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12 April:  

“Do You Not Care That We Are Perishing?”          Mark 4:35 – 41

Last week we looked at two celebrations which illustrated God’s saving grace. The Jews had their ‘Feast of the Passover’ and Christians have the ‘Lord’s Supper’. Both celebrations honor and commemorate the salvation and redemption which God has provided for His children. The ‘Passover Feast’ honors the saving of the first-born male sons of the Jews that were not killed by the death angel   AND   it celebrates Israel’s release from slavery in Egypt. The ‘Lord’s Supper’ honors the redemption of mankind achieved by the self-less sacrifice of our Lord.

In today’s lesson I want to look at another group who thought that they were perishing and were subsequently saved by our Lord.           Mark 4:  “On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” ³⁶ After dismissing the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And a fierce gale of wind developed, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling with water. ³⁸ And yet Jesus Himself 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?” ³⁹ And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

As I have encouraged you in times past, as you are reading God’s Word you should make an effort to do more than just read it. You should take time to reflect on what you read and how it applies to your life. Think about what it teaches you about God and who you are. What does 2 Tim 3:16,17 say: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

As you can see here, knowing God’s word changes and directs your life. A simple reading with no application may make you feel better but does not make you better and ‘equipped/prepared’ to do good work.  Journaling is one way to help you identify what stands out to you, identify questions that you have, and help you better see what the Lord may want to reveal to you in order to improve your life. It has been said by someone: “Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through your fingertips.” To write it down is to think about it and better understand it.                                                                                                

So in going back to our Scripture today This is the only place in Scripture where we read of Jesus sleeping. The detail highlights His true humanity, but the moment also served as a test of the disciples’ faith. All three Synoptic Gospels record the event in nearly identical words, yet Mark adds the striking phrase, “Don’t you care?”  and Matthew adds “O’ ye of little faith.”  Mark captures the very question that was likely in all their hearts, but Matthew exposes the foundational issue that generated this question and their fears. In reality, Jesus’ calm rest in the midst of the storm was the example they themselves should have followed, based on all they had already witnessed Him do.   ?

Jesus asking about their faith may trigger the question about our own faith. We should realize that testing is part of growth. Deut 8:2 “And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

James 1:2-3  “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”   Romans 5:3-4  “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”    2 Corinthians 1:8-9  “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.”  And Paul was told that his ‘thorn in the flesh’ would not be removed so that God’s grace would be sufficient to get him through his struggles.

You can clearly see the ‘faith’ – or maybe lack of faith – in these men when they come and awaken Jesus. But one thing we should acknowledge is that when the storm becomes desperate, they do come to the Lord for rescue. We see in this moment of difficulty that these men go to Jesus with their concerns.

We should get it in our hearts and minds today, when things are relatively quiet and peaceful that there are going to be storms in our lives. There will often times be storms and problems and seemingly insurmountable difficulties in our lives. The question is – what should we do with them?  The Psalm writer reminds us:   Ps 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”    Heb 4:16 “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”     John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”    Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”   This assurance within our hearts and minds brings fulfillment of Paul’s desires for us: Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”                                                                                                                                                                            We need to have Jesus on our speed dial with our spiritual phone. There should barely be a breath between our recognition of problems and our calling on the Father to help us and guide us.          In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, the Apostle Paul writes, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."     Here, God is identified as the ultimate source of comfort, emphasizing His compassionate nature and His active role in providing solace to His children.      In John 14:16-17, Jesus promises, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth." The Holy Spirit dwells within believers, offering guidance, peace, and reassurance, especially in times of distress.

Throughout Scripture, there are numerous examples of individuals who experienced God's comfort in their trials. The Psalms, in particular, are replete with expressions of distress and subsequent divine consolation. Psalm 34:17-18 declares, "The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears; He delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit." This passage highlights God's attentiveness and proximity to those who are suffering.

Believers are encouraged to seek God's comfort through prayer, Scripture, and fellowship with other Christians. Philippians 4:6-7 advises, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." This peace is a manifestation of God's comfort, guarding the hearts and minds of those who trust in Him.

The church, as the body of Christ, is also a vital source of comfort. Believers are called to bear one another's burdens and to offer encouragement and support just as it said in our Corinthians passage:  “so that we can comfort those in any trouble .”   Gal 6:2 instructs us, "Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Through acts of love and service, the community of faith becomes a tangible expression of God's comfort to those in distress. What did Jesus say: John 13:35  “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.” 

In our hearts and minds we should know that there are going to be problems, disappointments and struggles. But within our storms, like the eye of a hurricane, there should be a sense of peace, calm and trust. We should know that the Lord WILL bring us to the light at the end of the tunnel and there we will find our minds to be at peace, still and calm. 

 

 

5 April: 

The Passover:

This was the last major event Christ had with His apostle’s aside from the time the Lord spent praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while the apostles slept.

I. The Passover Beginning:   Ex. 1:8; 2:23-25, 3:7,8  “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph … and the sons of Israel sighed because of their bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. …. The Lord said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…’”

From this setting God sends Moses to set His people free from bondage and to bring them to their promised land. In order to achieve this God puts Egypt through a series of plagues which causes so much suffering that Pharoah, at least momentarily, gladly sends Israel away. The climatical moment occurs with the tenth plague which brings the death of the first born: Ex. 12:21,22,23,24  “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families and slay the Passover lamb.  You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood and apply some of the blood to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.” And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children, forever.”

From these verses you can see why the event was called “the Passover”. You can also understand the attitude of gratitude and celebration that occurred when they held their Passover feast because they were remembering how their firstborn males were saved from death and how this was the straw that broke the camel’s back and gave them release from captivity.           We should also realize that it is from this situation that God placed a claim on the firstborn males in both man and animals. Ex. 13:2,11,12 “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine. Now when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, you shall devote to the Lord the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring  of every beast that you own; the male belongs to the Lord.”               Ex. 13:14,15 “And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ Then you shall say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, and from the house of slavery.’ …. Therefore, I sacrificed to the Lord the males, the first born of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.”

This is the history behind the yearly celebration of the Passover. This is the start of God’s claiming and redeeming of the firstborn males as His. This is the premier event of salvation that the Lord accomplished in the Old Testament. In many future situations the Lord saves His people, but   this    ‘saving’ event sets the foundation for all the others that will come about and establishes God’s claim over His chosen ones.  

In the same way that God established the celebration of the Passover feast to remind His people of what He had done for them - releasing them from captivity – Christ established a similar celebration to remind us of how He released our souls from the consequences of sin:           II. Our Passover:  We know scripture tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). The exception to that is the perfect life lived by Jesus. And because of the perfect life that He lived, His death on the cross has become an atonement for us:       2 Cor 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Eph 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace”.

Through His sinless life and sacrificial death, Jesus became the only One capable of giving people a way to escape eternal death and have a sure hope of eternal life. As the first Passover marked the Hebrews’ release from Egyptian slavery, so the death of Christ marks our release from the slavery of sin:    Rom 8:23 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, - He condemned sin in the flesh.”

The first Passover was held in remembrance as an annual feast celebrating God’s compassion. Likewise, Christians memorialize the sacrifice made by the Lord in His death on the cross through the celebration of the Lord’s Supper: 1 Cor 11:26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”        Scripture teaches that believers have symbolically applied the sacrificial blood of Christ to their hearts and thus have escaped eternal death: Heb 9:12,14 “and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption, … how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Just as the Passover lamb’s applied blood caused the “destroyer” to pass over each household, Christ’s applied blood causes God’s judgment to pass over sinners and gives life to believers: Rom 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   1 Peter 1:18,19 “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things, . . . . but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

While the communion table which we all share together with the Lord celebrates His saving sacrifice, today, this Easter Sunday, we celebrate His glorious resurrection. The importance of His resurrection is that it sets the precedent for what each and every one of us can anticipate for ourselves:          1 Peter 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

What Peter is telling us here is that because of Christ’s resurrection we too have a living hope regarding a similar resurrection for ourselves. James confirms this is his letter:  James 1:12 “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the promise to those who love Him.”     And that promise was given to us by Jesus Himself when He stated in John 14 that He was leaving this earth in order to prepare a place for us and then He would come back again to get us.   

Paul reaffirms this for us:   1 Thess 4:16,17 “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  ¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  

The Lord Himself spoke of this: Mtt 25:31-34 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate them from one from another. …. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”   

John echo’s this:    1 John 2:25 “This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.”   1 John 5:10,11 “The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself . . . . that God has given concerning His Son: and the testimony is this – that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.’”

Our belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our union with Him in baptism is what is going to bring us eternal life.   Rom 6:3-5  “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”

Our union with Christ in baptism brings about two changes in our lives: 1) it changes the way we live our lives here on earth and 2) it changes how we will be living our lives in eternity.  We no longer live our lives here on earth in sin with Satan so that we will no longer live our eternal life with Satan in hell! Our union with Christ is meant to be eternal. All the days here and all the days in eternity can and should be with our heavenly Father.

So this Easter Sunday let us celebrate life and resurrection – that of the Lord’s and that of ourselves. Let us celebrate that Christ is sitting at the right hand of His Father and one day we too shall be sitting there with Him!