Passage: John 6:15-21; Mark 6:45-52

The Big Idea

John wrote so that we would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in His name. “Christ” means “Anointed One,” the King. After feeding the five thousand, the crowd wanted to force Jesus to be their king, but He withdrew, because before He could reign over hearts He had to be their Priest. Then He sent His disciples into a storm, watched them strain at the oars all night, and came to them walking on the waves. Storms don’t mean you’re out of God’s will. They’re meant to destroy only our faith in ourselves. Fear and faith can’t share a heart, but when Jesus says, “It is I; don’t be afraid,” and we welcome Him into the boat, the striving ends.

Believing in His Name

These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31).

There’s a glorious, satisfying, intimate, holy life that every child of God may enter simply by believing in His name.

What does it mean to believe? It means putting all our trust in something: making Jesus the only object of our trust.

Believing involves the mind: understanding who Jesus is.
It involves the will: choosing to trust Him alone.
But it begins in the spirit, where we receive revelation from the Holy Spirit and come alive. The mind follows what the Spirit reveals.

So, do you believe in Jesus? I’m not asking whether your mind has everything figured out. That will come. I’m not asking whether you choose Him every moment you should. That will come too. I’m asking whether your spirit is fully convinced that Jesus is your only life.

When God reveals something to our spirit, we just know that we know that we know. It’s in the deepest part of us, the quiet, invisible place where our spirit connects with God.

That’s where I know Jesus is my life. I believe His Spirit lives in me and I live through Him. I believe in my union with Christ: He has given me new life by His Spirit and joined me to Himself by grace (read Romans 6-8). All of this union, which Scripture also calls life and light, is received freely by faith.

Jesus is the King

Christ is the English form of the Greek word for the Hebrew title Messiah, which means Anointed One. And the anointed one was the king. Think of David being anointed king of Israel.

Jesus Christ is King Jesus. Do you believe He’s the King? What about when you’re in a storm? Is He still your King?

I think my view of the reign of King Jesus has been far too small. For years I confessed Him with my mouth and admired Him with my mind while holding back the rule of my heart.

May we have the humility and faith to empty our hearts of anything but love for Jesus as we look at His power and His heart in this passage.

Part 1: “You’re Not the Boss of Me” (John 6:15)

Jesus had just fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. What a display of power and compassion! People were shouting, “God is here! A prophet has come!”

“I like this Jesus. Let’s make Him our king. Then we’ll always be fed and taken care of!”

When Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He withdrew again to the mountain by Himself.

Why?

He already was the King. He ruled the universe. The only thing He didn’t rule was human hearts, which lived in rebellion against God, born into it through Adam.
For Jesus to truly rule over them, He first had to fulfill the work of a priest: cleansing them from sin by sacrifice.
Prophet, Priest and King. The people already called Him a prophet. They wanted Him as an outward king. But they had no idea about His priestly work.
So Jesus left to do what priests do: pray and intercede for the people. What a faithful Savior!

“My kingdom is not of this world… You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:36-37).

For Jesus to reign as King of our hearts, He had to do what only He could do: suffer and die as an innocent, pure sacrifice, willingly and lovingly giving His life for our sins. And as He rose in newness of life, we share that new life as we believe.

What is that new life? Jesus is now King of our hearts. We always have some king over our hearts: either sin and the enemy (which we mistakenly think is just ourselves), or Jesus. Those are the only two options.

Don’t let sin reign in your mortal body… but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead… For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:12-14).

Sin is not your king anymore!
Every part of our lives belongs to God. Every corner of the heart is under His rule.
Why do we hold things back? He’s given us new life, and we turn around and use our freedom to do our own thing? We’ve been bought with a price.

He has earned the right to be our King by being our Priest. But we rebel, don’t we? We’re afraid to give up everything for Jesus because we don’t really believe it’s what’s best for us. We grip the sand so tightly that it runs through our fingers.

“Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
“You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:40).

Jesus withdrew to pray that they’d understand, when He hung on a tree and rose from the dead, that He must be King of their hearts: full, absolute surrender. Loving nothing but Him, which, ironically, is the only way to truly love anyone else.

Part 2: A Storm Is Brewing (John 6:16-18)

When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat and started across toward Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. The sea grew rough because a strong wind was blowing.

The Sea of Galilee is known for violent, sudden storms because of the surrounding hills. Our lives can feel the same: heading into a storm, coming out of one, or right in the middle of one.

Believing Jesus is King means believing every storm has purpose, and that He’s in charge and with us in the storms we hate.

Storms do not mean you’re out of God’s will. They’re never meant to destroy us, only our faith in ourselves. The disciples were doing exactly what Jesus told them: crossing to the other side (Mark 6:45).

They rowed into a massive storm. Darkness. Crashing waves. According to every sense, this wasn’t going to end well. I feel alone. I see the waves. I hear the thunder. I smell disaster. I taste defeat.

In storms, our faith is tested, which means it’s put on display, for us and God to see. Is it in God, or in ourselves? Jesus was tested in the wilderness and proved He trusted His Father, and as He lives through us, we can live by the same faith.

You can only really practice faith when it’s dark and stormy. Faith in the sunshine doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. But in the dark, we have an opportunity to trust the Light of the World.

What do I believe about the dark? Is Jesus there? Mark tells us Jesus saw them straining at rowing (Mark 6:48). His eyes never left them. He always has a plan, and His plan is always motivated by love.

Part 3: Drowning Our Fear (John 6:19-21)

When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat, and they were afraid.

The disciples gave it everything. Picture how exhausted they were after hours of rowing. It shows our total inadequacy.
Human effort is never the way to accomplish God’s will.
The wind was far stronger than their best efforts. And that’s OK. God never commanded them to be stronger than the storm. He asked them to trust Him.
His sufficiency is the answer to my inadequacy. I’m allowed to be weak. I’m allowed to need His grace. That’s how grace works: He gives it to the humble (who know they need it) and it’s received by faith (trusting He’ll give it).

Dark, scary night. A scary storm. Then they saw Jesus on the water, and Matthew and Mark tell us they thought He was a ghost (Matthew 14:26; Mark 6:49). They cried out in fear, at their Master and best friend, who’d come to save them!

See what a mess we become when we use our natural eyes instead of the eyes of faith.

In a sense, they weren’t ready for God’s help yet. They still believed they could strive and achieve in the flesh, like Paul’s struggle in Romans 7: knowing the right thing, trying his best and failing. Why does every Christian go through this? Because we must learn that Jesus is our only life. He didn’t come to help us live a good life, but to put our old life to death and live His life in us by a spiritual union with Him.

When we try to live the Christian life by rowing harder, we’re not even looking for Jesus. Then we wonder why God seems so demanding.

But when we rely on Him, wait for Him and trust Him, we can be at rest in any storm.

Fear and faith can’t coexist in the same heart. Fear blinds us to the presence of Jesus.

But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

Why did Jesus walk on water? Not to give water-walking lessons. He wanted them to know who He really is: the Christ, the King, with power over all creation. And what does He use that power for?

Jesus perfectly shows God’s always-giving, loving nature. He literally says, “I AM” (Greek ego eimi). He wants His disciples to know that He loves them and will always come to them when the storm is at its worst and hope seems lost. No storm, no wave, no law of nature can stand against His love.

Can we believe this? Yes. But we have to surrender our “right” to be afraid and our “right” to doubt. Our hearts have to let Jesus be King. No other hope. Full surrender.

Matthew tells us the disciples worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). That’s what kills fear: God revealing the loving nature of Jesus, His eternal commitment to us and His free grace.

When the doctor says cancer. When a child runs away. When the boss says “you’re fired.” When a relationship is nothing but pain. Those waves are real and scary. But Jesus is coming, striding on the very waves to get to you.

Job, who knew a thing or two about storms, said that God alone treads on the waves of the sea (Job 9:8). The Greek Old Testament uses the same word for “walking on the sea” here.

The waves are His path to bring you His presence.

The storms in your life are the very things that will teach your soul to find comfort in no one but Jesus the King.
The only “I AM.” The one true God. Our very life and breath.

Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

Hear His voice. Invite Him in. Worship Him.
The striving is over. The boat is at the shore.
Your trying wasn’t the solution. It was never about what you could do, but whom you were trusting.

To deliver us like this, Jesus removes every human prop we lean on besides Him. So let’s throw all our other hopes overboard and let our fears drown in the very storm we were afraid of. My God sees me. My God loves me. My God will come to me.

Grace Takeaway

Purpose in your heart to believe in Jesus at all times, to trust Him alone and to seek no other life than union with Christ by His grace. He is the King who first became your Priest. When the night is darkest and the wind is strongest, He’s already watching, already praying and already on His way, walking on the waves. Let Him into your boat.

For Discussion

These questions follow Mark’s account of the same night (Mark 6:45-52), looking at five things a storm can’t destroy.

Purpose: Were the disciples in God’s will? Even so, what came into their lives? Was it God’s purpose to send the storm? Is it fair for God to send storms into your life?
Prayers: What was Jesus doing while they were in the storm? Who do you think He was praying for? What does Hebrews 7:25 say about His prayers for you?
Presence: After praying, what did Jesus do? Does Jesus care about your storms? (John 9:1, 35; John 11:33-35)
Peace: What did the disciples have to do before they experienced His peace (John 6:21)? Why do you think Jesus almost passed them by (Mark 6:48; John 14:13-14; Ezekiel 36:37)? What must you do to experience His presence and peace in your storm (compare Hosea 7:14 with Psalm 18:3-19)?
Power: How is Jesus’ power seen in this story? Is that same power available to you today? Do you call out to Him?

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Jesus Walking on Water: King of the Storm