Casting Into The Deep

Called to a Greater Mission: Witnessing and Serving in Christ's Name

Bible Passage: Luke 5:1–11, Is 6:1–8

Summary: Both passages illustrate the radical calling of individuals by God to become disciples, emphasizing the need for divine direction in witnessing and serving.

Application: Encourages Christians to deepen their commitment to witnessing and serving, responding more attentively to Christ's call in their lives. Challenging them to step out of comfort zones to fulfill God’s mission, making them aware of God's transformative power in their lives.

Teaching: Through Isaiah’s vision and Peter's call to follow Christ, we learn that God equips and sends us to witness and serve as disciples. We are reminded of our calling to participate in God’s purpose, leading others to Him.

How this passage could point to Christ: In the context of the Bible, this theme reveals Christ's ongoing mission to gather and transform His people as He calls them to be fishers of men, echoing the disciples’ calling in fulfilling God's redemptive narrative.

Big Idea: God calls us to a greater mission of witnessing and serving, empowering us through Christ to fulfill His purpose in gathering disciples.

Recommended Study: the cultural context of fishing in the first century. Explore the theological significance of Isaiah's vision and the implications of his response to God's call. Analyzing commentaries on both passages can provide clarity on how these themes of calling and discipleship align.

1. From the Ordinary

Luke 5:1-3

This call comes after Jesus’ fame and growing popularity.

So many people had gathered to see him, he had to speak from a boat. Speech carries well across water and the shore like an amphitheater.

Jesus used a common scene—a fishing boat and a crowd of listeners—to create an opportunity for teaching.

God uses everyday situations to call us to witness.

Everything is done here by human agency. It is a miracle, certainly, but yet neither the fisherman, nor his boat, nor his fishing tackle are ignored; they are all used and all employed.

Charles Spurgeon

Hom. 6. in Matt.) For in His condescension to men, He called the wise men by a star, the fishermen by their art of fishing.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

God calls us from where we are and what we have to go where we do not know and receive what we do not have.

Jesus’s request to use Simon’s boat shows how He enters our ordinary lives and commissions us for His extraordinary purposes.

These fishermen could see the profound effect he had on people and may have wondered why.

In the same way, if we are attentive to any such opportunities in their own lives, then we may also reap the harvest that Christ has sown.

2. Toward Obedience

Luke 5:4-7

Luke used this story of the Apostle Simon Peter as an origin story.

Simon’s initial hesitation turned into obedience, which led to an overwhelming catch of fish.

He initially communicated their frustration of exertion without reward.

Yet, they still went out again during the day when finding fish was far less likely.

Fishing is done at night on the Sea of Galilee. The fish go deep in the center of the lake during the day and come up to the surface, along the shore, during the night hours.

Stephen K. Ray

This illustrates the power of trusting in Christ's guidance, even when it defies personal and past experience.

How often, like these disciples, we have been fishing on the wrong side, making our own decisions, trying to get things done in our own strength and wisdom, really saying on our own, “I am going fishing.”

Roger L. Fredrikson; Lloyd J. Ogilvie

Obedience to divine instructions brings about amazing outcomes that advance God's kingdom.

This is all about obedience rather than about fishing. Their fishing is a metaphor for ministry (as we will see in v. 10), and their radical obedience is the key to this story. What they do in their own strength (fishing all night) ends in failure, but when they respond in obedience to their Master, it turns into amazing success.

Grant R. Osborne

3. For a Greater Calling

Luke 5:8-11

Simon’s response to the miraculous catch was not that of a fisherman.

When Peter realized what had happened his response was unusually profound.

His response was of a human being in the presence of one he now calls his Lord—recognizing his own sinfulness in the face of Christ’s holiness.

But, in Jesus’ eyes Simon’s sin did not disqualify him.

Jesus still asks sinful people like Peter to join him in fishing for people. To be a “fisher of people” is to be a “fish” who is able to relate what it means to be pulled out of dangerous waters by God’s grace.

Darrell L. Bock

Jesus reassures Simon and calls him to a greater mission.

The response to Jesus’ activity was so large that it was necessary for Jesus to have helpers.

The call to follow, “Henceforth you will be catching men” (v. 10), is addressed to Simon, but his partners hear the word as also to them, for “they left everything and followed him” (v. 11).

Acknowledging our shortcomings often precedes God’s call to a higher purpose, and how Jesus transforms us into leaders for His mission.

1381 All our Lord succeeded in doing during his life on earth was to gather together a group of fishermen—the whole church of God and the enterprise of our Lord on earth in a fishing boat!

Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)

Illustration:

In ancient Rome, a young man named Justin was moved by his faith to serve others amidst persecution. He began to witness boldly, eventually leading many to Christ, even at the risk of his own life. His courage reminds us that, like Justin, God calls each of us to a greater mission of witnessing to those around us, empowering us through His spirit to fulfill His purpose.

4. Looking Fully upon God’s Glory

Isaiah 6:1-4

Isaiah's vision of God's holiness, emphasizing the initial, awe-inspiring encounter with the divine.

God's majestic and transcendent nature, which draws us into deeper worship and challenges us to be earnest in our discipleship as we witness His glory.

5. Looking Fully upon Ourselves, and Listen for the Call of Grace

Isaiah 6:5-8

Isaiah’s confession and subsequent purification through the Lord’s grace.

The transformative power of encountering God and underscores the readiness that follows forgiveness.

God often cleanses and prepares us before sending us on a mission.

6. Called to Cast our nets into the deep of the world.

Even Jesus’ success in spreading the Gospel is prophetic of the spread of the Gospel by his disciples, requiring even more help

They abandoned the tools of their former trade and took of their new calling.

The net of the Word of God was cast into the depths of the world and caught a vast multitude of people.

Will you follow Christ to where the fish are?

Will you help gather the fish or simply watch with longing from the shore?

The church is not a yachting club but a fleet of fishing boats.

Anonymous

Encouragement comes from realizing that God equips us with the power of His Word & Spirit to respond 'Here am I, send me.'