“BIG FISH” Message Manuscript

From Luke 5:1-11 & John 21:1-14

Delivered to SLWC

by David Drury

On 11 July 2004

 

*Enter to center stage from the back of the worship center with fishing vest and hat on with fishing pole in hand.

 

Why would Jesus choose you?  Do you ever wonder that?  If you feel chosen by him today have you ever wondered why?  Do you wonder what makes you worthy of such a thing?  Do you feel a bit ashamed or embarrassed by the choice?  If you don’t feel chosen yet is it because of your own lack of confidence in who you are?  Do you wonder if you’ll ever live up to the expectations of Jesus—or his other disciples?

 

Wouldn’t it be great if we just had a simple description of why Jesus chooses people?  I wish we had a video tape that we could pick apart like a play-by-play sports announcer, discovering the elements that come together to make Jesus choose someone.  Wouldn’t that be cool?

 

Well guess what – we already do.  Many of you have it with you today in the Bible.  In Luke chapter 5 verses 1-11 we have a play-by-play description of Jesus choosing the first people he ever chose.  I think you’ll be encouraged to find out why he chose them…

 

Please stand for the reading of God’s word:

 

Luke 5:1-11

¹One day as Jesus was standing by the Sea of Galilee, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, ²he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

⁵Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

 

⁶When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" ⁹For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

¹¹Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

 

PRAYER

 

You may be seated.

 

There is nothing quite like landing a big fish.  One June when I was only 17 years old my father and I canoed the lakes and rivers of the boundary waters in Minnesota and Ontario.  I have never been much of a fisherman, but about halfway through our trip I dropped a spinner into the water near our campsite.  After about 20 minutes something hit the bait.  I pulled and pulled and thought I had it but then the fish went out under a log deep in the water.  Typically in this situation the line will break or snag.  I was snagged.  While I held onto the line Dad took the canoe out, grabbed my slacked line and pulled it the opposite direction.  Instantly the outwitted and double-teamed fish began to buck and pull, but I had him!  As he came to the water I was amazed that this was no Indiana lake perch or bluegill – this was a fish of the north!  A two-foot long Northern Pike didn’t as much break the water as blast through it.  I had never seen a Pike before.  But to me as a rookie fisherman it seemed like a miniature cross breed between a snake and a sea monster.  In those few seconds bringing it to shore and holding it up double-fisted to reveal it my Dad’s prideful glance I felt like every man feels landing the Big Fish – “It just doesn’t get any better than this.”

 

But as good as that was, little did I know that it absolutely does get better.  Nearly every day in the kind of life I now lead for Christ does get much better than that.  The biggest fish to land are not found in rivers and lakes and oceans.  The Big Fish are the men and women all around us.  And what an amazing life it is to fish for them!

 

Peter, Andrew, James & John were chosen by Jesus when he expressed this fundamental truth to them.  As we do today, Jesus valued all walks of life and ways of earning a living.  But he pointed out with his first lesson something we must be reminded of: no matter what occupies much of our time one thing ought to occupy much of our mind:

Fishing for People.

 

But this story raises several questions for you and me.  I’ve put them on your outline so you can go and look into them more.  I don’t want to sound like I’ve got all the answers to what these stories tell us – but I want to do a little work with you today to start seeking out these questions.

 

Questions for us:

 

1.                Were the first disciples slackers?

Maybe this question bothers you.  These disciples are the SAINTS, right?  They weren’t slackers, how dare I say that.  Well, look at what’s going on here.  First of all, Jesus is preaching on the shore and going on so long that the crowd begins to grow and press in on him.  First of all – that’s really amazing.  Do you think that’ll happen today?  The opposite happens to me!  If I go on too long people start to LEAVE not move up closer to the front!

 

*Go to boat

 

Anyway, this diverse crowd of people from the area of Capernaum is eager to hear the message.  And Jesus is running out of shoreline to preach on—so he looks over and sees four guys cleaning their nets next to two boats that might have said something like “Pete & Drew’s Bass Boat” and the “Sons of Thunder Fishing Company” on their sides.  Now, first of all, this group already knows Jesus – he’s teaching the crowd and they are washing their nets.  They’re not the ones pressing up against him – they aren’t a part of the eager crowd… Maybe they’ve heard what they consider to be Jesus’ “shtick” and are not “the front row people” anymore.  Pete and company are not the cream of the crop.  Not even in fishing.  They’ve spent the night fishing and didn’t catch anything.  So to you and me they might not have shown much promise as bright shining potential disciples.

 

*Get in boat

 

But as so often is the case, Jesus sees things differently than we naturally do.  He gets in Simon Peter’s boat – Jesus enters their world, their community – and Jesus always seems to do this, right.  He gets in YOUR boat.  Jesus forces them to engage with what he’s saying.  He uses this difficult situation to recruit his first disciples.  And they don’t see it coming.  For sure they didn’t see in themselves what Jesus saw in them.  And you can take to heart that the same is true of you!  You don’t yet see in yourself what Jesus sees in you.  Maybe that’s why we pastors are so excited about the future of our church?  We’re starting to see in you what Jesus sees!

 

Pete wondering, “What’s going on here?”  You don’t usually just get in someone’s boat without asking.  He goes on preaching.  Do you remember those times when you were falling asleep in class as a kid and the teacher comes over near your desk and continues the lecture?  You wake up all the sudden and become the best student in the room – and I bet that feeling was here for Peter.  He’s not cleaning nets anymore.  He’s taking notes.

 

When Jesus finishes teaching he tells Pete to head out to fish again.  Okay if they are cleaning their nets – they are done for the day – fisherman clean their nets when they’re done, not before they go out.  I wonder if Pete is a bit annoyed here in tone of his response at first.  You might be too. 

 

So the second question I wonder is…

 

2.                What did Simon Peter think of Jesus’ strange request and the miracle catch of fish?

 

In June I went fishing with Tim Dickman from our church.  He’s a master fly-fisherman – been doing it most his life.  He invited me out for my first fly-fishing experience.  It was amazing.  After a lot of coaching from Tim I started to do that whole fly-fishing rhythm – the big loop that makes you look like the guy in “A River Runs Through It.”  There’s nothing quite like it, guys.  And ladies, understand that when a man is doing that he somehow feels like he’s part of the world instead of just standing on it.  For once we’re doing something beautiful.  So there I am in the front of the boat—doing something beautiful, and when I cast forward my rod stops abruptly and I hear a quick, “Uh-oh” from the back of the boat.  I look around and see Tim in the back of the boat with my line leading to his head and his shoulders lifted up like someone just slapped a sunburned back.  He slowly looked around while I apologized profusely.  Finally he realized that my line had swung around his noggin—then as I beautifully cast it forward it looped around itself and caught in the fly-hook, creating a nylon noose around his neck.  Talk about embarrassed!

 

Now, after this display of rookie behavior it would have been a really bad time to suggest to Tim that he improve a certain part of his cast.  I do believe he would have dumped me in the river and left me behind for the leeches if I had tried to give HIM advice.

 

But here we have Jesus, the carpenter, and I’m sure Fisherman in that day said it that way with a lowered eyebrow -- “the carpenter”, giving Pete, Drew and the Sons of Thunder Fishing Company advice on heading out to catch fish at the worst possible moment (in the middle of the sunny day) and at the worst possible time (after they had all just cleaned their fish-less nets off).

 

So Simon Peter is likely a little put off – but he replies with respect and obedience, saying, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."  You’re the boss, Jesus, but just so you know it’s a lost cause.

 

And Pete catches a haul of fish so enormous he calls over The Sons of Thunder Fishing Brothers to help out and both boats nearly sink.   And then Pete’s response is so prototypical of the man… the boat is sinking, he just hit the lottery of the fishing business, in one moment he went from fishing fraud to fishing millionaire, and Pete stops helping out, kneels in the boat toward Jesus, and says he’s such a sinful man that Jesus, who because of this miracle he now knows is truly the Son of God, shouldn’t even stay in his presence.  He is totally unworthy for Jesus to be in his boat.  But Jesus sees in this response all he needs to see.  Because Simon Peter understood inherently what we should practice likewise: we should never worship the miracle more than the miracle worker.  This is a theological problem we have in the church.  We love the idea of love more than we love to love people.  We give expecting to be given to instead of cheerfully giving out of our joy.  We focus on the non-essentials to the neglect of the essentials.  We point out splinters though eyes with 2x4’s in them.  And how very often we worship worship instead of learning to worship God!   During a key playoff game the Boston Celtics found themselves in the key last second situation and needed a basket to win the whole game.  The coach called a timeout and explained a lengthy new play with a brilliant strategy to take advantage of the weaknesses in the other team and score.  As the coach ended his speech and put down his playboard the most amazing player on the team, Larry Bird—the legend, the man, turned to the 4 other players going into the game and said, “Actually, guys, just give me the ball and get out of the way.”  The coach snapped quickly at Larry, saying “This is my team, and I’ll call the plays that we’re going to run, okay?”  The coach them wisely turned to the team and said, “Okay, guys, just give Larry the ball and get out of his way!”   You see – Peter knew immediately that though this was his boat and he was the captain and he usually called the shots, that this was THE MAN.  We’ve got to worship the giver not the gift.   And Jesus tells these 4 slackers with potential that only he sees that they’re going to get out of the fishing business and fish for people from now on.   Which makes me wonder the third question…

 

3.                Why did Jesus pick these men to be his core leaders?

 

Because these men already knew how to do life together.  Even if they weren’t on the front row in the service on the shore—they had something even better.  They had community.  They knew each others sins and hurts and dreams and families.  They already had nicknames for each other.  There’s something about that which Jesus wanted on his team.   You see, Jesus saw this big world as a lake full of fish – fish he wanted to catch.  And when he went about choosing the first 4 people of his crew he chose people already doing life together.  Jesus would rather call a community than an individual.  Living in community attracts Jesus to call these men to a very specific evangelistic identity together: they will be fishers of men.   But Jesus just gives them the contract, signs them up but doesn’t let them read it.  He flips to page 18—like a lawyer at a closing—and says “trust me.”   He called this community for a catch—and they had a specific purpose.     Please turn with me to the very end of the gospel story.  John 21 verses 1-14 show us the flip side of the coin for the disciples.  They’ve followed him around catching fish for three years.  They’ve had amazing successes – the most exciting and miraculous adventures of anyone to date.  And they have had demoralizing losses – the most heart-breaking and gut-wrenching perceived failures of anyone to date.   Jesus was murdered on the cross He was buried in a tomb But dozens of people have been seeing him raised from the dead. They just don’t know what to think. And in the midst of this struggle Pete wants to go back to fishing.   Please stand again for the reading of God’s word:

 

John 21:1-14
 
¹Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: ²Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³"I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

⁵He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"
"No," they answered.

⁶He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

⁷Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. ⁸The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. ⁹When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

¹⁰Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught."

¹¹Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

 

Do you see what’s happening here?  Both stories happen on the same lake – the Sea of Galilee (By the way, depending on your translation you may have Gennesaret or Tiberias listed as the names of this lake.  Those names are two coastal cities on the Sea of Galilee and different people called the lake by those names at times, including the gospel writers Luke and John).

 

This story is so very much like the first story in Luke 5 that I just couldn’t communicate about the one with out the other.  This entire John 21 passage is an ECHO of the earlier passage, isn’t it?  What’s it an echo of?  They’re out fishing for fish again – and Jesus shows up and gives them a clear Echo of Purpose to their lives!

 

Please be seated

 

I have a BUNCH of unanswered questions about this passage but we’ll touch on just three:

 

Questions for us:

1.       Why are they out fishing again?

 

I wonder if they’re out doing this because it’s all they knew before Jesus.  When you live in community doing some activity and hard times come you go back to what you know.  Fishing is what they knew.

 

But…

 

2.       Why the repeated miracle?

 

Well, they would have immediately reconnected the dots once Jesus said to fish again on the other side after fishing all night and not catching anything.  I bet it was an eerie feeling. 

Serious Jesus Déjà vu.

 

Jesus repeats this miracle in order to give an emphasized echo of their call.  Their purpose is not to go back to fishing – but to take their evangelistic community to the ends of the earth.  So often we disciples forget our purpose, we withdraw back into the community we love and close our families, our small groups and our church buildings up.  We forget to leave an open chair at the table, in the group, in our row.  We forget that our original purpose was not some perfunctory mechanical fishing exercise – but that our call is to fish for the men and women around us.

 

How many of your remember how charged up you were about your purpose in life when reading The Purpose Driven Life, how much your small group, friends and family in the church were challenged.  Have you forgotten your original purpose?  Have you slipped back into fishing for fish.  This story should remind you that Jesus is showing up today and echoing what he’s already told you.  He doesn’t have to say something new – he just politely asks, “fish on the other side of the boat, friend.”  And we respond, saying, “Ah, we forgot our purpose!”

 

And yet another thing I wonder, is…

 

3.        Why is he eating breakfast with them?

 

Why is the resurrected Jesus just hanging out with them, cooking some bread and fish?  Why isn’t Jesus giving them some treasured last words of instructions?  Some master plan and strategy for reaching the Roman world?  Instead he’s kicking back and relaxing with them.

 

And the proof is that one of the men – these irrepressible fisherman – took the time to count each and every fish they pulled out of the water.  Did you notice that?  One of these guys piled up the fish over here then went, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc up to 153 and recorded the number for all posterity.  I wonder how much Jesus smirked at that.  As a little inside joke between us and Jesus the number even has significance.  You see research shows that there were exactly 153 species of fish at that time in history.  Jesus was re-making the point that their purpose was to take their evangelistic community to the ends of the earth and reach each and every kind of person in the world!

 

So, I want to urge you today to do everything you can to find a way to do life together.  To take your evangelistic community to the ends of the earth, and to live the purpose God already called you to and these stories are only echoing for you today: Fish for People!

 

Because, and here’s the last point…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small Group Questions

1.        Describe someone younger than you that has a lot of potential.

2.        Read Luke 5:1-11 – What one verse speaks to you the most?

3.        Outside of your family, who are the people you “do life” with the most?

4.        What people are you trying to reach right now?

5.        Does our small group emphasize reaching out enough?  Do we fill the open chair?

6.        Read John 21:1-14 – How would you apply this story to your everyday life?

7.        For what purpose has God called you that he is reminding you of today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Big Fish” by David Drury was presented on 11 July 2004 as part 6 in the series Adventure Stories at SLWC.

 

 

 

©2004 David Drury

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