Matthew 14: In the Storm, He Did Not Abandon You

Introduction

"Life isn't always easy, we all know that. Even when you're a Christian." That is how Benoît Lemestrez opens his message, back in Liège, his hometown. He even adds that it is sometimes harder for a Christian: there are the troubles of the world, and on top of that, the opposition of the devil.

The theme came out of a difficult season two years ago, when he met Christians he describes as "cruel." He wondered how someone can have the Holy Spirit in their heart and still be so unkind. Through prayer and reading the Bible, the Lord led him to the last chapters of Matthew: Jesus himself was struck, spat on, and crucified. "If there is anyone who can understand us better than anyone else, it is him."

To unpack this theme, "he did not abandon me," he opens Matthew 14:22-33, the story of Peter walking on water. The same Peter whose shadow would later be enough to heal the sick in Jerusalem (Acts 5:12-16) went through fear and doubt. God does not choose perfect people to serve him. Hence this surprising statement: with God, "failure is good."

Message outline

1. When the wind is against you even though you are with God

Jesus "made" the disciples get into the boat. He is all-knowing, he knows full well what is about to happen, and he allows it.
Peter is a fisherman. He is about to go through one of the biggest failures of his life in his comfort zone, in a boat, on the lake where he works every day. Where you feel most at ease, you don't expect to fall.
"The wind was contrary." Sometimes life is against you. The disciples were sent by Jesus, and yet they go through a storm. The question rises: "Has God abandoned me?"
Meanwhile, the Pharisees, enemies of Jesus, are safe at home, grilling their fish by the fire. It is the friends of Jesus, the ones he loves, who face the wind.

2. Peter's only failure: fear

Jesus comes walking on the water. Everyone is afraid and cries out that it is a ghost. Jesus reassures them: "It is I. Do not be afraid."
Peter, the fearless one, is the one who has to speak up. "Lord, if it is you": that is a conditional, he still doubts. Yet he steps out of the boat and walks on the water.
Then he sees that the wind is strong, becomes afraid, and begins to sink. "His only failure here is fear." For the preacher, fear and faith do not go together: "You believe, you're not afraid. You're afraid, you don't believe."
Jesus tells him, looking him in the eyes: "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" He is firm with the one he loves, the one who will preach at Pentecost to a crowd of whom 3,000 will be converted. Peter could have felt humiliated in front of everyone, and even abandoned.

3. Failure opens the door to a miracle

"How do you expect God to reveal himself to us if everything always goes well?" It is when we go through trouble that the door is wide open to a miracle.
"If we want a miracle, we need a situation that calls for a miracle." Peter should have drowned in the middle of the storm, and Jesus grabs him immediately. He is "qualified for a miracle through failure."
Failure also lets us know God in a different way. Benoît Lemestrez cites the Hebrew verb yada, to know intimately, the one used when Adam knew Eve. Going through failure and coming out the other side means knowing God more closely: "Ah, that's what God is like. Ah, God is able."

4. Failure increases your potential

Potential, the preacher reminds us, is tied to inner strength. With God, it is not a potential you show off, but a hidden one: gifts that grow for the service of God.
Peter has more faith after the storm than before. "The Peter who preaches before the boat and the Peter who preaches after the boat are not the same Peter." He can now tell the story: we were sinking, Jesus walked on the water, I walked too, he took hold of me and put me back in the boat.
You become different because you know a different God, and you bring that difference to those around you. For him, revival means "bringing difference into indifference."
His testimony: the son of Italian immigrants who ran a restaurant, raised with his aunt's saying "You want money? Work," he struggled for twenty years against God's call to live by faith. After a third accident, a coma, and a year and a half in bed, he gave in. His wife, a woman of prayer, had received the same conviction.
With his wife's last paycheck, they set off on mission, with a child already to support. That year, God provided every month "in a phenomenal way." It was the year he set aside more money than ever in his life, and the car he still drives is a gift he received at that time. He adds: "Do it if you really have peace. It really is a calling."
The following year, he took over a school as director when there was no money: it needed 9,000 to 10,000 a month. He now knew that God provides, and God provided every month through gifts. The lesson he had learned gave him a new strategy.
Finally, failure gives discernment. Someone who has never suffered answers a person in crisis with: "What's wrong with you?" Someone who has been through it knows there are seasons. A fruit tree has three seasons of preparation and one season of fruit: there are seasons for learning and seasons for giving.

5. The right to fail, the duty to learn

The Greek word for disciple means one who learns by following a master. "We are disciples until our last breath." When we are older, we are simply a more experienced disciple.
"We have the right to fail, we have the right to miss, but we have the duty to learn the lessons." The worst thing is to come out of suffering without having learned anything, which the Bible calls foolishness. The right questions: what have I learned, what do I need to modify, change, adapt?
John Wesley failed in America, with the same preaching, the same prayer, the same fasting. Back in England, it worked, because he had learned from his failure. John Calvin was driven out of Geneva, then called back, and it was after that that he succeeded.
His family story: abandoned by their father, who lived 800 meters away and never called, the children had to work while their mother, who had cancer, lived on about 900 euros a month.
One of his brothers, who is dyslexic, was told by his teachers that he was "too dumb to continue." He failed his first year, then took the resit exams, then failed again. Every time he called home, he got the same answer: "You don't have time to cry. When you fail, you start over." He finished his final year with distinction.
Later, on the farm where they worked the harvest, this brother saw the farmer's little girl crying; she was dyslexic too. He told her: "I was just like that too. When you fail, you start over."
"Failure is good, but in failure, we have a responsibility." We cannot stay passive. We have to get back up, persevere, fight, because Jesus is with us, "especially when it's hard."

6. Peter, a revealer of potential

It is easy to laugh at Peter, the fearless one who always fails. But look at what he accomplished: he took initiative, he dared, he charged ahead. In the Bible, only two people walked on water: he and Jesus.
"When you go through failure, there is room for progress." Peter had an adjustment to make, an adjustment of faith, and God made it.
Generally, we love the way we were loved and we despise the way we were despised. Without healing of the heart, someone who was mocked will in turn mock those who fail.
But look at Peter in Acts 3:1-11. Facing the man lame from birth at the temple gate called Beautiful, he says: "I have no silver or gold, but what I have, I give you. In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk." And he takes him by the hand to lift him up, exactly as Jesus had taken him by the hand when he was sinking.
Those who have never known failure become "potential killers" and play into the enemy's hands. Jesus, on the other hand, is a revealer of potential. "Leadership is seeing the potential and bringing people into their destiny."
Where others saw only a lame man, Peter saw a man who would walk, leap, and praise God in the temple. He believed the unbelievable. Peter's failure was only an adjustment of faith, and the failure you are going through may be one too.

7. Mindset: I learn or I win

You need "a mindset to succeed in failure." Benoît Lemestrez learned this from Nelson Mandela, unjustly imprisoned for 27 years: in life, there are two things, "I learn or I win."
If you are in a season of learning, ask God what you need to learn. And a piece of advice: "Learn it quickly, so you can move on."
If you are in a season of winning, stay alert, because it is not easy to stay there. Manage your success.
His closing prayer sums up the message: do not believe that, because we go through failure, God has abandoned us. "On the contrary, you have not abandoned us."

Key takeaways

Going through a storm while you are obeying Jesus does not mean he has abandoned you. He knows, he allows it, and he comes to you.
Fear and faith do not go together. Peter's failure was only an adjustment of his faith.
Failure opens the door to a miracle and lets you know God intimately. You come out with more faith and more discernment.
You have the right to fail, but you have the duty to learn. When you fail, you start over.
The one Jesus has lifted up becomes able to lift others up and to see in them the potential God has placed there.

Personal application

In what situation do you feel that "the wind is contrary" even though you are trying to follow Jesus?
What makes you look at the wind rather than at Jesus right now, and what fear is taking the place of your faith?
What recent failure have you not yet faced, so you can ask yourself: what have I learned, what do I need to change?
Are you more of a revealer or a killer of potential toward those around you who fail? Whom could you take by the hand this week?
Are you in a season of learning or a season of winning? What are you asking God for in this season?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

If Jesus sent his disciples into the storm, does that mean he abandoned them?

No. In Matthew 14, Jesus makes his disciples get into the boat, knowing what is going to happen. Benoît Lemestrez points out that the friends of Jesus go through the storm while his enemies are safe at home. The storm is not a sign of abandonment: Jesus comes to them walking on the water and takes hold of Peter by the hand.

What was Peter's failure when he walked on the water?

His only failure was fear. When he saw that the wind was strong, Peter doubted and began to sink. For the preacher, fear and faith do not go together. But Peter also dared: he stepped out of the boat and, along with Jesus, he is the only one in the Bible to have walked on water. His failure was only an adjustment of faith.

How can failure help us grow?

Failure opens the door to a miracle and lets us know God intimately. It makes faith grow, gives discernment, and prepares the next season. On one condition: learning the lesson. Benoît Lemestrez quotes the saying attributed to Nelson Mandela: in life, either I learn or I win.