Jesus on Board

Campbell Chapel Free Will Baptist Church

Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

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Free Will Baptist Church
1709 Campbell Drive
Ironton, Ohio 45638

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Jesus on Board

February 13, 2008

Bob Bradley

_________________________

Mark 4:33-41

33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it .

34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.

35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.

37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Does any one part of these verses get your attention as we read that?

The reason for all that He does in the boat is described in verse 41, because the disciples see who He is now.

33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it .

Look what that says. The Bible says here, “…as they were able to hear it.” There were a lot of things that He could have spoke and a lot of things that He did speak; had it not been for His giving revelation of these things they would not have known. One thing I want you to keep in mind, He uses the phrase, “…as they were able to hear it.” Jesus could have spoken all kinds of words and He could have used very complicated or very sophisticated terms and these guys would never have understood that, but He taught them in parables about very simple things that they could understand.

He could have talked about how He made the world. He could have talked about how that He formed the water and man. He could have talked about all of that and we wouldn’t have had a clue about none of that. However, He taught them in parables about things that they could understand.

In talking, especially to young people, they read things in scripture and they automatically think that the first time they read it that they should understand it. It doesn’t work that way. Understanding or being able to hear comes by us reading the Word of God, seeking the face of God and asking God to reveal the truth unto us. That is how we are able to hear.

There are things in this book [Bible] that we will read all of our lives that we will pray about all of our lives and we will die never knowing because this is God’s mind toward man. There would be no way that me and you being men, just mortal men, could understand the mind of God. It would be impossible. But He taught them with things that they could understand.

He talked about figs, sowing, rocks, lilies, and He talked about sparrows. They all knew that and they could understand or hear that.

34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.

35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

The same day, when you look at what He has done just this day; He has done a whole lot of things. He has taught many parables. He has been in a house down here. We know that when He was teaching, His family came down, His mother and brothers came. They thought He was crazy. Do you remember when the religious leaders said that He was casting out devils by the prince of the devils, Beelzebub? They made these accusations against Him. These things are all going on that particular day. This had been a long day for the Lord Jesus Christ. When you see what all He did, what all He had taught, where all that He had been, and just messing with people all day long gets under your skin. Not only just dealing with people, but dealing with people that are jammed against you, that are pressing against you. The Bible uses the word “thronged” and it means that there were times that they were about to crush the air out of Him. There were so many people around Him and pressing against Him and wanting to touch Him and get close to Him so just dealing with that alone would be enough to wear you out. No doubt, He is tired. He spent a long day here teaching and preaching and listening to accusations and dealing with His family and different things here that He has done. But it says:

35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

Get this! He is God. He is the Son of Almighty God. We understand that. He was in a body of flesh and He got tired just you and I get tired. We know that He did that. Even Jesus teaches us some things about rest. I know I am the world’s worst when it comes to sitting down resting and sleeping. That is something that I don’t do a whole lot of.

Someone the other day asked me how old I was then the conversation got into sleeping. I said, “Well, I don’t sleep much.” I’m only 54, but my body looks like I’m 85 and that’s the reason is because I don’t ever sleep any.

He is teaching us some things here about resting. He is teaching us some things here about how important rest is. Our bodies get tired and need to rest. That doesn’t mean that we need to sleep all the time. That doesn’t mean that we need to be a dead beat. That doesn’t mean to be lazy. However, we do need to rest. If we work and labor, then we need to sit down and sleep so that our body can rejuvenate itself.

He said this:

35 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

We are going to the other side. When Jesus says that they are going to go to the other side, then they are going to go to the other side. They were not going to turn to the South or go to the North. They weren’t going to get out there and take a notion and turn around and come back; they were going to the other side. They were on the West coast and they were going towards the East cost on the Sea of Galilee and they were going to go to the other side. That plays a part here in this story.

36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.

Do you remember when Jesus was born and when Herod wanted to kill Him? Actually, when Herod wanted to kill all the children two and under… Joseph and His mother took Him and went to Egypt. What that means is that they took Jesus when He was small child, a baby and they took Him under their care and protection; they wanted to protect Him. He could not take care of Himself because He was a baby. They took Him and went to Egypt—protecting Him—taking Him under their wing.

What the Bible is saying here, they took Him –that means everything. They took Jesus, He was tired, He was wore out; they took Him and they are going to put Him in the boat or He gets in the boat and they are going to take care of Him or so they think. They take Him.

36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.

The word “ship” is another good word. It means more than a row boat. When we look at some of the words in the scripture—defining ship or describing ship—sometimes it is a small boat. However, this was not a small boat, this was a big ship. This was a large fishing vessel. I don’t know how long it was. I don’t know how wide it was but the word Mark used in the Greek tells us that it was a large ship capable of probably hauling several tons of fish. Many pounds, hundreds of pounds or thousands of pounds of tackle and tackling so it was a large ship.

36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.

Did you ever thought about that? Mark is the only that mentions these other ships.

Do you think that it is going to cost you? Do you think the potential is there that it may cost you some money to be able to stay close to where Jesus is at, to be able to stay close to where you can see Him do some great things?

He gets in the ship with His disciples and probably the crew is on the ship with them and they start going from west to east. The Bible says that there are other little ships that are there. There are all kinds of multitudes of people around here that have been here before they leave to go across the sea there are all kinds of people around here. When He gets on the ship and starts to the other side there are some folks here that get on other boats and they start to the other side with Him. When you read this, it won’t tell you that they own these boats. It won’t tell you that the people that did own the boats are going to take them over there for nothing. It doesn’t tell us either that they had to pay to get on there. There is no doubt in my mind that if these other ships that were following Jesus and the people that get on these other boats are paying for a boat ride to the other side. There have been multitudes all around Him. When He gets up, gets on a boat and starts to the other side; there is no doubt in my mind that there were people that paid for the boat ride. There were ferries. There were people that shuttled people or hauled people on the lake. It was seven or seven and half miles wide and it was fourteen or fifteen miles long; it was pretty good sized lake.

How much is it worth to you to be able to stay close to where He is at? How much is it worth to you to be able to stay where you can see Him do some great things? I am telling this: these folks were going to spend their hard earned money to get on a ship, to buy a ticket, to pay a fare, so that they can go across the sea so they can stay close to Jesus to see what He is doing. Do you know why they were doing that? Some were excited. Some were there to just pick Him apart and some were there to find fault with Him. However, you don’t have those people spending a whole lot of money to do that.

Even in the church today, all those that pick and fight and gripe; they don’t give much money to the church. They come but they don’t really support anything.

Those that were really, these individuals whoever they were, on these other little ships; it cost them something to be able to get and to stay close to where Jesus is at. Now am I telling you that it is going to cost you some money to live a life to where you can see Jesus do some things? No, I’m not telling you that. At the right place and at the right time, you can see God do a lot of things. When we live and do what we need to do, when we have the ability to stay close to where He is at then we can see Him do some great things. We all have that ability. We know that avenue is reading, praying and confessing our sins and living as we should and we can stay where He is at.

These guys are going to take some of their hard earned money, buying a ticket and getting on a boat so that they can stay close to where He is at.

How much is it worth to you? How much is it worth to you to stay close to Jesus? It is worth a whole lot. It is worth more than you have got.

He is on a large ship and there are other little ships around Him and they are headed towards the east coast of the Sea of Galilee.

37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

He needs to rest. He needs to get away from the crowd so that He can rest. He could not rest where He was at because of all the crowds. We are not too far from away from some major things going on here. He needs some rest, He gets on a ship and other little ships are around Him; He tells the guys we are going to the other side. As they were going the Bible says there is a great storm arose. When you look at the words “great storm” arose; it means more than just a sudden burst of wind. It means more than just a little thunderstorm. When you actually look at it; it brings out the idea of a Hurricane. One translate uses the word “Whirled wind” It runs you back to the book of Job when God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind. It brought out the idea of a whirled wind that was whirling or twirling way down deep and it would come up so it was a terrible fierce storm that was happening here. These guys, these fishermen had seen all kinds of storms. Most of these guys on the boat were fishermen. Many of these folks that were on the other boats had been on the Sea of Galilee and they knew about water and about storms, but this storm was going to be a great storm.

Even though we are on board and He is on board and even though we may be in other little ships close to Him; that don’t mean that the storm is not going to come. Don’t ever forget that.

In the last 30 years I have talked to a lot of people, a lot of great Christian people—I buried one of them not very long ago. Her funeral was not too long ago. I went to the hospital and saw her. She had been a Christian for fifty years probably. She had big tears running down her face when I got there and I said, “Sister, what is wrong with you? I know you are sick but there is something else wrong.” Do you know what she told me? She said, “Bob, my pastor told me that the reason that God has not healed me is because I have committed some kind of horrible sin. I have done something completely and totally wrong and I have committed some kind of a horrible sin and that is why God is not healing me.”

I can’t look into the mind of God and see all that God is doing. However, God loves His children and God forgives us, but it is sad when we have pastors, preachers and spiritual leaders will tell people in their own congregation that they are dying of cancer because of some great sin. The sad thing was that she believed it. She was going through this terrible, terrible storm. If there was ever a lady that I’m going to see in heaven, I’m going to see her.

Storms come.

We would be smart, when we go to a hospital room of someone who very ill, if we go to the funeral home and walk up to the casket and someone in the casket there and the family standing around; many times we would be a whole lot smarter if we would just keep our mouth shut. Some of the things that we say and I have heard people say at hospital beds and beside of caskets, broke the family’s heart. Do you think whatever you say is going to change the one laying in the casket? It won’t change a thing. Instead of us trying to be theologians there, say brother or sister we love you, and we are praying for you and leave things alone.

The Bible speaks very plainly about offending people. It also speaks very plainly about our words. By our words we shall be justified and by our words we shall be condemned. Our words that we say are very important. Our words that we say can be words of blessing or they can be words of curse.

He is in the ship and the other little ships are with them. The great storm arises. It is a fierce storm. The word in the Greek brings out the idea of a Hurricane. It brings out the idea of an upheaval or something just like an earthquake bubbling up out of the water. The winds, the blackness of the clouds and the rain pouring down; it had to be a terrible storm.

37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

Here they are traveling and the little ships with them and suddenly there is a storm. In life storms come, even though we are living right at the foot of the cross. We need to understand that.

The Bible says:

37 …the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

The word in the Greek means “to throw upon.” What Mark is saying here is that it was just like the waves were throwing themselves into the boat. As you read that, it brings out the idea; they just didn’t do that one time but they continually threw themselves into the boat. Do you know what happens after you do that awhile? It gets full. That is what it says here. The waves continue to beat into the boat, “…so that it was now full.” That would have been very scary. I don’t care who we are or how much faith that we have if you would have been out here on a boat, the waves beating like this; you would have been scared too. Going up and going down and the waves continue to pound over into the ship; it would have got your attention.

They repeatedly threw themselves into the boat and it is now full. Here you are and the storm arises; the wind, rain the waves beating into the boat and the boat is now full and you know if something don’t change real quick, you are going to die. You are going to go down with the ship. You are going to sink.

38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

The storm is raging. Waves are beating into the boat. There is thunder, lighting, and all kinds of things going on. He is just asleep. That is a blessing for you and me. He was not worried about anything. He wasn’t worried about anything and when the storms and the thunder and the lighting and the dark clouds comes in our space; we shouldn’t let it worry us because if we are living where we need to be living, we know that Jesus is on board. We know that since He is on board we aren’t going down. They may kill us. They may bury us, but so what. That is just a short cut to heaven. If we die tonight we are going. It really is.

He is asleep on a pillow. He didn’t tell them that they were going to go halfway and drown. He didn’t tell them that they were going to half way across and turn around and come back. He said boys we are getting on a ship and we are going to the other side.

Remember this

I know that people backslide. I know and we all know people that used to be great people and used to be faithful people that don’t go to church anymore. I’m glad that the night I got saved and the night you got saved, He made a way for us to get to the other side. In many people’s lives, what happens is that they may get half way across and then the storm may have rose. The wind began to blow. They think I am going to drown so they jump ship and try to swim back but usually they drown. Or they may get half way across and lay on the boat rubbing suntan lotion on, drinking lemonade, and get too at-ease with the life, or with traveling across. We are seeing that today with many people. They are getting too comfortable with their surroundings and they just let the boat go on. He made a way that we can get to the other side. If we will just follow Him, listen to Him; let Him be the Lord of our lives we are going to get to the other side.

He is there and He is asleep on a pillow. When you look that up; He is lying with His head on an old leather cushion—it wasn’t a feather pillow—it was something that was covered by leather, waterproof and there He laid His head down. He is asleep. The storm is raging, the wind is blowing, there is thunder and lighting and the boat is filled with water. He is asleep.

Do you think you could do that? Do you think you could sleep through a storm like that? If you get tired enough, you can.

Some years ago, I was talking with some people that were in Vietnam. He was a gunner on one of the tanks. He was a rough neck guy. He came from Elliot County and he was meaner than a stripped snake. However, he got to Vietnam and he was scared to death. He was driving down through the jungle and bullets would be bouncing off of the tank. The first two or three weeks that he was there, he was scared to death. After that, he didn’t care what happened. He would go for so long, he said he went for days and days and didn’t sleep. He said many times he would lay down right beside that tank on the outside of it in the pouring rain and sleep like a baby. When we get tired, we can do that.

Jesus was worn out. The mist that was coming into the boat may have been hitting on Him. He was asleep. He was not concerned about it. He was asleep.

38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

The word “Master” does not mean “Lord,” or “Messiah,” but it means “teacher.” They are saying, Teacher, carest thou not that we perish? When you read that, it says don’t you care? Master we are perishing now. We are dying now. We are about to drown now. When you read that it brings out the urgency, when they go down and wake Him up, it brings out the idea of; we are going to die now. Don’t you care that we are all about to perish? Don’t you care that we are all about to drown? Don’t you care that the boat is about to sink? These guys have seen Him do a lot of great things. They saw Him heal people. They saw Him do some awesome things but yet their understanding about who He was wasn’t what it should have been. It was about to get there. Don’t you have any care for us that we are about to die now? That is really a stupid question but if we would have been on that boat about to drown, we probably would have said the same thing. Sometimes we even say that now.

We go through problems now, Lord, don’t you care? Lord where are you at, I am going through all of this, where are you at now? Don’t you care about me now? Have you done that? When you get to feeling sorry for yourself, when you think nobody else has got it as bad as you have it, nobody else is going through what you are going through, nobody has ever done that. We have pity parties for ourselves sometimes. We all do. Every one of us does.

They say Don’t you care that we are about to perish?

39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

What do you think about that? That is some awesome power, don’t you think? They are having a hurricane, the boat is filled with water, they are about to drown, He is asleep and it is not bothering Him any. He is not alarmed. He knows that they are going to the other side. They go down there and they wake Him up. They are probably thinking when in the world is this guy going to get up? They go wake Him up.

He arose and rebuked the wind. I can’t do that can you? You can’t either. However, Jesus can. He spoke to the wind. He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. He rebuked the wind and spoke to the sea. There is a good thought there.

The word in the Greek for peace means “to muzzle.” If you muzzle something, you put something over it so that it can’t do what it is supposed to do. In other words, He is going to muzzle the wind which means the wind is going to stop blowing. You have a hurricane here that is about to blow you away so He put a muzzle on it. Just simply by speaking he calms the wind. The waves are repeatedly coming into the ship and the Bible says here; He said to the sea, Peace, be still. The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

One second thunder, lighting, wind and waves beating into the ship they go down and wake Jesus up. I don’t know if He comes upon deck. I don’t if He just says these things from the bottom of the boat. It didn’t really matter where He is at. He rebukes the wind and speaks to the sea and says Peace, be still. Do you know what He can do for you and me?

When things look like there is no hope, when situations look like they are never going to get any better, when it looks like we are going to go down for the last time; instead of calling our banker or tax person or anybody else, we need to talk to Jesus. That is what these guys done. Many times we want to talk to everybody else except Him.

Many times in life we get ourselves into a lot of messes. Isn’t it great that when we fess up and say I messed up, I goofed up; do you know what God can do? God help us get out of those messes.

These fellows failed to realize that they were going to make it to the other side. They were not going to drown. They were going there. It wasn’t a maybe or possibility. They were going to the other side. Remember that.

Our journey in this life from planet earth to heaven, there are storms, there is wind, there is fear and sometimes a lot of uncertain things happens. Keep one thing in mind. When Jesus saved you, He saved you to take you to the other side. He did not save you to drop you off somewhere half way over here. He won’t do that. He saved you to take you to the other side.

Storms are going to come.

If we will just simply trust Him, call upon Him, seek His face…Do you think these guys were serious when they woke Him up? When they got down there and woke Him up and said don’t you care that we all are going to die? Do you think they were serious? I’ll guarantee you they were serious.

If you just want to pray because you got caught up in some of your sin and you just want God to rescue you and you are not really serious about what you are doing, don’t waste your time. If you got yourself into a mess and you want to get yourself out of a mess, God will help you. But if you are just sorry that you got caught, or if you are just sorry that things collapsed around you that you have done if you are just sorry like that, then you are not going to get any help. If you are sorry that you have sinned against God and you want God to help you out of this mess and you are purposing to live as He wants you to live then He will help you.

I do know that God will help us.

39 …and there was a great calm.

There is no doubt in my mind that after the storm is ceased, the wind is muzzled, the rain stopped—if you have ever been out on a boat at night and the moon is shinning; it looks like glass where the water is real still. I would say this is the way the lake was. There probably wasn’t a wave nowhere. I’d say that there wasn’t a clap of thunder anywhere or a speck of wind blowing anywhere. The Bible says there was a clam. It went from a great raging storm to calm. He can do that if we will just let Him.

40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

He just asked them why are you so scared. How is it that you have no faith? He told them we are going to the other side. They had forgotten that. Sometimes we forget that in this life. Sometimes we forget about where we are going. Sometimes we forget about Jesus has give us eternal life. Sometimes we forget that He said that He would never leave us nor forsake us, He would be with us always. We forget about those things don’t we? He is going to take us to the other side.

41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

They learned something on this evening.

A few minutes ago, I made a statement about the little ships that were there. I made the statement about people who paid hard earned money to get on these other little ships to be able just to follow along with Jesus, to stay close to Him. When this great storm arose they probably thought “I wished I would have stayed on the other side.” We think that sometimes, but look what they would have missed if they hadn’t spent a little bit of money to buy a ticket to get on a boat to go with Jesus; look at what they would have missed. We miss a lot folks. We may think sometimes on just dollars and cents. Let’s don’t base our Christianity on dollars and cents. They would have missed seeing Him do this great miracle.

If we could talk to these guys, every one of them that was in the big ship and all these other little ships, I’ll guarantee if we could talk to any of them tonight, that story would be very plain in their mind. The night they were all about to drown and a guy named Jesus, lived up the road, across a lake over here in a place called Nazareth; was on a big ship and we were in little ships the storm came up and we were all about to die. He just gets up and says Peace, be still and there was a great calm. Do you think they remember that? I’ll guarantee you they remember that.

Do you remember the night the Lord saved you? Do you remember the time the Lord saved you?

I was thinking about my own personal life. Before I got saved there was a lot of raging in my life and there were a lot of storms and there were a lot of problems and uncertainties. A lot of things were just out of control. I had no hope dying. I was trying to just find something that would calm the raging. We all tried many different things. It didn’t change a thing, it just got worse. I was probably one tenth of one second of killing myself. They think they are never going to get out of this mess. They think they have messed up, they did this. They think there is just no hope. However, there is hope with Jesus Christ. There is hope. The night that I simply said Jesus save me; it felt like there was a million pounds lifted off my shoulders. I never experienced calm like that in all my life.

You that are saved know that.

Jesus can do that. He is still yet doing that today. He has still yet got us and taking us to the other side.

Are we saved? Are we ready to go to heaven? Do we have peace with God? Is He on board with us? Are we on board with Him? Are we going to make it safely to the other side? Those are questions that only you can answer.

If you don’t know you are saved tonight, if you don’t know that you are ready to go tonight, if you don’t if Jesus is on board with you tonight or if He is in your life tonight; I’d plead with you tonight—I’d like to see you make things right with the Lord tonight.

He loves you; Jesus does. He went to the cross, suffered, bled and died that you might be able to be saved, that you might have peace.

…to be able to go to bed tonight calmly

If you wake up in the morning fine, if you don’t, fine. To have peace tonight—not your heart and your life filled with raging and uncertainties—Jesus can give you Peace.

Come…

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