Mark 6 (Part 3) :45-56 Led Into the Storm

and I want to start by reading in verse 45 and I'm gonna read through verse 52 you can follow along with me and then we're gonna pray and then I will cover the last few verses of the chapter as well but this is the this is the part that I really want you to focus on here this morning so beginning in verse 45 it says immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd and after he had taken leave of them he went up on the mountain to pray and when evening came the boat came out on the sea excuse me was was out on the sea and he was alone on the land and he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them and about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea he meant to pass by them but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost and cried out for they all saw him and were terrified but immediately he spoke to them and said take heart it is I do not be afraid and he got into the boat with them in the wind ceased and they were utterly astounded for they did not understand about the loaves but their hearts were hardened I'm gonna have you stop there let's pray Holy Spirit we invite you as always to speak to our hearts to minister grace and insight to guide us and direct us Lord God and the study of your word and really help us Jesus to apply the things that we see here in this passage and we ask it in the name of Christ our Savior amen as we get into this last section here of mark chapter 6 we find the disciples weathering yet another storm this is the second one they've had to deal with now and they were both probably equally as frightening they were both on the Sea of Galilee which is by the way if you know a little bit of the geography of Israel the Sea of Galilee is below sea level and there are hills around it and it is very subject to sudden furious wind storms that come sweeping down onto the sea and can kick up some great wins and and and swamp boats very easily back in chapter 4 you'll remember they were in a similar kind of a storm Jesus was asleep in the boat at that time and you remember they they went to him and woke him up and and said you know don't you even care that we're gonna die and now we find them in the boat once again again a storm comes up on the lake Jesus is not there this time but he put them there I want you to notice very carefully here in verse 45 look with me again it says immediately he made his disciples get in the boat now it's sort of an interesting phrase but and and there's other dynamics that are going on here but Jesus orchestrated his men getting into the boat and I have to believe he knew that there was going to be a storm I have to believe he knew that the wind was going to be coming up and he was going to use it for his purposes we'll talk about that but it says very very clearly here he caused them to get into the boat in the other story in mark chapter 4 we have the similar sort of a situation where Jesus said to the guys let's get in the boat we're gonna go out on the on the lake which they called the Sea of Galilee but and and again the storm came upon the lake and I don't believe Jesus was caught off guard so I don't know what that kind of does for your theology but the essential conclusion that we come to is that Jesus led them into this storm I just kind of want to let that sink in for a second you know there are times and cuz in the storms that that we deal with in life and this storm on the sea is kind of a picture of the issues that we deal with the problems the challenges the battles that we go through you know you got to admit some of them we caused ourselves because of our own bad choices because of our disobedience to the Lord sometimes we can bring storms into our lives biblical example Jonah but there are also times when we are led into a storm by the Lord who is the master of the storm and that's what we're going to look at here this morning and hopefully we're gonna learn some interesting things about why and what God is actually doing in the midst of that once again we're told in verse 45 at you know he made his disciples get in the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd what mark doesn't tell us is why he dismissed the crowd and so abruptly sent his disciples off and then went up into the hills to pray John actually is the one who tells us and gives us a little bit of the backstory on that I'll put it on the screen for you from John chapter 6 verse 15 it says perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force and make him King Jesus withdrew and so what had just happened you'll remember in our last study Jesus had fed the multitude with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish and everybody knew that it was a miracle and so seeing that this miracle had taken place the people were jazzed and they got very excited about this Jesus guy and there's all this talk buzzing around this Messiah talk and of course the the Jews believed that Messiah was primarily going to come and set them free from their political bondage so they thought hey it's not gonna get any better than this this man is quite obviously the one we've been waiting for and we're gonna declare him to be king whether he wants to or not Jesus sense that that was all about to transpire so he quickly dismissed his disciples and he went up into the hills himself to spend some time in prayer and it says in verse 47 that when evening came the boat was out on the sea now these couple of verses right here are going to give us a lot of information related to the battle that these men are about to face on the Sea of Galilee and I think you're gonna see a lot of real interesting insights about the battles that you and I face and it tells us here that he Jesus was alone on the land verse 48 and he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind against them when I looked at these two verses I saw three important things that I think relate to the difficulties that we face the problems the challenges the battles that we go through in life and I want to put these up on the screen here for you so that you can kind of get a you can maybe I don't know use these two in your own note-taking but it says here that when Jesus looked down from wherever he was praying and he saw the disciples out on the lake he noticed that they were making headway but only painfully and you know that's that they were they were straining against the wind and the waves and and and they were barely getting anywhere they're working hard and barely getting anywhere can you relate and what's interesting about this word painful or painfully I'll actually looked it up in the Greek and it goes far beyond describing the muscular strain that these men were experiencing by trying to control this boat while they were being tossed and turned on the lake it actually goes on to speak of mental distress and anxiety and I think we can all relate to that particularly when we're going through battles and challenges and persecutions and problems and tribulations and the mental anxiety that goes along with that some of you are struggling in your family some of you in your marriages some you know in other places related to your home your business perhaps or could be even just something in your own heart that's just so unsettled and you know that there's a battle going on and and it feels like you know you take one step forward and three steps back and even when you do take a step forward it's at great pain and there's distress and anxiety that goes along with it and this is very this is kind of the the caricature if you will many of the problems that we struggle with the second thing that's really interesting from this is is when it tells us that the wind was against them you know the the old King James says that the wind was contrary to them but this is another interesting word in the original Greek when I looked it up I found that it means hostile opposition that interesting it's almost like it was a hostile opposition to them getting where they were intending to go they were trying to get where they wanted to go to land safely but the wind was in a hostile position of opposition against them and again I think we can relate when we're going through some real severe challenges in our lives we find that we're just being opposed it seems at every turn and there's a sense of hostility and we just can't seem to rise above it and it's very discouraging sometimes but in the midst of all of that there's another very interesting point that we bring out from just these two verses and it's our third point here and that is that Jesus was fully aware of their situation it says that he could see from where he was praying up in whatever hills where they were and if it was a full moon it would have been easy to see you know the the sea of galilee is only like four miles across and to see just two mid-section a couple of miles from a bird's-eye spot up above full moon probably wouldn't have been hard at all but how easy it is for us to forget when we're in the midst of those challenges in the midst of those trials in the midst of those battles that in fact Jesus sees and he is aware how quickly we forget okay I'll admit how quickly I forget I don't know about you but I know about me and when I'm going through a challenge in life it feels like he doesn't care it feels like God doesn't care in fact you know one of the things I love about the Psalms is they're so painfully honest from Psalm 13 how long O Lord will you forget me forever that's that's the the cry of an honest heart who is seriously in pain you know how long will you hide your face from me there are times when we're going through those painful situations when it just it feels like God has just turned the other way he isn't noticing he isn't even aware of what's happening he doesn't see our tears he doesn't see our pain and the agony that you know we're going through but that's the that's the voice of man it's an honest voice but it's an incorrect one because the voice of God comes through at a time like this and it's somewhat different you know there there was a there was a passage well you know what let me just go on to this passage in Matthew because this says it so beautifully Jesus said are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father isn't it interesting to think about that not one sparrow falls to the ground without God being aware and that's what that is basically saying to you and I but he says listen to me when it comes to you even the hairs of your head are numbered and so don't be afraid he says he says fear not listen you are of so much greater value than a bird that's the voice of God when you and I begin to lose hope when we begin to get discouraged and when we begin to feel like God doesn't care or at least he's not aware of what I'm enduring Jesus says oh yeah oh let me tell you just how aware I am listen your heavenly Father doesn't even allow a bird to fall from a tree without his awareness and how much more is he aware of what's going on in your life you are his precious child God said to the nation of Israel at one point he said forget you could a mother forget her child and he said even if that were possible I cannot forget you I will not forget you that's the heart of God speaking to his people but like I said it's very quick very very easy for us rather to quickly forget and then in the middle of verse 48 I want you to notice too it gives us a little bit of the timeframe which kind of increases the intensity of the situation verse 48 says right about in the middle of the verse and and about the fourth watch of the night now let me just explain very quickly the fourth the the they had the nighttime set up divided into watches because it was almost impossible for one person to stay up all night long and keep watch so they divided it up and the fourth watch of the night was the last watch of the night and that would occur sometime between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. I believe that this is arguably the most difficult time of the night when you've been up all night battling and the reason is because at this point you are exhausted from no sleep it's not quite dawn it's just about dawn and you are at the height of your weariness from whatever battle you've been going through and I want you to notice that it was during that very time that time when the weariness would have been the highest I mean they probably I don't know if they can even see the shore from where they are but they are continuing to battle against the wind and the waves that are just mercilessly pounding against this boat that they're in and if they're probably just praying for sunlight so they can begin to get some sort of a sense of where we're going to get to and it is at that point that I believe most difficult point that the the Bible tells us it was then he came to them and that's what it goes on to say in that verse he came to them and I want you to notice those words right there he came to them but I want you to also notice he came walking on the water you know sometimes God just blows our minds we pray for him to meet our needs in very specific sorts of ways and don't say you don't do because you do and I know you do because I do too we basically we tell god what to do when we particularly when we're in pain we tell God exactly what we want him to do and this is the way we'd like you to do it thank you very much and often have you noticed that he doesn't respond to our prayers in the way that we anticipate or the way that we ask but that he comes many times in situations or ways that just are completely off our radar I don't think any of the disciples expected Jesus to come walking out to the boat on the water it's like most of these guys are fishermen they know what happens when you try to walk on water then work you sink and so this is just not an expected sort of a situation and yet here's the answer here's the Savior here's the shepherd who's coming to take care of them at this very dire moment and he comes to them walking on the water it says in verse 49 that when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost which of course just means a spirit and they cried out so here's these men big men with burly beards and mussels from fishermen and stuff and they're screaming like little girls out there on his boat you know just freaking out it says they were terrified but then Jesus spoke to them and he said take heart it is I do not be afraid you almost got to wonder if God has a sense of humor I mean to come walking you know to them on the water which is freaky enough and then to say don't be afraid and he usually makes statements like that just after he's done something completely supernatural and unexpected like he's suddenly in the room when the doors locked and he's just there and he says don't be afraid it's me and now when they've been struggling all night long and are in fear of their very lives then they see this figure walking on the water which scares them even further and Jesus comes along and says don't be afraid i I can tell you I've had a couple of times in my life when I was so afraid I tried to say something and couldn't have you ever been there I remember one time happened when I was a teenager and I won't tell you the circumstances but I was just kind of like I just could say anything cuz it was it was just sheer terror you know and that's I'm sure the way I would have been had I been one of those men in the boat now what's interesting about this is that even though Mark doesn't tell us about it we know that Peter did speak and he actually called out to Jesus and actually to read this you got a you got a go to to Matthews account and which is interesting because mark you know is considered to be Peters account because mark is written by John Mark who is an assistant of Peter in his later years and many people believe that John Mark's account is actually Peters telling of these events interesting that Peter left this part out from Matthew chapter 14 and Peter answered him lord if it's you command me to come to you on the water interesting language huh command me to come you can tell that Peter is saying I see you have the authority right to walk on the water now use that same authority to command me to also come out to you on the water and Jesus responded by saying come so what happens so Peter you know he swings his legs over the side of the boat he gets out and lo and behold he walks on the water and he starts coming to Jesus but when he saw the wind he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried out lord save me and Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying to him oh oh you of little faith why did you doubt and when they got in the boat the wind ceased it's great story you gotta admit I mean this is one of those classic stories about Peter who usually said things when he shouldn't say something but he speaks up and as outlandish as it was for Jesus to be walking on the water Peter asks for something equally as outlandish and he says let me come to you walking on the water so Jesus says come come and so Peter as you see in the passage you know and this is not a small little fishing boat this is a big with tall sides he has to get his legs up over the thing and shove off down onto the water and and he's walking on the water wow what an amazing thing that would have been but as we go on and read we find out that something happened it says that he saw the wind obviously the huge waves that were breaking over the top of the side of this boat and it tells us that he became afraid and what happened he began to sink well you know no big huge surprise here we see what's going on we see that as he took his eyes off Jesus and he put them on to the wind and the waves he lost faith and he began to sink now praise God he was smart enough to know what to say at that point Jesus saved me Lord saved me right and of course Jesus will always respond positively to that he is the Savior after all and you know and and he lifted him out and and so on and so forth but there's such a powerful image here that we learn about what we're looking at in the midst of our battles because battles come to all of us hard hard times difficulties challenges and and and the question we all have to ask ourselves at that point is what are you looking at what do you have your eyes on because let me tell you some some of the things you put your eyes on are gonna build up your faith and other things you put your eyes on are going to deplete your faith it's as simple as that and we can see from this story that what what caused Peters faith to be depleted was by taking his eyes off the Lord and putting them on the threat that was in front of him and the more he looked at that the bigger it becomes the more threatening it becomes and the more he begins to sink and you know what we're gonna do the same thing you and I if we take our eyes off the Lord and begin to put them on our problems you know this is this is that this is that same picture of the nation of Israel they come through the wilderness after being delivered from their bondage in Egypt they get to Kadesh Barnea where they set up camp and they say okay we're gonna go in but before we do we're gonna send some spies into the land so they take these 40 guys and they send him into the land and they come back after a period of time or however many it was 12 spies I think 40 days I forget the numbers I think it was 12 spies 40 days right doesn't matter they come back and they have nothing bad to say about the land it's good land you know it's just like God said flowing with milk and honey it's wonderful fruitful but there's a problem there's Giants in the land and there's nothing we can do about it and they're too strong for us what's interesting is that all of those people heard all there was to hear about that land and how good it was but the only thing that they remembered was there were giants in the land and that's what they fixated on and because of that their hearts were filled with unbelief and they had to turn around and go back out to the wilderness for about another 38 years until all those people dropped dead in the wilderness and their children were able to go in so what happened they got their eyes on the Giants what's a giant to God right well it depends you sit there and look at the giant and he gets big I mean he gets bigger as you look at him pretty soon he's bigger than a Goliath type giant he's like a mountain insurmountable nobody can move this thing kind of a giant and there's nothing you can do about it why because that's all you've been focusing on and so many times when we when we pray with people you can tell that you know they're coming for prayer but you can tell that the last however long they've been doing nothing but focusing on their problem but you know when we begin to focus on Jesus as the solution to our problem the answer to our problem it begins to change our whole perspective we begin to be built up in faith and we begin to say you know what God is able God can do this I don't know how I don't know when but I know he's able because I've been keeping my eyes fixed on him isn't that what we're told to do in the New Testament focus not on things below but on things above set your heart set your mind set your eyes on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father that's where the answer is going to be if we focus and fixate on all of our issues and problems and concerns they'll only get bigger and we will find that our faith will be completely depleted after a short period of time and pretty soon we're just drowning we're sinking and drowning verse 51 if you look in your text there goes on to say and he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased and they were utterly astounded I can well imagine what's interesting here is once again John gives us another insight to this very same event check this out from John 621 it says then they were glad to take him into the boat I bet and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going I mean that's even weirder practically I mean here's Jesus comes walking on the water they go through the whole thing with Peter attempting succeeding for a period of time sinking Jesus saves him they get back in the boat not only does it immediately become calm they're at their destination they were out in the middle of the lake and now they're just there mind blown right I mean just how crazy is that and then mark notice this comment he makes in verse 52 for they did not understand about the loaves but their hearts were hardened and again he's talking about what had happened just prior to this event and that was Jesus fed the multitude miraculously with just a few loaves and a few fish and it says here Mark's comment was that there was a hardness of heart that caused them to just not understand they didn't get it and so they weren't connecting the dots properly in other words what they just saw as amazing as it was was really no different as far as the power of God is concerned than the feeding of the multitude right now it might not seem quite as miraculous I mean we know that it's miraculous you know you take a few loaves of bread too few fish and it feeds everybody and it's like wow how did that happen and everybody knew that it was a miracle but somehow someway that doesn't seem like as big of a miracle as walking on the water why because we don't see people walk on the water we see people getting fed all the time and so there's just something in our minds that kind of has this sense of this is a bigger thing well it wasn't a bigger thing and Jesus was communicating to them that my power is complete and whether it's feeding people to or multiple thousand or whether it's walking on the water learn to expect the unexpected I am God right I mean that's the point of this whole thing I am God and all of the rules and all of the things that that that hold you back don't hold me back I'm not limited by any of this and that's where we begin to build up our own faith that when we face a situation for which you and I have no answers we look at it and people all around to say well this is how that's going to turn out if you ever notice people love to do that they love to prognosticate or whatever and they'll that you look at your situation so I know that's going to turn out and it's always bad it's like never good and we're just you know and Jesus comes along at a time like that and we're reminded of these kinds of events and he says listen I am the God who is unlimited I am the God who has all power and if you keep your eyes on me and your faith in me I'm gonna do amazing things in your life but listen you look away even for a moment and get your eyes on your problem on the threat that is in front of you it could very well overwhelm you because the more you look at it the bigger it will get how quickly you know we forget just like the disciples it's like you know they just saw Jesus feed this multitude of people and now they're out on the boat and they're like it's like it's it was it's gone it's like what they saw is gone and far from criticizing them I can relate to that because when I'm going through a problem when I have a threat that comes against me in whatever form and it's scary and we have those sometimes don't we when a scary threat raises its head against me it's like God has never done anything in my life before suddenly I can't remember it's like it creates this wall or something in my memory and and you know in in my in my times when I'm kind of emotionally stable and I'm doing okay I could sit and recite all the wonderful things God has done for me like if I gave you an opportunity today many of you could stand up right here right now and you could tell about God's provision God's deliverance and you could tell incredible stories and by the way you should be telling people those things but you know if we had the opportunity and the time you could do it you could stand up and say oh let me tell you by the time when God just delivered our family or delivered me some of you had addictive issues some of you just you know all kinds of things you know and God just supernaturally just scooped you up and took care of you but then something bad begins to happen in your life and what happens we just forget it's gone you know and it's about that time the Lord begins to speak to our heart he says have I not shown myself to be faithful have I not shown myself to be true in your life over and over again Jesus could have said that to the disciples when he got back in the bodies that could have said guys didn't I just feed a multitude haven't you watched me causing the crippled man to walk haven't you noticed the blind can now see have you noticed that the Deaf can now hear so what's going on well we forgot yeah I can relate to that you know there's a passage we used to always recite when we did child dedications let me it's not just about child dedications Deuteronomy 4:19 says only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live in this passage helps you and I to be aware of the fact that it is possible for those things to fade from our hearts otherwise he wouldn't warn us against it it'd be ridiculous for him to spend even the that amount of time to remind us not to let them fade if it was impossible right certainly it is so he says what are you gonna do teach it teach it to your kids and then to their kids after them tell about how God delivered you tell about how God supernaturally provided you know those miracle things in the mailbox those things when God just brought someone or something across your path that made all the difference that gave you hope again tell about how you got saved to your kids tell your children how you got say what came what came about to bring you to that place of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ tell them don't expect them just to know teach it to your children and then to their children after them why because otherwise if we don't remember those things are gonna fade from our heart and God warns us here that that is a very real possibility and when they fade from our heart we lose those altars of faith that we would have otherwise had built as a monument to God's faithfulness the chapter ends verse 53 it says when they had crossed over they came to land at gannett and moored to the shore and when they got out of the boat the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was wherever he came in villages cities or countryside they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of His garment and as many as touched it were made well now we're back doing miracles aren't we and the disciples were back to CNN is gonna open their eyes and so do we pastor Paul how come we don't see miracles like they saw in the early church what will you mean well what do you you don't think we are let me tell you how many miracles I've seen in my life it's amazing you know every time somebody comes to Jesus as Savior that is a miracle I've seen so many miracles just people's lives being transformed the old life giving way to the new that's a miracle there's miracles all around it would just open our eyes to them and once we do we begin to see the miracle worker who is behind it all and once we begin to keep our eyes fixed on him we live in that reality that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly and all we can even ask or think and it begins to change our entire outlook and it begins to change the way we go through trouble and trials and instead of fixating on those troubles and trials we start keeping our eyes on Jesus you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

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Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament, Mark 6

Id: Zq2ZW1DQRhc

Length: 36min 43sec (2203 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 19 2016