Facing Our Fears With Faith

Facing Our Fears with Faith

John 6:16-21

“When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going” John 6:16-21.

1. The Background – The Sixth Chapter of John opens up with the story of Jesus miraculously feeding the 5,000 with just 5 loaves 2 fish. Afterwards, Jesus sent the disciples on their way, and He went up the mountain by Himself to pray.

2. The Storm – The day wore on, and then John tells us - “when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea” (v. 16). “When evening came” – This was the time between Twilight and Dark. The sun had already gone down over the horizon, and just a bare glimmer of light was shining, the sky would soon be completely black. They push off from the shore and start rowing across the Sea of Galilee. V. 17 – “it was now dark.” V. 18 – “The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.” When it says in v. 17 that it was now dark, I want you to know that it was very dark! You could not see the moon, you could not see any stars, for a storm was brewing, thick dark billowing clouds covered the sky. It must have looked like a Tornado was coming. You could hear the rumbling of the thunder over and over.

V. 18 – “a strong wind was blowing!” You could hear the shrieks of the wind howling as it blew ferociously! The sea was rough; the waves continually lifted their boat high into the air, and then would drop them down in great splash of water which covered the disciples, waves overlapped over the sides of the boat onto the disciples laps. V. 19 – “when they had rowed about 3 or 4 miles.” The water was very deep. The disciples were in a boat in the middle of the sea, at night, caught up in a terrible storm. This was not a large ship like you would find on the Mediterranean Sea. This was a smaller vessel that was driven by Oars and a small auxiliary Sail on it that was capable of sitting all 12 Disciples and during rough seas water could easily splash in on them. And surging stormy waves would toss them up and down and could overturn them all into the depths. This was scary! Their lives were in danger! They could have drowned at sea! They were panicking! Then they look up and see Jesus walking on the sea toward them – they never saw Jesus walking on the water before! It was frightful seeing this figure of a man walking toward them on the water in the darkness in the midst of the storm! V. 19 – “and they were terrified!”

We can identify with these disciples. All Christians are disciples of Jesus. We love Jesus, and follow Him and we gather together to worship Him. We are believers. We are disciples. And like these disciples who were caught up in a terrible dark fierce storm at sea and were terrified – we too have to face our fears. We face all kinds of fears today: a fear of cancer, a fear of losing our spouse and becoming a widow, a fear of financial insecurity, a fear of having to live in a Nursing Home, etc. Right now we are all faced with a storm that scares us to death – the storm is called Coronavirus. It is scary isn’t it? It is deadly and highly contagious. It is has taken the lives of people all over the world. It is in practically every state. You can even not know you have it and still give it to others. It just continues to grow. It seems unstoppable! We are all taking measures to keep it down – many Bars, Movie Theaters, Amusements Parks, Athletic games, Concerts, Parades, Marathons, Schools, Nursing Homes, churches and other organizations & events that have more than 10 people in attendance are shutting down for the time being. Many restaurants are only open with Drive Through or Take out Services. We are practicing Social Distancing, Hospitals are having trouble getting enough equipment to meet the demands to care for people, people are stocking up on supplies at home and you can hardly find Toilet Paper, Hand Sanitizer, Face Masks or bottled water in stores. The Stock Market has plummetted. We are afraid to get around people. It is all we hear on the news. Yes, we too are in a terrible storm and we are terrified!