RESCUED FROM DOUBT
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: MATTHEW 14:22-33
Nehemiah The Lesson today teaches usGod had warned the that what might be impossible for us to do in our Christian life is not really impossible. This is so because in our spiritual life we have the presence of the Lord and He is able to help us through any and every circumstance, any needs that we have, and guide and protect us from any difficulty that we might meet.
This is very bad day andThe people that are not part of the body of Christ, and who do not believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is their Saviour, and that God the Father is supervising everything that happens on the Earth have no real spiritual knowledge and are called “natural” men and women.Along the way
The tragedy for them is that they do not understand that there is a supernatural world and that God operates in supernatural ways. That idea is very difficult for any human being to understand. Christians have understanding of that idea to a certain extent but people that are not Christians have no understanding of that idea.
God can do anything and in this story we see that Jesus walked on water to meet His disciples that were in a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus also allowed Peter, one of the disciples to come out of the boat and come to Him.
It is not necessary for Christians today to walk on water for that is not what the story teaches us. It teaches us that to live as a Christian on one’s own power is impossible but if you depend on the strength of Jesus what is impossible becomes possible. It is only the presence of Jesus that enables us to meet trials, troubles, difficulties, problems and all kinds of events that will harm us, and overcome them.
This story refers to something that had happened immediately before the event that we are now studying that is very interesting. A lot of people over 5000 and probably as much as 20,000 had come down to where Jesus and the disciples were to listen to Jesus teach about God the Father and how they should live to be pleasing to God. It was late and the disciples wanted Jesus to send the people home so that they could get some food to eat. But Jesus did not like that and He told the disciples that they should feed the people. When the disciples told Jesus however that they only had two small fish and five loaves of bread and that was not enough to feed the large amount of people Jesus miraculously turned the bread and fish into enough fish and bread to feed the 20,000 people. 12 Baskets of pieces of the food were left over. The people were so impressed that they remembered that Moses had fed the children of Israel in the wilderness with manna and when Jesus fed that crowd of people they felt that Jesus was the Messiah and that they should install Him as king of Israel. Jesus did not like that idea because the time was not right for that and so Jesus put the disciples in a boat to and told them to cross over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee while He told the other crowd who had full stomachs to go home. They obeyed Jesus. Then Jesus went to pray to His Father in heaven for quite a long time.
In the meantime the disciples were rowing to get to the other side of the Sea of Galilee but the winds were terrible and the storm was really bad. They were not making any progress in rowing and they were now very tired and out of breath. They were frightened people. Then to make it worse they saw someone walking across the water toward them and they were so frightened that they all screamed out that it’s a ghost that was coming.
Jesus had to calm them down by telling them that it was He that was walking on the water. Peter however called out to Jesus and said that if it was really Jesus walking on the water He should prove it by having him come out of the boat and also walk on the water toward Him.
That was a very brave thing to do for if it was not Jesus Peter would just sink to the bottom of the the Lake. But Jesus told Peter to come onto the water and walk toward Him. The other disciples in the boat must have been terrified but brave Peter stepped out onto the water. He did walk toward Jesus but then he realized that this was not a normal thing to be doing. People just did not walk on water. When he saw the big solid waves crashing around him Peter became terrified and doubted that Jesus had the power to keep him walking on the water.
Only then when he doubted Jesus’ power to allow him to walk on the water Peter began to sink. In an instant everything changed. When he doubted Peter begun to sink and he cried out to Jesus to save him. At that very moment Jesus stretched out His hand and grabbed a hold of Peter. Both of them then walked on the water to the boat and when they got into the boat the sea became quiet and the storm stopped completely.
The disciples then realized that Jesus was really the Messiah and that He had all power. They realized that Jesus was God and so they worshiped Jesus and acknowledged that He was the Son of God. That title meant that Jesus was the Messiah and that God had sent Him to earth to teach people and to show them that God the Father really cared for them.
We are in the same position as the disciples and we should remember that God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit loves us. We should worship and do not doubt or fear for they have all power and care for us. No matter what happens we are safe in their Hand. So do not doubt. Worship God and with the power of God supporting you do the best that you can for other people for that is what God loves to see us doing.