Jesus Calling His First Disciples

Transcript

Rob McFarlane 0:29

Today we're going to look at Luke chapter 5, where Jesus calls his first disciples. I want to invite you to read Luke chapter 5, verse 1 to verse 11 with me, and I'll be reading it from the English Standard Version of the Bible. It says, On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gnesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep to let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets. And when they had done this they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both the boats, so they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' 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 that 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'll be catching men. And when they brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Today we're going to look at three life lessons from this passage of Scripture. Life lesson number one Everything changes when Jesus steps into your boat. Let's think about this life-changing encounter that these fishermen had with Jesus. First of all, in verse 5, it tells us they fished all night and caught nothing. A disaster. Then in verse 6 and 7, we're told that they had a net breaking, boat sinking load of fish. What changed? Well, Jesus stepped into their boat. That's what changed. We also see that this was a life-changing encounter where in verse 2 we're told they were fishermen, and then in verse 10 they were called to be fishers of men. It's amazing what happens when Jesus steps into our boat. Is Jesus in your boat? Is he in your life? Is he in your family? Is he in your ministry? Is he in your work or your career or your studies? Now there's two aspects to this. First of all, have you invited Jesus into your life? Have you surrendered to him as Lord and Savior? This is something that each of us must do in order to inherit eternal life and the abundant life that God wants us to experience here and now, full of his joy and his peace and his purpose. The Bible says we must believe in our heart that God raised Christ from the dead and we must confess Jesus Christ as the Lord of our lives. The Bible says, then, as we do that and we call on the name of the Lord, that we will be saved. The Bible says we should make a decision to turn from a self-centered life and to follow Jesus. And when we do that, our whole life changes. That's making sure that Jesus is in your life, inviting him into your heart to take over the steering wheel, the controls of your life. But there's a second aspect to this too, and that's seeking God's presence. Making sure that Jesus is involved in what you are involved in. Are you seeking his presence? 1 Chronicles chapter 16 and verse 11 says, seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually. And uh, if if we don't have the presence of God with us, then we're not the church of the living God. We just become another group of friends, another club gathering together to pursue an interest together. But I I love it when we experience his presence, and when his presence comes, we see people's lives changed, we see people encounter him, and the their their relationships, the way they live their lives, the way they think, the way they talk, the way they act changes. I want to encourage us to continue our pursuit of God's presence. So my first point is this Jesus needs to be included in our lives. Jesus needs to step into our boat. Number two, faith is an obedient response to what God has said. Let's look at verse four through to the beginning of verse six together. It says, And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, Master, we've toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. Now I want you to notice that faith is not just hearing generally, but hearing specifically. He agreed with Jesus and he responded, he acted, they let down the nets and then they received. They got this amazing catch of fish. Now the same outworking of faith works for our salvation. The Bible says we save by grace through faith. This is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. What is the gift of God? Is it the grace or is it the faith? I believe it's both. I believe that God gives us this gift of faith as we hear him speak. We listen to him and we hear him speak, and then we make a choice to believe. Then we confess him as Lord of our lives. We speak and we respond. We turn from a self-centered life and we turn to follow Jesus, and then we receive our salvation. You see, everything in the Christian life is by faith. So my second point today is this faith is an obedient response to what God has said. What's the Holy Spirit saying to you in this season of your life? What's the Holy Spirit saying to you today? Number three, faithfulness in the natural qualifies us to receive spiritual rewards and responsibilities. Let's look at Luke chapter 5, verse 8 to verse 11 together. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that 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'll be catching men. And they brought their boats to land and left everything and followed him. They were so astonished by this catch of fish that Peter fell at Jesus' knees and says, Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man. Peter could see the miraculous hand of God at work. But that wouldn't have taken place if they were not faithful to do the natural thing, the simple thing, the risky thing, the potentially embarrassing thing that Jesus called them to do. Launch out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch. And when they did this, they caught this amazing haul of fish. The Bible says in Luke chapter 16, verse 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? This verse teaches me two things. Number one, we need to be faithful or trustworthy with natural things, and then God will entrust us with supernatural things. It also teaches me this that there are things that are true riches that are of greater value than worldly wealth. You can take all this world has to offer. Just give me Jesus. If I have Jesus, I have everything. I would rather have nothing and Jesus than everything this world has to offer without Him in my life. It's important for us to recognize we need to be faithful in natural things for God to entrust us with supernatural things. So let's summarize. Three questions before we pray. Number one, is Jesus in your boat? Is he front and center of your life? Are you including him in the decisions? The choices that you make? Are you including him in your financial decisions, in your career choices, in your choice for study? Is Jesus in your marriage? Is he that third cord that binds you together as a couple? Are you including him in your family life? Do you pray and thank him for his provision before you eat? People might say, well, that's you know, saying grace over our meals, that's kind of old-fashioned. No, it's actually not. Jesus prayed before he ate, and I think when we pray before we eat, we remind ourselves that Jesus Christ is more important than our food, that his promises are of greater value than what we eat, and we remind ourselves that he is our provider. I want to encourage you, just that simple act of praying over your food every meal, each and every day, I think is making sure that Jesus is at your dining room table, that Jesus is in your boat. Question number two are you responding to what God has said or is saying to you? Sometimes we're waiting for God to say something when in actual fact we haven't responded to what He's already told us to do. I would pray that right now the Holy Spirit would stir in your heart and bring to your remembrance what the Holy Spirit has been saying to you through the Word of God, and that you would step out in obedient response to that. And number three, are you being faithful with what you have as a responsibility now? Are you being faithful with the little with the worldly wealth so he can trust you with much and with the true riches? Let's bow our heads and pray. And as we pray, I want to ask you to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and ask him to highlight for you what he wants you to do as a result of what you've heard in today's sermon.