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Date: November 13, 2016
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Title: Savior and the Sinner
Scripture: Mathew 14
Contributor: Senior Chaplain Jesse Barrett / inspired by a book entitled, Life’s Healing Choices
There was once a child who stood gazing at a freshly opened box of chocolate candies, lips pressed together, concentrating fully upon the decision at hand. The rule was “Only one, no more than one, but any one you want.” Should it be the biggest one, or would the small round one be the favorite peppermint cream? Then again, the long one might last longer. Which to choose? And how to decide?
Perhaps a child’s decisions seem trivial to us adults. Oh, we recognize that they are important to the child, but we have a broader perspective. That is the question in making choices, isn’t it? To have an eternal perspective on life and its decisions is to know how to choose.
Today I want to speak about three choices that will have eternal ramifications.
Number one - choose to acknowledge to ourselves, that we are not God, to admit that we are powerless to control our tendency to do wrong, and that in many ways our life is unmanageable due to sin and self.
Number two - choose to earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, and that he has the power to help me.
Lastly, number three - I want you to choose to commit your life and will over to Christ’s care and control.
You may say Chaplain Jesse; I know all of these things. There was a time in my past where life was out of control, but now I have chosen to live daily for the purposes of Jesus Christ and His Ministry on earth.
If this is you, then perhaps this only will be a refresher, but I want to remind us all, that if there are areas of our lives that we have not chosen to have Christ examine, or if we have chosen that they are not under his care and control, we will struggle with things such as peace, joy, and the other fruits of the spirit.
I am calling to all of us who see the battle of life, to choose this day whom you will serve.
At the outbreak of the civil war, a Tennessee cotton-planter could not decide which cause to support, the North or the South. He had friends on both sides, so he decided to be absolutely neutral. He wore a gray jacket and blue trousers, thereby dressing for both the Confederacy and the Union. One day this man was caught in the middle of a skirmish between the two armies. He stood up and shouted that he was neutral in this fight and expected to be allowed to leave the field before the battle closed in on him. But Union sharp shooters, seeing the gray jacket, riddled it with bullets. And the Confederate marksmen, seeing the blue pants, filled them with lead.
The point is, you cannot serve two masters.
For many brothers in our circles their lives have become riddled with the lead of sin. They want to survive in eternity, but they want to live for themselves in the here and now.
Unfortunately, this has been man’s legacy beginning all the way back in the garden of Eden.
In Genesis, Adam and eve tried to “play God” by choosing what they believed was in their best interest. They decided to not take God at his word that they would surely die, and took fruit that did not belong to them. After they ate it, there eyes where open to their sin and immediately they tried to play God by hiding their sin with fig leaves.
They did not confess immediately to their sin but they tried to hide it from God in the garden. Even after being found, they began playing the blame game justifying their actions which were not Holy like God’s choices but rooted in selfish fulfillment.
Now let’s flash forward to today. Are there not the same attempts in our world today?
We get involved in a sin and we try to where a mask to cover it up. We try to hide it from others who we know won’t approve of it. We blame life circumstances and other people…
I want you to see, that as a sinful people, we try to play God.
We try to control other people by wearing masks, playing games, and hiding the truth about ourselves.
We play God by trying to control other people by means of manipulation through guilt, shame, praise and silence.
We try to control our own problems by avoiding it, denying it, escaping it, or medicating it.
We have this error in our DNA of self-reliance. Without even thinking about it, often our reasoning is this: “I, by my stupidity, got into this mess, therefore I, by my stupidity, will get out of it.”
You know as well as I do, that this does not work. Oh… God will let you down that path because of Free will, but we will come to destruction if we are left to our own devices.
Denial is the single most destructive force in our spiritual growth. The failure to see, to accept criticism, to allow others to humble us, or to confess our sins, is all rooted in our largest sin, PRIDE.
Pride caused the downfall of Satan, it caused Adam and Eve to be kicked out of the garden and there is nothing more that God hates then pride.
Proverbs 16:5 says, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished.”
This morning there may be a few people in this room who can admit they are dealing with the consequences of a life not turned completely over to God. Perhaps others have close family members who are struggling in their marriages due to pride or unconfessed sin.
Perhaps you have battled with depression and anxiety, perhaps even yesterday you ran to the fridge to have a three-person size bowl of ice cream to stuff the cares of this world further down into the recesses of your body.
For many in the world, a life of pride and self-reliance has led to the, filling of their lives, with fears and anxiousness. It didn’t happen overnight, it just snuck up on them. In the same way those of us who live in denial of our sin and pride have learned to cope using chemicals like drugs and alcohol.
This has led to our addiction of such things because now we are unable to cope with life without them.
Now let’s be sympathetic, it is not as if the self-reliant person woke up one morning and said, “today I am going to destroy my life with alcohol.” No, it crept in slowly. Instead of turning their eyes to Christ for help, they turned to their self-reliant ways of playing God, and began avoiding, disguising, or escaping life through self-fulfilling ways.
Piece by piece, it took things away from us, until we were left all alone, or in despair, realizing that our lives have now become, unmanageable.
And so, we find the consequences of trying to play God.
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”
King David, as he tried concealing his murder of Bathsheba’s husband wrote…
Psalms 32:4-5 says, “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.”
In doing one on ones in jail, men confess that at the age of 40 or 50 they have less material possessions than they did when they were 18. A life on the wrong road took everything away from them.
Children, wives, homes, family, and even their health, all gone, all torn apart by the consequences of trying to play God. They are living examples of the unmanageable life, due to their tendency to sin and they are powerless to overcome it.
For the first time in a very long time, they are convicted by the work of the spirit, that they have lived a life of sin, one of pride.
Church, if we are feeling the promptings of the Holy Spirit, by the use of our conscience, I would implore you to not ignore it!
In Mathew 14:1-12
We see the promptings of the Spirit in Herod’s life, a man who battled with his conscience.
The state of the wicked is a very restless one.
Herod the tetrarch was then the ruler of the fourth part of a region. Herod Antipas was one of several sons of Herod the great. Here he ruled over Galilee and Perea.
READ 14:1-12
In these verses, I want to touch on conscience and its effect on Herod.
Verses 1-2 a little background, Herod was a Sadducee. He appears to have been the avowed patron and protector of the sect which believed neither in the existence of spirit, whether angels, demons, or men. Yet we see here in our text how the conscience, of Herod, crushes his creed to pieces; though he believed not in the resurrection of the dead, yet he feared that John had risen from the dead. We see that in vs. 1-2. (Dr. Thomas)
Dr. T. Sherlock wrote - Herod had a motive which shut out all reason and arguments. It was his guilty conscience that told him it was John the Baptist. The fears which surround the guilty are so many, they are undoubted proofs and records of the Judges authority. The moral Law is promulgated to every rational creature; the work of the Law is written on every heart. The rebukes of conscience will sooner or later restore the true sense of the law which was darkened by the shades of false reason, serving the inclinations of an evil heart.
I hope it will happen in this life, to be rebuked after death, will lead to an everlasting separation from God.
J.P. Norris wrote - Herod was a man governed by fear. Fear of his bad wife… leads him to imprison john in vs. 3, Fear of the multitude… keeps him from killing John in vs. 5. Fear of his oath and the fear of ridicule… drive him to carry out a vow which was wicked to make, and tenfold more wicked to keep through the be-heading of John in vs. 9-10. Fear of bad conscience… makes him tremble lest Jesus should prove to be John risen from the dead to trouble him in vs. 1-2.
T. Kelly in writing about the power of conscience wrote – It will not be silenced by wealth or earthly surroundings. A guilty conscience is troubled with not only real, but imaginary troubles. A guilty conscience will torment a sinner in spite of his avowed skepticism.
Do not neglect your conscience.
Friends, we should not tolerate sin in our lives. The consequences of denial, of pride, will lead you to ruin.
Let me tell you a tragic story…
For two years, the hydraulic earthquake stabilizers in the thirteen story “Nuevo Leon” apartment building in Mexico City were left out of service. Then, unexpectedly, at 7:30 AM on September 19,1985, a devastating earthquake shook Mexico City. The thirteen-story building began to sway until finally a third of it broke loose at the foundation and fell sideways. Another third came crumbling down, floor on floor, crushed like a tin can. Only one third was left standing. For fifteen days, rescuers dug through the rubble to search for survivors. Unfortunately, for most, the results of neglecting the inner defects were tragic.
So, it is with us, the neglect of our inner defects, of our inner spiritual life and sin results in tragedy. To neglect the one is to open ourselves to the tragic results of the other.
Choice one is to acknowledge to ourselves, that we are not Holy like God, to admit that in many ways we were powerless to control our tendency to do selfish things. To admit that our life is unmanageable due to the consequences of sin and self.
Perhaps you’re here today, and you are trying to find peace with God in your life or in an area of your life, but God seems so far away and quiet that you are doubting that He even cares.
Friends, God does care, once we are convicted of our sin, by the work of the Holy Spirit, we can come to this next choice which states:
“We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” “We earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me.”
Mathew 14:13
13 Now when Jesus heard this (That is that John was beheaded), he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
I’m here to tell you, God is a God of compassion. We see that in Christ, remember he said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:9 So God is compassion because we see the testimony of Christ being filled with compassion.
Who loves a good book or has a vivid imagination? Picture these people from the towns walking on foot to see Jesus. Now imagine all these people helping other people who are sick or lame. Imagine people who are looking at Christ with sad or hurt faces wanting desperately to feel normal again. We can only imagine what Christ saw in the eyes of this people. But we do know, he had compassion.
He walked around the crowd laying hands on people, speaking encouraging words that healed their emotions. He embraced a hurting people with some really Big hurts, all the while he was hurting too with the loss of John the Baptist.
15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Our Compassionate God supplied their needs because he cares about even the small everyday things in their life like food.
Mathew 6: starting in verse 25
25“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
So, we read great truths of scripture like these and we say yes yes, I know I know, God says I am valuable and that he will take care of my needs.
So why don’t we believe it? Why are we anxious? Why do we relapse and cope with our problems instead of reaching out to a compassionate God?
It is the sin of self-reliance. The sin of Pride and denial. At the core, we do not really believe that God is compassionate, that he cares for all of my needs both big and small.
It is the sin of or arrogant spirit that says I will play God, I will handle life on my own terms, because God cannot be entrusted to care.
Look out! If you want to have peace with God, peace in your life, if you want, joy, the kind of joy that overcomes all of life’s trials and circumstances, you must believe in God, you must believe that he cares for you, you must stop playing God, you must confess your sin before your whole life is just one emotional, depressing, anxious, fearful, tragic story of a wasted life.
For some, their earthly fathers have painted an awful picture of our heavenly father.
Let me tell you friend, Our God is not anything like the example of your earthly Father.
If your earthly father was absent, God is not.
If your earthly Father was corrupt and evil, God is not.
If your earthly father never embraced you, never played with you, never gave you self-esteem and self-worth, that is not God.
When you turn your life over to the compassionate, kind, and loving heavenly Father, we will begin to change you from the inside out.
But, we have to have faith, and believe in his truths, and relinquish our sinful attitude of self-reliance, control, and pride… we have too.
You may say, Chaplain Jesse, I know from scripture that he is loving, but I don’t always feel loved.
Pick up the story with me in Mark 6:45
“Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night7 he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them,
What did Christ do? He threw them into a situation that was full of strenuous activity where there was little accomplished.
You may say, “ah ha! See why would a loving God throw them into that situation? Look he has sent them into a very troubled weather pattern where the men are rowing hard but not getting very far, and he is not with them.
This begs the question why? Why would Christ who saw them from his place of prayer, send them into a storm to battle the elements all alone, I thought you said he cares?”
There are many good answers to this question, but I would like to suggest that this hardship was their pathway to peace, in Jesus Christ. The situation was designed to make them understand who he was, and that they were the ones who needed His care. You see, when Christ had compassion on the sick from our previous story, it was not the disciple’s bodies who were healed. Even when he fed the five thousand, it was not meant primarily for the disciples need as they had the bread and fishes, but for the other people and the display of God’s power.
This time, it was all about them. Christ was giving them the same instruction he gave the people. That he is willing and able to care for their personal needs, their emotional needs, because why?
Because they matter to Him. Look at verse 51 and 52 of Mark 6
And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. 52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.
Suddenly, it is personal, and they understood! It was at this moment that the disciples said, truly you are the Son of God. Not at the moments during the healings or the feedings. This was a personal involvement in their lives, Christ used it to make them get it.
In the same way God in his compassion brings rough waters to our lives to save the lost who can admit their life is out of control.
So, this is our second choice, believing God exists, that I matter to Him, and that he has the power to save me.
You say, “Wait a minute, I have one more a question…
Look at the end of verse 48 “He meant to pass them by.” Why is that in there?”
I’m very glad you asked! ☺
Here we see Providence: Providence, when it is acting designedly and directly for the assistance and support of God’s people, sometimes it may seem as if we were overlooked, and that God does not regard our case. The disciples thought that he would have walked on by, but we may be sure that he would not have, he will not pass by us, and he did not pass by them. (Mathew Henry)
(Mathew Henry) wrote: Christ set his face and steered his course, as if he would have gone further, and took no notice of them; this he did, to awaken them to “call to him”.
So, let’s look at the story of Peter who walked on the water.
Mathew 14:25
And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
29 He said, “Come.” So, Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind,5 he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
To those who see their lives unmanageable, in a boat, tossed by the waves, fearing for their lives…
To those who believe Christ has the power over their life circumstances and believe that He will save them because he cares…
And to those that call out to God for help, he says “come.”
This is our third choice. To choose to commit your life and will over to Christ’s care and control.
The pathway to God is outlined here in this story of the Savior and the sinner
1. The Savior’s invitation – “Come” vs. 29 Come – I am here, I am compassionate, I can heal you, feed you, turn your life around, I can give you joy and peace in a corrupt and fallen world. If you have never called out to Christ, do that today.
2. The sinner’s Acceptation – Peter came out of the ship to Jesus vs. 29 It is not enough to call out to God, you must step out of the boat, have faith, and believe. Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Christian, is your faith stuck right here. I know you believe God exists. I know you believe he is compassionate. But do you believe down deep, inside the most secret places of your heart, that he cares enough about you, that if you would step out of the boat, out of your safety zone, and onto the rough waters of this life, totally dependent on Him, that he would sustain you, keep you, make you whole? You will not find peace with God in the circumstances of your life until you are totally dependent on him and not yourself. Come closer to Jesus today than you have ever been, walk toward Him like Peter did.
3. The Sinner’s Prayer – “Lord, save me” vs. 30 Peter was afraid and called out to God. He was out of the boat, he was on his way to Jesus, and he began to sink because he took his eyes off of Christ and worry and fear set in. Peter knew who to cry out to. He trusted in Jesus to save Him. If you have ever cried out to anyone for help, Christ is the one. There is no other person who can save you from yourself and sin. Acts 4:12 “"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
4. The Sinner’s immediate salvation vs. 31 “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him.” When you call on the name of Jesus to save you, it happens immediately!
5. The sinner’s faith – little faith vs. 31 ““O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” If by Peter walking on the water is described as little faith, then the amount of faith is not the point. A little faith in a great big compassionate God is all that is needed for salvation. Christian, a little faith is all that is needed in our lives too.
Friend, if you have never accepted our compassionate Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into your heart I would encourage you to do that this morning.
The Bible says in 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Romans 10:9 “If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The hope of Salvation is yours, and a changed life based on faith is yours to gain.
Brothers in Christ
Are you as a Christian also dealing with suppressed or repressed emotions that have filled your life with consequences not meant for a mature believer in Christ?
Friends, many of us still have a heart condition. Today I want to encourage you to take an honest, and thorough moral inventory, to see if there are things such as: drug abuses, or alcohol, or smoking as ways of coping in this life.
Let’s be real, divorce in Christian homes are equal to non-Christian homes. In our own ranks, we deal with adultery or unconfessed lust for our neighbor’s wife, there is the lust of money and the over spender, and the over eater.
For even more of us, we may be the anxious, the depressed, the control freak, and yes the work-aholic.
My friends these are all just symptoms of a life who has a much larger spiritual problem. We need to be honest about it, honest with ourselves, honest before God and stop living in denial.
The bell that is warning you of danger, commanding you to action, to turn your life over to Christ, never stops ringing. Daily we should be examining our lives, daily we should be confessing sins, daily we should be turning our lives over to him, and daily we should be committing to walk by faith and not by sight.