Page 25 - Fundamentals Ebook

more. Give yourself until empty and bring your basket for more.”
How to obey an impossible command; give yourself out empty and
keep coming to Jesus. That was the lesson of the loaves. Now our
Lord Jesus is going to test them to see if they learned the lesson of
the loaves; to trust Jesus to do the impossible.

We know that something very spiritual is going on because Jesus
did something here that He never did before and that He never did
again. It’s a very strong word in the original language. Matthew
14:22, “And immediately He made the disciples get into the boat,
and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes
away.” He made them get into the boat. He forced them. That’s
the word. Maybe they said, “We’ll help you clean up.” He said,
“Get in the boat.” Maybe they said, “We’ll wait for You.” He said,
“GET IN THE BOAT!” And it was with such a force, that they had
no choice. They had to get into the boat.

Mark 6:45 teaches the same thing. “And immediately He made His
disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to
Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the multitude away.”
Here was the command, “You go in the boat and I’ll meet you at the
other side. I’m going to meet you at Bethsaida.” Now, these were
fishermen. They may have made that trip many times. It would be
easy to obey the Lord. That’s not difficult to go to the other side.
But they were in a test; He will send a storm.

John 6:18, “And the sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind
was blowing.” I’m going to let the Bible describe how terrible this
storm was. It said that a strong wind was blowing. Matthew 14:24,
“But the boat was already many stadia away from the land, battered
by the waves; for the wind was contrary.” They are being battered
by the waves. Don’t confuse this storm with the storm when Jesus
fell asleep in the boat. Those are two different storms. When He
fell asleep in the boat it was a matter of life and death. Their lives
are not in danger in this storm. This has to do with their sanity. This
is not about surviving. It’s about overcoming.