Trusting Christ When the Storm Rages: Sovereignty Over Safety

• Trusting Christ in Fear [00:03:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the sermon title and main theme, focusing on Jesus's authority over creation as a lesson for believers facing fear.
• Critique of Cultural Theology [00:06:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor debunks the cultural tropes that being in God's will guarantees safety and that God only gives us what we can handle, using biblical examples like Stephen and Paul to show that God's will often involves danger and burdens beyond human capacity.
• Sovereignty and Providence [00:10:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus's miracles, such as walking on water, are signs of His dominion over creation, intended to reveal His glory and call believers to rely on His preserving power rather than their own strength.
• The Nature of Jesus' Kingdom [00:14:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus' kingdom is not of this world, not established by force or political power, but through the death, burial, resurrection, and the preaching of the gospel.
• Human Attempts to Force God's Will [00:16:51 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that just as the crowd tried to force Jesus to be a political king, believers often try to force God into their own molds or plans, which is contrary to God's sovereignty.
• The Necessity and Function of Prayer [00:20:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines five points on prayer: it is beseeching based on promises, the means by which God works in the world, necessary for spiritual formation, deepens relationship with the Father, and actually works.
• Spiritual Formation and Prayer [00:26:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that prayer is a necessity for growing in Christ and deepening the relationship with the Father, citing Jesus' own prayer life and the efficacy of prayer in Peter's restoration.
• Divine Sovereignty in Difficult Circumstances [00:29:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus intentionally sent the disciples into a dangerous storm to display His power, illustrating that God's will is not always safe but is always under His control.
• Spiritual Dryness and the 'Dark Night of the Soul' [00:30:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the biblical narrative of darkness and Jesus' delay to personal experiences of spiritual dryness, referencing Psalms 42-43 and Psalm 88 to validate feelings of God's absence.
• Overcoming Fear through Trust [00:35:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses the natural human response of fear in crisis, urging believers to turn to the sovereign Lord rather than succumbing to fear, supported by multiple scripture references (Psalm 56, Isaiah 41, 2 Timothy 1).
• The Identity of Jesus ('I Am') [00:38:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes Jesus' words 'Do not fear, I am,' explaining that this is a reminder of His divine identity as the sovereign upholder of the universe, which is the antidote to fear.
• Temporal vs. Eternal Salvation [00:40:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts temporal illustrations of God's saving power with the finality of full, complete salvation from sin and fear.
• Divine Presence and Fear [00:41:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the presence of Jesus removes fear, using the metaphor of Jesus being in the boat during the storm.
• Sovereignty and Trust [00:42:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > Referencing H.B. Charles, the pastor explains that while not everything is good in itself, God works all things for the good of those who love Him, conforming them to Christ's image.

• Sermon Illustration [00:00:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about being sick with a cold/flu, drinking water and coffee to soothe his throat, and apologizing for his voice and potential contagion to the congregation.
• Sermon Illustration [00:07:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical story of Stephen in Acts 6 and 7, who was in the center of God's will but was stoned to death, illustrating that God's will does not guarantee physical safety.
• Sermon Illustration [00:08:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Paul being beaten by rods and shipwrecked, and the story of 'Beyond the Gates of Splendor' (Jim Elliot) going to preach to a tribe where he was killed, to further illustrate that being in God's will often involves danger.
• Sermon Illustration [00:09:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses rhetorical examples of people facing drastic cancer diagnoses or the loss of a child to debunk the phrase 'God will never give you more than you can handle,' arguing instead that God gives us more than we can handle so we recognize His sovereignty.
• Sermon Illustration [00:24:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references an illustration by Robert Godfrey regarding how God sustains life through the 'ordinary means' of eating and drinking, analogizing this to how God works out His decreed will through the 'ordinary means of grace' of prayer.
• Sermon Illustration [00:28:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recalls a previous sermon series on the Gospel of Luke, specifically referencing Jesus' prayer for Peter before Peter's denial, contrasting it with Judas.
• Sermon Illustration [00:34:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about thinking of 'Gilligan's Island' when reading about the rough sea, noting the insanity of his mind and the parallel to Jonah where the Lord hurled a wind on the sea.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor reflects on the theological implication that when Jesus is in the boat with you, you are not worried about the waves anymore because the one who holds it all in His hands is present.
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the biblical account of Jesus calming the storm or walking on water as a temporal illustration of God's greater spiritual salvation. He also references a personal reflection on times of fear and peril where being in God's will was the best place to be, and cites H.B. Charles's teaching on Romans 8:28 regarding all things working together for good.

• Pastoral Charge [00:20:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explicitly commands the congregation to set aside time for prayer, modeled after Jesus' example.
• Pastoral Charge [00:27:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor urges the congregation to actively engage in communion with God, citing the privilege of relationship with the Father.
• Pastoral Charge [00:27:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > Take time to commune with God through prayer.
• Pastoral Charge [00:28:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > Spend time in prayer to pursue holiness.
• Pastoral Charge [00:36:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > Turn to and run to the Lord in the midst of fear.
• Pastoral Charge [00:39:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > Receive Jesus.
• Pastoral Charge [00:43:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > Place faith and trust in Jesus Christ for all things.

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] Forgive me for double fisting it here. I've got water and coffee because I'm hoping the warmth may help my throat as well as the wetness of the water.
[00:00:12] So, I have been sick this past week. I got hit with what a lot of people within our congregation got hit with.
[00:00:20] We didn't even make it on Wednesday night, which is very unusual for us because I didn't want to get even more people sick and you didn't want me around you because I was hacking and coughing and sneezing and all sorts of fun stuff.
[00:00:32] So, bear with me, and I hope that my voice will not only hold out this morning, but also for this evening.
[00:00:39] If you would take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to John chapter 6, I would greatly appreciate it.
[00:00:48] This is kind of an interesting passage in the sense that John gives us, it's almost like a parenthesis between two passages that go into a lot about bread and feeding and the great miracle that we
[00:01:03] heard about last week. By the way, thank you so much, Gavin, for preaching last week. You did an excellent, excellent job, and I was greatly impacted by your sermon, and I'm very appreciative and thankful to you for delivering it. Then after this section that we're going to talk about this
[00:01:21] morning, next week we're going to get back into bread. That we saw the feeding of the 5,000 last week, as Gavin mentioned, the only miracle outside of the resurrection of our Lord that is actually appearing in all four Gospels. It was so significant that that was the case. And we're
[00:01:40] going to see an elaboration on that next week as we go through Jesus then calling himself the bread of life, one of the great I am statements that we see. Even though it's kind of interesting,
[00:01:52] we're actually going to see a sort of hidden I am statement within this passage, even though it's not apparent according to the ESV. In the Greek, it's very interesting. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But Jesus is in the midst of performing this great miracle, and then Jesus
[00:02:10] is then going to talk about, based upon what he had already spoken on with the miracle that he that he performed, he's going to use that to talk about himself as being the bread of life.
[00:02:22] And then we're going to get into that very controversial passage over the next few weeks where a lot of the Roman Catholic Church will take it to use as evidence for transubstantiation during the Eucharistic time, which it's not talking about that at all. In fact, that has
[00:02:37] nothing to do with the Lord's Supper. It has more to do with the fact that Jesus just fed 5,000 people. And he's using that as an object lesson to talk about the fact that Jesus himself is our
[00:02:49] food and drink into eternal life. And so we'll get to that next week, though, in the weeks following.
[00:02:55] This morning, though, there's an interesting interlude where in the midst of like the day before and the day after this great miracle that has happened, there's an overnight that sort of happens, which is a very interesting thing, where we see one of Jesus's miracles that we see, one of
[00:03:13] the signs that he performed is given. It's the sign of him walking on the water. And so that's we're going to be talking about this morning. That's the object of what's happening. But I want
[00:03:24] us to consider several applications from that as we go through it, particularly about the fact that, as i entitled the message trusting christ in the midst of fear because even though we're going to see this great miraculous sign of jesus and we're going to talk about the fact that jesus is showing
[00:03:44] his authority over the creation that normally people don't walk on water and so and so and people don't normally calm storms and things along those lines jesus is calling his authority over the creation, but I think there's a greater object lesson that's given to us in this passage than
[00:04:03] merely, even though that's enough, obviously, that Jesus is calming the star, sorry, walking on the water to meet his disciples. So stand with me, if you will, in John chapter 6, verses 15 through 21,
[00:04:16] as we read from this section of scripture about Jesus walking on water. Verse 15 says this, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king jesus withdrew again to himself or to the mountain by himself when evening came his disciples went
[00:04:37] down to the sea got into a boat and started across the sea to capernaum it was now dark and jesus had not come not yet come to them the sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing when they
[00:04:51] had rowed about three or four miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat and they were frightened pardon me but he said to them it is I do not be afraid then they were glad to
[00:05:05] take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going these are the very words of the living God please receive them with the authority that they carry
[00:05:15] because this is the word of God you may be seated let us pray our heavenly father we pray that you would bless the time of the proclamation of your word as the your servant john the baptist reminds
[00:05:36] us lord that jesus you must increase and we must decrease that i am nothing we are nothing in here but servants redeemed by the blood of jesus christ all of us in here are desperate beggars in need
[00:05:52] of your grace lord and we pray that your grace would be poured upon upon us this morning through the proclamation of your word would you open up our minds and our eyes and our ears and our hearts
[00:06:03] lord to be able to hear and see and receive the word of god to understand it lord i pray that the applications that i'm drawing from the text today would be relevant to the scriptures and i
[00:06:15] pray heavenly father that you would give us all grace that in understanding the scriptures we would have our minds renewed we'd be drawn closer to jesus christ our lord we thank you so much for
[00:06:27] this glorious time, this blessed and sacred time of the proclamation of your word. We ask all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Bear with me, as I said, with my voice. I'm going to do the best
[00:06:44] that I can. I can remember in some early days in my Christian walk where someone would say something along the lines of, the safest place for a person to be is right in the center of the will
[00:06:57] of God. Or something that, another phrase that God will never give you anything more than you can handle. And I've always been really bothered by these two phrases. Firstly, the emphasis of these things always seems to be on me. Like whenever I hear the phrase, you know, it's the
[00:07:16] safest place to be is right in the center of the will of God. Well, what am I concerned about there?
[00:07:21] I'm concerned about my own self. I'm concerned about my own safety. It's a very self-focused sort of thing. But I would also argue it's also an untrue thing that we know from the scriptures.
[00:07:33] We know in places like Acts chapter 6 and 7 that the place that Stephen was, he happened to be, was right in the center of the will of God. It was exactly where he was supposed to be.
[00:07:48] And he was defending Christ in a magnificent way. And he died because they stoned him to death.
[00:07:54] it was the right place for him to be it was the best place for him to be it wasn't necessarily the safest place for him to be or the times whenever g or whenever paul was beaten by rods
[00:08:06] you know as it mentions like five different times he's beaten by rods he's shipwrecked i think about the um the beyond the gates of splendor guy you know how he went back to the tribe because he knew that God was drawing him there to continue to preach the gospel to them.
[00:08:24] And it was right smack dab in the center of God's will, but it was absolutely not the safest place for him to be. And that we shouldn't make that comparison to think to ourselves that being in
[00:08:36] the will of God or right in the center of the will of God necessarily dictates that that's the safest place to be. I can argue that it's always the best place to be because to glorify God and
[00:08:47] to know that he holds us in his hands and may cause us or call us to do something that may be difficult or even dangerous, that knowing that he holds us in his hands, that's the focus.
[00:09:00] The focus is on the Lord God and his preserving power and his providence over the situations in which we find ourselves. Same thing with the, he'll never give us anything more than we can handle. Well, tell that to the person who just got the drastic cancer diagnosis, right? Stage
[00:09:17] for cancer? Or God forbid, somebody who's lost a child. How in the world are you going to say to such a person, God's never getting any of you more than you can handle? That's such a fallacy. That's
[00:09:28] so ridiculous that God gives us more than we can handle quite often, I would argue. And I think some, you know, in the midst of broken relationships and strained marriages or loss of jobs or, you
[00:09:43] know, diagnoses of various kinds of illnesses or diseases, that God often does that. But what God will never do is give us more than what he can handle. And the point of him giving us from time
[00:09:55] to time the things that he's given us that are more than what we can handle is that we would recognize that he's the one who is sovereign over it all. That he is the one to whom we should draw,
[00:10:06] to whom we should run.
[00:10:11] And so I think that's what this passage of scripture is all about.
[00:10:15] We see a magnificent miracle of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he displays his sovereignty, that he is in control of his creation, that he not only is the one that spoke it into existence, but he's the one that upholds it all
[00:10:33] by the word of his power.
[00:10:35] we also know that he is the one that can say to whatever you know piece of creation do this and it does it that that he has the authority and the power to to break the laws of physics
[00:10:49] so to speak that those of us who would step on a water and we go right down you know he is able to show his power his authority his dominion over creation by walking upon it and so that is
[00:11:04] absolutely what's happening in this passage of Scripture. But I want us to look at some of the details that go into the Scripture, though. Because I think it's very interesting that we see some applications coming from here. Things like God providentially orchestrating certain events
[00:11:23] in order to display the glory of Jesus. And as God is orchestrating these events to display the glory of Jesus, we're going to find that the apostles, these disciples, were put in a relatively terrifying situation. And they were done so on purpose, that he sent them out on purpose
[00:11:47] to do this thing that he might do what? Display his glory, his authority, his dominion, his power, that what? People may see that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that they might have
[00:12:02] life through believing on his name, which is the focus and the purpose of John's gospel. First, we see a little bit of a transitional statement in verse 15. It says this, perceiving then that they
[00:12:18] were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. This is an interesting verse because it goes, it's like this transition between what we talked about previously and now what we're about to talk about. Why were they coming to
[00:12:35] take him by force? Well, they had seen this great miracle happen. Jesus did basically the same thing that God did to the Israelites in the wilderness. We're going to see that come up a little bit later
[00:12:48] further along as we go in the, in John chapter six, that they're going to make reference to the fact, well, God fed us in the wilderness and so on and so forth. And so there's going to be
[00:12:58] this great debate that ends up coming, but they see this as this, this miracle, like points out of the feeding of the 5,000, not only an act of creation, as Gavin mentioned last week, which is
[00:13:10] so well put, but also it's a reminder of the fact that Jesus is showing himself to be of the same person, the same authority as the one who rained manna down on the Israelites in heaven. That this
[00:13:23] was meant to shock their minds and bring them back to an understanding of, this is God here.
[00:13:29] God's the one that provides bread for his people. And that's the picture. That's the illustration.
[00:13:35] And so they're getting that picture in some cases. We're going to see a fight with the Pharisees again, right? That's not, it's going to be a repeated theme as we go through the rest of the
[00:13:44] book of John. But the people who saw this miraculous work, what are they looking to do?
[00:13:50] They're saying, this is him. This is the Christ. This is the Messiah. This is the King of Israel of the line of David. Let's go make him King. We're ready. They're rallying together to make
[00:14:05] Jesus King. So Jesus understands this because not only does he have the, know the heart of all men, but he knows the heart of all men, but he also is able to just assess the situation.
[00:14:18] So this idea of perceiving, he perceives that they're about to come and take him by force to make him king. So what does he do? He withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Why? Why is it
[00:14:35] that Jesus, why didn't he say, you're right. This is the very reason why I came. This is exactly why I came. I am the king. I am of the lineage of David. I am the, you know, all of these things,
[00:14:51] right? The fulfillment of the messianic prophecies. Why? Well, he gives the answer to Pilate a little bit later, right? My kingdom is not of this world, meaning it does not originate the same way.
[00:15:05] i'm not merely a physical or material king that his kingdom is brought about through a different means right that we know that his kingdom doesn't come by force his kingdom doesn't come by political power his kingdom does not come any of these ways his kingdom comes through the death and burial
[00:15:29] and resurrection you see that his kingdom comes to the gospel we build the kingdom of the lord jesus christ not by conquering nations and declaring them christian we we build the gospel the lord or the kingdom of the lord jesus christ by going into all the world and preaching the
[00:15:47] gospel to every creature now i don't think there's anything wrong with nations or kingdoms being christian okay in fact it would be great if we would return to our roots as the united states of America and have a Christian worldview set up within the government system like we had at the
[00:16:04] very inception of who we are. Having said that, I can't force anybody into the kingdom of God.
[00:16:12] That the kingdom of God comes through the foolishness of preaching. That the kingdom of God is built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. So this kingdom here can't be forced by political or material means, that it comes about through the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel
[00:16:33] of our Lord Jesus Christ. So an application that I thought was very relevant and interesting was that this, we can't force Jesus to do what we want him to do. We can't force Jesus to do
[00:16:51] what we want him to do. They were trying to force him at this point in time to become king.
[00:16:58] And Jesus says, this is not the way.
[00:17:02] This is not the will of my father.
[00:17:05] And we know earlier in John's gospel, he said, I only do the will of my father.
[00:17:13] What I see my father doing, I do.
[00:17:15] And what he says, I say.
[00:17:17] And what his will is for my life, that's my will.
[00:17:21] And that's what he did.
[00:17:22] So you can't force him into a situation to be someone he is not, okay?
[00:17:28] he only does the will of the father his timing is perfect does this mean he's not going to be king oh it certainly means he's going to be king just not the way that he mentioned or the way that they
[00:17:39] were trying to make him at this point in time you see that jesus's kingdom is coming and it has come and it is in the process of being continuing to come because we are building it based upon the
[00:17:51] gospel as we continue to go forth but you can't force him into this role his timing is perfect that should ring in our ears our own thoughts toward seeking the lord for his will and seeking
[00:18:08] an answer or seeking for god to move now we had two wonderful well we had multiple wonderful sermons at the Ligonier Conference. It was absolutely amazing, and I am so thankful that we got to go. Two of them, one of them though, was Robert Godfrey. If you go back and watch any of
[00:18:29] the sermons from the conference, I'd recommend two especially. One from Sinclair Ferguson on suffering, which I'll also touch on during this sermon, but also there's a second one by Robert Godfrey on prayer. Just amazing. Just amazing. Prayer is the means by which God has given to us
[00:18:51] to direct us in the way that he accomplishes his purpose. Prayer, though, does not change the mind of God. God's will is perfect. God is sovereign. We can't fit God into what we want for ourselves. We can't make him fit into whatever mold we have decided for ourselves. This is who
[00:19:15] God is. This is how we should act. This is who he should be. We can't force him any more than these people here couldn't force Jesus to be the king, you see. We can't change the mind of God, but we
[00:19:32] can reach out to him in supplication. We'll get to that in a moment here, okay? So we can't force his kingdom, we build it, we pray for it, we preach the gospel in that way, but we can't force the
[00:19:45] kingdom of God. And lastly, we can't expect or we cannot tell the Lord Jesus Christ our plans and expect him to conform to us. You see, that is not the way God works. That is not the way Jesus
[00:20:04] work. Jesus is a wonderful, benevolent, and loving Lord, but he is absolutely the Lord.
[00:20:15] Lord means sovereign, master, ruler, boss. You don't get to tell your boss what to do.
[00:20:26] You don't get to force your boss into a certain situation. You listen, you obey, you follow. Now, our Jesus is very comforting and glorious and gracious to us, of course. But this is an understanding. He is God. We are not. And we cannot force him to do the things that we want him to do.
[00:20:49] Number two, from this same verse, I want to bring out an application to take time to pray.
[00:20:56] Take time to pray. It says Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Now, why did he withdraw again the mountain by himself. Well, Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 and 23 gives us a little more insight as we harmonize these gospels together. And it says that Matthew 14, 22, and 23,
[00:21:18] Jesus went, he dismisses the crowd, and he goes up to the mountain to pray. So the reason why he's withdrawing himself is because he's going up to the mountain to pray. I was thinking about this a
[00:21:31] little bit. Imagine what feeding 5,000 people, 5,000 households was like. I mean, just think about it from an actual practical perspective. You're around people all day long. You're ministering to people all day long. That feeding 5,000 households probably wasn't like a 15-minute
[00:21:59] affair, right? We're probably talking about hours. And this is after he's been already preaching and teaching for hours because that's why they're there in the first place, right? They're up there on the mountain. They're all hungry because they've been there all day because Jesus has
[00:22:15] been preaching and teaching. So what does he need? This is strange to think about that Jesus needs anything. But in his incarnation, the Lord Jesus Christ became hungry. He became tired. He became thirsty, all of these things. So what did he need? He needed time to retreat and spend time with his
[00:22:35] heavenly father. He just had a monumental day, a very busy day, a very peopled out day. And so what does he want to go do now? I need to go be with my father. I need to go be my father. Jesus desired
[00:22:53] to commune with the father through prayer. And so as Jesus saw it as essential to him and his ministry and a need of his to commune with our heavenly father, so also we should remind
[00:23:09] ourselves of our desperate need to commune with our heavenly father in prayer. A reminder of the fact that Jesus is better than every single one of us in here. Every single one of us. Because he
[00:23:24] sinless God and human, you know, flesh, right? So how much more if Jesus needed time with his heavenly father, how much more do you and I need to be spending time in prayer with our heavenly
[00:23:41] father? Prayer, though it does not change the mind of God, it does change things. Why? Because even know God has decreed from all eternity, all that should come to pass. He works out those details
[00:23:56] in our lives through the ordinary means of grace through prayer. That just the same way as God has got you. I love this illustration that Robert Godfrey shared. It was so good. God has control
[00:24:13] of our lives, right? And he sustains our life. So that means we don't have to eat anymore, right?
[00:24:18] Of course we need to eat. That's the idea, is that the means by which he sustains our life is the food that we eat and what we drink. In the same way, the way that God works out his
[00:24:32] decreed will, his plans, his promises, his decrees, all of these things, the way that he works out those things is through the ordinary means of grace of prayer, right? He works it out through prayer. So what is prayer? I thought of a few points here. Prayer is beseeching the Lord for
[00:24:52] his promises. Robert Godfrey drew this out too, so good, that every single time we're commanded to pray, it's always following a promise that's been made, right? That this idea of like when we pray things like, Lord, your kingdom come. Are we praying for his kingdom to come? Yes. Has his
[00:25:09] kingdom come? Yes. Is it going to come? Yes. It's a promise. It's a promise, right? That when we pray, God, may your name be hallowed. Is God's name going to be hallowed? Yes, it is. All will
[00:25:26] glorify the Lord. Even on that last day, all will glorify the Lord. His name will be hallowed. Yet we still pray for it, you see. We spend time in prayer, but we pray according to the promises
[00:25:38] of God. Number two, prayer is the means by which God works in our lives, in the lives of believers and in the world, as we talked about. It's the means, just like the foolishness of preaching
[00:25:50] is the means by which God draws people to himself and brings the transformation of the soul from death to life. That's the foolishness of preaching God's word. So we continue to preach God's word and we share the gospel, God uses the prayers of his people to work out things in the lives of
[00:26:11] believers and in the world. Number three, prayer is necessary for our spiritual formation. What do I mean by that? You just can't grow in Christ. You can't mature in Christ unless you're spending time with him in prayer. I'm not saying you won't. I'm saying you can't. It's a necessity.
[00:26:35] We must be prayerful people if we can expect to grow up in the Lord at all. That that's who he's called us to be. He's called us to commune with him. But number four, prayer deepens our relationship
[00:26:53] with the father isn't that so wonderful that literally the being who causes all things to be the one who spoke in all of the universe came into existence he desires for us to commune there is no higher privilege that can be afforded to us than that that we would have relationship
[00:27:24] with God Almighty. And he has given that to us. So take the time to do so. Jesus did because he recognized how desperately he wanted to be in relationship with the Father. And then lastly,
[00:27:40] number five, just quite simply, prayer works. It works. It works. Makes me wonder if Jesus was praying about what's about to happen. Makes me wonder. I mean, he obviously knew what was about to happen next, but Jesus communed. And remember how I was preaching, you probably don't
[00:28:03] remember this, a long time ago, preaching through the gospel of Luke. It was, some of you weren't even here yet whenever I was preaching through the gospel of Luke. It talks about how Judas denies christ obviously he betrays him right peter denies christ but jesus says to peter
[00:28:25] the devil has sought to sift you like wheat but i have prayed for you why did judas remain or fall and peter remain through the prayer of christ because prayer works okay it's a reminder of
[00:28:42] the fact that we pray not because we're speaking to the open air and just be like oh i don't know know if this is doing any good or not. It is. It is. Take time to be holy. Spend time in prayer.
[00:28:58] All right, let's move on. So into the crux of the matter here, verse 16. We're going to see that Jesus is going to send his disciples into an intentionally difficult situation to display his glory and power, okay? So Jesus is going to send his disciples
[00:29:18] into an intentionally difficult situation to display his power and glory.
[00:29:24] Verse 16 says this, when evening came, so Jesus has been in prayer, right?
[00:29:28] And so evening is now here, and he sent his, when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea and got into the boat and started across the sea to Capernaum.
[00:29:43] And it says now, and it was dark, and now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them, okay?
[00:29:48] So in Matthew 14, 22, it says that Jesus is the one who sent them in the boat.
[00:29:53] He made them go.
[00:29:55] So another harmony of the Gospels, we see that it's not that they merely made up their own mind and said, hey, we're going to go down and get in this boat and go across the sea.
[00:30:06] Jesus intentionally did this.
[00:30:08] He sent them down.
[00:30:09] He sent them out.
[00:30:11] And so this is a reminder of the fact that we talked about at the beginning of the sermon, that the will of God is not necessarily safe.
[00:30:17] this is exactly what jesus had planned for them this is exactly what he wanted them to do and he was putting them into a particularly difficult and what would appear to be a dangerous situation but that's from the disciple side from jesus's side what do we know he was in control of
[00:30:36] all of this he was in control of all of this right he sent them down and did it and purposely I like how it talks about and it was now dark and Jesus had not yet come to them
[00:30:49] ever been in a dark time of your life where it seems like Christ is far away just that just really hit me where being in that dark night of the soul being in times of real spiritual dryness
[00:31:09] in your life seems like I'm so far away from God it seems like he's so far away from me and I just I just think it's I don't think it's I'm putting too much into this words
[00:31:19] how there's a darkness that seems especially dark without christ right i think of the psalms how many times did did we see david crying out you know things like as the deer pants for the water
[00:31:34] so my soul thirsts after god the living god when will god come why am i so cast down on my soul why am i so disquieted within me hope in god it says in psalm 42 and 43 that my tears
[00:31:54] have been my food day and night i want us to all for lack of better way of saying this is going to sound maybe irreverent i don't mean it to sound this way but to give ourselves a little
[00:32:09] bit of a break from time to time that one of the things that was shared often at the ligonier conference was was to think about the psalms and the various emotions that the psalms connote
[00:32:21] how you see exuberant highs of praise and worship and glory and then you get to something like i think it's psalm 88 psalm 88 is like the most depressing psalm it doesn't even end with a
[00:32:34] happy resolution at the end david's still like where are you god what a wonderful place to go when we're broken and hurting.
[00:32:46] What a wonderful thing to remind ourselves of the fact that great men of God in times past have been broken and hurting also.
[00:32:54] That there have been times when it's been, it's felt especially dark and it seems like, where are you, Lord?
[00:33:01] Where are you, God?
[00:33:04] And I just think it's not nothing that it says it was dark and Jesus had not yet come to them.
[00:33:14] However, we need to know that even when it seems like the Lord is far away. His spirit is always with us. And though Jesus may have been physically distant from them at this point in time, they're still in the middle of the sovereign hand of God
[00:33:31] upholding them in the midst of this whole situation. It's a reminder to us that when we find ourselves, even when we're desperate, even when we're broken, even when we're crying out to God with raw emotional whatever that we know that we're still held in the hands of our sovereign
[00:33:51] Lord and God who continues to uphold us even when we don't feel like it even when he feels like he's not even there he is and he continues to uphold us because he said to us I will never leave you
[00:34:06] are forsaken verse 18 the sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing this strong wind is also something that was hurled by the way confession time and just so you know a little bit
[00:34:21] of the insanity of my mind right anybody else think to themselves gilligan's island here the weather started getting rough the tiny ship was tossed anyway all right so the sea became rough because of the strong wind was blowing this reminds me of the time whenever it says that the
[00:34:40] the jonah took the ship and he went away from from joppa over to tarshish and it and it says that the lord hurled a wind on the sea because he was getting a hold of his of his prophet who was
[00:34:56] running away and i think about this this is all under the providential hand of god god sent the storm. He allowed the storm. And so it just has this feeling of providence here. It says in verse
[00:35:11] 19, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat. They were frightened. I love that. They were frightened. It is not an unusual thing for
[00:35:29] people to be afraid. It's not an unusual thing for fear to grip us, especially in the midst of the fact that when we are trusting in God and his sovereignty, we recognize his sovereignty.
[00:35:42] We trust in God, but we don't know what he's going to do because he's God and we're not.
[00:35:48] And there are times that we're afraid. And I think the problem is not necessarily the fear, but the problem is not turning to the sovereign one who holds us in the midst of our fears.
[00:36:03] Psalm 56, verse 3. Here's a few verses that are just so good. Psalm 56, 3. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. Psalm 34, 4. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from
[00:36:19] all of my fears. Isaiah 41, 10. This one has gotten me through so much. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold
[00:36:39] you with my righteous right hand. What a great scripture. 2 Timothy 1, 7. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. If you find yourself in the midst
[00:36:56] the fear as the disciples did um then turn to the one who's sovereign over all the things turn to the one who who has control over the things that you're fearful of and run to the lord in the midst
[00:37:10] of that because what we're going to see here is that one of jesus's top two sayings top five sayings that we're going to see arrives in verse 20, knowing that the disciples are fearful.
[00:37:26] But he said to them, it is I do not. Approximately 70 times in the scriptures, the Bible says, don't be afraid. Every time an angel shows up to somebody in the Old Testament, the angel of the
[00:37:45] Lord shows up or something else, what's the first thing that they say? Don't be afraid. Whenever Gabriel shows up to both Elizabeth and Mary to announce the birth of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus himself, what does he say? Don't be afraid. Whenever Jesus shows up here in the midst
[00:38:03] of the storm, the waves, the terror, the darkness, and here he comes walking on the water displaying his power, his glory, and his dominion over creation, what's the first thing he says to them?
[00:38:16] don't be afraid there's a recognition there there's a recognition of the fact that we are going to be afraid but there's also the answer to being afraid which is to turn to him in the
[00:38:31] midst of the fear and fall upon his everlasting arms you know what jesus actually says here he doesn't say it is i says do not fear i am that's what the greek literally says do not fear
[00:38:48] i am he's reminding of them of who he is the sovereign one who causes all who upholds the universe by the word of his power i am is in the midst of you and when i am is in the midst of you
[00:39:10] you do not need be you're not fear i am so i like how it kind of assumes that we will be afraid but also tells us that the Lord is the one who comes to calm. Lastly, what's the obvious answer
[00:39:32] to all of this? Receive Jesus. So when they were, they were glad then to take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. I don't know if that's a second
[00:39:43] miracle. There's a lot of debate about this, right? So the first miracle obviously is Jesus showing his power and dominion over creation by walking on the water. So some people say immediately they were back to land means that they immediately went back. Or it could mean that as soon as Jesus
[00:40:00] got in the boat, whoop, they're there. I don't know. I don't know. All I do know is the word immediately is rarely used by the Apostle John. It's used all the time in Mark. So it seems to be
[00:40:10] an emphasis of the fact that they're all of a sudden, they're there. Which makes me think that there's a second sort of thing, that there's an immediate safety that comes upon them. And what's the picture, that the one who rescues them from their fears is able to bring them to safety
[00:40:25] at the very instant of their rescue, you see? That our Lord Jesus Christ, and this is a temporal thing, right? This is one of those things where this is a temporal illustration of a greater
[00:40:39] thing that he does. That we have pictures of God saving his people in all of these various temporal ways, but what do they all do? They all point to the finality of his full, complete salvation that
[00:40:55] he gives us. That as the Lord Jesus Christ rescued them in this small way here, he rescues us ultimately from the things that cause us the fear and the things from which we need to be rescued
[00:41:08] as well. And so we see Jesus immediately rescuing his people. And then I thought about this.
[00:41:15] either way, whether it was a second miracle or not, or whether they rowed to the shore, I said, either way, when Jesus is in the boat with you, you aren't worried about the waves anymore.
[00:41:28] I thought that was kind of a cool thought. That when Jesus is in the boat with you, you're not worried about the waves anymore. That the fear is gone because the one who holds it all
[00:41:37] in his hands is right there. The Lord Jesus Christ saves us even more than just from the temporal things in which we find ourselves in peril of though that's not nothing for those of us who
[00:41:53] have been through some stuff who recognize there have been times in my life where i've been afraid where i've reached out to christ where i have been given more than i can handle that being in the
[00:42:04] very will center of god was not necessarily the safest place to be but it was the best place for me to be that all of this points to the fact that we are ultimately in need of eternal salvation
[00:42:16] right that the lord jesus christ is the one who saves us to the uttermost from all of our sins and he's the one that will ultimately rescue us from all all things there was another message
[00:42:29] that was preached over the time of the ligonier conference by hb charles and he talked about how all things work together for good for those who love god and who are called according to his
[00:42:40] purposes. Not everything is good to me, he used to say, but everything is good for me in the sense that God is eventually working it to his purpose and plan. So we can trust him in the midst of all
[00:42:55] of that because he is doing this according to his sovereign hand and his gracious love and compassion toward his people, raising us up to be conformed more to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:43:09] So these things are for our good and for our ultimate salvation.
[00:43:14] God will remove all the fears in the end.
[00:43:17] He will wipe away all the tears in the end.
[00:43:20] That God will give us what he has promised to give us according to his plan.
[00:43:25] So place your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in him for all things.
[00:43:31] Let us pray.
[00:43:34] Our heavenly father, thank you for this passage of scripture that reminds us of your sovereign hand in all things, even the things that are the trials, the difficulties, the fearful things in which we might experience in this life,
[00:43:48] because we know that you are the sovereign one and you hold us in the palm of your hand and you do not let us go.
[00:43:56] I pray, Heavenly Father, for the one in here does not know the assurance of that, the one who does not trust in Christ yet, Lord, I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would draw them to yourself,
[00:44:12] that you would cause them to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be saved, to be forgiven, and reconciled with you, Lord.
[00:44:20] We thank you that you are the God who preserves your people, and that, Lord, you will not let any of us go, even in the times of trial and difficulty and fear.
[00:44:32] Help us to understand that.
[00:44:35] Now I pray, Heavenly Father, would you please grant us a wonderful time of fellowship with you, Lord Jesus Christ, as we come to your table.
[00:44:45] We know that we're dining with the King today.
[00:44:47] We thank you, Lord, that by your Spirit you're here with us.
[00:44:51] Pray that you would bless this time in Jesus' name.