Master and Commander: The Far Side of the Sea of Galilee


Sermon by Derek Thomas on May 23, 2004 Mark 4:35-41

Mark 4:35-41
The Far Side of the Sea of Galilee

Dr. Derek Thomas

Please be seated. Turn with me once again to the gospel of
Mark, and we come now to the final story at the end of chapter 4, a brief story
that is well known to us all of Jesus calming a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
No, I haven’t seen it…Master and Commander…the far side of the Sea of
Galilee. And the story is one that brings to our attention in a most forcible
way the answer to the question that comes to us as we read the gospel of Mark
from beginning to end: Who is Jesus Christ? As we read the story, let’s give
our hearts and thoughts to that question. But before we do so, let’s ask God
for His blessing. Let’s pray.

Our God and our Father, this
is Your word. You’ve caused it to be written. Every word, every syllable,
every jot and title comes as a consequence of Your out-breathing. We pray, Holy
Spirit, that You would cause it to be made known and understood to us. Help us,
we pray, to hide it within out hearts that we might not sin against you. Help
us to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest for Your glory, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.

Now let us hear the word of God.

35 And on that day, when
evening had come, He said to them, “Let us go over to
the other side.” 36 And leaving the multitude, they took Him along
with them, just as He was, in the boat; 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 And He Himself was in the
stern, asleep on the cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do
You not care that we are perishing?” 39 And being aroused, He 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 so timid? How is it that you have no
faith?” 41 And they became very much afraid and said to one
another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Amen. May God bless to us the reading of His holy and
inerrant word.

You think you know Jesus. You
have a relationship with Him. He is your Savior. He is your Lord. He is your
friend. You’ve talked to Him. You commune with Him. He comforts you when
you’re sad. He provides for you when you’re in need. He reassures you when
you’re doubting. He’s always there when you call upon Him. He meets your
needs. He does what’s best for you and then something happens. And it isn’t
what Jesus is supposed to do. You find yourself in a storm. Some of you
tonight are in a storm. This week has been a storm and nothing about it makes
any sense. Do you know John Newton’s prayer, “A Prayer Answered by Crosses”?

“I ask’d the Lord, that I might grow
/ In faith, and love, and ev’ry grace, Might more of his salvation know, And
seek more earnestly his face. ‘Twas he who taught me thus to pray, And he, I
trust has answer’d pray’r; But it has been in such a way, As almost drove me to
despair. I hop’d that in some favour’d hour, At once he’d answer my request: And
by his love’s constraining pow’r, Subdue my sins, and give me rest. Instead of
this he made me feel / The hidden evils of my heart; And let the angry pow’rs of
hell / Assault my soul in ev’ry part. Yea more, with his own hand he seem’d /
Intent to aggravate my woe; Cross’d all the fair designs I schem’d, Blasted my
gourds, and laid me low. Lord, why is this, I trembling cry’d, Wilt thou pursue
thy worm to death? ‘Tis in this way,’ the Lord reply’d, ‘I answer pray’r for
grace and faith. These inward trials I employ, From self and pride to set thee
free; And break thy schemes of earthly joy, That thou mayst seek thy all in
me.’”

If you don’t know that poem, that hymn of John Newton’s, do
a Google search. Get it on the web; print it out; stick it in your Bibles. I’m
telling you it will help you through many a trial. That’s what this story
tonight is about.

In the Greek text–not so clearly
in the English text–but in the Greek text Mark implies three “greats”: There
is a great storm in verse 37; there is a great calm in verse 39; and there is a
great fear in verse 41.
And I want to use those markers as though Mark gave
that as a gift to preachers: a great storm, a great calm, and a great fear.

I. A great storm

A great storm–Jesus tells
the disciples…You remember what He’s been doing? He’s been preaching, teaching
the disciples but also a great crowd. He’s on a boat on the Sea of Galilee.
There’s a great crowd on the shoreline. He’s just taught them in parables. And
now He says to His disciples, ‘Let’s go to the other side of the Sea of
Galilee.’ And Mark tells us they took Him just as He was. That’s to say, He
was already in the boat and He left without getting out of the boat. The
disciples joined Him in this boat, and away they went and other boats followed.
This boat is a vessel that could be of any size, but it’s probably a vessel that
would contain maybe 12 to 15 people. And despite what some commentators seem to
think, it probably had no sails. The surface of the Sea of Galilee is roughly
600 feet below sea level. It’s surrounded by mountains, all of which cause
winds to descend quickly, sharply on to the Sea of Galilee. To this day, a
storm can arise on the surface of the Sea of Galilee within what seems to be
minutes.

Jesus asked His disciples–no,
told
His disciples–to get into the boat and to make their way to the other
side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has led His disciples into trouble. Jesus
has led His disciples into trouble.
This Jesus whom they have begun to
follow, this gentle Jesus meek and mild–at His request, in obedience to His
command they find themselves in trouble. This isn’t a case of someone
disobeying the Lord and the judgment of God comes down upon them. We understand
that. Many commentators think that Mark is telling the story with the story of
Jonah as a kind of template. And you remember the story of Jonah? The storm
comes because of Jonah’s disobedience. God has caught up with Jonah who’s
running away from the will of God. But that’s not the case here: They’re doing
the will of God. They are obeying Jesus and they find themselves in trouble.
We can understand the story of Jonah. Every fiber of our being echoes with
that. We say, don’t we, when we find ourselves in trouble, “What have I done to
deserve this?” because in some form, in some way this must be some act of
judgment upon me? But that’s not the case here. The disciples were doing what
Jesus had commanded them. You can imagine Peter, James, John saying to
themselves, ‘You know, if we become disciples of Jesus we can leave this hum
drum existence of fishing on the Sea of Galilee behind us. Life is going to be
good with the Messiah,’ the One that Israel had hoped would be their leader and
Savior. But no, life is full of storms and trouble and there’s a cross to
bear. “I hop’d that in some favour’d hour, At once he’d answer my request: And
by his love’s constraining pow’r, Subdue my sins, and give me rest instead of
this.”

Yes, instead of this Jesus leads
us into storms. That’s where some of you find yourselves tonight. You have
been faithfully following Jesus Christ. You’ve been reading His word. You’ve
been implementing it in your lives. Yes, there are always failures and
shortcomings. No one is perfect but as an act of obedience to Jesus, as an act
of discipleship to Jesus…trouble has come unsolicited, “out of the blue,” as we
say. Can’t you hear their anger? It’s more than frustration: it’s anger.
Jesus is sleeping–think of it–in this boat, in the middle of this storm.
He’s at the stern of the boat. He’s sleeping on the pillow as Mark calls it.
It looks as though Jesus is, well, indifferent, indifferent to their plight,
that He doesn’t care. Isn’t it a remarkable thing, by the way, to note that
Jesus is sleeping, that the Son of God, the divine Messiah gets tired? And it’s
that kind of sleep that nothing can awaken Him, that “sound sleep of the just,”
as we some times call it.

Can you hear the question? Let’s
get back to the storm. Can you hear their question? And it’s a pointed
question… ‘Master, Master, don’t You care?’ My friends, let’s be honest
tonight. Have you never ever thought that? When you find yourself in trouble,
when your family is in disarray, when your future and dreams come crashing down
before you, when your hopes and aspirations are gone–have you never said or
thought, ‘Jesus, don’t you care. Don’t you care?’ What shocking words
and yet, my friends, I’m sure we’ve all thought it. He was in the world but He
cared. He was in the boat and He cares.

What’s going on here? Let’s dig
a little deeper. Let’s learn the lesson that Jesus will put you in places
that will tempt you to think that He doesn’t care
. That’s it! That’s the
lesson. Jesus will put you in places that will tempt you to think that He
doesn’t care. He’s asleep, and, well, He doesn’t know what’s going on or He
can’t be bothered or He’s got much more important things to think about and care
about than you.

Do you remember some of Job’s
questions? They’re shocking questions: ‘Do you think I’m made of stone or
metal? If life is short, does it also have to be miserable? What did I ever do
to become the target of your arrows? You are the One who created me so why are
you destroying me? Why do You hide Your face and consider me Your enemy?’
Remember Martha? Mary and Martha? You remember her words to Jesus when Jesus
is in town and in the home, and Mary is sitting at Jesus feet enjoying this
glorious Bible study? And Martha says to Jesus, ‘Lord it’s not fair that I am
the one doing all of the work. Don’t you care that she left me to do all this?
Tell her to do something. Don’t you care?’ My friends, yes, Jesus will lead
you into contexts and into situations where you may be tempted to say that:
“Lord, don’t you care?”

What’s going on here, of
course, is a test.
“These inward trials I employ, from self and pride to
set thee free; and break thy schemes of earthly joy, that thou mayst seek thy
all in Me,” Newton says. This is the way the Master sifts us. This is the
way the Master discerns what is dross from that which is genuine
. This is
the way our Savior builds us up, encourages and challenges and motivates our
faith: He puts you through the fires. He sends you through the storms. He
brings into your life things that you wish were not there.

“God has so ordered the church
from the very beginning,” Calvin says, “that death is the way to life and the
cross the way to victory.” And that’s what’s going on here. There’s a great
storm. My friends, is that where you are tonight? I know that’s where some of
you are tonight, in the midst of a great storm. You’re in that boat and that
winds are howling and the sea is coming into this little boat. And it looks as
though this boat is going to sink and you’re tempted to get a hold of Jesus and
say to Him, “Lord, don’t you care?” And He’s testing you. Do you understand
that? He’s testing you.

II. A great calm

There’s a great storm but
there’s also a great calm. “Peace,” Jesus says, speaks to the wind and then He
speaks to the sea and He says, “Peace, be still.” The word in Greek means “to
be muzzled.” It’s like putting a muzzle on an angry dog that’s growling and you
don’t trust this dog and you muzzle it. Jesus had used this word before in
speaking to some of the demons, “Be muzzled! Be quiet!” Do you remember the
English King, King Canute, standing at the shoreline saying to the waves, the
tidal waves, “Stop!”? What a buffoon He was. What an ignoramus He was…and yet
Jesus is doing exactly the same thing here. Can you see Him in the boat in this
storm, Master and Commander of the far side of the Sea of Galilee, and He’s
speaking to the wind and He’s commanding the waves to be still? He only has to
speak–isn’t that beautiful? He only has to utter a word, a sovereign word, a
divine word, the word of a Creator, the word of One who holds the universe in
the palms of His hands, “Peace, be still.”

Who is this man? Who is this man
who is sleeping in the stern of the boat from tiredness, from exhaustion from
the ministry in which He’s been engaged and now He’s commanding the wind and the
waves? What kind of being is He? Think about what He’s been teaching them…that
He is the King of a new kingdom that He was going to establish. Could this be
true, that from this man would come something that would transform the whole
world?

If ever there was a time for
Jesus to show who He really was it was now. He’d given these parables of the
kingdom: That the kingdom is like a mustard seed, a small tiny seed that grows
and grows and grows to be the greatest plant, the greatest tree in all the
world. It’s like sowing a seed at night and then going to bed and getting up in
the morning and a crop has appeared, and it has come to fruition and it’s none
of your doing. You sowed the seed but the coming to fruition was not of you; it
was of God. How is this kingdom going to come? There were all kinds of
answers. Go down south from Galilee to Jerusalem; ask King Herod. He believed
in the kingdom. He knew his Old Testament. He believed that the kingdom was
coming and he was preparing for it by building palaces and fortresses and arming
himself and making alliances with Rome, so that when the kingdom would come he
would be in the best possible position to take advantage of it. Go down further
south to the Qumran district at the edge of the Dead Sea. They believed in the
kingdom. They had been preparing for it. They had huddled themselves, secluded
themselves in a kind of monastic society, copying manuscripts of the Old
Testament, preparing themselves for the coming of the kingdom because when the
kingdom would come it would have absolutely nothing to do with the world and
they were separating themselves from the world. Go further south again, past
Qumran and all the way down almost to the end of the Dead Sea to Masada. They
too, another sect, the Sikari–They had built a fortress on the top of a mountain
and they were preparing for the kingdom and they were sharpening their swords,
and they were making themselves holy and they were preparing themselves for
insurrection. And Jesus is talking about the kingdom, a kingdom which centers
around Him, around His words, His gospel, His revelation of His heavenly Father,
His calling of this tiny band of disciples– fisherman, tax collector, a
converted member of the opposition.

Could it be true and Jesus is
showing them here in this boat–? He’s giving them a little glimpse of who He
really is? He’s told them that through Him the kingdom of God would come, the
kingdom that is within you, the kingdom that in a sense is not of this world.
‘And if you don’t believe,’ He’s saying to His disciples. ‘If you don’t believe
that a carpenter from Nazareth can do all of this, then watch and learn. Watch
and learn.’ And He speaks to the wind, and He speaks to the waves and He says,
“Peace, be still.” Now either He’s a complete lunatic, which is what His family
thought that He was, or else He is God, He’s the Lord of glory. That’s what
He’s saying with this gesture, this miracle in the boat. He’s saying, ‘I’m the
Lord of the universe. I can command the wind and the waves.’ And the wind
ceased, or in Eugene Peterson’s translation, “the wind ran out of breath.”
Campbell Morgan once said, “Granted the truth of the first verse of the Bible,
there is no difficulty in believing what Jesus does here. He is the Creator; He
is the sustainer of all things. It is nothing to Him to speak to the wind and
the waves and to bring a calm.”

Now what this disclosed was the
weakness of their faith. Mark says that Jesus said to them that they had no
faith. Matthew and Luke, who also record this story, interpret that and say
that what Jesus actually said was that they had weak faith or little
faith.
It’s possible to be a believer…it’s possible to trust in Jesus
Christ, but our faith is weak in a moment of crisis
, for our faith to fail
us to be in Jesus’ company. It’s one thing to have faith here but to be in
Jesus’ company we would be different. And here it is, these disciples, they’re
in Jesus’ company; they’re in the boat with Him…and their faith failed them.
I’m sure they lay awake at night afterwards saying to themselves, ‘How stupid we
were. Imagine it! If only we could undo that, if only we had just poked Jesus
and said, “It’s time, Master. It’s time to do it now.”’ And echoing in their
minds were those words, ‘Don’t you care?’ I’m sure at 3:00 in the morning those
words echoed in the hollow of their minds and brought them great sense of shame
and reminded them of the weakness of their faith.

In the storms, my friends, that
you are passing through tonight, you think He’s taking a nap and doesn’t care
for you? This Jesus who laid down His life for you, this Jesus who was scourged
and beaten and crucified and nailed to a Roman gibbet, this Jesus who cried, “My
God, why have You forsaken Me?” Do you think for one moment that He doesn’t
care? He cares for you. He cares for you. He’s in the boat with you my
friend. He’s right there in the middle of the storm with you.
There’s a
hymn…oh, it’s a little sentimental …written in 1901 by Frank Grafe, who had
been passing through a storm of his own…Part of those beautiful words of 1 Peter
chapter 5 in verse 7, “He cares for you.” He cares for you.

“Does Jesus
care when my heart is panged too deeply for mirth or song, as the burdens press
and the cares distress and the way grows weary and long? Oh 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. Does Jesus care when my way is
dark with a nameless dread and fear? As the daylight fades into deep night
shades, does He care enough to be near? Oh 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. 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 ought
to Him, does He see? Oh yes, He cares. I know He cares. His heart is touched
with my grief. When the days are weary and the long nights dreary, I know my
Savior cares.”

III. A great fear

There’s a great storm and a great peace, but in
the third place there is a great fear–yes, a great fear. They had been afraid
of the storm but now they’re afraid in a different sense, because now they are
aware that standing in the boat with them…the One whom they have come to trust,
the One in whom they have placed their confidence, the One that they’ve begun to
follow, the One that they have imagined and come to believe is the Messiah of
Old Testament promise, the One standing in the boat with them is more than just
the man. They wouldn’t doubt for one minute that He was a man. They had just
seen Him sleeping. They had to wake Him from His sleep…but He’s more than a
man.
No man commands winds and waves standing in the boat in the middle of
the Sea of Galilee, in a boat, perhaps, they have been in many times fishing.
They are suddenly conscious this is One who is greater than all of them,
greater than anyone they have ever seen before. This is the Son of God!

This is the Lord of glory! This is the second person of the trinity. This is
Jesus Christ the Creator of the whole universe! Standing in the boat with them
is the One who holds in the palms of His hands the entire universe. Standing in
the boat, my friends, is glory itself.

Friend, you’re about to go to
Mexico and Peru and Myanmar… Wherever else you’re going…I can’t remember where
else you’re going. Uganda? Tell them this…tell them this message. Take this
Jesus with you, this Jesus who is God, this Jesus who is Lord, this Jesus to
whom nothing is an obstacle. You go to do a hard work. Some of you are going
to do an extraordinarily hard work. I couldn’t believe the description that
Brister was giving, to speak the word of the gospel to the dead and perishing of
this world, but you go in the name of this person, this Lord, this Master, this
Commander of the far side of the Sea of Galilee. When you’re over there and you
begin to doubt for one minute, for one second, what it is that you’re doing,
remember it’s not in your strength that you’re doing it. You do it in the
strength of this One, this Lord, this Savior, this Messiah, this King, this King
of Kings, this Lord of Lords who stood in a boat on the Sea of Galilee and said,
“Peace.” If He can do that, my friends, He can turn the hearts of prostitutes
and homosexuals and whoever and whatever it is that you come across in your
mission work this summer. What a great Savior we have. Let’s pray together.

Our God and our Father, we
bless You for this wonderful story of Jesus. We believe it to be true. We pray
for one who goes to California this week, that You this sovereign Jesus would
work in his body. We thank You Lord for the truth of the gospel, that with You
nothing is impossible. Bless it to our hearts, we pray, for Jesus’ sake.
Amen.

Please
stand and receive the Lord’s benediction. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

******************************************************************

A
Guide to the Evening Service

The Theme of the Service
Storms! The storms of life familiar to us all–this is the theme of tonight’s
service. Set around the story of Jesus’ encounter with a storm on the Sea of
Galilee, all the hymns this evening have this theme in common.

The Hymns and Spiritual Songs
Eternal Father, Strong to Save
In America, Eternal Father, Strong to Save is often called the Navy
Hymn
, because it is sung at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It is
also sung on ships of the British Royal Navy and has been translated into
French. It was the favorite hymn of President Franklin Roosevelt and was sung at
his funeral in Hyde Park, New York, April 1945. The Navy Band played it in 1963
as President John Kennedy’s body was carried up the steps of the U.S. Capitol to
lie in state. Roosevelt served as Secretary of the Navy, and Kennedy was a PT
boat commander in World War II.

O
Safe to the Rock That is Higher Than I
Hiding in Thee

was written in Moravia, New York, in 1876, by William O. Cushing. “It must be
said of this hymn,” he wrote, “that it was the outgrowth of many tears, many
heart-conflicts and soul-yearnings, of which the world can know nothing. The
history of many battles is behind it. But the occasion which gave it being was
the call of Mr. Sankey. He said, ‘Send me something new to help me in my Gospel
work.’ A call from such a source, and for such a purpose, seemed a call from
God. I so regarded it, and prayed: ‘Lord, give me something that may glorify
Thee.’ It was while thus waiting that Hiding in Thee pressed to make
itself known. Mr. Sankey called forth the tune, and by his genius gave the hymn
wings, making it useful in the Master’s work.”

A Shelter in the Time of Storm

The hymn, written by Vernon
Charlesworth, was set to music by Ira Sankey. Sankey comments, “I found this
hymn in a small paper published in London, called The Postman. It was said to be
a favorite song of the fisherman on the north coast of England, and they were
often heard singing it as they approached their harbors in the time of storm. As
the hymn was set to a weird minor tune, I decided to compose one that would be
more practical, one that could be more easily sung by the people.”


The Sermon
“If you are a believer, you must reckon on having your share of sickness and
pain, of sorrow and tears, of losses and crosses, of deaths and bereavements, of
partings and separations, of vexations and disappointments, so long as you are
in the body. Christ never undertakes that you shall get to heaven without these.
He has undertaken that all who come to Him shall have all things pertaining to
life and godliness; but He has never undertaken that He will make them
prosperous, or rich, or healthy, and that death and sorrow shall never come to
their family.” So wrote Bishop Ryle over a century ago in a book that is still
reckoned as one of the top ten of Christian Classics (J. C. Ryle, Holiness,
The Ruler of the Waves, James Clarke and Co., London 1956, p.198).

In the old blue edition of Trinity Hymnal,
there was a hymn by Mary Ann Baker (a member of the Temperance Society in
Chicago at the close of the nineteenth century) called Master, The Tempest is
Raging
. It was always difficult to sing, but wonderfully exciting all the
same. One of its verses went like this:

“‘Carest Thou not that we perish? How canst Thou lie asleep,
When each moment so madly is threatening a
grave in the angry deep?’
‘The winds and the waves shall obey My
will, Peace be still!
Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea

Or demons, or men or whatever it be,
No waters can swallow the ship where lies

The Master of ocean or earth or sky.
They all shall sweetly obey My will,
Peace be still.’” (Mary A. Baker)

As we study
tonight’s passage, let us pray for that “peace” in the midst of the storms of
life.

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