Don't Let "Knowing" Jesus Keep You from Knowing Jesus (Mark 6) @Gospel Presbyterian Church

Scripture: Mark 6

Translation: ^6.1And He went out from there and came into His hometown. And His followers followed Him. ²And when it became the Sabbath, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many people who were listening were amazed, saying “Where did these things come from to Him? And what is the wisdom that was given to Him? And such great powers that are happening through His hands? ³This Guy is the child, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judah and Simon, isn’t He? And His sisters are here with us, aren’t they?” And they were tripped up by Him. ⁴And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not disrespected except in His hometown, and among His relatives, and in His household.” ⁵And He wasn’t able to do any powerful miracle there, except by putting His hands on a few sick people He healed. ⁶And He was amazed because of their unbelief. And He went around the villages in the surrounding area teaching.

⁷And He summoned the Twelve and began to send them two by two and He gave them authority over unclean spirits, ⁸And He commanded them that they should take nothing for the road, except only a staff, not bread, not backpack, not money for the belt. ⁹“But although you can put on sandals, don’t put on two shirts.” ¹⁰And He said to them, “Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you leave from there. ¹¹And whatever place doesn’t welcome you and doesn’t listen to you, when you travel away from there, shake off the dust under your for the purpose of a testimony against them. ¹²And going out, they preached that they should repent. ¹³And they threw out many demons. And anointed many sick people with olive oil, and they healed.

¹⁴And King Herod heard, because His Name became well-known. And they were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead and because of this the powers were working in Him. ¹⁵But others were saying that He was Elijah. And others were saying that He was a prophet like one of the prophets. ¹⁶And Herod after hearing said, “John who I beheaded—this guy was raised! ¹⁷You see, Herod himself by sending [soldiers]  arrested John and chained him in prison because of Herodias the wife of Philipp, his brother, because he had married her, ¹⁸because John way saying to Herod, “It’s not allowed for you to have your brother’s wife!” ¹⁹And Herodias was ticked at him and wanted to kill him. And she wasn’t able to, ²⁰because Herod was scared of John, because he knew he was a righteous and holy man, and so he was protecting him. And when he listened to him, he didn’t understand many things, and he gladly listened to him. ²¹And when an opportune day came, when Herod made a dinner for his birthday festivities with his high-officials, military-officers, first-ranking people over Galilee. ²²And when his daughter by Herodias came in, and when she danced it was pleasing to Herod and those eating dinner with [him]. The king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give [it] to you!” ²³And he swore an oath to her, “Whatever you ask me for I will give to you up to half of my kingdom!” ²⁴And when she went out she said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” and she said, “The head of John the Baptist!” ²⁵And when she came in, immediately with speed she made her request to the king, saying “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on plate right away!” ²⁶And becoming completely sad the king because of his oaths and the dinner guests he didn’t want to reject her. ²⁷And immediately the king after sending for the executioner commanded to bring in his head. And after leaving he decapitated him in the prison. ²⁸And he brought in his head on a plate and he gave it to the girl. And the girl gave it to her mother. ²⁹And when they heard, his followers went and took his corpse and buried it in a tomb.

³⁰And the apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported to Him what great things they did and what great things taught. ³¹And He said to them, “Come on, you yourselves, on your own into a deserted place and rest a little while,” because those who were coming and going were many people. And they didn’t even have the opportunity to eat! ³²And they went out in the boat towards a deserted place on their own. ³³And they saw them going and many people figured out and by land from all the cites they were running together there and went ahead of them. ³⁴And when He went out, He saw a huge crowd and felt compassion for them, because they were “like sheep that didn’t have a shepherd” and He began to teach them many things. ³⁵And because the hour was already getting pretty late, His followers coming to Him were saying, “This place is deserted. And the hour is pretty late. ³⁶Let them go, so that by going away into the surrounding farms and villages they can buy something to eat for themselves.” ³⁷And to answer He said to them, “Give them [something] to eat yourselves.” And they said to Him, “Should we leave and buy loaves of bread for 200 denarii and give [it] to them to eat?” ³⁸And He said to them, “How many loaves of bread do you have? Go. See.” And when they knew, they said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹And He gave orders to them that all the people should sit down for dinner in different groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰And they lay down in different groupings by a hundred and by fifty. ⁴¹And taking the five loaves of bread and the two fish, looking up into Heaven, He blessed and broke apart the loaves of bread and He was giving [them] to His followers, so that they could pass [them] out to them. And He divided up the two fish for all the people. ⁴²And all the people ate and were fed full. ⁴³And the broken pieces were what filled up twelve baskets and some of the fish. ⁴⁴And the people who ate were five thousand men.

⁴⁵And immediately He pressed His disciples to get into the boat and to go ahead to the other side, towards Bethsaida, until He dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶And saying good-bye to them, He went away into the mountain to pray. ⁴⁷And when it became evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea and He was alone on the land. ⁴⁸And seeing them being tormented by what was forcing them around, because the wind was against them, around the fourth watch of the night He came to them walking on the sea. And He wanted to go past them. ⁴⁹And when they saw Him on the sea walking around, they thought that it was a ghost. And they screamed, ⁵⁰because they all saw Him and they were freaked out. But immediately He spoke with them, and He said to them, “Be courageous! I am! Don’t be scared! ⁵¹And He went up to them into the boat and the wind stopped. And they were very shocked in themselves, ⁵²because they didn’t understand about the loaves of bread, rather their heart was hardened. ⁵³And having made it across to the land, they went into Gennesaret and they were anchored in the harbor. ⁵⁴And when they went out of the boat, immediately because they recognized Him, ⁵⁵they ran around that whole region and began to carry around on stretchers the people who were sick wherever they heard  that He was. ⁵⁶And wherever He would go into the villages or the cities or the fields, in the markets they would put the sick people and they would urge Him, so that if own they could touch the edge of His clothes, and whoever touched Him, was saved/healed.

Interpretation

1.      Structure

2.      Themes

a.       Teaching

b.      Sending

c.       Opposition

d.      Miracles

e.       Healings

f.       Exorcism

g.      Storm

h.      Crowds

i.        Rejection

j.        Repentance

k.      Jesus is Lord over ALL

3.      Doctrines

a.       Jesus is God

b.      Jesus is Omnipotent

c.       Jesus is Omniscient

d.      Jesus is compassionate

e.       Jesus provides

f.        

Applications

1.      Don’t fall into the same trap that Jesus’ hometown did. They all thought that because they knew Jesus they could discount having to really trust Him, but it doesn’t work like that

2.      Jesus sends people out with a message no one wants to hear, and it gets opposition, and it can be dangerous, but that can’t stop us

3.      There is the same danger for us to miss the point of Jesus’ miracles and His work in our lives, and so not really trust Him, and be hardened against full faith in Him

4.      Jesus really can do anything, and He wants us to truly trust Him to do the impossible

5.      Moreover, Jesus really cares, that is why He acts the way He does, so we have to really believe that Jesus cares and understands and that He will therefore act like He cares

6.      Moreover, understand that Jesus gave us the Bible, gave us pastors and teachers, because that is what we really need. That is the mindset I need to have when I preach and teach, that Jesus loves you and He wants you to have teaching and preaching. The truth is that is why I preached at two different churches today, because that is what you and I really need! I want to love you like Jesus, and for me that means teaching and calling us all to trust in Christ and turn away from ungodly actions and thoughts and words and beliefs!