"Jesus Walking on The Water" (Sermon)

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Lord's Day message from January 14th, 2024 -Biblical Text: Matthew 14:22-36

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All right, let's turn in our Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14, of course, we took about a month off from the
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Gospel of Matthew. So we did a couple topical messages, a couple messages revolving around the subject of the birth of Christ and Christmas, but now it's time to get back into our study of Matthew.
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So we're in the 14th chapter, and on this Lord's Day, we're going to be looking at one of the most famous of all miracles that Jesus performed.
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This is Jesus walking on the water. Now I'll just say up front, the point of this story and the whole purpose of Jesus doing this is to highlight
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His divinity. This is what the story is about. It's showing that Christ is
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God in the flesh. He is doing this to reveal to His disciples who
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He really is, because up until this point, the disciples, you know, they're weak in the faith.
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They're filled with doubt. At times you think they're really starting to understand, and then they have these setbacks.
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So we see this here in Matthew chapter 14. They come to an understanding now where they realize
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Jesus is worthy of worship. And of course, we know the only one, and the
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Jews knew, the only one truly worthy of worship was God Himself.
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So when you compare Scripture with Scripture, in the last subject that we looked at was the feeding of the 5 ,000.
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Just a little background before we read. In Mark chapter 6, it says about the disciples that they had not understood
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Jesus when He spoke about the loaves of bread, because it says their heart was hardened.
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So that's proof that they're really not getting it at this point. So Jesus, in this story,
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He goes up on a mountain to pray for His disciples. Presumably, He's praying that they would have their hearts and minds open to the truth.
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And that's still the way it is with us, right? We are all probably praying for those certain people that they would finally come to that understanding and recognize who
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Jesus is, that they would worship Him as well. So Jesus, He prays for them, presumably that they would have their eyes opened.
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And then He walks on the sea to reveal to them, to prove that He is, in fact, the
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Creator. He has power over nature itself. So that's what this story is really about,
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Jesus proving to His disciples His divinity. So with that in mind, let's begin reading.
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Matthew chapter 14, starting in verse 22, it says, immediately
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Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side while He sent the multitudes away.
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And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray.
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Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.
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Now in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.
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And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a ghost, and they cried out for fear.
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But immediately, Jesus spoke to them, saying, be of good cheer.
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It is I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered
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Him and said, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.
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So He said, come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
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But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, saying,
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Lord, save me. And immediately, Jesus stretched out
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His hand and caught him and said, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
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And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshipped
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Him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. And may
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God add a blessing to the reading of His word. And that statement, that title,
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Son of God, that means, and I've been trying to really ingrain this in your mind, that Son of God means
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God in the flesh. I mean, that's what it means. God has no children except His only begotten son,
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Jesus, who is of the same nature as the Father. So Son of God is a reference to His deity.
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So this account with Jesus walking on the water, Matthew records it here in chapter 14.
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It's also found in Mark chapter 6. It's also found in John chapter 6.
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We're gonna look at those other passages as well. Because anytime you read one gospel account, you realize that the other gospels often will include slightly different details, so we kind of wanna get a big picture.
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But let's just focus on Matthew for a moment. Verse 22 begins, immediately, and you kind of keep seeing that word again and again.
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Did you pick up on that? Immediately, this happened. Then immediately, that happened. But it starts out, immediately,
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Jesus made His disciples get into the boat. So you have to ask, okay, immediately after what?
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Well, the last passage we looked at was Jesus feeding the multitudes,
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Jesus feeding the 5 ,000. Remember, there was another account where He fed what? 4 ,000, so two separate incidents.
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And I had said in that message from almost a month ago that that's 5 ,000 men not counting the women and children.
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Matter of fact, that's what Scripture says. So we figure it was probably like 15 ,000 people or 20 ,000 people that Jesus fed.
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We also read last time from John 6 how after reaching this pinnacle of fame,
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Jesus, I mean, He has never had more people following Him than right now.
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So after reaching this point in His ministry where there's all this buzz, people are talking about Him, this is a high point, this is when
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Jesus realizes, because He can know people's thoughts, read people's hearts,
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He realizes that the people are about to take Him and force Him to be their king.
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Now, this isn't really something that you see throughout history. Usually, men are trying to get people to support them as king.
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They're not really worried about a multitude seizing them and making Him be their king.
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Jesus was not interested in that. Why? Because He knew what their goal was. He knew what their idea of the
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Messiah was. So this was really a political movement, not on Jesus's part.
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Jesus came for a specific purpose. But the multitudes were looking for a political revolution.
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So they were waiting for, and forgive me for the reference, but I think it sums up their thinking, they believed
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Jesus was the guy who was gonna make Israel great again. I mean, that's what they thought.
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They believed they had finally found a man with such ability, you know, people have tried it in the past, but this is the guy who's gonna do it.
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And Jesus had, again, tons of support at this moment. I mean,
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He had a crowd of 20 ,000 people. That's a small army. Might be a big army back then,
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I don't know. But Jesus was the man. He would lead a revolution. He would finally drive out the
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Romans, restore Israel to a place of dominance in the region. That's what the people were interested in.
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So they were gonna seize Jesus, make Him their king, and realizing this,
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Jesus doesn't want anything to do with that. So He retreats and separates Himself from the multitudes.
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So that's when this incident happens here with Him walking on the water.
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That's the context. After Jesus, and this is all in John chapter six, we touched on it a few weeks ago.
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Remember, the multitudes were following Him and He preached His most offensive message to date.
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Remember when He said, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood? And the people are like, whoa, you know, like we didn't sign up for this.
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This guy is like out there. Like this isn't what we thought it was.
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So Jesus preached that message intentionally to get the people to back off.
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And after He did that, yeah, the multitudes went away. And you remember that was when
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Jesus turned to the disciples and He said, are you gonna go away also? And Peter said, well, to whom shall we go?
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You have the words of eternal life. Okay, so that hasn't happened yet. So that's at the end of John six,
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Jesus fed the 5 ,000. We've already covered that. So Him walking on water is in the middle.
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All right, because the context matters. So Jesus, yeah,
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He talked about eat my flesh, drink my blood. Is that literal or is that a metaphor? You tell me.
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Yeah, that's a metaphor, right? Because even though there are some churches who they really think that drinking the cup is the literal blood of Christ and the wafer turns into His literal flesh, we understand that as a metaphor.
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So He said that to get the multitudes to, well, quite frankly, He said that to get them to leave.
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But as of this moment, everybody's talking about Christ. They haven't left yet, right?
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They're all talking about Him, this buzz going on. Who is this man? Is He the Messiah?
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And many were convinced that He was, but they didn't really understand that He's the Messiah as in He's the
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Son of God. That they didn't quite understand. That's what Jesus needs to make them realize.
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But they're saying, what is He waiting for? When is He gonna make His move? If He's really gonna lead a revolution, this is why they were gonna take
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Him by force and force His hand. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, He separates
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Himself from the multitude. He backs out and then He sends His disciples on a boat and He says, go to the other side.
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So we're breaking up and the disciples got into a boat in the Sea of Galilee and they headed for the other shore.
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Scripture and then Jesus now goes up into the mountain to be alone so He could pray.
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Scripture records three intense moments of prayer during the ministry of Christ.
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It records Him praying more than that, but three moments where He's praying intensely.
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One, He did before He called the 12 disciples. There's this occasion right here and then there is when
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He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and He was praying for His disciples then. So here, when
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Jesus goes up on the mountain to pray, it doesn't tell us what He's praying for, but considering the multitudes were about to leave
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Him, knowing that, I think it's safe to assume that part of His prayer was that the
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Heavenly Father would open the eyes, finally open the eyes and open the hearts of His disciples, that they would recognize that He was
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God incarnate. Let's turn to Mark chapter six.
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And in realizing that, His disciples, the 12, would stay when everyone else would fall away.
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So after Jesus is done praying, praying for His disciples, it's nighttime at this point, it's dark out, the disciples are rowing in the boat in the
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Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night, okay, there's a storm and their lives really are at risk.
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You never know what could happen, the boat could capsize, whatever. The Sea of Galilee at its widest point is about eight miles, seven or eight miles.
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So they're about halfway out, so they're at least two to three, maybe four miles out in the middle of the sea.
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And they're not gaining much ground. Look at Mark chapter six, verse 46.
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And when He had sent them away, taking a step back, He departed to the mountain to pray.
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Now, when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and Jesus was where?
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On the land, okay, so I want you to envision this. It's nighttime, they're in the middle of the sea,
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Jesus is on the land. Look at verse 48. It says, then
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Jesus, what? Saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them.
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So when we talk about Jesus walking on the water, we think of this great miracle, but it's not just one miracle.
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There are multiple miracles happening in this story. The first miracle we see is that Jesus sees them in the dark from miles away.
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Now, it doesn't really explain that. I don't wanna say He saw them in His mind's eye or whatever,
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I think Jesus had a vision. He saw them out in the sea when normally that would be impossible.
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So that's one miracle in this story, and we're gonna see more after that.
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So the point being, after spending time in prayer, He's able to supernaturally see
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His disciples out in the sea going nowhere. So 12 men in a boat, it's dark, they're cold, they're frustrated, they're afraid.
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They don't know if they're gonna get to the other side. How many of you have ever been in a boat, and maybe it's daytime, but daytime or nighttime, you've been in a boat, and the winds and the waves are crashing, and you weren't sure you were gonna live through that.
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Anyone been in a situation like that? Yeah, a couple of you. I mean, that's a scary thing. There's no coast guard, there's no flares, there's no, if they tip over, they're done, and that's a real possibility.
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Verse 48, so Jesus is on the land, they're in the sea, and now it says about the fourth watch, so this is like three, four, five a .m.,
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says Jesus came to them walking on the sea, and He would have passed them by.
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Now, when I read this, I think, well, why would He pass them by? Like, to me, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
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I mean, He's on land, He's praying, He sees them, they're in trouble, and then He goes out to them, and what, He's just gonna walk right by?
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Like, that doesn't really add up. So, depending on your translation, some translations say
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He would have passed them by, or He acted as if He was going to. That's probably more like it.
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Like, He really wasn't gonna just, He didn't intend to walk by them, is the point. Some translations say that, but I think it's more
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He would have passed them by if they didn't say anything, but did they say something?
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Yeah, I mean, they see this figure walking on the water, and I mean, they're terrified. What would you do?
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So, those of you who were out in the middle of the storm, and you thought you were gonna tip over, you might die, what would you have done if you saw a ghostly figure walking on the water?
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Now, I'm convinced I'm gonna die now. I'm gonna shake, man. So, Jesus walks on the water to meet them in order to demonstrate that He has power over nature.
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Now, who has power over nature? Only one has power over nature, and that's God. Just like, of course, there was that last time where Jesus was in the boat.
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Remember last time He was in the boat with the storm, and He was sleeping, and they all thought they were gonna die, and then they woke
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Him up. But this time, Jesus isn't in the boat. Having Him in the boat should make you feel a little more secure.
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This time, Jesus isn't even there, so they're that much more terrified. Okay, let's turn back to Matthew chapter 14, but I just wanted to show you some of these details.
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But as for this story of Jesus walking on the water, I mean, for me, this isn't hard to believe because I've just resolved in my mind a long time ago that I believe in God, and God is
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God, and God can do whatever He wants. I mean, we understand there's certain things that God cannot do, like God can't lie,
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God can't sin, but generally speaking, God can do anything, right?
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So for those of us who are Bible -believing Christians, it's not really hard to believe this story, but for some people, this is hard to believe because a person walking on water,
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I mean, let's face it, this is what? This is impossible. Of course, with God, all things are possible.
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We just have to understand that there's a lot of people, a lot of people professing Christians. They are in churches where the pastor teaches them that just like the flesh and blood is a metaphor, that Jesus didn't really expect people to eat
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His flesh and blood. They'll say, well, Jesus didn't really walk on the water. This is a metaphor, this is something like.
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So there's a lot of churches that teach that. There's churches, Bible colleges, seminaries that are more liberal.
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We're talking about theological liberalism where they don't really believe in the supernatural. So there's all sorts of people who are taught all sorts of things about this story.
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Now, this is a metaphor. Now, what is it a metaphor for? I don't know, you're kind of left to guess, but as long as everyone who's listening to this message understands clearly, like we're saying this actually happened that He literally walked on water, that is the whole point to show that Jesus is divine.
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But there are other people, I heard one theory. Apparently, someone went to a seminary and there was a pastor, he was recounting his time in seminary and he said that his professor taught that there is actually a land bridge just under the water.
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So the disciples, really what was happening is they were stuck in like this sandbar and that's why they're not going anywhere and Jesus just kind of walks out on this land bridge that's just like this far below the surface.
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So Jesus is really just walking on two inches of water, but it gives the appearance that He's walking on water.
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It's like, where do these people come up with this stuff? But let's just, for a moment, think about that.
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If Jesus is just like doing that to pretend that He's walking on water, that turns Jesus into like a deceiver.
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Like He's just pulling tricks on people. That's not a man that I want to follow.
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If He's the only begotten Son of God, that's a different story. So point is, you'll come across this type of thing and when you hear that, you just have to recognize, even if it's being taught in a seminary, there's only one word for it, it's unbelief.
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That's what it is, it's unbelief. Verse 26, Matthew 14, 26.
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When they saw, when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a ghost, and they cried out for fear.
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So the way this is written is simply telling us what happened. It doesn't say that He was a ghost, nor is this a story to validate the idea that ghosts exist.
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Today, when you hear the word ghost, it typically, it makes you think of people who believe in haunted houses, that when a human being dies, their ghost kind of sticks around and haunts a house or does something like that.
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You have to understand the word ghost, though, in the Bible, oftentimes it's, well, it's interchangeable with the word spirit, right?
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Holy spirit, holy ghost. So there's really no implication that it's the ghost that we think about in pop culture.
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People in Israel back then, they believed in spirits, didn't they? Just as we, as Christians, we believe,
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I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe in spirits. And of course, the
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Jews, they did believe in angels and demons. But there was one myth, and I read this in several sources, there is a myth of these so -called phantoms of the night, or spirits of the night.
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And when somebody saw them, which probably nobody ever saw, it's probably just a legend, but the idea that the
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Jews had, if you ever saw one of these spirits of the night, it meant that disaster was about to occur.
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So the disciples probably would have at least been aware of that, not that they believed it, but they would have been aware.
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You have to put yourself in their situation for a moment. You're out on the boat, again, you're cold, you're frustrated, it's dark, you're afraid, and you see what is clearly a human figure walking towards you.
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Maybe you just saw the silhouette with the moonlight, I don't know. Maybe it was hard to see.
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What would you think? Man, I'm just asking, what would you think? You probably wouldn't know what to think, but you would be afraid, wouldn't you?
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You would be absolutely terrified. So what is happening here, just the word, it's like the disciples, they're not just afraid, because we all get afraid at times.
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They are absolutely terrified. They are probably shrieking in fear, not knowing what's gonna happen, but they figure they might die by drowning or some other horrible death, and it's in that moment that Jesus says in verse 27, be of good cheer, it is
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I, do not be afraid. And those are words they needed to hear.
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Now, what's significant about this, in the Greek, Jesus says, egoimi.
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Now, that's important, okay, so what? That's what the Greek is, so what? Well, egoimi, basically, it's
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I am. Jesus says, he doesn't say, it's me, he says, I am.
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Who knows what that is? Yeah, that's the sacred name of God given to Moses at the burning bush.
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Jesus is basically saying, I am, as in,
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I am the Lord. I am the one who is in control of this.
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I am the one who is here to save you. I am, egoimi, so now the disciples should have nothing to fear.
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No fear of drowning, why? Because the Savior has met them where they're at.
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He prayed for them, he supernaturally saw them straining at the oars, and just when things reached a crisis moment, that's when the
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Lord drew near to them and basically told them who he was,
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I am. And upon hearing this, Peter, I don't know if it's registering with Peter or not, but Peter, this is what
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Peter does. He has to have something to say, right? There's people that, no matter what the situation, they just have, they have to say something, so what does
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Peter say in verse 28? Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.
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What is this? Is this Peter putting the Lord to the test? I don't think so.
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I don't think Peter doubts that it's Jesus. I mean, I don't really know what he's thinking. It's probably just the first thing that came into his mind.
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It just came out. I don't think Peter is trying to harness the same power of Christ.
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I don't think he's thinking it through. Peter wants to be with Jesus. The closer
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I am to him, the safer I am. I think that's what it's about, and isn't that true?
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The closer you are, okay, now I will speak metaphorically. The closer you are to Jesus, the safer you are.
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Isn't that true? As opposed to people who, they know Christ as Savior. Maybe they truly are
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Christians, but they've decided to go in a different direction. You know, they're in the boat like Jonah, headed in the opposite direction.
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Now, the close, and you know what happened to Jonah. When you try to run from God, bad things happen, folks.
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The closer we are to Jesus, the safer we are. Verse 29,
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Jesus says to Peter, come. That's the amazing thing. He actually grants his request.
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So Jesus isn't the only man to walk on water. You realize that? Peter also walked on water.
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It says, and when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
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But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, and he began to sink, and he cried out, saying,
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Lord, save me. And this is significant. Notice, when
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Peter is focused on Jesus, everything's going fine. When he has his gaze set upon Christ, he's actually able to stay above water.
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But as soon as he looks away, then he begins to sink.
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Why, because instead of focusing on the Lord and his power, his divine power, now
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Peter is focused on storms. Now he's focused on wind. Now it's like a reality check, and then he begins to sink.
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Again, metaphorically, when we are focused on Christ, we are spiritually strong.
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We can kind of rise above it. We can overcome. But when we focus on the storms of life, and we forget, we don't really forget
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Jesus. He's just not in the forefront of our mind. We're focused on other things. That's when we begin to sink.
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Many lessons we can learn from this passage. But verse 31, as Peter begins to sink, and he says,
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Lord, save me. Now, the word save or salvation, it means what? It means deliverance.
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He's not saying, save my soul from sin. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, like, save my life.
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Verse 31, and immediately, there's that word again. Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?
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And here's the amazing thing. As soon as they got into the boat, what happened?
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The wind ceased. What's the point of all this? I'm reminded of that verse in John 15, verse five, when
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Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. In the
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Christian life, sometimes we think it's about us and how hard we try, how good we are.
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Hopefully, you don't think that, but some do. We're tempted to focus on our own effort as if, again, metaphorically speaking, we think that we ourselves can walk on water.
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We think we can live the Christian life by ourselves, and we're not really focused on the
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Lord. People have all sorts of ideas. They think it's about me and my performance and my living up, and yet, the important thing is just to keep focused on Christ.
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But people think if they can just row hard enough, they can reach heaven's shore.
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But Peter had no ability within himself to do any of these things, to walk on water, to save himself, nothing.
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But when he turned to the Lord, he was saved. The lesson here, we must depend solely upon Christ.
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First, we must recognize who Christ is, that he is the Son of God.
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He is God in human flesh. He is able to control the winds. He is able to calm the storm.
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So we focus on who Christ is, and then we keep trusting in him, walking with him, keeping our eyes focused on the
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Lord. So after, here's the thing. When Jesus prayed, going back to when he went up on the mountain to pray for them, again,
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I can't prove it, it's not in the text, but there's many commentators who believe that the night the disciples were actually saved, spiritually, this was the night.
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This is when they came to, can't prove it, but many believe that Jesus, if that's what he was praying for, that they would have their eyes opened.
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Now, it finally clicked. He came walking on the water.
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Maybe there's somebody this morning, you need this type of experience. You've heard about Christ.
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You've tried doing it your own way. You know it's not working. You've never really come to that place where you have put your full trust in Jesus.
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You've heard all the stories, but for whatever it is that's holding you back, I hope today it is the day it finally clicks that Jesus is the
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Son of God. Only he can save. Maybe you've already reached that place, but a loved one, a neighbor, a coworker, for them, they haven't really got it.
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What's the best thing you can do? And I know we want to share with them. We want to evangelize.
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You might give them a sermon to listen to, but don't forget the element of prayer because ultimately the only thing that can change a person's heart is the word of God.
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Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, but it's the word of God in cooperation with the
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Spirit of God. Pray for that person that the Lord will finally open their eyes.
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Jesus, he walked on the water. He saved his disciples. And then the chapter closes with verses 34 and 35.
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It says, when they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent out into all that surrounding region and brought to him all who were sick and begged him that they might touch, only touch the hem of his garment.
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And as many has touched it were made perfectly well. Let's close.
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And Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the people that expressed this great faith.
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They had no reason to think that they would be healed simply by touching the hem of his garment.
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And yet, Lord, they did it. They were made perfectly well. We pray for those, Lord, who are struggling with doubts.
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We pray they would finally come to that recognition. Hearing that Jesus was able to walk on the water,
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I pray that you would open their hearts and minds to the truth, that you love this world so much that you sent your only begotten son.
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Lord, help them to not get bogged down by the storms of life. May you meet them where they are at.
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Soften their hearts that they might believe. And Lord, change their hearts. And if you see fit to do it, use this message.
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Lord, we want to see sinners saved, backsliders restored, and the saints sanctified and strengthened.
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And we pray that this message would do it. We thank you for Jesus walking on the water. It's in his name we pray.