Storms and Satan

There’s a storm comin...

This wasn’t uncommon for the area. Sea of Galilee was in a kind of bowl, so winds would frequently sweep down from the mountains and stir up the water.

This was worse because it was at night and it says it was a “great windstorm”.

So if this was a movie, imagine there’s a smash cut to absolute chaos. Wide shot of this tiny boat being tossed around like a toy. The only light comes from the occasional bolt of lightning. Then we see what’s happening inside the boat. The boat is rocking. The disciples can barely stay standing. A waves crashes against the side and they’re all thrown back thrown back.

This thing is so bad even the seasoned sailors begin to panic. So they find Jesus, they wake him up, and they ask “Do you care that we’re dying?”

That’s not being over-dramatic, the reality is, if something doesn’t change, they are going to die.

And notice what they don’t say to Jesus. They don’t say “Hey, can you do something about this storm?” Because that would be crazy. They don’t even ask him to help shovel water out of the boat. They’re just mad that Jesus is so relaxed.

Fear takes over and they doubt his power and they forget his love.

Can he do something? Will he do something?

So they wake Jesus up and Jesus does something crazy. He tells the storm “Peace! Be still!”

“Be still!” can also be translated “Be muzzled”, and I’m no Biblical language scholar but it has the feel of Jesus telling the storm to put a sock in it. Like this is just a mild inconvenience for him.

And that is crazy.

But what’s crazier is that the storm listens. Some people want to say it was just a coincidence. He just timed it right. But Mark doesn’t give us that option. He says “the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” which means the waters stilled and became flat. That wouldn’t have happened if the wind had just stopped blowing.

the waters stilled and became flat. That wouldn’t have happened if Jesus had just timed it right.

One moment, there’s a crazy storm and everyone is about to die. Jesus says “Zip it” and the next moment the storm has stopped, they’re sitting on still waters, and no one is saying a word.

They think he’ll help them scoop water or man the sails. Jesus does something else.

We just see Jesus say to the disciples “Don’t y’all know me by now?” And probably goes back to sleep.

If Mark has gone a good job showing us the humanity of Jesus, here he pulls back the curtain to show us the divine.

The disciples are left asking “Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?”

What guy controls nature like that?

Who does that?

Jesus says “Peace! Be still” which literally means “Be quiet and be muzzled.”

If you know your Old Testament, you know the answer. It’s God.

No dramatic incantations or charging his powers. Just “zip it” and it happens.

Psalm 104:5–7 ESV

5 He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. 6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. 7 At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.

It’s interesting how the disciples react. You would expect them to start singing oceans or at least a “Thank you.”

Instead they’re greatly afraid. They’re more afraid of him than the storm.

I’ll tell you why: having no control is just as terrifying as someone with absolute control. I have no control < He has absolute control

ing as someone with absolute control. I have no control < He has absolute control

Right now, it’s looking like Jesus has absolute control. That scares us.

If Jesus has that kind of control, he has power over me whether I like it or not. What he says is true whether I like it or not.

He’s not making a suggestion. I don’t get the option of picking what works for me and what doesn’t.

The only person who can do that is God, because he made it.

I don’t get the option of

He’s the one who built the machine. He knows how it’s run.

But this scares some of us because we all have people in our lives who were in positions of power and they abused that power

Before you walk out, you should see how he uses that power.

999 Problems

Mark sets up this confrontation. We learn this guy doesn’t just have an unclean spirit, he has a LEGION in him.

A legion was somewhere between 4 - 6 thousand soldiers. Mark is comparing the demons to Rome, the biggest baddest thing the Jewish people knew. Jesus had just conquered a physical storm, now he’s going up against a spiritual one.

Mark sets up confrontation. Anticlimactic. Not epic struggle. Just “Get outta here.”

Story about Jesus’s power, but not the main point. Look how Mark describes this man.

3. “Anymore.” Means there was a time when people could bind him. Progression. He got into something that he thought would bring him life and freedom, something he could control, and it’s snowballed.

4. "No one had the strength to subdue him” His friends and family can’t help.

5. He’s in the mountains, he’s isolated. He’s self-destructive. The pain he feels inside, he’s externalizing.

This is a picture of us.

Notice, he’s free from every physical chain yet he is totally enslaved to sin. This is a picture of us before Christ. says we were slaves to sin before we met Christ.

5. He’s in the mountains, he’s isolated. He’s self-destructive. The pain he feels inside, he’s externalizing.

We see God’s power and all these rules and we reject him and we turn to things we think will bring us freedom and life

Video games. Social media. Pornography. Sex. Drinking. Weed. We go to these things instead of God. We think they’ll bring us life but instead they isolate us they invite chaos and destruction into our lives.

Some of these things aren’t bad by themselves. But when a good thing in your life becomes the ultimate thing, it goes bad. When we put it on the throne, it becomes a tyrant.

warns us where that road ends. It ends with death, destruction, chaos.

Romans 6:20–21 ESV

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

These places we thought would bring us life, are tombs.

We all have places we run to when we feel ashamed or overwhelmed

Tombs were considered unclean by the Jewish people. He has an unclean spirit, he’s going to unclean places. It’s isolating him and making his condition worse.

We have these places in our lives.

We all have junk, whether this is your first time here or you’ve come your whole life.

This is a picture of all of us but some of you really feel this. You’ve got an external or internal storm going on.

Yet Jesus loves to come to the broken and hurting, those crying out in the night, and bring them hope and freedom.

Freedom

Disgrace - Dignity

Shame - Story

Mission

Now What?