Trust in King Jesus, He cares for you

How much fear is in your life?

I am not talking about how brave we pretend to be around each other, but what we also feel when we are alone thinking of our lives, what we are going through and what lies ahead.

Fear is a healthy, necessary, God-given emotion (after the fall) to warn us of danger and spur us on to do something about it.

Neuroscientists have identified how the brain produces fear.

We need fear and wanting to get rid of it would be like wanting to get rid of your alarm system because it makes an irritating noise every time someone tries to break into your house.

But in this sinful, fallen world, what is healthy can also become unhealthy and lead to all sorts of problems.

Some people respond appropriately with fear to danger but then can’t switch the fear off even when the danger has passed, and they are safe.

Some people are overwhelmed by fear over imagined danger that may or may not ever happen.

Some neuroscientists say that humans are the most fearful creatures on the planet because of our ability to learn, think, and create fear in our minds.

And the more fearful we are, the more fearful everything will seem and that will negatively affect the way we think, speak and act.

Although, some don’t struggle as much with unhealthy fear, no one ever eliminates unhealthy fear completely.

This morning, at the end of Chapter 4 of Mark, Jesus is going to help His disciples (and us) deal with fear.

Jesus knows that unhealthy fear can cripple His disciples. He knows that this will not be good for them in their relationship with Him and a hindrance in the mission He has called them to.

And so, Jesus will point them (and us) to the only way to deal with fear and that is to have faith in Him, to trust in Him.

The opposite of fear is not fearlessness but faith and particularly, faith in Jesus.

(Pray)

Trust in King Jesus, He cares for you (4: 35 – 41)

As we know, some of these disciples were fishermen. They knew a serious storm when they saw one. And they were in one now. This kind of storm could take them down. Some may have been holding on for dear life, others may have been bailing out water.

And where was Jesus, the Saviour? Asleep in the back of the boat. I mean, what is wrong with that picture?

The disciples wake Him up and rebuke Him … “don’t you care if we drown?”

Jesus responds by getting up and rebuking the wind and the waves who immediately obey Jesus, and everything goes completely calm and tranquil.

Jesus then turns to the disciples and rebukes them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

The rebuke must have stung, but they are shocked by what they have just witnessed Jesus do. They have seriously underestimated who this Jesus in the boat with them is … and terrified they ask each other “Who is this? even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Of course, there is only one answer to that question.

The OT is clear that only God can raise and calm a storm. Could it really be that God was in the boat with them? He sure was.

So why was Jesus rebuking them?

I don’t think Jesus was rebuking them for the natural fear they would have had for the dangerous situation they were in … I think He was rebuking them because they had moved past that natural fear to fearing that Jesus didn’t care about them and was going to do nothing about the fact that they were going to drown.

To be honest I have sympathy for them, all hell is breaking loose around them, and Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat. How does He even sleep through this?

Clearly, they have no faith in Jesus. And part of the problem is that they don’t understand who this sleeping in the back of the boat.

If they had any faith in Jesus and what He had taught them so far (and they should have), they would have known that there was no way that they and Jesus would drown in that storm.

Jesus had told them enough to know that He and they had work to do for God’s kingdom beyond this boat ride in this storm.

Yes, they would all die in the future (as all humans do), when they had accomplished what God had prepared for them to do but not now, not on this boat in this storm.

Ok, but the disciples still had to wake Jesus up. Maybe Jesus should have chilled a bit with rebuking them. What if they hadn’t woken Him up, maybe they could have drowned?

If that were the case, then Jesus is a powerful God (He calms the wind and waves) but He is a slack God who needs people around Him to make sure He doesn’t blow the whole mission by oversleeping or some other slackness in the future.

And then He is a bit of a bully for rebuking them for a lack of faith when He should be thanking them for saving His bacon so He could save theirs.

But none of that view of Jesus fits any reliable, historical, eyewitness account of who Jesus was and what He did.

I think there is another way to think about this that fits much better with what we know about Jesus.

They shouldn’t have been afraid of dying in this boat because Jesus had told them of a mission beyond this boat ride.

And Jesus had already proved to them that they can take Him at His word. When Jesus spoke, what He wanted to happen, happened:

• Disciples He called to follow, followed
• Demons obeyed His commands
• Diseases disappeared when He told them to

So why would they think that His words of a mission for them beyond this boat ride would now fail because of a storm. Nothing can stop His plan. If He says it is going to happen, it is going to happen.

A more faith-full response may have been:

• To let Him keep on sleeping knowing that (because they trusted Him and what He had said) that they would get through this. Whether He kept on sleeping through the storm or He woke up at just the right time to save them. It’s possible that Jesus wanted that, He challenged people to trust in Him in some radical ways while on earth… but more likely a faithful response would have been…
• To wake Jesus up, not by rebuking Him that He doesn’t care that they are about to drown, but with faith (because there was evidence) that He did care, and they would be ok. And then wait upon Him to reassure them or do something that was appropriate in the circumstances.

Well, hopefully the miracle of calming the storm would convince them that they can trust in King Jesus, the Lord of all creation, with power over creation so that it can never cause His plans to fail.

Or they would learn from His rebuke as Teacher that they can trust in Him and His words even when the storm is raging.

But they had no faith. And when there is no faith there is only fear!

Now how do we apply this to our lives in 2019?

The first thing to say is that this passage is not saying that if you have enough faith you will not be shipwrecked in the storms of life.

Jesus saved the disciples (who had absolutely no faith in Him) from a shipwreck because that was part of His plan.

In Acts 27, the apostle Paul (a man of strong faith) was on a ship that did get wrecked. Because that was the Lord’s plan for Paul.

This passage is also not about us having the faith to believe and say, in any given bad situation, that we will not die because we believe God still has got work for us to do. That was true for the disciples in their situation because Jesus had made it clear to them face to face. But none of us have been given that kind of clarity in our lives about the future.

We live by faith that He cares for us, without any specific information about whether things will turn out the way we want them to or even if we will make it through any given situation.

But, like the disciples, we must learn to take Jesus at His Word and not allow unhealthy or sinful fear to dominate our lives. And there is a lot in the Bible that shows that He cares for us no matter what the situation.

So how do we trust in Jesus in a way that exercises and grows faith and works against fear?

It may be that the Holy Spirit has already given you what you need from this passage.

• You will trust that Jesus knows what He is doing in your life.
• You will trust that He cares, no matter what storm hits your life, no matter how bad things seem and how much your emotions want to tell you that He doesn’t care.

But maybe you need a bit more clarity and help.

And the problem with this topic can be our expectations of what God should do in a time of trial and fear.

But if you open your mind and heart to the working of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word you may just begin a different journey of growth today that will be a huge blessing to you.

So … Let’s imagine (those of us who are Christians) that we are in a boat at sea (you can apply this to any situation really).

Let’s imagine that we are in the middle of a terrible storm.

This could go either way. We could get through it like others have, maybe with some damages and injuries. We could sink and drown as others have.

Is it right to be fearful? Of course, it is. That is how God has wired us. That natural fear should drive us to do what we can to survive the storm. Who knows God might use our efforts to get us through it?

But even when we have done what we can, there is no guarantee that we will survive. We may very well sink and drown. That doesn’t only happen to people who aren’t Christians.

So how do we process this as Christians? How do we trust in Jesus, have faith in Him, believe He cares whether we live or die?

We take Jesus at His Word. We trust in what is said in the Word, His Word (the Bible). Those words are as good as Jesus being with us talking to us in the flesh.

Now there are many different passages in the Bible that may be relevant, I will mention a couple.

By the way, we probably won’t have time to look this up in our Bibles in the storm, which is why as Christians we attend church, home groups, Explore courses, read our Bibles and good literature on the Bible … as much as possible and build up a treasury of important truths in our minds and hearts that we can lean on and shout to ourselves in the storm.

Well, what has Jesus said? Will we live or die here? We don’t know. There is no passage in the Bible that deals specifically with our situation.

But what we do know is this, whether we live or die, it will all be a part of God’s loving care of us in a world where we all must still go through death. Philippians 1: 20 – 26 (Unpack). That is the assurance that we as Christians have from our Lord. So, we trust in Him and His Word. We exercise our faith.

Now that may not eliminate our natural fear. And that is fine. It doesn’t mean we lack faith if we do still believe that no matter whether we live or die it will all be part of Jesus’ loving, caring, good plan for us and His glory.

Fear – He cares – this sucks – thank you Lord / Hi Lord

Sometimes, in response to our faith and prayer, God supernaturally fill us with such peace in the storm that fear, and anxiety fade seem to make no impact on us, irrespective of the outcome.

And I think that is what Paul is talking about in Philippians 4: 6 – 7 (Unpack).

• Guard – garrison / fortress around the mind and heart against the onslaught of fear, anxiety and worry – peace inside all the rest on the outside
• Note role of thanksgiving
• By the way (8 – 9), focus on truth of God’s word – God of peace there too. We can have the peace of God and the God of peace on the boat with us in the storm even though we can’t see Him.
• Supernatural = peace which transcends all understanding. Why Jesus could sleep in the storm. Allows us to have peace even when everything seems against us and it feels like Jesus is asleep again.

Fear – He cares – this sucks – help me and thank you for your love – wow no fear just peace – thank you Lord / Hi Lord

For this to become a reality in our lives, we must persevere in exercising faith in Jesus’ Word that He loves us and cares for us in every storm and no matter what our emotions are telling us to the contrary.

And remember this is not a perfect science, faith is part of a relationship. So, from our side it will be up and down. But we persevere, and as we do, we grow, and God will do some amazing things.

For those who are not Christians yet. I don’t know what your experience with fear is.

God has given this emotion, since the fall (when sin came into this world), not only to simply react to danger … but also (when we or others can’t do anything about dangerous situations) to look beyond to God Himself for help.

And when we do go to Him for help in any situation, He will always say that we must first deal with the greater danger we are in because of sin.

Jesus was in the boat with the disciples not just because He needed to save them from drowning in this storm, but because He cared for them so much that He had come to earth so save them (and us) from their sin on the cross.

So that whether they survived or drowned they would always be with Him and safe.

If you are not a Christian yet, you should be afraid of dying without Christ.

It would be the worst kind of judgement, to be without Christ, to not have had your sins forgiven and be saved, and to feel totally at peace about dying.

Jesus cares for you. He came to earth to achieve salvation for you. To rescue you from the eternal storm.

And if you ask Him for that salvation, He will command that eternal storm to never touch you again, even though you might have to go through other storms.

Ask Him for that salvation and through Jesus you will make peace with God … He will then be with you as the God of peace not a judge to be feared in a negative way … and you will experience the peace of God in this world and in eternity you will RIP.

To celebrate what Jesus has done we will celebrate Easter next weekend and communion today.

Question:

1. Using Mark 4: 35 – 41 and Philippians 1: 20 – 26 + 4: 6 – 9, develop a faith strategy of dealing with fear in any “storm” you may face in life.