We continued our series called “Death to Life” at Gateway Church in Austin.
Discover the character and love of God as we journey through the 7 major signs in the Gospel of John. We will look at the life and work of Jesus through the eyes of one of his best friends and faithful disciples. In these 7 signs we encounter a depth to the glory and majesty of God, and how these truths can radically change our lives. They take us from lost to found; broken to whole; and from death to life.
Digging Deeper:
Work through the following questions and scriptures on your own, and get together with your running partner, life group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning.
Discussion Questions
Message Video:
Message Notes by John Burke:
I’ll never forget this summer afternoon, my kids, Ashley and Justin, were about elementary school age. We were out on Lake Travis on a small sailboat. We had sailed out to Spy Kids Island (Did you know that Island on Lake Travis is where they filmed the Robert Rodriguez Spy Kids movie years ago? Did you know there WAS a Spy Kids movie years ago?).
So we’re out enjoying the island to ourselves—jumping off the rock cliffs and swimming, the song “Island in the Sun” playing. It was the perfect summer day, when I notice storm clouds forming in the South far away.
I’ve sailed all my life—I’m a competent sailor. I had handled rough weather, ocean sailing, not much frightened me—and that’s the comfortable, cocky thought that crossed my mind as I eyed the storm clouds brewing. I didn’t want to leave our fun, Island in the sun day. So I put it off thinking “I can handle it.” But about an hour later, I realized it had grown massive, rapidly, and we had better get going fast or we’re not going to get back to the marina before it hits.
The boat had no motor, so I put the sails up, and 10 minutes into the sail back the Squall hit us!
The wind went from about 10 mph to 30 mph head on—the boat heeled on its side so hard, it almost dumped my kids—Kathy screamed, grabbed the kids. I turned away and ran with the wind to level the boat. Heavy sheets of rain pelted us, while we took off like a rocket-ship. I later found out the wind gusts were 40-50 mph. It happened so fast; all we could do was hold on. I was holding the tiller, going at an out-of-control speed and I was terrified. My little kids were in danger, I couldn’t let go of the tiller to drop the sails. Kathy couldn’t drop the sails—and it’s a lake—with rock cliffs—approaching fast.
I was truly afraid—what do I do? Run into the rocks and sink the boat, turn up into the wind and capsize my family. I was at the end of my Sailing Ability and in my heart, I cried out “God, help us—What do I do?” I had the thought “Volente Beach”—across from the Island–a Marina and Convenience store in a small cove. But I can’t just stop with 50 mph winds pushing me into that narrow—short cove. I wasn’t sure it was going to work—it was risky—but I yelled “Kathy—when we enter this cove—tell the kids to hold on and you take the tiller. I’ll run take the sails down.” But I honestly didn’t think I could do it before we hit something. We entered the cove flying. Kathy grabbed the tiller. I ran to the mast, dropped the sails part way—ran back, grabbed the tiller and spun the boat into the wind before hitting the docks. Whew! We got off the boat at the convenience store—and even the Microwave Hot-Pocket Burritos tasted good that day. I was so relieved and grateful to God.
Sometimes the Storms of Life come on us quickly. You’re not powerful enough to overcome it—what do you do? Some of you are facing squalls right now—illness or physical storms that perplex even the doctors. Business storms where you fear your boat’s gonna crash, you’ve tried it all. Financial storms that feel overwhelming, or maybe Relational storms that you can’t calm by all your efforts—what do you do when in the storms of life?
That’s where we are in this Death to Life series, looking at the 7 signs of Jesus showing us that we can trust him—even in the storm. In the passage in the book of John this week, Jesus has been doing miracles, healing the sick and lame, teaching, but the Storm clouds are brewing for him. The Pharisees are coming against him because so many are calling him Messiah—the foretold King of Israel. Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, had been imprisoned, and word just came to Jesus that King Herod beheaded John.
So Jesus is grieving and tells his 12 disciples “Let’s go across the lake to be alone.” He wants solitude, to pray, grieve—but word spreads and 1000s travel to where Jesus landed—and amazingly—it says “Jesus had compassion on them” and spent the day healing. When He was hurting and needing space to grieve, Jesus shows us God’s compassionate heart—he cares. And as we saw, it gets late, so he feeds about 10000+ people with what the disciples had–5 loaves and 2 fish. And that brings us to our passage today:
When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. – John 6:16-21
A couple of things are going on here, and we actually have to look to 2 others who wrote about this event to get a fuller understanding. But the first take-away is the clear Sign of Who this is—Jesus Has Power Over Nature—He is the One who created it, he has power over it, so we can look to him and trust him in the most impossible storms of life. This was the Sign of His Identity—the Creator of Nature, revealed in human form.
Matthew, who was also in the boat, tell us “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. – Matthew 14:22-23
So Jesus purposefully sends them across the lake without him while he prays. They get in the boat about 6pm and start sailing across the Sea of Galilee when a storm comes up. The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by 4000-foot-high mountains, but it’s 700 feet below sea level—so the cold air from up in the Mountains can come screaming down across Galilee and hit the warm low air and massive squalls can quickly arise.
So it says they weren’t even trying to sail into the fierce wind and waves, they were paddling—why didn’t I think of that?
But it must have been a pretty raging storm because at 3am (the 4 th watch) they’re still paddling, exhausted after 9 hours, probably taking on water, afraid the boat’s going to sink.
When they notice a Shadowy figure through the wind and rain, but it looks like a human figure—not swimming on the water, but walking. Matthew adds more color:
“they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’” – Matthew 14:26-27.
“Ghost!” they scream. They don’t recognize Jesus. Why don’t they recognize him—who else is it going to be? [The only people who claim to walk on water are politicians—they were all in Jerusalem].
They’d watched Jesus heal the paralytic man, feed 10,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Why weren’t they like, “Look at you now, Jesus—healing, feeding, now walking on water—of course!” Why did they not recognize him?
Because they weren’t looking for him! They weren’t really looking for Jesus—the Sovereign Lord of All, who has power over all. They weren’t looking for him. You know, when you are in the storms of life—Are you looking for God, looking for where He might be at work, looking to see what He might do through this bad situation? Too many times, I think I’m fixated on the problem, the bad circumstance, the scary situation—or how can I fix it, Row Harder, try this, try that. But what if the terrifying storm led us to look with eyes of faith to see where Jesus is in this? He’s never far away. He’s always with you—waiting for you to trust him.
[Okay, so some of you who are skeptics like I was, you are saying “Yeah—nice spiritual point—but you don’t really think Jesus did tmiracles like this–do you?
Let me get you to think about it from a different perspective that helped me. I love this analogy first coined by Edwin Abbott. Imagine I created a 2 Dimensional world. The people in Flatland would understand forward and back, side to side (2 dimensions) but would not even comprehend Up or Down—they don’t have a 3rd dimension. So if I’m their creator operating from a higher dimension (a 3rd)—I could intersect their world with my fingers. They would see a form of me, but there’s more to me than my 2D round image. I could also make things like fish or bread appear from “nowhere”. And I can operate within their laws of nature from a 3rd Dimension that supersedes their natural laws.
So if there are higher dimensions and God exists, miracles are not really a problem.
Okay, but Why was Jesus out strolling on the Lake at 3am? What was the point? Mark gives us a clue, he says:
“about the fourth watch of the night, He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. – Mark 6:48
Why was he intending to pass them—was he racing them?
Ever seen those speed walker races, disjoint their hips—was Jesus doing that?
“Bet I can walk faster than you can row–Go!”
According to David Garland – this is a theological technical term, “to pass by”!
It’s used when there’s a Theophany in OT – when God appeared in a visible form.
With Moses, it says “Lord passed by” Moses.
With Elijah “Lord was about to pass by” – it’s a technical term that Mark is employing to say “Jesus intended to reveal his Divine Nature” just like to Moses or Elijah.
It’s intentional—he wants them to realize Who He is—Jesus has Power over Nature—so they (and we) will fully trust him. And that leads to the 2nd Take-Away:
Jesus Comes to Us in the Storms of Life
When the storm-clouds of life turn dark and ominous, and the winds howl, and it feels like our boats about to capsize and sink—that’s when we often think God’s distant. He doesn’t know, or he doesn’t care. If he did—he would not let me get in this terrifying situation, he’d prevent it. And friends, I have some bad news for you—he doesn’t always prevent the storms of life.
We live in a broken, dangerous, evil world where bad things DO happen, and God does NOT always stop it or prevent it. If what you want is no risk, no fear, complete assurance of safety, security, and comfort—you landed on the wrong planet. And I know that’s hard. I don’t like it either. If I were God, I would just say to the guys “Hey—wait here on shore, a fierce storm is coming—don’t want you to end up in a storm, late at night, exhausted, terrified. Or if I were God, I’d apply a little Pre-calm to the storm. There was a storm, I put a little pre-calm on it up in the mountains—so go ahead guys—no storm will ever hit you.
But God allows storms. He could have healed my father’s cancer—I prayed, lots of people prayed—he didn’t. He could have prevented my mom from Alzheimers—I prayed in advance for that because her parents had it—he didn’t. And let’s be honest, that’s the brutally hard part about trusting God. Because sometimes he does! I’ve seen him miraculously heal cancer—I KNOW he can. I know people dead who are now alive. I’ve seen him miraculously provide—I KNOW he can. But sometimes he does, and sometimes he doesn’t, he lets the storm rage. But he tells us:
“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
I’m here—it’s me—I’m with you, so you don’t need to be afraid even of this. Trust me!
Jesus said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.
Jesus makes it clear that we live in a broken, evil, sinful world that has deviated from under God’s perfect rule. God is not “doing this to us,”—we’re learning from this world why God’s will and ways, His Kingdom, is what we need and want. Jesus demonstrated a taste of the Kingdom of God and people were healed, restored, forgiven, valued—sin, disease, disasters were overcome! That’s coming, but in the meantime, God allows the storms, but He’s in it with us.
Because in the storms, when we cry out to God, when we trust His overcoming power, we see how Great God is. It says, Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Matthew 14:33. You know, they had seen him heal people, feed 5000, but they had not worshipped him as the Creator—Ruler of the Universe–not until he showed his power over the storm—over nature.
Why though—why does God even allow the storms if he’s the Creator. He could just make them all stop. Why doesn’t he? You know?
When my daughter was 7, she had a terrible accident. She was up on my wife’s shoulders, going through a doorway—and she grabbed the top of the door and it flipped her over backwards—landing on her head on tile. I still wince thinking about the horrific sound I heard from the couch. We rushed her to the emergency room, they had to inject her with dye so a CT scan could show if there was subdural bleeding on the brain—a potentially fatal condition. It traumatized her with fear and pain having the dye injected in her. So imagine 3 hours later when the doctor said, “Dad, you’re going to need to hold her down because we have to inject her with dye to get a follow up CT scan.” Ashley was pleading, “No daddy—don’t let them hurt me. Stop it daddy, please. Yet I had to hold her shoulder’s down, while they hurt her. She was crying, I was crying—I was in pain watching her go through this pleading “Daddy, why are you doing this—stop don’t let them hurt me.” Why would I do that? Why would I allow them to hurt my daughter? Because I had a perspective she did not understand at her age—if I did not allow her to go through this, something much worse could happen. And I knew this temporary trial could result in Life and Joy for her. So I allowed it, but I suffered with her, to help her to Overcome.
When you’re in the storms of life, God is in it with you, he even suffers with you.
Isaiah tells us:
In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years. – Isaiah 63:8.
He suffers with us, because He has a bigger perspective of how this will result in Life and Joy for eternity. He’s willing to suffer with you to help you Overcome. So in the storms, look for Jesus—and the 3rd take-away
Keep Your Eyes On Jesus—And You’ll Do the Impossible.
Matthew includes an addendum to the event that John does not. He tells us that Peter, the ever-impetuous-speak-first-think-later disciple cries out:
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” – Matthew 14:28-31
With his eyes on Jesus, the All-Powerful One, Peter does the impossible. As long as his eyes
were fixed on Jesus, he overcame his fear, and he stepped into the realm of the supernatural—what’s beyond normal. But then, he took his eyes off Jesus, started looking at his circumstances, it sank him.
He failed! Jesus calls him “Oligopiste” a one-word term in Greek meaning “little-faith.” Jesus is not scolding him but saying “You were doing it—why did you doubt, “little-faith?” But maybe that’s why John and Mark don’t include it—maybe the other 11 saw failure!”
But did Peter really fail? You think Jesus heard Peter ask, “Tell me to come to you” and thought “That’s a stupid idea, Peter, it’s dangerous out here, you’ll sink.” No, Jesus knew Peter would do what the others would not. He stepped out of the boat, and for a few seconds, saw the power of Jesus working in him. If Peter failed, there were 11 bigger failures still in the boat. Jesus did later appoint Peter to lead his church forward—he failed, but he also did what no one else had done. Babe Ruth was the strike out king, but he also hit more home runs than anyone.
It’s often in the storm when you have a chance to see the Power of God in your life—but you have to get out of the boat. Like my good friend, John Ortberg writes, “If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.” What’s your boat? Your boat is whatever feels safe, comfortable, secure. Here’s how to know what your BOAT IS: Ask yourself, “What most produces fear in me—especially thinking about leaving it behind and stepping out in faith?” But that’s scary—you have to trust Jesus more than the boat. Maybe your boat is your money, maybe it’s a person (you know they’re not good for you, but it’s scary to fix your eyes on Jesus and step out of that boat). Maybe your boat is your current job—God’s calling you to something more—more in line with your gifts, more impactful—but it’s safe and secure in your boat. The storm can be a gift if you hear Jesus saying “Come” and fix your eyes on him.
Some of you are in a storm with your business—Maybe you’re still paddling, bailing water, doing all you can, but you’ve never really let God be the CEO. You’ve never made decisions to honor God first, it’s always been business success first. Jesus is there with you, this is your chance to get out of the boat, “Jesus I make you CEO, tell me what to do, and I’ll trust you.” Or maybe it’s a marital or relational or financial storm—whatever it is, Jesus is there—if you’ll step out in faith, keeping your eyes on him, not the boat, not the storm, not the fear—eyes fixed on Jesus, you’ll be amazed—you’ll see the impossible. He won’t let you sink, and you may just walk on water.
Can you trust him to take you through the storm? Do you look for him, or just stress out trying to figure it all out on your own? Do you Trust that His promise it true, he’s in the storm with you—and he will bring you through it as you fix your eyes on Him. And ultimately what looked like death and destruction, he will turn to life and abundance for you. He is the God of Creation—Powerful over all—so trust him in the storm.
