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The Good News of Jesus

03/08/2009 - Jesus for President, Mark 6:45-56

Well you knew it was going to happen sooner or later. It had to happen! You could feel it coming. He had become way too popular with the masses. To a people who were tired of war he was talking peace. To those who couldn't afford a doctor he was providing universal healthcare at no charge. To those who had nothing to eat he was filling their stomachs. To those who were concerned about crime and violence he was getting demoniacs off the street and into rehabilitation.

So it was no surprise when people started shouting, "Jesus for President! Jesus for President! Jesus for President!" Who could blame them? I'd be shouting that too. After all he had just taken five English muffins and two sardines and miraculously fed 10,000 people. It was a stimulus package like the world had never seen. Who wouldn't vote for this man to run the country? He was certainly a better option than King Herod who had just taken the head off of John the Baptist!

And besides Jesus was a down to earth. He was an ordinary guy. For thirty years he was Joe the carpenter's son. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He didn't come from old money. He knew the how to work hard and stretch a dollar or stretch five loaves and two fish for that matter. And when he spoke the people listened. They loved to listen to him. They didn't understand everything he said, but he had a ring of authority in his voice. He could captivate people with his speeches. Nobody ever left early when Jesus was talking.

So it comes as no surprise that after Jesus feeds the masses they want to crown him king. They want him, not Herod Antipas, to be their king. They want Jesus to be the King of the Jews.

We read that in John's account of the feeding of the 5,000. Look at John 6:14-15, After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." ¹⁵Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

This morning we continue our journey with Jesus through the gospel of Mark with yet another incredible miracle that leaves his disciples dumbfounded. If you have a Bible turn with me to Mark 6:45-56.

Look at verses 45-46, (Map Slide) Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

Last week Jesus and his men had attempted to go on a well deserved vacation to get alone and away from the crowds. But their plans for a quiet little getaway got interrupted when 10,000 people showed up! And the disciples wanted to scream and turn the boat around and head the other way. But Jesus said, "No. Pull the boat up on the beach" because he had compassion on the crowd. To Jesus they looked like sheep without a shepherd and his heart went out to them. And so he taught the crowd until the sun went down. And when the disciples couldn't take it any more they asked Jesus to send them away so they could finally get something to eat, but Jesus said, "You feed them!"

And so from a poor boy's lunch of five barley loaves and two sardines Jesus feeds 10,000 hungry people. And after everyone's full he has the disciples go around and pick up the leftovers which turn out to be twelve baskets worth, one for each of them. And then he says, "Now take your baskets and get right into the boat. I want you to head back across the lake to Bethsaida. I'm not coming with you right now. But I'll meet you over there later. Don't ask any questions. Just do it right now, please."

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him while he dismissed the crowd.

Why the urgency? Why does Jesus hurry up and send his guys away? I think because Jesus knew what was coming and he wanted to protect them. He knew the people were going to try to take him by force and put a crown on his head. And if the disciples were there when that happened it might get ugly. They could have a riot on their hands and that's not what Jesus needed right now. King Herod already had his suspicions about this Jesus character and Jesus didn't want to draw anymore attention to himself than necessary. He wasn't going to be a king by might.

But I think it goes even deeper than that. Jesus sent his disciples away because he didn't want them to get caught up in this nationalistic fervor and provincial view of the Messiah. It was far too narrow. Jesus is more than just the King of the Jews. He's the King of the universe. He's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's what he's trying to teach his disciples because like everybody else they were looking for a king to save Israel and only Israel. Their view of the Messiah was way too small.

And that's what Jesus is trying to teach us. Jesus is Lord of everything. Jesus is Lord of our lives. We don't make Jesus Lord. He is Lord already. Our choice is either to obey him or disobey him, to follow or not to follow. He is the ultimate authority that we will all answer to one day. And as Lord he wants our complete, undivided devotion. Fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ that's how we put it in our mission statement. That's what he wants from me. And that's what he wants from you. And any view we might have of Jesus that is less than that is not the true Jesus. He's not one option among many. He is Lord and the sooner in life we recognize that the better off we'll be. Let's not reduce Jesus to anything less that the true King that he is. And that's what this crowd was attempting to do.

So the disciples get into the boat and sail away to Bethsaida which is the town where Peter and Andrew were born. In the meantime, Jesus dismisses the crowd and hides up in the mountains to pray.

And he has a lot to pray about. He's got these fanatics who want to make him king. He's got Herod paranoid and out looking to get him. He's got the religious leaders calling him the devil and trying to kill him. He's got a group of spiritually challenged disciples who are having a hard time believing. And he knows that pretty soon he'll be wrapping up his work in Galilee and heading into more dangerous territory like the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon up north and then back to the Decapolis where he had cast out a legion of demons and then finally south to Jerusalem where in less than a year he'll be betrayed, arrested, denied, tried, and crucified. He's got a lot on his plate.

Look at verse 47, When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. ⁴⁸He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.

And while Jesus is talking to his heavenly Father about all these things he peers through the darkness and sees the disciples in the middle of the lake struggling to get to the other side. They're up against a head wind and they're not getting anywhere. The sail is down and they're straining at the oars trying to get across, but they're not making any progress. That word "strain" literally means torment or torture. This little four mile trip across the lake has turned out to be torture for them. They've been rowing for hours, spinning their wheels and getting no where.

So once again we see the disciples in the midst of another storm. Only this time Jesus is not sound asleep in the back of the boat. This time Jesus isn't there. They're facing this one alone. But again it's not because they've done something wrong. They haven't done anything wrong. They're being obedient to Jesus. He told them to cross the lake and that's what they're trying to do, which is a reminder to us that life is full of storms. We can't avoid them and following Jesus doesn't mean that we'll always have smooth sailing. In fact, following Jesus sometimes takes us right into the teeth of the storm.

So when Jesus sees them struggling he drops everything and comes to the rescue. Look at verse 48, Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, ⁴⁹but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, ⁵⁰because they all saw him and were terrified.

Jesus climbs down from the mountain or maybe he floats down from the mountain. We don't know. He could have done either. But he puts his foot in the water and it's like stepping on concrete! He walks out onto the lake. What will he think of next? I'm a swimmer. I love the water. I spend a lot of time around the water and I would love to know how Jesus pulled this one off. Believe me, I've tried it many times and every time I sink to the bottom like a rock.

This week I read articles that claim that Jesus didn't really walk on water he just knew where the rocks were. In one article a scientist claimed that Jesus really was walking on ice patches. It's a rare phenomenon, he admits, to have ice on the Sea of Galilee, but it's happened a few times in the last 2,500 years and this was one of those times. Hey, if you don't believe Jesus is Lord then you need an explanation like that. But if you do, then you don't.

Jesus walks out on the water and was about to pass them by. I'm not sure what that's about. But when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. And they were scared to death!

Immediately, verse 50 says, he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

There it is again. Those words don't be afraid. That's what Jesus said the last time they were in a storm. Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Here we go again! Jesus is trying to teach his followers that we don't need to live our lives in fear if we look to him in faith even when we encounter the fiercest storms of life.

Now Matthew includes a significant detail in this story that Mark does not. When Peter sees Jesus he wants to step out on the water too. He wants to find those ice patches!

So we read in Matthew 14:28-31,"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." ²⁹"Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" ³¹Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

Twelve disciples sitting in the boat, but only Peter has the guts to get out put his foot on the waves and Jesus says he has little faith. I think he's got a lot of faith. He certainly has more faith than the rest of the disciples that someone described as "boat potatoes." They just sit there and say, "Peter what are you doing? Are you crazy?" But Peter gets out of the boat and walks on the water to Jesus. And as long as he keeps his eyes on Jesus he walks, but when he takes his eyes off Jesus and looks at the storm swirling all around him he sinks. But before he goes under Jesus is there to rescue him. "Lord, save me!" And Jesus does!

John Ortberg wrote a whole book about this story calledIf You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get out of the Boat. And in his book he writes, "There's only one way to increase your faith and move out of your spiritual comfort zone and getting more information alone won't do it. You need to get out of the boat a little bit every day. Begin the day by asking God for wisdom about where you need to get your feet wet that day. Call someone whom you've been avoiding out of fear. Express your faith to a person who does not know about your beliefs. Make a gesture of friendship toward someone when you're tempted to hold back. Risk speaking the truth in love to a spouse, a parent, or a friend when your normal course of action would be to hesitate. It doesn't matter whether all these steps turn out the way you hoped. Of course, things will end in failure sometime, but you're giving your faith a chance to grow. Very often God will ask us to step out of the boat at the point of our fears - precisely because he wants us to overcome them.

"Walking on water means facing your fears and choosing not to let fear have the last word. Walking on water means discovering and embracing the unique calling of God on your life. Walking on water means experiencing the power of God in your life to do something you would not be capable of doing on your own."

And that's what happened to Peter. You can't walk on water unless you get out of the boat. And Peter did. And that's what God wants us to do to. He wants us to get out of the boat. He wants us to step out in faith and look at him and not at the storms swirling around us because he doesn't want us to live our lives driven by fear. He wants our faith in him to overcome that fear and to set us free. I think that's a big part of the abundant life that Jesus offers.

Look at verse 51, (Map Slide)Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, ⁵²for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

When Jesus climbs into the boat the wind immediately dies down. In John's account it says that when Jesus got into the boat they immediately reached the shore where they were heading. Jesus presence makes all the difference. He can calm any storm that we're facing. But the disciples are still struggling to believe. Even after the feeding 10,000 people their hearts are still hardened to the truth of who Jesus really is. Faith is a process for them and it's a process for us too. And thank God that Jesus is patient in the process because for some it takes longer than others. And it took a long time and a lot of evidence for the disciples to believe. They weren't an easy bunch.

And when they land on the shore at Gennesaret, which is a little bit south of Capernaum, its show time again. Does Jesus ever get break? Not when he's with people.

Look at verse 53, When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

I read that this week and I thought, "How does Jesus do it? When is enough enough? Everybody wants a piece of Jesus. Nobody ever comes to give him anything, except that poor little boy who gave him five loaves and two fish. But that's about it. Everybody comes to get something from Jesus. You can just see the people lined up on pallets up and down Main Street begging Jesus to touch them. You can imagine a line of people behind Jesus taking turns touching the edge of his robe to be healed. And we know that every time that happens power goes out of him. It drains him. But in his grace he just keeps giving and giving and giving and giving. That's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's the one we are giving our lives to."

We all need to be careful that we don't just come to Jesus to get what we need from him. It's so easy to do. We need to come to Jesus to give to him too. We come to give our worship to him. We come to give our allegiance to him. We come to give our obedience to him. We come to give our resources to him, our time to him, our bodies to him, our minds to him, our talents to him. We come to give our very lives to him because he made us and loves us and cares for us and he is Lord and deserves it all.

In a little over a week we're going to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, March 17, and this week I read a great prayer that's attributed to St. Patrick who took the gospel to Ireland. It's called "Lorica" and the name comes from a Roman coat of armor that was meant to protect the one who was wearing it. It's all about Jesus and goes like this.

I arise today through God's strength to pilot me.
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise.
Christ in the heart of every one who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity.
Let's make that our prayer as well.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.