The First Presbyterian
Church of Hemet
Peter: The Story of
Conversion
Dr. Larry Thorson
May 16, 2010
Luke
5:1-11
1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of
Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of
God. 2 He saw at the water's edge two boats, left
there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3
He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put
out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the
boat. 4 When
he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and
let down the nets for a catch." 5 Simon
answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught
anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
6 When they had done so, they
caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to
come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began
to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at
Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the
catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James
and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be
afraid; from now on you will fish for people." 11
So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Today’s
New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
1.
Summarize the biblical text: Despite being tired and discouraged from a poor night
of fishing, when Jesus asked Peter to push out and make one more attempt at a
catch, he questioned the request but ultimately obeyed. The result was the largest catch Simon Peter
had possibly ever taken in. Peter and
his companions then decided that Jesus was worth following and consequently
retired from the fishing industry to follow him.
2.
What’s the point of this sermon? The Jesus Creed, the creed that shaped all of Jesus'
actions is about totally converting our life to love God with all our heart,
soul, mind and strength. That conversion doesn't often happen overnight so that
we're an instantly finished Jesus
Creed product. It is more often a
process that occurs over many years with many milestones as will be looked at
through the life of the Apostle Peter.
The point of this sermon will be to help us identify the next area in our life that God wants to convert.
3.
What action should we take as a result of this sermon? Identify
milestones of conversion in your life in
order to chart its forward and sometimes backward steps as you move toward the
goal of a total conversion of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind and
strength and loving their neighbor as themselves.
Introduction:
Maturity, a Series of Conversion Steps
What do you think is one of the biggest
milestones in a teenager's life? Getting
a driver's license. That means they can
take a car out on their own. For guys
that means they can take a girl out on a date without mom or dad. It's like by taking a written and a driving
test in one day we convert from being a kid on a bicycle to being an adult with
horsepower. It's a huge transition.
We all know that moving from being a
baby, to a mature child to a fully developed and mature adult involves a series
of steps that everyone has to go through.
Being responsible enough to get a driver's license is just one of those
steps. No one, when they're born just
prays a little prayer to grow up and in minutes sits down and drives a
car. We have to take steps to convert
from being a baby to being child to being a youth to being an adult.
So why is it that we think we can simply
bow our head, invite Jesus to come into our life and expect to instantly change
a lifetime of thoughts, expectations, habits, or relationships? Spiritual change comes through conversions,
many conversions, not just one. In the
Bible we have a great example of that in the life of the Apostle Peter.
Peter
and a Conversion Experience on a Boat
One of those conversions takes place on
a boat in a lake. Let's read Luke
7:11-17: 1 One day as Jesus was
standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and
listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the
water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their
nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one
belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat
down and taught the people from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to
Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all
night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the
nets." 6 When they had done
so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to
come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began
to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at
Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the
catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James
and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be
afraid; from now on you will fish for people." 11
So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
In that story, Peter made a big decision
to change his career. He gave up his
fishing career to follow Jesus wherever he went. But what if
he had been able to convince Jesus to follow him and show him where all
the hot fishing spots were. He could
have added boats to handle the increased fishing success, added fisherman,
built a fish cannery, maybe a beautiful
seaside villa.
But Jesus wasn't interested in building
another fishing enterprise. If Peter was
going to love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and
his neighbor as himself, he would have to be interested only in what Jesus was
interested in. Which he was but that
decision didn't come overnight.
A
Series of Conversions
Before Peter could get to the point
where he'd be willing to make a career change to follow Jesus, other smaller
conversions had to take place. First
his brother Andrew, who was a credible source to him, had to tell him that he
thought Jesus just might be the Messiah, the long-awaited king and liberator of
Israel. Then Andrew introduced Simon to
Jesus. Someone, somewhere credible to
you has to first introduce you to Jesus before you'll make a big career
decision. But it's not enough to just
know who Jesus is.
The next thing that had to happen in
Peter's conversion experience is that his will had to be challenged. When he'd been up fishing all night without
catching anything, Jesus asks him to let down his nets again. This had to have been a battle of the
will. His arms would have ached from
pulling the heavy net in and out of the water all night. He's been awake most
of the night so he's fatigued. His nets
now need cleaning. He's discouraged
because he hasn't caught anything. He
thinks Jesus' command is a waste of time and energy. Yet, he repents, lowers the nets and catches
this huge load of fish and then falls to his knees and declares “I am a sinful
man!” This was his next conversion.
At some point in our life we have to get
to where we truly realize that we're sinful and don't deserve to be in God's
presence. I frequently ask our youth
groups why God should let them into heaven.
Usually the very first answer that comes out is that they've been
good... in contrast to their classmates.
If we've been so good, why did Jesus have to die for us?
Later Jesus asked Peter “who do you say
I am?” Peter says: “You are the
Christ” Jesus responds by saying “Upon
that rock (or confession) I will build my church.” Remember I said that Peter's brother Andrew
thought that Jesus might be the Christ or the Messiah and introduced him to
Peter? Eventually Peter decided, at
least by faith, that Jesus was the Christ and accepted him as his Savior. That was his next conversion. Your brother or your parents or your friends
may have accepted Jesus but he's not your savior until you accept and confess
him as such.
After the death of Jesus, Peter was
asked three times if he was one of the followers of Jesus and he denied
it. That was a set back. Unfortunately we all have set backs. Set backs are not the end of the story
because after the resurrection, Jesus didn't give up on Peter and he won't give
up on us. He met up with Peter and asked
him to renew the Jesus Creed by asking him three times “do you love me”? Peter responded three times “Yes, yes,
yes. After denying Jesus at his most
needy hour, he had a chance to repent and return to Jesus. That was his next conversion, deciding to get
back up after a set back.
On Pentecost the Holy Spirit came upon
Peter and the disciples and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. That was a conversion from doing ministry on
his own strength to doing ministry in the power of God's Spirit. After that he was bold enough to preach to
thousands and lead multitudes to Christ.
When
Was Peter Actually Converted?
At what point in that journey I just
walked us through was Peter actually converted?
My answer is that conversion is a process just like growing up to
maturity is. But age and years don't
always contribute to growing up. Events
and decisions do. You've probably heard
the definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over but expecting
different results. I've heard people
described as having only one year of experience after twenty years of doing the
same thing. Age and years don't always contribute to growing up, but events and
decisions do.
We are the accumulation of our
decisions. In that boat with Jesus,
Peter could have said “No, Jesus, I'm tired.
I have proven beyond a shadow of doubt that fish are not to be caught
tonight.” “Listen to me on this, I have
more experience than you in this area.”
Peter could have said that but he didn't. Instead he said ”But because you say so, I will let down the
nets." That was just one of many
decisions along the way that Peter made.
Not the ultimate decision, but one.
We move from one decision to the next
based on our experience with the previous one.
If Peter had dropped those nets into the water and then even struggled
to pull them out empty because he was so tired, the next time Jesus asked him
to do something he probably wouldn't have done it. But when we're obedient to
what Jesus asks us to do, he never disappoints us.
Conversion
of a Missionary: Frank Laubach
Frank Laubach was a frustrated
Congregational missionary to the Moros people of the Philippines when he cried
out to God “What can I do for hateful people like these: murderers, thieves,
dirty filthy betel nut chewers-our enemies?”
But then he was still before God and he writes: “My lips began to move
and it seemed to me that God was speaking.”
“My child,” my lips said, “you have failed because you do not really
love these Moros. You feel superior to
them because you are white. If you can
forget you are an American and think only how I love them, they will respond.”[1]
As a result of that prayer he said “I
choose to look at people through God, using God as my glasses, colored with his
love for them.” He said he went down
from that prayer time with a mission “to respond to God as a violin responds to
the bow of the master.” Think about it,
Laubach could have made a different decision in his time of frustration just
like you and I can. He could have let
his anger toward those thieves who were probably stealing from him get to
him. He could have flown back to the
tranquil rural Pennsylvania of his home.
I like what Robert Schuller says: “Never
cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low
time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst
moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.” [2]
A lot of times decisions made in a down period are reactionary decisions that
can stunt our maturity.
But Laubach stayed and eventually got to
the point where he wrote “Now I like God's presence so much that when for a
half hour or so He slips out of mind-as he does many times a day-I feel as
though I had deserted him, and as though I had lost something very precious in
my life.” Laubach lived by balancing
a love of God with a love of others. He
wrote “It is as much our duty to live in the beauty of the presence of God
on some mount of transfiguration until we become white with Christ as it is for
us to go down where they (needy people) grope, and grovel, and groan, and lift
them to new life.” [3]
Laubach became not only a legend in
prayer, but also a pioneer in literacy with his plan “Each One Teach One.” His most famous prayer was “may everyone
who learns to read teach one more to read.”
In his lifetime he tirelessly set up literacy programs in more than a
hundred countries and was responsible for teaching over 60 million people to
read.
Conclusion:
Making a List of Milestones
Conversion is the result of God tugging
on our hearts multiple times and us making multiple decisions about what we'll
do with that tug. Sometimes we go off
and make the wrong decisions and set ourselves back.
But
don't worry, God is never finished with us and He'll call us back. Maybe you've done something and you think God
can never use you again. Yea, Peter did
that and look how God used him. Maybe
you've been trying so hard to live the Jesus Creed, to love God with all your
heart, soul, strength, and mind and your neighbor as yourself but something
always happens to sidetrack you. Make
that decision again.
I challenge you this week to make a list
of the milestone decisions you have made turning some part of your life over to
God like Peter did. Those are your
conversion experiences. Ask yourself “am
I moving backward or forward in my spiritual growth?” If your last conversion experience is five
years older or more, your spiritual growth may be stunted because we're going
to have those conversion experiences all the way until God calls us home.
Ask yourself what do I continually get
challenged to change in my life. What
continues to come up? It will continue
to come up until you give it up to the Lord.
So continue getting up in the morning,
looking in the mirror, forcing a smile if force is necessary and say “This is
the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice in it”. That's a basic conscious decision on your
part that will make a huge difference in your day. And then say to God, “today I will, with your
help, turn over to you whatever part of my life that's keeping me from loving
you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and my neighbor as myself.” God will reveal your next conversion
experience.
But the first conversion experience
starts with being willing to hear the good news that Jesus died for our sins,
was resurrected and conquered sin forever and to invite him into your life. May
this week we as a church and as individuals convert more of our life to the One
who knows best what to do with us.
Small Group
Ice Breaker Questions
1. Describe one of
your favorite fun activities when you were growing
up.
2. A conversion experience is when
you shift the way you think or do something.
Describe a conversion experience you have had in the past.
Recite the Jesus Creed as a Group
Discussion Questions
1.
Discuss the conversion
experiences of the following people in the Bible:
a.
Read Mark 1:16-20 – the first four disciples
b. Read Matthew 9:9-13 – the tax collector
c. Read Luke 7:36-50 – the sinful woman
d. Read John 41-26; 39 – the Samaritan woman
e. Read Luke 15:11-32 – The Prodigal Son
f.
Read Luke 19:1-10 – Zacchaeus
g.
Read Mark 10:46-52 – blind Bartimaeus
2. Discuss the different conversions experienced
by Peter as mentioned in the sermon and
how they compare with your own experiences.