Jesus will go fishing with His Church

Sermon for Trinity 5

1 Peter 3:8-15  +  Luke 5:1-11

In all of Jesus’ miracle accounts in the Gospels, we learn a lesson about His goodness and mercy, about His divinity and His divine power over the creation. But there’s often another lesson attached, as there is in today’s Gospel about what’s probably the most famous fishing trip of all time. The lesson here was for Peter, James, and John, but not only for them. It’s for the Christian Church of all time. The fish represent people. The boat is the Christian Church, into which people need to be gathered from the sea, which is the world of lost sinners. The net is the Gospel, the means by which the Christian draws people into the Church, although, as we learn here in this miracle account, it isn’t the Christian who draws people to the net or into the net. The Lord Jesus Himself is the One who does it. That’s the promise of today’s Gospel: The Lord Jesus will go fishing with His Church, and will personally see to it that there is a great catch of fish.

It wasn’t Peter who chose to go out to sea that day to let down the nets. In fact, as Peter says, when he and his companions went out the night before, they caught nothing. If we try to bring people into the Church by human powers or with human reason or persuasion, we may possibly fill a church building, as many churches do, but we won’t actually succeed in bringing anyone to faith, bringing them into the true Church of true believers. So all the gimmicks are worthless. All the flashy lights and rockin’ bands on the one hand, all the beautiful organ music and artistry and perfectly executed liturgical actions on the other hand—it’s all worthless for bringing people into the Church. So are the touching testimonials and youth programs and the fun activities and the beautiful, well-kept buildings. There may be a place for some of those things, but they’re worthless for bringing people into the Church.

No, Jesus is the one who sends His Church out into the world of unbelievers, and He is the one who must bring people in. What is needed for that? What’s needed for that is, first of all, Christians. The fish don’t just hop out of the water into an empty boat, do they? There have to be people in the boat doing the fishing, sinners who themselves have been brought into the boat, who have heard the Word of God and believed it, heard that they are sinners, born into idolatry, idolaters and worshipers of false gods by nature and haters of the true God, self-serving people who were going our own way, holding onto our own beliefs, and deserving of God’s wrath and condemnation. But the ones in the boat have also heard the good news of God, that He gave His Son to the world to be our Savior and Redeemer, to suffer and die for our sins and to bring us to God through faith in Him. Others were sent by God to preach that Gospel to us, but it was the Lord Jesus who accompanied them in their preaching and brought us into the boat of the Christian Church.

What else do you need to bring people into the boat? You need the presence of Jesus in the boat. Now, that may seem like a given. Christ is always present with His Church. As He promises, Behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age. With “you,” that is, with His Church—preachers and hearers of His Word, as they carry out His command to make disciples of all nations. Or, Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in their midst. But to be gathered in His name means being gathered where His named is rightly confessed, where His Word is rightly taught and believed, where His Sacraments are administered according to His command and institution. So we have to see to it that we are such a group, Christians who believe and teach the whole truth of Christ. If you abide in My Word, Jesus says, you are truly My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. We have to know and believe His Word and make sure that our church teaches it rightly. That’s not an easy task. It takes effort. It takes time. It takes each Christian caring enough to learn God’s Word for him or herself, guided by the creeds and confessions of the Church, so that when we invite people to come into the Church, we aren’t bringing them into a jumbled mess of doctrine, but into the safety and security of the dependable Word of God.

The only other thing that’s needed is the net. Again, the fish don’t just hop directly into the boat. People don’t believe in Jesus or come to Jesus on their own, and He doesn’t appear directly to people or whisper in their ears or place burdens on their hearts. He commands His Church to let down the net to bring people in.

As we said before, the net is the Gospel, the means of grace, the means by which the Holy Spirit works on the hearts of men to convict them of their sins and to persuade them to repent, to believe and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. The Gospel is the message of the real Jesus, though, not a made-up one. We have to be sure that the Jesus we are telling people about, the one we want so desperately for them to know, is the real Jesus, the one actually revealed in the Bible, not one our society thinks it knows, or one whom we’ve made up in our own heads, or one whose name and reputation and teaching have been twisted. There are many different “versions” of Jesus out there. True God, not true God, true man, not true man, who earned our salvation 100%, or less than 100%, who wants us praying to Mary and the saints or who forbids it, who condemns abortion or who approves it, who condemns homosexuality or who condones it, who would have little children baptized or who forbids it, whose body and blood are or are not present in the Lord’s Supper, and on and on and on. But the Holy Scriptures are not so unclear. If we are firmly rooted in the Scriptures, if we study them humbly, if we read them in context and pray for the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, then the light of the Gospel will shine clearly so that we can let down the nets into the world confidently.

Now, how are the nets let down? It’s done in two ways. It’s done through preaching, and it’s done through the example of Christians living as Christians in the world.

Some men are called by Christ, through the call of the Church, to be ministers of the Word, to preach and teach the Gospel, to administer the Sacraments, to feed and take care of Jesus’ sheep and lambs by watching over their souls and by applying the Word of God to their lives. Jesus had many disciples, many people, both men and women, who learned from Him and who followed Him. But certain men He called into the office of the holy ministry, like Peter, James, and John, who were tasked with “catching men.” And so the Church continues to call certain men to this task of being pastors, who let down the nets of the Gospel into the world.

But non-pastors, or “laymen,” as we call them, also have an important task: to live as Christians in the world, to be a witness to the Gospel by how you live. St. Peter made reference to that in today’s Epistle. At some points in history, after Christianity spread throughout the world, some societies were so influenced by Christianity that to live openly as a Christian, to embrace God’s commandments, didn’t seem such a strange thing. It was more or less normal. Not today. Not anymore. Those days are over. Now, to live openly as a Christian, to speak like a Christian in our society seems very strange, even revolutionary. To regularly attend church? And not church as a praise band concert but as a reverent hearing of God’s Word? That’s rare. To center your life around hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament, instead of centering it around your career or your favorite pastimes? That hardly happens. To reserve all sexual relations for marriage, to have marriages that last a lifetime, even to define marriage as between a man and a woman—that’s almost unheard of. To suffer patiently for righteousness’ sake, to love your enemies, to behave in the world as a child of God—not arrogantly, but humbly, not coldly but exhibiting the love of Christ in your words and actions—you can’t imagine how much of an impact that has on the world. It’s a form of letting down the nets of the Gospel.

And there will be a great catch, just as there was in today’s Gospel account. Oh, but that’s so hard for us to perceive, living in these last days of the world when it doesn’t appear that very many people are being drawn into the net. Look around you! Where are all the fish? It doesn’t look like the nets are breaking.

But that’s only because the nets are nearly full already. You see, Christ has been building His Church for the last 2,000 years. It’s almost finished. Most of the work has already been done. Most of the fishing has already taken place. We don’t see huge numbers of people entering the Church anymore. But if we look back at the last 2,000 years, we can see a net stretching around the globe that has brought in a multitude of people, a great catch of fish. So don’t wring your hands over the apparent failure of a little church like ours, much less over the apparent failure of the Gospel. The Lord has kept His promise to fill the nets, and one day, you’ll see it with your own eyes.

For now, trust in the Lord’s power and promise. He will go fishing with His Church. And make the most of the task you’ve been given, to let down the nets of the Gospel by how you live in the world. Repent for the ways in which you have failed to do so, and look to Christ for forgiveness! He knows you are weak and that you carry around a sinful flesh. He knows that both preachers and hearers are sinners who will stumble at times, and so He continually offers His forgiveness in the Church. But a stumble is not the same as willful disobedience. Beware of that, above all things, lest you be tossed back into the sea after having been caught in the net!

As Peter says, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for an explanation of the hope that is in you. That’s how you daily get to participate in letting down the nets for the great catch of men that Christ has promised, by supporting the preaching of the Gospel and by living and speaking as those who have a hope that the world doesn’t yet comprehend. But as the nets are lowered, some of those lost sinners in the world will comprehend the hope that is yours in Christ and will join you in the boat! And when the nets are finally full, then Christ will come, and the fishing expedition will return to shore, and everything we’ve hoped for will be revealed. May the Lord preserve us all for that! Amen.