Sermon Notes: Mark 4:35-41
One of the clear observations that you see when you read the gospels is the authority of Christ put on display in a variety of ways.
Jesus preached and taught with an authority that was unlike the scribes of his time.
Jesus demonstrated authority over spiritual forces.
Jesus demonstrated authority over satan and his temptations.
Jesus demonstrated authority over diseases and physical disabilities.
Jesus demonstrated authority over sin declaring that he was able to extend forgiveness, an act that was completely reserved for God alone.
Jesus demonstrated authority over death by bringing people back to life, ultimately conquering death himself .
Jesus demonstrated authority over nature by simply speaking a word and all of creation responded in immediate obedience.
If you grew up in the church, this story is most likely very familiar to you. Even if you didn’t grow up hearing this story in church, you may still be acquainted with it as it is one of Jesus’ most familiar miracles that he performed during his earthly ministry.
Of the 37 recorded miracles that Jesus performed, this to me is one of the most powerful displays of authority by Jesus because he literally defies the laws of nature by commanding a raging sea to calm down and be quiet.
For the most part, this story has been taught from the perspective that Jesus will quiet any storm in your life. While I certainly believe we can glean that truth from this story, I believe Mark has a much deeper meaning and purpose for telling us this story that helps us understand the nature and characteristics of who Jesus is.
Remember, Mark has already stated his purpose for writing this historical biography of the life of Jesus.
Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Mark wants to make it unmistakingly clear that Jesus is the Son of God. That Jesus is man who took on flesh and dwelt among us, who emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man, is certainly true, but that he is God as well. The God-man.
That truth is made abundantly clear in this passage before us today. We see the humanity of Jesus, but also see the deity of Christ put on display in such a way that is powerful and absolutely undeniable.
Let’s walk through the text verse by verse.
Verse 35: “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
Jesus has just ended a long day of ministry that began in verse 1 of chapter 4. Jesus began teaching by the sea, and as usual a large crowd gathered around him to listen to him teach. The crowd was so large that he had to get in a boat and teach from the sea while people gathered around on the land.
We know from chapter 4 that Jesus taught in parables, and in particular he was teaching the parable of the sower. He then explained to his disciples the secret of the kingdom of God when they were alone, and the meaning of the parables that he was teaching.
Jesus taught the parable of a lamp under a basket, the parable of the seed growing, and the parable of the mustard seed. These are the only recorded teachings that Mark gives us, but we can be sure that Jesus taught many other lessons, and most likely healed many who were brought to him.
When Jesus tells his disciples to go across to the other side, this is not an arbitrary command. Jesus is never random. Jesus is purposeful and leads with intention on everything he does. This is an intentional shift in his ministry, as he goes to Gentile territory on the earthen side of the sea to declare the good news of God’s kingdom, and free a man who is possessed by demons. This is a divine and sovereign appointment that Jesus has ordained. Think about Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Jesus had to pass through Samaria on his way to Galilee.
Verse 36: “And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.”
The disciples take Jesus just as he is into the boat, and quickly we see that other boats follow them. These boats that the disciples would be using were not very large boats. In fact these boats have been discovered, and the boats measure 26.5 feet in length, 7.5 feet wide, and 4.5 feet in depth, large enough to fit roughly 12–15 people.
Jesus, who may have wanted to escape the crowd for a little rest, was unable to completely escape from them as they joined him and the disciples on the sea. We know that Jesus had lots of followers until he began to say things like, “in order to be my disciple you must eat my flesh and drink my blood” from John 6.
So here the disciples and Jesus are on the sea of Galilee beginning the five mile trip across to the other side with what appears to be a calm and normal night for these men. But what happens next is nothing close to a calm and normal night at sea. So far the disciples have watched Jesus do some extraordinary things for other people, but Jesus is about to teach his disciples a profound lesson on just exactly who he is.
Verse 37: “And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.”
This is precisely the reason why I would never choose to willingly live near the ocean. The sea can be a beautiful place to be. In fact, recently my family and I were on vacation at the beach and while I am not a beach guy, I do appreciate things about the ocean and being in a different climate that remind me of certain truths about God.
First, I am reminded that Psalm 19:1 is absolutely true that, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”
Second, I am reminded of the eternal nature of God and that he had no beginning and he has no end.
Third, I am reminded that it takes no effort to drift away from God, but that it requires intentionality on my part day after day to walk with the Lord.
But I was also reminded that the sea can be a source of chaos and destruction. It is a place of violent storms that wrecks havoc on communities and destroys life. I was reminded that the curse of sin has infected every area of life including the sea, and nobody is able to contain it. The sea and ocean can be a temperamental place to be. One moment it can be calm and at peace, and within a short time frame it can storm and cause you to retreat seeking shelter on the shore.
The sea of Galilee has been considered a very temperamental place to be because of its violent storms that come on rather quickly. According to some historians and commentary writers, the sea of Galilee rests around 600-700 feet below sea level and is surrounded by mountains gouged with deep ravines. Joseph Tucker, one of the pastors at Red Oak church described the sea of Galilee like the four lane highway in Andrews, NC. If you are familiar with Andrews, you know that when you are driving down the highway, you are surrounded by mountains on every side of you and the highway just sits down in this valley.
To the northeast is Mount Hermon, which rises over nine thousand feet above sea level. When the cold air from Mount Hermon meets the rising warm air from the sea, it often results in a storm that sweeps down on to the lake from the heights.
Ross H. McLaren, “Mark,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1566.
That's what is happening here in this passage. It has also been noted that the waves during this type of storm can reach up to 10 feet and as we have already noted the size of this boat, those types of waves would make their way into the boat causing it to potentially capsize.
It is important to note also that these disciples were professional fishermen. They were familiar with storms at sea and knew how to properly navigate themselves through them, but this storm was unlike any storm they had faced before.
Verse 38: “But he (Jesus) was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
While the disciples are panicking, Jesus is sound asleep on the cushion. Here, we get a clear picture of the humanity of Jesus.
Jesus, being completely exhausted from his day of ministry, teaching the crowds and his disciples is passed out asleep. Anyone who teaches understands that it is an exhausting task and will wear you out unlike anything else.
I think it is interesting that this is the only place in scripture we see Jesus asleep, but I believe it is important for us to see that Jesus experienced the same things that we do. He experienced the need for physical rest. He experienced hunger. Jesus experienced deep sorrow, anguish, and distress, yet never sinned. He experienced loneliness. He experienced betrayal from his closest friends. He experienced everything that you and I experience in life. More importantly though, Jesus experienced the temptation to sin from satan to go against the Father’s plan for making a way to reconcile fallen humanity back to himself, but he overcame that temptation to sin, something that you and I could not do.
Why did Jesus become a man? To do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Because of the sin of Adam, we are all guilty sinners and in need of being rescued from our sin and the judgement that rests on us apart from the blood of Christ. Therefore, Jesus became a man and identified with us, and we can confidently say as the writer of Hebrews said in 4:15, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
While Jesus is sleeping, the disciples have fought and battled this storm long enough that they are at their wits end and are unsure on what to do next. Jesus’ ability to sleep while the raging sea is beginning to fill the boat is a sign of his trust in God and contrasts the panicked disciples. So they go and wake up Jesus. The professional fishermen go to wake up the carpenter to see if he can do anything for them.
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
The disciples, however, do not interpret Jesus’ sleep as dependence on God, but rather as his indifference to their safety in a moment of terror. Of course Jesus cared about their well-being here. He was the one who sent them across the sea, and he would ensure they made it across to the other side as he had planned.
Verse 39: “And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”
“In scripture, the sea often serves as a powerful symbol for chaos, danger, and the untamable forces of the world opposed to God’s order. Both the Old and New Testaments frequently highlight this turmoil while emphasizing God’s ultimate sovereignty over it.”
Many commentators observe that Mark often uses “rebuke” when Jesus confronts demonic powers. We should be careful not to claim the storm itself here was demonic, but the language suggests Jesus confronting the disorder and chaos of the fallen world with divine authority over it.
Job 38:8-11: God questions Job, highlighting his power to hold the chaotic sea back, asking, “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb… and said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here your proud waves are stopped?’”
God’s rule over the raging waters:
Psalm 107:23-29 provides us with a poetic foreshadowing of Mark 4: That Psalm describes sailors overwhelmed by a storm that makes their “courage melt away.” They cry out to the Lord, and he calms the stormy chaos to a gentle whisper.
Also consider the story of Jonah. Once the sailors picked Jonah up and hurled him over into the sea, the Lord caused the sea to cease from its raging, causing these polytheistic sailors to fear the Lord and offer him sacrifices. The Lord is revealed to be sovereign over all creation.
Therefore, when Jesus speaks to the sea he is either about to look like a lunatic and nothing is going to happen, or the wind and waves will obey him and will be revealed to his disciples as God who alone has authority over creation.
In this one statement we clearly see the humanity of Jesus, and his deity put on display simultaneously. Jesus awakes from his sleep and then declares peace and stillness to the wind and sea and they obey his word. Jesus demonstrates his mastery over the chaotic sea. Jesus is the Lord of all creation, and creation obeys his command.
Verse 40: “He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
The disciples had witnessed Jesus’ authority, but they still had not fully grasped the implications of who he was. Maybe they had begun to believe the muttering around Galilee that Jesus is a little bit crazy and out of his mind. If they did believe Jesus was who he said he was then they should have had no fear in reaching the other side of the sea. Jesus told them, “Let’s go across to the other side of the sea,” and so far in Mark we have noted that whatever Jesus says, it comes to pass. Storm or no storm the disciples should have believed they would make it across. But this passage reminds us of how frail we can be in our faith. We are so prone to lose hope and forget that God is with us just as he was with the disciples here.
“Why are you so afraid?” Jesus is insinuating that his presence alone with them in the boat should have been sufficient to calm their anxieties, despite the storm threatening their lives.
“Do you still have no faith?” Again, Jesus insinuated that the disciples had seen enough of his authority to cast out demons, cleanse a leper, heal a crippled man, and witness many other powerful signs to believe and be convinced of his identity.
Verse 41: “And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?””
This seems to be the theological climax of Mark 4.
The progression we see in this passage is:
Great storm (v. 37)
Great calm (v. 39)
Great fear (v. 41)
Mark intentionally repeats “great” (Greek: megas) to show that the greatest thing in the story is not the storm, but rather it is Jesus.
The fear of the disciples does not alleviate after the calming of the sea, but rather it intensifies, as their fear is now shifted to who is with them in the boat, who has divine authority and control over the sea. I can’t help but picture their faces in the boat after the great calm of the sea.
Jesus may have explained the parables to them and given them the secret to the kingdom of God, but that didn’t seem to prepare them for seeing Jesus for who he truly is, the God of all creation.
The disciples realized that they were in the presence of the Holy One of Israel, and they were terrified. Kind of like Isaiah in Isaiah 6 when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. It says they were filled with great fear, a fear they had never experienced before in their lifetime.
But what is interesting about this fear, is that it’s not a horror type of fear that drives them away from Jesus, but rather it is a fear that makes them sit in reverence, awe, worship, and ask the most important question that anybody can ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?”
That is a great question, and is a question that every human must answer. Who is Jesus? This passage answers it for us. Jesus is God in the flesh. He’s fully God and fully man.
Application:
The main point in this passage goes back to the purpose of Mark writing this gospel account. To declare Jesus as the Son of God. That’s the main point and what we are to take away from reading this passage of scripture.
John as he finished his gospel account says in 20:30-31, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
If you do not know Jesus today, the call is to repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord for eternal life.
Jesus calming the storm is not meant to make us sit back and think how awesome and powerful Jesus is. It is meant to drive us to our knees in worship for who he is, the God of the entire universe.
Jesus came to announce the good news of his kingdom, and to set right what the curse of sin had broken. The sea which was seen as a source of chaos and destruction is no more in the new heaven and new earth. Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” Jesus is in the process of restoring the earth to its Edenic state and one day all the chaos of sin will be no more and Christ's rule will reign supreme.
Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (chaos). I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Colossians 1:15-20, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
Hebrews 1:1-3, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”
Jesus as Creator, Sustainer, and Savior of the world will receive worship from all people because as Paul tells the Philippians, “every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
This passage teaches us that God is with us throughout all of life’s adversities.
The emphasis on this story is on who Jesus is, the Son of God, not on how Jesus rescues his fretful disciples when they cry out to him.
“There are no stormless seas, and all sailors must learn to expect the unexpected.”
Life is going to be full of adversities and there is no way to escape it.
Jesus told us in John 16:33, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Paul encourages early believers in Acts 14:22, “through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God.”
We can take heart because God is with us. He hasn’t abandoned us. He has given us his Spirit, his word, and his people to navigate challenges we meet together.
Faith is an ongoing journey that will never be complete until we cross the finish line, and see Jesus face to face.
The disciples were rebuked for their lack of faith. They displayed the need for continuous growth and maturity. The disciples would continue to struggle with understanding Jesus’ identity, but they would eventually all come to understand Jesus as God after the resurrection, going on to do many wonderful things in the early church, and many of them would ultimately give their lives for the proclamation of the gospel.
This is our goal in preaching to you, that you grow up in maturity. Colossians 1:28, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that you may present everyone mature in Christ.”
Faith in Christ is an everyday battle that we must commit to lest we forget or misplace the object of our faith.
If it wasn’t a fight, then Jude wouldn’t have exhorted his readers, “to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.”
Or Paul who said in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.”
The forces of the dark kingdom want to make you shipwreck your faith and abandon the good news of Jesus’ kingdom. Therefore, arm yourselves with the armour of God and fight the good fight of faith in Jesus.
This story begins by Jesus commanding his disciples, “to go across to the other side.” It ends with the disciples asking, “who is this?” They began by focusing on where they were going, and they finished focused on who it is that is with them. That is what discipleship looks like.
Jesus will use circumstances and adversities in our lives to reveal himself more fully to us.
Worship Jesus because he alone is worthy as the sovereign King over the universe.