Jackpot!

look chapter 5 where you can find it in your order of worship, and I'm going to read the first five verses to get it started. So I said, you hear the word of God. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gineceret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, master, we told it all night and took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. Father, I pray this morning that, as we come before you to hear your word, I pray that we would hear that which you want us to do that which you want us to be that which you want us to believe. And like Simon, maybe in the midst, even of skepticism, we will say, none the less I will do it, Lord. I pray that you'd open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. I pray that you would be in my head, in my thinking, in my heart, in my understanding, and in my mouth, in my speaking. In Jesus' name, we pray the things, amen, amen. Well, if this is your first time visiting, we're about a month in, I think, to a series on Luke, started in chapter 4. And in chapter 4 of Luke, remembered Jesus basically came and he proclaimed his mission, that it was to proclaim the good news to the poor and proclaim the good news to the outcast and the oppressed, to proclaim liberty to the captives. And we looked at last week, Jesus healed a whole bunch of people. And they came to him, please don't ever leave us because you are able to do this. And Jesus said, no, I must go and preach the gospel, the good news of the kingdom. And today we pick up on that where he said, I have to go. And today he actually does that. But there's something more that's happening here. And it has to do with the purpose also of the gospel of Luke. So if you remember the purpose, basically what I told you the first week, about a month ago, was part of the purpose of the gospel of Luke is that you would know for sure. Remember the first or versus, he writes this person named Theophilus and says basically having, you know, I gathered the information, I talked to the witnesses and it seemed like the thing to do that I would record all this so that you might know for sure these things that have been taught about Jesus. So Luke really is concerned that people who read his gospel know for sure what's going on. And in order to know for sure what's going on, he also adds something to that and I'm going to add to the purpose this morning. It's not just to know for sure what's going on, but he wants you to know for sure what the truth is about Jesus, but he also wants you to respond appropriately to that truth. So the purpose, the bigger picture of the purpose is to know for sure the facts about Jesus, but then also respond appropriately to those facts. And to that end, who we meet this morning, among other things, is sort of a, for lack of a better term, I'm going to term drill sergeant Jesus. Now when you read this passage, I'm probably the only human being in the world that looks at that and says that reminds me just of a drill sergeant. Now why is that? You see as we jump into today's text, if you've ever been in the, at least in the army, I don't know what the other services do, but when you go to basic training, every single thing that you were taught is prefaced by the following statement. Gentlemen, you will now receive an explanation demonstration, practical application of your M16A1 rifle. Are there any questions at this time? I did not think so. In that exact order and the words, they don't, I didn't conflate them. There sort of aren't any questions. You're just going to get it, right? Gentlemen, you will receive an explanation demonstration, practical application of the M203 grenade launcher. They're going to question that this time. I did not think so. What is Jesus doing here? You see if the purpose of the gospel is to know the truth of Jesus, but also to respond appropriately, what Jesus is going to do today is not just teach us the truth of the gospel, but he's going to give us an explanation demonstration and practical application of what he expects us to do. What he expects Peter to do, ultimately what he expects us to do, Jesus is going to give an explanation, demonstration and practical application of what it means to go man-catching or becoming or being a fisher of men. In other words, he's going to teach us that that's important, but he's going to teach us by actually doing it. And so, as we think about that, consider the outline of this or the points. You know, it would be really easy if we're just going to walk through this because on one hand it's this whole story. I mean, basically what happens? You have an introduction. They get on the boat. Jesus talks to Peter. Peter talks to Jesus. They catch a bunch of fish. Peter talks to Jesus. Jesus talks to Peter. They take the boat back in. Stories over. Go watch the Super Bowl.

However, I thought let's have a little more fun with it than that. And so, the first point we're going to look at this morning is the fact that Jesus communicates and initiates. Jesus communicates and initiates. And in order to, I had fun with the rhyming dictionary. So, what we also see, secondly, is that Peter evaluates, authenticates, collaborates, disintegrates, and ultimately adumbrates.

Not so simple as that I made it out at first, is it? And for those who are wondering what adumbrates means, it basically means something like foreshadow. Then, remember, if Peter, we're going to have here an example of the way to catch people, but also the proper response to Jesus. And what you're going to see is in Peter an adumbration, or in other words, a foreshadowing of what his life will be like in the future. And it's a foreshadowing of what his life will be like in the future, but the way he uses his mouth, because Peter tends to be sort of ready-fire aim, right? He tends to say something, and then he tends to actually do the right thing. And we're going to see that today as well. Finally, we're going to see that Jesus alleviates the gates and necessitates, okay? So, all those things, I had great fun rhyming them. Let's look first at Jesus, the fact that Jesus communicates, verses 1 and 2. So, on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Genesis, and he saw two boats by the lake, but fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. And I'll read the, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon. He asked him to put out a little from land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. So, in some sense, the way Luke opens this particular passage, he says, on one occasion, let me tell you this particular story. So, it isn't necessarily chronologically right after the healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law, but we can take it that way. The crowds are pressing in to hear Jesus teaching for one. Now, the question people often talk about it, why were the crowds so attracted to Jesus? Was it his authority? Was it that he cast out demons? Was it he healed? All of that, there's truth to that. Here, he hasn't done anything yet. Probably the reason, it's a lot less spiritual than that, is it, you know, in ancient Near East, he's the only game in town at the time. In other words, it's like, what do you want to do today? I don't know, there's an out-of-work carpenter preaching down by the lake. You want to go see him? Sure, let's go. What else is there to do? We can clean up after the animals again, or we can sweep the dirt floor again. What do you want to do? So, in some sense, he was the only game in town. So, of course, everyone would come to see him. But what's interesting, when everyone came to see him, what he taught him, it says that they were pressing around in on him to hear the word of God. Now, if you connect the dots, remember that Jesus said during the last passage, that I can't just stay here in Capernaum because I have to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God. And so, how does Jesus preach the good news of the Kingdom of God? Well, he teaches the word of God. In the ancient Near East, in New Testament times, the word of God would have been what? The Old Testament. In other words, Jesus is preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God from the Old Testament. And so, if you wonder where are we getting all the stuff? Jesus, Luke is really interested in the fact that Jesus sees himself as the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament. And so, by the time you get to the chapter 24, remember that the whole road to Emmaus thing is Luke's. Where Jesus taught these disciples everything about himself from the law of the prophets and the writings. So, he's teaching them about the Kingdom of God, but he's definitely probably using the Old Testament there. And they're crowding around it, and he's standing by the Lake of Genescer. And it's just, you know, this is sort of fun Bible trivia. The Lake of Genescer is also called the Sea of Galilee. And so, what's Luke say this? And you know, probably Luke has been, is an international traveler. He has sailed the Mediterranean and all the Asiatic seas with the Apostle Paul. He's the only gospel writer that refers to the Sea of Galilee as a lake. In other words, he's been sailing on the broad wide oceans and all these people who think that the Sea of Galilee is a big deal. He's like, hey, another but a lake, right to me. It's just a little thing. So, if you're wondering, what is this place? It's the Sea of Galilee. Luke just doesn't think it's that big of a deal. Okay? And so, what's finally, it says, he taught them, and he taught, well, first of all, he goes into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from land that he sat down and taught the people from the boat. Now, why did he do this? It was just practical, probably. For one, he needed to get some space between him and the people so that they could see him, maybe he could eye contact, but also water, sound travels about seven times as far over water. So, it's just natural amplification. He could teach more people. And that's what he does. So, he's teaching the Word of God. He's at the Sea of Galilee and he is teaching. And now, he needs some place to go. It's crowded and there's two boats there. It says, and did it ever, why didn't he pick the boat? If it was me, I'd probably pick the boat that wasn't being used. But instead, he does something else. He actually picks the boat that Simon happens to be on. And I think he does that intentional. In fact, it's pretty clear he does that intentionally. Notice how he initiates. It says, well, in verse three, he chooses Simon's boat. In verse four, when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down nets for a catch. So, remember, I told you, Jesus is going to give us an explanation, demonstration, and practical application of how to be a man, catcher, fissure of men. This is one of the most practical things you're ever going to see. So, Jesus wants to initiate with Peter. And the way he initiates is by asking for help. He actually asks him for, I need something from Peter. In other words, if you, you know, maybe you're a Christian and you think, man, I really like to talk to my neighbors. I really like to get to know them better. And ultimately, you know, maybe I'm invited to church or whatever. If you want to get to know your neighbors better, the easiest way that I can think of is go over to their house and ask them to help you move some furniture or ask them to help you with your car or ask them to help you with anything most people. They love showing off their skills. And so, you ask them for help and they go, so Jesus goes to Peter and he asks Peter for some help and something, which Peter has quite a bit of skill. Plus, if it is chronological, Peter, Jesus probably wasn't thinking this, but Peter probably thought, well, you know, I owe him one because he just healed my mother-in-law. How could I say no? But he certainly goes to Peter. In the middle of the crowd, he chooses him and he initiates with him, asks him for help. And then he does something in Peter's mind, we know clearly was crazy, as he says to him, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. That makes all this in the world, right? You're a carpenter. You've probably never been fishing in your whole life. You're in my boat. And now you want me to drop the nets that I have just spent all night washing into the water, all the sense in the world. But Jesus tells them, let down your nets. And he doesn't say just let down your nets. Jesus actually adds a little bit of a hoots by here. He doesn't say just let down your nets and let's see what happens. In other words, he's not out on the boat. And he's like, hey, we're out on the boat and you're a fisherman. Can we try and catch something? He doesn't say that. He gives them a command. He says let down your nets into the deep, right? There would have been a shelf with a steep drop off between the low water and high water. And he doesn't say just let him out and let's see what happens. He says you put your net out for a catch. And so he initiates the question is how will Peter respond? Peter responds like Peter always responds. First of all, he evaluates with his mouth. Verse 5, it says in Simon answered master. We toil all night and took nothing. And what Peter is saying, you know the word master there, in Greek could be translated as master, ie, I'm a slave and you're the master, or it could mean something like boss, could mean something like chief, in some situations it could even be slang for something like bulb. In other words, he's saying to Jesus, knowing everything we know about, Peter is probably saying, yeah, hey, Bob, we've been out all night and we didn't catch anything. In other words, I'm the fisherman and you're not. We've been out all night, they would have fished at night because apparently the kind of fish that were in deep water, you could only catch them at night. And so Peter been out at the best time to fish, the best places to fish and we caught nothing. And after you come and you're telling me to get all of my clean nets dirty in the middle of the day in order to have a catch.

So what's Peter going to do? He gave his opinion, he gave his evaluation of the situation which I think he thought it was a stupid thing to do, he's skeptical, right? Some of you might be here and you're thinking, you know, however you've got here and you're not a Christian, you're a little bit skeptical as well. You say, you know, I hear all this stuff about Jesus and I just don't know if I believe it. Peter knows what you feel, but I'd encourage you to do also what Peter did. Notice how he authenticates what Jesus says. He says, master, we toil all night and took nothing, but at your word, I will. At your word, I will let down the nets. In other words, he says to Jesus, I'm skeptical that you have a clue what's going on here. On the other hand, what have I got to lose? In fact, for Peter here, he can only win because either only one of two of them is going to happen if he throws his nets into the deep. He's going to throw his nets overboard in the middle of the day when there's no possibility for catching fish and he's going to catch something and then Jesus will at least not be seem crazy to him or he's going to throw his nets over and catch nothing in which case his skepticism will be well justified and kick Jesus out of the boat and he can go on with his life. But either way, after throwing his nets in the water, he'll know one way or the other if Jesus is something to be reckoned with, someone to be reckoned with. And so, he says, I will. And I encourage you to do that as well if you're here and you're not a Christian, you skeptical. Have you really checked out Jesus? Have you really thought about, yeah, what does it mean to follow him? What does it mean to trust him? For those of your Christians, guess what? Same thing for you. If you're like me, you're constantly sort of evaluating situations and saying there's no chance that this is going to change or no chance that that person is going to change. And yet the gospel says, you know, I can change anybody. The gospel says that there's nothing beyond Jesus's scope of healing. And so when Jesus says, are you going to trust me on this? What are you going to do? I encourage you to do like Peter and say, you know what? It seems like a crazy idea, but I'm going to go ahead and try. So he does and what's the result? Well, Peter then ends up having to collaborate. Notice it says in verse six, when they had done this, they enclosed the large number of fish and their nets were breaking and they signaled to the partners and the other boats even helped them and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. And what's interesting here is to see you see in one verse, Peter's faith, or at least his conviction about Jesus completely transforms and grows. And we know that because of what he does. So in other words, Peter, they let their nets down. And when they've done this, they closed the large number of fish and nets were breaking and signaled their partners. So at this point, Peter's not particularly impressed. He's happy, but we know that he just thinks that Jesus is either lucky or that somehow this carpenter has figured out a secret fishing spot because what Peter does is he doesn't yell out. He doesn't say, hey, we got a bunch of fish here because he doesn't want all the rest of the people that the other fishermen to know about his secret spot. And so what he does is he signals his partners. In other words, they're on the boat over there. Peter's like, they're not. Get over here, they come over and they start putting fish in there. And at some point, Peter realizes that this is bigger than we just got a net full of fish because his boat is full and James and John's boats full and the boats get into sync. And apparently, if that minute Peter realizes, this is huge. Because even in the best case scenario, you don't fill up two boats with fish to the point where they're beginning to sync. There must be something about this man Jesus and Peter responds appropriately. Notice what he says. He says in verse 8, he said, when Simon Peter saw it, that they're both syncing, he fell down at Jesus knees saying, depart from me. For I'm a sinful man, O Lord. Now, when he says, Lord, that's pretty big. It's a pretty big step for master. I mean, Lord could be the word that you use to refer to God. Probably that's Peter's that smart, or at least he's not that smart yet. And that he knows like, this is God in front of me. On the other hand, he definitely realizes that just God's man, that this man speaks for God. He's God's prophet. And the way he responds is much like Isaiah responded in chapter 6 of his book when he came into the presence of God. Remember, he came into the presence of God. And he says, woe is me. I am undone. Isaiah was disintegrated in the presence of God. He began to sort of come apart. And that's what Peter says. He recognizes that something about this man bears the presence of God. And in his presence, it makes me literally disintegrate come apart. And so what does he tell Jesus? Depart from me. For I'm a sinful man. Now, Peter, remember I told you Luke is all about the right information and the right response. And what you see with Peter is the right response to an encounter with Jesus. If you really understand who he is, he's not just an out-of-work carpenter who has to be lucky at fishing. He really is God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity who has come down to live the life you should live. And to die, the death you should have died. And in him is the exact representation of the person of God. He is God himself. And the only response to that is to admit who you are, to do anything else is dishonest. And frankly, he doesn't expect anything else. And what was Peter supposed to say? Right? He's supposed to give me the polling dynamite, lucky, right? What was he supposed to do? He can either make excuses for why all these things happen or just admit that not only could he not admit it happened, but that he doesn't even deserve to be in this person's presence. And if the gospel's true, you and I don't deserve it either. That's why we talk about grace so much. You see, the gospel is true because the gospel says you don't deserve to be in the presence of Jesus, but he comes and seeks you in me out anyway. I mean, the amazing thing to me about rabbi, Jesus is opposed to rabbi. Anyone else is that rabbi, anyone else, the way that rabbi's would function in the ancient Near East is they would sort of set up shop, I would imagine in their home or someplace. And all the best students would come to their house and try to get in. Right? They would bring their transcripts maybe and their SAT scores and letters from their former tutors. And they would say, would you please accept me into your rabbi ship under your tutelage? And they would be very happy to say, well, you know, you're good enough common, you're not good enough. Go find someone else, you're good enough, you're not good enough. Jesus the rabbi does exact opposite thing. Well, the other rabbis are saying, impress me. Jesus says, are you impressed with me? And if he pursues, not only does he pursue students, but he pursues the worst students. Not only does he, he pursues people who weren't even thinking about being a student. He pursues people that weren't even thinking about being scholars for sure. In other words, Jesus pursues the worst of centers. And if Jesus pursues the worst of centers, part of us should admit, well, we don't deserve that. On the other hand, there is something good about that. It's an honor, at least, some good news. And that's what Jesus gives to Peter. Jesus gives Peter some good news. But he's more than good news. He also gives him a commission. I think the way I put it is that Jesus alleviates and he delegates. Notice what Jesus says to Peter when Peter says, I'm a sinful man. He says, at the end of verse 10, says in Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid from now on, you will be catching men. So what does he mean here? Well, first, he says, don't be afraid. In other words, Peter, I guess was afraid maybe of judgment, afraid of being in the presence of someone holy. Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 3? He said, I didn't come to judge the world. The world's already under judgment. I came to save the world. In other words, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, let me give you some good news. There's no reason to be afraid of him. And if you're here, maybe you called yourself a Christian for 10, 15, 20, 30 years, let me give you some good news as well. You could stop working so hard to please him. You could stop working so hard to gain his acceptance because guess what you have? You always have. If you have trusted Jesus, you have the utter and complete acceptance of God because he sees you with all the righteousness that he sees Jesus with because at the cross Jesus took your sin and gave you his record. And so there's no need to be afraid. So Jesus alleviates, but he also delegates. Jesus has been in the process. You've watched him actually catch a man. And now Jesus delegates the task that he was carrying out to Peter and ultimately to the rest of the church. So notice what he says. And he says, from now on, you will be catching men. Notice what he doesn't say. I love it. You've got to love the fact that Jesus speaks Peter's language. In other words, Peter is a fisherman. And every fisherman that I have known which I'd been fished every day almost of my childhood and I hung out at the fish house as I was growing up. They tend to be swar. They at least professional fishermen. And Jesus doesn't go to Peter and say, Peter, do not be afraid. From now on, you'll be engaged in the theological ecclesiastical task of gathering people unto me. It's called evangelism, or you can call it the order of salutes. You can call it anything you'd like, but it's going to be your job, pal. He doesn't say that. He says, Peter, from now on, you spent your life catching fish from now on. You're going to be catching men. You see that over there? The boat full of fish, the nets over. Can you see that? It's going to be just like that. Just like that. But it's going to be men. And you know, you catch your fish and they die because people eat them. The word here says, catch alive. You will be catching men alive. In other words, it's like this great catch and release program, Peter. You're going to catch them. And they will be released from their sins. And you are going to catch a boatload. And if you don't believe that, when you look at the rest of Luke's gospel and you look at the book of Acts, remember in Acts chapter 2, when Peter preached, 3,000 bulls were added to their number that day. That's a boatload of men whom Peter has caught. But ultimately, that commission, I remember Luke is to get the whole church mobilized in mission. The commission is also given to anyone who had trust Jesus, to anyone who had trust him. In other words, if you call yourself a Christian, just as integral, to integral, to reading your Bible maybe and praying is also being outwardly faced. Some people think, well, you know, that's just something evangelists do. That actually is not. It's something that Christians do. And most Christians, if you've never been able to see someone become Christian, like you never talked to them, most people, the only thing that keeps them from success is they just don't do it. Some of the people that I know have been the best at being fishers of men would say that they don't have a gift, that they don't have a gift of evangelism. What they do is they actually just tell people about Jesus. More people they tell, sometimes people believe and sometimes they don't. You see because fishing, whether you're talking about actual fish or you're talking about men and women, it's ultimately dependent upon the sovereignty of God and God's good grace and His good pleasure. That's why Peter had been fishing all day and God provided nothing. But you could have insured getting nothing by not going fishing at all. In other words, is salvation up to God? Does God initiate with whom He will? Absolutely. But one sure way you can make sure He never catches anyone within your spheres of influence is if you never tell them. And the question is, is do you have any spheres of influence? In other words, in Peter's day, they would figure out where the souls of fish are and they would work those. Where are the people that you interact with that desperately need Jesus? Let me ask you this. Is there something that keeps you from interacting with them? Because that's really what the last part of this text is about as well, I think. Notice that Jesus necessitates the last verse. It says, when they brought the boats to land and left everything, when they brought their boats to the land, they left everything and followed Him. Now, in the Middle East, they would tell stories and they would exaggerate to make you get the point. And so probably, they didn't probably just roll right up to the shore and just leave everything. Peter never talked to his wife, children, or anything. He'd just left and followed Jesus. But it was probably a matter of weeks or months where he divested himself of everything else because Jesus has your vocation is now this. They left everything to follow Jesus. And the question I'd ask you, if you're not a Christian or if you are a Christian, is what is it they're holding on to that's keeping you from following Jesus? Is it your sin? Is it some idol, something that you just would, you can't imagine living without? Some people, it's material goods. For some people, it's nostalgic, it's history, for some people, it's control. For some people's keeping things the way they are. It's any number of things. What is it that you need to let go of in order to follow Jesus more closely? Whether you're a Christian or not? What is the thing that can make you better at being a fisher of men? What's going to make you better at catching? You know, it's hard to throw a net when your hands are all full of everything else. You see, the question is, until you come to that point, really, you won't probably have that much success. When I used to train church planners and one of the things I used to teach them all the time, as I'd say, if you want to have success as a church planner, if you want things to work, you need to remember the Gadigah principle. And I'll close with this, I made up that by the way, but the Gadigah principle based on the movie Gadigah, which is set in the not too distant future, it's a murder mystery, it's great, but really it focuses on two boys that eventually become man. You see in the not distant future, at least in the movie Gadigah, parents, if they want to, they can actually genetically engineer their children to be practically perfect. And so what you end up having, you have a class system where some people who are created genetically perfect, they're basically faded to succeed. And other people, they call faith babies. And you can imagine how faith baby is conceived, not in the lab, but normally. And in this family, the first child born is a faith baby. His name is Vincent. And in fact, the father is so disappointed in him when he is born. The doctor says, what do you want to name him? And the mother says, let's name him after the father, Anton. And the father immediately ejects. It says, nope, let's say Anton for the perfect child. So Vincent starts with a lick against him. And as the boys are growing up, since older, but Anton is always better than him, Anton's always growing bigger and faster, smarter. And several times in the movie, what you see is the play this game of chicken, which is fascinating. They go to the ocean, that starts out when they're young, and they continue to adulthood. And they play chicken, where they both swim out from the shore as far as they can, and the first person to give up loses. In other words, you just keep going. And until you become either afraid or you wear out, you lose. And two times, Anton is the one who gives up and Vincent is to save him. And toward the end of the movie, when they're adults, Anton just can't understand that. And he looks at Vincent knowing he's superior to Vincent in every single way. He says, how did you beat me? How did you do it? I love Vincent's line back to him. I never planned on going back. I never saved anything. In other words, the way the imperfect son beats the perfect son, every time is the imperfect son says, you know what, I'm just going to keep going until I die. I'm not holding back on anything, where the perfect son is always like holding back a little bit, just in case. And if you really want to see people come to know Jesus, if you really want to be a better follower of Jesus, you have to have this in your mind. What am I holding back? And I can't hold anything back because only when you give up everything, do you gain everything? We're going to see in the gospel of Luke, right? Whoever's first will be last and whoever's last is first and whoever would be great in the kingdom must become the least in the kingdom. The more we give up Jesus promises, the more he will give us, especially when it comes to catching those around us for the sake of the gospel. Think about that. Let me pray for us. Father, I pray this morning that you would, as we look at Luke, and we look at the appropriate response to Jesus that Peter was both saw himself as sinful, but he also became a delegate. He became one who would be a catcher of men. I pray that you would put that on all of our hearts, that we wouldn't just see it as something someone else does, but we'd see it as integral to our lives. Father, we thank you. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.