STEP OUT OF THE BOAT – PART TWO

STEP OUT OF THE BOAT – PART TWO

Friends, we are back to finish what we started last time, Step Out of the Boat – from Matthew 14.

Matthew 14:25-33

25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”

28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

PRAYER:

Thank You, Father, for another opportunity you’ve given us to come to You and to reason with You in Your Word. Thank You for my friends who are reading now. May You touch them today; bless them – meet them at their various points of need, in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

Last time, we said the content of this passage was the feeding of the multitude: five thousand men, not counting women and children. And at the end of that Jesus had to compel His disciples to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee while He dismissed the crowd. And after He dismissed them He went up a mountain to pray. And He was there while His disciples were on the Sea of Galilee going to the other side. But they could not get there easily because the weather condition has changed, and rowing was very hard. They struggled very hard.

And we saw, last time, the compassion of Jesus. Jesus had compassion on them because He saw that they were in trouble. And He went to them.

We tried to analyze the sentence in verse 25; and we saw that the main clause or the independent clause of that verse or that statement in verse 25 is ‘Jesus went to them’, and ‘how He went to them’ and ‘when’. Those are subordinate clauses. And we said the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

And the main thing is that Jesus will come to you if you look up to Him in your times of trouble.

 

We want to see the contrast between Peter and the other disciples; and then we would conclude with the conflict of faith that Peter experienced.

First, as we examine the difference between Peter and the rest of the disciples, in the sense that Peter was the one out of the 12 who asked the Lord to command him to step up out of the boat and the Lord Jesus did.

First, what does this boat represent for us? The boat could stand for our comfort zone, our safety net. It was a boat that kept Noah and his family safe from the flood. It was a baby boat that kept Moses safe until Pharaoh’s daughter found him. The boat could be the familiar environment we would not want to move away from.

Not many people would want to step out of their boat especially when the surrounding environment is hostile and the action unheard of. In fact, Peter’s surrounding environment posed a threat to his safety while he was inside the boat let alone when he would step out of it on the water as though it were a solid surface. But this is the contrast between him and the rest of the disciples, for he stepped out of the boat in spite of the apparent impossibility of that proposition. You must dare to be different, friend, if you want a result different from what everybody else is getting.

When people his age: eighty – has long retired and were sitting by the fireplace, Caleb said to Joshua, in Joshua 14:12:

12 Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.”

He dared to do the impossible. He dared to be different from everybody else.

Stepping out of the boat could mean: trying something unusual or going into a new venture or business, taking a calculated risk that may expose you to potential failure or worse still physical harm. Under such conditions conventional wisdom would dictate that you stay put in the boat. But Peter defies conventional wisdom. He was different. Why?

Peter stepped out of the boat for two very important reasons:

The first reason was the command that Jesus gave – the command that Jesus gave him.

And the other reason was the assurance of the presence of Jesus – the assurance of the presence of Jesus.

It is like a little boy who suddenly would not go out to play anymore, day after day. And that was because of a neighborhood bully. But can you imagine the difference the presence of his father makes? The boy, as soon as he saw his father going out followed because he knew that in the presence of his father the bully would be no threat to him.

And what was the command that Jesus gave? One word! Verse 28: “Come!” No more. There is power in His Word. But why, when and how did Jesus register His presence there at that critical moment? By walking on water.

So we have seen the contrast between Peter and the rest of the disciples. Peter walked on water. He did the same thing that Jesus did. That which was impossible with man is possible with God; and that which is impossible with man is possible with the one who believes.

The conflict of faith Peter had.

In verses 28-30, we read:

28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

As long as Peter looked away from the threatening boisterous wind and fixed his gaze on Jesus Peter was doing that which only Jesus could do. He was doing what everybody thought was impossible. The moment he took his eyes off of Jesus and concentrated on the threatening winds he became afraid and began to sink.

Hasn’t God said, friend, in Hebrews 12:2: 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith…Fixing your gaze on Jesus. In fact in the original, the statement is, looking away unto Jesus.

You cannot count on the Lord’s help if you concentrate on that which is threatening you. But if you fix your eyes on Jesus, if you fix your attention on Jesus you will be able to overcome.

But what does it mean to fix our eyes on Jesus? It means to live our lives dependently upon Him; when you bring the most serious problem and the least of all your problems to the Lord; when you live in the consciousness of His presence every moment you are awake; when you are in conversation with heaven constantly – you are fixing your eyes on Jesus. And circumstances that will throw others cannot throw you.

I must give Peter the credit, though, that he had the presence of mind to cry to Jesus when he was beginning to sink. Lord, save me. A three-word prayer of desperation saved Peter from drowning. Three words: Lord, save me. A powerful prayer is not determined necessarily by its length, by its fluency of speech or its loudness. That’s what some people call powerful prayer. We scream at the top of our voices; and we make it long; and at the end we are sweating, and we say, “Hah! What a powerful prayer!”

Peter’s prayer was so powerful. It saved him – and only three words: Lord, save me.

A powerful prayer is determined by what the praying man or woman sees in God, whether he sees His faithfulness, whether he sees the power in His Word, whether he sees the mercy of God, whether he sees the grace of God.

And then, powerful prayer is determined by what it accomplishes.

Let us never forget that fixing our gaze on Jesus is nothing more than living dependently upon Him, I say it again. This is what will determine whether we will have the courage to step out of our boats – the boats of our lives. This is what will give us the assurance that He will help us through the impossible situations or circumstances of life.

Let us step out of our boats – as we fix our gaze on Jesus.

Let us pray.

PRAYER:

Father, we thank You again; we thank You for Your precious Word. Thank You also for my friends who from the encouragement from Your Word are going to step out of those boat of convenience to try the impossible that would become possible because they are fixing their eye on You, Lord Jesus Christ. Grant this O God, we pray, in Jesus Name. Amen!

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