How to walk on water, Mark 6: 45-52

As it is our practice to preach through the Bible verse by verse, I rarely have much opportunity to preach messages that are of a more instructional or motivational nature. Many pastors tend to preach nothing but motivational type of messages, like “How to have your best life now.” Or “You are very powerful.” Or “How to find success in life.” Those are actual messages from pastors that purvey the prosperity gospel, which is very popular.

And Lord knows, I would like to be popular. So as I prepared for todays sermon, I couldn’t help myself. I thought of a great title for a motivational message, and I figured if I contort the scriptures enough, I think I can find four points and a poem to support it. The title I have chosen for todays message is, “How to walk on water.” After all, Jesus did it. Even Peter did it for a few seconds. And so, I figured that we should be able to find four steps to be successful at walking on water. That would be a pretty impressive thing to do, wouldn’t it? Maybe we could use that to cause people to become believers.

I have the same email I have used for at least 25 years. It’s with AOL. That tells you how old my email is. It’s from the old dial up days, when you would hear, “you’ve got mail!” They made a movie about it. My email address is [email protected]. it stands for Roy walks on water. There were two reasons I picked that. One was that I surfed, and I wanted to make a reference to surfing, ie, walks on water. Secondly, it was a veiled reference to the Apostle Peter, who almost drowned while attempting to walk on water. I meant it as a reference to me walking by faith. So now everyone should be able to remember my email. I can’t wait to see what kind of mail I get after this revelation.

You know, once I was talking to some surfer about the last days, who said that there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days that will enable us that are Christians to do miraculous things, and he seemed to think that included walking on water. He was especially excited about that. That seemed like a big deal to him. And so, I suppose it might be something of interest to many Christians. Perhaps that’s what the world needs in order to believe, to see Christians walking on water.

So today I want to examine this text and see if we can find some steps to make this dream of walking on water a reality for all of us. Now I hope you realize that I am being sarcastic this morning. But there is an element of truth in what I am saying. However, I don’t intend on contorting the scriptures in order to prove my title. What I will say at the outset though, is that I intend to use walking on water as a metaphor for walking by faith, or walking in the Spirit. And I think I can find support for that by referring to Jesus’s statement to Peter when he attempted to walk on water. Jesus said to Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus attributes the ability to walk on water to a walk of faith.

So to walk on water is to walk by faith, or walk in the Spirit. It is the means by which we can by the grace of God walk through the storms of life, walk through difficulties which the devil may raise against us, and accomplish God’s will through the power of the Holy Spirit. So that is what I think we can learn from this story, how we are to walk in the power of the Spirt, how we are to walk by faith.

We find this instruction to walk by the Spirit, or walk by faith, again and again in scripture. For instance, Romans 8:4 says, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” And in Gal 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Galatians 5: 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. And 2Cor. 5:7 “for we walk by faith, not by sight—“ The question is, how do we do that in practical ways? Is it just having a certain mindset, or having a spiritual attitude, or hearing some still small voice in your head? How do we walk in the Spirit, or walk by faith? Well I believe this passage will give us some steps that we can follow so that we may have that experience.

You all are familiar with the story, I’m sure. Jesus sends the disciples away after the feeding of the 5000 or 15000, if you include women and children. And He sends them away on a boat to the other side of the Lake, which is about a 5 mile trip. In the meantime, Jesus disperses the crowd and goes away by Himself to the mountain to pray.

We find that in vs 45 “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of [Him] to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray.”

The first step to walking on water is found in the disciple’s obedience. People love to harp on the disciples shortcomings. I can’t ever remember hearing a message about Peter walking on water without hearing a lot of disparaging remarks about Peter and also the other disciples. They make fun of Peter because got scared and fell in the water. And then they poke fun at the rest of the disciples because they were too afraid to get out of the boat. And so all kinds of messages have been written that basically disparage the disciples.

But I don’t intend to do that. I want to commend the fact that when Jesus told them to do something, they did it. Earlier that day they had rowed their boat across the Sea of Galilee before the feeding of the 5000. They had listened to Jesus preach all day. Then they had served up to 15000 people dinner. And then Jesus made them go pick up all the leftovers. Now it’s evening, and I’m sure they would have liked to find a nice spot to curl up and go to sleep, and instead Jesus says get back in the boat and row back over to the other side of the Sea.

But they don’t complain. They don’t mutiny. They don’t question His command. They don’t ask why. They don’t say, “OK, we will. Just not right now.” That’s what we often say to the Lord’s commands, don’t we? “Yes Lord, but I’m busy right now.. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.” No, step number one to walking on water is being obedient to the Lord’s commands. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” I”m not going to take the time to list all the commandments that we are given in the New Testament. But I urge you to give heed to them as you study the scriptures. To walk in the Spirit is to be obedient to the Spirit. There isn’t always some emotional, ecstatic experience that marks walking in the Spirit. It’s sometimes difficult. It’s sometimes not that exciting. It sometimes feels like duty, rather than the pursuit of your personal liberty and something that you enjoy.

The disciples weren’t overjoyed, I’m sure, at the prospect of rowing their boat again. I don’t think they were singing the popular KLOVE song, “Row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.” I”m sorry to have to break this to you, but doing the will of God is not always a merry, dreamlike experience. Sometimes being obedient, doing what is right, it not always exciting or even fun. But to walk by faith you must first be walking in obedience.

The second step to successfully walking on water is found in what Jesus does. He goes to the mountain by Himself to pray. Of all the people that probably didn’t need to spend a lot of time in prayer, you would think it would be Jesus. And yet He prioritizes prayer above His much needed rest. He prioritizes prayer above comfort. He prioritizes prayer above fellowship.

I said something to the men yesterday at the Men’s Prayer Breakfast about this. And what I said was that one’s prayer life is a barometer for how you’re doing spiritually. Prayer is spiritual communication with God who is Spirit. And I believe if you examine how much time you spend in prayer each day, you will get a pretty good reading on where you are spiritually.

You know, Paul said we are to pray without ceasing. So I try to do that by praying little bullet prayers in my mind or under my breath as I go throughout the day. I think that’s good. And I’m sure that Jesus did that much more often than I do. But that’s not enough for Jesus. He set aside hours of uninterrupted communion with the Father on a regular basis. This isn’t the first time nor the last time we see Jesus do this. And I’m sure He did it much more often than it’s recorded.

You cannot walk in the Spirit if you aren’t communicating in the Spirit. And I don’t mean speaking in tongues either. I mean profitable speech, that is intelligent, and understandable. Where you are pouring out your heart to the Lord and He is speaking to your heart in return. You can’t see the Spirit. So how do you know you’re walking in the Spirt unless you are speaking to Him. Prayer is not an option if you want to walk on water. It’s not negotiable. It’s mandatory practice.

Now there are a couple of interesting things that occurred as the disciples were being obedient. Notice vs 47, “When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them.”

First of all, when it was evening means that it was late at night. Mark says that Jesus came to them about the fourth watch of the night. That’s between 3am and 6am. That means that the disciples have been rowing their boat against the wind for about 9 hours. And they had only progressed about 3 miles.

You know, I thought that the prosperity preachers told us that when you say yes to Jesus everything is going to start working out for you. I thought that when you are serving the Lord there’s always fair wind and following seas. The sun is always shining. Life is but a dream. But I don’t want you to miss this. The disciples were being obedient, they were doing what the Lord told them to do, and this tremendous storm comes out of nowhere and they end up going nowhere for 9 hours. Actually, I think we can say that Jesus deliberately sent them into a storm, knowing what was ahead of them. And I’ll give the disciples another commendation for this; they didn’t turn around and go back to where they started. They didn’t give up. They kept rowing into the wind for 9 hours.

I think we can add another step to the process of walking on water from the disciples example. And that is perseverance. Perseverance means persistence in doing something despite difficulty. Paul said in Rom 5:3-5 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

James describes it as endurance. Means pretty much the same thing as perseverance. He said in James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” One old time evangelist said it this way, “Do right until the stars fall.” Be obedient to God’s will and persevere in it even when it’s difficult and you don’t seem to be making any headway.

Notice another interesting thing in this passage. Mark says Jesus saw the disciples straining at the oars. Wait a minute. It’s night time. There is a storm. The disciples are three miles from land. How does that work? It works because Jesus Christ is LORD. He is omnipotent, all knowing, all seeing God in human flesh. And in His deity He sees everything. And as we talked about last week, He is the shepherd of His sheep. He is watching over the disciples as they rowed in the darkness against the wind. God sees us always. He constantly is aware of all that pertains to us. If we are His children, then we can count on the fact that He is always on the job.

Last Wednesday at our Bonfire Bible study, we looked at this principle in Psalm 121. I don’t have time to read the whole Psalm, but it speaks to this principle. I particularly like the part that says, Psalm 121:2-4 “My help [comes] from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.”

In the middle of the storm, in the middle of the night, the Lord Jesus comes to them walking on the water. Jesus came to help them. Psalm 54:4 says, “Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.” Because the disciples were doing what He told them to do, because He sent them into the storm, because He saw them straining at the oars, because He is their keeper, He came to them. The Lord came to them walking on the water.

Listen, the fact that the Lord can walk on water should not be surprising. Psalm 77:19 says “Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known.” William Cowper wrote a hymn in 1774 which has the famous line, “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.” 

Jesus walks on the water, not just a calm smooth expanse of water, but walking upon the rising and falling of large crashing waves. He’s probably going up one swell and then down the other side, His robe billowing behind him. He’s probably soaked to the skin by the spray off the waves. No wonder that the disciples think it’s a ghost.

Vs49 “But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.”

So another key then we can learn so that we may walk on water, is not only that the Lord is watching us, but that the Lord is near. Psalm 145:18 “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.” The Lord gives us courage so that we are not afraid. Listen, we can have courage, we can not fear when we go through the storms, because the Lord is with us. If we did not have the Lord with us, then it makes perfect sense to be afraid. I see rookie surfers sometimes going out after a big storm and the waves are really big, and they should be afraid to go out. But they are naive, they don’t know any better. There is such a thing as a healthy fear. It’s prudent to be fearful of some things. But as Phil. 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If I am doing the will of God, He will give me the strength to do it, and He will help me to do it.

And that segues into another aspect of the story that Mark has left out. According to many Bible scholars, Mark was the apprentice so to speak to Peter. And perhaps there is some desire on Mark’s part to protect Peter from criticism, which may be why he leaves this part out. But Matthew fills in the missing pieces by giving us the story of Peter’s attempt to walk on water.

It’s found in Matt. 14:28-31 Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Notice first that Peter doesn’t demand that Christ give him the power to walk on water. He says Lord, command me to come to you on the water. If it’s the Lord’s will, then you can walk on water. We know its the Lord’s will that we walk in the Spirit, that we walk by faith. We know that the Lord has commanded us to do that. And so, like Peter, we can step out of the boat with courage, without fear.

And we should also notice that Matthew says Peter walked on the water and came toward Jesus. Many people want to mock Peter because he started sinking. But I think he deserves a lot of credit to have taken at least a few steps. Even one step on top of the water is a miracle. So Peter deserves a lot of credit for his faith.

But I can’t help but question though Peter’s motivation. I wonder why he wanted to walk on the water. And maybe the answer to that question is the reason Peter might have been embarrassed by the whole episode. Perhaps that’s what Jesus is alluding to when He says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Because faith is not believing in yourself, faith is faith in Christ, that He will sustain you. Doubt is believing in yourself that you are somehow sufficiently skilled or superior or something other than being totally dependent upon the Lord.

So I question Peter’s motivation, because I can’t help but think that Peter wanted to out bravado the other apostles. Or he wanted to show off his supernatural ability. I really can’t imagine that he just wanted to be close to Jesus. Though I think Jesus was gracious enough to overlook Peter’s pride and allow him to come to him. Or maybe Jesus wanted to use it as a lesson for Peter.

The Scripture says “Pride goes before a fall.” When you’re locked eyes with Jesus and taking each step on the water as He is sustaining you, then you can walk on water. But when you look back at the boys on the boat and wave, then you’ve taken your eyes off Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and in that moment of pride, you start to go under. I imagine it was just like walking off a dock. One minute he’s looking at Jesus and taking a gingerly step and then two and then three on top of the water, and then the next second he looks back to wave to his friends in the boat, and he immediately sinks like a rock. No pun intended.

And when he comes back to the surface, he calls out “Lord save me!” Now that’s an effective prayer. Short and to the point. You don’t gain favor with the Lord because of long, flowery prayers. Just talk to the Lord like you would talk to a friend. And that’s the kind of prayer the Lord answers.

Notice, the Lord reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. The Lord is able to save. The Lord is ready to save all who call upon Him. Isa 59:1 says, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.” When the Lord took Peter by the hand, they both walked on water and came to the boat. And that’s another step for us in walking on water. When the Lord holds our hand, we can walk on water. We need to be walking so close to the Lord that He is able to hold our hand. When He holds us, we have no fear of falling. We have no fear of drowning. We have no fear of the storm.

Vs51 “Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the [incident of] the loaves, but their heart was hardened.”

John adds that when they got into the boat, not only did the wind stop, but they were immediately at the land. No wonder the disciples were astonished. This is just a full on display of God’s power through Jesus. Mark says that they were astonished because their heart was hardened and they hadn’t learned from Jesus feeding the multitude that He was fully God and fully man. That the creative power of God was in Christ Jesus. That He was the Creator God.

Now they have been given another glimpse of HIs glory. And this time they fully believed in who He was. And so Matthew adds in his account in Matt. 14:33 And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” Now they understand who Jesus is more completely. And Jesus accepts their worship.

So to wrap it up then, I think we have learned that we can walk on water, or walk by faith, or walk in the Spirit when we follow certain principles given here in this story. First we need to walk in obedience. If we are doing what God said, then we are walking in the Spirit. Second, we need to pray as if our life depended upon it. Because it does. Third, we need to persevere in doing what is right, even in difficulty. Fourth, we need to recognize that Jesus is near. Fifth we need to know that Christ has commanded us to walk in the Spirit, to walk in faith. And then we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He will sustain us, and keep us from falling. Then we need to call upon the Lord, and He will save us, He will help us. And finally we need to walk closely with Jesus, holding onto His hand.

The Lord doesn’t want us to walk by sight. He wants us to walk by faith. He wants us to walk by the Spirit, so that we don’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. He wants us to walk on water in the midst of the storms, in the midst of the trials, knowing that He is watching over us and will take care of us as we are obedient to His will. Walking on water is not a magic trick that we do to impress our friends. But it’s the only way we get through this world without falling. It’s the only way we do the will of God. The Lord will help us, and sustain us, as we walk with Him and do His will.

Today we have come in our study of Mark to a story that I’m sure is familiar to anyone who has been to church for any length of time or to Sunday school. It’s one of the favorite stories of the Bible that is often taught to children. It’s the story of Jesus feeding the 5000.

And there is plenty to consider and learn about Jesus even if the story is told in a straightforward, simple retelling. On just a rudimentary level, even a child can understand that the Lord is compassionate and is able to do miracles.

But this morning I hope to help you gain more insight to this story and what Mark is teaching us through it. You see, Mark is not writing a biography here, though there are biographical elements to his book. He is not writing history, though the story does give us historical facts. Mark is writing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ, which is that God has sent His Son to earth, in the form of a man, to tell us the truth about God, and to provide the sacrifice for our sins, so that they who believe in Him and accept Him as their Lord might have everlasting life.

So this story then, looked at through that prism, is much more than a simple story about taking 5 loaves and two fish and feeding 5000. This event is no less than a living parable which illustrates for us several aspects of the gospel.

The story starts with the apostles coming back from their mission trip, where they had gone out two by two throughout the region of Galilee as emissaries of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the expression of the kingdom of God, and Christ is the King, who sent His emissaries out to spread the good news of the kingdom. As the authorized representatives of the King, they were given the news of the gospel which they were to proclaim in every town, and they were given the power and authority to heal the sick and cast out demons in His name. They were living on the road for probably a couple of months, and then they came back most likely to Capernaum to reunite with Jesus and the other apostles.

And so Mark says in vs30, The apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many [people] coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves.

The apostles had great success on their journeys. We read back in vs 12 They went out and preached that [men] should repent. They had been casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.” They had been given a foretaste of what their mission would be like once the Lord Jesus would be taken away from them. Upon the foundation of the apostles, the church would be built. So I’m sure it was exciting stuff that they reported to Jesus, but He recognized that they needed some rest. In Capernaum there were so many people constantly coming and going, so that they didn’t even have time to eat. And so they went away by boat to a secluded place to get away from the crowds and find some much needed rest.

But the crowds weren’t about to let them get away that easily. Mark says that they ran around the lake and got there before Jesus and the disciples crossed over on the boat. Vs.33 [The people] saw them going, and many recognized [them] and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.

From what I understand, that would have been an eight to 10 mile trip around the lake on foot, or a four mile crossing on water. That’s pretty amazing isn’t it? To think that people wanted to see Jesus so badly that they ran about 10 miles around the lake to beat his boat to the other side. I suppose the disciples were rowing their boat, and perhaps the wind was contrary like it is today. That can make for slow going. And where they ended up is near the town of Bethsaida, which was really a small village. The disciples and Jesus must have landed somewhere near the outskirts of that town. It was an out of the way place. Not any Holiday Inns there, or fast food restaurants or convenience stores. Just a small fishing village.

But when they got out of the boat, they see that the crowd is already there waiting for them. Vs34 “When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.”

I think this is one of the most significant verses in this story. Because it reveals a principle that is so fundamental to our salvation. And that principle is revealed by the phrase “He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus sees these people as sheep without a shepherd. Without a shepherd, a domesticated sheep is an animal that is prone to becoming lost, disoriented, an easy prey for wolves and succumbing to disease. They simply cannot survive for very long without a shepherd. They can’t even find water without a shepherd, and neither can they find good pasture.

What’s interesting is that the Lord correlates humans to being like sheep without a shepherd. And I think that indicates that man was created for God, to be guided and cared for by God, and without God, man is lost, he is doomed to succumb to difficulties in life. He cannot provide for his ultimate welfare.

And yet the greatest fallacy of humankind persists in thinking that we are independent, self sufficient, that we have life and vitality, and somewhere in our subconscious we are oblivious to our mortality. I heard a quote the other day from the 19th century poet William Earnest Hensley, from his poem Inviticus, which in Latin means unconquered. It’s quite a motivational speech. The poet says, ““Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

I guess after hearing that we’re all supposed to yell hooyah! And charge up the mountain. That sounds coureageous, brave and bold. And we like to think that if you are strong and brave enough you can conquer life and bend it to your will. To the victor belongs the spoils. That mindset says only the weak have a need for God, the strong are their own god. But the fact is that is a lie from hell. Satan has deceived men into thinking that they are the master of their fate, the captain of their soul. They can somehow wrest fulfillment and even immortality from this life if they just believe in themselves. But it’s a lie.

Man was made to live with God and for God. He was designed to live with God as His shepherd, and to be under the care of the shepherd. The Westminster Shorter Catechism’s first question is what is the chief end of man? And the answer is; Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. But sin broke that fellowship man had with God. Sin made man independent from God, estranged from God, and thus without truth, without life, without guidance, without protection. And that fragile, fleeting, tenuous existence is like being a sheep without a shepherd. Man is in constant peril and has been marked for death. His life is fleeting, and in his dumbness, like a sheep lost and alone in the wilderness, he is mostly unaware of the danger that he is in.

So the Savior, seeing these people like sheep without a shepherd, has compassion on them. That’s the gospel in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The Lord having compassion on them, seeing their desperate condition, goes to them and begins to teach them the truth about the gospel of the kingdom. How they can be made right with God, and receive life from God, and have forgiveness of their sin, and have the Spirit of God to guide them and lead them into the path of life.

At a later time, Peter will respond to the Lord Jesus saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” The gospel is the words of life. It is the means which by believing, the condemnation of death is taken away, and you are given everlasting life. And so Jesus gives them these words of life. And His teaching goes on until late in the day.

But when evening approaches, the apostles get hungry. They were already hungry before they got in the boat. They hadn’t had the time to even eat. And now after they rowed across the lake, and they have been all day with the Lord as He is teaching the people, they are hungry and tired. But they manage to tell Jesus in such a way as to make it seem they are concerned about the people eating.

Vs.35 When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” Now maybe they were really concerned about the people being able to find something to eat. But I think that they might have been hungry themselves. And there is nothing wrong with being hungry. That’s natural, and we all need to eat. But I think the disciples tendency was to be more concerned about physical needs than spiritual needs.

So Jesus said in vs 37 “You give them something to eat!” And they *said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” I can’t help but wonder if Jesus wasn’t telling them to provide food for the people through miraculous means. After all, they have just got back from this long mission trip in which they were given the authority to do miracles, to heal, to cast out demons. And so Jesus might have been extending them the authority to miraculously feed the people. But the disciples don’t seem to see it that way.

Instead, the disciples respond to Jesus with what I think was a sarcastic question. “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” A denarius was considered a day’s wage in those days. So they are saying should we take 200 days worth of wages and buy food so they can eat? To them that was the only possible answer, but it was ludicrous. It’s doubtful on the one hand that they even had 200 denarii. That’s why they asked it that way, because it made the point that they could somehow feed the people was ludicrous. But I don’t think Jesus was joking around by saying “you give them something to eat.” I think He really wanted the disciples to feed the people. They just didn’t see how it could be done. Even if they had the money, there was no where to buy such a huge quantity of food necessary to feed this multitude.

So Jesus teaches them by example. He says in vs 38 “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” The account in John 6 vs 8 tells us that it was Andrew who found the lad who had five loaves and two fish. It might have taken the 12 disciples awhile to canvas the crowd to see what kind of food was available. And out of 5000 plus people, there is only one boy’s dinner that is available.

Most Sunday school lessons and Bible studies focus on this aspect of the story. They say that the moral of the story is that if we bring our little bit to the Lord, then He can multiply it and make it useful far beyond it’s original limit. Maybe they are trying to make it a sermon about tithing or something, I don’t know.

But I think what Jesus is really teaching here is that the apostles are to be the means by which God supplies the spiritual needs of the people. Their meager supply, when blessed by God and used for the glory of God, will supply the bread of life to those who are hungry for the truth. God will use the weakness of man, the foolishness of preaching, to provide salvation for the lost and hungry sheep.

So to further illustrate this fact, Jesus has the crowd sit down in companies of 100. Vs39 “And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.” I know I might be criticized as grasping at straws here, but I believe this is an illustration of the conduct of the church, that everything will be done decently and in order. God is not the author of confusion. When it comes to the gifts God has given to the church, if He is orchestrating them, then they will be marked by being decent and in order. God is not in charge of a melee. The Spirit of God does not oversee confusion and chaos. The outpouring of the gifts of God is not a feeding frenzy. And when you see that sort of frenzy in the church I think it should be met by a great degree of skepticism on our part, that the Lord is in such a thing at all.

When everyone then was seated on the grass in order and according to groups of 100, Jesus blessed the food. He gave thanks for the food. God is the provider of our daily bread. God feeds the deer, the birds of the air. He certainly cares more about His sheep than He cares about the birds. Jesus said, You are of more value than many sparrows.

Vs 41 “And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed [the food] and broke the loaves and He kept giving [them] to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all.” The point that shouldn’t be missed is that Jesus kept giving the broken pieces to the disciples to set before them. Jesus is using the disciples to give them something to eat. This is a lesson for the apostles. There is also a lesson here for the 5000 that Jesus is the bread of life that came down out of heaven. But the apostles are the ones to which has been given the authority and commission to take the gospel to the world, to build the church. And Jesus is using the passing out of the bread and fish to teach the disciples how they are to do that.

I can’t help but wish though I could have seen the hands of Jesus breaking the fish and bread. I imagine it’s kind of like watching a magician do a trick and you try to watch his hands carefully to see how it is done. Of course, Jesus wasn’t doing a card trick. He was creating food in his hands. He was creating cooked fish in His hands. Baked bread appeared in His hands as He broke it and gave it to the apostles. I can’t help but correlate this to another incident where Jesus broke bread at the Lord’s Supper on the night before His crucifixion.

1 Cor. 11:23 says, the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Perhaps that very act of sacrifice was being symbolized in Jesus’s breaking of the bread and then giving it to the disciples to give to the multitude.

In John’s gospel we read that the next morning after this miraculous event, the people seek Christ out again hoping to get breakfast. And Jesus says on that occasion, in John 6:32-35 “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” That was the lesson that Jesus intended for the multitudes, that His body would be broken so that they might have life.

Well, back to the story of the feeding of the 5000, Mark says everyone ate until full. Vs 42 “They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.” Mark says there were 5000 men, but Matthew says that didn’t include women and children. So there were very likely at least 15000 people that were fed dinner that night. Amazing. 15000 sheep that were fed by the providence and power of God. We should certainly not question if God can meet our needs, if we believe that He was able to feed 15000 people.

But again, the significant point to notice in that passage is that there were 12 baskets of food left over. One commentator I read said that was a lesson about the importance of not littering. I hardly think that’s what is being taught there. The real lesson is again having to do with the apostles. There are 12 apostles, and 12 baskets of food left over. Someone has said the original language is speaking of a something like a lunch basket. But the point is that the apostles were fed in their feeding of the multitude. As they served the church, the Lord provided for their needs as well.

So in summary, I think the whole miracle of the feeding of the 5000 or 15000 was intended to be a living parable about the ministry of the gospel. Jesus is the bread of life, which God gave to man. But it is also a teaching moment for the apostles and the role that they were to take in the ministry of the gospel. The training that they had practiced on their mission trip was continued in the feeding of the 5000. The gospel was entrusted to them, to serve to the world, that they might build the church of Jesus Christ, that they might be shepherds, which is the source of the word pastors, to the church. And by their ministry, the kingdom of God would be expanded, and souls would be added to the church.

We are not commissioned or called to be apostles today. But we are commissioned to go into the world and proclaim the gospel. God wants to use us to manifest His gospel to a lost and dying world. Let us be willing and eager to serve the Lord, presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in our world. We don’t have to have a seminary degree to be witnesses. We don’t have to have the gift of preaching or teaching. But take the truth of the gospel, which everyone who has been saved knows, and simply giving that to our friends and neighbors. And trust that the Lord will multiply your seed into a fruitful harvest.

2Cor. 9:10-11 “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.”

Mark doesn’t give us the chronology in which this next event happens. But Matthew indicates that this event is a continuation of a long day of teaching that Jesus had starting with the disciples picking the heads of grain as they walked through the fields on the Sabbath. On that same day, according to vs 1 of chapter 4, Jesus sat by the seashore. Jesus teaching at the beach seems to be a common occurrence in the gospels, as most of the time His teaching was outdoors. And on this occasion such large crowds gathered to Him that he moved to a boat and the crowds came near the waterline to hear Him.

Jesus began to teach them, and He spoke to them in parables. Just as a reminder, a parable is not a morality tale, it’s not an allegory. It is a fictional story set in the physical world used to teach spiritual principles. The parable that He tells is one that would be readily appreciated by his audience, who were from an agrarian culture, people that would easily understand and relate to this illustration of sowing and reaping. Not only that, but surrounding the Sea of Galilee were farm fields on the hillsides which could have been in the process of being sown at that very moment. And so the people could have been hearing Jesus describe what their eyes were witnessing in the distance.

Now we are fortunate, because in this parable Jesus explains the it later to the disciples. So we can be certain that we understand what He was teaching. That’s not always the case with parables. So there are two parts to this passage, the first part is the telling of the parable which the crowd received, and then the explanation of the parable which the disciples received. And there is an interlude in between where Jesus explains why that is so.

So Jesus presents the parable to the crowd on the beach saying in vs 3, “[Listen [to this!] Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some [seed] fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other [seed] fell on the rocky [ground] where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other [seed] fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other [seeds] fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.””

Now that’s all that the crowd got to hear. They had to figure it out from there. And I have to imagine that even though the crowd was from an agrarian culture, even though they probably had living examples on the hillsides doing the exact thing that Jesus was speaking of, they probably had no clue as to what He was really saying. Perhaps the best that they could extract from it would have been something along the lines of – most of your work will be unprofitable, but if you do a lot of it, some will be profitable. So perhaps they thought the moral of the story is to work hard and some of it will pay off eventually. After all, there was no real reason for the people to be see a spiritual application in that story. Everything that the gospels tell us makes it pretty clear that the multitudes who were drawn to Christ were really only looking for physical “blessings” in the way of food, or healing, or being able to have Israel reinstated as an independent monarchy under the reign of the Messiah who would be an actual king and would defeat their enemies.

Their inability to discern the truth of the parable is why Jesus ends the story with the cryptic phrase; “he who has ears, let him hear.” This was not a call for them to listen. Rather, it was a call for those who were spiritually aware to understand the spiritual lesson being taught. It was said in recognition that they were not able to understand spiritual things. They were only interested in physical things. But Jesus is saying that there is more than financial advice here. There is a spiritual lesson which they needed to hear, but they first needed to gain spiritual awareness.

So Jesus has this great big crowd who have all come to see Him. And He gives them this cryptic sermon that they can’t possibly figure out on their own and then He walks off the beach. And I’m sure the disciples think that Jesus has blown a good opportunity. He failed to make the message clear, and bring it home with a suitable sentimental story and an invitation to walk the isle and repeat this prayer after me.

So perhaps reproachfully, in Matthew’s account they say, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” There could have been a large number of people who would have made a commitment to follow Christ that day, but instead, He left a lot of people on the beach scratching their heads, asking one another, “what did it mean to you?”

So the disciples begin to ask him about the parables, and He answers by saying in vs 11 “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.”

Now that answer deserves a message all of it’s own to fully understand the depths of what Jesus said. But we aren’t going to take the time to parse it all this morning. However, the gist of what Jesus is saying is that it takes spiritual life, new eyes and new ears that are spiritually opened, in order to understand the spiritual truth of the parable. The disciples had that new life. The multitudes did not.

In His answer Jesus revisits the principle taught in the Parable of the Talents. That to him who has, more shall be given, and to him who does not have, even what he has shall be taken away. In other words, those who had spiritual life would receive more, and those that did not have spiritual life would even lose what they did have, which was natural life. Jesus says the same thing here in regards to why He speaks in parables. If they don’t have spiritual life, then they cannot understand spiritual truth.

It really goes back to what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3. You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Without being born again, without new eyes and new ears, there can be no understanding of spiritual things.

Then Jesus goes on to explains the parable to the disciples. Vs. 13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?” Here is the thing. Without illumination from the Holy Spirit, without eyes opened by the Lord, ears that made to hear, there can be no understanding. That is why salvation is of the Lord. The Lord must open our eyes and ears so that we understand the truth.

Now the popular title of this parable is the Parable of the Soils. That seems to make sense, and that’s what most commentators call it. But Jesus calls it in Matthew 13 the parable of the sower. However, the tendency to call it the parable of the soils is due to the fact that Jesus describes four types of soil in the parable. He gives practically no description of the sower. We are not even told who he is. But we can deduce that the sower is Jesus Christ Himself. And we can find justification for that in another parable.

There is a parable which is found in vs 24 of Matthew 13, called the parable of the wheat and the tares. And Jesus explains that parable in vs 37, saying, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man…”

I’ve mentioned before a principle of hermeneutics called expositional constancy, which means that symbols found in scripture seem to consistently have the same meaning. And you might be able to apply that in this case. It’s safe to say that if the Lord is the sower in one place, He certainly could be the sower in another place. After all, the good seed comes from Him, doesn’t it? That’s not a stretch. So we could conclude then that the one who sows initially is the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has the words of life.

And that assumption clues us in on what is the seed in the parable. The seed is the word of God. Luke records this same parable and in Luke 8:11 he adds “the seed is the Word of God.” So the message of the sower is the Word of God. Jesus began His ministry preaching the kingdom of God is at hand. Over and over again He has given instructions concerning the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. The message is that Jesus is the King of the kingdom of heaven, and His rule is over heaven and earth. The message is the good news, the gospel, that God has made a way for man to enter into His kingdom through Jesus, so that man might receive the blessings of the kingdom. The blessings of the kingdom are spiritual life, abundant life, eternal life. So the gospel, the word of God, is the seed which Jesus Christ is spreading abroad over the earth.

And I think the point should be emphasized that without the word of God a man cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus doesn’t give an example here of a patch of soil in which no seed was cast, because it should be obvious that without seed, there can be no growth, no life. So it’s important that we recognize the essentiality of the word of God in salvation. I could say a lot more about that, but we don’t have time. However, I do want to emphasize it, because I’m afraid that so often today the word of God is being de-emphasized. We substitute all kinds of things in the church for the preaching of the word, music, skits, sentimental stories, films, etc. And we wonder why people are not saved. Or when they claimed to be saved, why there is little evidence of it. Paul said in 1Cor. 1:18 “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Now that brings us to the soil. Jesus gives us four types of soil. And the soil symbolizes the heart of man. The heart, when spoken of spiritually, is really the soul. It is the seat of man’s intellect, emotions and will. Jesus references the hardened heart particularly in the first soil, pictured as the packed hard road beside the field. There were byways through the farmer’s fields that allowed people to traverse across their property without trampling on the crops. And these byways were not cultivated. They were hard packed. That’s a picture of a hard heart, the intellect that has rejected the word of God because it seems foolishness to them.

Jesus says some of the seed cast by the sower falls on the hard packed soil that is not broken up. It lays on top of the ground and Jesus says the birds of the air come and eat the seed. He says when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, Satan comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. So we see in that statement several things. First, the necessity to understand the word. That incorporates man’s intellect and divine illumination. Secondly, the birds are interpreted as Satan. That references the devil and his angels, and Jesus indicates that they can snatch away the word of God. The word of God is foolishness to these people who don’t understand it. So they disregard it, and the devil makes sure that it is dismissed as foolishness and does not come back to their mind. And the third thing Jesus teaches in that statement is that the soil is the heart. Matthew says the word of God was sown in the heart.

Romans 10:10 says, “for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” The first soil illustrates a hard, unbelieving heart in which the word is not received, and which the devil and his angels snatch away.

Jesus next interprets the rocky soil. Vs16 “In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky [places,] who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no [firm] root in themselves, but are [only] temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.”

Rocky soil is soil that is a very thin layer of dirt over a bed of rock. And because the root can’t go down, the growth spurts up, but when the sun becomes hot, there is no moisture in the soil and the plant wilts and eventually dies. Jesus interprets this as a person who hears the word, but has not counted the cost of discipleship. There is a cost to Christianity, a cost to following Christ. It requires a sacrifice of your will, in exchange for doing His will. Some people are happy to accept that Jesus died for their sins so that they can receive the blessings of God. But they don’t realize that they have to die to their flesh as well. Jesus said take up your cross and follow Me. That’s what it means to confess Jesus as Lord. These people pictured in the rocky soil, they were not saved and then lost it – they were never saved at all. They had a superficial experience, but never a true conversion. They had an external growth spurt, but never had internal life.

I’m afraid that there are a lot of people today that consider themselves Christian, who may have even said the sinner’s prayer or walked the aisle, and yet they have never been converted. And the reason they have never been converted is because they never truly repented. To repent is more than saying sorry. It’s dying to the old man, the old nature that you might be born again into new life.

The third soil is the thorny soil. Charles Spurgeon gave a great sermon on just this soil alone. He hardly mentioned the other soils, just the thorny soil. And if I had to guess why it’s because this is the most pervasive soil. Thorns are pervasive, aren’t they? I was noticing just the other day that the first things to get green in the woods around my house is the thorns. They take over. You don’t need to plant thorns, they are naturally prolific.

Jesus said in vs18 “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” I’ve always had a question in my mind whether or not this person pictured here is saved or unsaved. The first two were clearly unsaved. This one I’m not so sure. I think the indication is that if he persists in that condition then he is unsaved. But perhaps there is a chance that this person is saved, he has new life, but he backslides. He turns back to the things of the world that he was supposed to have forsaken. He becomes so enamored with the world again and the pursuit of money, or his career, or pursuing pleasure, that it chokes the spiritual life to the point that it doesn’t produce fruit.

But maybe I’m being overly generous in that assumption this person could be saved. Because Jesus says in Matt. 7:16-20 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn [bushes] nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.” So, the bottom line is that a life that does not bear fruit is not truly a Christian. Perhaps there is a time in the life of a Christian where God has to do some pruning, some cutting away, some cultivation in order to take away the thorns and weeds which are choking out their spiritual life, but the bottom line is that fruit is the evidence of spiritual life and the lack of fruit is evidence of no spiritual life.

Well that leads to the last type of soil, and that is the good soil. The seed which fell on the good soil *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” Jesus said in vs 20 “And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” The number of the fruit there is not of primary importance. But what is important about the good soil is that it is fruitful. How much fruit may depend on other conditions. But the point is that you know that they are believers because they bear fruit.

The question is, what is fruit? A common misconception is that fruit is leading other people to Christ. That may play a part in it, but that is not specifically what Jesus is talking about. Fruit is righteousness. It’s a life of righteousness. Not just being declared righteous by faith, which is justification. But living righteously, which is sanctification.

I’ll give you a couple of verses to support that. Phil. 1:9-11 says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which [comes] through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” The fruit of righteousness. It comes through Christ living in you. No longer you living for your desires, but Christ living in you.

Another is Heb. 12:10-11 talking about our earthly fathers, “For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He [disciplines us] for [our] good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” There it is again, the fruit of righteousness, sharing in God’s holiness. And I might suggest that the discipline of the father is pruning and cutting down the thorns so that the plant might bear fruit.

Righteousness is the fruit of the new life. John said in 1John 3:7 “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” That’s the evidence of being truly saved. That’s the evidence of being a Christian. There is a new life of righteousness which is evident to the world.

That life of righteousness is what the scripture refers to as sanctification. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” Sanctification is holiness, righteousness. It is being holy because He is holy. It is living righteously because you have been made righteous. And so let me close by saying this. Examine yourselves this morning in the light of this parable. Which soil do you think characterizes the state of your heart? Are you someone who thinks this message is foolishness and going to forget about it as soon as it’s over? Then you are the soil by the road. The devil has snatched away the truth so that you cannot be saved. Or are you like the rocky soil? You had some sort of spiritual experience once and because of that you think you are saved. But you never repented, and in reality the word of God has never taken root in your heart. And so there has not been any new spiritual birth or spiritual life.

Or do you recognize that you are the soil that is thorny? You believed the word, you have had some spiritual life, but the the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth have choked out the word, and your life is unfruitful. If I had to guess a lot of people here this morning fit in this category. If that’s the case, you need to uproot those thorns, confess your sin to the Lord and ask Him to cleanse you, denounce your love for the world, and ask the Lord to renew a right spirit within you. Repentance is the plow that produces good soil, which results in the fruit of righteousness.

I urge you to pray the prayer of David found in Psalm 51:10, 12, 17 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. … 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. … 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

That repentance breaks the hard soil, uproots the thorny ground, and softens the heart into good soil, that responds to the word of God, and does the works of righteousness. I trust that you will respond this morning to the conviction of the Lord, that you might be given eyes to see and ears to hear, so that you might have new life from God..