"The First Choosing"- Part 1

This is Stu Epperson from the Truth Talk Podcast, connecting current events, pop culture, and theology, and we're so grateful for you that you've chosen the Truth Podcast Network. It's about to start in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.

For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now, let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. If you will, take your Bibles and open up to Luke chapter 5. Tonight, I'm just going to cover verses 1 through 11, and I want to answer this question, and I really want you guys to think about this long and hard. What does it mean to be a true follower of Jesus Christ?

Have you ever thought about that? Is it just belonging to a church? Is it simply reciting a prayer or walking down the aisle at a Billy Graham crusade, saying the sinner's prayer? Do we who claim to believe in Jesus follow Him in the same way that the first disciples did in the first century?

In his book, Follow Me by David Platt, don't read it unless you want your life to be changed. He writes, consider a recent study, this study was done back in 2011, which found that four out of five Americans, I'm not sure this is the case today, identify themselves as Christians. In this group of self-proclaimed Christians, less than half of them actually believe the Bible is accurate, and the overwhelming majority of them don't have a biblical view of the world around them. The pollsters went even deeper, though, to identify men and women who are described as born-again Christians. According to the research, almost half of Americans claim to be born-again Christians, but out of this group of so-called, and I really emphasize so-called born-again Christians, researchers found that their beliefs and lifestyles are virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the world around them. Many of these born-again Christians believe that their works can earn them a place in heaven. Others think that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Some believe Jesus sinned while he was on earth, and an ever-increasing number describe themselves as only marginally committed to Jesus.

This was all done by the Barna Research Group back in 2011. Platt goes on to write in his book, I think the one thing that's abundantly clear from these statistics is that there are a whole lot of people in the world who think they're Christians but are not. There are a whole lot of people who think that they've been born again, but they are dangerously deceived. So let me ask you, have you deceived yourself? Are you a Christian in name only? Are you a true follower of Jesus as Christians were who followed Jesus in the first century? See, this is the question that you really need to think about, and listen, you really need to be sure of your answer because it is so easy to masquerade, particularly in this country, as someone who is not what he claims to be. Is that you?

Is that me? Platt says, I feel I'm on pretty safe ground in assuming that once people truly come face to face with Jesus, the God of the universe in the flesh, and Jesus reaches down into the depths of their hearts, saves their souls from the clutches of sin, and transforms their lives to follow him, they're going to look different, very different. People who claim to be Christians while their lives look no different from the rest of the world are clearly not Christians. And listen, these are not my words, these are his, but I totally agree with them.

Someone once said, if you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Well, that brings us to Luke chapter 5 verses 1 through 11, where Jesus calls his first disciples. He calls them, and he says, come, follow me. By the way, a disciple is simply someone who does what? Follows Jesus. That's what a disciple is. He's a follower of Jesus.

Are you truly a disciple of Christ? Everybody's following somebody. Who are you following?

Who am I following? So let's look at verse 1, and I'm reading from the English Standard Version translation. I'm going back and forth between that and the NIV, because I, they're both so good, but sometimes the ESV will get a word a little bit that I think is more accurate than the NIV, not that I'm some expert, but I look to the experts, and I look at the words that are being used here. Is it an accurate translation of the original Greek? That's what you want to make sure of.

That's why I don't recommend the NIV if it's produced after 1985. By the way, I asked my daughter-in-law, Julianne, I feel like she's my daughter, if she had a Bible that she really liked, and she said yes. I said, well, do you have a real good study Bible? She said, no, I want to get one. She said, what should I get?

I said, well, do you want to get the same thing Big Pop has? She said, yeah, I'd like to get that. So I've ordered she, hope she's not listening, and my daughter-in-law up in Charlottesville, two NIV Bible studies that are from 1985. You can Google that, and you can find one out there. It's usually used, and you can pay about 100 bucks for it, or 50, there are different prices depending on the quality, and get one.

Who wants to get one? It's the NIV study Bible. It's the one that I started with in BSF in 1981, and then y'all may remember the story about eight years ago. I was up in Charlottesville, and my briefcase got stolen, and this cherished Bible of mine that had been rebound, but I had all my notes in from 20 years of BSF got stolen. What do you think that guy thought when he opened up that briefcase, and there were two Bibles in there, and that's it. No wallet, no checkbook, no paper, no important papers, just two Bibles that I cherished. I've asked the Lord if He'll have that Bible waiting for me when I get to heaven, because I cherish it, but I went in and found one exactly like it.

Anyway, tonight's from the ESV. On one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God. He, that is Jesus, was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, also known as the Sea of what? Galilee, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, also known as Peter, he asked him, Jesus asked him, to put out a litter from the land, and then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. By the way, I've stood right there on the shore where they probably pushed out from, and it's just a beautiful sea, and it was just a privilege to be there.

Anyway, I hope you all, if you've never been to Israel, you get to go sometime. And Simon answered, then and when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let your nets down before a catch. And Simon answered, master, we toured all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed, you can see that net enclosing a large number of fish, and the fish literally teeming to the top, and their nets were breaking. So they signaled to their partners over in another boat to come and help them. And they came, and they filled both boats to the point where they began to sink. And by the way, these were not small boats. These were big boats filled with fish, and they were sinking. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, get this, the text says they left everything, dropped their nets, followed him. Would you be willing to do that?

Would I be willing to do that? By the way, this story is not a great story just about a wonderful fishing experience. It's much more than that. You see, it's not the fish who got hooked, but the fishermen. Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, and their partners, James and John, who were also brothers.

So two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, and James and John, four men. Now let me ask you a question. Would you like to get hooked by the master fisherman the same way they did? By the way, that's a good hook to get caught on. Would you like to catch men for Christ? I could sit here and tell you some stories about a few of my friends.

Bob Jenkins always comes to mind, a good friend of mine in Grays. And he went to BSF with me, and we were riding back one night, Georgetown Apartments, and he was getting ready to get out. He said, Russ, I'm not sure I'm saved. I said, you want to make sure you're saved, Bob? He said, yeah. I said, all I got to do is pray right now with me.

And that's what he did. A few years later, he discovered he had leukemia, and he went to be with the Lord. Bob's up there waiting for me and Gray to join him. I mean, there's nothing better than to have that happen. Do you want that to happen in your life? Do you want to have a man up there waiting for you? When you come there, he's going to bear hug you with tears. Say, God, you used you to rescue me, to catch me. That's what it's all about, man.

I've often said this Bible study is what? Like a what? Train headed where, Mike? To heaven. And it pulls in here every Tuesday night, and that door opens, and who's standing there? Jesus.

And what does he say? All aboard. If you really want to follow Jesus, guys, there are three stages through which you must pass. You must hear Jesus calling you. Come and follow me. Are you hearing that tonight?

Maybe for the first time. Come, follow me. Well, look at verses one through three again. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, also the lake of Galilee. Same thing, lake of Galilee.

And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. If you compare this text to the other three gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, and John, Matthew, Matthew, Mark, 18 through 20, excuse me, Matthew 4, 18 through 22, Mark 1, 16 through 20, and John 1, 35 through 42. These texts are all giving you four accounts of the calling of the first disciples to come and follow him. However, you need to understand that their calling was progressive.

It happened over at least a number of days, if not a number of weeks. And so this again in Luke is not Jesus' first account with Peter, James, and John. And so if you look at all these gospels together, here's what the progression of how it happened. Jesus first called them to follow him the day after his baptism. In John chapter one, we learned that both John and Andrew were following Jesus, and Jesus turned around and said, um, what do you want? And they replied, Rabbi, where are you going? He said, come, and you'll see. And then Andrew went out and got his brother named, who was his brother? Peter. And he said, we have found the Messiah.

You ever gone out and told somebody that? I found the Messiah. The next day, Jesus called Philip and Nathaniel. And so gradually over the course of time, Jesus began to call it the twelve to come and follow him. In Mark and Matthew, we learned that Jesus sought out four special fishermen.

Who were they? Peter, Andrew, the two brothers, and James, and John. His first call was just simply a call to follow him. And then in the Luke account, after he performs this incredible miracle of the fish, he calls these four to leave everything. Then later in Matthew, we see Jesus called Levi, also known as Matthew, the tax collector, to come and follow him. And the other disciples, he called him.

We just don't have an account of it. We just know that they called him. And so when you, when we get to Luke chapter six, verse 12, we see that Jesus will appoint these twelve to be as his apostles. What's the difference between an apostle and a disciple? A disciple is simply a follower of Jesus. An apostle is one who actually saw the risen Christ. And he commissioned them personally to go out.

So these twelve disciples, with exception of Judas, were all apostles. Then one of them died, and a man by the name of, I think, Matthias. What's his name? Matthias. Thank you, Jeff.

That's why we got Jeff in here. He corrects me. And then who else became an apostle? Paul. Did he see the risen Christ?

Okay. So, you know, as it goes, there probably aren't any apostles out today, although I would argue, although Grant and I have debated this, that there are people seeing Jesus in person in Muslim countries. Did you all know that?

I believe it. So if he, if they're seeing him, and he's sending them, guess what? They are modern-day apostles. But a lot of these people that say, I'm an apostle, they're not apostles. They've never seen the risen Christ. You have to have seen the risen Christ and be commissioned by him to be an apostle. Enough about that. So what was their mission?

Go and catch men. And so we see that from these accounts, they were called progressively over the course of time. And then, listen, their total commitment evolved over the course of time as they begin to see Jesus for who he really is.

Have you ever seen him for who he really is? If you read through these Gospels, Jesus spent a whole lot of time around the Sea of Galilee. Do you know why he was spending so much time there?

Well, first of all, with a couple of reasons, but I'm just going to give you the reason that I want to talk about. It's because he had his eyes, and I'm talking about when he spent his early days there. When he left, what was his place of, what was his hometown?

Nazareth. When he left Nazareth, he went up north to the Sea of Galilee, and he spent a lot of time there early because he had his eyes on some men, some particular fishermen by the names of Peter, Andrew, James, and John. And one morning he's out walking along the beach. You ever walk down the beach on an early morning?

There's really nothing better. He's walking along. Do you think he was just out there for a stroll?

Or do you think he was on a mission? He sees these two boats. He saw Peter and John washing their nets. They've been fishing out night. You know why they were fishing at night? Is it true that fishing at night is the best time to fish? They can't see the net as well. Thank you, Lee.

I think there's a reason for that. You can tell who the fisherman is in this family. So they've been fishing all night because, as Lee said, they couldn't see the net. Best time to fish.

That makes sense. But see, Jesus knew they were discouraged and tired. He saw the boats put up on the beach. So now there was a time for Jesus to fish for some some men. So that's what he did. He began. So what he began to do. He began to preach the word of God. He began to preach a huge crowd guy that he became so huge that they began to push him literally into the water. And so he asked Peter if he could get in his boat. And he did. And he pushed the boat out a little from land.

Peter did that. And then he began to teach the people from the boat. Now the Scripture doesn't tell us exactly what he preached, but I think we know what he preached. Remember when he went to his hometown in Nazareth and he sat down? Remember this synagogue was one he... this is his hometown church.

This is where he grew up. I remember going home to Bethel. I used to hang out on the Bethel United Methodist Church steps. And it was like my home because I was there Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night.

Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night. And I just got used to the church. It was like home to me. Glad my mother had me there.

She drug me to church, but I loved it. But here's what he said when he's in Nazareth. He handed him the scroll. It's the scroll of which prophet from the Old Testament? Isaiah. Which chapter?

61. He says the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he's appointed me to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, in recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. This had to be what he was preaching from the boat. The good news of the gospel. People all heard Jesus speaking the truth of God's Word. And guess who was in that boat listening to every single word?

Peter. Can you imagine what it would be like to sit in a boat on the Sea of Galilee and hear Jesus teach the Word of God? Believe me, you wouldn't come listen to me ever again.

Listen, if you want to be a fisher of men, here's the deal guys. You have to hear the voice of Jesus. You must hear him speaking to you.

I don't mean audibly. Have you ever heard his voice? Paul, you heard his voice?

I know you have. In Revelation 3, 20, Jesus says, here I am. This, by the way, was one of my favorite verses as a young boy.

Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, what does he promise to do? Come in and eat with you, have fellowship with you. See, that's what he wants to do with every man on the planet, every woman, every child. He wants to have fellowship with us.

That's why God created us. He wants to have fellowship with him. But you have to have a relationship with somebody to have fellowship with them. And so he's knocking on the door. And so when I first read that verse, I didn't hear Jesus call down from heaven, Russ, but in my heart it's like he was saying, Russ, come and follow me.

And in my heart, you know what I said? Yes. I've been following him ever since. Has it been a straight path? No. Has it taken a lot of dips and turns and ins and outs?

Yes. I could tell you about some of that. I ain't gonna do it. Have you heard the voice of Jesus calling you to come and follow him? Maybe you're hearing him for the first time tonight. You've had God at arm's length. You may be a little bit of an agnostic.

You're not real certain about this. Listen to him right now. Or you may be hearing him for the first time. Come, follow me. Perhaps you've been following Jesus from a distance, and maybe tonight you feel like, Russ, I really want to step up my game.

Well, it's not your game. You can't step it up without his hand. But maybe you're ready to get a little bit more into the boat. Maybe you're ready to push out a little bit deeper. Does that describe you?

Who does that describe? Do you feel like you can step it up some more? Raise your hand.

Do what? Good. Are you willing to say, Lord Jesus, here I am. Send me.

I'm yours. I want to serve you the rest of my life no matter what. Is there anything out in this world that can satisfy you? I can answer that. I'm not Solomon, but I've tried a lot of things.

Nothing ever satisfies. I remember one time I took my family to Grand Cayman Island. Doesn't that sound like a great trip? You grew up down there. Where? St. Croix.

Did you know he grew up in St. Croix? Well, you moved there. Same difference.

Same difference. I thought this will be so much fun. We got down there. The boys are fighting about this, about that, arguing about where we're going to eat, all this mess. I said, let's go back home.

And this is ridiculous. It never satisfies. You know what the rich and famous are doing? Where are you vacationing over Christmas? Where are you going to be?

What island are you going to? It never satisfies. It's like candy. What's that candy thing you did at the circus? Cotton candy. It just melts in your mouth, and it's gone.

A little sweet taste, and boom, it's gone. Listen, there is no higher calling in the world than to be a follower of Jesus. Do you and young guys believe that? It's the truth. I'm telling you, I'm old. I can tell you. Don't waste your time with all this other mess. Now, listen, not only must you hear His voice, but station number two, when He calls you to follow Him, you have to trust Him. You have to take a step of faith. And listen, every time you take a step of faith, you'll find the solid ground.

Every time. God will never let you down. When Jesus finished speaking, He looked at Peter and said, put out into deep water and let your nets down for a catch.

And Simon answered, Master, we tore it all night and took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. I want you to notice that Jesus does not give them a suggestion.

Hey, you might want to drop your nets over there. What He said, He gave them a command. And notice He did not say, I want you to put your nets down and try to catch some fish. He said, I want you to put your nets down for a catch of fish.

So the command came with what? A promise. You will catch fish. I was talking to a friend of mine who, well, he's really just an acquaintance.

He's real wealthy. He goes all the world fishing. He'd been somewhere down there off of South America. And I said, did you have a good time fishing? He said, Russ, I don't go fishing. I go catching. Okay, excuse me.

Well, you follow Jesus and you're going to go catching. Can you imagine what Peter was thinking? Look, he's been out there all night.

He's tired. You ever come in from a fishing trip? That's why I don't go offshore anymore. It's just too tiring. And you get back, you might not have caught anything.

You're tired. And then you got to, if you do catch a couple of fish, you got to clean those suckers. Then go to, save yourself a bunch of money. Don't buy a big boat. Don't buy any fishing equipment. Go to the fish market and get one.

Cost you about $50. That's the same way I feel about hunting. I went hunting.

I'm off, I'm way, forget time a lot, okay, because we make it all night. I went hunting down in Arkansas with Joe McDaniel. And I like to do a little duck hunting, but I don't like hunting in the woods for ducks. Put me out there in a nice blind that's got heat in it.

Bring me a biscuit with some coffee. And then tell me when you let the ducks go, and I'm gonna shoot a couple of them. He took me down into Arkansas. I've got on these waders, and we go walking down this field for about a mile, and we're in the wrong field. And it's about, you know, the sun hadn't even come up yet. Then we walked to another field, and now we're getting into water.

Next thing I know, I'm in water like this, and a bunch of trees are in. I said, Joe, first of all, how am I supposed to hit a duck with the trees right there? And then I said, hey, Joe, when does this get fun? Do you know when it got fun? When we got back to the cabinets for breakfast. Then I was having fun.

All right, I'm way off the subject here. So Peter's sitting there. He's been fishing all night, and this carpenter tells him, drop his nets. You know what I would have said? Hey, Jesus, you know, I know you know a lot about carpentry. I'm the fisherman. We fished all night.

There ain't none out there. But what did he do? Well, first of all, Jesus spoke with what? Authority. He also spoke in a voice that let Peter know, you can trust me.

That's the way Jesus speaks to us, with authority, and if he says it, you can believe it. So he dropped his nets, and the nets began to fill with fish immediately. Peter yelled over to his buddies, hey, man, bring your boat over here. They've got two boats over there. They're working. They're pulling all these fish in, and they're looking at each other like, can you believe this? Who is this man? Did this just really happen? So what did we learn here?

Well, first of all, every miracle that Jesus performed had a purpose, and this one was no exception. So remember, Jesus was fishing for who? Fish or men?

Men. And who was in his bullseye? Peter. Why Peter?

Because he was the leader. Remember, he said, Peter, you are the rock, and upon this rock, I'm going to build my church. And Peter had been listening to Jesus ever since Andrew came and said, we've seen the Messiah.

And guess what? This is the way God works. God rewards faith at some point with sight. Somebody once said, I do not seek to understand, instead I might believe, but I believe so that I might understand.

That's the way God has designed the world. It's not blind faith, but you're not going to get all your questions answered. At some point, you've got to take a step of faith, and the moment you do, he lifts the veil from your eyes, and he gives you spiritual sight. This is what Paul is writing about in 2 Corinthians 3, 15 and 16 when he says, even to this day when Moses is read, even today in Israel when they're reading Moses, the Old Testament, a veil covers their hearts. Even today when people are sitting in church and they're hearing scripture, a veil covers many hearts, but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, what happens to the veil?

It's taken away. God lifts the veil and gives you spiritual sight. Peter turned to the Lord by faith, and as the veil was removed, Peter's spiritual eyes were so open that he could see Jesus in his glory and power and holiness. And what did Peter do? He felt on his knees. He said, whoa.

Well, he said, depart from me. I'm a sinful man, oh, Lord. Hey, guys, if you've never had a moment where you've seen how sinful you are, then I would say you haven't really seen who Jesus is. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net.