Jesus Calms the Stormiest Sea

You may be presently sailing beneath a calm, sunny sky, and all is well in your life, friend. Then quite suddenly and unexpectedly a storm blows down hard upon you, and your life is rocked to and fro with no end in sight. What do you do? I'll tell you what to do.

You stand on your Bible and you lean on Him. That's what you do. My message this evening, friends, is for the storm-tossed believer who is weary and in great need of a rescue from above.

My message is entitled, Jesus Calms the Stormiest Sea, and my text can be found in Mark's Gospel. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in chapter 4 and in verses 35 through 41.

There are several lessons from this striking passage of Scripture which I would like to bring out before us this evening, friends. In this familiar passage of Scripture we see a raging sea, a water-filled boat, and distressed disciples. We see a sleeping Savior and His humanity, a lack of faith from His followers, and a demonstration of divine authority.

Let's look at these one by one. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His Holy Word. And the same day, when the evening was come.

Let me pause here, friends. What day is this? Well, if you look at the beginning of chapter 4, it is the day when Jesus addressed the multitudes by the sea, while He sat in a boat and taught parables to them. It was a long day, a long day of speaking to this vast multitude of people.

And He was tired, for evening had come. It was a time for rest and solitude. He saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

Here He is addressing the twelve. He assures them, promises them, they will pass over the sea to the other side of the lake, but they don't believe Him. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took Him even as He was in the ship, and there were also with Him other little ships.

And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat unto the ship, so that it was now full. A great storm of rain and wind arises and pours down upon them, and rocks both the boat and their faith. They become knee-deep in water and knee-deep in trouble.

These were seasoned sailors who had been in many previous storms, and they knew how to navigate in such dilemmas. But this storm is different from the rest. It disturbs their peace and shakes their faith.

Perhaps you, friend, are in a storm that is different from any other you have ever encountered. And your boat is filled with water, and you don't know what to do. Things look bad.

You are in the deep extremity. This was the case with the disciples. They panic and make a beeline down to the pilot's place at the helm of the ship.

And it is down there they find Christ sound asleep on a pillow. We see Christ and His humanity here, dog-tired and so sound asleep even a storm can't disturb Him. But His men disturb Him.

They were blind to His need of sleep, because their focus was only on themselves. Their skins were in danger, and this overrides their care about Him and His need of sleep. Selfishly, they awake Him with their loud cries.

I have a little chihuahua who wants only to be always with me. She cries when I even leave the room. I went upstairs today, and she was downstairs crying.

But her cries grew louder and louder until they got my attention. And I came down the stairs, and I found her stuck between the two stairways. She'd managed to climb one flight of stairs, but the other was too steep, and she was trapped on the landing between the two, crying and crying like her life was about to expire, until I appeared and rescued her.

Then she was fine. This was the case with the distraught disciples, who were grown men, but who had become so unnerved by a storm of unbelief that they cried like little boys who'd run to their daddy and wake him up to rescue them. And as they do, they also rebuke Him by saying, Master, cares thou not that we perish? Another spoke ill of Him in the same manner.

It was Martha, who ran out of the kitchen with her apron on and her hands on her hips and questioned Him, Lord, don't you care that I'm left to serve alone? It's easy, friends, to become frustrated in life and to doubt God's care over us, but it's a mistake and a sin. Here the disciples question His love and care for them. They exercise unbelief rather than faith, for they already had His promise to them that they would indeed pass over to the other side together.

But they are in a panic and are filled with fear instead of faith. How about you, friend? I'm sure your difficulty is weighing you down and you are weary from your storm. But do not fear.

Jesus loves you. He cares about you. He has a solution for you.

He has allowed this trial in your life to strengthen your faith and to deepen your love to Him and to experience Him in a deeper way. And He arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be still! And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. I can just imagine those white-capped waves rolling and foaming, spraying and unrest, and quite suddenly they flatten out like a smooth, glassy, hardwood floor, and all is calm.

Can you imagine the look on the faces of His men when they saw that demonstration of divine power? I bet they could have caught flies with their jaw-dropped mouths as they stared with open eyes in wonder. And Christ turns from facing the sea to face them. Oh, what conviction grips them as He turns from rebuking the waves to rebuke them for their unbelief.

And He said unto them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? In Matthew's account of this story it reads, Jesus was their master teacher who was teaching them faith. He builds faith in them over the three and a half years He is among them. They go from no faith to little faith to great faith.

As Peter one day declares, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. In the book of Acts we see quite a different Peter than the one here in the boat of unbelief.

Later on Peter had faith, bold faith. Such as I have, I give thee, because now I have faith. And this was Jesus' purpose with them, friends, all along.

To build these men into men of faith. And that is His purpose with you, friend. To build you into a person of faith.

One that He can use in remarkable ways. According to your faith, be it unto you. He would often say to one who was healed from their diseases and distress, Now what does the last verse have to say to us here this evening? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? I will stop here.

They now fear Him more than they feared for their lives a moment ago, When the waves were overtaking them. They witnessed His divine power over nature, And it scared them, it unnerved them. They had a holy fear of Him.

There used to be a time, about a hundred and fifty years ago in this country, When there was still a fear of God in the land. Sadly, this is no longer the case. We sin with impunity and dare God to do anything about it.

But He will, He will. A fast approaching day is coming, Where we will experience one of two things, Revival or ruin, rescue or destruction. We cannot go on as a nation without a fear of God in the land.

I pray revival comes to us before judgment. God is in your trial, friend. Jesus is in your storm-tossed boat, And He is with you, and He is looking for faith.

Let us pray.