Our Reading from Matthew 14:22-33.
Today I’d like to ask you to settle back into your imagination. I’d like you to imagine that you live about 40 years after Jesus lived, and that an older, wise man has come to speak to you this morning. He is one of the men who knew Jesus closely, who walked with Him so closely that the dust of Jesus sandals covered him, a man who followed Jesus from town to town over a period of three years. Imagine that this disciple of Jesus is talking to you this morning...
…
Peace be with you!
I’m so glad to be with you today. My hosts asked me to tell you of some incident when being with Jesus transformed my life, so let me tell you of a couple of these situations.
We had received word that John the Baptizer had been beheaded by King Herod. Now, no matter what you’ve heard of John – his craziness, his odd way of dressing, the strange food he ate, his tendency to yell at visitors from the Temple – John and I were very close. He was a godly man, very attuned to what the Scriptures said was right, what was wrong, and how the Messiah would arrive to set us free from not only the Roman occupiers, but from those who grew wealthy and powerful and forgot those average people. He did not want to destroy the wealthy and powerful, but simply wanted them to remember the poor, to stop assuming that God just loved the wealthy and hated the poor, like so many people of the day did. John was always kind to me and I learned a lot from him. So when I heard he’d been killed to satisfy Herod’s wife, I was grieved and disgusted. So was Y’shua, his cousin, the man the Romans called Jesus.
Jesus had us cross the lake on my boat to a quiet place, but the crowd found out where we were headed to and ran along the shore. By the time we arrived, there were many people. So Jesus healed them all day. My brother Andy and I more or less did crowd control.
It was that evening that Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed the whole crowd, about 5000 men plus women and children. We collected twelve baskets of leftover pieces – it was awesome!
A few minutes later, Jesus told us to pack up the boat and head back toward Gennesaret on the northwest end of the lake, while He sent away the crowds. As we sailed away from the shore, we saw His lonely figure walking up the mountainside with His head covered in His prayer shawl, the way He used to pray. I’ll never forget that sight – the setting sun behind Him, His head bowed as He slowly walked up that mountain path.
We, meanwhile, began having an awful time. Every evening about sunset, the cool wind comes down off the mountains that line the Lake of Galilee like a big bowl. And those winds fight amongst themselves over the lake. Sometimes, the east wind wins, sometimes the west wind, other times the north wind and other times the south wind. This particular evening, as life would have it, the north wind blew strongest, blowing right in our face as we struggled to sail almost due north. And furthermore, the wind had pushed the waves up in front of it, causing them to hit the bows of the boat and come splashing over the gunwales.
I’d already put the sail down, since it wasn’t helping, and we’d put out the oars, but it was rough going – We had about 8 miles to go, but we’d only managed about a mile or two because the wind was in our face all night. We were exhausted after hours of rowing. And then, just before dawn, it happened.
I think John, sitting at an oar, looking at the stern of the boat, saw it first. There, in the middle of the lake, walking towards us, was a fantastic sight in the gray early morning light, through the fog that rises up most nights at that time. It seemed like a ghostly figure was walking towards us across the lake. It sent chills up our spines – several of the men were scared out of their wits and yelled in fear - I thought Thomas was going to climb right out of the boat!
But then, something even more amazing happened. The figure said, in Jesus’ voice: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Well, all now were turning their heads and staring straight at me sitting in the stern of the boat controlling the rudder. After all, I was the boat’s captain! I was their leader! I was the one who had to respond.
I stood up, turned toward the apparition and said, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” I don’t know why I said that – it was crazy! NO ONE walks on water – but Jesus was walking on water in front of me and I had to say something.
He waved at me and said, “Come”. And now I had to go. I had to trust in that man I’d followed for months. I had to trust in my teacher. I had to have faith that He wouldn’t let me be embarrassed and just fall into the water to the laughter of all the other guys in the boat. And believe me, that was difficult, for those guys used to play all sorts of jokes on each other and me. And for a couple of minutes, I believed that if Jesus said to come to Him OVER the water, I could do it.
I admit I was shaking with fear. But I had to be brave in front of the other guys. So I climbed down out of the boat and WALKED ON THE WATER toward the man, who I could now tell for sure was Jesus.
I guess I probably walked 20 or 30 feet, stepping down in the hollows between the waves. It was then that I began to notice just how strong the wind was, and how it was buffeting me, fear hit me, and suddenly I was sinking in the water like a normal man, so I yelled out “Lord, save me!” and Jesus grabbed me with his hand and caught me.
He said to me over the wind, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
And he held me up as we walked back to the boat on the water, and climbed into the boat. And suddenly, I noticed that the wind had died down. All around me, the other men were saying to Jesus, “Truly you are the Son of God.” And we continued our journey to Gennesaret.
In that book that my friend Matthew wrote, this story has gone down as the night Jesus walked on water. But by then, we’d seen other miracles – just the day before, He’d fed 5000 men plus women and children with five loaves and two fish. We’d seen people healed. We’d seen paralyzed men healed, we’d seen a dead girl raised. We’d seen blind men see for the first time and a demon driven out of a mute man. We’d even seen him calm a storm another evening we were out on the lake. So, frankly, it didn’t surprise me all that much when Jesus walked toward us on the water – because that is what the Son of God should be able to do. For we knew that Jesus was more than a regular man. We knew He had a special connection with the Father.
But what really surprised me was that I was so involved. I, Simon, son of Jonah, a simple fisherman who lived at Capernaum on the lake of Galilee. Yes, I owned a boat which I worked with my brother Andrew, and I worked in partnership with John and James much of the time, but I was just a fisherman who knew there was more to life than fishing, and so I went to follow John the Baptizer first, and then I followed Jesus, who must have thought I was a solid, but rough character, for he nick named me Kephas, which is Aramaic for “Rock”, a name the Greeks translated as Petros and others later turned into Peter. Simon Peter. No, what really surprised me was that that early morning, I, Simon Peter, I walked on water.
I walked on water as long as I kept my eyes on Jesus. I’m not the Son of God, I’m not divine, I’m simply a man like you. But that morning, I walked on water.
It changed me. It was critically important to me. My life changed because of it. After Jesus was executed for the crime of claiming to be God on the earth, and after He came back from the dead, and after He returned to Heaven – I knew it was up to me to tell everyone who Jesus was and what He had done. You see, I knew Who Jesus was. He was the Son of God, God Himself walking on the earth, walking on water that night. But that would have been just a great story to tell my grandkids if it had ended like that. But He showed me that I could also walk on water – if I kept focused on Him!
I could have been afraid over the next years. I could have panicked when I stood in front of thousands of people on Pentecost morning. But I didn’t panic. I spoke loudly to a huge crowd because… I had walked on water. Not through my power, but through my faith in my Lord Jesus. I learned that day to keep having faith that Jesus was there to take care of me, and I learned that Jesus would not let me sink as long as I held that faith in Him, and I learned that walking on water is the best feeling in the world.
And the day John and I saw the man with bad legs sitting in front of the Temple? I could have ignored him, walking right past him, but instead, I knew that if I kept the focus on Jesus, I could heal that man just as I had walked on water. And the night the angel woke me from jail – I knew that we would safely escape, just as I’d walked on water on the lake. It was just a matter of having no fear and trusting that Jesus would handle things.
What about you? Have you ever tried to walk on water? Have you ever prayed a prayer of healing in front of someone who was deathly ill? Have you ever laid hands on a person crippled up with arthritis and prayed for them to be healed? Have you ever prayed for God to give you enough time to get to an event that you knew would take 30 minutes to get to and you only have 20 minutes on the clock? Have you ever asked for grace on a test, for grace from an officer, for recovery from terrible debt? Have you ever stepped forward in an impossible situation and believed that Jesus could AND WOULD fix the problem just because you stepped forward in faith? THAT is stepping onto the water. Everyone of you, at some time in your life, you need to trust Jesus to perform the miracle that you need. That, my friends, is what it means to walk on water. To trust Jesus to do what needs to be done – and for you to set aside your fears and focus upon what Jesus can do, not what you can do.
That morning, I learned that when I keep my eyes – or more recently, my faith – on Jesus and He has asked me to do something, He will allow me to do the difficult, He will help me do the crazy, He will do the impossible and keep me from falling.
You see, it is the fear that the devil sends to us that is the liar. The devil wants us to lose our faith, lose our hope, to think it can’t be done. So many people in this world are lost in that lie of hopelessness. So many people think they can’t get out of debt. So many people think they can’t become healthy. So many people think that other people can be happy, but they can’t ever be happy, because that’s just the way things are. They have believed the lie the devil gives us about being limited, weak, hopeless creatures.
But Jesus give us truth. Jesus is standing there telling us we can do it, we can feed a town with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus is telling us we can walk on water. Jesus is telling us we can live eternally.
The only thing we need to remember is that we are to do what Jesus wants done, which, of course, is often the exact opposite of what we want to do. That night on the lake in the face of the wind, I didn’t want to walk on water, but I wanted to do whatever Jesus wanted done. He wanted me to come to Him, so I focused upon what He wanted, believed that He could make it happen, and I walked on water.
You can walk on water, too, but not as a test of whether Jesus loves you. Walking on water is a test Jesus gives to you of how much you trust Him. And for each person, walking on water is different. Jesus will give you your chance, perhaps soon.
For me, it was literally walking on water. For you, it might be a trust in Jesus to handle your finances. For others it might be trusting Jesus to protect your health.
But don’t test Him. Let Him test you. Jesus wants to know whether or not you have the guts to get out of the safe boat and do the amazing!
And sometimes, that is simply choosing to speak His name to a stranger. Sometimes, that is choosing to put an extra $50 donation in the church offerings. Sometimes, it is choosing to read a book or do something crazy you’ve read about in the Bible. But it always means you’re doing something that is scary and uncomfortable, and not something you’d normally do. Even today, I can’t believe I got out of the boat and walked to Jesus on top of the water. Today, I wish I’d had the guts to DANCE on the water.
But when I’d passed that test, He always believed in me. We don’t realize it, for we are always telling each other to believe in Jesus. What we don’t realize is the depth that He believes in each of us, for Jesus sees our abilities that we don’t see, e sees our strengths that we’ve hidden for so long, He knows the deep integrity that we have. He knows that you can do so much more than you think you can do – and He’s watching you, saying quietly, “Go, Go, GO and do! I’ll be there right behind you!”
He left us here and went back to Heaven. He trusts us – you and you and me - to change the world for the better. He trusts us – you and you and me – to repair the damage done in Eden. He trusts us – you and you and me – to keep people from an eternity in Hell. And all we have to do is to walk on water. All we have to do is to speak to people about Jesus. All we have to do is to trust our lives to Jesus. For He’s watching and waiting and is ready to help us.
So walk on water. DANCE on water. And Jesus will be there with you!
...
Father, I pray for these people in this church and those watching at home. Fill them with your Holy Spirit, teach them Your ways, help them bring the Gospel into their hearts so that they may do great things by trusting in Your Son Jesus and Your Holy Spirit. Give them the courage to walk on water to do Your will. Lead some of them to dance on the water for Your Son. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Remember: Fear is a liar. There is nothing that Simon Peter possessed that you don’t possess. Ask Jesus what He wants you to do – and then step onto the water that He puts in front of you – and Dance!
Today I’d like to ask you to settle back into your imagination. I’d like you to imagine that you live about 40 years after Jesus lived, and that an older, wise man has come to speak to you this morning. He is one of the men who knew Jesus closely, who walked with Him so closely that the dust of Jesus sandals covered him, a man who followed Jesus from town to town over a period of three years. Imagine that this disciple of Jesus is talking to you this morning...
…
Peace be with you!
I’m so glad to be with you today. My hosts asked me to tell you of some incident when being with Jesus transformed my life, so let me tell you of a couple of these situations.
We had received word that John the Baptizer had been beheaded by King Herod. Now, no matter what you’ve heard of John – his craziness, his odd way of dressing, the strange food he ate, his tendency to yell at visitors from the Temple – John and I were very close. He was a godly man, very attuned to what the Scriptures said was right, what was wrong, and how the Messiah would arrive to set us free from not only the Roman occupiers, but from those who grew wealthy and powerful and forgot those average people. He did not want to destroy the wealthy and powerful, but simply wanted them to remember the poor, to stop assuming that God just loved the wealthy and hated the poor, like so many people of the day did. John was always kind to me and I learned a lot from him. So when I heard he’d been killed to satisfy Herod’s wife, I was grieved and disgusted. So was Y’shua, his cousin, the man the Romans called Jesus.
Jesus had us cross the lake on my boat to a quiet place, but the crowd found out where we were headed to and ran along the shore. By the time we arrived, there were many people. So Jesus healed them all day. My brother Andy and I more or less did crowd control.
It was that evening that Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed the whole crowd, about 5000 men plus women and children. We collected twelve baskets of leftover pieces – it was awesome!
A few minutes later, Jesus told us to pack up the boat and head back toward Gennesaret on the northwest end of the lake, while He sent away the crowds. As we sailed away from the shore, we saw His lonely figure walking up the mountainside with His head covered in His prayer shawl, the way He used to pray. I’ll never forget that sight – the setting sun behind Him, His head bowed as He slowly walked up that mountain path.
We, meanwhile, began having an awful time. Every evening about sunset, the cool wind comes down off the mountains that line the Lake of Galilee like a big bowl. And those winds fight amongst themselves over the lake. Sometimes, the east wind wins, sometimes the west wind, other times the north wind and other times the south wind. This particular evening, as life would have it, the north wind blew strongest, blowing right in our face as we struggled to sail almost due north. And furthermore, the wind had pushed the waves up in front of it, causing them to hit the bows of the boat and come splashing over the gunwales.
I’d already put the sail down, since it wasn’t helping, and we’d put out the oars, but it was rough going – We had about 8 miles to go, but we’d only managed about a mile or two because the wind was in our face all night. We were exhausted after hours of rowing. And then, just before dawn, it happened.
I think John, sitting at an oar, looking at the stern of the boat, saw it first. There, in the middle of the lake, walking towards us, was a fantastic sight in the gray early morning light, through the fog that rises up most nights at that time. It seemed like a ghostly figure was walking towards us across the lake. It sent chills up our spines – several of the men were scared out of their wits and yelled in fear - I thought Thomas was going to climb right out of the boat!
But then, something even more amazing happened. The figure said, in Jesus’ voice: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Well, all now were turning their heads and staring straight at me sitting in the stern of the boat controlling the rudder. After all, I was the boat’s captain! I was their leader! I was the one who had to respond.
I stood up, turned toward the apparition and said, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” I don’t know why I said that – it was crazy! NO ONE walks on water – but Jesus was walking on water in front of me and I had to say something.
He waved at me and said, “Come”. And now I had to go. I had to trust in that man I’d followed for months. I had to trust in my teacher. I had to have faith that He wouldn’t let me be embarrassed and just fall into the water to the laughter of all the other guys in the boat. And believe me, that was difficult, for those guys used to play all sorts of jokes on each other and me. And for a couple of minutes, I believed that if Jesus said to come to Him OVER the water, I could do it.
I admit I was shaking with fear. But I had to be brave in front of the other guys. So I climbed down out of the boat and WALKED ON THE WATER toward the man, who I could now tell for sure was Jesus.
I guess I probably walked 20 or 30 feet, stepping down in the hollows between the waves. It was then that I began to notice just how strong the wind was, and how it was buffeting me, fear hit me, and suddenly I was sinking in the water like a normal man, so I yelled out “Lord, save me!” and Jesus grabbed me with his hand and caught me.
He said to me over the wind, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
And he held me up as we walked back to the boat on the water, and climbed into the boat. And suddenly, I noticed that the wind had died down. All around me, the other men were saying to Jesus, “Truly you are the Son of God.” And we continued our journey to Gennesaret.
In that book that my friend Matthew wrote, this story has gone down as the night Jesus walked on water. But by then, we’d seen other miracles – just the day before, He’d fed 5000 men plus women and children with five loaves and two fish. We’d seen people healed. We’d seen paralyzed men healed, we’d seen a dead girl raised. We’d seen blind men see for the first time and a demon driven out of a mute man. We’d even seen him calm a storm another evening we were out on the lake. So, frankly, it didn’t surprise me all that much when Jesus walked toward us on the water – because that is what the Son of God should be able to do. For we knew that Jesus was more than a regular man. We knew He had a special connection with the Father.
But what really surprised me was that I was so involved. I, Simon, son of Jonah, a simple fisherman who lived at Capernaum on the lake of Galilee. Yes, I owned a boat which I worked with my brother Andrew, and I worked in partnership with John and James much of the time, but I was just a fisherman who knew there was more to life than fishing, and so I went to follow John the Baptizer first, and then I followed Jesus, who must have thought I was a solid, but rough character, for he nick named me Kephas, which is Aramaic for “Rock”, a name the Greeks translated as Petros and others later turned into Peter. Simon Peter. No, what really surprised me was that that early morning, I, Simon Peter, I walked on water.
I walked on water as long as I kept my eyes on Jesus. I’m not the Son of God, I’m not divine, I’m simply a man like you. But that morning, I walked on water.
It changed me. It was critically important to me. My life changed because of it. After Jesus was executed for the crime of claiming to be God on the earth, and after He came back from the dead, and after He returned to Heaven – I knew it was up to me to tell everyone who Jesus was and what He had done. You see, I knew Who Jesus was. He was the Son of God, God Himself walking on the earth, walking on water that night. But that would have been just a great story to tell my grandkids if it had ended like that. But He showed me that I could also walk on water – if I kept focused on Him!
I could have been afraid over the next years. I could have panicked when I stood in front of thousands of people on Pentecost morning. But I didn’t panic. I spoke loudly to a huge crowd because… I had walked on water. Not through my power, but through my faith in my Lord Jesus. I learned that day to keep having faith that Jesus was there to take care of me, and I learned that Jesus would not let me sink as long as I held that faith in Him, and I learned that walking on water is the best feeling in the world.
And the day John and I saw the man with bad legs sitting in front of the Temple? I could have ignored him, walking right past him, but instead, I knew that if I kept the focus on Jesus, I could heal that man just as I had walked on water. And the night the angel woke me from jail – I knew that we would safely escape, just as I’d walked on water on the lake. It was just a matter of having no fear and trusting that Jesus would handle things.
What about you? Have you ever tried to walk on water? Have you ever prayed a prayer of healing in front of someone who was deathly ill? Have you ever laid hands on a person crippled up with arthritis and prayed for them to be healed? Have you ever prayed for God to give you enough time to get to an event that you knew would take 30 minutes to get to and you only have 20 minutes on the clock? Have you ever asked for grace on a test, for grace from an officer, for recovery from terrible debt? Have you ever stepped forward in an impossible situation and believed that Jesus could AND WOULD fix the problem just because you stepped forward in faith? THAT is stepping onto the water. Everyone of you, at some time in your life, you need to trust Jesus to perform the miracle that you need. That, my friends, is what it means to walk on water. To trust Jesus to do what needs to be done – and for you to set aside your fears and focus upon what Jesus can do, not what you can do.
That morning, I learned that when I keep my eyes – or more recently, my faith – on Jesus and He has asked me to do something, He will allow me to do the difficult, He will help me do the crazy, He will do the impossible and keep me from falling.
You see, it is the fear that the devil sends to us that is the liar. The devil wants us to lose our faith, lose our hope, to think it can’t be done. So many people in this world are lost in that lie of hopelessness. So many people think they can’t get out of debt. So many people think they can’t become healthy. So many people think that other people can be happy, but they can’t ever be happy, because that’s just the way things are. They have believed the lie the devil gives us about being limited, weak, hopeless creatures.
But Jesus give us truth. Jesus is standing there telling us we can do it, we can feed a town with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus is telling us we can walk on water. Jesus is telling us we can live eternally.
The only thing we need to remember is that we are to do what Jesus wants done, which, of course, is often the exact opposite of what we want to do. That night on the lake in the face of the wind, I didn’t want to walk on water, but I wanted to do whatever Jesus wanted done. He wanted me to come to Him, so I focused upon what He wanted, believed that He could make it happen, and I walked on water.
You can walk on water, too, but not as a test of whether Jesus loves you. Walking on water is a test Jesus gives to you of how much you trust Him. And for each person, walking on water is different. Jesus will give you your chance, perhaps soon.
For me, it was literally walking on water. For you, it might be a trust in Jesus to handle your finances. For others it might be trusting Jesus to protect your health.
But don’t test Him. Let Him test you. Jesus wants to know whether or not you have the guts to get out of the safe boat and do the amazing!
And sometimes, that is simply choosing to speak His name to a stranger. Sometimes, that is choosing to put an extra $50 donation in the church offerings. Sometimes, it is choosing to read a book or do something crazy you’ve read about in the Bible. But it always means you’re doing something that is scary and uncomfortable, and not something you’d normally do. Even today, I can’t believe I got out of the boat and walked to Jesus on top of the water. Today, I wish I’d had the guts to DANCE on the water.
But when I’d passed that test, He always believed in me. We don’t realize it, for we are always telling each other to believe in Jesus. What we don’t realize is the depth that He believes in each of us, for Jesus sees our abilities that we don’t see, e sees our strengths that we’ve hidden for so long, He knows the deep integrity that we have. He knows that you can do so much more than you think you can do – and He’s watching you, saying quietly, “Go, Go, GO and do! I’ll be there right behind you!”
He left us here and went back to Heaven. He trusts us – you and you and me - to change the world for the better. He trusts us – you and you and me – to repair the damage done in Eden. He trusts us – you and you and me – to keep people from an eternity in Hell. And all we have to do is to walk on water. All we have to do is to speak to people about Jesus. All we have to do is to trust our lives to Jesus. For He’s watching and waiting and is ready to help us.
So walk on water. DANCE on water. And Jesus will be there with you!
...
Father, I pray for these people in this church and those watching at home. Fill them with your Holy Spirit, teach them Your ways, help them bring the Gospel into their hearts so that they may do great things by trusting in Your Son Jesus and Your Holy Spirit. Give them the courage to walk on water to do Your will. Lead some of them to dance on the water for Your Son. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Remember: Fear is a liar. There is nothing that Simon Peter possessed that you don’t possess. Ask Jesus what He wants you to do – and then step onto the water that He puts in front of you – and Dance!
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