Take Heart! It Is I!
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Mark chapter 6 as we're continuing to work our way through this gospel. Last Sunday, Lauren and I, we could not be here because we're in Tanzania with Compassion International, and we got to see the incredible work that Compassion is doing over there with the spiritual and the physically poor. I'd love to talk to any of you about it, if any of you are interested in sponsorship or just learning more about the organization. During that trip, Lauren and I, we would go to village after village, meeting a whole lot of people. We would go to the survival centers.
Joel Brooks:We would go, to the, the schools. We would even go into people's homes. And one of the things that we noticed was that we always could pick out who the Christians were, which was crazy because we didn't know any of these people. You know, we could be in a gathering where there was 20 or 30 people, Total strangers, all dressed the exact same. And Lauren and I could go, a Christian and there's a Christian and there's a Christian and sure enough, those will be the Christians in the group.
Joel Brooks:It almost became a game to us as we would just meet people, and be like, that that person's obviously a Christian. And the reason was this, their countenance. You could just look at a person despite the poverty they were in, despite them wearing the same thing as everyone else and you could see joy. You could see life. And it was just an incredible reminder to us that Jesus changes lives.
Joel Brooks:All over this world, he is changing lives. And I've talked with enough of you as we have been going through the Gospel of Mark. Maybe some of you, you began this series a couple of weeks or a couple months ago very skeptical, and God's been opening up your eyes. And you've become you've you've started to see Jesus. You started to believe in him, and you're becoming changed.
Joel Brooks:And I can see it on the countenance of your face. For others of you who maybe you've you've been a Christian for a while, your view of Jesus has just got a lot bigger. It's got a lot deeper over the last few weeks. And my hope is that it will get even deeper after we look at the text and when we look at, this morning, a text that really shows us the glory of Jesus. And so Mark chapter 6, and we'll begin reading in verse 45, and it's there in your worship guide as well.
Joel Brooks:Immediately, Jesus 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 wind was against them. And about the 4th watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea.
Joel Brooks:He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and they cried out, for they were all they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, take heart, it is I, and 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 loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
Joel Brooks:When they had crossed over, they came to the land at Gennesaret, and they 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 whenever 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 the word of the lord.
Joel Brooks:Amen. If you would pray with me. Lord, we pray that by your word and spirit, you would speak to us. Jesus, that you would speak to us, that we would see you clearly in all your glory. And I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So when I was a child, I don't remember how old, I was that old, I tried to walk on water, and I was at a friend's house. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:He had a swimming pool. I had just, you know, maybe learned this story in Sunday school, but I learned Matthew's account. Matthew's account is where Jesus calls Peter out to the water with him, and so Jesus enables Peter to to briefly walk on water. And I thought if he could do it for Peter, he could do it for me. And so, and so I I got out on the diving board and I said, I believe.
Joel Brooks:I believe. And if oceans had been around at the time, I'd have been playing oceans in my in my head. Like like, I I believe. And so I stepped off, and of course, you know, I just I went straight into the water. And afterwards, I'm talking with my friend and I'm like, I don't understand it.
Joel Brooks:I I believed. And he goes, no, you didn't. I go, no, I really did. I believed. He goes, Joel, you are wearing your bathing suit.
Joel Brooks:It's like, good point. Alright? So I put on my clothes. I put on my clothes and I got out to the the end of the diving board and I said, I believe. I believe.
Joel Brooks:And I took a step and I don't wanna brag. So we're just gonna go to the text. This miracle, like, it's the miracle. I mean, it's the miracle of of miracles. There isn't a miracle more associated with Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Maybe turning water into wine, but I think him walking on water trumps even that. Non Christians use this term, to walk on water. It's just a phrase that means doing the miraculous, doing something godlike, showing off. There was another pastor here in Birmingham. We are very different people.
Joel Brooks:He is pastoring a, what I'll call a theologically liberal church. By that, I mean they don't believe or preach the gospel. They don't believe the Bible to be God's authoritative word. They don't believe in exclusivity of Jesus being the only way. They've pretty much abandoned the gospel which is why this church is dying rapidly.
Joel Brooks:And, and so he didn't like me or Redeemer because Redeemer believed the gospel and we were growing. That's typically what happens. Those churches that reject the gospel die. But I I was going to meet him and, so he asked me into his office. I go in there and he goes, so you're Joel Brooks?
Joel Brooks:I said, yes. Because, gosh, I wish we had a baptismal. And I said, why? He goes, well, from what I heard, you can walk on water. It's like, this is not gonna go well.
Joel Brooks:Like, this is just like it's not gonna go well. And I said, no, but I do preach to the one who can. Why did he choose that miracle To to kinda like poke at me. Why? I mean, it's not like he said, I wish I had a lame person to see you heal them or, you know, I I I wish I had a demon possessed person to to see you do an exorcism.
Joel Brooks:He said, I wish I had water here to watch you walk on it. And some of it's because, you know, that's the miracle of all the you can't trump that miracle. It's the greatest display of power. But I think also it's it's kinda seen as the miracle in which Jesus is just showing off. It's just like, you know, why did he do it?
Joel Brooks:Well, I'm not sure, but he just he could just walk on the water. One of the things that surprised me as I was studying this, is that even the commentators that I really respect had a hard time with this miracle. So commentators I go to often when I read through Mark, one of them said this, a quote, perhaps when preaching this story, the historicity of this event should not be pressed. Found that interesting. Now keep in mind, these same commentators have no problems with Jesus's other miracles at all.
Joel Brooks:Of course Jesus healed the lame. He healed the blind. Of course Jesus, he cast out demons. Of course Jesus raised the dead and and all of them 100% believe in the resurrection of Jesus himself, but for some reason this miracle kinda seemed over the top. I mean if the disciples had just been in the middle of the sea, you know 4 or 5 miles out and just saw Jesus swimming to them in those conditions, that would have been a miracle.
Joel Brooks:But walking on the water, doesn't it kinda have the the feel of a like, a folk legend? Like, of a myth? Actually, I think one of the reasons that some people, even scholars who I respect, they they struggle with believing this is because they don't understand why Jesus would actually do it. It kinda has the feel of an unnecessary parlor trick. Hey.
Joel Brooks:You wanna see what I could do? Watch this. I could walk on water. Are you impressed? And it's true that in all the other miracles, Jesus, He, there's different reasons.
Joel Brooks:He seems to be meeting a need. You know, he's healing the sick or he's casting out a demon or he's feeding someone who's hungry, but he's not doing any of that here. He's not rescuing anyone. The lives of these disciples are not in peril. They might have been tired, but they're not in any danger of drowning.
Joel Brooks:So why does Jesus do this? And then, not only that, why was He intending to pass them by? I mean seriously, Jesus is gonna go through all the trouble of walking on water there to them to to just pass by them? What's the point of that? Let's look at what's going on.
Joel Brooks:The story here begins after Jesus just fed the 5,000 men, which we know is probably 15, 25,000 people at least. After he did this, he dismissed the crowds, and then he dismissed his disciples. He told them to get in the boat and to go over to the other side. And then while they were rowing to the other side, Jesus went up the mountain by himself to pray. He he was utterly exhausted from a day of ministry, and the way Jesus would recharge is to get off, by himself on a mountain and to just pray to his father.
Joel Brooks:But while he was being recharged, his disciples were struggling. They were out there in the middle of this lake, and they were just having a really hard time. We read that the disciples, as they were out there rowing, that they were making headway painfully in the boat, for the wind was against them, and that it was the 4th watch of the night. The 4th watch of the night means it was the breaking of dawn. In other words, they had been rowing for 8 to 9 hours.
Joel Brooks:Any of you ever get on a rowing machine for that long? Any of you do that? A rowing machine? I mean besides an assault bike, it's like the worst thing ever. It's designed by Satan himself.
Joel Brooks:Jesus redeemed everything in this world except for that and some technologies. 9 hours rowing rowing on this. I I can't imagine. We read that they were making headway painfully. They were being tortured.
Joel Brooks:This is grueling work. But I gotta say major props to them for doing it, for not giving up and for continuing on because remember they're doing all of this in obedience to Jesus. Jesus told them to go to the other side of the lake, and so they're trying their best to do so. Now did they understand why Jesus wanted them to go over there? No.
Joel Brooks:Did they understand why Jesus didn't want them to get any rest and to go ahead and start this journey tired? No. Did they understand why Jesus wanted them to go when it was dark with the wind against them? No. But they didn't need to know.
Joel Brooks:I mean you see them really growing in their faith and obedience. Jesus said go now And they got in the boat and they are rowing in the worst conditions, already tired, already with the wind against them. But props to them for obeying Jesus. But now they find themselves stuck in the middle of the lake, utterly exhausted after 9 hours of rowing. Can any of you relate?
Joel Brooks:Any of you ever feel like you're just exhausting yourself, you're just spinning your wheels, you're just really going nowhere, yet you're trying to follow Jesus, trying to live the good life, but it's just so hard. Any of you home group leaders out here ever feel like you are making headway painfully? I mean, you open up your home every single week and you you ask a question out there in silence. Gospel confession? Yeah.
Joel Brooks:Right. People aren't confessing. They're not being open. People just kinda feel like they could just show up whenever they want to. You're there faithfully every week.
Joel Brooks:Any of you who are single here feel like you're having to row against the wind by trying to pursue relationships or date in a way that is glorifying to Jesus. Parents, do you feel that the way our culture idolizes youth sports or idolizes education, does that feel like a gentle breeze behind your back pushing you along? Or does it feel like, you know, 60 mile an hour just gush of wind trying to knock you down? And and and you're just sometimes you're just so sick of fighting it. You're like, I just might as well be swept away.
Joel Brooks:I mean Lord and I know what it's like. We we had kids who played sports. We know how hard it is to tell a coach or an overeager parent, it's just a sport. Seriously, it's just a sport. I actually want to teach my child something greater in life than this.
Joel Brooks:That there's actually something more important. Something like family meals. Something like being involved in a church community, being part of a home group. We realize it's you're going against the tide. But, Lauren, she used to describe parenting.
Joel Brooks:Raising up children is like every day stringing up pearls, only at the end of the day to have it all come undone. Then you'd gather all the pearls and the next day you would string them up and try to make something beautiful again, only to have them undone. Can any of you relate? Trying to live a life that is glorifying to Jesus is not smooth sailing. He never promised us this.
Joel Brooks:It might actually more resemble slow, laborious progress. It might resemble being battered by waves. Don't give up. Don't give up. Know that Jesus sees you in your struggle.
Joel Brooks:Don't miss that little detail there. Jesus saw the disciples. There's actually 2 miracles in this story. Most only see one. I mean there's the obvious one, walking on the water.
Joel Brooks:But the other miracle is that Jesus sees his disciples. If they've been rowing that far, they're at least 4 or 5 miles out in the in the middle of this lake because it's 8 miles wide. So they're at least that far out. It's stormy. The conditions aren't right.
Joel Brooks:The light is very low. So he either is seeing them in prayer or he's being given supernatural sight to see them from afar, but he sees them. He sees how they're struggling in their obedience for him. And when he sees them exhausted and struggling, he decides to go to them. Now he could've decided to help them out, you know, any way he wanted.
Joel Brooks:Obvious way would've been just calming the storm. Just okay. Storm calm. Done that before. Or he could have decided to ignore their struggle and just, you know, walk around the lake like a normal person and just meet them on the other side.
Joel Brooks:But instead, he chooses to come to them this way as they're struggling. And so he walks on the sea. A couple things I I just want this to sink in for you. The disciples don't know he's coming. So for them in this moment, nothing's changed.
Joel Brooks:They're still working hard. They're still exhausted. It's just as windy. The waves are just as battering. But they have no idea that in the midst of this, Jesus is already miraculously coming to him coming to them.
Joel Brooks:He's on the way. This is a good reminder that in the midst of whatever struggle we might be going through in life, you actually have no idea what God is doing. You have no idea what plans God has already put in motion in the midst of your struggle. You have no idea that he is going to use your struggles as a way to miraculously reveal himself to you. Whenever I need to be reminded that I just have no idea what God's doing, because I see nothing, like but I gotta trust He's doing something.
Joel Brooks:Whenever I need to remind myself of that, I just remember that at one point, God caused a empire wide census disrupting 1,000 upon 1,000 of lives, all so he can move a a small Jewish couple from point a to point b. And when I think of that, that Jesus God would disrupt an entire empire just to move a couple to another city? I think I can never figure out what the heck he's doing. But I trust he is doing something. So the disciples are struggling away.
Joel Brooks:And they have no clue that Jesus is already on his way to them. So Jesus is walking on the sea. Why would he choose to come to them that way? It's not the most efficient way. I mean, if they're 4 miles out, it's gonna take an hour just to walk there.
Joel Brooks:So they're gonna be struggling an additional hour. I mean, he coulda just put wind in their sails, calmed the storm. It's it's not the most efficient way. Why is he doing this? Well first off, I think it's an obvious allusion to Genesis chapter 1 in which we read that the very first act of creation, there we find the Spirit of God hovering over the waters.
Joel Brooks:And here we see the Lord doing the same thing. He is hovering over the waters as a new act of creation. He is creating a new world. He's creating a new people. He's he's creating the church here and these disciples.
Joel Brooks:They will become new men. So I think there's the obvious illusion. We we see it display here in Genesis 1, him hovering over the waters. But mostly, I think he walks to them because he intends to pass them by. We read verse 48.
Joel Brooks:He came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. Now this is where a lot of people get stuck. They get a little confused here, because they're trying to figure out Jesus' intentions and that, you know, does Jesus really he was intending to to walk out to them just so he could walk past them. And if that's true, what does that say about Jesus?
Joel Brooks:That he he's the type of person who literally sees our need and then decides to ignore our need and just walk right past us. Is is that what this is about? I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church, small Southern Baptist Church. We often used to sing a song after the message called pass me not. Pass me not, oh gentle savior.
Joel Brooks:Anybody? Pass me not, oh gentle savior. I'm missing. I'm I'm not scared. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:Hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Do not pass me by. Is that what Jesus is doing here? And we have to beg him, beg him.
Joel Brooks:Just don't. I know you You're an important person. You got busy things to do, but just don't pass me by. I don't think that's what's happening here. Jesus did not walk all the way out to them on the water in order to ignore them.
Joel Brooks:He came that way to reveal his glory to them. The the penny dropped for me when studying this when I realized that there's only 2 other places in the Old Testament that you'll ever read of God passing by someone. God passed by Moses and God passed by Elijah. And both of those times, it was to reveal his glory and to reveal his name, who he was. You see the same thing here.
Joel Brooks:In Exodus 33, Moses, he was on top of Mount Sinai. He's interceding for the people, and things are going really well. You know when, when you were a child and and you were asking things of your parents and if they started saying yes, you're like let's just keep the ball rolling. I mean, we're gonna ride this train till it stops. And Moses, he's interceding and and and God's being so gracious, and so finally he's like go big or go home.
Joel Brooks:And so he asks the biggest request he can. God will would you show me your glory? This is not a bigger request than that. God says, no. No one can see my face and live.
Joel Brooks:But I'll tell you what I'll do. Up here on the mountain, there's there's a little cave here, a little cleft in the rock, and and if you go in there, I'm gonna cover you with my hand, and I'm gonna pass by you. And as I pass by you, I will I will drop my hand and you will get to see the backside of my glory. And that's exactly what God did. And Moses got to catch a glimpse of the glory of God and it forever changed him.
Joel Brooks:And later on the same mountain, likely in the same cave, the Lord would pass by Elijah as well. I think something very similar is happening here in the gospel of Mark. Jesus decides to walk on the water, which is something by the way only the Lord can do. In the book of Job chapter 9, Yahweh is described as the one who treads on the waves of the sea. And he treads on the waves of the sea as a way of showing his might and his glory.
Joel Brooks:And that's what Jesus is doing. He's the God of Job 9. And then he does this to reveal the glory of the Lord to them. He makes us even more explicit by the words He says to His disciples. We read, when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they thought He was a ghost, and so they're terrified.
Joel Brooks:It's understandable. I don't believe in ghosts, but I'm less likely to believe in somebody walking on the water. And the disciples didn't know it was Jesus. I mean they're out there in a storm. I mean, it's already dark, and you just see the same walking in the water.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I would have believed the exact same thing. And then Jesus calls out to them, and he says, take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid. Now when Jesus says it is I, or in Greek, it's the phrase, In Greek, it's the name of God Yahweh.
Joel Brooks:He's not just saying, hey guys, it's me. Didn't mean to startle you. He's saying it is I or I am. Jesus is declaring himself, I believe in this moment as the Lord, the Lord who is passing by in his glory. Back in Exodus chapter 3, God, he first revealed his name to Moses as Yahweh, which means I am.
Joel Brooks:Later in Exodus 34, when the Lord is passing by Moses to show him his glory, he declares his name as the way of showing his glory. You you read this in Exodus 34. Says, the Lord descended and anytime you see the word Lord in all caps, that's Yahweh. So I'll just say Yahweh. Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of Yahweh.
Joel Brooks:Yahweh passed before him and proclaimed Yahweh Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus walking on the water, intending to pass them by, was Jesus declaring his glory as Yahweh himself. The disciples had earlier asked the question, who who is this that even the wind and the waves obeyed him? And Jesus says, I'll give you the answer. I'm Yahweh, the one who treads on the waves.
Joel Brooks:I've actually found that Jesus, he often shows up, and he reveals himself, reveals his glory to us usually in the midst of us struggling. I don't know if you've ever found that. Last night, Lauren and I, we had dinner with somebody who just found out they had cancer 3 weeks ago. And we're talking with him about this and he just says, you know what? I have never experienced Jesus more than in the last 3 weeks.
Joel Brooks:Never. He is more real to me. He is more glorious to me than any other time in my life. And I've been a Christian for a long time, but there was something about the struggle, something about the pain that he is now having to endure that the glory of Jesus was revealed to him. We just heard similar with Mary Elizabeth.
Joel Brooks:I've heard that story from many of you who have been going through some pretty painful times. You wouldn't trade it, wouldn't trade a minute of it for what Jesus has revealed to you. Some of you here, you're you're struggling and you're like, well, I haven't felt that. Jesus hasn't come walking on the waves to me. I'd love to hear Jesus say, take heart.
Joel Brooks:It is I. Don't be afraid. But I haven't experienced that. I I don't see the evidence of Jesus performing that kind of miracle in my life. I want you to know that if that's you, don't you ever doubt the Lord's love and his care for you.
Joel Brooks:Don't ever doubt it. Jesus revealed his glory to his disciples here by walking on the water to them. Jesus has revealed his glory and his love and care for us by walking to the cross for us. And let me tell you, walking on water was a lot easier than walking to the cross. Walking on the sea cost him nothing.
Joel Brooks:Walking to the cross cost Jesus his life. And so when we look to the cross, we can never doubt God's love for us, ever. We don't need something external like riches as an evidence that God loves us. We don't have to have something like health given to us in order for us to realize that God loves us. We don't have to have a happy marriage or successful kids given to us in order to realize that God loves us.
Joel Brooks:We don't need any of those things because those things are down here. They're nothing compared to the cross in which we see the love of God beautifully displayed for us. We need no other evidence than to look at the cross. So we might not understand why God has us in the middle of of some sea just rowing like crazy, exhausting ourselves in obedience to him. We might not ever understand that, but we can never doubt his love.
Joel Brooks:He sees us. He loves us. And Jesus did not walk to the cross just to die and be buried. He walked to the cross, to the tomb, to then walk out of that tomb. And he did that When he did that, he walked out for us.
Joel Brooks:He promises us to give us the same life. So for those of you here who are struggling, I want you to hear these words from the one who has conquered the grave. Take heart. I am the lord. Do not be afraid.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Jesus, thank you that you see us in our struggles, and you come to us. Nothing can stop you from coming to us. Thank you that we, in the midst of our struggles when we doubt, you do not give up on us. Lord, help us to truly believe, to truly hold to the fact that we need no other evidence in our life our life that you love us other than looking at the cross.
Joel Brooks:There you have beautifully and forever displayed your love and your glory. Thank you, Jesus. And we pray this in your name. Amen.
