into the text MARK 4

Posted by occwebsite
28th Jan 2022

TEXT

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!”

~Mark 4:35-41

THEOLOGY

Mark 4 has a number of seed parables in it:

  • sower and the seed (1-20)
  • growing seed (26-29)
    • this is one of my favourite parables.
      I so like this line “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.
  • mustard seed (30-32)

and a parable about a lamp & a measuring spoon (21-25)

Most of us are familiar with those parables or stories. So, we are going to look at the account of the storm.

There are 2 main ways to reflect on this

  1. the storms that we face in life
    • we can look at the storms that come our way & how we sometimes respond to them in fear
    • & how Jesus is there with us in the storm
    • did you notice that the disciples fear increases after the storm?
  2. the spiritual warfare that takes place in light of the kingdom of God
    • We live in a war-torn world of pain, hurt, violence and death.
    • This is not how God intended creation to look.
    • The Good News is God has sent his Son, Jesus, to defeat the powers of death, and to begin reconciling and redeeming the world unto God.
    • When Jesus rebukes the storm here in Mark 4:35-41, he is giving us a foretaste of the ultimate victory and restoration that is to come.
    • How has Christ reconciled and redeemed the world?
    • In your own words, what does spiritual warfare mean?
    • How can we have peace in the midst of the “storms” in our lives?
    • In what ways has God blessed or gifted you to share Christ’s love and peace in doing spiritual warfare?

VIDEO

ERRV (Emergency Response & Rescue Vessel).
100 Miles North East of Shetland.
A 43m Ship in 22 Meter Seas.
At the time these waves were filmed (April 2021) they were the largest seas anywhere in the world.

SONGS

This song was written by Maltbie Babcock in the late 1800’s. Maltbie was a minister living in western New York, and he frequently used to go out for a morning walk, and as he left the house he would tell his wife “Goin’ out to look at my Father’s world!” He wrote the poem “My Father’s World” based on these walks. After his death in 1901 his wife collected his poems and other writings and published them. The poem was then discovered by Franklin L. Sheppard and set to music, and it became a classic hymn. The original poem contained 16 stanzas. Today only 7 of the stanzas are commonly used.

 

Calm the Storm by UNION Creative