A life God uses
Yesterday we talked about Jesus and His teaching from Luke 5. We saw that the people were so drawn to Jesus’ teaching that He needed to borrow a boat and teach from there so that everyone could hear His message. Today we are going to talk about the owners of that boat, Peter, James and John.
The story reads that Peter had spent the night and morning fishing and they were cleaning their nets and Jesus needed a boat so He just climbed in and asked the owner, Peter to push out and started teaching the people. You have to wonder how long Jesus had been watching Peter and His companions or how much prayer had gone into the selecting of this boat for this time. Peter had a front row seat to Jesus teaching about the kingdom and the word of God. I personally think our Lord chose Peter before this began and used this incident to “force” Peter to hear His message and teaching.
Then when the time is over Peter must have been persuaded because Jesus asked Him to throw out his net for fish. And Peter responds by calling Jesus “master”. He also grumbles and in a moment of honesty states something to the effect of “there is nothing out here to be had, I am tired and my men are tired, but because you tell us to I will.” And you are probably familiar with the rest of the story, Peter’s net not only fills up, but he calls out James and John and their nets fill up as well. The Lord FILLED their boats so full it says they were sinking.
Peter then understands what has happened. Jesus has provided in a way that only one who has power over the sea and the fish could do. Immediately Peter’s eyes are open and His first response is a good and right response. He bows before His Lord (Peter uses the word Kurios) and confesses His sinfulness. He lets Jesus know that there is a huge difference between the two of them and he realizes it. Peter sees Himself as the servant and Jesus as his Lord..
It took two distinct things for this to happen for Peter. One, Jesus revealed Himself to Peter and asked Him to take a step of faith and trust that Jesus would take care of the details. Jesus could have had the fish just jump into the boat and Peter wouldn’t have had to do anything. But, Jesus didn’t do that. He wanted Peter to participate and to use Peter’s obedience. Two, Peter did what Jesus called him to do, even though he wasn’t sure about it. If Peter hadn’t responded He wouldn’t have seen a result.
I think this is the way God works in our lives as well. Jesus often calls us to small steps and doesn’t tell us how things will turn out, only that He will take care of the details. In my life I have learned that I am not responsible for filling up the boat, all I can do is put out the net. As we do these things we will see God’s power in our lives and it will lead us to be humbled and available to be used by God.
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