Sermon Tone Analysis

*Is it Worth the Price?*

 

*Big Idea: *God’s saving grace is free but there is a price to being a disciple of Jesus.

Be willing to pay the temporary price of discipleship in order to receive God’s eternal rewards.

We will find today’s text in the Gospel of Luke, chapter five, verses 1 through 11.  I’ll give you a bit of time to locate that in your Bibles, then we are going to stand and read the Word of God.

I want us to focus on the price of following Jesus today, the price associated with being a disciple of Jesus.

We are fortunate that God’s saving grace is free to us.

I want to be crystal clear; there is no price for us to pay for salvation.

Jesus has paid that price, once and for all.

A few years back, I was at a weekend retreat.

That retreat included a fairly nice sit-down dinner on Saturday night.

We sat at tables of eight guys and we were served a nice dinner by those working at the retreat.

After we had finished eating, each waiter took a bill to his table.

Just like in a real restaurant, each table received a small black tray with a bill on it.

And just like a real restaurant, we all looked at each other with that “you should take care of that look.”

Well, my Scottish heritage took over and I waited for one of the other guys at our table to pick-up the bill.

Luckily there was someone at our table who was not Scottish or Dutch, and he grabbed the tray and looked at the bill.

As he read the bill he let out an audible huh! and his eyes got teary.

The bill made its way around the table, with the same response by each of us.

That bill read “Paid in Full by Jesus.”

And that is the deal when we accept God’s saving grace, Jesus paid the price for me, and you, in full, once and for all.

Amen!?

But receiving that saving grace is only the beginning.

It is the beginning of a life of following Jesus, of being His disciple, and that is what we are called to be; disciples not just “saved people.”

And there is a price to pay for following Jesus.

That’s what we will be looking at this morning: what is that price and is following Jesus worth it.

Let’s all stand and follow along as I read today’s text.

Luke 5:1-11:

 

Luke 5:1-11

1Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and 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 way from the shore.

Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing.

Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning 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 that they began to sink.

8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

You may be seated.

Thank you for standing and honoring God through the reading of His word.

Well this text needs some background so we can really understand what is going on here.

Gennesaret is another name for the Sea of Galilee; specifically it tends to refer to the northwest edge of the sea where a small fertile plain borders it.

Jesus is in a familiar area, Galilee.

He is standing beside the sea, which is really a lake on the Jordan River.

It is a decent sized lake 13 by 7 miles, which equals about 91 square miles of water surface.

That is more than ten times the size of Pueblo Reservoir but which is like a puddle compared to Lake Michigan which is more than 22,000 square miles of water surface.

So Jesus is standing by this lake and it is morning.

We know it is morning since the fishermen are out of their boats and tending to their nets.

You fish on the Sea of Galilee during the night because the heat of the day forces the fish to the bottom of the lake and in the cool of the night the fish come to the surface, in the shallow water, to eat.

Since the fishermen are tending to their nets it means that they have just finished a nights worth of fishing.

Fish nets, just like any tool need to be cleaned immediately after being used to protect them.

When you fish with nets you collect a lot of stuff in the nets besides edible fish.

All of this extra stuff needs to be cleaned from the nets.

If you wait until the next morning to clean them, they are going to be a mess and they will start to rot from being unclean and sitting in the sunlight.

Then your nets will not have a very long useful life.

So Jesus is standing by this lake in the morning preaching the word of God.

Preaching the word of God is a reference to preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

And the crowd is growing and pressing towards Jesus.

So he hops into one of the boats on the shore, the boat that just happens to be Simon’s boat, and tells Simon to take him out into the water a bit.

This is the first point of assessing the price.

Simon probably had an idea who this guy was.

Jesus had been hanging around the synagogue in Galilee, generally being a nuisance to the rabbis, and then he had taken to preaching in public.

If you read the end of chapter four, just before our text for today, Luke tells us that that is what Jesus had been doing.

It is hard to imagine that Simon has not at least heard of Jesus.

It is most likely that he has seen him at the synagogue before since Simon is a good Jewish boy.

Can you imagine Simon’s reaction when he sees Jesus and this crowd gathering around him?

My oldest daughter and I communicate a lot with instant messaging and text messages.

For those of you who are not familiar with instant messaging and texting, they are sending typed messages back and forth on your computer, or cell phone, in real time with the person or persons with whom you are “talking.”

I prefer instant messaging over texting because instant messaging is free.

Now to make this somewhat efficient you develop an “instant message language” that is like a short hand way of typing.

If you’ve seen that cell phone commercial where the teenage girl is talking to her mom about her text messaging bill, its that same language; the letters “idk” for I don’t know, the letter “u” for you, and so on.

Take a look at this video clip.

So I have this response to my daughter whenever she asks me for something that I view as an inconvenience or imposition: ugh!

I can just see Simon saying ugh! in his mind, if not out loud, when he sees this Jesus guy come over and hop in his boat.

So here is Simon’s first decision: do I associate myself with this guy whose behavior is at a minimum out of the ordinary?

If I do something as simple as just giving him a ride in my boat, will people associate me with him and not buy my fish?

Is it worth the personal price to me to risk this?  ugh!

Is it worth the personal price to you to be associated with Jesus?

The second assessment of price follows right on the first.

I’ve been fishing all night, caught nothing (translated I worked all night for no pay), I need to get my equipment cleaned and in order for tonight, and I need some sleep or I’ll be behind the eight ball all day and night, and on top of all of that my partners will think I’m nuts.

Second decision: is it worth the personal price to me to risk going without enough sleep, or not getting all my gear stowed away properly to give this guy a ride?

ugh!