Ever been fishing on your uni campus? Probably not, that would be weird. But that's what God is calling us to do this year.
When Jesus first called some local guys to follow him back in the day, He sent them back out fishing after a long night of not catching anything. The nets came back so full they had to get more boats over to help out. Even after that, the boats were so full they were sinking and all they could do was bow down and say, ‘You are the LORD!’
This miracle has its own special message. Jesus responds saying, ‘from now on you will fish for people.’ A new movement started. Jesus was saying, ‘This is what I can do, but with people. This is what your lives will be about now.’ They must’ve known what He meant because they left everything and followed him.
We sense that this is what God is speaking to us and to the church now for our uni campuses. There is a massive catch of people who are to be caught up in the gospel and the love of God, ‘this is what I can do, but with people - this is what your lives will be about’
Except this time, we have the benefit of these stories to learn from.
The first thing we can learn from them about fishing on our campuses, is to be expectant. We know that the catch will be bigger than we can imagine - so God is calling us not just to be obedient in stepping out, but to be expectant.
To be expectant and prepared for a massive catch does not mean making massive nets to take out with us. It’s not about having perfect models for ministry, big events or stages or the most followers on instagram. You’ll notice in the stories that the disciples need other boats to go out and help them out. The boats themselves can’t fit all the fish in, unless they work together with other boats nearby. The first time they did this, even then the boats started sinking, because there weren’t enough to take the weight of the fish.
We need more boats.
Like the miracle of Dunkirk. It wasn’t the big boats that were able to save the stranded soldiers, but the local heroes in little boats who then volunteered. They put a shift in sailing straight into a war-zone, using what they had to save anyone they could. Together they managed to bring back over 300,000 soldiers; more than they would ever have imagined, having more of an impact on the war and our nation than they could have fathomed.
This is what it looks like to go out with expectancy that there is a huge catch; we need to mobilise and take more boats!
We need local people and local churches, teaming up, getting in their boats, putting a shift in to save anyone that they can.
Who can you team up with? What does it look like for you to take more boats out into the sea of students?
The second thing we learn from this for our campuses is that we’ll need to persevere. God is calling us to persevere until the miracle comes and our friends and campuses are saved, even when this means fishing through the nights and not catching anything.
This is not easy. I was talking to an old friend the other day who is now into selling electric cars and installing charging stations; ‘Changing the world, one electric car at a time. Sort of like revival, except it actually happens’ he said flippantly.
I know it was flippant, but I wish gotten more fierce on him at the time. Because this comes from deep.
It’s so easy to get tired of praying the same thing, of being expectant for BIG things when we don’t get to see much of it! What we see isn’t as big as the prayers we’ve prayed even though we’re praying to the God of the impossible. We need to keep going.
This is worth saying because it is the reality. With all of this talk about expectation, we also have to be aware of this part of the process. .
Even Jesus’ followers - who were alive when he was and got to see his miracles and his power first-hand - had to fish all night and catch nothing sometimes. Let’s not grow disheartened or give up when this mission among students doesn’t look as glamorous or happen as quickly as we thought it would. Because when daylight breaks, the One who already has the Victory will show up. He will come through and bring in more fish than we could ever have imagined.
We need to keep going.
When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
