Matthew 14:22-36: “Jesus’ Disciples Become Fearful In The Boat
As They Are Crossing The
by
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In the last study we saw that Jesus revealed God’s
ability to meet every need in our lives by miraculously feeding the 5,000
1.1.1.
It was just after this that Jesus sent the disciples
across the
1.1.2.
The disciples then got into trouble when a storm came
up, and Jesus came back to them walking on the water and stilled the seas
1.2.
In this incident we will see that Jesus is testing the
disciples to see whether or not they have learned anything from His miracle of
the feeding of the 5,000
1.2.1.
Oftentimes in our lives as Christians the Lord teaches
us things and then puts us in a test to see if we have learned our lesson yet
1.2.2.
If we don’t learn our lesson the first time God will
test us again afterwards to see if we have learned, for we will continue to be
tested in this way until we learn the lesson
2.
VS 14:22-23 - “22 And immediately He
made the disciples get into the boat, and go ahead of Him to the other side,
while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And after He had sent the multitudes
away, He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening,
He was there alone” - Jesus forced
His disciples into a boat to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and
then sent the multitude away
2.1.
I have a theory as to what was happening after Jesus fed the five
thousand. I believe that the twelve
actually got carried up in emotion after seeing Jesus perform this
miracle. I think that perhaps they
suddenly began to sense that Jesus could do anything, and they were beginning
to conceive of Him as being the prophesied Messiah. Therefore, I believe that they became ring
leaders among the multitude and perhaps even tried to incite them to take up
Jesus by force to
2.1.1.
In John 6:14, we read that the effect of Jesus’ performing the miracle of
feeding the five thousand is that the multitude began to marvel and say aloud
that Jesus must be the Messiah who is to come, and they were intending to come
and take Him by force to Jerusalem to make Him king, “14 When therefore the
people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is of a truth the
Prophet who is to come into the world.
15 Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take
Him by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone”
2.1.2.
In Matthew 14:22 strong language in the Greek is used in describing
Jesus’ having had to force the disciples into the boat to go to the other side of
the sea, however in a milder language it is written that He ‘sent’ the
multitude away
2.1.3.
Luke in his gospel account (which is not meant to be a sequential
account) does not include the next story Matthew has about Jesus coming to the
disciples walking on the sea, but rather in Luke 9:18-20 we read that the next
thing that Jesus did with the disciples was to ask Him who He was, and to this
Peter replied that He was, ‘The Christ of God’:
“18 And it came about that while He was praying alone, the disciples
were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the multitudes say that
I am?” 19 And they answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah;
but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.” 20 And He said to
them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ
of God”
2.2.
I believe that when the multitude was intending to take Jesus up by force
and make Him king, Jesus was tempted similarly as He was in His temptation of
the 40 days in the wilderness, to take up the kingdom by physical means,
however He rebuffed the temptation because He knew that He could not be king of
the people without being the king of their hearts, and that He must go to the
cross and pay for the debt of the sins of mankind
2.3.
Jesus often went to be alone with the Father in order to pray, and
certainly He knew that He and His disciples needed prayer at this point in
time, for He must have been physically exhausted after the events of the day
2.3.1.
If Jesus the Eternal and sinless Son of God often needed to retire away
to pray to the Father, how much more do we need to do so in our lives
3.
VS 14:24-26 - “24 But the boat was
already many stadia away from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was
contrary. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on
the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were
frightened, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear” - Jesus came to His disciples walking upon the
water
3.1.
It could be that part of the reluctance of the disciples to getting into
this boat and crossing the sea was that they saw that a storm was approaching
3.2.
The Roman military had divided up night watches into four 3 hour watches,
and with this being the fourth watch it was approx. 3 hours before daylight
when this incident occurred
3.3.
It appears that the disciples had originally begun to head out across the
narrow northern tip of the lake to go from
3.4.
We see in this story that in Jesus’ day there was superstition that
existed in people concerning seeing ghosts of departed people, as exists in our
culture even today, and even though the disciples should have just been
trusting Jesus knowing that since He told them to go across the lake that they
were going across the lake, they instead lost their perspective and became
frightened when they saw Him, thinking He was a ghost
3.4.1.
How often the disciple of Christ tends to lose focus upon the Lord and
walking in faith
3.4.2.
When the Lord tells you to go across the lake, you are going to go across
the lake
3.5.
But, to the disciple’s credit they had remained steadfastly obedient in
trying to row to the other side of the lake, and at this point they had been
working hard rowing for about 8-9 hours
3.5.1.
The disciples need to be commended here for continuing steadfastly in
obedience to Jesus command to try to row to the other side of the lake
3.5.2.
One author has written that really the only place of safety and security
is the place of obedience, for as this story illustrates, the Lord protects
those who labor obediently for Him
3.6.
When Jesus sent the disciples across the
3.6.1.
We as Christians sometimes become hard of heart and do not learn the
lessons that the Lord is trying to teach us, and this causes us to have to
learn the same lesson over and over again until we get it
3.6.2.
In Mark’s account of this story, Mark 6:51-52, we read that when Jesus
got into the boat with the disciples that the wind stopped and the disciples
marveled because they hadn’t learned anything about from the incident of the
loaves, “51 And He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and
they were greatly astonished, 52 for they had not gained any insight from the
incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened”
4.
VS 14:27 - “27 But immediately Jesus
spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid”” - Jesus tells the disciples to take courage and
not be afraid
4.1.
The perilous storm which Jesus had previously rescued His disciples from
had been less of a test in their faith, for they had Jesus with them the whole
time, only at that time He was asleep in the bottom of the boat, however what
was more frightening in this testing was that the disciples were alone and
about to perish
4.1.1.
In this testing, Jesus is trying to prepare the disciples for the time
when He would no longer be with them, and in the perilous times they would face
then they would need to trust in faith that though they couldn’t see Jesus with
the eye that His presence was with them none-the-less
4.1.2.
The disciples had forgotten that Jesus had previously sent them out on
their missionary journey to preach, heal, and cast out demons, and that they
went out at that time with the authority and power of Jesus, though He wasn’t
physically present with them
5.
VS 14:28-31 - “28 And Peter answered
Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” 29
And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and
came toward Jesus. 30 But seeing the wind, he became afraid, and beginning to
sink, he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” 31 And immediately Jesus stretched
out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “O you of little faith,
why did you doubt?”” - Peter walks
on the water
5.1.
Here again we see the impetuousness of the apostle Peter in asking the
Lord if He could also walk on the water, for it had not been the Lord’s plan
through His walking out to them in the boat for the disciples themselves to get
out of the boat and walk on the water as He was walking, rather it was just to
show them that they need just to trust Him in every situation and not to have
fear
5.1.1.
Peter’s impetuousness is also seen in the fact that he overestimated his
own faith and committed himself to something for which he was not able to
perform
5.1.2.
However, the Lord did not rebuke Peter in his request, but seeking to teach
him his own vulnerability and lack of faith, He allowed Peter to walk on the
water
5.1.3.
It is commendable that Peter ‘asked’ the Lord if he could walk out on the
water and that he did not just get out of the boat and in faith try to walk
5.1.4.
We have to realize that if any of us figuratively get out of our boat and
begin to walk on the water in our lives, and that it is not the Lord’s will
that we do this, that we will sink, for the faith that we have is not faith in
faith itself, not mind over matter, but it is faith that is placed in the Lord
and His Word
5.1.4.1.We Christians are warned not
to ‘put the Lord to the test’ and place ourselves recklessly in harms way
trusting that the Lord will protect us
5.2.
We can learn from this incident something that can apply to each day in
our life, for just as Peter looked at the wind and waves and began to sink, if
we take our eyes off of the Lord and begin to look instead at our
circumstances, we also will begin to sink in despair and unbelief
5.2.1.
As someone once said, “If we gaze upon the Lord the bigger and mightier
He becomes, and the smaller our circumstances then become; however, if we gaze upon our circumstances
they become bigger and mightier, and the Lord becomes smaller and smaller”
5.3.
I like the fact that because of the Lord’s compassion and mercy He first
saved Peter from sinking before He rebuked him for his lack of faith
6.
VS 14:32-34 - “32 And when they got
into the boat, the wind stopped. 33 And those who were in the boat worshiped
Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” 34 And when they had crossed over, they came
to land at Gennesaret” - When Jesus
and Peter enter the boat the wind immediately stops
6.1.
In John’s account, John 6:21, John adds an additional detail that is very
significant yet left out of the other three gospel writer’s accounts. He recounts for us that when Jesus entered
the boat that the wind immediately stopped but also that they were immediately
at the shore where they had been going, as if they were transported there, “21 They
were willing therefore to receive Him into the boat; and immediately the boat
was at the land to which they were going”
6.1.1.
You see when we allow Jesus to be in our boat with us we will be truly
safe and nothing shall be able to cause real harm
6.2.
The effect on the disciples in seeing this miracle is that for the first
time they:
6.2.1.
‘worshipped Him’
6.2.2.
began to understand that He was ‘God’s Son’
6.3.
It is no wonder that since this miracle had produced this effect on the
disciples that as Luke 9:18-20 reveals to us, Jesus next asked the disciples
the two part question:
6.3.1.
‘Who do people say that I am?’
6.3.2.
‘Who do you say that I am?’
6.4.
Notice here that Jesus did not rebuke them for worshipping Him, for He
was the Son of God from all eternity, and He knew that He was worthy of worship
6.4.1.
If Jesus were not God and He did not rebuke people from worshipping Him
this would have been the most evil of things that He could have done, for a
desire to be worshipped was the horrible sin that caused Lucifer to fall
6.4.2.
Notice that much later, after Jesus was raised from the dead, that in
John 20:28 it is recorded that Thomas, after he had first missed being with the
twelve when Jesus appeared to them, when Jesus appeared next to them he
worshipped Him and said, “My Lord and my God”, as Jesus appeared and asked
Thomas to thrust his hand into His side and feel the spear wound, that in that
instance as in all others in which the disciples worshipped Him after He had
been raised from the dead, Jesus never refused their worshipped nor rebuked
them
7.
VS 14:35-36 - “35 And when the men of
that place recognized Him, they sent into all that surrounding district and
brought to Him all who were sick; 36 and they began to entreat Him that they
might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured” - The men of that place recognized Jesus and
brought their sick to Jesus so that they might just touch the fringe of His
cloak in order to be healed
7.1.
This is just one of many accounts of multitudes of people coming to Jesus
with all of their sick and those afflicted with demons, and Jesus healing them
all
7.2.
Here in this incident the people were coming just so that they might
touch the fringe of His cloak in order to be healed, and all who did so were
healed
7.2.1.
The multitudes might have heard of Jesus’ former miracle where the woman
with the hemorrage of 12 years came and touched the hem of his garment in faith
and that she was healed