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...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. Luke 5:6b-7
There was a time when our fishing expeditions were pretty much an exercise
in futility. You had to search a long way before you could find a single
soul who was even half-interested in the Kingdom of God. We were going
out with an empty boat and coming back with an empty boat. We'd come together
on the dock and talk about fishing. We'd study it, pray about it.... but
only once in a long while would we come in with a stray fish who more
often than not flopped into our net by mistake.
Fishing has been much better lately and when the fishing's good there's
a lot more incentive to go out and lower the net. In fact, there are signs
that we are about to run into a new problem...a problem with which none
of us, perhaps, has had any experience. What do you do when the fishing
gets to be too good? What if the net starts coming up so full we can't
possibly handle it? People for some mysterious reason just start pouring
in... not just extra chairs in the aisles, not just standing along the
walls...they can't even get in the door. And even more disturbing, our
personal lives are disrupted by constantly ringing phones, knocks on the
door.
What are we going to do if the abundant fishing of recent days suddenly
accelerates into a landslide of human souls so that people are pulling
on us at every turn wanting God....crying for peace. Friends who never
showed any interest, enemies of years past, come crowding around our table
begging for the bread of God and we find we have neither the time or the
strength to handle it all.
When we find the net coming up too full to handle there are two routes
we can go:
1. Expand the structure and keep it all in our family here....larger
facilities and better organization.
2. Call to our brothers and sisters in other boats to come and help,
"Here, take some of these fish in your boat."
There is a tendency in our religious flesh to take the first route. Didn't
we catch these fish? So we must be doing something that the other fisherman
aren't. We must have something nobody else has. For the good of the fish
we'd better keep them all here with us.
We have good spiritual reasons for keeping all the fish in our own boat.
But the real reason is that we're exploiting a God-given revival for our
own ends. We're taking these fish which were drawn into our net by the
power of God and trying to possess them. And when we do this the Kingdom
net with which we caught the fish ceases to be a Kingdom net and becomes
our net....our net....our boat....our fish ....our success. And the presence
of the Lord leaves our boat. We may not realize it for some time. The
thing may still continue to grow under a momentum of another kind. But
the real fishing of the real kingdom is taking place elsewhere with fishermen
who have no interest in hoarding fish for themselves,
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.
Luke 5:4-7
The mark of the authentic net of the Kingdom of God is that when it comes
up loaded with fish it shares the blessing and the work with others. There
is none of this "these are my fish, I caught them, and I'm going
to keep them even if my boat sinks."
The same God who draws many fish always provides laborers. Just as surely
as we are to pray the Lord of the harvest to raise up laborers for this
harvest of the sea we are also to open our eyes and recognize these laborers
as they come sailing by. Granted, there are pirates out there and God
will give us the wisdom to discern them, but there are also laborers who
will be drawn to us by God and we to them when there is a big catch in
our boat or theirs.
Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over
Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking
the word to none except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus
and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching
the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number
that believed turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the
church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and
saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain
faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; for he was a good man, full
of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the
Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found
him, he brought him to Antioch, For a whole year they met with the church,
and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were
for the first time called Christians.
Acts 11:19-26
Obviously the abundance of the catch in Antioch was because these people
didn't just fish near the top for big juicy Jewish fish. They lowered
their nets down to where the Greek fish were. But when the net came up
full notice the activity of the Spirit of God in providing laborers. Word
comes to Jerusalem of the big catch in Antioch so they send Barnabas -
"son of encouragement" - to help. Barnabas comes and sees that
more help is needed so he goes to Tarsus and finds Saul and brings him.
They kept getting help from partners in other boats. No wonder Antioch
was the church from which the fire of the gospel spread to the whole empire.
They knew how to fish the bottom. They knew how to accept help.
We all agree that when we find ourselves surrounded by human needs for
which we feel inadequate, we need to pester God. A friend has come at
midnight and we have nothing to set before him so we knock on the Father's
door until he gives us bread. But after we have the bread and we find
our table filling with more guests than we know what to do with we also
need to learn to beckon to our partners to come and help. They're always
there, all we have to do is see them and call to them.
God fashions the net of his kingdom out of people and these people are
linked together like the strands of a net are linked together...otherwise
the net won't hold any fish. We are linked together not by organization,
not by promises and covenants we make with each other, but by the vision
of the Kingdom God has given us – the vision of the work he's called
us into together. We're fishing living souls out of a sea of death into
God's Kingdom. We're not building a bigger church. We're not spreading
our favorite doctrine. We are crucified men and women through whom the
Spirit is drawing others to the cross of Jesus where they too will find
life. And we do this as lives which have been divinely linked together
with a net.
Not one fish is caught into the Kingdom through the laborers of you alone
or me alone. Every single fish is caught through the linked lives of this
divine net... prayer.... corporate labor. You are praying in your room,
I'm praying in my room. Someone else speaks a word at the right time.
Someone else manifests God's mercy in a deed and suddenly the person is
caught into the freedom of God.
The abundant fishing that we’re experiencing is connected with the
labors of people we will never see until we get to glory. Others have
labored and we are simply entering into their labor's. And if we are going
to keep up with the work and do it right we are going to have to learn
to share the blessings, the labor, and the success as never before.
1. As individuals we are going to have to learn to call on our partners
in the other boat.
I'm not talking about passing the buck or dumping the inconvenient things
on someone else. Pushing the midnight call for transportation on Brother
So-and-So. Picking up a hitchhiker and inviting them to stay with Brother
and Sister So-and-So down the street. But there are a lot of areas where
we need the help of a partner. A call that will be much more effective
if we take someone with us. A person who comes to us for advice which
Sister So-and-So's far better equipped to give. This is especially true
of areas of ministry that gratify our egos. Your third cousin is so moved
by a certain conversation you had with her that she invites a house full
of friends to come and hear what you have to say. When you go, take a
brother or sister or two with you to share the load and help keep your
feet on the ground.
When Peter was invited to go to the house of Cornelius to proclaim the
gospel he did not go alone.
"Some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him."
When Philip started getting a response up there in Samaria he did not
continue alone. He soon had Peter and John at his side. The apostolic
believers functioned as a net rather than as one-man or one-woman ministries...
which are so often baited hooks.
2. As assemblies of believers we are going to have to learn to call on
our partners in the other boat.
Instead of trying to become bigger and bigger, to say to other fellowships,
"We can't handle all these fish. Come and help us. Take some into
your boat!"
...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.
Most of us are already aware, through the Spirit, that the entire earth
is on the brink of an era of disruption and change that will shake all
the nations to their foundations. Economically, politically and other
ways this land has been basking in an Indian Summer. Indian Summer is
followed by fall storms then winter. When the storms begin we will see
fishing such as we've never seen. People will take hold of us like drowning
men and won't let go begging us to get them to the solid rock of God and
his Kingdom... we're already tasting it.
May God deliver us from the Lone Ranger syndrome where we think we're
doing it all by ourselves or at best treating brothers and sister as satellites
that must orbit around us.
May God save us from the heresy of the one congregation church where all
truth and life is thought to reside with us.
May God give us eyes to recognize his wonderful fishing net wherever it
is, and hearts that are delighted to fit in and be part of it, leaving
the control of the net to him alone.
