Luke 5:1 (ESV)
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,
The “crowd was pressing in on him
to hear the word of God,” but the first eleven verses of Luke 5 are not really
about the crowds at all. They are about Simon Peter, James, and John. A crowd
of people had gathered around Jesus while Peter, James, and John, expert
fishermen, had caught nothing. Nothing, that is, until Jesus instructed them to
cast their nets. Then they caught more in one cast than they had ever caught
before. Clearly the outcome of the catch was Jesus’ doing. Peter fell at Jesus
knees in fear, but Jesus had something else in mind. “do not be afraid; from now
on you will be catching men.”
This amazing catch foreshadowed
the day of Pentecost when Peter’s sermon would result in three thousand individuals
coming to faith. There is no way Peter could have anticipated Pentecost’s response
on the day he drew in nets that filled two boats with fish to the point of
sinking. At that point all he knew was that Jesus was someone special, someone
to be honored and respected, feared and obeyed.
We never know what God will do.
David Hansen, in his book The Art of Pastoring, talks about ladder climbing
and pandering in ministry. What if, rather than looking and yearning for
something bigger, something better, something more significant, we learned to
be satisfied with what God had called us to. It is amazing what we might find
God doing through small places and insignificant ministries. Effective ministry
and transformed lives around the world have resulted from faithful ministry in
small places.
As professional fishermen it must
have been hard to walk away from the catch of a lifetime to follow a teacher
who said they would now catch men. But that decision changed the world. What if
we were more concerned about following Jesus than about gaining a following, building
a reputation, or growing a significant ministry? We just might find that God
does more through us than we could ever imagine.
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