Luke 6

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0:00 I was thinking about this Lord's Prayer this morning when I read our gospel reading and so I thought we would start with it this morning because we don't always start with the Lord's Prayer or we don't always include the Lord's Prayer now. We're just going up, we always include the Lord's Prayer now. We're just... And also because we're getting ready several of these middle schoolers are walking up towards confirming their faith and one of the things we want them to know about is they

0:34 confirm their faith as the Lord's Prayer. How do you feel about that? And I said, you know how many petitions are in the Lord's Prayer? More than three but you're in the right direction. There's several petitions in the Lord's Prayer. It's an outline that Jesus gives us on how he could pray. And the thing that will come up for us this morning in the gospel reading is where Jesus tells his disciples, his friends and students that when they're praying they could ask for

1:06 their daily bread. It's really interesting that Jesus instructs them to ask for their daily bread, what they need to get by, that they should ask for that. We could say a lot of things in his prayer, when he's outlining the prayer. And he does because several things, there's not the only thing he says, but one of the things that I want to think about today, if you look at this gospel reading, is what are we supposed to do with the reality that Jesus well is here on earth and is stored

1:42 in time and interactions, spends time helping people think about and achieve and retreat their daily bread. And so I'd love to start this morning praying this prayer together and I would love for you to, the beauty of the Lord's prayers and you've been through it enough where you know the words pretty well and now you have it so you can read them and you don't have to really think about the words. You can use the words as an anchor and then put your mind on something in particular.

2:12 So this morning what I'd love to do is we pray this word together, this prayer at once, really simply. But as you read it, I'd love for you to think about what daily bread looks like for you right now. What kind of provision do you need for your day, for your week, for your month, for this year? What kind of, what kind of, what material means do you have? What's your house situation like? What's your call? What's your work situation like?

2:44 We all have means and Jesus is not ignorant or embarrassed or too important to bother himself in Christ's days. He encourages us to ask for our daily bread. So we'll pray this together and while we do I'd encourage you just to put that on your heart and lay that in front of the board, what you're daily breaded. Okay, we pray together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

3:17 Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. The thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Okay. So the gospel reading that we have signed is from Luke chapter 5.

3:49 So Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Luke chapter 5. And the verses that they assigned us are verses 1 to 11 of the chapter. But I want to back up just a little bit. As we got to get a little bit of the context of the story in order to really appreciate what's going on in chapter 5, 1 to 11. If you go back to the beginning of chapter 4, Jesus has just come through the baptism

4:28 where he's baptized five down the back of it and then goes out into the desert for the 40 day craft and the encounter with the enemy. And just after he leaves the desert, the angels attend to him and feed him. And then he starts his ministry in Nazareth. He goes back home. So it's hard to know like when he goes out to see down the back, that would have been

5:00 a little bit of a walk if he were in Nazareth, maybe near the home where he grew up in. Maybe some people think he was like learning the cartridge, we pray. But if he had left Nazareth to go siege on the baskets, that might have been a couple days journey down to where Jerusalem is from Nazareth. Then he gets in and goes through the Jordan River, has the experience where he's affirmed by the voice of God and then goes out into the desert on its own for 40 days, which is

5:37 right a little more than a month, 40 days. So now he has maybe a month and a half that he's been gone. And he comes back to Nazareth now having had the verbal affirmation of the divine God and the descending of the Holy Spirit and the anointing of John the Baptist. I mean had a face-to-face conflict with the enemy where he offers them all the kingdoms of the world. This is a pretty heavy experience, right?

6:08 Any fasting for 40 days in the desert, then he comes back home. And he comes back to the synodal where like everyone that knows Jesus is. And the easiest thing about Jesus, you have to remember to think about when Jesus is growing up, remember the story in Matthew where Herod finds out that the close king of the Jews has been born and he's not 100% sure where he is.

6:39 So he has all the babies that are two and under killed, it's why Jesus and Joseph and Mary have to run to Egypt when Jesus is young. Well of course that means that in all the places where Herod had authority and especially in a couple of those villages, there are like no boys Jesus is age or parents age. So when you grow up in a small town like Nazareth, there might be a lot of attention on little Jesus growing up, right? Because he's not named John after his dad, he's got his name and then there's not any

7:14 boys who's age when he comes back. And so it's conspicuous, he's a conspicuous anyway, but then what I'm saying is he comes back to the tomb's synagogue and he does this whole thing about the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he is the noise of Jesus or plain good news. And the short version is they are like not having it from Jesus. And so Nazareth takes them out and he goes to this neighboring village on this lake to Pernum where actually when you look at the story, a lot of the disciples grew up together

7:48 in Pernum and they'll come up here a little bit, but Peter, James, John, maybe even Andrew. And so we get to chapter five verse, well like before that in chapter four verse 38, he left Nazareth, went to the synagogue in Pernum, caught there at the synagogues in Pernum and then he arose verse 38 and left the synagogues and entered the synagogues. Now I was trying to figure out a little bit like did he meet Simon in the synagogue and

8:23 then Simon just liked what Jesus was saying. There's a through line here, it was even Simon in Pernum with Simon. He's at the synagogue preaching but he goes to Simon's house. And I just kind of wonder if Simon could come and miss it is. We'll see that he's about to heal Simon's mother-in-law maybe he asked Jesus to come back specifically for the job of healing the mother-in-law. But there was more than Simon at the synagogue I guess is what I'm saying, but he didn't

8:54 go to all their homes. He went to Simon's home. He rose, left the synagogue, entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with the high fevers and they appealed to him on her behalf and he stood over her and reduced the fevers and it left her and immediately she rose and began to serve them. This is a scene for healing in Luke's gospel. Luke doesn't necessarily present Jesus as like the great position.

9:24 He presents him as the king who can rebuke sickness death. Jesus is like this king. He's just walking around and he speaks reality to existence because he's in charge everything after listening to him. Wind and waves, sickness and demons, life and death. Jesus is king of it all and he gets to rebuke and speak and things respond. So he does that with the sickness verse 40.

9:55 Now when the sun was setting all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him. I wonder if it's conspicuous when the sun sets the new day starts and so maybe we're off of the Sabbath. So it's okay for him to start healing more people. Memory gets in trouble when he deals on the Sabbath. Okay. So he makes his hands on every one of them and heal them. And demons came out of many crying. He was trying to job but he would beat them and we're not allowing them to speak because

10:26 they knew who it was. So every sick person that they brought him, he healed. We don't get any more names than people. Some kinds of things. Like a lot of sick people, we know Simon, Simon's mother-in-law. We could assume people got their hearing and went home and back about their day. Okay. That's cool. Jesus preached in the synagogue verse 42.

10:58 And then after the synagogue verse 42, he goes into a deathful place. So now there's people around all the time needing me to rebuke sicknesses and he's running out of cases. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God, the other town is well for our

11:30 community. So it's hard to know whether this came right after that or the pattern in the context of that. But at some point on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him, to hear the word of God, he was standing by the way. And he was standing by the way. And he was standing by the way. And he was standing by the way. And he was standing by the way. And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were watching

12:03 their nets. Verse three, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon, he asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and plopped the people from the boat. And when he finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. They had been working all night. They were just like, I'm not going to be a little bit of a fool. And they had been working all night. They were done. They already cleaned their nets. But the one who was teaching asked Simon to do it again.

12:34 Verse five, and Simon answered, master, we toiled all night when we took nothing. Master doesn't necessarily mean that Jesus is Simon's master. That's that Jesus is the Jewish teacher until he's worthy of respect. Clearly, all the people are following him out enough, nodding on the lake that he gives him to fill the boat and backs up. And so Simon does this not because he's obligated, but out of respect for Jesus because clearly Jesus demands respect because of the way that he keeps him.

13:07 Master be coiled all night and took nothing, but at the word, I'll let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed large numbers of fish. And after breaking, they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sing. Well, let's keep going and then we'll think about it. Verse eight, but when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at these meetings, they departed me

13:42 and a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the captive fish they had taken. And so also were James and John the son of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid, but now I'm going to be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to the land, they left everything and followed him. Like the first thing that occurred to me when I saw this story or when I was working through this story is like how interestingly generous Jesus is.

14:23 Like all these people that get healed, Jesus doesn't seem to really get anything from them. There's no like contingency on the healing. It doesn't say that they were all after synagogue. It doesn't say that he asked them to return to the synagogue. It doesn't say that they made an offering or any. It says that these people were sick.

14:54 Jesus laid hands on them all and healed them all and rebuked them all. Then in this story, I feel like the through line in this story by the way is not the chronology, but it's Simon Peter. He does the same with Simon Peter's power because mom, that one they often for specifically, and then also he has this experience where he wants to teach and he jumps on Simon's boat. The agency thing with the fish is like, I don't know what's going on with the fish.

15:26 At some point it's like, is he trying to communicate? Like he's trying to prove who he is to Peter because it doesn't feel like he really needs to. Peter already calls it master. Peter doesn't ask for any proof. And this is a weird proof. Then I'm like, why does he give him the fish? He just like in touch with the fish, but he needs all the fish. Like he does it like, his first response is like, there's all these fish, so Peter's like,

16:02 get away from me. Part of me when I read this story is like, I have to wonder if my response would be like, Jesus, this is a very good situation. You are very good at this. Part of me, I wonder if I was like, all right, look, there are a lot of legs around the area. And let me get the boys together. We'll clean these up, get these stoles.

16:33 We'll pull this money. We'll go to the next place. We'll do it again. And every time we go, like the word will get out, you'll keep catching these fish. We'll keep marking up the price that everybody's going to want the fish from the miraculous catch. He doesn't do any, he thought Jesus is like demonstrating these fish. And then they first, Peter's first reaction is, I'm not worthy of this free gift, man. He doesn't like, I'm saying it's really interesting to me and I'm trying to figure out.

17:07 Jesus is not giving Peter the fish to prove anything about himself. Then I also thought like when I read this verse before and thought not very deeply about it, that it's a hope to get Peter in. So not maybe that Jesus is narrowly trying to prove himself, but it's like an object lesson for Peter so that he's giving him the fish so that this is how he calls him to the disciple of the machine. But I read again this time, there's no contingency in Jesus giving him the fish at all.

17:41 Peter doesn't ask for it in any way. Jesus says nothing beforehand about like how this will happen or why he's doing it. And if we take a note from all the people who got healed, it seems like he's fine with people getting feeling and just walking away. So when I read the story in the context of the through line and what Luke is doing, I'm like reading this as this like incredible, generous pain, just like walking around

18:16 and solving my problems for people. Sometimes I ask, sometimes even unlike like he recognizes Peter and the dudes that have been pitching all night and got nothing on the solve that before I move on. And let's go back out, get some fish. I don't know, I thought about like is it worth time to get out because Jesus commands the fish, because I'm into the net, does he know where the school is? I don't know. But part of me thinks that he's healing the fish, he's casting out the demons, he's helping

18:50 the cats of fish just because he can. He's because like he likes people, he gets tired when he goes to death, but on the whole, he likes people and he can solve some problems. I used to finish my prayers because you can. I was asking for this one. Hey, Jesus, would you give me a degree of patience because you can't.

19:23 That's the best reason I got, I don't deserve it. I could maybe get by without it, but you can give me some patience. So please would you? It seems almost like it's like that, like my mother-in-law's six. Would you think of healing her? And then the fish he doesn't even ask for and Jesus just gives him the fish. I think it's the same reason we come up with why God creates the world, why he makes you,

20:11 why he gives us kids, why he gives us jobs. In the end, I think God is, he likes people. And I love this notion of Jesus walking around the purnound because now they're kicking out healing people, giving them fish, casting out their sickness, casting out their problems, just because you can.

20:44 Then I was thinking, well, obviously the next thought is, for Jesus, what have you given me? What situations have you solved for me? Like I wonder how many I can or rabbis come through the purnound. I wonder how many families got the healing, which is fantastic.

21:18 They're no longer six, and then that's all they got. I wonder how many of them were like came, got the healing, went home, and remembered it. And then like years later, when the word starts to spread and people start to persevere the followers of the way, they start to put it together and realize who's there.

21:48 So some people maybe got it in the moment, some people got it later, some people didn't get it at all. They just got the healing and went back about their lives. One thing that's compelling about Peter is there was something in his interaction with Jesus where it changed his equation for Edison. Right?

22:18 Jesus doesn't demand for Peter to leave him, to leave his stuff in come with him. He just invites him. You can go be a fisher of men with me. And so this miraculous, heavier than two-boat weight of fifths that would pay for life for a while and take care of the mother-in-law and the wife apparently, she's got a mother-in-law,

22:50 help take care of the family, pay for his partners, and James and John and his buddies. But this whole situation of life right here that Peter has, where you can make a way for himself in the world, he just leads it. And he doesn't seem to wonder about it. He's not trying to make a deal. It's not like he's got to figure it out. There's something so compelling about Jesus that he drops his whole weight of life and changes it.

23:21 And not everybody saw what Jesus had to offer that way. Right? All the people that got healed, the partner fishermen that weren't James and John, but the other guy, maybe they said they didn't prepare the fish. But Simon walked away from his job and his family and changed his whole equation on what he was about. And so then I was thinking, in what way have I encountered Jesus?

23:59 Maybe he's multiplied some fish for me. I would posit probably. Now, where the maybe is, whether or not you were able to recognize it was miraculous, or he just figured, I said it this time, man, I couldn't get him last night, but I found him on my own. This is Jesus's time, it's time and long. But I dropped those nuts and I got them.

24:29 Right? So I would posit that probably Jesus has provided for you. For you in your life. Probably some resolution to abandon challenges in some model form or model. That you have experienced Jesus as king. The question for me is, how have I been aware of that kind of generous provision?

25:05 If I've been aware of the generosity account. And then how have I received it? Like thank you and I'll go back to work. Or wait a minute, everything is different. Now, I don't think it's necessarily that Peter was smarter or a better listener.

25:38 I don't think it's necessarily that Peter did something so right that we follow Jesus differently than anybody else in preparing. I think probably just something in the relationship that he has with Jesus, it's struck him. To where he encountered Jesus completely differently and everything else left. And what occurred to me this week is I started this story in our position in Orlando in 2022.

26:14 Time to be Christian in a world that feels bonkers. It's probably partly the place I'm out in life, but it feels more bonkers than ever. Like we can't figure out politics, we can't figure out our money, our inflation, we can't figure out geopolitics. You know what I mean? Like our family dynamics are crazier than ever. It feels like always, it feels like then it's in trouble. Like maybe we're just more aware. It feels like it's hard to figure out what it looks like to be Christian in the world today.

26:50 But when I read this story, it occurred to me, since the time of Peter, one generation to the reason the church persists amongst all the bonkers is that there's enough people in every generation that encounter the message of Jesus in a way that it transforms everything for them. Something like the gospel doesn't persist because of some power dynamic in the world or some strong marketing.

27:30 Like there is spirit of God animating the story, talking the hearts of people, moving people like Peter to change their perspectives online. So for me, what I thought was that question I was like what if I left behind in the name of the gospel?

28:02 And it's not as clear as for me as Peter's catch a fist that he left behind. And so my prayer has been, Lord, good Lord, generous out Lord. I want to encounter you like Simon Peter.

28:35 I love that you just walk around to jumping with General Elstady. But I want to know you more than just receiving things from you and all of them. If there is a gospel that from one generation to the next, it's so clearly good that people reorganize their lives around it, I would like to know that I'm a gospel.

29:14 I'm not interested in one that's an add-on or a wrist lift. Not enough with lifts and enough things I can add on to my life. But I would be interested in a gospel that changes everything. And that's the only explanation for me is what goes on with Simon Peter. You know dummy, you don't just walk away from just like that, right? Yeah. Unless something amazing is helpful.

29:47 And so this Sunday morning is just a reminder for you that it seems like the reason the gospel has persisted to me is just something amazing. And if you have encountered the gospel as amazing, that's not a fault of yours. It happens all through the story of Scripture, but just don't be satisfied. Keep becoming bad.

30:18 Keep fighting your way back until you're the home that Jesus goes back to. You're the family he puts to write. You're the boat and fills with fish. Keep coming back. Because it's there for us. Something good enough to reorient lives from one generation to the next to persist in all the bonkers of the world. From the beginning of time until now, the gospel has endured because people have found that.

30:53 I want to be one of those, so I'm not satisfied with this. The oozing generosity. I keep coming back until I found it particular gospel pointed at me, reorienting my life. And this is the day I gave the invitation for this day. Let's pray. Hey Lord, thank you for the story of Simon. And give us a measure of the encounter or the space or the experience that animates Peter to make the choices that he made.

31:41 He took what it means that you are our provider just to boldly ask you for what we need and look for your provision. But then not just to the things to you, to the character and the capacity that he did with such generosity and power. Be with us now in Jesus' name of Christ. Thank you.