Miracle of Our Lord Walking on Water #1

Introduction and Reading of Mark 6:45-52

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, October 6th, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to follow in your own Bibles as I read this morning from the 6th chapter of Mark's Gospel, the incident that lies at the foundation of the perspectives of the hymn we have just sung, the incident of our Lord coming to the disciples, walking upon a raging sea, calming their fears by His Word and by His power. Mark's Gospel, chapter 6, and I shall read verses 45 through 52. Mark 6, verse 45. And straightway He constrained His disciples to enter into the boat, and to go before Him, unto the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself sent the multitude away. And after He had taken leave of them, He departed into the mountain to pray.

1:18 And when even was come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and He alone on the land. And seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them, about the fourth walking...

1:35 And when He had watched the night, He comes unto them walking on the sea, and He would have passed by them. But they, when they saw Him walking on the sea, supposed that it was an apparition, a phantom, and cried out, for they all saw Him and were troubled. But He straightway spoke unto them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer, it is I. Be not of good cheer, it is I.

2:06 And they were not afraid. And He went up unto them into the boat, and the wind ceased. And they were a sore amazed in themselves, for they understood not concerning the loads, but their heart was hardened. Let us again bow in the presence of God and ask God by the Holy Spirit to come and open to us His own infallible Word.

Prayer for Holy Spirit's Illumination and the Significance of Christ's Identity

2:39 Once again, our Father, we thank You that You have sent the Holy Spirit to the Church, and that He has come not only to our individual hearts as believers, but into the midst of Your gathered people to testify of Your Son. And we pray that by His ministry, His own presence will fill up this narrative, that it may soon be evident that we, we are not merely engaging our minds to follow closely what You have said about an ancient but true story, but that Christ Himself has purposed to come to us in His own Word. O Holy Spirit, come and fill the narrative with the Lord Jesus. Prepare our hearts to behold Him. Incline our hearts to embrace Him.

3:43 Move our hearts to love Him and to trust Him. We ask in His name. Amen. Now we come to examine together this morning another of these amazing displays of the grace and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4:10 The Scriptures affirm that what you and I believe about the identity of Christ's person, is a matter of life and death. Not physical life and death, but spiritual and eternal life and death. For Jesus Himself said, If you do not believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins. In other words, what we believe about the identity of His persons is a matter of life and death.

4:48 This is a matter of life and death. This is a matter of life and death. John the Apostle, toward the conclusion of his own gospel record, writes, These things have I written, that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, and that believing you may have life in His name. And there is no life apart from the faith that properly identifies His person as Son of God.

5:19 And we have had occasion to note again and again that right on the threshold of his gospel, Mark is up front with the Jesus whom he is presenting to us. His opening words are the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God,

5:42 and he identifies the central figure of this gospel not only in terms of the reality of His humanity, and even His location, Jesus of Nazareth, but He identifies Him in terms of His person as Son of God, God the Son. And by an ever-increasing accumulation of incidents which underscore His unique identity, Mark continues to set Him before us as God's mighty worker, the Son of God, and the Savior of His people. And in this passage, we have a miracle, or a couple of miracles, which in many ways are equal in their majesty and in their impression upon the mind to that which we previously studied, namely the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 men plus the unnumbered women and children. Now as we attempt to grasp the message of this passage, we will first of all seek to have an accurate understanding of the facts of the narrative as they are set before us. And God willing, this morning, having opened up the facts of this incident, we'll have time only to make the two evident applications

Introductory Activities: Dismissal of Disciples and Multitudes

7:10 that lie on the very surface of the passage, and then God willing, next Lord's Day morning, about a half a dozen more applications which are not quite as much on the surface, but are so evidently here that I feel I would be impoverishing your souls were I not to give a second message on the message of this miracle. First of all then, the facts of this incident are set before us basically in three units of activity. We have first of all the introductory activities preceding the miraculous activities of our Lord. And the introductory activities are described in verses 45 and 46 as basically two. And straightway He constrained His disciples to enter into the boat, verse 46, and after He had taken leave of them He departed into the mountain to pray. So the introductory activities that precede the miraculous are these. First of all, the dismissal of the disciples and the multitudes in verse 45, and then the departure of our Lord Himself, verse 46.

8:37 First of all then, Mark's account of the dismissal of the disciples and of the multitude. Mark indicates by the use of this word straightway in its context that very soon after the disciples had gathered up the twelve basketfuls of the fragments from the loaves and the fishes that our Lord dismissed the disciples. And in describing that dismissal He uses a very strong word. It is translated in the 1901 version that we use in preaching.

9:19 Straightway He constrained Perhaps a better rendering would be compelled. And that's how our English translators translate this verb when it is used in Luke 14, 23. Go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. And it's translated both ways in our English versions.

9:45 Compel and constrain. But whichever way we render it, the verb has no significance apart from the existence of either a physical or an emotional or psychological reluctance to do what is initially suggested. And so the indication is that when our Lord first intimated that the disciples should enter into the boat and go before Him to the other side to Bethsaida, that other Bethsaida called Bethsaida of Galilee or the Western Bethsaida, they did not immediately find themselves jumping with delight at the thought of this departure from their Lord. And it took something bordering on a command, a constraining, a compelling to get them to leave His presence, enter the boat, and head in the direction of the western, northwestern part of the Sea of Galilee. And then having constrained the disciples to enter into the boat, to go before Him to the other side, we then read that He took leave of the multitude whom He had sent away, while He Himself, that is,

11:12 without the aid of the disciples, who have already been constrained to go back to the shore, back to the shore of the sea, and enter the boat, all alone, without their assistance, He sends the multitude away. And the verb for send away is precisely the verb that the disciples used earlier when they said to the Lord Jesus, send them away. They go into the country and villages round about. Verse 36.

11:48 I was a little bit rough on the disciples last week. I said that they were cheeky and presumptuous in giving orders to the Lord. And then one whose knowledge of the Greek language is more proficient than mine reminded me that the imperative can sometimes be the imperative of entreaty. So the disciples may not have been ordering the Lord, but making an entreaty of the Lord.

12:13 But be that as it may, the same verb is used. And now our Lord does precisely that. What He was reluctant to do before He fed them, that is, send them away, He now does. They may have all kinds of questions.

12:31 Handedly break up that mob and disperse them. I don't know. But the text simply says that He sends the multitude away. So He dismisses the disciples by constraint, and the multitude by a means not revealed.

12:54 Then we have the record of the departure of our Lord Himself in verse 46. And after He had taken leave of them, a phrase which describes our Lord being courteous, probably in the acceptable Eastern fashion, having dispersed the great bulk of the multitude, apparently some were yet there in the immediate area upon the grass where He had multiplied the loaves and the fishes, He courteously takes leave of them and departs into the mountain to pray. He went further up from the grassy slopes into the more recluse, to the more remote places of that particular area, and Mark tells us He did so with a specific intention of giving Himself to prayer. Now the question which almost immediately and universally presses in upon the mind of any thoughtful reader or the questions which press in are these. Why so urgent a dismissal of the disciples? Why so sudden a dismissal of the multitudes?

The Reason for Dismissal: Avoiding Earthly Kingship

14:19 Why this courteous, this courteous removal from those who remained in that immediate area and this departure into the mountain to pray? Well, if all we had was the light of Mark's Gospel, we would have to leave that an open-ended question. But when we bring to bear upon Mark's Gospel the statement of John 6, 14 and 15, the answer becomes very clear. Turn please to John chapter 6, verses 14 and 15.

14:54 At the conclusion of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes and the gathering up of the fragments, John comments, When therefore the people saw the sign which he did, this miraculous work, this supernatural deed, they said, This is of a truth, the prophet that comes into the world. What more can we expect from the Messiah who will be God's anointed prophet, priest and king? And in consistency with their own conceptions of who and how and what he would do, we read in verse 15, Jesus therefore perceiving that they were about to come and take by force and withdrew again into the mountain himself alone. And so it was our Lord's perceived awareness of their intention to come and forcibly elevate him to the position of a king, a king according to all of their own twisted

16:23 and warped Jewish expectations. One perceptive commentator writing on this fact wrote as follows, The feeding of the multitude had roused them to such a pitch of enthusiasm that they were for taking Jesus by force and making him king. What a contradiction! I thought a king rules people seek to rule in order to make him a king.

16:54 But in seeking to act on this impulse, they were adopting a thoroughly false idea of the royalty of Messiah. They thought that the deliverer of whom the prophets had spoken was to be a temporal king and that gathering earthly followers around him he would break the yoke of the Roman oppression, set up his throne in Jerusalem, and distribute among his adherents the rewards of place and preferment. But of a kingdom founded upon truth and love, or of a royalty over the hearts and consciences and lives of men, they had not even the faintest conception. In seeking therefore to make Christ a king after their own pattern, so far from conferring honor upon him, they were doing their best to wreck the cause of which he was the head. They were repeating in their own way and in a sense too with the desires to advance his cause the very temptation which Satan had set before him on the mountain when he offered him the crown without the cross. Therefore for his own sake as well as for theirs he sent the multitude away. But the disciples just at this stage in their development were more in sympathy with the crowd than with their master in this matter.

18:20 They also longed to see him a king as the request of James and John presented through their mother and the question put to them by their Lord just before his ascension fully proved. Do you remember? Later on the mother of two of the disciples come and say, Can my sons be sort of your prime ministers? One on the left and one on the right thinking of an earthly kingdom with earthly preferment.

18:47 Accordingly, knowing this, the Lord constrained them to get into a boat and to go before him unto the other side. They were unwilling to go as in the circumstances just explained was perfectly natural and he had to use a kind of force to get them to depart. And as soon as he had prevailed on them to go and had dismissed the crowd whom he had so recently fed, he went up alone to the mountain to find rest and solace for himself in fellowship with his father. Now those are the two basic introductory activities to the miraculous.

Miraculous Activities: Disciples' Peril and Christ's Prayer

19:30 There is the forceful dismissal of the twelve to the boat with orders to cross over to the other side and the gracious withdrawal and dispersing of the multitude in a context in which there was this tremendous pressure forcefully to make him a king. Now then we note in the narrative this second division of thought from the introductory matters preceding the miraculous now in verses 47 to 57 51a we have the details of the miraculous activities of our Lord. The details of the miraculous activities of our Lord. And first of all those details come to us in terms of describing the relative positions and conditions of the disciples and of our Lord just on the threshold of the miracle. What was the relative position of the disciples to the Lord and the Lord to them? What were the relative conditions with respect to them and to their Lord?

20:45 Verse 47 tells us when even was come the boat was in the midst of the sea and he alone on the land. What we would call the second evening. You remember the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand came because the day was far spent. We would usually say early evening from four till seven or so in our reckoning depending on what part of the country you're from.

21:20 But then there was the second evening that continued from sundown until it was dark. And we know from the parallel passage in John 6 and verse 7 that the evening described here was that condition of darkness. So when darkness fully settled in the disciples were in the boat in the midst of the sea. And while they were in that place separated from their Lord all of a sudden one of those fierce storms of hurricane strength came sweeping down upon the sea of Galilee and we read in Matthew 14 and verse 24 that the boat was literally tortured by the waves. The verb used there is the one translated several times in the book of the Revelation of those who are tormented by the judgments of God. And there's the picture of that boat heading in the direction of the western or the Galilean Bethsaida. And they know as seamen that when the waves begin to blow you must keep the bow of the boat straight into the waves.

22:41 If you get sideways you're caught in a trough and you capsize. If you let the waves drive you you'll be caught on a crest of them just like a surfboard and dashed upon the shore. So as seamen they keep the bow of the boat in the direction of their general destination for the wind most likely came out of the northwest down upon that lake in the very direction they are going. And this tremendous storm that they had experienced as sailors a storm that they had experienced in the presence of the Lord according to chapter 4 in Mark you remember when he was sound asleep on the resting pillow in the stern of the ship Mark tells us that this is the condition of the disciples in obedience to that constraining command of the Lord they enter their boat they set out upon their journey but not soon into that journey by the time the sun is fully set and darkness grips them one of these horrible storms comes down upon them and is so threatening in its tremendous fury that we are told by John that the sea was rising because of the great wind and Matthew tells us that ship or that boat was being tortured by the pounding of the waves.

24:09 Now that's the condition and position of the disciples. Now where is their Lord in all of this? Well our text tells us that he was alone on the land and according to the preceding verse that place of land where he was alone was the mountain where he was engaged in intercession and prayer with his heavenly Father. Now no veil is picked up to give us any insight as to the substance of that evening vigil of prayer which our Lord now keeps unlike Gethsemane and unlike one or two other places where at least we are given a peak of his prayer life all it is said was that he went to the place where he was and there he was and there he was and there he was and there he was and there he was and there he was and there he was and there he was and there he was and there he was all it was said was that he went into the mountain to pray and what kind of wrestlings he was having with his Father as he anticipated the next day's ministry when he knew that these foolish notions of the multitude that he was performing miracles in order to be elevated to an earthly carnal kingship had to be dashed you remember he was going to dash them by his discourse on the bread of life that no man can come to the Son unless the Father draw him. He knew the time had come

25:38 when his teaching had to take on a new definitiveness with respect to the nature of the kingdom he had come to establish. That he had not been doing these miracles to validate his identity in order to serve their notions of a king. But he had been doing these miracles to validate his identity as the true Savior of sinners whose kingdom was spiritual.

26:05 Only God knows what wrestlings there may have been with reference to the realization that that sermon would be the great divide and the multitudes would go back and follow him no more. Who knows what outpourings of praise there may have been for the Father's upholding grace. What intercession for the disciples who even now were in a place of greatness. What great peril I say avail is cast over that midnight vigil.

26:37 But those are the relative positions and conditions of the disciples and our Lord. Now put yourself in the place of the disciples. As hour upon hour passes and our text tells us he does not come to them until the fourth watch of the night. The earliest time for that would be three o'clock in the morning.

26:59 So for a period of at least six hours they have been rowing straight into the waves. The waves torturing the strength of that boat. Wrestling until every muscle ached. Wandering with every stroke of the oars.

27:17 Where is our Lord? Where is our Lord? Where is our Lord? Where is our Lord?

27:24 And he in the calmness of fellowship with his Father is up in the mountain praying. Then the text goes on from the relative positions and conditions of the disciples and our Lord. He says, to give us the deliberate actions of our Lord. Verse 48.

Christ's Deliberate Actions: Seeing and Walking on Water

27:43 The deliberate actions of our Lord and the first one is this. Mark tells us he saw them tortured in their rowing.

27:56 Distressed for the wind was contrary unto them. And the word distressed in verse 48 is exactly the same word used by Matthew to describe what the waves were doing to the ship. The waves were distressing, torturing, tormenting the ship. Testing it to its limits.

28:20 And now Mark tells us that they were tortured, distressed, tested to the limits in rowing. Have any of you rowed a boat with great intensity for as long as half an hour? I can remember back when I was in good shape for a teenager. Going out in the little bay there in Stamford, Connecticut, where I was reared and occasionally having a little rowboat race with some of my buddies.

28:48 And I know what my teenage body in good shape felt like after rowing for half an hour with intensity. The biceps felt like they were going to pop. The back felt like it was going to break. But here were these men.

29:04 Remember now, though most of them were in good shape having been fishermen for years. For the past year they had been in the company of their master. They had not been keeping up their three hours a week at the local Nautilus Club.

29:21 No. In a sense, they were out of shape, particularly in their upper body. With all of their walking, the legs were probably in good shape and the cardiovascular system. But the back muscles, the pulling muscles of the shoulder and the biceps, which are not ordinary activities.

29:40 And the scripture tells us, and the translation is not excessive, that they were tortured and they were rowing. Every stroke had become a form of physical panguish. They sought to keep the bow of the ship into the waves. And John adds a little stroke that during all of that time they had traveled only approximately three and a half miles.

30:06 In at least six hours, possibly long.

30:11 Now some of you who saw the pictures of Gloria, remember the kind of waves that she was causing to dash upon the boardwalk in Atlantic City? And some of us kind of rejoiced, not for any Christians who suffered in Atlantic City, but that its worst fury in Jersey was vented upon that hellhole there along the boardwalk in Atlantic City. The tremendous force of those waves that tore up all of the construction of those boardwalks. Well, imagine that kind of tremendous pressure pounding upon the ship and the disciples seeking to keep the bow of the ship into it.

30:52 And make headway against it. And yet after all those hours, they've only made 25 or 30 stadia, a distance of about three and a half miles. And what did our Lord do? His first deliberate activity is this.

31:07 He saw them. He saw them.

31:14 Distressed in Rome, for the wind was contrary unto them. Now the question is often asked, how and from what position did He see them? If He was up in the mountain, how could He see them in the midst of a storm? Others say it was near Passover time, which was always a full moon.

31:36 Perhaps in the breaking up of the clouds now and then, the light of the moon shone upon them and He saw them by the light of the moon. Others say, no, He was down walking upon the shore at this time and He saw them from there. What's the answer? I don't know.

31:52 All I know is the text says He saw them. He saw them. And whether this was the kind of sight that is referred to with regard to Nathanael, before you were a fig tree, I saw you. The sight of His omniscience as God, or whether it was the sight in which His faculties of sight as a man were engaged and certain means were used, we do not know.

32:25 What to all appearances was true was not true. To the disciples they were forgotten and abandoned in their most crucial hour of need.

32:39 But Mark says, no, He saw them. Long before they saw and recognized Him, He saw them. And then His second activity is this. He walked towards them upon the water.

32:55 Look at the text.

32:58 And seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them, about the fourth watch of the night, three in the morning, He came, comes unto them. And there you have again Mark's use of that historical present. He wants us to use our imagination as though we're actually seeing it happen. He is coming unto them, walking on the sea, and He would have passed by them.

33:27 Here the second deliberate activity of our Lord after seeing them, He now begins to walk toward them, defying both, the law of gravity that should have pulled Him down at least into the water, the pressure of the hurricane winds, which would have caused Him to totter upon the waters, and probably cutting a calm swath before Him, defying all the laws of hurricanes. He comes walking towards them. But then Mark adds this little stroke, and He would have passed by them. In other words, His course was not one of a direct line between Himself and their struggling boat, but it was one that would have carried Him just alongside of them. And here again many questions rise in our minds. Why not walk straight towards them?

34:33 Why does Mark say He would, and that word would is strong. It speaks of a disposition of His will to have passed by them. Well, your guess is as good as mine. But all I know is this is what it says.

34:47 And my own guess is that the Lord on the one hand did not want to terrify them unnecessarily for coming straight at them. It's one thing to think you see a ghost passing by you. It's another to think He's coming right at you.

35:05 It could be. On the other hand, it could be that our Lord was seeking to draw out their faith, that there would be the recognition of true perception, and then the invitation of true faith. But whatever the reasons, I'm just called upon to expound what's here, and it is so forceful, particularly in the original, that I cannot pass it by as just a little unnecessary verbal stroke. So He walked toward them and deliberately on a course that would have carried Him by them, and He's walking upon the water.

Disciples' Terrified Reaction and Christ's Calming Grace

35:41 Now then, we have recorded the third grouping of ideas from the relative position of the disciples and of our Lord. The deliberate actions of our Lord, seeing them, walking towards them. Now we have the terrified reaction of the disciples, 49 and 50a.

36:02 And they, when walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, literally a phantom, an apparition, and cried out, for they awe Him, and were troubled.

36:20 The terrible reaction of the disciples. Mark tells us that they all...

36:28 Now try to relive the situation. When you row a boat, your back is toward the bow, right? Alright, the bow is heading towards Capernaum, towards Bethsaida of Galilee, which is near Capernaum. The wind is rushing down from that direction.

36:44 Their faces then are still somewhat set in the direction of Bethsaida Julius. Yes. And so their faces, all of them as rowers, are in the very direction from which Jesus comes walking to Him. And the text is very explicit that they all, they were deeply troubled, agitated.

37:05 We would say, and then that trouble was focused upon a conviction that what they saw was an apparition. What they saw was what the witch of Endor saw when she, quote, called Saul. It was in their instance of apparitions in which there would be visible forms of people, either dead or living, but not the people themselves. If you reached out to touch the apparition, your hand would go through it.

37:39 It was not substantial. It did not have flesh and bones. You remember Jesus said, Touch me. See that I have flesh and bones.

37:48 A spirit, an apparition, has no such substance. So what they thought they saw was an apparition. And once convinced that what they were seeing was an apparition, added to all the weariness and the terror of death, as it were, breathing down their necks, they become totally unstrung. And again, it's vivid in the original.

38:12 They with one chorus reek. They with an exceeding and it's an intensified use of the verb to cry out.

38:25 The very word used of demons in the presence of Jesus. The very word used to describe the bloodthirstyness of the bloodthirsty mob in Luke 23, 18. They crease unto us. Barabbas.

38:43 Be something of the terror that gripped them. Before we condemn them, think of their condition. Boney from the hour seemed so full until every stroke of the oar according to the scriptures was a form of self-torture. Afraid of been having the angst of their grave.

39:11 Still filled with many superstitions even after Pentecost. You remember when God delivers Peter and Acts 11? They say, oh, that's not Peter at the door, that's his ghost. Even people full of the Holy Spirit don't get rid of all their superstitions.

39:26 That's why some of you still won't walk under a ladder. And you have other things. You wouldn't admit it.

39:32 But you see, the superstitions were there. But the superstitions were by the weariness, by the mental torture of feeling that death might come upon them with the very next crash of a wave that was already creaking to groan under the constant battering of those people. Of those angry seas. Then we move to see the fourth element in this description of the miracle.

Christ's Gracious Word and Calming Power

40:00 The gracious word and work of our Lord. The gracious word and work of our Lord. He spoke first of all of calming grace and then he performed a double action of calming power. Look at it in the text.

40:21 But hate way spoke with them and sent unto them be of good cheer. It is I.

40:37 Answer to their shriek of terror. It was an immediate word of calm. In a voice that was strong enough to be heard above the angry billows. Above the rustling of that wind on that blustery night.

40:58 In a voice that was loud enough and firm enough to be heard. But a voice sated with grace is an imperative.

41:13 A dozen times in the New Testament and only once is it found on any other lips than the lips of Jesus. And in the one instance where a group of people speak it they speak it echoing the very words of Christ. Be of good cheer he calls you. And it's a word that literally means John 16.33 In the world you tribulation be courageous overcome the world. It's the word spoken by our Lord to Paul in Acts 23.11 where he commands him to be calm. Courageous.

41:56 And then the reason. Here's the reason he gives and it's all the reason they needed. It is I. This is not an apparition.

42:05 This is not some denizen from the world of fallen spirits come to torment you as you face death. It is I. It is I. He doesn't even need to say it is I Jesus your friend your companion your Lord your Master.

42:22 They recognized that the voice speaking above the roar of the waves and then he gives the negative imperative do not and in that form of the imperative the emphasis falls upon being afraid to continue in that state of non-calming grace. And then he performed a double action of calming power. Look at it in verse 51. And he went up unto them into the boat and the wind see and they were he went action of calming power. He continues to overcome whatever was in the angry that would keep him from safely entering the boat. They can only remember when he was with us in the boat before us though a silly and different that he's with us all will be well and no sooner does he enter the boat giving his first action of calming power but that he calms

43:51 the hurricane may I say it reverently with a silent wish of his own. His own sovereign will. Look at the text. He went up into the boat the wind cease.

44:07 In the previous incident he spoke to the wind he spoke to and he willed the hurricane away. Omnipotent will and the wind ceased. It's what may be a third element of the miraculous and he says immediately they were at their place of destination. And there is strong suggestion and many commentators take the position that then Jesus performed a capstone miracle and sort of made a fast moving hovercraft out of that boat and got them immediately to the place where they hadn't been able to get to after hours of rowing.

44:52 But that's not in Mark's testimony here and I'll not be dogmatic on it though I think John 621b surely does point in that direction. So by this double action of entering into the boat with them and by the willing of that storm into non-existence he manifest his power. Well what are the results of the miraculous? We looked at the introduction to the miraculous the details of the miraculous activity.

Results of the Miracle: Amazement and Hardness of Heart

45:24 Now what result did this have upon them? Verse 51b and verse 52. And they soar amazed in themselves for they understood not concerning the loaves but their heart. Their heart was hardened.

45:45 The result of these miracles is described in terms of its essence and its cause. What was the essence of the result upon the disciples? It says they were in a state of utter amazement. This word we encountered before in chapter 321 and chapter 2 and verse 12 and there we gave a contemporary rendition.

46:09 They were blown out of some textual evidence that there may be some additional words to underscore the tremendous intensity of their amazement. They were really astounded in themselves. Now in that state according to Matthew 14 and verse 33 though blown out of their minds and utterly unstrung and unhinged by what they saw there was still an outcry for you'll notice that Matthew says that it's precisely at that point with the incident of Peter walking on the waves in between recorded only by Matthew. Verse 33 and they that were in the boat worshipped him saying of a true son of God. So in the midst of this kind of mental derangement and astonishment there is a confession of faith that breaks out of them. Surely you are the son of God. That's the essence of the response but now this strange word in Mark.

47:20 What was the cause? Verse 40, 52. For. For.

47:25 The. Form. Decades. Explained.

47:30 The. Sin. The. Ca.

47:38 Was. Rooted. Not. In.

47:40 Spiritual. Perception. But. In.

47:44 Spirit. For. They. Us.

47:56 Isn't that a strange way to end the story? But I didn't write the Bible. I'm just called upon to expound it. What was the cause of that intense mental disruption that came as a result of the combination of miracles or this combination?

48:16 It was according to the spirit of God through Mark that they did message of the multiplying. The measure and quality was the fruit of their non-exception. Now follow closely. And their non-exception was the result of the condition of their heart.

48:50 But their heart was hardened. It does not mean their heart was hardened in the sense of a Pharaoh. The hardness of a reprobate. But that there was a residual.

49:07 Of the heart that was natively theirs before they were regenerate and called into discipleship. That had been radically altered in their conversion. But in the impress of remaining corruption upon the heart in a state of partial hardness. You will notice in Mark 8 17 how those two verbs are brought together again into the closest conjunction.

49:40 Mark 8 17. Jesus perceiving it said unto them Why do you reason because you have no bread? Not yet perceived as we have in our text verse 52. You see conjunction.

50:12 So the essence of their response was astonishment amazed. Woven into the midst of it. And the cause of it was exception rooted in hardness of heart. Well that's the exposition.

Application 1: Jesus' True Identity as God

50:31 As best I've been able to ascertain the mind of the spirits taking examination of the text. As now these two simple but vital applications. And I knew that the bulk of the message would be taken up with exposition. And though I make no apology.

50:53 I do because we have newcomers all the time give this word of explanation. I know of no other way to preach God's word. I can't exhort till I've laid the foundation in exposition. That I trust.

51:06 Convinces your judgment. That the exhortations based upon the passage are valid. And I hope I put in your hands the key of responsible Bible study. For your own devotional life.

51:19 And I trust you're not weary with this method. What is the message now of this incident? We have time only to look at the two messages that lie on the surface of the passage itself. Bringing to it first and foremost.

51:36 Of all the light of Matthew 13, 14, 33. The whole incident constitutes another powerful demonstration. Of the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth. This whole incident from beginning to end.

51:55 Constitutes another powerful demonstration. Of the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth. You remember back in the introduction today how I began. Standing and confession and belief with reference to the identity of Jesus.

52:17 Is a matter of life and death. Takeable dirt is all penetrate through the thick of tumult. The spread and from several miles. His distressed disciples.

52:49 He is not only omniscient God who can see. I cannot see. He's the omnipotent God. Who can step out and make a path for himself.

53:05 Cains that are operative upon the sea. He can stay on the surface of the water. Defying on the one hand that measure of gravity that would pull him down into it. Such a measure of defiance that would cause him to float as in weightlessness above the sea.

53:29 He knew how to take the law of gravity and adjust it perfectly to his own body weight. That his feet just walked across the surface. Who but God plays with his own laws that way at his own will. Nature and tune it to suit his own design.

53:48 Is the Jesus with the eye of divine omniscience and can see all. Omnipotence can do all. His will can calm that sea. And he is the Jesus of sympathetic condescending grace.

54:13 Who says to a group of people with partially hardened hearts. And dull spiritual perception. And shot through with superstition. Thinking they are seeing a ghost.

54:26 He doesn't scold them about their superstitions. He says don't be afraid it is I. Who is he dear people? If this Jesus is not God.

54:37 God is an exercise of omniscience. Omnipotence. And infinite grace and kindness. Then I've got to throw out my Bible.

54:49 And words no longer mean enough to trust them. Matthew records the conclusion made by these disciples. In spite of the superstitions still clinging to them. In spite of the hardness of hearts.

55:05 In that wonderful confession. And you see they were making progress. They cried out in verse 33 of Matthew 14. Worshipping him they say of a truth.

55:20 You are the son of God. In the preceding time that he calmed the seas. What did they do? They said what manner of man is this.

55:30 That even the winds and the wave obey him. They just had a question. Now they make an affirmation. Truly he is the son of God.

55:39 There is development in their perception. And in their understanding. How did they come to that conviction? Commit superstition and dullness and hardness of heart.

55:53 He saw us through the storm. He defied gravity. He calmed the path of the sea. He quieted us.

56:03 And then he quieted the storm around us. Surely this is no man. This is no ordinary prophet. This is God.

56:13 And oh my friend if such testimony cannot convince you. What will? What will? If this is not God.

56:20 What must God do? To bring forth credentials to identify himself. Your only hope of salvation my friend is in this Jesus. If you believe not that it is he.

56:33 That he is indeed God. Granting worth and significance to his life of obedience. That can be credited to all who trust in him. Granting worth to his death upon the cross.

56:46 So that the death of the one can be credited to the many. Granting validity to all of his power. His promises of power. To be able to break the chains of sin that bind you.

56:58 To make you a new person in union with himself. If he is not God. If he is not God there is no gospel. And if there is no gospel.

57:06 Then there should be no pulpit. There should be no churches. Let's eat and drink for tomorrow we die. And let's hope for the best.

57:16 But no you cannot do that. For your conscience affirms that there is a God. And you are answerable to him. Your conscience affirms that death is not the end of it.

57:25 And my friend this is the gospel. That this Jesus lives today. To come into the storm. To come into the tossed context of your life.

57:35 A life full of superstition. And fears and anguish. Yes and perhaps even torture. You pull upon the arm.

57:50 And you are asked to do. Oh that you might hear Christ coming in his word. Saying it is I. It is I.

57:59 A person tossed upon the seas of life. Comes in his word and gospel. And says it is I. Will you welcome me into the ship of your life.

58:11 Will you. Take me into the ship of your life. The whole incident constitutes another powerful demonstration. Of the true identity of Jesus.

Application 2: The Possibility of Hardness of Heart

58:23 And then the second and obvious application. And this is all we will make this morning. Is that this incident demonstrates the terrible possibility. The terrible possibility.

58:35 Of hardness of heart in the best of men. In the best of circumstances. Look at the text. They understood.

58:45 What is Mark telling us. Simply this. They had journeyed. You remember.

58:49 From their first independent. Preaching and healing tour. You remember that quiet retreat. That ended up in feeding the five thousand.

58:53 Was preceded by their coming back. And saying Lord. We are going to tell you all. They spoke in Christ's name.

59:05 And now. A few hours before. Jesus came to them. And said.

59:09 I want you. I want you. I want you. I want you.

59:13 I want you. I want you. I want you. I want you.

59:17 I want you. I want you. I want you. I want you.

59:26 I want you. Now. A few hours before. They had seen their Lord.

59:30 Demonstrate. His mighty power. Who but God. Can take loaves.

59:35 And just keep breaking. And breaking. And from five loaves. And two fishes.

59:39 Feed five thousand. Plus people. They had seen him. In his compassion.

59:43 They were ready to say. Send the multitude away. He says. No.

59:47 You give them to eat. And he took them. And they went. That is the hardness.

59:52 Of his heart. Toward men. In their state of need. And surely.

59:56 You see. What they had seen and experienced in that incident of the loaves.

60:04 Did Jesus respond to mere hungry bellies? That was not a life-threatening situation. But did Jesus respond when men were simply hungry? Then surely did to men in need who were merely hungry, who were mere, if I may say it again without disparaging the multitudes, merely a mixed mob of followers.

60:28 What will his heart be to us, special followers,

60:40 simply uncomfortable with hunger? We're in a life-threatening situation. We must reason from the loaves. His heart is moved with compassion to the indiscriminate multitudes.

60:54 Will it not be moved toward us, his special flock? If he's able to respond in compassion to a relatively surface need, will he not respond to our great need? If we saw creative omnipotence, omnipotence in multiplying loaves and fishes, cannot it be exercised from that mountain where he's praying and calm the action? Utter amazement as though this was something totally out of character, as though this was something totally incongruent with his person.

61:30 Mark tells us they had no ink into the miracle of the loaves, and that was due to the partial hardness of their heart. Now what better circumstances could they be in to soften the heart, to soften the heart, to engage in that kind of spiritual reasoning? They had come from a situation where miracles had been performed at their own hands at Jesus' bidding. They had seen the feeding of the 5,000.

61:58 They had seen his power. They had seen his heart. They were to reason from that to their present state. And then though they would have been grateful and thankful, they would not have been blown totally out of their minds as though this were something entirely new in the manifestation of his power.

62:17 And of his glory. And alas, it teaches us that lesson. That in these best of men, in the best of circumstances, there was partial hardness of heart. And that can be true of us, dear people.

62:33 That in the best of men, in the best of circumstances, in circumstances where Christ continually validates who he is, constantly demonstrates his grace, in circumstances where he comes in mercy, lo and behold, he lays hold of someone and turns them inside out by grace. And we act like this is the first time anyone had ever gotten saved.

63:00 Now, we never want to get casual. But oh, how we need to reason from what we've known of his power in the past to know what we expect of him in the present. We need to cry to God with a tender heart. We need to plead with God that the Spirit would consume all of the rocky and impervious places in our hearts.

63:24 That we might not be standing in the midst of the most favorable circumstances to see the power of Christ and learn who Christ is and learn how to respond to him. Only to have it said of us that we perceived not because our hearts were hardened.

Illustration and Concluding Exhortation

63:46 I can remember, this is a true incident.

63:49 A little girl had been told in Sunday school or in family devotions this story about Jesus walking on the water. She was about three years old at the time. The very next day, she was about to take her daily bath. And her mother drew about six inches of bath water for her.

64:06 This time, instead of jumping into the tub in the normal fashion, she very gingerly put her one little chubby leg over and little chubby foot down, got it on the top of the water and patted it, got it right even with the water, and then put it down to put all her weight on it. And lo and behold, it went right down to the bottom of the tub. And she brought the other foot over, brought it down, touched it. And put weight up and down.

64:32 She said, I don't believe it. I don't believe it. Nobody can do that. You can't walk on water.

64:37 I don't believe it. You can't walk. It can't be done. And that little three-year-old for weeks, every time she was given a bath, went through her ritual.

64:48 Now, there was both unbelief and great perception in that act.

64:54 The unbelief was that since I can't do it, he couldn't. The perception was that no ordinary human being can do it. That's the message of this passage, my friend. Where do you stand in the face of it?

65:09 Do you know that men with PhDs and PhDs and all other kind of Ds after their name have actually written commentaries trying to prove that what they really saw, you see, was Jesus walking right at the shoreline, right down where the water was dashing above, and they just thought they saw him walking on the water. And they go on to butcher the text all in a period of what? But I wonder if it isn't worse. Well, I believe the narrative that is, as we shall see next week, he never present in my storms.

65:52 All I see is ghosts. You see where we're going? But for this morning, just these two points of application. He is God.

66:02 That's why he could do it in a bathtub or on an angry sea. It made no difference to him. For the laws of nature were his laws. He made them.

66:11 He governed and yet governs them to this hour. And one day he'll defy them when he comes in clouds of great glory to call us to himself. Oh, that you may know him and be found in him. And may we as God's people remember that this Savior is with us, even when he seems to be most remote from our stormy sea and our almost wrecked shore.

66:38 Let us pray.

66:47 Our Father, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you for this incident in the life of our Lord Jesus and how full of instruction it is to our Lord Jesus Christ. Our needy and natively unbelieving and fearful hearts grant that you by your sovereign power will apply it in manifold ways to all of our hearts that as you see us with the perception of omniscience so you will minister to us in all the intimacy of our own personal need as known by you. Seal the word to our hearts and may it produce abundance of love and love for you.

67:29 May it be the fruit in our lives this day and throughout all of our days. May the blessings of your grace rest upon us and abide with us throughout the rest of this, your day and until that great day when we stand before you. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.