Back when I was getting a master's degree in
urban planning, I regularly had to drive back
and forth from my work near Baytown and Texas
Southern where over in Third Ward. And there
was this one particular spot on the drive that
I eventually came to dread. See, I would follow
the directions on my phone, okay, and the map
would tell me exactly where to go. And I would
follow the route, make the turns, and eventually
it would direct me toward the freeway. And then
I would arrive at the spot where I was supposed
to get on the freeway. Except there was one small
problem. There was no on -ramp. It wasn't a closed
on -ramp. It wasn't an on -ramp under construction.
It wasn't even an old on -ramp that had been
torn down. There was nothing there at all. And
I would sit there looking at the road saying,
this cannot be right. So I'd drive past it, expecting
then that surely the map would realize something
was wrong and recalculate. Nope. It would reroute
me back to that exact same spot and I'd try again
and again and again and every time the direction
would insist This is where you get on the freeway
and I'd be staring at my phone. There is no freeway
entrance here Why am I talking to you phone and
I'd report it and again and again and apparently
Apple Maps had decided that this Non -existent
on ramp was a hill worth dying on which is one
more reason why I left Apple and got myself a
real phone with Android I'm teasing, I'm teasing.
Jesus died for Apple users, too. Okay. But you
know, there is something about that experience
that is actually more profound than just my long
-standing disagreement with Apple. Because there
are some questions for which we simply do not
have an answer. There are some things that we
just cannot see. Some things we cannot explain.
And if we're honest... There are some questions
about God that bother us more than almost any
others. Because what about the person who has
never heard about Jesus? What happens to them?
What about someone who was raised from childhood
to believe that Christianity is false? What if
they never really had an opportunity to understand
who Jesus is? What happens to them? What about
someone who sincerely wants to know what is true?
but never seems to have a genuine opportunity
to hear the gospel as it really is. What about
the person who believes deeply in mercy, forgiveness,
doing what is right, but never understands that
mercy and forgiveness that they long for are
found in Jesus. What happens to them? And we
want an answer. We want God to show us the map.
We want to know exactly how and why everything
works. We want to understand what happens in
every circumstance, how God's judgment works,
how His mercy works, and how every person fits
into this plan of salvation. And sometimes, despite
all of our theological reasoning, we eventually
come to a very uncomfortable place. We don't
know. And that's hard, because we don't like
not knowing. Especially, we don't like it whenever
we know the question matters. But here's the
thing about not knowing. Not knowing everything
does not mean that we know nothing. Not knowing
everything does not mean we know nothing. And
not having the entire map does not mean that
God has given us no direction at all. For the
record, I did know where a different on -ramp
was to the freeway, and I did know the path to
get home after that. Just because something at
the beginning was confusing me, that didn't mean
I was forever stuck and unable to get where I
needed to go. Christians have wrestled with questions
like ours for centuries. And sometimes... Our
wrestling can take us to some remarkable territory.
We start asking some strange questions. We may
ask, perhaps every religion is somehow secretly
pointing toward Jesus. Or maybe there's some
other path that God provides for people who never
hear the gospel. Or maybe there's some intermediate
state, some place between places in which people
are given another opportunity to come to faith,
whether you are or are not a Star Wars fan. And
there is a place for recognizing there are things
about God's judgment and God's sovereignty that
we don't know. That's true. But there's a danger.
We can become so fascinated with what God has
not revealed that we lose sight of what He has
shown us. There's a distinction between what
God has revealed and what God has kept hidden.
And today, our readings from Romans and Matthew
bring us right into that tension. Romans 10 speaks
powerfully as Paul says, The righteousness based
on faith says, do not say in your heart who will
ascend into heaven. What is Paul talking about?
Why is he suddenly talking about ascending into
heaven? What's that mean? He is exposing one
of the deepest instincts of the human heart.
We want to know what we have to do to get to
God. What ladder do I climb? What spiritual achievement
do I accomplish? What moral standard do I need
to meet? What secret knowledge of God do I discover
or religious system that will get me there? And
even this stuff about you have to believe with
your heart and confess with your mouth. Are these
two different processes? Did I somehow get it
all wrong somehow? No, they're not different
processes. You believe on the inside and you
reflect it on the outside. this whole thing of
how do I ascend into heaven, Paul says don't
ask that question. Why? Because you don't have
to climb up to heaven to find Christ. Christ
has come down to you. Paul says, or who will
descend into the abyss? Paul, you've got a really
terrible travel agent. In other words, don't
ask who is going to go down into the depths to
bring Christ back up from the dead. Why? Because
Christ has already conquered death. He's not
there. You don't have to accomplish His resurrection.
You don't have to discover some secret route
through the kingdom of death. You don't have
to invent some alternate way of salvation. You
don't have to bring Jesus back from the grave.
God has already done it. Christ came down. Christ
died. Christ rose already. And now Paul says
the Word is near you, in your mouth, and in your
heart. And that's the remarkable thing about
the Gospel. We are always tempted to think that
salvation must be Somewhere far away that we
we got to reach somehow We imagine that God is
hiding himself at the top of some mountain and
we have to climb high enough in our spirituality
to find him But the gospel says something completely
different God comes to us Christ comes to us
his spirit comes to us by his word and Paul says
Faith comes from hearing and hearing through
the word of Christ So when we start asking all
these questions about what God might be doing
in circumstances that we cannot see, Romans 10
brings us back to what we do know. We know Christ.
We know His death. We know His resurrection.
We know His promise. We know His Word. And we
know all the thousands of witnesses who saw what
really happened. We know that Christ has commanded
His church to proclaim that gospel. It doesn't
mean that we've solved every mystery. It means
that maybe we don't have to. Think about the
disciples in the gospel reading. This is right
after Jesus was attempting to be alone, sort
of like a parent trying to go to the bathroom
and the kids keep banging, let me in, let me
in. But all the people came to find Him. And
so, He helped them. He fed them with five loaves
and two fish. And Jesus sends the disciples ahead
of Him in a boat. And He stays behind. Imagine
being one of those disciples, and Jesus says,
get in the boat and go. So you go, and you're
rowing across the lake, but Jesus isn't with
you. At least you don't think He is. and the
wind starts fighting against you, and the waves
are pounding against the boat, and it's dark,
and you start wondering, if only Jesus were here,
why did He make us leave without Him? He sent
us out here. He told us to go, but where is He?
How is He even going to get to where we're going?
Is He going to walk all the way around the lake?
Is He going to take another boat? Is He going
to meet us somewhere on the other side? You can
imagine. The disciples trying to figure all this
out. And then in the middle of the night, they
see something coming toward them. What appears
to be walking on the water. They don't recognize
it. If you have been rowing against winds and
waves which are probably kicking up the water
to the low point of visibility, then you're probably
not going to recognize who it is because... How
often do you need to look at a person walking
on water? And there's really only one answer
that they can come up with. It's a ghost! Like
a Terrible Friends episode. And after all this,
somewhere between 3 AM and 6 AM, they're probably
exhausted and brain -dead after a long day of
feeding people and after rowing that far. But
Jesus says, Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid."
Yeah, clearly, everyone's going to be okay with
this now. But we as the readers, we suddenly
realize the mystery has become clearer. Jesus
wasn't lost. Jesus wasn't late. Jesus wasn't
wondering how He was going to get to them. He
was doing something the disciples never imagined
was possible. The shortest distance between two
points is a straight line. And he just walked
across that water. Nobody had that on the schedule.
It wasn't on their list of possible explanations,
top ten ways in which Jesus might get to us.
It wasn't on their bingo card that day. Yet Jesus
did it. Even as they begin to cry out. And I
think that is one of the things that Scripture
keeps teaching us about God, is that God is not
limited to the possibilities that we imagine.
He's not waiting for us to predict what He could
do before He picks what He's going to do. Who
would have predicted that God would save the
world through a crucified carpenter of Nazareth?
Who would have predicted that the Messiah would
conquer death by dying? Who would have predicted
that the tomb would be empty? Who would have
predicted that the risen Christ would come to
frighten disciples in a locked room and say,
Peace be with you? And who, sitting on that shore,
would have predicted that Jesus would simply
walk across the water to catch up with the disciples?
Because God does things that we don't expect.
He's allowed to. And that means there will always
be mysteries about God that we cannot solve.
But notice what Jesus does with His disciples.
He doesn't tell them, stop the boat, stay here
until you understand everything that I'm doing,
and then you can go ahead and pick up again.
He doesn't say, figure out exactly how I'm going
to get to you through the storm before you continue.
He says, go. Trust me. And that's where Peter
comes in. You know, we give him a hard time.
But you see, Peter sees Jesus walking on the
water. He says, Lord, if it is you, command me
to come to you on the water. And Jesus says,
come. How often is it that we say, God, if this
is what you want, let me know, and then we'd
actually be willing to do it? Peter gets out
of that boat. There's something important about
that. Peter didn't just decide that morning,
you know, I think I'm going to walk on water
today. He doesn't manufacture a miracle through
positive thinking. It's not like I believe in
myself and my floatable feet. Peter asks Jesus
for a word. Command me. And Jesus does. Come.
So Peter steps out of the boat because Christ
has spoken. And frankly, that's faith. He may
have trouble with it. It may sometimes be small.
But it's still faith. See, faith is not believing
that I can accomplish something impossible if
I just believe hard enough or if I understand
everything well enough. Faith is trusting the
one who spoke it. See, Peter's confidence is
not ultimately in Peter. Peter's confidence is
ultimately in Jesus. And for a few moments, let's
face it, Peter walks. But then he looks at the
wind, and he looks at the waves. He becomes afraid,
and he begins to sink. And we get judgmental
about Peter, as if the rest of us would have
gotten out of that boat, noticing the other disciples
didn't. But what does Peter say? Does he say,
I need more faith? Does he say, I need to try
harder? Does he say, don't worry, I got this?
Lord, save me. Isn't that what we should always
be doing? Jesus immediately reaches out His hand
and takes hold of him. That is the Gospel. Peter's
faith, it's little, it falters, he sinks, but
Jesus saves him. Who does he cry out to? And
that brings us back to Romans 10. Because we
can spend an enormous amount of time trying to
argue questions about things that God has not
revealed. What about the person who never heard?
What about someone who has taught something else?
What about the person who never really understood
Jesus or all the mysteries surrounding the judgment?
And we can keep asking those questions until
we have constructed some elaborate machinery
to try to explain something that Scripture never
really explained. But eventually, we have to
come back to what Jesus actually told us. Paul
says, how are they to call on Him in whom they
have not believed? How are they to believe in
whom they have never heard? And how are they
here without someone preaching? Faith comes from
hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
And that is what we know. We know that Christ
saves. We know that Christ has commanded His
gospel to be proclaimed to everyone. We know
that people hear the gospel. We know the Spirit
creates faith through God's Word. We know that
we've been entrusted with that proclamation.
We don't know every mystery surrounding God's
hidden work, but we know what He has given us
to do. I want you to imagine you're watching
someone driving a car at an incredible speed
toward the edge of a cliff. You see the cliff,
you see the car, you know what's about to happen,
and you start shouting, stop, don't keep driving,
you're heading toward the cliff. Now, imagine
someone standing beside you, there's always that
one friend, saying, well, if they didn't hear
you, perhaps there's a cable hidden somewhere
that will catch the car, maybe. Perhaps there's
some mechanism you don't know about. Perhaps
someone actually put a parachute into that car.
Perhaps there's some other possibility you don't
see. Would you stand there and say, well, since
there might be some mysterious mechanism that
I don't know about, I guess there's really no
reason to warn the driver? Of course not. Those
are crazy. You know the way to save that person.
Tell them to stop. You don't need to know every
possible thing that might happen. You know what
you have been given to do. And that is something
of what Paul is saying. We don't proclaim Christ
because we've solved every mystery of God's sovereignty.
We proclaim Christ because Christ commanded us
to do it. We don't know everything God is doing,
but we do know that that is where salvation lies.
That is where salvation exists. What He has revealed
is enough to give us our mission. But there's
something else to consider too. Sometimes we
assume that because we don't understand how God
could possibly work, God might not actually be
doing that work after all. Matthew 14 deprives
us of that arrogance. The disciples did not know
how Jesus was going to get across the lake. They
could not have imagined the answer. Let's just
not go until we understand everything that God
is doing. But suddenly, there He was. not when
they were waiting for Him on the shore, but coming
to them across the water as they had followed.
The disciples could not have imagined the resurrection
either, but the tomb was still empty. They could
not have imagined God bringing salvation through
a cross, but the cross was still the place where
God accomplished redemption. They couldn't have
imagined how Christ could conquer death, but
He still did it. So perhaps there are things
about God's work that we don't understand and
frankly that should make us humble it should
not make us hopeless Because the God who does
things that we cannot imagine is also the God
who has given us a promise that we can trust
The promise of grace and forgiveness in his son
and his sacrifice There's a beautiful distinction
between God's hidden work and his revealed work
There are things that God has hidden from us
but We don't pull back the curtain to try to
find the wizard in Oz. God has revealed Himself
already in Jesus. And when we want to know who
God is, we look there. We don't climb into heaven
to look for extra opportunities for grace. We
don't descend into the abyss because we need
to fix this whole crucified Jesus thing. We don't
search for secret knowledge. We don't need alternate
paths. we look to Christ. And Christ comes to
us through His Word. And that's why the church
preaches. That's why the missionaries go. That's
why the parents teach their children. That's
why the Christians tell their neighbors. That's
why we gather around the Scriptures. That's why
we need all of you involved in the ministry here.
Because we don't want people to have to guess
who God is. We want them to hear. And how are
they to hear without someone preaching? The answer
is they can't. And even more than that, the very
thing that changes our hearts, the rebellious
ones, into being people who actually embrace
God, that comes through the Word itself. Our
hearts need more than just a message. They need
the power of God through that Word to change
them, to reform them, to kill off the old and
to bring them to the new. And that only happens
as God proclaims His Word through us. He sends
His church, He sends His people, He sends the
gospel, and He puts the words into our mouth.
And through that creates faith. You know, there
was one time where I was still on the crazy phone,
and I tried to go from Illinois into St. Louis.
But the iPhone, for some reason, sent me through
East St. Louis instead of keeping me on the freeway.
If you know anything about East St. Louis, you
know you do not want to be driving there unless
you have to. and there were about a dozen people
standing around a giant barrel with fire coming
out of it, and someone's front yard, and I still
have no idea why, and I did not stick around
to find out. But fortunately, while I did not
understand why the iPhone sent me there, I did
finally make my way through and get home. There
are always times where we come across something
that leaves us wondering. There are questions
we can't understand. There are things about God's
sovereignty that are mysterious. And there are
always moments where we look at the storm and
say, where's Jesus? Moments in our circumstances
where we say, I don't understand what God is
doing. But our faith doesn't require that we
understand everything about God. It asks us to
trust the God who has already revealed Himself.
And so with Peter, we just say, Lord, save me.
As Jesus says, come. We don't know what tomorrow's
going to look like. We don't know if the water's
going to hold us, and we don't know when and
how God is going to solve the problems. Any of
them. The mystery for now looks unresolved, but
Christ is still saying, come. We know who conquered
death. we know who rose from the grave. And we
know who has promised that whoever calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved. So we don't have
to find some alternate path to God or some alternate
path to conquer the problems of this world. Christ
has already died, risen, and brought His Word
to us. So go. Go and proclaim what you do know.
Go and tell people. Go and make disciples. Let
them hear. Because we may not know everything
that God is doing, but we know what He has done.
And we know the One who is with us. So when the
wind is against us, we keep going. When the waves
are high, we keep going. When we don't understand,
we keep going. And when our faith is little,
we keep going. When we sink, we cry out, Lord,
save me. Because where else will we find salvation?
And the hand that reaches for us is the same
one extended on the cross the one who walked
across the water is the one who walked out of
the tomb and The one who says come says I am
with you always even to the end of the age So
we may not know everything but we do know Christ
and We know who he truly is and that he wants
all people to know him and for today That is
enough. Thanks be to God.