Transcript

Two longstanding church members were in a boat fishing with a new believer. Fishing is a great time for conversation and each was proclaiming their fervent faith and devotion to the Lord. As they were discussing their faith, one’s hat blew into the water.

So he stood up, calmly stepped onto the water, walked over to his hat, picked it up off the water, and walked backed to the boat. The new believer was amazed how this Christian man could seemingly walk on water.

As the new Christian was pondering this, the other church member’s hat blew into the water. He also very calmly stepped onto the water, walked over to his hat, picked it up off the water, and walked backed to the boat.

The new Christian was overwhelmed at how spiritual these men must be to have walked on the water as they did. Then the new Christian thought to himself, “Well, if these guys can do it, so can I”, and he then “helped” his hat blow into the water.

He very calmly stepped out of the boat and immediately disappeared and sank beneath the surface. As he fought his way to the top, splashing around, gasping for breath, the two long-standing church members turned to each other and said, “I think we should have told him about the sandbar on this side of the boat.”

In the familiar account that we’ll look at together, we find someone who gets out of the boat and actually walks on water, and not on a sandbar.

There are many practical lessons and principles to glean from this extraordinary miracle of Christ, and Peter, walking on the water.

Matthew 14:22-25: “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.

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

“And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.”

After miraculously multiplying 5 loaves and 2 fishes, and feeding the 5000, Christ turned His attention to meeting the needs of His 12 disciples.

In verse 22, the Lord constrained the disciples to get into a boat to go before Him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee while He dismissed the multitudes of people that had been fed miraculously.

The disciples obeyed and got into the ship and started out without the Lord.

They were currently on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee in the wilderness outside Bethsaida, and John 6:17 tells us they headed west for Capernaum which was located on the northwest shore of the Sea.

Verse 23 says that it was “evening” when the disciples left. By Jewish definition and their keeping of time, this would be from 6-9pm, and thus darkness was approaching.

After the crowd was dispersed, and it grew dark, the Lord went up into a mountain alone “to pray” to have quiet communion with the Father.

It was a place God the Son was familiar to be: in the presence of God the Father. Because they have had eternal fellowship together.

John 17 gives us a glimpse into how our Lord prayed and what He prayed about when He spent time in prayer with the Father. There we read,

“I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world…I pray for them…I come to Thee Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as we are…that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves…that thou shouldest keep them from the evil [one].”

Christ would pray for the 12. The disciples were to be the rulers in His Kingdom, sitting on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And they were to be the frontline to proclaim the kingdom gospel after Christ’s departure from this world.

It was important that they had an increasing understanding of the King’s identity and nature, and for their faith in Him to increase.

And by what the Lord did after He prayed, we can see that this was what He was in prayer about on that mountain.

As the disciples were out on the lake and “evening was come,” when the sun went down, the wind picked up, and the waters of the Sea of Galilee were churned and stirred.

John 6:18 describes the wind as “great.” It was a fierce wind. As a result of that great wind, strong waves were stirred up on the sea and the disciples’ boat was tossed around.

And with the wind being contrary, or against them, the disciples made little progress in their journey west toward Capernaum.

John 6:19 says they’d “rowed above five and twenty or thirty furlongs” which equates to three or three and a half miles. The Sea of Galilee is about 7-8 miles across, thus they were “in the midst of the sea,” as verse 24 says.

The disciples had been rowing for some time and it was getting late into the night. The “fourth watch of the night” mentioned in verse 25, when the Lord came to them, was between 3 and 6 am in the morning.

They began their journey around 6-9 pm in the evening, so they had been rowing anywhere from 6-12 hours, and for that amount of time they hadn’t gotten very far.

Mark 6:48 tells how the disciples had been “toiling in rowing.” They were working hard, straining, rowing with all their might through that rough sea.

This speaks to how determined they were to obey the Lord’s instruction. The Lord had said, “Go to the other side,” and they were doing their best to be obedient. This example teaches us of the importance of determination in obeying the Word of God.

We also learn here that you can do exactly what God wants you to do, you can be exactly where He wants you to be, and still find yourself in a storm in life.

We often associate difficulties with being out of the will of God, but this isn’t the case here. They obeyed; they were in the will of God, and they were in a storm.

Matthew says the boat was “tossed” which in the Greek literally means the boat was tormented by the waves. And not just the boat was tormented, but the disciples also were being tormented by the high waves, crashing against the boat and over and into the boat.

It was dark and gloomy, the wind was fierce, the water was angry, the disciples were cold, wet, exhausted. It was a bad night.

But Mark 6:48 says that as Christ was alone on the mountain, “He saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them.” It is comforting to know that He knows, and that He sees when we are struggling, exhausted, frustrated.

The last time the disciples were in a storm on the Sea of Galilee, Christ was in the back of the boat asleep on a pillow and all they had to do was wake Him up and He stilled the storm. This time, He wasn’t there, and of course, logic would tell them that there’s no way He could get to them now.

But then verse 25 says, “In the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.” Suddenly a figure is seen, a human form coming toward them across the water and it was Christ “walking on the sea.”

You have to love how Scripture states this so plainly and simply. It just says He went walking on the sea, just like you would take a walk down the street on pavement. No big deal. It is so matter of fact that it is almost overpowering.

But for Christ, it wasn’t any big deal; He who made the sea could walk on the sea if He so chose. And as God in the flesh, He chose to walk on the water.

He not only came in the storm, but He came on the storm. And He came because they needed Him. He had seen where they were, so He came walking off that mountain right on to the water and right out to the boat.

And as the Lord was walking on the water, He made much better progress than the disciples in the boat as He easily caught up with them, and He was moving so fast and easily across that water that Mark says He “would have passed by them” (Mark 6:48).

Matthew 14:26-29: “And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

“And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.”

When the disciples saw the Lord walking on the water, they were “troubled,” and they “cried out for fear.” They were terror-stricken. And you can’t blame them! No one had ever seen this before.

The disciples were yelling, “It’s a spirit!” The Greek word for “spirit” means an apparition. They thought they were seeing a ghost.

The Lord came near their boat, and He stopped, and He immediately started talking with them, now just standing on the water.

And by grace, seeking to calm their fears, He told them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; don’t be afraid.” “Be of good cheer’ means to take heart, be of good courage.

And the words “It is I,” are the same Greek words used in other places when the Lord said “I am.” Such as John 8:58 when the Lord said, “Before Abraham was, I am.”

“I am” is the name of Jehovah God. It’s what God told Moses out of the burning bush that His name was: “I AM that I AM.” And Christ was telling the disciples here to be of good cheer, don’t be afraid, it is me, the “I am,” God in the flesh.

And by this miracle, Christ demonstrated and revealed His identity to the disciples that He is God and the Creator. Job 9:8 says of God Almighty, “Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.”

Christ told them to “be not afraid,” and with the great I AM being with them, there was no reason to fear.

The disciples saw the storm and the waves and they saw the Lord, and they were being shown which is more powerful and in control. And the great confidence of this passage is that we’re never away from the authority, knowledge, or care of the Savior. Never.

Max Lucado wrote this: “On a September morning in 2001, Frank Silecchia laced up his boots, pulled on his hat, and headed out the door of his New Jersey house. As a construction worker, he made a living making things.

“But as a volunteer at the World Trade Center wreckage, he just tried to make some sense of it all. He hoped to find a live body. He did not. He found 47 dead ones.

“Amid the carnage, however, he stumbled upon a symbol—a 20 foot tall steel-beam cross. The collapsed Tower One created a crude chamber in the clutter. In the chamber, through the dusty sunrise, Frank spotted the cross.

“A symbol in the shards. A cross found in the crisis. “Where is God in all this?” so many asked. And a cross was discovered right in the middle of it all.

“Can the same be said of our tragedies? When the ambulance takes a loved one away, or a disease takes a friend, when the economy takes our retirement, or a troubled marriage takes our heart, can we, like Frank, find Christ in the crisis.

“The presence of troubles doesn’t surprise us. The seeming absence of God, however, undoes us. We can deal with the ambulance if God is there. We can stomach the ICU if God is there. We can face the empty house if God is there. But is He there?

“Evening began at 6 o’clock and Christ came at 3 in the morning. The disciples were in the storm for 9 tempestuous hours. Long enough for more than one disciple to ask,

“Where is the Lord? He knows we are in this storm. Is God anywhere near?” And from within the storm walking across the water, comes an unmistakable voice: “I am.”

Peter, who had been around water all his life, was seeing something he knows to be impossible, so then he asked something he knows is impossible.

When people think of Peter walking on the water, most think first that he sank, but they forget the request and the first step.

Peter said, “Lord, if it’s really you, bid me, command me to come to you on the water. With the words “bid me,” Peter used a Greek word that means “the command of a king.”

Peter recognized that Christ was King over all nature, that He was Lord over the wind, the water and waves, and all elements of nature.

Peter didn’t just impulsively hop out of the boat, he told Christ first, “You tell me to do it and to come to you” as he made real sure Christ was going to be there with and for Him.

Peter believed it was possible to come to the Lord “on the water” and that the Lord had the power to hold him up. To Peter’s request, the Lord responded very simply with “Come.”

Now it would be difficult enough to get out of a boat and try to walk on the water when it’s calm and in the daylight. But Peter was going to do this when the waves were crashing, the wind was blowing, it was three in the morning, and the night was pitch black.

But Peter lifted one leg over the side of the boat, and stepped down and put his foot on the water, and then he lifted his other leg over the side and put that foot on the water.

And then he let go. And he was still standing, and he took a step toward Christ, “to go to Jesus”. Then he took another step, and another, and an ordinary mortal man was walking on the water.

And for just a moment, it’s just Peter and Christ. Peter wasn’t walking on the water in his own strength; it was in the strength of Christ. He experienced God’s power working through Him to accomplish the impossible.

The Christian life itself, like walking on water, is humanly impossible. It can only be lived by the power, strength, and enablement of Christ, and as we walk by faith in Him.

The boat was a known; it was safe, secure, and comfortable. Peter had plenty of reasons to not leave the boat. But one reason to get out of what he knew and out of what was secure, and that was Christ.

It’s been said that the eleven other disciples were “boat potatoes.” They did not want to run the risk.

They preferred the certainty of the floating boat to the uncertainty of the water. What holds our walk of faith back in life are the same things: comfort, fear, and uncertainty.

Peter probably heard things from the other eleven that many have when they want to follow the Lord and serve Him or go into the ministry, “Peter, what are you thinking?” “Peter, get back here, are you crazy?” “Peter, you can’t do this.” “Peter, what if you fail?” “That’s not the safe thing to do.”

That’s boat talk. And Peter was not dissuaded, and he got out of that boat and walked towards Christ. Sometimes we have to be willing to walk alone and step out in faith alone to do a great thing for God and to follow Christ.

Because Peter did, in all recorded history only 2 ever walked on water, Christ and Peter. And Peter could say that he walked on water. The other disciples couldn’t say that.

And it’s because Peter took a step of faith, that he did something he could only dream of doing through Christ.

Matthew 24:30-33: “But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

“And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.”

Peter’s got out of the boat, but he got into a situation unlike any other in his entire life.

Peter had been in a boat in a storm, but he had never been out of a boat in a storm.

All of a sudden, as he was walking on the water, Peter realized what he was doing; he looked around and saw the big waves; he felt the wind and sting of the water on his face. And his faith gave way; he was afraid again, and he began sinking.

His faith began to waver when he took his eyes off the Lord and began to look at the circumstances around him. And so it is in the Christian life, that when we take our eyes off the Lord we begin to sink in life. The storms and dark times of life can cause us to fear and look away from the Lord, but it’s in those times we need to focus on Him the most.

Did Peter fail here? Yes, his faith gave way. He could not stay locked on to Christ. He had little faith and he doubted. So he sank, and he failed. We all fail. We all get that sinking feeling.

We all don’t always trust the Lord, and we don’t always keep our focus on Him. In tough circumstances like Peter we can doubt, worry, get scared, and be people of “little faith.”

But that is what the Christian life is all about: growing in our faith, learning more and more to trust God. We grow in our faith through failure.

Remember there were also eleven failures in the boat. They failed privately and quietly. Their failure was safe, unnoticed, uncriticized. Only Peter experienced the shame of public failure. But only Peter knew the glory of walking on the water with Christ.

And we can experience the glory of Christ working through our lives and doing something unexpected and amazing through us as we trust Christ and yield ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice, so He can release His power in our lives.

As Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

And only Peter knew, in a way that the other disciples never would, that when he sank and needed Him most Christ would be there.

Christ saves sinking people; He helps those who turn to Him. When Peter began to start sinking, in fear, he cried out “Lord, save me.”

Calling Him “Lord” Peter knew Christ was able to save him. And He is able, more than able. And it says “immediately,” Christ caught him.

This is true of the lost sinner who realizes the eternal consequences of their sins and their need of the Savior, and call out to Him in faith, “Lord, save me!” And the Lord IMMIEDIATELY catches those who cry out to Him to save them.

And in the Christian life, when we take our eyes off the Lord, and doubt and worry and our circumstances of life overwhelm us and we begin sinking in life, if we turn to Him and cry out “Lord, save me!” He immediately catches us by His infinite love and care.

Power and strength in life comes by, as Hebrews 12:2 says: “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith.”

After catching Peter and holding him up, Christ and Peter walked on the water together back to the ship, and as soon as they got back into the boat, the wind ceased.

And John 6 also says the boat was instantly at the shore; they immediately found themselves at their destination. They were in the middle of the sea, but when they got in the boat, the wind ceased, and in a blink of an eye they’re at the shore.

It was like the ultimate speed boat! They didn’t have to row anymore. Christ brought them to shore instantly.

When Christ calmed the storm the first time, the disciples said, “What manner of Man is this?” But now their testimony was “Of a truth, Thou art the Son of God!” (v. 33).

Their understanding of Christ had been expanded. And that was what I believe Christ was praying about prior to this miracle.

Christ demonstrated His sovereignty and authority over creation as God, the omniscience of God, the protective care, love, and power of God. And all of the disciples, overwhelmed with the truth that truly this is the Son of God, worshipped Him.

When you are in the Gospels, it’s important to remember that the primary interpretation and application is for Israel and in accordance with God’s prophetic program with her.

This storm is a picture of the 7-year Tribulation period. The faithful remnant in Israel is pictured by the disciples in the boat. The contrary wind speaks to Satan, the prince of the power of the air, and his demons being contrary to Israel. The waves picture the nations of the world, stirred up by the wind, or strong spiritual influence of the demonic forces.

While we, the Body of Christ, are delivered from the wrath to come, Israel will go through the storm and night of the Tribulation and be tossed around by it.

During that storm, God’s Son from heaven, as pictured as being on that mountain, will see believing Israel and pray for her.

At the end of the night of the Tribulation, as pictured by the 4th watch, Christ will come down from that mountain, or from heaven, and He will come to Israel miraculously, supernaturally, and powerfully at His Second Coming to deliver Israel in her great need.

He will then cause the wind to cease when he casts Satan and his demons into the bottomless pit for 1000 years. And He will calm the waves, or the nations of the world, and bring peace to Israel and bring them safely to the shores of His Kingdom.

And by Peter, Israel is taught of the need to keep their eyes on the Lord in that time and not look around on the frightening circumstances of the Tribulation.

Israel is being called here to trust the true Messiah with a strong faith. If they don’t, they’ll sink like Peter, but if they cry out to Christ, He is always faithful to catch, help, and deliver them.