Taking a Chance for Jesus

Introduction

We will be studying a story of Jesus and the disciples in just a moment from Matthew’s account, but in the prior scene story the disciples saw firsthand what can happen when we avail ourselves to Jesus and we use the resources God has placed before us, just what can happen with the touch of Jesus.

You remember the story well. It’s the scene where thousands of people are following Jesus, following Him on foot, following Him as the text states “from the cities.” In Matt. 14:14, the scripture states that “He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.”

The next verse:

Matthew 14:15 “15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.””

These words from the disciples were predicable words, they were conservative words, they were comfortable words, we might even say they were complacent words that required no real thought, no action, or no real sacrifice.

Dearly beloved, like verse 16, Matthew 14:16 “16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.””

One thing that has not changed regardless of the days we live in or in the fashion the church and the things of God are being received is the fact that real need exists among people, believer and non-believer every day. People need Jesus whether they are aware or not.

As the story goes the disciples went out and assessed and found that there was a lad with two fish and five loaves of bread. The young boy made his food available to Jesus. With Jesus’ touch and hand to meet the need, five thousand men plus women and children were fed that evening.

The story proves that if we will take a chance, if we will make an effort with Jesus right in the middle of it, great things can happen.

Let’s start this morning by assessing our own personal pilgrimage. If you took a chance with Jesus in the center of your decisions, what truly could happen in your life today?

Whenever we read the story of Jesus, the story of feeding the five thousand is a story of compassion. We will transition into a story this morning of cultivation, Jesus cultivating His disciples and cultivating us to accomplish something great in His name. Amen.

Matthew 14:22-33

Matthew 14:22–33 NKJV

22 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. 25 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.” 28 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?” 32 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.”

Prayer

Message

You may ask this morning, why do you say this is a story of cultivation?

Let’s firstly review the story and then break it down.

Jesus had sent the disciples on to their next destination and told them to get in the boat and proceed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. If you read Mark’s account prior to the feeding of the five thousand we would surmise that they were in Bethsaida where they fed the five thousand. We can assume that the disciples were heading toward Capernaum, but would land in the land of Gennesaret (a 5-7 mile journey by water-rowing I will add). Mark’s account Mark 6:45-52; John’s account John 6:15-21.

I want to put Mark’s account on the wall because I want you to see a statement made in Mark’s account:

Notice in Mark’s account in this story a statement He makes:

Mark 6:45–52 (NKJV)

45 Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He sent the multitude away. 46 And when He had sent them away, He departed to the mountain to pray. 47 Now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. 48 Then He saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea, and would have passed them by. 49 And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; 50 for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 51 Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. 52 For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.

God is still working to cultivate these men for His glory just as He is working to cultivate you for His glory. Just like them, we are a work in progress or are you? That is where the rubber meets the road today as we study this story. Jesus was putting them in situational circumstances to mature them and deepen their faith in Him, trusting Him that He is capable for any need they may have.

Remember Wednesday night for those of you that are here that God did not make us robots. He gives us free will. He gives us minds, hearts, and souls and gives us a helper in our lives called the Holy Spirit, but God is not a dictator. We must receive His cultivation, His guidance for our lives.

A Life in Jesus is a Life of Cultivation VV. 22-24

We note from the prior story that Jesus had compassion and He taught that faith in Him is an active faith, an engaged faith a compassionate faith that has hands and feet to meeting needs. After the disciples were hands on and had seen what could be accomplished in Christ, the cultivation continued. Why do you use the word cultivation?

Whenever we read a story of Jesus and the disciples and there are no other parties engaged, the word disciple in the Greek is Mathetes. Mathetes means learner or pupil. We read such a story to understand deeper about Jesus and about our relationship in Jesus.

When we think of the word cultivation and we can define it in two contexts:

Agriculturally as in growing crops. Our lives in Christ should be constantly growing, stretching our parameters. lengthening our territory of ministry, gifts and talents and ways we are used by Him.

A metaphorical or personal development context. Skill building, character building, relationship building, but more specifically, growing in Christ. Growing in the image of Him and growth in understanding His will for our lives and how He wants to use us for His glory. Amen? In fact, when you figure that out and you begin living for Him you will find life whole and complete.

Jesus was cultivating in these men a deeper understanding of who He is and what He was capable of in their lives and in the lives of others. Verse 33 defines the end result of what Jesus was cultivating in the disciples. He wanted them to understand what being the Son of God means, how encompassing is that? What is God capable of in our lives and in the lives of others?

When we are deemed His disciple, or a Christian, a little Christ or a child of Christ, how we act, how we behave, what we do is a reflection of Him and He uses life itself to mold us make us in His image.

As we see Jesus sending the disciples away, we draw from Him an important example as to why Jesus is different. We note from the feeding of the five thousand that Jesus was a God/man of compassion. He exercised an active engaged faith.

An important aspect of our being able to be cultivated in Christ is an aspect of communion. In verse 23:

Matthew 14:23 “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.”

Jesus spent time alone with His Heavenly Father. He enjoyed the communion of the Holy Spirit’s presence in those alone times.

A Life in Jesus Can be a Life of Contrary Outcomes VV. 23b-25

Matthew 14:23–25 NKJV

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. 25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

Metaphorically speaking, anytime we read a story about the sea and darkness, the story reveals that the scene was scary. It was dark, the were caught in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and as they are rowing they are not making any headway. I imagine the water was white capping and waves were coming over the boat, the Bible states:

“they were tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.”

How many have experienced an undertow in the Gulf? In an undertow, no matter how hard you swim, you are being pushed out from shore. Regardless of how hard they rowed, the wind’s force was greater and nature was dictating their direction.

Well, as the story goes Jesus went to them walking on the water. Jesus was making forward progress and yet the group in the boat were metaphorically spinning their wheels. Jesus showed up around the fourth watch, around 3 am-6 am time period.

Listen to me dear brother or sister, Jesus showed up at the turning point of a new day. Does this story sound familiar? As you listen this morning you may be saying under your breath as a His disciple, “yes, I am a Christian, yes, I believe in Jesus, but right now the waves of this life and this moment are very contrary to say the least.”

It begs to ask the question, if these were His disciples, If they had just been with Him shortly before, If they were following the will of God in crossing over to the other side, if we see that He exhibited the power to calm the seas, then why did He allow contrary waters to enter their life and place them in fear?

Let’s consider two sub focal words as we think about at times how life becomes contrary for us.

Confidence

That lends itself for us to consider a sub-focal word. Confidence. Peter and Andrew were fishermen along with James and John, the Sons of Zebedee. These men may have been overly confident as it related to sea travel because they had traveled the sea fishing all of their lives. As they were being cultivated, they may have not rendered over their careers to the Lord because they felt they had a handle on their livelihood. Could it have been that Jesus was cultivating them into an understanding that Jesus was Lord of their lives in every facet?

Oh dearly beloved, do you find yourself at times dealing with a contrary life because you have never rendered your all to Jesus? As good as God has been to this body of believers and blessed us financially, there are people right now under the sound of my voice that has never trusted the Lord in honoring Him with your finances and you do not give to His church.

Malachi 3:10 “10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.”

Conditions

The next area that we could find that possibly happened with the disciples is the conditions they found themselves in. They allowed the conditions to dictate their actions. What do you mean? Let’s look here at what the Bible does not say. If it doesn’t say it we can only assume it didn’t happen.

We read that Jesus went to the mountain to pray. Jesus found it critical to commune with the Father. We do not read that the disciples prayed before or during the journey. Furthermore, we do not read that they sang or worshipped during the voyage.

Jesus taught the disciples by example to pray:

Luke 9:28 “28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.”

We read of a great time when Paul and Silas were singing:

Acts 16:25–34 NKJV

25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” 29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Speaking of conditions, if anyone would be given a pass on their worship due to the conditions they were in, it would have been Paul and Silas. Paul and Silas as well were being cultivated for such a time as this even when their conditions were horrid, God used them to cultivate the Philippian Jailer and God used them to bring the entire family to salvation. Furthermore, we know the jailer and his family were an integral part of the church that was formed in Philippi.

Are you allowing your conditions to dictate your actions with your communion with Jesus?

-If you knew my financial obligations-so and so

-If you knew my health results-so and so

-If you knew my time constraints-so and so

-If you knew my work demands, my family demands, my travel time, so and so.

I will not assume, but I just wonder if over confidence and the conditions dictated how the disciples responded to the seas on that early morning?

A Rewarding Life in Jesus is a Life of Taking a Chance VV. 26-33

In verse 26 we read that the disciples thought they were seeing a Ghost when He was walking toward them on the seas. Now let’s all be honest that if we were out on the seas at night and saw someone walking on the water we would wonder what we drank or ate that made us loopy. Yes, it would make us wonder if we were seeing a ghost as well. The word “ghost” in the Greek means a spirit. Not the Capital Spirit as in the Holy Spirit, but a foreign spirit.

I remind you from the Mark Account, Mark 6:52 “52 For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.”

This lends itself to ask the question, why did they not recognize Jesus? Why did He appear as a foreigner?

Listen to me I shared that in the feeding of the five thousand, conservative thinking, comfortable thinking or complacent thinking may have been the root cause of their hardened heart.

If we look across this room I imagine the median age of attendance today might be 60 years of age. By that point in time many of us in this room might be considered more conservative, more contemplative, more controlled, and possibly complacent, let’s be a little more positive, content or satisfied with our stay and position in life.

Oh dear brother or sister that is dangerous ground to be in with Jesus. God saved you to serve and God saved you to sail on eagle’s wings in Him.

We learned in our Life Groups lesson this morning that we are saved, but we are saved to steward. We are to manage what God has given us. We are to subdue and rule this world and all its dominion. And part of that management or stewardship is to manage this Jesus we have in us and share Him with another.

Let’s get to the goodie in this story.

Matthew 14:27–32 NKJV

27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 28 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?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

Don’t you love it when Jesus says, “don’t be afraid?” I’m here. You can calm down. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Oh aren’t you thankful for the promise that regardless of whatever befalls you today that Jesus is right there beside you for the asking?

Matthew 7:7–11 NKJV

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

There is so much life directive in verse 28:

Matthew 14:28 “28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.””

Peter came up with this thought on his own. He ran the thought by the Lord to see if He would bless that action and Jesus said, yes, step out of the boat. Peter may have been confident in His request because it was massaged in thought by the Holy Spirit, but all the same, He ran the request by Jesus and Jesus answered in the affirmative.

Listen to me this morning please.

Write this down:

If Jesus affirms you in a decision, He will empower you in that decision.

What am I saying?!! Or better yet, what is the Bible saying that Peter did?

Peter took a chance for Jesus! Peter tried something new and that had never been done. Peter was operating out of the box for Jesus.

Matthew 14:29–30 “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!””

I can tell you that Peter was walking so upright, defiant, hair in the wind with such confidence over what Jesus was doing in this moment and then Peter began to look down. He saw the contrariness of life, he saw the calamity, He saw the confusion, and His circumstances. He moved back into the conservative, the contemplative, predictable, comfortable thinking. This is not supposed to be happening. This will not work.

Now let me ask you a question. Did Peter fail? Yes, Peter failed. But for a moment Peter succeeded. For a moment He knew what it was like to be empowered by Jesus. For a moment He saw Jesus defy the odds of being able to say, “I have never seen anything like that before.”

There is a sadness to this story. There were eleven others in the boat-conservative, comfortable, complacent that never had a chance of success. They never had the first chance of enjoying success. They never got out of the boat.

Was our Rolling Hills ministry a failure? Has anyone ever come to church here from that ministry? No, no one that we know has ever attended here from those efforts, but for a moment, we got out of the boat and we showed the community that there is no money spared that one would know Christ. We overcame racial barriers for the community to know that Mt Zion wants people to know Jesus. Fail? Possibly, but are there some back attending churches they had attended in the past or some place where they are of the same skin color and feel more comfortable. We will never know. All we know is that we got out of the boat.

The Community Fair, will it succeed? We will never know until we get out of the boat. In closing, are there some here today that thinks you have done your time? Abraham was changing diapers at 100 years old and Sarah was rocking a baby at 91 years of age. Moses was crossing the Red Sea at 80 years of age. Noah was building an ark until He was 80.

Have you become comfortable, conservative, or complacent? Do you feel you have reached an age to lay down? God has been working in cultivating you for something great. Scripture states “it rains on the just and the unjust.” Part of that cultivation is making you strong in seasons of contrariness. God never wants you so comfortable or conservative that you lose the fire of taking chances for Him.

Is there a new horizon God wants you to forge? Maybe you have taken a chance on everything else, but have never taken a chance on Jesus. Listen, Jesus is not a chance, He is certain to save you.

Let’s pray.