By Pastor Steve Nickodemus

Re-Caught to Catch Others

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“Jesus called out them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered.  He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”
John 21:5-6a (NIV)

When Jesus called His disciples from their work as fishermen, He told them to follow Him and they would be catching men.  3 and 1/2 years later, Jesus has fulfilled His mission of salvation by dying upon the cross and rising from the dead.  But the disciples are unclear what the future holds and so they have gone back to fishing on the Sea of Galilee

After fishing all night and catching nothing, Jesus appears on the shore.  He calls out, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”  The answer is terse, “No!”

And this Man on the shore calls out, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”  And the disciples do, and they catch a huge quantity of fish.  Peter immediately is thrown back to the same memory of Jesus and the great catch of fish in Luke 5.  And so Jesus brings Peter back full circle.

Jesus re-catches Peter.

Peter has been struggling with whether he, the denier of Jesus can be used by Him in any way. Jesus reaches out from the shore and recaptures Peter and reinstates him as a fisher of men.  It is as if Jesus was saying to Peter, “I know you denied Me.  I know you have sinned.  But I have died so that you might be forgiven.  And I am reinstating you as a fisher of men!”

It does not matter what you have done, how unfaithful or weak or cowardly you have been in your walk with Jesus.  Jesus died for you that you might be saved and be the fisher of men He created you to be.  Jesus is not only in the catching business of salvation, but in the reinstating business of fishers of men.

Welcome back in the boat!

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