Gospel of Mark Study #13

“FEAR - The Great Teacher”

Mark 4:35-41

Study #13 in Mark Series

INTRODUCTION:

Can fear ever be a positive thing? Can fear ever be productive and helpful in our lives? What do you think? How about these scenarios?

·         A child’s fear after first touching a hot stove.

·         A fear of unknown dogs.

·         A fear of living recklessly. (i.e., dark alleys, unlocked doors, hitchhiking, etc.)

·         A fear of guns.

·         A fear of going to war.

TRANSITION:

I found a couple of insightful quotes that deal with this subject of fear as a learning tool:

v  Michael Ignatieff, author, and critic said, “Living fearlessly is not the same thing as never being afraid. It’s good to be afraid occasionally. Fear is a great teacher. What’s not good is living in fear, allowing fear to define who you are. Living fearlessly means standing up to fear, taking its measure, refusing to let it shape and define your life.”

v  Steven Pressfield wrote in The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle, “Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator... The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”

 

In our text for today’s study, we see the Lord deliberately leading His disciples into a fearful, dangerous situation. It was no accident. It was through no fault of their own. It was not because of any bad choice they made along the way. It was a learning experience that the Lord put them in to strengthen and fine-tune their faith in Him.

 

Now if Jesus did that to the Twelve, you can be sure that God will do the same thing to you and me. The only way to learn some lessons is to go “through the storm” and come out the other side.

NOTES on the Text:

Verse 35: That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”

·         “That day...” Which day? Look back at the beginning of this chapter: The same day that Jesus taught the Parable of the Sower and Soils and the same day that He taught them about the Kingdom of God being like a mustard seed that starts small but grows into something large and beautiful. This is now the evening of that same day.

·         “He said to His disciples...” Notice that it was not the disciples’ idea to get into the boat and travel to the other side of the lake. It was Jesus who was in charge, orchestrating all the events. Do you think He knew what was going to happen to them out on that lake? Absolutely. He set them up for that frightening experience as part of their training. It was all His doing. Jesus did it because He knows that we only grow in our faith and learn to trust Him when we are forced into frightening situations where we must rely on Him, rather than on our own strength, intellect, and ingenuity.

·         What are some “lake experiences” for us?

o   Losing our job and not being able to make the mortgage payment.

o   The death of a spouse or a child.

o   A phone call saying the lab work came back “positive.”

o   Not getting the job or the raise that we were counting on.

o   Your daughter comes out to you as a lesbian.

o   A pipe breaks and the whole house gets flooded while no one is home.

o   You find out that your spouse has been having an affair for the past year.

Verse 36: Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along,  just as He was, in the boat. There were also other boats with Him.

·         “...leaving the crowd behind...” There were times when Jesus addressed the multitude. He sometimes preached to large audiences. But then we always see Him gather His little flock of closest disciples around Him and give them special attention. Even Jesus could not do quality training of large crowds. Real life-change always happens in the context of facetime, one-on-one relational ministry. Jesus came to die for the sins of the whole world, but for 3½ years He poured His quality time into the lives of 12-15 men and a handful of women, who in turn went out and evangelized the whole world.

·         “...they took Him along, just as He was...” This strikes me as odd after just reading that it was His idea to cross the lake. Apparently, He had nothing with Him—no change of clothes or even a comb. They might have thought His request odd. But it seems that they decided to humor Him and took on the project. They were cocky! After all, several of them were fishermen and they thought they knew everything about boats and the Sea of Galilee that there was to know. So away they went!

·         “There were also other boats with Him.” This is a piece of information that only Mark supplies. Matthew and Luke do not mention the fact that there were other boatloads of His followers caught in this storm. That changes the mental picture for me. Jesus and the 12 were in one boat but apparently there were several other boats full of people who were following Him, wanting to hear more of what He had to say. They ended up being participants and witnesses to this miracle. And just think... they had to face the storm without having Jesus in their boat!

Verse 37: A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.

·         Have you ever been in a bad storm at sea? Some of you served in the Navy or Coast Guard and experienced some bad storms. The Sea of Galilee is not an ocean but rather a large inland lake, 13 miles long by 8.1 miles wide. Given the geography and climate of the area it is subject to fearsome storms that can develop in a short time, giving boaters and fishermen little time to find shelter. To make things worse, this storm in Mark 4 happened at night, making it doubly frightening.

·         The boat they were in was a small, shallow-draft sailboat, probably 14-16 feet long, with one skinny mast. It was little more than a glorified rowboat! And speaking of rowing, they were probably doing just that, because in a squall sailors will always take in the sail to keep from getting overturned. 

Verse 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?”

·         “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion...” With 13 people in the boat, it was already crowded. On top of that, Jesus was taking up extra space by lying down to sleep in the back of the boat. Did He not know what was going on? Couldn’t He see the danger they were in? But the real question, the BIG QUESTION was the one that they asked Him out loud, point blank. Namely...

·         “...Don’t You care if we drown?” Isn’t that typical? Do we not do the same thing, ask the same questions? “God, can’t you see, don’t you know, don’t You care about what I am going through right now?”

·         I am so glad that this story is in the Bible because it is a mirror for me. I cannot begin to remember how many times I have cried out to God asking these same ignorant questions. Because when we are in “the perfect storm” we can easily start thinking that we are all alone and that Jesus does not care what happens to us. But that is the devil’s own lie! Jesus knows, He sees, and He cares, and that is why this narrative is here for us, so that we might learn the lesson without getting our feet wet! 

Verse 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.

·         “He got up...” He could have just rolled over and gone back to sleep because He knew they were in no real danger. After all, He was God incarnate and God cannot die in a boating accident, for crying out loud! But He heard their cry, and got up, and attended to their need. And He does the same for us. The Bible says that the Lord harkens to our voice. That means He is constantly listening for the voices of His children calling out to Him. Moreover, He always comes running to help us! The psalmist, David, says in Psalm 34, “I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears... ⁶ This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him; and saved him out of all his troubles. ⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them... ¹⁵ The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry... ¹⁷ The righteous cry out and the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.” Praise God! What a blessing to know that!

·         “He…rebuked the wind and said to the waves…” Jesus did not need to brew up a potion or use incantations or use secret hand movements. All He needed to do was to say the word, because all of creation is His to command. Colossians 1:16-17 says, “For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” In Matthew 28:18 He told His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth.” All Jesus had to do was speak to the storm, and it instantly calmed down.

·         We used to have a very strange dog, a Shih Tzu-Pekingese mix, named Bubba. He was a cute little guy, but he was psychotic, really. He barked at everything. He barked when the phone rang. He barked if somebody would get up and leave the room. He barked if somebody closed a door. He would go out of his mind if somebody rang the doorbell. He was nuts! Anyway, to control him and make him quit barking I would have to yell at him and tell him to “Shut up!” If I stomped my foot at the same time, it sometimes worked better because it would sort of get his attention but sometimes even that would not work. But I had a secret weapon. We always kept a spray bottle handy. Bubba hated getting sprayed with water but sometimes it was the only solution. And even that only worked temporarily until the next time when something else would set him off again. He was totally bonkers!

·         But notice this… Jesus did not need to yell at the storm, or stomp His feet, or get out His spray bottle. No, that storm was much better behaved than my Bubba. Jesus just had to say the word and the storm    stopped    dead    in    its    tracks!

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

·         “Why are you so afraid?” A certain amount of fear in an unknown situation is normal. That is just the way we humans are wired up. But as children of God our lives should never be ruled by fear. Fear does not come from God. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Tim. 1:7 saying: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, and of love, and of self-discipline.” At that moment, the disciples’ fear was all out of proportion to what was really going on. After all, Jesus was in the boat with them! They were not alone, adrift at sea. The Creator of the Sea was right there in the boat with them. What was screwed up was their perception of reality. They could not see Jesus for who He really was. Take Him out of the story and their fear makes perfect sense, but with Him in the boat with them, their fear was totally ungrounded.

·         “Do you still have no faith?” I believe the stress needs to be placed on the word “still.” By this time, the disciples had already seen Jesus perform a boatload of miracles. They had witnessed it all up close and personally. Yet, they still had anemic faith, faith with no muscles, faith that folded up like a cheap lawn chair the first time Jesus dropped them into a crisis. How interesting! I would like to think that I would have performed at a little higher faith level had I been in that boat, but that is just my pride talking. I would have probably been just like them, blubbering like a little girl.

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

·         “They were terrified... they asked each other...” What were they so terrified of? Apparently, they were suddenly struck by the fact that they were in the presence of a being far more awesome and powerful than they had ever dreamed. They suddenly saw Jesus with new eyes. In that moment, they began to experience the truth of what the Word of God says in Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” However, in their terror, who did they turn to? Apparently not to Jesus! It sounds like they latched on to each other for comfort and just stood back and stared at Him. Isn’t that just like us? We look to other people to supply what only God can give us. Our first response should always be to draw near to Him, to grab on to Him, but often we look for help and comfort in the wrong places. But those are all dry wells, watering holes without water.

·         “Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey Him.” That is not amazing at all. Genesis tells us that He formed all things by His word and all of creation obeys His voice. The only creature who refuses to obey His voice is man. That is because we are stupid, stiff-necked, and rebellious. It is embarrassing to have to admit that we are dumber than our own dogs and cats, but it is the truth. The rest of creation hears, knows, and obeys God’s voice. Only man is so blind, deaf, and stupid that he does not recognize the voice of his Master. Only when we begin to bow the knee to Him and give Him His rightful place in our lives will we begin to experience the peace and joy and blessings that He reserves for those who know Him, love Him, honor Him, obey Him, and are called by His name. 

CONCLUSION:

There is a lovely old hymn that asks the same question that the Twelve disciples posed to Jesus that day in the boat. You can find it in most of our hymnals.

Does Jesus Care?

Words by Frank E. Graeff / Music by J. Lincoln Hall           

            VERSES:

Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song?

As the burdens press, and the cares distress, and the way grows weary and long?

 

Does Jesus care when my way is dark with a nameless dread and fear?

As the daylight fades into deep nightshades, does He care enough to be near?

 

Does Jesus care when I’ve tried and failed to resist some temptation strong?

When for my deep grief I find no relief, though my tears flow all the night long?

 

Does Jesus care when I’ve said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me?

And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks—Is it aught to Him? Does He see?

 

REFRAIN:

O yes, He cares! I know He cares. His heart is touched with my grief.

When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.

Whatever you are going through right now, whatever your storm might be, know this: Jesus knows, He sees, and He cares, and He will come to your aid if you just turn to Him and cry out to Him in your time of trouble. That is His personal promise to you today.