The Fisherman's Delight - 5

As I had lunch this afternoon with Pastor Carnes, we were just discussing the fellowship that God gives to his people and how through the years and my repeated visits here, I have perceived a fellowship that continues to grow deeper and stronger and richer and broader.

And this is no exception to that pattern. The bond that God gives to his people is one that is special. That is rich and precious and ever increasing. And it has been such a delight to be with you for these few days this week. I'm so grateful for your fellowship in the gospel, for your prayers, for the preaching of the Word of God, for the invitation to be here with you again, for the opportunities of individual fellowship that we've enjoyed. And thank God for what he is doing here.

Thank you for all that you've done and for all that you've done. For the wonderful, warm fellowship. And as Pastor Carnes and I concluded our time together today, the thought occurred to me that as the communion and fellowship and blessing of it has grown through the years, one day we'll all be together, never again to part.

And it'll keep growing and growing every year, I'm tempted to say, but there won't be any years then. It'll be all timelessness and all of us will stay young forever. And how wonderful it will be to be together in the Lord's presence. Thank you for everything that you've done for me this week and on so many occasions before. Well, the passages of scripture we look at this evening demonstrate for us a very important truth that our reformed forefathers recognized and God's people today recognize as well.

It is this. God is not going to lose any of his people. He won't lose one of them. I was just thinking of that text there in John nine, where Jesus said to his disciples, Other sheep have I, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. Christ is under a joyful, God given determination and confidence of bringing in all of his people. And that is so comforting because I know how quickly and easily I stray. And if keeping in the fold of God were up to something that I did, I would be out of that fold, I'm sure.

Quickly. But God keeps his own. And what I trust you will see with me tonight from the scriptures is an illustration of that very thing. As we have considered this week, the theme Christ and creatures, we've looked at various creatures, but I hope that it has been evident that the creatures are but means by which we are directed toward Christ and to focus upon him. The creatures he created them.

He sustains them. They exist for his glory, and they should indeed point us to him for, in fact, the firmament show with his handiwork. And we come tonight to creatures that we don't often think of as being tamable or controllable. Now you've probably been at places where you've seen trained dolphins that will jump through a hoop and jump up to get something out of a trainer's hand at a certain time. And we see that kind of sea life trained, but I've never seen a bass trained or most other kinds of fish that are out there.

It's an unusual thing. But what we've come upon in the passage read this evening is a host of fish which were under the control of a force beyond them. And as they were schooling their way along through the water, God knew where they were. Christ knew where they were. He knew what they were doing. He could see to it.

They were handled. Wouldn't you like to have the Lord Jesus along on a fishing trip? Well, on that night, that day, the disciples did, in fact.

We've read together how that they had caught nothing overnight. But I want to begin, first of all, by just referencing a statement the Lord Jesus had made as he was calling his disciples unto him. We read of it in the book of Matthew.

You needn't turn to it. But in the fourth chapter of Matthew, Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. And he saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother. And they were casting their nets into the sea. It says for they were fishers. And what that means is not that they would go out to the sea for a nice afternoon fishing.

That was their occupation. If they didn't catch fish, they didn't eat. Fish were their bread and butter.

And so they had to be catching fish, which they then would sell for income with which they paid for their home and their other food and whatever else they needed to survive in that era and where they lived. And so they were fishing and Jesus saw them and Jesus called them. He said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Now, I don't know if there was simply sayings at that time among the people that Jesus employed here concerning fishing for men or if this was a totally new concept to them. But whatever it was, the disciples to be who had seen Jesus and had heard him had enough confidence in what he was saying, enough respect for his call that it says straightway or immediately they left their nets and followed him.

So now they are going to be fishers of men as Jesus has said he will make them that. A little time passes and Jesus is teaching and the disciples who have left their nets in order to follow him are there as part of the observers, the witnesses hearing him teach, and they see the people thronging to hear Jesus. In fact, the crowd is so great and Christ with his back to the sea is oppressed in there and so he gets in one of their boats and launches out just far enough in the water so that there's a distance between him and the people and they can all see him.

The water no doubt serves as a sounding board, you ever notice how water will do that if you're out in a boat and on a lake, a sounding board in order to bounce the sound up to where the people were and they could hear and the disciples were there in the boat with the Lord Jesus. And then Jesus says after they finished with the people, let's cast on out into the deep and that's what we've read this evening from the Gospel of Luke. And as they get out there aways, Jesus tells them to let down their net and catch fish. I don't know just what Peter and Andrew and these fishermen were thinking.

Pastor said he would like to have heard the way Peter said, well, we've caught nothing, but nevertheless if thy word will let it down. These were fishermen, that was their profession, they knew the lake, they knew the water, they knew the fish that were in it, they knew the habits of those fish, where to go and how to catch them and most of the time, doubtless, they had some success otherwise they would have starved to death. But the night before they hadn't had any success. It had been a barren night of fishing. And fishing that is work, throwing a net out and letting it down and then pulling it back up into the boat, hoping there are some fish there, but they spent the whole night doing it. These were skilled fishermen. And so when Jesus said let the net down, they're probably thinking, all right, a weird fisherman, he's a carpenter, what does he know about fishing? He makes his money by different means than we do and we know it's been a futile effort to fish, the fishes aren't in this part of the lake right now, but nevertheless, at his word, they let it down. And indeed, we've read what happened.

They catch such a catch of fish, as have difficulty getting them into the boat. So what do we see here? Well, we don't see anything that took the Lord Jesus by surprise. He knows what they were doing. He knew surely that they had had a night without any fish at all, which meant when they came into the shore that morning, they had nothing to sell, which meant they would have nothing in their pockets. If Jesus wasn't concerned about their physical financial picture, he could provide for them, he would feed 5,000 with just a little bit of bread and fish. And so that was no problem for him or for the disciples. In fact, he was the one that had said earlier, follow me and I will make you fishers of men, the meaning of which was stop relying on your fishing industry, come with me and your needs will be met. And Jesus had said that to them on various occasions when he told them, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, what you shall put on, telling them they didn't need to be anxious about stuff, about what they would eat.

We've already talked about that when he said, consider the ravens. They do not. So in the sense of sowing seed, they don't plow, they don't gather into barns. And yet our father feeds them. Jesus with that was teaching the disciples not to be fretful about their own well-being, their own livelihood, but to follow him.

He would make them fishers of men and by means of the ones who were brought to Christ through their labors, they would be able to live because the laborer is worthy of his hire. And so Jesus is with them in the boat. They've been out there all night, unable to fish. And I have to think there's more than simply fishing or failure at fishing going on here.

The fact that they had been out all night in the boat fishing indicates that though they had left their nets to follow him, they hadn't left them completely. That though he had told them he would make them fishers of men, they're still wanting to rely upon themselves. It's instinctive. It's natural. I'm not faulting them for doing it.

I'm just stating the fact of the way things are. Perhaps Peter had a bill to pay and he was conscious of it and he hadn't gotten income from being a disciple. So he thinks, well, I'll go ahead and catch a few fish tomorrow night.

And so tomorrow night he went out and caught nothing. In other words, what they are learning is that their own best efforts are not going to sustain them. That their call by Christ to be disciples is the call as well to look to another to provide for their needs and to meet their needs. That fishing is no longer going to be what keeps them going, but it's going to be the call of God and the provision of the Almighty by means of their gospel proclamation of Christ's kingdom. That morning, as they were sitting there and Jesus was teaching, I wonder if any of them were thinking to themselves, look at the success our master has as these throngs have come upon them and contrast that with look at the failure we had last night.

He's doing so well at what he does. We haven't had that through the night. And now that they're out in the boat and he's telling them to let down the net, what thoughts must have been racing through their mind? But as we've read, when they let down the net, indeed, there was a catch of fish. They enclosed a great multitude of fish.

They enclosed so many fish that the net broke. I have to tell you that I when I read this, I often think of one of Daniel Freeman's. I don't know, distant cousins, he's long with the Lord, but a man named Blanchard Freeman, who was a fisherman up in the cold North Atlantic waters off of Nova Scotia. And when I was a boy, Daniel's father had invited my father to come and preach at a camp that he managed. And so the whole family went there for the camp that summer and Blanchard Freeman was there as well, an aged man, slim aged man.

I always remember his beautiful, smooth bass voice as he would sing with the congregation. And he had been a fisherman all of his life. And my did he have some stories to tell about the terrors of the deep and about the time a fish was caught in its tail. The big fish flopped and knocked his compass out of the boat. And that was the only direction that he had to go to know which direction to go. And it was in a day when they with oars went out to get the fishing. Fascinating memories that come to me. Forgive me for rambling. That's what old men do.

But there you have it. But he would describe how the nets would break. You know how nets are woven together and you grab the webbing of the net to pull it up. But when you have so many fish and so much weight in there, the webbing will begin to give way possibly if you pull so hard on it. And that's the concept here of the nets breaking as they're trying to pull the fish into the boat and they can't succeed at doing it. The weight is such the nets are breaking as they pull on them to get them in the boat. And we find that the disciples were, the word used there is astonished.

What a contrast to just a few hours before when there wasn't a fish to be found. And now simply having done what Jesus said, they are bringing in a catch of fish which is more than they need. If they can sell all of these, why the income from that will last them perhaps a week or two.

And they won't have to be out doing this kind of work. And they are utterly amazed. In fact, they pull in so many their ships begin to sink.

It is that heavy. You see, the one that said follow me and I will make you fishers of men is proving to them that he is the one that can get a catch. And when he tells them I'll make you fishers of men, it is as certain for them to have a harvest of men, if you will, as on that occasion now they have a harvest of fish because of doing as he said to do.

So many times as a boy growing up, I would hear preachers speaking about the need for soul winning and there certainly is a need for soul winning. And they would go to passages such as this where Jesus said I will make you fishers of men. But they seem, as I recall, to speak of being fishers of men in this frame of mind.

Go out and try to get somebody saved. And we should indeed be going out and telling others, but that's not what Jesus was saying when he said I will make you fishers of men. Because when Jesus, if I can say it reverently, goes fishing, he never comes back empty. When Jesus goes out to take a harvest, it is assured. It will not fail. And he has told the disciples follow me and I will make you fishers of men, by which he meant you will succeed at going forth with the message of the kingdom and proclaiming it among the people.

There will be a catch. And the certainty of that is confirmed by our presence here tonight. Indeed, as the nets broke with so many fish that the boats couldn't hold them, there will be a host which no man can number brought into the kingdom of God by the preaching of the gospel. And the fact that we are here tonight, most of us, I trust all of us, as true, believing, born-again Christians, is the evidence of the truth of that.

It has succeeded. And around the globe this day, there are countless millions of people who have been saved from their sin in fulfillment of Christ's words, follow me. And I will make you fishers of men. And the disciples who heard that by the Sea of Galilee the day Christ first called them have now been shown in the boat that by all of their efforts as expert fishermen, they could do nothing.

But by Christ's word and heeding that word, they could do exceeding abundantly above all they could ask or think. And so as they pull in that load of fish and the boats begin to sink, Jesus says to them, fear not. From henceforth, thou shalt catch men. And when Jesus says, fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men, it is a prophecy. He is the great prophet of our God. And it was a prophetic utterance that he made there. And we know it to be the case not only because he is a prophet but because we are alive and believing today. And our existence as believing redeemed souls is a manifestation of the fulfillment of that prophecy. And if it was a prophecy from our Lord given to the disciples that day, it was also a promise to the disciples. You who have failed at catching fish until I told you what to do and success came, hear what I say and you shall catch men.

It is not simply a potential, a possibility, it is a certainty. For the word of God will not return unto him void. It will accomplish that which he purposes. And we are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God, that is his purpose for it. And therefore the word will not fall, it will not fail, it will be fulfilled. And when he says follow me and I will make you fishers of men, it is a prophecy, it is a promise, you will have success. And indeed the existence of the Christian church since the apostolic days is confirmation of that prophecy and fulfillment of that promise.

Not only that, but when he said follow me and I will make you, or when he said from henceforth thou shalt catch men, it was a motivation. If you know, you guys that do fishing, if you know with certainty that you're going to catch fish out on the lake, you're all the more encouraged and motivated to go, aren't you? I had a call this morning from a gentleman in Maryland, I don't know if he's a gentleman or not, but he's a good guy in Maryland. And jovial and happy and suggested, you want to go fishing? Well, I don't go fishing. It's not because I wouldn't like fishing, I'm sure I would like it if I caught something. But I never catch anything.

So why go? Why sit there in the blazing sun when I'm not catching a thing anyhow and it's been a long time since I've been out fishing and with good reason. But if you know you're going to catch, there's certainly a motivation. And the fact that Jesus says to them, you shall catch men, you shall succeed at what I'm sending you to do, must surely have been a motivation to the disciples.

And not only that, but I think it would be a comfort to the disciples. You see, the one that can say, let your net down on this side of the boat after a night of futile fishing and doing so results in a catch the boats cannot only cannot hold. Well, what he says, I can rely upon. If he tells me to do something, I may not see the reason why, but I know there's a reason and it's a good one. And I know it's right.

And what he tells me to do will succeed in his evaluation of success. I can rest in him. It's all about his work, his kingdom.

That's where I'll rest. Now, all of these things and doubtless many more, I believe, come to us out of this event there on the Sea of Galilee. And so the disciples have been called of Christ to go and be fishers of men. And they have been shown that Christ is able to control the fish and bring them in in his own time. And they have been shown that by following the word of Christ, there will be a catch. And so he sends them forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom. And the Ministry of Christ continues for roughly three years. The disciples go forth, empowered by God to heal, to work miracles. And we have every reason to believe that that indeed took place at the hands of the disciples. On one occasion, they came back saying, even the devils are subject unto us. The demonic spirits over which men could not rule. They had dominion when confronting them and could cast demons out of afflicted people. The disciples, while they're doing all of these things and enjoying this success, begin thinking about what a great success it's going to be when finally this master is able to cast off the yoke of the Roman bondage that now clings to the people of Israel. In other words, their thinking is that Messiah will restore the kingdom that once was David's and Solomon's. And the captivity of the Romans over them would be broken.

And the evidence of it seemed to them to be very clear. He is healing. He is casting out demons. He has given us the power to heal, to work miracles, to cast out demons.

That's going to be a great day when it finally all succeeds. And who do you think is going to be the greatest in that kingdom? John or Peter or James? And they begin in that mindset debating among themselves over which of them will be greatest. Humble conversation, isn't it? In other words, though they are called of Christ, yet they do not have perfect knowledge. None of us do. I've often said God has never used a man whose theology is perfect.

Because there's never been such a man. The Apostle Paul even, the inspired and inerrant writer of the scripture testified, now we see through a glass darkly. Now we know in part, as I was talking to Pastor Carnes this afternoon, the Old Testament prophets, speaking about the coming of Christ, appear to have commingled the first and second coming of Christ. Which perhaps is part of the reason why there's so much confusion among people today trying to figure out a timeline for Christ's coming. If the inspired mouthpieces of God commingled the first and second coming of Christ, they were not perfect in their knowledge.

They were absolutely inerrant in their writing of the word of God. But there were things to be revealed later. Even as there are now things that will be revealed only when we enter heaven later. And God has never used a man whose understanding or ministry or life or theology was perfect. The glorious thing about our God is that he, through such imperfect vessels, does anything and brings his purposes to pass through faulty, defective individuals, such as the one who preaches to you this evening. And so these disciples, though they were empowered by Christ to heal, to cast out devils, to do miracles, and though in that power they were beginning to take great delight and confidence, and assuming that Christ would soon bring the kingdom in and Rome would no longer be the crushing dominator that it was, yet they're caught up in themselves at the same time.

Who's going to be the greatest? And this kind of thinking among the disciples at times I think was addressed by Christ allowing them to have public humiliations. You remember the day when the man brought his son to Jesus' disciples to be healed?

The boy would fall into seizures, lie wallowing on the ground. At times he was overtaken near water where he could fall in and drown, or near fire which he could fall into and be burned. Jesus with Peter, James, and John was in the mount of transfiguration, and the disciples were in the valley trying, and I think trying again and again, unable to cast the demon out of the boy.

Public humiliation. Christ came and did it, rebuked the disciples for their unbelief, told them that this kind can come forth only by prayer and fasting, but you see the disciples were in some rough waters there, and I'm not talking about the lake now. Well, these disciples expecting such eventually come to the point that one of them betrays the Lord Jesus, and within hours a second one denies the Lord Jesus, and all of them flee, and Christ is crucified, and they are utterly dismayed.

Their whole inflated vision collapses. Jesus is in a tomb. What was this of his kingdom?

We left our nets to follow him, and now what do we have? Unemployed disciples. Jesus rises from the dead, and they learn of the resurrection, and Christ reveals himself to them a couple of times after the resurrection, but still their world is spinning. As we might say, they don't know which ends up. They are dismayed.

They are distraught. And what is this discipleship supposed to have been? Whatever it was, it is not. Turn with me to John chapter 21, the 21st chapter of the Gospel of John. We read there beginning at the first verse of John chapter 21. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples of the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself.

There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing. They say unto him, we also go with thee. And they went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, children, have ye any meat?

They answered him, no. And he said unto them, cast a net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith to Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked and had cast himself into the sea, and the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from the land, but as it were, 200 cubits, dragging the net of fishes. And as soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals, and fish laid thereon, and bread. And Jesus saith unto them, bring of the fish which ye have now caught.

Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes in hundred and fifty and three, and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord? Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. Now this is the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.

Now I'm sure you see exactly what the Lord Jesus was doing here. The disciples, whom he had called, telling them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men, who early in their discipleship had resorted back to fishing for their living, and had caught nothing all night, therein being taught a lesson by Christ, who with Christ in the boat had been given a miracle then, by which to confirm to them that they would be successful in the catch, doing what he said, being fishers of men, but who have become discouraged and disoriented by the crucifixion and death of Christ, so much so that Peter says, I go a-fishing. And when Peter said, I'm going a-fishing, you understand it was not another nice day at the lake. It was Peter, I believe, ready to abandon the discipleship, and go back to his former way of income production. He knew how to fish.

He would have bad days when they caught nothing, but overall it would balance out. He would go fishing, and very quickly the others who were fishermen said, we go with you. And once again the disciples are out on the sea fishing for a living.

And Jesus knows all about it. And rather than coming to them in stern and scathing rebuke, he comes to them in the great kindness that demonstrates the patience of our Savior for his wandering sheep, and repeats for them the miracle with which he confirmed their call some three years earlier. He gives it to them again.

One time with the illustration wasn't enough. They needed to see it again. And so he tells them from the shore to cast the net on the other side of the fish, the other side of the boat. And of course natural thinking goes this way.

What difference will that make? If they're not coming in the net on this side, they won't be on that side either. But they did it and had a repeat of what had happened years earlier, and doubtless immediately realized, we've seen this before. And they pull this net, but they can't get it in the boat.

Instructively the net this time does not break. And the writer Luke is careful to tell us that that time it did, but John tells us that time this time it didn't. The Holy Spirit is in all of that for our instruction. The disciples will have a successful labor in bringing the fish in.

Never worry about what you're going to eat or drink, for in fact once they get the fish in they find out there's already fish cleaned and scaled, cooking on an open fire, and they didn't catch it. Christ has provided for them. They don't need to lean into their own understanding, but rather in all their ways to acknowledge Him, and He will direct their paths, and He will provide for them as long as He has labors for them to do here on earth. And they come in and doubtless observe nail-scarred hands handling the fish that is now warmed on the fire, and that morning they sit down to a breakfast of broiled fish with the risen Savior. And what they have just experienced is a manifestation of overpowering, overwhelming grace and favor.

They didn't deserve a second showing of the miracle, but they got it anyway because Christ will not lose one of His people. Nor will He let His people stray out of His purpose for them. You remember that guy named Jonah in the Old Testament?

While we're talking about boats and water and fish, let's talk about him for a minute. God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach, and Jonah didn't want to go. Nineveh was a wicked city. And if ever we see the sovereign providence and electing grace exhibited in God, it is when he chose Nineveh as the place where a preacher would be sent and no other city in the ancient world that we know of was chosen to have such a prophet sent to them. You see, God is sovereign in the distribution of the gospel.

As we've noted earlier this week. And so Jonah is told to go to Nineveh and preach, and he doesn't want to go, so he hops on a ship to go the opposite direction and doesn't get very far. That day, rather than men catching fish, fish were catching men. And Jonah was thrown overboard, and a great fish was there to swallow him. And for three days and three nights, he spent his life in some horrible accommodations and then was finally vomited out, and perhaps as he was vomited out on the shore, he's asking which way is Nineveh. And off he goes to Nineveh, grumpy as could be, unhappy about Nineveh's repentance, but the entire city was brought to repentance by his preaching. God will not let his servants depart from the fold or fail at that which he has ordained for them, no matter how hard they try to go against it. I always remember the song that I would hear as a little boy on WDAC radio out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, sung I think by evangelist Paul J. Levine.

Some of you may remember that name. And you would call the station and ask for requests, and they would play gospel music. And one he would sing was, God never compels us to go against his will, but he just makes us willing to go. And Jonah was one of the stanzas of that song. Jonah wasn't willing, but suddenly he became willing.

God knows exactly what it takes to change my will and to change yours, and he has all power to bring that into your life to make that change. And this is what's happening with the disciples, I believe, in these two instances of a miraculous catch of fish. And so Christ will soon ascend to heaven.

The disciples will be left to wait at Jerusalem for the descent of the Spirit of God who will come on the day of Pentecost. But they will never forget this twice repeated lesson, illustration, as God again uses fish to direct his prophets in the way they are to go. And in doing so meets every need they have out of his own hand and bounty.

They don't need to catch fish to keep alive. He'll feed them as well. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. And indeed, the disciples will be in the presence of enemies.

Most of them will be martyred. But they will also take in a harvest of men, because when Jesus said, I will make you fishers of men, it was a guarantee there would be a harvest, a catch of men. And in fulfillment of that, here we are tonight. Well, may God be praised and bless his word to our hearts. Let us pray together. Loving Father in heaven, we thank you that indeed Christ loves his own.

That not one of them will be lost, but all will be brought in. We thank you that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And we thank you, O Lord, that you lead your people in paths of righteousness for your own name's sake. And pray that we might be alert to your leading, to the signals from your word, to its clear instruction. And as the disciples were made to be fishers of men who brought in a great harvest of souls and continue to do so by way of the scriptures which they proclaimed and wrote, so may we be faithful knowing that the one who calls does not call without purpose.

But indeed will accomplish his purpose through his word. Bless this word and this week of preaching to the good of every soul who is assembled or has been assembled in this room. Bless this congregation with continued spiritual growth and stamina in a wicked age where stamina is needed. Make us humble. Make us useful. Make us godly. Root us as branches into the true vine more deeply than we've ever been rooted there before. For without him, we can do nothing. Make us fruitful branches. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.