The Gospel of Luke, Catching Fish with Men (Luke 5:1-11) | Adult Sunday School

Come on in. Make yourselves at home. Good to see each one of you this morning. We're glad that you're here. Even though you're all spread out all over the place. That's okay. This morning we're going to take a break from our study through James and spend a little time in the Gospel of Luke.

There is an outline for our lesson this morning as well. It's out there someplace. Some of you already have them. There's some on the chairs in different places. Maybe somebody would be kind enough to hand out those.

I think there's going to be enough to whoever needs one. And I invite you to open your Bibles this morning to Luke 5. Luke 5. As we spend a little time in this wonderful Gospel account of our Lord's life by Luke.

And we're going to see this morning in this chapter that I'm just calling Catching Fish and Catching Men because that's exactly what happens in this chapter this morning as we're going to see. So, let's get settled in and commit our time to our Lord and ask His blessing on our study this morning.

Our Father, we know that we are totally dependent on You for all things. And particularly now, Father, as we open Your Word, we are dependent on Your Spirit to teach us, to guide us, to illumine our hearts and our minds, to show us what You would have us learn this morning.

So I pray, Father, that as we look through Your Word this morning, that Your Spirit would impress upon us what we see here and that the conclusion would be we would be changed. If necessary, Father, would You bring salvation to any who need to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

But also, Father, would You teach us what You would have us learn this morning so we can grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we just ask these things in His name, amen.

So if you have your Bibles open to Luke chapter five this morning and you can follow right along on that outline. I'm gonna put you to work a little bit this morning with the outline. Now remember, today is not the Sabbath, okay?

A lot of people think Sunday is the Sabbath. The Sabbath was yesterday when you were out mowing your lawn, right? Today, 2 ,000 years ago, today would have been the first day of the work week. You'd have been going to work instead of coming here.

And so there really is no such thing as a Christian Sabbath. Maybe you've heard that before, but this is the first day of the week. So I get to put you to work here a little bit, filling in some blanks.

Okay, so this morning, from Luke chapter five, we're going to see three things, very important. We're gonna see the massive crowd, that's Roman numeral number one, and then the miraculous catch as Jesus goes not just fishing but catching.

And then we're gonna see the marvelous conversion here. Just to sort of set things up a little bit, since we're starting right in chapter five of Luke, remember that Luke is a Gentile. And Luke actually wrote more of the New Testament than any other New Testament writer, even the Apostle Paul.

He wrote Luke-Acts. And before the Gospel of John was completed and then added to the canon of Scripture, Luke and Acts were essentially a two-volume work that were together in the canon of Scripture.

So if you were to put a paperclip on the Gospel of John and read right through Luke, jump over John, and then go through Acts, you would see that they just meshed together wonderfully. Luke chapter 24 moves right into Acts chapter one.

And Luke was writing to the same person. He was writing to his friend Theophilus, as he says in the first part of Luke, in Luke chapter one. He addresses it to his friend Theophilus. He says, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

Theophilus is a Greek name. It's a Greek term. It's a compound word, theos and phylos, lover of God. So here you have Luke the Gentile writing to Theophilus the Gentile. And quite possibly, even maybe probably, Theophilus was what is known as a God-fearer.

He was a convert to Judaism, probably. And so we know that just in the way he writes him this letter or this gospel account, in order to give him certainty concerning the things that he has been taught.

There was two different levels of conversion to Judaism. If you were a Gentile, you could become a proselyte or a full convert. That would have required for the male circumcision. And so quite naturally, you might understand that most of the proselytes were actually women.

But then the level below that would have been a God-fearer. Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 was a God-fear, a Gentile who had sort of converted to Judaism, but he wasn't a full proselyte. So this is who this letter is written to.

And Luke goes about compiling this and communicating this in order to give him certainty about who Jesus Christ is. And so as Jesus moves out in his public ministry, the priority of God's word is front and center in his ministry.

And when he moves into the area of Capernaum in Luke chapter four, he does something very, very important to his ministry. He demonstrates his absolute sovereignty over all of creation. In Genesis one, we know that God created the heavens and the earth.

So there's the spiritual realm or the immaterial realm, but then there's also the material realm, heavens and the earth. And what Jesus does in Luke chapter four, if you'll turn there, we'll just sort of set up our passage this morning because it's pretty important to see.

In Luke four, verse 31, he's in the town of Capernaum. And Capernaum is probably four to four and a half miles from the Sea of Galilee. It would have been Peter's hometown. It also would have been the town that probably Peter and the other fishermen marketed their fish at primarily.

But in Luke four, 31, it says, and he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching for his word possessed authority. And in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon.

And he cried out with a loud voice and the ESV says, ha, better to see that as let us alone. Okay, ha is not a real good translation for that. But he says, let us alone. What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him having done him no harm.

And they were all amazed and said to one another, what is this word? For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out. And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

So in that casting out of that demon, Jesus exercises his absolute authority, his sovereignty over the spiritual realm, okay? And he establishes that right away. And don't kind of file away what it says there in 36.

They were all amazed, they were amazed. Well, and then in verse 38, and he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever and they appealed to him on her behalf.

And he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she rose and began to serve them. Now, when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.

And demons also came out of many crying, you are the son of God. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ. Now, as you might imagine, this attracted a massive crowd of people, a tremendous gathering.

Well, of course, here's a man who obviously has authority over the spiritual realm, he can cast out demons, he can also heal people. And so we're told in verse 42, and when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place and the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them.

Verse 43, but he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose. So at Capernaum, his word is proven to be authoritative and powerful.

His lordship over the created order is validated when both demons obey him and physical diseases obey him. And the ultimate application of that power, of course, is to forgive sin because miracles are temporal, they're temporary.

Even the turning a few loaves and fishes into enough food to feed several thousand people, it's temporary, it meets a very temporal need. The woman at the well, she came to the well for water and Jesus drew a sharp dichotomy between the water at the well that would only satisfy her temporarily to the water that he would give her that would meet the need that she had internally forever, he said.

And so the purpose of miracles are signs as the gospel of John tells us, signs that point to something greater than themselves. This is why it is so ludicrous when people get all wrapped up in wanting more and more miracles.

Obviously there, and you probably noticed in those last two passages, in that entire passage in Capernaum, that event, both the casting out of demons and the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, it doesn't say anything about anybody being saved or converted, absolutely no one.

And yet miracles were done right in front of them over and over and over again. The only entities there that acknowledged who he truly was from the miracles were the demons, okay? They were the demons.

I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Now, if miracles are designed as our charismatic friends tell us, and they're necessary to promote and produce belief, how come nobody in Capernaum but the demons knew who Jesus was after this?

So as we move into our passage this morning, we see that as a background and as a foundation. Salvation itself is linked to Genesis chapter one, all the rest throughout all of scripture, because 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new what?

Creation. So creation is foundational to every other doctrine in the rest of the Bible, including salvation. So he heals all of these people, casts out a whole lot of demons. The people of Capernaum are following after him no matter where he goes.

But his priority, as we were told, is not necessarily to do miracles. That's really key. And we see that in verse 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.

The miracles are only there to point to him and to his gospel for what they truly are. So this brings us to Roman numeral one. In your outline there, the massive crowd. The first three verses, the massive crowd.

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 that's also the Lake of Galilee, two different names, same lake. 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 from the land and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. This scene starts with what would have been a very typical scene at the Lake of Gennesaret or the Sea of Galilee.

Fishermen and their fishing boats were there. But as we saw, he had attracted this massive crowd of people and they're there as well. And certainly many of these people thought that if they just followed him, they would receive healing, they would receive miracle of some kind, even to just touch him could have produced those miracles.

And it says they were pressing in on him. The crowd was pressing in on him. This is a very graphic term, very vivid. It means to lie upon. In fact, it's used to describe the stone lying over Lazarus' tomb when Lazarus died and was put in the tomb, the grave covering.

Paul uses it to describe the storm that came up on the Mediterranean Sea while he was traveling to Rome by ship. The storm came and laid down, pressed onto the Mediterranean Sea. And even the people who were screaming for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in that narrative, it says they were pressing against one another.

But they came, and this is A in your outline, to hear the word of God. The massive crowd came to hear the word of God. Very important. This phrase is key in Luke's gospel and also in the book of Acts.

In chapter eight, verse 11 of Luke, it says the seed is the word of God, the seed that is sown. It's the word of God. In chapter eight, verse 21, Jesus said, "'My mother and my brothers are those "'who hear the word of God and do it.'".

Those two are always together. Hearing is not good enough. It has to be something you hear and listen, but also something you do, you obey. Again, chapter 11, verse 28, Jesus said, "'Blessed, rather, are those who hear "'the word of God and keep it.'".

So those two things are very, very important, very, very critical. This massive crowd, Luke says, came to hear the word of God. Whether or not they did it is a totally different issue, but they're there to hear it.

Later on in Acts, Luke applies this same phrase, the word of God, to apostolic and early church teaching to show the continuity of what Jesus taught and with what the apostles taught with what the church is supposed to teach.

We are supposed to teach and preach the word of God. And it's so important for Luke that even in the book of Acts, Luke uses it 14 times. Very important concept. So it was common knowledge to those people, to that crowd, that his word was authoritative, his word can heal, his word can cast out demons, and his words are the very words of God, according to Luke, as he states it.

So the massive crowd who came to hear the word of God were pressing in on Jesus to the point that he had to get in a boat and put out the boat in order to just teach to the people. And so it says, 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.

Don't miss the absolute sovereignty of God in selecting the one of the two boats that belongs to Simon, okay? Absolute sovereignty of God there in his choice of getting into that boat that belongs to Peter.

We might call this God's electing purposes. We might also call this the absolute providential sovereignty of God over who he ministers to. God is sovereign in all things. He's sovereign over who gets saved, he's sovereign over how they get saved, and he's sovereign over when they get saved.

And so here we have the electing grace of God in the life of Peter. He gets into his boat. And that tells us also in that passage that he taught the people. He taught the people. The people were there, and Jesus always taught the people.

He was concerned about going to the people, going to the masses. And yet this whole story focuses right down on one boat with Peter and Jesus in that boat together. Galilean fishing boats, by the way, were very utilitarian type things.

They actually found one in 1986. In 1986, there was a severe drought in Israel, and all of the rivers and lakes just dropped down. And they dropped down, and the Sea of Galilee dropped down to the point where much of it was just mud flats.

And they actually discovered the remains of a boat out there, and it was in the mud predominantly, so then it was preserved for over 2 ,000 years. When the archaeologists extracted that out and they dated it, they said it dates from 120 BC to 40 AD.

So it's right in the period of the New Testament. And when they constructed it and got it all back together,.

What was left of it,.

And it's on a display in a museum right now. You can actually see it online. Turns out it was 25 1⁄2 feet long, 7 1⁄2 feet wide, and 4 1⁄2 feet deep. It had a partial deck covering part of the bow and the same thing in the stern, and they believed these were used to stack the nets and made it easier to shove the nets off into the water.

And Galilean fishermen used basically four methods of fishing, four methods, and these are all found in scripture. The first one is the hook, the hook. In Matthew 17, 24, Jesus tells Peter, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up.

So typical, one hook, one fish. That's not gonna work too well if you're a commercial fisherman, right? So you need nets. Three nets, kinds of nets, were used. The first one, the smaller one, is the cast net.

That's found in Matthew 4, 18. As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother, Andrew, casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen. This is a smaller, circular net.

It has weights around the outside. It would have had a rope on it, and they could stand on the shore and cast this small net out, or they could stand in a boat and cast this net out, and it would sink to the bottom, trap whatever fish were there, and they could just haul it back in, up, and empty it out.

The second kind of net, it's a larger one, and it's actually the one that's spoken of here in Luke, chapter five, called a trammel net. It was a much larger one. In Luke 4, here, he says, we saw it. When he had finished speaking, he said to them, said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets, it's plural, for a catch.

The trammel net is a multi-panel net. The middle panel would have been smaller netting, and the sides were said to be larger, and what they would simply do with that, and this is what takes place in our story, they would take that out into the lake, and then they would spread it out, and it created a wall.

It had floats on top and weights on the bottom, and they would do this at night. They fished at night. That's why, as we're gonna see, Peter's a little offended at Jesus, because they had fished all night and caught nothing, and they fished at night because in the heat of the day, the fish would go down into the cooler water.

Also, more oxygen down in that level, and at night, the fish can't see the nets, so they would typically fish at night, and then in the daytime, they would dry their nets out on the rocks and mend the nets, and remember, these nets were not made of synthetic material like we know now, nylon and that type of thing.

These were made out of fibrous material, and so they would get wet really quick and very heavy. They weren't all that strong. They would easily break, and so much of their labor was spent drying these nets during the day and fixing them so they could keep fishing at night, and so that's the kind of net that they used at night.

They would set this net out, and then another boat would get out farther in the lake, and they would pound on the water and come toward that net and drive the fish into that net, and then they would pull the ropes in and catch those fish and have to haul them up onto the boat.

The other type of net that is used is a seine net, a seine net, and by the way, there's a Greek word for each one of these nets. I won't bore you with those words. That's found in Matthew 13, 47 through 48.

In Matthew 13, Jesus begins to teach in parables because of the rejection of the Jews, and he talks about this drag net. He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad. The seine net that they used was a massive net. They could be up to 500 feet long, and again, it was a single kind of a net, like a wall, and it had ropes on both ends, and it floats on top, waits on the bottom.

So one boat would set out from shore with the net, and he would leave the rope behind for men on the shore. He'd go out, he would set that net horizontal to the shore, and then he would bring the rope back in to the other men on the shore.

So from the shore, the men would haul that net in, and it would grab everything. It would take everything that was in front of it, and they would haul it all up onto the shore, and then they would sit down and sort through it, and this is Jesus' picture of the kingdom, throw away the bad and keep the good, and Christ is using that imagery that these people would have been very familiar with to talk about that.

Well, this particular net that they're using is a trammel net, and Jesus chose Simon's boat to get into, and so what we're gonna see in four through seven is the miraculous catch, miraculous catch. Jesus says, and when he had finished speaking, do you notice they don't even tell you what he taught?

Isn't that interesting? He taught the masses, but he doesn't tell you what he taught. In fact, this whole thing now just absolutely begins to focus in on one boat and one person, and that's Peter. Very fascinating to me.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. So here we have A under Roman numeral two, the command, the command, put out, put out your nets, that's the command, and then in 4B, for a catch, the promise.

We have a command and a promise. Put out for a catch, he says. Let your nets down for a catch. Put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch. Jesus is going fishing, but Jesus is not just going fishing, Jesus is going catching, and he's going catching for Simon Peter, okay?

Jesus is not like me. I go fishing. Once in a great while, I catch, okay? Jesus doesn't fish without catching, whether it's fish or people. He's the absolute sovereign Lord of this universe, and whoever he goes after, he catches them, okay?

Very important concept to see. That's why I call the title Catching Fish and Men, Catching Fish and Catching Men. Put out, the command, for a catch, the promise. Jesus' word is that there will be a catch if you do what I say, and that's exactly what happens.

And here we have in, this is C, verse five, Peter's Reluctant Obedience, Peter's Reluctant Obedience.

Gotta love Peter, right?

What a response he makes. And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. Peter's gonna contradict Jesus, okay? He just, he doesn't quite understand who he's dealing with quite at this point, but his first impulse is to argue with him.

But here's what's really interesting. Notice what he says. But at your word, I will let down the nets. Something's going on in Peter. His will is being brought under the lordship of Jesus' word.

See it?

But at your word, I will. At your word, I will. Peter wants to inform Jesus that what he's asking here, they've already tried, and we're professional fishermen. There's probably a pretty good dose of male ego in this thing as well.

He's a professional fisherman, and so are James and John, you know, who work with him. And here comes the son of a carpenter, and he's gonna tell them how to do their trade, you know, and after we just tried all night long.

There are not any fish out here right now, okay? And yet, there's something about Jesus' word that compels Peter to obey what he tells him. Put out the command, for I catch the promise in Peter's reluctant obedience.

And notice what Peter says, master, master. Now, that word there, epistates, epistates. Epi means on or over. Stasis is to stand, so one who stands over. Basically, it's a very common word for an overseer.

Overseer, boss, you know, he's like, you know, foreman, that type of thing. It's just a generic word. Peter is recognizing Jesus at the first for simply being the guy in charge of the boat. Peter's probably steering the boat, and Jesus is telling him what to do.

But at your word, I will. The first evidence that someone is truly born again is obedience to the word of God. Something in Peter is compelling him to obey Jesus. It's kind of hard to tell as you go through the Gospels when the disciples are actually saved, right?

Because they're pretty flaky at first, right? Admittedly. I mean, I'm sure I would be too. And even at the end, we know that eventually Peter, right, he denies he even knows Jesus. And yet in those passages, it says they all abandon him.

So, but I think this is the point at time where Peter truly comes to know Jesus Christ for who he truly is. And we see the result of obedience in verse six. They let down the nets and they get a large number of fish.

That's the fulfillment of the promise, the fulfillment. Verse five and verse six. 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. This is not just a miraculous, it's a massive catch. They caught more fish than they could even handle. Their nets were getting ready to break.

And along with the weight of this saturated nets and the ropes and all of that is this massive catch of fish. Jesus' word was true and powerful. It's a miraculous catch. It's also a massive catch. And you kind of wonder what were the people on the shore doing, right?

Watching all this. Well, they certainly would have been amazed. Remember back in chapter four, when they saw the casting out of the demons and the healing there, what does it say, remember? They were all amazed and said to one another, what is this word?

And yet, as we're going to see, that's as far as it went with them. They probably thought to themselves, well, and even the other fishermen watching this, wow, look at all this fish. We're gonna eat pretty good tonight.

Maybe we can sell some of those in Capernaum, and have enough money to maybe buy another fishing boat. Maybe expand our business. Wow, this is great. But Peter had a different reaction. Peter had a different reaction.

And he's a professional fisherman. You would think that of all the people there that would have been jumping up and down, excited about this great catch, because of what it meant for them financially and materially, it would have been Peter.

But his reaction is different. Something is going on internally and spiritually with Peter. The authority of the word of God is at work. And I believe at this point in time, Peter's been born again. He's been regenerated by the spirit of God.

Peter has been saved. And what follows is just the outward evidence of the inward transformation that is the work of the spirit of God in Peter's life, and in anybody else's life who's ever come to faith in Jesus Christ.

So that brings us to Roman numeral three, the marvelous conversion. The marvelous conversion. We saw the command, we saw the promise, we saw their obedience, and then the fulfillment. And now we see the marvelous conversion.

And I believe this succession of events here all the way down through is a paradigm or a model for what happens when somebody comes to faith in Jesus Christ, okay? So the first thing we're gonna see, Simon Peter, his illumination, his illumination.

It says in verse eight, but when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. There's a lot in that verse. The first thing we see is Peter's illumination.

Peter sees that catch of fish, but he sees something much more significant than a miraculous catch of fish. That's what miracles are supposed to do. Miracles, John says, are signs. In John's gospel, you go to the end of John's gospel in chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, he tells you why he wrote his gospel account.

Commentators say that John hid the key to his gospel by the back door, and that's what he does. And he says Jesus did signs, but he selects from all the signs that Jesus does, a few signs, and he writes them into his gospel.

And then he says, these were written that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, that you may believe, and that believing you would have life in his name, okay? So the purpose of the miracles are to be signs that point to Jesus for who he truly is, and the inscripturation of those in the word of God is sufficient to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ.

This whole concept where people keep saying, well, we need to have miracles, we need to see miracles so people can come to faith, not according to the gospel of John. The inscripturation of these in the word of God, because the word of God is sufficient, is sufficient to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ.

And when Peter saw it, we see his illumination. And not only that, but by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, Peter saw Jesus, and here's another miracle, a greater miracle than the fish, Peter saw Jesus for who he truly is, okay?

And so he says, he fell down at Jesus' knees, that is worship. Peter's first response when he sees Jesus for who he truly is, is worship. It's just falling down, it's just natural. He probably doesn't even know why he's doing it.

And what's amazing, here's Peter in front of all these other people, in front of these crowds, right? Absolutely unconscious of what's going on around him, except he sees Jesus for who he truly is. Later on, he's going to get intimidated by a little girl who says, you are one of them.

And he says, no, I know, you know that story. He even swears he doesn't know who Jesus is. And yet, right here, he's at his conversion. He's filled or controlled with the Holy Spirit, and nothing else matters around him.

He's worshiping Jesus, because he sees him for who he truly is. But the miracles keep happening. He says, as he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Through that miracle of the catching of the fish, Peter sees Jesus for who he truly is. And then, another miracle happens. In seeing Jesus for who he truly is, Peter sees himself for who he truly is. And so he says, depart from me.

That's his conviction. That's his conviction. He's convicted of his sin. The first evidence of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit is a sense of absolute unworthiness to be in the very presence of God, let alone to be saved by him.

It is rather a sense of our own sinfulness, and that we deserve the just wrath of God. I, then he says, I am a sinful man. That's his confession. The illumination produces the conviction. The conviction produces the confession.

Apart from illumination for seeing Jesus for who he truly is, there's never going to be any conviction. And apart from the conviction, there cannot be confession. What are you gonna confess, right? Something that's not true?