Gospel Prism

This past Saturday, I had a the privilege of going deep sea fishing with 20 guys from my church. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and by the time we set off, it was 7am. But with the excitement of thinking that we would catch fish, and the joy of spending some time with brothers in Christ made the early rising quite bearable.

My one great fear was not that we would leave without any fish, but rather that I would be so sick that I wouldn’t enjoy the time. But one of the guys in our group is a doctor and he prescribed this patch for us that worked magnificently. If you ever go deep sea fishing or have any type of motion sickness, talk to your doctor about this patch:

Well, when we set out, this is what we saw. It really was a beautiful day:

The morning fishing was pretty slow. There’s something about going fishing and catching nothing that makes things seem so bleak and disheartening. The fellowship was great, but the time together somehow became special as each man brought up a fish and everyone else rooted and cheered. But once we went past noon, everyone on the boat was getting hits at the same time. Since each of our lines had two hooks, we were pulling uptwo fish at once. Even hooks without bait were getting fish. It really was amazing. All of us came home with the maximum amount of fish (10). I couldn’t help but think about Peter who went fishing after Jesus’ death.

John recounts (John 21:1-7):

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”

I can imagine Peter’s discouragement in both ways: the first was obvious, his denial of Jesus and Jesus’ subsequent death, and second, his inability to catch anything which would have been the exclamation point of the past few days.

But when the man on shore tells them to cast the net to the side, and they begin to pull up the fish, the excitement he must have felt when there was only dreariness must have been overwhelming. Suddenly he knew that it wasn’t the fish that gave him joy, but it was the Lord! And it was no different for my boating trip. The fish were exciting, but to fish with men who wanted to say also, “It is the Lord,” made the day worthwhile.

To be fishers of fish is great, but to be fishers of men is the delight of knowing Christ as Lord.

Here were the four biggest fish caught:

And the fishers of fish, and Lord willing, men: