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Matthew's gospel. We'll be looking beginning in chapter fourteen, but I would like to, um, just back up very briefly to not even technically a whole verse, but a word that's found in chapter thirteen. I didn't take the time to go over it, and it's a critical part, component as far as I'm concerned. Um... Actually, where I think I'd like to begin with it, it's found in chapter twelve first. It's when the Lord Jesus quotes from the prophet Isaiah, and he quotes that part of the verse in verse twenty.
he says, a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And it's that word until or until. You get that word again in Matthew chapter thirteen and verse thirty, where concerning the wheat and the tares, the Lord says in verse thirty, let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest I'll say to the reapers, so on and so on.
We remember that the first quotation that I read in chapter twelve is when, uh, the Lord was there and confronted by the, the Pharisees and, and, and, and all that. And, uh, it is there that he expresses that statement until, again in chapter thirteen. Now, to show you the significance of this one word until, turn with me to the book of Hebrews in chapter one. Hebrews in chapter 1.
One of the critical Psalms, when I say critical, I mean by that it's a crucial psalm that has to do with the Messianic program, is Psalm one hundred and ten. It is a very brief psalm, it is only seven words, and yet it's a psalm that contains, uh, the only second mention of Melchizedek in the Old Testament. Now, suppose you just for some reason began to read the Bible, or maybe you were a new believer and thought, I think I'm going to start reading the Bible, and you opened the book of Hebrews and you read, uh, Melchizedek, Melchizedek, Melchizedek, you know, over and over. You might, uh, think to yourself, well, man, there must be a ton of information about this Melchizedek, whoever he is.
And so you get your concordance out or your bo- or your phone or whatever, and you find out in the Old Testament there's only two places where he's even mentioned. And one is Genesis chapter fourteen where he's historically seen, and the other one is Psalm one hundred and ten where he's prophetically seen. But this Psalm has a tremendous prominence in the New Testament, is quoted from quite extensively in the book of Acts and in the Gospels and so on. The particular part of the verse that I want to look at, though, from Psalm hundred and ten, ha- it comes from the very first verse. It's quoted by the writer of the Hebrews in chapter one in verse, uh, thirteen when he says, but to which of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
And if ever you wanted to find a verse that indicated that there was going to be an interval of time that takes place. It is those verses like this that have that word until. Now, in my Bible, I link that over to chapter two with verse eight, because at the end of verse eight, it talks about, uh, that dominion that God intended for man to have. And anyway, it says at the end, not yet. So we are living in the until, and we are living in the not yet. But the guarantee of God's program is found in verse nine, but we see Jesus.
He was made a little lower than the angels because of the suffering of death, though he has been crowned with glory and honor, and so on. So there's the guarantee of God's program. Two more verses in this same vein, speaking of God's program, Romans, uh, one more verse, I should say, Romans chapter eleven. and Lee at least alluded to this, if not referred to it directly, verse twenty five, I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
And I think the verses that Lee alluded to are those verses in eleven and twelve that talk about their fall, and if their fall be the riches of the world, and the diminishing in the- of them be the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. I, I just shake my head sometimes to see how people get around these verses, as if to say somehow God is done with Israel. They had a fall, it was their diminishing, their fullness is yet to come. And that's the plain sense of the text, and the old maxim still holds true.
When the plain sense of the text makes plain sense, seek no other sense, lest it become nonsense. And so the word until. I introduced that in the context of what we were looking at in Matthew chapter thirteen, which, as I said, is the hinge for the next section, beginning technically in verse fifty three of chapter thirteen. It came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence, and when he was coming to his own country, he taught them in their synagogues, insomuch that they were astonished and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren James and Joses and Simon and Judas and his sisters, are they not all with us? And so much for the perpetual virginity of Mary, unless she adopted a whole litter. He had brothers, he had sisters, is what the scripture says, you see. Whence then hath this man all these things? So now, um, there's a theme that begins to weave its way through, particularly chapters fourteen through seventeen.
and I want to trace it a bit, beginning, if we could, as we started here in chapter thirteen, verses fifty three through fifty five. Is not this the carpenter's son? And then turn with me, if you would, to chapter fourteen. And it's the experience that they had, which we'll probably look at a bit more in depth, of Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water and going to the Lord and then sinking and so on. Now, before we get into the more serious stuff, like I told you this morning, whenever I think of that story of David and the showbread, I always think of, of Randy Amos, you know.
Well, there's another preacher that I think of when I think of this story, and most of you will remember him. He was from a well-known place, uh, by the name of Pigott, Arkansas. His name was Frank, and Frank was quite a gospel preacher in the day. Uh, the rest of his life is another story, but anyway, in the day he was quite a gospel preacher. Well, Frank felt quite burdened to take the gospel back to his hometown of Piggott, Arkansas. And so he started a little Bible study in the home that we had a lot of his kinfolk, or a few of his kinfolks, and a few others.
And one day, one evening, as he was teaching the Bible, trying to to these folks from this story here of Peter getting out and walking on the water, and then, uh, of him seeing the winds, and he be- he was afraid, and he began to sink, and he cried out, and and Frank said, and you know, Peter said only three words. It was only three words as he began to sink. Do you know what those three words were? And one of the fellas said, I can't swim. To which the whole Bible study lost it, you know. No, it wasn't those three words, okay?
So anyway, uh, we'll come back to that account because it's a very wonderful account that we have here, but the verse I want to look at in chapter fourteen is the testimony that they come to in verse thirty three. Then they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying, of a truth, thou art the Son of God. And then, turn to chapter sixteen, another crucial part of Matthew's gospel. It is there when they came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi. Now, Lee, I want to say that you're the resident Greek scholar here, but, um, I don't know a lot of Greek myself, okay?
But I tend, for the sake of accommodation, to not pronounce Greek words as they should be pronounced a lot of times. It's okay to Englishize them. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that, granted that permission there, so. But anyway, you do know that I continue to say chiastic. Oh well. There you go. I'm not gonna say Philippi or Thessalonica, even though the Greek city to this day is Salonica, because the I in Greek is Iota. It isn't pronounced long I, it's pronounced E. Anyway, uh, that's a subject for another day, but they came to Caesarea Philippi, okay?
And he asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Some say that thou art John the Baptist, Elias, other Jeremiah, the prophets. He said, but who, who do you say that I am? And it's there that Simon Peter makes that great confession and says, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then turn to chapter seventeen. and I am moving into other folks' territory, but I'm not going to be there long. I'm just hitting a few verses here and there. They'll go into more detail and depth into these chapters, I'm sure, and hopefully it'll dovetail and just amplify, uh, the things that I say.
It is the account of the Transfiguration in chapter seventeen. Peter makes the remark that he does in verse four. Peter says to Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. Let's make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elias, and even while he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear you him. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And then we come to the end of chapter seventeen, which is a very remarkable story.
It's very unique. I never have fully understood it. But the part I want to point out to you, I do understand, but the other parts, I confess to you, I don't. They were come to Capernaum, and they that received tribute money came to Peter and said, doth not your master pay tribute? And Peter said, "Yes." And when he was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him or stopped him and saying, "What do you think, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take customer tribute, of their own children or of strangers?" Peter did have a habit of blurting things out before he really thought about it.
And so Peter says, well, of strangers, and then Je- Jesus saith unto him, then are the children or the sons free. Notwithstanding, lest we should go offend them, that go out of the sea, cast a hook, take up the fish that first cometh up, and when you have inserted your debit card into this unique ATM, you will find a piece of money, and go and use that. Now, why the Lord did it that way, I have no idea. It would be very speculative of me to say that was there a connection between the fact that Peter was a fisherman, and maybe the Lord was showing him in the way that he made his daily living, uh, God could provide for him or something like that.
I'm sure there's a sermon in there somewhere, but be that as it may, the question had to do with the tribute money, or as many people see this, the ransom money. The Israelites were required to pay a half shekel ransom money, a half shekel of silver, but the Lord didn't need to pay ransom. Why did he not need to pay ransom? Well, for one, with the analogy that he draws, he was the sun, and the sun doesn't pay or need to pay ransom money. And so what you find in these five passages, by way of question or by way of statement, an emphasis on that initial question that was asked at the end of chapter thirteen: whose son is this?
Whose son is this? Why is that important and germane to this particular section? Well, let's think about one other thing that crops up in this, uh, well, actually two other things that, that crop up in this particular section. And, um, one of those is another cluster of words that are found, chapter thirteen and verse fifty seven. They were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. They were offended in him.
Again, I'm not a Greek scholar, but the word offense, I do believe, probably comes from the word skandalon, where we get our word scandal from. Something is scandalous. Offense. Um, chapter fifteen and verse twelve. Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? Lord, what you said to these Pharisees offended them. Chapter sixteen and verse twenty seven, where the Lord said, notwithstanding lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea and cast a hook and take up the fish that first cometh up, and when thou has opened his mouth,
thou shalt find a piece of money, and so on. And so you have this other cluster of words that are woven throughout the section as well. One has to do with a question or a statement concerning whose son this is. The next cluster of words have to do with this that is an offense. Or, as Peter will put it in first Peter in chapter two, he was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to those that were disobedient.
When you begin to think now in this section, we are being introduced to this big theme of who, whose son this is. And the evidences and the declarations flat out that this is the Son of God, which is what Peter confesses. The fact that he is the Son of God, once again, is important in and of itself, but I want to suggest to you that it is also something that is critical when it comes to the Hebrew mindset, the way of thinking.
When in one of the warning passages, I believe it is the fourth warning passage in the book of Hebrews, which would come towards the end of chapter ten. that is, if you see the five warning passages there, which you may or may not, but if you do, the fourth warning passage is chapter ten. It's helped me in the understanding of Hebrews to realize that if all those warning passages are basically saying, getting at the same thing, but in a different way, um, it helps me to interpret those passages in the book of Hebrews, the warning passages. But when you get to that fourth warning passage in chapter ten, I want you to notice the specificity of the language that's used.
So that if you sin willfully after you receive knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fire indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trampled under foot Jesus? No. Who hath trampled under foot the Son of God. Is it an express statement conveying to the Hebrews that were the initial audience, that you have trampled underfoot the very Son of God, is an expression of his deity.
Hence the seriousness of the warning passage. And you've counted the blood of the covenant whereby you were set apart an unholy thing, and you've insulted the spirit of grace. But you've trampled underfoot the Son of God. And that also triggers in my mind what happened that night when the Lord Jesus was betrayed, and he himself quoted from the scriptures, or it was quoted from the scriptures by the gospel account. He that hath eaten bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. And imagine the imagery now, because if you, if you think of this, it's remarkable.
Again, I'm not saying this because I'm anybody, I know I'm nothing, but I've always said if I never get out of my backyard, it's more than I deserve once God saved me. But anyway, experience is what it is. We've all had them. Doesn't mean mine are better or more than anybody else's. It just is what it is. And, and things strike you. And when we went to Israel, that one and only time, I saddled right up next to our Jewish guide because he was like a computer. I just hit the right button, and man, that guy just went off, you know? It was amazing, and I just found out where the buttons were, and, you know, boop, and man, that guy would just... Anyway, we were going into, um, Bethlehem, which at that time was under Palestinian control.
It was very shortly after the time when, I don't know if you remember, but the, the PLO had taken over the Church of the Nativity and everything for months. They were holed up there, and it was a big standoff and, you know, a big mess, as things are. But by the time we got there, it had been open. So they play this little game that they do in Israel. You know, we've got an Arab bus driver and a Jewish guide, and he says, now I'm going to have to get off the bus here, and you're going to have to get a Palestinian guide, and, you know, they're going to come in and switch it forth, and it's all, you know, how you doing, Joe? I'm fine, Fred. How are you? How's your wife? Yeah, we're good, you know. See you tomorrow, you know. And you're like, why don't we read about this in the paper, you know? So anyway, before we go into Bethlehem, Paul, his his English name, Pablo, his Spanish name, Phineas, his Hebrew name, with a last name that was Polish that I couldn't begin to pronounce or even spell.
All right? But anyway, he says to me, he said, now listen, when you go in here, and you got to realize if you've ever been to these tourist places like this, when you get around Jerusalem particularly, every store in there and every store owner has the best olive wood anywhere in the world. Okay? And I, I think of, I know this isn't very spiritual, but I think of, I think of the movie Elf, you know, where he goes in and he sees this sign, world's best cup of coffee, and there's guys in there look like they're from Pakistan, you know, and, and then remember he gets the girl to go in there and he blindfolds her. What does this taste like? And she goes, you know, and not a very pleasant cup of coffee, let's just say.
And he goes, no, it's the world's best cup of coffee, you know? But anyway, Paul says, when you go into this one store, they really do have some good olive wood products. He said, and if you're interested in buying a carving of the Last Supper, this is the place to get it. I said, why? You'll see. So I went in. I didn't buy it, but I looked. And the reason why he said that was, unlike these paintings you often see of the quote Last Supper, and they're all sitting at a table like this, you know, with the Lord in the middle, and they're side by side. This was a, uh, like a recta- a square or rectangular table, and they were all reclining on like pillows and couches, as they do in Eastern countries, around the table.
And he was telling me that because he says that's the best authentic representation of how it most likely was. They weren't sitting up in chairs like we do. And it makes more sense when you think John leaned his head on the breast of the Lord Jesus because they're laying down like that. But then you think that Judas, the betrayer, lifted up his heel against him. And the language of that means to take your heel and grind it into the face of someone. And that's what the Lord said the action of Judas was like. You have trodden underfoot the very Son of God. So I'm saying all this to get back to the point that this expression, again to the Hebrew mind, to say, what did they say?
He claimed he was the Son of God, you see. They knew what that meant. He was expressing deity in that sense. And so the big question, of course, whose son is this? Isn't he just the carpenter's son? Or is he somebody else? It's part of the central theme that introduces this section. And then you have the offense. If I were to ask you, and you don't have to answer out loud, what is the biggest difference between what you believe and what an Orthodox Jew believes? Or if I said it this way, what's the main sticking point between what you believe and what an Orthodox Jew believes?
You both believe in, in one God, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The big sticking point is, who is Jesus Christ? That is the point of offense. You can have a lot of good conversations, but when you get to that point, that is the offense. What is the chief, cardinal, and most critical doctrine when it comes to our Christian gospel, in that vein? Who is Jesus Christ? He either is who he said he is, the Son of God, God the Son, or he's a deceiver, or a liar, or himself deceived, or something else.
And that was the question with Peter in the center part of these chapters, wasn't it? Who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Peter, upon that truth, I will build my church on that confession. And the church is built upon that established truth of the deity of Jesus Christ. That is the heart of our gospel. It is the foundation of our very belief, and therefore it begins to be prominent in this section, discovering the deity of Jesus Christ and the offense of that doctrine and what it was to some people.
One last thing that, uh, crops up quite a bit in this section, and it has to do with the prominence, prominence of Peter. You'll find multiple stories here that are found, some of them in Matthew only, but these multiple stories in this section that all have to do with Peter, or Peter becomes the prominent character. Why? Well, I suggest for a couple of reasons. Number one, it was Peter who made that confession, wasn't it, in chapter sixteen? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, my Father in heaven, and upon this rock, this confession that you made, and this truth, not upon Peter. Other foundation can no man lay, one Corinthians three ten, than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. He's the foundation, not Peter. Amen. The rock. But upon that confession, upon the truth of that confession, there's the witness of the church to the deity of Christ, isn't it? And now you have, which Herm will bring out in some part, not necessarily what I'm touching on, but the fact that in this section of Matthew's gospel begins the first of the only two mentions of the church in all of the gospels.
The introduction of the church in chapter sixteen, and in the instructions to the church that are found in chapter eighteen. So when you tie this in, which is where I originally was going and still intend to get, with chapter thirteen of what is taking place now in this period of time, in this inner Advent period of time, when the sower goes forth to sow the word of God and spread the message of the truth and so on. What indeed is that message? It will be the message of the gospel of the, the Lord Jesus Christ of the Son of God. It will be an offense to some people.
That is the offense. It's the offense even in, in, in a lot of religions, isn't it? Uh, you can talk about the Sermon on the Mount, you can talk about doing good works, and you can talk about all kind of things, God. But you get up among a group of religious folks from different persuasions and, and proclaim Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is God the Son exclusively, and that's when the fur will fly. You'll be kicked out of the party, for the most part. That is the offense. So, Peter is mentioned for another reason in this section, because ultimately it is to Peter that the keys are going to be given.
And it's Peter who opens the gospel to Cornelius, the first true Gentile, you see. And that's a remarkable story, isn't it? And how Peter had to come to grips with what God had cleansed, don't you call common? That's amazing story. And if you're wondering about the, the manifestation of the speaking with other tongues and languages that occurred there, it was necessary. It was vital that Peter saw that what happened now with the Gentiles, and he'll say it. What happened to the Gentiles there with, it's just like what happened to us back on Pentecost, basically, you see. And I knew that God had given, who was I to resist this, he says to the council.
When I, when I saw that God had given to them his Holy Spirit. Yeah. God never puts his Holy Spirit in an unclean vessel. And the evidence that the Gentiles now had the Holy Spirit, which was visibly manifest, meant that God had now cleansed these Gentiles through faith in Christ, and that their standing was no different than the Jews. Remarkable, wasn't it? It took them a while to get hold of it, and they battled back and forth doctrinally and tried to sort it all out throughout the book of Acts, with a challenge. So you find those things being prominent here throughout the, this section running from chapter fourteen to seventeen.
at least it's my suggestion. So during this time, you find the, the mention of the church, as I said, its foundation and formation built upon the great truth of the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, and this distinctive witness and testimony of the church. I love the t- the story that's given to us in chapter fourteen, so that is my territory. Let's go back and look at it again. I never read it in its entirety, but in Matthew chapter fourteen, at that time Herod the Tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus and said unto his servants, this is John the Baptist, he's risen from the dead, and therefore the mighty works to show them forth themselves in him.
For Herod had laid hold on John and bound him, put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. For John said unto her, it's not lawful for thee to have her. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod, whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger on a platter. The king was sorry.
Nevertheless, for the oath's sake of them which sat with him, he commanded it to be given her. And he sat and beheaded John in the prison. And he shed innocent blood because of his own lust, his own passions, his own human weakness, and giving into the pressure of the crowd. He shed innocent blood, which was a direct violation of the law and what God instructed the kings to do. We go back to the very institution of human government.
And at the institution of human government, one of the first, one of the primary things when God instituted human government had to do with the sanctity of human life. That the chief function, chief responsibility of government. It even began with the sanctity of human life, that human life was different. And if man sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed in the institution of capital punishment. And later, the kings of Israel were to guard the sanctity of human life.
And what happens when government not only fails to guard the sanctity of human life, but promotes the taking of innocent life. It is a violation of the very thing that God founded human government to do. I watched a fascinate, to me, fascinating interview a while back. There's a guy named Ben Shapiro. Yeah. He's a Jew. You know, wears a yarmulke, the whole deal, you know. Interesting debater, interviewer. It was an hour-long interview, it's still on YouTube, if they haven't taken it down, an hour-long interview with John MacArthur.
I don't know if you ever saw that, but it was, I felt like it was, it was worth watching. And of course, MacArthur gives the guy the gospel, you know, not a question. Now, this happened a couple of years ago, p- think a little just COVID was just kind of first starting, so there were a lot of things that had to do with politics and that kind of thing. But MacArthur made a statement, and it just resonated with me in a sense, because I'm not trying to get political here. I never preach politics from the pulpit. I think it's already been, we've already been reminded that's not the place for that kind of thing, but it was this one simple statement, really. He says, MacArthur's like, it's not very complicated. One party kills babies, the other doesn't. For a Christian, no-brainer.
I mean, what question is there, you see? I mean, the very most critical thing, you violate that, and if you're a person who votes, well, I don't know how you reconcile that. My father-in-law is with the Lord now. A lot of you knew JT, he used to come to this study. JT was a poor son of a farmer, quit school in the sixth grade because he had to walk behind a plow, not to make money, but to raise crops for food. Never was highly educated. Got saved, knew the Lord, couldn't hardly read, knew the book.
Wasn't going to get much past him, you know. But anyway, um, JT finally got a job. He, he got in the union, and he was a apprentice, you know, and then he was a pipe, a pipe fitter, welder, you know, learned plumbing, good trade. Never could make it very far because he couldn't pass the written test up, but could weld probably better than anybody on the site, you know. And I first got saved a hundred years ago and met my father-in-law JT, union man. I learned pretty quickly there was places I didn't go with him in conversation, all right? You know, and I could get his point.
I mean, the union had been good to him, and he, you know, he, he quit for like a year or two, and it was rough. He'd like starve to death, he'd tell you. So anyway, I got that part. But, um, I'll never forget when he came one day and said, you know what? He says, I am done with voting the way the hall tells me to vote. And it happened during the Clinton years. And when he found out that Clinton was a supporter of abortion, and that the hall was telling him which way to vote, no. And he broke from it. And I had to admire him in a sense for it, you see.
Now, I'm not here to promote or dispromote union. It's not what it's about, but I'm saying one of the chief functions of government, if not the highest function, it it was there at the very beginning with Noah, wasn't it? And the covenant that was made then. The importance and the sanctity of human life. And so Herod, of course, we know Herod the Tetrarch and his background and so on, but anyway, he was the sitting king at the time. So the disciples came and took up the body and buried it and went and told Jesus. And when Jesus heard it, he called down fire from heaven and destroyed the palace and everybody in it.
No, he didn't. He departed by a ship into a desert place and went the other way. Why? Because of that little word that I mentioned to you in the beginning, until. The Son of Man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. It wasn't the time for the sword, it was the time for the sower going forth with the word. The sword would come, but I think it was Lee that reminded us again that God's reason now for withholding the sword is because he's long suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
That verse is followed by saying, the day of the Lord will come. But right now we're in the period of that long suffering. And then when evening come, uh, the desert time, the feeding of the five thousand, the twelve baskets full, and so on, which I'm not going to take up. It's been mentioned somewhat, but I want to get to this account that's given at the end of chapter Fourteen, beginning in verse twenty two. Immediately Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, to go before him under the other side while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray, and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. Now, you can just get the picture here i- if you can, and I say, if your mind wants to fast forward to other things that the New Testament presents to us, well, feel free, okay? You got the Lord going up in a high place, and the disciples down here below on a troubled sea, getting tossed about in a boat. The Lord up on high, the disciples here. But it's the Lord who had told the disciples to get into the ship. And when the Lord told them to get into the ship, he said, go to the other side.
And if the Lord told the disciples to get into the ship and go to the other side, they're going to make it to the other side, no matter how rough the wind got or the waves got or anything else. And if they didn't make it to the other side, well, then the Lord had something else in mind for them. But there he was up on high. And my mind goes at least to the thought that here we are in a world bombarded all around us with storms of every kind, some physical, some spiritual, forces of nature, forces of demonic forces, spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, all sorts of challenging things.
And where's the Lord? He's gone up on high, hasn't he? And he's there to intercede for us. And because he intercedes for us, the writer to the Hebrews reminds us, he is able to save us to the very end, to the uttermost, because he ever lives to make intercession for us. And we have a great high priest who'll see us all the way through to the other side. Now that's just a little sermonette drawn from that side, that, that little section, but it does my heart good, and you can either take it or toss it, whatever. And so, so in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea, and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it's a ghost, it's a spirit, and they cried out for fear.
But immediately Jesus spoke unto them, saying, be of good cheer, it's I, be not afraid. And Peter said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. Preachers are rough on Peter. There's a couple of spots, I get it, but overall, thank the Lord for Peter. Even when Peter blurted out stuff that he shouldn't have said, it gave the Lord a chance to say something that we get out of it, you see? At least Peter had the, I don't know whether you want to call it the audacity or the boldness or whatever, to go ahead and just say stuff or ask.
And there's times when you see the passion of Peter. All these are gone away. You going to leave too? Lord, who will we go to? You know. So Peter had a heart for the Lord Jesus. And I say this, it wasn't any way other than other fellas got up out of the boat. Peter did do that. And he got out. What a thing that must have been. And he began to walk on the water to the Lord Jesus. And he saw the wind boisterous, and he was afraid. He began to sink, and he cried. Those three words, and don't think about those other three words, saying, Lord, save me.
And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore did you doubt? I mean, wow. When they were coming to the ship, the wind ceased, and they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying of a truth, thou art the Son of God. Now... When you come to this section and we have the discovery of the deity of Jesus Christ, it begins with a question, isn't this the carpenter's son?
And then you move through this section, and you see some of the questioning. How is it that they came to understand that this was indeed Jesus, the Son of God? I want to suggest to you that there were three ways. One way was by revelation. The Lord says to Peter in chapter sixteen, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven. That's one way we come to understand who Jesus Christ is, by revelation, by God revealing that truth to us by his spirit, through his word.
There's a second way that we find, and it happened in chapter seventeen when the Lord had to pull Peter aside and instruct him about the ransom money. Teaching and instruction. And sometimes we come to understand through teaching and instruction who Jesus Christ is, the Son of God. But I want to tell you there's another way. And many of us can say, though it wasn't exactly the same, there was a time in life when the wind and the waves overwhelmed me and were taking me under, and I cried out to the Lord to save me, and he saved me.
And I learned through that this indeed is the Son of God. You'll notice that it wasn't put right away. You want to think that as Matthew's recording this, when Peter said, Lord, if it's you, that was the question, was this him? Let me get out of the boat and come to you. And Peter got out of the boat, and he started walking on the water, and you would think at that point they'd say, this is the Son of God. That isn't where Matthew puts it, that isn't where they said it. It's when he begins to sink, and the Lord reaches out his hand immediately and saves him after those, what we call those three words, and they come safely into the ship, and there was calm.
And then they said, as they worshiped him, this is a truth. You are the son of God. Remarkable, isn't it? And so my section of chapter fourteen closes.