Jesus must be our primary pattern. If He is not, then we will not be useful Christians. And if He is not, then we may not really be Christians at all. “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us example that ye should follow His steps.” He said, “I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” This evening let’s look at some of the examples and lessons that we have in this short passage.
First of all, we notice Christ REDEEMING HIS TIME.
Wednesday, in my study, I completed a yearly ritual; I consolidated all my sermons into one big folder. And then I burned that folder to a disk, preserving it for all time – but probably not eternity. I thank you for the external hard drive which you gave to me a couple years ago, which automatically saves all my files, but this is an extra step which I take. I can’t say that I’ve saved all the sermons that I have ever preached, but I have a majority of them. When the computer finished the transfer, I took out the disk and looked at it. As I reported a couple of years ago, my life as a preacher, doesn’t take up even half a normal CD disk. In one way, my 40 years of preaching the gospel and teaching God’s word doesn’t amount to very much.
And then I had a further humbling thought – Christ Jesus’ entire ministry lasted approximately 3½ years – mine has been more than ten times as long. I wonder how many times I have said that Christ’s earthly ministry was for only 3½ years? That was 44 months, 1,284 days approximately —— But what are these? Some of you can remember when my family and I pulled that green and white trailer down from Canada. How much have you and I accomplished for eternity since that time? What have you done, what have I done that will endure the fire of Christ’s Bema Judgment?
Christ accomplished an eternity’s worth of work in His 3½ years.. How did He do that? Yes, I know that as the omnipotent God, He had means beyond any of ours. But were there things which He did, which we could implement? Yes, for example, might we not say that He was redeeming the time better than we have done?
The Gospel of Mark is sometimes called “the Gospel of the Servant of God.” It is characteristic of good servants to respond immediately to the commands of the Master. And it is not a surprise to find that account of Jesus’ life filled with words like “immediately,” “forthwith” and “straightway.” These are words that describe a time-redeeming life. Mark also adds that this crossing of the sea began “the same day, when the even was come.” Granted, Christ was not going to pilot the boat, man the oars, or hoist the sail, but neither as He going to wait until the morning. He was redeeming the hours that fell between sundown and sunrise.
In the case of Lord Jesus in this text, “he must needs go to Gadara” He would be there less than a single day. But there was at least one man in Gadara chosen by grace and bound for redemption. Has Christ time to leave the multitudes of Galilee to minister to that one foreign demoniac? There were no more hours in a day for the Son of God than what you have been given. That single soul was more valuable than all the gold in the world and all the time in a clock. How did the Lord Jesus get so much done? By using His few days on earth to their utmost; to their fullest. As soon His teaching was finished for that day He ordered his disciples to ship-out.
How much more do we need to learn redeem our time, for our days are certainly evil – a few.
A second thing that we see is Jesus’ DELEGATION of RESPONSIBILITY.
Christ had been ministering and teaching all that day. And the disciples had been observing and learning all that day. That is what disciples do, they learn – that is the meaning of the word. Don’t call yourself a “disciple of Christ” if you are no longer a learner. If you’ve learned all there is to learn, you may be any number of things, but you are not a disciple.
During that long day of teaching, Who became the more physically tired? Although hearers may get drowsy, they don’t get fatigued. It is the speaker or teacher that really earns his rest by the end of the day. So Christ Jesus went to sleep, while the fishermen/disciples began to pilot and sail the ship. That is an example of the delegation of responsibility….but there is more.
The fact is clear that the disciples were carrying Christ to others across the sea. And if they don’t do it, then it is likely, humanly speaking, that there was no one else to get it done. This is a lesson on evangelism and missions – which is a delegation of responsibility – and of authority. Christ may not visit Gadara unless you, who claim to be disciples, carry him there. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” In the gospel ministry we have a wonderful blending of the will and authority of God and work of minuscule men.
And other example left to us in this scripture is GOD’S CONCERN FOR THE PHYSICAL.
The Saviour was very weary. Why was He so weary? Because Christ was redeeming the time with constant and strenuous labor. It may not take many muscles to preach to fifty people, but it takes some energy. And despite the illogic of it, the larger the crowd the more energy it takes. For the human man of God there is additional weight of stress, although Jesus didn’t suffer stress as such.
But the point is that Christ’s humanity was genuine, and His weariness was genuine. As you read through the gospels, doesn’t it seem that Jesus was jumping from one crises to another? His public lessons were often broken up by suffering and infirm visitors pleading for help. And as He was on His way to heal one person, others were coming up and touching the hem of His garment Jesus could have volunteered to help with the ship, but He refused; He needed sleep.
And the disciples knew that their Savior was exhausted, so they let Him sleep just long as they could. Humanly speaking, If the physical body is lost to the service of Christ, in most cases so is the spirit. Periodically, we must come apart and rest awhile before we simply come apart. And by the way, this is the only place and time where we ever have a description of Jesus sleeping.
The fourth thing that we see here is that Christ ENDANGERED HIS PEOPLE.
When the Lord said, “launch out into the deep,” did He know what lay ahead? Of course, He did. Do you mean that He gave the order on purpose knowing that a storm was ahead? Well then what was His purpose? Was it to save the demoniac or to frighten the disciples?
Yes. Christ knew that there was a freak storm going to drop down on Gennesaret. And He sent His disciples right into the midst of the storm anyway. Was it to punish them? No! Trials and tests are not punitive; they are instructive.
I think that Jesus’ primary purpose was to visit Gadara, but with the multi-tasking God there were other objectives – there always are. He wanted to draw out some more of the doubts those disciples – so that they might be cast aside. It is when we weigh the Saviour in the balance of our trials that we do not find Him wanting. Without the test, the lesson might never really be learned. By endangering the disciples, Christ taught them some enormous lessons about Himself. And about themselves.
Thank the Lord for every set of circumstances that He sends in your direction.
Once again, consider the lesson of JESUS’ OWN TRUST of His Heaven Father.
Did the sleeping Saviour, know that there was a storm about to swamp the boat? Of course. But remember that some of these disciples were fishermen and experts in regard to the whims of wind and water. In order for these men to become as rattled as they were, this must have been an exceptional storm. Exceptional storms can’t usually be hidden from expert sailors on board their ship.
Yet the Saviour was not in the least bit disturbed. Because this storm, as are all storms, was firmly held in the God’s own hand. Will Christ’s life be lost in a boating accident prior to the Cross? Don’t be silly. Perhaps you don’t know what the Father intends to make out of your life. None of us knows if there are great and important adventures upcoming in 2013. But we do know that the Father loves us in a fashion similar to the love He has for His eternal Son. There will no harm befall God’s fully-surrendered, eternal Son, that could not befall us as well.
It was His absolute trust and confidence in His Father which permitted Christ to sleep in the midst of the storm. Another thing might be that He could sleep because His conscience was clean. That is not always the case with people like us.
Then we notice that Jesus heard the cries of his disciples.
We have, here, an excellent illustration on prayer. Our Saviour is with us, as children of God, in every boat that we take during life. Even in the boat called “Life” itself. But He often chooses to be silent when the storms come along. He may even appear to be asleep. Why? Could it be to force His people to become more diligent in prayer? You may think that this sort of thing is unfair and not proper, but the Lord disagrees. If you are in need then take that need to the Saviour – pray about it. It is exactly what the Lord wants us to do. And I must say that sometimes He creates situations to force us into that position.
I have said that the Lord was often interrupted, and perhaps He even enjoyed being interrupted. His life was a constant interruption of this work or that in order to help someone or to save someone. And in fact Jesus did some of His greatest miracles as a result of those interruptions. But as I was musing on this subject a question arose – can deity ever really be interrupted? Doesn’t the throne room of Heaven have a switchboard big enough to handle every call? Isn’t the Lord omnipotent and omnipresent enough to never have to put anyone on hold. Sure He may answer your request at a time which you might not think is quick enough. But his hands are never tied because others require His service before you do. Christ was there to hear His disciples cries.
I also see the Saviour here ENDURING THE COMPLAINTS of those disciples.
What would you do if I said, “Didn’t I see you going into the bar last night?” Wouldn’t you begin immediately to defend yourself and try to establish your innocence? You might even get angry with me for hinting at such a nasty or unjust thing. What the disciples said about the Lord was not much nastier than that – “Carest thou not that we perish?”
Did the Saviour try to defend himself or did He get angry at the unjust charge? Did He argue whether or not He cared for His people? Did he rebuke those disciples for this injustice?
Why not? Because He knows that we are weak creatures and dangerous times encourage us to do weak, silly and even sinful things. He also knew that in due time, those disciples would be fully convinced that Jesus really does care. In fact, He cares more deeply about our true conditions than we care about them. Let the Lord be the Lord; He does a much better job than you might think.
Of course, we also learn that Jesus was STILL ABLE TO CONTROL HIS CREATION.
Some foolish people criticize Christians for bowing before one whom they say is a mere man. I acknowledge bowing before a TRUE man, but not before a MERE man. His incarnation did not in the slightest way dim Christ’s deity. His human fatigue didn’t damper His divine power. You can turn up the thermostat in your home when your house gets cold, and there is never a time when the Saviour can’t do the same to entire creation.
“Peace, be still.” Did Christ shout those words, like a distraught teacher to 35 howling hooligans? Did he have to shout in order to be heard over the roar of the wind? He probably spoke as calmly and coolly as He would to Peter at the supper table. Those words are on same level of power and authority as “Let there light” – and there was light.
I don’t know about you, but I read those words and I melt in humble adoration. I praise the Lord for such ability. Praise God, for His love for me, and His willingness to use His powers on my behalf. Oh, how I need to take more advantage of His willingness and ability.
And finally, we see the Saviour REBUKING THE DISCIPLES for their faithlessness.
This morning I suggested this question, and I’ll do it again. When Jesus asked, “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” Was the question posed by Christ, the divine man, or by Christ, the eternal God? I mean: was the question posed because He didn’t know or to make the disciples probe their own hearts? Of course, I must choose the latter, because to think that Jesus was ignorant of anything turns my lunch sour within me. Never-the-less, the idea is worth applying at the very least. “How can you possibly be fearful and faithless, O ye fishermen-disciples?”
The degree of our faith or lack of faith is one of the Lord’s most common concerns. If you’ll notice, that seems to be one of Matthew’s themes throughout this entire chapter. And Christ looks at us tonight and says, “Why can’t you trust me? Where is your faith?” Maybe we ought to read and re-read this passage again, asking ourselves the same question. In the light of His miracles – in the light of our salvation – why is it that our faith is so small?
Oh, how we need to know the Christ of this passage a whole lot better. Don’t we worship a Saviour who can do anything in His will? Hey, this is a Saviour we need to know and love more.