Matthew 14:22-33 (New International Version)

Jesus Walks on the Water

 22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but the boat was already a considerable distance^[a] from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

 25During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.

 27But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

 28"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."

 29"Come," he said.

   Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

 31Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

 32And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

The fourth watch of the night: between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. The Romans divided the twelve hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. into four equal parts called "watches."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon “Take Me By the Hand”

 

Recently Ethan, our son who is five and ½, has started swim lessons.  It was kind of cool, Gina Boyle from the church was his instructor.  One of the goals of the lessons is to get them to swim in the pool with no help.  I wasn’t able to make a lot of the lessons, but since he graduated, we have been in the pool quite a bit.

 

One of my favorite things to do is to have him jump and swim to me from the steps.  It begins by him saying “daddy move closer”.  I move a little closer and then like any good father as soon as he jumps I step back.  And he paddles furiously with his green goggles on.  He always makes it, or if he is looking like he is going to sink I move in for the rescue.  In any case he comes out of the water thrilled that he did it!

 

Ethan can’t walk on water, but at least he is coming closer to swimming on it.  Today we see Jesus teaching his disciples yet another lesson in what it means to trust in Him and in God.  Before these chapters Jesus had taught them in the Sermon on the Mount how to apply the Old Testament commandments to following him.

 

Then he began to teach them in parables saying, “the kingdom of heaven is like”.  These riddles unlocked the secrets of God’s plan for the world and how we become a part of it. 

 

Then these past two weeks, Jesus engages the disciples with some practical learning.  The disciples feed the five thousand hungry people with two fish and five loaves.  And today Jesus walks out on the water to meet the disciples who are struggling to land the boat in inclement weather.  

 

The text says that it is the “fourth watch of the night”, which would have been between 3 and 6 am.  The Romans divided the night into four watches.   

 

Peter, always the impulsive one says, “Lord if it is you tell me to come to you on the water.”  Jesus takes him up on it and for a minute Peter is walking on water too.  But Peter gets distracted and begins to sink.  In desperation he cries out to Jesus who rescues him and takes him by the hand.

 

If you step back and look at it as a whole, you see that there is intentional mentoring program that Jesus is giving these guys. He does something (like healing or casting out demons).  He teaches on how it happens (sermon on the mount, parables).  And then allows the disciples participate (feeding of the 5,000, walking on water).  

 

Also as we look at this particular passage we see what faith in action looks like! 

 

 

 

 

 

1.)    First Step of Faith

 

Faith always begins with that first step of faith.  It is stepping out trusting in Jesus to help you do something you could never do on your own.  Faith is not active, it is passive.  Faith is hard to explain, but can be described as doing or believing something in your life where you will only succeed if God shows up.  It transfers our reliance from ourselves to God.

 

Jesus said in John 15:5, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” This is the most widely quoted verse in the Lutheran Confessions.  If you read Luther the role of faith comes out very clearly.  Luther says of faith on one occasion:

 

“It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God. It kills the old Adam and makes us altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers; and it brings with it the Holy Spirit. O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly."

 

In Hebrews 11, commonly called the “Hall of Faith”, the writer recounts various people in the Old Testament who trusted in God.  In verse 6 he adds, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

 

Of course we can talk about definitions all we want but faith is made strong when it is exercised.  And importantly as Peter showed it is often in little initial steps of faith that we trust God. 

 

When I was looking at going to seminary possibly leading to becoming a pastor, I remember what seemed like a huge step of faith for me was going to visit one.  I flew to Bethel Seminary in Minnesota and just that act of taking a little step of faith.

 

I got these brochures that started to all randomly show up at my apartment and I kept staring at them and saying, “Okay God what do you want me to do about this!”  And in fact as I think I have shared with you (probably ad nauseum) it was those little steps of faith that eventually led me to become a pastor. 

 

If someone would have said to me, “Okay sign up here to become a pastor”, I don’t think I would have been able to do it.  But yeah I can check out a seminary or two. 

 

Is there a step of faith God is calling you to, something that just seems to keep staring at you in the face?  Taking that first step of faith is the first step to walking on water.

 

2.)    That Sinking Feeling

 

So we see that Peter had a great time water walking, until he saw the winds.  As he took his eyes off of Jesus, he went from exhilaration to fear and he began to sink. 

 

I’m sure you’ve experienced this some time in your life.  You were doing something you thought you couldn’t do and as you thought about it, you took your eyes off of what you are doing and began to sink.

 

The first analogy that comes to mind is riding a bike.  When you first learn you are doing it and experiencing the joy, and then fear sets in and the bike starts to wobble.  You start to get that sinking feeling. 

 

And I think this translates into our relationship with God as well. We say okay if this is of you, I will try.  And so we step out a little in faith and feel pretty good.  We feel weightless and realize that someone is holding us up.  But then distraction sets in and we take our eyes off of Jesus and begin to sink. 

 

This has so many applications.  It could be giving up something you Jesus wants you to give up.  As long as you keep your eyes on Him and the daily bread He gives you can do it.  But then a thought comes in like, “I’m not going to be able to this for the rest of my life, so I might as well give up.”  You begin to sink.

 

It might be going out on a limb and doing something for God like organizing a group to feed the homeless.  Or teaching a Sunday School class.  Or leading a bible study.  Or sharing your faith with a friend.  We take a first step and feel great and then all of sudden that sinking feeling comes in, “What have I got myself into”. 

 

The feeling we get from these instances might be summarized by a single word, “powerlessness”.  It is at this stage we can continue to sink or cry out, “Lord save me”. 

 

3.) Take Me By The Hand

 

As a pastor my job is always to find the Good News in a given text.  The Good News here is “Immediately Jesus reached out His and caught him.” 

 

I’m sure Peter was particularly fond of the “immediately”.  This is God’s grace.  Even when we are sinking, if we will cry out to Him, He will lend us a hand and catch us.

 

I can’t even tally the amount of times Jesus has caught me when I was sinking, because I took my eyes off Him.   You know we see in the text where Jesus says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  It might be tempting to think Jesus was scolding him.  But as I contemplated it maybe Jesus was saying it in the sense of, “Why did you doubt.  Didn’t you enjoy walking on the water?  Why did you let fear rob you of that joy? I want you to experience this all the time.  I don’t want you to be ruled by fear by faith!”

 

 As I saw my son taking a leap of faith to swim to me not only did it bring me great joy, I can assure I would have never let him swim.  If we feel that way about our kids, how does our heavenly Father feel this way about us?

 

As we face struggles or opportunities in our lives get a picture of God saying, “Come on in jump in I will catch you if you start to sink.  Have faith in me!” 

 

Amen.