A lot of things happen in Mark chapter six. But one of the predominant things and more well-known popular, whatever you want to call it, things that Jesus had just done here in Mark chapter six is he fed the 5,000. Storms can be scary Sometimes. A rain shower can be one of the most peaceful things in the world, My wife has this app or something and it plays the sound of rain all night while she’s sleeping, all night, and now I’ve got to the point that, I can’t go to sleep without some noise in the background. So I gotta have on, the music playing in the background or just TV on or something.

I’m really good at sleeping while I’m really supposed to be watching programs and things like that. And that’s, where I get my best sleep. So she has, the sound of rain, and it’s calming. Anyway, sometimes a nice little rainstorm is very calming and relaxing. And usually like if it’s stormy and things, I mean, I can hardly stay awake.

The sound of rain Is just very peaceful and calming. And you can understand how it is, that time, back there, I think it was Mark chapter four, where Jesus was just sleeping in the boat while they’re going through the storm and all that kinda stuff. It’s, its really calming, especially if you’re in a boat, you know, it’s kind of rocking, it would be really easy to fall asleep, but other times storms are actually really scary.

Like storms with tornadoes and all that kind of thing. Now, I’m, weird and I’m different than most people when there’s going to be a tornado. And there are tornado warnings and all the tornado sirens are going off. I’m running out to the porch to see the tornado. Everybody else is hiding in the bathtub or going in the basement. I just figure that I’ll go up in the whirlwind, I guess, anyway. It can be scary. It can be downright scary. In Mark chapter six, we’re going to see a storm that the disciples are going through here. And it’s a scary storm.

It’s not one of the calming, little rain showers it’s a scary storm. Many of the disciples came from the area where they’re located and they were fishermen. They made their living and grew up, and cut their teeth on the sea of Galilee. And this storm was bad enough that it scared them all.

They were all, concerned about it. So it was a bad storm and sometimes, storms are bad. So we’re gonna look at this storm and we’re going to see some things about this storm and kind of relate them to the storms of life That we’re going to undoubtedly go through and a lot of times are necessary for us to go through.

Mark 6:45–52 (AV)
45And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people.
46And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.
47And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land.
48And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.
49But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out:
50For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.
51And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.
52For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.

Brief outline of the events of Mark chapter six

So what has all transpired here in mark chapter six? Because it all builds up and it leads to this lesson that they need to go through here at the end of the chapter and the storm that they are going to go through. Now, the beginning of Mark chapter six, verses seven through thirteen, that’s where the Lord Jesus Christ separates them two by two, and he sends them out to minister without him, without him overseeing them. I mean, you don’t ever minister without the Lord. But he wasn’t, physically standing over their shoulders. He wasn’t micromanaging their ministries. He told them what they were going to go do. He gave them instructions. You don’t take any script or anything with you. You go in and stay with people, that will let you stay. If they reject you, wipe the dust off your feet, leave the town. All, those commands that he gave them.

And so that’s what they did, they went out in this ministry and they were ministering to people two by two. And as they were out doing all that stuff and they were healing, sick people, the Bible says they were, being a blessing to people and all these different things that they were doing, and as they were doing all that; Herod gets wind of it. And he thinks of John the Baptist has resurrected from the dead. And that John, the Baptist is out here doing all this stuff and everything. Because he had heard that Jesus was baptizing people and that’s what John, the Baptist was doing. That’s why they called him John, the Baptist. So Herod is freaking out and everything. So, then you have a little section here in Mark chapter six, where it gives you the outline of what happened to John, the Baptist with Herod and, and, Herodias which ultimately, culminates in John’s head being on a silver charger.

Then we pick back up in verses 30 and 31 of Mark chapter six. This is when the disciples come back. from their ministry trip, they come back and they’re giving a report to Jesus about everything that happened and they were all excited and everything else, and they’re, just bringing their report back to Jesus.

And then in verse number 31, Jesus says, okay, well, lets, go to a desert place and find some rest because after, ministry and everything, you really do need some rest. I mean, a body just can’t keep going non-stop 24/7 all the time. At some point, you need to get some rest. And it says there that they had no rest where they couldn’t even take time out and have a meal.

They were so busy and there was so much going on and everything else that the Lord Jesus said, okay, well, let’s, go. And find a someplace. To rest, but in verses 32 to 33, you see that all the people that they were needing to rest from, knew where the rest area was located. and They got in a hurry and they got there before for Jesus and the disciples. Now, if you cross-reference with Luke chapter nine, verse 10, you’re going to find that this rest area, this desert place that they went to is, Bethsaida. That’s where they were going. Now there are two towns called Bethsaida. But they were going to Bethsaida to find some rest.

But when they got there, all the people were already there. As I said, there are two cities with the name of Bethsaida. One was on the west shore of Galilee and the other one was, on the east of the Jordan in Northeast of Galilee. So to give you a picture of the geography, you have the Sea of Galilee, and you have the Jordan river that comes down and it dumps into the sea of Galilee. And then on the south of the sea of Galilee, the Jordan river comes back out again and it continues to flow down ultimately down to the Dead Sea. So where, where the Jordan river comes down and enters into the sea of Galilee, from the North, just east of that location is where Bethsaida was located. Now, the sea of Galilee is an important place in the Bible, and it is mentioned 197 times. In the Bible, the sea of Galilee has been given several different names.

It is known as the sea of Galilee. Of course, the sea of Chennerith, the sea of Gennesaret, and the Sea of Tiberias whenever you see those Sea’s come up in the Bible, they’re all talking about the same body of water.

Chennerith may have gotten its name from the Hebrew word kinnôwr which means harp. And they say that the sea of Galilee is shaped like a harp. The name may also have derived from the town of Chinneroth Later the name was changed to Gennesaret because the city of Gennesaret was located on the site of Chinnereth. Obviously, Galilee is a region that is, there to the west. So that is how this Sea received those names It was called the Sea of Tiberius because Herod Antipas the son of Herod the Great, made a city there, that was called Tiberius after the emperor. And so, the Romans a lot of times called it the sea of Tiberias. So it’s called all of those things. In the Bible, the sea of Galilee is located below the headwaters of the Jordan River as it flows downhill, Some of the towns surrounding it are Capernaum, Bethsaida, Chorazin, Magdala, Gennesaret, Tiberias, and a few others as well.

It’s about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. That’s where the Sea is located. So that’s where they are. The sea of Galilee is about 13 miles long and six miles. Wide, the deepest, it goes is about 200 feet. It’s not some little man-made lake somewhere. it’s surrounded by mountains, and it was prone to bad storms because of the mountains and everything, and the way the winds would swirl in there and all that kind of stuff.

And so that’s where they’re at and they are at Bethsaida, and they get there and you would think, but this, goes back towards kind of what we were talking about last week about the Lord Jesus Christ and how he considers others more than himself, because he’s like, Hey look, we got to get out of here. We got to go find someplace where we can rest. And then they get there and they don’t get any rest. There’s a bunch of already there. The Bible says 5,000 men besides women and children. There’s a lot of people, there were probably 20,000 people. You know, hanging around, wanting something from Jesus all the time. Wanting miracles and wanting him to heal people. We want him to do all these different things. So you would think that Jesus would be a little irritated with that, but don’t forget he is God. It’s not like he didn’t know, Hey, we’re going to go to this place, and to get some rest, but the jokes on you guys.

Cause I know that, when we get there, there is not going to be any rest happening. This did not take him by surprise, but he didn’t have a negative reaction when all the people were there. He had compassion for them. The Bible says, he had compassion on the people he taught them, and then it got late. It got late and none of them thought to, you know, because they were in such a hurry to beat Jesus there, that they forgot to pack a sack lunch and they didn’t have any food. So then, of course, the disciples, said, you need to send all these people away and get rid of them. All of these people need to eat. . We can’t afford to feed all these. You need to send them away. So then, of course, Jesus, asked them what they have. And they end up finding the two fish and the five barley loaves. And he ends up feeding the 5,000 people plus, and then they had 12 baskets leftover at the end. A huge, huge, huge, huge, huge miracle that the Lord performs. Huge miracle. I mean, it’s, recorded in all four gospels.

It’s a huge miracle and it was Jesus. Presenting himself and showing himself to the people. And, and the people got it. They understood that he was the Messiah. He was the bread that came down from heaven. he took two fish and five barley loaves, and he fed over 5,000 people with that. And they had, food leftover. Great miracle. Awesome miracle. And then you kind of think to yourself.

So we already know verse 52 said that the disciples didn’t really consider that miracle and didn’t really think too much about it. I mean, how cold and callous do you have to be that you see Jesus take two fish and five barley loaves and feed over five thousand people. And you don’t even think about it just like yeah, well, whatever. It’s just what he does. It’s not that big of a deal. He will probably do it again tomorrow. Just callous don’t even think about it, but the people they were, thinking about it. They were thinking about it because the question that you have to ask yourself, at least I asked myself as I’m reading through things, I asked myself questions; why this, why that what’s going on here? What happened there? And I am just inquisitive that way.

Constrained to leave

So, because verse 45 says and straightway, he constrained his disciples to get into the ship. And to go over the other side to Bethsaida. So my next question is, so why did he constrain the disciples to leave? He constrained them to leave and it’s like, he almost forced them to leave. He had, he had to make them leave. They didn’t want to leave. They wanted to hang out with Jesus. They didn’t want to leave Jesus.

First of all, we’re in a desert place. If we take the ship that we got here in and we take the ship and we go out and you’re here; you are kind of going to be stranded Jesus, you probably haven’t thought this all the way through, but if we take the ship, and there are no other ships. We know that from cross-reference and from the other gospels and everything else, there were no other ships that was the only ship they had the only.

They are on the ship. And they’re like, you know if we leave you, I mean, I don’t know what you think is going to happen here, but it’s a long walk Jesus all the way around from Bethsaida, all the way over here to Genesarett, where we’re going to end up going. According to verse 53, that’s a long walk. Jesus. I mean, I don’t know if you have quite thought this through. They didn’t want to leave Jesus. They want to hang out with Jesus, but Jesus needed to constrain them to leave. So the question is why was it so important that the disciples had to leave?

They had to leave and it also says that Jesus sent the people away, but notice that he sent the disciples away first, and then he dealt with the crowd. Then he dealt with the other people. So the question is:

Why did he send the disciples away at all? And why did he send them away first?

Well, when you compare scripture with scripture, you look at here, it is, it looks like the people likely would have not left. If the disciples were still there. If the disciples were still there, because, Jesus was going to go away and he was going to pray. Right? He’s going to go up to the mountain. He’s going to pray.

He’s removing himself from the situation. We will see here in a second? Why? But he’s removing himself from the situation. But if the disciples were still hanging around, the people were going to hang around because they’re like, Hey, we know Jesus is going to come back to the disciples. So, you know, we’re not leaving. We’ll just hang out. We’ll just wait for Jesus to come back. So he had to get the disciples out of there. That’s one thing that he had to do. But another thing is if you cross-reference and you look over at John chapter six, verses 14 and 15, you’re going to see verses 14 and 15. You’re going to get a glimpse into this here. And you’re going to see why it is that Jesus needed to send the disciples away. Why it was so important. He had to constrain them. He had almost forced them to get into the ship and tell them, no, you guys, got to go! This is why:

John 6:13–15 (AV)
13Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.
14Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.
15When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

That Prophet

Now, remember Moses, prophesied, and taught that there was going to be a prophet like unto him. that was going to come. And Jesus was a prophet like unto Moses. The first miracle that Moses performed for the nation of Israel. I mean, the first thing that the Lord did was he had him put his arm in his cloak or whatever, and then it comes out in his leperous and he sticks it back in and it’s clean again. . And that was the Lord just showing Moses. But the first public miracle that Moses performed was he turned the water into blood and in the Bible, wine is grape juice and is a type of blood. And the first public miracle that Jesus performed was he turned water into wine. He’s a prophet like, unto Moses, these people got it. They got it. They didn’t get it at the wedding, but they got it here.

They understood that he was that prophet that should come into the world. They understood at that moment, those people that were there, they understood that they were in the presence of the Messiah. Now they had a misunderstanding about the Messiah. All the Jews had a misunderstanding about the Messiah. They completely miss and gloss over the whole. Everything about the Messiah having to suffer and die for the people. They just saw the ruling and reigning and kicking, Rome out and all a hoorah hoorah stuff, all the patriotic stuff. And so when they realized that this is the Messiah, because who else could do that?

I mean, you contrast that with the disciples that we see there, Mark chapter six, and the disciples didn’t even consider the miracle of the loaves are just like, yeah, whatever the people were like, oh, we just, we just experienced something awesome. And this has gotta be the Messiah. So we need to make him the king, like today. That’s what they were wanting to do. Look here, in John chapter six, verse 15, when Jesus, therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a King. He departed again into a mountain himself alone.

So he had to send the disciples away so that ultimately the people would go away, but he also wanted to send the disciples away because of all the success that they’ve had in the ministry and everything that they’ve seen coming up to this point. And the fact that their attitude was still political, you know, that all the way up there and acts chapter one, but you now restore the kingdom to Israel. That’s what they were thinking about. And that’s okay. That’s okay for them to be thinking that because it’s going to happen, but it just wasn’t time yet.

It wasn’t time for Jesus to be made the king because he had to suffer first. He had to suffer first now, after he suffered, after, he died on the cross was buried and rose again on the third day and all that, at that point, after he suffered, he paid for the sins of the world, then he could be king. And that’s why he continued to offer the kingdom to the nation of Israel at that point.

But they kept rejecting him as a whole. . But at this point, they’re ready to make him king, but it wasn’t time yet. It wasn’t time for him to be king yet. So he had to constrain the disciples to leave. They weren’t ready to face this sort of a test yet because they were still thinking nationally, and politically.

So he told them to go to the other side of the lake and Jesus sent the people away and he says he went up to a mountain and prayed. So the big question is what did Jesus pray about? Well, we don’t know because the Bible doesn’t tell us, but some possibilities are: he could have just been praying for the disciples. He told them to go to the other side, go across the sea. Now, Jesus is God, and nothing is hidden from God. He knew that there was a storm coming. He knew it didn’t matter if the clouds look stormy or not, or anything else if it was a pop-up storm, whatever, it might’ve been, it doesn’t matter. He’s God, he knew that there was a storm coming. The disciples may or may not have known that there was a storm coming, but Jesus definitely did know.

Jesus seperated himself to pray

Because He is God, and there’s nothing that he doesn’t know. And he sent them anyway. So maybe he was going up to pray for the disciples so that they would have faith as they went through the storm. As you’ll notice through the gospels, every time Jesus separates himself from the disciples, they, have a crisis of faith. They continue to go through a crisis of faith after a crisis of faith, after a crisis of faith, whenever Jesus, steps aside. And we do too. We have a crisis of faith. We, forget who he is. And what He can do.

Maybe he was praying for the disciples. Maybe he was praying for strength for himself to fight off the temptation to go ahead and take the kingdom because that is the main theme of the Bible is him getting the kingdom. It is his kingdom. He does own it. It belongs to him. It’s rightfully His. But if he would’ve taken it the wrong time, he couldn’t. have accomplished everything that he came to accomplish. So I’m sure it was, in the flesh, a great temptation for him. Maybe he was praying about that.

Lessons from the storm

We don’t really know, is all we know is he went to the mountain and prayed, and the disciples, he sends out into the storm here. So, we have this storm, and the disciples are needing to go through the storm. The Disciples were in the sea. They’re going through the storm. Jesus is alone on the land. He’s not seemingly anyway in the storm with the disciples physically, they’re physically in a storm, rowing, and toiling and against the waves and everything else and Jesus is on dry land.

1. Sometimes we need to pass through a sea of trouble

Basically three things we’re going to see about this storm. Sometimes we have to pass through trouble. Christians may and probably will experience trouble in the very act of being obedient to the Lord. In the very act of being obedient, the disciples were being completely obedient here. He had to constrain them, but they did it. They got in the ship and they were headed to where they were supposed to be headed, they were doing what they were told. They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Their heart probably wasn’t in it, but they were doing it.

They’re being obedient. And sometimes, because you know, people get this idea. Well, if you’re going through struggles, or you’re going through trouble. or You’re going through a storm. You must have sinned. You must’ve done something wrong, you must deserve it. And maybe you do, you should check that with the Lord internally for yourself, but don’t ever think that when you see other people going through storms like, oh, they must be this and they must be that. Or they must be the other thing. You have no idea. They might be completely obedient to the Lord and have to go through that storm. Jesus was. Jesus gets baptized by John the Baptist again, he had to constrain John, the Baptist, to baptize him, because, John, the Baptist is like, what are you talking about? You should be baptizing me He gets baptized comes out of the water. The Lord says my beloved son whom I’m well, pleased. And immediately he was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil by the spirit. He was completely in obedience, never sinned. But somehow people get this idea that, well, if you’re going through something, you know, you must deserve it.

Well, I mean, if it’s you yourself, I would suggest you check that with the Lord and make sure you’re good. But beyond that don’t ever make that assumption. Sometimes you just need to go through storms here. It looks like the Lord was testing the faith of these disciples here.

He knew the storm was coming. Look, Jonah got into a storm because he disobeyed the Lord and disciples got into the storm because they obeyed the Lord either way. The storm came. It’s like Jesus taught over there. And Matthew chapter seven, right? The wise man, the foolish man, you know, rains, come down the floods, come up you know the verses The point is it happens to everybody.

The Lord causes the rain to bless and fall on everybody. Everybody goes through storms, Jonah. He was being disobedient, had to go through a storm. Disciples were being obedient and had to go through a storm. Sometimes we just have to go through storms and when this happens. Don’t think it’s a strange thing.

1 Peter 4:12–16 (AV)
12Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
13But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
14If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
15But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
16Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

Don’t think it’s strange but boy, people do that all the time. Don’t they? it’s like they’re trying to school, the Lord, or something. I don’t understand, Lord.

I did everything you told me to do. First of all, that’s a lie. Nobody outside the Lord. Jesus Christ has ever done everything. The Lord told him to do at any moment in time in their entire life. Nobody you haven’t done everything the Lord told you to do anyway. But we’ll give you a pass on that. Okay. Even if that were true people, like, I don’t understand, I’ve done everything you told me to do the Lord, and now this is happening.

Like, they feel like they’re owed a paycheck from the Lord, For everything that they have done for the Lord, what do you mean done for the Lord? Whatever you’ve done for the Lord. It’s because he allowed you to, and he gave you the gifts and talents and abilities and opportunities to do so. And even if you did do something for the Lord, big air quotes, that still pales in comparison to what he’s done for you.

It’s not like, well, I’ve done this for you. So you owe me, no, you got it backward, you got it backward, you do what you do because of what he’s already done for you and what he’s promised to do for you in the future. We do it because it’s our reasonable service is reasonable. It’s reasonable. In other words, it’s unreasonable. If you don’t!

Don’t think it’s strange when you have to go through a storm don’t think it’s some strange thing that happened to you and you’re going through this storm and you’re all alone and you’re in this all by yourself and you just don’t understand what’s going on. You don’t understand why the Lord won’t intervene on your, part and pull you out of this storm and rescue you from the storm and all that kind of thing.

And we get to a point a lot of times in the storm where we forget who Jesus is, and we forget that he is sympathetic. To us. And we do forget that he does see everything that is going on, but if you look back at Mark chapter six, we see here that the Lord saw what was going on here with the disciples.

2. The Lord sees and sympathizes with us in our trouble

Mark 6:47–48 (AV)
47And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land.
48And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them:…

The Lord saw their struggle at even that’s evening time that’s sometime between sunset until it’s actually dark out. That’s even. The disciples’ boat was out in the midst of the lake. It doesn’t mean it was out all the way out in the middle of the lake. It was just far enough away from shore. And it was, in the midst of the lake and they were struggling and Jesus saw all that stuff happened at even it says while Jesus was alone on land.

It appeared to the disciples that he was absent in their storm. And if we’re not careful, sometimes we get the idea that the Lord is absent in our storm. He’s not there with us that he doesn’t see what’s going on. He just doesn’t understand everything that we’re going through, but he does, He saw what was going on.

The next thing that you see about the storm that we’re going to look at here as the Lord sees and sympathizes with us in our trouble, verse 48, says that Jesus came to them in the fourth watch of the night. The watch according to Mark chapter 13 in verse 35, the Nightwatch was broken up in new Testament times into four segments they’re listed as even midnight, cock-crowing, and morning.

Even went from six first watch. 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Okay. There are three-hour segments. So, then you have 9:00 PM to midnight. You have midnight to three, and then you have 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM.

That’s the fourth watch. That’s when the Lord comes to the disciples in the fourth watch, he didn’t come immediately. He didn’t immediately come in and, whisk them out of their troubles while they were struggling the storm. They didn’t realize that the eye of Jesus was watching them, but he was and he is. He still does, he is watching. He knows what you’re going through. He’s acquainted with your griefs. He understands the temptations that you have to deal with. He had the same temptations and even more so because he could have stopped them at any point, but he didn’t, he understands, he sees what’s going on.

He sees what the disciples are going through here. He’s trying to teach them a lesson of faith as they’re going through the storm. When you’re going through the storm, you just need to be faithful. Like I said when the storm comes up yeah. You need to check and make sure that you’re actually in the right place doing the right thing and going in the right direction. Once you figure that out and you know that you are, you just need to be faithful and you just need to toe the line.

If you’ll do that at the conclusion here, what we’re going to see. The third thing that you see as you’re going through this storm is that the Lord will bring comfort and peace.

3. The Lord will bring comfort and peace into your storm

The Lord will bring comfort and peace. Verse 48 there says that he would have passed them by. It says that he saw them toiling and rowing for the wind was contrary to them about the fourth watch of the night.

He comes up onto them walking upon the sea and would have passed by them, like why in the world, So, the Lord sees them struggling, and he’s just gonna be like, oh man, sucks to be you, and just keep walking? I don’t think that’s what that means. I think he was going to pass by them, he was going to pass next to them.

He’s going to walk up next to them and let them know that, Hey, I’m still here. I’m in control. He’s in control. There’s a huge storm going on They and get the ship going in the right direction. They ended up going in the wrong direction. They can’t even get the ship to go in the right direction and everything else.

The storm is so bad and Jesus walking across it like it was nothing. And he was going to pass by them. It’s kind of like the Theophanies that you have back in the old Testament. When the Lord passed by Moses showed him that he was there. He was, going to pass beside them. Now you see here that when the Lord shows up, it initially scares the disciples.

They were scared. They’re freaked out. They’re freaking out during the storm and everything else. And Jesus is walking next to the ship. All of a sudden we’re did he come from? And they thought it was a ghost, they thought it was a spirit or something because they completely missed the point of who Jesus is.

Through everything that they’ve been through so far in the ministry with the Lord, Jesus Christ, and more specifically with the feeding of the 5,000, they completely missed it. They didn’t get it. They still didn’t really understand that Jesus was God. They knew that he was the Messiah. They knew he was the son of God, but they didn’t really, comprehend the fact that he was God manifested in the flesh. They didn’t really comprehend the fact that they were standing there talking to their creator. They never got that. They didn’t understand that.

And no matter how much he showed them through the miracles, in the other things that they were able to experience and, witnessed and all those things, they just didn’t quite get it. So they see, Jesus walking on the water and they think it’s a ghost. So it says the old cried out, all of them, all of them, they’re all in the boat together.

At this point, they’re all in the boat, and they’re all freaking out. They’re like, there’s a ghost out here. And the Lord has to tell them to be of good cheer. It is. I be not afraid, but initially, they were afraid because they hadn’t considered who Jesus was. They hadn’t considered it. They didn’t consider the fact that he had command over the elements and everything else, even though he had demonstrated it before Mark chapter four.

They’re in the storm and this time he’s in the boat with him and he says, you know, peace be still and the storm went away and they still here. They’re still don’t, don’t quite get it. They don’t understand that he has this power and this control over the elements, and everything else. I mean, how do you think that he turned two fish and five barley loaves into enough food for 5,000 men besides women and children and had food leftover? Because he had power over the elements.

The appearance of Jesus here though first terrifies them. And then, it consoles them. Again, the disciples were shocked because they didn’t understand the miracle of the loaves. They didn’t understand what Jesus was showing them. I mean, something happened the previous day with the miracle of the loaves, that should have affected how they reacted on this day, but it didn’t.

I mean, they, they witnessed him, like I said, feed 5,000 men with two fish and five barley loaves. He has this awesome, great power. He can do anything. He’s calmed storms before he heals people. He’s raised people from the dead.

All those experiences and all those things that they witnessed, he gave them the power to heal people. They had just done it themselves. He gave them the power to cast out devils. They saw him doing it, he gave them the power to do it. They were able to do it too! All that power that he had, and they just didn’t consider it.

They got cold to it. They got callous to it. It’s like just the way things. They didn’t consider who Jesus was. The things that they had witnessed and experienced. It should have increased their faith as they’re going through this storm. Yeah. We’re going through a storm, but no matter what we know Jesus is going to get us through.

And we say that a lot of times, but how do we actually act when we are going through the storms? We act like we’re not going to make it through this one. We act like Fred Sanford. This is the big one. Not gonna make it through. That’s how we act a lot like the disciples were acting and we say, well, they shouldn’t have acted that way. I mean, they saw everything that Jesus did.

I mean, it should have been obvious to them that Jesus could control everything. He told us to go over here. We don’t know how it’s going to work out, but we know what’s going to work out. All things work together for them. that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose.

We know it’s going to work out. We don’t know how, but we know it’s going to work out. They lost focus. They’re there in the storm. They’re looking at the waves. They’re looking at the water, filling up the boat.

We do the same thing, a lot, they didn’t recognize Jesus in the midst of the storm, because they weren’t looking for Jesus in the midst of the storm. They see this body figure, you know, coming by the boat, they think it’s a ghost or something. They didn’t even make the connection that, oh, Hey, that’s Jesus. Okay. Everything’s cool. Now, guys, Jesus is here when he was there all along.

They didn’t make that connection though, because they weren’t even looking for Jesus. They weren’t looking for Jesus to help them in the storm. They weren’t looking for Jesus to get them out of the storm. They weren’t looking for Jesus or rescue him in the storm at all. They were trying to do it themselves.

They were, doing the things that they knew to do as being professional fishermen and living their entire life on the sea of Galilee. They were focused on that and they weren’t even thinking about Jesus. And a lot of times you get in the midst of the storm, and that’s what happens you don’t even consider Jesus.

You don’t even think about Jesus. We go through these storms of life that we’re going through the storm that we just call life. Basically, it’s one storm after another you’re either in a storm or you just came out of one or you’re getting ready to go into one that’s life. And as you’re going through those things a lot of times, people completely, forget about Jesus. And then when he presents himself and manifests himself. The first, reaction is it scares them. It scares them. And that’s what happens a lot of times when you’re going through the storms of life because you forgot about Jesus.

You weren’t even thinking about Jesus. You weren’t looking for Jesus. You weren’t looking for him for help from him. You weren’t asking for help from him. You weren’t praying, you weren’t reading your Bible. You weren’t doing any things that you know, that you should be doing. You were completely ignoring Jesus and everything else.

And then all of a sudden he shows up and he does something for you in initially it scares you. Why? Because you realize at that point who he is and how you failed him.

But he doesn’t leave you there. It says not only were they afraid but then they were comforted. The Lord comforts them. He calms the storm and gives them some comfort.

And he came into the ship and immediately the storm stopped. Once they realized who he was, they were comforted when we lose sight of who Jesus is and what he can do. We get fearful. But when we remember the Lord, we are comforted. We’ll get some comfort. the Bible says that they were amazed. They were shocked here. It says they, they were sore amazed within themselves beyond measure and wondered.

Why? Because they never caught on to the miracle of the loaves. That’s why they were amazed. They were amazed when he gets on the ship and the storm goes away and everything else, they were still like shocked. Asking, How did that happen?

Because they were spiritually Imperceptive. They didn’t perceive the spiritual things that he was showing them. They didn’t perceive those things. They’re just thinking about physical things all the time. And if we’re not careful we’re going through these storms, that’s what we do. We just get focused on the physical things and we don’t pay enough attention to the spiritual things.

That’s what I mean by, are you cold? The disciples got cold. They got cold to the Lord, they got cold to the spiritual things. They were callous. They didn’t think about them. They didn’t even consider them. As I said, they just figured that that’s just the way things are. It’s no big deal. And Christians. If we’re not careful, we get callous.

We get cold. We don’t realize the miracles that the Lord performs on our behalf. We don’t realize the blessings that we receive from the Lord. We don’t realize those things cause we’ve gotten cold. We’ve gotten accustomed to them. We’ve gotten spoiled. Don’t realize the blessing that it is, that the Lord made.

Sure. That you were born in this country. I know the country has all kinds of issues and problems our leaders are off the rails and everything else, but you’re free. You’re free. Now, freedom is not free. There was a price that had to be paid for that, but people, they don’t, appreciate it.

They don’t appreciate what the Lord has done for them. Don’t appreciate the fact that, the Lord has given you breath in your lungs. He makes your nerves work, we always want to complain, got headaches, body aches, and everything else and all that kind of stuff. And it’s not fun. And if you look forward to pain, then there’s something wrong with you.

But at the same time, how about being thankful that all your nerves still work? Because how bad would it be? If you couldn’t feel anything, that would be awful, your nerves and all that stuff still work because he makes them work.

We get callous to what the Lord’s doing. we Get used to the way things are. But we know that we have this church building, we know that the lights work and the air works. And we have soft seats and we have someplace to come and we have other people to come with and we have a Bible and, and you know, a preacher and a song leader and a band and different people that, that help with the kids. And we have kids that come and we have all this stuff and we kind of get cold to it. And seem to think, like it’s, just the way it is. It’s just not that big of a deal, but it is, it is a big deal.

Some lessons to pick up as we’re going through the storm. This chapter Mark chapter six is an encouragement to us to continue to obey the Lord, just because there’s a storm in the midst of you obeying the Lord doesn’t mean that you throw the oars over the side of the boat and quit. Continue to obey, continue to do what he’s called you to do. Don’t let fear take control.

This chapter also shows us assurance that the Lord does sympathize with us. He does see the storms that we’re going through. It may not look like he’s standing next to you. It may look like he’s not in the boat next to you. But he sees what you’re going through, and he has compassion for what you’re going through.

Be grateful for that. You’re not alone. You’re not in this storm all by yourself, all by your lonesome. Sometimes it feels like it. Sometimes you feel that way, but you feel that way because you’ve forgotten who the Lord is. You have forgotten that the eyes of the Lord or every place beholding the evil.

You’ve forgotten that the Lord has put a hedge of protection about you. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like there’s a hedge of protection. It feels like there’s an awful lot of stuff that gets through, but you just have no clue as to, what’s not getting through. Be grateful for that

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.