Encounter Part 1

Jesus and the Disciples

Luke 5:1-11

Intro

Main Idea: Following Jesus will be the best decisions that you make even if it causes you to leave things behind.

Me: My job prior to being in youth ministry at Hy-vee

Before I jumped into my room as a youth pastor, I worked at Hy-Vee.

I was an assistant Bakery Manager.

I was a Bakery Manager at one point, i realized that it was not for me, so I stepped out of that role and became my dad’s assistant.

I also was an assistant manager that ran the front end and stocked shelves as well.

I enjoyed my time at hy-vee but at a certain point I knew that Hy-vee was not going to be my career.

I thought it was going to be it, but instead, I felt God pushing, pulling, prodding me into ministry.

So I went back to school— got a degree and then tried to find a job all over the country.

And who knew that an hour away this church called Bethel would be my home soon.

It was a huge risk leaving.

I had never done full time youth ministry, but I had to the take the chance.

I trusting that God was leading me in this direction and so I had to jump.

Because honestly, that is all you can do sometimes right?

Is just trust and jump.

Now that may sound totally scary right.

I mean we have those decisions where we are like, just tell me when and where and I’ll jump— if you are that kind of person raise your hand.

Now if you are the type that needs all the details raise your hand.

Okay— I see you both.

And I also see that some people have no idea.

and that is okay.

I mean stepping out into the unknown is terrifying.

I get that.

I totally get that.

But honestly, looking back this was one of the top 5 best decisions I ever made.

Number one: Saying Yes to Jesus

Number two: marrying Brittni

Number three: saying yes to kids

Number four: Leaping into ministry

Number five: always ordering 4 cinnamon delights from taco bell— never disappointed

But even when the unknown is scary I believe there is a balance of faith and trust that comes from following Jesus

We: Have you had to let something go because it was weighing you down or holding you back?

It could be a sport

A job

It could be friends

We know what it is like to feel stuck.

We know what it is like to feel the normal routine of life and ask that question is there more?

I think we all ask that question at least once in our life.

I asked that question a lot working at hy-vee.

I did what it took to support my family and it did that, but I often had that question of is there more.

You will have to make tons of decisions in your life where you will have no idea what might happen.

And you could look back and go— welp that was a bad idea.

Or you could look back and go that one of the best decisions I ever made.

We could all go around the room and share moments of bad decisions and I’m sure we could laugh at them and also relate to many of them.

Here are a couple of bad decisions others made:

This cat owner who decided to DIY a kitty door

This adult who decided to play on the playground

This person who decided to get the same tattoo that his dog had without realizing the tattoo was there to indicate his dog had been neutered

This parent who decided to let their kid carry the syrup to the table

And this dog owner who decided to leave their not yet potty-trained puppy alone with the Roomba

Those are all pretty great and it is fun to laugh at the bad decisions others make or even ours.

But what about the good or even great ones.

The ones that change your life.

In a good way—

But here’s the things— you don’t know if those decisions will be good or not in the moment.

If I never went to be a camp counselor for church camp, I would have never met Brittni and all of these that I have now would be different.

But, I didn’t know that.

So I believe that there are decisions that you will make in life that you have no idea what the outcome will be and that is scary but it is also exciting.

Some times you are going to have to leave things that you have held onto for a long time, in order to pursue something better.

So for our first Jesus encounter, I thought it would be appropriate to start with the disciples.

Because our main idea tonight is:

God:

Following Jesus will be the best decisions that you make even if it costs you everything.

Because that is what the disciples did.

We are going to read a couple of passages that talk about the calling of the disciples.

Let’s start in Luke

Luke 5:1–11 ESV

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus had not gained a following yet, He was just starting to teach and preach.

And he is teaching and people were listening to him and they were inching closer and closer to him until he literally gets on a boat and get away from the people so he can teach them.

While he is teaching, we see two boats and fishermen cleaning their nets— not their fish— for they caught nothing the night before.

The best fishermen know the best time to fish is at night or early morning— not now.

That is why they were on the shore.

They were done for the day.

I recall fishing with my grandpa would start at 4am— we would be on the river by 5am poles in the water by 5:15am done fishing by 9 or 10am.

These fishermen knew what they were doing.

They were packing up for the day.

But Jesus challenged them, how about one more shot.

Let your nets down one more time.

You never want to leave anything as a failure right?

When I was younger I would never leave the gym on a miss.

And let me tell you something— sometimes it took awhile before I made one— but nobody wants to leave on a failure.

It is that hunt for just one more shot.

One more cast, one more throw, one more rep, one more you fill in the blank.

I bet these fishermen did that multiple times and still never caught anything.

And so when Jesus says here— lets go further out— there is fish to be caught.

Now if that had been me, I would have not had responded like Simon:

Like dude— we have done this.

We are good man— I just cleaned these.

I just want to go home and I feel like I am a failure and I don’t know what I am going to eat now.

Like get off my boat and let me be.

But here is Simon who is later called Peter’s response.

He states he is tired, but willing.

Two things we can take away from this:

1) Sometimes God is going to call you to move or act and depending on your answer you could miss a miracle or a blessing.

If Simon just packed it up he would have never caught all of those fish.

2) When following Jesus, it is okay to be tired but don’t ever stop being willing to obey.

Peter was exhausted and I can imagine grumpy— but he was willing.

Dude knew something was different about Jesus.

That is why he called him master.

And when they let down their nets— it was the biggest catch they had ever gotten.

How do we know this, because they knew what their boat was capable of and this catch was starting to sink the boats.

Its says that they began to sink...

Both boats had never caught that many fish before!

It was a huge miracle and it would have set them up very well for weeks to come.

But that is not Simon Peter’s response what is it?

Luke 5:8 ESV

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

When we encounter Christ we should do so with humility and confession.

Peter knew that he was encountering someone totally different then he ever had before.

He falls to his knees and he repents to Jesus.

He sees Christ’s holiness and realizes that he is a sinner.

I wished that we would treat Christ with the same reverence.

So often we want to wrap our arms around Jesus and hug him and say things like were best buddies.

Peter fell to his knees.

He didn’t give Jesus a hug— he told him to get away from him because he was messed up.

Sometimes I think we truly do not see ourselves as sinners in need of a savior.

We see ourselves on the same level of Jesus and our pride and ego get in the way of humility and confession.

Jesus tells them all to not be afraid.

Fear is a normal reaction to the experience of God’s glory.

These fishermen probably has all sorts of emotions.

Then we have this call to catch men.

To move from catching fish to catching men.

Luke 5:10 ESV

and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

These fishermen knew only one thing.

To catch fish.

They probably learned it from their fathers and their fathers learned it from their fathers and so forth.

That is what they knew.

Yet— Jesus challenged them.

He gave them a decision to make.

They weren’t even on shore yet.

And Jesus was saying, “look we are going to hit that shore, and you have a choice, tomorrow you could wake up and do the same thing you did today and be a fishermen.

Or you when we get to the shore you can follow me.

I’ll teach you to catch men, to teach them about God and his goodness.

You can come back here but you will never catch more fish then you did today and everyday will be a let down.

But if you follow me— there is plenty more where this came from.”

Here is how they responded:

Luke 5:11 ESV

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

When you encounter Jesus the best response is immediate and all in.

Those fishermen had two boats that were sinking because of the fish they caught.

And when they got back to shore they left it all behind.

They left their jobs and their relationships behind.

Matthew gives us a shorter version of this story, but it is still just as impactful.

Matthew 4:18–22 ESV

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

These fishermen left everything behind to follow Jesus.

They saw the miracle and I could just see Peter being the first one off the boat after Jesus.

Fully fixed on Him and the others followed his lead.

Maybe they talked, maybe they walked in silence— but whatever was said or not said, I can imagine it was, I’ll go where ever he goes.

Jesus had a radical impact on everyone he met.

The disciples were no different.

You could make the case that it was more impactful.

Because of their willingness to leave everything behind.

When you begin to follow Jesus your life is going to change.

When you first encountered Jesus made happened?

Did your life change?

You:

For those fishermen the prize of that catch, security, family and a host of other things could have held them back.

They could have stayed put and just had a great fishers man tale to tell.

But I think they all realized that something was different about Jesus.

You can probably relate to that.

If you can recall when you first experienced Jesus, how did you feel?

What was your response to Him?

Did it bring you to your knees, did you weep, did you experience joy, love, peace.

When you first encountered Jesus what happened?

As you are recalling that moment— what has happened since then?

Are you still following Jesus joyfully?

Or is it more of a chore and a checkmark for you?

What is something that you are holding onto that is distracting you from your relationships with Jesus?

What decision do you need to make about your relationship with Christ.

Maybe you need to decide to follow him— you have been on the fence and you don’t know if you should or shouldn’t.

Maybe you decided to get off the boat and leave everything behind but somewhere along the path you got distracted, maybe you even went back to your old life— what do you need to decide today to maybe get back on track.

Maybe you just need to finally go all in— and not hold anything back— what are those things that are holding you down that you just need to give up to God?

We:

If we all began to follow Jesus and only be tethered to Him then He could use us for his glory.

If we went all in we could change this community.

We are gearing up for this youth conference called the Alive Conference.

It is for you as high school students and for all your friends and those who aren’t your friends yet.

It is for the whole Galesburg and surrounding area community.

The Alive Conference is a chance to grow closer to Jesus, develop relationships with other believers, and to be equipped to impact the community.

Invite everyone you know.

Allow God to use you to reach your friends and this community.

Jump off the boat and follow Jesus with an all in attitude and see what he can do with you.

I bet Peter never would have thought he would be called to be the rock on which Christ would build His church.

But he was— because he got off that boat.

All the spiritual giants of the faith all have one thing in common— they are obedient to the call to follow after Jesus and they go all in.

We can too.

So are you?

If not then what is stopping you?

Maybe better yet, what is your decision?

To follow or to stay in the boat.

To follow will cost you--

But staying in the boat will leave you with just a memory and no lift change.

I pray that today you decide to follow Jesus with everything you have.

let’s pray