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Before the sermon, a quick word of thanks, both to God and to you for your prayers. I give thanks to God that he has stood me back up here in this pulpit and given his word to us today with such great comfort and peace. Thank you also for your prayers for me and for your family. The Lord has heard your prayers and he’s answered them. And I ask that you would pray with me now.
O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise. Make haste, O God, to deliver us. Make haste to help us, O Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear friends of God, I do not know a better text, more fitting or perfect for the trouble that we face in our own days than this beautiful passage from Matthew 14 that God the Holy Spirit has put before us today. We’re right in the middle of the Gospel of Matthew. 28 chapters the Lord has given us and we’re right in chapter 14. Jesus has fed the 5,000 and they have wanted to make him a king. We read that in John chapter 6, but Jesus is not here to be this kind of king. So, sensing the danger of this taking him and making him king, he sends the disciples across the sea in the boat, it says, immediately. He put them in the boat to go ahead while he stayed back and dismissed the crowds.
Jesus then goes up to the mountain to spend time in prayer with God the Father, especially as he continues to mourn the death of his cousin John the Baptist. But as Jesus is there praying, the disciples are stuck in the midst of the Sea of Galilee, in the midst of the waves. The waves, it says, were beating the boat; they were distressed, the wind was keeping them from shore, and they were in trouble.
Now, I’d like if we could to take this text and pause it. I mean, a couple of times we’ll just sort of try to stop the action right in the middle and go and examine the situation and see what’s happening because the text puts before us two perspectives. The text shows us the disciples and their fear and their trouble, but it also shows us Jesus, who’s looking over them and who sees them in their trouble, who hasn’t left them, who is going to be with them and is going to keep them.
And the text gives this to us for our own comfort. I mean, if we want a picture of the church, we want a picture of our own day, if we want a picture of how it is with us and our families and our own lives, there’s hardly a better picture than the disciples stuck in the storm. The winds are contrary. They’re tossed to and fro. They don’t seem to have any hope of making it to the other side. And no doubt their danger from the winds and the waves is amplified by their distress of being sent away from Jesus and being left on their own.
Now if you could just pause it then in this first instance, sort of pause the boat in the middle of its rocking by the waves and consider how the disciples felt. I just imagine that it’s not that far off from how we feel as well. I saw this survey in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago that 85% of Americans feel like our country is falling apart, like it’s just not going to make it. We just, we used to have an idea that tomorrow might be a little bit like today, but no more. It seems like the future is so uncertain: economic future, the future of our society, the political future, the spiritual future. It seems like things are totally out of control, like there’s nothing solid, like the whole world is reeling. We’re tossed to and fro on troubles, surging billows, like there’s no steady ground at all.
I imagine you could probably survey the disciples on the boat and ask them how they felt about the future. Bleak. How they felt about their situation, hopeless. What they thought about the leadership of Jesus at this particular moment. They might be frustrated. But God the Holy Spirit wants us to see the whole picture. Jesus has not abandoned his disciples. He has not left them alone. Jesus didn’t stay ashore so that he could send them out into trouble while he was safely ashore.
No, when Jesus went up into the mountains, he goes up into the mountains to pray. And no doubt, Jesus sees them on the waves. He sees them in their trouble, and his prayers are for them. So it is now. Jesus sees you. Jesus is ascended into heaven so that he can watch over you, so that he can pray for you. Listen to this verse, this is Hebrews chapter 7, verse 25. This verse is really, really beautiful. Therefore, he, Jesus, is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he, Jesus, always lives to make intercession for them.
This promise is for us. Jesus is now ascended to the right hand of God so that he might intercede always for us and save to the uttermost all who have come to God through him. Paul says something very similar in this verse from Romans chapter 8, verse 34. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Again, that’s Romans 8, 34.
The disciples couldn’t see Jesus on the mountain, but Jesus could see them. The disciples thought that they were abandoned, but Jesus was with them. The disciples thought things were hopeless, but Jesus knew better and he knew that they were safe and that he would bring them safe through the storm, through the sea, and to all that the Lord had for them. And just to make sure we’ve got it, this is for us. This text is for us.
There’s a beautiful old hymn, it’s one of Carrie’s favorites, it’s “Be Still My Soul” that says this in the second stanza:
“Be still, my soul.
Thy God doth undertake
to guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake.
All, now mysterious, shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul.
The waves and the winds
still know His voice who ruled them
while He dwelt below.”
And God be praised. Now, now that’s just the first bit of comfort, because I want to sort of unpause the scene and take us a few steps forward. Because while the disciples were in the boat and in danger of the waves and thought that it was all over, Jesus, on the other hand, knew that they were safe, but then Jesus is going to come down and do something about it. Jesus is going to come and deliver them. He’s going to come and rescue them.
And to do that, he comes walking on the sea. It’s important for us to remember that Jesus doesn’t just walk on the sea because he can, because it’s a shortcut. He only does miracles to help people, not for himself. He comes walking on the sea so that he can deliver them. When we compare the text with John and with the Gospel of Mark, it seems like Jesus’ plan was to walk past them and to sort of forge a way through the waves so that the boat would follow and that they would be safe. It doesn’t seem like it was Jesus’ kind of plan A to come to them, but rather go by them and go past them, save them without being noticed.
But as they were fighting against the waves and as Jesus walks by, they do notice him walking on the waves so far off, and they think it’s a ghost. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying it’s a ghost, and they cry out for fear. But Jesus, hearing them cry out for fear, turns towards them, walks towards them, and preaches to them this beautiful sermon.
It’s three short phrases in Greek. In fact, this is the word of the week for me this week, the first word, “tharsate,” cheer up, don’t be afraid. It’s the same word that Jesus uses in John 16 when he says, in this world you’ll have trouble, but be of good cheer, I’ve overcome the world. It’s the words that Moses uses, translated from Hebrew into Greek, when God comes down with the Ten Commandments and the people are afraid and Moses says, don’t be afraid, cheer up, cheer up, Jesus says, and then the second little sentence, “ego eimi,” it’s me, I am, and then the third, “me phobete,” don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, cheer up, it’s me, don’t be afraid.
And the disciples hear this and they believe it, at least in the moment. In fact, Peter gets swept away with these words and kind of loses his head and says, Lord, if it is you, command me to come unto the waters. And Jesus says then to Peter, come. So Peter stepped down from the boat and walked on the waters to come to Jesus. But Peter then saw that the wind was strong, and he was afraid, and he began to sink.
I want to pause it here for our second freeze frame to consider the text. Now it is really quite beautiful that Peter, swept away in this particular moment, becomes as Peter-ish as he ever is. He has some doubts, “Lord, if it’s you?” He has this sort of irrational boldness, “let me come walk on the waves?” In other words, Peter has this confusion, sort of a confidence in himself and a doubt in Jesus, and Jesus is gonna now take this occasion and perfectly correct Peter’s faith and ours as well.
When we’re swept up in the moment like this, this is just how it is for us. We know that God is there, but maybe we wonder if he’s going to, if he’s really gonna be there. Maybe we’re bold about ourselves, but we’re a little bit timid about Christ so that Jesus calls Peter out of the boat onto the water so that he can correct this. So that Jesus wants Peter and he wants you and me to be very sure about who he is and a little bit careful about ourselves.
Jesus wants us to be absolutely sure that he is the Son of God, that he is the one who rules the sea, the winds, and the waves, the past, and the present, and the future. Jesus wants us to be absolutely sure that he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, that he rules and reigns all things for the sake of his beloved, that’s you and I and his church, and that he is coming back one day soon to bring us to the joys of eternal life. Jesus wants us to be absolutely sure of his love for us and his care for us and his provision for us. He wants us to know that his tomb is empty and that our sins are forgiven, that his love for us is everlasting, that he has us in his hands, and that he will never let us go. He wants us to be a little bit doubtful of ourselves, as if we could stand on our own in the waves, but absolutely sure that when he is with us, all will be well.
And so as Peter begins to sink, he cries out, Lord save me. And Jesus stretches out his hand and takes hold of him. This is what Jesus does. He stretches out his hand. He takes hold of you. He has you. And he is carrying you now gently like a shepherd carrying his sheep, carrying you gently through the waves and troubles of this life, bringing you safe to the shore.
So Jesus says to him, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those who are in the boat, and you, and I, all fall down to worship Him, saying, You are truly the Son of God.
May God grant us a full portion of His Holy Spirit, so that hearing these words, we would have this faith, this confidence, this confession, this boldness, and this peace. Amen. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.