2/7/21 Luke 5:1-11 “Let’s Go Fishing!”

05 Feb 2/7/21 Luke 5:1-11 “Let’s Go Fishing!”

2/7/21     Luke 5:1-11        “Let’s Go Fishing!”

I know that many of you don’t know this but I really do love to fish.  Now I know that this is probably that last thing that many of you would consider to be relaxing.  I think that it was almost 20 years ago that we bought a camper on a lake and we would try to go there as much as possible in the summer.  Sharon loved being there where things are nice and quiet.  I like this too but my first love there was fishing.  I would get up just as it was just starting to get light.  I would make myself a thermos of coffee and I head out on the lake.  I have really found nothing more relaxing than the early morning tranquility of being on a lake.  Sometimes it is so beautiful that I would really rather not catch any fish.  Because if I caught any fish, I would have to clean them if I kept them and I love to eat fish.  So, when I come to a story like we have in today’s reading, I like to pay close attention because I like to fish.  Luke is telling us a little fishing story and I hope that when we get done looking at this, we will all like fishing a little better.

I would like to begin by telling a little fish story of my own.  This happened many years ago, when I was probably in my twenties.  I went with a bunch of guys north of Winnipeg a couple of hundred miles to fish on a river that was known for the fine walleyes you could catch.  We got there late in the afternoon and went fishing.  To make a long story short, we fished and fished and caught just enough to cook for supper.  And it was a fine supper.  We were camping in a primitive campground and after supper we were visiting with our neighbors.  We told them that we caught a few fish but nothing really spectacular.  They told us to try to use a little yellow on our lures or hooks.

The next morning, we were up early and ready to fish.  We all had some yellow lures and we tried them.  I would like to tell you right now that I have never seen such good fishing as we had on the rest of our stay.  All we had to do was put the line in the water and we would have a nice walleye.  We threw most of them back and only kept a few for eating.  By noon of the first day, we were actually tired of catching fish so we took a break.  Later we would go back out and catch a whole bunch again.  It was an amazing fishing trip.  It began with fishing being a little slow and it ended up being great.  And it was all because we used the right bait.

As we begin this reading, we have Jesus preaching on the edge of the Lake of Gennesaret which is another name for the Sea of Galilee.  The people are crowding around to hear what Jesus has to say.  As a matter of fact, it is so crowded that Jesus has to find a boat and put it out a little bit so that more people can gather and they can hear what He has to say.  Many people had already heard of Jesus and they are eager to listen and be the recipient of His miracles.

In those days as is today the false gods that they worshipped did nothing.  If you think about it, they couldn’t do anything because they didn’t exist.  These people were also poor.  They were mistreated by the Romans.  They had no place to turn.  I would guess for many of them, everything seemed futile.  They had little hope for the future.

Just reading about these Biblical times brings to mind many of our third world countries today.  They too are oppressed, poor and have no place to turn.  We don’t even have to go to a different country to find this.  We can look at some of our Native American populations.  We can look at some of our inner cities.  Many of our citizens today have never seen such poverty and yet they live very close to it.  We have poor people wherever we look.

And many of these people are hungry also.  Often time’s people don’t even know what they are hungry for.  This is why the Christian church is growing so rapidly in third world countries.  Christianity is the only religion in the world that can offer hope to these people.  This is why I would like you all to go out and invite people to your church.  You don’t know where they are in their lives.  You don’t know if they are empty or not.  You need to be inviting people all the time.  We should be able to fill our churches with the needy from our own area.  I would love it if we got so crowded that we had to start another service.  It would even be better if we had to start two, three or four services in every church in the area.  I will stand up here all day and talk about Jesus.  I can think of no greater joy than this.

Anyway, one of the things that I have notice since I became a pastor is that there is a hunger right here in our communities.  This is also in every community.  When I start to talk about Jesus, people listen.  Now this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with Jesus.  I don’t ever want to get off the topic of Jesus Christ.  I think that as long as we are telling the lessons from the Scriptures, we will have people who will listen.  And when we have people listening, then Jesus will be making disciples.  There is a tremendous hunger for the truth and the truth can only, only be found in Jesus.

I had another thought as I read this.  Jesus knew that if he got into the boat, the water would help his voice carry to more people.  Voices carry much better over water.  Also, the ground next to a lake usually goes upward thus creating a natural theater type setting.  This would have been a great way to reach more people.  One of the goals of Jesus was to reach as many people as possible.  This is why we see Him in situations like this and on hillsides.  He would teach anywhere there was a natural amphitheater.  He would teach anywhere that there were people to listen.

So, the first thing we have here is Jesus teaching to the crowds.  Notice what happens next.  He finishes and turns to Simon and tells him to go out to deep water.  He goes from a crowd of people to an individual.  This is one of the places where we read that Jesus is for all of us and all people.  But at the same time, He is for you.  Even though He is for everyone, He also knows you as an individual.  This is an important concept because it makes it so that you cannot hide in the crowd.  Even though you are listening with a crowd of people Jesus knows you and everything about you.

A couple of weeks ago I asked the question as to why did various people and groups hate us as Christians.  One of the answers lies right here.  Jesus Christ knows everything about everyone in the world.  He knows the atheist, the Muslim and the Mormon.  He knows their inner most thoughts and feelings.  This makes non-believers uncomfortable because they are being convicted by their own thoughts and they don’t like it.  However, they blame us instead of themselves.  God is the person who decides right from wrong.  There is no legislature in the world that does this as well as God.  And when He does this, then we are all convicted and people don’t understand this so they don’t like it.  Therefore, these people have to lash out at someone.  They cannot lash out at God because He is of the spiritual world.  So, the only ones left to lash out at is us.  So, the more wrong that they do, the more they are being convicted, and the more that they will hate us.  All we can do in return is to keep on loving them.

So, Jesus then tells Simon, who is Peter, to go out into deep water and cast his net.  Now Peter is a fisherman.  He fished a little differently than me as he caught fish for a living and used nets.  But fishermen know where the fish are and they are usually not out in the deep water.  At this particular place the fish would gather near shore, in the shallows, at night, to feed.  This is where they fished.  Peter had been out all night doing this and he was worn out and tired.  They had caught nothing.  One of the things that they had to do when they came in was work on their nets before they could sleep and go out at night again.  Peter is tired and knows that there are no fish where Jesus tells him to go.  But he also knows that this is Jesus and he had better do what He says even if it seems rather senseless.

So now I ask you, how many times have you worked all night figuratively and come up with nothing to show?  Have you worked hard on a job, done a good job, only to find yourself laid off?  Have you done all in your power to try to save a marriage and still it fell apart?  Have you had family members who have left or done something and never come back?  You can think of many other scenarios where you have worked hard and it has all failed.  You have come up empty.  This is what Jesus is talking about here.

He is telling Peter to go to deeper waters.  He is telling Peter to have a deeper faith.  He is not like the people on the shore who are listening to Jesus for the first time.  They will have their own time to come to deeper waters.  But Peter knows Jesus and all the things that he does.  He knows and now it is time to go to a deeper faith.  It is time to go out to where the water is over our heads.

So, against his better judgment, Peter goes to the deep water and casts his net.  What happens next is one of the miracles that we just kind of read past because it could have happened naturally.  I have found that if we can explain something naturally, then we don’t really need God and His miracles.  I want you to think about this for a minute.  Peter casts his net and catches so many fish that he cannot handle it by himself.  They had so many fish that their nets began to break.  He calls for another boat to come and help.  The second boat comes and they fill up both boats.  Both boats almost sink from the weight of the fish.  The fishing I had on my fishing trip to Canada was nothing compared to this.  Those boats were not all that small so it would have taken a tremendous number of fish to do this.

Often times our lives are spent on the shore.  We don’t like to get our feet wet.  But here Jesus is telling us that we are not only to get our feet wet but we are to go until the water is way over our heads.  Now for some of you this might not be the greatest analogy.  But for me it really strikes home.  You see, I don’t know how to swim.  I do all I can so that I will not be in real water over my head.  I would be scared.  So, I know about the panic we might feel when we get into these situations.

I had to trust Jesus when He called us to quit my job and come out and serve as pastor to two wonderful congregations.  I was in over my head and praise be to God that He helped me.  He also went ahead to those churches to pave the way for Sharon and myself. Seniors when they graduate from high school often times feel in over their head when they enter into the real world.  Most all of us have had this feeling in our lives at some point.

But Jesus is telling us to trust in Him.  He knows what He is doing and He knows that you can do it.  I have used many terms for this.  He pours, He showers and He drenches you with blessings.  When you are obedient to God there will be no end to the blessings that you get.  This is what He did for Peter and this is what He will do for you.  You can have so many blessings from God that you will be unable to count them.

This is great news for us.  There are, unfortunately, many pastors who will only preach what I call feel good sermons.  They will only preach to their parishioners a message that makes them feel good.  This is false religion and false Christianity!  This is one of the wondrous passages that make us feel good.  But we need to keep in mind that we are not worthy of this at all.  We are sinners blackened by our behaviors.  It is Jesus who gives us this and it cost Him his life.

Peter finally realizes who Jesus is and tells him, “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!”  Peter does not want any of his blackened sinfulness to rub off of Jesus.  Of course, Jesus will have none of this and says for them to come with Him and they will be catching men.

This is a natural response from us.  So many times, we feel that we are too sinful to come to Jesus.  We are too bad.  This couldn’t be farther from the truth.  And here is another passage that tells us that He wants us just as we are.  There is nothing so bad that we cannot take it to Jesus.

For all practical purposes I have been telling a fish story today.  If I had said that this was me catching enough fish to sink two boats, you would have to correct me and say that a pastor should be a little more honest with his fish stories.  But this is a fish story from Jesus and it is a whopper plus it is true.

It is a story that is a great lead into your prayer time.  Prayer time is a holy time for us.  It is a time when you can talk to Jesus, listen to Him and respond to the love He shows you.  It is also a time when you can go to Him and ask for forgiveness and guidance in your life.  I would guess that there is not a person here that has not been in over their heads.  We all need Jesus to guide us as we go along His path.  Let’s also be thankful for the path that brought us here and praise Him for loving us so much.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.