Faith in the Midst of Chaos Matthew 14:22-33 Main Idea: Stepping out in faith as you obey His Word lets you see how wonderful Jesus really is!

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1 Faith in the Midst of Chaos Matthew 14:22-33 Main Idea: Stepping out in faith as you obey His Word lets you see how wonderful Jesus really is! It had been an exhausting day. In Matthew 14:12 we read that Jesus really seemed to have been impacted by the news that Herod beheaded John the Baptist. Jesus and His disciples withdrew from the crowds, going across the Sea of Galilee to the eastern shore to pray. When He came on shore, there was already a crowd waiting for Him. After ministering to them that day in that desolate place all day, He fed five thousand men from five loaves and two fish. Then He had the disciples gather up the leftovers, twelve baskets in all. The crowd went wild over Jesus, according to the account in John 6, wanting to take Jesus by force to make Him their king. Who wouldn t want a king who gave out free food? But it was no more the will of God for Jesus to come into possession of His kingdom at that time than it was when Satan tempted Jesus in Matthew 4. Jesus met the temptation by getting away from the people, going up to a mountain to pray alone. Jesus sent the disciples back into the boat to precede Him to the other side. One cannot help but wonder if the reason Jesus sent the disciples away was that they also wanted to make Jesus king. The disciples had a fairly easy row of about 7 miles across the Sea of Galilee to their home town on the west side of the Sea. It should have been an easy trip reaching Bethsaida (Capernaum) by 9:00 p.m. But instead, between three and six in the morning, after pulling hard at the oars all night, they were only three to four miles across the lake. Their boat was tossed about by high violent waves. And the wind was contrary, coming in from the west. So they were fighting against the wind, struggling to reach land with very little success. Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen. Very possibly, the rest were pretty seasick! So it wasn t a pretty picture on board! It was chaotic! There is no question in my mind that Jesus knew all about their situation. Jesus purposely sent them out alone on the sea from early evening to three to six in the morning. In Mark s account of the same story (Mark 6:48) it even says that Jesus saw them out there, struggling in the storm. Doesn t it make you wonder why Jesus sometimes waits so long to snatch us out of chaos, or why He even lets us get into it? But Jesus definitely was not with them in the boat like He was the time they awakened Him (Matthew 8:23-27) and He stilled the waters. This time they were all alone when all of a sudden, their fears were compounded. It wasn t just the contrary wind and the waves any more. They saw a ghost walking on the water towards them. It had to be a ghost because everyone knows that a human being cannot walk on water! From their fearful cries, it almost sounds like they thought they were seeing the Grim Reaper! The only thing that calmed their fears were Jesus words (V 27), Take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid. Jesus calmed their fears by His presence. But there is something that doesn t come out in our English translation very well. The KJV, the NASB, and NIV all translate saying, It is I. The NLT tries to make the meaning clearer by saying I am here. But that only confuses the meaning of what Jesus said. The central words in what Jesus said to His disciples could more accurately be translated I AM from the Greek text. Take courage. I AM. Do not be afraid. Those are the same 1

2 words that the Greek Septuagint uses for the translation of Exodus 3 when God told Moses His name, saying I AM WHO I AM. Moses was to tell Israel, I AM has sent me. Jesus words resonate with the name of God given to Moses. It is appropriate here because Jesus, the Son of God, the great I AM, was standing on chaotic waters bringing assurance and comfort to His disciples just as God did to Moses out of the burning bush. Jesus brought comfort and assurance to the disciples by asserting that He, the One who was present with them was God I AM. But it still didn t take away the wind and the waves. In V 28 we read Peter s response. Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. What was he thinking? That had to be about the stupidest thing that anyone could say! Who wants to have to be challenged like that? Was Peter thinking straight? Was his thinking addled from seeing Jesus miraculously walking on water? Sure enough, seeing Jesus doing the miraculous lets us get away from thinking that we have to be bound by the ordinary. Lord, give me a challenge that will demonstrate unmistakably that You are God! Was he putting God to a test? Was it the prompting of the Holy Spirit? And was his response one of faith? All I know for sure is that Peter s is the response of one who heard Jesus say, I AM. Peter s response indicates he understood Jesus revelation that He was God. What else could it mean that Peter would ask to walk on the water to Jesus? Peter couldn t do that! Only God could enable him to do it! Peter s response definitely wasn t presumptuous. He said, Command me. He did not presume to think he had enough faith to step out of the boat on his own. Did Peter have authentic faith? There is no question when you see Peter s commitment to Jesus word. If Jesus was wrong, Peter would be in terrible trouble. So Jesus responded to Peter with a simple command in v 29. Come! He didn t give the invitation to those who had not asked to walk with Him. But that command is all it took to give Peter everything that he needed to walk on water. When Jesus commands us to do something, He always gives us everything we need to obey His command. Peter stepped out of the boat under Jesus protection and authority. He simply obeyed the command. He got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward Jesus. Do you see Peter s commitment of faith? How different from so many who would say, Oh yes, I believe that God can do it! without stepping out of the boat! Now that Peter was out of the boat, there was no less danger than before. But Peter stepped out of the boat because he wanted to walk with Jesus. He wanted to go through everything in life with Jesus. When Jesus says to you, Come! you cannot walk to Him without stepping out of the boat into the tumult of life. And if you don t respond in faith and step out of the boat, you ll never find out how wonderful Jesus really is. The only trouble with stepping out of the boat is that things look different when you are walking on the water away from the relative safety of the boat. The waves look a lot bigger, more dangerous. The chaos around you is darker and more menacing. So V 30 tells us that Peter saw the wind and the waves and became frightened, when in V 27, Jesus just finished telling them not to be 2

3 frightened. Peter had taken his eyes off of Jesus, the I AM and put them on his own circumstances. Of course he went down; who can walk on water? A man cannot do it! Only God can do that! Now John 21:7 tells us that Peter was a good swimmer but when he started to sink, Peter only had enough time above water to shout out the shortest prayer in the Bible, Lord, save me! But what an effective prayer! Jesus stretched out His hand (V 31) and took hold of Peter and saved him. Then Jesus spoke to Peter alone, before they got into the boat, reproaching Peter for his lack of faith. You of little faith, why did you doubt? But Peter s little faith did not keep Jesus from saving him because Peter s weak faith had been put in the all-powerful I AM! The words of Jesus are not words of condemnation but rather Jesus asks Peter to examine why he took his eyes off Jesus and put them on the water? Jesus words have the sense of, You of little trust, why did you hold back?" But this is not the last time that Peter would fail Jesus. Verse 32 says that as soon as they got back in the boat, the wind stopped! After all Jesus is the great I AM, and it is inevitable that nature would respond to its Creator. You see, Jesus had no more use for the storm. He already had finished using it to reveal His glory to His disciples. And then verse 33 tells us of the inevitable response of those who followed Jesus. Those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, You are certainly God s Son. The disciples were amazed at Jesus' power. In the Matthew 8 story, they said, "What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" But after they see the great I AM walking on the water, they say, "You are truly the Son of God." Did you notice that most of those in the boat were spectators? The Scriptures say that they worshiped Jesus. But those in the boat would also include Peter who was now back in the boat! If the spectators worshiped Jesus, how much more must Peter have worshiped? Up to now, the throngs of people had followed Jesus. Not much later, many disillusioned followers left Jesus. In Matthew 16:16, just a day or so later, Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was. It is not surprising that it was Peter who responded, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said that God that revealed the truth about Jesus to Peter. You see, God revealed that to Peter when he stepped out of the boat at Jesus command! Peter was able to worship Jesus as the great I AM, the Christ, the Son of the living God! Application: Well, that s an interesting story, and a true one. But I d like to talk about how it relates to us for just a few minutes, asking you some questions. 1) Has God revealed Himself to you as the great I AM? I trust that He has, because He wants you to know Him! 2) Are you expectantly looking to Him to lead you to step out of the relative safety to which you have become accustomed? If you are going to walk with Him, you had better expect that He will. After all, it s in those places in which you have to depend totally on Him that you learn who Jesus really is! 3

4 3) If God has said Come! to you, have you stepped out of the boat or are you the spectator type? You can t walk with Jesus if you don t step out of the boat. But when you hear Him say Come! you can step out onto the water with confidence. After all, when He has told you to come, He makes provision for you to walk on water if that is what you need to do to come! 4) So you ve stepped out of the boat. Have the wind and the waves come into focus more clearly for you? If they haven t, they will soon. The storm is coming for sure so that Jesus can be revealed! But are your eyes on Him or are they on the waves? Don t be afraid to admit your fear and your doubt but keep your eyes on Jesus. Our imperfect faith doesn t erase all fear and doubt! Spurgeon said, The heart that hath never doubted has not yet learned to believe. As the farmers say, The land that will not grow a thistle, will not grow wheat; and the heart that cannot produce a doubt has not yet understood the meaning of believing. I d like to give you a three examples of what it looks like to step out of the boat in faith. The first example is a roofing contractor in Tucson, Arizona. He and his wife knew the Lord and they wanted to grow in Him. They were actively seeking to know Him better. The Lord impressed on them that they should take a special needs child into their home. The child God called them to love was grotesquely deformed physically, and mentally he was little more than a vegetable. They could have never anticipated how the wind and the waves would rise. They had no idea how this would challenge their faith. At times they could only cry out, Lord, save me! just like Peter did. But the beautiful thing is that the Lord revealed Himself to them in a way that no mere spectator could ever know Him. Jesus became more precious to them as they were walking with Him, their eyes always on Him. They became true worshipers! The second example is our church. Jesus had already revealed Himself to us as the great I AM. But we had been praying for a number of years that He would help us to really know Him, to let us walk with Him. Then the Lord asked us to step out of the boat! He indicated to us that it was time to get building. Shouldn t we have expected that He would ask us to step out of the boat? We were praying that He would reveal Himself. But it didn t make sense to build. We didn t have the financing to do it. We didn t have a loan approval. Who can build with no financing in place? But the Lord was saying to us, Come! I want you to step out onto the water, where it impossible for you to walk on your own. I want you to come to know me in a way that would be impossible if you were walking on your own. But should we have expected Him to command us to step out of the boat onto something more solid than water? We were asking Him to reveal Himself. And so in faith we stepped out of the boat. Now it seems that not just the walls are higher than we imagined. The waves are higher too, and the wind that drives them is much higher. Costs are escalating. Things don t happen on the schedule we want them to happen. In short, chaos undergirds what from the outside looks like an orderly construction project! 4

5 From our perspective, it could easily look like we are going down! We are getting in deeper and deeper over our heads. But what should we have expected? We asked God to reveal Himself to us through this project! He is just making it perfectly clear to all of us that we can t walk on water. No man can do that; only God can! All we can do is cry out, Lord, save us! And when we as a church turn our eyes off the wind and the waves, and put them back on Jesus, He will reveal Himself to us in such a way that we will worship Him. We see the third example in some of you who have come from religious backgrounds, caught up in religiosity, but frustrated in trying to live righteously. In your need, Jesus, the great I AM revealed Himself to you and you responded in faith, stepping out of the relative safety to which you had become accustomed in order to walk with Him. You could give testimony to the blessing of walking with Him, but the waves want to overwhelm you sometimes. You could also give testimony about having to cry out, Lord, save me! and about seeing Him reach out and hold you above the waters! But you are growing as true worshipers of Jesus Christ! As we close this morning, I want to invite all of you to become more than a spectator sitting in the boat. Ask Jesus to command you to come walk with Him. And then as He leads you, don t hesitate to step out onto the water. Inevitably, the wind and the waves will look a whole lot higher when you do that, but what would you expect. That s what it takes to show you that only He can walk on water. He will be the one to hold you up as you put your eyes on Him! And you will become a better worshiper as your knowledge of the great I AM increases! 5

6 Faith in the Midst of Chaos Matthew 14:22-33 Main Idea: Jesus asks us to step out in faith so that we can see how wonderful He really is! The Context for the Story (V 12-26): An exhausting day Disciples on the sea I AM on the Water (V 27) Jesus and Peter (V 28-31) Peter s request Jesus command Peter s response Obedience Fear and doubt Prayer of desperation and faith Jesus reproach to Peter Response of Worship (V 32-33) Application: 6