Jesus Walks on Water - Part 3

John 6:20 “But he said to them, "It is I; don't be afraid."

He said, “It’s I, don’t be afraid.” Sometimes people will tell you not to worry and you still do because there’s always the chance they don’t know what they’re talking about! Or they really have no control. And there are certainly a lot of things to fear in life! Whether someday some doctor will tell us we have a terminal illness, or someone we love and need does, that we’ll lose our job and have to sell our house, terrorism, death, lots of things, but Jesus is more powerful then anything on earth or in the universe. We have no reason to fear when we rely on Him. And He will come to us even when our faith is imperfect. When we have doubt. All we need is just enough faith to call out to God to save us. And He will.

In the Bible there are 2 stories about Jesus and storms. One time He calmed the storm and another He calmed His children. It’s the same with our trials.

Occasionally He might resolve our problem for us. More often then not though He’ll just be with us through it. Because our trials have a purpose.

From trials we can learn: patience, trust in God, to focus on God instead of worldly things and to be more compassionate. We learn how to help others through their trials, humbleness, priorities and how to be grateful. Sometimes trials just stop us from doing something we shouldn’t be doing!

This story is teaching us that the only thing that calms our fears is faith. Faith in the Lord who comes to us in the midst of the winds and waves of life. Who speaks to us and says, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” He said it to the disciples then and says it to us now.

Earthquakes, tornadoes, Aids, mindless senseless killings, drugs, fears that wake you up in the middle of the night and weigh you down during the day…it may not look like He’s in control, but He is. And you know how we know that? Because all of these things were prophesied in the Bible. He foretold them since before the beginning of time. So there is a purpose in them. And He can and will make good things come from bad. Faith overcomes fear. Faith that Jesus is the Son of God sent for our salvation. He has overcome death. When He says be not afraid, it is I – He’s saying “it is I, Jesus! The Son of God, able to do all these things.”

Whenever we have any kind of trial, particularly, those into which we know God directs us, we can remember 3 things promised in 1st Corinthians 10:13:

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

1.Trials are common to all people. We think no one has it as bad as we do. No one has suffered as much as we have. That no one understands what we’re going through. But, we have to face our trials with courage. Even as Christians, maybe especially as Christians, we can’t avoid trials. In this situation Jesus actually sent them into the storm.

2.God is faithful. He will never let us be tempted or tried beyond what we can bear. Jesus stands by God’s throne in constant intercessory prayer for us. Remember the story of the 3 men thrown into the furnace in the book of Daniel? And the king looked in and saw 4 men? And one was an angel? And no one ended up being hurt? That was Jesus. The worse times we are going through, the closer He is!

3.In every trial God will provide a way out. Just as Jesus didn’t let the disciples struggle on the sea indefinitely. He will come to us, but like this example of Him walking on water, it may not be as we would expect Him to. The “way out” may be a helpful friend God sends us. A promise we read in the Bible, an offer of a job, a good book to read that ends up inspiring us or giving us hope or even a solution. It could be a sense of His presence when we’re praying, or the knowledge that, hey, this thing I’ve been going through has actually helped me! It’s made me stronger or opened doors for me in ways I would never have thought of myself. Like kids going through cancer and deciding to become a doctor kind of thing.

We should never just wallow in self-pity. Or try to get others to pity us. We should never become bitter or resentful. We shouldn’t even choose to feel we’re alone because it’s not true. We always have Christ. When He sends His help, like the disciples, we need to reach out and pull Him into the boat with us. The saying, “Jesus never promised it would be a smooth ride, just that He would get you to your destination and that it would be worth it.” may have come from this story.

Jesus is greater then anything that happens to us. Whatever His purpose for us, whatever He’s told us to do, even if it takes us into a stormy sea, He is responsible for us. We are His love gifts from His father!

Look at verse 21: Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

Do you see? They had struggled for 8 hours to get half way. But, once Jesus was with them they got immediately to the other side!

Jesus Walks on Water - Part 2

John 6:18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.

The Sea of Galilee is 650 feet below sea level. It’s 150 feet deep and surrounded by hills. All of this together makes it subject to sudden windstorms that cause extremely high waves. These storms, even though they happen frequently, were always scary.

Nature can be very scary! Think of the tsunami and earthquakes. The disciples would have been very afraid. They had no control over the sea! Water would have been splashing over the edges of their boat. They were 3 and half miles out, which was about dead center, so there was no going back. They were all rowing with all their might.

The disciples straining against the oars can represent Christians today trying to do what is right. They were out there because Jesus had sent them. Yet, they still ran into trouble. A couple things to learn from this – Christians are not promised a life without trials. And we can almost always expect them after a mountain top experience.

The disciples had just witnessed a huge miracle. They were probably ecstatic! They had chosen the right guy to follow! They were doing exactly what Christ told them to: And then Boom! Big trial!

It will happen! Sometimes because Satan will go after you if he sees you victorious, sometimes it might be God humbling you, “Hey, don’t let all that go to your head!” “Let me bring you back down to earth where you belong!” sometimes you’re just on a spiritual high and you let your guard down. Maybe even sometimes God is doing a little test on your faith – not that He needs to know how much you have, but to show you how much you have!

Think about things in your life that represents the wind; the resistance to do what is right and good. Most likely they are things that seem out of our control: fatigue, fear of the unknown, non-Christians who resent us for being Christians, too full schedules…

John 6:19 When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified.

They thought they had seen a ghost! It’s amazing that some people are more ready to believe in ghosts then the Creator! The disciples were in the dark, without Christ. First they were afraid of the winds and waves, and then they thought they had a ghost to deal with! At least the storm was natural! One thing you can take from this is: our real distresses are often increased by our imaginary ones.

So Jesus had been up on the mountain praying. For a long time – from sundown until between 3 and 6 a.m. Anyone reading this ever pray that long? He saw the disciples. One thing about being God – you can see in the dark – not sure if you knew that!

We can use this picture for today. In the story Jesus is praying on the mountain. Today He is in heaven praying. In the story He sees the disciples struggling and needing help. Today He sees us struggling and needing help. In the story did He come right away? No, they managed to get half way across the lake before He came. (after 8 hours) But, we know He came at exactly the right minute. He is the on time God. Many times when people have gone through bad times you’ll here them say, “You know, I just don’t think I would have lasted one second longer! God showed up in the nick of time!”

God watches us. When we’re alone, when we struggle, when we run out of support, when we don’t know what to do. When we row and row and row and just don’t seem to be getting anywhere. He has His eyes on us! We may not be paying attention to Him, but He’s paying attention to us! Later in this book you learn Jesus considers us His love gifts from God! Don’t you think He’s going to take care of those gifts? We are never out of His thoughts and He’s going to bring every one of His gifts home to His father.

Jesus Walks on Water - Part 1

Let’s take John 6:15 – 22 apart. Look at verse 15: Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

Why were they going to make Him a king at this point? Because He had just done the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.

There are a couple things we can say about this. One is they were caught up in the excitement, like crowds, especially big crowds often are. But, also, these people were ruled by Rome and they didn’t like that. They were Jews who only wanted God as their ruler. So there was kind of a resistance group at this time always looking for ways to overthrow the Roman’s hold over them. If they could have unlimited food, that would be a help. It would be one less thing they would have to depend on Rome for.

The crowd also would have remembered Moses writing in the Torah about the prophet coming, who they believed would be the Messiah. How He would feed them with manna.

Well, Jesus had just fed them with bread (manna). So maybe Jesus was the Messiah. But, their idea of the Messiah was a ruler king who would overthrow the Romans and sit on an earthly throne and rule them. And that was never God’s plan. Jesus will be king one day. And He is already king of every believer’s life. But, it wasn’t His mission back then and nothing would sway Him from God’s plan. Remember Satan tried to sway Him in the desert too. But, he couldn’t. Now it’s the people trying to tempt Him and He resists by going off in prayer. Jesus didn’t come to be popular or even to make people’s lives easier – He came to be Savior of the World!

One mistake people often still make is seeking Jesus for the wrong reasons. To get them out of a fix, or to give them something they think they need, instead of having a relationship with Him, believing He is who He says He is.

Praising and worshipping Him – yes – but also just talking to Him. Listening to Him. Trying to be more like Him. Doing what you know He wants you to do.

John 6: 16 – 17 When evening came, His disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them.

Ok, so Jesus sends His disciples away. He didn’t want them to get any ideas about making Him king too! We know from other places in the Bible they didn’t always understand His mission either and at least one time the mother of James and John came to Jesus asking if her sons would have prominent places when Jesus came into His kingdom. They could have easily gotten caught up in the crowd.

So he sends them in the boat back to where they came from and He goes up the mountain to pray. Jesus often went somewhere to be alone in prayer and because it’s written about in the Bible it’s an important lesson for us. We need to get away and be still with God at times. We need to pray – just God and us.