Strolling on the Waves

If you have your Bible, go ahead and open up with me to Mark 6:45. Tonight we will be looking at one of the most well-known miracles of Jesus and that is His miracle of walking on water. Is there any person in this room, when they go to a pool have not tried their absolute hardest to walk or run on water? I remember being younger and having a pool at my house and trying to see how many steps I could get on the surface of the water before I fell in. I don’t think it’s much of a shock to anyone that I never made it from one end of the pool to the next without falling in. It’s safe to assume that as Jesus makes his journey above the sea that He does not look like a little kid running from one end of the pool to the next. Instead, something that cannot be explained by human means takes place. Something miraculous has to happen especially when you consider some of the details that we are going to read about tonight. Something that we have talked a lot about at YC is the importance of presence. Not presents like Christmas but presence. Just simply being there and being in the presence of someone you love and trust makes all the difference in the world. The presence of Jesus in your life absolutely changes everything and we will see this tonight as we read. What I want to do tonight is talk about 2 things: The importance and necessity of prayer and the power of the presence of Jesus. Let’s open up in prayer and then we will read Mark 6:45-52

Mark 6:45–52 NASB95

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.” Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.

The Necessity of Prayer

Let’s talk about prayer. In verse 45, Mark under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit uses his favorite word again, immediately. Immediately after the disciples gather the 12 leftover baskets of the bread and fish, Jesus commands them to get into the boat to go ahead of Him to the other side and something that I find impressive is that Jesus Himself dismisses these 20,000 people that He had just fed. That’s a miracle in itself! For Jesus on His own to dismiss these thousands of people on His own despite the fact that they were dead set on making Him king shows that when Jesus says it’s time to go, it’s time to go. He is the one with authority and not the crowd. After the crowd leaves and the disciples are already in the boat, Jesus goes up on a nearby mountain by Himself to pray. Where it says that Jesus went up on a mountain, He didn’t climb up Mount Everest but on the Sea of Galilee where He is at, there are steep slopes on the east side of the sea which can easily be described as mountainous. What is it that Jesus prays about? What Jesus does here is not at all uncommon. Philip Graham Ryken said, “Usually we think of the life of Christ as a series of miracles, parables, and personal conversations, culminating in the events of his passion, and occasionally interrupted by seasons of prayer. But we could just as well see his life the other way around: as a series of private prayer times, interspersed with the ordinary events of his daily ministry. Jesus Christ was a great man of prayer.” There are numerous times, really at the height of His popularity where Jesus will go somewhere in private to pray and I wonder if we were to get a glimpse inside of Jesus’ prayer life if we would not be encouraged in our own. What is it then that Jesus is praying for? Jesus’ entirely life is saturated in prayer. Some say that in just the four Gospels alone, there are 38 instances where Jesus prays. He prays in times of great joy and tremendous sorrow. He prays regardless of what is happening around Him. Sometimes I think that we only wait to pray when we feel like we need something but Jesus seems to have always been mindful of the need to pray. Why do we pray? It’s so that we can be in contact and communication with God. Jesus, the perfect Son of God, prayed to His Father. Think of the prayer that Jesus prays at the Garden of Gethsemane where He prays, “Father not my will, but yours be done.” In His prayers and in His actions, Jesus desired to do the will of His Father. That’s really the entire reason He comes to Earth. In John 6:38 Jesus will tell the crowd: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” As Christ goes to His Father in prayer, He is seeking to carry out the will of His Father. For time’s sake, we could probably summarize Christ’s prayer life by highlighting who He prays to and who He prays for. When Jesus prays for Himself, it is ultimately for the glory of God. As we’ve already mentioned, when Jesus prays at Gethsemane for the cup to pass from Him, the greater desire in the prayer is that the will of God would be done. What we see all throughout Scripture is that Jesus prays for His people. I believe we see it here in Mark 6 and one of my favorite examples is in Luke 22 when Jesus tells Peter that Peter is going to deny him. We read in Luke 22:31–32 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Jesus always intercedes on behalf of His people that they would endure. Romans 8:34 says, “who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” Salvation was secured on Calvary’s hill but Jesus continues to be our mediator and represent us to God the Father. Charles Hodge said, “Christ, as seated at the right hand of God, and invested with universal dominion, is able to save; his interceding for us is the evidence that he is willing to save—willing not only in the sense of being disposed to, but in the sense of purposing. He intends to save those who put their trust in him, and therefore in their behalf he presents before God the merit of his mediatorial work, and urges their salvation as the reward promised him in the covenant of redemption. He is our patron, in the Roman sense of the word, one who undertakes our case; an advocate, whom the Father always hears. How complete, then, the security of those for whom he pleads!” Jesus prays for His people and the Father will not deny the prayer of His Son. If Jesus Christ prays for you, what do you have to fear in this world? What an honor it is to be prayed for by the King of the Universe! There is no doubt that as Jesus prayed at the Sea of Galilee that He prayed for His disciples and what they were about to endure on the sea.

The Presence of Christ

In verse 47 we see that the boat is in the middle of the sea “when it was evening” and this shows us that by the time the boat reaches this middle point, it is probably around 8 or 9 pm. This is important because one verse later we see that Jesus saw them in the middle of the sea, no doubt through supernatural sight, and comes to them at the fourth watch of the night. The evening was divided up by the Romans into four watches of 3 hour intervals so the fourth watch of the night would be anywhere between 3 and 6 in the morning. What this tells us is that Jesus’ disciples spent upwards of 9 hours rowing and getting absolutely nowhere. Many of them were experienced fishermen but they were getting nowhere. They were terrified, they were struggling and straining at the oars but they got nowhere. The Greek word for straining that Mark uses really means to be tormented or greatly troubled. What a picture of our spiritual life without Jesus. Try as we might on our own, we cannot do anything or go anywhere without Jesus. The end of verse 48 is kind of tricky and it’s not the best translation but it says at the end of verse 48 that Jesus walks on the sea and “intended to pass by them.” What this means is that Jesus wasn’t trying to tiptoe around them and hope that they wouldn’t see Him. Jesus isn’t trying to beat them to the other side. Really what a better interpretation would be is that Jesus was going to walk alongside the boat. Jesus was going to come parallel to the boat and see if the disciples would recognize Him. Jesus wanted His disciples to see His divine nature. Jesus passed by to prove His divinity further because His disciples needed this. How do we know that the disciples still did not believe? It’s because we read in Mark 6:52 “for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.” I think of two instances in the Old Testament and no doubt there are more but two instances where the glory of God passes by so that the presence of God can be clearly seen. In 1 Kings 19, the prophet Elijah has gone into hiding because he is scared for his life and we read in 1 Kings 19:11–12 “So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.” In Exodus 33, Moses asks God to show him His glory and Exodus 33:19-23 says:

Exodus 33:19–23 NASB95

And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. “Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

These moments exist to confirm the absolute authority, power, and presence of God Himself. As Jesus passes by, it should be clear to the disciples that they are standing in the presence of God. When the disciples see Jesus, instead of being comforted they are terrified. At first they assume that it is a ghost, a phantasma or phantom, that is walking towards them but what does Jesus say? He says, “Take courage; it is, do not be afraid.” Why should they take courage? Why should all fear be cast aside? Why should they lose the sense of dread that has followed them for the past 8 hours? Because Jesus is there. As Jesus walks out on the water, it’s not like He’s trying to balance Himself and keep Himself from falling in. He’s not riding the waves. No, I imagine that He walked on that water almost with a skip in His step. He walked on the water just as easily as He walked on land because He created both! The Great I Am is there and when this God is for us, when this God is praying for us, we have absolutely nothing to be afraid of. The presence of Jesus truly does change everything. Do you guys understand how different your life could be if you recognized the fullness of what Jesus says here and all throughout Scripture? If we knew the fullness of Christ’s command to not be afraid because He is present with us, we wouldn’t bother looking both ways when we crossed the street. What do I mean? I mean that when we constantly behold the presence of God in the present and continue to look to Him in our future, nothing that comes into our lives will be a cause of fear. Everything that comes into our lives comes cannot separate us from Christ’s presence. Even in the middle of the sea, in the middle of the storm, did Jesus lose sight of His disciples? No! Verse 48 says that Jesus saw them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them. Does it not stand to reason then that Christ sees you and I just as clearly as we strain in our lives with all the wind that seems to be against us? Friends, Jesus has not lost sight of you. You need to know that tonight, Jesus has not lost sight of you. What was it that calmed the disciples that night? It led them to astonishment but it also soothed their fears? It was the presence of Jesus. They trusted Jesus. Many even say that it was this moment where Peter finally knew who Jesus was. Maybe even the moment where several other disciples knew that Jesus was truly the Son of God and when you come to recognize who Jesus is and where He is, that changes everything. D.A. Carson said, “In the Bible it is right to trust this God with the future, not because of what we do not see or know, but because of what we have come to know of this God- including such truth as the fact that God raised his own dear Son from the dead for our justification. Faith enables us to have confidence in God where we do not see, because it is grounded in the immutable character of God that we have come by grace to perceive as utterly reliable.” Look, until you recognize that the same Jesus that stands with you on the calm of the shore is the same Jesus that walks with you in the storm, you will never possess Jesus for all He’s worth. If you are with Jesus and Jesus is with you, there is nothing to be afraid of. John MacArthur said, “If you are in the place of obedience, you have nothing to fear. He will be a present help in times of need.” Those panicking disciples were just as secure in Christ’s hands while in the storm while out of it. As we get to the end of this miracle, if you are familiar with this passage and story, you might be thinking, “Wait, isn’t something missing? Doesn’t something happen before Jesus gets into the boat with them?” You’re right, in Matthew’s Gospel in chapter 14, someone else walks on the water for a little bit. In Matthew 14, we read that Peter calls out to Jesus and in a moment that is purely dread driven, Jesus tells Jesus to command him to come to him on the water if it is really Him. Jesus does so and Peter walks a little bit but as soon as he loses sight of Jesus by looking at the wind, he starts to fall into the sea but Jesus stretches out His hand and rescues him. Why is that not included here? Well to be fair, Matthew is the only one that includes Peter. Luke doesn’t even record this miracle in his Gospel and John does not mention Peter in his Gospel. For whatever reason that Mark does not include Peter’s rescue, one of the most likely reasons is that as Mark writes his Gospel, he is writing it under the guidance of Peter. Peter is the source of much of Mark’s knowledge and many believe that the reason why Mark does not include Peter’s walking on water is because at this point in Peter’s life, he wants every eye on Jesus. The source of astonishment is not the man that was rescued after walking on water. The source of astonishment is Him that walked on it in the first place, the one that is the Lord of the wind and the sea and all creation. One other thing that is not mentioned in Mark’s Gospel but is mentioned in John’s gospel is that as soon as Jesus gets into the boat, the boat gets to shore. John 6:21 says, “So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.” This is a miracle in itself. Where in the sea were they? Smack dab in the middle. But immediately, Jesus gets them where they need to be. Jesus gets us to the exact point that we are supposed to be at the exact moment we are supposed to be there. The presence of Jesus absolutely changes everything and if you have not come to that realization yet, what are you waiting for? Now is the time to enjoy Jesus for all that He is worth. Let’s pray.