Who Is This?

Let me invite you To turn in your Bibles this morning to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4 for our time of study. In God's word this morning. If you want to give a title to the message, it would be, Who is this?

Who is this whom the winds and the sea obey? for those of you that were with us last Sunday, you'll recall that we were in Matthew 16, and we just listened in on a part of Jesus' conversation with his disciples, where he asked them, the question, who do you say that I am? And they give an answer. Peter speaking on behalf of the disciples says, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus says, Simon, you are blessed. That's the right answer. And I intended to just leave the message at that. But at Care Group last Sunday evening, somebody read and said something that triggered a train of thought that I think is worth traveling on over the next at least 3 weeks.

And that is this, there are actually 3 occasions in the gospel accounts where Jesus says or does something. That causes people to look at him and say, who is this? And so what we'll do today is we'll look at the first of those 3 incidences and we'll look at the other 2 in the weeks to follow. And our story this morning.

The disciples find themselves in a storm on the Sea of Galilee, and spoiler alert. Cover your ears if you don't want to know how it ends. Jesus calms the storm. And afterwards the disciples are looking at him saying, Who is this?

This question is an absolutely loaded question. It is several things all at once. It is amongst other things, an expression of amazement at, at Jesus, who is this? They're clearly astounded by Jesus and what they have seen.

Hi do here. it's very obvious that whatever paradigm they had for understanding and comprehending Jesus has been busted wide open. And they're grasping for a way to understand him and rightly define and categorize him. They're blown away.

And by asking who is this, they're expressing amazement. But that's not all they're doing. They're also expressing humility. This is an admission.

of ignorance. What they're acknowledging here is, we don't know Jesus as well as we thought we knew him. That's why they're asking, who is this? What's intriguing is that the disciples prior to this incident, would have thought that they knew Jesus, and they did to a high degree.

these disciples have been with Jesus for about 2 years up to this point of his ministry, they've been with him 24/7. In a lot of circumstances over a period of many months, and now even 2 years, they've seen Jesus do multiple miracles, giving sight to the blind and making the lame able to walk again and raising the dead. they've seen a lot of things that Jesus has done. They've also been there whenever Jesus has taught the multitudes.

They've listened in, they've heard it all. And they've even had private sessions with Jesus, after these teaching times and, and whenever they could come to Jesus with any questions that they want. So they've seen Jesus in public and privately, they've been able to interact with him, ask him questions, and really come to understand his heart. If you would have come to these disciples prior to this incident, And said, Do Jesus?

they would have said, Yes, we know Him. We know him very well. In fact, we know Him better than anyone else on the planet knows Him. And yet these disciples who knew Jesus so well, over this two year period are left on the placid waters of the Sea of Galilee, staring at Jesus saying, Who is this?

This question is an expression of amazement. It is an expression of humility. And it is also an expression of, I think, an appropriate discontent. In other words, they're asking the question because they want to know.

he's busted our paradigms, and we've got to figure out how to understand him. But we want to do the work necessary to understand him. We're not just going to say, well, I guess we didn't understand him right. No, we want to know, we want to understand him better.

We want to know Jesus. So we're asking the question, who is this? We are not content with our present level of knowledge of Him. And then fourthly, this question is amongst other things, an expression of tremendous wisdom.

Tremendous wisdom. Solomon says in the Book of Proverbs, the beginning of wisdom is get wisdom. He really says that the beginning of wisdom is realize you need to get wisdom to realize you're not wise, and you must get wisdom. We can say it this way, the beginning of wisdom is asking the right question.

And there's no better question to ever ask than to look at Jesus and to say, who is this? That's what the disciples are asking here. And think about it, they could have been asking any number of questions at this point. What would you have been asking?

They could have been asking, after the storm, and it's calmed down, they could have been asking, Lord, why do bad storms happen to good people? They could have been pondering that they could have said, how did the wind stop so suddenly? How did the waves just cease their roiling instantly scientifically, how is this possible? Jesus explained to us the physics of what has happened here.

But what, they're not interested in any of that. All other issues to ponder, fall by the wayside. And they care about one thing only. They're gazing at Jesus saying, who is this?

That is the beginning of wisdom. When you stand before Jesus, and you're looking at him and wanting to get to know him, and you're asking the question, who is this? You are right in the spot where wisdom begins. There is no question more important, where these disciples are at this point, in verse 41 of Mark chapter 4, is the place where we all ought to be.

this is the place of amazement, the place of humility, the place of desiring to know more. It is the place of wisdom, gazing at Jesus and asking, who is this? In fact, we could say that the disciples in verse 41 are where they in a good place. If anything, they're a little tardy at arriving at this place.

They should have been asking the question, Who is this about 5 minutes earlier. They should have been asking that question in the middle of the storm. When the storm is raging, and they turn to see Jesus asleep on the boat, they should have asked then, who is this? And then reason their way from who he is to have perspective on the storm that they found themselves in sight of.

But even though the disciples would say, yes, we were a bit tardy and arriving at that place where we're asking, who is this? The Lord in His faithfulness, in his grace and mercy orchestrated events in such a way that brought us beautifully. To that wonderful place of amazement and humility, and a desire to learn that place of wisdom, where we all ought to be. What we're gonna do is we're just gonna read through the short narrative that we have here in Mark chapter 4, and we're going to observe 6 developments, that, basically occurred that left Jesus' disciples by verse 41 in that place where they're staring at Jesus, and saying, Who is this?

Six developments. Development number 1 is Jesus invites the disciples to join him in going across the sea. This whole thing begins innocently enough. The disciples had no idea what they were in for, it says.

And on that day when evening had come, we don't have a lot of time for this. I just want to say that, this is a very busy day in Jesus' ministry. Some commentators refer to this as the busiest day. A lot has happened.

It goes all the way back to Mark chapter 3, in verse 20. Jesus was at a house in Capernaum, and a crowd had gathered early in the day to where Jesus and his disciples could not even eat a meal. And then after that, some relatives showed up wanting to take Jesus away to bring him back home because they thought he had lost his senses. and then after that, some scribes came from Jerusalem.

and they began just sharing their viewpoint on Jesus with other people, and they even approached Jesus and said, hey, we've got a way of understanding you. And here's how we understand you. You are a demon possessed man. And you're not just possessed of any demon.

We actually have concluded that you are possessed by the Lord of demons. And we've concluded that all of the miracles that you do, you do it by the power of Satan. And so they share that with Jesus, and the conversation does not go well. and Jesus interacts with that and responds to, to that.

It's not long before, Other family members of Jesus are wanting to talk to him and then after that, Jesus begins to teach a growing multitude on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and such a crowd gathers that Jesus, and they're pressing in on him to such a degree that Jesus ends up having to get in a boat and pushing the boat out from shore a little bit so that he could sit there on the boat and be able to teach this massive multitude that had assembled. And so it's been a busy day, and as he taught them, he taught them many parables, the parable of the sower and the soil and other parables that you see recorded in the Gospel accounts and here in Mark chapter 4.

And then it says that when evening had come, so the sun is beginning to set, it's already been a long day. When evening had come, he said to the disciples, Let us go over.

To the other side. Let's go over to the other side of the sea. if you don't mind marking up your Bible, I would encourage you to underline those words from Jesus. Let's go over to the other side.

This is fraught with significance, and it is loaded with promise that the disciples seem to miss out on. Jesus is basically saying, I have a mission to fulfill. As the Messiah, there's something I want to accomplish over on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And I'm going to go there and I want you to go with me.

So let's, let us go over to the other side of the sea. The disciples should have heard those words and been assured that they were going to safely arrive on the other side of the sea. Does that make sense? Just a tip for you guys, and for me, when Jesus comes to you and says, we are at point A, And I want to go to point B, and I'm going to go to point B, and I want you to come with me.

So let us go from point A to point B. You can pretty much take it to the bank that you're going to get to point B. Amen. That's what he's basically saying to the disciples, and this invitation is loaded with the promise that they will succeed in that venture.

The disciples, it says, basically by their actions they essentially obey. Jesus says in leaving the multitude, they took him along with them just as he was in the boat and other boats were with him. I'm struck by the obedience of the disciples. It's been a long day.

The sun is beginning to set, and Jesus basically is now saying, Hey, let's make a journey to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which was a 5 to 8 mile journey. What would you have done? The disciples could have said, Can we do this tomorrow? It's been a long day.

but they don't do that. They immediately respond. This is not the most exciting of commands or instructions that Jesus has ever given to them. Let's go to the other side of the sea.

It's a rather mundane instruction or invitation from Jesus to them. And yet they obey, little knowing the discovery of Jesus that awaited them. Guys, To all of us. Let's just obey Jesus.

Whether it's a big command or small, exciting, or seemingly mundane, let's just do what he says, because the disciples would say, on the path of obedience to Jesus, lie amazing discoveries of Him. Jesus invites them to the other side. Of the sea and so they left or dismissed the multitude and they took him along with them just as he was. So he was sitting in the boat teaching and he stayed right there in his seat.

They are his chauffeurs, as it were, and they began to paddle the boat across the Sea of Galilee and other boats were with him. Mark is the only gospel writer that actually tells us that there were other boats with them. And it doesn't even figure into the narrative. This gives every indication of just being an eyewitness detail that gets thrown in here.

So the first development is he invites his disciples to join him in going across the sea. A second development is that a storm arises threatening their journey across the sea. It says in verse 37, and there arose a fierce gale of wind. A fierce gale of wind.

The Greek word underneath the word gale is the Greek word for hurricane. All right, or windstorm. So if that's all that Mark said, we would know that this is bad conditions. This is a storm.

But Mark does not just simply say there was a hurricane or a windstorm, but literally he says it was a mega hurricane, a mega windstorm, a fierce gale of wind. And just to say a quick word about this, you can see on the screen behind me that the Sea of Galilee was, I think just under about 700 ft below sea level, and it was surrounded by mountains that were just full of ravines, and the wind that was like several miles away from the Sea of Galilee. would be traveling at just a a nice clip, but by the time those winds descended down through the ravines and got shaped and compressed by those ravines, it began to speed up just like our Santa Ana winds do.

To where by the time the winds had traveled through those ravines and got compressed and would descend upon the Sea of Galilee, those winds would be traveling at a ferocious speed.

and could just whip the Sea of Galilee into a terrible frenzy. And Mark is telling us that there arose a fierce gale of wind, and look at what the sea was doing, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. By the way, in Matthew's account, Matthew focuses a little bit more on what the water was doing, and he uses the expression mega seismos. It was like a major earthquake on the Sea of Galilee, and the waves Matthew says were so high, the crest of the waves was so high that if you were like several 100 yards away, you couldn't even see the boat that Jesus and the disciples were in.

That's how high the waves were. people who have studied the weather conditions on the Sea of Galilee even up to today say that in really fierce storms the waves can get as high as 20 ft 20 ft. In fact, you can go on YouTube and just type Sea of Galilee storm, and there's a few videos of people even in modern times who videotape the storms on the Sea of Galilee, and you can get some idea of the ferocity of the storms even. To this day, I would encourage you to wait till after the sermon to do that research.

but it's pretty cool to, to check out. And so a fierce gale of wind arises and whips the Sea of Galilee into a frenzy, and the waves, look at this, they were breaking over the boat. and the literal idea is that they were, the waves were throwing themselves upon and into the boat. To where the boat was already or the idea is quickly filling up.

How bad of a storm is this? It's so bad that many of these disciples who were professional fishermen are freaking out, and they are sure that they are going to die. When you've lived on the Sea of Galilee, and you've fished there for most of your, your life, and a storm arises, and you are concluding that you are perishing, that's a bad storm. And so what's happening here is they don't realize it, but these are divinely orchestrated developments that are designed to get them to this place of amazement and humility and wisdom.

And a desire to know Jesus more. Jesus invites them to go across the sea with Him. A storm arises, threatening their journey across the sea. And then a third development as the narrative unfolds is the disciples rebuke Jesus for not caring that they are dying.

They rebuke Jesus for not caring that they are dying, says in verse 38, and he himself was in the stern, which actually, guys, is a good thing because the person who was in the stern of the boat was steering the boat. Problem is Jesus is not steering. What's he doing? He's sleeping, and he himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.

And Mark's language indicates that there was only one cushion on the boat, and Jesus had it, and he was asleep on the cushion. And so look at how they respond. So in the midst of this storm, they look at Jesus, and no doubt they were accustomed to looking to him in situations like this. And there he is sound asleep.

And they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Jesus, we are dying. Do you not care that we are dying here? Now let's ponder real quickly, why was Jesus sleeping on the boat?

Why was he sleeping? Let me give you three quick reasons. Number 1, after a lot of study, I discerned this, this reason, he was tired. All right, Jesus was as fully man as he was fully God.

And he's tired. He's had a long day. He's physically exhausted. He has been speaking to a multitude.

He's been attacked by people on this day who accused him of being a demon possessed miracle worker, and he's frankly exhausted, so he is asleep in the stern of the boat. A second reason that Jesus is sound asleep is because he's trusting. I'm just struck by his ability to sleep in circumstances like this. And I'm not talking about the circumstances of the storm.

I'm talking about the circumstances of the day. How would you be sleeping tonight if some of your family members came around you and said, we need to take you away and to put you in a safe home because you're crazy. We think you've lost your mind. and if later today, some religious leaders, approached you, high powered people, and they said, we've actually been talking about you, and we've been following you and watching you, and we've concluded that you're demon possessed, and not just possessed of any demon, but actually by the Lord of demons.

And everything you do, you do by the power of darkness. How would you sleep tonight? I think many of us would have trouble sleeping. Jesus, he's had all of that happen, and he's just sound asleep.

Why? Because he's tired, but also because Jesus is resting in the arms and in the care of His Father. His attitude is that of the psalmist in Psalm 48, where the psalmist says, In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. we see Jesus asleep in the stern of the boat, sleeping the sleep of trust.

There's a third thing that Jesus is doing in allowing himself to sleep, and that is he's teaching. He is teaching God in His sovereignty is allowing the storm to arise and Jesus to be asleep at this point, in order to create a teachable moment for these disciples. Jesus could have never fallen asleep, and And prevented the storm from ever happening. He could have fallen asleep, but as soon as the storm arose, he could have awakened immediately before they even called on him and stopped the storm.

we wouldn't have been surprised if Jesus had done that. But Jesus allows himself to sleep through the length of this storm until the disciples. were brought to the end of their tether, until they were brought to the end of their resources and cried out to Jesus for help. What is Jesus doing?

He's Allowing the disciples to reach the end of themselves so that they can then make a discovery of Jesus, the likes of which they have never yet seen before. Now let's ponder real quickly before we move on, what are the disciples doing wrong here. we know that Jesus is going to rebuke them in just a moment, but what are they doing wrong? Were they wrong to wake Jesus up?

They're actually writers who say that the disciples should not have awakened Jesus. They should have let him sleep. but I don't know that that's where they're going, wrong here. were they wrong to ask for help?

You may say, well, looking at the text, they're not even asking for help. They're just saying, don't you care that we're dying. But if you read Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel, they actually do say, save us, rescue us. So they actually do call out to him to save them and rescue them from the storm.

So they do ask for help, and that's a demonstration of some faith that they would look to him and say, You have to save us here. What is it that they're doing wrong? There's a couple things they're doing wrong. Number one, they're forgetting who Jesus is.

They're forgetting that he is the Messiah. They're forgetting the fact that he, the Messiah, has chosen them and already given them a vision for what he's going to be doing with the rest of their lives to serve His kingdom purposes. In addition to that, they're, obviously, by their words to Jesus, they've bought into the false notion that he doesn't care about them. That's wrong.

That's a wrong conclusion. Just because Jesus is allowing them to go through a storm does not mean that he does not care about them, and it does not mean that he doesn't care about you, that He allows you to go through a storm. I think fundamentally what the disciples are doing wrong here is they're forgetting the words of Jesus. Let us go over to the other side, and they're forgetting the promise that is embodied in that invitation from Jesus.

They're forgetting all of those things, and all they see now is the storm, and they're letting the storm dictate their thoughts rather than these other truths dictate. Their thoughts. Guys, when you're in the midst of a storm, don't let the storm tell you how to think. That's not your only reality.

You have a Savior who cares and who has chosen you and who loves you. And who will take care of you and he will do good in you and through you through that storm. Well, they wake up Jesus and look what happens. 1/4 development that's bringing them ever closer to this climactic moment where they're staring at Jesus and asking, Who is this?

Jesus rebukes the storm, causing it to cease. says in Mark 4:39, and being aroused, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush. Be still I find the first part of this verse very touching and being aroused and being awakened. Just get a visual of that.

Think about what Jesus has just been sleeping through. There's hurricane type conditions, the howling winds that are beating against everybody in the boat. The sea has been whipped into a frenzy, lashing against the boat. They're being tossed about.

Jesus is still soundly sleeping with the noise of the winds, the noise of the waves, the noise of the disciples barking orders to each other. And even the splashing of water into the boat. Jesus soundly sleeps through it all. But when his disciples cry out to him, And I'm sure when they cried out to him, they felt like, Man, my voice is so faint I can hardly hear myself speak in the midst of all this noise.

Jesus is awakened. At the sound of their voice crying out to him, You moms know exactly what this is. A mom can have an infant child and be exhausted and collapse at night to sleep, a very sound sleep or in the middle of the day, and a lot of noise can be going on around her, and she's sound asleep, but the whimper of her infant child. Awakens her.

That's the savior that we have. That's Jesus' responsiveness to us. None of the other commotion awakens him. But the voice of his disciples crying out to Him does awaken him, and he moves into action.

It says, in being aroused, awakened, he rebuked the wind. This word rebuke denotes anger. It's the same word that is used in Mark 1:25 to speak of Jesus rebuking a demon. He rebukes the wind, and he said to the sea, hush.

Be still. Or literally be muzzled. So he rebukes the wind, basically telling the wind to stop. And then he says to the sea, be silent.

And put a muzzle on it. That's literally what he's saying. And so imagine this 20 ft wave coming toward the boat, almost like the jaws of death. And Jesus says, be muzzled.

And that wave just immediately deflates. In obedience to Jesus' command. Look at what happens. it's a daunting thing for Jesus.

No one, the disciples have never heard anyone just stand up to wind and waves and deliver any command, but Jesus does that and look at what happens, and the wind died down and it, the sea became perfectly calm. Immediately the wind stopped and it's blowing. The elements now are afraid to even go 1 mile an hour in the presence of Jesus, who has just told the wind to stop. And if you've ever been out to sea at all, you'll notice that there are times where the wind is blowing and it whips the sea into a frenzy, and then the wind may totally stop.

But the sea doesn't instantly become calm. Sometimes it takes hours for the calm to come over the water, but in this case, the wind stopped immediately and the waves stopped immediately. they didn't finish their course. Let me finish my course and then I'll stop.

No, they just stopped. So again, imagine a wave coming at the boat, a 20 ft wave, and Jesus says, hush, be muzzled, and just immediately, it doesn't even finish its course. It immediately just deflates. And now the disciples instantaneously find themselves in an eerie silence where all they can hear is the dripping.

Of water from the soaked passengers. The wind is totally stopped. And the Sea of Galilee is like glass. The elements are not moving at all.

And I'm sure in a matter of seconds, imagine yourself being in this circumstance. The disciples are probably feeling like they're in a Twilight Zone episode. Like, Wait a minute. Was there just a storm?

Here Because that seems and feels like a very distant memory. That storm that they were listening to and allowing to shape their thinking. It is so gone, and it is a distant memory, and now they are in perfect calm. Of the winds and the waves.

The fifth development is Jesus, who's just rebuked the wind and the waves demonstrating incredible power. Jesus now turns to his disciples, and he rebukes. His disciples for their timidity, and their lack of faith. And imagine the power demonstrated through his words and rebuking the wind and the waves.

And now this one who is so powerful turns to you and he's going to speak to you. That's just an amazing moment for these disciples, and he said to them, Why are you so timid? And the idea is, why are you so cowardly? Your your response is the response of cowards.

You have allowed yourself to be intimidated by the wind, and the waves here. You've been moved by the wind and the waves more than by who I am as the Messiah, and the promise that was inside of my invitation to you to come with me to the other side of the sea. Why are you so cowardly? And how is it that you have no faith?

Jesus is not saying here that they had absolutely no faith at all. What he's saying is they did not have the faith that the circumstances required. And Jesus is saying, How is it that you don't have the faith to handle this, to assume that I don't care, and to assume that you're going to die? What he's saying is, I've showed you enough at this point over the last two years to where your faith should have been strong enough and big enough to handle this.

After all the miracles that I've done, all the teaching that I have imparted to you and revealing myself as the Messiah to you, showing you my power and my love and my care for you. How is it that you did not have the faith To believe that I cared and to believe that you would not perish. How is it that you did not have the faith to know that you would get to the other side with me? And that leads to the 6th and final development that leaves the disciples in that wonderful place.

Of amazement, humility, a desire to learn that place of wisdom, and that is the disciples are left in fear and awe, asking, who is this? Who is this, it says, and they became very much afraid. literally, and they feared a mega fear. Which is intriguing, is it not?

They were afraid in the midst of the storm, but now that it's perfectly calm, They're way more afraid. than they ever were in the midst of the storm. Why is that? why?

Because they're realizing the power of this one. Who's in the boat with them. Just imagine, guys, the worst windstorm you've ever been in, the worst conditions you've ever known at sea, and these circumstances are probably worse than that that these disciples were in, and somebody who's right next to you stands up and says, hush, be still, boom, everything stops. And you realize however much power was inside of the wind and the waves, however much power was in this storm.

This one who just spoke this command and stopped it is way more powerful. And he's right next to me. That can be a terrifying thing. that if Jesus does not love me and care about me, I can be in serious trouble if he chooses to use his power to my detriment, or to my judgment.

They became very much afraid. these disciples, they don't realize it, but Jesus is discipling them and getting them ready to face any other fear. why these men became so fearless? Because they feared Jesus first and foremost.

He was the scariest thing they knew. He was the most unpredictable, the most frightening person they knew, and he loved them and cared about them. What can you possibly be afraid of after that? What can you be afraid of?

He's developing champions here. that he is stronger than and greater than any storm. That might confront them. They became very much afraid and they were saying to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?

If you compare this with Luke's Gospel, Luke has them saying, Who is this who commands the wind and the waves? And they obey Him. They're marveling at two things. Number 1, that Jesus would have the audacity to just speak to the elements, and give instructions to the elements.

And then #2, that the elements would actually obey. They're amazed and they're asking. Who is this? Who is this?

It's a great question. And with a little bit of thought, the disciples would process what has just happened and realize, actually, Jesus is answering this question. He's revealing who he is, even in this very moment. Who is Jesus?

Who does this incident reveal that Jesus is? Well, it reveals that he is Jehovah. And that's one of the things that is hitting, falling hard upon the disciples here. And this isn't lost on them.

They're realizing, we've always thought of Jesus as the Messiah. But he just did something that only Jehovah God can do. He's not just the Messiah. He is Jehovah.

He is God. Their paradigm is being just busted up and enlarged here. Back in this day in the Old Testament and in ancient times, the ocean, the sea was viewed as an uncontrollable force of nature. Nobody could control it except Jehovah God.

In Psalm 89, the psalmist is thinking about Jehovah and how incomparable Jehovah is and all of His power and might. And he says, Oh Jehovah, God of hosts, who is like you, Almighty Jehovah, your faithfulness also surrounds you. You rule the swelling of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them.

Only Jehovah can do this. And Jesus just stood up in this boat and said, hush, be still. He just controlled the wind and the waves. And they obeyed him instantly.

And these disciples are realizing we're in the presence of Jehovah God. This incident reveals something else about Jesus. Who is this? He's Jehovah.

He's also the 11 who is unflustered by our storms. Jesus was sleeping the sleep of trust in the midst of this storm. The disciples looked at him, and they're actually irritated that he's not as flustered as they are. but guys, what, no matter what storms you go through, Jesus is not flustered by them.

Imagine if he were. Imagine if Jesus said, Hey, I'm with you always, even at the end of the age, I am always with you through thick and thin, and every storm, I am with you, I am right by your side. You'd be comforted by that. And you're like, OK, that's great to know.

And then the next storm you hit, you turn to look at Jesus, and you're all flustered and you look at him, and he's just as flustered as you are. And he's like, Don't look at me. I don't know what's going on here. I can't do anything about this.

I don't understand this. How much comfort would that bring you? To know that he's with you always. It wouldn't bring any comfort.

But we are calmed. We are encouraged in the midst of storms to turn and look at Jesus and see. That he's not flustered. That he is at peace.

Does that make sense? You guys have been in situations where you've flown and you've hit turbulence. And sometimes when it's severe and you're like, I don't know quite how to interpret this. Is this bad?

Are we going to go down? what do you do You look at the stewardess, right? Or the guy, what's, I don't, the stewards, the steward or stewardesses. You look at them, you look at their countenance, and what, if they're calm, then things are probably OK.

If they're looking flustered, then that's the time to worry. And, it's the same with our relationship with Jesus. When we hit the turbulence and the storms, he's there. We turn to look at him and we're freaking out, and he's He's not flustered.

He's calm, he's in control, which tells you that the storm is being allowed by him. To serve His gracious purposes in you. Who is this? He's Jehovah.

He is one unflustered by our storms, and he is one who cares. He is one who cares. That's how the disciples got it wrong here. They assume that Jesus did not care.

But he does care. He's like, how can you have so little faith to assume that I don't care about you, that I would be so uncaring for you and about you that I would let you perish here? He is one who cares. There's another thing that this story answers.

This incident answers regarding who is this, and that is that he is one who reveals himself inside of storms. Jesus wanted to show them something about himself that he couldn't quite show, apart from a storm, right? And the same is true in our lives. I think we would all pray, oh Lord Jesus, reveal yourself to me, but please don't let me go through any storms.

If he obliged us and said, OK, I will never let you go through any hardships or trials, We would so be impoverished. But it's in the storms of life, and you guys know this is true from your own experience. It's in the storms and the hardships of life that we make our deepest discoveries of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

He is a God who loves us so much that he actually allows storms, and those storms are actually gifts because inside of every storm is, if we are looking, a deeper, fuller revelation and discovery of Jesus. There's a final thing that the disciples could have supplied as an answer. Who is this? They wouldn't have known this or arrived at this immediately, but in the next 24 hours, and even shorter than that, they would have known.

This about Jesus by way of answering this question, and that is he is one who stops at nothing to deliver a sinner. why they're going to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Because there's a man. Possessed of many demons, running around naked, cutting himself, running around living amidst the tombs that everyone else has written off as a lost cause.

And Jesus has a divine appointment with that man. In fact, as you read the narrative in chapter 5, he delivers that man, and very soon thereafter, he gets back in the boat and comes back across the Sea of Galilee. Mission accomplished. Jesus has a divine appointment with a broken sinner that everyone else has given up on, and he wants to keep that appointment and deliver that man from the demons and the oppression that was plaguing him.

Jesus is one, the disciples, as they got back in the boat to head back to the other side and after Jesus delivered that demon possessed man, they would be thinking, man, Jesus had us come over here through that storm. All for that guy. All for that man to deliver him. And now here Jesus is heading back.

What a, what a savior. What a what a concerned, caring savior. Is this If you're here today and You're lost in your sins. You're lost in your brokenness.

Maybe others have given up on you. Maybe you're ready to give up on yourself. And you're thinking no one would ever want anything to do with me. God definitely would never want anything to do with me.

Jesus would say, that's not true. I will go through any storm. And go over any obstacle to get to you, to give you my grace and my deliverance and my healing and my salvation. And the forgiveness that you need for all that you have done.

And Jesus would say, I did more. Then just go through a storm at sea to get to you. I endured the ultimate storm at the cross. God's boiling wrath was hurled upon me, and I suffered the mayhem and the suffering of the cross.

So that going through that I could get to you and give you the forgiveness and the salvation. That you need Who is this? Who is this? He's Jehovah.

He's unflustered by our storms. He cares. He reveals himself in the midst of storms, and he is the savior who keeps divine appointments, and he will stop at nothing to meet any sinner where that sinner is and to bring that sinner forgiveness and deliverance. What a savior we have.

Amen. Let's go to the Lord and Let's talk to him together. If you're here today and You've never cried out to this savior. Listen, who else, who else are you going to run to?

There's no one like him. No one like him. who can love you, like Jesus can and does. Please cry out to Him, receive the grace and the forgiveness.

And the salvation that he offers. Lord, we are in your presence this morning. We're so blessed to be here, so blessed to be around your word. I pray that if there's any here who don't know who you are, Jesus, they would that they would at least walk away from here asking the question, who is he?

And that they would view that question as important. And for those of us that are believers, Lord, help us to ask that question more frequently than we do. Help us to ask it during the storms, not just after you've shown yourself strong, and you've come through and you've done a miracle. And we respond by saying, Who is this?

Wow, Jesus is so amazing. No, help us to ask that before the miracle comes. When we're being ravaged by the storm, help us to stop and look at you and say, who is Jesus, and remind ourselves of the truth about you and then think from those truths. That we might have perspective in the midst of our trials and hardships.

Help us to know you and to think Jesus. At all times. You're a good savior and what you have done for them, Lord, you have a lot in store for us. Help us to walk in obedience to you, looking forward to all the ways large and small, that you will reveal your greatness and your glory to us.

Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, receive these funds and do much with them. For the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the spread of this amazing message about this amazing Savior who is ours. We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, Amen.