A lot of people are open to religion.
They're at least open to believing in a higher power.
They might even see the official modern religion of secularism as
empty and hollow. But they might struggle with how
specific Christianity's claims are.
One God. One scripture that teaches true
Revelation 1 Savior. How can you be so confident that
this one human being who lived 2000 years ago in a backwater of
the eastern regions of the Roman Empire is the key to the meaning
of the universe and to everlasting happiness?
Seems arbitrary. It seems narrow.
It seems like a lot to load up out of what could be a wide
range of potentially plausible options out there.
One very intelligent person who feels this struggle is Derek
Thompson, who's a staff writer for The Atlantic.
He has a podcast that usually focuses on technology, economy,
culture, and he's got a departure from his usual affair
coming up. He's got a episode coming out
where he interviews a Christian apologist about a new book in
which this apologist makes a case for belief in God in
general and Christianity in particular.
Thompson wrote a little preview of that episode, and he said
he's excited for people to hear it.
He says I find myself thinking about religious belief a lot
these days. Thompson describes himself as a
secular Reform Jew, and he says he wants a deeper relationship
with the divine and a congregation of believers.
On the one hand, Thompson says he feels wonder at the cosmic
miracle of experience, but on the other hand, he feels an
absence of faith. So he feels like he's too many
steps away from a specific and sincere belief in a singular
divine author of that wonder. What's the result in his own
words? I find myself at a precipice
without feeling the final necessary pull toward a leap of
faith. If you're not a believer in
Jesus, do you resonate at all with Derek Thompson's feeling of
being pushed toward faith yet pulled away from faith?
If you are a believer in Jesus, what would you say to Derek?
How would you try to persuade him of the reality of
Christianity? I know what I would tell him,
and I'd love to get the chance to tell him.
Like some of us, he moved from DC to the Durham Chapel Hill
area just a few months ago. I'd love to meet him.
Trying to find a way. If I had the chance to sit down
and talk to Derek Thompson, I would tell him, I want you to
meet Jesus. I think meeting Jesus in the
pages of the Gospels is the only thing that's going to give a
magnet big enough to pull you across that chasm of unbelief.
Do you know Jesus? That's the question our passage
for this morning confronts us with.
Do you know Jesus? Jesus does a whole lot of stuff
to reveal who he is, and even some of the people who see it
most up close and personal don't actually get it, don't actually
come to know him. This morning we'll be studying
the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, verses 30 to 56.
If you need a Bible, you can raise your hand and somebody
will bring you one. In our passage, Jesus continues
to do astounding things that no mere human being can do.
But his powerful deeds aren't mere fireworks or special
effects. They all bear witness to who He
is and what He came to do. As I read the passage, let this
pair of questions echo in your mind and heart.
Who is Jesus, and do you know Jesus?
Mark 6, verses 30 to 56. The apostles returned to Jesus
and told him all that they had done and taught.
And he said to them, Come away by yourselves to a desolate
place, and rest a while. For many were coming and going,
and they had no leisure even to eat, And they went away in the
boat to a desolate place by themselves.
Now many saw them going and recognize them, and they ran
there on foot from all the towns, and got there ahead of
them. When he went to shore he saw a
great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they
were like sheep without a shepherd.
And he began to teach them many things.
And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said,
This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late, Send them
away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy
themselves something to eat. But he answered them, You give
them something to eat. And they said to him, Shall we
go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to
eat? And he said to them, How many
loaves do you have? Go and see.
And when they had found out, they said five and two fish.
Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green
grass. So they sat down in groups by
hundreds and by 50s, and taking the five loaves and the two
fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the
loaves, and gave them to the disciples to set before the
people. And he divided the two fish
among them all, and they all ate and were satisfied.
And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of the
fish. And those who ate the loaves
were 5000 men. Immediately He made his
disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side
to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.
And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain
to pray. And when evening came the boat
was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.
And he saw that they were making headway painfully for the
windows against them. And about the fourth watch of
the night He came to them walking on the sea.
He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the
sea, they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they
all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them
and said, Take heart it is I do not be afraid.
And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.
And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand
about the lows, but their hearts were hardened.
When they had crossed over. They came to land at Knesset and
moored to the shore. And when they got out of the
boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the
whole region, and began to bring the sick people on their beds to
wherever they heard he was. And wherever he came, in
villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick
in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even
the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were
made well. Our passage is 3 sections.
Verse 30 to 44 Jesus miraculously feeds 5000 people.
And verses 45 to 52, Jesus comes to his disciples in the middle
of the storm on the lake by walking on the water.
And in verses 53 to 56, Jesus heals a ton of people, sometimes
just by touching them, or even them touching a piece of his
clothing. Each of these miraculous works
reveals something much deeper about who He is. 3 sections of
the passage will have three points of the sermon.
I'll give you to them upfront. Do you know Jesus?
That's the question. If you really know him, if you
trust in Him to save you, if you have a personal relationship
with Him, then you know that he is .1 the Shepherd who satisfies
.2 the Creator who calms .3 the healer who makes hole.
I'll say those all again, .1 the Shepherd who satisfies .2 the
Creator who calms .3 the healer who makes hole.
The first point will be long. The Third Point will be short.
I guess that means second point will be just right .1 the
shepherd who satisfies. That's the deep significance of
Jesus feeding of the 5000 in verses 30 to 44.
In other words, Jesus is the Lord of Psalm 23.
Look first at verses 30 to 32. The apostles returned to Jesus
and told him all that they had done and taught, and he said to
them, Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a
while. For many were coming and going,
and they had no leisure even to eat, and they went away in the
boat to a desolate place by themselves.
In our last sermon on Mark 2 weeks ago, we saw Jesus send out
his apostles on a preaching mission.
Here they returned from that mission and we can infer that
the mission was a success because of all that they report
to Jesus that they did and taught.
But they returned from this mission into the Press of an
intensely busy ministry. It was so busy with so many
people demanding Jesus attention, so many people coming
and going that they had no time to eat.
So Jesus initiated a retreat for him and his disciples.
He wanted them to rest and so they go away in a boat in search
of peace and quiet. No one has ever been more
zealous to do God's will than Jesus, and no one has ever been
more compassionate toward human limits than Jesus.
Zeal to do good and compassion toward human limits and weakness
should coexist in harmony in each of our hearts.
Jesus and his disciples slipped away looking for peace and
quiet, but that is not what they found.
Verses 33 and 34. Now many saw them going and
recognize them, and they ran there on foot from all the
towns, and got there ahead of them.
When he went to shore, he saw a great crowd, and he had
compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a
shepherd. And he began to teach them many
things. Retreat plans foiled, word of
mouth spread around too quickly, and a massive crowd gathered as
soon as they landed. How did Jesus respond to this
crowd, spoiling his plans for peace and quiet?
He had compassion on them because they were like sheep
without a shepherd. That phrase occurs a few times
in the Old Testament when God's people either lack godly leaders
or are in danger of going leaderless.
For instance, in Numbers 27, the Lord condemns Moses to die
outside the Promised Land because of his outburst of anger
and unbelief. And Moses appeals to the Lord
about the future of God's people, saying in verses 16 and
17, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a
man over the congregation, who shall go out before them and
come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in,
that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that
have no shepherd. How does the Lord answer Moses's
prayer? By raising up Joshua.
Joshua's name in Hebrew. Is Yahoshua, the same Hebrew
name as Jesus. Jesus is the true and greater
Joshua. Jesus is the ultimate answer to
Moses's prayer that God's people would not be like sheep that
have no shepherd. So Jesus has compassion on the
crowds and he undertakes to be their shepherd.
How does he show them compassion?
By healing all of them. By providing for some sort of
longer term economic solution to their problems or poverty.
He shows them compassion by teaching them.
We might think that healing them of physical afflictions would be
a more obvious or urgent way to show compassion.
But Jesus has other priorities. Every person's deepest need is
spiritual life. Every person's deepest need is
reconciliation with God. Every person's greatest problem
is spiritual death and darkness being condemned before God.
Jesus's most compassionate response to these sheep without
a shepherd is preaching the gospel to them.
And that is the most compassionate thing we can do
for the people around us who don't know Jesus.
Now Jesus will provide for this crowd's physical needs.
Jesus does care about people's suffering, and so should we.
Jesus prioritize the greater need and still met the lesser
need. So should we.
But still addressing people's spiritual needs should be our
priority. As the biblical counselor Ed
Welch put it, suffering hurts more, but sin is more serious.
Suffering will not last, but sin has consequences that reach into
eternity. Teaching God's Word is an act of
compassionate love. Whether it's parents teaching
their children, whether it's fellow members of the church
getting together to study scriptures and encourage them
like we like we talked about in our Sunday School class on
discipling this morning, or whether it's pastors teaching
publicly like I'm doing now. Teaching God's Word addresses
our deepest eternal needs. By God's grace, we've just
nominated two men to serve alongside Michael and me as
elders. If our congregation recognizes
Ashok and Brandon as elders in two months time, what should we
expect from them? What should we want from them?
We should want them to shepherd us by teaching us God's Word and
applying it to our spiritual needs.
We should expect them to feed our souls in public or in
private with God's Word. But Jesus's spiritual act of
compassion allows a physical problem to mount up.
The longer he teaches, the hungrier the crowd gets.
Verse 32 tells us they're in a desolate place.
That doesn't necessarily mean a desert, but it means a place
that is uninhabited. There are no cities or towns
right there around them. So the disciples come and remind
Jesus of the problem. Verses 35 and 36.
And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said,
this is a desolate place and the hour is now late.
Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and
villages and buy themselves something to eat.
This is a real problem. Huge crowd, desolate place, late
hour. How are they supposed to address
it? The disciples solution is not a
brilliant one. It's not like there were fast
food restaurants open late into the night and all the
surrounding villages. Sorry Chris, no Bojangles.
Now the disciples have given Jesus their best idea.
That's not a very good one. So what is Jesus going to do?
Verse 37 But he answered them, you give them something to eat.
And they said to him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of
bread and give it to them to eat?
Jesus performs a little bit of spiritual jiu jitsu here and
throws the problem back on the disciples.
You guys solve this one, but before we get to Jesus solution,
it's worth pausing here and considering the challenge that
Jesus throws at his disciples. They come to him saying big
crowd, no food, big problem. You fix it.
They pass in the ball and Jesus passes the ball right back to
them. He says Nope, this one's on you
guys, what is he doing? I think Jesus has at least two
purposes and passing the ball right back to his disciples.
I think he's both testing their faith and preparing them for
ministry by putting the problem back onto them.
He's like a teacher who asks their student a question rather
than just giving them the answer.
It's a little mini test. It's putting it back onto them.
They have to feel the weight of it.
They have to figure it out. He's teaching them more deeply
by involving them in the solution, and I think he's also
preparing and equipping them for ministry.
They will be involved in his solution to the problem, just
like they will be involved in his spreading the gospel to the
ends of the earth. They need to learn now,
beforehand, that Jesus's work gets done by Jesus's power when
human means are utterly insufficient.
He's teaching them that lesson by experience or at least trying
to teach them because they failed the test.
Their failure is a theme that's going to become more and more
prominent in this passage and in the next few chapters of Mark.
They say, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and
give it to them to eat? The disciples here, Jesus
command is impossible, unreasonable.
What do you mean we got to feed these people?
They didn't have eight months wages on them.
That's about what 200 denarii would have been.
Even if they did, should they blow it all on one massive meal?
So Jesus replies in verse 38, How many loaves do you have?
Go and see. When they had found out, they
said five and two fish. But at this point the disciples
are thinking, So what? Why bother to count the number
of loaves when we know it won't be enough?
All the disciples can see is how big.
The problem is. Their attitude is just like
Moses in Numbers 11, when God tells Moses that an answer to
the people's grumbling cries, he's going to provide meat for
them. Numbers 1121 to 23.
But Moses said, The people among whom I am #600,000 on foot, and
you have said, I will give them meat that they may eat a whole
month. Shall flocks and herds be
slaughtered for them and be enough for them?
Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them
and be enough for them? And the Lord said to Moses, is
the Lord's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my
word will come true for you or not.
I think Moses cry here about the fish is one reason why Jesus
provision includes both bread and fish.
He's providing a feast for his people in the wilderness just
like God did at the Exodus. This shows us that Jesus is not
just a prophet like Moses. But the Lord Incarnate leading
his people through a new exodus. But his disciples don't get it.
They can't see it. All they can see is massive
problem, tiny inadequate human means.
The disciples unbelief shows itself in looking to human means
when only divine means will do. They could have said, Master, we
don't have nearly enough food, but we know that you can do all
things, Master, we, we have hardly anything, but we know
that you can always make enough. But they didn't say that.
Do you ever look for a human solution when only a divine
solution will do? One evidence of that would be
thinking about something, worrying about something,
getting anxious about something, maybe even talking to friends or
family about that same something, writing it down,
making plans, scheming, trying to figure it out, staying up
late, worrying about it and not praying, right?
That would be looking for a human solution when only a
divine solution will do. The number one way we look for
divine solutions to whatever problems are beyond our ability
is prayer. More on that soon.
So the disciples let Jesus know what they have.
It's not much, but they're willing to give it to him so he
can do whatever he will with it. What does he do with it?
Verses 39 to 41 Then he commanded them all to sit down
in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups by
hundreds and by 50s and taken the five loaves and the two
fish. He looked up to heaven and set a
blessing, and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples
to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them.
All the green grass tells us that it was springtime, around
the time of the Passover. By summer, the grass would have
been blasted brown by the heat. But it's also a clue to what's
happening here. Jesus had compassion on them as
a shepherd, and he makes them sit down on green grass, and
he's about to provide for and satisfy them.
As we read earlier, the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green
pastures. Jesus is the Lord Himself come
to shepherd His people in person.
He's the fulfilment of God's promise that we read earlier in
Ezekiel 34 verse 15. I myself will be the shepherd of
my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord
God. Even in that one passage in
Ezekiel, there's a promise both to send David his servant to be
their shepherd, that is to say, an offspring of David.
According to God's promise to David, I'll send David to be
their shepherd, and I myself will be their shepherd.
How can it be both? It's because Jesus is both son
of David and son of God. Jesus, both the human descendant
of David, and God himself come to shepherd his people.
There's a tension in that promise.
Is David the shepherd? Is God the shepherd?
It's both in one. Now, the passage here doesn't
tell us how Jesus did this miracle.
It just tells us that he did it. We were reading this passage at
a meal this week and our son William came up with a pretty
good, you know, guess what? If it was like the the disciples
and they're passing out the food, it's like whenever they
turn away to give give somebody something, poof, there's like
more in the basket. They didn't even see it.
That was pretty good. I don't know how Jesus did it,
but he did it. The text doesn't need to explain
it. It is clearly proclaiming a
divine miracle. It's beyond our comprehension.
Even if you could have been there and seen it with your own
eyes, you wouldn't fully have understood what is happening
because Jesus is putting forth divine power to make bread from
nothing. Who can do that?
Only the God who makes the wheat grow in the first place.
Jesus prayer in verse 41 may well have been the standard
Jewish blessing before a meal, which was likely used in his
day, and it's still used even up to the presence.
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the world, who makes
bread to come forth from the earth.
As man, Jesus prays as God, He brings forth food not from the
earth, but from nothing. Notice the sequence of four
verbs in verse 41. Took, blessed, broke, gave,
took, blessed, broke, gave. Sound familiar?
Where else do we hear that same sequence of verbs in the same
order? Mark 1422 at the Last Supper.
And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it,
broke it and gave it to them, and said, take, this is my body.
This miraculous meal in the wilderness is a preview of the
Lord's Supper, which in turn points ahead to the messianic
banquet, the Supper of the Lamb. In Isaiah 25.
The Lord promises that on the day when he will swallow up
death forever, His people will feast with him.
Jesus miraculously fed a multitude in the wilderness and
in the Lord's Supper that he ordained for us.
He feeds and nourishes our faith in the wilderness that is this
whole life. The same Jesus who kept a
multitude from fainting in the desert keeps our faith from
failing in the wilderness of our sojourn.
One way he does that is by presiding over and meeting us in
the Supper he ordained for us. Look at verses 42 to 44.
And they all ate, and we're satisfied.
And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of the
fish. And those who ate the loaves
were 5000 men. That the fact that the text has
5000 men likely implies that they're also women and children
present, so the total number would have been much larger.
The fact that verse 4312 tells us that 12 baskets were leftover
points to Jesus providing for his 12 apostles.
Jesus miraculous provision ensures that the servants will
be served. It also shows us that the
leftovers were far more than they started with, underscoring
the miraculous character of the provision.
Looking at verse 42 and they all ate and were satisfied, it's
easy to skip over that phrase. In the modern West, we are often
used to the feeling of total fullness and satisfaction after
a meal. But in an ancient agrarian,
hardscrabble economy, a lot of people would have walked away
from a lot of meals with their hunger blunted, not fully
satisfied, much less being so full that they left a whole
bunch of leftovers lying around like they did here.
This wasn't just enough, it was abundance.
This didn't take the edge off their hunger, it satisfied them.
On one level, this further attests the miracle Jesus
provided enough and more. But it also has a deeper
significance. Jesus is the new Moses who feeds
God's people in the wilderness. Jesus is the new David who
gathers and restores God's scattered flock.
Most of all, he is God himself, come in the flesh to shepherd
his people in person. And what does God do for all who
trust in him? He satisfies them.
Jesus is the shepherd who satisfies.
Listen again to David's famous words that we've read from Psalm
23. He restores my soul.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
What's that a picture of? It's a picture of intimate
communion, of satisfying face to face fellowship.
David is confessing that his divine shepherd satisfies.
He's confessing that God is his greatest good.
He's confessing that God is his all sufficient joy and all
satisfying delight. Do you know Jesus?
One evidence that you know him is that you're satisfied in him.
How long does satisfaction after a meal last?
How long does satisfaction after an accomplishment last?
How long does satisfaction last after you receive some long
sought after good, like a job or a house or getting married or
having a child? If you're not a believer in
Jesus, what's the most disappointing satisfaction
you've ever experienced? What's the best thing you've
gotten that disappointed you most quickly?
All earthly satisfaction flees away far faster than we wanted
to. Satisfaction in earthly goods
disappears so fast that it's absurd.
Why? Because our hearts were built to
be satisfied by an infinite good.
As Thomas Aquinas put it, man's ultimate end is uncreated good,
namely God, who alone can fill the will of man to the brim
because of His infinite goodness.
After Jesus fed the 5000, he would find another way to show
his disciples something of His infinite goodness, but it was in
a way that they were not at all prepared to accept, .2 The
Creator who calms. The Creator who calms.
That's who Jesus shows Himself to be in verses 45 to 52.
Look first at verses 45 to 46. Immediately he made his
disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side
to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd, and after he had
taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
Jesus sent his disciples away so that at last he could have some
time alone with his heavenly Father.
Jesus plan for the retreat was delayed by the crowds, but he
turned to prayer the minute his work was finished.
If Jesus prayed privately, so should we.
If Jesus needed to pray, so do we.
If Jesus could make time to pray, so can we.
JC Rowell reflected soberly on this verse.
There are a few things that may be feared in which Christians
come so far short of Christ's example as they do in the matter
of prayer. Are masters strong crying and
tears? Is continuing all night and
prayer to God His frequent withdrawal to private places to
hold close communion with the Father?
Are things more talked of and admired than imitated?
How can you pray privately if you can't find time?
Make time. If you can't find 20 minutes in
your day to pray, start your day 20 minutes earlier.
If you can't find a place, make a place.
When you arrive at that time and place, make yourself
undistractable. How close is your phone to you
during your devotional time? For many of us, the only safe
place for our phone to be what we're trying to pray is across
the other side of the house. But what if you make time for
prayer? You come to pray and you try to
remove all distractions, but then you still struggle to pray
at all. What can you do?
A few practical suggestions. First, take in Scripture and
send it back to God as prayer. You can read psalms and make
their praises and petitions your own.
You can read proverbs and just pick one or two proverbs to pray
that the Lord would make true in your life.
You can study Paul's prayers and pray Paul's prayer lists for
yourself and for other believers.
You can also take the very things that most draw your heart
away from the Lord and turn those into prayer lists.
What are you most anxious about? What are you most upset about?
What are you most angry about? Turn all of those things into
prayer lists. Finally, in addition to praying
privately, we should also pray together.
That's the main reason we gather every week on Sunday at 5:00 PM.
If you're visiting the church and you're considering joining,
I'd encourage you to start attending our evening service.
We expect members to attend both.
One of the best ways to learn to pray is to pray with God's
people. So Jesus retreated to pray by
himself. But even when he was alone with
God, he did not ignore his disciples.
Look at verses 47 and 48. And when evening came, the boat
was on the sea, and he was alone on the land.
And he saw that they were making headway painfully for the
windows against them. And about the fourth watch of
the night, he came to them, walking on the sea.
The disciples had been running for hours and making hardly any
progress. They were in trouble.
So what did Jesus do? He came to them as we sang
earlier. Jesus said, if I am lost, he
will come to me. Despite the darkness and the
distance, Jesus saw his disciples in their distress.
The same Jesus who saw through darkness and distance into his
disciples distress sees into yours.
How can he do that? Because he's divine.
Why does he do that? Because He loves you.
And when he sees your distress, what does he do?
He comes to you. If you want proof, He came to
give himself for you on the cross, and he came back from the
grave to bring you with him into glory.
Do you ever feel like God doesn't see you?
You know, theoretically he's omniscient, He knows everything,
He sees everything. But it just seems like God has
his attention busy elsewhere and he cannot spare a thought for
you. Look at this picture of Jesus.
He sees them, He comes to them. He sees you and comes to you.
How did Jesus come to his disciples?
I'm just walking on water, no big deal.
The God who sustains all the so-called laws of nature can
suspend those at will. The Incarnate God who ordains
and maintains gravity can defy gravity when it suits his
purposes. Who can walk on the waves of the
sea? Only God.
Consider the confession of Job 98.
Job says that God alone is stretched out the heavens and
trampled the waves of the sea. But then Job continues just a
few verses later in verse 11. Behold, He passes by me, and I
see him not. He moves on, but I do not
perceive him. Behold, he passes by me.
Look at the rest of verse 48 into verse 51.
He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the
sea they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw
him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them
and said, take heart, it is I do not be afraid.
And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased, and
they were utterly astounded. We'll get to that part in a
second. He meant to pass by them.
Why, what does that mean? Commentators have said all sorts
of strange and wondrous things to try to explain that, but I
think the key comes from Job 911 in the Old Testament.
What does God do when he reveals himself specifically to one of
his servants? He passes by them.
Exodus 34, Six. The Lord passed before him and
proclaimed the Lord. The Lord, a God merciful and
gracious. Or again on Mount Sinai with
Elijah and 1st Kings 1911. And behold, the Lord passed by.
That verb passed by became kind of like a technical term in
Scripture for what scholars call a theophany, God revealing
himself in a special, visible, personal way.
So what did Jesus mean by intending to pass by the
disciples? It's telling us that he intended
to manifest his divinity to them.
He intended to show them somehow, some way, that he is
God Incarnate. But they cried out in distress.
So instead of passing by the boat, he goes to the boat.
He gets into the boat and immediately calms the storm,
just like he did at the end of chapter 4.
But the emphasis isn't on what he did, but what he said.
Verse 50. Take heart, it is.
I do not be afraid. Why?
Shouldn't you? Be terrified in a storm because
God is with you. The middle phrase.
Of what Jesus says is crucial. Take heart, it is I do not be
afraid the Greek phrase behind the Esvs.
It is I is ego Amy literally translated I am.
When God revealed his name to Moses in Exodus 3, Moses asked
what should he say when the people ask who sent me to you?
The Lord said tell them I am sent you here.
Jesus claims that divine title for himself.
He's saying I am the God who is the I am.
This raises an acute question. How can any of us encounter that
God face to face and not be afraid, but instead be
comforted? Throughout Scripture, when
people meet God face to face, they are terrified.
Isaiah says, when I saw the Lord, I fell down at his feet as
though dead. That's the.
Right response. To meeting a perfectly holy God.
A face to face encounter. With God can only be good news
if your sins are forgiven. Jesus is proclaiming comfort to
his disciples now, and he's. Going to purchase that.
Comfort for them on the cross. He's going to bear the weight of
all of their sins and all the sins of all those who would turn
and trust in Him. That's the ultimate way he
fulfills his plan to rescue them.
Jesus rescues us from a fate far worse than a storm at sea when
he goes to the cross, willingly dies there, suffers God's wrath,
and rises again on the third day.
He invites you, He commands you, He summons you to turn from sin
and trust in Him. If you want to be comforted by
God, turn from sin and trust in Him.
If you want your sins forgiven, turn from sin and trust in Him.
If you want to be right with God as only Jesus can make you, turn
from your sins and trust in Him. Because Christ has died for our
sins and risen from the grave, His divine presence with us is
the best news. Christ is the I Am, and He is
for you. What storms are you in the
middle of right now? What makes you afraid here?
To paraphrase, this passage is what Jesus says to you.
I am the one who gave myself for you on the cross.
Your sins are forgiven. Take heart, Do not be afraid.
I am the one who conquered death.
Take heart. Your death is only safe passage
to heaven. Do not be afraid.
I am the one who intercedes for you before the Father.
Take heart, He loves you more than you love yourself.
Do not be afraid, I am. The one.
Who is making all things new? Take heart, no good thing will
finally be lost. Do not be afraid.
That Jesus is. The divine I Am should give us
astonishing and endless comfort. But the disciples did not
receive comfort. They just didn't get it.
Look at the end of verse 51 into verse 52.
And they were utterly astounded, for they did.
Not understand. About the loaves.
But their hearts were hardened. What lesson should they?
Have taken away from Jesus, multiplying the loaves.
It's that while creatures can make bread from scratch, the
Creator can make bread from nothing.
And if he can make bread from thin air, he can make water
serve as a sidewalk. They should have discerned that
Christ is the one true God who both can and will deliver them
from all their distress. But they didn't.
Jesus's divinity stared them in the face and they didn't get it.
Seeing is not believing. Why not?
Verse 52 tells us their hearts were hardened.
God had not yet given them hearts.
To understand the supernatural truth of Christ's person
requires supernatural insight to receive it.
That supernatural insight does not come from us, it comes from
God. Only God can enable someone to
come to know Jesus as He really is.
A new heart is not something you can give yourself, but it is.
Something you can ask for. A new heart is not something you
can give to somebody else, but it is.
Something you can ask. God for them.
Do you know Jesus? If you do know Him truly
personally, then you know that He is the Creator who calms.
He can calm every storm in this world.
He can calm every storm in your heart.
Point. 3 The healer who makes hole.
Do you know Jesus? If you do, you know that he is
the healer who makes hole. That's the point of the last
little bit of our passage, verses 53 to 56.
When they had crossed. Over they came to land at
Ganester and moored to the shore, and when they got.
Out of the boat. The people immediately
recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring
the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was and
wherever he came in villages, cities or countryside, they laid
the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might
touch even the fringe of his garment, and as many as touched
it were made well. This is a frenzy of activity
around Jesus, and what's driving the frenzy is faith.
These people believe in him. At least they believe in him
enough to know that he can heal their sick.
So they rush him. They swamp him from all sides.
Wherever he goes, people bring those who are sick and beg him
to heal them. And he does, all of them, even
those who simply reach out and touch the fringe of his garment,
which is kind of string hanging down from the corners of his
robes. Last week at the end of his
sermon, Michael taught us about the tassels that God commanded
his people to wear on their clothing.
That's in the last few verses of Numbers 15.
The word translated fringe in verse 56 here is the same Greek
word that translates tassel. It's the same thing.
It's described in the same part of clothing.
This shows us first of all that Jesus is a faithful Torah
keeping Jew. But it also might show.
Us something more often. In the Old Testament, God.
Is said to spread his wings over people as a sign of protection,
care, healing. There's also a.
Prophetic promise in Malachi 4 two right at the end of the Old
Testament after promising the judgment that the day the Lord
will bring in verse one verse 2 says But for you who fear my
name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its
wings. Tassels are a little bit like
wings extending out from the arms.
It turns out that this Son of righteousness prophesied by
Malachi is not a what, but a who.
The Son of righteousness is God's son.
The Son of righteousness is Yahweh Incarnate, whose
miraculously powerful tassels show.
That he is divine. He comes with healing in his
wings. The verb at the very end of.
Verse 56 is also revealing. As many as touched it were made.
Well, a couple sermons ago we saw that this same verb can mean
heal or save. It can mean make well or make
whole. The point is that Jesus restores
people. He renews people.
He is in the business of putting people back together.
The physical healing Jesus. Provides Here is a picture of
the spiritual healing He provides to all who trust in
Him. It's also a pledge of the
complete healing. He will bring all His people on
the last day when He makes all things new.
Jesus is himself the healing presence of God to this broken
creation. In the age to come.
He will make every aspect of creation whole again, and He
will make all His people whole again.
Whether? You're a believer in Jesus.
Or not. What's the biggest disconnect in
your life? What's the thing that's most
broken, most ruptured? Is it your body breaking down
and not doing what your mind and soul want it to?
Is it a frustration at the gap between who you are morally and
who you want to be, Who you know you should be?
Is it broken relationships in a sense that you just don't
belong, whether in your family or among friends or at school or
even in church? Jesus is the healer who makes
well and makes whole. He does so spiritually now, and
one day he will make everything whole.
Do you know Jesus? Is his compassion and power and
healing enough of a magnet to pull you across the chasm of
unbelief? Jesus is the shepherd who?
Satisfies. He's the creator who comes.
He's the healer who makes whole. If you're open to a higher power
being out there. If you're open to this life not
being all there is. If you're looking for who or
what you should believe in, how could you possibly do better
than Jesus? Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you. For sending Jesus so that all
who lay hold of him would be made well, we pray that we would
each lay hold of him in faith and keep clinging to him.
We pray these. Things in Jesus.
Name Amen.