Jesus Walks on Water and Softens His Disciples’ Hearts (Mark Sermon 29)

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 6. This morning we’re going to be looking at one of the most famous miracles of Jesus’s life. Oftentimes, we hear that expression about somebody walking on water, and we speak of it maybe a little sarcastically- “It’s not like he walks on water or anything like that.” We use that expression, so it’s well-known. Somebody who thinks too highly of themself or others or ascribing too great things to an individual, but with Jesus it’s exactly the opposite. We think too little of him. We don’t understand who He is. This miracle account is written to remedy that.

I ask this every time I get up to preach. I think about this as we make our way through this incredible Gospel of Mark. Why did the Holy Spirit give us this account? What does He want us to get out of it? Again and again, I have presented before you not just the Gospel of Mark, but all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as working together to feed us what we need for the salvation of our souls. “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in. . .” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, ” but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and by believing may have life in His name.” These accounts are written for our faith, that we might believe in Jesus and have eternal life, the forgiveness of sins.

But what is the nature of that faith? Can it grow and develop? Yes, it must grow and develop. There is an initial faith that saves, that justifies, and it begins our life in Christ, but it needs to grow and develop. None of us are done being saved. We need to believe ever more in Jesus.

I. The Disciples’ Hardened Hearts

We have a sense of that in the disciples’ condition that’s recorded for us in verse 52. Look at it. You can see the disciples’ hardened hearts being reflected. This is a key for me to answer the question, “Why is this text here? “ What do we, First Baptist Church, what do we need to get out of it today? Look at it. Look at verse 52, ”They [the disciples, the apostles] “had not understood about the loaves. Their hearts were hardened.” What does that mean? What does it mean they hadn’t understood about the loaves? What does it mean that their hearts were hardened? Could that be our condition too? We haven’t really fully understood what we’ve been reading, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We haven’t fully understood the ramifications of Jesus, the lesson of the loaves. Why? Because our hearts are hardened too.

Again and again, I’ve said it’s very dangerous to come to any text in which some deficiencies of people are recorded, sins or conditions, and say, “I thank you, God, that I’m not like the people down here in this text.” Rather it should be, “How am I like these people? How am I like the disciples? How is it that I haven’t understood the lesson of the loaves? How is it that my heart is hardened toward Jesus?”

What does that mean? What is a hardened heart? I think it means spiritually resistant, fighting against what the word of God is doing. God’s pulling you or moving you in a direction, and you’re digging in your heels and not going the direction that the word of God wants to take you. That’s what it means, like the parable of the seed and the soils, the hardened path. The seed comes and bounces. It doesn’t penetrate, and so you’re resisting, you’re fighting. It’s the nature of our sinful hearts.

This condition refers to the condition of the disciples. They hadn’t understood the lesson about the loaves. What is that? That’s the context here, the feeding of the 5,000, this most recent miracle that they went through that we looked at last time, the feeding of  the 5,000. Jesus fed 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves and two fish. The disciples had been directly involved in that process. They had brought the problem to Jesus. Jesus put it back on them. They couldn’t solve it. Jesus miraculously multiplied the loaves and the fish and gave them to the disciples, who then distributed them to the crowd with their own hands. They were involved. They saw matter, material being created out of nothing, out of thin air. They saw it and distributed it to as many as 20,000 or more people. The people kept eating and eating and eating and eating until they were gorged. They were full. They couldn’t eat another bite. Incredible. Then they were involved in picking up the broken pieces that were left over, “Let nothing be wasted.” They did all that work. They filled twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. They were involved in all of that.

But the text says, the Holy Spirit tells us, they hadn’t understood the lesson because their hearts were hardened. What is the lesson? What could it be? That Jesus is the Son of God? There is nothing that is too difficult for him. There’s nothing he cannot do. Therefore, they should trust him fully for every condition in their lives.  That doesn’t sound like anything new. I’m not up here to say new things. I’m up here to say that we need to learn the lesson of the loaves, and indeed the lesson of every miracle: Jesus is almighty God in the flesh who came to earth to save you. He will save you. He will not finish working in you until you are glorified in heaven. Every circumstance of your life has been carefully crafted to that end, and he’s ruling over all of it. That’s the lesson of the loaves. We need to learn it too.

“Jesus is almighty God in the flesh who came to earth to save you. He will save you. He will not finish working in you until you are glorified in heaven. Every circumstance of your life has been carefully crafted to that end, and he’s ruling over all of it. “

Their hearts were hard. They hadn’t understood the lesson of the loaves or the earlier stilling of the storm or the driving out of the legion of demons or the woman with the problem, the bleeding problem, for twelve years who touched the hem of his garment and was instantly healed. They hadn’t understood that. They hadn’t understood the raising of Jairus’ dead daughter to life. They hadn’t understood all of these things like they should. They could make a confession, a testimony, “You are the Son of God.” They could say those words. We all who are claiming to be Christians can make that same kind of testimony, but we don’t really understand it. That’s the nature of the lesson here. Their hearts were hard so that God still has to draw them to Christ in a deeper way. That’s the context of the situation we’re looking at here.

Remember the feeding of the 5,000 had just happened. Before that, they had been sent out, the twelve had been sent out on their first mission, their first practice mission trip. They went out two by two, and Jesus had empowered them with a wonder-working, miracle-working power themselves. They were able to drive out demons. They were able to anoint sick people with oil and heal them. They were able to preach that people should repent. They went on that mission, and then they came back and reported to Jesus all the things they had done.

But because the crowds were huge, they continued to be huge, and they couldn’t even address any of their physical needs, they couldn’t get enough rest or eat or anything, Jesus said to them, “Come away with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went. Also, the context, as we said, was John the Baptist’s death, the only account in Mark’s gospel that doesn’t have anything directly to do with Jesus, but it’s important. John the Baptist had been beheaded at the order of wicked King Herod, because he was incited by the lustful dance of a young girl. So John the Baptist was dead.

All of these things had come together. They cross the lake to get alone, to get to a quiet place, but they couldn’t escape the crowd. A huge crowd was there. When Jesus landed, He had compassion on them, the text tells us, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He met all their needs. He taught them many things. He healed their sick, and He fed them. He filled their empty stomachs. He did all of that. “Your needs are met. You’re fine. Go home.” So He does that. He sends them away vigorously. Look at verse 45, “Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him. Then he dismissed the crowds.” They’re going to Bethsaida. He dismissed the crowd. This is a place where people aren’t usually. There’s nobody usually here. “You shouldn’t be here. It’s time to go home. Go. Go away.” So they did.

That crowd that He dismissed, we find out in John 6 was carnal and faithless. By the end of the next day, most of them would leave Jesus and never follow him again because their understanding of the kingdom was purely physical. They wanted another meal. They wanted to take him by force and make him king so He could whip up on the Romans. They had very a carnal attitude toward the kingdom of God. They did not want the spiritual kingdom Jesus came to bring in, a right relationship with almighty God by the forgiveness of their sins through the shedding of his blood on the cross. They didn’t want any of that, so they’re gone.Jesus sends his disciples away, sends the faithless crowd away, and finally the time has come for Jesus himself to be alone and he’s finally alone. He goes up on a mountainside to pray.

II. Jesus’ Powerful Ministry for His Disciples

Part two, we see Jesus’s powerful ministry for his disciples. Now he’s going to start ministering on behalf of his disciples.  Putting Matthew’s account together with this account in Mark and the account in John, if you put the three accounts together, there actually are six miracles that Jesus does here on behalf of his disciples. Six of them. We’ll walk through them. There are six amazing things that Jesus does to strengthen the faith of his disciples. We’re going to see Jesus’s supernatural vision of his disciples in their plight. We’re going to see, obviously, the central miracle, the one we know about, Jesus walking on the water.

In Matthew’s account, Peter comes out of the boat and walks on the water to Jesus, doing something he could never physically do if Jesus did not give him power to do it. Then when he, through unbelief, starts to sink, Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and saves him. Then when He climbs back into the boat, immediately the wind and the waves die down just like earlier. But He doesn’t say anything, they just die down. It’s pretty obvious though that He has ended the storm.

Then make note of this, John 6:21. You can already start flipping ahead there. Put a bookmark because we’re going to go over there, a miracle probably most of you have never seen before. We’ll get there. Six miracles, an amazing array of the powers of Jesus. Not just one, but six. The one is amazing enough,  people just don’t walk on water. We’re going to get to that in due time.

All of this though, I want to couch in context of Jesus’s ministry to the spiritual condition of his disciples. Yes, they have immediate physical needs. They’re in danger again. They’re in a storm in the lake, in the sea, and the wind is against them. They’re not making progress. There is definitely danger. This time, He’s not in the boat with them, so they’re in great danger. He’s going to care for them, but the text tells us to look above the immediate physical circumstances to their spiritual condition, the hardness of their hearts.  Jesus is going to be ministering to their hardened hearts, bringing them to a higher level of faith in Jesus than they’d ever known before, moving from faithless fear to faith-filled adoration. That’s the movement of this passage, and hopefully that will happen for us.

It begins with Jesus’s prayer time. We don’t know what He prayed for or about. We don’t have any content of Jesus’s prayer, but I do believe that central to it always was the concern that Jesus had for his sheep, for his people, so He would be praying for them, interceding for them. Look at verses 45 – 47. “Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake and he was alone on land.”

Now, Jesus had his own reasons to be alone, to strengthen himself. He loved, as we learned in Mark 1, to go to solitary places and pray, to get away from everyone and be alone and pray. That was his regular habit. He wanted that vertical communion with his Father. He loved to pray. He enjoyed his prayer times, and He got renewed in strength by praying to his Father.  Undoubtedly, He was pouring out his grief before his Father over the death of John the Baptist, his cousin, his forerunner, the one predicted in Isaiah the prophet, “A voice of one calling in the desert.” This is the one who had been frivolously beheaded by wicked King Herod, and so He wants to pour out that grief. Undoubtedly, also hearing from the Father what He was to do going forward. Jesus made it very plain again and again, “I don’t do anything except what the Father has told me to do. I don’t speak any words except what the Father’s told me to say.”  We have to imagine a lot of Jesus’s daily prayer times were, “What do you want me to do today, Father?” As the servant of the Lord, He listened to his Father and then did what his Father told him to do. So He’s doing all of that.  But, as I said, we must imagine the centerpiece of his prayer time was the heart condition of his disciples. He must have been asking the Father to soften his disciples’ hardened hearts, that they would understand not merely the lesson of the loaves, but all the lessons He was trying to teach them. Jesus is our great high priest. Hebrews 7:24-25 says that Jesus has a permanent priesthood, “Therefore he is able to save to the uttermost,” [or to finish the salvation] “of everyone who comes to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father, and that includes especially the gifts of our salvation. Jesus is at the right hand of God and is interceding for you right now and praying for you that your faith will not fail, and that you will get everything you need for the sustaining and growth and development of your faith. More than anything, that’s the ministry of the word. He’s praying for you at the right hand of God. He is our Great High Priest and is interceding.

We could well imagine Jesus is up there on the mountain praying to the Father for his disciples. “Father, work in these men. Work in them. Their hearts are hardened. They’ve seen all of these miracles and they have a little faith, but it needs to grow. Father, would you develop their faith? Would you expand it? Enable me now to show my greatness to them that they will trust in me more fully.” Something like that..

But then miracle number one, Jesus saw his disciples’ danger. Look again, verse 47-48, “When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them.” Now, you have to understand what’s going on. By the time He actually walks out to them, we’ll talk about this in a minute, it’s somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 AM. It’s the middle of the night. It’s dark and it’s stormy. There are clouds. There’s rain, perhaps. There’s wind, certainly. They are miles away from him. He’s up on a mountain, but it says He saw them.

How do you explain that? How do you explain that He sees that the wind is powerfully against them and that they’re trying to row to land but they can’t make any headway? You have to realize, at that moment in time, that moment in redemptive history, those twelve apostles were the kingdom of God on earth. They represented where this whole thing was going, and they’re in the middle of a sea in a storm in great danger. Jesus sees them. He saw them straining at their oars. How? Well, Jesus is our Good Shepherd. It says in John 10:14, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.”

Prophets just know things supernaturally. I was reading recently the account of the life of Elisha. I don’t know if you remember how that time the account in 2 Kings 5, I think it is, where he heals Naaman the Syrian. He’s a very powerful, wealthy man who has leprosy. He hears that there’s a prophet in Israel, Elisha, who can do amazing things. So he goes, and Elisha tells him to wash seven times in the Jordan River. He eventually does, and he’s cured. He tries to pay Elisha for the healing, and Elisha doesn’t want anything to do with that.  He’s on his way back when Elisha’s servant Gehazi says, “What do we do?” This is a missed opportunity, a missed business opportunity. So what does Gehazi do? He leaves Elisha and goes running after Naaman the Syrian, catches up with him. Naaman gets down out of his chariot and says, “What can I do for you?” He says, “Well, it turns out some of the prophets have come and they have some needs and all.” “Oh,” he said, “well, do you need some money?” “Yeah, maybe a talent of silver.” He said, “Take two, and take a bunch of clothes.” So he gives him all this stuff. Here is Gehazi trucking all this stuff back, hides it all away, and then goes back into the presence of Elisha.Now comes an interesting moment. Elisha, I always picture him not looking at Gehazi as he comes back in the room. He’s doing something, over his shoulder he says, “Where did you go, Gehazi?” “Oh, I didn’t go anywhere. Stop right there. Do you understand who you’re talking to? You’re talking to a prophet of God. You don’t lie to a prophet of God, you shouldn’t lie any time anyway. But this is what Elisha said, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from the chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money or accept clothes or olive groves or vineyards, flocks, herds, menservants, maidservants? Well, therefore Naaman’s leprosy is going to cling to you and to your descendants forever.’ And Gehazi went out leprous, white as snow.”

Now, “Was not my spirit with you when that guy got down out of the chariot? I could see it.” It’s prophetic vision. Jesus is the King of all prophets. He just knows what’s going on in your life. He sees everything. It’s a miracle. He knows what you’re going through right now. He knows what you’re thinking right now. He knows everything. He knows the circumstances of your life. That’s the first miracle.

“Jesus is the King of all prophets. He just knows what’s going on in your life. He sees everything.”

Then Jesus goes out to his disciples, verse 48, “About the fourth watch of the night, he went out to them walking on the sea.” He knows the incredible danger they’re in and He will be with them. Again and again, God says this. He says to Isaac, “I will be with you.” He says to Jacob, “I will be with you.” He says to Moses, “I will be with you when you go to Pharaoh.” After Moses died and Joshua took over, he said, “I will be with you.” God said to Gideon, “I will be with you.” Jesus said to his disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.” Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. “I will be with you.” He says it in the Great Commission. “And surely I will be with you even to the end of the age.” So his coming out physically ,to physically be with them is … we’re supposed to read it also spiritually. He is with you. He comes out to you.

But as He does, He displays his power over the sea. He’s walking on the sea. This is an astonishing miracle of miracles. It’s an amazing stormy night, the fourth watch of the night, that’s Roman designation. It seems Mark was writing for a Roman audience. That’s somewhere between 3:00 and 6:00 AM. There is no other explanation for this other than a supernatural suspension of the laws of nature. Some unbelieving commentators on this say that Jesus had actually found a floating chunk of ice and was … I mean, really. Or there was a hidden sandbar all the way out miles out into the middle of the … I mean, the things that people do. No, Jesus walked on the water.

If I can just tell you something, stuff sinks. Have you ever dived into a pool? You went down. The very next chapter after that whole Elisha and Gehazi thing, some of the guys there are chopping wood with an ax, and the ax head flies off and falls into a lake. They say to Elisha, “It was borrowed.” He goes over and he shaves a stick and puts it in there and makes the ax head float. That’s a miracle. Ax heads don’t float.  This is the nature of God. He creates a world that runs by what we generally call the laws of science or the laws of nature. It’s why science works because God has established the earth. It can never be moved. What that means is the way things were yesterday is the way things will be today and tomorrow. That’s how science works. The experiment you did two weeks ago, if you just set everything up exactly the same way, it’ll happen again. That’s why we can build a body of knowledge. That is the world we live in. We’re used to it. We’re not reinventing the wheel like every day ,who knows what’s going to happen? You guys are very familiar with the law of gravity.  You feel it. You’re feeling it right now.  It’s like, pastor, please don’t go over the obvious. The Earth wants to pull you to its center and something stops you called the floor.  When you’re on water, things are a little different, but you’re still heading down that way. There’s that buoyancy thing, but buoyancy’s different than walking across the water. Jesus does this incredible miracle. Jesus has the power to toggle on and off laws of nature any time. He’s above it, He walks above the laws of nature. He usually, I would say almost always, in his incarnation submitted to them like everyone else. What did Jesus do once he finally arrived at his disciples? He got in the boat. What did he use the boat for? Not because he needed it, but that’s our normal way of living, and so He steps in and He uses it. But in this particular case, He suspends the law of gravity to walk on water.

Now, He’s going to do it again at the end of his time on earth. Remember, after his resurrection. He’s going to go outside the city of Jerusalem. He’s going to go to the Mount of Olives with his apostles, and they’re going to watch him soar up from the surface of the earth higher and higher and higher, until finally a cloud hides him from their sight. Again, He suspended the laws of nature at the ascension. Jesus is over every law.

Now, as He does this,He calms their faithless fears. He’s about to pass by them. It says, “But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately, he spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.’” Or, “Take heart. It is I. Don’t be afraid.” I must tell you, sometimes it’s good for a pastor just to say, I don’t know because here in the text, I don’t know why the text says He meant to pass by them. I find that interesting. If any of you have any theories, come tell me. I basically punted on it. Maybe it’s just how He appeared to them, but the text seems to talk about his own intentions. He’s intending to pass by them, but when He hears them crying out, He goes to be with them. It’s pretty obvious he wants to interact with them.

In any case, when they saw him walking on the water, they were overwhelmed with terror. They know that human beings cannot walk on water, and so they resorted to a common myth of ghosts, of spirit beings, apparitions. Jesus at his bodily resurrection is going to have to drive this same misconception out. He said, “I’m not a ghost. Ghosts don’t have flesh and bones as you see I have. Touch me. Touch my body.” He ate some broiled fish in front of them because ghosts don’t do that either. He has to deal with that, and that’s what they’re thinking, so He calls out to them. They recognize his face in his voice. He literally says, “Take heart, I am.” In the Greek it says “I am.’ All the English translations are going to say, “It is I.” But I like” I am” better. Why? That’s God’s name. That’s the lesson of the loaves. Jesus is “I am.” He is almighty God in the flesh. That’s who He is. So He says, “Take heart, I am. I am God. Don’t be afraid.”

Now, in Mark’s gospel account, Jesus just gets into the boat at that point. He climbed into the boat with them. Oddly, Mark omits the whole Peter venture. Scholars believe that Mark is Peter’s mouthpiece, the number one human source of Mark’s information was the Apostle Peter. That may well be. It could be that Peter at that point having been deeply humbled by God over those years, didn’t want to present himself as one who also walked on the water. I don’t know. I’m just saying it’s not in Mark, but it is over in Matthew. So if you want, you can turn over to Matthew 14 and look at 28-31 or just listen.  As Jesus is still out there on the sea and says, “Take heart, I am,” or, “It is I. Don’t be afraid,” Peter calls out to him from the boat and says, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the waves, on the water.” He doesn’t take it on himself to do that. But this idea pops in his mind. It’s a remarkable idea. Then Jesus gives him a command that he could not follow except that the supernatural power of God came upon Peter. “Come,” He said, “Come.”

If God gives you a command, then God must empower you to do it. It’s no different than Revelation 4, where John sees a doorway open in heaven, and the voice says to John, “Come up here.” They’re equally miraculous. “Come, Peter, walk on the water. Come John, float up from the surface of the earth and see the future.” Those are commands that only God can empower us to do.  Peter gets out of the boat, and by the supernatural power of Christ, begins to walk on the water. But the problem is, as he begins the journey out to Jesus, he looks around at the wind and the waves and begins to doubt, and being afraid, he begins to sink and cries out three word prayer, “Lord, save me.” Those are effective prayers, by the way. There’s no flourishing language here. There’s a sense of urgency and need, “Lord, save me.” Immediately, Jesus reaches out his hand and grabs hold of him and lifts him up, again by supernatural power. But then He rebukes him and he says, “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?” That’s an amazing sub-story in the midst of all of that, and that seems to be the whole work right now at that moment in all of the apostles. “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?”

“If God gives you a command, then God must empower you to do it.”

I think it’s good for all of us to stand under the same rebuke or correction, to say, “I am of little faith. Now, I’m not of no faith. I’m a Christian, but I am of little faith. Help me not to doubt. Help my unbelief. Help me grow in my understanding of who Jesus is.” But there’s still two more miracles to go. Jesus calmed the storm immediately, verse 51. “Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down.” Jesus doesn’t say anything to the wind and the waves. The disciples must have understood, however, it was Jesus’s power that ended that storm. He just thought it, and the storm’s over, instantly done as soon as He gets in the boat.

Now, the final miracle’ is in John 6:21. In that account, we have this one statement. By the way, I’ve shared this with, I think, five people this week. All five of them said the same thing to me, “I’ve never seen that before.” So here you go. Maybe you have. John 6:21, “Then they were willing to take him,” [being Jesus], “into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore to which they were heading.” Wait, what? What just happened? I don’t know. What do you think happened? What happened to the boat? What does the word immediately mean? I looked into it. John doesn’t use this word very much. It always means instantly or the very next thing. They were in the middle of the sea, miles from shore, and then suddenly they’re not. Does Jesus have that kind of power? Jesus has more power than you can possibly imagine. Does He have the power to move a boat from miles offshore to the shore? Yes, He does.

Do you remember the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch? He’s there out in the desert and he shares the gospel with him. Then the eunuch gets baptized. What happened next to Philip? He disappeared. Really? Where did he end up? A place called Azotus, miles away.  Now, if you’d been in that boat, wouldn’t you be looking around like, wait, what just happened? How did we get here? It’s incredible. Jesus has this kind of power over wind, over waves, over the law of gravity, buoyancy. He has this kind of power over every condition on earth. Those are the lessons of the six miracles.

III. The Disciples Moved to Worship Jesus

The disciples then are moved to worship Jesus. Their hearts had been hard, but now they worship. Verse 51- 52. “They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves. Their hearts were hardened.” The phrase “completely amazed” means literally “beside themselves.” They’re beside themselves with wonder. Matthew tells us what they said. They said, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” That’s the whole destination of all four gospels. “These miracle accounts are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God and by believing may have life in his name.” They’re worshiping him.

I do believe that this may have been the basis of their strength and faith in Jesus, which was really shining at the end of the next day. I told you about that faithless crowd that was there for another meal the next day and they wanted to take Jesus by force and make him king and all of those things? He has a long discussion in John 6, and then weeds out the crowd saying, “You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. If you don’t eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.” He says these things that are hard to accept and they all leave. Jesus turns to his apostles and says, “You don’t want to leave too, do you?” He said that to the twelve. “Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the holy one of God.'” Jesus said, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? And one of you is a devil.” But I think the 11 who genuinely believed, it was this experience that strengthened them and moved them ahead a quantum leap in their understanding of the greatness of Jesus.

IV. Jesus Resumes His Ministry to the Crowds

The account ends with Jesus resuming his ministry to the crowds. “When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout the whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages, towns or countryside, they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch the edge of his cloak. And all who touched him were healed.” So this is just, again, a summary statement of a vast number of miracles. John tells us, “I didn’t write them all. Frankly, if all of them were written down, the world couldn’t contain all the books that would be written.” So this is one of those summaries of hundreds, maybe even thousands of miracles.

I also think it’s interesting about the hem and the garment. I think it was that woman with the bleeding problem that first did that and maybe news got out, hey, that’s a way to get some of that power from Jesus. But it worked. “All those who touched the hem of his garment were healed,” it says.

V. Application

What applications and lessons can we take from this? The Bible is written, as I said, to bring us to saving faith. There is initial saving faith when you finally realize who Jesus is and why He came to earth. He is almighty God in the flesh who was born of the virgin Mary, who lived a sinless life and did all these incredible miracles and taught all these great teachings. Why? Because you needed a Savior. Because you’re a sinner. You’ve broken God’s laws daily, hourly, and you stand under the wrath of God. Apart from his saving work, you’ll be condemned to hell.

God saw that you couldn’t save yourself. There was no way you could save yourself, and so He sent his Son to live this sinless, righteous, perfect life and weave a perfect garment of righteousness that he offers you as a gift to tell you to put on. If you wear that righteousness, that imputed righteousness of Christ, you will survive judgment day and no other way.

Conversely, all of your wickedness and sins and all the things you’ve done, of which there’s a perfect record in heaven, every careless word we have ever spoken is recorded and written down, and you stand under the wrath of God, all of that, Jesus was willing to drink that cup on the cross to die in your place. You trust in him and your sins will be forgiven. Your sins will be forgiven. If that happens to you, you will never be, can never be, more righteous, more forgiven than you are at that first instant.

But then the next part starts, what we call that journey, that voyage of sanctification, of living out your Christian faith in this physical world. That’s where these six miracles help us out.  First of all, realize Jesus sees you and knows what you’re going through all the time. As Isaiah 40 says, “Why do you say, O Israel, and complain, O Jacob, ‘My way is hidden from my God?'” It isn’t. He sees everything.  He knows what you’re going through, and He wants you not to be afraid. He wants you not to be anxious. He says, “Fear not. Take heart. I am. I am God.” He sees you, and He comes out to you walking on the water. What does that mean? He’s orchestrating this whole thing. Even the laws of nature are subservient to Jesus in his desire to save you. Everything is under his feet. He’s walking above all of it. He’s sovereign and in control of all of the trials of your life.

Thirdly, Peter walks on water. Jesus calls on us to do supernaturally, eternally consequential things, maybe not anointing sick people with oil and healing them or driving out demons. That record was established to show the validity of the apostles’ ministry. We don’t need to do all those things now, but we can do something even greater. We can share the gospel that is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Sometimes it feels like it takes as much courage for us to do that as to get out of the boat and walk to Jesus. But what supernatural power is at work in your life to do great things of eternal consequence? So walk on whatever water God has for you to walk on to do the good works he has ordained for you to do by the power of Christ.

Then fourthly, as you’re going through that and you start to sink in life through unbelief because you’re looking too much at the wind and the waves and you’re forgetting Jesus, He has the power to reach out and draw you up. I like that just three word prayer. Pray it as often as you need. “Lord, save me. I’m drowning, I’m sinking, I’m struggling,” and He’ll reach out his hand and save you and pull you up.

Fifthly, the storm ends like that. All storms end. You know that any trouble you’re having in your life is temporary? Anything that’s causing you distress, anything that’s crossing you and making you sad or scared or fearful, all of those things, if you’re a child of God, all of those things are temporary. They are light and momentary. That’s what momentary means. They’re not going to go on. You are going to a world where there’ll be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. They’re all temporary. At some point when they have done their work in you, the Lord will bring those trials to an end. He will end that storm. Just like that, it’ll be over.

Then six, what do I make about this transmutation, this quantum leap of the boat? I’m going to venture out of the boat of sound exegesis here for a minute.  It’s possible that the rowing against the tide may picture your efforts at sanctification. How’s it going? How’s your rowing going as you’re trying to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ? Making good progress? Some days better than others. Is there a quantum leap coming for you? There actually is. Whether that’s what John 6:21 is talking about or not, I know this, the moment you die, your spirit will be instantly made perfect in conformity to Christ, and you will never sin again with your mind or heart. You will forever love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you will love your neighbor perfectly. You won’t have your resurrection body yet if the Lord hasn’t come, but you will be perfected in an instant. Then the second instant that’s coming, resurrection. You’re going to get a glorified body that will shine forever. The quantum leap is coming. So whatever rowing you’re doing, keep doing it. Whatever fighting against wind and tide, it is hard to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, the Lord has power to enable you. We have to battle temptations and lusts and struggles, it’s true. But that quantum leap is coming. Trust in it.

Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the things that we’ve learned today. These six miracles Jesus did are encouraging to us. We pray that you would sustain us as we struggle. Sustain us as we serve. Help us not to give into faithless fear. Help us not to give into anxiety. Help us, oh Lord, to trust in you, to look to you, constantly look to you. Feed our faith by ministry of the word of God. Sustain us and strengthen us. We pray this in Jesus’s name. Amen.

This is one of the most famous accounts of Jesus in the gospels. The concept of one who “walks on water” is well-known in our culture, usually spoken of sarcastically of someone who is arrogant and needs to be brought down a few pegs … “He thinks he walks on water!”

But when it comes to Jesus, the exact opposite dynamic is at work. We all think TOO LOWLY of Jesus, not too highly. We underestimate his greatness, his power, his love, his wisdom, his saving work. The miracle accounts in all four gospels are written to establish and develop saving faith in us.

Yes… establish and develop faith! There is an initial faith in Jesus… but like a growing plant, it has to develop. We Christians are all like the disciples in this account, with hardened hearts and little faith. We DO NOT UNDERSTAND the Bible like we should, and we do not BELIEVE like we should because sin has hardened our hearts. We need to MOVE from point A to point B.

And this miracle story is really one of spiritual transportation… of moving from one place to another.

Now we citizens of the 21st century are so proud of our means of transportation in this modern world. I have personally been on some amazing forms of transportation in my life—like the magnetic levitation bullet train in Japan called the “Skinkansen”… able to travel almost 200 miles per hour and arrive precisely within tenths of second to its scheduled destination. And like most of you, I have been on massive superjets like the Boeing 747 which weighs over 400,000 pounds… a size which would stun Orville and Wilbur Wright. We are a people used to forms of transportation that would be considered miraculous two centuries ago.

But none of these forms of transportation are as significant as the transportation on display in this account.

Certainly the transportation in this account was physical, as Jesus walked from the shore to the boat on top of the waves. That was physical transportation—moving from one place to another—by supernatural power. So also, the account Mark omitted of Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water to Jesus is one of physical transportation—moving from one place to another—by supernatural power. And in John’s Gospel, the boat itself moves instantly from the middle of the sea of Galilee to its final destination. That is also one of physical transportation by supernatural power. Moving form point A to point B.

But the real transportation in this story is spiritual, not physical… the movement of the hardened, fearful, unbelieving hearts of these disciples to faith-filled worship, acclaiming Jesus to be the Son of God with a depth and a breadth they had never known before. No, their spiritual journey was not perfected after this occasion. They would relapse into unbelief again and again. But they never forgot this moment, and their hearts were never the same again.

This account has the power to enable all of us to make the same internal spiritual journey. It has the power to soften our hardened, fear-filled, unbelieving hearts and to transport us ahead by a quantum leap to a whole new dimension of faith if the Spirit chooses to use it fully in all of us.

MAY HE NOW DO SO!!

I. The Disciples’ Hardened Hearts
A. The Statement Clearly Made

Mark 6:52  they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened

1. What does this mean?

2. A “hardened heart” in the scripture means spiritual resistance, being unyielding to the influences of God

3. God is pulling your heart in a direction, but your heart is dragging its feet, not moving in the direction it should go, RESISTING

4. So, this refers to the condition of the disciples… they had not understood about the LOAVES… their hearts were hard

B. Missing the Lesson of the Loaves

1. What was the lesson of the loaves that they did not understand?

2. Well, it was the most recent miracle; it occurred that same day!

3. Jesus had fed five thousand men, plus women and children with five loaves and two fish

4. The disciples had been directly involved in that process; they had seen the bread multiplied over and over again until there was enough for maybe as many as 20,000 people or more to GORGE themselves

5. They had been personally involved in gathering up all the broken pieces that were left over, and had twelve baskets filled with fragments, clear evidence of the creation of matter by the supernatural power of Jesus

6. Okay, they lived through all that, saw it happen… BUT THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE LESSON of the loaves

7. And what is that? Jesus is the Son of God, and there is nothing too difficult for him to do… therefore, they should trust him

8. BUT their hearts were hard, and they hadn’t understood the lesson of loaves, or of the stilling of the storm, or of the driving out of the Legion of demons or of the raising of Jairus’s daughter from the dead, or of the thousands of other miracles they had seen with their own eyes

9. Their hearts were hard; God still had to draw their souls through faith to the Savior

C. The Context

1. We have already said it… the feeding of the 5000

2. But remember what happened before that… they had finished their own initial mission trip, sent out by Jesus with power to do miracles and drive out demons and to preach the gospel; and they had also just found out the tragic news of the murder of John the Baptist, beheaded by King Herod after a girl danced a lusty dance

3. Jesus had wanted to be alone, and he wanted his disciples to be alone…

Mark 6:31  Jesus said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

4. When they had landed and saw the huge crowd, Jesus had compassion on them and met every one of their needs

a. He taught them many truths of the Kingdom of God

b. He healed all their diseases

c. He fed their empty stomachs

5. Now, it was time to send them away… to MAKE them go!

Mark 6:45  Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.

6. The crowd was carnal and faithless, as is proven by the subsequent account in John 6… at the end of that chapter most of them abandoned Jesus and no longer followed him

a. Their understanding of his kingdom was purely carnal… meeting their physical needs

b. They did not want the spiritual kingdom he came to establish by his word and by his blood shed on the cross

7. So he IMMEDIATELY made the disciples get in the boat to cross back over, and he IMMEDIATELY dismissed this faithless crowd

8. Then, finally, the time came for Jesus to pray, alone, on a mountain

II. Jesus’ Powerful Ministry for His Disciples
There are actually six different miracles in the cumulative accounts of Jesus walking on the water… SIX MIRACLES! Not just one!

We will see Jesus’ supernatural vision of his disciples’ danger; Jesus’ supernatural power over the laws of nature—walking on water; Jesus’ supernatural power in Peter’s life, enabling him to walk on water too; Jesus’ supernatural power to save Peter from sinking; Jesus’ supernatural power over the storm—quieting it down instantly; Jesus’ supernatural power over distance and time… instantly moving the boat from the center of the sea to the destination

An amazing display of an array of powers by Jesus, not just one!!

BUT the one is amazing enough! People just don’t WALK ON WATER! We’ll get to that in due time!

But I want to couch all of this in the context of Jesus’ ministry to his disciples… to their immediate physical needs, but more significantly, to their long-term spiritual needs. He is our Good Shepherd, caring for both body and soul in every way imaginable… protecting us from physical danger and from spiritual danger as well

So, let’s organize this in terms of Jesus’ multifaceted and powerful ministry for these weak disciples… moving them from hardened hearts of faithless fear to faith-filled adoration of Jesus

Jesus prayed for his disciples… then saw his disciple’s danger… then walked out to save them… in so doing he displayed his power over the sea… Jesus then calmed his disciples faithless fears… then, in Matthew’s Gospel, the account of Peter walking on the water… and Jesus’ activity in its beginning, middle, and end… then Jesus getting in the boat with the disciples and the storm miraculously and instantly calming… and then the boat instantly crossing over to the short at Gennesaret

It begins with Jesus’ prayer life

A. Jesus Prayed for His Disciples

Mark 6:45-47  Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.  46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.  47 When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.

1. Jesus prayed for his own reasons, to strengthen himself… he loved to go to solitary places to pray, to commune with his Father and get the renewed strength he himself needed

2. Undoubtedly, he poured out his grief over the death of John the Baptist, his cousin, his forerunner, his prophet… so cruelly and frivolously beheaded by the wicked King Herod

3. Undoubtedly, he listened to his Father to get his own marching orders, because he didn’t do anything except by the will of his Father

4. But we must imagine the centerpiece of his prayer time was the heart condition of his disciples

5. He must have been asking God to soften their hardened hearts, to draw them from their lack of understanding and their unbelief to a strong faith in him as the Son of God

6. Jesus is our Great High Priest:

Hebrews 7:24-25  Jesus … has a permanent priesthood.  25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

“O heavenly Father, WORK in these men! Work in them! Their hearts are hardened!! They have seen all these miracles and they have a little faith. But it is not enough! Make their faith GROW! Show them who I am, so I can show them who you are!”

B. Jesus Saw His Disciples Danger

1. The plight of the disciples

Mark 6:47-48  When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.  48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.

2. Jesus is far, far away from them… miles away

3. It is dark… indeed, it is the middle of the night

4. Jesus is way up on the mountain, alone, praying

5. But they are in the middle of the Sea of Galilee

6. Once again, there is a storm on the Sea… not as bad as that hurricane that he stilled, but bad enough

7. The wind is powerfully against them; they can’t use the sails and are trying to row to land, but they are miles off course

8. The power of the wind and waves and currents on the sea are far too great for them

9. And this time, Jesus is not in the boat with them!

10. These Twelve Apostles basically represent the fruit of Jesus’ labors up till this point… they ARE the Kingdom of God on earth, and they are in grave physical danger

11. Most significantly, in verse 48, the text tells us that Jesus SAW them straining at their oars because the wind was against them

12. HOW??? How could he SEE their peril? Well, I think we must understand this as an exercise of his supernatural knowledge…

John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me”

13. Prophets just KNOW things supernaturally; remember when Elisha healed Naaman, the Syrian general, from leprosy; and this wealthy man tried to pay Elisha for his healing, but Elisha refused; but then Elisha’s servant Gehazi was filled with greed and slipped away and chased after Naaman, and asked him for some money and clothing; When Gehazi returned, this was the conversation

2 Kings 5:25-27  “Where have you been, Gehazi?” Elisha asked. “Your servant didn’t go anywhere,” Gehazi answered.  26 But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants?  27 Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and he was leprous, as white as snow.

14. How did Elisha know where Gehazi had gone? What he had done? God showed it to him in supernatural vision.

15. Jesus is the King of all prophets… he just KNOWS things; but the text actually says Jesus SAW his disciples’ situation, though they were miles away, in the dark, in the middle of the sea

16. If you are one of his sheep, Jesus sees you. JESUS SEES YOU!

17. He knows what you’re going through. And he will not let you be destroyed. He will go out to you.

C. Jesus Went Out to His Disciples

Mark 6:48  About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake.

1. Jesus knows the incredible danger the disciples are in

2. They are in peril… more than the earlier time, because this time, he’s not in the boat with them

3. So… he goes out to BE WITH THEM

God said to Isaac, “I will be with you and bless you”

God said to Jacob, “I will be with you” and sent him back to the land of his father

God said to Moses, “I will be with you” when he sent him to Pharaoh

After Moses died, God said to Joshua, “I will be with you” when he sent him across the Jordan to conquer Jericho

God said to Gideon, “I will be with you” and sent him to fight the Midianites without a sword in his hand

And God said to all of his children through all time,

Isaiah 43:2  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you

So he says to us now in the Great Commission

Matthew 28:20 “And surely I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

4. So… Jesus left his prayer time on the mountain and went out to his disciples who were in great danger

D. Jesus Displayed His Power Over the Sea

Mark 6:48  About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake.

1. This is the astonishing miracle of miracles… occurring that amazing, stormy night at about the fourth watch (that’s a Roman designation… Mark was writing for a Roman audience… that means sometime between 3 and 6 am.)

2. No explanation for this other than the miraculous power of Jesus over all things

a. Some unbelievers have tried to explain it like there was some hidden sandbar, or a chunk of floating ice

b. This was in the middle of a sea that these apostles knew very well

c. This was nothing but a miracle

3. To walk on water is physically impossible; we have all lived in the world long enough to know that

4. Gravity pulls us downward in all cases; that includes when we are in water

5. It is true that there is something called “flotation”… buoyancy… that enables boats to float and people to swim

6. But this is not floating or swimming; this is Jesus putting one foot in front of the other, step after step, and not sinking AT ALL

7. Now, God set up the universe with its physical laws; that includes the law of gravity and the laws of buoyancy

8. The word “laws” just means the way things always work; but Christ is clearly above the laws, and can violate them whenever he chooses

9. Now, the principle of SINKING is essential to many stories of the Bible; in John 21, Jesus told his disciples to throw their net on the right side of the boat… when they did, they caught 153 large fish; but they would have caught NOTHING if the nets hadn’t sunk down into the lake; as a matter of fact, sinking is essential to the story of Jonah and the whale, as well as the death of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea… it swallowed them up; as Moses’ song celebrated

Exodus 15:5  The deep waters have covered them; they sank to the depths like a stone.

So, things SINKING is the normal way of this world

But Jesus can toggle off this normal force whenever he chooses; Jesus is the Lord of nature, and it obeys him; he is not forced to obey it

So it was also when Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection… the laws of gravity were suspended at that time

He ascended to heaven from the ground, from the Mount of Olives outside the city of Jerusalem, going higher and higher, defying gravity, until a cloud hid him from their sight

E. Jesus Calmed Their Faithless Fears

Mark 6:48-50  He was about to pass by them,  49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out,  50 because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

1. I don’t know why the text says Jesus was about to pass by them… clearly he is intending to be with them

2. Maybe it is just how it appeared to the disciples

3. In any case, they saw him walking on the water and they were instantly overwhelmed with terror

4. They know that human beings cannot walk on water… they resorted to a common myth of ghosts… spirit beings, apparitions… Jesus at his resurrection would have to prove to them that he was not a ghost at that key moment as well; he did so by saying “Touch me and see… a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have”

5. Here… He calls out to them… they recognize his face and his voice

6. He literally says “Take courage! I AM!!” Literally God’s name, like he said to Moses from the burning bush; this is a clear claim to deity given the amazing circumstances

7. Now, in Mark’s Gospel account, Jesus just gets in the boat at that point

Mark 6:51 Then he climbed into the boat with them

8. Oddly, Mark omits the amazing extra feature of Peter’s walk on the water

9. I think this is because it seems Mark’s primary human source of information for his gospel was the Apostle Peter… and Peter was so humble by the end of his life that he did not want to call attention to himself at this point

10. But here’s Matthew’s account

F. Jesus Conveyed His Power to Peter

Matthew 14:28-31   “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”  29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.  30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”  31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

This is an amazing sub-story in the midst of a larger account

It shows the how Jesus can transmit his power to us if he wills

The story with Peter has a faith-filled beginning… Peter asks Jesus to command him to come to him out on the water; that is humble… I will only come if you command me; then he begins well, walking on the water just as Jesus was; but then he wavers in unbelief, seeing the wind and the waves… he takes his eyes off Jesus and begins to sink; he cries out, LORD SAVE ME! Jesus instantly and powerfully reaches out his hand to save him; what power, to pull Peter up in such a manner

But then comes the rebuke: “You of little faith… Why did you doubt?”

This seems to be the whole work right now… in all the Apostles! They have the beginnings of saving faith, but their faith must mature. Their hearts have been hard up to this point. This incredible miracle has taken them a quantum leap forward to understanding who Jesus is

But there are still two more miracles to go!

G. Jesus Calmed the Storm Immediately

Mark 6:51  Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down.

Though Jesus doesn’t say anything to the wind and the waves, the disciples must have understood that it was his power that had ended the storm at just that precise moment.

H. Jesus Conveyed the Boat Immediately

John 6:21  Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

The most natural way to read John’s account is of an instantaneous and miraculous transportation to the far shore. A QUANTUM LEAP forward… supernatural transportation from the middle of the sea to the shore.

Remember that in Acts 8, the Holy Spirit instantly transported Philip from talking to the Ethiopian eunuch in the middle of the southern desert road to Azotus miles away.

Jesus has this kind of power over gravity, speed, distance, and time.

III. The Disciples Moved to Worship Jesus
A. Their Hearts Had Been Hard… But Now They Worshiped

Mark 6:51-52  They were completely amazed,  52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

This phrase “completely amazed” means literally “beside themselves”

But Matthew tells us what they said:

Matthew 14:33  Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

All the miracles were given to bring people to this confession:

John 20:31  these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

B. Again… They Will Still Have Many More Moments of Unbelief

C. But the Very Next Day… They SHINED

Jesus taught the faithless, carnal crowd that was there for just another meal that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Those people could not stand those words and abandoned Jesus, no longer following him

John 6:67-69  “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.  68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

I can’t help but think that this experience of Jesus walking on the water was essential to their faith.

IV. Jesus Resumes His Ministry to the Crowds
Mark 6:53-56  When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there.  54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus.  55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.  56 And wherever he went– into villages, towns or countryside– they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed

A. In Order to Win Others… Jesus Continued His Ministry of Healing; verses 53-56 give a marvelous summary of many miracles Jesus did in Galilee, finishing up his two-year ministry in those 200 or so villages and towns

B. Amazingly… They Now Followed the Pattern of the Bleeding Woman… who just touched the hem of Jesus’ garment for healing

V. Lessons
A. Is Your Heart Soft Toward Jesus? Or Hardened Through Unbelief?

B. See Jesus’ Amazing Ministry as our Great High Priest and our Good Shepherd

C. Worship Jesus for These Amazing Signs!

D. Confess What Peter Confessed:

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

E. Step Out in Faith Like Peter Did… be bold in what you do for Christ!