Summary 

Fear dominates our modern world, from everyday anxieties to deeper uncertainties about relationships, careers, and spiritual life. In Mark 6:45-56, the disciples faced three types of fear that mirror our own struggles: relational exhaustion from overwhelming people, vocational pain when work becomes torturous, and spiritual abandonment when God seems absent. Yet Jesus was never truly absent - he was interceding on the mountain, seeing their struggle, and came to them walking on water. When he said 'Take heart, it is I,' he revealed himself as the great I AM, the same God who brings order from chaos and never abandons his people.

Transcript

Lord God, we thank you for your word. God, I pray that you would speak today into the places of our fears, of our uncertainty, and that you would assurance. Assure us of your great loving presence to us. We're thankful for the word that you give us. We pray that we would hide it in our hearts this morning.


Amen. All right, so let me tell you about one of the things that my kids are into these days.


We have a competitive crew, and so this spills out into all kinds of things. One of the things that spills out to is in watching commercials. So we're watching like a basketball game or something, and a commercial comes on, and the game is, who can name what company's commercial it is first, right? So that's what they do. They, oh, it's this company or that company, and it becomes a game and it becomes competitive.


But the commercials that they know the best are the ones that seem to be on the most, which are insurance companies.
They know Flo well and they know that she goes with progressive. They're familiar with Doug and the emu, right. And the jingles. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Right.


You all know it. Come on. They know the farmer's insurance. We are farmers. Bum, bum, bum.


Yeah, you all know it. You all know it. Just like I do. Just like they do. They know that when Dean Winters face comes on to commercial, the end of the Allstate commercial, we'll say pretty much something like, and you can be protected from mayhem like me.


You all know that.


Now, I think this is a rather controversial take, and it's something that can be debated, but I think the best ones are those ones, the mayhem like me ones, I think maybe because flow kind of just annoys me anyway. But I also think because a lot of them are actually fairly mundane things that are taking place. There's the one with the baseball dad. You know who I'm talking about. If you don't even know the commercial, you know the baseball dad, the guy who was yelling at his kid to hit the ball and he's getting in the ref space and he's like yelling at the coach, put my kid in.


You know? And then the end of it is this baseball bat flying through the air and just landing in the middle of this lady who's in the parking lot, whose windshield, you know, and you're like, yeah, I can see that happening. Pretty sure that happens. There's one where I hesitate to do this because I'm going to go probably out of. I know there's people watching online, but where he's a raccoon in an attic, you know, and he's just like.


He's bundled up like this with all this, like, you know, all the stuff around him, all the attic insulation, and he's, like, gnawing on some wires, and you're just like, yeah, yeah, raccoons, we know those problems. We had them a lot growing up. They would get into our trash, and the trash would be all over the place. And actually, my parents had tons of chickens growing up, and it was just sort of a normal thing that all of a sudden there'd be a lot of feathers.
There's the beauty blogger. Oh, y'. All. I know that you have this fear. The beauty blogger.


She leaves the hair straightener on.
And you know how many times you've done this? And you're like, I better go home, because I do not know if I left the curling iron on, the hair straightener on, whatever it is, right? They're playing off of us, off of the real realities of our fear. And then there's this one that I actually have had this thought quite a bit. I still kind of have this thought where he's playing the gate, you know, that comes down when you're driving out of a parking garage and it malfunctions, and it's like.
And then your car's just got this crease on the front hood. And I'm telling you, I have that thought somewhat regularly when I'm leaving a parking garage. I'm like, I'm pretty sure it's going to malfunction. I'm pretty sure the hood of my car is going to have a crease in it now. And, of course, why are these ads so ubiquitous?


Because fear sells and because these things actually really could happen to us. It's not totally divorced from real experience. I mean, I can tell you, I really do sometimes have the thought when I am leaving one of those garages that has one of these, it's possibly going to come down on me. And maybe it's because I watched the commercial, I don't know. But I have those thoughts.


Or you know what? I was up above the ceiling two weeks ago with a roofing contractor. I'm pretty sure there's a squirrel up there. Thankfully, it looks totally fine. But these are, like, real things.
We're like, yeah, raccoons really do get into these spaces, and they really do wreak havoc on us. Right. And I don't know what part of the house they're eating, you know, this time, or whatever.
Or the fear of your child. Being on a team and one parent just going berserk on them is like a legitimate fear. That happens, right? I mean, it really happens. That stuff happens.


So why are there so many insurance ads? Partly because the fear sells, but partly because these things are actually true. We actually live in a world that can be very fearful.


You know, one of them is like leaving coals on a grill and then going into the football game and then you come out and your car's on fire and you're like, that probably doesn't happen, but except when it does.
And these, of course in some ways aren't actually the big fears that we actually have, but they are real fears. In fact, the big fears we have are in some ways like what our dear sister Donna Weatherly is living through right now. She's spent the last two months not at home, able to be at home. She's been moved from one rehab to another rehab, one hospital actually at times to another hospital.


And as grateful as I am that some of you have gone and visited her and ministered to her, the truth is that very likely she will not be with us again in worship. That's very likely where that is going for her. In some ways the stories of the insurance are like they're real, but they're not like the deep ones. Instead, we actually know sort of the deeper fears that we have. We live of course, in a time of such upheaval.
If you maybe kept track of speeches to Europe recently, last year, you might have heard our vice president sort of distance the US relationships with Europe and then you just heard maybe our Secretary of State try to, to bring them back together. And you're like, I don't really know where we are internationally.


Maybe you've actually followed somewhat the fact that we as a country have moved aircraft carriers and destroyers close to Iran. How unsettling an uncertain time will we be in another war?
But it brings up all kinds of unknowns, right? And of course unknowns bring up all kinds of fears. What is going to happen?
I spoke a little bit on Wednesday. If you were here to the just unbelievably quick development of AI and it is going so much faster than I had any idea of.


What will happen when you look for your next job? That is a legitimate question for many. Will it be overtaken by a computer as many jobs have been? What will happen with the prospect of where your children are when they are looking for jobs? Those are like real, real deep seated fears and understandable ones.


So is it any wonder that insurance ads are Ubiquitous. Of course it's not. Is it any wonder that we live in a world where we are so eager to vote for people that say they want strong power and control? Or that you can offer you some level of safety with free things?


It's not surprising, given the uncertainty of our life, given the fear that we live in now. I want you to. I want to think this morning of our passage really in two ways. I want us to sort of walk through where the disciples find themselves, and then I want us to walk through where Jesus finds himself and where they find him. And the first thing that I think you're going to see, actually, the thing you're going to see kind of throughout, is that where the disciples find themselves is actually often just in a place of fear.


The first one, I want to say, is related to relational fear. And I want to say this is relational escape in a way. So verse 45, that first verse that I read, it said, immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.


What we read, if we were reading the same passage in the Gospel of John, is that he does this, and he does it quickly because. Because Jesus had perceived that after he fed this enormous crowd, they would want to make him the king. And of course they would. I mean, he's just able to feed this enormous crowd of people and tend to them and care for them. And they're like, we don't know where elsewhere we can have this kind of safety and provision.


So Jesus sees this possible riot of this crowd, and he puts his disciples in the boat. He says, leave.
Think about this. The disciples had already tried to get away from people, right? I mean, the passage that Melissa read for us actually begins with Jesus trying to get them away from people and them needing to get away from people because they had no leisure even to eat. And what happened in that story, of course, you know, they get in the boat and they cross over, and then it says the people from all the different towns run and they beat them there. And they get to shore and they're like, oh, man, people again.


All right, another crowd.


And what do they say? What do they say to Jesus? I'm actually really glad Melissa read this for us. Send them away. We are so tired of people.
And now there's this crowd that we know from John is acting in some kind of riotous way, which of course, once again, makes the disciples, in some ways, want to hear Jesus and get in the boat and get to the other Side. Now we're going to get to their experience of when they get to the other side and what happens in the boat and all of that. But listen to what does happen in verse 53 and 54. When they crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized them and ran about the whole region.
It's the exact same thing that was happening before. People running all over and coming to find them.


The crowds are at it again.


People can be exhausting, right? They're wanting a relational escape. Jesus even invites them to it, and they don't find it.
And okay, I just want to say this very seriously. Isn't some of the great fears that we have in our lives that we won't be able to handle the relational dynamics that are given to us?
On a really small level, some of you feel this at the passing of the peace, right? And I want to say it's totally fine if you just want to stay exactly where you are while other people come up to you. And if you don't want to say peace of the Lord be with you to everybody, that's okay. Churches need to be very welcoming to people that are more introverted. And I know I'm eager to say hello to everybody.
And so maybe I need to give people some space, right? So some of you know, like, there is a relational thing that you're like, I cannot handle this right, on that kind of level.


But of course, this happens on much more serious levels, right? Think of the mother who is overwhelmed by a child who's so sickly and a husband who doesn't know how to engage with this well, and their relationship is more and more distant.


And the friends that seem to be going to the wayside because so much time is spent just caring for the child whom this parent loves and who now there's like this almost anger towards. And there's a relational dynamic that is just so, so overwhelming and so full of fear and it brings up so much insecurity and so much uncertainty. Or think of Ben Rector's song Wonderful World, the second verse. He sings, I've taken medicine, I bought an ottoman. He's talking about becoming a middle aged dude.
I've taken medicine, I bought an ottoman. I got a bigger house with bigger trees. And then he says this. I'm getting better at not blaming mom and dad.


I'm trying to figure out what it all means. And some of you are parents living with the real heartache that Your children are still blaming you, still so upset with seemingly everything.
On the other hand, maybe some of you are learning actually how deeply wounded you are from your family, your family life. Some of you are angry at your parents, and you don't know what to do with it, and you don't know when that anger will subside.


What I'm saying is that there's, like, a relational overwhelmness in this passage. And that's part of, like, the fear that the disciples live in, given that the last passage is them saying, send them away, and then they are fraught with the idea that they're all still right there.
The first movement that we see the disciples make here is a relational escape, and they find themselves right back in it. And what I'm saying is that some of the great fears that we live in is actually the relational dynamics. And how can we actually live into them well, or how do we do this when we don't live into them well, it all seems so broken.
Where is the crowd at the end? Did you. Did you actually notice this? The crowd is, like, everywhere at the end with 55. And this is talking about the people.


They ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick, the people in their beds. And whoever they heard he was and wherever he came in villages, cities, and countrysides, they lay the sick in the marketplace. Villages, countrysides, cities, marketplace, wherever they're. And just like, okay, we're right back in it. Which is to say, in some ways, there's no real escape.


And for a lot of us, that's a great fearful thing because we don't know how to deal with even the relationships that we are given. Okay, so that's the first movement I'm suggesting. The second movement I want to call vocational toil. Okay, so there's this relational dynamic that's at play, and then there's this vocational dynamic that's at Play. So, verse 47.
Where do we find them? Verse 47. The boat was out to sea.
Oh, these people are out at the sea. Which, let me remind you, in some ways would have been the most normal thing for these people. In some ways, this would have been the place of some of their comfort. You know what I mean? Right.


Some of you going to work is actually the relational escape that you want. Like, at least I can kind of control things here a little bit. You know, my students listen to me when I talk to them, and they do what I tell them because they get a grade or I can control this little bit of work that I'm given. So they're out there on the sea. We know that at least four of the disciples, four of the 12 disciples are fishermen.
We think that probably two of the others are fishermen. So six of them probably just live most of their life on the sea. And this is the place where they are comfortable. But then what does verse 48 tell us about their experience of where they are?
And he saw that they were making headway painfully.
They were making headway painfully. And what we know, actually, is that they did this all night long. Because what it says is it was the fourth hour of the night, the fourth watch of the night. The fourth watch of the night would have been right before dawn. And the passage began with, immediately, they had just eaten all this.


They got the 12 baskets. So from dinner time to dawn, all they're doing is rowing painfully. So in the place where they're like, this is the kind of stuff that I can control my work, they're actually finding that their work itself is filled with pain and toil. In fact, the word painfully there can be translated troubled or even more tortured.
It's in their vocational life where maybe they can get a relief from their relational angst, where they're actually finding that they are being tortured.


And think about this. A lot of our fear is that even in our work, even the work that we've been trained to do, it just doesn't yield what we long for, what we desire, what we think we've been made to offer into the world. And even what we do work on and what we do yield into the world is so painfully accomplished. We can work in even good things that we believe God has called us to. And at times it feels a little bit like torture.


We're told to pursue our dreams. Then we find out that our dreams are hard and that they need to shift, and we don't know how they're going to shift, and we don't know what we're going to do, and we don't know how we're going to provide and all of that. And of course, so much of the fear around work has to do with our inability with regards to our agency that we actually don't accomplish the things that we think we're supposed to accomplish. And they don't provide what we think they're going to provide or accomplish, offer into the world what we had hoped. I've said this before, though.


Jess shared with me that she has similar dreams. I have an ongoing nightmare that I've shared with you before, and that is that I show up and either one, I don't have my notes with me. And for some reason, even though I've worked on it quite a bit, I have no idea what I'm saying. Then the other thing is that while I'm blabbering on having no idea what I'm saying, you're just one by one, getting up and leaving. And then I'm stuck here and, like, not even my family's here.
And I'm like, what am I doing with my life? What am I doing with my life? I work on this and I have nothing to offer. Nothing. There's so much fear around our work.


They make their way in what they actually do vocationally, painfully tortured all the way through the night, just plowing along.
Of course, the experience, in a way, of the disciples builds. Even so, there's this relational dynamic that's at play. There's this vocational dynamic at play. But then, of course, there's also this spiritual dynamic that's at play in this story. Because what we next find about the disciples, about their experience.


Well, let me begin this. Where is Jesus? Well, according. They don't actually know where he is. We know where he is because we're reading.
But all he does. Let me read it. Okay.


He made his disciples get into the boat, verse 45, and go before them to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up to the mountain to pray. All they know is that they're in the boat without Jesus. They're like, okay, our experience of this painful toil is that Jesus isn't with us and we're not really sure where he is. He just made us get in the boat and said, leave.
As far as they're concerned, he's just gone. And in his absence, which is to say, in the absence of God, who knows what's going to happen?
And what does happen?


Well, what happens is that they see this guy walking on the water past them. And verse 49 says, they thought it was a ghost and cried out.
For that. Sorry for. They saw him and they were terrified. They were terrified. They have this.
They have a spiritual experience that God is not with me and some kind of spiritual dynamic is at play. And I'm freaked out because something is still going on, but Jesus is not in the boat with us. I love that. Eugene Peterson's translation, the message said, they screamed, which is exactly what you would do if you thought you saw a ghost. Then he says, for they were scared out of their wits, which is to say that part of their.
So some of their fear is not just relational fear or vocational fear, but it's also spiritual fear, the abandonment of God, which is to say isolation and abandonment from God. Anything could happen. Their greatest fears could be there right before them.


Now, I do think it's kind of wild that with the decrease in church attendance, there's actually been an increase in spirituality, broadly and specifically more in the occult. Some of you probably know this, that church attendance for adults in the United States went from about 42% in 1975 to now. They think it's around 22, 23%. It's kind of hard to exactly measure this. And there is a little bit of an increase just the last couple years, which makes sense with the Big Dip during COVID and all.
But as you read about these things, what has not diminished necessarily is the idea of the spiritual. Maybe it's the rejection of God's presence with us in Jesus, but there's this attentiveness to the broadly spiritual. And to see ghosts still freaks people out. Maybe you've heard this. I think some of you are probably familiar with the idea that we live in what's called a closed world.


And all of you will understand this, that for the most people in the world, they engage with the world as though the world is all there is.
So it's kind of odd. It actually feels like it feels separated from this idea that spirituality doesn't necessarily decrease with church attendance. But a lot of people treat the world as though it's sort of just a natural that God is not present, that the divine is not present. And maybe some of you know that. Actually a lot of people have treated this passage and the one before it out of this closed world kind of idea.
So a lot of people say Jesus didn't really walk on water. I mean, when he gets in the boat, it seems as though they're already there. They were just in shallow water and he's just walking. And they think that they've travailed so far, that they actually have gotten farther. And they just think that he was walking on or he wasn't really doing that.
Maybe some of you know that there's an explanation that some people give for the feeding of the 5,000. They're like, Jesus didn't really multiply five loaves and two fish. The young boy who gave these right. That is mentioned in John inspired everybody else to go, wait a second, I did bring my dinner and I should share it with others.
But what I'm saying is that we vacillate spiritually from this idea of Jesus isn't present with us.


We don't know if we should engage with him, but we'll kind of engage with some kind of spirituality ghosts. Let's just explain everything away. Materially closed world. But I want to suggest to you that everyone, or nearly everyone, when they're actually deeply in the deepest place of their fear, when their spouse is on their deathbed, cries out, God, help. God, do something.


God, I cannot do. I cannot control. I need you. God, heal. God, act.
And in some ways, I think this is. We don't know what they cried out. We know they were terrified, but I wonder if they cried out in that moment, oh, Lord, help. Because their fear had been increasing, increasing and increasing. Now this is the experience of the disciples.
And I want to. I want to shift and I want us to see what Jesus was doing. And we do not have a lot of time. So I'm going to try to race through this. So where is Jesus?


In the midst of our fears, right? Our relational, vocational, our spiritual fears? Where is he? First place? He is up on the mountain.
And my guess is that for a lot of us, we're like, that's not very helpful. Jesus, why aren't you in the boat with your disciples? What's he doing on the mountain? Two things it says he's doing. He's praying and he's seeing. Verse 46 said he went to the mountain to pray, verse 48. And he saw that they were making headway painfully.


And I think so much of our fear is actually related to the idea that we're just not sure where Jesus is or what he is doing, but what the Bible tells us that Jesus is seeing what's going on. And specifically right now, what the Bible tells us again and again and again is that he is at the right hand of the Father and he is interceding for us.
So that we hear that Jesus at the right hand of the Father, in Acts and Romans and Colossians and Hebrews and Peter and Revelation, they're all saying God is right at that place of authority. And then what we hear about a couple times is that he is. What is he doing in that place of authority? He is interceding on our behalf. It is not that in the midst of their sort of travail, that God is just absent.
It's not in the midst of your travail that Jesus is just gone. He is seated at the right hand of the Father and he is interceding for us. That's the first place Jesus is. Second place Jesus is. Is on the water, so verse 48 says.


And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. Now, we just talked about how the disciples are like, ah, a ghost.
But what this says is that he came to them, right? They're not actually in the midst of their vocational travail all alone. They're not. He had seen them and he comes to them.
Think of Jesus in John saying, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Or peace I leave you, my peace I give you. When he gives us the helper, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, it comes to us in our place of fear.


Okay, where is Jesus next?


Jesus is again in the midst of people, in the midst of the crowd, doing what he does, which is to say Jesus is the compassionate shepherd that we heard of in the last passage. He's providing for. He's caring for the crowd in their need. The story ends right with Jesus being this compassionate shepherd who provides and who tends to and who cares. Jesus is feeding, he's healing, he's teaching, which is to say that he addresses our spiritual fears and our vocational fears and our relational fears.


What we do not hear in the last passage is actually what we heard the disciples say before. Send them all away. Because Jesus in some ways has addressed that fear with his disciples, and now they're present and able to minister as he calls them to. To have these relationships that he's calling them to have.
Okay, now here's the thing. I need to end, and I need to end with this. Aren't there a couple weird parts of this passage? What do you think is the weirdest part? Anybody.
Anybody had a weird part?
Their hearts were hardened. Yeah. Okay, we're going to get. We're actually going to talk about that when we go to the supper. But what's the other part?
He meant to pass by them. What is going on? Is Jesus like, hey, guys, just, I'll show you how fast I can walk on water. I was hanging out on the mountain over there and now I'm going to beat you to the shore. What's going on?
No, I mean, that can't be it. Why would Mark highlight. He meant he had intention to pass by them. Why would Jesus want to pass by them?
Well, I think the clue is in what he says to them. And what does he say to them? He says, take heart, it is I. And that it is I is the Greek words egoemi. Those Greek words eome are the very Words in the Greek Old Testament, when the Lord appears to Moses in the burning bush, and Moses is freaked out.


And of course, he's scared for all kinds of reasons. Moses is scared relationally. He's had to flee Egypt. He's had to leave his job vocationally, right? He's wandering.
He says, what is this, you know, this phantom? I'm seeing this bush that's burning, and it's not what's happening. Ah. What does the Lord say? I am?
Does the Greek words ego eimi, that in the midst of the deepest places of fear, what God is saying is, I am. You can take heart because I am with you. Do not be afraid.
Take heart, brothers and sisters. Do not be afraid. That's what Mark is saying. The very God who was hovering over the face of the waters in Genesis, chapter one, bringing order out of chaos. The same God who actually.


Very interestingly, in Job, chapter nine, Job talks about God walking on the waters. The same God that was with Job when it seemed like he had lost everything.
The same God who met with Moses in the midst of almost everything seeming to be taken away and his people being enslaved down in Egypt. That same God is the Lord Jesus. That same God is the one who says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. He's telling us today, take heart.
Take heart. It is I. There is no fear. That's too great for me. I am with you.


Let's. Let's do this. Let's collectively end by saying together, Take heart. Do not be afraid. Say it with me.
Take heart. Do not be afraid. Why don't you turn to your neighbor quickly, really look at somebody, say, take heart. Do not be afraid. Okay, turn to your other side, please.
Serious. Look at each other in the eyes. Say, take heart. Do not be afraid.


Let me pray. Lord God, what a wonderful passage. Lord, we pray that in the midst of all that is so fearful in our world, that we would know that you are with us. You are the great. I am.
It is you. Therefore, we may take heart and not be afraid. Amen.

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