I have a friend called Marc. About ten years ago Marc was Deputy Director of Acquisitions and Mergers at the huge American International bank JP Morgan in London. And it’s while he was in London that he signed up for an Alpha Course at Holy Trinity Brompton. It changed his life.
After a few years Marc left his smart executive job to become the Director of the Alpha Course in France. Now, was that a sign of folly or a proof of faith? His colleagues thought he had lost his mind. To leave behind a brilliant career in high finance to go and build up a Christian ministry in the land of Voltaire, Diderot and Jean-Paul Sartre, where the Catholic Church is in frightening decline – it’s lunacy! It’s bordering on irresponsible. It’s career suicide!
But God blessed that step of faith. Under Marc's leadership, in the first 6 years, the number of Alpha courses in that country went from 30 to 380, in all denominations and in every area of the country.
Humanly speaking, to achieve such a rate of growth, under God, Marc had to work really hard and make himself sacrificially available, taking no salary or even expenses, travelling the length and breadth of the land. That’s not easy or painless when you have a young family with three young children and a mortgage to pay.
How did that come about? Marc, like many people before him, heard the voice of the Lord say to him, “Follow me!” And he stood up to follow Jesus without looking around him or behind him. Jesus calls you too to be audacious, to stand up, to push the boundaries, and meet the challenge of making Christ known to our generation.
I want to share with you tonight a few thoughts from Luke 5.1-11…
What would happen if Jesus fed the 5,000 in Preston Park? Probably someone from Stockton Borough Council's Parks and Public Spaces Department would fine him for preparing food on unauthorised premises and distributing it to the general public without a licence! What would happen if Jesus performed this miraculous catch of fish in the Tees estuary? Probably some official from the Department of Farming and Fisheries would arrive from nowhere and arrest him for exceeding EU fishing quotas!
But there is much more going on in this passage than the miraculous catch of fish. We were looking at this on the Growing Leaders Course on Thursday. The best leaders nurture and develop other leaders. It’s here that Jesus chooses and calls the first of his 12 disciples. More than that, it’s here that he meets his inner circle of three; Simon Peter, James and John. And I think it‘s here that he decides who he’s going to invest the most time with of all the twelve; Simon Peter.
Here’s a question for you: do you think Jesus chose his disciples carelessly..? Was Jesus hasty or impulsive when he chose these men..? I don’t think so. I think he was intentional about what he did and he only took those who corresponded perfectly with the criteria he had in mind. He didn’t just round up three blokes in the street who looked like they needed a bit of physical exercise. Nor did he hire the three top students from Capernaum Bible College.
Jesus doesn’t ask for volunteers and just hope for the best. He is a head-hunter.
And here he takes on three guys (and one in particular) who meet his standards. None of these three has any pastoral experience at all. They are untrained, unqualified and inexperienced. In short, they are total novices. But Peter (especially) has five qualities that set him apart from the rest – and each characteristic comes from an encounter with Christ.
What then are the key qualities that God is looking for in those he will decide to invest in? I’ll say that again; listen carefully, please. What are the key qualities that God is looking for in those he will decide to invest in? And do you have those qualities? Jesus is recruiting. He is building his Church. He is training a team. And now, as then, he is watching for people that possess the qualities he wants – those he found in abundance in Simon Peter.
1) Be Wired for Action
First of all, Jesus was looking for three blokes who were wired for action rather than passivity. Consider the situation carefully. Jesus is speaking to a gathered crown on a shore by the lake. He is interesting, funny, he is profound and he speaks like no one else ever spoke before. He is speaking with authority. The more he speaks, the more people there are pressing in to listen. The little crowd becomes a big crowd and then, because Jesus is by the lakeside and people are pushing him closer and closer to the edge Jesus ends up in the water with waves lapping around his ankles, then his calves, then his knees…
So Jesus gets into a boat and says to Simon Peter (v3) “Could you just push me out a bit away from the shore?” Why did he do that? It was probably much easier for him to push it out himself and jump in because Simon was occupied washing his nets on the shore; getting all the seaweed off and scrubbing them clean. He was obviously busy just then. He was working. I would have left him alone, but not Jesus! Jesus didn’t hesitate to disturb him because he wanted to see if Simon was active or passive. Was he inclined to action or to idleness? Seeing the problem, Simon puts his net down, jumps to his feet and sorts the problem out.
He could have said, “Listen, can’t you see I’m busy?” He could have said, “Your crowd control thing is not my problem!” He could have said, “Why don’t you just cut your sermon short, then they’ll go away.” No. Simon is a man of action, of initiative. He’s a practical guy. He sees a problem and sets about sorting it out.
I honestly think that if Simon had just carried on scrubbing seaweed off his nets that day and said to Jesus, “I’m busy, find someone else!” we’d never have heard about him again.
Are you wired for action? Do you get up on your feet and say “Let me help, what can I do to get this job done?” Or are you content to be a spectator?
2) Be Inclined to Simple Obedience
The second quality Jesus is looking for comes in v4-5.
“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’
Simple obedience. After Jesus has finished speaking to the crowds of people he asks Simon and his companions to jump into the boat, row out into slightly deeper water and then put down their nets that they had just finished washing.
In v5 it specifically says that they had just spent a completely unproductive night on the lake. “Simon answered, ‘Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything…”
As experienced fishermen they knew that the best time to fish was at night time because it was quieter then and the fish were unable to see the nets in the dark. They knew that. And now this young preacher, who probably knew nothing about the fishing industry, has the audacity to suggest that they put the nets down again in broad daylight. They’d been up all night; they would have been tired, irritable and discouraged. I would have said, “Why don’t you just stick to your job, and I’ll stick to mine?” I would have found Jesus’ suggestion annoying, frankly.
But look what happens. “But because YOU say so, oh alright, I will let down the nets,” says Simon in v5. That is an amazing reply. Because I am sure that Simon doesn’t want to do it. What do you imagine is going on in his mind as he rows out into deeper water? “Why did I agree to do this? Who does this preacher take me for? I should be going home to bed not going out fishing again. People are watching me, hoping I will make an ass of myself again and I am not going to disappoint them. This is insane. What am I doing? What was I thinking?”
Now here’s the thing: there are many, many people who are inclined for action. They may be very spontaneous, really gifted; they may be high energy people who get things done. But as soon as it comes to following instructions they are impossible.
Jesus knew what he was doing and he kept mavericks and free spirits out of his inner circle. He is looking for people who are obedient, who follow orders, who are teachable and accept his authority. Not people with their own hidden agendas who just do their own thing. And Peter passes the test here. “Because you say so, I will let do it,” Listen! You will never reach your full potential in God if you cannot follow a leader. Everyone here needs to learn to say, “This doesn’t look right to me, but as it’s you who says so, OK I’ll do it.”
3) Have a Right Evaluation of Yourself
The third quality that Jesus looked for - and found - in Simon Peter is a right, a true, evaluation of self. Verse 6: “When they had done (let down the nets), they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled to 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.”
Assuming there would still be a number of people milling about on the shore (and given the fact that the crowd was very large, I’m sure there must have been some who were still there) it would have been easy for Simon Peter to milk the situation a bit. “Look at this everybody! Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at a record catch from the most prolific fishermen Galilee has ever seen!”
But Simon does not talk like that because he has a right evaluation of himself. He gives the glory where the glory is due. In v8 he throws himself at Jesus’ feet and says, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Verse 9 says they were astonished. In other versions it says they were “awestruck,” or “overwhelmed.” Or the “amazement seized them.” This is the encounter with God that changes Simon’s life.
It is significant that it’s only at this point in the story, the moment of encounter with Christ’s power that he’s called Simon Peter and not just Simon.
Simon means “reed.” It’s like his mum and dad called him “Weedy.” But Jesus renamed him Peter which means “rock.” In the entire New Testament not one of the fishermen Jesus chose is ever recorded as having caught a single fish without Jesus doing some kind of miracle. Have you ever noticed that? I think it’s fair to say that Peter didn’t really know what he was doing. But Jesus took a loser named “Weedy” and he turned him into a leader called “Rocky” because he saw that he was inclined to action, ready to obey, and he had a right evaluation of himself; a sinner needing a Saviour and only by anything at all - by grace.
But there’s a fourth quality too.
4) See God's Greater Purpose
And here it is: Jesus saw that Peter was able to see something bigger, something greater. He saw God's greater purpose. Yes, it is fantastic to catch fish, and it’s even better if the catch is big. There were so many fish that (v7 says) not one but two boats were in danger of sinking. For these men, this catch was not just a trophy to boast about to their mates – it was the mother of all pay days!
What was Jesus really saying when he talked about fishing for people in v10? There’s Peter, James and John with two boats overflowing with slippery, shiny, wriggling fish flapping about madly.
I think Jesus is saying here, “Look Peter! There’s more than this if you really want it. There are bigger fish to fry than these. I’m thinking about people Peter! Do you want to spend your life catching these slimy little sardines? Or do you see, by faith, hundreds of human destinies, transformed by God? Peter! If you think this is good, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
Look up from what you see around you and catch the vision of bigger things. Some of you know what I’m talking about now. Do you want to be involved in something grand scale for God or are you content to see small and stay in your comfort zone? Do you hear what I’m saying?
Peter saw further. As soon as he caught the higher vision of a great harvest of human lives changed forever by the power of Christ, fish held no more interest for him. Verse 10; “‘Don't be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’”
Is the harvest of thousands of souls in our land a passion Jesus sees in you? You’ll know if it is – because if it is you’ll say an unreserved “Yes” to the final test in v11.
5) Leave Everything Behind
Here it is: Peter was ready and willing to leave it all behind. Verse 11 is one of the most radical, extreme and revolutionary in all the New Testament.
“So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.”
They left their boats, their nets, their fish (or did they tip them all back into the sea? It doesn’t say). But they impulsively abandoned everything and followed Jesus straight away. Whoa! That’s… excessive. It’s outrageous. They left everything.
They left their work, their livelihood, their homes, and their security. Of course if every Christian was called to leave their employment there’d be no Christians left in the world, but for these three (and for my friend Marc who I mentioned earlier) that’s what it cost.
Is there anything that’s stopping you following Jesus where he’s leading you? If so, you’ve got to leave it behind.
Ending
I think the Lord is saying to some of us here tonight, “Are you ready to let go? When are you going to give me the best?” For some the problem might be a sedentary inclination. Jesus is looking for men and women who are inclined to action, who say without hesitation, “Since it’s you who is asking Lord, OK, I’ll do it.”
Some here might be seeing less blessing in their lives than they should because they have not yet fully learned to give God all the glory. Jesus is looking for men and women who see themselves as sinners, who humble themselves, and who understand that they are chosen and loved by grace alone.
Some here might find themselves stuck in a rut because their vision is too small. Jesus is looking for men and women who dare to cast their vision wider, who are not content with going through the motions, because they know by faith that there’s a harvest that God is preparing.
Finally, some here know that the time has come to leave it all behind: Doubts, hesitations, excuses, compromise – whatever the obstacle is that stops you from following Jesus wholeheartedly and completely. Leave it all behind tonight. Follow Jesus.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 7th February 2010
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