A Long Hike on the Water

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Don Filcek; Matthew 14:22-33 A Long Hike on the Water

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called
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Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Welcome to Recast Church.
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I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here, and I want to be the first to welcome you to this worship gathering this morning.
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We have gathered together because we all need something. I hope that that's the reason you're here. The fact of the matter is maybe we're not all looking for the same thing in this gathering.
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Maybe you have a variety of different reasons why you showed up here, but the very reason that the church exists and the reason that we gather together is connected with a long line of history that started with Jesus Christ and his followers, and it comes all the way down to us here in Mattawan, Michigan.
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The New Testament records for us that followers of Jesus came together in communities for teaching, for worship, for sharing, and for caring for each other.
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Here in Mattawan, we're seeking to carry on that fundamental practice of our faith together by gathering together as his people, taking in his word.
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Each Sunday, we focus on a text of scripture and see what God desires to communicate to us, what he wants to say to you and me.
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This morning, we're going to be back in the book of Matthew, and we're going to be watching Jesus live out his teaching to his followers.
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Again, in this passage, similar to last week, something that he does is more to the point than something that he says.
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He wants to show them, his disciples, and us something amazing, and that lesson was not lost on them, and I hope that this morning, it's not lost on you or I either.
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It's a powerful lesson that has many levels to its teaching, and Jesus in our text this morning barely speaks.
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He shows them something that is so awe -inspiring, and even now, somewhat cliche in our culture.
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We would use it as a cliche. We would talk about those who would seek to walk on water or believe that they could walk on water.
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Just like the feeding of the 5 ,000 last week, this is a familiar account to many of us. How many of you would say,
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I've heard of the passage of Jesus walking on water? I've heard that mentioned before. I've heard something about that. Yeah, most all of us have heard that.
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And I think that many of us might have some sense of understanding about it, but maybe some misunderstandings.
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We may think that we've already dove into the text, so to speak, pun intended. Nobody got it.
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That's okay. Water? Dove in? I don't know. You're not supposed to dive in.
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You're supposed to walk on the top. Did you get it, Dave? You got it. We got it. We got it. All right.
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Good. But I'm confident that God has something to teach each one of us this morning, that he wants to speak to you.
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He wants to speak to me. And if we listen to him, he will indeed be faithful to talk to us and let us know what he desires of us this morning.
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His goal, by the way, in us is to produce awe. It's something that, again, because it becomes cliche, it can lose its wonder.
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It can lose its magnificence. And then all of a sudden, when we start thinking about it, then it becomes incredible or even uncredible to us.
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Like when you really start to think about walking on water, now all of a... How many of you have a little bit more of a scientific mind? You start to think about the mechanics of that?
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How did the structure of the molecules work? Was he floating above it? Was the water splash when his foot fell?
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You know, how many of you, your mind kind of turns to that kind of thing? Not many of us. Okay. No one.
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Just me. Okay, good. Well, we can skip a whole portion of this then. That'll be good. But because I really don't have the answers anyway.
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So there's no answers to that. But his goal is to produce awe.
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It is to produce wonder. It is to demonstrate something that you and I cannot conceive of. Something that we don't really quite grasp.
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Something that is so different from our everyday, day in and day out experience that it shocks us.
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It startles us to some degree. And his goal is also to highlight something about faith that may startle us.
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He wants to produce awe. He wants to produce faith. But he also wants to describe faith to some degree. In our text, we will see a starting faith of Peter getting out of the boat.
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But we'll also see him teach us something about sustaining faith. A faith that continues past that excited, enthusiastic start.
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Jump out of the boat. Now what? Right? And many of us have been there at points in our lives where we have a starting faith that is strong at the beginning.
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And then when the wind and the waves blow and everything, all of a sudden, it's like, how did I get out here again?
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How did I get out here on these waves? How did I get out here on this lake? When I finish reading this text, I want you to consider one question, however.
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When you think about awe and wonder in this text, I want you to think about this question as I read it.
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Which is more impressive? Which is more impressive? Which speaks more about God?
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That Jesus walks on the water? Or that he rescues Peter even in his doubt?
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Which of those is more impressive to you? Which of those speaks more volumes about our
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Creator, our God, our Lord, our Master? Which speaks more volumes about Jesus?
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The fact that he can walk on water, kind of impressive? Or the fact that he rescues
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Peter even while he's doubting, even when he doubts? We can sometimes get so caught up in the miracle that we miss the message.
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Jesus shows compassion to those who are his, even in our times of fear and doubt.
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And that should give us courage. So let's open your Bibles, if you're not already there, to Matthew chapter 14. You can navigate over there in an app if you have that.
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I do recommend the ESV app. I think if you just look at the iTunes store and type in ESV, you'll get my favorite
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Bible app that I use there. And again, I actually preach from the English Standard Version, so that helps. Not because it's the only version, but because it just happens to be one that's readable and also very easy to study.
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And so I think it matches well. But we're going to be in Matthew 14, 22 through 33.
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If you need a Bible, raise your hand. We want everybody to have a copy of God's Word on your lap so that you can follow along and see the things that I'm saying are coming straight from God's Word.
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Matthew 14, 22 through 33, recast God's Word to us. What He desires for us to hear from His voice this morning.
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And in the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea.
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But when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It's a ghost!
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And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, Take heart, it is
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I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered Him, Lord, if it's You, command me to come to You on the water.
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He 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.
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And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out
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His hand and took hold of him saying, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?
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And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped
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Him saying, Truly You are the Son of God.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank You for this powerful illustration of the glory and majesty and strength and might of Jesus Christ our
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Lord. I thank You that He demonstrates compassion, but He also teaches us something about faith here in this text.
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About the reality that we are all prone to be like Peter who will jump out of the boat in a moment's notice and then when it comes to the hard things, when it comes to the difficulties sweeping around us and when we put our eyes on the circumstances, suddenly we wonder why did we ever begin this journey at the start?
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Why did we ever get out of the boat? Why didn't we just stay back there with the other eleven huddled in there watching? So Father, I pray that You would move in our hearts to teach us what
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You desire us to know of You and the way that You work with us as fallen humans who have a faulty faith.
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Even in our faith, it is not as good and strong as it could be or should be. Father, I pray that You would open our eyes to see
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You. And in seeing You and Your power and Your majesty and Your authority and Your glory and Your supreme sovereignty over all things,
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Father, in seeing that, that we would be moved to trust, we would be moved to faith, we would be moved to step out in faith because of You, not because of us, not because our circumstances seem right and boy, this is a good time to strike while the iron's hot, but at the end of the day, it's all because of You.
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And so Father, I pray that in our singing this morning, as we, as Dave comes to lead us that we would sing songs motivated from hearts that love
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You and want to honor You and recognize how glorious and powerful You truly are. And how
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You are the God of each and every circumstance that we face and You are able to control the wind and the waves.
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You are able to stabilize things in our lives even when all things around us are going like chaos.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thanks a lot to Dave for leading us in worship.
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I would encourage you over the next half an hour or so to get comfortable. If you need more coffee, if you need more juice, if you need more donuts, while there's some left, you can feel free to get up at any time during the message.
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I know we just had a break, but you might need that at some point. And then remember, if you need to get up and stretch out in the back, you can go ahead and do that.
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I know the seats that you're sitting in are not super comfortable, so if you need to do that at any time, it's not going to distract me.
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Keep your Bibles open, please, to Matthew chapter 14, verses 22 through 33. Again, Matthew 14, 22 through 33.
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And we're going to walk through the text. That wasn't just a Bible reading this morning. That's going to be what we dive into and dig into and figure out this morning.
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But this week, Jesus is at it again. He's at it again. Last week, feeding over 5 ,000 people with five dinner rolls and two fish.
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And this week, he's going to take a stroll on the lake, right? He's kind of at it again. For Jesus, I think you might say a triathlon would be run, bike, run.
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Swimming was optional for the Son of God. He didn't have to do the swim portion. He could just kind of truck past everybody on the water if he chose.
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Thank you. Thank you. A couple of people laughed. They thought that was kind of funny. I thought it was funny. But once again, we will see
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Jesus teaching his followers by what he does, rather than primarily by what he says. Now we have portions of Scripture that are recorded for us where Jesus gives extensive teaching to his followers.
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The Sermon on the Mount, several chapters earlier in the book of Matthew where he gives extensive teaching.
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But here he is teaching by what he does. Although he does speak in this text just a little bit, he's stretching their faith by showing them something instead of telling them something.
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How many of you know that there's power in the visible? There's sometimes power in the... I'm a words person, obviously.
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I mean, God's called me to this and I like to use words. And how many of you would identify that you're a words person? You like the realm of words quite a bit, okay?
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Three of us. And how many of you would say you're more visual? Like you learn by seeing somebody do something and then you just kind of repeat that and go, okay.
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Well, Jesus did both, right? He used a lot of words and then he also demonstrated, and the fact of the matter is, you can learn a lot and see a lot about a person by the way that they do what they do.
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Not just what they do, but even the way that they do it, you get some ideas about them and you can figure out some of their character and some of the things that they want to teach you.
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And oftentimes, some of the things they don't want to teach you, but you can still observe those things by seeing them.
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So we know already, you know, I already read this passage, that Jesus walked on water. We may not be very quick to be able to conclude anything other than that's pretty neat, right?
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That's pretty cool. How many of you think it's kind of cool that he walked on water? That's impressive. That's impressive. It's kind of mind -boggling. But my hope is that after this message, we have a better understanding of what
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Jesus was trying to teach us from this event beyond just, it would be cool to walk on water. Like I think if you think about it, like some of you, you know, none of us in the room have a superpower, at least that I know of, right?
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Like, I mean, maybe you're hiding it. You hide it really well if you've got it. But I mean, if somebody was just passing out the superpowers and you got the walk on water one, not the coolest of all superpowers you can conceive of, but beyond what you're already able to do, how many of you would take it?
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Like, I mean, if it was just like, you know, that'd be kind of, oh yeah, just show off at parties and things like that and at the baptism later and things like that, you know, you can just walk across the pool and that'd be cool for party tricks and stuff like that.
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Not sure it's super practical for much else, right, but that would be kind of neat. But in our, the outline for our message, the outline of what
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Jesus wants to communicate to you and me this morning is this, those of you that like outlines, a lot of these passages in Matthew are easy to outline, they outline themselves, and so we're gonna see
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Jesus sets up the tension in verses 22 through 24, and that's gonna be a specific point, it sounds just kind of like filler, but we'll get there.
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Jesus surprises with power in verses 25 through 27. Jesus supplies power, verses 28 and 29.
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And lastly, Jesus saves, verses 30 through 32, and we'll save verse 33 for application at the end.
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And so, that's the outline, that's kind of where we're going, and let's start with this verse that Jesus sets up the tension in verses 22 through 24, and they are not filler.
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This is not just filler, this isn't just setting up the event of the walking on the water, there's something significant that we need to look at.
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These verses are not merely introductory material, but it's very important that we understand that Jesus is responsible for everything that happens in this text.
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He sets it up, he plans it out to the detail, and he sets this all up.
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Verse 22 tells us why the disciples are in a boat out at sea all night long, it tells us in our text why they are there.
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It's because Jesus put them there. Jesus commanded them, he commanded them, it says in verse 22, he made the disciples, it's a forceful word in Greek, it's like he had to coerce them into the boat, so to speak, and to get out into the waves, get in the boat and start across the lake, while he remained behind to dismiss the crowds after they'd been fed.
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Well, the text is unclear about why he was so quick to get rid of the disciples after the feeding of the 5 ,000, but many scholars believe that it has something to do with something that one of the other gospel writers records for us about this event that Matthew doesn't.
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So how many of you know that if you have eyewitnesses to an account, an event that happens, some people identify that he was wearing a gray shirt, and other people are gonna identify how tall he was, somebody's gonna be like, well, he was wearing glasses, and you might not catch all of those details if you see it, but others are catching different aspects of the details, and John records for us something that was going on in the crowd as Jesus was feeding the 5 ,000.
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Now, maybe John was just privy to it, maybe he overheard conversations, maybe he knew what was going on, or maybe he had a personal conversation with Jesus about these things, or maybe it was just revealed to him later, but according to John 6, verses 14 through 15, we learn that when, and I'm quoting
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John, this is the actual verses, when the people saw the sign that he had done, what was that sign?
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The feeding of the 5 ,000. When they saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world, this is the one that was prophesied, this is the one who was coming, this is the
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Messiah, the chosen one. Still quoting John, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king,
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Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. So John concludes this with Jesus retreating to the mountain,
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Matthew also records the same thing for us, that Jesus retreated to the mountain, but we actually get a little bit of a motive here in John for why the people were about to take him in by force and command him to be their king, and basically go before the
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Romans and say, we have a king now, and hoping that he, I mean, how many of you think that that miracle was pretty impressive to the people?
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How many of you think that human nature wants a king who can provide bread without work?
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That guy's electable, right? He's president right off the bat if he can feed the world with his voice, if he can break the bread and multiply it and can feed everybody with fish and loaves indefinitely and make him king.
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And I don't think he wanted his disciples to be poisoned by that mindset, because Jesus did not come the first time to set up an earthly kingdom.
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He came to suffer and to die for us, he had different motives for being here, it wasn't that he would be the king, it wasn't that he would set up a political entity that would overthrow the
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Roman oppression and usher in his own kingdom. He is going to come again someday and that is going to be the reality,
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I say the first time because the second time he is coming and he will set up a kingdom once and for all that will be eternal and glorious and oh what it is to be a part of that kingdom, it's a glorious and beautiful thing that's called eternal life, it's a beautiful thing.
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But in this text, he's not ready for that and I don't think he wanted his disciples, he's, get in the boat and get out of here, is basically what he says to his disciples, get out of here, get going, head across the lake.
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So the disciples are in a storm, trying some combination of rowing and sailing,
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I don't know if you ever wondered what these boats were like but they would have been a combination kind of thing and sailing probably wasn't working too well in this storm, they're trying to head west across the lake, the wind is coming from the west, anybody who knows anything about sailing, sailing into the wind is not particularly easy, they're probably trying to do some tacking back and forth a bit and then eventually they pull out the oars and they are working and toiling.
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While Jesus is back on the shore, dismissing the crowds for the evening and retreating for some much deserved alone time.
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Remember that at the beginning of our passage last week, the one thing that Jesus wanted was to get by himself, to be alone and so now he gets that alone time.
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But I want to ask you this, just a simple thought here, as we see Jesus setting up the tension here in our text, does this story fit on your coffee mug?
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Does it make it on motivational posters, a nice beautiful picture of Jesus catching some alone time in prayer while in the background the disciples toil in misery and fear all night long?
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You don't hear about that very often do you? This isn't a story that makes it on the motivational posters or the really good nice things that they sell at the
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Christian bookstores and things like that. If you think God, if you think that God will only ever give you what you want, if you think
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God will only ever give you easy. If you're Jesus, your
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Jesus, I like how people use that, when people use my Jesus it often means that we're going to stop talking about the
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Bible, have you ever noticed that? But if your Jesus would never leave you alone in a boat to fight against the waves, then you're going to be disappointed in those dark nights while you row, and row, and row, and row, and row, and row, and make no headway, it feels like you're going nowhere and it feels like you are alone.
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But in our text, in this Bible, the Jesus, the
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Jesus, the Almighty will sometimes teach us by letting us spend some time alone, sometimes lets us spend some time alone, that we might value him more, maybe, that might be a possible motivation.
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I find it interesting that when we sin, every single time we sin we are essentially saying to God, I want some alone time, that's what sin by nature is,
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I want to be apart from you, I don't want your eyes on me, I want you away from me. When he actually retreats, we get a little upset and angry, don't we, why have you left me?
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Why am I out here in the boat while you're having some nice quiet time alone? And I'm here in the boat rowing.
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The Greek words used in verse 24 indicate that the boat is a few miles out to sea in a storm and they're not quite halfway across the lake.
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We don't know what time they took off heading west, but we do know that it's sometime between three o 'clock and six o 'clock in the morning and they're still fighting the storm.
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They left sometime after dinner and the next morning they're still rowing. How many of you like those hours, three to six, three o 'clock to six o 'clock in the morning, is that fun to do anything during that time?
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They're still fighting the storm. And that brings us to our second point, Jesus now comes to them walking on the sea during the fourth watch, sometime between three o 'clock and six o 'clock.
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And this is our second point, Jesus astonishes them with his power. The simplicity of language in verse 25, look at what verse 25 says to us, just kind of matter of fact,
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Matthew recording for us what he saw with his eyes, and in the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea.
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What? Those aren't words that go together very well, like it doesn't matter what the language is that you're speaking.
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In English, walking on the sea is not a common everyday phrase, right? That's not, that doesn't seem normal.
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The simplicity of the language in 25 doesn't do justice to the awe and wonder that it ought to convey to us.
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We all know that people don't walk on the sea, the disciples also knew full well that people do not walk on the sea.
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Have you ever considered that a lot of these disciples spent their time on the sea? They had been around it enough to know that this doesn't happen, okay?
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They had been out late nights fishing, often on this very lake, and never once had they seen somebody walking on the sea.
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And so in verse 26, we see that they respond in a reasonable way. I love how the disciples in their authenticity that are sharing with us, they kind of incriminate themselves often in the gospels, they don't make themselves look super polished and great and like they're just austere, robust, you know, paragons of faith in the apex of humanity.
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They don't share that with us, they're scared, they're terrified, and the word that's used for terrified there is a technical word that means scared, witless, they are horrified.
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They assume that they were seeing a ghost, Dave made mention to me earlier just about the haunted lake, man
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I missed the title, this could have been the haunted lake, but they assume they're seeing a ghost,
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I mean you don't see people walking on the top of the waves in the lake or the, you know, imagine being out at the pier at South Haven or whatever, somewhere over on the lake and you see somebody walking out there, how many of you would just be a little creeped out?
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Like you'd just be like, this is not normal, this isn't what happens. They assumed that they were seeing a ghost, and further, even more funny, is that it says that they screamed like little girls.
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It says that here, I mean, I'm taking a little bit of liberty with the translation, but the phrase cried out in fear, cried out in fear is literally in Greek, a scream without words.
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So this is the, ah, you know, like I mean, you ever sneak, any of you like to sneak up on people? Maybe a little bit, you could be a little guilty of that, and that's what you're looking for, right, it's that, ah, a little bit of that.
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So that's what this is, this is an, you know, it's not, it's, there's no words involved in it, it's just an utterance of fear.
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And it's interesting that Jesus both terrifies and comforts here. I think that's a reality of God, by the way.
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I think that when you meet God, there's both a terror and a comfort that comes with knowing
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Him and being one of His followers that is both, wow, our minds are going to blow, and we're probably all,
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I imagine that I will be on my knees before Him, and equally I will be comforted by Him. I think that He'll say, get up, dude, get up.
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He will say things like what He says to them here, take heart, it's me, don't be afraid, you've got nothing to fear, it's me,
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I'm Jesus, and you have nothing to fear in my presence. Come on, guys. It's close enough somehow in this storm, by the way.
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I think, many times in my mind, I've got the storm a little bit more violent, like, I'm like, how could
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He even hear, how could they even hear Him? Well, it may be or may be not raining, the fact of the matter is there's a lot of wind, and there are waves going on, and they're fighting against these waves, but I don't imagine a lightning strike every second or something like that's going on here.
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I think that they're able to hear, He's at least close enough to the boat to be able to have a conversation with them. And Jesus is walking on the water for a purpose.
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I think a lot of times we miss the purpose, we're like, that's cool, that's cool, it's amazing, and the purpose might surprise us at first.
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He's walking on the water for the simple and profound purpose that He wants to show off.
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He wants you to be impressed. He wants you to be amazed. He could have taken a boat, did you know that that was within His power, to take a boat?
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He could have walked around the lake and met them on the other side. He could have swam across, yes, because He's the
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Son of God and all -powerful, He could swim that far, no problem. He could have created a flying donkey, eagle, monkey, bird thing and rode that across, yeah, too much?
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I don't know. But He walks on the water to them to showcase
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His power. He wants them to take in how in control
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He really is. How much power He really possesses. They've been toiling all night.
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They've been working feverishly with fear to try to get to the other side. He catches up with them, walking on the water.
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They are properly surprised, which is the response that I believe He anticipated to His awesome display of power.
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He surprises them with His power. But Jesus doesn't only use
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His power for His own transportational benefits. Remember that last week the message was that Jesus is not stingy.
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And so in verse 28, the central lesson of this text, Jesus supplies power.
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And Jesus supplies power particularly to Peter to also walk on water. There are lots of thoughts we may have about this event, and I would ask you to try your best to remove your preconceived notions as we talk through this.
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And let's try our best to look at this event through fresh eyes. Peter initiates this.
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His walk on water. With confidence and faith. Now you might go, wait a minute, where's the confidence and faith in this?
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And Jesus doesn't commend him for confidence and faith? But look at verse 28. Verse 28 is a soaring statement of faith.
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And Peter answered Him. Remember, Jesus just comforted them. Take heart, it's I, don't be afraid.
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And Peter answered Him, Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water.
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Now the if there, some people literally translate it. You can look at different versions of the Bible. Some will have since and some have if.
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And some of it comes down to Greek prepositions are a little bit, can play dual purposes and different things like that.
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But either way, regardless of which way you interpret that, it is still a major statement of faith.
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A soaring statement of faith. Some translators, if it's you, command me to come to you. While others translate, since it's you, command me to come to you.
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But either way, Peter is showing a crazy and radical faith in Jesus. Peter had spent his whole life around the water.
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His occupation, fisherman. He knew what happened when you stepped out of a boat in the water.
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He had full understanding of that. Fully experienced in that jumping in feeling.
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He firmly believes, he firmly, deeply has faith that he can walk on water if Jesus wants him to.
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Is that pretty strong faith? Anybody impressed with that faith? Anybody going, I'm not sure I could muster that faith in that moment?
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Peter says, if it's you, if you're really Jesus, then I got no question I can walk on this water right now.
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I can do this. Just tell me. Just command me. If you command me, I know that this is going to be fine.
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It can be kind of confusing to us what might have motivated Peter to put himself out there like this. What was going on in his brain?
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Was he trying to prove it was Jesus? Is there really an if in that? If it's you, then I know that I can walk on the water and prove to everybody that it really is you or what's going on.
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But the more you study the life of Peter, the more you get the feel for him, the more you understand his writings and the things that are written about him in Scripture and in history and the way that you really get down to his character, it makes more sense to understand why he would put himself out there.
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I think most of us had friends like that when we were younger, someone like Peter, the kid who always had to learn the hard way.
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Any of you know? You get a name in your mind. Maybe you were that kid and you just don't even want to admit it, but outspoken, brash.
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When a teacher called for someone to come up and put their hand in the rat trap, they were already there with their fingers extended.
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They were just like, yo, me, me, me, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it. Whatever it was that was gross or weird or different, they were like,
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I'm on it. I don't believe that Peter thought through everything that he ever said in advance. You don't get that from the things that he said, the way that he said them, the way that Jesus was constantly rebuking him.
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I think you need to correct that. You got this wrong, Peter, you got that wrong. But he was always eager to answer, always quick, and very direct.
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But even though he didn't believe or didn't think through everything that he said in advance, I do believe that in our text he has a solid, real, and substantial, what
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I'm going to call starting faith. He really does trust Jesus. He really does believe him.
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And this is important to this lesson this morning. In verse 29, Jesus humors
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Peter. I think there was maybe a little wry smile on Jesus' face. He's like, oh, wow, this is cute, this is great.
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Come on. Come, he says. Just come. Command.
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Come. We read these amazing words. Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
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Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came to Jesus.
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I don't want to speculate too much about how far Peter walked on the water, but he got out of the boat and he made it to Jesus.
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Is anybody else besides me impressed by that faith? He got there.
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I want to give kudos to Peter for getting out of the boat while the other, where are the other 11? In the boat.
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What they knew was stable. What they knew could hold them. What they could trust in.
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Don't lose sight of whose power is keeping Peter on top of that water.
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It's not his faith. You'll see that here in a moment. It's not his faith. Jesus is supplying the miraculous power that is keeping
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Peter above the waves. Peter begins to see the wind, and I'm sure the waves are what he actually took in with his eyes.
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The word that's used there in Greek is wind, but we know the effects of the wind are what he's identifying with his eyes.
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I want to be careful in the way that I burst this bubble, but many people will say that by taking his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink, but that isn't exactly what the text is trying to say to us.
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So keep your eyes on Jesus. Just keep your eyes on Jesus. Peter knew Jesus was keeping him afloat. Peter knew that the wind was strong before he ever got out of the boat.
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Peter had enough faith to step out onto the water. So what really changed for Peter here in this instant when he finally gets to Jesus?
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Jesus in verse 31 is going to rib Peter for the insufficiency of his faith, and he follows it up with,
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Why did you doubt? At the end of the day, this is about doubt.
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The emphasis that Jesus puts on this is not about starting faith, but about a sustaining faith, a faith that continues past that initial step.
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Why did Peter falter? He faltered because he began to doubt what Jesus was already doing for him.
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He was walking on the water and began to wonder if Jesus could really help him walk on water. Do you hear the irony in that?
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He's walking on water, and he begins to doubt whether or not Jesus can help him walk on water.
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We can be pretty harsh on Peter, but how often is that the case for us? We really doubt the simple things that God is already sustaining us in, the things that he's already doing in our lives, the things that he's already faithfully providing for us, and we don't even have the eyes to see the blessings, but instead we're moved to doubt.
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It's a human condition, right? Everybody in this room can relate to what I'm talking about here. Jesus is doing something for you, and you're doubting whether he's going to continue doing that for you.
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The waves were choppy, the wind was gusting, and Peter found himself in an ironic situation that was a problem.
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He questioned if he could stay above the water. And I truly believe that Peter had a moment of panic, thinking that something bad was going to happen to him, while Jesus was the one holding him up.
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And he's worried. Like a child who's learning to ride a bike, fears the moment that dad's going to let go.
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Peter wasn't thoughtful about the physical laws that Jesus was in control of, obviously demonstrating he's in control of.
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Instead he thought about the bad things that could happen. What if I fall over?
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What if I get hurt? What if I sink? The power of Jesus was in no way tied to Peter's doubts.
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I want to be clear. I believe this firmly. The text doesn't say it, but I still believe it firmly.
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Jesus could have kept him walking on that water, even with his doubts. Jesus is just that powerful.
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This entire scenario isn't dependent on Peter. But it's all dependent on Jesus, who's setting this up to teach us and the disciples all something significant about faith.
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Jesus applies the power for Peter to walk with him on the water. And in our application in a minute, we're going to come back to that to clarify what that means for us.
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But Jesus let Peter begin to sink when Peter began to doubt. Which brought,
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I'm convinced, brought Peter back to his senses. And that leads to our final point. Fourth point.
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When Peter began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. And Jesus did.
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Because that's Jesus. That's the way he does things. Jesus saves and rescues.
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That's what he does. It's in his heart. It's in every fabric of his being. It's everything that he came to do, to rescue and to save.
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The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. The one who knows that they're in over their head, he saves.
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The one who starts off strong and finds themselves caught wavering in their doubt, but still has the sense to ask
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Jesus to save them, he rescues. Jesus reached out, took hold of him, yeah, rebuked him for the short duration of his faith, but he saved
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Peter from the waves. When they all got back in the boat, the wind ceased, because Jesus was done putting on the walk on water show.
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Why was there a storm that night? So Jesus could teach his disciples a lesson. Why did he command them to get in the boat and row against the wind all night long?
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Because he wanted them to learn something so fundamental that they would need to be tired and scared to take it in.
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So let's take these points one by one and consider the ways that they apply to us, here in 2017 in Matawan, Michigan.
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First, Jesus sets up the tension. We see that as the main point, and how do we apply that?
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On this point, I want to suggest to you that we ought to push away any notion that God only ever uses good circumstances in our lives.
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He doesn't just use good circumstances and blessings to teach us. If you're going through good times, praise
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God for it. Don't waste that time of blessing without practicing and learning thankfulness and gratitude.
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But if you're going through tough times, don't waste that tragedy, don't waste that struggle or that hardship by ignoring the lessons that God is seeking to build up in your life.
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Be prepared and open to what God is teaching you by every blessing and every hardship. Second, Jesus surprises with his power.
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Trust in the power of Jesus. He shows us a glimpse of his power by walking on water here in this text.
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And I think it must be funny to God to some degree to see what kind of things impress us. Walking on the water is pretty impressive to us.
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We're pretty easily impressed, I think. He who created the sea, he who created every molecule, every atom, every element, everything that has ever existed can certainly walk on water if he chooses to.
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Walking on the water blows our minds, but it's not really a big deal to God. He has the power to handle your problems.
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And that's really cool, but don't jump there too fast. We have a tendency to jump to, okay, he's powerful, he can give me stuff.
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He can do really cool things for me. I think that that's a problem for us, right?
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Because often the very first response to the power is like, oh, we should make him king and we should do, that way he can provide us food all the time.
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He can meet my needs. He can take care of me, me, me. Take a moment to look at the final verse.
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Verse 33. This event didn't leave the disciples begging the all -powerful Jesus to do things for them.
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Like, oh, we found the genie. We found the lamp. Rub it and get the three wishes, right?
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Like, we found the one. I mean, how many of you recognize that in your heart, if you were there in the boat, that might be a temptation to you to go, this guy can walk on water.
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What else can he do? Like, can he turn the water to gold? Can he, what else can he do?
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And that might be our thoughts is for selfish gain, for something for our benefit. They didn't end up begging the all -powerful
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Jesus to do for them. It left them on their faces worshiping him and declaring truth about his identity.
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They were moved to worship him at the revelation of his power and might and identify truly this is the son of God, the almighty.
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Surely he's divine. Jesus supplies power.
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And that last application, worship him. That's just simple and forward. And by the way, when I say worship,
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Dave was kind of talking about this, it's not just singing. It's not just what we do here on Sunday morning.
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Worship him is a lifestyle of coming under his authority and honoring him with the things that we do throughout the week.
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Everything can be turned to worship if it's done with a heart towards him. The third thing
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Jesus supplies power, verses 28 and 29, as far as application, Jesus supplied power to Peter to walk on water and Peter took it and then dropped it.
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He took it and then dropped it. The fact of the matter is that many of us in this room have a strong starting faith and we're maybe resting in that.
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You prayed a prayer a while ago and you used to really walk with Jesus out on the waters. You got out of the boat when you were young and you walked to Jesus out in the midst of that storm and he called you and said, come.
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And like Peter, you eagerly stepped out onto the waves. That's the past.
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Over the course of life and time, the circumstances around you have become disorienting. The stress and strain of everyday life has produced fear within your heart.
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You find yourself trusting less, planning more, and fearing most.
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But Jesus is there. He brought you this far out of the boat by his own power.
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But now you kind of wish you'd never taken up the whole walking on water gig. So what's the answer to this difficult place that many believers in their lives visit?
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A place that I would call doubt. What are we to do in those times of doubt and uncertainty when we fear and when we stress and when anxiety threatens to wash over us like a breaker?
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What do we do when the gravity of fear and doubt begins to drag us down to the bottom?
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What did Peter do? What did Peter do? Write out to Jesus, absolutely.
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Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Lord, save me.
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Lord, save me. The solution wasn't to try to muster up more faith.
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The answer wasn't to stand taller and resolve to walk lighter on the water, hoping to make it work.
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When starting faith falters, the only answer is to cry out to Jesus. Peter had a lot of zeal.
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He was enthusiastic at the start. He was fearful in the middle, and he was rescued in the end.
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And that looks a lot like the Christian life to me. That's a pretty good summary of the life of a follower of Jesus Christ on a fallen planet, with a fallen heart, with a broken nature.
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Enthusiasm at the start. Times of doubts and fears in the middle mixed in with times of growth and faith and good things and bad all mixed in and rescue in the end.
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Rescue in the end. Is that your hope? Do you believe in the God who rescues?
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Do you believe in Jesus Christ as the one who saves and rescues? The last application is simply to trust in the
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Jesus who saves. He alone is the only one who can rescue us. Peter couldn't rescue himself.
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How cold and callous would it be for the disciples in the boat when they saw Jesus begin to sink to shout out to him, just have a little more faith.
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You've got this, Peter. One foot in front of the other. No, you can't do this,
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Peter. You don't have this, Peter. You are in over your head,
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Peter. Cry out to Jesus. He's standing right there with his hand down for you.
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Reach out. And cry out to him. He will save you.
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Run to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus. However you formulate the word, salvation only is ever found in Jesus.
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Salvation doesn't come from our own strength, our own righteousness, our own ability to muster true and pure faith.
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Oh, look at me. I'm shiny and I've got this great and austere and robust faith. Salvation comes from Jesus reaching down.
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Not reaching up to our awesome levels of faith. Not reaching sideways to our peer relationship with him.
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Jesus reaching down to save us and rescue us. Grasping us.
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Pulling us up out of doubts and fears. I think that's one thing that I know that's consistent about everybody in this room.
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You have doubts and fears. It's a reality about you. And so as we come to communion this morning, let's take hope and solace in this.
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That we remember each week Jesus died for us. Jesus died to rescue us.
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This time each service is meant to be a time of remembering his sacrifice on the cross that paid the penalty for our sins.
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We deserve to be punished, but his body was broken in our place, so we take the cracker. And his blood was spilled to wash away our sins, so we take that cup of juice.
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So if you have trust in Jesus and you're crying out to him to save you, then know that he is faithful to save.
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It's not the quality of your faith that saves you. It's not the endurance of your faith that saves you.
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It is the one you call out to who saves you. Peter took a short hike on the water, but Jesus wants to walk with you out in the waves for your entire life.
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Trust him in all the peaks and valleys. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for a lesson about faith.
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I think we all need to hear this. We all need to be reminded about our role as acquiescents. Our role in salvation is simply to bow our knee before you and to accept what you're willing and gracious to give to us on the basis of the death and sacrifice of your son.
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It's a simple truth, that we want to have it be more complicated than that.
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We want to earn it. We want to work for it. We want to strive for it. We want to think that we could walk on water with enough effort.
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But when we find ourselves in those situations where the wind and the waves are all around us and we've just stepped out in a newness of vibrancy of faith and quick to doubt and quick to fear,
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I thank you that Jesus is there eager and ready to rescue. And I thank you that his ultimate rescue is not something that's going to happen for us this week, not something that's going to happen for us this afternoon, not even something that's going to happen during when we take communion right now, but it is something that has been purchased for us in the past.
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It's a done deal. It is finished, your son said. So I thank you for that hope.
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That hope of an ultimate and final rescue that you're working for your people to bring in your kingdom forever and ever.
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But Father, I pray that you would give strength for us during the night while we're rowing and rowing and rowing and seem to be getting nowhere and we feel so alone to know that you're on your way.
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You're on your way. You're walking across those waters to come and rescue us.
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So Father, I say, come quickly, Lord. For this church, give us grace until that day.