August 4, 2024
Morning Service

Joh 20:31 These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

            John has written to us this gospel with a purpose, that we might believe Jesus is the Christ.  He is handpicking events, that he experienced, to persuade us of who Jesus is.  He has chosen seven miracles to write about and the third was last week as we saw Jesus feed the 5 (15) thousand.  Today we will see the fourth miracle and will also incorporate Matthew’s writings on this event to get the full picture.

            We pick up right after the crowd has been fed and they begin to realize there is something very special about Jesus.  According to John, their plans were to anoint Him king over Israel and that was not part of Jesus’ plan.  Here again we see the Jewish people had a perception of what the Messiah would do when He arrived.  They felt He would change the world for the better in that moment ending the Roman oppression over God’s chosen people and set up His kingdom then and there.  This would hinder many Jews from believing Jesus simply because He did not fulfill their expectations or fulfill their will.  They held on to their perception so tightly that it prohibited them from seeing the truth of who He was.  We often can get caught up in that attitude as we pray to God how we want something to come out, but fail to yield and admit that ultimately God is in control and we are not.  We will read Matthew’s account of this event as it gives a few more details that I feel are important to this event.

 

Mat 14:22-24 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.  (23)  And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.  (24)  But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

            First notice Matthew tells us that Jesus “made the disciples get into the boat.”  He knows He is sending them into a storm, but it has a lesson in it for them.  This is much like last week as we often find ourselves in impossible situations that we are powerless to solve, but God only asks us to give all we have and He will make that enough.

 Secondly notice what Jesus did; He “went up to the mountain by Himself to pray.”  Jesus was fully God, but also fully man.  The effort it takes to teach a large crowd like this takes its toll on His human side.  Teaching or preaching in this manner can be exhausting.  You are presenting to these people a truth that, if they accept it, can change their entire life.  You invest great effort into presenting it with a hopeful expectation that they can understand and accept it as truth.  Jesus found after pouring Himself out to the crowd, He had to recharge and He did that by being alone with His Father in prayer.

 We all can learn from that as well.  When our energy tank hits empty, run to the Father and let Him recharge your battery to go another day as Jesus did.  Imitate Him in doing this.  We left the disciples battling a storm, which Jesus sent them into, in the middle of the night.  Let’s see what that looked like.

 

Chosen: Jesus walking on the water

https://www.thechosen.tv/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvnpLsnKks

 

Mat 14:25-27 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.  (26)  And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.  (27)  But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid."

            Imagine how the disciples were feeling in that moment.  Many of them were experienced fisherman, but still they had to scared with the chaos of the storm that surrounded them.  The outcome of this was unknown to them, as these twelve tried to use their strength to overcome a much more powerful storm.  This is the second time this day that Jesus has placed them in this situation, hoping to teach them a lesson.  The lesson was “if God leads you to it, He will lead you through it!” Jesus walks to them in the middle of the night and calls out; “be of good cheer!  It is I, do not be afraid.”  The storm is still raging, but Jesus simply announces His presence showing them that this should be enough to chase away their fear.  “I am here, do not be afraid!”

 

 

 

            We too need to take comfort in those words when we are in the midst of a storm.  Jesus walks with us and as David said in the 23^rd Psalm; “Your rod and Your staff comfort me.”  We are like sheep and Jesus is our Great Shepherd.  He will lead us where He wants us to go and we should be comforted and unafraid simply knowing He walks with us; trust the One you are following.  The story continues.

 

Mat 14:28-31 And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."  (29)  So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.  (30)  But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"  (31)  And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

            Peter with bold faith, asks Jesus to command him to come and walk on the water and he does.  He steps out of the boat and begins walking with his eyes on Jesus, not the storm that is raging around him.  BUT, when he looks away and begins to see how high the waves are and how strong the wind is, his faith begins to waver and he begins to sink.  We have all lived that moment sometime in our lives.  We have faith in God and fully trust Him, BUT we get take our eyes off of Him and look at the hopeless circumstances we find ourselves in and we are afraid and, like Peter, begin to sink.  In that moment, Jesus does not walk away from us and give up; no, He takes over and pulls us out of water saving us despite the small amount of faith we have.

  He then asks the same question He did Peter; “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Why do we have doubt especially in the time of the storm where He is our only hope? Why do we doubt despite having seen our Lord come through for us time and time again?  It is our human emotions coming through.  To remove doubt we must question the very core of what it is we believe.  Is Jesus really the Christ?  In His Word Truth?  Does He really love me?  Does He really want me?  Do I truly believe?  Am I good enough?  We allow ourselves to doubt ourselves and even to doubt Him. These are all questions we must answer for ourselves; questions of doubt.  Remember even John the Baptist had doubts while he was imprisoned. (Matt. 11:2-3)

 What do we learn from going through this time doubt?

 To build our faith strong, we must confront our doubts.  If we leave them unchecked, then our faith will remain as it is without growing at all.  If we ask ourselves these hard questions and answer them within ourselves, then our faith grows stronger.  Overcoming trials and doubts are part of our journey of reaching perfection.  They can make our faith stronger, or they can destroy our faith completely.  The result is up to you, God desires you to get stronger through the storms and doubt becoming more of what He desires you to be.  We must see them for what they are, opportunities for growth, not God’s mission to destroy us.   Notice the reaction of the trial the disciples faced today got.

 

Mat 14:32-33 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.  (33)  Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God."

            Jesus sent the disciples into this storm for a purpose and it was fulfilled.  We must also look for the purpose of the storm we are facing and allow God to work through it to build our faith and remove our doubt trusting that He is leading us down the path He wants us to go.  Keep your eyes fixed upon Jesus not upon the storms of this world.

 

Heavenly Father, thank You that You allow us to choose to accept Your call to “Follow Me.”  Build our faith stronger as we seek to grow into the people You have called us to be.  Thank You for loving us.