Mark 4:35 - 5:20
"A Caring Christ"

V.35 Whose responsible for the storms?

The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, “The atmosphere hangs still and heavy, but the cold currents, as they pass from the west, are sucked down in vortices of air by the narrow gorges that break upon the lake. Then arise those sudden storms for which the region is notorious.”

Storms can happen suddenly

V.38-39 Doesn’t God care?

God can calm His creation

Col 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

V.40 “Do you still have no faith?”

What develops faith?

Romans 11:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

What develops character? James 1:2

V. 5:1-7 The Gerasenes- a Gentile region southeast of the Sea of Galilee.

“I have a place reserved for you.”

Matt 25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Those poor little piggies

Walter Wessell’s, “Jesus wanted to give tangible evidence to the man and to the people that the demons had actually left him and their purpose had been to destroy him even as they destroyed the pigs.”

The reaction

*It’s easier to follow the same old pattern than move out into unchartered waters

V.18

Welcome to the family! Now leave.

V.19

Have you made the trip back?

V.20 “Decapolis” The Decapolis (Greek: deka, ten; polis, city) was a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Jordan, Syria, and Palestine. The Decapolis cities were centers of Greek and Roman culture in a region that was otherwise Semitic (Nabatean, Aramean, and Jewish). With the exception of Damascus, the "Region of the Decapolis" was located in modern-day Jordan, one of them located west of the Jordan River in Palestine (modern day Israel). Each city had a certain degree of autonomy and self-rule.

God’s care seen in Communion