Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It…

Introduction

In the next chapter and a half we see a recurring theme of Jesus calling disciples.

Simply put, a disciple is a loyal follower of Jesus

This is important to us because we are called to be disciples and our mission is calling more people to be disciples.

In this text we will see 3 descriptions of a disciple of Jesus

Disciples Submit to His Command

Luke 5:1–7 NIV

1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 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. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 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.” 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.

Background

Same size as Lake Winnebago

Fishing usually happened at night to hide the nets from the fish

As is normal Jesus is focused on preaching

Another reminder that the miracles are not the point – the message is the point

Peter’s Mindset of Obedience

Willing to sacrifice for the mission – Offering the boat (3)

Time

Talent - both skill and lack of skill

Treasure

Willing to trust the master – Going out again (6)

Disciples Understand their Weakness

Luke 5:8–10 NIV

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 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. […]

Peter’s Situation

Simon is already aware of Jesus miraculous power (cf. 4:38)

He wasn’t a part of the crowd but off to the side working

He is deeply aware of his own sin

Mirrors prophetic calling language

Isaiah 6:5 NIV

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

What about you?

Are you here as a spectator confident you have nothing to offer or ashamed of your sin?

If you think God can’t use you, that’s the first step to being usable

Conversely, do you think you have something to offer when you shouldn’t?

God doesn’t use you because of your greatness, he uses you in spite of your weakness

Disciples Participate in his Mission

Luke 5:10–11 NIV

10 […] Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Jesus mission progresses God’s covenant plan

This humble fisherman is going to proclaim the message of Jesus to the Gentile nations

Cornelius

Martyrdom

He is going to welcome Gentiles into God’s plan

Inversion of OT imagery

Amos 4:2 NIV

2 The Sovereign Lord has sworn by his holiness: “The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.

Habakkuk 1:14 NIV

14 You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler.

Jeremiah 16:14–18 NIV

14 “However, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 15 but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors. 16 “But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. 17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. 18 I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”

A disciple of Jesus participates in his mission of welcoming humble, unworthy people into his glorious plan

Isaiah 55:1 NIV

1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Come!

Go!