Have Courage, I AM, Fear Not

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

00:18

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

00:25

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

00:30

Mark, chapter 6, verses 45 through 56. Immediately, Jesus made

00:38

His disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd.

00:45

After leaving them, He went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and He was alone on land.

00:54

He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night,

01:01

He went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw

01:07

Him walking on the lake, they thought He was a ghost and they cried out, because they all saw Him and were terrified.

01:14

Immediately, He spoke to them and said, Take courage, it is I, don't be afraid.

01:20

Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves.

01:29

Their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there.

01:35

As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. They ran throughout the whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard

01:44

He was. And wherever He went, into villages, towns, and countrysides, they placed the sick in the marketplaces.

01:51

They begged Him to let them touch even the edge of His cloak, and all who touched

01:56

Him were healed. In the name of Jesus. Amen. The Gospel text says, immediately,

02:04

Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him. Now this sets up the context, if you would, but remember, this story doesn't begin here.

02:15

This story is a continuation of last week's story. Last week, we read about and heard about the miracle of Jesus taking a little boy's lunch of five loaves and two fishes, giving thanks, and then multiplying those fishes and feeding a crowd, a crowd so large it contained 5 ,000 men, as well as women and children on top of that number.

02:38

And what you don't know, because the Gospel of Mark doesn't give us this little bit of a backstory, is that something else is going on here.

02:49

And so it says that Jesus made His disciples get into the boat. The Greek is way stronger.

02:56

It's anakadzo, and it means to compel, to force.

03:02

So what's happening here is, no sooner does Jesus finish the feeding of the 5 ,000, something happens, we'll talk about that, and Jesus doesn't want

03:11

His disciples to get caught up in all of the nonsense. And so He tells these fishermen to do something they normally would not do.

03:20

Get into a boat and cross the Sea of Galilee, go to Bethsaida at night.

03:26

And the reason why they would not normally do this is because they are fishermen, and they know that at night, what happens in the evening is that the winds kick up.

03:36

And this is not a place to be traveling on at night because of the winds. But it says

03:41

He made them, He forced them, He compelled them. So you can kind of tell by the

03:48

Greek verb here that there was probably a little bit of a discussion. Jesus says, hey guys, I need you to get in the boat,

03:54

I need you to head across over to Bethsaida. Now? Yeah, now.

03:59

Go ahead and go get in the boat, guys. But the wind, you familiar with what happens here at night?

04:06

I mean, you live in Capernaum, you've got to know. No, guys, I need you to get in the boat and go. All right.

04:12

If you say so. That's kind of the force of the verb here. Now why? The answer is why is

04:18

He having to compel them and force them to do this? Well, let me read a little bit from the Gospel of John. We'll get the context from that.

04:24

John chapter 6, verses 1 through 15. After this, Jesus went away to the other side, the

04:29

Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following Him. And because they saw the signs that He was doing on the sick,

04:37

Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. Now the Passover, the Feast of the

04:42

Jews, was at hand. Lifting up His eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward Him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so these people may eat?

04:51

He said this to test Him, for He knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to eat a little.

05:00

One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, Well, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?

05:09

Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass, green grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

05:16

Jesus then took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated, so also the fish, as much as they wanted.

05:25

And when they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.

05:31

So they gathered them up, filled the twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

05:39

And when the people saw the sign that He had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.

05:48

They recognized who Jesus was prophetically. Oh! And then it says this,

05:54

Perceiving that they then were going to come and take Him by force to make

05:59

Him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself. So that's what's going on.

06:06

Jesus performs this miracle, which harkens back to the feeding of the

06:12

Israelites in the wilderness with the bread of heaven. And they recognize then prophetically what's going on here.

06:21

That's the guy who Moses told us about. And they wanted to make

06:26

Him king by force. That's what's going on. Now keep this in mind. There are a bunch of liberals out there who think that the gospel is all about going out and conquering poverty or things like this, right?

06:38

Solving the world hunger problem. There's nothing wrong, and I mean this. It's a good work to care for those who are in need.

06:45

But note here that they wanted to make Jesus king. And Jesus has the ability to feed people, multiply loaves and fishes.

06:55

And Jesus, if He wanted to, could have been king and there would have never been a welfare problem. Everybody would have had food on their table.

07:03

Remember, which of the politicians was out there stumping and basically saying, I promise a chicken in every pot?

07:11

Jesus could have made good on that promise. But He didn't do that, which tells you something.

07:16

The gospel is not about solving the world's hunger problem, at least when it comes to physical bread.

07:23

It is about solving the world's hunger problem when it comes to the bread of life, who is Jesus. So keep that in mind.

07:30

So we go back then to our text. That's the context. They wanted to make Jesus king by force.

07:37

And this is when Jesus says, boys, I need you to get in the boat. Head across. But what wind?

07:43

No, go. But, but, but, but, but. Go. So keep this in mind.

07:48

Jesus has given them a task to do. It doesn't make any sense. They wouldn't have chosen this on their own.

07:55

So here's what it says. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

08:02

And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea. He was alone on the land and he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them.

08:15

They're on the water treadmill. If you would, they're doing this and they're going nowhere.

08:20

They're getting nowhere. And remember, Jesus is the one who told them to do this.

08:26

And it said that he had to force them to compel them to do this. They knew that this was what they were going to be doing.

08:33

Thanks, Jesus. Now think of it this way. This story is a, it tells us and kind of shows us that Jesus instructs not only with words, but he also instructs via object lessons.

08:48

So here the crowds want to make Jesus king by force. And Jesus sends his disciples to go do something really mundane.

08:56

Row across and oh, it's really difficult and it's not going to be easy. So much for the kingly thing.

09:03

I'm sure after hearing the crowds want to make Jesus king, the disciples were sitting there going, oh, can I be like chief of staff?

09:09

Can I, can I, you know, right? This is what they're thinking. This is a great moment of glory. And Jesus just takes that balloon and pops it.

09:17

No guys, I want you to go do something really mundane. You're going to feel like you're going nowhere. So this is what's happening.

09:24

So while Jesus is praying, he can miraculously see really far and see that they're making no headway against this thing.

09:33

Because remember, you know, he's up on a mountain. They're out on the sea. They got to be tiny microscopic speck to the human eye.

09:39

But he can see what's going on. Why? Because he's God in human flesh. So he saw that they were making headway painfully.

09:48

The wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them. Now notice it says that when he was on the mountain, he was also praying.

09:55

Now this is kind of a little side note here. Jesus is God in human flesh.

10:02

He has humbled himself, humbled himself and become obedient to God. He has emptied himself of his divine power for the most part.

10:12

He makes very sparing use of it, if you would. And so as the God man, he's really here as our brother, as one of us.

10:20

And rather than flexing his God muscles, because he is God, as a man, he prays to his father.

10:29

And Jesus, when he taught us to pray, he taught us that it begins with glorifying

10:34

God and then humbly asking God for the things that we need. You can see this in the

10:40

Lord's Prayer. The Lord teaches us to pray. He says, when you pray, say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed holy is your name.

10:46

Your kingdom come, your will be done. And then come the petitions. Give us this day our daily bread.

10:54

Notice the humble posture here. Lord, you are King of Kings. You are Lord of Lords. I am your servant.

11:00

I am in need of your provision. Give us this day our daily bread. This is how this goes.

11:06

Now, there is a big error that's going on in much of evangelicalism today. And that error teaches you, rather than to humbly pray, to stretch out an audacious faith instead and start decreeing and declaring.

11:19

And it goes something to the effect of, I decree and declare that I am the head and not the tail. I decree and declare that I am not poor, that I am rich.

11:27

I decree and declare that I have perfect divine health and wealth and all this kind of nonsense.

11:33

To which I would say, that's not prayer. That's something different. Okay, those of you who have children, if your 16 -year -old, when they were 16, came up to you and said,

11:46

Dad, I decree and declare that you're going to give me a car. Would you have responded,

11:51

Well, I decree and declare, go to your room. You're grounded for a year. You probably would have, right? Decreeing and declaring is not prayer.

12:00

And even Jesus, God in human flesh, he prayed. Notice that when he multiplied the loaves and fishes, he did not say,

12:10

I decree and declare multiplication. He said a prayer and he gave thanks. Humbly receiving from the

12:17

Father, even the miracle to perform to multiply the fishes. Our stance and our posture should be no different.

12:24

Those who are teaching you to decree and declare, if you ever hear anybody who's a preacher, tell you to decree and declare on the radio or on the television, turn it off.

12:34

They're lying to you. It is the devil who says, tell these stones to become bread.

12:40

Decree and declare these things. That's not how God operates. That's not how Jesus operates. That's not prayer.

12:47

That is presumption. Demonic presumption at that. So if you ever hear any decreeing, declaring people, turn them off.

12:55

They're not speaking the truth. Coming back now. So here's Jesus on the mountainside and he's praying.

13:02

And he's praying for his disciples. He sees that they're struggling. He knows all about it and he cares for them.

13:08

But the story then continues about the fourth watch of the night. So it's three in the morning.

13:17

Thanks, Jesus. Why did he send us out here in the middle?

13:24

We knew this was going to be this way, right? Okay. And they're getting nowhere. And it says three in the morning about fourth watch of the night.

13:32

He comes to them walking on the sea. And here's the weirdest part.

13:38

He meant to pass by them. That was his intention. Hey, guys, keep at it.

13:44

I'll meet you at shore. Good job. See you there. No joke.

13:50

All right. But plans changed, even for Jesus. Because, well, he meant to pass by that.

13:57

But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost. And they cried out for they all saw him and they were terrified.

14:04

So local legend down the Sea of Galilee goes something like this. Is that when the fishermen are out at sea,

14:12

I mean, the Sea of Galilee is actually, it's a lake. It's not that big of a lake. But because of the winds and the way the topography works, a squall can come up pretty quick and it'll sink a boat.

14:22

You sink a boat, you're going to drown a sailor. This is how this goes. And so the way the local legend, if you would, the mythology is, is that if you see a ghost on the

14:32

Sea of Galilee, it's a dead mariner. Come to it. Let you know you're next.

14:39

Okay. So that's the way the legend goes. So they see

14:44

Jesus walk on the water to go. Right. So the legend comes into play and Jesus has to correct this.

14:53

So his intention was to say, keep out of boys, but they freaked out. And so he gets into the boat is how this goes.

14:59

So he meant to pass by. They saw him walking on the sea. They thought it was a ghost. He cried out for they all saw him and they were terrified.

15:08

Immediately, Jesus spoke to them and said, take heart. It is I do not be afraid.

15:14

Not the best translation. Let me clean this up. Let me give you a more literal translation. Take courage.

15:20

I am. Fear not. I am. Jesus invokes the divine name from Exodus chapter three.

15:29

Remember, Moses is speaking to God in the burning bush. And God is commissioning

15:34

Moses to go to Pharaoh to say, let my people go. Of course, Moses wasn't exactly gung ho on the plan, tried to get out of it.

15:42

And finally, he acquiesces to the Lord's commissioning. And he says, who should

15:48

I say sent me? What's your name? And God says, I am that I am.

15:54

Tell them I am has sent you. So here, Jesus, they're terrified. They're thinking they're doomed, that he's a ghost.

16:02

And he says, take courage, boys. I am. Fear not.

16:09

He's saying he's God and that he has them. And see, that's kind of the whole point of this story.

16:15

This story is all about the fact that we, like the disciples, have been given very mundane tasks to do.

16:27

And our tasks are difficult. And sometimes we feel like we're getting nowhere with them, that everything is against us in this task.

16:33

This is an object lesson, if you would. Jesus set them off to do something mundane so they get this notion out of their head about the bread king, right?

16:41

So they're out doing it. And they're not even getting a full night's sleep. In the previous pericope, Jesus was concerned that they needed to get some rest and relax.

16:49

And then this time, he sends them out in the middle of the night. They're not getting any sleep. They're not getting anywhere.

16:55

And then Jesus shows up, and they think it's a ghost. And the whole idea here is that Jesus watches over them and prays for them and has them in the palm of his hand.

17:08

And he's taking care of them. Fear not. Take courage, boys. I am. I'm God. I'm God for you.

17:14

I'm here to be with you. And even in the midst of a mundane task that feels like you're getting nowhere,

17:20

I'm still with you. And even in the midst of your fears, I am with you. Now, Jesus hasn't asked us to do the mundane thing of crossing the

17:28

Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night, which is just about as smart as fighting a land war in Asia, okay?

17:34

It just is not a smart thing to do. But Jesus has called us all to tasks that seem mundane and difficult.

17:43

He's called us to be husbands, to be wives, to be mothers, to be fathers, to be employees.

17:51

You think of something, what is more mundane than somebody being a slave, right? And what is it that Scripture tells slaves to do?

17:59

Obey their masters as if Christ is their master, not their physical master there.

18:05

So we can serve God and serve neighbor in the ordinary things in which we're called to do in our vocations.

18:15

And we are also called to go and make disciples. And this isn't done through flashy shows or calling

18:22

Jesus the bread king who wants to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise. It's by calling sinners to repent and to be forgiven by the shed blood of Christ.

18:31

And when you do that, it seems like the world is oftentimes against you. And I don't know if you've noticed, but the society seems to be getting more and more hostile to this.

18:39

In fact, I just read a story before coming to church out of Kentucky, that the state of Kentucky corrections facilities have required that those pastors who are serving as volunteers in the youth correctional facilities, they had to sign a document saying that they will not say that homosexuality is a sin.

19:00

And any pastor who refused to sign the document has been dismissed. Right?

19:07

Seems like everything is against us, does it not? Yet we are to keep at the task. Fear not. Jesus is.

19:14

He is the I am. Take courage. Fear not. He's with us. And so he, right now, is in heaven.

19:22

Scripture says there's one mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is up in heaven, your king.

19:29

He sees you from the top of Mount Zion, if you would. And he looks down and he sees you toiling.

19:35

And he is with you. And even if he seems like he's passed by you and you're going to have to continue to row all night, figuratively speaking, right?

19:43

Know this, that he's gone ahead of you to be with you. Why? Because he has gone ahead of us in our death.

19:50

And he has died for our sins and he's risen from the grave. And now we can talk a little bit about water, if you want.

19:57

This is a good place to talk about it. Water, remember how we've talked about in the past how water, especially stormy water, is kind of symbolic of the chaos of the curse of the creation, right?

20:09

And that in the book of Revelation we see that before the throne of Christ there is a glassy and calm sea.

20:14

Here, the sea is not stormy. It's just windy and difficult to deal.

20:20

It's kind of chaotic, right? We could talk about another thing here. There's kind of a theme in the Old Testament, typologically.

20:27

Have you ever read of Leviathan? Yeah, you know Leviathan? Leviathan is supposedly this dragon creature that lives in the deep.

20:35

Who eats you and swallows you whole. And so Jesus, by walking on the water, in a way, is demonstrating that he's walking on the back of Leviathan.

20:44

Just skating across the top and Leviathan has no power over him. Jesus has conquered the devil.

20:50

He's conquered the grave. He's conquered the deep and he has come back. And now you, in the waters of your baptism, you have been buried with Christ.

21:00

You have been raised with Christ. You are in him. You need not fear.

21:06

You can take courage. Jesus is the I Am and he's the I Am for you. And so water now for us is no longer about chaos and difficulty.

21:15

Water for us is, well, it flows from the pierced side of Jesus. From his side flowed water and blood together.

21:24

And so that water and blood filled the baptismal font when you were brought here. When you were baptized in the name of the

21:30

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Your sins were washed away. You were regenerated and made new in Christ.

21:37

And so water has a completely different significance for us. And so keep this in mind. Your Jesus has washed you.

21:44

He has cleansed you. You are in him and he loves you. And he sees you in your toil and your struggle.

21:51

He sees you in your day -to -day grind where you feel like no matter how hard you work you never get ahead.

21:56

He knows that. And yet these are the tasks that he has set us to. So that we don't get caught up in the nonsense of the bread king thing.

22:05

Right? Similar way. Then it says this. When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore.

22:16

They were anchored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat the people immediately recognized Jesus and ran about to the whole region.

22:24

And began to bring the sick on their beds to wherever they heard he was. You know what this reminds me of?

22:31

I've been kind of thinking about this and I've been kind of debating myself. In some senses this reminds me of like a

22:36

World War II beachhead. This is Normandy, right? Jesus comes in on a boat. He lands and now he's taking ground.

22:43

It's similar to that. And so the defeat of the devil is sure and certain because what he's doing is he's setting the captives free.

22:52

And in a similar way kind of using that theme we've all seen the newsreels from World War II. When a city in France that had been under Nazi occupation and subjugation had been liberated.

23:04

That's the word that they use. This city has been liberated. Paris has been liberated.

23:10

All the towns that were liberated they would say that's what it is. This is kind of a foretaste of that if you would.

23:17

On this day the devil who had put these people into subjugation and had tormented them with sickness, disease, death.

23:25

Never letting them hear the word straight of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus lands and he starts liberating.

23:35

That's a good picture, right? So Jesus, he's walked ashore and you can tell the king has landed.

23:43

The king has landed. And here's the best part about it. Is that we now learn from this text.

23:50

Remember a few weeks back about the woman with the flow of blood for 12 years. Remember her story?

23:57

Remember how she decided to sneak a miracle? And she kind of skated into the crowd and knew that if I just touch the fringes of his garment.

24:07

Which were those tzitziot that the Jewish boys would wear at the time, right? And she was healed immediately.

24:14

Remember that? Well the story of her healing had got out. The news had gotten around.

24:19

You know what that woman did? She went and told everybody Jesus healed me. Let me tell you how it happened.

24:25

It's the most amazing thing ever. I thought I was done for. I thought for sure when

24:31

Jesus turned around and said, Who touched me? That now I was going to get it. And I told him everything that I had done.

24:38

And his words to me were, Your faith has saved you.

24:46

Be healthy from the scourge. Literal translation. And so what did she do? She went and told everybody about how great

24:53

Jesus was. And the text says this. And wherever Jesus came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces.

25:02

And they implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. There it is. The fringe. Those little tassels.

25:07

Because they heard the report of the woman who had been healed. And as many as touched him were made well.

25:14

And folks, I'm here to declare to you today. That as many as have touched

25:19

Jesus have been made well. And that's you. You have touched

25:25

Jesus. You've been washed with his blood in the waters of your baptism.

25:32

When we celebrate the Lord's Supper here, Jesus has touched you and has fed you with his very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

25:41

And you have been made well. And you say, but my body is falling apart. Oh, don't worry.

25:47

Don't worry. Because when you were baptized, you were put into Jesus' death.

25:53

You were already dead. Your baptism killed you. And it also made you alive.

25:59

And so your body is taking a little bit of time to catch up to your death certificate, which is your baptismal certificate.

26:05

And once you catch up, you're with Jesus. And then on the last day, he's going to return in glory.

26:11

And he's going to raise your body from the dead. Reunite spirit and body together. And then world without end.

26:18

World without end. New creation. New heavens. New earth. No more watching the television and seeing animals gnawing and killing each other.

26:29

No more having to worry about being bit by bugs or having diseases and illnesses and wasting things like that.

26:36

No. Forever and ever. World without end. Because Jesus has healed anyone whom he has touched.

26:44

And you who are in him, he has touched you. You are well. You are saved.

26:50

You are in Christ. He has liberated you. And he will raise you again from the dead.

26:56

On the great day of the wedding feast of the lamb. When we get to see our king face to face.

27:02

What a glorious day that will be. And this text all points to it. Points to the great savior that we have.

27:09

And this is then fitting for us to end with Paul's word from our epistle. Paul writes, for this reason.

27:17

I bow my knees before the father. From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

27:23

That according to his riches of his glory. He may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

27:31

So that Christ might dwell in your hearts through faith. That you being rooted and grounded in love.

27:37

May have strength to comprehend with all the saints. What is the breadth, the length, the height and the depth.

27:45

To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

27:50

So that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.

27:59

According to the power at work within us. To him be all glory in the church. And in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.

28:07

Forever and ever. In the name of Jesus. Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church.

28:20

You can do so by sending a tax free donation to. And again that address is.

28:48

We thank you for your support. All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed. As long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.