Troubled Waters

Introduction

Good evening and welcome back!

This evening if you have your Bible with you, turn to Matthew 14.

Specifically we are going to be looking at verses 22-33 and a very familiar incident between Jesus and Peter.

Well, really Jesus and all of his disciples were involved but Peter is our main guy here for this object lesson.

And just to set the stage of what is going on here, Jesus’ ministry is progressing and he is going about preaching the message of repentance.

Healing the sick, raising the dead, gathering crowds of people following him around.

You know, just normal everyday Jesus stuff.

And an incident happens that troubles and saddens Jesus.

That incident being the beheading of John the Baptist.

And I say it troubled and saddened Jesus because of His response to it.

Matthew 14:13 records that . . .

Matthew 14:13 NIV84

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.

Jesus desiring to withdraw to a solitary place is an indication that the news did trouble him.

And why wouldn’t it?

John was the one who baptized Jesus.

John was the one that came before Jesus proclaiming that He was coming.

John was the one that was preaching to the crowds that they need to repent—ahead of Jesus.

John was also Jesus’ kin.

They were cousins.

So, it was normal for Jesus to be upset by the news, even more upset than others.

Because He and John had a personal relationship.

And before I go on, I want to tell you that if you have a personal relationship with Jesus, he knows your pain.

He knows your sadness.

He knows your grief.

And He does feel it.

And He does care.

And He is with you—regardless of what any lie the enemy tries to tell you.

Jesus is there—ALWAYS.

So, back to what’s going on.

Jesus hears about John the Baptist’s death and He tries to withdraw to somewhere quiet, so he could process this.

But being Jesus, that wasn’t going to happen.

So, Jesus takes out in a boat to this unnamed solitary place, and crowds begin to flock from the towns on foot to meet Jesus there.

And the way the Bible describes this place it would be sort of out in the desert.

No food really, no water other than what they brought with them.

The sort of place where you could get away from everything and get in touch with God.

And the Bible also tells us that there were about 5000 men PLUS women and children, so there could have been upwards of 10,000 to 15,0000 there, just to hear Jesus preach and be healed.

And they came because they were hungry for the word.

They were hungry for Jesus.

They were literally chasing Jesus!

How hungry are we for the Word?

How far would we travel to hear the Word?

What lengths would we go through—what would we endure just to hear Jesus speak?

How hard are we willing to chase Jesus?

Something to think about.

Anyway, they are out there all day and Jesus is preaching to them and teaching to them and the sun begins to sit.

And all of these people are there with nothing to eat all day long.

And the disciples come to Jesus and tell Him its time to wrap it up and send them all home for the day before the darkness sets in.

Jesus though tells them—Nah, we’re good. Y’all go and get them something to eat.

And the disciples are like—dude you have lost your ever-loving mind!

Out of everybody here we got 5 loaves of bread and two little bitty sardines.

How are we going to feed all these people with that?

And we know what happens . . .

Matthew 14:19–20 NIV84

And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

So, not only did everybody get fed that day with the bread of life.

They got their belly’s full with 12 baskets leftover.

When God pours out a blessing there will always be more left over to bless somebody else!

And we ain’t even got to the good part of the message yet!

When Jesus is on the scene—don’t you worry, EVERYBODY gets fed.

EVERYBODY!

And this brings us up to where we can finally start preaching a little bit.

Matthew 14, starting in verse 22, the Bible reads . . .

Scripture Focus

Matthew 14:22–33 NIV84

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

The Big Set Up

Now, I love what Jesus did here.

Because really he was setting his disciples up.

He was getting them ready to learn a lesson in life and in ministry.

And they didn’t have any idea what was coming.

They were just walking on the high that they had just experienced with Jesus feeding all these people and sending them home with leftovers.

But you see that’s how Jesus works.

He don’t let us sit around and rest too long.

No, there’s too much to do—too much at stake.

Jesus is always on the move and we had better learn to move with Him.

And I like to call what Jesus did here in verse 22, “The Big Set Up!”

Because that is exactly what Jesus was doing here.

Look at it . . .

Matthew 14:22 NIV84

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.

Immediately, before the Disciples had time to think—before they even had time to completely react, what does Jesus do?

He sends them away.

“Boy’s get in the boat and go.”

“Your work here is done, but there is more work to do, so get over there and start preparing for that work.”

Don’t set around resting on the good service you had this morning.

Don’t set around resting on the good times and blessings from the past.

It has served it’s purpose, but keep your eye on the prize.

Keep focused—not on the outcome, but on the mission!

And that is where we get into trouble sometimes and delay or even miss altogether the work that God wants to do.

We get so focused on the final result, the outcome, the success of what God has already done, we forget that God ain’t done.

That there is still work to be done.

And God still requires us to do the work.

So listen, we need to let Jesus take care of what has already been and get ready for what is to come!

So, Jesus sends them on ahead of Him while he takes care of the crowd.

And when He does that the Bible says that . . .

Matthew 14:23 NIV84

After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,

And you know why? Jesus had poured himself out completely to the people that day.

Jesus went to pray so that he could be refreshed, so that he could connect with the Father, so that he could be strengthened, so that he could be encouraged.

And if Jesus needed that, then shouldn’t we be following Jesus’ example?

You know, we talk about getting filled up and pouring ourselves out every single day, and I think sometimes we forget to go to the filling station and fill back up.

We end up running on empty too long.

And you know what happens to a car when you run it on empty too long?

Well, you run out of gas and the car won’t go no more.

And you also burn out the fuel pump.

And when the fuel pump gets burned out she’s done for.

The only solution is to replace the pump to get it going again.

And I think that some of may need our pump replaced because sometime in the past somewhere we tried and we either ran out gas and burned the pump up or got burned and we just gave up.

Called it a day and didn’t fix the pump.

Well Jesus is not only a doctor, he’s also a mechanic.

So, saved or not, if your pump needs replacing, let Jesus in there to do some work.

So, Jesus is up on the mountainside getting what He needs to continue on and His disciples are down there in the boat, out in the middle of the water basically rowing around in circles.

They are in trouble again.

In the Gospel of John it said that they had rowed out about 3 -3 1/2 miles off the shore.

And here in Matthew it says . . .

Matthew 14:24 NIV84

but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

And that being “buffeted by the waves” means just what it says.

The waves were crashing all around it and they were paddling but they were not making any progress.

They were stuck.

Doing everything they could in their power to get where Jesus wanted them to be.

But they couldn’t do it.

They couldn’t make any progress—why?

Because they were operating under their own power and their own strength.

And because they were operating under their own power and own strength, they were now in troubled waters.

They needed to be saved.

And that is why I call this the “Big Set Up.”

Because Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen and Jesus was going to teach them something about faith.

So, here they are out there floundering around, probably hollering and screaming.

And I can almost picture Jesus standing up on the mountainside watching this take place.

Probably shaking his head a little bit at them.

And waiting, and waiting, and then . . .

Matthew 14:25–26 NIV84

During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

So, its just going from bad to worse for these disciples.

Not only are they in trouble from the water, they now think the boogyman is coming to get them.

And these are the same men who just saw a whole day’s worth of miracles.

They had just saw the power of God on full display.

And now they are terrified of the water and of ghosts!

How quickly they forget the true nature and power of God.

How quickly do we forget the true nature and power of God?

When the water gets a little turbulent.

When the evil spirits of this world start to come against us.

Instead of immediately turning to Jesus, we start paddling and paddling, trying to fix everything ourselves.

We panic.

Instead of panicking why don’t we give Jesus a try?

Why don’t we just call out to Him?

They didn’t get it, but Jesus didn’t leave them there.

Jesus came to their rescue . . .

Matthew 14:27 NIV84

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

And before we move on, there is something I want to point out about when Jesus said, it is I!

The Greek words here are ego eimi, and that is a very specific phrase that was used in Isaiah chapters 40-50 by God when he tells the people, He alone has the power to rescue them.

Jesus is telling His disciples here, I ALONE HAVE THE POWER TO SAVE YOU.

He is telling us, HE ALONE HAS THE POWER TO SAVE US.

He alone has the power to deliver us.

He alone has the power to heal us.

Him and Him alone.

There is no other.

It has been, is, and always will be JESUS!

Peter Puts Him to the Test

So, now when Jesus shows up on the scene, walking on that water, man I think Peter is on fire.

Peter says if my Lord can do it I can do it.

And he wants it.

And he tells Jesus . . .

Matthew 14:28 NIV84

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

Oh, Lord call me to you!

Call me out on that water!

Just let me get a taste!

Just let me get a touch!

And Jesus didn’t leave him hanging . . .

Matthew 14:29 NIV84

“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

The only other person ever recorded besides Jesus to walk on water.

But he was only able to do it because he had faith in Jesus.

He was only able to do it because he kept his eyes fixed on Jesus.

He didn’t waver, he didn’t back down, he didn’t back up.

His Lord called him out and he went.

And that is what He wants for us, all the time, every day!

And we have to decide if that’s really what we want.

And I think that we do—at first.

But then things get hard.

Things get a little uncertain.

The water gets a little bit choppy.

Things don’t go quite the way we think they should be.

And we start to look around and take our eyes off of Jesus.

The enemy starts to huff and puff, and we get scared.

And what happens?

Matthew 14:30 NIV84

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

We begin to sink and all those things we were so excited about start to go down with us.

All those things that God wants to do start to sink with us.

And we have two choices at that point.

Either we sink and drown, or we cry out Lord save me!

And even though we messed up.

Even though we wavered . . .

Matthew 14:31 NIV84

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

So, don’t think for a minute that Jesus is going to abandon you.

Don’t think for a minute that He won’t come and rescue you.

Because He will—every time!

But also, don’t think that He won’t teach you a lesson either.

Don’t think he won’t ask you why did you doubt? Where is your faith?

Because Jesus loves us, He is going to teach us.

He is going to teach us to keep our eyes on Him.

Keep our mind on Him.

Altar/Challenge

God has great things in store for each of us.

God has great things in store for the churches in this community.

We have to decide whether or not we are going to claim it and walk in faith toward it.

We have to decide whether we are going to keep our eyes on Jesus or just paddle around in circles.