A Glad Life with Jesus

Today, we get to celebrate one year as a church family here on the Northshore. The Bible is full of examples of people pausing to reflect on what God has done and giving him praise. We see the Israelites even setup physical memorials in the Old Testament to create reminders for their people about what God accomplished in that time and place.

And so it’s a good thing, whether it be in the context of our church or your career or your family or even in your own personal life to slow down and consider what God has done and to worship him for his grace and mercy toward you. I think back in my own life—when I moved to New York City to start a church in 2015, I didn’t expect to end up back on the Northshore 4 years later. In a lot of ways, I was starting over.

I was living in an apartment in Covington back in the fall of 2019, and one of my neighbors found out that I was a pastor. He asked if I would start a Bible study, so he could learn about Scripture, and so I started inviting people into my home once a week to walk verse-by-verse through books of the Bible looking to understand the original meaning in it’s original context as we connected each passage to the good news of Jesus Christ and applied those truths to the various parts of our lives today.

It was through that Bible study that I met my wife, Macie. We were actually studying the gospel of John when she first came to that Bible study, and our time in John lasted the entirety of our dating relationship (if that helps you get an idea for how long we’ll be diving into this book of the Bible).

When we got married, it was the men in that Bible study that were my groomsmen. And then when Macie and I started to feel called toward planting a new church in Mandeville—when my heart broke for the needs of the place where I grew up—it was the people who were in that Bible study who, after spending time in prayer, raised their hands and said they felt called to join us as part of our core team.

All because a guy asked about having a Bible study in his apartment complex that he never even went to. But out of a lot of heartache and confusion and starting over, God birthed a new family, a new church, and a network of interconnected churches looking for ways we can work together to see every man, woman, and child come to hear and experience the good news of Jesus across the Northshore.

Restoration isn’t my church, but the name is definitely what God has done and continues to do in my life. This is his church—we’ve had the privilege of joining the work that he’s already been doing here—and Christ alone is the hope of the Northshore. As we celebrate our first anniversary as a church family, we want to thank God for what he’s done as we continue to lean into our vision to be a loving community that’s shaped by the work of Jesus and joining his mission in the renewal of all things.

If you’re new or newer here this morning, even if you don’t consider yourself a Christian, hopefully what you hear in our church’s story is that we want to be all about Jesus. And providentially, as we’ve just been taking sections at a time walking through the gospel of John, we find ourselves today looking at a story that’s so incredibly helpful with understanding Jesus. In these five verses we see three clear pictures of life without Jesus, what it means to truly see Jesus, and what it’s like to be with Jesus.

A quick story before we look at the passage: When we got to Jesus walking on water back in that original Bible study several years ago, I kinda skipped over it. I think I was trying to keep on a certain pace, and we had run over on our time that night when we were also talking about Jesus feeding the 5,000 at the start of chapter 6, so I just breezed over these verses right at the very end of the evening.

I made the mistake, though, of trying to make a joke out of it by telling the group that not much happened in this story, so we didn’t really need to talk about it—“Jesus walks on water. The disciples are frightened at first, and then they believe.” I tried to make light of it, and now to this day, the people in that Bible study, people that are part of our church today, have not let me forget it.

It’s become a running joke that Rob’s not impressed that Jesus walked on water. But by God’s grace, and his sense of humor, this is the passage that we’ve landed on for our one year anniversary as a church.

And even though this story is brief, I think it’s very practical, but it’s also very easy is to misunderstand and misapply. After the miraculous feeding of the 5,000+ people when they tried to grab Jesus and force him to be their king and free the Jews from the rule of the Romans, verse 15 says Jesus withdrew to be by himself. In Mark’s account of the story, he tells us that Jesus went away to spend time praying to the Father.

Meanwhile, the disciples get in a boat to cross the seven mile wide Sea of Galilee, and about halfway through, they’re met with a big storm. In the middle of the storm, they see Jesus walking towards them—which is much harder to do in the middle of the sea then when you’re next to the shore on the sea—and so it terrifies them. Jesus reveals who he is, verse 21 says they become “glad”, and then they safely and quickly make it to the other side.

It’s a simple story, but it’s really easy to misapply. Because here’s what this passage doesn’t teach. It doesn’t teach that when you don’t have Jesus, everything is hard. And it also doesn’t teach that when you do have Jesus that everything is easy.

There’s no signs in the story that the bad weather came because Jesus wasn’t there. In the other three biographies of Jesus—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—we get another story of Jesus calming a different storm on the Sea of Galilee. And he’s on the boat when that one starts!

Think about his disciples. Several of them seemed to be doing just fine before Jesus invited them to follow him. But when we fast forward to the end of their lives, most of them endure incredible persecution and are killed for their faith. Them following Jesus didn’t make their life easy.

And you might not be following Jesus in your own life right now. And when I say “following”, I don’t just mean living an ethical life—I mean not depending on yourself to make you right with God but resting in who Jesus is and what he’s done in your place through his life, death, and resurrection to make you right with God—and then increasingly letting your life be built upon that foundation and motivation.

You might not be following Jesus like that in your life right now, and it still might feel like you’re doing okay. Like, your life’s not just storms. Or, you might be trying to trust in Jesus and find that life is still hard. This brief story of Jesus walking on water gives us three pictures that can help us see how our effort, our understanding, and our rest can only find their deepest satisfaction in Christ. Let’s start with this first picture of life without Jesus. Look with me at verses 16-18.

John 6:16–18 ESV

¹⁶ When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, ¹⁷ got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. ¹⁸ The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

So, we’ve already laid the setting for the story—Jesus has gone away by himself after feeding the crowd, and the disciples have started their journey to head back to Capernaum. Verse 16 starts off saying, “When evening came”, letting us know that this was the same day that Jesus fed the 5,000+.

And we don’t have any information that should lead us to believe that the disciples did something wrong by leaving Jesus to himself and heading across the sea. They simply left, and a storm came. The picture we get here isn’t that they did something wrong; it’s that without Jesus there, they were left trying to do something on their own.

They didn’t bring about the storm that threatened their safety on the boat. The Sea of Galilee is known for producing big storms. It sits 600 feet below sea level—even New Orleans would be looking down on it—and because of it’s proximity to the mountains, the sea functions essentially like a massive wind tunnel.

So, the disciples going on their own and leaving Jesus behind wasn’t what caused the storm. We just live in a broken world. It’s not the way it should be, so bad things happen, and that makes sense. If a good God created the world, then if that world fell out of the order and purpose he gave it would naturally bring trouble and disaster. That’s what sin is, and that’s what sin did. Our disordered affections away from God has disordered God’s creation away from functioning how it was intended.

So, there’s no feel-good prescription in this passage that tells us to just “do this” and then there will never be another storm in your life. As Christians, we don’t hold onto a shallow belief that life will always be easy. We hold onto God’s promise in Revelation 21 that one day when Christ returns he’ll make all things new. We need that to hold onto because it’s hard to find hope when we act like it all depends on us to survive the storms we face.

But isn’t that what we do? Even for those of us who consider ourselves Christians, it’s easy to fall into the mindset that I’m going to try as hard as I can to do everything on my own and then, once I’ve exhausted every other option—then, I’ll ask for help.

That was me with my parents growing up. I wanted to do everything by myself. If my ball got stuck in a tree, I could get it. If a toy broke, I could fix it… until I couldn’t. Then, I’d turn to my parents and expect them to do what I was failing to do, no questions asked. Almost like that’s what I thought thy were there for—to be a good backup plan.

Have you ever treated God that way? Like he’s just a really good backup? A lot of professing Christians can live like functional atheists as long as we feel like everything is going our way. The disciples didn’t have Jesus with them when they got on the boat, so when it got dark like verse 17 says, he still wasn’t there. “Jesus had not yet come to them.” If we live every day in a broken world, then our greatest hope will come from walking with and trusting in the who created, controls, and has promised to restore the world.

When we zoom out from this passage to look at the broader story of the disciples throughout the gospels, we find a group of men that were often doing something without Jesus, and struggling, but then finding their rest and restoration in being with him. Only twice does Jesus explicitly tell his disciples to stay put and wait on him when he leaves them: once in the garden of Gethsemane and then again after his resurrection when he ascended into heaven.

In the garden, he tells his disciples to sit and wait as he goes away to pray, knowing that he is about to be betrayed by Judas and handed over to be crucified. But each time he comes back, he finds them sleeping. They couldn’t do the task he had given them.

Then, after his resurrection and before he ascends into heaven, Jesus tells his disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the helper he had promised them: the Holy Spirit. This time they do what Christ had commanded, the Spirit is given, and the early church is launched.

At the end of the garden, Jesus is arrested and crucified. At the end of their waiting in Jerusalem, about 3,000 people followed Jesus that first day of the early church. What’s the difference? It’s our effort. Late at night in the garden, the disciples tried in their own power but couldn’t stay awake. During those 10 days between the ascension and the day of Pentecost, the disciples weren’t just waiting to do something in their own power; they were waiting on God’s promise to receive his power.

If we don’t know how rest in the good news of Jesus on days that feel easy, we won’t be able to do it well on days that feel hard. And don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that hard work isn’t a good thing. But the best pictures we get of flourishing in the Bible are people like the Apostle Paul, who in 1 Corinthians 15:10 says he worked harder than any other Apostles. And yet, in Galatians 2:20, in the middle of all his hard work, he says his strength and his purpose didn’t come from himself. He says,

Galatians 2:20 ESV

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We can give our greatest effort and still not have to place our hope in our own performance if we are resting in the work of another. When you let Jesus define who you are, then you don’t have to maintain your image. You can even be vulnerable with others with the ways you fall short because your peace comes from what Christ has done for you and the identity he has given you.

But we can’t rest in the work of Jesus if we don’t truly understand who he is. And for that, we turn to our second picture in the story of Jesus walking on water. Let’s look at verses 19-20.

John 6:19–20 ESV

¹⁹ When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. ²⁰ But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

Monday nights are usually when I do my initial study of a passage I’m going to preach the following weekend. It’s called exegesis—I’m looking at the text, the original language, asking questions, and referencing commentaries to try to “draw out” the original meaning of the passage. We’ve got to know what it means before we can apply it, or we’ll just read whatever we want a passage to mean into the text (which is called eisegesis).

Anyway, this past Monday night, I’m reading through this story, and when I get to verse 19, I just wrote down a simple question: “Why were the disciples frightened?” Like, they know Jesus. They’ve seen him doing some pretty miraculous things (as recently as earlier that day). I mean, yeah, he’s walking on water—we don’t see that very often—but why would they be frightened?

And then I thought about where we live. Macie and I live just a couple blocks from here, and so we love walking with our kids on the lakefront. Old Mandeville’s great for taking a stroll… unless it’s at night. For whatever reason, our neighborhood seems allergic to street lights. There’s hardly any of them.

And so, once it’s nighttime, it’s dark out here. No lit path along the lake. Just straight darkness. So, looking out at Lake Pontchartrain, at night? Sure, I can see why the disciples were frightened.

They didn’t know it was Jesus. They just saw a shape coming at them. If you read this same story in Mark 6, verse 49 says they thought he was a ghost. Now, I don’t do haunted houses. But even for those of you crazy people that do—we’d probably all be afraid of the blob walking on top of the water toward us in a pitch black night with high winds three miles into sea.

But then, in verse 20, Jesus reveals himself, and that changes everything. The phrase our Bible translates as “It is I” in English is “ego eimi” in the Greek, which literally means “I am”. Jesus is going to make seven, major “I am” statements in the gospel of John, and the first is coming shortly after this in verse 35.

It was a common expression to introduce yourself. But given the claims Jesus had been making about throughout his teaching ministry so far, those words point to something even greater. Back in the Old Testament, in Exodus 3, Moses asks God what his name is, so he can tell Pharaoh when he says to let the people go from their slavery in Egypt. In verse 14, God replies, “‘I am who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ’”

So, in the middle of the disciples’ fear, in the middle of harsh winds and danger, it wasn’t just a familiar person that calmed their concerns; it was the acknowledgement that he was their sovereign God—the “I am”. If your understanding of Jesus is that he was a good person or a great teacher, then you might learn something from him, but he won’t give you peace. You might treat him as a role model, but he won’t be able to be your Savior.

Until you see Jesus as God, he can’t do anything for you. But when you do see Jesus as God, then he becomes the foundation for everything for you. Then, looking to Jesus helps you understand yourself. He helps you understand your failures. He helps you understand your circumstances. He helps you understand your purpose in your family, with your friends, and in your job.

You might even believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but if you’re not functionally treating him like the God of the universe, then you might be in awe of him, but you won’t find yourself submitting much to him. Whether it be Jesus or anybody else, the way we relate to them reveals what we truly understand about them.

If you told me that your favorite hobby was grilling steaks and that you know you grill the best steaks on the Northshore—that you put Gallaghers and Keith Young’s and Tchefuncte’s to shame—if you told me that, and I never asked if I could try one? That means I don’t really believe you.

Even if I ask you about how you like to grill and how you season your steaks and am sincerely interested—if this steak lover is not trying to find a way to get one, then deep down I don’t really believe you can come through on your promise. But I probably will want to go to 527 after talking to you, so I can get a good steak.

If Jesus is truly God, then how should we live for him? Not just a moral life, but a Christ-centered life. But every one of us falls short of that. Maybe we grew up religious, but we don’t actually believe in any kind of way that impacts who we are. Or maybe, for much of us who are truly followers of Jesus, our real belief in him is often over-shadowed by a greater focus on ourselves.

Jesus uses the revelation of who he is here as the foundation for telling the disciples not to be afraid. The Greek word that’s used for “do not be afraid” in verse 20 is the same word for “frightened” in verse 19. It doesn’t say the disciples were afraid of the heavy winds. They were afraid of Jesus when he was this mysterious character walking toward them on the water. They were afraid of him because, until he revealed himself, they didn’t know him.

And that rings true for us today as well because a God we don’t know is a God we can’t trust—a God we should rightly fear. Why’s he coming to me? Why does he want with me? But all our questions and concerns about who God is and what he thinks about us find their answers in understanding Jesus. Hebrews 1 calls him the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

No dream, no extra revelation, no charismatic preacher, or anything else can be more effective at drawing you to God and growing you more in your faith than looking to the person and work of Jesus Christ. If you have questions about the Bible, we want to be a church where you feel comfortable asking them. We’re hosting an event at the end of the month called Questioning Christianity for exactly that reason.

But the claim of the Bible is that your peace in life doesn’t come through feeling like you have all of your questions sufficiently answered. True peace comes from knowing the Prince of Peace and having a relationship with Jesus that carries into every aspect of your daily life.

And that’s the blessing of what we see in verse 21 and our final picture of what life looks like with Jesus. Let’s look one more time in our passage.

John 6:21 ESV

²¹ Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

For those that like to ask these sorts of questions: we don’t know what John means by “immediately” here. Was this another miracle, and they suddenly appeared on the other side of the sea? Was he speaking more metaphorically like the gospel of Mark where everything seems to happen immediately (seriously, Mark is the shortest gospel and he uses the word “immediately” over 40 times; the dude doesn’t play around and gets to the point telling the story of Jesus)?

Whatever John means with that word, it’s not the main point of verse 21. At the end of the verse we see what Jesus did for the disciples and at the beginning of the verse we see what Jesus did in the disciples. At the end, John says the boat arrived to where they were going. Even with the crazy wind and waves and all the danger they faced out on the sea—with Christ, they were safe.

Philippians 1:6 promises that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” It might not look the way you expected, and it will be hard, but if you are a Christian, then Jesus is going to finish the work of sanctifying you that started when he first saved you. He’s going to get you to the other side because of his work (not yours).

But if your assumptions about Jesus and the Bible and church are more that this is just something you gotta do and not something you get to enjoy, then as we close this morning I’d encourage you to reflect on what happened to the disciples when Jesus first revealed himself at the start of verse 21: “they were glad to take him into the boat.”

A life with Jesus is meant to be a glad life because it’s a life of rest. We get to rest from our fear when we trust a God who’s greater than the concerns we have. We get to rest from our performance and trying to get to the finish line on our own when he has counted his righteousness to us. And we get to rest from the need to create our own purpose when we live our lives to know God and enjoy him forever.

The Christian life is meant to be a life of joy because it’s a life lived for and through Jesus who loves you so much that he took on what we deserve for ruling our lives apart from God so that we could experience what he deserves as children living in a restored relationship with God.

At the end of the day, the gospel is the good news of Jesus, and in John 6:16-21 we see Jesus moving toward his people to reveal himself, be their source of joy, and bring them safely to the other side. And that’s the same thing he can do for each of us this morning as we repent, turn from our sin, and trust in him.

Let’s pray.