This is when Jesus first chose Peter and Andrew who were brothers
and then James and John who were also brothers.
They four worked together with others to catch fish.
Jesus called the brothers tp follow Him and the dads had to be without them.
And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon Him to hear the word of God,
He stood by the lake of Gennesaret,
And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them,
and were washing their nets. And He entered into one of the ships,
which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land.
And He sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Now when He had left speaking, he said unto Simon,
Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night,
and have taken nothing: nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net.
And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes:
and their net brake.
And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them.
And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying,
Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
For he was astonished, and all that were with him,
at the draught of the fishes which they had taken:
And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee,
which were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed Him. Luke 5:1-11
We see how Jesus introduced Himself to Peter and Andrew and James and John. Now, let’s jump ahead to after Jesus was crucified before He was resurrected. This was the third time He had shown Himself to the disciples after He had been crucified. They did not recognize Him at first.
Jesus Appears at the Sea of Galilee
After these things Jesus shewed Himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias;
and on this wise shewed He Himself.
There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus,
and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee,
and two other of His disciples.
Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.
They say unto him, We also go with thee.
They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately;
and that night they caught nothing.
But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore:
but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat?
They answered Him, No.
And He said unto them,
Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.
They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it
for the multitude of fishes.
Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord.
Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him
(for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.
And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land,
but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes.
As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there,
and fish laid thereon, and bread.
Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.
Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes,
an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many,
yet was not the net broken.
Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.
And none of the disciples durst ask Him, Who art thou?
knowing that it was the Lord.
Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
This is now the third time that Jesus shewed Himself to His disciples,
after that He was risen from the dead. John 21:1-14
Similarities and Differences:
The net brake the first time He told them to let down their net.
The net did not break the second time.
The significance of the net is baffling, breaking the first time and not the second.
It was an important detail but I don’t quite know why. Maybe the Lord will tell you?
Jesus said, Let down your net on the right side, both times.
This was after a good amount of time without catching anything.
The Lake of Gennesaret was the first time, the second time was the Sea of Galilee.
The first time, Jesus said, Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.
Jesus did not say that the second time. They already knew they had a mission.
He had instilled that during their time together, and likely,
put His desire for their lives in their hearts, as they allowed.
The second time was when Jesus asked Simon Peter if he loved Him and said, Feed My Sheep.
Peter told the Lord what he thought even at the beginning of their relationship.
This was one of those times when Peter did not have the faith,
but he did what Jesus asked out of obedience:
Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon,
Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
And Simon answering said unto Him, Master, we have toiled all the night,
and have taken nothing: nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net.
And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. (Luke 5)
The second time, Peter didn’t argue or doubt. He knew to do what the Lord said.
Although, it came naturally, since Peter did not recognize it was the Lord,
even after He had used the same sentence to Peter
after he had spent much time trying to catch fish to no avail.
The ships began to sink the first time, not the second.
Very distinct numbers were given of the fish in the boats the second time, one hundred, fifty and three, but not the first, scripture says: a great multitude of fish. No exact number.
It’s rich in its meaning as the contrast of both instances are about catching fish.
The first they had no clue, the second was after they had caught the fish/sheep
and Jesus told him to Feed My Sheep.
If we just helped people to get saved, but did not do anything more, that is not helpful.
They need to be fed and nurtured and loved and cared for just like the Lord would do if He were here.
I believe this will be one of those stories that the Lord adds to our understanding as time goes on.
Or that we will have to be content with no knowing until we meet Him and He teaches us more.
Either way, there are always treasures in scripture that some see and others don’t or that due to personalities, some things are more interesting to one person but the other is more interested in something else. That just fits into the one body concept where we all are unique and all have our places. None is wrong or right, but each is serving Christ to his or her own ability and talents.