Grace To Mend Nets For A Big Catch
As a church, we are still reflecting on the prophetic word Chris Kilby brought in February 2021 about strengthening and mending broken nets in preparation for a big catch. Our dearly beloved Maureen has been reflecting on this and I want to share one of her insights with you today. Here are Maureen’s reflections:
“Mark 1 – Simon and Andrew were casting a net into the lake with all their skill and knowledge as fishermen. They left their nets at the command of Jesus who called them to fish for men as directed by Him.
James and John were preparing their nets, making their own skilled effort to augment the catch. When Jesus gave the command, they left everything to follow Him.
Our knowledge, skill, willingness and industry are not enough to provide the nets to make us fishers of men. Self-improvement will not equip us. Of ourselves, we are unable to repair what is broken either in ourselves or in others. Working without Him, we cannot make adequate preparation for a catch. Only Jesus supreme in us will bring the catch.”
Maureen is quite right; man can’t fix what man broke. We need divine help. Proverbs 3:5-6 puts it like this: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
Contrary to what to Pelagius, an English monk who lived between AD 390 – 418, taught about human agency being “virtuous entirely of his own merit, not of the gift of grace”, we need God’s grace. In what has now been known in church history as Pelagianism, the heretic teaching of Pelagius held that man has “unaided ability to do all that God commanded”. According to B. B. Warfield, Pelagius “held that the powers of man were gifts of God; and it was, therefore, a reproach against Him as if He had made man ill or evil, to believe that they were insufficient for the keeping of His law.” Sadly, many still believe this today. They look to their own effort, their own knowledge and ability to do God’s work and obey Him.
But we know as Paul says in Phil. 2:12-13, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us to will and to act in order to fulfil his good pleasure. Yes, it’s our hands and feet, it’s our mind and will, but it is ultimately God who is at work inside of us by His Holy Spirit. We are only able to do “all things” because He strengthens us. (Phil. 4:19). It’s not Christ then me, or Christ not me, or Christ plus me, but Christ in me, that scriptures say is “the hope of Glory”. It’s on the basis of our union with Christ that our lives can be mended. We can’t do it on our own.
Augustine of Hippo was one of the fathers of the church who strongly and successfully challenged Pelagius and his teachings. He countered his heresy with his teaching on God’s Grace, - man’s absolute dependence on God as the source of all good.
In a one of his sermons, Augustine said: “There was no reason for the coming of Christ the Lord except to save sinners. Take away diseases, take away wounds, and there is no reason for medicine. If the great Physician came from heaven, a great sick man was lying ill through the whole world. That sick man is the human race”. “He who says, ‘I am not a sinner,’ or ‘I was not,’ is ungrateful to the Saviour.
In another, he said: “Zacchaeus was seen, and saw; but unless he had been seen, he would not have seen. For ‘whom He predestined, them also He called.’ In order that we may see, we are seen; that we may love, we are loved.”
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Zech. 4:6. Let’s be like Peter who said, “Master, as experienced fishermen, we’ve toiled all night and caught nothing, but because you said we should, we will.” Luke 5:5 (my Paraphrase). When they did, they caught such a large number of fish.
What we can’t do, what we can’t see, what we don’t understand, He does. Let’s trust Him to mend us, to heal us, to build us, help us recover, help us reconnect, and help us rejoice, even in the face of challenges. Let’s lean on Him for Grace to mend nets for a big catch. Amen!