Episode Transcript
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It's here God's Word, beginning at
Verse Sixteen, Sixteen Through Twenty one,
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John Six sixteen through twenty one.
When evening came, his disciples went down
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to the sea, got into a
boat and started across the sea to Copernum.
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It was now dark and Jesus had
not yet come to them. The
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Sea became rough because a strong wind
was blowing. When they had rowed about
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three or four miles, they saw
Jesus walking on the sea and coming near
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the boat and they were frightened,
but he said to them it is I,
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do not be afraid. Then they
were glad to take him into the
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boat and immediately the boat was at
the land to which they were going.
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He may be seated. One of
the reasons that we sang psalms seven aside
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for Psalm one hundred and seven,
aside from it being an excellent psalm to
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reflect and and praise God for his
goodness and grace in forgiving our sins,
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is that it also reminds us of
some of these particular situations in which he
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does bring his people out of many
different situations, one of them being on
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taking care of his people in desert
places and dry places. We saw a
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little bit of that last time when
we looked at John, when we when
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we looked at John, when Jesus
was the people came to him and he
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saw that they didn't have food and
he provided for them this great miracle feeding
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of more than five thousand people out
of a few loaves of bread and a
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couple fish. Well, in between
that feeding of the five thousand and another
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and a speech or a sermon in
which Jesus tolls them and speaks to them
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about himself and describes himself as the
bread of life, we have this story,
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this account and record of Jesus walking
on the water, an amazing miracle,
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another of the many stunning miracles we've
already heard about, and we're only
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in John Chapter six. This is
an amazing thing that Jesus does and want
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to consider that with you this morning. It's something that also comes up in
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again psalm one hundred and seven,
and we haven't sung this verse yet.
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We'll do it after the sermon,
but in verse twenty three we read some
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went down to the sea and ships
doing business on the great waters. They
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saw the deeds of the Lord,
his work, wondrous works in the deep,
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for he commanded and raised the stormy
wind, which lifted up the waves
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of the sea. They mounted up
to heaven, they went down to the
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depths. Their courage melted away in
their evil plight. They reeled and staggered
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like drunken men and and we're at
their wits end. Then they cried to
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the Lord in their trouble and he
delivered them from their distress. He made
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the storm be still and the waves
of the sea were hushed. Then they
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were glad that the waters were quiet
and he brought them to their desired haven.
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Let them thank the Lord for his
steadfast love, for his wondrous works
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to the children of Man. Let
them extol him in the congregation of the
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people and praise him in the assembly
of the elders. Well, there's a
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whole sermon right there. Right God
brings these things into our lives that try
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us. Up to the heavens,
down to the depths, right writing.
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Those waves, up and down,
up and down. But he rescues us,
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he brings us out of them.
And what's the application that we praise
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God, that we extol him in
the congregation? Let them thank the Lord
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for his steadfast love, for his
wondrous works to the children of Man,
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let them ex stole him in the
congregation of the people and praise him in
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the assembly of the elders. These
are the same applications, in the same
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things that we are now seeing centered
in on this man, Jesus, this
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one who has come into the world
and been born of a woman, who
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is fully man and yet doing the
works of God. A maze us.
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Here we have Jesus the Almighty,
this one who walks on water, this
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one who calms the sea, this
one who calms their hearts. It is
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I, he says, do not
be afraid, don't be terrified. Now
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this happens because Jesus, as we
read here in Verse Sixteen, had cut
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promised to meet or them in some
way. Just as remind you of the
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scene. He had gone up onto
a mountain. The other gospels tell us
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to pray. He's trying to get
away from the crowds, maybe even away
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from his disciples, to be alone, to have some solitude, to be
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able to pray. He does that. Then it becomes evening time. They
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arrange some sort of meeting. It's
perhaps that Jesus isn't maybe Jesus doesn't tell
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them exactly that he how it's all
going to happen, but he says they're
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going to meet and they leave.
The disciples leave without him, planning to
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meet up at another time, and
that's what happens. Then they they go
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out across the water. It's nighttime, but quickly it's no quiet evening.
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They're glide that they see becomes rough. A strong wind blows, it's dark
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and they're out there and says they've
been rolling about three or four miles.
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It's a very tough situation and the
other gospels tell us that they were afraid
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for their lives. Now John tells
us this distance that they were out in
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the water, partly to help us
understand the difficulty of their situation. It
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also helps us from remind us of
the miraculous nature of this story. I
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mentioned this because there are some people
that think that Jesus does not walk on
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the water but instead is walking by
the water. Now both are grammatically possible
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and the same words are going to
be used later in the book to describe
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Jesus Walking by the water, but
here it's rightly translated on for several good
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reasons. One is that Jesus refers
to himself here. As the I am.
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This doesn't come out quite in our
translation here. In the USV that
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I read this morning. In Verse
Twenty Two, he says it is I,
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which you could also translate as I
am, do not be afraid.
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One reason to think that he is
saying I am is that every other place
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in John when Jesus uses this phrase, it's in connection with him identifying himself
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with the I am. This is
a name God gives himself, Yahweh when
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he reveals himself to Moses. In
John Eight hundred fifty eight, for example,
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Jesus says true, truly, truly, I say to you, before
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Abraham was I am, before Abraham
was I am. So when Jesus speaks
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to them and he's not just saying
hey, guys, it's me, it's
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not someone else, he is saying
I am God, he is saying I
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am Yahway, he is saying I
am, do not be afraid. When
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Matthew Records this event in fourteen thirty
three, Matthew, fourteen three, we
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read that those in the brochure in
the boat worshiped him saying truly, you
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are the son of God. This
is another reason why it would be good
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to translate it this way. Also, John tells us that they see Jesus
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about three to four miles out from
the shore. They can see that he's
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walking on the water. They can
hear him talk. It would be very
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difficult to hear and see someone at
this distance in the dark and in the
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middle of a storm. Also,
when Matthew Records these events, he tells
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us that Peter got out and walked
on the water and to make very clear
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that he's not just by the water, it says he began to sink right
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so you don't sink on the land. This would be impossible if Jesus and
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Peter were merely sort of meeting by
the water. The last thing I'll mention
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is that Jesus is walking on the
water. Seems to perhaps be connected with
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another miracle that we might have missed. Not only does Jesus walk on the
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water, as we know from the
other Gospels, calm the storm, but
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he also seems to transport them instantly
to the other side, or immediately,
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he says. Now you might be
familiar with marks use of the word immediately.
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It's it's something that he is a
way. He is uses to tell
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the story really fast like like,
almost like a children do sometimes, and
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then this happened, and then this
happened and this happened, sort of like
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that. The other gospel writers don't
tend to use immediately in this way,
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in this rhetorical way. In the
other gospels, including John, this word
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almost always refers to a sense of
at once, like right now. John
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Uses this word three times in his
Gospel. First to describe how the man
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we read about earlier who was healed
from his paralysis, immediately picked up his
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bed and walked. It's used later
in the Gospel to describe Peter When the
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Rooster Crows, at once or immediately
after his denial of Jesus. And so
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it's very likely here that we have
actually two miracles going on. Not only
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does Jesus walk on the water,
not only do we know from the other
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gospels that he had caused is Peter
to walk on the water, but here
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as well we read in Verse Twenty
One that after they take him in,
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immediately the boat was at the land
to which they were going. All of
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this, and you might be terrified
too. You might be afraid as well.
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Here is the all mighty doing mighty
things, things that only the Almighty
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God can do right before their eyes. The storm itself was terrifying enough,
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and then there is this one who
is more powerful than the storm. Sometimes,
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I think we get confused. We
say, why would you be afraid?
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The storm is gone. If Jesus
Calms the storm, why would you
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be afraid of him? Because he's
more powerful than the storm? Jesus,
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however, doesn't want them to be
afraid. That's not his goal, though
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they in a way are. It's
a reasonable thing to be afraid. He
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wants them to know who he is
so that they might not fear, so
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they might hear the name of I
am, they might recognize Jesus as divine,
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as God himself, as and and
put their trust in him. Jesus
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is the Great God of the Old
Testament. He is the one who met
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Moses at the burning Bush. He
is the one who has revealed in the
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divine name. He is the one
who conquered pharaoh and brought the people out
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of slavery. He is the one
who took them on through the Red Sea
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and then later through the Jordan into
the promised land. Jesus is the God
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who demonstrated his power over Pharaoh and
all the Pharaoh's Gods, God over the
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locusts and the frogs and the flies
and the rivers and the water and man.
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And here he proves all of that
again as he as Jesus, the
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incarnate son of God, walks on
the water. Moses walked through the water,
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Jesus walks on top of it.
Amazing Picture, amazing reminder of the
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marvelous deeds of the Lord is mighty
works which cause us to praise him.
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Why did God do this? Why
did the son of God take on human
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nature to come into this world,
to walk on water, to meet with
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these particular men to and tell them
it is I do not be afraid.
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Hadn't God done marvelous, mighty works
before? Didn't they have the Old Testament?
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Couldn't they read about the I am
and who he was and what he
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did and all of his promises?
Why this? Why? No, well,
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it's because all of those plans and
all of those promises that were laid
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down in the Old Testament were pointing
forward to this moment and even a moment
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yet ahead, when Jesus, in
his human flesh, would die on the
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cross, he would go through the
judgment of God. The waters of Wrath,
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he would go through the curse of
God to land safely on the other
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side again. We must remember,
not for himself but for us, Jesus
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comes into this world to reveal himself
in a way in which we might not
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have terror at God any more,
that our relationship with him might be one
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of peace, knowing that he is
the one who brings us through safety,
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and not just through the trials and
difficulties of this life, but through death
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itself. One of the ways Jesus
shows us this is in this miracle.
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It's possible, too, that Jesus
is also preparing us for his sacraments,
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the Lord's supper and for Baptism,
which also are reminders of these signs and
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of his work on the Cross.
This might be perhaps why Jesus places this
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particular Miracle John and does this miracle
between the feeding of the five thousand and
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his explanation of the feeding of the
five thousand. In this chapter. Jesus
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is preparing us for sacraments, or
more particularly, for his death, which
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is to come, and then those
sacraments that point to that. Let me
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explain what I mean. In the
beginning of the book, Jesus are beginning
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of this chapter. Jesus gives to
the people this bread and he explains to
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them this is the bread of life. And, as we'll see when we
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come to the supper, these things
are preparing us for our understanding of him,
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our understanding of the way in which
he feeds us on himself in this
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life. And then here, in
this scene of Jesus walking on the water,
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of him bringing them through these waters
and trials of judgment so that they
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might land safely on the other side, this place to which they are going,
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it is perhaps our reminder of this
other water work that Jesus does in
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our lives as well, which he
takes us through the waters of baptism and
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he purifies us and he makes us
holy, not by the waters themselves,
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but him working his work on the
cross for us. These are pictures,
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in other words, that remind us
of Jesus's work for us. They're pictures
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that remind us of what he accomplishes
for us on the Cross. And just
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as these things point forward to Jesus
is death, so do the sacraments point
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back to Jesus's death. So when
we observe the Lord Supper this morning,
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the next time we have a baptism
here. These are the things that he
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wants us to bring to our minds. Him Feeding us as he does does
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with the five thousand, him bringing
these disciples through these waters, just as
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he brought the Israelites through the waters
long ago. And because of this all
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again, we are to what not
be afraid. They are reminders to us
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that when God comes to in this
us, in this way, he is
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our God and he is, for
us, though, Almighty, the one
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who can walk on the water or
split the water or cause the water to
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come up out of nothing. He
does these things for us, he exercises
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this power for us. He went
to the cross, endured the wrath that
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was owed to us for our sins, and he did it for us.
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And so that's why I read Psalm
one hundred and seven, and that's why
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we'll return to it again. It's
a perfect commentary on this. He does
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these things so that we might thank
the Lord for his steadfast love that began
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as soon as man fell. And
he promised man, and he promised Adam
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and Eve, that he would give
them a son who would make all things
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right, who would crush the head
of the serpent, who would bring about
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life in the world, promises made
to Abraham, promises made to Moses and
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to David, promises that are now
being fulfilled and have been fulfilled in Jesus.
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That's why we worship Jesus, that's
why we look to him as the
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Almighty, because we know these events. We'd look at the record of these
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events and the things that he did
and we praise him, just as God's
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people have always praised him. Psalm
one hundred and seven says, let them
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thank I am, let them thank
Yah Way, let them thank Jesus for
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his steadfast love, for his wondrous
works to the children of Man. Let
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them extol him in the congregation of
the people and praise him in the assembly.
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Let us pray
