Mark 6:45-52
What Jesus Offered
Outline:
I. \\#Mark 1:1-15\\ Introduction
A. \\#1:1-8\\ Jesus Was Announced
B. \\#1:9-11\\ Jesus Was Authenticated
C. \\#1:12-13\\ Jesus Was Proven
D. \\#1:14-15\\ The Bridge
II. \\#Mark 1:16-2:28\\ Meet Jesus
A. \\#1:14-2:12\\ Jesus’ Authority
1. \\#1:16-20\\ Jesus Has Authority over Men
2. \\#1:21-22\\ Jesus Has Authority in Doctrine
3. \\#1:23-28\\ Jesus Has Authority over Demons
4. \\#1:29-39\\ Jesus Has Authority over Sickness
5. \\#1:40-45\\ Jesus Has Authority over Disease
6. \\#2:1-12\\ Jesus Has Authority over Sin
B. \\#2:13-28\\ Jesus Cares for Sinners
C. \\#2:13-28\\ Jesus Is Not Like Others
1. \\#2:13-17\\ He’s not like everyone else.
2. \\#2:18-22\\ He’s not like the disciples of John or the
Pharisees.
3. \\#23-28\\ He’s not like the Pharisees.
III. \\#Mark 3:1-35\\ Things Are Changing
A. \\#3:1-6\\ The Relationship Between Jesus and the Pharisees
B. \\#3:7-12\\ The Relationship Between Jesus and the People
C. \\#3:13-19\\ The Relationship Between Jesus and His Disciples
D. \\#3:22-30\\ The Relationship Between Jesus and the Scribes
E. \\#3:31-35\\ The Relationship Between Jesus and His Family
IV. \\#Mark 4:1-10:52\\ The Words and Power of Jesus
A. \\#4:1-20\\ Bad Weeds Kill Good Seeds
B. \\#4:21-34\\ Parable Epilogues
C. \\#4:35-41\\ Faith
D. \\#5:1-43\\ The Tormented Delivered
1. \\#5:1-20\\ Tormented by Demons
2. \\#5:21-24, 35-43\\ Tormented by Death
3. \\#Mark 5:24-34\\ Tormented by Disease
E. \\#6:1-44\\ Opportunities
1. \\#6:1-6, 14-20\\ Missed Opportunities
a. \\#6:1-6\\ Nazareth Missed Theirs
b. \\#6:14-20\\ Herod Missed His
2. \\#6:7-13, 30-44\\ Taken Opportunities
a. \\#6:7-13. 30-32\\ The Disciples (at least most) Took
Theirs
(1) The Opportunity to be Saved
(2) The Opportunity to Serve
(3) The Opportunity to See the Power of God
b. \\#6:32-44\\ The Multitude Took Theirs
c. \\#6:45-52\\
d. \\#6:53-56\\ Gennesaret Took Theirs
The last event Mark recorded was the feeding of the feeding of 5,000.
Mark, the gospel writer who summarized his accounts, gives one of the
2nd shortest accounts of this miracle. Luke does not record these
miracles at all; and John, who gave the shortest account, recorded a
truth both Matthew and Mark left out.
John 6:15 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.
As a result of Jesus’ miracle, the people wanted to make Him King.
Think about that for a moment. If all Jesus had wanted was to be the
King of the Jews, He could have gotten that without the cross. That
was being offered to Him now.
In fact, Satan had offered Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world, and
the glory of them," if He would just bow down to worship him, but
Jesus did not come for the kingdoms of the world or even the glories
they contained, He came for us.
Mark and John also left out an event that Matthew recorded.
\\#Matt 28:32\\ Peter walked on the water with Jesus. Now that is
interesting. My first response is, "How could you leave out something
like that!" But then nether Luke nor John recorded it either, and I
am left to wonder just what other glorious events have been left out
of the Bible?!! If a man walking on the water was not important
enough to put in to your book, what else did you leave out. I have a
feeling that when we get to heaven, we may be occupied for a long
time just listening to the works of God that were NOT recorded for
us to read.
But the question is not what did Mark NOT record. It is what did
Mark record?
I. \\#45\\ Jesus Offered A Lesson - The sea may not look like a
classroom and the disciples may not look like students, but they
were that day!
Mark 6:45 And 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.
A. The Sovereign God
1. The Bible says that Jesus constrained the disciples to get
on this ship.
a. Notice the word used, "constrained."
b. It means to compel, coerced, to insist almost with
force.
2. Did the sovereign God know there was going to be a storm?
YES.
3. Did the sovereign God put them on the boat anyway? YES.
4. Is that not a sovereign God deliberately putting the
disciples in harm’s way? YES.
a. But it is not just that God puts people into harm’s
way.
b. He also puts us into hurt’s way, pain’s way.
5. Why would God do that?
a. Because life is a classroom where hard lessons are
learned; and if we don’t learn how to deal with them,
we will grow up selfish, spoiled, and extremely
sinful.
b. Because longevity and comfort are not God’s purposes
for us in life. Lessons need to be learned by our
sinful and eternal soul and spirit.
c. Because faith can only be taught, trained, and tested
in storms.
6. Jesus was offering the disciples a chance to learn some
important lessons.
a. Now, I know we preachers make it sound like it is
easy to learn God’s lessons and that only foolish
resist; but let’s face it, school always looks
easier when you aren’t the one being taught and
tested.
b. I have as much trouble in the classroom of life as
anyone else.
c. It’s just that God does have a purpose in
constraining us to get on the boat; and the best time
to see them is BEFORE we get into the storms.
B. The Stormy Sea
1. Again, Mark only gave us he short version of the miracle,
but he gave us enough information to see how bad things
were.
a. Notice when Jesus put them on the boat.
Mark 6:47 And when even was come….
(1) That is not an exact time, but most consider it
late afternoon until the sun goes down.
(2) To keep the numbers simples, we will suppose 6:00.
b. What time did Jesus make it to the ship?
Mark 6:48 …about the fourth watch of the night
he cometh unto them….
(1) That would be from 3 AM to 6 AM.
(2) Since the Scripture does not say "during" the
fourth watch of the night but "about the fourth
watch of the night," we will suppose it was a
little before the fourth watch began, 2 AM.
(3) So these men toiled from 6 PM to 2 AM to get
their boat to shore but could not.
c. How big is the Sea of Galilee?
(1) It is 13 miles long and 8 miles wide at its
largest.
(2) That means at no point were the disciples ever
more than 4 miles from shore.
(a) John actually tells us that after rowing for
8 hours, they had only gone around 25 to 35
furlongs.
John 6:19 So when they had rowed about five and
twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus
walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the
ship: and they were afraid.
(b) A furlong is about 220 yards so from 5500
yards to 7700 yards or from 3 to a little
over 4 miles.
(c) John actually made it sound like Jesus
waited for them to get to the middle of the
sea BEFORE He came to them! (i.e. "WHEN
they had rowed about five and twenty or
thirty furlongs…."
2. That means these 12 strong men, all of whom I am sure
were experienced fishermen, some of whom were
experienced, professional fishermen, took turns
attempting to row their ship for 8 hours to move it 4
miles and could not do it.
a. I am not throwing stones.
b. I have rowed in a calm ponds before and understand
that rowing is work, but these 12 men rowed 8 hours
and were still stuck in the middle of the Sea.
c. I am not brilliant, but I think if I was rowing one
direction and saw it was against the wind and waves,
I would try to row the other.
d. I would also think that if I am in a storm such as
this and I have six miles ahead of me and two miles
behind me, I’s turning this boat around!
(1) I am pretty sure they would think of that too.
(2) That probably means no matter which direction
they attempted to steer their boat into, the
wind and the waves changed to blow against
them—for 8 long hours.
(3) Have you ever felt God not only put you into the
storm but that He was also working to keep you
there?
(4) I am sure they did too.
C. The Strong Temptation
1. The strong temptation is to become bitter.
2. I mentioned the other night that the place of bitterness’
birth is often between knowing God is sovereign and
experiencing life’s problems anyway.
\\See 2019Sermons on "2Kings 4:8"\\
3. Maybe these men were too busy trying to stay alive for
those 8 hours to get bitter, but when your 8 hours of
life-threatening trouble becomes 8 days or 8 months or
8 years or even 8 decades, you have a lot more time for
bitterness to be birthed.
4. Remember:
a. Bitterness is the devil’s crop. Faith is God’s.
b. Bitterness is the devil’s crop. Betterment is God’s.
c. Bitterness is the devil’s crop. Victory is God’s.
d. If you eat at the devil’s table, all you will get is
bitterness; but God’s harvest is much larger, much
more diverse, and makes a much better meal.
II. \\#46\\ Jesus Offered Prayer
Mark 6:46 And when he had sent them away, he
departed into a mountain to pray.
A. I read one writer’s opinion about Jesus’ departure to pray.
1. His thought was this was the first time Jesus had
opportunity to pray for HIMSELF since he heard that John
the Baptist had been killed. He thought Jesus had been
kept too busy up until then with the multitudes so He sent
the disciples away and went into a mountain to pray "to
keep down resentment, and to prevent despondency."
2. The Four-FoldGospel commentary on Mark 6:46.
B. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but I do not believe
Jesus went to pray to prevent HHIS OWN resentment and
despondency.
1. I don’t think Jesus needed to learn the same lessons we
need to learn.
2. Of course, I could be wrong.
C. I believe Jesus went up into the mountain to pray for the
disciples.
1. He may have been the Member of the Godhead who actually
prayed the storm down on them, but even if He was, He
I believe He prayed from them while they were going
through the storm.
2. Remember two things:
a. The disciples may have been four miles away, but they
were never out of the range of prayer.
b. Jesus may be out of our sight but we are never out of
His.
III. \\#47-56\\ Jesus Offered His Presence
A. So we have a forced lesson, a surly storm, and a boat load
of tired and defeated disciples.
B. \\#48\\ Then came Jesus walking on the water.
Mark 6:48 …about the fourth watch of the night
he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea….
1. In the middle of a stormy sea that the Twelve could not
row through Jesus came walking upon.
2. I have questions:
a. The waves - Did Jesus walk through them or did He
climb over
b. Did they splash against Him or did they part for
Him?
c. Did Jesus get wet? If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
came out fire with no smell of smoke, Jesus could
come out of a stormy sea as dry as powder!
3. I don’t know, but the sight was spectacular enough that
the tired, blurry-eyed disciples thought they saw a ghost.
Mark 6:49 But when they saw him walking upon the
sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and
cried out:
C. What is Jesus doing on the Sea NOW?
1. He could have gotten in the boat at the beginning of the
journey, but then they might have expected Him to calm
the storm at its beginning. No new lesson would have
been learned.
2. He could have let them complete their journey alone, but
then they might have thought they did not need Him. A
false lesson would have been learned.
3. Jesus both came and offered His presence in the middle of
the storm because this was the spot where they could
learn the lessons He wanted to teach them.
4. So what lessons?
a. No matter how bad the storms, Jesus always offers His
presence.
(1) The storm that held the disciples prisoner all
night and threatened to drown them could not
keep Jesus away!
(2) No storm you and I ever face will.
(3) Let me answer my own questions:
(a) I don’t think a single wave splashed up
against Jesus or that He had to climb over
them.
(b) I think the waves part to go around Him and
bowed before Him.
(4) Why?
(a) Because that One walking on the sea is the
Storm Slayer!
(b) When Jesus came by the wind calmed, the
waves fell prostrate before Him, and the
thunder hushed.
(c) Jesus walking on the water was a fact for
them, but it is a picture for us.
(e) It is God’s way of telling us that no storm
has been or ever will be that can keep the
presence of God from you!
b. No matter how late in the storm you let Jesus onboard,
His presence always makes a difference.
(1) When Jesus steps on board the ship, the storm
will stop and the ship will be at the dock
\\#Mark 6:51, John 6:21\\.
(2) That was the perfect result of Jesus’ presence
coming onboard.
(a) The storm stopping ended the trauma the
disciples were enduring.
(b) The ship being at the dock made up for some
of the lost time the storm had cost them.
(3) I wish Jesus coming onboard in our problems
always produced the most perfect results; but
sometimes even after Jesus comes aboard, our
storms continue and our ship stays stuck in it.
(4) But no matter how late in the storm or how badly
the storm rages, I promise that Jesus’ presence
will ALWAYS make things better!
c. No matter how badly He may want to be with you, you
are the one who decides whether you have God’s
presence or not.
(1) While Mark’s gospel often omits things that the
other writers include, in this case, Mark
included something that the other writers
omitted.
Mark 6:48 …about the fourth watch of the night
he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and
would have passed by them.
(2) Jesus was offering the disciples His presence in
the storm, but it was up to them whether they
would get it or not.
(a) He wasn’t walking TO them.
(b) He was walking BY them.
(c) If they asked, He would get on board.
(d) If they did not, He would walk on by.
I do not know what storms you are sailing through, but I know Jesus
is walking by. I pray that you will invite Him into your life
tonight.
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