Questions We Ask Jesus Pt. 1 - Downtown Campus with Associate Pastor Matt Passmore - September 28, 2025

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Pastor said, Pastor did not get stuck at the donut store.

Okay?

He did not get stuck at the donut store, like he said.

No, today he asked if I could come preach here.

He's just gonna stay around to finish well, make sure everyone's connected.

He will be back next week.

He will be here next week.

They met today, and um, he just texted me.

They had 112 that were there today worshiping.

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord.

And uh there were many, he said, that walked in the door not knowing what's going on and saying, I hear there's a church here, and they came on in, and so that's what we're wanting.

We're wanting people that aren't connected to church to find church, to find Jesus.

And so that's why we're doing what we're doing, they're what we're doing.

So, hey, as uh today, as we look, we are kicking off a series, Questions We Ask Jesus.

Okay, Pastor, if you want to hear a real sermon, they did record it out of Chaffee, you can go home and listen to it, but I'm gonna give it a shot.

So uh, but Questions We Ask Jesus.

Um, as I'm thinking of that statement right there, the series that we're getting into, the next couple weeks, we're gonna be answering questions we ask Jesus.

It makes me think of the word questions.

And you know, I have a seven-year-old.

I take him to school every day.

The whole way to school, I am hammered with questions.

Questions, questions like, who is my favorite ninja turtle?

I get that regularly.

The next question, another question he likes to ask is if I had lots of money, would I buy a Lamborghini?

I'm like, probably not.

And one day he says, Dad, if we were rich, and I stopped him.

I said, Who says we're not rich?

He goes, Dad, I've seen the car that you drive, you know, and so, but questions.

It reminds me of when I was uh teaching school.

Mind you, I went to school for four, okay, five years to teach school.

And they were training me to teach school.

I was going to be a math teacher.

And so I went through my five years, I graduated, I get a job.

Nothing prepared me for that first day of school when the kids came in.

My first month was awful.

The kids would have told you that too.

I'll never forget I had a mentor teacher that uh she was good.

And I knew she was good because I could walk by her class, her kids were sitting at the desk and they were learning.

And she poured into me, and I'll never forget this.

I was meeting with her, I had to meet with her certain times, and I remember telling her, it's like, I'm giving it all I have, and these kids aren't getting anything.

And she said, I something I learned, maybe you should try, is don't tell them everything.

I'm like, what?

I'm a teacher, I'm supposed to tell them everything.

She said, No, no, no.

Tell them enough to make them ask questions.

And think about that just for a second.

I thought, what, why?

She said, because if you get them asking questions, you've got them.

They're thinking about it.

They're participating.

And now all of a sudden, instead of you lecturing and all of a sudden they're shutting it down, what are they doing?

They are involved in the teaching.

Now I look at when we the way so when we see the word question, I thought this was kind of funny.

I was just reading about different things online and this source.

Now I haven't had a chance to prove this source, but it's got to be close.

Jesus asked around 305 questions in the Bible.

Jesus was asked 183 questions.

Jesus that knows everything was asked less questions than he asked.

But you think about it, most of the time Jesus was asked a question, what did he do?

He asked a question back.

Why?

Because questions are important.

Questions tie us in.

And so as we look at questions we ask Jesus, I'd like for you to take out your Bible, open it to Mark 4.

Open it to Mark 4.

And as you flip there today, we are going to dive in because our first question for today in our series is found in Mark 4, verse 35.

Mark 4:35

And as you're flipping there, if you'll allow me, I'd like to pray and ask the Lord to fill this place.

Will you pray with me as you're flipping through that?

Dear God, I come before you now.

So grateful for your word.

Grateful for your example.

Grateful for your willingness to answer our questions.

And Lord, today, as we dive into your word, as we read your word, Lord, I ask you and I beg you to not let me get in the way.

Let your word be spoke, let your word penetrate our hearts, and Lord, help us leave here different because we read your word and we heard you.

Lord, bless us today as we hear from you.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

So if you'll dive in with me, let's read Mark.

We're going to start in Mark 4, starting in verse 35.

On that day when evening had come, he told them, Let's cross over to the other side of the sea.

Now at this point, Jesus had been teaching he was going to get away from the crowd a little bit.

So they left the crowd, and they took him along since he was in the boat, and other boats were with him.

A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.

Okay, so the storm had hit.

And it's hit hard.

And then verse 38.

He, whose Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

So they woke him up and said to him, Teacher, don't you care that we're about to die or we're going to die?

He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Silence, be still.

The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Then he said to them, Why are you afraid?

Do you still have no faith?

And they were terrified and asked one another, Who then is this?

Even the wind and the sea obey him.

The question today, we we we see it right there in verse 38.

It says this, Teacher, don't you care that we're going to die?

Today I want to take that.

And if you look on the screen, it says, Don't you care that I'm going through this?

Have you ever been there?

Have you ever been in a situation like, God, do you not see what I'm going through?

Don't you care?

It's amazing how many people come into my office and just want to talk, and you can see it in their heart.

They're like, Is anybody there caring for me?

This last year in my own life, and many of you know this, I had a daughter that had a special needs child, and for a year, for a year, there were times I had to struggle with.

You see what I'm saying?

I mean, you've been there before.

Don't you care that I'm going through this?

The disciples in the boat are the same way.

Jesus, don't you care that we're about to die?

So that takes us to, if there's a question, there's answers.

So it takes us to some of the answers.

I think there's a couple answers that answer this question.

Answer number one.

Recognize that Jesus is with us in the storm.

Did they really think that they were going to drown with Jesus in the boat?

The question that they asked as quickly was, don't you care?

Well, of course Jesus cared.

Jesus got them on the boat and said, What?

We're going to the other side.

The storm was raging, but I think the storm was also raging in the hearts of the disciples on the boat.

And before we come down too hard on the disciples, they did at least know who to come talk to.

They did at least come to the teacher.

They realized that someone on the boat had a little more power than they did.

Because why?

We had seen this, they had witnessed it.

So the first thing, when we get to the point of thinking that God doesn't care, the first thing is we've got to remember that Jesus is going through the storm with us.

The second answer is we must recognize who Jesus actually is.

The disciples didn't just say, hey, wake up, we're about to die.

What'd they do?

They went to the teacher.

Well, when they say the word teacher, what in the world are they talking about?

They viewed their teacher greater than they are because what were they doing?

They were following him.

As they were in the boat, they did go and say, teacher, but they also, listen, they'd also forgot who their teacher really was.

Don't we get sometimes doing that when we get in the self-pity parties of Lord, are you still there?

Because if I'm not careful, when it happens in my own life, when I'm not careful, all of a sudden the only thoughts in my mind are the things that I am thinking.

I take God and who he is, I set him aside, and then all of a sudden, in that storm, what am I doing?

I'm starting to panic, and in my panic, I forget who Jesus really is.

After Jesus rebuked the storm, I think we can see it in the story.

He's basically saying, guys, calm down.

When he gets up and he rebukes the storm, what does he say?

Silence, be still.

There's translations that I like that says, peace, be still.

Think about that.

The storm needed to be calmed down, but also the guys in the boat needed to what?

Calm down.

They had to remember that Jesus was always in control.

They needed to trust him.

As he calmed the storm, he calmed them also.

I heard someone say, as I was the other day, a guy goes, We spend a lot of time talking about the weather.

And we can't do anything about it.

But in this case, they knew the guy that could do something about it.

Listen to what Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says.

Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and minds in Christ Jesus.

Sometimes we need a guard on our mind.

Don't worry about anything, but everything through prayer, petition, and thanksgiving.

Present your request to God and with the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.

Isn't that what happens to us when we get into worry?

We lose our guard.

Isn't that a great place to be?

Is when I have a filter or I have a guard.

And it's the peace of God.

When I was growing up, I when I this was way little, okay, first grade, okay.

When I was little, I used to get scared of the storms.

I know David Fry is probably thinking that was a couple years ago, but no.

When I was little, I'm laying in bed, and I'll never forget those night storms when thunder, it felt like the whole house was shaking, and then my mom would shut the blinds, but you can still see the lightning on the edge.

When it's dark, and I mean I remember laying in bed, and I mean I didn't hear the storm, I hear the lightning, and it's like, okay, I can't take it anymore.

So I'd get up quietly, I'd sneak down the hallway, and I learned this.

I don't go to my dad's side of the bed because he'd say, it's gonna be okay, go back to bed.

But I'd go over to my mom's side.

And my mom would be laying there, she would scoot over, she'd lift a blanket, and I would crawl in, and it wasn't long, and I was asleep.

The same storm was still going on.

The lightning was still going, the thunder was still making noise.

How was I able to sleep there and not in my bed?

It was the what?

The comfort, the protection.

I was safe in my parents' bed.

Isn't that the picture of what we're talking about here?

The storm is going around, and if we're not careful, we're by ourselves in our room going through the storm all by ourselves.

When Jesus says, peace be still, what's he saying?

Come to me, hop in the bed, and rest.

And we see that.

How in the world is Jesus through this storm able to sleep?

Have you ever thought of that?

I mean, I went over to Israel and we wrote, we went across, and by the way, the Sea of Galilee, they call it just a great lake.

I mean, you can kind of see across it if it's clear day.

And the boats that I'm seeing, this wasn't a yacht that Jesus checked out, room number two.

He's in a bed with the door shut.

There's a good chance he's getting wet.

There's a good chance this boat is just sloshing around.

How in the world is Jesus able to sleep?

And the funny thing is, the disciples are like, ah, going crazy in Jesus.

And Jesus can do what?

Jesus is asleep.

I think it's just the picture of that.

The disciples took it as no one was in control.

And Jesus was showing.

God's in control.

Did you did you the disciples took Jesus sleeping as no one's in control?

But I honestly see that Jesus sleeping peacefully, being able to sleep through this, he's showing that what?

That God is in control.

Listen to what Proverbs.

Jesus sleeping through this storm suggests a confidence he had in God.

And Proverbs 3.24, this is a Proverbs here of having confidence in the Lord.

Listen to what it says.

Proverbs 3.24.

When you lie down, you will not be afraid.

You will lie down, and your sleep will be pleasant.

How many of you, when you're in the middle of a worry, you just can't sleep?

Oh man.

We moved to another house.

Three days in, the sewer was backed up, water was coming everywhere, and I will just say this.

There was not much sleep going on my side of the bed.

And here's the crazy thing is the more I worried, the worse it got.

You ever been there before?

My worry fixed absolutely nothing.

And I remember one time I was just laying in bed, just I was sick to my stomach.

It was just awful.

And I remember saying, crying out to the Lord, not being able to sleep.

Lord, I have no idea about this house we just bought.

But Lord, this is your house.

And we're just trying to take care of it.

When I took it off of me and I placed it on God, it wasn't long, and then all of a sudden, like this verse here was I was able to what?

Sleep.

Guess what?

I woke up the next morning, and I would like to tell you that the sewer was fixed and it was a miracle.

Took three days to fix the sewer.

But when it became a problem that I was going through with God, then a problem that I was by myself, it changed.

And then there were two questions Jesus asked the disciples on this boat, I think that are important for us to look at today.

The first one is, why are you afraid?

That's a pretty good question.

But on the other hand, I'm thinking, well, Jesus, I'm in a boat that looks like it's going to about to sink.

That's why I'm afraid, right?

But he wasn't going to the situation right there.

He was reverting back to the time that they had shared together.

I think he was saying this, guys, you've spent enough time with me to not understand what's going on.

So he asked two questions.

Why are you afraid?

And do you still have he didn't say little faith?

What did he say?

No faith.

Because at this point in their lives, Jesus had just taught the Sermon on the Mount.

I want to encourage you to read that.

I mean, the teaching that he did in Amount.

They'd witnessed that.

They had testimony of his baptism that the Lord came down on Jesus and said, What?

This is my son.

It says that he had performed many miracles.

He had healed a Roman officer's servant without going there.

They witnessed that.

They had witnessed, and this is just some of them, just, the healing of Peter's mother-in-law.

Jesus' very presence on this boat should have been all that they needed during the storm.

Then it takes us to answer number three.

Recognizing that the circumstances cannot derail God's plan.

Remember, Jesus came to him and said, let's cross over to the other side.

Jesus had a plan in everything he did in his ministry.

Think about that just for a second.

Jesus didn't, well, you know what, today let's go try to do that.

Jesus was here in his ministry for three years.

And if you think about it, three years isn't very long.

He had a mission.

He needed to what?

Prepare these disciples to be the warriors that they turned out to be.

He puts them on the boat and says, we're going to the other side.

For a reason.

You say, what's the reason?

If we're not careful, so many times we can take a passage of scripture and we can look just at that passage of scripture.

We forget what's before it and what's after it.

They got on this boat because they needed to go to the other side.

Because guess who's on the other side?

A demon-possessed man.

Remember that story?

Jesus gets off the boat.

The demon-possessed man, by the way, was not just a regular demon-possessed man.

The Bible says that they had chained him up and he could bust the chains.

Remember, Jesus asked him, What is your name?

And he said, Legion.

Which was what?

Many.

And you remember they were negotiating whatever there, the demons were like, please send us over to the pigs.

Send them to the pigs.

They ran off the cliff.

Remember.

Jesus had to go to the other side for a purpose.

And remember this?

The demon-possessed man that the Lord cured.

When Jesus was leaving, you remember he goes, Can I go with you?

Can I go with you?

I want to go with you.

And what did Jesus tell him?

I need you to stay here and tell everyone you talk to what I did for you.

The Bible then says that he went all around the region doing what?

Tell them about Jesus.

The disciples get on a boat, go through a storm to do God's plan.

You think the disciples were changed?

I think about it in my own life.

Those times that I go through the struggle and I go through it with God, how much stronger my faith is.

Do you understand what I do go through that struggle with God, the next struggle seems a little smaller because of what?

Can you imagine the disciples after what they did when they got off that boat?

Man, they're whoo.

My teacher can calm the storms.

And then I think there's a we can see, I think there's two a couple levels to God's plan.

I think the first one, you can see it on the, I want to go to the very bottom, the contemporary plan.

I think the contemporary plan is the plan that's happening with us today.

I told you what I went through with my daughter, and the struggle just really, really, and I will say this through that, the Lord showed himself.

It still wasn't easy, it's still not easy.

But the Lord shows himself daily when we allow him to show it.

And the contemporary is the idea of the struggles that I'm going through today are leading and pointing to his kingdom plan.

And so many times we can get wrapped up in today that we forget about tomorrow.

And you know what?

There's some struggles in my life that I would never change not going through those.

Because it has formed me and made me into who I am today.

When I got out of high school, went straight into college, I thought life is easy.

If I wanted to do something, I signed up for it and got after it.

And then all of a sudden, the Lord humbled me in many ways.

And my confidence over the years has changed not so much in me, but my confidence has grown in Christ living in me.

Because today, I think out of this whole message, I want to be careful with this because I think the whole message, I think what the Lord is, but I think the thing we got to go home with today is we saw disciples that spent time with Jesus, that the scripture, Jesus said, Do you not have any faith?

I think today we've got to commit, we've got to get after building our faith.

You know, today we're sitting right here, and many of us have the right answer sitting here in a pew.

You say, What do I mean by that?

I had a guy in my office the other day.

He was pouring out his life, he was struggling, and this is what he said.

It's easy to do what's right when I'm sitting in your office and you're talking to me.

It gets really hard when I go out that door and get in my car and drive off.

And so many times as a church, as a as Christians, we can say this.

All you got to do is have faith and follow Jesus, which is true.

But if we're not careful, we make it sound so simple that it's hard to do.

You understand what I'm saying?

It's easy to sit in here in the fellowship of the Lord, and we know this building has been prayed over.

The Lord is here with us, but when we walk out of that wall, we are walk, walk out of the wall.

When we walk out of the building, it's different.

Because today, many of us are struggling with disloyal friends that have said stuff that have really hurt.

Maybe disloyal employees that have said something about us at the job.

Maybe our finances are a mess.

Maybe someone's hurt you even here at church.

We have dysfunctional, extended family, problems in our marriage, struggling in our parenting.

The busy schedule is a demand on my life, physical sickness, daily hardships of living in this fallen world.

And we ask God, do you care?

The overarching theme today I want you to leave here is we need to be strengthening our biblical faith.

You say, what is biblical faith?

It's a true faith in the existence, presence, promises, and provision of God.

Biblical faith never requires us to deny what's really going on.

Did you hear that?

We're not telling you here in church to say when you walk out the door, act like nothing's happening.

Because it is real.

The disciples were in a real storm.

But I think what the Lord's crying out or wanting us to do, biblical faith, like I used to tell students when I teach them, is the idea of taking a pair of glasses and putting them on and looking through these glasses.

And what is the glasses?

God's word.

Putting on my biblical perspective, meditating in God's word, and I'm looking through that at the hard world that I'm living in.

And when I get to the point of looking through that, I can rest in who God is.

Meditation on God's word, developing our biblical faith, it starts in His Word.

So many of us wonder why we can't be successful when we walk out of that wall or out of that building, is because we take the Bible and the only time we read it and look at it is while we're here.

There's no substitution for reading our Bible.

So meditating on God's word starts with reading God's word, praying with Him, fellowshipping with Him, and remembering the kingdom plan that He has.

And then think about this for a second.

Sometimes knowing the answer can change what we think about the question.

It reminds me of one of the greatest stories of all times in the Bible that I love the most is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo.

Here's what I'm talking about today.

When they're about to be thrown into the fiery furnace, they said what?

They said, King, we're not going to bow down to you.

Our God is able to save us from the fire.

But if he doesn't save us, we're still going to trust him.

You know what?

When we get to that point, we can rest in who God is.

Because God is in control.

I've got something I want to show you real quick.

And I've done it before, but the illustration is one of my favorite.

Okay, I'm a trained professional.

Do not try this at home.

Okay, now in my hand I have just some powder here.

And if I take this powder right here and I light it in my hand, it turns black.

But still pretty good.

But when it gets outside of my hand, look what happens to it.

That's just like our lives.

When we try to do it on our own, we get wrapped up in our own situations.

It's tough.

But when we rest in who God is and we meditate on who he is, it still got a little black.

It's not easy.

But we can rest in who He is.

So bow your heads with me today as we're going to pray.

Maybe today we're sitting there and you're crying out to God, you're crying, and listen, God wants our questions.

But maybe today, as you're crying out to God, maybe we need to change our prayers.

Have you ever thought of this?

Maybe we should be asking God, God, you know my heart and things that I want, but Lord, will you help me be able to live with your kingdom plan?

Lord, will you help me handle whatever you have for my life?

Today, as I pray, also, if there's someone here today that is just struggling, they don't know Jesus, they're just struggling.

I ask you to come forward, pray with our pastors here.

If you're just struggling with something in your life and you need to just lay it down, you need to give it to the Lord.

Hey, we've got the altar here to pray.

Don't leave here without talking to somebody.

Dear God, thank you so much for your love.

Thank you for your care.

Lord, thank you that we have a church that does not want us to go through this together.

We want to go through struggles together so that we can help each other get there.

And Lord, thank you for your example today of just being there for us.

Lord, if someone here today is struggling with a calling on their life, struggling with just you being in their life, just they're struggling, they have questions.

Give them the boldness, the courage to come ask.

Maybe talk to the person next to them in their pew.

Talk to someone.

Lord, thank you for your word.

Thank you for Jesus and thank you for answering our questions.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.