Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” – Matthew 14:22-33
Here we have a most beloved scene between Jesus and Peter. Those who have spent any decent amount of time in church are surely quite familiar with this passage. Unfortunately this is one of the most over-allegorized and over-moralized texts of Scripture. This often happens at the cost of the author’s intended point of the passage. There are certainly several lessons of faith to glean from this passage, but they ought to all serve the intended point, to some degree. In verse 33, Matthew makes his point clear. He writes of this event for the purpose of showing his audience that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God. So it is my hope that all the lessons of faith will serve to show that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God.
Preceding our selected passage, Jesus had fed the five thousand and there were great crowds about him. At this point we pick up with Jesus telling his disciples to go on ahead of him in the boat, while he dismisses the crowds. While the disciples make their way out into the sea, a storm begins to overtake them and harass them greatly. Did Jesus not know that a storm was coming? Certainly he did. The One who commands the winds and holds the waters together, is not taken surprise by their movements, for the movements are dependent upon him. Indeed Christ commands the winds and the waves. So it is not by mere happenstance that the disciples find themselves in the midst of a sea storm without Christ; no, it was by the design of Christ Himself, the Lord of the waves.
The startling aspect of this portion of the passage should not be God’s Sovereignty over his creation, but the fact that once Jesus dismisses the crowds, he doesn’t immediately catch up to his disciples to be with them. Instead, he climbs a mountain, and spends hours alone with the Father in prayer. While the disciples are being tossed to and fro, Jesus is nowhere to be found; He is on a mountainside in prayer! Why is he not immediately assisting his disciples, whom He sent out there in the first place? We might ask this question only if we fail to realize that prayer is of the greatest assistance to his beloved disciples. I am sure that included in Jesus’ praying are prayers for the faith of his disciples to be strengthened, among other things. What more should the disciples want in that moment, than that their master is praying for them?
Here we can take significant comfort. For the Christian, when the thundering rage of the storms of life are beating all around us, there is not a moment that goes by that Christ is not praying for you. He is intimately concerned and interceding for your every gray spec of cloud. This brings to mind a glorious thought from Robert Murray M’Cheyne, “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”
If only the disciples could hear Christ praying for them on the mountainside… Nevertheless, Christ was praying for them.
So here we pause and note two principles for every storm and trial the believer faces: 1) God is sovereign over it, and 2) Christ is praying for us amidst it.
These realities are the way in which we can find strength to heed Christ’s commands to “take heart;” as he tells his disciples when they see him walking on the water towards them. In fact, the old King James puts it as, “Be of good cheer.” That would only be a crazy thing to say if God wasn’t sovereign and Christ didn’t care for us. But since God is sovereign and Jesus intercedes for his people, then the worst of all difficulties is reason to take heart.
We now shall consider Peter asking to come out on the water toward Jesus, and Jesus bidding him come.
While Peter sought to come out on the water, it was Jesus who gave the command, “come.” So I want to ask the question, why did Jesus command Peter to come?
First, Jesus commanded Peter to come out on the water so that his power would be displayed in Peter. When Peter begins walking on the water, indeed, it is a great miracle. In what a mighty way it shows off the power of God, and the power of Christ in Peter. This, God still enjoys to do in his people today. Not the walking on water part, but the displaying his power in his people part. Anytime a Christian does anything obedient to God in faith, even the smallest thing, such as putting away that sinful thought, it is the power of Christ on display in them.
Secondly, Jesus commanded Peter to come out on the water so that Peter would sink. The first design of Christ was to show his power in Peter’s success, but the second fold is to sink Peter! What! To this we must ask the question further, why would Jesus purpose to sink Peter? I will give three reasons.
First, Jesus purposed Peter to sink so that he could save Peter. Oh how we should desire to be sunk to the deepest trenches of the blackest ocean if it means we are so privileged to be saved by Jesus! Oh how great Peter’s peril would’ve been would he have gone without the saving of Jesus. Indeed, beginning to sink was the best thing that could’ve happened to Peter.
Second, Jesus purposed Peter to begin to sink so that Peter would know his own weakness. If Peter were to simply walk out to Jesus and walk back in the boat, how easy it would’ve been for him to confuse the power of Christ in him for his own great act of faith. In beginning to sink, Peter became suddenly aware of his own weakness. Indeed we cannot know the saving power of Christ unless we first know our own weakness, and our own great need for him! Sometimes the best thing for us is to be reminded of how weak, fragile, and insufficient we are in ourselves – even if it takes a near death drowning in a raging gale.
Third, Jesus purposed Peter to begin to sink so that Peter would cry out to him. When Peter begins to sink he cries out, “Lord, save me!” Again, this furthers the idea that we must know how desperately we need saving before we cry out to God. People who don’t know, or don’t think that they need saving, don’t cry out to God. This is a most merciful design in Peter’s beginning to sink. Jesus wants us to cry out to him in prayer. And for his people, he will see to it that it happens. Whether it is in conversion, in bringing the demands of the law down like a hammer on our conscience and breaking us and bringing us to despair so that we cry out to Jesus for mercy and grace in the cross; or whether it is in the life of the believer, in sending storms and trials in their life, so that they might be reminded of the necessity of prayer, and brought to more fervent cryings out to God, he wants us to cry out to him.
It is very easy for a Christian to become lax in their prayer life when things are comfortable and easy in life. This is when God often sends turbulence of various kinds to shake us into communion with him. What a blessed design this is. Graces and mercies often appear to be thunders and lightnings.
After Jesus rescues Peter, he famously asks him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” This is a greatly misunderstand rebuke. First, I believe this rebuke is primarily aimed at Peter’s initial questioning of God’s Word. When the disciples saw Jesus on the water, Jesus spoke to them saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” That should’ve been enough. Yet Peter, instead of taking Jesus at his word, sought for something more. He wanted more proof, as if his word was not enough. He wanted a sign. So he essentially tests the Lord. Jesus responded quite graciously to this, but it does not excuse Peter’s doubt of God’s Word. Therefore, in sinking, Peter became quite humbled at questioning God’s Word.
Furthermore, it is often wrongly stated that Peter began to sink because he doubted and his faith was very weak. That is nothing more than a lie from hell, and were that true, we are all doomed for the flames. Peter did not sink because his faith was little. It may have been little, but it was true faith, nonetheless. Peter sank because the eyes of his faith were taken off Christ. It wasn’t about the measure of Peter’s faith, but rather it was about the object of Peter’s faith. Instead of looking to Christ, Peter began to look at the storm around him, and down he went. It wasn’t about his small faith, but about his misplaced faith.
My friends, Peter’s little faith, as it cried out for Jesus to save him, was a true saving faith. Our measure of faith is not proportionate to Christ’s willingness or strength to save. A weak faith gets a the same strong Savior as a strong faith. A little faith gets all of Christ, just as a lot of faith. Christ’s willingness to save, and his strength to save, does not change based upon the size of our faith. After all, it is faith the size of a mustard seed that moves mountains, not a mountain sized faith that moves mountains.
In this we see that it is not our faith that saves; but rather it is Christ that saves. Our faith is just the means through which we get Christ. It is simply the instrument, Christ is the savior.
This is not to encourage you to weaken your faith, for we ought to be strong in faith, but rather it is to encourage the despairing one, who barely seems to be holding on, that Christ does not cast away a little faith. Though we may suffer for having a small faith in terms of increased doubts and fears, Christ’s ability to save is not hindered a spec.
Let us drive home the point: it wasn’t Peter’s faith that saved him, or his great acts of faith. It was Christ’s hold of Peter that saved him. Peter was saved because Christ reached out and grabbed Peter, and Jesus would not let him go, he would not let the storm take him, he held him fast and strong. There is not a more apropos hymn to mention here than the great He Will Hold Me Fast.
In verse 33, we see that ultimately Christ purposed these events, so that he could reveal more of himself to his disciples, so they could see him more clearly and know him better, and therefore worship him rightly. If only they would’ve seen the end result of the storm, it would’ve never dawned on them to fear.
Just as the disciples, if we are to see Jesus for the Savior that he is, we must know our great peril and come face to face with our great need for him. Jesus could’ve sat on the shore and taught his disciples all these things. But they had to experience them! How much more dear is Jesus to them, how much more do they know him to be a savior, because of the storm! Indeed, how much dearer and nearer to Christ we will cling when we find ourselves to be drowned, chained, and buried at the bottom of the ocean and the strong arm of Jesus reaches down to save us and bind us to himself.
Thus it is through our experience in being saved by Jesus that we are able to truly worship him from sincerity of heart for not just being a Savior, but for knowing him to be our Savior.
In a grand sense, if you are a Christian, I can say with confidence, that the purpose for that storm in your life, is so that you can know Jesus more, and worship him more rightly.
I have one final observation to make, and then a gospel call.
I observe here, an incredible observation by Matthew Henry. He says this on verse 32-33: “The wind ceased because it accomplished its purpose.” How simple and yet profound!
My friends, leap for joy, there is no needless suffering for the Christian! There is no pain that is not without purpose. Every drop of rain we experience is working to accomplish something in us or for us. For the disciples the storm lasted only as long is it took to confirm and strengthen their faith, and reveal Christ to them as truly the Son of God. Not a single wave crashed or cloud lingered once it’s intent was accomplished. Indeed, Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right.
To the reader, you must know, that the greatest storm we have to fear is not the various trials of life, but it is the raging sea of God’s wrath toward sin and sinners. This is a storm that you cannot outrun. It will sink every guilty sinner into the depths of hell and keep them there for all eternity. It is a storm that we have brought upon ourselves. We are great sinners, deserving of great punishment from a holy God.
But the good news is, like he did for Peter, Jesus does for us what we cannot do ourselves – namely, he saves us from the wrath of God. He turns God’s face toward us as a loving heavenly father. Jesus did this when the wrath of God toward wickedness rained down on the cross. Jesus took sin upon himself, giving himself up so that sinners might live. Only in Christ are the winds of God’s wrath stilled. Only in Jesus are we safe from the storm.
Just like the sea storm, once God’s wrath accomplished it’s purpose on the cross (to satisfy divine justice and holiness), it ceased. Jesus did it. Jesus is a strong savior. But if you reject the storm-stopper, you will, without a doubt, drown in the waves of death and hell forever.
So if you know your need of Christ today, you must, like Peter, go to Jesus in faith, looking to him, trusting him to save your sinking soul. Right now, there are many souls sinking, and sinking quickly down to hell never to be retrieved therefrom. If that is you, you must cry out to Jesus, like Peter, “Lord, save me!”
Leave a Reply