FISHING
Chapter one

LET DOWN YOUR NETS
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth:" Matthew 13:47-50

The separation of the evil from the righteous doesn't occur until the end of the age. And when it does occur it isn't done by men and women but by angels who will come out of the invisible to take care of this matter without making a single mistake. Meanwhile, the kingdom of God on earth is engaged not in separating but in gathering. The net has been thrown into the sea and is gathering fish of every kind. And this gathering is done by human beings.

The miracle of miracles is not the healing of the sick or the casting out of demons or the raising of the dead---wonderful as these signs are. May they be more abundant among us. The miracle of miracles is that through us people who have never seen Jesus with these eyes are brought into a living personal encounter with the Lamb of God and by it are either drawn into the eternal light or driven into the eternal darkness.
We are that net cast into the sea. And in ways that we can neither explain nor understand people are drawn to us as we mingle with the multitudes ... drawn to us until the person of Jesus of Nazareth comes into focus in their minds. They behold him, they hear his voice, they feel his redeeming power, they experience his mercy. Now they are in the net. They have been caught by the Kingdom. They will never be the same again. What they do with all this will determine what happens to them when the net is drawn ashore and the separation begins. But, they are in the net and they know it.

But notice: the thing that draws them into the net is not anything that we are or do. We do not draw men and women by our personalities or by our soul-winning techniques or even by our prayers, though we pray fervently for these fish we're catching. But the drawing is done by the lamb of God alone.
"...and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."
John 12:32
He draws! We simply gather what is drawn to us by lowering the net and lifting it at the command of the Lord. In the apostolic age this was understood very clearly.
There was no such thing as a soul-winning seminar or a strategy for evangelizing the empire. No one ever conceived, the blasphemous thought that some gimmick or some technique or some trick that we might devise could enlarge the catch of human souls for the kingdom of God. All they did was get out there and circulate among men and women with the gospel of Jesus, knowing that if in this fashion the net was lowered into the sea of humanity God himself would fill it, The apostolic age was symbolized by a sign which occurred at the beginning of the disciples walk with Jesus in flesh and blood.

While the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets."

And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Luke 5:1-11

Their own efforts hadn't got them any fish. They toiled all night and took nothing...and how long that night had been in Israel. Centuries of darkness and stagnation and strife. Now it's morning. Jesus stands on the shore. “Let me teach the people from your boat, Simon." And finally, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets." Suddenly fish come from everywhere, crowding to get into those nets. They pull up the nets and they're breaking. They have to have help. Peter knew enough about fishing to know that he had nothing to do with this shoal of fish flipping and flopping in both boats so that they begin to sink. All he did was lower the net at the command of Jesus and pull it up full.

This was a sign. He knew it was a sign. It was a sign of what Peter and his fellows would be doing for the rest of their lives: catching multitudes of human souls into the net of the Kingdom. When Peter stood up on Pentecost and preached, all he was doing was lowering the net. When he was finished it was full. Three thousand were baptized into Jesus. It happened everywhere they went. It happened in Samaria. It happened in Greece. It happened in Rome. Everywhere they went with the gospel the net was filled.

Just before the risen Jesus took his leave of the disciples for the last time he caused this same miracle to occur again.

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing.

Just as day was breaking Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any fish?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a thousand yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net, ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." John 21:1-12a

Notice that this miracle occurred following another long night when no fish were caught. What does this mean? And what does it mean that this time Jesus was not in the boat with them but is standing on shore? And what does it mean that immediately after the net full of fish is brought to shore at Jesus' command he says, "Come and break your fast. Come and dine." This sign is a description of the age in which you and I are now living---the end of the end. Again, there has been a long dark night of futile fishing. Jesus calls from the shore; "Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." This time the net is so full they can't even lift into the boat but have to drag it to shore. "Bring some of the fish, you have just caught. Come and dine!" What else can this mean but the Banquet of God. The Kingdom in its fullness. The glorious end of all darkness.

When we are finished with this fishing trip the end will be here. But first we have to start fishing for real. No more toiling and taking nothing. “cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some!” Do you understand what I'm saying? God will draw the fish. All you and I have to do is lower the net.

Here are several things to keep in mind:

1. We fish from the boat out there in the deep not standing on the land ... not sitting in a boat that's beached tossing fish back and forth inside the boat, wasting our strength on doctrinal hassles. Get out there in the sea, out where the multitudes are, out where the problems are, and lower the net.

Inside our church buildings we come together to worship and to edify one another. But when it comes to fishing we do it out there, out among our neighbors, in the plant office or hospital or street corner or school. If we're out there with a word which God himself has put on our tongue to sustain him that is weary… if we're ready with that word of forgiveness; centering on the person, life, death, resurrection of Jesus, people will be drawn. We can't draw them. We don't have to draw them. We only have to be out there among them as Jesus was out among them. Eating with them. Listening to them. Sharing their burdens. Going to their wedding feasts. They'll come. Make no mistakes. Have no doubt. They will be drawn.

2. We fish with a pure heart. A heart fixed on God as our Lord's heart was fixed on the Father. In other words, if our hearts are fixed on God then the people we catch will be caught into God's kingdom. Not into our church. Not into our doctrinal position. Not into our kind of spiritual experiences. They may never come to our church or hold our set of doctrines or experience the Spirit the way we do. But if they have come to Jesus Christ and him crucified they have come to the kingdom. If there is anything that is frustrating the work of the Holy Spirit at this hour and confusing the minds of God-thirsty men and women it's the fishermen who are trying to fish everybody into their thing and calling it God's thing.
To lower the net with a pure heart so that we never, never, never draw human souls to ourselves but only to the Lamb, our eyes have to remain on God, our satisfaction has to be God alone.

Which brings us to the third thing we have to keep in mind as we fish:

3. We need to fish knowing that the whole thing belongs to God. The boat is God’s---the net is God’s---the sea is God’s---the fish are God’s---our hands are God’s. God, in his mercy, has simply made us part of his divine net and told us to go down into the sea and gather to him those he draws to us.
What a relief not to have to be hotshots --– just servants --- faithful servants doing what we're sent to do. And what an awesome joy to see living souls coming into God's net. People we were convinced were spiritually deaf and dumb drawn to the Lamb as if by a magnet. And all we did was spend a little time with them and speak a word or two.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind; when it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into vessels but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth."
Matthew 13:47-50_

The fishing that's going on across the earth at this hour, and that we are part of, had its beginning before the worlds were made and will have it consummation in glories that surpass the reach of our minds. It is enough to know that God has made us part of it, and to do well the part he has given us to do.

"Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."

"Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some."

Brace yourself for what you're going to see in the days ahead.