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Ministries
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Message given at Grace Church, Moloka'i August 10, 2008 Matthew 14:22-33 Ask Jesus Into Your Boat I've been in ministry a long time, as you know. This month marks my 30th year here at Grace Church. So I don't know how many times I've read or taught about this account of Jesus walking on the water. But I love the "coincidences" God allows for me to learn new lessons and see things differently. A book I read this week also "just happened" to have a walking on water episode. I am constantly amazed at how the Lord gives us fresh insights into His Word, aren't you? He is so much greater than we can understand and His love for us is way deeper than we can possibly imagine. Let's focus on our gospel reading from Matthew. A third of Jesus' disciples were professional fishermen, right? They understood many important things about fishing. They knew boats and they knew the water. So it's interesting to me that Matthew opens this phase of the story with "Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side." What does that mean, exactly? Why did Jesus force them to go against their will? Why would He have to do that? What fisherman wouldn't want to leave the crowds behind and just sail away? Now to put this lesson in context, they were just finishing a long day. The disciples were on a high after watching the miracle of Jesus feeding over 5,000 people with 2 fish and five loaves of bread. Do you think maybe the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Lord, here's a girl with a brownie, a glass of milk, and a cup of Starbucks coffee. Is there any chance we can have dessert?" Nah, I didn't think so. But here is where we see how Jesus was completely dependant on His Father as He walked the earth. He really needed to be alone and plugged in to God. Jesus had just received word that Herod had killed John the Baptist. John was the one who had baptized Jesus. John's preaching had opened the way for Jesus' ministry to start. You might say that John was the warm up act and Jesus was the main event. John also happened to be Jesus' cousin. When Jesus heard that John had been murdered, He withdrew to a lonely place to be alone with God. We know that Jesus wept when His close friend Lazarus died. We know that Jesus was a man of strength but also a man of deep love. I wonder if He realized that soon, His body too would be bruised and broken. And even though He was God, Jesus was also fully a human and I wonder if maybe He was a bit afraid. Whatever His emotions were, Jesus needed to spend time with His Father, quality time. Have you ever felt like that? Wounded, sad, and worried about the future? When we feel like that, we don't have to feel weak or like we are wimping out. But we do need to realize that when we feel that way that's when we need private time with God the most. In this case, Jesus heard about His cousin's death, got on a boat, went to a remote place to pray. And the crowds found Him anyway. So what did Jesus do when His prayer time was interrupted? The Bible tells us that He had compassion on them and cured their sick. And since there wasn't a McDonalds near, He ended up in the late afternoon with thousands of hungry people. So Jesus fed the crowd with a couple of Happy Meals. That is love in action. That is loving people in real and concrete ways. But get this - even though Jesus was hitting grand slams with the crowd, He still needed His quiet time with His Father. He still needed to pray. No matter how good our lives are going, we need to always stop and be alone with God too. If we don't we will begin to see our lives become empty and ineffective. So Jesus tells the disciples, "Get in the boat and get out of here. I need to pray." Do you think the disciples who were good watermen noticed the storm brewing? Did they see the clouds and feel the wind? Fishermen don't go out on open waters during a storm. Or was there a change? The Bible tells us that the boat was battered by the waves, was far from land and that the wind was now against them. It was deep into the night. The King James Version of the Bible gives us a time frame in verse 25 "And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea." A watch was considered to be 3 hours. The first watch began at six o'clock in the evening and lasted until nine; the second began at nine and ended at twelve; the third watch began at midnight and closed at three; the fourth watch began at three and ended at six in the morning. So about 6 or 7pm the disciples were sent off, the crowd dismissed, and Jesus finally found a place to pray. As Jesus is praying, out on the water a storm arises. The boat is about four miles from shore. At about 3am Jesus walks across the water to catch up to His disciples. Why did Jesus wait until the fourth watch of the night to respond to their prayers? Why didn't He go to them immediately? Surely, they were praying. Surely He knew that they were in the storm. The Fourth Watch represents those times of hopelessness and helplessness
we all feel from time to time. The disciples on the storm-ravaged sea
that night, by the fourth watch, were exhausted. They'd probably been
fighting the storm for about six hours. Their prayers were exhausted.
Their expectations were exhausted. They certainly had expected a more
prompt response to their emergency, especially after they had just seen
Jesus take compassion on thousands of people He didn't even know. Why
wasn't He taking compassion on them? Their hope was exhausted. Their
faith had crashed. So when they saw something coming toward them on
the water, they thought He was a ghost, a hallucination. Just at the
time when things are the darkest, when the storms are the heaviest,
and the wind is against us, that's when we all begin to fight imaginary
ghosts and hallucinations. Often we can't accept help because we are
battling these invisible ghosts. If our friends or even if Jesus shows
up, we can't grab on. Like the disciples, we reject the hand of Jesus,
just when we need Him the most. This week I read a book called, "The Shack." It's a small paperback book, but it's caused quite a stir in Christian circles. People either love it or hate it. Interestingly enough it's about a man named Mack in the Fourth Watch of the night of his life. He has been immersed in The Great Sadness, a family tragedy that has haunted him for several years. In the midst of this stormy time in his life he is invited to meet God for the weekend. I don't want to give it all away, but there is a moment when he is invited to go on a walk with Jesus. As you can imagine, Mack isn't sure if this is for him. Jesus, anticipating his hesitation, says "C'mon, Mack. If Peter can do it…" Now in this book Mack is definitely someone like all of us. Jesus asks Mack to walk on water with Him and Mack gets worried that his feet will get wet! Jesus answers him. "Of course, water is still wet." How many times has God offered us a promise, given us a miracle, answered a prayer, or asked us to follow Him and we get stuck on the details? The Israelites got fed in the wilderness with mana and quail, but they wanted more. Even today we have these prayers like, "I know I was thirsty and asked for a drink Lord, but do you have that in a Gatorade flavor?" If we are in a storm, and Jesus comes to save us, we will get wet. We will get splashed by the storm around us. But if we take His hand He will protect us and we will not drown. Here is the application part of this lesson. Usually at this time we concentrate on Peter being afraid and sinking, right? You know, He stepped out in faith but took his eyes off Jesus and he plunged into the lake... But I want to focus our minds today on another part of this lesson. When Jesus gets in the boat, the storm… stops. The boat is still in the middle of the lake. The boat is probably still miles from shore. And it's still the darkest part of the night. But when Jesus gets in the boat, the storms stop. The ghosts vanish. The winds become calm. And the waves flatten out. Many of us often start out in calm waters. We have a good family, good friends and our health is not bad. We might even have good jobs, we love our husband or wife, and our kids are getting good grades. Then the clouds roll in. Bad news on the health front, rising gas prices, a job loss, angry and hurtful words and actions with our families, and we start to feel the wind and waves against us. Others have struggled from day one. It seems that there has never been a calm day. Every day has been a struggle with finances and family. Their medical charts are fatter than the Oahu phone book, and they end each day feeling like the waves have been pounding against them again and again. But here is the key: Here is another pearl of wisdom. Get Jesus in your boat before the storm. When we adopted our first child, Kanani, we knew that she had heart problems. We knew that she had Downs Syndrome. She was born with a few storms in her short life. And since Scotty and I were newly married, we were facing stormy times ourselves in our new life together, and we often said that God had a great sense of humor to bring her into our lives as a port of tranquility! But we brought Jesus into the boat of our lives before the storms came. And it was the calm of the presence of Jesus that Kanani brought to our lives. And as she grew, and then as she slowly died, it was Jesus in the boat that kept the storms from sinking us. One more thing…don't listen to the false voices telling you that failure is normal or that fear is good. Instead, listen to the voice of Jesus, the voice of truth who is calling out to you that He loves you and that He wants to calm your storms "The Voice of Truth" - Casting Crowns Oh, what I would do to have the kind of faith it takes But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me But the voice of truth tells me a different story Oh, what I would do to have the kind of strength it takes But the giant's calling out my name and he laughs at me Pray this prayer with me: Lord, You know my storms. You know my confusion and my questions. Even
in this fourth watch of the night for me, help me not to despair. I
ask you to come into the boat of my life and calm the storms outside
and inside of me. Help me listen to Your voice of truth, Jesus. Amen
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