Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S19 || Faith in the Storms of Life || Mark 6:30-52 || Session 19 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
Caught between miraculous provision and frightening storms, the disciples experience Jesus' power in this section of Mark through contrasting divine encounters that challenge their understanding and faith. Most striking is the contrast between the immediate provision of food and the prolonged struggle that follows. Jesus intentionally sends his disciples into a storm and watches them strain against wind and waves for hours before walking across the water toward them. This juxtaposition reveals profound truth about God's methods: sometimes he provides instantly, other times he allows extended difficulty to develop our faith. The disciples, despite witnessing the feeding miracle, remain astonished when Jesus calms the storm—their hardened hearts preventing deeper understanding.
For anyone feeling abandoned in life's storms, this passage offers insightful comfort. Jesus sees you struggling. He hasn't forgotten you. The wind and waves that overwhelm you cannot slow him down. And when he arrives—at precisely the right moment—the storm will cease.
What storms are you facing today? Have you experienced God's rescue in unexpected ways? We'd love to hear your story.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. We are reasoning through the Gospel of Mark. So if you have your copy of the Word of God, open to Mark, chapter 6,. We saw in previous sessions where Jesus had sent out his disciples in groups of two. He sent them out with very few resources, just the clothes on their back, and said don't take a lot of money, but I'm giving you the authority to cast out demons. And they went out preaching the message of repentance. As we pick up today. They're going to be returning. We're going to see what happens here when the disciples return. Jesus tries to seek a place of solitude and does a couple of miracles. Steve, can you go ahead and read in Mark, chapter 6, starting at verse 30, reading down to verse 44.
Speaker 2:The apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while, for there were many people coming and going, going, and they did not even have time to eat. They went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves. The people saw them going and many recognized them and ran there together on foot from all the cities and got there ahead of them. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd and he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things.
Speaker 1:In verse 30,. The disciples returned. They had been out in groups of two. They're reporting back. We should always talk to God about what we've been doing. That's the lesson, I think, for us here. They've been going out doing ministry and they come back to talk to Jesus, and I think we should do that. We should converse with God about when we go do ministry work, talk to Him afterwards, thank Him for the opportunity, tell Him how it went and see what relationship we can have with Him based on our ministry. He loves to hear from us. So we should also, as we get sent out, say by a church, to do ministry work, always come back and report how it went to the people that sent us. People working for the kingdom should always report back on how the ministry is going.
Speaker 1:Then, in verse 31, jesus calls them to go to a quiet place and rest. They had just been off doing a very busy mission trip and probably quite long, very tiring. They needed some rest. He goes and seeking a place of solitude to get some rest. Steve, how important is rest in the Christian life? Do we sometimes need a break, even from doing?
Speaker 2:the Lord's work. We should take a break because many times people think, oh, I have to be at the church. Every time the doors are open, I have to be there. I have to be there Sunday morning, sunday evenings, midweek. If there's a special event, I have to be there. The key word in all of that is have.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we get into that mode of we have to be there and we really don't have to be there. The motivation for us to be there is to serve serve the church and by doing that we're serving God. But if we're there all the time, that means we're not giving somebody else a chance to be able to serve in many ways, means we're not giving somebody else a chance to be able to serve in many ways. We need to, from time to time, step back and just say you know what? I'm not going to be able to be there for this event because I'm going to take a break. You'll find out that when you say that other people will then step forward and we don't want to get burnt out.
Speaker 2:I've seen that many times, people, they get burnt out on serving God and then they step back for a little bit and before you know it, it's six months, seven months or eight months that they've been gone, so there's a happy balance and know when to call it. At a point in time I need to take a little bit of a break and a little rest. That doesn't mean stop going on Sundays and worshiping or with your small group, but maybe from some of the other extracurricular things that you're doing. But then don't do it for too long. Get back into the swing of things after you recharge your batteries, so to speak.
Speaker 1:The first church I ever joined, the pastor those of us that were joining the church at that time he had a bit of advice and I always remembered it. He says always pick one thing around the church and do it. Very well, what he meant was this. He explained himself. He says I pastor here. I see two groups of people. I see one group of people that come here every week, every Sunday, and they sit in the same spot. I never see them doing any other ministry. They never get involved. They're here year after year. They come and they sit and they sit in the same spot. I never see them doing any other ministry. They never get involved. They're here year after year. They come and they sit and they go home and they never do anything around the church. That's not good. We should always be involved in a ministry. He says I also see other people and they're here all the time. They're here multiple days a week. They're involved in three and four and five different ministries and they're always going and doing and it seems like they're here all the time and they're here for two or three years and then they go away.
Speaker 1:It's because of what you said they either burn out or they get some issue with some other person in the church and they get upset about it and leave. He says you don't want to be either one of those groups of people. He said what you want to do is pick one thing and do it very well. Be very good at one thing, not zero things, and not two, three, four, five things, because if you're doing four and five things, you're not going to do any of them very well. You'll do all of them just sort of half-heartedly. What we really need was people that are extremely good at one thing. So that's the advice I've always at least tried to do. Times where I've not followed that advice, I always get burned out or I start getting restless because I'm not active. So that's my advice that I would pass on Pick one thing around the church, one ministry, and do it very well.
Speaker 1:As we get to this, they go off to find a secluded place. Sometimes solitude, quietness is a very valid thing. It's a very good thing to find some quietness. Turn off all the media, get outside and look at some nature and be quiet and do some Bible reading and some rest and some prayer. In verse 34, he sees this crowd. They're seeking solitude. They don't really find it. He sees the crowd.
Speaker 1:He has compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. That phrase there sheep without a shepherd is a theme that's used several times in the Old Testament. That Jesus was serving as a shepherd for sheep is a fulfillment of prophecy in several Old Testament passages Ezekiel 34, 23, ezekiel 37, 24. There's other places where it talks about the Messiah being a shepherd and the people being lost because they're like a sheep without shepherd. He stops and teaches them because they needed guidance. Jesus had compassion on them and he has compassion on us when we become lost and are in need of guidance. The difference, I think, steve, between a lost sheep and someone that's not lost, is that the lost ones realize they're lost and the other ones don't think they're lost, and the other ones don't think they're lost when they really are. Really, we're all lost sheep and we need to just admit it and go to the great shepherd. He will teach us when we need guidance, because that's what he says here. Any other thoughts on that, steve?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it says here he had compassion on them where they were like sheep without a shepherd. And then what's his reaction? His reaction then is to teach them. I think we have an indication there of the big crowd. They hear about him, they hear about what he's doing and they just want to be near him. They find out that they're in this boat a little bit offshore and they follow him and they're just kind of milling around, kind of waiting for them to come back on shore.
Speaker 2:Jesus does that and as he comes back he kind of sees a group of people that really don't have a purpose other than just wanting to be around him and the things maybe that he's doing and the compassion, I think, is that they need to be taught. They need to be taught something. He doesn't go off and start doing miracles Some of them that's why they were there, but his compassion was they need to be taught. So I think that that's something that we should take as believers. That is left too many times is that we don't disciple new believers. We work real, real hard to get them into the door and to give them the gospel message and to have them become believers and be baptized, and then we just kind of move on to the next group of people of non-believers and we don't have compassion on these new believers and then get them plugged in somewhere where they can then be discipled and further their journey of growing into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:So they get to the shore and there's says, there's a group of people there and at the end of verse 34, he began to teach them many things. They're teaching them for quite a while. I've always found that if we're just interested and listen to Jesus, he will teach us many things. They're teaching them for quite a while. I've always found that if we're just interested in listening to Jesus, he will teach us many things. He teaches many things to those that will listen. I don't think he taught the scribes and Pharisees many things because they weren't willing to listen, they didn't have their ears open, they weren't open to his teachings. But those that are waiting on Jesus, those that are there waiting on him, he will come and he will teach you many things While they're there. The next story, with the same crowd is the feeding of the 5,000. Steve, can you start at verse 35 and read down to 44?
Speaker 2:When it was already quite late. His disciples came to him and said this place is desolate and it is already quite late. His disciples came to him and said this place is desolate and it is already quite late. Send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But he answered them you give them something to eat. They said to him Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat? And he said to them how many loaves do you have? Go look. When they found out, they said Five and two fish. He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties and he took the five loaves and the two stories in this gospel of Jesus feeding large numbers of people.
Speaker 1:Here he feeds 5,000. Two chapters from now, in chapter 8, he's going to feed 4,000. The message to this is very clear Our food comes from the Lord, and if we just give a little bit, then he will multiply it and use it in a great way. That's really the very clear message of the feeding of the 5,000. Let's go back and go through this, though, because there's more here to learn. In verse 37, who did he instruct to feed?
Speaker 2:the multitude. He instructed the disciples that had come up to him and said send them away. There's nothing here for them to eat. They've been here a long while. Send them out so that they can go into the surrounding villages and get them something to eat. Jesus turns right back around to them and says no, you give them something to eat.
Speaker 1:He tells them you give them something to eat. What is he telling his disciples today to go do? What does he tell us to do?
Speaker 2:He tells us to go out and spread the word and make disciples. That's what he's telling us to do.
Speaker 1:He gives us the great commandment to do that we are given the great commission, we're to be given the bread of life, which is the Lord Jesus Christ and the milk of his word. To take it out and feed the masses, to feed the multitude. Word, to take it out and feed the masses, to feed the multitude. That's what our message is today. Could the disciples do that by themselves? Could they go feed the multitude with their own resources?
Speaker 2:No, they said that in verse 37,. Shall we go and spend 200 denarii? Well, that is an exorbitant amount of money. They didn't have that type of money to go and feed 5,000 people, so they didn't even have the physical resources in order to give them this physical food.
Speaker 1:They didn't have the resources to do it. We are his disciples. We're told to go and make disciples of the multitude. Do we have the resources to do the Great Commission on our own strength?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can't do it on our own strength. We have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit that's in us and so on that type of strength we can go and spread it. The Word of God is everlasting. It will not run out as a resource to be able to give to people.
Speaker 1:They are giving out physical food. What kind of food are we giving out?
Speaker 2:Spiritual food. Go back to the parable of the sower, sowing the word of God amongst the grounds and the different types of soil that are there.
Speaker 1:They started out with just this little bit, right, it was just somebody's lunch, right? Just this little bit. And they give it to him. He multiplies it and feeds 5,000 people. Then, in verse 43, how much was left?
Speaker 2:over. The amount that was left over was 12 full baskets.
Speaker 1:This was what they call loaves or we'd call a roll biscuit maybe. I mean these were small and some smallish fish. Not talking about whales here. They had somebody's lunch. Not talking about whales here. They had somebody's lunch and they contributed it and the Lord took it, multiplied it and he did it above and beyond all that was ever needed. When it says 12 baskets, this is 12 baskets full of unused food. It wasn't somebody's half-eaten plate, this was 12 baskets full of whole rolls and whole fish that didn't get eaten.
Speaker 1:So when God does something, he does it in a very big way and he does it in an overwhelming way so that it just blesses everybody. I notice that in verse 39 and 40, he tells them to sit down in groups. He tells them sit down in groups of hundreds and fifties. That tells me that they're organized. God does things in an organized, orderly way. It's not haphazard, it's not chaos, it's not just mass confusion. He says, no, we have a proper order here.
Speaker 1:Jesus is in charge. He has his disciples that are then telling all the masses what to do, and the disciples are told to have everybody sit down in groups and they would be organized, with the disciples in charge of different groups. He does things in an orderly way. This is how our churches should be run. Remember, in Corinthians it tells us in our churches to do things decently and in order. When God does things, he does planning, he does things in order. I remember, steve, that the best churches I've seen are the ones that plan well, they're organized and they don't go out on presumption. They pray about it. They go out on faith, but they do it in an orderly way.
Speaker 2:Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I agree. If you don't do it in an orderly way, then you end up with a chaotic situation and people are looking for instructions on how to conduct themselves and what to do. This is part of Jesus's teaching of them. What did he teach them through this lesson of feeding them? It goes back to, I think, the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites as they come out of Egypt, they complain that they're thirsty and they're hungry, and God supplies them with water and manna every day while they're wandering all the way through the time of the 40 years up until the time that they go into the promised land. I think this is a lesson and a teaching moment of him that God will provide and does provide for you.
Speaker 1:God plans things. God does things in an orderly way, and we should as well. God is a God of planning and organization. If we look at verse 42, it says they were satisfied. It says they were all satisfied. This was a group of people that were quite poor from the time they were children. There was very few times they were ever really full. So here they were full, they had plenty. They were satisfied. Steve, is Jesus satisfying?
Speaker 2:He is, and by believing in him and trusting in him and becoming more Christ-like, our spiritual life can be full. It can be fulfilling being a follower of Jesus Christ whenever we set our mind to do that and to study his word and to go through studies like this, verse by verse. There's so much rich things in the word of God that we can learn from him which is satisfying and it satiates our spirit to where we're full and we're satisfied and we're content because the word of God has given us the peace and the knowledge of who he is.
Speaker 1:All men, all people, have a religious need and there's only one thing that can really satisfy that religious need and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, as presented in the word of God. The next passage has Jesus walking on the water. So, steve, can you start at verse 45 and read to 52? Walking on the water. So, steve, can you start at?
Speaker 2:verse 45 and read to 52?. Immediately, jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, he left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on the land Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them. At about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea and he intended to pass them by walking on the sea. And he intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost and cried out. For they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke with them and said to them Take courage, it is, I do not be afraid. Then he got into the boat with them and the wind stopped and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves. But their heart was hardened.
Speaker 1:Quite interesting story, quite well-known story, but if we look at the details we're going to find some very interesting things that perhaps we haven't seen before. First of all, it says in verse 45 that he made them go to the other side, to a place called Bethsaida. Now the word Bethsaida means fishing village and there were many fishing villages. Therefore there were several places with a similar name of Bethsaida. Yet in verse 48, it says there that they encountered the storm. Think of it in verse 45. He made his disciples get into a boat and go out into a storm. Why would Jesus make his disciples go out into a storm when he knew there was going to be a severe?
Speaker 2:storm there Because it was going to be a teaching moment for them, in order to have faith that he could calm the storm and that he could take care of them. I think that's the reason why he did it, and I think that's also the reason why it says he was intending to walk by them. He was wanting them to cry out to him and to acknowledge that they needed him to come in and rescue them and take care of them.
Speaker 1:Does Jesus ever send us into a storm? It says the wind was against them. Does he ever have us go into a place where the wind's against us?
Speaker 2:I think the Holy Spirit gives us the sense that we need to go talk with people, or go into a situation where we talk with people that are not believers in a hostile environment, not a physical one, necessarily, but one in which people are harsh in their words and their criticism of Jesus Christ. Now there are some missionaries, and there are stories of missionaries going into some very dangerous places. Many of them have lost their lives because of it. So yeah, there are times whenever Jesus will call upon us to go into hostile places to spread the word.
Speaker 1:Think of what this passage says and the one just prior to it. They get to a spot where there's a whole lot of people that needs food. Instantaneously, there's all this food there. He just does it. It feeds everybody. Everybody's full, nobody's hungry. It just happens because the Lord provides, and he provides it at the instant there's a need. The very next story he sends them out into a storm and leaves them there most of the night. He sent them out and left them in the storm watching them until the fourth watch is the one just before dawn. So it's like the darkest part of the night, when you're the most tired. They've been fighting the storm all night. I find this interesting. God provides. There's just food at our fingertips.
Speaker 1:We're sliding downhill on grief's grooves and sometimes it seems like the Lord has sent us into a very dry place where the wind's against us, the world's against us. All I'm having is trouble. I just feel this is the Christian life. Did Jesus abandon them at this point? No, it's not the case that he was with them when he was feeding them and he's abandoned them in the storm. In fact, he was watching them. He knew where they were the whole time. He had a purpose for it. It was a faith-building exercise. If all we ever had was things that felt good, we wouldn't really have the same level of faith as if God takes us through some valleys now and then and gets us through to the other side. Who were the people that had the greatest faith? It's the people that had the greatest need that God provided for. Is God still trying to teach us hard lessons today and build our faith?
Speaker 2:Yes, he is still trying to do that. And in 52, it mentions that as he got into the boat and the storm was calmed, that they had not gained any insight. In other words, they hadn't really understood anything out of the incident of the feeding of the 5,000. And it says there their heart was hardened. And there's a footnote in the translation we use that says or their mind was closed, made dull or insensible. Here it is. Is that Jesus had done this miracle of feeding the 5,000, and they had missed the lesson, according to verse 52 here, because they were just not paying attention to what was going on. So a question comes up, glenn is it ever a case whenever we can see God working a miracle, either in our life or maybe somebody else's life, but yet we miss it and we just kind of gloss over it and we kind of go off and continue to do our own thing without really recognizing what God has done?
Speaker 1:Oh, I think that happens. Yeah, I think we don't always see God's hand move. It's like these men here were out in the middle of the storm straining at the oars. Well, God's hand was in it. He's the one that sent them out there. He was watching them the whole time. He's up on the mountain watching them, straining at the oars. He knew exactly where they were and what they were doing and was not going to abandon them. They didn't see him. All they saw was the wind and the waves and the storm, but he was watching them. I think it's just a very clear thing. There's times where we can't see the Lord. All we're seeing is the storm. But he's there. He's watching us. That's the lesson In this. When he comes to them walking on the water, was he slowed down by the wind?
Speaker 2:No, he wasn't slowed down at all. We get this picture that he's doing this on purpose, as we talked about before.
Speaker 1:If he wasn't slowed down by the storm there, is he slowed down by our problems. If we have this problem that's stopping me. Is it going to stop the Lord?
Speaker 2:No, it isn't. And after 51, whenever the sea was calm, when he got into the boat and immediately stopped, they were astonished. We shouldn't be astonished whenever we have the storms in our life and God comes in and calms them down. And they were astonished, but we shouldn't.
Speaker 1:Jesus had these disciples go out into the storm. They may have thought he forgot about them, but he didn't. He will not leave us and will not forget about us. He may send us into a storm. He may send us into a storm. He may send us into a place where, boy, this really doesn't feel good.
Speaker 1:I've been straining at this for a very long time and it sure seems like the Lord's forgotten me, but he hasn't. My Christian friend, he is watching over us. He sees us straining at the oars. He will come to us and he will come to us in his time. It may seem like a dark night where things are just one wave after the other after the other, and the wind is against me and I'm not getting anywhere. But, my friend, he is watching over us. He will see us through. He always does. The problem's not too big for him. He will come to us and the problem's not going to slow him down.
Speaker 1:If we find ourselves in the middle of the sea straining against the oars, then what should we do? We pray for Jesus' help. We realize that Jesus sees us, has a purpose for this, knows our condition and keeps going. And it says there, in verse 48, he intended to pass by them. It's almost comical. They're straining and struggling. He was going to walk past till they yell at them hey, jesus.
Speaker 1:There's several Old Testament themes that get tied together with that. In Job 9.8, it says that only God treads on the waves of the sea. Then God quote passed by when he had put Moses in the cleft of the rock. God passed by Elijah in 1 Kings 19.11 when he was running from Jezebel. So these themes of treading on the sea and passing by. This was another clear analogy or claim to deity of the Lord, jesus Christ, as he's doing things that the Old Testament says only God can do. He came to them walking on the sea, intended to pass them by, but he knew exactly what he was doing. Then, in verse 51, steve, what happens to the wind when Jesus shows up?
Speaker 2:It stopped immediately. As soon as he got into the boat, the wind stopped.
Speaker 1:What happens to our problems when Jesus shows up.
Speaker 2:They go away. The wind stops and they go away.
Speaker 1:What it says there in verse 52, it says, for they had not understood about the loaves.
Speaker 1:So it seems to be saying that the reason why he had left them in this storm was because they hadn't learned prior lessons.
Speaker 1:It seems to be saying that if the disciples had learned the true lesson from the feeding of the 5,000, they would not have been amazed at Jesus walking on the water. It seems that the disciples should not have been amazed at Jesus, for they had already seen him rescue people before they saw Jesus calm the sea back in chapter 4. They had seen him take care of situation after situation. They should not have been amazed when Jesus shows up and does a great miracle. Then, in the end of verse 52, they did not understand because their heart was hardened. That's the same phrase used in Exodus of Pharaoh, when his heart was hardened. The lesson of the walking on the water is that the disciples should have learned to expect Jesus to do something fantastic, but because their hearts were hardened, they did not gain any understanding. Understanding. Could it be that the reason why we don't learn from difficult situations has more to do with our heart than God's methods?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we were saying a while ago is that they weren't paying attention to what was going on and hadn't learned the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach them through the feeding of the 5,000. There's a need here. You go feed them. Well, we don't have the means to feed them. Jesus says what do we have here? And he makes it from what, the small amount that he has to feed all of them. I am God and I'm going to provide. They miss that completely. In a way, it gives you a sense that they're physically satisfied, but they miss the spiritual application altogether For our audience we'll leave you with a couple of discussion questions.
Speaker 1:A lot of what we do is one way from us to you, but today we're going to ask a couple of questions that maybe you could send us a note that would help encourage us. Has Jesus ever rescued you? Have you ever been in a storm and then God came by and rescued you? Can you tell about a time when maybe you didn't see God, but then he shows up and you saw His hand in it the whole way? Can you send us a note? Send us a note at info, at reasoning through the Bible dot com. You can find out how to contact us at that email address or at our website. We'd love to hear from you and be with us next time as we continue to reason through the Gospel of Mark.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
