Transcription

Connor
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Jeff
Welcome back to the Bible guys. He’s Chris and I’m Jeff and we have a great episode ahead today. We do. It’s going to be fantastic.

Chris
Yeah. In fact Jesus walks on the water. Yeah. This is one of.

Jeff
The coolest stories in.

Chris
The Bible. And people sort of quote him all the time for walking on the water. And they say to people, oh, he believes he walks on water. He walks around like he’s walking on water. You ever hear somebody say, yeah.

Jeff
I’ve heard that before. Yeah, yeah. Well this is it right here. And it comes up in three of the four gospels. So you’re going to love it. Chris. So I have the thing for you today. It’s a movie quote race.

Chris
I don’t know why I get so nervous about these, but I just I hope that I can get it. So here’s what’s.

Jeff
Going to happen. I’m going to read off famous movie quotes. Yeah. And we’re going to see how fast you can guess what movie it’s from. But I’m giving a thousand bonus points. I’m going to give 1000 bonus points to any listener who can can beat you on these.

Chris
They say it out loud first.

Jeff
Yeah. So they have I have seven of them. They have they have potential of getting 7000 bonus points.

Chris
I want to go on record. Oh there’s seven quotes. There’s seven.

Jeff
Quotes.

Chris
I going to go on record and say I’m going to get four of them.

Jeff
You get four.

Chris
Of the seven. And by the way, I’ll be proud of that. I’ll be I’ll be okay.

Jeff
Okay. Here’s the first one. So you got to tell me what movie it’s from. Yeah. Of course. Okay. Ready. You ought to spend a little more time trying to make something of yourself. And a little less time trying to impress people.

Chris
My gosh, I could be anything I know. A little bit more time.

Jeff
That’s the one I wasn’t sure about. But then I’m going to confess I didn’t see this movie either, so. Spend a little more time trying to make something everybody else’s time, a little less time trying to impress people.

Chris
I actually do not know from The Breakfast Club. Oh my word. That wasn’t a famous quote from The Breakfast Club. Well, I know all the famous quotes from The Breakfast Club. All right.

Jeff
Put it in. Put it in Desiree’s file that she crossed the line on that one. No, I’m not going in your permanent file.

Chris
Okay, now you’re making it personal. You’re making it sound like I’m yelling at Desiree, which I’m not. I’m just stating a fact. Okay? Which, by the way, you haven’t seen The Breakfast Club? No, bro. You’ve told me everything I need to know about you.

Jeff
I’m going to be honest with you, I have. I’ve seen four of the seven. So here’s the next one.

Chris
Hey, breakfast clubs are a must. I’m not even kidding.

Jeff
Okay. You’ve given me a whole list of must movies. You know I’m not going to have. I’m not going to come to a week for to work.

Chris
For a week. Whatever I said in the past, breakfast club wins.

Jeff
Okay, okay. I haven’t seen it. Okay, here we go. If I’m going to be a partner in a law firm by the time I’m 30, I’m going to need a boyfriend who’s not such a complete bonehead. Oh, that’s Legally Blonde. There you go.

Chris
That’s easy.

Jeff
I haven’t seen that one either. Okay, this is a good one. This will be fun. We’ll stay up late swapping manly stories. And in the morning, I’m making waffles. Shrek. That’s the one.

Chris
I’m making waffles. Yeah, yeah. Eddie Murphy, what a great, great character.

Jeff
Swapping manly stories.

Chris
Don’t care.

Jeff
Yep, yep. That’s funny. Yep. Okay, my expectation in life is to be invisible and I’m good at it.

Chris
Oh. Princess bride. Right? No, no. Princess diaries. Princess diaries. There you go. That was Anne Hathaway in the first one when she said you’re queen. And she’s like, are you kidding me? My goal in life. My ambition in life is to be invisible. There you go.

Jeff
Okay. This one’s going to make you mad.

Chris
Oh, the.

Jeff
Past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.

Chris
Oh, that’s the Lion King. There you go. That’s Rafiki.

Jeff
Right? Don’t you hate the Lion King? Oh, you just hate the Circle of Life song. What didn’t you tell us? You hate.

Chris
You connected the dots from the Elton John song to the entire movie.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, well, I associate that song.

Chris
With The Lion.

Jeff
King. So you like the movie?

Chris
I didn’t like Elton John’s version of it. Okay, okay. I mean, as much as the world did. Yeah.

Jeff
Okay, here we go. I saw The Lion King two, so I’ve seen the two cartoons on this one.

Chris
I’ve seen The Lion King on Broadway three times.

Jeff
Oh, wow. That’s impressive.

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
Okay, here’s the next one. Number six. If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.

Chris
Isn’t that Michael Keaton movie where he was a bird?

Jeff
It’s a super famous movie.

Chris
If you’re a bird, I’m a bird. Yeah, I don’t know.

Jeff
It’s the notebook.

Chris
The notebook.

Jeff
That’s what Desiree says. I don’t know. I think we tried to watch it one time I fell asleep.

Chris
Oh, the notebook’s excellent, but I don’t remember that quote in the movie.

Jeff
I don’t know, we’re going have to ask Desiree to prove it. Okay. Do you need her to prove it?

Chris
It’s not. It’s not exactly like we.

Jeff
Don’t want a second thing going in your file today.

Chris
By the way. That doesn’t that doesn’t go in the category of, like, you complete me. Yeah. You’re a bird. I’m a bird. I don’t remember that.

Jeff
Okay, okay, okay. And here’s the last one. Yeah. This is the last chance to get get get a thousand bonus points for our listeners. I’ve gotten you know, I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to up it I’m going to give you 5000 bonus points to our listeners. Wow. If they beat you on this one.

Chris
Okay. Is that all right? Ready?

Jeff
How generous I am. Here you go. You have to promise that you won’t fall in love with me.

Chris
I want to remember.

Jeff
Oh, you.

Chris
Got it, Mandy.

Jeff
Moore. There you go.

Chris
When they started studying together. Yeah, she said that because she had cancer.

Jeff
Okay, well, there you go. To remember, I didn’t see that one either.

Chris
Yeah, it was amazing. That’s a Nicholas Sparks book, by the way. Oh, okay. By the way, The Notebook is a Nicholas Sparks book as well. Okay, so she picked two Nicholas Sparks books made into movies out of the seven quotes.

Jeff
Okay. And they’re romantic books. Romantic movies? Yes. Okay. Yes. So I saw Shrek. The Princess Diaries and The Lion King. Those are the three I’ve seen.

Chris
That’s about right.

Jeff
And Princess Diaries, only because my daughter wanted to watch it and it was like a daddy daughter night. Yeah, yeah, that was it.

Chris
Princess diaries. My family loves the Princess Diaries.

Jeff
Okay, well, there you go. Yeah. So. Hey, that was wonderful. I bet you we had a whole bunch of of our listeners got 11,000 bonus points out of that one.

Chris
Yeah, maybe.

Jeff
Use them wisely.

Chris
Listeners, I missed.

Jeff
Two. Don’t waste your bonus points.

Chris
I missed two. Yeah, and I complained about both of them.

Jeff
Hey, guys, before we get to the Bible reading part of the conversation today, would you do us a favor? If you’re watching on YouTube, would you subscribe on YouTube? Follow us on YouTube. It helps us so much when you do it and then give us a thumbs up. If you have a thumbs down, then I’m not talking to you. Forget about it, but give us a thumbs up if you like it. Leave a comment and all those things help the algorithms get the message out further. Thanks so much! We’re starting off in Matthew chapter 14. And it’s interesting because Matthew says immediately after this, remember, remember this crazy time Jesus has going on. And so he just feeds 5000 people with a sack lunch. And then here’s what it says in Matthew chapter 14. Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About 3:00 in the morning, Jesus came toward them, walking on the water, and when the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear they cried out, it’s a ghost! But Jesus spoke to them at once. Don’t be afraid, he said, take courage. I’m here. Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you walking on the water. Yes, come. Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. Jeff
But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified. Began to sink. Save me, Lord, he shouted, and Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. You have so little faith! Jesus said. Why did you doubt me? When they climb back into the boat, the wind stopped. Then the disciples worshipped him. You really are the Son of God, they exclaimed. Mark tells it this way. Mark chapter six, verse 45, he says. Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida while he sent the people home. After telling everyone goodbye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land. He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About 3:00 in the morning, Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go past them, but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. They were all terrified when they saw him, but Jesus spoke to them at once. Don’t be afraid, he said. Take courage. I’m here. Then he climbed into the boat and the wind stopped, and they were totally amazed, for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in. John tells us this. So Luke doesn’t tell this story, right? This is Matthew, Mark and John. That’s kind of a rarity lately, isn’t it? It’s usually Matthew, Mark and Luke together. So John chapter six, verse 16 says, that evening Jesus disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. Jeff
But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn’t come back, they got into the boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum. Soon a gale swept down upon them, and the sea grew very rough, and they’d rowed for 3 or 4 miles, when suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward the boat. They were terrified, but he called out to them, don’t be afraid. I am here. And then they were eager to let him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination. So there you go.

Chris
Right? So there’s lots of different details. Skips the Peter incident altogether.

Jeff
Yeah. So does Mark.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. Isn’t that crazy? Yeah. So. So Matthew is the only one that recorded the fact that a human walked on water. Yes.

Jeff
Well, Jesus was fully human, but one of the disciples.

Chris
Yeah, well, I was implying only human. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’m only human. So I think that again, just another classic story where there’s so many sermons. But the first thing that comes to my mind every time that I hear this story is the John Ortberg John Ortberg book title. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff
If you want to get out, if you want to walk on water, you got to get out of the boat.

Chris
Yes. Yeah. And really it’s it’s an amazing truth, isn’t it? It’s like if you want to see God work in miraculous ways, you got to take a step of faith. Yeah. If you want to walk on water, you got to get out of the boat. And so, you know, the sermon is, is that the boat is where we’re comfortable. The boat is what we know. The boat is what we understand, what we believe. Everything about the unknown and the things that stretch our belief are out on the waves. And so, you know, again, if God asks you to do something or nudges you or, or, you know, calls you to do something, the unknown is not the comfortable place. And in this case, of course, the unknown is can a human only human can actually walk on water? And by the way, did you ever notice that it’s actually Peter who comes up with the idea it’s not Jesus.

Jeff
Jesus doesn’t call him. He asks.

Chris
Yeah. Jesus doesn’t say, I’ll tell you what, let me let me dream of what’s possible. Yeah. Peter says it right. And there’s there’s always a part of me that wondered, does Peter just prideful? He’s the only one that wanted to walk on water. He’s like, let me do it. Yeah, yeah, I want to try.

Jeff
No, I think Peter, because Peter is also the one eventually. Who’s the first one to say you’re the Son of God, right? You’re the Messiah, the son of the living God. I think Peter decided because they’ve already gone through a storm. Jesus already calmed the storm. Remember, he was sleeping in the back of the boat. Yeah, so they’ve already had a storm. I think Peter decided it was safer with Jesus than in the boat. Yeah, that’s what I think happened is. Oh, Jesus, I’d rather be with you once. Because at first they were all terrified. It’s a ghost. Then when they hear his voice, he recognizes his voice and decided, I want to be with Jesus. And then he gets out on the water and goes, what the heck am I doing right?

Chris
He does say if it is you. Yeah, yeah. So so there’s a part of me that wonders if he was convinced it was Jesus.

Jeff
Yeah.

Chris
Right. So he’s like, so he’s. But but you’re right. If it is him.

Jeff
If it’s really you, I want to be with you.

Chris
I want to be with you. Yeah, but I love the fact that he says, if it’s you, then sort of like, prove it. Yeah, right.

Jeff
I think it’s funny. Mark says Jesus intended to walk past him. Yeah, he’d seen them rowing. Right. It’s like 3:00 in the morning. He’d already seen them rowing and struggling. Right. And he was just going to walk past them because Matthew and Mark both say that Jesus sent them to the other side. Right, right. Which again, we talked about this in the first one.

Chris
He wanted he wanted to. It’s like the magicians who they throw it on the smoke and the smoke cloud comes up. Then you see them run at the last second and hide behind the post. Right? Yeah. Jesus is like, go to the other side. And he’s like, I know what I’ll do. Yeah, I’ll walk right past him and meet him there and they’ll be so surprised. But he gets caught running behind the pillar. A big.

Jeff
Storm. Yeah. So you know he in the we talked about this in the the episode where we were talking about the storm where Jesus said peace be still. Right. And Jesus had already told them in that before that storm happened, we’re going to go to the other side. Right? And so one of the applications that we had is when Jesus tells you to do something, he’s going to that’s why he’s going to follow through with it. That’s why he could go to sleep. He knew they weren’t going to die. He’d already said, they’re going to the other side, right? So the storm didn’t matter. The storm was incidental. The storm caused a little bit more work. Seems a little scary. Wasn’t scary to Jesus. He he went to sleep. I think this is kind of the same thing. Only this time he’s not in the boat with them. You know, they had the benefit of having Jesus with them all the time. You and I don’t, right? So it’s.

Chris
Almost like not.

Jeff
Physically. It’s almost like that story. The first one was for them, that storm was for them. Jesus was there with you physically. Hey, if I tell you we’re going to go somewhere, we’re going to go somewhere. This one feels like it’s more for us. Jesus isn’t in the boat physically with them, and it feels like it’s for me too. He’s not physically in the boat with me, right? But he says, hey, you guys go on the other side. I got, I got some work I got to finish up. I’ll meet you there. Right. And so they they get in the boat and they were going to make it. Jesus already told them that they were going to make it. And then they’re freaking out about it, and they see Jesus. And Peter decided it’s safer with Jesus than without Jesus. There’s a lot of wisdom in that. And then when he took his eyes off Jesus, the Bible says that’s when he began to sink. And that’s that’s a hysterical.

Chris
That’s the classic application, right? So and of course, it’s so wonderful. It’s like, it’s.

Jeff
Exactly what happens.

Chris
Yeah. It’s exactly what happens. It is so applicable to any aspect of our lives. When we take our eye off of Jesus and we put our focus, our attention, you know, whatever it is, you know, when we start to look at the enemy and we fear the enemy more than we trust God, right, right. It’s like, you know, you take your eyes off the promises and you start to believe all the voices in your life that tell you you’re no good. Or you listen to the, you know, the the, the lies from the pits of hell that say, be fearful, turn back. You can’t trust God. Save yourself all those things. And it’s like. And so Peter is walking. He has his eyes fixed on Jesus. And by the way, it’s important to recognize that the author goes out of his way to say all those things. Yes. Right. So like Matthew is recording this and Matthew, Matthew, Matthew just didn’t say he started to sink. Right. He gives the reason why. So that’s how we know there’s a definite reason why.

Jeff
Yeah. He saw the strong wind and the waves.

Chris
Yes. And you know, imagine if you’re doing it. It’s like I’m doing it. I’m doing it. And all of a sudden you see these wind and then your mind goes, okay, I know I could have, I know I could have walked on that wave. Right? But not that wave. Right.

Jeff
Exactly right. Exactly.

Jeff
Well, can you imagine? So. So there is something to this. And I’ve never thought of this before, but he says, if it’s really you, can you imagine? He’s squinting. He’s leaning in. He’s really trying to focus on Jesus in that moment. He’s not totally clearly seeing Jesus, but he’s really leaning in, trying to focus on Jesus. And then he says, we’ll get out of the boat. He goes, okay, right? And he just gets that boat. But but he’s he’s leaning in trying to see Jesus in this moment. And then he stops trying to see Jesus. He stops trying to lean in. And at that moment, now I think he got enamored. The Bible doesn’t say this. He gets enamored with the fact that he’s walking on the water for a split second and then goes, oh, wait a minute, I’m walking on water, right?

Chris
He sort of forgot, maybe.

Jeff
Yeah, look at me. Whoa, wait a minute. What am I doing? And there’s this. He’s. He stops leaning into Jesus and starts leaning into the moment. This problem that he’s he’s a part of. And that’s when he gets overcome with fear.

Chris
And it’s probably like, okay, I can walk on water just one foot from the boat. Yeah, yeah. But now that I’m eight feet from the boat, you know, surely not. Surely I’m going to sink.

Jeff
So it’s interesting. It says he went over the side of the boat and walked on the water. It doesn’t say he took a step or got both feet on the water. He walked. Yeah. And in my mind, how many steps is it when it’s no longer steps and turns into walking.

Chris
Multiple steps right.

Jeff
So I don’t think it’s like 1 or 2 and I think it’s walk walk walk. Oh my gosh. And I think he’s quite a ways from the boat.

Chris
Well he’s close enough to okay.

Jeff
Now he’s close enough to Jesus.

Jeff
Jesus.

Chris
Yeah. Jesus reaches out and grabs him. Yeah, yeah. So if he can’t see him again, the wave conditions, the night conditions, the.

Jeff
Wind, the blowing.

Chris
Fog and everything else is probably it’s probably completely dark on the water. Right. Just get some moonlight and that’s it. So they didn’t have flashlights. So I think he could have Jesus could have been decently close. But I’m.

Jeff
Thinking he’s.

Jeff
8 or 10ft away.

Jeff
Yeah, because he walked.

Jeff
It’s not a step or two.

Chris
Yeah, well, I was thinking this, I was thinking I was thinking how close does a person have to be in total pitch black to where you’re 100% confident it’s them?

Jeff
Yeah.

Jeff
But if it’s a full moon, you could see him on the water. Yeah, 50 yards away. Right. If it was a sliver moon or no moon, well, yeah, it’d be pretty hard.

Jeff
Right.

Chris
So but either way, though, surely he was close enough to Jesus to where Jesus was able to reach down and pick.

Jeff
Up all the paintings I’ve seen have a moon. Yeah.

Jeff
And those have.

Jeff
To be accurate, aren’t.

Jeff
They? The paintings?

Chris
It’s so funny. It’s so funny. You know, the only thing about your life, your entire life. So you’re my age, right? So we’re 50. And those paintings were made popular. 52. Those paintings were made popular in the 70s, right. The Jesus with the long hair on the rock with the big crown and the light.

Jeff
And those are all, you know, stylized after a lot of the paintings from the Renaissance.

Jeff
Right?

Chris
Right, right.

Jeff
Okay, so it’s a.

Jeff
Pale white guy with long blonde hair and blue.

Jeff
Eyes, right? Right.

Chris
Yeah. Like he is like he’s. Jesus was not white.

Jeff
Right? Right.

Chris
Ladies and gentlemen. Doo doo doo doo doo. This just in. He was born in the Middle East, right? Right. But but anyway, I remember one time we talked about how the picture of Jesus in the, in the Bible is not quite the tender Jesus that sometimes we see in those velvet paintings. Right, right, right. That Jesus looks pretty frail.

Jeff
Yeah, he looks pretty peaceful.

Chris
Like he does. Like he’s never laughed before in his life.

Jeff
Right? Right. He’s miserable.

Jeff
He looks like he’s about ready.

Jeff
To cry all the time.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. Everything’s serious and.

Jeff
Delicate. Yeah.

Chris
It’s so delicate. It looks like he, you know, in the Bible says he was, he was. He got 39 lashes and then carried a 200 or 100 something pound beam crossbeam up an entire hill to Golgotha and, and and so think about it. He was he must have been strong. He was a carpenter.

Jeff
Oh, yeah. He would have had Popeye arms because planing wood. Cutting wood. Yeah. Putting wood together all of that was forearm work. Forearm, shoulders. You could count on him having broad shoulders. You could count on him having Popeye kind of forearms. I bet you you break your hand when he shake your hand with a grip, right. Because it all hand tools. And one of the passages we read when they were complaining about him in Nazareth. Isn’t this the carpenter? So there was one. It says, isn’t this the carpenter’s son? The other one says, isn’t this the carpenter? Right. So they thought of him as being this worker guy. Then he shows up and he has a bunch of dock workers there fixing nets and stuff, and he says, hey, follow me. And they all go, oh, okay, right, right. These guys aren’t going to follow a sissy. Right, right. I’ve never met a dock worker that would follow sissies. Yeah.

Jeff
Right. Right. Have you? Right.

Jeff
So. So these guys are probably some pretty rugged guys. And they decided, all right, we’re going to follow Jesus. He’s got something to him.

Chris
Yeah. All of that to say. You know, when thinking about the images of Jesus, I think that I think that the images that you and I can conjure up are the only thing that’s possible in our minds are the only things we’ve seen. Sure. And I think that every single one of them is not quite accurate. Yeah, yeah. Although I do like the actor who plays the chosen. He’s Middle Eastern.

Jeff
Yeah.

Jeff
You know, here’s, here’s the last application that I think is important to me in this one that we have time for today. Sometimes we start out with good intentions, right. And then we falter. We slip. Maybe good intentions turn into bad intentions. Maybe we didn’t have it all worked out. Planned out right. Maybe we hadn’t spent time with God in prayer or whatever. And we falter and we slip. But you know, that wasn’t the end of the story. So Jesus picks Peter back up and they walked back to the boat. The miracle kept going. The miracle didn’t end when he sunk, Jesus picked him back up and together they walked back to the boat. And then the storm’s gone. And immediately they’re where they’re supposed to be. It’s a whole series of miracles there. But the miracle wasn’t done, and Peter got everything he needed. He was with Jesus, right? And so even when you feel like you’ve stumbled and faltered, God’s not done with you. You need to do the same thing Peter did. Shout out and ask for help. Lord, Lord, help me and Jesus. I think you can look at it two ways. You have so little faith. Why did you doubt me? Could be frustration. You have so little faith. Why did you doubt me? Or do you think these are buddies? Jesus isn’t afraid he was going to walk past them. That’s a funny idea, right? So I think it’s kind of a funny moment, and I think Jesus probably laughed in that moment. You have so little faith. Why did you doubt me? I think that’s what it was, right? It’s not a shame on you moment. I think it’s a come on, man. Right. I’ve got you. I’ve always had you. Jeff
I’ve got you. And I think when we stumble and falter, I think we just have to understand he’s not mad at us. Right. So I can tell you this. The other 11 didn’t have the faith. Peter did. Right. And so God will do those miracles in your life, too.

Chris
Yeah. That’s really that’s good. That’s a good place to end, I think, because that’s about our time. So hey, we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.