The power to change the heart, Mark 7:24-37

Last Sunday we looked at the passage in Mark where Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy.  These religious leaders cleaned the outside of the cup, so to speak, but the inside was full of corruption.  They publicly made a great show of  following the traditions of men, which presumably had their basis in religious law, but inwardly they broke the commandments of God.  And so Jesus taught the disciples that it was necessary to have a clean heart, for out of the heart proceeds all evil.

Now a clean heart or a new heart speaks of a spiritual transformation.  A leper cannot change it’s spots.  Neither can man change his heart.  We sometimes speak of “having a change of heart.”  We mean by that a change of mind, or a change of attitude.  And it’s possible to do that.  My wife says it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. I’m just supposed to accept it and go along with it, I suppose.

But spiritually speaking, to have a change of heart is much more than simply deciding to do wear the blue shirt rather than the red shirt.  The Bible uses the word “heart” to denote the will and emotions and intellect of a man.  In Biblical terms, you can even use the word soul as a synonym for heart.  So when the Bible speaks of the heart, it speaks of the innate desires of man, the intrinsic nature of a man.

Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? In that saying, we see that man in his fallen state is sinful, and he is sinful because his heart is sinful, inclined to sin.  And he cannot know it, which means comprehend it, or control it.  This condition is the result of the fall. When Adam and Eve sinned, they caused their sin nature to be passed on to their children, and to all succeeding generations.  So man is born with a sin nature, a sinful heart, which produces a sinful life.  So immediately following the fall, it says in Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every intent of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.”

The heart is the source of all evil.  As Jesus said in the previous section, vs 20 And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,  deeds of coveting [and] wickedness, [as well as] deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride [and] foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

The great problem of the world is not pollution. It’s not poverty.  It’s not a lack of education or a lack of health care.  The great problem of the world is that the world is held in the bondage of sin. Sin is the snare and condemnation that is brought upon the world through the enemy of God and man, who is Satan.  And the only way to be freed from that captivity of sin is through Jesus Christ.  

Now Mark is going to use two events in the ministry of Jesus to illustrate this principle of salvation, which is that a change of heart must come through faith in Jesus Christ. There must be a spiritual transformation, and only Jesus has the power to change hearts.  That is illustrated here in two episodes following this teaching about the heart.

The first episode is described for us starting in vs 24 “Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know [of it;] yet He could not escape notice.  But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.  Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”

Now remember Jesus has just finished teaching about the heart being unclean and now Mark records Jesus as going into the Gentile region, a region that the Jews considered unclean. Traditionally, they avoided Gentile regions, and avoided as much contact as possible with Gentile people.  But Jesus deliberately travels to Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region and enters a house there, presumably to stay with the occupants.  Who they are we are not told, but we might suppose that they were Gentiles, though they might have been Jews living in a Gentile region.

But irregardless of who He was staying with, word gets out that He is there, and a Syrophoenician woman comes to see Him. Now she is undoubtedly a Gentile.  And for the most part, Jews did not converse or have fellowship with Gentiles.  She knows this.  But she is desperate for help.  And she knows that only Jesus can help her.

Matthew’s account in Matthew 15 tells us more about this woman’s faith than we see here in Mark.  Matthew says that she says to Jesus, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.”  Notice she calls Him Lord, Son of David.  It’s evident from that appeal that she believes that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.  She has a right understanding of Biblical prophecy, better than the Pharisees by the way. And as this event unfolds she continues to call Him Lord. 

The scriptures had been given to the Jews.  And the covenants were given to the Jews. Jesus would say in Matthews account in chapter 15: 24 “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Jesus would say to the Samaritan woman, “salvation is of the Jews.”  So the gospel is first given to the Jews, even as the old covenant was given to the Jews.  But that did not mean that the other nationalities could not obtain salvation.  There was such a thing as becoming a proselyte, which was to convert to the Jewish faith and practice.  And the scriptures show many examples of Gentiles converting, such as with Rehab the harlot, with Naaman the Syrian, with Ruth the Moabite.  So there was a way for a Gentile to become saved.  But it was through the Jews.  And Jesus had limited His ministry to the Jews.  But we have already seen other examples of His ministry reaching beyond that border, such as with the Samaritan woman and the Roman centurion whose servant was healed. But Jesus’s primary ministry at this time is to the Jews.

But this woman has come to Jesus believing in who He was, as prophesied in scripture, and she is seeking His help in the deliverance of her daughter from demonic possession.  We have been talking about demonic influences or demonic control or demonic possession for a couple of weeks now in our Bible studies.  And I think it is a matter of concern for our times as well. As we become more and more a pagan society, as we reject good and embrace evil, we open up our hearts to demonic control.  And I believe we are seeing more and more evidence of demonic control, and even demon possession occurring in our society today. In fact, demon worship and Satanic practices are not only becoming more common, but are more acceptable today and even trendy.  I heard a popular female movie star the other day refer to herself as a witch.  And she seemed proud of that title. 

Scripture tells us in the last days men will worship demons and sorcery will become more and more commonplace. Rev. 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;  and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” It’s interesting to note that the word sorceries comes from the Greek word “pharmakia” which is where we get the word pharmacy from. The scripture shows that sorcery and drugs are closely connected. No wonder our society is manifesting more and more demonic influence.

I’m afraid that we tend to try to explain away a lot of what is really demonic control over a person’s life by trying to attribute it to other factors, such as an emotional or psychiatric disorder, or a drug or alcohol problem.  And I will agree that sometimes unnatural behavior is a psychiatric or emotional disorder and we it’s not always easy to be able to discern the difference.  But I also believe that a lot of behavior is demonic in origin and we don’t recognize it as such.

I don’t know what the specific characteristics of demonic possession was with this girl.  But we know that she was a young girl. Mark says she had an unclean spirit.  Matthew says she was cruelly demon possessed.  I would suspect from other accounts of demon possessed people that one manifestation of being demon possessed was that she was hurting herself. Another mother came to Jesus on another occasion about her demon possessed son who threw himself in the fire and tried to harm himself.  And we recently studied the story of the demoniac in the tombs who cut himself and constantly was screaming.  So in the case of this young girl there was probably some very evident manifestation of demonic possession which her mother knew was of the devil.

But I will tell you that there are varying degrees of demonic control, and not all of them show signs that we might attribute to that.  For instance, there is an event that happens not long after this, where Jesus tells Peter, “Get behind Me Satan.”  Peter showed no outward signs of demonic influence. He was a disciple. He had just made a great statement about Jesus Christ being the Son of God. And yet Jesus sees enough of the devil in him at that moment to call him Satan.  And I don’t think Jesus was joking when he said that.  I don’t think he was exaggerating either.  So we must believe that Jesus meant what He said. 

So not all demonic control manifests itself in someone by having a demonic look about them.  They don’t always have horns on their head or fangs or some evil look about them. And yet we need to be discerning.  In Peter’s case, the evidence was simply according to Jesus, “you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”  God sees the heart, and He knows our thoughts.  And He could see that Peter’s thoughts were influenced by Satan.

But while Jesus can read the heart, I don’t think we have the ability to read minds.  My wife thinks she can read my mind.  And maybe she is the exception and can actually do that. But most of us mere mortals can’t read minds. But nevertheless I think we can be more discerning sometimes when it comes to demonic behavior.  I had an experience recently where someone I encountered I believe was being demonically controlled.  And one of the primary reasons I believe that was that their mouth was spewing the most vile curse words and profanity that you have ever heard. I’ve had a few encounters like that over the years in ministry and I believe that when you have that kind of the vilest profanity being used, being screamed at you in a unreasoning manner, you can be sure that the person at that time is being controlled by a demon.  They may not even be aware of it, such as Peter wasn’t aware of it Im sure, but nevertheless, it’s a manifestation of evil that has it’s source in demons. It may not be a permanent condition, but it may come on for a while and then it’s influence may seem to wane. In the case of this young girl, it seems to have metastasized to a permanent condition.

Well, Jesus responds in a way to the request of the woman that may seem atypical. Vs27 But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw [it] to the little dogs.”  There are a couple of things that seem inappropriate with Jesus’s answer. For one, it would seem that Jesus was calling this woman a dog.  A dog was a euphemism that the Jews used to refer to Gentiles. It showed the disdain that they had towards Gentiles.

But Jesus actually uses a different phrase to describe the position of the woman. He says “little dogs” or some translations have it, “house dogs.”  The derogative word dogs that the Jews used indicated that Gentiles were like mangy dogs that ran the streets, practically wild and ravenous. But the dogs that Jesus speaks of is a house pet. Being called a house pet is not quite as bad as being called a mangy wild dog.  But we might suppose that Jesus is not making a derogatory statement to this woman about being of an inferior race, but rather to  show her relationship and position in the kingdom of God.

An even better understanding of His intent is shown in His mention of “first,” ie, “let the children be filled first…” A first obviously precedes and acknowledges that there will be a “second.” So Jesus is indicating that there will be a time or opportunity for the Gentiles, which will come after the gospel is preached to the Jews.

But this woman, percieving that Jesus has opened the door slightly, is bold enough to try to push it open even wider.  Vs 28 And she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs.”  She recognized that her position was that of the house dogs, but also knew that even they receive some of the scraps from the table. She had faith that God could still help her and deliver her daughter, though the Gentiles were not the primary object of Christ’s ministry.

And Matthew says in  15:28 Then Jesus answered and said to her, "O woman, great [is] your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.  Mark’s account has in vs 29 Then He said to her, "For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter."  And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.”  Even by her leaving Jesus to go back to her house was an act of faith, as she had no evidence that Jesus had delivered her from the demon until she arrived and saw her daughter. But she believed in Him and in His word.

But let’s make sure we understand Jesus’s commendation of her faith. It was faith in Jesus Christ, in who He is.  Not faith in herself, or faith in the power of faith.  She believed in who Jesus was, and in HIs word.  And Jesus rewarded her faith in Him by delivering her little daughter from demonic possession.

The second event that illustrates the power of Christ to change our hearts, is found in the next episode that Mark selects for us.  Vs 31 “Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.”  Now the geography described here is a little confusing for me, but Decapolis was ten cities that were primarily inhabited by the Greeks.  So again there is this idea of Jesus visiting these unclean regions, or unclean people.  The principle being taught of course is that only Jesus can make the unclean, clean. 

Vs 32 “Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.  And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."  Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.’”

In every case of Jesus healing or delivering someone, He seems to use a different method.  We just read about Jesus delivering the demon possessed daughter and yet He didn’t touch her or even visit her personally.  He delivered her from a distance. But in this case, Jesus not only touches this man, but he puts His fingers in the man’s ears, and spat on his finger and touched the man’s tongue.  In chapter 8, in another healing of a blind man,  Jesus will spit on a man’s eyes, in the process of healing him. 

Now trying to understand why Jesus did some things some times, and other things other times, and sometimes did nothing at all, is beyond our pay grade.  Except to show us that there is no secret formula for healing.  And I don’t think that there is some medicinal value in spittle. I don’t think that there was some special holiness in Christ’s spit which had healing properties. I really don’t know why He did it that way though, when He could easily heal someone without doing anything at all, as we have clearly seen. 

But what is evident is that as He puts His fingers in his ears, and touches his spittle to his tongue, He shows that He is changing those specific impediments by the power which comes from Him. The elements of Jesus’s body enters this mute and deaf man’s body which then changes him.  Isn’t that what is represented by taking the Lord’s supper?  When we eat of the elements which represent Christ’s body, we symbolically show the means by which we are saved through His sacrifice on the cross.  We receive the Spirit of God who gives us life, who changes our heart, so that we might have life more abundantly.

The fact that Mark says that Jesus sighed as He looked up to heaven, indicates that Jesus took the man’s condition upon Himself.  He sympathized with this man’s condition. I am reminded of Isaiah 53 which says, “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He [was] wounded for our transgressions, [He was] bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace [was] upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. ...  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put [Him] to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see [His] seed, He shall prolong [His] days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.  He shall see the labor of His soul, [and] be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.”

Jesus came to save sinners.  That was His purpose.  To offer Himself as our substitute, to offer Himself as a sacrifice to atone for our sins, that we might be given life.  Jesus did not come to earth just to heal as many people as possible and miraculously feed tens of thousands of people.  But He came to fulfill the prophecy of One who would crush Satan’s head, who would set the captives free, and who would rule over the kingdom of God.

And so Mark tells us in vs 36 “Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed [it].  And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’”

Jesus told them not to tell anyone because He did not want to be overwhelmed by people wanting to be healed, to the point that He was not able to preach the gospel. But nevertheless, His healings did provide evidence that He was the Son of God.  If they would have believed that, then they could have been saved.   But though HIs healing astonished them, most of them stopped short of believing unto salvation.

Believing in Jesus as Lord is believing first and foremost in who He is, the Son of God, in what He has done, which is to provide atonement for our sins through His death on the cross, and believing in what He has promised, which is eternal life.  When Jesus was preaching in a house and they opened up the ceiling to drop a paralytic man in front of Him, Jesus said to him, “Son your sins are forgiven you.” And the Pharisees became indignant because they said no one has the power to forgive sins but God alone.  So Jesus said, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"--then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

That’s the reason Jesus healed and casts out demons, so that men might know that He has the power and authority to forgive sins, to create in them a clean heart and renew a right spirit within them,  and give them everlasting life.  I hope that you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, that you might be given  a new heart and a new life through Him.

Defilement of the heart, Mark 7:1-16

Today we are going to look at a rather lengthy section of scripture in our ongoing study of Mark.  It’s a bit longer than I normally try to present, but I think it’s all connected, and to break it up into two sermons would cause difficulties in trying to understand it.  So for the sake of context, I want to consider the whole passage. But don’t worry, I will try to move quickly through it, so that it doesn’t take twice as long as I normally would take.

Chapter six ended with Jesus having walked on the water to the disciples who were crossing the Sea of Galilee, and then when they came to shore, the people found out He was there and the whole country was coming out to be healed.  The Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem had obviously heard about all that He was doing, and all the crowds that were following Him, and perhaps moved by jealousy came up from Jerusalem to publicly find fault with Him and try to discredit Him before the people.

We read Mark’s account of this then in vs 1, “The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem,  and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed.  (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, [thus] observing the traditions of the elders; and [when they come] from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.)  The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?"

This was another official delegation of religious leaders from Jerusalem who had traveled to Galilee to discredit the ministry of Jesus. We read about a previous delegation in Mark 3:22, where they had said that He was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul. They basically had said that His power came from the devil. So they were obviously in opposition to Jesus and His ministry and were trying to find anything they could to criticize and use against Him.

Perhaps we need to qualify who these religious leaders were. The scribes were basically religious lawyers.  The Pharisees were a sect that believed  they were, or tried to appear, to be strict keepers of the law.  They believed they were superior in their religion by the fact that they adhered to the strictest interpretation of the law.  And so with the scribes and the Pharisees working together, they hoped to be able to catch Jesus breaking the law.

But what they find to criticize was not some law that Jesus was breaking, but a religious tradition of the rabbis that had, in their minds, equal standing as the word of God.  In fact, some rabbis are on record as saying that the Mishna, which was the interpretative commentary of the law written by rabbis, was superior to the word of God and breaking a tradition or ceremonial injunction of the Mishna deserved greater punishment than simply breaking the law of God.

So the terrible infraction that the scribes and Pharisees take issue with is that Jesus’s disciples did not ceremoniously wash their hands before eating. These religious leaders meant elaborate ceremonial washings, not just washing for the sake of cleanliness. The scribes and Pharisees strictly observed a rigid and extensive ritual for washing before meals. It wasn’t enough to properly clean your hands if they were very dirty. You would have to first wash your hands to make them clean, and then perform the ritual to make them spiritually clean. They even had an accompanying prayer to be said during the ritual washing.  

What they had done was to take the Biblical mandate that the priests had to wash their hands and feet prior to entering the Tabernacle  found in Exodus 30 and 40 and used it as the foundation for the wide-spread practice of ritualistic hand washings.  God’s law didn’t prescribe anything about washing your hands before eating.  

By the way, I know I shouldn’t talk about this, but I can’t help it. I read an article yesterday on Fox News about the White House mandating masks for unvaccinated people. And the article went on to say this was ironic considering that many in the medical and scientific field was now questioning and putting in serious doubt the efficacy of the pandemic protocols such as wearing masks and hand washing.  I want to read you a quote from that article;  “A recent study published by the prestigious Cochrane Library, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health, dug into the findings of 78 randomized controlled trials to determine whether "physical interventions" — including face masks and hand-washing — lessened the spread of respiratory viruses. The conclusion about masks undercuts the scientific basis for masking, according to the study's lead author. "There is just no evidence that they make any difference. Full stop," Tom Jefferson, the study’s lead author, said in an interview. When asked specifically about fitted N95 masks in health care settings, Jefferson said: "It makes no difference – none of it.”  So the study found that in 78 trials neither masks nor hand washing made any difference in controlling the spread of respiratory illnesses.

Now that has little to do with our study of Mark, I realize that, and I’m sure I have needlessly offended some people here today. And  I am likely to get myself kicked off of YouTube for quoting this scientific study in opposition to the government’s official position.  But you would think that God,  in prescribing all the laws concerning the Jews activities and behavior and even personal cleanliness would have taken into consideration  the implications of communicable diseases.  And yet in the New Testament it says that that Christians should not forsake the assembly of themselves together and  in the church they  should greet each other with a holy kiss.  But during the pandemic we were told we could not even shake hands.  And in the name of “science”, they effectively shut down the church.  And I would suggest that the church has not really recovered from that. 

But back to Mark’s gospel. The Pharisees and the scribes honored the oral traditions more than they honored God’s law.  They honored what their rabbis had taught more than what the Bible taught.  The Mishna was man’s interpretation of the law of God.  The lawyers and the rabbis had figured out how to technically keep the law of God but actually work around certain things that they didn’t want to be encumbered by. 

Rabbi Eleazer is recorded as saying, ‘He who expounds the Scriptures in opposition to the tradition has no share in the world to come’... The Mishna says, ‘It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself.’”  And the Jewish Rabbi Jose said, He who eats with unwashed hand sins as much as he that lies with an harlot.” 

So they had developed these traditions, basically man’s reinterpretation of God’s law, that they honored above and beyond the scope of the law of Moses, and they prided themselves on keeping them, and they believed they were superiorly  righteous as a result.

Today in our Christian culture many rituals or traditions have come about which seem to be spiritual, but are founded on man’s interpretations rather than on God’s word.  The Roman Catholic Church is especially guilty of this. And in correlation to the Pharisees position on traidtions, they believe that any declaration of the Pope  has equal standing as the word of God.  And in fact it would seem that the Pope’s declarations take precedence over what the Bible says, or does not say. 

I don’t want to make this sermon a diatribe against the Catholic Church in particular this morning, but I would ask, where in God’s word is the doctrine of the perpetual virginity and  assumption of Mary?  Where in God’s word is the doctrine of taking the eucharist being the source of salvation?  Where in God’s word is the practice of praying to Mary and to dead saints? Where in God’s word is the practice of baby baptism in order to become a child of God? I could go on and and on elucidating false traditions of the Catholic Church.  But I won’t waste our time.  However I will say that such practices undermine the gospel if not being completely antagonistic to the gospel.  And the result is it is with great difficulty that anyone can be saved through the teaching of the Catholic Church because the truth of the gospel is so overlayed with traditions that you can’t find the truth.

Well, Jesus answers the criticism of the Pharisees, but not by answering their question, but with a criticism of His own. Vs. 6, And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.  'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'  "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."

First notice that Jesus calls out these religious leaders as hypocrites.  A hypocrite in the original language means an actor on a stage, performing for the applause of men. That’s what these relgiious leaders were doing.  They were putting on a self righteous act before men, but their hearts were far from God. Jesus quotes from Isaiah but He is obviously applying it to them.

This is the same indictment that I think Jesus would make against the church today. Not just the Catholic Church, but almost all the mainline denominations today have become apostate.  They have exchanged the gospel of the Bible for another gospel of men. They have overlooked the parts of the gospel that speak of man being a sinner, condemned to death, to spend eternity in hell.  They have exchanged the truth of the gospel for a lie.

Romans 1:25 says, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.  For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,  and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.  And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,  being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; [they are] gossips,  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,  without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;  and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

LIsten, the law of God was given to define sin.  Sinners are by definition law breakers. And Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  So when the contemporary church says that sin is not really sin, that your sinful lifestyle does not need to be repented of, does not need to be forgiven, then you have taken the cross of Christ and made it  worthless.  You have taken the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ and made it irrelevant.  When they say that you can continue in sin because grace has abounded, then they have trampled under foot the blood of Jesus Christ who died to take cleanse us from sin.  And we have pastors and priests and clergy in churches today not only condoning sin but living in sin  themselves and yet pretending that they love God.

They are hypocrites of the worst type. Mark has only this one reference to the word hypocrite.  But Matthew records Jesus using it many times in the Sermon on the Mount as well as the Seven Woes. And it is always used in speaking of the religious leaders. Jesus is justified in His anger towards these wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Because they are damning the sheep by their false teaching.

Jesus said, THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.  'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ The modern church today says that praise and worship is all that is required of us and then we can live as we want.  That we have no other obligation other than to meet once a week and clap our hands along to some song that says “we exalt you Lord.”  They suppose that God is up in heaven wringing His hands and saying, “I just wish someone would tell me they love me.”  That’s not the God of the Bible. That’s a god of their own invention. 

Notice Jesus said, "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” Then He gives an example of how they do that. This is not the only way, but one way in which they did it.  He says in vs 13, you have invalidated the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

But to the example He gives, we read in vs 9, “He was also saying to them, "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.  "For Moses said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER'; and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH';  but you say, 'If a man says to [his] father or [his] mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given [to God]),'  you no longer permit him to do anything for [his] father or [his] mother;  [thus] invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

The 5th commandment clearly laid out the responsibility of children to honor their parents. When children are young and in their parent’s household, they are  responsible to obey their parents. But even when they are no longer live under their roof, they are still responsible to honor their parents.  This was the social security system that God designed, that adult children would take care of their aged parents.

But Jesus said that the legal experts, the scribes, had figured out a way to circumvent that law.  Basically, whatever the parents wanted from their grown son or daughter, they were able to declare it as Corban, that is given to God, and therefore he did not have to give it to his parents. This way, a son could completely disobey the command to honor your father or mother and do it while appearing to be pious. Jesus called this making the word of God of no effect through your tradition.  And notice again, Jesus said you do many such things as that.  In other words, they found many ways to get around the commandments of God in order to do what they wanted to do and yet still appear religious.

So having rebuked the Pharisees, Jesus turns back to the crowd and teaches them more clearly the truth.  He said in vs 14 After He called the crowd to Him again, He [began] saying to them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:  there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.  ["If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”]

That statement, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear” is a reference to those who are listening to be spiritually discerning.  There is a superficial interpretation of what He says, but there is also a spiritual application.  And Jesus is saying it’s important to see the spiritual application.

But even the disciples aren’t sure what that spiritual application was intended to convey.  And so we see in vs 17 “When he had left the crowd [and] entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him,  because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" ([Thus He] declared all foods clean.)  And He was saying, That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,  deeds of coveting [and] wickedness, [as well as] deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride [and] foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."

Jesus said there is nothing that enters a man from the outside which can defile him: but that is not to say that there are not defiling things that we can take into ourselves (such as pornography) which are corrupting, defiling.  That’s not what He was talking about. But in this specific context, Jesus is speaking about ceremonial cleanliness in regards to food and ceremonial cleansing. Mark adds in vs 19 that He declared all foods clean by saying that. 

But Jesus adds, the things which come out of a man, those are things that defile a man: The fundamental principle is simple. Eating with unclean hands or any other such thing that we put into us is not defiling. Rather, what comes out of us defiles and reveals that we have unclean (defiled) hearts.

In Jeremiah17:9-10 God says "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”

I’ve heard so many people over the years try to excuse their sin. And in so doing it seems I invariably hear them say at some point, “I’m actually a good person. I really am.”  I think a lot of us are guilty of thinking that we are really a good person.  We compare ourselves to others -generally the worst of society - and we say, see, we are better than that person.  We’re really not so bad.  But the Bible tells us that we are all inherently sinful.  Desperately wicked.  Our hearts are depraved. And our hearts desperately need to be changed.

Jesus said,  "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting [and] wickedness, [as well as] deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride [and] foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."

Jesus is speaking the gospel of salvation.  The gospel of salvation says that man is a sinner. He is inherently wicked.  His heart is sinful.  Not every sin in his heart is acted out.  But God looks upon the heart.  And God has judged sin. The Bible says that the soul that sins, he shall die.

That’s the first part of the gospel.  But the second part is that God has sent Jesus to die in our place.  That He would be made to carry the penalty of our sins upon Himself so that we who confess our sins, and repent of our sins, and believe in Him as the propitiation for our sins, might be saved.  We might be converted.  We might be changed. 

2 Cor. 5:21 says, God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. If you trust in Jesus today as your Savior and Lord, He will forgive your sins, and impute to your account the righteousness of God.

That is what the Bible calls conversion, salvation, being saved, being born again.  It means getting a new heart, that is cleansed from sin, so that we might become the sons and daughters of God.  Ezekiel 36:25-27 says "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

You can receive forgiveness of your sins, receive the righteousness of God, receive the Holy Spirit of God and a new heart, new desires, if you will just repent and believe in Jesus as Lord. I urge you to call upon the Lord today that you might be saved.

How to walk on water, Mark 6: 45-52

As it is our practice to preach through the Bible verse by verse, I rarely have much opportunity to preach messages that are of a more instructional or motivational nature.  Many pastors tend to preach nothing but motivational type of messages, like “How to have your best life now.” Or “You are very powerful.”  Or “How to find success in life.” Those are actual messages from pastors that purvey the prosperity gospel, which is very popular.

And Lord knows, I would like to be popular. So as I prepared for todays sermon, I couldn’t help myself. I thought of a great title for a motivational message, and I figured if I contort the scriptures enough, I think I can find four points and a poem to support it.  The title I have chosen for todays message is, “How to walk on water.”  After all, Jesus did it.  Even Peter did it for a few seconds.  And so, I figured that we should be able to find four steps to be successful at walking on water. That would be a pretty impressive thing to do, wouldn’t it? Maybe we could use that to cause people to become believers.

I have the same email I have used for at least 25 years.  It’s with AOL.  That tells you how old my email is.  It’s from the old dial up days, when you would hear, “you’ve got mail!”  They made a movie about it. My email address is roywow@aol.com. it stands for Roy walks on water.  There were two reasons I picked that.  One was that I surfed, and I wanted to make a reference to surfing, ie, walks on water.  Secondly, it was a veiled reference to the Apostle Peter, who almost drowned while attempting to walk on water. I meant it as a reference to me walking by faith. So now everyone should be able to remember my email. I can’t wait to see what kind of mail I get after this revelation.

You know, once I was talking to some surfer about the last days, who said that there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days that will enable us that are Christians to do miraculous things, and he seemed to think that included walking on water.  He was especially excited about that. That seemed like a big deal to him.  And so, I suppose it might be something of interest to many Christians. Perhaps that’s what the world needs in order to believe, to see  Christians walking on water.

So today I want to examine this text and see if we can find some steps to make this dream of walking on water a reality for all of us.  Now I hope you realize that I am being sarcastic this morning.  But there is an element of truth in what I am saying.  However, I don’t intend on contorting the scriptures in order to prove my title.  What I will say at the outset though, is that I intend to use walking on water as a metaphor for walking by faith, or walking in the Spirit. And I think I can find support for that by referring to Jesus’s statement to Peter when he attempted to walk on water.  Jesus said to Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Jesus attributes the ability to walk on water to a walk of faith.

  

So to walk on water is to walk by faith, or walk in the Spirit. It is the means by which we can by the grace of God walk through the storms of life, walk through difficulties which the devil may raise against us, and accomplish God’s will through the power of the Holy Spirit. So that is what I think we can learn from this story, how we are to walk in the power of the Spirt, how we are to walk by faith.

We find this instruction to walk by the Spirit, or walk by faith,  again and again in scripture.  For instance, Romans 8:4 says, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” And in Gal 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Galatians 5: 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  And 2Cor. 5:7 “for we walk by faith, not by sight—“  The question is, how do we do that in practical ways?  Is it just having a certain mindset, or having a spiritual attitude, or hearing some still small voice in your head?  How do we walk in the Spirit, or walk by faith?  Well I believe this passage will give us some steps that we can follow so that we may have that experience.

You all are familiar with the story, I’m sure.  Jesus sends the disciples away after the feeding of the 5000 or 15000, if you include women and children.  And He sends them away on a boat to the other side of the Lake, which is about a 5 mile trip.  In the meantime, Jesus disperses the crowd and goes away by Himself to the mountain to pray.

We find that in vs 45 “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.”

The first step to walking on water is found in the disciple’s obedience. People love to harp on the disciples shortcomings.  I can’t ever remember hearing a message about Peter walking on water without hearing a lot of disparaging remarks about Peter and also the other disciples.  They make fun of Peter because got scared and fell in the water.  And then they poke fun at the rest of the disciples because they were too afraid to get out of the boat. And so all kinds of messages have been written that basically disparage the disciples.  

But I don’t intend to do that.  I want to commend the fact that when Jesus told them to do something, they did it.  Earlier that day they had rowed their boat across the Sea of Galilee before the feeding of the 5000.  They had listened to Jesus preach all day.  Then they had served up to 15000 people dinner.  And then Jesus made them go pick up all the leftovers.  Now it’s evening, and I’m sure they would have liked to find a nice spot to curl up and go to sleep, and instead Jesus says get back in the boat and row back over to the other side of the Sea. 

But they don’t complain.  They don’t mutiny.  They don’t question His command.  They don’t ask why.  They don’t say, “OK, we will.  Just not right now.” That’s what we often say to the Lord’s commands, don’t we?  “Yes Lord, but I’m busy right now..  Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.”  No, step number one to walking on water is being obedient to the Lord’s commands.  Jesus said in John 14:15  "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” I”m not going to take the time to list all the commandments that we are given in the New Testament. But I urge you to give heed to them as you study the scriptures. To walk in the Spirit is to be obedient to the Spirit.  There isn’t always some emotional, ecstatic experience that marks walking in the Spirit.  It’s sometimes difficult.  It’s sometimes not that exciting.  It sometimes feels like duty, rather than the pursuit of your personal liberty and something that you enjoy.  

The disciples weren’t overjoyed, I’m sure, at the prospect of rowing their boat again.  I don’t think they were singing the popular KLOVE song, “Row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.”  I”m sorry to have to break this to you, but doing the will of God is not always a merry, dreamlike experience. Sometimes being obedient, doing what is right, it not always exciting or even fun.  But to walk by faith you must first be walking in obedience. 

The second step to successfully walking on water is found in what Jesus does.  He goes to the mountain by Himself to pray. Of all the people that probably didn’t need to spend a lot of time in prayer, you would think it would be Jesus.  And yet He prioritizes prayer above His much needed rest. He prioritizes prayer above comfort. He prioritizes prayer above fellowship. 

I said something to the men yesterday at the Men’s Prayer Breakfast about this.  And what I said was that one’s prayer life is a barometer for how you’re doing spiritually. Prayer is spiritual communication with God who is Spirit. And I believe if you examine how much time you spend in prayer each day, you will get a pretty good reading on where you are spiritually. 

You  know, Paul said we are to pray without ceasing. So I try to do that by praying little bullet prayers in my mind or under my breath as I go throughout the day.  I think that’s good.  And I’m sure that Jesus did that much more often than I do.  But that’s not enough for Jesus.  He set aside hours of uninterrupted communion with the Father on a regular basis.  This isn’t the first time nor the last time we see Jesus do this.  And I’m sure He did it much more often than it’s recorded.

You cannot walk in the Spirit if you aren’t communicating in the Spirit.  And I don’t mean speaking in tongues either.  I mean profitable speech, that is intelligent, and understandable.  Where you are pouring out your heart to the Lord and He is speaking to your heart in return. You can’t see the Spirit.  So how do you know you’re walking in the Spirt unless you are speaking to Him.  Prayer is not an option if you want to walk on water.  It’s not negotiable. It’s mandatory practice.

Now there are a couple of interesting things that occurred as the disciples were being obedient.  Notice vs 47, “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 by them.”

First of all, when it was evening means that it was late at night. Mark says that Jesus came to them about the fourth watch of the night.  That’s between 3am and 6am. That means that the disciples have been rowing their boat against the wind for about 9 hours.  And they had only progressed about 3 miles.  

You know, I thought that the prosperity preachers told us that when you say yes to Jesus everything is going to start working out for you. I thought that when you are serving the Lord there’s always fair wind and following seas. The sun is always shining. Life is but a dream.  But I don’t want you to miss this. The disciples were being obedient, they were doing what the Lord told them to do, and this tremendous storm comes out of nowhere and they end up going nowhere for 9 hours. Actually, I think we can say that Jesus deliberately sent them into a storm, knowing what was ahead of them.  And I’ll give the disciples another commendation for this; they didn’t turn around and go back to where they started.  They didn’t give up.  They kept rowing into the wind for 9 hours. 

I think we can add another step to the process of walking on water from the disciples example.  And that is perseverance.  Perseverance means persistence in doing something despite difficulty.  Paul said in Rom 5:3-5 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;  and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;  and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

James describes it as endurance.  Means pretty much the same thing as perseverance. He said in James 1:2-4  “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  One old time evangelist said it this way, “Do right until the stars fall.”  Be obedient to God’s will and persevere in it even when it’s difficult and you don’t seem to be making any headway.

Notice another interesting thing in this passage. Mark says Jesus saw the disciples straining at the oars.  Wait a minute.  It’s night time.  There is a storm.  The disciples are three miles from land. How does that work? It works because Jesus Christ is LORD.  He is omnipotent, all knowing, all seeing God in human flesh.  And in His deity He sees everything. And as we talked about last week, He is the shepherd of His sheep.  He is watching over the disciples as they rowed in the darkness against the wind. God sees us always.  He constantly is aware of all that pertains to us.  If we are His children, then we can count on the fact that He is always on the job.  

Last Wednesday at our Bonfire Bible study, we looked at this principle in Psalm 121. I don’t have time to read the whole Psalm, but it speaks to this principle.  I particularly like the part that says, Psalm 121:2-4 “My help [comes] from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.  He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.  Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.”

In the middle of the storm, in the middle of the night, the Lord Jesus comes to them walking on the water.  Jesus came to help them.  Psalm 54:4 says,  “Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.”  Because the disciples were doing what He told them to do, because He sent them into the storm, because He saw them straining at the oars, because He is their keeper, He came to them. The Lord came to them walking on the water.

Listen, the fact that the Lord can walk on water should not be surprising.  Psalm 77:19 says “Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known.”  William Cowper wrote a hymn in 1774 which has the famous line, “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.” 

Jesus walks on the water, not just a calm smooth expanse of water, but walking upon the rising and falling of large crashing waves. He’s probably going up one swell and then down the other side, His robe  billowing behind him.  He’s probably soaked to the skin by the spray off the waves. No wonder that the disciples think it’s a ghost.

Vs49 “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.” 

So another key then we can learn so that we may walk on water, is not only that the Lord is watching us, but that the Lord is near.  Psalm 145:18 “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.”  The Lord gives us courage so that we are not afraid.  Listen, we can have courage, we can not fear when we go through the storms, because the Lord is with us.  If we did not have the Lord with us, then it makes perfect sense to be afraid.  I see rookie surfers sometimes going out after a big storm and the waves are really big, and they should be afraid to go out.  But they are naive, they don’t know any better.  There is such a thing as a healthy fear.  It’s prudent to be fearful of some things.  But as Phil. 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If I am doing the will of God, He will give me the strength to do it, and He will help me to do it.

And that segues into another aspect of the story that Mark has left out.  According to many Bible scholars, Mark was the apprentice so to speak to Peter.  And perhaps there is some desire on Mark’s part to protect Peter from criticism, which may be why he leaves this part out.  But Matthew fills in the missing pieces by giving us the story of Peter’s attempt to walk on water. 

It’s found in Matt. 14:28-31 Peter said to Him, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."  And He said, "Come!" And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.  But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"  Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Notice first that Peter doesn’t demand that Christ give him the power to walk on water. He says Lord, command me to come to you on the water.  If it’s the Lord’s will, then you can walk on water.  We know its the Lord’s will that we walk in the Spirit, that we walk by faith.  We know that the Lord has commanded us to do that.  And so, like Peter, we can step out of the boat with courage, without fear.

And we should also notice that Matthew says Peter walked on the water and came toward Jesus.  Many people want to mock Peter because he started sinking.  But I think he deserves a lot of credit to have taken at least a few steps.  Even one step on top  of the water is a miracle. So Peter deserves a lot of credit for his faith.

But I can’t help but question though Peter’s motivation. I wonder why he wanted to walk on the water. And maybe the answer to that question is the reason Peter might have been embarrassed by the whole episode. Perhaps that’s what Jesus is alluding to when He says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Because faith is not believing in yourself, faith is faith in Christ, that He will sustain you.  Doubt is believing in yourself that you are somehow sufficiently skilled or superior or something other than being totally dependent upon the Lord.

So I question Peter’s motivation, because I can’t help but think that Peter wanted to out bravado the other apostles.  Or he wanted to show off his supernatural ability.  I really can’t imagine that he just wanted to be close to Jesus. Though I think Jesus was gracious enough to overlook Peter’s pride and allow him to come to him. Or maybe Jesus wanted to use it as a lesson for Peter. 

The Scripture says “Pride goes before a fall.”  When you’re locked eyes with Jesus and taking each step on the water as He is sustaining you, then you can walk on water. But when you look back at the boys on the boat and wave, then you’ve taken your eyes off Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and in that moment of pride, you start to go under.  I imagine it was just like walking off a dock.  One minute he’s looking at Jesus and taking a gingerly step and then two and then three on top of the water, and then the next second he looks back to wave to his friends in the boat, and he immediately sinks like a rock.  No pun intended.

And when he comes back to the surface, he calls out “Lord save me!” Now that’s an effective prayer.  Short and to the point.  You don’t gain favor with the Lord because of long, flowery prayers.  Just talk to the Lord like you would talk to a friend.  And that’s the kind of prayer the Lord answers.

Notice, the Lord reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. The Lord is able to save.  The Lord is ready to save all who call upon Him. Isa 59:1 says, “Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.”  When the Lord took Peter by the hand, they both walked on water and came to the boat.  And that’s another step for us in walking on water.  When the Lord holds our hand, we can walk on water.  We need to be walking so close to the Lord that He is able to hold our hand. When He holds us, we have no fear of falling.  We have no fear of drowning.  We have no fear of the storm.

Vs51 “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.”

John adds that when they got into the boat, not only did the wind stop, but they were immediately at the land.  No wonder the disciples were astonished.  This is just a full on display of God’s power through Jesus. Mark says that they were astonished because their heart was hardened and they hadn’t learned from Jesus feeding the multitude that He was fully God and fully man.  That the creative power of God was in Christ Jesus.  That He was the Creator God. 

Now they have been given another glimpse of HIs glory.  And this time  they fully believed in who He was.  And so Matthew adds in his account in Matt. 14:33 And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, "You are certainly God's Son!”  Now they understand who Jesus is more completely.  And Jesus accepts their worship.

So to wrap it up then, I think we have learned that we can walk on water, or walk by faith, or walk in the Spirit when we follow certain principles given here in this story.  First we need to walk in obedience.  If we are doing what God said, then we are walking in the Spirit.  Second, we need to pray as if our life depended upon it.  Because it does.  Third, we need to persevere in doing what is right, even in difficulty.  Fourth, we need to recognize that Jesus is near.  Fifth we need to know that Christ has commanded us to walk in the Spirit, to walk in faith. And then we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He will sustain us, and keep us from falling.  Then we need to call upon the Lord, and He will save us, He will help us. And finally we need to walk closely with Jesus, holding onto His hand.  

The Lord doesn’t want us to walk by sight.  He wants us to walk by faith.  He wants us to walk by the Spirit, so that we don’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh.  He wants us to walk on water in the midst of the storms, in the midst of the trials, knowing that He is watching over us and will take care of us as we are obedient to His will.  Walking on water is not a magic trick that we do to impress our friends.  But it’s the only way we get through this world without falling.  It’s the only way we do the will of God.  The Lord will help us, and sustain us, as we walk with Him and do His will.