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The Faith of a Fisherman
Luke 5:1-11
Introduction: I need faith. I always need faith. Faith isn’t wishing something to be true; faith is confidence based on evidence and based on God. Paul said, “We walk by faith, not be sight.” By its very nature faith cannot see the realities of heaven. We walk in a world that floods our minds with physical, temporary things that one day will all be burned. What we see are not eternal realities.
So what does this have to do with faith? These temporary things constantly disappoint us and thereby wear us down. When we see sin and injustice, when we see a wicked world that seems to be winning the battle, we become like Habakkuk, wondering where God is and why He doesn’t see what we see. This has the tendency of weakening our faith, of making us doubt that doing God’s work really does any good. We can start feeling like Elijah and thinking that it is no use, we might as well find a mountain retreat to fill out our days.
That’s where this text comes in. It gives me faith.
Setting the Scene
This scene seems to start out fairly typically. Four fishermen have come to shore after grueling night of work. They are cleaning their nets from all the debris that gets tangled within after repeated casts. The men are both exhausted and discouraged. A whole night of work and nothing to show for it. This is their livelihood. There will be no selling fish to eager buyers on this morning.
Now it so happens that Jesus arrived at the spot where these fishermen have come to shore. The fishermen have known and been around Jesus for a number of months now. They met him at the Jordan when John pointed them in his direction. As the people notice Jesus’ presence, crowds begin to gather and they begin pressing closer and closer trying to hear the beautiful words that fall from his lips. Can you just feel the scene? How wonderful to listen to the words of the Master! Too often we read but we are not present!
Jesus interrupted Simon Peter’s net cleaning work, stepped in his boat and asked him to push off a little from land so he could teach. Simon accommodated him, but when Jesus finished teaching he directed Simon to row out further into the deep part and cast his net. Peter literally objected. “We have fished all night, we just cleaned our nets, and we are exhausted.”
I don’t know what look Jesus may have given Simon, but he quickly added that at Jesus’ word (not his agreement!), he would let down the nets. And as we know, the catch was monstrous. It was so big, that the nets were tearing, Peter and Andrew call for James and John and their boat, and upon pulling the fish in, both boats were on the verge of sinking.
That is when Peter and the other three changed their tune. Peter fell down at Jesus’ feet and asked him to depart because he is such a sinful man. Luke says, “They all were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.”
Then the final words. After months of spending time with Jesus on a part time basis, they brought their boats to land, and left everything and followed him.
Simon Before and After the Catch
When Jesus told Simon to let down his net for a catch, notice how Peter addressed Jesus. “Master” in the Greek is a term of respect, but not much more. It is recognizing the superior position of Jesus, but not much more than addressing someone as “sir” today.
This “nice” but unimpressive way Peter addresses Jesus is further highlighted by Peter’s objection. In essence, Peter was saying, “This is a waste of time! We have done this all night; one more cast is not going to change anything!
So Peter cast the net, but he wasn’t exactly excited about it. Yes, he obeyed Jesus, but it was a reluctant obedience. Have you ever been there? That is part of what I meant earlier when I said I need more faith and I think we would all agree that we all need more faith. That is, we are not always excited about obeying the Lord because we are not very confident of the outcome. We don’t have faith the casting the net is going to produce anything. Are you tracking with that? Do you find your prayers like that? “I’m praying, but really, I don’t expect much to change.”
This resistance we all tend to have leads us to do the minimum when it comes to our service to the Lord. We do not want to put out too much. After all Jesus, I accept you as “Master,” isn’t that enough? At this point, Peter doesn’t even know he needs more faith. Jesus is the Master; I’m doing what he tells me; isn’t that enough?
I think most of us have lived a good part of our lives with just this mentality. Peter was a “faithful Jew,” we are “faithful Christians,” but Jesus isn’t much more than “Master” to us.
Now look at Peter after the catch of fish. What differences do you notice?
First, he does not call Jesus “Master.” Now he calls him “Lord” (kurios), referencing him as deity. Now he is at his feet in abject humility, most likely appalled at how he had formerly objected to the Lord and simply referred to him in the same way he would have referred to any rabbi or leader of the day.
His change is so dramatic that he realizes that he does not even deserve to be in the presence of the Lord, and in fact, his very presence before Jesus is an insult to the greatness of the Lord.
Further, Peter is fearful. If Jesus is Lord, he deserves to be banished and to be judged as a terrible sinner and cast out of the presence of God. Peter trembles.
Here is the second reason I said I need more faith, as I believe every Christian does. Another reason we do not respond to the Lord as we should, that is, the reason we do not make the radical changes in our lives that we ought to make is because we don’t think we are that bad or that we have that much to change. Do you know the reason we can think that way? It is because we haven’t been where Peter was. We haven’t drawn close enough to Jesus to see the seriousness of our faults, to see how needy we are. If Jesus walked in this room, would we not be like Peter and say, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Look at those words, “Fear not…” How do you walk side by side with the God of the universe for 3 1/2 years? How do you sleep next to him every night and eat with him every day? How do you weep with him and laugh with him and even have those typical silly conversations with him. It is all because of the words, “Do not be afraid…”
Compare this text to Isaiah 6:1-5. You see, the closer we draw to God and the more we know Him and His will for us, the more repulsed we are by who we are. I’m not talking about who we were, but who we are. As Paul said, “I am the chief of sinners.”
The reason this is important is because understanding the wide difference between Him and me, causes me not to doubt Him when He commands my obedience, and especially when He commands radical changes in me like forsaking all I have and denying myself and taking up the cross.
The Faith of a Fisherman
Now I want to call your attention to one more text: Zech. 3:1-10. You will notice similarities here with Isaiah’s experience and with Peter’s experience.
(1-3) The high priest, Joshua, is standing before the Lord. Notice his condition. He is clothed with filthy garments and Satan is standing at his right hand to accuse him. Anyone feeling that? Step before the presence of the Lord and you are filthy. That is what Isaiah saw; that is what Peter realized.
(4-5) Next, the Lord does something amazing. Even though Joshua is filthy before the Lord and deserves the accusation of Satan as we all do, in an instant the Lord removes the filthy garments and clothes him with fresh clean garments.
(6-10) Then we learn how the Lord would do this great work. He would bring the Branch, and in a single day he would remove the iniquity of the land. And when that happens, hear the words, “every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.
Now remember our previous texts.
When Isaiah said he was ruined because he was a man of unclean lips, what did the Lord do? He cleansed him with a live coal from the altar. What happened next? The Lord said, “Whom shall I send?” And Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me.”
And when Peter fell at Jesus’ feet and said, “Depart from me because I am a sinful man O Lord,” what happened next? Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will catch men.”
Here is the third way that I need more faith. It is where we especially need faith.
When the Lord can cause a multitude of fish to be caught in the nets of the disciples, he can catch a multitude of human souls in the dragnet of the gospel message. And he can use weak people like Peter and like you and me.
When the simple faith of a fisherman who confesses that Jesus is lord and fears him in his heart can transform the world, it is not because of the fisherman’s power but the power of Lord. Zech. 4:6, in the next picture Zechariah gives as to how the Lord will build a great temple in the days of the Messiah that will gather the nations to the Lord, he says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” The faith we need is to understand it is not by my might or my power, but by the Lord’s power. Cast the net Peter! Cast the net!
One more passage from Zechariah: 4:10. Zechariah was written when the people came out of captivity and were discouraged because the beginnings of the new temple were so inferior to the previous. But through Zechariah the Lord rebuked those who “despised the day of small things.” The beginning might of seemed small, but the Lord was going to build a great temple.
Remember when Jesus would say, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can move mountains.” It is amazing to me to see how the Lord does so much with the little things we do when we step out in faith. A brief conversation, a friendship, an invitation, and a soul can be saved.
Conclusion: What did the disciples do when they saw the miracle of fish? They “left everything and followed him.” Do you have the faith of a fisherman? You too can follow the Lord. You too can catch men.