Sunday Sermon | Gospel of Mark: Peace in the Storm

Chad Mason preaches Mark 4:35–41 — the story of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. In this message, Chad explores the contrast between how the disciples and Jesus each interpreted the same storm, unpacks why the disciples were more terrified after Jesus stilled the waves than during them, and addresses the hard theological question: if God can calm storms, why doesn't he stop all of them? This sermon lands in real grief — the first anniversary of the July 4th Guadalupe River flood that devastated families in our own community, and this week's earthquakes in Venezuela — and offers a word that isn't easy but is true: peace is not found when storms cease. It's found when you know Jesus, who is with you in the storm. Part of FBC Boerne's ongoing series in the Gospel of Mark.

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Transcript

Celebrating VBS Fruit And Volunteers

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. It's good to see you all this morning. My name is Chad. I'm the missions pastor here at First Baptist, and it's always an honor and a privilege to get to share the Word of God with you like I get to this morning. And uh after such an incredible week, um I know Daniel shared a little bit about VBS this week. We watched that video at the beginning, and uh I just want to highlight a couple things. Uh we had 725 kids registered for this week uh uh for our vacation Bible school. Uh 280 volunteers serving across our campus and preparing for it all. And uh and so, my goodness, there's almost a thousand people on campus every day. Think about it, Sunday service and then Monday through Thursday with vacation Bible school. This was a busy, busy week here at the church. And we're so thankful and grateful for all the things that God did. Like uh, like they mentioned that 67 decisions for faith and another 35 who want to talk more about what it means to follow Jesus. So a hundred kids who are calling out and seeking God's presence in their life. What an amazing thing. If you were one of those kids and you're here with us this morning, we just want to say we hope that you had a great time. And we're really excited about what God is gonna do in your life. And for those of you who maybe are still wondering what it might look like to follow Jesus for your whole life, what a great thing you have in front of you. What an exciting life and what exciting privilege to serve and seek Him for all of your days. If you volunteered, we're so thankful for the time that you invested in our church and our families and our kids. You know, statistically, 90% of kid of people who come to faith come between come to faith between the ages of four and fourteen. Do you know that? So the single biggest way that we lead people to faith is by engaging them with the gospel while they're still young. And so thank you for investing. And when you invest in VBS, it's not just in the families of our church, which are heavily invested here, they're always here. But you know, I got to share with five different students. As they made decisions to follow Jesus, we spend time counseling them. And so over that period of a couple hours, I got to sit with five of them, four of them were from other churches. So we really care for the whole community of faith during our VBS. We have people coming from different families, different churches, different areas. Some come in for the week to spend time with loved ones, and so we really have an opportunity to share Jesus far beyond the walls of our church through our VBS. And so I want to tell you, First Baptist Church, we are blessed. And I want to tell you, as a member of our staff, you are a blessing. When I look around here, I see the way that God uses you in such incredible ways. And I'm so honored and privileged to get to be a part of this body of Christ. You know, it's what powers you are what powers our ability to be a blessing to so many. It's so amazing to see how this church gets to bless this community and how God is speaking to the people in our city and in our county. God is moving here and through you, and I want to take a minute to praise God for all of that. Right? Like uh it may not, maybe it's weird to just kind of give a clap offering to the Lord, but let's just thank God for the many ways that he has blessed us and blessed our church. The way that he's blessed so many families. It's for him, it's for his name, and it's for his glory. And that's all of it, right? We could stop right there and walk out these doors and just feel so thankful that God moves among us in ways that we can't really design and control. He works in people's hearts, and and we can put everything together in the right way, but only God brings the harvest. Let's just take a moment. I'm gonna ask that the Lord would bless us. Let's pray together. Father, we want to just say thank you. Thank you for working among us in this powerful and meaningful ways. Thank you for inspiring your people to do your work in your world. God, you are great and you are worthy of our praise, of our gratitude, of our honor, of our worship. We pray that you will take all of our effort as that, as worship, to make your name and your glory great. It is not about us, it is all about you. Father, we pray that you would continue to extend your kingdom through this place, to the lost and hurting in this community and to the nation and to the very most uttermost parts of this earth. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Renovation Changes And A Messy Month

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Amen. Uh I have talked to our staff and Jason a few times the last few months, and we're so honored to see how God is working, and we know that seasons like this come and go in churches. There are many churches in our country that wish they had the vibrancy and the vitality that we see here all the time right now. And I want to tell you, you shouldn't take it for granted. There are things that come and go that make churches lose this season, and then they look back and say, remember when God was doing that amazing thing? And it's not always guaranteed. And so we're so thankful to be in the midst of a space like that right now, where God is moving in you and in this church and in our community in ways that we just can't uh imagine in so many different areas. But you know, these seasons they can change. I want to tell you, we have a uh the next season is gonna be a little different. You already know that we took all the pews out of the balcony, and so it might be feel like we've got a crowded room this morning. So the 100 people are sitting downstairs and only sit upstairs. And we're uh we're excited because this is the beginning of a season that's gonna be uh us putting into motion what we've been planning for for many years. Um, you know, when God works most powerfully, often his people are most surprised, right? We we often think we've got it all planned out and it works well, but when God moves, it typically causes us a level of discomfort. Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, today is gonna be the beginning of some of that, right? Already the balcony seats are out. Thursday, they moved them all out. As soon as VBS was ended, we had a team upstairs unbolting everything, getting it ready, and Friday morning they came and took all the chairs down. We gave them to a church in Pearsall that's gonna use them. We're so thankful that those are gonna be used for another place of worship. It's such an incredible thing. And today, when our services are over, and there's teams telling me we should end them early. We're not gonna, but uh, we've got a whole bunch of teams that are unbolting all these pews, and by the end of today, all of these pews will be out of here. So it'll be an empty, empty sanctuary. Tomorrow morning we have crews coming in to take out all the carpets, to fully demolition over this place, and then start reinstalling uh the new pieces of the sanctuary that we'll see at the beginning of August. So for the next four Sundays, this sanctuary is gonna be closed. We're not gonna be sitting in here, which means all that you uh are comfortable with is gonna be upended, right? Uh if you want to change to the right side of the room, which some people really like, this is gonna be your opportunity. Are those of you over here and you're like, hey, I'm gonna try on this other? You can invade other people's territory from this day forward, okay? But here's the thing. In July, we're gonna be all over the place. We're moving the kids' ministry starting in August into the Family Life building. All of our growth groups are gonna be scattered around the campus for the next nine months, while some of you will be down in the gallery where the students are, some of you will be in the admin building where there's some classrooms. Uh the youth are gonna all be in the hub, the larger room over there, so they're gonna be changing some spaces on Sunday morning. And all of that is to make space for the demolition of the children's building, which is gonna start, if everything goes according to plan, in August. And so it's gonna be messy. And everything that you're all of your preferences are gonna be tested, right? All of the things, uh again, your special seat, that one seat that you guys have planned over the years to sit in because the air conditioning is just perfect in that spot, it's gonna all be messed with. And it brings me just to a quick little moment here. Guys, there are minor inconveniences that happen throughout our lives all the time, right? Don't let those little things destroy your heart for what God's doing among us. Remember, we're doing all of this because we're wanting to make space to steward uh this place in a way that makes more families available to be a part of this community. We we're wanting to grow and really to care well for all that God has given us, but it's gonna come with a little bit of a price. And that price is gonna be you might have to walk further from your car to your classroom. Over the next month, you might go to the wrong place because we got it all mixed up for some reason. Um we we might have a lot happening that makes you wonder, what am I doing here right now? But guys, please, please, please remember why. The why is that we believe God has called us to make these changes at this time as we prepare for the next phase that God is calling us to as a church.

Three Prayer Anchors For Transition

SPEAKER_00 8:49

So before we jump into our sermon, I've got three things I want us encouraged to pray for as we go through this season of transition. The first thing is I would encourage you to pray for one another. I was teaching in a classroom a few weeks ago uh with one of our growth groups, and we I always ask, you know, do you guys have any questions? You maybe don't always have an executive pastor in the room. What do you, and one of the ladies stood up and said, What are we gonna do in this jumble July? It's gonna be a mess. And uh, are we really gonna meet over here? And we said, Well, listen, let me give up the best that I can. But after a minute, another woman in the room stood up and said, Hey, I just want to encourage you guys, even though it might be messy, it's gonna be really good. So she said to them, manage your hearts and your opinions and your preferences so that you don't get upset in the next few months. And I thought, that's great. That's great. So I want to encourage you as a church, pray for one another and encourage one another, not to be overwhelmed. You guys have close relationships within your growth groups and within the people of the church. You know each other. And so if you know that someone's really having a hard time, encourage them. If you don't, if you know someone's gonna come and they're not sure where they're gonna go, try to meet them at their car and teach them, show them where to go. Uh we we have more people signed up to be grow uh kind of um hosts of our campus so we can try to help everybody know where they're going the best that we can, but there's no doubt that we're gonna miss some. So help us out. If all of us are working together, this is gonna make it so much easier. So pray for your pray for each other. The second thing I want to tell you is pray for your leaders. When you go through construction projects like this, it's a long process. From the vision cast to the fundraising to the actual implementation of the of the construction plan, all the way through until the very end day when you finally dedicate it and you get to move into it. It's a long process. And that process wears on the church, but it really falls heavily on the staff, and especially the upper leadership of that staff. So during this time, pray, pray for your staff, pray for your leaders. I, uh among the executive team members, this impacts me the least. Almost all of my work is outside the walls of the church. But like Mark, over the next month, his entire world, which is in this space, in the worship space, in the choir room, it's all in flux, right? You think about our children's ministry leadership, they're about to be out of their building for at least nine months, maybe a year. It's gonna impact them heavily. And because of that move, it's gonna impact the youth ministry and our adult discipleship. Everything gets impacted. So pray for our leaders. Pray that Jason will be sustained because a lot of the problems that will come up are gonna end up on his plate, right? Daniel is carrying a huge weight of most of the administration and the dialogue between the contractors. Pray for Daniel because he's gonna have an endless amount of work on top of what is already an endless amount of work. Right? Pray for our other leaders who are trying to manage all the shifts and the changes and the attitudes of leaders and volunteers who are gonna come and go throughout this season. And then ultimately pray for Kim Ball. Kim Ball is our operations director who's gonna make sure the finances are where they're supposed to be and all the all the preparations and all the rules are followed and all the things that might come and go. So just pray for our staff. Will you do that for me? It's not uncommon when these type events happen in churches for some staff members to burn out. And when you ask people later, why what happened? Why, they talk about the stress load and the workload, but what really gets people is the discouragement when people in the church start to be angry at the very things that we've designed to do as a church. And so the hardest thing for any staff to handle is for members of the church to get very upset about things that we definitely can't control, ins and outs. You know, sometimes there's just changes that have to be made on the fly while you're going. And we've done our best. We have committees and teams and church members involved in so many of these decisions. But shepherd your hearts and pray for our staff. Pray that God would give them the energy, give them this the stability, and really just give them the stamina to get through this season and not be overwhelmed. Will you do that for me? The last thing I'd ask you guys is to pray for your own heart. It's a hard thing when some people look at the amount of money we've raised, at the amount of work that's gonna go into this, and they wonder, do we really need it? And I would tell you, we prayed about those things three years ago. We've been asking the Lord to lead us all along the way. And God has provided through you in such amazing ways that we are very comfortable and confident that God is in this work. So, in those questions, when they come, remind yourself, ask the Lord to give you strength and sustain your own heart as we go through this. This is a season, this is a storm, so to speak, that we've invited. We have we have worked and we have planned, and now it's coming, and we have said this is what we want. Over the next year, we're gonna see it all played out, and it's gonna come with a cost. So please continue to bear with us in this year.

Mark’s Purpose And The Kingdom Parables

SPEAKER_00 13:46

As we shift and we start looking at what God's doing in our scriptures today, we've been walking through the book of Mark. And what's funny is the sermon today is about the storms. It's about how Jesus calmed this storm. And so we're gonna look at it here in just a moment. But before we jump into it, I want to just highlight a few things as we look at the first four chapters of Mark. Uh, the first thing that you need to know when you think about the book of Mark is that Mark is not uh uh it's not put in chronological order. Do you know what you know what I mean? Like so when you go from one story to the next, and Mark almost always says, immediately Jesus did this, and immediately Jesus did this. Uh the the stories are put together in a way to tell the story well, not to tell it in a chronological space. So sometimes Mark jumps around a little bit and pulls these different stories because he's putting them together to make a specific point. So the early part of Mark, you see Jesus being uh discipled as a young person, you see his movement into his ministry, you see a couple of uh stories about him calling the disciples to himself, and then you see him beginning to teach. And Mark is trying to show you that his teaching is extraordinary. He's teaching in these really simple ways called parables. He tells a simple story that has deeper meaning. And in that meaning, you find there's lots of little pieces to talk about, lots of little things to draw out. And these last two that we talked about last week was the parable of the sower, and then the parable of the mustard seed. And in both of those parables, you see this idea, they both start with the kingdom of God is like, and you see that Mark is trying to introduce the topic and the subject of Jesus' ministry. What Jesus is doing, at least in these early chapters, is trying to set up and explain what he's doing and tying it to what God's been doing throughout history. Right? Jesus isn't acting in a vacuum. He's tying in, in fact, in John, he says he only does what he sees his father doing. Right? He's doing the will of the Father. So he's talking about this idea of the kingdom. And so he he pulls out these two incredible little little parables, and then it says this verse that Jesus taught only in parables. And I want you to think about that. So Mark is telling us that Jesus wanted everybody to understand these simple things. So he's teaching in these simple stories, and he's trying to engage in what the kingdom of God is like, and then what we're gonna see is he shifts now to go from Jesus' teaching, his powerful teaching style, this focus on the kingdom, to now some activities, some actions that Jesus did that show his extremely powerful self.

Reading Mark 4 And Setting The Scene

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And so we start with these stories here at the end of chapter four, looking in verse 35. So let's read this together. So it says this that day when evening came, he said to his disciples, Let's go over to the other side. He's talking about the other side of the Sea of Galilee. 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 it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said, Teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, Peace be still. And 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? Look at this last verse. They were terrified, and they asked each other, Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. Let's pray. Father, as we open your word and we look at these things, we pray that you would open our ears to hear your voice, and open our hearts to respond to your word, and open our hands so that we can do the things that your word and voice compel us to do. Father, we love you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Why The Storm Terrifies Fishermen

SPEAKER_00 17:35

So get the context here. These are fishermen for the most part, and they're experienced fishermen. And they're on a lake. Uh we call it the Sea of Galilee, but do you know how big the Sea of Galilee is? It's roughly eight miles across and 13 miles long. So it's not what we would typically think of a sea, like when you think of the Mediterranean Sea, right? It's it's it's a small lake. Do you guys know how big Lake Travis is in Austin? At its widest part, it's like five miles across and 63 miles long. Okay, so think about the Sea of Galilee being a fraction of the size of Lake Travis. Have you ever been on a lake when a storm came up? I mean, today you see it coming, you just turn on the engine and push go, and you know, you get to the bank or you get to the dock before the storm gets there. They didn't have that that ability, but there are some storms that pop up. But if you're an experienced fisherman or if you're an experienced boater or sailor, uh a storm isn't something that's uncommon, uh, but you want to avoid them if you can, right? But for fishermen to get to a point where they're desperate, something has happened that is that is unique, right? Something has happened that that is causing them uh a lot of stress. Um, and I mentioned this when we did we did the Jonah series a few months ago, that in ancient literature, storms and water typically come together to talk about these things that are like basically fate. Right? We think about the ancient gods like of the Greeks or of the Romans, and and the gods tend to represent things that we can't control. And the sea is one of those things, right? The sea and what's in it, uh, the the ancient Greek god Poseidon is the guy that's over the sea. But think about this when when people used to get in boats and push off into the sea, some of them never come back. And how do you define that? You can't call them on the cell phone or look at the GPS and see where they're located at. And so people would just go into the void and you would wonder what happened. So the way that they defined it, the ancients defined it by these were the things that the fates controlled, the gods controlled. This was in the hands of those greater than us because we can't control it, we can't understand it. What happens, happens. And so there's this whole ancient theme about chaos and darkness and storms and the sea, and that all comes together into this story. Because what you have is is fates and and forces that are beyond our control that are threatening the lives of the disciples. It's in this story that the disciples are terrified because these forces are threatening their very lives. I I think about this and I wonder how if there were any conversations that happened before they woke up Jesus. Can you imagine if one of the guys were like, hey, Jesus is still asleep? Like, should we wake him up? Yeah, we should wake him up. We're about to die. Well, does it matter then? Like, should we just what if he if we're gonna die, I'd rather be awake, you'd think here. You can think of Peter saying something like, How is he still asleep?

Jesus Sleeps Then Commands Chaos

SPEAKER_00 20:34

And then someone might say, Well, do you think he can help us? And the answer is, what? This is a storm, this is waves, this is darkness, this is this is drowning. What can he possibly do? Right? You think about it. And then let's take a second and think about Jesus. Jesus is asleep in the boat. Have you ever been in a storm out on the water? How many of you felt like it's probably not a big deal? Let them just take a nap. Have you ever been like nervous on a boat? Think about storms. You see lightning and there's you see them approaching. It's not like this is in a vacuum as well, especially on a small lake. You're gonna see this thing coming. Even in the dark, you're gonna see evidences of it, the storm rising, the waves getting stronger, all these things. And Jesus is asleep. What does it tell you about Jesus? Either he was just, you know, completely exhausted and can't wake himself up, which is a challenge all by itself, or he's completely at peace. He's not worried in the least. And so you have these contrasting views in this particular moment in the story where you have the disciples who are experienced fishermen. They've been on the water, they know what's going on here, and they know this is really bad. And you have Jesus snoozing on the cushion in the front. Of the boat. And so they decide, of course, to wake him up. And then when Jesus wakes up, he is terrified. No, he's not, right? Like, could you imagine? He's like, oh God, save us. It's not how this looks at all. You know? He's like, okay, this isn't working. Let's call on all the ancient gods, like you see the guys in the Jonah story, right? Let's throw all the cargo overboard. What can we do? Get the oars out. We got to get to shore. You don't see any of those type things. Jesus stands up, he rebukes the waves, which by the way, I'm not sure how that goes. And then he says to the sea, to be still. And it calms down. Okay, just think with me for a second. All the ancient writings talk about the storms and the chaos and this uncontrollable fate. Right? We even call them the fates. And in this moment, Jesus stands up with complete peace and commands what no person can command. Do you know why this story stands out so powerfully, this short couple verses, that you want to just sit through every element of it and ask all these questions because it doesn't make any sense that Jesus has the authority to command even the wind and the waves. What's terrifying to the disciples is just a no big deal to Jesus. It's something that is overwhelming. He's not afraid. And the wind and the waves listened. The disciples interpret the storm as fear of the unknown. Everything that they see is interpreted through what they think is about to happen and their inability to change it. But Jesus interpreted the storm through faith in the Father. He understood the sovereignty of God and he knew the Father, and he knew that this wasn't a big deal because this was not the time. His confidence and faith in the Father made him unafraid of the storm. Two completely different perspectives in the exact same story. Jesus, in these three words, exhibits authority, the like of which has never been seen before. Jesus controls what is uncontrollable. He can do the impossible. But then at the last verse, it says that they're terrified. Why are they

Fear Of Jesus And Reverent Awe

SPEAKER_00 24:48

terrified? This verse, it says in verse 41, they were terrified and they ask each other, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? The disciples are confronted with the fact that Jesus, who was moments ago sleeping in the boat, is more powerful than the very storm that threatened their lives. That knowledge is terrifying. Why? Why is it terrifying? What makes the disciples afraid to realize that the guy that they're hanging out with wields such authority and such power? Why is that a scary thing? We uh Daniel and I both like the Chronicles of Narnia, and we quote it far too often. And there's a line in the Narnia books kind of throughout the books where this theme where it says that he's not a safe lion. Right? Like that that Aslan, the Jesus character, he's not safe. And this is kind of what this is touching on. It's touched on this thing that Jesus is not one to be trifled with. We talk about him because he says things like we're his friends. He calls us friends. What an incredible honor it is. But when your friend has that much authority and power, it's something you have to be aware of, right? It's something that should make you a little nervous. It's somebody who has this authority to unmake us. And yet he calls us his friends. The very simple point of this story is: will you be more afraid of the difficulties, the challenges, and the storms that life will throw at you? Or will you fear the one that made you? These are fundamentally different fears, but they speak at its core to the same thing, which is what will you honor in your heart? The things that can take things away, the fears of circumstance, the fates, the things that are uncontrolled? Or will you honor and fear and have awesome reverence of the one who made all of it? And this brings us to some difficult theology, to be honest.

Why God Does Not Stop Every Storm

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Because you might say, well, if God can calm that storm, why doesn't he calm every storm? Well, if ultimately the storm generates control, then the storms are also his fault. Have you heard that? Have you thought about that? If you can control it, why wouldn't you stop it? And I'll tell you, it gets you to some hard places. Because you realize that not only does God able to prevent difficulty in your life, but he's also able to allow it. And some difficulty feels overwhelming. You probably saw in the news the earthquakes this week, the difficulty that Venezuelans are dealing with. I don't know if you've watched any of the videos. It is apocalyptic in some places, where entire towers and apartments collapse on each other within 45 seconds of the beginning of this thing. People didn't have time to get out. How do you answer the question was where is God in that storm? Or what about our own hill country? This week we celebrate, not celebrate, we remember the one-year anniversary of the last 4th of July when heavy rains dumped up north of Hunt and filled the Guadalupe Head River basin with 35 waves, 35-foot wave that came up in less than three hours and took the lives of so many. For some people in our own community, that storm continues today. They're dealing with the difficulty of lost lives and lost jobs and lost property and some, the liability that goes with all of it. Some companies are filing for bankruptcy. There's all kinds of impacts that still remain. How do you deal with that when God couldn't have just prevented it? How do you walk through it? I'm not going to be able to answer all those things today.

Where Peace Really Comes From

SPEAKER_00 28:58

But what I can tell you is this when the storms of life threaten to overwhelm you, where do you turn? Where do you go when you've got nowhere else to go? I hope you go where the disciples went. The hope in our pastors today is that our hope lies with him who's greater than the storms. I mentioned today that we are starting into a time, I will call it an inconvenience. I won't even call it a storm. Right? These minimal inconveniences of not being in here for the next month or dealing with the construction project and all the implications that come with it. These are small things. Some of you are going through much, much more difficult things, and we know. But in the midst of your trial, in the midst of your fear, in the midst of your difficulty, turn to the one who's bigger than all of it. Turn to the Lord Jesus. Peace is not found when the storms cease or when we can avoid them. Peace is found when we know Jesus, who is with us in the storm. Life's question is not if the storm will come. The question is if you're going to be alone when it comes. Who will you hold on to in those times of difficulty? And lastly, peace is found when we know the one who can stand up and say to the storm, peace, be still. So thankful for your words. And we pray in the midst of our difficulty, God, in the midst of our trials, in the moments when chaos feels like it's overwhelming, we pray that in those moments we'll hold on to you with all that we are. And that God will say to you, You are our only hope. We do pray for those in our church who are going through hard times. We pray for those in our community who are struggling in the midst of difficult storms. We pray for those in the world who are overwhelmed by the chaos around them. And we pray, God, that you would speak to their hearts and comfort them as only you can. We pray, Father, that you would speak to their hearts, that you would speak to the raging wind and waves. Peace be still. Help us to put our hope and trust in you, Father, in every way. In Jesus' name. Amen.