Let's turn now in our Bibles to Psalm 121. Our scripture reading for this morning is Psalm 121. We'll see in Mark the disciples begin to realize their need for Jesus and they experience His help. Psalm 121 is one of those Psalms that captures the help of the Lord very very well. Let's read it together now. a song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Amen. Let's pray as we come to God's Word together now. Lord, we thank you that we're about to hear from your perfect Word. the word that is exactly what we need at every stage of our life in Christ. We pray now that You would increase our desires to hear from You, and that You would increase our desire to grow in You. We pray that through Your Spirit You would do that work, that You would actually also shape our hearts and our lives to be more like our Savior Jesus Christ. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this morning our sermon comes from Mark 6. Mark 6, verses 45 to 52. That's Mark 6, 45 to 52. It's been a few weeks since we've been in Mark together. First there was Easter, and then John Dimon was preaching last week. So just to remind us where we've been, the last time we were in Mark, in the middle of Mark 6, was when Jesus fed the 5,000. Jesus, remember, He meets the crowd on the shore, He teaches them, and He does that amazing miracle to feed more than 5,000 people. And when He does that, He is showing that He is the Good Shepherd. He is God Himself, that promised Good Shepherd, who meets all the needs of His people. Our passage this morning, starting in verse 45, takes place only a few short hours after that meal. And Jesus here continues to show amazing truths about his identity and his mission. Let's read the passage together starting in verse 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. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat 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, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened." In this passage, we see that Jesus reveals that He is the Lord God Himself, who is powerfully, lovingly present with His people. And Jesus is revealing that He is the Lord God Himself who is powerfully, lovingly present with His people. As we see that truth, we're going to see it in three parts. We're going to see first the Lord prepares in verses 45 to 48. Then we're going to see the Lord reveals in verses 48 to 51. And thirdly, we'll see the disciples respond in verses 51 to 52. So first the Lord prepares, verses 45 to 48. Verse 45 picks up right after those 5,000 men and their families have finished eating. The disciples have gathered up the loaves and those 12 baskets and immediately it says, verse 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. We see in these this opening verse that Jesus is preparing His disciples for the next miracle. They don't know that yet, but this is what's behind His command. He is sending them out ahead of Him to see His miraculous revelation of walking on the water. It says Jesus sends them ahead of Himself. They are meant to go before Him. That means He's coming. He's going to come later But notice he never tells them how. He says, go and I will come. The disciples, this is actually a test of their faith. The disciples have to trust that Jesus will somehow follow them. And whatever they thought his plan was, they're going to see so much bigger about who Jesus was by how he fixes this problem. Now Jesus' command to go before him in verse 45 is also a reminder that every other detail of the disciples' experience that we see in these next few verses, like the wind, the timing late at night, everything that happens to them, all of that is part of Jesus' plan. And his plan is very specific, to reveal himself in his glory to his disciples. He purposely sends them ahead, even into the storm, to show them who He is. But before He does this, He prays. Look at verse 46. And after He had taken leave of them, He went up on the mountain to pray. Now we know from the other Gospels that Jesus spent many hours in prayer during His ministry, but Mark only records Jesus praying three times. And each time is at an important turning point in His ministry. In Mark 1, for example, Jesus spends hours in prayer after the very first day of His ministry. Do you remember that? He spends hours in prayer because the disciples and the crowd are trying to make Him follow their plan for Him, not the plan of His Father. to the beginning of the Gospel. If you look at the very end, Mark 14, Jesus prays the night before He goes to the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prays that He would follow His Father's will. So at the beginning, you've got the end, and then right here in the middle, Mark 6, Jesus prays. And He prays between two of the greatest miracles that He ever performed, the feeding of the 5,000 and the walking on the water. Jesus is taking this time now to commit Himself to His Father in prayer, as He reveals in the clearest way so far in the Gospel of Mark, that He is God Himself come to save His people. Mark is saying, pay attention. Look at what Jesus is doing now. What has just happened is important, and what is about to happen is maybe even more important. You are going to see Jesus in his glory. Now, as the story continues, we feel Mark raising the tension in verse 47. Look at verse 47. It seems kind of odd. He points out what seems so obvious. When evening came, the boat with the disciples was out on the sea, and Jesus was alone on the land. Nobody else is around. It's just Jesus by himself. In this verse, Mark is emphasizing the separation, the distance between Jesus and His disciples. And it's a separation that does not seem to be easily fixed. Again, if the boat, the only boat, is way out there, and Jesus is all alone back here, how is Jesus going to get to His disciples? And how is Jesus going to get to the destination of Bethsaida? That separation, that distance seems even more important when we read verse 48. Jesus on the shore looks out and he saw that the disciples were making headway painfully for the wind was against them. The disciples are in trouble. Now their lives don't seem to be in danger in quite the same way like they were during the storm in Mark 4. Remember when Jesus is with them on the boat and he's sleeping and they're about to be drowned? They finally wake Jesus up and he calms the storm. It's not that kind of danger, but they are in trouble. They are running up against their own limitations, their own inability. These are men rowing a boat across a big lake with a big wind blowing them backward. I remember taking a rowboat out on mountain lakes. It's a really fun memory, but it's really fun only in one direction. When the wind was pushing us, boy, we flew down the lake and then we turned around and I had to row back. That was a long, long slog up the lake. You realize just how difficult, just how weak you really are when you're in a circumstance like that. Well, I'm no fisherman. These men were, but even the seasoned, experienced, Fishermen are getting nowhere. They are so much stronger than me, but they're making no progress all night. They cannot, by themselves, get across the Sea of Galilee. They must have crossed this lake hundreds of times, but that night, they're stuck. And the text says that Jesus sees them. He sees them in their trouble. And when Jesus sees them, that is the beginning to the solution of the problem of this passage. That separation, that distance is not really a distance that Jesus cannot cross to be with His disciples. And at first you might say, well, He's just looking. Why is that detail so important? Well, let me tell you, Mark is not saying, Mark is not saying that Jesus just had really good vision. Right? That he's able to keep track of his disciples as they're out on the lake. That's not what Mark is saying. It is so much more important than that. This whole scene of Jesus looking and seeing his disciples in trouble is supposed to remind us of what God does time after time in the Old Testament with his people, Israel. For instance, think about Exodus 3. Israel is in Egypt, right? And God calls Moses to go to Egypt. And why? Because God tells him in verse 7, I have surely seen the affliction of my people. When God sees his people in trouble, that is not just observing some fact. God sees and then he acts. That's the pattern that we see in the Old Testament. God's seeing is part of His active caring for His people. Jesus has actually already shown us this kind of seeing in the previous miracle. That kind of compassion and action already. Notice or remember what happens in chapter 6. Jesus sees the great crowd who come to learn from Him, to be fed from Him, He sees them. That is not just observation. Jesus looks at them. He sees their true needs as the Good Shepherd. He has compassion on them as their Savior and He teaches them and feeds them. Jesus is looking with those same eyes, with that same heart, with that same power as He looks out across the lake And he sees his disciples far away from himself and in trouble. And Jesus sees and Jesus acts to reveal himself and at the very same time to save them. That's what we see next. The Lord reveals, verses 48 to 51, says, about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea. This is early morning, maybe 3 a.m., 4 a.m. in the morning. And when we read this verse, we immediately focus on how Jesus came. It's amazing. He's walking on the water. But I want to back up for a minute and point out His plan. He did this for a purpose. He came to them. He came to the disciples. He was not just crossing the lake. He was going to where His disciples were. His focus was on them. On His disciples. Everything He is doing here is meant for them. He is revealing Himself to them. When Jesus walks on the water to His disciples, what is He showing them? Well, He is revealing that He is the Lord God Himself. This is an extraordinary miracle. You and I can't even take a single step on top of the water. Jesus walks for miles across a windy sea with no effort. Only God the Creator has that kind of total control over His creation. So as Jesus walks out to His disciples, He is declaring that is exactly who He is. He is saying, I am God Himself, the very Creator and Controller of all creation. He is declaring that truth through His actions. And His goal to reveal Himself in His glory to His disciples helps us to understand the next part of the passage. It says, He meant to pass them by. If you find that phrase confusing, you're not alone. I read it this week and I thought, what in the world does this mean? I mean, did Jesus change his mind as he was walking by? Or did it just kind of look like, from the disciples' perspective, did it just look like Jesus was going to keep going, but then he came to them? Or is there something else going on? I'm going to take that third option. I think there is something else going on. I think that Jesus passing by his disciples is another one of those important connections in this passage to the Old Testament. Think about what's happening here. Jesus wanted his disciples to see him showing his glory as God. The whole point is that they would look out of the boat and see him walking on the water. God does something very similar a few times in the Old Testament. God passes by some of his people, same exact phrase, God passes by some of his people to show them his true character, to show them the depth of his glory. Two people in particular, think of Moses and Elijah, both great prophets, and both of them, God passes by to show them who he is. I think that's what's happening here in this passage. This is a New Testament example of Jesus showing his glory. Jesus is giving his disciples in this miracle, he's giving his disciples a glimpse of his identity and glory as God himself. This passing by then, it isn't about the route that Jesus took or whether he changed his mind. That's not what's happening. It's about Jesus showing himself to them as God. But the disciples don't get it. They don't get it. Verses 49 to 50, when they saw him walking out on the sea, they thought it was a ghost. They cried out for they all saw him and they were all terrified. The disciples radically misinterpret Jesus's revelation. They think he's a ghost. And they are terrified. I feel for the disciples here. Maybe you do too. How would you have responded? I get scared enough at night if there's just like a bump, you know, downstairs or something. I get scared of that. I can't imagine what it would have been like to look out in that storm and to see Jesus walking on the water. But that fear, that fear of the disciples is so much more significant than the fear that you and I can have in the dark or any other place. Because this fear that they are experiencing prevents them, notice, prevents them from recognizing Jesus. And because of that, this fear, this sinful fear prevents them from recognizing His glory. I've said before that fear and faith do not go well together. This is another example. The disciples' fear gets in the way of their faith. But Jesus loves his fearful disciples so much that he speaks to them. And as he speaks, he shows them something even more profound. even more amazing about himself. It says, immediately he spoke to them and he said, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. I'm sure the disciples would have been so happy to hear Jesus' voice, but they may not have really understood the full meaning of what Jesus is saying in these words, because Jesus here is quoting God in the Old Testament. He says, It is I. Literally, that's I Am. That's Yahweh. That's God, the Lord, the Covenant Name that God uses to reveal Himself to His people from Exodus on. And who's the one who can say that now in Mark? I am. It's Jesus standing on the water. He's shown that He's God and now He's saying it. I am God and I'm your God. In His actions He's claimed to be God and now in His words He's making that claim even more strongly. And listen to His words again carefully. Take heart. I am. Do not be afraid. This is gospel logic here. He is the Lord. He is the covenant God who loves his people. So they don't need to be afraid. Jesus' presence makes all the difference. We see the same pattern in the Old Testament so many times. Because God is the covenant God, because God is with us and loving and powerful, then God's people do not need to fear. We actually sang about that in How Firm a Foundation. That second line is a quote from Isaiah, where God says, Do not fear, for I am with you. You can also look in the book of Joshua. One of those amazing passages is Joshua prepares to go into Canaan. God meets him, and he says, Do not fear, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. It's all through the Old Testament, this pattern. And Jesus here says, it's now Me. I am God. I am your covenant God. I am coming. You do not need to fear. Jesus shows He is the powerful God in His actions. He shows He is the loving covenant God in His words. And then Jesus shows that He is our God who comes to us. He is God with us. We've already seen that Jesus is God with us because Jesus seeks out His disciples on the Sea of Galilee. He doesn't leave them alone. He goes to where they are and He shows them Himself. But He makes that point that He is God with us. He makes that point even more vividly in verse 51 when He climbs into the boat with His disciples. Jesus is not a God. who stays far off from his people or leaves his people in their trouble. He comes to us. And did you notice what happens as soon as he enters their boat? The wind ceased. They've been fighting that wind all night. And as soon as Jesus comes, the problem is gone. Their struggle, their inability He's over in an instant when Jesus decided to come and to help them. Jesus, he's watched his disciples struggle, he's come to them in power and love, and now by his presence with them, he meets their needs. All of them. As you think about this miracle, it is hard to understand maybe how much more clearly Jesus can make this point. that I am the loving, powerful, covenant God. What else does Jesus have to do to show them? But they don't get it. The disciples do not understand. And that leads us into our third and final point. The disciples respond, verses 51 to 52, they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. you might think they were astounded. Well, that sounds pretty good because they are recognizing something extraordinary, something even supernatural has happened. But that's not a good response. That's not a good response because it doesn't go anywhere near far enough. In Mark, we have seen this kind of response so many times. Many people respond to Jesus like this. They are astonished by His miracles and His teaching. But astonishment does not equal faith. You can be amazed and not understand and believe. That's unfortunately what we see with the disciples here. They did not understand who Jesus is showing himself to be. Now, if you look carefully at verse 52, it says that they are astounded because they did not understand about the loaves. See, the problem is not just seeing Jesus on the water. The problem is they never got the point of the miracle of the 5,000, feeding of the 5,000. If they understood that, if they understood who Jesus was then, then they'd get this as well. They would understand who Jesus is claiming to be. In both miracles, Jesus shows that he is God. He is God who has come to his people with love and power to meet their deepest need. Not just hunger, or to give them some help in getting across the lake, but to provide salvation. The disciples saw all of this, and they did not understand. Verse 52, we see the reason. Their hearts were hardened. They do not understand and believe because they cannot understand and believe. I don't think verse 52 is describing a total lack of faith. You know, that kind of total hearting of heart like we've seen in the Old Testament in someone like Pharaoh, or even earlier in Mark when we've met the Pharisees who reject Jesus. There's not a total lack of faith, but this is still a terrible situation for the disciples to be in. God has chosen for His own purposes to not give them the gift of understanding and faith right now for this particular miracle of Jesus. Thankfully, throughout Mark, we're going to see them change. We're going to see the disciples finally understand. They're going to grow in their understanding and faith as God softens their hearts and gives them what they need. And when the disciples look back on this day, they will finally understand and believe that Jesus is the God who is with his people to save. This miracle of Jesus walking on the water is a miniature picture of the Gospel. See, this miracle is part of Jesus' work to bring God's saving power to the world and it's also a picture of what He's doing. That's really the importance of what's happening in our passage. The power and love and presence of Jesus that we see here for the good of His people. We see that even more clearly and even more fully when Jesus completes His work for His people by dying for us on the cross. You know, all of us have a much, much bigger problem than just being stuck in a boat in the middle of a lake. Our problem is that we're dead. We're dead in our sins and our trespasses, but God sees and God acts. God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit chose before the foundation of the world to love and save His people, not because we're so good, but because He is merciful And because of His plan, then God sees us in our sins and He came. God the Son, Jesus Christ, came into the world in His power and love. He even went so far as to take our nature without giving up any of His divinity so that He could be God with us. That He could identify just so closely with us. Jesus didn't just climb into a boat to be with His sinful disciples who still didn't fully believe in Him. No. It's amazing to see the Gospel, the reality that He came into our world to be with us who are sinners and hate Him. And He came to save. He came to save us. To make us able to believe in Him. That work, that work cost Jesus His life. Because He took God's judgment for our sins on Himself and died on the cross. Paul describes this great work of salvation this way. He says, for while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God alone has the love and power to save us from our sins. And in Jesus Christ, he has come to be with us, to do that work, to save us. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Have you really ever come face to face with your sins? That the daily ways that you have broken God's law, and have you repented of those sins? Not just seen them, but repented. Do you understand and believe Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ as the one who has come to live and die and be raised for you and for your salvation. If you haven't, don't wait. Do not wait to believe in Jesus. No. God can soften your heart and help you to understand and believe right now. That's how powerful our Saving God is. This passage is also for us as believers. As I thought about this passage this week, I was amazed by how much comfort is here for believers. to see Jesus' love and compassion and power poured out on disciples who don't even get it. And I thought, well, that's me. That's us. And this is our Savior. This is Jesus Christ. I mean, it's comforting to be reminded of the amazing love and power of God to save us from our sins. We can never, ever outgrow the Gospel. And to realize that He is still at work applying that salvation to us, day by day, through His Spirit. He's with us. He's doing that work. But I also found this passage so comforting because He is powerfully, lovingly present with us right now in a fuller, deeper way than in this passage. You might say, and I felt the same way, you know, I wish I had Jesus right next to me when I was going through a really hard time in life. I wish He was just standing next to me or in the boat next to me. But Jesus has given us something better. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit, God Himself, who is now powerfully, lovingly present with us as our Comforter and our Helper. And we don't just get one member of the Trinity. No, the Holy Spirit unites us to our Risen Savior. who is even more powerful than the Jesus we see here. Our risen Savior, Jesus Himself, so now we can worship the Father through the Son, by the Spirit. Jesus has not left us alone, not by a long shot. Jesus has given us even more than what His disciples experienced here, way more than that. Let me just mention two practical applications of this truth from this passage. never abandons us. He can't. He cannot abandon His people. We're all going to hit some dark times in Christian life, and especially at those times we are tempted to believe that God has left us. Right? We're tempted. Maybe our sins were too bad. Maybe He doesn't love us anymore. Maybe we finally get a sense of how much we don't understand, or how much we don't love God, and we say, how in the world could God love me? Well, look at this passage. No matter what the situation you are facing, your powerful, loving Creator and Savior has come to you and He stays with you. He is always present with you. Secondly, God's constant presence that we see here gives us peace. Hear those words of Jesus again. He says, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. This is a truth to remember in our lives, especially in our anxieties and in our fears, or in our efforts to kind of control life or succeed by trying harder. Hear me clearly, our worry and our work will never give us peace. It's not going to work. True peace, lasting peace, eternal peace, comes only through resting in God's powerful, loving presence. I live that daily struggle to believe that truth. And I know that many of us do as well. So hear this. Take comfort from this passage. God has met our greatest need of salvation in Jesus Christ. He has come to us in our trouble. He's come to us in our sin. He has sacrificed Himself for us. That's His love. That's His care. That's His compassion. And part of that amazing gift of salvation is His constant powerful, loving presence right now with all of us. What's He doing? He's meeting our every need. Even the needs that we don't even know. He is with us to do that work. So as we close, give thanks. Give thanks for Jesus and just see what an amazing covenant God we have. God who is with us to help and to save. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. Thank you that you are a God who did not stay far away from us. You didn't just leave us in our sin, leave us in our trouble, but you came. You came in Jesus Christ, your very own Son, to pay the penalty that we deserve and to give us the righteousness that none of us have. And because of those things, we have fellowship with you. That's the goal, is to be with you. Thank you that you came to us so that we could be with you. We pray that this would be a constant encouragement for us in our life, that we would know and trust that you are powerfully, lovingly present with us every step of the way. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.