2024-06-23 - Covenant CRC-Sermon only - Joel Kok

Mark 4:35-51

Jesus in the storm

Transcript:

 As mentioned earlier, our gospel reading this morning, which. fellow Christians are reading all over the world is from the gospel of Mark chapter 4. And we're going to begin at verse 35 and read a story that includes a storm. And it's quite fascinating. It's fascinating in all kinds of ways that our Lord arranged for us to have this as a gospel reading after what we've been through this past week.

But also our Lord arranged for this gospel reading to come up right after Jesus has been teaching many parables. about the kingdom of God coming, and the kingdom of God is coming to earth through Jesus in all kinds of ways that we can't predict or expect, but that do keep happening, and we'll get some insight into that as we read our gospel reading, and as we think about how it fits into the larger story that continues to this day.

Again, Mark 4, beginning at verse 35, hear God's words. That day, after telling all those parables, when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, let's go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boats that it was nearly swamped 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? He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, Quiet, be still. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? And They were terrified and asked each other, who is this?

Even the wind and the waves obey him. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Friends, we can observe yet again that in our reading for today, we go through a stormy time, and we see our Lord Jesus leading his disciples through. that stormy time. And now, to encounter Jesus in a stormy time, as mentioned, that speaks quite directly to what's been happening in this area during this past week, the storms that bring even floods.

And, as also mentioned, when it comes to stormy times, that speaks not only to water and waves, it speaks to our emotional lives. And our spiritual lives, it speaks to what's going on in the Church of Jesus Christ, what's going on in politics in our nation and all over the world, because as when the times when we look at the wilderness journeys in the scriptures.

And we realize the wilderness can be an actual desert that people are passing through, but the wilderness can also be a time in life when you're not sure what the future holds. So with these stormy times, it can be an actual storm happening at sea and in the reading, but the storm can also be a further experience when just all of life is stormy and scary. So we can observe the literal storm happening on in our reading, but we can also connect it to our emotional and spiritual storms and struggles. And we can see that actually happening right in the reading itself. Because after in our gospel reading, after Jesus stills the storm at sea and the whole thing becomes completely calm, even after that happens, the disciples are still going through a stormy time in relation to their faith Because when jesus challenges them and jesus can speak sharp words with love Jesus is trying to encourage them in the direction of faith when jesus says why were you so afraid? Don't you have any faith? How do the disciples respond? They feel terrified.

They had been scared of the storm, but now they're even more afraid of their Savior. They are terrified by their Savior, and they ask, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. So they had seen Jesus do some remarkable things, but now he was doing even more. And friends, when the disciples ask, who is this?

That's also a question we can ask as we think more about our reading, our gospel story, and as we seek to do every Sunday, as we tie it to the larger biblical story, the one story of salvation. And that is a story of salvation, of Jesus leading us through storms. That's a story that happens in all kinds of ways to this day.

And to help us see that story continuing, I do feel that I can share a story that I heard about Jesus leading a disciple through a stormy time that came in a very unexpected way for me When I was, as I mentioned before, on this study leave, I was down in Houston, Texas, waiting to hear some lectures about the epistle to the Ephesians from the great scholar N. T. Wright. And then it was so interesting because always things happen that we don't plan or don't expect. So as I was just standing in line on the first day of that Ephesians teaching that N. T. Wright epistle, I was going to do and did do, I was standing outside a church where the lectures were going to take place and I wound up standing next to this young man and we started to chat and I learned that his name is Ami Zimmerman.

So right away I wasn't sure what was going on, I mean for me the name Ami is not a familiar name and so Ami explained to me, really his name is the Hebrew word for my people and because Ami was born and raised in a Jewish family. So again, as I went to a a bunch of lectures from the New Testament, I didn't expect to meet a lot of people from a Jewish family, but here was Ami Zimmerman.

And I can add further, he's 20 years old and some other, I didn't expect to meet a 20 year old chemical engineering major from Clemson University in South Carolina, because that, too, is who Ami is. Already, his name, his background, his age, and his major, all of that is surprising me. And then, in ways, again, I didn't plan, but that spoke to our reading for today, Ami told me about a very important stormy time in his life. The reason Ami was there to listen to N. T. Wright teach us more about the gospel as fulfilled in Christ and described in Ephesians, what I learned from Ami is that, He had journeyed through a stormy time as he was growing up in this Jewish family and then reaching young adulthood and going to, again, to Clemson University for reasons that he didn't have time to explain fully, and so reasons I don't fully understand.

He had been led, as a young Jewish man, to explore this Jewish Messiah. Whom we call Christ Jesus. So he was just beginning to explore Christ Jesus. And then again, I don't know all the details here, but man did he get struck by a storm because his army was just starting to study Jesus. What happened is that he went through such trying times that he was starting to suffer panic attacks.

And one panic attack was so severe That he fainted right in their home, and it looked like he could die. So his family calls the ambulance and gets somebody there as quickly as they can. And as that ambulance is rushing Ami to a hospital, in that stormy setting, something unexpected happened. Ami is lying in the ambulance.

He's semi conscious. He's still panicking. And what does he do? He winds up shouting, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! That was not something he planned to shout. That was not a habit of prayer he had already. But he was led, inspired by our Lord, to shout, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! And as he shouted out, in his stormy setting, Our Lord stilled the storm.

Our Lord came to him and even appeared to him in a way that he could see our Lord as he was given eyes of faith. He could see Jesus appearing to him and with a combination of power and compassion speaking to him in a way that led him into a wonderful peace. So Ami wind up spending just a brief time In the hospital, and then in some ways he returned to his previous life, his family life, his school life, but in other ways, Ami entered into an entirely new way of life.

And we can put it this way, as Jesus stilled the storm in Ami's life, he was able to lead him further into a life of faith which turned out to be a fascinating faith. That led him not only into a new life, but into a whole new creation. And friends, whether we are going through any particular stormy time right now or not, our same Lord is coming to lead us through the stormy times that are for sure all around us and maybe going on within us.

Our Lord is leading us through that stormy time into a stronger faith that grows stronger because it is so fascinating. To follow Jesus into a new life, which is part of a new creation. And to get more insight and experience into that, we can return to our gospel reading and go to the story of the gospel, which again is part of the one story of salvation, which continues to this And so as we go back to our story in Mark 4, What we see again is this theme, there's a squall or a storm comes up and as waves are breaking over the boat, making it seem like it's going to sink and the disciples could wind up drowning.

What is our Lord Jesus doing in that stormy time? He's sleeping. It's just quite remarkable. During this stormy time, Jesus is in the stern of the boat, sleeping on a cushion. And friends, we can wonder what is going on here and as with storms. So with the sleep in this story, there's all kinds of things going on when we read about sleep.

There's the literal sleep. Jesus is truly human. He is truly sleeping. But there's also other things that sleeping and waking up signal us. So let's just think about that a little bit. And one way to think about it is that when the disciples are scared of dying, and when they say to Jesus, Wake up, teacher.

Don't you even care if we're going to drown? When they offer that kind of angry prayer, they're echoing several psalms, and also a prayer that we find in the book of Isaiah. And so one that we can specify, they're echoing, for example, Psalm 44, where there's this psalmist named Korah, who's going through a really stormy time, and his whole country is going through a stormy time, and, what is the Lord doing as all that bad stuff happens?

Korah feels inspired to say, Awake, Lord! Wake up, Lord! He prays in Psalm 44. He says, Why do you sleep, Lord? Rouse yourself! Wake up! Don't reject us forever! That's the kind of thing that Korah cries out as he thinks about storms, as he thinks about the Lord seeming like he's asleep, and that cry for God to wake up.

Again, that happens in several Psalms. It happens in the book Isaiah. And what we want to see is, as Jesus experiences that crying out about waking up as we read it, yet in the gospel reading, that's Jesus again continuing that story about storms and sleeping and waking up. That story continues to this day.

And I think the Psalmists would have known this also when they cried, Lord, wake up. They knew that God was not literally asleep. They knew that the creator of the universe never slumbers nor sleeps. But in when they're saying, wake up, don't keep sleeping. What they are signaling is, Lord, it seems like you're asleep.

You're about as worthwhile as if you were asleep, because you don't seem to care. You don't seem to be doing anything to help for us. And certainly, in various ways, probably not as ferociously as Psalm 44 necessarily, but perhaps we do, sometimes we wonder, what is our Lord doing? Does he really care for us?

It just seems like he's asleep and everything keeps going wrong. And so again, in Mark 4, Jesus, who is a truly human. Savior is truly asleep. But of course our father in heaven is awake and at work in the storm as he worked through the wilderness The holy spirit is awake hovering over the waters And so what we can do is continue to think about this story And we can think about there are stormy times.

There are times when we wonder what is the lord doing? It's almost as if you were asleep And what our Lord is saying to us through these metaphors of sleeping and waking up, our Lord is saying, yes, Jesus did sleep, but the Creator, the Universe, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that are divine, they never sleep.

And so in stormy times, our Lord not so much needs to be woken up as our Lord is waking us up. To how he is doing things that we don't fully understand, that we can't predict, that we don't expect. And yet, through those stormy times, our Lord, who is always awake in that divine sense, is waking us up to his presence.

And to his power, his paradoxical power, in ways that can give us peace. So that we can sleep in a healthy way in stormy times. And we can persevere. And we can follow Jesus again through the storm. And into an ever more fascinating faith. We've heard about storms. We've heard about sleeping and waking up.

And to keep that going in the story of salvation that Jesus fulfills in all kinds of ways We can make another biblical connection And what we can do here now is connect jesus in his storm being asleep with the story of the prophet jonah And what that tells us about storms? And sleeping In the way our lord is at work.

So friends think about You The story of the prophet Jonah. And in the story of Jonah, as you probably know, he's actually trying to escape from the Lord. So he's got into a boat. He's sailing, it seems, across the Mediterranean, trying to get to a place called Tarshish, which may have been in Spain. But in any case, Jonah, when a storm breaks out, what is Jonah doing?

He's in a deep sleep. And so the captain of the ship comes down and says, Jonah, what are you doing? Wake up, he says to Jonah. In effect, cry out to your God. Maybe your God will help us. And here's an interesting thing. Just as Jonah was like Jesus by being asleep on a boat during a storm, Jonah is also like Jesus in a way in that Jonah knows how to still the storm.

Because as all these sailors are struggling and are fearful on the way to death, they are terrified like the disciples in our reading. What Jonah says is here's what you can do. Pick me up and throw me in. Throw me into the waters because when you throw me into the waters, it's all going to go calm because it's my fault that this storm is happening.

So friends, there are these connections between Jonah It's amazing that both Jonah and Jesus can sleep during a storm at sea. It's amazing that both Jonah and Jesus know how to still sleep. The storm that is happening. And then of course, there's all kinds of differences as well. Cause Jonah is quite different from our Lord in important ways.

So as I already mentioned, in contrast to Jesus, when Jonah is on a ship at sea, he's seeking to escape from our Lord rather than from us. bring his kingdom to earth as Jesus is doing. And in further contrast, Jesus actually has power over the storm. Jonah can only rely on the power of God to come as he gets punished for his disobedience.

But even with those differences, Bible teachers will emphasize what Jesus teaches, which is this. Our Lord Jesus wants us to see a strong connection between the story of Jonah And the story of Jesus, our Lord Jesus says to us, he says, someone greater than Jonah is here. And still the sign I'm going to give you, he says to some skeptics who are mocking and arguing, says the sign that I'm going to give you is the sign of Jonah.

So somehow Jesus is going to fulfill the sign of Jonah. To bring God's kingdom of heaven to earth and to bring us into the A whole new creation. And one connection we can mention now and we'll return to is, again, storms mean all kinds of things. Bible teachers and others who study history will agree to this.

What is the stormiest event in the history of the human family? The stormiest event in the history of the human family is when the human family puts the Son of God on the cross. When Jesus suffers stormy attacks in all kinds of ways because he needs to be lifted up on a cross, crucified and suffer and be dead and buried before he rises into the new life that he's giving us as we worship this morning.

So that's the stormiest time in life, the cross of Christ. And we can keep that in mind, again, through all the stormy times. And as we wrestle with questions like, Is Jesus asleep? How can I wake up to our Lord? What we want to do is just continue to see Jonah and Jesus in this one story. And as we look at the one story, again, when we think of the storms, one thing we can observe here is that, without denying that there's a natural, literal, just way in which storms and waves happen.

There's also in ways that we usually don't understand very much, but in ways that the scriptures can reveal to us, there's also spiritual powers at work in storms. For example, again, in the story of Jonah, it is the Lord himself sending that storm to direct the prophet in the right direction. But in the story of Jesus, he knows that his Father is overseeing all things and the Holy Spirit is hovering over the waters, but Jesus also knows that there are spiritual powers at work in the sea.

in ways that can bring danger. That becomes a theme in Jewish community life, is that the sea is seen as a scary place, because in the light of Daniel 7 and very many other biblical stories, they know that the chaos of evil, Has been at work in the sea from the beginning and can continue in all kinds of ways.

So there's spiritual powers that work in the storm. And that's why when Jesus gets up, what does he do? He rebukes the wind. He commands the waves. Because he knows, he's dealing not just with water, he's also dealing with spiritual powers and attacks. And so that's the kind of, there's always more going on in the storm than we can see.

The Lord and spirits are at work. That was true for Jonah, that's true for Jesus. And another connection between Jonah and Jesus is that as they travel over the waters, where are they going? In Jonah's case, again, he was trying to go to another foreign place, but he gets led to a foreign place called Nineveh, which was the capital city of this empire called Assyria, which was oppressing Israel at the time.

Where is Jesus going? He's going across the desert. The lake of Galilee. And when he's going to the other side, as he calls it, that means he's leaving the place where it's all Jews living together. He's going to a place where these non Jews, these Gentiles, are living together. And as he gets off the boat in the beginning of Mark 5, what happens as he goes there?

All kinds of things are happening, but one thing is happening is that there are spiritual forces of evil, including an evil spirit called Legion, just a powerful, holy evil spirit at work, capturing a man and doing all kinds of evil in all kinds of ways. So Jesus gets confronted by and Jesus overcomes spiritual forces among the Gentiles.

So again, There's all kinds of connections here. Jonah and Jesus are both dealing with foreigners. Foreigners who can be viewed as enemies. But what Jesus reveals is the ultimate enemy is not those Gentiles, those foreigners. The ultimate enemy is the spiritual forces of evil as Paul describes in Ephesians verse chapter 6.

And what we can do here is Let's note just, let's just note one more connection between Jonah and Jesus, and then let's note a really different saving difference between these two as to how we react to foreigners and enemies and spiritual powers. So the connection we can make, here we have a connection.

We've got the storm already. We've got the sleeping already. We've got the going to see foreigners already. Another connection is that when Jonah gets thrown into the sea, he is in the sea for three days and three nights in the belly of a fish before he gets vomited out into new life. How about Jesus?

When he goes through the cross, that storm on the third day, Jesus rises from the dead. So for three days he is in. the evil of death and the tomb before he rises up to the new life that he can bring us all into. So there's one more connection, three days, three nights of stormy, terrible times before some new life happens.

But here's the big difference. Do you remember how Jonah responded to the new life our Lord led him into when the Fish brought him to the place where he was supposed to go. Do you remember how Jonah responded when he did finally obey the Lord by calling the people of Nineveh to repent of their sins?

How did Jonah respond? Jonah was so angry because you know what our Lord did? The Lord we sometimes think is asleep and doing nothing. You know what our Lord did? Our Lord loved Jonah's enemies. These Ninevites, these Assyrians, they were the worst enemies in the world for Jonah and his people. And so when Jonah preaches to them and when they repent and get spared from punishment, Jonah just cries out to the Lord with anger saying, see Lord, this is why I ran away.

This is why I didn't want to come here. I know that you're a God of compassion and grace. You're slow to anger. You abound in steadfast love and you show that steadfast love to these people whom I hate. Jonah says, in effect. And then the Lord deals with Jonah a bit more, but the story just remains open.

How do we, as the people of God, feel towards foreigners? Towards enemies? What is the Lord saying to us through the story of Jonah? One thing he's saying is to look at how it's fulfilled through the story of Jesus. Because when Jesus goes through the storm of his cross and burial and rises to new life, how is Jesus dealing with his enemies and our enemies? What the Bible teaches us in Romans 5 verses 6 to 11 is Jesus incarnates You That love for enemies that Jonah hated. Jesus incarnates God loving his enemies, which include us, but also our enemies. Because in Romans 5, 6 to 11, here's how Paul describes us when he's saying, our father loves us so much that he sacrificed his son.

Our son, his son, the son of God loves us so much that he died for us. What were we like when that happened? According to Romans 5, 6 to 11, we were weak. We were ungodly. We were sinners. We were God's enemies. And in relation to his enemies, God sacrificed his son. The son of God sacrificed his life because that is the transforming power over evil that overcomes evil with good.

And that transforms us into people who are no longer enemies, but get reconciled into a friendship. And in that friendship with God, Paul says, there's always more salvation and more life to receive. And we receive that again through this faith. that listens to Jesus and follows him. So to conclude this whole message, what we can say is with all this stuff happening, the storm, the sleeping, and the waking up the relation to enemies, God's example, God's inspiration with how he relates to us so that we can relate to others.

One way we can open ourselves further to all that message is to echo the disciples, not out of terror, but with a faith that seeks understanding. As we ask, who is this? Who is this Jesus? Whom even the winds and the waves obey, who gave himself for us when we were his enemies. Who is this Jesus? We ask that so we can explore him more, get to know him better, trust him more, follow him into his fascinating faith, so we get transformed into people who are like Jesus.

And one way that can happen is when we ask, who is this in relation to Jesus? Not only as we think about him in the scriptures or through his spirit. But we can ask, who is this in relation to the people that you're sitting next to and right in front of right now? Because one major way that Jesus comes to us is through the people who are around us.

So that when we look at each other, when we do that with the eyes of faith, we can open our eyes to Jesus being there. And here I'll just share. When I was standing impatiently in that line to get into the church to listen to N. T. Wright, I wondered, who is this young guy standing next to me? And it turned out to be Ami Zimmerman, whom the Lord had brought through a storm into a fascinating new life of faith that gave me hope because Ami introduced me to some other.

people that he knew or that met him. And I wound up meeting people from all kinds of backgrounds, almost from all the nations of the earth, who were young people coming to faith and wanting to teach the gospel in a way that gave me hope. Is the church falling apart? Is everything going wrong? Is the Father just asleep while the whole church falls?

No. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church because our Lord leads us through the storms and into a new life that is fascinating with faith, hope, and love that endures forever. And that we can always get to know more when we ask a question like, who is this? In all kinds of ways. We know who Jesus is in part.

So let's turn to him in prayer. Now let's join in prayer.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you make yourself known to us in so many wonderful ways, Lord, we thank you for staying with us in stormy times. We thank you for leading us through our fears and into faith and Lord Jesus. We thank you for a fascinating faith. through which we can follow you into a whole new life, even a whole new creation with people from every nation.

And so Lord Jesus, as we thank you for making yourself known to us in all kinds of ways through your word and through your spirit, and also through the people whom you arrange for us to meet. Thank you that as we continue to ask with a faith that seeks understanding, who is this? Thank you that you always have more grace and faith.

more glory and life for us to receive. And so Lord Jesus, our Messiah and savior with praise and thanks, with trust and obedience, we offer this prayer. We offer ourselves to you in your name. Amen.