The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E31 - The Boat

Episode Date: May 20, 2020

Hey church family, it is Devo time. If you've got your Bible, we're going to be in Matthew chapter 14. Even if you're new to Bible study, you've probably heard about Jesus walking on water. That's what we're going to talk about. Matthew chapter 14, we're going to pick it up in verse 22. Immediately, he made his disciples get in the boat and go before him to the other side. Now, what has just happened here is Jesus just finishes feeding 5,000 people at the Sea of Galilee in the area of Galilee. and I mean the crowd's getting huge, huge, huge, huge.

And so as soon as that is over, everybody's had their feel. He puts the disciples in the boat and says, why don't you all head to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Let's talk about your prayer life. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son,

co- Eternal with God the Father. God the Holy Spirit. By him, all things that have been made were made for him, through him, and to him. All authority in heaven and earth has been put under his control. And yet often in the Gospels, what we see is that Jesus, after long days of ministry, Jesus believed that it was really important for him to remove himself from the hustles. and bustle of this world and find a quiet place on a mountain and pray. So if Jesus, the one that spoke everything into existence,

who was in the beginning, the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God, this eternal second person of the training, if he felt like he needed some serious time along with the Father, why in the world do we feel like we can make it on our own? Listen, man, I know quarantine and COVID have been crazy, but I hope and I pray you have not wasted this opportunity to spend more time with the Father. It's verses like this that have led me to every single week I go out into the woods to write sermons, to pray, to be with the Father.

One of the things I was very convicted of when we first started our church is it seemed to me that my prayer life was not necessarily keeping up with the amount of responsibility as a pastor that God was entrusting to me. And it seemed like when I was just kind of at my house and in my office and at work and in meetings, I could not find this significant time to pray. So I have tried to prioritize in my own life, getting away from it all

and just going, we don't have mountains, but we got woods, we got a beach, to go and pray. This is what Jesus did. and when evening came, in other words, he wasn't there for just a minute. He was there until dark. And when evening came, he was there alone.

But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. You see, the idea here is like the wind's in their face, and it's like they're on the roller. You know, they're rolling and rolling like the one. wanted to gym, but they ain't really going anywhere.

And so Jesus kind of walks up. In the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. And they said, it's a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately, Jesus spoke to them saying,

take heart, it is I, the most commanded thing in the scriptures. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. He's telling them, listen, when I am present, peace is present with me. When Jesus walks in the room, peace walks in with him. And because he is with us, we don't have to be afraid. Even when we don't understand or we think it's a ghost or the wind's blowing in our face,

we don't have to be afraid because he is with us. This is why he promises us in Matthew chapter 28. And lo, I will be with you to the very end of the age. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water, and he said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. All right, real quick. Why do you think Peter asked to get out of the boat? Do you think it's just because Peter wanted to do cool stuff?

Well, maybe. It is Peter. However, to be a rabbi in the first century, it was a very, very, very important. very high honor. In fact, it was maybe the highest honor of all. Again, this is like Orthodox Jewish culture. Every little boy or girl, every little boy and girl when they were growing up, they would go to Hebrew school. And on the first day of school, when they walked in, they would have a tablet, not like an iPad, but like an actual chalkboard kind of tablet thing. And the rabbi, whoever their teacher is, rabbi just means teacher. Their rabbi would have a scroll. He would have the Bible, the Torah, the Torah.

and he would have written on the tablet verses, most likely the Shema. He wrote Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord of your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. And then what the rabbis would often do with their, this would be like first grade class, like kindergarten class, they would take honey and they would put honey onto the tablet.

Now, most of these kids, especially in places like Copernum and Galilee area, most of them had heard of honey. They had heard that the promised land was the land flowing with milk and honey, but unless they were super rich, maybe they had never tasted honey. And then their tablet with Bible verses would be covered in honey,

and then he would say, the rabbi would say something like, go ahead, eat, taste, and see that it's good. And the kids would start. Can you imagine a first grade class? I mean, they're just licking, there's just honey getting on everybody and everywhere, you know,

it's Corona everywhere, right? And so it's just a mess. Everybody's sticky with honey. and then the rabbi would say something like just as that honey is sweet to your tongue, may the word of God be sweet to your soul. And then these little first graders would begin to memorize the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, you've never even read numbers, and Deuteronomy. memorize every word.

And then when they would get done, when they would get done with, usually took them three, four years, that kind of thing. And they would do it in song. They would do it in song. And then up through, you know, it would be like middle school kind of area. If you were the best of the best of the best of the best,

then you got invited to go on to the next level of schooling. And if you made it on to the next level of schooling, then what you would do is you would memorize the rest of the Bible. From Genesis to Malachi, every single word. And you didn't have to just know it like you could say it, but one of the things, these rabbi games that rabbis would play, I've talked to this before, was a remez.

Like I would say the beginning of a verse, and you would have to finish the verse. There were also some games that they would play, where I would say a verse and you would tell me the verses that came before it and after it, it was like biblical jiu-jitsu. Now, if you'll remember when Jesus was, was 12 years old and his family kind of lost him for a little while. And when Mary and Joseph showed back up and said, where are you? And he says that you know I had to be in my father's house.

If you'll remember that Jesus, a 12 year old Jewish boy who was studying Torah, was sitting with the elders and they were asking one another questions. This is what they were doing. They were studying the Bible together. All right. So that would take you to about like high school age. and after that, have to you memorize the entire Old Testament, if you were the best of the best of the best, you could apply and become a Talmudine of a rabbi. And what that meant, if you were a Talmuddin of a rabbi, that meant that you were to take on the yoke of your rabbi.

And the yoke in the first century was your rabbi's interpretation of what the scripture said. And sometimes they would literally write this yoke, out like on a scroll and some rabbis and Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes, sometimes they would show off by having these super long yokes, these super heavy burdensome yokes. And your job, you didn't get to add to it or take away from it, your job was to bear that yoke and to carry that yoke. And it was, you would apply. And it was prestigious for you to be chosen to be the Talmudine of a rabbi, especially a famous one like Camalian or Saul or somebody like that. And if you didn't make the cut, guess what would happen?

They would say, you know Torah well. Congratulations. Now may you go and learn the trade of your father. Now think real quick, Peter is a disciple. Do you remember where Peter was when Jesus called him to be a disciple? By the way, Jesus did things different. Jesus didn't wait for applications for people to be Talmudine for him as a rabbi. Jesus went out and chose his own. And do you remember what Peter, Andrew, James, John?

You remember what these guys did? They were fishermen, and you remember who they were fishing for? They were fishing for their dads. You know what this means? That when Jesus was choosing his disciples, he did not choose the Ivy League, he did not choose the five-star athletes, he did not choose the blue chips, he did not choose the best of the best. that Jesus picked the leftovers,

like me and like you. And the invitation of the rabbi, the follower rabbi was not just learned the things that I know, but I want you to become the person that I am. That's different. That you weren't just a student to pass on information, but that you, literally the phrase in the first century was this, may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.

What that meant was that you would walk in the footsteps of your rabbi so closely that I can't tell what's you and what's the rabbi, because when he's kicking up the dust, you were just covered in his dust. So Peter's on a boat rowing, not going anywhere. Somebody comes walking by. John is like, it's a ghost. And then Jesus says, hey, it's I. afraid. And then what does Peter do? Peter says, Peter thinks, okay, if you're my rabbi, if you're my

Lord, if you're my teacher, and I am your follower, then I should be able to follow you where you go. So if you can walk on water, I can walk on water. Jesus, if it's really you, can I come out there with you? And Jesus says, come on. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water. How many steps. I have no idea. Everything's going awesome. There's Jesus. There's Peter. Peter's walking on the water and all of the disciples are in the boat. But Peter's not because by faith, he steps out of the boat. Verse 30, but when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid. Remember what Jesus told him? Don't be afraid. I'm with you. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

Now, first of all, how do you see the wind? You can't see wind. All you can see is the effects of the wind. You see, ultimately, what began to happen here is that Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and he puts his eyes on his circumstances. He takes his eyes off his savior, and he puts his eyes on his circumstances.

He takes his eyes off the sovereign king of the universe that can walk on water, and he puts his eyes on his circumstances and begins to think, how in the world am I out here? and when he does this, instead of having faith in Jesus, he is afraid. You see, faith causes us to take action and fear paralyzes us, and in his fear he begins to sink, and he crowd out, Lord, save me, verse 31,

and Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took him. He didn't wait. He didn't say, I told you. He immediately reached out his hand, and he took hold of him, saying to him, Oh, of you of little faith, why did you doubt? Now here's the question. What is Peter doubting? What is Peter doubting?

Is Peter doubting Jesus? Think about this. Is Jesus sinking? Uh-uh. Jesus is doing just fine. You know what Peter's doubting? Peter's doubting Peter. You see, sometimes I know we have faith in God.

Do you have faith in you and what God has called you to do? Because His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That means His divine power has. given us everything we need to accomplish everything that he has called us to accomplish. So if he has called you to step out of the boat, then he will sustain you on the water when you get out of the boat. You just have to keep your eyes fixed on him, the author, and the perfector of our faith, and we got to quit putting our eyes on the temporary circumstances, and we got to quit navel-gazing and putting our eyes on us saying, how in the world I'm not worthy to be walking

on water. I doubt I should even be here. And then when we begin to doubt what God has called us to do, we begin to sink. The good news of the gospel is. is when we sink and when we sin and when by faithfulness we stumble that we can cry out to him, Lord save me, and he don't wait. Immediately he reaches out his hands and he saves him. And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased and those in the boat worshipped him saying, truly you are the son of God. So church family, some of you are sitting in a boat right now.

It's a career. It's a lifestyle. You're sitting in a boat and Jesus himself is standing. outside of the boat, the dangerous place. You think the boat is comfortable and the boat is safe. The problem is you know, you know, if you're brave enough to tune your ear into the spirit of God, Jesus is saying, come on, once you walk out here with me,

do you trust me? Some of you need to step out of the boat. You need to step out of the boat and forgive. You need to step out of the boat and share your face. You need to step out of the boat and change careers. You need to step out of the boat and go on that mission trip. You need to step out of the boat and be, be, extravagantly generous, you need to step out of the boat.

Some of you stepped out a while ago, and now you need to refocus your eyes. Get them off of the lost job. Get them off of the broken relationship. Get them off of your temporary circumstances and fix your eyes on Jesus, the author, and the perfector of our faith. And some of you feel like the water is up to here and that you're going to drown. And you've been doggy paddling and doggy paddling and thrash into water, and you need to stop and cry out, Lord, save me.

Because little do you know, there are people watching you. They watched you get out of the boat and they thought, no way. But then they also watched you stumble and fall. And in your return to Jesus and him reaching out and saving you, it could be that very thing that people see and say, truly, he is the son of God. Church of 1122, may you not be ruled by fear and may you not be ruled by doubt.

May God give you a bold faith that steps out of the boat that walks towards Jesus. And when we stumble and if we fall, immediately cries out to him, Lord, save me, trusting that he is a good, good father, and he reaches out and takes care of his children. Our good and grace is heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you that you are not super concerned about our comfort.

In fact, you don't mind sending the wind and the waves to disrupt us. God, I thank you that you're the kind of Lord, you're the kind of Savior that calls us out of the comfortable boats that we find ourselves in. And may we, by faith, take big, bold steps of faith towards whatever you have called us to do. And Lord, when we get so doubtful of our own abilities, Lord, when we feel like the waves are coming in over our heads, may we cry out to you because the gospel tells us that immediately, immediately you will reach out and grab us.

We pray this in Jesus now. Amen.