Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 21, 2022 | RETOLD - Jesus Walking on the Water

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August 21, 2022 | RETOLD - Jesus Walking on the Water · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hi, good morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
0:04
SPEAKER_00: So I hope like me, you're praying that Hannah and Connor have their baby today.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Pretty excited about that.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: And uh sometimes I feel like I don't need the uh thanks, but I appreciate that.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Um so I feel like um sometimes, oh yeah, that is helpful.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Lord probably wants me to hold on to the Bible the whole service, but thank you.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: Um so some of us I think are as excited or more excited than Connor and Hannah are for them to have a kid.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: I I remember uh it hasn't been too long ago that Melody and I had our first child, just right after the flood.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: So, but I remember how that completely changed, you know, it changes your life, doesn't it?
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Within a year or two, you can't even remember back when you were, you know, childless.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, we're pretty pumped and excited about that.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: So he asked me to stand in for him this morning, and uh I'm gonna talk about Jesus walking on the water.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows that story.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting how if you type on walk on water in Google, you'll find all sorts of secular businesses, how to walk on water in the sales and you know and so forth.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: So this is a pretty well-known story, considered uh an outright legend, you know, by the Jesus seminar and by, you know, a number of people here in town who who preach on Sunday mornings.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: And and um, but it's not.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And uh who's the there's one professor in Florida State who said, well, maybe maybe he walked on ice, which is which is by the way, what the Canadians always say.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: We walk on water all the time, you know, up here.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but that's the only ice that's ever been in the Sea of Galilee.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: It's the lowest, it's the lowest freshwater lake in the world, uh uh 700 feet below sea level, so it's always, you know, hot.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: And the only ice that's ever touched the Sea of Galilee, I think, has been the ice uh dumped out of a martini glass, you know, by someone on one of those Jesus boats.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: But uh martini glass, Jesus boat, whatever.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: So but I did like the story of the little boy, four years old, whose mother just bought him one of those outdoor, you know, wading pools and so forth, and he's splashing around and kicking and splashing around and so forth.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: And then he reached out and he got the bucket and he started getting buckets of water and pouring them out on the ground.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: She said, What in the world are you doing?
2:38
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, my Sunday school teacher said we could walk on water, but this water won't work.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it's uh I guess it's a preacher joke.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Nobody laughs at that.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: So let me talk to you about this story.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm gonna, it's, it's, it's, it's told three times slightly differently in the gospel, in three of the four gospels Matthew, Mark, and John.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna use the John story.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: This is a miracle that happens at the Sea of Galilee.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is a view that you get, one of my favorite views of the Sea of Galilee, top of Mount Arbel.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Um Sea of Galilee, about three and a half miles across, about seven miles long.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: This is just a great view.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: And this is close to the view that Dennis Greening took when he was trying to scare us all by falling a thousand feet, you know, several weeks ago.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Um so, and then here you have Magdala, and you have Capernaum, you have the Bates Cider, where the miracle actually happens over here on the eastern side of the lake, and then they take a boat and the storm drives them out into the middle, and they finally get back.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: So that's the story we're gonna talk about.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: It's in John 6, 15 to 21, if you want to look it up in your Bible, uh, which is what I have here, but I've also put the words on the screen, and actually I'm gonna start beforehand, because this story always follows the feeding of the 5,000 and the three gospels, okay?
3:59
SPEAKER_00: So it's partnered with it.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: And that story ends this way in John 6, 11 to 13, that Jesus took the loaves, remember that, and after giving thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: When they were full, he told his disciples, collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: So they collected them and they filled twelve baskets.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's the fourth of the signs in the Gospel of John.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Signs uh is what the Gospel of John uses instead of the word miracles to refer to these miracles that Jesus does, because in John they're called road signs, basically, to the identity of Yeshua, of Jesus.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: That he is, they point to the fact that he is the Messiah, they point to the fact that he is um uh the Son of God and the Savior.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: So, so this is a major, major sign.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: 5,000, and that's just counting the guys, the adult males, so there's at least 10,000 people, okay?
5:01
SPEAKER_00: And so at the end of it, we find that the crowd goes wild.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 14.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: When the people saw this sign they had done he had done, they said, This truly is the prophet who's to come into the world.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh the prophet was uh one of the main references they used for the Messiah.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: They were, they knew this verse by heart in Deuteronomy 1815, that Moses delivered you and gave you manna.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: He was the manna man, right?
5:26
SPEAKER_00: He fed everybody the manna, actually, it was God.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: One day came the prediction in Deuteronomy, a prophet like Moses will come to save you.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine what the multitude, these thousands of people are saying, they're going, wow! I mean, this is this is unbelievable.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: He's just uh taking uh, you know, a long John Silver's kids' meal, and he's fed us, and uh and we've had bread like crazy.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: This guy's gotta be a new Moses, he's gotta be the Messiah, he's gotta be the Redeemer, he's gonna be like Moses, he's gonna deliver us from slavery, he's gonna deliver us from the Romans.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he doesn't know it.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's make him the prophet, and then that'll start a rebellion, and then he'll have all of these powers, you know, uh uh that he hasn't discovered yet, just like in the Marvel Comics movies.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, whatever.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: So this is what they're thinking.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: And and probably the disciples are gonna help lift Jesus up on everybody's shoulders, and they're gonna march around, they're gonna go crazy, right?
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And then they see this look on Jesus' face, his face goes white, you know, because this is a critical moment.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: It may be the last year, it probably is if you look at the uh timeline, last year of Jesus' public ministry.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's the culmination of his career in Galilee, maybe, but he's turning white.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: He realizes they're about to come and take him by force to make him king.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Prophet slash Messiah slash king slash deliverer from Rome.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
6:59
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows that's not going to work.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: It'll work one day, still in the future, right?
7:06
SPEAKER_00: But but no, he's not come for that purpose now.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: He's come to actually die.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: His salvation program, God's amazing plan, has two stages.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Stage one, I don't defeat the Romans and Satan and so forth.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: I lose, I die, I save the world.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And stage two, I'll come back and finish the job.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: And so they see his face sort of turns white.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: He knows this is a temptation, exactly the same temptation that Satan had given him in the wilderness, right?
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Gonna make you king, king over everybody, and so forth.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: He's got to get away from this temptation, he's got to get away from the pressure.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: So he just says, I'm going.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: And Gospel Mark, he says, the disciples, I'm out of here.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm out of here.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Leave me alone.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: You guys get down, you get in the boat, you go back across to our home in Capernaum, I'm I'm gone.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll meet you back there.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: And he disappears.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: He withdrew again to the mountain by himself, to the high hills, behind Bethsaida.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Huge.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: So this is the background of our story.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: So now here's where our story starts, John 16.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: When evening came, uh, this is 6 p.m.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh, there are two evenings in Jewish life, 3 p.m., that's when he started feeding them.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: 6 p.m., official evening starts.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: First watch of the night is 6 to 9, second watch of the night, 9 to 12, third watch of the night, 12 to 3, fourth watch of the night, 3 to 6.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: That's when the action's gonna happen.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, if you've been to Batesida, you know you go down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: So they're going from the east side to the west side of Galilee.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet, key line here, Jesus had not yet come to them.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: Remember that line.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: A high wind arose and the sea began to churn.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: Now there's certain um, you know, words in here that sort of set you off.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Number one, uh, this is gonna be the third time in the book that they're alone without Jesus, it always turns out badly.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: When they're alone without Jesus, they're in trouble.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Because we're heading toward John 15, where Jesus points out to them, apart from me, you can do nothing.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: So you have all these stories that prove that.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: Number two, whenever darkness sets in, we're in trouble.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: That's when evil comes out, right?
9:34
SPEAKER_00: And that's when they're in danger.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: So they're on the sea, in the dark, without Jesus.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: We know good things will not happen.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And it says a high wind arose and the sea began to churn.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind that uh 20 years ago, uh a couple of old, a couple of fishermen were out, see if Galilee was 20 feet down, and they found in the mud, and it was amazingly rescued, a Jesus boat, back a boat from 2,000 years ago.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: One of the interesting things, and this boat is kept in Jesus Museum in in Gennesera, in in Guinness, today, and you can see it.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's not all that big.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: If you had all 12 disciples, they'd be pretty crowded.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: It consists of about 12, 14 different kinds of wood.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, it's not that big.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: It's not that big.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm impressed with.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: And yet you have the wind, which either comes the goal, this is uh Jordan here, you have the wind either comes from the uh southeast or from uh the northwest, and it just whips the waves up at times all of a sudden.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: And the high wind arose and the sea began to churn.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Here they are in this small boat, right?
10:42
SPEAKER_00: They're fishermen, four of them at least are, and they know what they're doing, and yet this is scary.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: There are people that drowned, I'm sure, back then, every month in the Sea of Galilee.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: So, title of this one is High in the Hills Praying, Jesus is watching them.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: We know from Mark 4 that he ran up to pray.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Every time he was tempted or whatever, he went off and prayed.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: So he's praying all night, but he's also watching them.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: By the way, uh my Jewish friends uh always pray with their eyes open.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if this is why, but I'm sure glad disciples are glad Jesus kept his eyes open while he was praying.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm not gonna tell you how to raise your kids, but it isn't the worst thing in the world if their eyes are open when they're praying.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: However, if they've started eating, no.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, so Jesus went away to the mountain, to the highs.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: This is gospel of Mark.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm just feeding this in.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: He went into the high up into the high hills to pray.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: And he was, which it shouldn't have been, shouldn't have been hugging the coast, but they had no choice.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: And he was alone on the land.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: He saw them being battered as they rode because the wind was against them.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: So that wind was coming from the northwest, and they were finding it impossible to get back to Capernaum.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, a trip that should have only taken a couple of hours.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: And they're strong.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, don't think of the disciples as, you know, um, like Orthodox Jews spending all their day with, you know, studying before, bobbing before the wall, you know, who you could, who your 12-year-old could push over.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: These guys were men, okay?
12:20
SPEAKER_00: They were strong.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus saw them being battered as they rode, because and I don't know whether there's a miracle that he could see them, or whether there was it was just light, the moon was out at night, but he but he saw them and he's watching them while he's praying.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: And I find that comforting that no matter what kind of shape you're in, if you're one of his disciples, he's watching you.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: He sees you wherever you are in your tough times.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, Mark 6 ends by saying, uh, it's it's a count continues this way that the disciples get terrified because in the fourth watch of the night, that's 3 to 6 a.m., he came toward them walking on the sea.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, picture middle of the night, and you see this dark figure walking toward you on the sea.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: You don't go, oh, Jesus walks on the sea all the time.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: I saw him in the bathtub the other day.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't you don't do that, you know.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: So instead, they see this figure, and they thought, says the gospel of Mark, that it was, and they translated ghost.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Not a good translation.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: The Greek words phantasm, which like fantastic or phasmagorical or whatever, and it's the word then and now for a spirit that is a demon from the sea.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: Back then, of course, they had much more of a sense of the supernatural than we do in the West today.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, they worshipped, you know, false gods and demons and so forth, and they believed that this, that the sea, both the Mediterranean and Sea of Galilee, had had demons in it.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Actually, you know, there's so many people getting drowned all the time, and they thought they thought this was a demon who'd come up from the sea, so they cried out loud because they're terrified.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: And I would have too.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: It would have been totally freaky.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're having a hard enough time, right?
14:01
SPEAKER_00: And then back to John, which doesn't really care.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: The story of John is about Jesus, not about what the disciples felt or what they sensed.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: I just threw that in so you could get a picture.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: And all John 6 just sort of sedately says after they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: All right?
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Because John just wants you to know something about Jesus that I'm going to get to.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
14:30
SPEAKER_00: He comes to his disciples.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: And but he said to them, he calls out to them, It's me.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Or in good grammar, it is I, you know, and and the Greek word egoami, don't be afraid.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: Then they were willing to take him on board.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: And at once the boat was at the shore where they were heading.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Some people believe that was another miracle.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that you know, it probably felt like they were at the shore pretty immediately.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: But if this is literally true, gospel of Mark seems to apply, that was another miracle.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Shh, there you are.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: This is uh Star Wars, Star Trek, you know, beamed the boat to the dock.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: So uh literally, by the way, I go, Amy, keep this in mind, is I am.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: All right.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh Mark and Matthew in their accounts this way, then Jesus got into the boat with them and the wind ceased, and they were completely astounded because they hadn't got it.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: You know, with the feeding of the 5,000, they still hadn't figured it out who Jesus was.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the fourth sign wasn't enough.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: They needed the fifth.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: But Matthew says this is the sign that tipped them over the edge.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Then those in the boat worshiped him and said, Truly, you are the Son of God.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: They'd seen a miracle with food, they'd seen a miracle with feeding, they'd seen, you know, all that stuff.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: But now they've seen his power over nature, and they finally get it.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: So, uh lesson, let me, uh that's the story, okay?
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Let me share with you what I think of the three lessons from the from the John 6 account.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I'll just share the whole thing in case you fall asleep later.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: This is the thing.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: You memorize this, you got it.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes to his dear disciples when they are utterly desperate, and he rescues them with his divine presence.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Now let me break that out, okay, line by line.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: First of all, Jesus comes to his dear disciples.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: Notice that in this story, if you include the story of the feet of the 5,000, there are two groups of people.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: There's a very large group of people, and they're called the multitude.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: The word multitude is used repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly in John 6, 1 through 15.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: How many were there?
16:48
SPEAKER_00: 5,000 guys, 10,000, some people guess up to 20,000.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Huge multitude, right?
16:56
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Then there's a small group of people.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: There's just 12 of them at this point.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: They're called disciples.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: We actually know who they are: Peter, Andrew, James, John, you may need to help me.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: There's another James in there, a Judas, right?
17:23
SPEAKER_00: And uh Thaddeus and uh Simon.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: So this small group of disciples.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus preaches to the multitude, and it says he loves the multitude, but he doesn't come to the multitude.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: In this story, he gets away from the multitude.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, he comes to the disciples.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's a critical difference.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: There are two groups of people, and there are two groups of people in America.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: There are the multitude, two-thirds of adults in America.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: And the last year, according to Gallup and Pew Research, two-thirds of the people in America, the adults in America, that would be a hundred and seventy-six million Americans, say that they're Christian.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Are they disciples?
18:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, in the last uh six, eight, nine months, Pew and especially uh Barna have asked that question.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: They went back and they asked thousands of those people who said they were Christians.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: They said, Well, we can't really figure out whether you follow Jesus with your life, but let's ask you some basic questions about whether or not you believe what Jesus said.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: That there's one God and that he's all powerful, and that he's the Savior, and so forth.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And they found that less than one tenth of those 176 million Americans who said they were Christians believed even the most fundamental basic statements by Jesus and God in the Bible about themselves.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Barna ended up concluding that at most then, fifteen million Americans are what this passage would call disciples, just based on beliefs about salvation, there being only one God, etc.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves the multitude.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Jesus preaches to the multitude, but he doesn't come to the multitude.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: He only comes to his disciples.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: Not that the disciples, not that the disciples are perfect, but they've taken that next step of following Jesus because to be a disciple is not uh even though the word disciple means literally learner or pupil, they didn't have seminaries or schools in those days where you'd go from 9.30 in the morning till 3.30 in the afternoon, no seminary where you'd study and then go home.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you actually lived with or followed your mentor, your teacher, your rabbi, and so they lived 24-7 with Jesus.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Which is why Jesus said in Luke 6, 40 that a disciple when he is fully taught will be like his teacher.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Will be like his teacher.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Not just know some of the same things, but he'll be like his teacher.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: What is a disciple?
21:01
SPEAKER_00: A disciple is someone who lives 24-7 with Jesus.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Who lives with him in such a way that he just doesn't learn a few things about them, but he walks with him, becomes a Jesus follower, and becomes like Jesus.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: And that's a disciple, and there aren't that many of them around, are there?
21:26
SPEAKER_00: You and I know a lot of people who probably fit into the big group, into the multitude, but wouldn't fit into the small group of disciples.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: And uh someone was at Ian Bounce who said years ago, notice that God's method is men.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: He could have just held mass rallies and brought down the angels to sign people up, but he didn't.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Left the angels in heaven, preached at mass rallies.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: But then recruited some of the lowlifes like us, 12 of them, and said, I want you to be my disciples.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: And in time, we know from the book of Acts.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Others followed along, so the 12 grew to 50 and the 50 grew to 120 and so forth.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And that's who Jesus has always used to advance his program.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Especially now that he's gone back to heaven.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: And today in the church, oftentimes our method is programs, right?
22:30
SPEAKER_00: If we could just have a better program, that would work.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: But God's method, Christ's method, is still people.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: You and I getting close to other people to either learn from them or to teach them.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: And it's a lifelong process.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: This school doesn't stop, does it?
22:50
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, in the New Testament, application time here, in the New Testament, that process is kicked off the moment you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: And then the first step in the New Testament, the first step, the first concrete step along that process of becoming a disciple is, starts with a letter B, seven letters long.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: Baptism.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: What a coincidence we're having a baptism next month.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: We love baptisms here at TBC.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: About exactly a month ago, we were baptizing people in the Jordan River.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Two and a half, two weeks ago, we were baptizing people down at family camp in Flint Creek.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Just as holy, just as holy.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: And most holy of all, next Sunday night, we're going to baptize people in Kazir's Ponds, lake, whatever you want to call it.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, it's there's no disciple in the New Testament who's not been baptized.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Those two things are like siblings.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: They always go together.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 4, two chapters before this.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Jesus made and baptized disciples.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of this book, it says, go into all the world and and make disciples.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: What's the next word?
24:08
SPEAKER_00: Baptizing them.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: So listen, oh, no guilt here.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: But the last two times we've done baptisms, you know, in the last month, people come up and say, Do you know, I'm not, I've just never gotten baptized.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: And I say, Well, you really said, if you love Jesus, if you're a follower of Jesus, if you want to be a disciple, that's the first concrete step according to the New Testament.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: So I'll just say this.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been baptized, but you're a Jesus follower, why don't you go over to the Southwest Room there at 10:30 this morning?
24:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, here in Mulvaine Building, Southwest Room.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have baptism class one hour long to prep you for next Sunday night.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Get baptized.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: I like one comedian says, get her done.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: No.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: So anyway.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Um did that feel spiritual to you?
24:58
SPEAKER_00: It didn't feel spiritual.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Didn't feel spiritual to me, but you know, made the point.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: So um so that's the that's the process.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: And the process starts with baptism and and really, you know, get baptized.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: What else do I want to say about this?
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Um I just think I want to ask you, I just want to ask you the question.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, are you a disciple or are you part of the multitude?
25:22
SPEAKER_00: It's just a simple question.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus loves you if you're part of the multitude.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: If you call yourself a Christian, but that's about as far as it goes.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: He'll preach to you.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, um, it's not done in the classroom or in this auditorium.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: It may start in the classroom or it may start in this auditorium, you know, but then it it moves, it moves to 24-7.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: What Elton Trueblood called the company.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: You join the company of the committed.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: I'll go where you want me to go, I'll do what you want me to do.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter, young people, if you listen to me, if you're 12 years old, if you're 14 or 16 years old, you can start now.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Join the company of the committed before your mental arteries get hardened, you know, like they do with us older people.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Make that step now.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: Say, I I am, uh, you know, I've decided to follow Jesus.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's the first point.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes to his dear beloved disciples.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Number two, he comes to his dear disciples when they're totally desperate.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: And they least expect.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: When did the disciples expect to have a good time with Jesus?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: When did they expect him to come to them?
26:26
SPEAKER_00: You know when it was.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: It was nine hours before.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: When they've just said a Guinness Book of World Record for number of people catered with the least amount of food.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: We've just fed a football stadium with a cheeseburger and fries.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Yes, give me a high five.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: You know.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: And the place is going crazy.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Let's put Jesus on our shoulders.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus leaves.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Disciples are going, let's get together and celebrate this.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus doesn't come to them at that time.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: He says, I gotta get out of here.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: I gotta go pray.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm up, I'm I'm going up on the hill.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: You guys hit the boat, I'll see you back in front of him.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can you imagine how they felt?
27:10
SPEAKER_00: What?
27:12
SPEAKER_00: You've left us.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Us! I mean, we helped you hand out the bird, the whatever, the Long Jean silver, whatever.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: We helped you hand, we watched it happen, we gathered up the 12 baskets, and you're gone.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: And now life is getting bad for them.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: First of all, you know they're disappointed.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you come to the high point, and then the whole thing falls apart.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: And now, and they feel deserted.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: You ever felt like God's silent when your life starts unraveling a little bit and you need God more than at any other time, and trying to talk to Jesus, and you're just not getting any connections, like he's up on a high hill and you're out in the sea, and then there's darkness.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: Darkness always makes things worse.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: You know it's worse in the middle of the night.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: Drain or drain.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: How many hours now?
28:04
SPEAKER_00: It's eight, nine hours, eight hours at least, that these strong men have been pulling against the wind.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm good for at least five minutes of oar work, you know.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: If I'm desperate and they say you're gonna drown and the demons are gonna eat you and so forth, I'll go for 15, probably.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: These guys go on for eight, nine hours.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: So I, you know, James, take the oar.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm dying over here.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is this is this is incredible.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: And they're utterly drained, and as a result, they're desperate.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: They've come to the end of themselves.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: They're they're ready to throw the oars in the water and just die.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, they just fall apart in fear when apparently a demon comes.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And that's and that's what happens to us sometimes.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: I wonder sometimes if those of us who know Jesus will ever come to know him deeply until we've come to the desperate end of ourselves and lost all hope.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: But that's when Jesus comes to us.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: He just makes that a habit.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm asked, ask Job.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: He says, I wish I'd never been born.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Years later, Jeremiah said exactly the same thing.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm done.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, my whole family, my family hates me, everybody's trying to kill me, nobody's listening to me.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: Just, I wish I'd never been born.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Take me.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: David and the Psalms.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm done.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: Lord, just take me home.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm utterly depressed, I'm desperate, I'm at the end of my rope, you know.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: It's at the end of yourself that you find that the one who's been watching you from the high hills the whole time and waiting for you to come to the end of yourself now comes to you.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes to his disciples when they're totally desperate.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Are you desperate enough that only God can rescue you?
30:28
SPEAKER_00: And finally, Jesus comes to his dear disciples when they're utterly desperate and rescues them with his what?
30:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, when Jesus came across the water, I think all they heard was, it's me.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: And they go, Yes.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Later on, as they recorded the story, I think that's when they go, wow, do you realize what he said to us there?
31:04
SPEAKER_00: We didn't realize it then that he was stating who he was.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: But wow, when we think of everything, and especially in this book that we've read, that we've written, where Jesus says, uh, when I'm on the cross, then you'll know that, ego amid, that I am.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: Before Abraham existed, ego amy, and they picked up rocks to stone, and the Pharisees did, because they knew that he was blaspheming.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: Why'd they know he's blaspheming?
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Because back in Exodus chapter 3, when Moses went to God and he said, God, how am I supposed to, how am I supposed to convince the Israelites that I can deliver them out of Egypt?
31:45
SPEAKER_00: And I tell them that I saw you or I talked to you, and they're gonna go, who was he?
31:51
SPEAKER_00: What was his name if you think you know him?
31:53
SPEAKER_00: And and Yahweh said to Moses, tell them that I am has sent me to you to deliver you.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: And so Pharisees later go, Wow, Jesus is calling himself the I am, he's calling himself God, he's calling himself Yahweh of the Old Testament, come to the New Testament.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: And then as you go through the book, you find Jesus making these incredible statements.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: Ego, amen, the bread of life.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: I am the bread of life, echo, amen, the light of the world, echo, am the door, echo, am me, the good shepherd, echo, amen, the resurrection of the life, echo, am me, the way, the truth, and the life.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Say echo, amen.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Think let go, Amy.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: No, ego, amen.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay, can you say echo amy with you?
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Ego, amen.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: Say it again.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: Ego, amen.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: It's seven letters long, and yet guess what?
32:40
SPEAKER_00: It's a revelation, an open door to the power of the universe, to the power that God has, to the power that only God has, that was embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he comes to them across the waves, and they heard him say, It's me.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: But later on, they know what he was saying is, Ego, Amy, I am the vine, I'm the truth and the life, I'm everything that you'll ever need.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: And especially when you come to the end of yourself, I'll come to you and rescue you with my divine presence.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: And no wonder at the end of the book, when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and his enemies come to capture him and they say, We're looking for Jesus.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus responds with the seven letters, it's me, but says, Echo A me.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: They drew back and fell to the ground.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: If they weren't going to willingly worship the God of the universe, God would make them.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Listen, friends, it's in the dark that we learn who Jesus is.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: It's in the storm that we see that He is the I am.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: He is the I Am who spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea, whose road leads through the sea, his pathway through the mighty waters when his footprints are unseen, who rules the raging sea when its waves surge and he stills them.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes to his dear disciples, you, I hope, and me, when we are totally and utterly desperate and restores us with his divine presence.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, are you willing to pass through a storm if it means that you'll get to experience God's presence in it?
34:34
SPEAKER_00: When you pass through the waters, God promises, I will be with you.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: It literally happened in 1502, ten years after he discovered America.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Christopher Columbus, a believer, was taking his last voyage, and he was off the coast of Haiti, Dominican Republic, when he experienced the worst storm of his life.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: A storm he decided would probably take his life.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: He experienced his first tornado, his first hurricane at sea.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: For nine days, he wrote in his diary, I've been lost without hope of life.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: He kept writing about it.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: The clouds were darker, the waves were higher than I've ever seen them before.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: He says our boats were separated.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: The lightning struck with such violence I wondered at times if it had carried off my spars and sails, the people, all my sailors longed for death.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: We completely gave up hope.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: And then he said the worst terror of all happened.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: A giant tornado sucking up a massive funnel of water from the sea, passing between the ships.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: His son Fernando wrote in his diary.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: He said it was amazing how it looked like the sea just got sucked up to the sky, and the whole tornado began passing in between our ships.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: And at that point, when all hope was lost, Admiral Columbus seized his Bible, opened to John 6, read our story, screamed out those words.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: It is I.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: Took his sword with the other hand, made a cross in the sky, as Peter Marshall tells us in his book, The Light and the Glory, pointed at his ships.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: Tornado passed them by, and the storm ceased, and Christopher Columbus believed that Christ had come to them when they were at the utter, uttermost despair and saved them.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: I was 19, and without telling the story, I'll just say that I was in utter despair.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: I was reduced to weeping most of the day because my entire summer, my earnings was about to fall apart.
37:08
SPEAKER_00: I'd been struggling to find the solution for two weeks.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: It had not appeared.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: Asked what was wrong, and I told him.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I can solve your problem.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: And he tossed me the key to his brand new Grand Prix.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: And said, I ask only one thing of you.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Take this picture.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: I passed these out.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: It was a little picture, that old picture of Jesus with the long hair.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: Take this picture and put it in your wallet.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: On the back it said, I'm a Jesus man, but I knew differently.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: I knew better.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: I knew he wasn't just a Jesus man.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: He was Jesus himself who'd come to me at the end of all hope and rescued me.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: I kept that picture in my wallet for 20 years until it fell apart.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: This weekend, my sister Ruth yesterday, close to the end of her rope with her cancer treatment, writes a letter about the doctors saying, and then this weekend, we know with your depleted white cell count, you'll be in here tomorrow with a high and dangerous fever.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: But it didn't happen.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: She prayed, and for the first time in months, she didn't have a high fever after her treatment.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: One of the pastors I admired most in life, who've shaped my career, named Redpath.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Written a couple books, had had a church that was just booming, and all of a sudden, just before he was going to do a wedding, he was writing out the words to the wedding, his hands started trailing across the page.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: He called for his wife, but by the time she got there, it was too late.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: His right side was paralyzed.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: He was beginning to crumble.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: They rushed him to the hospital.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: They found out he had a cerebral hemorrhage.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, he was reduced to a child.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't sit up, he couldn't talk, he couldn't do anything without help.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: And the doctor said, You may recover, but you're going to be absolutely helpless for a long time.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And to surprise, as he lay there day after day, he couldn't obey his own sermon to his people.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: When he said, When you something happens to you, don't ask why.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: Just ask, what are you trying to teach me?
39:40
SPEAKER_00: He said, I couldn't do it.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: I myself kept saying why.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: I was reduced to crying every day, and then all of a sudden I was beset by temptations, by anger.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: I turned into the worst version of myself.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: And finally, eventually I said, Oh, God, just take me.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: I can't stand myself.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: I am not the person I thought I was.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: And he said, at that moment, when I'd come to the end of myself, it is as though God came to me and said, quit blaming this on Satan.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: This is for me to teach you the greatest lesson of your life that apart from me, you are nothing.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: And you just need to fall upon me.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: And at that moment, things started getting better.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: I think this story, so small, has a very simple message that Jesus comes to his dear disciples and you ask yourself, am I a disciple or just part of the multitude?
40:32
SPEAKER_00: And he comes to us when we're totally desperate.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, are you yet desperate enough?
40:39
SPEAKER_00: And he comes to us when we're utterly desperate and restores us with his divine presence.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to stay in that storm you're in?
40:49
SPEAKER_00: If you can experience the presence of God.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we uh we're moved by your program and your plan that it includes us.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: We are unworthy.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: That you love us and you watch over us, and when things get utterly bleak, you come to us.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: And we are so blessed.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: We love you in Jesus' name.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: Amen.