Pastor Dan Eddy

Mark 4:35-41

“Why are you so afraid?”

9-19-10

I. Introduction…Why are we so fearful?

As many of you know…Berta and I were on our cruise vacation in the Caribbean over a week ago. I was sitting in our room enjoying the ocean view out our window. While I was waiting for her to get ready, I was relaxing watching some news on TV. A story came on about a cruise ship in New Zealand….that was hit by a rogue wave. Did you hear about this? A wave came out of nowhere with no warning and hit the ship. Video cameras recorded furniture, food, and people being swept from one end of the deck to the other. Fear began to grip me. This was not the news story I wanted to see while on a cruise ship surrounded by nothing but water.

So to ease my anxieties, I said, what are the chances a “rogue” wave was going to hit our ship? I no sooner was over that fear than another story came on that caused me more consternation. It was the news that a Florida pastor decided that he was going to burn a copy of the Koran on September 11. “A pastor was going to do this,” I fearfully thought. “A pastor? It’s hard enough to reach the under-churched and un-churched; now I have this ‘pastor’ acting in this way.” Fear gripped me again.

Why am I so afraid? Why are we so afraid? Why are you so afraid? Note Jesus in this morning’s Gospel reading didn’t ask if His disciples were afraid or even what they were afraid of. He said, “Why are you so afraid?”

Everybody in this sanctuary is afraid of many things even if we aren’t all afraid of the same things. We are afraid of poor health, lack of money, personal safety, whether our kids will grow up well. We are afraid of our job security, our economic wellbeing, whether or not this congregation will survive without the support of Herring Brook, whether we will make our budget, whether our nation will be attacked again like on 9-11. We fear how many more soldiers will die in Afghanistan. We fear pain. We fear death.

Why are you…why are we so afraid? Our fears cause us to stay awake at night; they cause stomach aches, depression, and poor health. They rob us of joy in life with God and with others.

“Why are you so afraid?” For the answer please open up your bulletin and pull out your sermon outline and follow along. Confirmands this is your sermon summary for this week.

The reason why we are so afraid is simply because we lack living the faith Christ put in our hearts at our baptism by His Word. We don’t confront our fears with the faith that is strengthened by His Word each week in worship. The source of our insecurity is doubting God’s love and care for you.

So, the key to conquering fear is simply living faithfully in the Hand of God and that involves at least three things:

II. One, admitting that our life’s plans fail without Christ

Now I’m not saying that you can’t be economically rich unless you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. I’m not saying you can’t succeed having children or enjoying a career. But somewhere all the way the security you build in life on your own will be washed away just like it was with the Disciples in this morning’s Gospel lesson.

The example we learn from them is fear happens when we look to our past, use it to resolve our problems in the present, and when they don’t work we fear the future. Fear comes when we lose control.

Now many of these Disciples were expert boaters and fisherman. Encountering severe pop-up thunderstorms on the Sea of Galilee was nothing new, so why would they need to rouse Jesus? They’ve handled situations like this in the past. Piece of cake. Besides, Jesus was a carpenter, not a fisherman. How was He going to help them? He’s a great teacher, not a boater.

Well that logic worked until the Disciples were challenged with their vessel taking on so much water that they feared they were going to drown and die.

Only in a last desperate attempt did they then disrespectfully rouse Jesus to offer a pleading pray, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” And the sense from the original Greek text was they were expecting a negative answer. They were expecting Jesus to say: “No, I don’t care if you drown.” It was not a prayer of faith. But without Him, they were doomed.

It’s not that the Disciples didn’t have faith in the Lord that He gave them through the Covenant with His own chosen people. It’s a matter that they lacked living that faith in conquering the fears of that moment. They failed to live the faith inside of them.

Yet despite that, Jesus eased their fears but telling the waves to literally be muzzled and instantly calming the winds.

The Disciples didn’t deserve to be saved that day, and neither do we. They failed their faith test, and so have we. But Jesus showed them mercy again, so they could see that without Him their plans for stronger life now and life eternal would fail.

Jesus will take your fears and keep bringing before us so that you have no choice but to ask Him to save us from them OR try to do it on our own with the success the Disciples were having before Jesus intervened.

Conquering our fears involves recognizing that when we are afraid we are showing our lack of faith in Him. And we need to confess that before God. It involves seeing our sinfulness, admitting we can not be in control of our lives, but letting Him do that. Let Christ’s forgiveness won from the cross sooth your anxieties and begin taking away your fears.

We rejoice that Jesus was not afraid of dying on the Cross for you and me. Can you imagine how scary that would be for us to do…how much fear we would have if we were asked to do that? Jesus is perfect, and part of that means He had no fear to sacrifice His life for you.

And because of that we can say: “Lord, in Your mercy hear our prayers…still our anxieties…so you can help me conquer my fears.”

Now the next fear the Disciples had was being terrified that Jesus had such great power in the first place and that bring us to point two: the key to conquering fear is simply living faithfully in the Hand of God by:

III. Believing that Christ will help us conquer our fears through spiritual struggles.

Why are we afraid of God? You heard me right. Why are you sometimes afraid of God?”

Is it because you think He will put you through a struggle in life you won’t be able to handle? It is because you fear will not be able to accept the pain or grieve, the many losses that come from living in a sin fallen world? Do you fear you won’t go to heaven?

Let’s admit we want God to conquer all our fears in an instant just like it appeared He did for the Disciples out on Sea of Galilee. But remember the Disciples had to struggle before Jesus would intervene. That wouldn’t be the last time that would happen either. They would struggle to understand many of Christ’s parables; three of them would struggle to understand the events on the Mount of Transfiguration.

They would struggle with the beheading of John the Baptist. They would struggle all during what we call Holy Week. They struggled to understand how, on the one hand, Jesus could calm wind and wave and yet, on the other hand, couldn’t stop being crucified.

And even after Jesus resurrection and ascended into heaven, they struggled to build a Church against the fierce opposition of their own friends and family, and yet after each struggle they realized Christ was by their side, in their hearts, all along. As a result, they were able to be stronger, more confident and content in their walk with God. Their fears were being conquered because of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Many times faith grows through struggle in order to better appreciate what Christ did for us with His suffering and death on the Cross. You don’t think Jesus struggled in His perfect life here on earth? You don’t think it was difficult for Him to see His Disciples treat Him with a lack of faith? Don’t you think He struggled as He hung their on the Cross and only 1 of the 12 Disciples were even there to offer support?

In John Busacker’s book, 8 Questions God Can’t Answer he said: “I have come to know him [Jesus] more than through struggle and spiritual wrestling through the night than through the bright sunshine of the success.”

God doesn’t put you through struggles because He hates you or doesn’t care for you. Do you really think Jesus didn’t love or care for His Disciples that day on the Sea of Galilee? Do you really think Christ doesn’t love you?

Remember the familiar words of Romans 5 2b-5 (NIV): “…we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our heart by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.”

You see you don’t just face your fears for your own benefit but so that you can help others do the same. And that bring us to our last point: the key to conquering fear is simply living faithfully in the Hand of God by:

IV. Taking risks to show others our faith

Now the focus goes from inward to outward. The Holy Spirit inspired St. Mark to write this account of Jesus stilling the winds and waves to show us that what He did for the Disciples He can do for you as well. God helps you conquer your fears so you can help others do the same.

And that involves taking risks. Hebrews 11 shows people trusting the Lord after being asked to attempt something that seemed impossible. But, in order to succeed they needed to know that the Lord was going to deliver them to success, giving glory to Him. This is the honor role of faith and we are being asked to join it. And we begin to take that risk when we ask the simple question, “What if?”

What if a friend has a grudge against you, and you go and make right. How would the Lord bless you taking a risk to conquer that fear? What if you gave a greater offering to the Lord, even though your income is less?

What if when you least feel like it, when you’re the angriest at God, you offer a prayer to the Lord to help others. What if when there seems to be no more time left in our schedule, you devote more time serving the Lord with our congregation and in your family? How would the Lord bless you taking risks to conquer those fears?

What if we take a risk and embark on the eight outreach ideas of out 14 that made the cut at last Tuesday night’s Church Council meeting? How would the Lord bless conquering our fear of reaching out through visiting people in the nursing home, or helping out Entrusco, or planning a Peacemakers’ Seminar. Or how would the Lord bless us attending a Defending the Faith class to conquer our fear of sharing our faith and answer some of the objection weaker believers and non-believer have about Christ’s and His Gospel?

If we talk about outreach efforts using the phrase “Well I’m afraid if we do that people may see us as Bible thumpers or I fear if we do that others may reject us” then Satan has us already cowering in fear.

2 Timothy 1: 7 (NIV): “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline.”

Let’s live courageously in the Hand of God and let him shine through us fearlessly.

In closing I would like to leave you with the words of bravery, conviction and comfort from Christian songwriter Steven Camp:

Our Lord He is a hiding place, His hold is strong and sure
Though the storms may rage around Him in His love I stand secure
So let me live like I believe it, and though my faith is prone to fail
Though I cower under trial, by His grace I shall prevail

Oh, to gladly risk it all, oh to be faithful to His call
Abandoned to grace yet anchored in His love
Living dangerously in the hands of God

God’s blessings as you ask Him to help you takes risks and conquer your fears in Christ Jesus. Amen.