Jona Lawson - Class 1: Follow Me

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

1. 0:06

   Well, thank you very much for that reading and good evening to everyone. It’s really nice to be with you all here and share what hopefully is going to be a really excellent week together with all of you.

2. 0:23

   And I say, hopefully because we live in a new world, don’t we? Where we don’t know from day to day what is going to happen from hour to hour? What is going to happen? So what that’s taught me coming from Melbourne is you’ve got to make the most of every single moment that you have at any time and I look at on this audience and to me it’s just amazing to have this many people in a room. Coming from Melbourne where for the last two years we’ve had I think something like 280 days of lockdown and just last Sunday, we were able to for the very first time. Actually meet together as a whole Ecclesia since this pandemic began.

3. 1:11

   It’s amazing. Isn’t it? I remember we had a youth group before when it was just starting. We were just starting to hear about all of this. This thing that was going on. And, and the speaker that youth group said, just imagine like that, this is the last time we’re going to be able to meet together as a group for a long long period of time.

4. 1:30

   And that’s exactly what happened. And here we are two years later still. In the circumstances that we find ourselves in, but we have an opportunity this week that God’s given us to be together and to Fellowship together. And that’s such an awesome thing for us to experience. And it was, it was it even experienced just for us to get across to the border to get here, right? It’s been a mission, I’ve had so many things stuck up my nose. My mouth and the mouths of my family and my kids, right? Just to get across the border, here’s a picture of Earth. When we just arrived across the South Australian Border, having got through all the, you know, the the Army there, you know, that’s there to stop victorians getting across, we managed to get across and here’s a picture of my beautiful family for kids and my wife, I must have been, I looked at that picture and thought it looks like, I got five kids, they’re right. But Of them actually is my wife Leann and my four kids. Earlier this year, we went to, we went to manage to get on a plane and go on a holiday and I was up the front at the ticket booth and something had gone wrong and the man and I was there with Leann and the man said to me, looks at we’ve got a bit of a delay here.

5. 2:49

   Could you and your daughter? So, and stand aside, and we’ll get there soon. So that’s gratefully an right? Not so good for me. But we made it across here. And in challenging times, we’re all here together. And we’re going to be looking at this week. the man, Peter And he’s a great character, isn’t he?

6. 3:13

   Because as soon as you say the man, Peter we all picture in our mind of a man that we that we almost know already because he’s such a graphic and powerful character in The Bible and he be one of the most loved wouldn’t he in all the scripture? This man Peter, and I think one of the reasons why he is like that is because he’s so real. He’s such a real character, he’s a character that has these unbelievable triumphs in his life. These moments of great faith.

7. 3:48

   But he’s also a man that has moments of great doubt. And he has moments of Great Depression. And moments of great trial. But through all of those things, this man is able to work his way through those different aspects of his life and that I find so helpful because I can relate to it. So hopefully you’re going to be able to relate to some of the lessons that we take from Peter this week. The other thing that’s so great about looking at Peter is that it’s a study of Our Lord as well. And it’s nothing better than looking at our Lord because he’s he’s the master he’s the most amazing man that ever lived. And we’re going to watch our Lord as he works with this man, Peter To bring him to where he wants him to bring and that’s going to be a beautiful to watch and see as he works with that man.

8. 4:49

   And we’re going to look at predominantly the gospel record of Peter. We’re going to look at from tonight. He’s calling right through to John chapter 21 and then our last study will look a little bit at acts and then through into his into his letters a little bit and what we’ll find and we will look at his letters a little bit because The letters were written right at the end of his life. And they’re great because what they do is they give us a little commentary every now and again about some of the lessons that he learned and some of the things that he went through, he’ll refer back to in his letter years later. And he show us what he learned and some of the powerful messages that he’s Lord taught him. So let’s turn to John chapter 1 and let’s go back, 2000 years to this different world to ours.

9. 5:40

   And when I say different world, I mean different since different in time and Circumstance, but not really that different really when it comes to people because people really haven’t changed in that time. And in John chapter 1, we see a group of people Who are searching for something greater and better in life. This group of men, these group of disciples have been searching and their search has led.

10. 6:09

    It led them to this man named John this amazing Prophet who appeared in the land. And we see in John chapter 1, we see that John, the Baptist has come to the end of his particular teaching and in verse 36 it says and looking upon Jesus. This is John as he walked, he said, behold the lamb and what he was doing was he was pointing all these disciples that he’d been teaching on to Jesus Christ, who was going to take over from him who he was introducing, and verse 37 says, and the two disciples heard him speak. And they followed Jesus. so, these men who’d been following John, Obey the words of John.

11. 7:01

    And they see this man, Jesus walking. And they follow him. And begin to follow this man, Jesus. And verse 38 says and Jesus turned around as he saw these two men following. They probably followed for a little while and Jesus recognizes that they follow their following him and Jesus turns around to them and he says to them.

12. 7:26

    What are you seeking? What do you guys want? Why are you following me? What are you after? We’ll see these men were seeking something. And what they were seeking was they were seeking something greater in life and what that was was the Messiah. This savior that was going to come and they’d heard about this Messiah that was going to come and they were interested in it and they wanted to know more about him and this Pursuit that they went on had led them to this man, John, who had started preaching in this amazing way. And they started following him around the country, wherever he’d speak, to listen to what he had to say. And most importantly to listen to He had to say about the Messiah, this man that was going to come. They were actively pursuing this man and they were listening carefully to him.

13. 8:23

    Weren’t they you might have picked it up in verse 37. When John directed them to go to Jesus. They listen to what this man said because they daughter already recognize that the words of John were powerful and they had something in them and when he said, you need to start following this man, they listen to him.

14. 8:43

    And they followed him. And you know, look what else they were doing in their search. First 45 says, this and Philip, he was one of these men who was searching it says, Philip found Nathanael. And he said unto him, we found him, we found the Messiah. Of whom Moses and the law, and the prophets did, right? Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So their search was not just listening to John, but they’d been searching themselves in the Old Testament. Bible to find out about this Messiah. That gone back to Moses and then they’d gone through the prophets and they were trying to find everything. They could about this man to learn more about him to learn who he was.

15. 9:33

    And that is founded. And they’re seeking it. And Jesus says, what do you want? And I answer in verse 38, they said unto him Rabbi which is to say B, which is to say being interpreted Master. Where do you dwell? We want to know where you live, Jesus. Because we want to come and spend time with you. and we want to learn from you and find out from you more and more information about you And see brothers and sisters and young people.

16. 10:07

    This is how discipleship starts, and we’re going to be looking at this week, some lessons in discipleship and discipleship starts where these men, we find these men in an active Pursuit for Jesus Christ. These men were actively pursuing Jesus Christ. They were actively pursuing something different in life. And what they were doing was they were listening and they were searching and they were making sure they went to the right places to listen and hear and get what they need to hear. And if they have to travel all the way down to the bottom of Jordan, where John was preaching, they do it and now they’ve been directed to Jesus and they want to spend time with him.

17. 10:52

    Because he’s got this message. And that’s the same with us. if we want to find Jesus Christ, if we want to find the truth of his message, we’ve got to pursue it. And that Pursuit needs to be active. We can’t expect that one day. We’re just going to get like a lightning bolt out of the sky.

18. 11:14

    That’s going to struck Us in the head that suddenly going to make a spiritually motivated, understand everything about Jesus and about the kingdom because that’s not how it works. If we want to find out about Christ, if we want to find out something better and something greater, in this life, we’re going to pursue it. And that’s what Jesus said, didn’t he? he said, ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek.

19. 11:43

    And you shall find knock. And it shall be opened unto you. Each of those words are active words because that’s how Christ wants us to pursue him actively, and that’s what these men’s men are doing. They are pursuing him. And Jesus says, to him, in verse 39, very casually. I love the way that Jesus writes, this it, Says this, he says he said unto them come and see so Jesus doesn’t pressurize these men. He says just come and have a look. Come and see what I’ve got.

20. 12:16

    And these men go and verse 39, and they abide with him and dwell with him. And I was so impressed when they got into his house. And they started to listen to this man that they stayed the entire night verse 39 says, and John says, it was about the tenth hour, right? So, he remembered the very hour in which he came into that house. We remember things, don’t we that are really important to us or make a difference in our life. I can still remember this is a good one to get in early I can still remember the very moment.

21. 12:54

    I first saw my wife right. She was probably 15 years old Sun was shining just still remember the beauty, the Beauty and the glint in her eye. Well Jesus. These men remembered The very moment they met Christ for the first time. And I ended up staying the entire night with him and the very next morning.

22. 13:19

    It says these two men who were John and Andrew. These two men were so excited about what they’d found that they ran from that house as quickly as they possibly could. And verse 40 41 says that P, that’s Andrew. Went first to find his brother. And he says verse 41. He first found his own brother Simon and said unto him.

23. 13:45

    We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. We’ve found him says Andrew to his brother Peter, this man that we’ve been looking at the Messiah. He’s the one that we found now, their idea of who the Messiah was at this point was like a savior who was going to come see Israel at that time. Is under in, under oppression from the Romans. And they were desperate to find someone who could lead them out of that.

24. 14:18

    And so they’re concept at this stage of a messiah, was an amazing savior that was going to come and save them from the Roman, the Roman people. And so, Having told Peter Andrew, then brings Peter to Jesus Christ and we have their first meeting in verse 42. And he brought him to Jesus.

25. 14:48

    And when Jesus beheld him, He said Thou Art, Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called cephas. Which is in by, which is by interpretation a stone. So Andrew brings Peter to Jesus. And when Jesus sees Peter, he looks at him, and the word means that he stared deep into Peter. His eyes at this man. And what did he say?

26. 15:24

    Well, what he saw when he saw Peter and I’m sure you’ve already got a bit of a visual picture of what Peter looks like. But here’s some things about him that maybe will help to build that picture of what this man was. Like, when he saw him, he saw a man from bethsaida. Bethsaida was like a small little fishing Village on one side of On one side of the Sea of Galilee. And this man that the word bethsaida means House of fish. And Peter was a fisherman.

27. 15:58

    And he would have come from bethsaida and everyone from best, cider would have been a fisherman. His dad would have been a fisherman and his Grandpa would have been a fisherman and his Grandpa’s, Grandpa would have been a fisherman. They were from a long line of fishermen for Generations. And Peter was probably in his late 20s. Maybe early 30s a young man.

28. 16:19

    He’s absolute prime. He was big bright. He was a big man. He was a strong man. He was used to lifting huge Nets and pulling fish out of the sea in a huge catch. He had a beard. I imagine he had a beard. I’d be shocked if I get to the kingdom and he’s clean shaven right by imagining with a huge big beard, right? How do you face would have been lined with all of the the Either of the sea and he was at often at night working that working the Nets and fishing in his boat and he probably stunk of fish, probably the whole of bethsaida stunk of fish, right? And everyone would have known that. These were the fisherman from bethsaida and he was loud. He was outspoken, he was Brash.

29. 17:04

    We know that he had a very, very colorful tongue. And it comes out at times in the record, this man was was an in-your-face type character. He was emotional. He was a man that was fiercely loyal to anyone that he came to know and love, he was passionate about them. But he’s also lovable. He was the kind of man that when he came into the room, you knew about it.

30. 17:31

    You knew that Peter was there instantly? Because there was this this, this, this or about his character. That’s the man. Peter, that’s what he was like. And he also was looking for something greater than just this life. He was seeking something bigger and he saw it in the Messiah. This idea of the Messiah. Her man, he was going to come and save them from the Romans and he was interested to know who this man was and suddenly he’s got this man Jesus in front of him and he looked right through him and you know what?

31. 18:07

    He already knew him. He says there in verse 22, 42 and Jesus said unto him, Thou Art Simon Son of Jonah but you’re going to be called. Cephas which is in by interpretation. A stone would be pretty awkward wouldn’t. If that’s the first meeting you had with someone, and they looked you right in the eye.

32. 18:32

    And I said your name. and I said the name of your family, and I said, you’re going to be Peter, a rock. A stone. And what is a change of name usually made in the Bible? We know. Don’t we that Abram became Abraham? And Jacob became Israel. And God uses the idea of changing a name to show that someone’s character changes and they develop because he’s going to develop them.

33. 19:12

    And that’s what Jesus was going to do with this man. He was going to change him from Simon. To Peter. And Simon means hearing. And that’s actually, the means by which this man was going to be converted by listening to this, man, Jesus. And if he listened, Then Jesus was going to turn him into Peter and what is Peter mean, Peter means Rock.

34. 19:40

    Pray to means stable. Peter means confirmed, a man who knows where he’s going in life, has purpose has Direction. And that’s what Jesus was going to do to this man. And we can use his name. We can see the development of this man’s character through the record. By the way, the Bible uses his name sometimes is called Simon because Jesus is trying to tell Peter that he needs to listen.

35. 20:11

    Sometimes he’s called Simon Peter because that’s going to be a key moment is life where this man starts to grow towards discipleship. And then eventually he’s going to be called Peter. The Rock. Now, that process was not going to happen, quickly, like that. You notice what Jesus says he says that thou art Simon.

36. 20:34

    Son of Jonah. Thou shalt be Peter. You’re not Peter yet but you will be Peter. But you’re going to be taken on a process of discipleship to get there and it’s going to be an up-and-down process and we’re going to follow Peter as we go through that process sometimes High sometimes low, sometimes Simon sometimes Peter.

37. 20:58

    We’re going to watch that man, grow through this process of discipleship. And you know what? That’s what the cycle ship means, disciple, just means a learner. It just means someone who’s learning. And that’s what we’re all doing. At week, we’re all learning my son, Ethan, my oldest son, 16, he’s a learner, right? Because he’s learning to drive a car and sometimes we have good experiences, right?

38. 21:23

    And sometimes we have not so good experiences, right? But that’s how we learn. And that’s how this Peter was going to learn as well, and his life, brothers and sisters. Is a type for all of us in our discipleship. You’ll notice there that he was brought to Jesus, he’s the first person that was brought to Jesus.

39. 21:47

    And so, he becomes a type of all disciples who will come to Jesus, and we will see the process that Jesus will lead him through and take him through the ups and downs. The journeys, the things that he needs to learn other things that we need to learn. As disciples. And that’s how we grow as disciples.

40. 22:09

    We grow like this man does. Now we might think I’m not like Peter, I’m not like an outgoing guy, I’m not someone who’s allowed or Brash. All I’m going to colorful tongue, right? How am I going to be relating to be able to relate to this man, Peter, but God’s chosen, this man, Peter. This extraordinary character who has extraordinary things happen to us so that we can see in a graphic way. How we learn?

41. 22:35

    And hopefully, you can see yourself in that. And you can see the ups and downs that you will go on in life. To become a disciple. To become. Stable and firm and that’s what Peter was doing to this man. And you know what? Jesus and God look out at us all here tonight in the same way that they looked into Peters eyes and what do they see?

42. 23:03

    They see great potential. God knows you. He knows every one of you. He’s watched you as you’ve grown from a tiny baby. He knows your name and he knows the potential that you have to become one with him. And that’s what he wants to do. He wants you to take you through this process of discipleship. Now we’re going to very briefly tonight, look at the calling of this man, Peter and how he started on that journey of discipleship.

43. 23:34

    Now, I always thought right before I looked at this, that the disciples just Jesus walked past, he sort of clicked his fingers and suddenly there’s sciples were there. 12 of them? Ready to go already Bibles. Mark ready to go as disciples? But that’s actually not what happened. Paid, I like us went through a process to be called to Jesus.

44. 23:59

    And you know what? It took him over a year and three separate callings that we know of for this man, to actually commit to Christ. Even to commit to following him, And we’re a bit like that, aren’t we? It takes a while for us to and God wants us to do that. He wants us to understand him and know him before we completely commit to him. So the first one that we saw of the first calling Was here, right?

45. 24:25

    He’s a timeline, right will refer to this a few times in our studies together, but here’s a timeline of the tight life of Peter, the life of the ministry of Jesus and Peter, and it’s three and a half years. Isn’t it? Starts here at the baptism of Jesus, right? Where these men were introduced to Jesus and it goes 46 around six months and then there’s three years of the ministry of Christ. And then the pass over here, and these events here are all the events recorded in the scripture. That peda is involved in that or interacts that we know of, right.

46. 24:59

    And you’ll see John one Peters first calling is here but it’s a long time between the next calling of Peter right between 6 to 10 months before Jesus finds this man. Again, let’s go to Mark, chapter 1, where we find this man, Peter Again, and what has he been doing in that period of time will no doubt? He’d still been listening to Jesus, he would never forgot that first meeting with him and he would have continued to listen and find out about this man. But in might Mark chapter 1.

47. 25:34

    Jesus now comes definitively to Peter, to call him to the next stage of his discipleship stage. One of our discipleship is a searching, we’ve got to go out and search for the Lord, and then the Lord. To ask as he does in verse 16. And this is in Capernaum. Right. So this is where the most of what happens with Peter will go on this little area of the Sea of Galilee.

48. 26:05

    And here we are at the top in Capernaum and by this stage, Jesus is moved from Nazareth. And he is now residing in Capernaum and he comes in verse 16 to these men. Now, as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw, Simon and Andrew his brother casting. Being a net into the sea for they were Fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come Ye after me and I will make you to become Fishers of Men.

49. 26:40

    So Jesus, walks past the Sea of Galilee and he sees this man, Peter, who’s already got some kind of relationship with, and he goes up to him, and he’s a fisherman and he’s fishing by the Sea. And this is his identity to this point. He’s a Fisher, he’s a fisherman. He had a business card that identified him as a fisherman and he’s got a pretty successful business going, right?

50. 27:08

    A fishing startup business. We know that he’s got a partner in Andrew and John and James. They’re working with him in this business and we also know that the end of in verse 20 that he’s got hired servants. So it’s not a small business. He’s got other people that he’s working with. He’s got Zebedee. Who’s also working him with him in this business? Us.

51. 27:30

    And he’s got this growing fishing business and the Sea of Galilee had probably around. 200,000, people living around the Sea of Galilee at that time, it’s a lot of people, right? That’s a lot of people that needed fish and Peters business was growing, as a result of the population that lived there. So he’s probably making good money or had potential to make good money. And Peter, Jesus comes to Peter in verse 17 and says, I want you to come after me.

52. 28:31

    Not everyone here. But most of us here grow up, don’t we hearing about the message and knowing about it in Sunday school, but there will come a point in time as their came here for Peter where Jesus comes to him and says I need you to get more serious about this Peter. And I need you to stop to follow me.

53. 28:52

    To actually begin your journey with me and what I want you to be verse 17. He says he had, I’ve got a specific Purpose with you. He says, I want you to become Fishers of Men. So, my purpose with you is a completely different identity to your current identity. Your current identity is a fisherman, your career, dictates what you’re going to do, but I want something different for you. I’ve got a separate purpose for you. I no longer want your identity, your identity to be your job or your family, or your town, but I want you to start working for me.

54. 29:32

    And I want you to be a fisher of men. To pass on the message to other people. And this is ultimately where Jesus wants these men to get to. He wants them to become Fishers of Men. He is a verse from the very end of Matthew We’re here Jesus says to the disciples at the very end of their discipleship.

55. 30:00

    What they needed to go and do and he says go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that. I have commanded you. So that’s the purpose, the endpoint in which Jesus was bringing these men to be Fishers of Men and their word.

56. 30:25

    Transferable skills from what they had from their fishing, life to their life of discipleship. And the ultimate life of fishing for men, you’ll notice there in verse 16 and then that down in verse 19, that there’s two essential activities that are fishermen is involved in. He’s involved in catching fish, which is casting in there.

57. 30:52

    And he’s involved in mending Nets and that is all about making sure when he catches them that he keeps them. Right. That’s the to thing that a fisherman. Does he catches fish and he keeps fish. I remember when I first went out fishing with East, right? We caught and like, it was out of the blue, completely amazing. We caught this a massive amazing fish, it would no no joke. It was like this big, right?

58. 31:21

    But all we had there was like a bucket that was this big to hold it in. We didn’t expect that we were going to catch anything like this and we caught this enormous fish and we tried to put it in the bucket and the fish jumped out of the bucket. I remember me and eat both holding on to that fish. As the fish went out of their heads into the water gone because we didn’t have a net to keep it in. Because it was gone and we went back to the and said you’re never going to believe it and she never believed it, right? She never believed it.

59. 31:55

    But that’s what fishing involves involves catching fish and keeping fish. And that’s what Jesus was going to teach these fishermen about fishing for men and we’re going to see that as he goes on, Jesus is going to teach these men, how to catch men. And then once he’s caught, those men had to look after them in the meeting, two important parts of discipleship that we’re going to be taught to Peter.

60. 32:21

    Now, Peter after answering this call verse It says and straightway he forsook his Nets and followed him. He followed after Jesus and left his Nets behind the word, forsook means to let go. And the Nets, there are a symbol of his old identity, which he now for sakes. And he begins to follow Jesus more seriously, but that proved to be a struggle for Peter. It was, it was tough.

61. 32:56

    Look at verse 29. We find in verse 29 that after Peter has now begun to follow after Jesus. That perhaps in verse 29, what happens is that Pete? Jesus moves in with Peter It says in fourth with when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John and Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever and a non, they tell her off him.

62. 33:29

    So Jesus, perhaps comes to live with Peter here and he heals her his mother-in-law and Peter has a home, doesn’t he? And it seems he that he’s definitely going to wife. And he perhaps had kids and he’s also got his mother-in-law living with him. So he’s got a busy family that he now lives him and now he’s got he’s got the large responsibility of that house and looking after all those mouths that need feeding and he’s juggling that now with following after Jesus and the demands that that is bringing upon his life and Jesus the popularity of Jesus is growing enormously, and what happens is Jesus says to the disciples.

63. 34:13

    We need you to go, I need you to come with me. We’re going on to the next town. And verse 36 says, and Simon and they that were with him, followed after him and when they had found him they said unto him. All men are seeking after you paid out stops Jesus and says Jesus, you can’t go marks record says that.

64. 34:34

    He says I don’t want you to depart can’t you stay here with us in Capernaum. Do we really need to go on to the next town and verse 38? Is this and he said unto them. Let us go into the next towns that I may preach there. Also for therefore came I for therefore came I forth.

65. 34:57

    So Jesus says to these disciples and to Peter I need you to come with me. That’s why I’ve called you. I need you to come with me to the next town. But verse 39 says that he preached in their synagogues therefore all Galilean, cast out Devils so Peter didn’t go with him. Because he had too much responsibility at home, and he couldn’t leave and follow after and continue to follow after Jesus to the next towns.

66. 35:27

    So, G Peter is is juggling his personal responsibilities of his home life with now, following after Jesus. And then finally, we come to the last calling of Peter, in Luke Chapter 5. Let’s come there now,

67. 36:04

    Luke chapter 5 verse 1 says, and it came to pass that. As the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Janessa it. Here’s our timeline again. Peter’s second calling. And then Pete, Jesus comes probably to live with Jesus in Capernaum. And then Jesus leaves Peter in Capernaum and goes preaching through the next towns and then he returns to an area just near Capernaum and that’s where he gives The Sermon on the Mount.

68. 36:41

    And he’s just given The Sermon on the Mount just before Peters, third calling. And that’s of course, one of the most Famous sermons or speeches about Jesus ever gave. And then after that he preached, it comes here to call Peter for the third time. And it says there, that in verse one, people were pressing Upon Jesus to hear the word of God.

69. 37:03

    And that’s probably because he’s just given this amazing sermon about discipleship and people wanted to know what he had to say and they were pressing upon him. But Peter wasn’t listening. Peter was preoccupied and look what we find him in verse 2. It says and he saw two ships standing by the lake but the fishermen were gone out of them and they were washing their Nets.

70. 37:31

    So we find Peter here after he’s been called, he’s gone back to his fishing nets. And he’s back being a fisherman. Now. And he’s no longer following after Christ. He’s returned to his old way of life. And he’s washing the Nets. Now, if you washing the Nets, you’ve used the Nets. And you planning to use the Nets again.

71. 38:02

    And Peter was Fallen back into his old life. Those things are taken a priority over his life again. And I squeezed out, Jesus. From what he was doing. To the point now where he’s not even listening to Jesus. You’ve got this huge crowd of people that are excited about what Jesus is saying, and Peter is completely preoccupied with the job that he’s doing of fishing.

72. 38:32

    And don’t brothers and sisters. We all struggle with this. We struggle with the commitments and responsibilities and activities that we have in life that come upon us. And all of us are busy with all sorts of different things. All sorts of priorities, like school and career, and family, and our jobs, and all sorts of little things that come into our life and often, what can happen is those things.

73. 38:59

    Like with Peter have crept right into his life now until he can’t even listen to Jesus Anymore. And Jesus needs to teach him a lesson because what he needs Peter to do is he needs Peter to make this calling his number one purpose in life. And at the moment God is just one thing in this whole list of different things that he has going on his life. and Jesus wants him to put it, number one, And so in verse 3, it says and Jesus entered into his boat. See, Jesus keeps getting closer to this man Peter and now it says he entered right into Simon’s ship. And he’s going to teach this man. A lesson about priorities in his life. Where his priorities should be.

74. 39:59

    And Jesus might do that one day for us in our life. He might come to teach us a lesson about priorities and it might be an inconvenient lesson like it was here for Peter. I remember for myself when I was 18 years old, God came and taught me a lesson about priorities.

75. 40:25

    I was probably similar age to a lot of you here. And I remember, I just finished school. And I had all these plans about what I wanted to do with my life. I’d got into University and I had planned and I got into the university wanted to get into and I had all the plans about what I was going to do with that. And I had plans about what I want to do with my friends and I had plans about a girl.

76. 40:51

    And that girl lived in Adelaide. and so, when I finish school, I came straight across to Adelaide with the intention of getting that girl and then getting my, you need of each degree and getting my course and doing whatever I wanted to. But when I came over here, when I was 18, From Melbourne.

77. 41:16

    It didn’t work out with a girl. She wasn’t interested for whatever reason. And I remember after that, we went out like I was here with a couple of friends and the next day they said, oh, let’s let’s go and do something and, you know, forget about forget about the girl and just move on with life and we went down to Victor Harbor.

78. 41:39

    And when we were down there, we used to be able to hire these little nifty 50 motorbikes, right and we thought let’s just hire these little motorbikes for the day. I say we hide these motorbikes and we took them around everywhere all across Victor Harbor and we burned across all these different things. And we went to his car partners, gravel car park and we’re in the car park.

79. 42:01

    Not doing probably good things with the little nifty 50 bikes. Just right. You know, in the gravel and I was on one of these bikes and I was going fast on the gravel and I came out of that car park on the gravel and I came out onto the bitumen Road and as I came out onto the bitumen Road, Down was coming. I fell off the bike.

80. 42:22

    And the bike went down onto the ground and I was with it sliding on the ground. And a car came around the corner. And the car went right over the top of my bike. And destroyed the bike. and luckily, I was thrown clear. And I wasn’t hurt.

81. 42:49

    And I rushed from that moment all the way I it was my bus was leaving that night and I rushed from that place and I had blood all down my knees and I rushed rushed into the bus and I got into the bus and I was dirt going home in the bus. Thinking about all the things that happened that weekend.

82. 43:10

    Everything had gone completely wrong. And I had all these plans about what I was going to do and where I was going to go. And none of it happened.

83. 43:24

    But the next couple of months. I ended up doing something that I never thought that I would do. And I went to someone said to me, one of my friends said, why don’t you come to school of prophets and Adelaide? And I went to the school of prophets in Adelaide. And I loved it.

84. 43:45

    And it changed my life. And say, God taught me a lesson about priorities. And a few months, six months later. I was baptized after that.

85. 44:00

    And it completely probably changed the immediate course of my life. And Jesus here is going to come and teach Peter finally in here a lesson about priorities and he does it by coming and stepping into Peters ship.

86. 44:20

    And he says to him there in verse 4. Now when he had left speaking he said unto Simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for the dry up. So first of all, he commandeered Peters ship and he went out into the deep and he taught the people and Peter sat there in the boat and he had no choice. But to listen, did he?

87. 44:43

    He had no choice but to listen to Jesus. And perhaps Jesus was going over some of those things that he taught in The Sermon on the Mount. And then once he taught them he said to Peter, Peter I want you to go and take your ship out into the deep and catch fish.

88. 45:01

    Now look what Peter says Verse 5 and Simon answering said unto him Master. We’ve toiled all night, we’ve been out fishing all night and we’ve caught nothing. And you want us to go out there again and fish. Peter probably roll his eyes and he looked at this man, Jesus! He respected this man. And Jesus is a teacher, but I’m the fisherman. I’m the one that knows about fishing and I’ve been fishing all night and we’ve caught nothing. He was skeptical of the outcome and he’d been toiling all night. And this is half of Jupiter’s problem. Peters problem was he was trying to do everything. He was trying to work and do everything at night. And then he was trying to listen to Jesus during the day and he couldn’t do everything.

89. 45:46

    And you know what? Jesus had just been talking about this very thing in The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught in The Sermon on the Mount that you can’t turn to serve two masters. You can only serve one, you must prioritize Peter who you’re going to serve number two. He says, I want you to take no thought for tomorrow and he was saying, I don’t want you to use all your energy in life. to look after temporary things that you have in life, And then he said, I want you to consider the lilies.

90. 46:23

    They’re beautiful and they’re not out toiling every day. But God looks after them and then he summarized his see, this section on The Sermon, on the Mount. By saying this, I want you to seek first, the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you if you make the kingdom of God and God in your life.

91. 46:48

    The number one priority, then all the other things that you have in life that you worried about, I will look after That’s what Jesus said to Peter, Peter, I need you to make my calling and you’re calling the number one, priority above all else in your life. And if you do that, I will take care of the rest of these things.

92. 47:12

    Now, Peter struggle with that because Peter thought look, I’m impressed Jesus with your teaching and everything you’ve got to say, but do you really have power over all else in life? Do you have power over fish and all these other responsibilities that I have in my life? And Jesus says, I do. And he teaches Peter a lesson here. He says, in verse 5, nevertheless at Thy word, I will let down my net.

93. 47:44

    So, Peter says, look, I don’t know whether I can’t see what how it’s going to happen, but he reluctantly agrees and then verse 6, it says. And when they had thus done, He went out into the water. And they enclosed a great multitude of fishes. And their net break. So they went out into the water. And they throw out the Nets into the sea. And all of a sudden, the fish start to flow into those Nets. And Peter who was a seasoned fishermen. Had never seen anything like it.

94. 48:28

    Look at it says in verse 7 and they beckon under their Partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them and they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. So so many fish were they that Peter has to call his other ship is brother with it.

95. 48:49

    His friends in that ship and they come with their ship. And help to bring the fish into the other boat. and when Peter saw this, the power that Jesus had over these fish. It says he was astonished. and then verse 8, it says When Simon Peter saw it? He fell down at Jesus knees and said, depart from me for I am a sinful man.

96. 49:28

    That would Simon. Peter is an indication to us that this man was growing. And this was a key moment in his life. And when he saw it, this enormous catch of fish. He realized who Jesus was. And the power that he yielded. And he ran to Jesus. And he fell down on his knees. And he said, depart from me.

97. 49:59

    For I am a sinful, man. That word Lord. Means Supreme controller. Previously in verse 5, he called Jesus his master. But now he understood. That Jesus was more than that. He was his Lord. And he didn’t just have power over the spiritual world, but he has power over the natural world and everything associated with it. And Peter runs to Jesus ashamed.

98. 50:38

    That he had doubted that he’d been distracted. And he’s now ready to give his whole life to this man. And so Jesus says to these men and all the other disciples were the same, they came to give their life to Jesus verse 10, Jesus says to them. Sorry verse verse 10 and so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee which were partners with Simon and Jesus said unto Simon fear, not from henceforth.

99. 51:18

    Thou shalt catch fish. Jason said to pay that, I don’t want you to fear and what would Peter have feared? Well, he was fearing the challenge of his calling. It required a full commitment. It required him to give all and for Peter, that meant leaving his family. It meant leaving his job. It means that meant leaving his home for a period of time and that would have been a daunting experience, but Jesus is, I don’t want you to fear Because I’m with you. And then in verse 11, it says and they brought their ships to land. and they forsook all And followed him. Not last time.

100. 52:11

     G Peter had just forsaken his Nets. And then it quickly gone back to them. But this time Peter and the other disciples walked away from everything. And they were now ready to give Peter their first priority. They’re number one.

101. 52:35

     Now, this is the Cole. And the beginning of discipleship, that Jesus makes to all of us. He wants us to make him our number one priority in life. And we might think, well am I really expected to do what Peter did. And that is leave my family and my home and my career and everything that I’ve got.

102. 53:00

     To give my whole life to Jesus. And of course, all of our callings are different. And Peter was cold to that unique task for a couple of years. And our callings are not all exactly the same, but what our callings are is they are callings to make Jesus our number one priority in life. And that may take time like it did for Peter But ultimately that’s what God wants us to do.

103. 53:32

     He wants us to seek first, the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. He wants that pursuit to be number one. He wants us. To see him as our Lord. And that’s challenge today, isn’t it? I find that challenging because we live in a world that provides us with so many options, so many things to do so many options in our career or our schooling, or our life. And so, what we find ourselves or what I find myself doing sometimes is my life is like a giant list and I have all these things and one of those things on that list is God and I do my job and then I have my, my family and then I have God and then I have all these other priorities and I just cycle through those priorities depending on what’s going on in my life.

104. 54:27

     And I’ll give a certain period of time to God for a certain time and then I go back to my job and my family. But God says, that’s not what I want you to do. I want you to seek first, the kingdom of God as your number one priority. I want that to be above your list and everything else. Connect into that.

105. 54:48

     And the lesson that Peter was taught in that miraculous Hall of fishes. Was that if you do that, Peter, I will look after you, I will care for you and I will provide for all of your needs. The amazing thing about that story that I told you about the scooter and what happened to me.

106. 55:09

     And God directly. My priorities, is that six months later, that girl that I went over to Adelaide to get Came back to me. And she’s now my wife. And I have a beautiful beautiful family with her. But God works in our life in that way and he worked in my life to direct my priorities to him and the lesson that he taught me was if you do that and you prioritize me above all else, I will take care of your life.

107. 55:46

     And the things that you need in it, now I’m not telling you and I think God’s telling you that you’re going to. If you follow him, you’re going to get the girl of your dreams or some girls going to fall. Come after you. But what God does teach us. is if we make him number one, he will look after us. Now, this was a key moment in the life of Peter. He was at a massive Crossroads in his life, as we will come to Crossroads in our lives Forks in the road where we’re going to make the decision about where we’re going to go. And Peter could have made the decision that I can see. You’re calling their Jesus, but I’ve got an awesome business here and fishing business that I’m going to pursue. And he could have made the Lord of his life, his fishing business and he could have built a whole Fleet of fishing boats. He could have built five or ten or a hundred boats and he could have been renowned in the All of the area has the greatest feature of fish that’s ever existed in Galilee and at the end of his life, they would have built a jetty for him. And they would have had a plaque at the end of that Jetty, that said, Peter the Great Fisher of fish. And he would have died.

108. 56:59

     And he would have disappeared. And we would never ever, ever have heard of him of gain. But that fork in the road Peter chose to do something different and he said I’m going to make the Lord Of My Life. Jesus Christ. And I’m going to follow him. And when he did pursue that path, he was going to become one of the greatest Fishers of Men that the world has ever seen and were here tonight as witnesses to that. Because that’s what he did.

109. 57:34

     And if it wasn’t for Peter, we wouldn’t be here. Now, that’s Jesus challenge to us all. So, he walked past our life as he walked past Peters on the Sea of Galilee. Any presents us with an invitation? And that invitation is come and follow me. I know it’s daunting. I know there’s so many other things that you could do in life, but trust me. Put your hand in mine.

110. 58:06

     And come and follow me. Three steps. We’ve looked at tonight to answering God’s call. The first one is our Pursuit for Christ needs to be active. If we want to find out about Christ, we’ve got to pursue him actively like those disciples did put ourselves in the right spots search and find out who he is.

111. 58:34

     We then need to begin to follow him. To actively try and live out his life in our life. And finally, we then need to prioritize him above all other things that we have in life.