Fishers Of Men

Fishers of Men

Luke 5:1-11

Introduction-

When we gather and we begin talking about the things of God- a lot of times, we assume people know more than what they actually do.

When I use the word sin, it means different things to different people, but as Christians, we should be understanding the word. Sin is an offense against God. It is doing something that God has told us not to do.

When I say good and evil, even these words carry different meaning to different people.

So, I say that to tell each of us if we are to be fishers of men, to be God’s disciples… which God calls each of us as believers, we need to be on the same page. God’s page.

Turn to Luke chapter 5

Prayer

We will be looking at the ministry of Jesus this, to those who would eventually become His first disciples. The great catch of fish and the great call of God to follow Him and be his disciples.

Luke chapter 5:1-11 read from Bible

The call of Jesus begins with Jesus being a teacher and teaching a crowd of people gathered around a lake the word of God. God’s word is the starting point of teachings that we should be living in our lives. If we hear the word of God taught, it should be applied to our lives in the areas of our life where it applies.

These were fishermen in a surrounding very familiar to them and they were not out of their elements, there were actually in their comfort zone.

The gospels all record the miracle of the catch and the direction to follow as a disciple.

After Jesus seeing the crowd of people, eyes a boat at the water’s edge and gets in and pushes out a ways to use the lake as his microphone and continues to teach and talk to the crowd and His disciples.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “put out into the deep water, and let down your net.”

These seasoned fishermen, who had been out all night had come up empty, they were washing their nets and getting ready for the next night of fishing and were cleaning up and calling it a day so to speak.

When Jesus the Nazarene, I love to say that! tells them to unpack what they had packed up and try again.

Those fishermen were challenged in three areas of their life that morning. And so are we.

Faith-

It took faith to go back out and try again. The dreaded idea of having your nets clean and get back out there your first instinct would be to say no! I am a professional and I did the best I knew how and I came up empty. Zero, nada, zilch!

Obedience-

They had to be operating on the fact that Jesus Himself had requested they try again. Go back out where you came from and throw your net out in deeper water-

Trust-

Trust is what makes you do the unknown and trust for a determined outcome. That you would work towards accomplishing something that does not come natural or doing something that may be a little out of your wheelhouse.

He calls them to deep water- not to stay on the shallow shore but launch into the deep. Sounds like another teaching moment Jesus had with his disciples.

The Lord desires to bless us! Amen.

It was for this reason that He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

The deep is where you will find a whole lot of fish.

You won’t find them near the shore in shallow waters. But to launch out into the deep is to move away from the comfort of the shoreline.

You cannot get to new ground if you don’t leave the shoreline of where you are at.

God wants you to break away from your comfort zone and step out in faith to do what He has put in your heart.

Now, our Lord Jesus who said, “Launch out into the deep…” also said, “…let down your nets for a catch.”

Notice that He used the plural “nets” and not the singular “net.”

God wants to give you more than what you need.

His dream for you is bigger than anything you can ever dream of. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT

Dream big- Ephesians 3:20-“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

God wants to bless you beyond your wildest dreams. He did it for Simon who was astonished at the size of the catch of fish. But it was not until Simon launched out into the deep that he ended up with the net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish.