1. Which of these two words do you most readily and easily associate with God?
• Encourage
• Discomfort
(At the time of delivery 98% raised their hands for "Encourage" and 2% for "Discomfort".)
2. Well, I would like to suggest to you that as you study the scriptures, both of those words can be applied in fairly even proportions to God. In fact God seems to constantly be in the business of “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable” – to quote legendary Chicago journalist Finley Peter Dunne – and often those can be one and the same group of people. There are times when we need comforting and there are also times when we need God’s merciful affliction and discomfort.
• Remember how quickly Jesus’ tone with dear old Simon Peter changed after he confessed Jesus to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God” and Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you Simon bar Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed that to you but my Father in heaven.” – a most comforting and encouraging word.
• But then just a few verses further down in Matthew 16 as Jesus begins to explain to his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem where He would suffer many things and be put to death, Peter rebukes Him saying, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” And Jesus has to look Peter squarely in the eye and say to him “Get behind me Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” OUCH! That stung.
• From the mountain top to the pits in just a few short moments!
3. In Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus pronounces not only blessings on the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are persecuted, but also woes on the rich, the satisfied, those who laugh now, and those of whom everyone speaks well.
4. The moment our circumstances improve and we get out of a place of total dependence and reliance on God and think that we have got it made and can now take care of ourselves without Him, we have stepped into the danger zone and need His stern word or perhaps a reversal in fortunes to again remind us that apart from Him we are nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing. That has been the experience of God’s people throughout the ages. C. S. Lewis observed that “God whispers to us in pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
5. In Deuteronomy 28-30, as Moses spoke to the Israelites before they prepared to cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, he shared with them both the blessings of obedience as well as the curses of disobedience – you can go and read those chapters at home for yourself.
• But I want to read to you just these words at the end of chapter 30: “15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
6. Let’s now see this principle at work in the two Bible passages that were read this morning.
LUKE 5: 1-11 The Huge Catch of Fish
1. This story takes place near the start of Jesus’ ministry up in Galilee – following His rejection in His home town of Nazareth and the healings He has performed in Capernaum.
• He heads down to the Sea of Galilee in the early part of the morning and the crowds are following Him, wanting to get as close as possible to hear Him speak.
• He sees two empty boats near the edge of the lake and the fishermen are off to the side cleaning their nets without a whole lot of enthusiasm – perhaps cussing, as fishermen are often accustomed to doing when things didn’t work out as they would have liked.
• Jesus climbs into one of the boats and asks Peter if he would push Him a little further into the water so He could use the boat as a pulpit.
• I wonder what went through Peter’s mind as he sat there on the boat – keeping it steady and preventing it from drifting further out into the lake. Perhaps after fussing inside that he would much rather have gone straight home to bed, maybe, just maybe he began to listen some
• At the end of His time of teaching, Jesus tells Peter to head out for the deep water and let their nets down for a catch.
• Peter is pooped. He’s just cleaned and dried his nets and this idea is not one that pushes his excitement buttons – after all he knows better – he’s a fisherman and Jesus is a carpenter – fishing is his profession – he knows these waters and he knows the fish. He knows too that the best time and place to catch the fish is at night and in the shallow waters where they come to feed. Heading out into deeper water in the daytime and hoping for a catch is just plain foolishness!
• But bless his heart! Even though he has absolutely no confidence that things will be any different this time round - and he was probably all ready to say to Jesus – “See, I told you so!” he responds by saying, “OK, it’s your call, I’ll let down the nets.” He obeyed even when it didn’t make any sense.
• And God rewards beyond measure even that act of unenthusiastic, half-hearted, faith-deficient obedience.
• Such a huge catch is taken that the nets are starting to break and they have to call in the second boat to come help.
2. My dear friends, God always pays for any service we do in His name – and He’s no cheapskate! He will never be in your or my debt!
• For letting Him use the boat to preach from, God paid Peter enough with that one catch to buy a whole fleet of fishing boats!
• But the lesson has deeper implications – not only is God able to provide abundantly for their material needs, but as they follow and obey His Son, He is going to teach and train them to win people to Him.
3. You may feel just like Peter and his brothers –
• tired, discouraged, disheartened because life has not always been easy on you –
• maybe you are grappling with issues right now regarding your own health, or that of a loved one,
• your finances or lack thereof and how you are going to manage as costs keep going higher and your fixed income buys you less and less
• your anxieties surrounding your future, with all its uncertainties, like where you’re going to go and who will take care of you when you can no longer do it for yourself
• and now on top of everything else comes this news about the need to replace the roof on this sanctuary and the significant costs that will be involved.
4. And perhaps, like Peter, you would rather just go home to bed and forget it all. But Jesus is telling you now to push your boat out into deeper water and let your net down for a catch – and your mind is telling you it is foolish – but how will you respond?
MARK 10:17-31 THE RICH YOUNG RULER
1. In this second story an enthusiastic and self-confident young man runs up to Jesus and asks Him what else he still needs to do to get eternal life. Do you note his focus? “What else must ‘I do’ to get eternal life?” As though it was a matter of his own personal achievement and not the gift of God.
2. After reminding him about the commandments, the young man states without hesitation – “Teacher, I’ve kept them all since I was a kid.”
3. He was obviously no lazy man and had worked hard to achieve success in all areas of his life – moral, ethical, social, educational, and financial.
4. Well then, says Jesus, there’s just one thing left to do – go and sell everything you own and give it to the poor – then all your wealth will be heavenly riches – and come and follow me. Give away what you have achieved for yourself and come follow me and your heavenly bank balance will overflow
• Not the answer this young man was expecting to hear or wanting to hear.
• Such a requirement seemed lunacy to him – it would take away his control over his life and put him in a position of dependency.
• What benefit is heavenly treasure anyway when you have to pay bills in earthly currency?
5. And so the young man turns around and walks away discouraged, disheartened, discomforted – not having found the answer he was looking for - still holding onto what he possessed, but now poorer than he was before the encounter with Jesus – because now he’d have to rely and depend only on what was in his own pocket rather than what was in the pocket of God.
• For Jesus says to his disciples, “Mark my words, no one who sacrifices house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, land – whatever—because of me and the Gospel will lose out. They will get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land – but also in troubles. And then the bonus of eternal life”.
6. Is there anything you are clutching onto right now and unwilling to relinquish into the hands of God? Fearful, that if you do, you will have to go without.
• It could be finances, it could be possessions, it could be your time, it could be your energies. It could be your reputation.
• It could even be your pain, your illness, your suffering – while you have it, people seem to take an interest in you and that might be too great an anticipated loss should you get well. And the fear is that perhaps then no one will pay attention to you.
• You have become your illness or your pain and to give it up is all you have.
• That was the case of the man in John 5 who had lain for 38 years next to the healing waters of the pool of Bethesda. When Jesus saw him, He asked “Do you want to get well?” and rather than answer in the affirmative, the man offered excuses as to why he could never get into the pool and be healed – others would always get into the water ahead of him.
7. As you reflect on these two stories – with which of the characters do you most closely identify? Peter or the Rich Young Ruler?
• Is God’s Word to you this morning, a word of encouragement or one of discomfort?
• I guess the answer to that question will depend on how you choose to respond.
AMEN.
