Allen Laben - Class 2: Following

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   We're going to read Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 through 36 in preparation for our second class. Matthew 14 verses 22 through 36. And straightway Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship and to go before Him unto the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 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.

2. 0:44

   But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. 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.

3. 1:04

   But straightway Jesus spoke 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. And He said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, He walked on the water to go to Jesus.

4. 1:27

   But when He saw the wind boisterous, He was afraid, and beginning to sink, He cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, and caught Him, and said unto Him, O Thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth, Thou art the Son of God.

5. 1:57

   And when they were gone over, they came unto the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place had knowledge of Him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto Him all that were diseased, and besought Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment, and as many as touched were made perfectly whole."

6. 2:23

   This is the 2019 Wichita Falls Ecclesial Spring Gathering. Our subject this weekend is the story of the Apostle Peter. We have Brother Alan Laban of the San Diego County Ecclesia leading us in our study this weekend. Our second class is entitled, Following. Brother Alan. All right. Hello again. So I'm really enthusiastic about the Apostle Peter and getting a chance to study it with you this weekend.

7. 3:04

   I kind of dove right into the first class without saying hi, hello. So hello. It's good to see everyone. Tara and I come from the San Diego Ecclesia, and we have the loving greetings of a whole lot of people to bring to you. So more numerous than we remember, but all the Tennells and all the Wickhams for starters.

8. 3:21

   I should have written down every individual that wanted to say hello to someone here, but we didn't. So maybe we can do a better job going back. Raise your hand if you have someone you want to say hello to back in San Diego. All right. Okay. Fantastic. So Tara and I are delighted to be with you all this weekend.

9. 3:40

   Looking forward to the fellowship that we'll have through the remainder of our time together. But you're only getting part of the Laban clan this weekend. Tara and I are the boring part. The exciting part is right here. So there are our kiddos. We've got three of them, or 19, three. And they enjoy things like playing in the mud and making silly faces.

10. 4:03

    They're cousins. So for those of you that don't know, yes, I'm related to the Hensleys. So Ruth Hensley is my little sister. One of the big reasons we love San Diego is we get to be fairly close to them and their little kids as well. Other favorite activities are going to Sunday school, dress up, swords, things that move, and snacks.

11. 4:23

    So there you have it. There's the Laban family. You've got the two of us and our other three little ones are back at home. Okay. So we're diving now into our second of six studies following. And here we're looking at the episodes after Peter's initial calls. And the next class after this as well.

12. 4:48

    We'll look again at a vignette of Peter following his master. And as we get into these classes, it's probably worth setting a little bit of context of the part of the Gospels that we're going to. John makes an interesting comment at the end of his Gospels that gives us a hint at how selective the Gospel records are.

13. 5:08

    The Gospel records are not these overarching biographies that look to chronicle every single moment of Jesus' life and every single moment of Peter's life and every single moment of the life of his followers. John makes an allusion to this in chapter 21 verse 25 where he says, there were also many other things that Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.

14. 5:34

    That is a very, very true statement. Because if we look at the amount of Jesus' life that's recorded for us in the Gospel record, it's really not that much. So we know he lived about 33 years. His ministry was about three and a half years. So if we were going to make a pie chart of Jesus' life, with the exception for a very small vignette at his birth, most of his life, 90% of his life we hear nothing about, those 30 years.

15. 6:01

    We see him briefly as a young man and as a baby and then we're introduced to him again as an adult. But in his ministry, in his three and a half years, that 10% of his life, again, there is not a ton of information recorded. It's very selective. If you look at all the days of Jesus' life during the three and a half years and you try to look at all the different verses and add up all the verses in the Gospel and say how many different days does this chronicle?

16. 6:24

    It's only about 88 to 112 days based on how you count. That comes out to around 1% of Jesus' time is recorded for us in the Gospel record. And that's not like evenly distributed over the whole three and a half years. It's very, very concentrated at a particular part of Jesus' ministry. You can follow along in your handout on page five for this bit.

17. 6:48

    So if we look at the counts of the verses in each of the Gospels and sort them by time period, this is what it looks like. We have 335 verses that talk about the pre-ministry period. So this is Jesus when he was born. This is Jesus when he was in the temple as a boy.

18. 7:06

    This is his period leading up to his baptism. Then in the first year we have actually even less. Only 266 verses devoted to that year of introduction. The second year is the year of rising popularity. A little bit more volume there, 728 verses. You'll notice that a lot of that is in Matthew.

19. 7:27

    And then in the third year this is what dominates the Gospel record. 2,288 verses there. Notice how big kind of John's line explodes there. Very little information about his early life. John is dominated by that third year of Jesus. And then post-resurrection it goes down to 153. If we break out the Gospel records individually, kind of do another pie chart here.

20. 7:50

    For Matthew if we chronicle out how his Gospel is divided up, everything in green is that third year. So of Matthew's Gospel, 20% is leading up to that last week in the third year. 23% is the last week. 14% is the last day. And 2% is post-resurrection. Added up, almost 60% of Matthew's Gospel is just focused on that last year.

21. 8:15

    Over in Mark we see even more devoted to this final significant time period. A total of 64% on that last year of Christ's life. Similarly, over in Luke we can see that Luke has a big chunk devoted to that time leading up to the final week. Luke's travel narratives, something we'll touch on a little bit tomorrow morning, make up that big 38% at the bottom.

22. 8:37

    But add all that up, another 61% of the Gospel devoted to this final time period. And then John is where you really see the significance. A total of 74% of John's Gospel focused on just that last year. Adding it all up together, looking at the four Gospel records, 64% of the information is concentrated on that final year of Jesus' life.

23. 9:00

    And just looking at how those, the verses kind of spread apart and where they focus contains the lesson for us. Those that look at Jesus as simply a good teacher, as an interesting historical character, they miss the overwhelming point of the Gospel. The Gospels are not designed to be a biographical historical record looking at the sayings of a wise man over time.

24. 9:22

    The records are concentrated on the teachings and actions of Jesus leading up to and surrounding his sacrifice and the atoning work God did through him. The atoning work of Jesus is the clear focus of the Gospel accounts. And Paul catches the spirit of this in his introduction to the Corinthians when he summarizes his message as Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

25. 9:45

    That is what the Gospels are about. And thus it shouldn't be surprising that after reading about Peter's calling and commitment to following Jesus, most of the time that we read about Peter and Jesus' interaction is during that final period. You can look and see this over on page five or eight, sorry, of your handout.

26. 10:07

    If you're going to put all of Peter's interactions with Jesus on a timeline over their three years, this is kind of what it would look like. So we tackled the first four, the first, second, and third call, and briefly alluded to his mother-in-law's healing. Those were the interactions recorded between Peter and Jesus over that first year.

27. 10:27

    Total of 57 verses. There's only one notable place that Peter stands out apart from the rest in the second year of Jesus' ministry. And that's during the raising of Jairus' daughter where Peter, James, and John are specifically called away from the rest to go witness that event. We have about 17 verses of Jesus and Peter interacting during that second year.

28. 10:46

    However, when we get to the third year of Jesus' ministry, which started around the time of the feeding of the 5,000, John chapter 6, which we'll take a look at in a minute, that's where we see the record of Peter explode. Not including all the times that he's addressed as part of the disciples or a larger group, alone he singled out somewhere between 17 and 32 different times.

29. 11:09

    And then following the resurrection, he spent more time with Jesus than all the other disciples, and had the longest recorded dialogue with Jesus. And looking at the verses that specifically focus on Peter in the Gospel records, while the Gospel records spend 64% of the time on that last year, Jesus' interaction with Peter during that final year makes up 79% of all of their interactions in terms of verses.

30. 11:36

    Because of the concentration of information in this latter part of Jesus' ministry, that's where we're going to focus. It might seem like we just talked about Peter's call and now we've already rocketed to the end of the story. Well, that's exactly what the Gospel records do. They bring us forward up to that pivotal final year.

31. 11:52

    And so that's where we're going to focus. In this class, we'll take a look at the time period right around that transition from the second year of rising popularity to his year of opposition. And we'll be looking at probably what's the best known, or one of the best known episodes in the life of Peter.

32. 12:09

    It's the account of him walking on the water. And if you look at your class outline on page two, you'll see the three places where this is recorded. The episode of Peter walking on the water is found in Matthew chapter 14, 22 through 36, and the context is also given to us in Mark chapter 6 and in John chapter 6.

33. 12:31

    It's a story of Peter, who here is quite literally taking a bold step outside of his comfort zone because of his love for Jesus. And Peter's and Jesus' walk on the Sea of Galilee occurs right in the middle of a massive transition point recorded in all four Gospels. It's the transition from when Jesus' ministry hit its height of popularity and then abruptly turns into a descent into deepening unpopularity.

34. 13:00

    You can see some of this over in, on page seven of your handout. The change can most clearly be seen in John chapter 6. So if you wouldn't mind turning to John chapter 6 with me now, let's take a look at a couple of verses that are also here in your handout that will give you a sense of just how big this shift was.

35. 13:19

    John chapter 6. All right. So John 6 starts with the feeding of the 5,000. 5,000 men along with women and children alongside the Sea of Galilee. And we read in John chapter 6 and verse 4 that this took place around the time of the Passover, placing John chapter 6 at the start of the final year of Christ's ministry.

36. 13:39

    This time the following year, Jesus would be crucified. This is a turning point in his ministry where his popularity peaks and his opposition clearly comes out. And so if you haven't marked it in your Bible yet, it's worth making a note there in John 6 that this concludes the year of popularity and starts the year of rising opposition.

37. 13:57

    And you can see a microcosm of that shift that happens over this two year span in this one chapter of John chapter 6. So for example, let's compare the beginning of John chapter 6 to the end of John chapter 6 and see how much the climate changes. So earlier in John 6, like look at verses 14 and 15, people are ready to make him king.

38. 14:20

    In verse 14, those men, when they had seen the miracle which Jesus said, said, this is of a truth, the prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again a mountain himself alone. By the end of the chapter, that same crowd began to murmur against him in verses 41 and 42, strove over his words in verse 52, and then rejected his sayings outright in verse 60.

39. 14:46

    In verse 61, the disciples are murmuring against themselves. John chapter 6, going back to the beginning in verse 5, talks about a mass of people following Jesus. When Jesus lifted his eyes in verse 5, he saw a great company come unto him. Contrast that with the closing words of the chapter. Verse 66, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

40. 15:10

    By the end of this chapter, we even see that the twelve disciples are breaking apart. It's here in verse 71 of John chapter 6 that we first read of Judas as the one who would betray Jesus in the end. So what was it? What made this massive shift from people wanting to follow Jesus, wanting to make him king, even make him king by force and not giving him a choice in the matter, to many of them turning back, murmuring around his sayings, and it would even be the catalyst for prompting Judas to harbor those thoughts of betrayal.

41. 15:39

    Well, the middle of John chapter 6 tells us. Jesus had been preaching the kingdom of God for two and a half years at this point. But here in John chapter 6, we read of his first allusions to the fact that the cross would have to come before the crown. Here in John chapter 6, Jesus speaks of his death when it says in verse 51, the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I give for the life of this world.

42. 16:06

    In verse 52, he alludes to the fact that the reward and therefore the kingdom that everybody wanted would come in the future. He uses that term the last day to allude that this is something that is further off. In verse 53, he says that all who would follow him would need to associate themselves with his sacrifice by eating his flesh and drinking his blood if they were to have eternal life.

43. 16:29

    people were not ready to accept this sort of Messiah. They were not ready to accept that he would be the suffering servant. And the episode of Peter's walking on the water occurs in this context. At the transition point between the popular support of Jesus at the beginning of John chapter 6 and the doubt and the opposition at the end of the chapter.

44. 16:52

    So that's a little context for us. Now, let's see. Hold on. Catch up here. All right. So let's turn over to John chapter 6, verse 14, if you aren't there with me already. Okay. Jesus had taught a huge crowd that day. It started to become late. And rather than send the crowd home, he fed them dinner there, 5,000 plus women and children.

45. 17:22

    It was just five loaves and two fishes. It was as if the crowd at that moment on the shore of Galilee had been transported back to the days of the wilderness wanderings. And they were witnessing firsthand things like the miracles of Moses. When was the last time that you had the children of Israel gathered in a wilderness place to be fed by bread and meat from a divine source?

46. 17:44

    It was hearkening back to what it must have been like in the wilderness. And that point was not lost on the people. Why else would it note in John chapter 6, verse 14 that they say this is of a truth, the prophet that should come into the world? It's an allusion back to Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18, where there would be a prophet, where there was a promise of a prophet like unto Moses.

47. 18:04

    Deuteronomy 18, 18. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth. And he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. So here the people are feeling like this is the prophet. He's doing what Moses did. We're in the wilderness.

48. 18:20

    He's feeding us with his bread from heaven. And of course, this sets up the discourse later on in John chapter 6, where Jesus talks about the manna. It all comes from this context of him showing that he is that prophet like unto Moses. And so here they are, the people on the side of the sea, they see this miracle, they make the connection back to Deuteronomy, and there's a surge of enthusiasm throughout the crowd.

49. 18:41

    No one had done anything like this since Moses. And here was that prophet. Believing he was the prophet to come, they wanted to make him king right then. It says in verse 15 that they were going to make him a king by force. And there was another idea that was fueling this fervor to make Jesus king then.

50. 19:03

    Do you remember why he was there? We skipped over a lot of Jesus a second here, but we were told why. It's because a very shaking event had happened. We're told in Matthew 14, 13 and Mark 6, 32, the parallel accounts, that it was because he was trying to remove himself to a lonely place to deal with the news of John the Baptist's death.

51. 19:27

    John the Baptist was, as we know, a personal friend of Jesus. Maybe at that time the only one that really understood his role. Others were still beginning to grasp it.

52. 19:38

    His death, John the Baptist's death, was at the hand of Herod. And it was a signal of this turning point in Jesus' ministry, where the rise in popularity was getting replaced with increasing opposition culminating in his crucifixion. Jesus knew that the death of John would spark a louder nationalistic call for the Messiah to take the throne.

53. 19:57

    Many held that John was filling the second Elijah mission spoken of back in Malachi chapter 4 in verse 5, where Elijah would come before that great and dreadful day of the Lord. So the people figured, if John the Baptist was Elijah, and if his ministry's end would signal the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom, hasn't that time arrived since John is now dead?

54. 20:20

    Shouldn't Jesus be taking the crown now? Back in John chapter 6 in verse 15, the language here in the Greek is specific and dramatic. The word for force there in verse 15 is haparzo in Greek. It's used a couple other places, like over in Acts chapter 8, to describe how Philip was suddenly caught away from the Ethiopian eunuch, or how we will be caught away to judgments in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 17.

55. 20:46

    Vines notes about this word that it conveys the idea of force suddenly being exercised. See, the crowd isn't telling Jesus that, hey, if you make a bid for king, we're behind you. They're not suggesting that Jesus take the throne. They weren't asking him to take the throne. They were going to put a crown on his head themselves.

56. 21:07

    They were ready, or so they thought, for the great and dreadful day of the Lord to come down upon the Romans and restore the kingdom to Israel right then. And here we see that wilderness temptation back again. Back in Matthew 4 verse 8, very similar temptation, right? Usher the kingdom in right now, putting the crown before the cross.

57. 21:26

    However, this time it wasn't Jesus alone in the wilderness facing this temptation. It wasn't just the wrestling in the mind. Here was a crowd of willing followers and his closest, those 12 disciples, that were wanting to make him king. Not only was this a temptation for Jesus, but the idea would also prove to be a stumbling block for the 12 as well, a fatal one for Judas.

58. 21:53

    And there's a warning for us here as we look at this context. We're told in Luke, after the wilderness temptation, that the devil departed from him for a season. Here, the devil was back and in force with a crowd of 5,000 and 12 close friends. And we can trace the elements of those wilderness temptation all throughout Jesus' ministry.

59. 22:15

    This is just one example. And it's the same with us. Overcoming a particular struggle is not a one-time event. Just like Jesus' devil left him for a season, so will ours, which means they will be back. No longer was the idea of ushering the kingdom in an internal suggestion alone, but there's a group of supporters who would love for him to give into his desire to usher in the kingdom at that moment.

60. 22:39

    And it's clear from Jesus' reaction that he knew how to respond to the situation. In order to react so quickly, it's clear he considered in advance what he should do. It's the same approach he no doubt deployed in the wilderness during those inaugural temptations. In order to have the appropriate verse ready at the needed moment, he had to study and consider ahead of time how he would react in these situations.

61. 23:05

    And this is a subject we'll consider more in depth when we look at Peter's temptation himself in our fourth class. But for now, let's remember the lesson that temptations we face in life will come again and again, and we will do well to prepare for them. Jesus' reaction is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and John is quick and decisive and has three elements.

62. 23:26

    He first perceives the situation. He removes his disciples and then withdraws himself physically from the line of temptation. We read that in verse 15, Jesus therefore perceived. It speaks in the future tense. He perceived that they would come and take him by force. No one had actually tried yet to put a crown on his head, but he knew that's where it was going.

63. 23:49

    He saw the situation. He saw how the events were unfolding. And the ESV renders the verse this way. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Part of avoiding sin is recognizing it early on. Jesus saw the situation developing from afar and removed in advance.

64. 24:13

    He did not try to be the strong rock of Gibraltar and stand up against the temptations that were coming. He perceived it and acted in advance. And we see that over in the parallel account of Mark chapter 6 verse 5, if you want to note that in your margin. Because he was aware of a likelihood of a major temptation, he was able to be proactive and avoid it.

65. 24:31

    He straightway took action, a word that Mark likes quite a bit. He quickly got his disciples into the boat. He knew the fervor of the crowd would be shared by his disciples. And their later comments that we read make no doubt that they also liked the idea of Jesus becoming king right then.

66. 24:46

    In the parallel account of Matthew, it says that he constrained his disciples to get into the ship. Jesus knew that one of the best ways to overcome temptation is to remove yourself from the situation. Jesus applies that wisdom as well as teaches it. And this is a way we can help each other as well.

67. 25:05

    Like look, not only is he concerned about the circumstance he was in, the temptation that would bring from him, and so he removes himself alone, but he's also aware of how the situation would impact those around him. While this might not mean putting our brothers and sisters into boats, literally, we certainly can help each other as a community to avoid situations and take action immediately.

68. 25:28

    And then that final note, he went apart to pray. Over in Matthew, it notes one additional detail in verse 23. He went up into a mountain apart to pray. John's parallel account in verse 15 says he went again to pray because he had tried to do the same thing earlier that day before the crowd had come.

69. 25:50

    Turning to prayer in a moment of temptation is a consistent practice we see in the Bible. And the fact that Jesus needed time by himself to commune with God is an important example for us. God does not expect us to stand immovable in the face of temptation. We need to be wise and avoid problematic situations where we can.

70. 26:12

    Another good cross-reference for your margin here is back in Proverbs chapter 22 in verse 3. It says that the prudent man foreseeth evil and hideth himself. The prudent man isn't the one that stands up in the face of evil at all costs, but no, he sees evil afar off and hides himself, removes himself from a situation.

71. 26:29

    But the simple man, back in Proverbs 22, 3, passes on and are punished. Or in a modern translation, it says the prudent see danger and take refuge. The simple keep going and pay the penalty. Jesus' three actions in the face of trial, how he perceived the situation, removed his disciples and went through himself to pray are an example for us.

72. 26:53

    So let's continue as we walk down through this narrative in John chapter 6. Down now with verse 16. Note how John is setting up the scene here. Little words make a big difference. In contrast to Jesus who went up into the mountain to pray. There we go. Back in verse 15, we see in verse 16 the disciples going down into the sea.

73. 27:16

    Not only that, look at what John notes in verse 17. It was now dark. A foreboding detail that foreshadows the trial that's about to come. It's darkness. They've gone down where Jesus has gone up high apart to pray. The way the separation is further emphasized by that next phrase, Jesus was not come unto them.

74. 27:37

    The way John sets up this account alludes to the mental wrestling that the disciples were going through and that would continue through the rest of the chapter. This is not only a physical challenge, but a parallel, a parable of the mental challenge they're going through. Though removed from the situation on the shore and the crowds that wanted to make Jesus king then and there, John's gospel uses the physical condition of their crossing as an example of their internal struggles.

75. 28:04

    And as revealed later in John chapter 6, many were about to stop following Jesus. And many were about to reject him as the Messiah because he wasn't acting the way they thought the Messiah should operate.

76. 28:19

    Would we, and the question that is going to be answered over the coming verses, is would the disciples be tossed around by those same waves of doubt and double-mindedness that would be plaguing the crowd? There's another detail in John's gospel that alludes to this wrestling that was going to happen. It's the fact that he refers to the body of water in a unique way.

77. 28:41

    Look back in John chapter 6, verse 1, if you're still there in John 6. John calls it, in John 6, 1, the Sea of Tiberias. It's the Roman name for that area. John is building this image of the sea being this turbulent sea of nations, using the Gentile name for the sea. Would the apostles then be caught up in the storm of wanting to go and overthrow the Gentile Romans?

78. 29:11

    Would they fight the empire of Tiberias, now symbolized in this roaring storm upon this sea? Matthew and Mark describe this scene with some more detail as well. Mark chapter 6 and verse 47 also emphasizes that Jesus remained in the land alone, while the disciples rode into the sea. But though Jesus was physically removed, Mark notes that he watched the next events unfold at sea.

79. 29:37

    With that bright Passover moon high in the sky, Jesus would have had a clear view of what was about to happen next. Note that it says in Mark chapter 6 and verse 48, Jesus saw what was happening in the lake below. Those struggles and trials were not a mystery to the Lord Jesus Christ.

80. 29:55

    Mark 6 and verse 47 also notes that the ship made it to the midst of the sea. They were the halfway point in their journey, and the furthest they could be from land. The land on the other side was just as far as the land they had just left. But they weren't making much progress, because that was new to an enormous storm that arose.

81. 30:15

    From the way the Gospels writers tell the story, the storm seems to have begun around dark, and this would put the start in around 8 p.m. if this is occurring around April, around Passover time. And if it started once they had reached the middle of the sea, this would have put the start around 9 p.m.

82. 30:28

    So this storm wells up around 8 or 9 p.m. as it's dark there in the Sea of Galilee. And at first, a storm like this would not seem unusual. Given the fact that the Sea of Galilee is nestled in a basin surrounded by mountains, you're going to have storms arise fairly quickly as that warm air gets pushed up, cools, and rapidly drops its water.

83. 30:49

    However, the difference is most of the Galilean storms would not only come quickly, but they would go quickly as well. The same winds that quickly pushes the storm in will quickly push the storm away in normal circumstances. This storm came quickly, but it didn't go away. And the severity of this storm is emphasized by how it impacts the disciples.

84. 31:12

    They are a group of seasoned veterans on the water. More than half the disciples were quite used to night fishing and no doubt would have dealt with storms like this in the past. To shake the disciples, this storm must have been pretty significant. We can also see the intensity of the storm hinted at how it slowed the progress of the disciples crossing the sea.

85. 31:32

    The Sea of Galilee is about 8 miles wide at its broadest point from end to end. And based on the type of boat they were using, there we go, based on the type of boat they were using, it should normally take a couple hours to cross over that period, either by rowing or by sail.

86. 31:50

    They were most likely in a small boat like this, a single sail kind of row slash sail boat. And that journey would normally have been just a few hours. And if you look at Matthew's account over in Matthew 14, 25, he notes the storm continued until the fourth watch of the night. There we go.

87. 32:12

    And by Roman reckoning, that would have occurred around 3 to 6 a.m. That means the storm made a trip that was supposed to only be about two hours into anywhere from 6 to 10 hours long. John adds back in verse 19 that they've only gone about 20 or 30 furlongs, only about 2.5 to 3.75 miles in their 8-mile journey, not even halfway across the sea.

88. 32:36

    And what would that have looked like sitting inside that little boat? I did some reading on trying to figure out how bad can a storm be in the Sea of Galilee. And if you look even over the last couple of years, the storms that have hit the Sea of Galilee, they can get pretty bad.

89. 32:50

    We have records of storms in the Sea of Galilee swelling up, making swells of about 30 feet high and driving winds up to 60 miles per hour. Got this quote here from 2006, observing a storm on December 12, 2010, a storm broke across the Mediterranean, creating 30-foot waves, referring to the height of the waves in the Sea of Galilee.

90. 33:12

    At Tiberias, a large window at the Holiday Inn was blown in, entering people inside. Power lines were down. Trees were down. Solar water heaters were knocked off rooftops with 50 to 110-kilometer-hour winds reported. Eight inches of rain fell within 48 hours, and seven feet of snow fell in the upper slopes of Mount Hermon.

91. 33:29

    So though the Sea of Galilee was small, this storm packed a really big punch. Putting that into perspective, if you have a little fishing boat sitting about 4.3 feet off of the waterline, and you have 30-foot waves coming over top of you, that's a pretty intimidating situation. It's a miracle that they lasted as long as they did.

92. 33:53

    We typically focus on the miracle of Peter walking on the water. Well, it was a miracle that their boat was still upright by the time Jesus got out to the midst of the sea where they were. All right, here we go. Let's go back to the text in Matthew. Matthew chapter 14 and verse 24.

93. 34:08

    It says they were being tossed, or in the King James, beaten. In modern, tossed in the King James, or beaten in modern translation. And this same word is used over in Mark's account, Mark chapter 6 and verse 48. It's a toiling in Mark chapter 6 verse 48. And it's the Greek word that's used to describe testing something by rubbing it upon a touchstone.

94. 34:32

    It's based on that Greek word for a touchstone that we use to kind of test the quality of a metal, basanos. Commentator Larry Pierce notes that a touchstone of basanos is a black silica stone used to test the purity of gold or silver by the color streak produced by rubbing it against that metal.

95. 34:50

    The word brings out the image of the disciples being tested as one would test gold and rub it against a touchstone to see its purity. This is interesting because Peter uses this very similar imagery over in 1 Peter. When he writes his epistle, he brings this episode to mind. The idea of a temptation, a trial being like a testing of a metal.

96. 35:13

    Over in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 7, Peter wrote, The trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found into praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Peter was very deliberate in his word choice.

97. 35:30

    Here he chooses a word that's loaded with meaning to help paint a picture of the point he was making. The word Peter uses in verse 7 is translated trial here in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 7. It has a very specific usage. It only appears a handful of times in the New Testament.

98. 35:49

    It's the Greek word dokimion, and it's used to talk about a trial of faith as gold would be tried and fire. It means a test or a proof, but it's used in the sense of how you would test or prove a metal to see if it was genuine or not. And it's interesting that both with the dokimion in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 7 and the basanos over in Matthew, we have an image of a metal going through a trial, an examination to determine its purity and expose its flaws.

99. 36:19

    And in both situations, in here and in walking on the storm, we see it's a process that is overseen by a master, a goldsmith or a metal worker, that is overseeing that test or that trial. And Mark's account fills this out even further as well. It says, it adds that note that Jesus is seeing what is happening on the sea below.

100. 36:48

     And this is something that can give us comfort, that the seeming random trials of life are really not random at all. That storm that seems to blow up unexpectedly is not random. Peter in the gospel record paints this picture that the trials that we face aren't these storms that spring up without reason, but rather they are crucibles, controlled furnaces for the testing and trying of our faith.

101. 37:09

     Unlike the uncontrolled forest fire that simply destroys what's in its path, the fiery trial that Peter refers to is being carefully controlled to make sure it's not too hot to burn the metal. Peter may have had that imagery in mind of the storm at sea when he wrote 1 Peter 1, verse 7.

102. 37:29

     And likewise, Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, when he wrote, God will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, but instead, God has his hands on the billows. He is watching over the storm, controlling the intensity so it doesn't go beyond what we can bear. Continuing on the account, it gets later and later, 9 p.m., 10 p.m., midnight, 1, 2, 3 a.m., and the storm continues with no sign of letting up.

103. 37:55

     But Jesus is still watching, ensuring that the trial was not greater than they could endure. That brings us down to John chapter 6 and verse 19. We're now at the fourth watch. It's between 3 and 6 a.m. The disciples have been rowing for eight or nine exhausting hours. They are stuck in the middle of the lake, drenched and exhausted.

104. 38:17

     They've made very little headway to Capernaum, that city of comfort, and almost enacting a parable of the vanity of trying to usher in the kingdom by man's power. They could not get to that city of comfort by man's power no more than they could usher in the kingdom through force. That city cannot be reached but through the work of Jesus.

105. 38:39

     And it's at this moment that Jesus appears walking on the sea. He is not being tossed around by the waves of doubt, and he is above the crashing tumult of the sea of the nations. With the power of the Holy Spirit, he hovers over the face of the deep, much as the Father did back at the creation of the world.

106. 39:00

     And this text reminds us that not only is Christ aware of the storms that we go through, but he will also reveal himself in the midst of those storms. When his disciples see him walking on the water, they're terrified. Someone cries out, it's a spirit. They were wrong, but after all, it's not every day that you see someone taking a midnight stroll across a lake in the middle of a storm.

107. 39:23

     Visibility would have been low, and there would not have been a direct line of sight. They're in this little boat sitting four and a half feet off the surface of the water with 30-foot waves. They're going to get a glimpse of Jesus here or there. The figure would have darted in and out of view as those waves crested and plunged around them.

108. 39:40

     And we can understand that fear, can't we? They had been rowing. They were exhausted. They were tired. Every muscle ached. The wind howled around them. Rain pelted down on them. They were afraid. Mark notes in verse 48, Mark notes in the parallel account in 48, that Jesus would have passed by them, but he sees their fear.

109. 39:59

     He hears their cry and redirects their course. We see this characteristic of Jesus time and again. He makes other people's needs on his way. He intended to pass by, but he has compassion and goes to see them. In Matthew chapter 14 and verse 27, there's an additional note. Be of good cheer. A phrase used only one other time in the gospel accounts at the end of John chapter 16 and verse 33, when he said, In the world he shall have tribulation.

110. 40:30

     The disciples were getting a first-hand lesson in that tribulation here on the sea. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Jesus was giving them a visible lesson in walking on the water, that he has overcome the storms of life. And so he can help us do so also. Knowing that Jesus has overcome should give us a sense of comfort, a sense of assurance, cast out fear, so that no matter how bad the storm is, it doesn't change the fact that Jesus has overcome.

111. 40:58

     All three accounts in John, Matthew, and Mark record the response. It is I. Be not afraid. Young's literal translation gives a better sense of the meaning here. He says, Take courage. I am he. In the Young's literal translation, he's confirming that in spite of the doubts of the crowd, even though he was not taking the crown then and there, even though there was about to be a huge falling away once they reached the other side of the sea, Jesus was he.

112. 41:26

     He was still the Messiah. And without assurance, what did they have to fear? While they didn't have time, while we don't have time now to consider this, this is that same phrase, fear not, that Jesus uses after the catch of fishes that we saw in Peter's call. That phrase, fear not, appears some 50 other times in the Old Testament when people are in the presence of God's mighty arm.

113. 41:47

     That phrase, fear not, should have brought their mind back to who the promised Messiah really was. And here we come to the climax of this episode at sea. I think we would also often describe the climax as either before or after. It was either the climax was the storm or the climax was the walking on the water.

114. 42:03

     But structurally, this is the key point of this episode based on the kind of the Hebraic literary structure. Sometimes you'll see, like if we're reading an English piece of text, that the main point's at the beginning and at the end and the support's in the middle. When we read a piece of Hebraic writing, oftentimes the main point is in the middle.

115. 42:22

     You have this chiastic structure, this pyramiding structure where the first point parallels the last. The second point parallels the second to last point and the main point's in the middle. Matthew writing to a largely Jewish audience often employs a Hebraic chiastic structure in his gospel. And you see that here in Matthew 14, 22 through 23.

116. 42:42

     If you look through this area as a chiasm, you can see the main point is right there in the middle. In verse 22, it talks about the disciples getting into a ship. In verse 31, we talk about, or 32 and 33, we talk about them coming into a ship. In verse 23 at the beginning, Jesus is going to part to pray.

117. 42:59

     You've got the parallel down in verse 31. And then all the way down to this key point in verse 27. The key point is, Jesus' note, be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid. Despite the storms and the doubts around them, he truly was the Messiah. And Peter gets this. He gets the enormity of this assurance.

118. 43:26

     Jesus had overcome the world. And Peter knows that there is no place he'd rather be than with Jesus. Turn now over to Matthew chapter 14 and 28. And we'll close out with Matthew's account of this episode. The next episode of Peter walking in the water is an interlude only contained in Matthew's gospel.

119. 43:44

     And we're going to spend a few minutes with this text. In Matthew 14, 28, we read that Peter answered and said to him, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee in the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was come out into the ship, he walked in the water to go to Jesus.

120. 44:01

     A number of commentaries in the 18th century debate about whether this was a good or bad thing. Was this impestuous Peter trying to show that he was better than all the rest? Trying to show that he could jump out and walk on the water, something that no one else could do. I don't think that's the case.

121. 44:15

     And if we look at our three Bible study tools of context, cross-references, and you've seen some good biblical common sense, we'll see that Peter stepping out in the water was a good thing. First, if we look at the context, Peter asks permission before stepping out. And Jesus says, come. If you consider your cross-references, one of Peter's strongest and best qualities is he wanted to be close to Jesus.

122. 44:38

     And even if we just use a little biblical common sense, Jesus doesn't rebuke Peter for wanting to come out and see him on the water. Jesus says, come. What a contrast here to where we saw Peter in our last class. Right in our last class, Peter had to be called three times before he responded.

123. 44:56

     Here, Peter initiates and realizes the only place he wants to be is with the Lord. He is the one reaching out. His mind would have gone also to the last time they were with Jesus in a storm, when Jesus had calmed the winds and waves back in Matthew chapter eight or in Mark four or in Luke eight and that previous storm.

124. 45:14

     If Jesus calmed the storm, then he could do it again. The safest place to be in a storm, reasoned Peter, was with his Lord. He was learning step by step to depend on the words of Jesus and not just his own instincts. He was not disappointed last time he obeyed a command from Jesus when they were on the water during his third call.

125. 45:33

     And he wouldn't be disappointed this time either. Peter's intentions are the right ones. And this is confirmed finally for us in Matthew 14, 29, with Jesus beckoning him to come. He walks in the water now to go to Jesus. He steps out. The ship is still being tossed and anyone who has tried to get in or out of a boat, even when the water's calm, knows it can be a little bit tricky and the boat likes to bob around.

126. 46:02

     Imagine how much more difficult that would be during the midst of this storm. But he steps out of the water or steps out into the water and goes to Jesus. And everything is fine until he starts to notice that storm around him. The storm hadn't stopped. According to verse 32, the wind doesn't die down until Jesus and Peter together reach the boat.

127. 46:21

     It's interesting to note that Peter here doesn't wait for the storm to stop before wanting to go to Jesus. He doesn't wait for things to calm down to make time for his Lord. Similarly, can we sometimes have the attitude that we will wait to go to Jesus in the sense of listening to his words or following his ways until things have calmed down in life?

128. 46:43

     Would we be more willing to attend Bible class once things have calmed down a little bit at work? Would we get more involved in that preaching effort or various ecclesial activities once things have calmed down a little bit with life? The lesson here of Peter is to go even in the midst of the storm.

129. 46:59

     Don't wait for things to calm down. You want to go in the midst of the storm. And as long as Peter is focusing on Jesus, and he was not concerned with the winds and the waves around him, he's doing the impossible. He is walking on the water. But then he takes his eyes off his master and in verse 30, he begins to look around him.

130. 47:20

     For a brief moment, he forgets that Jesus is there in front of him. Remember who he is and where he is. He is a Galilean fisherman who belongs back in the boat. In an instant, he looks down at his feet and sees nothing but water underneath. And his mind comes to a quick conclusion, I'm not supposed to be walking on this water.

131. 47:35

     This is impossible. He loses his concentration and begins to sink. Here the words are instructive. That word sink in verse 30 is literally the idea to drown. So he is going down fast. And as he goes down, he prays one of the shortest prayers in the Bible. He looks to Christ and says, Lord, save me.

132. 47:57

     And in this case, brevity was wisdom. When you are drowning, you don't have time for a lengthy call for help. And no sooner had this plea left his lips, immediately Jesus reached down and caught him in verse 31. It took humility for Peter to cry out for help. But as a result, Peter was exalted and lifted up from the water.

133. 48:17

     Peter casted his care upon the Lord because he knew Jesus cared for him. And the next words are important. He says, O thou of little faith, wherefore did thou doubt? Or in our English version, O you of little faith, comes out as four different words. But in the Greek, it's just one word.

134. 48:34

     Here, Jesus is calling Peter by a different name. He is calling, O you little faith. Jesus here had renamed Peter again. But this time, it wasn't something to aspire to, but to grow from. Jesus called Peter little faith. Little faith, why did you doubt? And when Jesus called little faith, he wasn't rebuking Peter for trying too much, but for trusting too little.

135. 49:00

     You see the difference there. Jesus did not rebuke for Peter for getting out of the boat. To the contrary, Jesus is really saying, Peter, if you had just kept your eyes on me, you could have walked across the ocean. The lesson here is plain. We're to listen to the Lord's word. Peter didn't leave the boat until he was bidden.

136. 49:16

     Second, we are to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, as we are told in Hebrews 12. As long as we look at him as the example, as our savior, we will be sustained in the storm. And third, if we find ourselves sinking, we should not resign ourselves to be swallowed up, but cry out for help.

137. 49:33

     Jesus walks the west of the way back to the boat with Peter. We are running a little short on time. And the nice thing about this last episode in Matthew chapter 14 is it ties directly into our subject for the next class, Peter's Confessions of Faith. So we'll end it here with Matthew chapter 14.

138. 49:57

     We'll pick up with this first confession of faith of Peter in Matthew 14, verses 32 through 34, and then continue with that great confession of faith up in Caesarea Philippi. Thank you.