[0:00] The Bible of Luke chapter 5, what we just read, is what we were going to be looking at this morning for the sermon. So as we read that, I know what you're probably thinking. Here come the fishing stories, right?
[0:13] I have no fishing stories. I hate to disappoint you. I've gone fishing before, but I am far from a fisherman. I don't have any, you know, we caught a hundred fish, or I caught a fish that was a giant fish.
[0:25] I don't have any of those stories. If anybody would like to invite me on an adventure in Scotland to go fishing, I will gladly come back and preach this sermon again with fishing illustrations. But this morning, then, you're just going to be stuck with guitar illustrations.
[0:40] Sorry, got to use what you have. I wonder if any of you have ever felt out of your depth after a time where you prepared for a long time, and you had been feeling very able, but all of a sudden, something hit you, and you felt completely out of your depth.
[0:59] I started taking guitar lessons with my friend Eddie. I think I was about 14 years old. And I didn't know this at the time, but it's because our parents colluded behind our backs. We'd be getting into trouble, like, all the time.
[1:09] And so they were like, how do we keep them from getting into trouble? Let's put something in their hands. How about a guitar? Eddie's dad played the guitar, and he said, I'll give them guitar lessons. And so he accosted us one day and said, come with me.
[1:20] And we're like, what's going on? And there, lo and behold, there were two guitars. I started to like it. I wouldn't have liked it if I'd known my parents were making me do it, so well done by them. And we started to practice.
[1:31] It was hard at first. I had never played an instrument. My mom tried to teach me piano, and I refused, and don't like instruction, apparently. There's a lot that I'm getting off my chest here, guys. But as we learned, you know, I started to learn different notes and scales.
[1:45] I built the calluses on my fingers, learned how to strum different chords, and even got to the point where I, Eddie and I, helped to lead some of the worship songs during youth group with kids our ages around when we were 14, 15 years old.
[1:59] I know, pretty rock and roll, right? And so all of a sudden, Eddie's dad, who's been teaching us for a while, said, hey, there's a talent show coming up. Why don't we play in it?
[2:10] And we said, yeah, we've been playing in youth group. I'm ready. And he brought out the song. He chose the song. And it was a harder one than we had ever played. But we practiced. We kept going.
[2:22] We started to get it down. There's a different part. You know, I would do the rhythm at one point while Eddie was doing his little thing. And then we'd switch. And we were really excited about it. And then the day of the talent show, we showed up, and they're doing these mic checks and trying to make sure that everybody has everything they need for their different acts.
[2:39] And, of course, the band going before us comes out, and these dudes knew what they were doing. Like, we came out with our little tiny amps and, like, plugged them in, and it felt, I'm sure it wasn't this big, but it felt like the size of the pulpit was the size of their amp.
[2:57] And they plugged in, and they played. And Eddie and I looked at each other and went, oh, no. We had felt ready to go. Immediately, we felt out of our depth.
[3:10] In our passage this morning, there's some fishermen who'd spent their whole life in the craft and art and vocation of fishing. They lived for this. And all of a sudden, though, they feel out of their depth on these waters that they've been on their whole life.
[3:28] Things get deep really, really quickly. If you've grown up in church, you've probably heard a sermon or a Bible lesson on this passage of Jesus bringing in this huge catch of fish.
[3:41] And a lot of times, I think we apply it in terms of evangelism. And I want to say to us this morning, this passage isn't only about evangelism. It's a very good application for this passage, in fact, one that I will make.
[3:54] But it's not the only thing. It's not also primarily here to try to get you to leave your job and enter into full-time vocational ministry. That's what Peter and his friends do.
[4:05] They leave and they follow Jesus. They leave everything behind. If that happens through this sermon, God be praised. I would be delighted to hear that somebody felt the call to full-time vocational ministry.
[4:17] But that is not the only application in this passage or even what it is primarily about. These 11 verses that we read are primarily about following Jesus, what we call in the church discipleship, encountering him, his person, his power, his purpose, and what it does to us and what it means for us and where it leads us.
[4:40] And this passage, it contains a miracle. And unlike so many people's fish stories, this one is actually true. But the point isn't the fish. The point is Jesus and his bringing us deeper and deeper and deeper until we realize we're out of our depth.
[5:02] Before we look at it more, though, let me pray for the preaching of God's word. Would you pray with me? O Lord, Heavenly Father, we ask that you would draw us to yourself right now.
[5:13] Would you give us an astonishment like the disciples had? Would you help us as we hear to listen with repentance and to follow Jesus?
[5:24] We ask this believing that your word is alive and powerful. So be at work, O Holy Spirit. We ask this because of all Jesus has done and for his sake.
[5:36] Amen. We're going to look at our passage in four different scenes. Four scenes, okay? The first scene is the shallow, or the shore, excuse me.
[5:47] Shallow, shore, same thing. The first is the shore. Second, the deep. Third, sinking. And last, from now on.
[5:58] Okay? The shore, the deep, sinking from now on. First scene, the shore. So in verse 1, it says that we're at the lake of Gethsemane, which is just Luke's way of referring to the Sea of Galilee.
[6:13] And it tells us that there's a crowd of people and they're there to hear the word of God. They're there to hear Jesus preach. Just previous to that, you can look right before chapter 5.
[6:24] You know, those chapter divisions weren't in the original New Testament. We put them there later. Right? So things kind of line up. It tells us that Jesus has been teaching in the synagogues.
[6:35] And so, oh, they're here to hear him teach. And you see it? It says that he has been sent in order to preach and teach the kingdom of God.
[6:46] Okay? This is what it means when God is in charge. When God shows up, this is what things are like. This is what the kingdom of God is like. You see, Jesus' earthly ministry has just begun.
[6:59] And Luke has been beginning to show who he is and what he's come to do. And one of the motifs, there's many of them, not all of them, but one of the motifs that Luke uses as he's talking about Jesus is he presents him as the second Adam and the Son of God.
[7:19] The second Adam and the Son of God. So, in Luke's gospel, I'm going to get a little context here, Jesus' ministry starts, he goes down to the Jordan River, and he's baptized by this itinerant locust-eating preacher named John the Baptist.
[7:35] Do you remember what happens when he gets baptized? Heaven's open. The dove comes down and he hears a voice that says, This is my son in whom I'm well pleased.
[7:46] This is the Son of God. Right? He is unique. And right after the baptism, Luke gives the genealogy, but he goes backwards. And at the very end, what it says is that Jesus is the Son of Adam, the Son of God.
[8:04] And right after the genealogy, then, Jesus gets cast out. He enters into the wilderness where he meets with the devil and he is tempted. But unlike the first Adam who gave in to the temptation, the second Adam doesn't.
[8:22] He clings to the very word of God. Right? And Jesus then, he goes out and he begins to heal people. A man with an evil spirit. He heals him.
[8:33] See, power. He is unique as the Son of God. There is a woman, and I don't know if she's close to death, how sick she is. She is unwell. And it actually tells us that it's Simon Peter's mother-in-law.
[8:44] Jesus heals her. And we see that he's the Son of God, that he's powerful and he's unique. The demons even cry in Luke 4, you, Jesus, are the Son of God.
[8:57] And also, the second Adam is then picked up because all of these miracles, you see, these miracles that Jesus does, they are not these just like naked displays of power where Jesus is going, booyah, check out what I can do.
[9:11] No. Every miracle is like undoing the sin that came into the world from the first Adam. It is showing us what the kingdom of God is like.
[9:22] Right? When sin gets taken away, things roll back. And so, the lame walk, the blind see, right? The sinners get healed.
[9:34] The lepers get cleansed. Those dying get brought back to life. We'll come back to that a little later. Miracles as signs of the kingdom and Jesus as the second Adam.
[9:46] So, here we are in Luke 5. People are interested. They're curious about this Jesus who's been doing all these signs and he has been teaching, but not just teaching like any of the scribes and Pharisees. He's been teaching as one with authority.
[9:59] And the Sea of Galilee, it's below sea level and it's like a bowl. Right? There's all these hills around it and there's these crowds who are coming in. Have you ever been in a crowd of people where there's somebody, a celebrity, somebody that people want to hear?
[10:12] Everybody starts to press in. You can't even hold back because they keep pressing you in. Now, just imagine you're on like an incline, right? And you're going down. Now, gravity is just going to do its work and they're pushing in and they're pushing in.
[10:26] And Jesus is backing up and backing up. They want to hear his teaching. And so, what he does in order for everybody to hear him, he looks over there and there's two boats. Right?
[10:36] There's two boats right there and he picks one of them and he gets into it and he kind of sets out from the shore. And then, because of the slope of the hills and the way that the sound carries on water, it's like an amphitheater.
[10:51] So, you could just go a little bit back on the Sea of Galilee and so many people could hear you. And this boat becomes like his pulpit. And it's not just any boat.
[11:02] Right? He said, Jesus sees two boats. Jesus is very purposeful. Note his purposefulness because he picks one of the boats. The passage tells us that he picks Simon Peter's.
[11:13] Remember, he's just healed Simon Peter's mother-in-law. Why does he want Peter's boat? Because he wants Peter. When Peter's been out fishing all night, he tells Jesus that in verse 5.
[11:27] He and his co-workers, he said, we've toiled all night. Again, that word toil should be taking us back to the book of Genesis. What happens when the first Adam sins?
[11:39] When he gives into temptation in the garden? What is the curse that comes? You're going to labor. Cursed is the ground because of you. There's going to be toil in your work.
[11:52] That's what we should be hearing. And these fishermen, they've toiled all night. And they've caught Zippo. Nothing. Verse 2 says that the fishermen are there.
[12:05] They're washing their nets. That would be the last thing you would do before you came home. They were out fishing. They didn't catch anything. They came in. You wash your nets. You clean up your work. And you go home. They're ready to go home and catch some Z's, right?
[12:17] To do a little bit of snoozing. And Jesus then, he goes and he asks Simon Peter, instead of going home to rest, why don't you let me get in your boat?
[12:28] Let's set out in the water just a little bit. Let's go from the shore to the shallow. And I don't know what it is. Maybe because Peter feels indebted to him for healing his mother-in-law.
[12:39] Maybe because he's interested in the preached word of God. Maybe he just doesn't know how to say no. I have no idea why. It doesn't tell us. But Peter says, okay, put my washing nets aside.
[12:50] Get in the boat. And they set out from the shore. Let me make some quick observations and applications before we move to our next scene. First is this.
[13:02] Is that Jesus engages Peter in his toil and his need. Have you ever felt like your labor is in vain? You ever felt the toil and seeming futility of life and work?
[13:18] You do a bunch of work and you feel like as much as you work and as much as you try, whether it's in your labor, in your life, in your family, in your parenting, you just feel like you're back at square one with nothing to show for it.
[13:31] Back at the beginning of the pandemic, way back in 2020, nobody knew what Zoom was. And we're all trying to get used to Zoom and our church in St. Louis.
[13:42] The Zoom was how we, well, I'm trying to think. Do we do Zoom or do we do Facebook Live for services? Anyway, Zoom was a great thing to use to engage with people. And we had Sunday school. And so we used Zoom to record the Sunday school lessons because you could put your slides up and little video of yourself.
[13:58] And so it was my turn to teach Sunday school and I had never done it on Zoom before. And so I did the brilliant thing of leaving it until Saturday night after the kids went to bed. It only takes a minute if you leave it to the last minute, guys.
[14:11] The only problem was technology had quickly passed me by. I'm not a youngster anymore. And I'm there trying to set it up. I had all my slides ready. I was ready to go to record my lesson.
[14:22] And I couldn't figure out how to do it. Kept trying, testing it. And finally, at 2 a.m., I was ready to go to record my Sunday school lesson.
[14:32] I'm like, all right, sleeping in tomorrow, I guess. You know, service is on Facebook Live. It'll be fine. I get to the end of it, almost to the very end, about five minutes left. And the power and the Internet cut out in our house.
[14:45] And since it was recording to Zoom, I lost everything. I was a tad frustrated. Maybe woke up the kids with my screams.
[14:57] I don't know. I was not happy. Have you ever toiled and felt the fruitlessness of it? Peter is tired from a night of fruitless toil. Have you ever felt like that?
[15:09] I don't know if you had those feelings of futility in life lately. I wonder if Jesus is asking to engage you right there. Maybe to start to see that life without Jesus really is toil.
[15:24] Maybe there's more to it. The second little point of application is that Jesus engages Peter where Peter is, and he engages him with need. The Son of God, this one who has done all these miracles, is about to do a miracle, asks for something.
[15:41] So many times as Christians we try to go around, and rightly so, in a wonderful way. You want to help people who are in need. One of the ways to engage with people so many times is to let them provide for you, to engage in their need, let others help you.
[15:57] Lastly, I want you to notice where Peter is at this point. I don't know, I hear a lot of sermons and they try to pinpoint when Peter's conversion is. I have no idea, because there's so many aha moments for Peter as you go through any of the Gospels.
[16:10] He's always putting his foot in his mouth and then realizing something more. I just don't think there's a definitive answer. But I think we can at least point out in chapter 5 that Peter has been around Jesus, he's intrigued by him, he respects him, he lets him in his boat, and he has at least heard some of Jesus' teachings.
[16:32] I wonder if that's some of you this morning. You've been around Jesus at the very least. You've heard some of his teaching. In fact, you even like some of his teaching and you respect it. You're not against that.
[16:44] And I don't mean that in a derogatory way at all. Maybe you've been around the word of God. You feel a sort of like deference to it. You're interested in it. You even like parts of it. But that's kind of as far as you've gotten.
[16:55] That's just where you are in life. You're by the shore. You're in the shallow. And in some ways it feels like it's kind of far enough. But Jesus doesn't stop there. Scene 2.
[17:07] The deep. So we don't know how long Jesus is teaching in the boat. But again, Peter's worked all night and is tired and ready to go home and to take a rest. Right? And so however long it is, it's probably long enough.
[17:20] But after he's done preaching, he turns to Peter, who he's already asked to put out from shore. And he asks him to put out a little further. And he says, put out into the deep.
[17:33] Now there's a few things we need to understand about this request to understand the preposterous nature of what Jesus is asking. A few things. First off, Peter tells Jesus, we've already fished all night.
[17:47] A.K.A. The fish ain't biting, Jesus. Right? Second thing. Peter and his pals are fishermen. It doesn't tell us everything that Peter's thinking.
[17:57] Again, but I can tell you what I would be thinking. Hey, carpenter. Stay in your lane. I'm a fisherman. Right? Not only that, but okay, maybe you're pretty good at preaching God's word.
[18:11] But did I? I sat there quietly in the boat. I didn't tell you how to preach from my boat. I mean, you could have used a few more illustrations. But I'm just saying, did I say that? Nope. Not at all. Not only that.
[18:23] But the very reason that they were fishing at night is because that's when they would fish on the Sea of Galilee. It says that when it says to let down your nets, it's a specific type of net that they would use at that time called a trammel net.
[18:36] And it would be like a big linen cloth. And you see, during the day, with the sun and shadows, fish could see it and they would avoid it. But at night, they wouldn't. So they went out at night for a very specific reason and caught nothing.
[18:50] Jesus is telling them to go put out into the deep. When? In the day. Come on. What a request, right? Not only that, but in the Sea of Galilee, you didn't go into the deep to catch fish.
[19:03] It would actually be more towards the shallow and the shore. Not right up the shore, but a little for that. The deep wasn't the place for them to catch fish. Hmm. For Jesus to tell Peter to put out into the deep would not just seem a tad presumptuous, but also counterintuitive.
[19:21] Peter says, we already toiled all night. We've already been working for nothing. And now Jesus is asking them to do something that doesn't just seem like potential toil, but guaranteed toil and emptiness.
[19:36] Right? But Peter calls Jesus master. And he says this. He says, at your word, I will let down the nets. He's been around the word.
[19:47] And the word is enough at this point for him to put out into the deep and to let down his nets. He's been listening to the word, and now he's called to obey the word.
[20:00] I wonder if there's anything that Jesus asks you to do that you do just because Jesus asks you to, even without understanding all of it or knowing the beginning from the end.
[20:16] Let me apply this again before we move to the next scene. So many times in life, to follow Jesus is to move out into the deep. We like the shallow, right?
[20:27] The shallow is manageable. But he's not going to leave us there because he loves us. And when he calls us into deep waters, oftentimes it feels wrong or it feels unrealistic or it feels contradictory.
[20:40] I mean, just think of all the things that Jesus says. To die is to live. To give everything is to gain everything. To be first is to be last, and to be last is to be first.
[20:52] To humble yourself is to be exalted. To give is better than receiving. Turn the other cheek. Blessed, happy. The good life is for the poor in spirit.
[21:05] So many times, we feel like we know what God should do. And we're certain that to follow Jesus, like, only call me to the places where I feel like I have all of the answers.
[21:21] And don't get me wrong. I'm not against answers. There are many answers to things. The Christian faith is a rational one, right? It's not irrational. There's a comprehensiveness and a way to view the world that makes sense of the world through the Christian faith.
[21:36] And at times, I have no idea what Jesus is doing. I can't tell you how many times in life I have felt completely out of my depth.
[21:51] As a husband. As a father. As a minister. It's just a follower of Jesus. And yet, he keeps calling me into the deep.
[22:04] And he's going to call you also into the deep. He does this to all of us. Where we know we're supposed to follow. And we even know the command to obey. Just, you know, like to trust him.
[22:15] But it feels like it's going to be too deep. It doesn't make sense to us at first. And yet, the promise is that he's in the boat with us.
[22:25] Right? And there's so many Christian books out there that are marketed as if they have the secret code that's going to crack what it looks like.
[22:37] If you just implement these things, you're going to have the perfect church. Or you're going to have the perfect life. And don't get me wrong. I've read a lot of books like that. And I've benefited from lots of books like that.
[22:48] There can be wisdom in those books. And yet, there is a mystery. There is a depth. There is a profundity. There is an unmanageableness to life in following Jesus.
[23:03] We often feel like following Jesus is putting out into the deep. Because it is. Do you know this feeling? Will you listen to the word of Jesus everywhere?
[23:19] Not just where. You see, it's not just where you feel needy. Sure, Jesus, help me in those areas that I'm weak. I've got these things I want to work on. Could you help me with these things? I don't know the answers here. But where does he ask Peter to go?
[23:30] He goes to his strengths. And shows him that even in his strength, what he felt most comfortable in, he's calling him to go deeper and to not understand at first what Jesus is doing.
[23:42] The point isn't to be unwise. God works in ordinary ways also. But the point is that you cannot box in and tame Jesus. He will not let you stay by the shore.
[23:53] But he will call you into the deep. Not just the places that you feel incompetent, but places where you do feel competent. And he will show you your futility, even in your strength, without him.
[24:08] As the hymn goes, God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. So we've been in the shallow. We move to the deep.
[24:19] Third scene. Sinking. Peter obeys the word of the second Adam, the son of God. And what happens? Full nets.
[24:30] Bursting with fish. It's so many that it fills Peter's boat. And these boats wouldn't be small. They actually found, about a decade ago, a fishing boat from the first century, the time of Peter, at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee.
[24:45] They pulled it up, and it was 26 1⁄2 feet long, 7 feet wide, 4 1⁄2 feet deep. A pretty good-sized boat. Full of fish. And that boat is not just filled, but also that other boat that we saw at the beginning that Jesus didn't call.
[24:59] That one gets enlisted to come out because they need their help, and it fills that boat. And it doesn't just fill them, and they can float back to shore. It fills them, and the buoyancy of the boats is put in danger, and they start to sink.
[25:15] And in the midst of all these fish flopping around on the boat, Peter is standing in the middle of them, and he falls to his knees in front of Jesus. And he asks him to please go away.
[25:31] Maybe some of us are so familiar with this story, it might not strike us as odd. Because I don't know about you, but if I was Peter, maybe I would be thinking, Jesus, do I have a partnership, an opportunity for you to invest in.
[25:46] With your fishing skills and my boats, we can start the best chippies in all of Capernaum. We're going to open another one in Jerusalem. We're taking this baby to Rome.
[25:57] Like, this is going to make us rich. What do you say, Jesus? Peter, do that? Instead, he says, Get away.
[26:10] Could you just go? I'm a sinner. Just please go far away from me. Have you ever felt exposed?
[26:23] And you just sink in despair? Back to my guitar. My friend Eddie and I, we're ready to give this performance at the talent show. We've been feeling nervous about it.
[26:34] We thought we were prepared. But then we see these other guys and we're like, oh no. And you know, we go through our little warm-up and things like that. Well, we're so nervous when we go onto the stage that we stand in opposite spots.
[26:47] And we start to play, and my guitar is a little loud and his is a little quiet. But the sound guy at the back, since we had switched spots, thinks that his guitar is mine and my guitar is his.
[26:57] And so what does he do? He turns, tries to turn mine down, but he turns Eddie's down. And he tries to turn Eddie's up, but he turns mine up full blast. And my fingers are sweaty and the notes just aren't quite getting hit in the right way.
[27:12] And it sounds like every time I do it that I'm going to set off all of the car alarms in the parking lot. And not only that, but we just watched like the reincarnation of Eddie Van Halen shredding on guitar right before us, blowing everybody away.
[27:27] And let me tell you, I would have paid money in that moment to sink into the ground and to disappear. When we get into the presence of someone greater than us, we often feel inadequate.
[27:45] And if that is true in human terms, how much more so when you meet the holy God? Peter's not so scared by the weight of the fish, but by the weight of the man in the boat with him.
[28:04] Peter, he realizes, he's been fishing his whole life, but he's just been pretending like he's playing with a toy fishing rod. Because all of a sudden, in front of him is the fisher of men.
[28:20] The Greek word in verse 9 for astonishment, it's actually used, regularly used, for dread that comes over those who encounter the awesome holiness of God.
[28:32] Peter realizes that he's in the presence of someone wholly other. And in seeing Jesus' fullness, he senses his own futility. He's gone from the shore to the shallow, to the deep.
[28:49] And now he's sinking. He's sinking with the boat. Have you ever felt the weight and the fullness of Jesus pressing down on you?
[29:02] It is shattering. But it's also so freeing. Because when it hits you, you realize you are dealing with the truth.
[29:15] And now we can start getting after things. Peter isn't comparing his life to shades of gray anymore, but to the Holy One, to the Son of God.
[29:26] And like that, everything grows dim. And the light is illuminating. And it is exposing Peter. And he feels what? He feels naked and ashamed like the first Adam.
[29:39] Peter, this guy who's so spiritually untidy. He's a big, strong fisherman. He is terrified out of his wits because he knows this is actually the greatest challenge of his life standing in front of him.
[29:56] So we've been at the shore. We went to the deep. We're sinking. Scene four. From now on. The good news is that in Peter's emptiness, Jesus meets him with his fullness.
[30:16] It's in the deep, y'all, when we come to the end of our own strength and self-reliance that Jesus reveals himself in his goodness and his power to us.
[30:26] To be a follower of Jesus is to realize your need, your sin, your guilt. And yet, the one who has exposed me desires me. He's coming after me.
[30:39] He picks Peter's boat. Why? Because he wants Peter. He gets in Peter's boat. Why? Because he wants Peter. He exposes Peter and shows him his futility in life without him.
[30:50] Why? So that he can show him his fullness. Jesus is not going to grant this request no matter how unworthy Peter is.
[31:02] See, when Peter says that he's a sinner, it's the very first time that that word is used in the Gospel of Luke. And if you follow along just a few more verses in chapter 5, verse 32, it introduces this theme that Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke.
[31:16] I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Jesus is saying to Peter, yes, you are a sinner, Peter. And oh, there is a lot more that you're going to learn about the depths of your sin.
[31:29] But guess what? I will not go away. In fact, that's why I came. That's why I got in the boat. For sinners. The one who caught fish his whole life, he's now been caught himself.
[31:45] Just like in the passage in Isaiah, did you hear the similarities in there? Both Isaiah and Peter, they're encountered with the holiness and the glory of the Lord.
[31:55] And what do they immediately say? I'm a sinner. Get away. This is going to end me. And in both things, they're assured. But it doesn't end there, right?
[32:08] What comes for Isaiah? Who's going to go for me? Here I am. Send me. He gets commissioned, right? There's a commission. There's the same thing for Peter.
[32:20] There's a from now on. From now on, there's such a sweet assurance in those words because Jesus is saying, from now on, I'm going to be with you. But not only that, from now on means action.
[32:31] It means following Jesus. It means he has something in store for your life. And for Peter, Jesus tells him he's now going to catch men and women instead of fish, which is super weird if you're hearing it for the first time, right?
[32:43] But the Greek, it literally says you are going to catch them to life. You don't catch fish, you know, you eat them, right? So you're like, what's going on with this metaphor? It literally says in the Greek, you're going to catch them to life.
[32:54] You're going to drag them out of the water and that is when they're going to be alive. Why this miracle? I said at the beginning that in miracles, Jesus is showing the way things ought to be.
[33:06] And so many times, you think of every single one of the other miracles, Jesus is coming up against some great human need. Somebody is sick, they need to be healed. Somebody can't walk, they need to walk.
[33:17] Somebody can't see, he heals their blindness, right? Somebody has leprosy, they need to be cleansed. Why this miracle? Did they need a bunch of fish? Why?
[33:32] Go back to the beginning. Remember I said that there's this theme of Jesus as the second Adam. There's this theme of recreation. Life as it was meant to be. Things have gone wrong, but Jesus has come to put things right.
[33:44] We've been reminded of the toil and the curse because of sin. But Jesus is pointing back to the very first page of the Bible in the Garden of Eden. What is one of the very first things that God tasks man with in creation?
[34:00] To have dominion over the fish of the sea. Jesus is not just showing Peter who he is, but also a taste of what the kingdom is like.
[34:11] Not only are your sins forgiven, but you get enlisted. There is a restored vocation, there is a mission, there is a purpose to your life as you come to Jesus. There is a from now on.
[34:23] Jesus desires for us to participate in the kingdom of God. And he sometimes has to break us like a glow stick for us to start to shine. And this is such good news.
[34:33] This is such amazing news that Peter walks away from his business, his family business, on the very best day of work ever.
[34:45] I wonder if that sounds too fanciful to you. Or is it actually maybe ringing in the depths of who you are as true? That Jesus loves you so much that he would pursue you, that he will take you to the deep, that he will expose your need, even in your strength.
[35:03] And it's going to be like you're sinking so that he can assure you that you are the kind of person that he is after. And he promises from now on that he is going to enlist you and that he's going to be with you and that he desires to use our labor.
[35:19] It is not toil, there is no toil or futility in the kingdom of God. Back to guitars, I've kept playing guitar. You know, like my rock and roll career obviously never took off.
[35:33] I was too traumatized by that experience but I kept, you know, playing and strumming things and I still even have a guitar. Brought it with from America to our flat and I'll get it out sometimes and play with the family.
[35:44] And our youngest, Ollie, he would love to listen to the guitar and not only listen to the guitar, he'd want to go up and grab it, right, and basically like pull the strings off of it when he was little. And in order, so my guitar wasn't broken, what we did was we bought him his own little guitar right here.
[36:00] This is the one. It has seen better days. You can see one of the knobs has broken off. We kind of tied it around. It kind of makes the noise but not very good. Okay. And so we would give this to him.
[36:11] He didn't know how to say the word guitar. I think he does now. We should ask him later. But the noise of the guitar, he would say ninga, ninga, ninga, so he calls this his ninga. And in getting this for him, you see what's going on is that this was an invitation.
[36:26] It was an invitation to join in. When daddy gets out his guitar, you get out your guitar. And in that invitation, he's not on his own but he is provided for. And he's not only provided for to participate but he's desired.
[36:41] It's his assurance that his participation is desired. And not only that but it's anticipated. I want him to join in. I want him to play with us. And not only anticipated but I've provided for it.
[36:54] It's small but I want him to join in. This is what Jesus does for Peter. This is what he does for us. Come. Come join this mission. You're desired. It is anticipated that you're going to come.
[37:06] And I'm going to provide for it. And I want you to join in the song of the kingdom. And know that you're a desired guest. Don't stay on the shore. Put out into the deep.
[37:19] You don't have to be afraid. Jesus is with you. He knows where all the fish are. He can provide for your shame, for your livelihood. He can provide for us in the mission that he has before us. Thanks be to God.
[37:32] Let's pray together. Father, we give you thanks that you have caught us. That your grace has come after us. That you've pursued us to life.
[37:43] That you've caught us to life. We thank you that when we declare that we are sinners that you don't run away from us. But instead you say from now on. From now on we're yours.
[37:57] Father, we pray that we would make this confession like Peter every single day. Maybe for some this morning who've never made that confession that they would feel the depth. That they would themselves feel like they are sinking.
[38:10] So that you might catch them to life. Help us to follow you in this. To desire to participate in your mission. To see our role, our vocation restored in this world.
[38:24] We pray all this in the name of our King and the Fisher of Men, Jesus. Amen. Amen.