God is With Us in the Storm
Mark 6:45-52 ·October 5, 2025· Changjwok Deng
Guest preacher, Changjwok Deng, Director of Neighborhood Outreach at West End Presbyterian Church, teaches us how the Lord sees us in the storm we are in, and that He is with us in it.
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Before I read the text, the text actually is in your bulletin, but also it's in your Bible as well. If you didn't know that, you know, it's going to come from the Bible. So if you have a Bible, just open that up to Mark 6, verses 45 to 52. Before I read the text, I just want to say this, that you read this text, sometimes it's a familiar text. You know, we are familiar with it. You know, Jesus walks on water. Yes, yes, Jesus is, you know, has power over nature, has power over the sea and the storms.
We get it. You know, so what has that to do with me today in my daily walk with the Lord? How does that really relate to me as we read about these things today? So I just want us to know that in the midst of our struggle, in the midst of our trouble, in the midst of the storms and the chaos of life, we have a God who is with us. Amen. We have a God who is with us. He is with us in the midst of our trouble. So this is really a great, great, great text today that comes from the gospel of Mark.
So let me pray and then we'll read the text. Lord, thank you so much for this opportunity that we have today to sit under your word. What a privilege for us to be here today, Lord God, just to read your word, to be fed by you, Lord God. I just want to pray, Father, that you would send out your word and that your word does the work that you always send us to do, Lord God, to change us, to challenge us, to strengthen us, to renew us and to refresh us this morning.
Lord God, I pray that you give us the strength to do what you call us to do in your work today. We thank you, Lord, as you speak to us. We are hearing your word. And so we thank you in Jesus name. So this is the word of the Lord and we should listen and hear the text this morning coming to us from Mark 6, verses 45 and following. Immediately, he made his disciple go into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethesda, while he dismisses the crowd.
And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought he was a ghost. And they cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified.
But immediately he spoke to them and said, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astonished or astounded. Oftentimes, we find ourselves overwhelmed with the storms and the chaos of life, don't we? And if I'm being honest with you today, church and with myself, I have to confess that, you know, stormed the chaos of life often seem louder and bigger than Jesus himself. No matter how strong our faith is, no matter how long we've been in church, sometimes these situations make us question our faith.
You know, for example, a quick routine check visit to the doctor might turn your life upside down. Right? And then a loss of a job, as we pray today for all of those, a loss of a job might threaten and end a long marriage. A divorce, after many years of faithfulness and being together, may actually shake our lives and make our lives turn upside down. And sometimes might shake our faith as well. And an unexpected death of a friend, a relative, a wife, or someone that we dearly love, these things shake our faith as well.
You know, and in times such as those times, in those situations, those circumstances, those chaos, sometimes we forget when Jesus said in John, and he said this in John, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. And he said this, this is really, this is really, I wrestle with this a lot. In the world, you will have what? Tribulation. You will have suffering. You will have trouble. And he said, but take heart, I have overcome the world.
Right? And sometimes when we go through difficult times in our lives, we forget that Jesus has said that he has overcome the world, that he is in charge, that he is the Lord, that he is sovereign, that he is able to be with us and carry us through difficult times. Right? So we forget that. It is no wonder that one of the things that when you read the gospel, and even if you go back to the Old Testament, you will hear that one of the commands that is really hard to miss is this command that Jesus says, and the Bible says, do not be afraid.
Right? Sometimes we read it like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. Do not be afraid. Right? So Jesus uses this command throughout the gospel. If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you will find out that this is really, really a command that Jesus tells his disciples. Jesus says this to us, church, because he knows that in this world, we will pass through many difficult circumstances, many hard situations. He knows that we will be pressed at every side.
We will be pressed at every direction. He knows that. So let me ask you this question today. Does the storm and the chaos life feel bigger than Jesus that we sang about today, that he loves us?
And in some cases, yes, they do seem bigger. They do seem overwhelming to us. But let me say this to you today. Jesus sees you. He sees you in that storm. Not only does he sees you in the storm, not only does he sees me in the storm, but Jesus enters into our storms. So the text before us today reminds us of a couple of things. If you forget, this is the roadmap that I want you to keep in your mind. That Mark tells us that Jesus, that the same Jesus who loves us, that Jesus who cares for us, he is with us, right?
First, Jesus knows what we are contending with. Okay? He knows what you're contending with every day. The second thing is that Jesus sees not the storm. Yes, he does see the storm, but he sees you in the storm. And the third thing is that Jesus enters into our storm and our chaos. So keep those three things in mind. So let's talk about the first thing. Jesus knows the storm that we are contending with. Mark writes, and Mark really tells us this. He writes this word.
Immediately, he made his disciple go into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethesda of Galilee, while he dismisses the crowd. Mark does not tell us why Jesus really wanted his disciple to leave and to go to the other side. He doesn't tell us specifically what causes Jesus to do that. But if we read the gospel, and if we read the stories of Jesus, we will see that, and if you go back a little bit to verse 41, you will see that the context is important here.
Because Jesus just has fed 5,000. Okay? He has just fed 5,000 with a few resources, with five loaves and with two fishes. Get this, church. Whenever Jesus does this kind of miracle, with this kind of magnitude, something begins to happen. You know, people begin to press around him. You know, whether they mean to just be observant, or they just want to know what's going on, or maybe they were hungry, or maybe they want to accuse him. People press when these kind of things happen.
So you can imagine, as he fed many, he fed 5,000 people, and people are coming and pressing every side, something begins to happen. People begin to think, wait a minute, we are under the oppression of the Roman Empire. Could it be that this is the king that will deliver us from the Roman Empire? So they've been thinking about that. They're like, well, wait a minute, let's grab this guy and make him a king over us. Right? So when you read all these stories, sometimes you will see that people begin to press on Jesus and want to grab him and want to install him to be a king.
All right? So keep that in mind. Don't write this at the end of that story of feeding the 5,000. Perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him a king, Jesus withdrew again to a mountain by himself. You see, Jesus' goal in sending his disciples to the other side was a goal to protect them from something that they, he did not want them to get into. The disciples probably got a win of this and they got a, they got a side, wow, they're here.
Is he the king? Is he the king? And they kind of like, you know, starting to kind of get with the crowd and wanted to grab Jesus and make him king. So Jesus knowing that and knowing that his mission is to go to the cross, really want to help the disciple to say, you know what? You guys don't need to be here for your own sake. So go to the other side. Notice what Mark says, is that he made them, right? He made them to the point that Jesus had to grab them and say, guys, you got to go.
You know, you're about to commit something that you don't know, you don't understand, so you got to go. Mark tells us that Jesus made them to leave, to go to the other side. And then you ask, well, then he's sending them into the storm. What is better? You know? So, but the thing that we need to understand here is that Jesus loves his disciple, right? That might be right that he is sending them into the storm, but Jesus wanted to protect them from even a bigger mistake that we're about to make.
Guess, think about this. If Jesus did not go to the cross, we would not be here today. If Jesus did not finish the mission in which he came to go to the cross to die for us, we would not be here today. And so making him king at that moment will really nullify the plan of God for us. Right? So Jesus said, you know what? I'm going to send you to the other side. Jesus has removed his disciples because he loved them from this chaos that was about to happen.
Right? You see, I don't know about you. Some of us here handle chaos in different ways. Right? Some of us actually exhibit great calm during the time of chaos. I don't want to say like show by show of hand who does that, but you know what? Some of us really do great in time of pressure, in time of great, great, great, great chaos, while others really will melt down during time like that. Regardless of how you handle yourself in the time of chaos, Jesus knows us best.
So in this context, Jesus knows the trouble that the disciples are dealing with. He knows their temptations. He knows their fear. He knows this level of their faith.
Perhaps you're wondering whether or not Jesus knows the troubles that you are in today. You are facing right now. You probably want to understand why Jesus has made you be where you are today. Or you're wondering why Jesus made you go to do the things that you were, you are going to do. But church, get this. Jesus knows exactly why you are where you are. He knows that. It might be a difficult place that you are in right now. It might be a confusing place that you are in right now.
Maybe you are over your head. But Jesus knows exactly why you are where you are. And He has a mission. He has a purpose. He has a plan for the place in which you are right at this moment. You might not understand it. You might not know it. You might not even understand in this life. But He knows why you are where you are. He knows that. And He provides for you in that situation. When I was 7 years old way back I mean a long time ago my parents decided to send me to Khartoum which is about 420 miles away from where I grew up to live with relatives.
I was 7. I did not know these relatives. And so because of war in South Sudan I could not go to school uninterrupted. So they said you know what for you to go to school we will send you to these people that you don't know. Right? But we know them. We trust them. They were our relatives. So my uncle I never met him and I haven't seen him ever. So here I go to be with these people that are strangers to me. And at the moment at that time my life actually really turned upside down.
Because here I am I'm rooted from what I love from my family from the people that I love. But because I was a child I did not understand the whole you know the scope of war. I did not understand what was going on but my parents love me and they know the best for me. So they said for you to go to school you need to go to a place where your schooling is not interrupted. So my I went to school when I was nine because every year they would try to put me to school and the school would be shut because of war and I would not be able to go to school.
So if that continues I would have never gone to school ever. So I went to live with my uncle. So long story short pass forward in 2020 in 2010 I went back to visit after 21 years of being away from my family from Sudan and from all of that. And so I go there everything is just different the war has turned the country really really into like I mean a war zone. I could not understand I could not even recognize the places that I used to play and to walk with and just it just was very devastating.
And so the good news is my sister said you know what you know that boy that you used to play with your best friend I was like and she said he is here he's like you sure he's like so she called him and then we got together and we connected and so I asked where are others where are all the others and they and my sister looked at me and said most of the people you grew up with are either dead missing or have gone and so as I look back at that moment even though that transition was very difficult when my dad sent me away I didn't know what the plan of my God is I didn't know what the plan of my father was but at that moment it was difficult to leave the thing that I knew it was very difficult to leave that place that I grew up in I was very upset I was very angry at all these situations of everybody you know it caused me a lot of trouble but as I look back today and I see the hand of God and how God has just kind of like plucked you out of that situation and put you in a new situation right so sometimes we don't understand why we're going through the things where we're going or why we're here but God has a bigger plan there is no way that I would have been able to tell you years ago that today October 5th I would be here with you guys sharing the gospel that is crazy I mean there's I would have never believed that that you would be in America having children and being in this place no no way but our God is so good that he loves us and that he cares for us and that he knows exactly
why we are where we are listen maybe you are sitting here right now and you are in darkness our God knows maybe you are in an overwhelming situation Jesus knows maybe some of us are dealing with great sense of sin and the guilt of sin Jesus knows some of us might be dealing with besetting sin or terminal illnesses or you know somebody who is dealing and going through a difficult time Jesus knows are you here today maybe filled with anger and frustration and sadness because of your own sin or maybe the sin of other people you know what Jesus knows Jesus knows and Paul tells us this in 1st Corinthians no temptation have overtaken you that is not common to man God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with temptation he will provide the way of escape you see this is this is the promise that God has for us and we read in the Psalms the psalmist says says what even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death you are with me and man our God is with us in those kind of situations therefore when we are in trouble Jesus can sympathize with us he is our great great high priest we know this because Jesus is not only knows our trouble but because Jesus is interceding for us look what Mark says Mark says that Jesus went up to do what and after he had taken leave of them he went up to the mountain to pray what was Jesus praying about he went to the mountain to pray you see Jesus was a man of prayer right so this was not an unusual thing for him to do
there are three times in the gospel when Jesus would go and pray whole night I mean I can can you I mean talk about the whole night I mean 35 seconds is like feel like internet in prayer right but here he is he is praying a whole night three occasions when he shows his disciples he went to pray all night right at the transfiguration he prayed the whole night and in this in this particular occasion he went to pray the whole night we don't know why but we can say that from this on forward Jesus fame became to decline as he goes to Jerusalem and facing opposition and so perhaps he needed some strength he needed some reminder of his mission and so he went to pray but not only that when he went to the mountain he can have an advantage point to see what the disciples were doing to see where they were heading and as he was praying he saw them struggling and making headways to go to the other side and you know if you know Jesus if you love Jesus when he saw that what he was doing he would be praying for them right he would be interceding for them but not only that Jesus came to them he did not ignore them he did not say you know what they're going to make it he did not just say you know what I'm tired he came to them he came to them walking because not only Jesus knows your trouble but the second thing I want to talk about is that Jesus sees you in your trouble he sees me in my trouble Mark right and when evening came the boat was out in the sea and he was alone in the land and he saw
that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them that word the wind was against them is actually translated is that the wind was tormenting them right that's the best word that they were in such great torment it was about seven miles right across the sea but at that moment at three o'clock a.m. they had just made it halfway it took them about maybe seven hours to make it to make three miles if you're a runner you know what I'm talking about I mean you know that is like 6.2 miles if you're walking it probably you walk it in two miles but this is like they in seven hours they could not make it they make it so it's about 3 a.m.
in the morning between 3 a.m. and 6 p.m. that's the fourth watch of the night that was translated about 3 to 6 a.m. in the morning what are you doing in 3 in the morning right I'm sleeping in the morning but the disciples were like from 6 o'clock p.m. until 3 in the morning they were like working hard to get to the other side just think about that that's something to think about okay but Jesus came down to the mountain he looked at the sea in the Galilee and at the distance Jesus could see his disciples were making little progress in getting to where he wanted them to go so Mark says this Mark then says that the wind was against them they experienced great pain and frustration in the attempt get this in the attempt to do what who just sent them Jesus right in an attempt to obey the voice of Jesus the command of Jesus to go to the other side God wants us to do easy right I mean we just read that in this world you will have tribulation right and sometimes we think that the Christian life is just walking in the park right that it just a road you know covered with roses and things like that right you become a Christian everything become really cool and great right there's a reason why the Bible says that enter by the narrow when you are bumping against people when people are stepping on your feet where people are really looking at your eyes where people are really just checking your stuff and thinking oh this guy is whatever right it's a narrow road but here it is it's very difficult
to obey this command Jesus sees his disciples in trouble he does their trouble when Jesus looks at you right now right at this moment when Jesus looks at you what does he see as you are struggling to obey his command as we are struggling to do what he has commanded us to do as we are failing every moment every second what does he see what do you think Jesus sees when we are struggling in our faith especially when we are attempting to obey his command walk faithfully here he has commanded his disciples to go to the other side but they are having a hard time to carry that command the circumstances were against them were beyond their control some of us might be dealing today with great big issues beyond our human control as you try to obey Jesus you try to figure out Lord what is your plan here Lord why I'm doing this why is these things happening to me and Lord I'm trying to do this and we are just kind of struggling to obey that Jesus sees you and he that what we think sometimes but Jesus when he looks at us today when God looks at us today he looks at us and see us that we are in the beloved when he looks at that he see us that we are redeemed when he looks at he see us he will say this one I have purchased this one I have bought this one has my claim on his life that's what Jesus that's what God sees God sees us as his own he loves us he loves us he cares for us and so here he is coming to them I mean if you were Jesus maybe would have run the other way right this is their problem
let them figure it out let them get out of it but Jesus did not do that and when he got into the book he did not even judge them right he did not judge them he didn't do all of that he did not leave his disciples in their misery he did not ignore their trouble he did not judge them instead in compassion in you have children and when your children do they do something really hard and difficult you want to get their attention what do you do you grab them you look them in the eye and you say buddy I love you right that's what Jesus does see when we are scared when we are at the end of our life he comes to us and looks us in the eyes and said I know you are trying I love you you know I'm not disappointed in you I love you and to understand what's going on here the sea at that time the view of people on the sea the sea was a place of chaos was a place of evil you see when you look and you read the Genesis 1 what we read the earth was what without a form and void and darkness was all over the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters right Moses described the beginning of the world as chaos primeval sea from which God brought order when we read in John in earth there will be no sea there will be no what sea will be no war I think that that's the picture of like the order that God brings that from chaos from all these things so in the Bible we hear this that Psalms 93 says mightier than thunders of many waters mightier than sees us in a storm he comes to us our storm is
no match for him not only does Jesus know where we are in the storm or sees us but the last thing I place of evil the sea is where the monster the leviathan live right when you read in the Bible and so when they see somebody walking on the sea well they say well this is bad news this is not a good thing something is coming to get us that's what they see now we go to the beach and we enjoy ourselves and we love all that thing this is not what they thought about the sea right the sea was a place of chaos when the monsters come up you know if commenting on what was going on here when he says that Jesus was about to pass them by and I just like just a brief comment on that why was Jesus about to pass them by well this is from R.C.
Paul when God manifests himself in the Old Testament he often did so by means of theophany right this work come from the Greek word theos which mean God and pina'o which means manifest show demonstrator display a theophany is a manifestation of God in a visible way this is that end of quotation so therefore Mark wants to communicate to us here that this is a clear manifestation of the divinity of Jesus Christ did you hear that this is a clear manifestation of the divinity of Jesus Christ there are a couple of places in the Bible when we see that God appeared to Abraham in a smoke fire pot and flaming church Genesis 15 17 to 20 similarly when God appeared to Moses as we read this text this morning we read the text of Exodus 3 right that God appeared to Moses in what burning bush that was a theophany that was God manifested himself in a way that we can relate to in a way that we can see right in Exodus 33 Moses asked God to show him his but in this time God says you can no one can see my my full weight of and live and so God hid Moses in the rock and his goodness and his faithfulness right we read in first king 19 about another story when the of the Lord passed by the prophet Elijah right so what is happening here in the sea of the Galen is Jesus manifesting his divinity Jesus manifesting his before his disciple R.C.
Spohr wrote this and says Jesus self-consciously revealing his divinity to his disciple the glory of God bursting through the shroud of the humanity of Jesus was made manifest to the disciple in the midst of their distress they looked up and saw the of God passing by that's amazing that's incredible I mean the son of God manifesting himself to his disciple identifying himself guess this when he says take heart it is I that that I is actually the name that God gave to Moses the I am the personal covenant name of God so when Jesus was saying that he was just saying that all right guys it is me Jesus he was saying it is the Lord the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob the I am you know the covenant name of God he was given to his disciples refilling himself to them when God manifests himself in the Old Testament he often does that by means of the that's what we are hearing here and reading here yet the disciples were terrified and appropriately so they were terrified because for their culture this was what they should be thinking about this is like this is a crazy place this is a place of the monster so this could be something that is out to kill us and they were terrified they were scared why because Mark tells us for they did not understand about the loaves because their heart was hard the disciple did not understand that the one in whom they have to contend with was God incarnate trouble storm chaos of life hide us hide God from us right I don't know about you but
when I'm in difficult circumstances when I'm in a storm I cannot see beyond anything all I think about is my situation all I think about is the struggle all I think about is all the things that is happening to me and that really cover Jesus from our sight from our vision right so that's what is happening here with the disciples that they could not understand because they were dealing with such great things here they were dealing with such trouble that they could not understand what was going on with them as you scroll again write this the disciples did not get it when Jesus fed the five thousand they did not get it when he walked on the water they did not get it when he called himself I am they did not get it when he stepped into the boat and the wind died their heart were hardened troubles harden our and he did not leave the disciple in that kind of a place when they went to the other side we did not read that part when they went to the other side they he showed them himself as they were bringing people to him as they were bringing the sick to him he said guys I'm going to give you I want to leave you with these words Jesus is able to take on our trouble because on the mount of Calvary what did he do he climbed the mount of Calvary and took on our sin took on our sadness took on what that would undo us he died for us and he provided for us a way to be with God a month ago our pastor Steve many of you might know he preached on this text and says this that I thought is really good
it says that Jesus' voice is louder than the storm Jesus' voice is louder than the storm do you hear that Jesus' voice is louder than our storm right now I believe that there is no storm bigger than Jesus there is no trouble bigger than Jesus Tim Keller in what we just wrote I think is in the bulletin here either Jesus can't hear you because he is not who he says he is or if he is who he says he is he must become the still point of for all without greatest trouble sin he paid the penalty for the sin of his elect he drunk the cup of the wrath of God that was due us to justify to satisfy the wrath of God making peace between us and God church we can take heart today because on the cross Jesus defeated your enemy Jesus defeated my enemy Jesus over him death Jesus overcame flesh Jesus overcame the world on the cross Jesus took on his shoulder our trouble Jesus took on his shoulder our sin he defeated death the flesh and the devil in Jesus Christ church we have the I am we have the I am who knows the storm that we are in who provides for us in our storm who sees us in our storm and who takes on our storm and that kills him so that we can today sing praise and worship and be in a right relationship with him so take heart take heart my friend our God is with us in our trouble to you to to you to to to you to to you to