When My Faith Fails, Pt. 1

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We spend a lot of time and money trying to feel prepared. We purchase insurance policies, extended warranties, and build up emergency funds. But nobody’s ever really ready for the moment when life falls apart. Pastor Nick Gatzke talks about what happens when everything falls apart and our faith falters.

I want to ask you to grab a Bible and open up with me to the gospel of Mark chapter 4. And as you do, let’s pray. Father, speak to us through your word. May your spirit allow us to hear and to see. May you build us up in our faith for the sake of your glory and the glory of your son. Amen.

There’s a good kind of fear and a bad kind of fear. An unhealthy kind of fear that paralyzes. and a healthy kind of fear that actually provides freedom. I wonder what some of the things are that you are most afraid of, and if it’s the good kind or the bad kind of fear. A couple years back, Glamour Magazine did a poll for their YouTube channel, which has over 4 million subscribers, and it was entitled, 70 Men, Ages 5 to 75, What’s Your Greatest Fear? And here are the top eight fears listed in ascending order from the number of times mentioned.

Number eight, people are afraid of the end of the world due to climate change. Number seven, clowns. Enough said. Number six, I’m afraid of heights. Number five, evil people causing me harm.Number four, afraid of being alone or dying alone. Number three, spiders or snakes. Number two, the death of a loved one. And number one, failing to live up to my potential. The bad kind of fear is seen when you are afraid of something that you need not be. The healthy kind of fear is a fear that’s based on… appropriate reverence or severity. It’s the kind of fear that keeps children from running into a busy street or keeps a person from getting too close to the fire. The circumstances might be difficult and the consequences are severe. And this kind of healthy fear is combined with a certain type of respect.

In Mark chapter four, Jesus performs a miracle in the presence of his disciples and right in the middle of it all is a whole bunch of fear. And you might remember that nearly all of the miracles that Jesus performs in the Gospels, they function like a parable. They’re not like a parable in that we believe they actually happened. They really did occur. But they’re like a parable in that they are meant to communicate a specific truth about who Jesus is and how he relates to us in this life. And this miracle is no exception. It’s a miracle about faith and fear, about the power of the king in the midst of the worst type of circumstances in life. And here’s the context. You might remember last week we looked at three parables about the kingdom of God. And they explained how the kingdom of God will grow in God’s way, in God’s time, to God’s size. And on that very same day that he taught the parables, in the evening, Jesus escaped the crowds and got in a boat to cross the sea. And that’s where we pick it up in Mark 4, starting in verse 35. So follow with me. This is what it says. It says, “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in a boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.

And they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And he woke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still.’ And the wind ceased. There was a great calm. And he said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this that even the wind and the seas obey him?’”

Now Mark gives us an account of this event in a very detailed nature. It’s short, but it’s detailed. He describes the crowd, the other boats around him, the fury of the squall, the nature of the waves. He even describes what Jesus is sleeping on. He uniquely describes the sarcasm that the disciples addressed Jesus with. It seemed pretty clear that he was there. This is an eyewitness account. And we know through history and archaeology that Boats of that era were typically around 26 1⁄2 feet long and about 7 1⁄2 feet wide. Both the fore and the aft sections of the boat were most likely covered with decking, and these boats could probably hold up to around 15 people.

Jesus had just finished teaching. He needed to leave the crowd and head to the other side of the lake, and that is the context in which we’re going to make four observations about this miracle. And the first one is just very simply this. Your faith need not fail when you are closely following Jesus. This is a story about fear and faith. And this is actually a theme throughout the gospel of Mark that’s beginning to be developed and to grow even more. And it’s really a theme throughout the whole Old Testament as well. Because God… provided for his people when they followed him. He was faithful to deliver them out of the hands of their enemies. He gave them a land to call their own. God even rained down food from heaven for his people when they were in the wilderness. He miraculously saved them again and again. When they followed God, their faith need not fail. He would provide. I mean, life wasn’t always easy. It wasn’t always unicorns and cotton candy. But life was complete when his people followed him. It was only when they wandered from God that he allowed them to experience the full weight of significance of their sin in this world.

Fast forward now some hundreds of years. God is in the flesh among them in the person of Jesus. And we have seen throughout the book, those who are closely following him, have been provided for very practically. They’ve seen, those people right there had seen that he is worthy to follow because he shatters their notion of religion. He blows away their idea of authority over the spiritual realm as he casts out demons. He shows them that all illnesses are subject to him as he heals people who are sick. And for those who are closely following him, his disciples, in private, he reveals to them The secrets of the kingdom.

Now, it might be easy for us to say that your faith need not fail when you’re close to Jesus. It might be easy to say that from a distance. It’s easy to say it when things are going well, but then the storm comes, and that leads to the second observation. There are storms in our life that tempt us to abandon our faith. Immediate chaos was upon the disciples. The Sea of Galilee was notorious for having these types of squalls rise up. The water was shallow. The wind would come over the surrounding mountains and down into the valley. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a fierce and chaotic storm would arise.

Now, if you’ve ever been caught on the water in a small boat when a storm rolls in, you know that the few verses of description would evoke a sense, a feeling within you. I can think of one time fishing with a few friends of mine deep into Cape Cod Bay on a small boat when a heavy storm popped up. The sky went black. Rain came down in sheets and came down sideways. The wind produced waves, that were at the beginning two to three feet high and by the middle of that storm were eight to ten feet high. And when you’re in an 18-foot boat, all you can do in that moment is head straight into the waves and you ride up one side of the wave and you catch some air when you crest over the top and you hit hard on the bottom and you do it again and again and again. And that day we did it for over an hour. until we made it back to shore. The disciples had no motor. The water was pouring over the bow and the stern.

They were most certainly bailing water out of the boat with whatever buckets they had, and the boat was filling up. At least a couple of them were on the oars, trying to keep the boat straight, just to go directly into the wave and to ride up the crest, and to hit down hard on the bottom, because if a wave hit them from the side, it would most certainly capsize the boat. The situation was desperate, and they were scrambling for their very lives. And the dynamic of this situation is certainly familiar to the reality that we face in this world. We’re going along, and things seem to be on schedule by our estimation. The kids are getting reasonably good grades. You’re charting for the promotion at work. You’re still behind on your home repairs, but you’re not any more behind than normal. You had a nice summer vacation, and you actually were able to have some rest. We get home, we begin to prepare dinner one day, and then the phone rings. And immediately, life goes from flat calm to a furious squall. Or perhaps it’s during that routine checkup from the doctor.

That one that you don’t really want to go to, but your insurance makes you go to. Feel great. Nothing out of the ordinary is expected. But that turns into a day that you will never forget. And immediately the squall is upon you. Or perhaps it’s a knock on the door from your local police officer who informs you that your perfect little Johnny, who by your estimation is a model son, has been caught buying drugs that afternoon. And the chaos ensues. And the list goes on. It’s in those times of fear and hurt and doubt and chaos that we’re tempted to abandon our faith. Some of us think that because we follow Jesus, we shouldn’t have to experience the storms of life and the ensuing pain from those storms.

Some of us think that when bad things… happen to us, we say, this shouldn’t be happening to me. This is the type of thing that happens to other people. I’m one of the good guys. Why does life have to be so hard? And still others might say, I thought God was looking out for me. And if he’s going to allow hard things to happen in my life, then I’m not sure if I want to follow him. The disciples are starting to wonder this. The waves are breaking over the boat. They’re bailing furiously so that it was nearly swamped. They fiercely paddled to keep the boat afloat. And right in the middle of the storm, Jesus is asleep below deck. He’s near, but he sure doesn’t feel like he’s near.

I think this is the only place in the gospels where it actually records Jesus sleeping. And it points as an aside to his humanity. He slept because he was tired. He ate because he was hungry. He cried because he was sad. Yes, Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully man. And so when they got into the boat that late afternoon or evening, he said to his disciples, all of this teaching is making me rather tired. I’m going to go take a nap. And thus the dynamic that Jesus is near. to his disciples, but in the midst of the storm, sure doesn’t feel like it. I wonder if in the midst of the storms of your life, if you’ve ever felt like Jesus is downstairs taking a nap. It’s at that point of crisis that our emotions will often deceive us because we can’t feel his presence, so he must not be there, right? Or if he is, he doesn’t care. We find ourselves lashing out in a similar fashion to the disciples who, after intensely trying to gain control of a situation that was completely out of their control, all they could do was rudely cry out, don’t you care if we die?

That’s the way that desperate people talk. These were the ones who were following him the most closely. Despite everything that they had seen to this moment, and everything that they had experienced about his miraculous power, in the midst of the storm, their faith had failed. There are storms in life that will tempt you to abandon your faith.

And nevertheless, no matter how far away Jesus felt to them, the reality of the situation for the disciples and the reality of the situation for you is that he is, in fact, right there. And he is in fact in complete control. When things get desperate, Jesus is powerful to save. He will always be more faithful to you than you are to him. And he displays his control immediately, rising up and with the mere words to come out of his mouth, peace, be still.

The storm is gone. Just like a tornado. On a Saturday afternoon in Canfield, through the power of his word, authority and chaos dispersed. This is the same authoritative word. that brought about the world into existence. It’s the same authoritative word that the demons respond to. In fact, that language used right here in this story of him rebuking the wind and silencing the waves, those words up to this point have previously been reserved for demons when Jesus rebukes them and silences them as he casts them out. This is the same authoritative word that pierces the hearts of men and women and boys and girls to repent of their sins and follow him. Even when our faith fails, Jesus rescues people and he rescues their faith. When things are desperate, Jesus is powerful to save.

He really is the one who created all things. “All things were created by him and through him, and in him all things hold together,” as Paul writes in Colossians 1. And if you actually believe that, that Jesus is the king who holds all things together, then that should be of great, great encouragement to you today. Because some of you might be in the midst of a storm. And some of us in the midst of storms have previously said things like, if he doesn’t show up, I’m not going to follow him anymore. Or I’ve had it. Why are you asleep? Why don’t you care in the midst of my most difficult hour? Many of us have had moments when our faith failed, but Jesus rescued us anyway.

So be encouraged. Jesus doesn’t rebuke his disciples here. He rebukes the wind and the waves. But to his disciples, he simply says to them, do you still have no faith? Don’t be afraid. When you are closely following the Savior, your faith need not fail. And when it does, Jesus still shows himself to be strong. And notice the disciples’ response in verse 41. It really is the twist of the story. It says, “They’re terrified and ask each other, ‘Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?’”

They’ve just gone from a bad type of fear to a good type of fear, but it’s still a fear. Isn’t that interesting? It’s so interesting that they went from being afraid of death to being afraid of the one who saved them from death. I can understand being afraid of the storm. It’s a little harder to get your mind around being afraid of the person himself, but that’s exactly what happens when you begin to see Jesus for who he really is. Power, authority, lordship, kingship, even over the weather, even over my circumstances, even over the impossibilities of life, even over the greatest of storms. When things are desperate, Jesus is the one who is strong to save.

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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.