Be of Good Cheer (Part 2)
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Introduction - Last Sunday we focused on Jesus’ command to “be of good cheer” by looking at 3 blessings Jesus gives us: The blessing of prayer, the blessing of His presence, and the blessing of His power. All of these encourage us no matter what is against us.
Parallel accounts - John 6:15-21 - Provides the added information the disciples had rowed 3 or 4 miles before Jesus came to them; and that the boat went immediately to land! Time, space, location - NBD to Jesus! A few weeks ago, I shared about old Paul Harvey’s “The rest of the story” & how he’d share the back story on famous people or special interest stories. I couldn’t let go of this text without sharing the ROS!
Want to focus on Peter’s walking on the water from Matt.14:22-36. Notice 3 aspects of faith:
1. A fantastic faith - vs. 28-29
Explanation - 22-23 Jesus again was praying up on the mountain, alone by Himself spending “Face-time” with His Heavenly Father. The shadow of the cross was looming larger by this point and He was feeling the pressure from the people wanting to forcibly make Him king. JTB had been murdered by Harod; plus the fact His disciples still had a long way to go in their maturity. Folks, I cannot emphasize the importance of prayer enough! Jesus made it a priority & we must also!
Vs. 24 tells us the sea was contrary & the waves were tossing the boat. The word “tossed” means to harass and in some cases is used for torture! If they were 3 or 4 miles across they were half-way there and the wind was stiff in their faces. The common sense thing to do would be to turn around and let the wind drive you back to shore; but Jesus had said go to the other side so there was no turning back. I have to hand it to the disciples there was no quit in them!
Vs. 25-27 - So here comes Jesus walking on the water! They think it’s a ghost; maybe others had drowned on that lake!
Vs. 28 - Don’t you love the hutzpah of Peter? “Lord if it’s really you command me to come to you on the water.” The word “command” means to state with force & authority an order as to what one must do. Everyone who’s ever been in the military & had a senior officer bark an order to them knows what this means - even down to the way they issue orders while marching! It’s as if Peter is saying “I’m not sure I can actually do it Lord but if it’s really you and you order me to come to you on the water, I’ll do it.” Now Peter was a professional fisherman & he knew firsthand it was impossible for humans to walk on water but if this truly was Jesus and not some ghost, then it should be NBD. Peter had been on that lake making a living as a fisherman all his life. I’m sure on a slow fishing day there had been numerous chances to daydream and I wonder if Peter wondered what it would be like to be a fish in the lake and to survive underwater, or looking back to shore wishing he could just hop out of the boat and run back to shore rather than have to do the hard work of rowing to get there. In any case he showed fantastic faith! I’m not sure he fully expected the Lord to simply say “come”; but that’s exactly what He said.
Rom 10:17 says “Faith comes by hearing & hearing by the Word of God.” Jesus spoke the one word Peter needed to hear! So out Peter goes and he got to do something no one else has ever done, walk on the water to Jesus; all because Peter had fantastic faith!
Illustrate - Tell about the 3 pastors in a small town, a Methodist, a Presbyterian & a Baptist preacher who went fishing one day together out in a fairly small lake. After fishing for about 30 minutes, the Methodist pastor said he was thirsty but forgot the ice chest with the drinks. So without saying another word, he hopped out of the boat and ran across the top of the water to the truck, grabbed the ice chest and came running back to the boat in the same way. Well, the Baptist preacher was fairly new in town and didn’t know his Methodist brother that well and was just astounded by what he’d just seen. So he asked him how he did that. The Methodist pastor simply shrugged and said well brother, if you have enough faith you can do anything. They sat silently fishing for another 30 minutes each deep in thought. Suddenly the Presbyterian minister said he had to make a phone call but left his phone in the truck, so he jumped up, hopped out of the boat and dashed across the top of the water also to shore went to the truck to make his call. A few minutes later, came back running across the top of the water and back into the boat. Of course the Baptist preacher was flabbergasted again and asked his Presbyterian pastor friend how he did that. The Presby just shrugged and said well brother, if you have enough faith you can do anything. Another 30 minutes and no one said a word. The Baptist preacher had enough and he said he also needed to go get his phone to make a call. So he hopped out of the boat & promptly sank to the bottom. He came up sputtering and fairly embarrassed at his failure and climbed back in the boat and collected himself. He began to pray out loud - a beautiful prayer every Baptist would be proud of and he claimed victory over the lake and asked God to help him make it ashore. He even quoted Heb. 11:6 w/o faith it is impossible to please God. He said amen and out he went and promptly sank again! This time while he was under, the Methodist looked at the Presby and said “Do you think we should tell him where the rocks are?” The Presby said “Nah, you know those Baptists don’t believe anything we have to say anyway.”
In any case, Peter showed fantastic faith! Notice also:
2. A faltering faith - vs. 30a
Explanation - Notice the problem - “But when he saw that the wind…(boistrous NKJV).” What this means is as long as Peter was looking at Jesus, he was fine. Now we know he couldn’t see the wind but of course he saw the effect of the wind making big waves. He took his eyes off the Lord and fixed them on his circumstances that overwhelmed his faith, his faith faltered because his focus was altered! (That’s good, I’ll repeat: Peter’s faith faltered because his focus was altered. Think about that, a seasoned fisherman who'd been on that lake all his life, he’s seen waves before but from inside the safe confines of a boat and we know Peter knew how to swim (John 21:7 - when he plunged into the lake to swim to shore to meet Jesus after the resurrection). In that moment, Peter’s faith faltered and began to fail and he began to sink. Literally I believe he began to drown he was so gripped by his fear. Now Peter gets a bad rap for the fact he took his eyes off the Lord and his lack of faith - but I would observe there were 11 other disciples who never got out of the boat! But in any case, Peter’s faith faltered and began to fail. Isn’t that what happens to us? As long as we keep our focus on Christ, the cares of this world that is literally falling apart all around us seem like no big deal because we’re focused on Jesus Christ; but when we spend too much time focusing on the latest bad news from some talking head, our faith falters! Spend a few days not having a QT, reading SOAP and journaling about wha God is saying to us; doesn’t take much to change our focus off Christ and faith falters. Don’t go to church, weekly, we do the once a month, or every other week plan and wonder why we don’t have spiritual victory; why faith falters. Transition: A fantastic faith, a faltering faith, finally:
3. A fulfilling faith - 30b-33
Explanation - At the end of vs. 30, we have one of the greatest, simplest, heartfelt and one of the most important prayers anyone could ever pray recorded in Scripture; and it’s proof you don’t have to pray long to pray effectively! “Lord save me.” Notice the fulfillment of Peter’s prayer of faith. The word sodzo is the usual word for Salvation. It was a desperate prayer from a drowning man. A man overwhelmed by his circumstances and desperately realizing his only hope is in Jesus Christ! “Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of Him.” Note Jesus’ gentile rebuke, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” I don’t know Lord, I really don’t know. I had no reason to doubt but I did. But notice vs. 32 - “They got into the boat.” The Lord answered Peter’s prayer and saved him. He carried him to safety. We are secure in Christ but that doesn’t mean it’s always safe! Have you asked the Lord to save you? Share the ABC’s. Maybe your circumstances are overwhelming you at the moment and you’re rowing as hard as you can to no avail; “Lord save me” is a really good prayer to pray…way better than “Jesus take the wheel!”
Some quick thoughts of application -
1. Keep your eyes on the Lord. In Experiencing God, there are key principles: that God is always at work around us, He invites us to join Him in His work, we’ll face a crisis of belief and we have to choose by faith to join Him and allow Him to use us. That’s what Peter experienced and it is common for us: We call to God and ask Him to use us in someway - we demonstrate fantastic faith. Then when God begins to use us, we take our eyes of the Lord and look at the circumstances and our faith falters & begins to fail & we begin to sink. We cry to the Lord to save us and He does. “Why did you doubt oh you of little faith?” I’m sad to say too many Christians have their eyes on the world and not on the Lord. My dad always told me “Keep your eyes on the Lord son.” Heb. 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” 1st application - Keep your eyes on the Lord.
2. Don’t let fear of failure keep you in the boat & from attempting great things for God. We set a lofty goal this year of 200 OCC boxes. We didn’t reach our goal, but did we fail? No way Jose! I delivered 145 boxes on Tuesday which means 145 families will have the Gospel shared with them in some far corner of the world you and I probably have never been to! We cannot let fear of failure keep us from getting out of the boat. What is it the Lord wants you to “get out of the boat and do for His honor, glory & the expansion of His kingdom?Become a missionary, pastor an evangelist? Counseling ministry? Work with youth or children? We’re determined to attempt great things for God. You’ve heard me say before we must operate by faith and not by what’s safe. If we operate by what is safe, this church will die. I have a dream of a counseling center here someday. Embrace Grace ministry to crisis pregnancy moms, church planting partnerships, MOPS, Trail Life for boys & American Heritage for girls. Teaching boys to become men & young girls to become ladies - no gender confusion! Renown missionary William Carey famously said: “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” Never let fear of failure keep you from getting out of the boat & attempting great things for God.
3. Jesus is not concerned with your comfort zone & calls you to walk with Him in radical faith! We humans hate change. It makes us uncomfortable. We have our comfort zones. We used to believe we had a 2 foot ring of sacred space around us, now thanks to COVID, it’s 6 feet, for our comfort zone. But we all have comfort zones when it comes to doing stuff for Jesus. We want to do things that cater to our strengths. But what if, what if God wants to use you in a way outside your comfort zone, outside your strength where no-one gets the glory but Jesus?
I wonder if the other 11 disciples were saying “We’ve never done it that way before.” Inertia is one of our worst enemies as a church. That is objects at rest tend to stay at rest. We’ve been at rest for a long time as a church. Peter had to embrace something new & completely different that no human had ever attempted before! It was a giant leap of faith! I wonder if the other disciples were plagued with regret they didn’t get out of the boat? Doing the same thing over and over again may be safe, but a rut is a grave with both ends kicked out of it. For some, that’s just coming back to in person worship. Online okay if sick but too many people have made “online church” their only church. I hate to break it to you; online church is not really church! Sure it’s easier to sit passively at home in your PJ’s eat cheerios and watch online. It takes work to get dressed, fix your hair, put on makeup and go in person. But something happens when God’s people gather for corporate worship! The Holy Spirit inhabits the praises of His people. Too many distractions at home in the living room.
Close - Last week, in our Mark study, we spoke about the blessings of prayer, His presence and His power. Matt.14:22-33 records Peter walked on the water w/ Jesus and I believe Peter learned these blessings of prayer, the Lord’s presence & His power very personally. Acts reveals the man who denied Christ 3 times having great boldness preaching in the face of threats & hostility, healing people, being God’s messenger of salvation to Gentiles so the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles also. Acts 12 shows us Peter enjoyed these blessings the night b/f he was to be executed. Constant prayer being offered by the church, obviously His presence allowed Peter to sleep, and the blessing of His power opened the gates to the prison and released the chains holding to his Roman guard! Peter would write two NT books dealing with the Lord’s return & facing persecution. A pillar of the 1st century church, and as off today as far as Scripture records, the only man aside from the God-man Jesus to walk on the water! And now you know, the rest of the story!