Mark 4:35-41 - The God Who Commands Nature Itself

Hello, and hope you are staying cool, especially if you're in the Maryland area. We have been a little bit toasty this week. Whatever week I'm recording, I'm a little loopy on time.

But we are in Mark chapter four today, and we are in just an amazing portion of scripture. This is a great, familiar story, especially for those of us that grew up in church.

This was one of the things that maybe back in the day, if you had like flannel graphs, this was definitely on one of those.

If maybe you were a little bit after that stage where they had like pictures and things, this was just one of the really cool ones that you would see that would be very dramatic. And Jesus has been preaching.

He's been preaching in some parables, and he has been giving like the clear picture, the clear teaching to those that want to know, but a lot of people are just following him because he can heal the sick and cast out demons.

There's not a lot of people right now that are following him because of a deep like belief and love in him as God or Messiah.

And what Mark records here as his next portion of scripture, after he says, hey, for the people that want to actually know and love and follow God, I'm going to declare to you who I am, what I'm about, this account is so pivotal because it shows us

like Jesus isn't just another prophet. He's not just a teacher telling us, yeah, this is what God has told me his kingdom is like. This really emphatically declares who Jesus is.

And we can begin in Mark chapter four and verse number 35 to discover that. It says, on that day, when evening had come, he told them, let's cross over to the other side of the sea.

So here he's on the, so the sea here being talked about is the Sea of Galilee. They're over more towards kind of the Capernaum side. And he says, hey, we're gonna cross over to the other side.

Now, this was not the area that good Jews were supposed to go to. The other side of the sea was the region of the Decapolis. It was 10 cities.

It's kind of Greek and Roman in nature. There was a lot of Gentiles that lived on that side and they did not follow the Lord. There weren't really much in the way of synagogues or of kosher foods and practices over there.

We'll see more about that in our next episode. But he says, hey, we're going to go over to the other side of the sea. So already we know, OK, some little difference happened in here.

Verse 36, so they left the crowd and took them along since he was in the boat and other boats were with him. OK, so we got multiple boats. They're going across the sea.

Verse 37, a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking over the boat so that the boat was already being swamped. OK, if you remember, at least four of these guys were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. Like that was their occupation.

This is what they did. And right as they start off, you have this windstorm that comes and the waves are taking over the boat and it is already being swamped, being bogged down. They're they're in danger.

Now, want to mention, so Mark here, he's tying in the Old Testament with the New Testament. So he already talked about. So Jesus's baptism is kind of a picture, almost of the Israelites going through the Red Sea.

It was kind of their baptism moment where God emphatically like declares, hey, this is my people. And here in the New Testament, in Mark, he says, Jesus is my son.

And then after that time in that baptism time, then just as Israel went into the wilderness and they were tempted, if you will, in many different ways, Jesus goes into the wilderness. They were there for 40 years. Jesus was there for 40 days.

And he is victorious where they failed, where they gave into all sorts of different evils. Jesus, throughout his temptations, did not fall to any evils.

And here, if you remember, if you listen to our sermon podcast, which I'd encourage you, if you don't currently listen to the sermon podcast, please do so. I enjoy these times.

I always feel a little bit more freedom on this podcast than in a sermon time to me. The Sunday sermon carries a lot of weight. And so it's something that I feel needs to be very respected.

And I almost always want to feel a little bit more guarded when I'm preaching God's word from the pulpit. Here, I can feel a little bit more freedom to speak freely to you, mostly because there is no one else here.

And if you don't like the podcast, you can just hit an X button or a pause button or mute me for 30 seconds, and then you'll probably be back with me and agree with what I say 30 seconds.

But I would encourage you, please listen to the sermon podcast. It's Tabernacle Baptist Essex Sermon Podcast is the podcast name for that.

We talked about in Genesis 1, as Moses is writing kind of this account of God having created the world, he does it in kind of striking in your face to the Canaanites and the Egyptians and the Babylonians, those nations that were around Israel.

And he says, you guys say all of these different things about these different gods and goddesses and how the world was made. And I want you to know that our God, Yahweh Elohim alone is the true God.

And all other gods, all other spiritual beings, they are subservient to him. He created them. They are not his rivals.

They didn't create him. No, our God is the only true God. He is the supreme one.

So as Moses is doing that, he starts off in verse number two of Genesis 1. He talks about the spirit of God walking on the face of the deep, the waters, the word there. I think it's tam or yam is very similar to one of the Canaanite deities.

And God's basically saying like, yeah, I've trampled on the other deities. They have no power over me. And then as we look in verse 21, God says, hey, I'm gonna make the birds of the air.

I need to get, or sorry, I need to make the fish of the sea, and I'm gonna make the creatures, the swarming creatures of the sea. And so he makes the birds, he makes the fish of the sea, and he makes the swarming creatures in the water.

And then he says, and he made the tanninim. Elsewhere in scripture would be translated as like the sea monsters, the sea dragons in Babylonian culture.

You had the two great sea dragons that kind of made gods, that made gods, that ended up making portions of the world, that then some of them ended up making humans. There's the freshwater one and the saltwater one, and the saltwater one was Tiamat.

And so God says, hey, any spiritual beings that you guys think are so powerful that they've created everything? Yeah, God created them, and he created these spiritual beings on day four. This was not even like an initial important thing to him.

He creates the great sea beasts, even as we look at some of the fossil record and see amazing sea creatures that once were, we realize God has made all of these things. He is not subservient to them.

So all of that background on sea and cultures and stuff to say this, so there were myths about, especially in Babylonian and Canaanite culture, about with the change of seasons, what would happen is you would have this salt water ocean sea dragon

that would come and would try and take over the land and destroy life. And you would have the storm god or the sky god Baal that would come and he would, or Marduk in Babylon.

And he would come and he would have a great battle with this sea dragon and he would almost die. But then he would finally emerge victorious. And then you would have spring or whatever new season for the people.

And so here in that specific story with the Canaanites and the Babylonians is mentioned and utilized several times in the Book of Psalms. And we're going to look at two of those Psalms here in just a few moments so that you can see. I'm not crazy.

I'm not making this up. But here you have this great windstorm that arises.

This is again demonic attack on the Son of God, just as he's done from Chapter 1, just as he did with Chapter 2 of moving in the hearts of people to reject the Lord, to want to kill him.

These demons that were constantly trying to downgrade his message here, the one that's described as the prince of the power of the air in the Book of Ephesians, brings this windstorm and wants to destroy Jesus.

So then verse 38, he, Jesus, was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. Man, there is no, there is nothing in this world, there is nothing in the spiritual world, there is nothing in your world that can cause your God to worry or to fret.

All the forces of hell are coming to destroy the Son of God. And he's sleeping on a pillow. When you encounter difficulties in your life, know that it's not taking your God by surprise.

He is there, and he's the one that's in control. Anything that you go through, he's going through with you. Here are the disciples.

So he's sleeping on this cushion, and it says, So they woke him up and said to him, Teacher, don't you care that we're going to die? I love the old song that says, Carest thou not that we perish? How canst thou lie asleep?

While the breakers so threatening are threatening a grave in the angry deep. An old song. And so they're saying like, Jesus, don't you care that we're going to die?

And he obviously cares. He's with them. And when we are with Jesus, we can have assurance that we are safe in his hand.

That whether good times come or bad times come, even as the Apostle Paul would highlight, Hey, I know how to do with much and I know how to do with very little.

Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And here Jesus, he's with them.

They don't need to fear because he is the one that's in control. Verse 39, he got up, rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Silence, be still. The wind ceased and there was a great calm.

The moment that your master wants to calm the storm that you were going through with him, it will stop. And until that point, when he tells it to stop, rest in the fact knowing that your storms are not forever.

And there will come a moment, whether in this life or when you pass, that he will say, hey, this physical infirmity that you've had for 50 years, the moment of death, it's gone from you forever, for all of eternity.

And in a hundred billion, trillion, quadrillion years, you are not going to look back and go, God, why didn't you take it away right in the moment? God's timing is not our timing. The disciples would have liked to not go through the storm.

But if they had not gone through the storm, then Jesus wouldn't have gotten to so emphatically show his deity. You go, OK, well, how does this show his deity? Like, he stopped a storm.

Yeah, that seems cool. But couldn't it just be coincidence? But I want to look at the words that Mark uses here.

He says he got up. He rebuked the wind. So I'm going to go over to Psalm 18, and we're going to see what God says.

So we were in this passage many weeks ago now when we were in Psalm, book one of Psalms. So here's what Psalm 18 says. It says, Yahweh thundered from heaven.

The Most High made his voice heard. He shot his arrows and scattered them. He hurled lightning bolts around them.

The depths of the sea became visible. The foundations of the world were exposed at your rebuke, Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. So here Yahweh is the one that rebuke the waters.

And here Jesus is rebukeing the waters. And then over here in Psalm 103. Give me just one second.

I lost my place on the page. Oh, Psalm 104, there we are. It says, He established the earth on its foundations.

It will never be shaken. You covered it with the deep as if it were a garment. The water stood above the mountains.

At your rebuke, the water fled. At the sound of your thunder, they hurried away.

Here, multiple times in the Psalms, those are just two passages out of, if I remember correctly, it's like six or seven different places where this specific motif is written, that God is the one. He rebukes the wind. He rebukes the sea.

He rebukes the storm. And it stops. It goes away from him.

And here, this is what Jesus has done. And even the words that he uses, he says, silence, be still. The word there is the word for be muzzled.

It's to shut up an animal.

And here, in kind of the language of the ancient Near East, he says, hey, these spiritual beings, these spiritual forces that are here working with the wind and the seas to try and destroy the Son of God, he says, hey, you spiritual sea dragons, be

muzzled. You have no authority, no power, no ability to come against the Lord's anointed.

I think of Psalm 91, that Satan had used to tempt Jesus back, way back when in Chapter 1, and as you can see in Matthew Chapter 3 and Luke Chapter, or no, it might be Matthew 2 and Luke 3, something like that.

But Psalm 91 says, the one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say concerning Yahweh, who is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and whom I trust.

He himself will rescue you from the bird trap, from the destructive plague. He will cover you with his feathers. He will take refuge under his wings.

His faithfulness will be a protective shield. You will not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the plague that stalks in darkness or the pestilence that ravages at noon.

The thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand. The pestilence will not reach you.

You will only see it with your eyes and witness the punishment of the wicked because you have made Yahweh my refuge, the Most High, your dwelling place. No harm will come to you.

No plague will come near your tent, for he will give his angels orders concerning you to protect you in all your ways. They will support you with their hands, so you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra.

You will trample the young lion and the serpent. So here, Jesus is protected, and he doesn't even need the angels to protect him. His word silences the actions and the threats and the deadliness of the enemy.

Psalm 93 also talks about this same type of thing. It says, Yahweh reigns. He's robed in majesty.

Yahweh is robed, enveloped in strength. The world is firmly established. It cannot be shaken.

Your throne has been established from the beginning. You are from eternity. The floods have lifted up Yahweh.

The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their pounding waves greater than the roar of a huge torrent. The mighty breakers of the sea, Yahweh on high is majestic.

Here, Jesus, he emphatically declares, I'm the one in charge. No one can destroy me until it is time that I lay my life down as an offering for sin.

He says the only way I'm going out is the sacrificial land, that atonement for the sins of all mankind. And he says no power of hell can come against me. All the forces of nature are nothing compared to the voice of our God.

For your life, you have nothing to fear. When you interact with hardships, realize that you have a God that will not suffer you to be tempted, tested, tried above that you are able, but he will with the temptation also make a way to escape.

That you have a refuge in God, and if he is your refuge, if you call out to him in a heartbreak and in a hardship and in temptation, he will hear you and he will deliver you. Verse 40, Then Jesus said to them, to the disciples, 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.

I told you guys that the very first episode of this, Act 1 of Mark is, Who is Jesus? The wind and the seas and the demons and the sicknesses and the diseases, everything obeys his voice.

Funny enough, the only group of people that have not obeyed his voice yet are people, are humans. They have rejected him. They've said he's crazy.

They've said he has a devil. But everything else in creation knows who is the Lord. Tomorrow, we're going to dive into Mark, Chapter 5, and see just a wonderful passage of Scripture that I got the chance to preach on a couple years ago.

And so, I'm going to connect the sermon to that, to the show notes for that episode. But I want to encourage you, like, life is difficult. Storms do come.

Heartaches come. You lose a loved one. You lose a job.

There's difficulty. There is just absolute butting heads in relationships. But know that Jesus is in control, and let that knowledge motivate you to love and adore and worship him, because he is absolutely worthy of it.

He is God. He is the one that has made everything. And whenever he says, stop, be muzzled to the forces of Satan, to the situations in your life, it will be at peace again.

And you can rely on him because he is the Lord. And if everything obeys him, then so ought we to obey him. Thanks for tuning in.

See you next episode.