From Ben Fronczek... Peace

Peace

Peace, Be Still Mark 4:35-41 “ That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

(Based on a sermon by Jeff Strite)

A mother and her young daughter were at home alone. The father was gone on a trip for his company and night was coming on. Outside, it became increasingly dark and very windy. The moon was out, but the wind howled menacingly in trees and the branches of some of those trees brushed ominously against the house. As old houses will in a fierce wind-storm, the wood creaked and moaned as the house was nudged by the wind.
 

It was kind of scary, and the mother and daughter were both uneasy.
As the mother was putting her daughter to bed, the young girl looked out the window at the bright moon and asked her mother “Is the moon God’s night-light?”
The mother smiled and replied “Well, yes, you could say that”.
Her daughter thought about that for moment – then asked: “Does God turn out his light when he goes to sleep?”
“Oh, no honey, God never sleeps.”
“Oh,” said the child quietly. “Well then, if God’s going to stay up all night, there’s no sense both of us staying awake.” And with that, the little girl turned over in bed, pulled her blanket up to her neck and fell asleep.

Now, why was that little girl able to go to sleep? The night was still dark. The wind was still blowing. The house was still creaking.  And she and her mother were still all alone in that house. Everything was still the same…

Only one thing had changed. Only one thing was different?
 

The little girl knowing that God was there made all the difference.
 

Once she brought God into her bedroom, her fear faded and her faith grew. When she thought about WHO God was, and WHERE He was, and what He was capable of, she reasoned: If God was going to be up all night anyway… she knew she’d be safe, and so she could sleep peacefully.

In our text this morning, we find this simple verse: “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”Mark 4:38  Jesus was sleeping???

To understand how bizarre this must have seemed to the disciples, you need to visualize what was going on. Their boat is half way across the lake and a fierce storm begins to beat against their boat. The waves are so high they begin to spray them and even wash over the sides of the boat. So their little ship began to take on water.

In other words – they’re beginning to sink. Maybe they were bailing water out as fast as they could, but more was coming in than going out, and it’s obvious that if the storm didn’t die down… they’d be the ones who would die.

Some of these disciples are seasoned fishermen. They know about boats and what they can handle and they probably known of boats that have gone down in this kind of weather. They knew of sailors who never came home. And so they are frightened, and they’ve got good reason to be frightened.

And here is Jesus… asleep.    How can He do that???
 

Well, two reasons:  Jesus knows WHO He is, and He knows WHERE He is going. And even more obvious, He was tired

So, Who was Jesus?   He was the Son of God.  And where was He going?  He was going to the Cross. Jesus was not going to die until He’d fulfilled His destiny, and He knew that.

I believe because of those two facts – Jesus knew that the ship wasn’t going down as long as He was on board, and so He had no problem sleeping.

But the disciples were frightened and frustrated because they weren’t thinking that way. They weren’t thinking of Him as the Son of God. They weren’t thinking about Him going to a cross to die for our sin.  As far as they were concerned…They knew they were in a dangerous storm and there was a chance that the boat was going to swamp and they were going to drown.

The disciples wake him up and cry, “Teacher, Don’t You Care…?” Mark 4:38   Don’t you care???

And at that Jesus got up and He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be quiet! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
 

He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Can you just imagine the look on those disciple faces? They had to be blown away. The text says that they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?”

Now what happened there?  Well, let’s start from the beginning.
Mark 4:35 says “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”

So whose idea was it to go to the other side of lake? It was Jesus’ idea.  Jesus was the one who said they should cross to the other side of the lake that night.

So, if it was Jesus’ idea, do you think Jesus knew this storm was coming?    Of course He did. He’s God. He knows this stuff.

So why would Jesus send His disciples into the teeth of scary storm… and then go to sleep?   Answer: To see what they’d do, and to teach them something.

This was a test. A multiple choice quiz. And in this test, the disciples had at least 3 choices:
 

1) They could try to take thing into their own hands bail until they sank.
 

2) They could remember who Jesus was and the things He had done up to that point in time and ask Him for help.   

3) OR they could do what they did.

And what did they do? They went to Jesus and they complained.
 

They didn’t go to Jesus for help. They didn’t look for Him to fix their problem.
 

They were frightened and anxious and they wanted Him to wake up… so that He could be worried along with them.

You could say – they flunked the test.  Jesus calms the wind and the sea then turns to them and asks: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

A lesson was learned in that storm that day. That’s the way Jesus taught.  In elementary school, high school, or college teacher gives the lesson first, and then the test.  Jesus gave the test FIRST… then the lesson.

I believe the storm was the classroom.  And what lesson was Jesus teaching?
 

1st - If they were going to follow Him, they were going to need more faith in Him than  they had.
 

And 2nd – when He was finished with them –when they graduated from HIS school – they would be able to face even worst storms with a peace the world would not understand.

Later in His ministry before He leaves them, Jesus told them: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi and taught them, and us, that if we do what Jesus wanted, he wrote we would have “…the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, (and that peace would) guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7  (even during the storms)

ON the lake that night, Jesus was giving them an object lesson showing them the kind of peace they could have. When the storm was at its worst, Jesus was in control and simply stood up and He spoke to the winds and the waves.
 

“BE QUIET, BE STILL”    And there was peace.

Essentially, Jesus was teaching His disciples that when they reached the level of faith that He wanted them to have – they would trust Him even in the most difficult of times. They would have this kind of peace that could endure even in the worst of storms, whether they be threats, trials, persecution, imprisonment, or even death itself. Later we do find them sleeping peacefully after being arrested, or even singing in jail. Like the little girl that windy night, they knew that God was close at hand and was watching over them.

What about you? Have you learn to trust God that much? Do you realize that when you are in the midst of a storm that Jesus is in control. He is in the room with you and will be up all night he will lead you through that storm so you can sleep peacefully. We can try to bail ourselves out on our own (like the disciples in the boat), or we can complain to everyone including God, or we can simply turn to Him and ask for His help and then trust Him. When we turn it over to Him to handle our problems in His own time. That relieves the burden and the stress.

Just like with those disciples on the boat, sometimes Jesus teaches us this same lesson by leading us through a storm.

ILLUSTRATION: Someone once said: “Jesus does not lead His children AROUND hardship, but leads them straight THROUGH hardship. But He leads! And amidst the hardship, He is nearer to us than ever before.” Otto Dibelius

Now, that (of course) is the point. Our circumstances may not change, the storm may still rage, but when we see ourselves being led by Jesus, our attitudes change.  When we come to the realization that Jesus is in control  that will change our heart and attitude from fear and anxiety to that of peace when in that storm.

Just imagine how different their attitudes and response would have been if they only realized Who Jesus really was and What He was capable of.     Mark 4:41 tells us that when Jesus calmed the seas:“They were terrified and asked each other, “WHO is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
 

Did you get that? It’s like they didn’t have a clue as to WHO He was!!

But weren’t they there when He healed the sick, caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear? So what were they thinking while on that boat? I guess that’s the point; they weren’t thinking.

If they’d only remembered Who Jesus was, and what He could do, just think how different this story would have been. Instead of becoming like little children who were terrified by the storm, I can see them going over to Jesus – shaking Him awake just like they did in this story. But this time it’s not in fear, but in anticipation. “Wake up Jesus. Wake up. There’s a storm swamping our boat… and we just want to know – what kind of miracle will you perform this time?”

But they didn’t do that!  They didn’t have that kind of faith.
 

Did Jesus expect these disciples to pass this test. Probably not! Rather He probably expected them to fail! Not only because of the lesson that they were to learn that day… but because of the lesson we could learn through them.

The Bible records this story about the disciples’ fears and failures in this storm so we can learn the fact that God knows we struggle in our storms, and He is more than capable of helping us as well thru those storms.

The Bible is very clear about the fact that we’re gonna have storms in our lives. Jesus Himself told His disciples: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble”Jn 16:33

No matter who you are or how good a live you live…There will be storms.
 

There are going to be times of trouble/heartache/loss and disappointment.

But in the midst of those storms, Jesus says, we can have peace.
 

Why? Because He will be there with us to help us thru those hard times.  In scripture He said “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrew 13:5

When we realize Who is in the boat with us, and What He’s capable of doing, then the storms will not overwhelm you. And you will experience His PEACE.