Is Jesus in Your Boat?

 

John 6:19 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.

Matthew, Mark, and John all wrote about their experience of Jesus walking on the water. You remember that account of the disciples all in the boat during a bad storm and seeing Jesus walking toward them on the water.

Although they all told about the same experience, what stood out in that experience was different for each person.

For example, only Matthew talks about Peter joining Jesus on the water. That has always been the emphasis in the story when I have heard it taught or preached about.

Neither Mark nor John saw that as the most important part of the story. Neither one mentions Peter getting out of the boat, walking on the water toward Jesus, then looking at the waves and starting to sink!

What is the same in all the accounts is that they were all afraid.

They were all glad to have the presence of Jesus in their boat when He got there. His presence gave them comfort. It took away their fear.

All three men recount that Jesus calmed the storm as soon as He entered their boat.

And this is a key truth we can learn from Matthew's, Mark's, and John's accounts of their experience in that boat.

The most important thing in any experience we have is not what miraculous things happen or what we can do (even with God’s help). 

No, what is important is whether we have invited Jesus into our boat. 

That is when He will bring calm in us no matter what storm we are going through.

Is Jesus in your boat?

The Good Shepherd and His Sheep

                                               

Ezekiel 34:31 You are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.

As soon as I read this chapter of Ezekiel, I thought about other chapters in the Bible that talk about a shepherd and sheep. David wrote about that in Psalm 23, and in the Gospel of John in the New Testament, chapter 10, Jesus speaks of Himself as the Good Shepherd, caring for His sheep. 

The comparisons are striking, considering that Ezekiel lived and prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus came to the earth.    

Ezekiel 34 begins with an indictment against the false shepherds who used the sheep but did nothing to help them in their needs. Jesus spoke of the same thing in John 10.  

Ezekiel 34:12 says: As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered ... 

       Psalm 23:5 = You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 

          In John 10:16 Jesus says: I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. 

Ezekiel 34:14 - I will feed them with good pasture ...    

     Psalm 23:1 = The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

          In John 10:9 Jesus says: I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.  

Ezekiel 34:15 says:  I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.                                                                                      

     Psalm 23:2 = He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters ... 

          In John 10:27 Jesus says:My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Ezekiel 34:16 - I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak ... 

      Psalm 23:4 = Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

          In John 10:28 Jesus says: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 

I wonder if the disciples thought of this passage from Ezekiel along with Psalm 23 when Jesus talked to them, as I did.

If I ever doubted the truth of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, these three chapters of the Bible would end it all.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, 

     the fulfillment of prophecy, and 

         God's special plan for caring for His children.