The Peace of Christ - John 6:16-21

One of the reasons that the Bible is an incredible book is because it isn’t written flatly. It has contours, mountains, and valleys. It has substance and depth in part, because it isn’t written by one author in one particular style. There’s narrative, poetry, prophecy, letters, and so on. And it’s critical that you recognize this in order to help you better understand the God of the Bible and His message.

The famous English Preacher Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that there is some doctrine, some truth that lies beneath every passage of Scripture but it’s the job of the preacher to mine it out. And I completely agree with him, but I also think that we all have a responsibility to mine out the doctrine or truth that lies beneath the text.

Some passages tell you exactly what they mean. We see this in various parables. The disciples are confused and then Jesus explains the parable in painstaking detail.

But other passages are less clear. They are rich with biblical allusions and symbolic meaning - think the book of Revelation. And I think this particular passage is one that is rich with biblical allusions and symbolic meaning.

After all, what exactly is the message here? John leaves out lots of miracles of Jesus but sticks this one in here. Is it simply to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ? Or is there more? I believe that there is more here.

The message that each of us must be willing to receive today is that separation from Christ produces chaos, but the presence of Christ gives peace.

Separated from Christ:

Consider the elements of this passage and how John presents its content. Obviously, this literally happened, but the way John presents it is very important. Everything takes place at night, the disciples head into waters apart from Christ, a storm or squall develops, the situation becomes increasingly chaotic, when Christ approaches them by miraculously walking on the water, speaks peace to them, and gets them safely to the other side.

There’s symbolism everywhere, right? John emphasizes light and dark in all of his writing. Sea faring and water often represents chaos and uncertainty in the Bible. There’s the obvious fact that the disciples are on the water separated from Christ. That the storm develops while they’re separated from Christ. Notice that Christ goes to them, while they’re out at sea. Christ seeks them out. That Jesus tells them not to be afraid. And that once Christ is with them they arrive safely on the other side.

And there’s probably other stuff that I’m not even noticing, but hopefully you get my point. Jesus walking on the water is absolutely loaded with meaning.

That’s why it’s so important that we pay attention to the smallest of details. The details that seem like little innocuous comments, like verses 16 and 17. “When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum.”

They were sailing across the Sea of Galilee or Lake Tiberias which is this large body of water in Israel. And of course, notice the two things that I mentioned earlier: they’re sailing across the sea at night and without Jesus.

And remember that one of the Apostle John’s favorite themes is light and dark. We saw this in chapter 1:4-5: “In him [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Obviously, it was literally dark outside because it was nighttime, but we’d be remiss not to consider spiritual symbolism in play here.

John wants us to see the connection between separation from Christ and spiritual darkness. He makes this explicit at the end of verse 17: “It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.”

We’re not reading something into the text here, rather, we’re reading something that the text wants us to see!

Because we all know what separation from Christ is: spiritual darkness!

But notice what happens in the midst of the separation from Christ and darkness: the sea became chaotic. Look at verse 18. “The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles…”

It’s not super clear whether the disciples were in the middle of the Sea of Galilee or if they had been blown “3 or 4” miles off course, but it really doesn’t matter.

Because I think the context is the important thing that we need to see: While being separated from Christ, things got chaotic, things got scary.

Is this not a perfect picture for what a life separated from Christ looks like? Darkness all around, directionless, tossed about by the waves of life?

It’s a very helpful image for understanding how someone could end up in a dark corner of our culture. It helps you understand how someone could believe that mutilating their body is going to make them happier. Or something similar to that.

Christians are not superior to people that believe lies. They’re separated from Christ, confused, living in darkness, without direction, tossed about by the sea of the world. And many of them cannot see out of it.

These aren’t people that we should get angry with. It’s profoundly sad and heart breaking. Instead, these are people we should be praying for!

We should be praying that the Lord will seek and save them.

We should pray what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1: “[that they would have] the eyes of [their] hearts enlightened, that [they would] know what is the hope to which [the Lord] has called [us], [which] are the riches of his glorious inheritance…”

That’s exactly what so many in our world, so many in our nation, and so many in our own neighborhoods and in our own backyards need to hear.

We should pray for our country’s leaders. I try to do that consistently here on Sunday mornings, but we should never forget the man, woman, and family living in darkness right next door to us. We need to pray for them too.

So what must change? What breakthrough do they need? They need our Lord to seek them out and save them.

Christ approaches them:

And that’s what we see at the end of verse 19.

But it’s important for all of us to recognize that Christians can get caught in storms too. In fact, sometimes we fall for theological error and lies too. It’s very tempting to believe that as long as things are going well, that as long as we’re experiencing smooth sailing, that means the Lord is blessing us. And so, we need to simply continue doing exactly what we’re doing.

But faulty thinking tends to lead to more faulty thinking. We might think the opposite. That if things are going poorly, then the Lord has pulled his presence from us.

A lot of people don’t know that the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, struggled with depression despite his larger than life charismatic personality.

The historian Michael Reeves reveals what sparked a lot of his sadness and depression:

“[At age] twenty-two, as pastor of a large church and with twin babies at home to look after, he was preaching to thousands in the Surrey Gardens Music Hall when pranksters yelled “fire,” starting a panic to exit the building which killed seven and left twenty-eight severely injured. His mind was never the same again. His wife, Susannah, wrote, “My beloved’s anguish was so deep and violent, that reason seemed to totter in her throne, and we sometimes feared that he would never preach again.”

Who can’t sympathize with that? Can you imagine?

You see, Christians are every bit as susceptible to the storms of life as anyone else. We’re all wrought with sin, anxiety, depression and a whole host of infirmities.

Look at verse 19 with me. “When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.”

As I said, previously, we clearly see Jesus’ divinity in this verse as the natural laws of the universe are suspended as Jesus walks on water.

And whenever you think about miracles and water, what’s another supernatural event that involves a large body of water and walking? Moses leading the people of Israel out of slavery from the Egyptians across the Red Sea on dry land.

Remember a strong east wind caused the water to stand so the people could walk through on dry land. There’s a lot of similarities between the two miracles but Christ elevates it.

Because Jesus isn’t walking on dry ground, he’s walking on the water as if it’s dry land! Indicating that Jesus is greater than Moses!

The important key here in verse 19. That Jesus is walking on the sea and coming near the boat. Notice also to what end the miracle is being utilized. He’s not running or fleeing from anyone, he's going toward them in the midst of a storm!

We often fail to realize that the Lord draws near to us in and through life’s greatest storms.

In a supernatural fashion, Jesus seeks them out. He goes to them. What an incredible image!

Christ doesn’t run away when you're in the storms of life, rather, that's when he draws near to you!

Jesus approaches while the disciples are in the midst of the chaos! It really cuts against our natural inclination to believe that Christ is near when things are going well.

But the truth is, you get a deeper sense of the presence of Christ when things aren’t going well.

It was on the heels of searing loss and crippling depression that Charles Spurgeon said, ““when the gold knows why and wherefore it is in the fire . . . [it] will thank the Refiner for putting it into the crucible, and will find a sweet satisfaction even in the flames.”

Sometimes the Lord lets us go out into the middle of a storm in order to grow and sanctify us and draw near to us.

Of course, we pray for the Lord to seek and save the lost, but we must pray that in the midst of the difficult circumstances we too pray for the Lord to meet us there. That he be our comfort and our peace.

And speaks words of comfort:

Which is exactly what we see in these last two verses.

The disciples are afraid of Jesus initially because they think he’s some sort of apparition or ghost.

But what does Jesus do? He walked over to them and said, “It is I; do not be afraid.” He speaks words of comfort to them. He speaks words of peace to them.

But I really think the climax of the whole passage isn’t the darkness, or even the walking on the water itself. The apex of the passage is when Jesus says, “It is I.” Those three little words that are so easy to overlook.

There’s a bit of a translation breakdown here that I don’t think captures the force of what Jesus is saying.

It’s two words in Greek, “ego eimi” which literally translates to “I AM.” These two little words harken back to Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3:14 where the Lord reveals his covenant name, Yahweh, or literally “I AM WHO I AM.”

In other words, Jesus is saying that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the One who flung the stars and moon into orbit. He is the One who breathed life into man. He is the sovereign God of the universe.

And He is the One looking at these fearful disciples in a boat in the midst of a storm saying, “do not be afraid.” It’s quite dramatic isn’t it?

But there’s real beauty here because it reminds us that the God of the universe cares about small things. Some men on a boat are struggling in a storm. That’s small in the grand scheme of things isn’t it?

And yet, the Lord deeply cares about what’s happening! He cares about his disciples! He cares that they’re struggling in a storm. The same is true for us. The Lord cares about the things that we’re going through.

There isn’t something that you’re going through where the Lord is like, “eh, they’re going to be fine.” I think we all know that’s true, we still think that there’s a spiritual hierarchy. That there are things that are too small to bring before the Lord.

Have you ever been with a group of believers who are taking prayer requests and all the things on your mind are only small things. Stuff like, my lawn mower is broken, my children are misbehaving, or I’m frustrated with a coworker. And all the things that are on your mind seem incredibly petty? The lawn mower doesn’t seem like a big deal compared to the person struggling to put food on the table or the person that just lost a loved one.

And so we don’t bring any of it up because we’re embarrassed. It feels like a bunch of petty first world problems.

God certainly cares about the big things, but we sometimes forget that he cares about the small things too.

This is something that has come up multiple times in our Wednesday Men’s Bible Study. God isn’t simply aware of what’s going on in the affairs of men. He’s intimately involved in the affairs of men.

The Lord doesn’t leave you to fend for yourself. He doesn’t wait for you to clean the situation up before getting involved. He meets you where you are. He’s willing to get his hands dirty in the muck and mire of our daily lives.

The Lord that we worship and serve doesn’t passively watch what’s happening to you. He gets involved. He heals, he redeems, and he comes to you.

This is how our God works! The Lord delivers!

The question that we must all ask ourselves is, “do we look for God’s deliverance in our lives?” Or maybe an even better question is, “do we praise God for the deliverance he’s given to us?”

We’ve all had moments where our fortunes seem to reverse. Things seem to go from bad to good. We anticipate something to be bad, but in actuality it’s not that bad.

As the men in the Judges Bible study have seen, it’s the Lord who saves his people over and over and over again. The question is always, “do they recognize that he’s the one who’s saved them?”

And that’s even exactly what we see in this passage. Not only does Jesus speak words of peace and comfort to his disciples, but once he’s with them, they safely arrive at their destination.

Look at verse 21. “​​ Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.”

There’s some debate over whether the disciples were miraculously taken to their destination or if John simply means they arrived in due time safely at their destination, but again, it doesn’t matter.

Because what we need to see is that Christ delivered the disciples from the stormy sea and got them safely to their destination.

And this neatly fits into the overall point that’s been driven home: separation from Christ is chaos, but in the presence of Christ there’s peace.

And a major part of that peace is knowing Christ is leading you home. He’s going to carry you safely to the other side.

Inner peace, spiritual peace, isn’t having a calm demeanor when things are going poorly. It’s not being able to maintain a positive attitude when negative things happen.

The peace that passes all understanding comes when you recognize that Christ is taking you somewhere.

But whenever you’re traveling the exciting part isn’t knowing all the safety features of the car or plane, or knowing that it’s going to be a nice comfortable ride. The exciting part of traveling is anticipating your arrival at the destination and that your guide or pilot will get you safely there. Driving or flying isn’t the fun part of a beach vacation. Arriving at the actual beach that you look forward to!

Arriving at your destination is what you look forward to. This is the beauty of Christianity. It’s not that Christ is going to make your life more tolerable. Jesus isn’t some sort of medication that numbs the pain.

The beauty of being justified by faith in Christ is recognizing that all of this is going somewhere! Yes, life is like being in a boat out at sea, and yes, there will be storms, but if Christ is in the boat with you - you can trust that not only are you going somewhere - you can trust that you’ll safely arrive at your destination. That one day your boat will land on the other side of the sea and you will arrive at your heavenly home. Praise God.

Let’s pray together.