Trusting Jesus When It Doesn’t Make Sense | Charles Zimmerman | Calvary Church

Well, good morning everybody. Welcome to

Calvary Church on this beautiful Sunday

morning. Well, we're in the third week

of our series that we're calling the

main thing, living like Jesus. How can

we do that? And we're picking out

passages from the Gospel of Luke. And

the first three weeks, we're we're

setting the context because Luke tells

us right up front, his purpose was to

put together an orderly account. And if

you've been tracking with us, you can

now see the progression pretty clearly.

We started week one by looking at Jesus

identity. Who is he? Secondly, last week

we looked at his mission. So he's the

son of God, the king of kings, the

suffering servant who comes to redeem us

from our sins. What does he do? He comes

to bring jubilee, to heal diseases, to

set prisoners free, ultimately to

forgive sin, which leads to all those

other things. Well, what do you think he

does next? He calls his community. So

his identity is given. Then his mission

is presented and now he's choosing his

team. That's the passage that we're

going to look at today. So um if you

have your Bibles, turn to Luke 5 and

we're going to read the first 11 verses.

Um but not just uh read. A number of

people said, "You know what, Charles? I

didn't bring my Bible with rain. Maybe

you didn't bring it. I don't like to

read from my phone." So, we have the

verses up on the screen as well. Uh, but

before I read, the title of our message

is going to be check up. So, let me ask

you, how are you all doing? How are you

all doing? And how do you know how

you're doing? Do you ever notice as we

go through life, we have lots of tools

to help us measure? Let me mention a few

of them. I'm not looking at any of you

in particular. Uh, first of all, um, we

have mirrors. Hey, let us know how we're

doing. Right? You look at your face in

the morning. It's kind of scary, right?

Uh what do you do? You then fix

yourself, right? You shave, you get

painted up, you fix your hair, whatever

you have to do. What's another tool that

we have? We have scales. If mirrors help

us adjust how we look, scales help us

give us an assessment of what we weigh.

How about your financial statement?

Tells you how well you're doing

financially. How about a performance

review at your job? let you know how

well you're accomplishing the items on

your job description. Hate to do this,

students. How about report cards? They

let you know how you're doing

academically. We have all these

different tools that help us answer the

question, how are we doing? And how do

we know how we're doing? Well, uh, how

do you know how well you're doing

spiritually?

And how do you know? We're going to use

Luke chapter 5 to help us answer that

Luke 5 · chapter mention

question. So, follow along. Look at the

screen. Uh, whatever works for you. Luke

5, as Jesus calls the team. One day, as

Jesus was standing by the lake of

Guanesseret, the people were crowding

around him and listening to the word of

God. He saw at the water's edge two

boats left there by the fishermen who

were washing their nets. He got into one

of the boats, the one belonging to

Simon, and asked him to put it out a

little bit from the shore. Then he sat

down and taught the people from the

boat. When he had finished speaking, he

said to Simon, "Put out into deep water

and let down the nets for a catch."

Simon answered, "Master, we've worked

hard all night and haven't caught

anything. But because you say so, I will

let down the nets." When they had done

so, they caught such a large number of

fish that their nets began to break.

So they signaled their partners in the

other boat to come and help them. And

they came and filled both boats to so

full that they began to sink. When Simon

Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees

and said, "Go away from me, Lord. I am a

sinful man." For he and all his

companions were astonished at the catch

of fish they had taken. And so were

James and John, the sons of Zebedee,

Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to

Simon, "Don't be afraid. From now on,

you will fish for people." So they

pulled their boats up on shore. left

everything and followed him. We're going

to use that. We're going to understand

what's going on in the passage. Then

we're going to use that passage to do a

little checkup of our own. Um have you

ever had a lousy day? Yeah. Really bad

day. Nothing goes right. Right. At the

end of the day, you feel like you've

accomplished nothing. Um you're

frustrated. You're exhausted. You're

discouraged. You're ticked off. You ever

had one day like that? That was the kind

of day Peter had. Actually, that was a

night Peter had. Peter was on a night on

the night shift. And that was because he

was a fisherman in the Sea of Galilee.

So, as we just read, let me kind of

paint the picture for you. Simon and his

teammates went out onto the sea to fish.

And fishing on the Sea of Galilee is

best done at night. A little cooler.

Fish kind of come to the surf. They're

not fishing with rods and reels and

lures and bait. They're fishing with

nets. And so as the water cools, fish

come to the surface. You kind of see

where they are. And fishermen were big,

burly kind of guys. They would throw the

nets where they thought the fish were.

The nets would sink around them and

they'd pulled them in. Tough laborous

work, right? They had fished all night,

caught nothing. My guess is, think about

it, they pulled in tons and tons of

empty nets.

To make matters worse, they're going in

with nothing.

As they're approaching the shore,

there's a giant crowd on the beach. All

right, fisherman. What's worse than not

catching fish?

Having a million people standing there

asking you, "Well, how'd you do and what

did you catch?" So, as Peter and they're

approaching the land, they see, "Oh, no,

now we got to deal with 8 million

questions. We have no fish, nothing to

sell, nothing to make a living on. And

all these people are going to ask how

well we did. As you get a little closer,

they kind of unpack the nets. They have

to wash them because they're going to go

fishing again the next night. And as

they do, they notice Jesus is preaching.

Now, Peter had probably heard Jesus

before and he's a little upset that

Jesus came to where he's docking his

boat to preach now, bringing all these

people. And um Jesus then said, "Peter,

can I use your boat a little bit? You

know, kind of push out from shore." And

the way the geography of some of the

inlets around the Sea of Galilee work,

there were hills around. And so if Jesus

is in the boat and there was they were

in a little cove, it would almost be

like an amphitheater. And so Jesus, if

he could get back a little bit from the

shore that people are crowding him, he

would speak and it was almost like he

had a microphone. And so lots of people

could listen. And so maybe Peter's

thinking, well, the boat's good for

something. I guess it's not good for

fishing. So Jesus gets in it. He's using

the boat as his pulpit. He's preaching

and the sermon's over and Peter's

probably saying, "Fine, I get some

relief. I can go home, take a take a

rest, get ready for another night of

fishing." But then Jesus says, "Peter,

got an idea. Let's go fishing."

Um, have you ever had someone that

obviously knows a lot less than you do

about a particular subject, but they're

giving you advice and counsel? Kind of

like most of the callers on WIP.

They think they know not only more than

the host, they know more than the

general manager, more than the coaches,

more than they know everything. Um,

yeah, they're they're going to their

job, but they're they can make all the

best decisions for the team. Well, think

about it. Peter's a fisherman. He must

have been fairly successful. He's got a

boat. He's got he's got team members,

James and John. They're with him, too.

And they would go fishing together.

Jesus is a preacher. What do what do

preachers know about fishing? And so,

uh, notice how Peter responds,

under his breath, he's probably saying,

"I'll fish, you preach." All right. I'll

make a deal with you. I won't preach if

you don't fish. How's that? He doesn't

say that because maybe he's heard of

Jesus' reputation. And so, he

reluctantly agre. Don't He reluctantly

agrees.

If you say so. Okay, that's amazing,

isn't it? When somebody who doesn't know

what they're talking about asks you to

do something, do you concede and do what

they want? Most of the time we don't. Oh

yeah. And that brings us to um the first

item of checkup.

We need to trust Jesus word.

We don't know where Peter stands with

God at this point. He's certainly not a

believer. He's not a follower. But you

know what? Jesus shows up and for one

reason or another, maybe it's out of

curiosity, maybe it's for some other

reason, Jesus says, "Peter, I got an

idea. Let's go fishing. Go out into the

deeper water now. Bring your nets, the

ones you just cleaned. Bring them. We're

going to dirty them up again. Let's go

fishing."

And Peter agrees.

Do you ever feel like God asked you to

do things that don't make any sense?

Now, don't don't get me wrong here. It

makes no sense on the Sea of Galilee to

go fishing in the morning or during the

day if you're fishing with nets.

That makes no sense. That's idiotic.

Huh? God often asks us to do things that

don't make sense, right? How about this?

Forgive people that don't deserve to be

forgiven. Oh, yeah.

How about show kindness and grace to

people that wounded and hurt you?

How about give generously to meet the

needs of others when you could keep the

money and spend it on yourself?

Take time, as Carlo said, take time to

put your time and energy into play to

serve other people. Maybe by

volunteering at Calvary or somewhere

else. That makes no sense, right? you

you barely have enough margin in your

life now and you're going to give more.

Yeah. God will often ask you to do

things that make no sense. Just like

Peter. So what's the first item on the

uh checkup list?

Do you trust Jesus word

or do you trust yourself or do you trust

your reason?

Um, and now is probably a good place to

make this point which we sometimes

forget.

Obedience

is not the same thing as agreement.

We often believe our obedience

is good and it's and it's advisable if

we agree. So we go like this, right?

Think through Peter's doing that. Peter,

let's put out to the deeper water and

fish. Okay, let's see. Sea of Galilee, I

should fish during the night, not during

the day. Well, that doesn't work. And I

just cleaned my nets. Now I'm going to

dirty them up again. I have to go

fishing. That makes no

agreement means you're trusting your

reason. You're trusting how you're

putting it together. And it just so

happens that what God's asking you to

do, what Jesus is asking you to do, it

kind of fits with what you think should

be done. And you say, "Yes." That's not

obedience.

Obedience is uh when you don't agree,

when your reason, when what culture

says, well, when what your intuition is

opposite of what God's asking to do,

opposite of what Jesus is calling you

to. Now, obedience is being tested. Do

you uh trust Jesus word? That's what

Peter did. Now, notice where the story's

going. We kind of already showed that

card, right? Jesus is calling Peter to

be a follower. Where does the story

begin? It begins by trusting Jesus'

word. We've said this numerous times.

The paradigm through scripture. God

initiates and we respond.

Jesus initiates.

He's not calling to be a follower yet.

He's not saying Peter come follow me and

and you'll be the first among equals of

my discip. No, he says no. First thing

Jesus says is uh let's go fishing even

when it doesn't make sense. Hm. My guess

is that there are a few things in your

life right now

that God's asking you to do that make no

sense. And you're resisting because

you're trusting your reason. You're

resisting because it doesn't measure up

to what you think. It doesn't measure up

to what you feel. And so you're

resisting because you're trusting

yourself and how you're putting it

together rather than what Jesus is

calling you to. Trust Jesus word. The

first measure of how well you're doing.

So how are you doing? Trusting Jesus

word. Oh, but that's not all. The story

continues.

As it continues, Peter agrees

reluctantly. He agrees. goes out and my

guess is very reluctantly with very

little effort probably didn't throw that

net far like this. Okay, Jesus here.

He's not going to give the thing. He's

been fishing all night. He's exhausted,

right? So, he just throws it. And in my

in my mind, in the next few minutes,

Jesus is doubled over laughing in the

boat as he sees Peter, the other

disciples straining to pull the fish in.

The boats are almost sinking. They're

what are we going to do? What are we?

Jesus is laughing his head off

as they can't pull all the fish in.

What's the second part?

Encounter God's grace.

Now, the grace of Jesus shows up a

couple of different ways in this

passage. I'm going to call your

attention just to two. Now, we've

already hinted at the one. Peter

encounters Jesus grace. And the first

way he encountered it is in the enormous

catch of fish. Now, don't get me I'm not

saying that if you trust Jesus' word,

you're going to have a giant catch of

fish. I'm not saying that. I'm saying

this, though. If you trust Jesus word,

you're on the path where you will

encounter Jesus grace. And you're going

to see that there's kind of a a good

side and a bad side. There's an easy

side and a hard side to this

encountering Jesus grace thing. The

positive side is the enormous catch of

fish. And Jesus is laughing. The boats

are sinking. They're trying to get the

fish in. Maybe some are going back in

the water, trying to get every last one,

get them in the boats. They make it back

to shore. Um to the first encountering

Jesus grace, the enormous catch of fish.

You know, sometimes encountering Jesus

grace will give us a benefit, have a

payoff that we never thought of.

um you ever um trust Jesus word and you

get a result that you're enjoying, you

get a result that's beneficial to you,

it's honoring to God, it's uplifting of

Jesus in the gospel, but you would never

have put it together that that would

have happened there.

You know, Jesus blessing often comes in

a different currency than we think it's

going to come. Well, Peter gets the

enormous catch of fish and then what

happens? This is the best part.

Peter does not say,

"Jesus,

thanks.

What are you doing tomorrow morning?

Can we do this again? We only have to

fish once a week." Um, what's he say?

Get out of my boat.

Get away from me. Why? Because I'm a

sinful man. Another

biblical paradigm. Oh yeah. We actually

use that as our definition of worship,

don't we? When you see God accurately,

you respond appropriately.

Peter catches a glimpse of who Jesus is.

And what's he do? He's immediately

cognizant at a deeper level of how

sinful he really is.

He folds in front of him and says, "Get

away from me." Because there's no more

frightening place in the universe

than for a sinful human being to be in

the presence of a perfectly holy God.

And Peter knows it. Peter catches a

glimpse of Jesus accurately. He responds

appropriately.

He falls into the bottom of the boat. I

my guess is with all the fish.

Get out of my boat.

I'm a sinful man. Remember I told you

that that's the paradigm. Well, we don't

have time to run through a number. Let

let me just mention a couple references.

How about Isaiah? Check that out. You

don't want to watch the Phils today. Um

Isaiah shows up at the temple.

He catches a glimpse of God. And what

immediately? Woe is me.

I'm a man of unclean lips. He's a

prophet. How the heck can a prophet have

a dirty mouth? Because he's in the

presence of a perfectly holy God. What

are the angels saying? Holy, holy, holy.

And what's Isaiah say? I'm a dirty I've

got a dirty mouth. He feels like his

life is being undone. He's being

consumed as a sinful man in the presence

of a holy God. And he doesn't want to be

there. He wants to go away. Oh yeah.

Where does that account lead at the end?

God says, "Whom can I send?" Oh, that's

where we're going. And this in Luke 5:2,

Luke 5:2

right? There's a paradigm. Whom can I

send? You see, the path to get to being

a follower is you first have to

recognize who Jesus is and who you are.

Once you do that, now you have all the

prerequisites to be a follower. That's

what Peter's doing. How about John in

Revelation chapter 1? Now, John had been

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

a follower of Jesus for decades. In

Revelation chapter 1, he's on the island

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

of Patmos. He kept his catches a glimpse

of who Jesus is in just a fraction of

his glory. He falls before him. And what

does Jesus say? The same thing he says

here. Don't be afraid. Why? Because

Peter and John and Isaiah, they had a

lot of reason to be afraid.

And all of a sudden, Jesus laughter at

the fish and the scrambling fishermen to

get the fish in the boat.

Jesus now smiles. He reached down,

reaches down and says, "Don't be afraid,

Peter.

I got this. I got this." Hm.

Encountering grace with a great catch of

fish. Encountering grace

because a sinful human being is not

consumed in the presence of a perfectly

holy God.

But God says to him, "Don't be afraid. I

got this." Grace. Grace. H. See God

accurately. Respond appropriately. It

always happens that way. So maybe I we

often say this in worship meetings or on

staff. If we're not responding

appropriately,

that probably means we have a flawed

picture of who God is. Because if you

really would catch a glimpse of who he

is, you'd respond. It's kind of

automatic, right? If you catch a glimpse

of God accurately, you will respond

appropriately. So if you're not

responding appropriately, that's

probably you're not seeing God. That's

why we say all the time, you got to read

the scripture. Where do you see God

clearly in the pages of the scripture?

So see God and see yourself and see the

response.

Trust Jesus word.

Encounter Jesus grace. And then where

are we going?

Follow Jesus call.

It's at that point and only at that

point

that Jesus says,

"I'm offering a change of occupation.

You will no longer fish for fish.

You will now

fish for people." Now remember the flow

of Luke, identity, mission, building the

team, right? So, um, the analogy, right,

the illustration of fish doesn't work

perfectly. Here's why. When you fish,

you are removing fish from one

environment to another.

But how does that work out? You're

removing them from the environment of

life to death. You're going to kill that

sucker and eat it, right? And so, you

one environment to another, but the

environment you're bringing them into is

an environment of death. What's Jesus

mission? What did we talk about last

week in Luke 4? It's a mission of

Jubilee. And so Jesus says, "Peter,

you're now going to fish for people.

You're going to take them from the

environment in which they're in, and

you're going to bring them into the

environment of Jubilee. You're going to

bring them into the environment where

sins are forgiven, the environment where

loss is paid for, the environment where

debts are forgiven, the environment

where you can experience what you were

built for. That's the environment." And

so it works. one environment to the

other.

For fish, it's life to death.

For human beings, it's death to life.

See how the illustration works? You're

not going to fish for fish anymore.

You're going to fish for people.

Now, if I uh

read Luke 5,

knowing a little bit of the rest of the

story, and Peter didn't know the rest of

the story,

um

I wonder if Peter would have known the

rest of the story. He would have really

meant it when he said, "Get out of my

boat."

Going to be some ups and downs following

Jesus, right?

In fact, that tradition tells us uh

Peter was martyed for following Jesus.

So maybe in Luke 5, he would have had a

different response.

But if we could interview Peter this

morning, Peter, was it worth it?

He said, "You bet.

I wouldn't trade following Jesus for

anything.

Trust Jesus word.

Encounter his grace.

and then follow his call. That's always

the progression.

There's another uh

phrase that we actually series of

comments that we use sometimes because

it's all over the Bible.

And it always works this way. We have a

problem because we get the word order

wrong.

Here's the right word order.

If you see God accurately, you see

yourself accurately.

If you see yourself accurately, you will

recognize your sin clearly. If you see

your sin clearly, you will encounter

God's grace completely. And once you

encounter his grace, you will then

respond in obedience and service.

Always works that way.

It's always strange that we want to

reverse that. You want to say, 'Well, if

I'm going to be a good follower,

I'm going to, you know, muster up my

discipline and I'm going to learn all

this stuff and I'm going to obey and I'm

going to follow and maybe then I'll be

accepted. Maybe then I'll earn God's

love. Maybe No, no, no. You're messing

up the thing, right? You see God and you

see yourself. You see yourself in your

sin. You see your sin. Then you

encounter God's grace.

Once you encounter his grace, now you

obey and serve. Not to earn,

but in gratitude and thanksgiving.

Always works that way. Funny how we uh

want to reverse that.

I think I know why.

Because we want to be able to point to

something

that we've done.

We want to add our little 10% to the 90%

of what Jesus did. You know what percent

you and I can add? 0%.

Remember the old song, Jesus paid it

all. Not some, not 99%. All our response

is obedience and service.

I'm not sure if you ever think about it

like this, but um

when you go through this world, you live

life, you

you get stained a lot.

I'm I was reminded of that because um if

Kim and I are going to eat dinner

watching TV or watching a ball game,

I've learned I need to change before I

eat dinner.

I need to change into something that um

I'm either going to work out in or throw

out because I'm not sure what it is.

When I sit in my chair, it inevitably

winds up on the front of me. And if I'm

having something, as I usually, sorry, I

won't tell my cardiologist. If I'm

having something that's greasy, whether

it's butter, whether it's fry, whatever

it is, if it winds up on front, those

stains don't come out. And so if you

have, you know, if you have a nice shirt

you want to wear to work and you got,

"Well, you can't wear it anymore to

work. Come on, let me wear it to

church." And and you can try as hard as

you want. You can't wash those stains

out. So what do I do? I get changed. I

put in a old t-shirt that I work out in.

I put on something I'm going to throw

out. Then it doesn't matter. I just pour

stuff on me then. It doesn't matter.

Yeah. But here's the problem.

As we go through life with our selfish

intent, as we go through life living by

our own reason, allowing our own desires

to call the shots,

our souls are stained.

And you can't

wear stained clothing into the presence

of God.

And we try as we can to get those stains

out. You know, we go to church, we say

our prayers, we read the Bible, we try.

He tried. And you know what? None of

that works.

That's what Peter realizes in the boat.

None of it works.

What's Jesus say? Don't be afraid.

I can cleanse those stains,

but only I can.

But the but the magic of the paradigm,

you have to admit the stains

and come to Jesus to cleanse them. And

the response is not, "Oh my goodness, I

can now coast for." No, no, no. The

response is

gratitude,

obedience,

and service.

So it's the same story. I have one

sermon. It's the same story. You see

God, you see yourself. You see yourself,

you see your sin, you see your sin, you

encounter God's grace, you encounter his

gra, you respond in obedience and that's

the message. That's the paradigm.

So,

let me ask you the question I asked you

at the beginning.

How you doing?

And how do you know?

Do you trust Jesus word rather than your

reason even when it doesn't make sense?

Have you and do you regularly encounter

Jesus grace?

His grace that gives us things beyond

our wildest imagination, but also shines

a spotlight on the stains on our lives

that cause us to bow before him in

terror.

We need to hear him say, "Don't be

afraid.

My grace is still good." What's the

right response? Always the same.

gratitude, obedience, and service.

How you doing? Let's pray.

Father, thanks for uh examples,

for illustrations, for stories

in which we see Jesus

and in which we uh see ourselves.

Lord, I pray that we just wouldn't see

uh Peter and his reluctance,

his fear, and his following.

Help us to ask the question how we're

doing. Where are we on that trust,

grace, follow continuum

and help us to take the right steps

today? The right steps for us and the

steps that would honor you. We pray in

Jesus name. Amen.