Sunday Sermon June 23, 2024: You Shall Not Perish

MARK 2.23-28

In August 2000, 118 Russian sailors perished when the Kursk nuclear submarine suffered an underwater explosion and became disabled in the depths of the icy Barents Sea. High-level Russian sources recently told Time magazine that some of the men could have been saved had rescue gear aboard the Russian submarine been tested. According to studies done after the mishap, 23 surviving crew-members rushed to a floating rescue capsule located in the rear of the submarine. But the capsule failed to disengage and surface because of mechanical problems that existed from the time the sub was commissioned. It seems the ship’s completion was behind schedule and “orders from the top” demanded that shortcuts be taken to make the construction deadline. One such shortcut was failing to test the capsule to see if it could handle the pressure of a rescue procedure.

Over 100 men perished on a disabled and sinking ship because their escape plan was unreliable.  The thing and the people that they trusted did not deliver on their promises to save them in their moment of need.  So, instead of continued life, death was on the menu for them.

This morning’s Biblical text is about death. (I know a very light topic.)

We are going to see and hear from the disciple Mark that Jesus’ followers were seeking rescue from a sinking and disabled ship so they they didn’t die.

Mark 4:35–41 tells us this:

[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, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. [37] And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. [38] But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” [39] And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. [40] He said to them, “Why are you so 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?” (ESV)

The first thing we should always do after reading a Scripture is to summarize the facts of who, what, where, and when.  This gives us the only context to understand what God is teaching us through Jesus’ words and actions.

In this morning’s text from the good news according to the disciple Mark, we have Jesus and his disciples crossing a lake in a boat.  While they are in the boat, a storm overtakes them and begins shaking, rocking, and filling the boat with water.  The disciples enter into panic and survival mode and go to Jesus for help.  When they approach Jesus, Jesus is sleeping and the disciples immediately, without a second thought, question Jesus’ concern for them.

Doesn’t that all sound familiar?

When there are no considerable troubles in front of us, we live day to day like God doesn’t exist and we don’t need the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

However, the second life gets uncomfortable and troubles arise that threaten our peace of mind, we, without a second thought question Jesus’ concern for us.

In the past, I have focused on the fear and the lack of trust in Jesus when approaching this passage. 

Now, to be clear, both of those things are important and true applications of this passage.  But, this week, I realized that I have spent decades missing a key point in this piece of Biblical text.

And, that key piece comes from the question that the disciples ask Jesus.

I have come to love the question that the disciples ask because it is the peak of irony.

The disciples ask Jesus, “do you not care that we are perishing?”

The disciples think that because Jesus was resting from the travel, teaching, and constant care of all of those that he came into contact with (or, finding a few minutes of Sabbath in the context of last week’s message), that he just didn’t care if they died.

This is ironic because they overlook Jesus’ primary purpose in coming to them and being with them.

Jesus was present with them in this life so that they would not perish.  

The most famous Scripture of all time, which we probably gloss over in our minds at this point because we have heard it so many times, says this:

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16–17, ESV)

The very reason that God is with the disciples in the flesh and bones of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ is to ensure that they do not perish—that is, so that they do not die.  And, by death, Biblically, we mean being separated from God the Father in Heaven eternally.

What the disciples forgot in their moments of being afraid and uncomfortable is that God is with them in the person of Jesus to save them from the effects of death due to sin.

You see, because of sin—our inborn desire to deny and disobey God for our own immediate pleasure and satisfaction—each of us is on a disabled and sinking ship and we need a reliable escape plan in order to spend eternity with God in Heaven instead of spending an eternity separated from God in a place that is described over an over again with images of torture and pain such as “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In sin, they, and us, deserve to die and be separated from God forever.  We have broken God’s commandments for life and love and mocked him by thinking we know better and don’t need an invisible, possibly non-existent, tyrannical overlord.

However, God’s grace and love is shown to the disciples on the boat that day, and to you and me, in the fact that even in the midst of not trusting him and questioning his goodness and motives, Jesus acted miraculously to save them from perishing in the storm and flood.

One very important part of this morning’s Biblical text that we cannot skim over is the call to repentance.

Although Jesus very much cares about the lives of those on the boat with him and does not want to see them perish in that moment or eternally, there is a need for each of the men to repent of their sin and confess their sin and therefore confess their need for a Savior.  

The disciples, in the moments of uncertainty, lost trust in Jesus’ love and promises to take care of them today, tomorrow, and forever.

This lack of trust in Jesus and this doubting of his goodness is pure evil and sin.  

So, the disciples have to ask Jesus for forgiveness for their lack of peace in his presence and for their fear that they let overcome their faith.

2 Peter 3:8–10 tells us this:

[8] But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [9] The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. [10] But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (ESV)

And, Matthew 18:10–14 has Jesus telling us this:

[10] “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. [12] What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? [13] And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. [14] So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (ESV)

Jesus is always running after you.  

Jesus is always offering himself to you.  

Jesus is always calling your name.

Jesus is always willing to rescue you.

Do what Jesus asks, “Repent and believe.”  

Know that when you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you of all of your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness, giving you the reliable escape plan that you need to defeat death and live eternally in the Kingdom of Heaven with your Creator and Savior.

The Scriptures are clear as we have heard.  God, the Father in Heaven, and Jesus Christ, His Only Son, do not want anyone to perish—they do not want anyone to be eternally separated from them.

However, the Scriptures are also very clear that many will see that end—they will perish and be separated from God the Father and Jesus the Son into a place of eternal suffering.

This week, I looked up and read every single verse in the Bible that contains the word perish.  What I was looking for was the good news that God does not wish anyone to perish but instead He wishes for everyone to find forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus.

And, of course, I found that because it is abundantly clear.

But, I was shocked at how many more times the Bible uses the word perish as a warning. The idea is spoken over and over and over again that the wicked, the unrighteous, the unrepentant, the self-centered, the godless, the self-sufficient, the denier, the liar, etc., will die apart from God’s grace and find their eternal existence spent in the suffering and pain and torture of the hellfire.  

To give you an example of this from another recent sermon, Psalm 1:5–6 make this point unquestionable clear when King David, inspired by God, says:

[5] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

[6] for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish. (ESV)

John Lennox (an author and professor of mathematics at Oxford University) tells a story about touring Eastern Europe and meeting a Jewish woman from South Africa. 

The woman told Lennox that she was researching how her relatives had perished in the Holocaust. 

At one point on their guided tour, they passed a display that had the following words written on it: Arbeit macht frei” (or “work makes free”). It was a mock-up of the main gate to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. The display also had pictures of the horrific medical experiments carried out on children by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. At that point of their tour, the Jewish woman turned to Lennox and said, “And what does your religion make of this?”

Lennox writes:

What was I to say? She had lost her parents and many relatives in the Holocaust. I could scarcely bear to look at the Mengele photographs, because of the sheer horror of imagining my children suffering such a fate. I had nothing in my life that remotely paralleled the horror her family had endured.

But still she stood in the doorway waiting for an answer. I eventually said, “I would not insult your memory of your parents by offering you simplistic answers to your question. What is more, I have young children and I cannot even bear to think how I might react if anything were to happen to them, even if it were far short of the evil that Mengele did. I have no easy answers; but I do have what, for me at least, is a doorway into an answer.”

“What is it?” she said.

I said, “You know that I am a Christian. That means that I believe that Yeshua is the messiah. I also believe that he was God incarnate, come into our world as savior, which is what his name ‘Yeshua’ means. Now I know that this is even more difficult for you to accept. Nevertheless, just think about this question—if Yeshua was really God, as I believe he was, what was God doing on a cross?

“Could it be that God begins just here to meet our heartbreaks, by demonstrating that he did not remain distant from our human suffering, but became part of it himself? For me, this is the beginning of hope; and it is a living hope that cannot be smashed by the enemy of death. The story does not end in the darkness of the cross. Yeshua conquered death. He rose from the dead; and one day, as the final judge, he will assess everything in absolute fairness, righteousness, and mercy.”

There was silence. She was still standing, arms outstretched, forming a motionless cross in the doorway. After a moment, with tears in her eyes, very quietly but audibly, she said: “Why has no one ever told me that about my messiah before?”

Jesus, your Messiah, your Savior, defeated death for you.

In Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, you have the 100% reliable escape plan from the suffering that comes from remaining separated from God today, tomorrow, and forever.

Jesus perished on the cross so that you do not have to be punished for your sin and perish as you deserve to.

In this act of pure grace and love for you, have peace—you have been made right with God, be still—stop the never ending and never successful task of trying to earn God’s love, and walk in faith this week simply confessing your sin and believing in the forgiveness that is yours through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

It is with Jesus alone that you will not perish but be rescued for eternal life.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

June 23, 2024.