Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign- A Savior Who Does Not Tippy Toe

Walking Tall

God is never uncertain or unsure. The world He created, as well as the principles and laws that govern it are subject to His whispers and shouts. He never holds council with anyone before moving. He never seeks a majority or consensus before acting. He never floats a public opinion poll before deciding. He never reacts in surprise, but acts in surety. He never panics. He never faints. He never sweats. In the 5’th sign of the gospel of John 6:15-21 we see a Savior who does not tipp toe timidly but walks tall on water easily.

Self-denial of prestige (6:15)

In verse 15 we see the misplaced zeal of the crowd who wanted to force the hand of Jesus to make him king of the land, and not king of their soul. They wanted to him sit upon the throne of a hill, and not the throne of their heart. They wanted to use Christ to serve their own ends. "What are You going to do for me, Jesus? I want to come because this is where the action is, this is where the crowd is. I want to come because I might cash in on some miracles here, I want to come because I've got an earthly agenda and I need somebody to fix my world the way I want it." There's no desire for worship.

Notice the humility of Christ and His self-denial when He stood against worldly honor. Notice the singular mindedness or devotion of Jesus in going about the Father’s will. The devout man lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life part of doing everything in the Name of God for His glory.

Sacred place (6:15)

Notice the necessary and needful element of withdrawing to a quiet place. He needed time to be alone. He needed refreshment. He needed to spend time by himself, in order to spend time with His Father. It was the habit of Jesus to do this. How poorly we perform our own private devotions, always in a hurry; beginning them in haste, and hardly allowing time to refresh and worship. We often focus on properly saying prayers, instead of praying.

Jesus seemed to get away to the same spots. People apparently knew where to find Him when they needed Him. He had sacred spots of holy ground for uncommon communion with His Father. If possible pray in the same place; reserve that place for devotion, and not allow anything common in it. If possible never be there, but in times of devotion. This kind of consecration of it as a place holy unto God, would have an effect upon your mind, and dispose you to such disposition, as would very much assist your devotion. This would dispose you to be always in the spirit of worship, when you were there; and fill you with wise and holy thoughts.

Sovereignty of His person (vss 6:21)

The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by mountains. And the winds blow down canyons and they come into this area which is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and the winds come racing in and they just swirl in that area. And it's common to anyone who's been there to see the Sea of Galilee with whitecaps. Not many lakes have white caps. They have winds that come off the ocean, winds that slide down from the mountains in Lebanon, winds that come from the desert to the east and these kinds of winds cause tremendous danger to the waters.

Here's this lake, 682 feet below sea level, winds are blasting into the place, the whitecaps are everywhere, the storm is increasing in intensity, they've been fighting the storm and according to Matthew it's now between three o'clock and six o'clock in the morning and it's in the dark and they're fighting all night to go three or four miles. And they don't know if they're going to survive and they're afraid. All of a sudden they look out and here's Jesus walking on the sea and they were frightened.

They didn't even know what to make of this. According to the parallel passage of Matthew chapter 14 Peter asks Jesus to invite him out of the boat into the water if it really is Jesus. The storm they were afraid of, but they were far more afraid of the One who obviously was walking on the water. But the key is in verse 20, "He said to them, 'It is I, do not be afraid.'"
Isn't this just like Him? Here are these worried, fearful, frightened disciples and who may well have drowned and Jesus had to intervene. He stilled the storm, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. The storm was quieted. It stopped and instantaneously they went from wherever they were to the shore.

True disciples are marked out and they're sort of sorted and separated as Matthew 14:33 puts it, "Those who were in the boat worshiped Him." Any who claim to be Christians will worship the Lord. You will see it in how they sing the songs. It will be reflected in their prayer life. The importance they place on being here on the Lord's Day to worship. How important is it to them to spend time with the Lord every day, adoring and thanking and praising Him. Is Jesus Christ the love of their life? Is it obvious that they long for Him? Is there a sense of deep humility? Is there a sense of deep respect and awe over Jesus Christ? Are they marked by adoring wonder?
We have more in common with the disciples than you may think. There was nothing special or unusual about them. They were ordinary people who were simply going about their business. Just like that, when they least expected it a storm.

Here is the journey of our lives. We go about our business doing the same old thing, the same old way, getting the same old results, and are often shocked that it is so. We live out our lives in the delusion of safety and comfort thinking that this will isolate us from or at least minimize our exposure to pain, trial, tribulation, uncomfortable situations, and challenging circumstances. As we live and grow older we begin to catalogue trials and solutions and file them away. In other words, here’s the problem and here’s the solution that worked and here was the result and here’s how to handle it the next time. A familiar or similar trial like experience comes up and we go to our files and we apply the remedy and we wait for the thing to be resolved and then we move on.

What do you do when the familiar or similar trial comes up and the previous solution doesn’t work? Or worse yet, you encounter something brand new and have no previous solution to rely on?

What we do is spend an enormous amount of timing solving things ourselves, relying on our own abilities and talents and skills and experience, and we never really developed a history of steady dialogue with God over simple and complex things. And so, we are overwhelmed and frightened. Jesus shows up we don’t know how to respond because He and His ways are unfamiliar to us.

There will be moments of tension for all of your days as a believer. Jesus will for awhile encourage you and whisper to you to let go of the temporal and hold onto the eternal. Then, He might take you to a place you’ve never been. The solutions will be as varied and unique as the calming of a storm or the walking upon its waters. He is calling you out of the familiar, and the illusion of safety, and the delusion of the comfortable towards a realization of intimacy, power, trust, growth, and maturity.

The journey of this life will have some rough waters. But Jesus is watching even when it seems as if He is not near or His arrival delayed. When may get tossed about a bit, but it makes us better rowers and rescuers. We may swallow some salt water, but it makes us appreciate the simple ways of life. We may get hurt, but we have a comforter. We may get off course, but we have a captain of our souls to steer us aright again. The boat may seem battered at times, but He will get it safely to the other shore.

There is a point and a purpose. It is to draw attention to Christ by allowing the glory of His image to shine through our maturing process as we face the storms of life and row through them with Christ as our navigator and captain.