OPEN: There’s an old joke about two fishermen out in a boat. The day was calm and the lake was isolated enough that they were the only fishermen there. The first man baited his hook, threw it into the water and watched the bobber bob on the waves. Suddenly there was a terrific explosion just a couple feet off the portside of the boat. In a few moments dead fish were floating to the surface and his companion was frantically scooping them in with a net.
He was about to ask his friend what had happened, when he saw his friend light a piece of dynamite and throw it into the water… followed by another terrible explosion.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted.
“Fishing” the guy replied.
“But you can’t do that… that’s illegal.”
At this point, his friend lit another stick of dynamite threw into his lap and said: Hey, you gonna talk, or you gonna fish?”
APPLY: It’s probably only been a few weeks since Jesus first met Peter. The Gospel of John tells us that Peter had first been introduced to Jesus by his brother Andrew And in the previous chapter of Luke (Luke 4:32) Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law.
As I examined these pieces of information, I realized something I’d never seen before. Up until this time (in Luke 5) Peter has been a “part timer”. He “knew” Jesus - probably had spent some time with Him – but Peter’s relationship with Christ was casual and uncommitted. He was kind of like a laid back church-goer.
I can picture him listening to Jesus for awhile and then going back to work. If he needed Jesus for anything special, he’d give Him a call. And if Jesus had need of anything from him, he was more than happy to oblige. Kind of like on this day at the lake.
Peter and his friends have been out fishing all night, and now they’re up on the shore cleaning their nets. It’s been a rough night - they’ve worked hard - but they haven’t caught a blessed thing but then Jesus along comes and things get interesting real quick.
A crowd has gathered to hear Jesus speak and as Jesus preaches, it becomes obvious that the gathering multitude is going to get too big for Him to speak to properly from the shore. So, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat and asks him to put out into the water a little. And of course, Peter’s more than happy to oblige.
Jesus preaches some more… and then the crowds go home.
It’s now about midday. Jesus turns to Peter and says – take your boat out into deep water and let down your net.
Now, there’s all kinds of reasons Peter could have given for not doing this:
First – Jesus isn’t a fisherman. He’s a just a preacher. He’s a nice guy, but when it comes to fishing, Jesus should leave the heavy lifting to guys like Peter and his friends.
Secondly, it’s the wrong time of the day for fishing… it’s too hot
And besides, Peter and his friends are tired… they’ve been out all night
But Peter doesn’t belittle or make fun of Jesus over this infringement on his time. I mean, Jesus isn’t the kind of friend you make fun of. So, Peter just says… “Look I’m tired, I’ve been out all night. Nevertheless, because you have asked me to… (sigh) I’ll do it”
He puts out to deep water… lets down his net… and he can’t hardly get it back up!!!
There’s so many fish in the net that the net began to break
Peter calls the other men in the boat to help, but they can’t handle the nets by themselves… so they call to the other boat that’s on shore to come out. Even between them they have problems because the fish they bring on board nearly swamps both of their boats.
Peter and his friends are all astonished by the amount of fish they’ve hauled in..
Peter falls on his knees and declares himself to be a sinner… and they all decide to leave their boats and follow Jesus.
They went from talking about Jesus… to fishing with Him.
So, are you gonna talk… or you gonna fish? (pause)
Essentially that’s the question Jesus put to Peter, Andrew, James and John.
Jesus knew how they viewed Him.
He knew that they regarded Him as a pleasant diversion in their lives.
They were “comfortable” with Him
They had probably EVEN spent a little time – kind of like a little Bible study while cleaning their nets – discussing His teachings and what they liked about Him.
But up until that day… it had been all talk
On this day, Jesus called them to action
Jesus challenged them to a different kind of fishing than they’d ever done before.
And when the day was done they had to answer that question:
Are you gonna talk… or you gonna fish?
Over the past couple of years I’ve felt as if our nets have not been as full as they should have been. Baptisms and transfers of people who wanted to join our congregation had fallen off and our offerings were slowly going down.
Realizing that, your leadership decided to go into deeper waters and let down our nets.
That’s how we got started in our “Forward In Faith Campaign” that just rapped last Sunday. After several weeks of prayer and fasting, 31 families committed themselves to giving nearly $250,000 over the next 3 years if God over and above their regular giving.
And I couldn’t be prouder of you folks for what you’ve committed yourselves to give.
Jesus said “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21
And you’ve proven that your heart is in growing the Kingdom of Christ.
But right now I want to focus on the main focus of our “Forward In Faith” project As far as the Elders and I were concerned, the most important result of this endeavor was the spiritual challenge it gave us.
The video that SR and the H’s put together were to refocus WHO we were and WHY we exist as a church. And the 21 days of prayer and the 3 days of fasting were designed to appeal to God for help AND to keep us focused on our primary mission: Fishing for men.
No matter how much money we may have committed ourselves to in our Forward in Faith project the financial commitments we’ve made can only buy the bait… it doesn’t catch the fish.
Fishermen catch fish.
And the focus of the church should always be to be fishers of men… a church exists to bring people to Jesus and to expose them to His love and mercy.
Last Sunday we baptized R.M. at the YMCA. How did she get here? Stan bro’t her
Two weeks ago, M.S. stepped forward to join our congregation. How did she get here? C and C Johnson brought her.
We have new people coming to the Sunday Nite worship service. How did they come to be here? P.R. invited them
In addition, we have a new people here because of the efforts of those who worked on our:
Trunk Or Treat
Take a Sack & Bring it Back
JAM program
SonShine Boys quartet
And of course Sheldon Kemper – Bus ministry
And that’s all been in the last few months.
When it comes to the question: Are you gonna talk or are you gonna fish? a lot of you have worked really hard to put your nets in the water. And because you have, we’ve been doing what Christ called us to do… catch men for Jesus.
Now, Peter and his friends only knew one way to fishing.
In our culture, you can go fly fishing, fish with a cane pole, you can shoot them with a bow and arrow, or – as I saw recently on “Mythbusters” on Discovery channel – you can shoot fish in a barrel.
But these men fished by putting out in their boats, and putting their nets down into the water.
They only knew one way to do it.
When we fish for Jesus, there’s only one basic way we can do it.
We talk to people.
We expose them Jesus and this church.
ILLUS: Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t get a little creative about it.
D.L. Moody tells of a wealthy London banker who loved Jesus deeply but couldn’t tell others about his faith in a way that he felt was convincing. Sensing that he was not effective in that way, he instead hired hansom’s on days of a Revival and then sent the driver in while he held the reins of the horse.
The problem for many Christians is that we can forget why we exist.
As important as worshipping on Sunday morning and going to Sunday School and Bible study can be, if we forget our primary objective we fail in what Jesus has called us to do.
Paul Harvey once noted that Christians too often forget that they are supposed to be fishers of men… not keepers of the aquarium.
Not that keeping the aquarium is a bad idea. You don’t want the fish to die!
But keeping the aquarium is secondary to catching fish to begin with.
That means that our primary objective is trying to win people to Jesus. To seriously commit ourselves to bringing people to Jesus/ Church/ S.S/ B.Study
Otherwise we still just talking… not fishing.
Does that mean that IF I haven’t won anybody to Christ or brought them to church/ Bible Study I’ve failed? What if you invite and invite/ and talk and talk …and you still don’t win anybody to Christ or get anybody to come to church?
No… Jesus didn’t tell Peter to catch fish… He told him to let down his net.
Jesus was asking Jesus to go fishing with Him… and then Jesus supplied the fish.
ILLUS: Years ago, Diana and I went up to Canada with my folks on a fishing trip.
Now, I’m not a fishing kind of guy. The idea getting a pole, going down to the river and sitting for hours staring at a bobber floating on the water… that just isn’t my idea of having a good time.
But this was different.
I was going fishing with my dad… and he loved to fish.
And you know, if I had never caught a fish- I’d have been happy, because I was there with my dad.
I’m still not much for going fishing, but – if Jesus asked me to go I’d beg, buy or borrow the best equipment I could find and I’d be down there at the crack of dawn.
Why? Because I’d be doing something Jesus wanted to do.
The thing about introducing people to Jesus (inviting them to church, or Bible Study, etc…) is that Jesus is only concerned with obedience… not success.
When Peter put his net down in the deep part of the lake he’d been fishing ALL night and hadn’t caught a thing and so he wasn’t expecting to catch anything now.
BUT BECAUSE Jesus asked him to… he cast his net into the water.
He was merely OBEYING Jesus but he was obeying because he loved Jesus.
Now, there’s a couple more things I want to focus on this morning.
The first is this: Something happened to Peter that changed him. There was something about this specific experience that turned him from being merely casual acquaintance of Christ’s… to being avid follower.
What was it, then? What was it that so dramatically altered his relationship with Jesus?
* Was it when Andrew first introduced Peter to Jesus?
No, even after that Peter to Jesus, Peter was still just a casual follower
* Was it when Peter let Jesus use his boat to preach out of?
No, that was a nice thing to do – that’s what one friend would do for another.
What changed Peter’s life was when he decided to obey Jesus
It was when he knew what Jesus wanted him to do… and he did it.
Granted, he did it unwillingly, it didn’t make any sense, in fact, it defied all common sense.
You can almost hear him sigh as he says: “Nevertheless, because you ask”
There’s an old hymn that goes:
“Trust and Obey, for there’s other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”
Peter obeyed. It didn’t make any sense… but he obeyed anyway and Jesus rewarded him big time. And this became the first of many experiences Peter had with Jesus
But something even more significant happened that day.
Something more significant than Peter obeying Jesus and catching a boatload of fish
Something so significant that it caught the attention even of his friends.
Peter changed how he thought about himself.
You see… up until this time… having a net full of fish was Peter’s life’s goal.
It was how he measured his happiness. It was how he knew he was successful.
His whole life was centered around his boat and his time on the water.
But now, he’s got a net full of fish, and he realizes that this isn’t what will make him happy.
He and his friends pull in the biggest haul of fish they’ve ever had in their whole lives and Peter falls to his knees at the feet of Jesus… then leaves his nets to follow Jesus forever.
Why? Because it was at that moment he realized how empty his life had been.
He declares himself to be a sinner because he realizes how wasted his life has been.
And he realizes how empty it would be without Jesus
Peter decided – at that moment – that he can’t live without Jesus in his live
He decided that his life would lack meaning if Jesus weren’t the center of what he did.
He decided to go beyond just a casual relationship with Christ – to a life consuming one
All because he made one crucial decision
So the question for you this morning is this:
What have you decided?
Many of you have already decided to make it your goal to be fishers of men
And many of you have already decided that you’re going to do whatever you can to create an atmosphere here where people will feel welcome.
But some of you haven’t made that decision yet.
Some of you have loved Jesus… but you haven’t decided to go fishing yet.
Just like Peter, you can change your life by one decision… obey Jesus
Go out into deep water, let down your net, and talk to someone about your Lord
Then see what God does in your life
