Most of us probably have some money in a saving account where it
is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation, or FDIC for
short. This brilliant idea which saved the banks after the depression,
and saves all savers a lot of anxiety is a gift God gave to the American
people through a Christian banker in Philadelphia. His name was
Leon H. Sullivan. When black Monday hit on March 4, 1933, and
closed the banks, he went to prayer and labored long over a plan to
reopen the banks. He thanked God for the idea which led to the banks
being able to open. It was the FDIC idea.
He came to Christ as a boy of nine, and by twenty five he was the
youngest bank cashier in the U.S. Banking was his life. But like all
successful Christians he had a struggle with pride. He began to crave
more power, prominence, and possessions. He began to have social
parties in his large house with champagne. He stopped going to
church, for his new goal kept him too busy for the God who had saved
him. He got so greedy that he went into partnership with a
non-Christian. His wife warned him, but he would not listen, for there
was a fortune to be made. The entire real estate deal collapsed,
however, and he lost everything. He was one hundred and fifty
thousand in debt, and had no reputation and no friends. He was
sinking fast, but unlike Peter who cried out immediately, "Lord save
me," he held on for twelve days in pride.
After twelve days of living on corn flakes he finally cried out to
God in brokenness, "Lord save me!" It took years, but he was saved
and restored and became a successful investment broker who helped
Christian colleges and other Christian causes raise millions. By his
fall and failure he learned to be successful as a Christian in the world
of business. Successful Christians often have to fail so they can be
saved for success as Christians. Their success becomes an idol and
leads them away from God, and only by means of failure can they be
brought back to God to succeed for him. Christians only need to be
saved once for eternity by putting their faith in Christ, but they need
to be saved many times in time, as they begin to sink because of their
lack of faith.
Peter was a saved man as a hand picked disciple of Christ. If he
would have drowned in the storm, he would have been welcomed into
heaven. He was a saved man, yet, we see him here crying out, "Lord
save me." It was not the sinners prayer. He was not crying out to be
forgiven and reconciled with God. That was not his problem. He was
already saved that way, and you never need to be saved that way
again. When Jesus is trusted as Savior you are saved for eternity.
But here is Peter still calling out, "Lord save me." A saved man can
still use some saving when he is sinking.
Balzac, the Sir Walter Scott of France, wrote a famous short story
called Jesus Christ in Flanders. A ferry-boat is carrying a mixed
crowd of passengers when a furious gale strikes and throws everyone
into a panic. A stranger with a glow on his face is calm and serene as
if he knew he would not die. As the boat begins to sink the stranger
speaks, "Those who have faith shall be saved! Let them follow me."
He then stepped out upon the waves and walked on the water. A
young mother took her child up in her arms and followed him. A
soldier and two cousins also followed and walked upon the sea, and
they came safely to the shore. The stranger vanishes, but they
recognize he is Christ. Balzac's story is obviously an adaptation of
our text. But it is a focus on the fact that even saved people; people
who already have faith in Jesus, still need to be saved from storms,
and all kinds of threats to life and health.
Jesus could say, "How do I save thee, let me count the ways." And
they would mount up to a high number. The point is, this prayer of
Peter as he began to sink is a prayer that needs praying often because
even saved people need perpetual saving in this storm tossed world.
Let's look at just some of the ways we need saving as suggested by
Peter's experience. First of all we all need to be saved-
I. FROM LITTLE FAITH.
Whenever a Christian begins to sink, you can trace the trouble
back to little faith. The negative realities of life begin to overwhelm
you. You take your eyes off Jesus and look to the wind and waves, and
fear takes over and reduces the power of your faith. You can't get far
walking on water, or even on land for that matter, when your faith
gauge is pointing to empty.
Peter had enough faith to get him into the middle of a miracle, but
then it began to run out. There are few things more embarrassing
than half a miracle. To walk on water for a few feet and then drown is
not all that impressive as a whole. Peter needed to be saved from his
half a miracle due to his little faith. To sink in the middle of a miracle,
and make this his terminal trip was not what Peter had in mind. We
all need to be saved from the half way projects we get ourselves into.
We make a commitment to go all out for Jesus, and then after awhile
we lose our enthusiasm and our faith falters. We find ourselves half
way through a commitment beginning to sink.
I see it in Christian marriages all the time. People make a
commitment to be loving and loyal through sunshine and shadow; for
better or for worse, but like Peter, they get out into the sea of
matrimony and discover it is more frightening than they realized from
the boat. Their resolve begins to weaken, and they begin to sink.
They need to cry out, "Lord save me." Christians need to be saved
and restored to their marriage vows.
Christians say, "I'm going to read my Bible through this year,"
and they take the leap. But after they get through Genesis and
struggle through Exodus they come to Leviticus, and their faith
wavers. I wonder how many have sunk in their resolve in Leviticus?
They had no idea how hard some parts of the Bible are. They need to
be saved from this little faith that lets them sink in the midst of their
new adventure for Christ. Christians also resolve to witness, and then
they come up against a skeptic who is clever, and they begin to sink
back from their commitment. We could go on and on dealing with
areas of life where Christians need to be saved because their little
faith lets them down before they complete their commitment.
The good news is that Jesus will hear the prayer for salvation even
when our faith is so weak we are sinking. Peter's prayer, "Lord save
me!" is the shortest prayer in the New Testament, but it was just as
effective as a 20 minute prayer, for Jesus reached out and saved him
from drowning. A 3 word prayer, and all 3 words of only one syllable.
Thank God he does not evaluate prayer by its length, but rather by its
earnestness. Peter never prayed a more earnest prayer than this. His
faith was little in his own ability to stay on top of the water, but his
faith in Jesus was still strong, and he cried out for Jesus to save him.
There was no time for praise, adoration, or intercession. This was
a purely self-centered prayer, yet it was answered instantly, for Jesus
chose to save Peter from a watery grave. He saw, even in Peter's
failure, the seeds of success. Peter's prayer was a confession of his
own inadequacy, and of his awareness of Christ's all sufficiency. Lord
you can save me, and so do so, for I cannot save myself.
Spurgeon points out that little faith tends to get Christians in
trouble because it is always seeking for signs and wonders. He feels
that Peter may have leaped out of the boat in the first place because of
his little faith that he needed to bolster up by this awesome act of
walking on water. Some people need to do the remarkable thing to
keep their faith from collapsing. This moves them to attempt great
things, but they do it in their own power, and they end up collapsing
anyway. But even there failure can be good if it leads them to stop
trusting in themselves, and to trust in Jesus only. Peter did it here and
was saved from his little faith in himself by his adequate faith in Jesus.
John Hodges was the number one Pontiac dealer in the world. He
was a member of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis. But he let
his success go to his head and began to throw parties with booze and
gambling. He began to cut back on church life, for it was interfering
with his business life. Besides, you can't serve 2 masters, and his
business became his god. He bought 5 used car lots and poured a lot
of money into advertising. He got caught in a squeeze and lost half a
million in 2 years. He started to drink and life began to fall apart. He
had many Christian friends praying for him, and he was finally
persuaded to go to a Graham crusade. There he saw that he was
sinking because of his own pride and little faith. He repented and
cried out, "Lord save me!"
He got his life style back in order and went on, as Peter did, to be
a fisher of men. He used his business connections to witness to men
about his Savior. He was another Christian who needed to be saved.
He needed to be saved from little faith, from worldliness, from pride,
from failure, and from self. This is the battle of the Christian life and
what the whole New Testament is all about. It is about saving saved
people from sinking so they can help save a lost world. Christians
need a lot of saving before they can help save the world. A sinking
Christian is not a very useful tool. But a sinking Christian saved from
sinking, as Peter was, is often the best tool, for he has by that
experience learned to forsake his self-confidence, and put his
confidence in Christ as an all sufficient Savior.
We sometimes have to fail and be saved in order to really know
who Jesus is as our Savior. Nancy Spiegelberg wrote,
Lord
I crawled
across the barrenness
to you
with my empty cup
uncertain
in asking any small drop of refreshment.
If only I had known you better
I'd have come
running
with a bucket.
This whole incident was designed by Christ to teach his disciples that
if they really knew who Jesus was, they could not only be saved from
little faith, but also-
II. FROM ALL FORMS OF DISCOURAGEMENT.
The whole context is one of discouragement. They were buffeted by
the wind and the waves, and could not get to shore. It was in the
middle of the night and they were tired and anxious for their lives. It
was a discouraging situation, and they were a down bunch of guys.
Then to add to the tension Jesus comes walking on the lake and they
are terrified. "It's a ghost," they cried, and they were fearful that this
was a sign they would not make it. A demon of death is what their
fearful minds saw, even though in reality it was their Savior from
death.
What a major difference there can be between objective faith and
ones own subjective fears. They interpreted the scene as evil omen
when in reality it was their only hope. How wrong can Christians be
in reading the events of their day and experience? Here is a clue.
Christians need to be saved constantly from the spirit of
discouragement they bring on themselves by their false fears and
misreading of events. Their fears had them in the grip of some evil
spirit, and they were terrified. Christians often need to be saved from
their subjective fears that put their emotional system into a turmoil.
There was a spirit of pessimism reigning over the lives of the Apostles
in this setting. They were safe, but they felt like they were sunk.
From the point of view of Jesus there was nothing to be
discouraged about at all. From his perspective it was as pleasant as a
Sunday walk in the park. These men needed to be saved from all their
fears and doubts that made them blind to the power and presence of
Christ in their midst. They were just like God's people in the Old
Testament. God could do wonders and miracles to protect them,
deliver them, and provide for them. But the next time they faced a
crisis they were full of fear and doubt, and begging to go back to
Egypt. No number of miracles could ever get them beyond their little
faith and discouraged spirit of pessimism.
The disciples had already seen Jesus still the storm, and do
wondrous miracles in nature. He had just fed the 5000 hours before
this storm, and yet, all that is gone from their head, and they are
overwhelmed by their present crisis. What we need to see is that these
men were finally saved from this spirit of pessimism, and this is just
one of the key lessons on the way to that final victory. They eventually
became men who could say with the unknown poet,
I will not doubt, though all my ships at sea
Come drifting home with broken masts and sails;
I shall believe the hand that never fails
From seeming evil worketh good for me,
And though I weep because these sails are tattered,
Still will I cry, while my best hopes are shattered,
I trust in Thee.
But they were not there yet. They were in a terrible mess, but they
were saved, and Jesus turned this catastrophe into a major success.
The key word in this story is a big word in the ministry of Jesus. The
word in the Greek is tharseo, and it is translated, "Be of good cheer,
or take courage." This is a special word in the vocabulary of Jesus.
He is the only person in the New Testament to use the word. On one
occasion it is used to encourage blind men to come to him. Jesus used
this word often to encourage those who were discouraged. They were
in what seemed to be hopeless situations when Jesus would come and
say, "Be of good cheer."
His most universal use of the word is in John 16:33, "In this world
you will have trouble. But take heart, or cheer up, I have overcome
the world." The one thing that every person needs to be saved from at
some point in life is discouragement. The contrary winds get to all of
us at times, and we are ready to sink. Jesus says this is just when you
need to hear his favorite word and be encouraged to be of good cheer.
He is saying that he is already overcome, and so trust in me. This is
where Peter comes through a hero, even though he was sinking.
Because of his little faith he was going under, but the fact is, he never
cease to trust in Christ for he shouted out, "Lord save me!" And
Jesus did save him. The whole scene ends in victory and worship.
This was not their final education. They got discouraged again,
and their faith failed again, and they needed to be saved again from
their human weaknesses. But their salvation here did raise them to a
new level, and by it they were able to avoid a lot of falls they might
have otherwise had. Every lesson they learned was a necessary step to
get to the point of the victorious Christian life. Every victory
prevented some future failure.
Someone said that high heels were invented by a woman who was
kissed on the forehead. She wanted to avoid that mistake in the
future, and so invented high heels. True or not, it illustrates the point.
Failure can lead to success, for it motivates us to do what avoids the
same failure in the future. The disciples were a pathetic lot in this
whole scene. It was a comedy of errors. The men Christ picked to
change the world are seen here as nervous wrecks. They were of
anxiety and fears, and their leader was sinking in the middle of a
miracle. It is not likely the angelic choir was inspired to fill heaven
with a new song of rejoicing.
Nevertheless, the end result of all this failure was success, because
in the final analysis they looked to Jesus and were saved, and every
time they were saved they needed less and less saving. Each step of
failure was a step up the stairs of success. Dr. John, president of
Stetson University, tells of the farmer who only lost a few hogs during
a severe cholera epidemic. The county agent asked him if he had
learned anything about the disease. He said, "Wal, I've noticed that
them as gets it and lingers a spell have a better chance of livin then
them that dies right off." Peter failed a lot, but he never went down
for the count. He never gave up and sank. He always lingered awhile
and looked to Jesus. The result was that Peter was saved every time.
Judas, on the other hand, when he failed, gave up and died right off,
and went and hanged himself.
If we are going to have a successful year in spite of our weaknesses
and failures, we are going to have to pray Peter's prayer often-"Lord
save me from myself, my subjective fears and discouragements, from
my little faith. Save me daily from all the things that rob me of my
vision of your love and presence. Every year a Christian should aim
to be more saved than the year before. That means to be more secure,
more sanctified, more willing to believe the Word of God. Peter said
in Paul's writings there are some things hard to be understood, but
sometimes the problem with Paul is that he is too easy to be
understood. He makes the requirement of optimism so plain and clear
that we are embarrassed by it.
It may sound crazy, but I am convinced that sometimes we need to
be saved from success. Success is a test that many Christians have
failed to pass. They get successful and, like Israel of old, they neglect
the Lord and conform to the world, and lose their way. Many of the
scandals of Christianity are the result of success that Christians could
not handle. It is also the reality of life that success leads to a decaying
of relationships. Bette Middler put it so honestly when she said, "The
worse part of having success is to try finding someone who is happy
for you."
We go through life asking, what is the will of God, and Paul says
what is the mystery? We know what God's will is. In I Thess. 5:16-18
Paul writes, "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all
circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Whenever you are not joyful, or not praying, or not thankful, you are
out of God's will, and need to be saved from that state of disobedience.
"Lord save me," is about as relevant a prayer as you find in the Bible,
for as saved people we need, just as Peter needed, a whole lot of saving
to be a success. We need to examine our lives in the light of this truth,
and when we see we are sinking in some area of life, look to Jesus and
pray the saved sinners prayer, "Lord save me." We need to be
constantly saved from our failures, and saved for success.
