grandmom. That's my oldest brother here, Uriel. That's my middle brother, Yurik. That's my mom, Miss Vern. And that's my dad, Tony Lewis. You know, in Philly, he's a legend. You know, Tony Lewis. And that's me right there with the red hat, you know, rocking it. You know, still wear hats nowadays. You know, what's up? Ever since I was a kid, wearing those hats, right? And, know, my dad, he would always tell me something because, you know, I grew up in a rough area. Like, I grew up in West Philly. And he would say, yo, I'm going to give you permission to panic in certain situations. All right? I said, what do you mean? He said, I'll give you permission to panic in certain situations. He said, if you see me panicking, you better be terrified. You better run for your life. Right? I was like, okay. He was like, but if you don't see me fettered, if you don't see me ruffled, I want you just to chill. Understand that the situation is under control. I've been in various situations in which I'm like, Pops, we all right? We good? And then he'd be like, Yeah, we all right. We're fine. But he said, if you see me going crazy, you have permission to panic. And I feel, you know, that was a great example that was put by my father. But I'm thinking, like, more so my heavenly father, my savior, Lord Jesus Christ. It's like, if he is not panicked and ruffled and fettered by issues, we shouldn't be ruffled and fettered by just the situations of life. We just got to learn to trust him. Like, Jesus is not on his throne. Like, going crazy by the circumstances that we go through. Like, he's not like, Oh, man, I wonder how they're going to get through it now. Oh, man, I don't know how they're going to pay that bill. I don't know how they're going to overcome that circumstance. Oh, man, they got some crazy stuff going on at their job. What are we going to do? Like, the Trinity is not in heaven. Like, what are we going to do, y'all? Let's put our heads together. No, they're not doing that. They're like, It's peace in heaven. And understand that there's peace in heaven. There should be peace in our hearts. Understanding that we trust God for who he is. And he's the one that ultimately will be our deliverer. Last but not least, point four. They witnessed the power of Christ. And understanding that the power of Christ is here, they should have confidence in his divine ability. Now, this is in Mark chapter four. So, they have some experience with Christ. Right? They got some experience. They seen him, like, heal a woman from their sickness. Right? They seen him cast out demons. They saw him do all these other things. Different things. Right? You know, like, miracles and stuff like that. They're like, okay. He has power. But how much power does he have? Okay? Like, you know, I know he's like that. But how like that is he? At the end of the story, these folks' minds were blown. Their minds were, like, just blown. Like, after Jesus got up and said, peace be still. And then told them, like, you of little faith, why did you doubt? So, they said, who is this man that the winds and waves, obey him? Now, that's heavy. That's heavy. Like, I would be saying the same thing. Like, he's speaking to things that are, quote, unquote, inanimate. You know, I've been in a storm. If I got up and said, peace be still, the storm ain't going to listen to me. Right? But Jesus, who has proven his power before, he takes his disciples through experiences to build their faith brick by brick. Experience by experience. And I was wrestling with God with this. I'm like, Lord, why don't you just make everybody just a faith superstar? Why does not everybody just have just faith to believe? You know, I put my faith in Jesus. I'm just supposed to just be able to do whatever. Right? It's like, no, that's not the way he works. He builds faith experience by experience, brick by brick. So, at the end, when he does things, he takes us to another level so that we say, who is this dude that the winds and waves obey him? So, our faith. Faith grows. And through the experiences and circumstances of life, we grow closer to God. And we say that I have my own personal faith journey, a faith testimony of the Lord. The Lord has done in our lives. All right? Let's look at this last thing here.

Resumes, right? Anybody here has a job, right? A job. Usually when you get a job, you got to submit a resume. Right? You got to submit a resume. So, resumes, like, show, you can see a little bit of it. Work experience. It shows your competency. It's what you're good at. Right? But as you fill out your resume and as your employer looks at your resume, it shows for a list of competencies that you have that will aid you in overcoming future challenges. All right? So, as I was thinking about just this concept, I'm like, man, what would be on Jesus' resume? Like, what would be on his resume? It would be like, you know, cast out demons. Heal the blind. Heal the sick. Made the lame walk.

Fed over 5,000 people. Rose people from the dead. Rose himself from the dead.

Prophesize and tells us what's going to happen. Leaves his spirit in order so we can be empowered day by day. And as I began to think about all the resumes of Jesus, I'd be thinking in my mind, what reason do I have not to trust?

I'm like, what reason do I have not to trust? And I guess it's something I wrestle with. I'm like, why don't I trust the way I'm supposed to? And the reason why is this. I came to the answer. The reason is this. It's because I allow the chaos at times to override my confidence in him.

And that is, we must do everything that's in us in order to fight that. Everything in us, we got to fight. We got to fight with that. We got to fight against that. And as we get ready to close, I want to ask you this question. This is the application piece. What chaos or storm that you're dealing with that is overriding your confidence in Christ? What are you dealing with that's overriding the resume that Christ has? And as you look at all the stuff that he's done, and even as you look at the things he's done in your own life, because God has, Jesus has his own resume of things that he has done in our own lives, right? On top of what he's done in his word, how is that being overridden by the chaos that we're dealing with? It could be chaos in the country. It could be chaos in your relationships. It could be chaos in your workplace. It could be chaos in your body because you've been dealing with physical issues. It could be chaos anywhere.

What we must do is say, Lord, I'm going to trust you. And that's easier said than done, right? It's easier said than done. Lord, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to put my faith in you, and I'm going to let you be God. And I'm going to act different than the disciples acted in the storm. Instead of panicking, instead I'm going to trust. Amen? So right now, with every eyes closed and every head bowed,

I just want you to think about that storm that you're dealing with.

Think about how predictable it is and how unstoppable it is, and think about how it's seeking to try to consume you. I want you really to take it to heart. And in the midst of that storm, make up your mind to trust Jesus. I want you to think about what that looks like.

Think about what it looks like, even if it seems like God is not doing anything in the midst of it. Think about what it looks like to trust Jesus in the midst of that storm. And make up your mind to, despite what the chaos you face, to not lose your confidence in him.