The word of God quenches our spiritual hunger.
In Luke 5:1 Jesus is standing beside the Sea of Galilee. A crowd is pressed against him. At first glance, there is nothing unusual about this scene. This same crowd could be found on other mornings gathered at the water's edge to buy their day's supply of fish from the local fishermen. It was a first come, first serve kind of ordeal. Those at the front of the line with big elbows got fish, and those in back might walk away hungry.
But this had been a disappointing night. The fishermen were exhausted. Their nets had come up empty. Disappointment was spreading through the crowd. But right when people were about to walk away hungry, Jesus began feeding the crowd with the word of God. Suddenly, the elbows came back out. People began jockeying for position again.
We can quench our physical hunger a thousand different ways, but the word of God is what quenches our spiritual hunger. It's just as Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 (NIV), "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." The crowd's receptivity to the word of God is awe-inspiring, don't you agree?
Now, there is an interesting detail mentioned in Luke 5:3 (NIV). "He (Jesus) got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore." One moment Simon was cleaning his nets, and the next moment Jesus was commandeering Simon's boat and Simon's services. Simon was a captive audience. He had nowhere to run, or swim, or hide. He had to stay there, sitting on the wooden bench in his wooden boat, until Jesus was finished teaching the word of God.
This kind of reminds me of when I was a kid. I cannot tell you how many times I was taken hostage, and forced to sit on a wooden pew, and listen to this teacher or that preacher laboriously share the word of God!
The word of God takes on a life of its own once it enters us.
But there is something powerful about hearing the word of God. The word of God takes on a kind of life of its own once it enters us. The word has laser beam precision. Hebrews 4:12 (NIV) says, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
Whatever it was that Jesus was teaching, it sliced through Peter's defenses, right down to his soul and spirit, his joints and marrow. The word exposed some hidden thought or some hidden attitude held deep within the recesses of Peter's heart. For all of our talk about our love for God's word, God's word can be terrifyingly precise.
It's interesting how many times people come up to me after I've been preaching and say things like, "How did you know? It was as if you were speaking right at me." The truth is... I didn't know! But God knows, and God's word never returns empty. When it goes out, it always accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent forth!
Conviction about sin leads to repentance, forgiveness, inner renewal, and outer fruit.
That wooden bench in Peter's boat was getting mighty uncomfortable for him. Haven't we all been in Peter's seat? In addition to the word of God, Jesus told us how the Spirit convicts the world in regard to sin, righteousness, and the coming judgment. I've said this before, but feeling conviction for sin is a good thing. Conviction leads to repentance, forgiveness, inner renewal, and in time, outer fruit.
But there is a fine line between conviction and self-contempt. Conviction is when we realize how much God still loves us, even after all we've done. Self-contempt is when we disbelieve that God can still love us and forgive us after all we've done. Sometimes it isn't conviction, but self-contempt that we feel. And self-contempt is the devil's victory because self-contempt causes us to want to run and avoid God altogether. When they sinned in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve didn't feel conviction. They felt self-contempt. They hid from God instead of seeking his grace. A healthy response to hearing God's word isn't to run from God, thinking that there is no hope. A healthy response is to draw near to God, and seek his grace.
There in the boat, Peter's mind must have been adrift, contemplating all the ways he'd disappointed God. He must have been thinking about all of his sins and mistakes, and about all of his guilt and shame. Perhaps he was wondering, "What hope is there for a sinner like me?"
Even when we think there's no hope for us, God continues to bless us.
But in Luke 5 as Jesus was finishing up his teaching, he asked Peter to put the boat out into even deeper water and let his nets down for a catch. But Peter protested in Luke 5:5-7 (NIV), "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so, 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."
Let me tell you what we might take from this. God never brings us under conviction-- not by his word nor by his Spirit-- without reminding us, and even overwhelming us, with his all-surpassing grace. Peter wondered if God could ever love a sinner like him, but God filled his nets so full of fish that his nets began to break. He filled his boat so full that his boat was about to sink. He even filled Peter's friends' boats so full that their boats were about to sink. And there were so many fish that not a single person, big elbowed or small elbowed, went home hungry that day. They did not hunger physically or spiritually.
We have to resolve for ourselves the reality of God's grace.
In that moment, Peter was so overwhelmed by the grace of God, he fell at Jesus's feet and said in Luke 5:8-10 (NIV), " 'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!' For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 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 catch men.' " Condemnation repels and destroys, while conviction restores and renews.
One of the things we have to resolve for ourselves is the reality of God's grace. In John 3:16-18 (NIV) Jesus told Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already becasue he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." One of the first and hardest things for us to believe is that God doesn't want to judge us, but rather forgive us and restore us.
And Luke 5 wouldn't be the last time that Jesus would need to convince Simon Peter of his grace. After Jesus was arrested, and Peter denied knowing Jesus three times, Jesus would return to this very spot on the Sea of Galilee, and gently restore Peter with the question, "Simon Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Jesus asked Peter three times, because Peter had denied him three times. See John 21:15-19.
God is not vested in our condemnation, but rather in our justification and redemption. If only we could learn what Peter learned, but Judas never learned.
Have a moment of honesty before God.
This morning you were handed a blank card. I want you to take out your card and have a moment of total honesty before God. Do not write your name on this card, but write the one thing on this card you imagine God could never forgive you of. Write down that one thing that Satan uses day after day, week after week, to condemn you. This is the thing that God wants to use this day to convince you of his mercy and his grace.
Go ahead, write that one thing down on your card and fold it up. As our worship team comes and sings, we want you to take that card and set it at the foot of one of the crosses in this room. And after you take communion, we want you to exchange your card for one of the cards nailed to the cross.
What we take to the cross isn't what we walk away with. We come to the cross with guilt and shame. We walk away from the cross with mercy and grace.