In the sermon 'Do not be Afraid,' Scott Brown explores the passage from John 6:15-21, where Jesus walks on water amidst a storm and reassures His disciples. The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding Jesus' miracles as demonstrations of His divine nature and authority. Brown highlights that Jesus purposefully arranges hardships, like the storm, to reveal His power and to strengthen the faith of His followers. The sermon underscores Jesus' identity as 'I AM,' linking Him to God and illustrating His eternal presence and sovereignty over creation. Through these events, the sermon calls for true discipleship, urging believers to trust in Jesus beyond the superficial desires for miracles and provision. Brown also draws parallels between the disciples' experiences and the trials believers face today, encouraging trust in Jesus' intercession and presence during life's storms.

Good morning. John 6, 15-21. Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he departed again to the mountain by himself alone. Now, when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.

Then the sea arose, because the great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat, and they were afraid. But he said to them, it is I. Do not be afraid. Then they willingly received him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

Pray with me please. Father we do thank you for this scripture that teaches us no matter where we are in our life, Lord you come to us Lord in our times of trouble and stress. Lord, all too many times we do look at those things and focus on them. Lord, this morning I pray that you would help us to focus on you, and Lord, that we would not be afraid, Lord, that we would trust in you. And Lord, as Brother Mike just mentioned, help us not to be too familiar with this text, but Lord, open our heart as to see the hidden truths and be with us, God, as he brings the message.

I pray that you would fill him with your thoughts and your words and that you just help us engage you in worship, and Jesus name we pray, Amen. This is one of the most familiar stories in all of scripture. Everybody's heard about it if they were ever in Sunday school, but it wasn't, and it's easy to take a story like this lightly and not think of it the way that John the apostle was thinking about it. John was an eyewitness of this situation. He saw Jesus Christ walk on the water.

He saw the storm die down. And he was in the boat when it was transported immediately to the shore. John was an eyewitness. John doesn't feel like this writing it the way that we might have thought of it when we just heard of it. John is writing when he's around 80 years old, most likely.

He's the last gospel writer to write. He probably witnessed this in his late teens or his early 20s. Some of you who are in your late teens and early 20s, imagine what it would be like to be 80 years old and writing and looking back on this moment. He's writing with such passion and recall of the situation. Who could forget such a thing like that?

We forget so many things in life. You cannot forget a situation like this. And so when John writes, he's writing with a sense of urgency and passion. He's writing for a purpose that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's writing so that you might know him.

And so it's easy for us to casually read a story like this, even like me, over and over again this week, I read this passage of scripture. But to grasp it the way that John grasped it, I hope we can somehow do that today. The main point of this section in John 6 is that John is declaring that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he's doing it through these events, which occurred when Jesus Christ literally sent his disciples into a storm. And then he walked on water to be with them and he calmed the storm and he transported their boat to safety.

And the result is that those who were in the boat believed. Now, the multitudes didn't see this. Only 12 men saw this. Jesus did this sort of in the quietness of the apostolic band. And if we mix the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Mark's testimony of this situation, we learn that Jesus says three things to them, and I pray that you can hear him say them to you today.

Be of good cheer. I am with you. Do not be afraid." And John doesn't include nearly as much detailed information compared to the other gospel writers. But we know in Matthew chapter 14, the disciples were in the boat worshipping Jesus Christ. In verse 33 of Matthew 14, they say, truly you are the Son of God.

So they believed. The multitude did not believe. He just had fed thousands of them by creating bread out of nothing. Maybe 10 or 15 or maybe 25, 000 people were fed. It was an astonishing moment.

But they didn't believe. They just wanted bread. They just wanted a king that would give them food to eat and healing, which is pretty much what people want from their government anyway. And in John chapter 8 verse 24, we realize how critical this is, how serious it is, that you would observe the name of Jesus Christ in operation and either believe or not believe. Everything hinges upon it.

And so in John 8.24 Jesus says, If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." And so when John is writing this, he's writing with more drama and passion than you and I could ever feel, except that if the Holy Spirit moves your heart to believe him, you would feel it and you would believe. You know, it took this dramatic miracle for the disciples to believe. And that miracle is placed before us so that we would believe as well. All these things were written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that in believing you might have life in his name. That's why we're reading this, that we would believe in in Jesus Christ the Son of God.

And the Lord Jesus is so kind, he performs dramatic miracles to say the same thing that he is God. Now this is the fifth miracle that's recorded in the Gospel of John. We've said this many times before, if you read Matthew and Mark and Luke, there are lots of miracles that are recorded, only nine in John. The first miracle in John is the miracle of the turning of the water into wine at a wedding. And the second is the nobleman's son was healed from afar.

And the third was the man at the pool of Bethesda who was lame. And the fourth was the feeding of the 5, 000. And now we come to the fifth where he walks on water and he calms the storm. I'm tempted to say it's the fifth miracle so called because here in this narrative there are actually four miracles that take place. First of all, Jesus walks on water.

Second, Peter walks on water. Thirdly, Jesus calms the storm. And fourth, the boat is transported. Now, maybe that makes nine miracles plus three more, but this is called a miracle, and we'll call it that. But again, when we read this story, we have to see it in its context.

It's very important that you understand the flow of thought that an author is trying to communicate. It's not enough to take a short section of Scripture and draw the conclusions you want from it, because these things exist in a context. And so the theme of all of chapter 6, which is one unit of Scripture, it occurs after the words after these things in verse 1 and chapter 6, which is the way that the previous chapter begins and it also is the way that chapter 7 begins, after these things. This is a unit of thought. John is taking these events together and He's collecting them, he's itemizing them in order to declare the glory of Jesus Christ to us.

And the theme of John chapter 6, I want to argue, is what does it look like to be a true or a false disciple? So this scene here is embedded in this context. There are many who profess to be disciples. Jesus said, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, Have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name?" And he'll say, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

So there are many who will attach themselves to Christianity. Thousands were doing that here. And by the way, the word disciple is used for both actual believers, worshipers of Jesus, and also people who just wanted to be around the community. That same word is used for them. And so it's foolish to assume that everyone who names the name of Jesus Christ is actually a true disciple and worshiper and follower of Jesus Christ.

Now again I also want us to draw back a little further and see a little bit wider of this context. When you read chapter 6 you'll see it has a very clear geographic and time frame flow to it. And when you read the Bible, you should think about that. Where are we? You know, where have we been?

Or where have the disciples been? Or where has Isaiah been? And where is he going? You know, there's a geographical contour of this narrative here, as it is in many narratives. And there are also events that form the contours of the passage.

Now, the contour of this passage has begun at the beheading of John the Baptist. And John was beheaded, and the disciples came and they took away the corpse, his headless corpse, and they took it to a tomb. And then in Mark chapter six, verse 31, Jesus Christ says to his disciples, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile, for there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat, so they departed to a deserted place in a boat by themselves." So Jesus took the apostles to this deserted place, and then thousands found them. And it was in that context that Jesus Christ fed the 5, 000. So they had departed and Jesus wanted to be alone with his disciples most likely to pray.

And the humanity was following Jesus. He feeds them, and then in verse 15, we see the crowd's response. And that really begins the first part of this four-part outline that you have in front of you. And the first part of the outline is that the crowd wants a miracle working king and Jesus departs to a mountain again. So that's verse 15.

And then in verses 16 and 17, Jesus arranges for this hardship to be experienced by his disciples on this raging sea. And then thirdly, the disciples are struck with fear in verses 18 and 19. And then in the last verses, 20 and 21, Jesus got into their boat and he comforted them dramatically. And so in this first division of the story, as I'd like to just work our way through it, is again another disclosure of both the Deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ. And the crowd wants a miracle working King that will feed them and heal them.

And so we read in verse 15 that when they perceived that they were about to come and take him by force by king, to make him king, he departed again to the mountain by himself alone. So now Jesus draws back alone again for the second time. And why did Jesus need to go up to the mountain and be alone? We're not really told, but This happens in the life of Jesus many times, where he departs often to a mountain or some deserted place, and he does it to pray. He does it to be in the presence of his Father, because he loved to be in the presence of his father.

He loved to be in the secret place. Now he had his disciples with him. But, you know, the Bible presents Jesus as a person who sat at the feet of his father morning by morning to hear a word from his Father, to hear a word in season to comfort those who are suffering. The Lord Jesus was feeding upon his fellowship and relationship with his Father. Quite likely the Lord Jesus Christ was singing the Psalms, but he was fellowshipping with his father at this time.

And you know this is one of the most precious things that a Christian can experience, is to be alone and even to recite the Psalms to your father. Have you ever done that? In the night watches, You wake up and you're the only one awake in the house, and you begin to speak to your Father. Like in Psalm 34, I sought the Lord and he heard me, and he delivered me from all my fears to look to Him in the night watches. I think this is what Jesus Christ was doing.

He was satisfying Himself by the presence of His Father. I recall some late night this week where I woke up and all I could think about was Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid? And you know, I was thinking a lot about fear because of this passage. This passage is speaking of fear. In fact, the title of the sermon is Do Not Fear. Why did I title the sermon that way?

Because that's exactly what Jesus says to his disciples in this text. I'm just really, I didn't invent this title, I just extracted it from the text that's here. But there's nothing more precious than to have the Word of God hidden in your heart for that moment when you don't know what else to say, but you know you want to be in the presence of your Father in heaven. And so that's what I believe Jesus is doing here and he did this regularly. He'd often, as Luke 516 records, he by himself would often slip away to the wilderness to pray.

So he went up to a mountain to pray, but he sent his disciples away on a journey. His disciples are on their journey across the lake and they're rowing and he is praying. By the way, that's a picture of the Church of Jesus Christ. There are several commentators who said the disciples in the boat are a picture of the Church. And I think that's right.

They are striving and he is praying. They're rowing and He is interceding. This is the reality that we must grasp as the Church of Jesus Christ. While you're rowing, even while you're fearing, while you don't know how this is going to turn out, There is someone interceding. There is someone on the mountain and he's praying.

This is a picture of Jesus Christ in heaven for his church. He is constantly interceding for his children. And they're laboring and he is mindful of them. He has not forgotten them. He's a faithful high priest who makes intercession.

He's making intercession for his church now. He's praying for us now in this service. We learned the other day that in the book of Hebrews there's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ among his church and he's singing with his church and he says, Here am I, here am I in the midst of those you gave me. And he's singing in the midst of his church. He's singing with his church, he's praying for his church.

This is a picture of the Church of Jesus Christ. Now we know that he will, this is a foreshadowing of what he will do for all eternity as he is resurrected and he is seated at his father's right hand and he's interceding constantly for his church on earth. And there's no place that the Church of Jesus Christ can be or go where the eyes of Jesus are not on them. You know what's that beautiful song? His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.

So he's he is on the mountain and he's praying And then the second thing that we notice here is in verses 16 and 17, and that is Jesus arranges a hardship for his disciples to demonstrate his glory. I've worded this very carefully, Jesus arranges a hardship. Yes, he does arrange hardships. And so verse 16 says, Now when evening had come, his disciples went down to the sea. John just says His disciples went down to the sea, and then they got into a boat.

Now, the other gospel writers give us more information. We'll get to that in just a minute. So he sends these six experienced fishermen into the Sea of Galilee. Well, there were at least six experienced fishermen in this boat. And he sends them onto the Sea of Galilee, which is eight miles wide.

It's 13 miles long. And it's a couple of hundred feet below sea level. You have Mount Hermon 9, 200 feet above, you have the Golan Heights about 2, 500 feet above, and So you have this cool air and it sweeps down below sea level and crashes against the warm rising air and causes dramatic threatening storms. And the legends of the storms are remarkable And we have an example of one of these storms where you have a small boat in rough seas in rapidly changing circumstances. And this is a very dangerous body of water.

And Guess what? This dangerous body of water has been turned into a discipleship tool. God sends His children into a world that's dangerous, And every moment of danger in that world is a discipleship tool of Jesus Christ. And the winds change and they blow. Sometimes you have calm seas.

Sometimes you have beautiful mornings like this morning. What a morning, huh? Wouldn't you just like that? Replicate this morning, you know, for the rest of the week, the rest of the year maybe. You know, by the way, just for your information, this morning is what it's like in California every day, okay?

So, but it's not always that way, is it? Sometimes the winds are raging and you have to batten down the hatches and you have to go inside, you know. But notice how they got into the boat in the first place. John, John just says that his disciples went down into the sea and got into the boat. But in Matthew chapter 14, 22, we learn that Jesus made his disciples get in the boat.

And the language that Matthew uses is that he compelled them. He constrained them. He forced them. And he says in Matthew, immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side. Now Jesus is urgently compelling them to get in the boat and they don't even know why.

He just tells them to go on you know to this other location and this is often the case. God has us doing things that we don't know of the outcome or the experience that is ahead of us. He has all authority and he's the one who deploys us. The Lord is working his plan to glorify himself so that all might believe, so that we might be even sitting here today and realize, he did walk on water, he did calm the sea. No one else ever did anything like that.

And little did these disciples know that they were being led into a situation where they were going to end up straining at the oars for the next nine hours and then be terrified by what they thought was a ghost. The other gospel, one of the other gospel writers tells us that, that They thought that he was a ghost walking on the water. So Jesus sent them into their trouble. Our troubles are always appointments made by God. Our troubles are always opportunities for God to prove himself to be true and faithful and a wonderful Savior and he sends troubles so that we would look to him and worship him And so what we find here is that Jesus is arranging a situation that the disciples are totally unable to fix themselves.

And he's already done this before. He turns water into wine in an impossible situation at a wedding. He heals, he creates food for thousands of people. The disciples were completely unable to meet the need. And the Lord Jesus arranges situations where we are inadequate to fix them on our own.

He must be the one to solve the problem. We cannot solve it on our own. The disciples could not solve this problem. They'd been rowing all night long. They could not fix the problem.

They were only probably halfway or maybe even not even a third of the way across this body of water. They couldn't get to the other side. It was impossible. And so God, I think, God is teaching them and he's teaching us that he makes arrangements for our sanctification. And he arranged by his sovereign power for wind to rise up.

And he makes these arrangements. God is conducting an orchestra of all of nature. He conducts the singing of the stars and the planets. He conducts the winds and the waves. He is the great conductor of this great orchestra called this world and he has he's orchestrating everything to bring many sons to glory when you think something is going wrong think again God is bringing you to glory and he's using this storm in your life to bring you there.

We often think, you know, if I was just a better person, bad things wouldn't happen to me. Have you ever thought that? Or maybe you were like Job's friends who said, you know, Job, if you would do good, if you would do better, this problem wouldn't be coming upon you. That's the retribution view of the sovereignty of God. That if you do wrong, you're going to have trouble.

If you do right, you won't have trouble. That's not a biblical idea, by the way, at all. That's not to take away the truth that God does judge and chastise His children. But don't automatically assume that you have, because you have a storm, is it because you made a mistake? Don't automatically assume that.

God arranges our trials as a result of his sovereign wisdom. In Job, we read that God made arrangements for the Sabeans to come and the winds to blow and for his entire family, except for his wife, to be wiped away and his body to be ravaged by disease. God arranged that Job would have three friends that would falsely accuse him of unrighteousness. God arranged for Joseph to be sold into slavery and to be falsely accused by a woman and then thrown into prison. It was God who arranged that so that he would save his people later on.

In Exodus, we learned that God arranged for a waterless wilderness for food deprivation so that God would demonstrate His glory by giving them water from the rock and manna from heaven. God arranged for an army to rise up against Judah in the days of Isaiah so that He would demonstrate His glory and He would kill a hundred and eighty thousand of them in the middle of the night, and they would be found dead outside the city for no apparent reason. God arranged that Hezekiah would be surrounded and receive threatening letters from the Rabshaka. God arranged that Israel would be hemmed in by the Red Sea in order to confront their fear and show himself as their Savior. It was God who arranged the three Hebrew children to be thrown into the furnace.

It was God who arranged for Jeremiah to be let down into a pit. And in Isaiah we learn that God arranges floods so that you don't drown and fires so that you're not burned. You'll walk through the fire and not be burned. He sends these things. God is the one who sends troubles.

God was sending his disciples into these troubles. God orchestrated every moment of their trial. God arranged for Lazarus to die so that he would be raised from the dead. God arranged for Peter to be sifted like wheat by Satan so that Peter would know that his Savior was praying for him. Jesus said you'll be sifted like wheat but I'll be on the mountain praying for you.

I'll carry you through. You'll make it. And this is why Job responded in Job 42 to his trials. He said, when he was repenting, Job repented and he said, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you." So Jesus Christ is sending his disciples into a situation where they have more than they can handle because he is the one who will handle it. And he arranged for these things for his own glory.

Now, I also want to, before we leave this section here, I want also to make it very plain that their trial was the direct result of obeying Jesus. They, He made them get into the boat. They got into the boat. And their trouble did not come upon them because they were disobedient. The problem didn't come because God was chastening them.

Rather, God was chasing them. And he wanted to show it to them, to sharpen them, to toughen them, to sweeten them. Many Christians believe that if you get out of the center of the will of God, then God is going to throw something at you. He might, but don't assume it every time, because that wasn't what was happening here. They were in the boat because they obeyed Jesus, not because they disobeyed Him.

And when he got into the boat they worshipped him. They loved him. They wanted to follow him That's why would they were in the boat in the first place You know Moses obeyed the Lord and the people rebelled against him and he wanted God to kill him. But that came as a result of his obedience. Isaiah obeyed and tradition says that he was sawn in two.

Jeremiah obeyed and he was totally disregarded. Things didn't go that well. The Lord Jesus Christ obeyed his father in everything and he was crucified. So I think Solomon corrects us in this whole matter in Ecclesiastes, for there's a time for everything under heaven, a time in this season. There's a time to be born, and there's a time to die, and there's a time for everything else in between.

But what God loads in between are many seasons, hard seasons, sweet seasons. Hard seasons, sweet seasons. But those who know the Lord Jesus Christ have learned that the hardest seasons actually are the sweetest seasons. But we must recognize that it's Jesus that sends his disciples into this trouble. And secondly, it wasn't because they were disobedient.

It was because he wanted to declare his glory. Much like that moment when people came to Jesus and said, why was that man blind? Was it his sin or his parents' sin? And Jesus says it wasn't his sin, it wasn't his parents' sin, it was just so that I would be glorified. That's the reason for your trials.

The third division here is this wind arose, and the disciples are struck with fear. And verse 18, then the sea arose and there was a great wind blowing so when they had rowed about three or four miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat. And this is a fascinating moment in the life of the disciples. Jesus is walking along toward them. And Mark says that he was walking along in such a way as if he would just pass them by.

I don't know if that strikes you as hilarious. It does me. I've always thought Jesus was smiling when he was doing that. Because he was appearing, or at least Mark, Mark is reporting that it seemed like he was just going to walk right by them. Jesus was human too, right?

So anyway, he's walking by them. He comes near the boat and they're afraid. And One of the other gospel writers reports that they thought it was a ghost. They were afraid that it was a ghost. You know, what?

How come they were afraid it was a ghost? Well, they're like any of us, you know, we're affected by rumors and traditions and things like that. John Gill says that parents during that time would threaten their children by saying, if you're not a good little boy, the ghosts of the dead from the Sea of Galilee are going to come and get you. The parents would say this. This was a common thing.

You know, the seafarers who had died in the storms of the Sea of Galilee were going to somehow come out and they're going to get you if you're a disobedient child. You better watch out children. You just never know what might happen. So, they thought, I think they were just reflecting possibly this false proposition that parents use to scare their children. I don't know if any of you parents have ever done anything like that.

If you do that, you're going to grow a third eye or something like that. But whatever it was, they thought, they did actually think that it could be a ghost. And that's why they were afraid. They were afraid of the storm and they were afraid that a ghost had come to deal with them, but it was the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the fourth watch of the night.

Interestingly enough, it was the fourth watch of the night. And interestingly enough, it was the fourth watch of the night when the Lord appeared before Israel in the Red Sea, in Exodus 14.24. Isn't that interesting? Now, if you map John chapter 6, it looks a lot like the Exodus. You have the feeding of the 5, 000 and the Passover.

You have various elements that seem to mirror. You have the Red Sea, they're saved out of the sea. Whether Jesus is replicating the Exodus, I don't know for sure. But the Exodus is the most common, most prominent historical narrative that is used in the Bible to communicate the doctrine of salvation. So it's the fourth watch of the night.

It began at 3 a.m. 3 to 6 a.m. Is the fourth watch of the night. So they've been rowing for a long time. We know it was about nightfall or possibly before, just a little bit after nightfall, when they got in the boat.

So they've been rowing for maybe nine hours. And here's a lesson from this, I think. God often waits before he rescues. Why did he wait? Why did they have to row for so long?

Why was it so hard for so many hours? Why? Because God waits often. You remember when Lazarus had died? Remember what Mary, Lazarus' sister, said to Jesus?

Why did you wait so long? Why did you delay? Because Jesus heard about the death of his friend Lazarus and then he delayed. He did something, he got distracted by something else, but it wasn't distraction at all. This is the way that God deals with us.

He brings the remedy at his own time, not our time. Because remember, we are the disciples. We're the learners. We're the ones that need sanctification. But yet Jesus is praying for his disciples.

Isaiah, I think, speaks of this. I think he prophesied this kind of situation in Isaiah 43 verses 2 and 3 where God promises this, I will be with you in the flood when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers and though the rivers I'm sorry and through the rivers they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God.

I am the Lord your God. That's a critical phrase in this passage. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. So God sends crises to us. This is a picture of your life and my life.

It's a picture of the church. The church is like that little boat, storm-tossed, vulnerable, changeable times. There are fearful moments in each one of our lives individually, and there are also fearful moments in the life of a church. Many of you have experienced this over the years in this church and in other churches that you've been in. But the church is a storm-tossed institution.

And So here is a question for you and me. It's hard for me to preach a sermon like this and think about you because I have these struggles here that I'm preaching about. How are you handling your disappointments in your hardships? Are you sinning in your suffering? Are you at a moment now where you need to repent of your unbelief and you're fretting and you're worried?

Because God, He already has a thousand times proven Himself faithful to you. And you're sinning against Him by pining away and carping against the problem that's upon you. You know, this is not a new idea for us in this church. For probably two years, we've been singing a very precious song to one another out of Isaiah 41, verse 10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee.

Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness." That song isn't saying anything different than this passage of scripture is saying. And So we've been singing this song and now we're reading a passage of scripture that's an illustration of how important it is for all of us.

But if anyone is sinning by pining away and worrying and being useless to your spouse or useless to your children or useless to your friends or useless at work or maybe even useless in this church because you're just so worried about everything. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus Christ is in the boat. So I don't know if this passage of scripture falls on today to particularly rescue one of the saints from worry. But here it is.

It's right here. Here's your opportunity. Here's my opportunity. You know, it's a bad thing when you have parents who worry all the time, because they create worrisome children. And worried children often become bitter children.

And bitter children are always ineffective children. So don't allow your fears to govern your life, because it will affect everyone around you. Then in the fourth division, the last division of this narrative, is Jesus gets into their boat and he comforts them to say the least, verse 20 and 21. But he said to them, It is I, do not be afraid. Then they willingly received him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

Now there are a number of things that I'd like for us to rest upon in these two verses. And the first is his words, Jesus' words to them. It is I. This is the most telling and the most important terminology in the Bible about the nature of God. And that terminology is used in both the Old and the New Testaments.

And it's that really, you've heard of this before, I am. The translators translate this, it is I, but it's the exact equivalent, it's the exact same phrase of ego ami, I am. And Jesus is using the same terminology that we find in Exodus chapter 3 verses 13 through 15 when God spoke to Moses through the burning bush and commanded, God was telling Moses to go to Egypt to rescue his people, and Moses says, who am I? Who am I? And Moses says to the Lord, they'll say to me, what is this name in whom you're coming?

What shall I say to them? And God says to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent you. Moreover, God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent you. Moreover, God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever and this is my memorial to all generations. So God says to Moses, say I am has sent you. And Jesus connects himself with this very phrase in John chapter 8, verse 58, when Jesus says, before Abraham was, I am. And he was using the same Greek word which is the equivalent to the Hebrew word in Exodus chapter 3 and he said I am who I am and Jesus is saying I am I am he Jesus is saying that he is God. When he says, it is I, he's using that same language.

And of course, We've already encountered the first I AM statement, I am the bread of life and there are more to come. I am the light of the world in 812. I am the door of the sheep in 107. I am the good shepherd in John 10-11. I am the resurrection and the life in John 11-25.

I am the way the truth, and the life in John 14, six. And I am the true vine in John 15, one, and five. And so Jesus is declaring that he is God. And Jesus is connecting himself to every manifestation of the character of God. And The Old Testament provides many examples and disclosures of God, and Jesus is connecting himself to all of those when he says, I am, and he's connecting himself to God Almighty.

And In Exodus chapter 15, we learn that he is a healing God. I am the Lord who heals you. In Exodus 20 verse 2, he's a freeing God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage in Exodus 22 verse 27 he's a gracious God to the poor he says I Will hear for I am gracious in Psalm 46 9 through 11 he's the God who's in control of all of history. He says, For I am God, and there is no other.

I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do my pleasure. In Isaiah 41, 10, he's the God who is present. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. In Isaiah 45, verse 5, he's exclusively God. I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no other God besides me.

In Revelation 1-8, he's the eternal God. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. In Revelation 1, 18, He's the living God. I am He who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.

And I have the keys of Hades and of death. In Revelation 22, verses 20 and 21, He's the coming king. He says, surely I am coming quickly. In Isaiah 43 verses 2 and 3 he is the protective God. When you pass through the waters I will be with you.

He says in verse 3 there in Isaiah 43, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel. So this is Jesus is connecting himself to the pre-existent Almighty God. He is the everlasting God. That's what he's saying to his disciples when he gets into that boat. Now if you have an opportunity to read the Baptist Confession, Chapter 8, on Christ the Mediator, you'll find reflections of this power of God.

He in His being is, and Jesus Christ is God. In paragraph two, the Son of God being the very eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory of one substance and equal with him, who made the world, who upholds and governs all things he has made. In the third paragraph that he was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure, having in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, full of grace and truth who put all power and judgment into his hand. In the eighth paragraph that he, for his children, he is overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom. In the final tenth paragraph we read, we need his priestly office to reconcile and present us acceptable unto God and in respect to our averseness and utter ability to return to God and for our rescue and security from our spiritual adversaries, we need his kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and preserve us to his heavenly kingdom.

And I think that's exactly what Jesus Christ is saying when he says I'm here he said I'd be of good cheer I am here be not afraid And then finally the boat was transported to the destination in verse 21. At the end immediately the boat was at the land where they were going. Who can explain this? You know, John says he saw this happen when he was a young man. And now he's writing about it.

But he's an eyewitness. Now, you know, these miracles all are drivers. They drive you either to believe or disbelieve. Because either John was a fake and Jesus was a fake, or this really happened. And if this really happened, we need to worship Jesus and follow him and him alone who rules everything.

You have to decide, is this just another story that you just read that doesn't hit you? Or does this cause you to say, my Lord and my God, rescue me, save my soul? It's interesting, only John speaks of the transport of the boat. The gospels give various elements of the contours of the glory and the power and the majesty of God. But John includes this remarkable, it's such a binary, conclusive, almost insane proposition.

It's never happened in the history of the world. And it happened here. And it was Jesus who transported that boat. And you either need to believe that or to reject it as fraud. Because those are the only two alternatives we really have.

Either this is true or it's a lie. And if it's a lie, throw your Bible in the trash can. Forget it. Just forget it. But if you don't believe it's a lie, then follow Him and serve Him.

You know, this kind of thing does... You know, this happened to Moses in Mount Pisgah. He went up onto the mountain. God told him he was going to die. He's just in the last hours of his life.

God commands him to walk up Mount Pisgah, and he was never able to enter the promised land. But he goes up to the top of Mount Pisgah, and he wanted so badly to go there, and God wouldn't let him go. And God transported him straight to heaven. This happened with Philip. He was preaching the gospel out of Isaiah to the Ethiopian eunuch on this lonely road, and God transported him back to Azotus.

How about that? God is able to do whatever he wants to do. Okay, so I want to just bring some applications here to this story. First of all, Jesus makes no explanation of the four miracles in this section in John 6. What does this mean?

And again, I believe that this narrative fits into the whole scheme of logic and argument that John is presenting in John chapter 6 and he's speaking about what true and false disciples look like. A false disciple can see and even acknowledge the miracles of Jesus Christ, but they really don't believe in him. And Jesus interprets this in verse 26. This is about the feeding of the 5, 000. And Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal on him." But they saw those things, but they didn't believe in their hearts to the degree that they were followers of him. But they wanted to be around the shine. They wanted to be around the provision, the relationships, the esteem. Now when you're born, when you're born into the church, you know, you grow up in a Christian family, it's easy to fall into this trap because, you know, you've grown up with all this stuff and you don't want to be the person who finally says, I don't really believe. So you just go along with the crowd, but you know you don't believe.

But you're still there. Maybe your parents make you be there, which is appropriate. But you may be here in body, but your heart is disembodied. And it's in another place. It loves the world.

It doesn't want the kingdom of heaven. Recognize that Jesus Christ is the ruler of the wind and the waves and everything else. If that's true, you're in big trouble. And so the appeal is turn to Jesus Christ, run to Him. Be like Peter and get out of that boat and run to him.

Peter wanted to run to him. Run to him. It's interesting though that Jesus, He walked to them and Peter wanted to run to him. Jesus was coming to them. And Jesus has come to you in so many ways, so many times.

Maybe thousands of times in your life he's come to you. He's walked by you and he's spoken to you through the word of God, through your parents, through the preaching you've heard your whole life. Get out of the boat, run. Run to him and take his hand. He came.

He's coming. Run to him. You'll never regret it. I was probably a little bit younger than John when I ran to him. I've never regretted a single moment, not for a moment.

He's good. He's better. He's a billion times better than the devil and anything else this world offers you. Compared to him, he has nothing to offer. So true disciples worship the Son of God.

False disciples might be around like the multitude, but they don't worship Him. They want to maintain their reputations sometimes. If you're an old person or a young person and you just want to maintain your reputation, maybe you got baptized and you don't want to say, I've never loved Jesus a day in my life, and you want to maintain your reputation. Often people stay in the midst of the churches to maintain their reputation. Be too hard to make the change.

But you need to know who you are. And if you're a faker, and you've been faking for a long time, just recognize who you are. And maybe today is a day when the fakery ends, the sham ends. The second thing is that this narrative clearly makes the point that Jesus Christ is Yahweh. He is God.

He is I am. And he's never had a beginning. He will never end. He's not bound by anything. He's not bound by time.

He's not bound by space or darkness or death or hunger. He's independent, he's omnipotent, he's omnipresent, he's omniscient, he's holy, he's just. He is love, he is everything of God. And Jesus Christ is the absolute expression of love and truth and justice and every every good thing. He is the most valuable person who's ever lived And he says that he's singing with his church.

We're so privileged that he would be with us in this boat. It's a storm-tossed boat. Sometimes the storms really rage, but he's in the boat. The Apostle Paul said that, he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Another thing I'd like to bring out here is that Jesus is the preserver of His church.

So don't be afraid or discouraged by hardship or suffering. That's easy for me to say. Don't be discouraged by hardship or suffering or disappointment. But to find yourself in the midst of a disappointing moment in your life is to find yourself really in the greatest opportunity you'll ever have. And that is to be driven to Jesus by your trouble.

This is the best part of any trial because it drives you to Him. You know, Peter ran to Him. And that's what we ought to do as well. Suffering makes you get on your knees. It shows you your helplessness.

And it produces fruit. James says that it produces tremendous fruit. So we shouldn't despise the trials, but embrace them and see how the Lord's using those trials to wean us from this world. Suffering equips us to serve and have compassion on others who are suffering. And it proves the genuineness of our faith.

Richard Baxter wrote a whole book, a really thick book, called Saints Everlasting Rest. He was going through apparently the hardest time in his life, And the only way he could cope with it was to write about heaven. So he wrote, Saints Everlasting Rest. I encourage you to pick it up. But what he says in that book is that trials are meant to wean us from the inadequate food of this world and to prepare us for heaven.

And that's why Jesus says, be of good cheer. I am here. Do not be afraid. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is very God, a very God? Do you believe that He stilled the storm?

Do you believe that He died and rose again? Do you in the deepest part of your heart desire to follow Him? Have you repented and turned toward Him? Do you believe what Jesus said when He said, If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins? I hope you believe that He rules the wind and the waves.

I hope that you're like Peter who ran to him to take his hand and to walk with him and to be a true disciple. Jesus says do not be afraid. Would you pray with me? Lord, I pray that you would work in us a sense of your glory from all the trials that you have arranged, orchestrated, governed, laid out for our own good and for your own glory. We thank you that you do everything for your own glory and Lord I pray that you would help us as a church to believe that we would really believe as a church that this would be a place here that we really believe and we really follow and that you would root out all the hypocrisy in our hearts, both the hypocrisies of the unbeliever here today and the hypocrisies of the believers.

We thank you that you use these trials to drive out our hypocrisy and our pride. We thank you that you're delivering us from unprofitable things through these trials. And I pray that you would use our time here today to comfort your saints, that it would be for the sweetening of your people, that you would work in us more love for you, that in the secret places in the watches of the night, we'd be like your son who just wanted to come and speak to you in fellowship with you. And when the winds rage, that we would know that you're on the mountain praying. Amen.