Allen Laben - Class 1: Calling

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is the 2019 Wichita Falls gathering at T4C. Our theme for this study weekend is the story of the Apostle Peter with our brother, Brother Allen Laban of the San Diego, San Diego County Ecclesia, leading us in our studies. And his first class this morning is entitled Calling. Brother Allen. One thing I have forgotten, and I've already got a couple of brothers to help me out on this. We've got some pamphlets, booklets from Brother Allen's class. We're going to ask that husbands and wives, you each get one for right now to share, and we'll also have the teams take one apiece.

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   And there's a total of 9D, so if you have any left over after and after the class, you're going to love to hear. Alright.

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   Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me alright? Excellent. Alright. Well, first, thank you for having us out here. It's a delight to see everyone, and we're really looking forward to this weekend seeing some familiar faces that we saw last year at Idyllweil, and meeting a lot of new faces as well. And together, diving into the compelling story and example of Simon Peter.

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   If you take your handout, we're going to be using this as a good bit through our classes as a reference. There's a lot of material in the scriptures about Peter, a lot more than we're going to have a chance to touch on this weekend. So this handout is going to serve as maybe a launching point into some deeper studies and also a reference point to some of the material we have up here on the slides.

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   If you want to turn once you get your handout over to page six, you'll see a quick overview of where Peter is highlighted in the Gospels. And the record of Peter simply dominates the New Testament. And Peter, I think, is such an interesting and compelling example because he's a man of contrast. As it was mentioned in our opening prayer, we can learn from both the good and the bad in Peter's life.

6. 2:24

   He had a lot of highs and a lot of lows. If you look through that list on page six and going to page seven, you can see a lot of low points in his ministry. Peter had to be called three times before he finally chose to follow Jesus, something we'll be looking into in this first class.

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   Remember, he walked in the water, a wonderful testimony to his faith, but then he was the one that also nearly drowned. He failed on multiple occasions to understand the significance of Jesus' teachings. He often tried to take matters into his own hands, like that infamous episode in the Garden, or when on the Mount of Transfiguration, he tried to jump to a conclusion to build booths.

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   He rebuked Jesus from trying to go down to Jerusalem, causing Jesus to say to him, Get thee behind me, Satan. He resisted having his feet washed. He fell asleep in the garden when Jesus needed him the most. He struggled with Jesus' teachings. He lunged out in violence during Jesus' arrest and even flatly denied knowing Jesus.

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   So we have a lot of mistakes of Peter recorded for us. But these are also contrasted with Peter's devotion, sincerity, willingness to act on his faith, his honesty, and his bravery. He was the first person on the gospel record to confess his sinfulness to Jesus. Something else we'll take a look at in our opening reading in Luke.

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    He left everything he had to follow Christ. He welcomed Jesus into his home, into every aspect of his life. He was a leader amongst his peers. He was the one that was willing to ask the questions you know were on the mind of all the other disciples. But he was the one that would step out and give voice to it.

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    It's no surprise that Peter is listed first in every list of the disciples that we have recorded for us. He was remarkably close to his master and singled out on multiple occasions, sometimes along with James and John and sometimes by himself, to witness particular miracles or to hear specific instruction. And he leaned in closely to hear the word of Jesus.

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    And as we will see over this week in studies, on multiple occasions where Peter acts rashly, oftentimes he's acting on what he thought he heard Jesus said previously and maybe acted out of a misunderstanding. He was always hearing the words of Christ, just sometimes misunderstanding them. He acted in faith when others were constrained by fear.

13. 4:47

    And he tried to apply Jesus' teachings as best he could. And overall, what we'll see as we look at the portrait of Peter presented to us in the Gospels is he had an insatiable desire to be with his Lord. And that came above everything else. Looking at just the Gospel records as we'll go through our classes this weekend, from Peter's initial calling, which we'll consider in this first class, to some vignettes of him following the Lord, specifically as he attempted to walk on the water out to his master, to our last class this morning, where we'll look at his great confession of faith.

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    And then tomorrow morning during Sunday school, we'll look at the episode of his denial, and finally his restoration. The public lecture this evening, well, I guess not a public lecture, but lecture this evening is going to be on Peter, but a slightly different route, taking a look at how his memory was somehow kind of corrupted and maligned through the church after the close of the Bible canon.

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    And as we look through these different episodes of Peter, we'll see he is an individual that had a huge importance. We see that no one spoke to Jesus more than Peter. Most of the words that we have in the Gospels that are spoken to Jesus come out of Peter's mouth. And also there's no other individual in the Gospel record that has more words directly spoken to them by Jesus than Peter.

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    Likewise, among the disciples, there was no one rebuked like Peter, but also there was no one praised by Jesus like Peter. No one sunk into the waves like Peter did, but also he was the only one to try to walk on water. No one had to be called as many times as Peter did.

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    There were three calls before he finally responded, yet no one declared their ongoing devotion to Jesus like Peter. No one denied their Lord like Peter did, yet no one also clung to him and acted on their faith. And these contrasts aren't presented to us by accident. Peter's story is presented to us as a very relatable one, one that includes highs and lows, moments of strength and promise followed right afterwards by failure.

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    At times we see him as a man defined by this living and vibrant hope, and then right afterwards he stumbles. There's no one else in Scripture presented to us in this manner of contrast, highs and lows, right back to back, and it gives us a unique, relatable picture of what it means to follow Jesus.

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    One brother commented, The wonderful thing about Peter's example is it shows us what a connection with the Lord Jesus can do for ordinary people like us. Because if Jesus could help Peter deal with all of his human weaknesses, he can help us too. So God willing, over these classes, we'll dig into this first part of the panorama of Peter.

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    So what is our picture of Peter? How old was he? What was he like? How did he carry himself through life? Well, answering that question really depends on what part of Peter's life we're talking about. And that's because another unique aspect of Peter is we have a huge span, a broad picture of his life presented to us.

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    We see him in the Gospels. We see him again in the Acts. The first half is largely devoted to Peter's work. And the story doesn't end there. We hear from him directly through his epistles and indirectly referenced and cited in the other letters, including Paul's.

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    In these sets of sources, through the Gospels, Acts, the Apostles, the Epistles, and even through Old Testament shadows, we see a span of Peter's life. We see insights into him as a young man in the Gospels, as a middle-aged man in the Acts of the Apostles, and as a wise, older man in the Epistles.

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    And there's no other New Testament personality that we have this panorama of. We see Paul as a middle-aged man and as an older man. We have brief snapshots of the other Apostles. Most of the information we have about Jesus is limited to that three-and-a-half-year ministry. And as we'll see in our later class, even that is really concentrated just on his last year and his final week.

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    But Peter's different. Peter, we have a portrait throughout his life. And we're able to see him as an example of an individual who grows. When we follow the life of Peter through the Gospels, we'll see he's not the same person at the end of the Gospels as he was at the beginning. Same thing in Acts.

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    He changes, and again, in his epistles. And this element of growth in Peter's character is spoken to us several times in the Gospels. So, for example, over in Luke 22 and verse 32, if you want to take a look at that, this comes toward the end of Peter's interaction with Jesus in the Gospels.

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    And we'll take a look at this passage more tomorrow morning, God willing. But in Luke 22 and verse 32, we see Jesus say to Peter, But I have prayed for thee, that thou of faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. This is after Jesus had just spent three-and-a-half years with, or Peter had spent three-and-a-half years with Jesus, and here at the end of the Gospel record, Jesus is saying, when you are converted, implying that even after all the growth he did through the Gospels, there were still more growing to do.

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    What an odd statement to say at that point. It clues us into one of the aspects we're supposed to learn from Peter is around his growth. Or recall the reference that Paul makes in Galatians to having to correct Peter from withdrawing from dining with the Gentile converts. That's over in Galatians chapter 2.

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    Peter had more growing to do, even in the Epistles. This is also foreshadowed if you want to move over to John chapter 21 in verse 18. Jesus again alludes to the fact that there was going to be growth throughout Peter's life, recorded for us. John chapter 21 in verse 18, Jesus says to Peter, again at the close of the Gospel record, There would be a change in Peter's life, from his bold youth where he would go wherever he wanted to, as Jesus points out, to his more humble, wise, older self, who would be willing to endure hardship for the sake of Jesus.

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    Peter's maturity, his mode of speech, and his understanding of God's purpose and character all change as we move through the Gospels, Acts, and then to the Epistles. When we see him in the Gospels, Peter's a young man, either in age or in spiritual maturity. In Acts, he's more mature. He stands up and preaches on the day of Pentecost.

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    He heals, he speaks before the Sanhedrin, in defense of his faith, in a boldness that we don't see earlier. In the Epistles, especially those of Peter, we see him as a wise elder, a wise older man. Even the kind of language Peter uses changes from the Gospel into Acts and to the Epistles.

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    In the Gospel, he talks a lot about himself, his individual dedication to Christ. In Acts, we start to see a change in his speech, where he understands that it's not about how strong he can be for the Lord, but relying on his Heavenly Father's power. We'll see this alluded to in the name change that Peter goes through as well.

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    In the Epistles, we see his speech change again. He isn't focused on himself, he's focused all on the Ecclesia. And if you look at the pronouns he uses, it changes. In the Gospel, he loses a lot of statements about me and I. In Acts, he uses a lot of we and us statements.

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    And in the Epistles, he's very much focused on you. He's focused on his brothers and sisters. He had to learn the importance of not just focusing on his own position before God, but on strengthening his brethren. Not just on his own love for Jesus, but on building a love for Christ and his brothers and sisters.

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    And one of the major lessons we can see in Peter is to learn that our own spiritual growth in Christ is seen in our love for our brethren and our ability to help them grow closer to the Master. And not only do we see a change in his speech, but we see a change in his understanding of God's purpose and his role in that.

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    When we first see Peter in the Gospels, he's either a sympathizer with the Zealots or possibly a side member of the group. The Zealots were those freedom fighters for Israel who wanted to overthrow Roman oppression. They were passionate about their views and they were willing to go to war over them. They believed that they could accomplish much through their own power, making a free state of Israel, throwing off Roman oversight.

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    Peter was a man who wanted this kind of change and was willing to take it into his own hands. We see a hint of that when Peter lashes out in violence in the garden. But in Acts and in the Epistles, we see him realize that the only true and lasting change doesn't come with man's sword, doesn't come in overthrowing governments, but instead comes through us taking on the role of a shepherd, looking after those in the flock.

37. 13:54

    We also see the shift in Peter's understanding foreshadowed in his name change, something we'll consider in a moment. His impulsive character changes over time. He was a rough man in the Gospels. We see a glimpse of that in his episode, The Night of Jesus' Death, where he's put under pressure and his rough Galilean dialect comes out and curses and swears so much that people conclude there's no way this man could have been around Jesus.

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    He acted quickly and impulsively. In Acts, he has a more gentle hand. And in the Epistles, we see him as a gentle, humble man looking out for the welfare of others. His story is one of growth. And it shows us how God will work with us throughout our lives. And there's a lesson for that in us.

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    Oh, there's a lesson for us in that. When we come to the waters of baptism, it's a start of our journey in Christ. But we're still flawed. But God can take that start, even with those flaws, and work his will in us. All right. The importance of Peter's examples comes out in a number of ways.

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    And one way we can see what a pivotal, one way we can see a hint to what a pivotal character he is is just through how often he's mentioned. So let's take a look at just some of the major characters of the New Testament. We see Judas, who's mentioned a good bit. We see him a total of 22 times through the New Testament record.

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    The Apostle John also comes up quite a bit. We see him a total of 48 times. John the Baptist, a total of 90 times. Paul, 185. But Peter, more than all the rest, at 191 different references. Repetition in the Bible is a teaching device. When something comes up again and again, or we see an individual mentioned frequently, it should make us stop and take notice.

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    And this is a hint that we should stop and take notice of Peter's example. Peter's example is built out beyond what we're going to consider this morning. If you want to take a look at your handout in page nine, the narrative of Peter goes beyond the Gospels, as we mentioned before, and into Acts, the first half of which is largely devoted to Peter's work.

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    And if we look at the first 15 chapters of Acts and compare them to the second half of Acts, we'll see that Peter and Paul are paralleled in many ways. While Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, Peter in many ways was the apostle to the Jews. Both healed a man that was lame from birth.

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    Both healed indirectly through his shadow in the case of Peter and by handkerchiefs in the case of Paul. The preaching of Peter and Paul provoked jealousy among the Jews. Both confronted sorcerers. Both passed on the gift of the Holy Spirit. Both raised people from the dead. In addition, we have the words of Peter recorded for us following the Gospels and Acts and into the epistles.

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    Peter has his words directly in the first and second letters of Peter, but he's also alluded to extensively as we see in the epistle of Jude. And there's lots of connections in the preceding epistle of James. So with that background, let's dive into our first study together around the three different calls of Peter.

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    Looking at the start of his journey, I should probably call this class the Colleen's because there were more than one. If you look at your handout on the first page, preach the classes since there are records in the various Gospels of the different events we'll look at. I've got the four references there.

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    The four references we'll be looking at are in Matthew 4, verses 18-22, Mark 1, verses 16-20, and Luke 5, verses 1-11, and John 1, verses 40-42. But while all four Gospels record the calls of Peter, they seem to be referring to separate instances. John records the first call, Matthew and Mark record the second, and Luke recalls the third.

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    So let's start off with the first one of these four over in John 1, verses 40-42. So if you can open your Bibles there to John 1, verses 40-42, and we will set some context. The context of this passage is that John the Baptist is in Bethabara by the Jordan River. You see that back in John 1, verse 28.

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    Baptizing and preaching the coming of Christ. The following day, we see John coming and declaring Jesus as the one who they should be following. See that down in John 1, verses 29-34. And it's clear from John's languages, if you skim your eyes down through there, that Jesus' baptism and wilderness temptation had already taken place at this point.

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    John refers to the spirit that descended onto Jesus as a dove in verses 31-32. And John tells his followers down in verse 34 that Jesus is the Son of God and references his atoning role that he would accomplish by calling him also the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world.

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    Another day goes by, and now we find John the Baptist with two of his disciples, Andrew, who's named down in John 1, verse 40, and possibly John the Apostle and the author of this gospel, who often refers to himself in the third person. John the Baptist uses the same refrain as he did the day before.

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    Behold the Lamb of God, down in verse 36. This time, the two disciples that had been following John the Baptist now go and follow Jesus in verse 37 and spend the day with him in verses 38-39. Now we get to where we are up here in John 1, verse 40. And here the link is made to Peter.

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    Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, goes and tells him in verse 41 what he has seen and heard. And the language implies that at the same time, John is going off to tell his brother James. Presumably, Peter is also here in this area of Jordan and Bethabara. And it sounds like all four of these men had traveled down together at some point to hear John the Baptist.

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    Andrew finds Peter in verse 41 and says to him, we have found the Messiah. John adds the emphasis here in the gospels that Andrew believed that he was the anointed one, the Christ, the king they expected to come. Andrew then brings Peter to verse 42, in verse 42, to Jesus. And there's a lesson for us here already.

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    Peter did not find his own way to Jesus initially, but had someone else bring him to him. God decided that his message of salvation was going to be communicated through people, through men and women. They were going to be the communicators, the vehicles of the divine calling, just as Andrew brought his message to Peter.

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    So too, we also have a responsibility to bring the gospel message to others. Once we found the Messiah, we need to go out and tell others to bring them to Christ as well. And so now we have the first meeting of Peter and Jesus. It says here in verse 42 that Jesus beheld him.

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    The Greek word here in verse 42 for beheld is eblepo. And it means either to simply look, but if you look at Vine's definition of this, more often it means something a little bit deeper, to look at, to consider deeply with the mind. Vine describes it as an earnest, penetrating, close look. And Jesus will use this word elsewhere.

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    Like when he tells his followers to look and behold the birds of heaven and consider how God takes care of them, he's not just telling us to look at birds and notice that they're nice. He's telling us to consider how God takes care of those birds. Think about it, dwell on it, because he will do the same for you.

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    It's the same word that was used back in verse 36, John 1, 36, when John the Baptist tells his followers, beholds Jesus and understands it's time for him to pass his disciples over to Christ. And that same word is the word that bookends Peter's experience with Jesus during his ministry. It's the same word used over in Luke chapter 22, verse 61, when Jesus looked through the crowd right at Peter after Peter's third denial.

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    That penetrating look both started Jesus' interaction with Peter and was at the close of Jesus' ministry and interaction with Peter as well. And then Jesus says his first words to Peter. Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, says Jesus. And John then adds the clarification, which is through interpretation, a stone.

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    You may want to mark your margin here if you're using the King James Version. There is no definite article here, A, in front of the word stone. The word for stone in Greek is Petros, translated Peter. Most modern translations render it this way. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. Cephas would be his name in Aramaic.

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    Peter would be his name in Greek. And as we know here, Cephas or Peter wasn't his original name. His original name, his birth name, was Simon, son of Jonah. And this isn't the first example of a name change in scripture. There's a number of examples through scripture of individuals that are born with one name.

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    And by the time that their story closes, they have a different name. Abram, his name was changed to Abraham. Sarai's name was changed to Sarah. Jacob's name was changed to Israel. And each case, when you have this name change from one to the other, it designates a new purpose or a new direction, a new clarification of that individual's role in how God would act in their lives.

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    Abram means high father. But Abraham means father of a multitude, right? An allusion to the promises. The same thing with Sarai to Sarah. Sarai means my princess, but Sarah means mother of nations. Again, her role changed in the promises of God. Jacob means supplanter, but Israel means having power with God. And isn't that the arc of Jacob's life?

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    He originally was the supplanter trying to grab what he could, when he could by his own power. But by the end of his life, he realized that he had to rely on his heavenly father. And so Peter's name change fits this model as well. Simon, his given name, is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Simeon, which means hearing.

66. 24:20

    We'll see it used 49 times in the New Testament, all in reference to Peter. Peter, he's called Simon, son of Jonah. And Jonah means dove. And that will be significant as we see it in a later class. But Cephas means rock. It's used six times in the New Testament, all in reference to Peter.

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    Once here and five other times in Paul's epistles. And on the side, it's used a few times in the Septuagint where it refers to a protective rock that's hollowed out. And that's something we'll get into in our third class. Finally, the other term here, Peter or Petros. It's a little more specific. It isn't just a generic term for a rock, like the Aramaic name Cephas, but it's a piece or a chunk of rock.

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    It's used quite a bit, 162 times. This is the one that we see used most often for Peter. And each time it's referring to this apostle. We'll spend more time considering the meaning and the significance of the word Petros in our third class. And on the surface, it seems that the name change seems to follow the earlier precedent.

69. 25:22

    Simon means hearing and Peter means rock. And so the man would go through a transition of being merely a hearer of the word to someone who would put his full reliance on the rock of his salvation. What's interesting is that after Jesus does this, after he does this renaming of Simon to Peter, he doesn't call him Peter for two years.

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    He does this name change, but then doesn't use his new name. Notice what it says here. Thou shalt be called. All the other name changes were in the present tense, right? Abram went to Abraham and then he's called Abraham. Sarai went to Sarah and then she's called Sarah. Simon went to Peter and then he's called Simon.

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    Jesus doesn't use that title Peter for another two whole years. We'll revisit the significance of that in our third class, but it's an indication of the instability that Peter would struggle with. While, and while he did try to constantly hear the word of God, he wasn't consistent on relying on that rock of his salvation.

72. 26:23

    His new name wasn't something that Peter was, but something that Peter should aspire to. Because Simon's natural character was to be the total opposite of a rock. And on a brief aside, this is a good example of how the plan God has for us may not align with our own natural abilities. Peter was called to be a rock, but that wasn't his natural predisposition.

73. 26:48

    The needs we encounter in the truth, through a life in the truth, may demand that we fill a role that is different than what we might feel naturally inclined to do. As we'll see through Peter's story, he was not naturally inclined to be stable and always reliant on the rock. But that's what God called him to.

74. 27:05

    It's a good lesson for us in that we sometimes need to go and fill the need, regardless if we feel that might be our natural talent. If we read on in John down to verse 43, we see that Jesus turns north to the region of Galilee and then goes to Andrew and Peter's hometown of Bethsaida.

75. 27:25

    Here the narrative switches to the call of Philip and Nathaniel, and it seems once back at home, Peter resumed his normal life. That's because the next time we encounter him, he's not following Jesus anymore, but he's working as his fishing business. So there ends the first call. Peter's renamed, then life goes back to normal.

76. 27:43

    For the second call, we're going to take a look at two passages in Matthew chapter 4 and in Mark chapter 1, since it's hard to have two passages up at the same time. I've got them both up here on the screen for you. Matthew chapter 4, verses 18 through 22, in Mark chapter 1, verses 16 through 20.

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    When we enter this account, it seems that some time has passed. We're not told how much, but the scene is no longer by the Jordan River. We're now at the Sea of Galilee, right? So it's a different setting. We know this is a different calling. It's not just a repeat of what we saw in John.

78. 28:13

    That happened down by the Jordan River. Now we're up by Galilee. Andrew, Peter, James, and John all seem to have gone back to their normal occupations. And here they are in the shallow waters, likely in the early morning hours, casting their nets. Jesus first sees Peter and Andrew in their boat and says, come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men, he calls out.

79. 28:36

    They put down their nets and they follow him. But as we'll see in Luke 5, they turn back to their nets eventually. There's a direct request here. Follow me, said Jesus. Encourage them quite explicitly to leave behind their natural occupation of fishing and take on a new form of fishing. No longer will they be fishing fishes, but fishing after men.

80. 29:02

    And they do follow him as well. We can see from Mark's account down in verse 21, if you scroll down in your Bibles a little bit further, they go to Capernaum after this. They follow Jesus and hear his teaching in the synagogue. They witness the healing of a madman and they return to Bethsaida and to Peter's house where Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law.

81. 29:21

    It seems Jesus remained there that evening, made Peter's home kind of an operations center of sorts. And Mark, further down in Mark chapter 1, verse 32 through 34, we see that it was at Peter's house that people were brought to Jesus and taught them and healed those in need. The next morning down in Mark chapter 1, in verse 35, Jesus got up early and left Peter's house before sunrise, withdrew by himself to pray.

82. 29:48

    When Andrew, Peter, and John, and James woke up and realized that Jesus had left, he wasn't in the house anymore, they searched for him and wanted to keep Jesus there. Luke notes that the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving. But Jesus responded that his mission was not to be the local benefactor of Bethsaida only, but to preach to other cities as well.

83. 30:11

    Mark's account adds the second request that Jesus made to Peter. Let us go to the next town. But Peter doesn't. He goes back to his own nets. What we see from this second calling is Peter was fine with following Jesus when Jesus was there, but then went back to his nets when his normal daily routine came in conflict with what Jesus was asking.

84. 30:31

    When Jesus was in his hometown, Peter was happy to follow. When he was in his house, he was happy to listen. But when Jesus ventured to the next city and beyond, Peter stayed at home. To what extent can we be like this? To what extent can we play the part, follow Jesus in overtly religious settings at a Bible school study weekend or Sunday morning, but then carry on differently when those events are over.

85. 30:56

    Peter's commitment to Jesus at this point was situational. When the situation was convenient, he'd be happy to follow his master in his hometown, in his house. Sometimes we can do the same. Follow when it's convenient for us to do so. When the Lord's commands happened to line up with the direction we were going anyway.

86. 31:15

    Peter's third call that we'll look at now was a direct challenge to that mindset. Peter was about to be called outside of his comfort zone. Now he wasn't just called to follow Jesus in his hometown or in his house, but in a way that meant forsaking his former life. In that third call, we see over in Luke chapter 5.

87. 31:37

    Luke 5 was our opening reading. Luke 5 verses 1 through 11. So if you'd like to turn there now, that's where we'll spend the rest of our time together in this first class. Luke 5 verse 1, we see that Jesus is by the lake. And this is a different scenario, right? Here in this circumstance, people are pressing against him.

88. 31:56

    The word pressing there in verse 1 means literally pushing him back, leaning in on him so that he has to step back and go toward the water. Everyone wants to be close to Jesus here. And we're told why. They wanted to be close to him to hear the word of God. And if you think about the gospel record, that was pretty rare.

89. 32:16

    We'll see later on that people wanted to be close to Jesus for the healings, for the miracles, for the handouts of bread. Here they were pressing against him because they wanted to hear God's word. People weren't following here just for the miracles here. They had the right motives. And in verse 2, we see that Jesus notices two fishing boats pulled up by the shore of the lake.

90. 32:39

    The fishermen, however, are removed from the scene. They were gone out of them, washing their nets away from the crowd in the shallow water. And look at what he calls them. He calls them fishermen. We know that these boats belong to the disciples Peter, Andrew, James, and John, but they had not become fishers of men like Jesus had asked in their previous calling.

91. 33:02

    We just saw back in Matthew and Mark he had called them previously to be fishers of men. And here we are in the third scenario. They're still fishermen. There's a contrast presented to us in these first two verses. On one hand, you have people stopping their daily routine, pressing against Jesus, eager to hear what he had to say.

92. 33:21

    On the other hand, we have these fishermen removed off to the side, continuing on with daily life, not necessarily interested in what Peter or what Jesus had to say. And here they were with the Son of God feet away, and they chose the things of daily life. There's nothing objectively wrong with washing nets.

93. 33:39

    It's something you need to do to stay in the fishing business. They needed to do that. But it was wrong when it made Jesus take second place. What they were doing is fitting Jesus in when it suited them to do so. And that's something I think we can all unfortunately relate to to some extent.

94. 33:56

    We all have daily things of life we need to take care of, things that are necessary to support our families, to support us individually. But what do we do when those things come in conflict with the things of the truth? I think this is especially relevant for me and my wife right now, now that we have three little kids.

95. 34:14

    We can be completely absorbed in just the upkeep of these little creatures and can have that dominate all of our time. And while that's a good thing to do, we're supposed to raise children, the fear and admonition of the Lord, we need to be careful that we don't forget the importance of setting a spiritual foundation.

96. 34:30

    It's relevant for work. We live in the USA, which is known for its extremely hard work ethic and we can spend every waking hour making money and doing some sort of work. But do we make sure it takes second place when it comes to the things of the truth? It applies to leisure activities, to school, to every aspect of life.

97. 34:50

    It's a principle that's probably most clearly stated in the example later on of Mary and Martha. When Jesus visits the two of them, Martha busied herself with the necessities of life, with being a good hostess, while Mary chose the better part, listening at the feet of the master. We too need to learn to always choose that better part.

98. 35:09

    And over the next few verses, we're going to see Peter come to that realization that he needs to choose that better part. Now down in verse 3, Peter has a, or Simon I should say, has a choice clearly put in front of him. Jesus asks him to come and push out the boat.

99. 35:26

    He had a choice. Was he going to get involved or stay on the sidelines and do his own thing? It seems he chose to get involved, at least to the extent of pushing out the boat at this point. And once he pushed that boat out into deeper water, it looks like he must have climbed in the boat.

100. 35:41

     So here he comes down, he's washing the nets over in the side. This crowd is pressing on Jesus. Jesus gets back to the water's edge and asks them to push the boat out. Peter comes out and does so, pushes out a little bit and I guess at some point it was deep enough that Peter, rather than going back into shore, hopped in the boat with Jesus.

101. 35:58

     But it seems through the next few verses, though Peter was in the boat with Jesus, he wasn't really getting the message and Jesus had to talk with him further. Perhaps Peter, though physically present in the boat now, still had his mind back on the nets at shore. So in the next verse, Jesus turns his instruction directly to Peter.

102. 36:17

     The use of the term Simon here versus Peter isn't, it's not always significant in the gospel writers. So if you look through every single instance that the gospel writer uses Simon versus Peter, sometimes it's hard to drive a meeting. It's absolutely significant every time Jesus uses the term Simon versus Peter. But here it is definitely significant as well.

103. 36:37

     Luke uses Peter's old name, Simon. He was not living up to the name that Jesus had given him, Peter. And he had some listening to do yet. So Jesus finishes speaking to the crowd in verse 4. And his next message is especially for Peter. He says, launch out into the deep and cast your nets for a draft or a big haul of fish.

104. 37:01

     Launch here is singular in the Greek. He's just talking to Peter. It's not, the others aren't with him right now. It's launch singular. You, Peter, launch out into the deep and you cast that net. Jesus here gives his first command with a promise. This is a pattern we see presented again throughout the Gospels.

105. 37:18

     But it's a command that initially seems quite illogical, doesn't it? From verse 2, we can see they just finished washing their net. Casting out into the deep and thrown in the water would undo all their morning's work. From verse 5, we can see from the context they had no success from the night before.

106. 37:35

     Why would it be different now? In addition, the timing is off. The morning fishing period had already passed. By this time of the day, the fish would have retreated out deeper into the Sea of Galilee and the shallow fishing nets they would have used, as we'll see in our class tomorrow morning, they were really of no use when the fish were down that deep.

107. 37:54

     Also consider that Peter is probably tired. Like in the fisherman's routine, after fishing all night or in the early morning and washing their nets, the next thing would be food and bed. Jesus is calling Peter to do something outside of his normal routine and head back out into the water. And on top of this, where were Jesus' fishing credentials?

108. 38:13

     If anything, his expertise was in carpentry, not in being a fisherman. Jesus' request appears unusual and as such, it receives a reluctant response from Peter. If we tried during the proper fishing period last night and we had no success, how does it follow that something better would happen if we tried during a less favorable time?

109. 38:35

     And we can see a hint of this reluctance in how Peter responds. So Jesus says, let down the nets, plural. And Jesus asked for multiple nets here, but what does Peter agree to in the end of verse 5? It's only one net. So he's only willing to go a little bit of the way.

110. 38:53

     We can't be totally certain of that point, do some manuscript differences, but if this is the proper reading, then Peter is following Jesus' request but doing so quite reluctantly and not completely. And we can also see this hinted again at the use of that old name, Simon. This whole scene clearly must have looked odd from the shore.

111. 39:16

     And remember, there was probably a crowd still back there on the shore as well. Jesus had finished talking to them, but they may not have completely dispersed. And there they are, his fishing buddies back on the shore at their nets, the crowd back on the shore, and here Jesus with Peter pushing out into the water.

112. 39:33

     And the unusual nature of the request would have been pretty apparent. And this goes to a fairly large precedent of doing things for the truth that might seem odd to the world around us, right? Hebrews 11 is full of these examples of Noah, for example, being warned of God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house.

113. 39:55

     Definitely stepping out in an unusual way. Abraham 2, over in Hebrews 11, is called for doing something, is commended for doing something different, going out to a place that he didn't know where he was going quite yet. Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the riches and treasures in Egypt.

114. 40:20

     Abel, Sarah, Isaac, Joseph, Gideon, Barak, Samson, and all of these mentioned in Hebrews 11, all these Bible heroes, did things that were particularly unusual. And Peter learned this lesson as well. Over in 1 Peter 4, verse 3-4, he may have been thinking back to this occasion when he wrote in his epistle, for the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought with the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lost excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.

115. 40:57

     Writing later on as a wise and older man, Peter notes that people will think it strange when we choose Christ and choose not to run down the path of the rest of the world. But we have a wonderful hope of knowing that when we do choose Christ, we have entered that race, that only race that's really worth running.

116. 41:15

     Peter also wrote in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, that we're called out to be a peculiar, a different, a separate people. And following Christ would involve living differently than the world around us. Thus, down in verses 6 and 7, we see what happens when Peter begins to obey the Lord's command, even those that are outside of his normal routine.

117. 41:40

     We can see all the good night's work basically caught in one daytime catch, so much so that they had to beckon other ships to sling another net under the first one to keep the nets from bursting. And it's like that in the truth. God takes our little efforts and multiplies the effectiveness into something we cannot imagine.

118. 42:00

     He takes our small temporal actions and links them to eternal effects. The language here is dramatic in the Greek. The nets designed specifically for catching fish were to the point of bursting. The ships, which brought fish back in nightly with no problem, were struggling underneath the load. And then in verses 8 through 9, the reality of what's happening finally hits Peter.

119. 42:25

     And here significantly, Luke uses that phrase, Simon Peter. He falls at Jesus' knees. He realizes his own inadequacy. He comes to realize all at once the greatness of the Lord that he had previously only been willing to give partial attention to when it was convenient for him. When realizing his own sinfulness and inadequacy in front of Jesus, he no longer just calls him by that generic respectful term master, like he did back in verse 5.

120. 42:56

     But now he calls Jesus Lord. But look at what else he says. His first reaction when he's convicted of his own sinfulness and he falls at Jesus' knees is to respect Jesus Lord, or to recognize his position. But he says, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. This is a reaction we see several times in scriptures.

121. 43:20

     Our natural human inclination when faced with God's greatness, when faced with Jesus' perfection, is to shrink away from it. Think back in the Old Testament. There's precedence for this as well, right? When Moses first saw God's angel in the burning bush, what was his first reaction to the burning bush? He was afraid to even look in the direction.

122. 43:39

     He backed away from it. Gideon thought he would die for having seen God's angel and cowered away. Isaiah's reaction to God's initial revelation to him in Isaiah chapter 6 was, woe is me, for I am undone, because I'm a man of unclean lips. He was terrified based on his initial interaction with the divine.

123. 44:00

     We see this in Job. At the close of Job, in Job 42, Job says, I have heard to thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Peter goes through this same process that we've seen before in the Old Testament.

124. 44:16

     His realization of his own inadequacy and the greatness of the Heavenly Father and the perfection of Christ made him want to draw away. Literally in the Greek, it says, go forth away from me. Go out of the boat. Leave me here by myself. But Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus doesn't go anywhere. Having realized his own weakness, Peter was prepared to come closer to Jesus than ever before.

125. 44:44

     And Jesus was right there waiting for him. It is right and good for us to realize our own inadequacy and sinfulness. But when we see our sinfulness in the face of God's righteousness, our reaction shouldn't be, depart from me, Lord. It should be, Lord, forgive me. And there's a lesson for us in there.

126. 45:03

     When we see our own sinfulness, the answer is not to withdraw from God in shame, but instead to recognize there's an invitation to draw near. A few verses later in Luke 5, Jesus reaffirms this message when confronting the Pharisees that were murmuring against the disciples in Luke 5, verses 30 through 32. But there's scribes and Pharisees murmuring against the disciples, saying, why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?

127. 45:29

     And Jesus answering said unto them, they that are holy need not a physician, but they that are sick. I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. One of the things I've frequently heard from young people in terms of reasons that they're struggling with the decision for baptism is they don't feel good enough.

128. 45:48

     They don't feel adequate. They're not getting baptized because they feel that the call of the gospel is so high and they're so far away from that. The message here is that we need Jesus because we aren't good enough. When confronting our own sinfulness, the reaction should not be depart from me, Lord. It should be repentance and forgive me, Lord.

129. 46:12

     This isn't a license to sin, but it's an assurance that when we realize our own inadequacy, those are the moments when God's abundant mercy is there for us and a promise of a living hope. Moving down to the close of this passage, we see in verse 10 that James and John were also with Peter here.

130. 46:33

     They had come out in the boats. These three partners would be among those individuals closest to Jesus during his ministry over the next three years. In Luke chapter 5 in verse 10 and 11, Jesus sees the humility in Peter, the sincere repentance for his reluctance to follow previously, and says a simple phrase, fear not.

131. 46:56

     Jesus had forgiven him. Now that Peter had directly experienced the mercy of the Lord, he was at last in the place that he needed to be.

132. 47:06

     Henceforth, he would go and catch men. Down in verse 11, we can read that they bring their ships back to land, and this time, they don't just forsake their nets. They forsook all, says Luke, or laid aside everything to follow Jesus. So as we close our class, we're right about at time, what can we learn from these initial callings of Peter, from the first, second, and third?

133. 47:30

     Well, I think the first thing is that we have a Lord that is calling us. He never gives up. He didn't give up on Peter, and he's not going to give up on us either. We saw the reminder that the word of God needs to become before the daily routines of life. In Peter's case, the washing of his nets.

134. 47:46

     The commands of Christ come first, and sometimes require us, oftentimes require us, to step out of what is situationally convenient, to go out into the deep and drop those nets. And then finally, when we realize our own inadequacy, our own sinfulness, our response to our Lord should not be, depart from me. It should be, forgive me, Lord.

135. 48:07

     And we have a loving master who wants to do just that.