Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Will You Hear His Voice? | The Gospels | Mark 4:35–41

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Is Jesus's voice the most powerful and influential voice in your life? Or are you settling for a cheap substitute? And how should we respond to his voice? In today’s episode, Jeff shares how Mark 4:35–41 reveals Jesus as the sovereign Lord over chaos and calls us to hear his voice with faith that leads to obedience. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Want to learn even more about the Gospels? Tune into Not Just Sunday. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Mark 4:35-41

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. Human beings cannot help but respond when they hear a powerful voice. Pick any of the top reality shows that are based on competition through singing, the voice, America's Got Talent, the X Factor, and of course American Idol. They're all a little different in their formats, but they share a similar moment. It's that moment when a contestant begins to sing and within the first few notes, your breath is taken away. You're impressed, you're surprised, maybe even emotionally stirred.

In this moment, both the judges and we the audience ask out loud or in our heads, who is this? Who is this? We realize that this is a voice worth paying attention to, a voice worth knowing, maybe even a voice worth following. When we hear a voice full of power and beauty, we can't help but respond to it. It's true in the realm of music, but it's also true in all of life, especially in the life of faith. Whether we realize it or not, none of us lives and operates in a vacuum of influence. We're all impacted by some kind of voice, some kind of authority that guides the contour, of our decisions and our desires.

The question is, are we hearing the most powerful and beautiful voice, or a cheap substitute? And if we really are hearing that truly powerful and beautiful voice, are we responding to it the way we should? Our passage today in the Gospel according to Mark exposes our tendency to muffle the sound of that powerful and beautiful voice,

all the while drawing us closer to it so that we, like the audience of a televised music competition, slow down enough to ask, who is this? And how should I respond? As we approach God's word together, let's slow down and ask for his grace, for his kindness to move through our time. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of life and breath in this new day,

and thank you for the gift of your word. We bring before you all of who we are, all of our experiences, our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and our excitement. God, we bring before you our calendars and our contingencies. Would you meet us in this space and in this time? Jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth and Holy Spirit. We ask you to move in and through this time and mark. As we read your living word, may it read us and restore us to life with you.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, so this dramatic narrative passage comes after Jesus' parables about the kingdom of God in the first portion of Mark 4, where he teaches on the nature of how his kingdom will continue to advance and what it looks like to have faith in him along the way. Now, that context will be key for engaging with our passage today. We need to remember that the flow of thought here is connected to that bigger theme of the kingdom of God and faith in Jesus as the one who brings the kingdom of God. It's also worth pausing to remember how this is really a continuation of that anchor theme within Mark's gospel account,

that theme found in chapter 1 verse 15, where Jesus makes his first statement while preaching the gospel as his voice proclaims, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. This moment on the Sea of God, with Jesus and his disciples demonstrates the necessity of hearing the voice of Jesus and responding to the good news of his kingdom with everything we have. All right. Let's dive in. Let's read Mark 435 through 41 and see what we can learn here. On that day when evening had come, he, Jesus said to them, let us go across to the other side. In leaving the crown, they took him with them into the boat, just as he was, and other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were

breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he, Jesus, 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? 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. And he said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no fate? 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? All right, man, I love this passage, what it tells us about Jesus. There's so much we could cover here. Let's keep going. Notice how the disciples end up asking

the same question that audiences ask when hearing a great voice of power and beauty. They ask, who then is this? They're so overwhelmed that they're in awe. At first in this scene, they're afraid of the power of the storm, but then in verse 41 we read that they're filled with great fear upon hearing and seeing the power of Jesus. What made them ask that question?

Who then is this? Of course, at a certain level, there's the bare fact that Jesus miraculously demonstrated, sovereignty over a natural weather event. That's something that human beings cannot do. Jesus is proving his status as the Son of God who's fully human and fully divine. But there's a layer even deeper than that when we remember that in the ancient world, the sea was a common metaphor for chaos in the uncontrollability of the world. And only the creator God had the authority to rule over it.

Psalm 135 verses 5 through 7 is a great example of us. It reads this, for I know that the Lord Yahweh is great and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases he does in heaven and on earth and the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain, who brings forth the wind from his storehouses. The point is this. Controlling the storm. is something that only Yahweh, the living God can do. And yet, it's the very activity that Jesus himself is carrying out here in Mark 4. When Jesus says, peace, be still to the wind and the sea,

they cannot help but obey his voice. They can't help it because they've heard this voice before. It's the same voice that brought order when the world was without form and void back in Genesis 1. Who then is this? that even the wind and sea obey him. Well, this is none other than the author of life, who has authority over all of life. Now, we could stop here in our reflections

and simply be in awe of the power and beauty of Jesus. His is the voice that created all things and holds all things together. But we really need to go one step further, because the voice of Jesus invites us to do so. His question pointed to the disciples is a big one. Why are you so first? Have you still know faith? That's a big question on its own, but it's an even bigger question that has a bigger impact when we consider the context of our passage that we emphasized earlier.

Remember, this passage is arising in a chapter full of parables, focusing on the movement of God's kingdom and what it looks like to have faith in Jesus as the one who brings that kingdom. So if we dig even deeper into Mark 4 overall, we notice a thematic emphasis on here. hearing the voice of Jesus as the one who brings God's kingdom. Let's just look at a few examples. Back in verse 9, Jesus says to the crowds, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. It's this theme of hearing Jesus. Let's keep going. In verses 23 through 24, he says to his disciples, If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Pay attention to what you hear. In verse 33, Jesus uses parables to speak the word to his disciples.

as they were able to hear it. You can't help but notice this overwhelming emphasis on the need to really hear the voice of Jesus. So when Jesus asks, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? He's revealing that the disciples still haven't quite understood the voice of the one they're hearing. Not yet. The issue wasn't simply the strength of their faith. The issue was that they didn't realize the strength of the one they were supposed to put their faith in. The whole point is that they needed to know the power and the beauty of the voice they heard so that they could have the kind of hearing that leads to obedience. If even the winds and the sea obey Jesus, what does that say about who he is

and how we should respond to him? natural forces as powerful as the wind and the seas obey Jesus without hesitation. How will you and I respond to the power and the beauty of his voice? What barriers of comfort or control might be keeping you from hearing him and responding to him with obedience in every part of your life? How might that desire for comfort or control also really be a deep-seated fear? So you need to hear Jesus's question, why are you so afraid in a new way today?

Who is this who calls out to you? It's your creator who made you, who loves you, who saves you and sustains you. How should we respond to him? With a hearing that leads to obedience by trusting in him and treasuring him in every area of our lives, the voice of Jesus is calling out to you.

Will you hear him? Jesus, as we continue our time in the gospel according to Mark, as we continue into this new year, let your voice resonate in the depths of our hearts. Help us hear you and love you because you loved us first. We pray because of your grace, for your glory, in your bigger story. Amen.