WWUTT 2303 Jesus' Authority Over... Fish (Luke 5:1-10)

Jesus told his disciples to let down their nets and take in this miraculous catch.

And through that he said to these disciples, from now on you will be catching men. And that applies to us as well when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we're now on to chapter 5, and we're going to be reading about in this chapter,

Jesus calling the first disciples. I'm going to begin by reading verses 1 through 11. Hear the word of the

Lord. 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 were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was

Simon's, he asked him to put out a little bit from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

And when he 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. And when they had done this, 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.

But 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 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. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.

From now on you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Now before looking through this particular section that we have read, I'd just like to point something out here, that what we're reading at the start of Luke chapter five is not in chronological order with what we just read in chapter four.

Because if you will recall with the lesson that we looked at yesterday, Jesus healed Simon's mother.

And so it's kind of odd that now we have Jesus with Simon and he's telling the disciples to go and cast nets into the lake and catch all these fish.

And when Simon sees this, well, then he falls down before the Lord and realizes that he's in the presence of God.

Why didn't Simon have that reaction when Jesus healed his mother -in -law? Well, because these things are not chronological events.

What Luke is showing here in chapter five is Jesus calling his first disciples. In chapter four, we saw the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry.

And somewhere in the midst of all of that, Jesus called his first disciples. And you'll see how things are kind of broken up in unspecific points of time here in chapter five.

So here in verse one, it says, on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.

And then verse 12 says, while he was in one of the cities. Verse 17 says, on one of those days as he was teaching.

And then verse 27, after this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi. So we have these sporadic occasions in which

Jesus is teaching or calling a disciple or performing some kind of miracle. All of this is kind of scattered in Luke five.

It doesn't necessarily happen in the same order in which we saw things laid out in chapter four. And Luke will jump around like that.

In fact, all of the Gospels do to some degree. It doesn't necessarily put everything in chronological order.

The Gospel writers are catching the highlights of certain things. It will group things together to make particular points, but doesn't necessarily lay those things out in succession.

So we come back to this particular section. And this is where Jesus encounters

Simon Peter for the first time and even calls to himself James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

So in verse one, again, it starts with 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.

Now, it could be that the people knew that what they were hearing was the word of God because Jesus would have been quoting to them the scriptures.

Or it could have just been a general statement about how whatever Jesus says is the word of God, whether the crowd is aware of that or not.

They love his teaching. They want to hear what it is that he has to say. So they're pressing in on him to hear the word of God.

And he's standing there by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats by the lake. But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

Jesus gets into one of the boats, which happened to be Simon's. Jesus knew that, of course, because he means to call

Simon to follow him. And he asked Simon to put out a little bit from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

So you have all these people that are pressing in on him. There's not enough room for Jesus to stand even on the shore and be able to stand in such a place that enough people would be able to hear him.

So getting in the boat and pushing a little bit away from the land, he's now kind of in a in a horseshoe.

That would have been the shape of the shore. So now he can talk to even more people.

And the land would kind of ascend up from the shore. So there's people that are seated all up on the hillside.

And they are listening to Jesus speak. And he's able to address more of them. And more people are able to hear him.

Verse four says, when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.

So Jesus is revealing himself to these disciples that they would know the miracles that he is capable of, that he is indeed sent by God.

That word that he just spoke is the word of God. And he confirms it with this miracle that he's about to perform for them.

And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word,

I will let down the nets. Now it's interesting to hear that from Simon.

We've toiled all night, so they're tired. They have come to the shore. They're washing out their nets.

As we read in verse two, they're too tired to sit and listen to a sermon. How often have you tried to listen to a sermon in church on Sunday after a night that you didn't sleep very much and you found it quite a struggle to stay awake, right?

And yet these disciples, though they have worked all night, they're with Jesus in the boat as he preaches and they don't fall asleep.

They are really enthralled by hearing what it is that Jesus says. You've probably experienced something like that before, too.

You're just so tired, but you're listening to something that has your mind so engaged that you wouldn't fall asleep anyway, no matter how tired your body is.

And that's the way this was with the disciples. They are so fascinated by what it is that Jesus is saying.

Their minds are fixed on it, that they don't feel tired. They feel fed by the word that they are listening to.

But then after all of that, and now the crowds have been dispersed or they're kind of walking up the hillside and going away.

Or maybe Jesus has just kind of concluded what it was that he was teaching. And to get away from the crowd, he tells the disciples to go further out into the sea.

That's how the crowd will know we're done with the teaching for today so that they can go home. So now he goes out with the disciples and he's telling them to put down their nets.

Simon says, we've been at this. I mean, we've tried this. We've caught nothing. That's why we're washing out our nets.

There's nothing in the nets. But Simon says, at your word, I will let down the nets.

They've just heard the most incredible teaching that they've ever heard in their lives. It's the word of God.

And it had their attention so that even though they were incredibly tired, they yet sat through the entire sermon.

So they know there is authority behind this man. Remember that we just read that in chapter four, that people loved listening to what it was that Jesus was teaching because he taught with authority and then casting out demons.

They witnessed that like this. This man has such authority. He even casts out evil spirits and they listen to him.

So of course, these disciples whom Jesus is going to call to himself, they listen to him.

And having heard this word that has such authority, though they are so dog tired,

Jesus says to them, go out and cast your nets out into the deep. Yeah, well, we've been fishing all night and we caught nothing.

But since you say it, we're going to do it. So when they had done this, it says in verse six, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking.

Now, what this seems to indicate by the language is that they cast down their nets and those nets just closed in on a whole bunch of fish.

So this wasn't like they were dropping the nets and they were just sitting there and waiting for a whole bunch of fish to swim into them.

And after a while, oh my, we've caught a lot of fish. Where they dropped the nets immediately enclosed a whole bunch of fish so that the nets were breaking.

It says more fish than their nets could even hold. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink so much fish they couldn't even get them all into the boat.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, oh

Lord. Peter is making the connection. This word that he just spoke, this miracle that he has performed in our midst,

I am in the very presence of God. And so that he says, depart from me,

I'm a sinful man. Whoever you are, whoever sent you, you've surely been sent by God.

Well, you are far holier, far greater a man than I am. And I am unworthy to even be here in your presence.

This is quite a humble response from Peter. We don't often see that from Peter. But in his first occasion of encountering the

Lord, this is what he recognizes. So that whenever we are faced with the presence of God, it even exposes to us our sin.

I will tell you, there are times, friends, when I'm sitting there with my Bible and I feel like I cannot open it and read it right now because I know what sinful thing

I just did or sinful things that I have done today. I feel like I have to go clean myself before I can open this word and read the word of God.

I know that the words I'm setting my eyes upon are words that have come from the very creator of the universe, the one who spoke to the void and said, let there be light and created something out of nothing, who, when the earth was formless and void, his spirit was hovering over the face of the deepest, it says there in Genesis one, that same

Holy Spirit that inspired men to write down these words that are God breathed, that have come from God.

I know that whenever I open the word and I feel so unworthy, there are times

I feel unworthy to open this book and read God's word because I know

I am a sinful man. But I also have to recognize that I have no ability to make myself worthy to come to this word,

I cannot clean myself and come to the word, I will never be worthy enough. It is God's word that cleanses me.

Remember, it says that we are cleansed by the washing of water that comes from the word, from the

Holy Spirit of God, as said in Ephesians five, also talked about in Titus three and some other places, we are washed by his word, we are sanctified by his word and compelled by his word to obey it because we recognize its authority as having come from God.

That's what Peter sees, that's what Peter recognizes. And I pray that we've all been faced with that.

If you're listening to this, that you've encountered that, perhaps it was when you got saved, you heard the gospel for the first time and hearing that gospel, you recognized,

I'm a sinful man, a sinful woman, I need a savior, I am unworthy to be in the presence of the holiness of God.

And it's when we hear from God's word of our sin and our need for a savior that our heart is open, our eyes are open to see that Christ is that savior and by faith in him, we are forgiven our sins and reconciled to God.

Jesus even says to Peter here, do not fear. So after Peter says, depart from me, for I am a sinful man,

O Lord. Verse nine, 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, the 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.

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything. And followed him.

After Jesus had just performed the most incredible thing they had ever seen in all their years of fishing, yet they leave all of that and follow

Jesus. I believe it was R .C. Sproul teaching on this particular section who said, you know, if I was in their position, we get back to land and I'm there with a contract.

You know what, Jesus, let's make a deal here. We'll split everything 50 50. We'll even do all the work.

All you got to do is come out with us and we know that we're going to catch all these fish. It's going to make us rich.

We're going to open this huge fishing enterprise together. If you keep doing this miracle for us every day and we keep catching these fish and we can sell them, we're going to make a ton of money.

And Sproul, honestly saying, of course, from his flesh, this is the way I would have thought about that miracle that I just saw.

But after getting back to the shore, that's not the way that the disciples reacted, even though most men, that's what they would think of what it was that they just witnessed.

But instead, they get to the shore. And after Jesus says to them, from now on, you will be catching men.

They go, OK, that's what we're doing. And they left everything, even this incredible catch that they just hauled in.

They don't even take it and clean it and go and sell it. They leave everything. And follow

Jesus. And Jesus here is called his first disciples, Andrews not mentioned, but it would have been

Simon, Peter and Andrew, his brother and James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

These are the first disciples that Jesus calls. Now, as we wrap this up here, there's one other thing that I want to point out, and it's going back to when

Jesus said to Peter in verse four, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

OK, we're going to take what Jesus said to his disciples from now on, you will be catching men and let's apply it to what they just did with this catch of fish.

So Jesus says to them, let's go out to the deep, throw out your nets for a catch.

And what Simon's answer, verse five, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.

But at your word, I will let down the nets. And so as we have been called of disciples of Jesus to be fishers of men, so we need to be willing to fish even when we're tired.

Even when we've been toiling the whole time and it seems like we took nothing yet, we need to continue, we need to persevere at the command and instruction of the

Lord. In Second Timothy, chapter four. Paul says to his protege,

Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.

Now, that's really just another way of saying twenty four, seven, three hundred and sixty five days a year, preach the word no matter what season it's in, preach the word of God.

But there's also an aspect to this in season and out of season in which

Paul is saying to Timothy, preach it when when it looks like you're getting results, preach the word.

People are coming to faith. Oh, man, it's just happening. All kinds of people are coming. The church is busting at the seams.

The walls are breaking down. We're going to have to knock this wall out or we're going to have to expound or expand the sanctuary, add some more rooms.

Maybe we've got to do a satellite campus. Maybe we've got to have we've got to split it up into different times, whatever.

And I'm just exaggerating here, putting it into a modern perspective.

But, yeah, people are coming. The word is being preached. People are getting saved. The church is growing.

That's in season. What about out of season when it looks like we're not getting any results at all?

Doesn't look like anybody's converting. We're not getting any baptisms. We're not adding to our list.

We don't have any numbers to brag about here to the Southern Baptist Convention. Right? Yeah, they're all about their numbers.

Whenever they have their annual meetings, there's all the numbers, everything we've accomplished, and we have nothing to contribute to that.

We don't seem like we're in a good season here at all. We go out and do evangelism. People don't want to listen to us.

They crumple up our tracks and throw them there on the ground. Why is it that we can't seem to accomplish anything at all?

This just must not be the season for preaching the word. No, Paul says, even then, preach the word.

And so here we have that same kind of lesson that's being taught to the disciples when after they've toiled all night and they have taken nothing.

Yet the Lord says to them, go out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch.

And Peter says, yeah, that hasn't been working, but because you said so, we will go and do it, and so we need to continue to labor, even in what seems like those off seasons, still sharing the word of God with others.

We have no idea what kind of catch that's going to make. Maybe we don't see it.

Maybe we're not the ones with our hands on the nets trying to haul that catch into the boat, but what we went out and preached, what we shared, what we talked about with a friend, an acquaintance, a family member, a coworker, a stranger, what we shared out on the streets or what we shared over coffee at a cafe.

What was preached in church or what was shared out in the community?

Who knows what kind of work that is doing that the Holy Spirit is doing. The Holy Spirit is going to do far more with that work than we probably ever expected or could have asked or imagine.

We need to be faithful in that labor, in that work of sharing the gospel with others, teaching the word to others, praying with others, building people up with encouraging words when they need it, even rebuking and reproving those that are going a sinful way when they need it.

But we continue to labor in these things in season and out of season because it's at the word of Christ.

Lord, we've labored all this while. Doesn't seem like we're taking in anything. Doesn't seem like we're making any sort of progress at all.

But at your word, I will let down the nets. And even in this, we will still become fishers of men, following the great fishermen,

Jesus Christ, he who has called us to himself, just as he calls these disciples, so he has called us, all of us who are followers of Jesus, our disciples.

And let us do the work of disciples until the day of the Lord. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here.

And I pray that it continues to be a pressing lesson upon us that when we came to hear the gospel for the first time, we were convicted of heart and we would have had that attitude before the

Lord of saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord, may we still have that fear of God so that we would turn from sin to the

Lord Jesus Christ and be made righteous and walk in that righteousness. And Lord, likewise, when it comes to this instruction that was given to the disciples to let down their nets, though they had toiled all night long, may we continue to be faithful in that work, though it doesn't seem like we are seeing results, you are still going to make that work fruitful, whether it's to bring others to yourself or even to sanctify us.

But that work is doing something amazing. You said in Isaiah 55, when I send out my word, it will not return to me void without accomplishing the purpose for which

I sent it. And so may we be faithful in the word of Christ to read it, that it may grow us to preach it, that it may convert others to teach it, that others may grow in this word as well.

Thank you for your patience and your love toward us and make us fishers of men. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. You've been listening to when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday we look at an

Old Testament book. On Friday we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an