When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”  Luke 5:4 (NKJV)

Trust me: The last thing that Peter wanted to hear Jesus say that day was “Let’s go fishing.”

You have to understand that Peter is the professional fisherman…and has to be looking at Jesus like, “Why don’t you stick to carpentry and I will handle the fishing?”

Remember what Peter and his fishing buddies were doing in that boat? Verse 2 says, they were “washing their nets.”

Why?  Because the day’s work is done.  He has clocked out.  They’ve pulled their nets in and are cleaning their nets so they don’t get damaged.

It was time to get home, get a bite, and watch a little T.V. before getting up and doing it all over again.

That is why Peter says this:

5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” Luke 5:5 (NKJV)

Peter is exhausted.  His crew had fished all night and hadn’t caught anything.

“There was a reason they worked at night.  The fish in the Sea of Galilee feed at night.  In the daytime, they hide under rocks.

Even worse, they congregate around the streams and the springs at the edge of the sea, close to shore, not in the deep.  A fish can’t see a net at night, but he can see it in the daytime and avoid it.”

Jesus was asking Peter to fish at the wrong time in the wrong place.

If they did what Jesus asked with everyone watching, they would be the joke of the town and the only boats out there trying to fish.

This is how I imagine the conversation went, “Jesus, I really like you a lot and you are a cool guy, but I am a professional and you are a carpenter. I know rods and reels and you know hammers and nails. You don’t know anything about fishing.”

To this, Jesus probably replied, “Well, from looking at your empty nets you don’t know as much as you think you do!”

You need to understand that fishing is back-breaking work.  Jesus wasn’t asking him to hang out at the end of the boat and watch a bobber for a bite.

What they did in Peter’s day was to lay out a great net in a semi-circle, encompassing a radius of 100 feet, drawing it in hand-over-hand and repeating the procedure again and again and again.

Jesus is asking a man who had not slept all night, hadn’t caught one thing, who had just finished washing his nets to beach the boat, load a 1000 pounds of wet- nets, row out to deep water in broad daylight in front of a crowd and catch fish that won’t even be there.

Yet, Simon says, “nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”

Don’t miss the importance of what he said and what he did. What you are looking at is the first example of faith in the New Testament.

Faith is simply taking Jesus at His word and trusting what He says. 

Peter says, “I wouldn’t do this for just anybody, but since I have heard You teach and I’ve seen You work, (by the way, back up in Chapter 4 we read that Jesus had been to Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law so Peter owed Him one!) I will do what You ask.”

God honors faith and faith is simply trusting Jesus and doing what He asks in spite of the:

• Feelings within you,
• the circumstances around you
• and the consequences before you.

It is this second step of trusting the Son of God that makes the first step of hearing the Word of God come to life.  If you hear the Word of God, but you don’t trust the Son of God, then your hearing won’t make a difference.

Peter has taken the second step of what will be a life-long journey, but now he is about to experience the greatest thrill of all – the third step.

We will examine that step next time!

Pastor Marcus