Walking on Water: The 5th Sign

I love camping. Here’s my problem. I want to go camping my way. I want to do things the way I want to do them.

“So go camping by yourself.” you say. Well the issue there is that I’m a little scaredy cat and I’m afraid of the dark.

I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m afraid of being alone in the dark. I know nothing is out there. But when I’m alone my anxiety gets a little out of hand. I would love to go camping this weekend. We have cool weather coming in. But ashleigh and I have very different ideas of camping. Camping to her involves a 30ft camper and a truck with a goose neck.

Whereas camping to me involves a hammock, a sleeping bag, and a fire.

But no moderating position has been found, and I don’t want to go be alone on public lands all night. I feel more comfortable having someone else there. Not that she offers any added protection against anything. If anything she just adds more responsibility because I have to take care of her in that situation. But I would prefer that, because I don’t like being alone in that situation.

You’ve experienced this too. Man, this building is creepy at night when you’re by yourself. When we’re all here, playing games, moving through this building in the dark is not at all scary with others around. When your’e by yourself, it’s a little different. It gets a little creepy. It gets a little uncomfortable.

You know there’s nothing there, but when you’re by yourself, it just feels different.

See, you’re not scared when you’re not alone.

Something about having someone with you makes most situations less scary.

Tonight we’re looking at one of those rare situations in the gospels where the 12 disciples were separated from Jesus for a little while. They got themselves into a bad situation, they put themselves in danger, and they got scared. and we get to see not only how Jesus handled their scary situation but how the disciples handled Jesus way of handling their bad situation.

Here’s where we’re going tonight. John chapter 6 verses 16-21. If you want the whole sermon in 1 sentence, here it is. If you remember nothing else let it be this.

Jesus has total control over your situation.

Biblical Backgrounds

Now, for context: We are coming directly on the heels of last week, the feeding of the 5,000. This is that night. Jesus fed the 5,000 families with 5 loaves & 2 fish. They tried to take him by force and make him king. He wanted to avoid that so He kinda backed away up a mountain and hid out for a while, praying. Eventually, He tells the disciples, John, Pete, and the boys. Y’all go ahead and take the boat over to Capernaum, I’ll catch up. And they do just that. They set out at night to cross the sea of Galilee.

Here’s the issue contextually. Geographically, there are about 3 or 4 places where it’s possible that that whole feeding the 5,000 thing could have happened. If John & the other 11 disciples set out from any of those 4 locations, then this story, in the way that John tells it, doesn’t make a ton of sense.

As we look at this, this is the traditional site. If you travel there today, there’s a whole historical site, tourist trap there where you can go be where Jesus fed the 5000, this is probably also where he gave the sermon on the mount. So maybe this was a popular spot for Jesus. Here’s the issue. I’m not necessarily sure how much sense it makes to take the boat from here.

In none of these cases, does the way John tells this story make sense.

Scripture & exposition

But let’s look to the text and we can talk more about this.

John 6:16–17 CSB

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet come to them.

See why this location doesn’t make a ton of sense. The started “across” and that’s not a mistranslation. That’s not a turn of phrase. The word across there, peran, only ever means going over to the other side of something. Not a little further up the shore.

John 6:18–19 (CSB)

18 A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn. 19 After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea.

Ok, pause there. They had rowed about 3 or 4 miles.

If that’s true, and it must be, then not one of these locations makes sense. All of these are within the distance, that if they were just rowing, they’d be in Capernaum by the time Jesus got to them. The problem is that there is no reason in the text to believe that Jesus did any work down here. There’s no record of Him being down here. He tended to be where the people are, and notice, no cities.

So they were definitely up here, but then why weren’t they in Capernaum already if they’d rowed that far?

I promise this matters. This is important to understanding the story.

Another big thing to consider. This is what a Galilean fishing boat looked like. This is the boat they’re in. These boats had sails. They’re not made to be rowed. They’re made to be sailed. So why aren’t they sailing it?

Because of the storm!

These guys are professional fishermen who have spent their lives on the sea of Galilee working in these boats on this water. They know exactly what they’re doing.

They switched to rowing because you can’t run the sail in a storm, the wind will tip the boat. but the storm is also making the sea difficult to row in, so they’ve rowed so much that they should have been in Capernaum already, but they’re still so far from shore that they can’t see it.

Have you ever found yourself in the situation where you did everything right. You had a small thing to do. You knew what you were doing. This should be easy. You can handle it. You had all the tools you needed. You did everything right. YOU DID EVERYTHING RIGHT! But still this problem blows up in your face. Nothing goes right. Everything is wrong. and you completely lose control of your situation. An absolute crap storm happens and it doesn’t matter what kind of experience and tools you have on hand, when a storm happens all of that goes out the window. Hey man, it’s not your fault. It’s not you’re fault.

I promise you John, son of Zebedee, knows how to handle a fishing boat, on the sea of Galilee at night. In fact, when he makes it to Capernaum and tells his dad this story, John is going to have to explain how he did everything right because dads tend to think that you just didn’t do it right and got yourself into trouble by doing a sloppy job, and that wouldn’t have happened if you had just listened to me.

I promise you John did everything right. Between John, James, Peter, and Andrew; I guarantee that this was not their fault. They did everything right, and the situation still went sideways. The boat probably went a little sideways too. Sometimes thing’s go wrong even when you did everything right. IDK what happened man, but you lost control of your situation and It’s not your fault! It’s not your fault...but it’s still your problem, and you don’t know what to do to fix it.

You may have totally lost control of your situation, but I promise you that whatever you’re up against, Jesus saw it coming. and He was not worried, in the slightest. See, Jesus still has a full-time job to this day. God the Son spends His time at the right hand of God the Father, interceding on your behalf. He is watching your situation unfold. He sees whats happening better than you do. He knows what’s coming. Man, whatever you’re up against, I promise you’re not alone.

Jesus has total control over your situation.

He is watching this happen and the whole time He is talking to God the Father ensuring that whatever happens is for your good and His glory. No matter how alone you feel; you’re not. Being in the dark and up against whatever is out there by yourself is scary. But I promise you’re not by yourself. The King of the Universe is watching you and every step you take He is turning to the Father saying “Keep an eye on that one. That’s one of mine.”

See even though John & Stinky Pete and the dirty dozen are lost, totally of course, in the pitch black, Jesus knows exactly where they are.

He sent them on ahead to Capernaum, and they went totally off the rails and ended up stuck somewhere else out in the sea, unable to get control of their boat…Jesus wasn’t just walking to Capernaum expecting to find them on the way. He knew where they were. He knew it wasn’t where they wanted to be, and not only did He go and get them; HE WALKED THERE. He didn’t run there. He didn’t climb over the monstrous waves. He didn’t dodge duck dip dive and dodge to get to them in time; He walked, unfazed and unbothered by a situation over which He has absolute control.

But when the Disciples see this, they see Jesus walking, how do they react.

John 6:19–20 CSB

19 After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid. 20 But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Ok. So why are they afraid? They just watched this man feed 5,000 families like He was pulling fish & chips out a Mary Poppins purse. Well, Mathew tells us that they thought he was a ghost.

How wild is that. They know Jesus. They’ve seen Him do crazier things than this. But in this moment, they are out of their minds with fear and they think He’s a ghost. And it’s not just they saw Him and were afraid because they thought it was a ghost, they were afraid because it was coming closer to them.

Man, when you’re in that situation where you’ve totally lost control of your problem, but you’re still trying to just white knuckle it, and force your way through— the sight of God walking up to you to take control of your problem is terrifying and honestly pretty hard to recognize sometimes. These guys are so focused on what they’re doing, their situation, and the next wave they have to paddle over, that when they see their great rescuer walking towards Him, they just see Him as another problem, a ghost, something to run away from instead of the one person who can help them.

You ever been playing a video game with somebody else watching you and you just can’t get past this one part. and they say “here, let me do it for you” and you say “No I can do it. Back off!!”

Heck last night ashleigh was trying to fix some setting on the TV. Spends 3min flipping through menus not knowing what shes looking for, and I’m just like “I can do this faster than I can explain to you how to do it. Just hand me the remote. What do you think happened? Same thing that happens with everybody. “No. leave me alone. I can do it.” until eventually you get so frustrated that you just got “FINE” and hand over the controller, or the tool, or the computer or whatever you’re trying to fix, and walk away in frustration and somewhere in your brain your problem has tricked you into thinking that the person who is there to help you is the bad guy.

Man you do the same thing with God. I promise you do. Is it your relationship with your boyfriend or girlfriend that’s gotten to a place you know it doesn’t need to be, and you’re trying to get it back on track on your own, but you know what the Lord wants you to do…you just don’t want to do it.

Is it a little sin problem in your life, something secret, something you thought you had a handle on. and now it’s a huge storm that you cannot handle. you’re out here paddling full force trying to fix whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into, and you see Jesus walking up to the situation to rescue you from this problem and all you see is a guilt trip. All you see is somebody trying to control you. All you see is somebody trying to take away your fun.

So now, like that video game controller/that boss fight you’re struggling with, you’ve got a death grip on your situation trying to fix it yourself and you see God like He’s just trying to take stuff from you.

You’ve gotten it backwards. You’re so focused on your storm and fixing it yourself that you’ve confused the good guy for a bad guy.

Dude. Grow up. Your pride is making you go “No. I can do it myself” and you’ve forgotten that what you’re hanging onto was a problem you’re trying to fix.

Just hand it over. Let God fix it. God is never trying to take something good away from you unless He’s trying to hand you something better.

and watch this. Here’s what happens when you finally give in and just let Him do it.

John 6:20–21 CSB

20 But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him on board, and at once the boat was at the shore where they were heading.

He can seriously fix it faster than He can explain to you how to do it.

See. Jesus has total control over your situation

and He already has the solution to your problem, He’s just waiting for you to stop being afraid and hand it over.

But what if I don’t like His solution to my problem.

I don’t know what He’s gonna do with it.

and if your problem is a relationship, a private sin, a personal goal, your money.

Yeah, I see why you don’t want to hand it over. It’s mine. What’s He gonna do with it. What if He takes my money, what if He makes me break up with my girlfriend, what if He makes me give up my job. what if He does something with my stuff ad my life that I don’t like.

Bro, so what. Get over yourself. Everything you have is His, for one. But also, He’s never going to take away anything good unless its to make room for something better.

Jesus has total control over your situation.

He knows what’s best for you. Look at what you

re trying to hold onto, bro. His solution to your problem is always better than your problem.

Like, this is something negative that you’ve been dealing with, but you’d rather hang onto the bad because you like it than let it go and get the good and the great that He has for you. That’s insane.

What do we do with this tonight.

Maybe you need to give God your situation, even if you’re afraid of what He is going to do with it.

Maybe you need to remember that when you’re scared, Jesus isn’t.

Maybe you need to trust Jesus with YOU first & then worry about trusting Him with your problems.