Verse: Luke 5: 4-8, 11

And when [Jesus] 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. 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. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”… And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

Devotional Thoughts:

First-century fishing looked quite a bit different than how most of us go fishing today. They didn’t use rod and reels and bobbers; rather, they had massive nets that they would drop down by the side of their boats. The best time for them to fish, for several reasons, was at night. Vocational fishermen would spend their nights fishing, then use the daytime to repair equipment, do necessary maintenance on their nets, etc.

One can imagine then why Simon, later known as Peter, seems to almost backtalk Jesus here. He says, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing…” You can almost imagine him thinking to himself, “We didn’t catch any fish when the fishing was supposed to be good. Even more, we just finished washing the nets and getting them ready for this evening. Jesus needs to stick with what he’s good at – teaching and carpentry – and let me stick to what I’m good at – fishing.

Peter quickly realizes that something is radically different than he thought it was. The nets begin to break because there are so many fish. The ships literally begin to sink under the weight of the fish. Peter realized this wasn’t just a coincidence – Jesus didn’t have a lucky guess and that by some chance a massive school of fish just happened to be swimming by.

Peter realized this wasn’t the work of an expert fisherman or a fantastic teacher. This was the work of God. So he, in turn, calls Jesus “Lord.” And, at that moment, Jesus shows his hand. He’s not really all that interested in catching fish. He tells Peter, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

He’s given Peter an entire visual picture that is really just a metaphor for another reality – Peter will now be a fisher of men.

Points to Ponder:

But the metaphor rings true for more than just Peter too. To follow Jesus means to be a fisher of men. To evangelize. It means if we are going to follow Jesus, then we must be proactive in bringing others to follow Jesus as well.

Frankly, I’m not a big fisherman. I enjoy the catching part, but it’s the fishing part that really gets old. Every time I go fishing, my concentration lasts only so long. Like for maybe the first 10 minutes, I’m watching that bobber. That bobber won’t move at all without me noticing it. But it doesn’t take long, and I’m checking my phone, bored, ready to move on.

I’m not expecting a catch.

That’s exactly the way Peter was. Jesus was asking him to drop the nets, but he wasn’t really expecting anything to come of it.

How true this often is of us when it comes to evangelism as well. We know that we’re supposed to evangelize, but really we think, in the end, it’s just going to be an awkward ride that goes nowhere. We don’t expect anyone to be interested in the faith. We don’t expect a catch.

And that’s disheartening because it’s hard to get excited about evangelism when you don’t expect anything to come of it. Evangelism becomes a pesky obligation that we feel we must do, rather than a life-changing adventure that we have the privilege to be a part of.

We need to approach evangelism with optimism, even expectant, because we know this – we don’t work alone. We know that God is at work, for He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).” He wants that co-worker or friend to be saved even more than you do.

So what about you? How are you being pro-active, even this week, to make disciples? How are you being intentional about being a fisher of men?

Categories: Daybreak