STORMS AND THE MAJESTIC SAVIOR!

MARK 4:35-41, “And the same day, when the even was come, He saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship. And there were also with Him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And He was in the hinder part of the ship; asleep on a pillow: and they awake Him, and say unto Him, Master, carest Thou not that we perish? And He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And He said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

In Mark 4 we encounter one of the great storm stories of the Bible. Among the many things we learn from it is that being Christ’s followers doesn’t grant immunity from trouble.

If the truth be known, all of us face various kinds of storms in our life. This is why we continually need to be bathed in the gospel. We need to know that the One who has bought and paid for us has the power, ability and willingness to take us through whatever storms we face. Why would He purchase us with His blood and then discard us when we face difficult times? Why indeed?

In our story, in Mark 4, we see a wonderful picture of Christ Jesus the Majestic One. This is important for it is as we see Him in His majesty that we are encouraged to trust Him. We, as His followers, need to grasp the good news of Christ’s absolute power and sovereignty. Since He is the sovereign ruler of all, He can easily calm the storms in our lives and deliver us.

Do we really believe that our Saviour is all-powerful? Do we believe that He has all the power necessary to get us through crisis? As we go to the Bible, we see that there was something about Jesus, -----As Sinclair Ferguson says, “a compelling, divine, majestic sovereignty that moved and conquered the hearts of men.”

Observe it at work, in this passage, as He tells His disciples to get into a boat and sail across the lake to the other side. Well what’s majestic about that?  Consider this, these men were experienced fishermen and I’m sure some of them must have smelt the storm brewing; they knew how to read the signs. ----Yet they followed the Master right into the storm. This is a case of divine majesty at work.

We see this divine majesty demonstrated throughout the life of Jesus. Think about how, for example, Christ walked up to Matthew, the businessman/tax collector, and simply said, “Follow Me” and Matthew instantly got up and left everything behind … except his pen. Christ did the same to Peter and the fisherman immediately left his nets. If you don’t think there’s anything special in this, just try it yourself. Just go into a thriving business and try commanding the owner to leave everything to follow you. That puts it into perspective doesn’t it? Jesus spoke and people followed. He’s majestic!

Observe also how, in this passage, Jesus says with the same authority and majesty, “Let us go to the other side.” I’ve looked this phrase up in the Greek and do you know what it means? It means, “Let us go to the other side!” That was the word of the Lord. There was no way, then, for that boat to sink since Jesus had said they were going to the other side. So, watch how these fishermen follow the carpenter and how the carpenter leads them straight into the heart of the storm.

We need to understand this; following Jesus is never easy! He has the persistent habit of leading us into difficult situations. We need to learn from this that, as a Christian, the desire to have a trouble-free life is a non-starter! It’s not going to happen. The good news, however, is that it’s there, amid the storm, that we encounter God. He is the God who hears our cries. As Spurgeon says,
“Because God is a living God, He can hear.
Because He is a loving God, He will hear.
Because He is a covenant God, He has bound Himself to hear.”

And that’s the Gospel Truth!



-preacher D. G. Miles McKee

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http://milesmckee.com/