From Fear to Faith
Intro
quote –
John
Calvin – “Nothing is more fearful to convict sinners than the words, "I am
Jesus whom you persecute;" nothing more powerful to comfort saints than
this, "I am Jesus whom you love." If we have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, though the night be dark, and the wind high, and the waves of life
crash about, yet we may comfort ourselves, we shall be at the shore before long
as he is with us.”
Read
passage –
Matthew
14:22-33 (ESV)
- Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately
he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side,
while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And
after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to
pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but
the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the
waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And
in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 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. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to
them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
28 And
Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the
water.” 29 He said,
“Come.” So Peter got out of the
boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But
when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried
out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus
immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And
when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And
those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Jesus
Walks on Water & John 6: 15 – 21 ESV
15 Perceiving then that they were about to
come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the
mountain by himself.
16 When evening came, his
disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started
across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to
them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was
blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they
saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were
frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be
afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and
immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
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Reminder from last week, my
contention is that John is not just a regular biography but is a theological
argument where John is using certain miracles as evidence to convince you
that Jesus is not only the promised Messiah described in the OT but is actually
God himself, deity.
Miracles in John:
#1 Turning water into wine ch 2
#2 The healing of the official’s
son ch 4
#3 The healing at the pool of
Bethesda ch 5
#4 The multiplication of the
bread & fish ch 6
#5 is 2 fold: Walking on water
& the calming of the storm ch 6
#6 healing of a man born blind ch
9
# 7 raising Lazarus from the dead
ch 11
In this same story in Matthew 14, Matthew
adds another element, the Apostles are in the boat, they’ve been struggling
against the wind & waves for hours & from the distant edge of their
lantern light & flashing lightning they can just make out a figure walking
as along a path over the tops of the waves & Shaggy says to Scooby,
“It’s a ggggggggg-ghost!” & then Matthew shares the account of Peter
walking on water, John does not. Why doesn’t John even speak about Peter
walking on the water like Matthew does? If I am correct on my take on John being
written differently than Matthew, Mark & Luke then its b/c John’s emphasis,
his hero, the center of John’s message is about Christ (not Peter).
All throughout the Gospel of John, we
are reminded time and time again that John's purpose is to let us know who
exactly is Jesus. We see who he is in his encounters with people like
Nicodemus, the Woman at the Well, and the invalid at the pool of Bethesda. We
are introduced to his purpose, his person, and his compassion. But more than
anything we are reminded throughout this Gospel that Jesus is God.
How did Jesus do it?
- #1 Jesus projected a vision of
himself from the shore? But the
“vision” got into the boat with them, Peter at least touches the vision in
Matthew’s account
- #2 The wind had pushed the disciples closer
to land than they thought & saw Jesus walking either on the seashore or a
sandbar, not on the water? But many
of the disciples were professional sailors/fishermen, so their confusion seems
unlikely
- #3 This was a pious legend that grew over the
centuries after the death of Jesus, a story like Poseidon or Neptune? But John was an eye witness (unlike Mark or
Luke) Also all of the gospels were written within John’s lifetime, in the 1st
century not 100s of years later
- #4 Or Jesus’ power over Nature is proof of
Christ’s divinity This passage
through the next 200 years or so is used in various Early Church services,
writings, creeds & confession to defend the idea that Christ is in fact
divine. This passage exemplified
Christ’s deity to the Jews because they had this idea of Yahweh (God) having
power over the sea (which is often seen as an example of Chaos) this is
paralleled in the passage in Geneses 1 where the Spirit of God hovers over the
waters & begins to create order out of Chaos. In Scripture, Yahweh, the one, true Lord of all, is described as
walking upon the water (Psalm 77:16–20; Habakkuk 3:15).
Any
Questions so far?
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1 of
the interesting points in both this miracle & the last is Jesus’ example of
the importance of prayer. Jesus prays
over the bread & fish before miracle last time & instead of getting
wrapped up in other people’s expectations for his life, Jesus pushes everyone
else away for hours to pray alone on the mountaintop before walking to the disciples
on the sea.
We
know from the passage that the crowds had seen Jesus institute free universal
healthcare with his miraculous healings & a version of 1st
century food stamps & WIC programs in feeding the crowds for frees & so
the crowds wanting to force Jesus to be king, but Jesus does not want to be
king. Why, do you think that was? Was
Jesus a king & what kind of king of what kind of kingdom? Jesus
removes Himself from people whose goals were not consistent with His Father's
plan for him. Christ was here to obey the Father. Nothing else was acceptable
to Him. He would stand for no deviation from the plan the Father had put into
place.
- If
you remember I told you it was rare for the same event to be discussed in all 4
gospels last week, but there is another occasion where that happens when Jesus admits
before Pilate that he is a king, but one not of this world
- He is labeled at his execution as
the King of the Jews
- The book of Revelation cites him
as a king over & over again, not just a king but the King of all kings
& the Lord over all lords.
-
Closing quote – John Calvin
“The Lord often makes his people fall
into alarming dangers, that they may more plainly and familiarly recognize him
in their deliverance.”
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Notes
on “if the boat was is the middle of the sea”
John
Calvin
Verse
17 – Calvin says not to assume they were in the middle of the lake
“Those
who conjecture that they were still about the middle of the lake when Christ
appeared to them, because John says that they had then advanced about
twenty-five or thirty furlongs, are led into a mistake by supposing that
they had sailed to the farther or opposite bank; for Bethsaida, near which
town, Luke tells us, the miracle was performed, (Luke
9:10,) and Capernaum, which the ship reached, (John
6:16,) were situated on the same coast.
Pliny,
in his fifth book, states that this lake was six miles in breadth, and sixteen
in length. Josephus (in the third book of the Wars of the Jews) assigns to it 12.5
miles in length, and 5 miles in breadth; we may easily infer how little the one
description differs from the other. So far as relates to the present
sailing, my opinion is, that they did not go over so great a space by direct
sailing, but through being driven about by the tempest.”
