I’ve been getting some strange calls on my cell phone.  Like most of you, I’m never without it. It allows me to stay connected with my family. It’s got my calendar and the church directory on it. As a pastor, you always need to have your phone on, unless of course you are in worship, because in a way, you are always on call and I’ve been getting some strange calls on my cell phone.

 

I’ve gotten some pre-recorded 800 number calls in Spanish, messages that just started and went on and on. You can’t interrupt a pre-recorded message and I didn’t have a clue about what she was saying. . Once or twice a month, a purse calls me. A friend of mine in Tennessee got a new phone, programmed my number in and for some reason, occasionally she’ll throw it into her purse and it will dial me. She’s never there on the other end although I can hear her talking to her husband or her kids.

 

The strangest call I’ve received was a couple of weeks ago. I’d just parked at Community North Hospital  to visit a church member who was preparing for surgery. My cell phone rang and the screen said, “unknown caller.”  I answered and a voice said, “Randy?” I said yes. “This is Jim” and then launched into this conversation. “I talked to Bill and he’s on the same page with us. It’s not going to be cheap but he says it’s doable and there’s money there. So if we get on it, we can make this happen. You need to get it written up and sent to him by the end of the day. Can you do that?”  I had no idea who I was talking to or what he was talking about so I said, “I’m sorry. I’m not tracking. What proposal?” There was a pause and he said, “Is this Randy Deerfield.” “No, you’ve called the wrong Randy. I’m Randy Spleth.” “Sorry” and he hung up.  It was really bizarre. “The wrong Randy got called.”

 

Today we continue a sermon series on Peter. Our starting place was to recognize that there were a lot of people who believed that the wrong Peter got called.  The gospels describe Peter as stubborn, impetuous, and maybe even a little reckless. His peers and certainly, you and I would not have seen within him the capacity to lead.  But when Jesus first sees him, he sees incredible potential. In that first meeting, he nicknames him Cephas because Jesus knows he will be the rock upon which the church will be built.  

 

It is the first Peter Principle. God doesn’t look at people the way you and I look at people. We assess people on their looks, their talent, their money, their position. God sees within you the potential that is present from the moment God created you. God wants you to become the best you, the you whom God designed you to be. A relationship with Jesus allows you to flourish and grow, to become the best you. It sends you on a lifelong journey that will clarify and sharpen your truest gifts and identities. This is the first principle we learned from the life of Peter last week.

 

The second Peter Principle comes around Peter’s call to follow Jesus and in the moment that it occurred, at least in the way Luke tells the story, Peter also seems to think Jesus called the wrong Peter.

 

We have two versions of Peter being called to be a follower of Jesus, a version in Mark and Matthew and an expanded version in Luke. Both of the stories agree about where the call took place. It was around a lake. Luke describes it this way. “Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.”(Luke 5: 1).  Matthew and Mark say he was walking along the Sea of Galilee. It’s the same place; it just has different names in the Bible, three in fact, Gennesaret, Sea of Galilee and Sea of Tiberias. Today, the Israelis call it Lake Kinneret.

 

The lake is an expansion of the Jordan River located 680 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea. It is thirteen miles long, running from north to south, and eight miles in maximum breadth. It is shaped like a harp. That's why one of its names is Gennesaret, which connects with the Hebrew word for the instrument that King David played.

 

The lake is not large by most standards and certainly not what we’d think of as a “sea.” It had a great many fish during Jesus' time, and there were scores of people who earned a living fishing it. Remember that the Hebrew diet prohibited pork, and lamb was reserved for special occasions and festivities. Fish was a primary source for protein. Fish were caught in the Sea of Galilee and then preserved by salting. Then, the fish were sold all over Israel. It was a big industry and it appears that Peter and his brother Andrew were involved in a very successful fishing partnership with James and John and their father Zebedee. We don’t know how affluent that they were, but we do know that Peter was well off enough to have a home in nearby Capernaum, a home that was big enough to share with his brother, his wife and his mother-in-law. And in both versions of calling Peter, we know that their fishing business had multiple fishing boats. We don’t know how many, but we do have an idea what those boats looked like.

 

 

Luke tells us that Jesus “got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” (Luke 5:2-4). This is one of the most important parts of the story, one that often gets missed when we think about Peter’s call and one that’s critical to understanding our second Peter principle.

 

One of the earliest stories I remember learning in Sunday school was the call of Peter and it always zoned in on the punch line, “Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." (Mark 1: 17). In my imagination, I saw the bearded Jesus walking down the beach in this white robe and sandals, a picture straight off the Sunday room poster. He walked up to these absolute strangers, stared them down with these hypnotic eyes and said, “Follow me.”  “And immediately they left their nets and followed him.” (Mark 1: 18). Jesus was this Pied Piper Messiah and his disciples where like mice following him down the beach.

 

It was the way I was taught the story of Peter’s call and in fairness to my Sunday school teachers, if you only read the Matthew or Mark version of the story and you don’t look at the entire life of Peter, you might come to that conclusion. But it is a bad conclusion to make, because it somehow implies that following Jesus is something that happens instantly, that once you answer the call you jump into the deep and become an incredible witness for Christ. We know it doesn’t happen that way, and it is why I think Luke’s version of the call is more helpful.

 

Look at it again. The story from Luke reveals that Peter and Jesus knew each other. It’s why Peter lets Jesus in his boat and responds to his direction. They have a pre-existing relationship.  We know from last week’s sermon and the gospel of John, that Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus early in his ministry, just as it was getting started. We also know, from the gospel of John, that Jesus’ ministry took place over a three year period of time. It took time to build and grow, time for him to develop a following. This helps us understand that some amount of time has passed between Peter meeting Jesus and Jesus saying to Peter, “Follow me.” At the very least, there is enough time that Jesus has built a following, so big a following that Jesus has to get into a boat and teach “offshore” because the crowd was so big.

 

Whatever the amount of time that has passed, it was spent in the small fishing village of Capernaum where James and John, Peter and Andrew had a fishing business. It was a small town and everybody knows everybody in a small town. Because Andrew introduced them to Jesus, they had already developed a friendship with Jesus.

 

 

Jesus was not a stranger with a mystical hypnotic stare who says “Follow me.” They were friends.   It’s why Simon lets him use his boat and it is why when Jesus says to him “Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answers, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. (Luke 5: 4-5a).

 

When you are growing in Christ, trust is a big issue. Being a friend of Jesus isn’t hard. A lot of people like having Jesus as a friend. Being a follower, going to the next level of apprenticeship, that’s tougher. It requires a willingness to go deeper, and an acknowledgment that leaving the familiar and comfortable places of your life is worth the risk.

 

 “Go out into the deep water,” says Jesus, “trust me and see what happens.” Peter is reluctant to do it at first. He knows that once he takes the risk of leaving the shallow places behind—shallow places in his work, shallow places in his relationships with others, to himself and to God — and dares to go just a little bit deeper, things are going to be different for him and for anyone who is around him.

 

A good way to resist God’s call to go deeper is to say something like Simon said to Jesus: Oh, there’s no use for me to go into those depths, Jesus. I have fished those waters already. I have tried to pray. I have tried to study. I have tried to become a servant like you, Jesus. I have tried to live out my faith in a way that would please you, Jesus. And I have come up empty every single time. I am just tired. I’m tired of fishing those same waters. There is nothing out there in the depths for me.”

 

 It’s just another way of offering up all of those excuses that come so easily. I’m too busy. I’m too old. I’m too young. I don’t know enough. I’m not faithful enough.  Not now, maybe later. It doesn’t work for me. I’m not feeling it.  I have tried everything that you have asked me to do, and it doesn’t work. Simon, put out in the deep.

 

Master, we did that all night, and nothing happened.

 

Peter models the second Peter Principle about discipleship when he says, “But because you say so” (Luke 5:5b). He puts out into deep waters because Jesus says so. He takes the next step because that’s what Jesus wants him to do. 

 

There is a lot of “because you say so” that comes in discipleship. In a culture that values independent thinking, in a time when people like to know the right way, “because you say so” is an obstacle to a lot of people. I like to call it the Frank Sinatra barrier, you know the “I did it my way.” Following Jesus, going deeper, taking the next step of apprenticeship that leads to leadership requires “because you say so.” Like any apprenticeship, you have to learn the craft and like any apprenticeship, you don’t learn by just reading a book. You learn by doing, even when what you are called to do doesn’t make sense.

So they put out into the deep and let down their nets and “When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.” (Luke 5:6). “Because you say so” took them to a place of incredible abundance, a place beyond imagination for Peter. It was overwhelming, so much so that he thought, “I’m in over my head. He got in the wrong boat. You’ve called the wrong Peter,” so “he fell at Jesus' knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!"  (Luke 5: 8). Jesus reassures him.  “Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch people.” (Luke 5:10).

 

Do you hear what he’s saying to Peter? Putting out in the deep is about abundant life, not the abundant catch of a lifetime. It is about going deeper, not getting in over your head. It’s about taking the next step, responding to that call to deepen your relationship with Jesus, to move it from friendship to apprenticeship to leadership.  Out in the deep, Peter discovered how not even his sinfulness can separate him from Jesus’ call. It’s why when they pulled their boats up on shore, they left everything and followed him.

 

Over the next few years, Peter would be learning, being the apprentice. Over and over again, he’d relive this story. Jesus will ask Peter to “put out in the deep” and Peter will respond with “because you say so.” There are a lot of times when he won’t agree with Jesus. There are a lot of times when he won’t understand what Jesus is suggesting. But he’ll respond because Jesus says so. It led him to new places in his life that he couldn’t imagine. It led him to places of incredible success and intense failure. And slowly and surely, it leads him to the place of leadership that allowed him to truly be Cephas, the rock upon whom the church is built.

 

It’s the path of discipleship, the second principle from Peter’s life. We become a committed follower of Jesus starting with friendship, moving to apprenticeship and finally accept the role of leadership. It’s modeled in Peter’s life and it’s the call that Jesus is extending to you. I pray you answer that call, because he’s not an unknown caller calling the wrong person. He’s Jesus and he’s calling you.  How will you answer?

 

I hope your answer is, “because you say so Lord, I’ll go deeper.”