Finding Christ In A Crisis

Finding Christ in the Crisis

Mark 6:45-51

This week, as all of you are aware is the 6th anniversary of 9/11. A time that will go down in history as one of the top crisis in recent times. Many people lost their lives in this tragedy. But this week as I watched the documentaries of this historic event, I was not only reminded of the tragedy, but of those who found Christ or strengthen their relationship with Christ.

And with the threats we still have today, we need to make sure that we have the right relationship with Christ.

Crisis whether personal or a Crisis that have an effects a whole nation will always be a part of life. And even when you have the right relationship with God, that doesn’t mean that your crisis will vanish, that life will be happily ever after. What it means is that we have some one to be with us during those troubles.

Read Mark 6:45-51

A little back ground here. Jesus had just gone through some crisis in His own life as well. In verse 1 of Chapter 6 we read that Jesus was in “His own county”. But He didn’t receive much of a homecoming. His hometown was not what would have been expected. By this time His ministry was well known though out the region so Jesus would have been a celebrity at this time. But in stead of being asked for autographs, it states that they were, “offended at Him”.

Then He had the crisis of losing a good friend. King Herod had Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, beheaded. How many times in our life have we lost a loved one? I doubt that any of us can claim that we lost a loved one in this manner.

Then He had the crisis of being over worked.

Mark 6:31-32 And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

Well, we know what happened after that. He saw the multitude and had compassion on them. So He kept on teaching them, and even feed them with the 5 loaves and the 2 fish.

But perhaps some of His biggest battles came from His own disciples. They had seen the mighty works of God, time after time, yet they had so little faith. It was one of them hat would end up betraying Him in the end. The one who claimed to be the closest to Him ended up denying Him not once, but three times.

And often times, it could be your family, your friends, your work, and even your own brothers and sisters in Christ who give you the most grief.

If you read of the life of Jesus, even though He did many great and wonderful things, it was no secrete that His life was one of one crisis to another. And through all of them, He left us the perfect example of how to handle the crisis that come in our lives.

1 Peter 2:21-23 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth"; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;

So let me give you some reasons we find in our text as to why we should turn to Christ when there is a crisis. The first thing we need to see is…

Jesus SENT Them (Vs 45-46)

Did you catch that; “He MADE His disciples get into the boat”. In the King James it uses the word, “constrained” which means to do so by force. Why He did so, I’m not sure. We know that after He sent them away and that He went up into the mountain to pray. We know that God is omnipotent, which means that He knew what would happen. But I think that He wanted to teach them another lesson. Often times the lesson had to be repeated time and time again, much like we have to do to our kids and God have to do to us as His children. Even after He had just experienced Him feeding the 5000 plus in Chapter 6, we read about their doubt when He wanted to do an encore in Chapter 8.

Mark 8:4 Then His disciples answered Him, "How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?"

And there were only 4000 plus this time.

So why does God allow us into Crisis?

Well there is no one single answer to this question. So let me give you a few reasons as to why God allows us to go through crisis.