Introduction to Luke 5
I want to invite you to turn to Luke chapter 5 this morning. And I forgot to mention earlier, for our young families, if your kids are making noise, it's not going to distract me too much. It's not going to throw off our people. I think I speak for most everyone when I say we're encouraged to hear the sounds of young life in a church like this.
But if they are leading towards, like my children have been at some point, starting a sideshow on their own, we do have a parent room available for you downstairs, just out those back doors with a feed to the service. So if you need to use that, you can, but don't feel any pressure. The noise is an encouragement that the Lord has blessed our church and we are even more excited for the future life that is still yet to come.
So let's look at the book of Luke chapter five this morning. We're going to be in verses one through 16, and today I want to begin by asking you to think about: what is your salvation story? How did the Lord draw you to himself? Maybe like me, you were saved at a relatively early and young age. Or maybe you were saved later in life, which meant there was probably a more dramatic change of going from an unbeliever to a Christian.
Today, we are going to look at one of the more dramatic encounters of Jesus drawing someone to himself in the life of Simon Peter, the head of the apostles. But we'll refer to him this morning primarily as Simon because his name hasn't been changed to Peter yet, but they are the same man. And as we look at his calling this morning, I want to invite you again to keep your own calling in mind, your own salvation story, because regardless of when or how exactly you were drawn to the Lord, I think we're going to find out that we have much more in common with Simon than we typically realize.
And we pick up here on the heels of chapter four, where Jesus established the resounding note of essentially the gospels. He said in 4:43, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose." His mission was to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, saying, God has come to earth to reconcile sinners to himself. This was the good news that he proclaimed.
And as we're going to see this morning in greater detail with this calling, came sinners following him and the healing of sinners who would believe in his name. Everything Jesus did was intentional. Nothing was haphazard. And like Jesus, the author here, Luke, also had a unique objective in writing this gospel. He wanted us to see clearly on display the absolute power and unrivaled authority of Christ. He wanted to make that crystal clear. Yes, these are true historic events and they have been arranged in such a way by the author Luke with the Holy Spirit so as to show us something specific about Jesus. As we've seen in the earlier chapters, he is the God-man.
God draws near with purpose
He is God-incarnate. And this morning, we'll look at four simple ways that God draws near to sinners in Jesus.
Number one, we'll look at verses one through three. He draws near with purpose. I'll read from verses one through three: "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. And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them. And they were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to be put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat."
It's no surprise at this point that there are a huge crowd of people following and pressing in on Jesus. He's been preaching in the synagogues. He has healed a man from a demon. He has healed Simon's own mother from her illness, as well as other miracles that he had did thus far.
And Luke wants us to catch a subtle contrast here right off the bat. There's a big crowd following Jesus, wanting to hear his words, the word of God. But Jesus is primarily focused on the boat and on Simon. Although there are many who will hear, many who will even want to hear, those who are truly called are few.
And Lake Gennesaret this morning is just another name for the more commonly known Sea of Galilee. So that's where they were, in the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus, when he comes up on the boats, it's actually clear from the text here that they have recently completed their work from the day. How do we know that? Well, they're cleaning their nets. They are closing up shop. They're getting everything done, cleaned off from a long night's work, as we'll see here in a few verses.
So the work is done, time to clean up and rest and recover for the next time. So right as they are finishing a big, significant, hard work, he asks Simon, "Take me out onto the lake." And this would have made it much easier to speak to the large crowd, as just the acoustics of Jesus' voice carrying over the water would have gone much more smoothly to the ears of his audience.
And we don't know in particular if Simon said anything to Jesus other than he did it. He took him out on the boat. But we do know he was tired. And we're also going to see he was discouraged from their lack of catch. But nonetheless, at Jesus' request, Simon obliges to go out into the lake.
The boat is then drawn out onto the lake with Jesus, Simon, and likely a few others, some of his crew still on the boat, where Jesus can continue his proclamation of the arrival of the kingdom of God. The other gospel writers, Mark and Matthew, tell us in particular this was his message. Luke doesn't give us the details of that proclamation, but they tell us it was "repent and believe" because the kingdom is here.
But Luke withholds that information in particular because he's not as concerned that we know what Jesus said to the crowds. He's much more concerned with what Jesus is about to say to Simon. That's the important part of this narrative. And many of us know that Simon Peter was one of the more dramatic apostles. When you think of the things he did for God, there's a long list of things that he really didn't do well and he kind of actually did against God.
God draws near in weakness
So it shouldn't surprise us that his calling was also pretty dramatic. But not only did Jesus draw near to Peter, to Simon, on purpose, but he also drew near to him in a moment of weakness.
The first one was, he draws near with purpose. And the second is he draws near in our weakness. I'll pick up in verse four. And when he, Jesus, had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets."
So let's put ourselves in Simon's shoes this morning. He is a professional fisherman. This is his livelihood. It is what he does. It's his identity. He's also tired and discouraged from working all night and all morning and having absolutely nothing to show for it. Nothing. Cleaning up their boats empty-handed.
And along comes the teacher, the rabbi, Jesus, with the crowds. He probably already felt slightly embarrassed that he's cleaning up the boats with nothing to show for it in front of all of these people. But he's also seen up close what Jesus can do, when he healed Simon's mother. And he's also been listening to the words of Jesus as he taught out on the boat.
And surely, when Jesus concluded his message, Simon must have expected, "We're going back to shore, finished cleaning the nets, and we're gonna go home, we're gonna get some rest finally." But instead, Jesus gives Simon another job: go out deep into the lake and cast out the nets.
The language that Jesus used for "go out" or "put out" was a captain's command. This was a singular command for Simon: "You go and do this." But the words for "let down your nets" were actually in the plural, referring to the group of people he would have needed to do that. Simon actually couldn't do it on his own. So there were some crew there to help him.
And we see here that while the calling was particularly for Simon in this instance, the work was not to be done in isolation. Jesus was not calling him to a solo task, and he was foreshadowing the authority that Simon would one day have and the dependency that Simon would have on God's people.
And the same is true for us today. Everyone who is called to God is also called to his people. There are no lone wolves in Christianity or in his church. Again, Jesus knew that Simon and his crew were tired, that they'd worked all night, and there was a reason that he intentionally came right as they are on the verge of exhaustion. They're tired. And the Lord says, "Come and do this for me."
What about us today? Have you found that God typically asks something of you when you are rested and ready to go? All the parents in here are like, "Nope." Now, usually we're weary and we're worn out. Or maybe that neighbor or that co-worker, for whatever reason today, seems open to a conversation, maybe even about the gospel, but you've got that appointment. You're in a hurry on that fateful day and the Lord says, "Here's an instance." And you have to weigh the balance of, "How do I honor the Lord in my weakness when I have somewhere else to be?"
We rarely get to pour into others when our cup is full. The Christian life just does not work like that. And I think it's because we see here with Simon that Jesus doesn't wait for us to rest before he calls us to a task. He calls us to come and then find our rest in him as we go. The one who calls us is also the one who will give us his rest as we follow.
Well, just like Luke wants us to see clearly that Simon is tired, he also wants us to see, in contrast to Simon's weakness, Jesus is God and that clearly he knows everything. The word for this instance is that he is omniscient. He knows where the fish are. He knows the toil they've had and he knows exactly where to go and what to do to find the fish. As one theologian noted, they may be master fishermen, but Jesus is the master of every situation.
So when Jesus calls us in our weakness, two opportunities are presented. First, there is the opportunity, like Simon, for us to simply obey. Just to obey and to do it. And second, there is an opportunity, not for us, but actually for Jesus. And that is for Jesus to work, for Jesus to do something. Yes, Simon and his crew are the ones casting out the nets, but it will be quite clear in a moment that they did not catch any of these fish.
Let's look at verses 6 through 10 with our third point.
God draws near to transform
He draws near to transform. He draws near to transform, and I'll read verses just six through seven here. And when they had done this, casted out the nets, gone deep into the lake, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 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.
This is not a catch. This is not even just a job well done. This is the motherload. This is a haul. So many fish that the nets were breaking but never broke. And the boats together were sinking but never sank. We need to let this sink in as well. Simon and his crew have been fishing most of their lives with decades of experience between them all. And along comes Jesus, who casually tells them to go out to a particular spot, drop the nets, and in comes the largest catch they've ever seen.
And there are so many fish, so many fish. But Simon looks right past that and right past what could be great for business. And instead, he goes straight for Jesus in verse 8. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at his knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
Now there is the Simon Peter that we've all come to know and love on his knees in desperation. His disposition has completely changed. Whereas he formerly referred to Jesus as master, now he switched to Lord. Now why would Simon send Jesus away at this point? Jesus sees it. Simon is genuinely afraid. It's so much... This is such a radical moment that he is terrified. He's seen Jesus' power over illness and now marine life.
And he's not literally saying, "Jesus, get out of here," but he's actually acknowledging what Ezekiel and Isaiah likewise acknowledged when they recognized a holy God before them. Ezekiel falls on his face. Isaiah declares, "Woe to me, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips." Even John the Baptist, a few chapters earlier, referred to Jesus as the one whose sandals I am unworthy to untie. Like them, Simon recognizes that Jesus is divine. Something is different. And seeing Jesus rightly means he sees himself and his sin also rightly.
Let's not miss another contrast going in the background. Whereas Simon is saying Jesus should leave because he's a sinner, the crowd just at the end of chapter four has been pleading with Jesus to stay. "Stay here. Keep speaking. Keep doing miracles." The crowd also saw something unique about Jesus, but they were seeing the powerful benefit of what Jesus could do. And they wanted more.
Whereas Simon, even after this tremendous haul of fish, would have nothing to do with using Jesus' power for his own gain. You'd think he might be seeing dollar signs and potential mouths fed. He could be thinking, "How many more boats? How many more nets? How many more people can I get to work just for a little while while Jesus is in town? I could retire way earlier than I was planning on it, right?"
But who in their right mind would try to contain or use the power of God? Actually, it's only those who are, by real definition, truly unworthy of it. And this is the first time that Luke uses the word sinner in his gospel. And it's interesting that it comes from Simon, who sees the greatness of Jesus and says, "I am a sinner. I am unworthy." Or as soon as Jesus will encounter the Pharisees, and they define sinners as being far off from God and unworthy. The sinners are unworthy. But in heavenly terms, it was the self-righteous who were actually unworthy. Sinners were worthy in that they were sinful, and Jesus came particularly for us.
And the point to recognize this morning is that like Simon did, he recognized that Jesus is not one to be trifled with. He is one to be surrendered to in obedience. And in Simon, we also see the aim of our work, taking the boat out, casting the nets, is not to accomplish. It wasn't to bring in the haul of fish for themselves. The work was Jesus. Similarly, God has called us to work while he brings the work that we are doing to completion. He completes. He fulfills the work.
As one author also put it, he said, "Those who know themselves to be sinners are the most responsive to Jesus, while those who regard themselves as virtuous look down their noses on sinners and thus regard Jesus with antagonism." Because that's who he's here for. He came for sinners. He draws near to them and in their weakness calls them to obedience. And every time there is an encounter with a holy God between a sinner, there is no middle ground. Hearts either soften in repentance to the Lord or they harden in resistance to it. And Simon's heart was softening, but he was also genuinely scared.
So in verses 10 and 11, we see the gentle Savior give a comfort to him as only he can. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid," actually contrasts or parallels the response of the angel to Zachariah in Luke chapter 1:13. "Do not be afraid," he says, "from now on, you will be catching men."
And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. And this gracious response of Jesus to Simon in his moment of weakness and fear shows us that that is the only proper response to a holy God because we recognize that we are sinners. But that was exactly the message that Jesus had just been proclaiming to the crowds on the hillside and in the last chapter: God has not come to punish sinners. He came to save them.
If Jesus is drawing you near today, you do not need to fear. As one author put it so well, "There is more grace in Christ than sin in you." So friends, don't let your sin lead you away from God, but instead let it bring you directly to the God who abundantly and completely pardons.
Well, Jesus moves quickly from the comfort to the command or the commission for Simon. He literally says, "From now on, you will be catching alive people." "Alive people." And to catch alive was typically used in the context of hunting or war, and neither of these were a good context for the person who was caught alive. It was always a bad thing. They almost always ended up dead at a later time. The fish in particular, fishing, they're going to end up dead as well.
But Jesus wants to actually contrast the rhythms and the wisdom of the world with the wisdom of the kingdom. When it comes to God, those who are catching men alive actually lead them to mercy, grace, and genuine life. They lead them to freedom. And this is, in another way, it's a demotion of sorts for Simon. Whereas in the world of fishing for men, Jesus was now the master and Simon would become the amateur, the novice who must learn from Jesus. He might have been proficient before, but we could actually argue he wasn't proficient before because he had worked all night and caught nothing.
And the other gospel writers tell us that along with Simon, we had James and John who were brothers, and then also Andrew, who was Simon's brother, and they were all there, and they all end up following Jesus as well. In fact, James and John leave their own father, Zebedee, in the boat with the rest of their crew. And here's another contrast for us from Luke: They left family, they left co-workers, they left jobs, and they left the fish. They had no regard for the significant amount of fish that was in front of them that they easily could have taken advantage of and used for their own betterment. Surely this was enough fish to change their lives. Why would anyone walk away from something so valuable? Only when there is something even more valuable to be gained in losing that thing. They weighed the value of the fish, their work, their relationships, their livelihood, and they said, "Jesus is more valuable." They didn't even know the half of it. They just said, "Okay, we'll come with you. Let's see how this plays out." Even in that moment, they were weighing the value of those things and they followed the Lord.
And the proclamation of Jesus is the same as it is today, as it was then: that the kingdom is here. And it's the same calling as well: "Repent and follow me." And Jesus meant that order intentionally. He meant it to be that way. Because sometimes when we think of our witness, regardless of whether God calls you to stay and witness or go and witness, Jesus wants us to know our motivation is not the place we are or the thing we're called to do. Our motivation is actually the God who calls us. He is the only compelling factor in our witness. We were not compelled by the needs of the world or even the own impulse of our hearts. We are compelled by the God of the kingdom who says "Repent and follow" and "Obey."
Simon responded to Jesus essentially with how he felt. He felt like he was unworthy. He felt the weight of his sin in the presence of such a powerful person. But Jesus is reorienting Simon's understanding away from his feelings and his emotions, and he's redirecting him to the words of God. Because what God says about you is much more important than how you feel about God. In any given moment, he defines our reality and not our feelings. I mean, each one of us at some point has felt more or less close or distant from God. We've all wrestled with varying degrees with doubt of the claim of God over our lives. And yes, our feelings are real, but they are not always true. And they are not always the reality of our soul.
And this reminds us that truth comes from God, and not even our worst feelings can separate us from his love if we are in him.
God draws near to restore
And that is because the God who calls is also the God who heals and restores, as we'll see in our final point. Number four in verses 12 through 16, he draws near to restore.
I'll read in verse 12: "While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, 'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.'"
Jesus did not come to earth simply to work wondrous miracles, although he did. And it was incredible, graciously doing so many miracles as he went. But every miracle was actually meant to show something greater than the action itself. We have so much about, again, the magnificence of the amount of fish gathered. And then literally Luke just moves on, right? There's no interaction with that, actually what happened itself. Actually, the point is on God who works these amazing things. And Jesus did these miracles so that sinners would hear and see his greatness and it would lead them to repent and believe.
This man who comes to Jesus likely did not have leprosy as we understand it in our modern context, but Luke makes it clear that it was very severe and that he was full of this disease. In the Old Testament, there was a very common and consistent understanding of leprosy and these skin diseases. It was almost always the result of God's particular punishment and judgment. To see this on someone was to see the punishment of God on a person. And the only way to be healed from it was to follow a very particular set of instructions.
So here comes this leper, sees Jesus, runs up straight to him. And like Simon, he recognizes the significance of Jesus. Like Simon, he falls to his knees and acknowledges him as Lord. And Luke tells us this man begged for help. But he wasn't simply asking Jesus for help. He said, "You can make me clean." He acknowledges that Jesus can do it. What he's really asking for is not the ability of Jesus; he's asking for his compassion and his mercy. "Will you please, Lord?"
Whereas with Simon, we saw the omniscience of Jesus, that he knows everything. Now with the leper, we'll see his omnipotence, that Jesus is all-powerful. And what does he say in verse 13? "And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will be clean.' And immediately the leprosy left him."
This is actually, probably, could definitely argue for it, more miraculous than the haul of fish that was just brought in by Peter and his friends. In the Old Testament, if a leper was cleansed, if they were cleansed, it took time. And again, a very particular and rigorous set of instructions. If you had access to a prophet like Elisha or Elijah, there was a lot involved. For example, Elisha told Naaman, who had leprosy, to go and dip himself in the Jordan River seven times. After that, he was cured. But all Elisha did was intercede with God to heal Naaman. He prayed, "Lord, would you heal him?" And God said, "This is how it's going to happen: go through this process, then you'll be healed." They could only intercede; these prophets had no power over the disease themselves.
But here, a striking contrast that is so easy for us to look over is that Jesus is God. Only God can instantly, on the spot, no instructions, no follow-up, make this man clean, heal him from his disease right then and there.
And once again, like Simon, Jesus has instructions for this former leper. In verse 14, he says, "he charged him to tell no one, but to go and show yourself to the priests and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them." But now, even more, "the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities."
The other gospel writers let us know that this man did not heed the warning of Jesus to not tell anyone. But can you blame him? I mean, he was the first leper in human history with this skin disease to find the Son of God and be healed instantly. Immediately, it's incredible. Of course, he's going to go and tell everyone.
But Luke wants us to see that Jesus was not actively seeking a crowd. The crowd was always there by nature of the miraculous things that Jesus did, but Jesus was never seeking them out. He was never actively pursuing the crowd. He was in the business of building a following of disciples. He was in the business of restoration.
So Jesus tells this man to go and see the priest. Why? Again, because of Old Testament tradition, even though Jesus has made him clean according to the Torah, the only one who could declare an Israelite clean once the disease was gone completely was a priest. Go to the temple, see the priests. They will confirm what has been done here and you will be restored to your life, to your family, to your home, to your town, to your worship. His new reality. And of course, it was confirmed.
And the Gospel of Mark tells us, of course, this man told everyone about what happened. And certainly everyone in the temple saw it as well. They would have said, "Okay, by what authority and what process did you go about?" And he could say, "Jesus did it." Period. Jesus did it. That would have been amazing.
And now, it's almost like a scene out of a movie where there's a large crowd and someone yells out, "There's that celebrity!" And everyone turns and runs and they flock after and pursue. But in verse 16, we see Jesus withdraw. It says he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. The pressure of the crowd, his upcoming interaction with the Pharisees, as we'll see soon, actually led Jesus to retreat and to pray and to prepare.
And this was his regular practice. You'd think someone in such close communion with God the Father would need to pray less, not more. But that's what he did. He prayed more, not less. And he used prayer often to prepare for significant moments in his ministry, thinking in particular about the Garden of Gethsemane.
But finally, in both Simon and the leper, we see God's grace and his command. He draws near to restore, to call, and to commission. Simon was called to come and to follow, but the leper was called to go. I think that shows us that the place of our calling is minor when compared to the person who calls us. What they had in common was not their context; it was their Christ. And Christians today are similarly; we're not called primarily to a place. We are called to a person.
The focus of our work
And indeed, in Jesus, we are called to the most wonderful person. So does it really matter all that much if we serve this wonderful God here or if we do it there? Which brings us lastly to the focus of our work. What is the work that we are called to do?
Well, Jesus has said already, it's primarily to repent of your sin and to believe in Jesus, that he is God. We will certainly receive various instructions, but they all fall under that broad umbrella of repent and believe, which is great news because the point of your life and ministry is not on what you're going to do, but what God has already accomplished through you. It's the work that he is doing and will do.
Jesus has not given us a to-do list; he has given us a to-done list. In Christ, everything that we are called to go and do in obedience has been and will be completely accomplished through the work of Christ. We see that in verse 10, where Jesus says to Simon earlier, "Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men." Jesus is not giving him something that he can do of his own accord. Again, we already saw he struggled to catch fish just that night, right? He was terribly inconsistent at best.
In Christ, God has equipped us to be effective for the kingdom, which means our work—we might not see earthly success. We might not see that big haul of fish. Sometimes the nets might be empty, but in every spiritual sense, the work that God calls us to will succeed in Jesus Christ. And so we'll end this morning, not with a focus on our call or the task before us, but instead with the focus on the God who has called us to walk with him in faith and obedience.
One of my best friends is a church planter in Cleveland, Ohio. And when I mentioned that I was preaching from this text, he told me about his late uncle who had faithfully for years and years and years shared the gospel with my friend and his family. And finally, after years and years and years of faithful witness, God saved my friend and his family out of Roman Catholicism. And his uncle, who was so dear to them because of how God had used him, ended up preaching one Sunday. It would end up being his final sermon ever before passing away from complications of COVID-19. My friend told me he preached on this very text.
Letting Jesus into your boat
And this was how he summarized it at the end of his sermon. When Jesus asks to use the boat of your life, you let him on board. You let him on board. And indeed, as Christians, that is what God has asked of us. Give him your boat, your livelihood. We have surrendered them to the Lord and we sail solely at his command until he brings us through many storms and tempests safely to the port of the heavenly kingdom, which is coming through Christ.
Let's pray this morning. God, we praise you for the work that you did in Jesus Christ, for drawing Simon, Andrew, James, and John in such a radical fashion and commissioning them to be your disciples. And we recognize that you have likewise called us as Christians to lives of service to the king and to his kingdom.
And we recognize that you will call us to different places, to different tasks. But the calling on each of us is the same under Christ: to repent of our sin and to believe in his name. Would you remind us of this calling? Would you strengthen us for the task that is ahead for us? And would you encourage us and equip us through Christ's work to be successful, not for our own sake, but for the sake of the kingdom? We ask all in your name for the praise of your glory and your kingdom. Amen.