#32. Luke 5:1-11 JESUS ON A
FISHING TRIP
Introduction:
I think you are all aware that there are men who are professional
fishing
guides. You can go to one of the marinas
at one of the big lakes
and hire a man to take you
fishing. He will show you where to catch
fish
and how to catch them. In our text today Jesus is the fishing guide.
in our two previous texts the emphasis has been on reaching
those who
have a need of Jesus
Christ. This is illustrated by the
people of
bringing
their sick loved ones and friends to Jesus that they might be
healed. It is not difficult to see that as those
people were concerned
about
the physical well being of their loved ones and friends, even so we
ought
to be even more concerned about the spiritual well being of our's. If
Jesus were physically here on earth and
was to be here in our services, we
would
do all that we could to get our physically sick family members and
friends
to the services that they might be healed.
Well, Jesus is not here
physically,
but He is here spiritually. We ought to
be just as concerned--.
No we ought to be far more concerned about
our loved ones and friends who
are lost in sin and headed for
the fires of hell. We ought to do all
that
we can to get them to our
services so that they can hear the gospel of Jesus
preached
so that perhaps they will be saved.
Then in our text last Sunday we heard the people of
Jesus that He would not leave Capernaum,
but that He would stay right there
with them. We also heard the answer of Jesus. Jesus said that God had
sent Him to go to other cities
and villages that there He might preach the
gospel
of the
Jesus to go out to others who were lost in
sin to carry the gospel message
to them, even so Jesus has
sent us. In John
hath sent me, even so send I
you. We are sent to every creature in
all the
world.
In an attempt to carry out this command this means that we are to
personally
go and carry the gospel to as many as we can.
It means also that
we are to help to finance the
way for those who are going to places that we
cannot
get to. The whole wide world is the area
that we are to carry the
gospel
to. Every man, woman, boy and girl in
the world is included in the
group
that we are to carry the gospel to.
I.
Jesus, setting an example in fishing for men
In our text today Luke looks back to the time when Jesus called out His
first
disciples to become fishers of men. He
looks back to the time when
Jesus first came to
Luke goes into a lot greater detail than any of the other gospel writers
in telling of this event. As we study these Scriptures we will see
several
things
that Matthew did not tell us.
Let us look at our text. V. 1,
"And it came to pass, that, as the
people
pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of
Gennesaret."
Right off the bat we see something that Matthew did not tell
us. Matthew says nothing about Jesus preaching to
a crowd of people there
on the seashore. But He was and it must have been a pretty
good sized crowd
of people because Luke says
that they pressed in around Him. The Sea
of
Gennesaret
is better known to us as the
V. 2, "And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen
were
gone out of them, and were
washing their nets." The fact that
the fishermen
were on the shore washing their
nets means that they had already finished
their
fishing trip. According to Matthew,
Jesus had earlier watched them
casting
their nets into the sea, but now their fishing trip is over and they
are washing their nets and
getting them ready for the next fishing trip.
V. 3, "And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and
prayed
him that he would thrust out a little from the land." We will see as
we go along that Simon Peter
obliged Jesus in this request. We will
see
also that, having finished
washing the nets, Simon brought the nets back
into the boat before pushing the
boat away from the shore. But at this
time
the nets were not to be
used. Jesus was at this time busy
preaching to the
crowd
of people which had gathered along the shore and the purpose of moving
into the boat and away from the
boat was just to give Him a better vantage
point
from which to preach. (V. 3),
"...And he sat down, and taught the
people
out of the ship."
Now this may seem strange to you that Simon Peter and his brother,
Andrew whom Matthew mentions but whom Luke
does not mention at all, would so
readily
give Jesus the use of their boat. But
John tells us that these
brothers
had been in
Messiah. Andrew had actually been present when John
identified Jesus as the
Messiah. He and another disciple spent most of that
day visiting with Jesus
and talking to Jesus. Later Andrew brought his brother, Simon
Peter, to
Jesus informing Him that John had identified
Jesus as the Messiah. Now
Andrew and Peter had already believed in
the Messiah even before they saw
Him. They had believed in Him under the preaching
of John the Baptist and
had been baptized by John the
Baptist.
So having already trusted in the Messiah under the preaching of John the
Baptist, having already been baptized, and
having already had the person of
Jesus identified to them by John the
Baptist as the Messiah, it was no
problem
for them to surrender the use of their fishing boat so that He could
better
preach to the people along the seashore.
II. Jesus, going fishing with His
disciples
V. 4, "Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch
out
into the deep, and let down your
nets for a draught." Now I feel
certain
that the crowd of people had not
left. They must have still been standing
along
the shore. But Jesus was finished with
the message that He had for
them to hear at this time and so
He quit and instructed Simon Peter to carry
the boat out into the deeper
water.
That is not surprising, because this was the easiest way of getting away
from the crowd that was still on
the shore. What is surprising is that He
instructed
Simon Peter to let down the nets into the water. We can be sure
that Jesus was not primarily in
fishing for literal fish. He was
primarily
interested
in fishing for men. But He told them to
let down the nets.
V. 5, "And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled
all the
night,
and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the
net." From the human point of view, there was no
use in the world of
letting
down the nets. It would appear to be
just wasted effort. After all
these
were professional fishermen. They had
fished all night in the very
best fishing spots. If they had not been able to find any fish,
what chance
would
they have of catching fishing by just haphazardly letting down the
nets?
V. 6, "And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude
of
fishes:
and their net brake." Now you
understand that their net did not
tear completely up. In the main it still held together. But there were so
many fish in the net that it did
break some of the thread--some of the
cords.
V. 7, "And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the
other
ship, that they should come and
help them." Their partners were, of
course,
James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in the other fishing boat
very close by and they were
called to come and help gather in the fish there
were so many.
(V. 7), "...And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they
began
to sink." Now ordinarily in a boat this size several
men would be able to
stand
on one side of the boat without any danger of capsizing the boat. But
there
so many fish that the boats had now sunk deep into the water and if
much weight was put on either
side of the boats they would dip down into the
water
and water would overflow into the boat.
That is exactly what
happened. In the process of taking in all these fish,
too many men got on
the same side of the boat and
that caused them to take in water.
Actually
this happened in both of the
boats. They, of course, immediately
adjusted
the weight so as to stop taking
on water. In getting the boats to the
shore,
they had to very careful not to tip the weight to either side. They
had to keep the boat very
evenly balanced or they would take in more water.
V. 8, "When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees,
saying,
Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O
Lord." Now at the first, this
request
seems very surprising and very much out of place. It would seem
that, as a fisherman, it would
be very much to his advantage to have Jesus
around
all the time telling him where to let down the nets. And the way he
said it makes it sound as if he
were unhappy with the Lord.
But after due consideration, we can see that Simon Peter meant no
disrespect
whatsoever. To the contrary, he was very
much awed by the might
and majesty of our Lord. Simon Peter was aware that he, himself, was a
very
sinful
creature and he felt that he had no right to stand in the presence of
Deity God. He was actually very frightened by the
presence of the Holy God
in the boat with him. He was afraid that God would immediately
bring
judgment
on him because of his sinfulness.
V. 9-10, "For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the
draught
of the fishes which they had taken: And
so was also James, and
John, the sons of Zebedee, which were
partners with Simon. Now right here
it stands out very sharply
that Luke makes no mention of Andrew, Simon
Peter's brother. Andrew was there. Matthew says that he was, but Luke
makes
no mention of him whatsoever.
(V. 10), "...And Jesus said unto Simon. Fear not..." Simon Peter had
been afraid because he was aware
that he was a sinful man in the presence of
Almighty God. That is, he was in the immediate presence of
Almighty God.
Man is not so frightened by the fact that
God sees his sin as long as he can
feel that God is way off
somewhere. That does not seem to pose an
immediate
threat. But when sinful man is aware that he is in
the immediate presence
of Almighty God he is
frightened.
Jesus assured him that he should not fear. Let me ask you "Why?" Why
was it that a sinner could
stand in the immediate presence of Holy God and
not be in danger? How is it possible for a sinful man to stand
in the
presence
of God without being in danger of being severely punished for his
sin? The answer is that Simon Peter had already
believed in the Christ of
God as his Savior. He had trusted in the Christ under the
preaching of John
the Baptist. That is the only way that any man can stand
before without
reason
to be afraid. If one has trusted the
Christ as his Savior then there
is no longer any reason to
fear. His sins are all forgiven and
there is no
danger. But let me tell you that every person who has
not trusted the
Christ as Savior has every reason in the
world to be afraid. We do stand in
the presence of God whether we
can see Him or not. The danger is very
real
whether
one is aware of it or not.
III. Jesus, calling the disciples to be
fishers of men
Jesus had not displayed His great power to Simon Peter in order to
threaten
him. Jesus had displayed His great power
in order to encourage
him. You see Jesus had a work for him to do. Jesus was about to call upon
Simon Peter to do the work that He had for
him to do and Jesus was seeking
to encourage him to do that
work by demonstrating His great knowledge and
power. Either Jesus knew just exactly where those
fish were in that lake or
else He had used His Almighty
power to put them there. Probably there
was a
combination
of both. Such great knowledge and power
on the part of Jesus
should
encourage Simon Peter to do the work that Jesus was calling him to
do.
What was the work that Jesus was calling on Simon to do? He was
calling
on him to fish for men. He was calling
on Simon to spread the
gospel
of the
saved. You can see that the Holy God is a lot more
desirous of cleansing
sinners
from their sin than He is in punishing them for their sin. Peter
was fearful that he would be punil you to go and let down the gospel nets where I tell
you to
let them down and you will
catch men."
IV. The disciples' response to His call
V. 11, "And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook
all,
and followed him." The calling to be fishers of men was not just
to the
Apostle Peter. It was to them all. And all surrendered to the call. They
forsook
all in order to answer that call. They
forsook their fishing boats.
They forsook their nets. They forsook their fathers, who could most
certainly
use them in the business. They forsook
even this great load of
fish and left them to their
fathers to see that the fish got marketed.
They forsook all and followed Jesus.
V.
The call of the Lord to men today
Now listen. God is not calling on
every Christian to give up their
means
of livelihood in order to go into the gospel ministry. In fact, He is
not calling every Christian to
the ministry. He is calling some to the
ministry
and He wants those whom He calls to surrender to the call. He may
want you to continue with your
secular work for a while so that
you will have a means of
livelihood until He makes arrangements for you to
have a means of support in the
ministry.
But even though God is not calling every Christian to the ministry, He
is calling on every Christian
to spread the gospel message to others.
There
are a lot of people to whom you
can witness about Jesus Christ, the Savior.
These people need the gospel message. They need you to be a witness to them
about
Jesus. Some of them will go to heaven as
a result of your witness if
you will tell them about
Jesus. Some of them who could go to
heaven will go
to hell if you fail to witness
to them. If you will go fishing for
Jesus,
you will find that Jesus will
go fishing with you. He will be there
with
you to be your guide and to
help you to fish for men. You cannot do
it
alone,
but He will go with you.
But God is not only calling men to preach the gospel and calling on
every
Christian to spread the gospel message, but God is calling on every
unsaved
person to repent of his sin and trust in Jesus Christ and be saved.
The whole purpose of calling men to preach
and the whole purpose of asking
every
Christian to witness to you is to try to keep you out of the fires of
hell and to take you to
heaven. God wants you to be saved. Through the
preaching
of His word He is calling on you to get saved.
Through the
personal
lives an personal testimony of Christians the Lord Jesus Christ is
calling
upon you to trust in Him to save your soul.
Through the working of
the Holy Spirit of God which
accompanies our witness to you, God is calling
on you to repent of your sin
and get right with God.
Please, please listen to God.
Please, for your own sake, acknowledge
you sin to God and ask Him to
forgive you. Please, please talk to the
Lord
and ask Him to have mercy on
your soul and to save you from the fires of
hell. Ask Him to keep you out of that place and to
be gracious and to let
you into heaven. You don't deserve to go there, that's
true. None of us
do. But ask God to be gracious and to save you
soul any way.
Conclusion:
I am going to call for our musicians to come forward at this time for
the invitation hymn. I am going to call upon every unsaved person
in this
congregation
this morning to get right with God. I am
going to call upon
you to lift your heart to the
Lord Jesus Christ and to trust Jesus to save
your soul.
Then I am going to ask you to step forward as we sing this invitation
hymn and to make your faith in
Jesus Christ known to us. God does not
want
us to be ashamed of Him. He wants men to make their faith publicly
known so
that all can see that Jesus is
still in the saving business. Want you
step
right
out and come forward and make your profession made known to us?
There are Christians here whose hearts God may have already touched to
let you know that He would have
you to come forward and to present yourself
for membership here in this church
to better serve Him. God will not speak
to you out loud and tell you
to walk the aisle and join this church, but He
will somehow let you know down
in your heart that this is what He would want
you to do. If God has so moved upon your heart then I am
going to call upon
you to come forward and to
unite with us.
There may be someone here today whom God has called to publicly preach
the word of God as I have done
here to you today. It has been quite a
while
since
someone has come forth and said, "God has called me to preach." I
cannot
help but wonder if the reason is that somebody has heard the call but
simply
has not surrendered to it. If God has
not called you, I certainly
would
not ask you to say that He has. But if
you are sure in your heart
that God has called you then I
am going to call on you to step forward and
to surrender to that
call. The disciples in our text set a
good example for
you to follow. Won't you come?