This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In today’s Gospel reading, we have a very well-known passage which speaks about when Jesus called Peter, James and John to be his apostles, and also where Jesus performs a wonderful miracle where the disciples are able to catch an enormous number of fish.
But before we get to all that, let’s have a look at the first part of our reading. We read: On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, [Jesus] was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 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 Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
In the first part of this reading, we see that there was a large crowd that were gathering to hear Jesus. Actually, Luke even tells us that they wanted to hear the word of God. They were there to hear him teach, and they wanted to be taught the word of God by Jesus. And so, Jesus is happy to teach them, and so he uses Peter’s boat as a kind of podium or stage, so that he can speak clearly and effectively to the people who were standing there.
Now, there are a number of passages in the Gospels, where there is an occasion where Jesus preaches and teaches, and only then, afterwards, he performs a miracle. For example, when Jesus feeds the 5000, we read in the Gospel of Mark: When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. It’s only then, after he had taught them, that he then feeds the crowd when it became late, and it was too late and too far for them to go back home or buy food.
So, in our reading today, we shouldn’t forget the fact that Jesus teaches the crowd first. Actually, it’s a bit like the way our church service works. The Divine Service, as we call it—or the Liturgy, as it often called in Greek, or the Mass, as it is sometimes called, mostly in the Roman Catholic church—has two main parts to it: the Service of the Word, and the Service of the Sacrament. So, we have the teaching of the Word of God first: we prepare to hear the Word of God, we hear the Word of God, we confess our faith, we hear the preaching of God’s word, and all that kind of thing. Then in the second part of the service, the service of the Sacrament, we prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper, it is consecrated, it is distributed and we receive it. So, just as in our reading, there is the preaching of the Word and then a miracle, so also in the church service, there is the Word, and then there is a miracle. And the Lord’s Supper really is a miracle, because Jesus actually consecrates this bread and wine in such a way that it becomes his body and blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, and then feeds us with it.
But the other thing about the beginning of this reading, where Jesus is teaching the crowds from the boat, is that we don’t read there exactly what he taught. The content of this particular sermon we don’t know. The same thing we read at the feeding of the 5000. We don’t actually know what Jesus said. And in some sense, it doesn’t matter what Jesus said, because anything and everything that he would say would have been wonderful. Everything that Jesus teaches is incredibly powerful and wonderfully beneficial.
This should also give us the encouragement that when we know the Word of God is going to be spoken and taught and preached somewhere, it shouldn’t concern us greatly, whether it’s our favourite topic, or not, but the whole of the Word of God, all of its content, all of its different parts, is always of wonderful, divine, spiritual benefit to us.
And so, now we come to the next part of our reading: And when [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put our 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.”
Now, first of all here, we see that Jesus tells Simon to do the normal thing that he does for a living. Simon is a fisherman, and Jesus simply tells him to fish. During the night, Simon had been busy with his fellow fishermen all night, and they had had a terrible time. They caught nothing. They did a lot of hard work and they got no result for it. But then, Simon says: But at your word I will let down the nets.
Simon has been there with the crowds listening to Jesus’ teaching for a while, and has been enjoying it, and was being spiritually fed and strengthened by it. And now, Jesus is telling him personally to do something, something that from a human point of view, seems like a pointless thing to do. But nothing that Jesus has said so far has been pointless, and so Simon agrees to do it, and he doesn’t refuse to do it because of his terrible experience during the night, but simply because Jesus says so, he does it.
We read: And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signalled 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.
Not only did they catch
something, but they caught almost too much! The nets were breaking, and the
boats even started to sink!
And so, Jesus teaches us a
few things here. Firstly, sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we
think we really need something from Jesus, or we really need his help with
something. And sometimes we pray for something, whether it be something to do
with our daily bread and our every day needs, or whether it be spiritual some
help in our temptations, or whatever, and we ask Jesus for these things, and
then it seems as though we receive the complete opposite of what we asked for.
We went to Jesus, and we toil all night, and we catch nothing.
But then, sometimes, the
question is: when we receive his help, how would we know that he had given it?
Or instead of giving him the glory, perhaps we would give ourselves all the
credit anyway! So, we ask Jesus for something, and then when we receive it, we
either don’t notice it, or we think that we are the ones who accomplished
everything.
And so, what happens instead,
is that Jesus allows us to toil all night and catch nothing. He does this so
that we can really see for ourselves what our own labour, our own efforts and
our own abilities are worth. But he doesn’t do this because he wants us to
struggle or be in pain or to be hungry, or whatever. He does this, because he
wants to show you that he is the giver of the gifts that you need. And so,
Jesus tells Peter to let down his nets, and Peter knows what happened last
night. The only difference between last night and today is that Jesus told him
to do this. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
And so, when they receive
this wonderful catch of fish, then they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it
was Jesus who had done this. It was him who had performed this miracle. This
was Jesus’ word, and his word alone, that had done it.
Secondly, we learn something
about our everyday work as Christians. Sometimes, we can see our everyday work
in the workplace, or in our own business, or our work at home, or whatever it
is that we do for a living, as the “practical” things we do in life, but then
there is another category, which is the “spiritual” things: like praying,
reading the bible, going to church, etc.
However, the everyday work
that we do as Christians is not without the blessing of Jesus. When Jesus
blesses us as his people, he does not send us out into to the world, in such a
way that we simply work just like everyone else works. No—now we do our work at
his command, we let down our nets at his Word, with his blessing.
And so, we read in Psalm 127:
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain. Unless
the Lord teaches the children, the teacher teaches in vain. Unless the Lord
nurses the patients, the nurse nurses in vain. Unless the Lord studies with
you, unless the Lord makes a living with you, unless the Lord works with you,
your studying, your working, your making a living is in vain. And so, we
commend our work to him, not because we are trying to make money, and make
ourselves rich. No—we are called to work, because we are called to work. We are
called to help each other in our home, because we are called to help each other
in our home. The Lord sends the provision, even if we don’t think we need the
Lord to send the provision.
Many people think that if I
do this work, then I’ll make this amount of money, and then, that’s the end of
it. But how do you know business will go well? How do you that your employment
will be there tomorrow? And all that kind of thing. No—no matter what happens,
wherever we find ourselves, whatever work our hands find to do, it is God who
provides what we need. The economy and the workforce don’t actually work as an
independent well-oiled machine, apart from the hand of God.
So, for example, in 2
Thessalonians 3, there is special instruction there from St Paul, where he
tells Christians not to be lazy and idle. He says: Now we command you,
brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any
brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that
you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us,
because we were not idle when we were with you… Now, as Christians, we
should work and keep ourselves busy and not be lazy, even if we don’t think
we’ll make much money from it. Sometimes, we have a lot of work to do at home,
and we don’t get paid for it. That’s fine. We should think: what should I busy
myself with?
Sometimes, then, when we are
doing some work, but then we go through a hard time, and our income suffers, or
we don’t seem to have quite enough, and we don’t seem quite to be making ends
meet, or we find ourselves labouring hard, and we’re not quite sure what for,
or for what purpose, that’s okay. Jesus allows us to go through a time of need,
because he wants to bless us in a new way when our fruitless labouring all
night has passed. He wants to show us that it has not been us who have given to
ourselves our daily bread, but it has been him, who has given it to us.
Third, there’s something very
important for us here to think about when it comes to our works. Everyone in
the world, if they are not a Christian, think that they should be rewarded
because of their good works. Even many Christians wrongly think that they will
go to heaven because of their good works. These people think that they are good
people. If you were to ask them, “Do you think you’re a good person?”, they
would reply: “Yes, I think I am a good person.” However, this thinking that we
are a good person is the worse delusion that we could possibly have. If we go
to the Ten Commandments, and look into them, then we see God’s standard, and
what a standard it is. Jesus, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount, even
takes many of these commandments, and shows us how we have broken them, even
when we thought we hadn’t. For example: You shall not murder. When we
hate people, and want to do them harm, then murder has already begun in our
hearts, and we have already broken the commandment. You shall not commit
adultery. When we lust after someone in our hearts, the adultery is already
begun, it is already there, because it is out of our heart that these things
come, and so we have already broken the commandment, when we look a person with
lust. And we could go through all the commandments like this.
God has given his
commandments to us, but we have broken them. Our work is fruitless, our labour
produces nothing good, our toil produces nothing but evil and vanity and
trouble. When we stand before the judgment seat of God, then we will only be
able to say something along the lines of: We toiled all night and we caught
nothing! I’ve worked hard all my life, and I have nothing to show for it. I
did all these things, but even my good works were evil. Even my righteous deeds
were like filthy rags.
And so, our salvation is not
accomplished by us, because we have done works of the law. It is accomplished
by Jesus and by his miracles, and by his word. He stands in our place before
God’s throne, he stands in our place and makes an exchange, taking our sin upon
him, and giving to us his righteousness. His sacrifice and his atonement, his
life and his blood accomplish everything, and our immeasurable and
insurmountable debt to God is completely and totally paid for right down the
last little speck of dust. And so, the gate of heaven is open for us, the doors
to the kingdom of heaven are flung wide open. As it says in 1 Corinthians 2: What
no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has
prepared for those who love him. The gifts and the joys of the Holy Spirit
and of the kingdom of heaven are endless. Our earthly nets will break if they
try to hold it. Our earthly boats will sink if they try to contain it. As it
says in Romans 8: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells
in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you… He who did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us
all things?
Now, let’s think for a moment
about the Law and the Gospel. In John’s Gospel, chapter 1, it says: The Law
came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. When Moses
came, and when Jesus came, they both came with miracles. For example, when
Moses was sent to Pharoah, he put down his staff on the ground and it became a
snake. He put his hand in his coat and it became full of leprosy, full of this
terrible skin disease. He put his staff in the river Nile and it became blood.
Do you see that the miracles given to Moses, were miracles that made people
frightened, and fearful, and terrified! The Law was given through Moses, and so
with his miracles come all the fear and terror and frightfulness of the Law.
These are the kind of miracles that make us wake up from ourselves in terror
and fright.
But then, Jesus’ miracles are
a completely different character. They are miracles that bring joy and
happiness to people, because Jesus brings the Gospel. And the wonderful good
news of the forgiveness of sins, won on the cross through Jesus’ death, and
demonstrated through his resurrection from the dead, is news that brings us
great joy, gladness, happiness.
This is the kind of miracle
we find in our Gospel reading, today, where they catch this large catch of
fish.
But in actual fact, Peter
becomes completely confused by this joyful, happy miracle, and becomes
terrified by it. We read: When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’
knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 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 Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
Anyone would think that they
had just seen Moses make all the fish in the Nile die. In actual fact, they had
seen a completely different kind of miracle. But still, what they witnesses was
the power of God, the divine energy that had come straight out of heaven, the
kind of power that raises people from the dead. And it terrified them, because
they didn’t know where things were going. Peter thinks, “If Jesus can do this
kind of thing, surely he must know that I’m not actually a good person, and
that I live and find myself stuck in all kinds of sin, all of the time. If he
can do this with the fish, then what if he finds out who I really am? What will
he then do with me?”
And, so Jesus comforts him.
He says: Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.
Jesus shows them this
powerful miracle, not because he wants to show to Peter what kind of power he
will use against him. He wants to show him the kind of power that his Word has,
and he calls Peter and James and John here to speak this same Word, and join
him in his missionary work. They will work together with him, and bring his
Word to the ends of the world. They will no longer be fishermen, who fish for
fish, but they will be Jesus’ own fishermen who fish for people, who are
fishers of men.
The Word that Jesus speaks is
not for the purpose of destroying sinners like Peter, but will draw them out of
the world, like these fish being drawn out of the water, and Jesus will give to
these people new life through the Gospel. We see here a wonderful picture of
baptism, where we are drawn into the Christian church, like being caught from
out the water and put into the boat.
And so, we have been caught
by these apostles, and drawn into the kingdom of Jesus. We are called to shine
the wonderful light of the Gospel in our lives, as much as it depends on us,
that others may be drawn to the same divine light of Jesus. We have been saved
by the wonderful miracles of our Saviour Jesus, who has died for us, and risen
from the dead for us. And so, we, who are sinful people, like Peter, trust in
him. He calls us not to be afraid, but to look for him for our forgiveness, our
life, and for the blessing upon everything that we do. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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