The Life of Christ

Lk. 5:4 And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

Peter was tired; he had fished all night and knew this was not the time for a catch.

• His level of faith was rather for a soft pillow and a warm bed .

Jesus ’ words to Peter symbolized the impending call of God upon him: “Put out into the deep waters and let down your nets for a catch!”

• Up until now Peter’s life had essentially caught nothing.

• To launch out into the deep would symbolize accepting the call to follow Jesus for the rest of his life.

• To let down nets meant to obey the clear instructions that would soon follow.

• The result would be a catch far beyond anything Peter would have ever imagined or accomplished in his own efforts — both in the natural and the spiritual, in this life and in the next life!

Lk. 5:5-6 And Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your bidding I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish; and their nets began to break; The N.A.S., N.I.V., and most other modern translations use the word “nets” all throughout this episode. Whereas, the Old and New King James Versions make a distinction between “net” and “nets,” as we will see.

• Only the K.J.V. family of translations seems to provide the correct rendering, distinguishing “net” and “nets,” as the context of the story will clearly show.

• In verse 4 Jesus says, "Let down your nets."

• According to the NKJV, in verse 5 Peter responds by saying, “...at your word I will let down the net.”

• Just to mollify Jesus, Peter throws out a single net — a token net.

Verse 6 from the NKJV reads, “And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.”

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The single net began to break.

• Was it ever Jesus' intention to have the nets break so that all the fish He brought to Peter would swim away? That would be cruel and uncharacteristic of who Jesus was!

• What got away were fish representing souls; that would never be God’s will.

• Had Peter dropped multiple nets, rather than just one, the "nets" would have held, and Peter would have caught more than enough fish to support his family while off following Jesus. The call and the provision always go together.

• If we refuse to do all Jesus tells us to do, somewhere down the line we minimize the provision.

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