Mark's Gospel

So Mark chapter 4 from verse 35. That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him, A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it 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, quiet. 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? They were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind, and the waves obey him. They went across the lake to the region of the Garrissines. When Jesus got out the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.

This man lived in the tombs. And no 1 could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained, hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart. And broke the irons on his feet. No 1 was strong enough to subdue him, night and day among the tombs, and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself the stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance he ran and fell on his feet in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice. What do you want with me Jesus son of the most high God. In God's name, don't torture me. For Jesus had said to him, come out of this man, you impure spirit.

Then Jesus asked him, what is your name? My name is Legion, he replied. For we are many. And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs were feeding on the nearby hillside, the demons begged Jesus.

Send us among the pigs. Allow us to go into them. He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd about 2000 a number rushed down the steep bank into the lake and would drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened.

When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the Legion of demons, sitting there, dressed And in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people, what had happened to the demon possessed man and about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him but said, go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.

So the man went away and began to tell in the decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and all the people were amazed. It's a strange night tonight, isn't it? There's a strange night. There's a strange almost perversion actually about this whole night, isn't there? Inside of us.

This sort of weird desire to have an evening or a night where we enjoy fear. And we go out of our way to find fear and look for fear and try and enjoy being afraid. I don't think there's a clearer night than tonight to see that there's something actually quite disturbingly wrong with us and humanity. Than looking at kids' faces as they walk up and down the street on a nightlight tonight. If you go to thought park tonight, they're doing scare fest weekend, and they've hired actors to dress up as vampires, and ghosts, and seriously wounded people, and they say that it's gonna be a spine tingling, spine tinglingly enjoyable sort of evening.

And everything is heightened and sort of scarier. And it's a strange thing because for the rest of the whole year, we condemn that kind of violence and that blood and that gore, don't we? We actually try and hide from it and we don't wanna see it. When there are murders, we put up white tents to cover the gore in the body because you don't wanna see that sort of stuff. We get upset when we hear about things that happen, violence, and murder.

Police officers who do things to the people they're meant to protect. For the rest of the year, We're horrified by that sort of stuff, but then tonight, children are walking around with blood on their face. And pretending to be dead. And it's a real horror. And for some reason, the scarier, the better, the more scary, the more people enjoy it.

But actually, I I think ever since we heard this this morning, ever since Adam sinned in the garden for the first time, and he hid from God out of fear. We don't live as we were meant to anymore, do we? We heard this morning how God made us out of his love to be in relationship with him, not to be afraid, Not to die, not to be in pain, or to be covered in injuries, or wounded, or trapped by anything, but to be free. And to be in a loving, hope, and wonderful relationship with our father and with each other. But Adam, after he sinned, hid from God.

We weren't meant to be afraid. And yet when God says to him, where are you? He says, I heard you in the garden, and I hid because I was afraid. And we've just seen 2 scary stories from the bible where people are utterly, truly afraid. And I think we can see from those stories, there's something wrong with the world.

If that is the world we live in, There's something wrong with this this world. Outwardly, there's that story of the the furious squall that kicks up on the lake. And I looked up what a school was because it's not a word you use very often. This morning, when it was chucking it down, that was not a school. Yeah?

Anne Mackie said she was blown to church this morning with her umbrella. Okay? But that wasn't a squall. If it was a squall, she'd be up in the air. If it was in the right direction, that might have been quite helpful to get ahead of church.

But if it was in the other direction, she'd be somewhere else. A school is where the wind blows and howls, not just for a moment, and you sort of stumble this way, but it's constant and it pushes you, and it overwhelms you. And just when you think you can't take it anymore, then the rain starts hitting you. And then it then then the rain suddenly switches direction, And when you're in a boat and that happens, you might as well not be in a boat. You have to take the sails down.

You have no control over the rudder. You're sat in this thing, and in the story, we heard there were other boats with them at the time. So can you imagine you're in a boat, there's the wind that's pushing you, the rain is attacking you, you know you can't do anything about it, and there are boats coming and smashing into you, you're it must have been terrifying. And as as as Dean said in this video, these are fishermen. They're used to being out on the on this lake.

They're used to being in storms, they know what to do, they know what knots they need to make in the rope, they know how much of the sail they have to take down. They know normally what to do, but here in this school, they have no idea what to do. When I'm on a plane and there's a bit of turbulence, I look to the air stewardess, and I I see what her face is like. Because if she sat there having a little natter, which they normally do, about what they're doing that weekend or where they go in, then you know it's absolutely fine. The expert knows what we're doing.

I'm a bit like holding on to the to the seat underneath me, but if they're fine, then you're okay. But if the expert looks worried, then you pray, don't you? You learn to pray. The experts here in this boat are terrified. They have no idea what to do, They don't know how long it's gonna be until they smash against another boat or smash into the shore or smash into rocks.

They're totally and utterly lost. And actually, in our lives, things outside of us can make us feel like we're in a school, can't they? We can be battered and blown constantly, and you think when is this relentless thing in my life gonna stop? And then just as the wind is getting overpowering in your life, this 1 thing is overpowering. Suddenly, the rain starts spashing you in the face.

And you wipe in the rain from your eye and you can't see, 1 suffering here, another suffering here. Have you ever felt like that in life? Storm of life outside is battering you and you don't know what on earth to do, or where to steer, and you try and steer. But you can't steer away. The pandemic was a storm that we had no control over.

Economic difficulties can be storm that you have no control over. As I said, corrupt police officers could be a storm that you have no control over. The reckless decisions people in our lives make to us is a storm that we have no control over, and sometimes waves crash onto the deck of our our lives, and there's nothing we can do about it. That's the outward storm. What about the inward storm?

We also saw the possessed man. And there's actually interestingly, there's nothing outside of him causing him to be that way. In fact, they're trying to put things outside of him to control him. So it's not the outside that's chaining him down and causing him to be in distress, there's a stronger inward chain inside this man. That he cannot break, that no 1 can break.

And he's there probably wanting to be restrained, wanting to be released, but there's nothing outside of him. And I think sometimes we can be trapped inside as well. It might not be an external storm that we face, But often, we have no control over our own mental health. We have very little control over addictions we feel like. Or lusts, things that drag us away, kicking and screaming sometimes.

Maybe it's low self esteem. I mean, people hide sometimes their whole lives from others because they fear they're gonna be rejected, and it can feel like this chain that is chaining us down. And sometimes it feels like Satan himself is pinning us, overwhelming us with sin and temptation. There's an inward storm that possesses us. And in both cases, outwardly and inwardly, there's the thing in these stories is that there's no 1 who can do anything about them.

The experts are crying out in fear. People have given up trying to help this man with this inward chain. And so all they can do is cry out in desperation and fear. Something's wrong with this world, isn't it? Because that's not just a story.

That's all of our experiences to 1 degree or another. And so it's weird, isn't it? That today we we celebrate death, in gore, in fear, and actually in hospice at this very moment, people are holding the hands of loved ones as they're passing away. We actually don't wanna be afraid. When you're in those situations, you don't want to be afraid.

We actually wanna be desperately saved is what we want. We want to be saved from fear and from death. So I wonder, have you ever tried to decant the water? That's pouring in over your life. Have you tried to have a go?

Stams are coming, the suffering is coming, and you're trying to decant it, and you're trying to get by. And every day, you're just trying to do your little bit, and then a wave comes crashing and you think what's the point? If you ever tried to to tie yourself up outwardly, to deal with an inward chain, to stop yourself doing what inwardly you're bound to do. Do you sometimes like the disciples in the boat just cry out to God going, where the heck are you? Don't you care if I drown?

Don't you care God about my life? Didn't you see this wave that was coming? I didn't see it. You saw it. Don't you care about me?

Then actually, Jesus does something really odd when we ask in those kinds of questions. Because he stands up in the middle of the storm, and he says to the world, why are you so afraid? Now Jesus isn't an idiot. He knows the storm was there. He he quietened it.

So what on earth is he trying to teach us by asking, why are you so afraid? There is a storm. So in the face of the storm, why are you so afraid? And he says, do you still have no faith? Adam feared God in the garden because he did not know what God was able and willing to do.

He messed up. He'd made a mistake And he thought the only option I have is to hide. And so he hid and he was afraid. We fear the elements around us because we do not know, like Adam, that Jesus is able and willing to do something about the storms that are in our lives. See, Jesus is the 1 who with a word can deliver us from the fear of these outward storms that are all around us, when when they're raging around us, Jesus actually gives them meaning, and context, and purpose.

Are you suffering right now? Are you in a storm right now? Jesus gives it context, meaning, and purpose. Maybe financially you're struggling in some way. On a Jesus Christ, you're rich beyond all measure.

Are you sick? Are you are you overwhelmed with a sickness at the it. Well, Jesus Christ has made you well in the eyes of God forever. Jesus is the solid rock on which we stand. We sang that this morning, that was amazing.

And he's using all these things in your life to complete his good work in you. He did it's not that he doesn't know about the storm. He says in the storm, why are you so afraid? I'm at work. I'm doing things in you.

I'm going to deliver you because no matter what, it's interesting. He says it in in chapter 4. He says, let us go to the other side. He says, at verse 35, he says, let us go over to the side. Jesus has said that.

Jesus has said, we're going to the other side. We're going to the other side. So on the journey, no matter what happens, Jesus has said, we're going to the other side. And so you will get to the other side regardless of the storms that come up in in your life. He's gonna deliver us 1 day to the shores of glory.

Regardless of the storms that are in our lives today. And secondly, he's the 1 who has the strength to overcome and break these inward chains that keep us captive. So are you addicted to anything? Are you lusting after something that you wish you were not lusting after? Do you want to be free from your own heart that is pulling you away from God?

Do you want to be free from that? You want to be free from the thoughts that go around in your mind that you wish you wouldn't think. Well, Jesus Christ is the 1 who can free you from those things. Most of all, the greatest chain that Jesus has broken is the chain that kept us captive to sin and death in Satan. That was the chain inside of like this possessed man.

You can You can chain your your legs up so they don't take you away from the Lord, you're gonna smash them. You can chain you can get your mates to chain you up and chain you to the floor, you're gonna break them. You can do anything you like outwardly, and you're gonna go away from God because there's a strong inward chain that pulls you away from God and yet Christ has come in and broken that chain. And it doesn't matter how you feel about it either. Day to day, we can feel quite differently about salvation, but we know that in history Jesus has broken the power of sin and death.

By becoming sin for us on the cross. So this chain in us, by the way, which was God's own law. He said to Adam in the garden, if you eat from this, you will die. That was God's promise. That was that strong chain.

Price has come in and paid the price for that sin and broken that power by becoming sin for us, for dying for us, by fulfilling that penalty for us. And so now, at the end of the story, it's wonderful, isn't it? This possessed man sits And he's dressed. I don't know where he got the clothes from. Who brought clothes for this bloke?

I don't know. But he sat there. He's dressed. And that's us. We were naked, and Christ has closed us so we can now sit at his feet.

In our right minds. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing. So I wanna ask you why are you so afraid? Jesus asks you, in the storm. Yes.

I know about the storm. Why are you so afraid? If you know me, why are you so afraid? Because did you notice those who don't know Jesus actually, he's terrifying. I wonder if you notice that.

He is terrifying. Look at chapter 4 verse 41 if you've got a bible. So the disciples have been in this storm, they are They they are they are frightened out their skin, and yet when Jesus calms the storm, then they're terrified. They haven't got who he is yet, fully. They're terrified of him.

They don't know who he is. And in chapter 5 verse 15, When the people come, they've heard what Jesus has done to this possessed man. They've heard about the pigs who rush into the water. When they come and see this man, they're more afraid of this man sitting in his right mind, and they asked Jesus to leave. Is Jesus terrifying to you?

Are you scared of Jesus? Could we have the next slide, please? Sorry. Here is what God says. Oh, sorry.

I haven't even been doing this slide. And the next 1. There you go. And the next 1. Right.

Listen to what God says to us, over and over and over and over again through his word. To Abraham. He says, do not be afraid, Abraham. I am your shield. Your very great reward.

To Isaac. I am the God of your father, Abraham. Do not be afraid. For I am with you. To Jacob, do not be afraid to go down to Egypt for I will make you into a great nation there.

I will go down to Egypt with you. I will surely bring you back again. To Joshua, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

To Isaiah, for I am the lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear. I will help you to Jeremiah, so do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, do not be dismayed, declares the Lord. I will surely save you out of a distant place. And you know what? When angels go to college in heaven, do you know what the first thing they learn about speaking to humans is?

What's the first module they cover? It's this, the the next slide. To to to Joseph, the angel says, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit to Zechariah. Do not be afraid Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard to Mary.

Do not be afraid, Mary. You're found favor with God. The Shepard, do not be afraid. Yeah? Have you got this?

There were loads more I could have given you. You're like, thank goodness, he didn't give us more. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. God is desperate when we're adamant, and we hide from him. What does God wanna tell us?

When the storms are crashing around us, and we're inwardly changed by different things. What does God wanna tell us? Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. And then the next slide, please.

This is 1 John chapter 4. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. Adam hid because he was afraid of punishment, but the 1 who fears is not made perfect in love. Do you know the love of Jesus for you?

I hope you do. I'm sure you do. We go on about it an awful lot here. Because if you know the love of Jesus for you, If you know that before time began, the father and the son and the Holy Spirit knew you would go away from him. Knew you would turn your back on him, knew what it would cost to bring you back to say, don't be afraid.

If you If you knew what the love of Jesus was before eternity for you, the the fact that they knew everything, knew what it was gonna cost and still went through with it. If you knew that kind of love for you, that sees the end of the story as well, that sees the part when we're delivered to the to the short. The bit after the storm has calmed down, the bit after Jesus has said, be quiet, be still. If you could see all of that and you knew the love that Christ has for you, would you be afraid? Doesn't mean the storm stops, by the way.

But he says, why are you so afraid? Will not the god who loves you and has loved you eternally before the world began, as he thought about you and imagined you, and then made you, and then paid the price for your sin and will deliver you. Will not the god who loves you that much deliver you. And so we have to trust him in the storms of our life because perfect love drives out fear. So on an evening like tonight, when everyone is looking to be afraid and everyone's going, boom, on your way home.

And there are kids with like blood and stuff and they're trying to scare you stuff. Yeah. Remember Jesus Christ, and remember his question to you. Why are you so afraid? You don't have to be afraid of that sort of stuff.

So we need to walk straight faced, all the way home. Just tell kids why you're afraid. Don't be so afraid. Just to finish, there's an example of a fearless Christian in history because today is also a reformation day, as we heard this morning as well. And reformation days where we celebrate the reformation of the church back to the courtrooms that were saved by faith alone, through grace alone in Christ alone, according to the scriptures alone for the glory of God alone.

And now, do you remember in 20 not yeah. 20 17, it was 500 years. We celebrated 500 years since the beginning of the reformation. 20 21 is 500 years since the diet of worms. Is that how you say it?

Was it the diet of worms? The diet of worms, if you read it in English. This was when Martin Luther, who had previously nailed his thesis to church doors, was bought before a formal assembly of the of the holy Roman Empire to recant his Protestant views. So he was dragged before people and he was and he was told you have to recant. You must take back these things that you've been saying, and you must repent of your sin.

And that was the diet of worms, diet of worms. And apparently, he was promised a safe passage to and from this meeting But this must have been a frightening moment for him. He's standing up before all of these people. I've got a picture of it, actually, if you skip along. A slide.

Here we go. He's standing up before all these people and he's being told, you are a heretic. You must before God deny these things that you have been preaching and teaching. This must have been a frightening moment for him. But actually, after a night of praying and speaking with his trusted friends, in response, he he said that this is the next slide, unless I'm convinced by the testimony of the scriptures or by clear reason for I do not trust in either the pope or in counsels alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, I am bound by the Scriptures.

I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against my conscience. May God help me, amen? Bryant. That is a brave thing to stand up and say.

That is a kind of fearlessness which comes because he's convinced of the love that the Lord Jesus Christ has for him in the Gospels as he's read the scriptures, and he's put his trust in him. Why are you so afraid, Martin Luther? Why are you so afraid? And so we're gonna finish now by singing a song that Martin Luther wrote in the years following this diet of worms. 500 years ago.

And the third verse says, if you have the final slides. Sorry. You should get in closer and closer. This is the third verse. And though this world with Devil's field should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed, his his truth to triumph through us.

The Prince of darkness Grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure for low his doom is short. 1 little word shall fell him. So we fear not Christians. We tremble not because of the overwhelming love of Christ for us.

So do not be afraid. Let's stand and sing this song together.