The title of today's message is “when the struggle is real” and there is no doubt that the struggle right now is real. I don't know about you, but I literally feel like last week was a year ago and I need to just take a second right out of the gate to be really honest and transparent with you that I am struggling today as many of you are. I've been struggling this week. I'm grieved. I'm in a bit of a fog. So I may be referring to my notes more than usual just because I want to make sure that I'm being true to what I believe that the Lord has for us today. So please have grace for me if I do that because actually I wrote this message originally on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25th, and it wasn't until the next morning that I learned of the devastating and heartbreaking news of the senseless murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Originally, I imagined that the struggles that we would be applying to today's message would relate to the effects of the results of the pandemic and certainly those struggles are very real still. But as we look around at what's happening right now and all of the evil and the pain that this murder has brought about and caused us to take a close look at. I realized once again that our greatest struggles are not those of external circumstances, but they're the internal struggles, the matters of the heart. Ephesians 6:12 says:
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
What we are witnessing with George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, the Central Park incident and so many others is nothing short of evil and a reminder that indeed there are dark forces at work in this world. I want to be very clear that I do not in the least feel qualified to be up here speaking today. I am sure I would have opted out if I would have known what today was going to bring. But God had other plans. Though I am far from educated, I have no experience personally to be able to speak on these topics adequately and I don't even begin to try. I do want to say this from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the church, God's people, for those of you who are grieving, we grieve with you because God's heart is deeply grieved.
For those of you who feel alone, misunderstood, angry, tired, hopeless, judged, overlooked, or underrepresented, God is near. He is near the brokenhearted. He is not distant. He is not indifferent. He is not silent. He is not apathetic. He is not a coward and he is not standing off in the corner and neither as Christians representing God's heart, do we have the option to either. As we gather this morning, may it be God’s healing words that fall like rain and permeate our hearts. May his kindness be what leads us all to places of repentance so that a hurting world when they ask, “does God even care?”, will see an experience through God's people that yes, God cares.
Today's reading will be a story from Mark 4:35-41 and this story is titled, “Jesus calms the storm,” and boy do we need him to calm the storm today. As we read this story together, I just think it would be helpful for you to understand some of the metaphorical parallels that we will see in this story. Oftentimes, when the Bible refers to a lake or sea, it's referring to the dark world. Storms are often a reference to trials or tribulations. The boat can be in reference to our life. Waves and wind often refer to circumstances, and the other side can be a double meaning. It can be the other side of this particular storm or trial or tribulation, and it can also refer to the other side of this very life, the afterlife. So keep those in mind as we read together.
Jesus Calms the Storm
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
Storms have a way of drudging up what's beneath the surface, don't they? Especially this kind of storm. It was a furious squall. It means it came on with almost no warning and the potential for devastation was large-scale. If you've ever been on a beach and taken a walk along the shoreline after the night of a storm, you know that there's a lot of junk and debris and yuck that washes up onto the surface in plain sight. Now when you see that, you don't imagine that the storm created all of that junk. No. We know that the storm created a stir and it stirred the pot enough that what was underneath was drudged up and laid out for all to see. This was that kind of a storm. In fact, in another gospel, it says that they were in great danger and they were nearly capsized. They had a right to fear for their lives because this type of a storm, there was no amount of human efforts that were going to put a dent in their problem. Humanly speaking, they were helpless in the storm. Then to make matters worse, where do they find Jesus? Asleep! Isn't that such an odd thing? They find him asleep and they're going “really?”. So not only are they in a life-threatening storm fearing for their lives, but Jesus is in the boat with them. And he's asleep.
This storm dredged up something deeper within them because as they're fighting this battle, they've got Jesus in the boat with them, but they feel like because he's asleep that they're in this battle all alone. I wonder if you've ever been in a struggle, maybe it feels like the struggle of your life and you're wondering if Jesus is asleep. You're wondering where he is because you feel like you're fighting this battle all alone. Asleep really? And now what's beneath the surface washes up and the question can't be pushed down any longer and it spews out of them because what is out of our heart will end up coming out of our mouth and they end up addressing him and saying, teacher, don't you even care? Do you even care that we're going to perish?
You find yourself asking that question these days. Do you care? Do you care that the death tolls are rising? Do you care that the economy is crashing? Do you care that unemployment is increasing and medical workers going in to do their job are getting sick? Do you care that innocent people are getting murdered in plain sight? Do you care that racism is rampant? Do you care that our cities are on fire right now? Do you care? Suddenly the circumstances reveal a deeper internal crisis, which is a crisis of faith. See faith in the original Greek language is “pistos”. It actually literally means persuasion.
These types of storms can reveal what we're truly persuaded. We believe we can rely on what we're truly persuaded about who God is, if he cares, his character, and how it affects our life today. But I want to tell you something that's kind of neat about storms too. Storms do not only drudge up the junk and the yuck and the debris but if the storm is ravenous enough, it could potentially reach in and drudge up treasures as well.
For who will seek, we can find treasures in the storm as well because look at how Jesus responds to their question. I just love this because if you read the way that these guys address Jesus. “Teacher, do you even care?” It’s not really a question, is it? It's really more of an accusation posed as a question and I just think it's fascinating that Jesus does not address that accusation. He doesn't say, “well, of course, I care because I came down to earth and I lived this human life and I'm living in this bigger boat with you, and then during your struggles with you, when actually I could still be inhibited, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” He doesn't do that. He doesn't address the accusation and he doesn't even seem offended. What he does is he responds to what's really going on?
He responds with questions that will cause them to look at the root issues. He knows what that question is really about, and so what does he address? He addresses their fear. It's fear talking. I know that to everyone else, it sounds like you're angry. I know that it sounds like you don't think I care. I know that it sounds like you're almost turning on me, but I know what's behind that question. I know that this is how you sound when you're afraid. And isn't it awesome to know that we can take our real deep down, honest questions to God and he doesn't turn us away and he is not angry with the honest questions. In fact, if we're honestly seeking the answer, he'll go further than that. And not only welcome our questions but then address with us what's really going on. Why? Because he wants us healed and whole and he wants us useful in the kingdom, and the more whole we are, the more useful in the kingdom we will be. See, he addresses their accusation by saying, why are you afraid? And then he kind of tells him, where's your faith? You have little faith, you lack faith. You're afraid because of your faith. Where is your faith? Who is your faith in? These are the questions of the heart that he will address. And this can actually give us an opportunity to go there right now.
This was not always the way that I would operate. I typically would like to keep a surface level of peace even between me and God by not really confronting him with the things that sort of bother me and the things that don't really make sense to me about what I know about his character. But in my recent years, I'm going there and it's sometimes a struggle and the answer isn't always revealed right away. Sometimes the storm and the struggle and the trial endures longer than I would like. But I tell you what he'll do with the honest seeker who goes to him...see, that's what the disciples did right. They went to Jesus because they realized their human efforts weren't going to get them through this storm.
And that's an example for us. If we will go to him right now with our deep down, honest pains and questions, he not only won't turn us away, but this can be an opportunity to have some things uprooted because some of us have some thoughts, some beliefs that have been way, way down, rooted way down deep, and we don't even recognize them as needing to be uprooted. But you know when the best time to uproot something is? It's when the ground is soft. You ever try to uproot something when the ground is dry? It's almost impossible. But when that ground is soft, you can get in there, break up the soil with ease and get this thing out from the root. Let's not waste this crisis.
Go to Jesus, ask the questions, go where he went. Be with the broken-hearted. Hear their cries. Take it to God. Let's work it out and let's let the soil be dampened and loosened and broken up and wet by the soft cries of the oppressed. Allow the tears of the oppressed to break up that soil. Ask God to uproot what is really needing to be uprooted so that we can then do what we were created to do in him, which is produce the good fruit. His children are to be rooted in one thing and one thing only. It's not religion. It's not a tradition. It's not anything except love, and love comes from him. May we be rooted in love. See, I'm convinced not only through what the scripture teaches us but now also in my own life that the storms that God takes us through.
Remember, they didn't cause the storm. We don't have the ability to cause a storm. Jesus is the one that commanded them to go out in the water knowing that a storm would be there. It's safe to say he took them out into this storm. And as hard as it is to understand, there are some storms we go through and God ordained that. But can he be trusted with it? Yes, he can, because I am convinced that storms are an opportunity for us to receive a fuller revelation of who he is. When we receive a fuller revelation of who he is, our faith grows because our faith grows not by efforts, but our faith grows in the person, Jesus Christ. So we need a fuller understanding of who this Jesus is. Recognize something, when these disciples went to Jesus, look at how they addressed him.
They addressed him as “teacher”. “Teacher, don't you care that we're going to perish?” So they addressed him for what they had already accepted of him, but there was so much more about him that they needed to understand. They had not wrapped their heads around the fact that he was the God man. So when they address him as teacher and ask if he cares, what does he do? I can just picture it. He literally stands up like he arose the God in flesh. He rose and he spoke to the winds and the waves and he says, be still. What's that remind you of? It reminds me of Psalm 46:10 which is one of our favorite verses to plaster on mugs or put up like in our living rooms and it sounds cute and flowery, be still and know that I am a teacher? No,
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
See they went into the storm accepting him already as a good teacher. Someone that was going to show them some good ways. They were even willing to give him a superior role, but they had not seen him yet as God. So how does he respond when they ask if he cares? He stands up and he shows them a fuller expression of who he is, that he is God over all creation, sovereign over all. See, these men had probably accepted what a lot of us accept. They've probably accepted that their average men, you know, fishermen mostly by trade and their probably greatest determination was to, you know, another day, another dollar. Let's get through the day, let's survive. And they're just trying to survive the day. They're just trying to survive the storm or be good men, follow Jesus’ ways, do the right thing. And they don't have these high aspirations necessarily. They just want to survive the storm.
But Jesus saw something in them and it's the same thing that he sees in every single person that will receive him. He saw ambassadors, he saw people with whom he wants to make his appeal for reconciliation through. He saw his vessels, he saw his messengers, he saw martyrs even and oh boy, if they were going live up to this right and responsibility to be these ambassadors, they were going to have to have a super-strong faith, a deep persuasion that faith was going to have to be strong enough to weather a whole lot more storms. Because guess what? This was not going to be the last storm they ever went through. When we started this series, Pastor Steve preached about a storm where Peter got up and walked out on the water and the greatest thing in my opinion about that story is that is the first time we see the disciples though they had walked side by side with him and witnessed many miracles. That is the first time we see them worship their Lord and savior for who he really is.
They didn't get to avoid another storm after this one because they still hadn't seen him for who he was. God is first committed to saving us and then he is committed to growing our faith. And if our faith is going to grow, we are going to have to take from these storms, the treasures of seeing him more fully and where he really is at work. The greater revelation we have of who Jesus is, the more we'll grow in our faith and our persuasion, our pistos, our persuasion just like that of Paul who spared no amount of storms in his life, that's for sure, but listen to what he writes in Romans
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let's not forget in this story, that it starts with Jesus saying, “let's go to the other side.” They were always going to get to the other side because Jesus said it, but there's that double meaning here. We need to get to the other side of the storm and when we get to the other side of the storm, you see me more fully now, you should act in that more fully. He's also talking about the other side of this life. In me, if you accept Jesus Christ into your life, if he's in your boat, the storms may be rough, the storms may come, but you will get safely to the other side because he has made the way.
So many of us call ourselves followers of Jesus, but all the way here, this morning I kept thinking to myself, I say, I follow Christ, but where did Christ go? Where did he go? If I'm following, where am I following him? We'll take a look at his life. Take a look at his ministry. Where did he go? He went to the margins. He said the spirit of the Lord is on me. It has anointed me to do what? To proclaim freedom for the prisoner, the recovery of sight for the blind, and to set the oppressed free. And my friends, I say this with a personal conviction of my own self. I have not lived in the margins enough. I have not gone there enough. I have not been friends to the oppressed enough. I'm begging him to give me recovery of sight and remove those blind spots so that I've lived this life that's worthy of the call. He saved us not because of our works, but once we're saved, we have some serious work to do.
As we go through these struggles, may our faith be strengthened and may we be encouraged in these trying times by reminding ourselves of what lies on the other side. Because on the other side there are no more tears there, no more black or white, slaves or free, male, female, none of that.
Today we grieve with our African American brothers and sisters who are grieving, but we do not grieve as people without hope. Christ in us is the hope of God's glory and when it comes to enduring our personal times of struggle and storm, may we be a people who are strengthened through the storm and our faith, and encouraged by the hope that lies on the other side, as Martin Luther King Jr. was. Yesterday, Neil and I sat on our back deck and we listened to a portion of Martin Luther King Jr's last message. This message was literally given within 24 hours of his death, his murder, and there is a small piece of this message that shows me that this man not only had hope, though oppressed, but God had given him a glimpse of what lied on the other side. He had a glimpse of the glory. Today we're going to end not with my words but with his.
“And they were telling me --. Now, it doesn't matter, now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."
And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!”