The Calling of Peter

Good morning, my name's Tommy.

I'm the rector of Church of the Advent.

So on behalf of our church, welcome.

Especially if you're joining us for the first time,

welcome to you.

I have heard reports from the women's retreat

that's currently underway.

I think many of our, some have come back,

but many are still there.

But I've just heard rave reports,

just incredible times spent in the Psalms,

incredible times of prayer and fellowship.

So we should just give thanks for that,

be praying for them as they make their way

back today, but I think it's just been

an extraordinary time.

My wife is there.

She just said it was fantastic.

So next time there's an opportunity,

if you didn't go this year,

I strongly encourage you to go

the next time there is an opportunity.

Once we go beyond the essentials,

like food, water, shelter,

there's a growing consensus

that perhaps our greatest need as human beings

is the need for meaning.

The need for purpose.

Viktor Frankl famously discovered this

in his experiences in a concentration camp

during the Holocaust.

He discovered that the thing that made the difference,

the thing that determined whether or not

people could endure the horrors of the concentration camp

was whether or not they were able to find meaning.

Was there something that gave their life meaning

in the midst of that meaningless suffering?

Carl Jung, not a Christian,

discovered something similar.

He famously wrote that out of the hundreds of patients,

adult patients he treated,

he says every single one of them

had problems stemming from the fact

that they had lost what he called

a religious outlook on life.

And by that he means

they had lost any sense of greater meaning

or purpose.

He said every single patient

had problems stemming from that

and every single patient required a solution

that included recovering

that sense of meaning in life.

The point is this,

if we want to be resilient,

if we want to psychologically

and emotionally thrive and flourish,

we need a sense of meaning.

We need something to aim our lives at,

something bigger than ourselves.

Now, of course, people find meaning

in all kinds of things,

in social causes, in politics,

family, kids.

But the reason that we have this longing for meaning,

the underlying reason,

is because God created us

with a purpose in mind.

And our problem as human beings

is that we have become disconnected

from God's purposes for our lives.

All of that leads us to the account

that we're looking at this morning

in Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Because when we see a conversion story

in the Bible,

like the one we see here in Luke chapter 5,

Luke 5 · chapter mention

we need to understand

that this is about much more

than just someone adopting a new belief system

or a new way of life.

It's about much more

than someone simply getting saved individually.

This is what it looks like

when someone regains their sense of purpose.

It looks like,

this is what it looks like

when someone is reconnected

to their God-given purpose.

This is a story of a normal,

sinful human being

who gets swept up

into the great unfolding story

of God's renewal of all things.

And the New Testament writers

include stories like this

in their accounts

partly to show us

what is possible

for people like us.

So we're gonna look at this account

this morning

and we're gonna focus on

aspects of this experience,

this encounter,

that would apply

to anyone in this room.

Four aspects of Peter's call

that would apply

to every single person

in this room.

So let's pray

and ask God to help us

as we seek to understand his word.

Lord, we thank you for your word

and we thank you

that we're not just dealing

with human wisdom here.

We're not just looking

at good advice.

These are the words

of the living God.

These are words

that you as our creator

speak to us

and that because of your Holy Spirit,

through your son Jesus Christ,

Lord,

these words have the ability

to recreate us,

to remake us

and renew us

from the inside out

and to bring us face to face

with the living word,

Jesus Christ.

That's what we need

this morning, Lord.

We pray that by your spirit

it would happen.

In Jesus' name,

amen.

So the first thing

that I want us to notice

as we look at this encounter

between Jesus and Peter

is this.

Now this is a quick point,

but I think it's

an extremely important one.

This is not Peter's

first encounter with Jesus.

It's easy to miss that

because what you have to do

is you have to line up

the chronology

between the four gospels,

between the synoptic gospels

and the gospel of John.

And when you line them up,

you realize that actually

Jesus and Peter

met a year earlier.

We read about that

in chapter one

of John's gospel.

Peter's brother Andrew

gets to spend

a full day with Jesus.

At the end of that day,

he's freaking out.

He's like,

I've never met anybody

like this.

And he runs

and he finds his brother,

Peter,

who's at this time

going by the name Simon.

And he says,

Simon, you got to come

meet this guy.

He's going to change your life.

And he brings Peter

to meet Jesus.

And when Jesus sees him,

he says,

you are Simon,

son of John.

You shall,

and then he says,

from now on,

you shall be called Cephas,

which means Peter,

rock, right?

He renames him.

And at that encounter,

it's very clear

that Jesus is speaking

prophetically

about Peter's future

as a leader

among the apostles.

apostles.

And there's clearly

an invitation

to follow him there.

But from everything

that we know,

Peter doesn't respond

right away.

And a full year passes.

And then Jesus

comes back into town.

He goes to Simon Peter's

mother-in-law's house.

She's sick.

He heals her.

And then he comes down

to the shore

where Peter

has just wrapped up

a long,

fruitless night

of fishing.

encounters him

once again.

And then he gets

into his boat.

Right?

A year has passed.

So it's no coincidence

that it's Peter's boat

that Jesus gets into.

Jesus is pursuing Peter.

He's gently,

graciously

pursuing him.

And so the first thing

that we want to notice

about Peter's call

is this,

is that when someone

comes to faith in Jesus,

when someone is converted,

as we say,

that is always

a response

to God's gracious pursuit.

It is always

a response

to God's gracious pursuit.

What we need

to understand is

even though Peter

commits to following

Jesus here,

he leaves everything

to follow him.

If you look down

the road in Peter's life

to Jesus' crucifixion,

Peter abandons him

once more.

He abandons him

once more.

He goes back

to his old life.

He denies knowing him.

But even then,

Jesus doesn't give up

on Peter.

He appears after his resurrection

on the beach

after another long,

fruitless night

of fishing

and catching nothing.

And then Jesus does what?

He reenacts

the exact same miracle.

The parallels

are striking.

And he forgives Peter

and he reinstates him

as an apostle.

So here's what this means

and why it's so important.

I think this gives

tremendous hope,

at least to people like me

and maybe people like you.

Some people have

dramatic conversion stories

like Paul on the road

to Damascus

where Jesus appears,

blinding, flashing light.

Entire life changes

in a moment.

And if you have had

that kind of experience

and I know people who have,

then praise God.

That is amazing for you.

But quite honestly,

that has not been my experience.

My own journey

has been a bit of a mess

to be totally honest.

It's been a lot of switchbacks,

a lot of curves,

a lot of fits and starts.

I grew up

and as a young child,

I considered myself a Christian,

was baptized at age 12,

but then I walked away

from the faith.

I lived and called myself

an agnostic

all through high school,

all through college.

Then I came back to faith.

God brought me back to faith

in a very powerful way.

But even since then,

you know,

I've had times

where God felt

unbearably real and close

and I've had long periods

of doubt,

dark nights of the soul

as we call them,

where frankly,

I had times

where I wasn't sure

what I believed.

Now I'm a priest.

I can't imagine

doing anything else

with my life.

I love what I do.

But as I look back,

no matter how far

I drifted,

no matter how many doubts

crept in,

no matter how much

I struggled

to figure out

what I believed

in the face of something

that I had experienced,

Jesus was always there.

He was always with me.

He has always pursued me

and he has always

called me back

to himself.

And here's the point

I want to make.

Unlike other religions

and philosophies,

our hope as Christians

doesn't rest

in the strength

of our commitment

to Jesus.

All of our hope

rests in his

unwavering commitment

to us.

Right?

So if you're here

and you're not a Christian,

like it or not,

Jesus is pursuing you.

If you're here

and you were a Christian

but you're leaving the faith,

you're deconstructing,

you're not sure

what you believe,

you're in a period

of doubt,

a dark night of the soul,

Jesus is pursuing.

And he will not give up.

Even if you've rejected him,

he's not going to reject you.

Even if you've given up on him,

he's never going to give up

on you.

He's going to continue pursuing.

Anytime somebody comes

to faith in Jesus,

it's a response

to God's gracious pursuit

of us.

That's the first thing

we want to see here.

The second thing

we see in this account

flows out of that.

At some point,

a response from us

is called forth.

Verse one tells us

that the reason Jesus

gets into the boat

to teach

is because people

are pressing in

all around him.

They want to hear his words.

Imagine he's down

on the shore of the lake

and people are pushing in

so much

that he's starting

to get into the water.

There's no room

to stand on the shore

because everybody

wants to hear.

There's no microphones

back then

and everybody wants

to hear what he's saying.

And so,

for very practical reasons,

he gets into the boat

and turns it into

a floating pulpit,

goes out in the lake

so he can teach

from the lake.

But what we see

in these crowds

is interesting here.

These crowds

kind of represent,

these are people

who are curious,

these are people,

they've heard things

that Jesus has done,

they're wanting

to see for themselves.

But we know

the context

if you look

at the broader story

and we know

that these crowds

are very fickle.

And as soon

as Jesus begins

to say things

that they don't

want to hear,

many of them

are going to leave

and turn on him.

So after Jesus

is done teaching,

he turns to Peter

and he wants to know

what is Peter's response

to my word going to be?

So he tells Peter,

put out into the deep

and let down your nets

for a catch.

Now this is daytime.

Everybody who knew

anything about fishing

knew that nighttime

was the best time

to catch fish.

By this time,

Peter is discouraged,

he's exhausted,

he's been out fishing

all night,

he's not caught

a single fish.

Now I'll tell you this,

I love to fish.

I'm not good at fishing,

but I love it.

I love going out there,

I love throwing a line

in the water.

But I can tell you this,

if you ever encounter

someone who has been

fishing for hours

and caught nothing,

the absolute worst thing

that you can do

is to offer them

unsolicited advice

about how to catch a fish.

The worst thing you can do,

especially if you're talking

to a career fisherman

and you're not

a career fisherman,

right?

You're a carpenter,

you're a rabbi,

you're not a fisherman.

So Jesus offers

this unsolicited advice

and based on everything

Peter knows

as a career fisherman,

Jesus' request

makes absolutely no sense.

It's the worst time

to catch a fish

and you want me

to go out

in the deepest part

of the lake

and drop my net

down there.

These are heavy nets,

at least 100 feet long,

super heavy.

This is backbreaking work.

This makes no sense.

You know,

in fishing,

there's the 90-10 rule,

right?

90% of the feeding fish

are in 10% of the water,

meaning most of the water

out there is empty.

There are no fish.

And Jesus is like,

go right there.

Makes no sense.

But look what Peter says.

He says,

Master,

we toiled all night long

and took nothing.

But,

at your word,

I'll let down the nets.

And then end up

catching more fish

than they can possibly handle.

Takes multiple boats.

See,

there comes a time

when if you want

to grow in your faith,

if you want to go beyond

what you see in the crowds,

this kind of fickle interest

in Jesus' words,

this noncommittal,

fair-weather faith,

you have to recognize

that the words of Jesus

are not simply advice.

They're not just food for thought

to go into the hopper

along with all of the other

input we get

about how to live our lives.

You have to begin to recognize

these are the words

of the one who made us,

the author of history,

the one who knows

infinitely more than we do

about what we need.

And so there comes a point

when you have to decide,

am I willing to say yes

to Jesus

even when it doesn't

make sense to me?

Even when what he's asking me

to do

doesn't make sense

from my perspective at all?

Even when it's inconvenient,

even when it's costly.

Am I willing to say yes anyway?

Now,

that can look a lot

of different ways.

Maybe it means

you forgive somebody

who has not asked

for your forgiveness

simply because Jesus says,

I've forgiven you

and I want you to go

and do the same.

Doesn't make sense,

but Jesus,

if you only knew

what they did to me.

But you do it.

You say,

at your word,

I will forgive.

You know,

maybe it means

giving money to somebody

who needs help

when it puts you

at greater financial risk

simply because Jesus

calls us to do that.

You know,

we were talking this morning

in our adult Sunday school class

about the fact

that there are people

in our community

who are gay

and because of their

relationship with Jesus

have committed themselves

to living a celibate life.

And we were talking about this

and we were saying,

you know,

in the eyes of the world,

that doesn't make sense at all.

It sounds crazy.

And it's incredibly costly.

But you know,

a person who has made that kind of,

said that kind of yes to Jesus,

quite frankly,

knows a heck of a lot more

about what it means

to follow and trust Jesus

than most pastors.

Now sometimes,

saying yes to Jesus,

that leads to immediate blessing.

Right?

You say yes to Jesus

and immediately you get

the big catch of fish.

Many times though,

it's not so easy.

Many times that blessing

that comes from saying yes to Jesus,

it doesn't come for a long time.

In some cases,

it may not come in this lifetime.

But if you have never said yes to Jesus,

even when it didn't make sense,

if you look back on your time

as a Christian,

for those of you who are Christians,

and there was never a point

where you said yes,

not because it also aligned

with what you wanted to do,

but you simply said yes,

even though you didn't

understand the command.

If you've never experienced that,

then I guarantee you

have never experienced

that kind of profound peace

that comes from letting go

of our attempts to control

what we can't control

and handing our lives over

to the one we can trust.

Right?

Even better than ourselves

to know what we need.

There's a peace that comes

with stopping the attempts

to control the uncontrollable

that can only be found

when you say yes to him.

So following Jesus

is a response

to God's gracious,

gentle pursuit of us.

And it means saying yes

even in the cases

where it doesn't make sense

to say yes.

And then along with this,

the third thing that we see

in Peter's journey

is that as we get

into relationship with Jesus,

as we follow Jesus,

part of the journey

means a growing awareness of sin.

You know, Peter says yes to Jesus.

He ends up catching more fish

than he's ever caught in his life.

And his reaction is fascinating.

See, I would be jumping up and down,

cheering, yelling,

taking a bunch of pictures,

telling everybody I know.

That's what you think

he'd be doing,

but he's terrified.

He falls to his knees

and he says,

depart from me

for I'm a sinful man,

oh Lord.

This is the same reaction,

by the way,

that we see in the Old Testament reading.

If you remember

a little while ago,

we read about Gideon

when he sees a manifestation of God

and he recognizes

that this isn't just a prophet,

this is actually

a manifestation of God's presence.

His response is to say,

alas, oh Lord God,

for now I have seen

the angel of the Lord face to face.

He's terrified.

He thinks he's gonna die.

And God responds,

peace, you're not gonna die.

Think of the prophet Isaiah,

same thing.

Isaiah sees God

and then cries out,

woe is me

for I'm lost,

for I'm a man of unclean lips

and I dwell in the midst

of a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King,

the Lord of hosts.

He thinks he's gonna die.

The point is this,

the holiness of God

illuminates

the truth about our sin.

In the presence

of that kind of holiness,

everything about us

is exposed.

and that is terrifying.

It's terrifying

to be in the presence

of a holy God.

Peter realizes

he's in the presence

of someone far,

far beyond

a mere human

and he's terrified.

Only God

has that kind of authority

over nature.

The holiness of God

illuminates the truth

about our sin,

which means

the more we grow

in our relationship

with Jesus,

the more clearly

we see his holiness,

the more clearly

we see our sin.

See, it goes together.

The more you see the holiness,

the more you see

your own sin.

And what you begin

to realize is that sin

is a lot like an onion.

When you become aware

of sin in your life,

you become aware

of some way

that you're rebelling

against God,

then ideally

if you're a Christian,

you repent.

You turn away from it.

You give it up

and you embrace

the grace of Jesus.

So ideally,

that's how you respond.

When you do that,

you're peeling back

a layer of the onion.

But in time,

the holiness of Jesus

begins to expose

the fact that

there's more sin

underneath.

There's another

deeper layer.

And that's where

you need to go.

And there's more

repenting that's required.

So I'll give you

an example,

not from our church,

from some other church.

Here's an example

from another church.

A guy who,

not a Christian,

but friends with some people

who go to the church.

And he's kind of known

as a player,

womanizer.

He has this pattern

of pursuing,

flirting,

giving lots of attention

to a woman.

Then he physically

hooks up with her.

And then once that happens,

he ghosts her.

And he moves on.

And he has a pretty

bad reputation

for this kind of behavior.

Then this guy

comes to faith.

And almost immediately,

he repents

of all of that behavior.

I shouldn't have been

treating women that way.

I shouldn't have been

doing that.

And he repents of it.

So all the hooking up,

all the sexual stuff,

he repents of all of that.

And he gets really involved

in the church.

He gets really involved

in the ministries

of the church.

Gets really involved,

dives fully in,

joins a small group.

But then over time,

people in the church

begin to realize,

people who are friends

with this guy

begin to realize,

you know,

he's given up

all the sexual stuff.

He's given up

all the hooking up

and all that's gone

now that he's a Christian.

But they start to notice

that every time

this guy gets into a group,

whether it's a ministry team

or a small group,

he always has to dominate.

He talks the most.

He always has the answers.

Right?

He always wants to be the one

to come up with a plan.

He tries to force himself

into leadership

at every opportunity.

And these people

begin to realize,

you know,

it was never really

about the sex

and the hooking up.

Under that,

there was an idolatry

of power and control.

Right?

You peel back one layer,

but underneath,

you realize,

all that behavior

with women,

it was about conquest.

It was about control.

And you begin to realize,

this guy has a deeper layer.

He peeled away

an outer layer,

but there's a deeper

idolatry of power

that needs to be torn down.

It needs to be torn out.

Now,

that kind of thing

is true for all of us.

The specifics differ.

The idols differ.

The behaviors differ.

But that kind of thing,

the layer

that you peel back

and you see a deeper layer

and you peel that back

and you see a deeper layer,

that dynamic is true

of every human being.

So the more we follow Jesus,

which means seeing more

of his holiness

and more of our sin,

the more we have to peel back

the layers

and go deeper and deeper

into the reality of our sin.

This is why the great

Frederica Matthews Green,

Eastern Orthodox

spiritual leader,

says this,

the first time Jesus appears

in the first gospel,

the first instruction

he gives is repent.

From then on,

it's his most consistent message.

In all times

and every situation,

his advice is to repent.

Not just the scribes

and Pharisees,

not just the powerful,

he tells even the poor

and oppressed

that repentance

is the key

to eternal life.

The more we see

the holiness of Christ,

the more we see

our own sin.

The more we see

our own sin,

the more we repent.

And that means

we experience

more and more

of the grace of Christ.

Right?

That's how we grow.

We see sin,

we repent,

we experience grace.

And then it goes deeper

and deeper and deeper.

And guess what?

The grace goes deeper

and deeper and deeper

as well.

So mature Christians

who have been at this

for a long time

are eager to repent

because there is nothing

like that experience

of grace

on the other side

of repentance.

So we see

that this is a response.

Peter is responding

to God's gracious pursuit.

Peter reaches a point

in his relationship

with Jesus

where he's willing

to say yes

even when it doesn't

make sense.

And then in the presence

of the holiness

of Jesus,

he grows in his awareness

of sin

which prepares him

to be a recipient

of grace.

Jesus responds

with tremendous grace.

And in Jesus' response,

he doesn't just

forgive him,

say peace,

say don't be afraid.

We see the fourth thing.

Jesus then gives him

an entirely new understanding

of his purpose in life.

What we might call

a kingdom-centered vocation.

A kingdom-centered vocation.

See, this encounter

ends with Jesus saying

do not be afraid.

From now on,

you will be catching men.

Or he literally says

you will be catching

people alive.

You will be catching lives.

And Peter, James, and John

leave everything

and follow him.

And we need to be

really careful here

that we don't miss

the meaning

of what's happening here.

This doesn't mean

that when you become

a follower of Jesus,

you have to leave

your career behind

and go become

a full-time missionary.

Now, some people

read it that way.

But there's nothing

in the Bible,

I would say,

that suggests

that that would be

normative for Christians.

Certainly, all Christians

are called to share

the gospel, right?

But I don't think

this is about

leaving our career behind.

I think this is a challenge

and it challenges us

to rethink

our own vocations

in light of the kingdom.

Jesus says,

I'm here.

I am the kingdom of God.

Come.

I'm breaking into this world.

And as a result,

your job,

your role,

your vocation

is going to be transformed.

It's going to be expanded.

It's going to be deepened.

You're going to get hitched

to something

so much bigger than yourself

that you're going to have

to entirely reimagine

your vocation

in light of the kingdom.

That's what's happening here.

You know,

God had created

and gifted Peter

to be a fisherman.

But Jesus challenges him

to go beyond

simply focusing on fish.

How can your gifts

and talents

and abilities

be used in service

of the kingdom of God?

You know,

I had lunch with someone

just this week

in our church.

This is a person

who's gifted

and wired

to create

and implement systems.

A person who's really good

at setting goals

and then leading teams

of people

to accomplish

those goals.

He's done this

professionally for years.

Now he's asking

this amazing question,

what would it look like

for me to use

these gifts

and talents

and abilities

to put them to use

creating systems

that will help

our church

become more effective

in our mercy ministry

once we move to Shaw?

Right?

That's a wonderful

question to ask.

God has given me

this vocation.

What does it look like

to think of this vocation

in light of the kingdom

and what God is doing

here in the city?

We all have

a God-given vocation.

Whether or not

you have a job,

paying job,

or a career,

you have a vocation.

You know,

you have a particular way

that God has wired

and gifted you

to serve in this world

simply by virtue

of the fact

that you're a human being.

For most of us,

I would say

that leaving everything

to follow Jesus

doesn't mean

quitting our jobs.

It means,

here's the leave everything part,

it means you no longer

focus only on

financial security

or status

or achievement

as the goal.

it means

that you begin

to aim higher than that.

It means

that you begin

to see your vocation

as a way to serve

and bring glory to Jesus,

a way to put

the gospel on display.

You know,

this is what

the apostle Paul

is talking about

in Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Whatever you do,

work heartily.

Ask for the Lord

and not for men.

Knowing that from the Lord

you will receive

the inheritance

as your reward.

You are serving

the Lord Christ.

And listen,

I know some of you

really need to hear this.

Some of you

have struggled

with unemployment.

You're looking

for a job right now.

And if you don't have a job,

especially in a place

like D.C.,

you can feel like

your whole life

lacks meaning.

You know,

regardless of your politics

on what's happening

right now

in the federal government,

I know a lot of you

work for the federal government.

And I know some of you

have either lost your jobs

or you're worried

about losing your job.

And I know that some of you

have received communications

that are calling into question

the legitimacy

of your vocation.

Right?

Some of you

are weathering people

who are asking,

questioning whether or not

what you've given your life to

has any meaning

or value whatsoever.

And when that happens,

regardless of the circumstances,

when somebody questions

your vocation,

right?

Somebody,

people move to D.C.

and work for Peanuts

because they want to feel

like they're making a difference.

And when somebody

comes along and says,

I don't see any value

or worth in anything

that you've given your life to,

that is extremely wounding.

Right?

So for anyone here

who for any reason

doubts the value

of the work that you do,

the value of your vocation,

I want you to know this.

God sees everything that you do.

God sees everything that you do.

And God delights

in seeing people do

what he created them to do.

He delights in that.

He delights in that.

And by the way,

his opinion is the only one

that really matters.

So this is what it looks like,

friends,

when someone,

a normal,

sinful human being,

gets caught up

in the great unfolding story

of God's renewal.

It means recognizing

that Christ is pursuing us

even now,

no matter where you are

in your faith.

It means at some point

there has to be a willingness

to obey Christ

even when it doesn't make sense.

It means a growing awareness

of sin,

which is the hard part,

but that also leads

to greater experiences

of grace.

There's nothing like it.

And then it means

a kingdom-centered vocation,

reimagining your vocation

in light of the fact

that the kingdom is here

breaking into this world

and Jesus is making

all things new.

And how are you called

to be a part of that?

We were made

for something bigger

than ourselves.

And that purpose

can only be found in Christ.

Let's pray.

Our Lord,

Heavenly Father,

we thank you

for these truths.

And we ask,

Lord,

we pray that

these wouldn't just be ideas

that we consider,

but that this would be truth

that sinks into our heart,

whatever is of you,

through your spirit,

and that it would renew us

from the inside out.

Lord,

that it would kindle in us

a hope and a passion,

that it would awaken in us

a desire to rethink

and reimagine

all of our lives.

Lord,

to see what it means

to be enfolded

into your great purposes,

to be connected in,

to rediscover

why human beings are here

and what we were made for.

Lord,

we pray that in that

we would find

our deepest,

truest meaning.

Lord,

I pray that you would give us

each a vision

for what it looks like

for us to participate

in your renewal.

Lord,

in our lives,

here and now,

in this place.

I pray that you would give us

a clear vision

of what that means.

We pray this,

that not only for our good,

but that we might glorify you,

that we might bring praise

to your name.

And it's in the name of Jesus

that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.