6:45 Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. 6:46 And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray. 6:47 Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. 6:48 Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by. 6:49 And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; 6:50 for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid." 6:51 Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. 6:52 For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened. (New King James Version)

We are studying the Gospel of Mark in the Japanese Worship Service. Last Sunday, we studied that Jesus fed over ten thousand people. We learned that Jesus showed His redemptive work when He gave bread to the people. He would give His life, and Himself later on the cross for our redemption. When He broke the bread and gave them to the people, He showed that He would be broken on the cross and His life would be given to the people. It was very meaningful to remember His cross on the World Communion Sunday.

Today we are going to study what Jesus did after doing the miracle. But I cannot cover everything in today's portion because I have to speak both in English and Japanese which takes time. Today's sermon is a continuation of the sermon on October 25. We will celebrate this Sunday as the Reformation Sunday. We will provide English translation every week. I hope you will join our worship service at 9:15. By the way, what Jesus did do immediately after doing the miracle? He dismissed the crowd, sent the disciples to the other side of Galilee. He wanted to be alone. For what? To pray to the Father by Himself. He felt the need to pray after doing the miracle. He was praying from evening to midnight. He needed to pray through the whole night. Why did He need such prayer? Let me list three reasons.

First of all, He needed to pray for Himself. Jesus is unlimited in His power. But He was somehow limited in His power while on earth. Jesus must have felt great power going out from Him. Then He needed his power to be renewed by the Father. We also feel the same thing especially after we have done a big job. We also need to be filled with God's power day by day. If we fail to get the power of God, we may burn out in our service to the Lord.

Sometimes we find that some people have left our church. Most of them were very active and worked so hard for the church. But suddenly they disappeared. Why? There may be many reasons. One of the reasons may be that they were too busy in their activities to establish fellowship with God. Church is the place where we serve the Lord. The church which does not to encourage the people to serve the Lord is a bad church. However, church is also the place where we are nourished. We are nourished in order that we can serve the Lord. Therefore the church which never nourishes the people with spiritual food and equips them with divine power may be the worst church. It's not good just to drain your power. We need to be refilled with fresh power. We can get this power only through prayer. Are you nourished with this spiritual food through your prayer life?

The second reason why Jesus prayed was to resist temptation from Satan. Do you remember that Satan put temptations before Jesus after He started His public ministry? Satan said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones to become bread." (Matt. 4:3) What was the purpose of Satan? He tried to change Jesus' ministry from a spiritual one to a material one. Which ministry would make Jesus more popular among people? Giving the Word of God, or giving bread? Giving bread would make Him more popular and welcomed. If Jesus gave only bread to the people, He might have been able to avoid his death on the cross. But actually He was hated and rejected by the people because He tried to give them the Word of God. Satan suggested to Jesus to meet people's need by giving bread not by giving the Word of God. But, giving bread only meets half of people's need. Jesus answered and said to Satan, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " Here Jesus announced that His ministry should be spiritual and His priority should be always giving the Word of God.

However, Jesus gave the people bread as well as the Word of God. It was the chance Satan could argue with Jesus. Satan could say to Jesus, "Jesus, isn't it your ministry to give the Word of God? Why did you give bread to the people? You must change your mind. Yes, changing your mind is good for you. People won't listen to you while you just speak the Word of God. You are the Son of God. You have power. Why do you limit yourself? Use your power. Give more bread. Get the people's hearts by something visible and attractive." Against this temptation Jesus needed to pray and confirm His priority in His ministry. Jesus was tempted. But He never sinned. Because He overcame the temptations through prayer. We have a lot of temptations. And we easily compromise to the way of the world. Jesus Himself prayed hard. And He said to us, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation." (Matt.26:41) If Jesus needed prayer, we need even more. Are you watching and praying?

The third reason why Jesus prayed was that He tried to follow-up the people to whom He miraculously gave bread. He prayed not only for Himself but also for the people. People may have misunderstood His ministry after they got bread through the miracle. Actually they did begin to misunderstand Jesus. Some of them just followed Jesus only because they were seeking bread. Therefore Jesus needed to pray that people might know who He was and what was His ministry.

Do we pray like Jesus did? Before we do any church activities and events, we need to pray a lot for them. People may distinguish the well prepared works from the last minutes jobs. One will bring a lot of blessings, but the other brings just surface amusement. Even though people do not distinguish one from the other, God knows that how much we spent for prayer. I'd like to have fewer activities and events rather than a lot of activities in our church. I'd like to have a quality time at each meeting. Prepare for each meeting in prayer. Put people into your prayer. I mean, immerse them, cover them in prayer. We will have good results from them.

But it's not enough, we need to follow up each activity, event, and meeting in our prayers. Continue to pray for the attendants of the meetings. Keep praying that the events will produce good fruit in our church. People pray hard before the big events like Church Camp, Shuyokai, and the Annual General Meeting. But we easily forget to pray God's guidance for the implementation of the decisions and applications of the messages. We need to prepare for our activities in prayer. At the same time we also need to continue to pray for the activities even after they are over. Let us follow-up the activities and events in prayer. Without such continuing prayer, we may work in vain. I wish that I myself will be constant in prayer. I hope that our church will do every thing in prayer.

When we continue to pray, we become more sensitive to others needs. Jesus found that His disciples were in trouble in the middle of the sea when He prayed. He prayed alone. But He prayed for His people. The disciples are always in His prayer. He saw His disciples from the mountain. He had mercy on them. He went down to the sea. He walked on the sea. Finally He went into the boat. Prayer creates concern, and concern leads us to practice. If we start to pray more for our church and for each other, something will happen. Something good and beautiful. Let's get our church changed by our prayers.

(Prayer)
Heavenly Father, this morning we learned why Jesus prayed on the mountain. He prayed to get spiritual power from You. He prayed for confronting Satan with Your Word. He prayed for the people that they might find Your truth. Father, we need that same kind of prayer of our Lord Jesus. Teach us to pray like our Lord did. We need Your power. We need the confidence which You give us regarding our mission. We need true love and concern for others which comes from You. You are going to give us these things through prayer. Therefore, guide us to deeper prayer. In the name of Jesus, we pray these things, Amen.

(Preached at SDJCC on October 11, 1998)