Friday, April 5, 2013

5 April 2013 - net profit


5 April 2013 - net profit

So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”

Jesus wants us to recognize the characteristic ways in which he works in our lives.  Peter is to be a fisher of men so Jesus blesses him to see the fruitlessness of his own efforts compared to the huge numbers he catches when he listens to the voice of Jesus.

God is equipping Peter to answer this question:

“By what power or by what name have you done this?”

It is a preparation which is ultimately completed and sealed when he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them,

Filled with the Spirit he can speak definitively and with certainty:


There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”

He knows what happens when he fishes in his own name and what happens when he fishes in the name of Jesus.  Circumstances may make it seem like there is risk to the net itself (which might be the Church or the family or something else) but if he trusts in Jesus there is not.

Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

If we don't know that there is only salvation in the name of Jesus we tend to try every other name first.  We build with every stone except the cornerstone of God.  The name of Jesus is a plan B or a last resort  for us.


He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.

Building on Jesus as the cornerstone means a lot more than a subjective decision about Jesus.  It means how that decision plays out in everything we do in life.  In fact, it means relinquishing control of the whole building project and letting the LORD do it.


By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.

What is he building?  A renewed world.  The world of time is being reoriented toward eternity.  The everlasting is breaking into the world even now in the lives of Christians who know the power of the name of Jesus.


This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.






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