We Father, we thank you, we think you was wonderful time
we've had to bring our praise and our worship to you.
Lord, we thank you. That is part of our worship.
We thank you for the offerings that have been given.
Lord, you are the one who provides all that we have and
our offerings are just a small part of our worship.
Back to you, Lord, we thank you for those that distribute that
may it be used wisely, may be used for your glory and for your
Kingdom. Father, we thank you for our
Sunday school children. We thank you for the blessing
they are to us, the church and to our families.
Lord, we just pray your hand upon them as they go out to
Sunday school and also our team class Lord that you will work in
their hearts. Continue to draw them closer to
you. Let me thank you for the love
you have for them and Lord, may they know you each each of them
know you as their own personal Lord and Saviour at some point.
Father, we thank you for our Sunday School teachers.
We thank you for the diligence and bringing your word to our
children. Look, give them the words to say
in the words to Shia today. We pray and we thank you for
Jeff. We thank you for the message
you've laid on us heart. We thank you for the opportunity
we have to be able to sit under the word of God in law.
We just pray that our hearts will be open to that Lord, that
won't just be words that we hear, but words that change us
and we'll we'll draw us closer to you.
O Lord, we just pray for Jeff and bring him to your hand too.
So we thank you for this time and we committed into you now
and your hand in Jesus name, Amen.
I've got to say, you look a lot better from up here than you do
from the back. Pity.
It's not reciprocal, isn't it? It's a delight to be with you
always and I'm glad to be here in my condition.
I'm glad to be anywhere, but I'm particularly delighted to be
with you this morning if you have your Bibles with you.
Where? In the Gospel of Luke, page
1410. Don't you wish you'd bought a
better Bible? Matthew, Mark, Luke chapter 5
and we're bringing our thinking to this important paragraph in
the Gospel of Luke. One day as Jesus was standing by
the lake of Guinness, Alright with the people crowding around
him and listening to the Word of God, he swore at the waters
edge. 2 boats. There's a reason, of course, why
there was a crowd pressing around Jesus, and you only have
to back up into chapter 4 to find the reason.
In verse 31, He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee,
and on the Sabbath began to teach the people.
They were amazed at his teaching because His message had
authority. It wasn't the rabbis discussing
who said what and how Jesus was unfolding the word of God with
authority and declaring what it meant.
And the crowd was so impressed they pressed down toward him.
Have a look at chapter 4, verse 33.
In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil
spirit, and Jesus cast the evil spirit out.
If you have a look at verse 36, all the people were amazed and
said to each other, what is this teaching?
With authority and power? He gives orders to evil spirits
and they come out and then you go down to verse 38.
Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon.
Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever and
they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked
the fever and it left her. She got up at once and began to
wait on them. And then you find in verse 40
onwards, further casting out of demons.
No wonder there's a crowd pressing around Jesus that the
nation hadn't seen this kind of action.
It was unique, to say the least. So we're back in Chapter 5.
He saw at the water's edge 1st 22 boats left there by the
fishermen who were washing their Nets.
He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and
asked him to put out a little from the shore.
Then he sent down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, put out into deep
water and let down the Nets for a catch.
Well, here's Simon Peters, response.
Master, we have worked hard all night and haven't caught
anything, but because you say so, I will let down the Nets.
Now Jesus is talking to him in the middle of the day.
Launch out into the deep and get ready for a catch.
And Peter comes back and says, Lord, we have been fishing all
night. And there's a reason why there
were fishing all night because at night the insects came out.
And when the insects came out, the fish came to the surface to
grab the insects so that they would be free from any other
predators in the lake. Now Jesus is telling them to do
something quite strange. He says don't go fishing at
night in the middle of the day. I'm telling you, go out into the
deep well in the middle of the day.
The fish are right at the bottom.
It's only at night they come to the surface for the insects.
And Peter can't figure this and he looks at Jesus and says, now
look here, you're a Carpenter, you stay with the tools.
I'll look after the fish, but Peter has known a thing or two
about Jesus. This is not his first encounter
with Christ. In fact, it's probably the third
encounter Peter has had with the Lord Jesus.
And he says, nevertheless, at your word I will let down the
Nets. We are in verse 6.
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of
fish that their Nets began to break.
So they signalled their partner in the other boat to come and
help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that
they began to sink. The miracles of Jesus are never
in the half measure. And so he tells them, launch out
into the deep and suddenly they've got so many fish that
number one, according to verse 6, the net to breaking number 2,
they need to call their partners to come and help.
And #3 when they do come and help and load the fish into the
boat, both boats begin to sink. Some fishing trip you will find
Christians telling you this kind of thing happens on the white
matter and when they do remember that Bible verse.
All men are liars, especially fishermen.
When Jesus fed the 5000 men, besides women and children, with
the five loaves and two fish, there were 12 basketfuls left
over. Those baskets were the size of a
basket a man could fit in, and when they left Paul over the
wall to escape, he got into a basket big enough to hold a man.
12 of them left over and then when he fed the 4000 there were
7 basketfuls left over. Now, what's the significance of
this miracle? Have you noticed the miracles of
Jesus are quite narrow and defined in their purpose?
Jesus isn't running around and grabbing a a blow fly, wiggling
his nose and turning it into an A380.
Now could he have done that? Of course he could have done
that. He's God in human flesh.
But he didn't. He didn't grab a donkey up one
of the little lanes in Nazareth and turn it into a red hot
Lamborghini. Now could he have done that?
Of course he could have done that.
But the miracles of Jesus are not random acts of power.
They are miracles with a message.
This is the second episode in the ministry of Jesus where he
turns a them to to a large amount of fish.
Second one is in John chapter 21, and the reason this becomes
a miracle is because back in the prophecy of Ezekiel chapter 47,
when Messiah comes, there's gonna be so many fish in the
waters of Israel that the fishermen will be camping along
the the lake and along the river Jordan and down into the Dead
Sea and it will be alive with marine life.
That's why Peter suddenly says goodnight nurse.
Not in the text, but he meant to say that, and because now he
sees this huge number of fish. It would have been a miracle
just to get a dozen, but you've got the Nets breaking and two
boats virtually sinking with this huge number of fish.
And any Jew who saw a miracle like that would be racing back
into the prophecy of Ezekiel and say this must be the Messiah,
that this must be the one who can change things.
This must be the one who can bring in the prophesied Kingdom.
And that's why all the miracles of Jesus have to do with the
features of the coming Kingdom. When Christ returns to earth, no
one will be hungry. Can that man remove famine?
Can he remove hunger? You, Betty, can look what he can
do with five loaves and two fish.
But can he change the climate? You bet he can.
He stands up in a boat and says to the wind and the hurricane,
Sit down and be quiet and be still, and immediately the wind
stops. But, but can he extend life?
You bet he can. He can heal.
He can even bring the dead back to life.
But can he get rid of evil? That's what's plaguing our
planet. Can he deal with the devil?
You bet your bottom dollar he can.
One exorcism after another. Who is this prophet from
Nazareth? He is the Messiah.
And now Peter sees this. His mind has gone back to
Ezekiel chapter 47 and the idyllic situation that the Lord
is going to create when he establishes his Kingdom.
And he falls down on his knees either in the boat or on the
shore. If it's in the boat, who would
have been a wobbly fool because all of the mullet would have
been underneath his knees and maybe he waited till on the
shore and he falls at the feet of Jesus and says depart from
me. I am a sinful man.
I know who you are. You are the Messiah.
You are the Son of God and I'm a sinful individual.
Depart from me. This is too much for me to
handle. It's interesting with Peter,
isn't it? And one moment he sang, depart
from me, and the next minute he leaves his Nets and the fishing
business and follows Christ. We're back into chapter 5, verse
8. When Simon saw this, he fell at
Jesus knees and said, Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful
man. For he and all his companions
were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken.
And so with James and John, the sons of Zebedee Simon's
partners, we're not to think that Simon Peter and these boys
were just on a vacation. These were merchant fishermen
who were in a a good business and they were partners and their
business was very successful. Then Jesus said to Simon, don't
be afraid, from now on you will catch men.
And this is anticipating the vital move that Peter will have
in the church and Acts chapter 23000 individuals on one day
will come to faith in Christ through Peter.
You're not going to be catching these fish anymore.
You're going to be a Fisher of men.
It anticipates not only Acts chapter 2, but Acts chapter 10
when Peter leads Cornelius to faith in Christ and opens the
door of the gospel to the whole Gentile world.
Peter has a strategic role to play.
And then it says in verse 11, So they pulled their boats up on
shore, left everything and followed him.
And this is where my message begins.
They left everything and followed him.
Tuck that thought away for a moment.
I want to think with you through the implications of this
passage. This morning Peter and his
contemporaries left everything and followed Christ.
Back in the day, you know, if someone became a Christian, they
would talk about being saved. My grandfather was a drunk.
He used to drink up large at the Criterion Hotel in Otahu.
None is way home one night after the 6:00 swill.
Those of you old enough will remember the pubs all closed at
six about 5:45. You gotta Rev up from the barman
saying you better drink up, we're about to close.
Then after six, my grandpa would be staggering back home to his
wife and children, and the Baptist Church were having an
opener on the corner, and the old man leaned against the
lampost a bit the worse for wear.
And he heard the gospel and he got saved, and he went home to
tell his wife that he got saved. And she thought that was a
really strong brew, but it was true.
And in the morning he was still saved.
And he had this insatiable hunger for the Bible.
He got saved. Well, it wasn't too long before
he led my grandma to Christ and her four daughters to Christ,
one of whom was my mum. And we grew up under the sound
of the good news of Jesus Christ.
He got saved. It's a good word, that word you
know. It's a good word, for by grace
you have been saved. Not of words, lest any man
should boast, Titus says. Not according to our own works.
He saved us. It's a good New Testament word.
If your house is burning and and and you're in danger of dying
and a fireman bursts in through the door and grabs you and takes
you outside, well you just got saved.
If you're drowning in the White Shadow River and someone sees
you and and throws in a a a rope and you grab it, they pull you
to shore and you've been saved, it's a good word.
You're going to the wall. Financially things are
absolutely hopeless and the good friend steps in with the fat
chequebook and he saves you at the last moment.
Isn't it a good word? And the Bible tells us we need
to be saved. Saved from the holy wrath of God
upon sin. We need to be saved not just
from the consequences of sin, but from God Himself, who is so
holy He cannot tolerate sin. And the Bible is very clear
about the dreadful day of judgement that is to come.
Yeah, we used to be talking about getting saved.
I remember going to the Century Plaza to watch Sound of Music
down in Queen Street when I was a youngster and the lady came
along and there was an empty seat next to me.
She said, is this seat saved? I said no, but I am and, and,
and she took off the other side of the theatre.
We used to talk about being safe and then that got a bit
embarrassing, you know, a bit fundamentalist.
So in the early 60's the lingo changed.
Have you been converted? Ohh, you're going to be
converted. Billy Graham helped us with that
one. So we left being saved back in
the dark days of fundamentalism and we got with neo
evangelicalism and we started talking about being converted.
Then when we got to the 70s, things moved again and we talked
about have you made a commitment to Jesus Christ?
And that's the way the gospel was presented.
You need to commit your life to Jesus Christ.
When we got into the 90s, thanks to Bill Hybels, we talked about
becoming a follower of Christ. Now I wonder if you can see the
change in the language. We've gone from being saved to
being converted to making a commitment to becoming a
follower. I don't know if you've got the
drift, but we've moved from God doing something to rescue us to
us now making a commitment to God.
Can you see the shift? And we've got over being saved.
And so when people read Luke chapter 5 verses 1 to 11, they
get to verse 11 and Peter left the Nets and the boats and the
family. He left everything and he
followed Christ and we think at that point Peter got saved.
But Peter came to a saving knowledge of Christ a lot
earlier. He he in John chapter 1, his
brother Andrew brought him to Christ.
Now if you read John chapter 1, you find out what was involved
in Andrew's pilgrimage to faith. He believed in the word that
John the Baptist had spoken. He believed what John the
Baptist said about Messiah being the Lamb of God.
He believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
And John tells us these things are written that you might
believe that Jesus is the Messiah and believing you might
have life in his name. So I have a hunch that when
Andrew got saved through faith in Messiah, he led his own
brother to the Lord in the same way that he came to faith in
Messiah. So I think Peter was a saved man
way long before this, but he's growing in his understanding of
the Lord Jesus. And now after this miracle
continent, continent, right back to his Ezekiel chapter 47 and
the vision of marine life in the coming Kingdom.
And then he sees this amazing miracle that Jesus did.
He says, wow, see, now, now I'm I'm totally convinced.
Back in the day, everyone was a disciple of someone you know.
Moses had disciples back in the day.
Back in the day, the Pharisees had disciples.
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.
Some people came and asked Jesus.
How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the
Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?
Three lots of disciples, John's disciples, the Pharisees
disciples, and Jesus disciples. What does it mean to be a
disciple? It means to be a follower means
to be a student, means to you're learning from whoever you are
following. And for some that was John the
Baptist, for others it was the Pharisees, and for others it was
Jesus. John the Baptist had disciples,
and you know what? Jesus had disciples.
And the two of them stopped following John the Baptist and
followed the Lord Jesus instead. There is a confusion today over
what it means to be saved and what it means to be a disciple.
It's a serious confusion. Here's something scary.
You can munch on it while you have your lunch.
He called the 12 disciples to him and gave them authority to
drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
These are the names of the 12 apostles.
Go to the end after listing all the apostles.
Look who's in there. Judas is scarier.
Who betrayed him could not nurse.
He was a disciple then Jesus replied, Have I not chosen you
the 12 yet? One of you is a devil.
He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the
12, was to later betray him. See, here's the deal.
You can be Judas and not be saved but still be a disciple.
And it seems to me from that text that Judas had the same
power that the apostles had to heal and to do miracles, but he
wasn't saved. He was the son of Perdition, the
son of the devil. Was he a follower of Jesus?
Yes. What did it mean to follow
Jesus? Well, he was an itinerant
teacher. See you and I've got it wrong.
We keep loading following with all this moral conformity to
Christ. Now, back in the day, to be a
follower of Jesus meant you had to leave your father and mother,
you had to leave your wife and your children.
You had to leave your brother and sister and follow Jesus
because next day he was going to be in a different village, and
the day after that he'd be in a different town.
He was an itinerant teacher, and so you followed him from place
to place to place. That's what it meant to follow
Christ. It wasn't spiritual conformity.
It was just you were moving geographical location to keep
listening to the teacher. You were a student.
You were a follower. When you look at the New
Testament, there are three kinds of disciples.
There are the curious ones and they're following Jesus.
And when they saw him with the five loaves and the two fish and
they all felt they'd been to Maccas for the afternoon and got
a free dinner, well, they kept following.
Then when Jesus said, listen, I'm up to you guys, you're
following me for a free feed. But I tell you, unless you eat
my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.
And they said, we're out of here.
This is this is too much. We're out of here now.
They were disciples. They were following, but when he
said that, they drew back and they didn't follow anymore.
They remained curious. Then you have people who are
disciples who are convinced, and these are the people who are
absolutely convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
living God. Then you have people who are
committed. Unless you hate your father and
mother, your brother and sister, your wife and your children, and
leave them behind and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
Unless you take up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my
disciple. And that's the truth that Jesus
unloads later in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 14.
Let me help you a little more by making some comparisons.
Now someone's going to have to read because discipleship means
following, right? I can hardly see it.
The colours are too light. But when you're talking about
salvation, you're talking about trusting.
These are two different things and disciple follows.
A believer trusts in discipleship.
Jesus is the teacher in salvation.
Jesus is the Saviour, but can you really have Jesus as a
teacher and not as a Saviour? You bet your life you can look
at the people who had Jesus as a teacher and then turned back and
followed him no more. These are two different things.
Discipleship is a process. Salvation happens in a moment of
time. You know John chapter 5 says you
pass from death to life. That happens instantaneously.
You, you, you're here. 1 moment you come to faith and next
moment you're here. You, you're born of the flesh.
Here you're born of the Spirit. And it happens instantaneously
in a moment when you trust Jesus Christ to be your personal
Saviour from sin. And that's where the transaction
happens. See, we've got caught up in
this. Ohh.
You gotta follow, you gotta follow.
You gotta you gotta become a, a, a proper follower.
Back in the day when we were singing hymns before we got into
the nursery rhymes that were thankfully emerging from OHH.
Happy day that fixed my choice on thee, my saviour and my God.
I can remember as a teenager singing this song.
You know you forget all the sermons in your life but you
never forget the songs. They keep coming back.
Tis done, the great transactions done.
I am my Lords, and he is mine. It's a pity we don't sing that
stuff now, because we would understand there is a moment,
there is a transaction that takes place when I pass from
darkness into light, that salvation.
Now, discipleship is a process, and that can be a lifelong
process. Salvation happens in an instant.
Discipleship is about learning. It's about getting an education.
It's about listening. Salvation is about being saved.
It's not about getting an education.
It's about taking Christ to be our Saviour.
Discipleship will cost you, cost you your wife, cost you your
children, cost you your business, cost you the fishing
boats, cost you the Nets, cost you all the income from those
fish that Jesus miraculously put into your boat.
You have to leave it all behind. It's going to cost, but
salvation is a free gift. The wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life.
And they're beautiful. You can't buy it, you know.
It's a free gift. I was visiting my cardiologist
on Friday. He he's a wonderful man.
He's kept me alive for the last 15 years and I celebrated.
I took him to Fat Angus Burgers, dripping with the best fat in
the world from Waikato Farms. And not really where we got
talking. And he said, now how old are
you? So I fessed up.
I said I'm 29. He said how old are you?
I said I'm 72. Ohh, you don't look 72.
He wanted me to return the favour but I didn't.
I just be quiet, he said. How are you enjoying retirement?
I said, what's retirement? I'm not retired, he said.
What kind of work are you doing? I said I'm involved with the
church. I'm a I'm in teaching and, and
Christian education and I'm ohh, well that's good.
You see, he said. I'm not really looking forward
to retirement, I said. Why is that?
He said. Well, for you, you're working
your way to heaven, and for me, I'm just working for money.
I said well don't let it phase you, we can swap.
I said, Doctor Patel, you're a Hindu.
I'm gonna leave the working to get to heaven to you.
I've already been shouted a free trip.
I'm going gratis first class. Someone has already paid for the
trip. He didn't know quite what to do
with that. But salvation is a free gift.
You receive it in a moment, the moment you trust Christ to be
your personal Saviour. Discipleship is about getting
knowledge. Salvation is about obtaining
life. Discipleship is about taking up
our cross. Salvation is about His cross.
Listen to the words of an old theologian.
PPT Forsyth It's not about the sacrifice we make.
It's about the sacrifice we trust.
That's why we've taken communion this morning.
Our internal wellbeing does not depend on our performance, it
depends on the shed blood of the Lord Jesus who on the cross took
the punishment for our sin. Discipleship is about the work
we do. Salvation happens through faith
alone. Can you see the difference?
It's a big difference, isn't it? So you can be a disciple and not
be saved, and you can be saved and not be a disciple.
You know that those are those arid, dry moments in your
Christian experience where you're going nowhere.
Are you saved? You bet your bottom dollar saved
by the blood of Jesus Christ. But are you a disciple?
You're not following, you're not going, You're not even moving.
So you can be saved and not be a disciple, and you can be a
disciple and not be saved. So I have two questions for you.
Have you been saved? You said.
Well, why else would I be in church?
Or let me tell you, you can be in church and not be safe.
You say, how in the world do I get saved by receiving Christ as
your personal saviour, by ceasing all of your human hope
on your own ability and casting all of your trust entirely on
the person of Jesus. You say, how in the world do I
do that? Do you know?
It's really simple. We try and make it so
complicated, but it's so simple. You ladies out there, you, you
got a beautician? Well, probably not, but have you
got a hairdresser? You say I've got a hairdresser.
How did you get your hairdresser?
Well, you know, I rocked down the road and I rocked up to the
salon and I said I need someone who can fix this, can you do it?
And they said yes. And you were so impressed.
You keep going back there time and time and time again.
You got yourself a hairdresser? Have you got yourself a doctor?
See here. He's an important person in my
life. I rock up to the surgery and I
say to my GP will you be my GP? And the GP says yes I will.
And I got myself a GP. I've got myself a mechanic up at
West Auto. I have a mechanic and when
something needs doing to my car I go to that mechanic.
I don't wander around Auckland looking for a mechanic, I've
already got one. I sat down with him one day and
said can I rely on you to be my mechanic?
Will you commit yourself to servicing my vehicle and and
working repairs? Yes, I will see how simple it
is. Have you got a personal trainer
at the gym? I haven't, but you might have
one. My doctor the other day said do
you have regular exercise? I said I go to the fridge 39
times a day, what else do you want?
He said, Do you snack at night? I said yes, I do.
He said you gotta stop that. I said.
Then why did they put a light in the refrigerator?
That's from midnight Snow. But I've got a GP.
Have you got a mortgage broker? Yes, I have.
How did you get them? You got on the phone and said
will you be my mortgage? But now listen, out of all the
religious leaders in the world, have you ever gone to Jesus
Christ and said, I want you to be my saviour?
See, that's that's the moment when the great transaction is
done. And he says, why else do you
think I died? I've been waiting for you all
this time. Come on home.
And as many as received him, to them he gave the right to be
called the children of God. But are you a disciple?
See, Peter got saved a long time ago, but now he's following from
one town to another to another, and he's committed himself to
learning from the Master to be saved as wonderful.
To be a disciple is so refreshing because you keep on
growing and growing and learning and learning.
There's a world of difference between the two.
If you're here this morning and you've been hanging around
church forever but you haven't been saved, take a moment and
say Lord Jesus, I've got a banker, I've got a personal
trainer, I've got a mechanic, I've got a hairdresser, but I
haven't gotta save you. I'm coming to you.
I'm asking you, I'm depending on you.
I'm receiving you to be my saviour.
Now, for those of us that are stagnating in the wilderness,
don't you think it's time to follow and to be a disciple, to
be a learner? You know, the big trouble is a
lot of us Christians don't go far enough for the fun.
We're hanging around in the shallows and we're bored to
tears, but we won't make the commitment to go deeper, to go
further, to take it seriously, to get into your Bible in depth
and grow so that the Christian life becomes an adventure.
Father, by the gracious ministry of Your Spirit, illuminate our
hearts to the Word You have given us.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.