They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got
into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.” John 21:3
Peter and the disciples are confronted with a critical lesson straight from God. They have decided to go back to their old profession – fishing. Peter has come to the conclusion that he is disqualified
from serving the Lord and for some reason six of the disciples join him. The group probably starts out with excitement to go back
to fishing– they envision they will go back and be as skillful as before. Yet in at least one heart, Peter’s, there is an emptiness. Fishing, all he now has to look forward to, would in no way make up for what he has lost through his sin against Christ.
So Peter and the disciples fish. They labor all night long. They have the right equipment, it is the right time, they have the right skills but they do not have God’s blessing. After a lot of hard work doing exactly the right things they stop to evaluate their catch.
They caught nothing The word for caught tells us these men worked hard. Strong’s Concordance states the verb “piazó” describes the act of seizing or arresting someone. It indicates a sense of force or urgency in the effort expended. The Greek word for nothing graphically describes the results of there strenuous efforts. It categorically excludes, as a fact, that a valid example exists. There are absolutely no fish lying in the bottom of the boat. The Lord uses this word “nothing” multiple times in the Sermon on the Mount. He tells us in Matthew 5:13 that “salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing”. (Do you see the connection?) The Lord tells us in Matthew 6:24 that “no man can serve two masters’. Again that truth is illustrated by the men on the Sea of Galilee. What a key lesson this is for believers to embrace. We cannot serve Christ in our own flesh.
What can we learn? God in His great mercy does not allow the disciples to catch one fish. He wants them to experience the lack of fruit from their own labors. They work hard (like the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2) but their efforts do not please God. If the boat had been full of fish, the disciples may have been deceived that God was blessing their efforts but it would still be true that their labor did not please God. No man (including you and me) can please Him in his own strength.
This truth is important to the way we live for God. Scripture tells us multiple times how this truth even applied to the Lord as He walked this earth. John 5:19 tells us “Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” Later the Lord would say, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30)
Of the Lord can od nothing in his humanity less God works through Him, how can we believe that we can do any differently? Here is the truth that must penetrate our hearts – when we try to serve God in our own strength and in our own will and in own timing any results we see have zero eternal value. Now fast forward to the Bema Seat where we are told ” Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of
what sort it is.” How is our work be tested – were we doing the Lord’s will! Everything done in the flesh will be burned – it sedges not matter whiter it wis the Lord’s work or not. Nothing means nothing.