Peter knelt in the water, intent on washing
his nets. Unaware of the crowd of people thronging Jesus, he, along with James
and John, continued the task of rinsing grime from the Galilean Sea off their
empty nets. The night had been long and fruitless. They had not a single fish
to show for their efforts. Suddenly, Peter heard his name. “Simon, may I use
your ship?”
Willing to assist Jesus, Peter left his net
and resumed his seat in the fishing boat. He nudged it away from the shore and
listened as Jesus’ voice now projected across the Galilean Sea to the multitude
on the bank. Jesus finished His message
and turned once again to Peter. His request this time was astounding: “Launch
out into the deep, and let down your nets for a drought” (Luke 5:4).
Why Launch?
It was a well-known fact that in the Sea of
Galilee, fishermen caught fish at night in the shallow water—not in full
daylight in deep water. Peter could obey Jesus and launch out, or he could
follow his senses and decline. Peter didn’t know it, but his choice in that
moment would be the pivotal point for the rest of his life. Peter’s decision and the resulting miracle
reveal that a single act of obedience to Christ’s command can change the course
of an entire life. When Peter chose to place his faith in the powerful word of
God, his life would never be the same.
You and I likewise have the opportunity to experience the miraculous
power of God. We serve the same Jesus who spoke to Peter two thousand years
ago. We have access to His written Word, and we have the promises of His
faithfulness to back us. Why then do we experience a lack of fruit in ministry?
Why could we echo Peter’s comment, “Master, we have toiled all the night [by
our methods, with the means we know] and have taken nothing”?
Lack of resources is not our problem—we have
the boat and net. There is no shortage of souls that need Christ—the sea is
wide open and ready. But we sit on the dock attempting to catch fish in shallow
waters. Before anything great will be
accomplished for Christ, we must make the decision to “launch out” at His
command. Like Peter, our response to God’s Word will either invite His blessing
and power, or it will hinder it. Great
things will happen only as we launch forward in our service to Christ. Without
Spirit-led, Spirit-filled action, our lives and ministries will become
spiritually stagnant. Like Peter’s disappointing night of fishing, our attempts
to serve the Lord in our strength will yield empty nets every time. As we heed
Christ’s commands, however, we will experience miracles made possible only by
the hand of God. Are you ready to launch
out?
Get Out of the Shallows
Perhaps our greatest obstacle in seeing the
miraculous power of God is our own apathy. We generally do what we want to do.
And most of us don’t want to leave our comfort zone. In today’s accommodating culture, we are
willing to dabble in service for the Lord—we may even wade out a bit further
than the Christian next to us—but we insist on staying near the shore. It’s one
thing to receive Jesus as your Saviour; it’s another thing to wholeheartedly
follow Him as a disciple.
Moving into deep water requires a full
commitment. It means you weigh anchor and set your sails to catch the wind. It
means you leave the shallows behind— fully surrendered to the directions of the
Captain. In the murky waters of shallow
Christianity, we lose focus; we forget the very purpose of ministry is to preach
the gospel. In the shallows, we’re often
busy, and we generate a full array of programs. But we don’t catch fish! Our
ministries become more about service than about reaching lost men and women
with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Content with the status quo, some will sit on
the dock and look out over the water, offering only complaints when our nation
turns from God.
We
can lament the state of our nation and the multitudes of lost people around us,
or we can roll up our sleeves, hoist the sails, and launch out into the deep.
Cross the Threshold of Humility
When Christ saw a need, He acted. He was
willing not only to condescend to come to Earth, but also to interact with
sinful, flawed humanity. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth”(John 1:14).
Peter’s
boat wasn’t freshly scoured. It was slimy and smelly. Peter himself had been
working with filthy fishing equipment all night as well. But Jesus cared about
people more than He cared about comfort.
Jesus’ ministry didn’t target the upper class—those who would cause Him
the least discomfort. He reached out to the needy. God in the flesh now entered
the environment of a common fisherman.
No real ministry will take place in your life or mine, until we, too,
are willing to cross the threshold of humility. We must obey the instruction of
Philippians 2:3 to “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
The greatest opportunities for ministry often
are, humanly speaking, the most distasteful.
Serving in in our cities, seeking out wounded souls, and ministering to
shattered lives isn’t always easy, nor is it comfortable. But it is
fruitful. James 4:10 directs us
to, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you
up.” Jesus condescended to our low estate so every person might have
an opportunity to be saved. May gratitude for His unspeakable gift compel us to
likewise serve with humility.
Set Aside Human Reasoning
Initially, Peter responded to Jesus’ command
like you and I would have done—with logic. “Master,
we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.” I can imagine Peter’s thoughts behind those
words. Jesus, really? You’re great at carpentry, and you’re a marvelous
preacher, but how about we leave the fishing decisions to me? This is my
specialty. Peter had already toiled all
night. He knew his work—he was a master fisherman. What Jesus had just asked
Peter to do was contrary to all of Peter’s training and experience. Even so, Peter made a watershed decision: “Nevertheless at thy word I will let down
the net.” There is a pattern I see
repeated throughout Scripture: God often doesn’t intervene until the task is
humanly impossible. God loves impossible odds.
Remember Gideon? “And the Lord said
unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the
Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying,
Mine own hand hath saved me” (Judges 7:2). Gideon experienced the
truth that faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. George Müller said it well: “There is no
glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power
ends.”
Would
you like to launch out? Recognize that what Jesus calls us to do—whether it is
in witnessing, giving, serving, forgiving, or emptying self—is usually in exact
opposition to human reasoning. Discipleship is not a life of logic or
reasoning. It is a life of faith.
When we are willing to follow Christ into
deep, unfamiliar waters, we will have closer fellowship with Him. This comes
simply out of the complete reliance upon Him to meet our every need and guide
us in our way. When the only answer to a problem is dependence on God, we tend
to listen to Him more closely and spend time with Him more often. As we launch
out in sharing the gospel, giving of our time and resources, and humbling
ourselves to serve others, our growth becomes deeper than that of a Christian
who insists upon sitting on the dock. Out in the deep water, we learn how to
trust and how to pray. Those who launch out learn quickly that God accomplishes
great things with a life wholly lived by faith, for “without faith it
is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6).
The Lord knows our limitations. He knew
Peter’s fatigue, his doubt, and his needs. John 2:24–25 tells us: “But
Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and…he knew
what was in man.” Before we argue with Christ, we should try trusting
Him! As the omniscient God, He knows us better than we know ourselves.
