Keeping Your Eyes on Jesus When Life Gets Rough

Thank you, Father, that all Scripture is God-breathed and

is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

Open our hearts to receive your Word, that we may know you

better and be thoroughly equipped for every good work, through your

Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Have you ever had the experience of feeling like you're about to drown?

I have a vivid memory of when I was 6 or 7. We were at

the heated pool in Kiama in New South Wales, and I was doing my

6 or 7-year-old laps. And halfway through one

lap, I got 2 puffs to go on, and I couldn't

get to the side, I couldn't swim back to the shallow. I remember thinking,

I'm going to drown. I couldn't rely on my own

muscles, I couldn't stand up. I needed rescuing.

Well, today in our Gospel reading, as Jesus reveals himself,

the Apostle Peter has a moment where he nearly drowns and

he too needs rescuing. And so it'd be great if you've got Bibles there,

open them to Matthew chapter 14 or follow along in your pew

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

sheet. Now chapter 14 started

with the beheading of John the Baptist. Then last week we

saw Jesus grieving go across the lake for some solitude,

but he was followed by the crowds. And Jesus

showed compassion on them and he did an amazing miracle. He fed 5,000

people with just 5 loaves and 2 fish.

And we saw that Jesus, who is God in

the flesh, is able to provide abundantly for his people

and he provides abundantly for us through his death and resurrection.

Well, today's passage picks up exactly where we left off.

So this miracle of the 5,000 is sitting just

in the back of our minds as we read about how Jesus walks

on water.

And so we come to verse 22. Immediately Jesus

made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the

other side. While he dismissed the crowd.

Jesus finally finds the solitude that he came across

the lake to get. And what does he do with that solitude?

Well, we're told in verse 23, he went up on a mountainside

by himself to pray.

This is a bit of a side point to the passage, but it is helpful

to notice that Jesus is dependent upon his Heavenly Father in prayer.

He's in relationship with him and he prays to him.

Through faith in Jesus, we too are brought into relationship with God.

God is our Heavenly Father and we too need

to be dependent upon our Heavenly Father in prayer.

I don't know about you, but finding a bit of solitude in

a day to go and pray is often a bit tricky. I've got a family

full of energetic young kids which are a great joy. But it means

that I have to be very intentional if I'm going to find quiet solitude.

Well, Jesus too, he had to be intentional. He had to

send the crowds away. He climbed up a mountain so he could pray through the

night. So let's let Jesus' example of

prayer be an encouragement to us to be devoted to prayer,

to find that place of solitude and pray.

Now jumping back into our passage in verses 22 and 24,

the disciples get into a boat and they go ahead of Jesus on the

lake. The boat is a considerable distance from land, buffeted by

the waves because the wind is against it. The word wind in

the Greek here is animos. It's a hostile wind. It's not working

for them, it's working against them. It's like when riding

a bike. If you're riding into the wind, you know it, it's hard

work, each pedal. Push is a struggle.

Well, each row of the boat is a struggle for these disciples.

The wind is animos, it's against them,

and they've been rowing all night. It would have been tiring, exhausting work.

And this is the setting for the next miracle where

we see the real Jesus, real faith,

real doubt, and real worship.

First, the real Jesus.

Jesus finishes praying. We're told in verse 25,

shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to the disciples walking

on the lake. Now, I don't know

about you, but I think that's a very understated miracle. Jesus just

went walking on the lake. If I were to ask someone who lived

on the north side of the river how they got to church this morning and

they told me, oh, we just walked walked across the river.

Well, first, I think either they used a bridge or that they're crazy, one of

the two. But in this lake where

the disciples are in the middle of, there is no bridge.

Jesus went out to them in the

middle of this storm, walking on the lake just

like that, demonstrating his power.

Now the disciples, when they see Jesus walking on the lake, we're told in verse

26 that they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said,

and they cried out in fear. They're seeing the impossible

and they do not know what to make of it because people don't just

walk on water. And so the disciples are afraid.

And I think this is fairly normal human behavior, isn't it?

The response to the unknown is to be afraid,

to be anxious.

Jesus, however, does not want to leave the disciples in a place of fear.

Verse 27, but immediately Jesus said to them, take courage,

it is I. Don't be afraid.

Jesus wants to allay their fears. He wants to calm them.

He wants them to see that this supernatural occurrence of

Jesus walking on the water is not there to make them afraid.

But it's happening so that they can more clearly see who

Jesus is. See, Jesus doesn't just walk across the water because it's

convenient or it's the most direct route or because he wanted to show off.

No, he wanted to show the disciples who he is and

that they can trust him.

This account of Jesus walking on the water has been kept in the Gospels by

God so that we here today can more clearly see who

Jesus is. We can see that Jesus wasn't just another person

in history. He wasn't like Caesar or Plato or Archimedes.

Jesus is in a category all on his own as one who walks

on water. Jesus is not someone

to fear but to take courage from, to not be afraid of.

He is a person to put our faith in. And we see this as we

look at Peter's response. And so we look at real faith.

The disciples, they must have had a hunch that it was Jesus because Peter responds,

Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water.

Now what made Peter think of asking that particular question?

Well, we'll have to ask him when we get to heaven.

But it's a question that demonstrates great faith, isn't it?

Jesus, if you really are who you say you are, You can enable

me to walk on water too. Jesus, if you

can do the impossible, you can make it so that I can do the

impossible. Now notice here that Peter's faith

is not in physics. Peter is a fisherman. He knows

that on his own, if he steps out onto that water,

he will sink. But Peter is looking

at Jesus. Who is standing on the water.

Peter's faith is in Jesus.

And Jesus has done some amazing things up to this point. He just

fed over 5,000 people. He's raised the dead. He's healed the

sick. Jesus has cast out demons. He's taught with authority.

He's shown compassion. He's even given to the disciples

some of his own authority as they go and proclaim the kingdom of God on

a mission trip. Peter's confidence and faith is in

Jesus. And then we see Jesus

invites Peter to put his faith into practice.

Verse 29, Jesus said,

come. Faith requires action.

And Peter got out of the boat and he walked on

water. And he came toward Jesus.

Imagine sitting on the boat watching this. You've got Jesus standing on the water,

you've got Peter walking on the water. It would have been surreal, wouldn't it?

Jesus can do the impossible.

And today, when we put our

faith in Jesus, Jesus again

does the impossible. Now, we might not walk on water,

but we are brought into relationship with God.

Jesus died on the cross to pay the judgment before God that we deserve

for our sin, so that when we put our faith in Jesus, when we

trust him, we're forgiven our sin, we're brought into relationship

with God, reconciled to the God of the universe,

and we get to walk with Jesus for all eternity.

We get to walk the halls of the heavenly throne room,

not just on top of a lake.

And before Jesus came, this was an impossibility for us because

our sins separated us from God.

And so like Peter, we should put our faith in Jesus because

Jesus can do the impossible.

But it's helpful to note here that it is in the person of Jesus that

we are to put our faith. Peter's faith was not in his ability to walk

on water. It was entirely in the person standing in

front of him. We need

to remember this today about our Christian faith. It is based

on trusting a person, and that person

is Jesus Christ.

Jesus, who lived and walked this earth 2,000 years

ago, who walked on water 2,000 years ago, who died

and was raised and now sits at God's right hand in heaven.

See, as Christians, our faith is not in the style of building that we worship

in or what's on the walls or what style of music that

we might like listening to or singing praises to.

Our faith is not in the way in which we practice communion or a specific

set of words that we use in the liturgy. No, Christian faith

is in the person of Jesus.

Now today we don't get to see Jesus walk on water like Peter

did, but we have God's spoken word written for us that

testifies to Jesus, all he did, all he said. And so

we, like Peter, can put our faith in him.

So that's real faith in a real Jesus.

But then we see a real doubt.

We see this in verse 30. When Peter

saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out,

Lord, save me.

Peter took his eyes off Jesus. He looked at the storm

around him, the wind, the water, the waves, and he let his fear come

back to him and he began to sink.

And we know that this is a faith issue because in verse 31,

Jesus reaches out his hand, catches him, and says, you of little

faith. Why did you doubt?

Peter goes from great faith, ask me

to come and walk on water with you, Jesus, to taking

his eyes off Jesus and sinking. I quite like

the Apostle Peter. I think he's a very real person. You get

the highs and you get the lows.

Peter didn't sink because the storm got worse.

Peter sank because he took his eyes off the one who rules the

storm, off Jesus.

And doesn't that just remind you a little bit of the Christian life? Some days,

some weeks, some months even, you're on fire for Jesus. You've got laser-like focus

for serving the kingdom of God. But then something happens.

A storm comes. The wind batters against you. You start to look not to

Jesus but to the situation around you.

And you fear that situation, whatever that it might be,

will just overwhelm you and crush you, and you start to sink and you start

to be afraid.

Well, there's something here that Peter does in his doubt that

we all need to do in moments of storm.

Peter cried out to God, to Jesus.

Lord, save me.

Jesus is the only one who can save us.

There's no point looking elsewhere.

Only Jesus is the God of the universe, with God the Father and

the Holy Spirit— one God, 3 persons. It's why he

alone is the one who can walk on water.

And in verse 31, Jesus does save Peter.

He reaches out his hand and catches him.

Even in our doubt, we can still call out to Jesus

and he will save us.

You see, Jesus also gives us a bit of an assessment of this situation.

He says to Peter, you of little faith,

why did you doubt? Doubt is not

commendable when it comes to Jesus because

Jesus has shown us who he is. We have no reason to doubt.

But if we do doubt, Jesus can

And because we are sinful humans,

there might be times when we do doubt.

And while doubt is not commendable,

It's okay as long as in that doubt we're still willing to cry out

to Jesus, save us.

Doubt which is more— that turns into a cynicism that leads

us to no longer crying out, Jesus, save me.

We need to be wary of that doubt because that's when we will drown and

we need rescuing. Like when I was 6 or 7,

I needed rescuing. And you might be able to

tell the end of the story because I'm here today. I didn't drown. I did

get rescued. Well, we need to

be rescued by Jesus. We need

him to save us from our sin.

Now maybe you're here today and you're finding yourself asking questions.

Maybe you're doubting Jesus and his power.

Ask God by his Spirit to show you Jesus more clearly.

If you're in a situation where you're feeling overwhelmed by the storms of

life,

maybe the storm of a work situation or a family situation

or a personal existential crisis situation,

Whatever that storm might be,

cry out to Jesus.

Because even though we doubt,

Jesus doesn't give up on us.

And when we cry out to Jesus, he will rescue us. He will save us

from the judgment we rightly deserve, and he will give us the resources that

we need to depend on him in the storms of life.

Now, here's a question. If we have faith in Jesus, does that mean we should

be able to walk on water?

Is my faith not strong enough because I can't walk on water? I've never

been able to do that. I don't know about you. I've never seen anyone else

do that. And maybe if you have,

you can tell me about it later. But actually,

our faith is not measured based on whether we can walk on water or not.

The measure of our faith is whether it is in Jesus,

whether we are looking to him.

And sometimes we might feel like our faith is full and we are metaphorically

walking on water, trusting him, depending on him.

Other times we might feel like we're sinking.

Either way, we need to do the same thing in both situations.

We need to look to Jesus. We need to have faith in

Jesus. Remember,

faith is in a person, in Jesus. And now the

right response of real faith in the real Jesus is real

worship.

All of this would have been amazing to watch.

To be a part of. But it can't stop there.

This revelation of Jesus requires a response.

In verse 32, Jesus and Peter, they climb into the boat and the wind dies

down. And then in verse 33, those who

were in the boat worshipped him, saying, truly you are the Son

of God. They see Jesus clearly and

they worship him. The faith in Jesus will lead us

to worshipping Jesus. That starts with us acknowledging

that he is the Son of God. The Son of God

is just a way of referring to Jesus being God's divine King,

the Lord, the ruler.

Worshipping Jesus means that we cry out to Jesus to save us.

And so we live with Jesus as our Savior as well as our Lord.

And so if you have faith in Jesus, you will worship Jesus. The 2 go

together. That is the— that is faith in action,

trusting Jesus as our Savior and Lord. The 2 go together.

See, faith and worship is like heads and tails on a coin. You can't separate

them. So if you have faith, you will worship Jesus.

Someone who says that they have faith but doesn't worship Jesus They

do not have the Christian faith.

And that worship will affect our lives.

And one way that that worship will affect our lives is that in the

storms of life, which they do come— human

life is a series of ups and downs, of waves. Sometimes the lake is calm,

but other times it's, it's a tempest.

It's a crazy storm. You wouldn't want to walk outside.

If we're worshiping Jesus in those moments, we will cry out to

We will depend on him.

We will trust Jesus for our salvation.

We will trust Jesus to do the impossible for us. And so Jesus invites us,

as he invites Peter, to come, come to

him and let him,

Jesus, the Son of God, save us.

So let us here this morning put our faith in Jesus

and worship him.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we praise you that Jesus entered

this world, that he walked on water, but he did more,

so much more than that. He died on the cross, was raised

to life so that we can have eternal life. We praise you for that,

and we ask, Lord, that you would help us to have real faith,

faith that looks to the person of Jesus.

Who calls out to him, save us, relies on

him to be our Saviour, but also lives with

him as our Lord.

Help us this week to worship Jesus.

We pray this in Jesus' name.