Six months ago I brought message entitled: “The Victorious Transference of Peace.” Our texts were John 14:27 and John 16:33. The Lord Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you;, MY peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth I unto you. Let NOT your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”” And, “these things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye SHALL have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have over come the world.” For some reason the Lord has brought me back to this subject, but emphasizing another word – “serenity.” And our scripture adds the synonym “calm.” Christ rebuked the wind, saying “Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” Christ’s peace produced calm. That may be the key thought to this lesson. Christ’s peace produces calm. In some ways they are separate things.
As I started thinking about this message on Monday, I was assuming someone needed the reassurance of God’s peace. Since then I have come to the conclusion there are definitely people needing another dose of peace and calm. And it might be that tomorrow, or next week, I am going to need it.
Let’s briefly paraphrase our text from Mark 4. On the first day of January, 2025, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Let’s pass over this year together.” At that point, He went back to the stern of our little ship, lay down and appeared to go to sleep. Then, in like so many other years, but with much more violence “there arose a great storm.” 2025 began to be hammered with wind and violent waves, filling it with life-sinking water. Whereas, we had earlier been rejoicing in our sailing skills, the Lord’s previous blessings and the excitement of a new journey, a storm knocked the stuffing out of us, forcing us to bow before the Saviour. “Master, carest thou not that we perish under these dangers and trials?” At which “He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” At the command of Christ: “Be still,” the great storm became a “great calm.”
I wish I could say that not only did the Sea of Galilee become calm, but the hearts of the disciples did as well. Sadly, that was not the case. They were not only NOT calmed, but were actually even MORE agitated. “They feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?” I will tell you what manner of man this is. He is the God-man. This is the infinite, omnipotent and sovereign God the Son. This is the lesson the Lord wanted to teach those disciples. This is the lesson He wants us all to learn.
Despite appearing to be asleep or not paying attention, our God knows what our needs are. And He already has a plan to meet those needs. We don’t know what HIS plans are. But He wants us to trust Him and to learn to depend on Him. The problem is – the more fierce the storm, the harder it is for us to curl up next to Him and rest with Him. “Peace, be still,” may be directed more at us than it is at the storm.
Trying to illustrate that, let’s consider the fact that serenity, peace and calmness are DISTINCTIVE things.
When you get up at 6 in the morning and go into the other room, flipping the switch just inside the door, the lights instantly ignite and for a moment you are blind. There is a clear and obvious distinction between darkness and light; between day and night. For the disciples there was a distinction between the danger of the storm and the serenity of the calm. And just as Christ soothed the circumstances, there should have been an instant calm in their hearts.
There is a peace of God, a peace of Christ and a peace of the Holy Spirit which are all just one divine peace. And Christ distinguishes His peace from every other variety – “MY peace I give unto you.” Jesus recognized that the world has its own kind of peace. He doesn’t ask us to be blind to what the world has to offer, but He wants us to know the difference.
There is a reassurance which a surgeon shares when he tells us he has fixed our heart valve problem. When the fire fighters douse the flames, and the wind blows the smoke out to sea, people breathe more peacefully, but what is going to happen when the rains eventually fall on those deforested hills? Life is filled with wave after wave, and the peace which the world offers can’t handle them all. There aren’t enough doctors, fire fighters and changes in government to solve every problem. But then there is the utterly different and completely distinctive peace of the sovereign God. No matter what the circumstances are, the peace of God transcends and overcomes them. But… many disciples have a hard time coming to grips with that peace and reaching the Lord’s calm.
On a different crossing of this sea the disciples were alone in their little boat when a different storm came up. Some of them were skilled fishermen and therefore sailors; they had experience with these storms. Probably, the landlubber disciples were terrified, but the fishermen disciples were coping fairly well. But then – there was Christ Jesus walking toward them saying, “It is I; be not afraid.” “Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land there they went.” There wasn’t simply a calm when Christ arrived, giving them the opportunity for an easy row to shore. There was instantaneous deliverance. They blinked and found themselves anchored in the bay. There couldn’t have been a greater distinction between the their lives without Christ and their lives with the presence and blessing of Christ.
The peace of God is a real thing. We may not be able to put our fingers on it. It can’t be manufactured in church or some religious factory. And we can’t plunge a needle into our arm, drawing it out in order to bottle it to later share with others. It is not even an easy thing to teach. But it IS real. And it IS important.
Serenity is distinctive, and it is also PRODUCTIVE.
Our text doesn’t say, but in this storm-calming lesson, there wasn’t an instantaneous arrival to shore. When the wind stopped, the ship was still in the middle of the sea. And I have to smile just a bit, reminding myself “to be careful what you pray for.” Now, there is no wind at all making their sail useless; now they have to row to shore. They probably weren’t complaining about that, but I think it is a bit ironic.
The point in this is that serenity gives us the opportunity for service. Now that the Lord has delivered us from worry over the conditions of our lives, we can focus on other things. After the storm, and after the calm, the disciples ferried the Lord Jesus to the country of the Gadarenes. There was a lost man being crushed under the weight of his sins. The Lord intended to save him. And if I may put it this way, the disciples were Jesus’ evangelists – conveyers of the gospel to that man.
When we are consumed with worry, fearful of the storms around us and within us, we are prone to flounder. But when we possess Christ’s peace we have something real and tangible to share with people around us. AND we can take our hands off our fainting hearts or our exploding heads and put them to other uses. Our ship is not going down, because with Christ in that ship it cannot be sunk. With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm. We are going to be just fine. “All things work together for good to them who are called according to His purpose.” There are people on both the heathen eastern shore and the religious western shore who need our help. The more worried and agitated we are about our storms the less effective we’ll be to help in their storms.
Godly serenity is distinctive and productive – it becomes active.
But perhaps more important is the fact that it is EXCLUSIVE.
From where did the calm come when the disciples were out on the sea? It came from the Lord. It was the Lord Jesus who said, “Peace be still, and the wind ceased and there was a great calm.” “What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Here, I believe, is where many disciples go wrong – They think that somehow they must come up with peace; they have to calm their hearts. They have to memorize heart-calming scriptures. They need to sing Christian hymns or learn to whistle in the dark. The more spiritual among them even ask Christ for peace; they pray for serenity as a gift from the Lord.
Praying for serenity cannot be wrong. How can praying for any blessing from God be wrong? But those prayers may give evidence that of our separation of that blessing from the person of the Blesser. The peace of Christ which we need in the midst of the storm, dies away when Christ is not in the ship. The peace we need is not a gift we receive from Him, but a gift we receive in Him. We need more of Christ than we need His gifts.
Please turn to Matthew 6. In verse 24, the Saviour says, “No man can serve two masters…” “Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life” and the details of your life – whether large or small. “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” No one. “Therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be healed of this terrible disease?” “Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Seven times between verses 25 and 34 the Lord uses a word translated “take thought” or “take NO thought.” The Lord isn’t saying, “Don’t CONSIDER these things.” It is not a sin to recognize that we have problems. But the Greek word means “don’t WORRY” about these things. That same word is translated “be careful” in a couple of places, including Philippians 4:6 – “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
What Jesus was saying in His Sermon on the Mount was, don’t worry about the storm with its winds and waves. “Take no thought for your life.” “Don’t worry about your life.” And then He concludes with – “Be CAREFUL about one primary thing – your relationship to me.” “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Common sense demands that we must consider how we are going to live, what we are going to eat and how we are going to stay warm in these sub-freezing temperatures. But Jesus says, “Stop looking around at these things. Hey, look up here. Look at me.” He understands all of the problems surrounding us, but look at Him peacefully sleeping back there.
The cares of this world are relentlessly trying to keep us from our focus on Christ. They are like hurricane-driven winds blowing the sea water over the gunwales into our ship. The key to serenity is that no matter how strong the wind and the problems, make sure that you value your relationship to the Lord above those problems. Don’t let them intervene. “Nothing between my soul and the Saviour,” is not referring only to sin. Don’t let the storm get between you and Lord.
Verse 34 – “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” The trials, temptations and evils of January 22 are ample; we don’t need to import any from January 23. And the Lord is sufficient for today’s evils, with plenty of grace and peace for the moment, if we want it. Remember, the Lord is in control. He is God. So as Peter exhorts, “Casting all your CARE upon Him, for He careth for you.” “Be CAREFUL for nothing.” “Be ANXIOUS for nothing.”
And with that we finally return to the title of this message. The right kind of carelessness can be a blessed gift from God. I’m not taking about an “I don’t care” attitude. But rather “I have laid my cares upon the One to loves me and gave Himself for me.” I have fewer cares because I’ve given them to my Saviour.