I want to speak with you today about Peter’s
boat. You know, Jesus worked for 1
thousand and 3 hundred days to get Peter out of his boat. And I want to tell you a little secret that
you may have known, probably not. For
most of this time, Peter actually loved his boat more than he loved Jesus. And that’s a shame. And so as we go through this sermon I want
you to think about yourself and your life and your family.
You know, Peter would leave his boat only to
come back to the fishing business. And
the little boat was his nearest and most prized possession, and it was his
occupation. Peter was a big burley
fisherman. Strong, with the hands of a
corn husker.
And Peter’s boat was a lifetime investment. Often times they inherited the boat from
the family, and Peter was out there fishing every day. It was a very successful business,
successful fisherman. And if they took
good care of the boat it could last them for a very long time. And most fishermen that I know of are good
story tellers. Have you ever met a
fisherman that said, “Now let me tell you about the big one that got
away.” They are good at telling
stories, and Jesus needed somebody who like to talk, and could tell what they
had experienced. And so He needed
Peter.
So look if you will now over here at Matthew,
chapter 4 in your Bible, and beginning with verse 18. “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of
Galilee, He saw 2 brothers, Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew, and
they were casting a net into the lake, because they were fishermen.” Verse 19. “‘Come, follow me,’
Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’” And at once they left their nets and followed him.” Very quickly they were accepting this
challenge.
Now you would think that this would be the last
time we ever heard of Peter’s boat.
Wouldn’t you think that? Peter
left, dropped the fishing business, and the boat was left behind, tied to a
post with a sign on the mast that said “For Sale, one fishing boat. 26 feet long, 7 feet wide. Capacity: 13 persons. Suitable for one helmsman and 4 rowers. Owner is quitting the business.” Wouldn’t you expect a sign like that on that
boat? But that’s not what
happened. Peter’s boat is very much in
the picture, still. All through the New
Testament you read about this boat.
And it’s hard to have an exact chronology but
let’s go to Luke, chapter 5, beginning with verse 1. Here is what I think might be one of the first episodes about
this boat. Luke 5, verse 1. “One day Jesus was
standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him
listening to the word of God, and He
saw on the water's edge 2 boats, left there by the fishermen, and they were
washing their nets.” Now why were they washing their nets? Because they had been out fishing. They were still fishing. They hadn’t given up that business. They were with Jesus part time, They weren’t
a hundred percent followers yet of Jesus.
And verse 3. “He got into one of the boats, one belonging to Simon Peter, and
asked him to put out a little bit from the shore. And there He sat down and
taught the people from the boat.”
Peters little boat became a pulpit that
day. And so it seems that just like
Peter, the little boat was willing to
be useful for the Lord. And the instant
that Jesus entered the boat, the boat was forever changed, because it became
now a tool in the hands of Jesus, to be used by Jesus. You know, when Jesus comes into your heart,
you are for—you’re not the same anymore.
Second Corinthians, chapter 5, and verse 17 says, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new
creation. A new creature.” And Jesus was the preacher that day. And blessed is the church where Jesus Christ
is heard from the pulpit. Amen? Well Peter’s boat became Jesus’ pulpit. And Jesus entered Peter’s boat not as a
passenger, but as the Captain of the ship.
And any time Jesus comes into your life, He wants to enter as the Lord
of your life. He wants to enter as the
Captain of your ship. He wants to be in
charge. That’s what He did in that
boat.
Luke contains another story, if you go to verse
4, about the boat. “And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, ‘Put
out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’ And Simon answered, ‘Master, we've worked
hard all night and we haven't caught anything.’” What were they doing all night? They were fishing. All
night long they were out there fishing.
Do you think that Jesus can get a lot of good work out of His disciples
in the daytime if they’re out there fishing all night long every night? No way!
They were working. They were
fishing. They had not totally left
their former occupations. They were not
devoting a hundred percent to the cause of Jesus Christ. And that’s what Jesus wants. He wants a hundred percent of you.
“So Peter said,
‘Well, because
you say so, I will let down the nets.’”
Verse 6. Notice what happened. “And when they had done so, they caught such
a large number of fish that the nets were beginning to break. And they signaled their partners in the
other boat to come and help them, and they came and they filled up both boats
so full” that what happened? “They began to sink.” That is totally amazing.
Peter was totally impressed. And
he should have been impressed. In the
next verse, verse 8, “He fell down at Jesus’ knees, and said, ‘Depart from me; for I am
a sinful man, O Lord.’” They
had just witnessed the mighty, awesome power of God, and Peter needed to
realize-- surely at this point you would think that Peter would leave his
little boat. Quit being a
fisherman. Put up the “For Sale” sign. Connect fully with Jesus. Connect fully with this awesome power of God
that he had experienced. “This is great
stuff. Here I am fishing all night,
catching nothing, and all of a sudden He sinks both boats with a load of
fish. I’ve got to connect with Jesus. Here’s where the power is.” Jesus wanted Peter
to experience a greater potential than his own efforts could accomplish.
And this reminds me of David
Huxley. Have you heard of David
Huxley? He holds the world record for
pulling jetliners. Have you ever pulled
a jetliner, before? Well he holds the
world’s record. On October 16, 1997 at
the Mascot Airport in Sydney, Australia he strapped around his upper torso a
special harness. He hooked it up to a
steel cable 45 feet long that was attached to the front wheel strut of a 747
jetliner weighing 1 hundred and 67 tons.
And he leaned into the harness with his tennis shoes firmly planted on
the runway, and he pulled with all his might, and he did pull that 747 1
hundred yards in 1 minute and 21 seconds, setting a world record for pulling a
jetliner that heavy, that far, in that short a time. His efforts are impressive.
Now that 747 jetliner reminds me of
God’s church. And the strength of a few
extraordinary members can do a lot in God’s church. But that’s not what I want.
And that’s not what Jesus wants.
We must see a much greater potential in the church. We must look for the moment when God starts
the engines, and pulls the throttles back, and the church, empowered by the
power of the Holy Spirit, and riding on the wings of the Spirit takes off, and
goes through the skies for hundreds and hundreds of miles. That’s what I want to happen. That’s what God wants to happen with His
church. We need to connect with the
latter rain power. Peter may have been a great fisherman but when he met Jesus,
and Jesus sent enough fish to almost sink two ships, Peter saw a great
potential that he had never known.
But “The Boat” as it is called, appears again.
Come back to Matthew, chapter 8 in your Bible, and verse 23. “Then Jesus got into
the boat and His disciples followed Him, and without warning, a furious storm
came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.” What was
Jesus doing? He was sound asleep. “The disciples went
and woke Him up, and said, ‘Lord, save us! We're going to drown!’” I honestly
wonder sometimes if Peter knew how to swim. “He replied, ‘You of little faith, why are
you so afraid?’ Then He got up and He rebuked the winds and the waves, and it
was completely calm.” That is an amazing story.
The sail didn’t do them any good.
They probably had to row back to the shore.
Peters little boat became famous when Jesus
stepped into it. And you know that when
Jesus comes into your life, your net worth increases dramatically, because
Jesus Christ is in your heart. And
Peter’s boat carried the Creator of the entire universe. What an honor. And I want you to think of yourself as Peter’s boat. Is Jesus in your heart? Is Jesus the captain of your ship? Is He?
Peter’s little boat became Jesus’ bed. He slept in that boat. I guess you could call it a waterbed, cause
the boat was practically full of water.
It was about to sink. Jesus was
very tired. The boat became His pillow. And surely at that moment, Lucifer, the
devil, must have thought, “I have the early church. They’re all in 1 boat.
Jesus is there. All 12 disciples
are there. If I can sink this boat I
will obliterate Christianity.” So I
think that storm was sent from the devil for that purpose. Satan was trying to drown the early
church. All their eggs were in the same
boat. But let me tell you an amazing
truth, and that is that the devil cannot destroy you when Jesus is in your
heart.
Peter’s boat survived that terrible storm
because Jesus was in it. The next time
we hear about the little boat is right after Jesus fed 5 thousand people. Come over here to Matthew 14. Matthew 14, verse 22. “Immediately Jesus made the
disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He
dismissed the crowd. And as He
dismissed them, He went up to the mountainside Himself to pray. And when
evening came, He was there alone.” 24. “But the boat was already a considerable
distance from the land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against
them.” This boat was in a bad
storm again. That boat survived a lot
of storms, didn’t it? And this storm
hit that boat. The boat was there for
what reason? Why was the boat out on
that lake at that time? Because Jesus
had said, “Go.” And so the disciples obeyed.
Off they went. Jesus sent them
into the midst of that storm. Did Jesus
know that that storm would come? I
think He did. And you know, Christians
are not exempt from troubles. You’re
not exempt from cancer. You’re not
exempt from bankruptcy. You’re not
exempt from troubles. Sometimes God
allows us to be tested so that life’s storms will test us and see what we’re
made out of. But if you trust in God,
God will see you through. You will not
sink if you don’t give up. Jesus is
more than able to handle the storms that come into your life.
When the waves were about to sink Peter’s boat,
Jesus came. Look at verse 26. “When the disciples
saw Him walking on the lake, they cried out in fear. They said, ‘It's a ghost.’”
Verse 27. “Jesus immediately said to them,
‘Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.’”
You know, they had a bad—the disciples must have had poor eyesight,
don’t you think? They could never
recognize Jesus. When He came out of
the tomb, and various appearances, they couldn’t recognize Him. And here, they couldn’t figure out who He
was, and Jesus said, “It’s I. Don’t be
afraid.” And verse 28. “Lord, if it is You.” He still didn’t know who it was. The lightning was flashing and they surely could see that it’s
Him. They recognize His voice,
surely. But they honestly don’t know,
and Peter said, “If it’s really You, then invite
me to come out on the water. And Jesus
said, ‘Come.’ And then Peter got down
out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.” But then
Peter had a problem. Instead of looking
at Jesus, he took his eyes off Jesus, and what happened? He started to sink. He looked at the waves, he looked at the
white-caps, he looked at all that water and he got afraid. And so he started to sink. And when you take your eyes off Jesus
Christ, you will not continue riding high.
You will go down. You’ll get
discouraged. When you put your eyes on
people, and you look at some of the people in the church, you get
discouraged. You need to keep your eyes
fastened on Jesus Christ.
So Jesus bade him come. Peter got out of the boat. He walked across water. As far as I know, Peter has the world record
for being the one and only human being to ever walk on unfrozen water. Peter’s got that record. Only because he got out of the boat. Now I think sometimes we
have to get out of our boat before Jesus can accomplish something. My wife and I went down to Panama. We were out of our element. We were out of air-conditioning. We were out of a cafeteria. We were out of American food. We were out of our comfort zone, and yet we
got down there. We baptized people
through ShareHim. It was an awesome
experience. I wish everyone of you
could go on one of these ShareHim things, and go down there and preach. Carol McDonald did it. Carol Harrison did
it. Tricia Foster did it. I did one.
My wife did one. You ought to go
do one. I urge you to do that. Get out of your boat.
Matthew 14, verse 32. “And when they climbed into the boat, the
wind died down. Then those who were in
the boat worshiped Him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’”. Amazing, isn’t it?
The last time we ever hear of Peter’s boat is
over in John 21. Come over here to John
21, the last chapter of the book of John.
Jesus had risen from the tomb.
He had appeared before the disciples and was ready to return to heaven,
but there was a problem. Peter and the
other disciples were still in the fishing business. They were still fishing at night, sleeping in the daytime, trying
to rest up and doing a little bit of work for Jesus, but not much. They’ve got a bad problem, and so Jesus had
to get Peter out of his boat.
Look at verse 1, John 21. “Afterward Jesus appeared again
to His disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias. It happened this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus),
Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other
disciples were together.” And in verse 3, Peter said, “I'm going to go out and go
fishing.” And he was the leader, and so
what did the others do? They said,
“We'll go with you.” So they went out, they got into the boat, and that night,
how much did they catch?
Why could they never catch fish? You know, I think the angels were busy all
night long herding the fish away from
Peter’s boat. Angels, “Come on, get out
of here. Here comes the net.” All night long. They didn’t catch one measly sardine or lobster, or whatever is
in there. I don’t know what all they have in the bottom of the sea. Their nets came up empty. And it was not by accident. I just imagine the angels were involved,
because Jesus wanted them to change occupations. Jesus wants totally committed followers. The early church needed people that were a
hundred percent dedicated to the cause of Jesus Christ.
Verse 4.
“Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore,
but the disciples didn’t recognize that it was Jesus.” If they had
glasses, this would be different. And so He called them and He said, ‘Friends,
haven't you any fish?’ ‘No, we don’t
have any fish.’ He said, ‘Well, throw
your net on the right side of the boat.’”
They were left-handed fishers, I guess. “Throw your net on
the right side of the boat and you will find some. And when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of
the large number of fish.” They had to get some help.
We know they eventually did get all thosae fish into their boat. And do you know how many fish it was? How many?
1 hundred and 53. That’s
right. So this 1 hundred 53 fish
filling up a whole boat, you know that they couldn’t be little dinky fish. They had to be some pretty good size
fish. I don’t know what size, but
Peter’s little boat was overflowing again with God’s miracle. And now the angels drove and herded the herd
of fish, or school of fish, I guess they call them, I’m not a fisherman. And God could do more in 5 minutes than they
could do all night. Professional
fishermen were helpless all night, but God in the morning, in the daylight
could perform a miracle.
And notice now verse 15. “When they had finished eating.” What’s the
first thing after they get through fishing?
What do they do? Jesus feeds the
disciples. He wants to preach a sermon
to them. He wants to make an appeal to
them, but before the appeal, He fills their stomach before He works on their
heart. Jesus is concerned with our physical
needs. Amen?
And so, “after they finished eating,
Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you truly love Me
more than these?’” What
was the question? What was He really
asking? Peter’s boat was there. The fish were there. The nets were there, and I think Jesus said,
“Peter, do you love Me more than these?
Do you love Me more than you love your boat? Are you willing to follow Me a hundred percent?” That’s what He was after. “Do you love Me more than these 1 hundred
and 53 world record class fish, these trophies that you have caught? Are you willing to abandon your career? To turn your back on your boat and go 1
hundred percent for Me and do My work?
Are you willing to connect with My awesome power?”
And after three attempts, Peter finally affirmed
his deep love for Jesus and his willingness to follow Jesus all the way. And you know, that’s the last time we hear
of Peter’s boat. No more. We hear a lot about Peter, but nothing from
here on about his boat. I think he did
sell the boat. I think he did quit the
business. And I think he went full time
for God. And you know, just like John
the Baptist had to decrease so that Jesus could increase, that little boat had
to decrease so that Peter could increase.
He was not moonlighting. He was
1 hundred percent for Jesus Christ.
Peter left his most beloved possession that day, to follow Jesus 1
hundred percent.
And friends, is Jesus first in your life? Is he?
Are you willing to abandon your favorite interest, your favorite habit,
your addiction, or whatever it is, anything that’s standing between you and
Jesus? And that could be the 7 A.M. or
6 A.M. news. You’d rather be watching
the early morning news on T.V. than reading your Bible. You need to abandon whatever is between you
and Jesus, and be willing to leave it so that you can have Jesus in your heart
as the captain of your live.
You know, Jesus wants your complete, undivided
interest. Your complete, undivided
energy for His cause. We’re living in
the last days. We’re living at the end
of time. The signs are all around
us. North Korea has the missiles. We don’t know what the future is, but we do
know the ultimate future, don’t we? And
if you align yourself with Jesus Christ and His kingdom, you will not be making
a mistake. You need to put all you eggs
in that basket. In the basket of Jesus
Christ.
Let’s sing our closing hymn. Others can have the world, but give me
Jesus.
Dear Father.
Thank you for the stories of the Bible that mean so much in these last
days. Please be the Captain of our
ship. Help us to be 1 hundred percent
committed to Jesus Christ and His truth.
Help us to be 1 hundred percent Seventh-day Adventist Christians in
these last days, and may we share Jesus with the world, with our community, our
neighbors, our relatives, so that we can soon all go home. Dismiss us with the joys of Jesus in our
life, we pray in His sweet name. Amen.
Hymn of Praise: #167, Alleluia! Sing to Jesus Scripture: Matthew 4:18-20 Hymn of Response: #329, Take the World, But Give Me Jesus
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 4/27/09