Sermon Transcript
Well, good morning. It’s good to see you guys. Cindy is 37 weeks today. So we’re— baby number 2 is knocking on the door. Actually, quite literally.
I mean, we’ve had some— and by we, I mean Cindy’s had some contractions.
Yeah, that’s my— exactly. Yeah, you know, Rob, you might have to do that. That’s my contribution to the pregnancy right now. I haven’t had contractions. Okay.
Yeah, so getting ready. But we’re pretty excited. We’re actually— many of you guys know we’re in the middle of a move. And so we’re saying, okay, Cindy, you just sit there while we do this. And she’s doing a pretty good job.
Yeah. Well, if you guys have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Luke 5. We’re going to be looking at the first 11 verses.
Let me do that as well. Get this guy out of the way.
Luke 5:1-11. We’ll read those in a little bit, but let me go ahead and pray for us as we get started. Lord Jesus, please give us your Spirit now. Me, as I speak these things, may they be your words, not mine. And each of us, your Spirit as we think about your words and meditate on them.
We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, could you imagine if the person you’re sitting next to in work, God would use to bring thousands of people to Christ? I mean, could you imagine that? That’s essentially what happens in the passage we’re looking at today.
Jesus calls Peter the fisherman in the middle of the workday while he’s cleaning his nets to be a part of his movement. And we all know Peter just went on to have incredible impact for the kingdom of God. Thousands of people in his lifetime putting their faith in Christ, and then down the ages, millions if not billions of people through his impact. I mean, it’s just amazing. You know, so do you think, you know, could you imagine if the person sitting next to you in your office God could use in that way?
You know, I kind of imagine you tomorrow going into work and just kind of like looking over your coworker. Yeah, I think they can do it. And you know, you’re just kind of like, hey, get away from me, like, weirdo. God could do it, and many of us have seen him do it. A number of people coming to faith and then just seeing wonderful things, all the fruit coming out of their lives.
Well, today as we continue our Taking Care of Business sermon series, we’re looking now at the topic of sharing our faith in the workplace. And it’s something we know, sharing our faith, the gospel message, we know we should be sharing. It’s not meant to be kept to ourselves, but if we’re real with ourselves, many of us would admit that we’re not doing it all that well, or perhaps not as effectively as we could be if we’re doing it at all. Well, God has some wonderful plans for the people sitting next to you in the workplace, and what’s amazing to me is he has wonderful plans to use you, use me to help reach them and bring them into his family. So the question we’re really looking at today is, are we embracing this?
Can we embrace this? And the passage we’re looking at is Jesus, it’s a very famous one where Jesus calls Peter the fisherman to become a fisher of people. And what’s really cool, verse 10 says, from now on you will fish for people. In other words, you will reach people in my name. And what I love about this, as I’ve been studying it, it’s been opening up to me, is Jesus doesn’t just call Peter or us down the ages to reach people in his name.
He gives us a case study in how he reaches Peter. Does that make sense? So he calls Peter to be a fisher of people. He calls us to help reach people for him. But here in this account, we see him giving a case study in how he brings Peter into the faith.
And so it’s pretty cool because, put simply, Jesus gives us very practical ways in which we can share our faith in the workplace or wherever and help people realize their potential in Christ. So that’s what we’re going to be looking at. If you have your Bibles open, we’re going to be looking first now at the first 3 verses. One day, as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge 2 boats, left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets.
He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, that is Peter, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. Now this is not the first time Jesus and Peter met. We know from the book of John that Andrew, Peter’s brother, had recently become a follower of Jesus, and one of the first things he does is goes to Peter and says, you gotta check this guy out, we found the Messiah. Okay, now Andrew, we know, didn’t fully know what that meant, but he’s just basically, he’s hyping Jesus up to Peter, and he says, you gotta come and check this guy out.
So Peter goes and meets Jesus, and we don’t know too much about that interaction, except that Peter didn’t really get all as into Jesus as Andrew did. Andrew became a follower of his, Peter went back to fishing. So undoubtedly, Peter probably made the connection, okay, there’s somebody I care about, I love, my brother, he cares about this guy, he’s following him, But, you know, I’m going to stick to my fishing thing. Well, that happened probably a day or 2 before, probably not much longer than that, than the account we’re looking at today. And the account today is really fun, in my opinion, to look at it from Peter’s perspective.
Okay, here’s Peter washing his nets. Okay, he’s had a long night’s worth of work and he caught absolutely no fish. So he’s frustrated and he’s tired. Have you ever had a day where it’s just long, it’s arduous, you get to the end of it and you say, man, the worst part about this is I was terribly unproductive? You ever have those moments?
We hate these times, right? Well, Peter was probably more frustrated than you or I would have been. Okay? You and I are, you know, citizens of the United States. We’re either salaried or paid hourly.
Peter, what he caught was his paycheck. Right? That’s got to be frustrating. He’s also probably more tired than you or I get because of just the physical intensity of the labor. Even if you’re in physical labor, going out there casting nets, pulling them, casting them out, that’s tiring.
And along comes Jesus. He’s sitting there cleaning his nets and along comes Jesus with a crowd in tow. Could you imagine that? Just a crowd coming up. Peter’s just like, okay, what’s going on?
Oh, they’re, uh, it’s like Jurassic Park. They’re coming this way. You guys know that scene? It’s like, you know, Jesus is coming this way. Oh, he’s coming directly at me?
Okay, weird eye contact. What’s going on? And then I love this. Jesus comes and plops himself right into Peter’s boat. Now let me ask you, if you were Peter, what would you be doing?
You know, I think about myself in that situation. I would probably look at Jesus. Look at the crowd, look back at Jesus, mutter something under his breath and say, okay, let’s do this. Alright, let’s go ahead and go out there and let you teach these people. Peter wasn’t going to say no, right?
And so he does. He goes out there and he listens to Jesus preach the word of God for an hour, 2 hours, who knows? But he’s out there listening to Jesus preach the word of God. It’s pretty amazing. Now, what is Jesus doing here?
Especially when we think about it in terms of this case study of him fishing for reaching Peter. And the first thing he shows us is he engaged Peter in the workplace. Right in the middle of the day while he’s cleaning his nets, Jesus engages Peter. Now, Jesus undoubtedly had his eye on Peter. He probably noted that Peter was somewhat open to spiritual things, to hearing more about him.
But the amazing thing to me is Jesus doesn’t wait for Peter to come to him. You see that? Jesus could have very easily, you know, he could have stayed in the synagogue hoping that Peter would come, right? Jesus doesn’t do that. Jesus straight brings the synagogue and all the people to Peter in the workplace, right?
Hey, don’t worry about these guys, let’s just do a little thing right here, right? Jesus is meeting him in the workplace. Do you want to know why this passage, this text here is in the Bible? It seems pretty clear to me. It’s not because Jesus had this sermon that Luke wanted to record.
We don’t have the words recorded here, and there’s plenty of times where Jesus is teaching and we have those sermons in other places. None of his teachings are here. What we do have is Jesus pursuing Peter, and the first thing he does is he engages Peter in the workplace. Now, when we think about our situation We think about what this means for us. It seems to me that a lot of us think of the workplace as a faith-free zone, don’t we?
It’s like there’s these social etiquette, social etiquettes, norms, rules that we just don’t cross. But here, Jesus is showing us that he’s not just a Sunday morning deal. Or, you know, in the text, Sabbath, Saturday morning deal. He’s a Monday through Friday while you’re in the midst of the workplace deal.
You know, and I think if we ask ourselves, you know, but how often do we think of when we share or go to share the faith, we stop ourselves because we think, okay, now’s not the right time. You know, I kind of think of myself if I were in Jesus’ shoes, which is never a good idea. You can’t be in Jesus’ shoes. But if I were in that situation, I probably would have done something like this. Oh, I’m sorry, Peter.
I didn’t realize you were cleaning your nets. It looks like you had a hard night’s work. You’re tired. You’re frustrated. You know, I’ll come back some other time.
How’s that? Right? What does this look like in our workplace? Maybe it’s the coworker who’s always busy with ever-present deadlines. Maybe it’s the coworker who has just all these things going on at home and no time to talk about things.
We do this in different ways, but here’s the thing. It often seems like the times that aren’t right are actually exactly right in God’s mind, and we need to use those, look for those opportunities. I had a friend who was telling me not long ago, a couple years back in Bible study, how he had a friend that he was just wanting to share the gospel with, and he was telling me about this time when it was 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, and just about everybody had left the office for the weekend except for a handful of people, including one of his friends who he was hoping to have a spiritual conversation with. They had been having conversations about spiritual things. This person wasn’t a Christ follower, and he figured, you know what, here’s a time nobody else is in the office, we have some privacy, let me talk to them.
And so he goes up and they have a conversation that lasts hours after the office closes. I mean, he was telling me they stayed till 9:00, 9:30 in the office on a Friday night. You know, I’m sitting there thinking, wow, that’s so cool. You know what I would have been doing? I would have been like, yeah, well, we’ll get to that Monday morning.
We’ll maybe get them to church, right? But he’s saying, look, especially in light of what Jesus is doing here, we need to take advantage of any and every opportunity that the Lord presents to share our faith and to engage with them even in the workplace. Jesus was pursuing his relationship with Peter in the workplace, and I believe he wants us to as well. Well, let’s keep reading. Verse 4: When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon— that is Peter— put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.
So Peter answered, Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything, but because you say so, I will let down the nets. Now, do you remember we were talking about Peter being pretty frustrated? We hear it in his words here, right? Because you say so. You ever use those words?
Don’t do that in marriage, right?
These are words of compliance, right? It’s basically saying, I wouldn’t be doing this except that, okay, because it’s you, I’ll go ahead and do it. And I can think of at least 3 reasons why Peter would not have wanted to do this request that Jesus gives him, in addition to being tired. Sleepy, wanting to get home to bed. The first one is Peter’s the fisherman, Jesus is the preacher.
Could you imagine what Peter was thinking when Jesus said, hey, go do this? Peter’s probably thinking, okay, you’re holy, I’ll give you that. Alright, you got that going for you. This is my turf though. I’m the fisherman.
You’re gonna tell me what to do? The other thing, I’m not an expert fisherman, but I understand that when you’re fishing for certain particular types of fish at night, chances are they’re not gonna be out there biting whatever they do during the daytime. I actually learned this the hard way. I remember one time up in Lake Berryessa, I was fishing at a lake in the middle of the day, my brother and I, and we were catching nothing. We were first-time fishers and we were just like, what’s going on?
Somebody had mercy on us and like, you know, you might want to try dusk or dawn when the fish are actually out. I was like, oh, okay. And then the next day we’re like, oh, you know, fish actually do nibble on the bait. Yeah, right. And then the last thing that I think is really interesting is just the nature of Jesus’ request.
He says, go out into deep water and cast your nets out, right? I mean, you got to think about how random that is. Put it this way, if anybody could go out and throw out their nets in the random deep waters, Peter would be out of a job, right? You wouldn’t need a fisherman. You could just go out in the morning, get your fish, come in, cook it up, right?
You wouldn’t need the expertise of fishermen knowing where to go at what times and Right? So, all that being said, Jesus’ request for Peter to do this is just absurd to Peter. I mean, you gotta think that, right? And yet, Peter says, you know what, I’m gonna go along with it out of respect for you. So what’s going on here?
What is Jesus doing here in this case study of reaching Peter that he wants us to see? Well, Jesus encouraged Peter to take a step of faith. It seems to me we could pull this out. Jesus encouraged Peter to take a step of faith. Now, if you glance down at the next few verses, you’ll see that it was just a miracle that happened next, right?
Peter’s out there, he casts the nets over, and all these fish come aboard. And they even have to bring in another boat to help offset the weight, and that boat too starts to sink. So it’s just an absolute miracle. Now, wouldn’t it be awesome if you or I in the workplace could do something like this? Hey, you know, Friend, why don’t you go back to your desk and you’re going to actually find that the report is already written.
It’s already like perfect, you know. I mean, right? We’re not Jesus, okay? But we can encourage people to put— to take a step in the faith for the one who is the provider, who does perform the miracles. Recently, there’s some friends in this church of ours whose coworker was going through an incredibly hard time.
Just incredibly hard time. I mean, Their son was dying, a little baby boy, and the doctors up there at Stanford were saying there was nothing they could do, the baby was going to die. And I was actually invited to go meet with him, and the guy there was already making funeral arrangements with me. This is just a heartbreaking thing. These guys were not Christ followers, but our friends were up there and they were being with them and they were praying for them.
And it was just amazing. They were encouraging them to pray.
And, you know, actually at one point the guy said, you know what, okay, I’m going to pray to God and if he saves my baby, I’m going to become a follower of Christ. I’m going to commit my life to him. And I kid you not, the baby survived. The doctors up there said, we can’t explain this, but, you know, it looks like the baby’s going to survive. This was a couple months ago.
The coworker, the friend, they all came a couple weeks after all these events happened. And I remember we were out there in front of the handicap spots out there. You guys ever have those times where you’re just so happy that you’re just smiling all over the place, but you’re so emotional that it’s like you’re crying, you’re like happy, and it’s like— we were a mess. Alright, that was us out there. It was awesome.
And as Christ followers, we couldn’t help but give God the glory. And it was just gushing out of us, praise God that he saved this baby, right? Amen. And we’re just sitting out there, just a couple weeks ago, months ago I should say, you know, now this is a pretty extreme example, but our God is a God of extremes, no? But I don’t know what it’s gonna look like for you in your workplace, I don’t.
You know, it could mean the person who’s struggling, just having a lot of pressure and stress on them, Coming up next to them, putting an arm around them, if that’s acceptable, check with HR, putting an arm around them and saying, you know, hey, when I’m under this much stress, I pray to Jesus for comfort and peace. Can I pray that with you now? And then checking with them later. I don’t know what this is gonna look like. It’s a case-by-case study, right?
I mean, we would think. It seems to me that what we need to do is be looking for, listening to promptings of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, filled with the Spirit, We’re filled with the Spirit now, and we can just sense times maybe it’s appropriate to ask them to encourage them to take a step in faith in a certain way, looking for opportunities to do that and trusting God for the miracle. Look, God is a God of miracles, both the physical and the spiritual. And actually, it’s interesting to me that the spiritual miracles— the Bible is clear Those are the more powerful, amazing miracles that when we see people start to come to life in Christ, that is when you just see real power and God working.
And so let’s be praying and helping others take steps of encouraging them to take steps of faith in Jesus, trusting God for his provision, even the miracle. Let’s look at verse 6. When they had done so, that is randomly tossed their nets over in the deep water. 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, and they came and filled both boats 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, that is Peter, don’t be afraid.
From now on you will fish for people. So they pulled their, their boats up on shore, left everything, and followed him. Now when the fish started coming in, it was as if everything started to click for Peter. There was no way of escaping this in his mind. The fish coming in was not just a feat of luck.
It was not a fluke. There’s something special about this guy. There’s something unique. He’s holy. He’s set apart.
And look at his conclusion here in verse 8. Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Now what’s going on there? You know, as a pastor, I run into this sort of phenomenon every once in a while. It’s really awkward when it happens, but there’ll be times when I’m out hanging out with folks And let’s say it’s a group of people and, you know, friends of friends, so people don’t necessarily know who I am or what I do.
And there will come a time when I’m like having conversation with people and the moment will come and click when they realize I’m a pastor. And then it’s as if all time stops. And it’s as if like, okay, was I cussing? Have I shared anything that I’m not proud of? You know, it’s like, you know, in these moments I’m kind of like, hello?
You know, it’s really awkward. But sometimes they’ll even share, hey, I’m really sorry I’ve been using this language. I didn’t realize you were a pastor. I’m like, man, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it, but clean up your potty mouth.
No, of course not. I mean, it’s just, you know, I’m a sinful person. I might be a pastor, but I am sinful, right? Peter, on the other hand, was coming face to face with the realization that he was in the presence of the Son of God. Now, he wouldn’t have been able to articulate it that way for years to come, but he was coming to that sense, that realization.
Look, Jesus had just brought in this miraculous catch of fish. What is the deal with that? And Peter’s only conclusion is, go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. What does that mean?
What is Peter saying? He’s saying, Jesus, I’m unworthy. Look, whatever standard it is you’re preaching, I cannot, I have never been able to live up to it, and I cannot live up to that. It would just do us both good if you just left and forgot about me. Can we do that?
Depart from me, Lord, for I’m a sinful person.
And then Jesus says some of the most beautiful words, don’t be afraid. He takes it a little bit further. He says, from now on, you will fish for people. The 3rd thing Jesus shows us about how we are to share our faith in this case study is Jesus invited Peter into a wonderful future with him. Do not be afraid.
Don’t be afraid. I want to look at this heading with 2 emphases here. The first one is this wonderful future is based entirely on grace. Do you see this in the text? Why would Jesus say, do not be afraid?
You know, what’s going on with that?
It seems pretty clear to me that Jesus is saying, you know what, Peter? You’re onto something. You’re actually onto something. You are a sinner and I am holy. But you know what?
I have come for you. I want you. And not only do I want you, I want you to be about my movement. I want you on board. In other words, he’s saying, you might not be worthy, but here’s the deal.
I will make you worthy. And your sin does not exclude you from being about my things. That’s grace.
Cindy sent me an excerpt from a book that I actually read probably 5, 10 years ago. Bono in Conversation. Have you guys read that? It’s really interesting, but it’s Bono on the difference between karma and grace. And I want to read it here because I think it kind of sheds light on what’s going on here between Peter and Jesus.
Bono said, it’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people. Peter’s sitting there like, me? But the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between grace and karma. You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics, in physical laws, every action is met by an equal or opposite one. It’s clear to me that karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. In a sense, that’s what Peter was saying to Jesus. When he says, I’m not worthy.
I can’t be about the things that you’re setting up. That standard, whatever standard you have, I can’t live up to it. Now he wouldn’t obviously use the word karma, but look, it’s interesting to me that Bono actually uses the word, you know, that eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. That’s straight out of the Old Testament. Peter’s saying, I can’t live up to whatever standard it is you’re teaching, Jesus.
I cannot do it.
Bono goes on and says, and yet along comes this idea called grace to upend all that. As you reap, so you will sow stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff. That’s between me and God, but I’d be in big trouble if karma was going to finally be my judge.
I’d be in deep trouble. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for grace. I’m holding out that Jesus took my onto the cross because I know who I am and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world so that what we put out did not come back to us and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point.
It should keep us humbled. It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven. Now there’s more, I’m not going to read it, but Peter was beginning to taste and see the grace of Jesus Christ. And if you’re here today and you are not yet a follower of Christ, this is the message. Grace.
Jesus came to this world to die on the cross for your sins and mine, and that if we receive him by faith, we’ll have forgiveness of sins and eternal life with him. Not based on anything we’ve done, but based entirely on what he did for us on the cross. That’s it. That’s the message. That’s the message he’s given us.
And, you know, if you’re here today, I’ll give you an opportunity to accept it later. If you so desire. But as Christ followers, this is our message that we have to take out. It’s grace through and through. This is in the essence what Peter is realizing when Jesus says, do not be afraid.
Do not be afraid of what? Do not be afraid that I have come to judge you based on any standard, including the Old Testament. I have come to fulfill that for you. Now, did Peter know how this was all going to work out? Did he know how Jesus was going to be able to do this?
Probably not. But Jesus had every bit of authority to say, do not be afraid, because of what he was getting ready to do. Heading to the cross, he could say, do not be afraid because I’m going to take away your sins. That’s the message Jesus gives us. It’s like when Jesus says, do not be afraid, it’s like the Reverend Jack Miller, a New York City preacher.
He said, cheer up, you’re a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, but you’re more loved than you ever dared hope. Now that’s the gospel message. That’s the grace that we have. And so when we’re sharing our faith in the workplace or wherever, it’s an invitation to a wonderful future with Jesus that is based entirely on grace. The second thing I want to emphasize here under this heading is, but we have to give people the invitation.
We have to give people a clear invitation. Some of you might be familiar with Cru’s 4 Spiritual Laws, Campus Crusade for Christ, Cru’s 4 Spiritual Laws. You guys know those? It’s Cru’s way of succinctly sharing the gospel in this little packet, 4 Spiritual Laws. A little cheesy, but it’s effective.
The first spiritual law is God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. A lot of what we’re talking about, it’s based on grace. Laws 2 and 3 are, you know, the problem of sin is Because of how we chose to live apart from God, it separated us from relationship with him. Law 3 is saying, but you know what? Jesus has made the way back to God available through what he did on the cross.
And then there’s the 4th spiritual law, which I think is really interesting. It’s this: we must individually receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Kind of lays it out there for folks. You’re kind of just like, okay, you want to do it?
When I was in college, I used to go on winter retreats with Cru. They’d send all the UC’s Christian students with Cru down to San Diego. San Diego’s a good place to go in winter. But anyways, we’d go down there for a conference, and if anybody is familiar with Cru, you know that they’re very evangelistically driven. And so for one of the days, they would send each of us, all 1,000 of us, out onto the streets in the middle of a workday, with the 4 spiritual laws that say, go share your faith.
And let me tell you what, that was terrifying, right? I mean, many of you know me, I’m extroverted, right? I can just kind of strike up conversations with people, but how does that go? It’s like, okay, hey, yeah, hey, you’re waiting for this bus, you like the weather? Hey, so Jesus.
But you know, actually, it wasn’t as bad as you think, because people are cool, at least in San Diego. You know, they’re just like, hey, yeah, you know, I’ll Well, let’s have this conversation. Sure. Or a number of people were just saying, yeah, you know what, I don’t want to have that conversation. Okay, cool.
But you know what was more terrifying than actually making that initial contact with people? It was actually, for me, getting to the 4th spiritual law. Because that was the place we must each individually receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. That was the place where it was all laid out on the table for folks. And you just kind of said, So do you want that?
That was terrifying for me. I don’t know about you, my sense is it is from a lot of the conversations I’ve had with the people even in this room. It’s really hard to lay out the invitation. Now why is that? If it’s the most wonderful news that there is, why is it when we get to that part it’s so hard?
Why is that? And I’ve been reflecting on it for me, perhaps this is similar for you. It seems to me one of the biggest reasons for that is because of the call to action that it is. We’re asking people to throw in their lives with Jesus. Now, as a Christ follower, there’s nothing better I could hope or pray for anybody around me to receive.
And yet still, bringing this call to action is such a hard thing. It seems to me that when we’re sharing our faith in the workplace or wherever, this is perhaps the biggest obstacle for us, is actually laying out a clear invitation. I heard someone after the first service say, oh yeah, but I don’t have the gift of evangelism. Oh, but you took that away from me. I can’t say that anymore.
I actually have to do it. Okay. We have to lay out the invitation for folks. And it seems to me that folks are more interested than we tend to give them credit. But let me share with you a little bit, like, you know, just to paint this picture a little bit more.
You know, I think if I were there and I was working with Peter, My conversation would have been something like this, and I’m going to make fun of myself a little bit here, but it’s like, you know, okay Peter, you just saw this really cool fish thing happen. Okay, that was God. Okay. Hey, yeah, Jesus, so you want to think about considering to think about following him? I mean, right?
It’s kind of like we just timidly put it out there. Look at Jesus. Do you want to see how Jesus, his invitation, he said, don’t Don’t be afraid. From now on you will fish for people. Do you even see the invitation?
I mean, there’s obviously an invitation because Peter is fishing and now he’s fishing for people, right? So there’s been this change. Do you even see it? Look at Jesus.
When he invites Peter to be about his work, to Jesus it’s a done deal. Do you see that? Hey Peter, you just need to come on board now.
Right? Jesus goes so much further even to say, from now on you will fish for people. Jesus invited Peter into a wonderful future with him. This is a wonderful future based on grace, entering into God’s story with a lot of purpose, eternal purpose. It wasn’t necessarily always going to be easy, but it was such a worthy that Peter, even at the end of his life, a hard life in many respects, was saying, are you kidding?
There is nothing better.
And it would never have happened if Jesus didn’t initiate with him, sought him out and initiated, gave him the opportunity, invited him along. And it’s like I said earlier, it’s my humble opinion that people often have more interest in Jesus than we tend to give them credit. So what a shame if they would be interested and open and we don’t lay out that invitation. We need to give people the invitation.
Cindy had a coworker in China that sat near to her but wasn’t directly on her team, worked on some related work projects. And if you had asked Cindy beforehand, like early on, which of her coworkers would have been open to spiritual things, this particular woman, we’ll call her Joy, would have been pretty far down on that list. She was always busy with different things. She never went to social functions because she wanted to get home and be with her young daughter. But from a work perspective, she was there.
She was committed and always there, and she knew Cindy to be a Christian. Well, one day, actually on a very, very busy day, I’m talking a day or two before the launch of this website. I didn’t see much of Cindy during this period. This happened that kind of period. Cindy got this instant message on her computer screen from Joy saying, I’d like to see you in the corner office.
Cindy didn’t know what the deal was, went to the corner office, opened the door, and found Joy sobbing. And so she went up to Joy and just didn’t know what to do, put an arm around her and sat with her. And a few minutes later, Joy brought herself to say that her husband had a mistress. And she didn’t know what this was going to mean for her life. She didn’t know what it was going to mean for her daughter’s life.
You know, it’s an unfortunate thing with the nature of business in China. A lot of people have to work separate areas for long periods of time from husband and wife. And Cindy and I have seen over and over again, sadly, that it often destroys marriages. Well, Cindy’s sitting there listening, praying, praying, not knowing what to say, but eventually just says, you know, I believe in God and I would like to pray. Would that be okay?
And Joy said, yeah, I’d like that. And then a week later, Cindy sought her out and invited Joy to a Seekers Bible study that she and our neighbors had been putting on together, and Joy got to experience Christianity community, got to experience Christ, get to know more and more about him. And Cindy, over lunch, would follow up with her. How are things going? What— how are you processing what we talked about in Bible study last night?
Uh, you know, who, who is Jesus? What does he mean to you? And her, her response in those times, Cindy was telling me, was, you know, you know, I, I’m convinced. I believe in God. I don’t know how this is all going to look, but I’m— it may— yeah, I want to I don’t know how this is going to work out, but I’m interested.
Well, Cindy kept continuing to gently give her invitations to receive Christ. And we actually ended up leaving for the US. And we did one of those spiritual handoffs, like, okay, hey, mutual friends of ours kind of took her on and was meeting up with her. And we found out not long after we came back from China that Joy had clearly put her faith in Jesus. Now she could have put her faith in Jesus earlier than that, but we knew with certainty that she had put her faith in Jesus.
And man, I had the honor of meeting Joy and her little daughter, and I just think her story is so encouraging, especially in light of what we’ve been talking about. You know, the workplace, the office that Cindy was working in was very large, but Cindy was doing her best to engage people even in the workplace.
To let them know that she was Christian, not in some pompous way, but quietly, gently, in the hopes of helping people spark interest for having conversation. And Cindy kept her eyes open for opportunities to point people to Jesus, to encourage them to take a step in faith. And God used this. I mean, the coworker— God used where the coworker’s at, you know, the sad pain and need that she was going through, just to bring her to a place where she could see and understand who Jesus is. And the thing was, Cindy never backed down, over and over giving her an invitation.
This is one of the things I love about Cindy, she knows this, it’s just how bold she is, just continuing to say, would you put your faith in Christ? Are you on board? And by God’s grace, the Lord used all this to bring Joy to the faith. You know, this passage to me really boils down to this one idea, this one thought, especially in light of how we’re thinking about this, the Taking Care of Business series. God wants to use our work for his.
I really think it comes down to that. God wants to use our work for his work. He spoke to the fishermen using language that a fisherman would understand, right? Peter, from now on, you will fish for people. What does that mean in your context?
Are you a marketer? Will you be a marketer for Jesus? This last week at YOPROs, one of the girls, she’s a scientist in the science field, and she was talking about how she’s just been over the last few years trying to equip herself to be able to answer common objections that people have in her field. How cool is that? Where does God have you?
And so, you know, for some it’s going to look like for Peter where Jesus comes and just picks you up and moves you into a different line of work. But for the vast majority, and a lot of scripture speaks to this, God wants to use us where we are through who we are with the skill sets that he’s given us, with the respect that we’re able to build up in our particular fields, with the understanding of the common struggles or interests or longings that people have around us. Jesus and grace speaks into all of that. One thought that’s really been helping me as I process this is thinking of it this way. You ever think, God has us on assignment.
You think about it that way? In your work, we’re on assignment for the Lord, helping people see him. And so I think it really comes down to, again, that question we asked in the beginning. Are we embracing this? Can we embrace this?
Can we look for opportunities to engage people even in the workplace, to point people to Jesus when we can, encourage them to take steps of faith, and then when we can, being bold, inviting them to the wonderful future of Jesus Christ, the grace, but laying it out there for them. And I just think about the potential in this room. You know, Jesus came and just transformed Peter to have the impact that he did. I think about the potential in this room. I think Jesus is making the strong point in coming and calling Peter that if he can do this with a simple fisherman, I can do it with anybody and everybody, and I want to.
And so it comes down to us. Are we willing? Can we embrace this? So let’s be praying and looking for opportunities to use our work for his. Let’s pray.
With everybody’s heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to give those of you who are not followers of Christ an opportunity to receive him, as I said I would. Jesus— well, in the book of John, it says, to all who receive him, to those who believe on his name, he gives the right to become children of God. And if you would like to put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins Not based on anything you have done or could ever do, but based entirely on what he has done for you on the cross. If you’d like to receive this and eternal life in his name, I would invite you to raise your hand. I’ll see it and pray for it.
I’m not going to ask you to do anything weird, but I’ll see it. Yes, I see that hand.
More importantly, God will see it.
Any others? Like to receive Jesus?
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we first of all pray for this sister who raised her hand to receive you today. Lord, we talk about spiritual miracles. Lord, each of us who have raised our hands, including this sister, knows that this is a miracle, and we just, we praise you for it. And I just pray that you would draw her close to you as you drew Peter close to you.
And Lord, as each of us are reflecting on your calling in our lives, not only just to receive you but to be about your movement, Lord, what an honor and privilege that we don’t deserve.
But just like your intense love for Peter, You have intense love for us and you pursue us and you want us— you want to use us, and for that we’re thankful and we give you the glory. So Lord, please use us. We need your help. We need your grace even in this. Help us as individuals.
Help us as a church body. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
