Luke 5:1-11 Put Out Into the Deep…
Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter five, page 860 in the pew Bibles.
I often find myself hunting after what is clever in this world. Cleverness has always been an auspicious attribute in my mind, to be thought of as clever and to find things that are clever, or people who are clever is always so satisfying to me. That’s partially why I do woodworking, to do things that people don’t expect or can’t figure out how they’re done. But it is also often a temptation in my study of the Scriptures, to find the nugget nobody sees, or to think of the things that are seldom thought about and therefore, seem clever. This is not always a good thing.
Sometimes while mining for nuggets of cleverness I ignore what lies on the surface. This passage is no different. This is the most flannelgraph account in all of the New Testament, this passage has Sunday School songs, it has it all, right there on the surface. And maybe that’s exactly where we should look.
Alistair Begg says, “The main things are the plain things and the plain thing are the main things.”
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, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 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. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Let’s pray.
So to set up our flannegraph scene, here is Jesus, in Capernaum still, standing on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret, also called, Chinnereth, also called the Sea of Tiberius, also called the Sea of Galilee.
There is also a large crowd that has followed Him there wanting to hear the Word of God and they are crowding in on Him so to get a little space to be able to speak to the whole crowd He gets into one of the boats there that happens to belong to Simon Peter, a fisherman with whom He was acquainted having visited his home and healed his mother in law of a great fever that we read about last week.
So in part one of this scene Jesus sits down in the boat and teaches the people, how I wish I could hear that sermon! Maybe I’d just read that to you instead of making you sit through this one!
I said it last week and it bears repeating that Jesus did not just come to die on the cross but He also came to preach and teach. We should always be about the business of listening to His teaching and putting it into practice.
Now the practice of fishing the way that Peter and Andrew, James and John were accustomed to was to fish with nets not hooks in the shallow parts of the lake near the shore at night. That’s exactly what they had been doing when Jesus showed up. Their work day was over and they were cleaning their nets and laying them out to dry for the next night’s work.
It seems a little cliché at this point but I can’t help but point out the fact that this is often how Jesus operates, we’re just going about our business and then Jesus shows up. Whether it’s through opportunities to share our faith or to say a word of encouragement or to serve someone who needs help, sometimes Jesus shows up with something for us to do when we are just minding our own business.
But Jesus doesn’t ask Peter to do something that makes any sense, what He asks him to do is ridiculous.
Here’s Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth saying to Peter the fisherman from Bethsaida, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
This is not only inconvenient, as they had been fishing all night and were cleaning up at the end of their shift and looking forward to going home, but it was also not good fishing practice. It was daytime and He asked to put out into the deep water for a catch instead of the shallows where they typically fished.
I like to fish, I especially like to fly fish. I’ve done it all my life, my dad taught me how to do it when I was a kid, I come from a family of fishermen. And though I haven’t done it for quite a while, I still know that there are the right ways and wrong ways to fish, there are right times and right places and right flies to use. Jesus is asking Peter to use a salmon fly to catch a brook trout in the ocean.
And Jesus is still doing that same thing with His people, asking machinists to become preachers, asking teachers to run restaurants, asking pilots to leave the city and move to the mountains, because that’s where He wants us to fish. I bet we could all share stories of how God has used us for His glory in spite of what it was that we thought we were supposed to be doing. If you can’t think of a story it’s very possible that He is writing one in you right now you just don’t see it yet.
“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
Jesus’ request would change Peter’s life.
Peter’s response could very well change ours.
“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” We couldn’t find any fish, we are exhausted, we’re almost done cleaning our nets. We just want to go home and sleep! Peter confronted Jesus with his perception of reality but didn’t make any excuses.
Peter had heard the teaching of Jesus already, he had seen Him heal his mother in law, he had seen Him cast out demons with a word, he knew Jesus was no ordinary person. So though it didn’t make any sense, though he and his crew were tired and ready to go home to rest, Peter said, “At your word I will let down the nets.”
Our list of reasons to say no to Jesus is usually just as long as Peter’s. “If I say something people might get mad, I might hurt somebody’s feelings, what if they laugh at me or reject me? I don’t want to ruin our relationship, I’m too tired, too busy, I’ve got my own stuff to worry about.”
“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 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.
The message here is not that if you just follow Jesus and put out into your own metaphorical deep that He is going to pound you with a hundred and fifty three large metaphorical fish. That’s a pretty popular message in some churches nowadays but it just isn’t true.
The message is that God works through the coupling of human faithfulness and divine power and the result is His glory not ours.
Jesus said, “Put out into the deep for a catch,” and the result was so many fish that Peter called James and John for help and even with two boats there were too many fish to handle so that the boats began to sink.
The prosperity gospel says that if you come to Jesus, if you do what He says that He will overload you with blessings just like He did for Peter, Andrew, James and John. “He just wants to bless you...”
But the fish were not the blessing, at least not for these men.
6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 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. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Peter’s response is the reasonable response, humility. He echoes the words of Isaiah 6:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “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!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Jesus said to Simon Peter, “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.
If our focus remains as, “I do for Jesus so that He will do for me,” we will miss out on the true blessing of the Lord. Simon and Andrew, James and John left all those fish on the shore, they left their boats, they left their nets, and they followed Jesus. If all they wanted was material blessing they had it but they would miss out on the true blessing and that is the glory of God.
So maybe this nugget of cleverness was not right on the surface but it is no less true that the combination of human faithfulness, simple obedience to His Word, and His divine power wil always result in God’s glory.
Peter left all those fish on the shore, but not three years later in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost Peter would preach the gospel and three thousand souls would be saved, that’s the real blessing.
“I will make you fishers of men if you follow me…”
Amen.
