Luke 5:1-11
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and
listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two
boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He
got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out
a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to
Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets
for a catch.” 5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
Peter, James, and
John were fishermen. That was their
living. That was their livelihood. The recognized Jesus because he had been
teaching in the town and had been recognized as a teacher of religious
law. He had even received even greater
notoriety because people began realizing that he didn’t teach the same way the
others did, he taught with authority.
There was something exciting about this man. So much so that people were crowding around
him to the point that he had to get into a boat and push away from shore a bit
to even speak. After he was done
speaking, he did something odd.
Jesus says to the fishermen; while we are out here, let’s go
fishing. I am sure that the guys
respected Jesus as a teacher, but who is he to tell us how to do our job? They even said they had been working hard all
night without any luck. I’m not sure why
they connected the rigging, laid out the nets they has probably spent hours
cleaning and mending to try one more time at an hour that was not usually the
best for fishing, but they did. Maybe
they felt the pressure from the crowds to do what Jesus said, maybe they were
desperate to get some fish, or maybe in the back of their heads they trusted
Jesus. So they did it! They put their
nets in the water and what happened??
What happened!? Yea, they caught
fish. Not just a little fish either, so
much that 2 boats started to sink. Crazy.
Now these fishermen could have spent the rest of their
evening unloading fish, putting them up for sale and getting ready for a big
pay-day, know what Im saying? Instead they fell to their knees in fear because
they realized they were sinful men in the presence of God himself. They pulled their boats to the shore and when
Jesus said come, follow me…they did.
They left their boats, they left their huge pay-day of fish, they left
their families and they followed Jesus.
Why? Why do you think?
It’s the same for every TRUE Christian. When you experience God, nothing else
matters. Jesus says in Luke 14 “If
anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and
children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my
disciple.”
In context Christ was not instructing us to hate, he was
trying to show relationship. For
example, consider if I grew up eating microwave pizza from a box. It was great I thought until college when I
was introduced to Fellini’s Brick-oven, farm fresh ingredient, Sicilian style
pizza. My world would flip
upside-down. Compared to Fellini’s
pizza, I hated box pizza. I now have a new
love.
It was the same way for these fishermen. How could they go about life the way they
knew it when they had experienced God?
These men became what we call disciples – ones that follow,
learn from, and live like another; in this case it was Jesus.
In that culture it was common for young men to become
disciples of scribes, religious leaders, and the like. If you recall, philosophers like Plato and
Socrates has disciples. How lucky were
these guy, that they were able to become one of 12 disciples of God himself,
Jesus Christ!?
When Jesus’ time on earth was finished, he had died, been
buried, and raised. He had appeared to
and spent time teaching thousands after his death. Right before he ascended into heaven, he gave
his disciples one final bit of instruction:
“Go
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.”
-Matt. 28:19-20
Did you happen to catch the significance here?? ‘Go and make disciples in my name’ and p.s.
I’m not dead, I’m still going to be with you.
No longer will there be only 12, anyone can leave everything to follow
me. Anyone can give up box pizza for the
handcrafted goodness.
He wants you to
have the goodness…HE is the goodness.
He wants you to learn from Him. If you are to be a student of anybody, Jesus
is the one you want to learn from. He is
the only one that has words that lead to life.
Commit to being a 'straight A' student in the only course that matters for
eternity.
He wants you to live for Him. God has sent his Spirit to reside in us. It is a Spirit of comfort, of peace, of
councel. We are to live now as a
representation of Jesus himself. We are
ambassadors/representatives for the King.
We need to live our lives like it.
What if we were to hang out and I were to use ungodly
language, make fun of other people, spread gossip and rumors, and give alcohol
to students and on Sunday act totally different. You would say, that is the worst youth pastor
I have ever seen. Why would I ever
listen to him? He doesn’t live what he
says. I have a duty to represent Legacy,
but more importantly I have a duty to represent my Lord. Are you living for Jesus the way you should?
Lastly, He wants you to love like Him. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to
love the Lord your God with all of your being and the second is like it… Love your neighbor as yourself. John 13:35 says “By this all men will know
that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Is love the single greatest character trait
of yours? Should it be?
