Peter - A Fisherman's Tale Series

Video Transition: Jesus and Peter changing the world video!

“A Fisherman’s Tale” - Peter

Thesis: What would be your greatest catch of a lifetime? Is it 153 large fish or is it catching a vision of your divine purpose and landing insight into your eternal purpose for God? In other words doing the “Will of God” with your life? Let me phrase it another way getting onto “God’s agenda and off your agenda.”

Introduction:

I sat on a deck in Tn – sipping coffee, sitting by a warm fire, looking at the sunrise and mountains and asking the Lord to guide me in what to say to you this morning. I was guided to two experiences of Peter and Jesus! In each scenario their were two miracle catches of fish – 2 greatest catches of a lifetime!

Note: Whenever Jesus is around – you will will discover the greatest catches of a lifetime!

Summary of our main texts today:

I read my two main Scripture texts for this sermon – 1st one’s found in Mark 1:16-20 then it’s parallel in Luke 5:1-11 we’re Jesus calls Peter to be His disciple and Peter experiences a catch of a lifetime. It convinces him to say “yes” to follow Jesus! Then I read John 21:1-14 which is about 3 ½ years later and Peter has just seen Jesus die and He is dealing with his failures, his denials of being associated with Jesus. He feels like a failure – he sinned – he failed Jesus and the others - he decides to go fishing – to return to his old trade – 6 other disciples say I am going with you Peter – they fish all night and catch nothing – they are 7 frustrated, frenzied, fried fisherman. Then a question echoes across the water – have you caught anything – they all yell in unison – No! The voice responds back echoing - throw your net on the other side of the boat – throw your net on the other side of the net. They all look at each other – De-ja-voo? This sounds way to framiliar – they do what he says to do and have another catch of a lifetime!

I must admit I am not an avid, enthusiastic fisherman. To be honest with you I am not a very good fisherman. However, I do have flashbacks of a few family vacations were we would go fishing to Canada. We would go up by Thunder Bay for a week’s time frame and fish frantically. My dad and my uncle would fish all week from sun up to sun down and mostly catch Northern Pike. I recall how I tagged along fished and even caught a few of these fish myself. I must admit in all my trips to Canada I never caught the big one – I mostly caught small or average size fish.

One of the most memorable moments in my life of fishing in Canada was when we went out to fish on the other side of Thunder Bay Lake and a storm blew in. The waves coming back across the lake were 10-20 feet high – well maybe 3-5 feet high! But needless to say it was frightening and I was scared and thinking, “I am going to drown.” The waves were huge coming over the front of the boat and my uncle was standing in the bow holding onto a rope screaming and laughing like a mad man. When the picture of that day floods my mind it reminds me of the scene from Forest Gump were his Lieutenant is on the mask of the ship acting like a mad man in a hurricane. As the movie flips scenes through my mind I recall a huge wave crashing over the front of boat and it hits my uncle and knocks him down into the boat and he loses his hat into the water. My mind frantically thinks, “I am going to die!” My dad was driving the boat and I was huddled in the back waiting to drown in Thunder Bay. But we persevered through the storm and we made it into the mouth of river when our propeller breaks. Yes, we had just got out of the waves when our motor died. We were all astounded at the timing and we were all thinking, “It would have been fatal for us if it broke out on the lake in the storm”. The boat motor was broke and we broke out the oars to get to our cabins. I am still glad to this day it waited to break until after we made it into calmer water.

So my fishing tales are filled with fish, lots of fish some large ones and also some danger. We with in my family reminisce about those fishing adventures to Canada filled with fish and fishy tales of survival.