Sunday Sermon - Gospel of Mark 6:45-56 - Walking on the Water

 So Jesus has feed the people, 5,000 men + their wives and families, Jesus had shown his disciples that it was the sheep that He cared about and taking care of them was of the upmost importance, and Jesus wanted His disciples to see people not as a burden to their ministry but that they were the ministry, they were the purpose and reason for why He came. Our Roman reader is slowly finding out the Jesus is focusing not on the normal things that leaders look to, which would to be to win over the powerful, the wealthy, those with influence, no Jesus came for a particular group of people. Sinners.

Mark 6:45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.

Jesus can sense not only the dissatisfaction of his disciples of not getting their down time with the Lord to debrief, but that they had taken a back seat to the crowd. Not that they did not want Jesus to feed these people, they were as awe struck by that event as anyone, but still they are on this emotional roller coaster. Having been sent out on their own to minister to the people, casting out demons and healing people, these highs with the lows of being rejected by others, and then of course learning of the death of John the Baptist. Emotions are running high, so Jesus decides that now is a good time to send the disciples off on a boat ride, while He sends the people home.

Mark 6:46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

But not only did the disciples need their alone time, so did Jesus, and this is the first of many times that we will see that Jesus goes off to spend time in prayer in a distraction free place. That is the point of saying that He went up on the mountain to pray, mountains were places of isolation, people did not go up onto mountains to live, you could not live on the mountain, so people avoided them unless you truly wanted to get away from everyone. And Jesus needed this time alone, to pray and focus on the ministry. Our Roman reader would understand Jesus need and want to get away from the distraction, get alone and re-focus, a time of peace and quite. And the message is much the same for us, while prayer at anytime is helpful and necessary, it is the best and most productive when we are alone away from the distractions, just you and God, of you have not set a part of your daily prayer for this alone time with the Lord, you need to, we all need to.

Mark 6:47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.

So when the evening came around, and Jesus had finished his prayers, the disciples were still in the sea, and of course Jesus was on the land, separated and apart, and yet Jesus knew their circumstances.

Mark 6:48 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,

I like how the ESV describes their progress, painfully like being stuck in traffic on 64 westbound in all the construction, you are creeping along, moving, oh you are moving, but not very fast, and it is indeed painful to our spirit of hurry up and get there.

Jesus see them struggling to get going because the wind is against them. If you have ever done any sailing, when the wind is in your face and you need to go into the wind, you have to do is a thing called tacking, that is not to be confused with being tacky, but tacking is when you sail your boat in a zig zag motion, so as to try to catch the wind, or they might have just busted out the paddles, as the KJV notes that they toiled in rowing against the wind, either way, they were going no where fast.

So Jesus plan was to walk out to them and basically get ahead of them, and help them get to the shore faster. Well Jesus Darin how do you know that, well the text does say that he was looking to get ahead of them. So he was either just going to the other side and just wait for them to get there at some point, or He was going to get in front of them and help them alone. Well how was He going to help them. Umm this was Jesus, you remember the guy who commanded the winds and the waves to be calm, if he can do that, He can assist a boat getting to shore faster.

Mark 6:49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out,

Can we not see that the disciples are emotional basket cases. They have seem in their exhaustion from all of the events of the last several days and having to fight the wind and not get anywhere, they see this man walking on the water towards them and they just freak out.

Mark 6:50 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.”

The disciples have lost the ability to rationally think, they were as the text says, terrified.

Why are they terrified, because rather than recognize who they are dealing with, what they have seen, what they have learned from Jesus all of that is forgotten, and it is just full on panic.

But notice what Jesus says to them, in the midst of their panic, listen to what Jesus says to them and to us, Take heart it is I Do not be afraid.

Our Roman reader is reading this right now, and if he is being really honest, he is like, but I am afraid, I am terrified. I have no answers, I have no assurance of anything, I am as those men on that boat I am in the middle of the sea, and going no where fast, and this is just life. Notice that the disciples are not upset about not getting to the other side fast, it is annoying, but it normal. But when the normal is disrupted by something unexpected they have lost their minds, and the Roman readers goes yes, when the unexpected happens, when the crops fail, when my wife or child get sick when the authorities come wanting more tax money, then I am terrified, I am afraid. But this Jesus tells these men, hold on guys, it is me, do not be afraid.

We have to remember that when it all goes wrong, Jesus is right there, when you feel like all is lost, he is telling you take heart, it is I do not be afraid. But we have to recognize that this takes trust, this takes faith, we have to acknowledge that He is in control, and yes that would be the good and the bad, nothing is without reason or purpose, and what that is, you may never know this side of heaven, but the biggest part of the Christian faith is getting us to let go of that wheel, and take heart He is here, do not be afraid.

Mark 6:51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded,

Mark 6:52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

Why are they astounded? Is not our Roman reader asking this question? Why are you surprised? Do we need to run down the list, but we see why, because Mark tells us, because they did not understand about the loaves, what did they not understand about the loaves? Did they not understand that it was an miracle an act of God, yes they understood that completely, what they did not understand? Why it even needed to take place, remember they had told Jesus send these people away, let them go find themselves something to eat, why should we have to spend our money on them. There hearts are harden to those people who needed to be feed, who need to be given the gospel.

This get back to what we talked about last week, the disciples saw these people as obstacles to what they wanted rather than an opportunity to share the Gospel with them, and if you see people as obstacles then guess what your heart is? Harden, stone cold dead. And a stone cold dead heart is not a heart that has been transformed by the Spirit of God, if you do not have a heart for people, not some people, not people who just look like you and act like you, and like what you like, no if you do not have a heart for people who are lost and need Christ then your heart is harden and you need Christ as much if not more than they do, because unlike those people, you are pretending to be saved, they aren’t.

Mark 6:53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore.

Mark 6:54 And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him

Well do you think this is going to help the attitude of the disciples? Yeah not one bit.

Mark 6:55 and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.

Mark 6:56 And 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.

And yet we see a desperate people, many people who want to be healed coming to Jesus, and rather than have compassion, what is the attitude? Annoyance, and yet these people come in great faith, because sometime you have to be pushed into that faith. There is an air panic for these people, not of a Jesus who comes walking on the water, but of a Jesus who comes into town, and that they will miss their opportunity.

There is a lot going on here, desperate people seeking knowledge, spiritual and physical healing, disciples annoyed at all of these people wanting to have Jesus to themselves, not seeing these people as Jesus sees them, sheep without a shepherd, and opportunity to give them the gospel, and because they do not yet have the eyes of Jesus seeing these people, they have harden hearts. We need to go to the mountain and pray to God that our hearts are not harden to the needs of others, that they are not annoyances but opportunities.

Darin Bracy is the pastor at Yorktown Baptist Church in Yorktown Virginia. He is a graduate of Veritas Baptist College with a BA in Ministry and a minor in History. He has a wife Stacy, two daughters, Ashlynne and her husband Justin, their daughter Harper Darin's other daughter Aftyn, and her two dogs, Eddie and Lulubelle.

You can reach Darin at his email address, Darinbracy@gmail.com and you can see his video content on YouTube – Basic Baptist Guy