Reading Mark chapter 4 verses 35 to 41

Are You Safe?

Hands up everyone who likes to know they are safe from danger. We like to feel safe, don't we? It is an unpleasant feeling when we do not feel safe. Some people refuse to fly in aeroplanes. They get worried about the safety of being 5 miles up in the sky in a hundred tons of metal, carrying 100s of gallons of petrol in the middle of 3000 miles of ocean. People try and encourage them. "Don't worry. " people say, "Aeroplanes do not crash very often." The nervous flyer replies, "No, Aeroplanes don't crash very often, only once!"

Safety is big business. People value safety. How many of you have smoke alarms fitted at home? We never had smoke alarms when I was a child. We were just told not play with fire. I did, of course, I was fascinated with things that burn - I nearly set my Dads shed on fire by being stupid with a load of chemicals I mixed up and set fire to! Tricky bit was - I set the fire between the door and me! Safety is about being sensible and avoiding danger. Safety is about taking advice from people who know about safety and acting on that advice.

I did not realise how complicated safety could get until I heard about the rules governing safety at sea. All the rules are set up and examined in detail by experts. Tests are carried out to examine what works best. Lots of money is spent to ensure that the best possible safety can be set up and maintained. It just goes to show how important safety has become. The Titanic set sail as "The Unsinkable Ship". She had all the modern features of her day. All who sailed were confident of her safety yet she sank in the ocean with great loss of life. Since then safety at sea has been a matter of very great international concern.

It is our own personal safety we are most concerned about. Did you ever do something you wished you hadn't? I recall I once had a late hospital appointment, left the hospital after dark and took a shortcut through a run down area of town to get to where I left my car. When I realised where I was I began to feel very uncomfortable. "What do you think you are doing?" I asked myself. I had gone to this area without really thinking about the possible risk. It had been in the paper about how rough this area was. People had been beaten up or stabbed. Someone even got shot there. I had not been careful. I had gone there on my own at night and there I was right in the middle of it. I got to my car and drove home having decided to avoid the area in future.

Sometimes danger gives no chance to reach safety. Some things that are not safe do not give you an opportunity to avoid them in future once you have come across them. I know of someone who took landmines apart for a living. A landmine is something you only ever get wrong once. One minute you're safe the next minute you're not. A landmine is a container of explosive planted in the ground that explodes not only when someone treads on it but also if someone tries to take it apart in the wrong way. The safest thing to do with landmines is to keep as far away from them as possible. If you have to take them apart you need to be well trained and very, very, very, very, very, careful. Your safety depends on following the way set down for taking each kind of landmine apart so it will not hurt anyone.

Hopefully none of us will ever get involved with landmines but our personal safety can be affected by all sorts of different things. We have to be aware. Crossing the road can be dangerous. Kitchen appliances can be dangerous. I am sure we could come up with a whole list of things to watch out for in every day life that could be dangerous and unsafe for us. We are very vulnerable to all sorts of things - even tiny bacteria and germs.

The Disciples' safety seemed sure. They set off across Galilee in their fishing boats, something they had done hundreds of times before. They were skilled fishermen. They knew all the safety measures for sailing about on the sea. No doubt the boats were well maintained as fishing was their business and they relied on them for their livelihood. They were experts.

It was the evening when they set off. This was not a problem as they were just as able to sail off on a fishing-trip by night as by day. We read of several night fishing trips in the New Testament. The disciples were confident that all would be well or they would have stayed ashore.

But the Sea of Galilee often has sudden severe storms that arrive without warning. Such a storm blew up around the little boats in which the disciples and The Lord Jesus were sailing across the sea. They began to be in great danger. Safety seemed a long way away. Boats are designed to have water outside and people and air inside. A little water inside is possible - but not a lot.

Mark 4:37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. How much water was in the boat? It was full! Any moment it might slip beneath the waves and be gone - perhaps sucking the people down into the dark water with it. Another wave or two and they'd be lost!
Where was their safety now? What could they do? Perhaps try and bail out the water? But the ship was full! Abandon Ship? Take themselves to swimming for safety? The storm was violent! They would be swept away to drown amid the waves. They were helpless there in the middle of the sea. There was nothing they could do to help themselves.

Have you ever felt like that? Helpless? There are situations we get into in our lives but what about eternal safety? Have you ever seen yourself as you are before God? Have you ever looked honestly at your life and how you live it as measured against Gods law? Has the thought ever crossed your mind that things are not going to work out as you would really like them to - in the end? We all want to be safe. We agreed before that being safe is something to be looked for in life.

People who live lives that offend God by breaking His law are most certainly not safe. They might feel safe at the moment but the infinite unending danger of Gods judgement is hanging over such people. We are all, by nature, such people. It is the way we are from the day we are born. Our hearts and minds are wicked. Wicked is a word that means "good" these days but when we read in Psalms 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. It means far from good. Wicked in the Bible means sinful, evil, malignant, unpleasant, and vicious in disposition and giving pain, unhappiness and misery. This is how God describes those who break His law and He is angry with such people.

How are you going to be safe when God is angry with you? God is all-powerful, nobody can withstand Him. We will one day all face Him and have to give an account of our lives and how we have obeyed or disobeyed His laws. Anyone who has broken Gods law will not be safe on that day or for ever afterwards. Just hoping things will be OK won't be enough.

The disciples were in that position on the sea. They had no safety and there was nothing they could do about it. Or was there? Who else was in the boat? The Lord Jesus. He was sleeping in the back of the boat. Helpless, they called out to Him - and people who see their danger before God can do the same. We read that The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: This is a promise from The Lord Jesus. Only God can make you safe from His own judgement. The Lord Jesus died on the cross bearing all Gods anger against all the wickedness of a great multitude of wicked people. Everyone who trusts The Lord Jesus is safe from Gods judgement because The Lord Jesus paid the penalty on their behalf. Realise your danger before God. Ask for strength to turn from all wicked things that bring you danger. Ask The Lord Jesus to make you safe and He will.