Mark 4:35–5:20 — Peace in the Chaos

This sermon is from Mark chapter 4 verse 35 through chapter 5 verse 20, and is entitled

Mark 4:35

"Peace in the Chaos."

It was delivered to Ecclesia churches on Sunday, July 27th, 2025.

So Jesus has spent a fair bit of time at this point teaching about the kingdom of God, that

far better kingdom that we all long for to come in full and has been revealing its nature

through parables.

And the thing about these parables that they keep coming back to is that the central figure

of this kingdom that is to come is Jesus.

And our understanding of the kingdom hinges on our view of Jesus.

To truly grasp the kingdom, we have to trust in Jesus.

And today's passage moves from these parables to some very real experiences for both Jesus

disciples and also for some Gentiles across the lake from where Jesus had been teaching.

Our passage today actually bridges two chapters, two different settings, two different groups

of people even, but what brings them together is a shared experience of some type of chaos.

And it's into this chaos that Jesus steps and offers himself as the only opportunity

for peace that these people will ever find.

And what remains for them is to decide how they are going to respond to Jesus.

Are they going to be afraid because they don't understand who he is?

Are they going to see Jesus as a threat to their own kingdom?

Or are they going to see Jesus as the one that they have been waiting for all this time?

And we'll see kind of all three of those responses to him.

The thing about chaos is that you don't have to go very far to find it in our world today.

And with the advent of almost instantaneous communication via social media and news media

alike, you're only a two-minute scroll away from all kinds of things.

I scrolled for probably a minute yesterday through Instagram and saw raw footage of the

destruction that was caused by floodwaters in the southern U.S.

I saw footage of Christians being beaten and even murdered in the streets in Syria.

And I also saw a video of nuclear armaments being moved into position overseas.

All three of those things within 60 seconds came across my feed.

And the thing is, this kind of chaos has always been happening, whether we were aware of it

or not.

A snapshot from any moment in time will likely show you some kind of natural disaster, some

persecution happening somewhere, and some kind of war or a rumor of a war that is to

come.

Because human history and our present day is full of chaos.

Probably the most likely chaos that you and I have experienced recently is an internal

kind of chaos. The resulting anxiety that comes from seeing and hearing all of the news that I just

shared worries over health or kids or parents or family. The kind of internal and external chaos

that causes us to desire that better kingdom than the one that we're in. So if you have struggled

with the chaos in the world or in yourself, I think this passage is going to be encouraging to you.

you, because we will all experience chaos.

But our experience of it is ultimately determined by our response to Jesus.

So here's three things that I want you to see throughout the passage today.

The first is that Jesus is peace to those who trust Him.

Regardless of what's going on around you, Jesus offers a kind of unshakable peace to

those who would put their faith in Him.

Second, Jesus is a threat to those who would oppose Him,

whether that's the spiritual powers of darkness

or people who see the Kingdom of Heaven as a threat to their own.

And third, Jesus is freedom to those who would receive Him.

So we're going to look at all three of those today.

And it's going to happen throughout this passage in Mark.

So let's begin with Mark chapter 4,

Mark 4 · chapter mention

and this will be verses 35 through 41.

"On that day, when evening had come, he 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.

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 poor?'

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. 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."

So this part begins with Jesus saying,

"Let's go across to the other side."

Jesus is setting the purpose for those who are with him.

And while it may have seemed strange to them,

for reasons that we'll get into later, they obey.

And remember, Jesus is already in the boat

where he's been preaching from,

and now they basically raise the sail

and make for the other side of Galilee.

There were also several other boats with them, and these boats weren't huge.

So in addition to the disciples, there were other people who were traveling with Jesus at this point,

which is likely where the other boats came into play.

But also important is that there are many witnesses to what's about to happen on the sea.

So a sudden furious windstorms arose on the Sea of Galilee, right?

The thing about this region is that the basin shape,

it's kind of like a bowl of Galilee,

makes this kind of unique space for an inland lake

where there is humid air from the lake,

which is below sea level,

and it mixes with the cooler air coming from places

like Mount Hermon and the Highlands.

And it creates this pretty turbulent situation at times.

And so it was not at all uncommon

that there would have been these windstorms that happened.

It would have been something the fishermen among the disciples would have been pretty accustomed to,

but this must have been an uncommonly strong storm because these guys legitimately think the ship is going down.

But while they're terrified on deck, Jesus is sleeping in the bow, it says, on a cushion.

So it's important to remember that Jesus has been speaking for hours and hours teaching these people on the shore,

So it's not really surprising that he's taking a nap in the front of the boat.

When the disciples decide to wake Jesus up, their tone really shows how desperate they've become.

Because instead of telling Jesus they're afraid or asking him to come up and help bail out some water or help in some other way, they say,

"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

Isn't that such a human response to chaos and being afraid?

The first thought that comes up is, "Don't you even care?

Can't you see beyond being a human response?"

Let's just go a little deeper for a second and expose the lie that is as old as humanity,

that is causing this kind of response.

It's the lie that we can't trust God, that he doesn't care and that he doesn't have our good in mind.

So often when it comes to our lack of faith, we can see echoes of the original failure to trust God,

echoes of the entrance of sin into the world, right? What was the temptation for Eve?

The temptation for Eve, at its root, was that God was trying to keep something good from you,

and that you shouldn't trust him. This really reveals a deep human tendency to question God's

care in suffering especially, echoing this original sin of mistrust.

This losing heart is the face of fear, and it is a real threat to faith, putting their

trust in Jesus.

So Jesus responds, but not probably in the way the disciples expected, because he stands

up and he rebukes the wind in the sea, saying, "Peace, be still."

Let's do a little bit of word work here because it's going to help us connect to the second story.

Where have we seen Jesus rebuke something before?

It's only been a few chapters actually.

In Mark 1.25, Jesus rebuked an unclean spirit in the synagogue, saying, "Be silent and come out of him."

Notice it's the same word in the original language as well, showing us that Jesus has the power to command

It's not only the spiritual, but now the whole of creation.

And he goes beyond just rebuking it,

and he commands it to be still,

which in the original form is a kind of ongoing command.

It's like when I tell my two-year-old to sit still.

It's not just sit down for a second and get back up again.

It's stay still.

The wild thing is that unlike my two-year-old listening to me,

the wind and the waves immediately obey the command of Jesus and they remain still.

Jesus asks his disciples, "Why are you so afraid?

Have you still no faith?"

The word that Jesus uses here for afraid is to lose heart.

Jesus isn't mad that they woke him up.

He's not even addressing that moment of like rude teenage angst where they accused him of

caring about them, he's gonna go deeper.

He's gonna ask, "Why did you lose heart?

Don't you have faith in me?

Don't you trust me?"

Here's where the passage really would have hooked

in Mark's audience, I'm guessing.

These Christians remember that Mark is writing to

that are persecuted in Rome.

For them, it's not a matter of some disturbing videos

from halfway across the world,

though that is disturbing to me.

For them, it's their neighbor

who was drug out of their house last night.

It's their pastor who was currently in prison, perhaps.

It's the persecution that is close,

the storm that is tangible,

and they are asking the question,

"Do you care about us, Jesus?"

And just like them,

we need perhaps a bigger understanding of who Jesus is.

We need to not only understand how powerful he is,

but also have faith that he cares about us.

Even when the chaos is loud

and the boat is filling up.

So I want you to think about this for a moment with me.

People throughout biblical history called on God

and they saw some pretty amazing miracles, right?

We have Moses splitting the sea for the people

and he called it down again on the Egyptian army.

We have people like Elijah who called down fire from heaven

but it was always clear that it was God

who brought these things about.

It wasn't actually Moses and Elijah

who were doing these things.

It was God who was doing these things.

They prayed and God moved, or God commanded and they moved, and then nature responded

to God in some really wild ways from their perspective.

But here, it's a little different, because Jesus speaks directly to the wind and the

waves and they respond directly to Him.

Who historically has been the only voice that all of creation obeys?

The Creator.

So the disciples actually are asking a great question,

who then is this?

And as this starts to dawn on them a bit,

they are filled with a different kind of fear,

great fear, it says.

Because their response is to question,

who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

And I wonder if on that awkward rest of the boat ride

across the sea. If any of them thought of Psalm 107, specifically verses 28 through 30,

then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress.

He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the

waters were quiet and he brought them to their desired haven.

If the disciples had truly known Jesus' identity and they had understood who he was and put

their faith in not only his power, his authority, but also his love for them, they might have

had faith that he was going to bring them to the other side unharmed.

Even Jesus, for who he really is, this all-powerful Creator and also the loving Lord who laid

down his life for us, allows us to stand in the middle of a raging storm and to still

worship him and still trust him.

And I have no doubt that Jesus was sleeping in the boat, because that's what Scripture

says.

But is it possible that he went to take that nap knowing the faith of his disciples was

about to be tested?

another question to ask, can even the chaos of the world that feels out of

control, can that be used by Jesus to produce the kind of faith in us that

causes us to draw nearer and trust him in the middle of the chaos? I think the

resounding answer of scripture is yes, he can and he does and he will when we

submit that to him.

So Jesus is peace to those who put their trust in Him, in both His ability and His willingness to save us.

But Jesus is also a threat to those who oppose Him and who oppose the kingdom of heaven.

And we get a pretty good look at that when they get to the other side of the lake.

So eventually they do come to the other side of Galilee, and I mentioned earlier that this may have seemed a strange move to the disciples because

this area is a Gentile area. It's not Jewish.

And Jesus here is going to wield a different type of authority and one that we've actually seen before, an authority over spiritual chaos.

But he's also going to deal with not only the spiritual

opposition to him, but also the opposition of people who are very concerned about their own kingdom.

So let's read a little bit of this account and we'll get an idea of

what kind of chaos we're dealing with here. This is Mark chapter 5 verses 1 through 6.

Mark 5:1–6

"They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Jerizines,

and when Jesus had stepped out of the boat immediately,

there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit.

He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains.

But he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces.

No one had the strength to subdue him.

Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains,

he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar,

He ran and fell down before him.

From the chaos of the storm to the chaos caused by demonic possession,

we have a man who is so strong that he can't be bound, even with chains.

And this is showing off a strength that is not just a strong man,

but a supernatural strength of a different kind of strong man.

Remember just a chapter ago and in chapter 3 when Jesus told the story about entering a strong man's house to bind the strong man?

Well, here we have an encounter taking place that puts that on display for us.

We also have a man who more than just a physical danger to himself is permanently unclean according to Jewish law

because he's living among the tombs.

This

and day he has no healing because he continues to cut himself and he lives surrounded by the

dead.

And yet, he is compelled to come and fall down at the feet of Jesus.

Because as we'll see in the next verse, the demons within him see Jesus even more clearly

than his disciples do at this point.

So let's read verses 7 through 13.

In crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus Son of

the Most High God?

I adjure you by God, do not torment me."

For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit."

And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"

And he replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many."

And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Now a great herd of pigs were feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying,

Send us to the pigs, let us enter them.

So he gave them permission.

And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about 2,000,

rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

This is an account of chaos that is unlike the last one, but oh my goodness, is it chaotic,

right?

Okay, so let's take this apart.

This man is possessed by not one, but many demons, and they recognize Jesus immediately,

correctly, as the Son of the Most High God.

Now this is important because they're in Gentile territory, that they do not recognize

him as the son of a god or just son of god as a generic title, specifically they recognize

him as the son of the most high god, which would have been the Hebrew god Yahweh.

So we have such a clear picture painted here of Jesus' authority over the spiritual.

These demons cannot run from Jesus.

They must come and bow before him, and they recognize Jesus has the authority to do with

them as he wishes, which brings us to the pigs. What do we do with the pigs?

Admittedly, this is kind of a weird thing to me. He lets them possess the pigs, which leads them

to run down an embankment and drown in the water that Jesus has just finished calming.

These pigs were likely being raised for the benefit of the Roman legions stationed in the area,

And 2,000 is a lot of pigs.

So it raises some interesting questions,

few of which are actually answered either by Jesus or Mark in this passage.

So this is one of those cases where we have to fall back on what we do know.

We know that Jesus is all-powerful and he had absolute authority to send the demons away,

simply without using the pigs at all.

We also know that Jesus never does anything for the benefit of demons,

And instead, he does all things for his own good purposes, for his glory, and for the good of those who love him.

So, we can take what we do know in this very uncertain situation with the pigs and simply say at some level,

"I don't know why Jesus did that, but I know that he had the authority to do it, and I know that he did it for a reason that is good."

Sometimes we have to say, "I don't know why, but I know who." And for me, this is one of those times.

My personal thought is that the pigs were unimportant to Jesus here compared with what was important.

The man being freed and the Gentiles who would have a chance to respond to the authority of Jesus.

That's what was important to Jesus. That's what the passage focuses on.

So these two stories are about showing us the authority of Jesus, right?

That encompasses both the physical and the spiritual world and how people would and should respond to that authority.

The disciples in the boat should have responded by trusting and worshiping Jesus, but they

instead responded with fear.

So after witnessing a dramatic display of authority over a legion of demons, how will

these people respond?

I think that's actually the point.

Not the pigs, but how these people will respond to Jesus' authority.

Let's start with the herdsmen.

This is verses 14 through 17.

The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country.

And people came to see what it was that had happened.

And they came to Jesus.

And they saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion sitting there,

clothed and in his right mind.

And they were afraid.

And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man

and to the pigs, and they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

So first, they flee, maybe for a good reason, right? They tell everyone in town and the countryside

what happened, and all the people of the region come to see. They come and they see the evidence

for themselves. They see the formerly demon-possessed man clothed and in his right mind, and they

They probably see the empty hill where the pigs should have been.

And they also are filled with fear.

They are afraid now, not of the man who was possessed with demons, but just like the disciples

who stopped being afraid of the storm, they are now afraid of Jesus.

This Jesus who the demons claim is the Son of the Most High God.

But here's the important part.

How do they respond?

They beg Jesus to leave.

What are they really afraid of?

My guess would be that they're probably afraid of the future economic implications of this

man should he continue casting out demons throughout the region.

My guess is they're probably afraid of how the Roman legions would respond when they were

told that legions of demons ran off with their breakfast bacon.

Right?

So, what are they really afraid of?

boils down to, they're afraid of what the arrival of Jesus means for their kingdom.

They're afraid that the arrival of this new king and his kingdom of heaven are going to

disrupt their earthly kingdom.

And so I need to ask us here, if you are experiencing any of the conviction of the Holy Spirit when

I say something like that, as we point fingers at these people who literally just told the

of peace to leave their region in the vain hope that some earthly peace will return to them,

are we doing something similar? It's funny how God uses his word, and as I'm reading this account

of these people trading the eternal peace of God for the incomplete and insufficient peace of Rome,

I can feel the Spirit of God exposing my own tendency to do the same.

As a follower of Jesus, am I asking the Lord to stay out of some areas of my life so I can keep the

status quo just a while longer? Am I asking Jesus to leave the region of certain relationships

because I'm afraid that he's going to rock the boat?

Am I failing to believe that the peace of God in Christ is better than the peace of men

through my own compliance with the world. If any of those questions struck a spiritual nerve with

you, I'm just going to tell you now that it probably has very little to do with me, and it has a lot

more to do with the Spirit of God using Scripture to shape and form us. Don't shy away from those

kinds of questions, but instead trust the Lord. Trust the Lord who loves you enough to not leave

you as you are, but to transform you into the image of Jesus.

The word of God through the Spirit of God can convict us to respond, and I'm so grateful

for that, but it also encourages us to lean in.

And I want us to finish this passage and look at what happens in the lives of those who

will lean into the Lord.

Specifically, we're going to look at this Gentile man who has been healed and responds to Jesus.

He's last three verses, verses 18 through 20.

And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged

him that he might be with him.

And he did not permit him, but said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how

much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you."

And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for

him and everyone marveled.

The man now healed, begs to be with Jesus.

It's the same thing that the people in the region just did.

They begged also, right?

But they begged Jesus to leave.

And this man begs to be with Jesus.

This is the right response of someone who has been a recipient of the mercy of God.

He wants to be with Jesus.

See unlike the people of the region, this man has seen Jesus for who he is and has experienced

his mercy and responds by desiring to be a disciple of Jesus.

This is where disciples come from.

Discipleship doesn't start when someone decides they want to become a better version of themselves.

He doesn't start when they're properly guilted into doing the right thing.

Discipleship, true discipleship, starts when someone has seen Jesus clearly and believed

the gospel, the good news, that this is the one who can save me and responds by wanting

nothing more than to be with Jesus and to follow Him.

All of the effort and the work and the discipline that is a good part of being a disciple of

Jesus, of becoming like Christ.

All the beautiful work of sanctification, all of that is motivated by the love of a

person who knows the love of Jesus.

So I just want to clarify that right off the bat with the beautiful way that this man

responds.

But then Jesus doesn't allow the man to come with him right away, right?

Remember Jesus is on a specific mission that ends with the cross.

For the same reason that he's teaching in parables for now, he's also not taking this

this Gentile man with him to witness to the Jews.

It just wouldn't work.

It wasn't a part of his earthly mission,

but he doesn't silence him,

like some of the others that he's healed.

In the Jewish areas, he has healed people

and then he's commanded them to be silent.

But this man, he sends home,

saying, "Go home to your people and report to them

what great things the Lord has done for you

and how he's had mercy on you."

For this man following Jesus doesn't involve getting in the boat with him.

It involves being sent by Jesus to witness with his testimony.

He's given a mission to tell all that God, the Lord, has done for him.

And what does the man do?

He tells everyone that Jesus has done this for him.

You see the connection?

Jesus says, "Go tell everyone what God has done for you."

And the man says, "Got it.

I will go tell everyone what you have done for me."

The man gets it.

Jesus is God and he has a testimony about what God has done.

There is power in a personal testimony.

When this man does this,

look at how people respond to the marvel.

A miracle caused people to fear and reject Jesus,

but this man's testimony is actually resulting

in people being open to what God is doing.

So just a note here, your testimony is a powerful tool

that God can use to open people up to the possibility that he might have the authority

and desire to do something in their lives as well.

I've seen a lot of people show very little interest in theological debates and philosophical

arguments and those types of things have a time and a place, but more often I've seen

those same people lean in when they've heard, "Let me just tell you what God did in my life."

but don't discount the power of a personal testimony.

And if you haven't thought about sharing yours,

we're actually gonna be doing some work on that

in house churches this year.

So to wrap this passage up,

the story with the storm almost has served

as a kind of setup for the second story.

The disciples, remember, are left asking, who is this?

This is someone who is powerful enough to handle the chaos,

but what are the implications of Jesus

having that kind of authority.

He's more than they thought he was.

Then the Jerizines, these Gentiles on the other side

of the lake have to answer the same question.

What do we do with this man of authority

who has come to our shore?

And they really have two different reactions.

Will I choose to reject Jesus in favor of my own kingdom?

Or will I choose to follow Jesus and spend my life

trusting him and pursuing his kingdom.

The truth is this life is filled with

chaos and it will be to some degree until Jesus returns.

But we have the opportunity to stand firmly in the midst of all that chaos

without losing heart when we choose to trust in Jesus. We can have peace in the chaos

when we choose to trust in Jesus.

And to be completely honest, it can seem scary to trust Jesus to let go of the relentless pursuit of your own kingdom

and instead to wholeheartedly pursue the kingdom of God.

But I promise you that by letting go of a fleeting sense of control, by giving up on a peace

that you could never really hold on to in the first place and instead having faith in Jesus,

You can have a peace that surpasses all of the chaos, because that is a peace that will never leave you or forsake you,

because that peace is Jesus himself.

Ecclesia is a church of house churches gathering weekly in Councilbluffs, Iowa, and in homes throughout the week.

We are a Bible-centered church focused on preaching from Scripture and making disciples of Jesus.

You can learn more about our statement of faith and contact a pastor by visiting ecclesia-churches.org.