Faith to Worship

This morning, we're going to see how Christ in his grace calls his disciples to greater faithfulness while providing all we need by grace. So if you already hear that, there's this wonderful tension that we're gonna hold on to and throughout the entirety of any gospel teaching. By God's grace, we by faith put forth great effort. And seek him to bless our attempt at obedience. Christ in his grace provides all we need to be faithful. He's teaching his disciples in this particular section of Matthew to be faithful, to trust him, to obey him, to worship him, to come out of doubt, fear, worry.

Do not worry, obey him

We're looking at these two stories, and these two stories are related. They're connected. The first one I want us to see, do not worry, obey him. Do not worry, obey him. If you're new with us, we're walking through Matthew. We took a short hiatus for Advent to consider the prologue of John. And now we're coming back into Matthew. And if you look at the beginning of chapter 14, Jesus has just heard that John the Baptist was beheaded. The prophet, his cousin, the forerunner, the last Old Testament prophet who got to say,

behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

having an affection for his cousin and as God, the creator and the one who sent him out, a love for John, he seeks to withdraw to a desolate place. He seeks to get away to himself. Verse 13, when he heard the news of John's beheading, he withdraws on a boat to a desolate place. The crowds hear him where he's going, and they walk by foot. And so this creates kind of a funny picture. We kind of wish I had more information as to how news gets around, and maybe they were texting. We don't know. But they all know where he's going, and they're there when he gets there. And he's seeking to be by himself to grieve the loss of John, to draw near to his Heavenly Father, to depend upon God in His human nature.

But when He gets there, there's a great crowd. And notice, He has compassion on them, verse 14. We've seen this over and over again. Earlier we saw in chapter 9, verse 36, He saw the crowd, they had no shepherd, they had no leader, they had no one providing for them, caring for them, and He had compassion upon them. Christ sees us in our need. and he has compassion. Now, the stated purpose of Jesus is he has come to seek and save the lost. He sees his people, he sees they need significant care and he has compassion upon them. He knows all their ailments, he knows all their problems, he knows the work before him, that he's going to labor to touch each one and speak to each one and to teach and to heal. He sees his people and his infinite care he provides for them. Jesus comes with compassion, not a contempt. The main goal here is he's going to be healing these people all the way till evening. And that's really just the setting of what really takes place in the action.

Verse 15, the disciples, when evening comes, They come to him and they provide a real problem. They have a concern. This is a desolate place. There's no market. There's no food. There's no way to provide for what all these people need. And if you drop down to verse 21, there's 5,000 men, and that doesn't include the count of women and children. So we're in five figures here probably, 10,000 plus. We're in a desolate place. Where could we possibly get enough food? Where would there be enough food? We need to send the crowd away, verse 15, so they can buy food for themselves.

It seems like a real concern about a real problem, and they've got a solution. We should send them away. But if you think about what's probably been happening, Jesus shows up. He wants to pray. He has compassion for the people. He's been healing the deaf, healing the blind, touching the paralyzed, and having them walk again. And the disciples are worried about food. It's as if they've been seeing God do incredible, impossible, miracle after miracle after miracle.

As we see, the story ends this way, begins this way. We've seen this over and over again, and they're worried about a real concern, but they're thinking, we can't provide food, even though we just helped this guy walk, and we helped him see, and we helped him hear. We need to send them away. And the significant emphasis there is, buy food for themselves.

Jesus' response confronts this concern and solution.

They need not go away. You give them something to eat.

Very emphatic. They need to go buy food for themselves. Jesus turns to them and makes it clear they need to understand they have a responsibility. You give them something to eat. Now, there's a turn. Christ is putting them in the place of responsibility for these 5,000, 10,000 plus. They don't have any food. And so they tell him, they report back, verse 17, we've gathered as much food as we can find. We found five loaves and two fish.

And I'm wondering if the disciples think, all right, now he's going to have to believe like we can't feed them. We've only found five loaves, two fish. It's impossible. If we divided that up, each person might get a crumb, probably not even that. They said, we only have five loaves, two fish. Jesus says,

bring them here to me.

He takes the fish, takes the loaves. He orders the crowd to sit down. He puts them in positions. And then he takes the food provided, he looks up to heaven, he blesses that food, he breaks it, he gives that to the disciples, and the disciples then distribute all that to the crowds.

And the disciples at first would think, well, this is gonna be a pretty short episode. Remember, they don't have carrying trays, they didn't come out here prepared at all. And over and over again, the crowds probably don't really understand fully what's going on, but the disciples know they only gave Jesus Five loaves and two fish. And you think kind of like we are going to distribute here the Lord's Supper or we need to distribute food. Like they, this must be the last time I'm going to go get some and go take it to the crowd. Because there's only five loaves and two fish. And they kept going and getting more and bringing it back and getting more and bringing it back. And well, we'll just go ahead and say it must have been fishes. It's a collective noun, you're not supposed to pluralize it, but when you feed 10,000 people with two fish, that's pretty amazing.

The disciples have to be wondering, what is going on? How is it we can keep making trip after trip, and everybody is fed? Now, Jesus said, you will feed them, and they did. Jesus said, you will provide the food, and they found the food, they gave it to Christ, And in His great blessing, He multiplied them. By the power and grace of Christ, they were able to do what Jesus told them to do. They fed 5,000 men and the women and children with just five loaves of bread and two fish because of Christ's great blessing and grace.

Notice the end result, all were satisfied and full and Christ multiplied and blessed it so much there were 12 baskets full and leftovers. Simple lesson might be that we need to not worry about what these concerns are that face us that seem like great obstacles. If it's worth worrying about, as the disciples did worry about it and they had a human solution, they didn't actually ask Christ what his solution would be. If you have something that's worth worrying about, it's worth bringing to Christ in prayer.

Here they're worried of a real problem, a real concern. All these people in a desolate place, they came up with their own solution that put everybody out in their own task to feed themselves, but Christ had a better plan. Look to Him who heals, who has power and compassion. We too often limit ourselves to think what should be done based upon what we understand we can do rather than what God's grace might do.

Christ has already taught us in the Sermon on the Mount. We do not have because we do not. Here they came up with a plan. They did not ask Christ. Church, when it comes to what seems like impossible obstacles or barriers, we do need to pray. When it comes to time, energy, ministry, budgeting, finances, cost, effort, demand, our first instinct should not be what is this problem and how do we stop at that problem. How do we ask Christ as to what He might do that's going to far exceed what we could even ask or imagine.

There's nothing else here for the disciples. How often we think, well, that's their problem. They need to go figure it out on their own. That is the emphatic problem that Christ reverses. They should go find food for themselves. And Jesus says, no, you have a responsibility. You feed them, which was going to be humanly impossible for them. apart from Christ multiplying by his great power.

Disciples must learn how to steward the great power and grace of Christ. That means taking responsibility for others and not leaving them on their own. A few things we learn about Christ in this story. He's come with compassion. He cares about His creatures. He's come to care about His image bearers. He's come to care about those He's come to be with and to die for and to rise again for. He's come with great compassion towards us.

Second, He's patient with His disciples' lack of faith. They're worrying about a real problem, but they're not really expressing faith here in Christ. He demonstrates great patience for His disciples who lack faith. 30, he's come with great power to provide all that we need. He's come with great power to provide all that we need. Fourth, he calls his disciples to be his instruments of grace, to follow him in obedience and bless others.

Now, how could he multiply this food? How could he order the disciples this way? If we drop down to the grand confession of these stories together,

truly you're the son of God.

That is a confession that he has all power. That is a confession that he's fully God. That is a confession he's worthy of all worship. And if he's worthy of all worship, he's worthy of trusting him in the midst of real worry.

Again, you feed them. I'll provide the fish and the bread, you feed them. You simply need to be faithful to do what I provide and to serve others. Boy, that captures the nature of Christian ministry. You don't actually produce anything, you just offer what Christ has already done. If you want to think about what it means to be a Christian in serving others and ministering to others, you don't produce anything, you simply Give to others what Christ has given to you. You simply are faithful to steward what Christ has provided.

We too often can only offer what we can do or we won't offer it because we don't know how Christ will care for us. It really describes the whole Christian life. We're saved by grace through faith. And by following him in faith, he blesses us in our obedience. The real problem was they did not see Christ as the solution to their worry, but Christ provides a clear demonstration of his power to provide all that we need.

Do not fear, worship him

Our second story continues a very similar theme in verse 22. Do not worry, obey him. Here the contrast would be do not fear, worship him. Do not fear, worship him. Immediately, after feeding 5,000 men plus all the women and children,

he immediately 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 long away from the land, beat by the waves, for the wind was against him.

Take a moment here just look at these verses That that that are transitional to help us understand how the disciples got where they are to set up the story, but it's significant some timestamps remember the disciples they At evening we're worried about food and now we've got another evening reference Jesus prayed all day He is sought to be in this desolate place this is what he came to do to begin with and And there's a way in which prayer is unique in the New Testament and the New Covenant for us because we now get to pray in the name of the Son to the Father.

And so the way in which the Son is always communion with the Father, but I believe we need to look at this prayer of Jesus. This is the image of God depending upon his creator. Humans must depend upon their God and Creator and prayer is the most clear and explicit way that we learn how to and what it means to depend upon God, our Creator. Prayer is for the Christian as breathing is for the human. It's your source of strength in life. Jesus, the sinless human, had to pray. He pulled himself away to depend upon God as a sinless man to pray. Christian, we must learn how to pray. Jesus taught us,

Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

Prayer is essential for our depending upon God as his creatures. for depending upon God our Savior. I think prayer is so essential to the Christian life. And it's one of the hardest things to learn. That's why we do have public prayer meetings. I'm thankful for the Sunday morning prayer group that happens before the service. Thankful for our gathered prayer service in the evening. You should not ever want to be part of a church that does not pray together. is you'd want to participate in prayer with other Christians. Whether it be a home group, Sunday morning, Wednesday night. It's how we unify ourselves, it's how we grow to depend upon each other. And if you're a seasoned Christian who has a strong prayer life, praise God, come and teach others to pray. If you're like most Christians and you don't know how to pray, you feel weak in prayer, Come to the Wednesday night service. Come to the Sunday morning. Find other Christians or pray with you. I believe it's one of the disciplines that is really learned most clearly and faithfully with others in modeling. It isn't something we learn to do easily. It's something we learn to do together.

The next evening comes and he goes out to the disciples, the disciples are caught, sorry, the disciples are caught in the wind, they're being beaten by the waves. This is an explicit text, but Jesus, the creator and sustainer of all winds and seas and earth and orbits, he sent those disciples at that time into that wind and they've been there beaten all day long. And some of them are fishermen, they know the sea. So here we see The fishermen are caught in this raging sea, waves crashing. Verse 25,

and in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them.

All right, so if you're on a boat at night, you have four watches, 6 to 9, 9 to 12, 12 to 3, 3 to 6. So 3 AM. If you're up at 3 AM, you know it's very dark, and you should not be awake at 3 AM. You should go to sleep. But here, there's four watches in the boat at night, and the first watch is early. This is the darkest, the latest watch. So somewhere 3 a.m. to 6, he comes out to the disciples who've taken the only boat they've got. They're getting beaten by the waves, and that short phrase there, walking on the sea. So if you're a disciple, you're already probably a little worried because you haven't gotten anywhere because of the waves and the wind, they're beating against you. So that's already troublesome. And then all of a sudden you see a figure coming in the midst of the waves and the wind and the crashing and you see a figure coming and they have what is only the natural response, they're terrified. This is again, this is a right fear. Jesus never walked on water that we know of before. They would not know that Jesus is coming to walk on water. No created material being is designed to walk on water. Creative material beings are created to swim in water or walk on earth. Nothing walks on water. Which is why the ghast, it's a ghost, It's a spiritual being. It's an angel. It's a demon. It's something not material because that could hover over the water because nothing created material can walk on water. So they're terrified. They do what is absolutely natural here. They cry out in fear.

Take heart, it is I

Notice immediately, having heard their cries, Jesus speaks,

take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.

If you're gonna memorize a passage from our text today, that's it, it's simple, it's easy, there's three parts. The positive declaration, take heart. The ultimate reason why you're taking heart, the identity, it is I. And then as take heart is positive, do not be afraid is a negation. Take heart, do not be afraid. Be comforted, be courageous, do not be afraid. It is I, Christ says. In the midst of what is truly terrifying, he helps them with these words of affirmation. These words of instruction and care.

Now those first words, take heart, it's kind of a funny idiom. My kids read Amelia Bedelia. This would be something like snatching the heart out of somebody like Temple of Doom style, so it's not, you know, it's an idiom. Take heart. The words here are be confident, be courageous, be comforted. Those three words go together. Be confident, be courageous, be comforted.

It's kind of interesting, how do you build up somebody's confidence and courage, right? How do you encourage someone, which means you're building up their courage. How do you instill courage? Important to notice here, Jesus' declaration to be confident and courageous is not telling them to look in themselves and find strength. No, take courage, be confident. It's I. Be confident and encouraged because of Christ and in Christ.

It's important because the messiah of our age and cultures, the wisdom of our culture says be courageous, be you, express yourself and expect everybody else to help you be more confident in who you think you are. Find yourself and find affirmation in who you think you are.

You might think that's inaccurate or it's not even that new. I was recently watching Sound of Music with my children and these were the Lyrics inspiring generations, sung by a former nun.

I have confidence in sunshine. I have confidence in rain. I have confidence that spring will come again. Beside which you see I have confidence in me. All I trust I leave my heart to. All I trust becomes my own. I have confidence in confidence alone. I have confidence in confidence alone. Besides what you see, I have confidence in me.

Now, I hope I didn't ruin that movie for anyone. It's a great movie. But that message. Theologically, we have a technical word for this. It's gobbledygook. I have confidence in me. Oh, the decades that we have been training ourselves to have such a perverse view of where confidence comes from. That's the opposite of take heart, it is I. Be of good courage, it is I. Everything about our culture says be confident because of who you think you are.

One of Lisa and I's primary goals is to train daughters and encourage them to be confident and courageous. Mainly because I want to make them very intimidating for any doofuses or cowardly young boys. But the confidence they need and we all need, it's an indirect confidence. That's what's so strange about it. It's an indirect confidence because it's not only a confidence in me as an individual, it's confidence in who God declared me to be. Who God made me to be. What God has said about me. It is Him who gives me confidence. Not confidence is me in this individual life that I think I am isolated in. No, it's confidence in the God who says, it is I.

I am with you always.

There's a right way to be confident. By looking to him who created you, who saved you, who is with you. The right confidence and courage is not some raw individualism. You don't look in the mirror and simply say,

I'm smart enough, I'm good enough, and doggone it, people like me.

That is the false gospel of self. You might be smart. You might be people like you. You might be good enough. But it's only because of blessing and grace. In the midst of what is and appears terrifying, proper and comfort are properly found. Courage and comfort is properly found in Christ.

He clarifies he's not a ghost, it's me. And he's coming in a way that is just fantastically terrifying. He's walking on water that is raging with waves.

Now, I was really at rest with it. I kind of wondered, is he walking kind of up and down the waves, like stepping over them? Or did he just create like a flat, straight path through the waves? I think either one are pretty boss. But both show his complete absolute sovereignty over all his created elements. He's walking on water.

This is one of those miracles that people regularly identify as unique to Jesus and makes him somehow a unique power. But ultimately, it is his demonstrating he's the divine creator. He has power over the waters, the elements, and even Beyond that, the sea is a representation of the chaos of the fall. It's a key motif throughout the Bible. That's why Revelation says there will be no sea. There is no more chaos from the fall.

And in the midst of a chaos, waves crashing, he comes walking on that which is bringing terror to the disciples. He's showing himself to be the great creator and Savior worthy of all, all. Do not fear. Know Him. Worship Him.

The relief for real fear is to see how truly God is worthy of all reverence and all in worship. See, fear and reverence, they have this kind of Venn diagram. There's terror and there's reverence. The song Amazing Grace.

Him my fears relieved, and he taught me how to fear.

There's real frightening things in this world. Reverence for Christ is the true and absolute balm for all your fears.

It is I. Why we take heart, why we do not fear. It's the declaration that would be tied to I am. I am who I am or I am with you. It's tied to the name Yahweh, so it's not only demonstrating he's the creator God walking on the water, bringing calm to the chaos, but he's even saying that declaration, Egal Emi, used by John to make it very explicit. He is Yahweh.

The way to have your fears relieved is to know Him and recognize Him.

Lord, save me

Now, the story takes quite a turn in verse 28. He gives them words of comfort in the midst of their fear. And the story could end there, but not with Peter on the boat. Peter is such a Peter here.

If it's you, command that I come to you.

Peter among the disciples, he's your classic act first, think later. So here he makes quite a bold request.

If it's you, command me to come to you.

Here, Jesus says, come. You see here, there's a wonderful faith in Peter demonstrated. He heard his Savior speak. He heard it in his eye. He knows who that is. Well, if it's you, may I come to you?

All right, Jesus walking on water, that is his power as a son of God creator. What's amazing is that Peter walks on water, too, because of Jesus, the son of God creator, empowering and enabling him to do so. Peter could not do this on his own. It is only because Christ blesses him to do what only he by nature can do. Just like feeding 5,000 men with five loaves and two fish.

Jesus is walking on the water, he steps out of the boat. Having heard the words come, he steps in the boat and he, He walked in the water, and he starts coming to Jesus. He heard it in his eye. Let me come to you. And implied here is he's looking at Jesus. He sees Jesus, and as he's seeing Jesus, he's making his steps towards him.

Then verse 30.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.

Now Jesus just said, do not be afraid. As you're looking at him, as you hear him, as your faith is focused on him, you're walking and you're coming near him. But he gets distracted. He looks at the wind. He sees the waves crashing. He becomes afraid and he begins to sink.

We're answering how our focus has an incredible influence on her direction. This is pretty clear, as I have recently been trying to teach her. Lillian is driving now. That's not a warning. It's just a declaration. But as we were teaching her to drive, if you look at the line, to try to avoid the line, guess what you're going to do? You're going to drive towards the line. Your hand has kind of an interesting way, your direction is going to go where your focus is when you're driving. So you want to teach a young driver to look ahead, straight ahead, look where you want to go, not where you want to avoid.

This became very obvious to me in college. I did a lot of mountain biking. Well, if you want to avoid a rock or a root, the main goal, you don't look at the rock or the root you want to avoid. If you look at it, you're probably going to hit it. You look at the path where you want to go. It's incredible that our focus, our attention, our eyes have an incredible way of leading us where we're going to go.

Here, Peter's eyes focused on what's frightening, led him away from seeing Christ, took him out of that wonderful blessing of coming to Jesus, walking on water, he began to sink. Our focus, Away from Christ will take us away from Christ. Here he gets distracted by a real pressing problem all around him. And it does what it naturally would do. It caused him to fear. And he began to sink. And he cried out, Lord, save me.

What an incredible picture of the Christian life. We by faith ask, may I come to you? We make steps towards Christ. We get easily distracted by some real problem or a sinful tendency or a temptation. And then as we're sinking, we cry out, Lord, save me. And the most amazing thing about the Christian life is he always does. But again, how fickle we are, how easily we get distracted. How easily we turn our faith focus, our attention to something other than Christ. Because there's all kinds of problems, there's all kinds of real obstacles and difficulties and temptations, things that could be interesting, entertaining.

What really should stand out in the story is how easily we are distracted away from Christ and how quick he is to show grace to save us. Peter cries out. Jesus saves him. He stretches out his mighty right hand and pulls him out of the water. If you're here today, have you cried out to Jesus in a way that you know he saved you? Are you afraid of calling out to Jesus?

There's a couple reasons why you might be afraid of calling out to Jesus. He'll save you. He'll save you out of the sin that you enjoy and call you out of that sin. He'll save you and He'll show you how great His grace and His love and His power are. And there's something odd about our sinful hearts in that they turn hardened in a way that is actually terrified of a God who might actually come and change us. to show us how great His grace is and love is.

You can call out to Christ, save me. The Christ who came down to be like you in every way, the Christ who came down to die for you, the Christ who came and rose again. One clear truth throughout scripture, there is a sure hope Those who call upon the Lord, he saves. You can call out to him. If you're reluctant, if you're resistant, if you're afraid, please talk to somebody about why today.

He also calls you to faithfulness

Jesus immediately reached out his hand. He took hold of him.

And he says to him,

oh, you have little faith. Why did you doubt?

You see, faith is about where your focus is. Faith is a direction you're going. It's not merely intellectual assent. There's a way in which here he starts doubting because he sees other things more important or more pressing than Jesus.

We're prone to discouragement. We're very easily distracted people. We see obstacles. We become nearsighted. What is right in front of us becomes the most difficult or the most emphasized thing in our focus. This isn't Peter seeking to see something better like Adam and Eve. This is him seeing real problems and those real problems can oftentimes cause us to not really see Jesus.

pointing out Peter's lack of faith, I want you to see that doesn't stop Jesus from saving him. He is teaching Peter, you had a little faith, you lost focus too easy, but he saves Peter. He's teaching him that he needs to learn to walk faithfully, but he saves him.

I fear too many Christians live in the life that Peter might be representing here, that you come and you walk and then you fail quickly and that becomes a pattern repeated. Good news, that pattern doesn't have to be your life. Christ will save you every time you cry out to him and every time you fail. That shouldn't be the pattern.

The Christian life is foundationally you're forgiven as you confess sin. But the Christian life is also you're empowered by the very Holy Spirit of God. You're changed and transformed to create new patterns and new life and new hope and new ways of obedience.

Too often this is the over and over again pattern. The great news of Jesus Christ is he saves you. The good news of Jesus Christ is he also calls you to faithfulness.

Worship is the way

Notice verse 32,

when they got out of the boat, the wind ceased, and those on the boat worshiped him, saying, truly you are the son of God.

This is the full confession of Christ's deity here. There is no confusing, they worship him. These are good, monotheist Jewish devoted followers of Yahweh. And to bow down and worship Him is recognizing this must be the Creator. This must be Yahweh. This is Almighty God in the flesh somehow. You are the Son of God, full of deity, full of power.

Christian, we see here there's worry, there's fear, doubt. Other things that plague us are guilt. When we have these internal battles of guilt, fear, worry, there's something about us that our instinct is to isolate, to try to figure that out before we actually come to Jesus. That is the most counterproductive instinct you have.

The most productive thing to be would be the most counterintuitive. Worship is the way to come out of doubt. Worship is the way to come out of fear. Worship is the way to come out of worry. Again, worshiping Christ is a way to recognize what fears are. a right reverence for Christ. We can't figure out our own problems because most of them are self-imposed.

Don't believe the lie that you need to figure everything out and then you can come to Christ or then you can come and worship. No, the faithful trust in Christ to do what he says to do, to follow him with focus, to follow him with faith, to seek to worship him. That's how he provides peace over and over again throughout scripture.

Jesus says in this story, it is I.

Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.

The way this can be applied for us today is the same walking on water Jesus who says it is I here, says in Matthew 28,

all authority in heaven and earth are given to me. I am with you always.

He who has the authority to calm the sea. He who has the authority to walk on water. He has promised he is with us always.

In the midst of trials, in the midst of difficulties, in the midst of the mission to make disciples. Take heart. Christ is with us. Do not fear. Christ is with us. Ask Him to help you walk by faith that focuses on Him in the midst of the fears, the worries, the real problems, so that you might walk in the power of His Spirit and resurrected life.

Will you pray with me? Father, we come before you and confess we are a fickle people that forget not just what you have promised in your word, but how many times you have shown yourself faithful. Lord, I pray we would know how to encourage one another by pointing each other to Christ. I pray we would know how to build one another up in the confidence of who Christ is, and who we are together in Him, and how to grow up together in Him. We thank you for the just clear picture that we cry out to you when you save us. And also that clear promise that we can walk faithfully by your grace. Lord, may we know how to trust you in your grace and your power and compassion. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.