With Jesus in the Storm

Hello, you're listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

This epiphany in Lent, we're back in the Gospels,

specifically the Gospel of Mark. We are seeing

the revelation of God in Jesus. Mark is showing

us the true King becomes a servant for us. He

says right at the heart, the Son of Man came

not to be served, but to serve and to give his

life as a ransom for many. And Mark is nearly

always asking his audience, what do you make

of that? So, what do you make of this good news?

We'd love to meet you and we hope you'll consider

coming and joining with us each Sunday morning

at 10 a .m. in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg.

You can find us online at SecondCityChurch .org

and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We hope

you enjoy this sermon. God bless. of your power

over all things, to calm the greatest concerns

of our life, the deepest fears of our experiences,

even creation itself. God, the power of your

word has been on display for us in this chapter

in these last few weeks. But this astounded your

disciples. They were great. They were full of

fear and said, who then even is this that the

winds and the waves obey him? God, I pray that

the effect of our time in this passage would

be a greater and greater faith in your ability,

in your power, in your love, in your care. Speak

to us now, we pray. Open our hearts to receive

you, and our ears to listen and receive from

you. Amen. All right, in 1895, Winston Churchill

was a young officer in the 4th Hussars, which

was a cavalry unit in the British Army. He was

an officer and he was kicking up his heels in

London, and he decided he needed to see some

action. The only war though going on at the time

was over in Cuba and so he got permission actually

from the Spanish government in Madrid and he

sailed to Havana. There he took the train to

Cienfuegos, a boat to Tunas de Zara and then

another train to Sancti Spiritus. He joined the

Spanish army there under the leadership of General

Suarez Valdez. They trekked to Arroyo Blanco

and it was on his 21st birthday on Winston Churchill's

21st birthday on the 30th of November in 1895

that he finally saw battle. Churchill actually

only spent a few weeks in Cuba but that day on

his birthday after seeing battle he wrote to

his mom this. There is nothing more exhilarating.

than to be shot at with no result. There's nothing

more exhilarating than to be shot at with no

result. I think we know this in some other ways.

We are all glad, aren't we, that the Eagles won

the Super Bowl? Amen! It's like y 'all are almost

Pentecostal Presbyterians with that kind of stuff.

But y 'all, how much better would it have been

if it was a little closer? I mean, imagine, I

know, Jed and I have talked about this, we've

debated this, but imagine if Travis Kelce and

Patrick Mahomes had the game of their lives and

it came down to the very last second to a Hail

Mary into the end zone and the Eagles won. I

mean, that would be a game. Goading down in history,

that would be a game to watch. I have no interest

in the Chicago Cubs. I lived in St. Louis for

four and a half years and attended many Cardinals

games. If you know baseball, you know that Cardinals

fans do not like the Cubs. But there was something

about their breaking the 108 year drought in

2016 that was really pretty remarkable. One sports

writer wrote this. The Chicago Cubs defeated

the Cleveland Indians 8 -7 in a mind blowing,

nerve jangling, heart stopping mess of a game.

A 10 -inning acid trip. I'm like, gosh, I got

to watch this game again. The test of the limits

of your sanity made baseball history and ended

108 years of anxiety. Every inning of this game

pushed the night closer and closer to becoming

a Salvador Dali painting brought to life. It

was surreal. It was painful. It was delirious.

was four hours and 28 minutes of madness culminating

in an ending that still doesn't seem real. Nothing

more exhilarating than being shot at with no

result. And yet, truthfully, one of the things

that we come to terms with in life, rather quickly,

is that for the most part we get shot at with

results. So we learn to live in fear, to cower,

to be timidly engaged with the world, with God.

You don't have to live long, too long in this

world before you feel the reality of a world

that is full of pain and sorrow and hurt and

words unkindly and intentionally unkindly spoken.

of jobs lost and loved ones passing. And even

knowing of our own sort of impending death and

the storms across the waters of life often do

rage. And we got shot at with result. We do all

we can to keep death at bay. We distract ourselves

with Netflix. We comfort ourselves with air conditioning

and all the rest. We medicate. Taking supplements

to keep us young, painkillers to keep us numb,

drinks to keep us distracted. We segregate by

age, almost as if to not have to think about

just the reality of what happens as we age. Churches

often divided up by the young and the old. We

sequester those who are closer to death into

nursing homes and the like, trying to not have

to deal with our own fate. We cannot get away,

it seems like, from the fact that we are shot

at with result. A number of years ago, Lily,

my daughter, had come to that age where she began

asking about death. And I told her about the

passing of one of my dogs who I loved growing

up. This dog's name was Shimmery. That dog, Shimmery,

loved to dance. Maybe some of you have had a

dog that loves to dance. She was a full -grown,

a standard -sized golden retriever and loved

to put her paws up and to dance. And I loved

dancing with her. And when she died, we buried

her in my parents' property and we mourned her

passing. And this was quite a few years ago.

But that week, Lily told me this story numerous

times. It was just a short conversation. She

said, Daddy, can I tell you a sad story? And

I'd say, sure. He said, or she would say, There

once was a boy who had a dog that liked to dance

with him and the dog died. She told this story

a number of times during the week. Sitting in

the reality of the pain of getting shot at with

result. But this coming to terms with pain, with

brokenness, with sorrow, with fear, with death

and the unrest that accompanies us because of

all those prospects. The fact is that coming

to terms with those things and actually engaging

them is often what God uses to bring us to himself.

Being shot at is often what God uses in our lives

to build faith. Some of you have read C .S. Lewis'

book, The Problem of Pain, and if you haven't

read it, maybe you've heard this quote. He says,

pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers

to us in our pleasures. He speaks to us in our

conscience, but shouts in our pain. It's his

megaphone to rouse a deaf world. What we're talking

about in Mark chapter four is the words of God

going forth, right? Seeds that have been scattered,

the little mustard seed that grows and the surprising

effect of the words of God in the world. And

in the midst of the chaos of world, the midst

of getting shot at, is actually often how Jesus

begins to shout who he is and how he loves us

and how he cares. Think of this. Jesus' ministry

wasn't very long. Three years. Remarkably busy.

And actually in Mark, most of all, we get the

sense that he jumps right into the busyness.

I mean, in chapter one, he's preaching throughout

Galilee. He's beginning to heal. In chapter two,

he's healing. In chapter three, he's healing.

Of course, we have this long narrative of the

parables of the sower and all that in chapter

four, but we know right from the get -go that

his disciples and the crowds were just amazed

at his power and his words and how insightful

they were and how compelling they were and how

they drew you in to ask questions, but also how

he could just simply reach out and touch and

the leper would be made well, would be restored

to society. We know how the crowds that engage

with these things grew, grew and grew and grew

to the extent that by the chapter, by the time

when chapter four comes, we believe that he was

preaching there at the Bay of Parables along

the Sea of Galilee and the beginning of the chapter

actually says he gets into a boat. We talked

about this a couple weeks ago how actually the

water itself would have reverberated the words

of Christ and thousands of people, studies have

shown, could have heard his teachings. Anyway,

the busyness of such a life with that sort of

busyness in his humanity, he would have become

very, very tired. So it should be no surprise

that as he says, let's get into the boat, let's

go to the other side, and disciples begin to

row out into the water, sort of the rocking of

the boat, the lowing of the waves would have...

rather quickly put him to sleep. Because for

all of Mark's really clear teaching that Jesus

is in fact God. What Mark also tells us is he

is fully man. Right here in this little story

we have sort of the essence of Christology, the

study of who Christ is, the God -man. One commentator

said our Christology, our understanding of Jesus,

is what leads to our discipleship. How he lives

and who he was has everything to do with how

you live Anyway, they're in this boat after a

long day of teaching and It's then when they're

in this boat and when he is asleep. They're sailing

across the Sea of Galilee Jesus has fallen asleep

and this windstorm Begins to blow upon the waters

now This would not have been an entirely abnormal

thing Some of you might know this, that the Sea

of Galilee actually has these storms to this

day kind of show up. Sea of Galilee is 700 feet

below sea level. It's very low, but actually

if you go off in one direction from the Sea of

Galilee, sort of the northwest, there's actually

the heights of Geshon up there, and the mountains

there are 9 ,200 feet. And so you can imagine

that sometimes the wind will blow down and the

cold mountain air will come down and the warm

air down below gets pushed out and it gets going

fast and the waves begin to rock and to roll.

Those gorges of the mountains are like amphitheaters

for the teaching of Jesus, but they create this

wind tunnel along the Sea of Galilee. Anyway,

a boat would have easily been swamped, easily

been capsized in the midst of a storm like this.

And it's right there in the middle of this kind

of storm in the Sea of Galilee that Jesus is

with his disciples in the boat and he sleeps.

And of course, the disciples are thinking, what

is going on here? This storm that we have heard

about, that we've experienced in our lives on

some level, is going to swamp us, is hitting

us, and Jesus is just sleeping. And listen to

what happens, verse 39. And he awoke, it just

sounds so simple. And he awoke and he rebuked

the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still.

And amazingly, the wind, the raging waves, they

just cease, they're still. Just like a word like

that. Jesus wakes up, he rebukes the wind, the

raging waves, and it's peaceful. It's just one

word, and the storm is still, just like that.

And we stand in awe of that, and Christians have

always stood in awe of this story. It's a very

short story. It doesn't take a long time to read,

and yet this story kind of looms large over Christian

imagination. Mean it says they were filled with

great fear They said to one another who is this

that even the winds and the sea obey him and

we think yeah That's exactly what I would have

thought what is happening. It's just a word But

here's God in the flesh Here he is demonstrating

that he has all power over all creation Just

as he was the one who speeds and the wind the

Ruah of creation goes over the waters And the

earth is formed. Here he is right here and he's

speaking over the waters. And just as he has

power in Genesis 1, here again Jesus has power

over creation itself. And they stand in awe and

in fear of who he is. Here in a powerful way

we see Jesus, the man sent from God, but the

man who is God. doing what God first did there

in Genesis chapter one. He's displaying divine

authority and his power on behalf of those who

would call out to him and trust him. Again, it's

for this reason that this has just grabbed ahold

of Christian imagination. This story has been

so central to Christian life. Probably many of

you have seen some of the great paintings that

have been done from this story. There are many

of them. Maybe you've seen Rembrandt's painting

or Delacroix's or Bruegel the Elder. Maybe you

know that actually it was this image of the boat

on the waves, which was one of, along with images

like the Good Shepherd and the Lamb, one of the

great images of the early church. This is who

we believe, the God who carries us through the

storm to the other side. Christ the long waited

for Messiah the God man with his disciples in

the storm with them Calming the storm for them

the dark waters the raging waves Disciples and

Jesus right there with them The Bible time and

again actually uses the imagery of seas and waters

to depict actually how crazy life is And we know

this, like we even say, now the storms of life

are hitting me. That was an image that was used

in the Bible a lot. It was depicting death and

chaos and the unknown. But it's into that kind

of stuff, into the death and the chaos and the

unknown. And that which gives us fear that Jesus

simply speaks. Just a couple words, peace, be

still. And all of that that brings fear is gone,

done away with. It's amazing. They come to him

in the midst, as you would say, sort of of getting

shot at, in the middle of the storm of their

life, and he helps. And one of the things that

we see in the Bible is this is always what Jesus

does. Come, help me Lord, save me. Jesus never

turns away anyone who says, come, save, come,

help. But here's where I want us to go with this.

He then rebukes them. He says, why do you lack

faith? Luke tells us this, that he said, where

is your faith? Matthew, actually this is really

interesting. Matthew, and you can imagine there's

a bunch of disciples in this boat. Very likely

actually there's been a boat uncovered. from

exactly this time in the Sea of Galilee. It was

about 26 feet long with a little bow and stern

where Jesus would have likely slept. And room

for about 12 to 16 people on there. So you can

imagine all the disciples. Maybe he was saying

different things to different ones as they came

to him. But what Matthew tells us is he gives

them a nickname. And the nickname is Little Faiths.

Hey, Little Faiths. Not exactly the nickname

you want, right? But Mark actually says, have

you still no faith? Have you still no faith?

Why I think this kind of sits with us funny is

that on some level they have demonstrated faith,

haven't they? They have. Peter, James, and John,

way back in chapter one, were told, hey, come,

I'm gonna make you fishes of men. And what did

they do? They came and they followed him. It's

an act of faith. Matthew, deo cop. preached the

call of Matthew. Actually, Dale came to me and

said, can I do that? And I said, I don't think

so. I really want to do it. And then when I looked

at the script, I was like, shoot. Dale's doing

it. OK. But back in chapter two, Matthew left

his occupation of being a tax collector to follow

Jesus. These are acts of faith. What we heard

earlier in the chapter, when they were confused

about the parables, what did they do? They went

to Jesus and asked him, teach us, right? These

are acts. of faith even here they find themselves

in their hour of need getting shot at at the

wind and the waves where do they go where do

they go guys they go to jesus thank you act of

faith maybe they shook him awake you know yelled

in his ears over the loud waves What's what I'm

saying is there's no question that on some level

they did have some faith Okay, they're acting

out of this reality of the on some level they

need Jesus Think back though with me to the parable

that Jesus had just taught them the beginning

of the chapter He taught them in the crowd and

and he'd actually taken time to just Explain

this parable to his disciples what it meant the

words of God are the seeds that are sown And

some of them fall on hard ground and, you know,

the bird comes and they are taken away and some

are sewn along rocks and they shoot up quickly

but they die when trials come. Some fall on weeds

and they're choked because of the cares of the

world. And then there's some that are actually

sewn and they become deep rooted and they grow

and they bear much fruit. And on some level Jesus

was even asking there, where's your faith? Like

the one that maybe just receives it a little

bit and the trials of life come and scattered

Anyway Jesus comes and he says to them where's

your faith? Have you no fear? Why do you live?

Why are you afraid? And I wonder what you do

with this. What do you do with Jesus here in

this story? What do you do with his questions

to his disciples? Because I think that there's

a possibility that Jesus sounds a little bit

crazy here. Right? I mean, wouldn't you think

that it's the right response in the midst of

getting shot at to think, well, we should rouse

Jesus. He's sleeping. How often our experiences

like the disciples, the waves of the world are

bashing against us. The pain of the world is

overwhelming us. The weeds of the world are choking

us. Reality of living in a world where death

and destruction and decay seem to be the way

things are. And this is simply battering us time

and time again. And often what happens when we

are getting battered with these kinds of waves

is our inclination is to think God is not there.

Or maybe he doesn't care or maybe at best what

we do is we do what the disciples did and they

say we say Lord help Of course it's these stories

of Jesus and these kinds of experiences why so

many people were once Christians and why they

now are not because the seeds are sown along

the ground and Among the rocks and among the

weeds and the trials of life come and they say

I'm giving up on this But some disciples, when

the trials of life come, they go to Jesus and

they cry out to him. Think about this too. This

experience actually that we're reading right

now, we don't know a lot about many of the disciples

yet, but we know three of them were fishermen.

Which is to say they were in the experience that

they had trained their life for. You know, they

had studied fishing and they'd studied the sea

and they'd probably spent years because most

likely at least We know with James and John,

you know, the father had the business, right?

They were fishermen, generational fishermen.

They had spent their life preparing for these

kinds of moments. The boat was where they lived.

But in this moment, it seemed as though the boat

was not just where they lived, but where they

would perish. And I think also that's actually

an insight into where our faith becomes most

unstable. Place where we think we live becomes

the place where we think we are going to perish.

and we wonder if God even cares. We read parenting

books and attend conferences and our children

reject Jesus. The thing that we spent so much

time studying and devoting our life to. We spend

years of work only to be told that the company's

restructuring our jobs not needed. Our spouse

that we had been devoted to for years and years

thinks that another will give the joy that they

longed for and it's in those moments most of

all that we cry out and we wonder God don't you

care that we're perishing but I also want to

say that it makes all the sense in the world

though it seems I think initially to sort of

rock us in a strange way that Jesus says Why

are you afraid? That's what he says And he awoke

and rebuked the wind and said to the sea peace

be still and the wind ceased there's a great

calm Verse 40 he said to them. Why are you so

afraid? Here's here's the truth the disciples

could have reveled in the storm. I mean, the

whole story begins on that day when evening had

come, he said to them, let us go across to the

other side. It was Jesus' idea to get in the

boat. And he says, we're going to the other side.

God himself in the boat with them. God, Emmanuel,

with us in the boat. Do they really think that

the one who raised Lazarus from the dead and

healed the leopard and the lame and all the rest

could not get them to the other side of the lake?

Did not care about their fate? Did they really

think that the savior of the world would be overcome

by a storm? I mean, in some ways as soon as we

think about it, it almost does seem kind of laughable.

One who can just touch somebody and they can

be healed. Does he not believe that when he says

let's go to the other side we're gonna get to

the other side They really think that the one

who spoke the very waves and the wind into being

not Speak and give them great calm They realize

that as high as the waves were as deep as the

sea is as loud as the sound of the crashing There's

no safer place ever than to be in that boat with

Jesus. You are never safer than with Jesus in

the boat. Which is to say that the disciples

really missed an opportunity that night. They

did. they were being shot at and There was no

chance that what Jesus had in store for them

to get to the other side Was going to happen

that was going to happen There's no chance that

wasn't gonna happen They could have reveled in

the delight of being in the craziest storm of

their life Yet they were filled with fear I Know

because I watched this scene again this week

That when lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump is strapped

to the mast He's taunting God But if you watch

the scene before and you watch the scene right

after it seems as though actually that's a conversion

for him Actually, it really does if you if you

watch the whole thing together But just imagine

these disciples guys tie me to the mast Let's

go It's every surfer's dream Put me on the North

Shore, the biggest waves of the world. If Jesus

says we're going to the other side, we're gonna

get there. Why did we cower? Don't you think

that was exactly their questions? They're all

huddling around the fire that night on the other

side. Man, we missed it. How great could that

have been? Jesus, in verse 40, which I read,

he says, why are you so afraid? It's actually

a different word than the fear verse used in

the next verse. The next verse, fear, actually

when it says the disciples, and they were filled

with great fear, that word there is phobos, which

is the word we get phobia for, like arachnophobia,

stuff like that. But the word for why are you

so afraid that Jesus speaks is actually the word

for cowardly. Why are you so timid? Why are you

so cowardly? Do you not think that I control

all things? That you are never safer than in

the boat with me? I mean, think about it. Being

tossed by the waves and the full assurance that

the Lord will take them through would be the

wildest ride of their life. They missed an opportunity.

Which is to say that part of what Mark is trying

to communicate to us about Jesus is that he longs

for his disciples to not live in fear. Winds

and the waves are nothing for the Lord of creation.

He longs for us to have the freedom that comes

with his absolute love and attention. Push out

any cowardly fear that we have in this life Perfect

love casts out fear. That's what we're told by

first John and Jesus says I am going to love

you perfectly in the midst of the storm No fear

So he's not rebuking them because he's somehow

angry with them He's rebuking them because he

loves them and he desires their freedom, their

life. Rebukes them out of love. Calls them to

a deeper faith, to a rooted faith, to a surer

faith, to a bold and a daring faith. Shakespeare,

some of you, if you know a sonnet by Shakespeare,

you probably know Sonnet 116. He's talking there

about True love. And he says true love looks

on tempests and is never shaken. It looks on

the storms of life. It's never shaken. Churchill

said there is nothing more exhilarating than

to be shot at without result. I don't really

want to be shot at, but I think if I didn't know

I was going to be hit, it could be rather exhilarating.

Blaise Pascal and his Ponce's, the great Christian

man wrote, there is some pleasure being on board

a ship battered by storms when one is certain

of not perishing. The fact is that the storms

of life can really do divide in some ways. They

can show us, as Jesus has said in this chapter,

what kind of soil The seed was sown upon This

was the seed sown in soil that was with rocks

with weeds and when the trials and the cares

of this life came They were decimated That's

one option Jesus is saying there is another option

That when the storms of life from the trials

of life come your faith is just made all the

more certain because Jesus says When I say we're

getting to the other side, we're getting to the

other side. I heard this little snippet from

Kaia DeLonga. Maybe you've heard of him. He's

a writer, actor, comedian, social commentator.

He was on Trevor Noah's podcast, What Now? And

Trevor Noah actually asked him a question. Why'd

you start going back to church? Tell me about

that. Why are you following Jesus? And he says,

you know, my mother died a year ago and I'm in

the car. I'm going to her funeral and I prepared

some words and I'm with my sisters and I'm telling

them I don't think I can give them. I'm so full

of sorrow. I don't think I can get up in front

of people and talk. He hasn't been in church

for years and he's just feeling the utter weight

of living in the storm of his own mother's passing.

And he said he walked into that church building.

there's these ladies up front and as he says

specifically there's this 94 year old woman up

front who's just doing this she's dancing she's

just celebrating that his mother who died was

with Jesus because the promise in Christ is that

those who die in him will live he's gonna take

him to the other side And he said, in that moment,

he said, actually, I didn't give the speech.

I prepared. What I did instead is I sang with

them. And I went back to church the next week.

Because there is something totally different

with the courage of Christians to say, if Jesus

says it's going to happen, it's going to happen.

He's going to take us through. He's going to

take us through. Say this, the beauty of the

life. and the death of Gale Penne is that she

knew to live is Christ but to die is gain because

Jesus says I'm taking you through and he will

make good on that. They could have reveled in

the storm being absolutely certain that they

will not perish with Jesus by their side or If

they did, it's gain anyway. And the truth is,

that is your situation if you're in Jesus. That's

what Romans 8 tells us. Nothing can separate

you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing.

Nothing. It's not that we don't experience storms.

It's not that we're not shot at. It's not that

life's trials are nothing. They are very significant.

But that Jesus, this God -man, the long -for

awaited Messiah, is still Emmanuel. God with

them in the boat. God with you in the boat. That's

still true. He will never leave you. He will

never forsake you. His perfect love will cast

out fear. Manuel, God with us. The Lord was right

there in the boat with them. They roused him

calling out, don't you care that we're perishing?

And he cared for them. He will care for you if

you call out for him with just little faiths

But you know what his desire for you is to live

Live boldly To live in the deepest faith that

God who says he will take you to their side will

absolutely do it Let's pray brothers and sisters

Lord, what a wonderful story And God, I know

that some of us here need to hear that he did

answer the disciples little faith cry. That if

we just call out to you with little faith, you'll

hear us in your compassion. Some of us deeply

need to hear that today. But God, many of us

need to be assured that what you actually deeply

long for us is to not be those who cower and

who are timid and who live in fear, but that

We be those that know the perfect love of God

and Christ, that that perfect love casts out

fear. The wind and the waves may blow, but as

long as we're with Jesus, let them blow all the

more. God, I pray that we would be a bold people,

that we would be full of courage, like joshua

long ago because the lord is on our side because

jesus is in the boat because jesus says lo i

am with you always even to the end of the age

lord move in us in this way give us great faith

great courage Because you, Emmanuel, are with

us. Amen. Thank you for listening to Second City

Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged

you to worship God and to celebrate the gospel

of Jesus. Please consider subscribing to this

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Thanks again for listening. God bless.