He Still Calms the Winds

A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, October 2, 2005

We will look today at Mark Chapter 4. I will begin reading with verse 35. 

“That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side,’ and leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as He was in the boat.  There were also other boats with Him and a furious squall came up.  The waves broke over the boat and was nearly swamped.  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?’ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Shut up’ (Flamming translation).  Be still.’  Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.  He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?’  And they were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this?  Even the wind and the waves obey him.’ ”   This is the word of the Lord.

As I prepared for this sermon, I thought to put myself in a little bit of the environment and atmosphere in which it happened that I would go down and rent the film, “The Perfect Storm.”  Don’t!  Unless, of course, you want some more heartbreaking tragedy out of a hurricane.  It is the story, a true story, based upon … of a fishing boat and their crew who got caught in hurricane Grace.  They were going for the big catch.  The big catch that would allow them to catch up on all of their bills.  Not only that, allow some of them to fulfill dreams and to leave the boat and that whole scene.  They got their big catch.  Went out further than they had ever gone before.  They did it.  The only trouble was between the time that they got the big catch and moved toward the shore, the hurricane moved between them and the shore.  They had a choice:  If they stayed where they were and let the hurricane pass, they would lose all of the fish.  Because with the ice, it would only last about a day, a day and a half.  On the other hand, they could risk it all and go through the storm.  They opted to risk it all and go through the storm.

Instead of becoming the recipients of that great catch, and the money that would have come, they became victims whose names would go on the honor roll of that memorial wall.  Ten thousand names of Gloucestermen they call them since 1600. 

There were two things about that film that will stick with me.  One is I was made aware once again of the rough and tumble, raw and profane, way in which sailors often live.  And I was made appreciative once again of the job Jesus did with his disciples who were fishermen.  Who were Gloucestermen. These were not people behind a cloistered wall.  These were guys who were used to boats and fishing and storms and they, too, lived in a profane world.  And look what Jesus did to them.  If, this morning, you have some sense of lack of worth, trash it.  I am going to tell you something.  If Jesus could transform the lives of Simon Peter and James and John and Andrew, just think what he could do with you! 

The other thing about that film that I think will stick to me – one of the boatsmen, the Gloucestermen who was telling about his background, his early life, bringing it up to his present state of affairs, and he said, “I am not very good at doing things the way they should be done.”  You could stick your finger on almost any place in the Gospels and you could say of the Disciples, they were not very good at doing the things as they should be done.  But Jesus did and that made all the difference.  And because they had a model to go by, and His living spirit to begin to transform them, they changed all of that.  On that day, a terrifically busy day, at the end of it, Jesus set sail.  He was asleep in a heartbeat.  Back of the boat in the stern on a cushion.  It was standard equipment.  He chose to use it.  I wonder how many times he uses the standard equipment of our lives for his purposes.  Then came the storm.  It wasn’t a hurricane.  On the other hand, one of the gospel writers uses the word that some of the ancients used for a hurricane.  This was not a gentle breeze.  This was not a rippling of the waves.  This was a storm.  And it wasn’t very long before the waves were washing over the side of the boat.  And there isn’t anything that will get your attention if you are in the middle of a large lake or even a sea than to be in a boat, knee deep water,  with the boat beginning to go down.  And they panicked. I would have, too.  But isn’t it interesting that we usually wait to the panic point before we call on the Lord.  That’s what they did.  It wasn’t that the Lord wasn’t there.  Wouldn’t help.  In his absolute trust, he could sleep through it all.  Let me ask you something, “Was this a perfect storm for the disciples?”  Depends on how you use the word perfect.  In the ancient Greek way of thinking, perfection or perfect was the absence of error.  Flawless.  If you applied it to an attitude, it would be serenity.  Now, you need to put that in front center ‘cause that’s the meaning we have of perfect.  We borrowed it, lock, stock, barrel.  We think perfect is absence of error, flawless, serenity.  But in the Bible, you got a whole different meaning.  I appeal to you to make a trade today between the old Greek meaning of Socrates and Aristotle and Plato.  And pick up the Biblical meaning of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Jesus.  Perfect meant for them to accomplish the objective for which you set out.  It means hitting the target.  It means achieving the purpose for which you were created.  Now friends, if that’s the meaning, this was a perfect storm for the apostles.  ‘Cause look at what Jesus did with it.  Look what He can do with it in our behalf.

There are four questions asked in four verses.  And those four questions couldn’t have been asked if the storm hadn’t come.    Now, the winds do blow in our lives.  You are aware of that, I know.  There are the bitter, icy winds of the winter.  Full of hurt and disappointment and they whack through our souls and they leave such a mark.  And there are the soft, gentle, life-giving breezes of spring.  And there are the recreational winds of early summer.  Up on a mountain with the wind whistling through the trees, or the seaside, sitting on the sand as the wind comes in from the surf.  But there are those late summer winds of the hurricanes.  They destroy, they ruin, they flood, and that’s what happens to our souls sometimes.  The winds do blow. The question is, “What do we do about them?”  And in those four questions, Jesus asking two, the disciples asking two, we can answer what we do about them.  The first comes from the group of desperate disciples, “Lord, don’t you care?”

“Don’t you care that we drown?”  If you have been in that kind of a situation, you ask the question, “Lord, where are you?  Don’t you care?”  And you know the Lord has an incredible way of always getting there at just the right time.  And He stood up and He calmed the winds.  He said, “Be still.  Be quiet.  Quit.”  And then He spoke a word of peace.  You know, there are lots of words in the New Testament.  There are some here that are so graphic.  And Mark, of the other Gospel … in comparison with the other Gospels, used some very graphic words.  For example, the word “be still” means muzzle it.  Shut up.  Be still.  Wycliffe, an early Biblical translator, Wycliffe translated it, “Winds wax silent.”  Old English.  So graphic.  And then the writer, the translator, says, “And the winds died down.”

Listen to this, “The wind died down and it was completely calm.”  Bless the translator. That’s a perfectly good translation, but it has absolutely no life to it because the words used are incredibly graphic.  You see, the words say these …

It is a word used for exhaustion, like a marathon runner who falls across the finish line, utterly and completely exhausted.  That’s the word used here.  It was as if the winds were exhausted in the face of the power of the calming word of the Savior and they just fell over. 

In the early days of our country, frontier, the frontier of our nation, one of the arguably best known of that era was a professional thief.  And just as the mention of his name brought fear to them, El-Qaida brings fear to us.  In the early days of the country, the settling of the frontier terrorized Wells Fargo stagecoaches.  Very interestingly, he hid his face with a black hood.  Twenty-nine times, he intercepted stagecoaches, got all of the possessions, the wealth.  Yet, he never fired a shot.  Never harmed a person.  Never took a hostage. No picture was ever made of him.  No drawing ever attempted.  Nobody ever saw his face – just the black hood.  They came to call him “Black Bart.”  There’s a Black Bart that enters the stagecoaches of our souls.  Doesn’t want to rob us of our jewelry, of our wealth, of that which exists in our homes, doesn’t even want to rob us of our credit cards.  Is determined is the Black Bart of our souls to rob us of our peace of mind and of our trust.  And does it with fear and anxiety.  The Black Bart of the soul is fear.  And Jesus stands and says, “Why are you so afraid?  Do you still not have any trust?”  Two questions that penetrate the heart of old Black Bart of the soul.  Why?  Why are you so afraid?  And why do you have no trust?”  When he said, “Peace, be still.  Calm down.”

That brings the fourth question.  They said, did the disciples, “What kind of man is this that even the winds and the waves listen to him?”  What kind of voice in the depths of your soul will put Black Bart in its place?  I am going to tell you something.   Out of my experience, all of the intellectual tricks in the world won’t work.  All of the attitude adjustments won’t work.  Not in the midst of great fear, not in the midst of great anxiety.  Let me tell you what will work.  Let the Lord Christ come in.  Let the Lord Christ speak.  The only one who has the power to overcome the evil one and the voice of fear and anxiety is the Lord Christ.   Throughout the Gospels, He speaks the word and when He speaks it, fear and anxiety are the casualties.  I want to give you four words when you partake of the Lord’s meal here.  Listen to them.  And you’ve heard them so often, I am afraid you won’t listen to them.   You will say, “Uh, I have heard that before!”  Well, listen to it again and listen to it in the light of what we are about to do.

The first one of these is REMEMBER.  REMEMBER who’s in the boat with you.  The Lord Christ is there.  And He will calm the winds.  Remember who’s in the boat with you.

Number two, BELIEVE.  Do you BELIEVE that the Lord Christ, the Son of God, has the power to still the winds of your soul?  To chase away the Black Bart that is trying to rob you of your joy and of your peace of mind. 

Third word is CONFESS.  Be honest with God; He already knows you through and through.  You don’t need to hide anything from Him; He already knows it.  CONFESS.  CONFESS that the evil one has you under his thumb.  In a very respectable way, because anxiety is very respectable.  Everybody has it.  And FEAR.  Everybody has it.  And, therefore, the evil one comes in with his Black Bart and with the Black Bart, robs us of our joy and of our peace.

And the final one is CREATE.  CREATE some space for the Lord Christ.  After you have confessed that “Lord, this is a big sin for me.  This is a primary way in which Satan robs me of my joy.”   When you have confessed it, then just be quiet and create some space for the Lord Christ.  Will you bow your head and close your eyes, and in this quiet moment, just let the Lord Christ have some space in your life.