Luke 5:1-11 English Standard Version Jesus Calls the First Disciples 5 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. We are now at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. The miracles of healing and casting out unclean spirits that He did in Nazareth and Capernaum and in the other nearby towns have made Jesus famous and the crowds are starting to come after Him and follow Him wherever He goes. One of the healings that we saw in Capernaum was Simon (who we'll later know as Peter or Cephas, so I'll call him Simon Peter to differentiate him from the other Simon that was later called to be a disciple of Jesus), and Jesus is about to call Simon and some of Simon's coworkers to a lifelong commitment to Him, but He's going to put them to a test in the process. Jesus is walking by the lake that we usually call the Sea of Galilee, and comes upon Peter and his co-workers cleaning their nets after they have been out fishing all night, and they have nothing to show for it--they caught nothing. Jesus then helps Himself to Simon Peter's boat to use as a pulpit and instructs Simon Peter to put out a little ways from shore so that Jesus could be safe from the crowd that was pressing in on Him (though this also made Simon Peter a captive audience for the sermon that Jesus was about to preach). We don't have the teaching that Jesus gave recorded here for us, but after the sermon was over, Jesus instructed Simon Peter to push out a little further into the deep water and let down his nets--the same nets that he was just cleaning after catching nothing. Note that this is the wrong time of day and wrong location to go fishing. You usually would fish in the shallow waters in the evening when the fish were more active, but seeing as it was Jesus who made this request, and Simon Peter had just seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law, then Peter complies with the request (though he does say that it doesn't make any sense). Suddenly there is a miraculous catch of fish that is so large that Simon's nets begin to break, and he signaled to his partners, James and John, who were still on the shore to come with their boat to help, and the catch was so large that both boats began to sink. Yes, everyone was in awe with what they saw, but pay attention to what Jesus does next. They just had the catch of a lifetime. If they took these fish and sold them they would be rich and probably could be living the "good life," but Jesus calls them to abandon everything, including the miraculous catch of fish from that day to follow Him and be His disciples. What does it mean to be a disciple? Well, we'll see as we continue to study Luke, but in short it means to to be totally devoted to learning what Jesus wants to teach you (today we do this through studying His Word and learning from others who say "follow me as I follow Christ."). We also get an indication here that it has something to do with what we might call evangelism because Jesus calls them to be "fishers of men." That is part of the picture, but not the whole picture. These men left their jobs, family, and friends (other than each other) and their wealth to follow Jesus. Are we willing to do the same? If it was us that had such success miraculously given to us in our business and then were immediately asked to surrender that and give it up to be His disciple, would we do it? I think most of us would be challenged by this as we long for "success" as the world defines it, but these men were quick to answer the call and they answered with total devotion. They may not have known everything they were signing up for, but either way, they are all-in. Jesus set all this up because He intended to use this situation to call these men and prove to them once again that He was Lord of Heaven and Earth. Not only do sickness, disease and demons obey Him, but even the very fish of the sea that they gained their livelihoods from obeyed Him, and this taught them something about the kind of "fishing" that Jesus was going to call the to do. He would call them to go places that wouldn't make sense to the experts. Others had already been there and tried without success, or it was the wrong time, or they were in the wrong place or using the wrong methods (again, according to the "experts"), but Jesus was Lord of the Harvest and would make the fish jump into their nets if they would be faithful to go where He told them to go and say and do what He told them to say and do. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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