All Things Possible: Matthew 14:22-33

In 1973 Gladys Knight and the Pips released a song, “Midnight Train to Georgia.” The song is about a woman that decides that she will follow her man as he makes his way back to Georgia. They will travel on a midnight train. The man is going back to Georgia seeking to find the life that he had left behind. He had come to LA dreaming of becoming a star, a super star, but he never found that star. What was the reason(s) that this man failed to become a star? This question is relevant because people, including kids, are told that in Americas that they can become anything that they want to be. This promise makes things sound so simple; meaning that if you want to be something, you can be what you want to be. These words are very deceiving because the reality is that there are a lot of people with dreams and desires. Many of them, if not most of them, experience the same fate that the dreamer in the song Midnight Train to Georgia came to know. He learned that “dreams don’t always come true.” Like the dreamer in the song, people give up on their dreams, and they look for something else that might be possible.

The words “Dreams don’t always come true,” are true when our dreams do not include our faith in God. It is the intention of this article to convey the message of Jesus. If our dreams come from people and if we depend on people there are many dreams that are impossible to achieve. On the other hand, when our dreams come from God and our efforts to achieve them are grounded in our faith in God, our dreams will come true. This idea does not come from some philosophical thinker. Rather, this is a promise from God. In this article I will use the story of Peter walking on water to demonstrate this reality.

The story of Jesus walking on water is recorded in the gospels of Matthew (14:22-33), Mark (6:45-52) and John (6:16-21). We will focus our attention on Matthew’s account because it includes an account of Peter walking on water also. It is my hope that we will see that Peter walked on water because of his knowledge that Jesus has the power to do some things that was thought to be impossible. Peter had seen Jesus give a command and things that had never been seen before became a reality seen by crowds of people. Let us take a look at the story recorded by Matthew.

In Matthew 14 Jesus feeds over five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two small fishes. Jesus takes the bread and fish and begins to distribute them to His disciples so that they can give food to the people. In the story, the food never runs out. There is so much food that there is enough to fill twelve baskets after all the people had eaten enough to satisfy their hunger. This reminds us of the widow woman of Zarephath. The prophet asked the woman to prepare him a piece of bread knowing that the woman was preparing a last meal for her son and herself. The woman obeys Elijah and the flour does not run out. God had made the impossible to be possible (See 1 Kings 9:8-16).

After Jesus feeds the people He commands His disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side of the Lake. Then Jesus sends the people home. After the people go home Jesus draws near to the Father and prays. Next, Jesus walks on the water toward the boat that the disciples are in. There is a storm and the boat is not making much progress toward reaching their destination. As the disciples battle the storm they see someone walking on the sea coming toward them. Based on their cultural beliefs they think that it is a spirit (ghost, KJV). Jesus speaks to them and identifies Himself. “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid” (Matt. 14:27, NASB). Now the voice sounds like Jesus. The disciples have seen Jesus take commands of storms (Matt. 8:23-27). They had seen Jesus command lame people to walk (Matt. 9:2-7; John 5:5-9). Was this really Jesus, their teacher?

Peter, who appears to be the leader of the twelve disciples, examines the possibility if this is a spirit or Jesus. “Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water’” (v. 28). Peter knows from his experiences with Jesus that Jesus has authority to command things to be. Contrary to popular expressions, God never ask anything of us or for anything to happen. God is sovereign with absolute authority and power. In Genesis God does not ask for a world. Rather, God speaks a command and the world comes into being (See John 1:1-5).

Jesus hears the prayer (request) that Peter makes. “And He said, ‘Come!’ And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus” (v. 29). Peter is doing something that is impossible. Peter walks on water, “but seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me” (v. 30). “Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt” (v. 31). “When they got into the boat, the wind stopped” (v. 32). This story teaches us something about all things possible with God.

First, we must come to know Jesus as the Son of God who has power and authority to command things to be. God reveals Himself in His words and His works. When we look at the miracles that Jesus performs during His earthly ministry, we can see that Jesus is able to do what no other power can do. Although Jesus had compassion for the people, solving all the problems that people have was not His primary purpose for His miracles. Rather, these miracles were done so that people would have enough evidence to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but this is a personal decision.

All things are possible for us when our dreams come from the Lord. If our dreams and desires come from ourselves or the thoughts and encouragement of men we have no guarantee that we can achieve our goals. This truth is seen in the story of the rich young man that walked away because he did not want to obey God’s requirements (See Matt. 19:16-26).

Peter was a fisherman. His life was lived on the water. Yet, we have no evidence in scripture that Peter ever thought about walking on water. Peter believes that he can walk on water if Jesus commands him to. Walking on water is not his primary goal. Rather, his goal is to know that the one walking on the water is Jesus. All things are possible with God when we are in the will of God. We cannot decide for ourselves that we want to do something and then expect Jesus to sanction our desires. This is one of the reasons that Peter asked Jesus to command him to come to Him. It is not what Peter wants. It is what God wants.

In this story we learn that Jesus does not calm the storm. The storm remains and provides a distraction for Peter. Peter is walking on the water without any difficulties. His focus is on Jesus. As he walks toward Jesus, Peter begins to focus on the storm. All things are possible with God if we focus on Jesus. If we allow distractions to take our focus off Jesus we begin to fail. When Peter is distracted he begins to sink. He is in danger of drowning and losing his life. Peter does not sink. “But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me” (14:30)! Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him and said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt” (v. 31)? Jesus does not allow Peter’s doubt to destroy him. Peter was coming to Jesus because of his faith in Jesus. Those that put their faith in Jesus can be sure that Jesus will rescue them when they have moments of doubt. With people it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Thus Jude writes about our security in Jesus. Jude writes that Jesus is able to keep us from failure. He gives us power to endure anything that threatens our relationship with God. Jesus will present those who have faith in Him to the Father blameless and with great joy (See Jude 24-25). With people our salvation is impossible. With God all things are possible.