The Message
A thunderous message about God’s call for obedience in the face of indomitable odds was uttered at Freedom Life Church this Sunday. Minister Samuels transmitted what can now, in retrospect, be understood as a brief and efficacious sermon on the sovereignty of God in the face of a deadly storm that promised to sift the life of Christ’s disciples and, in light of this, Jesus’s resolute stance to relax and nap in said storm. Christ’s conduct reflected His nature and the storm was but a milestone in the path of His mission to deliver and rescue an oppressed soul on the other side of the lake.
The passage in question is well known (see below) and often recited as a call for every follower of Christ the world over to rely on the silent yet present person of Jesus in the boat [life]. Though he sleeps, remains quiet, and is, what we believe, unresponsive to the calamity that shreds the fabric of our reality apart, He remains in control.
Jesus Stills The Storm
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mark 4:35-41 NRSVue
Quotables from minister Rohan Samuels’ sermon (paraphrased):
- “Obedience [to Christ] is not an escape. It’s a guarantee that storms will come but there is good news because obedience guarantees that Jesus will be on your boat.”
- “Jesus was not cowardly, sending the disciples across the lake alone. He said ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ Jesus will cross the storm with you.”
- “Obedience will lead you into a storm but it will not leave you without a savior.”
- “God doesn’t send you (across the lake/into the tempest) to test your faith. No. He sends you into a storm to reveal His power.”
- “A storm is not meant for destruction but for development. A greater revelation of Jesus is revealed through a storm.”
- “[The storm can] position you to help someone else.”
- “Deliverance requires disruption.”
- “Stay in the boat.”
A Sound Reminder
Lastly, an empathic note from Sunday’s message lay in a truism uttered from the stage where one might have missed it in light of the generous encouragement derived from the sermon itself.
“We [FLC] believe in doctrine and demonstration.”
This statement speaks volumes about the importance of adhering to the delicate and complex nature of Christian orthodoxy in light of the context in which you live, breathe, and move but also the indispensable and evidential essence of one’s orthopraxy, namely, what does one’s doctrine look like when put into practice.
A healthy church and faith community that observes the words of Christ, breathes them, and practices them not only adheres to sound doctrine, as it guides and sharpens the mind of the believer but also the undeniable demonstration of God’s Holy Spirit in that body politic as a result. You cannot have Godly demonstration without having a healthy knowledge of and relationship with God to begin with.
Hence the numerous cases of abuse of authority, distortions of the writings, and teachings of the word of God that are evident throughout church history in various geographies where mimicry of divine demonstration has held adherents captive whilst their spiritual development and their respective souls descend into spiritual malaise and intellectual rot as they seek to promote and imitate energetic and convulsive behavior, believing such vacuous minded comportment is in and of itself a demonstration of the Holy Spirit’s work in the church, whereas it is and continues to be the inner and outer workings of a biblically illiterate and spiritually immature group-think social experiment enacted by grievously misled and morally corrupt leaders. [Phew]
Doctrine, namely, the healthy and contextual understanding and wholesome interpretation of Biblical texts cannot exist and survive without divine demonstration in the life of the individual who adheres to it. In like mind, divine demonstrations are but the sign of a healthy doctrinal underpinning in the life of the Christian. One cannot and should not exist without the other.
If they do, understand that the individual either becomes a pompous erudite given to doctrinalism, a cancer of the soul where humility is absent in the person’s posture towards others and the studious nature of the individual may lay cover for some insidious sin or sins. Or, if the person is only satisfied with the supposed spiritual demonstrations and miraculous happenings of life, they will, in time, be disappointed by life’s lackluster intermediary periods where spiritual development requires more trust in God than revelations from God. Also, the individual will be susceptible to all winds of doctrine that distort the divinity of Christ, the reality of sin, the cause and effect of redemption, and the benefits of growing in the knowledge and grace of Christ Jesus.
In all, the call, for believers, is to remain in the boat [current crisis or tempest of life] because Christ is with you and He may be developing you into a person that will, upon landing on the other side of this lake [at the end or throughout this trial of life] be called upon to help someone out of a dastardly and devilish situation.
Stay in the boat.
Stay in the boat with Jesus.
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. – Proverbs 31:8 NLT
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