Easy to Follow the Miraculous

1987

But now in Luke 4:22, “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.”

It goes on and He really hacks these guys off by saying that Elijah went to another city, and the leper that was cleansed by Elisha was a Syrian and not a Jew. It says in verse 28, “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.” Verse 32, they were amazed at Jesus’ teaching because His message has authority. And He threw out the demon and, “I know you – you’re the Holy One of God.” And “Be quiet, come out of him!”

Verse 38, “Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon.” Remember this was Peter. “Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up and began to wait on them.

“When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people shouting, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.

“At daybreak he went out to a solitary place.”

Chapter 5 “...as Jesus was standing by the Lake...the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

“When he 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.’ “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. “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘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.’ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” As you see, the kind of Jesus that Peter followed, do you think it would be hard at that point, seeing what Peter saw, seeing all these people healed and the demons crying out, “Away from us,” and seeing the large catch of fish that almost sank the boat. Do you think it was a difficult thing for Peter to leave everything at that point and follow Jesus?

It probably was a little hard because a lot of people know Jesus did all of those things and hadn’t turned to follow Him. There is some merit in that I suppose, but generally speaking, if you’re honest and have a really good heart and you see somebody that does the work of God in that kind of way, it’s not real hard to follow that guy. You see people being healed of sicknesses and multitudes crowding around and being amazed at the gracious words that came from His lips, just awestruck at the words that He’s speaking and seeing the miracles that He did. It’s not hard to follow a Jesus like that. If you’re honest and want to seek God, that’s probably a fairly easy person to follow, wouldn’t you think?

Jesus went on to challenge these guys and of course He had a lot of other interaction with a lot of people. Turn to Mark 14. I want to show you a little bit about Peter’s response. He’s already left everything in order to follow Jesus as we just read. In Mt 10:24-28, Jesus was teaching about the rich man. He said it’s harder for them to go to heaven than a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

And they said, “Well, who then can be saved?”

And Jesus said, “Well, with God, all things are possible.”

Then Peter chimed in and said, “We’ve left everything to follow you, Lord.”

That was on his mind that they had left everything to follow Him.