Walking On Water

Have you ever gotten a pop quiz? (ELAB)

In todays text The disciples are about to get a pop quiz. John 6:16-21

• What we see is that have just been through an incredible day.

• After sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing Him teach the multitude,

• They watched Him feed over 5,000 people with five bagels and two sardines.

• This wasn’t a Trick (ELAB)

• And when it was over and everybody had eatin as much as they wanted

• They picked up twelve bags full of leftovers.

That was the lesson for the day.

• It was a lesson about the power of Jesus

• And it was a lesson about His sufficiency.

• And Now that they have been exposed to the lesson,

• It's time for the quiz.

• And The quiz comes in the shape of a strong wind.

DISCIPLES IN THE STORM. (John 6:16-18).

Jesus and His disciples had been on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

• The disciples then got on their boat and start across to the northwestern shore

• It is a distance of about five miles.

• And while it may seem like that the disciples

• Had abandoned Jesus and left Him behind

• What we're doing is reading more into the text than is really there

• We have to compare this account with the account that we read in

• Mark 6:45-46 where it says

Mk 6:45 Immediately after this, (Talking about the feeding) that Jesus made his disciples get back into the boat and head out across the lake to Bethsaida, while he sent the people home.

Mk 6:46 Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray.

He sent them away.

• Jesus told His disciples to do something and they did it.

• And in the middle of doing what they were told

• They found themselves in the middle of a storm. (The Quiz)

And the question for today is Are you in the middle of a storm right now?

• You may be thinking to yourself, "Lord, what did I do to deserve this?"

• And sometimes what makes a situation even harder is that

• It’s possible that you haven’t done anything wrong (ELAB)

• And even though you have been faithful

• You still find yourself in the middle of a storm.

And if you are I want you to know that you aren't alone

• Now if the disciples were paying attention they would have realized

• That this wasn't the first time they were caught in a storm

• They’d been here before ---Maybe even in the same boat

The first time this had had happened

• They had been in the same spot on the lake

• And the boat had begun to sink

• So they woke up Jesus who had been sleeping in the back of the boat

• And Jesus calmed the storm.

And now it was happening all over again

• So We can imagine Peters first response is

• No problem I’ll just go wake Jesus up

• He can turn the storm off!"

• And John answers, "Uhh Peter, we have a bit of problem.

• Ya see We left Jesus back on the shore."

• And to make matters worse, They had taken the only boat.

So What do you do when you are alone in the middle of the storm?

• Well we know one thing and that’s Jesus knows what we’re going through.

• But sometimes no matter how hard you look sometimes ya just can’t see Him.

But through all this I believe that there was something in the boat

• That should have comforted the disciples.

• And that was the 12 baskets of leftovers

• And the reason that I feel that this should have comforted them

• Was because it showed them the power and the compassion of God.

• When they looked at those baskets,

• They should have realized that the God who provided for the needs of all those people

• Is the same God that wouldn’t fail them in the middle of this storm

And when it comes down to aren’t we guilty of the same thing.

• God blesses us in so many ways

• But whenever we get caught up in Life's Storms -----We forget.

• This is why we are instructed to remind one another.

(John 6:19-20).

The disciples had found themselves dealing with a strong wind.

• Our translation tells us that they "rowed,"

• But when we think about the term oars

• We have to remember that these were massive oars that were used to pilot these ships through storms

• The point isn’t so much the method repetitive rowing