Net Results, Part 2

September 30, 1990

Download Sermon

Scripture: Luke 5:1-11

When we left Pauline last week in the Perils of Pauline, the heroine had been tied to the railroad track by the wicked and sinister Black Bart and the train was inexorably approaching.

That will make no sense to you whatsoever unless you were here, and maybe not even then. We didn’t finish the sermon last week, that’s the explanation and the basis for the obscure reference. As in old-timey movie serials of days gone by, the story was cut in half, or roughly in half....maybe cut in half roughly, and we spent the time allotted on the first part-----

Jesus’ brilliant, psychologically astute, and extraordinarily gracious, non-patronizing calling of Peter and his fishing buddies to a higher way of life, to the exciting possibilities of a new walk with God. We tried to say....this is summary---you don’t have to take notes yet---- We tried to say He didn’t push His message on them, His evangel.... He didn’t ram it down their throats;

He didn’t manipulate them, or threaten them, or intimidate them....He wasn’t even speaking directly to them.... With impeccable tact, he just laid it out, just told the story, and let them respond, as the Word, with its own intrinsic authority, drew them to Him.

We tried to say it’s the best kind of evangelism you can have, the most effective kind of evangelism you can have in many cases...maybe in most cases---EAVESDROP EVANGELISM, LETTING PEOPLE OVERHEAR....and then allowing them to choose.

Now, is there more to the story? You bet, and equally important---the follow-up to the initial allurement. Don’t run too quickly to the end of the passage. There’s miracle along the way, maybe in more ways than one, as Jesus not only apprehends some men, not only RECRUITS them, but RE-CREATES AND RE-TRAINS them for their new vocation. That’s the part we want to look at today.

It ends, or this passage ends, with wonderfully satisfying culmination--- “They left everything and followed Him.” That’s the tag line, the wrap-up....a happy ending.... Night falls, the sun sinks slowly in the west, and 4 more converts are safely accounted for.

But just as in real life, which the Bible with such astonishing consistency reflects, it doesn’t happen in the story quite that automatically, or quite that smoothly. Peter and Andrew and James and John don’t just jump in one sudden movement, don’t just leap in an instant from practical paganism to venerable sanctity.... Does anybody? They are not just all at once mature disciples.

Jesus has hooked them.... granted.... they’re intrigued, they’re fascinated, they want to know more, they see something in Him and in His way of life they want to be closer to.

They’ve expressed a genuine interest, signed on, put their names on the line.... They are that far, and Jesus for the first time now has the chance to have a crack at them.... to give them personal direction. Maybe some of the rest of us are at that point.

WHAT DOES HE SAY TO THEM? What are their instructions as new inductees, new recruits in this ecclesiastical army....or given their background, maybe I should say navy.

Does He say, “Gosh, fellows, it’s great to have you. Welcome to the fold. It’s settled now...You’re in...No more worries, no more doubts, no more responsibilities....

Just enjoy the benefits of the new life, and the new relationship. I’ll take care of everything from here on out...You just relax and have a good time.....” IS THAT WHAT HE SAYS? Some Christians seem to ACT as if He does.

Did you hear about the community orchestra which had been planning and rehearsing for their fall concert for 5 months....They practiced every night, 5 nights a week, getting ready. At the last dress rehearsal, the conductor paused to thank everyone who had helped over the past months. He thanked the sponsors, the press, the costume ladies, everyone he could think of.

Finally, he said, “And I want to pay special tribute to one person who hasn’t missed a single rehearsal. Everybody else has missed at least one night except Joe, our first violinist. Stand up, Joe, and be recognized. Maybe you’d like to say a word.” The applause was deafening. When it had quieted enough for Joe to speak, he said, “Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. I thought it was the least I could do since I won’t be here tomorrow night for the concert.”

THERE ARE SOME CHRISTIANS LIKE THAT. Jesus doesn’t call us in just to rehearse, or just to fiddle around irresponsibly. He doesn’t do that here. Nor, it’s gratifying to notice, and so gracious.... Nor does He scathingly reject their past background, what they had been doing. He doesn’t ridicule their former way of life, their fishing life and tell them to have no more to do with it---

Neither escapism from the old life, nor repudiation of it. INSTEAD, He sends them right back to it, right back where they came from, straight back to those old nets, those discouraging symbols of backbreaking failure. Hear His words: “Launch out into the deep and put down your nets for a catch.”

Now here, of course, in the story at hand, He meant it literally. He meant, very plainly, go fishing again. There’s something beautiful about that, it seems to me...... Almost, in His injunction, a kind of hallowing of common toil. It could serve as a springboard for a Labor Day sermon.

He’s about to call them away from that old work to a new kind of labor, but He doesn’t disparage what they’ve been doing at all. He wants them to be successful in it. Can you believe God wants you to be successful in your work?

They’ve had a bad day, these guys, They’ve had a miserable day in what they started out to do. He doesn’t want them to leave the fishing business with a bad taste in their mouths. And there may be a pertinent point here, incidentally, with respect to Christian vocation. It won’t apply to everybody, but I want to make it anyway.

The call to preach.... what’s happening to these men.... the call to full time Christian service, as a vocation, doesn’t come, or rarely comes, authentically, when there’s nothing else left to do. There may be somebody here today wrestling with this very issue.... “I’ve blown it at everything else I’ve tried.... might as well go into Church work.” You need to be skeptical about the genuineness of that.

JESUS KNEW IT WOULD TAKE MORE COURAGE, more conviction more faith to walk away from overflowing nets than from empty ones. If they were to go with Him, let it not be out of desperation, but out of a positive, exuberant disdain. Finish with a flurry, finish on top, THEN, if you still want to come, I’ll know you mean business. “Launch out”, in context, for these men, means GO FISHING.

But His instructions have more than a literal significance, don’t they, and a far wider applicability.

I didn’t plan it this way at all, but I think it’s, if not providential, at least GOOD that on this day when we are both receiving new members and commissioning a work team to go out, we are considering Jesus’ reception and commissioning of a team. It makes an appropriate symbolic setting.

“Launch out into the deep and put down your nets for a catch.” The coming to Jesus initially can never be the end of the Christian pilgrimage.... It’s only the opening salvo, the sound of the starting gun. Jesus never lets us be content with just coming and receiving, as if that were an end in itself. Coming to Him is where it commences, not where it concludes.

Indeed, the 2 most characteristic words of the New Testament, in a real sense, are the words “come” and “go”. They form between them a kind of rhythmic alternation, almost like a Bach fugue, the one in pursuit of the other, running headlong through the Gospels and Epistles.

“Come and See”, Jesus says. “Come, ye blessed of my Father....” “Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden....” COME AND RECEIVE. That’s part of it, a big part, a graceful part. Thank God for that word of invitation.

BUT READ CAREFULLY. Jesus never lets His followers stay there. After the reception, after the welcome, after the celebration of arrival, there is always that other word, GO. If you look it up in a Concordance, it’s as prevalent as COME. “Go and tell the others....”

“Go and do likewise...”

“Go into all the world and make disciples....” Jesus no sooner receives these fishermen than He commissions them, just as He does all growing disciples..... All right. You’ve expressed an interest.

You’ve taken a pledge of allegiance. You’ve joined up, here in the shallow water of beginning. TERRIFIC. Now, move out into the deeper water where things are a little tougher and DO something with your faith to make it operative. TRY IT OUT. Put it into practice.... “Let down your nets for a catch.”

Now, we could stay right here profitably for a good long time, but the interesting thing to me is the very human reaction to this on the part of Simon Peter. I can see myself in his actions and responses so many times in the Gospel stories. It’s scary.

He’s so human.... He’s like a big puppy, almost, a big, clumsy, eager, unpretentious, open, honest puppy dog. He is what he is. What you see is exactly what you get with Simon Peter. You can read him like a book. He couldn’t be subtle if his life depended on it. His words, just blurted out, reveal precisely what’s going on inside his head.

And I don’t mind if you want to call it inspiration. Whether Luke designed it this way or not, I don’t know.... inspiration isn’t always limited to what the original writer has in mind at the time of writing.... but in the 3 sentences that Peter speaks in the account that has come down to us we see 3 sequential and growing responses to Jesus’ clear instruction. They are Simon Peter’s reactions, in order. I wonder if they might not be applicable to more than just one man.

“Launch out into the deep, and put down your nets for a catch.”

1) Response Number ONE— “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.” –the response of negative skepticism.

If that doesn’t sound like me sometimes, when I receive a divine prod, or a nudge in the direction of a godly undertaking, I don’t know what does. It’s almost like hearing your own recorded voice. “Lord, I can’t do that. What are you asking? You expect me to have patience with her? You know how tiring, and tedious, and boring she can be after 5 minutes of conversation. I know she’s lonely and frustrated and needs somebody to listen, but, Lord, I’ve tried before, over and over and nothing ever changes. I’ve had it up to HERE.

And I can’t teach that class. I’m not a good teacher. I either talk too much and dominate, or else I sit back and nothing happens. I’ve been down that road before, and it’s always the same.

And surely you don’t want me to preach again on tithing, O Lord, not that net. People get edgy, don’t you know that? I’m aware that more than half of the families of the Church give either absolutely nothing or no more than $5.00 a week to the Church’s support. I’m aware that for many what they DO give is more like a tip than anything else.

I’m aware that the cost of what’s being done is being borne very unfairly by a disproportionate sacrificial few, but I can’t just say that out loud. People won’t like it. It’s just going to stir things up and it won’t do any good anyway. Couldn’t you give me a more palatable topic to preach on? “We toiled all night and took nothing.” Peter in the story at this point is teetering on the brink....the frank acknowledgment of past failure, versus the invitation of Jesus to try again.

THE FAILURE IS REAL...He knows it, he admits it. HE’S TIRED. What does Jesus know about fishing, anyway? Forget it. It won’t work. This is authentic stuff.

Lord, I’ve tried to make this marriage work, and it won’t work. I’ve tried to get along with the boss, and it’s not working. I’ve had it. I’ve tried to make a difference in the community. I keep coming up empty. Nobody seems to care.

Peter’s first response to Jesus is where a lot of us find ourselves. There seem to be compelling reasons for dropping out, for giving up, for refusing to get involved. Our hands are blistered from pulling on those ropes. We’re overworked, overburdened, over scheduled, and just about burned out. I’m sorry, Jesus, I can’t see it.

2) But look. The next word. The next sentence. The teetering by just a margin tips toward compliance. It’s probably hopeless. I don’t think it’ll do any good.... BUT AT YOUR WORD, I WILL LET DOWN THE NETS.

“At your word”. Doesn’t that send a chill up your spine? How many improbable, unlikely, even impossible things have been accomplished for the Lord at the instigation of those 3 words. I love the story in the Book of Acts where Saul, the persecutor of the Church is taken into Damascus after his conversion experience having been struck blind by what happened to him on the road. Do you remember?

A man named Ananias has a vision, a call from the Lord to go to him and minister to him. Here’s the chief enemy of the Church, the man on a rampage through the Christian community, the man who has been arresting and persecuting the faithful... Ananias had to feel threatened.

He was probably frightened out of his wits. But “AT YOUR WORD”...he went, and called Saul, right off the bat, the moment he entered the room, BROTHER Saul, at the Lord’s recommendation.

Maybe here it was the voice, or the earnestness, or the sheer authority of his bearing...I don’t know...but SOMETHING. There was enough there for Peter....maybe just enough, but enough to persuade him to give it ONE MORE TRY.

At your word, I’ll let down the nets. That’s all he asks. And that’s all it takes to open a crack big enough to let Him go to work.

Call it crazy if you want to, call it wild, inexplicable, whatever you like, I’ve seen it happen too many times. At your word, Lord, I’ll preach one more sermon, teach one more class, prepare one more lesson, make one more phone call, attend one more meeting, visit one more home, invite one more person, write one more letter, greet one more visitor, pray one more prayer........I’ll give it one more shot. At your word, I’ll let down the nets.

THAT WAS WHEN IT HAPPENED. It couldn’t have happened. It was impossible. The catch

swamped the boat.

A surge of change hit Simon Peter at that point, I think. A new and profound sense of what he was dealing with, and what was dealing with him swept over him. The Man had been right after all.

Is this meant to be a miracle story? Well, sure it is. Of course it is.....

2 boatloads of fish, after.... overflowing boatloads. They hadn’t hauled in fish like that all their professional lives.

But maybe the miracle even greater than that is the inner miracle, the miracle that can take place inside a human heart when that person is willing to risk a step of faith without knowing what it may lead to. That’s all God needs. More dramatic than the load of fish is the removal of the load of skepticism.

Peter was impressed with Jesus before. He admired Him, he respected Him, he was drawn to Him. But it was only when he OBEYED Him that the magnitude of His awesome power and grace burst into his soul.

You can only stand back respectfully and take off your hat at Peter’s third word. It’s not a complete philosophy. You couldn’t use it to get a passing grade in a systematic theology course. It doesn’t give you any objective information whatsoever. But it reflects with startling vividness the impact Jesus of Nazareth made on the life of a man when that man put himself at his disposition.

“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

No false camaraderie in it, no shallow, sentimental piety, And no attempt at self-justification.... a simple, sincerely humble awareness of just who this is, and because of Who He is, the truth about himself in contrast.

Depart from me....no, don’t ever depart from me. I know now that I must stay with you forever. He has seen himself open-eyed and unblinking, in the light of the Perfect Model, and he realizes that in spite of his imperfection, HE IS LOVED. I think the name we give it, the technical name, is GOSPEL.

The closing lines of Albert Schweitzer’s classic book The Quest of the Historical Jesus, written way back in 1906, are haunting in their power to evoke the power and strange lure of the Christ....

“He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside. He came to those men who knew him not. He speaks to us the same word, ‘Follow me!’ and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who He is.”

There was still a long way to go for Simon Peter. But it would never be the same again. The journey from “We have toiled all night”, to “I am a sinful man, O Lord”, by way of “At your word” .... is the journey from empty net to overflowing cup, from failure to fulfillment, and even, ultimately, from death to life.

“Launch out into the deep.... let down your nets....and LIVE.