It is night on the lake, and Simon is out in his boat working as a fisherman. James and John, his partners, are there too, busy with their nets. All night long they toil, but the fish do not come their way, and at last when morning dawns they give up trying for them, and come ashore. Though they have caught nothing the nets must be washed and spread out to dry, and they set to work to get it done.
While they were washing the nets Jesus came and stood by the lake, and because the people crowded close up to Him to hear what He was saying, He got into Simon’s boat and asked him to pull it out a little from the land. Then Jesus sat down in the boat and taught the people who stood on the shore. When He had finished speaking He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”
Simon answered, “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net.”
It was easy enough for Simon and his crew to let down the net, but when it came to pulling it in again it was a very different matter. How heavy it was! They had pulled in many a haul of fish, but never a haul like this. Why! the net was crammed with fish, and yes, it was actually breaking with the weight of them. It was more than Simon and those with him could do to pull in that net; they had to make signals to James and John in the other boat to come and help them.
It was then that Simon Peter made his great discovery. When he saw both the boats so full of fish that they were beginning to sink, “he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” He knew that he and his friends had been toiling all night, letting down the nets and hauling them in again, and never a fish had they caught, and now, in obedience to the word of Jesus he had let down only one net, and the fish had crowded into it.
Who but the Lord could command the fishes of the sea? And the light of God flashed into Simon’s soul, and he saw himself a sinful man, a sinner, quite unfit to be in the presence of the Lord. And yet Simon did not run away to hide himself. He could not, because while he owned he was not fit to be with Jesus, he still wanted, oh! so very much, to be there.
Now although Simon had only just found out that he was a sinful man, Jesus knew it all the time; He knew all about Simon from the beginning, and He knew that if Simon was to be saved, He Himself must bear his sins in His own body on the tree. He knew that to save Simon He must take Simon’s place and die for him on the cross. But Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost; He came into the world to save sinners, and He said to Simon, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
“And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed Him.”