Jesus brings Peace and Courage

Welcome to our Women's Bible Study on the Book of Mark, which we call Following Jesus. And today we're going to cover all of Mark Chapter 6. I'll put a roadmap on the screen if you're interested in that, and I'll just share that geographically we're going to be following Jesus and his disciples into his hometown of Nazareth, into the synagogue, and then across the Sea of Galilee once and back across another time. And that is pretty much the geography of today's lesson. I usually wrap up our teachings with personal takeaway and red letter theology, and I'm not going to do that today. I'm going to save red letter theology for next week, but I'm going to weave our personal takeaways throughout the lesson. It's good to change things up, right? So that's what we're going to do. As we start with verse one, we're going to remember that most recently Jesus had been in the area of Capernaum, and do you remember the last thing that Mark had narrated for us? It was the healings of the two daughters, okay? The woman with the issue of blood, who Jesus called daughter, and then the daughter of Jairus, and both of them had been healed. So here we start with chapter six, verse one. He went away from there and came to his hometown, which I said was Nazareth, and his disciples followed him, and on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him. Okay, so this episode reveals some important things for us to consider about the life of Jesus, and the most important thing was that Jesus grew up in the veil of his humanity. No one knew that he was God, okay? Until his baptism and the launch of his ministry, the godhood was concealed, and we know that Jesus came to earth being fully man and fully God, but his growing up years were in the veil of his humanity. So I don't think Jesus went around in fifth grade healing the next kid sitting at the desk, right? And I don't think he went out casting demons. And this shows us that, you know, people didn't know. So what was Jesus' commentary on their offense, on the situation? Verse four, Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, and among his relatives, and in his own household. And he could do no mighty works there, except that he had laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief, and he went about among the villages teaching. And Jesus gives us some insights here into human nature. They're still true today. It can be difficult for us to give people room to grow. It can be difficult for us to give honor to those who are familiar to us. Maybe you changed the diapers of someone who then became a U.S. senator, okay? There's a big difference there going on, and this is human nature, and we probably ourselves should look at this and say, hmm, I need to give people room to grow and room to change. This wasn't the situation with Jesus, okay? There's no room to grow. I'm just saying a personal application for us here. But it was what it was. So Jesus simply continued through the villages, teaching about the kingdom of God and preparing his disciples to do the same. And he called the twelve and he began to send them out two by two, gave them authority over the unclean spirits, and he charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff. No bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent, and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. So this is just a straightforward narrative about the work of the apostles. Jesus had trained them to carry on the same work that he was doing, to teach about the kingdom, to heal the sick, and to cast out demons. And that's what they did. They were not to overprepare for this, but they were to trust in God, rely upon God's people. They were not to pick and choose the best places to stay. Once they landed somewhere, they were not to be treated like a pampered guest, but they were to serve in the same way that Jesus did. And so now our next section comes to a very lengthy explanation of the death of John the Baptist. There's a couple things I want us to note as we approach this. Number one is the fact that John the Baptist was killed for speaking kingdom truth. And that's both an important fact and an ominous sign for Jesus and the disciples. The fact that Jesus and his disciples continued their ministry in the face of both, in the face of grief, is commendable and it's inspiring for us. So let's read this. Verse 14, King Herod heard of it, meaning Jesus's ministry, healings, casting out demons, all that, for Jesus's name had become known. Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. But others said he is Elijah. And others said he's a prophet, like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John, bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. So this is really fascinating here, that we see these two individuals, Herod and his new wife Herodias, that represent some of the soil types that we studied about recently, right? Herod's heart seems to have some porosity, is that a word? Something about it. He gave John honor. He keeps wanting to come back and hear John. But Herodias, hard as anything. Hard path. And so we can see the difference. But Herodias, in the end, she wins. The backstory here is that Herod, this is Herod Antipas. He had coveted his brother's wife, Herodias, and took her to be his own wife. This is adultery, okay? And so when John spoke to Herod, he would say to him, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. Now, Herod wasn't a Jew, and yet God's moral standard applies to everyone. And so John the Baptist would just say so, and this greatly offended Herodias. In fact, she hated him for this. But she was waiting for an opportunity to do something. So verse 21, but an opportunity came when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. So this is a who's who gala. For when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you. And he vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half of my kingdom. Now this is an idiom we've heard before, even in the Old Testament, right? Whatever you want, I will give you up to half of my kingdom, okay? So it really meant you ask, I'll give. He didn't have a kingdom. He wasn't a king. Some people called him King Herod, but he was not a true king. Verse 24, and she went out and said to her mother, for what should I ask? And she said, the head of John the Baptist. And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl. And the girl gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took the body and laid it in a tomb. What a troubling narrative of the end of John's life. Herod had got himself caught in this dark web that included his wife and daughter. And by the way, young women were not allowed to. to dance before men, okay? Young Jewish, it doesn't really matter if you were a Jewish woman or a Gentile woman. This was off the grid, okay? And so her dancing, we can read between the lines, this was intended to get Herod to lose his sensibilities. It was intended to arouse him and that's exactly what happened. But the tender part of this passage that we read, I think is found in verse 29, I love it. It says, when His disciples heard of it, they came and took His body and laid it in a tomb. Now this must have been very painful for those disciples. I've never buried a body. I mean, I've been to funerals, but I've never physically, personally buried a body. And I can imagine that burying a body is a troubling experience. Burying a friend or a close family member elevates it even more. But then, burying someone dear to you who has been mutilated and has suffered greatly and you take that body and bury it, this is a very grief-filled experience. But they honored John by doing this. The disciples and Jesus, after this episode, they carried on in the face of grief. Grief doesn't go away in a moment, right? You don't bury a body one day and start moving on the next day. And yet, their ministry continued. And some of you have had to do that. Paul and I have had to do that. We've had to continue ministering in the face of grief before. There's not, it's not all terrible and I'll tell you why. I can remember years ago, I think we were still living in Seattle, and my parents went through a season of grief. You know how kids can bring some grief into your experience sometimes? Well, I wasn't the one, I wasn't the kid. It was one of the other ones. But I knew that they were suffering with what had been going on. And from a distance, I watched them, in their grief over this situation, I watched them find a ministry. And there was another family member who had lost her husband in a farm accident and then lost her legs in a farm accident. So she needed a lot of help. And I watched my parents just roll up their sleeves and dig in and remodel her farmhouse so that she could function in this state that she found herself in. And it ministered a lot to me, because over the years, I've seen how important it is sometimes when you are grieving, to roll up your sleeves and minister to someone. It can help tremendously. But anyway, here's where I wanna weave in some of our personal takeaways that go with the actual text. And I think we're gonna find some really important insights about ministry. So verse 30, the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, "'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place "'and rest a while.' "'For many were coming and going "'and they had no leisure even to eat.'" I think, as I studied this lesson this week, those are my favorite red letter words right there. I love them so much. I'm gonna show it to you in the NIV up on the screen. In this translation, Jesus says, "'Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place "'and get some rest.'" That's just such a sweet invitation, I think, that comes from the Lord and one we need a lot. But throughout this next encounter, we're gonna see some insights here about ministry that I want us to continue. And I'll put them on the screen for you while I read them. Here's some of the insights. Four of them. Ministry requires rest. Ministry can be inconvenient. Ministry often creates challenges. And ministry requires faith. These are some of the takeaways I think we're gonna see in this text. So let's consider the first one. Ministry requires rest. And by ministry, I don't mean here healing people and casting out demons, okay? That's untouchable for our minds. What I mean is the ministry between your own two feet. The ministry God has given you right where you are. Wherever God has placed you in life, you have a ministry right between your own two feet. What was the ministry between the apostles' feet? Crowds. Crowds of people. That was their ministry in that moment. And they had been given little time to grieve over John or to process his death, but the crowds were pressing in, pressing in, coming and going, going and coming. Not even time to grab a sandwich. No time to rest. So Jesus has a good idea here when he says, come away by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. It really didn't seem like the best time for a little R and R with all the customers lined up, but yet when Jesus says to do something, it's a good idea. So in verse 32, and they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. Now, many saw them going, recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. Wherever Jesus went, ministry followed always. And so the people, the ministry that followed wasn't super protective of their time. And what was Jesus's response to the people? Compassion. He had compassion on them. And so this leads us to our point number two about ministry, and that is that ministry can be inconvenient. I want us to circle back to what I called the ministry right between your own two feet. And I want you to consider a little bit, what is that ministry in your life? What is the ministry right between your feet? Well, if you have little ones in your home, that's obvious. It is children. You might have, the ministry might be some of your family. The ministry, you might have a ministry on your block in your Sunday school class to the families of the other kids on the sports teams, all kinds of people that are unique to you in your world are the ministry God has given us. And those ministries are not always convenient, are they? The ministry God has given you is not always convenient. So what do we need to do when ministry is not convenient? We need what Jesus had naturally, a heart of compassion for the sheep. And so this is something to me, I was reminded again, this needs to be a regular prayer cycle for me when things are not convenient is to ask the Lord for this heart of compassion that he gives. I just have such a tiny bit, that mustard seed, but the Lord can give. Verse 35, and when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate place and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. And here we're gonna come to insight number three, ministry often creates challenges, even problems. As we minister, however God has, whatever that is between our feet, there's gonna be challenges to it. There's going to be problems. Some problems are simple, some of them are complex, some of them are confusing. Why does ministry have to create so many challenges for us? Because I love what Corrie Ten Boom said they hung on to decades ago. This is not heaven, this is earth. Nothing is perfect and they're just our challenges in the life that we live here. So the need was obvious and the disciples came up with an obvious solution, send them away, right? So it may have seemed like a good solution to them, maybe even to us, it may seem like an instant solution. The need was food, obvious answer, send them away to where the food is, okay? Now, if they had been praying to Jesus instead of right there talking to him, if they had been praying like we do, where Jesus isn't face to face, so we pray. So if they were in the situation that we find ourselves in, what would it have looked like? They would have said, oh Lord, right now we ask that you would please put it on their hearts that they need to leave and they need to go and find where there's food, just put it on their hearts. Do we do that sometimes? We come up with a solution and we pray that God would do our solution because it seems obvious to us, seems like the obvious solution. When what the disciples really needed to do was just wait a minute, listen for Jesus's solution to their problem. That's what we need to do too, just wait a minute. We might have an obvious one and we're all busy telling the Lord, would you do this, would you do this, put this on their heart, have them do this, when what we need to do is just wait for a minute and listen. Verse 37, but he answered them, you give them something to eat. And they said to him, well, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? And he said to them, how many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they had found out, they said five and two fish. And then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups by hundreds and fifties. Remember, the disciples' plan was to send them away. Jesus's plan was different because he doesn't send people away. He had a different plan. And so this brings us to our fourth insight, which is ministry requires faith. Okay? Jesus's answer was to multiply the small resources to cover the large need. And this is a pattern in ministry. This is a pattern in our ministries. We see a large need in front of us. Jesus's answer is to take a small resource, mix it with faith to cover that large need. For example, if your need is patience, you need patience. And you say, like I just said about compassion, that you have a tiny, tiny bit of patience. This story is a story for you to live in because you say, oh, I only have the five fish and two loaves or whatever of patience. And then we lean into the Lord to trust him, to multiply that to meet our need. Okay? Verse 41 says, and taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing, broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all, and they all ate and were satisfied. And he took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and a fish. And those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men. So we have a great New Testament story with such a happy ending. And we love it. But the very next paragraph highlights for the fact that even when we have ministry with happy endings, there's another problem right around the corner. And that's what we go into. Verse 45, 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. We're intended to see the separation there. Jesus on the land, the disciples in the boat. They're separated. Verse 48, and he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them. This was one of these storms that comes up on the Sea of Galilee. They were moving forward, but I love how Mark uses that phrase. They were making headway painfully. Have you ever made headway painfully in your life? Okay, a real storm. When I was five years old in kindergarten, a blizzard came up and we were at school. And so the buses got all the kids in and taking us back out to our country homes. And by the time the bus got me and my two older sisters to our driveway, he couldn't come down the driveway into the house because he wouldn't have gotten back out. The snow and blizzards, how they are. And anyway, so he watched while my two sisters each took my hand. And this story has been told me so many times by my mother that I have like a cartoonish picture of it in my mind. But they each took my hand and they were quite a bit older than me, six and nine years older. And we made our way to the house, but my mother says my feet were up behind me. You know, like they were just carrying me and the wind was blowing, but they were a little bit sturdier. I was a small person at one time in my life. When I was five, I was a very small person. And so they were kind of taking me and we were making headway painfully in the midst of the blizzard to the house. Of course we got there fine, but you've had real life storms, okay? You can relate to this. Emotional storms, relational storms. And it's that you're not sinking, but you're making headway so painfully. It is so arduous. Maybe you're experiencing a storm right now that you could describe like this. Like I wake up in the morning hoping that I've made a bit of progress and not gone backwards, but we do. We have these storms in our lives and we know we're not sinking, but man, like we're just barely, we're making headway painfully. So if this resonates with you, I want you to look again at verse 48, where it says, he saw, Jesus saw, that they were making headway painfully. In our culture, we have a phrase that we use, you are seen. I think we overuse it, but it's a good phrase. It's a good phrase to say, Jesus saw. His eye was never not on them. He could see from his vantage point what was going on. And so Jesus took notice of what was happening to them. And it's important to remember in the midst of our storms where we're making headway painfully, it's so important to read this story and say, but Jesus sees, Jesus knows. I'm not doing this outside of his vision. There's a few other things I want us to note in this. First of all, when did the storm arise in the disciples' lives? When did this come up? Wasn't it after Jesus told them to get into the boat and be out on the sea? This storm did not arise because they were disobedient. In fact, this storm arose because they were obedient. And isn't that the truth? Sometimes when we are in a situation, we're making painful, making headway painfully, and what do we say to ourselves? We begin to process and we say, what wrong turn did I make? What did I do wrong here? Why is my life going this way? I need to walk back and see if I did something wrong. We assume we've done something wrong. No, this lesson should teach us that's not the truth. In fact, sometimes the Bible over and over tells us that unbelievers, the disobedient, have a little bit more smooth sailing on earth for a while. But we're reminded again, difficulties, challenges, storms come into the lives of those who are walking well with Jesus. And so if that is what is happening to you, stop asking yourself, what did I do wrong? Okay, this is just reality. So one truth we need to hold onto here is that we have storms in the midst of walking well with Jesus. And another truth we need to hold onto is that Jesus not only saw their struggle, but he entered into their struggle, okay? He was the one that came to them walking on the water. And he saw and he came in this storm. It wasn't this time. Last time it was the disciples that brought it to the attention of Jesus. But in this storm, they didn't bring it to the attention of Jesus. He came to them. And so our conclusion is that God sees and God knows the storms in our lives. And when we're making headway painfully, God sees that storm. Let's find out what happens. 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. Okay, there's two more things in that last section that I really want to highlight and take away from this episode. And the first one is this, I'll put it up on the screen for you. When Jesus entered into their experience, he brought peace, okay? Now this is a real narrative of real events that happened. Jesus suspended the laws of nature to walk out on the water to meet them. And again, this was another testimony to them of Jesus's authority over the natural elements, okay? And the result was peace, no more storm. Now, I just wanna give a little side note right here. At this point in two of the other gospels in Matthew and John, it's told to us that this is where Peter says to Jesus, can I come out and meet you? And he swings his feet over the boat and Peter walks on the water to meet Jesus. Now, Mark eliminates that. And that's kind of an interesting thought because Mark's narrative is as Peter spokesman. And so that's omitted. And we wonder why. We wonder if Peter did not tell this himself. very often, lest people get a wrong impression of him or whatever. But Matthew and John told us about it. Anyway, the point is, you know, you may know that story, and you know that Peter, eventually he did walk on the water, but eventually he began to sink. Jesus lifted him up, and we might say, well yeah, he did a little bit, but he failed. Well, here's the deal. Peter at least threw his legs over the boat and got started, which is a lot more than I do a lot of the time in terms of faith. So, you know, I'll give him kudos for that. But the point is, when Jesus entered into their experience, the result was peace. The wind ceased. Now, for us, okay, we know the truth that Jesus enters into our experience. The truth is that Jesus brings peace. He doesn't bring perfection. He brings peace. He brings the peace that is in here, in the midst of a storm. Jesus will always bring peace that we can hold on to in the midst of a storm. Now, in this situation, the storm was over. But I want you to walk back a little bit to the narrative we had about John the Baptist. I am absolutely sure that Jesus entered into the storm in John the Baptist's life as he was sitting in the prison cell in Herod's jail or whatever. Jesus entered into that. I am absolutely sure that Jesus brought peace as he entered into that, not perfection. But the result was very different than what we see here. And aren't we learning that as we go through the book of Mark? You can't pin God down and say what he does in this situation. He will do the exact same thing for the next situation. But I am confident that John the Baptist had peace as he was in his difficult situation. And the second thing that we want to learn is when Jesus entered into their experience, he gave them courage. Look at the words. The only red letter words we have here. Take heart. It is I do not be afraid. This is almost the same message that Jesus spoke to Jairus in last week's lesson. And this is a frequent message that God speaks to us when we are in these situations. God will say to us, take heart. Don't fear. Have courage. We need courage in life because what God does in one situation isn't necessarily what he's going to do in the next. And we don't know how our situation will unfold. But sometimes God's choice is to literally calm our storm and bring peace. And sometimes God's choice is to allow us to continue in the storm and bring courage. Okay. So I want to give us a little definition of courage. This is my definition. I've often defined it as strength to move forward even in the face of fear, pain or grief. That is courage is when you have strength to move forward even in the face of fear or pain or grief. The root word courage has other words that we add prefixes to like discouraged. What does it mean when you are discouraged? Well, you have no ability to move forward in the face of fear or pain or grief. You become paralyzed. That's being discouraged. But 2nd Corinthians 5 6 tells us this. Look at this. So we are always of good courage for we walk by faith and not by sight. We have courage because we walk by faith. That's what Jesus said to the disciples. Don't fear. Have faith. It's I. I'm here. And maybe you need courage right now to walk a path in your life that frightens you to do things that you know you need to do but you haven't felt that you had what it takes. It's courage that you need from the Lord. And that's what he brings to us. There's one more application of the word courage. Maybe maybe you don't have a big storm right at the moment. Somebody else does. There's someone in your world that has a big storm. So let's take another prefix and put it onto courage and courage. What does it mean to encourage? It means to cheer the movement on to walk the path that you've been given in the midst of fear or pain or grief to be a cheerleader for that. That's how we encourage one another. That's where our part comes in that we can minister to one another. I like how Billy Graham said, I've used this quote often, do not ask for your fears to be removed. He said, ask for courage equal to your fears. Courage is contagious. When a brave man or woman takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened. But I really like what he said. Don't ask for your fears to be removed. Ask for courage from the Lord bigger than those fears. So just in case you didn't catch the correlation, let me add one more part on this. Let me personalize these two points. When Jesus enters into our experiences, he brings peace and he brings courage. Those are the things we want to be looking for from the Lord in the midst of our storms, in the midst of our difficulties, to find the peace of God and to find the courage of God. All right, let's wrap this up. Verse 53, when they had crossed over, they came to the land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as were touched were made well. And that's just a straightforward narrative again of the ministry of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus. And so what I want to do is just pray for us some of these elements that we might learn from this message from the storm. So, Father in heaven, thank you for this chapter. I just feel like for my own personal life it's been very rich, Lord. And I pray the same thing for those who have been studying this lesson, hearing this message. Lord, I pray that you would help us to seek out from you the peace in the middle of our storms and the courage that you give us. Lord, help us to see that and to put it into action, I pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.