Will Anyone Get Out Of The Boat When They See You?

Will anyone get out of the Boat when they see you?

Minister Cedric Portis

12/01/02

Matthew 14:22 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.

Matthew 14:23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

Matthew 14:24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

Matthew 14:25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

Matthew 14:26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

Matthew 14:27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

Matthew 14:28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

Matthew 14:29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

Matthew 14:30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

Matthew 14:31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Matthew 14:32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.

Matthew 14:33 Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Matthew 14:34 And when they were gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret.

As children of God we are called in Matthew 5:14 “the light of the world.” Matthew’s Gospel further says that we should let our light so shine before men that they might see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

The world we live in is characterized by darkness, but Jesus calls His Children light.

Peter I 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

So we are called light, chosen, peculiar. With these descriptive characterizations, the only conclusion that I can make is that there should be something different about us. There should be a distinct difference between the character and the characteristics of a child of God and the unsaved.

Our scripture today give us the account of Jesus sending the disciples in a small fishing vessel to the other side of the lake. To give you a full perspective, this account takes place immediately following the feeding of the 5 thousand.

When Jesus performed this miracle feeding, the crowd was so excited, they crowd wished to take Jesus by force and make Him king, the Messiah they had been waiting on to deliver Israel in revolt against the Romans. Meanwhile, the disciples had gotten a little caught up in the excitement; therefore Jesus in His effort to keep them focused sent them to the other side of the lake. Jesus had to refocus them away from the success of the ministry to the reality of the Miracle Worker –Jesus Himself. Christ wanted His disciples to begin learning one of the most important lessons of their lives.

That His presence would always be with them, not necessarily His physical presence, but His Spiritual presence and what they needed to do was trust Him, have faith in Him and no matter the circumstance; to follow Him.

Now back to our account, the disciples were skilled fisherman. The 4th chapter of Matthew tells us when Jesus called them they were at work fishing. One can make an observation here that with their skills as fisherman, they had sailed and fished these waters before. This body of water that they were in, being on a boat, and even facing a storm at night was nothing new to them. All of the fishing was usually done at night. Therefore, with all of these familiar things surrounding the disciples they were still in their comfort zone.

But the Bible says they soon found themselves out of their comfort zone. How do I know this because they had never faced a storm like this one before. The Bible points out that the ship was tossed with waves and the wind was contrary (going into the wind). The storm was more than they could handle and with all of their skills as fisherman exhausted, they found themselves completely at the mercy of the storm.

Now you might say how did you get all of that from these few verses. I’m glad you asked. Verse 25 records the time of day as the fourth watch of the night. This is between 3:00 – 6:00 am.