A Life Of Radical Obedience

All right, turn in your Bibles to Luke Chapter 5, Luke Chapter 5. We’re continuing to look at the Book of Luke. And I really feel like--I was praying this week actually, I was talking to someone--we might be in the book of Luke until the Fall. We might just stay camped out here for a while because every time I read every chapter--you know, I’m in Chapter 5 right now--there’s about nine different things in Chapter 5 that I think we should discuss.

We’re not going to probably stay in Chapter 5 that long. But I really want us to dive down deep into the books of the Bible and really understand what God, what Christ was saying to us in these beautiful books: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are just beautiful writings. And we know that Luke was a guy who was an outsider, someone who was looking from the outside, wanting to be a part of the family. He was not one of the disciples. In fact, most of his writings about Jesus were stories that he heard after the fact. Luke was probably not present for many of these stories that he talks to us about.

So this morning we’re going to talk about a fascinating story of Jesus, who finds himself on the Sea of Galilee, the Lake of Gennesaret, the Sea of Tiberias: there’s lots of different names for this lake, but it’s one lake and it’s in the beautiful part of Israel. How many of you have been to Israel? You know, Jesus did not spend much time in Jerusalem proper. He was crucified there obviously. He spent some time in Jerusalem proper. Most of his ministry though was done out here, out into the Sea of Galilee, which is a long way away, a long distance away. It’s the beautiful part of Israel. It’s very green. It’s very lush; rolling hills, just beautiful terrain there. That’s where Jesus hung out.

He hung out on the shores of the Sea of Galilee among common fishermen. And so Jesus now has gone to the wilderness, and been tempted. He has been filled with the Holy Spirit. He has come back now into public ministry. And Pastor Erin last week talked about him opening the scrolls and quoting Isaiah, announcing the coming of his ministry. He is now cast out some demons. He has healed some of the sick. Now he’s about to call a group of men, a radical group of men, into following him with all of their lives. And I want to talk to you this morning about radical obedience, a life of radical obedience.

Now at the first of the year, I shared what I felt was a prophetic word for our church, for our fellowship. And I gave you three words that I felt like God was going to implant in our hearts throughout this year. Now if you can’t remember them, I’m not going to be disappointed. You’re not in trouble. But I do want to remind you of these three words that I shared with you. They were three very simple words. They were awe, adventure, and advocacy. I want you to write those down. God is returning to us a sense of awe, an awareness of his presence. An awareness of his miraculous nature is going to be more and more present among us. That’s what awe means. It’s out of Acts Chapter 2.

God’s also bringing us back to a place of adventure, of taking risks, of risking things, of living a life that is not necessarily safe or predictable, but calling us into a life of radical faith of adventure where we’re going to have to say “yes” to things that we cannot understand and cannot figure out right off the bat.

And he is calling us to a season of advocacy; a season of standing alongside those who cannot defend themselves; of being a help; of standing alongside the widows, the orphans, the poor, the military families in our city who need someone to advocate for them; to stand alongside of them and to be love and support. That’s who we are as a body of believers.

So this is exactly what he’s calling these men into here in Luke Chapter 5. Let’s pick it up in verse 1: “One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret …” That’s again the Sea of Tiberius. It’s also the Sea of Galilee. It’s the one body of water there in Israel. … “with the people crowding around Him and listening to the Word of God, He saw at the water’s edge, two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats.” Now notice there were two boats, right? How many boats? Two. He gets into the boat that is owned by Simon Peter.