Authority Over the Storm

We are starting a new series today called “The Authority of Jesus.”  And for the next 6 weeks, we are going to study 6 different passages that uniquely display Jesus’ authority over things like “Nature, Darkness, Sickness, and even death!”   It’s going to be a great series!

To kick off the series, I want you to really think for a moment.

Who or what has authority in your life? Who’s actually calling the shots, in your thoughts, actions, the way that you see and respond to others?

From your bank account to your browser history, what is directing the destination of your life?

Then ask, is it leading me in the right direction?

Too often, we are on autopilot, tossed around by the sinful ways of this world and our algorithms, and our lives are a MESS. THE reason we experience so much suffering, hurt, pain, and confusion, is because we have turned away from God, taken authority into our own hands, which has turned our world into a chaos rollercoaster we ALL want to get off.

Does anyone here love rollercoasters? How many of you are like, 'Oh no, absolutely not,? My Family and I, we LOVE rollercoasters. Years ago my wife and I traveled to a Six Flags Amusement Park in Ohio, they have a ride, the top thrill dragster, that goes from 0-120 MPH in 4 seconds, straight up a 300 foot wall, back down, and its over in like 20 seconds. Its AWESOME…So, We waited over an hour for a 20 second ride

WE get on, strapped in, then my wife grabbed my leg with a look of pure terror and said, ‘Get me off this ride.’

I had two choices: Yell really loud to get her off the ride or sit there in confused silence, hoping she would like the ride and not hate me later.

I chose silence, the countdown hit zero, and I was slammed back in my chair, and I think my face was stuck like this…

When it stopped I slowly looked at my wife, wondering if my life was about to end, thankfully she loved it!


My question is, have you ever felt like that? Where it seems like things are going along great, things are moving in the right direction, and then you suddenly find yourself in a scary place going,

'Wait, what is happening here? No, I don't want to do this. Get me out of here.

It seems to happen a lot in life. Because in life storms come often, and out of nowhere.

We are left with this question,

Where is God in my storm?

Where is Jesus when things get really dark and it seems he is silent? Where is God when we cry out, get me out of this, and he doesn’t?

Today, we are going to see that the disciples ask the same question and found some profound answers. We are going to look at 3 different ways Jesus has authority in the storms we are facing.

I’d love for you to turn to in the Bible to Mark 4:35-41.

We believe the Bible is the lamp of truth in the darkness, so we want everyone to open a Bible, either one your brought or you can grab the Bible at your chair. In those Bibles, you can turn to page 685. Then find the Big number 4, then the smaller number 35.

So here is what has happened before this passage begins. Jesus had been teaching things that left people in awe, he had performed miracle healings, and incredible crowds had surrounded Jesus to hear him, to the point where he had to teach from a boat so more people could hear him.

The disciples are riding high on the momentum of all that Jesus was doing. Then, Jesus leads them right into some chaos. Lets read that story.

Mark 4:35-41 - 35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 

Quick note, 4 of the disciples were professional fisherman who knew how to handle a boat, so crossing over was no problem but then…

37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 

The storm, was so intense that the water rushed in faster than the disciples could bail it out. Think of how terrifying to be on a boat in the darkness as it takes on water and begins to sink.

38 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?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Wow, what a moment packed with incredible implications. We know from intensive scholarly studies that this is a trustworthy eye-witness account, of what actually happened.

Meaning, Jesus’ power is not metaphorical, this REALLY happened in REAL time.

I know it might sound crazy to believe, but if God can create billions of planets through Jesus with a word, it isn’t hard to believe he can calm a storm.

Lets go back to the setting for a moment, the sea of Galilee is, 700 feet below sea level, the surrounding mountains are 3000 feet. The large difference in height between surrounding land and the sea causes large temperature and pressure changes which leads to violent and sudden storms.

This particular storm was so crazy that experienced fisherman were like, this is it, we are all going to drown.

But, then in verse 39 Jesus said the to storm, “Quiet! Be still!” 

Jesus’ response to the storm is CRAZY… notice Jesus doesn’t, role up his sleeves, say, everyone, stand back., pull out a magic wand and say magic words..

He doesn’t call on something else or ask God to do something.

Jesus simply says: “Quiet. Be still.” The book of Mark was originally written in Greek, and the literal translation of these Greek words used here are: “Be quiet and stay quiet.”

In other words, Jesus speaks to a raging storm like it is a little toddler.

Then two miracles happen

1.The wind stops, the storm ceases,

But what is even crazier, is

2.The waves instantly stop and the sea becomes completely or mega calm.

Typically that doesn’t happen when huge waves are sinking your boat,

yet instantly the water turns to glass.

For those living at Jesus time, this would have been a blazing sign that Jesus IS God.

If you study ancient history you would find that ancient cultures, there was this common belief that Only God could control the sea. The sea symbolized uncontrollable chaos, it was impossible to be tamed.

Yet Jesus says, sit down and be quiet to a what felt like a hurricane and IT DOES…

As Pastor Tim Kller Puts it, “This shows that Jesus does not possess power—He is power.”

All of this shows us so clearly that

1.Jesus has Authority to Stop Your Storm

As we see Jesus for who he is, As we see his absolute authority over nature, it must change how we respond to HIM.

Jesus isn’t someone to be ignored, he isn’t a consultant to bring in from time to time to ask about your life.

Jesus demonstrates infinite power, He acts AS God because he IS God and so we can cry out to him in our storm with confidence that he can stop it!

Yet, there is more we can draw from this miracle. Look closely at the interaction between Jesus and the disciples for the next truth about Jesus’ authority in the storm.

Its important to remember that Jesus was the one who led them out into the sea, which shows us that God will at times lead us straight into the storm.

If he calls us to be peacemakers in a broken and divided world, we know it is going to lead us into storms.

Look back at Verse 38, at what the disciples say in this storm…

38  The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

What a revealing question, a desperate question, honestly one I can relate to.

We have all asked that question in our own way…

Jesus, don’t you care that…

1.my child is sick?

2.my marriage is falling apart?

3.My friends have deserted me, I feel so alone, that I want to give up?

We can relate to the disciples, when it feels like everything's going wrong, you're sinking, and it seems like God's asleep.

This echoes a universal human fear: If God loved me, this wouldn’t be happening.

But notice their question reveals 3 false assumptions the disciples had that limit our ability to experience God’s peace in the storm

When the Disciples said, Teacher, don’t you care if we Drown?

1.Assumed Jesus was just a teacher,

a.It is so easy for us to minimize who Jesus is, to seem him just as a good teacher, or a good man, or friend, and not to see him in all his power, so we don’t actually depend on him because we think so little of him…

2. Assumed Jesus didn’t care if he wasn’t doing what they thought he should be doing

a.So often we miss what God is doing in our lives because he isn’t working the way WE would work, we act as though God needs to do it our way, to get on our level, because we of course know all things…but he doesn’t, so we believe the lie he doesn’t care…

b.But Jesus does care, he came to earth to love us, rescue us, to give his life on the cross so we could have eternal life with him.

3.They assumed they were going to drown

a.Too often, we face a storm, we believe we are never going to change or overcome what we are facing, we declare we aren’t going to make it, so we give up and given in and it crushes the very hope that Jesus lived to provide.

b.But we see here, Jesus has infinte power ver nature, so He can certainly meet you in your storm and walk you through it.

Believing lies about Jesus leads us to deny the very presence, power, and peace that God provides in the storm.

We must shift our perspective to see that

Storms are God's training ground to demonstrate His faithfulness and to transform us by revealing lies we must let go and truth we need to trust.

I want to ask you to reflect right now, in the storms that you have faced, or are in right now, can you see any lies that you have believed or truths you need to trust? Allow the Holy Spirit to show you!

Lets look at Jesus response to them after he tells a storm to go sit in the corner like a child.

In Verse 40 Jesus says “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Now, I can imagine them thinking…wait Why were you afraid? We thought we were going to die, we thought you didn’t care, because if you cared, you wouldn’t let us go through this.

It is so clear that their premise was all wrong.

Jesus does allow people he loves to go through storms. God can love somebody and still let them go through a storm.

So, in the storm, he is calling us to trust, to have faith, instead of panic.

To have faith means trusting that Jesus will either deliver us from the storm or sustain us in it. Jesus will either say "Quiet, be still" to the storm, or "Quiet, be still" to you.


To have faith in the storm, is to pray the impossible, is to ask God to stop the storm, and trust that he can because he IS God. And at the same time trust that if he doesn’t stop the storm 


2. Jesus Has Authority to carry you through Your Storm

It’s important to be clear that the point of this moment ISN’T that if we just cry out hard enough, all storms will instantly end.

We must know that God’s power works in so many ways that we often won’t understand.

Obviously, you and I, we are NOT God. Consequently, there are so many things we can’t see, ways that God is working that is beyond us. So there are going to be many times where it will make no sense as to why he hasn’t delievered us from the storm, and yet, we can know that he is doing so much even while we wait.

At Renovation Church, we pray the impossible. For seven years, my family has been doing exactly that for my sister-in-law, Mandy.

Mandy was diagnosed with a fatal disease 7 years ago by the best doctors in the world at Mayo Clinic. At that time, they said that she could have anywhere from 2-5 years to live because the disease would eventually shut down all of her organs.

Since that moment, our family has been praying the impossible, begging God to heal her, and to this point, he hasn’t. She has gone in over and over again to Mayo, there have been challenges and twists and turns that have left the best doctors with no answers. She is continually in pain, often in the hospital for weeks at a time, Times when she can bairely breathe and has no energy.

Yet, she is still with us 7 years later, and what is most beautiful, is how she has lived through this storm. She is one of the most joyful, loving, and intentional people you will ever be around, when you are around Mandy, you feel God’s love! She is continually pouring herself out for others, when at times she has so little energy to give.

After 7 years, even though it seems that nothing is different, everything is different because through God’s power, she is still fighting, living, still trusting in God who provides his peace, his strength, his wisdom IN the storm.

She has lived more life in the last 7 years, the most healthy people live in their whole life.

Understand this…Storms come at us no matter what, but with God’s powerful presence we can respond with courage, hope, and love that Mandy displays that allows to LIVE and inspire others.

Our family has seen that there is so much good that can come from the storm. We have seen that

1.We don’t have control, so we need to stop living like we do.

2.We have learned to more deeply depend on God which brings peace and perspective.

3.We have learned to lay down this Amercianized lie about Chrsitianity, that we’re not supposed to suffer as Christians. Jesus suffered, the discipled suffered, so we will suffer But God can bring good even there.,

See God often uses storms to wake us up to the things we're building our lives around that are like shifting sand below our feet. Like, if you build your life around being popular or having money or success or comfort, in one moment that can go disappear and then your life crashes down like a house of cards.

So, God’s going to free you through the storm to stop depending on things of the world, but instead depend on God who is constant and never changing.

As we have faith through the storm,

1.God builds our character,

2.grows our strength, and

3.fills us with wisdom

that will grow our capacity to face the challenges that come.

When we trust God THROUGH the storm, even though nothing about the storm may change, everything about how you see and respond to the storm will change and

Your Faith WILL CONSUME YOUR FEAR

Let me be clear, fear is apart of the human experience, but where we go with it, that makes all the difference.

Look with me back at the disciples response to Jesus challenge in verse 41:

Before the miracle: the disciples are afraid, so so afraid, but

After the miracle: they are terrified

They’re more scared after the storm than during it.”

They feared Jesus.

So, in our storm we need to know that

3. Jesus has Authority to be Feared ABOVE the Storm.


Now, I know this sounds foreign or wrong to say about Jesus, but we are to fear Jesus.

This very moment shows us the fear the disciples had at the greatness of Jesus infinite power and authority. The key is to see that they didn’t run from Jesus in their fear, instead they drew even nearer to him!

Let me explain it this way…

When I was a kid I got to meet on of my heroes. See, I great up in Green Bay Wisconsin, please don’t hold it against me and yes I am a die hard packer fan. Years ago my dad was asked to speak at a chapel service for the packers, so I got to go along. And I will never forget watching the best defensive lineman ever and my hero Reggie White walk in the room. I was like 13, I was 100 pounds soaking wet and he was 6’5’ 300 pounds, and let me just show you what he often did to 300 pound men in football…

He made a grown man, on the Vikings, look like a rag doll…

I was shook when he walked up to shake my dad’s hand after the service, I lost all my words. He made my dad look like small child and Then he said hello to me, and I just said, well nothing. Then he was gone….Meeting Reggie White as a kid, I felt this weird mix of wanting to be near him and wanting to run away because he was just so big.

If that's how we feel about human greatness, how much more should we feel a holy reverence for the One who spoke the universe into existence?

Fearing God isn't about being afraid of Him in a way that makes us run away; it's a reverence that makes us run to Him because HE IS THE ONE who can save and lead us!

Fearing God is about having a deep awe, respect, and adoration for him that makes us obey Him immediately, even when it doesn’t make sense.

And the promise is this: the fear of the Lord swallows up every other fear.

It fills you with wisdom that gives divine direction, an identity that gives humble confidence, and a security that the world can't touch,3.

One of the storms we often face is from our fear of man. So often we are ruled other’s opinions of us, when we live to please others, there is so much pressure to do things this way or that, to have a certain look, or success, the storm of different voices pulling us in a million directions.

I know, as a recovering people pleaser, how exhausting it all is.

But, there is SO much freedom when I pray throughout the day, God may I live for you alone, show me what you want and give me the courage to do it. Listening only to HIS voice brings a clarity, because I don’t have to constantly analyze what everyone else around me might be thinking. I don’t have to chase approval. In Christ, I am God’s son, created in his image, and He will lead me in His love!

The beautiful thing is, When we learn to fear Jesus, we realize that we don’t need to fear anything else. When Jesus is in your boat, you know your boat won’t sink, because Jesus is holding you for eternity. 5).

Yes, things on earth may be chaotic and things may not work out as we would hope, yet we can KNOW, In Jesus power, that all things will be made right for eternity in heaven.

Charles Spurgeon puts it so clearly, “The fear of God is the death of every other fear; like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it”.

So, Jesus has authority over any storm we will face in our lives.

Including the ultimate storm we will all face, death.

See one day, Jesus is going to calm all storms, he is going to end evil, defeat death, and bring anyone who chooses to follow him into an eternal perfect life with him in the Kingdom of God.

Which brings SUCH hope in our family’s journey with Mandy’s sickness, One of the things that she and my brother always say, is that they KNOW God is going to heal her, it could be here and now, or it could be when she goes to be with God in heaven forever.

Either way, the healing is coming for eternity. And I pray you know, God wants to do the same for you.

He wants to save you, from the ultimate storm that sin has caused in our lives. See sin is choosing to ignore God, to do what is evil, to be selfish, unloving, hurtful to others, and so many other things.

And the Bible is clear, a perfect God cannot overlook evil, there must be justice which means we deserve eternal separation from him, in Hell.

But in the greatest act of love in history, Jesus didn't abandon us. He stepped into the storm of justice for us. He took our death on the cross so He could give us His life. It is this beautiful exchange

So that anyone believe in him as their savior and leader, could be rescued from eternal death and given eternal life.

God’s word is clear, to do that you need to declare with your heart that you want to give your life to Jesus and follow him.

For those of you that just gave your life to Christ, I’ll come back up and give you some next steps at the end of the service.