Reflection: "Catching People"In our Gospel reading for this week, we see that Jesus and Luke 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, but he was showing something, by his actions and words, about how he means for his followers to win people to faith. Here’s the point that I think Jesus and Luke are making in this whole story. Multitudes of people will be caught and receive eternal kingdom blessings, by followers of Jesus who teach the word of God, obey the commands of Jesus, humble themselves, and treasure Christ above all. First of all, Jesus is saying that great multitudes of people are going to be won by his power and authority. Jesus chose to teach from a fishing boat, so the boat is transformed into an instrument of evangelism. The boat is a place where the word of God is proclaimed to the crowds and where fish are caught. Then Jesus tells Simon, whom he’s just met, to push this gospel-bearing boat into the deep water for a catch. Simon answers ‘Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I’ll do as You say and let down the nets.’" This interchange between Jesus and Simon emphasizes the power and authority of Jesus that’s about to be shown. What’s the use, Simon thinks, we know all about fishing – and you’re just a carpenter. But we’ll do as you say. In v.6: Luke tells us that they had let their nets down and caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break; so they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both of the boats so full of fish, that they were about to sink." In other words, this is an utterly unprecedented catch of fish in a location that seemed hopelessly unproductive just a few hours before, and it happened because of the powerful and authoritative word of Jesus. The interesting concept about catching is, of course, that it’s not done to kill and eat, but to save and feed. The comparison isn’t between what happens to fish and what happens to people, but between trusting Christ to help you gather fish and trusting Christ to help you gather people - for rest and joy and eternal life. People come to the Kingdom through the work of man, but only by utilising the power and authority of Jesus. What does this parable tell us about the kind of people who go people-fishing and win others to Christ? I think we need to know, 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." Luke makes explicitly clear what Jesus had brought to this moment for people-fishing - he’d brought the word of God and if we dare risk the analogy: this was his bait for people-fishing. This is what was drawing the crowd - they were swarming to hear the word of God. The word of God is the greatest word there 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. We don’t need to be ashamed when we people-fish using the word of God, because it’s truth, not a technique. Jesus prepares for the parable by deciding to teach the word of God from a fishing 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 the fishers of men that they are - with the word of God. I think it’s significant to see that he "taught" the people, because sometimes Jesus proclaims, sometimes he teaches. Both are important in the life of the church today. But I want to suggest that in our evangelism – our people-fishing, using the bait of the word of God, should involve a lot of teaching, a lot of explaining. We live in a society that largely doesn’t know the true nature of God and the gospel. They don’t know the God-centred nature of what sin is, and what God’s glory and law are. Who Christ is, what happened on the cross, what faith is, what love is, and what heaven and hell are. Therefore, to win these people, we need to teach in ways that they can easily understand. 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. In Acts 19, Luke tells us that Paul "reasoned daily in the hall of Tyrannus (that is, he taught them for 2 years). What a great church planting strategy: teach unbelievers daily in a public hall about the Christian worldview. That’s the first mark of the disciples who do people-fishing……they teach the word of God. The second is…….. they obey the commands of Jesus. When Jesus told Simon to push out into the deep, Simon was sceptical. Think about it: If Simon hadn’t obeyed, there would have been no catch. I’m sure that Jesus could make the fish jump into the boat if he really wanted to, but he didn’t usually act that way. Yes, he has the power, but he calls us to be his instruments and he gave Peter as an example of how to go about it. Peter is not exactly brimming with faith, in fact he has lots of excuses we can also use them to avoid people-fishing. Isn’t it encouraging that the Lord doesn’t pitch Peter overboard, but rather accepts his half-hearted obedience and goes ahead and does the miracle anyway. I’ve heard dozens of testimonies to this effect, where people say: “I was too tired, it didn’t seem like a very good time to speak of Christ . . . but I did it anyway, and the great, never-weary Christ acted.” That’s the second mark of people-fishers……. they obey Jesus. Here’s the third: Those who go people-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 – Simon Peter fell down saying, ‘Go away from me Lord, for I’m a sinful man!’ Oh, how much we need to see this and also 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, so let’s get a movement going and call it, ‘Trust Jesus, get fish!’ No, Peter looked at grace – pure grace – and felt utterly unworthy and he said so. That’s a good place to start in evangelism - cocky witnesses only contradict the message of grace. Let’s wake up to the fact that what is moving here is a band of half-hearted, imperfectly obedient, justified sinners, who feel utterly unworthy of every blessing we have, especially salvation - only then will we be ready to fish. And now, finally, our fruitful people-fishers . . . treasure Christ above all. 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, Jesus takes the paralysing 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. This is our prayer: May the power and authority of Jesus Christ move multitudes of people into eternal kingdom blessings by means of his disciples who teach the word of God, obey the commands of Jesus, humble ourselves, and treasure Christ above all. And may we be obedient and do likewise. Amen Pastor Rick
3 Comments
Beryl Blok
4/2/2022 07:15:11 pm
Rick
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Lena Beryl Blok
4/2/2022 09:07:23 pm
Rick,
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Peter Andrews
7/2/2022 09:48:18 am
Well crafted Pastor Rick - clearly sets the challenge for us all
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