In the sermon 'The Ways of The Son of God' by Scott Brown, Matthew 14 is examined to highlight the contrast between the kingdom of Jesus Christ and that of Herod. The narrative illustrates the superiority of Jesus as King of Kings, who performs miracles such as walking on water, feeding the 5,000, and healing the sick in Gennesaret. The sermon emphasizes Jesus' sovereignty and compassion, contrasting it with Herod's brutality and insecurity. The disciples' experience on the Sea of Galilee serves as a metaphor for Christian life, where obedience to Jesus may lead to trials that test faith. Suffering is presented as an opportunity for spiritual growth, driving believers to depend on God. The sermon encourages believers to seek divine power in all aspects of life, illustrating how fear can undermine faith but also how Jesus extends His hand to save those who call out to Him. Ultimately, the sermon calls for the recognition of Jesus' kingdom as one that is life-giving and transformative, as opposed to the destructive nature of worldly kingdoms.

Our sermon text for this morning is Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 through the end of the chapter. Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Now when evening came, he was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a ghost. And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer. It is I.

Do not be afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. So he said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid.

And beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God. When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Jenessaret.

And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're so grateful for your Word that you have revealed it to us. Lord, we pray for Scott today as he comes, that you would fill him with your Spirit. Lord, we pray also today that you would save the lost who are among us, that you would open their eyes, and you would give them ears to hear, Lord.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In Matthew 14 we're taken to so many amazing moments in the life of Jesus as His power is being displayed in so many different ways. Chapter 14 starts out with the power of the word of Jesus Christ tormenting the conscience of Herod, the king. And the scene is his birthday party. It's a defiling banquet.

And then the scene moves from there to a prison, a desert fortress prison where John the Baptist is beheaded. And then it moves to a grave where John the Baptist is buried. And then it moves again to another place where the power of Jesus Christ is displayed so beautifully and his character is explained so helpfully. And as he goes to a remote place, and there he feeds 5, 000 men, a gigantic crowd of perhaps 15 or 25, 000 people. And so here we are at the Sea of Galilee, that heart-shaped 6 mile by 13 mile lake.

And this is where most of Jesus' ministry takes place, is around this lake. And so here on the edge of the lake, the scene changes again, And there's something that happens in the middle of that lake, and then something else that happens when they land on the other side in Gennesaret. Another mighty miracle of God. And each stop of the way in this story, in Matthew chapter 14, we see declared before us the nature of the King of Kings. Now, there are two pictures here in Matthew 14, and really in the whole Gospel of Matthew.

And the first picture is the picture of Jesus Christ as the King of Kings. That's the whole theme of Matthew, to disclose the superiority, the beauty, the perfection, the healthful nature of this king. He is such a good king, and he has such a good kingdom. And in this narrative are all the driving forces of his kingdom. But then at the beginning of chapter 14, there's this very startling contrast of King Jesus and this other king, Herod the Tetrarch.

And here you have a power-obsessed, fear-driven man, and you see what makes him tick, and then you see what makes Jesus tick as well. And you see these two kings and these kingdoms that inject the position you see Herod's brutality and the brutality of the devil as your king and then you see Jesus compassion And the other hand you see Herod's insecurity. And then you see Jesus Christ's sovereignty over everything. On the one hand you see The way that Herod's kingdom is manufactured. It looks so good.

It's a sumptuous feast. But then our Lord Jesus Christ presents His kind of feasting table as he feeds the 5, 000 in compassion. So, in the scene that we have recently left last week in the feeding of the 5, 000, the Lord Jesus, He's acting the role of the head of the household. And he's organizing this gigantic crowd of thousands of people. And he's organized them in 50s and 100s, and he has executed a process for distributing the bread.

He takes and he gives and he distributes and then the bread is consumed by the crowd and they're fed. So what you have here is this picture of the king, but you also have other pictures that are being played, you know, within the midst of all these other scenes that are being played. You have a picture of the lives of the servants of God. And what does it look like to be a servant of God? And the first thing that you learn is that his servants will be persecuted and they'll suffer and they'll die and they may lose their heads like John the Baptist did because he spoke out against the morality of the day, which is what we should do.

And then you see his servants who distribute the bread of life, and it's no accident that our Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, the city of bread, and that He Himself is the bread of life. But then He gives that same ministry to His disciples to distribute the bread in the world, to proclaim that He is the bread from heaven that gives life to the world and nourishes the soul, that takes away the famished heart and fills it with good things. And then you see here in this passage, His servants will be tested, and they'll be brought to absolute terror. Our Lord Jesus Christ will set up a situation to cause terror to fill their hearts. And yet, He's on the mountain and He's praying for them in the moment of their striving and their fear, and their lack of faith.

And then you see his servants having personally experienced the hardness and the rejection of Jesus Christ in Gennesaret. Because remember the last time that the disciples were in Gennesaret, the Gataring demoniac was healed. And this man with thousands of demons was relieved. You think you have such big problems. You think that your problems in your life, in your heart, your lack of faith are so huge, but you're nothing like the Gataring demoniac.

And Jesus Christ has power. So he casts these demons out of the Gadarene Demoniac. But the most bizarre thing happens. The people, they beg him to leave. They want him to depart.

He's healing. He's putting people in their right mind. He's clothing them and they want Him to leave. Now when they come across the sea, now they're bringing their people to Him. And the Lord Jesus is showing His disciples What can happen to a hard-hearted community?

A place that has rejected Jesus Christ. They're not a hopeless people. Of course, they had a former raving demoniac going from house to house proclaiming how good Jesus Christ is and what a shepherd He is, how He is the Bread of Life. So that's the scene that we're encountering here. Of course, there's this sub-theme running through all of it, and that is that he is the ruler of all nature.

He makes five loaves and two fish able to feed thousands. He calms the sea. And he makes people in a place turn their hearts toward Him when they used to be hard as a rock. So that's the scene, okay? That's sort of the introduction.

Now let's move into the text here. Now in verse 22, Jesus issues a command to the disciples and to the multitude. And it says, immediately, Jesus made His disciples get into the boat. That's the first thing He does. He makes his disciples get into the boat.

He is still performing his role as the prophet and the priest and the king. He's directing traffic. He's man's. He's telling his people what to do, where to go, what to say. That's what he does the best.

And his counsels are always right. And so he, after feeding the five thousand, it's now evening, it's either dusk or it's actually dark, we're not sure, and then he sends away the multitudes. Now why would he send them away? Now Matthew doesn't tell us what Mark tells us, and that is that they want to crown him king. The crowd is mesmerized.

They're actually out of control. They are the bread worshipers. They want a piece of the action. And they actually want to crown him the bread king, or something like that. The power king, at least.

And our Lord is not a puppet of the crowd. And so He commands the crowd to leave. They want the marks of an earthly kingdom. They want a revolution. They want to destroy Rome.

They want power. They want money. They want influence. They want that town They're they're they're the first purveyors of the prosperity gospel They just want the stuff And they want to be with the man who can give it to them. But our Lord Jesus Christ is wise.

He knows the heart of man. He does not entrust himself to man. So He disperses the crowd. And he tells them to leave. And then he...

And of course, why does he do that? I just want to suggest that he has a different kingdom. It's not a political kingdom. It's a kingdom of the rule of the heart. But the people want something completely different than that.

And so he's bringing his kingdom. And so as a good governor, our Lord, you know, sends His people into green pastures and still waters. He sends them to the places they need to go, rather than the places that they want to go. Often his people want to go in the wrong place. And so he directs them by his power, by his word, by changing circumstances, by causing something to collapse, by causing something to happen, so that they don't stay in the same place that they are.

He moves them. You know, God is very gracious to do that. He does it in so many ways. Often He uses financial collapse. It always astonishes me why people are so afraid of a financial collapse.

Because it's often the means that God uses to move people to places he wants them to go. We should never fear an economy. God is in control of the economy. He rules it with his finger, and when he wants it to go down, he will make it go down with a move of his finger. And when he wants it to go up, he will make it go up.

And do you think you can project it? I don't think so. So he's leading, and he is commanding. And he commands the crowd to leave and then he turns his voice to his disciples and he does the same thing with his disciples, to govern their lives as well. And he makes them get into a boat.

And our Lord is responding to them very decisively and very powerfully. And the word that is used here that Matthew chooses, it means that he compelled them, he constrained them, he forced them, he made them get in the boat. They probably didn't want to get in the boat. He had to make them get into the boat. And this is what happens to the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They want to go one place, but He wants them to go somewhere else. And so He makes them get into the boat. And So, imagine how ridiculous this must have seemed to the disciples. I mean, this was his moment of opportunity. This was at the pinnacle of his ministry in many ways.

And this was his opportunity to capture all of this glory, all this attention. You know, he was a marketer's nightmare. You know, he wasn't doing the marketing thing. He wasn't promoting himself the way that any other man would have. Any other man would have just captured the opportunity.

Ride that wave and you'll only get your 15 minutes in the sun. So take it now, grab it, milk it for all of its worth, market this to death. This is your moment on the internet, and you are gonna now have everything spread around. You've got to capture the opportunity. Jesus is completely different than that.

He doesn't capture the opportunity at all, because he's building a kingdom, not of this world. And so he forces his disciples to get into their boat, to leave this crowd and stop this nonsense of an earthly kingdom. And so, this wasn't the popular thing to do, and it wasn't maximizing the opportunity. It was the kingship of Jesus Christ in operation. So our Lord is though, He's working of course as He always is, a plan to glorify Himself and to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

So he sends his disciples across the sea. Little did they know that they were being led into a situation like the one that was ahead of them. You know, when you obey the Lord, it doesn't mean that He's sending you into some easy situation. He, by His divine command, might lead you into a situation where He intends to terrify you and test your faith and help you to see how good He is when He extends His hand to you when you are sinking. And so the Lord is wise and they had no idea what this obedience would do to them.

But they also didn't quite understand how much the terror would do for them. And that's always true in our life with the Lord. So he sends them into this boat and they're now going across the sea. And our Lord goes up to a mountain to pray. In verse 23, and when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

Now when evening came, he was alone there." So he's seeking solitude now. And he's going to be with his Father in heaven. And he's demonstrating the command that he's already given his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. When he said, But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. So, So he's going to the secret place to be with his father and he desired to be with his father.

You know that Psalm, One thing I have desired of the Lord that I may seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and to behold His glory in His temple. Well, that's what the Lord Jesus was doing. He was going to pray. Now, in Luke chapter 5, verse 16, we learn that he did this many, many times. It says there, but he himself would often slip away to the wilderness to pray.

He would slip away. You know, if the Son of God needed to slip away, How much more? How much more do we need to slip away? You know, there's so many opportunities you can slip away in a day. I've just been realizing that, this week especially, how many opportunities there are to slip away, even for a moment, and how few times I take those opportunities.

But the opportunities are everywhere. But He slipped away. I love the language here, but He himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. Mark chapter 6 tells us that he did that after John the Baptist was beheaded, that he went off by himself to pray in a deserted place. And he prays in critical times.

In Mark chapter 1, after a very busy time of healing, And then before another busy time, in the morning, rising up, a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place where he prayed. And then of course, when he was being tempted by the devil, what he did for the 40 days before that is that he fasted and he prayed. So our Lord is now, he is by himself on the mountain as was his habit. And he goes up to the mountain, up on a mountain. We're not told what mountain it was, but it was a special place, and it was a time where he was alone with God.

Now here, now the disciples are on their way to the other side And he is up on the mountain, and he's praying. And he is the mediator. He is interceding, and he's before his father. And his disciples are out in a difficult situation, straining. And Mark says that he saw them out there.

It was a miracle. He could see them. There was probably three miles away. He could see them straining at their oars. Now nobody can see three miles with their, with the naked eye.

But our Lord sees. He sees everything. He knows everything that's going on, as He did with His disciples. And he's, I believe he's just, he's foreshadowing what he will do when he is resurrected. And he goes and he sits at his father's right hand.

And then he spends the rest of his time interceding for the saints. He sends his spirit. He says, I go to prepare a place for you. I will send you another comforter. But I'm going to be with my Father.

But while the Spirit of God is there to help them, as one called alongside to help, He's on the mountain. He is in heaven praying. This scene that's being played right before us is just a visible representation of something that is happening now. I mean, just picture that scene with the disciples in their time of straining and insecurity and hardship, and their Lord is on the mountain praying, just as He is now in heaven. Here our Lord Jesus is teaching His disciples what things are going to be like in his kingdom.

We've seen the kingdom of Herod, and now we see the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now also too, I just want to make mention something about his praying, and that is that his praying, I think, demonstrates the miracle of the incarnation, because it shows himself as both God and man. Why did Jesus need to pray? He's God. Well, he's praying to his father.

I mean, in this passage you see the heresy of modalism that says that there's just one God. No, Jesus is a person and he is praying to his father. This just explodes the whole oneness Pentecostalism agenda. There are two persons and one prays to another. And he's demonstrating the miracle of his incarnation, two natures operating within his person.

And so he's demonstrating his own nature. And then he, as he observes his disciples out in the sea, and they're about three miles out now. Maybe halfway across, or we're not sure exactly where they're crossing, But they're a long way out. And this brings us to this this miracle of our Lord walking on the water. Now, it's not just one miracle that takes place here.

There are several of them. First of all, there's the miracle of Jesus walking on the water, and then there's the miracle of Peter walking on the water for a time, and then there's the miracle of Jesus calming the storm, and then there's the miracle of the boat being instantaneously transported to the other side of the shore. Matthew doesn't report this, but Mark does. And so there's this trial that's taking place, a trial at sea, and the terrors that happen as a result. And so here our Lord begins to make his way on the water.

Now, there are lots of ways you can make your way on the water. You know, you can water ski. You can jet ski. You can surf on the water and make your way a distance on the water, but you can't walk on the water It's just one way that mankind can't Get it by himself. He has to have a machine or something some kind of object to get him across the water.

And so our Lord, He walks across the water. Now, this is a trial that is being presented to the disciples. In verse 24 we read that the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now the question was discussed when we met on Tuesday, how severe was the storm? We know it wasn't as severe as the storm that was taking place previously, I believe in Chapter 8, where the waves were breaking over the boat.

It wasn't quite that bad, but how severe was this? And the words that are used to, I think, give us an understanding of how severe this was. The boat wasn't just simply bobbing. They were straining with all their might. I want to suggest it was a dangerous situation.

They had difficulty rowing. The winds had whipped up the sea. But it says in verse 24 that they were tossed by the waves, and for the wind was contrary. Now the term that's used, tossed, is the word that indicates torture and harassment. It can mean to test.

It can mean in other places a horse throwing his rider off his back or even the testing of silver. So there's an element of severity here. But I don't believe it was so severe as the previous storm that they encountered. And then, in fact, the term is used in Hebrews 11, those who are tortured refused deliverance. So there is sort of a torturous nature of the storm.

And then in verse 3 it says, but when Peter saw that the wind was boisterous, the term, it means strong, mighty, powerful. So that's the situation they're in. And they've been rowing at this point for probably eight or nine hours against this wind. Although they've already made it three miles at least, they're actually making headway in such a terrible storm. These were experienced fishermen.

These were professionals. They understood how to navigate in waters like this. But they were difficult waters that they were navigating in the midst of. And then there are two moments of fear that Matthew records. And the first is the fear of a ghost, because our Lord walks in a distance, a distance enough from them to make them think that it is a ghost of some kind, a phantom.

And so they're terrified because of that. I mean, you can imagine you've been, you've been, you've been, you're wearied from your labors all night long. And you know what it's like when you're tired and you're weary and it's dark and it's probably misty. And I don't think we have to over-psychologize this. I think they were just scared because something really weird was happening and they thought it was a ghost.

Okay. And so there they are. They're fearful of this ghost. And our Lord is walking on the water. You know Psalm 104 says, He walks upon the wings of the wind, and He now is walking on the water.

He's a dominant force in all of nature. He who created the sea is now walking on it. And so there's no natural circumstance that our Lord is not greater. And so He's walking on the sea here and He sees His disciples toiling. And it's interesting to me, you know, here Christ sent his disciples into this storm.

He did the same thing with Jonah. He caused a great turbulence to be raised up for their discipleship. This is what God does for His people. He's done that to every person in this room. He's raised up various storms and tumults.

He sent you to a place where there was a storm." Now maybe your life is not very stormy right now. Maybe everything is just so sunny and smooth, because he does seem to give seasons like that. But just wait, there's a storm around the corner. It's coming. He will, he, he, if, if, if, my experience is that he's constantly sending people through storms after times of calm.

He's just fed the 5, 000. What a time of abundance and blessing. And now they're in a time of severe testing. And this is what God does. And so you just might consider your own time of testing, whatever it is right now.

I mean, you're either in a time of calm, or you're either in a time of storm. That's it. Those are the two times. So which time are you in? If you're in time of calm, then pray for great preparations for the storms coming.

If you're in a time of storm, understand, He rules the winds and the waves. He's in control of every single aspect of that storm. He sent you there. He went before you. And now, He's with you.

But you don't think He's with you because He's on the mountain. And He's praying for you as your intercessor. So these sufferings are so helpful. Behold the goodness of the terror of the Lord on the soul of man. Because it makes him dependent, it makes him cry out to God.

If you're terrified today, thank God. Thank God that you're terrified at your sin, at your inadequacy. Thank God that you are out of your resources and you have nothing but God to hang on to. Thank God for that. God is able to move resources in any direction He desires.

And if He's moved them away from you, you have to understand that there's a lesson in it. Don't miss the lesson. You know, The worst thing that we can do is just to just suck it up and endure the storm, rather than to see the kindness of God in it. And to open up our eyes to see what deliverance there is in the turmoil. Even if it was created by your own sin.

So much of the storms of our lives actually are the results of our own sin. But even those are opportunities. God is kind even to deal with us in lack of faith as He did with Peter. You think of all the things that suffering does. You know, suffering has kind of fallen on hard times in our society.

You know, suffering is so despised. When actually, if you look at scripture, suffering doesn't have such a bad name. I mean our Savior is called the suffering servant. That should at least help us to think, it should jerk us out of this ridiculous idea that somehow life is supposed to be bereft of suffering. And so, I mean, suffering reminds us of the relief that is to come in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 17.

Suffering spends our human strength so that we trust in Him. Second Corinthians 12, 9 and 10. I'll say it again, this is a wonderful text, I don't have time to read it. Second Corinthians 12, 9 and 10. Second Corinthians 4, 17 and 18.

I would just encourage you to go home and read those when you are in your houses tonight, this afternoon. Suffering makes us get on our knees. Suffering shows us our helplessness. 2 Corinthians 1, 8, and 9. Suffering causes the advance of the Gospel.

Philippians 1, 12 and 13. Suffering produces fruit. James 1, 2 and 3. Suffering preserves us, forehares us for heaven. Romans 8, 17 and 18.

Suffering proves the genuineness of your faith. 1 Peter 1, 6 and 7. Suffering equips us to serve and have compassion on others who are suffering. 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 and 4. So, we should not despise the day of suffering.

There's just too much of God in it to neglect its power and its health. So Jesus is walking on the sea on the fourth watch of the night. The timing of this thing I think is helpful to recognize. The first watch of the night, 6 to 9. The second watch, 9 to 12.

The third watch, 12 to 3. The fourth watch of the night, 3 to 6. So, you know, they've been striving against the wind and now it's, you know, 3 to 6 o'clock in the morning. And our Lord, you know, has been praying and now He is coming. I mean, I just wonder if Peter remembered this later on, when he said to him, you will be sifted, but I have prayed for you.

This scene is repeated over and over again in life, where you're being sifted and your Lord is praying for you. So while we're laboring on, you know, in the complete insufficiency of our powers, sometimes as a result of our sins, Our Lord is laboring in prayer for us, and He's interceding. He's at His Father's right hand. It was the fourth watch of the night, and there He appears to them. And so he puts all things under his feet, and he walks on that water.

And they were troubled when they saw him, verse 26. They were troubled, saying, it is a ghost, and they cried out for fear. Now they were shrieking, I mean, they were screaming. That's the terminology that's used. It was absolutely terrifying.

And then our Lord responds by saying three things. Number one, be of good cheer. In other words, have courage. In other words, buck up and have courage. Stop acting like this.

You know, our Lord is so kind to rebuke us when we were in fear. And he says, Be of good cheer. Now he uses that term eight times, God does in the New Testament. He uses it in Matthew 9 with the paralytic, where he says, son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. He uses it with the woman who spent all of her money on medicine and doctors, and none of it worked.

And he says to her, Be of good cheer, daughter. Your faith has made you well. And so he uses this term over and over again. He uses it in the book of Acts, one time in Acts 23, where the Lord appears to Paul. The servants of the high priest had just struck the apostle Paul on the mouth.

And he's in this council, and the people want to tear him apart, and he's afraid they're going to tear his body apart. It was that threatening. And at that time, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness at Rome." So this term, be of good cheer, is one of our Lord Jesus Christ's favorite statements. He loves to say it. He loves to say it to the person who's sick, to the person who's sinful.

And now he's saying it to the people who are absolutely terrified. Be of good cheer. And then he also says, it is I. It is I. And then thirdly he says, do not be afraid.

Those three things. Be of good cheer. It is I. Do not be afraid. Those three things.

Do you need them today? Do you need to hear those things today? Those three things. Be of good cheer. It is I.

And do not be afraid. I always marvel at this whole idea, do not be afraid. It's a statement that appears over a hundred times in the Bible. And you would think that something that was repeated so often, that we would somehow be able to learn. Let me just tell you something.

I have not been able to completely learn this lesson. I don't know why, but when I hear my Lord say, Do not be afraid, I am so thankful to hear it. I've heard Him say that to me so many times, Do not be afraid. And yet, around the corner, there's another time where I'm afraid. And I have to learn that lesson again.

But I'm so thankful for him, because he continues to speak songs of deliverance into my heart. And he tells me not to be afraid. But here our Lord is saying, do not be afraid again. Do you need to hear that today? I don't today.

I don't have the sense of fear and foreboding as I sometimes do. I just don't. I don't need to hear it today, but maybe you do today. Do not be afraid. Are you afraid of what might happen to you?

The situation in your marriage, the situation with your children, the situation in this world? Are you afraid of this economy? Let me just say, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. You know, David said, even though I walk Through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare the table before me in the presence of my enemies." You know, David, I think he did understand fear. He moved in and out of fear. And in Psalm 34 he says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard me." Can you finish the sentence? "...and He delivered me from all of my fears.

This is why it's so good to be found a repentant sinner to have a Savior who will come to you and say, do not be afraid, as he did to his disciples there in that boat. And he has said so many times to his fearful, fitful, weary disciples, do not be afraid. So then, after that, Peter walks on the water. He says these three things. It must have given Peter enough courage.

Peter was already a man of... Let's be clear about that. He was a bold man. And Peter answered and said, Lord, if it is, You command me to come to You on the water. So he said, come.

And when Peter had come out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. And so Peter, I don't know how he could have been completely settled in his mind to do this, but somehow he was settled enough to do this thing, to actually get out of the boat. You know, Peter was a bold man. Peter wanted to go to places where nobody else would go. And he wanted to do the most dangerous things he could.

He's an example for us. He should inspire us here. It's so easy to just completely focus on his lack of faith and his thinking, but you can't miss this first thing that's happening here. You need to see Peter for who he really is here. And I think Peter is here before us today because God has sovereignly placed this moment before us to correct our lack of faith, to correct our lack of boldness, to correct our desire for comfort, to correct our desire to stay in the boat and not do anything that's overly dangerous to us, that would threaten our well-being.

No one else was willing to get out of that boat. But one man was. You know, I've been telling this story about the Gospel coming to my family on the island of Barbados. I am so thankful for those men that got into a boat and sailed in a rickety old, scurvy, you know, saturated boat and went to an island out in the middle of the ocean. And they had no idea what they were facing.

And they went and they started walking across this island. And they found my relatives in kind of a jungle area, below this cliff where they were living. And they preached the Gospel. They did kind of like what Peter did here. I think Peter is here before us to correct our fears and confront our affections for this undisturbed, comfortable life that we always want.

Now I don't know if we can make very much out of this or not. You decide. I don't know. But Peter did wait for a call before he got out of the boat. Well, he did ask for the call, right?

Lord command me to come Lord command me. Is that your prayer? Lord command me Take me to this place. I could never do it. I could never be bold enough on it my own.

I could never get out of this boat unless you commanded me. Oh God, command me. Command me to be the man that I should be. Command me to be the elder, the deacon, the wife, the husband. Oh God, command me.

Command me to be the evangelist. Command me to go into that group of people who I know hate the Gospel and tell them about Jesus Christ. Oh God, command me. Command me out of this boat. So can we make this much out of it?

I don't know, but I do know that he got out of that boat because he desired a command, he got the command, and he got out of that boat. And it was a very bold kind of omission. Like I said, there's lots of ways you can make your way on the water, but walking ain't one of them. And Peter, Peter did. Now, let me, I heard someone say this a while back, and I want to apply it here.

You know, could it be that every Christian is really commanded to walk on water? The Christian is called to do things that require the supernatural power of God. There's really nothing that a Christian does that doesn't require the power of God. Nothing. And the power that was necessary for Peter to get to step onto that water is really no different than the supernatural power that's necessary to do anything.

A man can receive nothing unless it's given him from heaven. And this was supernatural power, and he needed it. But that supernatural power is necessary for everything pertaining to life and godliness. I can't think of a single thing that we're required to do as Christians that doesn't require the power of God upon us. All the way from the raising of our children to really the doing of our work to the spreading of the gospel.

Everything requires divine power. And we often are so disconnected from a sense of divine power and unction, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit to do the work that we've been called to do. We're so naturalistic in America. Everything is done by program and mechanism. Everything is done by naturalistic causes.

You do this and you do that. We're caught in this naturalistic cause and effect mindset that completely denies the power of the Spirit of God. And so, the normal Christian life is meant to be lived in the supernatural power of God from everything that you do. Do you have any idea, even when you're preparing for a sermon, how naturalistic you can be, how just bone-headedly worldly you can be in trying to extract what's there. But it requires the power of God.

It requires divine insight. It requires water and bread from heaven. And that's true of everything that we do. Even when you're looking into the eyes of your wife to be her shepherd, how often do you look into her eyes and there's no spiritual power at all. You're not praying for her, you're not caring for her soul, because you're just talking to another, another set of atoms.

You're just like Karl Marx and the naturalists. But you don't realize that absolutely everything is dependent on spiritual power, and that there's no different than Peter walking on that water. And we need that. But oh, how often we become the natural man. And as a result, spiritual work doesn't happen.

Yeah, stuff happens. Things get done. But how much more could it be if we saw everything as requiring supernatural power? I fear that we'll look at the story of Peter and just think, well, We're going to put this in another category of life. This doesn't apply to me.

It's just like Herod. I'm not like Herod at all. Now we're saying, I'm not like Peter at all. I don't need supernatural power. But yes, we do.

It's so critical when we're interpreting the Bible that we understand that we are in this story. It was written to us to tell the story of our own lives, to expose our own bankruptcy, to tell us the way our hearts really are. And so here, I just fear that we'll read the story of Peter walking on the water, and we end up with some ridiculous ideas about it that it doesn't have anything to do with us. But it does have something to do with us. So the Normal Christian life is meant to be lived in the supernatural power of God.

Now, you know what? In a few minutes, we're going to break up and we're going to have a meal together. And let's not just fall into our own naturalistic patterns of relating to one another. We have spiritual work to do here. We ought to look into one another's eyes rightly and recognize the importance of the power of the Spirit of God working through us in our brothers.

Do you think you can love one another from the heart in your own power? I don't think so. Love comes from God, not out of you. He implants it in your heart and then you use what he has given to you because you're not that way. That's not you.

You're not a loving person. But God can implant His love. And then you can use His love. Rather than just being your own natural self, your own fascinating personality. Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

My pastor used to say that all the time when I was a boy. My strength is perfected in weakness. He used to say that all the time too. Now, here before us is another proof that an ordinary man can do extraordinary things when the power of God is at work in his soul. And so then Peter becomes afraid.

In verse 30, But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? Now verse 30 tells us exactly why he was afraid. He was afraid because of the wind.

And there was this external force, this reality of his life at that moment, that caused him to be afraid. Something happened that made him afraid. Now usually it doesn't take that much for us to be afraid. A rumor here, a news flash there, you know, some piece of gossip that you heard and now you're all rattled, something that your husband did, some implication that you've turned into a mountain and now you're afraid. Well Peter we know that it was the boisterous wind, the strong wind that made him afraid.

So he saw something that made him actually terrified. Now, I mean, Peter was a seaman. He understood the wind, but this wind made him afraid. And it struck fear in his heart, and he was beginning to sink. Now, you know, it's interesting.

When a boat begins to sink, you know, it goes down, you know, takes in a little bit of water and then it goes down like this. But when a person begins to sink, that's really different. It doesn't take in water, it just wham, it goes down. So he's now going down and then our Lord reaches out His hand. Now, I'm not sure if this is a proper application of this.

You discern what you think of it. Our fears are often the things that stop us from completing the mission that we're on. Peter received a command from his Lord to get out in the boat. And as a result of it, his faith waned because he was afraid. Do you see the formula?

A command to do something in the name of Jesus Christ and then fear destroying faith, and then the mission stops. That's the chain of events that took place here. There are so many things that are killed because of fear, particularly like the fear of man and not the fear of God. And often it's nothing but the sin of fear that drives us to disobedience. Fear can plunge us into jettisoning the call of God through the cares of this world, through the fear that can drive you to worldliness, the fear that drives you to prayerlessness, Because all you can think of is that your activity is what's making everything happen for you and you never pray.

Because you really think that it is your own labors that will get you on in this world, and so you don't pray. It's fear. Or lack of love, and you're beginning to sink. All those different kinds of fears just can cause us to sink. It's happened many times to us.

But the text says that it was fear and then lack of faith. So that's the subject matter of this. So we have to identify our fears. You know, when David said, I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all of my fears That's what should happen today in this room There should be a deliverance from fear here Maybe I hope that's why you came here if you're fearful that you'd be delivered from your fears. But you better name those fears so that you can renounce them and then renew your faith.

Be driven by your faith rather than your fear. And so the Lord records for us here that He cried out saying, Lord save me. Now, When I first titled this message, I titled it, Lord Save Me. And then I titled it, The Ways of the Son of God, because there are all these ways of the Son of God. So but anyway, I think this is a significant phrase in chapter 14, Lord save me.

I mean that's what's happening throughout the whole chapter. Our Lord is saving His people in various ways. Because He's such a good King. But He says Lord save me. How many times have you said Lord save me?

How many more times do you think you need to say it? Probably many, many, many more times. It's good to be in the place of saying, Lord, save me. Are you in that place today where your heart is crying out and you're saying, Lord, save me? Those are the sweetest words on the lips of man.

Because they show a man's heart. They show how a woman can be before God, completely dependent upon Him, recognizing that He is the only Savior. There's no better place to be. You might... You might despise the moment of your life where you're crying out, Lord, save me, savor it, savor that moment.

God is saving you. So what does our Lord do with this man of lack of faith. What do you do with a man who's lost his faith? Who's filled up with fear, what do you do? Well, in this case, instead of slapping his hand, he reaches out his hand.

And he comes to his son, who has lack of faith, and he reaches out his hand. How many times has that happened to you? When your Lord has caught you in lack of faith, and what did He do to you? He held out His hand, and He bid you to come. That's what he does.

So this whole scene, It just illustrates the vulnerability of the disciples to throw off their faith and fall out of reliance on the supernatural power of God because of some kind of fear that's gripped their hearts. So, and it illustrates the mercy of Jesus Christ toward those who have little faith and the proof of his love. In Psalm 94 We read, if I say, my foot slips, your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, your comforts delight my soul. I think that's what happened out in the middle of that lake.

And then, and then when they got into the boat, so Jesus and Peter get into the boat now. And the wind ceased, and those who were in the boat worshiped Him, verse 32, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God." I love that part. Another miracle. The wind ceased. And they worshiped him by making a confession of faith.

Okay, I'm going to just give you some applications of this. Number one, the Lord often sends us into a time of crisis. It was the Lord who forced these men into this boat to take them to the time of crisis. Number two, The Lord often brings contrary winds. We strain at the oars.

We see visions in the night. They terrify us. This is the normal Christian life. Number three, relief often does not come until the fourth watch of the night. That's why we should always lift up our eyes under the hills from where our help comes.

Our Lord is on that mountain praying, but the relief might not come till the fourth watch of the night. Sometimes it does. It doesn't always come in the fourth watch of the night, but sometimes it does. But you have to understand that your salvation is at hand. God is governing every moment of it, and He sees.

Number four, The disciples were not in that storm because they were disobedient. They were in that storm because they were obedient. Number five, this is a picture of the church. She's working, she's striving, and yet the Lord sees, the Lord prays, and the Lord comes and He stretches out His hand to His church. Number six, there's no place where He does not see you.

There's no place that He cannot walk to you, even if it's on the sea. And there's no place that He cannot stretch out His hand toward you. So then we turn to the next scene. Jesus returns to Gennesaret in verses 34 through 36. So he crosses over, they come to the land of Gennesaret.

Mark tells us that the boat just wham, got there really quick. It was another miracle. Quite a ride that must have been, huh? Rowing all night, nine hours to get halfway across, and then bullet train to the other side. That's what happened.

So now Jesus had already been to Gennesaret. They told him to leave. They begged him to leave. They healed a man who was so devastated by the work of the devil. And they made his heart sore and he couldn't keep his mouth shut and he was going about telling about this man.

He wanted to go with Jesus and Jesus said, no, you can't go, Go back into that city. And that's what He did. He went back. And now, I don't know what the passage of time is, but now our Lord comes back. And now the people are flocking to him, this demonized man.

I think, we're not told exactly, I'm just, it just seems logical that this evangelism that this former demonized man did was effective. And now the people are coming out to see him. It's so surprising something changed. It says that they gathered up their sick from all the surrounding region. People were going all over the place to go get their friends to come be near Jesus Christ.

What a change! From a hard-hearted region that asked Jesus to leave. Let me tell you, there is no community, there is no neighborhood, there is no family member, there is no person in this room whose heart cannot be melted. Are you one of those hearts today? But this should give us so much hope for our own town.

How many times have you witnessed to that person, and they've been like as hard as a rock, and they're begging you to go away, just like they did Jesus? It's not over yet. You know, Jesus could not do miracles in this hometown, which we learned in chapter 13. But now out of his hometown, he's doing many miracles. And so he heals the ones who originally rejected him.

That's the mercy of Jesus Christ. And then in the final verse, well, actually the second to the final verse, 36, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. There is so much to say about that. There is so much to say about that. And then the And then the final phrase, As many as touched him were made perfectly well.

I also titled the sermon, Made Perfectly Well, and changed it. Made perfectly well. This is a picture of what a king does with his people. He makes them perfectly well. Diyasodzo is the word.

It means to save through, to see you through the danger and make you well. That's what the word implies. So there you have it. That's the end of Matthew chapter 14. And what you have in this chapter is so much, but at least you can say there are only two kings and there are only two kingdoms.

There's the abusive kingdom of the devil and his herod and his herodias and her teenage daughter and the head of John the Baptist. That's one kind of kingdom. You can have that. And then there's the life-giving kingdom of our Lord Jesus, immortalized in the hand extended to the one with little faith, and the touching of the hem of a garment, and our confession, our confession, truly you are the Son of God. Truly You are making me perfectly well.

What a King! What a Kingdom! Would you pray with me? Oh, Lord, I thank You for all of these things set here before us, to teach us your ways, to show us who we really are, to open up unto us the gates of righteousness, to Show us your son. Amen.