Do You Know WHY Jesus Walked on Water? The Mark Series part 22

so here we are in mark 6 verse 45 this is the mark series part 22 dealing with theology and apologetics we're gonna do both of those topics heavy today in the theology that's what I'm most excited about but there's also some apologetics related content we're gonna start with and Mark some supposed geographical problems in the Gospel of Mark and allow for some resolutions to those this is the passage about Jesus walking on the water and the main thing I want you to pick up on is that this like so many of the other passages in the Gospel of Mark that Jesus does something he heals somebody he forgives somebody he cast out a demon the purpose of these passages is to tell us who Jesus is and that is very strong in the Gospel of Mark that the identity of Christ is being communicated by the activity of Christ and so I'll show you why I mix you'll see why I'm excited about this because we keep seeing it over and over again you grab any one of these stories by itself and you are pushed to see Christ for who he is right he is God with us and that's a big deal especially because modern not even just modern but so also some of the older scholars would like to say only some of the scholars obviously the non-christian ones generally want to say this that in the Gospel of Mark you have a low Christ's ology that Mark has a low view of who Jesus is and that by the time you get to John you have a high christ ology and this is just not true there's a different way of communicating in mark than in john and when we look at mark and how he's communicating who Christ is we see his high christ ology so here we are mark 6 i'm going to read the whole passage we're gonna get it all into our minds this is our Bible study mm-hmm so starting in verse 45 all the way through verse 56 so we're gonna finally finish mark chapter 6 today move on to mark mark chapter 7 this has been the marathon chapter for us so mark 6:45 immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side to Bethsaida while he himself was sending the crowd away after bidding them farewell he left for the mountain to pray when it was evening the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on the land seeing them straining at the oars for the wind was against them at about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea and he intended to pass by them but when they saw him walking on the sea they supposed that it was a ghost and cried out for they all saw him and were terrified but immediately he spoke with them and said to them take courage it is I do not be afraid then he got into the boat with them and the wind stopped and they were utterly astonished for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves but their heart was hardened when they had crossed over they came to the land to land at gannett and more to shore when they got out of the boat immediately the people recognized him and ran about that whole country and began to carry here and there on their pallets those who were sick to the place they heard he was wherever he entered villages or cities or countryside they were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring him that they might just touch the fringe of his cloak and as many as touched it were being cured so we have here this scene it's following the the feeding of the 5,000 and after the feeding the 5000 Jesus like separates the disciples from the crowd then he separates himself from the crowd they're on their way across the sea the winds against them Jesus comes to them walking on the water then they do a whole nother series of healings in the land of Ganesh surrett where they end up landing we're gonna dig into the theology of this and how I don't know if you noticed it maybe you didn't did you notice the deity of Christ in there anywhere um well you're gonna see it because it's gonna be in the connection of what Jesus does along with the Old Testament which is of course the interpretative grid for who Jesus is throughout the Gospel of Mark well throughout the entire New Testament mark 645 let's look at a note verse by verse immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side to Bethsaida while he himself was sending the crowd away now I'm gonna front load all the apologetics stuff okay we're gonna do it right now and then we'll get into the theology after that in mark 6:45 it says that they left from the feeding of the 5,000 to go to Bethsaida and it's not just to bositis to the other side of the Sea of Galilee right to Bethsaida now there's a few problems with this three problems that people will bring up challenges they'll bring to the Gospel of Mark one of them is that this seems to have the disciples going from Bethsaida to Bethsaida they're like going from this this place to at this place which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense right unless best site is really big there's something going on here that's it could be a little confusing in Luke and in mark we have that some people will say there's a conflict here because Luke has the healing now I'm sorry that the miracle of the 5,000 the the feeding of the 5,000 happening at Bethsaida mark has them leaving from the miracle to Bethsaida so they say this is a conflict now when you look at these passages more carefully you'll see that all of the Gospels agree on the healing of the 5,000 it was not in a city at all it was in a desolate place and the desolate place was near Bethsaida so we have is a place near best side up but not in Bethsaida and that's where they're located that's like the first part of the puzzle and I just want to say here mark isn't dumb mark shows them being near Bethsaida as you read through the whole Gospel of Mark you'll see they're near best side at the feeding of 5,000 and Mark's not like a dummy like he doesn't know where they are and when somebody says they're going to Bethsaida and some want to have a snarky rebuttal of the but it's contradicting itself right there sometimes you need to give an author the benefit of the doubt and you need to say because this would be such an obvious problem they probably didn't mean it that way and just kind of give them some slight benefit of the doubt it almost reminds me of the of the cruel thing that teachers do to students every once in a while usually once a year in a certain certain period of their schooling where they tell all their kids write down instructions on how to build a peanut butter and jelly sandwich right and the kid writes instructions down they give it any give us detailed and exact as possible and then the teacher will proceed to brutally read it in the worst fashion of you know the worst possible way so if it says get the bread and put the peanut butter on the bread they will just grab a loaf of bread they won't open it they'll just grab a bottle of whole jar of peanut butter and drop it on the loaf of bread because they're gonna read it in the most wooden way which was obviously not intended by the author that's what scholars sometimes do to the Bible reading the most wooden way possible and it creates the problems and the whole time the students like well obviously I didn't mean that and I sometimes I think you know sometimes the authors of the Bible if they could they would walk into these scholars debating things and be like well obviously that's not what I meant you know so yes so they're not going from that from beside a to Bethsaida in that sense they're near beside are not in the city of Bethsaida but there's more to it than this there's a couple other problems we'll bring up but one solution is gonna really help solve all of these problems and that is an understanding that when Mark says they were gonna cross over to Bethsaida and Mark has them in a field in a grassy remember that he was in a grassy place they were in a grassy field near Bethsaida mark seems to actually be saying and this is what I think is happening here is my best guess at it he's actually saying they're gonna cross past Bethsaida they're gonna cross the Sea of Galilee in the direction of Bisaya so you have the Sea of Galilee it looks kind of like this like kind of like a light bulb sort of shape the Sea of Galilee and all most of the activity Jesus is happening in this region of the Sea of Galilee right here in the on the northern and the north northeast and northwest besides well on the north east side you have Bethsaida up here and you have a field the grassy field of a side are probably right around here right and then they're gonna cross the Sea of Galilee in front of or near beside ax as opposed to crossing down this way down the sea they're gonna cross that way that's seem to be what Mark is saying according to be dag which is the name of a Greek lexicon this is like a standard Greek lexicon typically used that word to Bethsaida is the Greek word Pross and be dag says about it it could mean to or towards right or towards these are a couple different various various meeting meanings or near it especially means to or towards if it's after a verb so I want you to go Pross beside it - or towards Jesus could be commanding them to go towards Bethsaida across the sea now if they're already near Bethsaida it would then be indicating what direction they're gonna cross to see from in John 6 verse 17 we have another issue which is that in John 6:17 John says that their crossing in the same event they're crossing towards their to Capernaum not to beside of it to Capernaum well if you take mark to mean towards beside or near best sided they could easily pass Bethsaida see from your angle would actually go in this way and they land in the area of Capernaum so then the two would harmonize perfectly fine and it's a normal use of the word Pross to do that it's an acceptable term but why else would you think that mark means - or toward or means toward not - don't go directly to beside of a go in that direction of Bethsaida well in Mark 11 for and in mark for 1 and a mark 3 7 he uses Pross in other ways than - he is it to me nearer before or toward in all three of those verses also when you look at the passage of Mark that I just read to you there's a hint maybe in the passage that he's not asking them to go directly to Bethsaida so mark 6:45 he tells them go ahead of him - go ahead of him to the other side to Bethsaida then in mark 653 at the end of the journey it says when they'd crossed over so there's some successful crossing over they did there they came to land at Ganesh surrett and Gannett surrett is not in your best side him so they're landing at Ganesh surrett now some people think the wind and the storm that the windstorm that was going on there doesn't seem to be rain but it's some kind of windstorm that that re you know redirected them that they end up landing where they didn't want to land and that's what's happening gospel mark but mark doesn't say that does it it doesn't say the wind changed their destination it says it slowed them on their travel so there's nothing in mark to tell us that they failed to get where they were going so they cross over to Gannett sûreté or from your at your direction in the map right across over to Gannett sûreté a cross beside a passing beside a that seems to make sense and beside ax and Capernaum RCB Capernaum Inga Nestor Rhett are actually overlapping areas and so John and Mark they end up harmonizing well so um there's a link in the description of this video not for you guys who are here live you can't click anything right now but in the description of this video there's a link to an actual video where I did I dealt with supposed Bible contradictions and I'll put you two right to the timestamp we're actually putting Maps up and I deal with this very issue in these passages in a lot more detail I just wanted to cover it because we're in the Gospel of Mark right now now some people offer some other supposed like ways these are alternate explanations for how we can harmonize these different passages in mark and John and some say that Beth's item may have been a stop on the way to the Capernaum so they may have had multiple stops they went to beside it then they went to Capernaum area and so which which is near janessa Rhett they overlap each other somewhat because they're not as specific and detailed as we are you look at a map today and you're like no no orange if you cross the street you're an Orange County not LA County anymore and we may pick over those details but they didn't worry about those kinds of little differences so much now this would be a couple of guys who say this da Carson and Craig Blomberg tried to make a case for this suggests that they were yeah I was just a journey with multiple stops John focuses on Capernaum mark talks about both side that's a possibility I don't know if that's the case or not others suggest that there were actually two baths it--is and biblical scholar John Gill made a case for this best sided the term basalt it just means house of fish and so it may just been a fishing village and so he's like oh there may have been multiples that were there and I don't know if that's the case I'm content just saying Pross means toward and the whole problem goes away with just that that one suggestion right there so there you go that's the that's the apologetics side or there's one more issue which is them crossing over I'll get into but I'll mention I have three articles in the video description as well by Steve Hays Lydia McGrew and Jonathan McClatchy all three who tackled this issue and give you way more details than I think if I tried to even give him to you at all it wouldn't fit the study tonight so it's just TMI so I'll give you the summary a third issue is this is that often times in mark he talks about them crossing over crossing over there's multiple journeys in the Gospel of Mark where they crossed over the Sea of Galilee and when we see the Sea of Galilee we kind of picture in our heads like that light bulb shape and we want to cut it down the middle so that East and West and crossing over means going from the the West to the east or the other way around but that probably wasn't what was happening in the mind of the fisherman in the first century they didn't have a map for instance the guy would live on the Sea of Galilee his whole life and never see a map of the place can you imagine never seeing a map I'm old enough to remember the first time I saw a map of my local area and I was like oh that's where everything is and I realized that my mental map was different than the actual physical map right because your mental map you're like okay well my house is over here and there's like a store I usually go to there's my school I tend there's my buddies house and my other buddies house and you kind of highlight certain areas and the streets you tend to travel on and you think of your city as being the area's you visit the most and then the parts of your city you never go to are almost like I don't know the other side of the city because it's the other side from your perspective well the fisherman would have been in the northern and especially northwestern area of the Sea of Galilee when they crossed over they were probably crossing over to the place they generally wouldn't go to and that's all it's saying it's not saying they were from east to west it's saying they went from home turf to not home turf their side of the tracks to the wrong side of the tracks it's kind of the kind of the idea Richard Baca makes a case for this in a video which I will also link in the video description here about the fisherman's world he did a bunch of work on the Galilean fishermen and this kind of stuff and he is really interesting and he got a British accent so it's fun to listen to he originally thought there were errors in the Gospel of Mark on geography but his when he turned his scholarly research to the topic he changed his mind and he thought that the evidence poured out that mark had great geography and it actually showed that it had an actual Capernaum fisherman behind it as the eyewitness source for all this information all that to say they used the term cross over to refer to going from their normal region to the region they aren't normally hanging out that's pretty much it you could kind of think of them as crossing over the Jordan River almost that's the tipping point when they cross over to the Jordan River and that even ties in the Old Testament when they cross over it's always the Jordan River they're crossing over a lot of times in the Old Testament what is this this idea of crossing over this idea of pross meaning toward this has what's called explanatory power it means that it solves several different riddles all at once and it's in a sensible fashion and there you go okay the next thing that happens in mark 6:45 is says that Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and what happens here is interesting because it's like a forceful thing he like made them get into the boat and I just was like wondering why why do you have to why didn't he just tell them to get in the boat why did them make him get in the boat well according to John the after the feeding of the 5,000 the crowd wanted to like rally around Jesus and start a rebellion against Rome they wanted to make him King I wonder if the disciples got caught up in some of this to remember Simon the zealot is one of the guys there and they don't yet understand the mission of Jesus that well they're trying to they try to mimic Jesus but do they really get his mission you know and so it may be that the disciples like the crowd wanted to push Jesus in the wrong direction not the direction of his ministry that he was actually performing and I think we can learn a lesson here because sometimes we get zealous for the wrong things and we get all excited about maybe our political agendas what we think is the most important thing of the day and we forget the call to be a disciple and to make disciples that we're in this world not of it and that's like the main thing that we need to focus on in our lives now that those other things don't matter but that this is the primary thing just it's it's on tear number one tear number one in verse 46 mmm-hmm it says after bidding them farewell he left for the mountain to pray bidding them farewell is probably the crowd probably the crowds this would have been kind of difficult because again they wanted to make him King and that would have potentially caused a problem but he sends the disciples away I feel like he's just confusing people about where he's even going at this point this might be a hint at why he told them toward Bethsaida because he's not giving them an exact destination for them all to hear because remember the crowd followed him last time they followed him across the lake last time so maybe now he's trying to find a way to get away from the crowd and this seems kind of strange who does this in ministry you have this massive following and you purposely ditch him like who does this just think about this look in church growth seminars when do they ever talk about purposely shrinking your fellowship is it I don't think it happens but Jesus seems like he does it again and again and I think we need to learn from this and I don't want to blow it out of proportion but there's something to learn in John 6 Jesus does this big time it's probably the best example of it where he teaches them you know you know you eat my blood and eat my body drink my blood and now he says later much later he goes on my words or spirit I'm speaking spiritually ended it up but at the same time they're like this is a difficult teaching Jesus and he's just like effectively let me paraphrase Superbad paraphrase for me I'll admit it but suck it up is kind of what he says to them effectively here's my really rough teaching and in John 6 verse 66 after all this it says as a result of this many of his disciples withdrew and we're not walking with him anymore and when you read John 6 it looks like it's on purpose I think Jesus intentionally shrunk the ministry because he just didn't want he didn't just want people following him he needed to confront them with the gospel even if that meant shrinking his following I think that's a good example for us in Luke 14 25 it says now large crowds were going along with him so that's the preface right large crowds he's got a bunch of people with him and he turned and said to them if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes and even his own life he cannot be my disciple who does not carry he whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple I think the lesson is this Jesus was not into numbers he was on mission he was on mission but I'm telling you every pastors event that I've been to somebody comes up to me and they say where's your church oh did I do a Bellflower California Oh how many people every single one right like knows it is the same every time and I've always like avoided answering the question because I don't care how many people I don't I don't validate the the ministry by how many people are attending is great because it means you can reach that many people you can hopefully bless them but here's Jesus purposely shrinking we change our our focus from ministry to numbers sometimes and here's an important question to avoid this modern mistake and follow Jesus is the crowd shaping me into their image or am i shaping them into the image of Christ that's a great message a good question I should say to ask about any ministry I have all these people coming but wait am i shaping them into the image of Christ or are they shaping me into their image where it's now become sort of the tail wags the dog you know that the ministries is effectively a people magnet that's what we are everything we do is just to draw people now I don't want to go overboard with this and I don't want to like criticize a youth ministry for ordering pizza for their kids I don't know what it is with people criticizing these ministries for eating pizza it just seems like the dumbest criticism I've ever heard I don't and neither do I want to say that a ministry is bad because they have a great worship band like what what what's wrong with that like that's even biblical like right like dave is riding this great music do you think like the Holy Spirit was like David I need you to write really cruddy music if you're really gonna honor me it's got to be bad you know like I don't think that was the case but there's another separate issue that's more like right to the core of it which is just that are we really driving to make disciples who follow Christ or do we get people here and leave them short of discipleship some how do we compromise that because we don't want to offend the crowd when the issue of homosexuality and our culture comes up and people come and they're like to Jesus in John 6 like Jesus you talk keep talking about this people are gonna leave you know are we able to say that's why I have keep talking about it that's why I have to talk and speak the truth on this issue is because it's a stumbling block to them following Jesus in our culture so yeah because numbers sometimes actually conflicts with our mission it actually conflicts with our mission and for this we need to sort of reformat the way we look at churches some people they want to say a church is successful if it has a lot of numbers of course others want to say that Church is evil if it has a lot of numbers I don't think either of those is true numbers are secondary that's the whole point the whole point is the numbers are second it's a secondary issue primary issues discipleship honoring Christ doing that but there is currently a modern decrease in church attendance we read articles about it in in the u.s. especially in the US a decrease in church attendance it's like later generations the younger generations are simply not going to church they're not interested in church and most of these articles blame the church right it's all the church's fault here's what the church is doing wrong here's what they're doing wrong and I want to say there's probably some truth in those things there's some elements of reality amongst those things that the church is failing here or there but at the same time I can't help but notice our culture is getting wicked and dark and rebellious against God and I'm like duh they're not going to church they're rebelling against God of course they don't want to go to church I think the lack of church attendance is more a reflection of culture than it is the church I'm not trying to get people off the hook here but I do think that that's the case I don't think there's all these people that just love Jesus and they just hate Church I'm like I don't think it works that way I think you love Jesus you tend to love Church now granted if you're at a church and you think to yourself boy that was I wouldn't they don't teach the word we're not really focused on Christ all these types of things are going on I fully emits a real problem and may God use you to help change the environment somehow and you know we don't want to abandon though the fellowship and gathering together that sort of thing but there's just something to be said for the fact that sometimes the diminishment of numbers is a commentary on the numbers not on the run on the church and just try to be balanced about it okay so he left for the mountain to pray he left for the mountain to pray it says in verse 46 so Jesus after he did he ditches the crowd ditches the disciples were gets them to leave he goes to the mountain to pray and apparently he's praying for hours because it's a long time before he actually meets the disciples they're rowing for hours trying to get across the sea fighting the wind and I just want to mention on on this there's a necessity of a private prayer life and I think that perhaps our private prayer life has never been under greater threat than it is right now today and it's primarily because of this thing right here I mean every waking moment of my life can easily be consumed with something even positive things look I've already I got notifications look I think the Justin cancel texted me I could talk to him right you know I've got it I've got always a reason there's always something there's podcasts I'm gonna listen to there's videos I want to watch even educational stuff or entertainment or I want to check notifications but we and these things aren't necessarily evil it's just that we don't want them to rob us of our prayer life you know have a private prayer life and I don't know how many hours it's gonna be and I don't want to beat you up over it I just want to say have a private prayer life like prioritize that in your own heart in your own life there's a necessity of a private prayer life there's also a corporate prayer life that's also necessary and important when Jesus actually taught us to pray he taught us that our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name that that prayer is all plural it's got eight plural pronouns throughout that prayer it's meant to be something we pray together we can you pray individually but you also can pray it as a group so fail to pray in groups but also don't feel to be alone in Matthew 6 Jesus talks about this Matthew 6:5 when you pray you were not like you were not to be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men notice the problems not that they're praying in public in groups it's that they're putting prayer on display for the of godly appearance of Prayer that's different he says truly I say to you they have their reward in full but you when you pray go into your inner room close your door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you so the question is are you neglecting this command of Jesus if so please stop beating yourself up and just start praying more you know just set aside some time tonight - it should be alone you know it's des why not just if you're watching the video pause it for ten minutes and just pray and just create some space for private prayer it's super important in our lives it's really neat 'full we need it for ourselves and also because prayer actually does change things so do that do that make time if Jesus could you could I mean did he not have pressing priorities didn't he have important things to do I mean certainly everything he did was more important than anything I've ever done but yet he made time to pray for hours he could have been teaching that kraube instead he sends him off any good it was time to pray sometimes it's just time to pray sometimes it's time to sleep - that's a different level State mm-hmm yeah so do both private prayer and public prayer I'm going to suggest that if you do one of these without the other it will create a problem with you spiritually there will not be healthy for you so I'm saying private prayer and public prayer these are both positive healthy things verse 47 says when it was evening the boat was in the midst in the middle of the sea and he was alone on the land seeing them straining at the oars for the wind was against them at about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea and he intended to pass by them the fourth watch of the night would be about three to six a.m. this was like the Roman calendar the day out so it was between 3 & 6 a.m. it it might have been just cracking dawn a little bit or or it may not have been somewhere in that in that in that space and here we get to the the concept of Jesus walking on the water and this gets interesting there was a trend years ago with scholars where they wanted to DeMuth ala gize of Scripture that's the phrase they would use we're gonna DeMuth ala gize scripture which effectively results in this assuming every miracle story is fake and not a miracle and that everything that did happen happened through natural causes let me read to you from James Edwards his commentary in the Gospel of Mark he says it about this passage mark 6 he says mark 6:45 through 52 was the object of intense interest in post-enlightenment lives of Jesus starting from the premise that the laws of nature are inviolable and that all things in the universe must be capable of rationalistic explanation the most improbable and far-fetched theories were advanced to explain Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee Albert Schweitzer's the quest of the historical Jesus in 1906 documents the opinions of scores of scholars who judge this story an optical illusion created by Jesus walking along the shore or a deception caused by his walking on a sandbar for solely rationalist interpreters the story was a code to be cracked a conundrum to be resolved now I'll spare you this and then I'll say in the Greek like there's no way around it like he's walking on the water like it's clearly proclaiming he was walking on the water that's the statement but they know there's a historical something that caused all this to be written so they would come up with all these explanations I heard one time on I believe was the History Channel they were interviewing some very self-assured scholar who is talking about his theory about what really happened when Jesus was walking on the water and his theory was that it was a mirage that you know there there in Palestine it's it's desert land and it was a mirage let's just think about this for a second shall we this guy's gotten he's interviewed on a major Network and he's presented as a scholar who's building an alternate case first off I'll say this the sea of galilee and i've been there twice it doesn't have mirages because it's not a desert it's not desert ii at all if to see a galleys a very nice area we stayed and the kibbutz on the seagull it was beautiful was wonderful when swimming in the water is no no desert there but let me just say this even if it was the desert if it was the middle of the desert how do you have a mirage at four o'clock in the morning it's nighttime there's no heat which creates a mirage and there's no sunlight which creates the mirage like it's not gonna happen third what kind of an idiot do you have to be to think that Jesus is walking on the water when it's a mirage and they didn't discover this later I'm sorry but these guys are experienced fishermen they've been fishing their whole lives they've been fishing in that spot their whole lives here's Jesus coming to them in fact they're in the middle of the water trying to make their way across the water it doesn't make any sense at all it's totally far-fetched but do you know why it's believable to some people because it's not a miracle because anything miraculous is automatically unbelievable and any alternate explanation no matter how crazy it is is accepted because it's a bias against the supernatural because they say the laws of nature are inviolable they you know God can't sort of superseded the laws of nature well I don't think that God breaks the laws of nature I just think he can mess with stuff anytime he wants you know when I I you know create a fish tank and I fill it with fish and I put all the stuff there and I balance the pH and all these fun things and then I go and I add food I mean if the fish were scientists they might look at this and think to think foods appearing out of nowhere you know they just don't understand like I'm entering you know there's this other being entering their sort of realm and messing with stuff for their benefit in this case and that's just how it is it's not it's not a it's not a violation so to speak it's just God has the power to do those things so I would say this the laws of nature are actually rather than violating miracles or saying miracles can't happen the laws of nature create what's called the necessary preconditions for miracles you see if nature didn't have a standard way of acting then you wouldn't notice when God did something like if you were walking on the street and suddenly spongebob squarepants popped into existence laughed at you and then blew up and that sort of thing happened all the time you would never know if God did something because you would just think reality is weird man there's a weird stuff happens how would you know God did anything you need a normal order of events of things of sort of fit physics to notice when God's acting some people like to come against these walking on the water thing and they say well the Bible teaches that people can walk on water but actually the Bible is doing the opposite it's saying that because people can't walk on water what Jesus is doing is pretty significant that's the whole point is this doesn't normally happen the Bible counts on a natural natural physics a natural way laws of the universe kind of thing and really a lot of scientists have based their their search through physics and through discovering natural laws on a Christian worldview because that that worldview does sustain that as opposed to say worldviews where they think the moon is actually some sort of weird God right then you don't have like this sort of natural law you you think that the Sun is a God that has to fight through the underworld to get back up each day in the morning and so you don't have natural laws you've got weird like a supernatural view of what's actually natural the Bible doesn't do that some people ironically will say that God has to prove himself with a miracle and then they will follow up any evidence for a miracle with the phrase that miracles should never be believed no matter how much evidence you have have you encountered this before and I would want these people just if their listening is to think about this God has to prove himself with a miracle yet miracles should never be believed you can't rationally hold both of those it's not rational you know and and there is now I don't have a whole lot of extra biblical evidence for Jesus walking on the water nor do I think I need to well the guy have to prove everything in the Bible extra biblically I think we can prove the Bible is God's Word and then we should trust it but what's interesting is this there is one miracle of Jesus that has more extra biblical evidence than anything else he ever did and it's the most amazing miracle of Jesus it's the resurrection of Christ and so here we have God having preserved all this evidence for the central miracle of Christ where if the resurrection happened well then that makes the walking on water quite believable do you see it the connection there so you could bring someone in a through path of evidence if they're open to the evidence to the place of even believing Jesus walked on water it validates the rest okay something else to notice about Jesus walking on the water Jesus sent them into this trial and he like he did in mark chapter four they go out into the water and there they go into a storm normally the you're not gonna travel in the evenings on the sea golly they just don't bother because it's kind of dangerous but here Jesus sends them purposefully into trials and this is I wonder what they were thinking as fishermen because they're probably thinking you know Jesus we really shouldn't be traveling to see Gally right now there's a storm comin who the winds picking up but they're just gonna be obedient and go and I think there's a lesson for us in this and that's that God might send you into a trial on purpose sorry I don't like it either any more than you but I'm comforted if I just know that it's God's plan there's something comforting about this let me encouraging in my life if I can look at some horrible trial um and I go Lord at least this is part of your plan that means there's an agenda for it means there's a purpose for it now comfort and I'm encouraged by that but what were they learning what were they learning in this trial here's a trial what was the fruit that came out of it night I think that sometimes in the cases for us too that all you're learning in a trial is to trust God in trials I mean sometimes that's the whole lesson of a trial you're just learning to trust him in the middle of a trial now they haven't learned it yet they're still fearful they're still not expecting God to do anything they're still having all these issues but eventually they would learn it this same guy that was in the boat who was terrified in first Peter chapter 4 verse 12 Peter says this beloved do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing or happening to you he's like you know when you go through like how is this happening to me how I why am I going through such a trial and Peter's like hey man I've been there don't think this is weird this is something that's come upon you to purify you to change you to transform you but it seems so weird why this why this you're learning to trust we get greater maturity and we learn to see our trials our current trials not our see it's one thing to see your past trials as something God used you guys are you guys with me on that like you I look at my past trials ten years ago like man I totally see how God use that boy I was totally like let's go and I'm like the disciples in the boat we're gonna die but now I look back and I see how God used it for my growth of maturity real Christian maturity is seeing today's trials as something that God is using that's great growth in Christ and it's very healthy for you first Peter chapter 1 verses 6 & 7 says this in this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you've been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith being much being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ James supports it more with this names 1 vs. 2 & 4 2 through 4 consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials there couldn't be a more generic way to say it various trials what is it toothache demonic attack and everything in between like it's just various trials consider it joy he doesn't say enjoy it ok he says considerate joy this is a very carefully worded way of putting it consider it joy why knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have it's perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete and lacking in nothing what am i learning in my trial it may not be an educational lesson like you're learning information it's character lessons I'm learning endurance learning to trust God and wait on God wait on God wait on God wait on God and I'm learning how to do that it turns out that God seems more committed to my character than he is to my comfort and eternally I will thank him for it and in the moment I will trust him in it you know but it's not just your character because if you're learning to trust in God then what you're doing is you're experiencing something relational between you and God when you learn to trust God more you're building that love relationship between you and God and this is the highest thing in your entire existence is your relationship with God you'll walk with God God cares about your relationship with him and trials caused you to lean and grow with him just like when you go through hard stuff as a couple or as a family it brings you together there's something that it does this in our walk with God as well okay well in this passage Jesus is walking on the water and he's gonna walk past them it's act it says he intended to pass them by that's the phrasing that's used in in the NASB here now perhaps this was not to miss them not like he was intending to just miss them entirely but that's how it comes off as you read it I think to some of us but it may be that he was intending to pass near them but he was intending to because he could have just walked to wherever they were gonna end up but he was trying to pass near them he intended to get close to them it was earlier in the same passage it says seeing them straining at the oars he came to them so mark indicating that he meant to get close to them that the goal was to be near them so I just don't need to think like he's like I'm gonna ignore you guys I'm out of here and they're like well who is that no no this isn't it just makes it weird instead of what it probably was so in any rate Jesus wanted them to see him the emphasis here is gonna be Jesus this guy can walk on water right but there's more in a moment on why he passed by them and it connects to the Old Testament and I'll come back to that in a second so keep it in mind verse 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they suppose that it was a ghost and cried out for they all saw him and were terrified but immediately he spoke with them and said to them take courage it is I do not be afraid so you thought he was a ghost this happens kind of again at the resurrection when Christ rises from the dead they think he's a ghost I think this is our tendency to take supernatural things and turn them into spooky ookey things you know and sometimes come up with weird explanations for what God is doing so like you know okay wow I read Jesus I'm a Buddhist but I read Jesus and it was just really interesting and I think I think maybe Jesus is a reincarnation of the Buddha and you're just like but there's no reason to think that like this isn't what you would get out if you're just paying attention to what for reading you know what the history of it says sometimes we just come up with weird stuff you know and that's kind of what they're doing here but it shows them that it shows that what they're seeing is something they can't it's like beyond their thinking and they just go maybe it's a ghost maybe it's a ghost by the way ghost here doesn't mean some resurrect physical thing it's like maybe it's a phantasm we don't know what we're looking at Jesus's words to them though are take courage it is I do not be afraid this is just encouraging in my heart here you are going through difficult times and I do think I think this applies I don't think I'm twisting the scripture to apply this to this you go through hard times and you think for a minute wait a minute I can take courage because God is with me it is I don't be afraid it's me I'm with you don't be afraid just the know and and this is not the feeling that got us with you they weren't feeling anything at the time this is the knowledge that God is with you and that's that transcends my feelings and I think I appreciate that a lot more to be honest Hebrews 13:5 says make sure that your character is free from the love of money be content with what you have for he himself has said and here's the promise I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you thank God's with me just take peace and comfort in that even in the midst of whatever's going on verse 51 then he got into the boat with them and the winds stopped and they were utterly astonished for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves but their heart was hardened check this out in the Gospel of Mark what I've been hammering on the things Jesus does are meant to tell you who Jesus is that's not my invention that's that's in mark right there's a message in the lobes that they didn't get in verse 52 it says they didn't get it the instant with loes they didn't understand their hearts were hardened and it wasn't a message like like a nice application cute tied up in a bow three-point sermon message it was meant to communicate reveal something about who Jesus is so that when they saw him walk on water they shouldn't have been shocked they should have been like of course he can do that because we know who he is because they didn't get them the message of the Loews they freaked out when they see him walking on the water they're like what's going on so it's about who Jesus is the the lobes themselves are about who Jesus is that's a theme in mark and we went over that last week how that communicates of Christ though who is Jesus thing though is so consistent the stories that you that you hear in mark are all about who Jesus is this is what I want to get nailed across in in this series in the Gospel of Mark in everybody's minds if possible when when you're in mark chapter 1 Jesus is the one who comes to his temple in fulfillment of the promise that who would come to the temple Yahweh mark chapter 1 already chapter one we're getting Jesus says Yahweh coming to his temple in mark chapter 2 Jesus forgives sins and in a sort of interesting kind of commentary on this mark 2:7 they say who can forgive sins but God alone yeah it's like pennies in the air and Mark's just waiting for the penny to drop on you finally when you see who Jesus is in mark 2:27 we get that Jesus is the lord of the Sabbath and I mean come on to a Jewish mind to say I'm the boss of the Sabbath who does this make you what do you think this is in the gospel mark throughout the gospel Jesus defeats and rebukes Satan and just just totally kicks his butt all over the Gospel of Mark effectively right even Michael the Archangel won't rebuke Satan he appeals to the one who has the authority to rebuke Satan which is who Yahweh and here's Jesus doing this Jesus even goes a step further and he has the ability to give other people authority to have power over demons and illness and he does that in Chapter six earlier on he's also the one who commands the wind and sea and the waves and they obey Him that's in mark 441 he commands them just as throughout the Old Testament only God can do that only God has the power to do that and here's Jesus doing that and they even her asking like who is this that even the wind and waves obey Him that's the penny in the air mark keeps putting it in the air for you then he's the one who gives them bread like God did in the Old Testament but John makes it that's in Chapter six but John makes it even more clear because he's not only the one giving the bread but he's also the bread and he and John he focuses on the idea that Jesus is the bread from heaven so he's not from the earth he came to earth from heaven which is because he's eternal I'm we're only in chapter 6 of Mark we haven't gotten that far but we have these constant affirmations of this is a really high christ ology to put it that way but the way you hear some scholars talk about it and others don't some of them do some of them don't some of them are smart and some of them are well they're all smart actually I should say they are genuinely smart they're just you can be smart and stupid at the same time right y'all know what I'm talking about and so yeah sometimes they just miss it now let's talk about this walking on water and we'll connect it to the Old Testament because we've seen in mark Jesus is constantly connected the Old Testament we're getting an interpretation of Christ as we look at the Old Testament and in job nine eight we have a passage that connects to Jesus walking on water and job nine eight it says that God alone stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waves of the sea now that word is walks on it's translated tramples down or he's like stomping on the waves of the sea being able to walk on the water job nine eight now in job 38 sixteen job returns to this this topic but it's God speaking now and God Himself he strengthens this and says to job have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked on the recesses of the deep and it's like God you walk and you can't this is significant but wait there's more in that passage job nine eight that I read to you it's a parapet on eppie theless ace that's Greek I just this is the Greek right the reason why that's important for you to know is this in mark 648 that's the exact phrase if Jesus was walking on the sea Perry put on epi Dallas ace same phrase in the Greek version of job that they had access to at the time and in mark 648 also we have this curious even a little confusing idea that Jesus was gonna pass by them and you're like why is this in mark why is it why is he gonna advise me to walk to the boat was gonna pass by them what's the deal here but in the same section of job 9:8 talks about how God can walk on the sea nine eleven job says this two verses later were he to pass by me were God to pass by me I would not see him where he to move past me I would not perceive him job's agonizing over the distance between him and God Jesus he's the one who walks on the water and guess what you see him right because you didn't have that access to God and then Christ came now you see me now you have access to me he's confirming his identity and his ex accessibility in this very passage in fact in the Old Testament when God passes by people like we in Exodus when he passes by Moses all his goodness will pass by you or in other places as well God is revealing himself to people but at some distance when when he's dealing with Elijah and there's the storm and there's the fire and there's the wind there's all this stuff and then it says and then God passed by him there's some nearness but some distance as well but with Jesus he goes to pass by them but then he gets in the boat to get the idea Jesus is bringing us into relationship with God he's God with us he walks the sea and he comes into the boat with us but there's more there's more to that connects us to the Old Testament this one gets me so excited in mark 650 Jesus tells them why they can calm down he's like don't be worried it is I it is I in the Greek this is the phrase you already know it a go a me you know this in the Gospel of John there's these I am statements of Jesus that's connected to not only Exodus but important that you know this it connects to Isaiah when God's declaring himself as the only God he keeps calling himself the I am in the Book of Isaiah they go a me Jesus he says don't be afraid it is I in Edward James and his commentary in the Gospel of Mark he says this about Jesus saying it is I it is a divine epiphany in answer to their earlier bafflement when he calm the storm who is this in mark 441 in this respect marks Christ ology is no less sublime than than John's is although John has Jesus declaring that he's son of God John 10:36 whereas mark has him showing that he is the son of God in mark one must like the disciples be in the boat with Jesus and enter into the drama in order to behold who Jesus is the one who calmed the storm is the one who now appears in the storm the I am of God and I think that maybe this answers another question that you probably haven't thought of or maybe you thought of why is it why doesn't mark talk about Peter walking on the water we get this in another gospel we don't get it in the Gospel of Mark Matthew has it and it may be that mark just wants to so highlight Jesus and that he's using these stories that tell you who Jesus is so he doesn't want to create any kind of confusion by even including the whole little spot about Peter there's another lesson in there we get that in the Gospel of Matthew but mark is telling us who Christ is so he's seen as walking on the water but mark 652 their heart was hardened their heart was hardened and whose heart is being talked about here the disciples their hearts were hardened that's interesting huh we tend to think of hard heart hearts as being those who are like willfully sinning against God knowingly sinning against God or something like that but here hard hearts don't doesn't mean outwardly and obviously resisting God sometimes it just means you don't get it like I'm just I'm Adame I'm just not picking up these spiritual things and I'm supposed to be learning you know and that that is like a hardness of my heart yeah there's something wrong with me I get it it's not on purpose it's just it's the way I am well blindness then I would say it's not the same as closing your eyes right closing your eyes is deliberate but blindness is a condition I've got now maybe I caused it through some actions of my past but it's just the way I am now and I'm struggling with it if this is you if you've read the Gospel of Mark if you're reading the Word of God and you feel like you're you're just not picking up the penny won't drop for you my encouragement would be ask God to open your eyes if you're like the disciples going I read about Jesus I just I'm just not getting it I'm not seeing start praying sincerely praying between your Lord that God would open your eyes because you know my heart might be hard but if I can ask God to help me with my heart heart I think he does I think he does well I have my own experience that says he does in my own life many times many times and now of course my heart is perfect and pure in every way yeah not really so um yeah the truth of Christ is a lot to take in and seeing Jesus for who he is as Mark he keeps trying to show us who Christ is it changes everything about your life it changes your expectations like you wouldn't be surprised to see him walking on the water you wouldn't be surprised to see the second coming of Christ you wouldn't be surprised upon close your eyes on earth to open them in the presence of God it wouldn't surprise you because you know who he is and that's the thing is bringing us to that place where we have this sort of rational reasonable simple trust in God where this faith is there that's right and that's been earned by truth and it changes everything about how we see everything and that is how it's supposed to be as Christians we're not just a little bit different than the rest of the world we we have a whole different world view because of Christ verse 53 it says when they crossed over they came to the land again a syrette and moored to the shore when they got out of the boat immediately the people recognized him which is interesting because the first time in mark where a big crowd of people recognizes Jesus last time they recognized the disciples and that was after they got out two by two in all the cities so they were faces were being more known now they're recognizing Jesus I think that we're continue to see the increased awareness of Christ they recognized him they run about the whole country and began to carry here and there on their pallets those who were sick to the place they heard he was by the way let me just mention um they're recognizing Jesus and you're like well why now Jesus just did the feeding of the 5,000 you know it's like he not only did some healings here then he went traveling around Galilee Nazareth area but now he's in this one really big massive huge public healing not healing but a miracle where you didn't just hear about that guy down the street that got healed but like you got to eat a meal and you got to watch it multiply you know this is this was something that seemed to really launch his face recognition up into the next level then in verse 56 wherever he entered villages or cities or countryside that were laying the sick in the marketplaces and imploring him that they might just touch the fringe of his cloak as many as touched it were being cured and I think we see Jesus here as the one who's gonna undo what happened in the Garden of Eden right he's he's bringing health he's bringing healing he's bringing forgiveness he's he's giving us a this is this is like when you're walking through the mall and you walk through past the Chinese food place and they hold up that glowing piece of chicken on a toothpick and they're like sample you know and you get some orange chicken whatever it is and you try it out Jesus is like hey here's a sample of the kingdom of God that I'm bringing into the world forgiveness healing God's provision for you now it's not the ultimate you know his kingdom is not of this world and were ultimately waiting upon the restoration that comments but we're getting the sample of it through the Ministry of Christ so there's the fruit of coming to faith in him that's the point our job is the faith the healings are just an illustration I think ultimately we sometimes get the idea that the healings are the whole the whole thing of Jesus rather than the healings are like a like a proof here see this food taste good see he tasted it yeah see it proves that this is good stuff with Jesus we get this in the gospel mark 2 when he heals the paralytic it couldn't be more clear right he's gonna heal the paralytic right they lower him through the roof and he looks at the man and he says to him not be healed he says son your sins are forgiven you and there are like boy did who or do you think you re have the authority to forgive sins only God can forgive sins and Jesus says okay so that you'll know I have the authority to forgive sins get up and walk and the guy gets up and walks what was the purpose of the healing well the primary purpose was to show that Jesus has authority to forgive sins we're revealing something about Christ through the healings that we see the idea here is that we this is throughout mark right we can look to Jesus as the one we trust and when we trust for everything in the trials for healing for when and peely doesn't come you trust him for forgiveness of your sins and that is of course the primary think that I need let's pray then we'll go to your guys but Lord we thank you we thank you for this passage the Jesus that vision of you walking on the water helped us to see it this is a revelation of the person of Christ he's God with us and God coming near to us and God entering into the boat with us Jesus you made us close to you we thank you for your grace and for the forgiveness of our sins purchased on the cross we pray that as we continue going through the Gospel of Mark we would have the penny drop for us we'd have our eyes out and that we would see the glory of Christ see the truth of Christ and that we could apply this into our lives both in trusting you for your forgiveness but also trusting in trials and also trusting you even for your work of healing in our lives we pray in Jesus name Amen [Music]

Channel: Mike Winger

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Keywords: the mark series part 22, mark 6:45-56, Mike Winger, why Jesus walked on water, Why did Jesus walk on water, why did Jesus walk on the sea, how did Jesus walk on the sea, how did Jesus walk on water, Christology in Mark, mike winger mark series, bethsaida or gennesaret, when Jesus walked on water, Jesus walked on water Bible study, Bible study, apologetics

Id: UANIZNi3i1E

Length: 58min 14sec (3494 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 09 2019