(NLT) When the people saw this miraculous sign, (the feeding of the 5,000) they exclaimed, "Surely he is the Prophet we have been expecting!" 15 Jesus saw that they were ready to take him by force and make him king, so he went higher into the hills alone.
16 That evening his disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. 17 But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn’t come back, they got into the boat and headed out across the lake toward Capernaum. 18 Soon a gale swept down upon them as they rowed, and the sea grew very rough. 19 They were three or four miles out when suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward the boat. They were terrified, 20 but he called out to them, "I am here! Don’t be afraid." 21 Then they were eager to let him in, and immediately the boat arrived at their destination!
We’re continuing in the series on the encouraging conversations Jesus engaged in before performing the seven "sign" miracles of John’s Good News account. In this week’s account John doesn’t include much of a conversation, but we do read the very encouraging words from Jesus to his disciples, "I am here! Don’t be afraid." But before the story arrives at these reassuring words of Jesus – there is the storm to consider.
John tells us that Jesus perceived that the multitude that had just been miraculously fed with a little boy’s lunch had mistakenly decided that it was time for him to be made king. In order to keep this misconceived plot from hatching Jesus retreated further up into the hills.
In the meantime Jesus instructs his disciples to get on a boat and head for the other side of the lake. Instead of experiencing the joy of his kingdom, Jesus chooses rather to let them experience the storm in the darkness.
Christ takes refuge on the mountaintop – and sends his followers to face the storm without him! Why did Jesus intentionally send his followers into a storm? Why doesn’t God keep you from storms? What can you do to weather the storms of life?
Based on this story, consider three life preservers for the storms:
1. Hold tight to the plan and purpose of God.
We know that the storm was Christ’s plan for his disciples because of what the Scripture tells us.
Matthew 14:22 (NLT) …Jesus MADE his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake.
We’ve been talking about this some in this series. Last week with the feeding of the 5,000 for instance, we saw that God always has a plan. The disciples, like us, didn’t always know what to do. God does always know what to do. That’s one of several great reasons we should follow his instructions implicitly.
If God says, "Get in the boat," you can get in the boat with confidence! If God says, "Go to the other side of the lake", you need to go to the other side of the lake, even if you don’t understand the reasons for God’s instructions. There are times when all you need to know is that, if God instructs you to take a certain course of action, then he has a plan and a purpose whether you fully comprehend it or not.
Jesus not only wanted his followers on the other side of the lake. He also wanted them to learn to weather the storm.
But why? Why would he want them to feel the fatigue of rowing for hours against the wind, the discomfort of being soaked by the waves, and the discouragement of not making any progress? That doesn’t seem to fit our theology of Christ. We know that he came to give us rest from our heavy burdens. (Mt. 11:28) Why would he deliberately send us into situations where the circumstances make us miserable?
You need to realize what storms can do for you:
a. Storms can actually protect you.
Think about it. If the disciples had stayed on shore they would have been infected with the polluted thinking of the shortsighted multitude. They would have been in the presence of the politically correct crowd that wanted to make Christ king for their own personal benefit. They were so bent on this plan that they followed Jesus across the lake the next day.
John 6:25-26 (Msg) When they found him back across the sea, they said, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" 26 Jesus answered, "You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs – and for free."
Jesus was indeed the Prophet the people had been expecting. He was the Messiah. They got that part right. What they misunderstood was the timeline of Messiah’s work. Before the Lord’s Anointed One would rule as king he would first have to suffer and die for the sins of the people. They skipped over the Old Testament passages that dealt with the suffering of the Savior and emphasized only his reign as king.
Don’t we all like to do that? Who wants to think and talk about suffering and dying? Who wants to go through storms? We want the joy! Bring on the success!
Is it wrong to want to succeed in life? Of course not! What IS wrong is to try and succeed without playing by the rules, without paying the price of success.
Athletes on steroids.
Insider trading.
Corporate CEO’s misappropriating the pension funds of company retirees.
We’ve all witnessed news clips of senior citizens being interviewed who have lost all of their life’s savings, all of their retirement funds, because some corporate fat cat wanted to live an opulent lifestyle on someone else’s money. We get angry with that. And well we should. That’s immoral. We all get angry when we hear about people trying to ignore the rules because it usually means they’re taking advantage of others.
Jesus played by the rules. You can’t make Jesus do what you think he ought to do – Jesus is only going to do the right thing! He was teaching his disciples to do the same. The world often clamors for us to ignore the rules. But if you’re following Jesus you can’t ignore the rules.
The rule we’re talking about here, and the reason Christ could not allow himself to be made king at that time – and he indeed is king and will rule from the throne of David – but the reason he didn’t allow himself to be coronated when the crowd wanted, is because God’s holiness demanded a payment for our sin. Jesus had to make that payment before he could take the throne. Those are the rules of God’s righteousness and holiness. Jesus had to endure the cross before wearing the crown.
Remember we said earlier in this series, one of the key themes in John’s Good News account was the timing of Christ’s life. Seven times John mentioned Christ’s "time had not come." Man’s timing is often wrong! God’s timing is always right! Because God never ignores the rules.
The multitude wanted to circumvent the plan. They wanted to go by their timing. They didn’t want to suffer anymore. Neither do we. We don’t want storms. We want sunshine and smooth seas. That’s natural. But once again we’re talking about living a supernatural life. And it certainly takes a supernatural power to live by the rules when all around you are suggestions that you don’t have to play by the rules.
Jesus did not want his novices in training to be infected with the virus of trying to circumnavigate the plan of God.
Sometimes God sends a storm into your life to protect you from the subtle influence of the crowd.
Something else storms can do for you, and why Jesus sometimes sends you into storms:
b. Storms can strengthen you.
1 Peter 5:10 (NCV) And after you suffer for a short time, God, who gives all grace, will make everything right. He will make you strong and support you and keep you from falling. He called you to share in his glory in Christ, a glory that will continue forever.
Storms make you strong because they discipline you.
God is the perfect parent. He is not like the mother who won’t discipline her child because she does not like the feeling she gets when she does so. She places her feelings above the welfare of the child. That’s not good parenting. God feels for you when you go through the storm but he knows your maturity, your growth and progress as His child are intricately tied to your periodic struggles in life.
c. Storms help you help others.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NLB) What a wonderful God we have – he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts us and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement.
God sends you into the storms of life so that you will not become egocentric - so that you will learn to care about other hurting people and be able to understand and empathize with their problems.
He needs caring hearts and hands to minister to suffering people so he sends you to the university of the storm.
Some of you have been through the storm of abuse – so your heart is moved and you are more easily motivated to help others who have suffered the ravages of abuse. Some of you have been through bankruptcy, through divorce, through self-inflicted wounds, through layoffs or firings, through physical ailments, through loneliness and heartache and suffering… And your heart cries out, "God, why did you let this happen to me? You could have kept this from taking place!" And God says, "I’m sorry that sin entered this perfect world that I created, and I’m sorry that you’ve felt the affects of the sins of yourself and of others, but now that you’ve gone through the storm I need you to help someone else get through it."
Once you’ve been through the storm you find yourself judging others less and loving and caring for them more! And those are the kind of people God blesses and uses as his representatives.
So you can hold tight to the plan and purpose of God in life’s storms. That’s your first life preserver.
The second life preserver, the second thing that will keep you from perishing in the storms of life:
2. Hold tight to understanding.
The big battle in the storms of life is not as much against our problems as it is about how we perceive our problems. It’s in our thinking.
Proverbs 2:2 (NLT) Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding.
What you need to understand in a storm:
a. You need to understand who God is and who you are.
The glory belongs to God, not us. Jesus walked on water to prove that the laws of nature don’t apply to him. He created this natural world. We are part of his creation. One of humankind’s greatest sins is pride. We think life is all about us, but it’s not. Storms help us understand who God is and who we are. We are created in his image, sure, but we’re not God.
You think you’re fairly proficient in your own skills and strength until a storm comes along and reminds you of your limitations. You’re not God. Don’t try to be. You can’t shoulder that responsibility.
During Sunday school one pastor was teaching the adult Bible class when he selected an older couple to act out the burning bush scene from the Old Testament. The husband was asked to supply the voice for God and his wife was to read Moses’ lines. All went well until they got to verse 15 in Exodus chapter 3. The wife, as Moses, mistook her husband’s dialogue for her own and read, "Say to the Israelites, The Lord, the God of your fathers…" The pastor interrupted her. "Wait a minute. You’re not God." Without missing a beat, her husband said, "I’ve been trying to tell her that for forty years!"
It’s not just our spouse that reminds us that we’re not God. Storms also remind us!
b. You need to understand that Jesus can do for you what you can’t do for yourself.
For all their strenuous rowing the disciples had not reached the other shore. Matthew and Mark’s Good News accounts let us know that it was somewhere between three and six in the morning when Jesus appeared walking on the water. So they’ve been rowing anywhere from six to nine hours – and because of the wind – they’ve barely made any progress.
If you’re a progress-oriented individual, storms aggravate you for this reason more than any other. You don’t mind the wind and the rain just so long as you are getting somewhere! You’re not afraid of the dark or the deep – you’re aggravated that you’re not making any progress! So every so often God sends a storm to make sure you remember making progress is not up to you alone.
Storms help us understand our need for God.
Matthew 5:3 (Msg) You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
Even when we’ve been walking and talking with God, like the disciples, we can forget how much we need him. We can become more interested in the destination than the journey. We focus so intently on the goal we forget to take time for our relationship with Christ. Even when we’re doing things for God sometimes – we become so intent on what our goals are that we forget whom our goals are for!
Do all that you can do, do all that you’re supposed to do. But when you get to the point that you’ve done all that you can do, don’t lose heart just because you aren’t making all the progress you thought you would be making by now.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (Msg) No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it!
Christ coming to the disciples walking on the water wasn’t a miracle witnessed by a large group like the feeding of the 5,000. Only his intimate friends got to witness this one.
Christ must have thought very highly of the potential of his apprentices or he would not have enlisted them into his training program - he would not have set the stage and given them opportunities to see his power and glory in the storm! The storms Christ allows you to weather are evidence that your faith can withstand them. He believes in you!
Not only did Jesus walk on the water to come to their rescue, but the boat immediately ended up at their destination. Jesus accomplished immediately what their efforts had not been able to accomplish in their own strength.
You’ll find sometimes in the middle of the storm that once you reorder your priorities, the goal is reached.
1. Hold tight to the plan and purpose of God.
2. Hold tight to understanding.
And the third life preserver you need to utilize to weather life’s storms:
3. Hold tight to faith.
How to fortify your faith in a storm:
a. Review your faith history.
The disciples had previously been through a life-threatening storm on this very lake. On that previous occasion the experience was during the day and Christ was in the boat with them and he said to his disciples in Matthew 8:26 (CEV): "Why are you so afraid? You surely don’t have much faith." Then he proceeded to order the wind and waves to calm down - and they did!
If they didn’t have much faith before the first miracle on the sea, shouldn’t they have had more afterwards?
On this occasion their training proceeds to the next level. This time it’s night and Christ isn’t in the boat with them. Jesus is preparing them incrementally to lead his work after he’s gone back to heaven.
In the first storm he was teaching them that he is the master of the sea. In this second storm he is helping them to realize that just because he isn’t in the boat doesn’t mean he doesn’t see and care about their situation.
He’s teaching them that their faith relationship with him should always be growing. At the very least they should have remembered the last storm and how Christ brought them through it. Instead they were fearful when they saw a figure moving across the surface of the water faster than their boat was traveling.
The faith that prompted the disciples to get in the boat in the first place needed to persist through the storm.
Don’t let fear overpower your faith. There’s something from how God has helped you in the past to encourage you in the current storm.
Another way to fortify your faith during storms:
b. Look around for the blessings.
One of the items no doubt packed on the boat for the trip were the 12 baskets of leftovers from the feeding of the 5,000. Looking at those leftovers should have reminded them of the great miracle they had just witnessed and should have bolstered their faith tremendously. Why fear the storm when you serve a Master who can miraculously multiply five fritters and a little relish into a catering fare that satisfied thousands?
Yet the Scripture says of the disciples,
Mark 6:52 (NCV) They still didn’t understand about the miracle of the five loaves, because their minds were closed.
Before we’re too harsh on the disciples let’s look in the mirror. Do we have our minds made up about how God is supposed to respond to our needs?
Did they forget, have we forgotten, that Jesus is with us even though we don’t see him? Or do we stop and take courage from the blessings all around us?
Could God send us into fewer storms if we got the message sooner?
Mark’s Good News account tells us the reason Jesus went up into the hills, besides just to get away from the frenzied multitude:
Mark 6:46 (NLT) Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
I believe Jesus was praying for the disciples in the storm. Not praying that they wouldn’t have to go through the storm - but praying that they would get it. Christ doesn’t perform miracles for our comfort - they are for our character. He wants us to become more like him!
To the crowd seeking royalty he said, "You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you."
See God in your storm and let others see God in your actions in the storm. Hold tight to his plan and purpose. Hold tight to understanding. Hold tight to your faith. If you do so you will not only weather your storm but you will find God using you to help others weather their storms.
