Would you please turn with me in the Word of God to Mark 6, the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 6.
As we do so, let us pray and call on the Lord for illumination.
O Lord, our God, we are so thankful that you have given us your Word, that you have not
left us dependent upon the imaginations of our minds, the idols of our hearts, but that
you have revealed yourself to us, that you have spoken clearly and beautifully of hope
for sinners, of confidence in you.
We pray that the Spirit will now open our hearts and our ears so that we may hear and receive
your words, the words of your law and your Gospel, even as you have promised.
We ask all this, gracious Father, in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
Mark, Chapter 6.
Our verse tonight is particularly verse 50.
Take heart or take courage.
It is I.
Do not be afraid.
But we'll pick up the story at verse 30 and read down to verse 52.
So Mark 6, verse 30.
Let us hear God's own Word.
The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.
And he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.
For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.
Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns
and got there ahead of them.
When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were
like sheep without a shepherd.
And he began to teach them many things.
And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate place, and
the hour is now late.
Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to
eat.
But he answered them, you give them something to eat.
And they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to
eat?
And he said to them, how many loaves do you have?
Go and see.
And when they had found out, they said, five and two fish.
Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.
So they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties.
And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing
and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people.
And he divided the two fish among them all, and they all ate and were satisfied.
And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish, and those who ate the
loaves were 5,000 men.
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.
So far, the reading of God's word.
It seems to me that from reports in the media, from world events, geopolitics, things unfolding all around us,
many people today are afraid.
I think we live in an age of fear and of growing alarm.
We're certainly concerned with the destruction of war,
great hardships that have come already from that and that seem likely to come.
We face difficulties on the economic front.
We look around and see what seems to be a radical revolution in the culture's understanding of seemingly everything under the sun.
And I think many of us are anxious about the world in which our children or our grandchildren are growing up.
The world, if you're younger, the world in which you're coming of age that seems so unstable in our time.
I think our instincts are either to be fearful or angry or proud,
to think that in our time of crisis,
we need somehow to redouble our efforts to create stability for ourselves,
to build the right kind of relationship,
to find the right solution to world politics that will work,
to have sufficient resources,
to fund our pensions,
things that are good and worth pursuing but are not ultimate.
But it seems that it is a moment of great instability.
For many people, this has been and continues to be a time of a great deal of stress and a great deal of distress,
a time of a great many questions.
And when the things that surround us, that we enjoy,
that we so often take for granted,
are removed or threatened or challenged,
it seems that we often fall prey to that great temptation
to put our confidence in the creation,
in the things that we build and do
to try to find some stability.
But that's why we as Christians are so privileged to know
that our confidence, our foundation,
our security rests not in anything created,
but in the Creator.
Not in our efforts or our policies or our disciplines.
That's part of the wonderful heritage that we have from the Reformation.
Before the Reformation, I think many Christians,
perhaps most Christians,
were dominated by a fearful outlook on the world.
They feared a world full of demons
and all sorts of superstitions.
They sometimes feared the church and its inquisition.
They feared themselves and their own propensity to sin.
And they feared God.
Perhaps not a proper fear of God that drives one to seek mercy,
but because God was most presented only as a righteous judge
who would in any case send them to hell.
So Christianity was often characterized by a fearfulness
that I think was encouraged,
that too much confidence, too much assurance,
too much peace with God will make people indifferent,
will make people sinful.
But when the Reformation came
and when people like Luther and Calvin
began to recover a sense of the power of God's Word,
they were profoundly moved by verses like our text tonight.
The words of Jesus,
Take heart.
Take courage.
It is I.
Don't be afraid.
The message of the Gospel, you see,
the message of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
is indeed good news.
It's good news that is designed to bring peace and hope
and an ultimate heavenly stability into the hearts of his people.
It is the remedy, the antidote to fear.
It is the firm foundation on which we ought to rest as God's people.
And one of the great fruits, it seems to me,
of the Reformation is a confident and courageous kind of Christianity.
Not a kind of Christianity that never faces a fear
or never has a problem or is triumphalist,
but a kind of Christianity that in the face of problems and fears
turns with confidence to God.
And from that confidence in God derives a remarkable level of courage
to face the realities, the difficulties of this life.
So I would like to preach to you tonight about that courage,
that confidence that ought to be ours,
that call of the Savior who says to us,
even now, as he said to his disciples long ago,
take heart.
Take courage.
Be courageous.
Don't be afraid.
Well, how is it that we can be courageous?
From where does that courage come from?
I think in this text,
this text particularly of our Lord coming to his disciples
as they struggle in the sea, in the midst of a storm,
this story illustrates for us in a variety of ways
how we can have courage,
how Christ would have us to take courage.
And the first thing that this story says to us
is that we are to take courage from his presence.
From his glorious presence.
We see this story.
It's a rather touching story in many ways.
The apostles have been preaching.
They come back exhausted,
yet the needs of ministry continue.
Jesus and the disciples are surrounded by needy people.
They don't even have time to eat.
Jesus says,
we'd better get away so we can have some quiet for rest.
They get in a boat thinking they can head off from the crowd,
but the crowd filled with great need is so determined
that they run ahead and gather others
so that when the boat lands,
there's a larger crowd there waiting.
And Jesus ministers to them.
Perhaps you notice that the first great act of his ministry to them,
as we read it in verse 34,
is he began to teach them many things.
We must never disparage the critical nature
of the church's teaching ministry to those in need.
I think that there's nothing more foundational
that we need to live the Christian life than the truth.
And Jesus, in his exhaustion
and in the exhaustion of his disciples,
continues to teach.
And then seeing the hunger,
he feeds them,
and a vast number, over 5,000 are there,
and then still concerned about the disciples.
Jesus sends them on alone,
thinking apparently that the crowd won't follow
if he stays there with the crowd for a while,
and the disciples are sent on.
But then the disciples find themselves
caught on the sea in difficulty.
And Jesus comes to them walking on the water,
a most remarkable event in and of itself.
We might be tempted to say,
well, isn't that the glory of his presence,
this display of his miraculous power,
the amazing ability of our Lord
to do what no human being could do on his own,
to walk upon water,
to walk upon stormy water,
and come to the disciples.
But I think when we look a little closer at the text,
the revelation of the glorious presence of Christ
is much more profound than just that miracle,
as important and significant as it is in itself.
But there are other things in the passage
that point to the glorious character,
the presence of God,
of the presence of Jesus with his disciples.
The first of these we see there in verse 48.
He saw the disciples straining at the oars
because the wind was against them.
About the fourth watch of the night,
he came to them walking on the sea.
He was about to pass by them.
Why about to pass by them?
Isn't that sort of a waste of time and energy?
If he's just going to walk on by,
why walk out in the first place?
If we compare the word here to walk by
with what we find in the Old Testament,
we see that the same verb is used
in the Greek version of the Old Testament
to describe when Moses had asked to see God's glory.
And God, as it is recorded for us in Exodus 33,
had taken Moses and hidden him in the cleft of the rock
and said,
I will pass by.
I will accommodate myself to your weakness.
And as I do so,
you will see the glory that I show you,
which is my goodness.
My goodness.
You will find good news as I pass by.
You will find the gospel as I pass by.
That's the glory that I will show to you.
And that seems to be what's on Mark's mind
as he records this story
and its meaning for us here in this text.
How is the glory of Christ revealed?
It's revealed not only in the fact
that he can walk along the sea,
but also that he is walking past them.
He's taking the role of Yahweh himself
and the revelation of his glory.
And he is saying to them,
I am your God come in the flesh to be with you.
I am not just a wonder worker who can walk on the sea,
but I am God himself who comes to you and for you.
And I am here with you even now.
I am that cleft in the rock.
And I will hide you in my protection.
My presence will give you the true stability
that you're looking for.
But as so often in the gospel account
and from this fact,
I suppose we should take a lot of encouragement.
The disciples are so often wrong.
They so often miss the point.
It shows the great patience of our God.
And the patience of our God
is something that we should be reassured about often
because we are so often wrong.
They completely miss the point.
They don't see the glory.
They don't anticipate that this Jesus,
whom they've seen multiply five loaves and two fish
to feed over 5,000 people,
they're surprised that he is glorious in this way.
And so they completely mistake what was happening.
Verse 49,
when they saw him walking on the sea,
they thought it was a ghost.
Isn't that pathetic?
They're still caught up in all kinds of superstitions.
They can't believe their own eyes.
Rather than believe that Jesus is the glorious God
come to be with them and to help them
and to reveal himself to them,
they take refuge in some kind of superstition
about ghosts on the water.
And they cry out and are terrified.
So not only does the Savior perform this miracle
of walking on the water,
not only does he seek to reveal his own glory
as he would pass them by,
but then he speaks to them.
And here too we see something
of the glory of his presence.
He not only says take heart
or take courage
and don't be afraid,
but also we read here that he says,
it is I.
It is I.
Now that's not a bad translation
of what we read in the Greek,
but it misses the force
of what Mark has intended for us to hear
in the words of the Savior
because the text literally says,
take heart,
I am,
don't be afraid.
I am.
Here again you see the Savior
is identifying himself
with the great Old Testament God,
Yahweh,
who revealed himself
as the great I am
whose very name Yahweh
is rooted in the very notion of being.
Jesus is saying to them,
like I told Moses long ago,
I am.
Or as we find him saying
in the Gospel of John,
before Abraham was,
I am.
This is a claim of divinity.
No Jew would have missed it.
Mark doesn't want us to miss it.
This is part of the glorious presence
of the Savior.
We are to know
that Savior is indeed true man,
but here the point of this text
is that he is true God,
come in the flesh
to be with his people,
to be present with them,
to show his glory,
that we might be encouraged,
that we might be confident,
that when we face distress,
we can know that the great I am,
the eternal almighty God,
who made all that there is,
is with us in the face of Jesus Christ,
and that the Savior will come to us
and will help us.
And that's the second point of this text,
I think.
It's not only his presence,
the glorious presence of the Savior
that's revealed,
but also his power that is revealed
to encourage us here.
His power is displayed here
for a gracious purpose,
to help and to save.
He saves them, doesn't he?
They're straining at the oars.
They were not sure
they could reach the shore
because the wind was against them.
Caught in a storm,
they are afraid,
and Jesus comes to them
and speaks a word,
and the storm is calm.
Here is power,
power for a gracious purpose,
to save, to provide.
Once again,
the disciples live up
to their total inability
to grasp what is going on,
verse 51 and 52.
They were utterly astounded.
They are completely amazed
because they had not understood
about the loaves,
but their hearts were hardened.
It's as if Mark is saying,
why should they have been so amazed?
But the reason they are so amazed
at the miracle
of the calming of the storm
is because they had never understood
the miracle of the feeding
of the 5,000.
That's to say,
they had never seen
in Jesus Christ
what they ought to have seen,
what was clearly revealed to them
by these actions.
Look at verse 34
of Mark chapter 6.
When he, Jesus,
went ashore,
he saw a great crowd
and he had compassion on them
because they were like sheep
without a shepherd.
He had compassion on them
because he was the good shepherd.
His heart was filled with love
for his people
because he was fulfilling the duty
and the privilege
that the Father had given him
and that he had freely undertaken,
that he had come to be
that good shepherd.
That savior of his people.
The provider for those in need.
The one who would exercise
gracious power for them.
He had shown that
by taking time to teach them.
And he had shown that
by providing bread and fish
to nourish them.
But they didn't get it.
Why didn't they get it?
They didn't get it
because for them
it was all about themselves.
It was all about
what they could get
out of Christ.
When they had rushed ahead
to get ahead of Jesus
in the boat
before the feeding
of the 5,000,
why had they rushed?
Was it because
they were so devoted
to the Savior?
Was it because
they were so eager
to be with him,
to have fellowship
with him?
Was it because
they had sensed
his glorious presence
and his gracious power?
No, they had rushed ahead
so that they could get healed.
So that they could get
what they wanted.
When they were hungry
and he fed them,
they didn't think about him
but only about themselves
and what they required.
So too,
when the crowd,
when he comes,
when Christ comes
and he saves the disciples
as they're caught
in the storm,
do they think about him
and who he is?
No, they don't get it.
They don't get
that this gracious power
is revealing to them
a Savior
and a provider
beyond what they
could have hoped.
One who will never
let them go.
Who will never
abandon them.
Who will provide
for them
all that they need
so that they can
take courage
and not be afraid.
So that,
as things so often
seem,
as the world
crumbles around them,
they can be sure
of the permanence,
of the reliability,
of the stability
that they have
and the Savior,
the great I am
in Christ,
that God's ultimate
verdict is sure
that nothing
can thwart
his purposes.
You see,
the disciples here
as they so often
do are trying
to fit God
into their story.
They're always asking
the question,
how does God
apply to my life?
How does God
fit into what I
want to do?
How does God
meet my needs?
That's not the first
question I think
God would have us
to ask,
is it?
Our question
ought to be,
how has God
brought me
into his story?
How have I been
brought into the
great history
of redemption?
Which goes back
to Israel
in the Old Testament,
back to Abraham
and the patriarchs,
back to the promise
in the garden,
back to the eternal
plan of the Father
and the Son
with the Spirit
that Christ
should be given
a people
that he will save
and redeem,
a kingdom
that has no end?
You see,
when we first know
the character
of our Savior,
when we see
how the Lord
reveals his compassion
and his love,
his care
and provision
for us,
it must melt
our hearts
if we are
his people.
It must enable
us to say,
whatever distress
I face,
whatever difficulty
I know,
I can take courage
because I have
such a Savior.
And the Scriptures
invite us to have
that kind of courage
even when Jesus
does not come
immediately
to remove
our distress
as we would wish.
think of these
words in Hebrews
chapter 10
verse 32
where the author
of the epistle
to the Hebrews
is trying to
stir up in the people
the kind of devotion
and confidence
that they have once had.
Hebrews 10
32
we read,
Remember those
earlier days
when you had
received the light
and stood your ground
in a great contest
in the face
of suffering?
Sometimes you were
publicly exposed
to insult
and persecution.
At other times
you stood side
by side
with those
who were so treated.
You sympathized
with those in prison
and joyfully accepted
the confiscation
of your property
because you knew
that you yourselves
had better
and lasting possessions.
So do not
throw away
your confidence.
It will be
richly rewarded.
You need to persevere
so that when you
have done the will
of God
you will receive
what he has promised.
For in just
a very little while
he who is coming
will come
and will not delay.
But my righteous
one will live
by faith
and if he shrinks
back
I will not be
pleased with him.
You see
these were
suffering people
and they were
prone sometimes
to wonder
where is God?
Where is the promise
of his coming?
Where is the help
that I need?
And Hebrews
says even
when that help
does not come
as quickly
as we would wish
as we would
like it to see
as we would
like to see it
we're told
do not throw
away your confidence
for in just
a very little
while
he who is coming
will come
and will not
delay.
That's the promise.
That's the promise
that he's not
far away
that he is not
late in coming
that he knows
our need
and will use
his gracious
power to give
us what we need
to sustain us
therefore take
heart
be courageous
don't be afraid.
Our courage
comes not only
from his presence
and from his power
but also from
the prayer
of the Savior.
we need always
to remember
that Jesus
was a man
of prayer.
He was a man
of prayer
not only
to model
for us
the centrality
of prayer
the importance
of prayer
in the Christian
life
but also
and above all
because he was
in constant
fellowship
and communication
with the Father.
So we read
in verse 46
of Mark
chapter 6
verse 46
after he had
taken leave
of them
that is the
crowd
to whom he
had been
ministering
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
straining
against the oars
for the wind
was against them.
Now
did he see
them in his
prayers?
Did he finish
his prayers
and then see
them?
I think the
text is unclear
but it does
want to relate
very carefully
and very closely
the prayers
of the Savior
to his seeing
the needs
of his people.
And we need
to remember
that that is
still true
of the Savior
today.
His priestly
work you'll
remember is
twofold.
First to offer
himself as the
sacrifice for sin.
That's the first
great work of a
priest to offer
sacrifice.
But the second
work continues
even to this
day.
The work of
prayer.
The priest
first of all
offers sacrifice
for the people
and then he
intercedes for
them.
He prays for
them.
And the
scripture tells
us over and
over again
that Jesus
Christ is
still praying
for us.
That he still
knows our
need.
That he still
sees us in
our difficulty.
and he
prays to the
father for
us that we
would be
guarded and
protected.
The Savior
knows our
weaknesses.
He knows our
doubts.
He knows our
difficulties.
He knows even
our times of
indifference to
the things of
God.
But he tells
us, doesn't
he, draw near
for I am with
you and you
will receive
mercy and
grace to
help in
times of
need.
Again we
read in
Hebrews 6
and 7 that
Jesus is our
priest forever.
That he
always lives to
make intercession
for his
people.
And he
says to us,
I have come
to you that
you might flee
to me for
refuge, that
you might have
strong encouragement
to hold fast to
the hope set
before you, the
sure and
steadfast anchor
of your soul.
And that's a
critical part of
the work of our
Savior.
That he is
always caring
for us, that
he is always
guarding us, that
he is always
providing for us
all that we
need.
Let us remember
loved ones that
we have such a
Savior, that we
have such a
mediator who
cares for us, who
never forgets us.
You see that's
the reality that
so moved our
forebears in the
faith with
confidence in
God.
Perhaps some of
you have heard
one of the great
16th century
Reformation quotes
from a Spanish
soldier who
said he would
rather face a
whole army than
one Calvinist
committed to
doing the will
of God.
That's a
motivating confidence
in God.
It says, my
God is with me
in his presence,
in his power,
in his prayers,
and in a world
of difficulty and
discouragement,
of conflict and
war, of political
soundbites, of
forces that would
compete for our
attention endlessly,
that would jostle us
like boats in a
storm.
We need to be
reminded that in
our Savior, Jesus
Christ, we receive a
kingdom that cannot be
shaken, and that we
have even now a
foretaste of all that
we will have fully on
the last day.
I was reminded of
that this morning.
That's why we come
to church, isn't it?
So that we can hear
again and again,
because we forget,
we doubt, we're not
always convinced it's
true.
We need to be reminded
that God has made real
promises to us with
real words.
We can see, as we did
this morning, twice,
real water to seal
that promise to us
in baptism, real bread
and wine to nourish
us in the supper.
We come so that we
can hear and sing
and pray God's word
together, so that we
might be a people
together that knows
our God and that has
great confidence in
him.
But then we read in
Mark 6 that at the
time, the disciples
were amazed.
They were
astounded.
That is, they were
filled with wonder.
That is, they were
impressed.
Throughout the gospel
accounts, we find people
being impressed.
The trouble with being
impressed is that it's
what happens to those
who go to the circus,
to those who hang out
with celebrities,
politicians who can
promise to do
impressive things.
our Savior does not
want us to be
impressed.
He wants us to
believe.
But what is it to
believe?
It is here revealed to
us that believing is to
see the glorious
presence of Christ and
not be afraid.
To know that he is not
a ghost, but he is
alive and he is with
us.
It is to have faith,
to know and trust that
the gracious power of
our Savior is
exercised for us.
to know and trust that
the guarding prayers of
our mediator surround us
at all times.
To hear and believe when
he says to us,
take heart, take
courage, be
courageous, do not be
afraid.
What difficulty that we
face could ever stand
against our Savior?
May God grant to each
one of us that courage
that we find only in
Christ.
Amen.
Let us pray.
O Lord, our God, we
thank you that we have
such a Savior.
We pray that again and
again that we might be
renewed in our
believing.
We confess it is so easy
for us, O Lord, to be
overwhelmed by the things
of this world.
By very real and
legitimate fears and
struggles and to take
our eyes off of the
Savior so that we do
not hear his gracious
word.
But, O Lord, we ask
that word would ring in
our hearts and minds
that he is and that he
is for us who are his
people.
He is the mighty one
whose kingdom cannot be
toppled.
By your spirit, we ask
that we may embrace and
hold fast to that
blessed hope of eternal
life which you have
given us in Christ.
We pray that you would
fill us with that faith,
O Lord, and from that
faith let courage flow as
we live for you.
Hear us, for we pray all
of this in Christ's name.
Amen.
Would you please stand with
me as we sing together our
final psalm, Psalm 121.
Amen.
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