Obedience, Blessing, and Sacrifice

Luke 5:1-11 - Riley Boggs

Introduction

If someone were to ask you what following Christ looks like, what would you say? There are a lot of thing we could say - a lot of things that would be true. 3 things that came to my mind, specifically from this text, is obedience, blessing, and sacrifice. Following Christ means obeying Christ. In the great commission Christ tells us to go out and make disciples of all nations, baptize them, and then what? Teach them to obey all that He, Christ, has commanded. Following Christ is also a blessing. There is no greater blessing in the world than being able to follow the one who saved us. Yes there are times of hardship and suffering, but like Paul, we can rejoice even in our suffering because we know and are known by the Lord. Lastly, following Christ requires sacrifice. It demands that we give up things, things that we might not want to give up, in order to follow Him. Obedience, Blessing, and Sacrifice.

I think our text this morning helps us to see each of these things more clearly. It helps us to see what these things look like and encourages us to follow Christ all the more, which for me, I know I need. I need to constantly be reminded of what it looks like to follow Christ to be encouraged to keep going, to keep obeying, to remember the blessings I have received, and to be willing to sacrifice for my Lord. I’m forgetful and often distracted, and I would guess that I’m not the only one who here who can say that about themselves. So, this morning, what I’d like to do is put this text before you so that you might be reminded of what it looks like to follow Christ. I want to walk through the story, so we understand all that is happening and then give you 4 simple points.

Our text starts off, in verse 1, by telling us that Jesus was teaching on the shore of a lake. This text calls it the lake of Gennesaret, but this is the same body of water that is often called the sea of Galilee. Nonetheless he is standing by this lake teaching and people were getting closer and closer, sort of pushing Jesus towards the lake. And we read that Jesus looks around and sees 2 boats sitting there, not being used, because fishermen had just returned from fishing and were cleaning their nets. So Jesus decides to get into one of the boats, Simon Peter’s, and asked him to take him a little off the shore so that He can continue to teach these people, without being pressed into the lake.

And so Simon takes Jesus a little off the shore in the boat, Jesus sits down, and He teaches for a while. And then, once He finishes teaching, he tells Simon to go out into the deeper water and throw down his nets to catch fish. Simon hears this and says, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” See Simon was an experienced fishermen, he knew that fishing at night was better, and he had just been fishing all night and caught nothing. And now, during the day, a worse time to fish, Jesus asks him to try again.

Simon tells him this, but he also says, if you say to cast the nets again, I’ll do it. And then he does. He and the other fishermen throw the nets into the water and begin to catch a ton of fish. They begin to catch so many fish that their nets start to break, and they ask the other fishmen in a different boat to come and help them. They come over and begin to help, and they start filling their boats with the fish they have caught. And they have caught so many fish that as they fill their boats, the boats begin to sink.

Simon looks around and begins to take in everything that is happening. And verse 8 says that he fell down at Jesus’ feet and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” And everyone there was astonished at what had just happened, they couldn’t believe it. James and John were probably especially amazed, because they were fishing partners with Simon, and had been there all night as they caught nothing, and now this. Then Jesus responds to Simon in verse 10 and says, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Then, they make their way back to the shore. And once they get there, they leave everything behind. They leave their boats and all of the fish they had just caught and follow Jesus.

Like I said, I think this text gives us a picture, or example, of what it looks like to follow Christ. The first part of that picture is this.

1.) We must always obey God’s Word

Our lives are full of choices. From the moment we wake up until the moment we fall asleep; we are making choices. And some of those choices are difficult because there isn’t a clear right or wrong choice to be made, it’s up to our discernment. For example, choosing to take a new job or stay at the one you are at. That can be a difficult question because there might not be a clear right or wrong choice. There are good reasons to stay, good reasons to go. There are bad reasons to stay and bad reasons to go. But in the end, you ultimately have to make a choice, through prayer and discernment. Those, I think, are the more difficult decisions we have to make in life. They can weigh on you over time.

The good news is not all decisions are like that. Not all choices are so grey and left up to discernment, especially for Christians. For us, we have the Word of God in our hands, and we have been told to obey it to the uttermost. When the Bible says do this, we do it. We don’t have to discern whether or not we should, we know that we should. The difficultly comes in the actual practice of it, not in knowing whether or not we should.

I think we see this in Simon’s interaction with Jesus. Simon, James, and John had been fishing all night the previous night and had caught nothing. You can sense that Simon was disappointed or maybe frustrated about it because he said that they had toiled all night just to come up with nothing. And he’s cleaning his nets that gained him nothing, he’s listening to Jesus teach, and then all of sudden he hears his name. Jesus says, “Simon, go throw your nets in the deeper water to catch some fish.”

I can imagine Simons thoughts were something like this. “These nets? The ones I just cleaned? That water? the water I have fished all night in and caught nothing? Are you serious?” But, while this might have been going through Simon’s head, what he does is different. He tells Jesus what happened the previous night, but then, He does it. And why does he say that he does it? Because Jesus told him to. Despite Simon’s reasoning or doubt or any of that, when Jesus tells him to do something, he just does it.

I think this is a lesson for us in following Christ. So often we can be tempted to think that we are wiser than God. We know what the Lord has commanded in His Word, but we think we might know better in certain situations. We read that the Bible says to love our enemies, and we say, “Okay, yes, we will do that.” And then, when the enemies come, we make start making exceptions. We think, “Surely, we are not supposed to love these enemies. I mean, I know the Lord said to love our enemies, but He didn’t have this in mind. Have you seen what they have done? I don’t think I have to love them.” The issue with this is that we don’t know better that God, we are not wiser than Him. We don’t have the right to make exceptions to what God has said. If the Lord commands it, as followers of the Lord, we simply do it.

And don’t get me wrong, this is easier said than done. But, it must be done, nonetheless. We must always obey the Word of God, because Christ has said it. Even if experience tells us otherwise, we do it. Even if our feelings tell us otherwise, we do it. Even if we have caught no fish all night and the Lord says do it again, we do it again. To follow Christ is to trust Christ. Trust that what He said is true and is good for us, no matter what.

I also want to add something that came across while studying this past week. Ignorance doesn’t give us an out on this. That is, just because you don’t know the Bible says it, doesn’t mean you’re off the hook on obeying that commandment. We have been called to search the Word and obey the Word. The responsibility falls on us to do both, and so we should. To claim ignorance of not knowing the Bible says something would be like Simon pretending he couldn’t hear Jesus. It would be clear disobedience. But Simon did hear, and He did obey, and so should we.

And when we do that, when we obey God’s Word, we will be blessed. That is what I want us to see for our second point.

2.) When we obey God’s Word, we will be blessed

Many of you might be familiar with something called the health and wealth Gospel. If you’re not, let me explain what it is. The health and wealth Gospel is the belief that if you follow Jesus and have faith in Him, you will prosper. Specifically, you will prosper in your health and wealth. If you’re sick, have faith, and you’ll get better. If you’re poor, have faith, and you’ll get rich. There are many different versions of it, packaged in different ways, but the most prominent teachers of this are people like Joel Osteen, Keneth Copeland, T.D. Jakes, and Benny Hinn. There’s a lot more than that, but those are among most well-known I would imagine.

There are a lot of issues with this kind of thinking, but the main one is that the Bible doesn’t say that we are guaranteed health and wealth on this Earth. We have been promised that we will have all that we could ever want and have perfected bodies in eternity, but for now, on this Earth, we haven’t been promised this. In fact, the Bible tells us that if we follow Christ, more times than not, the opposite will be true. If we follow Christ, we will be hated at times, we will suffer, we will sacrifice, and so on. Health and wealth are not guaranteed. The health and wealth Gospel is a false and dangerous “gospel”.

Now, we hear all of that and we can be tempted to overreact in the other direction. We can be tempted to think that following Christ means we are in for a joyless slog until the end. We can be tempted to think that obedience and faith will never result in us being blessed. But that isn’t true either. Later, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus will say, “Blessed is the one who hears the Word of God and keeps it.” In other words, if you obey the Word of God, you will be blessed.

So how are we to think about this? What’s right way to think about obedience and blessing? Well, let’s look at our text. Despite any doubt that Simon might have had because of his previous night fishing, he obeys Jesus, and throw his net into the water. And what happens? He catches such an overwhelming amount of fish that his nets begin to break, he has to call for the other boat to help him, and the weight of the fish began to cause both of the boats to sink. That is what happened when Simon obeyed the Lord.

Now, I want us to think about this. Why did that happen? Why did Simon fail to catch fish the previous night, but now he catches so many fish that it sinks his boat? Is it because Jesus showed him a new spot? Is it because Jesus showed him a new technique to throw the net? No, it’s none of that. The reason that Simon catches fish is because he was obedient to the Lord. Jesus said throw your nets in for a catch, and as a result of Simons obedience, he caught fish. He blessed, overwhelmingly so.

And the truth that needs to be grasped by us this morning is that if we obey God, we too will be blessed. We will. But this blessing does not come by way of health and wealth. God might cause you to have great success in business and He might heal you miraculously from sickness. But do you know what’s going to happen regardless? You’re going to die, and you aren’t taking any of the money you made with you. And so on one hand, yes, the Lord might bless your obedience to Him in tangible ways, but that is not the primary way we are blessed. No, the primary way we are blessed as a result of our obedience is by knowing our Savior more and more. It is being conformed to the image of Christ. It is by growing to the point where amidst suffering and hardship, you can have peace and joy. Real peace, real joy. That is the blessing that comes from obedience.

The Lord has blessed us as a church in so many ways, a lot of them are tangible. He’s given us a building and the means to make it better in so many ways. But, that isn’t the greatest blessing we have been given. Do you know how I know that? I know that because if this building were to burn down, we would still gather together somewhere else the next Sunday. The blessing is one another. The blessing is the body of Christ that He has uniquely created so that we might grow in Him and love one another. That is the true blessing.

And I think, Simon realizes this. After catching all of these fish, he doesn’t scream to the shore and say, “Did you see what I just caught? Can you believe it! I’ve caught more fish than anyone before!” He didn’t say that. No, what does he do? He falls on his knees in humble adoration of the Lord. He sees Jesus better. He sees the nature of Jesus. The blessing here is two-fold, and one is clearly greater than the other. At the end of the story, Simon will leave one of these behind in pursuit of the other.

If you obey the Lord, He will bless you. It might not come in the form of more money and body that never hurts. In fact, your obedience to the Lord might lead you to greater suffering. But that does not mean that you are not being blessed, you are. And there is a blessing beyond what we can imagine for those who do follow Christ, for those who obey Him.

For our third point, I want to look more at Simon’s response to this blessing, which is this.

3.) Blessings from God should lead us to humility

I won’t spend much time on this point, but I want you to think about this with me. When Simon begins to bring in all these fish and he falls down before Jesus, he isn’t just falling before Him because of understands more about who Jesus is. It’s more than that. Look at what he says. Verse 8, he says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Simon didn’t just see who Jesus was, but he saw himself more clearly. He knew all of his faults and failures, and he knew that he had no business standing before the Lord of all creation. The one who can cause fish to jump in the net despite what anyone would think. Simon’s sinfulness felt overwhelming in light of this Jesus. When Jesus blessed Simon, it led him to humility.

This is an important thing for us to remember. When the Lord blesses us, we cannot allow it to lead us to arrogance or pride. We cannot do that. If you have been blessed with a certain skill or talent, you cannot claim it at your own and use it to build yourself up in front of the world. It needs to lead you to humility, knowing that God would be so kind to you in that way. The same is true if the Lord blesses you financially. If that happens, no matter how hard you might have worked for it, you cannot see it as your own. It’s all the Lord’s and He has blessed you so that you might steward it well. It should not lead you to self-exaltation, but to humility. This is true of all the blessings from the Lord. Our health, our children, our friends, our everything. Whatever it is that the Lord has blessed you with, it must lead you to humility. See this is all tied together. Because if we respond in humility, not arrogance, then we that means we are also growing in Godliness. And that might be the greatest blessing that we receive through it all.

Simon didn’t feel like he could even be in the Lord’s presence anymore. He came to a deeper realization of who Jesus is and felt overwhelmed by his own sinfulness. But, in the kindness of the Jesus, what does He say to Simon? He says, “do not be afraid.” He doesn’t say that Simon’s wrong, because he isn’t. Simon is sinful and Jesus is holy, that is true. The reason that He says do not be afraid is because Jesus has not come to judge Simon in his sins, He’s come to save Simon from his sins. He come to save him, to teach him, and to send him out for a task. What is that task? To proclaim the good news, to make disciples of Jesus Christ, to catch men. Jesus tells Simon that and we read that once they got to shore, Simon left everything behind and followed Jesus. That is what I want us to look at for our final point.

4.) We must be willing to leave things behind in order to follow Jesus

I love how Luke tells this story. He makes sure we understand that they had just caught an unimaginable of fish and then he makes sure than we understand that they left it all behind. It’s amazing how before Simon knew who Jesus was, before he called Him Lord, the fish might have seemed like his whole world. He was a fishermen, this is how he spent all of his time. And this is the greatest day of success ever. But then, once he realizes who Jesus is, once he calls Him Lord, none of it matters. It’s not that the fish have lost their value, it’s that Simon realizes there is something he desires even more now. He wants to be with the Lord, he wants to fish for men, He wants to follow Jesus. Everything else seems a little less important than it once did.

I think this text prompts us to ask a rather obvious question of ourselves. What are we willing to give up to follow Christ? Think about this with me. I mean genuinely ask yourself these questions. What would you leave behind to follow Jesus? Or maybe let me ask it this way, what would you be unwilling to leave behind? What is the cost that is too high? If the Lord calls your family across the world to share the Gospel, would your stuff be what kept you from going? Would all of the things that you’ve genuinely worked for be the thing that caused you to say, “You know, I don’t think that’s for us.”

I’m not saying that it’s always that simple because it’s not. But what I am saying is that the things that we have, even the things that the Lord has blessed us with, can form a very tight grip on our hearts. So tight in fact that we are unable or unwilling to go when Jesus says to go. But we cannot be like this, we have to be willing to leave things behind in pursuit of Christ. You might be wondering, “what kind of things do you mean?”

Listen to the words of Jesus. In chapter 14 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says this, “25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.’”

We have to be willing to renounce it all. We have to be willing to leave it all behind to follow Jesus. How this plays out in your life, I don’t know. But what I do know is that your heart must be there far before it’s demanded of you. What Christ wants is not for you to sell everything right now, that’s not it. We are to be good stewards of what we have been given. Rather, Christ wants your heart willing and ready to forsake it all for Him. He wants you to hold the things of this world loosely so that you might cling to Him firmly.

And this can seem like a lot, like an impossible thing, and yet we are reminded of what He has done for us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. God crushed His Son for us, for a people who continually rebel and disobey. He did this so that we might have eternal life with Him, so that we might be saved. Now, we must be willing to sacrifice for Him. All things, even our own life, in order to follow Jesus. But even in that, even in a forsaking of our own life, we remain blessed beyond comprehension. Why? Because we shall live for all eternity in a perfected world, with our brothers and sisters, and with the one who saved us. Let us press on in faithfulness until that day. Amen.