THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
JESUS WALKS ON WATER
DR. JIM DIXON
NOVEMBER 1, 1987
JOHN 6:16-21
On July 26th, 1969, Sharon Adams sailed her 23-foot boat into the harbor at San Diego, California. And that was no big deal because every day boats sail into the harbor in San Diego. But Sharon Adams had come from a long ways away. She had come from 5,618 miles away. She had sailed by herself alone across the Pacific Ocean from Yokohama, Japan, to San Diego, California, in 74 days, 17 hours, and 15 minutes. It was called a miracle on the water.
On August 27th, 1966, a man named Francis Chichester sailed his boat, 53 feet in length, out of the harbor at Plymouth, England. And that was no big deal because boats sailed out of that harbor every day. But you see, Francis Chichester kept right on going for 28,500 miles. He sailed that boat by himself all the way around the world. It took him 226 days, facing a hundred mile per hour winds, frigid waves, and constant peril. Queen Elizabeth was so impressed that she knighted Chichester while he was yet at sea. It was called a miracle on the water.
Then on June 6th, 1896, two men (George Harbo and Frank Samuelson) grabbed hold of their oars and rowed their boat out of the harbor at New York. That was no big deal because in 1896 a lot of people rowed boats. But these two men rowed their boats out of the harbor at New York and kept right on going all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. They had no sail and they had no engine. They only had the strength of their arms. They went all the way across the Atlantic Ocean from New York Harbor to London, England—two men rowing 18 hours a day with five hours for rest and one hour for food. They rowed 54 miles a day for 56 days. It was called a miracle on the water.
But of course, none of these events were truly miracles. None of them defied natural law (or our understanding of natural law). All of these events were spectacular—incredible human accomplishments—but none of them were miracles. All of these events pale when compared to an event which took place 2000 years ago on a sea called Galilee. You see, the problem with Sharon Adams and the problem with Francis Chichester and the problem with George Harbo and the problem with Frank Samuelson was that they all had a boat and they all needed boats. But you see, 2000 years ago when Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee, he didn’t have a boat. He didn’t even swim. He walked. He walked on the water, transcending the laws of nature (or at least our understanding of the laws of nature). It was indeed a miracle.
We might ask ourselves this morning why He did that. Why did Jesus Christ, the Son of God, decide to walk across the Sea of Galilee? And I would submit to you this morning that He had two primary motivations. He had many reasons, I’m sure, but two primary motivations comprise our two teachings this morning.
First of all, our Lord Jesus Christ performed that miracle walking on the water in order that He might manifest His divine presence. Have you ever wondered how it was that Jesus got to where the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee that night in the middle of the night? Did He walk the full three or four miles to where their boat was on the sea of Galilee, or did He simply appear there and then begin to walk? Believe it or not, theologians debate such minor issues. It really doesn’t matter. You see, the amazing thing was that He was there. In the midst of the storm, in the middle of the night when it seemed impossible, He was there. He made Himself present to them. In the midst of their storm, in the midst of their darkness and their trouble, He was there. And you see, He wants you to understand (and He wants me to understand) that, in the midst of our storms when it seems impossible, He makes Himself present to us. The Bible says, “Whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend to the highest heavens, Thou art there. If I make my bed in the depths of Sheol, Thou art there. And if I take the wings of the morning and I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Thou art with me.” Christ wants you to believe that.
It had been a strange day for the disciples. It had been a hard day. Much had happened that they didn’t understand. Their Master and Lord had just fed 5,000 people with a little boy’s lunch, and they didn’t understand that at all. Then their Lord had told them to get into the boat and go across the sea of Galilee before Him. He wanted to dismiss the multitude. They didn’t understand that. In truth, He wanted to be alone, and they wouldn’t have understood that either. And there they were in the midst of the night. They were tired and they had rowed much of the night for many hours against the storm (and the wind was against them). They were making little headway. Perhaps they were afraid. Perhaps their lives were in danger. But suddenly they saw someone: a Person walking on the water. And their fear was heightened because they thought it was a ghost.
But then they came to see that it was merely the divine presence, Jesus Christ, presenting Himself to them in their hour of need, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” That’s what Jesus Christ says to you this morning. Whatever situation you’re in, as a Christian, He says to you, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” You see, before Christ went to the cross, He said to His disciples, “I’ll not leave you desolate. I’ll come to you.” Before He went into heaven, He said to His disciples, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.” Christ wants you to know and believe that He’s with you now. He’s with you every day. He’s with you every minute and He never fails you or forsakes you. His divine presence is mystically with you constantly.
It is not possible for any of us to make that kind of a promise to another human being. No matter how much we love someone, no matter how much we care for someone, we can’t promise to always be with them. We cannot fulfill that promise if we make it. I love Barb and I love the kids, but I can’t always be with them. Just a few weeks ago, Barb and I went to Washington DC for that Congress on the Bible.
The Sunday prior to when we left, I was driving Heather home from church and Heather said, “Dad, I really wish you and mom wouldn’t go.” Barb and I really struggle with that because, from time to time, we go out of town. And we love our kids and it’s hard just to leave even for a few days. And Heather said, “Dad, I really wish you wouldn’t go.” I said, “Well, Heather, you know everything’s going to be fine and you’ll be alright. You’ll be right here at home.” And then Heather said something that I must confess made me feel good. She said, “Dad, home is where you and mom are.” And you see, I couldn’t really promise Heather that I would be there. I was leaving. I was in Washington DC. My body would be in Washington DC. I could say, “Well, Heather, I’ll be present in spirit,” but it wouldn’t be true because my spirit tends to go where my body is. My spirit and soul were in Washington DC and the time my spirit and soul leave my body is going to be when I go to be with the Lord, because the Bible says “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
You see, none of us have the power to make ourselves present with another person constantly, no matter how much we love them. But Christ does have that power. And He says, “I’m with you always.” If you really believe that you’re going to have a confidence in your life. You’re going to have a security in your life that this world just can’t understand.
You know, the early American Indians had a tradition where they launched their young men into adulthood. When their boys were 13 years of age they performed a ritual kind of like a Jewish bar mitzvah, or maybe like confirmation in the Christian tradition. When their boys were 13 years old, they took them through this ritual, which involved various tests in hunting, fishing, and scouting. Then the 13-year-old Indian boy was taken into the woods by his father to a secluded place. And the father would take the little boy and leave him there and tell him that he was to spend the night there all by himself. Well, this was the toughest test of all for that 13-year-old boy: to be alone all night in the midst of the woods. And it was very, very dark. They would find a spot in the woods so dense that even the light of the moon couldn’t penetrate. And of course, every sound in the woods that night would be scary to the boy. Every twig, every movement, would sound like an animal or something. The little boy could always picture some animal about to pounce. And the night seemed long. It seemed like the longest night of that little boy’s life.
But then as the morning would begin to come and there’d be gradually increasing light, the 13-year-old boy would begin to make out things. The little boy could make out a bush here and a tree and a path there, and then suddenly the little boy would see another form—a form that he recognized and didn’t know was there. It was the form of his father. And it was then that the little boy would understand in accordance with Indian tradition that the father was there all night. He hadn’t left. And the father wanted the little boy to understand that while he was entering into adulthood he had not left him. His father was still with him.
Well, our God wants us to understand that, and our Lord wants you to understand that. Even when you think you’re alone and it seems dark and you’re kind of afraid and you feel insecure, He’s really there. Even though you can’t see Him, He’s there. He’s promised that and He wants you to believe it. And that’s meant to make you secure. It’s also meant to give you joy because the Bible says that in His presence is fullness of joy. If you really believe that Christ is present with you constantly, there’s going to be a certain joy that you have the world can’t understand.
Do you know the joy of being with somebody you really love? The joy of being with somebody that you know really loves you? Do you have people in your life like that? Barbara’s like that to me. Whenever I’m with her there’s just a joy that I have. When we’re driving in the car we don’t even have to talk. It’s just great to have Barb with me. You know, when you drive in the car with somebody you don’t know so well, you have to talk or they have to talk. You know how that is? It’s because you don’t know each other that well and you’re not that comfortable. So you just talk. But you see, I can be with Barb and we don’t have to say anything because I love her and she loves me and we’re totally at peace with each other and I just have a joy in her presence. I like her with me all the time.
The home doesn’t seem the same when Barb’s not there. There’s a joy there when she’s there. When I experience something, I want her to experience it. When I see something, I want to share it with her. But you know, just like I don’t have the power to make myself present with somebody else constantly, I don’t have the power to make someone else present constantly with me either. I don’t have the power to make Barbara always present with me. It is impossible. There are times when we’re apart and there’ll come a time in God’s plan, perhaps, when Barbara and I are separated and one of us will go to be with the Lord. And for a time we’ll be apart until we see each other in heaven. That’ll be hard. But God wants you to understand that there is a joy that can never be taken from you, a presence that can never be taken from you. And that presence is the presence of His divine Son Christ. He comes into your heart when you invite Him as Lord and Savior and He’ll never let you go. He says, “I’m with you always, even at the end of the world.” And that’s meant to make you secure and that’s meant to give you joy because He loves you and He’s with you.
Well, secondly and finally, in this episode in the life of Christ we see Christ’s majesty. We not only see His divine presence, but we see His divine majesty. The disciples marveled when they saw that He had walked on the water. It says in the Gospel of Mark that when He got into the boat they were stunned with amazement. They stood in awe. They could not imagine who He was. It says in Matthew that when Christ got into the boat they fell down and worshiped Him. You see, they saw perhaps for the first time His divine majesty. In the Bible, Peter once said, “We were eyewitnesses to His majesty.” The Greek word for majesty is the word megalosune. It is a word that refers to greatness, to awe-inspiring greatness.
There are many different types of majesty. There are many things in this world that we call majestic. You can go to California and you can look at the giant sequoias. And when you go to Sequoia National Forest, you’ll be given some information that refers to those giant sequoias as majestic. And they are majestic, because they have awe-inspiring greatness. Those giant sequoias are as thick as 30 feet. They’re as tall as 340 feet—as tall as a 30-story building. But most of all, they are majestic because of their age. It is almost hard to comprehend their age. Many of those giant sequoias rose from the Earth 4,000 years ago. That’s hard to imagine. When Abraham in the Book of Genesis left Ur of the Chaldeans, some of those trees were rising from the earth in California. And when Moses was put into a basket in the Nile River, 1,500 years before Christ, many of those trees were already 500 years old and living in California. Today many of them are 4,000 years old, and that’s majestic.
But whatever majesty they have, it pales when compared to the majesty of Christ, the Son of God, because He is not 4,000 years old. He is eternal. The Bible says of Him that He is without beginning of days nor end of life, but He continues forever. He was born 2,000 years ago—born of Mary—but that was not His beginning. That was merely the point upon which He entered this world. Indeed, Jesus stood before the Pharisees and He said to them, “Before Abraham ever lived, I AM.” And in John 17, Jesus Christ spoke of the love that He shared with His Father before the world was ever made and the glory that He shared with His Father before the worlds were ever made. That’s majesty. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is eternal. That’s majesty.
You know, there’s a very special place on the east central coast of Florida, 10 miles north of Cocoa Beach, a place that is called Cape Canaveral. It was once called Cape Kennedy. From that place, the United States of America launches missiles into space. The first rocket was sent to space from Cape Canaveral in 1958. And of course we have seen Alan Shepherd, John Glenn, Aldrin, Armstrong, Collins, and many, many others go into space from Cape Canaveral. We have seen vehicles that weigh more than 100,000 pounds sent all the way from the Earth to the moon from Cape Canaveral. And it has been said that a missile launch is a majestic thing. And I suppose it is, because of the power that is harnessed in such an event. And sometimes, I think you would agree, power can be majestic. There’s not just the majesty of age, but there is the majesty of power.
But whatever power is manifested at Cape Canaveral, it pales when compared to the power of Jesus Christ. Do you understand the power of Jesus Christ? Can you even begin to comprehend the power of the Son of God? The Bible says He laid the foundation of the Earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of His hands. The Bible says, “In various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken through a Son through whom also He created the worlds. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature, upholding the universe by His word of power.” That’s majesty. That’s the power of the Son of God. The Bible says that Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and on Earth, and it was by that power that He walked on that sea 2,000 years ago. And the Bible says that, if you’re a Christian, then one day by His power you will rise from the dead in a glorified resurrection body. The Bible says, “Our commonwealth is in heaven. From it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change these lowly bodies to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subject all things unto Himself.” That is the majesty of power.
Indeed, we speak of kings and queens as majesties (royal majesties) because of the power vested in them. Their power pales when compared to the King of Kings and the Lord of all Lords, the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ. Sometimes we speak of things as majestic because of their appearance—they simply appear majestic. In the year 1893 Katherine Lee Bates, who was a college professor, a poet, an author, and a great woman, came to Colorado. In 1893 she took a prairie wagon up the slopes of a mountain named Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak is 14,110 feet high. And there, on top of Pikes Peak, Katherine Lee Bates looked out and saw the Rocky Mountains and she wrote a great hymn, a hymn called “America the Beautiful.” And you might remember how she spoke of “purple mountains majesty.” She looked out on the rocky mountains that we see every day and she saw their majesty. But it wasn’t the majesty of great age. It wasn’t the majesty of power. It was simply the majesty of beauty.
Some things just look majestic. From a king’s crown to a lion’s man, we speak of certain things as appearing majestic. But I would submit to you today that no one is more majestic in appearance than the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And you might say, “Well, how can that be? He was a man of sorrows, the Bible says, acquainted with grief, and had no form or comeliness that we should desire Him. He was the son of a carpenter. Where was this majestic appearance?” But you see, the Bible says that in His earthly life His true glory was veiled. There were moments when His celestial countenance was manifested, such as when He was transfigured on the holy mountain in the presence of Peter, James and John. He radiated heavenly light and majesty. When He appeared to John on the island of Patmos, resurrected and alive, Christ appeared in all of His heavenly glory and with celestial countenance. The Bible says that John could not even look at Christ. He fell on his face before Him. And he said that Christ’s face was like the sun shining at full strength and His voice was like the sound of many waters. That is majesty. Jesus Christ is majestic. And on that night—in the middle of the night, between 3:00 and 6:00 AM, in the midst of a storm in the darkness—those disciples saw some measure of His majesty and they marveled and worshiped.
You see, this morning God wants each and every one of you to see the majesty of His Son. You can’t possibly marvel at the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ unless you see His majesty. You can’t marvel at the greatness of the sacrifice He made on Calvary’s cross unless you understand His majesty. You can’t possibly give your life in obedience to Jesus Christ unless you have reverential awe for His majesty. Unless you see with reverence and awe the power of His majesty, you can’t possibly truly worship in spirit and truth. We can’t offer worship pleasing to the Father unless we see the majesty of the Son because the Bible says it is the will of the Father that all might honor the Son in the same way that they honor the Father.
You know, we live in a peculiar generation in a peculiar time. It’s a strange generation of Christians. We live in a time when very few Christians really speak of the majesty of Jesus Christ or speak of the deity of Christ. Very few of us really approach Christ with reverence and awe. Very few of us fall down before Him like the disciples did on that boat that night. In fact, many Christians today speak of Jesus Christ simply as their best friend. And I understand that because Jesus Christ is my best friend. And as much as I love Barb, I love Jesus more. And as precious as Barb is to me (and she’s more precious than anyone on this Earth), Jesus Christ is more precious and He’s my best friend. And yet He’s also my God.
I sometimes hear people say they can’t wait to see Jesus because when they see Him face-to-face they’re going to give Him a big hug. Well, I understand that, but you know, I think when I see Jesus face-to-face I’m going to fall down. I’m going to fall down before Him and worship Him because He is the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Lord of glory. He walked on the water and He manifested His divine presence. He’s always with you. He manifested His divine majesty. He is the Son of God. He has all power. He is eternal. He’s glorious. 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ said to Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” He asks that same question to each and every one of us today. He says, “Who do you say that I am?” With worship in our hearts, He wants us to say, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Let’s close in a word of prayer.
Lord Jesus, You are majesty. You are King of Kings. You are Lord of Lords. By Your power, You will come again. By Your power, You sustain the universe. By Your power, the worlds were made. By Your power, You will one day raise us from the dead. By Your power, we will live with You forever. Lord, thank You for Your divine presence with us. We always thank You for Your promise that You never fail us or forsake us and that You’ll be with us always, even to the close of the age. Lord, we love You. We commit our lives anew to You this day in obedience. We worship You. We pray these things, Lord Jesus, in Your great and matchless name. Amen.