Epiphany4 – February 5, 2017
MIRACLES #5:
Jesus’ Power OverNature
Matthew 14:22-33
Miracles video
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
“My Savior, He can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save, mighty to save.” He is the God of power and might. He has power over all of the universe that he created. He can move the mountains. What’s more you could do it too. Do you remember how he said: Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matt 17:20 But you see, no one has ever thrown a mountain into the sea, not even Jesus. He never did a miracle that didn’t have a purpose. So today, when we see Jesus’ power over nature, we’ll also see that he always has a purpose, a reason. The Lord was teaching the disciples something important in the middle of the night, and this miracle is recorded in the Bible because the Lord wanted us to learn something too. It’s really a lesson about trust and faith. Our first lesson is this
Lesson 1: God is Watching Out for You!
We need to learn this lesson because sometimes we have our doubts, just like the first disciples. It was three o’clock in the morning, a few hours after Jesus had done another miracle over nature: he had fed the crowd of 5,000 with 2 small fish and 5 little loaves. The crowd thought this was so great that they wanted to draft him into service as their king, right then and there.“Tonight, Supper; Tomorrow, the World!” But Jesus would have none of it. He sent the crowd away, and sent his disciples off in their boat, while he went up into the hills above the lake to have some time alone to pray.
In their nighttime boat trip, the disciples were having a hard time. There was a strong wind against them all night. The boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 14:24. We know from the Gospel of John that they were 3 miles out from the shore. They had been fighting the wind, sails were useless. They were rowing and had gone only 3 miles in 9 hours. They should have made it to Gennesaret hours ago! Now I want you to note this was not a full storm, like the kind that happened when Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat. That was a separate earlier incident. Their lives were not in danger this time, it was just a long hard windy wet night and they just weren’t getting anywhere. Ever had days like that?
But Jesus knew the problems they were having. They didn’t see him coming, but he saw them. He knew they were in trouble with the windstorm. How could he do that? It was three in the morning, and they were 3 miles out in a windy cloudy night. It was not humanly possible to see them but the Savior saw. He knew the tempest they faced. He knew exactly where to find them. He not only knew, but then he went out and found them and calmed the storm and their fears.
Jesus knows the windstorms we have to face too. He knows exactly where we are, and what life events we’re straining against, right at this very moment! Sometimes we wish as parents, that we could do that. When a little one is hurting and crying and still not able to talk, more than one mother has said, “If I only knew just where it hurt.” She would be willing to do just about anything, if only she knew. But there is one who knows, and knows everything. Jesus knows where we hurt and what’s causing the pain. Do you trust that he will do something about it?
Let’s see Jesus in action: Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
The disciples certainly didn’t expect Jesus, they thought he was in the hills praying. How in the world would he get out to their boat? At first they thought it was some kind of apparition, perhaps an evil spirit to torment them even further and they were terrified. Jesus had come to help and rescue them, but they couldn’t see it. What a relief when they heard his precious words: Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid. Jesus was there for them! He hadn’t let them down!
Dear friends, when the winds and waves of life threaten to swamp our little boats, or push us in a direction we don’t want to go, don’t we have the same problem? We cannot recognize that Jesus is there. Matter of fact, we may even mistake Jesus for some other troubling spirit. “It’s the devil doing this to me! God, where are you when I need you the most?” But the Lord is there, it may even be God himself allowing the storm and using it for his purpose! He is giving us a lesson on trust, trusting him to see us through.
Calm in the eye of the hurricane. Peace in the midst of danger. Strength in the midst of weakness. That’s the power of Jesus in our hearts. What is troubling you? In the greatest of storms, the Lord Jesus has promised to take care of us.
Lesson 2: Keep Your Eyes On Jesus
And when things are going from bad to worse, we get another lesson through Peter’s example. It’s a lesson about keeping your eyes on Jesus! While eleven of the disciples were probably just glad that it was Jesus coming to them, impetuous Peter had another idea: Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
Why did Peter want to walk on the water? It doesn’t say. I don’t think it was any more than Peter seeing Jesus, and thinking: That’s pretty cool! Maybe he’ll let me do it too!
Even though we don’t know Peter’s thoughts, we do know this: Peter was convinced that the man walking on the water was the Son of God and his Savior. He knew he had the power to do miraculous things. He trusted in the Lord to be able to do even the impossible, even if it’s something unnecessary like walking on the water. We can learn that lesson of trust. There are many more important things for which we need the Lord than being able to walk on the water. But if Jesus can do that, won’t he take care of us for the really essential things? Why of course! So when the waves start washing over your boat, keep your eyes on Jesus! But then Peter also teaches us the other side of things:
Let’s go back to Peter, walking on the stormy waves of the Sea of Galilee. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” When Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, all was well and he too walked on the water. But as soon as he started to look around, and saw the wind spraying the water, and felt its sting, and looked down at the rolling waves, he started to sink. The point: turn away from Jesus and you’ll get that sinking feeling.
So often, we are like Peter. We start the week out well, with our eyes on Jesus all Sunday morning. We even feel like we can walk on water! Then Monday through Saturday, all the storms of life buffet and throw spray in our faces, and we start looking down at all the troubling waves. And down we go! We forget to trust in Jesus and keep our eyes of faith trained totally on him, instead of just concentrating on the problem.Keeping your eyes on Jesus is a lesson about faith, isn’t it? We think somehow it’s up to us and forget about trusting in him. What do I mean?
Think about it. Where does your focus have a tendency to turn when the storms and difficulties of life arise? If we were to be honest, one of the reasons that we often despair and feel like we’re sinking is that we focus on ourselves and figure that I’ve got to solve that problem. Instead of Christ being the object of our faith, “we” have become the object of our faith. Think about whatever has plagued you this week. Health problems? Family issues? How easily we can delude ourselves into thinking it’s all up to us! What happens in that scenario? We get all stressed out and despair. I better pick the right doctor. I better stick to the right health plan. I better find out the solution to this problem. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t work or do research and make some educated decisions. What I am saying is that we shouldn’t live as if it’s up to us to solve these problems. We do our best and then…and then we put our faith and trust in Jesus.
When it comes to being a parent, how easily we fall into the trap that it’s all up to us! And so we read all the right books, go to all the right websites and yet if that’s all we do we will end up still feeling anxious and nervous for our kids. Why? Because we have made ourselves and our parenting philosophy the object of our faith, instead of Christ. I have to admit that my life and ministry has never been easy. There is always some kind of problem, and when I try to solve it on my own and think that I have to solve the problem, it has a way of dragging me down and drowning my spirit. So make plans of course! But then, oh how important it is to turn it all over to Jesus and let him get us through.
Lesson 3: Jesus Saves Us Even When We Fail
But you know what, even in those times when you’ve failed in your trust and you really made a botch of it, Jesus is still there. Note that Peter did nothing to save himself. He was sinking, and yes, he did look again to Jesus and cried out Save me! But Jesus was the only one who could actually do it. He reached out his hand and grabbed him, and pulled him to safety. Peter can’t take any credit for hanging on to the Lord’s hand! Jesus said to him, You of little faith, why did you doubt? Peter’s faith was of the little variety. We have that problem too. If our rescue depended on the greatness of our faith, we all would be lost at sea! But Jesus rescues us! He has the power to save!
This is true, not only of storms, but it is a picture something much more important and that has to do with our salvation and getting to heaven. Do you have anything to do with your salvation? You might as well ask, did Peter have anything to do with getting pulled out of the water? So for our salvation, Jesus has done it all. He stretched out his hands and arms on the terrible cross, because there was nothing we could do to save ourselves from sin. He reached out his hand with the Holy Spirit and touched our hearts with faith, because our hearts were too hard for us to soften. By the Spirit’s work, we believe. And the Lord teaches us lessons so that we trust in him more and more.
I’d like to give you a lesson about two trees. One is the hugely magnificent sequoia. Some of them can grow up to 300 ft. tall, and 40 ft. diameter, but their roots are not nearly so immense and only go about 6 feet into the ground. So the greatest danger for a sequoia is not forest fires, but wind, and drought. They don’t grow anywhere that is not always wet. On the other hand this is a mesquite tree. They’re often found in areas with dry climates like Arizona. They don’t look exceptionally beautiful or amazing on the outside. While they only grow to be about 20-30 ft tall, their root systems a go down as far as 190 feet deep. The main root often as thick as the trunk, but 6 times longer. Because of its deep roots, a mature mesquite tree is almost impossible to uproot.
Notice, both the sequoia and the mesquite trees have roots. But the deeper the roots, the stronger it will stand against the storm. The blessings of forgiveness and heaven don’t depend on the strength of your faith. A strong faith receives the gift of heaven of heaven through Jesus. A weak faith receives the gift of heaven through Jesus. And yet, our roots will reach deeper as we daily keep our eyes focused on Jesus. Even if you have shallower roots and get tipped over in the storm, what did we learn from Peter today? Jesus grabs us and sets us upright again, saves us from spiritual destruction.
So he still invites us: Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you! No conditions, no steps we have to follow, no minimum level of faith. Just call on me. I WILL DELIVER YOU! All glory to Jesus! He will never let us go. That’s our miracle for today. Amen.