I invite you to open your Bibles and mark the Gospel of Mark 6, verses 45 to 52, for the reading and preaching of God's Holy Word. Mark 6, verses 45 to 52. This says the Word of our God. Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. For they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened." Let us go before the Holy Spirit one more time asking for a blessing. O Holy Spirit, we ask that You illumine our minds and hearts to see You, to understand Your glory, to understand Your majesty, and to apply those things to our hearts in our time of need. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Dear congregation, this episode of Christ walking on the water is one of the most well-known miracles of the Bible, isn't it? Probably all the children know this story very well, that Jesus walked on water. Even unbelievers know that a man named Jesus walked on water. I remember myself as a child, every time I went to a pool, taking my distance and running into the pool and trying to do just two or three steps before I sink. So it's a very famous account of the miracle in the ministry of Jesus. And usually, when we hear sermons about it, It's all about the storms of life, right? And I really think that it's most of what Mark wants us to learn, or what Jesus wants us to learn here. But there's more here than meets the eyes. Of course, it was not random. This miracle is not random. It's here for a purpose. There was a purpose. for that miracle at that time for these disciples in this specific situation. Jesus Christ wanted to show His divinity to His disciples. One more display of His divinity. In the parallel passage of Matthew chapter 14, we see a little bit of a different aspect, an aspect of Christ wanting to test their faith. When Peter wants to meet Jesus in the water, he starts to walk in direction, in his direction, and then he sinks. So Jesus is testing. the faith of the disciples. And it's very interesting because the narrative of Mark, Mark wrote this gospel under Peter, right? And we don't find here the account of Peter sinking. It's very understandable. If I were writing a gospel and there is an account about myself, I want to hide my weakness as well. And maybe that's why Peter is sinking and the water is not here. So this was one of the purposes of Christ doing this miracle, not only to show His divinity, to reveal Himself one more time to His disciples, but also to test their faith. But there is also a purpose for us today looking at this passage. What I want to highlight here in this sermon is that Yahweh's hard providences are a way for Him to show us His grace and compassion in order to give us peace. Yahweh's hard providences our way for Him to show us His grace and compassion in order to give us peace. We're going to see this in three main topics. First of all, Yahweh's providences. Secondly, Yahweh's revelation. And third, Yahweh's peace. So first of all, Yahweh's providences. Verse 45 reads, The context here is that Jesus just turned a little bit of bread and fish into a lot of bread and fish. He fed 5,000 men. in an isolated place in the desert. And the description here is pretty much like Moses, as Mark was trying to show his readers that Jesus is the new Moses. He's the one that delivers his people. He's the one that brings food out of nowhere, out of nothing, just like Moses did with the people. And we have a description as Jesus Christ also as a shepherd who has compassion of those who suffer. He saw them, the great multitude, and He had compassion on them. And that was one of the reasons why He did this marvelous miracle here. But the text in verse 45 says that immediately Jesus made His disciples to get into the boat. And the reason why it's not here, but if you go to John 6, which is a parallel passage, we see that after this miracle, the feeding of the 5,000, the people there wanted to make Jesus Christ king, a political figure, a man who will deliver them from the earthly oppressors, from the earthly government. They didn't get Jesus right or His miracles right. And it was a temptation for Jesus Himself. He was tempted exactly like this by Satan in the wilderness. And probably it was a temptation also for His followers, His disciples. These people wanted to give Jesus Christ the crown before the cross. That was the temptation here. To give Jesus Christ the crown before the cross. And sometimes we find ourselves in the same situation, wanting to have the blessings of God, the ultimate blessings of God and the new heavens and the new earth, without suffering in this world. Without having to carry our cross in this world. And this is a temptation. Because when we receive this from Jesus Christ, and we deny it, we are denying God's providences to our lives. to make us grow in grace and the knowledge of Him. It is very easy for us to get Jesus wrong or misunderstand Him. It is a very similar situation that we find in 1 Samuel, when the people rejected Samuel, and actually they were rejecting God Himself and His kingship, and they were trying to find another king. They wanted another king over them, ruling over them. But interestingly, these people get right that Jesus was a king, that He was supposed to be a king. And they want to make Him a king, but in the wrong way, in the wrong fashion, in the wrong time, for the wrong purposes. And because of this, because they wanted to make Jesus Christ an earthly king, He immediately made His disciples to get into the boat. The Greek here, it's more like He compelled them, He forced them, He pushed them to go there. He constrained them. This is what Jesus is doing with His disciples. He's leading them to this episode by His providence and by His sovereignty. Jesus is about to test their faith and to teach them a lesson. And this is how God works today in our lives, isn't it? He leads us into trials. He leads us in various ways in trials and suffering in order to teach us something. But it's not always the case that we will figure out what they are doing with us or to us in those moments. But this is how we should think about the providence of God in our lives, especially when we are going through trials. that He is pushing them to this in order to do something with us, to teach us something. Then in verse 46, we read that after He had taken leave of them, He went up to the mountain to pray. And He prayed for a long time. Probably by the time he dismissed the crowds, the multitude, it was about dinnertime, maybe 6 or 7 or 8 p.m. And by the time he met with the disciples in the Sea of Galilee, it was between 3 and 6 a.m. So he spent this whole time praying in the presence of God, praying. We don't know the content of the prayer, But we do know by other texts that teaches us or the authors write it down what Jesus prayed about. And it's usually, usually the prayers of Jesus had some, at least three contents. First of all, the glory of his father, especially if he's about to do something big, if he's about to do something miraculous like here. Secondly, his mission. And third, for His people. We have this in John chapter 17. Jesus was praying to God His Father for seven, eight, maybe nine straight hours. Probably for those things. Probably for what was about to happen. And even though we cannot say for sure what He was praying here, it can be absolutely true that right now, in heaven, He is interceding for us. He's praying for us. He knows what He will bring to our life, what He will give to our life in His providences, even in His hard providences, and suffering, and trials. And He is praying for us now. before the throne of God saying your name. This is very, very comforting. And it's for us to remember that we have hope because Jesus Christ is in our side interceding for us before the throne of God. And notice in verse 48, And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them." They were distressed and rowing. In chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, it says they just sailed for about three or four miles, maybe halfway through the Sea of Galilee for hours and hours. The only progress that they did was three miles. Because it was a heavy storm. They were distressed and they were harassed by the waves and the wind. They were toiling. And really the word here is the same word for torture. They were being tortured by the wind and by that situation. Little progress they were making. Do you feel that sometimes it's your case in your Christian walk? because of your sufferings, because of what you are going through, you are making headway painfully, small progress, one step up, three steps down, and sometimes it's hard even to get on your knees and pray to the Lord. Do you feel that your supplies are not enough to go through your struggles? We go through so much hardship in our lives, the loss of a loved one, which can be terrible in many ways. Even family life, as a busy mom with small children, very busy all day long, And all that you can see is laundry and dishes and those kind of things. And you can see that you are progressing in your Christian life. Sometimes too much work ahead of you. And there are all kinds of other troubles that you can name it, that probably you already went through. And you feel this, you sense this, that Jesus Christ is against you, that the wind is against you, that the circumstances are all against you. Sometimes loneliness. As you grow older and you see your children leaving, and then your grandchildren, and then your great-grandchildren, Maybe you're all alone and not used to be so frequent. They are not used to be so frequent in your house or where you live as they used before. And this is very hard. But what this text says in verse 48, says that he saw that they were making Hathaway painfully. He saw them. Jesus Christ, the King of glory, he sees you in your distress. He's not physically with us anymore. He's in heaven now in flesh. But he sees you, what you are going through. He knows exactly what your trials are all about. And he is observing you. But not only this, as I said before, He is interceding for you, giving you strength to go through this by His Holy Spirit. There is nothing, dear brother and sister, in your life that escapes His attention. Remember this. At this time, Jesus Christ was not with them as before in Mark 4. Jesus was on the boat with them physically, sleeping, and He sees the wind. But right now, He was not with them. It's the same case with us today. He's not physically with us anymore, but He sees us. He intercedes for us. And nothing escapes His attention. But notice the reason why they were distressed and rowing. Verse 48, for the wind was against them. The wind was against them. What does this say about God's providences in our lives? Well, if we go back to Mark 4, after Jesus Christ calmed down the wind and the waves and the storm, What did the disciples say to one another in verse 41? Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him? The text is saying that the wind was against them. And who commands the sea and the wind to be tempestuous? Isn't that Jesus Christ Himself? Christ is not only sovereign and in control, but He is the one who brings these things to your life. And this might be exactly what we feel when we go through trials and hardships. That Christ Himself is against us. And we start to question ourselves, to question God's goodness. We start to wonder whether God is angry with us or not. But remember that in this text here, the disciples were in obedience to Christ. Christ told them to go to the other side and they went. So it's not about their sins. It's not because of their sins that they are suffering. And we see this many times in Scriptures. Suffering is not always related to our personal sins. Because we live in a hard world, in a fallen world, this sometimes happens with us. And even by the sovereignty of God, by His hard providence is to teach us something. And when we are in this situation with no other hope, we see that we need Jesus Christ. Notice that the apostles, many of them were sailsmen. They're fishermen. They knew what they were doing in sailing. Very experienced and mature men in sailing and fishing. But they were distressed here, rowing for hours and hours and hours without progress. And they noticed, probably, that they had no control over their situation. It is for us to remind ourselves that Jesus Christ is the only way. And when we are left with nothing, we will remember that we need Christ. And the purpose is to see Him as He is. In trials, Jesus reveals Himself to you in His compassion, in His character, in His grace, and in His divinity. Look at the end of verse 48. And about the fourth watch of the nine, around 3 or 6 a.m., He came to them." Notice how long it took for Him to come to them. He knew that they were distressed. He saw them, but they waited. He waited and waited and waited. Verse 49, "'But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out for it. They all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke to them and said, "'Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.'" What is happening here? Jesus Christ is revealing himself to his disciples as the great I am, the God incarnate. He's showing his divinity and glory to his disciples. We come now to our second point, Yahweh's revelation. Jesus Christ, the God Incarnate, comes to us in three ways. And we see these three ways here in the text. First of all, He walks on water. Secondly, He passes by them. And third, He speaks to them. So for a person to walk on water, He needs to be something else, not a human being, but something more than a human being, right? This is quite obvious to every one of us. And Jesus, as we read in the Nicene Creed, as we confess, He was 100% man, but He was also 100% God. And as God, He had the power over all creation, over the waters, over the sea, over the wind. And not only this, but the language of Him walking on water is an Old Testament reference to something that only God can do. I know that it's obvious that only God would be able to walk on water, but this is what we read many times in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, if you had your Bibles, Please open in Job. I'm going to go quickly through those texts, so you can just take notes if you want. In Job 9, verse 8, look what the text says, talking about God. "...who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled," or other translation might bring, He marched on the waves of the sea. He walks on the waves of the sea. Again, in Job 38, verse 16, God is speaking to Job now. Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Again, the same aspect. Even in the psalm, the psalm we read in the call to worship, Psalm 77 says the same thing. Psalm 77, verse 19. Your way was through the sea. Your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen. He is the God who walks on water. And one last text, Isaiah 43, verse 16. Thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters. He's showing Himself to His disciples. When He walks on water, He's showing them that He is God. by His power on walking on water. Another way He reveals Himself to His disciples as the great Yahweh is by passing by them. The text says in the end of verse 48, He meant to pass by them. And the text is not saying here that He wants to pass through them so that they can cry out loudly, and then He comes back and saves them. This wording, this sentence here, to pass by them, is a reference to Old Testament theophanies. What is a theophany? It's an appearance of God, like in the pillar of cloud, or in the pillar of fire, or in the burning bush, where God Himself appears in a visible form to men. So many times in the Scriptures, when we read that God passed by someone, He's saying that He showed Himself in a specific way, in a theophany, in a theophanous way. I'm just going to open in just one of these texts, and we find this in Exodus chapter 33, the end of chapter 33, and in chapter 34. Verse 18 of chapter 33 says, Moses said, please show me your glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, same verb, and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. Verse 20, but he said, you cannot see my face, for men shall not see me and live. Verse 22, and while my glory passes by, again, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by." Again, the same verse. And then in chapter 34, verse 5, it says, So notice that his passing by has a relationship to his revelation of himself, of who he is, his character, his name. And then verse 6, And he goes on to describe himself. This is what Jesus is doing here and what Mark picks up here. He's revealing Himself as a God. But notice that the text of Exodus 33 says that, No man shall see the face of God and live. And what is happening here? They are seeing the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God incarnate. What a marvelous thing. And sometimes in our trials, in our situation, we feel that if we just could only see Jesus Christ face to face, and He could come face to face and cheer us up, and give us courage, and say those words personally to us, then we will be better. But notice that in 2 Peter 1, Peter is talking about the revelations that he had in seeing Jesus Christ's ministry. and that he saw Jesus' glory in the Mount of Transfiguration. And then he affirms that we now, with this revelation, with the Bible, we have a more assured word than they had seeing Jesus Christ face to face. We have this in our Bibles. This is the full revelation of who God is, of who Jesus Christ is, right here with us. And thirdly, He reveals Himself by what He spoke to them. Notice that He comes in the middle of a storm, right? When He comes to them and speaks to them, there's still a storm going on. So probably very, very noisy and loud with all the waters moving and the waves and the wind. And then He speaks to His people. I don't think He was shouting and trying to communicate Himself, as we shout to people who are far off in the midst of noise, like we do in the multitude, trying to find someone. As Jesus was saying, take heart, I'm here. I don't think it was the case. If we open in chapter Psalm 29, verses 3 and 4, we're going to read something about the voice of God, the voice of the Lord. Psalm 29, verses 3 and 4 says, the voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders, the Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. So even by, I think by the way he speaks to his disciples in the midst of this storm, in the midst of this noise, it will reveal them his majestic voice, his strength and his power to his people in the midst of the storm. Another episode that we hear that the people hear the voice of God. was when he was giving the Ten Commandments, Exodus 19 and 20. They hear the voice of the Lord as thunders, as trumpets. And the people were very, very frightened, especially because of the content, because the law of God is very frightening when we see our sins in the law of God and the perfection that it requires. And what did the people do? They asked, Moses, you speak to God, and then God would speak to us through you. They needed a mediator because the voice of the Lord was so mighty, so strong, and they were so sinful that they needed a mediator. That's the same case here. Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and men. And He speaks to us. He speaks to us in our trials. But sometimes the waters of our lives are so loud that we cannot hear Him, right? Sometimes we have a hard time in opening our Bibles and hearing God's Word, Jesus' Word. And what does He say here in our text? He says, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. I want to focus in the middle part. It is I. Actually, the words that Jesus Christ says here is exactly the same words that we find in Exodus chapter 3 in the burning bush. God speaks to Moses and commanded him to go to Egypt to deliver his people. And then Moses asked him, if they ask, who sent me, what shall I say? And then God said to him, I am that I am is sending you. This is what Jesus is telling the disciples. I am, the I am is here. Take heart. I am. I Am is here. He's the divine Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the God Himself. Not only walks on water, not only pass by them and show them His glory, not only speaks in a loud voice, in a mightier voice, mightier voice than the waves, but He speaks. I Am is with you. He's the bread of life, the light of the world. We find all these I Am sayings in John's Gospel. When he says, before Abraham was I Am, identifying himself with all the words as God. But he also says, take heart, do not be afraid. This is our third and last point. Yahweh's peace. This is what this mighty voice says to us. Take heart. Be of good cheer. Be brave. Be courageous. Do not be afraid. Even though you are going through this time in your life, He shows compassion and comes alongside you to strengthen you by His Holy Spirit, not to judge you. but to give you strength in those times of need. And you probably know that to not be afraid is one of the most, actually the most, the commandment that appears the most in the whole Bible. And maybe it's because of our weakness, right? Because we are weak and because we need Christ to come to us and reveal Himself to us, that He tells us this? Take heart. Do not be afraid. Be still and know that I am God. He Himself is the reason for our peace. The reason for our peace is not that the storm is done, that now it was too much time after we went through those things. The reason for our peace is because of Jesus Christ, whether we are in the trials or we pass through them. This is how God speaks peace to us, by coming to us in power, by revealing His glory and His mercy and His compassion and His being as the great I AM, and saying that I AM is with you. It's not that what should give us peace, to give to our hearts peace, that whatever befalls us is coming from the hands of a loving Father. who sends not only the trials, but His Holy Spirit who dwells within us to give us peace. God Himself is the reason for our peace. But this is not always easy, right? Those of you who have gone through deep, deep suffering know that sometimes it's hard to take hold of God's promises and to have peace in the midst of those times. And there's a lot of aspects by which this might be true, or the reason why we cannot have peace in those trials. First of all, because of the weakness of our flesh. We are not perfect. We will fail. We do not trust 100% in God every time. But what the text says, Now, and that what I want to highlight, verses 51 and 52, is that maybe there's something wrong in us that make us not to rest in Christ. It's not always the case, it's important to notice this, but in this text, and that's what I want to highlight, is that it might be the case. Verses 51 and 52 says, Isn't that shocking? After all they saw, Jesus Christ already calming down a storm in chapter 4, they saw this before. After Jesus Christ casting out a lot of demons, healing many people, giving amazing sermons with all authority that only God has, doing miracles after miracles, healing after healing, their hearts were still hardened. They could not even figure out what happened with the feeding of the 5,000. It was still trying to understand, and then this happens. And especially, It's hard to understand because if we look to Matthew 14, verse 33, which is the parallel account, the same account of Jesus walking on water, the text says that after Jesus entered into the boat, they worshiped Him and they said, truly, You are the living God. You are the Son of God. So they were worshiping Him and acknowledging His divinity. But right here, it says that their hearts were hardened. How to make sense of this? We don't need to look too far. You just need to look at your own heart. Look at your own heart. The condition of every human being is hardness of heart. Even regenerated men, as the apostles were at this point, there were some pockets of his life, there were some areas of their life that their hearts were hardened. And we are so weak and inclined to look at the circumstances and trust more in what we see and in what we feel, that sometimes we forget about what we believe. This is a life commitment and a life prayer request that we might have our hearts soften to the Word of God, to God's dealings, to God's providences. and to always pray to the Lord, help my unbelief, there's always something to improve, there's always something to repent of in the Christian life. And I don't want to be rude here or too much tough, but maybe the reason why you're so distressed and not finding hope or peace in the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, It's because you have a hardened heart. A hardened heart to God's will, maybe. Or you are hardened to God's providences. Or hardened to God's compassion. Thinking that you are not worthy enough to God to come alongside with you and give you peace. Maybe you are hardened to God's revelation. You don't want to go to God or to come to the Bible to have relief and rest? You'd rather prefer to go to your food, to your medicines, to substance, to work, to try to flee the situations, but not to go into Christ? Dear congregation, we, like the apostles, we are slow to understand who Jesus is and how He works in our lives. So maybe you're right now hearing this sermon and profiting from it, growing in your Christian life in a certain way, but there's some areas of your life that your heart is hardened. So we need to pray for discernment, pray for open ears and open heart to receive heavenly things, to receive more of His Spirit. Sometimes we forget to ask the Lord for His Spirit, for wisdom. We have promises in the Bible, Luke 11, James 1, that if we ask for His Holy Spirit, if we ask for wisdom, He will give us. Your congregation, remember always that in our distresses and trials, the only way to get a peaceful heart is by looking onto Jesus. Remember that He sees you in your distress. He prays for you and He intercedes specifically for you. He comes to you in power and in glory and He reveals Himself completely to you through the words of the Bible. He even comes to your boat in the well of the Holy Spirit to suffer with you, to give you strength in suffering. And He speaks peace to your heart. So when those things happen, do not harden your heart, but try to use God's hard providence to know Him better, to abide in Him whatever the circumstances, to trust in Him alone. I know that this is easier said than done. It's easier to say this. It's easy to say this. And we all have ups and downs, right? But He is faithful, and He will give us the grace we need in order to overcome the world as He did. Remember, dear congregation, that God is mightier than the waves of the sea. He is mightier than anything, and He will lead you safely home through stormy weather. Remember this. that God's hard providences is a way for Him to show you His grace, His compassion, in order to give you peace. Let us pray. O God, we come before Your throne of grace, and You only know, O Lord. Those who are listening, whether here or through the radio or through live stream, that are going through difficult times. And we ask that Your Holy Spirit may be with them in those times, O Lord. And for those who already went through trials and troubles and difficulties, You help them, O Lord, to help other people, to comfort other people with the comfort that they were comforted with, with the comfort of the Holy Spirit. We ask all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.