Walking by Faith

We are in our faith series, friends, and today we will peer into the life of the Apostle Peter, for here was a man who walked with the Lord Jesus Christ on a daily basis in a life of discipleship. I like studying this man, Peter, because he reminds me of me. Peter was a man who was continually putting his foot in his mouth and sticking his foot in a mud puddle, but he had remarkable highs in the Christian life that set him apart in his walk with Christ.

And I want us to read the story of Jesus walking on the water and how Peter stepped out on faith and walked atop the moving waves as well. And I want us to look at a facet in his life today that has been overlooked, I feel, by many sermons, which is focused on Peter's failure as he took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink, rather than focus on that aspect that he actually walked on the water. And that's what I want to draw our attention today, friends, that plain fact that Peter, a man, walked on water.

Well, how did this come about? The title of my message today, friends, is Walking by Faith, and my text can be found in the Gospel of Matthew. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in chapter 14 and beginning in verse 22.

We must frame the story with the backdrop that Jesus had just performed the miracle of the loaves and feeding the five thousand. Christ's disciples were eyewitnesses to this remarkable event and miracle of God Almighty. They were growing in faith as they walked with their Lord, even though he constantly challenged them with such remarks as, Where is your faith, ye of little faith? And in this instance of Jesus walking upon the water, his disciples experienced the supernatural in both the deliverance from danger on a raging sea, and also in witnessing another miracle of our Lord.

Jesus was continually teaching his men to walk by faith for a time would soon come when he would be crucified and their hopes would be dashed, and all they would have left was their faith to hang on to. I believe, friends, that the Lord Jesus wants to teach us faith as well as we walk by faith with him as his followers. He will stretch our faith.

He will strengthen our faith, and he will stress test our faith as we walk with him by faith along the narrow way. Well, let us look at our text as found in Matthew 14 and beginning in verse 22. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word.

And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him onto the other side while he sent the multitude away. I will pause here. The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and 8 miles wide, and because of its geography it's prone to sudden storms.

In the first century the historian Josephus said the lake had a thriving fishing industry of 230 boats which regularly worked the lake, and Christ's disciples were very familiar with these waters, especially John and James and Peter, who were betrayed fishermen. So when Jesus told his men to get into a ship and cross over to the other side, it was normal routine for them and nothing out of the ordinary. God delights in taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary.

I recall asking a minister friend of mine on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, who knew Duncan Campbell during the Lewis awakening, that powerful revival which gripped the island in the late 1940s, and I asked this Scottish minister to describe Duncan Campbell to me in one brief sentence. He thought long and hard, and then he replied, he was an ordinary man who had an extraordinary experience of God. And I believe, friends, this is what occurred on the lake that tumultuous evening, as the very ordinary disciples were witnesses to the extraordinary movements of God.

God can work in extraordinary ways in our lives today, friends. Oh, you have to believe that. To be part of God's work in the world through spreading the gospel can be a wonder to behold as God moves in the hearts of sinful men.

Well, let us get back to our story as seen in verse 23 and following. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray, and when the evening was come, he was there alone. Let me pause here.

Only a few hours ago, the grass was crowded with thousands of people mulling about and hanging on every word of our Lord Jesus. Now they are gone. His disciples are gone.

All is still. All is quiet as he communes with his Father in heaven. Oh, what a sight that solitary figure made on the side of that mountain top, praying with such power that he could have moved the very mountain into the sea at his command.

Now let us continue with our text. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. Let me pause again, friends.

Here we see how suddenly a storm can appear on that lake, and how suddenly a storm can appear in our life, unannounced as well. But notice something remarkable here. Jesus did not immediately go out to help his men and save them from danger.

He waited. He waited until the fourth watch of the night. The Roman watch was divided into parts, and the fourth watch were the hours between three a.m. and six a.m., and Jesus waited until then.

The disciples had been rowing in the wind and waves for hours, and they were dog-tired, and not only exhausted and getting nowhere. Have you ever had a time like that in your life, friend? It seemed, no matter how hard you worked, you got nowhere. Well, the disciples had come to the end of their self-reliance, and they needed a divine intervention.

Oh, how God the Father likes to put us into such adventures, to where we are at our wits' end, and don't know what else to do but to pray and to count on him. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit, and they cried out for fear.

But straight way, Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him, and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. Let me pause here, friends.

I believe Jesus got a kick out of Peter. I believe Jesus enjoyed Peter. I believe Jesus, when he heard the faith of Peter, and wanted to join him on the waves, he smiled and said, Come on, come on, if I may so speak.

And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. That's where I will stop reading, friends.

Most preachers focus on Peter's sinking faith as he takes his eyes off the Lord, and down he goes. But no, friends, we will not focus on that at all today. We will focus all of our attention on this remarkable man, Peter, who possessed the faith to get out of the boat and into the water.

The other disciples were quite content to stay in the boat and marvel at their friend as he skipped across the waves to his master in a supernatural walk with God. And do you know what, friends, when you take a walk in the supernatural, you don't want to get back in the boat of the ordinary. Walking by faith is a thing God desires from each of us.

In Hebrews, it declares, Without faith, it is impossible to please him. Oh, how I wish we could grab hold of that and grab hold of Jesus in a supernatural walk with him. I believe that if we asked him to join him in the impossible, he would smile and say to us, Come on, come on, come on.

Oh, great God, increase our faith as the prayer of this humble servant to thee. Grant us the grace to ask big things of thee. Give us the faith to join thee in your work and to experience you in an extraordinary way.

Let us pray.