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WEEKLY
Volume 1 Number 17
24 September 2006
Why Are Ye So Fearful?
(Message
delivered by Pr Hien Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, Sep 17,
06)
Text: Mark
4:35-41
You and I might have faced some frightening incidents
that we may regard them as storms in our lives. During such moments,
have we ever asked ourselves, “Why are we so fearful?”
There are several kinds of fears, some are good and
some are bad. It is good to fear the Lord by departing from sin and evil
as it is the beginning of our wisdom and knowledge (Prov 1:7; 9:10). It
is good to fear that if we do not behave ourselves well or do our work
properly, we may not please God, glorify Him and edify our brethren.
However, it is not good to fear men or death (Matt 10:28).
Some
people are afraid of darkness, or snakes, or old age, or illness, or
obesity, or loneliness, or failure, or terrorism, or epidemic, or death.
Usually, if we still have a lot of money in the bank, we may not be so
fearful if we lose our job, but if that job is all that we have to earn
our living day by day we may be shocked and
frightened when we are sacked. Similarly, we are not scared of some
common illness, but if it is a fatal and incurable illness or epidemic,
we would be frightened.
Then the core of the problem is our “self.” If we
feel so painful and frightened when something or someone adversely
threatens our life, our reputation, our interests, and so forth, it
shows that our “self” is so dear to us.
Our Lord Jesus challenges His followers, “If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same
shall save it” (Luke 9:23-24). Many people do not want to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ as they are scared of self-denial, shame,
persecutions, rejection, separation, or death. Their fear is timidity or
cowardice, and since they want to save their life, they will lose it in
the end. “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”
(Rev 21:8).
Are we so fearful when we face some storms in our
lives or some challenges while following our Lord?
Why Are Ye So Fearful?
There are
two stormy incidents recorded in the ministry of the Lord
Jesus Christ that took place on the Sea of Galilee.
One was when Jesus calmed the storm after He preached the parables as in
Mark chapter 4. The other was when Jesus walked on the sea to his
disciples after He fed five thousand men as in John 6. By God’s grace,
we will try to draw some lessons from the first incident.
Here, the Lord Jesus commanded his disciples to pass
over unto the other side of the lake. As they sailed, suddenly there
arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat onto the ship and
covered it with water, and they were in jeopardy, but Jesus was
sleeping in the hinder part of the ship, and they came and awoke Him,
and said to Him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Then
Jesus arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be
still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Jesus said
to his disciples, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have
no faith?” The adjective “fearful” that our Lord used has only
three occurrences in the New Testament. It was used in the same stormy
incident recorded by Matthew (Matt 8:26), and in Revelation 21:8 to
denote the cowardly. Then how can we overcome this cowardly fear and
enjoy God’s peace even in the storms of our lives?
Acknowledge God’s Sovereignty
Through this incident, we may see our Lord Jesus as
Perfect Man and Perfect God, or 100% Man and 100% God. Jesus did have a
real body like yours and mine, but without sin. The fact that Jesus was
sleeping shows that he was so tired after a long day of teaching and
ministering to the multitude. The Bible says, “The sleep of a
labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much” (Ecclesiastes
5:12). Therefore our Lord can “be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities” (Heb 4:15). However, only by the Word from His mouth,
our Lord Jesus could calm down the storm to prove that He is
100% God, the Creator, and the Maker of the
whole universe. He has
power over nature, over Satan, over sickness,
over death, over all the events of history.
By this
point of time, the disciples had witnessed the Lord Jesus turn water
into wine, heal the sick, cast out demons, but
they had not known that Jesus had power over nature. So this was a good
opportunity for them to know more about the Lord Jesus. May God help us
to honour and trust in our Lord Jesus, our God and our Creator. He is
sovereign, and nothing happening to God’s children like you and me is by
accident. God is in control over all things even the falling of a
sparrow as we learnt some weeks ago, “Are not two sparrows sold for a
farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your
Father” (Matt 10:29). When we trust in God’s sovereignty, we
will not be surprised at any storm arising in our lives. It may be our
sudden illness or the loss of job, the loss of our loved ones, or our
failure in studies or in business. It may be some misunderstandings or
false accusations or misjudgement that may destroy our reputation or our
friendship or even our family relationships. Nothing happening to us is
by chance. Acknowledging God’s sovereignty and believing that He is able
to make all things work together for good to those who love Him and obey
Him will calm our troubled heart.
Be in God’s Will and Guidance
It was the Lord Jesus who commanded his disciples to
depart and sail to the other side of the lake. The disciples just
followed Jesus’ instruction and Jesus was with them. My dear friends, we
are to make sure that we are in God’s will and guidance so that He is
with us and He will see us through all the storms in our lives. Through
the storms we will know more about His love, His care, His power, His
grace, His faithfulness and so forth. He will calm down the storms and
give us peace.
If we live
according to our will or even against God’s will, the storm in our lives
is a chastisement from God and we should repent right away. We all know
about the runaway prophet Jonah. A strong storm did happen to his boat
while he was sleeping. This strong storm was sent by the Lord and even
the lot fell upon Jonah. Jonah admitted that he was the troublemaker
because he ran away from God’s will. When he asked the sailors to cast
him into the sea, he did not expect God to provide a whale to preserve
his life. Surely, he just realised that he had
sinned against the Lord and deserved death. But later in the belly of
the fish, he prayed to the Lord in repentance.
My dear friends, it is vital to make sure that we are
in God’s will and guidance so that we may stand firm and enjoy His
presence, loving care, and timely deliverance in our storms of life.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of
mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his
house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for
it was founded upon a rock” (Matt 7:24-25). The more we submit
to the Lord and His Word, the more we reinforce our foundation and stand
firm. If we know that we are not in God’s will, the best and wisest is
to come back to the Lord in repentance as soon as possible. I remember
when I was about 9 to 11 years old, my mother opened a small restaurant
and my parents were so busy that they did not take me to church nor
remind me to read the Bible or pray. I was backsliding during that time.
On Sundays, I stole my parents’ money and went out with my friends and
treated them. When I finished my elementary level and took the exams to
enter high school, I failed. That was like a storm in my life. By God’s
providence, my parents arranged for me to live at another place with my
sister, and then I went to church, read the Bible, prayed regularly and
studied very well, and became the top student in class. Thank God for
the storm that brought me back to Him in repentance.
I am sure that later in their ministry the disciples
thanked God for the storm, through which they might know more about the
Lord Jesus Christ. Their faith was strengthened so that they might
preach their Lord and Saviour with full convictions.
Look unto the Lord
Here we
see that at first the disciples did not bother to awake Jesus. Perhaps,
they thought that they were experienced fishermen, and Jesus was a
carpenter, so they tried their best to save themselves and they might
think to save even Jesus from the waves, the wind and the storm. When
they could not do anything while the boat was
full with water, in
hopelessness and helplessness, they awoke the
Lord Jesus, and said to Him with a tone of complaint in great fear, “Master,
care thou not that we perish?” or “Master, are you not concerned
that we perish?” The disciples used the pronoun “we” to express that
they were concerned
not only for their lives but also for Jesus’!
Sometimes, in
our storms of life, we think that we can manage to
survive without seeking the Lord and His help, and when we are helpless,
we turn to the Lord and complain, “O Lord, Why do you let this storm
happen to me; why do you just keep quiet and do not care for me?” May
God graciously help us to have a proper attitude when we encounter some
troubles or trials in our lives. God always has a purpose in everything
happening to us. We are to trust in Him and not in ourselves. We are to
look unto the Lord and not at ourselves nor at the storms and try to
learn the lessons that God wants to teach us.
When the people of Israel spoke against the Lord and
Moses, God sent fiery serpents to bite them. When they repented, God
instructed Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole (an
emblem of the coming Saviour Jesus Christ crucified on the cross). “Every
one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live” (Num 21:8).
If they had looked at Moses, or at others, or at the fiery serpents, or
at themselves, or at their wounds, they would never have been cured. Our
Lord Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John
3:14-15). We are to look unto our Saviour Jesus Christ not only for our
salvation but also for His help, guidance, comfort, strength, and
deliverance in our daily lives and trials. “Looking unto Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith” (Heb 12:2), and “Look unto
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there
is none else” (Isa 45:22).
After the Lord Jesus rebuked the wind and calmed the
sea, He rebuked his disciples, Why are ye so fearful? How is it
that ye have no faith?
The Lord Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith, then we are to
connect our faith with Him, the Object of our faith all the time. So, “How
is it that ye have no faith?” means “How is it that you don’t
trust in Me while I am here with you? Why are you
so fearful?” In Luke 8:25, Jesus asked, “Where is your faith?”
means “Where is the Object of your faith? If the Object of
your faith is Me, why are you so fearful while I am here with you?”
My dear friends, looking unto the Lord, our faith
will be nourished, strengthened, fulfilled, and realised from the
beginning until the end. There is no other way.
Listen to God’s Word
The Word of the Lord Jesus is powerful. It can calm
down the storm. It is by His Word that God created the world and
everything in it (Ps 33:9; John 1:1-3; Heb 11:3). It is the Written Word
which God has preserved for us today, the Holy Bible, that has built us
up in our faith (Rom 10:17), regenerated us and sanctified us (John
17:17; 1 Peter 1:23). It is wise to shut our ears from the strange
voice of Satan, who always casts doubts on God’s Word. We must
shut our ears from the sinful voices of the world and of ourselves. We
may be in a peaceful situation, but there is a storm in our mind, in our
heart, with a lot of worries and fears. Let us stop all those voices,
and be still and listen to the voice of our Shepherd alone. The Lord
says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10). Then let us
response like the psalmist in Ps 85:8, “I will hear what God the
Lord will speak: for He will speak peace unto His people, and
to his saints.”
Conclusion
My dear friends, our Lord Jesus is still asking you
and me in our troubles and trials, Why are you so fearful? Why?
The reason is that we love our “self” too much, we are not in God’s
will, we do not trust in God’s sovereignty with our full submission, we
do not look unto the Lord Jesus Christ alone, the Author and Finisher of
our faith, we do not hear God’s Word alone, we do not have a firm
foundation of faith and obedience, and we do not seek the Lord and cry
for help as “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and deliver me
from all my fears” (Ps 34:4). May the Lord graciously help us!
Amen.
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