Love Lifted Me
Matthew 14:22-32
During the season of Lent, we usually focus on what we are giving up. For some it may be candy, or TV, or chocolate, for my 17 year old daughter it is sodas. But this year instead of giving something up, I am going to try to improve something, my workout routine. I have been meaning to get back into the routine of walking a few times every week, so this Lenten season my focus is improving my health a little more.
Lent, in itself, is a time of reflection, renewal, and rebirth of our spiritual selves. The idea of giving up something in our culture came from the aspect of fasting for the 40 days of Lent (excluding Sundays). The giving up is a form of self denial, a time that when you sacrifice something you enjoy, you can spend that time in reflection or meditation on what Jesus sacrificed for us, his life.
Lent is a journey, leading us to the Cross of Calvary on Easter Sunday. In our reading today, we are faced with one of the most common elements of our Christian heritage; FAITH. Are some people just blessed with more faith than others? Is faith a gift that is given by God more freely to some than to others? Is faith just something that you ‘get’, or do you have to ‘go get’ it? I have heard it said that faith is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. I also think that the opposite is true. The less you use it the weaker it becomes.
In that aspect of faith, I would like us to look at 3 areas from our scripture:
1. Jesus made His disciples go out onto the boat knowing that there was a storm coming
2. Peter had a little bit of faith, but not no faith
3. Peter waited for an answer after speaking to Jesus
1. Jesus made His disciples go out onto the boat knowing that there was a storm coming
The KJV reads “constrained”, other versions read “made” his disciples get on the boat and leave Him. The Greek word for to make someone do something is “anagkazo”, which literally means to necessitate. Jesus did not ask them if they wanted to get in the boat and leave Him, He did not ask if it was OK with them to get into this boat and leave Him, the Bible tells us that he made them go. It was necessary for them to leave Him and go out onto the Sea of Galilee without Him. I think they probably did not want to go, especially Peter, who was never at a loss for words, but Jesus compelled them to go.
Have you ever felt, “How did I get into this mess when I have been doing what God wanted me to do?” Or “Why is this happening to me when I have been doing what God wants me to do?” I know I have, and I bet the disciples thought the same thing that night when that storm began. “Why did Jesus send us out here?” I think many of them said. I mean, after all, surely Jesus knew that the storm was coming, right? Yet he sent His most loved and trusted followers out to face this storm alone. Why?
Our human perspective tells us that turmoil is bad and peace is good.
I Corinthians 14:33 tells us that “for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace”. So if God is a God of peace, why is there this turmoil? Why do we face these storms, seemingly without Jesus around? The answer is in that question.
A large part of the storms we face are because we are living in line with God, and Satan himself hates to see that and wants to bring the storms and pain to us to try to get us to alter our course.
It is easy to walk in faith when there are no waves, no storms, no riptides, no pain, no loss. But is that really a walk of faith?
II Corinthians 5:7 says that “we walk by faith, not by sight.”
The African Impala is an animal that can jump over 10 feet in the air and cover a distance of more than 30 feet. Yet these great jumpers can be contained in a zoo with only a 3 foot high wall because they will not jump where they can not see where their feet will land. They jump by sight, not by faith. We are called to walk by faith, not by sight.
This reminds me of a story I heard about 3 preachers who were all out fishing together. They had been sitting in their boat for hours, not catching much, when one of the preachers stood up and said that he could not wait any longer, he had to go to the restroom. So he laid down his pole, stepped out of the boat, and walked right across the water to the shore, then a few minutes later he returned the same way, walking right on top of the water. After he got back in the boat the second preacher said he really had to go too and he laid down his pole, got out of the boat, walked right on top of the water to the shore. Then, a few minutes later he returned the same way, walking right on top of the water. The third preacher thought that if these two others had enough faith to walk on top of the water that he did too, so he stepped out of the boat and sank right down into the water. The other two preachers in the boat looked at each other, then the first said, “I guess we should have told him where the rocks are.”
In our walk of faith with our Lord the rocks are there to support us, but God’s purpose for us is not to protect us from all turmoil and pain, but to teach us to be calm and confident through those turmoil, pain, and storms because we know that He is with us.
We often see getting through the storm as the goal, but sometimes the storm itself is the goal. We are not being taught by God how to walk in faith in the future, but rather how to walk in faith right here, right now.
2. Peter understood this. He was the only one who understood this, which leads to our second point, Peter may have had a little faith, but he did not have no faith.
Peter was in the boat with 11 other men, all called personally by Jesus, all had been witness to His miracles and heard first hand His teaching, yet only Peter stood up and said, “Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water.”
The other 11 were too busy dealing with the problem at hand, which was the storm. These men were all used to being on boats, and they had all seen their fare share of storms, but this storm was like no other. The Greek of verse 24 uses a word that means “to torture”. The boat was tortured by the waves. Being tortured, the disciples were focused on what was torturing them, which was the storm, not paying attention to the fact that the one who created the water in the first place, could also calm it.
I would like to think that if I was on that boat I would have showed the faith of Peter in that instance, but I likely would have been one of the other 11 saying, “Here Jesus, sit here by me, get in the boat right here”, and I would scoot over and make a place for Him. But Peter had the faith that stormy night.
One day a woman went to her preacher and said, “Pastor, my husband keeps telling me if I keep coming to your church he’s going to kill me.” The pastor told her, “Yes, I know. Keep praying that the Lord will watch over you and keep you safe. You must have faith, child.” (This lady had been coming to the pastor weekly with the same complaint regarding her husband for over a year.) “I know I need to have faith,” the lady continued, “but now he says if I keep coming to your church he’s going to kill you.” The preacher responded, “Well, there’s this nice little Methodist church down town………”
That preacher didn’t get the faith we are talking about here tonight, but Peter did, at least initially.
Psalm 69:1-3 is a petition by David to the Lord. “Save me, O God, for the waters have come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing, I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of crying, my throat is dried, mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.”
Even David, the man called by God to lead the nation, had times when he felt alone and desolate. But in these times of turmoil, he was constantly seeking God out to come to him. In the storms and turmoil it is all the more necessary to cling to the words of James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
3.) Peter waited for an answer when He spoke to Jesus
Let’s go back to the picture of what is happening to the disciples. It is dark, they can hardly see what is going on. The stars that they would usually use to navigate on the sea are not visible, the wind and waves are torturing the boat, and they are all working diligently to fight the storm and keep their boat afloat. And then, there is Jesus, walking on the water towards to them, a faint image in the fog and mist of the sea. They were frightened, as I would have been also. Their first thought was not, “Well, here is Jesus walking on the water coming to save us”. That would not have been my first thought either. But Peter stepped up and spoke to Jesus, “Lord, if this is you, tell me to come to you.” And then Peter did something amazing, especially for the quick-tempered percosious disciple Peter, he waited. He asked a question, and then he did nothing. In the midst of the storm raging around them, Peter waited for an answer, and he got it. In one word Jesus answered him, “Come”.
A real walk of faith sometimes is not to have the faith to get out of the boat, but rather to have the faith to wait for an answer, and that is what Peter did when he asked Jesus a question, he waited. Do we do the same when we ask Jesus in prayer for answers? Do we wait for Him to answer? That is not always an easy thing to do. You see I ma very busy, when I pray I need an answer then, after all, that’s why I’m praying, right? I need something immediate, but it does not always come that way. God does not work on my time line, but His timing is perfect.
God is a God of peace, and peace implies an aspect of patience, patience implies an aspect of waiting, and waiting implies an aspect of confidence that our prayer and request was heard and will be answered, in God’s perfect timing. This takes faith.
There was a man driving home from work one evening when he came to his apartment building and the whole place was engulfed in a raging fire. There were fire trucks and ambulances all over, and he was not allowed entrance into the building by the firemen. He saw his 3rd story apt. window, and hanging out of the window was his 8 year old son. Not knowing if the rescue workers would make it to him in time, he shouted to his son. “It’s me, your father, jump and I’ll catch you.” But the boy could not see his father because of the billowing clouds of smoke all around him. “I can’t jump, I can’t see you” the boy shouted. “You don’t have to” the father answered, “I can see you and that’s all that matters.”
We may not see Jesus in the storm we are facing today, but He sees us, and by using our faith like a muscle to make it stronger, will give us the strength to jump to Him, or to walk through that storm to Him, because He is always there with us.
In conclusion, I would like to leave you with a few verses regarding this:
I Peter 1:8
Though you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with and inexpressible and glorious joy.
Deuteronomy 31:6
Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you, he will never leave or forsake you.
Joshua 1:5
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Psalm 94:14
For the Lord will not reject his people, he will never forsake his inheritance.
Hebrews 13:5-6
Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.”
II Corinthians 4:8-10
We are hard pressed on every side, but we are not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Mathew 28:20
And surely I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.
Peter showed faith and obedience, because true faith is expressed in obedience to God. Logically it made no sense for a man to walk to walk on water, but logically we can not understand the God of the universe. But through our faith, we can see His love. There is a hymn that I would like to recite as we close tonight, we probably all know this one and have sung it time and again throughout the years on Sunday mornings, but just close your eyes and listen to the words like you have never heard it before.
I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,
Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more,
But the Master of the sea, heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me, now safe am I.
Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help love lifted me.
