Becoming A Water Walker

PRAYER

It is my desire and my goal to turn this entire church, and myself into water walkers, people who have the faith to step out and follow Jesus.

What we see in our story this morning is not unlike what happens in many churches that have been through troubles. Peter and the disciples had just witnessed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus was dismissing the crowd and then was taking some time to fill Himself back up after this draining experience. He was going to take time to be alone with the father and pray. So Peter and the guys get into the boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. Now this is a large body of water, the waves can come up pretty quick, and things can change from a “three hour tour” to the “Minnow would be Lost” (For you younger listeners that was from a show called “Gilligan’s Island.”) Peter, a fisherman would have been accustomed to big waves, BUT, as Matthew tells the story, he says, when they got into the sea, “a considerable distance” they began to get “buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.” In other words the boat was getting beat up by waves because the wind had picked up. The NIV says “Buffeted by the waves” but the original Greek lends a little better description - “tormented, disturbed, or tossed about by the waves” I think buffeted is much too gentle a word. All these seasoned fisherman could do was hold on to the boat and pray the wind would die down. I am pretty sure they were wishing the boat was a little bigger, the sides were a little higher, the wood was a little thicker. In a word they are in a place they really don’t want to be, and they probably didn’t see it coming either. It’s about three in the morning, and I am sure they are thinking about surviving rather than completing their journey. Many a church find themselves in the same place, they start a journey, directed by Jesus, and in the middle of the “cruise” they find themselves battered, tormented, beaten by the waves of the world. They start to focus on surviving rather then completing the journey.

BUT, in the middle of all the chaos, one of the disciples catches a glimpse of a shadow moving across the water. As the figure gets closer, it becomes apparent that the shadow belongs to a human being. YEAH! A human being walking on water!! Now, let that sink in for just a moment . . . these men are in real trouble, they are caught in the middle of a storm and help is right in front of them. PERHAPS, the only one that could really help them was right in front of their eyes. BUT, they convince themselves that it’s a ghost. Vs. 26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said and cried out in fear.

Now you, like me, might be wondering how they could not have known it was Jesus. They were just with Him, they had experienced first hand the miracle and had seen what the Lord could do, and yet they think this figure on the water is a ghost?