"When We Hear Him"

When Jesus Makes A Request...

The last message was about Simon and his time on the boat listening to Jesus. Jesus had asked him to take his boat out a little and keep it there so He could teach the people. I thought about how my own father had once told about his testimony as a new believer and his being asked to teach the children's church as his first real service to the Lord. When Simon was asked to take his boat out a little from the shore, Jesus had interrupted his cleaning of his nets. You see, Simon had been out fishing all night. Not only that, but he had also not caught a single fish that night! The literal translation will verify without a doubt "Not One Fish!" You could probably imagine that Simon would also be hungry as well.

There is one thing I know about real fishermen, as I had been quite involved in fishing in my youth, is that they can ignore allot of discomforts if they believe that they stand a good chance of catching allot of fish. I have ignored bitter cold winds, thirst, hunger, extremely hot temperatures, rain, mosquitoes, snakes and even the need for sleep when I had been up all night.

I once stayed up all night making lures with wire and gotcha plugs and learning how to reel them in, just so I could catch some Blues for the first time. For those of you who aren't familiar with this fish, they are about as long as your arm is from your elbow to your fingertips and they only come into shore for a few days every May and September around mid month. I had heard they were catching allot of them at the Iron Steamer Pier at Atlantic Beach. Another thing that I had been told that Friday evening before setting off on my fishing trip was that they only bite for about two hours in the morning and in the evening when the sun touches the water. With this bit of information and the dream of filling my cooler with these large fish that tasted like heaven on a plate, I set off for the beach. I took peanut butter crackers to survive on and a thermos of coffee. When I arrived the woman at the fishing shop was telling others who had shown up as I had for the first time how to catch this crazy blue fish that would bite the first plug that they saw in their path. She told us how we needed to have plenty of lures ready because we didn't want to loose any of the time we had to catch the Blues, by running to the store to get more lures, so we all bought five or six gotcha plugs and some wire to make the leader out of. This is the first eighteen inches of line tied to the lure and then attached to your fishing line. When I asked why we had to have this wire, she kind of chucked and said, "You really don't know anything about this fish do you?" and I admitted that I did allot of fishing but this was new to me. Well, she continued to train all of us amateurs how to make the lures, what to watch for and how to reel the line in when they started biting. By this time it was about three in the morning and I knew the sun was going to break the water about 6am, so I went out to the end of the pier and started casting. It was rather odd because you need to jerk your fishing pole up and down while you are reeling in the line. The other fishermen out there were fishing for shark and they started laughing at me because they knew the blues wouldn't start biting for a few more hours. Finally they told me I should lay down on the bench and get some rest because it would be a few more hours. They even said they would wake me up but my adrenalin was flowing and I wasn't going to take any chances on sleeping through this. If I could just stay awake for about six more hours, I thought, I could have my catch of the year and go back home with enough fish to last me most of the summer. Little did I know how true that would really turn out.

The final piece of information that I had learned came from the same fishermen who had been on the pier fishing for shark all night. They hadn't caught a thing but they told me with great confidence, as they were packing up at about 5:30am, that I needed to tie a towel to the rail where I wanted to be located and that I definitely needed a much larger cooler or my fishing experience would be over in about 30 minutes. I thought they were kidding and I laughed but they assured me that they were serious. I quickly ran to the pier shop and spent another thirty-five dollars on a very large cooler and returned to find people showing up to start their casting for blues.

To be honest with you, I was exhausted at this point, hungry, out of coffee and struggling to keep my eyes open, but I did have ice in my cooler, so I took some ice and rubbed it on my face and hands to wake myself up. The guys showing up seemed so rested and relaxed as they sipped on their coffee and watched me casting my line out over and over. They told me I must be new at this and I asked why. They said that it is much easier to hold the reel upside down when fishing for blues because it is easier to hold the reel and flip your rod up and down at the same time. I was once again grateful for the additional information volunteered by the nice gentlemen as they watched me. As I was getting used to this new technique of reeling, I suddenly felt my rod snap down and it felt like I had hooked onto one of the old piers out in the water. I thought to myself that I had just lost my first lure when all of a sudden my line took off in another direction. As I struggled to get my first big Blue fish pulled in the other guys who had been waiting all reached for their poles and walked up to the rail to begin. That's when I knew what they had waited for so patiently! They were letting the new guys do the work while they waited and enjoyed their coffee. The fun I had anticipated had begun and all i could think about was getting the fish up on the pier and into my huge cooler. I had bleeding finger tips from the sharp teeth of the blue fish as they would jerk sometimes while I was trying to get the hook out, even with the use of pliers. I just wiped them off and kept on fishing. Every time I cast my line out and reeled it in I would catch a blue fish or a Spanish Mackerel about the length of my forearm. Well, needless to say, I had a story to tell my buddies, future children and grandchildren and it wasn't a fishing tale! It was a true fishing story that I had experienced myself. It was something that I heard someone else talking about and I got got excited about experiencing for myself. I had hoped it was true but I needed to really experience it to know just how exciting it really was. Nevertheless, I had gone on the word of others and their experience and now I had a huge cooler over flowing with fish.

The only problem that I had to overcome after my huge catch that day was how to get the cooler into my car when I was getting ready to leave. That's a whole different story of it's own!

Let's look at what happened next with Simon that day out on the lake with Jesus,

Luke 5:4 Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
Luke 5:5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

Jesus had given Simon some direction that day on the lake after he had finished teaching the people. Just like my co-worker who knew about the Blue fish had told me where to go, Jesus told Simon where to go and catch some fish. The thing that we see in this passage is that Simon was exhausted and he had already fished all night but he hadn't caught a thing. Why then, did he do as Jesus told him to do?

Simon believed in the teachings of Jesus and he trusted him to lead him into the right direction. Many times I have heard this passage taught by others to say that Simon doubted Jesus and that he just did what Jesus had said to do because Jesus was his Master. I have heard men say that Jesus told Simon to let down the nets but he let down only one net. After searching the literal translations, I could not find the word "nets" as shown in verse four of the King James translation. Therefore, Simon did as Jesus told him to do and I believe that changes the way we see this passage and it's meaning. It is better to follow the leading of one who knows the outcome that one who is imagining how things could have been or might be in the future. We often take the time to listen to man's theories and phlosophies but how often do we listen to the uttering of the voice of God in our hearts, minds and spirits?

What are the possibilities if we also would say to our Lord, "nevertheless at thy word I will..."? If you look at the literal translation of this phrase this is what it says, "because you have uttered your request I will....".

Jesus has made His request to each and every one of us. Will our life reflect our belief in Him?