[0:00] Seeking the Lord's blessing, let us now turn back to the portion of scripture that we read together, Gospel according to Luke and chapter 5, and we can read at the beginning.
[0:15] And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
[0:32] And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed to him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a trap.
[0:50] And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net break.
[1:05] And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
[1:22] For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Sepadre, which were partners with Simon.
[1:33] And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.
[1:46] Our focus this evening is going to be on the words found in verse 11. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.
[2:02] If I was to ask you tonight, what is a Christian, or what makes a person to be a disciple of Christ?
[2:17] You may come up with many answers, and with many do's and don'ts. Some will say that it means you were born in a Christian nation, or you come from a Christian family.
[2:31] But the Bible gives us the simplest definition of what is a Christian, or what makes a person a disciple of Jesus Christ.
[2:44] To be a Christian, or to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, does not depend on where you were born, or into which family you were born and grew up.
[2:55] It is not to follow a religion, but to embrace a relationship. What is a Christian? What is it to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
[3:09] The answer is to embrace a relationship. To believe, to trust, and to follow Jesus Christ.
[3:19] To enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith. Here in the narrative that we are looking at this evening, Jesus had become very popular as a preacher.
[3:37] And his reputation as a miracle worker had become well known. And it had caught people's imagination. And so many people were gathering from all over the place to hear him.
[3:53] And possibly in the hope to see him perhaps performing a miracle. We read that while he was by the lake of Gennesaret, which is another name for the lake or sea of Galilee.
[4:07] There were two boats, and the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Jesus got into one of the boats, which Luke tells us was Simon's or Peter's or Simon Peter's, and asked him to put out a little from the land.
[4:28] So Jesus was using Simon's boat as a pulpit. I don't want to read too much into the fact that there were two boats.
[4:39] There is always the danger of letting our imagination lead us too far. But that which ensues in the narrative and which we are told regarding Simon, I cannot withdraw the conclusion that the mention of the two boats and the choice of Jesus of Simon's boat does bear some significance.
[5:07] Therefore, in the context of what I want to focus upon this evening, may I say this, that it brings to my mind God's sovereignty.
[5:19] Two boats, possibly both alike. And the fishermen had left both boats, and they were washing their nets. And Jesus comes along and begins to preach.
[5:34] And he chooses one boat, which was Simon's. And he began to preach. And what follows is that he was going to deal in a very personal way with Simon.
[5:49] He was going to call him, and he was going to call him into the apostolic ministry. And tonight, there may be two people sitting in the same pew, outwardly alike.
[6:08] The gospel of Jesus is being preached. And one person is set apart because Jesus is going to deal with you tonight in a very personal way.
[6:26] That very often happens in the experience of God's people. They enter a place of worship. And suddenly they feel as if there is no one else there but themselves.
[6:41] As they are challenged with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tonight I would like to look at this whole narrative and pick out that which illustrates to us what a Christian is.
[6:59] What it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This chapter begins by telling us of Jesus and that the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God.
[7:17] This is always the context in which discipleship always begins. Because in order to follow Jesus, we must hear what he says.
[7:36] Last week we noted how the writer to the letter of the Hebrews warns us and tells us how we ought to give the more honest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip or let them drift away.
[7:54] It is important to hear and listen to the word of God. The Bible says, Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
[8:11] So for anyone who wants to be a disciple and follow Jesus, the ear is the most important part of the body.
[8:25] Recently in our study on the parable of the sower, we read that very earnest admonition with which Jesus concluded that parable.
[8:37] When he says, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. That is the same exhortation that Jesus gave to John from heaven as recorded for us in the book of Revelation as he admonished the seven churches of Asia.
[8:57] He repeatedly said, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church.
[9:09] The Bible always gives emphasis on listening to the word of God. To have closed ears unto the word of God is a great sin.
[9:26] But when the ears are open and we begin to give heed to the words that we hear, it is a hopeful sign. For in order to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means that we listen to Jesus.
[9:42] That we listen to what he has to say to us. So we are told that the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God.
[9:58] But there is more required than merely to listen to the word of God. If the first lesson of discipleship is to listen to the word of God, the second lesson is obedience.
[10:21] To be obedient to the word of God. Here we are told that after Jesus had stopped speaking or preaching, that he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft.
[10:43] This was Jesus calling to Simon. It was more than a calling. It was a command. He said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft.
[11:00] It was a command. And that is just like a gospel. The gospel is a calling, but it is more than a calling. It is an invitation, but it is more than an invitation.
[11:13] It is a command. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But let us for a moment consider Peter's reaction or Simon's reaction to this command.
[11:31] And in the light of his reaction, consider your own reaction to the gospel call and command.
[11:43] Peter was a professional fisherman. That was his living. Jesus was simply a carpenter. If Jesus wanted to teach, that was one thing.
[11:56] If he wanted to preach, that was one thing. He could even borrow Simon's boat. But when he started telling Simon how to fish, that was another matter entirely.
[12:11] In his reaction, Simon is more or less saying, you mind your business and I'll mind mine.
[12:21] Peter felt that Jesus was beginning to meddle in his business for he was upsetting Simon's plans and invading Simon's personal space.
[12:35] You mind your business. You mind your business and I'll mind mine. And how often that is the reply you get when you speak to people regarding the gospel and their need of salvation.
[12:55] How often they will reply, listen, you mind your business and I'll mind mine. Don't meddle into my life. Don't meddle into my business.
[13:07] Don't upset my plans. Don't invade my personal space. And tonight, that might be your reaction to the gospel.
[13:21] Tonight, that might be in your mind, in your thoughts, what you're saying to me. Don't dare meddle into my life or tell me how to govern my own life and what to do with my own life.
[13:36] I'll do what I like and you do what you like, but just don't interfere with me. Don't meddle into my life. We find here what Simon Peter says.
[13:51] Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Peter had been up all night because that was the time to fish, especially in deep water.
[14:02] The fish generally did not surface during the day but stayed deeper down. So it was better fishing at night. Of course, fishermen do not always catch something and on this night Peter and his fishing friends caught nothing at all.
[14:22] No doubt they were tired. They were discouraged. Their livelihood depended on catching fish. And you shall find the same thing with the gospel.
[14:38] Maybe this is a picture of yourself tonight. People will go along with you to a certain point but once you invade their personal space, once you upset their plans, they accuse you of meddling.
[14:56] Maybe, as I say, that's a description of yourself tonight. You are happy enough to go along with the gospel, to hear the gospel, to listen to the gospel.
[15:09] But when that gospel begins to invade your personal space, when it begins to stir up your conscience, when it begins to convince you of your sin, you come to regard it as meddling in your life.
[15:27] Is that you tonight? you may be feeling tired and discouraged because your plans aren't really working out the way that you intended them to work out.
[15:45] You promised yourself so many things but here comes along this gospel of Jesus and it is cutting across all your plans and dreams that you have grouped up in your own mind of how your life was going to pan out.
[16:05] The gospel of Jesus and following Jesus, being converted, being a Christian was always for others, never for yourself.
[16:18] It was always for others, never for me. You never minded hearing others being converted and following Jesus but as for you it was a no-go area.
[16:37] You had planned to live a life for self and no one else. You planned to get married, planned to have children, planned to accumulate wealth, to have a nice home and to live happily.
[16:54] but then the gospel of Jesus comes and you find that it is setting you apart from the rest and it leaves you restless.
[17:09] There is something in this gospel of Jesus that has stirred you up and now is leaving you restless. Jesus Peter, as we noted, had been up all night and this was a time to fish especially as we sat in deep water.
[17:33] And on this night Peter and his friends had caught nothing at all. No doubt they were tired and discouraged, their livelihood depended, as we said, on catching fish.
[17:48] Tonight you may be feeling tired and discouraged because your plans aren't working out the way that you intended. This gospel of Jesus has cut across all your plans.
[18:06] And tonight you are here and you are feeling restless. Not feeling at peace.
[18:16] maybe feeling rather confused with the doll because you thought that you had planned everything down to the last moment.
[18:32] But now it has cut right across all these plans. Everything that you had dreamed about is gone.
[18:43] You're so upset, you're so discouraged, you're so confused. This gospel is upsetting all your plans, it's going against all that you have ever known, all that you had ever experienced before.
[19:00] And that's the way it was for Simon or for Peter. Peter, we just used that name in the tangible Simon or Peter, it's the same person. Everything was going against all that he had ever known and experienced.
[19:16] Here was a man during the day saying, launch out into the deep, giving him a command, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft.
[19:28] something that Simon had never known before, something that Simon had never experienced before. Peter's own way of reasoning and wisdom was suffering here and it was all getting in the way because he was giving way to his own reasoning and to his own wisdom.
[19:53] And sometimes, you know, we can fall into that. We can all get times when we can be tired and discouraged and we give way to our own reasoning and to our own wisdom.
[20:13] But let us consider for a moment his response. How did Peter respond to this command?
[20:25] Although it seems that Peter was rather reluctant but let us just for a moment see how he responded. He did what Jesus told him to do.
[20:38] You see, he was obedient to the command. Nevertheless, he says, at thy word I will let down the net.
[20:52] man and this is the important thing. Even if Peter was a bit reluctant, even if Peter was a bit confused, even if Peter couldn't reason it all out, although this command seemed so strange to him, although this command he couldn't see how things were going to work out, he had never known about this, he had never experienced this, he had never been told about this.
[21:25] But Jesus had told him to launch out into the deep and to let down the nets for a draft.
[21:37] And so confused, Simon says, nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net.
[21:55] Even if Peter was a bit reluctant and confused, Peter still obeyed. Obedience to the word of God for me and you are a matter of life and death.
[22:16] Paul writing to the Thessalonians says, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day.
[22:58] Peter, Simon, couldn't quite understand what was happening, but he knew that this was the words of Jesus, he knew that this was the command of Jesus, and he obeyed that command.
[23:22] You see, the gospel doesn't say to us that we have to be great theologians before we believe, that we have to be great theologians before we obey the command of the gospel.
[23:40] There are many things that we cannot understand, there are many things that can leave us confused, but what the word says is believe, trust, follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
[24:02] What was the result of Peter's obedience? Well, here we are told, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and the net break.
[24:16] And they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to seek.
[24:28] Among the lessons that this teaches us is to take Jesus at his word. not to start questioning what his word tells us.
[24:42] And so often we find ourselves doing exactly that instead of taking the word as we find it. When Jesus said to Peter, launch out into the deep, he began to question the words of Jesus.
[25:02] And that sometimes can be a great hindrance and an obstacle to make us drift away from what the word tells us to do.
[25:18] To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the devil won't bother you if you start questioning as long as you stay away from Jesus, as long as you don't obey the command, as long as you don't obey the command of the gospel and believe in Jesus.
[25:41] The devil is quite happy to leave you questioning and questioning and questioning all your life until the day that you die. He said he happened to leave you questioning as long as you don't believe.
[25:56] But what the word of the gospel tells me to do is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to embrace this relationship by faith with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[26:10] And the questions that I have, the Lord may answer them as I go on following him, as I go on in his way. here we are told that the result of obedience was that they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net bread and they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them and they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink.
[26:41] You see this teaches us to take Jesus as his sword even if we do not fully understand what he says we should believe as much as we can and ask him to help us to believe it all I believe help thou my unbelief Jesus was here demonstrating to Peter his power his kindness and his mercy and the great multitude of fishes and if we are to be obedient to the gospel we shall also be made aware of the power the kindness and the mercy of Jesus Christ to be a Christian or a disciple of Jesus Christ means that we come to an awareness of the power the love the kindness and the mercy of
[27:48] God where is all this manifested to us well Paul writes to the church at Corinth and he says for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God it is all shown to us at and by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ there we become aware of the power of the love of the kindness and of the mercy of God in the hymn by Isaac Watts we find these words see from his head his hands his feet sorrow and love flow mingled down that dare such love and sorrow meet our thorns compose so rich a crown so to be a disciple of the
[28:51] Lord Jesus Christ we listen to his word the ear is open to his word and we are obedient to his word and we become aware of the power of the love of the kindness and of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ we come to appreciate the cross of Golgotha we come to understand the kindness the love the mercy of God that is demonstrated by the cross of Golgotha we come to understand these words that we spoke to the children about this morning God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life the third lesson of discipleship is to confess our sinnership confess our sinnership we read here when
[30:14] Simon Peter saw it that is when he saw the great multitude of fishes when he saw that which demonstrated the power and kindness and mercy of Jesus when he saw it what did he do he fell down at Jesus knees saying depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord for he was astonished at all that as well as all that were with him at the draught of the fishers which they had taken when Simon became aware of the power and the kindness and mercy of Jesus Christ he fell down right there in the boat and he confessed that he was a sinner suddenly he realized that he was so unworthy that he was not even fit to be in the same boat with Jesus every every every disciple of
[31:15] Jesus must come to the point of full confession of sin and repentance this confession of sin and repentance was not only once but was to become a continuous pattern and lifestyle of Peter and every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ it's not only once we confess and repent it is a continual exercise every day of our lives we confess and we repent in the light of the cross we must see ourselves as we really are and see and by seeing Jesus as he really is in all his power and majesty of love kindness and mercy Peter said depart from me for
[32:18] I am a sinful man O Lord when we see our sin we do not need to run away from Jesus this is what Peter tried to do and it is easy to understand why when he saw what a sinner he was he suddenly decided there was no way for him to have any kind of relationship with Jesus sometimes we feel the same way when we become aware of our sin we may feel that how can I be brought into a relationship with Jesus I am a sinner I sin every day how can I be brought into a relationship with Jesus when we finally see how sinful we really are it is only natural for us to feel that we do not even deserve to come into a relationship with
[33:27] Jesus into God's presence we are too guilty to be where God is but this is the good news of the gospel that is exactly why Jesus came he came to bring us close to God and doing so by dying on the cross for our sins notice here in the narrative that when he was when Simon was reluctant and doubting the command he gave a name to Jesus he called Jesus master or teacher but now notice what he's calling him he calls him Lord Lord tonight tonight you may be saying well there was a time and this name Jesus was a very common name in my mouth but only used in a very derogative way usually as a swear word but in the light of the cross in the light of what
[34:41] I know about myself tonight and in the light of what I know about Jesus tonight what I know about Jesus and the cross tonight why he was there why he came into the world why he died on the cross this name Jesus is so precious to me because here is my saviour and my Lord my saviour and my Lord Jesus knew what was going on in Simon's heart and he says to him fear not be not afraid all this was so new to him so unexpected and he said to him from henceforth thou shalt catch men this was all new to Simon so unexpected to Simon but
[35:42] Jesus says to be not afraid fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men Jesus was reassuring Simon telling him that his sins did not disqualify him part of Peter's side he was that he was too sinful to be useful and too sinful to be of any use to you Lord that was Peter's thinking and reasoning and here Jesus is saying to him that does not disqualify you you be not afraid because God can still use you from henceforth thou shalt catch men to be a disciple of Jesus Christ means you listen to his word it means you're obedient to his word it means you make that confession of who you are and you make repentance you repent you repent and this brings us to the fourth lesson of discipleship which is to serve the
[37:04] Lord for Peter this meant an apostolic ministry but the call to tell people about Jesus is for every Christian for every disciple evangelism is an ordinary part of everyday discipleship everyone who follows Jesus is called in a sense to be a kind of fisherman every follower of Jesus in a sense is a fisherman because gospel evangelism is a lot like fishing a fisherman never knows what he is going to catch because that catches up to the sovereignty of God but if a fisherman refuses to cast and drag the net you see he will never catch anything at all as Christians and disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to cast and drag our nets by witnessing by inviting our neighbours to the gospel bringing our friends to church speaking to family members about spiritual things testifying to
[38:20] God's goodness and our own daily life sharing the gospel in every way which we can and as we do these things will we catch anything well not always and never by our own abilities but that is hardly an excuse for us or a reason to stop fishing we trust in the sovereignty of God a fisherman keeps casting his net and we are called to keep sharing our faith you know it always intrigues me to see a fisherman a person with a rod and casting out the rod and spending hours and hours catching nothing and we always say well how patient that person is but he continues to cast out the rod and that is the way we are to be with the gospel we've got to be patient we've got to cast out the gospel cast out our net in every way we can and depend upon the sovereignty of
[39:39] God to give us a catch Gent for the 있었 to وا spoke about listening to the word. It has climaxed now to this point of total commitment. And that was our focus. Total commitment. Here is a day that their lives were changed forever. It is one thing to listen to the gospel of Jesus, which many people do. It is one thing to repent for sin.
[40:26] Another thing to start witnessing for Christ. But a disciple leaves everything behind to follow Jesus. That is a total commitment. The gospel of Luke chapter 9 brings before us the story of a man to whom Jesus said, follow me. And the man said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead. But go thou and preach the kingdom of God. Now, you may say, well, that was very harsh. But really, when you look into this narrative, what the man was asking was, wait until my father dies.
[41:16] And then I will follow you. His father was not actually dead at that time. What he was saying was, wait till my father dies. And then I will follow you. He was more or less saying, Lord, it's not convenient just now. Just wait until my father dies. And then I will follow you.
[41:38] Another also said, Lord, I will follow thee. But let me first go, put them farewell which are at home, at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. In other words, total commitment.
[42:04] Amen. Many people say they want to follow Jesus, but instead of leaving everything behind, they try to take it all with them. But we must be willing to give up our selfish ambitions, our sinful pleasures, even our comfortable surroundings, and certainly our precious idols.
[42:27] give them up in order to give total commitment to Jesus Christ. True discipleship is costly, because it means giving up what we want for ourselves, so that we can have what Jesus wants for us.
[42:47] To be a Christian or a disciple for Christ means that we live for Jesus. We have changed desires. We have different priority in our lives. Different things occupy our thoughts each day as we seek to follow Jesus.
[43:08] We listen. We obey. We confess and repent daily. We serve Jesus. We witness for Jesus.
[43:21] We commit ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. And follow him. What is it to be a Christian? What is it to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ?
[43:37] Well, in this narrative, we have illustrated for us what it is to be a Christian, and what it is to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[43:48] We listen to the Lord Jesus Christ. We listen to the Lord Jesus Christ. We obey the Lord Jesus Christ. We confess and repent daily of our sins. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We witness for him.
[43:59] And we commit ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we follow him. Again, if we can just close with the words of Isaac Watts.
[44:12] Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, saving the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.
[44:26] Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
[44:42] Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
[44:53] May the Lord bless our Lord Jesus Christ.