Jesus is God our Rescuer

What you think about someone determines how you interpret what they say and do and how you respond to them

If you think well of them, you will tend to believe the best about what they are saying and doing and will respond positively to them. In your goodwill towards them you might even be willing to overlook many wrongs.

If you don’t think well of someone, you will tend think the worst of what they are saying and doing and will respond negatively to them. You might not let them get away with anything and may not be able to appreciate them when they do something positive.

The same sort of thing is true of Jesus. What you think about who Jesus is and what He came to do will determine how you respond to Him.

If you believe what the bible says about Jesus, you will put your trust in Him, obey Him and worship Him.

If you don’t believe what the bible says about Him, you will ignore or reject Him and His teaching and carry on living life as though He didn’t exist.

If you partly believe what the bible says about Jesus, you will probably end up confused about Him. Sometimes for Him, other times against Him, depending on how you feel about Him at the time.

Today our passage in Mark’s gospel (Mark 6: 31 – 56), calls us to believe that Jesus is God come to rescue His people. Let’s pray

So, how does our passage show us that Jesus is God come to rescue His people?

It starts by showing us that…

Jesus is the Shepherd God promised would rescue His sheep 6: 31 – 44

In the OT, one way that God’s people (Israel) are described is as a flock of sheep with God as their Shepherd.

Part of how God chose to shepherd His flock was to appoint human shepherds who would shepherd them under His guidance.

Unfortunately, many of the human shepherds were unfaithful to God and the people they were supposed to shepherd.

And then it would be said that God’s people were like sheep without a shepherd. They were there but they might as well not be.

In 1 Kings 22 during the reign of evil king Ahab, the prophet Micaiah (speaking on behalf of God) described Israel as “sheep without a shepherd”.

In Ezekiel 34, God tells the prophet Ezekiel to “prophesy against the shepherds of Israel”.

• They don’t feed His sheep
• They will be judged

But God promises that one day He Himself will find, rescue and shepherd His sheep…

Although in the same breath God says that King David (a human king) will again shepherd, look after and feed His sheep.

When we get to the NT, we discover that in fulfilment of that promise in Ezekiel, God becomes a man (Jesus – also called the Son of David) who is shown to be the promised Shepherd that will rescue His people and shepherd them.

And that’s what we are looking at in this section. Look at verse 34.

Jesus looks at the crowd and with compassion sees that they are like sheep without a shepherd (certainly not ones who will teach them what is right).

And so, He, the Good Shepherd (to quote from John 10), immediately steps in to rescue them and be their Shepherd.

• He rescues them by feeding them His word verse 34 again
• He rescues them by feeding them with bread and fish
• He will eventually as the Good Shepherd rescue His sheep not just by feeding them, but by laying down His life on a cross, by bearing their sin, by being punished for their sin, so that they could be freed from their slavery to sin and its consequences.

Which is why Jesus says in John 10 that He is the Good Shepherd that lays down His life for His sheep so that they may have life and have it to the full… which is not possible under slavery to sin.

Even the way Jesus cares for the disciples in verse 31, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” brings up images of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.”

The second way we see that Jesus is God come to rescue His people, is to see that Jesus does everything with the greatest rescue mission in the OT in mind – the Exodus, when God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. Which was also a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do.

Jesus is the OT God who rescues His people 35 – 44 and 45 – 56

The feeding of the 5000 point to the Exodus.

Just as God rescued His people from Egypt and then miraculously fed them in the wilderness with manna and quail (Exodus 16) and there was manna left over that was kept as a testimony to God’s rescue and provision…

So, Jesus who would soon provide a greater rescue on the cross from slavery to sin, miraculously feeds Israel in this wilderness like “remote place” (35).

And there is food left over as a testimony to God’s lavish provision in feeding His people.

Jesus walking on water points back to the Exodus rescue too. How?

The weirdness of verse 48. He is going out to them to rescue them from bad weather again. But it seems that He thinks that the best way He can help them once He gets there is to “pass by them”. Weird.

Here is what Mark wants us to understand what Jesus is doing.

Jesus walking on the water is a glorious thing, only God can do that. It is not scientifically possible for a normal human being to do that on normal water. It can only be done with supernatural, divine power.

The disciples are witnessing a supernatural miracle which reveals something of the glory of Jesus as God.

And so, if Jesus passes by them, they will see God’s glory passing by.

Duh.

Not duh to those who remember Exodus 33 and 34, where Moses ask God to show him His glory.

In reply God says, “I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you”. And then later, “When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by”. And later still it is recorded of God that, “he passed in front of Moses”.

Jesus passing by in glory means God is passing by in glory.

The same God who rescued His people out of Egypt and then showed His glory to Moses, has become a man Jesus… the glorious rescuer God, who will again rescue His people.

But the disciples still have no faith and are terrified at seeing this. They think He is a ghost. How does Jesus deal with that?

With words of encouragement (literally) “Take courage”. Words of comfort “Don’t be afraid”. But why should they take courage and not be afraid?

Because He is no ghost, He is God. He is the great “I am” (“It is I” – actually “I am” 50b). God’s name, that He gave to Moses in Exodus 3, to convince the Israelites in Egypt that He was sending Moses to let His people know that He was about to rescue them.

Jesus is encouraging and comforting them by saying that He is the great “I am”, the God who will rescue His people.

And to illustrate this even further, Jesus climbs into the boat with them, and the wind dies down. He rescues them again. He is the rescuer, the “I am”. They must believe.

That’s Jesus. He is no remote deity. He comes to our world. He gets into our boat and rescues us from what could destroy us.

Ultimately that rescue will come at the cross.

The disciples are amazed, but they still don’t get that Jesus is the glorious Rescuer. They didn’t get it at the feeding of the 5000 (52) and they don’t get it now. Their hearts are still hard, and Jesus will explain why in chapter 7.

But we can see, what the disciples would see later, that Jesus is the Rescuer (the same glorious God of the OT) who once again had come to rescue His people from slavery as promised.

The difference now is that God has taken on flesh to do this once and for all time.

And the rescue is not from slavery to forced labour as then, or any other social ill (primarily), but recue from a greater slavery that affects all people, slavery to sin. 

So, if that is true, how should we respond to this in 2019 in this building?

Acknowledge that you need rescuing:

• That you are like a lost sheep who needs the Lord as your Shepherd to rescue you. 1 Peter 2: 24 – 25, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

• That you are in slavery to sin and that you need Jesus, the great “I am” to rescue you from that slavery to sin by forgiving you your sins. Listen to how Paul expresses it in Colossians 1: 13 – 14, For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Ask Jesus, the Shepherd King, the great and glorious “I am” to rescue you and give you life to the full. He will. (Now)

If the Lord is already your Shepherd and Rescuer, do you still see the wonder and glory of it? Are you still deeply thankful for your rescue? Do you still love Him for that?

Do you understand that He continues to shepherd you with His word? That He still in the boat with you, rescuing you from many things? That one day He will rescue you from this broken world and take you to be with Him?

And that until then, He has called you onto His ongoing mission in this world. What a glorious privilege.

And today we celebrate our 33^rd year as a church. And it is appropriate to spend a few moments praising and worshipping Him for His grace in rescuing us and for 33 years of being a church that partners with Jesus on His rescue mission! (Now)

May there be many more years of partnership with Him on this mission. What will we look back at next year this time?

And today we also launch our thankful special birthday giving campaign as we have done for a few years now “Thankful”. Last year there was such an amazing response.

Please let me explain to avoid confusion and concern:

• How (pledge card). Over and above.
• How long (2 months)
• Please be aware that we are very aware that:
  • We have visitors (don’t need to do this). We are more interested in your spiritual wellbeing than your money.
  • Some of you are struggling financially and can’t give much regularly, never mind over and above. Please don’t feel any pressure. Give what you can if you can. If you can’t, the Lord knows.
  • But some people can, do and love to give generously over and above and we would not want to not do this out of concern for those who can’t. It is a great church family initiative as we have seen over the years. Long may it last and bless the rescue mission of the church going forward.

• We love those who can’t give just as much as those who can and we all can be generously thankful with our praise and worship of our great Rescuer and with our time given to His rescue mission here at St Matthews.

Questions:

The main point of our passage (Mark 6: 31 – 56) is to show us that Jesus is God our Rescuer.

1. What is the significance of Mark 6: 34 (in its context) in showing that Jesus is God our Rescuer? What is the Old Testament image used?
2. What is the significance of Mark 6: 48 – 50 (in context) in showing that Jesus is God our Rescuer. What is the Old Testament event referred to?
3. How do we apply this:
   1. To people we know who are not rescued?
   2. To ourselves who are rescued individually and as a church?