Jesus and the Fishermen

January 1, 2023 Pastor: Hardin Crowder Series: Who Do You Say That I Am?

Topic: Jesus, Discipleship

Series Introduction:

Good morning and Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas holiday and are looking forward to what the new year will bring us. Since we just finished our Advent and Christmas season, where we focused on the prophecies concerning Christ and the glory of his birth, I thought it would only be appropriate to focus on the life and ministry of Christ, leading up to Lent and Easter where we will celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection that brought us salvation and eternal life. 

While I would love to preach through one of the four gospels from beginning to end, in the weeks between Christmas and Easter, sadly there just are not enough weeks to do any gospel justice. Instead, I chose to focus on a theme that runs through all four gospels. That theme being the diverse range of people Jesus encountered during his earthly ministry, and how each responded to him. I chose to title the sermon series, “Who do you say that I am?” in reference to Jesus’ question that he posed to his disciples in Luke 9:20. It is a question that, in some way or form, each person has to answer for themselves. This was true of the people Jesus encountered during his earthly ministry, as well as the people who encounter the message of Jesus today. It is a question we all must answer and the answer we will give demand a response.

Scripture Reading:

  • Luke 5:1-11
  • 1 Peter 2:2-3

Opening Prayer:

Father God, I thank you for the honor and privilege we have to gather here today. I thank you for the ability to sing your praises, to read your words, and to proclaim the good news of your Son. Help us to face this new year and its challenges, not with fear, but with confidence. Help us to be bold because we know that you are with us. Help us to follow you in a way that brings you honor and glory, and in a way that causes others to see the light of your gospel. Bless us Lord, we pray. Amen 

Introduction:

I hope this does not come as a disappointment to anyone, but I have never been the biggest fan of fishing. My father loves to fish, and I remember many times growing up when he would take us out to a lake to go bass fishing. I enjoyed the company of my father, but as a child I was too impatient to enjoy the sport. I often reeled in my line too quickly, or got impatient waiting for my cork lure to go under the water. Many fish got away because of my impatience, but as I got older I had the opposite problem. I learned that I enjoyed the quiet of the lake and the stillness of the waters so much that when I got a bite it felt like an inconvenient interruption to my peace of mind. Getting a bite meant you had to reel it in, which was not always easy. Then you had to handle the fish, which I never enjoyed. The smell that fish left on your hands is one I still remember even though I haven’t fished in years.  Cleaning and cooking them also felt like more work than it was worth. I never felt like I got enough meat off of the fish I caught, but maybe that says more about my fishing ability than anything else.  

All that to say, I learned pretty quickly that I enjoyed lake sitting much more than lake fishing. Considering how I feel about the relatively easy and relaxing type of fishing I just described, I can only imagine how little I would have enjoyed life as a fisherman in the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Fishermen in Galilee during the time of Jesus performed a type of fishing we refer to today as dragnet fishing. Instead of a line and a pole, fishermen would go out to sea and throw out these heavy weighted nets and let them sink to the bottom of the sea. Then they would pull the nets up as quickly as they could and would hopefully snare some fish in the process. Commercial fishermen sometimes use a similar method today, but they have the benefit of heavy duty machinery to help with the throwing and catching process. The fishermen in Jesus day did not have the benefit of machines, they had to rely on the strength of their bodies, and it was hard work. 

Hard work can be rewarding work, but few things are more demoralizing to me than putting in a lot of time, energy, and labor into something only to have nothing to show for it when all is said and done. That frustrating and demoralizing feeling is exactly what Simon Peter, Andrew (who is not named in Luke’s account but is mentioned in Mark’s gospel), James and John were probably feeling that faithful morning. They had fished all night and caught nothing.  They were physically exhausted, frustrated, and probably more than a little embarrassed to be cleaning their nets without a single fish to sell. I imagine that each of them wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep off this horrible fishing experience. I am sure the last thing they wanted to do at that moment was to spend more time on the water, but that is exactly where Jesus found them. 

An Inconvenient Request 

Luke begins this account by saying, 

“On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret…” 

Luke 5:1, ESV

Jesus had just begun his preaching and healing ministry, and was already drawing crowds of people who knew that there was something different about this rabbi. One problem that Jesus would run into occasionally was that so many people wanted to get close to him, so that it sometimes became difficult for him to teach and be heard (there were no “back row baptists” in those days). Try to imagine if we were standing out in a field this morning with maybe a hundred or more people and we were all trying to talk to the same person, to hear him speak, and to ask him questions. It would be a challenge.  

This is the scene that Simon, Andrew, James and John come across on the shore as they try to finish up their work for the day. Jesus, however, sees two small fishing boats on the shore. He knows that “the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets” (Luke 5:2), and he undoubtedly knows that these men are tired and frustrated, but he still decides to make a request of them. 

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land.

Luke 5:3a, ESV

We are not told what Simon Peter was thinking, only that he agreed to let Jesus use his boat as a floating pulpit and the two of them set out a little ways from the shore. Trying to put myself in Simon’s place, I would be annoyed. I would try to hide it, because he is Jesus after all, but I know I would probably let my frustrations and my exhaustion give me a sour attitude. I would obey, but inwardly I would be so aggravated that the Messiah was asking a favor of me now, after the horrible night I just had. 

It is possible that I am misreading Simon Peter entirely, perhaps he was more than happy to set out again and eager to hear the words that Jesus was about to preach from his boat. I just know that, more often than not, it seems like moment’s that require obedience to God seem to come at inopportune times. God seems to place people in my path when I am in a hurry, to give me opportunities to perform acts of Christian service when I am at my most tired, and to call me to demonstrate Christian love when my fuse is at its shortest. I don’t always know why, except that perhaps I am meant to learn something from this. Perhaps, God does this to remind us that Christianity is not something we do when we feel up to it, but rather we are called to be Christians regardless of the circumstance. 

I do wonder if Peter paid close attention to Jesus’ message or if he just spaced out and tried his best not to fall asleep. We don’t know what Jesus said in the sermon from the boat, but we do know that even when he was finished his sermon he was not finished with Simon Peter. 

An Illogical Request

Peter probably thought that after the sermon was finished he would row back to shore, dock the boat, and finally go home and call it a day. However, Jesus makes yet another request of the fisherman: 

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

Luke 5:4, ESV

Poor Peter had not slept all night. His muscles ached. He probably smelt like lake scum and dried sweat. He had already done what Jesus asked him to do, and now Jesus was making another request. 

The first request at least made sense to Simon. Jesus needed some space from the crowd and Peter was able to give him some space so he could finish his teachings in peace. This next request did not make any sense at all. 

The prime time to catch fish was long gone. Peter had already spent hours fishing the lake and had caught nothing. The nets had already been dried and put away by now. Obeying Jesus had already been an inconvenience, but this was probably going to add at least another hour or two to an already long and frustrating day. 

Simon Peter vocalizes this to Jesus, but in another act of faith he chooses obedience: 

And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 

Luke 5:5, ESV

I think this is a wonderful example of what it means to act in faith, even when we do not see the point. I am sure we have all been in situations where the opportunity to obey Christ comes at an inopportune moment. We know how easy it is to disobey or to obey with a little begrudging reluctance. I imagine that most of us have also struggled with obeying Christ, when obedience seems to be pointless or ineffective. 

It is hard enough to take a step of faith when we do not feel up to the challenge to begin with, but when we do not even understand why we are doing what we are doing, it is the easiest thing in the world to opt out of the calling God has placed on your heart. Nothing could come more natural to a sinful heart like ours than to discard God’s Word when we can’t make sense of it or justify it in our fragile human limitations. This is where faith becomes more than just a concept. This is where faith becomes obedience. 

Living by faith is difficult, but if we learn to walk with faith in spite of how we might feel and in spite of what we might think, then I believe we will see God show up in amazing ways! 

And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

Luke 7:6-7, ESV

I am not a math person, but we know from history that the average commercial fishing boat at this time would have been around seven and a half feet wide and about twenty seven feet long. I don’t know how to calculate how much fish a boat like that would hold, but the fish in the nets were so large and numerous that the nets were breaking and the boats were sinking. It would have easily been a small fortune of fish, more than these professional fishermen had ever seen at any one point in their lifetime! 

Early Church fathers like Augustine of Hippo saw the large catch of fish as a foreshadowing of the great multitude of Jews and Gentiles who would come to faith by the proclamation of the gospel:

These two catches of fish stand for the whole church, both as it is now and as it will be at the resurrection of the dead. Now, as you can see, it contains countless numbers, both good and bad. After the resurrection it will contain only the good, and a definite number of them… Those two boats, though, stood for the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, synagogue and church, those circumcised and those uncircumcised.

Augustine, Sermon 248.2

A Life-Transforming Calling

Whether or not Simon Peter could have understood the meaning of the miracle unfolding before him is up for debate, but what is clear is that Simon was deeply moved by what he had witnessed. It is here that we see Simon Peter react in a way that might seem strange to us, but actually makes a great deal of sense from Peter’s perspective: 

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. 

Luke 5:8-10, ESV

Why would Peter want Jesus to depart from him? I think Peter had a reaction that many in the Bible seem to have when they first encounter the Holiness of God. First, Simon Peter was made aware of the fact that there was a divine presence in Christ. Second, Simon Peter was made aware of his own sinfulness. Peter grew up in the Jewish faith and had been taught by the law that an impure and sinful man should not draw near to something holy like Christ. Either the what is holy would be profaned, or what is sinful and impure would be consumed, and Peter did not want either outcome.

What Peter had not yet realized is that Christ was holy in a different way. He was holy in a way that did not need to be protected, lest the world contaminate him. He was holy in a way that his very presence could purify those corrupted by the powers of sin and death! He did not come to destroy sinners, but rather to destroy sin itself! These are all lessons that Peter would learn in time.

It seems to be a universal truth that the greater awareness of God’s Holiness we have, the greater awareness we also have of our own sinfulness. When the prophet Isaiah saw God his first words were: 

“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Isaiah 6:5, ESV

When Job, who spends the majority of his book debating about God’s goodness, finally sees God he cries out: 

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

    but now my eye sees you;

therefore I despise myself,

    and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:5-6, ESV

People might carry their hurts, their pains, their questions, and even their anger to the throne of God in prayer, but the testimony of Scripture from beginning to end is that when we see God the question on our hearts will be “How did a God so good, ever love a sinner like me?”

But isn’t that why the gospel is good news? God who is unimaginably holy and good, loved sinners like you and me so much that that He chose to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. Those who are most aware of their sins, are those who are most aware of their need for a savior, and God has sent us a perfect Savior in Christ the Lord. The point is not to wallow in our sinfulness, but to grow in awareness of the amazing grace of God!

Notice that Jesus does not send away Peter. Jesus does not turn away anyone who comes to him in genuine repentance. No, here is what we are told… 

And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Luke 5:12, ESV

Jesus tells Peter that he does not need to be afraid, the Messiah had come, but now is not the day of judgment. These were the days of salvation, days in which sinners could be born again and made new. We get a glimpse of this new birth and new identity when Jesus tells the fisherman that he will now be a fisher of men. His identity has changed, his purpose has changed, and his priorities have changed all because of this encounter with Jesus. 

Simon Peter would follow Jesus from that day forward, and while he did so imperfectly, he would devote the rest of his life to catching men by bringing them to a saving knowledge of Christ. Around thirty years after this fateful day, Peter would write a letter from Rome during Nero’s reign, a high point in Christian persecution during the first century, to Christians scattered throughout what would be modern day Turkey. In the letter we see that even thirty years later, Peter’s zeal for Jesus has not faded with time. In the midst of trials and persecution, Peter encouraged believers; 

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

1 Peter 2:2-3, ESV

Once we have tasted the goodness of Christ and his gospel, we will long for more. As we long for more of Christ, we grow into our salvation. Like these first disciples, the gospel of grace is not a one time decision, but a lifelong commitment that transforms us over time as we learn to become the child of God that Christ has already made us to be through his grace. It is love that draws us towards godliness by drawing us ever nearer to Christ.

If any here this morning would like to begin a journey of faith, I would love to talk to you during our time of decision or arrange a time after the service if you would feel more comfortable doing that. Perhaps you are a Christ follower but you need help navigating a season of your journey. Again, I ask that you would come and speak with me so that we can navigate this together. Or maybe you simply need to make a decision in your heart between you and the Lord, whatever the case, I encourage you not to delay in acting upon whatever decision the Lord has placed upon your heart. Let us pray. 

Prayer of Decision: 

Father God, we thank you again for the opportunity to gather here this morning. Lord, give us faith to obey even when the timing is inconvenient and we do not feel up to the task. Give us the faith to trust you, even when your commands do not make sense to us in the moment. Most of all, help us to be not only aware of our need for a savior, but also to know with certainty that you are our savior. Like these first disciples, I pray that we would understand that nothing compares to knowing you and following in your ways. Teach us to believe and to obey. 

If any here this morning do not know you, or have not trusted you as their Savior and Lord, I pray that you would give them the courage to begin a conversation with me this morning. All this we ask in your Son’s precious and holy name. Amen.

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