I can walk on water to, maybe!

Impetuous Peter, is probably the person I identify with the most in the New Testament.

Peter is the sort of bloke who is all in.

Untill he isn’t!

Peter loves Jesus.

He believes he is the Messiah.

He is committed to the cause.

He will jump in boots and all.

But he hasn’t fully understood the program.

He hasn’t fully understood the cost.

And when he is confronted with the true danger and cost of what he has gotten himself into he is at times overwhelmed.

Now as I just said, I really identify with Peter.

Fully committed to the cause.

Love Jesus.

Jumped in boots and all, again!

But sometimes the danger and cost becomes overwhelming.

I think that we all become overwhelmed at times in our faith journey.

The cost might be bigger than we anticipated.

We might be a bit tired.

We might be fully committed to the cause but discover we don’t really understand God’s program, so we get frustrated.

This is when it is so easy to take our eyes of Jesus and find ourselves sinking into doubt, despair and fear.

Let’s look at one episode in Peter’s life and see what Jesus wanted Peter to understand so that his faith would be strengthened and he would gain a greater appreciation of what God’s program was really all about.

Because for Peter, just as for us, it is often because we don’t understand what God is really trying to teach us that we get into trouble.

In John 6:14-15 we discover that after Jesus has taught the people all day on the side of a hill that he then feeds them miraculously.

5000 men, plus women and children fed from just five barley loaves and two fish.

When the disciples collected the left overs there were twelve baskets full.

An impressive miracle of provision, teaching the disciples to offer what they could and leave God to do the multiplying.

Mark 6:52 tells us the disciples didn’t understand the significance of the miracle.

The people certainly misread God’s program because they now wanted to make Jesus King by force.

So Jesus escapes the crowd and goes up a mountain alone to pray.

But as he leaves, both Matthew 14:22 and Mark 6:46 tell us that Jesus insisted his disciples get into their boat and cross the Lake of Galilee.

It appears Jesus is putting a circuit breaker in place with the disciples.

He doesn’t want them to get caught up in the crowd’s excitment and come to a wrong conclusion.

His program isn’t their program.

So Jesus goes up onto the mountain to pray alone.

The disciples set out across the lake.

Some time later they run into a strong storm and after 3 AM Mark 6:48 tells us Jesus sees that they are in serious trouble and comes to them walking on the water.

All three Gospel accounts tell us the disciples were terrified.

Now let’s be fair to the disciples.

They had just returned from a ministry tour that Jesus had sent them on.

They were excited by all they had seen and done in his name.

Jesus wanted to take them away to a secluded place to teach them.

Instead of having a break to debrief and learn from Jesus the crowds had found them.

They had been out all day on a hill side, listening to Jesus teach the crowds and then distributing food and collecting left overs.

They had been rowing all night against the wind.

They had been awake now for probably at least twenty one hours straight after a big week of ministry on their own.

They hadn’t had time to take it all in and now they were cold and wet and in danger of drowning.

Let’s not underestimate the erriness of this situation.

They had been encountering the supernatural all week.

Many of the disciples were seasoned fishermen, the lake was their workplace.

But this storm was significant and they were in trouble.

They were tired, it was dark.

And then Jesus decides to come walking across the water.

No wonder they freaked out and thought they were seeing a ghost.

And it is at this point that some key words of Jesus bring our focus onto what the whole situation should be about.

Matthew 14:27 NLT

27 But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!”

“I am” has echo’s of the Lord’s declaration of his name to Moses on Mt Sinia.

The phrase was used by Jesus on a number of occassions as a clear claim to Diety.

Here is the key to how we deal with doubt, despair and fear.

It is to remain focussed on Jesus.

Not on the storms of life.

Not on our fears for the future.

Not on our doubts of if it is all worth it.

But only on Jesus, through the doubts, through the fear, through the despair.

Mark 6:48 tells us that Jesus had intended to walk straight past them.

Perhaps another object lesson.

“I am going this way, just follow”

Or an opportunity to call to him for help.

Instead they simply reacted in fear.

The focus was on everything but Jesus.

They hadn’t grasped that here was the one who had authority over nature.

He had previously calmed a storm just by commanding the waves and wind to be still.

He had healed many, cast out demons, multipled a handful of food to feed thousands.

They should have grasped that the object lesson of the feeding of the five thousand was that they were to feed people spiritually and that Jesus was the source of what they needed.

Now they had opportunity to simply call to him for help and they missed it.

They were living in the midst of the supernatural and yet they kept on reverting to a physical understanding of things.

Except Peter!

His focus had instantly been pulled back to Jesus.

Peter is all in, again!

So he says in Matthew 14:28, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.””

And Jesus says in, Matthew 14:29 “Yes, come,” So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.”

Peter is all in, again.

Until he isn’t!

Again Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and puts them on the physical things around him.

The wind, the waves.

Fear, in fact terror once again takes hold and Peter is in trouble.

Matthew 14:30–31 “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?””

Why do you doubt me Jesus asks of us.

Why does your faith not survive the crisis, the struggles, the realities of life in a broken fallen world?

Why do you take your eyes off me and give into doubt and fear and despair?

It is a hard question isn’t it?

Why in the face of the overwhelming evidence that Jesus is Lord do we keep on forgetting that he actually is?

Why can’t we live with the assurance of the Apostle Paul who said in

Philippians 1:21 ESV

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

I think the answer to that question is very simply illustrated by this graphic.

We have things up side down.

We worry about death, or just things which we consider bad and forget that neither death nor bad things are to be feared as such.

When the Apostle Paul wrote these words to the church at Phillipi, he was in jail and wrestling with what was next or even what was best.

Death was a very real possibility.

So is trying to walk on water in the middle of a storm by the way!

But for the Apostle Paul, and later for Peter once he had figured things out a bit better, there was only one thing that counted.

Christ.

My life is his, my life is a witness to him, wether I am living or dying I am his witness.

All that counts is his glory demonstrated in me.

That my friends is a very liberating attitude.

So can I encourage you today.

There will be fears.

There will be doubts.

There may even be despair.

Those things are only temporary.

For if we live for Christ then we are giving glory to him through our lives.

And if we die in Christ then we gain the joy of being present with him.

Either way we win.

So in the midst of the storm or in the midst of the gentle sail across the lake on a beautiful sunny day.

Remember this.

It is all about Christ and bringing glory to him, nothing else really matters.

Look to him in every situation.

Matthew 28:20 NLT

20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I am with you, take courage, obey me and through your life glorify my name.

it is a way of thinking that is truly transformative.

Peter walked

Peter became afraid