Luke chapter five, and the Bible
says, and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him
to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Genesaret. Now
that is such an interesting statement that's made there that they were
so interested in hearing the word of God. Now, they didn't
get into politics, and they didn't get into philosophy, and they
didn't get into psychology. They were interested in hearing
the Word of God. Now, when Jesus spoke, not only
is He the Word of God, that's what we find in John chapter
1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. So we have Him as the Word. but
every time he spoke, he is speaking the word of God. And he left
to us the Bible and that is God's word to us. So as we read it,
it's just as good as if we were there by this lake, hearing him
teach and preach the word of God. So there are many people
around him and they're all sides of them. You know, I was thinking
about that. If I put the pulpit, this little
thing back right there, and everybody got around me, you know, I'm
more comfortable so I can see everybody. Well, the Lord is
in that position. He said there he saw two ships
standing by the lake. And, but the fishermen were gone
out of them and were washing their nets. So they, it's a fishing
boat. He's going to transform it into
a pulpit. He's going to go onto one of
these boats and sit down and he's going to have this huge
crowd in front of him. And he's going to continue to teach the
word of God. It's the word of God that God
uses to save his people. God's word. He, the preaching
of the word is so essential. And Jesus knew that it's essential
that people hear the word of God. They hear the plainness
of the word of God. They hear the truth of the word
of God. They hear the truth of the gospel. And it's not some made up gospel. And he gets out there, he says,
and he entered one of the ships. So we have some disciples that
own those ships. One of them is by the name of
Peter. Here his name is Simon. Simon Peter. His last name is
Peter. His first name is Simon. Most
of the time we know him by his last name in the scripture. And
he gets into the boat. He entered into one of the ships
which was Simon's and asked him. Here we have prayed him. that
he would thrust out a little from the land and he sat down
and taught the people out of the ship. So he gets to a vantage
point so people can hear him clearly. He doesn't want anybody
to not hear the word of God. He wants them to hear the Word
of God, and they're captivated by the Word of God. That's why
they're around him. Now what effect it had on them,
we don't know. But we do know that they were
interested in hearing the Word of God. So he enters into that
ship, he finds a place to sit down, and then he begins to continue
his message, his lesson, whatever he's teaching on. We don't have
the exact message, but I know the Apostle Paul said, we preach
Christ in him crucified. And I believe that's what Jesus
preached, Christ in him crucified. The Messiah came here on purpose
to save a people from their sin. And the only way that he could
do that was going to the cross. He must become their substitute. He must be their sin bearer.
So no doubt he's teaching some of the gospel. He's teaching
about himself. He's teaching about his internality. He's teaching about the covenant.
He's teaching about salvation. And it says there in verse 4,
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, The message
is over. He's said enough. And so he tells
Simon, who's the owner of the boat, and he's been washing the
nets. He says, Simon, launch out into
the deep and let down your nets for a draught. Now, the word
draught that we find here, I'm gonna use a colloquialism, a
gob of fish. Put your nets down and there
will be lots and lots of fish. And you know, the Lord is telling
us something about himself here. He's telling us that he is not
all knowing, but he is all powerful. He knows all things. He knows
all things that has ever happened. He's purposed the things that
have happened. but he also is Lord over all things. Now we're gonna see that here
as Peter says in verse five, says Simon answering and said,
master. Now he addresses him with such
kind terms. You are my master. In another
place, he is asked by the Lord Jesus, who do you say that I
am? And Peter said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus responded by saying,
flesh and blood did not reveal this unto you, but my Father,
which is in heaven. So there has been a revelation
that Peter has gone through that he understands that this one
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Christ, the one that has
been promised to come and take care of the problem that happened
in the Garden of Eden, and it still continues to our day. That
is sin, a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked. Well,
Simon says, your master, we have worked all night. Now, I don't
know of many people that fished during the night, but there are
places that happens. And apparently it happened here.
We have fish. He says, we have toiled all night.
And it's one of the saddest report a fisherman can give when we
ask him, what did you catch? And they said nothing. We fished
all night and did not catch one fish. Well, that's disappointing
for a fisherman, particularly when you're depending on that
for your income. This fisherman was His income was catching fish. So they'd been out there and
I'm sure that they traveled around the lake trying to find the place
where the fish was. And yet he responds to the voice
of Jesus and said, master, and we're gonna see just how powerful
that name is. Because the name of Jesus as
master means that he has all ability to do all things and
he's all powerful. So he says here, just go out,
launch out into the deep toil. And we'll get some fish and Simon
said answering said master We have worked all night and have
taken nothing nevertheless Peter answers a good answer nevertheless
and that goes on to say Nevertheless at thy word Now what has he been
preaching all along the Word of God? What did the people come
to hear? The word of God. What did he
teach from the ship? The word of God. And now it boils
down to this. Peter said, at your word, at
your word, he says here, Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down
the net. Now we're tired, we've worked
all night, we have no fish to show for it, we're cleaning the
nets, we're headed home for bed, but at your word, because you
said, drop down the nets and we'll catch fish, at your word,
we will go ahead and do it. And when they had done this,
So Peter and his helpers, his shipmates dropped the nets. Now I'm not, I don't understand
at this moment, I've never studied about what kind of nets they
have, but they had some kind of net for catching fish. It
wasn't a fishing pole, it was a net. And they dropped down
that net. Now how they dropped it down?
I don't know how deep it had to go, I don't know. But I know
this, because the Lord Jesus, the God of heaven, was there
with them, and he said, put down your net for a great gob of fish. Peter said it, we worked all
night, nevertheless, at your word, we will put the nets down.
And it tells us here, and when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. So some of the coil, some of
the lines of their net begin to break as a result of all of
the fish that was in there. And they're going to have to
call their partners to help them. But there is a great multitude
of fishes in that net. Now, going from nothing to a
A great big gob of fish is a miracle of God. Only the Lord Jesus was
able to control those fish. You know, at one time, one of
the disciples owed some taxes. And Jesus said, go down to the
lake, throw your hook out there, catch a fish, and when you bring
it in, take the coin out of its mouth and pay your taxes. Now,
I wish that was possible today, but he just showed how that fish
picked up a coin. It wasn't food, but he held it
in his mouth. How'd that happen? And the Lord says, go down there
and I'll bring that fish up to you. You are gonna catch that
fish. And he probably threw it back in. All he needed was that
coin. The Lord of glory, God almighty,
the Lord Jesus Christ is an absolute master of all things. He is the
sovereign ruler, the king of kings and Lord of lords. So at
this point, Those fish are all there at that time. The net goes
around them. They begin to pull it in. There
begin to be lines breaking on that. And then it goes on to
say here, and they beckoned their partners, the other fish, which
were on the other ship, that they should come and help them.
And they came and filled both the ships so that they began
to sink. What a miracle. What a load of
fish. I'm not sure Peter and his and
his fellow laborers, his partners, had ever had a catch of fish
so big. But they had it now, and their
boats were at the point of sinking. There was so many fish in it.
Now, when Simon Peter saw it, when this man who said, we've
toiled all night, we've worked all night, we're tired, When
he said, nevertheless, at your word, we'll drop our nets. When
this, when he saw what had happened, the response out of him as he
fell down at Jesus's knees saying, now this is what Peter said after
this event. He fell down in worship, he fell
down in respect, he fell down in honor, he fell down before
the feet of the Lord Jesus and said this, depart from me. Jesus, depart from me, for I
am a sinful man, oh Lord. He recognized at that moment
what kind of man he really was And what grace it took for God
to tell, or Jesus to tell him, thou art, after he said, thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. Only grace could
do that. Peter recognized a quality about
himself that was not that good. He was a sinful man. Depart from
me. I'm not worthy to be in your
presence. I shouldn't even be here. I doubted what you had
to say. I went ahead with it, but it
went through my mind. What are we doing this for? It
went through his mind. Why are we doing this? We've
already worked. Our muscles are sore. Why are
we doing this? Nevertheless, at your word, we'll
do it. And the result of that was the
great catch of fish. You know, the Lord shares with
us in his word that it's not by our power or by our might,
but by the Spirit, saith the Lord. It wasn't their effort
that did this. It wasn't their power that did
this. It was God gave them that, those
fish. And you know, it brings us right
back to the point that Jonah was in a great fish in the Mediterranean
Sea. And at the bottom of the sea,
he mentions this in the book of Jonah, salvation is of the
Lord. And once we're saved, we find
out we're not the people we thought we were. We find out what sinners
we were and what grace it took for God to save us. The grace
of God, for by grace are you saved through faith and that
not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. And then it says here, For he was astonished, Peter
was astonished, and all that were with him at the draught
of fishes which were taken. And so was also James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto them, Fear
not, from henceforth ye shall catch men. So they're going to
be ministers of the gospel to take the word of God out to people
so that God could save them. So what a draught of fishes.
What a statement that the Lord makes that he has power over
the fishes. He has power over individuals.
He can call and they will come. They say no, but he is all powerful
and he can bring us out of a horrible pit and set our feet on a solid
rock and establish our goings. So we're gonna come to a conclusion
right there. Jesus is the word of God and
he is all powerful and he does as he pleases. He saves whomsoever
he will, wherever he will. We're just gonna have prayer.
All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer.