Net Results, Part 1

September 23, 1990

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Scripture: Luke 5:1-11

This is the sermon that didn’t get preached two Sundays ago. Maybe you remember. I told you then that it wasn’t ready, wasn’t finished. Well, if you’ve been holding your breath ever since...hold on a little longer, because it still isn’t finished. Maybe it never will be.... BECAUSE WHAT HAS HAPPENED DURING THE INTERIM IS NOT THAT IT’S GONE AWAY---

On the contrary, it’s grown, IT’S gotten bigger, until it’s out of hand...too big for one session. The Bible will do that to you. The more you extract, the more you find left to be extracted.

So I’m going to have to give you about half today, and make you come back next week for the remainder.... Well, INVITE you to come back next week for the remainder. It’ll be sort of an ecclesiastical Perils of Pauline. It dawned on me as I was working along toward the text...we’re not even going to get to the text today---that’s next week... it dawned on me as I was working through the first verses of the passage that what’s really going on here is some remarkable, brilliant evangelism...too good not to explore in a little depth.

In the first part of the story, you find one of the best illustrations of superlative, gracious, and effective evangelism that I know anything about. And the packaging of it is so surprising. Nowhere in the story does Jesus specifically call them to Himself. Did you notice? I didn’t, for nearly a week. Nowhere in the account is there a specific invitation to discipleship.

And yet...look what happened. When the sun came up, they were entrepreneurs... when it went down, they were evangelists. At dawn, they were self-employed; At dusk, they were God employed. At daybreak, they were enveloped in fog; By sundown, their horizons were unlimited. At daybreak, they were exhausted; By sundown, they were exuberant. All they had at 6 o’clock in the morning were empty nets; By 6 in the evening, their cups were overflowing....

In the morning, they were fishermen.... By nightfall they were still fishermen, only with a new catch in mind...and with a new kind of bait. Ostensibly it’s a fishing story, of course, but what’s going on here, anyway? Who’s doing the fishing, and who’s being caught?

What’s so remarkable and beautiful about this incident, which must ultimately rest on eye-witness remembrance...it’s too vivid and detailed not to be, is the way Jesus managed, simply, always with dignity, and with impeccable respect for their personal integrity, to draw these men willingly into His orbit.

Talk about subtle, low-key, respectful evangelism...LOOK! He wasn’t even speaking directly to them when they felt the tug.... I’m talking, of course, about Simon and Company.... Jesus wasn’t speaking to them at all. He was speaking to those others on the shore. They were just along for the ride, out there in the boat with Him.

They couldn’t see His face, couldn’t see His expressions, His gestures. All they could see were His feet. I know Isaiah says “how beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings...” but gimme a break. He was looking away from them, not AT them. IT WAS ALMOST A CASE OF EAVESDROPPING...and that’s the point. EVANGELISM BY INDIRECTION...an oblique thing, a secondhand thing, a carom shot off the backboard, as it were. And maybe that’s part of what makes it so beautiful and effective.

He came in the back door on them. They weren’t expecting anything like that to happen. There they were, so exhausted and pre-occupied, they could hardly at first even keep their eyes open, and their minds focused, yet the Word which grasps, and convicts, and changes, found its target and executed its transformation. Was it a fluke, or does it happen that way more often than we know? Come closer. Forget for a moment that this is SCRIPTURE.

Forget for right now that this is holy, sacred literature. Sometimes that in itself raises a barrier. Enter into the story with your imagination intact, and let it sweep you along with it. Whether you’re an evangelizer or an evangelizee... is there such a word? I don’t think so...but whichever you are, or like most of us, a combination of both, there’s some good stuff here.

Discouragement in Paradise---that’s where it starts, and where it often starts, I think.

The area around the Sea of Galilee is probably the most beautiful part of the Middle East. Some of you have been there. It’s a lovely setting...palm trees, grass, shrubbery, blue lake, gentle waves lapping the shore.... BUT THIS PARTICULAR MORNING, Simon Peter and probably three other fishermen— James and John are named specifically later---Andrew is not named, but as Peter’s brother, he was almost certainly there, too.

These four that morning are not impressed by the physical beauty that surrounds the place. In fact, they’re totally oblivious to it. It’s the last thing on their minds. All night long, they’ve been fishing, out on that lake, and they’ve been skunked. It “tain’t funny, McGee”[1]. This is serious business. They haven’t been out there for recreation. They haven’t been out there for funsies. Fishing is their livelihood, the way they support themselves. You get a string of nights like this one and you’re wiped out....

You run out of money, then you run out of credit, then you run out of food. It’s not funny at all.

So there they are, early morning, out there on the beach, washing their nets. Everything about it spells DISMAL. They’ve tried, and come up empty handed. They’re hungry, they’re tired, they’re irritable. It’s a scene of abject discouragement.

A little later in the story, Peter says, “...we toiled all night and took nothing.” That pretty well tells it all. The empty nets are the sign and symbol of their failure. Now, I can relate to that. That’s the way I fish, too. I mean, that’s what happens to me just about every time I go. I’ve tried in lakes, I’ve tried in rivers, I’ve tried in the big ocean, I even tried once in a stocked aquarium, until they caught me and chased me out.... Lack of patience, lack of knowledge, lack of the right equipment, lack of luck... I don’t know what it is... maybe a combination of the above.

All I know is I can go to the exact spot somebody else has just been haulin’ ‘em in hand over fist, and I’ll strike out, sure as the world. Now, Nancy can fish. That’s my wife, the mother of my daughter, who is about to get married...next Saturday morning...you’re invited.

Nancy can fish. She’s good. She has a knack for it. Once...and you may not believe this...but once we were out in a little boat on Crystal River, when we lived over there. She was fishing on one side of the boat, and I was fishing on the other.... same boat, same bait, same water... identical. She reeled in six redfish, just like that, big suckers, one after the other, and I didn’t have a strike.

Finally, I said, Listen, this isn’t right. I’m the preacher. Let’s change places. Maybe that’ll make a difference. You get on this side, and I’ll get on that side. She wasn’t very enthusiastic about it, but I was bigger and I had the peanut butter sandwiches in my pocket, so at last she agreed, reluctantly, muttering under her breath. I took her place, and not only that, but I took her rod and reel, the one she’d been using, and gave her mine. You may not believe this, but I threw the line out, exactly where she’d been casting. It hit the water, plunk...and I declare, a 4 lb. redfish stuck his head up out of the river, and said, “Hey, what happened to Nancy?”

You can get discouraged in a hurry about fishing. But you can get discouraged about some other things, too, can’t you? You can get discouraged sometimes in your work. You knock yourself out, butt your head against the wall, and it just doesn’t go the way you thought it would, or planned for it to. That can get you down. You can get discouraged sometimes in your marriage....

You can get discouraged sometimes about your kids.... Parenting can be tough. That can get you down. You can get discouraged about your ability to face some pressures in your life, or some habit, or some controlling passion that has hold of you, that you haven’t mastered yet. You’ve worked at it, and you say, What do I have to show for my efforts. I haven’t made any progress at all.... THAT can get you down. DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS TO FEEL LIKE A FAILURE?

Somebody told me a while back about the young man who went off to college. He didn’t get off to a very good start. And that was the high point. From there it degenerated. He wasted his time, wasted his parents money, and then flunked out...straight F’s across the board. To soften the blow, when he got the news of his grades, he sent a telegram to his mother: “Flunked out, prepare father.” She wired back, “Father prepared, prepare yourself.”

It’s not easy to face our failures. It’s not easy to face those empty nets...much less to wash them, implying that you plan to use them again, maybe to face even more discouragement, WHEN WILL IT EVER END? Sure it can get you down. I think we can all identify with the empty net syndrome.

Now that’s when Jesus appears on the scene. Discouragement can be the father of breakthrough...and with Jesus how often it happens just that way. (There’s a little evangelistic nugget right there....) DID HE KNOW THESE MEN BEFORE THIS? Not according to Luke’s version, he didn’t. Their meeting on the lakefront that morning constitutes their first encounter.

But He sees something in them, surprisingly, that looks promising. Don’t ask me to explain that, except it’s so typical....Bone-tired, unshaven, aching, dirty, smelly, failure-ridden fishermen. What could have possibly attracted His attention there, in any but a negative way? You want to know why the Gospel is called “good news”? Here it is....

He sees them at their lowest, at their worst, at the absolute bottom, yet somehow discerns potential. Boy, that’s encouraging. I’m glad I wasn’t on the selection committee to pick Jesus’ disciples. I’d probably have voted against every one He chose.... Look at those guys---sullen, sour-eyed, hangdog grumps, discouraged almost to the point of disability.... HOW COULD THEY EVER CONVINCE ANYBODY OF ANYTHING?

If you want to change the world, don’t start with those turkeys.... That’s what I would have probably said. BUT JESUS SEES POSSIBILITIES. And look how He begins to call it out of them. Now we’re getting into it. He asks them to help Him. Astounding! It’s supposed to be the other way around, isn’t it? Isn’t He supposed to help people? Instead, He beseeches their assistance in performing His ministry.

It’s the same approach He used with the Samaritan woman at the well that day up in Sychar in the story John tells us about.... “Would you get me a drink of water?” If He had started out with her the way He ended...telling her who He was, and all about her life and past indiscretions...she wouldn’t have hung around 30 seconds. He asked a favor of her, something simple, practical, and manageable. She responded to that, and the rest flowed from there.

Same thing here. He could have scolded them. He could have shamed them. I suppose. He could have laughed at them. He could have pointed out the magnitude of their failure.... Those are all ministerial approaches we use in the Church.

How many “auto” sermons have you heard in your life? You “auto” do this, and you “auto” do that.... I’m sorry, that’s not what I need to hear when I have empty nets at my feet. I ALREADY KNOW WHAT I OUGHT TO DO. I already know things I’m not doing now. I don’t need somebody to hammer me down and pound on me. I need somebody to believe in me. I need somebody to express faith in me, to see what I can’t see, to lift me and give me a new vision.

Jesus sees the potential in these men. And He patiently begins to enlist them with something they can handle. “Simon, come help me, would you?” No put down, no patronizing...perfect respect...How encouraging.

“Would you give me a hand? Look, all these people are gathering. Some of them have

come a long way to hear the Word. They’re hungry for it, and more are coming. Would you let me use your fishing boat so I can speak to all of them? You could paddle me out just offshore.... You’re a fisherman. You know how to handle a boat.... Just hold it in place, so it won’t turn or drift away.... How about it?”

WHO COULD RESIST THAT? Tired as he was, downcast and discouraged as he was, Peter said, “Well, sure, no problem. I think I can handle that. It shouldn’t take long.” And together, probably with Andrew, they climb into the fishing boat and shove off a few feet so Jesus can speak to the gathering crowd.

Can you picture it? If you’ve ever been in a youth group, if you’re ever been in the Methodist Youth Fellowship, you’ve probably participated in a Galilean Service, a lakefront service, where the speaker stands in a boat and talks to the group on the shore.

Here Peter and Andrew are on the fringe of the main activity, mere accessories to the apparently central drama.... Jesus is not speaking to them....He’s speaking to the people out front, the people on shore. He’s not directing His remarks at them.

HE’S NOT EVEN LOOKING AT THEM.... Nor are they obviously listening.... They have a job to do... They’re manning the boat, keeping it turned the right way, keeping it from drifting away. BUT ALL THE WHILE THEY’RE PICKING UP INDIRECTLY WHAT HE’S SAYING.... THEY ARE OVERHEARING THE GOSPEL.

The account in Luke doesn’t tell us specifically what they heard. Don’t you wish that had been included? We don’t know what text Jesus used that day, what illustrations He might have employed, whether He gave an invitation. We don’t know.

Maybe they heard Him say, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Maybe they heard Him say, “I am come that you might have life, and have it in all its abundance.”

Maybe they heard Him talk about how God cares for people... the Good News about forgiveness, about healing, about a second chance, about how God never gives up. Maybe they heard Him say no matter who you are, or what you’ve done, or what kind of mess you’ve made of things up to now, there’s room in the Kingdom for you, if you’ll accept the King’s incredible offer of grace.

There was no coercion placed on them, no arm twisting, no psychological pressure whatsoever applied. When the service was over, they could have just walked away, and gone home, and gone to bed, without so much as a “kiss my foot.” They were perfectly free to do that, no questions asked. It would have been easy.

Well...no, it wouldn’t have been easy. NOT AFTER THAT. Something in what He said resonated with something inside of them. Something in His words struck a chord. It was real, it was genuine, it was compelling. I thought I knew what I wanted before, BUT THIS IS BETTER. And maybe even more than what He said, something in what He WAS drew them inescapably,

His demeanor, His manner, His kindness. He knew them, they could tell that, yet He treated them as if they were somebody. He treated them as if they were important, as if they mattered. If God is like this, then I want to be a part of it. Something happened to their tiredness and discouragement during that boat ride. The old, empty nets back on the shore somehow didn’t matter anymore.

He never tried to overwhelm them. He didn’t even confront them with demand for decision. He just laid it out, just told the story...and let the Word, coming through personality, work its magic. Now, that’s probably the place to begin to wrap up the first part of Net Results. Jesus is not finished with these men once He hooked ‘em. This isn’t the end of the story, it’s only the beginning.

“Launch out into the deep...put down your nets....” That’s yet to come. After the coming to Jesus, there is always the going. The first part is never an end in itself. But for the initial allurement, the first bringing in, I want to suggest eavesdrop evangelism; letting people overhear the Gospel may in many cases be the most effective evangelism you can have, especially for those infected with just enough Christianity to keep them up to that point from catching the real thing.

For the mildly curious, the merely attracted, the “cultured despisers” as Schliermacher called them, the confrontational rarely works... but to a reasonable, sincere non-directing presentation of spiritual truth, they are often willing to listen.

Never underestimate, the power of a quiet testimony, maybe especially valuable when uttered from a secular platform. These fishermen weren’t hooked from a pulpit; they were hooked from a boat. Never underestimate the value of the calm, sincere word that unpretentiously points to the reality of the spiritual, the moral. THIS IS WHAT GOD HAS DONE IN MY LIFE... THIS IS WHAT MY CHURCH, MY FAITH, MEAN TO ME.

You never know...the Christian lawyer, the Christian dentist, the Christian homemaker, the Christian nurse, the Christian business man...your office, your workplace, your dining table, your boat may be the most effective evangelistic arena there is for somebody. Throw it out. Share it. You never know who might be eavesdropping.

My first conscious experience of life’s religious dimension came this way. Those responsible weren’t even aware of what they were doing, but I remember. My grandfather died when I was just a child.... Most of it is foggy, but I remember that a hush descended on the house for a few days. I didn’t understand it, I didn’t really know what it meant. All I knew was that things were different, things had changed.

And sometime during that period, I overheard my father and my uncle talking about Grandpa. They weren’t talking to me. They didn’t know I was around. I was just there in the background, in the shadows.

But they were saying something about heaven, and life after death, and peace, and hope. I couldn’t grasp it, but even at that age, I knew they were serious. I knew they were talking about something important, something that meant a lot something big... bigger than my toys, and my little Spalding baseball glove.

A lot has happened since then, but for me, it was the beginning. He that hath ears to hear, let him overhear.

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[1] Fibber McGee and Molly was a radio program of the 1940s and 50s and Molly’s repeated phrase at Fibber’s lame humor when she was trying to say something important was, “Taint funny, McGee!”