Year 2 Day 109

Year 2 Day 109

Pray (AC-ts)

Read Mark 4:35-39

Message Alan Burke
How do you read the question of Jesus to the disciples here in verse 40, because depending on which way you read it and understand it depends on the meaning you take from it. Let me explain, imagine you’ve done something stupid, for some of us that is easier to imagine than others but stick with me. Then someone comes in, doesn’t matter who it is and says, ‘what have you done?’. Depending the person who you imagined walking in depends on how it was said, because the same thing can be said in an angry accusatory but it could also in a way that is gentle and filled with compassion. You get the idea. 

This isn’t Jesus having a go at his disciples here, shouting the bit at them, he’s asking them out of compassion and concern. The miracle that they had just witnessed will help them in their fear and faith, it will help them to further understand, to know the truth of who Jesus was and is. It would not be the last time that Jesus asked this question of them, it was asked because they had not yet fully understood who Jesus was nor could they fully until to the resurrection and ascension. 

The question that these disciples are now left with is who is this before them, who, who is it, who is Jesus, that’s the question that we all need to answer, who is Jesus? We have domesticated Jesus, we have made him like any other person and we have made God, Father, Son and Spirit in our own image. Our view of God is so limited, we place on God the bounds of our own created experience upon the God who made the universe, instead of having an infinite God, we have a finite God who is just like us. These disciples as they were on the boat before their Lord were coming to the realisation who they were before and their fear of the furious squall is replaced by terror at the one they come before. 

The terror of who they are before far exceeds their terror of the storm. They were afraid but now they are terrified, for they have come before the Lord himself. For they understood that they were in the presence of the holy Creator Himself, they stood before the incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ and they were terrified. These disciples respond in the say way that Moses did on the mountain of God, they were terrified. Here we see that fear in the disciples for they were in the presence of God, they were terrified because they were sinners before a Holy God. All of us are sinners, the only way we can stand in His presence is unafraid is to have our sin covered. Ultimately, that is why Jesus came and why His holiness and divine nature were revealed. Seeing Him as He is, the holy God, drives us to our knees in fear as we confess our sin and our worthiness of hell. But by faith, we escape that terror and, because our sins are covered, enter the filial, loving fear of Him that brings us peace. 

To know Jesus is to fear him, To fear the Lord is to know Him, to love Him, to trust Him. It is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9v10). It isn't the fear a servant has for their master, instead it is the fear a child has for their father. For God is holy and we are not, if we haven’t feared or have no fear of our Saviour then there is something wrong.

Pray (ac-TS)

Sing

WSC 
Q3 What do the scriptures principally teach?
The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. (2 Tim. 1:13, 2 Tim. 3:16)