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[0:00] But tonight I want to finish this passage in Matthew, Matthew 14, verses 22-33 is the text.

[0:29] And his disciples, and you know, the disciples in a boat, in the sea, in a storm, and exciting story. But it's one of my favorites, you know, in the Bible.

[0:44] It's recorded in a number of the Gospels, not just Matthew, but also Mark and also John. And so, it's not, you know, just a favorite.

[0:55] It's a story that, you know, in the first place is filled with examples of the awesome power, demonstrations of the awesome power of the Lord Jesus.

[1:06] But beyond that, and maybe even more relevant to us, it is, I think, literally packed with application, spiritual application, spiritual parallels for our life.

[1:23] And so, if we can see the parallel between our life and what was happening there at sea, the Sea of Galilee in the midst of that storm. If you see those parallels, then we then, I think, will see some applications.

[1:37] Remember, I said last week that the disciples, I think, in this story are representative of us, of born-again believers. And the ship that they were in, that boat, that they were in, in the midst of that sea, that boat represents, I think, life.

[1:57] With all of its ups and downs and twists and turns and, you know, rocky seas and so forth. So, the boat represents life. The sea itself, that the boat was floating in, navigating through, that sea represents the circumstances of life.

[2:14] You know, with, you know, with, and sometimes, you know, our boat, our life is surrounded by smooth seas.

[2:25] Sometimes, and we might even give testimony that most of the time, it's surrounded by stormy seas, or at least some measure of turmoil.

[2:36] So, I think we can see the parallel pretty clearly. We're like the disciples, and our boat is in this world. It's representative of our life, and the seas represent the circumstances of life.

[2:51] And then, you know, the main character in the story, who is the main character in all the stories in the Gospels, is Jesus.

[3:01] And Jesus represents himself in the story. And where is Jesus in the story, initially? Do you remember? I haven't read the passage yet, but do you remember where he was?

[3:14] On the mountain. What was he doing? He was praying. And that's, I think, representative of the proximity of Jesus in our day.

[3:27] The mountain represents where Jesus is today. He's in his holy mountain, seated in the heavenlies. Seated where? At the right hand of the throne of God. And what is he doing there?

[3:38] The Bible says he's making intercession for us. He's praying for us. And so, the truth that we want to learn, and again, this is just kind of review.

[3:50] You could state it this way. The truth is this. When you find the ship of your life in the midst of a stormy sea, and we often find ourselves there, when we do, we ought to be reminded that there is an anchor that is steadfast and sure.

[4:09] And that anchor is a person, and that person is Jesus. And Hebrews 6.19, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Sure.

[4:20] Both sure and steadfast. That's the King James Version. It's the one I memorized it in. And so, Jesus is that hope. He is that anchor.

[4:31] And just as a ship is secured to an anchor, that anchor attached to a chain, the chain attached to the ship, in a very similar way, we are secured to Jesus, our anchor, with five unbreakable links.

[4:51] And that's what we're focusing on in our study. Let me go ahead and read the passage again so that we can have it freshly in our minds, starting with verse 22. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

[5:14] Now, when evening came, he was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now, in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

[5:28] And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a ghost. And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer.

[5:39] It is I. Do not be afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.

[5:49] So he said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me.

[6:03] And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshipped him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God.

[6:19] And when they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. All right, so there's the story. Now, let me review the one link we got through last week, and that was the link of God's providence.

[6:32] That's number one. I said there are five unbreakable links in the chain that securely attaches us to the anchor, which is Jesus. And that first link that I think we see in the story is the providence of God, his divine providence.

[6:49] We talked about that last week. Jesus himself, remember, as I've read the story, and we sometimes pass over this so quickly we don't notice it, that it was Jesus himself who sent his beloved disciples out into that stormy sea.

[7:07] And there's no way that you could convince me that Jesus did not know that they were going to be in the midst of a storm. Jesus was more than just a mere man.

[7:17] He's God. He knows all things, knew all things then. And so he sent them out there. The Bible says in verse 22, he made them, the disciples, get into the ship and to go unto the other side.

[7:33] Again, I like the King James. There seems to be more force to it. It says he straightway constrained them. To me, that's a little bit more energy involved there than just made them.

[7:49] You know, but it's the same idea. He commanded them. He made them get into that boat to sail out into the Sea of Galilee. And so we have the providence of God.

[8:00] We talked about that, defined what that was last week. But we could kind of sum it up this way. God is always working to bring about his purpose.

[8:12] And we don't always know what the purpose is. It's his grand purpose. And somehow everything that he allows to come into our lives, it fits with his purpose for us.

[8:23] And it's God's providence. It operates under his sovereignty. And so you can just be sure that God is working in and through, and oftentimes in spite of our decisions, in order to move us toward his eternal purposes.

[8:38] So the anchor holds by the chain, or the link to the chain, the link of providence. The second one, we'll move quickly into that one, because I want to get through all these tonight.

[8:50] And we'll see if that works out. The second link is prayer. His prayer. The priestly prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[9:02] We have that here in our story as well. Again, where was Jesus? While the disciples were in the storm. He was on the mountain. And what was he doing there?

[9:13] He was praying. And so we know, don't we? Not just by the example of this story, but a number of other scriptures affirm the fact that Jesus prays for us.

[9:28] He's praying for us right now, even as we speak. He's praying for us. Hebrews 7.25, I think is so clear on this point. He is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing what?

[9:44] He ever lives to make intercession for them. He's praying for us. Romans 8.34, it is Christ that died, yes, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

[10:01] And we could even go to John 17, where that high priestly prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's praying for his disciples. But beyond his disciples, he's praying, the Bible says, for all those who believe in me because of them, because of their word.

[10:17] That's all of us. And so he prays for us. Now, we know that, don't we? Nobody in this room doubts that. I mean, we know that.

[10:27] We've heard that before. And yet, I would suggest to you that we still make at least three mistakes, three common mistakes. In the first place, mistake number one, we act as though God does not know what's going on in our lives.

[10:46] He doesn't see what's going on. Now, as we're seated here, you know, because we're in the church and we have more of a spiritual mindset sometimes, sometimes we assemble in this place, not any of us would even maybe admit the fact that there are times when we wonder if God even sees what's going on.

[11:08] And yet, we do make that mistake. We say, where is God? That's the same thing as saying he doesn't see. Where is God? Does he know what's happening in my life right now?

[11:21] Does he care? I want to show you something interesting in our story. And it's not in Matthew's account, but it's in Mark's account. And you can turn to it if you want to or just jot that down and look at it later.

[11:33] But in Mark's account of this same story, in Mark chapter 6, in verse 47, Mark 6, 47, the Bible says, Now, when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he, that's Jesus, was alone on the land.

[11:55] And we know that he was up in the mountain praying because Matthew tells us that. And so we know where he is. He's up on the mountain. So he's all alone there. Then he, what does it say there?

[12:06] He saw, saw them straining at rowing. That's how it's translated here. For the wind was against them. He saw them.

[12:16] All right, so he's up in the mountain. And I don't think we have to press into the text. It was some Pice Peak mountain. But he was up at a high elevation. And you say, well, that would be a good vantage point.

[12:31] But remember, they're way out there in the sea, in the middle of the sea. And I'm going to talk a little bit later about just how far that may have been. I think it was quite far. But we'll get to that a little bit later.

[12:43] But he's up in the mountain. And they're in the middle of the sea. That's what the Bible says. In fact, every account tells us that in different words, but tells us that.

[12:54] And he sees what's going on. See, this is supernatural. This is supernatural. The disciples are in the midst of the sea, miles from the shore.

[13:05] It's raining. The waves are boisterous. They're kind of in a squall out in the sea of Galilee. How far could a mortal man see?

[13:18] Couldn't see that far, could we? Even in the best of weather conditions, where the disciples were in their boat, and again, we'll talk about that here in a little bit, where they were, no matter what elevation you were or what vantage point you might have, you're not going to be able to see them.

[13:38] And so this is, I think, an indication of what we already know about Jesus and that He's God. This is supernatural. So He saw them, and He eventually came to them.

[13:51] So Jesus sees, He knows, He cares, and this is a great anchor to hold on to. So don't make that very common mistake that somehow God does not see what's going on.

[14:04] There's a second common mistake we make, and maybe this is even more common, and that is we try to put God on our timetable. And so we'll say something or think something like this.

[14:18] They say, well, all right, so Jesus is praying for me. Jesus cares about my suffering, so why is it still going on? Why haven't I been delivered? Why hasn't God solved this thing?

[14:29] Why hasn't God brought me out of this time of suffering? You know, we'll ask questions like that, maybe not verbally. Maybe we're ashamed to even think it, but we do think it. And so we've kind of made that common mistake that God somehow has to work on our timetable, and God very rarely does that.

[14:47] I don't know if that's been your experience. It's been mine. And so let's just notice here in Mark's account again something that I'd be willing to say that most of us have missed.

[15:01] And that is, according to Mark, and I read this portion of the account a moment ago, so I don't need to read it again, but according to Mark, from the mountain Jesus saw the disciples.

[15:12] All right, that's supernatural. They're distressed. They're rowing, rowing hard. They're just struggling to even stay alive because the wind is contrary, the sea is contrary. And when was that, according to Mark here?

[15:27] It was in the evening. That's all he says about it, but that's an important designation of time. Jesus first saw them toiling, fighting against the storm, when evening was come.

[15:44] That's what verse 47 says in John 6. That is, along about sunset. And we can just place the time around sunset. Around 6 p.m. in the evening.

[15:58] Jesus saw them in the storm. Now, then, when, according to Mark, did Jesus go out to them walking on the sea? The fourth watch. Verse 48 says, the fourth watch of the night.

[16:12] All right, you're thinking, okay. After midnight, 3 a.m. Four watches. And the first watch was 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

[16:23] The second watch, 9 p.m. to midnight. The third watch, midnight to 3 a.m. The fourth watch, 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. And so, it was during the fourth watch, sometime between 3 and 6 a.m.

[16:42] the next morning, that Jesus came to his disciples. Do you know what that means? It means that Jesus allowed his beloved disciples to toil and fight and fear for their lives against that storm all night long.

[16:59] All night long. Does that say anything to us? Whose timetable mattered here? It was God's timetable.

[17:10] God works on his own divine timetable. And we complain about that and we come to wrong conclusions about that, about God, about what he can see or can do or cannot do or, you know, a host of other things.

[17:25] But he knows what he's doing and God's delays never, ever, ever point to God's failure. I certainly wouldn't think that, would we? That God could fail at anything?

[17:38] So, his delays do not point to his failure or his inability somehow to do anything. God could do all things. Also, his delays do not point to God's indifference about our situation.

[17:55] God's not indifferent just because he operates according to his timetable and doesn't answer your prayer in a timely manner by our definition.

[18:07] It doesn't mean that he's indifferent to our situation. We often come to that conclusion. I'll tell you something else that it doesn't mean. God's delays does not mean that he is angry with us.

[18:19] I think we're more often, we often come to that conclusion about God because he's not answered our prayer, he's not delivered us from whatever trouble we're in, and hasn't done it according to when we want him to do it, that maybe he's angry with us, you know.

[18:37] It doesn't mean any of those things. It means that God is sovereign and in his providence and for his purposes because he's going to get that purpose done.

[18:51] He is doing it according to his own timetable. And there are things that he's doing that we can't see, things that we're learning that takes time to learn, and a host of other things that God is doing.

[19:04] And so, this is an anchor. This is part of that security that we have as a believer if we'll see this. And we're attached to this anchor, the Lord Jesus, by the link of providence and also by his prayers.

[19:19] So, don't ever make the mistake that God has turned a blind eye towards your problem or situation. Don't ever make the mistake that God somehow must operate according to your time schedule. And then there's a third common mistake we make, and that is the idea that God's providence must always be good by our definition.

[19:41] That we're the ones who define what good is. And it just doesn't work that way. The good, by the way, for example, the good of all things work together for good, Romans 8.28, we think that somehow that must fit with our idea of good.

[19:59] Or, God has failed us by our definition. You know what I'm talking about? Let me give you an example, maybe a worst case scenario, just in relation to this story.

[20:15] Let's think of a worst case scenario. What if the disciples had battled all night with that storm only for the sea to eventually get the best of them and sink their boat and drown everyone on board?

[20:29] That's a very, very believable scenario, isn't it? Would we say then that God has failed them? Well, no, we wouldn't.

[20:40] I hope you wouldn't. But Jesus was praying for them. Does that mean that Jesus failed in His prayers or His prayers weren't answered or whatever?

[20:51] It's a good question, but you see the point. You get the point, don't you? I mean, how far does our faith go with God? How far does it go?

[21:04] You see, this is what we ought to believe. We ought to believe that no matter what the storm is in my life, your life, no matter what the storm is, it will, number one, always fit in with the providence of God for me.

[21:19] I belong to Him. My life is hidden in Him. And I should never ever question that God is doing something in my life and He's going to take care of me.

[21:30] Now, what that's going to look like is not for us to define. Because then when we define what good is or what the answer is, then when that doesn't happen according to our view, then what does it cause us to do?

[21:45] It causes us to doubt God and think that God has failed or that God doesn't care, that God is angry. We should always know that no matter what happens, it is always going to fit in with God's providence for me.

[21:59] He's up to something. He's going to get it done. Now, that's not fatalistic. You know, well, let go, let God. You know, God's will. We talked about that last time. That's not fatalistic. That's simply He who has begun a good work and you will complete it.

[22:15] And then number two, it will, number two, always come under the prayers of my Lord Jesus Christ. And we ought to know that Jesus never had a prayer that wasn't answered in the positive, in the affirmative.

[22:29] And so we can be confident or we have every reason to be. And at some point in the storm, Jesus will come, just like He did for the disciples.

[22:41] I believe that. That He will come. And one of these days, I'm going to experience one of life's storms and Jesus is going to come, but He's going to come to take me home. You know.

[22:52] That fits in with this as well. Is that a bad thing? No, it's not. Now, we, you know, we say it's not, but what we think sometimes is different from what we say.

[23:07] It's a good thing. It's a good thing, that is, if you are born again. And so you can trust Jesus. He's the anchor. He's steadfast and sure. I can trust His providence. I can trust His prayers.

[23:19] And then third, the third link, is His presence. His presence. Going back to Matthew 14, verses 24 and 25.

[23:31] But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now, in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

[23:45] Alright, now we're talking about the presence of God. Now, you know that the Lord is always present. Because He's God. He is omnipresent.

[23:58] What does that mean? It means He's everywhere present. Nowhere absent. That's the best way to define it. Everywhere present. Nowhere absent. Now, we know that about the nature of God.

[24:10] He's omnipresent. But we need to go a step further with that. He is uniquely present in the hearts of His children.

[24:21] in the hearts and lives of His children. He is uniquely present in that way. The Bible says, Christ in you. The hope of glory. But let's go a step further.

[24:34] We also know that there are times when He manifests His presence. God is always present. I guess the best way to maybe illustrate this would be, you know, let's say this Sunday we're having worship service and someone falls out in the aisle having a heart attack.

[24:56] Needs a doctor. Needs one quick. Let's say on the back row there's a man sitting there and he's a doctor. Now, if he just sits there and doesn't say anything, I might think pretty badly of him, but just for the sake of illustration, he just sits there then he's present but he hasn't manifested his presence.

[25:16] To manifest his presence would be for him to say, I'm a doctor and he would minister to that person who's having the heart attack. It's kind of an illustration.

[25:27] God is always present but He doesn't always manifest His presence. And that's up to Him. And there are times when we need Him not only to be present and know that He's present and have great assurance about that.

[25:42] And that ought to be enough for us. But there are times and we need Him to move, to work, to manifest His presence. And that's what the disciples needed at this time and He did it.

[25:56] Jesus came to them. But we need to learn maybe a few truths about the presence of God that will help us, help us when we're in those times of turmoil.

[26:10] Israel. And that is, we need to know that Jesus knows when to come to us. He knows when to come. He knows where to come. And He knows why.

[26:22] Okay? When to come, where to come, why to come. And this is really kind of incredible the way this is revealed to us in the passage. In the first place, Jesus knows when to come.

[26:34] He does in the story here. He knows when to come. Again, the disciples battled that storm, remember, all night long from 6 p.m., possibly as late as 6 a.m.

[26:47] the next morning, from sundown to sunup. And Jesus let them do it. He let that happen in their lives. And yet, at the right time, according to God's timetable, Jesus came to His disciples and delivered them.

[27:02] Alright? According to His timetable. He knew when to do it. Now, we're not privy to God's divine timetable. I know this is kind of a repetition of something we've already talked about, but we need to reinforce this.

[27:14] We're not privy to God's timetable. It almost never matches our timetable anyway. But God always knows what He is doing and when He needs to do it.

[27:26] And if He can send His Son, Jesus, into the world at the right time, the Bible says in the fullness of time, then you can be sure that His timing will be impeccable in your life, in my life, for whatever we need Him to do.

[27:40] So He knows when to come. He knows where to come. And this is interesting in the story. The Bible says, in John's account again, we'll get a little bit more information in John's account.

[27:53] In John 6.19, John says that the ship was in the, was five and twenty or thirty furlongs from the shore.

[28:06] That's how it is translated in the King James. And I say that because I want you to understand this furlongs. It is the Greek word stadia.

[28:18] We could spell it S-T-A-D-I-A if you're writing down notes. It's the word stadia. And the word stadia is a measurement.

[28:30] It's a measurement that equals 600 feet. All right, so the ship was five and twenty, five and twenty or thirty stadia from the land.

[28:45] Or approximately four miles. Four miles. Now, that's interesting. I said it. They were a long way out from the shore. It's even more interesting than that. Mark and John, in their accounts of the same story, both revealed that the disciples had set sail to cross the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee traveling from Bethsaida to Capernaum.

[29:10] And it was a short trip, relatively short trip, or should have been. It turned out not to be. And it was a trip I'm sure they had made many, many times before.

[29:23] But the furthest, if they crossed that northern tip of the Sea of Galilee from Bethsaida to Capernaum, the furthest they would ever be from shore would be a mile. That's as far as they could be from the shore.

[29:36] One mile. And really, not even that. If they crossed where it would be the obvious place to cross from those two cities. And so, you know, less than a mile.

[29:48] So how did they get four miles from shore? Well, it's a pretty simple explanation. The storm carried them out into the sea. Carried them quite a ways out into the sea.

[29:59] Because the Sea of Galilee at its widest point would be only about eight miles. At its widest point.

[30:10] Eight miles. And the disciples were approximately four miles from shore. So where did that put them? Right in the middle of the widest point of the Sea of Galilee.

[30:22] They'd been carried out by the storm. Carried way off course to the very middle of the sea. Now, they didn't have any radio with which to call for help, of course.

[30:32] They didn't have any flares. And even if they had, they didn't have any search and rescue boats or helicopters in that day. no coast guard or anything like that. They didn't have any electronic beacon, distress beacons or anything that could zero someone in to find out where they were.

[30:49] This was a desperate situation. Many, many, many people, fishermen, even some who had been sailors nearly all their life, died in the Sea of Galilee because it was such a volatile sea.

[31:01] Swarms would just come up on a second's notice just out of nowhere. And so many people died in the Sea of Galilee. And so this was the desperate situation.

[31:12] How was anyone going to find them? That's the question. Miles from shore, miles off their charted course. The disciples themselves, I don't think, knew exactly where they were.

[31:24] Somebody did. Jesus did. He knew where they were. He knew exactly where they were because they walked right to where they were. Now, there's a lesson here, isn't there?

[31:38] You ever feel like God does not know where you are? You know, you kind of conceptualize that. I mean, you know, sometimes we just feel like He's just, I mean, I'm out here all by myself and God doesn't know where I am.

[31:53] That's a ridiculous notion and yet there are many times we feel that way. But it's not true. Demonstrated by Jesus walking right to where the disciples were.

[32:08] And so, the ship of your life may at times drift way off course. Here's the lesson, the application. Whether it is by the choices you make or it's way off course for other reasons.

[32:26] Your life can be way off course, but it will never drift so far that Jesus does not know where you are. That's the application. His presence. He knows when to come, He knows where to come, and He knows why.

[32:38] And we could just sum that up with Hebrews 4.15 where the Bible says, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, our affirmatives, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.

[32:57] And the point is, He knows why that we need His presence because He understands what we're going through. He understands the pain of these things.

[33:08] And He not just tempted to sin on all points, but He experienced life of life's turns and twists and problems just as we do, and He sympathizes with us.

[33:20] He feels the things that we feel. So, His presence, that's such an anchor. Well, He's the anchor, but the link that keeps us attached to that anchor that is steadfast and sure is the link of His providence, His prayers, His presence.

[33:38] And now number four, His power. The link of His power. If we could just notice the many displays of the mighty power of God in this particular story, there are at least five of them.

[33:54] They're easy to miss. They're just little subtle things that are given to us in the narration. Very subtle, kind of obscure, and we could miss them very easily, but there are at least five, I think, demonstrations of the power of Jesus.

[34:12] Verse 22 is the first one I would have you notice. Let me read verse 22 again in Matthew 14. Immediately, Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side while He sent the multitudes away.

[34:32] All right, now you're thinking, okay, where is there a display of the power of God there? All right, so He sent the crowds away.

[34:45] Dismissed the crowds. Is that a display of the power that Jesus possessed? It really is. Remember, and we talked about this last week, remember something about this multitude, this crowd.

[35:00] What, do you remember, had taken place just before Jesus sent His disciples out into the sea? What had just taken place? He just fed the feeding of the 5,000.

[35:11] And, you know, that's 5,000 men with their wives and children, maybe some servants. We don't know how many there were exactly. It may have been as many as 15, maybe 20,000 people there.

[35:24] The number doesn't matter. It was a miracle. Whether it was 5,000 or 20,000. And these people had just witnessed the awesome display of the power of Jesus.

[35:35] And so, what effect did that miracle have upon the crowd? The multitude of people. Well, Matthew doesn't tell us, but John does. John says in John 6, 14 that those men, who received the miracle, when they saw the miracle that Jesus did, they said, He's the one.

[35:59] I'm paraphrasing. He's the one. He's the Messiah. He is that prophet that should come into the world. And then, what does it say? When Jesus, therefore, perceived that they would come and take Him by force, because Jesus knows the hearts and intents of every person, every one of us.

[36:19] He knew that they would take Him by force and make Him a king. What did He do? He departed again into the mountain Himself alone. He got Himself out of there.

[36:29] He also got His disciples out of there. But, now, John doesn't tell us, but Matthew does, that Jesus sent the crowd away, dismiss Him. So, a mob of 15,000 people, maybe, or let's just say 5,000.

[36:45] That's a lot of people. A mob of, say, 5,000 were prepared to take Jesus by force, if necessary. They were prepared to do that and make Him their king.

[36:55] And Jesus just simply dismisses them. I'm telling you, that is a display of His power. That's the kind of Jesus that we serve. That's the anchor we have that is steadfast and sure, the power of Jesus.

[37:09] You know, there are times today when the forces of wickedness seem to be, you know, running the whole show, seem to be getting their way and having their wicked way. But don't ever forget the power of the Lord.

[37:23] Jesus will have His day. It may be sooner than we think and sooner than the world thinks. The second display of the power of Jesus, again, it's not recorded in Matthew's account, it's recorded in Mark's account, Mark 6, 48.

[37:40] And we've already covered this ground, so I'll just mention it. But where the Bible says He saw them struggling, straining, and rowing, for the wind was against them.

[37:53] That's a display of the power of Jesus. His supernatural vision, He sees all things. So there's a display of His power. Number 3, verse 25, in Matthew's account, listen to it.

[38:09] Now in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the sea. Walking on the sea. That's certainly a display of His power. That's part of the story that we really like.

[38:19] That's the miracle part of it. And so that's not very obscure. We see that. But the question is, why do you suppose Jesus did that? Walked on the sea.

[38:30] Did He have to walk on the water in order to deliver the disciples out of danger? Did He have to do it that way?

[38:42] Of course He didn't have to. He could have spoken from the mountain. Just said, peace, be still. He could have done that from the mountain.

[38:53] He could have delivered the disciples in many other miraculous ways. but He didn't do it that way. So why did He walk on the water?

[39:06] Well, I think it was to display His power, not just to impress them or wow them. In fact, initially they thought He was a ghost, some spirit.

[39:18] But He desired to display His power over their circumstances. That's the idea here. Jesus did not walk on the water to teach His disciples and us how to do it.

[39:31] It made me wonder why our Pentecostal friends and some others like them haven't taken this path and say, well, you know, we need to have the gift of walking on water.

[39:50] Maybe there are some out there. I don't know. They don't try to duplicate that one because it would be pretty difficult to duplicate that. You can't fake that part. But Jesus didn't walk on the water so that we would.

[40:05] There's no mandate from Scripture that the truly spiritual will be able to walk on water. That's not the point. Jesus walked on the water to display His power over the water.

[40:18] And the water was the big problem with the disciples. That was their biggest threat. And so what better way than to walk on the very thing the disciples feared the most?

[40:29] The thing that was threatening to destroy them. And in fact, I like the way Adrian Rogers put it. He said what threatened to be over their heads was already under Jesus' feet. That's the idea.

[40:43] So, you know, what are we facing? What are you facing in life? What is the trouble that threatens you? Well, those things are already under Jesus' feet.

[40:54] That is, under His authority. And that's quite an anchor to hold on to. That doesn't necessarily mean that, all right, I'll embrace that and be encouraged by it.

[41:05] It doesn't mean that suddenly all of our problems are going to go away. God's got His purpose. He's going to be doing it. But what an anchor to hold on to to understand that anything that we face is already under Jesus' feet.

[41:16] That's what the Bible says in Ephesians 1.22. The Bible says that God has put all things under His feet, under Jesus' feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.

[41:28] The fourth display of His power is in verse 32. And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. All right, so what's this about?

[41:41] We need to get this straight in our minds, the timing of things. Jesus comes to His disciples walking on the water. That's a display of His power. And so, what does the Bible tell us?

[41:54] That He's standing there in the stormy sea, the waves, we can imagine, white capping all around Him. And so, I guess, with a voice of authority, He rebukes the wind and calms the sea.

[42:06] Is that what happened? That's not what... Now, He did that on another occasion. He did it that way, or it's described that way, but that's not what we have here. Rather, we have Jesus having an encounter with His disciples.

[42:22] Really, with Peter. And we have Jesus carrying on a dialogue with Peter. Jesus is on the water, standing on the water, and Peter is...

[42:35] Well, at first He's on the water, and then He's in the water, and then He's up out of the water. But the point I'm making is all of this is taking place while what?

[42:48] The storm is raging. It's still raging. It's not until He gets into the boat that the wind stops blowing, and the sea is calm, which is implied there.

[43:01] Now, what does that say to us? I think the application is this. I mean, there are other applications, but here's an application. Jesus deals with the storm within us.

[43:14] Then He deals with those storms that are without. Or, to put it in this way, these terms, first, an inner work, calm, peace, working on our faith needs to be done, and then Jesus goes to work on calming the storms around us.

[43:37] And, you know, sometimes He makes short work of that. In fact, it took longer to calm the disciples' inner storm. storm. Their fears, their lack of faith, took more time to do that than it did to calm the stormy sea.

[43:57] I mean, Jesus spoke ten words to calm the disciples down. Be of good cheer as I, be not afraid, and yet, without even word, the sea is calmed, the wind is calmed.

[44:10] And that just, it just tells me that the biggest problems that we face in life are not the storms that rage around us, but the storm that's raging inside of us.

[44:23] That's the biggest thing, and that's what God works on first. Doubt, discouragement, depression, many other things. One other display of His power, and Matthew again does not tell us, but John does.

[44:38] In John 6, 21, the Bible says, Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately, immediately, the boat was at the land where they were going.

[44:52] Immediately. Immediately. Now, we're to assume, just from the information, that they're still four miles out, in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. I'm telling you, how far from their original destination, we're not told that, but we could assume that at least four miles, maybe more.

[45:12] And yet, immediately, in one split instant, I think it's very deliberate, the words are very deliberate, immediately. That is, as soon as Jesus sets foot on board that ship, the wind stops, and though they're miles from shore, the ship is at her destination.

[45:30] Transport. Yeah, transport. And, and, and the storm is now just a memory. It's, it's, it's in the past. Now, you know, it tells me that, you know, sometimes the storms that we face, they, they go on for some time.

[45:46] some may even experience a raging storm that lasts the rest of their life. But when it's over, it is over.

[45:59] And, Jesus displays his power in that way, and the storms become a memory, or we get to heaven, and then we don't even care about the storms that took place down here. The anchor holds, we don't have to worry about it.

[46:11] His providence, his prayers, his presence, his power, and then one more very quickly, and I am going to make it. His promise. The link of his promise.

[46:24] Do you see the promise in verse 22? You have to look. Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away.

[46:37] Now, there's a promise here. There's a promise here because there's a command implied here. What's the command? Go to the other side. Not just get into the boat and get out there somewhere, but the command was to get into the boat, cast off, and go to the other side.

[47:00] That's the command. And at the same time, it's a promise. The promise is that they'll make it to the other side. Because all of God's commands are also promises. That whatever God commands us to do, He will enable us to do.

[47:17] And we will do, can do, will do. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it. Jesus is the author and finisher. So, that wraps it up.

[47:29] The anchor holds. It's steadfast and sure. And by God's saving grace, all believers are inseparably attached to that anchor. And that anchor is Jesus.

[47:41] The anchor, steadfast and sure. Thank you.