Conditions for a miracle
Luke 5:1-12
Introduction- Good Morning online Church- Glad that you have joined us.
Please turn to Luke 5:1-12 on your apps or your Bible
Prayer-
Most miracles happen when you least expect it. Right? You are somewhere and before you know it something out of the ordinary happens. If it was planned and you could explain how it happened, it would not be a miracle.
Jesus caught Peter by surprise and before he could explain it, the supernatural happened.
I believe a lot of us miss miracles because we are not even looking for them, or we take them for granted and don’t even recognize them as miracles-
Let’s define a miracle/ Webster
A surprising and welcome event that is not explainable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.
A highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.
Let’s narrow that definition as a believer…we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, not a generic divine agent still does miracles. Even if he doesn’t do what we thought when we thought he should, He is still a miracle working God.
Jesus In The Boat Of Your Life
For me a miracle is being in a right position for the Lord to do something new and extraordinary in your life/\. You did not make it happen, you just put yourself in a position for it to happen. In the case of Peter- He got into the boat and he got into the water. The rest was up to Jesus for Him to do what He desires.
Jesus is always looking for a heart, a life, a ministry, a business, a family, a church, a nation to enter into. When Jesus got into Peter’s boat, Peter didn’t shut or shove Jesus out of his boat, he allowed Him in.
Allowing Jesus into his boat, gave Peter a life-changing encounter with Jesus. (SermonCentral)
What happens when Jesus is allowed into our lives?
He (Jesus) does a new thing
When Jesus entered Peter’s boat, something new happened.
A new thing is God changing a present situation or condition.
It is God changing the way things are or have been for you.
Before Jesus entered Peter’s boat, this was Peter’s condition: he had “toiled all night and caught nothing”.
It was all about what he had done and what he had accomplished.
He had put in much effort, but there was no result, there was nothing to show for all his toiling.
When Jesus entered Peter’s boat, the situation changed. The report concerning his fishing changed from we have caught nothing, to we have a great number of fish that our net can’t even contain them.
A new thing is God showing up in something you have been doing for years and giving you a totally new experience. That night wasn’t Peter’s first night fishing, but it was the first time in all Peter’s years of fishing that he caught this number of fish.
They estimate that they caught 1 ton of fish- which was what they usually caught in two weeks.
What Peter saw and experienced that day, was a totally new experience for Peter in his fishing career.
For Jesus to do a new thing in our lives, we must make ourselves available.
We all desire and pray for something new; for a turnaround for good in our lives, but are our lives available for the Lord? Jesus entered Peter’s boat because He was looking for a boat to use. “Then He got into one of the boats which was Peter’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat” (Luke 5:3).
Whatever we give to God, He will use for His glory.
God is a Master at taking the ordinary and using it for the extra ordinary.
He took Peter’s boat and used it as a pulpit.
He took Moses’ rod and used it to perform great signs and wonders in Egypt (Exodus 4:1-4, Exodus 6:8-9, 14-21, Exodus 8:5-6, 16-17, Exodus 9:23-26, Exodus 10:13, Exodus 14:15-16).
He took David’s slingshot and used it to bring down and destroy Goliath (1 Samuel 17: 40, 49-50).
It is the devil that enters into a place, takes something or someone and spoils, scatters and destroys that thing or that life (John 10:10). But when Jesus is in something or someone, He takes that thing or person to reveal God’s glory, to demonstrate the awesome power of God.
After Jesus finished using Peter’s boat to teach, the miracle working power of God was shown in a miraculous catch of fish. We want the miracles, we want a new thing, but we are not ready to make our boat, our home, our business, our time, our talents, skills and abilities available for God’s use. (SermonCentral)
For some of us, we allow Jesus into the boat, but give Him ‘terms and conditions’ on how to use our boat.
Conditions like my boat is only available Sunday mornings during Church Service, any time after that you can’t use my boat, you can’t control anything that happens in and with my boat.
Peter didn’t give Jesus ‘terms and conditions’. He allowed Jesus use his boat for His own purpose and for how long Jesus wanted to.
There were no interruptions while Jesus was teaching, no please excuse me, I need to be somewhere else, do something else. Peter allowed Jesus have His way.
For the new to come, for God to move us to the next level, for the power of God to fill our lives like never before, we must be ready to allow God to alter, disrupt and disorganize our own plans. (Repeat)
Jesus used creative ways to minister to Peter and those around him. He did not start fishing, he used the boat as a floating pulpit and by pushing out created his own microphone system. Peter gave Jesus permission to teach him and others even though they were tired and ready to put their tools away and get some rest. He was washing his nets. He was packing it in. he had had enough and did not get the result he was hoping for. But when Jesus showed up, he was willing to for a new way.
He cares what happens with us –
Before Jesus came into Peter’s boat, Peter had struggled hard and long to catch fish. When Jesus entered his boat, Jesus didn’t say anything about this. He just began to teach. Then when He was through teaching, without Peter making any mention of how he had struggled all night to catch fish, Jesus addressed that need, that struggle in Peter’s life. He says “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4).
Many times it appears that God isn’t saying or doing anything about our needs and struggles. But even when He hasn’t said a thing, even when the situation hasn’t changed, Jesus knows all about it and at the appropriate time He will attend to it.
The first thing we want when Jesus enters into our boat is to immediately fix what is going on in our lives.
Even though Jesus knew Peter had toiled all night and caught nothing, the first thing Jesus attended to was not catching fish.
Matthew 6:33 tells us “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Don’t seek after miracles and blessings, first, seek the Lord and make sure our relationships are right with Him.
All the while Jesus was teaching the crowd, he had something for Peter…
He knows those areas of our lives where we have toiled all night and caught nothing. He knows those times when we are ‘washing our nets’; when we have had a bad day, are weak, tired, frustrated from toiling all night and catching nothing.
When Jesus got into Peter’s boat, He gave Peter two instructions. The first was “Put out a little from the land” (Luke 5:3). Peter obeyed. When Jesus finished teaching, He gave Peter another instruction “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4). Peter obeyed.
We have to be sensitive to obey with crazy faith! Where had you heard that before? To know what to do and do it. Sometimes with doubt because of our own unbelief but with the obedience of because you said so Lord I will obey and cast the net again- We do not get to pick what we will obey and what we will do on our own.
After Jesus teaches, he tells Peter a life changing thing!- push off the shoreline and launch yourself into the deep
II. Launching into the deep you trust the Lord not yourself
“Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”
Jesus tells us
I know that you have done it before-but do it again
I know that you are fishermen and you think that you have tried everything-do it again.
I know that you are tired and ready to give up- do it again.
I spoke in the shallow so that you would be ready for the deep- try it now
You might catch a few fish here, but greater things are at the deep end of the pool
(5) “Simon answered. Master, we’ve worked all night and haven’t caught anything but because you say so, I will let down my net.”
Do you see an important point here? You have done all you need to do- that is a good thing because God desires effort and determination and readiness.
He cannot recall what you have not installed. But when he says- I will obey… I will let down my net.
(6) “When they had done so! Here it comes! Obedience paying benefits and blessings! “When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.”
You cannot out give God
God see the impossible as possible
He has unlimited resources and we in our own talents are limited.
Sometimes we have to lose sight of the shoreline so that we can reap the benefits of the deep and the new things God is working in our lives.
We cannot be washing our nets when He desires to do a new thing!
Washing the nets for Peter was a sign of defeat, they had fished all night and came up empty.
For some of us, we can relate to these fishermen because you’ve fought all night praying seeking God for your blessing.
Some of you have been searching for a long time. You want more but not sure what to do.
You have tried it, you’ve wept, sought counsel, read all the books on receiving your blessing,
Just as these fishermen did all they knew how to do.
You have come to the place where you’ve done it all and now your ready to live with defeat your ready to wash your nets and live with the fact you failed.
How about launching into the deep one more time?
Ephesians 6:12
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”
1 Peter 5:8
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, roams about, seeking whom he may devour:“
Don’t believe those lies
1 Peter 5:7
“Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.”
As we close, Doing things the Lord’s way gives us purpose
He gives us clarity of purpose –
After the miracle, after the blessings Jesus told Peter “from now on you will catch men” (Luke 5:10).
In other words, miracles are good, it is a wonderful thing to have this number of fish, to be mightily blessed of the Lord, but that’s not what you should spend all your life, all your time running after. There is an assignment to be done, there is a purpose for your life. Your assignment is to catch men. Jesus made it plain and clear to Peter AND TO US what God’s purpose for his life was.
The reason why Jesus wants to come into the boat of our lives is so we don’t waste a second on things outside His plan and will for our lives.
Jesus comes into the boat of our lives so we don’t live without purpose and wandering around in circles.
Allow Him time in our boat, have quality times of fellowship with Him.
Even when God reveals His purpose for our lives, we can drift away from that purpose. Jesus told Peter in Luke 5:10 that he was to devote his life to catching men.
But in John 21:3, Peter returned back to fishing. With the death of Jesus, fear of persecution, fear of what lies ahead, Peter had lost his passion and interest in fishing for men.
He went back to where he was, to what he was doing before he had an encounter with the Lord.
Jesus in His mercy, restored Peter back to his divine purpose.
Jesus made it clear again to Peter the purpose of God for his life.
Jesus told him “Feed My lambs…Tend My Sheep” (John 21: 14-17).
I pray today that if we have lost our passion for the Lord and our joy of salvation, if we have drifted away from God’s original plan for our lives, God will restore us back.
There are real dangers out there and the worst thing that can happen to anyone is life without Jesus.
The miracle most not recognized is the way of salvation He provides for those that turn to him.
The second is not being sensitive when the Lord wants to us you to speak to someone
Prayer
