In Understanding Be Mature

Our reading this morning comes to us from the gospel according to Mark, the sixth chapter and beginning at the thirtieth verse. The apostles returned to Jesus and told Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves, and many saw them going and recognized them.

And they ran there on foot from all towns and got there ahead of them. When He went ashore, He saw a great crowd and He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, His disciples came to Him and said, this is a desolate place and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

But He answered them, you give them something to eat. And they said to Him, shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? And He said to them, how many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they had found out, they said five and two fish.

He then commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And He divided the two fish among them all, and they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces and of fish. And those who ate the loaves were 5,000 men.

Immediately, He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side to Bethsaida while He dismissed the crowd. And after He had taken leave of them, He went up to the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and He was alone on the land. And He saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea.

He meant to pass by them, but when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. For they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately, He spoke to them and said, take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.

And He got into the boat with them. And the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded. For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. This is the word of the Lord. Well, thank you very much for that welcome and it's a pleasure for Aileen and I to be here today and to be able to worship the Lord with you.

Before we come to look at His God's word, let us just briefly pray. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you still speak to us through your word. We thank you that you did not cast us off as you did the angels that rebelled at the beginning, never to be saved, but that you made provision for our salvation and that you have continued to speak to us through your holy word. Help us now, O Father, as we listen to your words and help us to apply them thoughtfully and spiritually to our hearts, for we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, in my late teens, I came across this book by T. C. Hammond. T. C. Hammond was a good Irishman. He was also the principal of Moore Theological College, the Anglican College in Sydney. I believe he was responsible for making it more evangelical.

And so it was good. He wrote this book which is called an introductory handbook on Christian doctrine. He called it, In Understanding Be Men. Now that title is taken from the Authorised Version in 1 Corinthians 14:20, which says, brethren, be not children in understanding, in malice be babes, but in understanding be men. Of course, it's inappropriate to call half the population now to be men and most modern versions of the Bible will translate it as something like, be mature. In the ESV you use here, brothers, do not be children in your thinking, be infants in evil, but in your thinking, be mature.

Or in the New King James Version, which if you'll pardon me, I'll be preaching from today, it says, brethren, do not be children in understanding, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. In understanding be mature. Now at the time that Paul wrote those words to the church in Corinth, that church was being torn apart by those who were abusing their spiritual gifts. They were like children, they were wanting everyone to admire them for what they could do. And so Paul writes to them and he says, look, you're behaving like children, show a bit of understanding in how you go about these things. In understanding, be mature. Something which we can all be learning to do, can't we, in the way we conduct ourselves.

And in fact, this matter of growing in maturity was often upon Paul's heart in the letters that he wrote. In Ephesians chapter four, he says that maturity is foundational to what being a church is all about. He says, you know, why did Christ give apostles and prophets to the church, or at least to begin with, and why does He now give us pastors and teachers in the church? Why do you have elders here as pastors? Why do you have a new pastor coming here in January?

Well, Paul says in Ephesians 4:11 that Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And what is it for? He says, for this, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So Christ gives us pastors and teachers in the church to help us, to help you and me to do the work of ministering to one another. And what's that all for?

Why do we minister to one another? We minister to one another for the edifying of the body of Christ. In other words, for the building up of the church of Christ. For what purpose? What is the end game in building up the body of Christ?

Well, Paul goes on in this passage to say in Ephesians 4:13, he says, until we all reach unity in the faith and unity in the knowledge of the Son of God and thereby become mature as measured by what we see in Christ. Christ is the measure of what a mature Christian looks like. And that's what we are about as a church. We're here to worship God, we're here to minister to one another, and in ministering to or serving one another, our goal is that one another grows in maturity. Now while Jesus was here upon this earth, it was His goal that His disciples would grow in maturity, and He had just, as we know, three years to knock them into shape and to prepare them for their great commission to take the gospel into all the world.

He had just three years to bring them to maturity. And I'm sure that sometimes Jesus was ready to tear His hair out, if that's what Jesus did. I don't know, but we are told that He was tested and tempted and tried in all points as we are, yet without sin. And if, as we're told in the Bible, God will not allow you to be tempted or tested beyond what you are able, and if that means that at times God allows you to be tested and tempted right up to what you are able, then we can believe that at times Jesus who was supremely able was tested and tempted a lot more than you and me. And one of those points in which Christ's patience was tested is in our reading today.

It's there in verse 52 of Mark chapter six, where it says of the disciples, they did not understand because their hearts were hardened. They did not understand. The Bible says, do not be children in understanding, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature, but they did not understand. Now in this instance that we read about today, there are actually two separate occasions where there was a lack of understanding, two instances of immaturity. Because although it's not recorded here in Mark's gospel, this is also the occasion when they see Jesus walking on the water and Peter had to be Peter, didn't he?

Peter cries out to come to Jesus, and that's recorded for us in Matthew's account of this instance in Matthew chapter 14. We're not sure why it doesn't appear in Mark's gospel, especially as we're pretty sure that Mark wasn't there, he wasn't one of Jesus' disciples, got most of his information from the apostle Peter. And so why doesn't he record this? I mean, it's not as though Peter is backward in coming forward elsewhere in telling Mark about his sins and failures. So why doesn't it appear here in Mark's gospel?

I have no idea. But anyway, they see Jesus walking on the sea and you'll notice that it says there, if you go to the reading in Mark chapter six and in verse 48, it says, now about the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea and would have passed them by. He meant to pass them by. Goes on, verse 49, and when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost and they cried out for they all saw Him and they were terrified. And Jesus then calms them down. It says in verse 50, immediately He talked with them and said to them, be of good cheer. In the ESV, it's

take heart. It is I, do not be afraid. Now it's at that point in the story that Matthew takes it up in Matthew chapter 14, and that's where Peter says, Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water. And Jesus says, come. So Peter gets out of the boat, he starts walking across the waves to Jesus, but then suddenly, it's not just the waves that are wavering, but his faith is wavering and it says, when he saw the wind so strong, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

And then Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him and said to him, you of little faith, why did you doubt? You of little faith, why did you doubt? Does that sound familiar? It should, because this is the second time, at least it's the second time we read about, that the disciples have been caught in a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee. Now Mark does record for us the first time that it occurred.

It's back there in Mark chapter four, but there was one big difference then. Then Jesus was always with them in the boat. Asleep, yes, but at least He was with them in the boat. And back there again, there was a big windstorm and waves beat into the boat, and the boat started to take on water, was nearly swamped, is the way that Mark puts it back there in chapter four. But all the while, Jesus is asleep in the stern of the boat, asleep on the pillow, it says. So the disciples shake Him awake, they cry out, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Jesus opens His eyes, He looks at them, He looks at the storm, rebukes the wind, says to the sea, be still, and the wind ceased and it says there was a great calm. The great storm that inspired great fear gave way to a great calm.

And Jesus, having then rebuked the sea back there in chapter four, Mark chapter four, He then rebukes the disciples and He says, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? Just like He says to Peter here on the second occasion, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And I think it is at least implied that concerning all the disciples in the boat on this second occasion in Mark chapter six, He's saying to them, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?

But they did not understand because their hearts were hardened. Now it's evident, I think, that Jesus expected them to learn from the first occasion. Everything points to this second occasion being a test, even the fact that Jesus is not with them this time in the boat. Okay, it's like, you know, Jesus saying, okay, the first time I was with you in the boat, you didn't do very well, but hopefully you learned something from back then and you'll behave better on this second similar occasion. So let's now take it a step further, let's take it up a notch. Same boat, same sea, same storm, only this time I won't be physically with you, but trust me, I am with you.

And He was with them, wasn't He? I mean, where was He? In verse 46, when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray. And where were they? Verse 47, now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea and where was Jesus?

And He was alone on the land. But notice what it says in verse 48, then He saw them straining at rowing for the wind was against them. So now He wasn't physically with them, but He was with them and that is the point. Even though the disciples could barely see their hands in front of their face through the murk of the storm, Jesus could see them miles away from the top of the mountain. Now in your life, Jesus is teaching you spiritual maturity. And one of the chief ways that Jesus teaches us spiritual maturity is by the way that we respond to various trials that come upon us.

Now that's a theme you come across over and over again in the Bible. Let me give you a few instances. First of all, Hebrews 12:11, no discipline seems joyful at the time, but painful. No, it is not joyful. Nevertheless, it says, afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it.

So God's discipline, the trials that you go through, are training you. They're training you to spiritual maturity or what the writer to the Hebrews refers to here as the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Another one, you'll be familiar with James chapter one, where James says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. We've just learned that God's discipline of us, the various trials we go through, are not joyful and yet we can count it all joy. Why? Because we know, says James, that the testing of your faith produces patience and he goes on, and let patience have its perfect work, that you may be mature and complete.

There's that word again, that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Or a third one, 1 Peter chapter one, in this you greatly rejoice. Again, there is that element of joy in something which isn't joyful. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved by various trials, but these are so, he says, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to the praise, honour and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is maturity that proves the genuineness of your faith. And one last one, Romans chapter five. Again, you would be familiar with this. We glory in tribulations. Really?

Why? Because tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character, which is another way of talking about maturity, and with character comes hope and this hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And even of Christ it is said, again I think it's in Hebrews, it says, He learned obedience as a man, He grew to maturity through the things that He suffered. So whether it's the writer to the Hebrews or James or Peter or Paul or Jesus Himself, all agree that our trials are designed to help us to grow in understanding towards greater maturity. Of course, it depends how we respond to our trials.

Trials by themselves do not promote maturity. It all depends on how we respond. Respond well and we grow towards spiritual maturity. Our trials produce perseverance and perseverance character or maturity and with character comes hope. Respond badly, as sadly the disciples did here, because their hearts were hardened and we just become reinforced in spiritual immaturity.

Now here, Jesus wants His disciples to grow towards spiritual maturity. Jesus is testing their faith. Have they learned anything from that first occasion that we read about back there in chapter four? And we can see how this is a test. He's testing their faith here.

In verse 48, it says, now about the fourth watch of the night, that's just before it starts to get light, just before dawn, He came to them walking on the sea. He came to them, He is coming to be with them, but you notice what it says, as He drew near, it says He deliberately would have passed them by or He meant to pass them by. He's walking towards the boat, they see this figure and oh, He's veering off to the side there. So He's testing them. He wants them to think about what's going on here.

Do you realise that I've been watching over you all this time? Do you recognise me? Do you recognise that it is me, that it is I, Jesus, who is coming to your aid? Will you wake up? Will you invite me to join you in the boat? I mean, it's cold out here.

But no, sadly, blinded by fear, all they see is a ghost. So what about you and me? When troubles overwhelm us, like a storm on the Sea of Galilee, in your trial are you aware that Jesus is watching over you? He is praying for you? Hebrews 7:25, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to make intercession for them.

Now there it is. If you belong to Christ, if you have come to God through Him, then Christ always lives to intercede for you. He is always praying for you. I mean, He might be up on that high mountain in heaven and you might be buffeted by a dreadful storm in a frail boat on the sea below, but He sees you and He is praying for you. I mean, know that and you will recognise Him when He comes to you across the storm-tossed sea.

Now how He comes to you may vary. It might be through a faithful friend that He sends to help you. It might be through a message designed to give you extraordinary peace in your heart. It might be through some dramatic change in your circumstances. Whatever it is, Jesus wants you to see that through that faithful friend, through that message, through that dramatic change in your circumstances, it is He that is coming to you.

But, of course, you won't see that if you don't see by faith that He is on the mountain praying for you, that He always lives to make intercession for you. If you don't see that by faith, all you will see in that friend, that message, that change in your circumstances, is the terrifying spectre of a ghost coming towards you. So think back, think back to how the Lord has delivered you in the past. And yes, maybe then He was in the boat, in the storm with you back then, maybe back then He seemed a lot nearer to you than He does now. But He delivered you back then, didn't He?

And He will still be with you to deliver you now. One way or another, He is still with you and He wants you to learn from that previous occasion, from those many previous occasions, that He's still with you now even though your present circumstances seem so much harder. And that's what we mean by maturity. That is what we mean by spiritual maturity, to learn and grow from the Lord's previous deliverances of you, to trust Him now even though your circumstances are much harder. But of course, it's not only that your circumstances now are harder than before, your circumstances now are completely different from anything you have experienced before and you just can't make a connection between what you went through before and what you're going through now.

But this is also how we grow in spiritual maturity. The Lord wants you to learn from your previous completely different circumstances to trust Him now in this all new situation. And that's an important way we grow in maturity. Now look again at how the disciples fell short here. They're terrified. They don't recognise Jesus even when He's right there in front of them.

Jesus identifies Himself and Peter, as I say, had to be Peter, didn't he? He wants to walk on water too. And at Jesus' invitation, he gets out of the boat and then his faith fails him. Jesus rebukes him and I think it's at least implied that He rebukes the other disciples too. Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? And they didn't have faith because Mark tells us what the problem was, the problem with all the disciples, there in verse 51, and they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure and marvelled because they had not understood about the loaves.

We kind of weren't expecting that, were we? I mean, maybe they hadn't understood about the previous time when they were caught in a dreadful storm on the sea. That would make sense. They hadn't been able to extrapolate from the lessons they had learned back then to apply to their present distress. They didn't make the obvious connection because their hearts were hardened. Yeah, we could understand that. Jesus expected them to make the connection, they didn't, they lacked spiritual maturity.

But spiritual maturity is about more than simply making obvious connections. It's especially about making the connections that are less obvious. Verse 51, they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure and marvelled for they had not understood about the loaves because their heart was hardened. Okay, I want you just to imagine for a minute. Imagine, put yourself in the boat with those terrified disciples and imagine, hope it doesn't take too much imagination, that you're spiritually mature, you've got it all together and so you try and calm them down and you say something like, hang on fellas, deja vu, think back to the last time we were stuck in a storm like this and Jesus got us out of it then, so why wouldn't He deliver us now? And you could try something like that. It might even work. But what if instead you said something like, hang on fellas, I know we're stuck in a dreadful storm in the middle of a raging sea and waves are washing into the boat, we're about to all drown.

Let's think about the loaves. And the disciples go, what's that got to do with it? And then maybe chuck you overboard like Jonah. I mean, don't even say, let's think about the loaves and the fish. I mean, there's at least some connection there. We're all about to feed the fishes. There's at least some connection, not a very good one admittedly, but at least in a weird sort of way it was relevant.

But you know, let's think about the loaves. What's that got to do with anything about being in a storm-tossed boat rapidly taking water and all about to drown? Well of course, the big relevance is that it is the most recent memory they have. Less than twenty-four hours ago, less than twelve hours ago, Jesus had just fed 5,000 men, the word means males, so probably just as many women and children, with just five loaves as well as two fish. And sometimes relevance is not so much in what has happened as in how recently it has happened and the most recent miracle that they had witnessed that Jesus had performed was in taking five loaves as well as two fish and feeding something like probably 15,000 people.

And that was a most amazing miracle. It is, I think, I stand to be corrected, but it is I think the only miracle short of the resurrection itself that is recorded by all four gospel writers. Two of those gospel writers were in the boat in the storm that day and obviously it made such an impression upon them, as well as later on upon Mark and Luke when they heard about it, that they all thought this just has to be included in any gospel we write. It had made such a huge impression upon them. But at this particular time, it failed to impress, at least as it should in the face of the raging storm. It was all but forgotten, because their hearts were hardened. And it doesn't mean by the way that they were hardened like the Sadducees and the Pharisees were in their hearts.

The Sadducees and Pharisees were hardened, so hardened that they refused even to begin to see who Jesus was or what He was about. They were hardened in their unbelief. The disciples were not like that. Their hardness was not so much in a failure to believe, as in a failure to apply what they believed. Okay, the psalmist says, doesn't he, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord and he meditates on his law day and night. The disciples failed to meditate upon what they had witnessed. Their hardness was in their failure to think through what Jesus had done, sheds light and gives comfort in whatever challenges they might face in life, including the present one.

Not just loaves-type challenges, not just when they were hungry and wondering where their next meal would come from, but even in the face of quite different challenges they might face in life, like a literal storm on the Sea of Galilee. They did not understand about the loaves. Now Jesus tells us to do this. You remember how He said, you're worried about what you will eat, what you will drink? So what do you do? What do you think about?

What do you meditate on? Birds. You think about birds. Not birds to eat, I'm not talking about Kentucky Fried Chicken, but birds that fly. Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. You worry about your body, what you will put on. What do you think about, what do you meditate on? Lilies, flowers, meadows. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

There it is again, O you of little faith. Just like the first time, the disciples were caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus says, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? And the second time to Peter, and by implication, I think, to the rest of the disciples, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? Why did they doubt?

Because they did not understand about the loaves, because their heart was hardened. They failed to make the connection between feeding 15,000 people with five loaves and being delivered in one of the fiercest storms they ever faced on the Sea of Galilee. Consider the lilies of the field, meditate on this, says Jesus, make the connection. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Spiritual maturity makes connections like this. So what about us here today?

Do we meditate maturely upon God's works? Do we meditate maturely upon God's word and make these connections? Sometimes we fail to make the connections because at the back of our minds, we think God's in control of some things, but He's not in control of these other things. We can be like the Syrians that we read about in the Old Testament when their army kept getting trounced by Israel. It's back there in 1 Kings chapter 20, and the king of Syria says to his counsellors, hey, what's going on here?

Why do we keep on getting trounced? And the counsellors come back to him and say, well, it's because their God is the God of the hills and that's why they beat us, but if we fight them on the plain, we'll beat them. So they did that. They fought them on the plain and they got trounced again because God is the God of the plain as well as the God of the hills. Is your God a God of the hills but not a God of the plain? Is He a God that puts a meal on your table every day but not a God of money that could deliver you financially one way or another?

Is He a God of healing minor illnesses, cold, man flu, whatever, but He's not a God that could deliver you from a life-threatening disease, or if not deliver you from such a disease, deliver you through such a disease by granting you peace? Is your God the God of small things but not the God of big things? Like, you know, when God told Abraham that his 90-year-old wife would bear a child. Really? A 90-year-old woman? Sarah laughed, but God said, is anything too hard for the Lord?

A 90-year-old woman bear a child? A virgin conceive and bear a Saviour? God is not just the God of the possible, He's the God of the impossible. Is anything too hard for the Lord? And God wants you to make the connection between Him doing and having done the possible and Him doing the impossible. Now, I'm not suggesting there that God is obliged to do the impossible for you just because you ask Him, but He does do everything that is good, whether it is possible or impossible. God not only can, but He does work all things, possible and impossible, together for good to those who love Him, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

God can and He does whatever that good may be. Now Paul knew that God can do the impossible. Paul knew that God could enable him to do the impossible. That's what he says there in Philippians chapter four. He says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And in the context there, the all things that Paul was thinking about was not about being delivered, at least not the way he wanted, in every crisis in life, but rather for Paul in Philippians chapter four, the all things, the all impossible things, was about learning to be content to know God's peace even when it was good that God didn't deliver him the way he wanted.

That's what he says. I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. It's a growing in maturity, it's something you learn. I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, to abound and to suffer need.

That is maturity. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Because you see, sometimes more impossible than deliverance itself for Paul was to learn to be content to know God's peace in not being delivered the way he wanted. But either way, God can do it. God is the God of the impossible, whether that means being delivered or not. Either way, He works all things together for good to those who love Him, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

We just have to make the connection, O we of little faith. So take time to think, think through the connections between what God has done in your life in the past and what He is doing now. Take time to meditate. Blessed is the man, this is how you are blessed, whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night. Think through the connections between what God says to you in His Word and what He is saying to you now. Brethren, do not be children in understanding, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, O God, that those of us who have come to you through Christ have been called into your kingdom of righteousness, that we have been saved by grace and that not of ourselves. But you have also saved us, O Lord, that you might work within us to do that which is good and pleasing to you. And to that end, O Lord, we pray that you would help each of us who have known you to grow in that maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ. And for those, O Lord, who have not even begun this journey amongst us here today, open their hearts, open their eyes, that they might see the wonderful blessing, the glory it is, to be found in Christ Jesus, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.