Transcript

Mark 4. Let’s go to Mark 4 this morning. Mark 4, Jesus has been exhaustively teaching the parables which, of course, are simple outlines of deep spiritual truths and he’s been bringing his disciples alongside him and teaching them more thoroughly, and now it’s at the end of the day and we pick up in Mark 4:35.

35 On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. 37 And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. 38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 39 And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. 40 And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

None other than Bishop Ryle in his excellent commentary, “Expository Thoughts on the Gospels,” says that in this narrative story, there are rich spiritual truths that have application to all Christians of all ages. Let’s glean some of those this morning.

These men faced a terrible storm on this day and, you know, all Christians will face storms and when storms come crashing into your life, that’s when Satan brings those crashing waves of justification and howling winds of rationalization into your heart and into your mind, and because it’s tough and because you’re struggling, because it’s painful, you can fall into rationalizing and justifying why you don’t have to stay with the word of God this time. You don’t have to stay with the truth this time. I mean, it’s a tough situation. And how we try to reason those things out, but we see from this illustration of these men on this day in this storm, that Jesus stayed in the boat and the message for them is the message for us and that’s the title of the sermon, “Stay in the Boat with Jesus.” Stay in the boat with Jesus.

Now, three things here I want to point out from this narrative. 1. Storms for the Christian are predicted. They are predicted. In verse 35, we see that, “On that day, when evening came, He said to them.” Who is the “them”? Well, first of all, they’re converted men. This is the inner circle. This is the 12. These are the apostles. These are converted men. These aren’t rebels living in hellious rebellion facing the consequence of their rogue lifestyle, these are converted men and they face this storm.

Jesus had been teaching the parables, as I said earlier, and he’s been teaching these disciples more carefully and he’s absolutely exhausted and as we see is somewhat his pattern, at the end of the day and sometimes more than a day, he tries to get away from the crowds and away from ministry just to get some rest and he wants to get into this boat and go from the shores of Capernaum over to the shores of Gerasene and crash for awhile literally.

But these are converted men that are with him. Secondly, not only are they converted, they’re committed men. Look at verse 36, if you will. It says, “Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat.” So how does that tell us that these were comitted men? Because in verse 35 he said, “Let’s get in the boat and go to the other side.” In verse 36, they get in the boat and go to the other side. That’s how you know you’re committed, you do what Jesus says to do. They were just simply obedient. They didn’t try to figure it out. They didn’t want an explanation. They didn’t know what he was up to. It was God’s divine will that they rest for awhile. So they get into this boat to get some rest to get away from the people. That’s what Jesus said to do and that’s what they did.

So these converted, committed men honor the Lord and obey the Lord and, bang! The storm hits. That’s when the storm came but remind yourself Jesus had been teaching them the word and now it was time for the practical test. The Bible says in Romans 10:17, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” They had been hearing the word of Christ just as you hear the word of Christ when the Bible is preached, and what you hear will be tested. Did Jesus know the storm was coming? Absolutely. It was a part of this day’s curriculum.

English artist, Joseph Turner, had just finished painting a portrait of a ship caught in a raging storm at sea and a friend of his came in and saw that new portrait and he said, “Joseph, how did you do that? I mean, the lightning is so piercing and the waves seem so powerful and it’s just such a vivid real picture of a ship caught in a storm.” And artist Joseph Turner said, “Well, some time ago I hired a fisherman to take me out on the sea in the middle of a storm and I literally had him just strap me to the mast of the ship. I didn’t just see from a distance the lightning, I sensed the piercing brightness of the lightning. I didn’t just sense from a distance the waves and the drops, I felt the pounding of the waves come over the bow of the ship. I sensed and felt the roaring of the thunder. I felt the fear in my soul and now having experienced the storm, I can capture it on canvas in a way I never could before.”

There are some things we only learn best through the trial, through the storm. Remember Matthew 15:20? “Blessed are you when men persecute you and say all sorts of evil against you? Blessed are you when these things happen.” Jesus on another occasion said, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” We’re talking about converted, committed Christians for being converted and committed, you will face storms. They are predicted.

2. These storms are painful. There is nothing in the text that tells you these are just nothing to go through. Now that you’re a child of God, you just breeze through them. That’s just not true. There will sometimes be tears. There will sometimes be deeply broken hearts. There will be anguishing of soul. There may be a season when you don’t even know if you can pray or how to pray. And listen to me: sometimes when you just feel like you can’t pray, you have to praise your way through. You don’t wait until you feel like it, you do it. You just raise your hands toward heaven and you start praising God for all the things the Bible says is true about him until your emotions catch up with truth, amen? You don’t follow your emotions, you follow truth and make your emotions catch up with the truth. These are painful storms.

Notice how this was pointed out in verse 37 of our narrative. It says, “And there arose,” notice the wording here, “a fierce gale of wind.” Now, in Matthew’s account of this very storm, he uses a Greek word that means a sea quake, an earthquake at sea. Everything about this is letting you know this is severe, this is bad.

Now, the Sea of Galilee that they’re on is 13 miles long and about 7 ½ miles wide and most of it is rimmed by mountains. It is not unusual for cold mountain air to come rushing down and meet the warm moist air coming up off the Sea of Galilee and that often causes the eruption of a powerful windstorm. I remember hearing about an Israeli guide taking some Christians around the Sea of Galilee and they asked him, they said, “Have you ever seen one of those abrupt windstorms that are so powerful that the Bible talks about?” And the Israeli man said, “I’ve only seen one and I never want to see another one.” Powerful storm.

You know, these abrupt storms come crashing into our lives. Now, if you’re just a casual Southern Baptist going through the motions, maybe you haven’t faced a storm for your faith, but if you love Christ and if you love the truth and you’re striving to walk in that truth, trust me, Satan will shoot from his slumber, he’ll revolt from his rest, and he’ll place the best guns he has on the boat of your life and make you think for following Christ you’re going to sink. Remember, this text says the boat is filling up with water and Jesus is asleep and that’s what it feels like. That’s part of the painful part, you think, “Where’s Jesus? I’m hurting, where’s Jesus? This is hard, where’s Jesus? My heart is broken, where’s Jesus?” That’s where these guys were for a while and that’s where we are sometimes.

Then those waves come crashing against the boat of our lives and those winds come howling past the boat of our lives and we begin to justify and rationalize why we have to dive in and swim it on our own and we get in our own understanding and want to take our own strength and do it our way and handle it our way. Don’t do that. When the storm hits, stay in the boat with Jesus. Stay with him. Honor him.

Can you imagine? I guarantee you right now as this storm hits, impetuous Peter is on the edge like this. “Jesus is here. I know he’s Lord and Master but the water’s about to cover him up. We’d better do it ourselves.” Is that not where we get? That’s exactly where we get at times.

Sir Francis Drake, the great English explorer, had just finished his fifth worldwide voyage in sailing ships now, back in the day of sailing ships. He brings his ship into the Thames River. I’ve been by the Thames River many times. God willing, Brother Steve and I will be there in a couple of weeks for the London conference. But anyway, the Thames River is much smaller than the Tennessee River and Sir Francis Drake is bringing his ship into the Thames River and a storm erupts and his boat begins to sink and historians tell us that that great honored English explorer raised his fist toward heaven and said, “Am I the one who has tamed the Seven Seas now come home to be drowned in a ditch?”

You know, in my ministry in my walk with God, that’s one of the painful things about the storms, they come when and from where you least expect them. Judas Iscariot would arguably have been one of the most esteemed, respected, hard working, unselfish, dedicated, impressive Christians you ever saw but he was an impostor. It comes from people you just knew were rock solid, you just knew they’d die for Christ and stand with you. That’s part of what makes them painful. As Sir Francis Drake said, “I’ve sailed the Seven Seas and now I come home and I’m drowning in a ditch.”

Two or three little storms that are pretty common to all committed Christians. Storm 1 that you’re going to have to learn to get through if you’re going to be a committed Christian is the storm of being forsaken by friends. Forsaken by friends. I just mentioned Judas Iscariot, didn’t I? He was so honored and respected, the band of apostles said, “You’re the guy we want to handle the money.” That’s just exactly what he wanted them to say.

My, my, my, where shall we begin. I remember when I first became pastor here, there was a dear man in our church that we had lunch together, we shared Christian books together, we’d go and hear men preach together, and as I became your Senior Pastor, I began to change some things and I understand, I hadn’t been a Christian long, certainly hadn’t been a Baptist long and I found out real quick that Christian Baptists don’t like change. And we decided that to be in leadership here at Grace Life, you needed to be faithful and I began to implement that and this very man that I thought was my dear friend, on the steps right outside the old auditorium over there, it’s our east entrance, pulled me aside, red in the face, and just gave me a tongue lashing. I was just blown away. “You’re going to ruin this church! This is the wrong direction! People are upset!” Man, I’m talking about 20 year old rookie pastor, well I was old than that then, but a rookie pastor. I didn’t know what to do. My heart was in turmoil. I thought, “Maybe I need to change all this stuff. I’m going to lose church members. What’s going to happen?” But I stayed in the boat with Jesus. Yes, some people left and quite a few people left and that’s been our story on a number of occasions. If you’ve been here in the last 15 to 20 years, you’ve missed all the fun but there were many dangerous toils and snares God brought us through where we just at times had to just close our eyes and dive down in the boat and grab ahold of Jesus and hold our breath. But we stayed in the boat with Jesus.

Another storm you’re going to run into, it may be at school, young person, it may be in the office, it may be in the factory, and it likely may be in your own household, another storm is you might be rejected for righteousness’ sake. Now, all I can tell is my own story and when I became the youth guy here, I was Associate Pastor in charge of the youth ministry, and our youth ministry was a mess: carnal, worldliness kind of just reigned in the thing and I thought, “We’ve got to clean this up and the parents will love me for it.” Two things seemed to really upset people, when I began to say that you should not be dating a person that’s not a committed follower of Jesus Christ, that really upset some people in the youth group. It upset some parents. And when I began to teach that as a pattern of your life, you don’t need to be going to these high school dances and gyrating around if you’ve professed to your classmates you’re a committed follower of Jesus Christ.

And I remember going into the Senior Pastor in those days and my heart was broken because there was an uproar that happened among the parents and many of the students. Now, not all of them but many of them and I thought, “My goodness, what have I done and what is going to happen?” This is way before the other episode I just told you about. I thought, “Are they going to run me off? Are they going to lynch me some night?” I don’t know what’s going to happen.

One young lady in our youth program, sweet girl, a little bitty, little girl, she and her mom were pretty adamant. I have her mom’s permission to tell this, by the way. They were quite adamant in opposition to the things I was teaching. She went to college, became a cheerleader at the university but unfortunately was stricken with cancer. Suzie had a cancer that was incurable and I remember the last time I visited with Suzie was in Huntsville Hospital. She died about two weeks after that visit. Of course we didn’t know that at that time, but before she got that sick, she committed her life to Jesus Christ and she became a flaming witness for the Gospel. Literally she would go around to churches, and I’m not exaggerating, people would be standing out the doors, there was not room to sit to hear her talk about her love for Jesus Christ.

But she and I had not talked since the early days when she didn’t like what I was teaching the youth group but I was in Huntsville Hospital. She was asleep. I was talking to her mother, Helen, and while we were sitting there, she woke up and she looked up and she saw that I was sitting down there at the foot of her bed. Now, she didn’t weigh 95 pounds before she got sick and she pushed up her little old frail body, she had a tumor in her chest the doctor said, about the size of a football. She pushed herself up and she took that finger and she pointed at me and she said, “I want to tell you something.” She said, “You know that stuff you used to teach us back when you were our youth pastor in youth group?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “Every bit of it was right.” And she laid back down and that’s the last words I ever heard Suzie say. And that was a foundation stone for my ministry right there. God showed me, make sure it’s biblical, make sure it’s right, don’t pay any attention to the storm, stay in the boat with Jesus. Stay in the boat with Jesus.

Now, can I make a confession again before you? I didn’t always handle myself right in those days. I wasn’t always wise in the way I said things and handled things. Hopefully I’ve matured some since then. That was, what, 30 years ago plus? But my position was right. Child of God, listen to me: don’t go with the flow. Don’t compromise. Don’t sell out if the Bible is clear. Now, where the Bible is not clear, charity and grace, amen? But where the Bible is clear, we will not be moved. It matters not what the rest of the world says and the rest of the evangelical community that’s going light on sexual immoralities these days, never heard of practicing church discipline. We’re not going there. We’re standing on the truth and we’re staying in the boat with Jesus.

It’s a painful storm when you have someone that you knew loved Christ and it ended up they really didn’t. It’s a painful storm when you are rejected for righteousness’ sake even in the church, maybe even in your own families. And how many more storms could we talk about? I remember the day and I was involved in counseling this couple so I know the facts. But this woman abandoned her husband and I remember the next Sunday when he was sitting back there on the pew by himself for the first time. He told me, “It took every ounce of strength God could give me to come because I thought people would blame me and people think I did this or that. Nobody knows the truth but you and a couple of people who have been counseling us.” But he stayed in the boat with Jesus.

Family failures. Some of you are facing heartache over financial difficulties. How many of you are troubled today and your heart is broken about health issues. Some of you still grieving with a broken heart about the loss of a dear loved one. Here’s what I’m telling you this morning: find out what this book says about your situation and anchor your life on the truth of this book and you stay in the boat with Jesus. Stay in the boat with Jesus.

These storms are predicted for children of God. These storms are painful, even for children of God. But thirdly, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! These storms are passing. They’re not permanent storms, they’re passing storms. Dr. Phil Allison was my New Testament professor in graduate school and he told us all the time, he said, “Now my wife’s favorite verse is ‘And it came to pass.'” She’d always say, “Thank God it didn’t come to stay, it came to pass.” And that’s the way it is. For every single child of God, come what may, trial, heartache, brokenness, despair, depression, anxiety, struggle, you’ve failed and failed and failed, well, keep repenting, repenting, repenting and dive back in that boat because that storm’s not forever. That storm’s not forever. They are all passing storms.

First of all, they’re passing storms because of his promise. Remember his promise in verse 35? He said, “Let’s get in the boat and go to the other side.” They forgot that part. They remembered “get in the boat,” they didn’t remember “we’re going to the other side.” I don’t care if Jesus had to turn that boat into a submarine, they’re going to the other side. That’s what he told them. And Jesus told you, “If I begin a good work in you, I will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Child of God, you’re getting all the way to glorification. There is blessedness and joy and peace and satisfaction and pleasures unspeakable just waiting for you. Stay in the boat with Jesus. Stay with him. Stay. Fight for that marriage. I know it’s hard. Keep fighting. Keep repenting. Say, “I’m committed to this man. I’m committed. I’m staying in the boat with Jesus.” Amen? You needed this, this morning, and so did I or so do I.

He promised. He said, “We’re going to the other side, fellas.” That’s the way we feel. God gives us a promise and then we take off and we feel like he went to sleep on us. That’s where they were and he really did go to sleep on them, but God can do more in his sleep than anybody else can wide awake.

In Victor Hugo’s story, he had all these little short stories he wrote, number 93, he’s got this old time naval vessel and it’s caught in a raging storm and the sailors have already thrown everything off the deck they can possibly throw off the deck to save the ship. Then they heard the noise they dreaded hearing the most, one of the heavy iron cannons below deck had broken loose from its mooring and every time the ship would tilt, crash! It would crash against the inside and tilt the other way and crash! It would crash against the inside and those sailors knew just a few more of these and it will literally tear the ship apart from the inside out and they’ll all drown. Some brave sailors went down there risking their lives and somehow caught it as it rolled across and put it back down in its place and saved the ship.

Now, that’s where you and I are in the storm. Look, listen, listen: the storm on the outside is not going to wreck you, it’s the unsettled faith raging inside of you that’s going to ruin you. You anchor your trust down on the truth of God and quit going here and going there and flipping there and flipping here. Anchor down. Stay with Christ. He has promised you you’re going to get across.

2. Not only his promise but his power. His power. Look at verse 39. You may be, look, if you’ll stay in the boat with Jesus, this is going to happen quicker. Did you hear what I said? This right here is going to happen quicker. They said in verse 38, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” By the way, that’s a lack of faith but it does show some faith. I think there’s a time when you just have to cry out for Jesus, your heart is broken, you don’t understand and you say, “O God, don’t you care?” I think God’s thrilled because you came to him. If that’s where you are, that’s where you are.

So they came to Jesus and said, “Do you not care that we’re perishing?” Notice what he does, verse 39, “And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Hush, be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.” This is a miracle. Now, a storm can blow through the Shoals and you can go over the Tennessee River 30 minutes later and there will still be waves rolling around from that storm that’s been gone 30 minutes. That’s not what happened here. I mean, Jesus said, “Hush, be still,” and the storm became perfectly still like the starry heavens on a summer’s night. A miracle. Stay in the boat with Jesus. You may be just one breath away from God blowing that storm out of your life. Just one moment away. Stay in the boat with Jesus.

Thirdly, these storms are passing not only because of his promise and his power but his presence. No storm can last forever when Jesus is there. When Jesus is there. Look at verse 38 again, “Jesus Himself.” Now that’s emphatic in the original language. It meant: he, Jesus, he himself is there. You see, they had forgotten just who it was that was in the boat. Have you forgotten just who it is who lives in your heart? He’s there and if he doesn’t blow that storm out – listen to me – his presence is sufficient for you.

Have you noticed this – listen – when you stand under the fire, your heart stays warm. I remember Brother “Shanky” Sharp, he was the mayor of Muscle Shoals, that’s back when sophisticated people came to church here, now we’re just a bunch of old rejects. “Shanky” Sharp was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and all through that process he and I would witness and go share the Gospel with people and he said, “Pastor, I want to tell you something: I’m not asking God to remove this, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me because the peace and the joy and the love I feel from Jesus is so wonderful.” He stayed in the boat with Jesus and God’s presence was sufficient for his life.

Years ago in the age of steamships, there is a story told of a captain leaving Liverpool, England, his destination was New York harbor. On that night, he had brought his whole family with him. They were down below, his little 10 year old daughter already gone to bed. They were about 30 minutes into the voyage and a gale of wind hit the ship, the ship tilts mightily over to one side, and the captain’s daughter tumbles out of bed, rolls across the floor and sits up scared and startled. She sees her mom and her brothers and sisters kind of hanging on and she said, “Mom! Mom, what’s happening!” She said, “Honey, I don’t know, I think we’re in a storm.” She looked at her momma and said, “Ma, is my father at the helm?” “Yes, sweetheart, your father is the captain of this ship.” The story goes that she crawled back up in that bed and pulled up her covers and went sound asleep.

Now you listen to me: the old ship of Zion’s got some dents in her hull, she’s got some scratches on her bow, her paint’s not as shiny as it used to be perhaps, but Jesus is the Captain and every ship he’s in charge of makes it all the way home. You stay in the boat with Jesus. He’ll see you safe all the way to the other side.

In 1872, Annie Hawks, a mom and a full-time homemaker was doing, she said, “I was just doing my household chores and,” she said, “I was all of a sudden just overwhelmed with the blessings of the presence of the Lord in my life. Just ironing and sweeping and just God showed up.” And she said, “My heart was just flooded with the thought, “How do people who don’t know him get by because I need him so much?” She sat down and she wrote these words,

“I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord; No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby; Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain; Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.

I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will; And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.

I need Thee every hour, most Holy One; O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.

I need thee, O I need thee Every hour I need Thee; O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.”

Go to him and stay in the boat with Jesus. Don’t compromise. Don’t trust your understanding. Don’t lean on your strength. Go right here. That’s where I’m going to be. I’m staying in the boat with Jesus. He’ll see you safe to the other side.

Thirty-seven years I’ve been with you. Do you know, the first week of my pastorate, the first week of my pastorate here, a lot of stuff happened. A lot of stuff happened. But one of the things that happened, arguably the wealthiest man in the church, one of the wealthiest men in the Shoals area, did not like me being pastor. I had only been pastor four days. And he told Alvin Lynch, one of our elders, in the parking lot, “I’m leaving this place. A bunch of other people are leaving this place,” because I was the pastor, “and this church will go under, and, Alvin, I don’t remember if it’s even three months or six months, it’ll go under.” It’s been 37 years. Now Lord knows, Jeff Noblit and all of us have a lot to repent of, amen? But our hearts were right about the truth and the church being anchored in truth. I’m going to say this because that dear man, I loved him and we had some fellowship in the coming years. I don’t hate him. I don’t mean anything bad about him. But a few months ago my daughter and her husband said, “Daddy, we’ve bought an old home in Muscle Shoals. It’s on the highest point in Muscle Shoals. It’s got tons of property right in the middle of the city. It’s super well made but it’s been neglected for a long time.” I thought, “What house are they talking about?” They bought that man’s house, the man that said we were going to go under financially and now my daughter owns his house.

There has got to be a parable in there somewhere. There’s got to be a truth in there somewhere. Now, I don’t glory in anything, I’m just here to tell you God’s got 1,001 ways of showing you, “If you stay with me…” Look, you can still blunder and blow it and fail and have to repent, but you get back up and you grab hold of Jesus. You stay in the boat with Jesus. “I’m going to see you safe all the way through.” Amen?