Have you ever had a lukewarm cup of tea?   Yeek! There’s simply nothing worse, so imagine, just imagine what a lukewarm Christian feels like to the God who sent His Son to suffer and die for you and me, I mean just imagine.

One of the things that hits me between the eyes over and over again is how honest and direct God is. That may sound a little odd, I mean we kind of expect God to be honest and you’d expect Him to be direct I guess. But one of the habits I established over a couple of decades ago now is to spend some time in God’s Word, the Bible, pretty much each and every morning.

Sometimes when I’m travelling or I’m under severe time pressures it doesn’t quite work out and on those days the things that I remember from His Word, well those things sustain me. But to live a life of joy, a life that is full and fulfilling, let me tell you there is simply no substitute for listening to God speak, seriously and that’s what reading the Bible is all about, listening to God speaking to us.

Just this morning around 3.15 am it was before I sat down at my desk to prepare this message I was in God’s Word, Psalm 32 is where I was up to and the sheer power of what God had to say just blew me away. We’re going to chat about that particular Psalm later on in this series of messages but right now I want to head off to the other end of the Bible, the Book of Revelation where Jesus is talking to a Church and He’s talking to them about being lukewarm. Have a listen, Revelation chapter 3 verses 14 to 22:

And to the angel of the Church of Laodicea write: The words of the amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation.

I know your works; you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were either hot or cold so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I’m about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say ‘I’m rich, I’ve prospered and I need nothing’. You don’t realise that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white robes to clothe you and keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest therefore and repent.

Listen, I am standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice and open the door I will come into you and eat with you and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.

To be perfectly honest with you I’ve been to many Churches like the one in Laodicea, I’ve met many people who call themselves Christians who would have fitted comfortably into a pew in that Church. That lukewarm cup of tea I mentioned earlier, you know what that’s like. You take one sip and you just want to spit it out right? Hot, sure that’s nice, cold, well you know iced tea is a very refreshing drink but lukewarm? Puke right?

What a vivid picture and to the lukewarm Christian that’s exactly what Jesus is saying here. Like I said God is really honest and direct on the things that count. Sometimes you hear preachers trying to soften the blow, put a better spin on the message, trying to make sure people don’t feel too uncomfortable with what Jesus is saying.

I mean what spin merchant these days would let Jesus get out there and say ‘if you want to be my disciple take up your cross every day and follow me because if you want to save your life you’re going to lose it but if you’re prepared to lose it all for me you’ll find it.

It’s not a particularly popular message but then Jesus, well Jesus is a straight shooter. He knows that on the really important things in life and this whole hot/cold/lukewarm thing is actually really important, He knows He has to cut straight to the quick. And so as we launch into this series today, it’s called Overboard with Jesus please don’t expect me to mince my words.

There are people listening to this broadcast today who are living out a lukewarm brand of Christianity, a form of Christianity where they say they believe in Jesus but they don’t live as though they do. You see what you say only tells the rest of us who you want to be; it’s what you do that tells the rest of us who you really are.

And for so many people ‘I believe in Jesus’ comes out of one side of their mouth but in their hearts they say to themselves, “well, you know, I’m rich, I’ve prospered, I really don’t need anything.” As author Michael Green once put it:

My job here is to strip you naked and show you that the clothes in which you once boasted are after all nothing but insubstantial rags.

The things we have, the things we’ve achieved one day will mean absolutely nothing. Over the last few months I’ve buried two friends, I’ve been to their funerals and sat in the pews and listened to what people said about them. They were both amazing people, one a man, one a woman.

The man was generous and loving and kind, he poured himself out for people but he didn’t believe in Jesus. The woman, well the same in her own way, generous and selfless and kind but she did believe in Jesus. Today neither of them exists on this earth any more, their bodies have returned to dust. What really matters now at this end of the equation is their relationship with Jesus. The man, sadly, will spend eternity separated from God. The woman, right now, is in the presence of Jesus worshipping Him.

Let me ask you, when you get to the end of your life how do you want things to turn out? It’s sobering but then this isn’t my message, this is Jesus talking, this is Jesus right here, right now, speaking to you, I’m just His servant, I’m just His mouthpiece and today He’s calling out to you, today He’s asking you to look in the mirror and ask yourself ‘am I living my life like I’m full on for Jesus?’

Am I living my life as though He is the single most important thing in my life or am I just kidding myself?’ Am I just going through the motions living out a comfortable Christianity and if it’s the latter this is what He’s going to say to you, right here and right now?

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white robes to clothe you and to keep your shame of nakedness from being seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest therefore and repent.

In other words, come to me, Jesus is saying and get things that truly matter, forgiveness, holiness, wisdom and insight so that you can live your life the way He always planned so that you can have all the things that He wants to give you here and now and for the rest of eternity.

Jesus speaks to us very directly; He speaks very plainly for one reason. Because He loves us. He reproves and disciplines those whom He loves and I believe, in fact I know that there are some comfortable Christians who’ve been warming pews down at their local Church for way too long who Jesus wants to drag out of their comfort zones today and it’s my privilege today to call you back to Him, to share His words with you.

So if you’re feeling just a tad uncomfortable, if you feel like you’re squirming a little in your seat today, if the words of Jesus are just a little too close to home then I’m pretty sure this message is for you.

Be earnest therefore and repent.

Get real with yourself and turn back to Jesus. Admit it if you’ve been lukewarm, turn your life back over to Him, that’s what He’s calling to you today, plainly, directly, lovingly because your life, YOUR life depends on it.

So imagine, you’ve had a busy day, it’s been a real shocker. You get home, you kick off your shoes, you flop down on the couch exhausted wondering how you’re ever going to get dinner together and then there’s a knock on the door, it’s Jesus, do you invite Him in or not?

It’s a real dilemma isn’t it? If you believe in Jesus on the one hand, sure you want to live your life for Him, absolutely you do but on the other, man there is so much going on, so many pressures, the ‘day-to-day’ is hard work right? My children are all grown up now, we just recently had number two son, he’s thirty four years old, staying with us for ten days before moving overseas for a while.

I remember what hard going it was when he was a teenager, I mean he was a great kid but teenage boys, well they’re a handful aren’t they? But now as a thirty four year old it was such a pleasure to have him around. Easy to get on with, none of that teenage tension, just a sheer pleasure, and just quietly, really satisfying to see him grow up into such a remarkable young man.

But often when Jacqui and I are out we see parents struggling with their kids, it’s hard going, it takes so much time and energy and it’s draining. On top of that there’s work, keeping the household running, I mean you get the point right? It’s great to have a plan to live your life for Jesus but actually doing that, where do you fit in the time to pray, where do you fit in the time to read your Bible?

How can you show the grace and the mercy and the love and the sacrifice that you’re meant to show, that you want to show when all the pressures of the world seem to be caving in on top of you? So what happens is that the passion, the enthusiasm you once had for Jesus starts to wane right?

This wonder, this sense of awe of having a personal relationship with the God who created the universe, of walking daily with Jesus, it goes from full on to, well taking a backseat, from being hot to being lukewarm. And it’s not living that lukewarm life that we’re chatting about in this series called Overboard With Jesus. Let’s have another listen to the powerful words of Jesus spoken to the Church in Laodicea and indeed to every one of us as we find ourselves sometimes in that place I’ve just described, Revelation chapter 3 verses 14 to 22:

Jesus says, ‘I know your works, you are neither cold or hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot so because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I’m about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say ‘I’m rich, I’ve prospered, I need nothing’, you don’t realise that you’re wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.

Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest therefore and repent.

I’m standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice and open the door I will come into you and eat with you and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.

So Jesus is calling us out of our comfort and complacency, out of that place where our faith in Him has taken a back seat to all the cares and indeed the comforts of this world, to get real with ourselves, to focus back on what’s really important, to be earnest and to repent.

Great. If you just listened to that half of the message, man it feels an awful lot like condemnation, it feels an awful lot like Jesus waving His big bony finger at you and shaking His head. There’s such a fine line sometimes between being condemned and being convicted of right and wrong. But today I have some really good news for you, some great news, Romans chapter 8 verse 1:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The devil condemns, God convicts. That’s a big difference. Condemnation is meant to draw us away from God as we become mired in guilt, that’s what the devil wants, to draw you away from God but God has a different approach to dealing with sin, it’s a redemptive approach, it’s an approach of reconciliation. Here’s Jesus talking about what the Holy Spirit does in our lives, John chapter 16 verse 8:

And when He comes He will convict the world of its sin and of God’s righteousness and of the coming judgement.

I remember when I was a young man I was a smoker, three packets a day, absolutely hooked. I tried to give up but it was a struggle, I always ended up back on the dreaded weed until one day I was in a hospital room and I watched a woman die of lung cancer. I actually watched her take her last breath, that thing they talk about, the death rattle, the body not wanting to give up, that’s exactly what happened.

And I remember walking out of that room, taking the half full packet of cigarettes and throwing them in the bin in the brightly lit, antiseptically clean corridor. That was over thirty five years ago now and I haven’t had a single cigarette since.

See that’s what happens when we’re deeply convicted of something, it changes our behaviour and that’s what God wants to do. He didn’t send Jesus to condemn the world but to save the world and what today’s message is about isn’t condemnation, its conviction. Yep Jesus quite clearly is putting His finger on this whole lukewarm Christianity thing, absolutely, He doesn’t mince His words because He’s going for impact, the very same impact that that death of that woman before my very eyes had on me.

I said a moment ago conviction is redemptive, that’s a bit jargony isn’t it? What does that mean? Well I think Jesus says it best, “I’m standing at the door knocking, if you hear my voice and open the door I’ll come into you and eat with you and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.”

I love His choice of words there, I’m knocking, if you hear my voice today, if you open the door to your heart to me today I’ll come in and sit down and we’ll share a meal together. Back in those days when that was written and I guess it’s also true today, the idea of sitting down and eating together was a sign of friendship and fellowship.

Jesus is saying, “I get where you’re at, I’m holding up a mirror to your face here so that you’ll realise exactly how lukewarm your relationship with me has become. Once you hear that, once you get that, I’ll draw close to you and we’ll have a dynamic real intimate relationship and you will become a conqueror not because you had the strength but because of the victory that I won for you on that cross and through that empty tomb. My victory will become your victory.”

Wow, you see that’s Jesus speaking to you and me today, do you get it?

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to them today.

He wants you back, you, He loves you, His word today is meant to convict you deep in your heart of the poverty of your situation and Jesus is calling you back, He’s knocking today on the door of your heart, do you hear Him? Will you get real and repent? Will you let Him in today? Because Jesus, this Jesus who died for you and rose again for you, He has a whole new life ready and waiting for you.

A life so rich, so vibrant that you can’t begin to imagine. The life that He brings, yes it will have its challenges, it will have its trials and it will have its suffering but He also brings the sort of contentment and satisfaction that a lukewarm faith, a lukewarm relationship with Jesus can never bring.

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to them today.

I remember someone once saying to me, “ahhh … you’re not one of those ‘born again’ Christians are you?” Huh, the tone in her voice said it all. I was driving a car at the time so I couldn’t turn and look her in the eye, I just smiled and replied, “well actually it’s the only sort of Christian there is”.

As societies around the world become more and more secular they’re inventing more stereotypes to marginalise Christians. You see and I can tell you this first hand, if you don’t believe in Jesus the message of Christianity makes you feel incredibly uncomfortable. Why? Because whether you realise it or not and at the time I didn’t realise it, deep down there’s something in your make up that knows that these Christians are right.

Man, you Christians used to offend me and annoy me and make me squirm so I did what any self respecting atheist would do, I lashed out at you, I persecuted you, it’s why today I so relate to the Apostle Paul who was a Pharisee did exactly the same.

With the same sneer in their voice people these days use terms like ‘evangelical Christians’, ‘conservative Christians’, ‘hard liners’, ‘fundamentalists’. To paint a picture of what Jesus said, what I believe with all my heart, as being wholly undesirable and unreasonable and irrelevant and downright dangerous. Never mind that any half decent legal system, any half decent system of justice around the world is modelled on the Word of God.

There are some countries where it’s not and those countries are inevitably brutal and unjust, not the sorts of places you and I would want to live in. Nevertheless as people in democracies exercise their freedom of speech many do so that marginalise the very faith and belief system that gave them this freedom in the first place.

So what happens is that many Christians withdraw back into their shells, they stop living out their faith because they feel marginalised; persecution can do that to you especially if you love a comfortable lifestyle. “Why don’t I just blend in with all the rest, maybe no one will notice I’m a Christian’. Then the storm hits, it blows the boat you’re in and it’s pitching and you think to yourself ‘how am I ever going to survive this?”

Do you see how many good reasons there are just to sit there and pretend that you’re really not a Jesus follower? Whether it’s the subtle marginalisation of an increasingly secular society that stops you from living out and speaking out your faith or whether it’s the excuse of some great and mighty storm that seems to be sweeping through your life, there’s an endless array of excuses not to live your life for Jesus.

I guess by now, we’ve been talking about a storm, you might have a sense of which passage of Scripture I’m heading towards so let’s take a look already, Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 to 33:

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into a boat and go ahead to the other side while He dismissed the crowds and after He dismissed the crowds He went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came He was there alone but by this time the boat battered by the waves was far from land for the wind was against them.

And early in the morning Jesus came walking towards them on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea they were terrified saying ‘it’s a ghost’ and they cried out in fear but immediately Jesus spoke to them and said ‘take heart it is I, don’t be afraid.

Peter answered Him, ‘Lord if it’s you command me to come out to you on the water’. And He said ‘come’ so Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water and came towards Jesus but when he noticed the strong wind he became frightened and beginning to sink he cried out ‘Lord save me.

Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him saying ‘you of little faith, why do you doubt?’ When they got into the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worshipped Him again saying ‘Truly you are the Son of God.

There are three things that really hit me between the eyes about this amazing story, right now I just want to take a look at the first one of those. You see when the storm strikes in our lives we find ourselves wondering what in the blazes is going on here? Have I failed God, have I made a mistake, have I somehow stepped outside His will and His favour, maybe God’s given up on me?

And with all those questions swirling around inside of us the self pity wells up and we find ourselves with more than ample justification for not stepping out of the boat. But when you read the account of this event again you have to come to a somewhat confronting realisation that putting those disciples in that boat in harm’s way on that stormy ocean is something Jesus did quite deliberately.

They had just had a powerful time of ministry, Jesus fed five thousand men and not to mention the women and children with two fish and five loaves. And immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while He dismissed the crowds and went off alone to pray.

Putting the disciples in harm’s way, putting them on that stormy ocean, putting them in a place where they would perish if God didn’t intervene was, wait for this, the sovereign choice of the sovereign God. Of course a storm is nothing to Him but to a bunch of immature disciples it was horrendous, they were cowering, their lives were threatened.

This series is called ‘Overboard With Jesus’ and we’re going to take a look at the rest of the story tomorrow on the program but right now I want to focus this situation of the disciples in the boat back onto your life, onto the tiny boat on the big ocean that you’re sailing on.

When was the last time that a storm hit? When was the last time your little boat was battered by waves far from the land with the wind against you? Do you remember that time? Perhaps you’re going through one of those times right now, perhaps your situation, your circumstances, your relationships seem completely impossible.

Well I want you to know something, where you’re at right at the moment is no accident, it’s no mistake, in fact it is the sovereign choice of God for you. Now just process that for a minute, what things does that change for you? I have to tell you I’ve been in that boat many times, in fact I started out my walk with Jesus in that boat far from the land with the waves crashing over the bow and the wind against me. Fully the first three years of my faith walk with Jesus was spent in that rotten little boat.

Seriously some days I couldn’t imagine how I was going to make it to the next day, had no idea. Maybe that’s hard for you to believe, you know the guy with the smooth voice on the radio who seems to have his life all together, get a revelation today, no one, NO ONE is immune from the stormy boat time as I call it, not you, not me, not even Jesus. Go visit Him in Gethsemane, go visit Him on Golgotha, no not even Jesus is immune.

Those very same people who want to marginalise your Christian faith, who want to shout down the faith that Jesus has put in your heart are the ones who purport to tell you what success looks like. And so intoxicated has the average Christian become these days with the allure of worldly success that we’ve lost sight of the reality of suffering in the Christian walk.

Of uncertainty, of losing everything which is what Jesus promised it’s just that we’ve replaced His truth with the lies of this world as though it’s all about success. Give me a break! How many successful people have been so miserable they’ve taken their own lives or overdosed on drugs or work themselves into an early grave, huh?

If you remember one thing out of our time together today remember this, suffering is a normal part of walking with Jesus and your stormy boat experiences are no accident nor should they be a surprise because in the middle of your storms your God is up to something good, something amazing, getting you ready for the next step.

Okay so a storm hits your life, it’s a big one, so big in fact that you don’t know if you’re going to make it through. We’ve all had those and doubtless there are more on the way. So what are you going to do right there in the middle of that storm, how are you going to react?

I mentioned earlier on in this series that I began my walk with Jesus in the middle of a boat on an incredibly stormy ocean. Not literally speaking you understand but my first two or three years with Him were the worst few years of my life, I’ve never been lower, it’s never been darker and scarier and lonelier and more painful and I tell you I never ever want to be back in that place.

Of course whether or not we end up in the middle of another storm isn’t always up to us. Yeah sometimes it’s our fault, God always lets us live through the consequences of our sin and so sometimes the pain that we’re going through is just that, it’s the only way we learn our lessons in life isn’t it? Like that old Yiddish proverb:

Every generation has to learn for itself that the stove is hot.

But sometimes a storm blows in that simply isn’t our fault, it just happens and as we saw yesterday on the program those storms aren’t just some accident but the sovereign will of God. It’s hard to imagine that God would let that happen to us but you see He is so much more interested in our character than our comfort. A verse that I go back to again and again when I’m suffering is James chapter 1 verses 2 to 4:

My brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of any kind consider it nothing but joy because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its full effect so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

And we’ve already seen that God uses storms in that very way. Let’s revisit that stormy story in Matthew chapter 14 again because there’s a couple of more things that God has to say to us through what Jesus and the disciples did on that day. So let’s go back, Matthew chapter 14 beginning at verse 22:

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead on the other side while He dismissed the crowds and after He dismissed the crowds He went up the mountain by himself to pray. Now when evening came He was there alone but by this time the boat, battered by waves, was far from the land for the wind was against them.

And early in the morning He came walking towards them on the sea but when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea they were terrified saying ‘it’s a ghost’ and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said ‘take heart, it is I, don’t be afraid.’ Peter answered Him, ‘Lord if it’s you command me to come to you on the water’ and Jesus said ‘come’. So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water and came towards Jesus.

But when he noticed the strong wind he became frightened and beginning to sink he cried out ‘Lord save me’. Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him saying ‘you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ When they got into the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worshipped Him saying ‘truly you are the Son of God.

Okay so putting the disciples in harm’s way was a deliberate choice that Jesus made. Storm, wind, even the seasoned fishermen among them were getting downright scared. And then just to top it off Jesus comes walking across the water towards them and they think they’re seeing a ghost.

It’s often the way when Jesus steps supernaturally into the storms in our lives. As much as we don’t like the storm we kind of understand the things we can see and touch and feel, but man when the hand of God starts moving supernaturally, that’s a bit unsettling and scary sometimes. When Jesus first steps into our storm it can be scary until we hear His voice, until we know that it’s Him.

I remember in my storm, man when He led me to a Church and then He led me to a Bible college, that was completely crazy given who I was and where I was at, it was scary but then He speaks, He speaks words of assurance and comfort. Don’t be afraid, it’s me.

People ask me, “how do you hear that, how do you hear Him speak?” Most often I’ve heard Him speak through the Bible, I know it sounds corny but it’s true. This morning as I read the next Psalm that I was due to read He just spoke so directly into what I was going through. But He speaks through sermons, sometimes He touches me deeply when I’m watching a movie, through things that happen. When you read your Bible you’ll see He speaks in all sorts of different ways and that speaking brings courage to your heart.

When the ministry of ChristianityWorks a few years ago looked like it was going to crash and burn for a lack of funds man I spent a lot of time on my knees and I can tell you it was Jesus speaking to me that gave me the courage and the resolve to keep going. And then right there, the next single most bizarre part of this story unfolds:

Peter gets out of the boat, Peter answered Him ‘Lord if it’s you command me to come to you on the water’ and He said ‘come’ so Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water and came towards Jesus.

Now just stop and think about that, not only did the words of Jesus inspire enough courage in Peter’s heart to get out of the boat and walk on water which in itself is just amazing but he did it while the storm was still raging. And you know something that’s often how Jesus does things; He calls us out of the boat in the middle of the storm.

Now at the peak of the storm we have the maximum number of excuses available to us to stay back in the boat, really we do. Now’s not the right time, we’re a long way from land, the boat’s been battered and overcome by waves, the wind’s against us, now is simply not a good time Jesus, let’s wait for the storm to stop.

But now the Holy Spirit inspires Peter to say, “Lord if it really is you command me to come to you on the water.” That right there speaks of a heart ready to follow Jesus, Peter knew he was better out on the water with Jesus in the middle of a storm than back in the boat with his mates who are paralysed by fear.

This is what it means to go overboard with Jesus, to follow Him wherever He may call, to ask Him to call us on, to serve Him, to trust Him to do the impossible in Him and one day Jesus is going to call you out of the boat right in the middle of one of your storms, trust me.

If you’re listening, if your heart is open, if you yearn for Him He will call you and when you step out of that boat in His power rather than your own strength you’re not going to be perfect at it anymore than Peter was. Peter took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the storm which is when he started to sink but Jesus was there, Jesus is always there. Immediately He reached out His hand, Jesus is always there to catch us when we fail, when our faith wanes.

Overboard with Jesus means putting it all on the line. Some people rock along to Church and give their ten percent tithe almost like tipping God and they think to themselves, “yep, tick in the box, I’m a good Christian, I go to Church, I sing the songs, I give a tithe of my income, tick, tick, tick.”

Nothing wrong with any of those things but one day right in the middle of a storm He will call you out of your boat to step out onto the water in the middle of that storm. There’s only one thing that keeps you afloat in that place, its Jesus, your faith in Him and it’s not until you’ve experienced that, it’s not until you’ve seen Jesus calm the storm that you can truly say from the bottom of your heart, truly you are the Son of God.

Storms come into our lives as a sovereign act of God, they completely overwhelm us and in the middle of them if we’re looking, if we’re listening and waiting, Jesus will call us out of the boat onto the water to experience His miracle working power and faithfulness. The question is are you ready, are you looking, are you waiting, will you go?

One of the things that can often end up tearing you apart is, on the one hand the desire to follow Jesus with all your heart but on the other, inertia or the resistance you face swimming against the tide, and make no mistake about it when you follow Jesus you will run into resistance.

I’m not sure whether you’ve ever thought about this but in the three and a half years of Jesus public ministry back there in the first century AD Jesus Himself faced rather a lot of resistance. The beginning of that ministry was marked by His baptism in the Jordan River but immediately after that, we’re told, the Holy Spirit picked him up and threw Him out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days and forty nights while He starved almost to the point of death.

When that didn’t work the devil withdrew to wait for a more opportune time. Straight off the back of that He goes back to His home town Nazareth to preach and they tried to throw Him off a cliff. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were pretty soon on His case plotting to kill Him, something they eventually succeeded at. But not before people left Him in droves, John chapter 6, verse 66 because they didn’t like what He was saying.

And when it did come to His crucifixion every last one of His friends and family deserted Him, yeah following Jesus is going to mean resistance, a lot of it. Jesus Himself said:

Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few who find it.

I think sometimes we imagine that when we set our lives on a course to follow Jesus, when we step out of that boat in the middle of the storm as Peter did on the Sea of Tiberias it’s going to be easy, God is going to smooth a path out for us and it all should be predictable and safe and easy. Well I’m sorry to disappoint you, that’s simply not what Jesus promised, ever. John chapter 15 verses 20 and 21:

Remember the word I said to you ‘servants are not greater than their master, if they persecuted me they’ll persecute you, if they kept my word they will keep yours also but they will do all these things to you on account of my name because they do not know Him who sent me.

And so you can want to follow Jesus, you can want to honour Him with all that you are but when you’re swimming against the tide you get tired, it’s hard, people lose heart and on top of that when those storms hit you, you focus on the opposition, you take your eyes off Jesus and then, then you get that sinking feeling.

Remember that story we’ve been looking at so far in this series, the story of the storm, Jesus walking on the water and then Peter getting out of the boat. Let’s just look at Matthew chapter 14 verses 28 to 30:

Peter answered him and said, ‘Lord if it’s you command me to come to you on the water’. Jesus said, ‘come’. So Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking on the water and comes towards Jesus but when he notices the strong wind he gets scared and he starts to sink, he cries out ‘Lord save me.

It’s so hard, it’s so disheartening to fail Jesus, it really is, I can tell you that first hand. If you’re someone who wants to live your life for Him you know it too, it’s so disheartening particularly when, like Peter, you can feel yourself sinking and losing and failing but while you and I will fail, while you and I will be unfaithful, listen to me, Jesus will never ever fail you, He will never ever let you down, He will never let you sink.

Lord if it’s you command me to come out on the water, Jesus said, “come” so Peter gets out of the boat, starts walking on the water, comes towards Jesus but he notices the strong wind and he becomes frightened and beginning to sink he cries out, “Lord save me”. What does Jesus do? Jesus immediately, immediately reached out His hand and caught him saying to him, ‘you of little faith, why did you doubt?

When they got into the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worshipped Him saying ‘truly you are the Son of God.

And that’s why you and I need never be afraid to step out of the boat onto the stormy ocean if it’s Jesus calling us out to do it. You can’t do it in your own strength, Peter knew that, that’s why he said, “Lord if it is you command me to come out onto the water”, he wasn’t stupid right? It had to be Jesus calling him before he stepped out of the boat.

But when Jesus does call you He’s faithful, He provides all you need, He gives you all the power you need. That’s an absolute given from His standpoint. That’s why He said to Peter, “you of little faith, why did you doubt?” There was absolutely no reason to doubt from Jesus’ standpoint. It’s me you’re talking about here right? Do you get it, says Jesus?

I know, I know, we so often want to play it safe but here’s the thing, you don’t get to experience the miracle working power of God in your safety zone, it’s out there on the stormy ocean that we discover who Jesus really is. You don’t discover His faithfulness or His power stuck back in your comfort zone, in fact Jesus Himself said, Luke chapter 14 verse 27:

Whoever doesn’t carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

So let’s talk about you for a moment, are you in with all that you are, are you prepared to lay everything, EVERYTHING on the line for Jesus or are you holding something back?

Let’s go back to that picture of Peter stepping out of that boat, he was prepared to put his life on the line to live out his faith in Jesus and as we know Peter fails a few times along the way but that doesn’t seem to bother Jesus that much in the scheme of things. Too many people die wondering, “I wonder what would have happened if I’d had stepped out of the boat when Jesus called me, what if I’d have gone overboard for Jesus, what if, what if?”

Are you living out a life of ‘what ifs’, missing the opportunities, missing the calls? Well I’ll tell you, anyone who has heard Jesus’ call overboard will know what Peter knew in his own experience. Jesus is always faithful, He just is.

I remember the day I resigned from the consulting firm that I was working for. It used to be my company but I’d sold it and the new owners were only too happy to keep me on. Our finances weren’t all that crash hot at the time, it was a big leap of faith. Back in the IT consulting game things were safe, life was good, the money was regular and I’d have to say the money was pretty good.

I went through months of struggling this way and that way. Jesus is calling me, should I step out of the boat? It was Jesus calling me out of the boat, it seemed safe back there in the boat, it seemed scary out there on the ocean with Him, always does let me tell you. For me it never gets any easier because the steps of faith He asks me to take just seem to get bigger and harder and scarier.

I don’t think it was ever meant to be easy. It’s like the first time I jumped off a high tower into the water below on an obstacle course in the army, for me it was scary. The next thing they asked me to do was to rappel out of a helicopter from a few hundred feet up in the air and on and on it went from there.

It’s been well, well over a decade since I took that step of faith, leaving behind the security and the reputation of the IT consulting career and stepping into a struggling ailing little ministry of ChristianityWorks as it was back then. And I’m no longer wondering ‘what if’, I’m so glad I made that step because as tough as it’s been along the way, there’s been a lot of setbacks and disappointments and doubtless there are many challenges that lie ahead, I know that when I’m sinking Jesus will reach out and grab me.

I know because He does it over and over and over again. In fact as far as I’m concerned it’s the only place to be, overboard with Jesus. So let me ask you about your comfort zone and your life, has Jesus been calling you into something and you’ve been struggling and resisting and it just looks too scary? Let me tell you, take that step, take that step of faith, step out of the boat onto the stormy ocean with Jesus and that’s the place where you will discover His faithfulness and His power. You can’t do that in your comfort zone.