7/19/26 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 “Rest in Faith!”

01 Jul 7/19/26 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 “Rest in Faith!”

7/19/26    Mark 6:30-34, 53-56           “Rest in Faith!”

I would guess that most of us have burned the candle at both ends.  This happens at our work and at our leisure.  I remember once our daughter moved from Kansas to Florida and they drove something like 16 hours in one day.  They are young but I’m sure they were still tired.  We used to watch our grandson Ben play basketball games 2 days in a row and he got tired.  But there is one thing about young people is that they bounce back after not too much sleep or rest.  I know that I’m finding that I have to rest more and more as I get older because I just get tired easier.  This is just a natural part of life.  We need rest.  Today, we are going to look at Mark once again as he tells us about rest and how to recognize the one who can give us rest plus all other things.  Let’s see if we need rest and Jesus.

Darron Khan tells the story of two woodsmen that really brings out a very important aspect of rest.  It seems these two guys worked together in the woods when one day one of them challenged the other to a tree chopping contest.  The challenger worked very hard all day and he only stopped for a brief time to take lunch break.  The other man seemed to take his time.  He had a very leisurely lunch and took several other breaks besides.  At the end of the day the challenger was both surprised and annoyed to find the other fellow had chopped much more wood than he had.  The challenger told the other guy, “I don’t get it.  Every time I checked, you were taking a rest and yet you chopped more wood than I did.”  “But did you notice,” the winning woodsman replied, “that I was sharpening my ax any time I sat down to rest.”  A sharp ax is mandatory for cutting wood. This fellow had learned to sharpen his ax as a part of his rest and relaxation.  I think the real point of this story is that everyone has a different way to relax.  For some it’s spending time on a beach, for others it may be reading a book or even sharpening an axe.  I’m not going to tell you how to relax but I will say that you need to relax.

As we begin today we have the disciples coming back from going into the countryside somewhere around Nazareth.  Jesus had sent them out in pairs.  Mark had interjected the story of John the Baptist and Herod last week as a sort of flashback.  Now they were coming back to Jesus and they were tired.   They had been working hard.  Then they come back and they find they can’t even find time to eat.  The mobs are upon them when Jesus tells them that they should go someplace that is secluded and get a little rest.

We all have our little secluded places.  I’m just reading a book about a man who sat on a small pew like bench.  It sounds like the little ones we have seen at various churches.  It was an acolyte bench and then it was the associate pastor bench.  This associate pastor got to do a lot of thinking and reflecting while watching other people from that bench.  Of course, he also had to do a lot of thinking as to what he was going to say next. The point is that this was a restful place for him sometimes.

I know that some of you rest as you are driving.  Some of you rest by doing small jobs like sharpening an ax in the shop.  Some people rest by cleaning the house.  As I just said I can’t tell you how to rest.  You have to come up with that yourself.

However, the consequences for not getting rest can be severe.  Here are some things that we never think about because our society could never fault someone for no rest.  The spill of the Exxon Valdez, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and the fatal navigational error of Korean Air Lines 007 all occurred in the middle of the night.  The US accidently shot down an Iranian airbus killing all 290 people on board because the fatigued, stressed out operators in the Combat Information Center misinterpreted the radar data.  They repeatedly told their captain that the jet was descending towards them as if to attack when the jet was only on a normal flight path.  Do you remember the disaster of the space shuttle Challenger?  The officials who made the decision to launch did so after working 20 straight hours after only getting a couple, three hours of sleep the night before.  This cost the lives of 7 astronauts.  We don’t hear the real story.  They like to cover these types of things up and blame it on some sort of mechanical or computer error.  Any time you hear something like this you should know that it may be partly human error.  And it is really possible for it to be an error due to lack of rest.  Also many if not most of our physical ailments are a result of lack of rest and too much stress.

People, we all need rest.  I would guess that the disciples got a little rest as they crossed the Sea of Galilee yet again.  We don’t know.  We do know that the crowds beat them to the other side.  They were bringing their sick and their lame and their demon possessed so Jesus could heal them.  It doesn’t tell us what the disciples did but Jesus had compassion for these people.  He healed them, taught them and did all the things that He usually did.  Jesus could never turn someone down who was in need.  He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

We talked a little about this last week.  Sheep have absolutely no defense mechanisms unless they can outrun their predator.  Almost always, they will lose this race.  Sheep need someone to take care of them.  They are a very gentle animal and they actually make quite a nice pet.  Jesus tells us that He is our great shepherd.  He will watch over us.  He will help us.  He will feed and clothe us.  He will be our shepherd.

All He asks that we do is accept Him as the Lord and Savior of our lives.  That is all.  You need to confess your sins to Him, repent or turn from your old ways and ask Him to live inside of you.  Then He will take care of you.  He will lead you.  He will help you think.  The outside world doesn’t understand this.  They don’t know the power that comes from surrender to Jesus.  When you come to Jesus, you can rest in His arms knowing that you are safe.

This leads us to the second part of this reading.  We know that the people were crowding Jesus with their troubles.  Why were they doing this?  I think that it is a natural instinct in us that we want Jesus in our lives.  We want someone who will take care of our every need.  We can’t help it but want this in our lives.  This isn’t something just for Christians.  God made a place in the heart in every human where He can live.  Many people in the world don’t know about this but it is there.  They can deny it all they want but it is there.  It is one thing that all humans have in common.

The trouble comes for people who don’t know that Jesus can help.  In our reading, these people knew Jesus could heal anyone of anything.  They had seen it with their own eyes.  This is our problem 2000 years later.  We don’t have people running to Jesus.  We have people running the other way.  As pastors we are total failures.  As Christians we are not doing the job.  2000 years ago people ran to Jesus for help.

Today we do everything in our powers not to be associated with Jesus.  We are an affluent country.  We have a large % of the richest people in the world.  The consequence of this is that we feel as a country we don’t need Jesus.  We can take care of ourselves.  We can make deals with enemies sworn to kill us because we think we are so good.  As a country, I don’t think we can ever turn back to Jesus unless we can convince ourselves of our desperate need.

For example, the alcoholic doesn’t get help until he/she is absolutely down and out, if they even do at this time.  When the compulsive gambler has exhausted all his resources is when he may seek help and not before.  Unfortunately, those who crave power or more money may never seek help.  It’s no wonder that the rich man has such a hard time getting into heaven and just about everyone in this country is rich.

Contrast that to the poor people in Africa.  There is civil war all around them.  They often times have nothing to eat.  They are severely oppressed like the early Jewish people.  They run to Jesus.  In Asia things are very similar.  The oppression is severe.  Many face death on a regular basis.  They run to Jesus.  I would like us to find a way to motivate people in this country to run to Jesus without first destroying ourselves.  We should have a meeting called “Come and Meet Jesus”.  This is a very bold title but I would want everyone to know exactly what we are doing. We would be helping people to come and meet Jesus.

These ancients were running to Jesus because they knew Jesus could help them.  They knew that He could heal their ailments, diseases and any other thing that was wrong.  They crowded Jesus where ever He went.  They were like sheep without a shepherd.  Back in those days, sheep needed a shepherd as we have just talked about.  If you have been following, you will have noticed the Mark talks a lot about Jesus being the shepherd and we are the sheep.

Today, we don’t know that Jesus can help us.  We are at a distinct disadvantage.  We weren’t there when Jesus was doing all of this.  We didn’t get to see what these people saw.  We weren’t there when the children were healed.  All we can do is trust that these authors are telling us the truth.  And I trust them 100%.

It’s easier for us if we just look around.  Everything we see, we know was made by God for us.  We have all seen miracles worked by God.  I have seen many works of Jesus in my 20 years of ministry and my 75 years of life. There are also many personal healing stories that we have that prove to us that God is at work everywhere.  But what about the majority of this country that doesn’t believe in Jesus?

We have our work cut out for us. All we can do is keep telling our personal testimonies.  We each have a story to tell about God.  We have to learn to be able to tell it on a moment’s notice.  When there is a miracle, we should shout it out on the mountain tops.  There is no greater time in a person’s life than the hour they first believed.  But there will be opposition.  There will be people shouting louder than us but they don’t have any message.  God goes ahead of us and prepares hearts to hear our testimonies.  Then leave the rest of the work to Jesus.

When we leave the rest of this work to Jesus then we have the faith in Jesus that He can do anything. These ancient people responded in faith.  The things that Jesus did in those days seemed just as impossible as they do today.  No one can walk on water.  No one can feed 5000 people with next to nothing.  No one can heal someone by just touching them or saying a word.  But Jesus could do these things and much, much more.  The only prerequisite was that they believed.  They had faith because they had little else.

That is all anyone needs today.  We might even have a skeptic or two with us listening today, who believe that this and this happened but Jesus surely didn’t walk on water.  Or Jesus didn’t actually raise Lazarus from the dead.  Or maybe it’s something else. For some reason or other you have a hard time believing everything in the Bible.  The reason isn’t important.  I would like you to suppose just for a minute that everything in the Bible is true.  Imagine that it is not only true but it is only the tip of the iceberg of truth.  In other words, I want you to suppose that you ain’t seen nothing yet if you believe in the Bible.  Any greatness that you can imagine pales in comparison to the reality of God.

Then the question becomes which world do you want to live?  Do you want to live in a world like most people, where there is no hope, no real love, no joy or no truth?  This list goes on and on with things that only God provides.  Or do you want to live in a world that has all these things plus much, much more.  That’s your choice in this world.  There is no more.  If you make the right choice and have faith, then your life will be so much easier.  It will have far more meaning.  You will have Jesus on your side for everything.  Life doesn’t get any better than that.  Otherwise, you can keep plodding along in life to nowhere.  My advice is to have total and complete faith in Jesus.

We need rest and we need faith.  Eliza Morgan tells the story of her 11 year old daughter, Eva, who was distracted when she went to tuck her into bed one night.  She had learned about a friend’s teenage girl whose hair was mysteriously falling out.  Her name was Amy and Eva prayed for her like this, “Jesus, please hold Amy’s hair on her head.”  Mom was touched by this prayer.  The doctors kept trying to help Amy but the hair kept falling out.  Finally they found out she had a rare disease where the hair fell out and it could be permanent.  After 6 weeks, little Eva changed her prayer to this, “Dear Jesus, if you won’t hold Amy’s hair on her head, would you please hold Amy.”

People, we need Jesus in every phase of our lives.  We need Him to hold us.  We need Him to help us rest and have faith.  We are to tell the world what Jesus can do and to run to Jesus for all things.  The very maker of the universe knows your very name and loves you above all others.  Just let that thought excite you for a minute.  Jesus loves you more than you can ever know.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.