Living a Life of Faith

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Intro:

I want to spend a brief amount of time setting up the context of this story. As we read this passage, it might benefit us to understand that events that have just taken place. The author of this gospel has just finished writing about the beheading of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a relative of Jesus. His mother Mary, pregnant with Jesus, went to see her relative (Luke 1:36), Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. We do not know how close the two men were, Jesus and John, but we do know they were related through their mothers.

We also know that John spent the majority of his adult life preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry, announced Jesus as the sacrificial lamb of God, and baptized Jesus in the Jordan river. John and Jesus preached identical messages, to repent for the kingdom of God was at hand, and John understood that he would have to decrease in order that Jesus would increase. While there is not much actually stated in Scripture concerning the relationship the two men shared, I think it is safe to assume their bond was significant.

So, when Jesus hears the news of John’s death at the hands of Herod, His first response was to “withdraw to a desolate place by Himself” (Matt. 14:13). However, due to His fame that was spreading throughout the land, Jesus was not alone very long. As soon as the crowds heard of his location, they flocked to Him. Whereas many of us would not deal with that situation very well, a bombardment of crowds shortly after hearing of the death of a close friend and relative, Jesus “had compassion on the crowds, healed their sick, and fed the more than five thousand people who came to see Him” (Matt. 14:14-20).

Jesus, in His full humanity, still needed to mourn, process, and spend time in prayer regarding the events that unfolded. This brings us to our passage today:

Passage:

“22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God”” (Matthew 14:22-33).

Matthew 14:22–33 ESV

Prayer

Jesus, sending His disciples off before Him, by boat, stayed behind and spent the time needed in prayer and meditation with God. The Scripture tells us that it was evening when He began, and that He continued until the fourth watch of the night. Jesus likely spent seven (7) to ten (10) hours in prayer that night. And understandably so. Ministry is exhausting. Difficult things occur when we are following God’s call upon our lives.

We just watched a video on Lottie Moon. A woman who, I can only imagine, spent countless hours in prayer with God. Ministry is difficult, and can be exhausting, often times challenging and unrewarding. If you are unaware of Lottie Moon’s entire missionary journey, you may not know that she died of starvation. She followed God’s calling on her life when being a woman missionary was actually frowned upon. She left the comforts of her home here in the United States, and lived in China, bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the Chinese people. She witnessed a great deal of suffering at the end of her journey as the Chinese did not have enough food for their people. Lottie received food rations from her missionary support from the United States, and was being taken care of.

However, because of the great suffering she witnessed around her, she gave her food to the Chinese people as an act of compassion, that they might know the love of Jesus. While she gave her food to them, she began to starve, and became incredibly sick. No one knew she was doing what she was doing until it was too late. She became so ill she was sent back home, but died on the boat of malnutrition and starvation. Lottie gave her life, not only for the people of China, but for God, who loved her, and whom she loved in return.

I want to come back to Lottie Moon in a little bit, but first let’s return to our passage.

We are told next that Jesus, after having suffered from the loss of John the Baptist, and after having spent almost an entire night in prayer with His Heavenly Father, decided to journey out to His disciples. I don’t believe we should hurry on to the next part of the story before we take a deeper look at what is going on here.

Jesus, after hearing of the death of someone He loved, after being bombarded with a great crowd, after spending an entire day with well over 5,000 people, healing the sick, and feeding the hungry, stays up for an entire night in solitary prayer with God, and then decides to go and be with His disciples. Jesus decided to continue on.

I think about these events, how they unfolded. I think about the emotional drain that would have occurred from losing a loved one, having no time to mourn, ministering to an immense crowd, and then just spending a night in prayer. I think about the physical toll it must have taken to accomplish all these things as well.

Let me just say, even if I tried to force myself, I’m not sure I could accomplish what Jesus accomplished. I know, we might be thinking, well of course not, you’re not Jesus. But I’m not sure we should rely upon that crutch. While it is painstakingly true that I am not Jesus, we should not discount the fact that Jesus had humbled Himself to the likeness of His creation. He was a man, and suffered all the frailties of humanity. Let us not forget that beaten with a whip He bled, and nailed upon a cross, His body perished. We know from Scripture that He slept and ate as human beings need to do. Jesus required the same sustenance in life that we require. So, the excuse of, “well, I’m not Jesus,” doesn’t get us off the hook. We must not diminish the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, we can accomplish supernatural things - if God desires.

So then, if empowerment received through the Holy Spirit enables us to do things that would otherwise be impossible, what is the difference between Jesus’ determination to carry on, and our own?

Before we answer that question, let us look at another example of accomplishing the impossible from our passage.

Jesus walks on the water to reach the disciples, and while this is another example of the impossible, Jesus is not the one I am referring to. It is the fourth watch of the night, which means it is somewhere between 3 and 6 AM.

Fourth Watch of the Night

The disciples see a figure coming to them on the surface of the water, but cannot make out who, or even what, it is. The disciples first believe they are seeing a ghost -- let me take a quick aside for a moment. This passage is not an affirmation of the existence of ghosts. In fact, the Bible does a pretty extensive job rejecting the notion of ghosts entirely. I know that many people, including Christians, are fascinated with ghosts, and the occult. So, I want to say this, and then move on. As Christians we must understand that any fascination with ghosts, or with people who have died who might be roaming around in spirit form, is evil.

The Bible is clear that apart from the body, upon death, human beings either enter into the presence of Jesus Christ in Paradise, or are awaiting judgment in a place they cannot return from. As Lazarus enters Abraham’s bosom in Luke 16, the unnamed rich man in the story requests permission for the dead to return to the living in order to warn them of the peril they will experience if they die apart from the salvation of Jesus Christ. He is denied the request. Hebrews 9:27 states that “man is destined to die once, and after to face judgment.”

Bottom line is, the Bible gives no wiggle room for the dead roaming the earth, and thus, we conclude that any “ghost” activity would be demonic in nature. Thus, Christian, we should not take ghosts, or the supernatural lightly. In fact, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, “for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). If we are at war with the spiritual forces of evil, Christian, we ought not spend our time inviting them into our lives. In fact the response of the disciples in the boat who thought whatever was on the water was a ghost was “crying out in fear.”

Enough about ghosts. Let’s move on.

While the disciples were afraid, Jesus reveals to them that it is in fact He who draws near to them from the sea. And the response from Peter is almost unbelievable: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus then commands Peter to come, and Peter actually gets out of the boat and starts walking toward Jesus, on the water!

Walks on water

The only assurance Peter needs is to know that it is in fact Jesus who is coming toward them. If Jesus says “come,” Peter will jump out of the boat, and place his feet upon water as he’s never done before. Remember that Peter was a fisherman by trade. He spent years on the water, casting nets in and out. Drawing up fish from underneath the water, and pulling them up through the surface. He knows that a person is not capable of even standing upon the water, let alone walking on it. And yet, there’s his request, “if it’s You Jesus, tell me to walk on the water!”

Jesus does tell Peter to walk on the water, and Peter proceeds to do so! Yes, it’s true that as the story unfolds, Peter becomes afraid of the storm and begins to sink, but is that really what we’re going to focus on here? I mean, that happens naturally. I don’t ever expect to be able to walk on water when I jump from a boat. I mean, if all of a sudden I leaped from a boat, and landed on hard water, I would be so confused!

With all of that said, I believe there’s one thing that ties these individuals together. Jesus, Peter, Lottie Moon, and honestly many others who have walked in obedience to God’s will for their lives. Faith.

Faith

Now, you might think it odd for me to include Jesus in that list of people who have faith, and in all honesty, you probably should. As God incarnate, Jesus foresaw everything that would happen, and so according to the biblical definition of faith,which is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1), Jesus certainly saw the end of what would happen in God’s unfolding providential plan for humanity. I included Him however on the sole premise that what He knew would take place, had not yet occurred. While Jesus was fully aware of the ushering in of God’s kingdom through His own death, burial, and resurrection, these things had not yet happened. Therefore, on a technicality, and not something to get all worked up theologically about, Jesus too was acting in obedience to the will of God the Father with the assurance of things I definitely believe He hoped for.

All it took for Peter was to know that Jesus was the one on the water. Peter was willing to act in a way that defied everything he understood about natural laws, and that required absolute faith so long as He knew it was Jesus who was instructing him to do whatever it was he was about to do. Peter walked on water, which was miraculous, but Peter did something else in faith that I think we can better relate to in our modern context. At the end of the book of John Jesus reveals to Peter with a vivid example how he will die. Jesus then tells Peter, “follow Me” (John 21:19). In other words, Jesus promised that if Peter would follow Him, Peter would die a death in captivity at another persons hands. Jesus said “follow Me,” and Peter never turned back. Historical record tells us that Peter was a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ until he too was nailed to a cross and crucified for His faith.

Lottie Moon, who was mentioned earlier, served the people of China which ended up costing her her life. She did this because she wanted others to know of the good news of Jesus Christ, and the salvation that He offers.

The Apostle Peter lived a life of faith in that He believed that Jesus Christ was God incarnate who, in full humanity lived a perfect life, suffered at the hands of mortal men, was crucified as God’s substitutionary sacrifice for him and others, and was raised from the dead on the third day, conquering the consequences of sin and death for all of eternity. Peter lived a life of faith in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, not only to walk on water, and to deny natural law, but also to trust in Christ as the eternal Savior of his soul by whom he would receive eternal life.

This faith is same that Lottie Moon trusted in, and it is the same by which I personally live.

In Closing

In closing, I want to offer a challenge to us today. While many, if not all of us claim to have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I wonder if we are so caught up in the grand concept of faith that we do not live with that same faith in our everyday lives. This is what I love about the story of Peter so much. Peter certainly trusted Jesus with His eternal soul, but he also trusted Him enough to say, if you command me to walk on water, I will do it.

While I don’t believe Jesus would command us to walk on water today (although I suppose He could if He wanted to), I do believe that Jesus has commanded us to do some other things. He has commanded us to love God with all our hearts, soul, and mind. He has commanded us to love our neighbors. He has commanded us to make disciples of all nations teaching people all that Jesus has commanded us. And yet, I find, that while we have faith in the grandiose, we have little faith in the small.

So, Christian, I challenge you today, have faith in Jesus, and be obedient to the command to talk to your neighbor, and to love them today. Have faith to talk to express your faith in everyday conversations. Have faith enough to mention the name of Jesus to people you know don’t want to hear His name. I’m not even talking about open evangelism. I’m talking about our everyday conversations.

I knew a guy years ago who lost friends because he would always mention Jesus in ordinary conversation. “What did you do this weekend?” “I went to church where I worshipped God, and shared the love of Jesus.” He lost friends, but he also had many conversations about his faith where he never had to “try” to evangelize because Jesus was just a part of his every day speech.

Let us not be afraid to get out of the boat for Jesus. Let’s expect Jesus to work in ways that defy the norm. Let Jesus perform small miracles throughout each and every day that you may never expect. Live a life of faith not only in the the grand area of salvation, but live a life of faith every single day.

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