May grace, mercy and peace be to each of you from God our Father and our resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
Let’s pray
“Father, I am so tempted to focus on the things around me rather than focus on you. I know that you are my true guidance in this world, and therefore deserve my complete focus. Help me to look up rather than look down and allow you to guide my every step. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!”
Welcome back for the second week of our new series, “Focus.” Last week, we started to lay the foundation for our focus when we talked about our thoughts. Whether they are positive or negative?
Paul talks seriously about the things we should be thinking about, and the importance of aligning our thoughts with Christ. Today, in week 2, we are going to be speaking about our eyes, which obviously leads us to focus on the things we actually see.
Today, I want us to look at a story in scripture where one of Jesus’ disciples chose to focus on Him.
This is, ultimately, where our focus should always be. However, as we are going to see in this story, Peter lost his focus, just as we often do today.
If you would like to follow along in one of the chair Bibles, our text is on page 685, Mathew 4:22-33.
While we look at these verses, we are going to break them into different segments. We are going to start with verse 22…
“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.” Read Matthew 14:22-24
In this passage, we see Jesus ask the disciples to get into a boat and cross a lake. This is after He just finished feeding 5,000 people.
The disciples do as Jesus asked them to do, but while Jesus is away praying, a strong storm comes. There is a lot of fear within the disciples because Jesus was nowhere to be found.
However, when Jesus finally came back onto the scene, were their fears relieved? No, in fact their fear increased. Here is how Matthew describes it…
“Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Matthew 14:25-27
The disciples were convinced that this was a ghost, when in reality it was Jesus.
And note that the first thing Jesus says to them is, “Don’t be afraid.”
I believe that when it comes to FOCUSING completely on Christ, there are three factors, three attributes that will prevent us from focusing on Christ. The first one is Fear.
Jesus spoke to address the immediate reaction within the disciples. A significant reason as to why they were afraid was probably due to the lack of Jesus’ presence.
They looked around the boat when the storm hit and could not see Jesus. However, even when He appeared walking on the water, they did not think it was Him.
Have you been there before? Have you been in a situation where, for a long time, you were focused on Christ with no issues or bumps in the road? But then, a storm hits your life, and suddenly it is a lot harder to focus on Him.
From personal experience, I can assure you that fear can come in many forms in the middle of a storm. For some of us, a storm causes us to focus on the past, thinking we caused it ourselves. For others, a storm causes us to focus on the future, not knowing if we will even have one.
For Peter and the rest of the disciples, the storm caused anxiety and fear in the present moment, not knowing what they would do to respond, not knowing if they would survive the storm.
When faced with a storm, I think it is important to have made your decision on what to do before you are faced with the situation.
For example, much of the anxiety and fear caused by this storm in Matthew 14 was due to the disciples not knowing how they would respond when the storm came.
We have to make the conscious decision to say, “If and when a storm comes in my life, I already know I will choose to focus on Christ regardless of any pain it may cause me.”
However, you can see even after we move past the initial fear, the next thing in our path that seeks to steal our focus are the many Distractions in our lives.
In the disciples’ situation in our text, the storm itself acted as a distraction and caused them to lose focus.
Here is how Matthew put it in our text…
“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Matthew 14:29-30
There are so many different distractions we face in our day-to-day lives. Especially for those of us in the church, whenever the devil cannot destroy us, he will distract us.
We heard earlier in our second lesson that the devil used this very tactic on Jesus Himself in the wilderness.
Satan knew he could NEVER destroy the Son of God, so he tried to DISTRACT Him. Especially with his final temptation in verse 9. He says to Jesus, after showing Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, “All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.”
The devil was trying to prevent what we see happen right before we learn about the storm in Matthew 14. Right before the storm, we learned that Jesus did not leave with the disciples in the boat. Instead, He went to pray to the Father.
There are numerous occasions where this takes place throughout Jesus’ ministry. Just as Jesus’ focus was on His heavenly Father, He was trying to get the disciples, as well as us today, to focus on Him.
So, how has the devil been distracting you recently?
For Peter, the distractions were the wind and the waves. He already displayed faith in Christ to even get out of the boat and start walking, but then he lost focus.
Some of us here today are living life like Peter, but some of us are still stuck in the boat. If you are stuck in the boat, what is keeping you there? Is it a fear of some kind?
Is it a matter of not wanting to be rejected for doing something contrary to culture? You don’t want anyone to think badly about you?
Peter understood Jesus had the power to sustain him, if only he would choose to get out of the boat and start walking. So, he did.
But then the distractions came, when Peter looked to his left and right, rather than ahead of him where Jesus was. For some of us, the “wind and waves” in our lives may be an unhealthy relationship.
For others, it may be websites we keep going to, perhaps trying to live through others. However, the bottom line is that it is only distracting us from our only source of truth.
We end up sinking just as Peter did, because where our eyes go, the rest of us is soon to follow.
The Bible says that Peter sinks and calls for Jesus’ help to save him…
“Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31
Then, after pulling him up from the water, Jesus called out the third reason why we may find ourselves losing focus on Christ, and that reason is Doubt.
Peter had faith initially when he stepped out of the boat and started walking on the water. However, when he realized what he was doing, walking on the water in the middle of a storm, he started to doubt.
Here’s the deal … Peter began questioning whether or not Jesus could actually be His sustenance in the storm.
Maybe today, you have the same questions and doubts that Peter had.
“God, are you REALLY in the middle of all this? It feels like I am being tossed by the wind and waves. I’m distracted by the trouble I see all around me, and it is leading to fear and doubt in my mind.”
Let’s look at this truth in Psalm 46…
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1
Long before Jesus comes onto the scene in the New Testament, the Bible promises this, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
In Peter’s scenario, Jesus was close to him. But yet, Peter could only notice the waves and wind around him.
I wonder if we lose our focus on Christ simply because we are convinced by our situation that He is nowhere to be found.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I believe Jesus Christ is closer to you than you may realize. For example, If you have been Baptized, be assured that the Holy Spirit is within you right now. The power and the presence of God is within you right now!
Today, we journeyed through the story about Peter and the other disciples caught in a storm. A crucial part of this story is when Peter decides to take a step of faith. One that he took amidst fears, doubts, distractions, and opinions around him.
Peter knew that the only way he could get to Jesus was stepping out of the boat. Yet, the world wants you to be comfortable and learn to focus on earthly pleasures by never stepping out of the boat.
However, today, I believe God wants to give you something eternal, something only He can give … the life of His only Son. Jesus Christ was intentionally and willfully nailed to a cross to die as payment for all our sins.
He was placed in a grave only to be raised from the dead 3 days later, so that you and I could be free. So that you and I could be close to Him for eternity through our faith in Him alone.
And all God’s grateful people say … AMEN