Sermon Tone Analysis
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Please take your Bible and turn to .
Please take your Bible and turn to .
Do you ever find yourself being in such fear that you are seemingly paralyzed?
Being a person who is timid by nature I am ashamed to say that I have been paralyzed by fear on way too many occasions!
Of course there are other occasions in which I should have been more fearful than I was.
One occasion happened about 32 years ago today (give or take a day).
Gail and I were married on Saturday, June 28th 1986.
After spending two days at Letchworth State Park near Rochester, NY, we completed our move from Michigan to Connecticut where I took the position of Music Pastor at a small church.
The day we arrived Gail and I went grocery shopping at the local supermarket, which was located in a plaza with a bunch of other retail stores.
As we were loading up our groceries I noticed that two young white males were beating up on a single African American male.
Wanting to impress my new bride as to how manly I was, I stuck my nose where it didn’t really belong!
My memory may not be totally accurate, but I recall that I went over to this altercation, and made them stop.
When I asked what going on I found out that the one individual had shop lifted something from a store, and the other individuals were store security!
Sometimes fear gets the best of us.
Other times we ignore fear and do things we shouldn’t do.
Like me, the Apostle Peter often found himself on either the bold side, or the timid side of the spectrum.
Sometimes he was bold when he should not have been, like when he swung his sword and cut off an innocent person’s ear.
Other times he did not speak up when he should have, like the situation in when he feared the men who came from James.
But then there were the times when he acted in just the right way, like when he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God in .
Or the various accounts of his actions and sermons in the early chapters of the book of Acts.
This past week, as I was preparing for this morning’s message, I found myself in a bit of an awkward position, and not for the first time, I must say.
As I started preparations for the next portion of Matthew’s Gospel, I found myself unable to move on from last week’s text.
As I was bringing last weeks sermon to a close I realized that there was at least one thing in the text that I did not even deal with.
And then there are some thoughts that have been on my mind to further what was said about another thing.
So, for this week, I’m going to stall a bit on a couple of the verses that we looked at last week.
This will be a two-part mini-series (I think) with this morning’s focus being on Peter’s cry for salvation.
As we do so we will look at the phases of salvation from an eternal perspective, Christ’s commands to the Church, and some valuable lessons from the episode of Peter’s walking on the water.
PETER’S CRY FOR SALVATION
To set the stage let’s look at .
When Peter cried out to Jesus to save him, in this text, was he asking for salvation from an eternal perspective or was he asking for salvation from a present circumstance?
While this is a fine picture of how one might cry out to Jesus for eternal salvation, in this context it is quite obvious that Peter is seeking salvation from a present, temporal, circumstance.
Salvation Phases — From an Eternal Perspective
From an eternal perspective, salvation has multiple phases.
From an eternal perspective, salvation has multiple phases.
First in order of chronology is election, which is salvation from eternity past.
Long before we ever placed our faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ for our salvation, we were chosen by God to be saved.
Justification.
Sanctification.
Glorification.
On the temporal plane there are times when we need salvation as well.
One of the times in which we would desire salvation is when we go through the trials of life.
But God does not promise to save us from the trials, rather He promises the strength and needed wisdom to endure the trials.
In the case of our text Peter had stepped out in faith and began walking on the water to come to Jesus.
Last week we noted that Peter waited for Christ to bid him to come.
He had no thought that he was able, in and of himself, to defy the laws of nature and walk on the water.
But he believed that if Christ commanded it then he could accomplish it.
We should note that God does not command us to do any special fete which He does not empower us to do.
In this account, Christ commanded Peter to come, and He empowered him to come.
And Peter began his journey well.
But then something happened that caused him to begin to sink, out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.
We will get to that in a minute.
Though there are numerous commands in the New Testament for the believer to follow and obey, there are three basic commands that Christ has given to the church.
Christ’s Commands to the Church
Love God with everything you have
Love your neighbor just as much as you love yourself
As a side-note, this does not consider that you might not love yourself.
A lack of love for yourself, or a lack of self-esteem does not give you an “out” in regards to this command.
Make disciples of all people
Let’s think about these commands for a moment.
Can we as individuals truthfully say that we love God with everything that is in us?
Can we truthfully say that we love our neighbors as ourselves?
Can we truthfully say that we are making disciples?
I don’t know about you (or do I?), but I’m not sure that can truthfully say that I obey these commands.
Back to Peter for a moment.
Why do you think that he wanted to walk on the water?
Do you think that he was like a little kid who saw someone else doing something that looked like fun, so he wanted to try it too?
I don’t think so.
I don’t believe that Jesus would have empowered Peter to do something miraculous merely for his own personal pleasure.
While I can’t really judge Peter’s motive, I have an idea that Christ had supernaturally placed the desire in Peter’s heart so that we who read and study this account might learn some valuable lessons.
Valuable Lessons
We need to keep our focus on Jesus
We should not let fear conquer us
When we are fearful we should cry out to Jesus
To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough
When you said goodbye
And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right
There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
And love for the broken heart
And there is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus
Cry out to Jesus
Our faith is often very small, and yet it only takes a little bit of faith to move a mountain
Even If -- MercyMe
They say sometimes you win some
Sometimes you lose some
And right now, right now I'm losing bad
I've stood on this stage night after night
Reminding the broken it'll be alright
But right now, oh right now I just can't
It's easy to sing
When there's nothing to bring me down
But what will I say
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