Dennis Tuuri

Today’s sermon text is found in John 6:15-21. John 6:15-21. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Verse 15. Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he departed again to the mountain by himself alone. Now when evening came, the disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.

Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat and they were afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” Then they willingly received him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

Let’s pray. Mighty God, open once more the heavens. Send forth your renewing Holy Spirit. Speak to us this day so that we might hear and respond in joy as we worship your son Jesus Christ. Baptize us as it were with your delight that we might know that we belong to you. Holy Father, fling open the shutters of our souls with your Holy Spirit so the radiance of your scriptures may shine into our hearts with the illuminating knowledge of your glory in Christ’s presence. Hear us and guide us as we pray in Jesus’s powerful name.

Amen. Please be seated.

Well, I have on a tie as I always do. And this week, as frequently is the case, I try to pick my tie with God’s word in mind. Now, I picked this tie, and probably some of you saw it and said, “Oh, you know, Christmas has passed. Why is he wearing that tie?” Well, today is January 6th and the historic church, the western church at least, has celebrated January 6th as Epiphany for many, many years.

The Eastern Church on January 6 celebrates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. The church has recognized Epiphany in several different ways. It’s kind of picked up on three specific themes, all which lie at the beginning in the early stages of three of the four different gospel accounts and Epiphany has always been associated with the wise men. Of course, that’s probably the most visual symbol to us.

The wise men represent the kings of the earth. They probably weren’t kings. They were king makers with the kings of the earth coming and worshiping Christ coming to the light of his glory led by the star as it were. Epiphany means manifestation, revelation and opening forth of something, a showing forth of something. And so the church has celebrated on January 6 the coming of the wise men to Jesus to the brightness of his countenance as it were portrayed by that light over where he was that they were guided to him by the early churches also however used the baptismal look as I’ve just mentioned in the context of this ending as it were of the Christmas season a transitioning into that time between Christmas and Easter the two great points of the liturgical calendar in the first five months of the year and the baptism of Jesus is another manifestation of Christ, of course, because the voice of the father is heard and the holy spirit descends upon him.

So it’s a revelation, a manifestation, an epiphany of Jesus.

And then the third account from the gospels that the historic church has used in terms of epiphany is the one we talked about from John’s gospel: the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee where the glory of Jesus is manifested forth. The text tells us by the first miracle that he did. And so the church has celebrated Epiphany as the twelve days of Christmas intended to mark the days from Christmas to Epiphany.

Those are twelve days. And so today is the end of the twelve days of Christmas. Today is the liturgical calendar epiphany, a celebration of the manifestation of Christ, specifically now in the context of the magi to the nations. And so it takes the purpose of the advent and the incarnation to its logical conclusion: that all the world will see the glory of Jesus Christ.

Maybe next year, we don’t know, maybe next year Epiphany falls on a Monday. It may be that some churches have taken Epiphany as the evening that they take down the Christmas tree and sort of mark the end of the twelve days of Christmas and the celebration of the incarnation of the savior by Epiphany. They at times have used this as a way to celebrate the conclusion of the season. I think it might be kind of a fun thing to do and there’s various ideas that we could talk about in terms of how to celebrate Epiphany.

Next year not falling on the Lord’s day, we don’t know exactly when the wise men went to Jesus. We know he had to be at least forty days old because he was presented in the temple at forty days of age according to the requirements of the law. Eighty days for a girl child, forty days for a boy child. The period of separation of the mother and then the child be presented at the temple. And we also know that after the wise men came to Jesus, we then immediately fled and went to Egypt because Herod was seeking to kill him.

Herod kills children two years of age and younger. So we can place the age of Jesus at the time of the wise men coming to him at between forty days and two years and probably closer to the forty days than the two years.

Now we always have these pictures of these wise men coming as kings and riding on camels. There’s nothing in the gospel text that talks about that. But in Isaiah 60 there is. In Isaiah 60 we read this and this is a very common text that many liturgical churches use for Epiphany.

Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people. But the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light. So the wise men come to the light. The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see.

They all gather together. They come to you. Your son shall come from afar. Your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant and your heart shall swell with joy because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth rather of the Gentiles shall come to you.

Now listen, the multitude of camels shall cover your land. The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you.

So we have, you know, the kings, the wise men are represent kings. They were probably part of the caste in Persia of god-fearers, not, you know, people that rejected the god of the scriptures. Gentile god-fearers who were actually more important than kings. They were probably part of the caste that selected the king of Parthia and so selected the gentile kings. They were king makers, in other words, and they come in fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah bringing gifts to the Lord Jesus Christ coming to the brightness of his light shining in the sky. They come according to Isaiah 60 at least the image is that of camels. And so we have this you know traditional American Christmas scene of wise men coming on camels bearing these gifts.

The text goes on to read in verse 11: “Therefore your gate shall be opened continually. They shall not be shut day or night that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles and their kings in procession.”

And so we have this tradition in American Christianity of the coming of the magi, the three kings, probably not three, but maybe three. Three gifts are represented in the text before us. And so we have this tradition, and that’s the tradition that really fits in quite nicely with the church’s celebration of Epiphany.

Now, today, what I want to do is talk about the Epiphany of the Lord Jesus Christ in the text before us. And we talked last week about an epiphany as well. We talked last week about the revelation of who Jesus was in the context of the feeding of the five thousand.

On your outlines, I’ve left blank here the structure of the eight miracles that are in this book, and you can fill them in as we talk about them now. But we’re going to talk about the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in a couple of different ways. In addition to this revelation from last week as the good shepherd, we’ll see two other ways he reveals himself in John chapter six. But first we want to again remember the importance of John 6. It stands at the center in some ways, at least in terms of the structure of the miracles that Jesus does, of the book.

The very first miracle, of course, that you can write in next to A under your context on the outline at the top of the outline: the very first miracle that the Lord Jesus performs is the turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee. So Jesus demonstrates that as the first miracle. And then we remember that later, as we’ve gone through the account of Jesus in John’s gospel, Jesus then heals the nobleman’s son at a distance.

Remember the nobleman’s son is in Capernaum. Jesus actually is approached by a man in Cana. And so Jesus does his second miracle and it’s listed as that way, the second miracle, and it ties this back to the first miracle. And so it wants us to think about the number of miracles. And B is this the resurrection of the nearly dead son. Remember, he’s not quite dead, but he’s almost dead.

And then after that, we saw in John chapter five where Jesus heals the lame man who has been lame for thirty-eight years. Wilderness implications, of course, thirty-eight years in the wilderness at the sheep gate. And so the lame man is the third miracle that Jesus performs. And that’s C on your outline.

And now we get to the middle two of these eight miracles, D and E. And those miracles, of course, are D, the feeding of the five thousand, and then E walking on the water. And those are the two miracles recorded in John 6, the first portion of it.

Now, the way this works: we’ve got it. The scene was set for us. It was Passover, right? And Jesus, you know, Passover is the feast of unleavened bread and Jesus provides bread in the context of the greater Passover. He is the greater lamb, of course, come to take away the sins of the world. And so Passover is this deliverance motif from Egypt. And Jesus feeds the five thousand. And after he feeds the five thousand, he then miraculously transports his twelve disciples across a body of water.

Okay? So we’ve got coming out of Egypt, crossing over a body of water, and then Jesus talks for the rest of chapter six, that we didn’t read today, did last week. He talks about him being manna come down from heaven. And there’s a big discussion of manna in the wilderness. So you see the picture is quite clear. There’s deliverance and rescue out of Egypt. There’s crossing through the Red Sea, him and his disciples miraculously reaching the other side.

And then there’s this discourse about manna given in the wilderness, the true manna come down from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so at the center of this gospel, as we see these miracles arranged this way, is this theme of greater Exodus. And you remember we’ve said that the Exodus itself was a picture of recreation. Remember the spirit of God hovers over the people in the Exodus and in the wilderness. The way the spirit of God, you know, God flutters over his people as a bird. And in the creation, the same word used of the spirit fluttering over the created order and bringing about filling, lighting, and shaping to the created order.

And we also, you know, saw the same thing in terms of the wilderness being described in the very same terms as the form of the earth prior to that action of the Holy Spirit. So the Exodus, make no mistake about it, is a picture of a new creation, a restoration of the creation to its original purpose. And so here at the center of John’s gospel, which began with “in the beginning” and ends with Jesus breathing the breath of life into his disciples and guiding them at the middle is this picture of the greater Exodus and the greater creation effected by the Lord Jesus Christ. The new creation has come to pass.

Backing out of that center, then after this, what we’ll see the next miracle performed is a blind man will receive sight, you know. So we go from this water stuff to this feeding stuff to then light stuff as we continue on in John’s gospel. And the light stuff happens in the context, or that’s where the miracle of the blind man receiving sight happens. So that matches with the lame man. And what I think happens in John’s gospel is the lame man, though he receives the miracle, doesn’t really come to the sort of faith that the blind man does.

And we’ll talk about that when we get to the blind man’s healing. But it matches up. And then after the blind man gets healed, then we have not a nearly dead person raised, but we have the raising of Lazarus who was stinking dead. Okay, he wasn’t nearly dead. He was dead so long that he stank. Okay, so we have the greater miracle, you know, that kind of correlates to the resurrection of the nobleman’s son.

We have the resurrection of Jesus’s friend who is stinking dead, right? So that correlates up. And then finally, the water into wine correlates with the last miracle of the book where Jesus raises—he says tear down this temple and I’ll raise it up in three days. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the great concluding miracle that accomplishes all things that have been pictured in these other miracles and correlates to that water to the wine.

Remember the water was in jugs that were man-sized jugs and seem to represent Jesus and his disciples. And so man becomes not water anymore but it becomes wine. What the Old Testament purification rituals could not do but pointed to doing was the recreation of mankind, a new humanity, not a racial humanity, but a humanity of faith and belief in Jesus’s words. And they are the wine of this world. Now the world has moved ahead with the coming of Jesus two thousand years ago.

So that’s what these miracles we’re going to talk about today. These revelations or epiphanies of the Lord Jesus Christ happened in the context of are these miracles.

Now, maybe some of you are a little concerned about celebrating a liturgical year which we do in this church, not you know very much, but we allude to it throughout the year. Steve Schlissel in his latest newsletter talks about this and he talks about how he used to think it wasn’t a good idea to celebrate these kind of days but says now he does and he actually quotes from the Second Helvetic Confession, chapter twenty-four. Now this is one of the most influential reformed confessions of its time and in chapter twenty-four there’s a section on the festivals of Christ and the saints. We read this:

“Moreover, if in Christian liberty, the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the Lord’s nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection, and of his ascension into heaven and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, we approve of it highly.”

Well, you see, that’s what the liturgical year does. It celebrates the advent of Christ and goes through the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Epiphany is placed there as a picture of the very purpose of the incarnation, the fulfillment of Isaiah 60 and all the nations of the world becoming part of this new humanity in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I mentioned that you know the accounts that are usually used historically in the church are the coming of the magi, the manifestation of Christ at baptism and then the wedding at Cana in Galilee. There’s an old liturgy, an old antiphon, a Latin antiphony epiphany antiphon which weaves these themes together and it goes like this:

“Today the heavenly bridegroom weds the church since Christ has washed away her sins in the Jordan. The wise men hasten with their gifts to the royal wedding and the guests are made glad by the water turned to wine.”

Yeah. So it weaves those things together in the liturgical light of the church. The heavenly bridegroom weds his church at Cana in Galilee. The picture of that: Christ has washed away her sins in the Jordan through his baptism. We’ve been baptized and the wise men hasten with their gifts to the royal wedding of Christ to the world. You see, and the guests are made glad by the water turned into wine.

And so this is what we celebrate on Epiphany: the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he reveals or manifests himself to us.

Now, I’ve got this tie on then as a reminder to us that Epiphany is the day of the manifestation of Jesus. And when you see the tie, you’ll think of that star that led the wise men to Jesus. You’ll also think about the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ come into the world. But hopefully also we think about ourselves as light. That is one of the major themes of Epiphany: that as we look at the manifestation of who Jesus is, we are seeing as well the manifestation of who we are.

Right? So we’re called to be lights in the midst of a dark world. The six and seven year old Sunday school class today I think talked about this. They talked about the fact that Jesus’s manifestation as light to the gentile nations means we’re to be manifested as light in the context of our world. And Philippians 2 is a great verse for children to remember: that the way they become lights, they shine as lights in the world is what?

To do all things without complaining or disputing. Without grumbling and disputing—that is the way to be darkness. To grumble and dispute. When we saw the manifestation of Jesus as the great shepherd last week, compelling us to lie down that he might feed us with himself and he feeds the people in the wilderness. But just like the people that Moses fed, what do they do? They grumble and dispute. That’s their darkness.

In chapter seven verse one, after all this is over, we read that Jesus no longer walked openly amongst the Jews because they were seeking to kill him. So the scriptures want us very clearly both in the Mosaic account in the wilderness and here in the greater recreation of all things through Christ want us to recognize that grumbling and disputing is not a small thing. It is a thing that is identified as darkness and death and those who seek to put Christ to death.

We can shine as lights in the midst of the world this year as we walk into the new year if we remember simply, children, Philippians 2: do all things without complaining or disputing. When you sit down to that food—food, how important is food to us? Very important. As you sit down to that food, no grumbling, no disputing, no complaining about that food. Thankfulness to God to receive that. I don’t care what the food is you eat today or this week.

That food is a picture of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And to grumble and dispute about it is to grumble and dispute about the greater meaning that God is teaching us through that food. Great verse for children. And a great verse for fathers who unfortunately in our Adamic fallen nature all too often have trained our children to grumble and dispute about this that or the other thing. Grumbling and disputing.

So we want to shine as lights in the world. We want to train our children in terms of thankfulness. We want to remember that the Lord Jesus manifested himself last week as the one who provides food to his people. Certainly picturing the elements of the Lord’s supper, but more than that, picturing that our whole life is involved in the blessing of God of things to us in Christ and our reception of them in thanksgiving.

So you know, the interesting thing is that Jesus didn’t just feed five thousand, he starved five thousand, right? They were starving before he got there. We talked about that last week. And they starved afterwards. You know, we looked at the feeding of the five thousand as an example of benevolence ministries of the church, right? We’re supposed to have compassion on people that are struggling. We’re supposed to have compassion.

We’re supposed to be moved to action. We’re supposed to be organized in how we go about things. Jesus seated these people in fifties and hundreds in ranks. You know, it was a continuous miracle. Have you thought about that? Yeah. When he heals the lame man, boom, he’s okay. Water to wine, boom, water to wine. But with the feeding of the five thousand, the appearance seems to be that this is a miracle that goes on and on and on in time.

His disciples line up, they get the stuff. He blesses the bread, they hand it out. He blesses the fish, they hand it out. If we know that they’re lined up in ranks and in companies of fifties and hundreds and thousands, they’re the thousand guys, right? There’s probably, you know, if we got five thousand men, you probably have, you know, maybe twelve thousand people. Who knows? The disciples are the heads of thousands. And then there’s heads of hundreds and heads of fifties.

And they pass this stuff out and as they pass it out the loaves are multiplying and the fish are multiplying. It goes on for a long time. Clearly, it’s linked to the work of the church in feeding the world. And so clearly the benevolences of the church are motivated by compassion. We have these alms offerings and you come to communion. If you understand the grace you’ve been given, give to these alms offerings.

This month, these offerings are given to the pregnancy resource centers in our area to help young children who are going to be killed by their parents to try to convince women not to abort their babies. So it’s an act of grace and compassion to the fatherless. And so we have organization, but we also have a prioritization going on in the benevolences of the church. And ultimately, we must have a determination that Jesus had to cut people off from aid who refuse to feast on Jesus.

He starves them. He leaves them hungry. I think it’s significant. You know, this world would have us make no differentiation in groups. Feed everyone. But no, the scriptures don’t say that. Jesus says feed, be organized, have compassion. But you know, if people will not feed on Christ, don’t give them the thing that represents him because you’re really only hurting them then. They won’t recognize their need.

God makes people hungry to remind them of their hunger and desire ultimately that will only be fulfilled through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The true fulfiller, the true meeting of our hunger with his flesh come down from heaven. Now this has spiritual implications. We must be a church, if we understand Jesus’s revelations, the great shepherd who refuses the communion elements to those who portray in their lives that they’re rebellious, that they’re not feeding on Christ.

Why would we want them to take this? It’d be judgment to us if we did. So there’s sacramental implications. In 2 Kings 4, the miraculous multiplying of the barley loaves, of which this was a forerunner to what Jesus does in our text in John 6. Elisha feeds the sons of the prophets with a multiplication of barley loaves and then stuff left over. We’re to feed the sons of the prophets. We don’t know who they are, you know, and so we feed.

We have compassion, but we must have a determination to withhold sustenance from those who reject the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay, so that’s how Jesus manifested himself to us. And now we want to talk about Jesus’s manifestation here in our text before us. Another epiphany, another manifestation, another remembering to make. Can you see this tie this afternoon? He manifests himself as that light over the wise men. He manifests himself as the great shepherd who feeds the world. And he manifests himself here as the one who walks on the water.

Let’s look at the text then first. This text, verses sixteen to twenty-one. Jesus is revealed in a storm at sea. And this text can also be looked at and you might want to make notes to this effect. What do we have? We have a situation first, then we have a difficulty, and then we have the deliverance.

So three elements to this text. And first of all, the trial at sea.

Verse sixteen says “Now when evening came,” so we have the setting of evening darkness. Evening darkness. I think that’s significant. The text calls our attention to darkness. What we’re going to see happen here happens in darkness and probably happens at the very darkest hour just before the dawn. The time is given in one of the other gospel accounts as sometime between three and six a.m. in the morning. So it’s the darkest part of the night. Okay.

Now, evening comes. His disciples then went down to the sea. So we’ve got darkness and we’ve got the sea. And if we remember our Bibles very much, these associations are associations with the fallen Adamic order. The sea is a place of great trouble and difficulty. Okay? There are problems in the sea. The sea represents problems to us. And we’ll see that as we go on.

His disciples go down to the sea. And then the third thing they do, they get into a boat. So we’ve got darkness. If you want to write this down in verse sixteen, then they go to the sea and they get into a boat. Okay? And they went over the sea. So now we’re back to the sea. Darkness, sea, boat, sea. Okay. They went over the sea toward Capernaum. So there the sea is leading to a particular place, Capernaum. You know, it’s interesting to me that it talks about Capernaum. Capernaum is, you know, it’s like that detail from last week. It’s a detail you, what is that for? And you start to think it through and it begins to make some sense.

After Jesus turns the water into wine, you probably don’t remember this. The kids in my John gospel class from last year do probably. After he does that, he goes to Capernaum. John always describes these movements of the savior. And after he does the wedding feast at Cana, he goes to Capernaum. And it doesn’t say what he does there. He goes there for a while. Then he goes to Jerusalem, but it says he went to Capernaum.

And after Jesus, you know, gives the true water to the woman at the well, he goes again to Cana. And Capernaum is where the nobleman’s son is healed. And here disciples are going to Capernaum. The movement is toward Capernaum. Now Capernaum means village of comfort. It’s sort of like you know if you watch The Fellowship of the Rings, it’s like elf land, you know, it’s where you go—that is the village of comfort.

It’s a place you go and get sustained and kind of girded up you know. So he feeds them wine—best of wine—and they go to Capernaum. He feeds them bread—best of bread, manna from heaven—and they go to Capernaum. You know, it’s kind of a picture of that voyage of our lives, I think. So anyway, it’s dark. They’re on the sea. They get into a boat. They go across the sea to Capernaum.

Then finally, it says at the end of this account, “It was already dark and Jesus had not come to them.” Darkness again. And here specifically, the darkness is related to the fact that Jesus had not come to them. Jesus intentionally left them in the dark on the sea in the middle of the night. That’s what he did. You know, we find ourselves in difficulties. Why are we here? Jesus leaves us there sometimes. His eye is on them. We’ll see that as the text goes on. He sees them, but he’s not with them.

Darkness is associated here with the absence of Jesus. And the sea is associated with that darkness and absence of Jesus.

When did God come to Adam when did Adam sin? It says that he sinned in the cool of the day. It’s when God comes to him right after he sins apparently. So the fall of Adam has always been pictured in the context of the church as happening near dusk, twilight, moving into darkness. The imagery is that Adam takes the whole world from bright shining light into the darkness of sin.

Darkness is a picture of the fall. I always get a little antsy around twilight. Probably silly of me, but for some reason I do. Well, not always, but I do. This memory of the movement—Adam’s fall—we move from bright sunshine into darkness.

Darkness. So the problem with these disciples is they’re on that sea and they’re in the midst of darkness and then they have a difficulty.

The location has been set up for us. And now what happens? It says that “the sea arose because a great wind was blowing.” And when they had rowed about three or four miles, then the deliverance will come. They row a long time. They go down to the sea about evening, twilight or so, beginning of evening, and they row all night.

All night. As I said, the other gospel accounts tell us that it’s between three and six in the morning. They are struggling in the midst of that sea. And that again is a picture of the fallen world. The sea is a place of difficulty. The sea is a place of terror in the scriptures. We read a few scriptures. Let’s see:

“All your waves and breakers have swept over me.” The psalmist says in Psalm 42:7. It’s a way of describing the difficulties we go through. “Your waves washed over me, Lord God. I sink in the miry depths where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters. The floods engulf me.” Psalm 69.

Or in the account of Jonah’s sin, Jonah chapter two: “You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas and the currents swirled about me. The engulfing waters threatened me.”

The sea, of course, is a picture of difficulties, trials, tribulations, of the fall of man and the difficulties and woes that he encounters. And of course, we know this. I mean, there are many songs about this, you know, about God helping us in the midst of our sea troubles.

One church father put it this way. The venerable Bede, by the way, writing back in what sixth century or something. “The labor of the disciples in rowing against the contrary wind is a type of the various labors of the holy church which amid the waves of an opposing world struggles to attain to the quiet of the heavenly country. But the Lord, though himself stationed on the land, beholds the toilers on the sea. For although he may seem to defer for a season the bestow of his help on those in tribulation, nonetheless that they faint not in their trials, he strengthens them with the thought of his love, and at times even by an open display of his aid, treading under, as it were, and allaying the surging waves. He overcomes their adversities and sets them free.”

He overcomes their adversities and sets them free. And that’s what happens in point C here: deliverance from these trials at sea.

And let’s think about the structure of this a little bit. They see Jesus walking on the sea and then he draws near the boat and they were afraid. Okay. But he said, “It is I.” That can be translated, “I am.” Same in the Greek. Jesus says, “I am,” identifying himself with the covenant God of Israel.

“Do not be afraid.”

Then they willingly received him into the boat. And immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

So under sea, if we think about this thing and the flow of what happens in these particular texts, Jesus walks on the sea. He comes near the boat. So sea. He gets near the boat. They become afraid as a result of seeing him. How quickly we forget the gracious shepherd who feeds us. They become afraid. And at the middle of that, he says, “I am.” And as a result of his declaration of who he is, the covenant god of his people, he says, “Don’t be afraid.”

So they fear. He identifies himself as I am. And he says, “Don’t be afraid.” They then received him willingly into the boat, which had been mentioned before. So we had sea, boat, fear. Jesus’s manifestation, his epiphany. “I am the God who provides all things for you. I am Yahweh. I am the God who exists in covenant faithfulness to you.” This is what the term means. I am. Don’t be afraid.

They receive him then willingly into the boat. And now they’re not on the sea anymore. Now they are brought across to the land immediately. Jesus deliberately puts us in positions of trials, tribulations, and difficulties in our life. His eye upon us, beholding us from the shore.

In the synoptic gospels, it says that he sees them struggling against the waves. And then he comes to them walking to them. And as soon as Jesus is with them in the boat and they willingly receive him, boom. They’re delivered. They’re over at the other side. They’re at Capernaum now. And Jesus’s discourse, by the way, that he gives the rest of this chapter happens at a synagogue in Capernaum. That’s where the resting place is to be found, the house of God in Capernaum.

So Jesus moves them ahead. He delivers them. He is the one who conquers the terror of the sea, conquers the darkness of night, conquers the trials and tribulations that Adamic man thrust us into.

In Job chapter nine verse eight we read: “He alone spreads out the heavens and treads upon the waves of the sea.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who walks on the waves of the sea.

Job 38 verses sixteen and seventeen: “Have you entered the springs of the sea or have you walked in search of the deeps? As the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?”

The shadow of death. My son, I could talk about him today—he’s not here today—talking at our family worship this last week about various structures in scripture that line up and he said that he thought about that Psalm 23 and he kind of linked out several events that happened, not just in the feeding of the five thousand, to the movement of Psalm 23: “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” That’s out there in that sea. Jesus comes to them and assures them that he is with them, you see.

It was wonderful to see my son meditating on scripture. Sarah Cohen’s been working on a casting thing for Proverbs Chapter eleven. Jeff had some ideas about grass and the creation. This is who we’re to be. People of the word who don’t just read the word, walk away, and forget what the word says about us, who think about the word, meditate upon it, and delight in the manifestation of Jesus Christ in the context of our days.

Psalm 77 is kind of interesting. We read in verse thirteen: “Thy way, oh Lord, or oh God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders. Thou has declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.”

“The waters saw thee, oh God. The waters saw thee. They were afraid. The depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water. The sky sent out a sound. Thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven. The lightnings lightened the world. The earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leadest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”

Now in first application, that’s talking about the Exodus. But surely we can see in that Jesus’s way is in the sanctuary of God and his way is in the ocean as well. “Thy way, oh God, is in the sanctuary. Thy way is in the sea.” God’s way is everywhere. He is. And God is telling us that not just were we gathered together on the Lord’s day in this particular piece of geography is God made known and this is where his way is. His way is in the worst parts of the world, in the most troubling aspects of our reality, in the most difficult and trying times that we have, in our seas. The way of the Lord is there with us in those seas bringing us deliverance, comfort and succor in the context of great tribulations.

Jesus calms the sea. Psalm 107 talks about that:

“These see—they that go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters—these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the ways thereof.”

Why was the great wind blowing? Not the difficulties of the world. As Bede said, I don’t think so much. It’s the providence of God. The spirit of God moves upon the world, moves upon the gentile nations, moves upon the seas and trouble comes, difficulties. It scares us when God begins to move. It’s difficult for us. The sea began to get troubled. The winds began to blow. The great winds started to come up on September 11th. And if what I saw yesterday at the rally with President Bush in Portland is any indication, this country has not learned that lesson, prouder than ever.

Miss America, wonderful voice, but boy, she spoke things that were just incredible about this country and our ability to withstand any trial without reference really to God. Well, the sea moves because the spirit of God moves upon it and times become difficult, but God moves.

“You raise the stormy wind. You lift up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heavens. They go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distress. He maketh the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet. So he bringeth them into their desired haven.”

He takes us to Capernaum. He takes us to the village of comfort after the trials and tribulations that he himself has put us through to develop our faith in him.

I know you know my life. I know your life. I know that it seems sometimes you know that we’re rowing and we’re rowing and we’re rowing and we cannot make much progress in life. The difficulties are too much. You know, I thought about Ann and Sarah, you know, they row and they row. They’re trying to be faithful. They’re doing the right thing. And all they just keep getting sick. They row and they row. It’s difficult for them. And you know, I know that parents, you row and you row and you think, “I’m not making any progress with my kids. They’re not what I want them to be yet.” You row and there’s difficulty.

Some of you financial problems. You work and you work and year to year it seems like there’s no progress made. At times. Can’t get it together. Can’t do much here in the midst of the trials and tribulations. Some of us have had difficulties with people. You row and you row. You work and you work at it. Can’t seem to get much better. It seems like you’re all alone.

But we must remember in those times Jesus’s manifest his epiphany of himself in the text is a couple of things here. First, he sees us while we’re struggling. His eye is on the sparrow. Kind of a modern song, but his eye is on the sparrow and his eye is certainly on you and your trials and tribulations. He sees.

What is he doing all night? Do you remember? He’s praying. That’s why he’s up in the mountain. He’s not usually by himself. Christian life is in community. He’s praying. Who’s he praying? He’s praying for those disciples. He sees them. Sees them struggling. He’s praying for them. You see, he’s praying for you. He’s praying for Ann. He’s praying for the fathers and mothers in this church. He’s praying for the young people that think they can’t make any progress getting their parents to understand who they are or getting a job or looking for a vocation or doing better in your grades.

Whatever the trouble is, God says we have trials and tribulations. Never forget that his eye is upon us. And he manifests himself as he comes to them and provides deliverance. And we know that’s true, too. I remember the Vietnam War was the great picture of this for me. I thought it would never end. I was growing up from going from a child to becoming a man and it was always present, ubiquitous. The war was always going on and one day it was over. Peace had come.

We have these trials and troubles. But one day they end and God comes to us. He reminds us that he is the God who provides deliverance who moves us across, you know, the difficult times portrayed by the sea, or the great problems of our life.

There’s that great song. I read a sermon by Rob Rayburn on this topic this last week and he quotes from that great song, “Be Still My Soul.” And as I recall, that was Greg Bonson, who, I think, quoted this hymn in a sermon he preached years ago on unnatural thanksgiving. It was a Thanksgiving talk on unnatural thanksgiving: giving thanks in the midst of the sea, in the midst of the waves, and going up and down and being tossed to and fro and feeling like you’re completely abandoned. In the midst of all things, we’re to give thanks to God.

And this writer, as I recall, I think the story was that he had lost maybe a wife and a child at sea. And he went back and in a ship and at the place where they had drowned, he penned this song and one of the parts of the lyrics go:

“Be still my soul. Your God will undertake to guide the future as he has the past. Your hope, your confidence, let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still my soul, the waves and winds still know his voice who ruled them when he dwelt below.”

Calm ourselves at the manifestation of Christ today. The light of God’s word assures us that we can be still in the midst of difficult circumstance. Not denying them. Not denying that they’re real, that they’re difficult. The sea is there. The oars have to be pulled and they’re hard to be pulled and they’re in a real boat. Jesus reminds us to calm ourselves in his presence.

Robinson Crusoe is another one that Rayburn quoted in his sermon. Let me read from Robinson Crusoe’s account, the full Christian version of the book. As I walked about either on my hunting or my viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me on a sudden and my very heart would die within me to think of the woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in, and how I was a prisoner locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean.