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January 31, 2010
“Into the Deep Water”
Luke 5: 1-11
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Fishing in the sea of Galilee during the first century AD was done at night. In the morning the fishermen would return to the shore and clean and repair their nets on the beach and in the shallows. The Bible tells us that the first 4 apostles whom Jesus called were fishermen who were cleaning their nets at the shore of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus came walking by.
These four fishermen were already followers of Jesus. Two of them had been followers of John the Baptist and John had told them to follow Jesus. Those two, Andrew and John had brought Simon (Peter) and James.
During this period of His ministry, Jesus was becoming very popular and there was a crowd following Jesus on that morning as he walked by the Sea. In order to gain a little distance from the crowd so he could address them all, he got into the boat captained by Peter and asked him to put out just a few yards from shore.
From that location Jesus preached to the crowd while he was seated in the boat. He was seated for 2 reasons: Rabbis usually sat as they taught and preached, And if you are going to preach in a boat, it is much safer to be seated. I know this because I have preached from a boat. Not on the sea of Galilee but on a lake in Southern NJ. I have also been offered a canoe to preach from for a Sunrise service. I declined and established a new rule to live by: never enter a canoe wearing a suit when the canoe paddler is a man with a sense of humor.
After Jesus preached or taught he asked Peter to take the boat out into the deep water and let down the nets and catch some fish. Peter obviously thought that this would be a waste of time and effort. They had not caught fish at night which was the best time to fish, and they needed to get some rest so they could fish the next night. But Peter acknowledged that Jesus was his teacher, and if he really wanted to go fishing just then, they would go out.
Of course you know the story, how they wound up in a shoal of fish and they caught so many fish that the boat began to sink so they called James and John in the other boat to help them bring in the fish and they took on so many fish from the first boat that their boat almost sank too.
At that point Peter realized that Jesus either had the power to determine where the fish would be or had the power to know where the fish were. He assumed that such power came with a measure of divinity or holiness and he suddenly became aware of his own sinfulness. He told Jesus “Go away from me. Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Have you ever wondered why Jesus wants to be with you forever? Have you ever been totally honest with yourself and God about your sinfulness. You know what kind of a person you are. When you know what God expects of you and how short you come, you should be amazed that God has chosen you to be with him forever. Peter knew that he did not deserve to have Jesus in his boat teaching him the Word of God. He knew that he had sinned against God and many people whom God loved. So for a moment, just after this remarkable catch of fish, he asked Jesus to go away from him because he was not worthy to have Jesus so close to him.
But Jesus did not leave Peter that day. Jesus did not leave Peter when Peter cut off the ear of a slave who was with those who arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus did not leave Peter when Peter denied three times that he knew Jesus. Peter left or turned his back on Jesus from time to time, but Jesus never left Peter. There is an old saying among Christians that goes: If you feel that God is far away from you, guess who moved.
Like Peter, you are unworthy of following Jesus. You are not worthy to be a part of this congregation of God’s people. I am not worthy to be a minister of God’s word and His people. But Jesus has not left us because of our unworthiness. He calls us to be his in spite of our unworthiness and sinfulness. He calls us to put all that away and follow Him
And he calls us to do just what he called those 4 Apostles to do. Jesus replied to Peter by saying “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
That is the statement that defines the entirety of this passage. That is the statement that defines the lifes-work of the apostles from that moment. And it is the statement that defines the work we have been called to do for Jesus.
In that sentence Jesus called those four men and the other eight who would be chosen later to catch people into His eternal kingdom. While doing that they would have to trust Jesus. As he had led them to the fish that day, he would lead them to the people he wanted in His kingdom. All they had to do was to go where he told them to go when he told them.
And in that miraculous catch of fish Jesus also taught them that He could care for their families as they served Him. The miraculous catch of fish was probably to be sold and the profits used to support their families while they left their boats to follow Jesus.
I believe that in this passage Jesus gives his primary calling to those who would follow him. The followers of Jesus are, the church of Jesus is, to be catching people for Jesus, to be bringing people into his kingdom.
Now I do not consider myself to be a fisherman, but I have spent some time fishing with my late Father-in-Law. He owned a series of boats which were taken on vacation when we vacationed with him and my mother-in-law. While fishing with him in the salt waters of Rhode Island and Massachusetts I learned some things about fishing.
The first is that you have to go where the fish are. Jesus demonstrated that he knows where the fish are. On that occasion he sent the Apostles into deep water. That can be a scary combination of words. Deep water.
I learned to swim when I was about 11 years old at a church camp on the Severn River in Maryland. We received instructions but our final exam was to jump off the end of the dock and swim to the shore. Now you could have asked every camper how deep the water was at the end of that dock. We all knew it was 10 feet deep. But our swimming instructor reminded us that the depth of the water did not matter since we were only going to be swimming in the top two feet.
Some of the people God wants us to catch are going to be deep in sin. But when we catch them we are going to be safe in God’s boat, supported by God’s people.
Another thing I learned about fishing is that in order to catch fish, you have to let down the lines or the nets. You can’t just drive the boat across the lake or bay and expect the fish to jump in the boat. You have to have bait that will attract the fish, but you also have to have a hook. Our bait may change, but our hook will always be the Word of God.
I know it sounds silly to tell people that you need to do more than just sail across the bay to catch fish, but I think that is exactly what many churches are doing today. We have built nice church buildings or boats and we expect people to jump in. Folks, we need to go and bring them in, not just into our building but into the fellowship of this congregation.
Some congregations operate as if they are Marinas. A marina is a place where the boats come for shelter and supplies. God is our Marina. We are the boats sent out by God to catch people into his kingdom.
We need to pray that God will use us to catch people for Him. We need to trust Him to equip us and to show us where the people he wants us to catch are.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at January 31, 2010 03:53 PM