Mark 4:35-41
Notes
Transcript
EOFY - thank you to those who have joined in giving!
I’m going on leave a bit of the next 6 months to finish study and renos.
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Mark 4:35-41
“On that day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” So they left the crowd and took him along since he was in the boat. And other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Then he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!””
If there’s a thread Mark’s been pulling since chapter 1, it’s this:
Who has authority like this?
Authority to cast out demons with a word.
Authority to cleanse the sick.
Authority to forgive sins — a prerogative reserved for God alone.
Authority over the scribes and teachers of the law
And now, authority over creation itself.
And each time, people are left staggered, asking “Who is this?”
Jesus is tired after a long day ministering to many
This story starts with an emphasis on Jesus’ humanity!
He is like us! He gets tired after working hard… very tired as we’ll see.
He and the disciples, along with a Bunch of other boats crossing the sea of Galilee
storm comes up, waves crashing over the sides, wind blowing
The disciples think they’re going to die
but because Jesus was so tired, he’s somehow still sleeping!
The disciples think they’re done for
they’re afraid they’re going to die
Obedience Leads Them Into the Storm (v.35–37)
Mark’s careful here.
“On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’”
This wasn’t a rogue decision.
They followed Jesus straight into danger.
Which tells you something about discipleship:
Obedience isn’t a guarantee of safety — it’s a guarantee of proximity to Jesus.
And proximity to Jesus is where every fear gets exposed.
Cross-reference:
Acts 14:22 — “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Application:
The measure of God’s goodness to us, and presence with us isn’t the absence of danger or suffering… and our goal in life isn’t to avoid all danger or storms or suffering — it’s to know His presence in the middle of it.
Don’t buy soft, suburban Christianity.
This King leads people into storms to reveal His glory.
Fear Exposes What You Trust (v.38–40)
The storm hits, and they panic: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Notice what their fear exposes:
They believe in His ability to teach.
They’ve seen Him heal… He's revealed secrets of the Kingdom to them!
But in this moment, their terror reveals their small view of His authority.
It’s easy to trust a good-time Jesus who preaches well and heals others.
But what about when He leads you into difficult, uncomfortable, or dangerous situations?
Fear is a diagnostic. It shows you what you really feel.
faith is then action based on what you know
Cross-reference:
Isaiah 41:10 — “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.”
- could paraphrase “don’t act in accordance with your fear, but know the presence of the God to who, creation bows because it’s His”.
Application:
Real fear isn’t bad — it’s honest.
It shows you where your theology cracks.
The question isn’t Are you afraid?
It’s “Who do you run to in your fear?”
Why do the disciples go to Jesus?
what did they expect Him to do?
is this a moment where they’re full of faith, and run to Jesus?
nope! Later on He tells them off for having no faith!
they’re merely scrambling for anything; likely having done everything they could to no avail.
Jesus Is Lord Over the Storm (v.39–41)
As it turns out Jesus IS the only one who had the authority to help them:
He rebukes the wind
a rebuke is to censure, a strong disapproval… it’s telling someone off!
he rebukes the wind.
He tells the sea to be silent and still
The wind and the waves obey His voice
He just told them earlier in the chapter, like we saw last week, that the secrets of the kingdom of God had been given to them.. revealed to them.. and here’s a pretty big revelation!! “The wind and the waves obey Him!”
The disciples were afraid of the storm, but now Mark tells us they’re terrified of Jesus.
“What just happened?!”
“what does this mean?!” they wondered!
Who is He?!
they went to Jesus in desperation, not in faith, and Jesus saves them.
How?
creation bows to the authority of Jesus.
Jesus has authority over all of creation, because it’s His.
He made it
It’s for Him
Fulfilling prophecy:
Psalm 107:28–29 “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” — (From our Bible reading yesterday)
This is talking about Yahweh.
This is Exodus 14, Red Sea-splitting, waters-obeying, creation-submitting authority.
So:
If Jesus commands the natural world, then there’s no area of reality where His authority doesn’t hold.
No disease, no demonic power, no human heart, no created thing can resist His voice.
The disciples were terrified because they realised in that moment:
The only thing more dangerous than the storm in that moment was the man with them in the boat.
John 1:1-3
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.”
Colossians 1:15-20
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.
Psalms 24:1-2
“The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.”
The disciples are in awe of the implications of creation obeying Jesus!
What does it mean?
When we see Jesus’ authority over all of creation, it shows us that the things we find amazing (the disciples were in awe), are easy for God.
on another occasion Jesus is telling His disciples about how hard it is for rich people to get into heaven.. they come back and say who can get in then? jesus replies “with man it’s impossible, but with God nothing is impossible”
These are not difficult things for Him!
We ask Him for tiny things, because that’s at the limit of our faith
The limit of our trust in His ability to do it
Or the limit of our trust in His desire to do it
Or the limit of our trust that He’ll do it for US!
But we honour the greatness of God when we ask Him for great things.
Things well beyond our own ability to effect.
What’s frightening for us (being in the storm.. the waves over our heads and spilling into our boat.. lightning overhead.. wind tossing our boat about) doesn’t frighten Jesus at all.
He has authority over it.
We need a better understanding of the reality of the greatness of God
that we would stand in awe of Him
He made it all
See that the storm is subject to Him
And know that He’s right there in the boat with us.
We don’t go to Jesus as a last resort when we’ve done everything in our own strength.. when you know who He is and what He can do, He’s your FIRST port of call.
Final Application:
Don’t sanitise Jesus.
Don’t reduce Him to a spiritual advisor.
He is the sovereign King whose word commands everything.
And that means the appropriate response isn’t casual adherence — it’s holy fear, worship, and obedience… wherever He takes us.
Pray
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He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Hebrews 11:1-3
“Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were approved. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”
God created the universe with His word.
Jesus is the word of God; the Logos of God
The personified word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
taking on humanity… getting tired after a long day
but NOT losing His divinity; still in authority over all of creation.
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This passage isn’t about weathering metaphorical storms — it’s about fear and faith.
Real, physical, death-in-your-face terror.
And what you do in that moment says everything about who you think Jesus is.
