Following Jesus
Thanksgiving Weekend
Pastor Svea Merry November 29-30, 2025
Note: This manuscript isn’t a transcript of the sermon, but a planning guide showing what the speaker intends to say.
Hello and welcome – especially to friends and family visiting for Thanksgiving weekend! We’re delighted to have you here with us. If we haven’t met yet, my name is Svea and I serve here as our spiritual formation pastor.
This is one of those unique weekends when our sermon is not part of a series. Our advent series will begin next weekend. What a gift to have an open lane to preach on whatever is on my heart. Given that it’s Thanksgiving weekend, a passage about gratitude would have been an obvious choice, but every time I prayed or reflected on what God was stirring in me, He kept pulling me back to the same passage. A story about Jesus and one of his disciples. Maybe you’ve already figured out which one from this title slide.
The more time I spent studying this story that God kept bringing me back to, the more I could see Him doing a firm yet tender work in my heart, giving new depth to the way I understand Jesus and how he relates to us. Can I be vulnerable with you right out of the gate? Like many of you, I live with an unwelcome voice in my head that sometimes tells me that I’m “not enough.” I’m not enough for the people I love – my family or friends. Not enough for all that this church deserves. Not enough for what God wants for me. Add to that a strong dose of imposter syndrome and the mindset of a firstborn and you can imagine some of things I’m still working on with Jesus in my own spiritual formation.
And Jesus has been meeting me in those places — not with shame, but with compassion and truth — and what He’s shown me in this story has been forming me in welcome ways. And I am so eager to share it with you today, because I believe it could be greatly encouraging to you, too.
Let me take you to this story. It’s found in Luke 5. Grab a Bible so you can follow along. Luke is the third book in the New Testament, the 3rd of the Gospels, the books that describe the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
While you’re turning there, let me set the stage a bit. This story happens at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. He was just beginning to invite people to follow him as his disciples, his apprentices, if you will, and word was starting to get out about him being a great teacher who was not only incredibly wise, but who could also do some amazing things.
Jesus was gaining a lot of notoriety in this region around the Sea of Galilee where he was living at this time. He was the “up and coming” preacher; the talk of the town.
The story we’re going to see today is when Jesus invited Simon, whom Jesus later renames Peter, to follow him. You’ll probably catch me use both his names, Simon and Peter, interchangeably. Same guy. Simon Peter’s brother Andrew had already met Jesus prior to this and told Simon he should check Jesus out. And in the chapter right before this, Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law illness. So, Simon knew Jesus was something remarkable. But he hadn’t yet moved from being curious about him to a fully devoted follower.
We’re going to pick up the story at the beginning, in verse 1. There’s so much detail given that I think this story plays like a scene in a movie. See if you can picture it.
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, [another name for the Sea of Galilee] the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He 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.
Are you able to picture the scene? It’s morning. Jesus is hanging out at the lakeshore, and a crowd has gathered around him. In the background are the fishermen who had been out fishing in the night through the early hours of the dawn have finished their fishing and are cleaning up and getting ready to go home and sleep. They’re washing their nets, maybe like this one, picking out all the seaweed and gunk. These were big heavy nets that would have taken a couple of men to deploy and manage. Their big heavy boats have been pulled up on the shore near where Jesus is talking to the people gathering around him. If you try hard enough, you can hear the waves lapping up on the shore and the sound of a sea gull or two.
A crowd was gathering around Jesus, wanting to meet him and hear what he had to say. Jesus stepped into one of the boats on the shore—the one that happened to belong to Simon—and asked Simon to row him out a little way so everyone could see and hear him.
As you’re picturing this scene, try imagining yourself as Simon Peter, depicted here in the series, The Chosen. He’d been out fishing all night and as we’ll find out in a couple of verses, hadn’t caught a thing. Now, I enjoy fishing for fun from time to time, and it’s a bummer when the fish just aren’t biting and you head home skunked. But Simon hadn’t been out fishing for fun. This was his livelihood. Fishing was how he put food on his table and money in his pocket. A skunked night meant no paycheck. He was probably frustrated, tired, maybe worried about how he was going to make ends meet, and I bet he just wanted to go home and sleep.
So, when Jesus jumps into his boat and asks him to row it back out onto the lake, what do you think he’s feeling here? Maybe he was proud that this up-and-coming rabbi was in his boat. Maybe he was thrilled to host the event that would be the talk of the town. Maybe he too really wanted to hear Jesus teach and was thrilled to have the best seat. But do you wonder if he simultaneously felt kind of disrupted?
How do you do when your plans for the day get suddenly interrupted? Even if it’s for something good? Do you ever have those moments when you’re both pleased, but put out at the same time? Like when someone shows up at your work or at your door and wants to connect, and you’re like, “Hi! So good to see you,” but inwardly, you’re thinking “I’ve got so much to do right now” Or how about when you’re settling in at home in the evening, ready to get in your comfy clothes and turn on a good show but just then the phone rings and it’s a friend who’s going through something and you’d feel like a jerk if you ignored it?
Whatever Simon felt here, Jesus was up in his business, literally, and figuratively. At this stage in Simon’s faith journey, he was probably like some of you here today who are impressed by Jesus but still trying to figure out what to make of him. And if that is where you are today—I’m so glad you’re here as you explore your spirituality.
We don’t know what Jesus taught as he sat in Simon’s boat, but what Jesus did next is pretty loaded.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Before we see Simon’s response, can we just acknowledge that Jesus is up to something? Jesus had been raised in the trades, a carpenter, and he was now in his ministry era, an itinerant rabbi. Last I checked, neither of those professions involved fishing. So, what buttons do you think he was pushing in Simon? He’d already commandeered Simon’s boat to use as his personal platform, and now he’s telling the professional fisherman how to fish. And keep in mind, taking this boat back out wasn’t like hitting the starter on your Mercury outboard and motoring out into the lake. No, bringing this boat back out into deep water would take Simon and at least one other partner a lot of effort to row it back out. (His brother and partner, Andrew, was almost certainly here with him even though Luke doesn’t mention him by name.) To make Jesus’s command even more nonsensical is that it’s now in the heat of the day – the time least likely for them to catch anything with their nets.
5 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 I’ve read this passage before, I’ve detected Simon’s frustration. He’d already been out all night without success. He knows there’s nothing down there right now. But in studying this passage in greater depth this time, I noticed another aspect that adds even more drama to the tension of this moment. As Jesus told Simon to do this, that big crowd of people who had been watching everything Jesus did and said was probably still watching. And this crowd knew fishermen don’t fish with their nets in the heat of the day. Maybe they hadn’t heard Jesus, but as Simon started rowing out to go fish, can you picture them murmuring, “What is he doing?”
What kind of social awkwardness do you think Simon Peter was feeling in this moment? If he comes back with empty nets again, like he’s expecting to since he’d already been out there with no success, won’t he look even more like an incompetent idiot in front of all these people?
But it was Jesus who told him to do this. And he’s just fascinated enough by Jesus that he must have fought through his internal tension and so he says, “because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
I love it. Because you say so… Now, maybe Simon was speaking with perfect reverence and submission here and if so, I hope he’d forgive me for suggesting anything less. But the way I hear this, which is more in line with his personality displayed throughout the Gospels, is that he speaks before he’s taken a second to self-filter. It’s such a natural human response to the effect of, “OK, I think this is a dumb idea, but fine, we’ll do it your way.”
Simon’s “because you say so,” may have been half-hearted, or even conflicted, but it was all that Jesus was looking for.
I find this so encouraging. And it’s encouraging at every step of our faith journey. If you’re not yet a follower of Jesus, internalize this: the threshold for you to cross to please Jesus is easy! You don’t have to clean up your life first; you don’t have to know enough of the Bible or theology to talk the talk; you simply just respond to him and it’s ok if all that means today is that you say, “Jesus, it seems like you’re asking me to respond to you and your way. I don’t know if I fully see where this is headed, but ok. Because you say so. Here I am.”
And this is also so encouraging for those of us who have called Jesus our Lord for a while, because obedience to Jesus is not just a one and done kind of thing, is it? And the deeper we get in our relationship with him, sometimes the more aware we are of our struggle. Have you ever felt like God was asking you to step out in faith and asking you do to something really out of your comfort zone. If you obeyed His prompting even with a “because you said so,” that’s still obedience.
But think even deeper. If we never have moments when we obey just because Jesus said so, are we truly following Him, or are we just following our own desires? If obeying Jesus always lines up perfectly with what we naturally want, if it never stretches us or costs us or takes us out of our comfort zone, we might not be submitting to His way at all. We might just be affirming our own. Real obedience will eventually lead us into places that feel inconvenient, uncomfortable, or even illogical, just like it did for Simon. And when it does, wrestling with that isn’t a sign that we’re failing; it’s a sign that we’re actually following a God whose wisdom is bigger than ours.
Well, next, look at what happens when Simon does what Jesus said to do. 6” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 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.”
They didn’t just catch some fish. They caught the catch of a lifetime. They caught more fish than they could manage and had to call in a second boat, and even then, both boats were overwhelmed with the haul.
Jesus essentially just gave them the winning lottery ticket. And how does Simon respond?
“8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.”
Is “go away from me” what you expected him to say to the one who just made him wildly successful? To the one he just acknowledged for the first time as his Lord? Shouldn’t we want to be in the presence of Jesus not wanting him to go away from us?
Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever been in the presence of someone who is truly amazing. Someone extraordinarily talented, or extraordinarily smart, or extraordinarily capable?
How strong do you feel at the gym if you’re lifting weights next to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?
Or how attractive do you feel standing next to the reigning Miss Universe or People’s sexiest man alive?
Or how talented do you feel when you see someone like Yo-Yo Ma or Taylor Swift perform?
Being in the presence of someone incredibly superlative can make you feel insignificant, inadequate, or even wretched by comparison.
If this is a normal reaction we might have with other humans, how much more is this understandable when we recognize the presence of God. As Simon Peter found himself waist deep in fish that Jesus stuffed into his previously empty nets, all he could do was feel deficient, inferior.
Peter recoiled from Jesus, uncomfortably facing his state as a sinful man in the face of perfection. And it freaks him out.
I’ve been there. Well, not there. Jesus has never overwhelmed me with tilapia, but I know what it’s like to have a deep encounter with God and feel suddenly very conscious of my failings and flatsides.
And any of us could have this experience with God at a variety of stages on our faith journey. I can’t help but put on my spiritual formation hat for a moment here. It’s not uncommon to experience something like this as someone begins exploring faith. Maybe in starting to come to church you feel drawn to God but also feel incredibly intimidated or inadequate. Maybe you wonder if mistakes in your past are too much to overcome. If that is, or was, you, you’re not alone. You’re just like Simon.
Or maybe you’re further down the road in your faith journey and you’ve been a follower of Jesus for a while, but it feels like the more serious about your faith you get, the more aware of how much you still fall short of being like Jesus in so many ways. If this was, or is, you, you’re not alone. You’re just like Simon.
But this is precisely where the good news breaks in. As Simon Peter collapses in his self-condemnation, Jesus does not back away, scold him, agree with him, or look at him with contempt. Jesus doesn’t say, “You’re right, bruh, you are a mess. Let me know when you get your act together.”
Jesus speaks directly into Simon’s fear and inadequacy, saying the words every wobbly heart needs to hear: “Don’t be afraid.” In other words, “It’s ok. I know exactly who you are, and I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I’ve got a bigger plan for you than you ever dreamed.”
Friends, this is the heart of Jesus! When we are honest with ourselves and him about our fears, our failings, our inability to live up to expectations, our own or anyone else’s, Jesus doesn’t back away from us, even if we tell him too. He doesn’t look at us with contempt. He moves towards us in love, in hope! He says, “Beloved, let’s let that fear go. I’m not expecting anything of you that you cannot do, and I can do in you what you cannot for yourself. Just follow my lead. I got you.”
To Simon Peter, Jesus continued, saying, “from now on you will fish for people.” In Peter’s moment of feeling inadequate, Jesus invites the fisherman to be on his team. Jesus invites him to a key role in bringing the kingdom of God to all people. Peter may have failed at catching fish the prior night, but now Jesus offers him a promotion to catch something far more valuable.
This is like Jesus saying to you healthcare workers, “You work to diagnose and treat disease, but follow me and you’ll effectively treat people’s very souls.” Or Jesus saying to you educators, “You wonder if you’re getting through to your students but follow me and you’ll speak the very words of eternal life into them.”
And just as Jesus reframed their ordinary work with eternal purpose, Peter and his friends responded in the most extraordinary way. 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Don’t be numb to this detail or let it go by you too quickly. They left everything. They left their catch. They left the 15 minutes of fame they could have milked as Galilee’s record-breaking fishermen. They processed, quickly and correctly, that they could either gather up the material wealth attached to this miracle, or they could attach themselves to the miracle worker.
Imagine yourself standing on that beach, watching this scene play out. Watch Peter pull the boat up on shore and just leave it there, fish and all, to follow Jesus. But now, before they walk off, imagine if Jesus stopped for a moment and turned to lock eyes with you. He’s inviting you to follow him too.
And I’m speaking to all of us, whether you’re still on your way to saying yes to him for the first time or if you’ve been following him for years. Because we have the opportunity daily, even multiple times a day, to lock eyes with Jesus, fight through our own failings and insufficiencies, and trust in the way of the one who can do far more than we could ask or imagine.
Each day comes with a fresh invitation from Jesus to trust his love and grace and follow him more closely.
Can I fast forward Peter’s story a bit to show you something that I find breathtakingly powerful? Peter did follow Jesus. For three years after this, he lived with Jesus, he learned from his words and his body language. He witnessed how Jesus handled himself, how he cared for people, loved his Father God, navigated difficult situations. Peter was so close to Jesus that Jesus made him one of the three in his innermost circle. Peter had special access to everything Jesus had to offer.
And yet, in Jesus’s time of greatest need, Peter failed him. On the night before Jesus was killed, he asked his trusted friend Peter to sit with him and keep watch while he prayed, and Peter slept on him. Not once, but twice. And then hours later, as the innocent Jesus stood before his accusers, Peter wasn’t a loyal friend ready to give a defense, he denied even knowing Jesus, not twice but three times.
Can you even imagine how wretched Peter must have felt after this? Knowing that Jesus went to his death aware of his failures and betrayals, and that those were their last interactions?
You know what it’s like when someone you love dies, and you replay memories you had together like a movie reel in your head? In those hours after Jesus died and Peter was undoubtedly grieving his friend and Lord who had done everything for him, do you wonder if he thought back to that early scene on the shore of the Sea of Galilee? Do you think he replayed in his mind when Jesus said, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” How do you think he felt when he remembered saying to Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
Do you wonder if he felt like he had destroyed everything good he ever once had with Jesus? Do you wonder if he thought that if Jesus had a chance to do it over again, instead of saying, “Don’t be afraid, follow me” Jesus now would say, “You’re right. You are a sinful, failure of a man. I don’t know what I saw in you.”
Do you ever fear that you’ve messed up what you may have once had with Jesus, and the closeness you experienced before, or the good plan he seemed to have for your life might be lost?
If your Bible is still open, flip to the next book, to John chapter 21.
I don’t know what Peter’s inner thoughts were right after Jesus died, but I do know how he responded when he got a chance to relive that early memory in the boat with Jesus.
John 21 records an amazing scene that happened in the days after Jesus’s death and resurrection. It’s a true story but could be an Oscar-winning final scene of an epic movie about Peter’s life. Follow along in John 21 or just listen and see what it stirs in you as you picture Jesus replaying a core memory moment for Simon Peter.
Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
Now, let me pause for a moment here. The first time this happened and Peter realized he was in the presence of the Lord, he crumpled in recognition of his inadequacy and sinfulness. And now, since then, he’s proven the depth of that to Jesus in painfully clear ways. How much more do you expect Peter to hide in shame now? But that’s not what he did.
As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.
This time, Simon Peter is so eager to get to Jesus that he swan dives into the water to race to get to him, outpacing the boat, and discovering a very sweet scene awaiting him on the beach.
8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”
It just gets me right here that Jesus replayed this special moment for Simon Peter. And it gets me that not only is Jesus about reestablishing Simon Peter in this unmistakable way, he cooks breakfast for him. It’s so beautiful. But there’s even more beauty when you compare how Peter responds in the two stories.
What’s the big difference between the Luke 5 Simon Peter and John 21 Simon Peter? Luke 5 Peter was a man aware of his sins and shortcomings, afraid to even look at Jesus because of them. The John 21 Peter is still a man aware of his sins and shortcomings, but now afraid to even let Jesus out of his sight because of them.
In the three years he spent with Jesus, Peter had learned all about Jesus’s grace. In the years between these bookend events, what Peter learned about grace changed everything. And it could change everything for us as well. Peter had learned that there is no sin Jesus won’t forgive. There is no failure Jesus can’t overcome.
Friends, this is why we never have to fear that we are not good enough for Jesus. Not before we start following him—and not after. Not on our first day with him, and not on our worst day with him. Not when our inadequacies feel small and nagging, and not when our failures feel so enormous we are crushed under their weight.
Jesus knew exactly who Simon Peter was when he stepped into his boat in Luke 5. And he knew exactly who Peter would be the night he denied him. Jesus didn’t choose Peter because he would never blow it. Jesus chose Peter knowing full well that he would. Jesus chose him anyway. Jesus loved him anyway. And—praise God—Jesus restored him anyway.
And the same is truth and good news for you and for me.
Jesus has never been under any illusion about who we are. He has no imaginary, cleaned-up, future version of us in mind that he’s holding his breath for, holding out hope that we’ll live up to it. He knows your strengths and your gifts. And he knows the weaknesses you try to hide. He knows the moments you shine, and the moments you fall short. And here is the good news: not one of those things has ever caused him to hesitate in calling you, loving you, wanting you, or being able to use you on his team.
You cannot out-sin, out-fail, or out-run the grace he intends to pour into your life. The Jesus who stepped into Peter’s boat is the same Jesus who stepped onto that beach in John 21—and he is the same Jesus who steps toward you today.
So, when you feel that unwelcome voice whisper, “You’re not enough… you’ve messed up again… Jesus must be disappointed in you,” remember Simon Peter. Remember the man who once said, “Go away from me, Lord,” and then, even after failing spectacularly, dove into the water to race toward Jesus instead of away from him.
Are you a Luke 5 Peter or a John 21 Peter?
Jesus does not look at you and say, “Go away from me.”
He looks at you and says, “Don’t be afraid.”
He looks at you and says, “Come have breakfast.”
He looks at you and says, “Follow me.”
So today, whether you are just starting to explore Jesus or you’ve walked with him for decades, hear what Peter proved true on that beach: You never need to fear that you’re not enough for Jesus. And you never need to fear that there will come a day when he’s had enough of you.