Or, The Found Go Fishing
Scripture: Luke 5:1-11
Date: August 16, 2026
Speaker: Sean Higgins
There are a few great fish stories in the gospels. This one happens when Jesus began calling disciples to follow Him. He catches the lost, then He casts the found back out to go fishing.
In Luke 5:1-11 Jesus, the carpenter’s son, teaches Simon, the professional fisherman, a new fishing story. By the end of this particular morning out on the water Simon and his business partners will have caught their largest haul of all time and will walk away from it and their equipment for something better.
The benefit for us includes a reminder of Jesus’ authority over nature, a reminder of His intention to seek and save the lost, and a reminder of our life as metaphorical fishers of men.
Jesus continued traveling to different towns and teaching. His words had power to cast out demons and heal disease, but even that corroborated the authority of His words of truth. Luke doesn’t say what the lesson of this day was, though we’d expect it to include the good news of the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43).
Jesus gathered a crowd by the lake of Gennesaret, which is another name for the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake in northern Israel. The people were pressing in on Him to hear the word of God, and without a platform and some sort of artificial voice magnification Jesus was looking for a spot with good visuals and acoustics. He saw two boats, empty, since the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. It’s the morning, they had clearly been out all night, and had caught no fish at all.
There was a book published in 1995 titled, The Sea of Galilee Boat: An Extraordinary 2000 Year Old Discovery by Shelley Wachsmann. It was about the find of a fishing boat buried in the sand in Israel approximated to this time. It measured over 25 feet long and over 7 feet wide, with an expected crew around four or five men (see Garland). It gives an idea of what Simon’s boat might have been like.
Jesus chose Simon’s boat, asked Simon to take Him out into the water a bit offshore so that He could have a good spot to teach. But this was more about the moment Jesus chose for Simon than the message for the crowd.
The group lesson time was over, but it was time for a different and more personal lesson. When [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Before even hearing Simon’s reasonable pushback, this command is meddling. Jesus knew the fishermen were tired because He saw them washing their nets which meant it was the end of their shift. And who did He think He was to boss the boat owner?
In Greek the command “Put out” is singular, to the captain; “let down” is plural, to the crew.
Simon’s reply is respectful. He’s not only heard Jesus’ teaching from his front row seat in the boat, he’s recently seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law and others. While respectful, he is real. Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! ESV even has an exclamation point. They’re exhausted. They are empty handed—there weren’t any fish. And it was the wrong time of day—they would scare away any fish. That said, But at your word I will let down the nets. It’s obedience, though maybe more humoring than humble.
And as soon as they put their nets in the water, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They got the second boat involved, and the amount of fish was so much that both boats began to sink. The great catch was too great. It was one thing to catch nothing, it was another thing to lose everything. The miracle was about to wreck their lives.
In the midst of the chaos and possible catastrophe, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (No exclamation point there?! The NASB and LSB do.) Of note, we don’t actually learn about the Peter part of Simon’s name until 6:14, so this is Luke getting a little ahead of himself, but those who would hear the story later would already know that Simon is Peter.
What is not obvious is why a boatload of fish would convict Peter about his sinful nature.
Verse 9 gives the reason for his outburst. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.
The miracle seems to have been in what Jesus knew. Maybe Jesus caused this huge school of fish to show up, or swim over to the right spot. The fish clearly hadn’t been there during the night. But it’s more the part that He knew they were there now. This knowledge was too high for a human. It also brought to mind: what else can this man know that is hidden to the rest?
This would be the context for Peter’s comment. “Go away, you’re going to see what’s under the surface in my heart just as you could see under the surface of the water.” Peter knows that he’s sinful.
Peter is the focus, but he wasn’t alone in amazement. So also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. These brothers will also be among the first disciples.
But Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Rather than distance from sinners, Jesus came for sinners. He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). The physician came for the sick (Luke 5:31). Peter’s sinfulness isn’t a hurdle, but it does belong with being humble.
Then Jesus turns the miracle catch into a catching metaphor.
Spurgeon once said that illustrations are like windows, they let light in but are easily broken. Apparently some people get fired up about applying the negative angles of fishing with human beings, as in, taking away the freedom of the fish, or even killing the fish. That’s clearly not the part that’s relevant here. And the verb here for catching is a form of ζωγρέω (ζωός (zōos, “alive”) + ἀγρεύω (agreuō, “to hunt/trap”), which means “capture alive,” as used by Herodotus and Thucydides for prisoners of war, a deliberate contrast to killing on the battlefield. Jesus uses the metaphor as if the catching is a rescuing, pulling men out of danger. And including Simon means that Jesus won’t do it all by Himself.
Simon was called to call, caught and now a catcher, a fish and a fisherman, redeemed for the kingdom and recruited for kingdom work. There’s still training to do, but from now on this will define his life.
And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. They had never had such a profitable catch, and they apparently didn’t care. Their livelihoods depended on their boats and nets and whatever other kit they had, and they just walked away. They got to shore, and then they followed Jesus.
This is perhaps the great verb of discipleship: follow. There’s listening, learning, watching, imitating, and all those are right. But moving behind someone in the same direction is the defining feature of a disciple.
Simon Peter, as well as James and John, go from the frustration and fatigue of a long night of work without catching any fish, to the faith-building huge catch and fish-catching figure of speech, to a brand new from now on.
Jesus teaches, Jesus heals, and Jesus catches disciples who catch disciples.
“the great prime mover of preaching the gospel does not come from outside (the “need of the world”) and not from within either (the “religious impulse”) but from above…” (Johannes Blauw, quoted by Garland)
All of us who believe in Jesus have a new from now on. We can’t physically leave our boats and walk with Jesus like the first disciples. Maybe Jesus won’t give you a brand new vocation, but following Him will change how you think about your vocation. You will need to leave parts of your former identity. Jesus said, “From now on you will be catching men.”
Pray for someone you know is lost by name. Throw a good news hook out in conversation. Include that you’re a Christian in your social media bio. Don’t hold back when your neighbor asks where you go every Sunday.
Don’t be afraid. There’s room for sinners like you on the boat with Jesus. And then, the found go fish.
For the sake of building the body up in love, drawe one waye. For the sake of the progress and joy of faith, drawe one waye. For the sake of shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, drawe one waye. For our witness to Jesus’ great name, drawe one waye.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV)