FBCWest 568 | Jesus Walks on Water
Recorded On: 08/20/2023
Bulletin
Hymn # 162 “Are You Washed in the Blood”
SCRIPTURE READING – Romans 5:8 & 9
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“House of the Lord”
“Overcome”
“Only King Forever”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Jesus Walks on Water”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Holy Forever”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Benediction “There Is Freedom”
Sermon Notes
John 6:15 Jesus goes to the mountains alone because the people want to forcibly take Him and make Him king
John 6:16 – 18 The disciples get in their boat and row, but because of the wind they make little progress
John 6:19 – 21 Jesus walks on water, the disciples after discovering it was Jesus they invited Him into their boat- the boat immediately arrives at the other side of the sea
John 6:22 – 24 The crowd looks for Jesus, but cannot find Him, so they got into boats and went to the other side of the sea
John 6:25 They found Jesus and asked how He got there But He does not answer that question
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Today we're going to take a look at one of Jesus's probably most well-known miracles. A miracle that shows his sovereignty over the natural world. However, there are two more aspects in this passage that shows in my belief is being the Son of God. We're going to take a look at all three of those events that shows who he is and we also take a look at what he says about himself. So come follow us along as we take a look at this passage.
Alright, well if you have your Bibles and you ought to, please turn to the Gospel of John chapter 6 and we'll be starting with verse 15. Now the context of this is that Jesus had just taken five body loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 men as well as men and women and children and once all of the leftovers were gathered up there were 12 baskets fulls of bread perhaps symbolizing one basket for each of the 12 disciples. And after this we see the response of the people in verse 15 after having received the bread and seen this miracle. So it says, "So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone." So we see a couple things here. Well we're going to see in a moment, it's probably one of the most well-known miracles of Jesus. It's so well known that people make jokes about it and that's just kind of the way the world does things and it demonstrates who he is. But oftentimes people pass by this verse onto the walking on the water and I want you to see a couple things here. First, this verse tells us that Jesus is the Son of God because no one tells him that people are intending to make him king. He perceives it. He understands the intentions of our heart which shows you how incredibly loving he is because he knows just how despicable and disgusting and evil our hearts are and yet he loves us anyway. But people seem to know about Jesus but they don't seem to know Jesus. Now I want to use kind of an analogy here to drive home a point because there's something that's happening that just irritates me. And so my analogy is you're waiting on a street corner for your child or your sibling to arrive and you're going to do something together and that child or sibling goes by the street careening out of control hits an unoccupied parked car becomes unconscious the fuel and the fuel tank starts to leak out towards an open flame. Now if it wasn't your child or sibling and if you were like most people today you would probably take out your cell phone and video it. But because you love the person you're going to take action. Now the action that you would take is if you would hear the way people describe Jesus is this. You would go up to the car make sure that the window was open and you would say you know
I understand exactly where you are. My life has been too out of control and I've careened into things and I understand exactly where you are. I relate to you. I understand you. It's terrible that this happens to you but I know exactly where you are. And then when the fuel gets close to the flame you walk away. That's not love. That's not even relating. What a person who does that would love you would get you out of the car take you to safety before the car blew up and burned to a crisp.
But we think that Jesus understands us and that Jesus relates to us and that Jesus is like us. Jesus isn't like us. Jesus is perfect. He's the son of God and he came not to relate to us but he came to save us to rescue us to redeem us to get us out of the fire and not only would Jesus get us out of the fire he would make sure that we were well that we were healed and then he would probably teach us how to drive so we wouldn't lose control again. Because you see Jesus came to save us from our sins not to relate to it not to understand it and not to be passive about it. He came that he died that we might be saved from our sins and that we might be dead to sin and alive to him. He loves us so much knowing our intentions and the evilness of our heart. He still acted anyway and it says that he did this because they wanted to make him king. And again so many people want to use Jesus rather than allowing Jesus to use them. They wanted political power. They wanted the Romans off their back and and I'm sure by saying okay if we make you king Jesus you'll want to give us benefits because we put you in power therefore give us special privileges. They wanted to use Jesus and Jesus said you're not using me. My kingdom at this point is one that I'm building spiritually and yes he's king of king and lord of lords but that kingdom that he's going to establish they're making about 2,000 years too soon. And so Jesus in this verse shows us that he understands that he perceives he has to have to be told he has the information that God has but he doesn't and refuses to be used by us. So he went to a mountain by himself and oftentimes Jesus will withdraw from the crowd. This is probably one of the most popular Jesus is going to ever be in his ministry and then a few messages we're going to see that that popularity is going to crash and burn because of his teaching. And so Jesus will withdraw by himself and oftentimes to the mountain and he will pray. It says now when evening came his disciples went down to the sea and after getting into a boat they started to cross the sea to Capernaum and it had already become dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. And so apparently there was some kind of information they said Jesus says okay I'm going to meet you at Capernaum we'll see you there and go I'm going to the mountain alone and it sounded like they were waiting maybe Jesus might show up and he does it so they decide to head off towards Capernaum on Tiberius or Sea of Galilee. And while they're making this crossing this is the sea began to be stirred up because of a strong wind was blowing. Then when they had rode about three or four miles okay so they're working the wind is working against them and they should be at Capernaum by now but instead they keep having to work and they're not getting anywhere. And after three or four miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea. Now some of the other gospel tells us that they became frightened they thought maybe he was a ghost and whatever and they were very concerned because let's face it
you don't see every day or any day somebody walking on water
showing that Jesus is sovereign over the natural world. He walks on water as if it was solid ground. And drawing near to the boat they were frightened and again you can understand this because it's something you don't really ever see. But he said to them it is I do not be afraid do not be afraid. Now unfortunately because of our English grammar they translated it this way because it makes more sense to us grammatically. But what Jesus really said was I am.
Jesus is acknowledging that he is God. When Moses asked well when I'm sent to your people
and they don't know who you are what name should I tell them you are. And he said tell them I am sent you. I am that I am. And Jesus will now and at other times in his ministry will use this title to say I am. So Jesus perceiving knowing who we are shows us that he is God. Walking on water shows us that he is God that he is not subject to the natural order of things. But he also makes a affirmative statement that he is God. And so he says I am. So they were willing to receive him into the boat because they were reassured that it's Jesus it wasn't a ghost it wasn't something else. And so they brought him in because they were confirmed that it was him. And it says and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. I think this is now the third demonstration that Jesus is God. Because he not only is knows our intentions of our heart and not only is the natural subject to his rule but so is time and space. They struggled to get to where they were going and they were immediately there when Jesus arrives. Three episodes that should give us faith that Jesus is who he said he is. Now I want you to notice something about him walking on water. He didn't walk on water while there was a fleet of boats out there to see him. He walked on water so that his disciples might see him. So they might take their little faith and grow it and increase. Just like when he turned water into wine he didn't do it so that the whole wedding party knew what he had done. His disciples and those who had put water into the water pots water pots knew what he had done. You see the whole world oftentimes wants us to see miracles and miracle after miracle but oftentimes miracles do not produce faith in people who don't have faith. It will be used to help us increase our faith but not to give us. Now verse 25.
I'm sorry. So the next day the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there except one and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat but that his disciples had gone away alone. So they're searching for Jesus. They're trying to make him king and they're trying to get some additional bread or whatever it is that their desires are. So they're searching for him. They can't figure out where he is because the disciples basically took the last boat to Capernaum and there weren't any other boats and so where is Jesus?
And there came other small boats from Tiberius near to the place where they had ate the bread that the Lord had given thanks. So the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples that they themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. Now I would say that this is an excellent thing for them to do. It is always good to seek Jesus. Their problem is they're seeking him for the wrong reason. We should seek him for the right reason but they're seeking him and again because they want their needs met they want their desires met and now what the Lord is. And then they said something and they're going to ask him a question and when they found him on the other side of the sea they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" Now I generally believe that there's no such thing as a stupid question and when people ask me a question they'll say, "Well that may be a stupid question." I usually 99 times out of 100 say, "No it's not a stupid question." Probably somebody else had the very same question and so I never try to put down questions. Although I do use it as an example I say, "If I were to tell you 2 plus 2 is 4 and immediately after I said that if you were to ask me how much is 2 plus 2 I would say that's a stupid question because I already told you the answer." Now this is a stupid question not because Jesus gave them the answer but because the answer will not give them the information that they're actually looking for because they said, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" And his answer was as soon as the disciples did but that wouldn't help them out because they saw the disciples leave in a separate boat without Jesus and so they would need to ask the next question which is the question they should have asked and maybe because I pretend to be a lawyer the questions are important to me so the question should have been, "Rabbi, how did you get here?"
Because then he could have said, "I walked on water." But they asked the wrong question.
All too often we in our seeking of spiritual information ask the wrong question. Ask the question that gets to the point. Ask the question that is beneficial. Their question and if you'll notice we will see next time Jesus never really answers the question because when he got there is unimportant and ultimately I guess if he was concerned with how he got there he would have told them how he got there but he's going to tell them why they sought him and their seeking him was not for faith. Their seeking him was for their benefit and that seems to be oftentimes where the church is today. It's all about us. It's all about our needs. It's all about our desires. It's all about our dreams. It's all about what we think ought to happen as opposed to say, "Jesus, what do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?" Instead,
when did you get here?
We see by his knowledge of our intentions. We see by his walking on water. We see by his statement, "I am" and we see by the immediate landing of the disciples boat and him on the shore after they had struggled that he is the son of God. The son of God.
John writes these things that we might see who Jesus is and that we might seek faith in him,
not seek for what he can do for me but seek him to know him, not about him but him to be in his presence. The crowd could be praised for their seeking Jesus that has sought him for the right reason. I pray that you and I seek him for the right reason because he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the son of God. He is the son of man. He is Messiah. He is the Christ. He is the redeeming one. He is the one who has loved us with an everlasting love. He is the one who is so obedient to the Father that he was obedient to the point of death so that we might be redeemed. He is our Redeemer. He is our Savior. He is holy, holy, holy and we should worship him that way and we should acknowledge him that way. And yes it is accurate and true and there's the hymnas says, "What a friend we have in Jesus" and it is true because using my analogy he didn't just take a cell phone picture of our problem. He didn't just come and try to relate to us. He came to save us and he did so. We'd only place our faith in him. Treat him as he deserves. The one who is holy. The one who is our older brother. The one who is our Redeemer. The one who is I am.