There are various instances in Sacred Scripture of the effect produced by the revelation of God to man, sometimes by mere power, sometimes by terror, sometimes, as in the drama of Job, by a long discourse of natural history. But here it was the mercifulness, the sympathy, the succour which were manifested, that touched the hearts of the disciples. He came to their rescue; and although the wonder of His power over great natural laws was not without its effect, yet that which seems to have touched them and filled them all the rest of their lives, was the sense that He was their protector, their Saviour.
I. Everyone comes first or last to God, through tribulation. There never was a people that lived and flourished on the earth, outside of a fable, who did not need a God of compassion. Taking the human race comprehensively, the whole world has been in a condition that no other than such a Deity could possibly fit, or endure, either the measurement or the morality which has been inspired by the Gospel. Consider what poverty has done and is doing all over the world. Go inside of men, and see what a torment is the sense of right and wrong, of unaccomplished rectitude, of unfulfilled vows, and of purpose ignobly wasted. Men, looking at them in their very best conditions, as in modern developed society, are continually in need of somebody to be willing to help them; and the mischief is, that according to our ideas of the laws of nature and the laws of grace, men feel, I dare not ask for help. What am I that I should? But if there could break out from heaven a voice, saying, "Not because you are rich, but because of your poverty; not by reason of your worth, but by reason of your misery, I will help you?" The very conception of the love of God under such circumstances how much light it brings to despairing souls.
II. The doctrine of the compassion of God, of the compassion of Christ, I think, has been the salvation of the Bible, of the Church and of faith; and every limitation of it is a peril. The Christ in art has mostly perished. There was a time when men spoke by art, carved, built, painted; and there are certain ages in which the idea of art conveys more really the living thought of the age than anything that is recorded in book of history. That has gone by long ago, and the glory of Christ, and the thoughts of men about Christ, are diffusing themselves throughout the whole Christian world. Christ in humanity, Christ in sympathy for others, that has become the Christ of our age. That amelioration has been going on in barbarous countries and among civilised nations. That different conception of the outcast and criminal classes; that hopefulness of reformation under certain possible conditions of mind; that general kindness and tenderness even to those whom society must banish frequently from itself; the recognition of the brotherhood of men that is Christ at the present time, working into actual affairs, and leavening the whole lump.
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 51.
I. We see here the organised Church in peril Christ and His disciples were all in this tempest.
II. Dangers beset the Church even whilst it is carrying out the express commands of Christ.
III. The spirit of Christ, not the body of Christ, must save the Church in all peril.
IV. Jesus Christ answers the personal appeal of the imperilled Church.
V. All the perils of the Church may be successfully encountered by profound faith in God.
Parker, City Temple,1871, p. 82.
References: Mark 4:35-41. H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man,p. 94; Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 95; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 248; Outline Sermons to Children,p. 136. Mark 4:36. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 258.