The Business of Catching Men Text: Luke 5:1-11
Introduction: The Commandeering of the Mundane
We live in an age that has meticulously built a wall between the sacred and the secular. We have our Sunday lives and our Monday lives. We have our spiritual thoughts and our business thoughts. We have the church building, where God is supposed to be, and the workplace, where we are supposed to be practical. But the Lord Jesus Christ has no respect for these artificial boundaries. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, which means He is Lord of the fishing industry, the tech sector, the construction site, and the kitchen sink. He does not come to us with polite suggestions for our spiritual betterment. He comes as a king to commandeer, to intrude, to repurpose, and to claim every square inch of our lives for His kingdom.
This story of the first disciples is not a gentle invitation to a new hobby. It is a sovereign invasion of the mundane. It is a story about the collision of human futility and divine superabundance. It finds these men at the end of their rope, washing their empty nets after a long night of fruitless labor. This is where God loves to meet us. Not in our strength, not in our success, but in the gritty, smelly, discouraging reality of our own limitations. This is where we see that the gospel is not a self-help program for improving our fishing technique. It is a rescue operation for failed fishermen who are about to be drafted into a war.
What happens in this boat on the lake of Gennesaret is a paradigm for all of Christian discipleship. It is about the authority of Christ's Word over our professional experience, the overwhelming nature of God's blessing, the proper response of a sinner to the presence of holiness, and the radical redefinition of our life's purpose. This is not just how a few fishermen were called. This is how we are all called.
The Text
Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing at the edge of the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, and the fishermen, having gotten out of them, were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we labored all night and caught nothing, but at Your word, I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish. And their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken, and James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon, were also likewise amazed. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
(Luke 5:1-11 LSB)
The Sovereign Intrusion (v. 1-3)
The scene opens with the Word of God creating its own gravity.
"Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing at the edge of the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, and the fishermen, having gotten out of them, were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat." (Luke 5:1-3)
The crowd is pressing in on Jesus, hungry for the Word. In the midst of this spiritual fervor, Jesus sees a scene of utter mundanity: fishermen washing their nets. This is the work that follows failure. Their night was a bust. Their nets are empty. They are tired, frustrated, and just want to go home. This is the unglamorous reality of their daily grind.
And what does Jesus do? He gets into Simon's boat. Notice, He doesn't ask permission first. He gets in, and then asks Simon to put out a little from the land. This is an act of Lordship. Jesus Christ does not recognize private property when it comes to the advancement of His kingdom. Your boat, your business, your bank account, your home, are all His. He has the right to commandeer any part of your life and turn it into a pulpit. And that is precisely what He does. He turns Simon's floating workplace into a platform for proclaiming the Word of God. The sacred has just invaded the secular, and the secular has been conscripted for sacred duty.
The Absurd Command and the "Nevertheless" Faith (v. 4-5)
After He finishes preaching, Jesus turns His attention from the crowd to the boat's owner. The sermon for the masses is over; the personal application for Simon is about to begin.
"And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.' Simon answered and said, 'Master, we labored all night and caught nothing, but at Your word, I will let down the nets.'" (Luke 5:4-5 LSB)
This is a test of lordship. Jesus, the carpenter, is giving fishing instructions to a professional fisherman. And the instructions are, from a professional standpoint, idiotic. Everyone knew you fished in the shallows, and you fished at night. Jesus commands them to go to the deep water, in broad daylight, right after they have spent an entire night catching absolutely nothing. He is directly challenging Simon's professional expertise, his experience, and his common sense.
Simon's reply is beautiful. It is honest, and it is submissive. "Master, we labored all night and caught nothing..." This is the voice of experience. This is the protest of the expert. He is essentially saying, "With all due respect, Rabbi, you don't know what you're talking about. This is my world, and what you're suggesting is a complete waste of time." But then comes the hinge of the entire story: "...but at Your word, I will let down the nets."
This is what faith is. It is not a leap in the dark; it is a step into the light of God's Word, even when that light tells you to do something that seems foolish. It is a "nevertheless" faith. It is a faith that subordinates all human experience, all expertise, all logic, and all common sense to the authority of a simple command from Jesus. Simon is not obeying because it makes sense. He is obeying because of who spoke. This is the fundamental question for every Christian: is Jesus Lord of just your theology, or is He Lord of your fishing business too?
The Boat-Sinking Blessing (v. 6-7)
The result of Simon's reluctant obedience is not a modest success. It is a catastrophic, gear-destroying, boat-sinking success.
"And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish. And their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink." (Luke 5:6-7 LSB)
When God decides to bless, He does not do it by half measures. The blessing that results from obedience to His Word is overwhelming. It is super-abundant. It shatters their categories. The nets, the tools of their trade, cannot contain it. The boats, their primary capital assets, are threatened by it. This is not a manageable blessing. It is a glorious, chaotic, and dangerous overflow.
This teaches us that God's economy is not like ours. We work, and we get a wage. We put in the effort, and we expect a return. But here, they put in a whole night of their own effort and got nothing. Then, they put in one act of obedience to Christ's Word and received a haul so massive it almost ruined them. The blessing of God is not proportional to our effort; it is proportional to His grace. It is also a blessing that requires community. The catch is too big for one boat. They have to call in their partners. The work of the kingdom is never a solo enterprise. The harvest is always too big for us alone.
The Proper Response to Holiness (v. 8-10a)
The miracle of the fish was not ultimately about the fish. It was a revelation of the one who commanded the fish. And Simon Peter understands this immediately.
"But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, 'Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!' For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken..." (Luke 5:8-9 LSB)
Peter's reaction is not, "We're rich!" It is not, "Let's do that again!" His reaction is to fall on his face in terror. In that moment, he realized that the man sitting in his boat was not just a great teacher. He was the one who commands the fish of the sea. This was a theophany. The Lord of creation was in his boat. And the immediate, reflexive response to the presence of unveiled holiness is a profound and crushing awareness of one's own sinfulness.
This is the grammar of true conversion. Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and said, "Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips." Peter sees the Lord's power over creation and says, "Go away from me, for I am a sinful man!" The overwhelming grace of God did not make Peter feel good about himself; it exposed him. It revealed the infinite chasm between his own filthiness and the perfect holiness of God. If you have never felt this, you have never truly met the Lord Jesus. Before God can say "Come to me," you must first be brought to the point where you say, "Depart from me."
The Great Commission and the Great Abandonment (v. 10b-11)
Jesus does not depart. He answers Peter's confession of sin with the first word of the gospel.
"And Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.' And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him." (Luke 5:10b-11 LSB)
"Do not fear." The law has done its work, revealing sin. Now grace speaks, offering pardon and purpose. Jesus does not leave the sinner; He recruits him. He then redefines Peter's entire existence. "From now on you will be catching men." The miracle was the job interview. The fish were the audio-visual aid. Jesus took Peter's vocation, the thing he was an expert in, and He consecrated it to a far higher purpose. He did not tell him to stop being a fisherman. He told him he would now be fishing for the souls of men in the great sea of the nations.
And what is the response? "They left everything and followed Him." They left the single greatest catch of their lives, a financial windfall that could have set them up for years, rotting on the beach. Why? Because when you have seen the Creator, the creation loses its luster. When you have been offered a place in the business of the King, your own small business seems laughably insignificant. They did not abandon their nets because they were worthless. They abandoned them because they had found something, or rather someone, who was infinitely more worthy.
Conclusion: Your Nets and His Word
This is the pattern for every one of us. We all have our areas of expertise where we have labored all night and caught nothing. Our best efforts, our worldly wisdom, our strength, all result in empty nets.
And into our failure, the Lord Jesus speaks a command. He tells us to do something that His Word requires but our common sense may reject. He tells us to forgive our enemies, to love our wives as He loved the church, to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, to speak the truth in a hostile world, to be generous with our money. He tells us to launch out into the deep.
The question is whether we will have a "nevertheless" faith. Will we say, "Master, this seems foolish, this is not how the world works, but at Your word, I will obey"?
When we do, we must be prepared for a boat-sinking blessing. But we must remember that the blessing is not the point. The fish are not the point. The point is to see the Lord in the boat, to fall at His feet in repentance, and to hear His commission in our lives. He wants to take your skills, your job, your life, and repurpose it for His kingdom. He wants to make you a fisher of men. And the only proper response is to leave the rotting fish of our worldly successes on the beach and follow Him.