We began this series last week with a couple of startling discoveries and I want to review those as we begin today…
- Being a sinner doesn’t disqualify you from following Jesus; it’s a prerequisite. Do you remember that? Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Then, here’s the second one…
- Being an unbeliever doesn’t disqualify you from following Jesus; nobody who followed Jesus early on believed he was divine to begin with (until after the resurrection; do you remember Thomas?)…
Folks, Jesus’ invitation to follow was an invitation to relationship! It’s kind of like this…
Religion: Change and you can join us!
Jesus: Join us and you will change!
So, each and every one of us have been invited to follow … no matter who we are, where we’ve come from, or where we’re at right now. The primary question to ask is simply: Am I following? Those who followed Jesus’ in the first-century were a mix of all kinds of people: zealots, doubters, tax collectors, business people, men, women, rich, not-so-rich, respectable, not-so-respectable, educated and not, blue collar and white collar … and it’s the same today…
I want to tell you a story from Jesus’ life, today, that illustrates better than any other story about what steps we take in the process of ‘following’ him. This story gives us every stage, every element and every aspect of what it means to follow Jesus. And there are two versions of this story: Matthew & Luke. Matthew’s seems a bit unrealistic and leaves us going “YEAH, RIGHT!” and feeling a bit like we can never do this. Maybe this is the approach you’ve been offered in the past, but then we’re going to go to Luke’s account of the story where, as a man of science, he gives us more detail that helps us a lot, but let’s first begin with Matthew (4:18-22, NIV). Here’s the crazy version:
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
What? A guy walks up, you’re working, you stop working … and just drop everything … and walk off? OK, it gets worse (Matt. 4:21-22, NIV)…
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
End of story. But folks, isn’t that a bit abrupt? It doesn’t seem spiritual to me, but more a little irresponsible! ‘Hey Dad, the guy in sandals over there, we’re going with him. Good luck with the family business. ‘See you. And tell Mom we said ‘good bye’, etc….
Stories like that leave you thinking, I just can’t do that; I can’t become a Jesus follower until I get some more information or until I’m too old to care or have nothing to lose. Would anyone else feel a bit uncomfortable if someone came to your front door today, asked you to drop everything, and follow them … even if you knew they were a reputable Rabbi or teacher or preacher or whatever? Well, folks, this did happen, but it’s not all that happened…
Now, I’ve heard sermons like this: It sounds a bit like we’re supposed to write God a blank check with our lives. ‘All or nothing. ‘Do or die. I’ve heard it preached: Lord of all … or not Lord at all! Who has that much faith? Or does that even seem like faith? Sometimes, it seems a bit foolish—Matthew’s version of the story…
You and I both know some Christians who are all-in and we respect them, but maybe we’re not there … and don’t think you’ll ever be, so you don’t even want to put your toe in Jesus’ water. And you wrongly, though understandably, assume these Christians have been this way all their life—faith superheroes…
The GOOD NEWS though, is this: That’s not how following Jesus begins. There’s more to this story. Luke, who wrote to a secular, non-religious audience, fills us in on some details of what happened that day. So, let’s go to Luke 5 for the rest of the story. Here’s #2…
Luke fills us in on the details. Luke is writing to people like you and me—to Gentiles, who in Jesus’ day were people not so familiar with faith, people who needed more info before they said bye-bye to Mom & Dad and left the family business. Note: Luke was actually “Dr. Luke”; he was a physician who dealt in facts, in details, and in proof; so, he gives us the rest of the story…
Let me say just a couple of things about the context for this story. It all takes place by the Sea of Galilee (which goes by a few different names). And the cool thing is, you can still visit the Sea of Galilee today—one of my favorite places in Israel (as I’ve mentioned before). The Sea of Galilee is a bigger than what we’d call a lake, but smaller than our Great Lakes (i.e. Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, etc.). But, regardless, it’s a large body of water—a commercial body, where fisherman still make a living today. So, that’s the context of our story for today, and here’s Luke’s version of this story (Luke 5:1, NIV)…
1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret [Sea of Galilee], with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God.
So, there’s actually more going on in this story. We find out from Luke that Jesus, here, is actually preaching down by the edge of the Sea of Galilee. Now this is really important—what Luke explains right here: following Jesus always begins with information. Following Jesus begins with listening; it doesn’t begin with leaving your world & your lifestyle & just following. It always begins with information…
Note: If you’re part of some organized religion, where they say ‘Trust me, but don’t ask questions’ … you need to run away! Because real faith/real Christianity is built on truth; it’s built on teaching; it’s built on listening; it’s built on learning; it’s not just built on (blind) faith. Anyone who says ‘Just believe, but don’t ask questions’ you need to run from! Jesus always built people’s faith on truth. In fact, Jesus introduced the concept of faith and a Heavenly Father around information–teaching, listening and learning. … So, Jesus is standing at the edge of the water, teaching these people, and they kept crowding in on him, so what does he do? Listen (Luke 5:2, NIV)…
2 …he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. [Getting all the beer cans, water bottles, sunglasses, lures, lounge chairs, and whatever else untangled…]
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. [Peter, Andrew, James, and John are right there with him. They all have a front row seat…]
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon… [Now at this point, it would make more sense for these guys to follow Jesus. At least they’ve heard what he has to say, but he gives ‘em a baby step. Instead of ‘Abandon your family business and follow me,’ he invites them to go fishing. Same as Matthew … something familiar. Here’s V. 4 in its entirety…]
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” [Simple enough, except for a couple of things; they’ve just been out all night fishing and they just spent hours cleaning their nets.]
5 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.” [Fisherman in Jesus’ day fished at night … when the water was cooler and the fish would come closer to the surface. They’d been fishing when they were supposed to fish … and didn’t catch a thing. Now, the CARPENTER from Nazareth was asking them to unroll their clean nets and fish during the heat of the day—when you weren’t supposed to fish … and people were watching!]
So, what was going on here?
- Jesus was asking for a ‘baby step’ of faith; will you trust me in this one small thing?
- Will you take a small risk to see if there’s more to me than first impressions may have revealed?
“…because you say so, I will let down my nets.” ‘Not because it makes sense or I want to. I’m going to trust you with this small thing … that’ll cost me some time and a bit of reputation. I’ve listened enough to know that … maybe you know something I don’t know. And what Peter and the others didn’t know, at this point, was all that hung in the balance. If Peter would’ve said ‘NO’, he would have been another nameless, forgotten, first-century fisherman whose life counted for little—eternally speaking…
Folks, at this point, what if Jesus had told Peter … or showed him … THIS IS WHAT YOUR LIFE WILL ALL BE ABOUT SOMEDAY … and showed him St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, where his tomb is found under the altar … and that it took 118 years to build, and that it’s built right on the Circus of Nero where Christians were killed? He could have done that—God in the flesh … but he didn’t. Instead, he did something very familiar with Peter. And it had to do with fishing—what he knew…
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So 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. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
It wasn’t about fish anymore, was it? He’d been shoulder to shoulder with Jesus for hours, but suddenly recognized him for who he really was. And Peter’s simple ACT of faith intersected with Jesus’ faithfulness and something happened inside of Peter. Listen (vv. 9-11)…
9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on [Here’s your future!] you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Peter decided to take a ‘baby step’ that day … and it changed his world and ours! I want to take a minute today and close with something I see in this text…
This narrative reflects four stages of ‘following’ [if we look at Peter, we’ll see that he listened, was asked to loan his boat, he listened some more and was invited to go fishing, and finally to leave his nets…]: So let’s look at these briefly…
- Sit and listen [following always begin with information…]. This stage of following means listening & learning—read that book a friend gave you, examine the evidence; the only commitment Jesus wants is for you to be here—to sit still long enough to learn more about him. Then there’s this stage…
- Loan him the boat. Some of you are at the ‘borrow the boat’ stage; ‘Take me home, Matthew’ if you remember the story from last week. It’ll be a small inconvenience, but a starting point. Read the New Testament … and pray! Then comes this stage…
- Take him fishing. Some of you are in the ‘Let’s Go Fishing’ stage of FOLLOW. And this is where it gets exciting! God wants you to do something unusual in one area of life—relationally, professionally, or financially. Take just one step of faith to see if God comes through. Instead of doing things the way you’ve always done them, you’re going to try God’s way this time; I know you don’t fish at noon … or whatever crazy thing God might ask you to do … but you decide to take a ‘baby step’ of faith! And finally…
- Leave your nets. It’s time to surrender your entire life … everything! You’ve seen enough; you’ve experienced enough; it’s time to open your hands and say ‘I’m yours.’
But, the question—again—isn’t ‘Where am I on the continuum?’ The question is, ‘Am I following?’ When we step out in faith like this, it’s how God teaches us to trust. This is how a relationship with God develops. And that’s what Jesus is inviting us to…
Like Peter, Andrew, James and John, you don’t know what hangs in the balance of … just listening. It may be a small inconvenience, managing that one area of your life differently, or surrendering all. You don’t want to live your life and just wonder, do you? Sometimes I ask myself, “What if I’d said ‘NO’ to some things? How would me life be different? ‘Asking Jane to marry me? ‘Going into full time ministry? How would my life be different? How would your life be different?
Folks, one thing I’ve learned about following is this: When you say ‘YES’ to Jesus, he then takes the responsibility for the outcome of the journey. You don’t have to shoulder that any longer. So, whatever your next step is, take it! You won’t regret it…