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WE CAN TRUST HIM!

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WE CAN TRUST HIM!

“When evening came, His disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. But He said to them, ‘It is I; don’t be afraid.’ Then they were willing to take Him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.” John 6:16-21 (NIV).

“With Jesus in the boat…!” How often have you heard that message preached?

Why did John include this incident in his story? Remember that he was giving evidence that Jesus is the Son of God so that his readers would believe in Him. Every incident was a sign that His claims were true because His miracles authenticated who He claimed to be. Every sign pointed to some aspect of His person and work as the Messiah that gave clarity to what He came to do.

Mark added a detail to his account of this incident that makes it spring to life. “He was about to pass by them, but when they saw Him walking on the lake, they thought He was a ghost…” Mark 6:48c. If Jesus was walking on the water to go to them, why would He want to pass by them? It makes no sense unless there is something more to His intention than meets the eye.

We have to look for the use of this phrase somewhere else in Scripture to capture its meaning.

In Exodus 34, in response to Moses’ request, God was about to reveal His name to him. He had instructed him to bring another two stone tablets up the mountain with him because Moses had smashed the first two tablets in his anger against his people. While he had been up the mountain with God, they had persuaded Aaron to make them a calf-god out of gold which they were worshipping with undignified frenzy when he returned.

God promised to hide Moses in a crevice in a rock and reveal His name to him. “Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the Lord.

“And He passed by in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness…’ ” Exodus 34:5, 6.

Would His disciples have got the message? If they understood their Scriptures, they would surely have realized what Jesus was doing. He was making a very bold move to reproduce what He had done on Mount Sinai many centuries before, to reassure them that it was okay to trust Him because He was no phoney. A sign like that would have added to the weight of evidence they already had to convince them of His identity.

The outcome was equally startling. The moment Jesus stepped into the boat, they arrived at their destination. We could, of course, argue that they were so taken up with watching Him walk on the rough water that they did not notice how near they were to the shore. That could be true but John made a point of reporting that His presence in the boat contributed to their speedy and safe arrival back at Capernaum.

“Passing by” seems to be a euphemism for revealing Himself to His people; God to Moses on the mountain and Jesus to His disciples on the lake. He was not abandoning them but alerting them to the deep truth He wanted them to be sure of. Just as it was God on the mountain reassuring Moses that, in spite of His people’s rebellion and failure to believe in Him, He was still the gracious and compassionate God who would forgive them and reinstate them as His covenant people, so also Jesus, on the lake, was reassuring His disciples that He was God; that He was with them and would graciously forgive and receive His people if they would put their trust in Him.

Their fear turned to relief when they realized who He was and they gladly assisted Him into the boat. The stormy lake lost its terror for them and, before they knew it, the boat scraped the shore and they were safely home after a very eventful day.

Jesus was slowly building a case for who He was. The disciples still wavered and doubted until the resurrection. From that moment on, nothing could shake their confidence in Him as their Lord and God.  With the same power of the Holy Spirit in them that had energized Him, they set out to turn the world upside down, but it took them a long time to get there.

We are also on a faith journey. Every incident in which Jesus is “passing by” strengthens and reassures us that He is who He said He is and we can trust Him.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – PERFECT GOD…PERFECT MAN

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PERFECT GOD…PERFECT MAN

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Mark 4:35-41

What a lovely story, Jesus’ fragile humanity and His sonship in perfect unity! In contrast to the disciples who had not yet come to understand or practise their sonship in God, Jesus’ attitude presented the perfect balance between an ordinary human being at the mercy of circumstances, and the Son of God whose confidence in the Father’s love and His purpose for Him, which nothing could derail because what God wants will always prevail, provided such security that He could sleep in a howling gale.

This shows the difference between us humans who are suspicious of God, and Jesus, who knew the Father and could therefore trust Him all the time, no matter what happened. Jesus called it “my rest, my peace, my joy.” This really speaks to our hearts because this is where God wants to take every child of His. This is what sonship is all about. Part of Jesus’ mission was to show us how to be sons. He took His disciples through some gruelling training so that they could see, feel and experience what sonship was all about.

On this occasion, they were more amazed by the miracle of the wind than they were about the attitude of Jesus. Why did Jesus calm the storm? Was it because it had, and had not served its purpose? It did serve its purpose by showing the disciples what trust is all about and by exposing their failure to trust God, but it didn’t serve its purpose because they fell into a panic instead of being at peace as Jesus was.

Is that why God allows stuff to happen to us that isn’t the kingdom of God? If we interpret it as “the attack of Satan”, we have completely missed the point. If Satan causes the problem, God allows it. Jesus made that clear when He warned Peter of his coming denial. Jesus didn’t forestall the attack. He focused on Peter’s faith. Adverse circumstances are an essential part of building our faith muscles. God wants to root out all suspicion of Him by allowing or setting up circumstances to expose the remnants of our mistrust.

Don’t blame the devil when stuff happens. He is only a tool in God’s hands to fashion you into someone who resembles Jesus, our elder brother. Trust God to work all things for your good because His intention is to conform you to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:28-29).

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – FOUR SOILS… FOUR DESTINIES

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CHAPTER 4

FOUR SOILS… FOUR DESTINIES

​1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3

“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

13 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” Mark 4:1-20

Although this is a long passage, this parable and its interpretation need to be read and understood together as one. This is a familiar story, but its significance can easily be missed. In the Hebrew mind, stories were read for identification. According to Jesus, the Word of God is the seed. The soil is the attitude with which the seed is received.

Hard ground implies that beliefs and attitudes are so fixed that new ideas and new understanding have no place in the mind of that person. He refuses to entertain the idea that he may be wrong and needs to be transformed by the renewing of his mind. He is not open to truth and continues to live by the lies that shape his thinking and behaviour. The Word of God has no impact on his thinking and he just keeps living the old way with his unsolved hang-ups and issues.

Shallow soil represents hearts that readily receive the Word which begins to germinate and grow. However, the tender young roots soon meet the resistance of a hard layer under the shallow topsoil. There is an expectation based on a belief system that this new life does not meet – and the heart begins to resist the tests that are part of the character-building God is busy with. The new life eventually withers and dies.

The third soil already has stuff growing in it. The new plants of Christian character germinate among the weeds but, since there is no room for both, and since troubles and trinkets have a powerful hold, the delicate plants of character lose their foothold and die.

The fourth ground is fertile and free of other encroachments. The heart is open and willing to receive the truth and patiently applies it, learning to submit to discipline and receive the grace that transforms the life through a mind that is being renewed day after day. The fruit of the Spirit is being formed in the life; the character of Jesus slowly becomes a reality and there is eventually a full harvest of righteousness that imitates God’s character.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – “YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD”

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“YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD”

7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8 When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 11 Whenever the impure spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him. Mark 3:7-12

From the synagogue to the lake, Jesus was like the Pied Piper of Hamlyn; so much excitement that He was in danger of being trampled. The news of what He was doing had swept through the land like wildfire, even outside the borders of Israel. People came from as far afield as Tyre and Sidon and Trans Jordan, and from every corner of Israel.

It’s understandable that they would have run after Him, especially since sick and disabled people were being miraculously cured. There was no doctor anywhere that could do what He was doing. Hope and expectation flared up in people’s hearts that they could be delivered from their suffering.

There is a twist in this story. The people who mobbed Him lived in, and focused on what affected them in their natural and everyday lives. They were seemingly unaware that another dimension had broken into their world. What had initially attracted them to Jesus? Was it not what He was doing for them? Here was someone around, whom they needed.

But, in the midst of this hubbub were other voices from the other dimension – from the unseen realm of darkness that, up to this point, had had the stage all to themselves. They knew and spoke the truth because they understood who had authority over them. Although they were masters of deception themselves, they were neither ignorant nor deceived. They knew who Jesus was and they could not help but blurt it out because they were afraid. They knew they were illegal occupants of human beings who belonged to God.

Jesus reacted to them promptly, forbidding them to identify Him because He didn’t need demons to speak for Him and because every human being needs to make that decision for himself based on the evidence. We don’t need demons to tell us who Jesus is. We need to look at Him, listen to Him, weigh up the evidence and then decide who He is.

The testimony of a demon has no weight because it is not the witness of one whose life has been changed by faith in the one who is who He claims to be, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – CATCHING MEN

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CATCHING MEN

As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Mark 1:16-20

How were the disciples to catch men? What was the method and what was the “bait”? As you walk with Jesus and watch and listen to Him, it makes sense that the “bait” was the love and mercy of God which He declared, demonstrated and dispensed freely by touching the lives of ordinary people, forgiving their sin, healing their broken bodies and freeing them from demonic oppression (Act 10:38). Who would not be “lured” by a God like that? For too long the people had been cowered into obedience or driven away by fear of the God who made so many demands that it was impossible to satisfy Him.

Even if the disciples didn’t understand, they followed Him anyway and set out on a journey to relearn the love of the God who had originally called them to be His people millennia before, but whose true character was gradually obscured by a religious system superimposed by men.

Why did the Pharisees hate Jesus so much? Why did they want to kill Him? Could it be that the same fear that controls all other religions locked them into a ritualistic religious system of self-effort so that they could not launch out onto the love of God in case they were right and Jesus was wrong? Did their pride in their self-effort and their perception of “righteousness” make them hold tenaciously to their belief that they were right? Did they hate Jesus because He was too “nice” to the people they despised, and they could not accept God’s generosity to “sinners”?

How do we respond to God’s generosity? Is there a stubborn underlying thought that this is all a mirage: that there is a catch somewhere; that we will wake up and find that it was all a beautiful dream? Why do we struggle at times with the issue of healing? Why do we have nagging doubts when we pray as though the “bait” were a plastic lure and not the real thing? Is this part of the growth and maturing of true faith? How confident are we that what we are offering people is the truth and that God will back it up?