If we look at the tale of the calling of Simon-Peter, Andrew,James and John in Matthew Chapter 4:18-22 we see that first Jesus was supposedly just walking by the Sea of Galilee and saw Simon and Andrew fishing with their nets and said to them, ‘Follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men‘ , then later on saw James and John in another boat with their father Zebedee and called to them to follow him, so they left the boat and their father and followed Jesus.
However we must remember that this was written by a man who was originally a tax collector for the Romans, and knew very little about fishing. Almost all preachers who have taught on these verses, taught that James and John left the entire family fishing business, including their father, and followed Jesus just because Jesus asked them to. We should all be willing to leave the old things in our lives behind and Follow Jesus, Just because He called us too. We can find the same tale in a slightly different fashion of telling in Luke. Luke was a learned man, a doctor, who was very learned in the ways of man. Luke was not one of the original twelve disciples and was more than likely a close friend of the apostle Paul. Even though the tale seems very different, they are really the same story from two different perspectives.
In Luke 5:1 Jesus was not just walking beside the Sea of Galilee as Matthew told it, but teaching to a crowd of people beside the Sea of Galilee and was pressed by the crowd until to keep from being pushed into the water he climbed aboard a ship by the seashore in which Simon-Peter had been fishing and was now on the shore cleaning out his nets. All the little things like sticks and seaweed and other debris that had become caught up in his nets over the night of fishing he had just done was being cleaned out of the nets in anticipation of putting them away for the day.
Jesus climbed aboard one of the ships, Simon-Peter’s, and asked Simon to pull a little way out from the shore so He could continue to teach without fear of being pushed into the water by the crowd. The whole time Simon-Peter and the others had been drying and cleaning their nets, they had been listening to Jesus teach the people, so they could tell he was a respected teacher. then we come to verse 4 where Jesus finished His teaching the crowd and He turned to Simon-Peter and Jesus asked Simon-Peter to do something that seemed normal for a fisherman, but not so as it was the wrong time of day for Simon-Peter to do it, Jesus asked him to row out into the deep water and throw the nets back out. Normally the fish could not be easily caught except at night because they only came up close to the surface at night when the water was cooler and went back down when the sun came up and the surface water became warmer.
Now even though it was normal for Simon-Peter to do, it was hard for him to do as Simon-Peter had already cleaned his nets and rolled them up to store away for the day, on top of the time of day being wrong by the common knowledge of fishermen. However, having heard Jesus’ teaching and having gotten nowhere with his complaints to Jesus, he finally agreed. he did not let down the nets as asked, because thinking it a fools errand The Bible says he let down the NET, only one of the many he normally would have fished with.
Even though Simon-Peter did not believe the fishing would catch anything, when he began to pull up the net it began to break from the great multitude of fish in it. We limit the blessings God may bestow on us through our disbelief of the actions Jesus leads us to do because we are focused on what the world thinks is right and not what Jesus is telling us to do. Simon-Peter immediately called over his partners James and John in the other Ship and had them help with the great catch of fish.
When Simon-Peter first agreed to do as Jesus asked he called Jesus, Master, because he was showing his respect for Jesus being a teacher. After Simon-Peter caught the great catch of fish he fell down at knees, as there were to many fish in the bottom of the ship for him to fall down at Jesus’ feet, and said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man O Lord”. Notice Simon was now calling Jesus Lord because he now realized the true presence of the man in front of him. We do the same as well, we give Jesus only passing reverence in our lives and after he works a great miracle in our lives we suddenly see His reverence and that He is the one in control of all the things around us. In fact, He was the creator of all the things around us.
It wasn’t until later that Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter - (the rock). It is important that it be pointed out that it was not Peter, (the rock) that Jesus’ church would be built upon, but Jesus Himself (the Rock that Our Faith is built upon) that the church would be built upon.
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