TWIST BUSTERS | God Does NOT Want You to Step Out of a Boat & Walk on Water

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to the

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Fighting for the Faith YouTube channel. If you've ever been told that God, well it's his will for you to step out of the boat, take a risk, walk on water, you know, stuff like that, go ahead and hit the subscribe button below.

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We're starting a new series with this video and the name of the series is

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Twist Busters. You probably already saw it in the description in the name for this video and so the idea is we're going to take popular passages that are twisted really horribly by pastors, preachers, teachers, and people like that in evangelicalism and we're going to actually show you what those texts are about.

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We're going to use sound biblical exegesis, context, context, context, so that you can properly understand those texts.

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And today's installment we're going to, well, make a controversial claim, are you ready?

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God does not want you to step out of a boat and walk on water. Yeah, it's true, in fact the story of Peter walking on water is not some pattern that you're supposed to follow at all.

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Now to help us with this we're going to start by listening to David Crank of Faith Church in St.

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Louis and give you just kind of a garden variety example of what it looks like when somebody twists this text.

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So let me go ahead and pull that up and let's listen to David Crank as he explains why

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God wants us to walk on water. Here we go. Well, give it up for Jesus, he's the one, right?

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How many of you all glad you're on your way to heaven? How many of you all glad that the person next to you wore deodorant?

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Come on, raise your hand if that's you. I want to talk to you today about some things that are in my personal life, just stories and so on that's going to help you get from where you are.

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And I have a couple questions. One, do you feel like that there's like sometimes like a ceiling over you that you should be further along, that things should have happened by now?

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Anybody got that? Yeah, I should have already been a millionaire and I'm like really far away from it.

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Should have happened already by now, yeah. Okay, so this is weird. Notice he's not starting with a biblical text.

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That's a bad thing, not a good thing. Let's see what he does next. I think sometimes, I think we all experience that.

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And so today I want to talk about getting out of the boat. You know, years ago over in Fenton, in fact, I was just talking.

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Why would I want to get out of a boat? Normally if you're going to get out of a boat and you're on water, you're going to need some kind of life preserving device, otherwise you will become one with the water and go and see

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Jesus, you know, face to face. Some of the people around that I've seen in our church forever, in Fenton we had a little bitty boat, about 180 people.

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And in fact, I took a picture offline, online about kind of what the size of the boat looked like.

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It was kind of like me and Nicole were in this little boat. Now the issue is oftentimes when you're in a small boat in a small environment and nobody's really done anything really big in your life, then you're always held back like you want to get out.

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If I'm in a small boat in a small environment, I haven't done anything with my life. What are you talking about?

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Out of the boat, you're in the boat, but your whole family's in the boat and you're like, I want to get out. But then you got people holding you back like nobody in our trailer park has ever done this before.

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Come on. Who are you right now? Okay. Those people are trying to save your life, dude.

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If you want to get out of a boat, you know, it doesn't matter if you came from a trailer park or if you grew up in Beverly Hills, you know, if you're wanting to get out of a boat while it's on the water, that's generally a bad thing.

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So your past doesn't determine your future. So you have to have a God -sized dream and understand that you serve a big

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God. And see, there it is. You're supposed to have a God -sized dream.

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And here's the thing. No biblical text says that. Nowhere in scripture are you told that you have to have a

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God -sized dream. So this idea of stepping out of the boat, taking a risk, and the adventure of faith and doing what

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Peter did and walking on the water, that's not even the point of the text, but it's all the presupposition behind it, the basic idea behind it.

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It's false teaching. Nowhere are you told that you're supposed to have a God -sized dream.

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And you're going to note that the story of Peter walking on the water isn't about experiencing a

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God -sized dream. And remember this. There were 12 disciples, 12.

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How many of the other disciples walked on water? Answer, zero. Not one of them.

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And what's interesting is that the story or the account of Peter walking on the water only shows up in one gospel.

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And when you read the rest in the New Testament, nowhere are you admonished or told by God, you need to go and walk on the water the way

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Peter did. And you're going to see why, because that wasn't a great victory for Peter. It was the exact opposite of a victory for Peter.

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But let's listen a little bit more. God has started something in you, and he wants to finish it.

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But of course, there's something that we have to do. And then there's setbacks. So God wants to do something.

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But the thing you've got to do is you've got to get out of the boat and walk on water. And things along the way that can keep you back.

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And oftentimes, though, it's in our mind. As a man thinketh, so is he. Yeah. By the way, that's a proverb.

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We'll get to that in a future installment of Twistbusters. As a man thinketh, so is he.

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We'll have to save that for a future installment. Pay attention. You know, stay tuned. We will get to it eventually.

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I had an opportunity, I think they have a picture of Tyler Perry up here, asked last week to have dinner with Tyler Perry in Atlanta.

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And Tyler, we had dinner with him the other evening, and it's so interesting to see a person who was homeless, who his dad actually beat his mom, hearing those stories of how here he is encapsulated in pain, but while he was in this troubled time, hearing his mom get beat, in his mind, he would close his eyes and he would pretend that he was somewhere else.

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This, of course, created a vivid imagination that now makes him billions of dollars. Somebody ought to say amen.

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So Tyler Perry is a fellow who's gotten out of the boat, and we need to be like Tyler Perry. We need to get out of the boat, too.

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God takes your brokenness and then he turns it around for your good.

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So everything you've went through in this breaking process was all for this critical moment to say,

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I know that God has something big in my life, I'm going to step out of the boat. I know God has something big in my life, so I've got to step out of the boat.

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Even, okay, even if God had something big in my life, why would I want to step out of a boat?

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It just doesn't make sense at all. And I'm going to obey God. But there are storms.

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In fact, we want to go there in Matthew 14, verse 24. It says, meanwhile. Okay, so Matthew 14, verse 24, all right, so we're going to jump into the middle of this story, not paying attention to context at all, and he's teaching from the message paraphrase.

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By the way, if your pastor is preaching from the message paraphrase, you need to have a conversation with him. Tell him to knock that off.

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The message is not a good teaching Bible at all. In fact, I don't recommend it for study.

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I don't especially recommend it for preaching because it's not accurate. It's a terrible, terrible paraphrase.

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It's got all kinds of really weird and goofy doctrines in it. And when pastors preach from the message, the reason why is because they want to be able to teach false doctrine without getting caught in making it look like it's biblical.

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And the message paraphrase makes all kinds of cover for them to do that. While the boat was out to sea, when the wind came against them and battered them with the waves, about four o 'clock in the morning,

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Jesus came toward them walking on the water. How many of y 'all know that's always kind of scary? You're out on the lake and some dude starts walking on the water.

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How many of y 'all know this? Somebody's been drinking too much or something. They were scared out of their wits that it's a ghost and they cried out with terror.

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But Jesus. Everybody shout, but Jesus. Shout it loud. Come on, class. What? But Jesus was quick to comfort them with courage.

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He said, don't be afraid. Do you know that fear is what keeps you from stepping out of the boat? Now we're going to note here, when we pay attention to the details of the text itself, you're going to see that it wasn't courage that got

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Peter out of the boat. So he's twisting this story up pretty good. Fear, false evidence appearing real.

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Jesus said, don't be afraid. And Peter Lee suddenly and boldly said, master, if it's really you, call me to come out of the water.

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And he said, come. And then all of a sudden, Peter jumping out of the boat. It doesn't. The text doesn't say

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Peter jumped out of the boat. The message says that, but the Greek doesn't say it. And neither do good

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English translations that he said, well, I don't know. Is it really you?

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This is what a lot of people do. They're like, I don't know. I don't know. No, I don't know. A lot of people do that. Really.

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How many people does Jesus come to walking on the water, telling them to come out of boats?

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See, you get to know, this doesn't make any sense. See, you'll never have a big life thinking, I don't know.

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It's just. Oh, I'll never have a big life. Yeah. See, jumping out of the boat means so I can have a big life.

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Yeah, that's not what Christianity is about. And it's definitely not what this text is about. So I think you get the idea.

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And if you've been in Christianity for any length of time, you've heard this sermon before from other preachers, because this is one that regularly makes the rounds in a twisted way.

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But let's take a look at the context. By the way, the three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, and context.

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And we're going to start in Matthew 14. And we're going to begin with the miracle that appears in all four gospels.

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There are two miracles that appear in all four gospels, and they are the resurrection of Jesus Christ and this miracle.

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This is a really important miracle. And this actually kind of plays into all of this. So what's happening in the gospel of Matthew up to this point is, is the disciples are having a tough time coming to grips with who

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Jesus is. They're not exactly sure. The miracles he's performing make it look like he's the

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Messiah, potentially the son of God, and that's kind of the thing that's a coin toss at this point.

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People are just not sure. And Jesus' ministry is kind of all the talk of Galilee and the

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Decapolis around the Sea of Galilee. And so then Jesus here performs a miracle, and we'll look at the cross -reference in the gospel of John, chapter 6, so you can see what's going on, how this plays into it.

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And then we'll get to the walking on the water bit, which only appears in one gospel. And there are no commands in Scripture to tell you to do the same.

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You'll see what it's about when we get there. But Matthew 14, 13, when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.

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But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. And when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

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Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place. The day is now over.

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Send the crowds away to go into the villages to buy food for themselves. But Jesus said to them, Well, they need not go away.

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You give them something to eat. And they said to him, We only have five loaves here and two fish. And he said,

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Bring them here to me. And then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, take the five loaves, the two fish.

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He looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves, gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

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And they all ate, and they were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

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And those who ate were about five thousand men besides women and children. And you're thinking,

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Okay, I've heard this miracle before, but what's its significance? Well, note something. You have a large crowd, a group of people who are

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Hebrews, who are Israelites in a desolate you can almost say wilderness place.

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And this is a miracle that hearkens back to the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel.

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And Jesus miraculously feeds all of these people out in the wilderness.

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You think that sounds like something like what God did when he fed the children of Israel bread out in the wilderness.

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That was man at the time. And you go, Yes, that's exactly right. If you know your biblical typology, you can't miss it.

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This is where the gospel of John is really helpful for us, because John in his gospel gives us a little bit more information.

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And I'll start at verse 12 of John chapter 6. It says this, And when they had eaten their fill, he told the disciples,

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Gather up the leftover fragments, so that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up, filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

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And when the people saw the sign that he had done, the light goes on. They said,

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This is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. The prophet they're referring to, by the way, is the prophet that Moses spoke about in Deuteronomy 18.

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Let me pull that up. In Deuteronomy 18, the prophet that he was referring to, here's what it says in Deuteronomy 18, 15,

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Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

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It is to him you shall listen, just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said,

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Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God or see this great fire any more lest I die.

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And Yahweh said to me, They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth.

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He shall speak to them all that I command him, and whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name,

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I myself will require it of him. So the feeding of the 5 ,000, we learn from John chapter 6 that when they saw this miraculous sign, they realized who

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Jesus was. And verse 16 says, 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. Now all of that's the context. So we come back then to the gospel of Matthew.

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And with all of this information now in our minds, let's put the rest of the story together.

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And it says this, Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.

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And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

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But the boat by this time was a long way from land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.

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And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said,

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It's a ghost. And they cried out in fear. Now a little bit of a note,

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I cannot remember the commentary I read this in. But years ago, I read it in a commentary that one of the legends or the lore, the stories that is told of the fishermen by the fishermen on the

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Sea of Galilee. Many fishermen have lost their lives on the Sea of Galilee with this tempest that come up very suddenly.

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And well, the way the fish story, fishermen story works is that the last fellow who died when his ghost appears, whoever sees him, that's the next fisherman to go.

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That's kind of the idea. So the disciples here, they're absolutely freaking out, losing their minds.

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It's a ghost. They cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying,

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Take heart. And here's where the English is going to let us down just a little bit. The Greek, let me make the

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Greek just a little bit bigger. The Greek, egoimi, take heart,

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I am, is actually the literal way the Greek works. Jesus here is literally saying, take heart,

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I am. And he's using the divine name from Exodus chapter 3 for himself.

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And then he says, do not be fearing, do not be afraid.

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Take heart, I am, do not be afraid. Now watch what happens next. Peter answered him,

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Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water.

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Note, Peter is not believing that it's Jesus. Peter is doubting that it's

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Jesus. He's not doing this because of his great faith. He says, if that's really you,

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Jesus, then tell me to come out to you on the water. So he's not stepping out in great faith.

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So Jesus said, come. So Peter got out of the boat.

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And notice, it doesn't say boldly or suddenly or anything like that. It just says

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Peter got out of the boat and he walked on the water and he came to Jesus.

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But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out,

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Lord, save me. Which, by the way, that is a great prayer. One that we would be wise to pray along with Peter, Lord, save me.

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So Jesus immediately reached out his hand, took hold of him, saying to him, you of little faith.

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Notice that Peter isn't praised for his great faith, for his boldness of stepping out of the boat and walking on the water.

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No, he sunk. So Jesus says to him, you of little faith.

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Why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

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That's right. So all of this wind that was blowing, the tempest that was going on, the storm just literally just, whew, cleared up.

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Total miracle here. And those in the boat worshipped Jesus, saying, truly, you are the son of God.

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Now, you're gonna know, this is the only time this appears in all of scripture, is the story of Peter walking on the water.

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It wasn't because of his great faith. He was one of little faith. He doubted, he sank.

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Jesus had to rescue him. But the whole point of this particular miracle was not that the guys went, man,

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Peter, that was so cool, man. You stepped out in faith, and you were a water walker.

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I wish I had enough faith to step out of the boat, too. Maybe I'll do that next time. No, not at all.

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The focus wasn't on Peter, the focus is on Christ. The scriptures are about him.

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Matthew wrote his gospel to tell us about Jesus. And here we see something amazing. We see 12

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Jewish men worshiping Jesus.

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And remember, Jews are very strict. They will not worship anybody who is not

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God. And yet here, they worship Jesus. And they said, truly, you are the son of God.

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And see, these things were written so that you might believe that Jesus is the

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Christ, the son of God, and that by believing in him, you would be saved and you would have life.

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So do not doubt, do not have little faith regarding Jesus and his ability to forgive even your sins.

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This is a text that calls us to believe and to worship

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Christ and to call out for him the way Peter did, Lord, save me.

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This is not a text where we are instructed to get out of the boat and walk on the water.

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Instead, this is a text that calls us to worship Jesus. And that's the point of the text.

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And all these people who are telling you, you need to get out of the boat and you need to walk on the water, they are filling your heads with nonsense.

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And worse than that, they're taking away the glory of Christ because this story was not written for you to walk on water.

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This story was written so that you would worship Christ. Now, I hope that makes sense as we've untwisted this text.

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So if you're attending a church where the pastor's telling you you need to walk on water, you need to step out of that church and walk on over to a different church where the pastor's gonna actually preach

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God's word correctly and point you to Jesus. That's the idea. Now, if you found this helpful, well, one of the ways you can support us is by sharing this video.

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If you'd like to support us financially, we truly could use the help. All the information on how you can support us, join our crew, send in a one -time contribution, or become a patron on Patreon is all down there below.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ in his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.