by Pastor Glenn Layne

October 20, 2002
This Week's Message:

Third Message in the Series
Catching God's Vision for the World
(Luke 5:1-11)

A World-Sized Challenge

I want us to think today about what it means that we as followers of Jesus are called to live our lives for others. The church is to be an accurate reflection of the character of Jesus Himself, who came to give Himself away, even to the point of death. So also the church does not live for itself. It lives for a dying world, and will give itself away to the point of death for the sake of that dying world.

Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas had been raising money for a new facility. The church had grown dramatically in the 70s and 80s under the leadership of their Senior Pastor, Frank Kik.

80% of the funds needed to build a new building were either in or pledged. They planned to break ground the next year.

That fall they were having their annual missions conference. Eastminster was and is a great missions church. A last minute addition was a Presbyterian missionary serving in Guatemala. They gave him 15 minutes in the evening session.

He came to the microphone and asked that the lights be dimmed and began showing his slides. An earthquake had struck the Central America country, and he showed slide after slide of village churches and parsonages that had been destroyed in the earthquake. "Friends," the missionary concluded. "They have no money to rebuild. I was hoping you might be able to help."

They was a nervous silence. Then one of the older members of the church stood up. "Folks, I don't know about you, but I can't justify building a new church when our brothers and sisters down there don't even have a place to worship."

There was more nervous silence. A young man stood up, "I agree" he said. Another stood up. "So do I." In a few moments, more than 400 people stood up. The building plans went on hold. And Eastminster ended up sending over $800,000 to rebuild the churches in Guatemala. (By the way, four years later the money had all been raised again, and they did build.)

This is a true story; I know Frank Kik personally.

This I know: God calls us to radical obedience to the Great Commission. They are people here today who shouldn't be. Let me repeat that: They are people here today who shouldn't be. God called you to go somewhere else in the world to spread the gospel of Jesus. You've resisted that call and you're in the wrong place today. Today, I want to challenge you, and all of us today, about your part in making Jesus known to all.

The Challenge of the Word…and the World

• From Abraham to Israel to Jesus to Paul to eternity

We saw it two weeks ago: the blessing given to Abraham, and the promise that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." That was the commission then given to Israel as a nation. That is the same commission that Jesus then gave to His disciples. That was why Paul had an ambition to make Jesus known where His name was not yet known.

We have in just the last few years come to see just how seriously the early church took the great commission. We now have evidence that the gospel reached China as early as 86 AD-a few years before the writing of the book of Revelation! That would be about the time of Thomas' death-in India! We now know that Ethiopia had been reached by the late first century.

So when I say that the gospel exploded beyond the boundaries of Israel and beyond the bloodline of Abraham, believe me, it exploded!

• Missions and heaven (Revelation 5:9)

We have this promise in Revelation 5:9:

9And they sang a new song:

"You [Jesus] are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.

In the end, God will be praised by people from all nationalities, in every language ever spoken and from every tribe on the face of this earth.

But we aren't there yet. Something that helps me understand just where we are in world evangelization is what I call the Global Village of 100. Imagine that the whole world were a village of just 100 people. What would the faith composition of that world look like?

• The Global Village of 100:

10 True Christians W 41 Non-Christians
23 Cultural Christians A (Gospel Unheard)
26 Non-Christians L
(Gospel Heard) L

These 41 are mostly Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist.

The greatest challenge is not on the left side of the wall. The greatest challenge is breaking through the wall to the ride side of the wall.

There is a story from the gospel of Luke that may help us get a clearer picture of both the nature of the challenge and Jesus' way to meet the challenge.

The Challenge Misunderstood (Luke 5:1-4)

51One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

• Galilee: the Strategic Location

Here we find Jesus in "strategic location" the Jewish district of Galilee, surrounded by non-Jews. (Luke calls the Sea of Galilee by its Roman name, the Lake of Gennesaret. His Greek readers knew what a sea was, and Galilee in their mind was way to little to be a sea!)

• The word preached; some disciples fish!

Now this is critical: this event occurred after the story of Jesus' call of the disciples that we are most familiar with-when Jesus saw them fixing their nets and told them to follow Him. So they did. Jesus would go to certain village and they would follow, but when they got back to Capernaum, they'd go back to fishing. Nothing wrong with being a fisherman-it's just not what He was calling them to.

So now we have them back in town (Capernaum); Jesus preaches, and the disciples take the opportunity to make a little money fishing.

Again, there's nothing wrong with that-provided that that's how the Lord wants you to spend your life.

• Pushing Simon out: from fishing to fishing for men (vs. 4)

4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

The shallows are where you fish during the day; the deep, at night. This is fishing advice of the variety you expect from a carpenter from Nazareth!

But Jesus has something to teach here. The challenge of making the gospel known is not trivial. It is a deepwater challenge. Some of us have been wading up to our ankles all the while saying, "See what a great price I pay for following Jesus! My sandals got wet!" I tell you Jesus is teaching here.

The Size of the Challenge (Luke 5:5-7)

5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

• Jesus says: It's a big challenge, not a part time job, guys. And I'm going to show you that first hand. Let's go out to the deep water.
• Our objection: We've worked hard (vs. 5a) Lord, it's been 2000 years, and 41% are still on the dark side of the wall. Lord, look at Japan. Hundreds of years of mission, a free society, and maybe ½ of 1% know You!
• Dwight and Kari Davidson are American Baptist missionaries in Japan. They write, "We learned that many churches here, as in America, are simply struggling to survive amid a rapidly secularizing society." They felt discouraged and insecure. Again, they write, "We were led to the words of Henri Nouwen: 'We must remind ourselves constantly of [God's] vision.' …We must remember that God has plans for us that we do not always understand or predict."
• We hear Jesus call and it makes no sense to us. We think we know how to catch fish, and He tells us a way that seems irrational. His ways are not our ways.
• So they make a concession: "But because You say so…"(vs. 5b). Reluctantly, we obey. What He commands seems so very contrary to rationality.
• That when God does the miracle of provision: Net loads of fish! (vs. 6) "When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break."
• God's mission, done God's way, will have God's blessing and result in a God-honoring, God-glorifying result. It can be so dramatic that existing structures are stretched to their limits and burst at their seams. That happened in New England in the First Great Awakening in the mid-18th century: new denominations formed, and some churches changed denominations in the throws of the revival. For example, when revival hit the congregational church in Beverly, Massachusetts, the congregation was divided, ¾ in favor of revival, ¼ against, so they actually divided the lot-3/4 is now the First Baptist Church property, and ¼ is the Unitarian Church! (That's a true story!)
• In these transforming moments, God always pulls some surprises. Who could have predicted the vitality of the church in Korea today even 40 years ago? Or the ascendance of sub-Saharan Africa as the most Christian continent in the world?
• Such a time demands a new kind of partnership. In Luke 5:7, they have to call over the other boat.
• World evangelization requires as well many kinds of partnerships. Look at our own church. We share our campus with Mandarin and Kachin speaking congregations. We had a 10-year sister relationship with a Navajo church and for the past two years with a church in Tijuana. We have a strategic partnership with several missionaries, including Mike and Becky Mann in Thailand, where we plan to send yet another work team next summer.
• Our experience with effective evangelism here in the US also indicates that God would have us call over another boat to help. The most effective evangelism within a church does not occur when a few people with certain gifts exercise them, but when the whole church as a body in effect witnesses the greatness of Jesus Christ to its community. The most effective community-wide evangelism occurs when the whole church in the community unites in some tangible way.

The Challenge Within (Luke 5:8-10a)

But there's a problem. And it's not with God, and it's not with the world-the problem's in us.

8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

• Let me give you a little hint. This man is called Simon, Peter and Simon Peter. Scripture calls him Simon when He's weak; Peter when he's strong, and Simon Peter when he's at a crossroads. Here, he's Simon Peter. And he falls down at Jesus' feet just devastated. Why?
• A sense of sin (vs. 8) "I am a sinful man." In the face of holiness, in the face of the task, all Peter can think of is his sin. We know he could swear like a sailor. There were two locations in Galilee-one easy walking (or sailing) distance from Capernaum that had notorious brothels. Perhaps he'd engaged in shady business practices. Perhaps he simply realized that God was not high on his priority list.
• The one thing that will torpedo your desire or willingness to be involved in making Jesus known is sin that you have come to enjoy and that you've made a home for in your heart. Sin that's become a kind of a hobby. "Use me, God? You've got to be kidding! There are times I feel like I barely know You myself, and You want to use me to reach others! Depart from me Lord-I'm a sinful man!"
• But there's a second reality: the sense of wonder at seeing what God is doing. Vs. 9-10 say that Peter and the others were "astonished" at the catch of fish. It blew them away. The holiness and power of Jesus both scared them as well as drew them.

The Power of Jesus to Meet the Challenge (Luke 5:10b-11)

I love what Jesus says next:

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

• Don't be afraid! It's OK. It's not that you're not a sinful man, Simon, but don't be afraid. We'll deal with that later. My love is greater than your sin; my grace is greater than your transgressions; my cross is taller than your evil within.
• What Jesus saw when he looked at Simon Peter was not "big time sinner"; he saw a catcher of men. When Jesus looks at you, he does not just see you as Simon, he sees you as Peter as well. He does not see you at your worst and judge you as that person, but by the grace of God, He sees you for what you could be: "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." (vs. 10b)

• Earlier, I said that there are some people here who shouldn't be. You got a call from God to follow Him…wherever, whenever, however…to catch people for God…and you put Him off. I have seen people from teens to retirement years say, "It's time to go!" Jesus calls me out to deep waters to fish for Him. He calls me, in spite of all my limitations of life and ability, to follow Him.

© Copyright 2002, Pastor Glenn Layne, www.templecitybaptist.org