Depart from Me Ps 138; Isa 61:1-13; 1 Cor 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11

Introduction  https://youtu.be/vQk6hTUAPW0

The miraculous catch of fish is one of the most memorable stories of Jesus in the Gospels. In it we may see ourselves going through a personal transformation as know-alls about life to following Jesus as someone greater than we ever imagined. The story is neatly broken into three parts.

Background vv.1-3

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

These first three verses set the stage for what is to come. The crowds are pressing in on Jesus to “hear the word of God”. “Word of God” in the Old Testament usually means a prophetic utterance (1 Sam 9:27; 2 Sam 16:23; 1 Ki 12:22; 1 Chron 17:3), and in the New Testament, it refers to the gospel[1]. If I am using “word of God” in this dynamic way, and ask, “Do you believe in the word of God?”, I am not asking whether you believe in the Bible, but whether you really believe that God still speaks today and speaks with power and authority[2]. There is a simple test as to whether we believe these things in our hearts, is this word true of us, “Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honoured wherever it goes, just as when it came to you.” (2 Thess 3:1).

The Miracle of the Catch vv.4-7

4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

Peter, the professional fisherman that he was, is hesitant on two counts. Firstly, they have nothing to show for their labours, plus he knows that the sort of nets they have been using will be visible to the fish in daylight. Nevertheless, he responds with a description honouring Jesus’ authority, he calls him “Master”[3]. His reason for putting down the nets is simple, “at your word”[4].  Since Peter had a close range heard Jesus command demons to come out of people, and they did (Luke 4:34), and heard Jesus rebuke the fever in his mother and law, and she was instantly healed (Luke 4:38), this isn’t totally surprising. We have a bit of a standing joke at home. Donna says I have a coming out of my study and saying something like, “We/I am going to Myanmar/The Philippines…” and that’s how it turns out. Can God really speak his word to us like that today?

6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

The enormous scale of the catch of fish will prove to be prophetic of the future ministry of Peter and his friends[5]. The astonishment that struck the disciples works itself out in a spontaneous response form Peter as the leader of the group.

Confession and Call vv.8-11

8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished[6] at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Peter’s response must not be misinterpreted. He certainly is embarrassed by his hesitation in not instantly taking Jesus at his word without question, after all, the word of Jesus is one with the Word which created the world[7]. Yet there is something very profound here. In falling down before Jesus[8] and calling himself a “sinful man”[9] Peter is not suffering from low self-esteem, he has been gifted with seeing a manifestation of God himself, so that of Moses at the burning bush when he hid his face and was “afraid of seeing God” (Ex 3:5-6), and when Isaiah cried out in the temple when he saw the glory of God, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isa 6:5). The final example is when the apostle John sees Jesus in his risen, ascended and exalted state at the start of Revelation, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (1:17-18).

The response of men and women who have a real revelation of the grandeur of God is always a sense of their own smallness[10]; they are overcome and undone. Are such things still real today? Indisputably, “Yes!”.

As it happens, I was discussing the nature of prophecy/prophetic preaching with a local pastor recently. I can recall hearing prophetic type sermons in 1974 and 1975[11] and he said of a teaching in Melbourne in 1990 on Isaiah 6[12] “it was like being there”. There’s something about the intensity of the presence of God that is unforgettable[13] and beyond all rational explanation.

Jesus instantly calms the fear induced in Peter’s heart by the holy presence of God for this is always how Jesus responds to sinners who turn to him for help.                                                               And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Whilst those aware of their sin might feel it is too dangerous to be in God’s presence, the Lord will actually draw us into an ever-increasing intimacy with himself.

When Christ describes their future as “catching men” he uses a word that means to “take alive”[14]. Clearly overwhelmed by the magnitude of all Jesus says and does the fishermen prove to be true disciples, “left everything” i.e. the biggest catch of their career, to follow Jesus. as they say, if Jesus is not Lord of all he is not Lord at all. Everything they once valued is now in the past. Some of you probably know that old chorus. “I have decided to follow Jesus…no turning back, no turning back…”. The response of the disciples makes them models for all future Christian living. One of the most difficult things the Lord ever asked of me was to turn away from a professional career path of being a scientist and to go into a profession I had long, in my youthful ignorance, looked down on, which was school teaching. I can still remember the pain of that decision.

Conclusion

The story of the miraculous catch of fish has been preserved not primarily as a proof that Jesus is God in the flesh[15], but because it is a call and commission to discipleship.  Throughout scripture there is a pattern or shape to the call of God on someone’s life. First there must be an unfolding of the identity of God in Christ[16] in a way we haven’t seen him before. Second, seeing ourselves in the light of the majesty of the Lord[17] in a new way will always draw out of us[18] a sense of our insignificance in our own eyes before God. These sorts of revelations will always, literally or metaphorically, drive us to prostrate ourselves before the Lord (Luke 5:8; Acts 9:3-4, 22:6-7, 26:12-14; Rev 1:17)[19]. The case of Job springs to mind. A the end of 40 chapters of to and fro between Job and his mates about right and wrong God, much like today’s world of “experts”[20], God spoke to Job out of a divine storm (38:1; 40:6) and the now wise man blurted out, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent[21] in dust and ashes.” Thirdly and the turning point between the despair that leads to hell (cf. Judas) and the joy that leads to heaven[22], comes a reassurance of Jesus that he always befriends sinners who turn towards him in need. Finally, on this journey into our true identity in the Lord comes a commissioning to something greater and vaster than all this-worldly attachments. The call to discipleship is most definitely a counter cultural call. If you are a Christian, you will be the “odd person” out. You know that what Jesus said, “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions…life is more than food, and the body more than clothing….” (Luke 12:15, 23) is true of your life, and knowing this, you will desire with all your heart that the journey of revelation>lowliness>reassurance of God’s acceptance>commission to a divine call will be repeated again and again until the very end of your days.

What is it that holds this dynamic movement of obedience and mission back in the Church? In pray with another brother this morning I sensed the Lord was speaking about how we disqualify ourselves. You may remember the excuses the prophets characteristically came up with in resisting their call. Moses, ““Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.””. (Ex 4:10), Gideon, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”” (Judges 6:15), Isaiah, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…” (Isa 6:5), Jeremiah, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” (Jer 1:6), Amos, ““I was1 no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but tI was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people” (Am 7:14-15). All these men were overcome by the Word of the Lord. Even more profoundly and strategically, in the age of grace Paul can say, “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Cor 15:9-10). A sense of personal unworthiness is an essential God-given realisation, and so qualification, for following Jesus as his disciple. The call of Jesus is our only qualification for following him.