Remember Your Salvation

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If I were to give the name Thomas, what word comes foremost in your mind?
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Doubting, yes. That's often the first thing that we remember of Thomas.
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I mean, there's a few other things that are listed in the gospels, but the one thing that comes foremost is
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Thomas, the doubting one. Now, one thing that is not probably well known to most of us, and in fact, even scholarship has some questions, is about his ministry after the
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Bible closes. You know, where did Thomas go? For those of us from India, we make the claim that he came to India and he was a missionary there.
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And in fact, some of the recent scholarship are more tending toward the direction. In fact, he came to a southern part of India where a few of our church families come from, and then he's believed to have been martyred in the hometown where I come from.
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There's actually a small hill there that's called St. Thomas Mount, which commemorates his death on behalf of Jesus Christ.
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Now, when you think about Thomas, the one who was doubting before he saw the resurrected
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Christ, and then not much that is said about him, what would it take for him to go all the way to India?
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Or in fact, most of the apostles have this testimony of having lived their lives, and in fact, dying for the
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Lord as well. What is it that took him all the way to India? Something that drove him to go far, to a strange land, to a strange people, and then speak of Christ even to the point of death.
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My contention is that he had something very precious that he had to live for, and something that he was willing to die for as well.
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And this precious thing is the salvation that God had given to him in the person of Jesus Christ.
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He had received something exceedingly precious, and he was willing to give his life for the sake of his
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Savior. So today's message is called Remember Your Salvation. Some of you from IBS, you've seen pieces of this in our classes.
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But the goal here for us today is to look back reflectively at what
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God has done in our lives until now. As you look back at your salvation, you will tend to glorify the
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God of your salvation. The Bible constantly talks about the word remember.
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The Old Testament, the Israelites were constantly told, remember what God has done on your behalf.
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Because as you look at the nation of Israel, they tend to go up and down. They tend to sometimes follow
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God and sometimes not so. And the prophets would constantly remind them, look back at the great
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God who rescued you, who redeemed you. Remember what happened when he got you out of Egypt.
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There are times when the people can forget that God is still in their midst, and we are a people who are a forgetting people.
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And so it is important for us to look back at what God has done in our lives. Look back at the greatness of our
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God whom we serve, so that while our desire is to glorify him in the future, we ought not to be a people who forget who our
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God is. It is on the basis of who he is and what he has done that we can live our lives in a way that glorifies him.
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Now, when I say remember your salvation, we're gonna use this term salvation in a broader sense.
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Often when I say salvation, what comes to your mind? To my mind, I think of justification.
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You know, I think of the great divide when I got saved from my sin and I was declared as not guilty.
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That was a pivotal moment in my life. And I often think of that aspect of my salvation, which is when
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I was taken from the kingdom of darkness and placed in the kingdom of light. But salvation really is much broader than just the justification part of it.
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It includes the sanctification part of it, where today, having been declared not guilty, we now walk in the newness of life as we are transformed by the power of God day by day by day, as we are made holy in the practical sense, even as we anticipate the culmination of our salvation, which is glorification, where one day we will be in the presence of God away from sin and temptation and eternally praising our
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God. Now, when I say, remember your salvation, how is it that we're gonna do it from the scriptures?
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The Bible talks about salvation. It doesn't talk about your salvation or mine in specific in detail.
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So what we're gonna do today is we're gonna use what I call a prism. We're gonna look at something that God has done in the life of an individual in the
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Bible. And we're gonna see how the Lord has been gracious in saving this person. And then we're gonna look at the greatness of our
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God through what he has done in this person's life and reflexively look at what
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God has done in our lives, even as we see what God has done in this person's life.
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So the person that I'm picking up for our study today is Peter. Now, you may ask, why
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Peter? Maybe we should pick the beloved Paul or we should pick up the powerful Apostle Paul, John or Paul, or maybe even
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Jesus himself. But Peter is a good example because he's your ideal believer in one sense.
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You know, he reaches some of those heights that you really long for, you know, that you'd be as faithful as Peter was.
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And then he also reaches those very low depths, those depths where you think, you know, how can someone call himself a
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Christian and go down to these deep lows? And you get to see, it's not really about Peter or in the end about you and me, but it is about our great
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God who is able to lift us up all the way to the mountaintops and he never lets go of us when we are in our deepest lows.
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So in Peter, we see not a Pope, in case you have that mind, you can strip him off his staff and vestments, but a person who was completely messed up like you and me, but who was rescued by Jesus, someone who was changed by the power of God and who was used mightily by the spirit of God.
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So in Peter's life, you're gonna see this up and down movement, but in the whole, it is something that trends upward for the glory of God.
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So what we're gonna do here today is we're gonna take chronologically some of the events in the life of Peter, especially as the
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Lord works in his life. And as we look at that, I want us to look back at what
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God has done in our lives and give our glory to the God of our salvation.
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So let's begin by turning to John chapter one. And we are gonna be looking at a few different passages where we see how
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God deals with this apostle John. Now, when you begin
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Peter's history in the Bible, it's kind of not like Paul.
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If you think of Paul's conversion, that's like kind of dynamic, right? Jesus from heaven, speaking down,
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Paul on the floor and looking up at God and day and night change. Paul's, Peter's salvation is more like most of ours.
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It's kind of done in a very quiet way. And then we're gonna see how that happens.
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So if you look at John chapter one, verse 40, that's the first time we see Peter mentioned. And there it says, one of the two who heard
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John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
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Now, Peter comes to know the Lord through his brother, Andrew. Now, the John that is referred to here is
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John the Baptist. If you go further up in John one, verse 29, what was it that John spoke of?
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John the Baptist spoke about Jesus Christ. It says in verse 29, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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Here was John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ who was here to exalt
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Christ and lift him up to the people as he was preparing the nation for the king. And two of his disciples, one of them is
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John the Apostle and the other one is Andrew. And these two people were following John the
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Baptist sovereignly by God's plan. And they hear what John the Baptist said, that this is the lamb of God.
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And once again, John continues to speak. And then in verse 36 of chapter one,
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John once again reminds his disciples and those around, behold, the lamb of God.
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He points to Jesus Christ as the one who has been appointed by God. And so in verse 39, these two disciples hear
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John the Baptist and they followed Jesus. So they have heard something about Jesus Christ and they go after Jesus and spend the evening with him.
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And they encounter Jesus face to face. So this is how Andrew, Simon Peter's brother first comes to know about the
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Lord. Now in verse 41, we hear that Andrew found his own brother
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Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means
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Christ. Now, before Peter gets to meet Jesus, Andrew meets
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Jesus the day before. Now, Andrew often is spoken of positively in the Bible. He is one who seems to be bringing people to the
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Lord. And that's what he does here in verse 41. What he heard from John the Baptist, he understood and he believed upon seeing
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Jesus Christ. And now he is compelled to talk to Peter, his brother.
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Now, interestingly in this passage, the Bible doesn't say what Peter thought of this first encounter.
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You know, John the Baptist has already been talking about the coming Messiah. Peter probably heard about John the
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Baptist. His brother obviously is a disciple of John the Baptist, but in this particular encounter, we are not told what
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Peter thought. And as you just step back and look at what happens in Peter's life, you can see the sovereignty of God.
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If God is the one who ordained John the Baptist to come and speak about Jesus before Jesus comes on the scene in his public ministry.
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And he is also the one who had Andrew be the connecting bridge, if you will, to bring the gospel or at least connect
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Peter to Jesus Christ. And as we think back at our own salvation, it may be helpful to just remember the first time someone just told you about who
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Jesus Christ was. Maybe it was someone at home. If you were raised in a Christian family, maybe it was a friend in school or a neighbor.
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And whether it was something that happened at one point in time that you can remember or something that happened over a period of time, you want to remember that it is
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God who sovereignly brings the truth to bear upon your life. And we also want to thank
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God for those people that he has placed in our lives that introduced
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Jesus to us. It's good for us to remember and pray for those people and also ask ourselves, should we be like them as we introduce others to Jesus Christ?
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Now let's look at the next section, which is in verse 42. So Peter has now heard about Jesus from Andrew.
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And in verse 42, we read, he, that is Andrew, brought him to Jesus. And Jesus looked at him and said, you are
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Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means
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Peter. Now here, once again, Jesus, Peter comes face to face with Jesus Christ.
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And when he's introduced, we are not really told what Peter thought. Peter is normally the one who speaks a lot, but at this point in time, nothing comes out of his mouth that is recorded for us.
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But Jesus says something very unique to him. He mentions his current name, which is
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Simon. And then he talks about a new name that he's going to give him, which is Cephas. Now the word
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Simon probably comes from Simeon in the Old Testament, one of the sons of Israel.
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And the word Simeon is probably derived from Shammah, which is Deuteronomy 6, 4, listen or hear.
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It's a very common name. There's a lot of Simons in the New Testament at this time. Now, Peter sometimes listens and sometimes doesn't, but Jesus has a new name for Peter.
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And that name is Cephas in the Aramaic or Peter or Petros in Greek.
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And what that refers to is a piece of rock. Now, what Jesus is doing here is in the biblical times, and in fact, even as the name of God and of various individuals in the
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Bible are mentioned, the names represents the character of the person that God is gonna make them.
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And so here, Jesus is saying that he's gonna transform the volatile Peter.
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We're gonna see Peter as completely volatile in the gospels. And this person is gonna be turned into someone who is solid, who is like a rock.
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And here, Jesus is the one who made Peter, and Jesus is also the one who's gonna transform this
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Peter into this finished sculpture. So he can see what Peter is, and he's gonna work on him until he is going to be that finished rock.
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And if you wanna just think about what happens, you know, if you just fast forward through the gospels and the book of Acts, you can see the things that Peter does in the gospels, and then compare them with what happens in the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts.
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And you can see how God changes and transforms this Simon into this
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Cephas. And as we look at the prism of Peter's life, what God does, you see God's attribute of sovereignty.
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He is the one who created, he is the one who sustains, he is the one who finishes the work in us. He has the power to change each of us.
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You know, when I got saved, I used to think, you know, what can God do off me? God can do anything of each of us, as he is the one who made us and changes us into the image of his son.
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Now, do you remember when Jesus first called you by name? So here we have
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Peter, Jesus looking at Peter and saying, you are Simon and you shall be called
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Cephas. Do you remember when Jesus first called you by name? I'm obviously not referring to just audible voices, but rather how
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God deals with each of us individually, subjectively, when he brings us into a right relationship with him.
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And how does God do that? He subjectively calls us by his word.
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Jesus is the word of God who reveals God's word to us. And God calls us in the word and he calls us by his spirit that uses the word to call us.
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So there is the objective word of God, which talks about God's call to everyone. And when God works in our hearts, when he draws us to him, as the father brings us into a relationship with the son, we now recognize the voice of God, as we heard a few weeks back, as the shepherd calls us, we can hear him and we respond.
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Now, let's now move to the next section. So at this point, we are not really told whether Peter committed his life to the
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Lord, because there's really no recording of Peter's response here. But if you would turn to Luke chapter five, verse one, we now get to see that something definitively is changing in the life of Peter.
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So let's actually read this passage, verse one through nine, as we look at a transformative event.
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But before we read this, this event is happening a few months later. If you look at John chapter one, that's happening near Jordan in the
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Southern part, near Jerusalem and Jordan. And that's where Jesus is coming into the scene with John the
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Baptist in the background. And then a few months later, Jesus and all of these disciples are now further north in Galilee, which is where most of Jesus ministry is gonna happen.
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And here, Jesus comes to meet Peter and his brother and his friends.
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Luke chapter five, verse one. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.
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So what happens here is Jesus is already, having been baptized and having begun his public ministry, he is now proclaiming the word in this time in the region of Galilee.
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And there's a lot of people coming and hearing because Jesus is speaking with power and with authority and everybody wants to listen.
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They're crowding and pressing in on him. And he's in the lake of Gennesaret, which is the sea of Galilee.
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In verse two, he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
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So the context is the fishermen have come in, they've put the boats in and they are cleaning up their nets because they're done for the day.
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Their job is done and they're just getting ready to go home. Verse three, getting into one of the boats, which was
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Simon's, which is Simon Peter, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
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So this is, Jesus uses this quite often as the crowds get too close.
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He moves a little back so they can listen to him. It's a nice amphitheater as the voice comes out.
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And so Jesus here is sitting down and teaching just like the rabbis would. And all these people are listening to what
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Jesus teaches. And of course, as these people are listening, who else is listening?
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You also have Peter, who's on the boat, in the boat, listening to what Jesus has to say. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
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Now, let's read verse five. Simon answered, master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word,
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I will let down the nets. You see, Peter already knows Jesus. We've seen the first encounter a few months back.
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At this point, he's not a full -time follower. He's not one who is following after Jesus as Jesus goes place to place, ministering the word.
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But here was Peter who knew his job. He was a fisherman and as was the custom of that time, he would fish in the night.
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And so he has come probably early in the day or sometime in the morning. And he has failed to accomplish his task of catching any fish.
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So he has said, I've done my job. I don't think there are any fish in the region, but because you say so,
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I will. In fact, there is also one more thing. It's a night and day difference where he used to fish at the night, but now he's asked to fish in the day, but also they would fish in the shallows.
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And now he is asked to put out into the deep in verse four. So Peter could say,
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Jesus, you are, you know, as far as I know, you're the son of a carpenter, but I, you know,
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I've been doing fishing all my life, but he's a good listener. He's kind of keeping up to his name of Simon, where he obeys
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Jesus because Jesus, he recognizes him as master. He has heard him teach.
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He recognizes that Jesus is, Andrew had declared to him as the
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Messiah. He recognizes something about Jesus enough to say, I will do because you have told me to, at your word,
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I will let down the net. And verse six, when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking.
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They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. Now, because they are in the deep, their partners, which is actually
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James and John, we will see in the parallel passages, they are kind of far out. You can't speak to them.
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So they are just waving to them to come out to them because their boat was sinking. The nets were breaking.
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They came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. So here is
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Jesus. He says something to Peter. Peter obeys. And then he sees something that is completely miraculous.
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No fish when they went and came back. But now that Jesus has said this, this is breaking their nets, sinking their boats.
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And what is the response? Verse eight, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man,
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O Lord. Whatever Peter knew about Jesus, what he sees now transforms his understanding of Jesus Christ.
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He was very comfortable having Jesus coming into the boat and teaching from here. But now that Jesus has done something, he is now, his understanding of Jesus has been transformed.
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And the reason for that is given in verse nine, for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken.
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And so also where James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. So what
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Peter is saying here is not, I am a sinful man in like a crass way. Like I'm a sailor,
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I'm a fisherman, like the way we are used to thinking. What happens here in Peter's life is he recognizes that this is a work of God that has been done in his boat.
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He sees that God has done something miraculous through the person of Jesus Christ.
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He sees that Jesus, he calls him Lord. He called him master, and now he calls him Lord. And he recognized the holiness and the power of God that is work in work in Jesus Christ.
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And this Jesus Christ is in his boat. So he sees the holiness of God and the sinfulness of himself.
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And that's the reason for him to not want to be too close to him because he probably understands
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Isaiah six. You know, when a sinful man comes in the presence of the holiness of God, you are in trouble.
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But we also see the graciousness of God in the end of verse 10, where Jesus says to Simon, do not be afraid from now on you will be catching men.
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This miracle of God has elevated Jesus as the person who has been sent by God, who brings out the holiness of God and the power of God to bear upon Peter.
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It also brings down the humility that is rightly necessary before you can be right with God.
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And in addition to the power and the holiness of God, you also see the love of God. So Jesus could have, well, you know, that is true.
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You are sinful. You don't deserve to be in my presence, but rather Jesus says, do not be afraid. He calms
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Peter down and then talks to him about the ministry that he is to have.
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Do you remember when Jesus came up close and personal to you? Peter was probably not expecting this when he told
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Jesus to come into his boat, but something happened where his mind is transformed about who Jesus was.
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It was at that point in time, there was something definitive that happens in Peter's life. And again, whether it was something instantaneous in your life or whether it's something that happened over a period of time, you should be able to look back and say, the
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Lord has come up close and personal to me. Or maybe it was the spirit of God that took the scriptures and made them bear upon your lives.
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And it is good for us as we remember our salvation to say, you know, I knew what kind of a person
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I was. I was just fishing on my own until the Lord came and turned my boat around.
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And I kind of knew something about God, but when Jesus entered my life, my eyes were opened to another world that I didn't even understand, that there is a
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God of heaven and earth who is alive and well, who is active in this world. And more than that, he is involved in my life and I need to deal with him.
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And how do you deal with him? Now, in the end of this passage in verse 10 and 11,
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Jesus gives the call for ministry to Simon. From now on, you will be catching men.
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You used to be catching fish, but now you're gonna be a fisher of men. And verse 11, we read, when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
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It was complete, it was instantaneous, and it was the ministry that was gonna begin for Peter and the other apostles.
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Now, if you think about it for a moment, have you ever tried applying for a job with no resume?
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It's kind of what happens for Peter here. Peter, he didn't even know there was a job opening when Jesus came into his boat.
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Jesus comes and he gives him the job right there. And if you look at it in the other way, how many of you would feel comfortable giving up everything that you have, your whatever job, whatever possessions and everything for, relatively speaking, from a human perspective, an unknown rabbi, an up and coming guy, that you're gonna just follow him without heed to your family business.
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Both James and John, as well as Peter and Andrew had a pretty good fishing business that they had to give up to follow.
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And on the flip side for yourself, do you remember when Jesus was worth everything in your life?
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When we think of salvation, do you remember when Jesus was worth everything? There was nothing that you had that you could weigh in the balance and say, yes, this is worth more to me than the cost of following Christ.
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And therefore, I'm gonna hold back to this while I claim to follow Christ. What did you value before you had the call of God in your life?
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And who gave you the courage to drop it all and follow after Jesus just as Peter did?
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Do you still live the same way as when you committed your life to Christ?
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We're gonna see it in Peter's life. There were times when he would fear for his life and say, you know,
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I don't know this man. There were times when there were things he valued would come up into the forefront and push
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Jesus out of the way. But you would see along with that would also come repentance as he recognizes that even for a moment when he thought something was more important, it does not compare with the matchless price of who
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Jesus was. And so also for us today, we wanna examine ourselves and say, is that what
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I have done? Have I counted Christ as more worthy of everything else that I hold precious on this side of eternity?
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And when I have to make my choices today, tomorrow, this week, am I living in light of that commitment that Jesus holds my full and wholehearted affection, my wholehearted, he owns my life.
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And when we do that, our work, our life, our family, our relationships begin to change because it is
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Jesus who is Lord of my life. He is the one who takes control of me and changes me inside out.
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And that inside out will also move out into the rest of the people and the circumstances in which
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I live in. So having seen this, and at this point, we can be pretty sure there is something definitively that has changed.
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Peter drops everything and follows after Christ. Now, if I had my way,
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I'd like for Jesus to take me to heaven right now because this is probably as good as it gets, right? I have committed to the
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Lord. I've made a huge, by the grace of God, a huge investment, if you will, by dropping everything and putting all my chips on the
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Lord. And I know I'm gonna mess up. It's better if I went up to heaven. But God has a much better plan for each of us.
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So having been justified, we are now being sanctified, and that sanctification has an inward purpose for us and also an outward purpose for the world in which we live in.
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He has his purposes that he works in us and through us as he lifts himself up in the world that he has placed us in.
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So let's turn to Mark 1, verse 30, as we look at how this transformation of Peter continues to now work in the environment that Peter himself is.
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Mark 1, verse 30. In the earlier section of Mark, Jesus has gone with his disciples to a synagogue.
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He has done a healing. He has start with power. And now Peter has this famous rabbi that is in his hometown and he brings him home.
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So we read actually in verse 29. Jesus left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
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Now Simon's mother -in -law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her.
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And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and the fever left her and she began to serve them.
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So here Peter invites Jesus into his house. It would be a common thing of hospitality in those times, you know, to have the rabbi come over and especially a famous rabbi.
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And here we are not exactly told what happens to Peter's family other than the fact that the mother -in -law was incapable of serving because she was ill with a fever and that Jesus touches her, lifts her up and there is a healing, the fever leaving her.
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And now this healing, as you see in all the healings of Jesus in the gospels, is not a prolonged one.
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This is an instantaneous healing. So much so that the woman who was in bed and unable to get up, gets up and is able to serve.
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She doesn't need a time of recuperation. She doesn't need, you know, Tylenol for the next three days.
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She is up there and working and serving the Lord. Now, it doesn't explicitly say what was going on spiritually in the life of Peter's mother -in -law.
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Was she saved? That's possible in terms of how she served him. But what we do know about Peter's family is this.
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Here, Peter brings Jesus to his home. His mother -in -law gets to meet him and get healed.
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And later in the New Testament, you get to see something said about Peter's family.
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In fact, when Paul is challenged about his ministry, he would talk about the apostles who actually go out in ministry.
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And he would talk about Cephas and his wife. You know, they actually go out in ministry together. It seems at least that Peter's wife was saved.
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And outside of the New Testament, you actually have the traditional records of what happens in the end with Peter and his wife.
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Many of us know of Peter being martyred in Rome, crucified upside down, as he is killed under Nero's persecution for the name of Christ.
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What many of us don't hear about is there are also some accounts that talk about Peter's wife. And it is said that Peter actually encourages and strengthens his wife, even as she is about to be crucified and die on behalf of the
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Lord. Now, you might ask, Peter, was he thinking right when he brought
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Jesus to his home? You know, he brought Jesus into his home and the end game was his wife dies a horrible death and he dies a horrible death.
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Would that, I mean, this equation, was Peter kind of wise in doing this? Of course, both of these would end up being martyrs or witnesses of Christ to the very end.
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And that's not because they had no choice. It is because they would gladly do that. They would give their life for the
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Savior because they have received something much, much, much more valuable than the life that they had here on earth.
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They were giving up what the world values for something that is of eternal significance.
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And absolutely, yes. So if you ask Peter, just as he was going to be crucified, as he's seeing his wife being put to death, was this worth it?
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Yes, the answer is true because what they had, the salvation of God, the knowledge of this
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God who is the maker of heaven and earth, who has come and invested in their lives, was worth it all.
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What we see here in Mark 1, verse 30 and 31, we see
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Jesus cares not just for Peter and his ministry. Oh, you know, I have
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Peter, this guy, he'll do a lot of work for me. He cares for his family as well. He has compassion on those who are in need physically,
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Peter's mother -in -law, but also for his family as they would come to be saved.
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It is Peter, his family, in fact, his whole town that will come to receive healing as well as salvation.
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In fact, in verse 32 to 34 of Mark 1, you get to see how all the people come there.
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They've heard about what Jesus did in the synagogue. They see what has happened in Peter's home and there is a mass healing and demons who are cast out over here.
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Do you remember when Lord not just saved you, but also worked in the lives of those whom you love?
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You know, it kind of seems odd to say I have Jesus and therefore I'm gonna keep him as the most prized possession.
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I'm not gonna let Jesus into my family because he's mine alone. None of us would say that.
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We, when we are saved by God, we are a conduit for Christ in the life of those whom he has placed in, whether it is your home, your coworkers, or your neighbors.
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Do they get to see Jesus because he is with you?
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Now, if you continue reading in Mark 1, we see that this knowledge of Christ continues to expand and grow.
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Verse 35, rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed.
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And this was his custom. Early in the morning, Jesus, the very Son of God, would commune with the
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Father. Whether it was late at night or early in the morning, he derived his strength and sustenance by an ongoing relationship with God the
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Father. As you heard this morning in Sunday school, discipline is something that is vital in the life of a believer, and so much so in the
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Son of God himself. As man, he demonstrates what it means to live by faith, by looking up to God for strength in our daily walk.
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But here in verse 36, we see, Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, everyone is looking for you.
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Now, if you think about it from Peter's eyes, it becomes a lot more clearer. Here is Jesus in Capernaum, Peter's hometown.
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He is staying in Peter's home, and the whole town is practically at Peter's doorstep.
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And Peter is now the cool fisherman turned fisher of men, right? Why would you want to lose this crowd?
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All the people are back here in the morning, and they're looking for more from Jesus. And Jesus, if you would come here,
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I'll be kind of famous alongside you. I bask in the glory with the townsfolk. But what does
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Jesus have to say to him? Verse 38, Jesus said to them, let us go to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why
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I came. And here begins the part of Peter's understanding of who
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Jesus is and what Jesus does. We are a selfish people. I remember when
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I first got saved, I just would read, take the Bible, go sit in my rooftop, and I didn't want to meet anyone because it was taking time away from reading the
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Bible. It took a little while to realize that what we have, we are responsible to give to others as well.
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And here, Jesus is instructing him, changing Peter's understanding about the gospel.
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The gospel is universal. It is not meant to be just for myself or my family or my town.
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Jesus is gonna go crisscrossing through the whole town of the whole region of Galilee throughout the nation of Israel.
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And he will come back to Capernaum. That's gonna be his base as he's gonna minister. But Jesus has his own agenda, his own schedule.
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And Peter is the one who needs to be aligned with Jesus. So in verse 39, we see
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Jesus went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
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Now, it was not Peter's agenda. It was not Peter's fame that was the main focus, but rather it was
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God's plan for salvation. And that was not restricted to this one region. And so when we see here, we see
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God's compassion. It is not limited to one people group. It is not committed limited to a specific area, but it is everywhere.
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And he operates according to his sovereign will, according to his goodness. And for us, the question is, are we aligned with the purposes of God as God works out his will in our lives, in our communities today?
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Am I just so comfortable with what I have and the places that I will go?
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You know, Peter would be very comfortable staying in his own hometown. Or am
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I willing to go where God would call me to go, whether it is in missions, whether it is wherever you travel for your work or for evangelism.
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And for some of us, the biggest challenge might be just getting to our neighbor's home and talking to them about the
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Lord and showing the same love and compassion that Jesus had for those in the region.
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So as we close, maybe we'll just take one more section and we'll stop. In Luke 6, verse 14, we get to see the culmination of this call to ministry in the life of Peter.
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And with this passage, we'll stop. Luke 6, 12 says, in these days, he, that is
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Jesus, went out to the mountain to pray and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them 12 whom he named apostles.
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And the very first name in verse 14 is Simon, whom he named Peter. Now, what is the significance of this?
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Obviously, as you look at verses 12 and 13, this was something that was very important for Jesus Christ. It wasn't some random, you know, just get 12 names out out of this group of people that are following me.
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Jesus goes up to the mountain to pray to God and he spends the whole night in prayer.
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And when he comes down, he calls all of those who are following him and explicitly chooses these 12 men to be kind of his inner circle.
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These men would follow him wherever he went. And in fact, within the circle, you have another inner circle, which would be
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Peter, James, and John, who would go to, for example, the Mount of Transfiguration or the healing of Jairus, raising of Jairus' daughter from the dead.
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And even among those three, you will have Peter who is kind of like the right -hand man who is following after Christ.
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And Jesus, in his three years of ministry, is gonna equip these people so that they will be the leaders in the church as they will teach to others what
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Jesus has taught in private to them. But all this is kind of still unknown.
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You know, as far as Peter is concerned, here is this Jesus Christ, the famous one, and he's got picked first.
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Again, we are not told what Peter thought, but this is a big deal. Think of it as being picked for draft, you know,
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Patriots or for the, whatever famous sports team that you care for.
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And there is an honor that goes on with this being called. And what we see here is, if you look at Luke 5, we see the calling of Peter, where he leaves everything, the boats and everything behind.
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And now you see this call, which is actually a call to ministry. God elects those who will be his.
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He rescues those according to his sovereign purposes. And those he rescues, he will also gift with the gifts that they need in order to serve him while they have breath here.
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And Peter, in this case, was saved, and he was also called to be an apostle. That is his ministry.
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In fact, both of his letters, 1 Peter 1 .1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
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Someone, the word apostle is someone who is sent, and the 12 apostles were part of that inner circle. 2
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Peter 1 .1, Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. He understood what his call was, and he would fulfill that call as we look in the book of Acts.
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And how about you? Have you been called in the first sense of being called from your sin, and rescued from the penalty of sin, which is death?
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Have you also been called to ministry? Do you know how God has gifted you to serve him while you have breath on this side of eternity?
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So today, as we step back and remember our salvation, when we look at what God has done, what
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Jesus has done in the life of Peter, we wanna ask ourselves, what is it that God has done in my life?
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How has he rescued me? How great has he been in the past in saving me from my sin, in transforming me until now?
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And how is it that I'm gonna live my life in light of what God has called me to? At this point where we break,
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Peter still didn't know a lot of what was going to happen. That may be the case for a lot of you today.
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You may not know exactly how God is going to call you for ministry down the road, how your life would end.
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Is it gonna end this week, or is it gonna end 40 years from now? But the one thing we do know is the one who called us is faithful.
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Jesus is the one who laid his hand on us. He is the one who has gifted us, and he is the one who will bring us to the very end, spotless before the
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Lamb. So when you think of the Apostle Thomas, the doubting Thomas, that he would go all the way to India to give up his life for the
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Savior, we wanna ask ourselves, we wanna commit ourselves to the Lord and say,
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Lord, I have my doubts, I have my weaknesses. When I compare to Peter, I look much worse.
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But Lord, I know that you are faithful. Use me, transform me for your glory.
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Let us pray. Our loving and gracious Father, we thank you for your son, that he would come down, that he would live among us, that he would humble himself, that he would pour out his life, that we may have new life in him.
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I pray for these dear saints, and for all of us, Lord, that you would be with us this week.
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We pray for the children at RGBY, and Lord, for your saints everywhere, that we would be a people that are mindful of your greatness, that we would remember who you are as we live our lives before you.