INTRO: As I was preparing for this month’s sermons on “Free Refills” I remembered an old Gospel hymn. If you know it, sing along if you want to:
“Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up Lord
Come and quench the thirsting of my soul
Bread of heaven fill me til I want no more
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.”
The Bible talks a lot about God “filling us”
We’re told He fills us with His love, His joy, His knowledge, His wisdom, and His understanding. And most important of all - He fills us with Himself/ with His Spirit.
He is the God who fills us… and “refills” us.
It’s kind of like going to your favorite restaurant and knowing the waitress will always refill you drink when it’s empty. But I recently went to a restaurant where that didn’t happen. I sat at my table for ½ an hour, my waitress didn’t even bother come over and ask what I wanted to drink… let alone give me a free refill. Can you imagine how frustrating that was???
The Bible tells us – that without God being there for us our cups will be empty.
There are people who live their entire lives never knowing the satisfaction of God filling their cup. Even “religious” – Sunday go to meeting folks – can end up feeling empty, primarily because they aren’t quite ready to take God at His word.
OPEN: Some time back I listened to another preacher tell of a Sunday School class at his congregation. It was filled with many of the “old faithful” members who’d been there for years. There was even an Elder and his wife in attendance. But as they read from the early part of Genesis where it spoke of certain people living 100s of years, one of the members spoke up and said they didn’t believe that. They felt that they must have measured years differently back then because it seemed so outlandish to believe someone could live that long. Several other members in the class agreed.
As if encouraged by this, another person in the class said they had always doubted that Jonah had actually been swallowed by a whale. They thought the story was a just a fable and wasn’t meant to be true. And a couple of the class said they thought that too.
The preacher who was telling me this was upset. How could these people who’d been in church for years question some very basic statements in the Bible?
As we talked I explained to him that these weren’t the first believers to question what they’d read in the Bible. One of the most extreme examples was Thomas Jefferson - who believed in God - but couldn’t accept the idea of miracles. So he rewrote the Gospels to remove all references to healings and miracles and people rising from the dead. Apparently he simply wanted his Jesus to teach, not do miracles.
Now there are many good people in churches across the land, who truly believe
• God exists
• That He listens to their prayers
• And that He sent His Son to die for their sins…
But they struggle with things in the Bible they couldn’t understand.
I mean – they’ve never known anyone who lived much over 100 years and here the Bible was asking them to believe someone had lived 100s of years.
Then there’s the story of Jonah and the whale. They’ve never heard of anyone surviving 3 days/nights inside a fish… so they find it a little hard to swallow (pun intended)
And I’ve even known of some Christians who have struggled with idea of someone being raised from dead. After all they’ve never known anyone who has come back from the grave. In fact, I’m not sure I’d want to meet anyone who came back from the grave.
Now, of course, the weakness in their thinking is that they are judging the things of God’s Word from their own point of view. If they haven’t seen it, experienced it, or read about it in Newspapers or on the Internet it can’t possibly have happened.
If it makes sense to them they’ll accept it.
If not – they push it off to one side.
Their faith is based upon what they can SEE. (repeat this phrase)
Now Paul says, that’s not how we should live our Christianity.
He wrote “We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
As Hebrews puts it “… faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we DO NOT SEE.” Heb 11:1
These folks don’t mean to upset God… they just struggle with things they don’t understand. They love God, and really do believe in Him but they can’t quite let Him all the way in. They can’t wrap their minds around what Bible says and so they compromise a little… so they end up with having their cup being empty… or only half full because they can’t quite believe God all they way.
God and His Bible stuff is over there in Church, and they’ll visit all that weekly. But they live in the real world – a place where no miracles are seen or expected. They don’t expect God to bother Himself by involving Himself in their lives. They figure that if they do their Sunday thing they can get just enough of God to be at peace and fulfil their religious responsibilities.
Now that’s the place where we find Simon Peter in our story today.
Peter is a man who loves God. But God isn’t the main focus of his life.
Peter has a living to make.
Peter lives in the “real” world.
He’s heard all the stories out of the Old Testament about God’s power and miracles, but God has no real influence in Peter’s life.
It’s not that Peter hasn’t seen a miracle or two.
Just a couple days previously Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39).
And I suspect he’s seen (or heard) about the people Jesus had healed of sickness and demon possession over the past few days (Luke 4:40)
But Peter’s only known Jesus just a few weeks now.
He’s first introduced to Him by his brother Andrew. In the Gospel of John we find that Andrew breathlessly came to him and told him “we’ve found the Messiah” and then took him by the hand and led him to Jesus. When they got there Jesus told him
“You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter). John 1:42
from that day on – Jesus has marked Peter as one of His special projects. But in spite of this impressive introduction, Peter was still not that attached to Christ. Peter’s a working man. Religion is alright in its place… but it doesn’t pay the bills. So when we get to Luke 5 we find Peter… working.
He’s been out fishing all night and now he’s cleaning and drying his nets.
Now, if you were just casually reading through the Bible, you might think it was purely by chance that Peter happened to be there when Jesus needed a boat. You might be inclined to believe that Jesus had been preaching to the crowds, and those people crowded him so that He looked around… and lo and behold there was Simon Peter with his boat. Purely a coincidence.
I don’t think so.
Jesus rarely if ever did anything by chance.
Granted, Jesus was there to preach to the people - but He was principally there to see Peter. Because Peter has more than empty nets… he has an empty soul. And Jesus was there to fill him up.
No sooner had Jesus finished preaching than He turns to Peter and says:
"Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Luke 5:4
Now Peter likes Jesus well enough, but I can just see him rolling his eyes at this.
You see Peter was a fisherman. He made his living casting nets into the water and catching fish. And one thing fishermen knew was how to fish these waters. You didn’t fish in deep water in the middle of the day. You wouldn’t catch fish that way. A wise fisherman on this lake fished at night in shallow water because that’s where the fish were.
I can just picture Peter looking at Jesus and thinking
• He’s a nice man
• He’s Pretty good preacher
• He helps people a lot
BUT when it comes to fishing, this boy doesn’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain.
And Jesus’ statement just reinforces Peter’s belief that God is ok in the Synagogue, but these religious types don’t have a clue about the “real” world.
And so Peter wearily protests “I’ve been out all night… haven’t caught a thing…”
Then he stops.
He takes one look at Jesus and realizes Jesus isn’t going to let this thing go.
And so I can picture him saying
“OK fine. I like you well enough Jesus, and I don’t think this is going to work, BUT BECAUSE YOU SAID SO… I’ll do it.”
Now bear in mind, after he throws his net into the water Peter’s got clean it all over again and set it out to dry. He’s been working at this all morning already. It’s just more work for him to do. So Peter’s not doing this because he really wants to. He’s doing this as a personal favor for Jesus… and that’s the ONLY reason he’s doing it.
And so Peter leans out over the edge of the boat and there’s no fish to be seen.
He casts his net into the water and the water begins to boil with fish. Hundreds of fish. More fish than one crew can handle. And so they call for another ship to come help.
ILLUS: Have you ever been to one of those parks where they have a pond. Next to the pond they have this food dispenser. You put in 00.25 and out comes little pellets. You take those pellets over to the water and there in the water are these catfish/ gold fish, and you toss a little in… and what happens?
The water comes alive with dozens of fish fighting to get to that food. They crawl all over one another to get a shot at that food.
That’s what the water must have looked like when Peter cast his net into the water.
But instead of just a few dozen fish, like at that pond - there must have been hundreds in the net that day.
ILLUS: A few years back archaeologists found the remains of a fishing boat from that day.
(show a picture of the “Jesus Boat”)
Because it was a boat used in the first century, they called it the “Jesus boat” and they reconstructed a replica and put it on display by the Sea of Galilee.
We’re told in Luke 5:7 “…they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.”
They caught so many fish that BOTH boats were threatened by being swamped.
There were hundreds of fish in their boats. That’s probably more fish than Peter’s ever caught at one time in his entire life.
And Peter knows why this has happened.
Jesus spoke… and Peter reluctantly obeyed.
Notice what happens next: When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said,
"Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Luke 5:8
Now why would Peter say that?
Peter had heard Jesus talking about a God who was interested in Him.
He’d heard Jesus speak of a God who loved him, and cared what happened to him, but up until this moment Peter never really believed it.
Up to this point in his life God was over in the Synagogue. Down at the Temple. God was OVER THERE… and Peter would go visit Him once in a while. Peter was safe from God and he could live his life as he pleased.
But now, God had come into his life. Down to his boat.
And Peter’s not comfortable with that.
ILLUS: Religiously, he was like the guy who sits around all afternoon watching TV in his grungy shirt and filthy blue jeans. He doesn’t expect anyone to come to his door so he dresses like he wants to.
It’s his house and he doesn’t care how he looks.
(knock on pulpit) But then someone comes and knocks on his door.
He looks out and sees it’s someone he likes.
Someone he cares for.
Someone who’s important to him.
And suddenly he realizes how filthy he is. Suddenly he realizes how indecent his clothes must seem.
It’s still HIS house - but that doesn’t matter anymore, because someone important is now at his door.
That’s what’s happened to Peter.
God has come to his door, and Peter realizes how filthy his life is.
He recognizes how indecent his thoughts and actions has become.
Up to that moment it had been HIS life and he thought he could live it anyway he wanted.
But then God came to his door and Peter realized how empty his life was. He realized how much he wanted God to come in and fill his life.
(pause)
Now what I find interesting is that this all happened… because Peter doubted Jesus.
I know, I know. The Bible’s supposed to be filled with people who performed great things because they believed great things. It’s supposed to be filled with people who never have doubts or fears.
But that’s not actually true.
A lot of things happen to people in Scripture who have trouble with their faith.
Peter doubted Jesus.
He didn’t think Jesus knew what He was talking about.
Jesus said “Go out in to deeper water and let down your nets” and Peter would just as soon have ignore him. Even when he did let down his nets, he didn’t expect much.
But I want you to notice WHY Peter did what he did.
Simon answered, "Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.
But because you say so, I will let down the nets." Luke 5:5
Peter didn’t do what he did because he BELIEVED it was going to do any good.
He simply did it because Jesus said so.
And because he did, he not only caught fish… he caught God.
(pause)
You know – there’s may come a time in your life when you’re going to be faced with doubt. You’ll be faced with a circumstance you’re not comfortable with, and you’ll know God would ask you to do something, to obey Him… but it just doesn’t make any sense.
You think to yourself “I know this is what God wants me to do… but this isn’t going to work!”
You’ll doubt because you can’t imagine how it will ever solve this problem.
But you have to do it anyway… because God said so.
Over the years I’ve learned I could take God at His word. So when I’m faced with things I can’t understand or which don’t make sense to me, I believe Him anyway.
• When the Bible says people lived 100s upon 100s of years back in Genesis. I believe it. I may not be able to explain it or make it sound reasonable, but I believe it anyway. Do you know why? Because God so.
• When the Bible tells me Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days & nights I may not be able to explain it. I may never have heard of someone who’s done that. But I believe it anyway. Do you know why? Because God said so.
• When the Bible tells me that people rose from the dead, I may not be able to imagine that happening, or have known anyone who has come back from the grave, but I believe it anyway. You know why? Because God said so.
I have learned that God isn’t just inside a building on Sunday morning. I’ve seen Him at work in my personal life often enough to realize – if God said it… it’s true. And so if I do what He asks me to do, it may not make sense, but I’m convinced that if I obey Him, He’ll fill my life/ and refill my life with His blessings. I may doubt it, but if I obey Him He’ll meet my needs.
CLOSE: There was once a man who believed what he read out of the Bible.
But at the age of 65 you wouldn’t have thought he would have.
He’d worked for years to build his business and at one time it was worth nearly a ¼ million dollars. But then the State built a highway that bypassed the business and suddenly it was worthless.
Now, at 65 he had no income and was nearly broke.
But he still believed in God. And so he prayed – God if you’ll help me restart a business I’ll give you 50% of what I make. Then he kissed his wife goodbye, got into his battered old car and headed off to sell an idea to other businesses across the nation. In a few years he was a millionaire.
The Non-Instrumental church of Christ that he belonged to benefited greatly. So did the Bible Colleges that received gifts and endowments, as well as the young men whose tuition and books the this man paid for in order to send them through training to become ministers.
Just last week I stopped into one of his restaurants that still bear his image, and I bought some “Kentucky Fried Chicken”.
God understands that we all have times of doubts when our faith isn’t quite all it should be. But He longs for the time that – even when that happens – we say to Him “Because You said so, I’ll do what needs to be done” so He can fill us with His blessings.
