Hand of the Lord Who Creates and Saves

Text: Matthew 14:31 “31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?””

The theme for these midweek services is: “The Hand of the Lord.” If you think about it, “the Hand of the Lord” is an incredibly common phrase in the Old Testament. It appears more than 200 times. The hand of the Lord gives countless blessings. And the hand of the Lord also brings judgment.

In the New Testament, ‘The Hand of the Lord’ takes on a different meaning— a literal meaning. It took on actual human hands in the incarnation. So, over the next few Wednesday evenings, the work of Jesus’ hands will help us see the merciful and personal way He still brings blessings and judgment. Tonight we focus on one particular night when the work of Jesus’ hands helps us to see the Lord who creates and saves.

“28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water”” (Matthew 14:28). What a weird request. He is clearly confident in who Jesus is. You don’t invite someone to command you to walk on the water unless you know they have the power to make you able to do it. Peter was obviously not interested in any sort of genuine proof of who Jesus was. He saw God there and he thought it would be a good idea to use God for His own selfish end.

If anything, Peter was concerned with proving that he was something. Even if Jesus gave the rest of the apostles the chance to do walk on water, too, he would be the first.

It is a weird request. And it is all too familiar. It is the request you used to make in high school when you prayed, “Lord, if you’re there, then help me pass this test that I am not ready for.” It is the request that you have made, at some point, saying to God, “If you’re there, then help me win the lottery.” How many times have you made this kind of request in your life? Peter’s request is weird, but it is one that you have made quite a few times in your life.

Now, it is the kind of request that starts to come when you recognize the Creator and His power. You have not seen Jesus walking on water, but you certainly recognize the one Job was describing when he wrote about the One “6 who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; 7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; 8 who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea” (Job 9:6–8). It is a faith that recognizes the Creator’s hand in this creation and starts to reach out to Him.

When you made that request in high school, asking God to help you pass that test— or, since then, when you have asked Him to prove Himself by helping you win the lottery— God was wise enough and gracious enough to say ‘No’. But, for some reason, He said yes to Peter that night. And what happened next is a really good picture of the sinful human mind. Peter recognized and called upon his creator, even if only for his own benefit. But Peter could not discern the difference between the power of the creation and the power of the creator. He started to fear the power of the storm, as if it were anywhere close to the power of the creator. This is what happens when the sinful human will tries to use God as a tool for its own purpose. It finds itself in over its head— pun intended.

You and I make our foolish, self-serving requests of God and, thankfully, He usually says no because, when the human will tries to exalt itself, quickly ends up drowning in sin.

But what Peter encountered that day was not only the hand of the Lord Who Creates. He encountered the hand of the Lord who creates and saves.

It is good and right to see, in Jesus, the hand that created all things. He did not stop there. When Peter began to sink under the weight of his own pride and foolishness, Jesus was there to reach out a hand to save him. That is who God is. Hovering behind each of the moments we will be looking at on these Wednesday evenings is the day when the hands of the Lord were nailed to a cross to pay the full price for your sins. Even before you knew to cry out to Him, He reached out His hand and took hold of you when you were drowning in your sin.

Do not be afraid of any of the powers of this world. His hand reached out and snatched you out from under the devil’s dominion.

Do not doubt. Your Savior has gathered you back into the boat, just as He did for Peter. Your Lord has reached out His hand and gathered you into the Holy Ark of the Christian Church. Here, in the Holy Ark of the Christian Church, you are sheltered and safe from the wrath of God being poured out on this world. Do not doubt that. To prove it, His hands still bear the scars from the nails that He took for you when He pulled you out of the storm of God’s wrath and allowed Himself to be overwhelmed by it, instead.

And, like Peter, you have the privilege of joining in worship that has been offered by your Lord by the apostles and prophets, by God’s people of every age. Join in what is, arguably, the highest form of worship: confessing Jesus as the very Son of God.

Even after you look to have sunk down into the depths of death, that praise will continue. Think back to what you sang the other day: “though my flesh awaits its raising, still my soul continues praising. I am baptized into Christ. I’m a child of paradise” (“God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It,” Lutheran Service Book, #594).

And then, on the Last Day, His creating and saving hand will reach down to you, once last time. His hand will reach all the way down into your grave and raise you up out of this dying world, making your lowly body like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to Himself.

Peter started out with a foolish request. In the process, He came to know God far better through “The Hand of the Lord Who Creates and Saves.” He invites you to know Him in the same way.