Encountering Jesus - In Fear [5] - Neil Ryan
Sermon
We’re a pretty regular bunch of people here with a wide diversity of life experience…. but I’m going to take a guess and say that no-one here walked on water this week.
Unusual for a Baptist Church to not have some who walk on water!!!
At London Design Festival in 2006 there was an astonishing art installation by Michael Cross called Bridge. He took a former church and flooded it with water. Sunk beneath the water was a series of stepping stones.
The visitor would step on the stone at the edge of the water and the next stone would slowly surface, one step ahead. Step forward again, and another stone rises up in front of you, while the stone behind sinks away again. It takes 30 steps to make it out to the middle of the lake within the church.
When you get out in the middle it looks like the only way you got there was by walking on water!
We can’t relate to Jesus walking on water but we can relate to the disciples taking a simple boat trip over the lake and everything going wrong!
Anybody get stuck in peak hour traffic this week?
Anybody do a simple job like changing the toner in a photocopier and you discovered there’s nothing simple when it comes to a photocopier?
Last Saturday Lyn took the dog for a walk – in a flash it got run over by a bike. Terrible thing! Unconscious, bleeding. For the next 2 days it was non compos mentis for next two days!
We can relate to these boys out in the boat!!
There is something of the unbelievable about it and something of the very ordinary.
John is telling us something here.
None of these stories are just random events that John decided to include in his memoirs!
At the most basic level John is explaining how Jesus got across the lake.
V22-25 …. People had seen one boat leave and Jesus was not on it. But the next day when they went across the lake they found Jesus with his disciples…
….when did you get here
….how did you get here
Jesus doesn’t get into the mystery of it all he challenges them about their self interest.
He says, you are only interested in me because I can fill your bellies!!
But now as John writes he solves an old mystery but that’s only the entrée.
Something happened out on the lake, in the storm, right when they were absolutely terrified.
God often uses the funniest times and places to show us things!!
They had been battling a gale most of the night.
Things always look worse at 3 o’clock in the morning!
Mark tells us that Jesus came walking on the water and he was about to pass them by [Mark 6:48]
Do we picture Jesus waving to his disciples and saying,
“Hi there boys, I’m just out for as walk. I’ll see you on the other side of the lake!”
In Scripture when God passed by it meant something more than simply God on the move.
The LORD replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, 'the LORD,' to you. (Exodus 33:19)
"Go out and stand before me on the mountain," the LORD told him. And as Elijah stood there, the LORD passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. (1 Kings 19:11)
When God passed by it usually means an epiphany - a revelation of God!
Here they are in the middle of a storm, exhausted, frustrated, absolutely terrified at what they see and they have an epiphany!!
Why is it so important for John to record this little epiphany?
….Passover was near
Passover was celebrated and with it the great deliverance from Egypt at the hand of Moses.
He was their deliverer.
He was one who met with God on Sinai and to whom God gave the law.
Moses dominates Jewish thinking and loyalty.
Bit like the problem of having great Pastor, Coach or CEO, much loved by people for a long period of time.
He has to live with the ‘ghost of the previous leader’
Everything he does is measured by the standard that has been set.
Everything is evaluated by how it sits with where the previous leader sat!!
Do you know what John has the audacity to say here?
Out there on the lake at this Passover time…..We met one who is greater than Moses!
Remember when Moses said to God
“….who shall I tell them sent me?”
God said : Tell them I am has sent you!
Here are these disciples fatigued and frightened and like us they had never seen anyone walk on water, so they thought it was some kind of ghost.
Jesus comes close enough and shouts out
Immediately they have this epiphany.
I love what one old commentator wrote about this –
The Church has ever since regarded these words as veritably sacramental…In the darkest hour of men and Churches, in the throws of persecution, in the furnace of temptation, on a million death beds, the same voice has been heard…
….they took him into the boat and immediately the boat reached the shore
Not sure if that’s a miracle of transportation or just that these disciples were so taken with Jesus that it was as if time didn’t matter!
Now for 21st century Ozzie Christians we have not been in awe of Moses but a greater question confronts us –
Where would you most expect to have one of these little epiphanies?
· What a tragedy, if there is no ‘God-sighting’ in Church!
· What if, like the Jews we have become so committed to our liturgy and formality that we can’t hear from God any more!
· What a paradox, if in the midst of all our songs and prayers and preaching we don’t hear Jesus calling out Ego eimi = I am
But what about in the storm, in the peak hour traffic, when we’re changing the toner, when the dog gets run over….
Isn’t that the heart of John’s gospel?
This is a Saviour who doesn’t go looking in the chapels and synagogues –
He meets Nicodemus in the dark.
He meets with a woman at a well in the searing heat of the mid-day sun.
He goes looking at pool in Jerusalem where a man has been coming back nearly 14000 times hoping to be healed.
Now he passes by disciples at 3am in the middle of a raging storm….calls out I am
Can you hear John’s gospel?
This same one who was born in a stable, surrounded by shepherds, was raised in a place called Nazareth that ancient historians like Josephus and Tacitus, didn’t even think worthy to include in their detailed list of cities of Galilee.
THIS Jesus still makes his way into the ordinary and everyday places of our lives!
Can you see the subtle difference to gospel we often hear preached today?
God is often the miracle working pragmatist who is slightly removed from our world – His role is to manage our affairs, solve our problems, keep us from harm and answer all our questions!
No wonder so many people are disillusioned with God.
We need to understand that the storm is the place where we need to find Jesus more than ever!
About 2 years ago Rod Ferry, Andrew Waldron and I went out in a dingy at Coffin Bay – West Coast.
The boat was too small for 3 big blokes with fishing rods, plus we were having trouble with the outboard motor!
Apart from the fact that we could have drifted away and never been heard of again, there was one moment where my life flashed before my eyes.
We were out from land and Andrew was at the back of the boat trying to start the motor that had stalled. Rod was at the front of the boat waiting to pull up anchor and I was in the middle generally trying to be useful!!
Then with no warning, Andrew got the motor started but he had the lever pressed to full throttle so as the boat lurched forward Rod yanked the anchor out of the water and it flew passed my head and apart from nearly killing me it nearly knocked Rod off the front of the boat!
You know, when I look back on that experience I learned a couple of things.
I’m never going in a dingy with Andrew Waldron again, but also if I realized that my problem was that I was inexperienced and stupid when it came to boats!!
But that’s not what we have here.
The problem out on the lake had nothing to do with inexperience and stupidity – in fact it was Jesus who sent them off hours earlier!
They find themselves in a frightening situation because they are doing the RIGHT thing not the WRONG thing!
They are in this scary place because they are FOLLOWING Jesus, not because they are REBELLING against Jesus.
And you know what – Jesus didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get to them….They probably left about 7 hours before and its now at least 3am!
Reminds us that everything we learn cannot be learned in a classroom.
You don’t learn faith in Church listening to me preach!
How can you learn patience?
Other day I was driving on South Road and the cars in both lanes in front of me were both going at 50kph
I sat behind them all the way from Cross Road to St Mary’s!!
How can you learn commitment – by being in a place where you want to give it away!
How do you learn about giving – when it costs you something.
How do you learn about God’s faithfulness – by being in a place where you feel alone!
That’s called Incarnation
It’s not just a theological term describing Jesus coming into the world; it includes Jesus coming into OUR world!
That’s the heart of the gospel.
The epiphany came out on the lake, in the storm, in the midst of one of the most terrifying moments of their lives!
John would not have us miss this!
We will follow him all the way to the Cross and right at the end we read that Jesus cried out –
Now you will know without any shadow of doubt that
Did you miss that little statement in v21
….. then they were willing to take him into the boat
Might sound obvious, but do we?
When he speaks those words Ego eimi = I am….. Do we take him into our turmoil, pain, fear?
1. None of us can walk on water although from time to time you run into some one with ‘walk on water syndrome’. They want you to believe they can! How does that make you feel? How do you respond to it? What is someone trying to convey?
2. All of us can relate to the disciples with their night out on the lake.
Share experiences where something has gone all wrong, or taken longer than it should have etc.
3. Read John 6:16-22 and Mark 6:45-52
In Scripture when God passed by it meant something more than simply God on the move.
The LORD replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, 'the LORD,' to you. (Exodus 33:19)
"Go out and stand before me on the mountain," the LORD told him. And as Elijah stood there, the LORD passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. (1 Kings 19:11)
When God passed by it usually means an epiphany - a revelation of God!
Here they are in the middle of a storm, exhausted, frustrated, absolutely terrified at what they see and they have an epiphany!!
Jesus says ego eimi = I am
Where do we expect to meet God?
But what about in the storm, in the peak hour traffic, when we’re changing the toner, when the dog gets run over….?
4. John 6:4 says …..the Jewish Passover was near
The disciples have this ‘epiphany’ at a time when Jews remembered their deliverance from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.
How the Jews loved Moses.
He was one who met with God on Sinai and to whom God gave the law.
Moses dominates Jewish thinking and loyalty.
Bit like the problem of having great Pastor, Coach or CEO, much loved by people for a long period of time.
Then along comes the next person!
He has to live with the ‘ghost of the previous leader’
Everything he does is measured by the standard that has been set.
Everything is evaluated by how it sits with where the previous leader sat!!
Do you know what John has the audacity to say here?
Out there on the lake at this Passover time…..We met one who is greater than Moses!
Are we so committed to our form of worship or our tradition of worship that we cannot hear from God?
In the midst of all our songs and prayers and preaching can we hear Jesus calling out Ego eimi = I am
5. The disciples found themselves in a frightening situation because they are doing the RIGHT thing not the WRONG thing!
They are in this scary place because they are FOLLOWING Jesus, not because they are REBELLING against Jesus.
God is often the miracle working pragmatist who is slightly removed from our world – His role is to manage our affairs, solve our problems, keep us from harm and answer all our questions!
No wonder so many people are disillusioned with God.
Discuss
6. Did you miss that little statement in v21
….. then they were willing to take him into the boat
Might sound obvious, but do we?
When he speaks those words Ego eimi = I am…..