God's Got You Better Than You Know
After Pentecost • Sermon • Submitted
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1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Why Worry?
Dale Carnegie wrote of interviewing Henry Ford when Ford was seventy-eight years of age. He had expected to find a gaunt, nervous old man. When asked if he worried, Ford replied, “No. I believe God is managing affairs and He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe that everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about?”
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
It had been a long day for Jesus; Reading back through Mark’s Gospel, it would seem to have started earlier that day - a sabbath - with Jesus and the 12 going through a field and the disciples feeding themselves from some of the grain that had sprouted (2:23-28). Assuming that it was in the morning, it was still pretty early for the Pharisees to be riding Jesus’ coattails about someone else’s wheat production. After that teachable moment regarding the role of the Sabbath, Jesus goes into the Synagogue, only to find more drama awaiting him in the form of a man who had a dried up, withered hand, and the dried up, withered Pharisees waiting to accuse Him again of breaking God’s Law (Mark 3:1-2). Since both of these confrontations involved the issue of work on the Day of Prescribed Rest, it is interesting to note that in neither of those cases was Jesus actually doing any sort of physical activity. None of that mattered to these men who had managed to get themselves stirred up into becoming the self-appointed protectors of all things sacred. You know what the old saying is about insanity, right?
Still, Jesus’ success at simultaneously reversing the affliction, freeing the His Israelite brother from the affliction that had plagued him without formally violating God’s command to rest, far from setting the minds of the Pharisees at ease, only got them going into overdrive to the point where they proceed to conspire - with the Herodians of all people - on how to destroy Jesus (Mark 3:5).
Jesus continues in His application of the 3rd Commandment, heading to the Sea of Galilee with the disciples, but the crowd, coming from places both near and far, followed Him there, bringing their issues with them, of course, and, of course, Jesus didn’t ignore them, but did what He could to help them, so he cast out demons and healed the sick, even ordering the demons not to give Him any publicity, but in the presence of the Truth, they found themselves unable to deny Him.
So since He couldn’t rest by the lake, He goes up on a mountain to try to get away. While He’s there, He does a little organizational maintenance, selecting the 12, to whom He delegated some authority to do the things that He was doing - you know, so that He wouldn’t be doing all that work - and then He goes home.
Notice now, we are STILL in Mark 3! This is STILL on the Sabbath day, according to Mark. It’s “On that day, when evening had come,” after all that had gone on, and the Sabbath day is now over, that Jesus says, “Let’s go over to the other side” - Gentile territory.
37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Sometimes, even God Incarnate does what people do. God Incarnate gets irritated (Mark 3:5; Mark 10:14; John 11:38), God Incarnate gets hungry (Mark 11:12; Luke 24:41), and, yes, God Incarnate gets sleepy. It’s important that we know that Jesus, God incarnate, God being a man, does human things, so that we will know that it is ok to be human. It’s ok to do what humans are designed to do. It’s ok to have friends, it’s ok to need time alone, it’s ok to get tired. It’s even ok to get away sometimes.
Of course, being a perfect man, Jesus does things perfectly. He fulfills the Scripture,
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
There are things that Jesus can do, and do well, that we struggle with. Jesus is the Righteous judge, but we have to be careful with our judgment.
Job is an example of a good man who made a bad judgment:
19 God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. 21 You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. 22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. 23 For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living.
Life can hard and stressful, God knows, Amen? God knows what we are going through, and while He doesn’t grade on a curve, He does take our human weakness into account:
13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
In His compassion, God tells us to confess our sins, with the promise that He will always respond with forgiveness.
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Nevertheless, God loves us enough to correct us when we have gone astray; Job teaches us this lesson as well.
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
The God of all grace is gracious enough to teach us the way in which we should go. He doesn’t leave His children to stumble in the dark when He is light.
1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
So, even in His sleep, Jesus heard the Apostles’ cry, and He pitied their groan. He responded to them, even though He didn’t have to - after all, when God decides to do something, who or what can stop Him? Jesus said “let us go to the other side” - they were going to the other side! It really didn’t matter how strong the winds were, nor how high the waves were. When Jesus wants to do something, He gets the job done!
39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
We think, in our haste, that God has dropped the ball sometimes, or that we need to pick up His slack. He hasn’t, and we don’t . When God calls us to do something, it isn’t because He can’t handle it, it’s because He has graciously allowed us to participate in His Mission.
God’s got you, Boo!
We hide under His shadow, the shadow of the cross. We take shelter in His name, the name that is above every name. And the good that we do, is that which He directed and that for which He supplied the ability to do. When we forget that, we might start to puff out our chest, and boast in our goodness, our wisdom, our righteousness. We forget that we might say the Word, but it’s God’s Word that we are saying. We might speak the Word of deliverance, the Word of healing, but it’s God’s Word that we are speaking, God’s power that we are exercising, “in the stead and by the command of” our Lord Jesus Christ. And He stands behind His Word, so He stands behind you as you declare it, watching over His Word to perform it.
6 Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! 7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped! 8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
We have the seal of the Holy Spirit. We have the Spirit of Adoption, and we have the blood of Jesus. There is nothing that Satan has that can resist the Word of God, nothing that He can do that triumphs over the Cross of Christ. Satan is defeated, Jesus is Lord, and we are more than conquerors through Christ who strengthens us! God’s got you better than you know!
So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.