I would love sometime for a movie producer like Steven Spielberg to depict this story for modern people. First there would be the tumultuous storm with the boat tossed back and forth in the dim light, wind howling around your ears via the surround sound. Then the authoritative words of command from Jesus heard above the tumult. "Hush! Be still!" Then a sudden Doppler effect calm that starts at one end of the lake and comes slicing through, leaving the disciples on a flat lake, looking at one another with their mouths open in utter astonishment!

Ever go to sleep in church? Come on now, be honest. Who has dozed off for a wink or two on a nice comfortable Sunday morning? J Don't want to admit to it? That's OK. Neither do I.

The Bible has some things to say about sleeping. There's that story of Eutychus who went to sleep while Paul was preaching and fell three stories to his death. Then there is that sad story about Jesus disciples sleeping while He was agonizing in prayer in Gethsemene before the crucifixion.

I recall a man who has now gone to his reward who had the unusual ability to drop off right after I started preaching and then wake up just before I finished. I thought for awhile that his wife must be nudging him at just the right time to wake him up, but she passed on before he did and he was still able to sleep just short of the end of my sermons. It was uncanny.

Then there's that story about the man had been driving all night and by morning was still far from his destination. He decided to stop at the next city he came to, and park somewhere quiet so he could get an hour or two of sleep. As luck would have it, the quiet place he chose happened to be on one of the city's major jogging routes. No sooner had he settled back to snooze when there was a knock on his window. He looked out and saw a jogger running in place.

"Yes?"

"Excuse me, sir," the jogger said, "do you have the time?" The man looked at the car clock and answered, "8:15". The jogger said thanks and left. The man settled back again, and was just dozing off when there was another knock on the window and another jogger.

"Excuse me, sir, do you have the time?"

"8:25!"

The jogger said thanks and left. Now the man could see other joggers passing by and he knew it was only a matter of time before another one disturbed him. To avoid the problem, he got out a pen and paper and put a sign in his window saying, "I do not know the time!" Once again he settled back to sleep. He was just dozing off when there was another knock on the window.

"Sir? Sir? It's 8:45!"

I hope all this talk about sleep isn't making anyone sleepy.

I'm not really going to speak about sleeping in church this morning - and I hope my sermon doesn't put anyone to sleep. However, I do want to speak to you about sleeping in a boat, in the middle of a storm, when you're God.  That's exactly what we find in Mark 4:35-41, which will be our text this morning. Please turn there with me.

I'm a little ahead of the story in speaking of God sleeping in the boat, so let's go back to the beginning of the story and see what it was that brought it all about.

(Read Mark 4:35-41)

To help us keep our place as we go through this passage, I have arranged my sermon around five brief points. I'll give them to you as we progress. We'll begin with:

1. The Lord's Proposal.

(Read v. 35)

Mark's words, "on that day" summarize what had been a very long day of teaching for Jesus. On the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He was speaking throughout the day to the people in a series of parables. The crowd grew so large that He had to step off the shore and onto the deck of a boat to continue. It seems also that a group of other boats, probably owned by local fishermen, had drawn up around his boat so they, too, could hear Him.

That kind of teaching, hour after hour, with no breaks for food or rest, is exhausting, as any teacher who has taught an all-day seminar can verify. Jesus' request to "go over to the other side," at first reading, sounds like a reasonable request for such a day. Both teacher and learners needed to rest and where, among the multitudes on the western shore, could they find any rest? There was barely enough space to stand.

What is not immediately evident here is that "the other side" was several miles away and it was soon to be dark. The Sea of Galilee is a relatively large body of water when you consider navigating by rowing or by sail. It was about 7 miles across from west to east and some 13 miles, north to south. Yes, fishermen were accustomed to fishing at night, so that would be no problem. Rowing across the lake, however, would be quite another thing since they typically didn't venture too far from shore, due to the very danger we'll soon see. The other side of the Lake was also Gentile territory, but if there is anything to make of that, Mark doesn't mention it.

Whatever might have been the disciples' perception of Jesus' request, there is no recorded objection. The Master said goodbye to the multitude and they cast off. Interesting to note also here is Mark's mention of the other boats. Apparently some of them followed along and may have been eyewitnesses of what was about to happen.

(Read v. 36)

To a seasoned Galilean fisherman, what happened next had to be one of the most dreaded events imaginable. I've called it:

2. The Storm's Punch.

(Read v. 37)

Even today the Sea of Galilee is noted for its sudden, fierce, windstorms. A glance at a topographical map readily shows why. The Lake's surface sits in a basin, some 600 feet below the level of the nearby Mediterranean Sea. At evening, as the surrounding mountain air cools, the warm air of the basin rises, leaving a void that allows the cool air above to come roaring down the slopes, into the basin, and then to break across the surface of the Lake. That can quickly translate into gale force winds. Our idiom, "out of the blue," describes it quite well, too, as these winds often come with no warning clouds in the sky. It was an ancient fisherman's nightmare to get caught in such a tempest.

One man, describing his modern-day experience of camping on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, wrote:

"On the occasion referred to we subsequently pitched our tents at the shore, and remained for three days and nights exposed to this tremendous wind. We had to double-pin all the tent-ropes, and frequently were obliged to hang with our whole weight upon them to keep [them] from being carried up bodily into the air… The whole lake, as we had it, was lashed into fury; the waves repeatedly rolled up to our tent door, tumbling over the ropes with such violence as to carry away the tent-pins. And moreover, those winds are not only violent, but they come done suddenly, and often when the sky is perfectly clear." (1)

Did Jesus know this was going to happen? He surely was able, at other times, to know certain aspects of the future. All three gospel writers are silent on the subject however, as we should probably also be.

The waves were so fierce that the boat was quickly filling up with water. These seasoned fishermen knew the situation was grave.

So where was Jesus in all this? He was sound asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat!

(Read v. 38a)

All I can say to that is that He must have been very tired from the long day of teaching that all that commotion didn't rouse Him.

That raises an interesting point about the way the Bible reports on the humanity of Jesus. New Testament Scholar, Alfred Edersheim, notes that had this story been merely a legend as some say, or just so much Apostolic tradition and not truth, it would not have portrayed Jesus, the Son of God, as vulnerable to such weariness and exhaustion in tandem with reporting on His power over nature. It would rather have been written as other legends are written - to embellish the object of the legend to make him appear super-human and all-powerful. Yet in all three gospel accounts of this event we find Jesus succumbed to the same human physical weariness you or I would have in a similar circumstance. Unlike legend, which makes its characters appear bigger than life, the gospel accounts portray Jesus realistically, just as those who walked with Him observed Him. (2)

Human though He was however, He was also "God with us." (3) This was God asleep in a boat, as we shall soon see.

We come now to what I have called:

3. The Disciples' Panic.

(Read v. 38b)

I have to stop here and share something with you that I picked up as I read the accounts of this event in the other two gospel narratives.

Matthew says at this juncture: "Save us, Lord; we are perishing!"

Luke says, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" (4)

Only Mark's account impugns the Lord's motives saying, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" (5)

It is probable that several things were said at the height of this crisis, which included all of these similar phrases. I don't see a contradiction in the various accounts. But these words that Mark records still bug me. Which of the disciples would be impetuous enough this early in Jesus' ministry to take the brash step of impugning Jesus' motives - that is, in suggesting that Jesus was asleep because He didn't care about them? Well, who in the band of disciples was noted for shooting off his mouth before thinking and boasting beyond his ability?

Yes, that would be Peter.

And Mark, who was not an eyewitness to these things - where did he get his information - from which apostle?

Yes, that would be Peter.

It's just my theory, but I suspect that Peter, as he recounted these things for Mark to write down many years after they happened, still apologizingly mindful of his earlier failures due to his impetuous nature, told Mark to write down the words that he himself so brashly spoke.

Yet, before we come down too hard on Peter (if, indeed, these were his words) I think we need to look at ourselves. Though our crisis isn't often a storm-tossed boat in the gathering darkness on a windy lake, how often, when it seems that our trials are about to overcome us, do we engage in the same frantic, mindless panic that Jesus rebuked His disciples for here? We're in trouble - so we pray. That's good. Yet it seems to us that God is ignoring our pleas. Or maybe He's asleep or not listening. It's quite easy to think, even if we don't come right out and say it, "Where are you, God? Don't you care about me? If you're truly in my life, how can you let something like this happen?" Rather than quietly trusting Him as we should, we panic, doubt, and impugn God's motives.

Jesus has something to say about such faithlessness. And yes, that's really what it is. Whether it is you or I, it's faithlessness. When troubles come upon us and it seems we are at our "wit's end" dealing with them, and to us it seems God is nowhere to be found, how do we respond? Well, think about it. Isn't our "wit's end" really where our faith is supposed to begin? And when we reach our "wit's end" and nothing fires up to take over except panic, what is the verdict on our faith?

Some years ago now, I came across these words of Isaiah to ancient Israel in Isaiah 30:15 and they have stuck with me. I hope they will stick with you, too:

"In repentance and rest you shall be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength."

I think it appropriate to ask ourselves this question: Is our reaction to crisis that of quietness and trust or is it panic and doubt?

I may fail this test miserably in some future crisis, but I sincerely hope that if and when such a crisis comes upon me, I can honor God with the trust He deserves and so model the kind of faith that He wishes to show to the world through me. I weary of seeing Christians fall apart when the crisis comes. Before a watching world, their actions are no different than those of unbelievers. What those around them thought was faith turns out to be no faith at all! Shouldn't our years of serving Christ make us different in this respect?

If you think I'm being too harsh when I say that such people have "no faith at all," I ask you to read verse 40 of our text.

(Read v. 40)

Yes, they had the faith to leave what they owned and follow Him. They had the faith to get into the boat and row off into the night to take Him across the Lake. But now, facing this crisis, it was as though they had no faith at all.

Folks, a crisis doesn't force us to do crazy, faithless things. A crisis simply reveals what crazy, faithless things are still in us!

If a sudden negative turn of events causes us to let out a string of evil words that curse our Maker, it isn't just a "slip of the tongue." It is an indicator of what is really still inside.

If a series of tragedies in our lives causes us to give up on living and attempt suicide, it isn't because we are temporarily out of our minds. It's because we either never had real faith or have decided to abandon the faith that we once had.

Again, if this sounds too harsh, I encourage you to re-read verse 40: "Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?"

The double-edged sword of the Word of God (6) cuts clean to the bone here. But it is necessary surgery.

Let's move on now where we see:

4. The Lord's Power.

(Read v. 39)

We see here a command and a result.

Jesus commanded the wind: "Hush, be still!" These three words translate two words in the original. Strong's Lexicon says that the first had to do with a forcefully imposed silence, against the will of the recipient. The second word, according to several lexicons, meant to put a muzzle on and was often used of putting a muzzle on an ox. Lenski, in his translation reflects this. He says, "Put the muzzle on and keep it on." (7)

"Hush, be still" - two little words of command by the Master and Creator of the wind.

As for the results, they are no less remarkable. Both verbs in that second sentence in verse 39 are in the Greek aorist tense (point-in-time action, past tense), indicating that the Lord rebuked the wind once and a calm came immediately. (8) This wasn't a gradual ceasing of the wind.

I would love sometime for a movie producer like Steven Spielberg to depict this story for modern people. First there would be the tumultuous storm with the boat tossed back and forth in the dim light, wind howling around your ears via the surround sound. Then the authoritative words of command from Jesus heard above the tumult. "Hush! Be still!" Then a sudden Doppler effect calm that starts at one end of the lake and comes slicing through, leaving the disciples on a flat lake, looking at one another with their mouths open in utter astonishment!

The fishermen among Jesus' disciples had seen many storms come and go on this lake. A few feeble waves along with a natural, gradual stoppage of the wind would not impress them. But they had never witnessed anything like this - to go within the space of two authoritative words from sink-the-boat raging waves to "perfectly calm" left them in utter awe of Jesus' power and deity.

We see in this passage a tremendous insight into the nature of Christ. On one hand we see the limits of His humanity with His need for sleep after an exhausting day. On the other hand we see His absolute authority of command over the elements - those things which He himself spoke into existence.

Paul's words to the Colossians are appropriate here. Speaking of Jesus, Paul says in 1:15-17:

"And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

The same God who spoke the universe into existence was asleep in the disciples' boat and arose to command the storm to stop!

That brings us to the final point of this passage:

5. The Disciples' Perception.

(Read v. 41)

While the disciples thought they knew Jesus before, they now saw Him in an entirely new dimension.

They were realizing Jesus' full deity for the first time. I say "realizing" because they had already seen some of His miracles. They had seen people healed. They knew He had come from God. They had heard his matchless teaching and watched him flawlessly outwit the Scribes and Pharisees who were trying to trip Him up. They knew him as Prophet, Healer, and Miracle Worker - even Messiah. But somehow they had not connected all this with full deity. This was God who had been asleep in their boat! Yet they had accused Him of not caring for His people? Yikes! No wonder they were afraid!

In fact, the same word for "afraid" in the original language appears in both verse 40 and verse 41. The difference is in the object of their fear and its intensity. In verse 40 they were afraid of the wind. In verse 41, suddenly they were very (Greek word: megas) afraid of the One who made and controlled the wind.

As Jews, these men had grown up with the teaching that they should fear God. Proverbs 9:10, for instance, said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." They knew that Ecclesiastes said, "The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments… For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil." (9)

They knew these things about God the Father. Somehow though, they had not until now realized that the same applied to God the Son.

It is not enough for us to worship Jesus as a sort of Junior Partner in the Godhead. He is, as Matthew states in Matthew 1:23, "God with us." He has, as Paul says in Philippians 2:6, "equality with God." He is, as Isaiah says in Isaiah 9:6, "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Years later, the Apostle John, reflecting perhaps on this event along with many others, would write:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (10)

Has full realization of the deity of Jesus dawned on you? When you think of Christ, how do you view Him? Is He God to you? If not, then you don't know Him fully.

If you are a Christian, has the full impact of the need to trust Him dawned on you? When you encounter a crisis, do you panic and impugn motives as the disciples did, or do you calm down and find your strength in quietness and trust? This same Jesus who calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee so long ago can calm the storm in your life if you let Him.

If you are not a Christian, do you realize Christ's power to deliver you from the sins that will soon, unless they are forgiven, condemn you to an eternal Hell of fire? This same Jesus who spoke with authority over the elements on that night so long ago speaks with equal authority today when He says,

"Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Christ has laid out His credentials for all to see. There can be no mistaking whom He is if we will but honestly investigate. It is up to us to accept Him, or reject Him. There will be no excuse for rejecting Him. Which will it be for you?

Footnotes: Please use your "Back" button to return to your place.

1. From Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft.
2. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, Book III, p. 602.
3. Matthew 1:23
4. Matthew 8:25
5. Luke 8:24
6. Hebrews 4:12
7. R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of Mark's Gospel, p. 201
8. See Wycliffe Commentary on this passage
9. Ecclesiastes 12:13
10. John 1:1-3, 14
11. Matthew 10:28

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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