Struggling to Obey (Part C)

That's why the Christians were persecuted. They would say, look, just, just put a pinch of incense and go about your business. You can worship Jesus Christ, but just put a little incense on the altar to Caesar and we'll leave you alone.

And they refused. Well, it works the other way too. Just a pinch of truth submitted to rocks hell. So when James says, how great a forest, a little fire kindles.

It goes both ways. You can start a big fire for God too with just a little fire. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick in Mark chapter six with his study called Struggling to Obey. In this section, there they are trapped at sea. They couldn't turn around. They had to roll forward. And as I've the risk of repeating myself, rolling forward against resistance, not getting anywhere. So now about the fourth watch, he came to them walking on the sea.

Is that a little irritating? Why did he wait? He saw them earlier.

Why not just help them out? Give a brother a break. Because his ways are higher than ours.

And they're better. And we learned to love him in spite of it. He came to them walking on the sea. The same wind that resisted them could not resist him. That's one of the lessons.

We know this. He outpaced them. He was going to pass them by. I don't know about you, but I think this is hysterical. I mean, they could have just added he was walking backwards, moonwalking past them.

Yeah, that would have been. Just put down your oars. This is just humiliating. Experienced fishermen. So what was his intent? He's walking on the sea. That's miraculous.

That's tantamount to flying. He would have passed them by. Was he trying to make a point? Yes, he was. When he rose from the dead and he found the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he joins them in their conversation. And it is a comical scene to some degree. So what are you guys talking about?

Where have you been? That's what they said to him. Then Luke writes, then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone farther. Thank God he didn't. I mean, there's something there that Jesus says there are going to be times where I will pass by and keep going unless you call out to me, unless you hold me there next to you.

I'm not going to be rude and force myself, even on my own people. I think that's one of the great parts of this lesson, because when they call out, he instantly answers them. Well, we could stay on this part about, he came to them, walking on the sea, kind of a dramatic entrance, and would have passed them by, but let's move forward to verse 49. And when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost and cried out. They thought it was the grim reaper. I mean, they didn't think it was a ghost just casually thought, oh, look at that, a ghost sighting. It was like he's coming for us.

Useful lessons. Sometimes we don't recognize our Lord. He's just that awesome. Sometimes he just, you know, we're too caught up in the storm, in the resistance, in the struggle, and we don't see him right there. What I try to do is just settle it down, just try to calm everything down, and just submit, try to stop everything, get to mechanical zero, just stop, and hope that he will minister to me. Sometimes our lack of understanding causes us to be afraid of him because we don't recognize that it is he who is the one that is doing the things that we're faced with. God does not abandon one of the lessons, the struggling soul, in the path of obedience. It feels like that sometimes. And Satan wants us to believe that we have been abandoned. Jacob felt that way when he wrestled with the Lord until finally he just submitted.

Just bless, I can't let you go till you bless me. Now some of you have said I've been there. It doesn't work that smoothly. That's correct. That is faith overcoming the curse.

And many times it's not smooth. What if they were determined to go forward without him in the boat, without going, ah there's a ghost, and just continue as many in the world do. They would have never reached their destination. Some are determined to roll through life without his miraculous walk into their life.

They're free to do so. Had they turned back, if they could have turned back, they would have accomplished nothing. They just would have been tired.

You know, there's a saying, there are times if you retreat, you die tired. If you run away, if they had turned back, ministry would have stopped. That should mean something to Christians. What is ministry? Again, I think some Christians don't understand. Yeah, I think the church is the centerpiece of ministry.

It's not the only piece. And I also believe to be independent of the church is to be wrong when given the choice. I also believe that those in countries who cannot assemble to worship wish they could assemble to worship. To be able to freely, amongst the brethren, have communion, to pray together, to fellowship after service or before, to sit and have God's Word just said to them.

May we never take this for granted. Verse 50. Well, they all saw him and were troubled, but immediately he talked with them and said to them, be of good cheer as I do not be afraid. What quieted them? The voice. It is the voice of God.

That changed everything. In my earlier days, it seemed like God spoke to me so many times. I'm with you, I've got this, it's okay. Now it's just like, what are you going to do? You know the drill, O teacher of Israel. What are you going to do? He doesn't even say it.

It's kind of like a flashing neon sign. What are you going to do? Because he treats me like I'm supposed to have matured. I don't like it. I don't like it. I'd love to hear him say, I've got this. I'd love to hear him say, I am with you. I'm not fond of, hey, let's use faith. I thought I was using it. We were getting along so well that way. What happened? Crying out the cries, I'm not the one that moved, you moved.

I'm still talking to you, but I don't hear you talking to me. And yet, I get up off my knees and I do what I'm told as best I can. Because I have enough truth. And it just takes a pinch of truth. It's, put it this way, it takes a pinch of incense to blaspheme God. That's why the Christians were persecuted. They would say, look, just put a pinch of incense and go about your business. You can worship Jesus Christ, but just put a little incense on the altar to Caesar and we'll leave you alone.

And they refused. Well, it works the other way too. Just a pinch of truth submitted to rocks hell. So when James says, how great a forest, a little fire kindles. That goes both ways. You can start a big fire for God too, with just a little fire.

Satan does not get all the advantages, though he gets many. It was the sound of his voice. It was one word in the Greek where he says, be of good cheer.

That's a single word. And it means just what it says. He's speaking to their emotions.

It has within it, okay, the best I could maybe transfer this is, he's saying to them, chill out. That is true. Because the word has in it, in the meaning courage, but that's not all of it.

This again, be of good cheer, is supposed to make them feel safer. It is also to their minds. When he says, it's me. It is I, me. That's supposed to make them say, oh, we know who you are.

We recognize you. And then when he says, do not be afraid, that is a word to their will. So he's speaking to the whole heart of the person, the brains, the emotions, and the will. That is the heart of a Christian. When the scripture says, you shall love the Lord your God with your heart.

That really includes everything else. Take the heart away, you take the life away. Courage can be commanded. We don't like to have it commanded, but it has worked on battlefields, it has worked in ministries, it has worked throughout history. That's why God said in Joshua 1, have not I commanded you? I've commanded you to be strong and of good courage.

Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed. Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go. I want to feel that, and I have felt that many times in ministry.

But over the years, I don't feel it as much, but I know it's just as true. And I also know this, that that counts to my favor with the Lord. I know he enjoys that. There he is.

He doesn't feel it, but he's still doing it. Because we've gotten past that whole thing about let me see another miracle and I'll believe. We're now working with raw truth. He can do that with his help. Terror can be defeated. Well by his help, I ended that statement.

Now the next statement, I made it sound connected. Well it is to some degree. Terror. We're watching this in our society. A society of people with low grade terror.

You can see it in their eyes as they walk around. Who are you afraid of? There are worse things that can happen to you. Psalm chapter three, I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Why could the psalmist say that? Why could a King David say that? Because of his Lord.

His faith. I don't care if everybody's against me. It's hard to do that. We don't want to be disliked. We don't want people to think the wrong things of us. We want to justify ourselves.

Often we don't get a chance. The Bible says you better be more mindful of what God thinks. And if you got that one right, you've got power. Isaiah chapter twelve verse two. Behold God is my salvation.

I will trust and not be afraid. It is an act of the will. Like love. Love is an act of the will. The world's definition of love is an act of the emotions.

You've got to feel it. And that's an element of phileo or stroge or other forms of love and using the Greek words. But that agape, that high love, that love that comes from the touch of God, it's an act of the will. It is not an act of anything less. It can have feelings in it, but it goes just as well without them. His nearness. It makes a difference. And that's what we're getting out of the story. He came near the boat until he gets in the boat.

That's what I want. We call it communion. Prayer and communion. Prayer is me talking to God and God can talk back to me. It can be a dialogue. It is not always.

I think I talk to God a lot more than he talks to me. But communion. Communion is rhythm.

It is union with God. It is I belong at the table. I have a place at the table. My name is at the table here on earth and there in heaven. Today you will be with me in paradise.

Well, if it's not going to be today, it's going to be because he gives me a say-so in this matter. Just as he gave Judas, just as he gave Balaam, just as he gave Jezebel, just as he gave everyone, Satan had a choice. Satan chose to exalt himself to be like the Most High, just a blunder of the universe.

And in some ways we're still paying for it. In many ways. But his nearness, Daniel chapter 10, again, here's what the messenger says, the angelic messenger says, and he said, Oh man, greatly beloved or beloved, fear not. Peace to you. Be strong.

Yes, be strong. So when he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me. See, words are supposed to mean something because they're supposed to be attached to something else or someone else. So we say, we consider the source. And when God says through either his scripture, through another believer, ergo a word in season, and we sense that it is the Holy Spirit, that this is right, we are strengthened. Unfortunately, some people think discernment means if I like it, it must be God. That's not discernment. Discernment is a recognition that this is consistent with his word.

Circumstances support it. The word of God does not object to it. And the sense of the Holy Spirit is here.

Not easy being led, but it is vital. Revelation chapter one, we're still talking about be not afraid. It is me. Revelation one, this is when John was getting the revelation of Jesus Christ. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying to me, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. In other words, I got all the power and I'm telling you don't be afraid.

It'd be bad if it were the other way around. I have the power and I'm telling you to be afraid. So we need to know that he sees us when we struggle. We need to know that it is for us to roll forward nonetheless until he walks to us on the sea and relieves us of the struggle and that we must wait. And while we wait, we row in the direction we were told to go in.

Very simple as far as instructions go. A whole other matter to pull it off. But we do it all the time. So you Christians who serve here in this ministry, how many times have you felt, oh, I got the kids tomorrow. Oh, I got usher duty tomorrow. I'm tired. I don't want to. I'm not ready. You're rowing, but you're there on time, right?

Who's not? Show hands. You're there at your post. You're not absent without leave.

You're there at your post. Par bar by par bar, two at the causeway for a par bar. That's the old King James for chronicles, I don't know, instructions to centuries. This walking on the water is left out by Mark. I think he's just sensitive. Peter, that's when I stepped out and walked in the water, and evidently Mark said, nah, we'll just leave that out. Matthew said, I won't.

John tells it, but Matthew, he's the one that says, and this is what Peter did. You know, he irritated me just too much. Aren't we afraid that if we're around somebody too much, they're going to see how annoying we are?

Go on a trip with somebody for a week and find out by the time Friday gets there. Oh, hi, good morning. You know, it's just a fact of life. As a pastor, I fear that I'm going to just be around folks so much that I am sick of hearing you. I'm not looking up. I am not looking up.

Because that's what goes with life, and it's awful. Anyway, verse 51, then he went up into the boat to them and the wind ceased and they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure and marveled. I want to add a Spurgeon. Spurgeon's preaching on Peter walking on the water, and he says, I do not advise any of you to try it. Neither did our Lord advise Peter to do so. And hopefully that stabilizes a lot of wackiness in the church. You know, you get Christians, well, I'm just going to walk in the water. Go ahead. I'm not holding your hand. So, I mean, if God gives you that moment, then take it.

But if you're making it yourself, just remember what happened to Peter. Anyway, he went up into the boat. They were amazed. They were blown away. It's sort of nonchalant. Is it not? Yeah, yeah, he walked on the water. What would you expect?

He's God. And no exaggeration, no sensationalism, no overstatements. Just the bare facts and leave it at that. They were rowing hard. They weren't getting anywhere. It was night. They were rowing for hours. He walked on the water.

They were spooked by this whole thing. He said, be of good cheer it is I. He joined the boat. The wind stopped. They were ashore. Next story.

Greatly amazed. Verse 52. For they had not understood about the loaves because their hearts were hardened. And I don't judge them. If you want to judge them, you go right ahead.

But you better have a better heart than they did. He does not rebuke them for this. I wonder, is Mark dropping a hint to his Roman audience? Is he suggesting to his readers that a hardened heart is due to blindness, to the facts, to the experiences, to the obvious in the spirit?

I think he may be doing that. By this time, they should not have been as amazed because they had seen so much. I have not seen these miracles. I have watched him minister through his truth, but I have not watched him raise the dead or walk on water.

I have not witnessed what they saw. So why is Jesus Christ every bit my God to me that he was to them? Peter, he didn't struggle with it, but he points this out because years later, Peter came to churches where there were even Gentiles now, and he sees these people that didn't walk with Christ as he did, and he sees that they love Christ just as much as him without seeing all the miracles.

He writes about it. First Peter, chapter 1, verse 8, he says, whom having not seen, you love. He said, I saw him, and I love him. You didn't have that benefit, and you love him just as much as me.

Somehow doesn't seem fair. He says, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. He says, I've seen you worshiping with this glory to the Lord. I could go on and on. I'll just take one more.

We're almost, we're a little over time. John, chapter 20, Jesus said to him to Thomas, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed. So I don't need to see him walking on the water to believe him just as much as the apostles. There it is in the scripture. Jesus prayed to the Father, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.

That's what we see, the truth. Calvary, Golgotha, the place of the skull where Christ was crucified, the most profound demonstration of the Father's love known to man, because it is more painful for a loving father to watch his son suffer than to suffer himself. And to let it happen, quite a statement.

So Paul writes, God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ Jesus died for us, the ungodly. Well, we'll just finish this up. We have to finish this chapter.

The closing part is just a quick summary or commentary. It was verse 53, but they had crossed over and they came to the land of Gennesaret and anchored there. And verse 54, and when they came out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him. And so the only vacation they got was a boat ride on the way to Bethsaida.

That was it. And the ones that were working the boat to get to Bethsaida, they got nothing. Their reward for tirelessly serving the Lord, rowing in the face of resistance.

What was their reward? More ministry. What a lesson to those minimalist servants that will do just this much but no more. Christ says, I know you're tired. As Moody would say, I'm tired in the work, not of the work.

I have wrestled with that, and yet I am still here somehow. Sometimes you can see the back of my jacket being held up by an invisible hand. Verse 55, he ran through the whole surrounding region and began to carry about on beds those who were sick to wherever they heard he was.

So after he gets out of the boat, of course he's moving around and Mark is capturing that. Verse 56, wherever they entered into villages, cities of the country, they lay the sick in the market places and begged him that they might just touch the hem of his garment, and as many as touched him were made well. So of course word got around of the woman with the issue that touched the hem of his garment in multitudes thronging against him.

People had to come up with a way. Hey, we still got to get these blessings. We can't reach him. We all can't push the people on the stretchers to him. So let's just lay him out there and have it happen that way. This is the greatest popularity these days of his ministry.

They would not last. I want to close with a couple of verses. John Chapter 2, and he said to him, every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have drunk, then the inferior, you have kept the good until now.

My point is this, the world has never seen anyone like this. The best is still yet to come. God has got a paradise for his people that will just make all of this sort of forgotten in eternity as we press forward with so many other things about him. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any god besides you who acts for the one who waits for him. Question, were they waiting for him while they were rowing?

I think they were. Waiting is not being stagnant. Waiting is doing something, because in my Father's house there are many mansions, and then Jesus says right after that, there are many dwelling places.

If it wasn't so, I would not have told you. There's an emphasis there. Then he says, I go to prepare a place for you, and that includes us, unless you reject him, and hopefully you won't. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.