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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 The Beginning of the Gospel

02 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

03 Controversies

04 Parables

05 Miracles Around the Lake

06 Inside Out

07 Teaching Disciples Part 1

08 Teaching Disciples Part 2

09 Jerusalem Controversies

10 The Last Days

11 Taken and Tried

12 Tried and Crucified

13 The Risen Lord

We are now on the fifth lesson from our study in the book of Mark and this 1 is titled Miracles Around the Lake.

Is this, is there a nice little cluster of miracles around the lake that were nicely packaged or how did it come to this?

Well as we're walking through the the book of Mark, Jesus is now ministering in the region of Galilee and around the Sea of Galilee.

So there we happen to be in the, not that the miracles were necessarily tied to the lake.

1 of them kind of was, okay, But that's just where Jesus happens to be in Mark 4-6.

Well, I'm sure there's powerful lessons we're going to draw out of these miracles around the lake.

And so I don't want to delay our study any further, but you actually put our talking points together for this week.

So let me start with a word of prayer and then let you walk us through our lesson.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you for every opportunity you give us to learn more about you and study your word.

And now as we look at this particular lesson and the scripture that it's drawn from, please help us to see Jesus more clearly, to understand him more, and by your grace become more like him.

All right, this week's lesson, as I alluded to a minute ago, is just continuing through, we were in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, picking up still in chapter 4 and continuing on through chapter 6, okay, this week's study, and here are 3 talking points, not 4, we tried 4 last time, you repented and never going back, yeah, so 3 talking points, number 1, Jesus cares.

That's taken primarily from Sunday's lesson.

And in fact, I shouldn't say that Sunday and Monday's lesson.

And then talking point number 2, faith is the hand that grasps heaven's blessings.

And finally, talking point number 3, personal ministry keeps our faith alive.

Also a little bit from Wednesday and Thursday.

Well, so apparently we've come to the point of the Bible where we find that Jesus cares.

Okay, well, the first thing we encounter in this week's lesson is this storm on the lake.

So in chapter 4, Jesus was telling parable after parable.

It was a long day of teaching, and as that chapter concludes, it says, verse 35 of Mark chapter 4.

In fact, why don't you read Mark chapter 4, verses 35 and 36.

On the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side.

Now, when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, And other little boats were also with him of course now on the lake It goes into the idea that this big storm comes up which we could read in a few verses But in the middle of it the disciples cry out to Jesus in verse 38 teacher Do you not care that we are perishing?

Mmm, and of course then Jesus calms the storm on the lake.

Now I have to give a plug this week, and we were talking about this in our preparation.

The desire of ages is just such a blessing, and such an incredible blessing.

As you go through these stories and these accounts 1 of the things it does is it gathers together the details from the different Gospels so in telling the story like if I read it in Mark there may be some things that I'm missing from from Matthew or Luke or John, but in Desire of Ages it pulls that together as you're walking through the story.

The other thing is it just helps you to visualize the whole thing.

For example, when Jesus finishes, the storm arises on the lake and Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves.

And the idea you could get is that the storm subsided kind of like, you know, when you're in stormy weather and then the storm passes and the clouds are breaking up and maybe the rain tapers off.

But when you read this in desire of ages, Ellen White's very clear that when Jesus calms this storm instantly, it's as if there never was a storm.

The sky is clear, the wind is calm, the sea is calm.

So no 1 could mistake it for a coincidence, like, well look at that, what are the odds?

It's like, no, it's not coincidental, it's miraculous.

No, and it's interesting in verse, again at the end of verse 36 where you just read it says, and other little boats were also with him.

And there's so much that could be said here.

He ministers from the boat, if you go back to Mark chapter 4, the first 2 verses.

And so now as he's finished teaching from the boat he requests to the disciples to go to the other side of the lake because it's less congested and he needs a break.

And again there's a lot that could be drawn out from that and so then on the boat he falls asleep on the boat.

He's hungry, he's tired, and he just falls asleep on the boat.

The other boats in the area, people still tried to follow him over.

But keep in mind that they also were going to be witnesses to this great miracle.

And so, but again, in the heart of this story, it, I don't know why this didn't strike me the first time I read it, subsequent times that I read it, until I read a little pamphlet by E.J.

Wagner who made the point, you know, the disciples cry out, Master, don't you care that we're perishing?

He's in the same boat that you're in, right?

And I'll tell you the thing that struck me is in that experience as in so many, it's like Jesus taking our humanity.

In so many ways, he's in the boat with us.

Oh Master, don't you care that I'm going through this or going through that?

Even when I'm going through a hardship in my life that Jesus isn't going through, yet he feels to the depths every hardship with a greater capacity to feel than I have.

And so there's no situation that those storm we go through that Jesus himself isn't in the storm with us.

Yeah, that's worth the lesson right there that Jesus is in the boat with us and we might just skim past that detail but it's I mean think about the humanity aspect as you mentioned That's huge.

And so in keeping that in mind, look, the boat's not going down.

Even in the storm, the boat's not going down.

But this miracle manifests to the disciples and to readers throughout the centuries that this 1 in the boat, I mean you think of, you think of he's a tiny man in a tiny boat on a little lake in the speck of a planet in the universe, but that tiny man in that boat is is God Almighty.

Which apparently was needful at that time because in verse 41, and and they said to 1 another, who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him.

So they've been listening to his teaching, they've even seen some of the miracles, but apparently this 1 was of such a nature that it even startled these already believers into even a broader appreciation and deeper understanding of who Christ could possibly be.

Right, I mean how do you control the wind and the waves?

So it testifies of the fact that this is the Almighty, the Creator.

That He didn't have to calm the storm, but to calm their fears, he calmed the storm.

To give them courage in his identity and who he was, he gives this evidence.

And we see the same thing in the next story, but before we pass on to that, Ellen White comments on this cry of the disciples, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

And if you would read that in Desire of Ages 3, 35, and 6.

Never did a soul utter that cry unheeded.

As Jesus rested by faith in the Father's care, so we are to rest in the care of our Savior.

If the disciples had trusted in Him, they would have been kept in peace.

Series

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

05 Miracles Around the Lake

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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