Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and
listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of
Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake;
but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their
nets. 3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s,
and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat
down and began teaching the people from the boat. 4 When He had
finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water
and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered and said,
"Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do
as You say and let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they
enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7
so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to
come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so
that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell
down at Jesus’ feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am
a sinful man, O Lord!" 9 For amazement had seized him and all his
companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10
and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners
with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you
will be catching men." 11 When they had brought their boats to
land, they left everything and followed Him.

I have chosen this text as part of a short series of transition
messages as we expand from one corporate worship site to two. My
desire is to put this expansion in a Biblical context and to give
it meaning as an expression of the aims of Jesus Christ. Today I
want to see our expansion to Roseville as an expression of
Christ’s aim that we be more fruitful in evangelism –
or as some would say, that we be soul-winners, or as the biblical
expression has it, "fishers of men," or as others would say, that
we "make disciples."

There are some of us that believe that Bethlehem is on the brink
of continued extraordinary growth. Of course, the sovereign Lord
could blow that away in a minute. He owes us nothing. And we are
not deserving of any blessing we have. But given what he seems to
be doing now and in the past couple years, there is good reason to
think that his wind of his mercy is at our back. And so we should
work while it is day. Night comes when no man can work.

My burden today to preach and to pray in such a way that what
happens at the North Extension site and downtown is a new
fruitfulness in evangelism – more people passing from death
to life, and from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to
God, and from unbelief to belief, through the Christ-empowered
witness and love of the members of this church. Churches can grow
without this. But growth without these things is not the best kind
of growth. We need to be much more aggressive
in loving witness that wins people to Christ and folds them into a
fellowship of believers and grows them into mature disciples of
Jesus who love to spread a passion for God’s supremacy in all
things for the joy of all peoples.

That is one thing that should mark Bethlehem on its two sites.
So let’s watch Jesus and listen to Jesus in Luke 5:1-11.

The Point of This Text

I think Jesus, in the way he acted and spoke in this situation,
and Luke, in the way he tells the story, are both intentionally
turning a miracle catch of fish into a parable about catching
people for the kingdom. In other words, Jesus was not merely
teaching the word of God as he sat in the boat (vv. 1, 3); he was
showing something, by his actions and words, about how he means for
his followers to win men to faith.

Here is the point that I think Jesus and Luke are making in this
whole story. I’ll say it and then back up and try to show it
from the text.

By Jesus’ power and authority

multitudes of people

will be caught for eternal kingdom blessings

by the followers of Jesus who

teach the word of God,

obey the commands of Jesus,

humble themselves, and

treasure Christ above all.

Let’s break this down into several pieces and see where
they come from in the text. First, Jesus is saying that great
multitudes of people are going to be won by his power and
authority. Jesus had intentionally chosen to teach from a fishing
boat (verse 3). So the boat is transformed, so to speak, into an
instrument of evangelism. That sets up the parable. The boat is a
place where the word of God is proclaimed to the crowds and where
fish are caught. Then in verse 4 Jesus tells Simon to push this
gospel-bearing boat into the deep water for a catch. "Put out into
the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered
and said, ‘Master, we worked hard all night and caught
nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.’"
This interchange between Jesus and Simon emphasizes the power and
authority of Jesus that is about to be displayed. You say it.
I’ll do it. But what’s the use. We know fishing.
You’re a carpenter.

Verse 6: "When they had done this, they enclosed a great
quantity of fish (plh/qoj ivcqu,wn polu,), and their nets began to
break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for
them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the
boats, so that they began to sink."

So the catch is so amazing that the nets are breaking and the
boats are sinking. In other words, the point is: this is an utterly
unprecedented catch of fish in a location that seemed hopelessly
unproductive the night before. And it was caught at the powerful
and authoritative word of Jesus.

The word used to describe the amount of fish is literally
"multitude" (plh/qoj). It’s used over a dozen times in the
book of Acts for a multitude of people. Jesus will give it that
interpretation in verse 10: "And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not
fear, from now on you will be catching men.’" The multitude
of fish caught by Jesus’ power and authority is a pointer to
what would happen later in the book of Acts and beyond. Acts 5:14,
"And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes
(plh,qh) of both men and women." Acts 14:1, "In Iconium . . . a
large number (polu. plh/qoj) of people believed, both of Jews and
of Greeks."

And the catching here, of course, is not to kill and eat, but to
save and feed. The comparison isn’t between what happens to
fish and what happens to people. The comparison is between trusting
Christ to help you gather fish and trusting Christ to help you
gather people. The gathering of people is for rest (Matthew
11:28-30) and joy (John 15:11) and eternal life (John 3:36).

So I repeat the first part of my summary of this text: "By
Jesus’ power and authority multitudes of people will be
caught for eternal kingdom blessings – for salvation . .
.

. . . by followers of Jesus." We see this point clearly in verse
10: "And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not fear, from now on you
will be catching men.’" Just as it was James and John (v. 10)
and Peter, the human fishermen, who brought in the fish, so it will
be human fishers of men who bring in the people. It is by
Jesus’ power and authority that they come, but they come
through the evangelistic work of man. Converts to Christ come by
Christ’s power, but by man’s agency. "All authority in
heaven and earth has been given to me," Jesus said, "so go and make
disciples" (Matthew 28:18-19). Christ is the decisive power and
authority in winning people, but followers of Christ are the
instruments of that power.

Now, what does this acted-out parable tell us about the kind of
people who go man-fishing and win others to Christ, so that we can
pray and strive to be that kind of people?

I see four things in the text to answer that question: "By
Jesus’ power and authority multitudes of people will be
caught for eternal kingdom blessings by the followers of Jesus, who
. . .

. . . teach the word of God."

I take this from verses 1 and 3. Verse 1: "Now it happened that
while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word
of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret." So Luke makes
explicitly clear what Jesus had brought to this moment for
man-fishing. He had brought the word of God. If we dare risk the
analogy: this was his bait for man-fishing. This is what was
drawing the crowd of man-fishes. They were swarming to hear the
word of God.

This in fact is a very fish-honoring, as well as God-honoring
bait. The word of God is the greatest word there is. The word of
God is not some little jingle to manipulate customers to buy your
product. The word of God is truth that aims to claim a
person’s rational mind and win a person’s authentic
affections. So we may be unashamed when we man-fish with the word
of God. It is truth, not technique.

Then Jesus prepares for the parable by deciding to teach the
word of
God from a fishing boat. Verses 2-3: "He saw two boats
lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of
them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of the
boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little
way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people
from the boat." Just as Jesus is gathering a people with the word
of God from a fishing boat, so Peter and the followers of Jesus
will gather people like man-fishers with the word of God.

I think it’s significant to see that he "taught" the
people. Verse 3: "He sat down and began teaching." At times he
proclaims, at other times he teaches. Both are important in the
life of the church today. But I want to suggest that in our
evangelism – our man-fishing with the bait of the word of God
– should involve a lot of teaching, a lot of explaining.

We live in a society that does not know the true nature of God
and the gospel. They don’t know the God-centered nature of
what sin is, and what God’s glory and law are, and who Christ
is and what happened on the cross and what faith is and what love
is and what heaven and hell are. Therefore, to win these people we
need to develop structures of teaching. And I don’t mean only
formal teaching. And I don’t mean stop sharing the short
testimonies and snapshots of Jesus. But let’s add ways of
offering unbelievers more and more of Christ so that they can make
a credible response to a whole message. Let’s dream and plan
and be aggressive in our love for lost people by coming up with
ways that we can keep telling them and showing them more and more
truth. Jesus was teaching in the boat to illustrate
man-fishing.

This seems to be the way Paul did it sometimes. In Acts 19:9-10
Luke said that Paul "reasoned daily in the hall of Tyrannus [that
is, he taught]. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the
residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and
Greeks." What a great church planting strategy: teach unbelievers
daily in a public hall about the Christian worldview for two
years!

That’s the first mark of the disciples who do man-fishing.
They teach the word of God. The second is that they . . .

. . . obey the commands of Jesus.

When Jesus told Simon in verse 4 to push out into the deep,
"Simon answered and said, ‘Master, we worked hard all night
and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the
nets’" (v. 5). If Simon had not obeyed, there would probably
have been no catch. Jesus could make the fish jump into the boat.
But he doesn’t usually act that way. He calls us to be his
instruments in man-fishing. And he gives us Peter as an example.
Not a perfect one. But a good one.

Peter is not brimming with faith. "Master, we worked all night.
We know fishing. You don’t. This place is fished out.
Besides, we are exhausted. We were up all night." Oh, how many are
the excuses we find for not man-fishing. But isn’t it
encouraging that the Lord does not pitch Peter overboard, but
accepts his half-hearted obedience and does the miracle anyway. I
have heard dozens of testimonies to this effect. I was tired. It
didn’t seem like a very good time to speak of Christ . . .
but I did it, and the great, never-weary Christ acted. One of the
brothers at the Friday morning prayer meeting told us of a
remarkable circumstance in which he led someone to Christ this
week. The time is never perfect. And our hearts are never perfect.
But Christ honors simple efforts to obey him.

That’s the second mark of a man-fisher. He obeys Jesus.
Here’s the third: Those who do man-fishing . . .

. . . humble themselves.

When Peter and the others saw the blessing Jesus had given them
– the way he had used them to gather the fish in spite of
their half-hearted obedience – verse 8b says, "Simon Peter .
. . fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, ‘Go away from me
Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ Oh, how we need to see
this and experience it.

It’s the opposite of saying: "Wow, look at the way we get
blessed when we follow Jesus! Biggest catch of fish we’ve
ever had. We could market this! Let’s get a movement going.
Call it, ‘Trust Jesus, get fish!’ Hey, hey! Let’s
go to Roseville!’ No, Peter looked at grace – pure
grace – and felt utterly unworthy and said so. That is a good
place to start in evangelism. Cocky witnesses contradict the
message of grace. So let’s waken to the fact that what is
moving to Roseville is a band of half-hearted, imperfectly obedient
justified sinners who feel utterly unworthy of every blessing we
have, especially salvation. Then we may be ready to fish.

Oh, that all Bethlehem attenders would read Jonathan
Edwards’ book, The Religious Affections, especially the
chapter on "Evangelical Humiliation," where he says,

A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble
brokenhearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are
humble desires: their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even
when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is a humble,
brokenhearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit,
and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal
lowliness of behavior. (Religious Affections, Yale, 1959, pp.
339f.)

Now we have seen three marks of faithful man-fishers: they teach
the word of God, they obey Jesus’ commandments, they humble
themselves. Now, finally, fruitful man-fishers . . .

. . . treasure Christ above all.

In verse 10b "Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not fear, from now
on you will be catching men.’" Because he knows that he will
one day die for Peter’s sin (Mark 10:45), Jesus takes the
paralyzing fear out of his humility and leaves in its place a
lionhearted meekness and bold brokenness. Peter and James and John
respond with hearts overflowing with the value of knowing Jesus:
"When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything
and followed Him." This is what it means to follow Jesus: he is
more valuable to us than everything (see Luke 14:33). I count
everything as loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord
(Philippians 3:8).

So here is my prayer as half of us get ready to leave familiar
and comfortable surroundings and go north to worship – not a
very great sacrifice: May the power and authority of Jesus Christ
move multitudes of people into eternal kingdom blessings by means
of his disciples at Bethlehem who teach the word of God, obey the
commands of Jesus, humble ourselves, and treasure Christ above
all.