Okay, so Jesus walks on the water. I love this event. Love this
portion of scripture. I love how throughout my life,
the meaning of it has changed. I think as a child, obviously,
it's a very well-known piece of scripture. And on a kid level, it's especially
cool. just in the fact that Christ
walks on water. Just on a human level, especially
when you're younger, miracles are cool. They're exciting. And this, especially, had a certain
level of awe, the idea of Christ being able to walk on water. But as you grow, especially if you have your eyes
opened by the Spirit of the Lord, the meaning of this changes. I mean, all of Christ's miracles
are great, obviously. The walking on the water especially,
like I said, awe-inspiring. But the truth about what this
means is actually much more exciting and encouraging than the miracle
of Christ walking on water. the miracle of him not sinking
in water. I mean, once you know Christ,
have an understanding of who he is, the idea of him walking
on water isn't that hard to believe. He made the universe with a word. For him to bend the laws of physics,
not difficult. So the idea of this miraculous
thing, to our standards, absolutely it is. To him, very easy. So, that to me, as amazing as
it is, to man's very limited abilities and understanding,
it's incredible, but to the believer, the beauty in this story, the
gospel in this story, is what happens to Peter. It's revealed in what happens
to Peter. And I love Peter. I'm not gonna
say I'm a scholar when it comes to the Bible by any means, but
even Joe mentioned this last week. Peter has, throughout his
time in the Bible, had a very good habit of opening his mouth
and shoving his foot in it on a regular basis. He was a quick
action, slow to think. And I have a very, I feel like
I, have a connection to Peter in that way. And I love that about Peter,
to be honest. I mean, he, multiple times in the Bible, he's rebuked,
basically, because of his actions. I mean, he was one of the disciples
that argued about which one of them was the greatest. When Christ said to them that
he would suffer these many great things at the hands of The Romans
and Peter stood up and said, I will not let it happen. Just
quick, gut instinct, being a man, standing up quick, and what did
Christ say to him? He said, get behind me, Satan. Last supper, Peter said, even
if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. And later that
night, he disowned Christ three times. Once, as Joe said last
week, with curses. to a little girl. As Christ is about to be arrested,
Peter basically tried to stab a guy in the head with a sword.
He didn't try to cut his ear off. That was not his goal. And
what did Christ say? Peter, I could call on my father
right now and bring legions of angels to stop this. Peter was
a man of action, not so much a man of thought. And I love
that about Peter, because as much as he loved Christ. His flesh got in the way all
the time. Over and over and over. And I
guess that's where I truly feel a connection to Peter. I think
we all do. And this event is no different.
Peter, in this story, is a picture of God's people. In a couple
different ways. I've been thinking about preaching
on this for a while. It pictures what the believer
goes through in his life on this world. And of course it also pictures
the spiritual life of a believer, both. But I'm first gonna focus
on what it means to us while we're here, our path, while we're
part of this world. So the very first part we talk
about here is when they see him walking on water, it says that
they see him and they're terrified. When a believer's eyes are first
opened to see the gospel and see the truth, the first thing
they're made aware of is who they are, what they are, their
level of sin, their position relative to God, is strictly
and solely underneath the hammer of judgment. It's the first thing
you realize. Unbelievers don't see that. Believers
do because that's what makes you turn to Christ. So the first
aspect of when you're having your eyes open to the truth is
to see the truth of where you are. And it's terrifying. Only the true believer understands
that they are not sick or wounded or in need of some help. Only
the believer understands what it means to be dead in transgressions
and sins. And even we don't fully grasp
it. But we understand it enough to
know that we need a Savior. We are not in need of help. We
are not sick and in need of some medicine. We are a corpse trying
to become alive. That doesn't work. What can a
corpse do for itself? That's the first realization
of a believer and that's terrifying. And I say only a believer sees
this or knows this because you can only know this if the spirit
of God shows it to you. And if the Spirit of God shows
to you your true condition, you will turn to Christ. You'll know that there is absolutely
no other way. So when Peter calls to Christ,
asking him to come on the water, that's what follows. So you see
what you really are. But that's followed immediately
by Realizing you're in a position of zero hope But there is one
hope And it's perfect and it's unfailing and it cannot lose
So you're here and then you're here especially at first The
death of sin that we can now see the judgment of God that
we can see that we now deserve in our hopeless state, we are
shown that there is a hope. One hope, a perfect hope that
cannot fail. Not a hope that something must
be done to improve our standing. Not a hope in a long, hard path
of improvement to somehow lessen the judgment of God. Not a hope
of what can be done. A hope in what has already been
done. A hope in what, not in what we
as dead sinners can do, but a hope in what Christ, the Son of God,
has already finished. A glorious truth that brings
joy and gratitude and humility. So in an earthly way, we're down
here when we find out, when we're shown what we truly are. But
shortly after, we have this lifting, this the perfect hope that we
can hold on to. And Peter says, yes, Lord, tell
me to come onto the water. And Christ says, come. Peter
got up and climbed out of the boat and walked on the water,
and it says that he came towards Jesus, so I'd imagine he got
a little ways from the boat. So, in our paths here on this
world, as a believer, your eyes will be opened. You'll see who
you are. and you'll be shown what Christ
has done. And then what happens next? The wind and the waves come. When you've been given sight,
and you are richly blessed to know Christ and know the gospel,
your life in this world will not get easier. Matter of fact,
it could get harder. Peter, even in his zeal and love
for Christ, got distracted by the world. He saw the wind and
the waves. You ever been on a boat at night?
Tyler, I'm sure you have. Especially in the middle of like
a lake or out on the ocean at night, it doesn't get much blacker. than that. I mean, there's no
light. Especially back then, think about that, there was no
cities, nothing, so there was cities, but no electricity, no
light, so it couldn't be darker where they were. You're in the
middle of a lake in the middle of the night. A small boat, zero
lights, it would be black and it would be scary. Then you add a storm, wind and
waves, I'm not an avid fisherman or
anything like that, but I've been on the beach of the ocean
on a really, really rough day. And if you've ever experienced
that, a massive wave, you realize very quickly that you have zero
power in that situation, no control. It can do what it wants with
you. So imagine that in the middle of blackness, in the middle of
a scary, dark sea, Even, you realize, like I said,
very quickly that you have zero power in that situation. So it
was as dark as you can imagine, and the waves in sea were completely
overpowering. That is a terrifying situation, as can our time be in this world. I would bet that every single
one of you, when you think about difficulties, Something pops
in your head right now. Everybody's dealing with something. Sometimes worse than others.
But everybody's dealing with something. And they can be really,
really hard. Could be your job. Could be your family. Could be money. Could be your health. Could be
physical pain. Could be a pain in your heart.
For someone. Or loneliness. Could be a pain in your head. Internal struggles. These things are very, very,
very difficult. And that's what this is meaning right here. You
can feel it an awful lot, like we get distracted by those things
and we are sinking. But through all of this, through the black, rough sea of life, there's one
aspect of this event that doesn't change. Peter notices the wind, the waves,
the darkness. At that point, the boat was probably
quite a ways from him. He's in the middle of the ocean,
middle of a sea, in the middle of the night, in the middle of
a storm, sinking. That's terrifying. But what didn't change? Christ was still right there. Gonna hold it together, promise
myself. Whatever you're dealing with, you are not alone. Christ is right there. Christ never moved. Christ never
changed. Christ was there with Peter the
entire time, watching closely. Peter was never in danger. Peter
thought he was. Peter thought he was done for. But not for one minute was Peter
in danger of drowning. Christ was right there. But as one of Christ's people,
he was never truly in danger. Christ actually brought those
winds and waves. There's a comfort in that. To think about the hardships
that you deal with, whatever they may be, they are not out
of his control. They are under his control. What
a comfort to know that whatever you're dealing with, whatever
you're fighting against, is actually brought by one who loves you. It's a wonderful comfort to not
only know he's there, but to know that this is part of his
plan. Temporary discomforts in a world
that we temporarily live in. That's what these are. And when Peter called out for
help, Christ did not hesitate. I love that. This is where the meaning of
this story is more gonna be about spiritual life and eternal things
rather than just what we deal with here. When we ask for help, it's not
asking Christ to fix our problems. Sure, we can ask that, and absolutely,
he might. But Christ never promised us that he would take away our
hardships in this world. As a matter of fact, he guarantees
we'll have them. In John 16.33, it says, in this
world you will have trouble. It's gonna happen. If you're
having a great day today, tomorrow might not be. Maybe it will. But there will be difficulties,
there will be hardships. But in the spiritual sense of
this story, the dark Violent sea is much more dangerous than
representing just the difficulties we have in this world. In the
eternal sense, it actually represents the judgment of God. A dark and violent sea against
which we stand no chance. We are guilty and deserving judgment. The boat is gone and we have
no hope on our own. But we are not alone. The believer calls to Christ
to save them. And again, he doesn't hesitate.
Peter cries, just as all who believe cry, Lord, save me. And I'm so thankful for the first
word in the next verse. Immediately, Jesus reaches out
his hand to catch him. There is no demand that Peter
swim a little closer. There is no request for more
obedience. There is no rebuke of his endless
list of sins. There is no demand of greater
faith. Immediately, Jesus reaches out
his hand to catch him. Christ has promised that he will
always reach out his hand to catch his people. John 6, 37,
it says, all those the Father gives me will come to me, and
of those I will turn none away. Christ never promised to make
things easy in this world. He promises the opposite. He
says in this world you'll have trouble, but take heart. or be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world. I have overcome didn't mean that
everything here is gonna be okay. That's obviously not the case.
It means that everything here that we deal with is of no real
eternal consequence to us. Everything here that we deal
with will end here. To unbelievers, they will someday
cry and wish for the difficulties of this world. For us, this world has already
been overcome. All of our hardships that we
deal with will end here. Though both the hardships of
this world and the condition of our relationship to God Through
both of those, there is one constant, Christ and what he has done.
Like it said earlier in that hymn, he stands before the Lord
and says your name. The Lord will accept that. Christ is always right there.
Everything around us changes as the sea is dark and violent.
Christ is always there. It makes me think, I sang this song last week, of
the lyrics of I Know Whom I Have Believed. I think I actually
commented on it last week too. There's so much that we don't
know. And this story is a perfect example
of that. So much out of our control. So
much violence-y, so much darkness that we have to deal with, both
in this world and spiritually. But there's one constant. It
says in that song, it says, I know not why God's wondrous grace
to me he hath made known. I don't know why. nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeemed me for his own. I don't know why. I don't know,
I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing
Jesus in the word, creating faith in him. Creating faith in me
is a miracle. Creating faith in any of us is
a miracle. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. Just like what Peter just dealt
with, what you're dealing with right now. Or of weary ways or
golden days before his face I see. We don't know. But I know who I believe in. Peter was sinking into a dark,
violent sea, and Christ was right there, and he called to him.
As we're dealing with whatever we're dealing with in this world,
or when you finally have your eyes opened and you see what
you truly are, Christ is there. Lord, save me, and immediately
he will reach out and catch you. So no matter what you're dealing
with, the weight of this world, the weight of your sin, Christ is always there, and he's
already done everything that's necessary to bring you home. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this
time this morning. We thank you, Jesus, for doing everything you've
already done for us. We thank you for the fact that
there's nothing left for us to do because we can't. We thank you, Lord, that we know
that whatever we're dealing with in this world, it will be temporary,
and that it's being made in a way that we will eventually be with
you. So it's for our good. Give us the ability to remember
that as much as we can and trust in that as much as we can. We
thank you for your promises. Help us to trust them as much
as we can. And we pray all of this.