I recently had the opportunity to open the breaking of bread at my assembly and shared the following truths which have made a serious indent in my thinking about Christ and have drawn me to love Him more.
In not so exact words and after reading Mark 4:35-41:
"We come together to worship the Lord Jesus at this meeting for what again? To remember His death and what his propitiatory sacrifice has done for us. So why am I reading a portion of Scripture that has seemingly little to do with the actual cross of Christ? Because dear friends, I simply could not hinge my eternity on Christ and His sacrifice at the cross of Calvary if Jesus Christ was just a man and not the Supreme Ruler of the universe. He was a man, no doubt there, and if He was not a man I certainly have no hope. But He was also God, and Mark is bent on making that absolutely clear to us here. Just look at the three realms over which Christ reigns in this and the following passages.So anyway. That was a couple Sundays ago. I love Jesus, because Jesus is God!
First, Christ is the ruler over the natural realm. Here they are, all in a boat going over to the 'country of the Gerasenes' and a vicious storm kicks up. After Jesus is woken up to come and help them and with the mere three words, "Peace! Be still!" everything comes to a head. The disciples look at him in total astonishment and say, "Who then IS this, that even the wind and sea obey Him?" It is wise to note the context here. In Psalm 107:23-29 which I will only briefly reference the Psalmist makes clear that only God can calm a storm. In reference to God the Psalmist says in verse 29, "He made the storm be still, and the waves and the sea were hushed." Further, in Psalm 89:9 the Psalmist says of God, "You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise you still them," and again of God says in 65:7, "By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation...who stills the roaring seas, the roaring of their waves..." What do you think Mark is getting at then when he shows Jesus calming the seas? Jesus is God. Period. Why do you think that the sailors were so freaked out? Jesus is God. But Mark doesn't end there. He wants to make absolutely certain that we get it. So he writes down the question of the apostles when, completely astounded, they say, "Who then IS this?" and that is the question Mark plans to answer. Not only is Jesus the Ruler of all things natural he is the ruler over all things spiritual.
Second, Christ is the ruler over the spiritual realm. So they get over the sea and here is this nutso demon possessed guy. It is a fairly familiar story but Mark makes it plain that Christ rules this realm. The demon possessed guy runs up to him and knows exactly who He is, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!" (5:8). Again, Jesus, with a simple act of permission, denoting that he rules the demons, allows Legion to go into the pigs. Jesus is God. Why? Because only God rules the spiritual realm with such power.
But Mark does not end there. Third, Christ is the ruler over the physcial realm. Now we come to this fellow Jairius who comes to Jesus begging, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well" (23). Mark gives us a double whammy with his sandwich technique as on the way to Jairus' house a woman who has a euphemistic "discharge of blood" says simply, "If I touch even his garment I will be made well" (28). Mark is pretty clear here too, "Immediately the flow of blood dried up" (29). After this astonishing revelation that Christ is exuding power we get to Jairus' house where th situation is bleak, "You daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" (35). Mark shows us, without any shadow of a doubt, that Jesus Christ is the supreme ruler of the physical realm when, with the two words, "Talitha cumi!" Jairus' daughter, "immediately...got up and began walking" (41-42). Jesus is God because only God could raise a dead girl with two words.
Jesus is God because only God could calm the storm with three simple words, signifying His supremacy over the natural realm, give permission to a demon to go into pigs instead of torture them, signifying His supremacy over the spiritual realm, and exude and control the power to heal any ill and raise a dead girl with two simple words, signifying His supremacy over the physical realm.
Once again, what has this to do with the cross? With salvation?
No one but God would have laid His own life down of His own will and taken it right back up again! None but God Himself could have saved us from God Himself! We have no hope, no hope at all, if Jesus is not God!
What does this mean? We can praise God, we have something to praise Him for, at the foot of the cross on Sunday morning because it was pure and sheer divinity, in fact, THE Divinity, that got up on that cross to absorb God's wrath on our behalf. Praise God that He is God and thus we can rest and glory and joy in His sin-bearing sacrifice on the cross!
Amen and Amen!"
Loving Christ with you friends,
R. D. Thompson
