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[0:00] are the ones who take really good care of their pastors. So I just want to commend you for doing everything in your power to care for Jim and his family. It's a blessing to me as a fellow pastor to know that you do that. You have a sacred task to care for your pastor as he cares for you.

[0:20] That's a gift. So thank you for that. You're in Luke chapter 5 this morning. Typically I'd want to read the whole passage up front before we dive into it because it's a little bit of a lengthy passage.

[0:32] We'll just kind of read it as we go through. But before we even get to these verses in Luke chapter 5 this morning, I think it's important for us to know where we are in the Gospel of Luke. Luke's one of the four Gospels in the Bible. I know you know that. Each of these Gospels is just a historical account of the life of Jesus. So the whole point of the Gospels is to get to know Jesus. And the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts are a two-volume set, as it were.

[1:00] Luke writes two books to a man named Theophilus. Luke is in the process in Luke chapter 5 of introducing Jesus so that people can know the truth about him. Just like in Luke's day, people say all kinds of things about Jesus these days.

[1:16] How can we know the truth? The Lord has given us the truth in his word. So the followers of Jesus can learn a lot about Jesus as we look at these passages. But in the process of Jesus calling his first followers here in Luke chapter 5, we can also learn a lot about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

[1:36] And so that's just what I want to do with you this morning. As we look at these verses in Luke chapter 5, there's three characteristics of a follower of Jesus. I think it'd be good to highlight.

[1:46] As we're kind of climbing into the boat here this morning, that it's important for us to see, this story doesn't take place in our culture. So we need to kind of get our minds into a little bit of a paradigm shift here. This is a story about fishing.

[2:01] It's in a fishing community. This is on the other side of the world 2,000 years ago. These men that we're dealing with, these are fishermen. In fact, even within the text, as you just read through it a couple of times, you'll begin to notice the repetition.

[2:18] The lake and the water are mentioned three times in our verses this morning. Boats mentioned six times. Nets, four times. Fish and fishermen come up three times.

[2:29] And so you can see the kind of context and the theme and just the feel, the tenor of this passage. And so as we start to get our feet wet in Luke 5, starting in verse 1, we'll set the stage here.

[2:41] It says, Luke chapter 5, verse 1, on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him, that is Jesus, to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.

[2:54] Now the lake of Gennesaret is just another name for the Sea of Galilee. So Jesus is teaching the people here. He has tons of people all crowded around him. They want to hear what he's saying. What's Jesus saying?

[3:06] Well, look at verse 1. Again, it says, the text says the people are crowding around him. Jesus, as he's teaching the word of God. You think about this for a second.

[3:19] All these people are pressing in around Jesus on the lake shore. And, you know, you can imagine, you didn't have fancy countrymen microphones back in Jesus' day and have nice amplification of your voice.

[3:31] And while I'm sure Jesus could project his voice pretty well, you get enough people crowded around you and you can imagine what this is like. Even if I took off my microphone and walked out here into the middle of the church this morning, you could imagine I face this way and all the people over here can hear me.

[3:47] Now people behind me can't hear what I'm saying anymore. So now as a teacher, I'm trying to, turning this way, and now there's people over here and now the people behind me can't hear. And there's people pressing in all around Jesus.

[3:57] And he's trying to make sure everybody can hear the word of God. So he's constantly spinning around back and forth. And verse 2 says, He saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

[4:16] You start to wonder, what does this have to do? I thought he was teaching the word of God. Now why are we talking about the boats? And the way, like, Jesus just notices boats? Is this kind of, he gets distracted? Or what's happening? Well, verse 3 says, He's getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's.

[4:27] He asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. So what's happening here? Well, Jesus sees these boats by the water.

[4:38] He jumps into one, asks fisherman Simon Peter to push the boat out into the water a little bit. See, Jesus recognized when any sound bounces off of water, it actually gets amplified slightly, carries a little bit further, a little bit clearer.

[4:53] Not only this, but the gradual slope of the lakefront, the shore there, would have provided a little bit of kind of, you know, ancient theater-style seating with everybody, the person's head behind you just being a little bit higher than yours, so everybody could hear just a little bit better.

[5:07] And now instead of everybody kind of smushing in on Jesus and him trying to do one of these numbers as he's teaching people, he sits down, the water amplifies his voice, the people are staggered up the lake shore.

[5:18] This is just kind of practical ministry points here, but Jesus is thinking practically about how to make sure that the people are able to hear the word of God. Now everyone can hear what Jesus is saying and just demonstrate some care and concern on Jesus' part.

[5:35] He went out of his way just to make sure everyone could hear the word of God. And this wasn't a spur-of-the-moment thing either. He planned for it to go this way.

[5:45] See, the Lord's decision to get into this particular boat was not just a random one. Jesus got into Simon Peter's boat because Jesus wanted to get into Simon Peter's life.

[6:00] We're about to see that's exactly what he does. I would just say, maybe you're here this morning, you haven't given much thought to who this Jesus is. Young people, maybe you haven't considered who this Jesus guy is that your parents talk about all the time.

[6:18] It might be that, like Peter, maybe you're here this morning hearing about the life of Jesus because the creator of the universe wants to climb into your boat this morning, as it were.

[6:32] So I would just commend to you the life and the ministry and the words of Jesus. Let him speak for himself as you see who he is in the pages of Scripture.

[6:43] So as we look at this passage, we're gonna see a lot about who Jesus is and what he's like. And along the way, I wanna draw out from this passage, as I said, some principles I think that God would have us latch onto as followers of Christ.

[6:55] Three characteristics of a follower of Jesus. First, followers fish. You'll see this in verses four through seven.

[7:06] Listen as I read. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.

[7:21] But at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking.

[7:33] They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. So Jesus and a few of these fishermen are in Simon Peter's boat.

[7:46] When Jesus finishes teaching the people, he looks at Peter and he says, look at verse four, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Now, theater nerds will recognize that there's a type of dramatic irony happening here.

[8:03] The audience, that's us in this case, knows something that the characters of this story don't know. Namely, as we read this, we all know what's going to happen next.

[8:15] We're familiar with this. But just remember, for the fishermen in this boat and the people on the shore, for Peter, nobody knew what was going to happen next. I mean, this is just an unknown teacher on a normal day, small boat, insignificant fishing village, little lake.

[8:37] You have to see this from Peter's perspective, right? He tells Jesus, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. See, and get this, this is important for understanding what's happening here.

[8:48] On the Sea of Galilee, the fish come into the shallow water in the dark at night to feed. So if you want to catch fish, you fish in the shallow water at night.

[9:04] Peter and his buddies had been out there all night fishing. They hadn't seen a single fish. They hadn't caught a single fish. He says, we worked hard all night and caught nothing.

[9:16] Now here's this carpenter, wannabe teacher guy, telling professional fishermen to let down their nets in the deep water in the broad daylight.

[9:28] Peter's got to be thinking, yeah, sorry, it doesn't really work that way, Mr. Carpenter Pants. Why don't you go build chairs, leave the fishing desk, professional fishermen, okay? They add to that the fact that when Jesus walks up on them, it had said they were washing out their nets.

[9:44] See, when you throw your net in the shallow water, which is where they would have fished, if it doesn't catch fish, which Peter had said they didn't catch one all night, guess what it does catch?

[9:56] The bottom. And so you get all kinds of mud and sticks and rocks and seaweed and plants and junk caught in your net. Sometimes the net tears on the rocks on the bottom of the lake there.

[10:10] And so when you're done, you have to take the time to painstakingly lay the nets out on the side of the lake there and pick all that stuff out, right? And mend the places that have torn on the rocks.

[10:22] So when Simon Peter says here, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, what he means is, in our modern vernacular, Jesus, we dig your teaching and all, but we've been doing this for a while.

[10:35] You're telling us to fish in the worst possible place at the worst possible time. And we just finished cleaning out the nets. Like, just as you walked up, I don't really want to have to clean them out again.

[10:48] We've been here all night. We've worked hard all night and caught nothing. There's a lot going on here in Peter's mind. And you know what?

[11:01] Peter's right. His understanding of fishing is accurate. His evaluation of their circumstances is accurate. His view of the situation is accurate.

[11:13] Peter knows exactly what he's talking about here and he's spot on. What Jesus is asking Peter to do genuinely doesn't make sense.

[11:25] But notice what Peter says in verse 5. Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets.

[11:43] Followers fish. So Peter said, Jesus, what you're saying doesn't make any sense to me, but at your word I will do what you say.

[11:54] Simon Peter, his friends in the boat, they're just like you and me, aren't they? Just ordinary men. But sometimes we look around at our circumstances, we use our human wisdom to evaluate the situation and it appears as though what Jesus is asking us to do doesn't make sense.

[12:16] There are times when you will look at your situation and what your human perspective tells you ought to be the best thing to do is different from what the Lord in his word has clearly told you you should do.

[12:30] And in those moments we need to be able to say like Peter, Jesus, what you're telling me to do here doesn't make sense, but at your word I'll let down the nets.

[12:47] I'll do what you say, Jesus, because followers fish. And honestly, the context here is fishing is evangelism is where Jesus is going to go with this.

[12:59] In a minute, the text says they're astounded by the catch of fish. Jesus says, from now on you'll be catching men. Many times we have to recognize we just don't have all the answers, do we?

[13:13] But Jesus does and he's always right. That's why 2 Corinthians 5, 7 tells us we walk by faith not by sight because my sight is often going to tell me to do something different than what Jesus tells me to do.

[13:29] We trust him, not our own evaluation of our circumstances. Right? I mean, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 is so classic but so applicable. We're so familiar with it.

[13:39] We can just fail to even see the richness of it. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. That won't hold you up. Don't you lean on your own understanding.

[13:52] Acknowledge him in all your ways and he'll make your path straight. This is what faith looks like. This is what the life of a follower of Jesus looks like. Followers fish. Namely, they just do what Jesus says even when it doesn't make sense because we need Jesus to tell us what to do.

[14:07] We need his advice. We need him to command us. My wife and I just bought a 100 year old farmhouse in Chino Valley and it's the most horrible house we've ever purchased.

[14:22] We have a huge renovation project ahead of us. We're about two and a half months into it and we've got about three and a half months to go. And so, what's been the greatest blessing to us in this is that we have had quite a few people offering to help us in the process.

[14:38] Brothers and sisters from our church that just jump in who know more about demo and construction and electrical and framing and sheetrock than we do. When we were looking at this house the first time we went, our friend Dan came with us because he just knows about houses and things and we asked him to come along and just kind of, are we crazy here?

[15:00] Because this place is a huge dump and we're thinking about buying it and making it not a dump and so, are we nuts here? And I'll never forget we're walking through the house with Dan and his wife and we're kind of like talking about here's the dream for the house, here's what we think we're going to do.

[15:16] And in my best Joanna Gaines impression I said, we're going to take out this wall right here and open up this space a bit and Dan said, well, take out this wall, what if it's a load-bearing wall?

[15:30] To which I replied something like this, doesn't seem like a load-bearing wall. And Dan, Dan said, is that how you tell?

[15:46] Which is really just his gracious way of saying, you idiot, that's not how you tell. And it's just a great reminder because guess what? It's a load-bearing wall and that is such a good picture of how we can think in life like, I've got this, I've got this figured out, I know the answer to this.

[16:09] And we need a friend to come along in the process and say, whoa, hang on, no, no, no, you misunderstand, this is how you do that. And it's that way in life.

[16:22] We might think we've got this, we might think we've got it figured out, we might think we know what to do, but we need to remember that Jesus is our friend who's by our side, who knows about this stuff better than we do to tell us what to do and how to do it.

[16:40] I mean, I need to look to Christ for the answers for my life and then just do what he says. He's the expert on this topic. Which topic? All of them.

[16:52] All of them. And he's always right. Even when he's asking us to do something that from our human perspective doesn't seem to make sense. So Peter, in our text this morning, lets Jesus just tell him what to do.

[17:07] Let me show you what happens when you let Jesus tell you what to do. So even as he's standing there talking with Jesus, just think about this because we know what's about to happen when Peter throws the nets in the water, right?

[17:19] Lots of fish, right? We know this, but just think as Peter's standing there in the boat talking with Jesus, his boat's kind of just gently bobbing in the water, right? It's just nice, peaceful, chill morning on the Sea of Galilee.

[17:33] Peter has no idea what the result of his obedience will be. He's got no clue that under the surface of the water, even as he stands there, there's something supernatural happening.

[17:48] Think, there's thousands of fish in the Sea of Galilee converging under Peter's feet and he has no idea.

[18:03] And now the stage is set for Jesus to show Peter who he is and to show the people on the shore who he is and to show the people in this room who he is.

[18:19] Nice quiet morning on the Sea of Galilee. The birds are chirping. The crickets are cricketing. What is that? That's what you call the sound a cricket makes.

[18:30] They're cricketing. There's like a gentle splash of the waves. Peter throws the nets and it's almost like you could just envision this like this is the slow motion moment of the whole thing, right?

[18:41] It's like Peter throws the nets and the net kind of and as soon as the net hits the water it goes down Peter begins to pull it's like the whole scene just completely changes.

[18:57] Because now right now everything changes that the fish are plopping and flopping and flapping all in the water. Peter starts yelling, right? The other guys jump in to help and they're all struggling with the net.

[19:10] The boat is now rocking back and forth. This is no like quiet peaceful moment anymore. Right? There's water splashing all over the place. There's fish are jumping out of the boat back into the lake and from the lake into the boat and there's wet slimy floppy fish and their gross little eyes like lots of fish all over the place.

[19:31] Right? Just you can even hear like the sound of like fish tails like flapping all over in the water and against the boat and right? It's like look at verse 6. It even says I mean this isn't a quiet ordeal.

[19:43] It says they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. I mean they would have been able to hear the cords of their net like snapping and popping as they frayed under the excessive bulging weight of fish.

[19:58] You can hear the boats are creaking and under the weight of this many fish as the surface of the water has got to be like right up to the edge of the boats. Water splashing all over the place.

[20:09] These men are fighting with the weight of the fish and the nets trying not to fall into the lake themselves and it seems like these full grown men are starting to panic a little bit.

[20:20] Look at verse 7. The text says they signaled to their partners right? You can read there. They signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help.

[20:32] We know from Mark 1 that these partners are James the son of Zebedee and John his brother. These guys would have still been on the shore with the other boat mending their nets.

[20:42] Now look at verse 7. The text says they came they filled both boats so that they began to sink. I mean sink? This is a fishing boat.

[20:55] This is what these boats were made for. You're going to sink a fishing boat with fish. But just think about that. That means these boats were made for fishing. That means this is more fish than these men had ever caught before.

[21:08] This is more fish than they ever anticipated they would catch or they would have made the boats to not sink when you get that many fish. To sink a fishing boat with fish the boat has to be basically full.

[21:20] This means there's so many fish these guys would have literally been they would have had fish around their ankles standing in the boat. I mean can you imagine that? And you know what fish have? They have gills and they have those little like barbs on the gills you know these guys would have been like shouting and laughing at each other kind of getting stabbed in the ankle with the little gills and panicking a little boat as the boats are sinking they're kind of just like excited and overwhelmed and terrified and unsure and like not even sure how to respond as all of this is unbelievable.

[21:53] All along the way Jesus was asking Peter to do something that didn't make any sense to Peter. I mean could you imagine how different this story would have been if Peter had just said Jesus we worked hard all night and we haven't caught any fish why don't you just keep teaching?

[22:12] That would have been a different story and I just wonder look at what happened when Peter just simply obeyed and I just wonder what Jesus would do in our lives if we're committed to fully obeying him oh what he would do in your life D.L. Moody said the world is yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him and by God's help I aim to be that man brothers and sisters I would just say let that be the cry of our hearts because we have seen the glory of Jesus that when he tells us to do something we can say even though what he's telling me to do doesn't make sense at his word I'm going to do exactly what he said to do so even when Jesus says go and make disciples of every nation and that's where he's going to go with this we would say that's what we're about that's our priority we want to make disciples of every nation every tribe and tongue and nation let's get the gospel to everyone three characteristics of a follower of Jesus the first is followers fish second followers fall you'll see this in verses 8 9 and 10 read it with me look at verse 8 but when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus knees saying depart from me for I am a sinful man oh Lord for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken so also were

[23:51] James and John sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon and Jesus said to Simon do not be afraid from now on you'll be catching men I mean Peter freezes he falls down he's he's overwhelmed Peter's devastated he's dumbfounded have you ever seen somebody have a seizure it's pretty scary why do they call it a seizure because you can you can watch them lock up as though they lose control of their body as though some external force has seized them and has taken control and they've they don't have control anywhere they've been seized verse 9 says Peter is astonished it literally means he's seized by amazement and the camera zooms in for he zooms in on Peter for a close up in verse 8 it says when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus knees saying depart from me for I am a sinful man oh Lord and it's not the fish thing that's got

[25:04] Peter seized it's what the fish thing revealed to Peter about Jesus Peter sees now for the first time that this man who sits in the boat with a few fishermen is the God who sits on the throne over all men and everything else in this story is fascinating everything else in this story is responding the same way as Peter the nets are breaking the boats are sinking Peter is falling everything is coming undone before Jesus because Jesus is Lord Peter falls at his feet because that's what followers do followers fall at the feet of Jesus because we recognize him for who he is he's the God of all creation like Isaiah when he stood before God he cried out woe is me I'm a man of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king that's exactly how Peter responds and really fear is the normal response in scripture whenever you see someone encounter God there's a reverent worshipful fear

[26:12] Ezekiel saw God in chapter 1 and he fell on his face Matthew 17 God speaks from heaven it says when the disciples heard this they fell on their faces and they were terrified when Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus you're familiar with the story Saul fell on the ground when the apostle John saw Jesus on Patmos Island in Revelation 1 verse 17 he says when I saw him I fell at his feet as though I was dead when God appeared to Job Job's response is exactly the same as Peter's he says I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you and look at the result therefore I despise myself and I repent in dust and ashes Job saw the greatness and the holiness of God it caused him to finally understand how truly sinful he was when Peter realizes here in this story that the greatness and the holiness and the majesty of God is in the boat with him it makes him feel deeply his own littleness and sinfulness and insignificance

[27:27] Peter is like a net fraying under too much pressure he's like a boat sinking under too much weight he just can't handle seeing who he really is on the inside because we put up a good show for everybody else but when we stand before the Lord we're naked and bare before him to whom we must give an account there's no hiding he sees through you he knows everything that you've thought Peter sees this in that moment so he falls he falls at the feet of Jesus you know when God gave Moses the ten commandments you'd think the people would be excited God is talking to us alright you always imagine them like being really happy about that but they actually say Moses you speak to us and we will listen but do not let God speak to us lest we die and then in the text says the people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was the people are like

[28:33] Moses make God stop talking we're scared Moses you go talk to him we're gonna stay over here far off that's exactly how Peter feels he sees this miracle that Jesus does you would think he would he'd throw his arms around Jesus and they'd be high-fiving in the boats right you'd think he'd be like that's amazing Jesus do it again that's so incredible but Peter's response when he sees this it's not excitement it's like Peter all of a sudden just has the first clear moment of thought in his entire life as he stands before the Lord in the boat and he's terrified Peter's like no no get away from me you can just imagine and don't misunderstand either Peter's not a wuss right Peter's a strong man who works the night shift on a boat even the strongest men will snap like a twig before the

[29:40] God of the universe people don't just hang out with God they don't text their friends to tell them how cool it was to see the Lord they don't update their Facebook status or post a selfie on Instagram selfie with Jesus they don't wear a Jesus is my homeboy t-shirt which if you have a Jesus is my homeboy t-shirt we talk about that later but the point is people get terrified when God shows up they fear for their lives because suddenly they see their own sinfulness before the holiness of the Lord and they realize there's really nowhere to escape his hatred for our sin and there's nothing to do to prevent it so they get terrified when he shows up every one of us when we see who God is in the pages of scripture are faced with our own sinfulness in the light of his majesty we see the glory of God in the face of Christ we realize the sinful brokenness of our own hearts nobody else knows about all of those things that you think think about that for a second all of those things that you would never say out loud to someone else the Lord heard all of that he was there for it and he remembers all of those things better than you do with crystal clarity right so you can you might feel like you can't talk to anybody else about what you've done the Lord already knows all about it you know what though that's a good place to be fall before

[31:19] Jesus like Peter fall before Jesus and confess I'm sinful I'm sinful I'm broken Lord Jesus already knows and you can talk to him about it because look at verse 10 Peter Peter cries out depart from me Lord for I'm a sinful man Jesus says verse 10 do not fear three simple words precious words though words of comfort from the mouth of our Savior words of kindness do not fear gentle words of grace the amazing thing is that we see these same words in nearly all of the verses that I had just read about how people fall before God as though they're dead people are terrified all over the place in scripture when they see God and almost all of those verses the Lord says do not be afraid or he sends an angel to say the same thing consistently

[32:26] God says don't be afraid do not fear fear not you're familiar you could recall so many passages in fact that phrase in one form or another appears over a hundred times in the Bible don't be afraid Jesus understood what Peter was feeling here because this is the very reason Jesus came to earth isn't it Jesus understood the problem of the sinfulness of man before the holiness of God and he came to stand between God and man as the one mediator the one who could bring peace when Jesus died on the cross God poured out his wrath against your sin against my sin on his son Jesus absorbed the wrath of God on the cross in my place condemned he stood and sealed my pardon with his blood hallelujah what a savior and it's because Christ died in our place that he can look at sinners like Peter and like you and like me and he can say things like when they fall before him and say I'm sinful he says don't be afraid that's pretty amazing that's grace that kind of incredible grace changes everything about how we live doesn't it no longer do we try to obey by pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps out of guilt and shame trying to do the right thing because I'll never get it right no longer do we just fight for obedience but we have been forgiven by the

[34:05] God of the universe and his gospel motivates us to live differently than how we lived before that's what happens to Peter and Andrew and James and John here and notice Jesus next words to Peter not only does Jesus tell Peter not to be afraid he also then commissions him Jesus tells Simon Peter from now on you will be catching men as a way to say you're going to be going out and telling other people about me and the forgiveness that I came to offer and they're going to listen to you and get saved it's fascinating to think that all along Jesus has been planning this very interaction as just an illustration but Jesus has been painting a picture for them to see with their eyes to live with their lives so that he could point to that because he was subtly teaching them something that they didn't see and here he connects the dots for them you will be fishers of men was there ever a time when they were going to catch men as though they just caught these fish friends read about the day of

[35:08] Pentecost when Peter himself preaches the gospel and it says 3,000 people will get saved this is obviously the big point that stuck with the disciples about this because the other synoptics Luke and I know you're studying through Matthew right now they don't even record the fish story they just record the point Jesus told them they were going to be fishers of men so they got it they got the point they're going to follow Jesus and he will make them fishers of men and that's just what happens right because followers fish and followers fall finally followers follow look at verse 11 it says when they had brought their boats to land they left everything and followed him wait what that's how the story ends what about all the fish they just caught I mean they just caught thousands of fish they just left everything and followed Jesus Jesus did this big miracle they catch all these fish and it's like fish it needs fish

[36:12] Mark's account says they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed Jesus there's just some really good humor there right you can see it's like dad Zebedee is in the boat and he's like hey James will you hand me the where'd they go they're following Jesus what about all the fish we just caught more fish than we've ever caught in our entire lives and these guys just bail they're just gone see they're following Jesus they had seen Jesus is more valuable than everything they had and they knew this isn't about the fish this is about what the fish taught them about Jesus so they left it all behind they followed him this is what followers do followers of Jesus follow Jesus they follow him friends painters paint writers write singers sing followers of

[37:22] Jesus follow Jesus they go they go where he leads they do what he says and I would say a lot of people these days and you're familiar with this would say that they're Christians and yet they're still trusting in their own evaluation of their circumstances they're still making decisions in their lives based on their evaluation of their life they have yet to see what Jesus will do in their lives if they will fully trust him but true followers of Jesus do something that shouldn't surprise us they follow Jesus they go where he goes they do what he says J.C.

[38:05] Ryle says there's a common worldly kind of Christianity in this day which many have they think they have enough a cheap Christianity which offends nobody and requires no sacrifice which costs nothing and is worth nothing there's just too many people these days that say they're followers of Jesus but they aren't actually following him see followers of Jesus follow Jesus they go where he leads and they do what he says one day there was a tired group of fishermen they'd been up working all night caught nothing man came along who taught them the word of God he told them to throw their nets back in the water it was the wrong place in the wrong time and they were exhausted but they trusted him so they did what he said and they saw the power of God that very day they saw the insignificance of themselves and everything that they had they saw the true value of Jesus

[39:12] Christ the son of God and they left it all to follow him because followers follow that's why Paul says in Philippians 3 whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord followers follow because they see the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ over everything and so they follow him because they have their treasure in him the God man who sat in that boat with Peter and his friends and spoke to the people the word of God speaks to us through his word this morning he shows us like he showed Peter that Jesus Christ is God he put the power of God on display and the miracles that he did he taught the word of God and he allows us to see even in the pages of scripture in the face of Christ as it were our own sinfulness so that we will fall before him and when we do he says to us don't be afraid and he calls us to follow him you know none of us live our lives perfectly none of us love Jesus as consistently as we would like but this is what it means to be a follower of Christ these will be the defining characteristics of our lives followers fish followers fall followers follow and oh what an amazing savior we follow father how grateful we are that you sent your son we know

[41:03]  Lord that you sent him to be condemned in our place to absorb your wrath against our sin so that by faith you would credit to us his righteousness God we rejoice in that and we rejoice that you sent him not only for that but to teach to live a perfect life to teach the word of God Lord even as we've looked at this text this morning we've seen the glory of Jesus Christ Christ