By saying that I’m not going ‘oh look at me’ for any sympathy, this is my choice to be here, under the approval of the leadership and the generosity of the congregation, but I do think it’s something that merits being said occasionally, the men who stand before you don’t do so with something they’ve knocked together during a 10 minute tea-break.
However, I was scratching my head wondering what I was to do when I turned and asked Rebecca what will I preach on? Jesus walking on water was the reply, so taking on this sage advice I looked at it and here are the fruits of that study. Next time I’ll save 2 days and just ask her first.
Jesus walking on water is an amazing and perplexing miracle and I hope to get time to look at it in more detail another time. My biggest question is why? What was the purpose? Was it because He didn’t want His Disciples caught up in what the people were planning? There were other solutions to that. Was it for the benefit of the Disciples when He passed them? While He was growing up everything told Jesus that things sank in water so how did He find this out? One thing I know most assuredly is this, Jesus did not do anything out of selfish motives and most certainly no miracles ever were.
Picture how it was for the disciples. Jesus had sent them across the Galilee in the only boat there was. They are over 3 miles from the shore; it’s night, somewhere between 3-6 in the morning, rowing hard against strong winds and waves. That’s enough to occupy your attention, and then you see a person walking ON the water. It’s called a miracle because it’s the suspension of the natural order of things. People just don’t walk on water; I’d be freaked too. One version I have says it this way, “They were terrified and started screaming.” Remember these are hard-working fishermen, used to squalls and working long hours, not some suited city accountants out on a day trip finding out what the common people do. So this must have been scary.
Have you ever been scared? Have you ever been scared to the point of where you think you’re going to lose your life? Notice how moments of extreme fear burn themselves into your memory! How it’s quite easy to recall emotions even after many years have past.
Now you’re on the boat. You’re on the sea of Life. Most of the time when you’re rowing your back is to the way you are going. So unless you stop moving to look around or just cast a quick glance over your shoulder, you can’t see where you are going.
Most of the time that’s fine if the weather’s good then a quick glance is all you need to know that you’re going in the right direction. The sun is behind some clouds. The sky darkens. The storm starts up, very quickly it’s raging all about you. You no longer know which direction your heading in. The storm is sin.
That is sometimes how it happens. You’ve got your life jacket on, flare and whistle and compass and packed lunch all on board. You’ve checked the weather report; you’re even getting text updates to your mobile, but somehow with unforeseen circumstances you’ve been caught out. You’re in the middle of the storm. Stay with me and reflect on this. Have you been keeping friends with sin so long that you would miss them if they left? Has keeping their company left you so numb to their effects and consequences that you don’t notice it anymore? Is their companionship so warm that you don’t mind if they invite some more of their friends? Is the warmth of their company covering the fact that your heart is getting colder? In your normal, regular, routine life, you have friend’s colleagues, acquaintances, and family. If you work or are in contact with a lot of people then you know that you very quickly sort people into different categories. Those you like, those you might like, those you find uncomfortable, those who are unpleasant, those you don’t like and the one who repulse you.
That’s not discriminatory or unaccepting but sometimes there are those who are morally repulsive and can be personality wise too. There are those who we’re supposed to be repulsed by, abusive personalities for example e.g. wife beaters, paedophiles, rapists. If we are not being repulsed bye some of the corrupt behaviour that is on our doorsteps, then it is my serious suggestion that we are so far from where we should be spiritually that it has actually become dangerous.
So is your friendship and comfort with sin, making you make decisions that are sending you on the pathway into a storm that you only notice once you are surrounded and enveloped in it? Have you ever gotten lost? I know I have, in fact, I know most of you know that I have. You go down one street, it’s not the one that you want, right, left, straight ahead? The next one has the wrong name, right, left, straight ahead? In the end you’re still lost, you look back and suddenly your miles from where you started. Sometimes you can’t even see how to get back to where you where before you got lost.
You started by looking for something, now you can’t even see how to get back before you started looking. Is that where you are with your sin? Are you wandering around getting lost, unable to see? Do you even know that you’re lost? Who or what are you reaching out to, to help? Family, friends, work, drink, food, drugs, wrong relationships?
Thankfully there is a solution and it can be found in Peter. I’m not saying for a second that he had a sin problem, but he had a fear problem. He deserves praise for showing Faith enough to step on the water, even enough to walk on it. Just as anyone deserves praise for stepping out of the world and into baptism. But where it went pear-shaped was when he looked around at the world, the world before he had Jesus and felt fear. The world where he knew as a fisherman that he would die.
Peter still has a few things to learn both about himself and this Rabbi. Lessons that he had learned by the time he wrote this.
1st Peter Chapter 3 Verses 8-15
“Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you are called so that you may inherit a blessing. For,
‘Who ever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. ‘Do not fear what they fear do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” We also have the benefit of the Hebrews writer for it says this,
Hebrews Chapter 7 verses 24-25
“but, because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent Priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.”
I hope that you will spend some time reflecting this today. Asking the questions. Am I putting myself in harms way? Am I seeking shelter or content to be in sin that turns my life into a storm? Am I afraid to live?
I’d like to finish with something by Spurgeon who managed to sum up all I intended more eloquently and profoundly than I could.
“go down if father will hold the rope," was the offer of a Highland lad,
when a traveller wanted him to reach the eggs of a wild bird which had built
on a rocky ledge. The boy felt that there would be no danger if the rope was in
his father's hand, for he had a powerful arm, and a loving heart, and would not
leave his own child to perish.
Timid believers are afraid to begin to work for Jesus. To teach in the Sunday-school, to commence a Tract District, to visit the cottagers, to preach on the green, any of these seem to them to be too arduous and difficult. Suppose they were to look up to their Heavenly Father, and rely upon his promised aid, might they not venture? It cannot need much courage to rely upon Almighty strength. Go, dear friend, to thy work, and thy Father will hold the rope.
Unbelief is apt to foresee terrible trials as awaiting us upon our road to heaven. Your position will be, so fear tells you, like that of one hanging over the raging sea, by the side of a precipitous cliff; but there remember the eternal love which will be your unfailing support. You may hang there without the slightest fear, for Father will hold the rope. the awakened sinner dreads the wrath of Heaven, and fears that his eternal ruin is inevitable; but if he has learned to depend alone upon the Lord Jesus, there is no room for further alarm.
The Lord Jehovah has become the salvation of every soul that has laid hold upon the hope set before him in the Lord Jesus. The great matter no longer rests with the sinner after he has believed, the weight of his soul's eternal interests hangs upon Jesus the Saviour. The eternal arm which never wearies, will put forth all its power to uphold the trusting ones; and every believing sinner may sing in joyful security, though Satan should set all hell boiling beneath him, for the great Father holds the rope.