Peter starts to pull the net in, and he can’t even handle it, it is so full of fish. He yells to James and John and they come out to help him. They end up filling up two whole boats full of fish. The Lord Jesus blew Peter's mind by demonstrating His power over something that Peter thought he knew more about than Jesus.
In much the same way He works in our lives, the Lord Jesus reveals a little bit more of Himself each day and we, like Peter, are slowly going deeper into fellowship with the Lord. He is truly the Lord of everything, including that which we think we are experts about.
Peter has seen other miracles, but this miracle is personal, because it’s about fish. He had spent his lifetime studying fishology. We often think we are better at running our lives than the Lord. We get upset with Him when He doesn't give us our desired definition of life, only to discover His is far better. We often say, "I prayed about it but the Lord didn't answer." Oh, He answered! He just was not in line with our prayers.
In response to this miracle, the eyes of Peter are opened and we find him flat on his face in front of the Lord Jesus, saying, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.”
Throughout Scripture, when God reveals Himself to people, the response is that we end up on our faces. The person who is growing in arrogance is not growing in a personal relationship with the Lord. I think of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1-5. He goes into the temple, and God gives him a vision of Himself. Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, and winged seraphs flying above Him, worshiping. Isaiah ends up flat on his face: “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips.”
According to v.10, the Lord Jesus then said, "Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people." In every instance in Scripture when God pulls back the veil and asks people into His presence, He says, “Do not fear.”
The theme of fear is important in Luke’s gospel. Seven different times Luke records some revelation of the majesty and power of God after which God speaks in some way and says, “Do not fear.” The first is when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and called her to be the one who would carry the Son of God in her womb. He looked at Mary and said, “Do not be afraid....” (Luke 1:30.) Next, on the Judean hillside, the shepherds were blown away by the angelic chorus and announcement of Christ’s birth, terrified by the overwhelming majesty of God, and God’s voice came out: “Do not be afraid....” (Luke 2:10.) And there are five other times in the gospel of Luke when His invitation of grace simply says, “Do not fear,” including this incident in Peter’s life.
There is always a progression in God’s revelation of Himself to us. It has to be the way, otherwise, we would not be able to handle it. We must keep in mind, this is a process. It does not happen over night, and God is not in a hurry. God graciously continues to give us more and more revelation of Himself, and a deeper understanding of Him, that we might obey Him at an increasingly deeper level.
This is why the Lord Jesus said to Peter at the end of v.10: “from now on you will fish for people.” In the same way the Lord Jesus filled those nets beyond comprehension with fish, He is saying to Peter, “If you will follow me and trust me, you will be someone through whom I will continue to bring in the harvest of souls, catch the people that I’m going to put into your life. I’m going to do what I promised to do. You can trust me to accomplish it.”
According to v.11, "So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him." Obedience is responding to the revelation the Lord gives us. It’s our starting point as His friends who follow Him. What we do is follow some pattern that we think is the right way for a Christian, and we end up fulfilling someone else's call.
Now, granted, there are things that all Christians ought to and ought not to do as followers of Christ. But when that’s our focus, we end up getting trapped into robotically following our ideas instead of His. I have found, His way is always more radical than mine, and subsequently more exciting.
Finally, in v.11, Peter and his buds “pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” I'd say our number one god is "comfort." We like the easy life. This is not and will not be the case with the Lord Jesus. His idea is an adventure. It is exciting and it is scary, but it is worth it. To see Him do His thing through our lives is the greatest thing ever. And, who knows, we may be tackled by several in heaven when we get there because God used us to help them get there.
