Dennis Tuuri

We have had lots of scripture already this morning and today’s text is found in Luke 5:1-11 and the topic will be evangelism in the word. So the importance of the scriptures, the words of our savior and its relationship to evangelism from Luke 5:1-11. Let me mention before we begin however that today is the first of three Sundays at which we’ll be having a special offering for the Ukrainian CRC churches and their associates.

As you know the situation there continues to be quite difficult. Inflation their value of their dollar or their currency has dropped dramatically. There’s a lot of economic disjuncture. The economy may well collapse any shortly. The Russians, as you know, has invaded a portion of Ukraine and Crimea. It’s a very difficult situation. And so, we’ve got a we had a email from the head of our denomination on Friday saying that we would like CRC churches to take special offerings for the next three weeks.

So, if you want to contribute to help people that people in the church there to do two things. One to survive this economically. You know, Russia has well has before raised the price of the natural gas they pump in by 40%. So they could do that at any time or even cut it off. So one, there’s just emergency needs within the churches themselves to be able to survive financially, including the pastors. And then two, they are of course trying to minister to other people that are suffering in Ukraine.

Because of the difficulty. So, if you could give and give generously as you always do to the situation in the Ukraine, use the alms and missions box. All undesignated monies in those boxes will be sent to Covenant Bible Church in Alaska for dispersement to Ukrainian churches. So, please pray about that and more than that, get involved in helping that very difficult situation and of course please pray for the opportunities that always exist in the midst of such difficulties for the proclamation of the gospel and it’s really directly related to our sermon for reasons I’ll talk about in a couple of minutes that are not immediately obvious so please stand for the reading of the text Luke 5:1-11 so it was as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two boats standing by the lake.

But the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the multitude from the boat. When he had stopped speaking, he said, to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” But Simon answered and said to him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.

Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’s knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken.

And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on, you will catch men.” So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him. Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for the wonderful text before us. We pray that you would move our hearts, Father, to also worship it on our knees before our savior today, acknowledging his holiness and our sinfulness and that we might hear those wonderful words, do not fear, as we heard at the beginning of the service today, confessing our sins and being assured of our forgiveness.

And then, Lord God, that we might see that we like these men were called to be partners in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in proclaiming it and living it out. And bless us, Lord God, to the end that we would indeed in conclusion in response to the great gospel in this text leave all to follow you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, what I’m going to do now is I’m going to talk a little bit about the context of what’s happening here. After we talk about the context, and it’s quite important because the context puts this into more significance than what you might first imagine it to be. We’re going to look at the context. And then we’re going to actually look at the text itself and go through what I see to be a couple of different portions of the text. One based on word and the other based on action. So we’ll look at the text and then finally we’ll draw out three applications from the text, applying this to our lives in a way I hope you’ll be able to write down these three things remember them this week. Hopefully this will be a blessing to you as you hear this gospel as I said that this text contains to look at the sort of application that the text calls to mind rather obviously.

So context then the text and then three specific points of application from the text context.

So my topic is on evangelism in the word and you know at its simplest level you know what it means is that the fish represent the evangelism that will occur through the apostles obviously fishers of men by the way. Word fish means to catch alive. Doesn’t mean you kill people. Fishers of men. And so the context is evangelism. And so right away we see an example that it’s God’s word that determines how we go about doing evangelism. And this is what we’ve been talking about the last half of last year. I did a series of sermons based on the proclamation of Paul’s gospel in the book of Acts. We’re going to come back to a few more of those as we move into this year.

But the reason for that is that as we as we look at evangelism and doing it, we have to do it in relationship to Christ’s word. So if the metaphor is fishing, when Peter does things his way, he doesn’t catch anything. But when he does things Jesus’s way, as determined by his word in response, faithful response to his word, he catches a lot. So at one level, it’s as simple as that. Our evangelistic method, we can say the fact that we do it and then how we go about doing it and what we expect from it is all determined by the word of God.

And that’s a very important point to make these days because we’ve got lots of, you know, emphases going on about marketing styles and tactics to get more people into the pews and blah blah. And what we want to remember is that the word is central to the entire endeavor. But giving this a little bit more context, I think it’ll help us to see the relationship of this text to what’s going on in the Ukraine and also what’s going on here in Oregon.

You know, there’s an interesting political thing happening this weekend. The Republicans have their annual Dorchester conference and they’re are going to try to pass a pro-gay marriage plank at the Dorchester conference. In response to this, Kevin Maddox and some other conservative organizations, the Oregon Family Council that I’m on the board of, Oregon Right to Life, several other conservative groups have scheduled a competitive event Saturday at lunchtime at the Monarch And maybe some of you got a postcard in the last day or two, maybe you didn’t.

I actually found out first from Don. But that’s a very interesting thing. And the focus of Saturday’s lunch at the Monarch and that conference will be religious liberty. Preparing, of course, among other things for our ballot measure this fall to try to carve out the ability of Christians not to be engaged in homosexual marriage if they don’t want to be. Christian businessmen and women. So, these are interesting events that are going on and what’s the relationship of this to that. Well, one thing you could say is, well, we need to convert more people and if we convert more people, that’ll solve a lot of these problems.

But that isn’t really true. I’m sorry. It just isn’t true. You know, Christians are still probably or have been dominant in this in this culture for quite a long time and the thing still slid. So, just making people Christians doesn’t quite get it. And In fact, my contention is that the Christian candidate won the last two times for president. Now, I don’t mean by that, you know, he has positions were biblical.

So, just making more Christians isn’t really what this is about. It’s about evangelism. But what’s evangelism? We saw last week, right? Last week we saw that after the temptations in the wilderness, Jesus is successful. Remember how he wins? He wins through what we’re going to talk about again today, the word, the word of God, right? And the first two times he answers with the word. The third time Satan quotes the word.

The devil quotes the word. And Jesus then corrects his giving of the word by another scripture. So we have to know that the word of God is critical to everything that we do. It’s critical to Christ’s victory in the wilderness and it’s critical to our victory. And it’s not just the word. It’s not just being Christians. It’s knowing the good word of God well enough to resist satanic temptations even when they come cloaked in biblical or Christian terminology. So, so that is what we looked at last week in Luke 4, the chapter immediately preceding this one.

And then after Jesus wins, he goes and begins his victory tour in Galilee, right? Everything’s going to be subject to him now. And he does this stuff. And he preaches the first recorded sermon that he preaches or comment. And he reads from Isaiah. And he says, “This is the gospel, the good news.” That’s what it says in Isaiah. And what’s the good news? The good news is that the world will be reversed, that the king has come and the kingdom has been established, and that now he’ll bring justice to victory.

And in the words of Isaiah that he quotes in Luke 4, you know, he’ll release those that are oppressed. That kind of language is what it’s talked about. And if we just make all that a metaphor for sinful oppression, our own personal sin, we miss the point radically. We end up with what Leithart has called a kingdom-shaped gap in our presentation and understanding of the gospels.

And he says that Christianity today largely I think he’s right a kingdom-shaped gap in our understanding of the gospels. And actually it’s in our understanding of the gospel period. to draw a more immediate context to what we’re looking at here listen to Luke 4:42 and 43. this is just before the text right now. Okay.

So, we have going back earlier in Luke 4, Jesus’s presentation of the gospel, which is comprehensive and kingdom based. Yes, it certainly includes the salvation of sinners, but it moves on to much more than that. It moves on to the reversal of the effects of the fall over the entire cosmos. That’s what Jesus is going to do at that cross. Then in his resurrection and ascension, he’s reversing the curse far as the curse is found. Right? Isaac Watts’ great Christmas song. Well, so Luke 4 later in the chapter, we read in verse 42, “Now when it was day, he departed and went into a desolated place, and the crowd saw him and came to him, tried to keep him from leaving them.

But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” What’s the purpose that Jesus was sent into the world? He says it’s to preach the kingdom. Now, some of your translations will actually say to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. And that’s a good translation. This word preach the kingdom of God. It is the root word for our English word evangelism.

It’s good news. So really, if you want to translate that word more accurately, it’s to proclaim the good news. That’s a better translation of that one word. It’s the euangelion. He’s he’s talking about evangelism. He’s talking about evangelizing. He’s talking about proclaiming the good news. And the good news is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. That’s the good news. So we have this kind of kingdom-shaped gap in frequently in our presentations of the gospel.

And now and now, so today’s sermon isn’t just about evangelistic techniques, right, brothers and sisters? And trying to line those up with the Bible and bringing more people into a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s certainly about that. But if we look at this immediate context of what Jesus says his purpose for being sent was, then what we’re doing is we’re bringing people into the kingdom.

We’re discipling them. That’s our job in the great commission, right? Discipling them through baptism and teaching, right? Baptism and teaching together. we’re discipling the nations. And we’re going to make the nations reflect the glory and holiness of God. Well, make the nations the nations will be transformed by the word of Christ. And so what we see going on in the Ukraine as this process is worked out will stop.

The answer to the Ukrainian problem is today’s text. It’s men and women and boys and girls even who know that the word of the savior is what we have to obey. And that word says you’re going to be fishers of men. You’re going to catch men. And what that means is you’re not just going to save their souls. You’re going to disciple them. And the nations will reflect now the justice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The long-term answer to Ukraine is not just making more Christians.

It’s the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God and seeing that kingdom worked out in the context of all the structures. Peter leaves everything behind. In other words, everything is subservient to the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, our politics, our economics, our social gatherings, all that stuff is part of the discipling of the nation. So the long-term answer for Ukraine is this text and the long-term answer for the continuing you know fall off from the plain teaching of scripture relative to improper un disciplined sexuality whether it’s adultery or fornication or homosexuality or whatever it is.

The answer to that problem long term is to disciple the nations right and it’s to tell people Look, I know you got urges. So do I. But our job is to bring every leave everything behind to follow Jesus. So whatever my sexual urges might be, right, are come under the lordship of Jesus Christ. That’s kingdom work. And the laws of the state reflect that work. That’s what it’s all about. So the long-term answer isn’t just maybe the beginnings or the numberings of a possible third party on Saturday or a, you know, kind of revolt against the Republican party as it drives itself over the moral cliff at Dorchester this Saturday.

The long-term answer is this text is discipling the nations. It’s proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God and it’s bringing other people through obedience to the word of God into relationship with Christ and making them disciples. So that’s the bigger context, right? The head of World Vision has this book what’s it called? The Hole in Our Gospel, right? Same thing. Wright says it’s a hole in our gospels, a kingdom-shaped gap.

This guy says that we have a hole in the gospel. And he says the hole in the gospel is that Jesus is going to bring justice to victory. And we don’t ever talk about that. You know, somehow that’s not part of the gospel. Somehow that’s other stuff going on. But as Luke 4, both at the beginning and end of it, makes clear, that is essentially the gospel. And the way only way that can be accomplished, bringing justice to victory, is bringing people to what Peter goes through here, right?

The end of himself, a recognition of his sinful state so he can hear the words of Jesus, do not fear, and then he can be sent out in mission. So, they’re connected. But so long, the Christian church has struggled with these holes in our gospel and with this kingdom size gap in our presentation of the gospels themselves. And so, as we come to this text, it looks a little different than it would otherwise.

Right? If we come with that understanding, how do we fix Ukraine? How do we fix the problem with gay marriage and the bullying of the Christian community that’s going to go on? It’s going on now and it’s going to happen more and more and more, brothers and sisters. They will bully you into submission until you say what they’re doing in aberrant sexuality is okay. That they will not stop until that they get you to do that.

So, the answer to that is today’s text. It’s the word of Jesus that in its relationship to evangelism. Okay. Now, what Jesus is doing in this text then what’s he doing then? Well, he’s not just saving people one at a time. What he’s doing is he’s putting together a leadership team. He’s putting together he’s in this text he calls his three mighty men. You know, David had three mighty men, right? Now, here’s Jesus and he’s his three mighty men.

These are the three mighty men that’ll appear on the Mount of Transfiguration and are significant throughout the whole gospel. Now, David’s mighty men were men of war. And these mighty men are men of war. Now, the war is waged through the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom. So, it’s a different kind of warfare, but it’s warfare nonetheless. We’ve talked about that from Acts as well. Nazirite vows are taken so that evangelism can occur by Paul and other people.

So, Jesus isn’t just, you know, talking about evangelistic campaigns and making people Christians and, you know, them bringing other people as Christians. He’s putting together a team to conquer. He’s putting together the four corners of his kingdom, the power and strength of the base of his kingdom. Now, that’s significant too, brothers and sisters, right? Because then what we see in Peter isn’t just how you become a Christian and what happens when you become a Christian, as important as that is, but what we see if we take that approach that this is what Jesus is doing.

He’s preparing the invasion team to conquer all the world including the gentile nations. Then what we have here is leadership training, not just, you know, personal evangelism. And what we see is Peter, I don’t know if you noticed it or not, but in the text, you know, he’s already had a relationship with Jesus. You know, back in the gospel, in the other synoptics, we know that Peter has been called separately from this text.

So he’s already knows Jesus. And in fact, in Luke chapter 4, Jesus cures Peter’s mother-in-law, right, from fever. So it’s not as if this is the first occurrence. But Peter in this occurrence in terms of his leadership training, he has moved from calling Jesus master. Did you notice this in the text? Master. Look at the text. You know, when Jesus tells him, you know, put down, go out to the deep water. Now, now you know that’s not where you catch the fish.

Peter was a fisherman and you don’t do it in the middle of the day. So Jesus was telling him stuff that was difficult to hear as a fisherman, but Peter does it. He does say, you know, it’s not going to work, but he does it and he calls him master. Did you notice that in the text? Right? He says, “Master, you know, this is going to be difficult.” Verse five, master We have toiled all night and caught nothing.

Now we’re going to do it in the daytime when fishing is worse. And now we’re going to do it out there in the deep when the fish is really in the mid area closer to the shallows. But he calls him master and he does it right. That’s really important. You know, leadership training, think of the implications. But then what does he do by the time the miracle is over? And there’s no doubt it was a miracle. Don’t let people tell you otherwise.

This is there’s miraculous involved in this. There’s a demonstration there’s a visible demonstration of the power of Jesus Christ’s words, right? And of his deity ultimately. And Peter’s response verse 8, depart from me for I am a sinful man, oh Lord. He goes from master to Lord in how he addresses him. Now, we just sang about this, right? Who from the beginning, let’s see, where is it here? in verse one of the processional hymn today.

It is the father’s pleasure we should call him Lord. Okay, so this is this is what’s happening here. How do we get to that place of acknowledging the full lordship of Jesus Christ, right? That’s what is going on with Peter. So Peter’s being moved from just obedience, master, I’ll do it, but I think it’s not a good idea to now he’s on his knees before the Savior and now he’s calling him Lord. That’s leadership training.

you see going on. Jesus humbles Peter. He breaks him down in terms of his own self-confidence and his own abilities at the thing he does best. I mean, from one level, we got a carpenter telling a fisherman how to fish, right? That’s what we’ve got here. And the fisherman, you know, is bound to say, I don’t know. And as you read the Bible, you’re an accomplished businessman or a craftsman or whatever it is you do, right?

And as we read the Bible and God says this, this is how you’re supposed to do it. You know, we’re tempted to not really pay attention, right? Well, maybe. But I think that’s what’s going on here. And so the idea is since the context again is the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom, then what’s happening here is not just personal evangelism the way we think of it. It’s also leadership training. He’s putting together a group of people and Peter is core.

He’s the first mighty man that he’s going to call. Now let’s say a word about the sea and the land. In the Old Testament, the Gentiles are frequently referred to as sea. You know, you got this kind of two kinds two portions of the world. You got the land and the sea in the Old Testament. And when, for instance, Elisha is called, he’s plowing on the land, right? He’s called to be, you know, a person that’s going to gather kingdom disciples, too.

But he’s doing it as a plow. Roman. And so in the Old Testament, you know, the idea is that it’s primarily Israel centered because Messiah hasn’t come. When Messiah comes, the whole world will be evangelized. And one of the signals for us is this text. He’s come. The whole world’s going to be part of the kingdom of God. It’s not restricted to a little portion of people because now instead of calling plowmen, people of the land, he’s calling fishermen as the corners.

His three mighty men as the corners and base of the kingdom of God. That’s significant. You see, it’s we’re supposed to say, “Okay, man. This is it. Now we’re rolling. Now Messiah’s come and the whole world will be evangelized.” The great commission means going to every nation, not just restoring Israel. So, victory over the whole world is what’s established here in this text before us. And it happens in relationship to this proclamation of the full gospel, let’s say.

Can we use that term? Are we far enough away from the charismatic abuses to be able to use full gospel and mean by that more than just personal evangelism? If we restrict evangelism to saving people’s souls, the full gospel is what’s going on here. And so Jesus is preparing a leadership team, an invasion force if you want to think of it that way, to conquer Satan, to bring back all the people that Satan has bound and to, you know, destroy Satan.

And Jesus does that definitively on the cross and he works it out here. So that’s that’s the context. Okay. Now let’s talk about the text. I’ve kind of blurted into it for a little bit, but let’s just look slowly over the text for a couple of minutes and then we’ll draw three fairly simple, I think, applications from it. Okay. So if you’ve got your Bibles in front of you, on one occasion when the crowd was pressing in on them to hear the word of God, that’s going to be one of my three points.

Okay, take it right now. I mean, how can it not be? I’m preacher guy. I see that text and I’m like, okay, well, that’s that’s got to be talked about. And we’ll talk about that in terms of application. But do you see the image? So, he’s next to this lake. He’s on the shoreline there at this point of the lake. we know the particular structure or the particular geography of where on this lake he was. It’s the same lake, you know, as the Sea of Galilee.

It’s the same lake. It’s called by a different name because of the land that he’s at rel relative to it. And we know there that the there’s kind of a bunch of inlets and narrow stuff. So there’s people wanting to, you know, hear what he has to say and they’re pressing in to hear him. It’s kind of a chaotic situation. They’re pushing and pushing, getting closer. And, you know, I was at Altamont and that can, you know, if you ever been to certain rock concerts, you sort of get the deal.

What’s happening here? They’re pushing on him. They’re getting closer. But why? Why is this necessary that he goes out on the boat? Because people want to hear his word. So, right away in this first half of the text, we have an emphasis on the word of Jesus, what he’s saying. Okay? And that’s the emphasis and that’s where it starts here. And I’ll get to this in a couple of minutes that we want to press in to hear the word of God.

He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. More about that at the end of the sermon. And he saw two boats by the lake. But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. So the idea is they fished all night. That’s when fishing is best. Now they were actually washing their nets. So when God when Jesus tells Peter that he wants to go back out and he wants to go out and then he’s going to tell him to fish out in the deep, that means they’re going to nets are going to get dirty again.

So you know, everything’s wrong in terms of Peter’s apprehension. He’s already done his work. They’re cleaning their nets. They don’t want to get them dirty again. But that’s what they’re doing. They’re washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats which was Simon’s. He asked him to put out a little from the land. Okay. So there’s two boats there and he gets into one and he says go out with me. So Simon now I thought it was Peter.

Well Peter as you know his name is Simon is given name which means what means to hear right to hear. Peter means rock. And so Simon here is given as the name of Simon Peter or Peter. And I think One reason is because he’s hearing. He’ll the whole emphasis is him hearing the word of God. And we’re identifying with Simon as those that have big ears. Shema to hear the word of God. Okay. Shema is the Hebrew word for pay close attention.

Now, okay. Now, did you notice when I read that verse where Simon Peter doesn’t call him master but calls him Lord, did you notice what his name is there? It’s Simon Peter. In this account, the whole narrative, he’s Simon. But until this one thing happens, when he comes to a recognition of the deity of Jesus Christ and his holiness and he knows his own sinfulness in relationship to that, right, the point at which we would think would be the most discouraging, depressing, innervating, sapping the energy out of somebody thing.

Jesus is supposed to be building a strong leader and he brings him to his knees. Well, God’s ways are not our Right? He brings him to his knees. But then when Peter says refers to him as Lord, then it says the text says he’s Simon Peter. What does it mean? We find our identity, our strength of purpose in who we are, our rock. We find that in ourselves when we have that kind of encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ as the second person of the Trinity who is God and reveals to us our sinfulness.

Then we become Peter. Then we really assume the full identity of who we will be in the army of God that’s going to disciple the nations. So it’s our humility before God, right? Okay. Get more a little bit about that. But anyway, so he’s Simon here, right? So he tells Simon to take the one of the boats out and he goes out a little bit from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he says something to Simon.

Okay, so the way this moves is it’s all about words, right? That’s what the first half of this thing is. And he’s saying things to people. They’re pressing in to hear his word. He asked the guy whose name means to hear to take him in the boat a little way away so that he can continue to speak to them and can be heard better. Again, the geography there was that they could hear better from him on the boat a little ways out because of the particular ravines and stuff that were there.

It was like a natural amplification system. So he’s he’s going to be able they’re going to be able to hear better and he won’t be pushed into the water by the people pressing in to hear him. Okay? And so he has them go out there a little ways in that boat so that the word can go on. Now that word goes to the people, but now the shift happens in the word section and now the word goes specifically to Simon Peter.

So we’ve got unity and diversity. We got many and single, right? He’s got he’s talking to all the people. He’s talking into one guy here now. And so the word now comes to Peter specifically, just like with us, you know, we’re kind of listening together, but then there’s certain transactions that God does through the preaching of his word and the reading of his word throughout the service with just you, okay?

There’s things with just you. So he says to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we worked all night and took nothing, but at your word, I will let on the nets. So, so again, the emphasis is he doesn’t say because you’re Jesus. He says at your word, at your utterance in the King James, right? At your word, I will do this thing. Oh, may the Lord God grant us that kind of obedience that even when we think it doesn’t make any sense what God wants us to do, tithe.

I’m poor. One day out of seven given over to you. Man, I don’t know. I’m pretty used to going to the Starbucks. Marrying in the context of the faith, but I really love this gale, right? well, I know this job I’m going to get is kind of shady, but you know, I really need a job. When Jesus tells us to do things that make no sense to us, may the Lord God grant that we would remember this text and we would say, as Simon said, at your utterance, I will do this thing.

Makes no sense to me, but I’ll do it. What happens because he does that blessing? You know, incredible blessing. These fish are worth a lot of money. He hits the jackpot here. He wins the lottery, okay? And that’s because he obediently follows Jesus when it makes no sense to him to do it. It makes no sense to him. And some of you are going to do the same thing this week. Jesus is going to tell you, I want you to do this.

He’s going to tell you through his word. His word is what we’re talking about here, right? And he’s going to tell you, do this. And you’re going to say, it makes no sense. But at your utterance, you are my master. I will do this thing. And as he does that, then the great blessing comes. When they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. They signal now see back and forth here is Peter and others with him.

So I will do this thing. They put out to deep water and put out their nets. So there’s a There’s a back and forth motion in this text between singular nouns and plural nouns. And so the whole movement of this text is going from singular Jesus to singular Peter. But that’s going to have an effect upon multiple others. And they’re actually some of them are named at the end of the text, James and John. But the idea is what’s happening.

He’s building an army. He’s building an army. And so we catch that even in the way the text is so beautifully written. with this oscillating individual plural thing going on. They signal to their partners. See, now we’re in the second half of the text. First half is about the word. The second half is about actions, right? Doing things. And even the communication here is not talked about in terms of words. They signal to each other.

Okay? and the text didn’t have to tell us that. Could have just said they communicate. They signal and the other boat to come and help him. And they came and filled both boats that they began to sink. So, now we’re in action time and in the action time, the boats are about ready to sink. But when Simon Peter, here it is. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’s knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinner.

I’m a sinful man, O Lord.” Now, that’s what we do every Lord’s day. You come to church and we probably blow it off. But the text, for instance, from Isaiah today, what happens? I remember an old Rolling Stone song. I’m tired of hearing about Jesus. I just want to see his face. Well, no, you really don’t. When Isaiah sees God in all his holiness, he’s undone. He’s dead. This is what always happens in the Bible.

Daniel, when he sees God, falls down as dead. The angels got to pick him back up. Even John in the New Testament, right, book of Revelation, you know, Jesus appears to him and he doesn’t say, “This is great. Wonderful. Hooha.” He falls down. found dead because we’re sinful creatures and the holiness of God. If you get an apprehension of the holiness of God when you come to worship, the idea is not to be cool and chill and all that stuff here at first.

You should be thinking about the holiness of the God who has brought us into his living room in heaven today. That’s what this thing is, right? To talk with us. And we should say, man, we need to we need your grace to wash us because we’re dirty. And that absolution that’s spoken by the man at the beginning of the service. That’s what that is. It’s it’s the response to us saying, “We’re dead. Depart from me, father.” You know, trinity, father, son, holy spirit.

I’m a sinful man. Depart from me. But that is the mark of the person who really is the disciple. Again, this is when he’s Simon Peter. This is when he calls Jesus not master but Lord. The sign of discipleship and initial training we want to make we think of it that way is a recognition. What did we just sing in the Beatitudes, right? Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What are we talking about?

The gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Who’s it given to here? The guy who recognizes his poverty in spirit. It’s not as if some of us are poor in spirit and others aren’t. We’re people. We’re all fallen creatures. There’s nothing but the grace of God that can, you know, take care of that problem for us. And we’re all that way. So when we read blessed are the poor in spirit, I think means blessed are those who recognize their poverty in spirit.

And at this point in the narrative, Peter’s poverty in spirit comes rolling through to him and he gets down on his knees. And because of that, what does it say? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You want the kingdom in heaven. Don’t pretend you’re something you’re not. Recognize who you are in your sinful state. Join in with that confession next week. wholeheartedly saying, “Well, yeah, that’s what Peter did.

That’s what I’ve got to do if we’re going to go into the presence of God. I know it’s going to kill me, and only the grace of God will raise me back up.” And of course, that’s what happens in the text as we go on. But Peter recognizes the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, his deity, and as a result of that he says, “I am undone. Please depart from me. I’m a sinner. And then the reason is given for he and all who were with him individual plus others were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.

And so also were James and John sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon. So this is the characteristic not just of Peter but it extends out you know to the other disciples who are called at this point. It extends out to James and John. So it includes them now. So you see it’s this progressive movement that’s starting to happen. Jesus has won the victory in the temptation by the word of God.

He pronounces that’s what he’s done. He puts together a team to accomplish the evangelization of the world and bringing justice to victory and expanding and making manifest the kingdom of God. Okay? And so to do that he’s enlisting guys. He enlists Peter. But then all of a sudden there’s two other guys that are named with him. And there may be others as well. And they all go through this kind of similar experience that’s given to us as kind of an illustration of what it means to really be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Okay? You’re not going to get to the place at the end of the text where you’re leaving all if you don’t get through this stuff. If you don’t have a recognition of your sinfulness and the grace of God to you because that’s what happens next. What does Jesus say to us in response to our confession of sin at the beginning of worship? Does Jesus talk to you? And the answer is yes. He talks by means of his word.

If you’re expecting a voice from Jesus. You don’t get it yet. That happened here when he was in the gospels and he was on earth. But Jesus speaks to us now through his word. Okay? And through other people who are telling us things in relationship to that word and particularly in the corporate worship of the church. And what God told you after you said, “I’m undone. I’m a dead man. I’m like Isaiah. I live in sinful times.” What God told you is don’t be afraid.

Your sins are forgiven. That’s what Jesus says to him. First words in response to that kind of confession. Do not be afraid. Don’t be afraid. I’ve forgiven you. In other words, the grace of Jesus Christ comes to Peter. This is the gospel that we normally associate with the gospel. The grace of God to sinners who recognize their sinfulness. Here it is. This is all gospel, all good news. Your sins are forgiven. Don’t be afraid anymore.

Okay? That’s what Jesus says over and over again after his resurrection. don’t be afraid. Now, he says it a lot because he’s actually paid the price for the sins. Here, he’s looking forward to that. And on the basis of that, he can tell Peter, don’t be afraid. And every Lord’s day, you’re told, don’t be afraid. And then the rest of the service is what Jesus says next. From now on, you’ll be catching men. Isn’t it wonderful that God is a God of the future?

We’re hung up. Peter is thinking about everything he’s done wrong. When we come here, we think about things we’ve done wrong. That’s okay. Okay, we’re supposed to confess our sins. But when Jesus says you’re forgiven of your sins, he’s essentially saying the same thing. From now on, let’s think about the future. Let’s not talk about your past. Let’s not continue to go over your sins. Let’s say right now, we start new and fresh.

And from now on, you boys and girls, moms and dads, singles, from now on, you I mean you here today, the word of Jesus comes to you. From now on, You’ll be catching men. You’ll be bringing men into the kingdom of heaven. You’ll be talking to them about the gospel of bringing justice to victory. The gospel of them being told like we’re told, “Don’t be afraid when you confess your sins.” That’s the beginning of discipleship.

That’s how you become a rock, a Peter, and not just one who listens, but one who obeys and responds to that. Then you become Peter. And then Jesus tells you, “Do not be afraid.” And he says then that when you’re not afraid, You are sent on mission for him. He’s all about the future. The Lord’s day is about cleaning away the past and moving into the future, right? Not just with neutrality or a clean slate.

No, with the blessings of God upon you. What’s the last thing we do here? Benediction. Where’ the benediction come from? The one we use from Numbers on the army of God who are going to go conquer the land. That’s what it is. That’s what Jesus is doing. He’s benedicting Peter here. Don’t be afraid. From now on, I love those words. Tell them to yourself this week. Remember Jesus’s words to you. When Satan, whose job is to slander you and remind you of all your problems and all your sins, deanervates you this week, right?

Deenergizes you or enervate you rather. When he tries to sap your ability to be catchers of men, you just tell him, “No, Jesus says from now on, I’m a fisherman. I’m a discipler of the nations. Jesus told me, ‘d don’t be afraid. My sins are forgiven through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay? And when you do that, that’s leadership training. You’ll be powerful men and women to change what’s going on at Dorchester and to change what’s going on in the Ukraine long term.

Right? That’s what we do. We’re the only answer to all of this, folks. And God is trying to wake us up. And he’s using, you know, the bullies of sexual license in this country. And he’s using the bullies of the Russians over there to wake us up to who we are and to tell us from now on you’re supposed to change this world. You’re supposed to be catchers of men. That’s your task, your mission. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Praise God. That’s the end of the matter. When you leave today and God has told you, don’t be afraid. Here’s my word for you this week. Here’s my power for you. From now on, you’ll be fishers of men. Okay. Then what their response is to leave everything else behind. What’ they leave? Boats, tons of fish, lots of money and fish, right? Families, they left everything. Everything is everything in the Bible. You know, it’s not a tricky word.

It’s everything. And what does that mean? Well, it means that everything else is subjugated. to the one thing that we are now. Fishers of men, proclaimers of the gospel, changers of the world, forgiven sinners who are calling other people into that forgiveness of sin and the empowerment for mission so that the kingdom will be manifest in this land. When we do that, brothers and sisters, subjugate everything else, our politics, our sexual urges, our relationships, all the good things too, our let goods and kindred go.

Luther said, Right? Who cares about our wives or our husbands? I mean, in relationship to Jesus, that is a true statement. Right? I hope it’s true for you. Everything else has to be subject to under the control and jurisdiction of Jesus Christ and given this text, Jesus Christ’s word, his word. Okay. So, that’s the text.

Three quick lessons at the end. First, press to hear the word. Press to hear the word. You want to be where these people were, where they ended up, then press in to hear the word of God. Come here today. You know, the Bereans checked it out, right? And we get a lot of input from people at the church the last few weeks, and we get a lot of checking it out and evaluations, but you know what the Bereans started with? They received the word of God with gladness. That’s what we’re supposed to do here. And you know, the word isn’t just the preached word here today. There’s all kinds of scriptures that penetrate that permeate this entire service.

I think we’ve got more scripture going on here than almost any other church because we believe what we just said. It’s the word of God that empowers us. Okay? Press in to hear it. Pay attention. Get to bed earlier. you know, press in to hear the word on Lord’s Day. You know, we always talk about the word and we say, “Well, personal Bible reading.” I’ve got a handout today back there, Bible reading plans. So, you know, if you don’t aren’t on a Bible reading plan.

there’s one of those Rose Publications trifold, not trifold, multiplefold thing with Bible reading plans. Do it. Read the Bible in your homes personally. Press in to hear the word of God, to hear Christ’s words. Make some effort. Don’t just sit back and sort of kind of like that, kind of. No. Press in. Get involved in a Bible study. Do a little outlining of the text you look at. You just read it over. over and over that not much sticks is my experience.

When you slow down and you notice things, you read this text for instance for a week and you think about it and you say, “Well, he’s Peter. He’s Simon here. He’s Simon Peter here and he was calling Jesus master here and he’s calling him Lord here. Why? What is that about?” See, that’s what you need to do. I don’t know what entertainment should do. Maybe you go to a movie a week or watch TV a week. Do you have a What is the relationship?

You chart your leisure, non-work activities, non-parenting activities, right? We’ll leave those out. You chart the rest of it. How much time is spent pressing in to hear the word that will disciple you and train you to be a leader to get rid of Dorchester nonsense and to get rid of Putin nonsense in the others part of the world. Is that worth anything to you? Is it? Well, do you believe what the text says?

This is what got evangelism is. And so if you’re going to do that, do you look think about it, how often are you hearing the word, pressing into the word compared to video games or television or whatever it is, going out for drink, all that stuff’s great. I’m not against any of that. You know that, okay? But press in to hear the word. We need more Bible studies. We need people more, you know, memorizing the Bible, meditating on the Bible, thinking about the Bible.

Man, we want to be Bible heads here. That’s what this church believes because it’s what Jesus says equips the people to change the face of the world. Yeah, it’s a big job, but your part in it is significant and real and it has this multiplying effect. Okay, press in to hear the word. That’s application number one. Press in to hear the word.

Application number two, be a fisher of men. You know, we’re trying to do this in the community groups. Do you have one person in your workplace, friend, neighbor that you would like us praying for you for in terms of evangelizing? You should have somebody, right? I should have somebody. I’m always around Christians. But we need to see ourselves as accomplishing the victory. justice to victory through personally talking to individuals. My son-in-law told me this week that he had lunch with a coworker.

He says, “Hey, I’ll buy you lunch if you know I want to go and talk to you about Christ.” How tough is that? It’s embarrassing, maybe potentially embarrassing, but how tough is that to have a coworker who already respects you. He knows your duty at your job, all that stuff. You just say, “Hey, let’s go talk about Jesus because you know what? Everything I do is subject to him. He’s the Lord. You know, this is what we should be doing.

Be fishers of men, right? I don’t think Peter here represents a priestly class of pastors who are to be the fishers of men. I think he represents the way now he is special. He is one of those three mighty men. I understand that. But I think that this is our task, right? The great commission applies to all of us. We’re all supposed to be discipling the nations. And when you talk to people about Jesus, press them.

The biblical method. What is it? Remember, we talked about this in Acts. Nice to have conversations back and forth sharing of ideas. But at some point, you need to press for decision because they need to know this is not some abstract conversation about ideas. This is about a real person, the one who made this world and who is the lord of everybody whether they like it or not. They need to be told that at some point, right?

I mean, whatever way you want to do it, you know, I’m not trying to tell you how to do it, but I’m saying that if you don’t get to that point at some time, then you haven’t done it. Be fishers of men when you go to your next community. community group. Tell the leader, “Hey, let’s pray for each other who we’re evangelizing right now. I need your prayer for this person or that person.” Make it a deal in your community groups.

Talk about it downstairs in the agape. Don’t just talk about who’s going to win the Oscars tonight, right? Say, “Hey, what’s your trouble with evangelizing? Here’s here’s what mine is. I get all flustered. I don’t mind my Bible.” You know, talk about evangelism downstairs today. Right? Create this ethos of evangelism in our church through bringing it into to our conversations. Be fishers of men. Be fishers of men.

Third, leave everything to follow Jesus. Well, that’s kind of the end point and I guess it’s rather obvious and I’ve stressed it over and over again, but to prioritize Jesus above everything else in your life is the third application. So, I’m so pressed to get the word of Christ into you. Be a fisher of men, a catcher of men. That’s what Jesus calls you to be. See it in it. big context and so discipling people the word of Christ and then third leave everything to follow Jesus when you walk out those doors I want you to think I’m going to try to set up the association right now when you walk out those doors today from this worship service I want everybody to think and a lot of you will because I’ve goofed up your thoughts now I’m going to create an association and you you might forget it but you probably won’t when you walk out those doors I’m going to leave everything to follow Jesus which means Everything in my life has to be subject to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Okay, one last little illustration. Gennesaret, what does it mean? It’s interesting to me. So Jesus says from now on, this is who we are. And what is the effect of that? Well, names are interesting, you know, and the Jews really liked names and they had associations with names and places, etymology we would call it, but connections with names and places. And as it turns out, Gennesaret actually has three associations in Jewish thought at the time from which the name was derived or maybe better yet to say was connected to.

Okay. The first one means harp. It means a harp. Now the area was good productivity and agriculturally it’s a harp. It’s music. It’s the pleasantness of music. And when we become fishers of men and leave everything to follow Jesus. We’re in Gennesaret. We’re in the region where really the music of God is inhabiting our life and we become then music to the world creating not just order but a beautiful rhythmic musical order to the world.

The second meaning was from a word meaning a garden and a word meaning sar. Gensar gene. You can hear it in there. Gensar. Hence the prince of gardens. Well, this is our savior in Gennesaret in the place where Peter comes to a recognition of the lordship of Christ and when we come to that place we are coming to the prince of the gardens right the one who says this is going to create garden imagery around the entire world I’m turning Ukraine I’m turning Dorchester I’m turning the capital of Oregon I’m turning everything into a musical place of beauty and into a garden ruled over by a prince which is Jesus and then finally it means it can also come from and a garden and sahir meaning riches and hence it’s the garden of riches well it was the garden of riches for Peter with all the fish and everything but he found the greatest riches of all the world the person and work of Jesus and true identity then he assumes his name and his true identity through that great riches that is the relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as we press into hear the word and as we become fishers of men self-consciously in intentionally, right?

That as we leave everything, put everything in subjection to Jesus, we our lives become beautiful music being played in relationship to the son of God who’s the prince of the gardens. And through us, we’ll revitalize this world and turn it back into the garden imagery that we saw in Eden and more. Do that to the whole world. And we do this through relationship with the prince of gardens. And as a result of that, the world is brought to riches.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this wonderful scene by Gennesaret. We thank you for the wonderful imagery found in this name. We pray Lord God you would bless us today more than anything else. Help us father to have a renewed appreciation for the absolute centrality of your word in what we do and say. And then Lord God as we leave this place may we leave this place leaving everything behind prioritizing the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives and going coming forth as fishers of men. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.