The Biggest Fish Story of All Time

Luke 5:1-6

I want to show you The Biggest Fish Story of All Time. Well, maybe Jonah would be the exception. I love fish, and will catch just as many…as you’ll throw to me! Men tell their fish stories. But this one is true.

Why did the fish become a symbol of Christianity? In early church days [think 2^nd-3^rd C], the ichthus was like a code which could be put on secret meeting places or documents, in order to evade Roman soldiers who were on the lookout for Christ followers. But why the fish? ICHTHUS in Greek means ‘fish’ and the letters spell out Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior. Plus, Jesus performed miracles involving fish, like feeding the thousands and like the one in our text. He then called fishermen to be fishers of men. I’m glad He fished for me, and caught me. Is He after you?

When you look at this fishing incident, what you see here in Christ is the very essential character of God.  You see divine truth.  You see divine knowledge.  You see divine power.  You see divine holiness.  And you see divine mercy.  Here then is the manifest nature of God visible in Jesus Christ. 

V. 1          The verse opens with an indefinite indicator, "it came to pass."  It doesn't tell us when, it doesn't tell us how much time has transpired since the incidents that occurred in the prior chapter.  We’re in Galilee, as it's called, which is the northern part of the land of Palestine all the way up to the Lebanese border, bordered on the east by Jordan, on the west by the Mediterranean, that north part of Israel, the major location there is the Sea of Galilee, or the lake of Gennesaret, as it's called here, sometimes the Sea of Tiberias, the Old Testament name was Chinneroth.  Gennesaret is not technically a sea.  Dr. Luke is right on the technical side in calling it a lake.  It is a freshwater lake fed by the snowmelt out of the Lebanese mountains. Out of the south of the Sea of Galilee comes the Jordan River which runs all the way down and empties into the Dead Sea. That lake, 13 miles long and about 7 miles wide, dominates Galilee.  To the east is the sort of low ridges and then the flat lands of the wilderness that goes to the east. To the north are the great high mountains of Lebanon from which the water flows that flows in and creates the lake.  To the west are the fertile,  magnificent fields of grain and other crops right on to the sea.  On that lake are major cities.  Tiberias would be a major city in the time of Christ on the western shore, and on the north would be the city of Capernaum.  And so Jesus spent a lot of His time around the lake.  And it was a good place to speak to people because you could be at the shore and the slope would be a place that would create sort of a natural amphitheater and the people could hear.

But there was a problem.  As the crowds got bigger and bigger and pushed and pushed, pretty soon they pushed Jesus into the water.  Healing draws a crowd. So does His powerful preaching, and the hubbub going around that He may be the Messiah.

They were eager for the Word of God, because Jesus is the source of truth.  When He preached the Sermon on the Mount up there on the hillside at the north end of the Sea of Galilee, and He finished that great sermon in which the Beatitudes really were the introduction, the people said, "He speaks as one having authority, not like the scribes and Pharisees." 

It was not His opinion, it was not His viewpoint.  He was not a theologian.  He was not a scholar of the Old Testament.  He wasn't giving a sermon from prepared notes.  This was not philosophy.  This was not theological intuition.  This was divine revelation.  This was God speaking.  He spoke and it was the voice of God.  He said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life."  He is truth.  He is synonymous with truth.  He is one with truth.  John 1 introduces Him, "The Word became flesh and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."  He is the fullness of truth.  He is God, Titus 1:2, who cannot lie.

In John 5:24 Jesus said, "Verily, verily [Truly, truly] I say unto you, he who heareth My word and believes Him who sent Me, hath eternal life."  His word, His truth, is so powerful that it literally dispenses eternal life.  If you listen to what He says and believe it, you have eternal life. 

God by nature is truth.  Let every man be a liar. Jesus said in John 8:31, "If you abide in My word, you are truly my disciples an ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."  

So you have two kinds of people in the world: those who believe the devil's lies and those who believe the truth of God. 

Truth is one of His attributes. 

Psalms 138:2

² I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

In other words, God magnifies His word equal to His name because His word is the expression of His essential truth.  That's why Psalm 146:6 says, "God keeps truth forever."  Isaiah 65:16 twice says God is the God of truth.

v. 2          Now the boats were fairly large.  We have a couple of incidents in the New Testament that indicate that to us.  You have Mark chapter 4 where you have all the disciples in a boat and Jesus sleeping.  You have Mark chapter 6 where you have all the disciples in the boat plus Jesus, at least 13 people, and maybe a crew to run the boat.  This would be a fairly large boat with some beams that could be used for the nets, with some winches that might be used to pull the nets in, with a sail that could be used to move the boat along as well as some oars with a hold below where the fish could be dumped into the boat after they were gathered in with the nets. 

Verse 3            He got into one of the boats which was Simon's.  “Let's get this boat back off the shore or we're going to get pushed into the water here.”  And because the crowd has gotten right down to the edge, Jesus needs some space.  And by the way, water is a good conductor of sound and this is a fairly flat lake and a gentle surface of that lake would make a good point to sort of bounce the sound to that crowd of thousands that had gathered and it would give Jesus a little bit of distance. 

Now there's a reason for choosing Peter’s boat.  The Lord didn't do anything just by accident.  It was time to bring Peter to full commitment and to bring those who followed his leadership, in this case James and John, to their full commitment as well.

By the way, Jesus did this throughout His whole life, even after the resurrection, trying to get Peter to the level He wanted him at.  Peter was somewhat reluctant and not an easy guy to deal with.  But he was also the recognized leader of the apostles.  It was important to have Peter where he needed to be because he was the one who had seemingly the greatest influence on the rest. 

Salvation comes by hearing the word about Christ, right?  Romans 10.  And how are they going to hear if you don't preach?  He preached His whole ministry.  And then He appointed apostles who would preach.  And then He chose gifted men to be preachers, pastor-teachers, and evangelists all down through history because how are they going to hear if we don't preach?  And then He gave us a commission to send people to the ends of the earth to proclaim the gospel because there isn't any salvation apart from it. 

There were a number of occasions when He had to get into a boat to get away from the crowd.  He taught everywhere.  He taught in the temple.  He taught in synagogues.  He taught in a cemetery in John 11.  He taught by the side of the lake.  He taught in houses.  Once they had to open the roof to let people down and in because the crowds were so big in the house.  Anywhere and everywhere all through His life He preached because that is necessary. 

1. He is Truth

2. He is knowledge 

v. 4          Now I'm no great fisherman.  People say, "Do you like to fish?"  And I say no, I like to catch.  The great challenge in fishing is to find the fish because you can't hook them if you can't find them.  Well, that's what makes Jesus a catcher and not a fisher.  Jesus had divine knowledge.  This is amazing.  He knew exactly where the fish were.  Wouldn't you like to go fishing with Him?  He knew exactly where the fish were, exactly.  You say, "How do you know that?"  Well, I can give you a comparison.  Matthew 10:29 and 30 says this, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing [cent] and yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father's knowledge?"  That same passage says, "The very hairs of your head are numbered."  For some of you that's not a really big challenge.  This is omniscience.  And this is what flows out of this.  God's understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28 says, “Known to God from eternity are all His works.”  Paul said in Acts 15 and Hebrews 4:13, "There's no creature hidden from His sight."  God knows where every fish in every lake and every ocean is at all times because God omnisciently knows everything that exists in the material and immaterial world and the condition and state of everything, not only now but in the past and the future.  He knows everything.  Nothing in the universe is beyond His full comprehension.

v. 4b        This isn’t a small one man net for the shore, this is a big one stretched between the two ships, some were up to a half mile wide, with weights at the bottom and corks at the top. It could catch a lot.

In the middle of the day, however, at the brightest point of the sunlight, the fish could be so deep they were below the ability of that net to go down and find them.  Peter had fished all night and caught nothing, so Peter was convinced there were no fish there.  Peter's experience, lots of years of fishing, that's his lake, that's his area.  He knows what he knows and he cannot resist telling the Lord that in verse 5.  [read]

"We worked all night and caught nothing."  It's as if he says, "Let me remind you, you are a carpenter, we are the fishermen.  You're out of your element, right?  I mean, you understand we've got to get this crew together, we've got to get all this tackle together, we've got to get the nets we've been washing, we've got to get them back in the boat, this is going to take a lot of work.  We fished all night, we caught absolutely nothing.  I'm telling you, the fish aren't there.  That's not how it is and you're going to make us go to all this work and all this effort and get out there and spread this thing out and go through all this and it's going to all be pointless.  [But, he says, and of course you would say this if the Lord had just healed your mother-in-law and made your wife happy] Master, we worked all night and caught nothing, but at your bidding I will let down the nets, the least I can owe you for healing my mother-in-law who is a tremendous cook and got right out of bed and made dinner."

First Jesus says to push out a little, then He says to launch out into the deep. This is a picture of ‘going to the next level.’  God is asking us to take steps toward Him.

James 4:8     Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

v. 6          He knows where all His fish are.  One time in Matthew 17 they needed to pay their taxes.  Jesus said, "Go down there, put your hook in the water and pull out the fish and the fish has a coin in his mouth that will pay for both of us."  He knew what fish had the coin, where the fish was.  And then there was John 21 where Peter was fishing after the resurrection.  Peter was fishing and he couldn't catch anything, remember?  And Jesus was on the shore and He said, "Try the right side of the boat."  And they did and they couldn't even get all the fish in.  He is God and He's omniscient as God and He knows everything. 

Jesus is truth, and He is knowledge. We lack the latter. When we seek Him for the truth, we gain both.

Jesus caught His disciples. They were hooked! I’m glad He fished for me, and caught me. Is He after you? Are you fighting? Fish will fight for a long time. But in your case, it would be best to give in. Now He says to us what He said to them. It’s time for you to catch men. Folks, we weren’t left here to just float around looking good in this aquarium. We must be fishers of men! We can’t just hang out a ‘fish welcome’ sign. We have to go where the fish are. “You catch…He’ll clean!”