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Water is one of the world’s most mysterious and necessary substances. Most of us can’t go more than a couple of days without drinking water, or we will die. 60% of our bodies are water (on average). This is really kind of weird: 80-85% of your brain is water. That may explain some things. That was helpful for me to know. I feel like I’m drowning. Most of our bodily functions are impossible without water. 71% of the earth’s surface is water, and the fine-tuned properties of water are vital for our survival. Let me just give you one example.
Water is unusual in that when it moves from liquid to solid, it actually becomes less dense, not more. Why is that significant? Well, when water becomes solid, it becomes lighter and floats. That means your ice stays on the top of your drink, which is vital. It doesn’t sink. Well, why does that matter?
If water were more dense as a solid, then ice would sink. As Andrew Wilson has pointed out, if ice sinks, icebergs sink. If icebergs sink, they don’t come in contact with the sun, therefore, they don’t melt. If they are on the bottom of the sea, then the sea would freeze from the bottom up, and we’re all dead. Just a little problem. One change to one substance (water), and we’re done.
The Bible begins and ends with water.
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2).
The last chapter of the Bible:
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).
When God decided to judge humanity in Genesis 6, he simply gave us too much water. We call it a flood. When God delivered Israel from Egypt and rescued them from Pharaoh’s army, he parted the sea and led them on dry ground through water.
When the people of God stand in awe of God’s wonder-working power, their praise often refers to water. One example, Psalm 77. Notice how water is personified.
“When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled. The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows flashed on every side… Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen” (Psalm 77:16, 17, 19).
It’s another way of saying God’s ways are mighty and mysterious. Oceans are his hiking trails, yet they cover his tracks. They wash away his footprints.
Last week in Matthew 14, we saw King Jesus feed about 20,000 people (if you include men, women, children, everyone) from five loaves and two fish. Jesus is using food to communicate his identity as God. This week, as we behold the King in Matthew, he uses water to reveal his identity. He is sovereign over the storm, over the wind, and the waves.
In Matthew 14:22-33 — There is so much here. There’s no way we can cover every detail, but we’re going to cover the whole thing — we’re going to focus in on one particular question. As we answer that question, I believe it’s going to lead us to the ultimate point of the passage.
The question is, what is it like to follow Jesus without Jesus? The passage gives us three examples. When we follow Jesus without Jesus, we are feeble, fearful, and fickle. We’ll look at those one at a time as we work through the passage, and they’re going to lead us right to the main point of the passage.
1. When we follow Jesus without Jesus, we are feeble.
“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” (Matthew 14:22-23).
Jesus just fed thousands of people, and then he does three things in rapid succession.
We don’t know what he was praying about. Perhaps he is still processing with his Father the loss of John the Baptist. Perhaps he’s talking to his Father about what just happened. Matthew didn’t mention it, but if you go to John 6, at the end of the feeding of the 5,000 men (20,000 men, women, children possibly), John 6 tells us that the people were so intoxicated with the free food and what that meant for their daily lives (i.e. the idea that they would never have to farm or fish again), that they demanded that Jesus stay with them and be their king. “It’s right there! A human food truck in our midst! We’re good, just stay.” Their desire was to assume he would meet all their needs forever.
This demand that Jesus become a king in their own image may explain why Jesus separates the disciples from the crowd so abruptly. If you look at verse 22, it seems weird that Jesus made the disciples get into the boat. The Greek there is pretty strong (e.g. compel). “You! You guys, in the boat. Cross the sea. Crowd, y’all, time to go. I’m not going to be your Burger King. That’s not why I came.”
He gladly met their needs. They were hungry. But he’s not going to allow the delusional dreams of the masses to define his mission, what he came to do. I wonder if he separated the disciples because they’re like, “Yeah! Let’s do this. Set him up as king. Feed us all now, forever.” “You, in the boat.” Like a parent, “I’m going to sit between you. Separate you.”
There’s a big discipleship point here. Jesus knows, at this point, his disciples need storm training more than they need the comfort and security of a divine GrubHub. Keep that in mind. When God sends you into a storm, he’s not doing it to punish you. He knows what you need, and he has a very good reason, even if we don’t know the reason yet.
Jesus heads up the mountain. He’s alone with his Father. There are many beautiful prayer spots surrounding the Sea of Galilee. It’s stunning. But the disciples were not enjoying the view. Look at verse 24.
“…but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them” (Matthew 14:24).
The Sea of Galilee is not very big. It’s actually not a sea, it’s a lake. It’s about 13 miles long, eight miles wide at the widest. It is the lowest freshwater lake in the world, and it’s surrounded by mountains. So it creates the perfect atmosphere for the cool mountain air to collide with the warm lake air and create massive and instantaneous disturbances of wind and waves. You see that in verse 24: “The wind was against them.” Both in intensity and in direction. They’re not making much progress rolling into a storm.
Mark 6:48 tells us of this same scene,
“They were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them.”
So picture the disciples: it’s pouring rain, they’re soaking wet, their backs are aching. They’re probably thinking, “What was Jesus thinking, sending us into the storm while he goes on a prayer retreat?” This is what I mean by following Jesus without Jesus.
Remember, the disciples are doing what Jesus told them to do. They’re literally following Jesus. He said, “Get in the boat. Cross.” They’re obeying, and they want to obey. But if we compare this with Mark 6:52, we know of the same scene, that the disciples’ hearts are not in a good place. They missed the point of the miracle (the feeding). So you can imagine them with aching backs and soaking clothes and fighting this storm, feeling quite feeble, getting nowhere fast.
I wonder, are some of us in that same place? Following Jesus without Jesus. What I mean by that is following Jesus without a sense and awareness of his presence and power with us. I don’t mean going through a trial. You can go through a trial with Jesus. I mean, you’re facing really hard things, but you don’t have any confidence that he is with you. You might have a lot of sincere desire, like “I’m going to do the right thing, Jesus! I’m going to push through!” Let me give you two examples. These are two among many common ways we try to follow Jesus without Jesus.
We hear the words of Jesus, and we’re committed to obey (that’s good), but rather than humble our hearts and acknowledge “we can’t do it without you, Lord. I can’t, I’ve tried. Fill me, enable me to do what I can never do in and of myself by the power you pour in and through me as you are with me.” No, we don’t do that. We put our head down and we try to row harder. Muscle through this. We’re committed. You can count on me.
We become a little bit like Israel in Deuteronomy 1. Do you remember when Israel was called by God to go into the promised land and claim what God had given? They send spies, and the majority of the spies come back and say, “Uh-uh. These people are giants, huge.” The people are like, “We’re not going.” And so God says, “Okay. Stay in the wilderness until you die.” Then they’re like, “We’re going!” He said, “No, not now.” “We’re going anyway!” They go without the presence and power of God, and it doesn’t go well. They get shellacked. It’s such a vivid picture of the way many of us try to live our lives. It’s not what Jesus has called us to. It’s that mindset: we can hear a message like this morning’s and then say to ourselves, “It’s going to be different this week!” We’re trying to prove ourselves.
A second common way we try to follow Jesus without Jesus is to test him. “So here’s the deal, God. I’m going to start reading my Bible more, but you have to heal my leg. I’ll stop looking at porn, but you have to give me a girlfriend.” Here’s a big one: “We’ll serve you in ministry, but you have to protect our family.” It’s a kind of negotiating, bartering. “God, if you come through, I’ll come through.”
Do you see a problem with this? Please just lie to me and shake your head yes. Please pretend. Please see a problem with this. This is Religion 101. This is the way all religions work. Whether you’re talking about the five pillars of Islam, the eightfold path of Buddhism, the 10 disciplines of Hinduism, or a myriad of others. It’s basically, we have to try to do enough to balance the scales so that we feel we’ve done our part, and then we can look to God to do his part. I do, now God, you do.”
The gospel of Jesus is so different from this. First of all, we have nothing to barter with. What do you have that God needs? Also, what do you have that he didn’t give you, including the brain cells to think about the question? All—the Bible tells us—our righteousness is as filthy rags. You’re giving God a snot-covered Kleenex as a gift. Really? You’re going to impress a holy God through self-effort? No. It’s never enough. It leaves us empty and frustrated and deconstructing whatever faith we thought we had. That’s not the gospel.
We come to God with empty hands. “God, I have nothing.” And God says to us, “I’ve given you everything. I sent my son to die and pay for all your inabilities, all your sin and failure.” That’s the good news. It’s not, “I do so God do,” it’s “God’s done.” He pours out his grace on us, which is a forgiving, empowering favor. The smile of God, and nothing can separate us from that smile.
Now, some of you are thinking, “Are you jumping ahead?” Yeah. We’re back in 14. Jesus is on his way to the cross. But I find it fascinating that Jesus is doing storm training to begin training his disciples now to think in gospel categories. Not in “I do to prove anything,” otherwise, why would he go to the cross? This storm training is recalibrating the disciples’ thinking so that they can see Jesus for who he really is and respond appropriately. So, when you try to follow Jesus without Jesus, we’re going to be feeble.
2. When we follow Jesus without Jesus, we are fearful.
“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” (Matthew 14:25-27).
As Ryan talked about last week, we in our culture have a hard time with miracles. Why? Because people don’t walk on water. We know that. “Science tells us.” We could have figured that out. People don’t walk on water. There are a lot of reasons we struggle with miracles, but one of them is we don’t know who Jesus is. Let me illustrate.
In a biography I read a while ago about Elon Musk, it tells a story—this is before he got into politics—it tells the story of when he was walking through one of his Tesla assembly lines. He was really frustrated because this one particular section was not moving fast enough. There was a robot that was simply bolting down a partially completed car body on skids so that it could continue on. He was trying to get someone to get it to go faster, and nobody was doing it. So he took apart the robot, recoded it right there, and got the robot to go two and a half times faster than what the process was taking.
The analogy breaks down because Musk, as smart as he is, hasn’t created anything. He’s working with created things. Jesus creates. He made everything. He coded water so that when it becomes a substance, it actually is less dense, so that in winter, if it gets cold enough, all of us can walk on water.
So, how hard is it for Jesus to recode water so that he can use it temporarily as a hiking trail? It’s not a big deal for the one who made it and knows exactly how it was coded and can be recoded. It’s a big deal for us, not a big deal for him. Remember Psalm 77:19,
“Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.”
You walk on water, we don’t know how.
When the disciples see Jesus walking on the water, their first thought is not, “Oh good, we’re safe! We knew you’d come through.” Their first thought is the same thought we all would have: people don’t walk on water. So they logically thought it was a zombie apocalypse. It’s an undead dead person. I’m thinking they probably thought Jesus grabbed a little rowboat, was coming out to catch up to them, got swamped by a wave, drowned, and now his ghost is coming after them. Seems as reasonable as walking on water.
Notice they’re terrified, verse 26. Terrified. That Greek word has the idea of turbulence, kind of like just as turbulent as the sea. Their brains are turbulent. This is the second example of what it’s like to follow Jesus without Jesus: when you’re not living with an awareness of who Jesus is and what he can do, when he does do the unexpected, you write it off as a ghost story. You try to come up with some other explanation. The fear blinds us to who he is and what he does, and we default to spooky explanations. We’re fearful.
Jesus, notice, doesn’t condemn them. He is quick to calm their fears. Verse 27, “Take heart.” That expression is so cool. It combines comfort and courage. “It’s going to be okay.”
Then he says, “It is I” (ego eimi), which loosely could be translated, “It’s me, Jesus. Look, not a ghost. The real thing.” It literally could be translated, “I am,” which in the minds of the disciples would have taken them immediately back to Exodus 3:14, when God reveals himself to Moses and says, “I am who I am,” which is similar to a statement Jesus makes to John in Revelation 1:17, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.” Not the zombie, the living One.
Expressions that God uses in the Old Testament referring exclusively to himself, Jesus uses of himself. He is the living, unchanging Lord of history, Lord of nature, Lord of water. In the presence of Jesus, the fear of wind and waves takes a back seat. But there’s one more example I want us to see of what it’s like to follow Jesus without Jesus, and then we’ll get to the main point.
3. When we follow Jesus without Jesus, we are not only feeble and fearful, we are fickle.
“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’” (Matthew 14:28-30).
It’s easy to pick on Peter for his fickle faith, but he got out of the boat. I think I’ve shared with you a while ago, when the last group from North Hills was over in Israel a few years ago, and we were out on the Sea of Galilee, a storm came up— not quite this big, but still a significant storm. We were talking about Jesus calming the storm and walking on water. I tried to get Tim Wadsworth, our youth guy, to walk on the water, but he wouldn’t get out of the boat. Hmm, can’t get good help. Notice I was still in the boat.
Peter did get out of the boat and walked on the water, but as soon as he took his eyes off Jesus, and he began to look around at the power and the effects of the wind and the white caps and the boat bobbing around as if powerless, suddenly he feared and began sinking. This would be the third example of following Jesus without Jesus.
When Peter slipped back to his old way of thinking, acting as if Jesus is not who he claims to be (and who Peter knew he was), he started to sink. But here’s the good news: when he cries out to Jesus,
“Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:31)
“Lord, save me!” Immediately.
That word doubt (distazo) means to waver or vacillate. It’s from two words (it’s sometimes dangerous doing this, but in this case, it makes sense): “dis” is two or double. “Stazo” is stand. He’s saying, “Peter, you’re trying to stand in two places at the same time.”
Faith and fear: I’m confident Jesus is with me and he is who he claims to be; I don’t know. I’m not sure if he is who he says he is or if he’s with me. Two stances. Peter’s faith is fickle. One minute, he’s sure of who Jesus is; the next minute, he questions everything.
This is one of the most encouraging things about this story: when Peter said, “Lord, save me—” Like save me, right in the middle of my fickle, two-stance faith. Jesus doesn’t say, “I don’t know, Peter. I think you really deserve to drown.” No. Don’t miss this. This gives me hope. It’s the only reason I’m standing up here teaching today.
Jesus saves fickle disciples.
Jesus saves fickle disciples. We may waver. He does not. We question, “He’s with me, he’s not with me. I’ve done too much. He abandoned me.” What are the last words in the gospel of Matthew? “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). One of the early statements in the Gospel of Matthew describing Jesus (Matthew 1:23): his name is Emmanuel. What does that mean? God with us. Like bookends around the Gospel of Matthew: I’m with you, I am with you.
“And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.”
Jesus says storm training’s over.
“And those in the boat worshiped him, saying—”
And here’s the main point of the story.
“Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 32-33).
There’s so much there. You are the Lord of the storm. But even more personally, you know exactly how to use the storm properly in our fickle, fearful hearts. It’s stunning how Jesus reveals his identity to the disciples in such patient, personal, yet powerful ways.
When Hudson Taylor first began ministering as a missionary in China, he knew what it was like to follow Jesus without Jesus. He was a Christian, but he knew what it was like to follow him without a deep conviction of his presence and power in his life and in his ministry. He was serving God, but felt far from him. He wrote to his sister at this time:
“I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for meditation— but all without avail.”
His sin, his failure, his weakness felt very close. He felt feeble, fearful, and fickle. Jesus felt far.
After many months of this, he received a letter from a friend who wrote about our oneness with Jesus. His death becomes our death. His burial, his resurrection becomes our burial, our resurrection. The shape of his life becomes the shape of our lives. That is what it means to be objectively abiding in Jesus, and Hudson Taylor knew that.
As he meditated on John 15, he suddenly grasped what we could call the subjective experience in the day-to-day storms of life of what it means to abide in Jesus. Look at John 15:4.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).
Taylor realized that’s what he was trying to do. He was trying to do something for God. He was trying to earn something, or prove something, or (he even used these words:) get something that he needed.
One of the verses that the Lord used at that time to transform his thinking was Galatians 2:20.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
When his eyes were opened to that, what it means to be in union with Jesus—both objectively through his work and subjectively as we respond in faith and experience that abiding through the storms and good times of life—Taylor experienced an ongoing joy and peace and steadfastness that continued for the rest of his life. This wasn’t episodic.
You say, “Well, maybe he’s different. He had a really good life.” Oh yeah, read his life: his precious wife died at 34. They buried multiple children. He had many missionaries that he was personally over who were killed during the Boxer Rebellion. Horrific experiences.
How did he have joy and peace and steadfastness through the storms of life? The short version, he would tell you (and he writes this), is knowing Jesus’s words, “I am with you always.” Always. In the beautiful scenes where thousands are fed, “I’m with you.” In the storm where you don’t think you can go another moment, “I’m with you.”
I believe the Spirit of God is sending many of us right now through storm training so that we will learn the vanity of trying to follow Jesus without Jesus. We know that in our heads. But without an awareness of his presence and power, you might say, “Well, how do I know if I’m doing that?”
Two simple questions:
1. Are you following Jesus?
It simply means, are you a believer in Jesus Christ? Have you repented from your sin and put your faith in Jesus? That shapes the way you’re going to follow Him.
2. Are you convinced that he’s with you?
We have to be careful here because what I don’t mean is that we’re always going to feel a certain emotional confidence. We all have our good days/bad days emotionally. But there is a conviction when we realize Jesus’s promise is really true. “I am with you always,” even on the days when I mess up. Even on the days when my faith is feeble, fickle, and fearful, he is with me. Do you believe that? Or are you waiting ’till you prove yourself? Like, if I can do something consistently or give up something sincerely enough, then maybe he’ll be with me. Now that’s following Jesus without Jesus.
To respond to this word, because I think some of us need to put a stake in the ground today, like now. The choir’s going to come and they’re going to sing a prayer. The song they’re going to sing is a super simple song. We’re not singing this for its deep, rich theology, although it is deep and rich. Super simple. Simply “God turn it around.” Because when you are in a desperate place, like Peter, he wasn’t praying ornate prayers. “Lord, save me!” And Jesus responded.
Some of us are in that place right now. “It’s time, it’s time. Lord, turn it around.” What does that mean? Maybe first, my heart, which is thinking untrue things about you, Jesus, trying to prove myself or earn something or do better in my own fleshly power. It’s never going to work. So God, change my heart. It might be for someone you’re concerned about. It might be for your marriage. God, turn it around.
I’m going to ask you in a moment to stand. I’m not really concerned that you sing. I hope many of you want to jump in as soon as you pick up on it, but all of us need to pray, to pray that simple prayer: “God, turn it around, because our hope is in you. Not in ourselves, it’s in you.”
If we can join you in that prayer, we’ll have people up front. We have some prayer benches off in the shadows if you say, “I don’t feel comfortable right in front of people, feel free.” Or there’ll be people in the back. But let’s use this time. You say, “Well, I’m not ready to get out of the boat.” Maybe you can start by getting out of your seat.
The first step of faith is to say, “Jesus, I want to follow you today, not based on my performance, but based on your kindness and sacrifice. You defeated sin and death. I’m following you, I’m trusting you.” So let’s stand together.
Join in singing when you feel like it, when you pick it up, but start praying right away, this simple prayer. If we can pray with you, utilize this opportunity to step out.
