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The Sovereign "I AM" Over the Tormented Sea (Matthew 14:22–36) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reform Thinking. I'm so glad you decided to plug
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  in and join us for another deep dive into the source material.
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  We are really fascinating session lined up for today.
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  We are opening up the Gospel of Matthew, specifically chapter
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  14, verses 22 through 36. I have to admit, when I first
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  looked at the schedule and saw this passage, I thought, OK, I
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  know this one. I think everyone knows this one.
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  It is the story of Jesus walking on the water.
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  It is definitely one of the greatest hits.
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  It is right up there with David and Goliath or Daniel and the
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  lion's den. It is one of those accounts that
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  is so embedded in our cultural consciousness that we almost
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  stop reading it. We just, you know, skim it.
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  We think we know the moral of the story before we even finish
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  the first verse. That is absolutely right.
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  I feel like I have heard 1000 sermons on this and they usually
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  boil down to a motivational poster.
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  You know the type. A picture of a stormy ocean with
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  the text Get out of the boat. The message is always about
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  taking risks, being bold, doing something crazy for God.
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  It is treated like a manual for entrepreneurial success or
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  personal bravery. That is the standard approach,
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  yeah. It becomes a story about us.
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  It becomes a story about Peter and his audacity.
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  But when we actually sit down with the Greek text and when we
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  start pulling down the heavy commentaries, I am talking about
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  Calvin Hendrickson, Sprole, the Puritan writers, we find
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  something totally different. This is not a self help seminar.
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  This is a theological earthquake.
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  That is what I love about these deep dives, so we get to peel
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  back those layers of familiarity.
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  I was looking through the stack of research you sent over and I
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  was honestly surprised by how much I had missed.
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  There is a depth here regarding the nature of Christ, the nature
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  of fear, and the nature of salvation that just gets glossed
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  over in the standard retelling. We are going to try to rescue
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  this narrative today. We want to take it out of the
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  motivational speech category and put it back where it belongs,
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  which is as a singular revelation of the divinity of
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  Jesus Christ. If we do this right, by the end
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  of this hour you are not going to be thinking about your own
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  bravery. You are going to be thinking
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  about the sovereignty of the Great IA.
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  I really like that goal. So let us set the context before
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  we read the first verse. We are in Matthew 14.
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  What has just happened? The context is absolutely vital.
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  You cannot understand the storm if you do not understand the
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  meal. Immediately prior to this, Jesus
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  performed the feeding of the 5000.
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  This is the only miracle aside from the resurrection that is
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  recorded in all four gospels that tells you how massive it
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  was. It was a huge crowd, 5000 men
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  plus women and children. So we are talking maybe 15,
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  20,000 people. Easily.
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  And they are in a desolate place.
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  They are hungry. Jesus takes 5 loaves and two
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  fish, looks up to heaven, blesses them and feeds this
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  entire multitude until they are stuffed and they pick up 12
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  baskets of leftovers. It is the high point of his
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  popularity. The crowds are loving this.
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  I mean, who would not? Free food, miraculous
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  healthcare, A charismatic leader.
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  This is everything people want in a political figure.
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  And that is the danger right there.
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  This is where we have to look at the parallel account in John
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  chapter 6 to really get the flavor of the room.
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  John tells us that the reaction of the crowd was not just wow,
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  this tastes good. Their reaction was highly
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  political. They said this is indeed the
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  prophet who is to come into the world.
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  And then John adds this chilling detail.
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  He says they were about to come and take him by force to make
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  him king. To make him king by force?
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  That sounds like a revolution. It was a messianic insurrection
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  in the making. They wanted a bread king.
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  They wanted a welfare state. They wanted someone who would
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  use supernatural might to kick out the Romans and fill their
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  bellies. It was the ultimate temptation
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  of pragmatism. And the disciples were right in
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  the middle of. It that sets up verse 22
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  perfectly because Matthew says immediately he made the
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  disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side.
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  I pause on that word made when I was reading the notes in the
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  English standard version. It sounds a little firm but not
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  overly aggressive, but you flag the Greek word there.
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  The Greek verb is an uncasen. It is a very strong, almost
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  violent word. It translates to compelled,
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  constrained, or forced. It is used in other places in
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  the New Testament to describe forcing someone to do something
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  against their will. This was not a suggestion.
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  Jesus did not say, hey guys, the weather looks nice, why do you
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  not head out? He practically shoved them into
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  the boat. Why would he need to use force?
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  Because they did not want to go think about it.
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  They are the inner circle of the most popular man in Israel right
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  now. The crowd is chanting for a
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  king. The disciples are probably
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  thinking, this is it, we have one.
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  Peter is measuring the curtains for the palace.
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  Udis is calculating the tax revenue.
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  They're completely swept up in the glory of the moment.
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  And Jesus sees that this glory is actually a trap.
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  It is a satanic trap. It is the same temptation Satan
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  offered in the wilderness. I will give you the kingdoms of
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  the world without the cross. The crowd offered a crown
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  without a cross. And Jesus knew that if he let
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  the disciples stay there, they would be corrupted by that
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  theology of glory. So he forces them to leave.
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  He physically separates them from the source of their
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  temptation. That is fascinating.
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  So the storm that follows it is a direct result of that command.
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  That is the first major point we have to nail down today.
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  The disciples are in the boat heading into a life threatening
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  situation solely because they obeyed Jesus.
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  That really messes with the prosperity gospel narrative,
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  does it not? The idea that if you are in the
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  center of God's will, everything will be smooth sailing.
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  If you obey God, you get the promotion, the nice house, the
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  healthy kids. It shatters that idea
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  completely. Matthew is teaching us a robust
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  doctrine of Providence. Here you can be in the center of
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  God's will and in the center of a hurricane at the exact same
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  moment. In fact, the storm was part of
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  the plan. Jesus did not send them into the
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  boat hoping they would have a nice cruise.
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  He sent them into the boat knowing what the weather was
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  going to do. So the difficulty was not a sign
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  of God's absence, it was actually a sign of his Lordship.
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  Precisely, He loved them too much to let them stay on the
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  shore and become comfortable heretics.
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  He sent them into the storm to make them holy.
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  The storm was the curriculum. It was the Lesson plan designed
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  to strip them of their self-reliance.
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  When we look at the Westminster Confessions teaching on
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  Providence, it talks about how God uses primary and secondary
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  causes. God was the primary cause
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  ordaining this trial, and the wind and the waves were the
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  secondary causes carrying it out.
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  So he forces them into the boat and then he dismisses the
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  crowds. That seems like a bad PR move.
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  You have 20,000 people wanting to make you king and you just
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  send them home. It is the ultimate rejection of
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  pragmatism. A pragmatic leader would have
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  written that ways he would have capitalized on the momentum.
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  Look at the poll numbers. We are trending, but Jesus does
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  not care about numbers, He cares about truth.
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  He refuses to build his Kingdom on the applause of a mob that
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  only wants lunch. He measures success by obedience
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  to the Father, not by crowd size.
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  After everyone is gone, the disciples are on the water, the
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  crowd is dispersed. 23 He went up on the mountain by himself to
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  pray. So now we have this beautiful
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  split screen effect in the narrative.
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  Camera 1 is on the sea, dark, chaotic, noisy.
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  Camera 2 is on the mountain, silent, high, elevated.
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  You mentioned in the notes that Reformed theologians often see a
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  typology here, a picture of the current state of things.
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  Yes, it is a picture of the church age.
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  Jesus is on the mountain, He has ascended to heaven.
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  He is at the right hand of the Father.
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  And what is he doing? He is praying, He is
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  interceding. Hebrews 7.25 says He always
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  lives to make intercession for us.
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  And where are we? We are on the sea.
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  The boat represents the church. The sea represents the world.
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  Restless, hostile, often dark. We are struggling against the
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  wind. We are toiling at the oars.
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  We cannot see Him with our physical eyes, but He is
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  watching us and He is praying for us.
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  There is a distinction the sources made about the crowd
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  versus the disciples that I thought was helpful.
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  The crowd represents national Israel.
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  That is a common interpretation in the commentaries.
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  The crowds representing national Israel are dismissed for a
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  season. They are set aside.
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  The disciples, the nucleus of the church, are sent into the
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  sea of the Gentile nations, into the world history that is full
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  of storms. But the promise is that Christ
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  is on the mountain praying for their arrival.
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  I love that it means we are not alone even when it feels like we
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  are. But let us talk about the
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  conditions in that boat because it it was not just a little
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  choppy. We need to understand the
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  geography of the Sea of Galilee. It is essentially a bowl.
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  It sits about 700 feet below sea level.
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  To the north you have Mount Hermon which is over 9000 feet
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  high and often snow capped. So you have cold air up there
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  and warm humid air down in the bowl.
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  Yes. And when that cold air rushes
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  down the ravines and hits that warm air trapped in the bowl, it
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  creates violent, unpredictable downdrafts.
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  It turns the lake into a washing machine.
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  The waves do not just roll, they smash.
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  It becomes a cauldron. Verse 24 uses a very intense
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  word to describe what the boat was experiencing.
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  It says the boat was beaten by the waves.
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  The Greek word is basanozamanon. It comes from Basanos, which
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  originally referred to a touchstone used to test metals,
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  but in common usage it meant tormented, tortured or battered.
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  Tortured. That is a heavy word.
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  It is the same word Matthew uses in chapter 8 to describe the
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  agony of the demon possessed men or the torment of judgement.
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  This gives us a window into the severity of the situation.
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  The boat was not just bobbing up and down, it was being tortured.
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  It was groaning under the stress.
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  And the disciples were in the middle of this.
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  Now we have to keep in mind who these guys were.
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  Peter Andrew James, John Tarrone.
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  These were not accountants. They were professional
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  fishermen. They grew up on this water.
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  They knew the currents. They knew how to handle a boat.
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  If anyone could navigate a storm, it was this crew.
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  But the text suggests they were making 0 progress.
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  They were helpless. The sources call this the law
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  aspect of the miracle. The law reveals our inability.
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  That is the theological function of the storm.
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  The law comes to strip us of our confidence in the flesh.
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  Imagine Peter at the beginning of the night.
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  He probably thought, I got this. I have sailed through squalls
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  before, but hour after hour of torture stripped that away.
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  His muscles were burning, his skills were useless.
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  The wind was stronger than his will.
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  He was being brought to the end of himself.
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  And Jesus lets him stay in that state for a long time, the text
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  says. He came to them in the fourth
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  watch of the night. That is the Roman system of time
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  keeping. The 4th watch is between three
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  WOW 0AM and six wow AM. So if they left right after
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  dinner. They have been rowing for eight,
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  maybe 9 hours in the pitch black, making no headway, just
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  wet, cold, exhausted and terrified.
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  Why wait? If he is praying for them on the
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  mountain and he knows they are in trouble, why not come at 10
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  zero PM? Why let them suffer for 9 hours?
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  It goes back to the lesson. It is about the fullness of
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  time. He waits until their strength is
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  completely gone. He waits until they have
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  exhausted every human resource. If he had come at 10:00 PM, they
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  might have said, well, Jesus gave us a boost, but we really
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  pulled together as a team to get through that.
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  But at 4:00 AM, when they're collapsing over the oars at.
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  4:00 AM. There is no ambiguity.
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  They know they cannot save themselves by waiting until the
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  darkest, coldest hour. He ensures that the deliverance
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  is seen as solely divine. He puts them in a position of
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  total dependence so that He receives total glory.
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  And then he comes walking on the sea.
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  This is the moment. This is one of the most
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  significant crystallological claims in the entire Bible.
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  We have to be crystal clear here.
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  This was not a magic trick. This was not an illusion.
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  I remember reading about some liberal theologians in the 19th
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  century who tried to explain this away.
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  They said he was walking on a sandbar or near the shore.
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  Which is ridiculous because the text says they were many
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  furlongs out in the middle of the sea and the water was deep
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  enough for Peter to sink. Those naturalistic explanations
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  are just desperate attempts to avoid the theology.
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  So what is the theology? What is the significance of a
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  man walking on top of a storm? To understand this, you have to
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  have the Old Testament running in the background of your mind.
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  In the ancient Near Eastern worldview, the sea, the yam,
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  represented chaos. It represented the abyss.
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  It was the home of Leviathan. It was the uncontainable hostile
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  force of death. So the sea is basically the anti
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  creation. Yes, it is the thing that
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  threatens to swallow up the land and the life God created.
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  Now who is the only one who has authority over the sea?
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  Specifically look at Job 9.8 Speaking of Yahweh, it says he
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  alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the
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  sea. Or Psalm 77.19.
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  Your way was through the sea, your path through the great
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  waters. So when Jesus steps onto the
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  waves. He is enacting job 9.8.
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  He is doing what only the Creator can do.
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  He is trampling the chaos. He's treating the thing that
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  terrifies them like it is pavement.
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  He is showing that the abyss is under his feet.
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  It is a visual declaration of deity.
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  But the disciples do not see it that way.
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  They do not look out and say, oh look, it is the fulfillment of
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  Job 9.8, they scream. They are absolutely terrified.
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  Verse 26 says they cried out in fear saying it is a ghost.
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  The Greek word is phantasma. It means an apparition, a
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  spirit, a phantom. Is this just them being
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  superstitious ancient people? Well, yes and no.
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  We have to be fair to them. They do not have floodlights.
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  They are looking into the driving rain and the darkness,
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  and they see a figure hovering over the water.
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  In the folklore of sailors at that time, seeing a spirit on
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  the water was the worst possible omen.
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  What did it mean? It was a harbinger of death.
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  It meant the spirits of the deep were coming to claim you.
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  It meant you were about to drown.
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  So in their minds, this is the end.
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  The storm was bad enough, but now the Grim Reaper has shown
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  up. There is such a cruel irony
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  there. The Savior is coming to rescue
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  them and they think He is the Angel of death.
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  That is the tragedy of fear. Fear makes us terrible
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  theologians. When our hearts are ruled by
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  dread, we misread Providence. We look at God's intervention
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  and we view it as a threat. They are looking at the solution
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  to their problem, Christ Himself, and they are screaming
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  in terror because they do not recognize His grace in the midst
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  of the storm. And this brings us to the voice.
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  Before he stops the wind, he speaks to them.
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  The order is crucial. Notice that he does not just
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  snap his fingers and make the water glassy.
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  He speaks first. The word takes precedence over
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  the environment. He addresses the internal storm
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  in their hearts before he addresses the external storm on
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  the lake. He says take heart, it is I do
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  not be afraid. Now we need to slow down and
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  really look at that middle phrase.
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  It is I in English. That sounds like a simple
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  identification, like hey guys, it is me, Jesus.
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  But the Greek is heavier. Much heavier.
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  The Greek phrase is ego, Jimmy. Literally, I am.
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  I am, That is the divine name. It is the name God gave to Moses
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  at the burning Bush in Exodus 3.1.
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  Team I am tell you who I am. It is the name used in Isaiah 43
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  where God says when you pass through the waters, I will be
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  with you, for I am the Lord your God.
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  So Jesus is standing on the water, effectively shouting the
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  name of Yahweh into the wind. He is pulling back the veil.
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  He is not just a teacher. He is not just a prophet.
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  He is the great. I am at the self existent one,
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  the one who is. The sources brought up a really
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  interesting grammatical point here, the relationship between
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  the command and the statement. They called it the indicative
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  and the imperative. This is a core concept in
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  reformed hermeneutics. The indicative is the statement
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  of fact, what is true. The imperative is the command,
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  what we must do. The command here because do not
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  be afraid. Right now imagine if I just
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  walked up to you while your house was burning down and said
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  do not be afraid. That would be insulting.
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  It would be empty positive thinking.
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  You have every reason to be afraid.
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  So a command without a basis is just noise.
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  That is it. But Jesus does not just give the
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  command. He grounds the command in the
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  indicative. The logic flows like this.
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  Do not be afraid, which is the imperative, because I am, which
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  is the indicative. The presence of the I Am is the
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  reason the fear can go. That is the whole point.
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  Courage does not come from looking inside yourself and
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  finding your inner warrior. It comes from looking outside
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  yourself and seeing who is standing there.
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  If the creator of the wind is present, the wind loses its
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  ability to terrorize. The logic of comfort is entirely
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  theological. We are safe because He is God.
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  That is a staggering thought. It shifts the burden off of my
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  emotional state and puts it onto his identity.
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  Now the story takes a turn that is unique to Matthew.
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  Mark and John do not mention this part.
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  Peter speaks up. He says, Lord, if it is you,
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  command me to come to you on the water.
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  This is vintage Peter. Impulsive, bold, and honestly a
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  little confusing. Scholars have debated this for
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  centuries. Was this presumption?
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  Was he testing Jesus? Or was this genuine faith?
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  The text says if it is you. That sounds like a test.
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  In the Greek structure it is a first class condition which
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  implies something assumed to be true.
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  It is more like Lord since it is you.
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  Peter sees the reality of the I AM and he draws A conclusion.
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  If that is the Lord of creation than the laws of physics are
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  subject to him. And if he commands it, I can
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  walk on this water too. Note that he asks for a command,
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  he does not just jump. That is the key difference
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  between faith and stupidity. Stupidity is jumping out of the
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  boat because you want an adrenaline rush.
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  Faith is acting on the word of Christ.
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  Peter says command me. He knows he has no inherent
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  ability to float. He needs the word to stand.
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  On And Jesus gives him the word he says.
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  Come one word. And on the basis of that one
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  word, Peter throws his legs over the side and steps onto the
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  liquid chaos. And it holds him.
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  We should probably pause here and address a theological issue.
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  There are some circles, charismatic or hyper faith
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  movements that teach that this is a prescription for every
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  believer. That if we just have enough
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  faith, we can walk on water, walk through walls, define
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  nature. We have to be very careful
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  there. Reformed theology stresses that
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  this was a unique moment in redemptive history.
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  This was an Apostolic sign. It was designed to validate
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  Peter's unique role and to display Christ's unique
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  authority. It is not a normative promise
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  that if you pray hard enough you can bypass gravity.
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  We are cessationists in the sense that we do not expect
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  these Apostolic miracles to be the daily operating procedure of
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  the Church today. The foundation of the Church has
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  already been laid by the apostles.
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  We do not need new signs to prove what has already been
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  established in Scripture. But there's still a lesson about
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  faith here, even if we're not walking on literal lakes.
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  Absolutely. The lesson is about trust in the
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  midst of hostility. Peter's doing the impossible
• 18:31
  because he is focused on the master.
• 18:33
  But then the camera angle shifts again, Verse 30 says.
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  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink.
• 18:39
  He cried out. When he saw the wind that is the
• 18:42
  turning point, he took his eyes off the word, the command to
• 18:44
  come, and he looked at the world, the wind.
• 18:46
  It is interesting that it says he saw the the wind.
• 18:49
  You cannot really see wind. You see the effects of it, the
• 18:51
  waves, the spray. He saw the evidence of the
• 18:54
  danger. He started calculating the odds.
• 18:56
  He looked at the waves and his brain said this is impossible,
• 18:59
  you are a heavy man. Water is liquid.
• 19:01
  You should be dead. The moment he validated the
• 19:04
  threat of the storm over the promise of Christ, gravity took
• 19:08
  over. Jesus calls this little faith.
• 19:11
  The Greek word is oligopistos. Oh you of little faith.
• 19:14
  It is a favorite term of Jesus in Matthew.
• 19:16
  Noted. He does not say no faith.
• 19:18
  Peter had faith. He got out of the boat.
• 19:20
  That is more than the other 11 did.
• 19:22
  True, James and John, we're still gripping the bench.
• 19:25
  So Peter has faith, but it is little because it is easily
• 19:28
  interrupted. It is a duration problem.
• 19:30
  He trusts for a moment, but he cannot sustain that trust when
• 19:34
  the sensory input of the storm gets loud.
• 19:36
  And he begins to sink. This is where we see the
• 19:39
  doctrine of total depravity and human inability.
• 19:41
  Again, left to himself, even a believing disciple like
• 19:45
  Peterson, that is the reality. The Synod of Dort touches on
• 19:48
  this when it discusses the perseverance of the Saints.
• 19:50
  We do not have a reserved tank of grace that we store up and
• 19:54
  run on independently. We are dependent creatures.
• 19:57
  The moment Jesus withdraws his sustaining hand, or the moment
• 20:01
  we disconnect our gaze from Him, the flesh takes over.
• 20:04
  Gravity wins. Sin wins, We sink.
• 20:07
  We are utterly incapable of sustaining our own spiritual
• 20:10
  life without his constant intervention.
• 20:12
  But then comes what I think is the best prayer in the Bible.
• 20:15
  Lord. Savior, it is short, urgent, and
• 20:18
  perfect. There is no preamble.
• 20:20
  No Lord, I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today.
• 20:23
  No bargaining. No, Lord, if you Get Me Out of
• 20:26
  this, I promise to tithe more. It is just a raw confession of
• 20:29
  helplessness. And the response?
• 20:31
  It says immediately Jesus reached out his hand and took
• 20:33
  hold of. Him immediately.
• 20:34
  I love that word. Christ is not a reluctant
• 20:36
  savior. He does not let Peter gulp a few
• 20:38
  gallons of water to teach him a lesson.
• 20:40
  He does not stand over him and lecture him about his theology
• 20:43
  while he drowns. He saves him.
• 20:46
  This is a beautiful picture of salvation.
• 20:48
  The sources use the term monarchism here.
• 20:50
  Can you unpack that for us? Monarchism is a theological term
• 20:53
  that means one work or one worker.
• 20:55
  It is the belief that God alone accomplishes our salvation.
• 20:59
  The opposite is synergism, which means working together.
• 21:02
  Synergism says God does his part and I do my part.
• 21:06
  He throws the life preserver and I have to swim to it and grab
• 21:09
  it. It makes salvation a cooperative
• 21:11
  effort. But looking at the text, this
• 21:13
  does not look like a team effort at all.
• 21:15
  Not at all. Peter is sinking.
• 21:16
  He is dying. He is not helping Jesus.
• 21:19
  Jesus reaches out and grabs him, the text says Jesus took hold of
• 21:22
  him. The grip is entirely on Christ's
• 21:25
  side. If you want a perfect picture of
• 21:27
  Calvinism, of Reformed soteriology, it is right here.
• 21:30
  Dead men do not swim to life preservers.
• 21:32
  They have to be pulled from the bottom of the ocean.
• 21:34
  So Peter's security did not depend on Peter's grip on Jesus,
• 21:37
  it depended on Jesus grip on Peter.
• 21:39
  That is the anchor for our souls right there.
• 21:42
  If my salvation depended on the strength of my hold on Christ, I
• 21:44
  would have lost it a long time ago.
• 21:46
  My hands get slippery, I get tired, I get distracted, I get
• 21:49
  scared. But His hand is the hand of the
• 21:52
  Almighty. It never slips.
• 21:54
  It never tires. Peter was safe not because Peter
• 21:57
  was strong, but because his Savior was strong.
• 22:00
  So Jesus pulls him up. They get into the boat and verse
• 22:04
  32 says, And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
• 22:08
  Instantly it demonstrates absolute dominion.
• 22:10
  The wind recognizes its master. The chaos that was torturing the
• 22:13
  boat just moments ago is silenced into submission.
• 22:17
  It is like a dog that stops barking when the owner walks in.
• 22:19
  And now we get the reaction of the disciples in the boat.
• 22:22
  This is really significant because if we look back at
• 22:24
  chapter 8, when Jesus calmed a previous storm, their reaction
• 22:28
  was confusion. They asked what sort of man is.
• 22:30
  This they were puzzled. Back then, they were still
• 22:32
  trying to fit him into their categories.
• 22:33
  Is he a prophet? A superhero?
• 22:35
  A rabbi. But here in verse 33 it says
• 22:38
  those in the boat worshipped him, saying truly you are the
• 22:41
  Son of God. This is the climax of the
• 22:44
  narrative, the goal of the Providence, the goal of the
• 22:47
  storm, the goal of the terror. It was all to bring them to this
• 22:50
  point of worship. The word for worship is
• 22:53
  proscenae. Yes, it means to prostate
• 22:56
  oneself, to bow down, to kiss the ground.
• 22:59
  It is the posture of a subject before a king.
• 23:02
  They are not asking questions anymore, they are making a
• 23:05
  confession. Truly, you are the Son of God.
• 23:08
  It seems like the storm was necessary to get them to that
• 23:11
  confession. That is the hard truth of the
• 23:13
  Christian life. We often do not learn who God
• 23:15
  really is when the sun is shining and the sailing is
• 23:18
  smooth. When we are full and
• 23:20
  comfortable, we tend to have a small view of God.
• 23:23
  It takes the storm to reveal the IAM.
• 23:25
  It takes the threat of death to make us appreciate the Lord of
• 23:28
  life. True worship is the resolution
• 23:30
  of fear. They stopped being afraid of the
• 23:32
  waves and started fearing the Lord in that biblical sense of
• 23:35
  reverent awe. Exactly right.
• 23:37
  They realized that the most terrifying thing in the universe
• 23:39
  was not the storm outside the boat, it was the man inside the
• 23:42
  boat. But he is a terrifying force of
• 23:44
  holiness who is simultaneously filled with grace toward them.
• 23:48
  Now most people stop reading there.
• 23:49
  The storm is over. They worship roll credits.
• 23:53
  But Matthew includes a few more verses, verse 34.
• 23:56
  And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Genesaret.
• 24:01
  This is the mercy coda to the story.
• 24:03
  We have seen His Majesty on the sea.
• 24:05
  Now we see his mercy on the shore.
• 24:07
  The people recognize him immediately and they start
• 24:09
  bringing all the sick people to him.
• 24:11
  It says they besought him that they might only touch the fringe
• 24:15
  of his garment. And that detail about the fringe
• 24:18
  is not accidental. The Greek word is craspenon.
• 24:21
  It refers to the tassels that sits it that Jewish men were
• 24:25
  commanded to wear on the corners of their garments in numbers 15.
• 24:28
  What was the purpose of those tassels?
• 24:29
  They were a visual reminder of the law and the covenant.
• 24:32
  They represented the commandments of God.
• 24:34
  So when these sick people are reaching for the fringe, they
• 24:37
  are not just grabbing cloth. They are reaching for the
• 24:40
  covenant. They are reaching for the Holy
• 24:41
  One of Israel. So this was not superstition.
• 24:44
  It's not like rubbing a rabbit's foot.
• 24:46
  No, I do not think so. There is a connection here to
• 24:48
  the woman with the issue of blood.
• 24:50
  Earlier in Matthew 9, she also touched his fringe.
• 24:53
  It was an act of desperate faith.
• 24:55
  They understood that this rabbi carried the authority of God.
• 24:58
  They were not practicing magic. They were reaching out to the
• 25:00
  Messiah. And the text says as many as
• 25:03
  touched it were made well. It highlights the abundance of
• 25:06
  His mercy. Notice the contrast.
• 25:09
  On the sea He is the terrifying Lord who tramples the waves.
• 25:13
  On the shore, He is the compassionate healer who lets
• 25:16
  sick peasants touch his hem. It is a beautiful balance, high
• 25:20
  theology and deep compassion. And we must never separate those
• 25:24
  two. Sometimes in Reformed circles,
• 25:26
  we get so focused on the sovereignty that I am the
• 25:29
  theology that we can become cold, we can forget the
• 25:31
  compassion. But Jesus is both.
• 25:34
  He is the lion and the Lamb. He is the King over the storm
• 25:37
  and the physician for the sick. Recognizing him as Son of God
• 25:40
  should lead us to compassionate ministry, not just intellectual
• 25:43
  arrogance. That is right.
• 25:45
  If we really know that I am, we should be the most merciful
• 25:47
  people on earth because we know we have been rescued from the
• 25:49
  storm ourselves. That is a really helpful check
• 25:52
  for us. So we have walked through the
• 25:55
  text. We have seen the divine
• 25:57
  compulsion, the intercession, The Walking on water, Peter's
• 26:00
  rescue, and the final healing. As we wrap up this deep dive,
• 26:05
  let us try to distill this. What does this mean for you, the
• 26:08
  person listening right now? I think there are three main
• 26:11
  takeaways. 3 applications for the heart.
• 26:14
  First, you need to completely rethink your view of storms.
• 26:18
  Right. The difficulty in your life is
• 26:20
  not proof that God has left the building.
• 26:22
  If you are going through a difficult time, financial
• 26:24
  trouble, a health crisis, family conflict, do not automatically
• 26:28
  assume you are out of God's will.
• 26:30
  You might be in the boat specifically because Jesus
• 26:33
  compelled you to be there. He may have sent you into the
• 26:35
  contrary winds for your sanctification.
• 26:37
  He is teaching you that you cannot row your way out of it.
• 26:40
  He is exhausting your resources so that you will look for him
• 26:43
  the 4th watch. Yes, the storm is not an
• 26:45
  accident, it is an appointment. The second application is about
• 26:49
  the cry Lord saves me. We need to abandon our self
• 26:53
  salvation projects. We are all prone to pragmatism,
• 26:56
  trying to fix our lives with better techniques, better
• 26:59
  planning, more control. But true faith looks like Peter.
• 27:02
  It looks like admitting I am sinking and I cannot fix this.
• 27:06
  You need to be quick to cry out to him.
• 27:08
  You need to be comfortable with your own helplessness.
• 27:11
  And finally, the worship. The proper response to life's
• 27:14
  trials is not resentment, it is not just relief when they are
• 27:17
  over. It is worship.
• 27:19
  The disciples did not just high 5 each other and say that was
• 27:22
  close. They bowed down.
• 27:24
  You need to fix your eyes on Jesus and confess Him as the Son
• 27:27
  of God. The storm should make your
• 27:29
  theology deeper. I love the image.
• 27:31
  The source has left us with the boat.
• 27:33
  The wind may howl, the waves may beat against the hull, but if
• 27:36
  the I AM is in the vessel, the destination is secure.
• 27:39
  That is the assurance of the believer.
• 27:41
  You are safe not because the sea is calm, but because the captain
• 27:44
  is the creator. He tramples the waves, he prays
• 27:46
  for you on the mountain and he will see you to the other side.
• 27:49
  And to add one final thought for you to chew on after you finish
• 27:52
  listening, consider what happened to the disciples who
• 27:55
  stayed in the boat. We spend so much time analyzing
• 27:58
  Peter's failure on the water, but the other 11 experienced the
• 28:01
  exact same revelation of the I Am without ever stepping over
• 28:05
  the edge. You do not always have to do
• 28:07
  something dramatic or reckless to witness the glory of Christ.
• 28:11
  Sometimes simply holding on in the boat and waiting for Him to
• 28:14
  step in is where the greatest worship happens.
• 28:17
  That is a fantastic point to end on.
• 28:19
  It brings everything back to His grace rather than our
• 28:22
  performance. Well, that brings us to the end
• 28:24
  of this deep dive. I hope you'll never look at
• 28:26
  Matthew 14 the same way again. It is not just a story about a
• 28:29
  ghost and a sinking disciple. It is a revelation of the glory
• 28:33
  of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
• 28:35
  Amen to that. I want to encourage you to open
• 28:37
  your Bible and read this text again.
• 28:40
  Read it slowly. Think about the I am.
• 28:42
  Let that truth anchor you. Thanks for joining us on
• 28:45
  Reformed Thinking.