Luke 5:4-7
4 When He (Jesus) had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
NKJV
I’ve heard several inspiring sermons over this passage of scripture. Each had excellent points that related this event in ways that helped me to better understand that obeying the instructions of Jesus can bring the miraculous into my life. The phrase “nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net” uttered by Simon illustrates the attitude we all need when confronted by circumstances that don’t add up in our understanding. Something always stuck with me about this story that I couldn’t put my finger on – then one day I realized that while I understood the attitude that Peter displayed in the story, I was still curious as to how he came to that place of trust and action. I wanted to be as settled as Peter was when he could say “Nevertheless.”
Have you ever wondered what got Peter to the place where he could say “nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net”? Somewhere along the line Peter went from a mentality of “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing” – “Master we’ve already done everything we know to do, and we are professionals at this you know. It’s just not happening out here today” – to “nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net”. Simon’s nevertheless was based on something else that occurred before that miraculous catch of fish.
What Simon’s Nevertheless Meant
Simon’s nevertheless contains the thought of “in spite of other information” or “regardless of what I know and see”. You could look at the passage and read it as follows:
“Master, we’ve toiled all night in these waters, tried everything we know to do as veteran fisherman who know these waters, and we’ve caught nothing. Yet in spite of what I’ve experienced all night and regardless of what I’ve seen and know as seasoned fisherman, at Your word I will let down our nets again.”
Simon’s nevertheless went against what his circumstances and his experience told him. So what prompted him to get to the place where he threw circumstances and experience out the window and instead take the word of Jesus? The words Jesus had spoken to him weren’t magical. There was no special incantation or liturgy that came out of Jesus’ mouth. Notice Simon said “at Your word”. Simon decided to take Jesus at His word. He decided that since the instruction to launch his boat back out into the deep came from Jesus, he would place his trust in it and do it in the face of his all night failure to catch a single fish. Simon approached the situation just as Sarah did when it came to conceiving and bearing Isaac – she decided to take God at His word that He was faithful to do as He had promised.
Heb 11:11-12
11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.
How Simon Peter Came To The Place Of Nevertheless
So how did Simon get to the place where he could say “nevertheless”? From the previous chapter of Luke we find that Jesus has been in Simon’s house and healed Simon’s mother-in-law of a high fever. He then proceeded to heal and deliver all the individuals that were brought to him. Simon had also heard Jesus preach in Galilee, even that very day from his own fishing boat! Simon still had much to learn, but he had listened to and watched Jesus. He had experienced His grace in his own home — seeing his mother-in-law healed – and chose to value that more than his own circumstances and experience when Jesus said spoke. Sarah watched God bless and protect her and Abraham many times throughout their lives. Those experiences helped get her to a place where she went from laughing at the promise to deciding to trust He who had made the promise. Simon Peter did the same. He decided to take Jesus at His word to be able to carry out what He was promising. His trust was not disappointed – he had only to let down his nets and pull them back in.
There are things that the Lord asks us to do that on the surface don’t make sense. We may question if it is really God talking to us, or could it be another voice, or the rumblings caused by a late night snack? Simon Peter had been around Jesus enough to know His voice, and he heeded what Jesus said. Just as Simeon Peter did, spend time with God to know His voice, and then take heed to what he says. There will come a point where He will ask you to do something beyond yourself – beyond your abilities, beyond your experience, beyond your knowledge. It’s at this point that you have to answer two questions which Simon had to answer:
Can Jesus deliver on what He has promised?
And the question that most struggle with:
Does Jesus know what He is doing in this situation and with my life?
When told to head out in the deep again and let his nets down, Simon had to resolve himself to answer those two questions – Is Jesus faithful to keep His word in what He is asking of me, and does Jesus really know what He is doing with my life? Simon’s intellect told him that Jesus was just a carpenter with no real fishing knowledge to draw from to make such a request. Yet he knew Jesus and counted Him faithful to deliver on His word. He trusted that Jesus knew what He was doing in regards to Simon’s well-being and future. From this place Simon Peter said….’nevertheless’.
What About Your “Nevertheless” Moments?
So what are you facing that requires a “nevertheless”? What is Jesus asking you to do that flies in the face of what your circumstances and experiences say? Most importantly, what can you look back on and recognize as His faithfulness in your life? What have you seen, heard, and experienced that illustrates God’s faithfulness to keep His promises to you?
When Simon heard the request, he knew it didn’t come from someone on the shore or his brother Andrew. He knew he was hearing from Jesus, and he acted on it. It will require action on your part to do what has been requested of you, but if Jesus has given you His word it will produce results.
Is Jesus asking you to go into uncharted territory, or maybe into old fishing grounds that you have previously had little success in? Can you look at Him in the midst of uncertainty and say, “Lord, I don’t know where this is headed, but I know You are faithful to keep Your word, and that you know what you are doing in my life with my best interests always on your mind.” If so, you can respond to Him in the same manner as Simon, “nevertheless at Your word I will do as you ask”. There will be work involved – Simon Peter had to pull up his nets – but you can have God’s results in your life.
