Scripture: Mark 6:45-52; Isaiah 43:1-2
Theme: Ghost or Messiah?
Sermon – This sermon is about Jesus revealing Himself to His Disciples as the Son of God/Messiah.
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Have you ever had a day that seemed like nothing went right?
Everything you planned to do that day didn’t go well.
You may have thought it might have been better for you to just go back to bed and start again the next day.
Not everything goes as planned.
This morning we find ourselves in Mark 6:45-52 where there is this amazing and yet strange story of Jesus walking on water and bringing peace and calm to not only the waters but also to his disciples.
It had been a rough day for Jesus. If you remember right before this story, there is another strange story. It’s the feeding of the 5,000.
Jesus does this incredible miracle involving some fish and biscuits. He had been sharing the entire day about His Heavenly Father, about the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY and how that He loves all of them, wants to lead them, comfort them and provide for them.
Jesus then punctuates his message by showing them just how much Lord loves them with the feeding of the 5,000.
He thought that in response the 5,000 would then take the time to praise God and thank Him for His love, His mercy and His care. That they would see that right now God was breaking through to show His people His love just as He had done with Moses and the manna in the wilderness.
But that was not what happened.
Instead, they tried to make Jesus some type of freedom fighter/king. They thought that if Jesus could provide food in this way, then they would just elevate him to be their king and he could then lead them to victory over the Romans. I mean if a person can feed 5,000 with just a couple of fish and five small biscuits then who knows what he could do with an army of people behind him.
The disciples didn’t understand either. They were more worried about what to do with the leftovers than they were to either praise God or see Jesus in a whole new way.
+Do they take the baskets of fish/biscuits with them when they leave?
+Do they give them to the poor?
+Do they just leave them on the shoreline?
+What do they do with the miracle fish and miracle bread?
Disappointed, Jesus sends both groups away. He sends the disciples to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and he sends the crowds back to their homes.
This morning, let’s see what Jesus does next and if what he does can help us this morning:
I. Jesus goes up on the mountain.
After getting everyone to go away – the disciples and the crowd, Jesus walks up the mountain to spend some time with His Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit.
It’s not a long walk up the mountain. It was about a third of a mile to get up to any of the mountains that were on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. It would have taken at the most around 20 – 25 minutes.
Just enough time and distance to get away by yourself away from the 5,000 and his hardheaded and at times hard-hearted disciples.
You can imagine Jesus’ conversation with the Father and Spirit:
“They are not getting it Father. After all I taught about you all they could think about was their stomachs and me becoming some type of freedom fighter. They didn’t even take the time to praise you and thank you for feeding them. And what is even worse is the 12 you gave me were more worried about leftovers and scraps than they were that they had been a part of a miracle.”
“How are we ever going to get them to see the truth about who I am and what I am going to do here on earth.”
“Are they just so blind that they will never see?”
If you have ever taught a lesson to either a group of people or had one of those heart-to-heart talks with one of your children, then you probably know how Jesus felt.
There are few things more frustrating and exhausting than doing your best to teach a class, a person, or a child something and they seem like they just don’t get it.
It makes you wonder if they have a brain. It makes you tired.
Jesus needed some Heavenly Father time. He needed the guidance and assurances that come with His Holy Spirit. He needed a chance to be with Heaven and to feel the wonders of Heaven again. He needed some refreshing and renewing.
Personally, I think Jesus missed heaven. In heaven things go the right way. Heavenly beings understand and obey. Michael is not off doing his own thing while Gabriel is off in his room sulking. The seraphim and the cherubim are not complaining about one another or what God wants them to do.
But Jesus doesn’t stay on the mountain forever – He comes down.
II. Jesus comes down from the mountain.
You can read verses 47 – 48 and think:
Well, Jesus spent a few hours with His Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit and now he has decided to come down the mountain and rejoin the disciples.
However, look again and get some perspective – at least some perspective that the writer Mark wants you to see (remember Mark gets most of his material from Simon Peter).
+Jesus sees them either from the mountain and/or from the shoreline.
No big deal – right?
Remember where they were and where Jesus is and what time it is?
+Jesus is either on the mountain or on the shoreline some 3-4 miles away from the disciples who are in the middle of the Sea of Galilee around midnight in the midst of a windstorm.
How did Jesus see them? How was Jesus able to see them that far away in the dark and in a windstorm?
Now, the best of people can see something fuzzy about 3 miles away in good sunlight.
However, at night that distance is shortened to around 1.5 miles and that is if there is powerful light included.
So, here is Jesus in a windstorm around midnight and he is able to see the disciples having a tough time rowing against the wind.
Sometimes to get the full meaning of a passage we must slow down and allow it to fully speak to us.
Mark wants us to understand that he is beginning to help us pull back the layers and wants us to fully understand just who Jesus is.
Earlier neither the 5,000 nor the disciples understood who Jesus was and what He had come to earth to do. It was not to be a political freedom fighter or a miracle chef. He was the Son of God, the Messiah, the way to salvation and abundant life.
Mark wants us to pause here and go OH –
This Jesus can do things no other human can do – He can see his disciples struggling in a boat some 3-4 miles away in the dark during a windstorm.
This Jesus knows that we are in trouble when no one else knows we are in trouble.
And so …
III. Jesus takes a walk.
I have often wondered how the disciple’s thought Jesus was going to get to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
It doesn’t appear that any of them left him a boat.
In fact, no one left him anything to either ride (a camel or a donkey) or to sail. Plus, no one left him any food either.
But none of that matters.
At around 3 am Jesus just steps into the water and decides that today he will take a little walk across the Sea of Galilee.
I have a feeling Jesus was smiling. After all, He helped create all that was around him. He helped speak it all into existence. And so, Jesus just decides to enjoy a nice little walk across the Sea of Galilee.
At first, it looks like Jesus is going to just walk right by the disciples and he will see them on the other side.
Again, we must slow down here for a moment.
The disciples have a boat with plenty of manpower. They have plenty of oars to do the job.
However, for the past 6+ hours they have been trying their best to get across the Sea of Galilee and have only made it halfway. Under normal conditions it would have only taken them about an hour or two at the most to row across the Sea of Galilee.
But here is Jesus facing the same wind blowing against him and he is able to merely walk the three miles to where they were struggling with all their might.
You have to admit that God has a sense of humor.
After having a meeting with the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit they decided that one of the best ways to get the disciples attention is to have them struggle against the wind for over six hours and then just to walk by them like they were standing still.
From Michael and Gabriel’s angelic point of view this had to look funny.
There are a bunch of humans doing their best to get somewhere and they can’t do anything because of a little windstorm. They are out there in the middle of the Sea of Galilee which is approx. 140 feet deep and they are going nowhere.
You have to wonder:
+Why hadn’t they just turned the boat around and gone back. After all, if the wind was so strong that you couldn’t barely go forward then why didn’t they just go back to where Jesus was in the first place. They could have least been with Jesus and started again later as a complete group.
+Where they just complaining and fussing and fighting with one another? John and James fighting with Peter telling him that if they would just row this way or that way then they would already be there.
+Where they to busy trying to do something in their own strength they forgot the One who has called them and just fed 5,000 can help them right now. Sometimes we get so involved in the struggles we are going through that we forget the God who can overcome all struggles.
All we know is that they believed more in ghosts than they did in the Son of God.
I mean had they ever seen a ghost?
What did they know about ghosts?
They should have known about Jesus. They had already seen Jesus calm the seas, cast out demons, heal a leper and feed 5,000. They had already listened to Jesus teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven for months.
I like the way Jesus treated them.
He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t walk away. He has been with the Father and the Spirit.
This work, this Son of God work will take time. It will take patience. It will take a lot more teaching, sharing and showing.
But for now, let’s give them something that is totally unexplainable.
If they didn’t get the lesson of feeding the 5,000, then Jesus walking on water in the middle of the Sea of Galilee during a windstorm should get their attention.
I like what they did next.
They put down their oars and they made room for Jesus.
These 12 might not have been the best and the brightest but they started catching on – this Jesus – He is more than a political freedom fighter, he is more than a miracle working chef or even an healer.
He walks on water. He calms seas. He casts demons out of people. He brings peace to chaos and He loves us enough to come to rescue us even if it means he has to walk on water.
What a strange little story.
But it’s one if we allow it can teach us some very important things.
+When we begin to get overwhelmed we need to take a time out. We need to get alone with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We need to allow them to refresh us, enlighten us and give us some new insights and directions.
+We also need to know that no matter what we are facing we can be assured that Jesus is both praying for us and watching over us. When Jesus said that He would be with us until the end of the age He meant it.
+We also need to be aware and so tuned in that we do not miss the presence of the LORD. We must be watchful so that during a service, during our God time or just throughout a normal day that we don’t miss the LORD reaching out to us, speaking to us or wanting to share something with us.
+Finally, we need to remember that we always want Jesus in our lifeboats. There is never a time that we want to travel out in the future without Jesus at the helm.
This morning as we close - let’s reaffirm that those things as we pray and then let’s listen to Chris Tomlin as he reminds us of some of the wonderful things about Jesus (song – He Lives).
Closing or Holy Communion
