From the Fish’s Perspective

Albertville

2-7-10

Epiph. 5

Luke 5:1-11

 

One of the more popular analogies for the work of the church is fishing. In one of his parables Jesus said, that the “kingdom of heaven is like a big net dropped into the sea which brings in all kinds of fish”. And when Jesus called his first disciples, he said “come follow me and I will make you fishers of men” And now, in this text, after they had just caught a miraculous draft of fish, Jesus said to Peter, James, and John, “...From now on, you will catch men.” Jesus, no doubt chose to speak in terms of fishing because these guys were fisherman and they understood all the nuances of fishing. Working for Jesus would be like fishing. They’d have to be patient. They’d have to be diligent and willing to go where the fish are. They would have to endure all manner of weather and be prepared to be skunked from time to time.

It is truly a great picture for the work of the church. During my ministry, I think I’ve preached maybe four or five different times about how we all should be fishers of men. And how we should all be ready to share our faith. But today, I’m going to do something a little different. Usually, we look at our work from the perspective of the fisherman, but what about the fish. After all, a good fishermen will understand the way a fish thinks. A good fisherman will read books and subscribe to magazines which discuss, in great detail, the nature and habits of various types of fish. And usually, such dedication pays off with better fishing.

So today, we’re going to try and see how the fish think. We will try to see the church through the eyes of someone who has not yet been saved , or in terms of the analogy, has not yet been brought into the Lord’s boat. This might help us to better carry out the mission of the church.

Now we can never really understand all the things a fish goes through in his life, but there is one thing that we can be certain of: Fish do not like to be caught. They don’t want to loose their freedom. And furthermore, they don’t want to be pulled upwards into our environment because our environment is hostile to them. Fish cannot live where we live and they will twitch every muscle in their bodies to get back into the water. That is the one thing that we can say with certainty, fish don’t like to be caught.

If people are like fish as Jesus implies, they don’t want to get caught either. They don’t want to be drawn into God’s boat for fear that they would lose their freedom. In our day especially many people have been convinced that freedom is the right to do sinful things....things that gratify the sinful nature. And of course the environment of God is indeed hostile to that. As the angels declared three times: “Holy, Holy, Holy.” That simply doesn’t mesh very well with sinful sinful sinful or evil evil evil. And folks know this. That’s why they school away from the church. Like the fish they will fight with all that is in them to stay out of the realm of the almighty.

This is especially true by those who have been caught before and got away. No matter how nice a church might appear, no matter how tasty the bait, they assume that underneath it all there has got to be the hook; cleverly concealed. And of course, they see those who go to church as suckers who have swallowed it hook, line, and sinker.

Some groups, in order to bait the fish, say “We know what you need to do in order to make it into eternity.” And that sounds good to a person, but there’s a hook in there: Nobody is really able to do all the stuff that they say is the way. So the hook cuts deep as the poor spiritually abused person finds himself caught.

And then there are other groups today which come from the other side of the lake and use a completely different bait. They say “God is a loving God He even loves you and your sin!, We took a vote on it last summer!” That sounds really good! Really tasty! But there’s a hook concealed in there as well...because it doesn’t really address the inevitable question that is nagging the conscience: “I know God is a loving God but how can I be sure that he loves me?” Once again the hook cuts it’s way in.

Bait is a little piece of food that tricks the fish into swallowing the line. The message that the bible tells us to proclaim has no bait, or hook about it. Nope. Authentic Christianity is upfront and real. We do not have to disguise what we are about. We don’t have to make our church look like a shopping mall or a theater or a country club in order to Lure someone in. We don’t need to love bomb prospective members and then turn it off once we’ve “got ‘em on the line.” We merely have to be ourselves....Ourselves as we are redeemed and saved by Christ on the cross and are in the process of being sanctified by His Holy Spirit.

People meet the Savior in us! God chooses sinners, redeemed sinners, to do the fishing. I know that that is rather astounding when you think about it. Isaiah thought so to. Look at how he reacts when he is called “Woe is me!” “I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips”. What he meant, was “You want me to use this mouth to tell others about you?” “No way! No Way!” But then an angel takes a live coal from the altar and touches his lips. And says “your sin is atoned for”. And then directly after that the question comes up in heaven “ who shall we send!” Isaiah says: “Here am I, send me!”

And so it has always been: One of the most astounding things about the apostles and prophets is that every single one of them was proven to be a sinner. The Bible makes no attempt to hide the sinfulness of those who were called. Not one of them was perfect, but each of them was declared innocent by the blood of Christ. Each one of them depended on Christ to make them right with God.

God calls sinners, whose sin has been atoned for to be his fishermen. Those who have been saved by faith in Jesus are asked to help save others. You have been forgiven by Christ are now qualified to testify and “give reason for the hope that you have” (1Peter 3:15) As Peter, our fellow fisherman says we are to do in his epistle.

But we must do this authentically. We’ve got nothing to prove and nothing to hide. From our own knowledge and experience we can proclaim what the bible says. The Bible says that people are sinners, sinners who can be completely forgiven and saved; not by something that they earn or do, but by something God has done with the sending of his Son to the altar of the cross.

And it doesn’t even matter how eloquent we are either, for the Holy Spirit goes with us. He’s the one who changes the heart not us. All we have to do is be honest about what our Lord has done for us, and His Spirit will do the rest.

An amazing thing happens when at last a person is drawn into the presence of God. By the forgiveness that they have in Christ, they can actually begin to draw nearer to God....and his environment is no longer so hostile to them. For he has atoned for their sin. I Peter 2:10 says “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”. That’s us! That’s all people living in God’s mercy. The People of God, receiving and living in his mercy. What a refreshing and invigorating way to live. Isn’t that what we want for others?

One could say that the Church is on an extended fishing trip. God has given us a license to fish. Not with lures or with bait, but with the clear message of Christ Jesus and him crucified for the forgiveness of sins. AMEN