Living a Life of Faith Beyond Sight

In this insightful sermon, Daniel McInnes explores the miraculous catch of fish in the Gospel of Luke and its deeper meaning. He challenges listeners to trust God's guidance beyond their own understanding, just as Peter did. McInnes presents a powerful message on the importance of prioritizing spiritual growth and living a life in Christ, impacting those around us.

Transcript

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the Gospel reading today, this is the first Sunday of Luke. So, we're going to hear from Luke for I think every Sunday up until the Nativity. So, we've got this first story from Luke and it's the story where Jesus is standing next to the Sea of Galilee. It's called the Lake Gene. It's the Sea of Galilee. And while he's standing there, he sees two boats drawn up. There's a big crowd. As you know, with Jesus, lots of people would come and they wanted to hear him. They wanted to be healed by him because he was known as a miracle worker. So, they're crowding around. So, as he did occasionally, he got into one of the boats. He said to one of the, "Can I get into the boat?" So he gets into the boat and he says, "Put out a little bit so that he's got a little bit of distance from the crowd." So he can just talk, speak to them without being mobbed. And so he talks to the crowd. He does what he usually does when he talks to the crowd. And at the end of that, he says to the fisherman, Simon, whose boat it was, he said, "Put out and put your nets down again."

Now, these guys when Jesus had gotten into the boat, they'd been washing their nets because they'd been finished for the day. As you know, with fishing, they would go out very, very early in the morning. They come go very, very well while it's still dark and then come in really early and then they're done. They clean up and they and so they've gone out, they've been working all night. They've caught nothing. And then Jesus says, "Put your nets out. Put your nets down again." Now, these guys have been fishing since they were, you know, as soon as they could probably get into a boat. And Peter knows very well that if from his own experience, they're not going to catch anything. From if he's only using his own experience, he's going to walk. He's going to go out there, put down the nets, nothing will happen. They'll bring them back in and have to wash them again. If he was only using his own experience. But he listens to what Jesus says and he says, "Okay, master. I'll do it." Right? So he in his own mind, he's probably thinking, "This is nothing's going to happen here." Right? I know I know this lake. I know everything about it. I've been fishing there all my life. We're not going to catch anything. But he says, "Because you've said it, I'll do it."

And lo and behold, they put down the nets and he has to call James and John who are his partners to come and help with the help to catch bring in the fish because there's so many of them. The nets are going to break and the boats are going to sink. What we see here is what happens when we actually believe God. When we actually believe God, we don't just believe God when things are obviously going to work out the way that we think they're going to work out. We believe God when things don't look like they're going to work out the way we think at all. Peter didn't he's not in this sense relying on his own understanding because he doesn't really believe he doesn't really understand why Jesus is saying this. He doesn't get it. Why is Jesus saying to put the nets down now? We didn't catch anything. Why are we going to catch something now? But he does it anyway. And something miraculous happens.

When we actually really believe what God is asking us to do, miraculous things happen. Our own knowledge, our own understanding, our own experience, all of those things are perfectly fine for our everyday life in the world. But God's not bound by those things. God's not bound by our experience. God's not bound by the things that we think are possible. God's not bound by anything at all. God can do whatever God likes. And if God says, "Put the nets down," you better put the nets down because something's going to happen.

So, we see this miraculous thing happening. And at that time, we see Peter's reaction. He doesn't say, "Wow, this is fantastic. Jesus, you should stay with us now forever. We'll become a great fishing company. We're going to be the biggest fishes of all time, right? We're going to bring in fish all the time. We'll be rich beyond comparison. It's going to be fantastic." He doesn't say that. What he does say is, "Depart from me. I'm a sinful man." Because it's obvious to him that this person Jesus standing before him is holy. Only a holy man could do what Jesus had just done. And that holiness kind of hit him full force. And he's that it kind of just whacked him up the side of the head and said wow I am I am not like that you know I am not like you you're different and in that moment he sees himself as he truly is he sees himself as a sinful man which is what he truly is. And when Jesus says to him, "Follow me. So far you've been a fisherman. You've been a fisherman catching fish. Now you're going to catch men. I'm going to make you a fisher of men." He says, "Okay, I want to be like you. I want to be like that. I want what you have, that holiness, that whatever it is that I'm sensing right now. I want to be a part of that." And so he follows Jesus. And so did James and John. And we have there the beginnings of the really those three. They're the the three clo disciples who are closest to Jesus. And we see the beginnings right there in that moment where they decide at that moment to give up everything to give up that fishing enterprise that they have and then follow Jesus.

We have a tendency still because we're living in this century, but it's not only this century. I think people have always had this tendency to just live our everyday lives and concentrate on that as if it's the most important thing because that's where we live most of our life. You know, we're working, raising children, we're doing all those things. And we like to put all of the emphasis in our lives on those things. And what this story is telling us is that those things are not wrong. We have to live. If we have to raise families, we have to do all of those things. And doing them properly is actually a virtuous thing. If we don't do those things properly, we're doing the wrong thing. But ultimately, what is our purpose? Ultimately, what are we here for?

We're here in order to grow closer to Christ, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to become like him. That's what we're here for. And the amazing thing is is that when we truly commit to that life, when we truly commit to it, not only do we grow in holiness, we grow in all the things that we would hope to grow in when we're following Christ, not only does that happen, but all of those other things, work, raising families, all of those other things are then all of our efforts in doing those things are colored and empowered by what we're receiving from our growth in Christ. So they become even more blessed than they could ever possibly be if we were only doing it in our own strength. By putting our focus on the right thing, which is to be like Christ, to be closer to him, everything else becomes more blessed than it otherwise would have been.

So this story is telling us at least partly where what we should be doing which is even though our lives are full of all kinds of various things that we have to do and we should do them well ultimately the main goal in this life is to be like Christ. And then when we become like Christ, not only do we not only all those things that we want to do will be go will be better, but actually people are drawn to us. In the epistle reading today, because you might wonder, well, what how does it work when we try to live that life? What does it look like? If you want to know what it looks like, look to St. Paul. St. Paul tells us about this life today. He's talking to the Corinthians and he's saying, "We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain." So, don't waste what you've been given. You've been given the grace of God. Don't waste it. Right? And he says, "Now is the time of salvation. Now is a favorable time to be working on these things." And he says, "We have not put an obstacle in anybody's way so that no fault may be found in our ministry, but as servants of Christ, we commend ourselves in every way." And here he goes on and he tells us how we should live our lives essentially if you want to be like Christ by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.

He endured all of those things. We may not ever have to endure those kind of things, but he endured all of those things for the sake of Christ. And not not for just his for his own self, but for the sake of other people who he was trying to minister to. He endured all of those things by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love. If we endure all of those things, the things that we expect to begin to manifest in our life are exactly those types of things. We expect to manifest purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love. If we endure all the difficulties and things of this life which will naturally come up and we do it with the purpose of being closer to Christ, naturally those fruits of the spirit that we are reading about there will start to grow in our lives.

And finally we get by truthful speech by the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left through honor and dishonor through slander and praise. We are treated as imposters. We treat as imposters and yet are true. Are unknown yet well known. As dying yet behold we are we live. As punished yet not killed. As sorrowful yet always rejoicing. As poor yet making many rich. As having nothing yet possessing everything.

When we grow in Christ, when we manifest those gifts of the spirit, all of these things on the outside, we might not look like very much, but even though we're dying in this body, we live. Even though we may not have much, we have everything. We have Christ. The riches that we will gain in the eternal life, we cannot imagine now. We can't imagine them. We actually can't, I think, even conceptualize it. So, we have difficulty thinking about it and thinking what's that life going to be like. What we just have from St. Paul and from the scriptures is that it's beyond anything that we can possibly imagine. And that's not just for us, that's for everybody. And so, it's up to us. And I'll say it again. Our main purpose in life is to go grow closer to Christ, to grow become holy. And the reason for that is for ourselves of course because we want to be closer to Christ. But as we do that, the people around us are drawn to that holiness. It's not ours. It doesn't belong to us. It's Christ's. But people are drawn to that just as Peter suddenly understood he was a sinful man and then dropped everything to follow Christ. When people see true holiness, they want that and they want to follow.

So I think today we need to say to ourselves, what's my true purpose? Where am I putting my emphasis in life? Do I put all of my emphasis on the things of this world and just my own ability to do those things? Or do I put my attention where it really should be, which is on living a life in Christ in which I will grow in Christ and then all of those other things will fall into place. So, I just ask that you think about that. Think about where am I? Where am I in this life? Where is my focus? And how could I better focus on Christ? Not just for my own sake, but for the sake of everyone around me as well, because they're the people who Christ came to save. Amen.