From Fear to Fear (Afternoon)
Download MP3Last year, I was preaching at Grace Fellowship, whom we just prayed for. I was preaching over at Grace Fellowship, and, I had all my notes set out on the the podium. I was kind of in a hurry, and I didn't do my usual, like, kind of set up. I I usually write the page number in descending order, so I know when I'm getting closer, counting down to 1. I didn't do that.
Jeffrey Heine:I was preaching at a different place, which made it all the more problematic when some kids knocked my notes over without me seeing it. They put the notes back together as best they could, and then put them back. So when I was at this point in, beginning a sermon, I was looking at chaos. And I am always afraid now, whenever I walk up. We are continuing our study of the gospel according to Saint Mark.
Jeffrey Heine:We are gonna be in Mark chapter 4 this evening. Mark chapter 4. We're finishing out. It's the last, the last paragraph, last story, offered here in Mark chapter 4, one that you may be familiar with. It's Jesus calming a storm, but we're gonna be reading through it together, beginning in verse 35.
Jeffrey Heine:And let us listen carefully, for this is god's word. Mark, chapter 4, beginning in verse 35. On that day, when evening had come, he, Jesus, said to them, Let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him.
Jeffrey Heine:And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he, Jesus, 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? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace. Be still.
Jeffrey Heine:And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? This is the word of the lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, we come to you tonight asking that by your Spirit, you would meet us in your word. Spirit, help us to see Jesus. And in seeing him, give us the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge and be filled with all the fullness of God. So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening?
Jeffrey Heine:We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It was early evening when Jesus concluded his teaching from the boat on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus called out to his disciples that it was time to depart. The long day of teaching and healing had taken a physical toll on Jesus, so his disciples, they gathered together, and Jesus that's why it says, as he was.
Jeffrey Heine:He was still in the boat, and the disciples, heard from Jesus that it was time to cross the sea, to the other side, to a mostly gentile village, to continue his ministry. In that evening, multiple boats depart with Jesus and his disciples. As you may know, the sea of Galilee is extraordinary because it's the lowest freshwater lake on earth, which means that it sits in a basin of nearly a 1000 feet below sea level. And the depth of the sea, which is really just a a lake, it reaches a 140 feet in some areas. The sea is about 8 miles in width and 13 miles long.
Jeffrey Heine:In calm conditions, it would take the disciples about 2, 3 hours to row across, to the southwestern, the southeastern gentile village called Gerasene. The landscape of the Sea of Galilee meant that storms, both rainstorms and windstorms, would rapidly turn in a routine voyage into a deadly squall. You might remember back in chapter 1 of Mark's gospel, we read that 4 of the men who recently joined Jesus as his disciples, his followers, they they had worked in the profession of fishermen. These men, they they earned their keep by spending most of their waking hours on the temperamental waters of the Sea of Galilee. And most fishing was done at night because of these frequent and sudden windstorms that would happen during the daylight hours.
Jeffrey Heine:In short, these men had their sea legs, and the boats set off on their journey. Jesus was physically exhausted. We know this because upon departing the shore, Jesus reclines in the stern of the boat to rest on a pillow, a cushion. A cushion was typically kept there in the stern of the boat for the boat swain. Now, for you non nautical folks, if you're unfamiliar with terms like stern and boat swain, don't feel too badly.
Jeffrey Heine:This is me just, to be honest, putting, to use the jargon that I had to learn in reading The Wager, a nonfiction book that has spent the last 38 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. And as if you've read it, then you know you have to learn all of these boat terms. That book was about a group of sailors in the late 1700s who survived a shipwreck in a vessel called the Wager. They were on a secret mission during the Imperial War with Spain. It's a vivid and wonderfully written nonfiction book, and it's got a lot of nautical lingo in it to learn, like how 3 sheets to the wind was when, the line to a sail broke and the boat would pitch out of control.
Jeffrey Heine:And how, the the first time sailors were shown to be rookies when they referred to being on a boat instead of in a boat, And also, the four sides of the boat were referred to as, the bow, the forward front of the ship, and then the port on the left, the starboard on the right, and then the stern in the back of the boat. And that's where Jesus is, resting on a pillow that was kept for the person who would steer. The boat swing would steer the boat, and so there was a cushion. That person wasn't out fishing. They weren't up doing that throughout the night.
Jeffrey Heine:They would stay back and steer, and so they got a nice cushion, but they gave it to Jesus because he was so tired. We don't know how many disciples were on the boat with Jesus. The common fishing vessels in that area would hold up to 15 people, so we know that there was a caravan of boats all moving across together. And the disciples might have spread out to make this 8 mile journey to the southeastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. Saint Mark records that at some point in the journey, a great windstorm arose.
Jeffrey Heine:And while these storms were common in the daytime, a sudden and intense arrival at night was not expected. Mark's emphasis on the wind appears to indicate that it was likely not a rainstorm. The violent wind was causing the waves to crash into the boat. Marx says that the waves were breaking into the boat, and the boat was already filling up with water. The men were frantically bailing out this rising water in the boat.
Jeffrey Heine:It was filling faster than they could bail it out. Swimming for leisure was not a common activity in the 1st century. Even for those who knew how to swim, it would have taken hours of nonstop swimming to reach the shore, and that doesn't take into consideration the massive waves that they would have to endure. The situation was dire. The disciples are fighting for their lives, battling the violent winds, the crashing waves, the great distance still to the shore.
Jeffrey Heine:They're not going to make it. They're realizing that the storm is too great. They're going to die. And Jesus is asleep. We don't know how long this journey was going when this, great windstorm arose.
Jeffrey Heine:The the fact that Jesus had enough time to fall asleep, it could speak to the duration of the trip. It could just speak to how physically exhausted he was after ministering to the masses. The fact that Jesus was asleep could also speak to how content he was. Even amid a terrifying windstorm, Jesus fully trusts in the sovereign plan, the perfect power of his father who sent him. And I think that probably had the most to do with how Jesus was sleeping through all this.
Jeffrey Heine:But regardless of why Jesus was so peacefully asleep, some of the disciples have to wake him up from his contented slumber to let him know that they are about to die, including him. That's what we see in verse 38, where it says, and they woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Four quick things, 4 quick observations worth highlighting just in this one part of the verse. 1st, we don't know which disciple said these intense words to Jesus. Maybe Peter, whom we know Peter is is recounting this story to Mark, who is writing it down.
Jeffrey Heine:And so maybe Peter didn't wanna say who it was who rebuked arresting Jesus. Perhaps more likely, they were all shouting at Jesus. They were all shouting that they were about to die. This wasn't a quiet conversation by the seaside. So perhaps perhaps collectively, shouting over this great wind, they woke Jesus up, and they called out to him, teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?
Jeffrey Heine:Which leads to number 2. They refer to him as teacher. Peter probably recalled that they usually referred to Jesus as rabbi, but but this is being written down by Mark in Greek. And the Greek translation of what the the, disciples would have called Jesus in Hebrew, that title rabbi would have been teacher. But this reference, calling him teacher, it does indicate this formality and this distance between the disciples and the sleeping Jesus, this distance from who they think Jesus is and who he is slowly revealing himself to be as the son of God.
Jeffrey Heine:3rd, the disciples shout, don't you care? This is a rebuke. Don't you care? Another way to say this is, aren't you concerned? Don't miss the intensity in these words.
Jeffrey Heine:And maybe it's not only the intensity, but the familiarity with these words that's most striking. Maybe you've never shouted them during a windstorm on the Sea of Galilee, but I I would wager that you've shouted these words in your own heart at God at some point in your life. Don't you care? Don't you care about what's happening? Aren't you paying attention?
Jeffrey Heine:Don't you care, Jesus? Can you recall the last time that you had that question in your heart? Perhaps it wasn't that long ago. Maybe it's even tonight. Maybe not questioning Jesus's presence with you in the storm, but wondering why he wasn't doing what you thought he should be doing when you thought he should be doing it.
Jeffrey Heine:Disciples are confused, and it appears frustrated that Jesus isn't demonstrating to them. He's not showing that he cares. It's important for us to see that these men were no less disciples when they posed this question to Jesus. But none of them were being dismissed for daring to ask. They weren't going on disciple probation for daring to say these things to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:There are plenty of times when we read in the scriptures of the boldness and the courage of the disciples of Jesus, and when I read them, though it is inspiring, they reveal the great distance between these first disciples and myself. I don't feel like I measure up to what it means to really be a disciple of Jesus. But scenes like this if this is what disciples are like, then yes. I can hang with these frightened and confused guys. The last observation of this verse.
Jeffrey Heine:In the rebuking question to Jesus, the question includes Jesus. The disciples aren't only thinking of themselves. The disciples shout, we are about to die. Don't you care, Jesus? Don't you care that you are about to die too?
Jeffrey Heine:They had no reason to think that Jesus was somehow exempt. They had not yet seen his buoyancy on walking on these waters, which will come a few chapters later. They had no reason to think that he was exempt from this filling up boat and the drowning that was inevitable for them all. He isn't helping to bail out the boat. He isn't even paying attention to the storm.
Jeffrey Heine:Doesn't he care that he is about to die? When you put it that way, no. No. Jesus wasn't concerned that he was about to die because Jesus already knew how he was going to die. He knew the call on his life.
Jeffrey Heine:He knew he was going to die. He had been born. He was sent from the father to do just that, but not on the crashing waves of the Sea of Galilee. No. Jesus knew the will and the plan of the father, and that knowledge meant that any danger, any threat, any scheme of the enemy was but an inert annoyance.
Jeffrey Heine:The disciples did not understand how what was happening was not a threat to the will of the Father. It is clear here that they did not understand a lot of things about Jesus, and this perilous squall on the Sea of Galilee exposes just how much they didn't understand. The disciples are bailing out the boat, and they're failing. They're sinking. They've shouted at Jesus, and now he is awake.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus sees the frantic disciples and the great waters that are sinking the boat, and he hears the fear in their voices as they call out to one another. And through the deafening sounds of the wind and the waves and the shouts of the disciples, the voice of Jesus breaks through it all as he cries out to the storm, peace. Be still. Jesus rebukes the violent winds, commanding it to be silent. And he rebukes the crashing waves, commanding them to be still.
Jeffrey Heine:The violent wind ceased, the crashing waves stopped, and there was a great calm. Mark had just described this great windstorm, and the great windstorm has now been replaced by a great calm. The storm didn't just pass. The wind didn't just move on. It didn't simply die down.
Jeffrey Heine:The wind stopped. The waves ceased, Like a needle on a record player being pulled off the record or the lights of a restaurant being turned on after last call, more quickly than the windstorm arrived, Jesus cut it off in an instant. The great squall is now a great calm. After rebuking the wind and the waves, Jesus turns his attention to the trembling, exhausted, soaking, wet disciples. Let's look at verse 40.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus says to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? Jesus had taught parables to the masses, and in gentle compassion, explained those parables to the disciples. And Jesus healed countless people from suffering from pain and torment in their bodies and in their minds. In front of these very disciples, Jesus had taken on the religious elite, refusing their laws, their expectations, their demands.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus told these disciples that they were witnessing the mysteries of the kingdom of God. These men were called and blessed to be on the inside, eyewitnesses and participants in Jesus's mission from the Father. And yet, as soon as the south wind blows and the seas get choppy, all confidence, all courage is gone. Why are you so afraid?' he asks them. Well, Jesus, maybe it was the ferocious windstorm, the crashing waves.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe it was the active sinking and the inevitable drowning. Maybe it was the everything that we've been seeing and experiencing. Maybe that's why we're so afraid. Okay. But the second question focuses Jesus's concern, not just about being afraid.
Jeffrey Heine:That part makes sense. Have you still no faith? That's the thing about faith. It's it's easy to be faithful when there isn't any opposition. It's easy to be courageous when there's nothing demanding courage.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's easy to believe when nothing is confronting us towards disbelief. The disciples are facing forceful opposition, really for the first time. And as soon as pressure comes, they buckle. As soon as the waves start crashing in over the sides of the boat, they panic. And their first thought is that Jesus must not care.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus isn't saying that the windstorm isn't worthy of fear, but that their faith should address that fear. Their faith, not their fear, should have driven their response in that storm. Faith that there is someone greater than the storm. Let's keep in mind that, because this is an easy place, this isn't a metaphor. It's not a parable.
Jeffrey Heine:This is an eyewitness account of Jesus and his disciples, given from someone who was there. But while it isn't a metaphor, isn't it a picture of our hearts before the Lord? I know it is for me. As long as the skies are blue and the waters are calm, I could sing of your love forever. That is a nineties reference.
Jeffrey Heine:But if the south wind blows and the boat begins to rock, I may not question if Jesus is there, but I will question the extent to which he cares. The disciples perceive that Jesus isn't doing anything. He isn't helping bail out the boat. He isn't shouting instructions for how to survive the storm or steer it into safer waters. It doesn't even seem like he cares.
Jeffrey Heine:But what the disciples don't know is that there is no safer place in all of creation than in that boat with Jesus. The plan and the power of God will not be thwarted. A 1,000 windstorms could not prevent the will of God from moving forward. Of course the storm is terrifying. Of course everything they see is falling apart and signifies their certain death.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not that the storm isn't scary. It's that Jesus is greater than the storm. This isn't a lesson in courage. Jesus isn't calling them to be brave. It's a lesson in faith, Faith in who Jesus is.
Jeffrey Heine:You've heard me say before, because it's a great Tim Keller quote, and I love ripping it off and passing it off as though it's my wisdom. But it is not the strength of our faith, it is the object of our faith that matters. We're not looking for these disciples to be stronger in faith. It's the object. It's the who.
Jeffrey Heine:Who has their faith? Whom are they trusting in? And do they know who that is? Jesus ties this first question, Why are you so afraid? To this second question, Do you still not have faith?
Jeffrey Heine:The second question is tied to the first. The first question is about being so afraid, and the second question is about their lack of faith. This tells us that there is a connection, some relationship between fear and faith. If they had faith, they wouldn't be so afraid. Presence of fear corresponds with this lack of faith.
Jeffrey Heine:Their lack of faith and abundance of fear is the focus of Jesus' response to them. After all they had seen and heard from Jesus, faith is still, still the primary issue, and their fear of the storm reveals the absence In in verse 41. And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? If you notice that nearly all of the statements in this passage are questions, The disciples ask a question to Jesus. Don't you care that we're about to die?' Jesus commands the wind and the waves to be quiet, and he turns to the disciples and he asks 2 questions in return.
Jeffrey Heine:Why are you so afraid? And do you still not have faith? And then the disciples respond with another question amongst themselves. Who is this? This guy we've been following around for a while now, who is he that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Jeffrey Heine:For the ancient Near East, in so much of that ancient literature, the waters were seen as a place of chaos. In some cultures it was a portal to the underworld. It's where Leviathan, where sea monsters lived. It was a place of chaos and death. It was terrifying.
Jeffrey Heine:Hence the no swimming. They were afraid of it. And to be out there pitching left and right wherever the waves were knocking them, they were terrified that they were about to die. They were certain that they were about to die. And now someone has come, someone that they've eaten fish with, someone that they've traveled with is now commanding that wind and those waves, and they obey him.
Jeffrey Heine:Who is this? Their fear. Fear is this result of a lack of faith, and that lack of faith is a a lack of knowing who this Jesus is. If they had faith, they wouldn't be so afraid. But faith in who?
Jeffrey Heine:Faith that they would survive the storm? Just making it through? Is that what their faith needs to be? Do they just need some more positive thinking that every day could be a Friday? Is that what we need?
Jeffrey Heine:A better outlook? Positivity? Maybe meditate a little bit longer in the morning, do a juice cleanse. I just need to see the world right. Faith that they would survive the storm?
Jeffrey Heine:No. Faith that their skills as a sailor would somehow get them out of this peril? No. Then faith in what? They display what kind of faith in their final question.
Jeffrey Heine:Who, then, is this? Their lack of faith is a result of them still not knowing who Jesus is, and so they ask, who is this? They've seen the healings miracle after miracle. They've heard the teaching and the blessing of private explanations of these parables by Jesus himself, and yet they still wonder, who is this? Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Jeffrey Heine:The disciples encounter a great windstorm. Jesus commands the wind and the sea. The great windstorm is replaced by a great calm. And then Jesus rebukes the disciples, and the great calm is now replaced with a great fear. As the disciples ask one another, who then is this?
Jeffrey Heine:Their fear of the storm, the fear of perishing in the crashing waves is replaced with a greater fear of Jesus. Why? Because they've encountered someone more powerful than the storm. The storm obeys him. The fear is shifting away from the storm and to this rabbi in the boat.
Jeffrey Heine:To go back to our lesson in nautical lingo, the the disciples were on a boat in a storm, but not Jesus. Jesus, while he was with them on the boat, he was always over the storm. And as this revelation of Jesus' power and his authority washes over the disciples, they no longer fear the storm. They no longer fear the waves crashing outside the boat. They no longer doubt that Jesus is attentive to their plight.
Jeffrey Heine:The one to be feared is not the storm. The one with them in the boat is far more powerful than anything or anyone outside of the boat. No. The one to be feared is with them in the boat, Fearing God, it's a complicated concept. On the one hand, we're told in Proverbs 9 verse 10 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Jeffrey Heine:At the same time, Jesus tells his followers in Luke 12, fear not, little flock, for it is the father's good pleasure to give you his kingdom. And in John, another disciple in the boat, in John's gospel chapter 12, Jesus says, fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming. And at the same time, Moses in Deuteronomy 10 says, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God? To walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Jeffrey Heine:We are commanded, fear not, and at the same time, fear the lord. Here we see the disciples processing all of this in real time. They're learning to fear not the storm and to fear the lord who commands it. Fear is the beginning of wisdom. It's just the start where we begin.
Jeffrey Heine:Because that fear, that being so afraid, it is the right response before a holy God. And the disciples' fear speaks to the terrifying wildness of Jesus that they have just witnessed. But their fear, that terror, is still tied to their biggest problem. They aren't afraid because they know who Jesus is. They're terrified because they don't know who he is.
Jeffrey Heine:Who is he? Because if they knew, if if they had been perfected by his love, then their being afraid would turn to holy awe. The fear that we are called into by the Holy Spirit is a reverent awe of the majesty of God. The disciples weren't to that awe yet. They're just afraid of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:The Greek used by Mark, to describe their response to Jesus commanding the wind and the sea, it's where we get the word phobia. This isn't the reverent awe like Moses was talking about in fearing holy God. The disciples went from being scared of the windstorm to being scared of Jesus. And being scared, being afraid, it's a reasonable place to begin. Why?
Jeffrey Heine:Because we need to have a right view of the power and the greatness of God. But that's not where God leaves us. He does not leave us scared and afraid. The disciple John, who was one of those experienced fishermen in the boat that evening on the Sea of Galilee, he would lay later write in his old age to younger Christians, saying in 1 John, chapter 4, there is no fear in love, But perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us, which means we have some questions to ask ourselves.
Jeffrey Heine:This scale, this gradient range from terror to awe, It begins with indifference. No fear of God. No awe at his majesty, no trembling at his power. Terror, being afraid, it's not the end goal, but it is the starting point. It is getting on to that gradient scale.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the beginning of wisdom. Because that fear is a reasonable response when we come before a holy God and rightly view that we are creatures, and he alone is the creator. This trembling is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning to see the world as it really is. And as we understand, not only intellectually but emotionally and spiritually, when we begin to understand who Jesus is and what he has accomplished for us in his death and resurrection. And we marvel at what he has secured for us in reconciliation with the Father and indwelling of the Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:We glimpse what he has put to death in his own death on the cross so that the curse would be broken, and we might be healed by his wounds. The more we see, the more we understand who this Jesus really is, we are perfected in his love. And in his love, there is no fear. There's no fear because there's no longer a threat of punishment, And there's no longer a threat of punishment because Christ endured our punishment so that we might enjoy the love of the Father forever. Forever without fear and with endless awe.
Jeffrey Heine:The disciple Peter, who along with John was in this boat full of great fear of the great storm, who also shouted out, don't you care to Jesus? He would later write, to all the other disciples of Jesus, meaning us, too, in 1 Peter, chapter 5, he wrote these words. Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. It took a long time, a lifetime, for John and Peter to learn the many lessons from the windstorm that evening on the Sea of Galilee. But Jesus proved to them both and to all the disciples and to each of us over and over and over, he cares for you.
Jeffrey Heine:Though he may seem inattentive or even asleep in the storm, He who is in the boat is greater than any storm we face. And the more we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and cast all our fears, all our worries, all our anxieties on him who cares for us. And the more we grow in awe of who he has revealed himself to be, and the greater we will know and experience his great and ferocious care for us now and forever. Let's go to him in prayer. Oh, Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:May it not be lost on us that in this very moment, the one who calmed the storm has set their attention on us as we pray. It's you, Jesus. You're the one that called out to the wind and to the waves. You are the one who stilled the storm. And you are the one who has proven over and over that nothing will separate us from your love.
Jeffrey Heine:But, Jesus, it's so hard to believe that's true. So would you help us? Would you help us by your spirit to fix our eyes on you, Jesus, that the things of earth may grow strangely dim as we set our attention, our affection, our gaze upon you, Jesus. Oh, Spirit, help us. Help us to behold and to believe.
Jeffrey Heine:And in our believing, help us to trust Jesus, to love Jesus, and to obey him from our hearts all the more. We pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.
