SIGNAL CHURCH CAPE TOWN
Julia Day:- Jesus: The Call Of Peter. Pt.21
I love the body of Christ. I love the church because I absolutely adore its head. I am in love with Jesus Christ. He saved me from the pit. And I can say that with confidence. And he has set my feet on a rock and has never left my side. And it's just a joy to be with you this morning. And so I'm just going to pray because I need the help from the Lord. But we just say, Lord Jesus, you're so welcome in our midst. We've already sensed your presence here this morning. And it's such a joy to come together, to look at you, to get to know you. And I pray this morning that you would open the eyes of our hearts, that we would see you rightly. Jesus, we need a glimpse of you this morning. We need to see the man with fire in his eyes. And so would you awaken us to all that you have for us, or would you help me? Would you help me this morning to share in a way that makes sense? In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, so if you've been with us for the last few months, we've been going through a series on Jesus. The idea is we sort of looking at this sistine chapel, the ceiling of the sistine chapel, which was painted by Michelangelo in these incredible panels that looked at different aspects of the story of God. And we've been sort of zooming in to different moments of this grand story of Jesus to understand more of who he is and hopefully fall more in love with him and have him impact and transform our lives. And we looked at sort of the pre-Jesus moment. And for the last few weeks, we've been looking at Jesus' baptism, this moment where he hears the Father just identify him publicly as his son, anoint him, lead him into the wilderness where he's tempted by the devil for 40 days. And then we hear that he leads full of the power of the Spirit, ready to launch his ministry on the earth. And Jesse spoke last week about the inauguration of the kingdom. He came with his message, saying repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And if you haven't heard those and you need more context, go back and listen. I think there's a podcast. And but today, I'm going to look specifically in Luke 5. And I've called it the call of Peter. And it's really the first moment Jesus calls disciples to himself. It's an incredible story. And before Taryn asked me to speak on this, I come with a lot of tears. It's a caveat. So I will weep at moments today. Just roll with it. It's the Lord and the way he speaks to me. But I had been sitting actually in a part of Peter's story for months before Taryn asked me to come and speak on this. And so I feel like sometimes when you prepare a talk, it's like you sit across the table from your talk and you chat for a few weeks about what you're going to say. And there are other times where the talk totally envelopes you. And you live it, and you breathe it, and you weep through it. And I feel today I'm coming with that sort of level of just personal encouragement, personal challenge through this piece of scripture and hoping to bring it in a way that makes sense. I'm not a professional. I'm married to theologian, which is wonderful, because it helps in these moments. But I'm hoping to just bring the simple insights that I have that would hopefully encourage our hearts towards the one who is worthy of our full attention, and that we would be caught up again this morning willing to give everything to follow the man who will lead us to the place of life. OK, we're going to read. And just for quick context, in this passage of scripture, Luke is writing, and he uses the name Simon. Jesus renames Simon, a few chapters later, and he calls him Peter. But at this stage, he's still very much known as Simon. So we're going to be talking about Simon, but it's ultimately the man who becomes Peter who leads the early church at an end. And so we're going to read from Luke 5. It should be up behind me. Once, while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Ganesurit and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little wave from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered, "Master, we've worked all night long, but have caught nothing. Yet, if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him. Isn't that enough in itself? Sometimes I read the word of God. I think it needs nothing more, you know? So beautiful. So I just want to paint a little bit of a full picture. I just want to place us on the shore of this lake of Ganesra. It's the Sea of Galilee. You would have heard that. I'm sure if you've been in church for a while. But it's in Israel now as we know it. And I have a friend who's recently been to Israel. He was actually there last year, just before the war broke out, actually as the war broke out. And he was on the Sea of Galilee the day that it started. And he took these photos. So I wanted to just give you a picture that it's a real place. And it's very beautiful, very peaceful in those images. Yes, but they find themselves in and around Galilee. Jesus has been ministering in that area. He's been announcing, proclaiming this message of the kingdom. And people have been starting to hear about who he is. Definitely momentum's picking up, word is getting out. And he finds himself in this moment standing by the Sea of Galilee. And he's teaching. There's a crowd, it's his pressing in on him. So that tells us that people have begun to ask questions about who this man is. So much so that they are following him around. Pressing in on him while he's walking alongside the sea. We know that this was an area of, like a predominant area of fishing, Tiberius, which is a little bit lower down, was a big fishing sort of market space. And so fishing was a very common practice. And we can tell from this passage that Simon and his brother Andrew were fishermen. They were professional fishermen. This was their job. They were essentially experts in this field. At this time, trades were very much passed down from generation to generation. So it's very likely that they were taught by their father. And his father was taught by his father. And so they know what they're doing. That's what I want to say. They know how to fish for fish. Typically, as well, fishing happened at night and close to the shore. What's very interesting is that there were these, they probably are, but these springs of fresh water that push up into the Sea of Galilee. And the fish flocked towards those areas to feed. And the fishermen knew where those springs were. And they were typically closer to the shore because the rivers and things are feeding in to the lake. And because they were fishing closer to the shore, it's very sort of clear to see the fish and the fish can see you. And they can see the nets. And so fishing was typically done at night. And they would cast these big nets, they were called drag nets, off the side of their boat. And essentially, the fish would be feeding below on the shore. The nets would sink down, covering the fish, and then they would haul the catch in. It's just important for us to note that they would usually fish close to the shore and at night. As I said, Simon was a professional fisherman. He has a brother called Andrew. Andrew, just going back a little bit, was a disciple of John the Baptist. And so Andrew has been following John for however long. And we know in the beginning of John's gospel, I'm just giving you a whistle stop to it, that John begins to announce that Jesus, the Messiah, is coming essentially. And Andrew was following John. So John, Andrew would have been very close behind him, seeing this perhaps the Messiah coming, Andrew, Simon's brother. And so we know, we can assume, that Andrew has been talking to Simon about Jesus. Just to say, because I think sometimes when we approach things like this, at least for me, it can sometimes feel like, did Simon have any context for who this man was? Did he have any idea of what was going on? We can assume sometimes that he didn't. But it's very likely that he's been hearing the word on the street. He's been listening to his brother, who's a disciple of John. John's been saying, look who has come. He is the one we've been waiting for. But what we do know is that Simon is yet to follow Jesus. He has not yet given his yes. He has not yet had a disciple. This is the moment Jesus calls Simon. So I want us to just bear all of this in mind, as we begin to look at the particular interactions between Jesus and Simon. Is this helpful? Yeah, good. OK, so Jesus is standing on the edge of the lake. He's teaching this crowd they're pressing in on him. And he sees two boats. Essentially what's happening is there's not enough room for him to share in a way that people can see and hear him. And so what he's doing is a very practical thing. And he's saying, oh, there's a platform that I can use to stand up in or sit up in with a little bit of distance between me and the crowd in order for them to hear me more clearly. It's a really practical teaching moment. And so he says to the fisherman who have currently, they're standing on the side and they're washing their nets because they've been doing their work. They've finished, they've come into shore and then are cleaning their nets. And he says, I want to use that boat. And so he says to Simon, can you push it out? Just a little bit from here, I'm going to essentially sit in it and teach the crowd. And Simon does what he says. One of the common trees I read said it's very likely that Simon would have had to sit in the boat with him and actually stop it from floating away. And so he was working essentially behind the scenes doing what he knows to do rowing so that Jesus could be sort of stable and centered so that the crowd can see what he's doing. So Jesus is doing a very interesting thing here. He's placing Simon in his context that he knows best and come to the boat with me. Do what you know to do and let me do my thing. It's just an interesting thing. He sits down and he teaches the crowd and then it says, when he finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Remember I said that they're used to fishing in shallow water at night. Jesus is saying, let's go out deep in the middle of the day and fish again. Simon is probably exhausted. He's been fishing right through the night and that he says we've caught nothing. And here's this man who's asked to use his boat and potentially make him row at the same time, saying like, oh, now let's go out where you never go and catch fish at the time you never catch fish. It's very confronting. He's totally coming against, in a sense, his expertise is challenging Simon at his strongest area, the area he knows best, to say essentially, will you trust me in my word or will you stick to what you know? And Simon says, yeah, master. Another word for that would be teacher. He can see Jesus has been teaching. He's heard word about who Jesus is, but it's a very sort of like respectful term. It's quite a form-- I was going to say form your leg, form all term. But what it shows us is that Simon is essentially wrestling with who this man is. He can see what he's been doing. He's definitely not a fisherman. He's a teacher. And he says to him, I've worked all night long and I've caught nothing. He states the obvious. We haven't won. I know what I'm doing. And I haven't got what I needed to get. Yet, if you say so, are the translations say, but at your word, I will let down the nets. One thing I just want to highlight in chapter four, just the previous chapter, Jesus comes to Simon's very home. And he heals Simon's mother-in-law at his word. Simon has witnessed, perhaps, or heard of, but it's been very close to home that Jesus enters this situation, speaks a word, and everything changes. So what is happening here is Luke's showing us that the cogs are beginning to turn. And in spite of my expertise, in spite of what I know to be true about fishing, in spite of my entire history and generational history of this trade, I'm going to choose even though I'm wrestling to say, at your word, because I've seen your word do something before, and if you are who people are saying you are, well, I've got a yield, at your word, I'll go down. Even though it's a slip, they've just been cleaning these nets. They are huge. It's a mission. But something in him begins to wake up and say, at your word, if you say so, in spite of my human understanding of what is going on, I am going to choose to trust you. Then they go out. When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. They signaled to their partners. This is James and John, the sons of Zebedee, sons of Thunder. They come rushing in. It's also interesting. Basically, if you had a partnership, you've got an established enterprise. You've got a business that's probably cooking. You've got a lot going on. I think sometimes we -- yeah, it's just helpful to understand how real-worldly moment this is. They trade us. They know what they're doing. They're experts. They've got partners. They're running a business. There are so many fish suddenly that have been dragged in that they have to signal to their partners, come and help us, because we're not going to manage. And they start hoisting this fish into two boats. So many fish that the boats begin to sink. What's happening here is Jesus has performed a miracle. It's a nature miracle. It's God essentially through Jesus using His sovereignty over creation. This doesn't just happen. They've been fishing all night, and they caught nothing. In broad daylight, in deep water, in the opposite conditions to what they know, Jesus says, "Go out," and at His words, suddenly two boats of fish are starting to sink. Jesus has taken authority, taken sovereignty over the natural order, and began to order it, began to move it towards His intended way. What does this say to Jewish people at the time? There is only one who has power and sovereignty over creation. He is Yahweh. There is one who stood at the beginning and spoke, and light came, and the world was formed, and people were breathed out of dust. There is only one who can order creation. This must be someone we've been waiting for. He's so good. He's so good, and it says that they get caught up in filling the boats, but when Simon Peter sees this, he falls down on his knees at Jesus' feet, and he says, "Lord, go away from me. I am a sinful man." Do you remember a few moments before the first interaction? He calls him master, teacher, this formula, this formal moment. He has something deep, has shifted, and he says, "Lord." You see, Simon Peter begins to see Jesus rightly. The eyes of his hearts are being opened, and when we see Jesus for who he is, it demands a response. When you see him truly in all of his goodness, you cannot but fall at your feet. See what's happening here is Simon is recognizing Jesus as holy. Remember God alone has sovereignty over the created natural order. He's just seen this miraculous catch, and he recognizes that Jesus is not like them. He is other. He is holy. He is set apart, and in recognizing his holiness, he sees his sin, and he disqualifies himself. It's important to note, commentators say it's not that Simon was particularly sinful. It's not necessarily that he had done terrible, terrible things, but it's in light of God's holiness that he disqualifies himself and essentially say, "Lord, you are too holy for me. You can't choose me. You can't be dealing with me. Get away from me. You can't be with me. I'm full of sin." Luke is potentially drawing on and echoing another ancient moment, which I'm going to quickly flip to in Isaiah. You see, this moment takes a similar pattern. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah is a prophet and ancient times is a prophet to Israel, and it says in the year that King Isaiah died, "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him, each had six wings. With two they covered their eyes, their faces with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew, and one called to another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. The pivots of the threshold shook at the voices of those who called in the house filled with smoke, and I said, Isaiah said, 'Whoa is me. I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.' Then one of the serifs flew to me, holding a live call that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongues, the serif touched my mouth, and said, 'Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed from you, your sin has blotted out.' Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? Who will go?' And I said, 'Here I am, send me.' You see, a very similar thing is happening here, and Luke is very aware of this. Isaiah sees God in a vision. He recognizes his holiness. He hears the serifs saying, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.' The only response that he can come up with is to fall at his feet and say, 'Woe to me, I am a sinful man of unclean lips. Essentially, I can't be with you. I am too far from who you are, and what does God do?' But he moves towards Isaiah, cleanses him, and says, 'I am going to commission and send you.' Now we find ourselves in the lake of Galilee with this man called Jesus, who has been preaching that actually this kingdom, this prophesied thing that Isaiah spoke of is coming in here and now. When he commands this insane catch of fish and Peter, Simon begins to recognize perhaps, perhaps, perhaps this is the man, Lord, Lord, is this you. And in a moment of total awe, he disqualifies himself and says, 'Surely not me.' And Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid. And now on you will be catching people.' And when they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and they followed him. Just as God moved towards Isaiah in that moment, Jesus moves towards Simon, lifts him up in a sense out of his shame and his disqualification and says, 'Don't be afraid. Come with me, follow me, and I'm about to repurpose your vocation. You know how to fish for fish, I'm going to teach you how to fish for people. You see, he meets us in the very thing often that we know to do. He walks straight into our worlds. He's not outside of it. He's in the details of our lives. He is so bent on our freedom, on our wholeness that he wants. He comes right into the very thing we know and he says, 'You know how to fish for fish, I'm going to re-teach you to take the very things you have in your hands and to catch people, to catch people, to catch all sorts of people.' And what does Simon do? He leaves everything and he follows Jesus, everything and he follows Jesus. I know it's been challenging me probably the most as I've sat in this. Is there was an abundant catch of fish right there? I don't know how much that would be worth for them. I can only imagine it would be probably weeks and weeks and weeks worth of food and oil and everything else they need to live. It's absolute miraculous provision. It's a promise right there in front of him and you know if I'm honest God's been talking to me and challenging me about how I tend to sometimes get caught up a little bit in what he can do for me, in the goodness of perhaps his provision and his promises over my life and sometimes miss the man behind it, miss the man behind the miracle. There's nothing wrong in receiving the goodness of the reward, it's incredible and this is the reality of God when we walk with him, he has so much for us, he will provide all of our needs. He's showing Simon that right now, look at what I can do it for you essentially, look what life looks like with me. But something has so captured Simon's attention that he is willing to leave the abundance of that moment, everything that that would have provided for him and say you are worthy of me and everything that I have, I will leave it and follow you. Do you know that they didn't know where they were going? When he said follow me he didn't say come we're going to go here, here, here, here and here, sign the contract, I know what it looks like. It's a blank canvas and he's saying in the sense have you seen enough? Do you trust me, am I worthy of your life? Will you follow me from now on? I'll make you catch people, fishers of men, isn't it powerful? The incredible thing is that this is just the beginning of Simon's story, it's not the end. The next three years as he follows Jesus is fraught with doubt, denial, three times he denies Jesus as he's been questioned by the high priests. It's fraught with tensions and rejections. But right at the end, just before Jesus ascends, we find ourselves on another beach with another catch of fish, John 21 says that the disciples had seen Jesus at this point probably three times in his risen self, but one morning it says, well one evening it says Simon went fishing. You see, he's denied Jesus three times now. He's probably in a lot of pain. He'd recognize him as the Messiah had been following him for three years but it hadn't quite gone the way he thought it was going to go. This king, this promised one, has now ended up crucified on a cross full of shame and I denied him at his most desperate moment and then he did raise from the dead, but where does that quite leave me? And you see, sometimes our shame pushes us to go back to the things we knew before. It can drive us backwards. And so he goes fishing one night. And very similarly, they catch no fish. You can read it in John 21 and they're coming out of the morning and they're not far from the shore because they catch fish at night and in the shallows. And suddenly there's a man on the beach and it says, John sees this man and the man says to them from the shore, he says, have you caught any fish? I say no. Jesus has a sense of humor. And he says to them, well this time essentially throw your nets on the other side, it's random. It's clustered on the other side of the boat and at his word they do it. And they haul in a catch of 153 I think fish is massive. The boat begins to sink and the nets begin to break. And in a moment, while the rest are caught up and hauling in the fish, Simon knows. And it says he jumps into the water. He cannot wait to get to the shore and he runs towards this man who he knows to be his Lord. And he essentially falls at his feet again. And Jesus says to him three times, Simon do you love me? My beautiful husband pointed out to me that those three times are to cover the three denials that happened at the fireside. Three times in front of another fire it says that he had set a fire for them and he was brying fish for their breakfast. Who is this God? That would have breakfast ready for us on the beach. And he says three times, Simon do you love me? He says, if you love me, feed my sheep. And again Jesus commissions him regardless of his shame, regardless of what he's done. And he's essentially rewriting the story saying let's start again. As we stand again beside the water with a miraculous catch of fish. And this time I'm not just saying catch people, I'm saying feed them too. Catch them and feed them as I feed you breakfast here on the beach. Feed my sheep, feed my lambs, give them what they need. Jesus ascends and he tells them to wait. The disciples wait in the upper room I'll send the Holy Spirit. And at Pentecost the Spirit of God falls on all flesh and Simon of everybody, Peter. He stands up and he preaches to the crowd and he begins to tell him of this Jesus who he knows. And it says that day 3000 we're headed to their number, talk about catching people. Talk about catching people, talk about feeding his sheep as he begins to speak the word of God that awakens them to who he is. And suddenly the early church is birthed and it begins to explode. This is the man who wrestled with the master three years before. I don't know about this, I'm the expert, but actual word I'll go. This is what I have for us this morning my friends, Jesus is alive and more than able. And as I've been preparing I felt that there were groups of people this morning who need to respond to the Lord. We can feel it now, there's a response worthy of the man, this man who is our king in our God. For some of us here you may have never given your yes to following Jesus. You may never have surrendered your life, have given up everything to say I'll go where you go, regardless of where he takes you. Because that's you this morning I want to invite you, today is a day worth following him. He has changed my life. If you had known me as a child you would not have imagined this. He has taken me from a crippled, terrified, paralyzed girl filled with anxiety and fear and has made me bold, chocks me even honestly, but he's done so much more for so many people but he transforms our lives. He is worthy of being followed, he is worthy of everything. If you have never followed him this morning and you want to put your trust in Jesus there is an invitation for you this morning we would love to pray with you. We're going to make room for that. But for many of us what I have felt this week is that we gave us our yes a long time ago. There are many of us in this room who have heard the story countless times, who have been following Jesus for many years and I felt we've got caught up a little bit in the weeds of it. We've grown a little bit comfortable. We're used to getting into this room on a Sunday living our lives, reading our Bible every now and then saying a few prayers, singing a worship song on the way to work. But have we lost a little bit of the proximity, lost a little bit of the intensity of what it means to forsake everything and follow him regardless of where he will take us? You see he is still calling all of us today and he wants to call you again. Even if you gave your yes a long time ago to follow him where he will go to make you catches of men, you see in the great commission he commissions the disciples to go making disciples of all the nations that applies to us today still here and now. And so if that is you I feel God wants to re-prioritize some of the areas of your life. He wants to take the things that have become too big and set them in their rightful place and be Lord of all. He wants to be the one who fills your gaze, who captures your attention, who takes away every distraction and holds you forever. And so if you're sensing a response, can I ask the band to come up, I just want to ask you to respond, whatever that looks like for you right now. Some of you might want to stand up, some of you might want to come to the front, some of you might want to stay seated, but I feel there is a response this morning. You see when we see him for who he is, it demands a response. For some of us, too lastly, we have disqualified ourselves because of shame. There is an invitation this morning to return to him. Do you know that nothing can separate you from his love? And just as Jesus met Peter again on that beach for the last time before he ascended. So I sense the Lord wants to meet you again this morning and cover over your shame. If you have written yourself out of the story of God because you too far gone, I want to say this morning you are not, and he is more than able to cleanse you and make you beautiful and clean and established and whole and righteous, not because of anything you can do, but because of the blood of the Lamb that Dave spoke about, the conquering Lamb. And so if that is you, I also want to ask you to respond this morning. Right now, I'm just going to pray for us and then I'm going to go and I'm going to ask us to respond. Jesus, your worthy of our lives is so faithful. Thank you for the way that you call us. Thank you for the way that you call us, you call the unqualified. God was so unqualified, yet you moved towards him in radical love. You covered his shame and you said, "Come, I'll teach you to do it my way. Lord, we want to do it your way this morning. We want to do it your way." So if this is you, you just want to respond right now, I sense some of you need to stand up, give your yes to the Lord again, say, "Lord, I will follow you wherever it goes. And if I don't know where you're going, you're worthy of my following." Some of us need to get beyond what God can do for us. He's not a means to an end. He is the means. He is everything. He is everything. He is the prize. He is the treasure. He is the pearl of great prize. Some of us need to move beyond what he can do for us and get caught up in who he is. If that is you, I want you to stand up this morning and give your yes to the Lord. Some of us need to follow Jesus for the first time, as that is for you, I want to invite you to come. We'd love to pray for you specifically, lay hands on you. And lastly, if you've disqualified yourself because of shame, God wants to meet with you this morning and cover over. He wants to recommission you. He wants to fill you with his power from on high. He wants to tell you who you are as his beloved. Thank you, Lord. So we honor you this morning, Lord. We say, come and do what you want to do in our midst. Hallelujah. Amen. [MUSIC]