Hello, friends and
welcome to "Books of the Book."
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We are excited
that you can join us
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in being part of this
fascinating Bible study.
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I'm Deyvy Rodriguez
and I'd like to invite you
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to take your Bibles,
grab a pen or pencil,
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something to write
on and let's be blessed
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as we study the
scriptures together.
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With me is Dr. Tom Shepherd.
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He's the
professor of New Testament
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interpretation at
Andrews University.
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Welcome. Thank you.
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Dr. Shepherd, you're also
a director of the PhD program
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in religion at Andrews
University, is that right?
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That's correct. The PhD
in religion and the ThD,
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Doctor of Theology programs.
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I was asked to
guide these people.
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We have about 100 people doing
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the PhD in those two programs.
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Okay, so you seem
to be very busy then.
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Yeah, pretty
busy. I keep active.
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When you're not busy or
what you do on your time off
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when you're not teaching?
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Well, my wife
will probably tell you
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there's not much of
that. Okay, lot of work.
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A lot of work,
but I'm a cellist.
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I play the cello and so that
takes up some of my spare time.
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I also like to walk. Okay.
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Walk everyday. So
you're a musician?
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I'm a musician. Wonderful.
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Well, we're studying
the books of 1 and 2 Peter.
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And last time we
talked about Peter.
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He is the author of
these books. So who is Peter?
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You know, it's interesting
how much we can find out
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about this man just by
reading the New Testament.
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We particularly find out about
him by reading the Gospels.
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And there, of course,
most people will realize
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that Peter was a
fisherman by trade.
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He lived in the
area of the Galilee.
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Near the lake there
was a town called Capernaum
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where he lived, although
that's not where he was born.
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He was raised evidently
in the town of the Bethsaida
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which is a little
further to the north
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and on the other
side of the river Jordon.
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Today, actually Bethsaida
is not next to the lake
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because the area is
prone to earthquakes.
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And there was a mudslide
and it all got filled in.
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Bethsaida is now up
on a little promontory
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that's maybe couple of miles or
kilometers away from the lake.
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But he settled in Capernaum.
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We know that he
was a married man,
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because Mark tells us
that his mother-in-law was ill
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and Jesus healed her.
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And we also know his
father's name was John.
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And of course, he
gets the name Peter.
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His actual name was
Simon, given name was Simon.
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And it's Jesus who gives him
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the nick name
Peter, which means rock.
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So his name is Rock
and his name would be--
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today might be Johnson because
he's son of John, Johnson.
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So this is Rock Johnson.
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And he has a
brother named Andrew.
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And so he becomes a
very important person
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among the apostles.
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Whenever we have
the 12 disciples listed
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or mentioned in
the New Testament,
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Peter is always listed first.
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We know that he talks more than
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anybody else in the Gospels.
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And to many of us he seems like
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he sort of blurts
things out before, you know,
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he thinks about them.
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But here's the
first one to confess
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that Jesus is the Messiah,
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but he also has this
great detriment to Him
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that he denies
Jesus three times.
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So the man went
through incredible,
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you know, experiences.
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His calling that Jesus gave
him is interesting to look at.
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So I want us to turn to
Luke 5 and read verses 1 to 11.
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Do you want me to read
that? Yes, if you would.
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"So it was, as the
multitude pressed about Him
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to hear the word
of God that He stood
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by the Lake of Gennesaret.
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And saw two boats
standing by the lake
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but the fishermen
had gone from them
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and were washing their nets.
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Then He got into
one of the boats,
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which was Simon's,
and asked him to put out
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a little from the land.
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And He sat down and taught
the multitudes from the boat.
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When He had stopped
speaking, He said to Simon,
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'Launch out into the deep
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and let down your
nets for a catch.'
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But Simon Peter
answered and said to Him,
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'Master, we have toiled
all night and caught nothing.
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Nevertheless, at Your word
I will let it down the net.'
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And when they had done this,
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they caught a
great number of fish,
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and their net was breaking.
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So they signaled
to their partners
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in the other boat
to come and help them.
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And they came and
filled both the boats
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so that they began to sink.
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When Simon Peter saw it,
he fell down at Jesus' knees,
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saying, 'Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord.'
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For he and all who were
with him were astonished
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at the catch of fish
which they had taken.
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And so also were James and John,
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and the sons of Zebedee--
or the sons of Zebedee,
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who were partners with Simon.
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And Jesus said to
Simon, 'Do not be afraid.
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From now on you
will catch men.'"
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Verse 11 as well.
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"And when they had
brought their boats to land,
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they forsook all
and followed Him."
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So what kind of a
person would you say Peter was
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probably after this experience?
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Well, sounds like
he was a common man.
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He felt that he was
not worthy of getting--
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drawing closer to God.
Yes, yes, he was a fisherman.
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He was a fisherman.
So he was a businessman.
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We can say he was a businessman.
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He seemed to know what he
was doing, because apparently
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he had experience
fishing in this manner.
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And in this case
something spectacular happened,
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some kind of miracle
and he was very surprised.
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Apparently he had not had such
an experience before fishing.
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Yeah. And he has
partners so he's, you know,
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he's a person
within that culture who,
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you know, knows how
to have a livelihood,
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makes his way in
life, has a boat.
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And that's, you know, he
has some success in life.
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He's not poverty stricken,
you know, down and out.
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So would you say he's
like the CEO of himself,
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I guess, fisherman?
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I would say he's like a
small business owner. Okay.
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You know, today's
small businesses would have,
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you know, couple of employees.
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And they'd have some inventory.
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And they'd have a going concern.
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And they would be making
their life and they'd be,
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you know, going through it.
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So he fits in like a
small business people today.
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Now this experience
that he has here in Luke 5
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has the
characteristics of something
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we call a theophany
and-- Sounds like theology.
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Yeah, theology. It
certainly got the word God in it
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but at the end of that the verb
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"pheno" is a
Greek verb actually.
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It means "to appear."
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So a theophany
is when God appears.
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And when God appears
in the Bible or a divine
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being appears or
an angel appears,
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there's a very typical kind
of response that takes place.
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It has five parts, five steps.
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The first step is the appearance
of the divine glory, okay?
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The second step is
human fear, all right?
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The third step
is the angel or God
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or whoever has appeared
says, "don't be afraid."
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Then there is some
revelation that is shared.
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The divine being
came, God came for a reason
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to share something.
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And then the fifth step
is human response, okay.
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So we have divine
glory. Then we have human fear.
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Then we have don't be afraid.
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Then we have revelation,
and then finally human response.
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Now my question is
can you see those things
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taking place
here in this chapter?
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Well, maybe you
can help me out here.
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Yeah. What is
the first one again?
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Glory. Glory.
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So we're looking for
glory in the calling of Peter.
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Of Peter. And
there's no reference.
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The word glory
doesn't appear there.
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No, there isn't. Okay.
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I'm gonna have a
hard time finding out.
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Well, the glory
is the miracle. Okay.
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When God shows
something that it amazes people,
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you know, that's
the glory of His power.
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It's linked up with His power.
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I'm taking a guess here
but it seems that the glory,
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the miracle was that
they caught a lot of fish.
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Yep. But how is that a miracle?
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Fishermen are used to
catching a lot of fish.
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Maybe one day wasn't a good day.
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Maybe another day, you know?
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Yeah, so this is a good day
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because this is
during the day time.
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And you notice Peter
reacts to Him when he says,
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"let out and your nets down."
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And he says, "we
fished all night."
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That's when
you'd catch the fish.
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The fish couldn't see
the nets during the night
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and so you could catch
the fish, not during the day.
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So he knows what
he is talking about
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because he's experienced?
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Yeah. And he thinks,
"oh, this is a carpenter.
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He doesn't know
what He's talking about.
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But he says, "okay, Master,
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because you say so
I'll let down the nets."
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And then they take
fish they can't, you know,
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they can't take care of them.
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There's--it fills
both boats to overflowing.
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The boats are
about to sink, you know.
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Now when you see a
miracle happen it's--
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it really strikes your life.
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You're like, "whoa, this
is like going to Niagara Falls
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and being next to
this huge water, you know?"
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It's like--it's
almost scary, you see. So--
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Especially if
you're an unbeliever,
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you don't really
believe in miracles,
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you've never seen one,
and you're not used to that,
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you've never heard of something
like that and suddenly...
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Yeah. So the
glory is the miracle.
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The second step
is the human fear.
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That's referred to in here.
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Actually it says,
"he and all of his--
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they were completely
astonished," in verse 9 it says.
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And in fact,
Peter's response to Him,
00:10:32.56\00:10:35.13
"depart me--from me for I
am a sinful man, Oh, Lord."
00:10:35.16\00:10:39.05
Here's that human
fear, that's the drawing back
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from that which is
divine because it's too scary,
00:10:41.75\00:10:43.91
'cause it's too powerful, okay?
00:10:43.94\00:10:45.72
So that's the human fear.
00:10:45.75\00:10:47.43
Does the words
"don't be afraid" appear?
00:10:47.46\00:10:49.88
I don't see it. Hmm.
00:10:49.91\00:10:51.94
Oh, wait, verse 10 does say,
00:10:51.97\00:10:53.53
Jesus said, "do not be
afraid." Okay, that's here.
00:10:53.56\00:10:57.05
Yeah, you see. And then the
next step is the revelation.
00:10:57.08\00:11:00.67
Now here's the revelation.
00:11:00.70\00:11:02.07
And it's the next words
of Jesus. Read them again.
00:11:02.10\00:11:03.80
"From now on
you will catch men."
00:11:03.83\00:11:06.54
Yes, so this is the revelation.
00:11:06.57\00:11:08.92
This is the reason
for the catch of fish.
00:11:08.95\00:11:10.95
And this is the
start of their ministry.
00:11:10.98\00:11:13.39
And how about
the human response?
00:11:13.42\00:11:16.94
Well, it says here, verse 11,
00:11:16.97\00:11:18.78
"they brought
their boats to land,
00:11:18.81\00:11:20.18
they forsook all
and followed Him."
00:11:20.21\00:11:22.84
Yep. So there it is.
Here's this human response.
00:11:22.87\00:11:26.99
So it's a typical theophany,
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kind of a little
bit hidden to our view.
00:11:29.58\00:11:31.46
It doesn't have some of
the other characteristics
00:11:31.49\00:11:33.80
that, you know,
people might usually think,
00:11:33.83\00:11:36.09
the reference to
glory or something.
00:11:36.12\00:11:37.72
But all of them that are
there and this is exactly
00:11:37.75\00:11:40.59
what the call of Peter is about.
00:11:40.62\00:11:41.99
It's the appearance of God.
He calls them to a new life.
00:11:42.02\00:11:45.18
He changes the way
they are. All right?
00:11:45.21\00:11:47.32
So this is this guy Peter
00:11:47.35\00:11:48.85
that wrote this
book that we're reading.
00:11:48.88\00:11:50.37
Oh, you know, now
it makes me think about
00:11:50.40\00:11:52.34
my experience
regarding that theophany,
00:11:52.37\00:11:55.30
if I ever had that experience.
00:11:55.33\00:11:56.70
Well, there was a
miracle and then eventually
00:11:56.73\00:11:59.08
I made that calling to
accept Jesus and follow Him.
00:11:59.11\00:12:02.20
Have we all gone
through something like that?
00:12:02.23\00:12:04.11
Yes. I mean, you sense
God's presence in your life.
00:12:04.14\00:12:08.39
It's like me sensing
the call to ministry.
00:12:08.42\00:12:10.80
It took quite sometime for
me to really sense that yes,
00:12:10.83\00:12:14.46
I should be in ministry.
This is where I belong.
00:12:14.49\00:12:16.70
But I remember going and
praying one particular day,
00:12:16.73\00:12:20.16
taking time and
praying about this
00:12:20.19\00:12:21.83
and feeling
convicted that God wanted me
00:12:21.86\00:12:24.48
to be a minister of the Gospel.
00:12:24.51\00:12:26.48
And thanks to God, I've
been faithful to that idea
00:12:26.51\00:12:30.63
ever since then and
have had a wonderful ministry
00:12:30.66\00:12:34.01
that I've been involved in.
00:12:34.04\00:12:35.41
So that's where
Peter starts, you know?
00:12:35.44\00:12:36.81
He gets this ministry involved.
00:12:36.84\00:12:38.21
And the most important one
would be the human response,
00:12:38.24\00:12:41.15
you know, because God
makes miracles all the time.
00:12:41.18\00:12:42.74
And do we see a
theophany throughout the Bible,
00:12:42.77\00:12:44.99
not just the New Testament? Yes.
00:12:45.02\00:12:46.39
We've been watching
for those theophanies
00:12:46.42\00:12:47.81
and then do we let
them have that experience
00:12:47.84\00:12:50.33
of changing our life
and moving us forward.
00:12:50.36\00:12:53.09
So Peter then is
writing to these people.
00:12:53.12\00:12:56.63
Who are these people right?
00:12:56.66\00:12:58.03
We said last
time, these are Jews.
00:12:58.06\00:12:59.43
Probably Jews and Gentiles.
00:12:59.46\00:13:00.83
They live in what is
today present day Turkey.
00:13:00.86\00:13:03.24
That area of the world actually
00:13:03.27\00:13:04.74
became a very important
center for Christianity.
00:13:04.77\00:13:09.15
It had a good
growth of Christianity.
00:13:09.18\00:13:12.11
And early
Christianity was very strong
00:13:12.14\00:13:15.04
in that area of the world.
00:13:15.07\00:13:16.51
So these are Jews and Gentiles.
00:13:16.54\00:13:17.91
They are living
mainly in rural areas.
00:13:17.94\00:13:20.68
They are separate
from the world around them,
00:13:20.71\00:13:22.89
because their practices are of
00:13:22.92\00:13:27.31
what we read in
the Bible, you know?
00:13:27.34\00:13:28.98
They were not doing
the kind of pagan practices
00:13:29.01\00:13:31.27
that were around them.
00:13:31.30\00:13:32.67
So they didn't fit
in to the kind of people
00:13:32.70\00:13:36.41
that were their neighbors.
00:13:36.44\00:13:38.31
They didn't fit
well with them. Okay.
00:13:38.34\00:13:40.88
And, Dr. Shepherd,
I'm looking forward
00:13:40.91\00:13:42.28
to hearing more of these people
00:13:42.31\00:13:43.90
whom Peter is writing to.
00:13:43.93\00:13:46.37
We're gonna take
a very brief pause.
00:13:46.40\00:13:49.05
After this just
join us as we continue
00:13:49.08\00:13:51.52
studying the
books of 1 and 2 Peter.
00:13:51.55\00:13:53.86