Merredin Uniting Church

Texts: Luke 5:1-11, Colossians 4:2-6 & Luke 5:27-32

I watched a rugby match a little while back. Even though my team lost 66-12 they played the whole game as if they could win. They put everything into it even when they were 52-0 down at half time. For me that was a picture of living with a Grand Vision.

And when we live in the grand vision of God then even though the odds are stacked against us, even if it seems that our effort will be wasted, we live life for all its worth.

We were made to live in relationship with God but were separated from Him by our sin. But God’s desire was always for that relationship to be restored and he made it absolutely possible in Jesus Christ. God entered the world to pay the price of our transgression. Christ died so that we would be redeemed and that the relationship would be restored. We believe that, it is our faith – the certainty of what we have not seen but of which we are sure.

But – we so often live our lives in such a small way. We don’t see the grandiose plan of God, and of how we fit in to it. We carry on in a closed up world, rarely daring to venture outside of our comfort circles. We sit at our nets, like Peter and Andrew and James and John. We clean them after another unsuccessful night of fishing and just hope that tomorrow will be better.

Then Jesus steps into our boat. He come into our life and He challenges us in areas that we thought we had tightly sealed up – where we were in control, where we were comfortable and time just passed by.

“Put your boat into the water,” He says.

This entry of God into our lives is a little disconcerting. We were comfortable even if we were not satisfied, we wanted more but didn’t expect anything.

When Jesus told Peter to put out into the deep water, and to let down the net he was reluctant –they had been fishing all night and hadn’t caught anything. He was tired and just wanted to get his nets clean and to go home for breakfast. In any event, fish in Galilee are caught in the evening or early morning in the shallows at the northern end of the lake where the shoals gather to feed at the inlet of the Jordan river, not out in the deep.

But then, for some strange, unimaginable reason, Peter says, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

BECAUSE YOU SAY SO…

Because you say so… unconscious obedience!

AND they caught such a large number of fish that the nets began to break. They called for help from the other boat and they filled the two boats so full that they both began to sink.

We can see what’s happening …. but what’s actually going on here?

Jesus has stepped stepped into their boat. God entered the world of Peter and James and John and He showed them the possibilities of the world into which they found themselves.

It was an invitation to live life in the grand vision of God.

So often we simply push through with our lives, aware only of the limitations. This we can do, that we can’t do. But in the realm of God’s Kingdom, all things are possible –even when they seem impossible.

For what possible reason did Jesus enable them to catch so many fish that the boats almost sank … its almost bizarre.

But it brought Peter to his knees – “Go way from me Lord, I am a sinful man.”

He recognized his own weakness, but he had also seen God’s greatness –against all odds.

The point of the exercise was to show to Peter that in God all things ARE possible … AND to call him into a new mission.

Jesus says, “If this is possible with fish – where you are the expert, just think what it will be like when you come with me, into the area where I am the expert. I will make you a fisher of men. Your catch with will be far more than this.”

No wonder they simply left everything and followed him. God does these amazing things to remind us that we must not limit Him. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Let me tell you a story.

After visiting a school in South Africa run by one of our elders with the man who headed the Council of our church, this man felt compelled to approach a friend at a university in the United States to see if they had any computers to donate to the school. They had -18 of them, but we would have to arrange the packing and the shipping. I approached someone else in our congregation involved in the shipping business and he went to the ends of the earth to find someone prepared to ship it from New York to Howick at the cheapest possible price. We got the cost down to $8000 –but it far beyond our ability to pay. We were about to give up when our Council Chairman had the idea of contacting the pastor of a large church in Chicago. He didn’t know him but thought it worth a try. The pastor came back almost instantly, as if he were waiting for the email to say that they would arrange the shipping and he would get someone to contact Paul. In a few minutes, Paul had another email – don’t worry about a thing – consider it done! I got news that the computers arrived a few weeks ago – at no cost whatsoever.

That which was impossible, became possible in a matter of minutes.

Why? In large part, I believe, because the pastor and that church have consciously decided to live within God’s Grand Vision. They didn’t know us, had probably never heard of Howick, but they filled our boat with fish and in doing so they put the challenge before us to see the potential of living within the grand vision of God’s purpose.

There are people all around us who have heard of Jesus but have never come to that place where they put their faith in Him. I believe, that to a significant extent, it is because they have never had the opportunity – they might have a skewed perspective of what it means to be a Christian, or have been put off by some unfortunate experience, or because they think that they are not worthy, or simply because they have never been asked or don’t know who to ask about how they come to faith.

We need to see people with “other eyes” – with God’s eyes, in His grand vision. That doesn’t mean that we go door to door with a big Bible under our arm, it doesn’t mean that we wait at church and simply hope that they will arrive.

No, what did Jesus do? He was busy with the crowd but He stepped into Peter’s boat – he walked across the beach to a fisherman, and He showed him what God was capable of. That’s all which is expected from us – just walk across to people.

When Matthew, or Levi (to give him his Jewish name) was called from his tax booth the first thing he did was to hold a great banquet for all his tax collector friends. He wanted them to hear Jesus, he wanted them to get that which he had found. His vision became grand. “So what if they are people despised and rejected by society. I was like them and I want them to be like me. I want them to discover that which I have discovered in Jesus.”

And God wants us to do the same thing. Our ordinary life means that we are content just where we are, we are content with the spiritual situation of our family, our friends and others around us. The status quo seems fairly satisfactory. But God is not satisfied with that. In 2 Peter 3:9, the Scriptures tell us that God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Living in God’s Grand Vision, we see that – and we begin to live in such a way that the spiritual lives of those around us really matter to us. It will not be the pressure that we put on them that influences them, but the love that we show to them.

God does have a concern for your family, your friends and your neighbours. And He wants you to be excited about what He can do in their lives –He wants you to have a grander vision for them: His Vision.

When God sent Jonah to Nineveh, the prophet didn’t want to go. He got swallowed by a fish – interesting contrast to Peter’s great catch OF fish. But eventually he went – he called the city to repentance and they repented.

Jonah was furious with God about that. “You see Lord, this is exactly what I thought would happen. I know what you are like, you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. I knew that despite your anger you would deal with the people of Nineveh with grace, despite the way they have lived their lives outside of the law. That’s why I didn’t want to go. All that’s happened now is that you made be out to be a great big fool … I announce your anger and wrath and instead you forgive with love. I’m so angry I could die”, he says.

But the Lord says to him, “Jonah, Jonah. Nineveh has more than 120 000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – should I not be concerned about them?”

Yes, God is angry at the wickedness of Nineveh, but He is, at the same time, deeply concerned about them. He does not want them to carry on as they are – He longs to have compassion on them, to pour out His grace upon that city.

Is God confused? NO! Not at all. He is holding the place of perfect tension between law and freedom, between justice and grace –this is, in fact, the story of the Cross!.

God’s unrelenting call to us is to find ourselves in that place also – in the fullness of God’s power and grace in our lives. It is not easy – because it almost always puts us at odds with our comfort zone. We are comfortable and relatively content where we are – our lives place few challenges on us, we choose the path of compromise that avoids any great discomfort.

And yet, we are not fully content. There is always something missing. Life is OK, but its not great. And the more we think about it, the more we realise that our life has no meaning. What is it’s point? What is its purpose?

In Nineveh they found its point when they believed God.

Simon and Andrew and James and John found its point when they believed the good news … when they left their nets to follow Jesus to become fishers of men.

Paul tells us that we will find true purpose in life when we lift our eyes from the immediate and look into eternity.

In 1 Corinthians 7 he says, “^?29? What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; ^?30? those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; ^?31? those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”

Live with your wife as if you had none (ie love her with everything AND love God with all your heart)

Mourn the dead, but live as if they had not died.

Be happy in this world, but live as if the only happiness is not here but with God.

Buy things, but live as if they are not yours to keep.

Be in the world, but do not be engrossed by it. It is the present but it is not the reality – Have a grander vision!

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