Let Christ in Your Boat

Introduction

Oswald Chambers who was a famous Baptist preacher in the early 20th century, once said:

“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”

Often times it is true that when we follow Christ, we may not know exactly what is going on in the background, but nonetheless we follow. And we follow because we love Him, “because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) And as Simon Peter once said He “has the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

As we will seen in the Word of God today, following Christ can indeed lead us into storms in this life. We may miss out on the “easy way out” by following Christ. But it is (as we will see) through this authentic act of obedience by which Christ shapes us, and makes us better men like Himself. But not only that, but also how He proves His faithfulness to us. And somehow by His divine grace, we come out on the other side with a deeper love and devotion for Him.

Mark 6:45

The setting of this text is the feeding of the 5 thousand. Christ has just performed a miracle unlike any other. Having a crowd of 5 thousand, besides women and children (Matthew 14:21), with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish (Mark 6:38), Christ multiplies the food in a large enough capacity to feed all of them. And still have 12 baskets left over. (Mark 6:43)

It was after this amazing miracle that the crowd began to understand that Jesus was indeed the Christ, their long-awaited for Messiah. John records that shortly after the miracle this happened:

“When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king” (John 6:14-15)

The crowd indeed had an understanding, but it was a slightly skewed one. They believed Jesus was going to rule over Rome, not be the ruler over their hearts, which turned to be His intention. The physical Kingdom would come much later.

In the same way that the crowd yelled for Christ to be crucified later on in His life, they were about to create an uproar for Him to be on the throne. (Perhaps this is what Herod was so troubled about in Matthew 2:3) And it is after this uproar we see that Jesus “withdrew” to the mountain to escape the situation. It was either before of after these things happened where we find ourselves in the text:

“Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before Him.” (Mark 6:45)

Given the fact that the disciples at this time were still trying to wrap their minds around who and what Christ came to be, we can say that Christ more than likely commanded that the disciples go into the boat and leave the scene, before they too joined the uproar.

This we do know and can say: Christ knows everything. And it is His Words by which the Apostles were ordered and the Words by which we are all today ordered.

Christ had his reason for wanting His followers to get in the boat at that exact moment. And today, He has His reasons for telling us to do this or that.

It is at this time that I think about the words of Oswald Chambers: “faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows, the One who is leading?”

The great thing about following Christ is this: we may not fully know or understand, why He wants us to do something, but we know that he always has our good in mind. No matter how hard the path may get, we have His promise that “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28)

**By His divine power and love He will not keep us in the storm forever.**

Mark 6:46

After Christ sent the disciples into the stormy water, He Himself began to pray.

“And after He had taken leave of them , He went on the mountain to pray.” (Mark 6:46)

Mark 6:47

Mark 6:48

Mark 6:49

Mark 6:50

Mark 6:51

Mark 6:52