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Calming the Sea
00:26:26
After Jesus rebuked a storm on the Sea of Galilee, everything became calm—except the disciples. From his exposition of the gospel of Mark, today R.C. Sproul explains why Christ’s disciples were more afraid of Jesus than the wind and waves. Get...
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- [00:00]
R.C. Sproul
We don't have a category for somebody who can speak to the waves and they listen to him. This one is in a class by himself.
- [00:09]
Nathan W. Bingham
This one is so alien, so other, that there is no compartment for us to include him.
- [00:19]
R.C. Sproul
As soon as he manifests his transcendent majesty, they are reduced to terror.
- [00:31]
Nathan W. Bingham
What does Jesus calming of the sea teach us about the holiness of God, the otherness, the majesty of God? Stay tuned for this Sunday edition of RENEWING YOUR Mind. Coming out of a season reflecting on the final week before the death and resurrection of Jesus, we're taking a break to go back to earlier in his ministry for a sermon series from Mark's Gospel that shows the power of Jesus on full display. We'll only spend four weeks in Mark's Gospel, so if you want to dig deeper, be sure to request the hardcover volume of R.C. sproul's commentary on Mark by giving a donation of any amount@renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight. Well, here's Dr. Sproul on the calming of the Sea.
- [01:19]
If you've ever been to Israel and had the opportunity to take a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, I'm sure you experience the warnings of those who took you on such a voyage, that even with the modern equipment that sailors use today to navigate the Sea of Galilee, that there is always a profound and imminent danger of sudden storms that arise without warning. There are reasons for that climactically and geographically, and we realize that the topography of that region in the Sea of Galilee has not changed very much in the last 2000 years. Mountains that were present then remain present now, and the sea level of the Sea of Galilee is basically the same today and as it was in Jesus Day. And the structure of the ground there creates opportunities for wind tunnels, winds that come either from the east off the desert or winds that come from the west off the Mediterranean Sea. We notice that in this passage the event takes place in the evening. And we know that in ancient times, though the Sea of Galilee was so rich for the fishing industry, most of the fishing was done at night to avoid the worst winds that occurred, usually during the day. And so the storm, this perfect storm that Mark describes to us in this text, takes place at night, which was somewhat unusual and gives us some insight into into the exceedingly great fear that these seasoned veteran fishermen experienced on that occasion. One other detail before we look at the text itself, and that is this, that in recent years an interesting discovery was made by archaeologists along the shores of the Sea of Galilee when in one of their digs, they found a fishing boat intact.
- [03:41]
R.C. Sproul
The.
- [03:41]
Nathan W. Bingham
And their dating indicated that the ship dated back to the end of the first century B.C. or right around the beginning of the first century A.D. so that it comes right from the time of the narrative that we've just heard. And the boat was 27ft long, and they were normally 4ft high. So they weren't little rowboats, but they weren't, you know, exactly the Titanic either. They were propelled by four sets of oars and sails when it was possible to use them. But always in the back of these boats, there was a seat or a bench for the coxswain, and it had a comfortable pillow there for him to sit. Now, that's enough of the background. Let's go to the text itself. Jesus said to them in the evening, let's go over to the other side. And so they left the multitude and they took him along in the boat as he was. And there were other boats, little boats that were also with them. Then suddenly a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. But he that is Jesus was in the stern. And for you landlubbers, that's the back of the boat. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a pillow, sound asleep, oblivious to the peril that is immediate, utterly unconcerned for his own or anyone else's safety. And we see Mark's description here that the disciples are both afraid and they're angry, and they not only awaken Jesus, but they rebuke him. That's the first rebuke that takes place in this text. They said to him, teacher, don't you care that we are perishing? Let me just pause here for a second.
- [06:04]
R.C. Sproul
How like the creature to rebuke the Creator.
- [06:13]
Nathan W. Bingham
How like the servant to sass the Master. And there they are rebuking their Lord. But he tends to ignore them, except to ask them about the reasons for their fear. But first he rose up and he gives a rebuke. But at first he doesn't rebuke them. Instead, he rebukes the wind. And he says to the sea, peace, be still. And you know what happened. As soon as the Lord of Glory, who created heaven and earth, who was master over nature, who could curse a fig tree and make it wither on the spot, gives his command, just as the Father had commanded the light to come on in creation, now the sun says to the elements, peace, be still. And as soon as the command comes out of the lips of Christ, the.
- [07:19]
R.C. Sproul
Sea is like glass, and there's not the slightest zephyr to be felt in the air. Everything is calm except the disciples.
- [07:40]
Nathan W. Bingham
They remain agitated, which I find quite fascinating. Jesus then rebuked his disciples, saying, why are you so fearful? Don't you have any faith? And what follows, does Mark tell us? Well, then they finally calmed down? No, it said that they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him? Now I want us to notice that in this passage three times Mark uses the descriptive term great or enormous. The Latin translation uses the word magna. The Greek here speaks of mega. You know what a megaton bomb is like. You understand what the force of this prefix is. And the three times that we read of it in the text is first of all to describe the tempest that comes up so suddenly on the sea. It's not just a storm, it's not just a tempest, it's a mega tempest. According to the text, it is a great storm, an enormous storm surpassing the usual types of maelstroms that will arise on the open water. This is a horrific tempest that threatens the lives of the disciples. We read the great windstorm arose and the waves beat not against the boat simply, but into the boat. That four foot deep craft is about to capsize as the waves are beating into the boat and filling the boat with water. It's at that point that the sailors go to their leader, wake him up and say, do something or we perish. Then when Jesus utters his command and rebukes the sea saying peace, be still, then the text says, a great calm, a mega calm, a magna calm comes upon the waters. From great distress, from great violence, comes great and instant peace. But the one great descriptive term that I'm most interested in in this passage is the third use of that term mega in the text. And that is when Mark uses the term magna in the Latin or mega in the Greek to describe the fear of the disciples. Now what I also want us to see is this, the progress fear.
- [11:14]
R.C. Sproul
When the storm comes up, they're phobic.
- [11:19]
Nathan W. Bingham
They'Re afraid, they're intimidated.
- [11:24]
R.C. Sproul
But when the storm is calmed, their fear is intensified.
- [11:32]
Nathan W. Bingham
Isn't that remarkable?
- [11:34]
R.C. Sproul
The great fear doesn't come until after the threatening storm has been removed.
- [11:45]
Nathan W. Bingham
We dare not miss the significance of this in the lives of the disciples.
- [11:51]
R.C. Sproul
In their response to the person of Christ.
- [11:56]
Nathan W. Bingham
Recently I saw in the paper a list of the top 10 phobias that assault people's comfort zones, particularly in the United States of America. People are afraid of the marketplace, agoraphobia they're afraid of water. Aquaphobia. They're afraid of small, cramped spaces. We know that. But in the top 10 phobias in our country is a phobia called xenophobia, spelled with an X, X, E, N, O. Xenophobia.
- [12:35]
R.C. Sproul
And xenophobia is the fear of strangers.
- [12:42]
Nathan W. Bingham
Their difference.
- [12:46]
R.C. Sproul
Haunts us because we're not sure how to respond.
- [12:52]
Nathan W. Bingham
And so we always have this fear of the stranger. Remember Mark Twain's little short story on the mysterious stranger and how people did not know how to respond to this.
- [13:05]
R.C. Sproul
Stranger from out of town who came into their community? They were frightened.
- [13:12]
Nathan W. Bingham
I was teaching seminary in Philadelphia many years ago. I had a senior course that I was teaching in the history of atheism. And I required my students to read primary sources. I said, I don't want to just read about atheism. I want you to read the atheists. And so I made them read Kaufman, I made them read Nietzsche, I made them read Sartre and Camus, and I made them read Marx and Feuerbach and Freud's Future of an Illusion and Civilization and Its Discontents. And as they would read these works of the most brilliant atheists of the last couple of hundred years, then we would have discussions about their arguments against the existence of God. And there was a common thread that ran through particularly 19th century atheists, because after the Enlightenment, the thinkers of the Enlightenment said, well, we no longer now have to look to the idea of God to account for the beginning of the universe or the origin of human beings. Now we know that the universe has come to pass through spontaneous generation. And so the question that was left for the followers of the Enlightenment was this. Since there is no God, how is it that everywhere we go on this planet we find people who are practicing religion? Mankind seems to be incurably homo religiosus. Where does that all come from? Since it doesn't come from God, why so much religion? And the same answer is given over and over and over again in the atheistic philosophers, namely that religion is invented as a crutch. It's a psychological bromide to help us cope with the scary things that surround us. And Freud had an interesting theory about this. He said, as human beings, we're frail. We're always in imminent danger of having our lives destroyed here today, gone tomorrow. And we look at those things around us in nature that can terminate our existence. And we see, for example, that we can succumb to fatal illnesses, we can be killed on the battlefield in war, we can be murdered by a robber, we can be killed in a hurricane, an earthquake or a fire or some other natural disaster. And so Freud said, basically, nature is hostile to us and is a threat to our survival. Nowhere is that more eloquently portrayed than in the text that we've read this morning. It was the force of nature, the great wind, the great turbulence in the sea, the beating of the waves against this boat that threatened the very lives of these human beings. Freud made this observation. We have learned how to cope to some degree with hostile people. If you are angry at me and are expressing that anger to me, and I want to get rid of that anger, I can do a few things. I can beg you for mercy, I can apologize to you and maybe that'll turn away your anger. Or I can say, you don't want to be mad at me. I'm president of your fan club and let me show you, here's a gift. And I offer you a gift and hoping to assuage your anger and turn it aside. And he said, in religion rises up. When we use the techniques that we find will work sometimes to remove the threat of humans against us. We will use the same tactics with non human entities. We will personalize the impersonal forces of nature. Because how do you negotiate with Katrina? You can pray Katrina, go down the coast, hit someplace else, don't hit us. But she doesn't hear. So we personalize the storm, we personalize the earthquake. And then the next step is we sacralize it. We begin to invent personal gods who live in the hurricane, who live in the earthquake, who live in the sea, so that you have sea gods and wind gods and all the rest, so that now we can talk to them, pray to them, offer sacrifices to them. Freud said that's how religion started. And you got it really simplified when you boiled it all down to one God over all of the forces of nature. So that if you're afraid of the hurricane, you can pray to the God who makes the hurricane. Not so fast, Sigmund. Although I think it's true in the history of religion that people do tend to sacralize non sacred objects and to personalize objects that have no personality. Nevertheless, in all of his creativity, the one thing human beings don't do when they invent gods to protect themselves is to invent a God who is more terrifying than the force we're trying to tame. And that's the point that Freud overlooks. Because what human beings don't want is a personal God who's holy.
- [19:42]
R.C. Sproul
Nothing threatens sinful humanity more than the presence of the Holy See. It's the same reaction that takes place this night on the sea when the disciples see that storm instantly calmed by the command of Jesus.
- [20:04]
Nathan W. Bingham
We see the third use of mega.
- [20:08]
R.C. Sproul
Now they're not just afraid.
- [20:12]
Nathan W. Bingham
Their fear is a mega fear. It's exceedingly great. And they cry out, what kind of man is this?
- [20:28]
R.C. Sproul
But even the winds and the seas obey him.
- [20:33]
Nathan W. Bingham
What kind of person they met all kinds of people. And you do it every single time. You walk down the street in a city and you see hordes of people coming your way that you've never met in your life. And you pigeonhole every person that you see instantly. You may not consciously think about it, but you're watching all the time. Is that person smiling? That person's safe? Is this other person's eyes furious? You give them a little extra space because you know what unbridled anger can be like in human beings. And so you give room for people like that. You separate and sort every person you meet into a category.
- [21:19]
R.C. Sproul
Safe, dangerous, nice, cantankerous, whatever. But we don't have a category for somebody who can speak to the waves and they listen to him. This one is sui ganerous. This one is in a class by himself.
- [21:45]
Nathan W. Bingham
This one is so alien, so other.
- [21:51]
R.C. Sproul
That there is no compartment for us.
- [21:55]
Nathan W. Bingham
To include him in a word. Beloved, what the disciples experienced on the Sea of Galilee that night was the holiness of Christ. Oh, they liked his power when they were in trouble. Wake up, Jesus. Help us. Show us your power. Well, when he showed him the power, he had.
- [22:20]
R.C. Sproul
So this is not common power. This is holy power. This man is different from any other person on the face of the earth. And when they were in the presence of the Holy One of Israel, they were consumed by fear. That's what Professor Freud never understood. And the thing that Professor Freud was more afraid of than anything else in the world was the holiness of God. That's why people run from God. That's why people run from Christ. As soon as he manifests his transcendent majesty, they're reduced to terror. That's why, beloved, if Christ now in his majesty, would come in this church this morning, know what? He would go up to him and.
- [23:31]
Nathan W. Bingham
Shake his hand and say, hey, palace, come on in.
- [23:33]
R.C. Sproul
No, no, no, no. You would be on your faces just.
- [23:37]
Nathan W. Bingham
As John is on his face. When Christ appears in the Isle of Patmos, when the resurrected Christ and His glory and the manifestation of his holiness appears, all creatures hit the dirt because he's other.
- [23:56]
R.C. Sproul
He's holy. So not only do people tremble at his voice, but seas that have no ears listen to his command, and winds that have no knowledge know enough to stop blowing when he says, be still.
- [24:25]
Nathan W. Bingham
That's our Savior.
- [24:34]
And what a Savior he is. Throughout his ministry, RC Sproul often spoke about the eclipse of God in the church pulpits, failing to portray God as He is revealed to us in Scripture. But we must proclaim the God of the Bible, the One who was thrice holy as we read in Isaiah chapter 6. This is the Sunday edition of Renewing youg Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham. Dr. Sproul was a gifted communicator and he preached with passion. His sermons from the Gospel of Mark formed the foundation of his expositional commentary. And to thank you for your support of the truth proclaiming outreach of Renewing youg Mind, we'll send you a hardcover copy of it. Simply give your gift@renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast Show Notes. If you prefer the ebook edition instead of hardcover or you live outside of the US or Canada, you can request it at renewingyourmind.org global. Thank you for making Renewing youg Mind possible. Seven days a week, 365 days a year. Jesus has power over creation as we saw today, and he has power over the demonic realm. And that's what we'll see next Sunday here on Renewing your Mind.