Matthew 14: 31
Christian, Why Do You Doubt?

It reinforces what the Lord had already previously said.  That teaching had been about anxiety in general; this one is about applying it in the midst of anxiety.  Here is a miracle of deliverance, probably a year later than the Matthew 6 statement.  The teaching of chapter 6: 34 was all well and good; here in 14: 31 is the teaching applied to a real life situation when Peter was in the boat with the other disciples, and when the Lord, in another one of his spectacular miracles, came walking on the surface of the water. 

I turn to it because it applies the previous verbal lesson about anxiety in a hyper-anxious situation.  Sometimes it is not enough thaat teh Lord teach us in a merely academic way, but in a way that touches our experience and feelings.  My sermon today reinforces what last week's sermon taught theoretically.  The teaching there in Matthew 6: 34 was about anxiety in general, fairly easy to deal with from a distance.  Here that teaching was applied to a real situation where the adrenalin surged and the application of it was much more difficult and immediately needed. 

The miracles of Jesus were "the trailing clouds of glory that the Son of God brought from heaven with him."  So said B.B. Warfield someplace in one of his writings.  They were not primarily works of mercy, so much as they were symbols of who he was and what he would do in the spiritual realm.  It is to this teaching of the miracle to which I turn this morning.  It speaks about faith! -- it's nature, it's basis, and it's limitations. 

I. THINK WITH ME FIRST THIS MORNING, ABOUT THE WAY IN WHICH FAITH TENDS TO BE SELF-CONSCIOUSLY NAIVE.

1. By this I mean that you are not your own best judge of your faith or the quality of your faith. Peter's faith tended to be colored by his impulsiveness (and impulsiveness seems to have been second nature to Peter, during these early years of his discipleship.) 

2. He had absolutely no idea of the magnitude of his request, when he impulsively blurted out "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water!"

Can you for a moment imagine the consternation of the other 11 disciples in the boat when they heard what came out of Peter's mouth this time?  "Peter, you idiot!  What are you saying?" 

3. It had never occurred to Peter, how much faith it would take, if his request were granted.  You see, often God is in the business of building and maturing our faith by the use of little exercises of faith that will some day lead up to great exploits of faith.

And Peter wasn't even ready for the little exercise in faith, such as to believe that God would protect him when the garden of Gethsemene or the court of Annas, the high Priest experiences were to come along.

4. There was complete naivete' about all issues as touching faith, even as there is in our generation, where faith is seen merely as an individual psyching himself into believing that what is not true and will not be true, is true because we believe it is true.

1. That is, it believes something.  It is like a transitive instead of an intransitive verb.  You will remember that a transitive verb always has an object.  It is not sufficient to say "I believe," but the object gives meaning and value to the statement: "I believe" Jesus' words, Jesus' commands; I believe God's promise."  "I believe Jesus is my Savior and my Lord." 

"Faith," that is true "faith," which is not just an opinion, always has a specific or a more general object, expressed or implied.  "I believe what Jesus told me is true."  It is not just a warm feeling about an unknown God.  It is a willingness to take seriously his commands. 

2. Most conspicuously here, there was very specific object to Peter's faith.

He has a word from Jesus: "Come!"  The meaning of it could not reasonably be doubted or confused.  It meant that Peter would be given the power to do what the Son of God commanded.

Unfortunately many of life's situations are not as simple as that.  In so many of them we do not have Jesus' infallible word, specifically to the point, so that we are guaranteed success as we "walk on water," so to speak. 

3. But there are many areas where we do have this kind of surety for our faith, in which there is a specific word from God that applies to us and to our situation.

For example: soteriologically, we have a word form God: "My sheep know my voice and they shall never perish;" "In my Father's house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you."  And in regard to providence: "All things work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to his purpose."  In the "all" there is a specificity that applies to every single situation.

4. But this does not mean that you have a right to believe anything you wish were true, and that believing it, will make it come true.  That is not faith, but fantasy.  So far as I can understand, you have no basis for faith that you will never suffer a certain sickness, or suffer financial reversal, or experience great unhappiness, or never have an accident.  You have no word from God on these things.  Your only word from God, is a general word, with regard to all of these sorts of things.

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; 
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me!"

5. But there is also another glimpse of faith here in the passage; a much more general kind of faith.

This was Peter's implicit faith that Jesus could do anything he chose to do, and his command surely gave the power to do it!

Here is our paradigm for most of life's predicaments: An example of the faith that creates optimism with regard to God's saving individuals, whom he has brought into the perameters of our life; an example of the faith that encourages our ability to endure whatever trials God calls us to endure.

When Archiamedies discovered the power of a lever a couple hundred years B.C., he said there was no limit to the amount of weight he could move with a lever.  Someone asked him how much he could move with a lever.  His answer was: "Give me a place to stand and I can move the world."  This is applicable to our Biblical idea of faith. 

III. IN THE THIRD PLACE, CONSIDER THE BARRIERS TO PETER'S FAITH .

1. His environmental circumstances were one of those barriers.  All he had to do was to take his eyes off of Jesus and his mind off of what Jesus had just commanded and to consider the howling, seething, tempestuous sea at his feet, and his faith would be gone.  And it was gone!

Our only hope is a prayerful and accurate attention to the teaching of the Word of God, as it applies to our situation.  For therein, and only therein, do we have a basis to offset the angry waves at our feet as we traverse the sea of life in the midst of a particularly great storm. 

2. Added to his circumstances, another threat to Peter's faith, at the moment, was probably the other 11 disciples.  I imagine that they were not silent on this occasion.  I do not know if you have ever been in a sea storm.  I have not been in one on that Sea of Galilee. (In fact, when I have been there, it was incredibly serene.)  But I have been in an Atlantic, and a Pacific, and a Mediterranean storm.  As you can imagine, in a bad storm, the waves pitch high into the air.  I suppose Peter was doing a combination of walking in the hollows of some of the waves and standing on the crest of others.  (Something like the way you walk across a freshly plowed field before it is dragged.)  I also suppose that the other disciples were back in the boat cheering him on with both positive and dubious cheers such as "Look out Peter! -- The big one to your left!" and so forth.

Then too, we are schooled by our contemporaries in a naturalism that tends to disbelieve even in the possibility of Divine providence.  And though this makes us perhaps more realistic in many areas of judging our world, it makes us stumble at the point of belief.  That unbelief is only reversed as we continuously consider the Word of God and the presumably faithful and responsible testimony of the community of faith, such as we find in the local church.

Rehearsing and considering the promises of God; confiding in, and considering the people of God are our only true antidotes to the things that destroy and weaken our faith.

IV. NOW THE FOURTH THING THAT IS ILLUSTRATED HERE IS THE SUCCESS OF FAITH.

1. Even though Peter's faith was imperfect (-- perhaps "woefully imperfect" would be a better description), there was an element of faith in his stance, and it was rewarded with a growth in grace. 

And how could Peter ever forget the wonderful expression of an underlying faith that, though not specific, cried out to the Lord from his heart: "Lord!  Save me!"  It was his finest moment in the episode.  Out of such personal experience he could write many years later -- as he did write in his first letter -- "Casting all your anxieties upon him, for he careth for you." (I Peter 5: 7) 

I am not suggesting that we go about believing stupid things and, consequently, failing in our faith.  That is no way to greater faith.  It is the way to disillusionment and agnosticism.  But the Christian life is a training session in small things before we are ready for the big things.  All those little irritations in your life, and barriers to what you think you ought to be, or what you think you ought to do are, no doubt, providentially permitted in order to teach you lessons of faith so that you will be strong enough to face the bigger issues, later on.

What is the answer to the Lord's question; "O man of little faith, why did you doubt?"  He doubted because he was naive about his own faith and its strength.  He doubted, and we do too, because our faith is not strong and is still in the process of maturing.  He doubted.  He doubted because he looked to his circumstances more than he looked to Jesus' command.  But there was true faith there; a faith that was to mature and change him from the impetuous Peter into the great man of faith who was to become a martyr for Jesus and has rightfully been considered as one of the finest Christians in 20 centuries of Christianity. 

May we, in some small way, be like him!