SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: The Old Testament person named Job has become associated, right, rightly or wrongly, with pain and suffering and agony.
SPEAKER_01: But if you can sort of divorce your mind from that reality and look at Job in an entirely new way, you might begin to see that Job is all about the gospel of God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel of God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: The good news that God is in absolute control of all things.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what are you going to do with that truth?
SPEAKER_01: When we see Job in that light, it should come as no surprise then that Job's experience serves a supporting role to our account in Matthew's Gospel.
SPEAKER_01: If you would join me, please, in Matthew chapter 14, if you are visiting with us or a guest of ours this morning, we've been working our way through Matthew's gospel, and we find ourselves this morning in Matthew 14, where we see the sovereignty of God on display.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 14.
SPEAKER_01: Going to begin reading in verse 22, if you would like to follow along.
SPEAKER_01: We'll make our way through verse 33 this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Immediately it says, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.
SPEAKER_01: And after he dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And when evening came, he was there alone.
SPEAKER_01: But the boat, by this time, was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.
SPEAKER_01: And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them, to the disciples in the boat, walking on the sea.
SPEAKER_01: But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and they said, It's a ghost.
SPEAKER_01: And they cried out in fear.
SPEAKER_01: But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's just me.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Come.
SPEAKER_01: So Peter got out of the boat and he walked on the water.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, Oh, you have little faith, why did you doubt?
SPEAKER_01: And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
SPEAKER_01: And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly, you are the son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, may we leave this place this morning worshiping you because you are the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I am wholly inadequate to reveal the depth of your identity displayed in this situation.
SPEAKER_01: So may your spirit work in us to enable us to know you even better today.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This account teaches us that the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ informs and motivates our worship of Him and our trust in Him.
SPEAKER_01: Everything in this passage is about the deity of Christ and how we, as His followers, as His disciples, respond to who He is.
SPEAKER_01: The story is told in three parts.
SPEAKER_01: If you were following along in the ESV, you can see that each one of them begins with the word immediately, connected then to an action of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We don't find this word often in Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Mark uses the word immediately a lot, over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew doesn't do that as much.
SPEAKER_01: And so when he does, especially in quick succession, we ought to pay attention.
SPEAKER_01: We ought to see, hey, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: Why is he doing this?
SPEAKER_01: Now the second of the three occurrences and the third of the three occurrences seem quite normal.
SPEAKER_01: They take place just in the natural progression of the storyline.
SPEAKER_01: So in verse 27, the disciples are terrified, right?
SPEAKER_01: They see Jesus, this ghost, walking on the water, and they're terrified, and immediately Jesus speaks.
SPEAKER_01: He reassures them.
SPEAKER_01: That's normal, that's natural.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 31, Peter is sinking in the water.
SPEAKER_01: The waves are threatening to come over him, and immediately Jesus reaches out to rescue him.
SPEAKER_01: The first occurrence of the word immediately seems out of place.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had just fed the 5,000, which we looked at the last time we were in Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples gathered up the leftovers.
SPEAKER_01: You remember that, right?
SPEAKER_01: They gathered up the leftovers and gathered them into twelve large baskets, so they had far more left over than they began with.
SPEAKER_01: They gathered up the leftovers and immediately they got into a boat.
SPEAKER_01: Why so quickly?
SPEAKER_01: And if you pay attention to the details, you'll notice that the crowds are still there.
SPEAKER_01: While the crowds are still surrounding Jesus, he orders his disciples to get into the boat, and after they get into the boat and start across the sea, then Jesus starts dismissing the thousands upon thousands of people.
SPEAKER_01: Why in such a hurry to get into the boat?
SPEAKER_01: Couldn't the disciples at least stick around and help Jesus send off the people?
SPEAKER_01: What's so bad about that?
SPEAKER_01: There doesn't seem to be anything here in the storyline of the gospel that necessitates Jesus sending his disciples away immediately.
SPEAKER_01: Yet if we think about it and look with greater care, we will see that that is a key to seeing how the deity of Christ informs and motivates our worship and our trust.
SPEAKER_01: For Jesus is the direct cause of the disciples' terrifying situation on the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: This is in the middle of winter.
SPEAKER_01: Middle of winter, there are wind storms that come in over the Golan Heights and they funnel down to the valleys and they stir up the water into massive waves.
SPEAKER_01: Yet Jesus made the disciples get into the boat.
SPEAKER_01: It's a word that means to compel or to force someone to do something.
SPEAKER_01: It's the only time in the Gospels where it's recorded that Jesus forced his disciples to do something.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Why would Jesus make his disciples order them to get into the boat while he dismisses the crowds?
SPEAKER_01: They're made to leave the feeding of the people early.
SPEAKER_01: They're made to get into the boat without Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They're forced to go across the Sea of Galilee while Jesus remains behind.
SPEAKER_01: So the disciples are unknowingly heading into a difficult and potentially dangerous winter storm.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus knowingly made them get into the boat and head out into the sea to meet the storm.
SPEAKER_01: Now the text here is clearly about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: All of the immediate actions are about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He immediately forces the disciples to get into the boat.
SPEAKER_01: He immediately answers their fears in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_01: He immediately rescues Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the main character of this account.
SPEAKER_01: He is its subject.
SPEAKER_01: But everything about Jesus is for the benefit of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: It's for your benefit, too.
SPEAKER_01: But we have to understand benefits properly.
SPEAKER_01: When I was in grade school, elementary school, I would sometimes come home from school at the end of the day and ask my mom for a snack.
SPEAKER_01: But my family ate supper at 5:30 on the spot.
SPEAKER_01: And so my mom would most often say no, because, in her words, it would ruin my supper.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I hated that phrase.
SPEAKER_01: There were times when I thought I would starve because I didn't get anything to eat.
SPEAKER_01: And that was back in the day when they didn't give us snacks at school, right?
SPEAKER_01: But her saying that was a benefit to me.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: She understood in wise parenting that I needed the nutrients and the benefit from eating a meal, not just having a little bit of a snack.
SPEAKER_01: And if I ate a snack, I wouldn't eat as much of the meal, and so wouldn't get as much of the nutrients.
SPEAKER_01: Her saying that I couldn't have a snack was for my benefit.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't necessarily feel in the moment that it's a benefit, do I?
SPEAKER_01: In the moment I'm feeling my stomach growling, I'm feeling it tighten, and it wants more food.
SPEAKER_01: So not having food is not a benefit in my mind, but from the mind of a parent to a child, it is beneficial, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: My friends, you must grasp this truth that Jesus loves you and sends you into storms for your benefit.
SPEAKER_01: If you only see it as harshness, you will not grow to see him in the fullness of his deity and so come to worship him and trust him as you should.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that the disciples did not see the benefit of going out onto the lake without Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure they failed to see the benefit of having to move those massive roar oars against the waves and the sea all night long.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure they didn't notice at all the benefit of being scared out of their minds out on the water in the middle of the storm while seeing someone walk on the water miles from shore.
SPEAKER_01: See, here's a hard truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard because it's hard to get through our systems of thinking.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus may indeed send you into terrifying circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: He may send you into trying circumstances, into travail of all kinds, so that you might know him better.
SPEAKER_01: He may send you into situations that will test your faith.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord may send you into places and circumstances that, from a human perspective, seem to be far, far from the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: Even out of reach of Jesus' help.
SPEAKER_01: Here are the disciples out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, while Jesus in their minds is still on the hillside, back with the people.
SPEAKER_01: He's miles away.
SPEAKER_01: He can't help them in the middle of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: But we ought always to know that Jesus is always in the trial with us.
SPEAKER_01: He is always at the end of the terrifying circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: And we must see him in the midst of it and trust him and worship him through it.
SPEAKER_01: But just because disciples face difficult and dangerous situations does not mean that the Lord has not sent them into the storm.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus already told these same men that he was sending them out into a world that hated Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And what did he tell them?
SPEAKER_01: He said, if the world hates me, then they're going to hate you.
SPEAKER_01: If the world wants to be rid of me, they're going to want to be rid of you.
SPEAKER_01: They needed to learn the lesson that the will of the Lord may include horrendous situations in life, even at your Lord's direct order.
SPEAKER_01: Can we learn that lesson?
SPEAKER_01: Can we learn the lesson that Job learned?
SPEAKER_01: God's people often hear from supposed preachers and prophets that God wants you to always be happy, healthy, unhindered, having an easy life.
SPEAKER_01: That's a false gospel, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: That's not in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the Jesus of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: For here he sent his disciples directly into a situation that would challenge them to the core of their being.
SPEAKER_01: These are seasoned fishermen who are fighting for their lives, scared out of their minds.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but Satan and his minions so often get the blame for these kinds of trials in our lives, don't they?
SPEAKER_01: Every test, every pain, every agony that we face must be the result of evil forces at work in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that kind of teaching is at best insufficient.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't give you the whole story.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, Satan can and does do things if God so allows him.
SPEAKER_01: Job chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Satan's at work in our world.
SPEAKER_01: He's the prince of the power of the air.
SPEAKER_01: He's the ruler of this dark world.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, he's going to be at work.
SPEAKER_01: But it may very well be that God is the one ordering us into the boat for his eternal glory and for your greatest benefit.
SPEAKER_01: I know that this can be difficult to wrap our brains around because we've been trained.
SPEAKER_01: Really, we've been molded by avoidance of difficult truths to view God as only holy, loving, and kind and generous.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've turned him into a sort of cosmic Santa Claus.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, God is loving and generous and kind, but his goal is to bring glory to himself and to make his people into the image of his son, and that may take some trial by fire, with God Himself kindling the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Following Jesus often requires challenges of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And he sends us into these challenges to gain clarity about his deity so that our worship and our trust might grow.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus sent the disciples away.
SPEAKER_01: Then he sent the crowds away.
SPEAKER_01: And he remained alone.
SPEAKER_01: Now keep in mind that all they wanted at the beginning of this day was some downtime.
SPEAKER_01: If you back up in the context, the disciples and Jesus were taking a little bit of a vacation day.
SPEAKER_01: Just to get away, to get away from the people, to get away from the crowds, to rest, to have some relaxation.
SPEAKER_01: And then they end up dealing with thousands upon thousands of people.
SPEAKER_01: And not only do they not get a rest, Jesus spends the night praying on the mountainside, and the disciples spend the night rowing.
SPEAKER_01: This is the refreshment that they get.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus spends the night alone praying, and the disciples spend the night fearing for their lives.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, hear this clearly.
SPEAKER_01: You do not feel this.
SPEAKER_01: But the truth is that God uses sleepless nights to teach you about Him.
SPEAKER_01: God uses fearful nights to cause us to know Him more deeply.
SPEAKER_01: Darkness has arrived, and the boat is three to four miles from land.
SPEAKER_01: The other gospels give us that information.
SPEAKER_01: That would leave them about one to two miles from the opposite side.
SPEAKER_01: If you do the math in your head, that means they've spent six to nine hours crossing two-thirds of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: They're still far from land, they're in a deep portion of the lake, and it tells us that the boat is beaten by the wind.
SPEAKER_01: That the wind is personified here as though the wind is taking a wrecking ball to the boat.
SPEAKER_01: The wind is the one beating the boat as though to break it into pieces.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 8, in a similar account, the emphasis was placed upon the waves working to capsize the boat.
SPEAKER_01: Here, the emphasis is on the wind driving the waves against the boat, keeping them from moving forward.
SPEAKER_01: They keep butting up against those waves in the wind, and they can't make headway.
SPEAKER_01: The word beaten is a strong, strong word.
SPEAKER_01: It means to torment or to harass, to keep on doing it, even to torture.
SPEAKER_01: It's used outside of Scripture to refer to the torture method of being stretched out on the rack.
SPEAKER_01: You can go home and research that more on your own.
SPEAKER_01: It's used in Scripture of sickness torturing a person, of the pains of childbirth, of mental anguish or pain.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks of intensity of torment.
SPEAKER_01: It's even used of end time judgment.
SPEAKER_01: So the dominant idea here is of severe, intense distress.
SPEAKER_01: All because the wind is against them.
SPEAKER_01: It's beating them down, it's wearing them out.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus made them get into the boat.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever your theology, you have to wrestle with the reality that Matthew says, our Lord made us get into that boat.
SPEAKER_01: And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them.
SPEAKER_01: It's between 3 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: and 6 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the story, right?
SPEAKER_01: The disciples see in the afternoon that the day's moving along.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, we need to get the people out of here so that they can go find a meal before the day ends.
SPEAKER_01: Jewish way of thinking, the day ends about 6 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus feeds them.
SPEAKER_01: Then sends the disciples away, then dismisses the people.
SPEAKER_01: So they probably got onto the boat somewhere six, seven, eight o'clock, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: And now we're three, four, five o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: And they've been rowing against the wind all night.
SPEAKER_01: They would have been weary.
SPEAKER_01: Like my voice?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, gentlemen.
SPEAKER_01: Appreciate you fighting against the Prince of the Power of the Air.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever that is.
SPEAKER_01: These poor guys, they would have been weary, exhausted, numb in body and in mind.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine rowing for six to eight hours on those wooden oars.
SPEAKER_01: Their hands might be bleeding.
SPEAKER_01: They would be fatigued, frazzled, and probably frantic.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus just come strolling along on the water using the waves as his own personal highway.
SPEAKER_01: Walking on the water was something that only God did.
SPEAKER_01: And if you miss that, you miss everything about this passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I told you that Job plays a supporting role in this account.
SPEAKER_01: It's because in Job chapter 26 and verse 12, it says that God, by his power, stilled the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Most likely Job is the oldest book in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Probably written sometime around the time of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know exactly.
SPEAKER_01: But putting all the clues together, it is most likely the oldest book in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And that means that as far back as our written record goes of our faith, the understanding is that God is in control of the waves.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but it starts before that, because back in chapter 9 of Job, it talks about God alone stretching out the heavens and doing what?
SPEAKER_01: Trampling the waves of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's your God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Habakkuk would say about God's authority and God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: You trampled the sea with your horses.
SPEAKER_01: The surging of the mighty waves.
SPEAKER_01: This is your God.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, your God, Isaiah says it.
SPEAKER_01: So the disciples catch a glimpse in the night of something on the surface of the water, something like a ghost.
SPEAKER_01: It's likely still dark, or at very best, just the beginning rays of dawn coming across the water.
SPEAKER_01: So what are they seeing?
SPEAKER_01: They're terrified.
SPEAKER_01: They're sleep deprived, they're fatigued, they're scared out of their minds as they perceive a phantom on the water.
SPEAKER_01: They're terrified.
SPEAKER_01: The same word, terrified, is used in the Greek translation of the Psalms in Psalm 77, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: It says, When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, the deep troubled, trembled.
SPEAKER_01: Your way was through the sea.
SPEAKER_01: Your path through the great waters.
SPEAKER_01: Yet your footprints were unseen.
SPEAKER_01: See, the psalmist got it, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist said, When you put together the biblical picture of your God, he is sovereign over the greatest fear that sailors might know.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that they cannot control, the wind and the water and the waves, God tramples them.
SPEAKER_01: It's his personal highway.
SPEAKER_01: His way is through the sea.
SPEAKER_01: You can't even see his footprints.
SPEAKER_01: This is your God.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, we know all along that it is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The men on the boat didn't.
SPEAKER_01: And the issue is not that they thought they were seeing a ghost.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is that they didn't fully understand Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let that sink in.
SPEAKER_01: If they fully understood Jesus, they would have recognized God trampling on the waves of the sea.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't grasp his power even after the feeding of the five thousand.
SPEAKER_01: They couldn't translate his power then to the unknown.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: They couldn't translate Jesus' power to the unknown.
SPEAKER_01: Storms.
SPEAKER_01: Storms show us, they reveal the inadequacies of our theology.
SPEAKER_01: The trials and the circumstances of life that God brings to us reveal the realities of what we know and what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples did not consider that Jesus could know of their situation and walk on the water to overtake them.
SPEAKER_01: They did not consider that he sent them into the storm.
SPEAKER_01: They were still growing in their understanding of his deity and growing in their worship and trust of him.
SPEAKER_01: And they needed to fully grasp that Jesus possesses all authority and is able to save.
SPEAKER_01: Try to put yourself in this impossible scenario.
SPEAKER_01: And it's windy out at Devil's Lake.
SPEAKER_01: Your friends are out there in the boat in Devil's Lake, and they're really wrestling to get back to shore.
SPEAKER_01: And you come walking up on the water to the boat.
SPEAKER_01: How do you introduce yourselves?
SPEAKER_01: Serious question.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry, it's just me.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: How does that make any sense?
SPEAKER_01: People don't walk on water, right?
SPEAKER_01: What does Jesus do?
SPEAKER_01: How does Jesus let the disciples know that it's him instead of an apparition dancing on the waves of the sea?
SPEAKER_01: How would you convince your friends of a reality that defies all human explanation?
SPEAKER_01: Be courageous.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: Take heart, literally, be courageous.
SPEAKER_01: It's I, don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's be honest here.
SPEAKER_01: It is I.
SPEAKER_01: Who is who is I?
SPEAKER_01: So you think you're seeing a ghost, and a ghost says, Don't worry, it's just me.
SPEAKER_01: What do you do with that?
SPEAKER_01: It tells you nothing about what your eyes are telling your brain.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, if I see a ghost and the ghost says to me, hey, be courageous, it's just me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm probably going to be more afraid.
SPEAKER_01: I doesn't help.
SPEAKER_01: But in this case it does.
SPEAKER_01: We have three options here.
SPEAKER_01: One, they recognized his voice.
SPEAKER_01: That might not be what's going on here since it was so windy.
SPEAKER_01: How do you recognize someone's voice in the midst of the wind?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's more than we can see at face value.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they could begin to sense his features.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe hearing Jesus' voice cut through their fear a little bit and they got some clarity in their thinking.
SPEAKER_01: I would think that it would settle them down to some extent, but I think there's really something more going on here.
SPEAKER_01: There's a third option.
SPEAKER_01: And we really come to know more about this third option at the end of the Gospel accounts in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: Because in the Gospel of John, Jesus says something over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: For example, in John chapter 6, he says, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 8 of John, he says, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 10, he says, I am the good shepherd, and I am the door of the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 11, he says, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_01: And throughout John, that's a theme that comes up again and again and again.
SPEAKER_01: It's an important one because of John chapter 8, beginning in verse 45 or so.
SPEAKER_01: There's this interaction between Jesus and the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: And they ask, Jesus, are you really greater than Abraham our father?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Truly, truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_01: I am.
SPEAKER_01: You see, I am was the name of God that was declared to Moses in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: When Moses was to go to Israel and said, Hey, it's time to pack up and go, we're leaving, God's leading us, and they asked, Well, who sent you?
SPEAKER_01: Tell them, I am sent you.
SPEAKER_01: The I am is the creator of all things.
SPEAKER_01: The I am is the covenant God who saves his people, and so they sought to stone Jesus for blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at Matthew chapter 14, verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: Immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be courageous, I am.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Literally what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Be courageous.
SPEAKER_01: I am.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first time we find I am used this way in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Be courageous.
SPEAKER_01: I am not a phantom.
SPEAKER_01: I am the God who tramples the waves.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: I am the ruler of the wind and the sea.
SPEAKER_01: You're not seeing a spirit, you're seeing Emmanuel, the great I am, and with me you have no need to be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, theological truths are not easily grasped amidst terror and fear.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples must labor to write them on their souls before and after times of fear.
SPEAKER_01: God's children must learn of his deity and turn their hearts, their souls, their minds and their bodies to worship and to trust outside of those times, so that when those times come, our natural response to fear and uncertainty is trust and worship.
SPEAKER_01: See, Matthew wrote this not right after they stepped out of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew wrote this at least a decade or two decades later, so that the early church and all who follow would know that the Lord sends us into trying situations, so that we might learn that He is the great I am, that He is fully sovereign, He is fully trustworthy, and He says to His disciples, Are you ready to follow me?
SPEAKER_01: And in the midst of that situation, Peter's bold.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's bold.
SPEAKER_01: Peter answered him.
SPEAKER_01: It's an emphatic statement.
SPEAKER_01: Peter understands to some extent that Jesus is Lord, and so he submits to Jesus in asking the Lord to command him to climb out of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: In the grammar of the sentence, he's telling Jesus, Lord, command me, order me.
SPEAKER_01: You ordered me into the boat, now order me out of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: And the rest of the disciples are thinking, what has gotten into his head?
SPEAKER_01: We might think that Peter was being, as usual, boldly presumptuous self, and that may be right.
SPEAKER_01: That may be right.
SPEAKER_01: But we need to notice that Jesus does not rebuke Peter for being boldly presumptuous.
SPEAKER_01: The rebuke comes for doubting.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus not only possesses the power to walk on the water, he possesses the authority and the power to bestow that right on other people as well.
SPEAKER_01: So he orders Peter to come.
SPEAKER_01: It's an imperative, it's a command.
SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, the Lord who rules the waters gave the authority to his disciple to make the waves his personal highway.
SPEAKER_01: Peter acted in greater faith than the rest of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He was the only one to believe that in the presence of the I Am he too could walk on water.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter became the first and last human created human being to walk on water, but he is human, after all.
SPEAKER_01: And very quickly, apparently, his eyes see the wind-driven waves.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe spray from the water is hitting him in the face.
SPEAKER_01: His eyes see the billowing of Jesus closed, and he instantly assesses the situation and realizes this is the perfect time to worry.
SPEAKER_01: And his eyes are taken off of Jesus and focused on the situation around him.
SPEAKER_01: And he begins to sink.
SPEAKER_01: I can't get beyond sometimes the irony that Peter's head is nearly underneath Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_01: Before Peter had submitted to Jesus and asked for Jesus to command him.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, if it's really you, command me to come out under the water.
SPEAKER_01: Now, perhaps in a point of irony, he commands Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, save me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't just stand there, do something.
SPEAKER_01: And what an act of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Peter took his eyes off Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He doubted, he feared.
SPEAKER_01: We might say, You get what you asked for, Peter.
SPEAKER_01: You deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: You're the one that stepped out of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 30 is important.
SPEAKER_01: When you read this in the language it was written in, the word saw comes first.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning it's it's put in that first place on purpose so that we might notice that that's the important thing here.
SPEAKER_01: Peter saw.
SPEAKER_01: When you stepped out of your house today to get into your car, what was the first thing you saw?
SPEAKER_01: Did you trust first or did you see first?
SPEAKER_01: See, in the midst of this trial, Peter is seeing with his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: He's not trusting with his heart.
SPEAKER_01: He was focused on what could take him down, not on who could keep him up.
SPEAKER_01: His senses were trained on what could kill him, not on who could give him life.
SPEAKER_01: His heart was stirred to worry by the waves rather than stirred to trust in the sovereign of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this might be a fisherman's natural inclination.
SPEAKER_01: As a fisherman, he needed to pay attention to the water.
SPEAKER_01: He needed to pay attention to the waves.
SPEAKER_01: He needed to see what direction the wind was coming from, the way the boat was floating.
SPEAKER_01: But that's the problem.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is when we look at our circumstances from our natural inclinations.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, when he looked at life from his natural inclination, doubted.
SPEAKER_01: There's only two times that this word is used in the Gospel of Matthew, once here and once in chapter 28.
SPEAKER_01: Makes it significant.
SPEAKER_01: Speaks of a wavering of the mind, a double-mindedness, a going back and forth between two opinions.
SPEAKER_01: And it just shows us that Peter is just like us.
SPEAKER_01: We know that we should not take our hearts and minds off of Christ, but we so often struggle with having our eyes on life.
SPEAKER_01: But grace then gives us what we don't deserve.
SPEAKER_01: It gives us the hand of Jesus, reaching down when we, in the moment of little faith, begin to sink.
SPEAKER_01: And it's there, in the moments after our rescue, that we begin to grasp a little bit more of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: And we grasp a little bit more, our worship increases, and our trust in him grows.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where we end in this account is for Jesus calling us for complete trust.
SPEAKER_01: Because of who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus immediately, there we go again.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus immediately reached out his hand.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't let Peter flounder for a while to learn his lesson.
SPEAKER_01: No, everything in this account is immediately, now, quickly, right this minute.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter is among those who have little faith or little confidence in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's not no faith, it's not zero.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has already used that word in Matthew, referring to those who reject him, who have no faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is a faith that is weak, a faith that has little firmness to it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not complete and thoroughly established, so that its confidence in the Lord does not waver.
SPEAKER_01: It's little.
SPEAKER_01: It needs to grow.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus forced the disciples into the boat, sending them into an exhaustive dark night, rowing against the wind, wearing them out physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.
SPEAKER_01: He sent them into this.
SPEAKER_01: And he called them to trust him completely.
SPEAKER_01: Because he is the I am who tramples the waves.
SPEAKER_01: That's demonstrated first by his walking on the water.
SPEAKER_01: But here in verse 32, we see it again.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus steps into the boat, and the wind and the waves stop, just like that.
SPEAKER_01: It's calm.
SPEAKER_01: It's over.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say anything.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 8, in a similar account, he stilled the wind and the waves by a word, by speaking.
SPEAKER_01: Here, the wind just recognizes my master's in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: Stop.
SPEAKER_01: And disciples.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of fear and uncertainty and trials, when they recognize the master's in the boat, do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: Be courageous.
SPEAKER_01: For I am is with you.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples are in awe.
SPEAKER_01: Rightly so.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, they they, understanding now what they've just witnessed, comprehend that Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: He is Emmanuel, and he is to be worshipped, even if you're worshiping in a boat.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God, you can worship him in a boat.
SPEAKER_01: If you know who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: So in two consecutive accounts, Jesus demonstrates that he's the God of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: He's the God who rescues his people and feeds them in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: And he's even the God who sends his people sometimes into terrifying situations so that they might come through on the other side learning that he is completely holy and without question trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: He may send us into those dark nights, fearful and sleepless, for our benefit.
SPEAKER_01: Because he knows that all things, even in the midst of pain, work together for good in eternity, for his purpose and his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And so we must never forget that he is in control.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one we should always trust, never doubt, because he is the I am.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who is worthy of worship.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who is worthy of our praise.
SPEAKER_01: And he is the God of our salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we bow before you and ask that you would enable us, enable our hearts to be enlarged, our minds to be prepared to grasp the reality of who you are, so that we might grow up in trust of you.
SPEAKER_01: And as we grow up in trust of you, our worship of you might be enhanced and increased as well.
SPEAKER_01: To the praise of your eternal glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.