Hello and welcome to Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davie. Stephen is the President of Wisdom International and he's been teaching God's Word for over four decades. to learn more or to access Stephen's articles, books, daily devotionals, and more. Visit WisdomOnline dot org. There's a link in the show notes.
Now here's Stephen.
So, right there on the boat. Peter collapses at the knees of Jesus, where Jesus is seated, with the realization of what this miracle means. In fact, Simon Peter becomes the first person in the Gospel account to address Jesus as Lord. Notice, I am a sinful man, O Lord. It was Master earlier.
It was a title of respect earlier.
Now it's Curios. God I have read the account now something of an urban legend. Regarding the concert one evening. by Poland's most famous concert pianist and and prime minister Ignace Paderevsky. More than a hundred years ago.
The concert hall was packed with a standing room only. Everyone was filled with a sense of anticipation and excitement. One young mother had purchased tickets and brought her young son in order to encourage. him as he had only recently begun piano lessons. They'd found their seats near the front.
This young boy was awed by everything, including that massive. grand piano on the stage.
Soon, the mother found a friend to talk to, and unnoticed, he slipped out of his seat, and suddenly the crowd. Was arrested by the sound of that piano. They looked up and saw this young boy seated on the bench, innocently picking out Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. They gasped.
Some began laughing.
Some grew rather irritated and began to shout for him to get off that grand piano. Before his embarrassed mother You can only imagine. Could find the stairs. Peterevsky heard the commotion, realized what was happening, and quickly walked out on stage, moving toward the boy. Instead of doing what they expected, shuffling him away, he whispered, don't stop, keep playing.
He leaned over, reached down with his left hand, began filling in a bass part. His right arm reached around the boy, encircling him, adding a running obligato, and together beautifully The old concert master and the little boy held the crowd mesmerized. All the while Paderewski whispered, don't Stop. Don't Quit. Keep playing.
And after a couple of times through that little song, they ended to a standing. Ovation. One of the first lessons the early disciples are going to learn. is to offer the Lord what little they have. Even if it's twinkle, twinkle, little star.
In fact, one of the first commands of the Messiah to those who are going to follow him are essentially: don't quit, don't stop. It might not be much. But I'll join you. And together Your little efforts. And my sovereignty.
will accomplish much. The lesson doesn't take place in a concert hall, of course, or in a synagogue, but on the Sea of Galilee. Let's watch it take place. We're now at chapter 5 in Luke's Gospel. And I want you to notice Just the first phrase, we'll take it slowly.
The text opens on one occasion. We don't know, by the way, how much time elapsed between the last verse of chapter 4 and this verse, could be weeks. Not long, more than likely. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him. To hear the word of God.
Now, stop. You might want to circle that expression. The Word of God. And draw a line down, as I have, to verse five. At your word.
This is the emphasis of this account. The word of God. It's been the theme in our singing. Today, the word of God. It's one of Luke's favorite expressions, by the way.
He's going to use it 17 times in his two-volume series, the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, which is volume 2. This is the foundation of the church. This is the source of the authority of the church and every Christian. To this day, we believe, we follow, we preach, we teach, we obey the word of God. Jesus is modeling the role of true preaching here.
He's about to demonstrate, in fact, the authority of God's word, his own word, in a moment.
Now at this point Jesus is literally being pressed by the crowd to the point of. potentially being backed into the lake. He's either going to get wet Or he's going to have to walk on water more than once here. There's another solution, verse 1. He was standing by the lake of Gennesareth.
Another word for the Sea of Galilee. Another term. And he saw two boats by the lake. But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's. He asked him to put out a little from the land.
This will be his pulpit. And he sat down and taught the people from The boat.
Now, from other gospel accounts, Jesus has already met Simon, Peter. Mark chapter 1. Peter's already seen Jesus perform miracles. He's amazed at the power of Jesus. He hasn't been officially called to follow him yet.
It's going to happen later, but at this point, Simon hasn't even connected all the dots yet. That's going to happen over time. After pushing his boat back out a few feet from the lake. He's he's Rinching out his nets, listening to Jesus. By the way, he's still in the boat with the Lord.
Next to him, still on shore, it's been drugged up on shore. Are his business partners? That's the word used later in verse 10. These are his business partners. In this fishing enterprise, James and his brother John.
And by the way, this is going to matter later on here this morning, but the word for nets. Here are are a reference to the large nets. Used for nighttime fishing, not daytime fishing, nighttime fishing. It's what they just completed.
Okay.
Now, once again, here, we're not given the Lord's sermon notes. We're not given his transcript. We don't have any idea of his exposition. I wish we were given it. It would probably change the way I preach if I just had.
I listened to it. But at any rate, we're not given any of that. We just know here, he preached the word of God, some Old Testament text. And he opened it up. But even though we're not given his sermon, we are given his...
His closing point of application. You see, he isn't just going to preach the word. He's going to show us the power. of his word. Here it comes in verse 4.
And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets. For a catch.
Now, the first command to put out. Singular, he's delivering this to Simon. Simon evidently steering the boat. He probably always steers the boat. The second command, let down your nuts, is plural.
It indicates others are on board. We're not told who they are. Could have been Andrew, more than likely his brother. Maybe some other hired hands are there.
Well, Jesus finishes his sermon. We don't know how long it lasted. Evidently he wants fish for dinner.
So, Simon, you know, let's go fishing. Let's go fishing. Steer this boat out into the deep. Don't miss what this command means, by the way. Simon, take us back out to where you just spent all night catching.
Nothing. No fisherman's going to do that. It's obvious to Simon now that the carpenter is trying to give some fishing lessons. Jesus obviously doesn't know much about fishing. He's evidently good with a hammer.
And as a healer, A preacher. Not not not a very good fisherman.
So he responds to Jesus' command to let down the nets. Look at verse 5. And Simon answered while biting his tongue. That's in between the lines. Uh master, that's a title of respect.
We toiled all night. and took nothing. We were out here all night, all last night. And we caught nothing. How hard is it for a fisherman to admit that?
We caught nothing. Notice. But at your word, I will let down the nets.
Now, stop for a moment. Don't misunderstand this, but at your word. I've heard this preached and taught. This is what a great statement of faith. It really isn't.
This isn't a statement of faith. This is what you could actually call reluctant. Obedience. Peter's thinking to himself because he knew he He knew more than Jesus knew. These are the wrong nets.
This is the wrong time of day. The fish can see this coming. This ain't gonna work.
Well, I got to tell you this, he's at least to be commended for dropping the nets. Right? At least it's going to do that much. At least he's gonna play. A little song.
So the nets are lowered into the deep, probably no more than 30 to 40 feet from the Seashore, now notice first. Six. And when they, that's the crew with him, 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.
Now immediately you can imagine here the chaos. They, you know, reluctantly drop the nets into the water and instantly. Swarms of fish literally swim into their nets. And they packed them so tightly they began to tear. And so they were told signal to James and John, which means they screamed at the top of their lungs to come help us.
Now, notice verse 8: when Simon Peter saw it, that is, after taking it all in. He fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. I doubted you. I didn't deserve this. I had wrong thoughts about you.
that fortunately are not recorded in Scripture. I don't deserve to be in the same boat. With you.
So, right there on the boat, Peter collapses. At the knees of Jesus, where Jesus is seated, with the realization of what this miracle means. In fact, Simon Peter becomes the first person in the Gospel account to address Jesus as Lord. Notice, I am a sinful man, O Lord. It was Master earlier.
It was a title of respect earlier.
Now it's Curious. God. Calling him Lord, along with bowing before him, is a recognition of the sovereignty of Christ. Jesus responds to Simon in the middle of verse 10 here: Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men.
Mark's gospel puts it, you'll be fishers of men. And when they had brought their boats to land, They quickly added Jesus to their fishing business, and fishing was never the same again. Oh, wait. That's what I would have done. Man, you talk about a fisherman to add to your boat.
No, they left. Everything. The catch of their lives. And followed him. This is the beginning of the formal discipleship as followers of the Lord for Simon, James, and John.
They're leaving their boats. The greatest catch. This is the. This is the greatest fish story of all time. It's a little turn on this phrase.
Catching fish is usually fatal for fish. It's bad news for fish. Jesus uses the idea of fishing here, but he turns it to refer to catching people alive, that is, to give them life. It's the idea.
Now, this is, by the way, in contrast to the fishing enterprise of Satan. He's a fisherman, too. He traps People entrapping them, luring them, catching them. 2 Timothy 2:26. People caught by Satan are destined to die without hope.
Those caught by the disciples are destined to live and have life eternally. That's the idea. I want you to catch people. With the net of the gospel. Alive.
Now I want to spend a little time. highlighting some lessons on fishing. taught by this master carpenter. who is also the creator. First of all, Catching nothing all night was as much a part of God's plan as catching a boatload.
the next day. See, don't overlook the fact that for Peter, James, and John, catching nothing was as much a part of God's will as catching. A net full. God wanted them to spend the previous night. without catching anything.
That that was his plan. As well. Can you just imagine that night, you know, some fish swimming near the net, and God's going, don't go in there. Turn around. I mean, they're fishing against God's power.
See, Jesus is going to take Simon Peter back to the place where. He failed all night long in order to show him that he had not failed. At all. It was actually God's plan for him to catch nothing. It reminds us then, it's going to remind Peter and James and John, and you as believers and myself, just be faithful at.
Just drop the net. That's all you can do. If it comes up empty... It is just as much a statement of success in the eyes of God as a net that is suddenly overflowing. We define success and failure according to what we can see.
God is working at ways we cannot see. We again get so caught up in: did you see that? Did you hear that? Secondly, God often takes us to places where we are confident to remind us how much we are. truly dependent.
I love the fact that the Lord took Peter back out to the place where Peter knew everything. He knew what he was doing. Peter had spent hours. And he'd done everything right. The Lord is essentially teaching Peter and James and John and you and me why.
why it is that one day they We'll catch. people alive and it will have nothing to do with the right Expertise, or the right experience, or the right time of day, or the right kind of net, it will be the result of his will and his word. We throw the net. God's Word does the rest. In fact, a few years after this event was going to happen.
Peter's gonna get up and Out there on the porch of The temple, and he's going to preach the opening sermon of the church age on the day of Pentecost. We do have that sermon. The Spirit descends. The church is created.
Somebody could come up to Peter after he preached that day and say, wow, Peter, I mean, what a sermon! What a delivery. 3,000 people believed. What a catch. Look at the boat!
And Peter would have said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It wasn't that sermon. It wasn't me. Yeah, I did my part. I dropped the net, but it was the power.
and the authority. of the word and the will Third, God's call for disciples may not change your profession in life But it will rearrange your priority. In life. The verb tense the Lord uses here for these men to start catching people alive indicates this is going to be an ongoing, lifelong. Engagement.
This isn't going to be like fishing season or hunting season. Where, for those of you that do that, and I'm happy for you, when you do that, you get your license, you bag your quota, and you're finished for the year. And you gotta stop. In fact, one of my students this past fall here at Shepherd Seminary. Lives in the northwest.
He's zooming in to take. Uh my class. And he asked permission. If he could miss class, One week because elk season was opening. And he and his family are going to live off that meat, the winter.
I've never had a student ask to be dismissed from class to go hunt elk. But I did. I agreed. He had a brief window of opportunity. For Peter and these men, they're not fishing for a season.
The idea here is they're going fishing for people as a vocation. This is going to change the direction of their lives. This season of fishing will not end until the Lord takes them home. For some of them, we know John will end up in Ephesus and Thomas will go to India and Matthew will go to Ethiopia and Andrew will fish right there up into the borders of Russia. To this day, the Lord's Commission might mean for some to leave.
Their boats and their businesses and their extended family and and and head out into what we call vocational ministry. In fact, our church leaders are praying that That many in our own congregation will do just that, that maybe you will be the one to join others to take the net of the gospel. to some other land.
However, the Lord's commission isn't just vocational, it's congregational. It's for all of us. involves all of us. It might not mean you change your profession. But it does mean you live with a different kind of priority.
We have to live with that sense. One more lesson. From the carpenter. on the subject of fishing. Fourth, Sometimes special surprises in life are hidden behind doorways labeled Simple.
Obedience. Doesn't look all that magnificent. Does it? Seem all that heroic. Like playing a little tune on the piano.
while others can play better than you. Then the master comes along, and what does he do? He encircles you and ends up. using what little you offer and composes this Eternally designed composition. Peter What do you gotta do?
Just Just lower your boat. I mean, lower your nets out of the boat. Just lower your nets. That's it. Just drop your net.
Over the side of the boat, the net that will not catch fish in the daytime. The wrong net. Just Drop it. Over the edge. The vice president of a missions organization, which I can't remember which organization it was, but.
Do you remember the testimony he gave of a 70-year-old woman who came to faith in Christ late in life. Seeing that God was impressing her heart to try to do something to reach out to students. at the University of Melbourne. near her home, just a few blocks away.
So she got a stack of cards. three by five cards, and wrote on those cards these words, quote Are you homesick? Come to my home for tea. at 4 p.m. She then went and posted them on the announcement boards, the job boards, where students would gather to check out the opportunities while they're in the university.
Are you homestead? Come to my home at 4 p.m. for tea. She went home. Prepared tea.
And when four o'clock arrived, She sat in her living room. Waited. And waited. And nobody came. Days went by.
went by. Nobody came. She didn't quit. She kept making tea every afternoon at four. Praying and waiting.
Then, after weeks of waiting, the doorbell rang. An Indonesian student Stood there at the door rather awkwardly, wondering if he'd made the right decision. Yeah. She answered the door and when he saw her he just immediately relaxed and Mm-hmm. He admitted to her that he was Homesick.
And he was eager to talk. She served him tea and and listened. He went back to campus. that evening and told his friends, hey, I met a really nice lady who's a lot like my grandmother. She has some good things to eat.
and make some pretty good tea. And he brought a few of them back a few days later. In a few weeks, more international students were showing up at her door.
Some homesick. All of them thirsty. for something more than T Her quiet testimony brought many of them to faith in Christ. And during what ended up being the final 10 years of her life, she caught. Many of them.
For life. When she died Just past the age of eighty. Her funeral nearly shut down the university. There were 70 Honorary Pallbearers alone. from countries like Indonesia and India.
and Malaysia. and many more. Hundreds of international students had come to her home for tea. and had found Her Creator, the Messiah. This carpenter.
This Master. Fisherman. Who by the way Caught me. Has he caught you? And will we, as a congregation, join him in doing what little we can, dropping our nets to catch?
Others unto everlasting. Life. That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline dot org.
