Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

The God of Creation

Bryan Schneider · January 28, 2023

Mark 6:30-56

sharonrpc.org/sermons/the-god-of-creation

Summary

Mark shows rather than merely asserts that Jesus is God by presenting his authority over bread, water, wind, and human bodies.
Jesus feeds five thousand men from five loaves and two fish, displaying the Creator's power while compassionately providing daily bread.
God ordinarily governs creation through stable patterns, but those created regularities do not bind the sovereign Creator or make miracles impossible.
After praying alone, Jesus sees his exhausted disciples straining against the wind during the night's fourth watch and comes to them upon the sea.
Jesus' intention to pass by recalls divine self-revelation to Moses, while his words 'It is I' echo God's 'I AM' and disclose Yahweh incarnate.
At Gennesaret, people carry the sick from villages, cities, and countryside to Jesus, and all who touch his garment are truly healed.
The healings do not promise that every believer will be cured in this life; God may use suffering to form perseverance, character, and hope while assuring sufferers of sufficient grace.
The hearer must choose between a hardened refusal of the miracles and worshipful faith in Jesus as fully God and fully man, the Creator who notices, sustains, and cares for his people.

How does Mark show Jesus' deity through actions rather than only stating it?
What does the feeding of the five thousand reveal about Jesus as Creator and provider?
Why do stable natural patterns not place the Creator under his creation?
How do Job, the Psalms, and Exodus illuminate Jesus walking upon and passing by on the sea?
What is the significance of Jesus saying 'It is I' to the frightened disciples?
Why are naturalistic explanations inadequate to Mark's account of the miracles?
How do the healings at Gennesaret show Christ's care for embodied human beings?
Why does the passage not guarantee healing from every illness in this life?
Is your heart hardened like Nazareth and the disciples, or do you receive Jesus as the God-man?

God-man: Jesus Christ as one person who is fully divine and fully human, displaying both divine glory and tender human care.
Creator: The One through whom all things were made and by whose power they continue to exist, identified in the sermon as Jesus Christ.
Miracle: An extraordinary work of God within his creation that displays his authority and is not reducible to ordinary natural processes.
Divine self-revelation: God making his identity and glory known, echoed when Jesus walks on the sea, passes by, and declares 'It is I.'
Hardness of heart: Spiritual resistance that refuses the meaning of Christ's works even when their testimony is placed plainly before a person.
Psychosomatic union: The integrated human existence of rational soul and physical body, both created and cared for by God.
Saving faith: The Spirit-given reception of and rest upon Jesus as God incarnate and Savior rather than mere amazement at his power.