‘When Simon Peter saw it [the miraculous draught of fish], he fell down at Jesus’ knees saying..’

And we’ll be looking now at stages in seeking Christ. We are going to be looking at the life of Peter. Very briefly, a kind of thumbnail overview of the life of Simon Peter. It is remarkable that Simon Peter, well, indeed, probably all the Apostles, did not come to full belief in Jesus Christ instantly, immediately. It took them a little while to really understand, to really see their spiritual need and what it is that they must do. And it’s a very good thing to look at the stages of the life of the Apostle Peter. It’s such a help to us to see his pilgrimage, his progress. What he understood, one thing after another, before really he wholeheartedly gave himself to Jesus Christ and came to know him and to walk with him. Well, he was a disciple, yes, from an early stage with loyalty, but the real state of his heart, his condition before God, well, it took a while before he understood and was saved.

Now, this part of his life in Luke chapter 5 was not the first time he met with Jesus Christ. And I should say that, well, there may be people who experience all the stages that we’re going to look at tonight, the phases of seeking and finding God, who experience them all in a single hour, in a single night. There are many people who come directly to Christ and by the work of God in their hearts, they see the whole issue and they see their need and they understand the way of salvation. Not because they’re bright, but because God so works in their lives and they come to him. So I don’t want to make conversion sound complex. But for many people in this congregation, it’ll take a while before really we see the whole point and that’s why it’s valuable to look at the life of Peter.