Thank you for listening to this message from Sovereign Way Christian Church. At Sovereign Way, we long to be biblical people doing biblical things the biblical way. Our pastors desire to teach expositionally through the Bible, making the meaning of the passage the meaning of the message. The message you're about to listen to is recorded live at one of our services. For more information about the church, you can go to sovereignway.org, or if you'd like to contact us, you can email us at info.sovereignway.org. And so in Matthew chapter 14, verse 22, the apostle writes, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds, speaking of Jesus. Verse 23, and after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. And I'm sorry, can we all stand? Certain new tradition here after seven years, sorry about that. Lots of changes coming. Okay, verse 22, we'll start again just like we read in Acts as they all stood and prayed and read the Lord's word together. Immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it is a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately, Jesus spoke to them saying, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. Let's pray. May we see more of you, Lord Jesus, through this text. May we see what the disciples saw that day that we can come to confess the same as they did. Please remove me from all aspects of the sermon. It may all be of you, Lord. Thank you, Father, amen. Please have a seat, church. It's a good big text that we're coming to this morning. Now, one thing that my wife and I have realized, and many of you as well, is that we move a lot. We have moved a lot. That wasn't the plan, but it just seems to happen a lot. And we're coming to accept that and even embrace it. I recently told her about a bumper sticker that I see every now and then that says, not all who wander are lost. And I always enjoy seeing that. I believe it's a quote from a poet. I only wish we had come to realize this sooner and maybe had rented a little more than buy every time. My financial strategy I don't suggest of buying high and selling low is not working out that well. But a surprising joy has come to me through all this moving. And it's one that I kind of look forward to every time I move. And the kids even, when they see this in the front yard, they come running inside the house. And it has to do with my interaction with Jehovah's Witnesses. every time I move see everywhere every time that I've moved within about six months somewhere in there I get a visit from them and sometimes after that initial visit I try to set it up so that I get like a repeat visit more of like a Bible study where we can go and sit down and go over a few more things and I enjoy these a few times now I've been blessed where they send kind of their their black belt the master black belt from the local hall And I enjoy these too, and I look forward to them. And usually every single time, because my goal is to keep these visits going as long as possible, so they keep sending more and different people out is what I hope. But eventually I get blacklisted, and nobody ever returns to my house, even though for the most part, most of them tell me, hey, we'll get back to you with some answers. We'll be back. But they never have. At some point, it's just over. And so this happened again. I got my new house visit about two weeks ago, but I think it was accidental. The barman this time and the kids said, hey, daddy, there's people knocking on doors. And the problem, it was all ladies and they spoke Spanish only. So my dilemma this time was do I show my full hand? Like, am I gonna play this to get a visit from the gringos, the Jehovah's Witnesses, or I do know Spanish, but my theological Spanish isn't where I'd want it to be. Do I risk showing my hand and getting blacklisted too early where they had a minimal understanding because of my poor theological Spanish? So anyways, I kind of did a little mixture this time, but I have kind of a routine that I've settled on and something that I like to do. And it's not like I used to, we'd go right to the Trinity and they come prepared for that, just to let you know. And sadly, this isn't to our credit, this is to our shame, The average Jehovah's Witness can make a pretzel of a Christian with the Trinity. And that's Walter Martin said that, he's famous for studying the cults. And it's true, but they prepare, they get together Thursday nights and they go, they're doing battle training. They come to the mat and prepare to fight and beat down all the arguments and all sorts of stuff. Anyways, I end up approaching the Trinity from a different perspective. What I usually do is I like to let the conversation on its own steer towards translations, because a lot of times they do that. They'll say, because that's one of the things is, well, how can you have, you know, what translation do you use? There's so many translations. How can you trust the book with so many translations? And this is where I start to kind of position my battle stance. And sometimes I love when they ask what translation I use. And then I kind of switch it, and I say, well, yeah, that's true. Knowing, however, that every translation I have has been taken from the original manuscripts, which is what they claim for theirs only. And I say something to the effect of, well, that's a good question, and I agree. How can we trust this translation, especially if we know it's been changed? And what if the change seems awfully convenient? And this is where I kind of start to lay, not the trap, but lay where I want to take this conversation. And I ask them, I tell them I have a question. Well, you know how Jesus says in Luke 4.8 that only God can receive worship. Sometimes we turn there together and Luke 4.8 Jesus is saying only God can receive worship. And I say, how do we reconcile in Hebrews 1.6 when God is clearly speaking of Jesus. And he said, let all the angels worship him. So they turn there in their new world translation. And they turn there and go, okay. And I love, they are like this is an easy one, I can take this one. And they say, well, see it's not really worship, the word that is there is obeisance. And my translation has it right they say. And obeisance is paying homage to somebody. Like paying obeisance to an earthly king. It's where we honor them. But it's far different, I think you would agree, than worship. I asked them if they mind while I go grab something. They don't. I run in and I grab my New World Translation first edition, which only one million were made in the year 1969. And I didn't plan on this, but I love what I see when I come out with it. And they are instantly nostalgic. Some want to cry almost when they see this little green book, because it's the Bible that their grandparents had, that their parents had. It's very, as I said, nostalgic and historic to them. And they get very excited. And someone asks, like, oh, can I see that? My grandmother had one just like this. And I give it to them, and I wish I brought it. I meant to bring it. I don't know why I'm looking down here, I know I don't have it here, but I don't think, that'd be pretty awesome if it was here, but I wish I had brought it, and mine has like baptism dates and all sorts of stuff, somebody very obviously cared for this Bible, and so I let them flip through it and hold it, and then I reminded, hey, let's go look at Hebrews 1.6 here, and I say, here's the problem that I have, and we read Hebrews 1.6 in their New World Translation, and it says, let all the angels worship him. And so it kind of stymies them a little bit, and they're like, oh, wow, okay, there's a New World Translation. They were unaware that they had a version that said that all the angels should worship Jesus, right? And only God can receive worship. But then they always say, well, over time, we've gotten better at translating, and we've learned about words, and we've learned how words change and things. And this is when I let them know, and I offer to get a Greek Bible if they like, but the words, that are there is pretty clearly worship. And I show them in Luke 4.8, the word used there for worship is proskounesis, which is a, and I'm not telling them all, I do tell them that this word is proskounesis, but just so you know, that's the future active indicative second person singular of the root word proskuneo. So proskuneo is the root word for worship. Proskunesis is the word used in Luke 4.8. When I show them in Hebrews 1.6, proskunesatosan is the aorist act of imperative, third person plural. All that to say from proskuneo. The same root word, proskuneo, is worship. It's what Luke 4.8 says, whatever you want to call it, obeisance, worship, which it is worship, but Luke is saying only, I'm sorry, Jesus in Luke is saying only God can receive this word. Only God can receive that. And Hebrews 1.6, God is telling the angels, give this to my son, give this to Jesus. And that's not over time. things have changed and we've got better at translating, I press them on the importance and I say, isn't it, don't you think it'd be important to be right on this verse? To get this one verse, to understand, do we worship or pay obeisance to him? Because if you miss this, you miss a lot. And it seems to me like theology was formed first And they had the right translation, but then it went against their theology, and it was probably used against them, and they changed it. And when you have a theology and you change the scriptures, that's called eisegesis, that's putting the meaning into the scripture. meaning into scripture as opposed to what we do, which is exegesis, where we get the meaning from the scripture. My sermon today that I've been praying about and that my desire is that the meaning of the sermon is the meaning of the text. I don't put my theology into this text and change the text and do all sorts of weird gymnastics with the text to make it work for me. That's the wrong way of doing it. One source informs the other, the Bible must inform our theology. And they usually weren't prepared for that, and they tell me that they're gonna go talk to people at their hall and get back to me. And my prayer for them, as I often hear Brian talk about, is that I put a rock in their shoe. And I don't know when, I usually, chances are in this lifetime, I'll never know the blessing of if the Lord used that But my prayer is that whether it's in three months, 20 years, 40 years, that little rock in the shoe is just bugging them. Because they go back, not one of them has ever come back. And I know what happens, they eventually get shut down. They get told to stop asking these things and don't bring it up to the others. Because I do, I have read about how some of these contentions go when they bring it back to the others. And I just pray that it never sits well with them. They must deal with the question that we all must deal with. That same question that the people who were walking around in the time of Christ, that were eating the food that he just created, that I spoke of in my last sermon, that he created out of a few scraps of bread and some fish, they had to deal with the same question. And it's the same question the disciples have to contend with. It's the same question that the Jews had to contend with, that the Romans did, that Herod did, that Pilate did, and everyone who has ever lived since, and that you either have to deal with still or had to deal with, and it is what do you do with Jesus Christ? That's the ultimate question, church. What do you do with Jesus Christ? And we're gonna let Matthew tell us what the disciples did here. Our passage today is a big one. It's one of the most familiar and beloved stories in the Bible. It's one of the most important events in the life of our Lord and a huge turning point in the lives of the 12 disciples. It's also, if you think this is far removed or reading something about the past, it's also one of the most important events in our lives as well, it has to be. And I wanna show you what I feel is the most important verse in this entire passage. And I think if we surveyed most Christians, even many people would say that the most important part of this passage is Jesus walking on the water. Or the lesson that's there for Peter and for us about faith. But I'll tell you that the answer, which isn't far removed from what those are, is in verse 33. Verse 33, the very last verse in this passage. And those in the boat worshiped him. Proskuneo. Those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the son of God. Worship of Christ. There's nothing more important, nothing bigger that I could preach on. And if I knew that I had one sermon left to preach ever, it would be on the worship of Jesus Christ. And in our passage this morning, Matthew wants to make sure that we see what the disciples see, so that we too can worship him, saying, truly, you are the son of God. So we're gonna look at our first few verses here, starting verse 22. Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up to the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. Okay, I wanna start out by pointing out how strong the imperative is here. The word made is the imperative I'm talking about. He immediately, he made them. Why did Jesus make the disciples get into a boat and sail off for the other side? And there's a few reasons. I'm gonna share three with you here. But first, and I won't spend a lot of time in the first two, he wanted to be alone to pray. What an example. If he prayed so diligently, and church I want to tell you there is so much in this passage that because of time I can't get into. And I thought about chopping this up into four, five, six parts. There is so much and even some parts I will see how we are doing. I could teach so much theology from this one passage. But I don't have this part where Jesus went to pray and again being the son of God, spending this time alone in prayer with his father. How much more do we as finite creatures need to be plugging in and powering up in that way from our Lord? You would think if there was anybody who had a direct connection and didn't have to pray, it would be Jesus. Second reason, he wanted to escape the crowds and get some rest. I think this is his humanity. He's 100% human and there's part of Christ that's just kind of tired, like he's been dealing with the crowds and wants just some time to himself as well. But in the end, and I think this was the main reason, and to get to it, I want to show you a little context so that we may really get the feel of what's going on. There's a reason he sent the crowds away. I want us to see this story with fresh eyes. There's a few things I want to avoid. I want to avoid over familiarity. because we've read this story or just known about it since you were little. If you went to Christian school, you probably drew this and all sorts of things. It's kind of a big deal that Jesus walked on water, so it's a good reason that we all are familiar with this, but the problem is we can become, as Alex preached last weekend, over-familiar with something and think we really know it and we're not approaching things with fresh eyes anymore. The other thing I want to avoid is compartmentalization of these passages, where every time we read one of these stories or we come to a story or a miracle of Christ, We see them as kind of like something on its own. Okay, he healed people. And then he calmed the storm and then he walked on water. And almost like these are separate little fairy tales of Christ and we could have put them in any order. But I want to show you the order that Matthew has them here. You see the feeding miracle just happened. Okay, this is why they're on the shore. He just fed all those people. is I wanted to try to get us into the minds of the disciples as they're on this boat cruise. For as you shall see, I don't think they were just out simply on some little boat cruise, no big deal. What I hope to show you is that I think they were very disillusioned. I think they were very confused and sad as this group of men was on this boat this night and I'll explain to you why I think this is. And you see a few chapters back, John the Baptist in chapter 11 had asked A very important question. He asked of Jesus, he sent his disciples, are you the coming one or should we look for another? And that was the question on the lips of everyone. That was the question on the lips of the disciples, on the lips of the crowds. You see, some thought he was Elijah, some thought he was Jeremiah, some thought he was one of the prophets. Everyone was in the process of trying to figure out who this Jesus was. Are you the coming one or shall we look for another? Are we still looking for that one? John asked the question that everybody was wondering. And for two years, Jesus had been demonstrating that he was that coming one. He was the one they were expecting. He was that prophet, that Messiah, that Christ. That Son of God, that King. Been doing this for two years publicly. He'd been demonstrating with great power, with mighty works, with mighty words even. In fact, he had just done it again. This last miracle that we looked at that I just finished preaching on, it ended in verse 21. He just fed about 25,000 people once we had the women and children that weren't accounted for. He created food for them all. It was a big deal. to create food. Word, I'm sure, traveled very quickly back then. There were thousands of eyewitnesses to this miracle, and as a result of this specific, particular miracle, he reached the peak of popularity. He was the biggest thing that everybody was talking about. This was the climax of the popularity of Christ. For two years his ministry had been on the rise. He had been proclaiming, healing, casting out demons. And then later in his ministry he was joined by the disciples who were also, they began proclaiming and casting out demons and healing. This growing excitement of the people became a fever in the people. His popularity growing and growing, and it must have been irresistible to the crowds to seize him and make him king. And then he was able to feed them with food that he created on his own without any help. And there were eyewitnesses to it. And they could taste this food. They were convinced. So at this point, at the very peak of the popularity of Jesus, John chapter 6 verse 14 and 15 says that they got together and they were going to make him king. Think about how you would have taken this if you were one of the disciples. They thought, this is it. This is fantastic. I'm here. Not only do I have front row seats, but I've had such an honored part of this. We've done our job. Really think of how this must have played out in their minds. They've been with him. They've heard him talking about his kingdom, his coming kingdom, and they no doubt thought, this is it. We've sided with the winner. We've backed the right guy. And now we're going to be in great positions for the ensuing kingdom. And I'm not saying they were selfish about it or thinking of it the wrong way. They were just so excited. I'm sure of this. You can see why they thought that the doors of the kingdom were being kicked open and the people were crying out, we want him to be king. And it was at that moment that he sent the disciples away. And he sent the crowds another way. And he went up into a mountain by himself. And there they were in their little rowboat as they were pushing their way out to sea. And they must have been unbelievably crushed and disappointed, trying to figure out how he could spend two years getting to this point, and when it's right there within their grasp, to send it all away. And this wasn't, Jesus didn't come walking to them on the water just a few minutes into their boat ride. Okay, this wasn't, I'll talk about the time, because the passage gets into it. But you see, the very next morning, Jesus said to the crowds, this is why I'm linking these stories together, because the Bible links them. Again, they're not these little tiny fairy tales. It's the next morning that Jesus talks to the crowds, because guess what? They thought, well, one free meal was good. Let's get another. Guess who shows up in the morning? Guess who didn't leave? The crowd was there in the morning wanting to be fed. And Jesus says to them, and you can read this in John chapter six, an amazing chapter when you put this all in context and read about what's going on. And if you read and think, okay, everything that Pastor Mo's been preaching on with the feeding and all that, John chapter six is him on the shores talking to the crowd that he had just fed the night before, the day before. And he said, you seek me not because you care about me or what I say, but because you want another free meal. He tells them that. Eating, your next meal, was probably the biggest deal of the day back then. They didn't have refrigerators and freezers and Costco's. They didn't have that. Eating was kind of important. And how you got that food was important. And if they could have free food, that's the kind of king they wanted. With the power he had, they could overthrow their current oppression. He could give them freedom from bondage, heal their disease, cast out all their demons, create food for them. They're thinking, This is great. But Jesus was not responding to that. And instead of accepting the earthly kingdom, he told them the next morning that they only came for a free meal. That's all they wanted was their basic needs to be met. But Jesus said, no, the only way you're going to get me is to get all of me. You're not just going to get the food I make, all of me, on his terms, not theirs. And he told them what must have sounded shocking, that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood. To have Him the everlasting food where they would never hunger again. They would get Him as Savior. See, they wanted that. They wanted the Savior part. And their Lord was the only way to take Him. He had to be their Lord and Master as well. And it was clear that the crowd did not want that. They were in it for the food and all sorts of other bennies. They were the shallow soil that Jesus has been preaching about in Matthew chapter 13. And when He gave a lecture on theology in John chapter 6, the same morning, they split. They were done, no food, theology, we're good. But the disciples stayed. Here's a little portion of that from John chapter six. After this, many of his disciples, speaking to the crowds, turned back and no longer walked with him. So they leave, they split. And Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. The crowds left, but the disciples stayed. They said, we're sure. How did they get so sure, church? And it's because of what happened the night before. They had an evening, a night, a morning that they, I promise you never forgot. I'm convinced of that. He refused the kingdom that the people offered him. Because his kingdom was what? His kingdom is not of this world. John 18.36, his kingdom is not the kind of kingdom that men wanted. The crowd tried to give him a kingdom, their version of a kingdom. But do you know at this time, speaking of the kingdom, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God right now is God's sovereign reign over the hearts and lives of his people. This is the kingdom of God. It's the church, it's his sovereign rule and expanding and growing his kingdom and church. And in the future it will be a full consummation of the world and everybody. But back then at this time as Jesus is on the mountain Kingdom of God was on a little rowboat out on the sea. It was the very seeds to the kingdom. They were the keys, they held the keys. And we see in verse 24 that the boat was a long ways from land. Okay, some people, some very liberals, I don't know what to call them. They try to explain every miracle in the Bible and they say, well, it was right by shore. He was probably like kind of skimming the water. And I don't think professional fishermen are gonna confuse walking on the shore But Matthew makes clear to show us that they were, actually he doesn't, but John does. He says they were a long ways from land. John says that they were a certain stadia away, 25 to 30 stadia away, which, and I worked through all the math on Thursday, 600 feet per stadia. They were about three to four miles from shore. Okay, they weren't close to any shore. They were probably about in the middle of the sea there. So they were far. And this little boat out in the middle of the sea is where the kingdom of God was at this time. Different than the way the people thought he should be building his kingdom. So Jesus is revealing himself to his disciples. He takes a huge step this night, this morning in showing the disciples who he is, who he really is. You see the point of this night was to get the disciples to where they really understood. And he decided this was the night. And in his sovereignty he set it up to get them on the boat and sail off. And to know exactly where they were. Because you see one miracle was walking on the water obviously. But let's say I gave you the power to walk on water and I told you it was a little boat, three to four miles. You wouldn't find them. So there is all sorts of miracles that we miss in here. But God knows where his people are always and what situation they are in. None of this surprises him much different than surprising him. He decided this was the night and He sovereignly set it up. He knew exactly where they were. And beloved, this is true in our lives as well. We often need to be brought to the point where we have nowhere else to turn, that all human effort has been exhausted. And sadly, that's what it takes sometimes to get us to see Jesus. All human effort was exhausted. And they went from that short disillusion, sad, confused, I'm sure of it. And they were no doubt asking the question, Is he really a king? Is this really our king? And they needed a real undeniable display. Is he the Messiah, the Lord, the one we thought? They needed evidence. And beloved, I tell you, they got that evidence, those early hours on that boat. And verse 25 continues, and in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. said it is a ghost and they cried out in fear but immediately Jesus spoke to them saying take heart it is I do not be afraid now the ancient Hebrew world divided night from sunset into three watches but the Romans and this is obviously we know they weren't speaking of these watches because there's a fourth watch the Romans used four watches they used three hour increments so the fourth watch would have been from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. in the morning Interesting, I love how Matthew just puts this. The actual miracle, the walking on the sea. How matter of fact Matthew puts this. He was walking, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. And I think it's okay to say that they were not simply startled. Now I know you hear me, every time I preach I talk about I would love video footage of, I would love to just see with my eyes what this scene was like. what Jesus looked like, what the disciples, their reaction. And there's a little part of me that wants to see them, because it just seems kind of funny how scared they were, too. It says they cried out in fear. Grown men, seasoned sailors, these are some tough dudes, and they cried out in fear. And I consider myself, to a certain extent, An expert in fear because of the fire service for 18 years now, I know both how to scare people and how to get scared myself. We just do that, especially when I was younger. It was one of my favorite activities, was like jumping out and scaring the guys, scaring the crew. Always once our work was done for the day, once everything was checked out in our own time, and you can ask probably a lot of guys, that's just a Favorite activity at the firehouse is scaring each other. Lockers, trash cans behind doors. Now that I'm older, I don't like to be scared, so I cut it off, and now I have the power to tell them, don't scare me, but it's OK if you scare each other. There's been times where I'm in my own room. Some stations have rooms. You get in bed, turn off the lights, you're in your own room. And I feel just a hairy arm just slowly just embrace me. So there's a thorough check that was going on. It would be about 20 minutes of me checking my room, lockers, everything before I went to bed. I once hid in someone's locker for 45 minutes, and it wasn't a big locker. And I had my knees up high. I actually scared them. It worked. But then when I climbed out, I almost had to go to the hospital because I built up so much lactic acid in my legs from being all cramped up in that way. And another time, I got myself locked in the locker because the key. was left on the lockers. I screamed, scared the guy, and then he screamed, closed the door, and locked it, and I was in there a good hour. There was hoses, there was him calling my captain, there was all sorts of stuff there, but the the worst case of fear that I've ever put somebody through, and I feel bad for him now. I do believe I went too far, I didn't mean to, but we come back from like a 2 a.m. call, the station's all dark, And I'm just hiding behind his door. And I don't scream, I don't do anything. I was just in the subtle art of scaring somebody. And he comes in, closes his door, does like a little yawn and a stretch. And all I do is go... Like right behind the door. And this is where I knew I went too far, is he didn't try to swing, strike back. And it kind of changed our relationship. Because I saw a side of him that I don't think either of us wanted to see. I saw his reaction in the face of whatever he thought he was facing. And when that door slid and I did my, ooh, he just kind of, the knees started to buckle. And I was behind him. He didn't even look up to see what I was, but he was going down. And I kind of like, oh, you know, and kind of grab him. And we both later, it was like, we just never talked about it again. We both thought, okay, I know I crossed the line. I couldn't see him the same anymore knowing that that's his battle stance is to buckle and just kind of, but there are things. I would have liked to have seen what level of fear the disciples had, because it says they cried out. There's no doubt this scared them. The Greek word for what they said is a phantasma. That's Greek apparition, phantasm, obviously. This was a real fear, okay? They didn't expect any human form to be walking on the sea towards them, and then they're tired, cranky, mad, confused, and they hear the words, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. There's so much that I wanna get into, but even just when he says, it is I, ego eimi is what we have recorded for us. And you see, that's all they heard was ego eimi. He's saying, hey, it's me. It wouldn't be until after the ascension, after the resurrection, that Christians would recognize this as an echo of I am, the decisive self-disclosure of God. There's so much that the disciples after he was resurrected and ascended must have thought, wow, think of all the stuff we kind of missed at the time that we can only see now and understand. Like this, ego eimi. Another again, once again we find Jesus revealing himself in a veiled way that will prove rich to them and to Christians after the resurrection. It's all part of progressive revelation as he's teaching the disciples. We continue in verse 28. And Peter answered him, Lord, If it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, come. So Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came to Jesus. And when he saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? What a beautiful picture. We see here, we see the faith of Peter who wants to just be, I'm gonna commend Peter. He wants to be so close to the Lord. Anybody who wants to say, oh, Peter, you messed up here. He's stepping out on water. He wants to be so close to Jesus. Who would even think that? But he sees him walking and he says, I want to be with you. Command me and I will go join you there, Lord. And Jesus responds with this one word, come. because of that he walked on water he just got out and started walking and I wonder you have to wonder what that must have been like what would it even feel like was it like walking on like thick jello was it like walking on glass was he like right on top sink into it a little these are all the things that I wonder was he in a few inches we'll never know on this side of eternity but that's definitely one of the questions I have for Peter and we know what happens at this point don't we Peter notices something else. Verse 30, when he saw the wind, he was afraid and he began to sing. He saw the wind. Now, I want to show you something. Remember a few Sundays ago, I want you to look up at those lights that almost gave Pastor Steve seizures a few weeks back when they were just flickering. And I want to point out that when you looked up to those lights, You took your eyes off of me. You had to. Unless you have some kind of weird chameleon eyes where they can kind of split or something. You had to take your eyes off of me. And so if Peter saw the wind, who did he take his eyes off? Jesus. Many times, beloved, we have faith in Christ and we have times where we want to be so close to him and we reach out and we don't even care if we can, if things are even possible, we want to be so close to him. And then something takes our eyes off of Him. Sometimes it's not even a bad thing. It's just things we have to do. Work, a schedule change, you didn't sleep, whatever it is. But you take your eyes off of Christ. And it was not that Peter lost faith in himself, but that he lost faith in Jesus because he got preoccupied with something else. His faith was strong enough to get him out of the boat and walking on water, but it was not strong enough to stand up to the storm. You see, the fear grew bigger than his faith at that moment. His faith may have not diminished, it was just that the fear overcame it. You can't slam a man's faith that's even half walking on the water. And doesn't this sound just like us? After taking a few steps of a difficult endeavor that Peter falters here when opposition begins to increase or show itself. And that's us. That is what Matthew wants to record here. That Jesus is there to save despite the inadequate faith. You don't have to have perfect walking on water type of faith, beloved. What Matthew records is that Jesus is there to save despite the inadequate faith. Peter is not left to sink. Peter is not blamed for getting out of the boat. What he's talked to is for not abiding in firm faith. He was right on exposing himself to trial, but he ought to have persevered. And he cried out, Lord, save me. Peter could have tried to get back on the boat. He could have cried out to the others. He had a few options. But what we see and we can glean from Peter here is that even in this moment, this lack of faith, this moment when the crisis rose up, his fear overcame his faith, he still knew who to call upon. Do you, beloved? Jesus could have simply delivered Peter by speaking something. But he went and reached out his hand, the text tells us. This firm grip of Jesus must have been very reassuring to Peter. And I love what Charles Spurgeon points out here is that Peter was near to his Lord when he was sinking. Think about that and how true that is in our lives. We are near to our Lord when we are sinking. Does this sound like it could be you sometimes, beloved? That you just want to be so close to your Lord, you're sometimes, you're scared and confused, like Peter here, like the disciples, you're lonely. Whatever the case is, and you long to be close, but then something from the world comes up, the wind and the waves of the world, and you take your eyes off of Jesus because your attention is needed to worry about a certain situation in your life, and you start to sink. Loved ones, and I want to be very clear on this, this passage is not meant to teach you that you can walk on water. It's not the intention. God did not put this in his word to teach you to try to walk on water. Have so much faith that you can walk on water. You cannot walk on water, but he can. That's what you need to know. He is there when you cry out, as Peter did as well. Remember, he who has the entire universe in his hands knows about you individually and what is going on, for we serve a compassionate, and loving God, and he wants us to know this from his word. This is why we are reading what has been preserved here for centuries. Two minutes, well, I'm gonna try to keep it to two minutes, just on faith. Is faith, is just believing enough? And no, it's not just, hey, you can't just believe in anything. That's kind of what the world is trying to say right now, just believe on anything. But why faith? And you see, faith is important because of what it's attached to. Faith in and of itself can't save, you can have faith in all sorts of stuff, that can't save. And I love the illustration that I preached before and it's about the two men and they are in the river that is about to go over the waterfall. And somebody on land throws a cable out to them. But one guy goes, that cable is tiny, it's just a quarter inch thick. And the other guy in the water sees this huge log going by. And he goes, that's big. That's little. That's big. I'm getting on that. So one guy gets on the log. The other guy, and that cable is the faith. See, the faith is not where the strength is or where the rock is. It is what is it attached to. And that cable was anchored to land. Big rock, big tree, whatever it is. But it was anchored to the land. And that is how faith works. It has to be attached to the right thing. And faith in and of itself, just simply believing, wishing upon a star, whatever it is you want to call it, that's not enough for what is your faith attached to. And that is when it's attached to Christ, his hands are the creator of the universe. You can't be on firmer ground. You can't have a stronger, more secure anchor. No matter how big the log is, it's going over. It's not going to work. the size of something in that sense. Verse 32, and when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. He has the power to heal the sick. He made the wind cease, heal the blind, heal the mutes, the lame, to stop the winds and the storms, to forgive sins. When they were scared, and oh, how we need to remember this, what he said, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And then here we have verse 33. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. Now, we think, well, yeah, they're the disciples. They knew all this. No, they didn't. They had never said this until this point. They had never called him the Son of God. This is the first time Jesus is addressed by the disciples with his full title, Son of God. Again, we see this progressive revelation. As he does with us, he was doing with the disciples. He was just giving them just enough to get by. They were learning. If you read the gospels, you are seeing that they are learning along the way. And at this point I promise you, they did not fully get it yet. It's unclear exactly what they meant by this title, but it was probably a messianic way that they referred to him. Like with very superficial comprehension, very shallow, but they were beginning to get it. And God does this with us. Progressive revelation. How many times, we can think back to some of the greatest, I call them deepenings of our life, where we learn certain things. We first come to learn about the Lord, his love, and then for me, one of my greatest deepenings was learning about salvation by faith. And not by works, that was huge. The whole book of Galatians and the, what happened, the reformation, 500 years, okay. The reformation was all about that. And then there was a day when I discovered the doctrines of grace and everything is just going 3D and full color and I'm just, these deepenings are huge and they were happening with the disciples as well. Something happened here that convinced them that they must worship Jesus. What happened this night was so convincing that the very next day after the crowd showed up, again for another free meal after being fed the prior day, the disciples stayed and Peter speaking for them. He said this, I'm gonna, Lord willing, in Matthew 16, we read, Peter affirms this to Jesus, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. This is the next day. And Jesus made the greatest confession that could ever be made. Son of God, they are starting to get it. Now, it's not the first time we read about that title, Son of God. God, the Father, used it at the baptism of Christ. The demons set it on the eastern shore of the sea. But the disciples have never said it before. They have seen miracles and healings of all kind, from raising the dead to casting out demons. They've heard preaching and teaching like no other, and they were hearing it and doing and seeing all these things for two years. And now they come to this monumental statement, this affirmation which Just after seeing something that inspired such confidence. And we see in this verse, in verse 33 here, and we see it the next day in John 6, verses 69-70 as well. And I told you already, only God can receive worship. Jesus himself said that, only God can receive worship. The worship of Christ is a very essential reality in the New Testament. It tells us something very basic about Jesus. It tells us that He is equal with God. In the Old Testament, God alone was to be worshipped. When God established the law he gave to Moses, it began with you shall have no other gods. Only the true God is to be worshipped. And that rang loud and clear through the Jewish religion that one God and one God only was to be worshipped. That was a very monotheistic religion. However, in the New Testament, again and again and again, we note that Jesus Christ is to be worshipped also. then is that Jesus Christ is equal with God. And that is affirmed in the statement that he is the son of God. He is of the same essence of God. If you look at the New Testament, you'll see the mark of worship of Christ. It's planted everywhere. Looking at the gospels for example, the wise men worshiped him. The leper worshiped him in Matthew 8. Gentiles worshiped him in John 12. A Canaanite woman worshiped him in Matthew 15. A maniac out of the tombs worshiped him in Mark 5. A blind man worshiped him in John 9. The disciples worshiped him at his resurrection and again on the mountain in Matthew 28. Then worshiped again at his ascension in Luke 24. we see worship of Christ all throughout the New Testament. If we look in the epistles, we find I've already told you about Hebrews 1, where I take Jehovah's Witnesses, that all the angels of God are to worship him. In Philippians, we find that God demands that every creature on earth, over the earth, and under the earth, bow their knee to worship Jesus Christ. And if we go all the way to the consummation and to the revelation, we find him being worshiped by all those in glory in chapters 4, 5, 11, and 19 of the book of Revelation. So this theme of worshiping Christ seems to be thrown all throughout the gospels, the epistles, and the revelation, all throughout the New Testament, that Jesus Christ is to be worshiped, and that is something reserved for God alone. You can make the connection. When John was in the midst of his vision, his revelation, he fell down to worship an angel, and the angel said, get up. I'm only a creature like you. Worship God. He reaffirmed that single worship perspective. And yet when Jesus was worshiped, never once did he say, get up, for I am a creature as you are. He accepted it. It was right. They worshiped him in verse 33 here. There is no verse 34 saying that he told them to get up. Because it was clear to them that they had a right to do that the Son of God. They were sure of it after the event that occurred in this text. And my prayer for us, church, is that we can just glean from the disciples here and the story that Matthew has recorded that we can know as well that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, is to be worshiped. And we know much more than they did at that time about Jesus. We know that he lives now. We know that he is seated. Elliot and I just got to talk about it this morning, where Jesus is right now, he's seated at the right hand of God. Interceding on your behalf, beloved. So again, I ask you, the most important question that could ever be asked. We've seen the answer, the greatest answer, the greatest confession that could ever be confessed that Peter says that the disciples have here. What do you do with Jesus? And if you don't know him in this way, I plead with you to turn to him. If he is not your Savior and Lord, let him take you by the hand as he did Peter. Many of us, the Lord has to get to the very bottom moment of your life to finally get your attention where all human effort again is exhausted. And for many, you're called and that's not the case. But either way, whether you know it or not, you're sinking. Without Christ, you are sinking. Take His hand, turn to Him, that these words that He can be your Savior, as well as your Lord and Master. And that's the only way that you can get Christ. It's not like a buffet where you can just pick and choose, I want some of this, but not some of that. Take His hand. And I can think, church, of no better way to end this sermon than to tell you who Jesus is. I've been telling you from Matthew's perspective. But I wanna end now by telling you who Jesus is, and I'm gonna use the very terms that the Bible uses. These aren't any of my words. These are all terms that the Bible calls. So, do you try to get what you can out of him like the crowds? Fire insurance, food, security? Do you fear him as the Pharisees and Sadducees that were felt attacked by him? Scribes and teachers, this whole new system? Do you only want him on your terms? No theology, no lessons, Savior only, but not Lord? Or like Peter, like the disciples, do you worship him? In church, who is Jesus? He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, the ancient of days. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the anointed one, the Messiah, the Mashiach, as they call him, the Christos. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is our prophet, our priest and king, He is our Savior, the only wise God. He is our wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is the Lord, the Almighty. He is the door of the sheep, the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. He is the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. He is the Lagos. He is the light, the light of this world, the light of life, the tree of life, the word of life, the bread that came down from heaven, the spring, which if a person drinks of it, he will never thirst again. He is the way and the truth and the life. He is the resurrection and the life. He is our rock, our bridegroom, our beloved, and our Redeemer. He is the head over all things, which is His body, the church. And as I just said, He is the rock, and that's what we are about to sing to Him now. Think of the words as we, in response to this sermon, in response to God's words, raise our voices and praise and adoration and union in worshiping and praising our God, Jesus Christ, the only true rock. All other ground is sinking sand, church, and we're about to sing this. He is my Savior and my Lord, and if you don't know him, don't let another son go down without turning to him. Church, let's pray. Father, it is humbling and amazing to think that you would consider us at all, that you would consider to even think of us, to make yourself known to us. You didn't have to do that. You don't need anything. You are not like all the false gods that have been created in men's minds that require sacrifice and require all these things and food and money. No, Lord. You have all, all the cattle, all yours. All the hills are yours. Everything is yours. But your love for us in revealing yourself to us in this way, your compassion as we see Lord Jesus. came out and cared for your disciples to show them, to show yourself to them that they may understand and know that you are God and worthy of worship. You are not a magician just simply doing tricks and magic to please the people. Just fun things for people to see or eat. No, Lord, you are much more than that. As you've told us time and time again, you are the bread of life. You are the living water, and we will never thirst again, for you are the only one that we can find that fulfillment in. Lord, I pray for our church, for those listening, that we can turn to you, that we can just see you, that we cannot be so focused on the wind and the waves in our lives, but we can focus upon you, Jesus. Lord, sometimes we don't know. What's your plan? As the disciples on the boat, it was hours before you came to them. And Lord, you didn't have to come at all to make yourself known. We don't know what your plans are. We don't know what you hold in store, but we do know that we are never alone. We do know that your hand is right there upholding us always, even when we don't realize it. Help us not to miss these things, these miracles that are all around us. Help us to see you and get with steadfast devotion, Lord. Father, We want to be strong and to place our faith, our love on you, Lord Jesus, the rock, and all other ground is sinking sand. Please receive our worship now.