I was reading through Luke 5 this morning, and something particular stuck out to me. The chapter begins with Christ calling his first disciples. It is the account of James, John and Simon Peter being called to follow their Rabbi.
The three of them are pulled off to the edge of the water and were drying out their nets. Jesus was being followed by a number of people so they could hear is teaching. He was probably getting a little too crowded to he got into Simon Peter’s boat and asked him to pull it away from the water a little bit so he could teach. He then sat down on the boat (this is what rabbi’s do when they are teaching; they sit) and began to teach the people from the boat.
After he was done, Jesus told Simon Peter to go into the deep water and put their nets down. I find this interesting at first because they were drying their nets. That means their day was probably coming to a close and not only did they have to wait around for Jesus to finish teaching He was now telling them to go back out and fish. Simon Peter responds saying that they had worked so hard all night and have not caught a thing but because Christ said so he would do it. Christ has funny timing sometimes. After we are exhausted and tried everything to do something, God comes in at the end and says ok, now go, and it works extremely well. In fact, it worked so well for them that they had to get a second boat to keep from capsizing the boat. That’s a lot of fish. Try to imagine so many fish on a boat that it had potential to sink. I used to be excited about my one pound pickerel.
It seemed to be at this moment that Simon Peter realized who was around him. He then fell at Christ’s knees and told him that he should leave because he is a sinful man. I love how Christ takes a normal days work and turns it into a miracle where the very people that have been doing that normal days work are “astonished” at what they saw. The next verses are the ones that I like.
” Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.”
After the catching of seemingly a lifetime supply of fish; after fulfilling their dreams of a fisherman. They probably didn’t have to go fishing for another month. After all this, they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. This means they left the very fish that they caught. “Everything” is the point of following Christ. There is no point in trying to follow him if we want to keep some things, because it’s impossible to do both. We as Christians need to grasp this idea a lot better, I know I do. I love the fact that the three of them left “everything,” including the fish that they just caught and followed him. Sometimes we focus so much on the gift that we have been given that we forget about the journey we are summoned to live. We receive our gift of [insert your desire here] (i.e. fish, money, education, wife, husband) and then we thank God and get down on our knees and acknowledge our Saviour, but then we stay on our boats and keep fishing for the rest of our lives. God didn’t allow him to catch two boats of fish so he could go home with a smile on his face knowing that he surpassed the day’s quota. He did it to show him what he could do with Christ’s help. The three of them took it as a sign for something greater and didn’t stop there. When will we learn that these gifts that God’s given us aren’t for us and us alone? He blesses us to be a blessing to others. It’s time to start falling at Jesus’ knees and acknowledging his presence and not so much focusing on the two shiploads of fish that lie in the horizon.
This message is exactly what I needed to hear today. I have been working at my Career as a Safety Professional for a large Prestressed/Precast Concrete manufacturing and erection firm for ten years. For the past couple of years I have been working a second job which has been my passion driven by prayer and I feel Gods will for me, as a Substance Abuse Counselor and Pastor for Missouri Dept. of Corrections. I am also Senior Pastor and Director of our Ministry Serenity Through Hope which with everything added up has left very little time for much else. Jan. 6, 2005 I was injured at my Full-time job which has resulted in major back surgery that will most likely not allow me to return to the job. Either way I have decided to go full-time as a Substance Abuse Counselor and Pastor for Missouri Dept. of Corrections. This is a great leap of faith for my family and me because of the drastic drop in income. Although We walk by faith, not by sight 2Cor.5:7 there are still trying times for Pastors as well, I know we are expected to be the rock for our congregations but at times we feel vulnerable also. Thank you for the wonderful message. Bro. Milton at Transforming Sermons had this link on his site.
In Him,
Rick
This is the very passage and the very message that my pastor spoke on this Sunday, and the very thing that I recently wrote on my own site. I find this happens a lot when God wants to teach me a lesson, he will throw it at me everywhere I go. My metaphor for this was that we need to pray to God with open palms, and we cannot do so when we are unwilling unclench our fists from around the things we desire in this world. EVERYTHING is a big word. Leaving EVERYTHING to follow Christ seems almost impossible. Yet, everything is this world is finite, and will pass away? Why then do we say that it is easier to grasp things that are here today and tommorrow are gone rather than grasping something that will ALWAYS be there?
Thanks Nathan for this challenge. I’m reminded of St. Fransis who stripped from the cloths that his father had given him. And then as he stood naked with a crowd watching gave the cloths back to his father, and set out for a life of self imposed poverty. A fast from riches to draw closer to the Lord. May I only be so bold in my relationship with God.