“Insight”
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Pentecost Sunday: Mark 6:45-52

Introduction: Danny Dutton, third grader from Chula Vista, CA. His assignment was to “Explain God.” This is what he wrote:
One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on Earth.
He doesn't make grown-ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way, He doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and walk, He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.
God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times besides bedtime.
God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because He hears everything there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless He has thought of a way to turn it off.
God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere,, which keeps him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.
Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church.
Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them and they crucified Him.
But He was good and kind like His Father, and He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them, and God said OK.
His Dad (God) appreciated everything that He had done and all His hard work on earth so He told Him He didn't have to go out on the road anymore, He could stay in heaven. So He did.
And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones He can take care of Himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.
You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to hear you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.
You should always go to Church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God.
Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong! And, besides, the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.
If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can.
It is good to know He's around you when you're scared in the dark, or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.
But you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and He can take me back anytime He pleases. And that's why I believe in God.
If I were to ask you to explain God, would that be easy or hard for you? One of the challenges we face as followers of God is to have the right ‘insight’ into God so that we can know God and trust God, which leads us to ultimately follow God. We have the Bible, God’s word, but we can still get very confused and lack understanding.
This morning as we celebrate Pentecost Sunday, we see that it is only by the filling of the Holy Spirit that we can come to have the Insight we need to believe, understand, and follow.

I. Not Understanding- (Mark 6:45-52)
a. Jesus Prays- In the Mark 6:45-52 passage we see how Jesus, after
a hard afternoon of ministry, goes off to pray. Jesus did this because He knew that He needed to regularly be filled with power so He could continue the work He was called to do, and He knew that the way to make this happen was by being connected to the Father through prayer! But another reason Jesus prayed regularly is to make sure He knew the will of the Father so that He could faithfully carry out this will.
Although Jesus was God in the flesh, there were still some human limitations. He wanted to be sure that the things He was doing and saying were the things He came to this earth to do. He wanted to make sure He was fulfilling His calling. To do this Jesus needed to consistently gain the right INSIGHT into what He was to do!
We see that praying was a regular practice with Jesus. When Jesus had to choose the 12 disciples that He would have follow Him as His inner circle, Jesus went off to pray. After times of ministry, like here where Jesus fed the 5000, He went off to pray. Before Jesus started His ministry, after He was baptized, He went into the desert to pray and commune with the Father. Before He was to be arrested and crucified, Jesus went off to pray. Jesus knew that prayer was the way to fully connect with the Father, and receive insight. JESUS GIVES US A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE OF HOW WE GAIN INSIGHT THROUGH PRAYER.
b. Disciples Fail to Understand- After Jesus is done praying He
decides to go to the other side of the lake. The disciples are in the middle of the lake on the boat. Jesus doesn’t walk around the lake but instead walks across the water. The scripture says in verse 48, “…Jesus intended to pass them by.” But the disciples see Jesus walking on the water, and it frightens them. This is not surprising, since I’m sure it would frighten us as well to see someone in the middle of the night walking on the water! This is not a normal occurrence. I don’t know about you, but I have never seen anyone walk on the water, and up to this point neither had the disciples.
At the end of verse 52 there is an interesting phrase, which says: “for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”
This is an interesting phrase because it tells us that all that Jesus did was tied together. When Jesus fed the 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, it was a show of Jesus’ power and was meant to show who He was; the Messiah; the Son of God. Jesus walking on the water was meant to again show them who He was; it wasn’t just so that Jesus could get to the other side faster; it wasn’t so just could save Himself some energy by not having to walk all the way around the lake.
Yet, in the midst of the disciples being eyewitnesses to these events, they failed to understand; they failed to have INSIGHT. They couldn’t see past the physical so that they could understand the things of God. This is partly because they weren’t filled with the Holy Spirit to help them have this insight. We will talk about this more in a little bit.

II. Going Through Life with Your Eyes Closed- (mark 6:51-52)
a. Failure to see-This might surprise you, but we actually go through
about half of our waking life with our eyes closed!! How is that? Well, we blink about 25 times every minute. Each blink takes about one-fifth of a second. Therefore, our eyes are closed about 30 seconds of every minute.
But even more importantly, many people go through life with their eyes closed because they fail to really “see” the world around them; they fail to see the real truth of this world. They might observe things on the surface, but fail to see what is underneath. They might focus on images, but fail to see the issues. They may have the ability to physically see with their eyes, but their perception is lacking. If life were a painting, they would see the colors, but fail to see the genius of the stokes of the brush. If life were a symphony, they might hear that there are notes being played, but fail to detect the real beauty of how those notes fit together to form a masterpiece. They might know who Jesus Christ is, but fail to receive the saving grace of the cross that leads to eternal life!
Without ‘insight’ their life becomes reduced to existence with frequent flashes of boredom and indifference. Isn’t this true, that so many people seem to feel bored or indifferent about life? It is because they lack insight.
b. The importance of insight- Those without insight dwell mainly in
the realm of the obvious…the expected…the essentials. They are interested in the dimensions of length, and width, but not depth. Now don’t get me wrong, this is not a critique of those who cannot go deeper, but of those who choose to not go deeper. It is not about inability, but about refusal. All people have the ability to go a little deeper, but many refuse to do this!
Going back to the disciples, we need to understand that they were able to understand, but they didn’t allow themselves to expand their minds in this way. Maybe it was too overwhelming for them. Maybe it was too much beyond their expectations. But for whatever reason, the scripture says that their hearts were hardened, and they chose to not understand.
This is true of you and me. In those times we choose to not seek understanding, in those times we choose to not open our minds to the things of God, our hearts become hard and we will fail to see; fail to have the needed insight.

III. Do We See?- (Hebrews 5:11-14)
a. The rebuke- Mark Twain once said: “When I read the Bible, the parts that trouble me most are not the ones I don’t understand, but the ones I do understand.”
The writer in Hebrews, in chapter 5, verses 11-12 gives us a rebuke for those times we fail to seek to understand; fail to seek to grow and apply the knowledge we gain from God’s word. He says this: “About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you…”
What he is saying is that they had been Christians for some time, and they had received much teaching. With all of this time and teaching they should have grown to the point where they were able to teach God’s word themselves. Yet, the writer is saying that there was still much they didn’t understand. They were still struggling along in their understanding of God’s truths.
Many of us have read the Bible, and heard the Bible taught. This teaching is not to be ignored, or put aside, but to be applied to our lives. We need to take what we see and hear and experience of God’s word, and put it into practice into our lives. When we do this, we will indeed teach others, and we will understand all the more. We fail to do this when we fail to use the insight God gives to us.
b. The challenge- The challenge is to allow the word of God to
penetrate our minds and our hearts so that we can move forward in our faith and become mature. Hebrews 5:14 says: “But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Maturity is the result of mixing insight with practice. It is the ability to discern between good and evil; right and wrong. It is having trained senses so that you can discern what God would have you do, and what God would not have you do. When we are able to do this, the rewards are great!
What are the rewards? SEEING THE NEEDS OF OTHERS AND STEPPING OUT TO HELP THEM; discerning God’s will; BEING SENSITIVE AND CARING; being led to pray often and with depth; as I said before, the ability to DISCERN GOOD FROM EVIL; being able to apply God’s word to your every day life (being able to know how/ what you are learning fits into what you are experiencing)……
EX. Let’s say that you are learning Spanish. You talk about it in class and read about it in the book. You practice the tenses and the verbs. Then you get out into the world and someone starts speaking Spanish to you. You understand a few of the words, but most go by too quickly. Then you answer them with broken Spanish.
I believe it is similar as we learn God’s word. Let’s say you read about loving others in the Bible. Then you go out into the world, and there are situations all around you that could lead you to step out in love, but they are not obvious: you meet a stranger who wants to tell you their problems, but you don’t have the time to listen; a co-worker is having trouble at work, but you are caught up in what you have to do, and fail to recognize this as an opportunity to love. This is why we need insight!!

IV. Insight and the Holy Spirit- (John 16:12-15, 3:12)
a. When the Holy Spirit comes- The truth is, we cannot have real
insight, or understand the scriptures fully, or become mature Christians without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In John 16:13 Jesus says: “When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth…”
The Spirit of Truth is the Holy Spirit. Jesus is helping us to understand that the Spirit of God is there for us to know the truth. Because Satan is always trying to trick us and deceive us, we need the Holy Spirit to guide us to God’s truth. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to bring God’s revelation to us; to help us know the voice of God, and the mind of God, and the way of God. In the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 12 Jesus said these words to Nicodemus: “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”
It is true that there is much on earth that we do not understand. It makes sense that the things of heaven, which would be very foreign to us, would be even harder to understand.
Think about doctors for a moment about how we go to doctors when we are sick thinking they will be able to first tell us what is wrong with us, and then second give us a cure for our ailment. How surprised we are when they are faced with a problem that they cannot solve. I had a friend once who went into the hospital and almost died. The doctors ran test after test after test not being able to figure out what was wrong with him. In time he got better and was released from the hospital, but not because of anything the doctors had done. They never knew the answer to the earthly problem of what was wrong, or how he got better!
b. Filled with the Holy Spirit- So Jesus lets us know that we will not
be left alone to figure out the answers for ourselves. After Jesus left the earth the Holy Spirit came to be with us, and guide us, and fill us!
Jesus explains it to us in John 16:7, “…it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” The Holy Spirit existed before Pentecost, and was active before Pentecost, but Pentecost Sunday is about remembering that Jesus has provided the way for us to be saved through His sacrifice on the cross AND so that we could be filled with the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit). It is by Jesus’ death and resurrection that we can be made clean, and in this place we can have God’s Spirit reside in us. With God’s Spirit we have the power of God and the insight of God.
This is important, because we do not want to go through life with our eyes closed, or just going through the motions, but rather seeking to live life to the fullest.

Conclusion: There are definitely times in our lives where we dwell on the surface, not in the depths; where we just seek to exist, just hoping for the bare essentials, instead of seeking the true joy of life. Too much of life is wasted on not understanding who God is, and what God has for us to experience.
If you want more for your life, and I hope that you do, then you can have more by asking God to fill You with His Spirit. It is much the same as asking Jesus to be Your Savior and Lord. You simply say: “God, by the power of Jesus Christ, who is my Savior and Lord, I ask that You would now fill me with Your Spirit of truth. Touch me in the depth of my soul and spirit with Your Spirit, the Spirit that empowers me and gives me understanding.”
Each day when you wake up, start the morning by asking God to fill you all the more with His Spirit; the Spirit of truth; the Spirit who gives us insight into God’s word, and this life that we live. Amen.