In Part four of this series of articles on Beckoned to walk on water! we take a look at how Peter was commanded to come walking on water and his cry for repentance and salvation. Last Tuesday, we talked about courage in the context of God’s Word (Courage!).
Matthew 14 28-30
28 Then Peter spoke up. “Lord, if it is really you, order me to come out on the water to you.” 29 “Come!” answered Jesus. So Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water to Jesus. 30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he was afraid and started to sink down in the water. “Save me, Lord!” he cried.
In the previous article we talked about identifying Jesus in His element state. We have to get to know the spiritual side to Him. The spiritual side of Him that was seen by the disciples as a ghost answered Peter to “Come!”
The Calling…
Jesus answered Peter’s question about his authenticity by beckoning Peter to come to him. Jesus beckoned Peter to come to him walking on the stormy water just as he is. You do not need to change your appearance or who you are, come to me just as you are; broken.
How many of us do understand the word “broken”?
How broken are you?
What issues do you have harbouring in your heart?
Do you believe in the Christ who resurrected from dead and gave you peace?
Do you believe in His Word?
If you do not, then you have issues in your heart. The Lord is calling you to Himself, trust in Him and come to Him just as you are with your “broken self”. He will answer your question.
“Broken” means: (of a person)
- Having giving up all hope; despair
- subdued or brought low in condition or status
Synonyms: defeated, beaten, vanquished, overpowered, overwhelmed, subdued; demoralised, dispirited, discouraged, dejected, crushed, humbled, dishonoured, ruined, crippled
A broken person has lost all hope and enthusiasm, because of bad experiences
Jesus has called Peter to himself. In the midst of the stormy water, Jesus called his disciple. He called Peter to come knowing there is a storm out on the water and a strong wind blowing. What is this storm? Jesus has just given His disciples the blessed and broken bread and fish to feed the crowd with, which is their given mandate (Matthew 28: 19-20).
Now they have come against a storm in their journey to fulfil that mandate. A storm against their belief and this is making them question the authenticity of the Lord.
A strong wind is blowing – a wind about life situations, about what Jesus has taught them, about the principles of God and about His purpose. The strong wind is changing the principles of God’s Word. There is a word going round about who Jesus is and they need to clarify that. There are a lot of things going on in the world, that are tossing the disciples boat about and the Word of the Lord is at stake.
Who do men say I am? (Matthew 16:13)
Who do they believe in, the Word of God or the World?
The disciples are torn between the two, therefore the calling onto Jesus to identify Himself of who He really is – torn between two worlds.
Come walking on your troubles just as He is, by putting the storm under his feet –controlling the storm in his life. Jesus went through the temptations by the Devil knowing who He is. Do you know who you are? Jesus fought the enemy by using the Word of God. He stood on the Word and brought the enemy down.
Just as you are suffering with your faith, so was He, but He stood on the Word of God to conquer the enemy [the strong wind]. Walk on the water just as He is, and you will put the enemy under your feet. You just need the Word of God.
As Peter starts to walk on the water, he turned and noticed the strong wind, which put fear in his heart and he started to sink down in the water. Peter took his focus of the Word of God – the Principles of God as to that of the World.
Life application…
Just as you walk through life with its ups and downs, so does God wants you to handle life’s problems/difficulties/barriers/challenges in the same manner as Jesus Christ did, by walking on the troubled water.
Jesus said “Come!” to Peter. Therefore all your relationship with Jesus should be on a solid and firm ground. You need not waver. Jesus knows the situation that He has placed you in ahead of time and you need to be alone in order to “come” to him walking on the water. You cannot come to him in the stormy wind with your mind divided. He has placed you in a desolate place where your mind would be on him alone. This is the reason why he commands you to come to him.
You cannot come to Jesus with a divided heart, therefore the possible reason why only Peter out of the disciples in the boat got out of it and started walking to Jesus.
There are certain things in life that you cannot do on your own [e.g. disbelief], but you can do “belief” on your own based on what you have seen. Peter saw Jesus walking on the water with the same strong wind blowing; so he believed.
Lord, I can see you walking on the stormy water with the strong wind blowing. How is that possible? How are you doing that, if it is really you, command me to come?
In the boat, were the other disciples – a real comfort for Peter but when he got out of the boat, he stepped into his desolate place and fear gripped him. The level of his faith was questioned but at the same time his level of faith soared.
Until you go through a test, you will never know the level of your faith. Faith is essential in the time of trial. And the Lord will test your faith in Him in crisis and in abandonment – when all have left you, who will you trust? When the odds are against you, who will you turn to?
When the Lord says “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest.” (Matthew 11 28-29)
He is saying, walk in my path and let the water and wind obey you. Focus on me and me alone. Sometimes you need to be in the “alone” place to reflect on the things in your life.
The Lord beckoned Peter to come to him, but in his journey toward Him, Peter looked away. He took his eyes off Jesus and saw the greatness of the storm. He looked away into his troubles and saw how deep they were. He went against the Word of God. This made him come face to face with his challenges.
Peter strayed from God and was faced with the realities of his problems. This is the problem with the church today; we face our own fears every day. Who do you turn to when you are faced with your fears; Jesus or your own fears?
Repentance & Salvation…
As Peter took his focus off Jesus, he started to sink down the troubled water. He made no attempt to leave the Word but the situation at hand made him choose between the Word and the World. Just as he made that choice, his world started to crumble, but he remembered the Word that was served to them. He planted the Word in his heart and focused on the Word. Peter cried to the Word (the Lord) to save him.
At that very moment there was a cry for repentance and salvation. In that very statement made by Peter in verse 30, “Save me, Lord!” he made a proclamation to the Word of God [Jesus Christ] as to where he stands with His Word and a proclamation that he has given up his will for the Will of God. Peter changed from the one asking questions to the one proclaiming Jesus’ name. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
We create chaos in our lives every day, and the Lord is saying lay all your burdens on me. It is not your job to handle them, let him give you rest. As we go through life we face many challenges and through these challenges we need God to sustain us. As Peter cried in verse 30, “Save me, Lord!”
Matthew 14:31
31 At once Jesus reached out and grabbed hold of him and said, “What little faith you have! Why did you doubt?”
Why do you doubt my love?
Jesus was there with him all along. When he came to his senses and sought for Jesus’ face again and called to Him for help, Jesus stretched out his helping hand.
A time is coming when all will cease – the hatred, discrimination, oppression, anger, disloyalty and etc. We will all be in love with Him [-Jesus Christ]. A time is coming when destruction will be no more and the world will be at peace with itself. But this is far-fetched. For the time being, the people in this world will hate each other with vengeance and LOVE (Jesus Christ) will be the only answer to their distress.
The stone that the builders rejected will be the cornerstone to this building (World) (Matthew 21:42). The rejected stone is love, Jesus Christ, in all aspect.
The turning away from Jesus (love) caused Peter to sink down the troubled water.
God is calling us into His sanctuary, but how many are heeding to His call. God is giving us love and we are rejecting His love for hatred. The people of this world are at loggerheads with each other.
When will LOVE grow in us and among us?
Until we heed to His call, we will never see love but hatred in our lives.
Love Is the Answer to the World’s Problem!
Why are we rejecting love instead of accepting it, but all is in God’s plan?
In the end LOVE [-Jesus Christ] will prevail.
I pray that the peace of the Lord will be with us all. Amen
Written by
Eunice Forson
Now that we’ve finished talking about how Peter’s was commanded to come walk on water and his cry for repentance and salvation, I’ll share with you in the next post “fear and doubt” in the heart of Peter.
Stay tuned for post #5 in our series on Thursday.
In case you missed any of the previous posts in this series…
During our Beckoned to walk on water blog series over the past 2 weeks, we’ve covered…
Introduction to series: Beckoned to walk on water!
Blog Post 1: Before the storm!
[…] a look at Before the storm!, Tossed about by the waves!, Courage! and Beckoned to walk on water!. Today, we take a look at Matthew 14: […]
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