The Sleeping Savior

Entering His Gates with Praise

Good morning! I think we're going to start our church service this morning. Welcome to First Baptist Church of Artesia. We're so glad you're with us here today in the sanctuary and online. I'm going to read something from Psalm 100:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever; his faithfulness, through all generations.

— Psalm 100:4-5 (CSB)

Join us this morning as we pray together for the Lord's blessing.

We have much to be thankful for, especially because God has given us his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, to rise from the dead, and to reign victorious over sin and death. We have every reason to be thankful because God has given to us far more abundantly than we could ask for or think.

My name is John Lee, and I'm one of the pastors here. It brings me joy to bring you God's word this morning. If you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it and open it to the Book of Mark. We've been going through the Book of Mark every Sunday, and this Sunday we're going to be wrapping up chapter 4. If this is the first time that you're using a Bible, the big numbers are the chapter numbers and the little numbers are the verse numbers. We are looking at Mark 4:35-41:

On that day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” So they left the crowd and 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. He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that 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!”

— Mark 4:35-41 (CSB)

Let's pray. We pray this morning that as we hear from your word, you will help us to focus. Turn our ears to be attentive to your word. Help us to understand it and to trust you in the midst of chaos and storms that may happen in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

The Great Storm

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, which is in Tornado Alley, so we had thunderstorms almost every other week. I can think of two stories that come to mind. One was that as a kid, whenever thunderstorms would come, lightning would flash, and rain would pour, I would sprint to my parents' bedroom and dive under the covers so that I could cuddle with my parents because I was so terrified. As I would hear thunder crash and lightning flash before my eyes, I felt safer in my parents' arms.

The other memory that comes to mind is when I got caught cheating on my piano homework and my mom saw me. What I felt in that moment was probably similar to that sound of thunder; I felt fear get into my heart.

These two stories are representative of what it was like to be with my parents. On one hand, I felt safe; on the other hand, I felt fear. I wanted to obey them to make sure that I followed their instructions. It is really the same awe and reverence that I had of my parents that caused both results: on one hand, causing me to go to my parents when trials arise, and on the other hand, fearing what they would do in terms of disciplining me if I disobeyed them, causing me to draw closer to them.

In this story, we see an example of the disciples as they are interacting with Jesus, feeling both of those same emotions. On one hand, they fear trials; on the other hand, they fear the Lord. What the Lord wants us to do this morning is to fear Christ—to fear Him, the Creator of creation. We will examine three points this morning: first, the great storm; second, the great calm; and third, the great fear. Let's look at point number one: the great storm.

On the same day that Jesus gave the parable of the sower, the lamp, and the seeds, Jesus decides to cross over to the other side of the sea. The disciples get in the boat, other boats come alongside him for the ride, and they begin to cross over the sea. As they do, a great storm arises. It comes, and the storm is so great that the waves are breaking over into the boat, and the boat is getting swamped, filling up with water.

They had just finished a successful day of ministry. They were supposed to be crossing the sea with their Savior; instead, they begin slowly sinking into the sea. For those of us who are familiar with this story, we might be tempted to gloss over the sheer magnitude of the situation. For one, the disciples had absolutely no control over the storm. The disciples couldn't politely ask the storm to leave. There wasn't really optimal timing for them; they couldn't choose the timing based on their own convenience. The storm's arrival was completely unexpected and unable to be controlled. They couldn't stop the storm. The only thing they could do was try to manage their own survival.

Not only did they not have control over the storm, but the disciples understood that when it came to moments like these—when storms arose like this—every decision they made would be the difference between life and death. Most of our lives are pretty separate from risk. We don't spend our time wondering whether or not we're going to make it to the end of the day. Often, the most risky venture we go through is holding our breath as our plane lands onto the runway. But these storms were legitimately the difference between life and death. Every choice mattered.

Unfortunately for the disciples, despite their best efforts, the storm was still raging. The waves crashed, and the boat was beginning to sink. So they looked for Jesus, trying to figure out where their Savior was. And where was Jesus during this time? Jesus was taking a nap! He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion, so they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care that we're going to die?"

Why was Jesus sleeping here? Many pastors have speculated about why Jesus would be asleep during the storm. Some have attributed it to a strategic slumber, as though Jesus conjured up the storm and was sleeping in order to test the disciples' faithfulness. This could be the case, but there is nothing really in the passage that would indicate that. I've put a lot of thought into this, and after extensive research, I've concluded that the reason why Jesus was asleep was because he was tired. They didn't head out until the evening; he had been teaching for hours, and Jesus, in his humanity, fell asleep.

Sometimes we confuse being fully God and fully man with Jesus being a superman, but he wasn't. He was a normal human being. He felt the fullness of true humanity, just like you and I. After a long day of work, after non-stop teaching, Jesus experienced the exhaustion of a full day's work, got into the boat, and gravity defeated his eyelids. He fell asleep and began to rest.

His sleep, however, triggers the disciples' shock. The disciples see Jesus sleeping, and their panic then turns into frustration. They are outside fighting for their lives, and meanwhile, Jesus is asleep. That's not how it's supposed to be. As frustration begins to boil over, the words spill out of their mouths: "Don't you care that we're going to die?"

The disciples' fear reveals their hearts. It's not just that the storm caused them to fear for their lives; the storm didn't just threaten their lives, it revealed their doubt. The disciples are showing with their questions to Jesus that they didn't actually trust him. In fact, they doubted whether Jesus truly cared for them. Because if Jesus really cared, where was he? Why wasn't he out with the disciples, leading by example and helping them weather the storm?

Have you ever wondered whether Jesus cares for you? Life is hard. Storms surge unannounced. A phone call comes with tragic news. A doctor's appointment brings unexpected results. Letters come informing you of heartbreak. Layoffs leave you strapped. Rejection, pain, and uncertainty can swell and overwhelm us. And in those moments, where is God?

Maybe God feels distant to you. I mean, we've all heard the phrase, "God helps those who help themselves," so you think maybe God is kind of there to help you do better, but when life really gets hard, God is nowhere to be found, and the only person you can really rely on is yourself. So you chin up, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and face the storm head-on.

Maybe you think God is judgmental, that he's happy to reward you when you're doing good stuff, but when you do bad, that's when he turns into a vindictive disciplinarian. So when storms come, it must be because you did something wrong or because God is mad at you about something. When trials come, you start to do an autopsy of your own life to figure out where you messed up, hoping you can clean up your mess, and God will be nice to you again and give you a second chance.

The problem with all of these different perspectives is that they move from questioning God's purposes to questioning God's goodness. Is God really good? Because if he really cared, then maybe God would do something. Either he doesn't care or he can't help; either way, there is no hope. So going to God is about as helpful as a man sleeping on a cushion. When storms come, they reveal what you truly believe about God.

How does Jesus respond to our exasperated accusation? You can see it in our second point: the great calm.

The Great Calm

Let's read verse 39: "He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Silence! Be still!' The wind ceased, and there was a great calm."

Jesus gets up and rebukes the wind. He says, "Silence! Be still!" and immediately the storm stops. The sea becomes still because Jesus does what only God can do: he silences the storm.

As humans, we can adapt, and we can try to predict, but none of us can control the weather. Remember a couple of months ago when Hurricane Hilary was storming up California? We were all trying to brace ourselves for the blast. We even had a shorter service and sent everyone home because we were afraid that people were going to get hurt. And all Artesia got was a little trickle, while Victorville absolutely flooded! Now, I don't think that God hates Victorville more than Artesia—though I certainly hate Victorville more than Artesia. I don't think there's anything that this city did in particular to earn a drizzle instead of a downpour. But the point is that none of us had any control. We couldn't do anything to stop the storm.

Jesus, however, gets up and, with three words, controls creation. In fact, the word that Mark uses is that he "rebuked" the wind. It's not just that he has the ability to stop the storm from happening; it's that he has authority over creation. He has authority over the storm. In the same way that my mom would glare at me and inhale to signal to me that I needed to fix up my behavior, Jesus is able to exert his authority over the storm because Jesus is not just fully human, but fully God. He is not just part of creation; he is also the Creator.

What separates Jesus isn't just his ability to heal the sick—the apostles did that. What separates Jesus isn't just speaking God's truth into the world—the prophets did that. What makes Jesus singular, what makes him separate from the rest of creation, is that Jesus is the Creator. John 1 says that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning, and all things were created through him; apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's what we believe about Jesus: that he took on flesh and dwelt among us, and that person's name is Jesus. The reason why Jesus can calm the seas is because he is God.

This idea that Jesus is truly God and truly man is called the hypostatic union. That's an SAT theology word: the hypostatic union. He is truly God and truly man, and it is critical for us to understand this. The Bible teaches that Jesus is both fully God and fully man in one person. This is how Gregory of Nazianzus explains both Jesus's humanity and his divinity:

As man he was baptized, but he absolved sins as God. He hungered, yet he fed thousands. He thirsted, yet he exclaimed, "Whosoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink." He was tired, yet he is the rest of the weary and the burdened. He was overcome by heavy sleep, yet he goes lightly over the sea, rebukes winds, and relieves the drowning Peter. He is weakened, wounded, yet he cures every disease and every weakness. He is brought up to the tree and nailed to it, yet by the tree of life he restores us. He surrenders his life, yet he has power to take it again. He dies, but he vivifies and by death destroys death. He is buried, yet he rises again. He goes down to Hades, yet he leads souls up, ascends to heaven, and will come to judge the quick and the dead.

Your Savior is one who sleeps and saves. He is both man and God. The Bible teaches both. In fact, who Jesus is is inherently tied to what Jesus does. He can die in the place of sinful humanity because he's a man, but he could take the wrath of God, die, and rise from the dead because he's God. When Jesus saves, God saves. The Lord saves.

This idea isn't just some new idea that comes up in the New Testament. Jesus wasn't some surprise. In fact, God had been planning this since long ago. Jesus going out and calming the seas fulfills a prophecy that we see all the way back in Psalm 107:

Others went to sea in ships, conducting trade on the vast water. They saw the Lord’s works, his wondrous works in the deep. He spoke and raised a stormy wind that stirred up the waves of the sea. Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths, their courage melting away in anguish, they reeled and staggered like a drunkard, and all their skill was useless. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed. They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet. Then he guided them to the harbor they longed for.

— Psalm 107:23-30 (CSB)

When Jesus stands up and calms the sea, he isn't just performing a cool miracle; he is displaying his glorious, divine fulfillment of this Old Testament promise that the Lord would show his wondrous works in the deep. These men in these boats would be brought to the end of themselves, all they would be left with is their own terror, they would cry out to the Lord, and God would come and, with a whisper, silence the sea and make the storm get still. The great storm submits to the Lord's command. The sleeping Savior has the authority to silence the storm and still the sea, and the result is a great calm.

But Jesus isn't done here in the story. He then turns his attention to his disciples, which brings us to point number three: the great fear.

The Great Fear

Let's read verse 40: "Then Jesus said to them, 'Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?'"

Jesus turns his attention to his disciples and he asks why they were afraid. Jesus doesn't just see that they were afraid of what was going to happen to them; he goes deeper than that. He identifies their primary problem: it's not just that they were afraid, it's that they didn't have any faith. They didn't believe that Jesus was actually going to save them. They didn't trust the Lord. In fact, they were overwhelmed with fear, and that fear evolved into faithlessness. They didn't just fear the storm; they questioned whether or not God was truly good and whether he was going to care for them.

Trials come to all of us, and trials are difficult. But they're not only difficult; our trials are also tests. They reveal where our hearts truly are. What are you afraid of? What keeps you up at night? When you have free time to think, where does your mind drift off to? Whatever those fears are, they reveal where your heart is—whether it's health, wealth, loved ones, or ambition. Whatever you value creates photo negatives of concern in our hearts.

Some of those concerns are appropriate. It's okay to have worries and to make sure that we address certain concerns we have in our lives. We want to be on the lookout for potential dangers, be responsible, and plan ahead. But when those concerns start to dominate your life, when they start to control what we think about, our concerns evolve into anxious fears, and it's easy for those fears to become idols in our hearts.

If you're anxious this morning about anything, maybe one reason why God has allowed this trial in your life is to expose where your heart is. It doesn't mean that the issue is unimportant, but it may be taking a prominent place in your heart that's worth thinking about, worth talking about with a friend or with a pastor to take those fears out and take time to examine them.

When fears crawl into our heart, they fill the space and crowd out faith in God. We stop believing that God is trustworthy. We begin to doubt his goodness. The solution isn't to just avoid difficult situations; those difficult situations are going to find you. But when difficult trials come, we need to use them as opportunities to grow our faith.

2 Timothy 3:12 says that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It's part of the job. Storms are not exceptions to the Christian life; they are to be expected. God doesn't promise to remove you from storms altogether; he does, however, promise to deliver us from all trouble in his time.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, Susan asks whether Aslan the lion is safe, and Mr. Beaver responds, "Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

God might not always be safe to us. He's not going to prevent us from experiencing pain or suffering in this world, but God is good, and knowing that makes all the difference. God wants us to weather the storm not by our own strength, but by our faith in Jesus.

You can see the effect of Christ in the disciples in verse 41: "And they were terrified and asked one another, 'Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!'"

The disciples end up more afraid in the calm than they were in the storm. They have a great fear or terror, but now they're not fearing the storm anymore; they're fearing the one who commanded the winds and the seas. And it's that kind of fear that's actually a good fear, a good thing. In fact, that's exactly what God wants from us. Jesus says in Matthew 10:28, "Don't fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Did you know that the Bible talks about the fear of the Lord as a good thing? Proverbs says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. In fact, in Exodus 20, there is a parallel story that goes on. This is after God leads the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and now as they begin to wander through the wilderness and come to Mount Sinai, God's presence descends on the mountain. This is what Exodus 20 says:

All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the ram’s horn, and the mountain surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. “You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.” Moses responded to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you will fear him and will not sin.”

— Exodus 20:18-20 (CSB)

It is super interesting what Moses says there: "Don't be afraid, instead fear the Lord." Don't be afraid; fear the Lord. There is a difference between being afraid of God and fearing the Lord. Being afraid causes us to clutch our idols, to try to find little pockets of safety, to rely on ourselves instead of the Lord. Fearing the Lord, however, drives us toward God, not away from him. It kills our idols and increases our trust in the Lord. Like a child clinging to their parent during a thunderstorm, the fear of the Lord pulls us closer to the Father.

Sinking and Saving

The disciples are not afraid of the storm anymore. If anything, the storm has only increased their fear of Jesus, because the seas had to submit to the Savior. You know, the sea, or the waters in the Bible, symbolize more than just a body of water or a place where you go for vacation. The waters or the seas actually symbolize death. They symbolize death.

In Genesis 1, before God creates, his Spirit hovers over the waters. Later in Genesis, when Noah survives the flood, the earth is destroyed by getting filled with water; the idea is that God is undoing creation. When you read in the prophets and in the Psalms, whenever God wanted to describe his judgment and his destruction of evil, you see him use water imagery, like a flood taking over all that was there before.

The seas are more than just a place where you could theoretically drown; they actually represented death itself. And when Jesus speaks and he stills the storm, death loses its sting. All of us are going to die. All of us have been cursed by the effects of sin in our lives. We've all disobeyed the Lord. What are you going to do when you face the waves of death?

If you are in Christ, you never need to ask the question, "Don't you care that we're going to die?" because the Lord Jesus came. Not only does he silence the seas with his words, he submerged himself into death by dying the death that we deserved on the cross, by bearing eternal punishment on the cross, dying a sinner's death. Three days later, he emerged from the seas of death victorious over sin and darkness.

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to our God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

If you are not a Christian, that's the good news for you this morning: you don't have to fear death. In fact, you could face the waves of death with absolute confidence and know that you will make it to the golden shores of heaven itself because Christ came and stilled the seas. Turn from your sin, trust in Jesus, and you'll find the peace and hope that you desperately need.

For the disciples, their fear of death itself was swallowed up in victory. "Don't you care that we're going to die?" became, "Who is this?" because when we fear the Lord—when you actually truly believe him and fear him—then you have nothing else to fear. We can give thanks to the Lord for his faithful love and his wondrous works over all humanity, and we could sing like Christians have sung for centuries:

"Be still, my soul: your God will undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious will be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
The voice who ruled them while he dwelt below."

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word this morning. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to trust you when storms come, to fear the Lord more than anything else that this world could possibly throw at us. But Lord, we know that when trials come we are weak, so we need your help. We ask that your Spirit would help us. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

A Cheerful Giver

And now for the second sermon... (nervous laughter) Just kidding! That's some good preaching. Praise God for that.

I was thinking, as Pastor John was preaching, about that fear and how we do fear, and then I was thinking about my part here today talking about announcements and then talking about our giving. I was thinking about 2 Corinthians chapter 9, where it says in verse 7:

Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.

— 2 Corinthians 9:7 (CSB)

I was thinking about that because a lot of times people think that means, "Ah, I'm giving money, whatever." No, it means it is based upon the joy that's on the inside of you, that you know what God is doing, you know the outcome, you know the purpose. It's like when they were in the boat: they were fearful because they didn't know what was going to happen, even though God was right there with them.

And so for us, as we give—not only of our money, but our time, our talent, and who we are to one another—we cheerfully do it because we come together for the greater good, because we know where we're going, and we know what God has planned for us. So as we give this morning, you can give in the back, you can give online, and different ways that we have of giving. But that cheerful giver is because you know and you understand what God is doing and God's purpose. And so the cheerfulness is that joy on the inside that we're all part of something that's greater than who we are, and God is doing something with all of us combined—something that sometimes we don't always understand, but always understand this: God always knows what he is doing, and by his grace and his mercy, he allows us to partake in what he is doing.

Let us pray for our offering this morning.

Lord God, we thank you for all that we have, all that you have given us, because it is by your grace that we have and are able to give, Lord. And so Lord, with the cheerfulness in our hearts, Lord, knowing that you are God Almighty, that you are Alpha and Omega, you are the beginning and the end, that you have planned all things and that you bring us along into your plan. So Lord, we cheerfully give to you Lord this morning. But Father, help us to be good stewards over that which you have given us, Lord, that we are not wasteful, Lord, but we do things always decently and in an orderly fashion, Lord, for your glory. So Lord, we thank you for the offerings today, and we just give you praise and honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray, and the church said, amen.

Praise God. Just a couple of announcements. As I said last week, there is no Wednesday Bible study until the beginning of the year, taking the month off. Also, the adult Bible study in the morning will be on hiatus for the month of December. But the Church Matters class that Pastor John teaches will still continue; that's kind of the new members' class that will continue. So the adult Bible study class will be suspended until the beginning of the year, as will Wednesday night Bible study, but the Church Matters class will still participate. And that's a good class; I would encourage you to be a part of that if you're not in the adult Bible study class. It's a very good class. It teaches you about the importance of the church, what the church is, and why it's important to be part of the church. Amen. Praise God.

So as the praise team gets ready, let us pray.

May the love of God be with you this week. May he open your eyes to see, your ears to hear, and your heart to receive.

Father, we thank you for the day, this time bringing us together, Lord. We thank you for what you have prepared for us, Lord. And Lord, we look expectantly to you, for you are the answer. You are our hope, you are our strength, our provider, our healer, our comfort, our high tower—you are all in all, Lord. And so Father, in this we just give you praise, we give you honor, we give you glory. And all those in agreement, in Jesus' name say, amen. Amen. Praise God.

Amen. Have a blessed week!