|
|
Let’s Get in the Boat
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, September 18, 2005
There were three generations living in the same house--the
father and the mother, the children and the grandmother. One day the little boy
of the house with a friend were running through the front room and when they
went into the other room, the friend asked the little boy, “Why is it your
grandmother sits reading the Bible all the time?” And he answered, “I guess
she’s trying to study for the final exam.”
I want you today to study for the living exam. The final
exam is important but it’s not the most important right now. Turn in your
Bibles to Matthew 14. Now very often when we go to the Scripture, we take
little incidents and we isolate them from life, from how they happen, from what
they were connected to, and Matthew 14 is one of the most incredible, single-day
chapters in the life of our Lord; and as we move through that Matthew 14 day,
you are going to see the full spectrum of emotions of life lived, of the way in
which the Lord ministers, so keep your Bible open as we walk through this day.
The dawn came; the morning was clear and bright as long as
the eye can see the horizon stretched out but the bright new day turned dark in
a hurry for our Lord Jesus. Messengers knocking at the door informed him that
John the Baptist was no longer with them that King Herod in a drunken party
celebrating his birthday with a vow had taken the life of John the Baptist. You
find that story early in the chapter, but I pick it up with verse 13: When
Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary
place.
John and Jesus were blood kin, cousins but much more that
in Luke 2 we realize that their destinies were woven together like wire making
up a cable. Immensely different in temperament, they were together in their
commitment to the Kingdom of God. They were close and when it came time for
Jesus to be baptized, He went to John to baptize him and John, knowing the whole
picture, said “I can’t baptize you. I’m the forerunner; you’re the main event.”
Jesus said, “No, I want you to baptize me.” But said John the Baptist, “I must
decease; you must increase.” Loose Flamming translation — “Cool it John. I
want you to baptize me.” And on that day when John baptized Jesus, heaven
celebrated. The Father in heaven spoke and said, “This is my son. Listen to
Him.” But not only was John very much affected by the destiny of Jesus, Jesus
was a cheerleader of John. You see in one passage He calls John the greatest of
all the prophets -- all the prophets including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel?
That’s what Jesus said. And now he’s gone. Life cut short, sudden lost. Never
again would they hear that rumbling voice across the prairie “repent.”
Jesus had to get away had to go some place where He could
deal with his emotions and with what had happened. The son of God who became
the son of man is dealing with his humanity and if you’ve ever lost somebody
you’ve just dearly, dearly loved and you know it’s changed forever. There’s
something within inside of you that says, “I need some time to myself.” And He
got into a boat. You know it’s amazing to me how you uncover things the longer
you’re in the scripture and you are preparing for this and that and the other,
and I did not notice until this week studying for this sermon that the word
“boat” is never used in all of the Old Testament. Ship is. You remember Jonah
got thrown off. But boat? No. On the other hand for example, warrior which is
used frequently in Old Testament is never used in the New Testament. You see in
the Old Testament to be a successful man you were either a herdsman or a
warrior, and when you get to the New Testament, the great symbol is servant.
But many of the main characters were fishermen, a title used twice in all of the
Old Testament. Fishermen and boats play such a key part of the gospel story and
now Jesus gets in a boat to find a solitary place and in that solitary place to
begin to work through his destiny withdrawal.
My, I wonder how He must have felt when suddenly He saw the
dust and He heard the footsteps; they had found him. And they came by the tens
and the hundreds until finally there were more than 5,000, and Jesus, it is
said, was moved with compassion on them—verse 14 and He healed their sick. The
same Jesus that James was talking about just a little bit ago when he was
telling us his story, the same Jesus had compassion and healed the sick and He
taught them and the evening came and now you’re at the feeding of the 5,000, but
did you ever notice before that Jesus interrupted his grief. Now He knew He had
to deal with it. You can’t put off grief; I’m sorry. If you run away from it,
it’ll catch you. Be honest with it, but you can put it off and He put it off,
put it on the shelf because in front of him were people like you and me who just
desperately needed the touch, the healing touch of the savior and when it was
all over and they had been fed and Jesus sent them forth to their homes, then He
walked his disciples to the boat and He said, “You all go on ahead; I need to be
myself” and they did.
They got out into the sea, the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus
went up to the mount by himself. Withdrawal--because He had to be with the
Lord, with the Lord God, with the Father in heaven, with the one that He was in
constant communication with. And the night began to get dark and midnight came
and then 1 o’clock in the morning and then 2 o’clock and then 3 o’clock. Quiet
and by himself with God, with God the Father, and I have to believe during this
time sobs came, a heart broken, poured itself out to the one He loved in heaven
and the one who had sent him to earth to once again to begin to weave how it was
all going to be and maybe and just maybe He was already understanding was going
to happen to him. And then it came four o’clock, four a.m., not four p.m. How
do I know it was four a.m.? Well, look it says in verse 25, “During the fourth
watch of the night.” That’s the way they talked about it. The way we talk
about it – four a.m. During the fourth watch, Jesus went out to them, walking
on the water and they said it’s a ghost and they cried out in fear. I would
have, wouldn’t you? Well, at four o’clock in the morning, anything that moves
is scary to me. Now friends, they’re out in the middle of a stormy sea.
They’ve made almost no progress, and the Lord comes to them. Simon Peter says,
“Is that you? Lord, if that’s you, let me come” and just like Jesus would. He
said, “Come on.” And Simon Peter jumped out of the boat, took some steps,
looked around, said “whoops.” That’s kind of like all of us do with trusting
the Lord, sooner or later we say “whoops.” And he began to sink and the Lord
took him by the hand and lifted him up. That’s a gorgeous picture of
salvation. It’s precisely what the Lord Jesus does. He reaches down and He
picks us up. There is a very distinguished author and pastor, John Ortberg, who
has written a book entitled, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get
Out of the Boat. It’s a good read, a good tonic for people like me who
don’t like risky faith. You know I’m a Ph.D. when it comes to trust as long as
I can control the outcome, but when it comes to letting the Lord control the
outcome, the Lord make the map, when it comes to the Lord unrolling His will,
I’m suddenly back in Pre-K. You know one of the key verses in this we overlook,
and it’s in verse 32, “and when they climbed into the boat, the wind died
down.” Oh, that’s so great! Oh, I love that verse! Oh, it’ll never be in a
memory packet. But see when the Lord gets in your boat things calm down,
right? Right. “And they fell down and worshipped him and said, ‘Truly you are
the son of God.’”
Friends, as church we are like the disciples in that boat.
In the next five weeks, you who have been part of Passion Teams have spent
better than a year praying, planning, looking, studying, asking God’s leadership
and guidance are going to be bringing your reports. In your bulletin, there is
a sequencing of these. Take that home with you. I’m making an appeal. Are you
listening? How about giving five hours of your life on five Wednesday nights in
a row to get in Jesus’ boat? As our people believe it to be, as they row across
the sea of transition that all of us are in, I’m not asking you to walk on
water. I’m asking you just to get in the boat—the Jesus boat, our church boat.
I’m asking you to set the sail with all the rest of us. How, is it the poet put
it? It’s the set of the sail and not the gale that determines the way we go.
Let me tell you a story out of the life of our church, a
story that I tell you what I have lived through in an awesome way in the last
year and I hope I can share it with you. A week ago I was up in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, with Ebenezer Church, our partner church, up there. You may not know
anything about it. You may know a lot about it, but let me just trace it in
brief. The year was 1821. Our church was barely 40 years old. The nation was
barely 30 years old because the Constitution in 1791, and our church sent a
freed slave named Lott Carey as a missionary to Africa. When they arrived just
a plain old piece of ground out there, it would eventually become Liberia; named
the capitol Monrovia after James Monroe, President of our country. The streets
are laid out very much like Richmond. There’s a Broad Street; there’s a Cary
Street--Lott Carey, you see. When they had the constitutional convention, guess
where they had? They had it in the church Lott Carey started. Eventually,
Liberia became a nation. In our century 180 some odd years later, all hell
broke loose. Civil war, four warlords fighting each other and fighting to
destroy everything and especially the educated crowd and they fled. And many of
them fled to the U.S. and settled of all places in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
There are not 24, 000 Liberians living in Minneapolis. Many of them in suburb
called Brooklyn Park, just like a suburb in Henrico or in Hanover or
Chesterfield. Friends, five years ago, Francis Tabla, who was part of us, came
into my office. He had come from Liberia to get his training at Virginia
Union. He had graduated; now had his degree, and he said I want to go back but
my parents tell me not to come. What am I going to do? Word came that they
needed somebody to start a church in Minneapolis for the Liberians. He went
with our blessing. We made it possible. He started that church in his living
room with about eight people. I was up there last Sunday because of the
celebration of their fifth anniversary. They now meet in a high school
auditorium, a brand new high school, a brand new high school auditorium. Do you
know how many people were there? 517 and 95 percent of them were Liberians.
There were 97 in children’s church. Right before the service started, the one
who was leading the music—we would call it the minister of music—leaned over to
me and she whispered in my ear, “I want you to know that I was educated in Lott
Carey Missionary School.” Now, look what God does. Look at this God thing.
Pay attention to what God can do. You don’t any trouble with years. God has
taken that bunch of folks, moved them to safety and said I’ll hook those people
up again down in Richmond, Virginia. They started it all; let’s get them
together. And last Sunday morning, I stood side by side with Olivia, who is the
minister of music in her 30’s let us say. The pastor of the church that sent
them out in the first place in 1821 and the minister of music who is leading the
new church—what would be the statistical odds of that happening in Minneapolis,
Minnesota?
My dear friends, when God gets into your boat, He’s going
to make something happen that you never imagined. Do you understand that? And
that is true of our church and that is true of your family and that is true of
your Sunday School class and that is true of every part of us.
I want you to do something for me today, I want you to do
something for yourself today and for your Lord today, get in the boat. We put
Lott Carey on a boat and sent him to Africa. And all week long, I’ve been
walking around saying to myself, “What if we’d have never sent him in the first
place.” It’s time to get in the boat.
Pray with me, will you?
Lord Jesus, I want to thank you that we’re here today that
you’ve given us the health and the blessing of this place and one another but
most of all you’ve given us you and Oh, Lord Jesus, as so long ago, you went
through that strategic day from grief to miracle to walking on water to getting
in our boat. Oh, Lord Jesus, I thank you. Now the morning as we consider our
lives if there is something that needs to happen and we need to get in your
boat, may we indeed do that before we leave this place. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
|
