The benefits of belonging to Jesus are, quite literally, out of this world. But what does it take to be one of his highly blessed people?
God’s leader who saves
Matthew 14:22-36
Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Jesus Heals the Sick in Gennesaret
34 And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick 36 and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
This transcript has been automatically generated
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the 4th watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it’s a ghost! And they cried out in fear.
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. He said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink. He cried out, Lord, save me! Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshipped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God. And when they had crossed over, they came to the land at Gennesaret.
And when the men of that place recognised him, they sent word around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick, and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well. What’s required for a man or a woman to profit from all that Jesus offers? Let’s be in no doubt, the benefits of belonging to Jesus are quite literally out of this world. The presence of God, to walk through this world with God at your side, is an extraordinary and wonderful privilege.
We sing a song of Jesus which calls him Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. It’s a wonderful thing to have the presence of God in one’s life. Pardon, to know forgiveness, the forgiveness of God. The number of people I have spoken to over the years, particularly as they get older, who are deeply conscious of one after another thing for which we need forgiveness. It can weigh like a great burden around our neck.
Presence, pardon. Peace, knowing the security of a God who loves us and friendship with him. All of us have persistent, ever-present enemies that haunt and sometimes pursue us and our steps day by day. And to have power from God to deal with those enemies is a wonderful thing. Purpose in life, to know who I am, where I’m going, what I’m here for.
And perhaps above everything else, beyond this world, a place in his new creation where everything that wrecks this wonderful world is gone forever. We see a picture of that place, if you like, in the life of Jesus, where all around him everything that wrecks this world is driven back. A little image of what it will be like.
So, the benefits of belonging to Jesus are quite out of this world, but what is required for a man or a woman to profit from all that Jesus offers? Well, I’m going to suggest just 3 words from our reading today. And sometimes, as I didn’t know Neville was going to be giving his story, but sometimes God has to bring us to a point where we have no other option but to utter them.
Now we’ve said over the last couple of weeks that the heart of the section in this series of studies we’re conducting in Matthew’s Gospel has to do with Jesus gathering his people into his eternal kingdom. The key verse comes in chapter 16, a couple of chapters’ time, where Jesus says to Simon Peter, blessed are you, Simon, from now on you shall be called Peter, And on this rock I will build my church. And so, the whole piece, Matthew chapter, the end of chapter 13 through to chapter 18, is about Jesus summoning disciples to himself and to membership of his everlasting kingdom, his people. What’s required to be a member? Just 3 words, Now, we’ll come to those words in a moment, but before we do that, Matthew wants us to see in this walking on water incident, which is recorded by Matthew, Mark, and John, not Luke, that we have a supernatural event confirming the identity of Jesus, the identity of Jesus.
And that much is clear in verse 27 and verse 33. So verse 27, Jesus says to them as he comes to them walking on the water. Notice, we’ll pass over this quickly, but notice that Jesus has spent the night in prayer. Jesus prayed, needed to pray, even Jesus needed to pray. It’s an important point to us as he goes alone to say his prayers.
But he comes to them walking on the water and they’re terrified. Take heart, it is I. And then those in the boat in verse 33 worshipped Jesus saying, truly you are the Son of God. That little phrase, it is I, translates a simple 2-word expression in the original. Literally, Jesus says, I am.
And it can be taken as a self-identification, it’s me. But when we realise that the name I am is the name God gives to himself in the book of Exodus, and by which God then becomes known throughout the Bible, as Jesus walks to his disciples on the water in the 4th watch of the night, for him to declare himself as I am is a statement of divinity.
He is the personal God, I am. He is the eternal God, I am. He is ever-present. He is the Lord who is always there. Wherever the name is spoken, I am, there is God.
It’s a brilliant name by which for God to identify himself, and Jesus takes that word on his lips. For Jesus to come to his disciples walking on water and then to use the name of God himself to identify himself can be nothing less than a bold statement of his identity. Especially so given that immediately preceding the walking on water, Jesus has fed the 5,000 in an incident deliberately designed to echo God’s feeding of his people in the wilderness in the book of Exodus, precisely the place where God defined himself as I Am. I’ve had copied out there for you Exodus chapter 3, verses 13 and 14, where when Moses asks, what shall we say your name is? Last couple of lines, God said to Moses, I Am Who I Am.
Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent you.
So in this context, Jesus is showing himself to be nothing less than the Creator God. Only God rules the wind and the waves. Only God can heal the masses, as Jesus does at the end of this incident. Only God can create food when there was none. And only God can walk on water.
I’m a very keen fisherman. Many hours I’ve spent beside the river on boats and on the seashore and so on.
So forth. I’ve sometimes prayed, I know it’s not theologically entirely appropriate, that the Lord would bring the fish, but I don’t think it actually works like that. Never once have I actually tried to walk out onto the water.
Jesus is divine.
We do need to deal with the sceptic. We’ll come across those who suggest that because there is no God, Jesus can’t be God, and because Jesus can’t be God, thus these supernatural things can’t have taken place because there is no God.
I mentioned last week that I was taught Arian theology by those who’ve been influenced by this kind of faith system, what you might call radical rationalism.
And those who taught me couldn’t accept that Jesus did these miracles, the feeding of the 5,000 and the walking on the water, and they suggested instead that they were exaggerated events taken by the early church and used as spiritual lessons for believers. Jesus can calm the storm of your life. In the midst of great turmoil, Jesus comes to us walking on the water. With Jesus in the boat, we’ll be safe. That sort of thing.
And for them, the walking on the water, the explanation of it, and I was actually taught this, was that Jesus was actually on an unseen spit that was sticking out, you know, a piece of raised land under the water, and that the disciples didn’t realise it and that they were fooled into thinking that he was walking on water.
But if you look at the incident, it is very clearly written as history, not myth or make-believe. This is eyewitness reportage. So Matthew tells us in verse 24 that they were a long way from the land. There’s no spit there. And these guys knew the Sea of Galilee like the back of their hand.
They were on it every day and night. And Matthew tells us in verse 24 that the wind and the boat were being beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. Just a little coincidental thing. These strong winds are commonplace in the rainy season in that part of the world. We know it’s the rainy season because Mark tells us the grass was green when they were in a desert place, and John tells us it’s Passover, which is in the spring when the rainy season is.
Matthew also tells us it’s the 4th watch of the night, which is a precise timing between 3 and 6 o’clock in the morning. Those little details speak of eyewitness material, not myth or make-believe.
The disciples were terrified and thought it was a ghost. Were this fiction, would they really depict themselves in such poor light and raise doubt in our minds? And those in the boat worshipped him. I mean, had he been on a spit, they wouldn’t have worshipped him.
I happened to be in London when the illusionist David Blaine did his stuff. Some of you will remember he did an illusion, a stunt, walking on the Thames. Blaine is an illusionist and the clue is in the job description. I happened to be cycling along the river that day actually, not on the river obviously, beside the river, that would have been topical, but, and you know, you saw a number of boats pass Blaine as he was walking on the water. No one got out of the boat to walk towards him.
And certainly nobody worshipped him.
So this whole incident, together with the feeding of the 5,000 before it, speaks of the identity of Jesus as the divine Son who has come to rescue his people. There was a real man who had a real name, who really went up on the mountain to pray. There were real disciples, a real boat, a real fierce wind. He really came to them walking on the water. In real time.
Jesus is divine, Emmanuel, God with us.
But this incident is lifted to a higher level as one considers the biblical background of the Exodus and of the prophet Isaiah. So, a confession. Last week I was speaking on the feeding of the 5,000, the passage immediately before it. Sitting at the back there was David Helm. Dave is a great friend of ours here.
He comes from Chicago. He runs something called— he runs a church, leads a church. He also runs something called the Simeon Trust. The Simeon Trust have over 150 conferences across the world where they train Christian Bible teachers to teach the Bible better. Let me tell you, when you’re teaching the Bible in front of somebody who runs 150 conferences to train Bible teachers to teach the Bible better, the pressure is on.
Dave was staying with us. Later in the week, he said to me, Oh, did you think of taking us to Isaiah in your talk? And actually, I did. And why didn’t you? Well, I had my reasons.
We needn’t go into that now, but I put up a reasonable defence. But he’s right, there is the Isaiah background as well as the Exodus background. So, in the Exodus, God gives a model of his rescue. We see it, the people brought to the Promised Land. Following God’s judgement on Israel, the prophets promise a new rescue.
So, for the benefit of Dave, who won’t be listening in Chicago at the moment, I’ve printed down on the sheet there 2 Isaiah references for us. Isaiah 43:11, 19-21, I am the Lord, besides me there is no other. Notice the name, I am the Lord. Behold, I am doing a new thing. I will make a way in the wilderness.
A promise of a fresh Exodus, a fresh rescue, something far greater on a much bigger scale than the original rescue back in Exodus. Isaiah promises a whole new creation. Isaiah 51, was it not you who dried up the sea, the water of the great sea, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy in sorrow and sighing.
Shall flee away. You see this idea of a new world and a new creation with everything that spoils this world removed, sorrow and sighing passing away, everlasting joy, gladness and joy, salvation. Now, in that context, do you see what Jesus is doing? It is quite brilliant. It’s actually where he’s stepping into a whole matrix of understanding that has been built up by God over hundreds and thousands of years.
And now the great I Am, God himself, steps into his creation in the person of Jesus Christ. He feeds the 5,000 just as he fed his people in the wilderness in the Exodus. And then he walks on water just as he led his people across the Red Sea to safety and across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. And now Jesus I am here. I am the Great I Am.
I have come. I have come to bring rescue into this eternal and glorious new creation. Do you see it lifts the person of Jesus? I wonder if our view of Jesus is too small.
From time to time we do a kind of vox pop out with a microphone. Who do you think Jesus is? It’s fascinating the different answers you come up with, some of them quite bizarre. An astronaut? Somebody once said to me, Jesus was an astronaut?
Now, that’s pretty— that takes a lot of believing. Just a great prophet? The kind of people who taught me at theological seminary, there was something called the Jesus Seminar that held Jesus just to be an exalted prophet, better than any other prophet, but actually only a man. Now, you can’t get away with that sort of stuff.
It doesn’t deal with the evidence.
Jesus claims to be divine. Maker, defender, redeemer, friend. Not just another life coach. Not simply a sort of comfort blanket for people who need a bit of help. Not merely a human wiser-than-average sage.
Your creator. My Maker, God.
Now, on its own, we would have to say that whilst that is a wonderful thing to be thinking about, it doesn’t add much to the story from last week.
The feeding of the 5,000 saw Jesus perform a miracle reminiscent of God’s feeding his people in the wilderness as he rescued them and brought them to the Promised Land. We saw his divinity last week. Those same events in the book of Exodus saw God bring his people across the Red Sea and across the Jordan, and this is building on that picture, but it’s basically the same truth. Remarkable, glorious, but what is being added?
And I think verses 28 through 33 show us what is being added, because here we find Matthew recording an incident which is unique to Matthew, No other Gospel writer records it. It’s the first of 3 incidents in our section where Peter receives special attention. Jesus turns to Peter and deals with Peter individually. So it’s almost as if the key lessons of our section are being taught to us through the lens of Peter’s experience. You might call it educating Peter.
This is a salvation event signalling the mission of Jesus. Now, it’s all too easy to paint Peter in a poor light. There’s no doubt Peter does appear to speak quickly on occasion, sometimes possibly before engaging the grey cells. I have that problem myself. But sometimes people paint Peter out as a kind of Colonel Blimp figure, all action, no brain, or altogether so impetuous that he’s a bit of a buffoon.
And I think that does great disservice to Peter and to us, because we hold Peter out there as if he’s nothing like us.
Actually, when you think about it, Peter’s a businessman who was running his own small fishing business. Peter’s a man of action, as we see here. He’s a man of principle, I will never deny you. And he’s a man of courage, he took up arms to defend Jesus, and here he got out of the boat. I wouldn’t have done.
Ultimately, Peter’s a martyr. He’s crucified upside down as he refused to disown Jesus. So, I see Peter as a man’s man, independent, apart from the crowd, self-assured, typical of the kind of insurance person who after 5 to 8 years sees an opportunity in the market and sets up their own broking business, the kind of Robert Hiscox 40 or 50 years ago.
And here is an act by Peter that evidences remarkable commitment of faith. Just look at verse 28. Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. It’s like he recognises Jesus. Peter sees Jesus’ power, clear that it’s not a ghost, steps out of the boat.
So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. Now, if you’ve ever been on the sea in a smallish boat in a storm, you’ll know exactly how terrifying it is.
To get out of the boat. Would you have done it? I don’t think I would. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, Lord, save me! Jesus immediately reached out his hand, took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshipped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God.
Jesus’ rebuke is remarkable. The same rebuke comes on 2 other occasions in our section. It’s almost as if the whole piece is about educating those who have little faith.
That the incident includes Peter, because, on this rock I will build my church, shows us that it’s meant to be exemplary for us. Peter is something of an example. He’s being taught, we need to be taught.
What will it take for me to enter into the privileged assembly of God’s eternal people? Presence of God, pardon from God, peace, purpose, a place in his new creation. Just 3 words, Lord, save me.
He recognises Jesus as God, Lord, He recognises his desperate condition and need, save. He recognises his own individual dependence, me.
So, I suppose it’s possible to be part of the crowd, one of the 5,000, 10,000, however many there were in the crowd, never to have called out, Lord, save me.
I guess it’s possible to take my eyes off Jesus. I know it’s possible to take my eyes off Jesus and to be too terrified by the wind to be diverted to doubt. Lord, save me!
It’s certainly possible to think that I need to do any number of things, to get baptised, attend Mass, say my confession, do penance, keep the 5 Pillars, go on pilgrimage, Peter simply, 3 words, Lord, save me.
We’ll see later in these chapters, in chapter 15, a couple of weeks’ time, that this incident with Peter is paired with a very similar incident, in very similar context, with a completely different person, the Canaanite woman. She says, Lord, help me.
Jesus says to her, O woman, great is your faith. It’s almost as if Peter has to learn something from the Canaanite woman. It seems she has learned something Peter hasn’t. If we will only come to him, cast ourselves upon him, stop doubting him, turn unreservedly to him, Jesus has all of God’s power to save us. Lord, Save me.
It’s beautifully simple and gloriously liberating. No endless list of things to do. Eyes fixed on Jesus. Lord, save me.
So many categories to whom this speaks. So many categories of person to whom this speaks. The person who doubts, perhaps who’s investigating the Christian faith, Or who looks at their own situation in life, after having been Christian for many, many years, and asks whether Jesus really can help. You’ve no idea what I’m like, what I’ve done.
The person who feels they need to keep themselves afloat spiritually, with endless rounds of performative and transactional religious activity, the person for whom Christian faith has become far more than simple trust in Jesus as Saviour, that may well be somebody here.
All Peter does is say 3 words.
The person who really would love to come to Jesus and start to follow, but who has a fear that they will never be able to keep it up, As if, kind of, I need to keep myself afloat.
The person who considers this Christian faith is all rather remote. God could never be interested in me.
The business of church life, Christian ministry, it’s very personal, isn’t it? Lord, save me.
Sometimes God does need to bring us to a point where all our resources have run out. And like the Canaanite woman, and like Peter, we end up crying out, Lord, save me!
It’s beautiful, isn’t it, that Jesus reaches out his hand, Why were you doubting?
Brings him into the boat.
One final category of person, I don’t need saving. Big Nev, if you’ll forgive me, Nev. I don’t need saving. Well, come back next week and the week after and you’ll realise you desperately need saving. Let’s pray together.
We thank you for your extraordinary compassion and love and concern for each and every individual in this room and indeed in the city, our Father in heaven.
We thank you that you are Maker, Redeemer, Defender, Friend, and we echo in Peter’s words. Forgive us for our self-sufficiency, our doubt, our distraction. Please, Lord, save me.
Amen.
