Back to Fishing

Intro: God wants us to hear this

Underline some things Peyton said about “a dog returning to hid vomit”

I originally planned to talk about a different scripture verse but I my mind kept returning to this passage at the end of John I will read in a moment. Which tells me I either just wanted to steal from him (which is ok he said he stole from somebody else too) or there is something here God really wants us to get and maybe there is somebody here God really wants to tell this to. That is all we aim to so is be a tool taken out of the shed and used by God as he see fits, and relay his message to you all.

What do we do when we do return to our vomit?

So to continue off of what Peyton talked about I want to talk about what we can do if we do return to our sin and use this story in John to help us.

And discuss some practical things to help us from returning to old patterns of sin

Read scripture.

Background on Peter

Peter was called by Jesus to follow him and he did. He left behind his family and wife. He witnessed miracles. He participated in the ministry. He walked on water. He witnessed Jesus transform into a more glorious form at the transfiguration and heard the voice of God from heaven. He was the spokesman for the disciples that said “You are the Christ”. He was not just going to church every Sunday and even some Wednesday nights, he was a disciple of Jesus that went hungry with him, walked miles with him, and had put his faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

Yet in the end he would deny knowing Christ. The last moment he had with Jesus, his savior who he declared was in fact the son of God, was Jesus looking at him as the rooster crow’d and Peter then went outside and wept bitterly. He had declared that even if all others would fall away he would never fall away. This is where the story in the 21st chapter of John really comes to life as we see now the position that Peter is in and the shame he might be feeling.

Peter goes back to fishing

Whatever Peters motives for returning to fishing, he was not at peace. We can speculate about the decision to return to fishing but what I think we can know is that Peter still felt shame. He thought of himself at “the rock”, that was the meaning of his name “little rock” and yet he had been exposed as a weak man who could not even confess to knowing Christ. Peter may even be recalling the words of Jesus in Matthew 10 that whoever denies me before men I will deny before the Father. Peter might be thinking, is this my story? Is this all that I am, the disciple who talked a big talk but in the end was exposed as a coward, as somebody who did not even have the strength to even admit to being his disciple? The thoughts i have had in the past is, maybe this Christian thing isn’t going to work for me. I have tried to do the Christian thing, I tried to leave old ways behind me but I always go back to them. Is my life just the story of a guy who couldn’t get it right?

They catch nothing: Luke 5:1-11. Jesus is taking Peter back to the moments of his first calling. Jesus reminds Peter of the first miracle he witnessed where Jesus did two important things that are true for all of his. Jesus gave Peter a new identity and a command to “follow me”. No believer is excluded from this experience of being given a new name and identity and are also called to from now on follow Jesus.

Peter is no longer a fisherman

You can in you free will return to an old way of life, but you cannot expect to be blessed, have any peace or joy. The issue here is not fishing. The issue is Peter seeing how weak he is when he relies on his own strength. That apart from Jesus he is a coward. Despite being exposed in his weakness the truth is Peter was still called to a new purpose that he must fulfill. Nothing has changed. If you are a genuine believer and you backslide, or deny Jesus with your lifestyle, who you are in Christ has not changed. Your calling has not changed. You cannot go back, you must press forward. Just as not amount of sin can separate you from the blood of Jesus no amount of returning to you sin can separate you from Jesus’ call to give you a new purpose and to follow him.

God in His loving discipline will not let you be at peace but we will feel shame. He will remind you that he did not die on the cross for you to go back to an old way of life. This is not even so much about not going back but about not moving forward. This is not about whether or not it was wrong to go fishing but about Peter needing the interaction with Jesus to be reinstated so he can more forward in his purpose, into God’s will for his life. Jesus is not just calling us to a life free from the shame of denying him and living apart form him. HE is calling us to something better, He is calling us to a life of joy and peace. That he has something so much better in store for us than the life that we are tempted to go back to.

How Peter responds: jumps out and goes to Jesus

Read Peter’s jumping form the boat. Peter responds by running to he savior. What he does do not make sense to anybody but somebody who knows the pain of returning to sin and the joy of returning to Christ. The boat is headed back to shore anyway, he does not think about anything except that he wants badly to be back in the presence of the savoir he denied. Be careful of shame: both God and satan use shame to motivate us. God uses it to motivate us in conviction to run back to him. Satan uses it to keep you where you are, to paralyze you. Do not believe the lie that you need to clean up first, that makes no sense. We do not clean our lives up or change ourselves first and then go to Jesus, we go to Jesus and he will start to change us. Our story is the story of somebody who cannot do the “Christian thing” on our own strength, we need Jesus. If you try to make the story about how you on your own strength followed Jesus then you will end up in the postition of Peter, feeling exposed for who you really are because we ultimately don’t have what it takes. We need Jesus.

We are the story of Peter, not Judas. Judas never bought in. Throughout Jesus’ ministry Judas was stealing coin. If have said you are a follower of Jesus you are Peter, not Jesus. Do not let the enemy tell you otherwise. When you hear that thought of being a Judas just say no, I am being like Peter right now and I need to get out of my boat and get to the beach. Satan will use others to say things “oh it was just a jailhouse conversion, he found Jesus”, but if we love Jesus we have no choice but to follow him. Jesus is always ready to reinstate us, not matter how far you backslid or how long you backslid. I spend a decade of my life running from Jesus and let me tell you, its exhausting.

Do you love me?

Peyton touched on the significance of the fire and how Jesus uses these three questions to reinstate Peter.

So many things Jesus could have said but he calls Peter to follow him. He is reminding Peter of his purpose. When he first met Peter he gave him a job, to be fisher of men and ends with the command to follow me. Now Jesus reminds him of this job, to feed my sheep, and again reminds of the original command to follow me. Jesus will meet you on this beach as many times as it takes to remind you lovingly to follow him. If you are a genuine follower we have no other choice. Paul washer example.

Peter still has struggles and required rebuke from Paul. But Peter went from the disciple that could not even admit to following Jesus with his mouth, to a disciple that would die for Jesus and look those in the eye who were going to crucify him and say that he was not worthy to be crucified right side up like his savior was. Jesus is calling us to follow him and full a much greater purpose than we can imagine but we have to get out of the boat. He does not promise of life of pleasure, riches, and prosperity. But he promises peace, a life of joy in relationship with him, and eternal salvation.

How can we avoid returning to our old ways?

Regularly staying in the word

How does Tom know so much? He reads. We need to word of God in his to recall in these moments of being drawn back to an old way of life, to encouraging us back to Jesus when we do return to old patterns and deny Jesus with our lifestyle, and to help us grow into the disciple that Jesus has called us that is so much more than we are in our present state.

Community of believers

We are not meant to go this alone. Even the disciple went two by two when Jesus sent them out.

What did Jesus mean by “least of these”?