Can We Allow Jesus To Just Pass By? Series

Our Scripture passage for the week is Jer. 23:23-24…. “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD. What does this mean??

God is omnipresent! Now, If Jesus Christ is God, then He too is omnipresent. Here’s the question to think about for today; Is it possible that we miss Jesus trying to interact with us on a daily basis? Can we miss Jesus passing us by on a daily basis??

Open your Bibles to Mark 6 and read along with me v45-56………

Let us summarize the story.

v45-46: Jesus spent time alone in prayer. Let’s ponder about a couple of questions as we lead to applications later; If Jesus is God why did He have to pray?? Secondly, why did Jesus go alone to pray??

v47-48: The disciples were in the middle of the lake straining at the oars. Let’s ask this question: How big of a deal was it for the disciples to be out on a boat in the middle of the lake dealing with the weather??

Most of the disciples were fishermen who would go out in the middle of the night in any weather in their boats trying to catch fish. That night they didn’t have to worry about catching fish but just to paddle to other side of the lake. Here’s the point I’d like to make: The disciples that night were doing something they normally did! And so lte us quickly note: our God and Saviour Jesus Christ is omnipresent and is with us in our daily normal lives, whetehr at work or at play!

Now look again at the end of v48…..

Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them..

It does not tell us directly what Jesus’ intent was in going to the disciples; but what do you think the statement “He was about to pass by them” indicate??

v48b: Jesus miraculously went to the disciples to see how they were going to respond!!

How did the disciples respond?

v49-50: The disciples thought they were seeing a ghost and they were terrified!

The disciples, mostly fishermen who were used to be out in the dark dealing with the sea, saw something unusual which scared them; they thought they saw a ghost; the disciples were terrified with something spiritual!

Here’s another quick application for us today; There is a spiritual world around us! /how is our comfort level with the spiritual world? Are we afraid of “ghosts”?

Now back to the disciple; How did Jesus respond to how the disciples responded to a spirit?

v50b: Jesus assured them that it was He and so there was no need to fear!

v51b-52……. What do you think that meant??

There was a spiritual battle going on within the disciple’s hearts!

Simply, the disciples were still not completely ready to surrender to Jesus Christ!

And so, here’s the answer to the question “How is our comfort level with the spiritual?” – the more we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, the more comfortable we will be with the present and ever eternal spiritual world!

We conclude with v53-56: Jesus Christ was now well known!

What Biblical principles can we apply for our lives today from our passage this morning?

Jesus Christ is God Himself, but yet we note Jesus always taking time to pray in solitude! Jesus constantly prayed to God the Father because He had a personal relationship with God! Do we have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ?

1. How intimate is our personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ with our prayer lives?

2. Jesus Christ is God and omnipresent! What are some specific situations in our lives in which Jesus is looking for a response? And more importantly, How are we going to respond?