When The Storm Hits
Mark 4:35-41
Message #15
Today, our subject is faith When the Storm Hits. But it’s not if you have faith when the storm hits. The question is, what do you have faith in when the storm hits? And the storms we’re talking about today are not so much the storms we bring on ourselves through sin and disobedience – that’s a different message.
Today we’re looking at a storm that hit the Disciples while they were following Jesus and while Jesus was with them. And this storm that hit the Disciples showed them what their faith was actually in. And if we will put ourselves in that storm with the Disciples today, God may reveal to us what our faith is actually in.
In John 16:33, Jesus promises us that in this world – we WILL have tribulation. But then he says – TAKE HEART because I have overcome the world. And you may be saying this morning, “I know, Jesus, you have overcome the world, but I’m the one in this storm today.”
What did Jesus mean when he said, “TAKE HEART because I have overcome the world”? 1 John 5:4-5 helps us understand.
1 John 5:4–5 (ESV)
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Our victory is in and through Jesus Christ. Our part is to have more faith in who Jesus is than we have in the circumstances we see.
Here’s a question. What determines how we respond when the storm hits in our life? Here’s the answer. What you are focused on, what consumes your thoughts, what engulfs you is what determines how you respond to the storm. If we are focused on, consumed by and engulfed in the circumstances of our storm, then our response will be to fall victim to the storm.
But, when the storm hits, if we are focused on, consumed by and engulfed in the presence of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of who Jesus is in our lives, then we will see Jesus as so much bigger than the storm. We will see Jesus as Master over the storm, and we will overcome the storm – in Christ. Don’t you think that is what Jesus means when he says, “take heart, I have overcome the world” because he has made it possible for us to overcome the storms of this world – in him?
So, let’s put ourselves on a boat with Jesus and the Disciples on the Sea of Galilee. Mark 4:35-37 is where we start today.
Mark 4:35–37 (NLT)
35 As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.”
36 So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed).
37 But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.
The Sea of Galilee is famous (still today) for deadly storms whipping up out of nowhere. The Sea of Galilee is actually a large lake surrounded on all four sides by mountains, and the way the wind blows in the bowl of these mountains can create deadly waves very quickly.
So, a fierce storm comes up - High waves are breaking into the boat, and it begins to fill with water. And then we read this in Mark 4:38(a).
Mark 4:38(a) (NLT)
38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion . . .
This statement has always struck me as odd. I’ve been on small boats in storms, and twice I’ve genuinely felt that my life was in danger. And so, knowing how it feels to be in a small boat in a storm like this, my only thought is … I wonder if Jesus was faking it? Maybe, just maybe, this was a setup for an incredibly important lesson that the disciples had to learn and that we must learn. Continuing in Mark 4:38 (b).
Mark 4:38(b) (NLT)
38 . . . The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
Jesus, don’t you care that the storm has hit my life, and I am going to drown? Isn’t that our response to often? Jesus, don’t you care? What we’re saying is, “Jesus, if you cared, you would never allow me to experience any discomfort or tribulation.” But what if Jesus wants to use that storm in your life for your ultimate good? What if Jesus is not as concerned with fixing our circumstances as he is with using your circumstance to fix you? So, we continue in Mark 4:39.
Mark 4:39 (NLT)
39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.
And as the Disciples were trying to figure out what had just happened, we read the following in Mark 4:40.
Mark 4:40 (NLT)
40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (in Luke’s account – “Where is your faith?”)
Why are you afraid? - Where is your faith?
And finally, Mark 4:41.
Mark 4:41 (NLT)
41 The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other.
“Even the wind and waves obey him!”
So, what I’d like you to do, is see yourself in a storm that you might be in today because this storm the disciples are in represents a storm that you may be in right now. And so, would you put yourself in that boat with the Disciples on the Sea of Galilee that day and listen to an incredible description of this event by Jon Bloom in his great devotional book Not by Sight.
The sea was quiet now. And there was just enough breeze to push the boat along. The disciples were quiet too.
Andrew was steering. He had taken over for Peter, who sat wrapped in a cloak, exhausted and lost in thought. A few others were bailing out the remaining water.
Jesus was sleeping again.
James leaned on the bow gunwale, watching reflections dance on the gentle waves. James knew this sea. He and John had spent most of their lives on it or in it.
His father was a fisherman. So were most of his male family members and friends. His memory flashed with the faces of some of them who had drowned in the unpredictable Galilean windstorms like the one that had pummeled them moments earlier.
As a seasoned fisherman, James was not alarmed easily - but he knew a man-eater when he saw it - - and this storm had opened its mouth to swallow them all into the abyss.
Terror had been in John's eyes when he grabbed James and yelled, we have to tell the master! They stumbled to the Stern. How Jesus had remained sleeping while the furious surf tossed the boat around was itself a wonder.
They woke him screaming, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
James would never forget the way Jesus looked at him. His eyes were at once powerful and tranquil. With no trace of fear.
Laying aside the blanket, Jesus rose to full height on the rear deck. James, fearing Jesus was about to be pitched overboard, reached to grab him just as Jesus shouted, Peace! Be still!
No sooner had those words left his mouth, and the wind was completely gone! The sudden hush of the howling was surreal.
The waves immediately began to subside. Every disciple FROZE where they were – Dumbstruck – Each one looking at the water and sky and each other – unable to SPEAK.
Jesus' gaze lingered for a moment across the water - then he looked around at the 12 and said, Where is your faith?
Now, as James leaned on the bow, he turned Jesus' question over and over in his mind
Where is my faith? When Jesus first said it, James felt its intended rebuke.
Didn't he trust God? He thought he did. But the storm proved that all the Faith he had OUTSIDE of the Storm – was only fair-weather faith.
He felt chastened and humbled.
But the more James thought about the question the deeper it dug into him - where is your faith? Where?
He HAD to admit to himself – My faith is in what I see. My faith is in what I feel.
When the storm hit, I trusted what my eyes saw. I trusted the wind tossing the boat like a toy. I trusted the stories told by my father about these storms. I trusted the power of the storm . . .
Is that wrong?
Up until a few minutes before, that would have merely seemed like common sense. But Jesus had suddenly changed everything.
James looked back to the sleeping Jesus. He looked almost the same as when the storm was raging.
But which one of them had looked more powerful to James then? A sleeping Jesus, or a Killer Storm?
But now, in fact – which one really WAS more powerful?
Jesus had killed the killer storm with a word.
James, and the disciples, were absolutely terrified – But, it was a very different kind of fear.
James thought, “Who is this man? That even the wind and waves obey him!”
and James trembled at the Power he had just beheld.
What Jesus did for his Disciples in this storm was a faith transfer.
In the storm, the Disciples realized that they had more faith in what they could see and feel than they had in the authority and power of Jesus. They believed more in the power of the storm than they did in the power of the Savior. They had more confidence in what the storm could do than in what Jesus could do in the midst of the storm.
How about us? When the storm hits in our lives, do we have more faith in what the storm can do, or do we have more faith in what Jesus can do in the midst of the storm? It’s not if we have faith, it’s what is our faith in? Because when the storm hits, what our faith is in, is revealed. Our faith is in the storm and the circumstances of the storm.
This storm was a gift from God to the Disciples because experiencing the true power and authority of Jesus in the midst of the storm transferred their faith from their circumstances – to their Lord. They would never again look at a storm in their life in the same way, and they would never look at Jesus in the same way again. They met Jesus in the storm in a way they could not meet him any other way. And they knew him at a level in the storm that they could not know him any other way.
And eventually (after a few more events like this one), these Disciples developed an unshakable faith that allowed them to not even see their circumstances, but only to see what the Lord might be doing in the midst of their circumstances.
Guys, when the storm hits in your life, it will always come down to this one thing, so you have more faith in the storm? Or do you have more faith in who Jesus is?
And please don’t fool yourself. We all have fair-weather faith. We all have faith in Jesus when the skies are blue, and the waves are calm. Only the storm reveals what we truly believe. Only the storm reveals what we truly have faith in.
Our natural default is to have more faith in the storm than in the God who controls the storm, and so, we must have a faith transfer. We must get to the place where we have more faith in who Jesus Christ is in our lives than we do in the struggles and difficulties in our lives.
Just yesterday, the women spent all day here at the women’s one day retreat focused on EL ROI, “The God who Sees me.” Guys, your God sees when the storm hits, and your God is IMMANUEL “God With Us.” God sees the storm hitting in your life, and God has promised to be with you in it.
But here’s a question. Why does God so often seem to wait until we think we’re going to die before he shows himself and commands the storm to be still? Is it maybe because we think so highly of ourselves that we think we can command the circumstances of our storm without God?
Is God maybe waiting until we fully understand that we are helpless when the storm hits and we need Jesus to still the storm and bring peace into our lives?
Is God waiting for us to be finally and completely done before he stills our storm? When we are done with our own strength, done with our own plans, done with our own effort, then Jesus will stand up in the middle of our storm and tell it to be still.
At some point, we must learn to have more faith in who Jesus Christ is in our life than we do in what the storm looks like. We’ve got to learn to have more faith in the power of Jesus Christ in our lives than we do in the power of the storm.
Jesus wants to use this storm in your life to give you a faith transfer. He wants to bring you to a place where you believe more in who he is than what you see in the midst of your storm. God wants to do something in your life that he can only accomplish when you reach the end of your “self,” and the storm is often the tool he uses to get you there.
So, first, be sure that you have received Jesus Christ into the boat of your life before you set sail. And when the storm hits, make sure Jesus is right there close with you. And then, you’ve got to hold on tightly to him, especially when you are in the storm’s darkest hour and then wait and watch for the power of Jesus to still the storm in your life.
Wait and watch for Jesus to stand up in the middle of your storm and speak the words “Peace – Be still.” And then you bow in reverent fear before the almighty God who sees us and is with us in every storm.
Finally, would you picture yourself in your own storm one more time? And would you honestly ask yourself – is my faith in what I see and feel in this storm, or is my faith in who the Lord Jesus is in my life?
Do I have more faith in the power of this storm, or do I have more faith in who Jesus Christ is in my life?
Where is your faith when the storm hits?
Today we’re looking at a storm that hit the Disciples while they were following Jesus and while Jesus was with them. And this storm that hit the Disciples showed them what their faith was actually in. And if we will put ourselves in that storm with the Disciples today, God may reveal to us what our faith is actually in.
In John 16:33, Jesus promises us that in this world – we WILL have tribulation. But then he says – TAKE HEART because I have overcome the world. And you may be saying this morning, “I know, Jesus, you have overcome the world, but I’m the one in this storm today.”
What did Jesus mean when he said, “TAKE HEART because I have overcome the world”? 1 John 5:4-5 helps us understand.
1 John 5:4–5 (ESV)
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Our victory is in and through Jesus Christ. Our part is to have more faith in who Jesus is than we have in the circumstances we see.
Here’s a question. What determines how we respond when the storm hits in our life? Here’s the answer. What you are focused on, what consumes your thoughts, what engulfs you is what determines how you respond to the storm. If we are focused on, consumed by and engulfed in the circumstances of our storm, then our response will be to fall victim to the storm.
But, when the storm hits, if we are focused on, consumed by and engulfed in the presence of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of who Jesus is in our lives, then we will see Jesus as so much bigger than the storm. We will see Jesus as Master over the storm, and we will overcome the storm – in Christ. Don’t you think that is what Jesus means when he says, “take heart, I have overcome the world” because he has made it possible for us to overcome the storms of this world – in him?
So, let’s put ourselves on a boat with Jesus and the Disciples on the Sea of Galilee. Mark 4:35-37 is where we start today.
Mark 4:35–37 (NLT)
35 As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.”
36 So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed).
37 But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water.
The Sea of Galilee is famous (still today) for deadly storms whipping up out of nowhere. The Sea of Galilee is actually a large lake surrounded on all four sides by mountains, and the way the wind blows in the bowl of these mountains can create deadly waves very quickly.
So, a fierce storm comes up - High waves are breaking into the boat, and it begins to fill with water. And then we read this in Mark 4:38(a).
Mark 4:38(a) (NLT)
38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion . . .
This statement has always struck me as odd. I’ve been on small boats in storms, and twice I’ve genuinely felt that my life was in danger. And so, knowing how it feels to be in a small boat in a storm like this, my only thought is … I wonder if Jesus was faking it? Maybe, just maybe, this was a setup for an incredibly important lesson that the disciples had to learn and that we must learn. Continuing in Mark 4:38 (b).
Mark 4:38(b) (NLT)
38 . . . The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
Jesus, don’t you care that the storm has hit my life, and I am going to drown? Isn’t that our response to often? Jesus, don’t you care? What we’re saying is, “Jesus, if you cared, you would never allow me to experience any discomfort or tribulation.” But what if Jesus wants to use that storm in your life for your ultimate good? What if Jesus is not as concerned with fixing our circumstances as he is with using your circumstance to fix you? So, we continue in Mark 4:39.
Mark 4:39 (NLT)
39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.
And as the Disciples were trying to figure out what had just happened, we read the following in Mark 4:40.
Mark 4:40 (NLT)
40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (in Luke’s account – “Where is your faith?”)
Why are you afraid? - Where is your faith?
And finally, Mark 4:41.
Mark 4:41 (NLT)
41 The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other.
“Even the wind and waves obey him!”
So, what I’d like you to do, is see yourself in a storm that you might be in today because this storm the disciples are in represents a storm that you may be in right now. And so, would you put yourself in that boat with the Disciples on the Sea of Galilee that day and listen to an incredible description of this event by Jon Bloom in his great devotional book Not by Sight.
The sea was quiet now. And there was just enough breeze to push the boat along. The disciples were quiet too.
Andrew was steering. He had taken over for Peter, who sat wrapped in a cloak, exhausted and lost in thought. A few others were bailing out the remaining water.
Jesus was sleeping again.
James leaned on the bow gunwale, watching reflections dance on the gentle waves. James knew this sea. He and John had spent most of their lives on it or in it.
His father was a fisherman. So were most of his male family members and friends. His memory flashed with the faces of some of them who had drowned in the unpredictable Galilean windstorms like the one that had pummeled them moments earlier.
As a seasoned fisherman, James was not alarmed easily - but he knew a man-eater when he saw it - - and this storm had opened its mouth to swallow them all into the abyss.
Terror had been in John's eyes when he grabbed James and yelled, we have to tell the master! They stumbled to the Stern. How Jesus had remained sleeping while the furious surf tossed the boat around was itself a wonder.
They woke him screaming, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”
James would never forget the way Jesus looked at him. His eyes were at once powerful and tranquil. With no trace of fear.
Laying aside the blanket, Jesus rose to full height on the rear deck. James, fearing Jesus was about to be pitched overboard, reached to grab him just as Jesus shouted, Peace! Be still!
No sooner had those words left his mouth, and the wind was completely gone! The sudden hush of the howling was surreal.
The waves immediately began to subside. Every disciple FROZE where they were – Dumbstruck – Each one looking at the water and sky and each other – unable to SPEAK.
Jesus' gaze lingered for a moment across the water - then he looked around at the 12 and said, Where is your faith?
Now, as James leaned on the bow, he turned Jesus' question over and over in his mind
Where is my faith? When Jesus first said it, James felt its intended rebuke.
Didn't he trust God? He thought he did. But the storm proved that all the Faith he had OUTSIDE of the Storm – was only fair-weather faith.
He felt chastened and humbled.
But the more James thought about the question the deeper it dug into him - where is your faith? Where?
He HAD to admit to himself – My faith is in what I see. My faith is in what I feel.
When the storm hit, I trusted what my eyes saw. I trusted the wind tossing the boat like a toy. I trusted the stories told by my father about these storms. I trusted the power of the storm . . .
Is that wrong?
Up until a few minutes before, that would have merely seemed like common sense. But Jesus had suddenly changed everything.
James looked back to the sleeping Jesus. He looked almost the same as when the storm was raging.
But which one of them had looked more powerful to James then? A sleeping Jesus, or a Killer Storm?
But now, in fact – which one really WAS more powerful?
Jesus had killed the killer storm with a word.
James, and the disciples, were absolutely terrified – But, it was a very different kind of fear.
James thought, “Who is this man? That even the wind and waves obey him!”
and James trembled at the Power he had just beheld.
What Jesus did for his Disciples in this storm was a faith transfer.
In the storm, the Disciples realized that they had more faith in what they could see and feel than they had in the authority and power of Jesus. They believed more in the power of the storm than they did in the power of the Savior. They had more confidence in what the storm could do than in what Jesus could do in the midst of the storm.
How about us? When the storm hits in our lives, do we have more faith in what the storm can do, or do we have more faith in what Jesus can do in the midst of the storm? It’s not if we have faith, it’s what is our faith in? Because when the storm hits, what our faith is in, is revealed. Our faith is in the storm and the circumstances of the storm.
This storm was a gift from God to the Disciples because experiencing the true power and authority of Jesus in the midst of the storm transferred their faith from their circumstances – to their Lord. They would never again look at a storm in their life in the same way, and they would never look at Jesus in the same way again. They met Jesus in the storm in a way they could not meet him any other way. And they knew him at a level in the storm that they could not know him any other way.
And eventually (after a few more events like this one), these Disciples developed an unshakable faith that allowed them to not even see their circumstances, but only to see what the Lord might be doing in the midst of their circumstances.
Guys, when the storm hits in your life, it will always come down to this one thing, so you have more faith in the storm? Or do you have more faith in who Jesus is?
And please don’t fool yourself. We all have fair-weather faith. We all have faith in Jesus when the skies are blue, and the waves are calm. Only the storm reveals what we truly believe. Only the storm reveals what we truly have faith in.
Our natural default is to have more faith in the storm than in the God who controls the storm, and so, we must have a faith transfer. We must get to the place where we have more faith in who Jesus Christ is in our lives than we do in the struggles and difficulties in our lives.
Just yesterday, the women spent all day here at the women’s one day retreat focused on EL ROI, “The God who Sees me.” Guys, your God sees when the storm hits, and your God is IMMANUEL “God With Us.” God sees the storm hitting in your life, and God has promised to be with you in it.
But here’s a question. Why does God so often seem to wait until we think we’re going to die before he shows himself and commands the storm to be still? Is it maybe because we think so highly of ourselves that we think we can command the circumstances of our storm without God?
Is God maybe waiting until we fully understand that we are helpless when the storm hits and we need Jesus to still the storm and bring peace into our lives?
Is God waiting for us to be finally and completely done before he stills our storm? When we are done with our own strength, done with our own plans, done with our own effort, then Jesus will stand up in the middle of our storm and tell it to be still.
At some point, we must learn to have more faith in who Jesus Christ is in our life than we do in what the storm looks like. We’ve got to learn to have more faith in the power of Jesus Christ in our lives than we do in the power of the storm.
Jesus wants to use this storm in your life to give you a faith transfer. He wants to bring you to a place where you believe more in who he is than what you see in the midst of your storm. God wants to do something in your life that he can only accomplish when you reach the end of your “self,” and the storm is often the tool he uses to get you there.
So, first, be sure that you have received Jesus Christ into the boat of your life before you set sail. And when the storm hits, make sure Jesus is right there close with you. And then, you’ve got to hold on tightly to him, especially when you are in the storm’s darkest hour and then wait and watch for the power of Jesus to still the storm in your life.
Wait and watch for Jesus to stand up in the middle of your storm and speak the words “Peace – Be still.” And then you bow in reverent fear before the almighty God who sees us and is with us in every storm.
Finally, would you picture yourself in your own storm one more time? And would you honestly ask yourself – is my faith in what I see and feel in this storm, or is my faith in who the Lord Jesus is in my life?
Do I have more faith in the power of this storm, or do I have more faith in who Jesus Christ is in my life?
Where is your faith when the storm hits?