Salty Fishermen

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, chapter 5.

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On one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the Word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake.

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But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was

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Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down, taught the people from the boat, and when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch.

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And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and we took nothing, but at your word.

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I'll let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

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They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.

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But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man,

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O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.

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And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid, from now on you'll be catching men.

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And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. This is the gospel of the

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Lord. In the name of Jesus. All right, so we're talking about fishing today, but we've got to make a distinction.

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All right, there's fishing and then there's fishing. And the first fishing, we're gonna make sure that we understand is out of the question, is that fishing that people do for recreation.

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Now up here, as cold as it is, there's this phenomenon that as a Southern California boy

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I'm a little still worried about, and it's ice fishing. All right, I don't understand this, okay.

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Supposedly the way you relax up here is to take this small hut, bring it out onto a frozen lake, get an auger and drill a hole in the ice, and then sit there and stare at the water for hours on end.

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I think it was Garrison Keillor who said you can get the same sensation by putting a chair in front of your toilet and staring at it for a few hours.

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That is not what we're talking about today. I just want to make that clear. So we have to talk again, make the other distinction, and that is fishing for a living.

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Men who are fishermen. See, what's a good word to describe, you know, people who make their living on the water, you know, sailors and fishermen.

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Well, the word we like to use around here is, what is that, salty? Fishermen are salty.

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Yeah, and by the way, that's not the kind of salt that Jesus was referring to in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, you're the salt of the earth.

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You see, fishing for a living, it's difficult, extremely dangerous. The men who do this, you'll, if you've ever run into them, they oftentimes work with their shirt off in the sun, and so they are very tanned.

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They have no farmer's tan, that's just fully tanned, and their skin is oftentimes weathered by the sun and the wind, and oftentimes their hands are gnarled and hard, and they also have this weird ability to string together a litany of profanities that could cause even the demons to blush.

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Salty, indeed, yeah. So, in fact, if you want to kind of capture the idea here, I have this love for sea shanties, and one of my favorite sea shanties tells the story of sailors who have been working in the

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Kamchatka Sea heading back to Maui, all right, and I can't read the first verse because that wouldn't work in church, so I'll read the second one, and so as they're singing heading back to warmer climes, if you would, and the way the shanty goes, once more we sail with the northerly gales of the ice, the wind, and the rain.

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Them coconut fronds, them tropical shores, we soon shall see again. Six hellish months we've passed away on the cold

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Kamchatka Sea, but now we're bound from the Arctic grounds rolling down to old

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Maui, right? It's a great song if you've ever heard it, right? But this kind of gives you the idea of who we're talking about here, and it's important for us to note this.

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Peter is in that group of men. Peter, the great apostle, he's in that group of men when we find him in this account.

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See, this is the group that he and his business partners, the Zebedee boys, right?

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They're all business partners together. This is the group that they belong, which kind of begs the question, what on earth is

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Jesus doing hanging out with these kind of men, let alone pressing one of them and his boat into the service of his preaching ministry?

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See if we can answer that question along the way. So back into our gospel text, Luke 5 says this, on one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the

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Word of God, remember last week after Jesus cast out the demons and healed people and spoke the

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Word with authority, he said, listen, I got to go to the other villages and preach the good news because this is the reason why

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I was sent. And so we talked last week about the power and the authority of Jesus' words. And so here

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Jesus is preaching the gospel, and the crowd, an ad hoc crowd is formed, and so much so that he needed a little bit of room.

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So he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, which is the Sea of Galilee, by the way, that's just depending on where you are in the

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Roman world as to what you call it, which means Luke was probably written to Gentiles far outside of Judea.

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And so Jesus saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and they were washing their nets.

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Now a little bit of a note here, I'm not much of a seaman, but I do know that there's a protocol when you enter somebody's boat, especially if it's not your own.

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Usually you have to stand on the dock or the gangplank and say something to the effect of permission to come aboard.

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You have to ask for permission. Notice Jesus doesn't do that. He's acting like he kind of owns the place.

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So getting into one of the boats, and you kind of see what's going on. Here's Peter kind of looking like, what are you doing in my boat?

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You didn't ask for permission to get in my boat. So getting into one of the boats, which was

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Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And then he sat down and he taught the people from the boat that authoritative

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Word of God, the good news. Jesus is preaching it. And you'll note this salty fellow

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Peter, this fisherman by trade, is hearing the Word of God, hearing the gospel in the mouth of Christ while he's trying to keep the boat kind of in the same spot.

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And so when Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

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Now a little bit of a note here. Jesus is not a fisherman, and this is really not how they catch fish on the

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Sea of Galilee. Think about this for a second. Jesus is a rabbi. He's kind of a lettered guy. Sure he was a carpenter, but carpenters and fishermen are two different trades altogether, and everybody knows you catch fish at night.

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Not in the deep part of the Sea of Galilee, but up in the shallows when the fish come up to feed in the shallows.

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This is when you catch them. And so Jesus basically shows that he's a complete ignorant rube when it comes to how to be a fisherman, because he says cast out in the deep, midday, cast your nets then.

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Come on, right? This doesn't make any sense. But listen carefully to what Jesus is saying. See, we note that God's Word comes to us in law and gospel.

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And if you tune your ears to hear God's Word in the categories of law and gospel, command and promise, then you'll note that Jesus is giving a command as well as making a promise.

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Put out into the deep, let down your nets, command, promise, for a catch.

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Now, the man who spoke the universe into existence in six days, the one who can cast out a demon with a word.

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His word has authority. When he says put out into the deep and let down your nets midday for a catch, you can expect what's going to happen.

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Now, what happens next is actually a little bit funny. Simon answered, and you're going to notice it says in your

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Bible, he said master. Now a little bit of a note. The Greek word here is a pistata, pistata.

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And one of its valid translations would be like chief. So if we were to kind of like put it in the modern lingo, you can kind of see what

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Peter says to him is, hey boss, we toiled all night and we took nothing. Or, hey chief, we toiled all night and took nothing.

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So you'll note by calling him this, he's not calling him Lord. It's kind of a little bit of a dig that basically says,

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I'm the fisherman, you're the carpenter and rabbi. I know how to do this, you don't.

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He's doing it very politely, but there's a little bit of an edge to it. Now we don't know what happens next, but he does say that, but at your word.

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You can almost just see him going, alright, at your word. I'll let down the nets. Now this is good that he did this, because he's trusting now

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Christ's words. And if you remember, just a few weeks ago at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee, Jesus' mother said to the servants, upon running out of wine, do whatever

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Jesus tells you to do. This is good advice, because Jesus' word does stuff. And then remember last week, that in the synagogue while Jesus was preaching in Capernaum, a demon manifested in a fellow.

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And Jesus just said to him, be silent, come out. And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst, he came out of him having done him no harm.

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And everybody was amazed and said to one another, what is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.

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So this is what we can expect. And we all heard it already in the reading, but here's what happens.

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So when they had done this, they let down their nets. They enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

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Now the one thing I know about fishing from experience is that there is a rush of adrenaline—a rush of adrenaline—when that fish bites, takes the bait, and starts running.

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You know, you can hear the line coming off the spool. You're sitting there going, yeah, lock that thing, and boom, now the fight's on, right?

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And this is just the best part of fishing ever. Much better than watching a toilet, I'm just saying, okay?

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So you can almost imagine that here, Peter, you know, as soon as the fish get to the point where it's like, we've got a whole net full of fish, boys, and you can just kind of see the thrill, the adrenaline's like, yeah, this is the best thing ever, right?

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This is gonna be the most amazing fish story of all times, setting the record for the number of fish on the

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Sea of Galilee. Remember, fishing is a lucrative business if you catch fish.

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It's a lucrative business if you catch fish. So they enclosed a large number of fish, their nets were breaking, and so here's—this is a fascinating thing—this little piece just kind of tells you of the historical authenticity of this.

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Upon this happening, it says they signaled to their partners in the other boats on shore.

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It doesn't say they whistled. They didn't shout, hey, our nets are breaking, get out here and help us.

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They signaled. It's like, right? And the reason for that is this—they've got competitors whose boats are sitting on the shore, they're cleaning them in their nets, too.

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They don't want to share this with nobody, so it's like they're trying to keep it amongst the business partners, right?

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So they signaled to them, help, come over here. So they came and they helped, and they filled both boats so that they began to sink.

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This is the best fish story ever. But then, Peter comes to his senses.

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Remember, he's a salty fellow. He's a salty fellow, and at this point he realizes

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Jesus is not like anybody else. If he has the ability to catch fish in the middle of the day in the deepest part of the

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Sea of Galilee, like this, and it be a record -breaking two -boat sinking catch, and he can do this at will,

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Jesus could be the wealthiest man on planet Earth. He could run every fishing business out of business on the

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Sea of Galilee. He literally cornered the market, and that's not what this guy is about.

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And so at this point, he realizes he is in the presence of the Holy, and when you're in the presence of the

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Holy, you begin to realize, oh my, I'm not so holy. It's worse than not dressing up for an affair that requires you to dress up.

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You showing up in Levi's and a flannel shirt, and you didn't read in the invitation that you needed to wear business casual.

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Showing up and going, oh boy, I'm woefully not dressed for this. It's worse than that.

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It's recognizing that you are a sinner. And so he, now at this point, falls down at Jesus' knees, and he says, depart from me.

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I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. You know, this is a lot like what

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Isaiah experienced in our Old Testament text. Consider this. Our Old Testament text reads thus, in the year that King Uzziah died, this is

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Isaiah writing, he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high, lifted up, the train of his robe filled the temple.

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Kind of an interesting note here. You'll note that Isaiah in this text, in Isaiah 6, he's describing everything around the

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Lord, but he never really describes the Lord. Everything that's going on around him, but we never get a description of the

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Lord. It's as if the Lord himself is indescribable. And so here he's describing everything that's going on, and it is terrifying.

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Above him stood the Seraphim. The Seraphim literally translates, the burning ones, or the burning angels.

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These aren't just angels, these are angels that are on fire. Now each had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, two he flew, and then one called to the other.

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So there's two of them. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, or the

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Lord of armies. The whole earth is full of his glory. And then at this point, with these words of the burning ones calling to each other, these words, the foundations of the temple itself, built with ginormous stones, starts to shake and shook.

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And the voice of ones who called, the house was then filled with smoke. It's like everything is going to come undone.

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And he realizes he's in the presence of a holy God, and these holy angels. And he goes, oh woe is me,

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I'm lost. I'm a man of unclean lips. And he knows full well, to look upon the

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Lord is to die. Especially when you're unholy as he is.

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So he confesses that he's a man of unclean lips. And that he dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

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And my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh, Savaoth. You know,

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Peter's experience and Isaiah's experience are pretty much the same result.

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That horrible experience of recognizing just how unholy you are.

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And here's the important thing. We need to recognize that we're no different than Peter.

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We're all salty, with the wrong kind of salt. We're all like Isaiah.

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We are people of unclean lips. We have sinned terribly against God. And that if we were in the presence of the holy, like these men were, then we would recognize just how soiled with sin our bodies, our clothes, our lives, everything about us are.

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But see, the thing is, is that the Lord is slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love.

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Pardoning iniquity. And what happens next is actually amazing. And it's a little frightening at the same time when you consider the details.

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So then one of the seraphim, they flew to me and having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs.

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Now, I don't know about you guys, but I'm not keen on the idea of touching any kind of burning coals.

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I like barbecuing with them. I don't like being barbecued. Just saying.

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But you remember the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark? You know, in the near the beginning of the movie, they're in Nepal. And the

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Nazis are looking for an artifact. And this woman has this artifact. It's some kind of amulet necklace that she keeps, right?

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And of course, there's a wonderful fight scene and in the bar and stuff like this. Classic Hollywood. But at some point, they actually overpower this woman.

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And the Nazis have her. And the evil one who likes to torture people, because Nazis are into that. He takes a fireplace poker, puts it right in the heart of the fireplace, lets it sit there for a minute, and then pulls that thing out and it's glowing hot.

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And then he comes over and you can see the close up shot is this thing is getting close to this woman's face.

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And you're sitting there going, she's going to be scarred for life when this thing touches her. And she's cringing, trying to get away from it.

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That's what we're talking about here. There's Isaiah. And here comes this seraphim with a coal held by tongs coming right at his face.

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You got to think for a moment, Isaiah is thinking, I'm about to be barbecued. But that's not what happens.

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He touched my mouth. And he said, behold, this has touched your lips.

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Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for. A fire that doesn't consume?

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A fire that burns but doesn't destroy? I seem to recall that there was a burning bush in the early part of Exodus.

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Remember that? There was this bush. It was on fire. And Moses said, why is this thing on fire? But it's not consumed.

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I think I'll go over there and check that out. And then you think about the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit sent from the

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Father and the Son proceeds out now to the church, gathered in the upper room. And when the

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Holy Spirit appears, tongues of fire separate and descend on them. And they aren't consumed.

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And you think of John the Baptist who said, the one who's coming after me, whose sandals

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I am not worthy to untie, he's the one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

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And so you'll note here that Isaiah experiences a baptism of fire in some degree or another.

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But it doesn't destroy him. The touching of this fire pardons his iniquity, takes his guilt away.

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The only thing that gets burned up is his sin. And yet he is alive.

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That's how sacrifice works. That's what Christ did on the cross. Think of it this way. Scripture over and again describes the wrath of God in fiery terms.

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And there's Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, suspended between heaven and earth in order to reconcile us to the

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Father. He is then consumed in the fiery wrath of God for your sins and for mine so that we can be forgiven.

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That fire crushed, destroyed, burnt him so that you now can have your sin burnt off of you and you made holy like he is.

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Forgiven, redeemed, atoned for. And you do not need to be afraid.

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So you can just relax. So coming back to our gospel text then,

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Peter and Isaiah and all of us have a lot in common then. And so Jesus, upon hearing

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Peter's confession that he is a sinful man, says to him, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.

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From now on, you'll be catching men. You're still going to be a fisherman, but the net's going to change.

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You're still going to be a fisherman, but the boat's a little different. The boat will become the church of Christ.

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The church is that boat on the storm -tossed, chaotic seas of this world, casting now the net of the

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Word of God into those seas. And the net, because it is the Word of God, does what it says it's going to do.

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It draws men to Christ. And then the church pulls them into the boat of the church where, like all fish that are pulled into the boat, they go to die.

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Die to themselves. Die to their sin. So that they can live in Christ and live for others.

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And it's no mistake then, that over and again the world that we live in is described as a chaotic sea.

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But look in the book of Revelation. In the book of Revelation, the sea is mentioned. In the throne room of God, that chaos gives way to the glassy sea.

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You see, what Christ does through His Word to the church, to the casting of the net of the Word of God, draws us into the church.

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And we die so that we can now be made alive in Christ and swim as happy, free fishies in that glassy sea of the forgiveness of sins given us in our baptism.

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So do not be afraid, Simon. I'm going to the cross for you, to bleed and to die for you.

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Do not be afraid. Your sins are pardoned. Their sins are atoned for. And now you'll be catching men by telling them about me.

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I'll give you my words, put them into your mouth, and that net will catch men. And they will be forgiven just as you are.

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And they will be taken out of chaos into the peace that comes from the gospel.

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They too will be baptized with fire and it won't consume them. It'll atone for them and take away their sin.

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And so upon hearing this, it says this, that when they had brought their boats to the land, they left everything and they followed

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Jesus. After that fish story, what is there except for Jesus?

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So brothers and sisters, take heart. Do not be afraid. Though your sins be like Peter's and they are.

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Though you be as unholy and a person of unclean lips like Isaiah, and you are, your

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Jesus has bled and died for you. He's suffered in your place. He forgives you.

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And so from now on, you are forgiven and pardoned, and you have freedom like Peter to share this good news with others and participate in the greatest fishing expedition of all of history, which is taking place here, right now, in the name of Jesus.

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Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. We thank you for your support.

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