Stopping The Plague Of Immorality - [1 Corinthians 10:8]

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Years ago, Renaissance Entertainment of Orlando thought they'd come up with a new ride, a theme ride in an amusement park.
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It was called Ego Trip, a ride about you, and they wanted to sell this, and here's what the marketing piece said.
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As paparazzi snap away and adoring fans call their names, riders will attend their own movie premieres.
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They'll visit an art museum where they'll view paintings of themselves as done by Picasso, Warhol, and Van Gogh.
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They'll attend a political rally where they'll be urged to run for president, and a sporting event where they'll be praised for their athletic prowess.
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Finally, they'll enjoy a ticker tape parade in their honor. Afterward, ego -stroked riders will proceed to the gift shop where they can buy all sorts of stuff emblazoned with their images.
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What's everyone's favorite subject? Themselves, said Renaissance president
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John Banowski. Thinking like that is very prevalent in society, and it slipped into the church.
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What's everyone's favorite subject? Themselves. And you can even read the
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Bible looking through the lens of yourself and see a distorted image of Jesus.
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For instance, you can see Jesus walking on water and think the passage is all about if you keep your eyes on Jesus, you'll never go underwater figuratively.
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You can look at Jesus calming the storm on the sea and say the point of the passage is
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Jesus can calm the storms in your life. Now last week
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I made a statement about my own devotional life, trying to read the Gospels every morning. And then this week
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I read a J .I. Packer quote, and I thought it was fascinating. He said, we can correct williness of view as to what
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Christian commitment involves by stressing the need for constant meditation on the four
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Gospels over and above the rest of our Bible reading. For Gospel study enables us both to keep our
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Lord in clear view and to hold before our minds the relational frame of discipleship to Him.
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He's talking about reading the Gospels. The doctrines on which our discipleship rests are the clearest in the epistles, but the nature of discipleship itself is most vividly portrayed in the
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Gospels. Some Christians seem to prefer the epistles as if this were a mark of growing up spiritually, but really this attitude is a very bad sign, suggesting that we are more interested in theological notions than in fellowship with the
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Lord Jesus in person. And then J .I. said, we should think rather of the theology of the epistles as preparing us to understand better the disciple relationship with Christ that is set forth in the
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Gospels. And we should never let ourselves forget that the four Gospels are, as has often and rightly been said, the most wonderful books on earth.
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So since I said that last week, something close to that but not as eloquent, and then I read that this week,
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I thought that was a sign from God. And so open your Bible to the Gospel of Mark, please, chapter 1.
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Mark chapter 1. In light of what's going on this week and thinking about that and then all kinds of issues floating around the church, we're going to deviate from 1
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Corinthians today. We should be back there next week. I plotted it out so I think we can finish 1
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Corinthians by the end of 2021. No, sorry, 2012, dyslexic there.
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And today we're going to take a short detour because I want us to focus on the person of Christ. I've been studying chapter 4 and chapter 6 of Mark the last 3 or 4 days and I've just been taken up with Christ, how great
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He is, what a great king, sovereign Lord that I, that we would be able to worship such a
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God, to call Him Lord and Master and Savior. And so I want us to get out of the troubles of Corinth for a while and then move over into the focus, the focal point of our worship,
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Christ Jesus the Lord. I think you'll be encouraged, I think you'll be motivated, and here's the great thing.
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I'm after everyone today with the message, that is, it's addressed to everyone. But I'm particularly looking for the younger people.
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The first generation who's taught orthodoxy, they keep it. The second generation, they just assume orthodoxy, and then the third generation, they lose it.
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So the older ones here are orthodox in their beliefs, the younger ones, I don't want you to assume it, and this passage today in chapter 4 and then the passage in chapter 6 will remind you of something, and here's what it's going to remind you of.
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Chapter 1 verse 1, everything in Mark needs to be read in light of the first sentence.
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He doesn't beat around the bush. He doesn't pull any punches.
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He gets straight to the issue. What is the theme of the Gospel of Mark? The beginning of the
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Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Everything in this book is to let you see
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Jesus is God. He's God incarnate. He's the only way of salvation. Jesus is
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Lord. Now tonight when Pastor Steve is preaching from John, John's Gospel is more, let me tell you that Jesus is
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God. Let me make it very clear by words, Jesus is the great I Am, the seven
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I Ams. Mark has a different approach. Instead of telling you explicitly Jesus is God, Mark says, let me show you by Christ's actions that Jesus is
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God, that Jesus is the God -man, and so today we're going to have a passage in chapter 4 and then a passage in chapter 6 that require no action.
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When you preach, often times you call people to do something. When you're in the congregation, you like sermons that have five points, three points,
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I need to do this, this, and this. Well, it's interesting, many Christian sermons should not tell you to do anything.
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There should be no how -tos. There should be no commands to respond with action, with hands, with labor.
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This is after your mind. This is to teach you. There's no response to this except to say,
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I assent, I believe, I worship, I adore. There's no to -do steps. I think that is a good way to look at the
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Gospel of Mark. Years ago, I was in Scotland and I asked Sinclair Ferguson, who at the time was the pastor of St.
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George's Tron Church in Edinburgh, and I said, I've been preaching through the Gospel of Mark and I'm having a hard time coming up with practical application, 16 chapters.
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How do you tell people to do things every single week in light of Mark's Gospel? And then he said to me, can't you just show people the wonders of Christ Jesus every week and ask them to do nothing?
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To ask them just to look and observe and to behold and to worship and to think properly about?
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What was I to say? I said, okay, that's good advice. So that's exactly what we'll do today. Two passages in Mark, chapter 4 and chapter 6, that highlight
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Christ as the Son of God. That both include the Sea of Galilee and your only response is going to be,
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I believe it. I affirm that. I remember that Jesus is such a great
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God, worthy of my awe, wonder and praise. God in human flesh.
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Now I was given this before I walked up. I usually have these size waters up here. I was just given this size water.
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So I don't know if that's a sign as well, but I've never drank water from one of these spray guns up here.
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So here we go. I wish
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I felt better in the way that I could enthusiastically tell you about this passage because in my mind at least, the last three or four days as I studied
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Christ, I just thought, this is the best. Jesus is great.
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When you watch him and you see what he does, how he does it, people talk about, well, you know,
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I'm caught up with money. I'm caught up with football. I'm caught up with all kinds of other things. This is going to be a good recalibration for us because if you're a
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Christian and you believe that the Word of God is true, you look at this and you'll say, oh, that I could be called a child of this
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God. This is amazing. So two passages for Mark, both trying to drive you to say
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Jesus is the Messiah and he is worthy of my reverence, astonishment, and submission.
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Let's go to chapter four, please, for the first one. Chapter four, verses 35 through 41.
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As we look at Jesus the King, the Son of God. Mark is going to give us history, but it's a theological history.
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And so when you read a gospel like Mark, you say to yourself, yes, I'm learning historical facts.
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These are things that happen in history. They happen in time, but they're written in a way to teach me theology.
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So they are theological history, and we'll see that very clear here. Mark, chapter four, 35 to 41.
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Jesus ruling over nature with his power, doing things that only
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God could do. And Mark writes in a very vivid style. He writes in a very personal style.
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Sometimes he writes so fast he forgets... Let's rephrase that. He writes so fast that he omits details, but not here.
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He has actually more details than the Luke account and then the Matthew account. And chapter four, verse 35 says, on that day...
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By the way, that busy day, that day that Pharisees called him a blasphemer.
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That day Mary and his brothers tried to kidnap him because he was religiously off his rocker in their mind.
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That day he taught the parables by the sea, he taught more by the house. On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us go across to the other side.
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And it was the language of urgency, of decisiveness. Let us go to the other side.
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So he's on the west side, now let's go over to the east side. Why? To rest?
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That could have been a possibility because it was a very busy day. To minister? That's certainly a possibility.
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And it's true because he will go over to the other side and cast out demons out of the men there.
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But I think mostly, primarily, Jesus is going to send the disciples out for a wanna -council time.
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This is going to be an object lesson. This is going to be Jesus teaching them about God.
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It's one thing to see him perform miracles in front of other people and say, yes, that's true, but now when you personally have to recognize face -to -face that Jesus is the
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Son of God, that's another thing. And so this is going to be a field trip, a very interesting field trip.
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And leaving the crowd, verse 36, they took him with them in the boat, I don't miss any word here, just as he was, and the other boats were with him.
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So Jesus is on the boat teaching, remember the crowds were pressing him in, he's on the boat teaching, and now they usher him from that boat, probably over into another boat, and he doesn't go on to shore.
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What does the text say? Just as he was. That's most likely what happened.
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From one boat to another boat without going to shore. And this is going to be an easy trip.
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This is a day trip for the disciples. Peter a fisherman, Andrew a fisherman, they did this for a living, and this is just like getting up in the morning saying, today
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I'll drive to Solomon Pond Mall, no big deal, just an outing. Other boats were with him, it says, remember they all tried to get close to Jesus, but we're not going to hear again from these other boats.
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They're probably driven back by the storm. And verse 37, notice how this language is very abruptly stated, and a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
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I mean, how bad could it be? This is just some little lake, right? But those of you who have been to the
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Sea of Galilee know that violent storms can literally come down. You've got
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Mount Hermon 30 miles north, 9 ,200 feet. You've got the Sea of Galilee about 700 feet below sea level.
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And when the hot and the cold air put together, it happens quickly.
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It's like a hurricane effect. It's like a squall. And so the great windstorm arose.
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It was sudden, it was violent, it was dangerous. Luke said it came down. It was a furious squall.
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And again, you could translate the Greek word as hurricane. The Arabic people would translate this as a sharqiyah, sharqiyah with the root word shark.
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As sharks are violent, as sharks are urgent and sudden in their attack, so too this squall comes right down, churning, whipping waves everywhere.
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Matthew says, behold, to show how fast this was happening, how rapidly this was happening, reminiscent of Jonah 1, and the
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Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
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Violent gusts, probably rain everywhere. Matthew translates this as a shaking, as an earthquake.
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So it's like there's an earthquake in the water. How many people have felt earthquakes? Look to the person to your left and say,
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I've felt an earthquake, just kidding. Earthquakes are shaking, they're sudden. I'll never forget the one,
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I think Haley was about five months old, and by the time I figured out what was going on in Los Angeles, I can't remember the year, 91, 92, and the big one at 4 .35
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a .m., by the time I figured out what was going on and could get out of the bed because it was shaking and all the books falling down,
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Kim was already outside holding Haley safely and I was sitting there, I mean, it's just shaking.
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It's like till the water is shaking. I've never been in a boat while there's an earthquake, but that was the idea here.
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It was all divinely planned, it was perfectly planned. This was the perfect storm. What else was happening?
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Look at the text, and the waves are breaking over the boat. It's an imperfect tense, constantly, continually breaking over the boat.
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To what degree? Just how bad was it? So much that the boat was already filling up.
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It was like the boat was getting erased from the waves, it was by the waves just sinking. Verse 38, but he was in the stern, the only place in all the
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Bible where we see Jesus sleeping. Of course he slept, he was fully manned, but this is the only time described in the
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Bible, this account, asleep on the cushion. They usually had one special cushion that you would give to a person who wasn't really a fisherman, they weren't really kind of the old salt, and they didn't go out on the boats very often, so they got a special cushion so they could sit, and he was using that to sleep on.
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This morning I was thinking about that Christmas song, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, the lyrics go. Jesus is sleeping, and these are the fishermen, these are the people who know about being on a boat during a storm.
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And they woke him and said, certainly loudly, because he was loud with all the sounds of the hurricane -like squall, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
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The Greek is, he himself was in the stern. Sleeping is at the end of the sentence, so you know this is a very dramatic effect.
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It's been hot outside most likely, he's preaching all day, preaching makes you tired by the way, he has to sleep, he's laying on that cushion.
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Fully man, wouldn't you say he's fully man? There is a man sleeping on a cushion.
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He's tired. Fully human. And he had to be fully human to be our substitute.
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Man for man. He had to be fully human to be our representative. Man of men.
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Don't you care that we're perishing? Lenski said the fact that these disciples should turn to Jesus for help is astounding.
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A number of them were expert sailors who knew all about handling a boat, and who had been in many violent storms on this lake.
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And they're not saying, Jesus, you're perishing, Jesus, we're perishing. This is a panic attack, heart is pumping, adrenaline is going.
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We're close to death. Yelling most likely, shouting. And he awoke, verse 39, and rebuked this wind, and said to the sea, peace, be still, and the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
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With impolite uncouthness, they wake him up. And I don't know about you, but when I wake up, when
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I'm super tired, sometimes on Sunday I'll go home and I'll take a nap after I preach, and then when I wake up from a nap,
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I think it's Monday and I think I've overslept my preaching time on Sunday night. Here Jesus wakes up and he's ready to go, he has his bearings, there's no sign of him being startled, amazed, discombobulated.
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Not at all. Just two sublime words come out, peace, still. No incense, no bells, no
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Latin. He just commands. Now remember,
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Mark's writing all this because he wants you to know that only God could do this. Who else could do this?
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And now he uses language, peace, be still, be quiet, be silent, be muzzled.
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You know what kind of language this is? I'll tell you what kind of language it is. It's exorcism language. This is the language of exorcism.
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Be silent, that's what peace means. Now just go with me if you would back to 1 .25,
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chapter 1, verse 25. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out of him.
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This is the language of exorcism. It's technical language for a Jewish exorcism.
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It's as if the sea is demon possessed and who can get demons out but God and who can still a storm but God himself.
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Be quiet, be gagged, be still.
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The word be still, you can go back to Mark 4 if you'd like. It means to be still and to stay still.
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It's a pit bull of a storm and Jesus says, I'm going to put a muzzle on you and it's going to stay on you.
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And as instantaneously as when Jesus cast a demon out and they're either in the person or they're out of the person, he cast them out immediately and instantaneously.
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Now he rebukes with the same kind of language, the sea and the wind and instantaneously and immediately it's still.
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With words, this is not gradual, slowly dying down, slowly ceasing.
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We go from Lake Chaos to Lake Placid in a second.
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Both sea and wind, Jesus commands, because if you commanded just the wind or the sea alone, it wouldn't all stop.
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And one minute we have Jesus showing his humanity on the cushion sleeping and now he shows his deity rebuking the wind and the sea.
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Colossians 1 says, for by Jesus all things were created both in the heavens and on earth. With the thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, all things have been created by him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together.
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Now the liberals will say this, you can't have Jesus being the real God and the only way to heaven in our pluralistic society, so the liberals say.
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So we have to change it a little bit, get the supernatural thing out of it so Jesus really didn't calm the sea, he calmed the storm in the disciples' hearts.
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They were fearful and he needed to calm their fears. That's inadequate as far as I'm concerned, that's not what
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Mark is trying to say. The point is Mark is saying Jesus is the Son of God, look at how powerful he is, he speaks and it's done.
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That's the point of the language. Jesus does what only God can do. So if you ever teach this, by the way, to kids and say, you know what, here's
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Jesus, he calms the storm, when you have a lot of troubles in your life, Jesus can calm those storms in your life too.
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Don't do that because as bad as it is for liberals to say it, now we become not liberal in the reading, but we become liberal in the application.
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Has nothing to do with us, this is Jesus showing himself as God, emphasizing
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Jesus' power. Listen to Psalm 107 for a moment.
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He made the storm be still, talking about the Lord, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
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The Lord Yahweh did that. Who is Jesus? Yahweh. He said to them,
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Mark chapter 4 verse 40, there's usually a reason for his disclosure, there's a response to it.
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He talks to them and he says, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? Why are you losing heart?
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Don't be showing cowardice. Why are you so timid?
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That's where we get NAS is better there. Don't be so timid. You know,
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Jesus is still God of the universe, whether he's sleeping or not, still upholding the universe while he's asleep.
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Don't be fearful. By the way, the storm has stopped.
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The storm's going to kill them. But Jesus, don't you care? We're going to perish. Now the storm has stopped, but they're afraid, why?
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Because as my old pastor would say, there's only one thing more frightening than having the storm outside cease, and that is having the holy
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God of the universe inside your boat, and you know you're sinful because he's holy. People say,
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I just want Jesus near me. I just want him close to me. One man said, this passage is all about teaching that Jesus wants a personal relationship with each person.
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I'm all for personal relationships. But here the closer Jesus gets and the more you see him for how holy he is, the more afraid you get.
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Sometimes close isn't too good. They knew they were in the presence of a supernatural
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God and they were afraid. Like the women who saw the stone rolled away and they knew
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Jesus was raised from the dead in Mark chapter 16 verse 8, and they were afraid. Easy to see
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Jesus as Messiah as he rebukes demons and diseases, but when the rubber meets the road, do you really believe, disciples?
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To what extent do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Verse 41, and they were filled with great fear, fabon megon, megaphone, a lot, mega.
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What else is mega? Megasize me, supersize me, that's what it means. And phobo, phobia, feared with a great fear literally.
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Matthew says, what sort of men is this that even the winds and sea obey him? R .C.
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Sproul quotes, or says rather, as moral creatures we're all exposed to all sorts of fears.
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We are anxious people given to phobias. Some people are afraid of cats, they're smart.
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Others, sorry, there's no such thing as a dog,
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I'd love cats. You know what
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I'm thankful for at Bethlehem Bible Church? The cat lovers still like me.
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That's agape love. There is a special kind of phobia,
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R .C. says, from which we all suffer. It's called xenophobia, xenophobia.
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Xenophobia is a fear of strangers, our foreigners. Since God is holy, he's the ultimate object of our xenophobia.
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He is the ultimate stranger. He is the ultimate foreigner, for he is holy and we are not.
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God is too holy for us, he is too awesome, meeting him personally without our sins covered would be our greatest trauma.
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John Calvin said, hence that dread and amazement with which as scripture uniformly relates, holy men were struck and overwhelmed whenever they beheld the presence of God.
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Who then is this that even the wind and sea obey him? God and God alone.
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Well, let's go to the second passage today, having to do with Jesus and having to do with showing him as Mark chapter 1 verse 1 says, the
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Son of God. And again, it's not telling you to do anything, it's telling you to respond with a belief and an affirmation,
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Jesus walking on water. Another passage of King Jesus, Mark chapter 6 verses 45 to 52.
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Here we have Yahweh, the I Am in the middle of the storm and it is great.
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We use walking on water today to say things like, well, you know, we can do, that person can do something extraordinarily well, they can walk on water.
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I watched on YouTube two days ago the Criss Angel walking across a pool because he says he can walk on water and from the camera angle it looked like he could until you saw what was underneath the water with all the plexiglass.
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Walking on water is not just a figure of speech talking about performing extraordinary tasks.
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Jesus was walking on the water. Albert Schweitzer said this was an optical illusion.
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It looked like he was walking on water. Others said he was walking on a sandbar. Oh yeah, walking on a sandbar will prove that I'm God.
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Others have said Orion the Hunter, the mythology God, he walked on water. Let's take a look at chapter 6 verse 45.
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What's the reason for the miracle? Jesus is the Son of God and you either believe it or you don't.
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Chapter 6 verse 45, Mark loves to use this word, immediately, straight away,
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KJV I think says, he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd.
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And with post haste, with an energetic style, he forces them to get in the boat.
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Why? Most likely because if not careful, these men are going to get caught up in the messianic
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Jesus is going to take over Rome kind of thinking. So he wants them gone so he can pray and he doesn't want them to buy into what the crowd is thinking.
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The Bible elsewhere has said Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone.
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So Jesus constrained or made his disciples get in a boat. And in my mind
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I think, although I can't prove it, he probably gave the boat a shove. That's at least the idea.
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Alright, get going. Makes them go. And when evening had came, excuse me, when evening came, verse 47, the boat was out on the sea and he was alone in the land.
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Stated for a very obvious reason that we'll learn in a minute, but it's clearly stated, plainly described, they were out on the boat, on the sea, he was alone in the land.
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He was on shore, they were on the water. Mark wants us to know that. Jesus is praying, probably way past midnight, and verse 48 says,
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And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them, and about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, and he meant to pass them by.
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I don't know how he saw them in the dark night, all the way across the ocean.
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It's about 13 miles one way and seven the other, so I don't know how he could see three and a half miles, maybe he had keen eyesight, or maybe this is supernatural sight, which
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I think that's more likely. Some kind of night vision, the supernatural
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God of the universe, supernaturally seen. And what does he see? He sees them straining, making headway, the
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ESV says, painfully. The word means to strain, it means to be tortured with torment as you row.
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It's used of a woman's childbirth in Revelation chapter 12. So much pain in that particular moment of delivery, it's similar to the pain that these men are fighting for their lives as they're rowing the boat.
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And Jesus sees that. I remember once I was on the Missouri River and a windstorm came up, and I was the only one in a canoe.
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It was a long size, big canoe, and I'm sitting in the back, and the wind just pushes the front of the canoe to wherever it wants to go.
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There's no way with that kind of wind, with my weight in the back, I could ever get anywhere. So then
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I turned around and I tried to sit in the front of the canoe to go someplace. That didn't work, so finally
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I jumped out of the canoe with the rope to the front of the canoe and just swam the canoe to the side.
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I'm not saying that to be impressive, it was only 10 feet, just kidding. But the point is, the wind blowing everything around, straining.
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And this is during the fourth watch that Jesus goes out there between 3 a .m. and 6 a .m. They've been out there for a long time.
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John says in John 6 that they've been out, they're out 3 or 4 miles, so they're right in the middle of the sea.
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This is one -third a mile an hour. And literally you can swim faster than that.
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So what does Jesus do? He came to them walking on the sea.
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Not by the sea, but upon the sea. It means on top of, epi.
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Now, if you're not careful, you're going to think it's some kind of movie, and you're going to think that it's some kind of flat water, and Jesus just kind of walking, just walking.
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There is flat and smooth, and He's just walking. But it's stormy, there's waves, and Jesus is walking.
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And if there's a trough, He's walking down the trough and up the trough. You can see, if you're the disciples, something coming, and pretty soon you can see
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Him when He's on the crescent of the wave, and then you can't see Him when He's down below. And Jesus is walking on the water.
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If the waves are 8 foot, He's on top of the waves, and then He's on the bottom of the waves. However big it is,
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He's walking on the water. It's dark. Can you imagine the disciples seeing some outlined form of the human?
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And why did He do this? Some parlor trick? No. What's the passage saying? If you don't get this, you didn't get the whole sermon.
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He intended to pass by them. He intended to pass by them. What does that mean? Barclay, the non -supernaturalist, says, this statement is clothed in mystery, which defies explanation.
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It defies explanation when you're not a supernaturalist. One person said,
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Jesus was going to meet them on the other side, but as He saw their floundering, He stopped to help. Another commentator said, it was a playful surprise.
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Hi. It's a good time to drink a water right now. Others said,
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He's going to test their faith. NIV translates it wrongly, so you think wrongly about it.
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He was about to pass by them. To pass by them.
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That might be okay translation. But what does it mean to pass by? Not to pass by them, but to pass by.
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If you're thinking, Jesus is going to pass by. I don't mean pass by them. That's why NIV is wrong.
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It's like, Jesus is here, and the boat's there. I'm Jesus. He passes by them. He just goes past. But what is the pass?
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If you're thinking, why would He pass by? Not pass by them, but pass by. What is happening here?
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What's the only way to solve the riddle? Come back next week and we'll find out.
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No. Think like a Jew. Think like a person who knows the
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Old Testament. Where does it say in the Old Testament that God passes by?
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For what reason does it say in the Old Testament, God passes by? Why would Jesus pass by?
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And if God passes by in the Old Testament, and Jesus is passing by in the New, for the exact same reason,
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Yahweh is Jesus. Let me read you two passages about passing by.
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Job 9. God alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.
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When He passes me, I cannot see Him. When He goes by, I cannot perceive
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Him. But with much more ease of understanding,
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Moses, God, Exodus 33. God says,
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I'm going to make My goodness pass by you to reveal Myself to you. Why does
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Jesus pass by? To reveal Himself. It's self -revelation. To show you that I am
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God. Exodus 33. God said, and it will come about while My glory is passing by that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.
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Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back, but My face shall not be seen.
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Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the
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Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth.
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Why would Jesus pass by? The same reason Jesus passed by Moses when
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He was in the cleft of the rock, to show him who He was, God of the universe. He passes by to show
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Himself as the Son of God. The beginning of the
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Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Why then did Jesus walk on water? To show that He was
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God and to reveal Himself as the Old Testament Yahweh. Self -disclosure.
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Verse 49. But how do they respond? But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost, a phantasma, is the
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Greek word. And they cried out. First He's down at the trough, then He's up at the crest, and then you see
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Him, then you don't. Back then, if a phantasm crossed your path, it was like a black cat on Friday the 13th walking under a ladder.
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Seeing a water phantom. We've seen a water phantom. And so what did they do? They cried out.
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It's a shriek or a scream. They're scared to death. They didn't say, we're perishing, we're straining at the oars, we're tired, our muscles are cramping.
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They're afraid of the phantasm. Jesus, we're so afraid of You, You're walking on a sandbar.
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We're scared. Okay. I mean, unbelief is incredible.
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Jesus, You're walking on a shallow part of the lake. Immediately, He spoke with them and said to them, take courage, it is
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I, do not be afraid. Stop fearing. It is
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I. Ego eimi. Not too happy with the ESV translation.
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I am. God of the universe. Moses in the burning bush.
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God discloses Himself with His personal name. I am. And discloses Himself, tells
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Moses that He is God. The only way you learn about God is if He decides to disclose Himself to you, like He did to Moses, like Jesus did to the disciples on the boat.
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Don't be afraid. I am. This is self -disclosure,
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Exodus 3 language. God said to Moses, I am who I am. And He said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you.
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What happened next? Matthew 14 describes it, but Mark doesn't. Peter answered and said to Him, Lord, if it is
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You, command me to come to You on the water. And He said, come. And Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, came toward Jesus, but seeing the wind, he became afraid and began to sink.
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He cried out, saying, Lord, save me. What does
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Mark say, chapter 6, verse 51? And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.
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And as KJV says, it's a great translation, and they were what? Who has KJV? And they were sorely amazed.
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They were exceedingly beyond measure amazed. Literally, the text is, they're out of their minds. As we say in Nebraska, they're out of their gourds.
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They are dumbfounded. This is the right response, in a sense, to the self -disclosure that a man could be
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God. I try to think of it this way. If I met somebody at Venice Beach in a couple months when
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I'm in California, or I met somebody here, and they walked up to me and said, I'm God, that would be a very interesting conversation.
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And now this person's walking on the water. Divine disclosure.
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And why did he do all this? Here was the object lesson. They didn't know that he was God in the flesh,
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Yahweh, from the previous incident, which was what? Verse 52 tells us. For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
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God made the food. God gave the manna. God gave the food to the 5 ,000 to the 4 ,000.
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Mark is saying, the disciples never really thought, oh yeah, you know, Jesus just made food for 10 ,000 people.
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He must be God. So Jesus gives them this object lesson. He discloses himself as the
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I Am. So what? When you preach, you should always answer a so what.
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So what? So what must I do? Pastor, I've heard about it today. I need to walk out with three points of encouragement.
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I need to walk out with three kind of to -do things. I need three points in a poem. When you're in a trial, keep your eyes on Jesus.
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By the way, is that true? Is that a true adage? Keep your eyes on Jesus. Don't glance at Jesus and gaze on your problems, but gaze on Jesus and only glance at your problems.
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It's true, but it's nothing to do with Mark 6. This is God, and you should know that He's God Almighty, worthy of worship, adoration, and everything
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He says is true. No salvation through any other means. Jesus alone is the substitutionary sin bearer.
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He alone raised Himself from the dead. Second point is, whatever trial you're going through this week,
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God can still that trial in your heart. Is that true? It's true, but it has nothing to do with Mark 4 or Mark 6.
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Mark 4 and 6 just says, just take a good look. Just drink deeply as you look at Jesus, and then everything else just gets put into the right perspective.
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It just gets put rightly where you say, Jesus is God, I know that He's God, and if you know
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He's God, by the way, it is by God's free will that He disclosed Himself to you, because if He didn't, you would still be a pagan.
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How do you know that God has revealed Himself to you? If you believe with saving faith, not just intellectual, not just with emotional, but with a volitional trust, taking
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God at His word, if you believe that, that He's your substitutionary sin bearer, raised from the dead and will soon ascend,
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God has revealed it to you in a very personal way. This passage says not to do something.
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It says to believe something. The beginning of the
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Gospel or good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There's nobody like Jesus.
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Father, this morning, we give You glory, laud, and honor for giving us such a great
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King and Savior, Christ Jesus. In the councils of the
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Godhood, Godhead, in eternity past, that You would devise such a plan to rescue desperate sinners like us, thank
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You. Thank You for the revelation we have in the Gospel of Mark that shows our Lord and Savior, fully man, fully
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God, sent on a divine mission to exalt You and to rescue us.
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Thank You for that. I pray for all the people here today and those homesick, those who will watch the video,
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I pray that You would stir their hearts this week. That You would let them revel in Your Son as they read the
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Gospels. Jesus healing people. Jesus raising people from the dead.
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Jesus forgiving sinners. Thank You that we have a pure Word. Thank You that we have something that is greater than anything else.
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That You would disclose Yourself to us freely, by Your own will,
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Your own decision, when we least deserved it. Help us to respond with truly
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You are a great God and Your Son is the Son of God. And I pray,
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Father, for every unbeliever here. I pray for any person who does not believe that Jesus is
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Lord and Savior. I pray that through Your Spirit's working, Father, that You would reveal
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Yourself and Your Son to them and cause them to be born again today.
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To think that through the preaching of the Word, through a frail, sinful man, that You could quicken the minds and hearts of unbelievers.
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For the praise of all the saints and all the angels through all eternity, Father, may that be true today.