22 – Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd.
23 – After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone,
24 – but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 – During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.
26 – When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified, “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.’
27 – But Jesus immediately said to them, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 – “Lord, if it’s You,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to You on the water.”
29 – “Come,” He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
30 – But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 – Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”
32 – And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.
33 – Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
During my senior year of college I worked as a night auditor at the local Holiday Inn. My shift began at 11PM and while the hotel slept, I would post room revenue and balance the books for the day’s business. My shift ended at 7AM, after which I would head home, grab a quick breakfast and head off to class. One day after an all-nighter at Holiday Inn and a couple morning classes. I came home to my apartment tired and hungry. I decided to make some french fries so I filled a skillet with cooking oil, placed it on the stove and turned on the burner. I was so tired that I thought I would sit down on the couch for just a few minutes to rest while the oil heated.
Well, I woke up a half-hour or so later to see an orange glow reflected on the wall outside of the kitchen.
It only took the college a couple of weeks to rebuild the kitchen and repaint the apartment. And, aside from a few second degree burns on my hands — and my singed pride-I too was okay. But through this experience, I learned how NOT to cook french fries
When I was 16, I purchased my first motorized form of transportation — a Honda motorcycle. I had saved for months to buy it and took great pride in keeping it’s chrome polished and sparkling.
One day I was enjoying a long ride on one of the gravel roads that crisscross the rural landscape around Dover, Delaware when I heard a rock slam into the tailpipe. When I got home about an hour later I wanted to see if my shiny tailpipe had been dented.
So I rode up into the yard and while steering the bike in a slow circle I reached down with my bare hands to feel along the surface of the tailpipe to find the dent. I burned the skin right off the tips of my first three fingers and when I jolted upward in pain, my eyeglasses fell off and I ran over them with the rear wheel of the motorcycle. They broke clean in two. Through this experience I learned how NOT to check a tailpipe for dents!
I could go on sharing other lessons that I have learned in embarrassing and painful ways. And so could some of you-for all human beings make mistakes! By the time we reach adulthood we usually learn that in life there are two ways to learn a lesson, the easy way or the hard way. And the sad fact is that most of us have to learn the hard way-from our blunders. Experience is a good teacher even if it is a bad experience. The painful mistakes we make in life can make us bitter or they can make us better.
Well this morning, I would like us to study the conversation that Jesus had with Peter on the Sea of Galilee that stormy night…..and in so doing learn some things from Peter’s mistakes-things that I believe will make us better disciples. I want to look at Peter’s experience that night and learn how NOT to walk on water. You see, I think studying this incident from this perspective will teach us how NOT to live the Christian life….we will learn things to avoid if we want to do great things for our Lord.
Now, it is always good to study any portion of Scripture by first looking at the setting.
So let’s do that this morning.
If you were to take your Bible and read the verses immediately preceding today’s scripture, you would see that Jesus has just fed 5,000 men. Matthew reminds us that this talley did not include the women and children who were no doubt present that day….so the number fed was probably closer to 15,000. And Jesus had accomplished this amazing feat-He had fed all these people-with only the five barley loaves and two fish that a young boy had given Him. You remember the story. All these people had walked nine miles around the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee to meet Jesus when He and the disciples came ashore. By the time they arrived it was mid-afternoon and they had not eaten since breakfast….so there were 15,000 stomachs growling on that hillside….people were hungry!!! And Jesus knew that you can’t fill a person’s mind and heart with spiritual truth until you first fill his belly so He instructed the disciples to feed the people.
Well, all they could come up with was the uneaten lunch of a small boy. Someone has said that there were actually two miracles that afternoon….one that Jesus fed 5,000 men and the other that this little boy had not already eaten his lunch! Well, Jesus took those five loaves and the two fish and after thanking God for this food He broke it and gave it to the Twelve who in turn distributed the pieces among the people.
Well, not only were the people filled, Matthew says that 12 baskets were filled with leftovers! So do you realize what happened? Our Lord filled the stomachs of as many as 15,000 people with a lunch intended to feed one small boy….and He had 12 baskets of food left over!
Now how did the people respond to this miraculous feat? What was their reaction? In his account of this miracle, John tells us that they were EXCITED. They had never seen anything like this before! They said, “Surely this is ‘THE PROPHET’ who has come into the world.” John goes on to say that Jesus knew that the people were about to come and seize Him in order to make Him their King by force. You see, they wanted, a strong, political Messiah of great power…enough power to drive the Romans from Palestine. They wanted a Messiah Who would change the status of Israel from that of a subject nation to that of a world power. And…this incident with the loaves and the fishes showed them that Jesus had power…miraculous power…just the power they wanted and needed to fulfill their dreams. In other words, they wanted to make Jesus King but not because of what He might do IN and THROUGH them but because of what He might do FOR them. And you know we are very much like this even today.
So, often we only go to Jesus to ask for His help, His strength, His power — and don’t get me wrong this is okay-God invites us to ask Him for His help and provision. But we should go beyond asking Him for something. We should also offer Him something. Every day we should echo the words of Isaiah and say, “God, here am I. Send me!” Take my life and use it in some way to further Your kingdom.
Well Jesus knew what was on their mind so He did two things. First, sent the 12 disciples away.
And note how Matthew describes this. Matthew writes that Jesus “MADE” or “COMPELLED”-In other words, He forced His followers to get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side while He sent the people away.
Now, why do you think He had to this? Why did He have to COERCE them to leave? Well, it wasn’t because they wanted to help Jesus deal with this problem with the people.
No, Jesus probably had to force them to leave because the disciples were PART of the problem…they wanted to make Jesus a king by force as much as the crowd did. In fact they may have been the ring leaders that day.
So Jesus had one idea and His disciples had another. And….It is always bad when the followers of Jesus’ want to go in ONE direction and He wants to go in another. We are supposed to follow Him…not the other way around.
Well, once He dismissed His troublesome disciples and dispersed the crowd, Jesus did a second thing. He went up on the mountainside alone to pray. I think He needed to do this for a couple reasons. First of all He needed to pray because He was facing the same temptation He encountered in that conversation with Satan in the wilderness. Remember when the Devil tempted Him to use his miraculous power to gain followers? But He also needed to pray because this whole incident showed how far the disciples and the people were from understanding His true nature and mission. There remained much teaching to be done…a task to which He set Himself in the coming months.
So for these important reasons, He needed to be alone with God. And one of the first lessons we can glean from this incident is that OFTEN there is nothing you and I need MORE than to go off and be alone with God. If Jesus needed this then how can we possibly expect to survive without doing it ourselves?! The week before last, Sue and I attended a portion of the National Day of Prayer observance in D.C. and we heard Pastor Jim Cymbala, of the Brooklyn Tabernacle speak. Cymbala pointed out that all the problems in America are not so much due to the fact that there is not enough prayer in public schools. He said that the real problem is there is not enough prayer in the churches. He challenged all who claim to follow Jesus to take our need for prayer seriously….as we should!
So when evening came, Jesus was there on the mountain alone praying. Verse 24 says that by this time, “…the boat (the one the disciples were in) was already a considerable distance from the land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.”
Now “buffeting” sounds like a delicate thing…..and there was nothing delicate going on. Their boat was in danger of being crushed by the heavy waves. The Greek word here literally says, “the boat was TORMENTED by the waves.”
Now the Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and 7 miles wide and is usually a calm body of water. However, there are two mountain ranges to the north and together they form a tunnel that sometimes catches the wind and hurls it with great velocity across that once-peaceful sea. And, because of this, the tranquil waters of Galilee can suddenly become turbulent and stormy and this is what happened that night. The storm was so bad that the disciples-many of whom were professional sailors-were fighting for their lives!
But notice — their struggle did not go unnoticed. Jesus was apparently watching from His perch on the mountain. And this should serve to teach us that when we have tough times in life….when “storms” break and we think we are going down…..Jesus IS watching! When we get those phone calls in the middle of the night…..when doctors give us bad news….when our families are falling apart…..When we think our world is about to come crumbling down around us….Jesus sees. He knows all about the “storms” we go through. The lyrics to that old song are so true: “His eye IS on the sparrow and I know He watches me.” In fact there is no where that we can go to be out of the sight of God. Remember the words of the Psalmist?
“If I ascend to heaven-THOU ART THERE! If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, THOU ART THERE! If I take the wings of morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
EVEN THERE shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand hold me.”
And — Jesus did not JUST watch…He didn’t just SEE what they were going through…He ACTED! He came down and walked to them across the surface of those stormy waters. I don’t know about you but I have never felt closer to Jesus than in times of crisis. He doesn’t just NOTICE my problems. He DRAWS NEAR to me and acts to help.
So I know that the words to that other hymn are also true…. “Just when I need Him Jesus is NEAR….ready to HELP me…ready to cheer…JUST WHEN I NEED HIM MOST!”
So Jesus-well aware of the urgent peril that His disciples were in — came to them during the fourth watch of the night — between 3AM and 6AM-walking on the water! Verse 26 says, “When they saw Him walking on the water, they were terrified! It is a ghost!” Now, why do you suppose they cried out in terror at the sight of Jesus? Why did they not recognize Him and rejoice at His approach? Well, it may have been because the night was dark and they had water in their eyes and couldn’t see clearly. But somehow I think there was another reason. To their minds, this was incredible and unbelievable.
No living being could walk on water-not even Jesus! I mean feeding a few thousand people is one thing….but walking on water?! Well Jesus didn’t let them go on in fear. Verse 27 reads, “But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I, Don’t be afraid.”
So in the midst of this storm comes Jesus’ calming voice.
Well, then Peter spoke up and said, “Lord, if it is really You, then order me to come out on the water to You.” You know, even if Matthew had not given us the name of the disciple who said this, we would have known who it was. This sort of reckless idea was so typical….it was impetuous Peter all over-Peter who often leaped before he looked! Well, look at Jesus’ reply to Peter’s faith. Peter said, “Lord if it is really You, then bid me to come to You on the waters.”
And Jesus said (and I think with a smile) “COME!” So Peter got out of the boat and started walking to Jesus. But then, when he noticed the wind, he was afraid and he started to sink down in the water. At once Jesus reached out and grabbed hold of him and said, “What little faith you have! Why did you doubt?” Then they both got into the boat, and the wind died down. And the disciples in the boat worshiped Jesus. They exclaimed, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
Well, that’s the story…..let’s see what else we can learn from it. Let’s let “walking on water” symbolize our venturing out of the shallows of superficiality into the deep with Jesus. Viewed in this way, this experience tells us how NOT to “walk on water” ….or how NOT to live the Christian life…..or how NOT to enjoy a relationship with Jesus through which He uses us to do great things. Looking at this story from this perspective shows us three mistakes we should avoid if we want to accomplish important tasks for God. And, the first thing we should avoid is…
1. TRYING TO LIVE FOR JESUS ON OUR OWN STRENGTH.
You see, the only reason Peter walked on the water in the first place was because of His faith and God’s power. Walking on water is a supernatural act. It is humanly impossible. It cannot be done apart from the power of God. But you know…..in the same way, walking after Christ is a supernatural act. It is not just difficult to follow Christ. ON YOUR OWN IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!
Hudson Taylor, the great faith-missionary, once wrote, “All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.” You see, you can no more live the Christian life successfully on your own strength than you can walk on water on your own strength. If we are to be and do all that Christ calls us to be and do, then, complete faith in Him is vital. The secret of the Christ life is never a matter of OUR ability or OUR self-confidence or OUR effort or OUR determination. The key to living a productive Christian life is looking to Jesus….daring to venture out as we draw strength directly from Him. If we don’t’ do this….then we are sunk! The Apostle Paul expressed this truth when he said, “It is God who works IN YOU both to will and to do His good pleasure.” He also said, “It is Christ IN YOU the hope of glory.”
So “Christ in us” is our only hope of accomplishing anything for God. This is why faith in God is so important….for it is OUR faith that releases GOD’S power.
Many people have not learned this and as a result have been overwhelmed by the circumstances of life. They have tried to walk after Jesus but have tried to do so on their own strength and have gone under just like Peter did.
And then a second mistake that we should avoid if we want to do great things for God is this…
2. ALLOWING OURSELVES TO BECOME DISTRACTED.
Remember, as long as Peter kept his eyes fixed on Christ, he actually walked on the water. But then, when he looked away from Jesus…when he saw the angry sea, and the white caps on the waves and heard the roaring of the wind, he began to sink.
Now, the same principle applies in our lives. The experiences we endure can sometimes be so threatening and so awesome that we take our eyes off Jesus…we become distracted. We begin to see how big and frightening life can be and we lose track of how great Jesus is. And Satan uses all kinds of things to distract us….doubts, fears, suffering, even people. Sometimes simply watching all the death and disaster on the nightly news causes us to lose sight of our Lord. Life becomes so filled with difficulties that all we do is think of the difficulties. The writer of Psalm 73 says that when he saw the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked, he almost lost his faith. The seeming unfairness of life can trip up a lot of people. The “storms of life” can cause us to doubt our Lord and to take our eyes off of Jesus. Sue’s best friend in college was a girl names Sherri Mays. They served together as summer missionaries in the inner city of Baltimore. Sherri was born with muscular dystrophy.
And her dad just could not handle this “storm” in the life of his family. He was once a growing Christian….active in his church. But the suffering that his daughter endured was just too much for him. He took His eyes off of His Lord and turned to alcohol. His drinking destroyed his marriage and eventually devastated his health. He allowed himself to be distracted. There was a man in our church in Damascus who pulled over one day on the beltway to help a stranded motorist. As he was opening the man’s trunk to get the spare tire a drunk driver plowed into the rear of his car, severing his legs turning him into a paraplegic. He couldn’t handle that “storm.” He allowed it to distract him and force him to take his eyes off of Jesus. He never returned to church again. You see if we allow tough times to distract us…we will sink….just like Peter did.
In his classic work, Disappointment With God, Philip Yancey tells the story of a man named Douglas. Douglas was a godly man who left a lucrative career as a psychotherapist to start a ministry to the inner city. His troubles began years ago when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Doctors removed the affected breast but two years later discovered that the cancer had spread to her lungs. While she underwent massive chemotherapy, Douglas assumed many parental and household duties including taking care of their daughter. One night in the midst of this crisis, Douglas and his family were driving down a city street when a drunk driver swerved across the center line and smashed head-on into their car. Douglas’ wife and daughter were injured but he himself suffered the most serious injury….a massive blow to the head. This wound caused him recurring, severe headaches. He could no longer work a full day and was often disoriented and forgetful. Worst of all, the wound affected his vision. One eye wandered at will, refusing to focus. He developed double vision and could hardly walk down a flight of stairs without assistance. About the time he was beginning to learn to function with this impairment, doctors told him that they had found another spot on his wife’s lungs. Yet when Yancey asked him to describe his “disappointment with God” over all this he said, “To tell you the truth Philip, I don’t feel any disappointment with God. I learned, first through my wife’s illness, and then especially through the accident, not to confuse God with life. I’m no stoic. I am as upset about what happened to me as anyone could be. I feel free to curse the unfairness of life and to vent all my grief and anger. But I believe God feels the same way about my problems….grieved and angry. I don’t blame Him for what happened. We tend to think that life should be fair because God is fair. But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life by expecting constant good health, for example, then I set myself up for a crashing disappointment. God’s existence, even His love for me does not depend on my good health. Frankly, I have had more time and opportunity to work on my relationship with God during my impairment than ever before. I have learned to trust God in spite of the unfairness of life.”
Douglas endured storms…..storms of a severity that most people never face…but he refused to be distracted. He kept the SON in his eyes! And God continues to use Him to do GREAT things.
And if you want to walk on water….if you want to enjoy the adventure of following Christ, then you must do the same.
And then looking at this conversation with Jesus shows us one other mistake disciples should avoid. If we want to do great things for God we must not…..
3. STAY IN THE BOAT!
Now,picture in your mind the size of the waves, the strength of the wind, and the darkness of the night. And try to imagine how Peter felt….he was cold, wet, exhausted, terrified. I would think it would be difficult enough to get out of a boat and try to walk on the water when it’s calm, in the daylight. Even that would take more courage than the average person could muster. Imagine doing it when the waves are crashing and the wind is at gale force and it’s three in the morning and the night is black. Think about it. The boat is safe, and the boat is secure, and the boat is comfortable. The water is high, the waves are rough, the wind is strong, and the night is dark. A storm is out there, and if you get out of your boat, you may sink. But if you don’t get out of your boat, you will never walk on water because if you want to walk on the water, you have to get out of the boat. And this is what Peter did. He got out! He tried! Then he sank…He didn’t make it….He failed. Or did He? I don’t think so. The text says he actually took a few steps before he became distracted. Before he sank Peter became the first mortal man in the history of the human race to walk on water. He did it!!! And you know I think that this experience of Peter radically redefines failure in the life of a follower of Christ. You see failure is not so much an event. It is the way we interpret or judge an event. It is a label we attach to it. Jonas Salk attempted 200 unsuccessful vaccines for polio before he came up with one that worked. Somebody asked him one time, “How did it feel to fail 200 times trying to invent a vaccine for polio?” This was his response: “I never failed 200 times at anything in my life. My family taught me never to use that word. I simply discovered 200 ways how NOT to make a vaccine for polio.” Somebody once asked Winston Churchill, “What most prepared you to lead Great Britain through World War II?” Churchill responded: “It was the time I repeated a class in grade school.” The questioner said, “You mean you flunked a grade?” Churchill said, “I never flunked in my life. I was simply given a second opportunity to get it right.”
So, Did Peter fail? Well, yes, in one sense he did. His faith did give way. He could not keep his eyes locked on Jesus. He allowed himself to become distracted. He sank. He failed. But there were eleven bigger failures in the boat. They failed privately. They failed quietly. Their failure was safe, unnoticed, uncriticized. Only Peter experienced the shame of public failure. But only Peter knew the glory of walking on the water! And only Peter knew, in a way that the others in the boat that night never would, that when he sank, Jesus would be there…..that Jesus is wholly adequate to save. Peter shared moment, a connection with Jesus, that none of his peers did that night. They missed out because they never got out of the boat. He learned some things in this experience….things that the others did not…because Peter didn’t stay in the boat. This brings us to an aspect of discipleship that a lot of people don’t like. I don’t always like it myself. You see, a commitment to a life of following Christ is a commitment to the constant recurrence of the experience of fear. It’ll happen over and over again. To be a disciple is to be a learner or a student. It is to choose to grow in Christ. And growth means entering new territory, getting out of the boat. Every time you do that, you experience fear. Discipleship is often a choice between comfort and fear. To be a disciple is to renounce comfort. It means we are willing to get out of the boat! That’s bad news for many of us — because our society is into comfort. We like to come home and say, “I just want to ‘veg out'”-usually in front of a television set. And we refer to people who do that as “couch potatoes.”
Well, the eleven other disciples were “boat potatoes.” They did not want to run the risk. They did not want to experience fear. And churches are full of folks whom we might call “pew potatoes.” I guess here at Redland the term would be “plastic seat potatoes.” But these are people whose religious faith amounts to little more than spiritual padding that adds comfort to their lives. Trying to live for Jesus….accepting His invitation to the abundant life that comes from following Him….means that there are times when we may sink. We may fail. But I have a secret to share with you: it doesn’t matter because Jesus is adequate to save sinking people. Jesus is still looking for people to simply get out of the boat….people who will accept His invitation to draw on His power source to do great things in His kingdom. If you do, you will face problems. A storm is out there. But I know two other things. I know that when you fail-and you will sometimes. You’ll take your eyes off Jesus-But when you call out to Him, Jesus will be there. He will pick you up. He will not leave you alone. And I also know that every once in a while, friends, you’re going to walk on the water!
Now, before we close, let’s turn all this around….and look at this story from a positive perspective. If you want to WALK ON WATER…if you want to enjoy the thrill of following Jesus….then remember to learn from Peter’s mistakes. * Rely on Jesus’ strength and not your own. Remember, “It is CHRIST IN YOU”….not YOU IN YOU that is your hope. Do not allow yourself to become distracted by the storms of life that will come your way. Keep your eyes focused on God no matter what comes. And most importantly….get out of the boat. Attempt great things for God. Leave your comfort zone….because you will never “walk on water” until you do!