LIFE IS A MAZE(ing) | God's Voice or Bad Pizza | John 10:1-21 | Week 7

If you really packed the guys in, you could probably get 15 people in one of those boats.  These guys were pros and they'd been on this sea hundreds of times in their lives.  They'd been there in the middle of the night because some of the best fishing happened in the middle of the night.  As they started to go across that 13 mile journey from one end of the shore to the other in the Sea of Galilee, a huge storm just came out of nowhere and started buffeting against their boat.  You can imagine wind and waves and water rushing to your face.  You couldn't see anything anyway since it was pitch dark; three in the morning by this time.  Inevitably, the question had to come up, because all the disciples would have been asking it:  Whose idea was it that we cross the lake in the middle of the night?  You guessed it!  Jesus's idea.  You wonder if there was a conversation that happened back and forth:  Man, we've been trusting that guy with an awful lot, is he trustworthy, because it certainly seems like this little boat is going down?   It was at that point that they looked out, and shining through the darkness looked like a ghost.  A ghost!  Out of the darkness comes a voice:  Take heart!  It is I!  Do not be afraid!    If you're one of the disciples, you might have shouted back: That's easy for you, Jesus!  You're not the one seeing the ghost, or somebody walking on water!  Either way, it's a bit frightening!    Take heart it is I, do not be afraid. (Matt. 14:27)  The next thing that happens is shocking.  I for one am so glad.....Peter gets a bad rap, but I'm so glad Peter's there.  Any time you start to get down on Peter, just remember, he's one of only two people that have ever lived that have ever walked on water!  So don't slam him too quickly.  We wouldn't have nearly the humorous stories we have in the Bible if it weren't for Peter.  Lord, if it's you, if it's really you....I know that you've said it's you, but if it's you command me to come out on the water.  Come.  Come.  Not...Peter, I want to assure you this is Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah, the long-awaited King of Israel.  Here's my ID.  Here's my driver's license.  Let me give you just a few things only you could know about, Peter.  I want to assure you it's me.  None of that.  Just.....come.  I can imagine Peter getting up on the edge of this little 15-person fishing boat.  Pitch dark.  Wind. Waves. Getting ready to step out of the perfectly good boat, that seems to be holding up, even in the midst of the storm, into the middle of the sea.  I wonder if he's thinking as he's stepping out, "How sure am I?  Sounds like your voice, but I'm not so sure..."