(Slide 1) A trapeze artist once supposedly boasted that he could take a person seated in a wheelbarrow across a tightrope many hundreds of feet up between two tall buildings. “Who thinks I can do it?” he asked a crowd who had gathered to watch.
One man raised his hand and said, “I think that you can do it!”
“Good!” the high wire man said in reply. (Slide 1a)“Get in!”
We have spent six of the past eight weeks examining Matthew 14:22-33 that is the story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter getting out of the boat to meet Him.
(Slide 2) There are two points that I want to make about this story and I made mention of one last week.
(Slide 2a) It is that we need to focus in the right direction, the direction of Jesus, when we are in the midst of the storms of life. Looking elsewhere will cause us to sink. We have to look to Jesus and fix our gaze and hearts on Him.
(Slide 2b) The second is that we have to be willing to get out of the boat in order to live the life that God wants us to live. These ‘getting out’ moments are not necessarily everyday occurrences (certainly, walking on the water was not one for Peter) but they are critical moments, necessary for our faith to grow and our lives to have a quality of purpose and character to them and in them that God has always intended.
So then, the purpose for these kinds of moments is to help us live through and overcome, in Jesus’ name and power, those moments of fear and uncertainty, and break through to a higher level of faith and confidence in the Lord and through the Lord.
We have examined this passage from a variety of angles. (You probably won’t read it the same way again.) (Slide 3) Our main text for this morning is only verse 29, “All right, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.” (NLT)
I want us to notice something in the story that perhaps we have never noticed or maybe have noticed and thought no one else would believe us if we said something.
Jesus did not immediately call on anyone to get out of the boat… until Peter asked Jesus to do so. The first thing Jesus did was to quiet their fears by letting them know that it was Him. We read in verse 27, “It’s all right,” he said. “I am here! Don’t be afraid.”
Then Peter says in verse 28, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you by walking on water.”
Only then, does Jesus say, “All right, come.”
I am not sure if Jesus was going to have any of them get out of the boat. May be He was, may be He wasn’t… we don’t know.
But, as was mentioned in one of the first sermons in this series, at some point, probably just after Jesus identified Himself, Peter focused on Jesus (not the storm). Then, at some point, he had this powerful moment when from deep within himself, Peter heard himself utter, Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you. He then found himself doing what seemed to be the impossible. He walked on the water.
What fascinates me is that Jesus seems to play more of the responder in this situation than initiator. However, it also appears that Jesus set the situation up to see how the twelve would respond and what kind of faith they currently had.
He told them to get in the boat and cross to the other side of the lake after feeding the five thousand. He saw, according to Mark’s account in chapter 6 of his gospel that Jesus saw that they were in trouble but waited until 3 AM to come to them. How long did He wait and why did He wait so long?
(Have you ever wondered if the disciples questioned when and where Jesus would meet them after they parted company? He is not going in the boat. How is he going to catch up with them? Makes you kind of wonder, doesn’t it?)
What comes to my thinking at this point is Peter’s response. “Tell me to come to you!” It is an act of great faith! It is act of worship! Peter is making a statement about Jesus and what he believes about Jesus.
But, what was going on within Peter to make him say such a thing?
What would make Peter want to get his feet wet? Why risk your life?
(Slide 4) John Ortberg asks this question, “Where is God calling you to walk on the water?” (Source: John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on the Water, You have Got to Get Out of the Boat. Page 84. © 2001 by Zondervan, Inc.)
How many here are uncomfortable with Ortberg’s question? Why?
FEAR!
As we conclude this series, our focus will be on what Ortberg calls four indicators that might be signs that perhaps God is calling you to get out of the boat. Why? To get out of your comfort zone for a while, or to take a step of greater faith in the Lord, in your life. As we examine each one, I am going to suggest how they might have played out in Peter’s mind in our text.
(Slide 5) The first indicator is one that we are very familiar with the past two months - Fear.
Our series text leaves no doubt that fear was a part of situation. When the disciples saw him, they screamed in terror, thinking he was a ghost. This is the easiest indicator for Peter to get out of the boat, he was afraid of going down with it!
Think with me for a moment on this: Peter was a fisherman who fished this lake as his business. He knew, I really believe, just how turbulent and sudden this lake’s surface could change. Maybe he also knew of friends, family, and even competitors who drown while out fishing by getting caught in such a storm! Maybe he had been in this situation before. (Remember this was fishing with large and heavy nets not a fishing pole) So he could have had this very real fear of sinking with the ship because he could be tangled up in the nets at his feet.
Fear is a strong motivator sometimes, right? And sometimes when we experience fear, the Lord meets us, as He did here, and wants to help us face our fears because the path we need to take is through them and not away from and not around them.
Last week we spoke of the fear of failure. I would also suggest that when it comes to getting out of the boat and fear that we also fear rejection and even ridicule.
As I hear and observe the lives of some teenagers I know, I remember the fear of rejection and ridicule that came with that time in life. Sometimes when you said what you really felt or thought, you were met with stinging and unforgettable mockery and ridicule and instant rejection.
What fear are you experiencing that might be a sign that God wants you to get out of the boat and take a step of great faith to overcome that fear that is blocking your path?
Maybe it is the fear of failing. “I really would like to lead a small group but I can’t.” “I think that God is calling me to teach this class but I am afraid I would mess up.” “I think that God has called me to the ministry but I am afraid that I cannot afford it.” “I am afraid that God is calling me to stick with my current job though it is getting stressful and I want to quit.”
But there are other indicators besides fear that might be a sign that Jesus is calling us to get out of the boat.
(Slide 5a) Frustration is one.
I have shared this story before, but it illustrates a point about frustration as a motivation, so I will be brief. It involved being charged for a car repair on a car I owned that was still under warranty.
I went home and wrote a letter to the owner of the dealership and it was successfully resolved. It was my frustration that drove me to write the letter and it was an out of the boat experience because normally I would have not done anything at all!
Maybe you are frustrated about a situation and you are not sure you can take much more. This is where prayerfully considering how (and if) to get out of the boat is vital. (“Water walking” is not an impulsive act but a measured act of faith.)
I did not immediately confront the person at the service desk with my issue. I knew that I could have immediately escalated the situation with my impatience. So I waited after I had cooled down a bit. Then I took a breath and wrote the letter and a successful resolution took place.
Now I am not sure if Peter was frustrated in this situation. Maybe he was!
Maybe he looked around (we don’t know how much time passed in this situation) but in those moments of spiritual awareness thought, “Why are we all sitting here? If that’s Jesus out there, I am going to tell Him to tell me to come to Him! I am tired of sitting here and letting fear have its way.”
Is there an area of frustration you have that might be God’s way of getting your out of your boat? Be careful in assessing that frustration.
We can let our own agendas get in the way of God’s agenda. Pray about it. Seek good counsel on it. Then, if it is God’s push, get out of the boat.
(Slide 5b) Then there is compassion. Many people experience a compassion that comes out of a frustration that ‘something is not right’ and it leads them to compassionate acts.
Many far-reaching and effective acts of caring in our history have come out of a person’s compassion being the indicator for a ‘getting out of the boat’ experience.
Now in this day of high drug prices it seems that frustration with disease would be the last thing on a doctor’s or scientist’s mind in the research lab. But I would wager to suggest that research, born out of frustration with disease, is behind most of the major drug discoveries and development. In reading about people like Jonas Salk, who discovered the cure for polio, I think we get the sense of a sometimes-quiet frustration working under the surface to beat a disease.
Now I am not sure how Peter would have shown compassion while out in the boat when it could have been every disciple for him self! Maybe though, in the moments of his spiritual awareness, Peter saw the look on the faces around him and was moved to compassion to get out of the boat and go to Jesus who could (and would) do something.
What moves you to compassion? What breaks your heart? Who breaks your heart?
(Slide 5c) Finally, there is prayer.
Now how might prayer be God’s way of getting us out of the boat?
Look at your own experience in prayer, for a moment.
How many times has your prayer life caused you to say, ‘With out God in this situation, I cannot go from ‘a to b?’
It is often during boat rocking, storm surging, wave crashing, moments that we get on our knees, bury ourselves in our Heavenly Father’s lap, and find the strength and the will to get up and get out of the boat and walk toward the Lord.
Do you ever pay attention to your prayer life? By this, I don’t mean, the amount of time you pray, or the length of your prayer list, or what time of day you pray. I mean do you pay attention to the impressions that you experience within you as you pray?
Do you ever sense, as you pray, a change within you that creates frustration that needs to be resolved, a fear that needs to be addressed, or a compassion that is taking shape? That might be God’s signal for you to get out of your boat and start walking in the direction that He wants you to go.
(Slide 6) So what then does all of this mean for us this day and this week?
I did this series because I felt back then (and still do) that fear, directly from Satan’s lair, has been wrecking havoc on Christians in this nation and around the world and that we have given in to it and find ourselves on the defense. Since when is that okay?
I acknowledge this fear and I certainly understand it. I have done battle with it as well.
However, I also acknowledge this as well: That God is our source of power and life. Greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world!
Perspective is important in the passages we have spent time with these two months. And, like Ortberg’s questions in regard to our perspective, we need to develop a God-centered perspective as Ortberg points out.
“Courage!” he says. ‘I AM! Don’t be afraid!” I believe that. It is part of my creed. I have committed my life to teaching others about it. Yet all too often my life does not reflect it. All too often I shrink back when I should confront; I worry when I could pray; I cling when I could generously share; I stay in the boat when I could walk on the water.”
(Slide 7) “So how can I change my perspective? How can I come to believe in the sufficiency of Christ for my life the way I now believe in gratitude? How can I live in a way that reflects the fact that I follow a God who is sooo big?”
(Source: John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on the Water, You have Got to Get Out of the Boat. Page 194. © 2001 by Zondervan, Inc.)
Where does some change need to take place in your life so that you will respond, by faith, to Jesus’ call to get out of your boat, your place of comfort, and go to Him and follow Him?
Prayerfully discern that area. Choose, everyday, to place your life and will in God’s hands. Share with one or two faithful others what you are thinking and praying about. Then, with confidence in the Lord, act.
Let us allow God to develop our faith into a faith of confident assurance that will enable us to stand tall in the storm, through the fear, so that when He says, ‘come!’ We will get out of the boat and starting walking toward Him… Amen.
