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Grace Emmanuel Church
Pastor Sam Chess
Processing a Rock
Last week I
related the story of Peter’s first meeting with Jesus. His brother
Andrew came back from getting breakfast with these words….let me
give you a little more of the context than I did last week.
(John 1:35-42)
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he
saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" When the two
disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around,
Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said,
"Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" "Come," he
replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying,
and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon
Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and
who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his
brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the
Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said,
"You are Simon (a reed) son of John. You will be called Cephas/Petros"
(which, when translated, is Peter). (NIV)
I wish I could
report to you that from that day Peter left his “reed” existence and
became the rock I described last week…. I wish I could say that was
true of any of us but…
The process of
turning Peter from fickle reed to granite was just that…a process!
I. Processing a
Rock
Stay with me
here…because of what we know didn’t happen we can fill in the blanks on
what probably did…
Logic dictates
that Peter go back to fishing..
It’s all he
knows…It defines him as a man.
And he needed the
shekels!
But that
experience with Jesus, the Rabbi must have stayed in his conscious
thoughts. When he was mean to the fish buyers, perhaps the thought
flitted through his head: “You are supposed to be Peter, the rock…what
a laugh!
Now it’s been
weeks since Peter’s first encounter with Jesus. During those weeks
Simon (the Bible still calls him Simon) had on more than one occasion
hiked to neighboring villages to hear the Rabbi speak. Jesus ministry
through Galilee was attracting larger and larger crowds as the people
came to hear him say that the Kingdom of God was dwelling right there
among them.
The clincher was
the miracles…entire towns were being made well….not just one symptom
but every sickness in their bodies.
In Nazareth he
read a prophesy of the coming Messiah from Isaiah and then says:
“Today this
scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing“… that got their
attention! That’s found in Luke 4...
In Luke 5 another
epic in processing the rock takes place and this one is really
important. I want to focus on this for the rest of this sermon. I hope
you can relate to this story.
Jesus is walking
toward the lake teaching, as always, drawing a greater, and greater
crowd. In Jesus mind there is a final destination. Oh the teaching he’s
doing is important, and the teaching he is going to do is important
but, interestingly enough, nothing he said that day is recorded in
Scripture. Only the end result of his walk is recorded and that has
impacted people, like us, for centuries.
II. Preparing a
Candidate for Rock-hood
Let me set the
stage for the mornings climax:
Galilean
fisherman fished at night… Early the next morning they would pull up to
shore. Display their catch at the village edge, and fish merchants,
restaurant owners, or just village residents wanting to have fish for
supper would come and buy.
While the people
bought, the fisherman would mend any tears in their nets, prepare for
the next night, then head home with a bag of shekels to a soft mat.
This particular
morning none of the fisherman had caught any fish! Now that’s unusual.
Even in a bad night of fishing here you can always plan on catching
_________ (catfish)
A divine voice
had said “scat” and all the fish had hurried out of the net’s reach.
You see, Jesus
had already called Peter… Peter had acknowledged that call, but Peter
had not committed himself completely to Jesus Christ.
There are people
(perhaps some sitting in this room), who spend their whole life never
making more than a surface acknowledgement of Jesus Christ. There are
probably people sitting in this room who have made a mental assent of
Christ as their Savior but have never made the sharp right turn toward
total personal commitment.
Sooner or later,
God is going to get your attention…. He did Peter! Let’s watch Jesus
call “Simon the Reed” to a radical commitment as “Peter the Rock”.
III. Proving
Peter’s Call to Commitment
(Luke 5:1-2) One
day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people
crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the
water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing
their nets. (NIV)
By some ‘great
stroke of luck” the place where the growing crowd gets overwhelming is
right in front of Simon’s boat. Jesus turns from the crowd and “voila”,
he’s staring straight into Simon’s eyes. “Deja Vue” all over again! All
those emotions from six months before pour over Simon…
(Luke 5:3a) He
got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon… (NIV)
A) Commitment
Level #1 - “Simon- Can I
Use your Boat?”
Sure Rabbi, have
at it. Careful…don’t slip on the fish guts! However, my liability
insurance does include a clause covering wandering teachers who want to
preach from my boat. You go ahead and do your thing…I’ll just mend my
nets here and listen….if I’m not to busy.
Thousand of
Christians live at this level of commitment and never seem to realize
there is anything more available. Jesus gets a nod from them and they
even are willing to let him use there boat…so to speak. Notice
though…it hasn’t actually cost Peter anything yet!
Simon’s
commitment to Christ hasn’t caused him to even break the stride of his
normal everyday existence.
(Remember we have
talked in the past about the fact that so many of the great things
Jesus brought into people lives meant interruption to life as usual)
Later on in
Peter’s life Jesus would enormously challenge Peter’s commitment by
telling him to take up his cross and follow him. He would hammer Peter
on whether or not he loved (agaped) him. He would one day predict that
Peter, like Himself, would die a violent death… and Peter did.
So far, all Jesus
has done is predicted a change in Peter’s character and asked to use
his boat.
(Luke 5:3) He got
into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to
put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people
from the boat. (NIV)
B) Commitment
Level #2 - “Simon I’d like you to push out a little from shore”
But Jesus, that
means I would need to stop what I’m doing and devote my boat and
my time exclusively to you. I have a schedule to keep in my
life. Other people depend on me keeping that schedule.
Jesus, I don’t
mind being called by you to rock-hood but I wasn’t counting on it
costing me anything!
“ Simon, I’m
prepared to move in your direction but, first, you are going to have to
take some steps toward me.”
Simon has made
several choices so far that moved him in Jesus general vicinity, but,
up to this point, he hasn’t yielded anything of himself.
Simon moves the
boat, but as Jesus preached that morning I think his miond was in
several directions other than the sermon:
1) A sense of
pride at being handpicked by Jesus
2) All those
people looking at Jesus were, of necessity, also looking at him.
3) This could
have a positive impact on the price of his fish.
4) He could get
used to this, maybe he could become official boat holder for the
teacher at villages all up and down the coast, that fit the “rock”
theme.
5) He could even
keep Jesus supplied with fresh fish…at a discount.
But if Jesus was
looking for someone to preach sermons, or lead the Early Church, or
write books for the upcoming New Testament…He was going to have to look
elsewhere.
Peter… What I
really want from you is a total commitment to whatever I have laid out
for your life….. no holds barred…. A willingness to do anything and
everything I ask you to do without restriction…without argument…
And that is
exactly what he calls each of us to, as well!!
What Jesus does
next lead Simon to that very commitment, By verse 11 we read these
startling words:
(Luke 5:11) So
they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
(NIV)
We don’t find
Peter actively fishing again until after Jesus death…… but first:
Commitment Level
# 3 - “head out into deeper waters”
Note something
here…Jesus is going to call Simon to an extraordinary level of
commitment. Where does he choose to do it?__________.. At a big rally?…
On a mission trip to another country?…
No! Right in the
place where Simon worked every day! Right in the middle of the daily
grind. Right during the busiest of schedules.
Simon…Head out
into deeper waters!!!! Simon has a dilemma…. He has the reputation as
one of the best fishermen on the lake:
Jesus…I like your
preaching. This “reed verses rock” thing really grabs my interest. I
even enjoyed holding the boat for you while you preached…but you just
went too far.
We don’t catch
fish an the Sea of Galilee in the daytime. We tried every good spot on
the lake, all night long and didn’t catch even one fish.
The most
difficult journey is back to your place of recent failure!
Most importantly,
the shore is lined with people I know and some of them are my
competitors, not least of which are my fishing partners, James and
John.
Simon…What’s it
going to be? Are you going to become a rock or stay a reed?
Jesus, If you’re
going to do one of those miracles I’ve seen you do, you need to know
that there are guys down the shore who have bigger boats, bigger nets,
newer nets, more nets, more time, more talent,… I’m probably not the
kind of stock that you want to make a rock out of anyway!
D) Commitment
Level # 4- Simon… Let down your nets!!!!
Jesus whole
lesson never was about Peter ability to catch fish, it was about his
willingness to use his nets!….his nets.. The nets he already had!
Peter should have
remembered his Old Testament:
(Psalms 33:8-11)
Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere
him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the
peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of
his heart through all generations. (NIV)
The oars
dip…tired shoulders gather the net…and throw it over the side just like
they did dozens of times the night before. They waited until the net
spread as far as it possibly could…
All of a sudden
there were fish everywhere; writhing, twisting, packed together like
sardines, filling the net, almost pulling Peter over the side of the
boat. He yells for help…there’s more fish than he’s ever seen in one
catch.
Watch this: you
can literally see the change happening inside Peter’s mind and heart:
(Luke 5:5) But
Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and
caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net." (NKJV)
Don’t miss the
significant words: What do you see that’s new here?
1st
clue- Master…first use of this term
2nd clue- At your
Word I will let down the nets…maybe he was remembering:
(Psalms 33:8-11)
Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere
him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
3rd clue- Jesus
said “Let down your nets”… what did Peter agree to?
(Luke 5:5) But
Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and
caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net." (NKJV)
(Luke 5:6-7) And
when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their
net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that
they began to sink. (NKJV)
E) Commitment
Level #5 - “I’m a sinful man!”
(Luke 5:8) When
Simon Peter ( first use of the name Peter) saw it, he fell down at
Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"
(NKJV)
From “Teacher”
To “Master”
To “Lord”
(Luke 5:9-10) For
he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which
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 will catch men." (NKJV)
Commitment Level # 6 - (Luke 5:11)
So when they had brought their boats to
land, they forsook all and followed
Him. (NKJV)
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