Life of Christ 36
Often, our best work is
done, not with crowds, but with individuals.
We are now well into
Jesus' first preaching tour of Galilee. He has done several very public
miracles, and He has traveled and preached in synagogues all over the region,
presenting His claim to be Israel's messiah. The response has been very good in
the sense of attention and crowds. Traveling with Him, as well, is the little
group of three or four disciples who transferred over to Him from John the
Baptist.
Our story today (Luke
5.1-11) finds us just outside the town that had become His main base in
Galilee, Capernaum. Although He had lived in Nazareth almost all of His life
Capernaum was both more receptive and better situated for His new life. It was
centrally located in Galilee, and four main roads came together there. It also
had the largest population in the area, and boasted a good economy.
Additionally, it was a substantial port on the Sea of Galilee with some 4000
small boats and ships docking there.
We find Him, as I said,
just outside of Capernaum, walking down by the Sea of Galilee. Gradually, first
one person and then another recognizes Him, and soon a small crowd forms around
Him. This, in turn, draws a larger crowd. He is already known regionally, not
just as a miracle worker, and as a man claiming to be the messiah, but also as
an outstanding preacher, and soon several calls came from the crowd for Him to
preach.
As He is down by the
shoreline, out of sheer necessity He jumps into an empty fishing boat in order
not to be pushed into the water, and in order to place a little space between
Himself and the crowd. He preaches a message, and then addresses the boat's
owner, whom He happened to already know, Peter. (Of course, I do not believe
there are any coincidences in the life of our Lord. I'm sure Jesus knew exactly
what He was doing, and exactly whose boat He 'happened' to be standing by as
the crowd formed.)
Peter's brother, Andrew,
had been a follower of John the Baptist, and was one of the disciples that
transferred over to Jesus. Andrew had already tried to bring his brother,
Peter, to Jesus, and although the two had met and talked briefly, Peter
apparently wasn't very impressed in that first meeting. Now, months later, Peter
certainly knew about the growing fame of Jesus and why it was growing.
Suddenly, here He is, on the shore, with Peter's brother Andrew tagging along,
and in urgent need of a boat. Common kindness as well as familial relation
would have made Peter offer Jesus the use of his boat from which to teach.
The Scriptures tell us
nothing of the content of the message, but they do tell us that after the
sermon was concluded Jesus tells Peter to take the boat back out onto the water
toward the fishing grounds. Peter is initially resistant to this idea. It is
morning, and Peter is tired, having just finished fishing for the entire night
shift. Additionally, they hadn't caught anything at all, and the experienced
fisherman inside of him didn't think there was going to be anything better to
catch now that the sun was well up. But again, out of respect for Jesus or his
brother Andrew, he reluctantly agrees.
Peter's response is
instinctive (as so many of his response's in Scripture are) and telling. 'When
Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I
am a sinful man, O Lord' (Luke 5.8). I think this is the exact moment of Peter's
salvation, and not only does he get saved, but he immediately yields Himself to
Jesus' request to join Himself and Andrew as they fish for men with the Gospel.
And, as a bit of a bonus, James and John come along too.
Not bad for a day's
work, eh? No, I don't mean all those fish. I mean Jesus' day's work. He added
to Himself, in one morning, the three men who would become the core of His
entire earthly ministry, both during His life and after it – Peter, James, and
John. Jesus preached to the multitude but I'm convinced that all along He was
aiming right at Peter. Often, our best work is done, not with crowds, but with
individuals. We will see this aspect of Jesus' ministry exponentially develop.
In fact, one could argue, that aside from the atonement, the most lasting thing
He accomplished in His lifetime on earth, was the training of the twelve
Apostles.
I'm for preaching, and
anybody that knows me knows that. I put a tremendous amount of time and effort
into the preaching portion of my ministry, literally hundreds and hundreds of
hours a year. But I have learned, partly from my own life experience, and
partly from my study of the life of Christ, to also spend a whole bunch of time
in one-on-one ministry with men.
In my lifetime I've
heard approximately 10,000 sermons. Many of them prompted me to make good and
sound decisions. But if you pinned me to the wall and asked me what changed my
life, from one aimed selfishly at pleasing myself to one aimed squarely at
serving the Lord, I would tell you that it was a handful of men who personally
and privately invested a great deal in me. Perhaps, at some later point, I
shall tell you those stories in this blog, but for the moment allow me to pass
over the specifics of my life, and let me just assure you that individuals,
with the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, changed my life just as
much, if not more, than preaching did.
Did you ever stop to
think what was the most lasting part of Paul's ministry? Was it the churches he
started? No, and please don't hang me with that. I'm a tremendous believer in
starting churches. I practically started one myself. But none of the churches
that Paul started remain in existence today. I think, indisputably, humanly
speaking, the most lasting part of Paul's ministry was his writing, but second
to that was the product of his mentoring, men like Timothy and Titus. Where did
Paul learn to do that? I don't think it was just cultural or instinctive. I
think He learned it from Jesus.
So many of you who read
this blog have a ministry in which you serve the Lord. Often it involves a
group of people, such as a pastor, staff member, youth director, Sunday School
teacher, etc. Yes, you must gather a crowd if you are to have any kind of
ministry at all, but I implore you to give yourself to mentor the teachable,
investable person. Identify the ones that will give you a return on your
investment and then pour your life into them. I mean your life outside the
direct lines of your ministry. Spend time with them. Do things with them. Pour
your teaching into them. Draw out their questions. Catch their tears. Attend
the big events of their life. Take them to lunch. Bring them into your home.
Challenge them to produce something better. Involve them in helping you with
your ministry. Pray with them. Witness with them. Train them. Love them.
Mother, you can change
the world. Teacher, you can change the world. Soul winner, you can change the
world – by changing the entire world for one person at a time. Jesus did on
that beautiful Galilean morning, not with the message He preached to the
crowds, but with time He poured into a frustrated fisherman afterward.
Often, our best work is
done, not with crowds, but with individuals.
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