Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : February 8, 2004
Jesus Is My Life
Epiphany 5
I just read an article in the paper that said that many companies are going back to the old slogans and jingles that they had used years ago for advertisements. Why? Because people like to live in the past, basically. People like to remember when they were younger, when life was more simple, when they seemed to live a more care-free life, when life wasn't so stressful, and they didn't have as many aches and pains. They liked to reminisce about the old days when they had it pretty good. Basically, it's a kind of escapism -- I'm not so satisfied with where I am right now, so I want to remember where I was years ago. So we start seeing Mr. Whipple again saying, "Don't squeeze the Charmin.", and Starkist Tuna's mascot Charlie again facing disappointment with the words, "Sorry, Charlie."
It's good for a Christian to remember old times as well -- what Jesus has done for us on Calvary and how the importance of that fact shows in our lives. But Christians don't want to escape the present; they want to look on each day with fresh confidence in their Lord and seek to do his will. So today we are going to look at an appropriate slogan or motto that a Christian can use every day to be reminded of heavenly things instead of being bogged down with earthly cares and concerns. We'll see what we can come up with after we look at Luke 5:1-11 where Jesus calls his first disciples into full-time apostleship.
The first thing we need to see is that Jesus knows where you are in your life, which will have a profound impact on how we view our Christian lives. Jesus knew where the people of his day were spiritually -- he described them as sheep without a shepherd, wandering around, looking for spiritual truth and meaning to their lives, but not finding it -- until Jesus began to preach his Word to them. He knew that the people at that time needed to hear his Word of Life. So we see Jesus taking the time to patiently instruct the people at the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, which we know more commonly as the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus knew where a man named Simon Peter was in his life as well. Simon had already become a follower of Jesus and believer in him as his Savior. Jesus had stayed at his house already and had healed his mother-in-law. But now Jesus was going to turn directly to Simon and reach out to him in a very special way. The first way he did that was to ask Simon to provide a boat for him as he was teaching the people, so he could speak to all the people and they could all hear him. But after he was done, he also knew that Simon had a great need as well -- to hear more about the Word of Life -- which would change his life forever.
Jesus knows where you and I are in our lives as well. He knows if you are lonely or surrounded by family and friends, if you are very happy with where you are or if you are depressed and finding no fulfillment in your daily activities. He knows if you have clear sailing through life or if you are hitting one huge wave of disappointment or dread after another and are about to be swamped by your troubles and trials. Jesus knows what you need, too. You need to hear his Word of Life as well, just like the rest of the world. We know that Jesus' Word of Life is our only comfort in life because Jesus is our life. Jesus knows that we are Christians with busy lives going through some good times and some very difficult times. But because he knows where you are in your life, Jesus also knows where you need to be in your life -- which is closer to him.
Jesus knew where Peter needed to be as well, which was closer to him. And Jesus knew how to bring him closer. After Jesus finished preaching the Word of Life to the crowd, Jesus turned personally to Peter and told Peter to do something that sounded ridiculous to Peter -- Jesus told Peter to go fishing. He and his partners had been fishing all night and hadn't caught a thing. Now they were getting their nets ready to go out again this night and hoped to have better fortune so they could provide for their families and themselves. But now Jesus, who was no fisherman, told him to go out at midday, the worst time to fish, to put down his nets in the deepest part of the lake, which was the worst place to fish because every fisherman on the Sea of Galilee knew that the best fishing was near the shore. But Peter did it. Why? Because Jesus told him to. Even though he didn't understand Jesus' word to him, he accepted it and followed Jesus' will.
And Jesus gave him a fish story he could tell for the rest of his life. They caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. "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." Jesus had done two things for Peter. First, he had provided for him and his family physically, which would remind Peter every day that every piece of food on their table was a gift of God. But more importantly Jesus provided for Peter spiritually -- he used this miracle to draw Peter closer to himself as the Savior.
When Jesus is your life, life becomes a wonderful life to live. Like Peter, we accept all of God's Word, even if we can't understand certain passages, because we know that God means it for our good. The most wonderful passages of Scripture are ones that we will never fully grasp -- that God sent his own Son to this world to save pitiful sinners who disobeyed him at every turn, sinners who thought things and said things and did things that God hates, and which in his holiness he must punish with eternal death. But God still loved sinners -- he still loved you and me -- amazing! So much so, that he sent his one and only Son, to suffer as the supreme and perfect sacrifice to God and to give his lifeblood as a ransom for the whole world full of sinners, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Why did God choose me to live in heaven with him even though I can never deserve it? Because he loved me and continues to love me even though I still sin every day. I can't understand God's love for me; I can never plumb the depths of God's riches in Christ; I can never fully understand or even fully appreciate it until heaven. But I rejoice in it and accept it through faith. Heaven is mine all because of God's love for me in Jesus who died for my sins and gave me eternal life. The more we listen to Jesus' Word of Life, the more the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ -- so Christ is our life.
So not only does Jesus know where you are in your life, and where you need to be in your life, which is closer to him, but he also knows what you can do now with your life as a redeemed child of God. That is shown by Peter's reaction to the miraculous catch of fish. He fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Everyone who saw the miracle was amazed, as you and I would have been. Peter realized that only God himself could do such a miracle. And since Jesus was God, he was standing before his Creator and Provider and Savior; he stood before the Holy God himself. And he was a sinner. The only reaction to a sinner standing before the almighty Judge is terror -- to go as far away from that righteous Judge as possible -- because we know our sins have made him our enemy. But instead of going away from Peter and us, Jesus came closer to his sinful creatures, assuring us that the only way to be saved from our sins was to lay all our sins on Jesus, and to believe that he has taken them away. That has made peace between us and God; it has enabled us to look at life in a whole new way -- with Jesus at the center of it and the reason for us being alive. And that gospel message has also equipped us to follow Jesus with our lives. Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. Jesus called Peter, James and John to full-time discipleship -- they left everything to follow Jesus so they could catch not fish but the souls of men with the gospel's Word of Life. They would no longer catch fish that were living but would eventually die; they would now catch people who were dead in sin and make them alive by the Holy Spirit's power through the gospel. For Peter and the rest of the apostles, Jesus was not just a great teacher, and not even just their Savior -- he was their life! He is our life as well.
Are we prepared to leave everything to follow Jesus? Ask yourself: What does my Jesus mean to me? How will my life change? What can I do for Jesus, since he is my life? What can I do for Jesus when I get up in the morning, since he is my life? What can I do for Jesus when I get the kids ready for school or I go to work, since he is my life? What can I do for Jesus when I see someone in need, whether it's a fellow Christian that needs encouragement or to be picked up for worship, or if it's someone who doesn't know Jesus, since he is my life? What can I do for Jesus when I have time or talents or monetary blessings that can be used for his glory and to bring the message of salvation to others to catch them for Christ? Every minute of every hour or every day I want to be asking myself: What can I do for Jesus, when I see what he has done for me? Jesus is my life! What better motto can a Christian have? Amen.
