I have spoken in the past from time to time about what I believe is an essential, yet oftentimes missing element in Christianity today. Actually, it is two things, but in application they must be one. And what I am talking about I have called progressive discipleship, which when broken down is the result of progressive revelation and progressive sanctification.
Now please do not misunderstand what I am talking about. I am not talking about progressive salvation. I believe the Bible teaches clearly that salvation comes at a moment of time in response to faith in Christ, which results in repentance from sin, and forgiveness by God. Salvation is a gift of God in response to our faith in Christ. Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
But what I am talking about is once that step has been taken, once you have been born again by the Spirit, then there is a progression of revelation that happens in your walk, that is dependent upon your continuing to be faithful and obedient so that you may grow into spiritual maturity. Being born again and stopping there means that you stay a spiritual infant. There is a large number of professing Christians that have never grown beyond the first step. They had a spiritual experience at one point in their life and they hold on dearly to that memory. But they never grow beyond that infancy into spiritual maturity. They may have learned to walk a few steps, but it never resulted in really following Jesus as a disciple. When we see a person who is mentally challenged to the point that they are still mentally an infant but their body is an adult we think that is a tragedy, don’t we? What less should we think of a spiritual infant? But our goal should be spiritual maturity. Ephesians 4:15 says that we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head even Christ.
So we are to grow up into spiritual maturity. And spiritual maturity is nothing less than being remade in the likeness of Jesus Christ. First we must be born again, and then in the processes of God, we are conformed to the image of Christ. Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” Our purpose of being born again is to become conformed to the image of Christ.
Now I’m not just talking religious theory here, I am talking about very practical, everyday ways in which God is growing us, making us, and conforming us into the image of Christ. But it is a process. It is a process that requires being faithful to the study and reading and teaching of the Word, and then in response to each revelation, being obedient which results in our sanctification. It is step by step, obeying what God shows us, and reveals through His Word. Salvation is not a one stop shop whereby everything is revealed, but nothing changes. But rather as truth is revealed, we need to respond in obedience that we might grow in Christ.
This isn’t just my own opinion, by the way. You see this principle over and over again in scripture. For instance, Noah was given limited revelation by God. God said it was going to rain, and I want you to build an arc. And Noah was obedient to that revelation. He did not have access to scripture. He did not understand all theology. But he was obedient to what God revealed to him. You see the same thing with Abraham. He had limited revelation. He had no scriptures to consider. Yet God told him to move to another country and he was obedient to that command. And as a result of that faith in God’s word, God gave him more revelation, and Abraham was obedient each step of the way. God gave more revelation, actually a whole lot more, to Moses. And Moses was obedient to each revelation. In response to his obedience to go be God’s mouthpiece to Pharaoh, God gave him more revelation, culminated at Mt. Sinai. And as we fast forward through the scriptures we see this principle played out over and over again. More and more revelation was given by God through his prophets and God expected obedience to His word. Jesus of course, was the greatest revelation of all from God. Because He said in John 14:9 that “he who has seen Me has seen the Father.” That was the greatest revelation to man that there has ever been. Yet even when Jesus was revealed, there is a continuation of progressive revelation, and then progressive sanctification as the disciples are obedient to the Word.
A good example of this principle of progressive discipleship comes in this chapter that we are looking at today. Jesus is continuing preaching and teaching throughout the area of Galilee, and on this day He is teaching by Lake Gennesaret, which is also known in the other gospels as the Sea of Galilee. And verse one tells us that Jesus was teaching the Word of God. That’s a good place for discipleship to start, isn’t it? With the Word of God. And we know that Jesus was preaching it with authority and people were wondering at the words that He was saying.
But also, Jesus has been performing miracles. In the last chapter, two miracles happened somewhat as a matter of course as Jesus was preaching and teaching. First, a man cried out in the sermon who was demon possessed, and so Jesus cast out the demon. And then afterwards, they went to Simon Peter’s mother in law’s house expecting to be fed lunch, and instead she was lying sick with the fever. So Jesus healed her of her fever. Now it was the Sabbath when he did those miracles, but later that evening, word had gotten around and after the sun went down the people were free to travel, and the Bible says that many people were coming to Him to be healed, and they were bringing demon possessed people to him to be cast out and He was healing them.
So we don’t know if chapter 5 is Monday morning, or sometime later, but by now word is really getting around Galilee that Jesus is performing many miracles and that news resulted in a great crowd coming to see Him. But note that Jesus isn’t doing miracles or holding healing services to draw a crowd, they are a natural result of the mercy and compassion of God. Jesus said in another place, all that come to Me I will never cast out. And so Jesus’ ministry was preaching and teaching the Word of God. But when He was confronted with someone who came needing to be healed, then He would have compassion on them and heal them. But physical healing was never the point His ministry. It was just a natural offshoot of His ministry to teach and preach the word of God concerning acceptance in the Kingdom of Heaven.
But nevertheless, His fame was spreading so fast it was difficult to do His work. So as this huge throng of people are crushing around Him, Jesus knows that He needs to separate Himself to a degree so that He might be able to teach, and so that everyone could hear what He had to say. So He sees two boats pushed up on the shoreline which the fishermen had beached after fishing all night and whose owners were now mending and washing their nets. And of course, Jesus, knowing all things, knows that these particular boats belong to Simon Peter and James and John.
I just mentioned that in the previous chapter there is the incident in which Jesus goes to Simon Peter’s home and heals his mother in law. So we know from that that Jesus already knew Peter. In fact, if you go over to John 1, you see that way back when John the Baptist was proclaiming that Jesus was the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, we see one of John’s disciples is Andrew, Simon’s brother, and he introduces him to Jesus who renames him Peter.
So Jesus has known Peter for a while. He has called Peter and the disciples to follow Him. And they have confessed that Jesus is the Messiah. Some have gone so far, such as Nathaniel, to say that Jesus is the Son of God. But I think especially in Peter’s case, there is a sense in which he has not fully committed to Christ yet. And because he is sort of the natural leader of these men, and verse 10 says that James and John were business partners in the fishing industry with Peter, Christ has a special purpose in getting into Simon Peter’s boat. And there is a practical consideration as well, as the boat gives Jesus a platform and the space necessary to address the crowd and preach the Word of God to them. I believe Jesus wants to reach Peter in a way that will bring Him to a greater commitment in his spiritual walk. I can’t help but wonder if someone here today has experienced Jesus getting into his boat lately. The Lord has done something in your life lately to get your attention, to get you to respond to a greater commitment to follow Him completely, without reservation. Perhaps it’s happening right now. The Holy Spirit is convicting you that God is calling you to a deeper level of commitment.
So in our text we see that Luke isn’t really reporting on the results in the crowd of Christ’s preaching, but he is zeroed in on this one man, Simon Peter, and his response to the continued revelation of Jesus Christ. You know, true Christianity is an individual thing. God so loved the world, yes, but He died on the cross for your sins. Salvation is not a universal thing that God applies to the entire world. But it comes down to an individual response to the revelation of God. You may be here today and feel as if this message is speaking directly to you. Well, it is directly to you. The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God to speak directly to your heart. And your response must be an individual response. You cannot be saved as a result of what your mother believed, or your father believed, or what your wife or husband believes. But it is an individual decision, an individual response, to a direct appeal by the Holy Spirit to you.
So Christ picks out Simon’s boat, and when He finishes teaching He says to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Now Jesus is not under any obligation to bless Simon because Simon let him use his boat for a while. Jesus is going to give Simon a demonstration of His divinity, knowing that Simon will finally respond in a full commitment. So much of our religious activity is motivated by selfish ambitions, isn’t it? We think that somehow that if we can give God something, then that obligates Him to give us back with interest. We like the idea of 10 fold interest. But God will not be put in a box. However, God will in His mercy and grace sometimes use some extraordinary thing to make us aware of His Sovereignty and to get our attention.
So you have a command of Christ to Peter to put out his boat into deep water and let down your nets for a catch. That sounds pretty straightforward and simple when we read it here, but in actuality it wasn’t quite so easy for Peter. First of all, he had fished all night and caught nothing. And in that kind of fishing in particular, night fishing was the way it was done, when the fish would come up to the surface to eat and get caught in the nets. During the heat of the day, the fish would head to deep water and stay near the bottom, so that was when the fishermen would head back to shore and wash and mend their nets in preparation for another night of fishing. So I’m sure Peter is shaking his head, at least inwardly, thinking what does a carpenter know about fishing? I’m the professional fisherman here. He may know about preaching, He may know the scriptures, but, hey, I know fish. And I know the fish aren’t biting.
At least, that’s the way most of us would think, isn’t it? I mean, that God stuff is fine on Sunday mornings, and in theory, but when it comes to my work, my career, I’m the expert. The Bible really doesn’t have much relevance when it comes to dealing with suppliers, or dealing with subcontractors, or dealing with employees or making sales. I know my business and I do what I have to do. We make a lot of excuses don’t we in the name of “doing what I have to do.” This is what the job entails. As if the job somehow supersedes our spiritual responsibilities. I hear more excuses that come out of job responsibilities. We say we love God and put Him first in our lives, but actually far too often God is somewhere below the career, below the job, because in the back of our minds, our careers supply our needs, not God. We need to get our priorities straight. Phil. 4:19 says “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” But I submit to you that that verse is contingent upon another verse, found in Matt. 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
As a result of our self interests, so much of our life is lived in shallow water. We have never moved out in obedience to deep water and found the blessings that God wants to bring into our life. We want to hang on to what we know, to the false security of what we think we can achieve. Thankfully, Peter was willing to go out deeper with Christ. We fault Peter a lot for his failures. But one thing I will say about Peter was he was willing to go for the big stuff. He wanted to go all the way, but he had to wrestle with his flesh just like we do. But notice Peter says, “Look Master, we fished all night and caught nothing, but nevertheless, “I will do as You say and let down the nets."
How important is that response. Because you say so Lord I will do it. I’m going to look pretty foolish if I do this thing you know Lord, but because you say so, I will do it. This doesn’t make any sense to me Lord, but because you say so I will do it. This goes against all common sense Lord, but because you say so I will do it. This isn’t what I want to do, but because you say so I will do it. Obedience is the necessary essential ingredient that so many of us are lacking in our lives. Listen, every fiber in Abraham’s body recoiled at the thought of offering up his son as a sacrifice on the altar, but he obeyed God in faith, and God counted it to him as righteousness.
Perhaps God is showing you something in his word, through the preaching of the word, He has commanded you to do something contrary to your good old common sense, or contrary to your education, or contrary to your experience, and you are fighting it. You have resisted it because you think you know better, or you can’t let go of some security that you are clinging to. But God has called you, and commanded you, and you need to be obedient if you want to really follow Christ and receive all the blessings that He has in store for you.
Vs. 6 continues the story; Luke 5:6 “When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.”
Now a lot of us if we were writing the story would stop right there. That would be the happy ending that we are looking for. Peter obeyed God and got rich. But that’s not the end of the story. This is just the beginning of the story. Jesus didn’t get in Peter’s boat just to give Peter the biggest catch of fish that he had ever seen. That would be enough for most of us. But Jesus knows that there is something better in store for Peter than just catching fish. It’s becoming a catcher of men.
Peter sees this great quantity of fish, larger than any catch they had ever seen before, so much that the boats began to sink, and look at his response; vs. 8, “But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!" When you think about Peter’s response you can’t help but think how strange it is. I mean, most of us if we were in a boat with Jesus and just hauled in the catch of a lifetime would be snapping pictures on our iphones so we could post it on our facebook page and let everyone know what a special person we really are. But there is a principle here that I think is important. In the Bible when we see a man encounter a true revelation from God, there is a recognition of the fact that they are a sinful man in the presence of a Holy God. And that is what Peter is experiencing here. I’m always skeptical of these people that want to tell you about some revelation that they had which they think is from God, and there were angels singing and butterflies fluttering around and they were just in a happy place with God himself telling them all this incredible revelation and secret messages.
Actually, look at the example of Job, who said I repent in dust and ashes. Look at Daniel who was astounded and exhausted and sick for days after his revelation. Look at Isaiah, who said “Woe is me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of an unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah 6:5 So it is fitting that the response of Peter is that of a penitent man, who sees himself in the light of the holiness of God.
When I was a young boy and I confessed my sins to God in salvation I knew I was a sinner, but I didn’t really know about sin. But at 54 years old, I know more about sin than I care to know. This is not a story of conversion but a story of conviction. It’s a story of progress, of discipleship. And the committed Christian recognizes his sinfulness more and more as he knows more and more about our Savior and our God. The more you know about God, the more you realize how weak and corrupt we are in our flesh, and how much more dependent we must be upon the grace of God.
We stand in grace in the presence of a holy God. But being born again isn’t the end, it is just the beginning. There is a purpose in salvation. And that purpose is new life in Christ, through the power of His Spirit who lives in us. Look at the end of the story. The end of the story isn’t gaining earthly riches or becoming a better fisherman, or becoming a better business man, or becoming any number of things that in our natural state we may think are important. But the end of the story is the beginning of a new life in service to Christ. Jesus says in vs. 10, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men."
Listen, everyone that has been born again by faith in Jesus Christ is called into ministry, did you know that? We have been called to be ministers of the kingdom of heaven. We have been commanded to be representatives of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. That calling should be paramount in your life. Your ministry should come first and then depending on where God calls you then find a job that supports that ministry. If your job interferes with your ministry then you need to find another job. God’s called you for a greater blessing than you can possibly find by trying to put career first and God second. Your ministry opportunity today may not look like much. Maybe all you can do is commit to church at this point. Commit to studying the word and being obedient to the word and helping in the church and supporting the church and praying for others in the church. That is your ministry. When you are faithful to that and obedient to that then God will reveal something more to you as you are being faithful in your ministry. But if you can’t do that, then don’t expect Him to give you more revelation or more opportunity until you are obedient to what He has shown you so far.
Notice verse 11; “When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.” That’s amazing. Peter, James and John left the richest haul of fish they had ever caught, they left their nets and their boats, they left their livelihood, their trade, their security, their families, friends and their homes and followed Jesus. When their eyes were opened suddenly the fish weren’t nearly as important as the One who made the fish. Some of us are following the fish, rather than the One who made the fish, and the ocean, and the world and all things in it.
Peter saw past the carpenter’s son, he saw past the security of his experience, past the allure of riches, and saw that the greatest treasure on earth is following the God of heaven. And as a consequence of that revelation, he was willing to forsake everything the world offers, for the sake of knowing Christ. Paul said in Phil. 3:7 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Jesus said, “from now on I will make you fisher’s of men.” “from now on…” Christianity is the story of “from now on.” Once born again, old things pass away, all things become new. And from now on, I will commit my entire life to living for God, forsaking all else, for the sake of knowing Christ my Lord, and I will be his disciple, following in His footsteps, being obedient to every revelation in God’s Word. That is the path to glory. I hope you recognize Jesus for who He is, and in response, you will commit this morning to lay everything else aside and follow Him fully.
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