Walking on Water

If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me if you would to the sixth chapter of Mark, and we're going to start off with verse 45 through 47. Welcome to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, for 50 years now we have been prayed for the repeal of the Roe vs. Wade Amendment. This week that prayer was answered. We praise you.

And Lord, help our states to have the backbone to stand strong and stop the murder of the unborn. Father, last week we prayed for our PCA General Assembly. We prayed that you would give pastors and ruling elders courage to not compromise. It appears that our prayer was answered. Help us, Lord, as a denomination to refuse to back down, and even if necessary, to be willing to be rejected by our culture in order to be faithful to you. Father, I pray for Scott Starcher's mom, Karen. Please help her as she has struggled with lung and heart issues this week.

This is Nicole Lowes, and break the vertigo that has caused her so many problems. Lord, the passage of Scripture that we are looking at today should absolutely thrill our hearts. For years I thought Jesus walking on water was a glorious miracle, but I don't think I realized the glorious message you have for us through this miracle. This passage of Scripture should absolutely amaze us. It should solidify in our heart who Christ Jesus really is. Lord, rivet those truths in our heart today, open our eyes, and show us Jesus, for it's in Jesus' holy and precious name that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. Jesus has just performed a miracle. It has everybody's head spinning. 5,000 men, not including the women and the children, were listening to Jesus preach. And Jesus' preaching was just so captivating that before they realized it, time got away from them. And stark reality hit them right in the face. They came to realize that time was gone, and it was getting dark, and they were hungry. And they didn't have any food, and there was no restaurants, there was no grocery stores, there was nowhere to get food anywhere.

And they're thinking to themselves, we might go all night long without food, we might not be able to get food for days, we might starve to death. Little boy comes up with Andrew, hands Jesus his sack lunch. Jesus takes that sack lunch, five little loaves and two fish, and he takes it in his hands, and he holds it up to his father, and he prays over it.

And as he does that, he begins to break it. The bread and the fish begin to multiply in his hands. The disciples come up, and they're lined up one after the other, and they take their togas and hold them out. And the bread and the fish begin to just roll into their togas, and they take it, they begin to distribute it. It begins to go on and on and on until they feed possibly 20,000 people, all of them. And they don't just have a morsel of food, but they've got all the food they want. Their bellies are full.

I mean, they're about to pop. And then when it's all done and they've all gotten finished, there are 12 basketfuls of fish and bread that are left over, probably one for each one of the disciples. Jesus takes that little boy's bag lunch and feeds probably 20,000 people. I tell you, this miracle was an eye-opener. What do you think it did to that crowd?

I think it wowed them. I think that crowd was saying, My goodness, here is a man who has just fed all of these people and given us a free lunch. Our government doesn't treat us that way.

Our government's taxing us to death and taking everything that we've got. But here is this man who has given us a free meal didn't cost us a penny. Look what he can do. He can preach the Word of God. He can heal the sick. He can cast out demons. He can raise the dead.

And now he is feeding our faces, taking care of us, and it's not costing us a penny. That's the background of the passage that we are looking at today. And I've got five points that I want to share with you as we check this passage out.

Number one, retreating from the crowds. Look at verse 45. Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd.

Very interesting. Jesus gave the disciples strict instructions to immediately go to Bethsaida. But Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus stays right there. He stays with the crowd as the disciples go. They get in their boat. Now, why did Jesus do that?

Why did he do it? We don't have the answer for us in Mark, but in John's Gospel we have some more information. In John 6, verse 15, the Scripture says this, Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. We ask the question, what's that got to do with the disciples? Jesus stayed back to tell the crowds, No, I am not here to lead you in victory over the Roman Empire. I am not here right now to become an immediate earthly king.

That's not what it's all about. Jesus told them that. He dismissed the crowd, and then he went up into the mountain to get alone by himself and commune with his Father. Well, why did he whisk the disciples off and make them go?

R.C. Sproul has a speculation, and I believe that Sproul is right in his speculation. He said this, I wonder whether the crowd response was so strong that the disciples themselves were caught up in it. Perhaps he saw that they were as excited as the crowd, that they were looking to him with a hope that he might be the one to drive the Romans out of the land. If so, it is hardly surprising that Jesus bustled the disciples off to Bethsaida.

In this way, he headed off any spontaneous move to make him king. So Jesus is not just worried about the wrong motives of the crowd. Now he's even concerned and worried about the wrong motive of the disciples themselves.

So Jesus has squelched this movement to make him king. He squelched it, and he goes up on this small mountain, climbs up to the top of it. He's up there to commune with his Father, but he can also look right down the mountain, and as he does, he sees the disciples in the boat.

You say, well, it's dark. How does he see them? I think probably the clouds have been knocked away by the wind, and he looks down probably by moonlight, and he's able to perfectly see the disciples.

Alright, point two. Praying for God's will to be done. Look at verse 46. And after he'd taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. Why did Jesus need this time to get by himself and commune with the Father? Some have conjectured that Jesus was struggling with this temptation to be an earthly king. That this was something that just kind of thrilled his heart a little bit. That the crowds have already said, we want you to be the king.

You can do it. And now his disciples are even saying, yes, that's the right thing for us to do. Is Jesus really being tempted to do this? That's nonsense. Can you imagine what some of our American politicians would do? If somebody were to come to them and say, we want you to be king. We want you to be the king of this nation. We're giving you all the power. You can do this. And what do you think they would say?

I think they'd say, man, that's great. That's exactly what I want. I don't want to have to worry about anything else. I just want the power and forget the Constitution, forget our republic. Just make me king. Folks, is that the attitude Jesus had?

Absolutely. Remember who Jesus is. Jesus is the Son of God. And folks, he is not tempted by this particular temptation whatsoever. In fact, he's already dealt with that temptation. Remember Satan coming to him right at the beginning of his ministry? And Satan said, if you will bow before me, Jesus, then I will give you the kingdoms of this world. What did Jesus say? Jesus said, it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.

Folks, rest assured of this. Jesus is in no way tempted by the desires of the crowd to make him an immediate earthly king. You see, Jesus knows his destiny.

He knows exactly what's going to happen. He's here in his first coming, not to get a crown, but to get a cross. I think Jesus was praying for the disciples and the crowds that they would not get caught up in this wrong thinking. That they would realize that their calling was a calling to surrender to God.

It was Jesus who said, if any man come to me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. I want you to know the crowds didn't feel that way. The crowds were hungry for political victory. The crowds were hungry for monetary blessing and a soft, easy road in life. I think Jesus saw the disciples maybe leaning in that direction. They wanted the crown and not the cross. I believe that's what Jesus is praying about here. Father, help them to quit thinking in the temporary and help them begin to focus on the eternal.

And the way of the eternal is the cross. Let me ask you something. Let's be honest.

Do we not think in the temporary? I've been praying for America. I've been praying that God would break the corruption in our government. I've been praying that God would break this progressive, woke movement that's going on in our country today. I've been praying that God would deal with this crazy sexual perversion that is just permeating our society.

I've been praying that God would move upon our nation and bring the nation to repentance and bring great revival here. But at what cost do I want that revival? Am I willing to go through personal persecution? Am I willing for America to experience an economic depression if it means that our economy is going to be destroyed? Or am I more concerned about skyrocketing gas prices than I am about a lost generation who cares nothing for God's gospel, who cares nothing for God's values, who laughs at the idea of a Puritan work ethic?

I pray for revival in America, but am I really willing to pay the cost? Folks, we as Christians are not just in a political war. We as Christians are in a spiritual war. And God is calling us not to a cushion, but to a cross.

All right, point three, attention-getting adversity. Look at verse 47 through 48a. 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. Jesus is up on that little mountain. The wind is blowing the clouds out of the way. The moon's probably shining brightly, and Jesus is able to look down. He can see the disciples perfectly in that boat. Jesus commanded them to go to Bethsaida, and that's what they're trying to do. But they're in a sailboat, and as they're trying to get to Bethsaida, the wind is blowing in the opposite direction that they need to go. And so they have to take the sail down. They take the sail down, they get their oars out, they start rowing. But I'm telling you, it's tough, because the current is just so strong that they're going one foot forward and then two steps back.

The Scripture defines it this way. They were making headway painfully. The Greek word there means torment. I mean, they were rowing so hard that their arms were about to fall off. They were just miserable.

It was so tough. Now, this was not a hurricane-force wind like they had faced before when they got so scared and they thought they were going to die. That's not the situation here. But it's a wind that's causing a current that's making life extremely difficult for them. So Jesus is up on the mountain. He's able to see their dilemma. They're trying like crazy to be obedient to Him, but nature is getting in the way, and things are really, really tough. You know the disciples are in that boat. What do you think they're thinking?

I think they're in that boat and they're thinking, wow, Jesus is up on that mountain. He's communing with His Father. He's not thinking about us. He doesn't even know what's going on with us. He doesn't know how tough we're having it right now. He doesn't know how difficult it is for us. Jesus is kind of away from us right now, and He just doesn't get it.

Folks, let me tell you something. Jesus got it. Jesus understood perfectly. Jesus was seeing exactly what was going on in their lives. I want you to share a couple of verses with you.

Listen to these carefully. Proverbs 15, 13, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. Hebrews 4, 13, And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

Proverbs 5, 21, For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he watches all his past. We would save ourselves a whole lot of fretting if we took those verses to heart, that God sees us in our need, that God cares about the needs that we have, and God is well able to take care of those needs. In the Sermon on the Mount, it was Jesus who said this, Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they? Jesus saw the plight of the disciples, and their dilemma got His full attention. All right, point four, an awakening theophany. Look at verse 48b through 52. 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 they 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 lows, but their hearts were hardened. Once again, the liberals and the biblical skeptics have had a heyday with this passage. They said, We can't believe this idea that Jesus actually walked on the water. That couldn't have happened.

They've come up with some examples to explain why it couldn't happen. They say this was probably just an optical illusion, that in the midst and in the darkness, they kind of looked out, and they just thought it was Jesus, but it really wasn't. Well, if it wasn't Jesus, tell me this, how did He get in the boat? How did Jesus get in the boat? Did He jump in the water? Did He swim out to where they were in the water against that current that they couldn't even row in? And did He jump into the boat? Was He drenched with water?

Absolutely not. And then some of the Bible liberals and some of the scholars or skeptics, what they say is that Jesus was so smart that He wasn't really walking on the water. He just knew where the sandbars were. And so He was taking one step here and one step here and one step here, and they just thought He was walking on the water, but it didn't really happen. Bologna, folks, this is the God who created heaven and earth, the God who created every cell in our body, the God who said this in Isaiah chapter 46, Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times of things that were not, and saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all of My good pleasure. Brothers and sisters, we need to understand that we have an infallible witness, and that witness is the Word of God. It was the Apostle Paul who said, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, instruction, and righteousness. In the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews said that the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints of the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It was Jesus who said that not one jot or tittle shall pass away from the law. What is a jot? It's the Hebrew letter Yod. It's a little letter, smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Looks like a little apostrophe. And then what is a tittle?

A tittle is a little tiny mark on several of the Hebrew letters. What was Jesus saying? He was saying not only are the stories in the Bible true, not only are the statements in the Bible true, not only are the sentences in the Bible true, not only are the words inerrant and infallible, but even the letters, as they came off the pen of those who initially wrote it, that it came off the pen exactly, perfectly, even down to the tittle, the marks on the letter. Brothers and sisters, what an infallible witness that we have. The Bible, the Word of God, is the inerrant, infallible Word. And if that's true, then guess what?

Jesus really did walk on water. All right, then there's a statement that sounds a little strange. It says, He meant to pass them by.

Now what does that mean? Does it mean He was teasing with them, playing with their emotions? No. Does it mean that He just kind of walked by so they would call Him and He could jump in the boat?

No. The best thing that we can do here is to interpret Scripture with Scripture. If you go back to the Old Testament, oftentimes God would reveal Himself to a person or to a group of people by what's called a theophany. In the word theo and thenos, theo means God and thenos means to display or manifest.

A theophany was a manifestation of God in a physical form. Now I want to give you three quick Old Testament examples. The first one is with Abraham. In Genesis 15, the Lord speaks to Abraham and tells him that He is going to inherit the land. Abraham has doubts.

He doesn't see how that can happen. And so God speaks to him, Genesis 15, 17, He says this, And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. Folks, God in the form of a bright shining lamp, with the glory of God emanating from that bright shining lamp did something very special. God first of all put Abraham in a state of paralysis.

Not permanently, but temporarily. So Abraham was lying there watching all this, but he couldn't do anything, he couldn't move. He's just watching it. God takes an animal, He kills the animal. He takes the pieces of that animal and puts them in two parallel lines. And then God, in the form of that bright shining lamp, goes between the pieces of that animal and goes right through it, passes right by Abraham, so Abraham can see it. What was God doing? God was cutting the covenant. He was sealing the covenant. He was saying, Abraham, this covenant is not built on your integrity.

You're over there doing nothing to make sure that you've done something to make it work. This is built on my integrity. Abraham, you can believe and you can trust me because I am sealing the covenant and I am showing you that it's going to happen by this theophany. I am passing by you.

You see my glory, I am passing by. And what did Abraham do? Abraham got so excited that it changed his whole life.

That theophany, that passing by of God, turned Abraham upside down and he was able to trust God and believe that God was going to do exactly what he said he was going to do. Secondly, there's Moses. You remember when Moses went through the wilderness? He saw the burning bush that was not consumed, and the Lord spoke to him out of that bush and said, Moses, take off your shoes for you were standing on holy ground, and Moses did. Then Moses finally asked him, he said, Lord, who are you?

And the Lord said to him, I am that I am. Now in Exodus chapter 33, Moses is sad. He is broken. He is just torn up on the inside. He is terribly depressed.

Why? Because the people of God have made a golden calf and they have worshipped it. And he knows how horrible that is. And so he cries out to the Lord and the Lord takes Moses and he puts him up in a cleft of the rock. He puts him in a cave. And then Moses cries out. He said, Lord, show me your way that I might know you. Show me your glory.

Listen to what happened. Exodus 33. And it shall come to pass while my glory passes by that I will put you in a cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand while I pass by.

And I will take away my hand and thou shall see my back parts but my face shall not be seen. Moses was never the same again. When he came walking down that mountainside, his face was shining with the very glory of God.

That theophany, God passing by, changed his life and showed him who God really was. The third one I want to mention, third example, is Elijah. Remember Mount Carmel, the great contest between the Baal, the false god, and the true god Jehovah? They are told out in that situation, Elijah says to the priest of Baal, 450 prophets, go out and make your altar, take your bull, put him on the altar, and then ask God to send fire to destroy him. I'll make an altar for the Lord, Elijah says. I'll put my bull on the altar and then I'll pray to my God so you know what happened. The prophets of Baal cried and tore their garments, trying everything they could to get their God to do something.

Nothing happened. So finally Elijah said, it's my turn. Elijah looks over and he cries out to the Lord, Lord, send the fire! And the Lord sends a fireball down and it burns up the altar and it burns up the sacrifice and even licks up all the water in the trench. And all the people of Israel fall on their face and they cry out, The Lord, he is God!

The Lord, he is God! Let me tell you, Elijah's pumped up. He's excited. He says, now there's going to be revival in Israel. He said, now even Ahab and Jezebel will repent.

That didn't happen. Jezebel put a contract out on Elijah's life and says, I'm going to kill you. Elijah got scared. He ran over 90 miles all the way down to Beersheba. He got to Beersheba, he went and climbed up under a juniper tree and then he cried out, he said, Lord, just go ahead and take my life.

I don't even want to live anymore. What would God do? Well, the Lord put him in a cave, in a mountain, much like with Moses. 1 Kings 19, 11-12 says this, And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, that the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, still small voice, God passed by. Folks, God's passing by presence. The theophany shook Elijah out of his depression and strengthened his faith in unbelievable ways. Three glorious Old Testament examples of theophanies. Folks, they're theophanies of God revealing himself to his people. And how does God do it? By passing by. All right, back to Jesus walking on the water.

I love how R.C. Sproul described it. He said, Jesus self-consciously made himself a theophany. The glory of God, bursting through the shrouds of the humanity of Jesus, was made manifest to the disciples. In the middle of their distress, they looked up and they saw the glory of God passing by.

The glory of the Lord shining out of the Son of God. Disciples were not immediately aware that this was Jesus manifesting his glory. What did they think? They thought, well, this must be a ghost. And they were scared to death.

And they were so scared. Look what it says in verse 50. I think this is a key verse. It says, For they all saw him and were terrified, but immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.

I wish we didn't have to see this in the English, because the English does a terrible job in getting across what is truly here. In the English it says, Be of good cheer, it is I. It's not what Jesus said. You read this in the Greek, what it says is this. Jesus said, Be of good cheer, I am.

That word, I am, is the Greek word ego, I mean. If you go over to the Gospel of John, you will see that word over and over again, because in John's Gospel, John goes all the way back to the burning bush, where God said to Moses, I am that I am. I am Jehovah, I am Yahweh, I am God. Jesus uses that to explain who Jesus is.

John's Gospel was written about 30 years after Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And the purpose of John's Gospel was to prove to us the deity of Christ. And in John's Gospel, you'll see passage after passage telling us that Jesus is the great I am. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the resurrection, the life.

I am the true vine. Jesus was claiming deity. He was not just a great teacher. He was not just a good man. He was not just a miracle worker. He was and is God. That's why Jesus passed by.

It was an awakening theophany. After Jesus took away their fears, He's in the boat with them. What does He do? He looks out over that wind that's blowing so hard against them and He stops the wind. He tells it to stop.

It immediately stops and the sea becomes just like glass. And the Scripture says the disciples were amazed and they wondered. Look at verse 52. For they had not understood about the loaves because their heart was hardened. Now, what did they not understood? They had not fully comprehended that the person that they were following was God Almighty Himself. I have to quote R.C.

Sproul one more time. What he said here is great. He said, Mark even tells us why they didn't get it. Their hearts were hard. When people fail to understand the identity of Christ, it's not because they're unintelligent. It is because their hearts are recalcitrant.

Their hearts are made out of stone. For sin has caused great calluses to grow in their heart so that Christ Himself could walk in front of them on the water and they still would not believe. The disciples did not get it when Jesus fed the 5,000. They did not get it when He walked on the water. They did not get it when He called Himself, ego ami. They did not get it when He stepped into the boat and the wind died.

Their hearts were hardened. My last point is divine authority and power. Look at verse 53-56. The disciples took off in the boat that day. They were obeying Jesus. They were going to Bethsaida. But they didn't end up in Bethsaida.

They ended up in Gennesaret. Oh, wow! What does that mean? Does that mean that Jesus messed up? That He was sending them one place and they went someplace else so He didn't really know where they were going?

It doesn't mean that at all. Jesus knew exactly where they were going. They needed to go to Gennesaret. But He also knew that if He sent them in the direction of Bethsaida that the wind would shift them and they would go to Gennesaret. Beside that, He knew the wind was coming.

And He knew that this was going to give Him the opportunity to pass by. And as they passed by, what would the disciples see? They would see the theophany. They would see His glory.

They would know, wow! This is not just our friend. This is God Almighty Himself. And now the needy crowd was there in Gennesaret and they were waiting for His help.

What do you think went through the minds of the disciples as they stepped out of that boat? There was this new understanding of who Jesus Christ is. He is not just a friend. He is not just a teacher, a great teacher. He is not just a miracle worker. He is, in fact, God. He is the one who made heaven and earth. He is the one who made us the disciples are seeing. What did they think now when they saw Jesus heal the sick? Scripture says that the sick were coming up to Jesus. They were reaching over to grab the hem of His garment.

And we talked about that a few weeks ago. But the hem of His garment is a symbol of His authority. You know, you go back into the book of Numbers and that symbol of His authority was very, very important for they knew if they could just touch the symbol of His authority that they would be made well.

And what happened? Everybody that just touched Him were made well. The blind were seeing, the deaf were hearing, the lame were walking. It was complete, total healing. The disciples were beginning to understand.

Let me tell you why. They never got over the theophany. They never got over Jesus passing by. About 60 years after this, John the Apostle is the only disciple that's still living. He's in exile on the island of Patmos. And while he's there, God commissioned him to write the book that we call Revelation. And he's sitting there with his pen in his hand. The Holy Spirit of God is infallibly inspiring him to write the first chapter of this book to explain who Jesus is.

I'll tell you what I believe. I believe with all my heart that as John is sitting there, the Holy Spirit of God brings his mind right back to this experience that John had in the boat. And he remembers Jesus passing by. He remembers seeing his glory. He remembers coming to an understanding of who this Jesus really is. And in Revelation chapter 1, this is what he says about Jesus. Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth, to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priest to His God and Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though I were dead, but He laid His right hand on me, saying, Fear not, for I am the first and the last. I've heard people say, It doesn't actually matter whether you believe that Jesus walked on the water or not. I would tell you right now, it does matter.

And it matters a great deal. For Jesus walking on water was Jesus passing by. It was an awakening theophany.

It was for the disciples, and it's for every single one of us that are here today, explaining to us who Jesus is. He's not just a great teacher. He's not just a good man.

He's not just a miracle worker. He is Yahweh. He is the great I AM. He is Almighty God.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, part of worship is all in adoration. In this passage, we saw you building all in adoration into the hearts of the disciples. You help the disciples to get their minds off the glitter of this world. You help them to focus on the glory of eternity.

There's only one way that happens. That is when we see that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords loved us so deeply that He went to the cross, laid down His life for the sheep. Lord, do to us what you did for the disciples in the storm. Reveal yourself to us, for it's in Jesus' holy, precious name that I pray. Amen.