Good morning, welcome to our weekly Bible talk. I'm sorry if you missed last week. If you think about it, last week was Thursday and it was Thanksgiving, so that's why we didn't have a Bible talk. And that reminds me that with Christmas and New Year's coming up, I wouldn't be surprised if these are a little bit unusual for a few weeks here. We will probably skip one here or there. That's, you know, kind of the way that the holiday season goes. But that's OK. Lord willing, in the new year, we'll pick back up. I'm thinking seriously about maybe taking a break from the book of Mark. We've been going through Mark now for, I think, about 15 weeks or so. So I'm considering maybe concluding soon and then picking up with an Old Testament book and then coming back to Mark later on. But I haven't decided yet. If you've got any opinion on that, feel free to leave comments on the Facebook page or on the Sermon Audio page. If you're finding Mark very helpful and you want me to keep going, don't hesitate to let me know. But if you're thinking maybe a different book would be beneficial, don't hesitate to mention that as well. I should say that I only do this with books that I know reasonably well, books that I've preached on, taught on, had classes on. And you might not know this, but you don't study every single book of the Bible in seminary. You know, for example, I never had a class on Zephaniah, never had a class on Ezekiel. So walking through those books would be hard. Every single week it would probably be like, you know, I'm not quite sure what this is talking about. Let's try and, you know, figure it out. But, you know, I can't, say, teach on them or preach on them like I could from, say, Mark or James or the Psalms or something like that. So anyway, feel free to make your suggestions, but there's no guarantee that I'll necessarily be able to fulfill your suggestion. If you're looking for a long series on Jeremiah or something like that, it's probably not going to happen. We might dip into Jeremiah once in a while, take a look at a couple of chapters, but the likelihood of me going through the longest book in the Bible, which is what Jeremiah is, is pretty slim. Well anyway, we come here to Mark chapter 4 verse 35, and like I've mentioned before, the entire book of Mark is about who Jesus is. It's not really about me and what I need to do, it's about Jesus, who He is, and ultimately how He is the Son of God and the Messiah. And the passage we're going to be looking at this morning really brings that out. The passage concludes with this famous question, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him? reminding us that really the entire point of this book is who is Jesus? Why should I put my hope in Him? Is He really God's Son, God's Messiah? And we're going to see that this passage today contributes to our understanding of who Jesus is. Let me pray and then we'll jump into Mark 4. Pray with me. Almighty God, we thank you for your son, Jesus. He is our king. He is eventually going to be the king of all the earth. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that he is Lord. And his kingdom will spread over this earth as the waters cover the seas. We praise you for that. We praise you for the way that you've opened our eyes to embrace him as Lord, Savior, Messiah, Redeemer. And we do pray for opportunities to commend him to others and that you'd use us as good evangelists to see others come to embrace Jesus in this life. Help us now, Lord, as we work our way through Mark 4. Give us illumination, give us conviction, give us faith and repentance. As always, we pray for grace to embrace your word with faith and to be doers of your word, not hearers only. Through Jesus we pray, amen. Let's pick up in Mark 4, 35. We're gonna read 35 through 41 today. Famous account, but it might not be what you think it is. It might not have the message in it that you think it has. Mark 4, 35 through 41, follow along. On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, let's 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. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he 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? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And 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 winds and the sea obey him? Now an awful lot we can say about this passage, we should say about this passage, but again, hopefully it's all coming under that umbrella of helping us identify Jesus, who he is. You'll begin there in verse 35, on that day, this is taking place on the same day that Jesus did all this teaching and parables that we looked at at the beginning of chapter four. He said to them, so realize this event was initiated by Jesus. He suggested, let's go across the sea. What that tells you is that he knows this is coming. This is not something that caught him by surprise or anything like that. Obviously, as Almighty God, he's not surprised by such events. But he initiates this in order to provoke their faith, in order to clarify their understanding of who Jesus is. And do keep that in mind, that there are things that God brings into our life that are incredibly painful, uncomfortable, that we don't particularly like, but God and His sovereignty brings them to us to bring us to a greater spiritual understanding of who He is, His plan, His work in our hearts. I realize it's hard to embrace, you know, I don't like embracing that myself, but it is the better part of Christian maturity to recognize that God will allow us to go through very uncomfortable, sometimes even scary experiences, but it's for the purpose of leading us to a deeper, richer spiritual understanding. We see that here with the disciples and probably you've experienced that at some point in your life and chances are you'll experience it sometime future, in the future in your life. Along those lines, let's pray for one another that God would give us the humility and the grace to embrace that. Yeah, it's uncomfortable. Yeah, it's, you know, again, scary. But Lord, help us believe that the benefits of going through such an experience outweigh any discomfort that I might have to pay. Well, anyway, Jesus instigates this. Verse 36, and leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat. just as he was and other boats were with him. A couple of things. First, you'll remember that a lot of Jesus' first disciples were fishermen. Keep that in mind throughout this passage. They're familiar with the sea. This, by the way, is the Sea of Galilee. I don't know if I, I think I forgot to mention that, but Sea of Galilee, which is not like the Mediterranean Sea. It's not gigantic at all. It's not even as big as one of our great lakes. It's a, it's a lake. And we do know that with the winds coming in off the Mediterranean and whatnot, it was very liable to fierce, fierce storms. And yet, the disciples, again, because of their experience as fishermen, were probably accustomed to this sort of thing. They were not, you know, sort of these Sunday afternoon sailors that, you know, didn't really know what they were doing. They had probably spent many, many, many hours, weeks, days, nights on the sea. So this was not new territory for them. But the storm that they're about to experience was anything but what they had experienced before. So they're out there on the ocean, not the ocean, they're out there on the Sea of Galilee. And you'll notice that it says other boats were with him. I've always wondered about that little phrase, whatever happened to those other little boats? You know, presumably, you know, God had mercy on them because, you know, as we know, Jesus calms the storm. but God allows them to go through a terrifying experience in order to teach the disciples something. And that's, again, a lesson to keep in mind. Sometimes the trials that God allows to come into our lives are really maybe more for others than for our benefit. I'm having a hard time articulating this, but let's say we have some fierce, fierce storm or snowstorm where we get six, eight feet of snow, something like that, which is hard to imagine. I know that they had something like that in Buffalo a couple of weeks ago, but let's say something terrifying like that. Maybe you remind yourself, you know, God's doing something through this experience. It might not be primarily for me, it might be for somebody else, but he's doing a work in somebody's life, and because of that, I should submit to his ways and embrace his ways. Now, are there things for me to learn? Of course there are, but as we see in this particular experience, this is primarily for the disciples, not so much for these other little boats, Though if there were mature Christians in these other little boats, they would say, yes, you know, God has some good purpose in mind behind this storm, even though I can't see it right now. Hopefully something I'm saying making sense. It reminds me of on Sunday, we have a lady in our congregation who's been struggling with her eyesight. And she thanked God for the very, very cloudy weather because it enabled her to not have to wear these sunglasses to protect her eyesight. And I never, the thought never even crossed my mind until she brought that up that we've got this cloudy day. And you know, I might be tempted to complain and be like, man, I love the sunshine. But God in his mercy for her benefit brought that cloudy day. So I guess the point, you know, remind yourself you're not the only person on the planet. You're not the only person in God's plan. There are other people in God's plan and perhaps a trial you're experiencing. Yes, there are things you can certainly learn from it, but maybe there's a greater thing going on that you're not even aware of and maturity would be submitting to that for the sake of other brothers and sisters who are growing through that experience. Let's keep going. In the great, verse 37, in a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. So already we're seeing this is kind of scary. You know, I've never really spent much time on the sea. I know that sounds kind of strange since I'm in the Navy, but yeah, to this point in my career, I've never spent any time on the ocean. But this is clearly a scary experience. The boat's being tossed and turned, and realize by boat, we're not talking like one of those carnival cruise ships. We're talking a boat that's probably about, what, 30, 45 feet long? you know, not like some great giant sailing vessel, but big enough to navigate these waters. And it's getting tossed all around. It's starting to fill with water, really, really scary to the point where seasoned fishermen are starting to get scared. You know, again, seasoned fishermen don't get scared of a storm unless it's really, really bad. But did you notice what Jesus is doing? Look at verse 38, but he was in the stern asleep on the cushion. Now, how he's sleeping, I don't know. Was he a really heavy sleeper? Was he exhausted from the day's teaching? Possibly, maybe both. Regardless, he's asleep as they're getting tossed around. I, unfortunately, sleep very lightly. If someone were to come into my room and, like, deal a deck of cards or something like that, I'd probably wake up. I sleep quite lightly. So the thought of sleeping while I'm getting tossed around on a boat that's getting filled with water is hard for me to imagine and yet I believe the Bible is the Word of God. So Jesus is sleeping while he's in the boat. Now right there, for the sake of time maybe we won't explore this, but right there there is an interesting challenge thinking through the relationship of Jesus' two natures. Christians believe Jesus has two natures. A divine nature, fully God, and a human nature, fully human. They're both true at the same time and they don't contradict one another, but he's got two natures. We humans have one nature. We have a human nature, Jesus has two natures. Now What's going on here? Jesus, God in the flesh, is sleeping. So what exactly is going on with the divine nature while he's sleeping? We don't know. I think we just need to rest that maybe in heaven we can understand these mysteries better. Don't get bothered when you see Jesus, God incarnate, doing human things. He sleeps, he gets tired, he has to eat, obviously he's gonna die. Those things, you know, the divine nature doesn't need to sleep, the divine nature doesn't need to eat, and yet Jesus in his human nature does. Now, how they're like totally interacting here, you know, when we're sleeping, we're basically dead to the world. Does Jesus in his divine nature know that this is going on, but his human nature doesn't? I think we're starting to get into an entire realm where we probably shouldn't go. You know, trying to pry into the mysteries of the dynamics between Jesus' divine nature and human nature is an incredibly dangerous place to go, so be careful there. But just affirm, Jesus is fully God, fully man, and in his human nature, he's clearly sleeping in this boat, even though it's getting tossed all around. In verse 38, they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Now, a couple of things we should say here. First, of course he cares. Has he not demonstrated that all along? I mean, he's healing the sick. I don't think we've encountered it yet in Mark, but he will raise the dead on further occasions. This is the Jesus who's going to wipe away every tear. Of course he cares for them, but do realize that there are occasions when our circumstances make us question God's care for us. Theologically, he does care for us. Theologically, he's never going to leave us or forsake us. But because of things that we're going through here on earth, it can lead us to doubt, lead us to question, lead us to trust in our feelings and not in the principles of the Word of God. And that's exactly what you see the disciples doing here. Teacher, don't you care? Realize you're going to probably experience that at some point in your life. You're going to go through something and it will move you to question your convictions. Lord, I know your promise, you'll never leave me or forsake me, but it really feels as if you left me or forsook me in this experience. Lord, I know that your word says that you have compassion on everything that you have made, and yet I'm going through the valley of the shadow of death and it doesn't feel like it. I just realized that there will be times that your feelings don't line up with the word of God, your feelings don't line up with faith, And the, again, mature Christian response is to believe the word of God even when your feelings are going contrary to that. You see this all over the place in the Psalms. When you read the Psalms, You kind of wonder at times, you know, does this guy not know basic Bible doctrine? Because a lot of the Psalms, he's like, I cried out to you and you did not hear me. I prayed and you didn't answer my prayer. Now, theologically, that's not really correct, because God does always hear our prayers. He always answers our prayers. So what's going on there, the psalmist is describing not theological reality, he's describing how he feels. He feels as if God has forsaken him, when in reality, doctrinally, God never leaves us or forsakes us. Christian maturity is fighting through those feelings that are contrary to the Word of God and believing the Word of God nonetheless. But anyway, teacher, don't you care that we are perishing? They really think they're about to die. That's what that word perish means. They think they're going to drown. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. So what happens here? Jesus wakes up and he just speaks the word and suddenly creation obeys. Now, if you know anything about the Old Testament, you'll know that time and time again, God speaks and creation obeys. You can trace this theme all throughout scripture. Go back to Genesis 1. God said, let there be light and there was light. God said, let the waters the dry land appear and the waters separate. God speaks, creation obeys. Keep going throughout scripture. You can think of the Red Sea. God splits open the Red Sea, dry land appears so that the people can walk through on it. You think of Noah's flood. I know I got these events a little bit out of order, but God causes the rain to fall and then he causes the waters to recede and the ark to come to rest on Mount Ararat. Consistently, in the Old Testament, Almighty God, Jehovah, has power over creation, has power especially over the waters, By the way, the waters were terrifying to folks in the first century. I don't know if I can relate it to anything that we experienced today, but they were terrifying. You know, this was way before carnival cruise ships and submarines and all the things that we have today. You go out onto the sea and you are definitely taking your life into your own hands. It was a scary, scary experience. So they were terrified by it. So the fact that Jehovah in the Old Testament has control over the waters was a very comforting thing. But then what is Jesus demonstrating here by having control over the waters? He's clearly communicating that He is Almighty God. Now there's an awful lot I could say on that. Jesus' miracles are unique from the other miracles in the Bible because they tell us a lot about who He actually is. And I think this is why Jesus' miracles, first, they're far more numerous than anybody else in the Bible. I mean, nobody, obviously there are other miracle workers in the Bible. You know, you got Moses, you got Elijah, Elisha, you got the apostles, but nobody is doing the number of miracles and also types of miracles like Jesus does. There are certain miracles that he does that only God can do, so keep that in mind. For instance, we're going to talk about this a little bit later, but there's only one person in the entire Bible that gives sight to the blind. Who is that? That's Jesus. Again, Elijah did some pretty impressive things, causing the axe head to float and raising that woman's son, that sort of thing. But again, nobody gives sight to the blind but Jesus, and again I think He's showing how I'm in a different category and my miracles are saying something different than say the miracles of Moses, the miracles of Elijah. Now again, take the background here that we just talked about. Almighty God has the power over the waters, has the power over the seas, they obey Him. Keep all of that in mind and flip with me if you would to Psalm 107. I find this passage fascinating. In my mind it's almost an illusion, it's almost a prophecy of what Jesus does here with the disciples. Flip to Psalm 107 and we're going to pick up in verse 23. Psalm 107, 23, and as I read this, see if this reminds you of what took place with Jesus in Mark 4. Psalm 107, 23. The psalmist writes, some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep. For He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at the end of their wits." Now, you picture that and that sounds remarkably similar to what's going on with the disciples. They're in the boat, out there, tossed around. They're terrified. They're at the end of their wits. Remarkably similar. But let's keep going. Verse 28, then they cried to the Lord. Now notice Lord there in verse 28. If you're looking at your Bible, it's in all capitals. What does Lord in all capitals in the Old Testament refer to? That refers to Jehovah God, Almighty God. They cried out to the Lord, verse 28, in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed. Doesn't that sound remarkably like what Jesus does in Mark 4? I mean, again, I think it's almost a prophecy of what Jesus is going to do in Mark chapter 4. And yet, whereas in Psalm 107 they're crying to Jehovah, in Mark 4 they're crying to Jesus. Put two and two together, in what manner of man is this that Jesus is controlling the winds and the waves? He's God in the flesh. Let me just wrap this up, verse 30, because again, I think this alludes to Mark 4. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. What's going to happen after this storm in Mark 4? He's going to bring them to their desired haven. Now flip back to Mark chapter 4, verse 40. Now, let me read verse 39 again. He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. Now, this sort of thing does not happen except by a miracle. You know, storms can come up, but storms don't die down instantly. But that's exactly what you've got here, instant peace, instant calmness, raging, tossing winds, white caps on the tops of the waves. And then all of a sudden he says, peace be still, and boom, it's like a, automatic, instant transition to a glass-covered lake sort of thing. Again, this is a miracle, and I think through this, Jesus is demonstrating, I am God in the flesh. He said to them, why are you so afraid? Indicating that they should not have been afraid. Despite all of the tossing waves, despite all of the terror, despite the fact that this is probably the worst storm they've ever been in in their entire life, they shouldn't have listened to their feelings, they should have trusted in the word of God. Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? Now this here opens up a new idea that maybe for the sake of time we won't discuss thoroughly today, but it does appear as if the disciples are rather gradual in coming to fully embrace Jesus as the Son of God and God in the flesh. They know early on that he's the Messiah, but coming to realize that he's actually God in the flesh took some time. And that's why if you look at verse 41, they were filled with great fear. Pause there, by the way. They were filled with fear at the storm. Now they're filled with great fear, coming to realize that we've got God in the boat with us. I can't remember who the famous preacher was, but he said something like, God in the boat was more terrifying than the storm outside of the boat. I think it may have been Spurgeon or somebody like that. If it wasn't Spurgeon, you know, you Google it and find out. But they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this that even the winds in the sea obey him? It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when the disciples came to embrace Jesus as fully God in the flesh. We know that by the end, after the resurrection, they did. Because remember, what does Thomas say when he sees Jesus after the resurrection? He says, my Lord and my God. So at that point, they get it. Here, evidently, they don't fully get Jesus' divinity. They know that he's the Messiah. Again, that's partly why they're following him all along. But they're kind of cloudy on his divine nature. But quickly they're coming to understand that he actually is God in the flesh. And this is one more evidence that he is God in the flesh. He can only do what God can do. God speaks and the waters and the wind obey. Jesus speaks and the waters and the wind obey. And clearly they're coming to realize, man, we actually have God among us, which is a shocking thought. Christmas is coming and realize that's the great miracle of Christmas. The great miracle of Christmas is not so much the fact that that Mary was a virgin, or that they made it to Bethlehem on time, or that the shepherds and the wise men came to visit. All of those are truths and they're glorious, but really the glory of Christmas is that God came and walked among us as a human. I've actually come to love the doctrine of the Incarnation in recent years. It says so much about the nature of Christianity, so much about the Gospel, and it is one of those doctrines that is so easily misunderstood. We're not saying that Jesus is half God and half man, You know, like a donkey is half horse, half mule. That's not what we're saying at all. I reversed that. A mule is half donkey, half horse. That's not what Jesus is. Nor are we saying that Jesus is fully God, just wearing this sort of human suit that makes him look, you know, it's not like Superman. When Superman's wearing the Clark Kent costume, if he gets shot with bullets, they're still going to bounce off of it because, you know, he's just got a suit on. That's not what we're saying. Jesus has got a real true humanity that, again, needs to sleep, needs to eat, can be killed. And yet somehow, at the very same time, he's God in the flesh. And you see them both coming out in the Gospels. And for us, they're essential to believe if you want to believe unto eternal life. Jesus' humanity is what enables him to die. Jesus' divinity is what gives his death infinite value. Some of the older theologians talked about Jesus' blood as the blood of God incarnate. Now, that sounds kind of weird, you know, like God has blood. Well, in Jesus, he does. And understanding something like that is actually part of and essential of the gospel. He's not just a great human teacher, and he's not only infinite God. He's infinite God taking on flesh, walking among us as Almighty God for us in our salvation. It's a mystery, don't try to figure it out entirely, but stand in awe that this is how much God would love us. You know, I've probably used this illustration before in these Bible talks, but this is comparable to you becoming an ant to redeem ants. None of us would do that. Most of us don't like ants. If we've got ants in the kitchen, we put out ant poison so that they can get killed. But that's the depths of the love that God has for sinners, that He, infinite, eternal, again, He's never had a beginning. He's never made a mistake. He's never learned anything. He's been perfectly happy forever in the fellowship of the Father, fellowship of the Spirit, but he comes down from heaven, takes on our flesh with all the weaknesses, frailties, temptations, afflictions, yet without sin. Again, I'm so tempted to pursue all of these rabbit trails, but for the sake of time, I won't. But Jesus did not have a sinful flesh like you and I have. He's not tempted internally. He's tempted externally. But He does all of that so that He could become our Savior to redeem us from our sins. So that's what manner of man this Jesus is. He's God in the flesh for us in our salvation. Hopefully something I've said here has moved you to praise God that He would love us so. Hopefully it's clarified perhaps your understanding of Jesus the Messiah. And hopefully you can take something that I've said here and explain better to your unbelieving friends who Jesus is and even use passages like this. I know I've mentioned this before, but when we're debating with those who don't believe that Jesus is fully God, we generally run to John 1, 1, Colossians 1 to demonstrate He's fully God. And those are certainly useful passages, but I think just as important are those passages in the Gospel where Jesus does what only God can do. When Jesus, for instance, forgives sins, Mark 2, He's doing what only God can do. When Jesus calms the storms, He's doing what only God can do. We're going to see more of this later on. Again, I think this is probably the main, I want to be careful there, but one of the main purposes of Jesus' miracles is to demonstrate that He's actually God in the flesh. Now, how might we pray this back to God? First, if our understanding of who Jesus is isn't fully clear, Lord, please lead me by your Holy Spirit to a full, accurate understanding of who Jesus is, what it really means that he's God and man in one person. Lord, please give me faith, a faith that cuts through fear. Again, like I said earlier, there are going to be times when you're tempted to doubt, tempted to be afraid, tempted to not really trust in the Word of God. Lord, give me faith that cuts through that fear to believe your promises. And also, as always, let's pray for opportunities to tell of this wonderful Jesus to others, coworkers, neighbors. With Christmas coming, you're gonna have more people interested in Jesus than typical. Lord, please give us opportunities to commend Jesus to others. All these things we should pray. Let's close in prayer and we'll be done. Oh, gracious God, thank you that you do care for us. Thank you, Lord, for the way that you care for us so much that you sent your son down from heaven to take on our flesh and blood. Lord, there will be times that we doubt that. There will be times when we're tempted to question that. Help us to act in faith and to embrace your promises and to not trust our feelings. We do thank you for the way that Jesus is fully God in the flesh with the power to calm the storms and forgive sins and raise the dead. Help us to embrace him as he really is. Also, for all of us, give us opportunities to commend Jesus to others. Give us open doors, but also wisdom, boldness, love, to speak on Jesus' behalf to those who don't know him, so that more and more people would embrace him as he truly is. Bless now the remainder of your week. In Jesus we pray, amen. Thanks so much for tuning in. Have a great day.