Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day. Somebody described religion as man’s search for God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as God’s search for man, and that is the Good News.
Wilbur Rees described a common view of religion today: “I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I do not want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please” (quoted by Chuck Swindoll, Improving Your Serve). It is natural to want a nice, safe, controllable God. It is natural – our sin nature clings to such an idol. Sigmund Freud said that the idea of God as a “Father figure” is a creation of primitive, ignorant men and women to deal with the difficulties and horrors of life. Life dishes out suffering, so we invent a loving “Father-god” to handle the psychological stress. In a way, Freud would be right — we do have a nice and kind God, one who helps with our problems. But our God who is revealed in Jesus Christ, He is faithful not only in rescuing us from the storm; He is faithful in bringing the storms to our lives. Jesus calmed the storm. But the Jesus who commanded the wind to be quiet could have prevented it from blowing. The Jesus whose Word calmed the waves could have spoken these words to His disciples, “A storm is coming tonight, men; let’s walk around rather than sail the sea.” In a sermon on 1 Peter 4, John Piper noted: “I have never heard anyone say, ‘The deepest and rarest and most satisfying joys of my life have come in times of extended ease and earthly comfort.’ Nobody says that. It isn’t true. What is true is what Samuel Rutherford said when he was put in the cellars of affliction: ‘The Great King keeps his wine there’ – not in the courtyard where the sun shines. What’s true is what Charles Spurgeon said: ‘They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.’ Christian Hedonists will do anything to have the King’s wine and the rare pearls – even go to the cellars of suffering and dive in the sea of affliction.” As we see Jesus and the raging sea, He is asleep. When awakened, Jesus commands the wind and waves to be still. Obviously, Jesus shows the disciples that He cares by calming the storm. But look again at Mark 4:40, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Note this well – the disciples’ problem is neither the waves nor the water. Their problem is a lack of faith in the God who controls the waves. They do not yet know and believe that Jesus designs and deploys storms. But watch this: if Jesus had never taken them into the storm, they would never have known that He calms the storms. God loves us so much that He brings exactly what blesses, even when we do not like it, even when it hurts and frightens us, even when it requires a dark night for your soul. He cares enough to bring peril that we might know His power.
In Mark 4, the disciples needed to experience the storm so they could meet the God of the storm! So Jesus provides. They thought they were going to die; they were terrified. And in that terror, they were brought to the end of themselves and learned to look to Jesus. Jesus is God. Each Gospel writer is at great pains to prove that. Here we see the divinity of Jesus Christ in His absolute authority over nature. But He is also human. So He too experienced the pain of a dying body in a fallen world. As such, Jesus could have sent the disciples out alone to weather the storm and be beaten by the waves. He was exhausted – He fell asleep in the boat. Surely He could have sent the disciples out to learn the lesson alone while He got a much needed good night’s sleep! But God does not work that way, does He? God proves He cares by bringing the storm, but He also proves He cares by riding through those very storms with us. 1 Peter 4.13 makes a profound statement about suffering, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.” Our suffering is not ours alone. Our sufferings are Christ’s sufferings because every Christian is united to Jesus. Joseph Tson is a Romanian pastor who stood up to Ceausescu’s repressions of Christianity. He understood the presence of Christ in his suffering: “This union with Christ is the most beautiful subject in the Christian life. It means that I am not a lone fighter here: I am an extension of Jesus Christ. When I was beaten in Romania, He suffered in my body. It is not my suffering: I only had the honor to share His sufferings.” (Undated Paper: A Theology of Martyrdom). Let us not allow our troubles to lead us into the temptation of doubting the love and faithfulness of God! “He [Himself] has said, “I will never leave nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13.5). While the winds churned the water, the disciples were afraid. It only makes sense. But note well what happens when they meet the God who is greater than the storm. Observe carefully their fear as described in verse 41, “They were filled with great fear.” The Greek word for fear is phobos (from which we get the English word, phobia). And the Greek word for great is megas (from which we get the English, mega). They had a mega-phobia, a great fear. Observe the transition that happens. First, the disciples realize that life is fearful, dangerous, potentially deadly. So they are afraid of what life may offer. All the while, they think little of Jesus. He is just another man, extraordinarily gifted perhaps, but otherwise a man like them. They wake Jesus because they want His help pumping water out of the boat. That is all they expect from Him. A little help from a friend. Then they meet the real Jesus. They thought life was fearful because of little storm. Jesus holds this great storm in the palm of His hand. His presence engulfs every wave as He towers over all their troubles. He is bigger even than life itself. So now they fear Him and ask, “Who is this?” And the chapter ends. Mark describes the disciples’ journeys from following a gifted man to worshipping God in the flesh. At this point in their understanding, Jesus might help bail water! But by the end of the book, they trust and obey. Each of us is on a similar journey. God asks, “Who do you really believe Jesus to be?” The answer is not given; you must decide. The disciples met Jesus without faith, and it was not good. Exposed to the greatness of His power without hope in the magnificence of His love, “they were filled with great fear.” Through the rest of His days, Jesus will show His disciples how great is His love, culminating in this glorious expression: “I came, not to be served, but to serve you, and to give My life a ransom for yours.” In the brightness of such beautiful love, the disciples place their faith and hope in Jesus. And they discover two fantastic realities. First, when you love and worship God, there is no longer any fear of life, for God is sovereign over all. Second, when you love and worship God, there is no longer any fear of God, for His goodness and compassion are new every morning. Suffering cannot be avoided in a fallen world. Suffering can be redeemed – we can entrust our lives to a faithful God who does all things well, and we can rejoice that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” For those who suffer will reign with Jesus.
In Christ ,
Brown
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