"Fishing
Season” By Tom Hanson June 13th,
2010 Luke
4:43
…I
must preach the
When
Jesus first started out, He was by Himself.
He came to John the Baptist to be baptized when he
was age thirty. Baptism
is where we start, it is our
authorization. He
was not too big to
fulfill all righteousness. He
went on to
perform many miracles. He
preached the
Gospel in Proverbs 11:30 …He that winneth souls is wise…
This
is what we need to be about: winning
souls. Luke 5:1-11 …Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.…
Jesus had a
fame about Him. Already,
many people
knew who He was, and they were coming to hear Him teach. Some of you have a fame;
you have a testimony,
but you don’t really know how to handle that.
Let God use it.
Obedience and
humility are necessary; just as Jesus obeyed and humbled Himself to be
baptized
by a man that had committed sin, even though Jesus hadn’t, so we should
be
obedient to God. Luke 5:3 …And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Are we
cleaning out our vessels? Do
you have
that kind of heart? Jesus
wants to sit
down in your vessel; make room for Him.
He’s not done teaching, He’s still teaching from
your vessel. Luke 5:4 …let down your nets for a draught.
When you
are worshipping, singing, praying, catching a haul, God says, “Do it
for me,
and I will bless it.” Luke 5:5 …we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing…
To toil
means to work. These
men have been
working all night, and have nothing to show for it.
Simon Peter knew who he was talking to,
though, so he let down the nets again.
I
went ice-fishing with Brent Havisto last winter, and I would have been
perfectly happy to sit around a hole in the ice and share about the
goodness of
God, but Brent is a fisherman, and he wanted to catch some fish. He had this device that
showed where the fish
were, and he was trying to show me, “See?
That’s where the fish are!” and he was all excited,
but, I was thinking,
“They’re just bluegill, basically glorified goldfish.”
Brent is the type of person, though, he
doesn’t like to put that much effort into something without
accomplishing
anything. I’m sure
that’s the way that
these fishermen in the Bible felt. Luke 5:5 …nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
Simon Peter
was beginning to turn, now. He
doesn’t
see any point to it, but, because of Who told him to, he’ll do it. Because of this, he got a
great triumph, a
victory. If we are
as obedient, God can
move through a lot of lives. Luke 5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship…
If
you look up the word ‘communion’ in the dictionary, the first thing it
says is
partnership. We are
partners with Jesus,
which is not at all to say that we are equals with Jesus, but, if we
allow Him
to lead our lives, then we have a working relationship.
Simon Peter had partners.
He had a nucleus about him, and those people
turned out to be Peter’s ministers.
There are people that you work with that need the
same thing. Ministry
is happening. You
came to church; the fish are coming
in. Jesus is
changing lives. Luke 5:8 …Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
Peter
recognized his own sin, and he was honest about it.
We all have sin.
1
John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and
the truth is not in us.” Luke 5:9 For he was astonished...
There
are two meanings for the word translated as ‘astonished,’ περιέχω. One of them is, “to hold
all around,
i.e. include, clasp.”
So these
men are locking arms. Sometimes
we need
to lock our arms in ministry and stand together just to face what we
have to
face. Luke 5:10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee…
James
and John would later on become known as the sons
of thunder. They
were Simon’s
partners. Also, in
this verse, it shows
that Jesus recognized who the leader of these men was.
You notice that he spoke to Simon.
The Word of the Lord shall not return void. All of these men walked
away from their jobs,
forsaking everything, and followed Jesus.
Jesus came in and changed their lives. What does it take to fish today?
First,
you have to get a license. Matthew 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them… This was after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He’s telling them that they can’t just stay in one spot. Acts
2:38
Then Peter said unto
them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you… Peter knew who that name was. Three thousand people got baptized that day; they got their license. You need to be baptized to have the blood applied to your life, to put on Christ. The license is spiritual: save yourself first, and then you can share with others. Second, you
need
fishermen. There’s
a lot of on-the-job
training for this. You
have to get your
feet wet and just get out there and fish.
Just minister and work with people.
The word, ‘evangelist’ simply means a preacher of
the Gospel. The
first person referred to as an evangelist
was Philip, but Philip didn’t have any special training. Third, you need water. John
4:10-14 …a well of water springing up into
eternal life… Nobody knows water like a fish. Some people have been swimming around in religious waters that are polluted. Some people are just swimming around in bad water, and they know it. Some people are swimming in water that just isn’t what it used to be. Bring them the water of life through your testimony. Sometimes it’s a battle, but we have to keep fighting, and, if necessary, get back up and keep fighting. What are we fighting for? Luke
4:18
The
Spirit of the Lord is upon
me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath
sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised,
There are poor around you, even if not economically poor, there are emotionally poor, or people that are poor in confidence. Try to fix someone’s broken heart; you can’t, but God can, if you bring them to Him. Some people are captives to the prison of sin; shame and guilt stops them cold. Some people are spiritually blind or bruised. These are the fish we’re looking for. We, as a church, are a hospital for sinners, not a lounge for Christians. Galatians
3:27
For as many of you as have
been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Not everyone is looking for Jesus based on the Word of God. On that TV show, “Deadliest Catch,” they go to the farthest reaches, and into the most dangerous waters, to catch the most valuable fish. Every soul is valuable to God. We’re catching trophy souls for Jesus. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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