Fishers of Men

Luke 5:1-11 – Fishers of Men

Jesus was standing by Lake Gennesaret (Sea of Galilee) preaching to people who were gathering around Him. At this point, everywhere Jesus went, crowds began to gather. People had started to love listening to the word of God. Jesus saw that there were a couple of boats left by the water. One of the boats was operated by Simon. Jesus hops in the boat and instructs Simon to go out a little bit and cast his nets into the water.

Simon and his crew had already been out earlier in the night trying to catch fish but they were unsuccessful. Simon told Jesus about their night of catching zero fish but Jesus told him to go on out and try anyway. So, Simon throws out his nets and to his amazement, their nets became full of fish. Their nets began to break and they had to call over the other fishermen to help them bring in the load of fish they had caught. They had such a large amount that their boats began to sink.

Simon did not feel worthy to be in front of Jesus. Along with Simon Peter were James and John. Jesus instructed them to pack up because they were going to follow Him and start becoming fishers of men.

Simon was a professional fisherman and I am sure that he thought that he knew a little more about fishing than Jesus did. He could have told Jesus that he was crazy and was not going to cast his net back in but instead he listed. Simon let Jesus direct his work.

No matter how hard we work at things ourselves the results will not be the same if we include Jesus. When Jesus directs our work, we start seeing things change and start seeing different results. When Jesus directs our work, it makes all of the difference in the world.

We are to go out into the world and spread the word of God. Spread the good news of Jesus. Let Jesus direct our path to those who need help and we will be able to bring them to Christ. When we are ‘fishing for men’ we are looking for those who either don’t know Jesus or know Him but have fallen away from Him. If we can get them to come back to worship with us or to be around a group of Christians, they have a better chance of following Christ themselves.

It is the summer time and there are many different ways that we can try to ‘reel in’ some of the fish out there in the world. There are dozens of Vacation Bible Schools that you can attend and bring someone who needs Christ. You don’t have to attend the congregation that is hosting the VBS; you can still go and bring that person. Summer series, both adult and youth, are occurring all summer and hundreds of congregations. Invite a friend that needs to be there.

Let Jesus direct your path…

God is Good…