On the basis of that, let’s read that story. READ Mark 4:35-41
This was a teaching moment – provided by the testing circumstances of the storm. The disciples were clearly in grave danger. Some of them were fishermen and must have been in storms before but this storm was apparently so violent that they feared they are going to drown.
There were other boats travelling with them, so lots of people were in danger.
If this was a teaching moment, what was the potential lesson? It wasn’t about sailing. It wasn’t about water safety. What was it about? We can see it in the questions Jesus asked at the end: Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? The lesson was one of faith – in the midst of the storm being able to trust God and, trusting Him, not being afraid. It is a lesson about the peace that comes from faith in God.
Have you learnt that lesson? What would your reaction be in a similar situation? What is your reaction when you face some frightening situation? Have you learnt the lesson of this incident?
If you have learnt to trust God and not be afraid, how did you learn that? Someone might have told you that you can trust God; how to trust God and that you should trust God. But is being told enough for you to actually trust God? Don’t you have to experience it? Don’t you have to be in a situation where you are challenged to trust God and you do and you discover Him to be trustworthy. You might say you trust God but you won’t know if you really do until that trust is test by a situation – like a storm.
God will bring about those tests. It is part of the learning. If you are learning about patience, God will set up some little experiment to test that. If you are learning about giving, God will test that.
That happened to the disciples all of the time. It is what we see here. Would they trust God in a storm? On other occasions... Could they heal the boy with a demon? How would they feed 5000 people with only 5 loaves and 2 fish? Did they understand who Jesus was? How would they get on ministering in the villages when Jesus sent them out? All of the time they were being tested. It is part of the learning.
They were tested as they crossed the lake. I don’t think this storm happened by chance. God put them in that situation to see how they would react. Or, maybe, so they could see how they would react.
When God puts us in a testing situation, it might be primarily so that we can see how we are getting on – how much we are learning; what progress we are making. Sometimes it is encouraging. Sometimes...
So, a large part of this teaching moment was experimentation – being in the situation so as to see how they would react; giving it a go to see if we can do it.
Another part of what happened here was that Jesus went to sleep. In the midst of a storm that caused fishermen to fear for their lives, Jesus went to sleep. They had to wake Him. He didn’t seem at all phased by the storm. He was perfectly at peace – which is what they should have been.
In front of their eyes, Jesus demonstrated a different response. That response was so staggering they couldn’t understand it. They thought He didn’t care about them. They thought He should be doing something. It was so staggering that it must have made a huge impression. Later, they must often have thought “in the midst of that storm, Jesus slept.”
Demonstration – showing a different attitude or response; showing how to do it – was a major part of Jesus’ teaching technique. They observed Him. He showed them how to heal, how to pray, how to serve, how to react to criticism, how to worship. He showed them. In fact, I can’t think of anything that He taught them that He hadn’t already demonstrated.
His example, His modelling of it for them was perhaps the very foundation of His teaching method. He taught by demonstrating.
Which raises another point. The context for His teaching was not a classroom but life and more particularly, mission. They learnt about life in the context of life. They leant about ministry in the context of ministry. They learned about mission by being with Jesus when He was involved in mission and watching His example and experimenting themselves. They learnt about trusting God, in a storm.
When they woke Him, He got up and rebuked the wind and the waves and they stopped. He demonstrated a faith response that resulted in a miracle. In this storm, Jesus demonstrated peace and power.
So we have Jesus’ demonstration and their experimentation but there is something else in this passage. When Jesus had completed the miracle, He turned to the disciples and asked two questions: “Why are you so afraid?” and “Do you still have no faith?” He wanted them to think about what was going on; what was going on inside themselves; why they had reacted as they had; and why they hadn’t trusted God.
In other words, part of the process was reflection. And they did reflect. We are told they asked each other, “Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey Him!” “Who is Jesus?” is a good thing to reflect on when it comes to questions of faith and fear.
Demonstration, reflection and experimentation but there is one obvious thing missing from this account. What about teaching? Jesus spent a lot of time teaching. He is known universally as a teacher. I said that the disciples learnt by watching him on the job, but that is not the whole picture because there were also times when they withdrew and He gave them instruction. There were the equivalent of classroom times, as well as public teaching.
If we take those four components we see that two are primarily the responsibility of the teacher (although the student is involved) and two are primarily the responsibility of the student (although the teacher may well be involved.) Two involve the practice and two involved theory. Together, the make a powerful training package. Powerful? Well it is the method Jesus modelled and he was pretty effective.
There are two other things I would like to include but I am not going to spend time on. I think they can come into play at any point on that grid. One is challenge. A challenge asks for a response from the other person. Remember when the disciples suggested sending the crowd away, Jesus said “You feed them.” That was a challenge. “Who do you say that I am?” “Follow me.”
The other side of the challenge coin is a turning point. It was a turning point when the disciples left their boats and nets to follow Him. It was a turning point when Peter said, “You are the Christ the son of the living God”
(Just as an aside, if you take the initial letters of those six things it spells DIRECT.)
So what? Why am I talking about Jesus’ training method?
Firstly, because this, I suggest, is how Jesus grows people. If we want to grow in our own faith – and I hope that might be one thing you have reflected on over the holidays and one thing that you are prioritising for yourself in this new year – if you want to grow, this is how Jesus will do it. We have His example and His teaching and we need to be reading our Bibles to get as much of that as we can. But we also have the examples of other people and we will receive teaching from other people. It might be in reading a Christian biography that we see the example of a man or woman of God. It might be as we observe a Christian we respect. It might be through a deliberate mentoring relationship.
If we want to grow, we should be seeking out people who can show us and people who can teach us.
But Jesus’ method also requires that we reflect. John Piper says we shouldn’t read a lot of books. We should read a few books and reflect on them. It is in the reflection that we grow. Reading without reflection is superficial. Living without thinking about it and learning from it is superficial. Watching others or hearing teaching without taking time to reflect on it, is superficial.
And Jesus will also require us to step out and give it a go – experimentation, which may lead to more reflection, more instruction etc. In the end it is not about knowing about it. It is about doing it – being doers of God’s word.
So, the challenge is: In this new year are we going to seek out people who can show us and people who can teach us and will we give time to reflecting and will we put into practice what God is teaching us?
But then the second reason for talking about Jesus’ method is this: How can we best fulfil the Great Commission? How can we best bring people to faith in Jesus and bring people to maturity in Jesus? How can we teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded? Well, what method did Jesus demonstrate? What method did He teach? Let’s reflect on that and let’s experiment with it. Let’s do it.
My impression is that we tend to rely heavily on instruction. We preach; we watch courses on DVD; we go to conferences. If we are doing it as a group, we might add in some reflection – some discussion and thinking – but the emphasis is on the theory. Perhaps the area we need to develop is the practical. Who is going to demonstrate studying the Bible and praying and coping with stress and evangelism and caring for the poor? Who is going to not just talk about it but show how it is done?
Of course that is more challenging. It is harder to do it than to talk about it. But doing it is a lot more powerful and has more credibility. Jesus first modelled in His own life everything He wanted to see in His followers. We too need to ensure we can model being a Christian, not just talk about. We need to do the equivalent of sleeping in the boat and let people see that we can have peace in the midst of turmoil because we trust God. We need to do the equivalent of calming the storm. Could you trust God for that? Before we try to teach people about trusting God, we need to trust God.
Then conversely, we need to give the “student” opportunities to experiment – to give it a go. The storm provided an opportunity. Being sent out to preach the gospel, heal the sick and raise the dead provided an opportunity. We need to give opportunities for real ministry.
Churches often rely most heavily on our small groups for growth but small groups often stop at a bit of instruction and some reflection. Imagine what might happen if small groups gave equal weight to demonstration and experimentation. Let the group members see the group leader (or someone else) do what it is they are learning about. And then, give the group members opportunities to do it. If the group is learning about faith, then go into situations where faith is required. If the group is learning about evangelism, then evangelise. Experiment and then reflect and then read another book so as to get more instruction and then ask an accomplished evangelist to say what he does.
We can include these four elements in any order and repeat them any number of times. The point is that when all four are present, we will be most effective.
Ultimately, in response to a challenge, there will be that turning point – the point at which the person does believe or does act or does trust. That’s what we are after – real growth. That’s worth celebrating. That’s worth the effort.
Jesus demonstrated a training method that involved Demonstration, Instruction, Reflection and Experimentation. And He commissioned us to carry on His work. Now it is up to us to reflect on the method and learn more about it. But then the challenge is: will we do it? Will we pick up those four key elements and do them? Will we model what it is to be a Christian, teach about what it is to be a Christian, encourage reflection on that and then give people opportunities to live out their Christian faith?
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