Sermon Note

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Life’s Biggest Questions: Where Do I Belong? July 30 – September 9, 2018 New Series. (KOINONIA) Why is Jesus and His church an important place to find meaning and belonging? What does it do FOR the person who decides to align themselves with other followers of Jesus I Belong Where I Help Others Follow Jesus By Senior Pastor Tom Harrison August 5, 2018 (Sermon Journal) This story is ironic because a carpenter’s son tells some professional fisherman how to fish. After the miracle, Peter recognizes (“astonished”) this itinerant preacher is master of the sea, so he submits to the Lordship of Jesus. He fell to his knees, confessed his sinfulness and heard the affirmation of Jesus not to be afraid. The biggest catch that day was not fish – it was Peter, James and John. Not only was Peter forgiven, he was commissioned. Peter was no longer going to catch fish, he would take people alive for the kingdom of God. Peter, James and John had a seismic shift in their priorities: they left everything and followed him. Our readings this week show others who followed Jesus and how we use our gifts to help others follow Jesus, too. APPLICATION: I was 14 ½ years old when I began to follow Jesus. My conversion didn’t happen by myself. Like Peter, I was in the company of family and friends. I describe my conversion experience with one word: “FORGIVEN.” I felt loved, accepted and forgiven. Furthermore, I wanted everyone to know that, too. We all have different experiences – but we share the same call – to live for the kingdom of God and to help others live there, too. Jesus gives us this purpose in life. How do you take extreme ownership of your calling as a follower of Christ? When first appointed to Asbury in 1993, I had a 2-year sermon series on 4 Greek words that described the identity/mission of the church. The center of our faith revolves around WORSHIP. This year, we spent 7 weeks from February thru Easter on 2 chapters of the Bible: Revelation 4-5. Worship of Jesus Christ is the central, unifying, beginning place of the church. It all begins and ends with worship. As we see in our text today, worship insists that Jesus Christ is Master/Lord. The New Testament affirms: “Jesus Christ is Lord.” We are to surrender to Him. After surrendering to Jesus, we are part of His church. We are to engage in 3 aspects of the church’s mission: BELONGING (Greek word is “koinonia”); BELIEVING (2 Gk words: “kerygma” = the proclamation of the gospel

+ “didache” = the teaching component; + BECOMING a servant (“diakonia”). These are our 3 responses as the church to the fact that we worship Jesus Christ as Lord. Our sermon series until Advent will focus upon these 3 words. There was something truly remarkable about Jesus! He spoke to fisherman, farmers, tax collectors, educated, religious leaders and social rejects. He performed amazing miracles. People were in awe of Him. The 1st miracle in Luke’s gospel was the healing of a man with a demonic power. The 2nd miracle was the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Peter had prior experience with Jesus). All 4 gospels tell of the disciples following Jesus, but Luke’s Gospel goes into the most depth about this call. Luke 5:1-11 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, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. These men had their place of “belonging” already. They were business partner with their fellow fisherman. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Jesus is telling the professional fishermen where/how to fish. 5 And Simon answered, “Master, “Master” = how a Jewish disciple would address his teacher. Discipleship expressed as a servant/master relationship (and as a father/son bond, hence a teacher would call his disciples his “family”) we toiled all night and took nothing! Jesus caught Peter on a bad day. A full night’s work had yielded nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets.” Peter was probably wondering what a Rabbi would know about fishing but chooses to do what he says anyway. Jesus could sometimes give some strange orders. His first miracle in John’s Gospel was turning water into wine. It was a strange request to pour gallons of water into those 6 huge waterpots….but His mother, Mary, told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Sometimes, there are some counter-intuitive aspects of faith. One of those is about giving. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” That doesn’t make sense. But it really does. 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart

from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” This is the 2nd miraculous demonstration Peter has witnessed. He knows something is different about this teacher. Peter recognizes there is a huge GAP between him and Jesus. There is no comparison – it’s all contrast. As such, he has an interesting response: he realizes he does NOT BELONG. He is not “Master.” He is not “Lord.” Rather, he is a “sinful man.” What do you think he meant by “I am a sinful man?” What kind of a sinner was Peter? What was he thinking about? If you’ve ever watched any of those fishing shows like “Deadliest Catch” you’ll know that fishermen can have colorful language and lifestyles. I’m not sure what Peter was thinking, but I do recognize SHAME when I see it. He was deeply ashamed of his life. He knew he was “living in sin.” He was not the person he needed to be. A lot of people have the response of Peter – “depart from me.” They recognize their failure and admit they’ve not lived according to God’s standards. This “depart from me” statement is why many people do not come to church. They feel they aren’t “as good” as everyone else who “deserves” God’s love. The interesting thing is – when we admit this, it’s okay. Jesus could help people who recognized they were sinners. Jesus could NOT help those who would not recognize/admit this about themselves. That is why He could reach “tax collectors and sinners” but it was so hard for him to reach the religious people who saw themselves as holy and good. Sometimes, in our zeal to let everyone know that God loves us, we neglect to tell the whole truth – we are sinners who need to repent. I can be accepted into the Kingdom of God by following this pattern of Peter’s – a recognition of who Jesus is (“Master/Lord”) and a recognition of who I am (“sinful”). Peter is known for making 2 confessions. Later in the Gospels Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am.” Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” That is known as “The Great Confession.” It’s actually his 2nd confession. Lk. 5 is his first. “I am a sinful man.” We need b both confessions. “I AM – YOU ARE.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon Peter was astonished by the catch of fish. How could a Rabbi know this? He will be astonished about many things as he follows Jesus (Jesus’ walking on the water at the Sea of Galilee, the Feeding of the 5,000 was here, lepers healed, Lazarus raised from the dead; and then he will see Jesus crucified, dead, resurrected and will see Jesus after the resurrection. This was only the first time Peter was astonished. It will happen over and over again for the next 3 years of Jesus’ public ministry, and then with the birth of the church.)

And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; When he confessed that he was a sinful man, Jesus dd not express contempt or condemnation. He did not shame Peter. He did not tell Peter he was bad or unworthy or annoying. He said, “Do not be afraid” Don’t be afraid of what? Of Jesus? Or of Peter’s call? Peter had a wife/household to support. Leaving the family business to become a student of an itinerant teacher must have felt like a huge risk! Jesus reassures Peter, using language that Peter would understand/relate to (“fishers” of men). from now on you will be catching men.” This is a new call. The old call was “making a living.” The new call was to “make a life.” Peter had been living with self-interest. There’s nothing wrong with working and having a career and profession. But there’s got to be something MORE than just making money. 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. “They made the full commitment to become disciples of Jesus. Application: You are invited into the KOG. Here’s our application: 1.) We recognize who Jesus is. 2.) We recognize who WE are 3.) We follow/surrender/become disciples. Nothing changes until we follow. That’s when we will be able to live/act different. We can’t do it from a distance. We’ve got to commit. A disciple followed their teacher everywhere he went, + the teacher taught his disciples everything he could. 1st Century Jewish disciples learned to be just like their teacher. They learned the stories their teacher told. They learned the lessons their teacher taught. They learned to eat their teacher’s foods like their teacher ate them. They learned to keep the Sabbath as their teacher kept Sabbath, to give to charity like their teacher gave to charity. They learned to fast/pray as their teacher fasted/prayed. They learned to keep God’s commands like their teacher kept them. 4.) We help others follow Jesus, too. This becomes our life goal. It’s why we exist as a church and as individuals. Helping others “belong” is a wonderful place to begin. Personal transformation to accomplish a shared mission. While standing in line to pay for my family’s breakfast in Breckenridge last week, a young man behind me said, “Tom Harrison.” I turned, and he said, “I’m Nate Griffin.” Nate is a close friend of our oldest son (and his sister is a member of Asbury). He said, “I want to thank you for filling out an application to help me be accepted for me to ORU and to be on the baseball team. I was not a believer then - but ORU was a good experience for me.” He was with his wife, Loni (I learned

from my daughter, was a major association for her to name her 1st daughter “Lonnie”). He had surrendered his life to Christ and was now a believer. They were with their little boy. Nate said it was his sense of “awe” in the birth of his son that he came to understand what it meant to truly love someone so much. He made the connection between his love for his son and God’s love for His Son. That was what helped him to place his trust in Christ. Since Nate came to faith in Christ, he is stunned by how he missed the faith component. It was all before him, but he didn’t see it. As is often the case with “adult-onset conversions,” Nate is now very committed to Christ now, and realizes that while he was “making a very good living” in his business, he’s now found a very good life. It's this sense of “awe” – how great God is, and this sense of awe of who God’s son is, that upon reflection, drives us to the point of recognition that there IS a God and we are not God. We give ourselves to Him. This sense of awe brought Nate to the place where he surrendered his life to Christ. This is the same thing that happened to Peter. Peter would never be perfect. But when he met the One who WAS perfect, he made a decision to follow Him….but also to help others follow Him. “I am a sinful man….but you are a loving Lord.” This is what we are about – letting others know that they can be loved, accepted and forgiven by the One who has made this His business. Have you ever recognized who Jesus is? He is truly AWE-some. Have you ever recognized who you are – a person who is stained by sin, yet of sacred worth who does not need to be AFRAID of God when we repent. This is what Communion is for – a time to receive God’s grace. It’s a time to move from fear to faith; from self-reliance and self-interest to receive forgiveness, assurance, and mission. We BELONG to Jesus Christ. We BELONG to His church. This is your invitation to follow as His disciples. Receive His grace through the sacrament of Holy Communion. In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.