During the last two chapters I was reminded of the story about the man at a wedding feast taking the best seat and then being asked to move because the Lord had someone else he wanted for that seat. The rapture is to the wedding. Right now, on Earth there are many believers who may think that they are something or someone. Perhaps they consider themselves the “super apostles” that Paul refers to. At the rapture those who are raptured will be caught up to the wedding feast. If you are left behind you will then, like these ones who thought they were in the best seats, have to take your place at the back. It seems like this matter of an inflated ego and self importance is a really big issue for those who are left behind. It also explains why those who are taken were taken. This was dealt with from the very beginning. Now my understanding is you can’t go onto chapter 5 till you have successfully repented of and dealt with your ego in chapters 3 and 4.
1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,[a] 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. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 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.” This is funny, Peter is a professional fisherman, you can see him struggling with what the Lord tells him and catches himself just in time. It seems he almost says “I think we know how to fish” but instead says “because you say so, I will let down my nets.” I think we all have these experiences. The Lord is speaking to us, it doesn’t make sense, but in the end we decide since you are saying this I’ll do it even though it doesn’t make sense. 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. This is the kind of experience you have all the time when preaching the gospel. In college we were distributing gospel tracts our church was publishing. One tract was “Will death solve your problems?” It talked about the verse that after we die we must all appear before the judgement seat. My thought was “This is a stupid tract, no one is going to want this”. But it was what they gave us so I passed it out. Then the brothers and I all noticed people sneaking these into their books and bags to read later. Usually after handing out 100 tracts there will be 65 on the ground, but we didn’t see any. We were stunned. That tract had a huge impact on the campus.
1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,[a] 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. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” 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.” This is funny, Peter is a professional fisherman, you can see him struggling with what the Lord tells him and catches himself just in time. It seems he almost says “I think we know how to fish” but instead says “because you say so, I will let down my nets.” I think we all have these experiences. The Lord is speaking to us, it doesn’t make sense, but in the end we decide since you are saying this I’ll do it even though it doesn’t make sense. 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. This is the kind of experience you have all the time when preaching the gospel. In college we were distributing gospel tracts our church was publishing. One tract was “Will death solve your problems?” It talked about the verse that after we die we must all appear before the judgement seat. My thought was “This is a stupid tract, no one is going to want this”. But it was what they gave us so I passed it out. Then the brothers and I all noticed people sneaking these into their books and bags to read later. Usually after handing out 100 tracts there will be 65 on the ground, but we didn’t see any. We were stunned. That tract had a huge impact on the campus.