Matthew chapter 14 verse 22. This is a scripture that you've
probably heard from your youth. And I pray the Lord would bless
it to you today. It's one of those scriptures
that's easy to see as an outline in the actual events of the text. So we'll look at that carefully.
In verse 22 it says, "...and straightway," after Jesus had
fed the 5,000, "...straightway Jesus constrained His disciples
to get into a ship, and to go before Him unto the other side,
while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the
multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray, And
when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship
was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind
was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the
night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when
the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled,
saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out with fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer,
it is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he
said, Come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. And
when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning
to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus
stretched forth his hand and caught him and said to him, O
thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they
were come into the ship, the wind ceased. And they that were
in the ship came and worshiped him, saying of a truth, thou
art the Son of God. The point of this text is really
at the end, isn't it? The very last thing. The disciples
worshipped Christ and said, of a truth, thou art the Son of
God. And if you understand that, then
you will not lose sight of the purpose of this text of Scripture.
But I've entitled this message, Be of Good Cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. Now, notice with
me, when you look back at verse 22, the outline of the scripture
is right here in the text. He says here in the very first
part that Jesus constrained His disciples to get into the ship. And then it says in the same
verse that He sent them. See that? He straightway constrained
His disciples to get into the ship to go before Him unto the
other side. So He sent them to the other
side, and the other side was the other side of the sea. He
was sending them to Capernaum, as you learn in Mark chapter
4 and in John. And then while he had sent them
away, he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the
multitudes away, he himself went up into a mountain apart to pray. So these three things. He constrains
his disciples, get into the ship, and then he sends them away on
the sea to Capernaum, the other side. And then he sends away
the multitudes, and he himself goes up into a mountain to pray.
And then, while he was up in the mountain praying, the ship
was in the midst of the sea, it was tossed with waves, the
wind was contrary to it, and it was in the fourth watch of
the night, that's the last watch of the night, just before the
dawn of day, It says that Jesus went to the disciples, in verse
25, walking on the sea. And then the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, and they were troubled, saying, it is
a spirit, and they cried out for fear. And then that's when
Jesus spoke to them, be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. What do we learn from these things?
Well, there's several things I want to point out with you.
The first thing here is that the Lord Jesus Christ constrains
His disciples to get into the ship. He constrained them to
get into the ship. He was sending them onto the
stormy sea. He had sent them on a destination
that He had determined beforehand. So He predetermined where they
would go. And He determined that when they
got there, He would be there with them. But between where
they were leaving and where they were going, there was a stormy
sea. And He sent them onto that stormy sea. But before He sent
them onto the stormy sea, He told them, get into the ship.
Now here you see the Gospel, don't you? The Lord Jesus Christ,
before He sends His disciples into the world, He tells them,
get into the ship. And what is the ship? Well, remember
the first ship that we ever read about in Scripture? It was the
ark, wasn't it? The ark was God's place of salvation
for all of those He chose to save in the destruction of this
world's flood. Remember? Noah, his wife, his
three sons, and their wives all got into the ark. The ark was
the place where the flood came down and the ark was lifted up
and saved Noah and his family from the flood that destroyed
all of the world, the ungodly. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord and God saved him out of the flood that destroyed
the world with his family by putting them in the ark. The
ship, the boat, that the Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples
to get into is Himself revealed in the Gospel. The Gospel in
this world appears weak and helpless to do anything. People hear it
and they don't give it any heed. They're indifferent to it. They
think it's for the weak. It's for the people who have
a need, a crutch in their psychological dependence on things. And they
have, and so they They're ignorant, they're foolish, and so they
depend on these things that can't be true. They don't see any beauty
in Christ. They don't have any reason. There's
nothing greater in themselves or about the world that they
can't handle or that they can't figure out through science or
destroy through a bomb or something like that. But look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. remind ourselves of what this
ship is, this little boat that his disciples were constrained
by Christ to get into. He says in verse 23 of 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, For we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling
block and unto the Greeks foolishness. The Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified is all of our hope, is all of our safety from this
world, from our sin, from hell, from death, from the curse of
the law, from everything. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
refuge. And He's our refuge because He
was crucified for His people. God's wrath, like the ark, came
down on Him. And His people were in Him. And that wrath was absorbed.
It was endured by Him. and therefore they are saved
from wrath. But we preach that. We preach
Christ crucified to the Jews. It's a stumbling block. The Jews
represent those who need to do something to make God's promises
work for them. That's the nature of man. It's
our nature. To want to do something to make
sure what God has said is going to happen, happens to me. What
can I do? False religion says you need
to walk the aisle. You need to take this wafer.
You need to ask Jesus into your heart. You need to accept Christ.
All these things are things we do. But God never tells us to
do anything. He says look to Christ. Look
to Him. He's accomplished salvation. See what He has done. In one
of the recent radio messages I mentioned this. Faith sees. Christ saves. That's a simple equation. Faith sees that Christ saves. And so you see it here. We preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block to the Greeks
foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks
Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God
is stronger than men. For you see, your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. It doesn't mean not any, it says
not many. Someone said, a queen that was
a believer a long time ago said, I'm so thankful for the letter
M in the alphabet, because if it said not any, then she couldn't
be saved, but she said it just says not many. But God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
that are mighty. and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, and things which
are not to bring to nothing, or to bring to naught things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. That's
why the gospel is foolishness to men. It's to make it so that
God saves the least likely the most incapable, the weakest,
and those that men would consider to be unable to be saved. And they themselves don't even
think they can be saved, unless the Lord does something. But
look what it says in verse 30, about this little boat, this
ship, Christ and Him crucified. But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." So Christ constrains
His disciples. Get into the boat. Get into Christ. How do you do that? Believe the
Gospel. Hear what God has said concerning Him. Look and see
the salvation of the Lord. And they got into the boat. They
were obedient. Faith is obedience to God. It's obedience to the gospel.
Faith is constantly called in the scripture, obedience to the
gospel. Romans chapter 1 verse 4 and
Romans 16, 26 and Galatians 3 verses 1 and 2. Faith is obedience to
the gospel. Paul told the Galatians, oh foolish
Galatians. who hath bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been
evidently set forth crucified among you." In Romans chapter
10, 16 it says, Who has believed the report? They have not all obeyed the
gospel. They haven't obeyed the gospel because they haven't believed
the report that Isaiah gave in Isaiah 53. Faith is obedience. So the disciples got into the
boat. They got into the boat by believing
what Jesus said. The Lord Jesus is the one we
trust. Whatever He says, we trust. We trust Him because we know
that even though He sends us in, why would we go into the
boat at night to go all the way to the other side in the storm,
in the wind? It seems like it's the opposite
of what we would expect. If you're the king, if you can
do anything, wouldn't we be just given an easy pass in this world?
Things would be easy. It's not easy. And it wasn't
meant to be easy. God designed it so that trouble
would drive us to Christ. And that's the principle. Faith is increased in trouble.
Faith is refined like gold. The impurities are taken out
and we lose sight more and more of our own selves and we see
more and more of what Christ is and what He's done for us.
So they got into the boat. It says, "...and he sent them,
to constrain them to get into the ship, to go before him to
the other side, while he sent the multitudes away." This was
a place Jesus sent them. He had a destination in mind. He had a purpose for sending
them. Not just to go out on the boat
to go fishing or whatever they wanted to do. No, I want you
to get into the boat to go to the other side. It's a destination
with a purpose. And that purpose was to get across
where they were going to go next. But in the larger scheme of things,
the Lord Jesus Christ takes His church He constrains them to
look to Him, and He sends them to do His will in their lives. In our lives, God gives us His
will. It says in Ephesians chapter
2, if you want to look at that, Ephesians chapter 2, that we're
saved by grace, Through faith, in verse 9 it says, and that
faith is not of ourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Verse 10, for we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. What works? the ones
God has ordained for us to walk in. It includes not only our
obedience in faith, but it includes an attitude toward Christ. That
in this faith, He has purchased us with His blood. He took our
sins. He has given us the robe of His
righteousness. He has promised to us eternal
glory. And not only are we being conformed
to His image by looking to Him, but in our lives we have this
peace, this humility that comes by walking with Christ in faith
that we realize more and more our own sinfulness and more and
more His righteousness. And that makes us humble. It
makes us meek. So that when trouble comes in
our lives, we're willing to trust Christ more than to look at the
circumstances where we submit to God's providence and in submission
we're meek. We're humble before men. We're
meek before God. We submit to His will. And this
is part of the attitude that comes with looking to Christ
in faith. And it grows in various ways. We look to Him, we love Him,
and we love His people. But not only are those works
the ones God ordained, but there are specific works for each one
of us. Our lives, we don't know the course of our lives. I used
to wonder, what's God's will for my life? Should I do this?
Should I do that? And throughout your life you keep wondering,
is it this or is it that? Thirty years go by, is it this
or is it that? And you look back, well that
must have been God's will for me. Because that's what came
to pass. As I was looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ, He guided me in providence throughout my life.
Now, when I look at it, I think, man, I should have done it differently.
I should have changed things. But no, God has a way of using
those, what seemed to us to be non-sanctifying circumstances,
going to work, going home, getting up, raising kids, providing for
your family, all these things, all those years, and just walking
by faith And doing what we can to get the gospel out, that's
the Lord's will for our lives. Living with our husbands, and
our wives, and our children, and our mothers, and our fathers,
whoever God gives us in our lives, doing the will of God from the
heart. That's the ordained plan. Now, for the disciples, there
was an additional goal in mind. Christ had ordained His 12 apostles. to take the gospel to the entire
world. That was the purpose for getting
into the boat. He put them in Himself, and He
gave them a mission. And He gives them that mission
in Matthew 28, when He says, go into all the world, preach
the gospel, And all power, he says, is given to me in heaven
and earth. And look at the text here. Because it says that when
he sent the multitudes away, he himself went up into a mountain
apart to pray. The mountain is a high place. To pray is to be with God, He
Himself alone. His disciples are out on the
sea. They're in the storm. They're
rowing and toiling. The wind is opposing them. And
He is in the mountain praying. This again, it reminds us how
the Lord Jesus Christ sends his apostles into this world to take
his gospel to his people, that they might be saved. And in his
own person, he rises from the dead, he ascends to heaven, he
is enthroned in glory, and he intercedes for his people, praying
to God for them. And then it says in verse 24,
"...but the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with
waves, for the wind was contrary." The wind was contrary. What is
this place where they are? They're in the sea. In the sea. And what is the sea in Scripture?
Remember in Genesis chapter 1, what did God do in the very beginning?
The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and He
said, let there be light. And what was the next thing God
did? He separated the land. He divided the land from the
sea, from the ocean. In fact, it was just water, and
He separated the land. He made the dry land appear.
So the dry land was in one place and the waters were in another
place. And this is what God always does. He always separates things.
He separated His people in divine election from the foundation
of the world. And He redeemed His people out
of every kindred tribe and people and nation. So He separated them
in election and in redemption. Out of every nation He redeemed
His people. And by the Spirit of His grace,
He calls them to eternal glory. This is the way God separates
His people, and He separates things. So He separated the land
from the sea. In fact, He says He gathered
the land together in one place and the seas, and He called the
dry land earth, and the waters He called seas. And so God did
that. But also, there's other things
God uses the water to represent. And I'll mention these to you. In Isaiah, In Isaiah 17, verse
12, he says, So God compares the nations to seize. He says in Isaiah 17,
12, Woe to the multitude of the people that make a noise like
the noise of the seas. What is this noise they're making?
Are they just like talking and going about their business in
life and making noise? No, it's a noise opposing the
Lord Jesus Christ and His people. The nations, in the Old Testament,
whenever you read the word nations, it means the Gentiles. And what
are we by nature? Gentiles. And what do Gentiles
do by nature? Well, they're heathen. They don't
know God. Ephesians 2, around verse 14, it says, you were the
Gentiles before in your minds and by wicked works, and you
didn't know God. You were separated from the promises. You were separated from God.
You were separated from Christ. You were aliens and strangers.
That's the nations. So it signifies the Gentiles
who are without Christ by nature. Aliens to the Church of God by
nature. Strangers to His promises by
nature. But as As they were opposed to
Christ, so out of those nations God saves His people. But the
bulk of the people in the world are called the nations. They're the ones who oppose Christ.
And God compares them to the seas. And so in Scripture, whenever
you see the storm tossed sea, one of the things it signifies
are those who in their nature, still in this world, oppose Christ
and His kingdom. In Revelation 17, for example,
God says that there's waters and there's a harlot, and the
harlot sits on the waters. It's a strange comparison. How
does a woman sit on water? You don't. But God uses this
picture because He's trying to show that the harlot is the Antichrist
religion of this world and it sits on the people of this world
in terms of its dominion and its rule over this world. The
Antichrist religion has a dominion over the minds of the people
in this world in such a way that they don't even see there's anything
wrong. It's like the devil who rules in his kingdom, in his
castle, and no one challenges him in the hearts of unsaved
men. And so he's at peace. They're
at peace. with Him. They don't have any
problem with what He tells them. And that's the way the harlot,
in Revelation 17, is pictured. This Antichrist religion that
rules in the hearts of men. But the people are the waters.
It says in Revelation 17, verse 15, "...the waters which thou
sawest where the horse sitteth are peoples, and multitudes,
and nations, and tongues." So, Revelation 17, verse 15, identifies
the water the waters of this world as the people who are opposed
to and ignorant of Christ and His people. And so Christ sends
His Apostles into the world with His Gospel and in Christ. And He sends them over the seas.
Over the seas in order to accomplish His will. His purpose, His destination
for them and His people. But in the process, the nations
of the world and false religion are always opposing them. And
so we see that Jesus is in the mountain praying, and then what
happens in verse 26? It says, In the fourth watch, verse 25,
in the fourth watch of the night, the fourth watch would be from
3am to 6am in the morning. It's the last time of the night,
just before dawn. It's the time of the night probably
when most people are sleeping soundly, just before they wake
up. And then, what happens in the morning? The sun rises, doesn't
it? The sun rises. It's the last
watch of the night. But before the sunrise, what
happens in this story? The Lord Jesus Christ comes to
His disciples. He comes to them. How? First
of all, and it's not in this one. Let's see. Let me look in
Mark's account of this. I think it's in Mark's chapter
6. And show this to you. It says,
In verse... In Mark chapter 6, in verse 47,
he says, "...and when even was come, the ship was in the midst
of the sea, and he alone on the land." And notice, in verse 48
of Mark 6, "...and Jesus saw them toiling and rowing, for
the wind was contrary to them. And about the fourth watch of
the night, He came to them." He comes to them walking on the
sea. So, Jesus is in a high mountain
praying. They're out on the ship. They
had rowed, according to either Mark or John, about 25 or 30
furlongs. I don't know how far a furlong
is, but I looked it up. 25 furlongs is 3 and 1 8th mile. That's a long way to row. especially at night when the
storm and the wind is opposed to. They've been rowing all this
time, the fourth watch of the night. They left in the evening.
How much time is there from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. in the morning? It's
about nine hours. That's a lot of labor. And they're
in a ship rowing. These guys are They're breathing
heavily. They've been struggling. The
wind is opposing them all this time. And Jesus, three and a
half, because twenty-five to thirty, I mean twenty-five to
thirty means somewhere between three and one-eighth and three
and three-quarter miles. He sees them. How do you see
three miles on the sea at night in a storm? He's God. He sees His people. From His
exalted throne in glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, interceding
for His people, sees them. Through all the darkness and
trouble of this world, on the storm-troubled sea, He sees His
people. Rowing against the wind, the
opposition of the sea, the opposition of the wind, the storm, was there.
opposing them to do the will of Christ. And remember, He sent
them into this storm. The storm was under His control. He could have avoided the storm,
but He didn't. He actually sent them in the
boat into the storm. What the Lord Jesus Christ does
for His people by sending them into this world with the gospel
is going to cause trouble for them. The world will oppose,
even kill, His people. And yet He sends them, and He
sends them, and He sends them. Throughout the time when He left
this earth to go to heaven, His people are being sent into this
world. In John 16, 33 it says, These things have I spoken to
you, that in me, in me you might have peace. In the world you
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. You see, that's what Jesus said
to the disciples. He sees them toiling against
the wind, opposition of this world, the unbelieving world,
the false Christ religious world, opposing God's people. How do
they oppose them? In many ways. First, through
doctrine. The world, the number of people
in this world that believe lies is far more than those who believe
the gospel. So they outnumber them. And secondly,
they have more power. How much power do we have in
terms of physical things in this world? We have no power. The
government is bigger than us. Religion is bigger than us. Everything
is bigger than us. We're nothing. Absolutely have
no power. What is the one thing we have?
the gospel, faith in Christ. We have the One who sits on the
mountain of His holiness, interceding for His people, who sees them
on the sea, toiling, because they're looking to Him and they're
pursuing the thing He has told them to do. Stay in the boat,
go to the other side. When you reach the other side,
I'll meet you there. And so He sees them. And then
it says, He comes to them. In verse 25 of Matthew 14, "...in
the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them, walking on
the sea." Walking on the sea? This is so common, a common phrase,
that even people in the world know what it means to walk on
water. Nobody can walk on water, especially the storm-troubled
sea. But here Jesus is walking on water. Remember, the sea,
the The toiling, boiling sea represents all of the opposition
of unbelievers in the world against Christ and His people. And what
does the Lord Jesus Christ do? He just walks right on it as
if it's solid ground. Because He rules. He has absolute
rule over this world and over all things in it for His people.
And He walks across the water, on the sea, to His disciples. All the sea is there, and he
walks to his disciples. Look at verse 26. And when the
disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled,
saying, It's a spirit! And they cried out for fear.
What gives us fear? While we're on the sea, in the
boat, what gives us fear? Lots of things. My sin gives
me the greatest fear. My unbelief gives me fear. When
we see the Lord Jesus Christ, Our first reaction sometimes
is to fear. What if I'm not in Him? What
do I do? I don't know this spirit walking
across the water. It seems strange to me. I didn't
expect it to be here. And I know I deserve to be thrown
into the sea by God. And here I see this spirit coming,
this perhaps evil spirit to overthrow me in the midst. It's enough
that I'm in the storm. And they've forgotten entirely
that Christ is the one who sent them out. And so we ask ourselves
this question, well what do I do in the midst of all the trouble?
Trouble is real. Trouble inside us is the worst
kind of trouble. And trouble on the outside only
adds to that. What do we do in trouble? When
we have the deepest trouble of our heart, when we think, how
can I know? that God has chosen me. How can
I know that I'm saved? Isn't that trouble? Doesn't that
cause us trouble and fear? Because we know the prospect
of facing God in eternity without Christ is the worst thing we
could think of. And so we ask these questions.
We should ask these questions. What's the answer? Get in the
boat. Get into Christ. Look to Him.
What are you looking for when you ask that question? Has God
chosen me? Has He saved me? What are you
looking for? What is the answer that would
give you satisfaction? Well, if I had some kind of an
evidence, I mean, if I could see that, I mean, maybe I would
be given great power to stand up and profess Christ to all
these people around me, and then I would know. That's looking
to what we can do, what can happen to us. God never directs us to
what can happen to us by grace. He directs us to what Christ
has done for us by grace. And that is grace that God gives
us, the grace of faith to look to Christ. So the answer is,
look to Christ. You don't have to know whether
you're chosen. You will not know whether you're
chosen by God. You won't know if you're saved
or not. But when you look to Christ and you see that He's
finished salvation for His people, and you say, all of my hope before
God is what He has done. It's in Him. Then you will rest. That's the only time. And you'll
never change from that. All of your life as a Christian,
until the day you die, it will never change. You'll only be
given one thing to do. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But look here. They cried out for fear. In verse
27, but Jesus right away spoke to them and he says, Be of good
cheer. That's exactly the opposite.
I'm in fear. No, be of good cheer. It is I,
be not afraid. Whatever troubles us, that thing
that troubles us, the storm, the wind, the spirit, whatever
these things, this ghost they thought they saw, that very thing
that troubles them, that is the way Christ our Master comes to
us and speaks to us, be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. Because these troubles, what
do they do? What do we do? We're at our wit's end. And then
we cry to the Lord and the Lord saves us out of our trouble.
Psalm 107. We looked at that last week.
What a beautiful picture it is. When God says to His redeemed
people, He says, Oh, that men would praise the Lord. Oh, that
men would praise the Lord for His goodness, for His marvelous
works to the children of men. That is what the redeemed are
supposed to say. Oh, how good God is for saving
me out of the trouble of my sin, the curse of His law, the trouble
of this world, the trouble of death and the grave and all the
fear and the anxiety that comes from living in this body of death
and living in this world and having to deal with others. And I have anxiety about everything,
it seems like. And the Lord says, but in me
you have rest. And so, in verse 28 it says,
"...and Peter answered the Lord..." I'm sorry. He said, "...be of
good cheer, it is I, be not afraid." And it says, "...and Peter answered
Him, and said, Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on
the water." Jesus sees the Lord Jesus Christ walking on the water.
Walking on the water. This has to be Him. If it's you
Lord, and you have power over the water, and He did obviously. He says, then call me to you
on the water. Call me to come to you on the
water. All the things that trouble my soul, give me the dominion
over my sin, over my unbelief. over this world, over everything
that would oppose my salvation, give me the ability to walk on
the water to you." And Jesus says to him, come, come. What a word, come. You see Christ
walking on the water and we think, it has to be God. He's the one
who rules this world and everything in it. Lord, if it's you that
has power over all of my fears and doubts, call me to yourself."
What does he say? Come. Come. Look to me, all the
ends of the earth, and be saved. And then he says, and when Peter
was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go
to Jesus. Here he is walking on the water.
Why did he get on the water? Because Jesus said, come. And
because Jesus himself is walking on the water. And Peter says,
I can do this because he told me to come. So I get out of the
ship and I walk on the water. And he's walking on the water.
You know, you always see these stories where he took like one
step and then fell in. No, he was walking on the water
to Jesus because Jesus told him, come. And he's looking to Christ.
And then what happens? What happened to Peter happens
to all of us. He fell. He started to sink. He says,
but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. Everything that
causes us fear is looking at things that will... in themselves
have power over us, whatever that is, and we look at those
things and we begin to think about how big they are. And we
look at them outside of faith through the eyes of unbelief
and we see them as giants. And we see ourselves as unable
and insignificant. But faith always sees things
in the eyes of Christ and His Word and His promises. Peter
doubted. So what happened when he began
to see these things, it says, he, beginning to sink, cried,
saying, Lord, save me! What was the reaction of a believer
when he failed to look to Christ and he started to sink? He cried
out again, Lord, save me. And what did he think when he
was saying that? The Lord can save him from this drowning,
from the waters. He looked to Christ. He looked
again to the one who told him to come. And it says in verse
31, immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him
and said to him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? He reproves our unbelief, doesn't
he? And what is that reproof? It's
like, you stupid little unbeliever. No. That reproof is telling them,
look again to Christ. How did you first receive the
Lord? That's the way you're supposed
to walk in Him. What did you have when you first
received Him? Well, I certainly had no evidence that I was a
Christian. I had no reason to believe I was a Christian. I
had every reason to doubt it, to think I was under the wrath
of God. And I learned in the Gospel that Jesus Christ is the
hope of sinners, and that it doesn't matter how Unbelieving
and filthy and polluted and shameful and wrong I am. Proud and full
of lust and lies and hypocrisy. Christ says, come to me, look
to me, find in me everything you are not. And never look away. And that's what Jesus says. Wherefore didst thou doubt? Look
again to Christ. It says in Colossians 2.6. As
you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. There's never a change. We live
and we walk by faith. And verse 32, And when they were
come into the ship, the wind ceased. And in John 6 it says
they were immediately at the place where they were going.
When Jesus got into the boat, it's like immediately they were
there. Wow, we've been rowing all night. Are you saying we
were right there all the time just rowing against the shore?
And He gets in? No. It just means that when the
Lord comes to His people, when He comes to them and He's with
us, and He shows us that all of our hope is in Him, guess
what? We have the very thing that we hope for when we have
Him. He's with us. He told His disciples, I go to
prepare a place for you. If I go to prepare a place for
you, I'll come again and receive you to myself. Here Christ comes
across the storm-troubled sea, walking on the water, rule over
everything for His people, bringing His people to the place He designed
for them to come, to fulfill all of His purpose and His will
for them with Him. And they find they get there
when they're with Him. And that's what faith does. It
sees that we have. Faith is the evidence, right
now, of things hoped for. We don't have those things, but
we have faith, and faith is evidence that we have them. And so the
disciples, as soon as Christ was with them, they had what
they were hoping for, that destination, that purpose for which He had
sent them. But when the Lord Jesus Christ comes down from
the mountain alone by Himself and comes to His disciples. This
again pictures the Lord Jesus Christ coming to His people in
His second coming. When He comes, His purpose for
them will be done. All of His kingdom will be filled
and His purposes will be complete. And He will come to His people
and they will be with Him. And all that He's promised us,
we will have then. And that's the glory of this. And so the disciples say, in
verse 33, Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped
Him, saying, Of a truth, Thou art the Son of God." When we
see God's work in our life to bring us to Himself, and Him
coming to us and comforting us with these words, that He has
power over the sea, He can walk on it, and He can even cause
us, give us, Dominion. In Romans 5, verse 21, he says,
"...as sin hath reigned," R-E-I-G-N-E-D, reigned unto death, "...even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life."
Sin used to have dominion. When we were under the dominion
of sin, we couldn't see Christ. We were in blindness, in darkness.
God broke sin's dominion over His people. He gave them faith
and eyes to see Him. And in seeing Him, they see beauty
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And seeing beauty in Him, their
heart runs out to Him. In dependence, and in love, and
in hope, and joy, and all these things. And that has a sanctifying
effect on their whole life. So that they're conformed to
His image by continuing to look to Him. To see Christ and Him
crucified. And that's the story here. In
all of the trouble, In that thing that troubles us,
know this, it is for your everlasting good. In that very thing, you
will see your master coming to you and hear his voice. Be of
good cheer. It is I, be not afraid. Over
the sea of all that threatens my soul, my divine savior comes
to me in the gospel by his own spirit. And out of the darkness
of my ignorance and confusion and the darkness of my evidences,
comes the voice of my master, be of good cheer, it is I, be
not afraid. In this storm of internal warfare,
things that bring out and show me my inward corruption and lust
and pride and hypocrisy, in these things that bring fear to my
heart, by unbelief, the sea of corruption that would swallow
me up, or the subconscious fear of evil spirits, in all these
things I hear the voice of my Master calling across the waves,
be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid." Every tribulation
in this world is designed to cause us to look to Christ and
find that peace of rest that comes in our conscience when
we see Him as the Lord of glory. Let's pray.