Peter's Call

Read Luke 5:1-11

Introduction

I’m going to give y’all a quick timeline of my spiritual life, so

— 6 years old, i got saved (talk about it)

— 13 years old, struggled with assurance

— 15 moved to a new town, started living for me instead of God, partying and what not, I wish I could go back to every person I was stupid and sinned in front of and apologize

— 17 moved back home, started going to church again, fell in love with Abbie

— 18 went to church camp and got called to the ministry

(talk about all the different jobs I almost did)

— Peter’s call to serve Jesus was a little bit different, he could see Jesus, theres no mistaking that, he saw Jesus do miracles (fish and mother in law), Jesus preached right in front of him, and Jesus asked him face to face

so lets take a deeper look at this story

People Searched (v. 1)

— Jesus has already caused a little bit of disruption. In the previous chapter he was in the synagogue in his hometown and began to preach, and basically said that he was a prophet who was going to heal people and do miracles and it says that everybody flipped out and were filled with wrath and so they grabbed him and took him up to a hill and were gonna throw him off of a cliff but he got loose and slipped away from them.

— He then came to Capernaum and began teaching and cast a demon out of a man and it says in verse 37 of chapter 4 that his fame began to spread throughout the country. People from all over came to Him to hear Him preach and see Him do miracles.

— It says that people Pressed Upon Him

That word means to lay yourself on something or to press yourself against something and so these people were literally crowding around Jesus wanting to hear from Him and to be healed by Him. It says that they wanted to hear the Word of God. They recognized that they very words that Jesus spoke were the Words of God because He is God and He is speaking.

— People today are still searching for the truth.

What is truth? Well there are two types of truth that we must understand.

There is objective truth- truth that is fact, people may debate it, but it doesn’t change the truth, whether you believe it or not.

Then there is subjective truth- this truth is opinion. If I say that I make the best pie in the world, its just an opinion, its not objective fact.

We believe the truth of the Gospel and Jesus is objective truth, it is true, it doesn’t change, regardless of if you believe it or not.

People want to know the truth of this world, the answer to the question, What is the meaning of life? We as Christians need to have an answer for them.

1 Peter 3:15 KJV 1900

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

Sanctify the Lord in your hearts… meaning set Him apart from everything else, He is your number one priority in life. Be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks. If someone asks what do you believe about God, what are you going to say? Will you have the boldness to talk about Jesus with that person?

What is the hope that is within you? It is the hope of Heaven. That one day we will be present with the Lord Jesus in Heaven, worshipping Him with all the other Christians. Be ready to tell someone about the hope that you have, that one day that you will be in Heaven, because people are searching for the truth.

— Now if you are saved, then you already know the truth, right.

John 14:6 KJV 1900

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Jesus is the truth. But how well do you know the truth? How well do you know Jesus? How often do you come to Him and “press” on Him or beg to hear from Him? How often do you come to His Word to learn about Him? How often do you pray for a miracle and expect Him to answer it and do that miracle? Do you even believe that Jesus can still do a miracle in your life?

These people in this story did. They were seeking after the truth whole heartedly. They wanted to know Him. And it says that He became famous, so the word was spreading. People were talking about Him, witnessing.

So not only did people search, but

Peter Sacrificed his boat (v. 2-3)

Think about it, in today’s standards, boats are expensive. Just a nice regular bass fishing boat can cost $100,000 dollars. I personally do not have a bass fishing boat because I do not have $100,000. It was somewhat similar back in Peter’s time. A boat would have been expensive if he had a carpenter build it, or it would have taken a long time to build it himself. This boat was his livelihood. It was how he made his money everyday, to provide for his family. And fisherman would fish at night, so it wasn’t as hot, and thats when fish were more active. So its probably around mid morning now, Peter is just coming back from fishing, didn’t catch much, hes been up working and sweating all night, hes been around fish, hes probably tired and stinks and just wants to go home.

— and right when he gets to shore, dead beat tired and smelly, finishing up washing their nets, and a crowd of people come up and this random guy asks if he can borrow his boat so everyone can hear Him and see Him. I’m not gonna lie, if I’m Peter in this situation, I’m saying “take a hike, homie, im going home to shower and take a nap.”

— But Peter obeyed, He submitted to Jesus’ request. He let Him use his boat. He put Jesus’ request, above his own desires. Even though Peter was tired, and smelly, and gross, he still let Jesus use his boat to preach.

Sometimes God tests us with small tasks in order to prepare us for larger tasks.

It wasn’t a huge deal for Peter to let Jesus use his boat, but it would be a huge deal for Peter to one day lay down his life as a missionary for Christ. So Jesus wanted to see if he would submit and be faithful in this small thing.

He who is faithful in the small things, will be faithful in the big things. And so Jesus tested Peter with this small task.

But then, Jesus took it even further. After He got done preaching, He said “Alright, lets go fishing now”. Could you imagine Peter’s reaction, like man I already let you use my boat to preach, i dont feel like taking you out on a fishing voyage. He said we’ve done this all night and haven’t caught anything, but I guess we can go. And so Jesus took it this step further to test Peter to see if he would submit, and peter did.

so look at verse 6

They caught so much fish that their nets ripped and james and John had to come over and help them pull all of the fish in. Once Peter saw this miracle, he fell on his knees because he knew he was in the presence of the Lord and that he was not worthy to be with Him.

You know we talked about that a little bit last week in small groups, you know what would you do if He walked into the room.

The kind of general consensus in our group is to fall to your knees and worship. A lot had the same reaction as Peter, that we would feel shameful and sad because were sinful and were just not worthy to be in His presence. We however do not have to live in the shame and guilt of sin anymore because of what Jesus has done on the cross. He took that shame and guilt for us when He died for our sins. Now when God looks at us, He doesn’t see a disgusting vile sinner, He sees one of His sons or daughters, covered by the blood of Jesus.

So not only did Peter sacrifice his boat, he then also

Peter Surrendered his life (v. 8-11)

After this awesome miracle and Peter, James and John were astonished, Jesus then called them to the ministry. He told them instead of catching fish for the rest of their lives they will now be fishing for men. This is their call to follow Jesus for the rest of their lives, to abandon everything and leave it behind. And their response was they forsook everything and followed Him. They left their nets their boats, their families, their entire livelihood. and followed Him.

*ILLUSTRATION of how i was super scared when I surrendered to the ministry

Peter didn’t realize everything that God had planned for his life.

He didn’t realize that he would be one of the first missionaries ever, or that he would be the one to preach at pentecost to thousands of people, or that he’d be one of the most respected and revered theologians of all time, but no one also told him that he’d be thrown in prison a few times, or that he’d be tortured, or that he’d be martyred on a cross upside down.

There are many great things that come with Christianity, the main one being the hope of Heaven. But there are also many struggles that come with Christianity too.

2 Timothy 3:12 KJV 1900

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

John 15:18 KJV 1900

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

2 Corinthians 4:8–12 KJV 1900

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

Philippians 4:11 KJV 1900

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

But I know, that even though Peter went through all of these crazy things in his life, he never regretted becoming a Christian, he never regretted answering the call of God.

Conclusion

So, People today are still searching for the truth, just like they were 2000 years ago. If you look at the previous chapter, chapter 4 verse 18, it says:

Luke 4:18 KJV 1900

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Jesus came to this world to be our savior, and He preached that He was our Savior. But, now Jesus is no longer here on earth. But He is living inside of those of us who are saved, so we are His representatives, His ambassadors to this world. We are the ones who have to go and tell the good news to those who haven’t believed yet.

So people are still searching for the truth.

Not only are people still searching for the truth, but God is still testing us and giving us small tasks to complete just like He did with Peter. He always does this for our benefit and for His glory. Sometimes we wont always know that, sometimes it wont seem like what we are going through could benefit us in any sort of way, but it will if we are patient and remain faithful to God.

People are still searching for the truth, God is still testing us, and God is still calling us. God calls every single person to do something. God called Peter to be a Preacher of the gospel. God has a perfect will for your life, there is something specific that He wants you to do, just like He had something specific that He wanted Peter to do. For me, He called me to the ministry, thats why I am here.

You know when youre chilling not doing anything, watching netflix eating icecream or whatever, and you get a phone call, and youre just like,,, mehh I dont feel like answering. You been there before? I do that when Abbie calls me a lot.. just kidding!!

But seriously, that is how it is a lot of times with God. Hes calling all these people to go be missionaries or pastors but they simply aren’t answering, they’d rather do what they want to do.

God’s perfect will for your life might not be in ministry, but whatever you think Hes calling you to do, you better be 100% sure before you dive in to deep.

We hear that question all the time, What do you want to be when you grow up, or what do you want to do after high school… but thats not the right question. The question that should be asked is what does God want you to do after high school? This life is not your own, you belong to the Lord and so we should do what He wants us to do.

So how do I figure out what God’s will is… what he wants me to do after high school?

The best way to figure out God’s will for your future is to do God’s will right now. Do what you know you should do. Which is those five things we have talked about the past couple weeks, what are they?

read bible, pray, offerings, witness, go to church

And the Bible has a couple specific verses that talk about the will of God too

1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV 1900

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 KJV 1900

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

So do the will of God now to the best of your ability, and God will reveal his future will for you in due time whether its a call to the ministry like Peter, or a call to be the best Christian athlete out there, Just keep on believing.