Sermon for the week
Peter
Goes Fishing
The Apostle John related a
story about seven men who were very close. Over the last few years
they had experienced many highs and lows together. However, none had
been as turbulent as the last three weeks. First, they had
become convinced that Jesus was the promised King of prophetic Scripture.
They grew so ecstatic about that truth that their main topic of
conversation was which one would sit on His right hand in the kingdom.
Then Jesus seemed to put a wet blanket on their excitement by saying such
things as, "...Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your
servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of
all." (Mark 10:43, 44)
The next major event came
when Jesus chose to present Himself to Israel by riding into Jerusalem on
a donkey. It seemed that He had barely begun His journey when people
came running from all directions. They cut down palm branches and
lay them on the pathway the donkey would walk. Others took off their
outer garments and lay them down for the donkey to walk on. The
growing crowd became a multitude that was shouting, "Hosanna!
Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the LORD! The King of
Israel!" (John 12:13). It seemed that the hundreds of
thousands of Israelites who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover were
accepting Him and proclaiming Him their king. All this was reversed
four days later when the high priest, the religious leaders and the Roman
governor sentenced Him to death. This was followed by what seemed
like everyone whipped into a frenzy of rejection shouting, "Crucify
Him!" (Luke 23:21). After a brutal beating with the
cat-of-nine-tails by a Roman soldier and inhuman abuse by his comrades,
Jesus was ordered to carry His cross along the way of sorrow. With
the waning of His last physical strength He faltered and Simon of Cyrenia
was conscripted to bear the cross to Calvary. It was there that
Jesus was crucified between two thieves. After He died He was laid
in the borrowed grave of Joseph of Arimathea.
For three days the disciples of Jesus were almost crushed under the
heavy burden of blighted hopes. There had been so much about Jesus
that had convinced them that He was God's promised Christ: His love
and compassion, countless miracles, supernatural healings, incomparable
teachings and His godly purity. But now, He was dead and gone and
all their fondest hopes lay in ruins.
Then Sunday came. With the first rays of morning light the women
whose lives He touched come with spices to properly prepare His body for a
long sleep in the tomb. Instead, they found the stone rolled away
from the mouth of the tomb and only angels in residence. The angels
told them that Jesus had risen. Throughout the day Jesus appeared at
various times to Mary Magdalene, Peter, His step brother James, the two
disciples of Emmaus and ten of His apostles.
The following Sunday evening Jesus appeared to the eleven remaining
disciples which included Thomas. It seems that the emotions of those
who say Jesus contained elements of awe, fear, and joy,---all at the same
time.
The eleven apostles traveled northward to Galilee as directed by the
angels and by Jesus. While they anxiously wait for Jesus to meet
with them they labor to make sense of the turbulent events of the last few
weeks. They find no way to understand or fit into their belief
system all the things that have happened in the last few weeks. As
Peter feels the pressure reaching the bursting point he blurts out, "I am
going fishing!" (John 21:3).
Did Peter mean that he was just going on a
single fishing outing to relieve mental and emotional pressure, or was he
saying that he was returning to his old fishing business? We are not
told and so the subject is open to debate. My conjecture is that
Peter was thinking, "I'm going to do something I know I can do, and if I
can't get everything sorted out in being a disciple of Jesus then I'll
spend the rest of my life in the fishing business.
PETER SUBSTITUTED HIS REASONING
FOR DIVINE REVELATION
Jesus had personally chosen
Peter and eleven others to be full time followers and learners. He
had taught them all of the written word of God and given all new
revelation that they needed to know up to that point in time. More
so, He was the living word of God Who could say, ""...He who has seen
Me has seen the Father...".
Peter was still brooding
over how he had been so confident that he was willing to follow Jesus into
prison or death and then denied that he even knew Jesus with the foulest
cursing he could muster. Peter concluded, "I have been a
miserable failure at the disciple business but I know I can be a success
at the fishing business. I am a descendant of several generations of
fisherman and I have been fishing the sea of Galilee from my childhood."
One truth Peter had failed
to grasp was the pitfall of putting all our confidence in the fleshly
nature---ours, or that of anyone else. The prophet Jeremiah was
inspired to write over six hundred years previous, "Thus says the LORD:
'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose
heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the
desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched
places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.'"
(Jeremiah 17:5, 6). Only a few hours before Peter's denial Jesus had
said in the upper room, "...Without Me you can do nothing." (John
15:5).
Jesus was not through with
Peter. Even after Peter had denied Jesus, Jesus loved him as much as
ever and His plans for Peter had not changed one iota. Would Peter
need to change his way of thinking? Yes. Would Peter need to
place total faith in Jesus to enable him to be what he needed to be and do
what Jesus wanted him to do? Yes. Would Peter need to learn that no
matter what he thought he would need to abandon his thoughts when they
were not in conformity with God's word" Yes. Headstrong Peter
would have some difficult times learning this truth but he would learn.
(See Acts 10 and Galatians 2:11-21).
It is probable that this is
a lesson that all believers must painfully learn . By nature,
culture, and training we are pressured to put our confidence totally in
our thinking and our abilities. This attitude tends to follow us
into our life as a believer in Christ. As long as we cling to this
attitude we are destined to failure after failure. What a blessed
day it is when we totally commit to ordering our lives by the word of God
and placing our total confidence in Jesus to enable us and equip us to be
what we should be and do what we should do.
PETER INFLUENCED OTHERS TO FOLLOW
THE FLESHLY WAY
"We are going with you
also." (John 21:3) Not only Peter, but Andrew, James, and
John had grown up as professional fisherman. They were especially
responsive to the example set by Peter. We are not sure about the
occupation of the others
but their respect for
Peter led them to immediately decide to go along.
When we decide to
go our own way without any consideration as to whether it is the LORD'S
way it is a personal decision and we shall reap the fruit of the seed we
sow. We sometimes forget that we are also answerable for leading other
believers to walk after the flesh by our example. The following words
were written about Peter at a later time, "Now when Peter had come to
Antioch,
I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before
certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they
came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the
circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with
him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy."
(Galatians 2:11-13); full account 2:11-21).
I will never forget
how sad I felt when a new convert on fire for God said to me as a young
pastor still in my 20's, "Pastor, a new Christian would never go on
visitation if he followed the example of the older Christians."
LABOR WITHOUT CHRIST'S BLESSING IS DOOMED
TO FAILURE
"...And that
night they caught nothing." (John 21:3)
By all rational
standards these men should have had a successful fishing trip. They
possessed the accumulated knowledge of several generations of fisherman.
By experience they knew the location of the fish; the best time to fish,
and the best method to catch the fish---but after fishing all night they
had caught nothing. This is a perfect picture of a Christian laboring in
the flesh without the blessing of God.
Please forgive me
when I say that this was a wonderful experience for them and for everybody
else since. If they had been successful in their fishing trip that night
it is possible that they might have said goodbye to being ministers of
Christ and gone back to their old lifestyles. The result would have been
no Pentecost, no Bible, no churches, no gospel outreach to the world and
untold millions left in spiritual darkness to live and die without hope.
There are always sad consequences when Christians are successful going
through life doing things their way instead of God's way.
Copyright © 2008 Truth Helpers Inc.
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