1. "What do you do when you have a spare moment? Check Facebook, Instagram, Twitter? You know what people used to do? With that same time, they would pray. I'm not even talking about Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. I'm talking about your grandmother."

2. "Our adversities are God's opportunities. Our trials are often the occasions of God's grace, aren't they?"

3. "They seem to be more scared of their Savior than they are of their dangers. Irony of irony. They're more scared of what's going to save them than of the dangers that they faced at the moment."

4. "When we first begin to perceive God, the God of the Bible may cause us to fear, but He doesn't mean to leave us there. We're sometimes shocked and startled out of our humdrum lives."

5. "The Bible is clear in presenting Jesus as one who's far beyond any merely naturalistic explanation. I used to be an agnostic and I used to think of Jesus like a Gautama, a Buddha, or a Socrates, or a Nelson Mandela. But if that's you, friend, then you're going to need to find a whole new gear to take in evidence like we have in this eyewitness account."

6. "Who took hold of whom? It was not Peter grabbing hold of Jesus and holding on for dear life. I don't think that would have done him much good with wet hands, all the wind that's going on in the waves. No, it was Jesus who took hold of him."

7. "Brothers and sisters, we too should learn from this to focus not on what we need deliverance from, the winds and the waves, but to focus on the one who will deliver us."

8. "Every healing he performed was a knock on Satan's door, that his infernal days were numbered, that his kingdom was tottering."

9. "In that sense, all of Jesus' healings were less about the sick than they were signs that the life giver has come and who the life giver was and is."

10. "Jesus did this not to teach Peter a magic trick. He was demonstrating and displaying His unique authority. In fact, he was showing his identity. Jesus is the Savior come from God and is to be worshiped."

Observation Questions

1. According to Matthew 14:22-23, what did Jesus do immediately after feeding the 5,000, and where did He go after dismissing the crowds?

2. In verses 24-25, what conditions were the disciples facing on the boat, and at what time of night did Jesus come to them walking on the sea?

3. How did the disciples initially respond when they saw Jesus walking on the water, and what did Jesus immediately say to them (verses 26-27)?

4. In verses 28-30, what did Peter request of Jesus, what happened when Peter got out of the boat, and what caused him to begin sinking?

5. According to verse 31, how did Jesus respond when Peter cried out "Lord, save me," and what question did Jesus ask him?

6. What was the response of those in the boat after Jesus and Peter got in and the wind ceased, according to verses 32-33?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Jesus "made" the disciples get into the boat and then withdrew alone to pray? What does this reveal about His priorities and His relationship with the Father?

2. When Jesus said "Take heart, it is I (ego eimi), do not be afraid" (v. 27), how does this self-identification connect to God's revelation of His name to Moses, and what was Jesus communicating about His identity?

3. What is the significance of the contrast between Peter walking on water while focused on Jesus versus sinking when he "saw the wind"? What spiritual principle does this illustrate about faith and doubt?

4. How does the disciples' confession in verse 33—"Truly you are the Son of God"—represent a development in their understanding compared to their earlier question in Matthew 8:27, "What sort of man is this?"

5. How does Jesus walking on water and calming the storm demonstrate that He possesses powers that Scripture consistently attributes only to God (see Job 9:8; Psalm 77:19)?

Application Questions

1. Jesus prioritized time alone with His Father in prayer even after an exhausting day of ministry. What specific adjustments could you make to your daily routine this week to cultivate a more consistent habit of prayer, especially during busy or stressful seasons?

2. The disciples were more afraid of their Savior approaching them than of the storm threatening them. In what current situation in your life might you be fearing what God is doing rather than trusting that He is coming to help you?

3. Peter began to sink when he shifted his focus from Jesus to the wind and waves around him. What "winds" in your life—circumstances, fears, or distractions—tend to pull your attention away from Christ, and how can you practically refocus on Him this week?

4. Peter's immediate response when sinking was to cry out, "Lord, save me!" When you face moments of crisis or failure, what is typically your first response, and how might you cultivate the habit of turning immediately to Christ in prayer?

5. The people of Gennesaret eagerly brought their sick to Jesus because they knew His power to heal. Who in your life needs to be brought to Christ, and what is one concrete step you could take this week to introduce them to Him or share the gospel with them?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Job 9:1-12 — This passage describes God's sovereign power over creation, including walking on the waves of the sea, helping us understand the divine authority Jesus displayed by walking on water.

2. Psalm 77:11-20 — The psalmist recounts God's mighty deeds, including His path through the sea, connecting Jesus' actions to the God who led Israel through the waters in the Exodus.

3. John 6:14-21 — John's parallel account of Jesus walking on water provides additional details, including the people's attempt to make Jesus king and Jesus' words "It is I; do not be afraid."

4. Matthew 8:23-27 — This earlier account of Jesus calming a storm shows the disciples' developing understanding of Jesus, contrasting their question "What sort of man is this?" with their later confession that He is the Son of God.

5. Isaiah 43:1-7 — God promises His people not to fear when passing through waters, declaring "I am" and assuring them of His presence—themes that resonate with Jesus' words and actions in this passage.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Historical Illustration: William Jennings Bryan and the Question of How to Regard Singular Figures

II. The Challenge of Understanding Jesus in First-Century Judea (Matthew 14:22-36)

III. Admiring Jesus for His Devotion to Prayer (vv. 22-23)

IV. Wondering at Jesus' Power and Compassion in Healing (vv. 34-36)

V. Confusion at Jesus Walking on Water (vv. 24-27)

VI. Trusting Jesus as Peter Cries Out for Salvation (vv. 28-31)

VII. Worshiping Jesus as the Son of God (vv. 32-33)

VIII. Call to Trust and Worship Jesus in the New Exodus

Detailed Sermon Outline

Everyone knew that the Democratic Party was the Conservative Party, the party of small government.

It had been that way since it began under Thomas Jefferson and later Andrew Jackson, at least preaching, if not practicing always, the gospel of small federal government and the good of local control. The disastrous decision to accommodate and even support slavery left the democracy, as it was called, in shambles after the Civil War. Between the Civil War and World War I, only one Democrat managed to be elected president: the political unicorn Grover Cleveland, also the only man ever elected to two non-consecutive terms as president. One man almost single-handedly transformed the conservative Democratic Party of the 19th century into the progressive Democratic Party of Wilson and Roosevelt and Johnson. It was none other than the zealous reformer William Jennings Bryan, three times the nominee of the party, three times defeated at the polls.

The evangelistic Presbyterian layman was as religious a man as ever ran for our nation's highest office. Many of his ideas unenacted at the time of his death have become the shape of our federal government in the century since. In fact, some historians say he's responsible for more amendments to our Constitution than any other single individual except perhaps James Madison and the Bill of Rights. What are we to make of such a phenomenon as William Jennings Bryan?

Friend, that question that the historian may ask is only a dim illustration of the challenge facing first century Judea as the public ministry of Jesus of Nazareth stretched into its second and third years.

Crowds were growing. Controversy was becoming hotter. Opposition was solidifying, especially among leaders. And especially, especially among religious leaders. How is Jesus to be regarded?

You might get one answer from someone who had merely heard of Him, another from a chronically sick person looking for some hope, still another from some people in crisis, and yet another from His disciples. And even these seem to be evolving over time. As circumstances pulled back one curtain after another, revealed first one layer of Jesus' person and work, and then another. Day by day, Jesus was uncovering in the Scriptures teachings that His countrymen had misunderstood or even ignored about the coming Messiah. He was bringing them out and explaining them as they'd never been explained.

I think the disciples can be forgiven for being in a state of exhausted excitement by the time we rejoin them in our passage today in Matthew. We're in Matthew chapter 14, verses 22 to 26. If you're looking in the Bibles provided, you'll find that on page 820. They are at the end of a long day. This day for us began back in September when we were seeing the feeding of the 5,000.

It's that same day.

They saw Jesus draw a tremendous crowd. They just missed what seemed to be a pending crisis of hunger by Jesus miraculously feeding 5,000 people. And narrowly then avoid being crowned king, only then to have themselves thrust away from Jesus by being ordered into a dangerous, even life-threatening situation in a boat. This is all in the same day. Kind of like Americans of a century ago or historians today looking at William Jennings Bryan, the disciples had to figure out What to make of Jesus?

Who is this singular figure? And through the good offices of the Holy Spirit and the writers of the gospels, we today are brought along with them, faced ultimately with the same choice, a choice of far more importance than how we understand and evaluate a figure from America's political past. How we understand Jesus and orient ourselves to Him will affect not only our understanding of history, but our understanding of our own lives and of why we're alive and what we're about and so much more.

And so we rejoin Matthew's account of the ministry of Jesus at the end of a very long day, Matthew chapter 14 beginning at verse 22. 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. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, taken by the waves, for the wind was against them.

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.' Peter answered Him, 'Lord, if it is yous command me to come to youo 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 winds He was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

And those in the boat worshiped Him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.' and when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent around to all that region and brought to Him all who were sick. And implored Him that they might only touch the fringe of His garment.

And as many as touched it were made well.

Friends, I want us to look back through this text and consider various ways that Jesus was viewed, that we could understand Him today and see what that might mean for my life and yours. And I pray that as we do this, you will come to understand more and more of Jesus and why you are alive today. What is your attitude to Jesus this morning? I want to try to help clarify that as we look at different aspects of this day in the life of Jesus. First, do you admire him and his devotion?

I mean, even a skeptic like Thomas Jefferson would admire the way Jesus prays here. In verses 22 and 23, look at those verses again. Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After he dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. And when evening came, he was there alone.

Now John chapter 6 verse 15 lets us know that after this feeding of the 5,000, the people tried to make Jesus king. But Jesus somehow avoided it. Nevertheless, even though he avoided the title of king, look at what he's doing. He's still giving leadership. He's still moving the disciples to the boat, moving the crowds along.

It's interesting the way it says here, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat. Why did the disciples not want to get into the boat? We're not told. I don't know. They were fishermen, many of them.

They knew what to do in boats. But maybe he was making them get in at a bad time. Maybe it was a bad time of day to get into the boat. Maybe they could tell that the weather didn't look great. Jesus wasn't a fisherman.

He was a carpenter. Why is he putting into the boat now? Is it because he's a carpenter? It's a bad time to get into the boat? Jesus, I really don't want to get into the boat.

He made the disciples get into the boat. I don't know, maybe they just didn't want to leave Jesus, you know, but he made them get into the boat. And Jesus, whatever their reluctance is, they go, the disciples and Jesus, went to the mountain to pray alone, as we see him doing repeatedly in the Gospels. Jesus desired fellowship with His heavenly Father. He regularly made that a priority.

What do you do when you have a spare moment? Check Facebook, Instagram, Twitter? You know what people used to do? With that same time, they would pray. I'm not even talking about Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.

I'm talking about your grandmother. I'm talking about your older brother. They used to pray. Friends, you might want to be a little more thoughtful about what you do with your extra time through the day. There might be ways you could, maybe even while you're looking at Twitter, pray about what you're seeing on Twitter.

Turn it into a spiritual discipline. You bring your whole life before the Lord. I wonder if You're here today and you're not a Christian if you have much of an idea of what we Christians mean when we talk about prayer or having a relationship with God. Friend, you can actually have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe, with your Lord and Judge. That's what Jesus was all about.

That's why He came. He was slowly but surely teaching those around him about this. Even the people's rejection of Jesus, which was already beginning, was part of his plan to give himself as a sacrifice for sinners like you and me.

He bore God's good and just wrath, the punishment for all of the sins of all those who would ever repent and trust in him. That's why he would come to die on the cross. And he was raised from the dead to show that death had no claim on him. He was raised, as the Scriptures say, for our justification. And he ascended to heaven to present his sacrifice to his heavenly Father who calls us all now to turn from our sins and to trust in him as our Savior.

Are you doing that today? Do you want to know more of what it would mean for you to do that? Talk to any of us at the doors on the way out afterwards this morning. We would love to help you understand more of what it would mean for you to trust in Jesus Christ as your own Lord and Savior. We know that Jesus often prayed like this.

He sought a relationship with His Heavenly Father in a continuous fashion. After a busy day of ministry in Capernaum, He snuck off by himself the next morning to pray. He would often withdraw to the wilderness to pray. The disciples knew it and that's why they asked Him to teach them how to pray. We admire Jesus for His devotional life.

But there is more here in our passage, isn't there? We'll go down to the end of our passage and see your admiration perhaps ripen into number two, Wonder, wonder, wonder at Jesus' power and at Jesus' compassion as He heals. Look again at verse 34.

And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret, and when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent round to all that region and brought to Him all who were sick and implored Him that they might only touch the fringe of His garment. And as many as touched it were made well. Okay, so the boat with the disciples and Jesus landed in Gennesaret, which was a fertile, well-watered plain on the shores of the lake, just southwest of Capernaum, so on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. And there many sick were brought to Jesus. Now that simple fact alone bears testimony to the truthfulness of his reputation.

He had spent a lot of time in Capernaum just by there. If he was a faker, or if only one in fifty people had been healed, I doubt there would have been much of a crowd. But the very fact that there was a crowd tends to give rise to the understanding of why the crowd had come. And it would be because he had a reputation of actually being able to heal the sick. They were crowding to him as they did because of all the people he had recently healed in Capernaum.

And the sick weren't asking much. The people recognized, sent, brought, implored. Touched and were made well without ever seeing Him walk on the water. The people understood something of His power, even if they didn't understand His purpose or His person. They wanted merely to touch the fringe.

What's the fringe? What's interesting, you go back and you read the Pentateuch, it was required on Jewish men's clothing to have a tassel on the corner of their garment. The Lord had commanded that tassel through Moses to remind them of the law of God that they were to live in obedience to. You can see more about this if you want to read more about it at the end of Numbers chapter 15. This is presumably what the woman suffering with the discharge of blood had touched back in chapter 9 in Matthew's gospel when she was healed.

And such a healing is so appropriately associated with holiness, isn't it? That holiness would be understood to be life-giving. And in Jesus we see a perfect passion married to a perfect power. So we see here that all who managed to come to Jesus in person were healed. Now of course such physical healings were only previews of the most important healing that Jesus could offer.

And Matthew and the other gospels are full of the stories of people being healed by Jesus. This is part of what was prophesied would happen. When the Messiah came, He would bring life and health physically and spiritually.

Now, of course, all those who were physically healed were not delivered from sin's sentence of death. Theirs was a temporary reprieve at best. But it pointed to the eternal reprieve from sin and suffering that Jesus had come to bring. In that sense, all of Jesus' healings were less about the sick than they were signs that the life giver has come and who the life giver was and is. That's what his healings were about.

I love the eagerness of the people here to bring the others to Jesus. I think they stand as an encouragement, really a challenge to us to love those around us enough to bring them to Christ. Every healing he performed was a knock on Satan's door, that his infernal days were numbered, that his kingdom was tottering, because Isaiah's ancient words were being fulfilled. For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The Prince of Peace had come.

And He even now was in their neighborhood, and they wondered at His power.

But there's still more here in our passage, isn't there? And that more has led some to be confused. And this would be number three, confused by Jesus.

Here for the only time in Jesus' ministry, We have this account of Jesus walking on water. Look again 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. And in the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It's a ghost! They cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart; it is I.

Do not be afraid. Friends, what a vivid scene. If I only had these verses and we didn't have baptisms, I would preach just on these four verses for an hour. There is so much here. It's recounted in Mark and John as well.

In verse 24 we see the disciples, they were in the boat. The boat was being pummeled by the waves and the wind. But it was this strange providence of adversity that would be the opportunity For Jesus to show Himself to them more fully, as it so often is the case in our own lives. Our adversities are God's opportunities.

Our trials are often the occasions of God's grace, aren't they?

Then there in verse 25, the unexpected happens. Deep in the night, that fourth watch is from 3:00 to 6:00 a.m. So it's very, very late at night, or you could call it early in the morning, but the sun's not up, so it's deep in the night. Jesus came to them. That part doesn't surprise us.

Walking, that part doesn't surprise us. On the, well, he walked on the lots of things, ground, roads, you know, on the sea. Okay, that's the gotcha part right there. He was walking on the sea. The number of other times we see Jesus doing this are zero.

The number of times I've ever seen anybody doing this successfully are zero. The number of times some of the elders of our church tried this in the past in their Christian lives are more than zero. And you can inquire of various elders when they ever tried to in faith walk on water.

But it's unexpected. Now, it's not surprising that we see in verse 26 that the disciples were terrified and cried out. I mean, friends, it was dark and they were on a boat. They had been in this darkness for hours and on this boat for hours. They had been in this storm for hours.

If your nerves are ever going to be frayed, I mean, imagine turbulence on a plane for 15 minutes. Now make it like eight hours, six hours. They're fishermen. They know the thing well enough. So if they're scared, it's got to be going very poorly.

You add to that the fact that they saw this apparition, this phantom, maybe in the area they already associated with the realm of the dead. The Jews didn't like the water. They saw it as an area of confusion and of death. It's kind of like maybe us going through a graveyard at night. So these people are already strained to their wits end.

They see this phantom, this apparition walking on the water toward them. And strange for us, the readers, at that point, they shriek out. They seem to be more scared of their Savior. Than they are of their dangers. Irony of irony.

They're more scared of what's going to save them than of the dangers that they faced at the moment. Again, the implications for our own lives are just numerous as we consider parallels in our own experience.

Was their fear real? Yeah. Did they have any reason for that fear of Jesus? No, not at all. That was the wrong way to fear the Lord.

So, and you'll note in verse 27, Jesus immediately, he's so kind throughout this passage, he immediately spoke to them, he identified themselves, it is I, or more literally, he says in the Greek, ego eimi, I am. Did he mean this reprise of God sharing his name with Moses to combine with what their eyes were seeing as he exercised the powers of the Creator to walk on the water? To make it indisputable that they were seeing far more than a healer and an exorcist and a teacher before them.

Forty-three times in Isaiah, God says, I am, and He follows it with fear not. When we first begin to perceive God, the God of the Bible may cause us to fear, but He doesn't mean to leave us there. We're sometimes shocked and startled out of our humdrum lives. We begin to perceive that there really is a God and He really is holy. And we've really been made for a purpose.

And we haven't been living our days, not one of them, for that purpose. And all of a sudden a gigantic adjustment needs to be made. And we feel guilty because we are.

I wonder if you're feeling today anything like those disciples felt that night.

Is this what you expected of Jesus? Have you understood Jesus to be the incarnate Son of God, the Creator of the universe? Or have you thought of Him as more a sort of philosopher, a do-gooder?

The Bible is clear in presenting a Jesus as one who's far beyond any merely naturalistic explanation. I used to be an agnostic and I used to think of Jesus like a Gautama, a Buddha, or a Socrates, or a Nelson Mandela. But if that's you, friend, then I think you're going to need to find a whole new gear to take in evidence like we have in this eyewitness account of what Jesus did. Friends, contrary to the popular opinion, God is not passive. He is sovereign over your circumstances.

And it is in fact God who has come seeking you today, even as the Son of God came that night seeking out His distressed disciples. As Jesus revealed more and more of exactly who He is and what He came to do, the disciples inevitably were having old ideas disassembled and new ones put together. And as that happened, they knew some confusion.

Beyond whatever confusion may have been in the minds of some of the disciples, and Peter, we see an attitude number four, we see an attitude of trust, an attitude of trust. Peter knew something of his need and he knew that Jesus could meet it in a way that symbolized so much more than he likely meant in the moment when he cried out, Save me. Peter needed salvation. And he cried out to Jesus for it. And you know what?

Jesus saved Peter. Look again at verse 28. 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!' Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, 'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?' I love the fact that as soon as Jesus identified himself, Peter had faith to ask Jesus, if he could come to him on the water. Peter was willing to depend on Christ. This is the Peter we know in the Gospels. If there's a parable that's been given and nobody really understands it, it's Peter who'll probably say, Ah, Jesus, what did you mean by that?

You know, in a couple of chapters, in chapter 16, it's going to be Peter who much more knowingly confesses Jesus as the Messiah.

Wherever you are in the Gospels, Peter seems to want to be with Jesus. I mean, he wants to physically run over and just be next to him. That's Peter's character in the Gospels. Anyway, in verse 29, Jesus said, Yes. And so Peter did.

But in verse 30, what did Peter do? He began to focus on the dangers and he began to sink. But even then, let's not sell Peter short. What did he do? As soon as he begins to sink, well, he calls out to Jesus to save him.

He personified David's request in Psalm 69, save me, oh God, for the waters have come up to my neck. Hadn't Matthew told us back in chapter one that an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and informed him that Mary's son Jesus would save his people from their sins.

Jesus is the one who came to save. Brothers and sisters, we too should learn from this to focus not on what we need deliverance from, the winds and the waves, but to focus on the one who will deliver us. Turn to Christ and rely on Him. Put Him as the focus of your trust. Cultivate your trust in him.

I mean, to whom else would you entrust yourself? Who else would love you like this? Who else would you turn to? Peter's situation here reminds me of Jonah. In Jonah chapter 2, he's in the belly of the fish, and what does he cry out?

He cries out, Salvation is from the Lord. True, theologically, wonderfully pious. Also, remember who else would save him? I mean, there's pretty much nobody else in the market right there to save. It's really the Lord.

I think Peter's piety here is a bit like that too. It's just, Lord, save me. Great statement of faith. We should emulate it. Also, there's no one else standing on water.

I mean, he pretty much has a choice of one. But he still, he does choose that one. Lord, save me, he says. He realizes that Jesus is more than just a teacher, he can save him, and so he cried out for him. And I love the straightforwardness in verse 31.

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him. You know, there's no like, well, you're doubting, I'm gonna wait till you get that cleared up. Thank God he is not like that. How many of us who have doubts would survive as Christians if God were not like this? You know, can I just tell you, you have a doubting pastor?

Don't worry, I'm not about to apostatize. I was born in faith with doubt. Faith always wins when I think about it seriously. But sadly, I'm very at home with doubt. I think I understand a lot about doubt, at least my own experience.

I'm so glad that God is so kind and he is so gracious. I love the fact Jesus immediately reaches out and to notice, Who took hold of whom? It was not Peter grabbing hold of Jesus and holding on for dear life. I don't think that would have done him much good with wet hands, all the wind that's going on in the waves. No, it was Jesus who took hold of him.

And notice the quickness of Jesus' action and its effectiveness. I mean, Spurgeon would have whole points on each one of these facts, you know? But I'm just running through this. Okay, so Jesus saved Peter, and in so doing, Jesus was summarizing the whole of his relationship with Peter. Who else would Peter ever be able to trust in more than this one who having all power was so gentle and so merciful, even to one who was doubting at that very moment.

Peter could freshly testify with David, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. This sounds very much like the Jesus who would later testify in Jerusalem about His sheep, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of My hand. I tell you, brothers and sisters, Peter trusted the right person. He called out to the right one to save him. But there is something even beyond trust here in this passage.

That alone is insufficient for what you come to see and know about Jesus. Finally, our attitude should be one that we see here in verses 32 and 33, number one of five, so this would be five, an attitude of worship, an attitude of worship, as we recognize who Jesus is.

So here, Jesus saved the disciples.

And the disciples worshiped Jesus.

They worshiped Jesus as the Son of God. Look again at verse 32. And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped Him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.

So Jesus walks on water and is able to still the waves. We've sung about that in two or three of our songs today. Powerful testimony to His identity. You remember back in chapter 8, turn back to chapter 8. There was an incident very much like this one back in chapter 8.

It involved Jesus in a boat with the disciples in a storm on the sea with great waves. You see there, it's chapter 8, verses 23 to 27. And like Peter does here, so back in chapter 8, they implored Jesus, Save us. Now what they thought when he could do when they were asking him to do that isn't clear, but they did go to him and ask that. But what he did was he rebuked them for their little faith, just like he did Peter here, and then he rebuked the wind and the waves so that they entirely calmed.

But then look there in chapter 8, verse 27 at their response. What their response had been that time? What sort of man is this that even the winds and sea obey him? Okay, now friends, by the time we have this incident in chapter 14, we're probably a year or two later. Much more has happened.

The disciples have seen more. The disciples have heard more of His teaching. And it seems that they have understood more too. So back in our chapter we read in verse 33, this time they responded by worshiping Jesus and saying, Truly you are the Son of God. Now, Jesus is called the Son of God in all four of the Gospels.

Often in John's Gospel it's shortened just to the Son. Gabriel told Mary that her Son would be called that. And while it can have other meanings, its use with Jesus seems to have been popularly rooted in the time when Jesus was baptized and God audibly says, this is My beloved Son. And you know who seems to be the quickest to call Jesus that in public during his ministry? It's Satan and the demons.

It's kind of like Jesus was holding this one back a little bit more toward the end of his ministry, like he was holding back Messiah until they confessed it. And yet the demons, they were just not gonna waste any time like that. They knew exactly who he was and they wanted to get it out too early so that people would be confused. So they called him by who he was. As soon as they saw him, the Son of God, they knew who he was, the Son of God.

It's clearly used interchangeably with the Holy One of God and with Christ and Messiah. So while the disciples were only beginning to grasp Jesus' true identity, it would be incidents like this one that would help them grow in their understanding. You combine that with the statement here in verse 33 that they worshiped him, and you get a still more certain picture of their rising estimation of their rabbi. I mean, this is how the wise men of the East had come, it says, to do this to Jesus at his birth. This is what Satan asked Jesus to do in one of the temptations.

But Jesus responded and said that one should only worship God.

That's a sober reminder of the significance of what the disciples were doing here on this boat. Others are said in the Gospels to worship Jesus when we have less confidence of their understanding, the lepers, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the mother of the sons of Zebedee. And Jesus did tell one story in which one character is said to worship another one of the characters, a master. Which would mean to fall down in front of and to ask in humility. But generally, this word means worship, and it means worship that you would only give to God.

And the fact that the disciples are doing this after having just seen Jesus act with the powers of the Creator Himself, it seems most natural to take this as they're acknowledging and appreciating Jesus' divine nature. They clearly don't understand everything. Peter's confession, Matthew 16, is celebrated. Jesus says, this is what I'll build my church on. And then he gives his first prediction of his suffering on the cross.

So there's something still to come in Matthew 16, but there is a lot of more understanding that's coming here. As they saw Jesus walking on the water, and they saw him deliver. After they had just seen him feed the 5,000, some things were clearly beginning to come together in their minds. Jesus had just shown the kind of power over the water that the Scriptures consistently ascribe only to God. You can read about it in Job 9 or in Psalm 77.

Jesus did this not to teach Peter a magic trick, Hey, look, if you stare at me just this way, you climb out on water for a couple of seconds, you can walk on it. That is not what He was doing. He was demonstrating and displaying His unique authority. In fact, he was showing his identity. Jesus is the Savior come from God and is to be worshiped.

That's what these disciples were learning, that dark night in the boat.

You know, a lot of people today don't have fixed ideas about Jesus.

A hundred years ago, I think you'd walk around Washington, D.C. and ask people who Jesus was. You get a lot of the same answers. People say, He's the Son of God. He's the Son of God. He's the Savior.

He's the Son of God. He's the Savior. These days, I think most people would say He existed, but I think you get much more variety. People are freshly investigating. Friend, I hope this careful look through just this one incident in Matthew's Gospel will help you discover more of who Jesus is.

And give you more confidence if you've long known Him. In the freewheeling Europe of the 1960s and 1970s, Francis Schaeffer asked one question, one student, a few questions about Jesus that I think are pretty typical and pretty good questions. First, did she believe that God existed? God is clearly revealed in the Bible who was infinite and yet could be known personally. Second, did she recognize that she was a sinner in the light of His standards?

Did she believe that Jesus Christ truly came in space and time and history? And did she bow to Him and accept what He Christ did on the cross, taking the punishment deserved by sinners like her?

Schaeffer's questions are still good questions for us today. Looking back through our passage, we can see how the disciples and perhaps some of our attitudes toward Jesus have moved from admiration to wonder, through confusion to trust, and finally worship.

Given that on this same long day Jesus had fed the 5,000 and now He was delivering people through the waters, it seemed more and more obvious that he was the prophet Moses had promised in Deuteronomy 18, the prophet like himself who would be raised up, whose words the people would have to listen to. Now in Jesus, the new Exodus was beginning. As God was leading his people out of their bondage to sin, and into the salvation that only he could provide. Jesus was the new Moses of this true exodus, the one that in fact the old exodus out of Egypt had only been the merest dress rehearsal for. What they were about to see accomplished in the heavenlies and the powers with the eternal fate of untold millions.

Of people.

Friends, don't miss this new exodus, this deliverance. Trust Jesus and worship Him as the Son of God.

Let's pray together.

Lord God, we acknowledge youe as the Lord of all.

We thank youk for sending youg Son in condescending love to save us by youy grace.

We pray that yout would help us to understand more about the Lord Jesus from youm Word, and that yout would help us, like these disciples that day, to worship Him. Help us to do that even today. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.