Hello, you're listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
This epiphany in Lent, we're back in the Gospels,
specifically the Gospel of Mark. We are seeing
the revelation of God in Jesus. Mark is showing
us the true King becomes a servant for us. He
says right at the heart, the Son of Man came
not to be served, but to serve and to give his
life as a ransom for many. And Mark is nearly
always asking his audience, what do you make
of that? So, what do you make of this good news?
We'd love to meet you and we hope you'll consider
coming and joining with us each Sunday morning
at 10 a .m. in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg.
You can find us online at SecondCityChurch .org
and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We hope
you enjoy this sermon. God bless. of your power
over all things, to calm the greatest concerns
of our life, the deepest fears of our experiences,
even creation itself. God, the power of your
word has been on display for us in this chapter
in these last few weeks. But this astounded your
disciples. They were great. They were full of
fear and said, who then even is this that the
winds and the waves obey him? God, I pray that
the effect of our time in this passage would
be a greater and greater faith in your ability,
in your power, in your love, in your care. Speak
to us now, we pray. Open our hearts to receive
you, and our ears to listen and receive from
you. Amen. All right, in 1895, Winston Churchill
was a young officer in the 4th Hussars, which
was a cavalry unit in the British Army. He was
an officer and he was kicking up his heels in
London, and he decided he needed to see some
action. The only war though going on at the time
was over in Cuba and so he got permission actually
from the Spanish government in Madrid and he
sailed to Havana. There he took the train to
Cienfuegos, a boat to Tunas de Zara and then
another train to Sancti Spiritus. He joined the
Spanish army there under the leadership of General
Suarez Valdez. They trekked to Arroyo Blanco
and it was on his 21st birthday on Winston Churchill's
21st birthday on the 30th of November in 1895
that he finally saw battle. Churchill actually
only spent a few weeks in Cuba but that day on
his birthday after seeing battle he wrote to
his mom this. There is nothing more exhilarating.
than to be shot at with no result. There's nothing
more exhilarating than to be shot at with no
result. I think we know this in some other ways.
We are all glad, aren't we, that the Eagles won
the Super Bowl? Amen! It's like y 'all are almost
Pentecostal Presbyterians with that kind of stuff.
But y 'all, how much better would it have been
if it was a little closer? I mean, imagine, I
know, Jed and I have talked about this, we've
debated this, but imagine if Travis Kelce and
Patrick Mahomes had the game of their lives and
it came down to the very last second to a Hail
Mary into the end zone and the Eagles won. I
mean, that would be a game. Goading down in history,
that would be a game to watch. I have no interest
in the Chicago Cubs. I lived in St. Louis for
four and a half years and attended many Cardinals
games. If you know baseball, you know that Cardinals
fans do not like the Cubs. But there was something
about their breaking the 108 year drought in
2016 that was really pretty remarkable. One sports
writer wrote this. The Chicago Cubs defeated
the Cleveland Indians 8 -7 in a mind blowing,
nerve jangling, heart stopping mess of a game.
A 10 -inning acid trip. I'm like, gosh, I got
to watch this game again. The test of the limits
of your sanity made baseball history and ended
108 years of anxiety. Every inning of this game
pushed the night closer and closer to becoming
a Salvador Dali painting brought to life. It
was surreal. It was painful. It was delirious.
was four hours and 28 minutes of madness culminating
in an ending that still doesn't seem real. Nothing
more exhilarating than being shot at with no
result. And yet, truthfully, one of the things
that we come to terms with in life, rather quickly,
is that for the most part we get shot at with
results. So we learn to live in fear, to cower,
to be timidly engaged with the world, with God.
You don't have to live long, too long in this
world before you feel the reality of a world
that is full of pain and sorrow and hurt and
words unkindly and intentionally unkindly spoken.
of jobs lost and loved ones passing. And even
knowing of our own sort of impending death and
the storms across the waters of life often do
rage. And we got shot at with result. We do all
we can to keep death at bay. We distract ourselves
with Netflix. We comfort ourselves with air conditioning
and all the rest. We medicate. Taking supplements
to keep us young, painkillers to keep us numb,
drinks to keep us distracted. We segregate by
age, almost as if to not have to think about
just the reality of what happens as we age. Churches
often divided up by the young and the old. We
sequester those who are closer to death into
nursing homes and the like, trying to not have
to deal with our own fate. We cannot get away,
it seems like, from the fact that we are shot
at with result. A number of years ago, Lily,
my daughter, had come to that age where she began
asking about death. And I told her about the
passing of one of my dogs who I loved growing
up. This dog's name was Shimmery. That dog, Shimmery,
loved to dance. Maybe some of you have had a
dog that loves to dance. She was a full -grown,
a standard -sized golden retriever and loved
to put her paws up and to dance. And I loved
dancing with her. And when she died, we buried
her in my parents' property and we mourned her
passing. And this was quite a few years ago.
But that week, Lily told me this story numerous
times. It was just a short conversation. She
said, Daddy, can I tell you a sad story? And
I'd say, sure. He said, or she would say, There
once was a boy who had a dog that liked to dance
with him and the dog died. She told this story
a number of times during the week. Sitting in
the reality of the pain of getting shot at with
result. But this coming to terms with pain, with
brokenness, with sorrow, with fear, with death
and the unrest that accompanies us because of
all those prospects. The fact is that coming
to terms with those things and actually engaging
them is often what God uses to bring us to himself.
Being shot at is often what God uses in our lives
to build faith. Some of you have read C .S. Lewis'
book, The Problem of Pain, and if you haven't
read it, maybe you've heard this quote. He says,
pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers
to us in our pleasures. He speaks to us in our
conscience, but shouts in our pain. It's his
megaphone to rouse a deaf world. What we're talking
about in Mark chapter four is the words of God
going forth, right? Seeds that have been scattered,
the little mustard seed that grows and the surprising
effect of the words of God in the world. And
in the midst of the chaos of world, the midst
of getting shot at, is actually often how Jesus
begins to shout who he is and how he loves us
and how he cares. Think of this. Jesus' ministry
wasn't very long. Three years. Remarkably busy.
And actually in Mark, most of all, we get the
sense that he jumps right into the busyness.
I mean, in chapter one, he's preaching throughout
Galilee. He's beginning to heal. In chapter two,
he's healing. In chapter three, he's healing.
Of course, we have this long narrative of the
parables of the sower and all that in chapter
four, but we know right from the get -go that
his disciples and the crowds were just amazed
at his power and his words and how insightful
they were and how compelling they were and how
they drew you in to ask questions, but also how
he could just simply reach out and touch and
the leper would be made well, would be restored
to society. We know how the crowds that engage
with these things grew, grew and grew and grew
to the extent that by the chapter, by the time
when chapter four comes, we believe that he was
preaching there at the Bay of Parables along
the Sea of Galilee and the beginning of the chapter
actually says he gets into a boat. We talked
about this a couple weeks ago how actually the
water itself would have reverberated the words
of Christ and thousands of people, studies have
shown, could have heard his teachings. Anyway,
the busyness of such a life with that sort of
busyness in his humanity, he would have become
very, very tired. So it should be no surprise
that as he says, let's get into the boat, let's
go to the other side, and disciples begin to
row out into the water, sort of the rocking of
the boat, the lowing of the waves would have...
rather quickly put him to sleep. Because for
all of Mark's really clear teaching that Jesus
is in fact God. What Mark also tells us is he
is fully man. Right here in this little story
we have sort of the essence of Christology, the
study of who Christ is, the God -man. One commentator
said our Christology, our understanding of Jesus,
is what leads to our discipleship. How he lives
and who he was has everything to do with how
you live Anyway, they're in this boat after a
long day of teaching and It's then when they're
in this boat and when he is asleep. They're sailing
across the Sea of Galilee Jesus has fallen asleep
and this windstorm Begins to blow upon the waters
now This would not have been an entirely abnormal
thing Some of you might know this, that the Sea
of Galilee actually has these storms to this
day kind of show up. Sea of Galilee is 700 feet
below sea level. It's very low, but actually
if you go off in one direction from the Sea of
Galilee, sort of the northwest, there's actually
the heights of Geshon up there, and the mountains
there are 9 ,200 feet. And so you can imagine
that sometimes the wind will blow down and the
cold mountain air will come down and the warm
air down below gets pushed out and it gets going
fast and the waves begin to rock and to roll.
Those gorges of the mountains are like amphitheaters
for the teaching of Jesus, but they create this
wind tunnel along the Sea of Galilee. Anyway,
a boat would have easily been swamped, easily
been capsized in the midst of a storm like this.
And it's right there in the middle of this kind
of storm in the Sea of Galilee that Jesus is
with his disciples in the boat and he sleeps.
And of course, the disciples are thinking, what
is going on here? This storm that we have heard
about, that we've experienced in our lives on
some level, is going to swamp us, is hitting
us, and Jesus is just sleeping. And listen to
what happens, verse 39. And he awoke, it just
sounds so simple. And he awoke and he rebuked
the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still.
And amazingly, the wind, the raging waves, they
just cease, they're still. Just like a word like
that. Jesus wakes up, he rebukes the wind, the
raging waves, and it's peaceful. It's just one
word, and the storm is still, just like that.
And we stand in awe of that, and Christians have
always stood in awe of this story. It's a very
short story. It doesn't take a long time to read,
and yet this story kind of looms large over Christian
imagination. Mean it says they were filled with
great fear They said to one another who is this
that even the winds and the sea obey him and
we think yeah That's exactly what I would have
thought what is happening. It's just a word But
here's God in the flesh Here he is demonstrating
that he has all power over all creation Just
as he was the one who speeds and the wind the
Ruah of creation goes over the waters And the
earth is formed. Here he is right here and he's
speaking over the waters. And just as he has
power in Genesis 1, here again Jesus has power
over creation itself. And they stand in awe and
in fear of who he is. Here in a powerful way
we see Jesus, the man sent from God, but the
man who is God. doing what God first did there
in Genesis chapter one. He's displaying divine
authority and his power on behalf of those who
would call out to him and trust him. Again, it's
for this reason that this has just grabbed ahold
of Christian imagination. This story has been
so central to Christian life. Probably many of
you have seen some of the great paintings that
have been done from this story. There are many
of them. Maybe you've seen Rembrandt's painting
or Delacroix's or Bruegel the Elder. Maybe you
know that actually it was this image of the boat
on the waves, which was one of, along with images
like the Good Shepherd and the Lamb, one of the
great images of the early church. This is who
we believe, the God who carries us through the
storm to the other side. Christ the long waited
for Messiah the God man with his disciples in
the storm with them Calming the storm for them
the dark waters the raging waves Disciples and
Jesus right there with them The Bible time and
again actually uses the imagery of seas and waters
to depict actually how crazy life is And we know
this, like we even say, now the storms of life
are hitting me. That was an image that was used
in the Bible a lot. It was depicting death and
chaos and the unknown. But it's into that kind
of stuff, into the death and the chaos and the
unknown. And that which gives us fear that Jesus
simply speaks. Just a couple words, peace, be
still. And all of that that brings fear is gone,
done away with. It's amazing. They come to him
in the midst, as you would say, sort of of getting
shot at, in the middle of the storm of their
life, and he helps. And one of the things that
we see in the Bible is this is always what Jesus
does. Come, help me Lord, save me. Jesus never
turns away anyone who says, come, save, come,
help. But here's where I want us to go with this.
He then rebukes them. He says, why do you lack
faith? Luke tells us this, that he said, where
is your faith? Matthew, actually this is really
interesting. Matthew, and you can imagine there's
a bunch of disciples in this boat. Very likely
actually there's been a boat uncovered. from
exactly this time in the Sea of Galilee. It was
about 26 feet long with a little bow and stern
where Jesus would have likely slept. And room
for about 12 to 16 people on there. So you can
imagine all the disciples. Maybe he was saying
different things to different ones as they came
to him. But what Matthew tells us is he gives
them a nickname. And the nickname is Little Faiths.
Hey, Little Faiths. Not exactly the nickname
you want, right? But Mark actually says, have
you still no faith? Have you still no faith?
Why I think this kind of sits with us funny is
that on some level they have demonstrated faith,
haven't they? They have. Peter, James, and John,
way back in chapter one, were told, hey, come,
I'm gonna make you fishes of men. And what did
they do? They came and they followed him. It's
an act of faith. Matthew, deo cop. preached the
call of Matthew. Actually, Dale came to me and
said, can I do that? And I said, I don't think
so. I really want to do it. And then when I looked
at the script, I was like, shoot. Dale's doing
it. OK. But back in chapter two, Matthew left
his occupation of being a tax collector to follow
Jesus. These are acts of faith. What we heard
earlier in the chapter, when they were confused
about the parables, what did they do? They went
to Jesus and asked him, teach us, right? These
are acts. of faith even here they find themselves
in their hour of need getting shot at at the
wind and the waves where do they go where do
they go guys they go to jesus thank you act of
faith maybe they shook him awake you know yelled
in his ears over the loud waves What's what I'm
saying is there's no question that on some level
they did have some faith Okay, they're acting
out of this reality of the on some level they
need Jesus Think back though with me to the parable
that Jesus had just taught them the beginning
of the chapter He taught them in the crowd and
and he'd actually taken time to just Explain
this parable to his disciples what it meant the
words of God are the seeds that are sown And
some of them fall on hard ground and, you know,
the bird comes and they are taken away and some
are sewn along rocks and they shoot up quickly
but they die when trials come. Some fall on weeds
and they're choked because of the cares of the
world. And then there's some that are actually
sewn and they become deep rooted and they grow
and they bear much fruit. And on some level Jesus
was even asking there, where's your faith? Like
the one that maybe just receives it a little
bit and the trials of life come and scattered
Anyway Jesus comes and he says to them where's
your faith? Have you no fear? Why do you live?
Why are you afraid? And I wonder what you do
with this. What do you do with Jesus here in
this story? What do you do with his questions
to his disciples? Because I think that there's
a possibility that Jesus sounds a little bit
crazy here. Right? I mean, wouldn't you think
that it's the right response in the midst of
getting shot at to think, well, we should rouse
Jesus. He's sleeping. How often our experiences
like the disciples, the waves of the world are
bashing against us. The pain of the world is
overwhelming us. The weeds of the world are choking
us. Reality of living in a world where death
and destruction and decay seem to be the way
things are. And this is simply battering us time
and time again. And often what happens when we
are getting battered with these kinds of waves
is our inclination is to think God is not there.
Or maybe he doesn't care or maybe at best what
we do is we do what the disciples did and they
say we say Lord help Of course it's these stories
of Jesus and these kinds of experiences why so
many people were once Christians and why they
now are not because the seeds are sown along
the ground and Among the rocks and among the
weeds and the trials of life come and they say
I'm giving up on this But some disciples, when
the trials of life come, they go to Jesus and
they cry out to him. Think about this too. This
experience actually that we're reading right
now, we don't know a lot about many of the disciples
yet, but we know three of them were fishermen.
Which is to say they were in the experience that
they had trained their life for. You know, they
had studied fishing and they'd studied the sea
and they'd probably spent years because most
likely at least We know with James and John,
you know, the father had the business, right?
They were fishermen, generational fishermen.
They had spent their life preparing for these
kinds of moments. The boat was where they lived.
But in this moment, it seemed as though the boat
was not just where they lived, but where they
would perish. And I think also that's actually
an insight into where our faith becomes most
unstable. Place where we think we live becomes
the place where we think we are going to perish.
and we wonder if God even cares. We read parenting
books and attend conferences and our children
reject Jesus. The thing that we spent so much
time studying and devoting our life to. We spend
years of work only to be told that the company's
restructuring our jobs not needed. Our spouse
that we had been devoted to for years and years
thinks that another will give the joy that they
longed for and it's in those moments most of
all that we cry out and we wonder God don't you
care that we're perishing but I also want to
say that it makes all the sense in the world
though it seems I think initially to sort of
rock us in a strange way that Jesus says Why
are you afraid? That's what he says And he awoke
and rebuked the wind and said to the sea peace
be still and the wind ceased there's a great
calm Verse 40 he said to them. Why are you so
afraid? Here's here's the truth the disciples
could have reveled in the storm. I mean, the
whole story begins on that day when evening had
come, he said to them, let us go across to the
other side. It was Jesus' idea to get in the
boat. And he says, we're going to the other side.
God himself in the boat with them. God, Emmanuel,
with us in the boat. Do they really think that
the one who raised Lazarus from the dead and
healed the leopard and the lame and all the rest
could not get them to the other side of the lake?
Did not care about their fate? Did they really
think that the savior of the world would be overcome
by a storm? I mean, in some ways as soon as we
think about it, it almost does seem kind of laughable.
One who can just touch somebody and they can
be healed. Does he not believe that when he says
let's go to the other side we're gonna get to
the other side They really think that the one
who spoke the very waves and the wind into being
not Speak and give them great calm They realize
that as high as the waves were as deep as the
sea is as loud as the sound of the crashing There's
no safer place ever than to be in that boat with
Jesus. You are never safer than with Jesus in
the boat. Which is to say that the disciples
really missed an opportunity that night. They
did. they were being shot at and There was no
chance that what Jesus had in store for them
to get to the other side Was going to happen
that was going to happen There's no chance that
wasn't gonna happen They could have reveled in
the delight of being in the craziest storm of
their life Yet they were filled with fear I Know
because I watched this scene again this week
That when lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump is strapped
to the mast He's taunting God But if you watch
the scene before and you watch the scene right
after it seems as though actually that's a conversion
for him Actually, it really does if you if you
watch the whole thing together But just imagine
these disciples guys tie me to the mast Let's
go It's every surfer's dream Put me on the North
Shore, the biggest waves of the world. If Jesus
says we're going to the other side, we're gonna
get there. Why did we cower? Don't you think
that was exactly their questions? They're all
huddling around the fire that night on the other
side. Man, we missed it. How great could that
have been? Jesus, in verse 40, which I read,
he says, why are you so afraid? It's actually
a different word than the fear verse used in
the next verse. The next verse, fear, actually
when it says the disciples, and they were filled
with great fear, that word there is phobos, which
is the word we get phobia for, like arachnophobia,
stuff like that. But the word for why are you
so afraid that Jesus speaks is actually the word
for cowardly. Why are you so timid? Why are you
so cowardly? Do you not think that I control
all things? That you are never safer than in
the boat with me? I mean, think about it. Being
tossed by the waves and the full assurance that
the Lord will take them through would be the
wildest ride of their life. They missed an opportunity.
Which is to say that part of what Mark is trying
to communicate to us about Jesus is that he longs
for his disciples to not live in fear. Winds
and the waves are nothing for the Lord of creation.
He longs for us to have the freedom that comes
with his absolute love and attention. Push out
any cowardly fear that we have in this life Perfect
love casts out fear. That's what we're told by
first John and Jesus says I am going to love
you perfectly in the midst of the storm No fear
So he's not rebuking them because he's somehow
angry with them He's rebuking them because he
loves them and he desires their freedom, their
life. Rebukes them out of love. Calls them to
a deeper faith, to a rooted faith, to a surer
faith, to a bold and a daring faith. Shakespeare,
some of you, if you know a sonnet by Shakespeare,
you probably know Sonnet 116. He's talking there
about True love. And he says true love looks
on tempests and is never shaken. It looks on
the storms of life. It's never shaken. Churchill
said there is nothing more exhilarating than
to be shot at without result. I don't really
want to be shot at, but I think if I didn't know
I was going to be hit, it could be rather exhilarating.
Blaise Pascal and his Ponce's, the great Christian
man wrote, there is some pleasure being on board
a ship battered by storms when one is certain
of not perishing. The fact is that the storms
of life can really do divide in some ways. They
can show us, as Jesus has said in this chapter,
what kind of soil The seed was sown upon This
was the seed sown in soil that was with rocks
with weeds and when the trials and the cares
of this life came They were decimated That's
one option Jesus is saying there is another option
That when the storms of life from the trials
of life come your faith is just made all the
more certain because Jesus says When I say we're
getting to the other side, we're getting to the
other side. I heard this little snippet from
Kaia DeLonga. Maybe you've heard of him. He's
a writer, actor, comedian, social commentator.
He was on Trevor Noah's podcast, What Now? And
Trevor Noah actually asked him a question. Why'd
you start going back to church? Tell me about
that. Why are you following Jesus? And he says,
you know, my mother died a year ago and I'm in
the car. I'm going to her funeral and I prepared
some words and I'm with my sisters and I'm telling
them I don't think I can give them. I'm so full
of sorrow. I don't think I can get up in front
of people and talk. He hasn't been in church
for years and he's just feeling the utter weight
of living in the storm of his own mother's passing.
And he said he walked into that church building.
there's these ladies up front and as he says
specifically there's this 94 year old woman up
front who's just doing this she's dancing she's
just celebrating that his mother who died was
with Jesus because the promise in Christ is that
those who die in him will live he's gonna take
him to the other side And he said, in that moment,
he said, actually, I didn't give the speech.
I prepared. What I did instead is I sang with
them. And I went back to church the next week.
Because there is something totally different
with the courage of Christians to say, if Jesus
says it's going to happen, it's going to happen.
He's going to take us through. He's going to
take us through. Say this, the beauty of the
life. and the death of Gale Penne is that she
knew to live is Christ but to die is gain because
Jesus says I'm taking you through and he will
make good on that. They could have reveled in
the storm being absolutely certain that they
will not perish with Jesus by their side or If
they did, it's gain anyway. And the truth is,
that is your situation if you're in Jesus. That's
what Romans 8 tells us. Nothing can separate
you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing.
Nothing. It's not that we don't experience storms.
It's not that we're not shot at. It's not that
life's trials are nothing. They are very significant.
But that Jesus, this God -man, the long -for
awaited Messiah, is still Emmanuel. God with
them in the boat. God with you in the boat. That's
still true. He will never leave you. He will
never forsake you. His perfect love will cast
out fear. Manuel, God with us. The Lord was right
there in the boat with them. They roused him
calling out, don't you care that we're perishing?
And he cared for them. He will care for you if
you call out for him with just little faiths
But you know what his desire for you is to live
Live boldly To live in the deepest faith that
God who says he will take you to their side will
absolutely do it Let's pray brothers and sisters
Lord, what a wonderful story And God, I know
that some of us here need to hear that he did
answer the disciples little faith cry. That if
we just call out to you with little faith, you'll
hear us in your compassion. Some of us deeply
need to hear that today. But God, many of us
need to be assured that what you actually deeply
long for us is to not be those who cower and
who are timid and who live in fear, but that
We be those that know the perfect love of God
and Christ, that that perfect love casts out
fear. The wind and the waves may blow, but as
long as we're with Jesus, let them blow all the
more. God, I pray that we would be a bold people,
that we would be full of courage, like joshua
long ago because the lord is on our side because
jesus is in the boat because jesus says lo i
am with you always even to the end of the age
lord move in us in this way give us great faith
great courage Because you, Emmanuel, are with
us. Amen. Thank you for listening to Second City
Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged
you to worship God and to celebrate the gospel
of Jesus. Please consider subscribing to this
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Thanks again for listening. God bless.