When the Lord Jesus was here upon earth and walked about preaching and teaching and healing, sometimes the people pressed so close to Him to hear what He said, that often He could hardly stand for the press. This was the case once when He stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and seeing two ships on the lake, He got into one and spoke to the people on land. After He had done speaking to them, He turned and said to Simon Peter, the master of the ship he was in, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draft.” Now they were very tired, for they had been fishing all night and caught nothing; they had just drawn in their nets and were going home disappointed and sad. They told Jesus their trouble, but said Simon, “At Thy word I will let down the net.” He little thought of the wonderful thing that was going to happen. They cast in the net, and it soon was so full that they could not get all the fishes that were in it into the two ships, and the net brake, they were so heavy. Simon and his men were astonished and frightened; but Jesus said, “Fear not; henceforth thou shalt catch men.” And when they came to land they left their ships and their fish, and forsook all and followed Jesus.
Jesus wants us to be something like Simon and James and John, but what we have to forsake is sin and mere worldly pleasures and all selfishness, that we may be fishers of men and of poor little boys and girls out of the deep sea of misery and sin in which they are living. We must cast in the gospel net, and seek to draw out those who would otherwise be lost. We must tell them of the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and of His wondrous love in giving Himself for us on Calvary’s cross. And let us do so with tender and loving words, kind invitations, along with deeds of love and patience; so shall we be what He called “fishers of men.”