Take heart: I Am (with you)

Heavenly Father, we thank You that, in this Christmas season, we can meditate upon what it means that God is with us, that Jesus is Emmanuel. That Jesus, You, the great I am, Yahweh of the Hebrew scriptures, You came to be with us. We thank You, Lord Jesus, that You call us to be Your disciples, Your followers. And that doesn't mean that You call us to an easy life, often it means that You do call us to seasons of trials and testing and I pray, Lord, fill our hearts with joy when we encounter the trials, when we encounter the tests. As James tells us, count in all joy, my brothers and, when you meet trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect so that you may be complete and perfect, lacking in nothing. Lord, You do test us in order to equip us, in order to empower us, in order to use us and You do it in order to deepen our revelation of You and deepen our faith in You.

And Lord, I pray from the holy scriptures today, encourage us, show us that, when Jesus Christ became man, when God took on flesh, You came into our struggles, You came into our trials in the same way that You came to the disciples walking on the water, You came into the boat and You saved them from the storm, You welcome that same salvation and You offer it to each one of us. I pray, if there's anyone here today who's not sure where they stand before the God of the universe, I pray that they meet Jesus Christ, I pray that You give them the gift of repentance so they do repent of their sins and leave them and I pray that You save them from their sin and give them power over sin to walk in ways of righteousness. Holy Spirit, we love You and we pray that You come and minister to us, encourage us, edify us and continue to work out Your will in our lives. We pray this, in Jesus Christ's name, amen.

We're continuing our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark called Kingdom Come and the idea is that Jesus has come to inaugurate the Lord's kingdom. He said the kingdom of God is at hand, therefore, repent and believe and then He calls us, as His followers, to establish His kingdom and that starts with praying. And in the Lord's prayer, He teaches us to pray, Lord, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. The title of the sermon today is Take Heart, I am with You. A famous phrase in combat sports is there's levels to this and the idea can be applied to just about any sphere of life but it's made famous in combat sports because, whenever the winner at the end of the match, when he's interviewed, the microphone, post-victory, is put in front of his face or her face and they say, "How did you win?"

And usually, the answer is something like, "There's levels to this," meaning I reached a level that my opponent has not. And there's levels in striking, footwork, defense, strength, speed, conditioning but the level that must be reached if victory is to be tasted on a regular basis is can you remain calm in the face of adversity. As the great philosopher, Mike Tyson, famously put it, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. And often, in following Jesus Christ, we get punched in the mouth and it's the punch that you don't see coming that knocks you out. Therefore, we, as followers of Christ, we should be ready, we should be ready for whatever the life throws at us.

Can you calm your nerves when the pressure is the highest? Well, same goes for faith. Can we keep trusting in the Lord, trusting in His sovereignty when it feels like we're in the middle of a storm rowing in place because the winds are so strong and our strength is so minuscule in comparison? And then can we remain sensitive to the Lord? Can we remain tender-hearted when frustration begins to creep in? Lord, this is not what I signed up for. Lord, this is not what I've been asking for. The text before us today seems so similar to the episode where Jesus was in the boat with the disciples, they're caught in the storm and Jesus was sleeping in the stern, His head on a cushion. And in that text, it's similar to our text, there is a storm and it almost seems like the text is redundant but, in this episode, Jesus is not physically in the boat with the disciples.

He isn't in the boat in our lives physically, He's not here physically but His physical presence isn't necessary for His sovereign rule to continue reigning because He is the great I am. That's His name, Jesus says, "I am," unchangeable, unflappable, immutable. He's as much with His disciples overseeing their struggles and suffering, superintending their pain from a distant mountain in our text as if He were in the boat with them. The context is the disciples had returned from a short-term missionary trip where they were preaching the word of the kingdom, they were exorcizing demons, they were healing many in the name of Christ and they were accepted by many, rejected by more. And then they come back and Jesus sees that they're absolutely exhausted and He says, "Let's go to a desolate place so that you can rest."

As they're going to their vacation destination, so to speak, 5,000 men find out that they're coming and then Jesus and the disciples end up teaching for another full day and then the crowds are hungry. The disciples say, "Jesus, send them away so they can get some food," and Jesus tells them, "You feed them." And then Jesus takes the five loaves and the two fish and multiplies them exponentially, feeds the thousands and the disciples spend hours more, they were already exhausted, hours more carrying food back and forth to the groups of 50s and a hundred. So, the disciples are bone tired and now Jesus, in our text, commands them to get into the boat and, unbeknownst to them, He's sending them into another storm, this time by themselves.

They spend hours in the storm rowing in the darkness against the thick of the stormy winds. And the question is how will they respond this time? Will they level up their faith? Will they take the lessons they've learned and apply them in the new test or will they remain hardened and frustrated by the pain that Jesus has allowed? In Mark 6:45 through 56, that's where we find ourselves. Would you please look at the text with me?

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. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore and, when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized 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 touched, it were made.

Well, this is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, fallible, authoritative word, may He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, when life gets overwhelming, keep praying. Second, when life gets overwhelming, keep rowing. And third, when life gets overwhelming, keep believing. First, when life gets overwhelming, keep praying. Jesus had just ministered to thousands, preaching God's word to them and we see in this text that Jesus just needs to pause. You see this often in the Gospel of Mark where He serves, serves, serves, serves and then, all of a sudden, He's just out. He's like, "Okay, I'm going to a mountain. I need to pray." Jesus as God did not need to pray but Jesus the man certainly did.

And Jesus is the divine Son without beginning of life or end of days who was dwelt in the glory and the blessedness of the Trinity in perfect fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever but here, in our text, we see that Christ is human. He is a man and, as a man, Mark highlights for us Christ need to pray. As God, He doesn't need to pray but, as man, He could not neglect to pray so He sends His disciples off to give them a breather from the crowd, leaves the crowd with a last sermon, a benediction, if you will, and now Jesus needs to go and restore the ammunition, so to speak, the spiritual resources that He needs to continue. He understands that what He's doing is waging spiritual warfare and, in warfare, you need ammunition and where does Jesus get the resources, where do we get the resources, the power to and the strength? We get it from prayer.

And it seems that the disciples didn't want to leave, they saw Jesus perform this incredible miracle and perhaps they wanted to go and pray to the Lord with Jesus but the text tells us in verse 45 that Jesus makes them get into the boat. Immediately, He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. We're not sure why Jesus does this but He abruptly sends them out and He Himself goes to pray. The parallel passage in the Gospel of John gives us a hint as to why, abruptly, He goes to pray to the Father. Perhaps He is wrestling with the same temptation that Satan came to Him with in Matthew 4.

But in John 6, the parallel passage, it says, "When the people saw the sign that He had done, they said, 'This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world,' perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king. Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself." Jesus had just spent all day teaching them what His kingdom is like, that His kingdom is an inside-out kingdom, that He has come to save people from their sins, give them new hearts so they want to submit to God from the inside out, it's an inside out kingdom but that's not what they wanted. They didn't want this talk of repentance, of submission to God, of submission to His word and His law. No, they wanted an outside in kingdom, a king that would force people into submission, force the enemies of Israel into submission.

A change of heart? No, they wanted a change in politics. They didn't care about a new heart, all they cared about was that their stomachs were filled. And who wouldn't want a king who can provide an endless supply of food? Forget Herod, forget Pontius Pilate, forget Caesar, we have someone who can always feed us. Philippians 3:18, Saint Paul writes for many of whom I've often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven and, from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to himself.

Jesus knew that these crowds were not followers, they were just fans. They were consumers and seekers, not subjects and servants. These are the same people who will turn on Jesus in just a couple of years when He fails to give them what they want. They demand a political king, they demand someone who can meet their physical needs. Spirituality, the kingdom of heaven, repenting, believing the word of God meant nothing to them and that's why, when they were given the choice, "Do you want Barabbas or do you want Jesus? Which one do you want free?" They said, "Give us Barabbas the thief. Jesus, crucify Him." Their sin, which is the root cause of all their suffering, blinded them to see what they needed most which is forgiveness from the Lord and a new heart.

The heavenly Father sent Jesus to conquer humanity's greatest enemy. Our greatest enemy is sin, not the Roman Empire, not big religious establishment. He came as Israel's messianic king but not just Israel's and we have all sinned and we are all under condemnation and we all desperately need the Lord to fill our souls with His presence. Also, becoming an earthly king the first time around must have been a temptation for Jesus. Jesus, in the human form, was tempted as we are. He was tempted with taking the crown without enduring the cross and that's what Satan tempted Jesus with in the desert when Christ was fasting in Matthew 4:8.

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said to Him, "All these I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve." Jesus said, "I've come to make people worshipers of God, the Father seek those who worship Him in spirit and in truth." So, Jesus dismisses the crowds, dismisses the disciples and He goes to pray. He goes to spend time with the Heavenly Father, this is how He fought temptation, this is how He gained perspective, this is how He was reminded of his mission. That's verse 46. After He had taken leave of them, He went up on the mountain to pray.

The Lord taught us in the Sermon on the Mount how to pray. In Matthew 6:5, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward but, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to the Father who is in secret and Your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then like this, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."

He says, "Your heavenly Father knows what you need even before you ask. And sometimes the Lord provides even before we ask, He loves to meet our needs." But what needs does Jesus have? He multiplied five loaves and two fishes and feed thousands, His need wasn't for bread, His need was for the presence of God the Father. He wanted proximity to the Father, He wanted a visitation with the Father, that's why He prays. And this is also how Jesus waged spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6 tells us that there is a spiritual war happening all around us, therefore, we are to stand firm in the Lord in the strength of his might. And in the text later it says praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication to the end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

And that's what Jesus was doing, He's praying in the spirit and who's He praying for? He's praying for the saints, He's praying for the disciples. He went to the mountain, not just to rest, not just to sleep, but to wage spiritual war in prayer. He was interceding for the disciples as He currently is interceding for us. He is the one mediator, as 1 Timothy 2:5, for there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom for all which is the testimony given at the proper time. Satan wants to destroy every single human being, he wants to destroy every single soul and he even wanted to destroy the disciples. Scripture says that he wants to deceive even the elect, if he could.

Jesus, in one time, in Luke 22 says this to Peter, He says, "Simon, Simon, behold Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." This is Jesus praying for His disciples, He's praying for their faith so it does not fail as they are in a great storm. This kind of prayer is work, it's labor, it's struggle. You should pray so hard sometimes that you break a sweat and you're even surprised by it. At community group recently, we have community group at my place and, at the end, we break up, the sisters stay in the living room and the brothers go into the kitchen and I always say, "Men in the kitchen, where they belong," and everyone laughs and they belong eating the snacks.

And we were praying and there were just immediate needs and we felt the heaviness of the Holy Spirit and we're praying, we're praying and we're praying, we're done praying. And I look at the brother's foreheads, they're all drenched, I needed a change of shirt, I just sweat a lot. Sometimes, prayer is work, it's labor. We have to pray fervently, fiery prayers, zealous prayers. In Colossians 4:12, St. Paul says, "Epaphras, who was one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God." Do you emulate Christ with your prayer? Do you pray for the saints as He did? Do you pray for the conversion of the lost? Do you pray for revival? Have you ever spent hours in prayer? Have you continued all night in prayer even once?

And if you want more power to get through the storms of life when life gets overwhelming, pray. If you want more power to see the power of God in your life doing the impossible, pray. And if you want to be used mightily by God, pray even as our Lord did. So, Jesus up on the mountain praying for His disciples so, when life gets overwhelming, pray and, second, when life gets overwhelming, keep rowing. This is verse 47. 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. So, Jesus is up on the mountain, I love this image, perhaps He sees by moonlight, He sees them struggling, He sees them striving but His eye is upon Him. And this is assuring that, even when we're going through trials of life, the Lord, His eye is upon us.

Psalm 32:8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding which must be curbed with bit and brittle or it will not stay near you. It seems like, whenever Jesus leaves the disciples alone, they're in trouble but Jesus' eye is upon them, He's watching over them. They're experiencing the contrary wind, there's darkness, perhaps the boat is filling up as in the previous story and it says that they were making headway painfully, making tortuous progress. So, the wind is against them, the sails are down, you can't use the sails when the wind is against you. So, the oars are out, they're rowing, they're being tormented in their rowing as one translation says. They were not making any progress, rowing was a struggle.

Verse 48 says, "About the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea, He meant to pass by them." So, if they left that dusk, I don't know, 7:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. and now Jesus comes to them walking in the water in the fourth watch of the night, that's between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. So, you're talking about they're rowing against the wind six to eight to nine hours and the storm wasn't just a sudden squall as in the previous text, this is a continuous headwind necessitating heavy back-breaking rowing. Have you ever rowed? Is there a rowing machine in your gym? Five minutes on that thing, you're like, "I'm done. I got my workout for the week."

I rowed for a season in college on the crew team and there's a reason why I did it for a season, it is awful, it was so bad. But the workouts were an hour on this erg, an hour, you're going at heavy pace and painful, painful. You're exhausted by the end and famished. And this is why I wonder, Jesus fed the 5,000 and how many baskets were left over? Twelve baskets. Remember that? One basket for each disciple. He's like, "Here you go, gentlemen. Here's some bread and carbs for the storm that I'm sending you into." And even in that, we see the Lord's incredible provision that He provided for them, provided energies for them, food for them as they're rowing. And this whole episode is a tremendous illustration of the life of a disciple, the life of following Jesus Christ. It really is a life of testing and then deliverance.

The Lord allows a test in your life, gets you to the point where you're out of energy and that's when you ask for the Lord's deliverance and that's when He shows up. And I do want to point out that the storm here isn't them deviating from God's plan, the Lord didn't send the storm as punishment for their disobedience, no, they did exactly what Jesus said. They end up in the boat because Jesus made them get in the boat and, at this point, they could have become frustrated. Jesus, why'd You allow this again? We would much rather be on the mountain with You praying and snacking on our bread and fish. But now, we're in this boat rowing nine hours into the wind. And what's the lesson here?

Well, if you're doing the Lord's work, if you're in the middle of the Lord's will and it feels like everyone and everything is against you, you just keep going, you keep rowing. He will supply you with strength even as He supplied the disciples with food. And then, at the darkest hour of the night, in their time, their moment of greatest need, in a totally unexpected way, Jesus comes to the rescue. In both of the storms at sea, it must have seemed to the disciples that Jesus doesn't care and that's what they said the first time, "Jesus, don't you care? We're perishing." And here, it seems like Jesus doesn't care, allowed us to go into the storm and He's up on the mountain but, in both occasions, the Lord strengthened them with deeper revelations of who He is.

There He showed that He is God over creation and here He's going to show that He is the God of the Old Testament, He is Yahweh. And the Lord often allows hardships in our life of all kinds, loneliness, persecution, afflictions of the body, disappointments and frustrations of life and then death itself. But how many of the Lord's choice saints would say, "Even when I'm battered in the storms of life, that's when the Lord was closest, that's when the Lord came to the rescue."? Here, Jesus meets them by walking on the sea, this shows His divinity but it's also reminiscent of Israel. Israel fled Egypt and they walked across the sea, the sea was parted. Jesus is using these themes from the Old Testament as He's creating a new Israel.

And Israel, if you remember, they didn't enter the promised land because of their bickering and complaining against God. God had them, for 40 years, walk around in circles in the wilderness because they didn't trust God, they didn't believe Him and they complained about the circumstances they found themselves in. And this is what's happening here, Jesus is testing the new Israel. Are you going to complain? Are you going to grumble or are you going to learn the lessons that would have you to learn to do all things without grumbling and complaining? It says He meant to pass by them, what does this mean? Well, perhaps it was to test their faith. Just as He was sleeping in the stern of the boat on the previous occasion, if they had sufficient faith, they would be content even without His presence with them. Smallness of faith is a failure to remember God's work in the past and apply that knowledge to present problems.

But I think this phrase to pass by is an allusion to the Old Testament and on two occasions where God revealed himself to Moses and God revealed himself to Elijah, the preeminent prophets of the Old Testament. It says, at both times, when they asked for theophany, asked for the glory of God, asked to see Him, it says He passed by them. Meaning He's like, "I want to give you a deeper revelation but, if I show you all of myself, you're going to die because of your sin." So, even these great, great preeminent prophets, they're only given a glimpse of the Lord and the glimpse of His glory because Christ had not yet come.

For example, in Exodus 33:17, and the Lord said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do for you have found favor in my sight and I know you by name." Moses said, "Please show me your glory," and He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you My name, the Lord," and here the Lord is Yahweh, I am that I am, "And I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." But he said, "You cannot see My face for man shall not see me and live." And the Lord said, "Behold, there is a place by Me where you shall stand on the rock and, while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and I'll cover you with My hand until I've passed by. And then I will take away My hand and you shall see My back but My face shall not be seen."

So, in this text where God says, "Here's My name, I am, I am Yahweh," that's what Yahweh means, I am that I am, "I'm going to reveal to you My name, I'm going to reveal to you My glory. But only just a glimpse, I have to pass by," because of the sin nature of each one of us even Moses. Same thing happened with Elijah, 1 Kings 19:9. And there he came to a cave and lodged in it and behold the word of the Lord came to him and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts for the people of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword and, I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away."

And He said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by and the great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was a not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. When God reveals Himself in a whisper to Elijah as He passed by, the Lord passed by in order to reveal Himself on a deeper level but, before Christ had come, they weren't ready for the full revelation, the full effulgence of His glory.

And that's what's happening here and that's what Jesus is doing, He's revealing to His disciples, He's trying to take them to the next level of their faith, show them that He is the God of the Hebrew scriptures, He is Yahweh, He is the great I am. Point three is, when life gets overwhelming, keep believing. Verse 49, and 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." The disciples, all they could see was the wind, the storm, all they could see was the oars, all they could feel was the exhaustion, they weren't expecting the Lord, therefore, they're shocked. They were perhaps crying out in their heart of hearts but they didn't ... How could you even imagine something like this, Jesus walking on the water?

And it says that they were terrified and who can blame them? They're exhausted, cold from the rain and the spray and then, all of a sudden, Jesus is here and He says, "Take heart," be encouraged, "It is I." And it is I in the Greek, it's ego eimi, it's I am. Not just I, it's I am. And He uses the same exact name as God of the Hebrew scriptures uses to define Himself. You see this all throughout the Hebrew scriptures, all throughout the Old Testament but in particular in Exodus 3:13 through 15 when God reveals Himself to Moses at the burning bush and Moses asks God for His name. Verse 13 of Exodus 3, then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me what is his name, what shall I say to them?"

And God said to Moses, "I am who I am." And He said, "Say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent Me to you." God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, "The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is My name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations." Every Jew knew from memory these famous words in Exodus 3:14 that Yahweh spoke to Moses in the burning bush I am that I am. And these are the words that Jesus applied to Himself in John chapter 8 and His religious audience, the Pharisees, knew exactly what He was saying that's why, immediately after He says I am, they picked up stones to execute Him for blasphemy because, if He wasn't God, if He wasn't the great I am, then He deserved to be executed.

This is John 8:56. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day, he saw it and was glad. So, the Jews said to him, "You are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was I am." So, they picked up stones to throw at Him but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. And these texts are all based on Exodus 3:14 in which God reveals His name is ego eimi, I am the one who is. It denotes that He is everlasting presence. There was never a moment that God was not, there will never be a moment that God will not be. Same thing with Christ, there was never a moment that Christ did not exist. Yes, he took on human form, yes, He was born but he preceded that with His existence.

In John 18 where Jesus is being arrested, betrayed by Judas, one of His disciples, in the garden of Gethsemane, there's a little detail that ... It's never included in any of the Jesus movies. It's a detail where Jesus says I am and, all of the soldiers, they fall. I love that because Jesus is saying I could kill all of you, I choose not to. This is a John 18. When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the brook Kidron where there was a garden which He and His disciples entered. Now, Judas who betrayed Him also knew the place where Jesus often met there with His disciples. So, Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" They answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am He." Judas who betrayed Him was standing with them and Jesus said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground. Jesus' self-identification here as I am He connects to the Hebrew scriptures. I am was also part of the 10 Commandments that He gave Moses and, all throughout the Hebrew scriptures, I am was the name of God that Jesus attributes to Himself. Deion Sanders, the formerly glorious, in human terms, football player, he started coaching college football in Colorado and his son was a quarterback and they won the first game and it was apparently a big deal and then that's where they lost their momentum.

Right after, he was being interviewed and they said, "Tell us about your son. Why is he so good?" And he said, Deion Sanders said, "He is him." And as soon as he said that, I'm like, "No, he's not." That only applies to Jesus. Jesus, He is Him because He is the great I am. And they're season tanked after that, God doesn't like blasphemy. So, Jesus is calling Himself the great I am, He's calling Himself that's who He is. In verse 51, 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. And how is this the punchline? How is this the end of this text? You see the miraculous Jesus walking on the water saving His disciples and the text ends with a rebuke. Rebuke that's incomprehensible. It's incomprehensible that the disciples do not comprehend who Jesus is.

This is the most astonishing part of the text especially if you realize where we are in the Gospel of Mark and what they have witnessed. They have been privileged to see miracle upon miracle. Simon Peter's mother-in-law gets healed, a leper is cleansed, the paralytic is given the power to walk, a man with a withered hand is restored to wholeness, Jesus casts out a legion of demons, a woman with the flow of blood is healed in a moment and then Jesus raises Jairus' daughter from the dead. He calms the sea, he feeds the 5,000 and they still, it says, they did not get what was happening, their hearts were hardened. And here you got to pause and say where have we seen this phrase of hard hearts?

We saw that phrase in the Old Testament with Pharaoh, Pharaoh hardened his heart. We saw that phrase with the people of Israel. When things would get difficult, they hardened their hearts against the Lord. Even to the point where they said, "Lord, we want to go back to Egypt. We'd rather be in chains eating meat than here out in freedom eating manna." Meaning that, the times of suffering, that's when our faith is tested, will we remain tender-hearted recognizing that God has sovereignly orchestrated this trial in our life, it's going to test us, it's going to produce steadfastness that's going to lead to completion and perfection or are we going to say I'm not counting this as joy, this is not joy to me.

And here are the disciples, they saw the miracle of the loaves and the fish but their hearts were hardened even back then. Perhaps it's because they were exhausted, they wanted rest, Jesus promised them rest and then, all of a sudden, there's more ministry and it's like they're saying, "It's not worth the sacrifice, Lord." And here I just want to pause and say that, in this text, there is a warning for us, there's a warning for those who profess to be disciples of Jesus Christ and it's a warning that we ought not to pass over. It is possible to be a true believer in Jesus Christ, a disciple in reality, not just in profession, and still experience a hard heart for a season. Why do they experience the hard heart? Perhaps it was the frustration, perhaps the suffering, we're not told, but it's probably because they forgot what Jesus called them to, a life of faith.

He said, "Repent and believe." And those two commandments, we never grow past them. On a daily basis, we need to repent and believe. Maybe they were so focused on their obedience, so focused on their works for the Lord, so focused on their sacrifice for the Lord that they forgot to trust in the Lord, that they forgot that the one who commands them to do this is also the one who loves them so, if He commands them, it's always for their good. And what do we need in moments of hardheartedness? Well, we need a fresh encounter with Jesus Christ. We need Jesus to bring us back to tenderness of heart, receptivity to His word, we need further revelation. That's what He gives them, I am, this is who I am. The disciples had every privilege imaginable, they saw the son of God himself and still their hearts were hardened.

So, be careful, watch your own heart, see that your own heart does not get hardened toward the Lord, that's what the enemy wants. Along with the rebuke, we see a word of rescue, we see the marvelous grace of Jesus Christ in this story. He saw their hardheartedness and He meant to pass by and He should have passed by. They did not deserve Him getting in the boat and calming the storm, they did not deserve that at all. They were bickering, they were grumbling, they were hardened toward Him and still the Lord gets in the boat. They believed in Him but not enough to keep trusting Him and He got into the boat with them, it shows His incredible grace toward us. Sometimes we need a word of rebuke from the Lord and sometimes we need more grace to melt our hearts and grace is the great thawing agent of our hard cold hearts.

Is a sacrifice worth it, friends? Is the sacrifice of following Jesus Christ worth it? For the disciples, they had their questions, they had their doubts. Lord, is it worth it? It's too painful, it seems, to follow You. Yes, You seem to be God, yes, You teach but it seems like taking up my cross daily is a lot of work. And so, where do we get the power to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus Christ? We get it by looking to the cross on a daily basis. Jesus Christ endured the most excruciating physical and spiritual torment of any human being that has ever lived as He bore the penalty for our sins, He bore the wrath of God for us. By taking our sins upon Himself, He even became our sin and said He who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.

He experienced the full gamut of suffering on the cross and why was he willing to do it? Hebrews tells us, for the joy that was set before Him. He knew that the joy was coming, the joy of saving, the joy of sanctifying, the joy of redeeming Christians, saints, His church. And so, we look to the cross and we see Him enduring these trials, enduring that suffering for us and you say, "Jesus, was that worth it?" And He said, "Yes, it was worth it. That sacrifice was worth it," and whatever sacrifice He calls us to is definitely worth it. So, now, with softened hearts, Jesus is in the boat and the disciples are back to serving people. Did they get the rest that they were promised? They got a deeper rest, they got the rest of the presence of Jesus Christ. It's a rest that's promised to us when we trust in Him.

In Mark 6:53, when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized 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 touched it, were made well. I don't know where you are in your faith journey but, if you're not sure where you stand before God today, we had a bomb threat, I found out. Whenever I see people moving around briskly around the room and then talking to each other, I'm like, "Oh, what's going on?"

The Brookline Police here with a big German shepherd and there's a bomb threat in synagogues nationwide and I was thinking, "You know what? Any moment, it could be our moment. Any moment." And by the way, this is a tremendous way to go because we go as a church together to heaven, no one's left behind and ... You got to be ready, you got to be ready and the way that you know that you are ready to meet your maker, to meet God is if you trust in Jesus Christ. And like these people, they believed, You have the power to heal me, I just need to reach out and touch.

Just reach out with faith in prayer to Jesus Christ and say, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me as a sinner. And Lord, I repent of my sin. Lord, it breaks my heart that I broke Your commandment and my commandment breaking broke your Son and, Jesus, you were willing to do that for me. So, of course, if You forgive me, when You forgive me, I'm going to follow You the rest of my days." And then the Lord saves you and all your sins are forgiven and you're indwelled with the power of the Holy Spirit and the Lord will encourage you no matter the tests that He throws at us.

I'll close at Hebrews 4:1-11 which promises this rest that is beyond works, beyond self-righteousness, beyond works, righteousness, a rest that God offers each one of us. Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest as He has said, as I swore My wrath, they shall not enter My rest. Although His works were finished from the foundation of the world for He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way and God rested on the seventh day from all His works and, again, in this passage He said, "They shall not enter My rest."

Since, therefore, it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again, He appoints a certain day, today, saying, through David so long afterward in the words already quoted, today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So, then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from His works as God did from His. Let us, therefore, strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. When life gets overwhelming, keep praying, keep rowing, keep believing and keep striving to enter that rest. Let us pray.

Lord God, we thank You for the rest that You offer us in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Jesus, we thank You that You did all of the heavy lifting, You did all of the work by living a perfect life on our behalf. And instead of us, You took our penalty for our law-breaking upon Yourself. And Lord Jesus, we thank You that You offer us rest, You offer us rest for our souls and, Lord, You offer us the presence of God. And Jesus, in the same way that You went and You sought the Father's face, Lord, we seek the Father's face. And Lord, we thank You that You provided a way even for Moses and even for Elijah to see the face of God and they saw the face of God in your face in the mountain of transfiguration, You revealed your glory to them.

And why is that text there? It's to show us, that apart from Jesus Christ, we can't experience the presence of God because of our sin. It's Jesus, the new Moses, the new Elijah, it's Jesus who came to save us from our sin, to save us from the very presence of it, from the penalty of it, from the power of it and, Jesus, You did that in order to offer us the presence of God. And Lord, I pray that You continue to empower us as a church to go out and proclaim the gospel. And we do pray for the lost all around us, we pray for those who are still in darkness, for those who still have not seen the light and I pray, Lord, use us powerfully to get that message across. Prepare hearts and give us opportunities to preach Your word, to proclaim Your gospel and we pray this, in Jesus' name, amen.