We are in the same passage, we were last week, so we repeat the reading of the word found in Matthew 14 beginning in verse 22 This is one of three C miracles miracles that Jesus performed on the C and Here the account from Matthew Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side While he dismissed the crowds and after he had dismissed the crowds he went up on the mountain by himself to pray When evening came he was there alone But the boat by this time was a long way from the land Beaten by the waves for the wind was against them and in the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified and said it is a ghost and They cried out in fear But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying take heart it is I Do not be afraid And Peter answered him Lord if it is you command me to come to you on the water Jesus said come So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus But when he saw the wind he was afraid and Beginning to sink he cried out Lord save me Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying to him oh you of little faith Why did you doubt and when they got into the boat the wind ceased? And those in the boat worshipped him saying Truly you are the son of God The word of the Lord last week we noticed some things about Jesus As sort of setting up This particular miracle on the sea Today I want us to look at the boys in the boat I want us to look at the young men Who had Answered Jesus call some time earlier probably about a year or so earlier to come and follow him And they had been with him through the healings and through the miracles and through the teaching And Jesus had it seems to me on every reading of it both in this gospel in the gospel of mark And also in the gospel of John three of the four gospels record this particular miracle It seems that Jesus had set this up from the very beginning He made them get in the boat He was going to put them through an ordeal That was going to be for their edification for their good for their training
And he observed I think what happened All night long as they tried to cross what was about a three or four mile stretch Of sea there was an adverse wind blowing against them And Jesus was on the mountain Alone in prayer And it seems to me that he was aware of where they were moving and where they were going as they Moved across that lake not making much progress at all And the gospel of mark tells us something very interesting it said that Jesus Intended to pass by them
And we looked last week at what it means to have the Lord Pass by We looked at the life of Moses when Moses required and ask God to show himself and to manifest himself two Moses The Lord put Moses in the cleft of Iraq And he caused His Appearance to pass by Moses so that Moses would have some glimpse Some vision some operation of God For the people same thing happened to The prophet Elijah God placed him on a mountain And there the Bible says that God passed by him And I think this is what Jesus was intending to do with his disciples As he was going to give them that holy visitation He was going to give them that moment when they would see him As he walked by as the Old Testament said making a path upon the waters
But instead of eliciting worship and all An understanding and appreciation and growth He just scared the living daylights out of them They could not tell who he was and the best that they could apprehend was this was someone Who was walking on the water waitless This must be a ghost And so Jesus in his passing by because of the blindedness of their eyes because of their predisposition Because of their circumstance of the strong adverse wind and who knows what else was going on They didn't perceive him until As our text says he approached them and he told them It is I and we noted that in the Greek grammar that's ego on me which is I ego ego I mean the to be verb Actually if we would translate that Idiomatically it would be Jesus said to them I am He did not give them the experience of Moses in the cleft of the rock They were not able to grasp the experience of Elijah in the mountain as the Lord passed by he gave them the burning bush experience Where he appeared to them And gave his name as he did to Moses in Exodus 3 I am that I am the eternally Self existing one. I am the Lord God Almighty
It's interesting the reaction of the boys in the boat
The first one we hear about is Peter Frightened as they were when Jesus said be of good cheer It is I He called their fears And Peter just beginning to grasp the identity of who Christ is Said Lord if it's you At that moment I believe that he believed it was the Lord He said bid me come Peter wasn't going to move until the Lord called him But the Lord called him and said come And Peter got out of the boat and if you read the text carefully and all the counts he was actually walking on the water Just like Jesus had done it Jesus had come probably over a mile across the water making a path upon the waters When Peter got out of the boat he began to move toward Jesus and Peter himself mortal man Was actually walking on the water and his eyes were fixed upon Jesus who had said to him come And if that's all there was to the story it would be a great great lesson to us That when the Lord Bensus come and we come He makes the provision He Causes he goes before us he enables us But it's interesting in the text it said that Peter saw the wind When he saw the wind His faith Begin to diminish and his faith failed him and he began to sink
Do we ever live our lives like that Taking our eyes off Christ and putting our eyes upon the adverse wind the trouble the circumstance the temptation the challenge the difficulty I don't know how we help from doing it most of us do it all the time We Take our eyes off Christ and put it upon the circumstance the wind And Peter had lived and worked on this lake his entire life And when he saw that wind whipping and coming and the torrent and the waves and the dashing and the thrashing He knew he was in a difficult situation And so instead of continuing to fix upon Christ He fixed upon the situation and down he went What the Lord is trying to do in the life of the disciples is he's trying to increase faith Faith is the substance of things hoped for It's evidence of things not seen We walk by faith in the Christian life The life of the just person is from faith to faith From saving and believing faith to walking and operating faith to living faith If there's anything the Bible teaches us from ones side of the text to the other It's that the Christian life is a life of faith Of believing trusting relying upon banking on counting on depending upon God And Jesus knew that without faith it is impossible to please God Jesus knew that without faith these Boys in the boat. We're not going to be able to become the foundation of the New Testament Church every one of these guys ended up being a dynamic apostle and evangelist of the gospel of Jesus Christ And after Pentecost it in the primitive church we read about in the book of Acts and in the church tradition They scattered all over the known world taking the gospel preaching with boldness in each and every one of them dying a martyr's death Because of the witness to Jesus Christ. They bore and that's what Jesus is doing He is giving them these first glimpses. He's giving them this material That will grow the seed that will grow into great faith over and over Jesus said to his disciples and to others oh you of little faith And I don't think that was condemnatory in the lips of our Lord. I don't think he was putting people down when he said that. I think he was pointing out a reality and the response of the Lord To those he finds having little faith His loving response is to start building that faith To comforting them saying be of good cheer To bringing himself near to them so that they understand the reality Of his personal presence The Lord is working on these disciples. He is trying to help them and build them up in faith And this is precisely I think what the Lord does for us. I look at the text here and it says when Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him When Peter was seeking he cried out to the Lord Lord saved me
That's what we're supposed to do When the adverse wind and the circumstance and the difficulties of life the failures and the temptations come The wretchedness of our own soul and the inadequacy of our own strength begins to press upon us And we realize our utter helplessness There is one thing that we should do and always do it and ever do it And that's to call upon the name of the Lord whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved That's the eternal promise ringing clear And we need to hear it and obey it That's what Peter did Peter didn't try to swim Peter didn't thrash about trying to save himself He knew the adverse wind. He knew this temptation. He knew this adversity. He knew this difficulty He knew this trying circumstance was going to take him under He knew the viciousness of the sea So he cried out to the Lord And the Lord said in the scripture says there immediately The Lord reached out That's what God does. That's what Christ does When he hears our cry and our plea for help he reaches out His hand saves us lifts us up draws us to himself and holds us secure Right there all the days of our life. That's what he does. That's the promise
hear it Eat it Come to the Savior call out to him Have him save you and rescue you no matter what the particular plight is And this is not for the young believer too. This is for the old saint This is for someone's been walking with the Lord 40 or 50 or 60 or more years You never outgrow the point where you don't have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved
Couple of things more about the boys in the boat It says when they got into the boat the wind ceased. This is very similar to the miracle We saw a few weeks ago. We looked at Jesus calming the sea The raging wind pushing the waves threatening the boat threatening the lives of the man And then just as soon as Jesus got into the boat He didn't say in this case peace be still He just got into the boat. We got to the boat absolute calm The waves ceased immediately Not even a zephyr was blowing Over the tide. Notice what the disciples did And those in the boat Worshiped him. That's all Jesus was trying to do Was to show them enough of himself To save and rescue them To the extent To help them in their distress To calm the troubled waters everything he was doing Was to build up their faith so that their eyes would be opened the eye of faith would be opened And they would see Christ for who he is truly the son of God And they would worship him They would worship him On the earlier occasion they had said what manner of man is this That the waves and the wind obey him That's a question. That's a good question And now we have an affirmation truly You are the son of God and they worshiped him There Wasn't A praiseman on board as far as I know There wasn't a worship team Inside Don't think they had a pipe organ anywhere near What do you mean they worshiped him you mean we can worship without all of these aids Absolutely when we see The manifestation of the divinity of Jesus Christ. They knew he was human It was a question in their mind about his humanity It was his deity his divinity That had to be demonstrated and remember we said one of the purposes of miracles Several purposes of miracles one of the purpose of miracles is to simply dazzle and to astonish an astound Jesus certainly did that in this miracle, but another purpose of the miracle is to build up to teach And then another purpose of miracle is to show signs show significance I think this particular miracle hits them on all all cylinders I think this particular miracle did everything a miracle was supposed to do and he listed it in their heart worship Worship of him what sort of worship Well in one of the parallel texts it says they were glad When Jesus got into the boat They were glad That's say the expression is translated into the English Over later on in the gospel of John you remember when Jesus appeared to these same disciples except for Judas of course and Thomas When he appeared to 10 of the 12 in the upper room immediately following the resurrection John says they were glad When they saw the risen Christ I think worship begins when we see God And some glimpse of him some manifestations some awareness Hits our hearts and souls and the eye of faith springs open and we see him for who he is And I think the matter of worship they had was a matter of exhilaration And calmness And joy and the deepest kind of appreciation for what his saving power was all about That he could not just raise Peter pull Peter up out of the of the raging sea But he could actually calm the raging sea that salvation is personal and it's also cosmic He not only saves us he'll save the planet
He's God and I think instead of it being A formal worship I think the boys in the boat in that worship service by now by the way It's the fourth watch of the night The fourth watch of the night comes from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m That period of time in there when Jesus came walking on the water I don't know how long it took him to walk out there and don't know how long all this took But I'll say one thing about the hour of the day It's cracking dawn The new light is appearing The sun is breaking forth over the calm glassy sea There's a new day in Jesus Christ And I think their worship was that of a slacked jaw An amazement A wonder A joy A gladness A deep and abiding peace An appreciation and thankfulness and gratitude For not only what Jesus did and can do but who Jesus is true worship Comes I think when the eye of faith is opened a couple of years ago when my brother was very ill before he passed away He and I have spent some time in the mornings Talking very early in the morning. I'd go over and take care of him a couple of days a week and One morning He just went on a rant About preachers and preaching and my brother was not a preacher But my dad was and I am and my brother ended up I think knowing more about preaching than my brother my dad myself combined He said run when I go to church of course he was never to go to church again in his life He was only to live a couple more weeks He said run when I go to church. He said I want the preacher to make me worship He said I don't want to hear about a football game. I don't want to hear about a movie I don't want to hear about a novel that he's read He said I don't want to hear a bunch of stuff. I don't want him to get up and tell a long story about his family vacation He said I want him Worship and I want the preacher to spend his time He said it's so precious little time. It's not even half an hour in a whole week He said I want him to spend that time telling me something that I don't know Showing me something that I've forgotten Telling me something about God and Christ and the spirit and salvation and mercy and grace and the cross and the blood of Christ That cleanses us from all sin He said I don't have a lot of time. I'm a busy person But when I come to church. I want the preacher to make me fall on my face Before God Almighty and worship him
He said I want to fall on my face broke In my sin knowing that I stand before God forgiven of every one of them That's my debut brother two weeks before he died I think God had given him a little vision of something If we ever get our eyes open, I have faith if if a little faith can become more faith plead and ask God to give us faith to increase our faith to strengthen our faith and enable us to see and believe and worship and be glad