Focus on Jesus
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2013 · 25 August 2013
Matthew 14:22-33, “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
“28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” 29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
This last verse is the highpoint of everything else - worshiping the Son of God. When we proclaim the name of Jesus, as His disciples of old did, we are very much aware of the kinds of response that we can expect, just as they were. We are aware because we too have heard the teaching of Jesus.
In Matthew 13, Jesus taught that there would be four kinds of response to the message of the Gospel. He likened the responses of men to soil; there would be hard, stony ground - those who openly rejected the message. We saw that kind of reaction in Jesus' ministry in Nazareth at the end of Matthew 13, when He would not do many mighty works in their midst because of their unbelief. He was rejected by the people of His own community. This was stony ground.
We saw at the beginning of Matthew 14 another illustration of that kind of soil. We saw Herod, who also openly rejected the message of Jesus Christ and would, if he had the chance, have killed Christ as he killed John the Baptist. So we can expect now in this era of the Kingdom of our Lord that many people will reject Him with the same harshness as they did then.
We then saw a different kind of people. We saw the feeding of the 5,000 and were introduced to people who were like shallow soil, where for a while there was interest and something springs up. But it never bears fruit because its roots cannot go deep since the soil is too shallow. We also saw the thorny ground where it seems that it will produce fruit, but because of the weeds they choke the life out of that which was planted.
We saw in the crowd who followed Jesus people who were looking for political, economic and social answer to their problems. They were seeking a Messiah who could overthrow Rome and deal with the rule of Herod and give them national liberty. But when Jesus, the day after He had fed them, the day after He had walked on water, said to them, the issues that I speak to you about are not about physical food, but rather spiritual food: “I am the bread of Life”, they walked away.
And the Lord also gives us, in tonight’s passage, an illustration of the good soil, because we find in verse 33 that those disciples who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” It will always be that way when we evangelize. We can expect that strong resistance, that short-term response that will wither away, but we can also expect true worshipers where their hearts were prepared by our Lord to receive His word.
The disciples are the good soil because they believed and responded. When in John 6:14- 15 they saw the crowd wanting to make Jesus king because He had healed them, taught them, and fed them, it seemed at that moment to those disciples that this was what they had waited for. They thought that all their ministry, anticipation and preparation had reached its climax. They wanted Jesus as a king too.
Then in verse 22, right at the pinnacle of His popularity after two years, when they could see themselves overpowering the hostility and rejection of the political and religious leaders, the people wanted Him as a king, and yet at the very moment Jesus made them get into a boat and told them to go ahead of Him to the other side while He sent the multitudes away and He prayed by Himself.
You see, His Kingdom never was a political or economic kingdom, or a welfare state, or one which depended on physical revolutions. Jesus said to Pilate in John 18:36, "My Kingdom is not of this world." But they must have been disillusioned as they rowed their little boat on the north side of the Sea of Galilee, wondering when the Kingdom would really come.
Our Lord wanted to give them a picture of what His Kingdom really was, by walking on water. That showed them that He was much more that just an earthly king, Jesus is the universal King of all things. Then, He built faith in their hearts that showed them that His Kingdom is in the heart of man, in the hearts of those who love and serve Him. So in the early morning on the Sea of Galilee, they saw the true King and His kingdom.
What happened that they believed what they said in verse 33, "You are the Son of God," when they not long ago were really disappointed? Later on when the crowd leaves in John 6:67-69, “the Lord says to them, "Will you also go away?" 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life, 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The answer to that question comes in this passage.
Now, after leaving the multitude on the shore when they were about to make Him king, Jesus gave the disciples an exceptionally great proof: Matthew 14:25 says, “Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.” But there was more to it than just that, because here we see demonstrated many of the attributes of God that they had to see in this occasion, and therefore conclude that Jesus was God's Son.
That statement 'the Son of God' is an affirmation that Jesus Christ is God. It is used 45 times in the New Testament. It is speaking about Him being of the same essence as God the Father. It was that claim for which the Jews crucified Jesus. They understood very well that Jesus claimed to be equal with God, as God's Son.
How did the disciples come to that conclusion? We saw last week that Jesus gave them proof of His divine authority and power in the way that He controlled not only them, but the multitude as well. And verse 23 says He was up on a mountain, praying privately. Here we know that Christ also cared for them, not only was He all powerful but He also loves His people and cares about their situation.
We have a God who is loving, faithful, caring and compassionate. When they saw that in Jesus Christ, they were convinced that this was One who was equal to God, and cared for His own. They had experienced that He had healed them. In fact, Peter’s mother-in-law was healed. They had experienced that He had fed them, and now they see that He comes to them in the midst of their need and becomes their refuge.
When Jesus had said to the disciples in verses 22-23, "Go to the other side," the text says, that when they started that way, the wind was contrary. It would have been so easy for them to have turned around and gone with the wind back to where they came from. But instead of that, they continued to pursue the direction that the Lord had told them to go, they were obedient.
When a believer is obedient, no matter how severe the storm, he is as safe as if he were at home in his own bed, because the place of security for the believer is the place of obedience to the Lord. Remember last time, they took the only boat? They were in the middle of the sea and they thought the Lord couldn't get there because there was no other boat. What a profound lesson about God's protecting love, when humanly speaking there is no way, He makes a way, the storm is His path to save His own.
There was another demonstration of the deity of Jesus, which was expressed in His love, and we find it in verse 28. Although Matthew and Mark and John record Jesus walking on the water, only Matthew records this particular incident with Peter. Verse 28, "Peter answered Him and said, 'Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.' 29 So He said, 'Come.'"
Scripture again and again wants us to realize that our God is a God of love. And the way He demonstrates biblical love is by meeting a person at his need. John 3:16, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," Why? Because of His love, He meets man at his greatest need: his sin. Many commentators have discussed why Peter did what he did.
Just to be sure, Peter says, "If it's You, Lord, then tell me to come on the water." Peter wanted to be where Jesus was, so much so that he was willing to climb out of the boat and go to be where Jesus was. But would you try to walk on water for that? Only if you believed that He had the power to hold you up the same way He was being held up. Simply stated, it is an act of affection built on faith.
Don't chastise Peter. Peter fell asleep in the prayer meeting. But we all have fallen asleep in prayer meetings, at least those of us who go to prayer meetings. Peter tried to divert Christ from the Cross, and the Lord had to say in Matthew 16:23, 'Get behind me, Satan.'" But we have all stood as a blockade to the purposes of God, have we not? Peter stood outside the trial of Jesus and denied Him on three occasions, and we have all denied Him many many times, most often by our silence, right?
You may criticize Peter for all his faults and you are right, but don't say that he didn't love the Lord Jesus Christ or that he didn't trust Him. The thing that consumed Peter's heart was that he loved Jesus Christ and sensed in His presence real safety. He believed that if the Lord could walk on water, he also could get to where Jesus was and be saved in the midst of an environment that he could not control and of which he was in great fear.
All the while, the Lord is building up Peter’s character that is going to lead and to be the catalyst in the first years of the history of the church, because Peter was that in the first 13 chapters of Acts. Peter receives a monumental lesson in the last chapter of John's gospel, and the Lord finally explains Peter’s commitment to the ministry, in the way the Lord questions 3 times whether Peter loves Him.
There was something in Peter that said, "If all of this has gone by, and it is not yet clear that I love Him, it will be clear to everyone from here on out," and it was. The day came when he had to offer his life, tradition tells us, and he requested that he be crucified upside down, because he had not the right to be crucified as His Lord. That tells us that Peter was a faithful martyr.
That's why he could lead the other apostles, and why he is the first name in the list of the apostles every time it appears in the Bible. He was the closest to Jesus Christ, because he wanted to be close. Look at verse 29; Jesus said, "Come." The Lord never invites anyone to do anything sinful or proud. When He said, "Come," it was that of a loving father for his child who has longed to see the safety of his father's arms.
Jesus knew Peter's faith was weak, that it couldn't withstand the storm any better than the little boat could. But the Lord never rejects frail faith; He takes it and builds it. He never rejects a weak love; He takes it and builds it, because that is the essence of divine love - to take a man or woman where they are and bring them through a trial that increases their capacity to believe God and love Him more.
So Jesus said, "Come, this is going to be the greatest lesson of your life, Peter." It says in verse 29, "When Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water." That's all he wanted to do: to go to Jesus. But this was a hard test. He knew the Lord could handle a storm, and he had seen that. He figured the Lord was in control of the whole deal, but when he got out there, the test was a little tougher than he thought.
He is walking on the water, but the waves and the wind are terrifying. It says in verse 30, "But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, 'Lord, save me!'" He wanted to be where Jesus was; his faith got him out of the boat, but he had never been out of the boat in the storm.
This is the whole point. We don't need to be taught what we already know; we need to be taught what we don't know yet. How else do you build up the faith of a man but by putting him in an extreme situation he's never experienced, and then showing that God is faithful and powerful so that now, he can trust God that much more, right?
That is what the Christian life is all about: learning to focus more on Jesus and to trust God more and more so that we can step out in faith and attempt those things which by ourselves are impossible. So Peter was afraid and he began to sink. So he cried, "Lord, save me!" Here, we see the loving Lord in verse 31, "Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?'"
Do you know that “little faith” is better than no faith? All of us could be characterized as having little faith mixed with doubt. That is why the Lord brings into our lives the difficulties, trials, struggles, and the pains - so that, going through those things, we see that He sustains us. Little faith grows and grows. Peter learned that Jesus could take care of him when he couldn't take care of himself.
Matthew 14:32, "When they got into the boat, the wind ceased." It all just stopped. They were in the middle of the sea, the storm stopped, and in John 6:21 it says immediately they're at the shore. Wow! Mark 6:51 says, "They were amazed, and wondered greatly." Then it says that they worshiped Him. You see, they knew that all power belongs only to God.
What is the message for you? Worship Him with all your heart! He demonstrated the sovereignty of God, the omniscience of God, the protective care of God, the divine love of God, the power of God; He is God in human flesh! God calls you to bow your knee to Jesus Christ; they did it, and were good soil that bore much fruit. How about you? Where is your fruit? Let us pray.