How to Study the Bible - Bible Study Made Simple - What to Remember When You Feel Like You’re Not Moving Forward | Mark 6

0:00Looking for a simple way to stay rooted in God's Word every day? The Daily Bible Devotion app by Salem Media gives you morning and evening devotionals designed to encourage, inspire, and keep you connected with scripture. Plus, you'll enjoy daily Bible trivia and humor. A fun way to learn and share a smile while growing in your face. Get the Daily Bible Devotion app for free on both iOS and Android. Start an in-your-day with God's Word. Search for the Daily Bible Devotion app in the App Store or Google Play Store and download it today. Life Audio Have you ever had one of those seasons where you feel like you know what you're doing everything that you know to do and nothing seems to be helping you move forward? You keep showing up, you keep trying, but it feels like you're just straining against the wind. In Mark chapter 6, we find Jesus' disciples in this exact moment.

1:00And before Jesus calms the storm, before he rescues them, he sees them. Sometimes what we need to know more than anything else is that Jesus sees us. Hey everyone, welcome to How to Stay the Bible. I'm your host, Nicole Unis, and I am so excited for us to continue forward in our study of the Gospel of Mark. If you're here with us on YouTube or if you're joining us wherever you get your audio, I'm so glad to be here with you. I'm glad for us to be a community that's discovering the truth of Jesus together and really sitting under His Word and saying, okay, God, what do you have for us today? What are you teaching us today? And we always sort of have to do a little bit of work to get from what we're reading, to understanding how it applies to our life. But I hope that you'll find today that there is such relevance in these stories and that maybe you're not actually in a boat, maybe you're not in an actual storm, but we all know what it feels like to strain against the ors as we're going to hear today. We all know what it feels like to enter into a storm, whether

2:03that's relational or vocational or even just an emotional place where you're like, I can't seem to be making progress. I want to know a good life. I want to experience a free and abundant life, but I feel stuck. If that's your story, I think you're going to find great comfort here in Mark chapter six as well as the next chapters coming because in these next four chapters, we actually are going to see a connected theme that's developing. And I wanted to make sure we talk about that first because there is a lot happening in these chapters. Even as I was preparing, I thought, wow, there is so many places that we could stop and slow down and examine. But what we want to do today is really make sure we understand how these stories connect and where they're going. So I don't want to bury the lead for you. I want you guys to know that as we go into six, seven, eight, nine that what we see in these chapters is we see movement from confusion to clarity about who Jesus really is. And if you've ever felt like you have confusion, you're not sure or you're not

3:03sure who Jesus is or who Jesus is for you in this season, you are not alone. We're going to see that the disciples themselves are very confused about who Jesus is. They often find themselves kind of in what I would say would be an inner battle of the framework that they had for what they thought religion meant. And then the actual person of Jesus that they were experiencing day in and day out. So let's get into Mark chapter six today and we'll see where Jesus is going to take us. So quick overview as we get into this because there's actually five different things happening here. The first thing that we're going to see in Mark chapter six and if you haven't read it yet, I would encourage you to stop and read it. Take a listen on a Bible app. But what we see here happening is several things. The first is that Jesus experiences lack of power in his hometown. He is in his hometown and people are doubting who he is. The next thing that we see is that Jesus actually sends out his 12 disciples to do the ministry. We also have John the Baptist death in

4:06here in between. We have feeding the 5,000, one of these really incredible miracles of abundance and then Jesus walking on water where we're going to focus today. But what we see here is a struggle. A struggle of confusion to clarity, a struggle to understand Jesus's power and authority, and also a struggle to believe, especially in that early scene when Jesus is in his hometown and his own family and friends are like, who is this guy? Who's this carpenter? Isn't this like Mary and Joseph's son? They can't believe who he is. And in a really mysterious way, it actually tells us in scripture that he could not do miracles in his hometown. It says all he could do is lay hands on a few sick people and heal them. This is verses five and six. It actually says that Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith. And when I read through this, this isn't where we're going to focus, but just kind of an extra thought. When I read through this chapter, one of the things that really stood out to me was this mysterious connection between the power of Jesus that seems

5:07to be voluntarily restrained in order for the faith of people to engage. Like we know that Jesus's power is not restrained. Like it's very clear, as we're going to see here, that he has power over nature, that he has power over provision, that he has power over evil. He has all the power. But we do see that there is a restraint, a voluntary restraint that allows for people's faith. It actually says that Jesus says like if someone won't accept you, if someone won't accept the word that you have, shake the dust off your feet and move on. There is a sense that there is an allowance for people to be submitted to their own feet. And we can get into the theological convictions around God's sovereignty and our agency as humans. But I think what we need to remember is that people can hear the good news of who Jesus is and walk away from it and not accept it. Like that is a part of the story in the world. It's what Jesus actually experienced as he walked on their earth. So we shouldn't be surprised when people don't understand our confused reject

6:11this message. It doesn't mean that the message doesn't hold power. But in God's authority, he has allowed human freedom. Want to keep God's word with you wherever you go? The Key James Bible Study KJV at by Salem Media makes it easy to read, study, share, and pray daily with the Timeless KJV translation. Enjoy features like offline access, audio Bible listening, smart search, and tools to highlight bookmark and take notes all designed to keep your Bible Studies simple and organized. Best of all, it's free to download in the Google Play Store, grow in your faith every day. Search for Key James Bible Study KJV and download the app today. Human freedom is why we see the evil that is in the world, the corruption of the world, the temptation to power all the things that we see are about human freedom. And we ourselves have that freedom every single day to either accept or reject the message of Jesus. And just because

7:13we reject it doesn't mean that Jesus rejects us, but it is going to limit our ability to see the kingdom of heaven moving to experience abundance, to experience the miraculous power of Jesus. Our faith actually does matter. It does make an impact. Okay, so let's focus now on just this last component of chapter six. Obviously, there's so much we could do, but I do want us to do a little bit of a deep dive into Jesus walking on the water. So we're going to be in six versus 45 all the way to the end of the chapter. And this is what the scripture says. It says immediately, which is a like a word that Mark loves to use. There's all this action moving from place to place. We really get the sense that Mark is the action movie of the gospels. And we have to keep up with the action to understand, okay, what's the ongoing thread happening here? So Jesus has just fed the five thousand right before this. And then it says that Jesus made his disciples get in the boat and go ahead of him

8:13while he dismissed the crowd. And then we get this little moment, this little insight that before Jesus went to them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. We see that in the midst of all of this action, of all of this change of all of these people, of all of the demands, Jesus still finds time to be alone with his father. He finds time to be quiet. And one of the things that I think we could notice in that is that the power of Jesus's conviction, his ability to remain focused on obedience to the father is directly related to his relationship, his solitude, his prayer life, this ability to be sustained and filled back up. And it says that in the scriptures later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake. And Jesus was alone on the land. And he saw the disciples straining at the oars. And this is that place friends. We're just for a moment. I want you to imagine yourself in that store. Maybe you're in one right now. Maybe you feel yourself straining

9:14at the oars. You're doing everything you know how to do in your own power to see progression, to see movement, to feel like you're moving forward. Maybe you even have that sense of doubt, like am I on the right path? Is it supposed to be this hard? And that is a very human reality. And we see Jesus from far away looking down at his disciples straining against the oars. And so shortly before dawn, he went out to them walking on the lake. And he was about to pass by them. And when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost and they cried out because they saw him and were terrified. Now, this is some crazy stuff. Like, I don't know the last time you were at three o'clock or four o'clock in the morning, which I think is really, I think that is like the witching hour. I think that's what we call it. That is a weird time of night. And it just, though, the light is weird. And I'm sure it was, it was windy and it was stormy and it was foggy. And imagine how frightening it would be to see a figure walking on the lake toward you. Of course,

10:14they were terrified. It doesn't matter what they really believe about Jesus. They don't fully understand the full power of who Jesus is. And I like these moments when the disciples are scared and terrified only because they remind us that Jesus is not just like your friend. He's not your polypocket that you carry around with you that you can bring out at convenient times when you need it. Jesus is God. And that is terrifying. That is, that is real fear that we should have about a power far greater than us. And so these disciples are terrified and they cry out. And this is what Jesus says immediately. Here we hear that. We see that word again immediately. He spoke to them and said, take courage. It is I don't be afraid. And he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down. And they were completely amazed for they had not understood the loaves. Their hearts were hardened. Okay. That's like a little record scratch. Like he's saying that moment right before this feeding of the 5,000 when it would seem like to all of us were like, well, yeah, I mean, if you saw that, you would definitely believe in who God is and you would definitely

11:16believe that Jesus was sent by him. All these people got fed and it says their hearts were hardened. They couldn't see it. You see, when we have a perception, when we have a story that we're telling ourselves and that story could be about something you're experiencing now, it could be something you experienced in the past. When we put the lens of our perception on, it is very difficult for us to change our mind. When we think that we've experienced something, we have made a judgment on the matter. It is very difficult for us to undo that. Think about anything that you feel passionately about right now. That could be your sports team. It could be a brand. It could be a political party. It could be your judgment on a current event that's happening in the world. And now what you'd imagine hearing the exact opposite and believing it, we are stubborn people. We are hard-hearted people and it takes a lot for us to believe something different. And we aren't meant to believe the disciples were like dumb and foolish in this. We're actually meant to see ourselves as those disciples. We're meant to put ourselves in the boat and ask

12:19ourselves the question, when I'm in a storm, when I'm straining against the ors, am I looking for Jesus? Do I believe that he is there to be with me, that he can calm this storm immediately, that he actually says to them, I am God, like ego-emey is the Greek language there. It is I. And this is really this hercaning back to the same language that God uses to describe himself in the book of Exodus. When Moses says to God, who am I supposed to tell them that you are? And God says to Moses, I am who I am. Now we hear Jesus saying to his disciples, I am who I am, I am here with you. And he immediately can calm the storm. He's immediately with them. He doesn't wait for them to admit that they don't have any belief. He doesn't wait for them to say, oh, I didn't actually believe what you did when you fed the 5,000. He is right there with them right away. And it's the same for us. We get courage. We experience courage, not because we have it within ourselves, but because we know a God who walks with us, who says, I will always be with you

13:21in every storm when you're struggling against the ors or not. When you are trying harder or when you've given up, I am with you. You keep showing up. You keep trying, but the reality is it's God who sees us. It's God who can change the story for all of us. Want to keep God's word with you wherever you go? The Key James Bible Study KJV at By Salem Media makes it easy to read, study, share and pray daily with the Timeless KJV translation. Enjoy features like offline access, audio Bible listening, smart search and tools to highlight bookmark and take notes all designed to keep your Bible studies simple and organized. Best of all, it's free to download in the Google Play Store, growing your faith every day, search for Key James Bible Study KJV and download the app today. One last thing I want you guys to know about the context of knowing about the storm.

14:21In Job 9 verse 8, it talks about God treading on the waves of the sea. So here again, remember, we're moving from confusion to clarity. We have just seen Jesus make something out of something. He has actually made abundance out of a very small amount of food. And now we see him treading on the waves of the sea. Actual figurative language used in the book of Job to describe the person of God. We now see happening in the person of Jesus. This is another signal of Jesus's divine authority. Not only does he walk on the water, but he can calm the storm. He actually has authority over the storm on this sea and he has authority over the storms in your life too. So when we ask the question, what does this mean for me? I think that the thing I wrote was sometimes the place where you feel most overwhelmed is the very place where Jesus is revealing who he really is for you. All right, friends, that's what we have for today. I look forward to chatting again next week from Mark chapter seven.

15:24How to study the Bible with Nicole Eunice is a production of Life Audio and Salem Media. If you like what you heard today, please take a second to rate and review the podcast and your favorite podcast app so that more listeners like you can find the show. For more faith-filled inspirational podcasts, visit us at lifeaudio.com. Hi, I'm Beckett Cook, host of the Beckett Cook Show. I lived as a gay man in Hollywood for many, many years until I had a radical encounter with Jesus 13 years ago. Since then, I've gotten my master's degree in seminary and published a book called A Change of Affection. On my podcast, the Beckett Cook Show, I sit down with fascinating Christian scholars and thinkers to address the lies of the culture and bring the biblical truth to bear on those lies. To start listening now, go to lifeaudio.com or search for the Beckett Cook Show on your favorite podcasting platform.