He Crosses Back To Set More Captives Free

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 Minnesota.

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

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according.

To Mark chapter 6 verses 45 through 56.

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat to go before him to the other side to Bethsaida

while he dismissed the crowd.

And after he had taken leave of them he went up on the mountain to pray.

And when evening came the boat was out on the sea and he was alone on the land.

And he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them.

And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea.

He meant to pass by them but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost and they

cried out for they saw him and were terrified.

But immediately he spoke to them and said take heart I am do not be afraid.

And he got into the boat with them the wind ceased and they were utterly astounded for they did not understand about the

loaves but their hearts were hardened.

When they had crossed over they came to the land at Gennesaret and moored on the shore and

when they got out of the boat the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and

began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard that he was.

And wherever he came in villages, cities, or countryside they laid the sick in the

marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.

And as many as touched it were made well.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

In the name of Jesus.

God admit I'm excited about this text.

There's something going on in this text that I want you all to see and once you see it you cannot unsee it.

Now let me read to you the first two verses from Isaiah chapter 61.

This will set the theme for our Gospel text today.

And here's what it says.

The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim freedom

for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the Lord's

favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn.

The freedom for the captives, the release of the prisoners is a major

theme of Scripture and it is no coincidence that last week's Gospel

text had a lot of callbacks if you would data points that connected

perfectly with the book of Exodus.

This week's Gospel text also has important callbacks to the book of

Exodus.

But let me run some of these book of Exodus themes or data points to you

in their chronological order as they appear in the book of Exodus.

You have the Lord appearing to Moses in the burning bush and

commissioning him to go to Pharaoh to say, let my people go after suffering

400 plus years in slavery.

God was now making good his promise to release them from slavery.

And now he was in the ultimate showdown with the ultimate false God King who is

visible on the planet Pharaoh of Egypt.

So think of it this way.

This is a type and shadow battle between the true God and Satan.

Pharaoh himself is a stand in for Satan.

The man that God chose for the assignment, Moses well, he was a little

dodgy.

I mean, he was a murderer.

He was on the run from Egypt, right?

40 years as a fugitive.

In fact, they still had his photograph on the post office walls in all of Egypt.

And so this is the guy that God calls.

And Moses is not keen on the assignment.

Even going so far as to say, God, please send someone else.

But the Lord prevails upon Moses prevails upon him.

And there Moses with the sandals off his feet, standing on holy ground in

front of the burning bush, hearing the voice of God says, when they asked me, who should

I say sent me?

What is your name?

The Lord speaks from the bush and says, my name is I am.

Tell him I am has sent you.

And then from there begins the ultimate showdown, 10 plagues culminating in the Passover

lamb being sacrificed.

The children of Israel being saved by the blood of the lamb over the doorposts of their houses.

Now marched out into the wilderness, heading towards their inheritance in the promised land.

And well, remember there's the whole crossing of the Red Sea.

We'll talk about that more in a minute.

They finally crossed the Red Sea.

First order of business on the other side of the Red Sea is that God begins to feed them manna

in the wilderness.

And so you're going to note something here, manna in the wilderness and Red Sea.

The way it goes is Red Sea manna in the wilderness.

Our gospel text has the callback from Exodus starting with the,

well, the feeding of the 5 ,000, the food miracle in the wilderness.

And this miracle harkens back to the Red Sea.

So note something.

The details of last week's gospel text and this week's gospel text are calling back to the book of

Exodus, but in reverse order.

And that's important.

And you'll see why.

Have you ever wondered, why is it that when Jesus was walking on the water, it says in Matthew

and in Mark that he intended to just walk on by them?

Have you ever found that to be like really disturbing?

I have, but when you see what's really going on, you'll begin to get an idea as to what's going on there and what

was motivating Jesus.

Now to help us out, we've got to go back into Exodus.

We're going to go to Exodus 14 and we're going to review if you would, some of the details as we re

-examine the story of the crossing of the Red Sea.

So the children of Israel have marched out.

They're at the Red Sea and we will pick up the story where Pharaoh's army

shows up and see what happens.

Exodus 14, verse 10.

Pharaoh drew near.

The people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them

and they feared greatly.

And the people of Israel cried out to Yahweh and they said to Moses and now here comes

the interesting grumbling.

Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you've taken us away?

That you've taken us away to die in the wilderness?

What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

Is this not what we said to you in Egypt?

Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than

to die in the wilderness.

And Moses said to the people, fear not.

Stand firm and see the salvation of Yahweh.

Moses knows that it's the Lord who has set them free from slavery in Egypt and he knows that this battle belongs to

God.

He said, so stand firm.

You will see the salvation of Yahweh which he will work for you today for the Egyptians whom you see today you

shall never see again.

Yahweh will fight for you.

You have only to be silent.

So then Yahweh said to Moses why do you cry out to me?

Tell the people of Israel to go forward.

Have you noticed that God has this really strange things that he does sometimes?

He asks people to do stuff that just like is beyond difficult.

Last week's gospel text Jesus said to the disciples who were bringing it up that all these people were hungry,

this ginormous crowd, and Jesus said you feed them.

What do you mean?

We feed them.

And then you think of Jesus in our gospel text telling the disciples to cross the sea of Galilee at

night with the wind against them.

And he was watching the whole time and didn't lift a finger to help them.

So you get to know that God has this tendency to kind of like push us into things or push his

disciples and even push the children of Israel and Moses to do stuff that is like beyond difficult.

All of this is to demonstrate that his strength is made perfect in our weakness if you would.

So the Lord says why do you cry out to me?

Tell the people of Israel to go forward.

Lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it.

There's Moses making the physical sign of the cross with his actual body and his outstretched arms.

So that the people of Israel may go through the sea and hear the important words.

On dry ground.

We're going to hear this several times.

On dry ground.

I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them.

And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all of his hosts, his chariots and his horsemen.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.

So after his huddle with God, knowing what the play is.

This is the strangest play ever.

This is even more weird than the Hail Mary pass with three flea flickers.

So then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them.

And the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.

Coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel.

And there was the cloud and the darkness.

And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.

So then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.

And the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind

all night.

So think of it this way.

Which direction is that wind blowing?

If the sea is in front of us and we're the children of Israel, the sea is coming from behind us.

And it's blowing open the Red Sea.

So when the children of Israel cross the Red Sea, they are crossing on dry ground with the wind at their

backs.

That's an important detail.

So keep that in mind.

The waters were divided.

The people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground.

There we go again.

On dry ground.

The waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued and went in after them in the midst of the sea.

All Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen.

And in the morning watched Yahweh in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian

forces.

Threw the Egyptian forces into a panic.

Clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily and the Egyptians said, let us flee from

before Israel for Yahweh fights for them against the Egyptians.

And then Yahweh said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their

chariots, upon their horsemen.

So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared.

And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into

the sea.

Not one of them remained.

But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea.

There it is again.

On dry ground.

Through the sea.

The waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians.

Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians so the people feared the Lord and

they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.

And then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to Yahweh saying, I will sing to Yahweh

for He has triumphed gloriously.

The horse and His rider He has thrown into the sea.

Yahweh is my strength and my song and He has become my salvation.

This is my God and I will praise Him.

My Father is God and I will exalt Him.

The Lord is a man of war.

The Lord Yahweh is His name.

Pharaoh's chariots and His host He has cast into the sea.

His chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

The floods covered them.

They went down into the depths like a stone.

Your right hand O Lord glorious in power.

Your right hand O Lord shatters the enemy.

And so we see this beautiful theme now in scripture of God the great liberator.

God the one who emancipates the slaves.

Emancipates the slaves from slavery in Egypt.

But all of that is type and shadow.

So return with me with our gospel text.

We've already noted that things are kind of going backwards in order.

The callbacks to Exodus are in reverse and that's important.

Mark 6, 44.

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side to Bethsaida

while He dismissed the crowd.

And after He had taken leave of them He went on the mountain to pray.

Which I think in some way kind of harkens back to Mount Sinai.

But that might be pushing it just a little too much.

It's fascinating that important things always happen at the top of mountains in scripture.

This is a pinnacle moment.

And that's not a pun.

That's intentional.

So there's Jesus on the top of the mountain praying and He can see that His disciples are

making headway terribly.

So the boat was out on the sea.

He was alone on the land.

He saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them.

Now if my understanding of this text is correct the wind has to be against them.

So think of it this way.

This is Jesus reenacting if you would the Red Sea in part.

Not in it in the destruction of Pharaoh.

But in the aftermath afterwards.

Going then against the wind.

Going across the sea.

Walking on the sea as if He's walking on dry ground.

That's kind of His point.

He's crossing the sea again against the wind to go and liberate more

slaves.

That's the point.

So we see when evening came the boat was out on the sea.

He was alone on the land.

He saw that they were making headway painfully.

About the fourth watch of the night He came to them walking on the sea.

He meant to pass by them.

He wasn't going across the Sea of Galilee in order to help the disciples.

He was going across the Sea of Galilee to help the people on the other side of the sea.

The wind being against Him.

Him walking on the sea like it's dry ground.

All harkens back to the Exodus.

Jesus isn't done with His rescue mission.

Jesus isn't finished setting the captives free.

There's more that need to be set free.

And this is kind of an important little detail.

This Gospel.

The Gospel of Mark we learn from church history is intimately connected with the Apostle

Peter.

In fact we know that this Gospel, Mark, this is the preaching notes of Peter.

When he would go and tell people about Jesus, this was his script.

This was the story that he told.

And you're going to note something.

In Peter's retelling of this account, he leaves out a very interesting detail.

Him getting out of the boat and nearly drowning.

Right?

Which is appropriate.

It's appropriate.

Not only is it an embarrassing detail, but it's a detail that kind of distracts from what Jesus is doing.

And you're going to note that our Gospel text doesn't end with Jesus getting into the boat.

It continues.

Peter's point is not that he got out of the boat, which is why he doesn't mention it.

There's something bigger going on.

These callbacks to Exodus are huge and he doesn't want people to miss it.

The wind being against them.

That's on purpose to show us what's going on.

So that if you connect the two events together, you can see what Jesus is up to.

So Jesus going to pass by them, it's because he wasn't going out on the water to help them

anyway.

That was not the point.

The point was Jesus needed to get back to the other side of the sea.

Because he's on a rescue mission.

Now that the first group has gone through the sea, it's time to go find the rest of the slaves and

set them free as well.

So he meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost.

And they cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified.

And immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, take heart and here's the other callback to Exodus.

I am.

Jesus says that he uses the name of God that was given to Moses and he uses it for himself.

Take heart.

I am.

Another callback to Exodus.

Do not be afraid.

So he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased.

They were utterly astounded.

They still did not understand about the loaves.

Their hearts were hardened.

They didn't quite get it yet.

But when they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret and they moored to the shore.

And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began

to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard that he was.

And whenever he came in villages, cities or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and

implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.

And listen to the words.

And as many as touched it were sowed so.

There's that play on words again.

As many as touched it were saved.

Huh.

So now we see what's going on.

Jesus is walking on the Sea of Galilee as on dry ground in order to invoke, to

have us go back and study that story of the crossing of the Red Sea again and we can see the direction he's heading.

Once God got Israel across, he's going back.

You think of it this way.

It's kind of like those great war stories.

There was a recent war movie, a World War II movie about a guy who was a pacifist who ended up in a

fighting unit, you know, in the Pacific Rim, in the Pacific Theater.

And this is the guy who although he had no weapon, he went back into the

battle over and over and over and over again to save

the lives of the wounded.

And we recognize this theme, but that is exactly what Jesus is

doing.

I'm going back.

There's more slaves that need to be set free.

He's going back to save you, to save me, to save your family,

to save your relatives, to save everybody that he can.

As many people as he can pick up, he's going to drag them back across the sea into

freedom.

That's why he's walking on the water.

That's why he had no intention to get in the boat.

His focus is on his mission.

I've got more to save.

And you can see it when he lands.

He's undoing the dominion of darkness.

It's because of our slavery to sin and the devil that we all grow old and we die.

It's because of our slavery to sin and the devil that we experience sickness and disease.

That our relationships are torn apart.

That this world is a mixture of good and misery.

And Jesus here, he lands and he's breaking all of it.

All of the captives now are being set free and are being saved.

And I love this little detail that even as many touch the fringe of his garment, where did they learn to

do that?

That woman with the issue of blood for 12 years, who we don't even know her name, the word now

had spread about how she was released from her scourge.

And now people believing and trusting in Jesus, when he shows up, they want to touch the hem of his

garment as well.

Those sits the oath.

And as many do are saved.

Now consider this.

They touch just the hem of his garment.

But when we have the Lord's Supper, we don't touch the hem of his garment.

We touch him himself.

He comes to us in body, in blood, broken and shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

And as many as touch him are saved.

Jesus, the great liberator.

Jesus, the one who has set us free.

Set us free from the dominion of darkness.

Set us free from that tyrant, the devil.

Set us free from our own folly and sin.

This is why Paul writes in Romans 8, there is therefore now no

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of

sin and death.

For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of

sinful flesh and for sin.

He condemned sin in the flesh.

In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk

not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Paul says in Galatians 5, 1, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

So stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

And we see as we work through the book of Exodus, there's always these grumblers among the people of Israel.

Oh, we had it better in Egypt.

Oh, we ate food for free that we had onions and leeks and meat pots.

It was the best thing ever that slavery was.

And they're always trying to get people's hearts and minds to think back to when they were slaves.

But see, that's what the devil whispers in our hearts.

That's what our own sinful flesh does as well.

Don't you love slavery?

Come on.

Let's go back to Egypt.

Let's go back and be under the dominion of the devil.

This is why Paul writes in Romans 6, what shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?

Consider Jesus' words in John 8.

Amen.

Amen.

I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever.

It's the son who remains.

So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

So are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?

You may as well return back to Egypt.

Well, by no means.

How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, we were baptized into

His death?

You see, all of these water themes have to do with liberation.

And see, you were joined with Christ in the waters of your baptism.

You were buried with Him.

You were raised with Him.

You're already dead.

You're no longer a slave because Jesus came across the sea and found you and dragged you to

the other side.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?

We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism into death in order that justice Christ was raised from the dead by the glory

of the Father.

We too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with Him in a death like His and we have, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection

like His.

We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so

that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

This is what this text is about.

This is Jesus, the liberator, freeing us so that we are no longer enslaved

to sin.

I think I cannot end this sermon with any better words than the words from our epistle text.

Paul, writing, says, it's for this reason I now bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven

and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He might grant you to be strengthened with power through

His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ might dwell in your hearts through faith, that you,

being rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth

and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may

be filled with all the fullness of God.

In fact, I would say, knowing why Jesus was crossing that sea

just makes me understand that the great love of Christ for us

miserable sinners is so much broader, longer, higher,

and deeper than I have ever comprehended.

Jesus truly was on a rescue mission, and He still is.

And we have joined Him in that rescue mission, in the commission that He's given the church to go and make disciples of all

nations, to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, to set the captives

free.

It's like the ultimate, eternal game of freeze tag.

And we are the ones who've been unfrozen.

And we bring Jesus to them, and God unfreezes them.

Christ sets them free so that they can join us in this wonderful game of

liberation.

And it just shows the love of Christ.

So now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the

power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,

forever and ever.

Amen.

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