John 6:15-21 (Divine Contrasts)

One of the most profound lessons that I had to learn as a Christian is that God absolutely cares about how we approach

Him. He absolutely cares about it. He requires that His people not only would worship

Him in spirit, but we would also worship Him in truth. And the reason that Jesus abandoned the disciples or the crowds in John chapter 6 rather, the reason that He abandoned the crowds was because they did not know

Him in truth. It wasn't because they were insincere, it was because they were sincerely wrong.

Because they didn't approach Him in truth. They saw His miraculous feeding. They saw that only

God could do something like that. Feeding, it says 5 ,000 people, we know it was more like 20 ,000 people. Only God could do that.

They saw the healings. That couldn't happen apart from the wonder working power of God. They saw His teachings that dripped with the majesty of God, and yet they wanted to make

Him a geopolitical king. They wanted Him to sit on the abandoned throne of David and dispossess the

King Herod and their Edomite family. They wanted to shake off the tyranny of Rome so that their country could have a glorious peace.

And had Jesus followed their vision, had Jesus actually accepted the crown upon His head and stormed the capital city of Jerusalem, we would have never heard the name

Jesus today. Unless you were an austere scholar in a dusty library somewhere in Cambridge, Britain, you would have never heard the name of Jesus.

He would have been one of many insignificant kings in insignificant nations that never amounted to anything other than a footnote in a history book.

Praise God that Jesus didn't accept their vision for Him, but He came bringing His vision, God's vision of what

He came to do. They thought what they needed most was a local temporal king, but what they needed was so much grander, so much better.

Their vision was tied up in their own self -interest, their own self -understanding, and it was repulsive to Jesus.

And Jesus abandoned them because they did not worship Him in truth. Jesus came not so that one little nation would know

Him. He came so that all the world would be filled with the glory of God. It says in Isaiah, as the waters cover the sea.

He came so that the glory of God would ring from this blue planet all the way out into the universe.

They wanted a mere drop of water when He was offering them oceans. They wanted freedom from Rome when

He was offering them freedom from hell. They wanted political sovereignty when He was making a way for them to know the sovereign

God. Their vision was far too small. And because of that,

Jesus abandoned them, it says in John 6, 14 and 15.

Now, one of the things that I love so much about the gospel of John is that he draws these beautiful contrasts.

Here you have a people who are abandoned. Last week we talked about them. This week you're going to have a people who are found, who

Christ pursues. There's all sorts of dramatic contrasts in the gospel.

Let's go over a couple of them. In John 2, Jesus is received and welcomed in a small rural town in a wedding, but He's rejected at a big city feast in Jerusalem.

That's a contrast. In John 3, He's rejected by Nicodemus, the religious leader, who's confused about who

He is, but yet He's accepted by the woman who had no learning, who had no schooling, and yet she got it,

He didn't. There's a contrast there. In that story, Nicodemus, he comes at night.

What does woman come? She comes in the day. There's a contrast. He came seeking answers, but He left with more questions.

There's a contrast. She came having questions, but left with answers. There's a contrast. She came looking for drinking water and walked away with living water.

She came with her hands full, but left empty. Do you see what John is doing? He is showing us contrast.

Why? Because contrast helps us have clearer vision. If your photograph doesn't have contrast, you don't have good vision.

It's blurry. Jesus brings contrast so that you and I can have a clear picture of who

He is. Those contrasts are meant to teach us who He is and what

He has come to do. For instance, He was rejected by the large crowds.

Why? Because the way to heaven is not broad, it's narrow, and only few will find it. He was rejected by the religious leaders because He didn't come to the high and mighty.

He didn't come to the seminary train. Praise God, I made it out of seminary with my salvation. I know people who didn't. He came for the sick, the weak, the broken, the downtrodden.

He came for us. He didn't come for those who wanted to hide their faith.

He came for those who would live it out boldly. He didn't come for those who were afraid to say

His name. He came for those who would speak the name of Jesus to everyone that they know, like the woman at the well who went to everyone that she knew.

She didn't care about her shame anymore. She knew Jesus. And because of that, it fueled her to tell everyone that she knew.

You see, these contrasts show us a couple truths. They show us that human effort is not enough to know

God. Nicodemus, no amount of learning, no amount of study, no amount of religion was enough to get him into the kingdom of God.

He walked away that night, not because he was ill -prepared. He walked away that night because of his preparation.

He walked away that night because he was resting in his own human effort. Human effort is not enough.

The woman at the well had nothing, which teaches us the second truth. Human effort's not enough, but Jesus can break through and reach anybody, even a woman at the well.

If there was a version of what we would call the basket of deplorables in the first century, I don't know what that is,

I'm just making up a term, she would be in that basket. She did not find

God that day, God found her. It wasn't because of her, it was because of Him.

Over and over and over, we see this pattern happening in the gospel. It is not about human effort, it is not about our seeking, our seeking's not enough, we need to be sought.

It's not about our genius, we're not smart enough, we need the wisdom of God to break into our lives.

We don't need our human limitation, we need divine initiation in order to know God.

So with that, let's pray, or let's read the word first, and then let's pray, and then we're gonna look at three contrasts in this passage, and we're gonna see what they would teach us about God.

So let's read the text, starting in verse 15. So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and to take

Him and force Him to be king, withdrew again to the mountains by Himself alone. Now when evening came,

His disciples went down to the sea. And after getting into the boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum.

It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. Now the sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

Then when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat.

And they were frightened, but He said to them, it is I, do not be afraid. So they were willing to receive

Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at land to which they were going. Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, would You bless the preaching of Your Word? Would You illuminate these truths to our life?

Would You let us see the contrast that You were drawing between the crowds and Your disciples? And Lord, would

You let those truths not just be theological ideas that stay in our heads but trickle down into our hearts and help us in our walk with God, help us in our relationship with God, and they would be truths that we cling to, that we hold precious and dear in a world.

That gives us great reason to fear, in a world that gives us great reason to be upset or frustrated.

Lord, let these truths warm our hearts, give us rest, and give us peace, in Christ's name.

Amen. We're going to be looking at three contrasts today in this passage. The first one is the contrast of relationships.

One of these groups is going to have a relationship with God, and one is not. One will be abandoned.

The first one, verses 15, they are abandoned by Jesus because they had the wrong idea of Jesus.

It says in verse 15, Jesus perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him and force

Him to make Him king, He withdrew again to the mountains by Himself to be alone. The text is telling us right out in the open, and we covered this last week, that Jesus was not impressed with their vision of Him, and He left them to their faulty opinions.

That's under the surface. This week, I want us to grab another important point in this passage, and that is, if Jesus does not want to be found,

He will not be found. I want you to notice that Jesus is the one who walks away here.

Jesus is the one who goes into the mountains. There were tens of thousands of them, and only one of Him. This is like stacks and stacks of needles looking for a haystack, but yet they couldn't find

Him because Jesus pulled away. They started looking for Him right away, the text tells us, and it would have been the most natural thing to do for a crowd that was whipped up into the sort of frenzy that would have caused them to commit such a treasonous act in the first century.

To put the crown on Jesus' head would have been a death sentence from Herod, from Rome, and from everyone else.

They wouldn't have stopped looking for Him just because they couldn't find Him. You can imagine them saying, where did

He go? What happened to Him? In verse 22 through 25, we realize that they've been looking for Him all night long, bumbling around in the darkness, and what better picture of idolatry is there than that?

A people who are living in darkness who cannot see the light, bumbling, unable to find

Him. Now, Jesus would not be found by them until He was ready, and He's ready for them to find

Him a few verses later. But the point that I want us to make clear is that we cannot, in our own power, in our own strength, find

Jesus. We can't. People come to Jesus today out of all kinds of motivations that Jesus will not allow them to find

Him for. They come to Him for health, for wealth, security, for feelings of being religious, because Mom taught me, because Dad taught me, because I want my kids to see that we're religious and that we're a family that has all of our stuff together.

There's all sorts of reasons that people want to put a crown on Jesus' head, but Jesus abandons that because that's not worshiping

Him in truth. At the heart of this, at the root of it, at its core, Jesus will not allow us to find

Him if our vision for Him is as pitiful as this crowds. Like we said in the beginning, to know

Jesus, we must know Him in spirit and in truth, and unfortunately for all of us who are fallen in our sin, we are not people of the

Spirit by nature, and we are not people of the truth. Therefore, in our own power and in our own strength, there is nothing that we can do to know a holy

God. But that doesn't mean that He cannot be known.

That just means that in our own power and our own strength, we cannot know

Him. He can be known, but it goes about in a different way. When someone meet

Jesus today and in that passage, it was not because they went looking for Him.

It is because He actually went looking for them. The Bible says the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

It does not say that the lost went searching and seeking about for the Son of Man. Jesus went searching for the lost, and He finds them every time

He goes looking. And that, of course, is the contrast. The crowd are bumbling around in the darkness, incapable of finding

Jesus, and yet the ones who are not even looking for Him find Him, the disciples.

They're in darkness too. They're in the pitch black darkness of the lake that is thrown into a torrent, and yet they find

Him. Not because they go looking for Him. Not because they're in a strong position. Not because they have sure footing.

They have none of those things. They find Jesus because Jesus found them. Look at what the text says, verse 16.

Now, when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea. And after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum.

It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them, and the sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

Now, there's a lot in this passage. It was not a good idea to go on the sea at dark.

Let's just be honest about that. This isn't a time when your boats do not have lights.

I've been to Iraq when it was pitch black dark at night, and there was clouds in the sky. You would think when there's a storm, there would be clouds.

There's no moon. There's no stars. There's nothing shining. You can't even see your hand in front of your face. They were going there because the synoptic gospels tell us that Jesus told them to cross the boat, which means

Jesus sent them into the darkness on purpose. We'll talk about that in a moment. On the beach, you can imagine their imaginations were running wild.

Jesus really wants us to get in the boat while it's dark? Why would Jesus do that? Why would Jesus send us now?

Why would...does He not care about our safety? As nightfall rushed upon the sky, the disciples set out not even able to see in front of their own faces.

Now again, Galilean boats don't have GPS. They don't have sonar. They don't have satellite. They don't have any of that stuff.

At best, they have a rope and a weight so that they can check the depth of the water to make sure that they're staying close to shore.

There's no sitting lights on top of the hilltops. I remember when my grandpa and I used to drive around in the little boat in the intercoastal waterway of North Carolina.

We would stay out too late because we were having too much fun, and we would find our way back to Holden Beach because there was this particular little night on top of this particular little tower that would guide us to the marina, and we would dock and all those things.

They didn't have that advantage. They didn't have any of that. Now to add to the complexity of this situation, they had to cross a five or six mile chasm on the tip end of the

Sea of Galilee in the northern part of the country. Five or six miles in the darkness would have been bad enough, but this particular lake was known for the most unpredictable weather.

In a moment's notice, an awful storm would descend upon the lake like an eagle descending upon her prey, and this is exactly what happened.

This kind of storm descended upon the lake, and the disciples were thrown into chaos, confusion, and terror.

You can imagine the waves were wildly dancing with the wind. You can imagine that the agitated sea was hurling blow after blow after blow upon this rickety little matchbox that was floating on top of the waves, and every single crack of the wave was creaking and breaking and tearing that boat into pieces, and you can imagine that a real possibility that they were thinking of is we are going to die.

Now imagine the contrast. Today we're talking about contrast. The crowd was standing on solid ground.

The crowd was in a strong position. The crowd had political momentum. The crowd had a miracle working

Moses -like king that they believed would go with them and storm the gates of Jerusalem. They had every advantage, and yet they did not know

Christ, and Christ did not know them, and yet here you have this group that is not on solid ground.

Far from it. They weren't a massive crowd. They were 12. They didn't have sure footing.

They had a boat that was being thrown back and forth, and at any moment they felt like they could have died. They had no advantage, and yet they were the ones that were found by Christ.

Do you see the contrast? It's not because of their strength that they were found.

Jesus wouldn't want them to ever believe that. It was because of his strength that they were found.

Look at what verse 19 tells us. When they had rowed about three or four miles, this is rowing, hard rowing in the midst of a storm.

You can imagine that they're probably saying, do we just give up? We're exhausted.

It wouldn't have taken very long to row three or four miles back in those days. They were kind of used to it, but they've been rowing for a while against the waves, against the current, against the storm.

Their arms are done when they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat, and they were frightened.

I want you to notice something about this passage. They were not looking for Jesus. They were trying to hang on for dear life so that they could preserve their own life.

The only reason that they were rescued is not because they were wise seafarers. There was no amount of wisdom that could have helped them in this situation.

Isn't it funny that God often takes you into the impossible so that he can show you that only he can rescue you?

He took them into a moment where they could not save themselves to show them the power of God.

They were rescued because Jesus came looking for them. Now the application, I think, is very clear here for us.

Jesus hasn't invited us to go sailing in the dark. That's not the application. He hasn't invited us to be unwise on the sea.

Nothing like that. The application is that we do not find

Jesus. He comes looking for us, and you can look at any storm that you've ever faced. Jesus is the one who comes looking for us.

To be a Christian is not to be strong. It's not to be smart. It's not to be on top. It's not to be the best.

It's not to be well put together. It's not to be well liked. It is to be by the illuminating grace of God found by Jesus Christ.

That's what it means to be a Christian. There is no strength that gets you there. It is Christ's strength who comes and finds you and rescues you.

We are weak people. To be a

Christian is to be lost in a sea of darkness before Jesus, is to be pummeled by the tidal waves of sin, is to be blasted on every side by our inability to rescue ourselves, and only then we look up and we see

Jesus coming and rescuing us. Jesus lets us go through these things to teach us that we cannot save ourselves.

If Jesus doesn't step out onto the waves and rescue us, we won't be saved. Now all of our stories are unique and different.

Jesus has rescued, I pray, every single person in this room, but all of our stories are also very similar because behind every single story of salvation, you will find the pursuing

Christ. Behind every story of salvation in this room, you will find that Christ has been faithful and has been pursuing you and has been chasing you and has found you at the heart of every one of our stories is the obvious fact that we are weak and he is strong.

So if you're in Christ today, it's not because of your power, it's because of his. It's not because of your seeking, it's because of his.

It's not because of your ability to find him, it's because of his ability to find you. And by God's grace, we will continue seeking

Jesus in this place until we outgrow this building or until God gives us another one, until he comes back to bring us home.

We seek him because he found us. That's what it means to be a Christian. That's the first contrast we see, it's a contrast of relationship.

Those who know him are the ones who have been found by him. The second contrast is one of knowledge.

We can't know God without God's help. We can't even understand the things of God without God's help.

We need revelation. You see, the crowds were abandoned in their foolishness.

No amount of passion or power or knowledge or force was going to get them into a relationship with Jesus.

It was only until Jesus came out on the waves and on the water and revealed himself that his disciples actually caught a glimpse of who he is.

Remember what we said about contrast? It gives us vision and it gives us clarity. Jesus did not choose to walk out on the water for happenstance.

Jesus did not choose to walk out on the water for sheer pragmatism because that was the fastest way to go.

Jesus walked on the water deliberately and intentionally. And what we have to wrestle with with this text is that Jesus chose to send them out into the darkness by his sovereignty and by his infinite knowledge.

He knew that they were going to be in the storm and he willed that and he accepted that and he came out to them on the water to give them a glimpse of who he is that they would have never seen otherwise.

We're going to look at a couple of those contrasts or a couple of those things. We're not going to be able to talk about them conclusively or exhaustively, but I want to show you a couple of things that Jesus is revealing to his disciples on the water.

He's not just doing a magic trick where he's walking out on the water. He's deliberately evoking promises and truths from the

Old Testament to show his people who he is. The first, Jesus is the

God of creation. I want to read you Genesis 1, 1 through 2, and I want to show you what

Jesus is doing. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep.

And the spirit of God was moving over the surfaces of the water. Now, again, this event is not random.

Jesus is not just walking on water for no reason. Think about it. The spirit of God is the one who hovers over the waters and Jesus here, walking out of the waters, is showing that he is the

God who created all things. The same God who spoke everything into existence and who, by his spirit, hovered over the waters is the same

Jesus who in the flesh came down and walked on the waters to show his people that I am the God who created all of this.

The wind and the waves obey me. He's not a political king.

He's the king of the cosmos. His kingdom extends beyond the borders of Judah to the untamed waters and beyond.

While no man could ever tame the sea, the one who created it could. The one who created the water molecules that he was walking on could.

And he was showcasing to his disciples that he is the Lord of creation. There's no storm.

There is no wave. There is no lightning bolt that is not in his hand. Now, again, they could not have come to that conclusion on their own.

They had to get in the middle of the storm in order to be able to see it. How many times has

Jesus revealed himself to us in ways that we would never have known if he didn't take us into the storm, if he didn't take us into the middle of the pain, into the middle of the discomfort?

Because there are things about Jesus that you will not be able to learn in blessing. There's things about Jesus you will not be able to learn unless you walk through pain.

Jesus deliberately sent his disciples into the darkness. Jesus deliberately sent his disciples into the storm, not because he's unloving, because he's loving.

He loved them so much to put them in this situation on purpose so that they could learn a truth about who he is.

He's the God of creation. And if the God of creation is on your side, then what does it matter if some wind and some waves are against you?

It matters nothing. They wouldn't have seen it if it weren't for that. You can also assume that the disciples are not just thinking about Genesis 1, the

God who hovers over the waters. They're also thinking about Job 9. Now, Job is the first book written in the

Bible. And you're like, no, it's not. Genesis is. I understand what you're saying. Genesis is the first book in your

Bible. Yes. Moses talks about the events that happened at the beginning. Yes. Job lived before Moses.

Job wrote his book before Moses. So this is the earliest record that we have in the

Bible of who God is. This is what Job says. It is God who removes the mountains, and they do not know how.

When he overturns them in his anger, it is he who shakes the earth from its place and its pillars tremble.

Who commands the sun not to shine and puts a seal on the stars? It is he alone who stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waters

Here, Jesus, I think, is intentionally not only identifying himself with the spirit of God who hovers over the waters.

I think he's intentionally identifying with Yahweh, his father, who tramples down the seas.

He's the one who can move mountains. He says it. He can pick it up and move it because he has faith.

He's the one who can shake the earth from its foundation. He's the one who can command the sun not to shine. He's the one who stretched out the universe.

It says all things were created by him and for him. And he's the one who can walk out on the waters.

He's the one who, like his father, can trample down the seas. He is showcasing to us two magnificent truths.

He is the God of creation, and he is the God, like his father, of infinite power. That's the second thing.

We've been talking about the Exodus a lot in this chapter because there's a lot of Exodus themes in John chapter 6.

He's also the God of the Exodus. Think about it this way. He came to rescue his people.

What is he doing here? He's rescuing his people. Think about it in the Exodus. The waters part and the towering waves are standing before them, and yet, they get to cross safely onto dry ground.

What's happening here? Jesus walks out onto the waves, and when they receive him into the boat, they're on dry ground, just like in the

Exodus. Jesus is saying that he is the God of the Exodus who is going to rescue his people.

Look at what it says in verses 19 through 21. They saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat, and they were frightened.

You think about the people of Israel who were cowering as they were walking through the waters as Egypt's army was chasing after them, but yet they had their

God who was with them. But he said to them, it is I. In Greek, you could translate that I am, the name of God.

It is I, do not be afraid. So they were willing to receive him into the boat, and immediately, the boat was on dry land where they were going.

This same God who led his people across the Red Sea is leading his people across the Sea of Galilee. The same

God has appeared now in human flesh, and he's leading them safely to shore. I think this is beautiful imagery.

The same God of creation, the same God of power, the same God of the Exodus is the God that you and I now serve.

See, there's a scriptural metaphor here. The God of the

Exodus who leads his people in the wilderness to the promised land. What do you think Jesus is doing? He's leading us, his people, by his spirit through the wilderness of life, through the trials, through the storms, through the problems, through everything that we now face.

He's leading us to the promised land where we will live and dwell forever with God. But it's way better than Canaan.

It's the new Jerusalem. Jesus did not come just to save his disciples from a storm.

This miracle foreshadows his greatest miracle because on the cross, unlike Israel, Jesus doesn't make it safely to the other side.

He dies on that cross. Unlike Israel who saw God's hand holding back the waters of his wrath and his fury against Egypt, God did not hold back the waters of his wrath on Christ.

He poured out the cup of the wrath of God onto his one and only son. Why? So that you and I could be rescued.

The only way that you and I could be rescued is that we, our lives would be made in exchange for his.

Our sin be applied to him. His righteousness would be applied to us so that we could walk free on the other side.

So that we could walk in freedom with our God. That's the only way. This same God who created all things, the same

God who has infinite power over all things, died so that you and I could know his father. Jesus is foreshadowing that here, even here.

I would say, and I cannot prove this to you, but I think the disciples were probably thinking about Psalm 77, verses 16 through 19.

It says, the waters saw you, God. The waters saw you and they were in anguish.

The oceans, the ocean depths also trembled. The clouds poured out water. The skies sounded out.

The arrows flashed here and there. The sound of your thunder was in a whirlwind. Your lightning lit up the world.

The earth trembled and it shook. Your way was in the sea and your paths in the mighty waters.

Do you see walking on water even in the Old Testament? Your paths in the mighty waters.

Your footprints were not known and you led your people like a flock.

Now, of course, this passage is looking back to the Exodus when God frustrated the waters and moved them apart so that he could lead his people to dry land.

But what I want us to notice here is that this is a personified look at creation.

Look at what it says. It says, the waters were in anguish. The ocean depths trembled.

In the New Testament, we learn that when Jesus rescues and saves his people, creation is still groaning and crying out for a redeemer.

We have earthquakes because human beings sinned against God. It's not just our inability to know

God. When we sinned, the whole world came crashing down. Tsunamis, floods, storms like this on the

Galilean Sea, all because of you and I rebelled against our God. And what

I love about this passage is that Jesus, like his father, walking out onto the waters,

I can imagine every molecule that he touched with his perfect feet. We're praising

God, looking forward to the day when all things will be made new, when there's no more brokenness, when there's no more hurt, there's no more death, there's no more cancer, there's no more tsunamis, there's none of that.

We're waiting for that day as well. Jesus walking out on the water is showcasing that he's not just Lord of creation, he's bringing a new creation.

He began that new creation by giving you and I new life. Our dead souls were awakened in Jesus Christ. That work's not finished.

You can look at this world and see that that work is not finished. God will finish that work one day in heaven when all things will be made new.

Your knee aches, and back pain, and your diseases, and your lungs, and everything else that afflicts you will be healed one day when

Jesus Christ returns. He's showcasing that in this passage. The final thing.

Oh, wait, I want to read you a quote. Getting excited, I skipped ahead. I love how

Isaac Watts says this in his hymn. We're not going to read the whole hymn, Joy to the World, but just to let you know, spoiler alert, this is not a

Christmas hymn. We sing it at Christmas, but it's a hymn about his second coming. So I'll let you read the lyrics later.

But this is what Isaac Watts says, and I think it's beautiful. No more let sin and sorrows grow, no thorns infest the ground.

He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Far as the curse is found.

That's what Jesus has already started, and that's what he's going to finish. Amen? The final thing that we're going to see, why

Jesus walked down on the water, we learned a couple weeks ago, is Psalm 29. He's king. He's sovereign and he rules.

Look at what Psalm 29 says. The Lord sat as king at the flood.

The Lord sits as king forever. And the Lord will give strength to his people and the

Lord will bless his people with peace. You start wondering when you read a passage like that, how can God be the king of a flood, which is powerful, rushing waters that breaks things?

And how can his people have peace? Because God is king. When God says that he's king over the flood, what he is saying is that the absolute worst thing that you can imagine, he has his throne right in the midst of it.

He's not just king on the mountaintop of peace, he's king in the middle of the chaos. Which is good news for your and my life, because our life doesn't often look like a mountaintop experience.

Our life doesn't often look like fields of green. Our life often looks like chaos. And Jesus is king in the midst of that.

We have a God and we serve a God who knows what it's like to feel our pain.

He came. Think about it. He left the throne of heaven, came down and experienced hunger.

You would think that would be beneath God, but it wasn't. He came and experienced thirst. He came and he experienced all the things that you and I experienced.

And in the end, he was murdered, experienced something you and I could never experience, which is total isolation from God when you had never known that for an eternity.

Jesus knows our pain and he is equipped in everything to minister to us when we are in pain.

Because he's king, even over the mighty flood. He rejected the crowd's vision of who he was so that he could walk out onto the flood to be coordinated as king.

That is Jesus. That is our king. That's the king that we worship and that we love and that we obey.

That's the second contrast. Not only that there's a contrast of relationship, but there's a contrast of knowledge.

We cannot, by our own human power and effort, be in relationship with God or know God. We need Jesus' help and we see him doing that here.

The final contrast is reception. The people didn't receive Jesus in the way that Jesus wanted to be received and therefore they didn't have

Jesus. But yet the disciples, they received him into the boat and immediately they were on dry land.

The same crowds who would later yell crucify him were the same crowds here who wanted to put a crown on his head.

And yet, the same little crowd who was huddled in fear, trembling and broken, are the ones who would stand up and turn the world upside down for Christ.

The only thing different between those two groups is the pursuing power of God.

One group in their own strength denied their Lord and killed him. One group in the strength of Christ turned the world upside down.

That's who we are. We come in a long line and a legacy of Christians who are indwelled by the spirit of God.

We don't receive him into a boat, we've received him into our hearts. And it should turn our worlds upside down and it should turn the world upside down when the church of Jesus Christ wakes up from her slumber and starts getting excited about the fact that we have a gospel of salvation that has rescued us from our sin.

Every day that should be made new. There should never be a day where we yawn at the grace of God. A Christian is not a person of power, it's not a person of knowledge, not a person who's great at seeking.

A Christian is a person who's been found by Jesus Christ, that's it. Now, I want to talk about, in closing, what that means.

First, if you're not a Christian, I don't want to give you any false hope here today.

There's no assurance that you have from God if you're going to live in your own strength. You have none. You have no hope if you're going to live in your own strength.

There's no way for you to be saved from being plunged into eternal ruin if you're going to continue to live in your own strength, because Jesus will abandon that.

But if you see Jesus seeking you, if you feel Jesus has been coming after you, if you feel like Jesus has walked out on the waters and has pursued you and is awakening you and is causing you to know

Him and love Him and trust Him, give up on yourself. Lay yourself down and be found by Christ.

Now, if you're not feeling those things and you're feeling apathetic about Jesus, there's nothing I can do for you.

I can't save you. I can't say a magic formula and make you want to love Christ. But if Jesus is pursuing you, give up on yourself and turn to Him.

Because when you come to the end of yourself is when you come to the beginning of life. Now, if you're a

Christian, knowing this truth about who Jesus is will crush our fears.

And that's where this message gets practical for us. Knowing that Jesus is the Lord of creation, knowing that Jesus is a

God, the God with infinite power, knowing that Jesus is these things means that every millisecond of our life has purpose.

He has perfect control and direction over everything that happens to you. There's nothing in your life right now and there's nothing in your past that God did not allow you to go through and walk through for a purpose.

It says in Romans 8 that He will accomplish good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

That means that that tragedy that you walk through, that pain that you walk through, that storm that you walk through, all of it has purpose because Jesus is taking that.

And He's revealing Himself to you. He's showing you who He is. He's taking you to the end of yourself so that you'll stop trusting in you and you'll start trusting in Him.

And that is where true life begins. That is where, as Derek read earlier, true comfort in life and in death occurs when we know that we are

Christ's. We are the people of His own possession. And what wave could terrorize us when we know that we are

His? What's going to happen? To live as Christ? Okay, I'm going to spend the rest of my life living.

There's going to be trials, there's going to be pain, there's going to be suffering. Okay, He suffered for me. Why can't I suffer for Him? If something kills me, great,

I'm going to be with the Lord. Paul says to live as Christ, to die as gain. I win both ways. All of us do. There's no storm that can take your joy.

The point of the disciples was not that they looked at the storm. They turned their eyes off of that and looked to Jesus.

And that is where you and I will find hope as well. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the fact that you are in control.

For the fact that you are king forever. For the fact that you are enthroned over the flood.

Which means that we can trust you anywhere and everywhere. Lord, I pray that your people, in America especially, would not be a defeated group of people.

Lord, I pray that we would not look at the news and feel discouraged and in despair. Lord, I pray that we would not find our hope in the way that this old world is going.

This world is broken. This world is groaning. This world is waiting for the same

Jesus to come back that we are. Lord, let us get our eyes off of the things of this world.

And turn our eyes squarely and intently on you. And Lord, when we do, we will have hope.

And Lord, I pray that you would help us. Especially in days like these that we would have hope by looking to you.