Luke 5:1 NASB
1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him (Jesus) and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret;
Jesus is now preaching in Galilee. He has drawn a great deal of attention to himself, in that He has preached with such authority that His following is now substantial. By now, John, the Baptist is imprisoned and Jesus is the lone conduit of the gospel of the Kingdom. And the people of Israel are responding. They are coming in drove to hear, as stated above, ‘the word of God’. In essence, many who hear Him are thoroughly convinced that His words are from God.
Luke 5:2-3 NASB
2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat.
It is morning and the men are done fishing and are now cleaning their nets and preparing them for use for the next evening. Meanwhile, on the shore, Jesus is having trouble making Himself heard over the press of the crowd. He sees the boats on the shore and asks Simon to allow Him to use them in order to create space between Himself and the crowd so that He might be heard more clearly. I appreciate the fact that Jesus uses what is on hand to enhance His effectiveness in ministry.
Luke 5:4-5 NASB
4 Now when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon responded and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but [a]I will do as You say and let down the nets.”
Jesus wraps up His sermon, but He is not done ministering. Rather than taking up an offering, Jesus will leave one. He implores Simon to go out into the deep part of the lake and cast out His nets. This catches Simon off guard and he responds accordingly. You can see the directional shift in his thinking as he begins his response by rebuking Jesus but catches and corrects himself. Jesus and Simon have met before, but Simon’s response indicates that He is not yet fully committed to the ministry of the Kingdom.
Compartmentalization. In Christiandom, the term refers to our very human tendency to segment and prioritize the various aspects of our lives. How do we balance our family .vs our job? What takes priority, our spousal relationship, or our collective responsibility as parents? Where is Christ in all of this? Is He Lord, or is He Lord just on Sunday? It’s obvious that Jesus and Simon have a relationship, but at this point, Simon is not fully committed.
Luke 5:6-7 NASB
6 And when they had done this, they caught a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to tear; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, to the point that they were sinking.
Jeremiah 1:12 NASB
12 Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am [b]watching over My word to perform it.”
One of the remarkable components of the preaching of the Gospel is the occurrence of miracles that surround it. Miracles were part and parcel of Jesus’ ministry. They served the dual purposes of confirming the preached word of God and intersecting the lives of the hearers in meaningful, impactful ways. That is the case here. Jesus intends to bless Simon and his partners for the use of their equipment. He also intends to do it in a way that deepens their faith. There are many observations that can be made concerning this particular miracle, but I’ll just make this point: Simon and his partners blindly obeyed Jesus with no expectation that the result would be so great. In a very short time, they caught more fish than they had ever caught before in a single outing. And suddenly… a change… of heart.
Luke 5:8 NASB
8 But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
While not every conversion is precipitated by a miracle, every conversion to Christ is a miracle. Simon has witnessed something that he can neither explain nor even understand. What he sees with his eyes, Simon is unable to explain. The only thing that Simon seemingly comes away with is that Jesus is no mere preacher. Nor is He just a man. The epiphany that Simon is experiencing is that he is having an encounter with God.
Luke 5:9-10 NASB
9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and likewise also were [b]James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear; from now on you will be catching people.”
Did you catch it? Jesus’ response to Simon’s confession. “Fear not.” That’s it. “Fear not.” The most beautiful words anyone can hear when they understand that they have stumbled into the presence of Majesty. Jesus calms Simon’s fears, then informs him and his partners, James, John, and Andrew that from that moment on, they will be fishers of men.
Luke 5:11 NASB
11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
The response of the fishermen is beautiful. They demonstrate their change of heart by a change in their behavior. Suddenly, they are not concerned with nets or fish, boats or tides. The bible says that they “left everything behind…” In this moment, Jesus was no longer an afterthought, He was their only thought. “Emmanuel” had come near. Suddenly, all else paled in comparison. When God showed up, joy appeared. Hope appeared. Faith appeared. Love appeared. Love so pure it could not be resisted. Isn’t that how it goes? Beloved, there is nothing in all of the universe that can compare to the matchless love of God. When you encounter God, fear is the natural response of the sinful heart. But when God, then assures you that He means you no harm, you suddenly experience Mercy, Grace, Love, Joy, Faith, and Peace. Peace that surpasses all understanding. In this moment, Jesus becomes Lord. Lord of everything about you. You take His yoke upon you…. permanently. And there is nothing more joyous!
Selah,
wb
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