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 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. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Let us pray. Lord, we pray that you would, by your word and spirit, disperse now our dullness and grant us understanding so that we might know your word, know your truth, and live in light of it. And we ask all of this for the sake of the glory of our Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Without controversy, the most momentous event of the Old Testament, that to which the people of God of old looked as the definitive event or complex of events in the history of redemption, was God's deliverance of his people at Passover night and through the Red Sea and into the wilderness where they were then led in the way of the Lord to the mountain of God, to Mount Sinai. Because of the significance of this event in redemptive history, the Exodus became thereafter the paradigm for how the prophets would come to speak of that greater and better redemption that the Lord was going to effect for his people. Two of the many passages where this exodus motif is employed by the prophets to speak of that future redemption are found in Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3. Significantly, Mark, the author of the text before us this morning, cites both of these new exodus passages at the beginning or at the threshold of his account. In Mark 1.1-2, Mark writes, The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Mark not only cites these New Exodus passages, and you can already, just from the brief part that Mark cites, hear something of that when it makes reference to the wilderness, which harkens back to the Israelites in the wilderness. But Mark not only cites these passages at the beginning of his account, but he clearly intends for them to function in a programmatic way. We can see this for several reasons. First of all is the fact that Mark almost nowhere else will cite the Old Testament. There's one brief citation later in Mark 15, but nowhere else will Mark as narrator cite the Old Testament. Others in the Gospel will cite the Old Testament, but as far as what Mark is doing, what stories Mark has chosen to relate to us and what parts of those stories he's chosen to communicate, The only clue that Mark gives us as to how he sees this working out in terms of the Old Testament background to it are given to us here when he cites these new Exodus passages. Now, when Mark cites these passages, he's not engaging in proof texting. You know what that is, that's the idea of, you'll see it from many cultists and perhaps I'll have some comments to make later about some of these groups in light of what we're going to read, but what some people will often do is they'll take a verse or even a phrase from a verse out of its original context and put it to a use or give it a meaning that it did not originally have as it was put forth by the original author. John Gerstner in his book Against Dispensationalism referred to this sort of thing not as proof texting but as spoof texting. Well that's not what Mark is doing. Mark is quoting these passages in full awareness of how they were understood and how they were to be understood in the broader context of the books or sections of books in which they are found. The section of Isaiah that Mark quotes from in the beginning of his gospel is actually a section that begins in chapter 40 and stretches all the way to chapter 55, and it's called by scholars the Book of Consolations. And that's because at that part in Isaiah he has turned from speaking of all of God's judgments and things that are going to come upon his people because of their sins, and then he begins to speak peace, and he does so as I mentioned, in terms of a new exodus. That's the language that's employed. Now, while other things are intercalated into this section of Isaiah, the theme that comes up again and again is that of a new exodus and, in particular, of the person who will lead that new exodus. This latter theme is especially seen in what are known as Isaiah's four servant songs. These songs speak of an eschatological figure, a future figure, no secret to you. It's referring to the Messiah. But from the perspective of Isaiah, he doesn't use the term Messiah. And so the people would have been hearing of a new exodus to come and of this new figure in language of the servant of the Lord, the great servant of the Lord. And by the way, this language might even remind them of Moses, who had predicted a prophet to come like him in the future. And part of the reason for that is because the name that Moses was given more than anybody else in the Old Testament is the servant of the Lord. And so when Isaiah speaks of a new exodus, and he does so in terms of a coming servant, you can see how that also harkens back to the exodus. The language here is rich and it's replete throughout the section. But one of the interesting things is, not only do the prophets borrow the language from the Exodus to speak of this future coming redemption, but they tell us that this coming redemption is going to so eclipse that previous act of God and redemption that the former work itself will no longer be looked to as that great redemptive event that it had been for the people of old. For example, in the book of Consolations, in Isaiah 43, it says, do not remember the former things. nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen." Well, the first of these servant songs which is found in Isaiah 42, interestingly enough, is actually echoed by God the Father in Mark 1.11, towards the end of Mark's prologue. Again, showing you that Mark is tying everything from this into his account of the gospel. At the baptism of Christ, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus, the Father spoke from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. As I said, this is an echo of the first servant song in Isaiah where it says in Isaiah 42.1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights. Now there is a slight verbal variation because it's being translated from the Hebrew. But if you look at the Greek translation of the Jews from the Hebrew into Greek before the coming of Christ, you'll see the language is identical. So when Mark cites this in the New Testament, the parallel is unmistakable. Well, the last of these four servant songs, every one of you should be familiar with. It's that great prophecy of the crucifixion, the atoning sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus. It's found in Isaiah 52, 13 through Isaiah 53. It's the passage that begins where it says, Behold my servant, he shall be high and lifted up and so forth. And then it goes on to speak with amazement that this is being clearly placarded before the people, but they still don't seem to get it. Besides the fact that the servant of the Lord, in whom God delights, would effect this new exodus by means of his death, perhaps the most incredible, unbelievable thing about this, especially from the perspective of an Old Testament saint, or somebody living on the cusp of the fulfillment of these things in the New Testament, is that this servant would not only suffer and die to bring about this redemption, but that he would not only be the Lord's servant, but in some sense, the Lord himself. That's in fact exactly what Mark is telling us when he cites these verses from Isaiah. Did you notice when he cited these verses from Isaiah to speak of the coming of Jesus, he did so, he quotes these verses. He says, prepare the way of the Lord. That's at the beginning of Isaiah 40. Prepare the way of the Lord. Not simply the servant of the Lord, but the Lord himself. which, as you read along in the first chapter of the Gospel, is a reference to Jesus. And the term that's used there in Isaiah 40 is the Hebrew word Yahweh, sometimes pronounced Jehovah, the covenant name of God. So when Mark sets forth the coming of the servant of the Lord to effect a new exodus, he does so using the language that Isaiah used for God. Moreover, he also quotes Malachi 3. The full passage in Malachi 3 reads as follows, So there's a messenger coming who's going to prepare the way before me. In Mark 1 it refers to John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus. but the Lord says me and then it goes on and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. Now here the phrase the Lord is not the Hebrew word Yahweh, but it is a phrase that's used exclusively for God in the Old Testament. It's only used six times, the Hebrew there, that construction is only used six times and it's always for God. Now if that left any doubt in our minds, the passage goes on to say, he shall suddenly come to his temple. The temple in Jerusalem, obviously, is God's temple and no others. Well, what we learn from Isaiah, Malachi, and Mark's citation of them is the same thing we learn from the other apostles. In fact, all of the apostles cite these passages in the beginning of their accounts, or at least Isaiah's verse that Mark cites. But, perhaps the most clearest, most distilled, pithy expression of this is found in the Apostle Paul's inclusion of what many would take as a hymn. It's very interesting that the servant is set forth in these Old Testament passages in terms of these four songs. Well, Paul records for us his own version of this servant motif from the Old Testament in Philippians 2. He says, and I quote, although existing in the form of God, He did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Now, lest you miss it, that last portion that Paul is citing actually comes from the book of Consolations. When God says, every knee shall bow before me and every tongue confess. Well, in keeping then, and that's a long way of getting to our passage, but without the benefit of preaching consecutively through the passages, it's very difficult to give these things the right context without going into it at some length. But in light of all of that, what we're going to see this morning in Mark 6, is that Jesus is the Lord of the New Exodus spoken of by the prophets. And we're going to see this in three ways. First, we will see that Jesus, just like the Lord, Yahweh, in the Old Testament, he possesses and exercises divine attributes and performs divine wonders. Second, we will see that Jesus explicitly identifies himself as the Lord and does so precisely in the way the Lord identified himself originally to Moses. And thirdly, we will see that Jesus intentionally orchestrated all of this along Exodus lines. Turning now then to Mark 6, our text begins with Jesus making the disciples board a ship. Now I'm going to come back and look at some of these initial details, but I want to move quickly into the events itself. We're told that the disciples board a ship and quickly proceed to tell us that Jesus, having dispersed the multitude and retreating to the mountain to pray while still on the land, we're told that he saw the disciples making headway painfully. Now the NAS I think is more exact here when it says that he saw the disciples straining at the oars but even that is not as pungent as the Greek which says that Jesus saw them being tormented at the oars. Now with this we see the first indication, maybe you gloss right over it, the first indication of our Lord's possession of divine attributes. After the amount of time that it would have taken for Jesus to dismiss the crowds, go to the mountain, spend time in prayer, the fact that Jesus after all of that could see the disciples being tormented at the oars points up his supernatural knowledge, his omniscience. In fact, the attendant circumstances that would have naturally served as hindrances to his sight, preventing him from seeing his disciples and even the ship render this observation all the more certain. Notice all the things that the text tells us. First we're told that it was evening, which is a word that refers to the time after sunset. So the sun has gone down, which is just to say that it by that time had become dark. Secondly, the text tells us that there was a strong wind that had arisen, and by the way, that would be a strong east wind. You should be hearkening back, as you hear all of this, to Exodus 14, the passage we read. There's a strong east wind, which ordinarily means that the waves would have been tossing, being stirred up by the wind, and the ship would have been tempest-tossed, something Matthew and John both make explicit in their parallel accounts. But finally, we're told that the disciples were by that time all the way out in the middle of the sea, which would be about three to four miles. Now I want you to put all of this together. We're told that a good amount of time has passed since Jesus sent them off. It has become dark. The disciples are three miles out at sea. The wind is blowing and the waves are churning. And again, it's dark. Now, this may not be as revelatory to you as it is to me. I grew up in Southern California in big cities. And for the past 20 years or so, we've lived in Las Vegas, the City of Lights. where you almost don't know there's a sky at night. I mean, you can't see the stars, certainly. But we just recently moved out this direction. We moved to Greenville, and we moved even further out into the country. And I discovered for the first time, at least by experience, what I read about in Genesis, that God put stars in the skies. It was an earth-shattering experience for me. But the point is that you have to picture this in its first century setting. It's dark. And when the sun goes down in Israel in the first century, you don't see ships three miles out when the wind is blowing and so forth. But Jesus, we're told, saw the disciples and he saw them being tormented at the oars. Well, this isn't the only place that Mark indicates to us that our Lord possesses supernatural knowledge. Again, this is the theme that runs throughout his book, that Jesus is the Lord and the servant of the Lord. This kind of supernatural sight is seen, for example, in Mark 2.8, when Jesus healed the paralytic man. Remember, Jesus said to the paralytic man, Son, your sins are forgiven you. And then we're told that Jesus knew what the Pharisees, the religious leaders, were reasoning in their hearts. They were saying, this is blasphemy. What is this man doing? Who does he think he is forgiving someone's sins? Only God has the prerogative to forgive sins. But we're told by Mark that Jesus knew what they were reasoning in their hearts, which was an attribute that only God possesses. 1 Kings 8.39 tells us, only God knows the hearts of men. This is very similar to the statement that Jesus makes in the book of Revelation when he said to the church of Thyatira, I am he who searches hearts and minds. But we see another example of this in Mark 7, where the Syrophoenician woman comes to Jesus, she leaves her daughter at home, and she comes to Jesus and says, my daughter is demon-possessed, please deliver my daughter. And Jesus says to her, woman, your daughter is healed. And then the woman goes home, or he says, the demon has left your daughter. The woman goes home and finds her daughter in her right mind, sitting up on the bed. In Mark 9, we're told of another example where Jesus was discussing something privately on the road, or the disciples were discussing something privately on the road, and then Jesus came up to them and asked them what they were talking about. Now, if you recall the situation, you know, they weren't talking about anything they should be happy about sharing, and so they keep quiet. But then we're told that Jesus, who knew full well what they were talking about, proceeded to rebuke them for it, even though they refused to tell him what it was. And then later, for a final example, we're told in Mark 14 of an occasion when Jesus told his disciples to go into the city and to prepare for the Passover. And he tells them that they would find a man carrying a jar of water. and that he would then lead them to a house with a large upper room where they could celebrate the Passover, all of which happened exactly as Jesus said. And so we learn from Mark 6, and as we see confirmed in these other passages, that our Lord possesses supernatural knowledge. The darkness is no obstacle to Him. It's no impediment. It's like light to Him. Distance is no obstacle to His vision. Being behind the walls of a house is no obstacle to His vision. Everything is laid open and bare before the eyes of Christ. Whatever is done, whether morning and evening, whether the light's shining or not, whether open view or behind closed doors, everything is done before the face of Christ. perhaps the most memorable question and answer of the children's catechism. I know there are not too many children around here, but everybody perhaps has grandchildren or children. But one of the most memorable lines of the catechism I think everybody should teach to their children and grandchildren is that great question, can you see God? To which the answer is, no, but he can always see me. Now, you can see that being of great relevance, I think, in a number of different ways. But first of all, I think it should speak terror to the unbeliever, because it means that none of their sin is hidden from God, even the hidden corruption of their hearts. But it's also a deterrent to us as believers from our sin. It means we serve a holy God who won't even let the sin of his children go without being chastised. He chastises us for our sins. But it should also be a source of great comfort. Because it means that we're never alone, we're never out from under the all-seeing eye of our God. There's no situation even being in a ship at sea that's tempest-tossed where he doesn't see us. So this is at once a deterrent from sin and a source of great comfort and consolation. Well, a second attribute that we see in this text is our Lord's omnipotence, His power over nature. And perhaps this is the most obvious thing that we see here in terms of its indications of our Lord's deity. But we see it first of all, and most obviously, in His walking on the water, which is an activity that the Old Testament identifies as an exclusively divine prerogative. For example, in Job 9.8 we're told that God alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. That's why God will later say or ask rhetorically to Job, have you ever walked in the searches of the deep in the rivers? And the obvious answer is no, that's not in the power of mortals. Another indication in our text of our Lord's power is seen in the fact that while the disciples were incapable of making further headway because of the opposition of the wind, We're told that Jesus not only walks on the water, but he traverses it with such rapidity that he virtually overtakes the disciples. The disciples are traveling against the wind. They're having difficulty making headway. But Jesus catches them and is on the verge of overtaking them. A final indication of our Lord's omnipotence is seen in the stilling of the wind. Coincident with Jesus stepping on the ship, we're told, the wind ceased. As with our Lord's omniscience, so with His omnipotence. This isn't the first time or the last time that Mark tells us of our Lord's possession of sovereignty, even sovereignty over the forces of nature. Back in chapter 4, we're told of an earlier occasion when Jesus stilled the winds and the waves. We're told of another occasion when the disciples were on a ship and a storm had arisen. And at that time, the disciples said, by the way, do you not care that we are perishing? Words that could have been taken right out of the mouth of the Israelites at the Exodus, right? Have you taken us out here to die? Don't you care that we're about to drown? And then we're told that Jesus awoke, because he was sleeping in the stern of the ship, he awoke, and he got up, and he rebuked the wind, he says, peace, be still, and we're told then there was a great calm. But what is perhaps more remarkable on the occasion before us is that Jesus, notice, doesn't say anything. Jesus steps on the ship, and as soon as he steps on the ship, the wind quits beating against it. It's almost as if the wind recognized the presence of its Lord and stopped of its own accord. Could that all rational preachers showed such willing submission. Well, a second way that Our text indicates the lordship of Jesus is seen in the way he identifies himself to the disciples. Now, perhaps you were surprised when I said that this text shows us Jesus identifying himself to the disciples explicitly as deity, in fact, in the exact way that God revealed himself to Moses. You're looking at the text and you're saying, I don't see that. Well, it's unfortunately obscured in most English translations, but it's unmistakable in the original. What Jesus says And when he comes to the disciples, he says, take heart, ego emi, I am, do not be afraid. By the way, if you go back and look at Exodus, you'll notice that one of the things that Moses speaks from the Lord, one of the things the Lord says to them as they're standing at the verge of the sea and so forth, he says, fear not. And it's the same again, the Greek translation is identical. And we're going to see another example of that momentarily. But that phrase, I am, that Jesus utters to the disciples, that's not a phrase that you should easily forget. I can't forget the first time I read across that in the Old Testament. I was an unbeliever. I had a lot of time on my hands and I had the benefit of reading the Bible through twice in a very short period of time. And both times I read through it as an unbeliever. The only message I got from it was a terrifying message of a God who is so holy that he'll drown the entire earth in a flood except for eight people. He'll open up the ground and swallow people like at Korah's rebellion. Or fire shoots out of his presence when people bring unauthorized fire to him. That message came through loud and clear. Not much else did. Not until somebody came and proclaimed the gospel to me. For whatever reason it was hidden from my eyes. Apart from a preacher, which was God's ordained means of convicting and converting sinners. But in any case, I still, as an unbeliever, remember coming to that passage in Exodus 3 when God appears to Moses and He tells him, you know, you're going to lead these people, millions of Jews, out of Egypt, the greatest superpower on earth. And Moses says, I'm going to go to these people and say, yeah, God spoke to me. And He says, we're supposed to get up and leave. Well, one of the first things they're going to ask is, who is this God that you're talking about, Moses? Who is He? And so Moses asks God for his name. And of course, there's more to this than simply asking for a way to refer to him. He's asking for a revelation of who he is. If he's going to do this, well, who are you that you can accomplish this great purpose? And how does God reply to him? He says, I am that I am. Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. When I read those words the first time, I remember I almost literally felt like falling out of my chair. I thought that was the most incredible response I had ever heard. And it seemed to me, even though my understanding was not as good as it is now, hopefully, but it seemed to me at the time, what else would an absolute God say? In fact, that's the idea, that's bound up in what this name means. There's a quote here that I like, a person describing this, he says, God declared himself to be, I am that I am. or he who is, the self-sufficient, self-contained, and absolutely sovereign and independent God. In declaring himself to be Yahweh, that's the name Yahweh, is the noun form of I am, means he who is. In declaring himself to be Yahweh, God plainly declared, I don't explain myself, nor can I explain myself, except in terms of my own being and self-sufficiency. I am that I am, he who is. Thus the name of God makes clear that he cannot be explained by reference to anything other than himself and his absolute self-sufficiency, and everything else is definable only in terms of its reference to him as the self-contained God. So when Jesus replied in this way to the disciples, they would have immediately recognized this. This is not the sort of thing that you can forget. When Jesus comes to the disciples and they're fearful, and they think they're seeing a ghost, and Jesus says, fear not, I am. Ego me. And by the way, that's not the sort of thing that you could mistake in Greek. In Greek, whenever you have the phrase I am, it's ordinarily completed by a predicate. I suppose that's Often the case in English, but you could probably think of examples where there's exceptions to that. But in Greek, you'd always expect a predicate. I am tall. I am short. I am skinny. And so forth. But Jesus renders this, it's absolute. I am. It's similar to the statement in John 8, 58. Remember when the Jews say to Jesus, you're not yet 50 years old and you act like you've seen Abraham? To which Jesus replies, how? Before Abraham was, I am. Well, interestingly enough, if you would turn to Isaiah 43, I want you to see something about how God describes himself in this section of Isaiah that Mark cites from as critical to understanding his gospel. We'll just skip to a few verses in this section. But in Isaiah 43, verses 1 and 2, We read this, but now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. and through the rivers they shall not overflow you." Now look down at verses 10-13. This is God describing who He is. If you want to know who God is, you want to compare any claimant to deity, this is a section of scripture you can go to. Can the person who claims it do this? In sections 10-13, the Lord says, You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Now what you might not know is that the Hebrew there is, when rendered into Greek again, is identical to the way Jesus speaks. The word he is not part of it. It simply says I am. And then it goes on, Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior. I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign God among you. Therefore, you are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God. Indeed, before the day was, I am. And there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I work, and who will reverse it? By the way, you notice that expression, there's no one who can deliver out of my hand? That's an echo of Deuteronomy 32, 39, where God again refers to himself as the I Am. And interestingly enough, it's a statement that Jesus echoes in John 10, when he says that there is no one who can snatch his disciples out of his hand. Well, but notice that all the factors that converge here in Isaiah 43, when God just declares himself and reveals who he is. Notice that first of all in verses 1 and 2, how does God speak to his people? He says, fear not. Again, the same expression Jesus uses in Mark 6. He tells the people in verse 2 that he will be with them when they pass through the waters. Who can miss the significance of the connection there between that and Mark 6. And then finally he declares himself to be the I Am. All these factors converge and again it's clear that Mark is trying to get us to see Jesus in light of this new exodus. Well that leaves us finally with the fact that Jesus has orchestrated this entire event. We glossed over a number of things at the beginning, and that's because I thought they'd be most impactful, noticed at the end, when we try to make some sense of all this and ask what Jesus was doing here. Well, first of all, I mean, we can ask the question, did all of this simply happen? You know, were the disciples, did it just happen to be out on a ship, and the wind just happened to arise, Jesus didn't foresee any of this? I mean, none of those things could possibly be true, right? Jesus, we've already seen, is omniscient. How could this have happened without his knowledge? They're not out there by accident. Jesus, in fact, we're told, forced them. That's the import of the Greek word. He forced them to get onto the ship. So, put this together. He forces them to get onto the ship knowing that they're going to be out at sea, knowing that a storm is going to arise. Now, if I were an atheist and I was looking at these things askant, through different eyes, I would say, what a cruel deity. What is Jesus up to? In fact, it even appears in this text that Jesus doesn't even care about the disciples. I don't know if you noticed it, but we're told that Jesus noticed them in the evening, which means at sunset, when the sun had gone down. But when does Jesus go out to them and deliver them? It's not until the fourth watch of the night, I believe it's March rendering. Yes, the fourth watch of the night. So what a capture this. Jesus sends them out into this storm, and he notices them being buffeted by the waves, but he doesn't go out to them until the third walk of the night. By the way, I should have explained, the third walk of the night refers to the period of time between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. So consider the number of hours between when Jesus notices them and how long they've been out there at the sea. Well, what are we to make of all of this? Well, first of all, I want you to notice something in verse 52. Starting at the end of verse 51, actually. It says, "...they were utterly astounded..." This is when Jesus comes and reveals himself to them. "...they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened." What Mark is doing is he's saying, on this occasion, now they're astounded, now they're amazed. In other words, they get it. That's how I would take Mark's point here. They now have this dawning realization of who this is that's in their midst. And by the way, Matthew's parallel to this tells us that they then recognize Jesus' deity and they worship him. So the sense of astounding here is that they're now overwhelmed with the realization of who Jesus is. But Mark makes this comment, they did not previously get it. They're astounded now because they didn't get it when Jesus had multiplied the loaves. Remember in the previous incident Jesus has multiplied a few loaves and fed a multitude of Israelites. They didn't get it then. What should they have gotten then? Mark's giving you a clue what's going on here. He's tying it in with the previous story. Now who had ever heard of such a thing? A multitude of Israelites, thousands of Israelites, being fed in the wilderness miraculously. Who'd ever heard of such a thing? Well, of course, they had. This is just what they would have heard growing up. They would have heard that this is what God did for their fathers. They had never seen this thing with their own eyes, but they had heard of it from their parents. They should have heard of it from their parents, an argument for catechizing, of course. But they also would have heard it at synagogue, if not from their parents. And if not at synagogue, they should have heard it three times a year when they went up to Jerusalem for those pilgrim feasts. All these things are divinely orchestrated by God so that the people would be able to recognize the Messiah when He comes. Moreover, if they didn't get it on these pilgrimages, they would have sung about it in the Psalms. Psalms like Psalm 78 and Psalm 105 both refer to God miraculously feeding the people in the wilderness. Well, they didn't get the point on that occasion. And by the way, you should see that usually when you read an account in the Gospels, you have a story and then it's usually tied up in some way. That is, the story is somehow resolved, at least tentatively. You'll have it say something like, the people disbelieved in him, or they responded they wanted to kill him, or some believed, some didn't, some worshipped him. But the story of the loaves doesn't really conclude. The conclusion, that's because Mark wants you to read this story with that one. Unfortunately we didn't have time to cover both of them, but Mark wants you to read both of these stories together. And the idea is that because the disciples did not get it, did not get it when they came to the loaves, Jesus now orchestrates this event to make his personhood clear to them. In fact, to make this even clearer, you might have stumbled over that verse even further, I guess, supporting the atheist cause of God, that there is a God, you know, He doesn't care about us. Did you notice that the text says that Jesus intended to pass by them? What does that mean? Not only does He not go out to them immediately, waits many hours before going out, and then His intention is to leave them in the lurch, right? Just pass by them and leave them there. Well, no. What's going on here in this whole story is Jesus has orchestrated it to reveal himself to the disciples. And here's how. First of all, and obviously, I mean, some of the things are obvious here. We've already mentioned them. Jesus comes walking on the water, shows his mastery over the winds of the waves. He reveals himself in the same way God speaks of himself in that great New Exodus section in Isaiah. All those factors are already in play. But when it says that Jesus waited and didn't go out to them until the fourth watch of the night, do you know what time? The Exodus took place. Do you know what time it was that God delivered them through the Red Sea? It was the fourth watch of the night. If you go back to Exodus 3, actually there it says the third watch and the difference is that in the Old Testament the Jews are using Hebrew reckoning and Mark is using Roman reckoning since he's writing to Romans. But the equivalent space of time, basically the period between 3 and 6 AM. And so in essence, what Jesus is doing is he's looking at his watch and he's saying, and of course he had no watch, he's saying, nope, it's not time yet. It's not time yet. Okay, now it's time. And then we're told that he intended to pass by them. What does that mean? Well, if you harken back to the Exodus, do you remember the account when Moses says to God, Lord, show me your glory, to which God says to Moses, nobody can see my face and live, Moses, but I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll hide you in the cleft of a rock, and then I will pass by you and declare my name to you. What is it that Jesus has done in this passage but just that? He is intending to pass by the disciples, which what I'm suggesting here is that this is theophany language. He's going to pass by the disciples, in the same sense that God said he was going to pass by Moses, and declare his name to them. What name? Yahweh. What does Jesus do when he passes by? He says, don't be afraid, I am. Well, how does all of this apply? Well, there are a number of ways we've mentioned along the way, but if you're wondering who we is, I'm told you're not supposed to say that. unless you have a worm in your pocket. I think it was Mark Twain who said that. Well, how does this apply to us? Well, I mentioned several attributes of God. One of the things that strikes me about this text, and I hope strikes you, is not just God's omnipotence, His omniscience, but His love and compassion. We see this on a number of levels, in fact. The love and compassion of God in coming to the disciples. In fact, there are really several applications bound up in this. Remember that when you go back to the story, there were thousands of people in the wilderness who didn't get it. But who is it that Jesus pursues? Who is it that Jesus orchestrates this event for? He sends his disciples away and dismisses the crowd and goes after his disciples. You see that? This shows us the sovereignty of God, but it also shows us his great love and his compassion, that he's not willing to let his people go. That he's not willing to let them linger in ignorance and die and perish in unbelief, even though they're not believing because of their own hardness of heart. Which, by the way, is just like the Egyptians in the Old Testament, not just the Israelites. But it also shows God's love on another level. The other day I was watching a video, I sometimes put myself through strange things that none of you should, but I was watching a Unitarian, who's somebody who rejects the Trinity and the deity of Christ, the heart of our faith, He rejects the Trinity and the deity of Christ, and one of the arguments that he was making is that John 3.16 clearly tells us that Jesus is not God. What does John 3.16 say? It says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, of course, he's a Unitarian, so as soon as he hears God and his Son, he thinks, well, God is only one person, so Jesus is not him, therefore Jesus is not God. But the Bible is Trinitarian, right? That God is tripersonal, Father, Son, and Spirit. But how could you miss this in John's Gospel? This is why I thought it was so astounding. Why go to John's Gospel to try and prove that sort of thing? What does John's Gospel say? John's Gospel begins and ends on the high note that Jesus is God, right? In the beginning was the Word, the title for Jesus, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And then the climax of the narrative of John, just before the epilogue, is Thomas' great confession, consequent upon seeing the risen Christ, when he cried out what? My Lord and my God, speaking to Jesus. This is the context in which John 3 is found. And moreover, the title sonship is clearly defined as a divine title, right? In John 5, 17, and 18, we're told the Jews wanted to kill Jesus because he called God his own father, thus making himself equal with God. The phrase son of God was understood in the first century Jewish context not as somehow indicating that Jesus is less than God, but indicating that he's fully God. But I said this shows God's love. How does it do that? It does that. Consider it. Think of the Unitarian idea over against the Christian idea, the biblical idea. How would the sending of the Son be an indication of God's great love? And notice that John 3.16 says God so loved the world. It's emphasized. This is the epitome, the great proof of God's love. That He gave His only Son. Well, if the Son was just a creature of God, how does that really point to His great love? Have you ever thought about that? The Son is just a creature in the Unitarian scheme that God spoke, just like everything else. Spoken to being. Be. He said, Be, and the light was. Right? Let light be. And that's all that John is saying, that God's a bee, there's this creature and he sends him into the world? How is that a great display of God's love? It certainly isn't, or doesn't mount up to the full import of it as we read it in John's Gospel. That this is God's eternal son, his eternal companion, the one who is with him from all eternity. The one who stood in a face-to-face relationship with Him. But this great doctrine of God's love then should be a source of great assurance for us that God loves us and pursues us even to the point of sending His Son. Well, I've already mentioned that it shows us God's sovereignty in revealing himself because, and that was going to be my second application, but it shows God's sovereignty in revealing himself because he goes after his chosen disciples and not necessarily all the others. But then thirdly, I just want to make a point about the idea of God's will. It's very often stated that if you're at the center of God's will, there will never be a problem, right? It'll all be, pardon the pun, smooth sailing. Well, were the disciples in obedience or disobedience to Christ? Well, there's a sense in which they were and they weren't. But, they're in the middle of the sea precisely because they obeyed Jesus. They're in the middle of the storm tossed sea because they were obeying Jesus. And so, being caught in a situation is not necessarily proof that we're not obeying God's will. But it might be an indication that there's something that God wants us to see. And that's why I say there's another sense in which they were not at the center of God's will. And what was that? What was the sense in which they weren't at the center of His will? What is the great thing that God wants of people? In John 6, we have one answer to that. Remember, somebody comes to Jesus and says, what is the work that God requires? That we might have his approval and so forth. And Jesus said, the work of God is this, that you believe in the one whom he has sent. So the disciples are in this situation precisely because they had not come to the conclusion of who Jesus is. They had not put their trust in him as they ought to have done. And because of that they were fearful. If you go back and you read carefully the Torah, the five books of Moses, you'll notice that the constant theme throughout it is that God is revealing himself so that they might know that I am the Lord. That refrain happens over and over and over again. God's great aim is so that people will know him. But then, in light of that, that they will fear him alone. Why did the people not leave the wilderness and go up into the promised land? Receive their promised rest? Because they feared. They feared men, not God. And what does Jesus say in this text? Do not fear. I am. And with that, let us pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We pray now that you would root it in our hearts, help us not soon to forget it or ever to forget it, and help us to be transformed in light of it. Help us to know Christ better and love him more. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.