Sermon: The Catch of a Lifetime

Well, it's a great privilege to be with you, uh, here at University Reform Church tonight. Um, if you see my last name of the bulletin, you'll at least know one connection, uh, to our c uh, Nathan's, my son. And, uh, my connection to Ben and Alyssa is that as they were down in Charlotte studying at RTS, Ben was an intern at Christ Covenant Church where I serve. And so it was a great privilege to, uh, get to know them over the last three years.

Was it three or four? Ben? Four, four years. Um, but to worship with 'em, to serve with 'em, to get to know them. And so what an honor to be here tonight to bring God's word to you. Let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter five, Luke five verses one through 11.

Luke chapter five, one through 11. As we read this together, remember that this is God's holy and inspired word.

On one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Nesst 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 Simons. He asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

And Simon answered, master, we toiled all night and took nothing but at your word. I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking and 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. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me.

For I am a sinful man, oh Lord, for he, for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John sons of Zedi who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Let's bow together in prayer and ask for the Lord's help.

As we study. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We're thankful that it reveals Christ Jesus, the cross, our redemption. And Father also teaches us about what it means to be a disciple of Christ. And so we pray, Lord, as we study this word, that your Holy Spirit would take your word and plant it in our hearts so that our hearts would be fertile soil and that they would produce fruit a hundred fold to your glory.

To your honor, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, dear friends and the Lord Jesus Christ, I imagine that um, all of us who are here tonight have heard some time or another a fish story, uh, after all where here we are in the Great Lake States. Um, the place where Ben and Alyssa are going to be ministering is a place where fishing is a big industry, a pastime. And you know what fish stories are like the story of the big one that got away, or when someone asks you how big your fish was

that you caught and you kind of hold out your hands and you know, kind of, kind of arms move back and forth, you know, always a little bigger probably than the actual fish was. Um, it may be a story about how hard the fish fought or how many fish you caught, but there's one characteristic that is true of all fish stories and that is that every fish story stretches the truth just a little bit.

Now, if we did not believe in the inspiration and the infallibility of scripture, we might read this passage tonight and we might say to ourselves, well, there it is. Just another fish story. The disciples, they've been fishing all night, no fish. And Jesus comes along and he says, you know, cast the net on the other side. Just go into the deep, throw the net on the other side, and they bring the net up and it's just full of fish.

And, and we say to ourselves, how can that be? Is this really true? Maybe just another fish story. But I'll say to you tonight that this is no fish story. 'cause this is the word of God. And it's true. Everything that we read here happened. It's true. And there is a lesson for us here tonight, both I think about discipleship and ministry. And I distinguish those things tonight because for most of us, if we're not in the ministry,

there is a word for us here about being a disciple of Jesus, about following the Lord. But there is a particular word here for folks like Ben or others who may be called to ministry. There is a message for us. And the call is this, how do we go about following Jesus? How do we follow him as Lord? In Luke's gospel, in the first few chapters leading up to this, Luke has been taking pains to tell us about Jesus as the Christ.

And so you read those birth narratives, for example, and they're highlighting, Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Christ. And then when we come to chapter five, Luke tells us, well, if Jesus is the Christ, here is how you go about following him as the Christ. This is what discipleship looks like. And what Jesus calls all of us to is this. He calls us to be part of the catch of a lifetime. So want to notice three things with you tonight?

And here's the first that Jesus gives a transforming call to us, a transforming call. This was what was part of his call of the first disciples. Crowds were pressing in to hear Jesus. They were coming to listen to Christ. And this maybe is the very first mark of being a disciple of Jesus. That disciples of Christ hear the word of Jesus and they listen to Jesus. They they want his word. And there were so many that were coming to hear Christ,

that Jesus got into a boat to preach to them from off the shore, push the boat off shore. The the pulpit moved a little bit right offshore so that they could all hear Jesus, the boat with Simons. Simon was a fisherman. And in verse 10, we read, so were James and John, they were partners with Peter. Fishing, was their calling

until Jesus called them. And then they got a new call and Jesus gives them this call through a fishing lesson. After he had finished speaking, Jesus said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets, move away from the shore, get out into the deep and put the nets over there for a catch. Fishing instructions. Right? Kind of remarkable.

I wonder how Peter took these words of Jesus,

a fishing lesson from Christ. A Simon is the fisherman. Jesus was a carpenter. What does Jesus know about fishing? And besides the fact they had been fishing all night already and they hadn't caught a thing, they were tired, they got skunked.

I dunno if you've been fishing before, but you know, one of the worst things that can happen to you as a fisherman is to come back from fishing and somebody asks you, how'd it go? How, how many fish you did you catch? And if you're coming with hardly anything at all, it's sort of embarrassing, right? Um, maybe that's where the fish story comes from, right? Uh, we got more than what we really did, but it's embarrassing.

You don't like to tell anybody that you haven't caught anything but people of God. This is what we need to notice here, is that when Jesus said, take your nets, go out into the deep, throw them overboard, put them down. Simon listened to Jesus, and he's starting to lean into what it meant to be a disciple of Christ. He'd let down the nets. Verse five says that Simon answered, master, we've toiled all night. We have taken nothing

but at your word, I will let down the nets. You see, the word of Christ was enough for Simon, because you have said it, because you have spoken, because it is your word. I will put down the nets. And the result was that there were so many fish that the nets began to break and indeed was the catch of a lifetime.

We could ask a question tonight. I think this was an important question. Why this fishing lesson as part of the calling of Simon, when you look at the other gospel writers, the the account is much different. A John's account is, is totally different as Jesus comes and he calls Andrew and Andrew goes and calls Peter. And then you look at Matthew and Mark and they have this account, but there's hardly any detail in their account.

There's, there's hardly anything about this great catch of fish. Why is it that Luke describes the calling of the disciples in this way? Why does Luke include this? And I think the answer is this, to show not only that they're going to catch men, But also to show them, to show us the great catch, the abundant catch of men that is going to mark their ministries. Jesus is giving them a vision not only of what they're going

to do, but what this is going to look like in the future for these disciples. Because you'll remember that Luke not only writes this gospel, but he writes acts and so on. Pentecost, as Peter cast his net deep and preached God's word, it came up full, didn't it? 3000 were added to the church that day. And Acts 2 47, the Lord was adding to their number daily. Those who were being saved Acts 16, five. And so the churches were strengthened in the faith

and they increased in numbers daily.

The disciples that go out and post Pentecost, they're preaching and they're teaching and they're going from city to city to city to city. And the nets are full. And the disciples you see are getting a glimpse of their call,

oh, that the Lord would have us be part of such a great work in our day.

We may be part of a work like this. We may not be part of a work like this, but each of us has received a call. And that call is to go catch men and women for Christ, to be fishers of men, as Jesus will say to them, no longer going to be catching fish, but you're gonna be catching men. And this is our call, particularly when we are called to the ministry. This is our task, Ben God is setting you out on a ministry to care for souls,

to help rescue failing marriages, to direct young people away from the folly of youth to Christ, to shepherd the elderly toward their savior at the end of life, But especially to fish for the lost

and maybe no more, uh, maybe that calling is, is is no more prevalent than when you're called to be a church planter.

How many fish will you catch? Only the Lord knows. I don't know if there'd be a hundred fish in the net or 10 fish in the net, but your calling is part of God's enterprise to expand his reign to the nations. And here's the wonderful thing. People of God, the Book of Acts is not ancient history, right? The Book of Acts is not just about something that happened long ago. God is still building his church. God is still throwing fish into the nets.

God is still calling men and women in boys and girls to himself a harvest of souls. And I think you've seen this in the last year at URC, God calling men and women to himself. We see this in the great global harvest that God is doing in our world today. Just talked to a pastor recently who came from, came back from Iraq preaching God's word in Northern Iraq. God is building his church there. I said, did you hear anything about

what God may be doing in Iran? He said, yes, God is doing a great work in Iran behind the scenes, but God is building his church. I think about a church plant from this church in Kalamazoo and Brighton, Michigan and Mount Pleasant. And now in Petoskey and I, there's probably other places I'm not even aware of, but God is building his church and God is filling the nets, a transforming call. Second, there's a transforming encounter.

So the nets were so full of fish that the next drama is that the boats began to sink. And what would you be thinking, or what would you be saying if it looked like your boat was going down? What would you say to Jesus? Would you say to Jesus? Jesus, save us our, our boat is sinking. Help us, rescue us. The the boat is filling up with water,

but it's very curious, isn't it? What Peter said to Jesus, he fell to his knees in the bottom of the boat, and the very first thing he says to Jesus is this depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. What Simon realized is that his greatest need was not to be rescued from drowning, but his greatest need was to be rescued from his sin.

I think there's two things that Simon particularly understood that day. First of all, he saw something in Christ that day. He realized something about Jesus.

He understood that Jesus was not only his master, but Jesus was Lord, that Jesus was not just a good teacher, but Jesus was the divine and sovereign God that he was Lord of all of creation. He saw his majesty over the waves. He saw his majesty over the sea. He saw his majesty over the fish. And I think he still understood something about the holiness of Christ.

RC Spro and commenting on this passage said all Jesus did was to show Peter how to catch fish, but when the holy is manifest, no words are need to express it.

So he's teaching Jesus or teaching Peter about catching fish. But the holy was manifest. He realized he was in the presence of a holy God. And that led him not only to understand something about Jesus, but it led him to an understand something about himself.

Maybe he caught on a little bit to his cynicism, his skepticism about Jesus' fishing lesson about his lack of faith or maybe his pride that he knew more than Jesus did. But bottom line, he saw his own moral failure and he did not confess to being a bad fisherman. He confessed to being a sinner. What was exposed was his need for the saving grace of Jesus

and friends, how true this must be of us if we're going to be disciples of Christ, if we're going to be used by Jesus, be before God will use us to go after catching the souls of others. Our own souls need to be caught by Christ. Our own souls need to have an encounter with Jesus as we recognize our own sin and our need for redemption and our need for saving. It is amazing, isn't it, that Jesus calls sinners to do his work, that Jesus calls sinners

to catch other sinners. But these are sinners. We are sinners who are called to have an encounter with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And his redemption cleanses us and his redemption washes us, and his redemption saves us. And so it's not as good people who don't need Christ, but as sinners who need Christ and then are saved by Christ that he sends us out to do his work.

And you know what? This is always the way that God has done it. Good. You can just consider Isaiah's calling

And Isaiah has this encounter with the holy God and Isaiah six. And what is Isaiah's response? I'm undone. I am a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean lips. And then the Lord touches his lips, a tones for his sin, and he goes out and he preaches its encounter with the holiness of God that reveals a sin in there for he can be used by the Lord.

Ben, as you're caring for the souls of others,

how will you care for your own? And as you bring the gospel, are you ready to keep standing under the gospel yourself? Because that's what you need more than anything, to stand under the cross of Christ and let His grace and let the gospel just wash over you day after day after day after day so that you can bring that gospel to others.

Paul Trippen, his book, dangerous Calling Book about calling to ministry says, you cannot try to give people a gospel that you have not been shaped by yourself, but your church needs someone not only with a big theological brain, God's blessed you with that, but you also need to be somebody who has a Christ saturated heart. And that's true, isn't it? For all of us here tonight, that's, this is not just true for ministers of the gospel.

This is true for every single one of us. We must be encountered with Christ, see our need of Christ be changed by Christ, and then he uses us to go to preach that gospel to others. Our identity cannot come from ministry. Our identity must come from Christ, seeing our sin, accepting His grace. Jesus put this so wonderfully to the disciples themselves. Just a few chapters later in Luke 10 20, when Jesus said to the disciples, nevertheless, do not rejoice

that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Don't rejoice at the effects of your ministry. That's not where rejoicing has to be. Your rejoicing must come that your names are written in heaven. Rejoice more in being a sheep, A sheep of Christ than being a shepherd that you've been saved by him, redeemed by him. And then finally, there's also a transforming response. And that response was a response of obedience on the part

of Simon and these other disciples. We've already seen this, but verse five again, Peter says, or Simon says, Lord, at your word, I will let down the nets. Despite all appearances, despite what Simon might have thought was a foolish thing to do, he obeyed. And here comes this great catch of fish. And it was all due to Jesus. Of course, Simon had tried all night to catch fish, but to no avail. Suddenly the net is full because of Jesus.

And yet Simon needed to obey. The nets are full because of Christ. And yet Jesus doesn't just magically mystically bring the nets up or even drop the nets down. Simon has to obey. He has to put the nets down and Jesus fills the nets. And it's simply a wonderful reminder to us, isn't it, of God's sovereignty and the spirit's work in our salvation and sanctification that ultimately a catch of fish is due to Jesus. If someone comes to Christ under your ministry, Ben,

or under the Ministry of Universal Reform Church or any one of our churches, it is all the glory is due to God. It, it is his work. And yet we have to let down the nets. We have to go preach the gospel. We have to share with our neighbors. We have to reach out to students on the campus. We have to go put out into deep water.

And Jesus comes with this promise at the very end to Simon and the rest, he says, don't be afraid. Verse 10, from now on, you will be catching men. You will, you will catch men. It's, it's a really, an interesting combination of words Here. Words mean, catch alive. Catch men, you, you're gonna catch them alive or you're gonna rescue them from danger. I don't know about you, but I don't know any fishermen who goes out on the lake and starts fishing

and says, you know what I wanna do today is I wanna rescue fish from danger. I'm gonna rescue them.

Every once in a while, a fisherman goes out and catches and releases, right? But most of the time you go out to catch and eat. But the way Jesus puts it here is disciples, you're gonna go out and catch for God so that those who are caught might know, release from sin. Here's Jesus catch and release program. Catch men for God so that they might be released from their sins. And when he says, go put out your nets, go preach. Go teach.

Go evangelize. Go witness. Go show hospitality. Go disciple all the things that are part of spreading his word. And when he tells us to put out into deep water, like Jesus is saying, cast it wide. Go to your friends, go to your coworkers. Go to the student that lives in the dorm room next to you. Go to Petoskey and beyond for the cause of the gospel, and do it with complete abandon to Jesus.

The end of our passage says they pull up their boats on shore. They heard the word of Jesus. They left everything, and they followed him.

Ben and Alyssa, I think about you leaving. I know that you love this place,

but you're leaving, leaving it behind to follow Jesus to a new place, to new waters, as it were, and how important that is. Phil re the comments on the disciples leaving it all. And he says, they left behind their career ambitions. They left behind their old sins. They left behind the safety and security of living the way they had always lived. They left behind their right to call their lives their own. And this is what it means to be a disciple.

It means leaving everything behind. Many people say they wanna follow Jesus, but instead of leaving every everything behind, they try to take it all with them. Imagine Simon and the others hauling their boats and nets around to the towns and villages where Jesus preach. Imagine them dragging their fishing equipment up to Jerusalem where Jesus went there to die. And obviously if they had tried to do all that, they never would've been able to follow Jesus at all.

Leave the nets, leave the boats, leave the tackle, leave the equipment, and go call men and women and boys and girls to Jesus.

Let me end with this in, I'm not sure if it was 1835 or 1836, but Robert Murray McShane on the eve of his ordination exam, he said, this tomorrow undergo my trials before the presbytery. Those of us who've been examined, know, that's a good word, undergo my trials before the presbytery. May God give me courage in the hour of need. What should I fear? If God see me to put me into the ministry, who shall keep me back? And if I be not meet,

why should I thrust forward and then bend here? This to thy service, I desire to dedicate myself over and over again. That's what the Lord's calling you to do. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this vision of discipleship and ministry that you give us here in Luke five Casting nets into deep water, nets Full. We see this indeed being fulfilled in the Book of Acts. And God, you are still at work

calling men and women, boys and girls to yourself. We pray, God, that this text would be good marching orders for Ben and Alyssa as they go to minister in Petoskey. But for all of us, God, wherever you've placed us to be faithful in catching men for Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.