(Through the Bible) Luke 5-6 — Chuck Smith

Jesus’ Growing Ministry and the Crowds by the Sea

Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Luke's Gospel, chapter 5. The popularity of the ministry of Jesus is growing. Word is being spread around of the miracles that are being wrought by Him. And now wherever He goes, people are beginning to jostle and shove in order that they might get close to Him.

It made it difficult for Jesus to travel, to get around, because of the multitudes that, according to Mark's Gospel, at this point were thronging Him wherever He went. And so here in Luke's Gospel, it came to pass that as the people pressed upon Him to hear the Word of God.

And that to me is always an exciting situation when people are pressing to hear the Word of God. When this becomes such a priority in the lives of people, to just hear the Word of God, they press to hear it.

That He was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, also known as the Sea of Tiberias, also known as the Sea of Galilee. Whenever you talk about a sea, somehow in my mind you get a vision of a sort of a salt body of water, but the Lake of Gennesaret, or it's actually to me more of a lake than it is the sea, is not salty water, but is fresh water and drinkable.

And so yet it is known as the Sea of Galilee or the Lake of Gennesaret. There were two ships that were standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and he prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.

So in order to escape a little from the crowd that was thronging him, he commandeered Simon's ship. He got in it and he said, pull on out a little ways in order that he might be able to teach the people without them pressing so close that he loses the sight of those that were behind.

Now here in the area by Capernaum, there is sort of a good slope where the Sea of Galilee comes down or where the banks come down into the Sea of Galilee there. So that just pulling out just a little ways from shore, you're sort of in an amphitheater type of a situation, which made it very conducive to teach the multitude of people who were thronging to hear the word of God.

Obedience to Jesus’ Direction

Now, when he was finished speaking to them, he then said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft, for a load. You're going to be pulling in a large catch. And so Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.

Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. Simon is objecting to the command in a polite sort of a way. Lord, I'm the fisherman. I know how to fish and I know the time to fish. And I know that the time isn't now.

As the day gets warmer, the fish go to the deeper areas of the lake. And these nets were not really deep water nets. They're sort of surface nets. They have the floats on the top and they just cast them out as they are rolling around in a circle in the boat.

And then as they complete the circle with the boat, having cast the nets around in the circle, then they pull the nets on into the boat and they are not deep water type nets. They would catch the fish in the shallower areas in the cooler part of the day or in the evening, which was usually the best time for fishing.

So they've been fishing all night, caught nothing. So you assume that this just isn't the time. Yet, nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. Now, this to me is interesting, because here we find men laboring all night with no results.

Now, suddenly Jesus directs them to labor in the same area and they have phenomenal results. And to me, this marks the contrast that usually exists in those efforts that are on our own and those efforts that are directed by the Lord.

I think of all of the time and energy and money that is wasted by man inspired efforts. We see a task that needs to be done. We sit down and figure out what would be the best way to accomplish this task.

We develop our programs and then we develop the financing in order that we might fund the programs that we have devised. And then we set up the committees and we set up the ways by which we might implement that program.

And certainly in the church of Jesus Christ, we have seen some remarkably phenomenal programs established by man. We have some friends who were pastoring a church in the same denomination that we served for so many years, where we got packaged programs from the denomination.

Quite convenient. You didn't even have to think of them. They thought of them for you. All you had to do is get your committees and inaugurate them. And so in this, and of course, every year you get two of them.

You get your spring enlargement program and then you get the beat the summer slump program. And so this church was going to go all out. I mean, they had everything all lined out. You take a telephone book and you cut up the pages and each person takes a page of the telephone book and they call all of the people on that page, inviting them to church.

And then, of course, you have a person over that that calls everybody who's supposed to be calling people to make sure they've called the people they were supposed to call, you know. And then they filled helium balloons with numbers and you turn them loose up, wind from the city, so that the balloons sort of drop down.

And so the numbers are then put in a barrel and person draws the number. And if you bring the number out of your helium, you know, it has a little note telling you there's going to be a drawing special prize if you're there and get the number, you know.

So you get, you know, people coming with their numbers that they might get into the drawing and perhaps win this special prize that will be given away when the number is drawn out of the barrel. And then, of course, you organize your transportation committees that if a person needs transportation, they'll drive out and pick them up and bring them to church and all.

And I mean, it goes on and on and on. I mean, so many gimmicks you can't believe. And so this particular church thought, well, we're going to really go into this, you know, big program. We're going to go full bore into it.

And so I was talking to the pastor some six months after the program. And I said, well, now it's been six months since the program was concluded. As you evaluate the results of the program, how many have you been able to add permanently to your church?

And they said, well, there is an 85-year-old man that we have to drive 25 miles to pick up. And he really can't hear, but he doesn't get to see people very much. So he just loves to sit around where people are.

And he's the only one we were able to add to the membership, you know, after spending thousands of dollars in all of these programs to add to the church. There's man's way of doing it. And then there's the Lord's way.

Non-directed service can be very unfruitful, but directed service can be exciting. Now Jesus is directing Peter, just launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft. And Peter, semi-arguing, says, Lord, we've been fishing all night and we've caught nothing.

Nevertheless, at thy word, you know, you insist on it, we'll do it. You know, not really expecting anything because of his experience. How many times I have met people who are discouraged because of bad experiences.

How many times when we have suggested a solution to a person's problem, they'll immediately respond, oh, I've tried that. But did you try it at the Lord's direction or did you try it on your own initiative?

Makes a difference when the Lord directs you to do a thing. You can be sure when the Lord is directing your service that your service for the Lord will not be in vain. So when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fish and their net began to break.

So they signaled to their partners, which were James and John, who were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and they filled both of the ships so that they began to sink.

Success beyond their wildest dreams by simple obedience to the command of Jesus. Now, the result of the success to me is significant. When we have devised programs and we've put in all of the human energy and the human effort and we begin by the human effort to gain a response.

You've got something that is working. You've got something that is attracting people. What do you do with it? You franchise it. You carry it out other places. You develop your success seminars and you invite others to come and learn how to bait your hook to make your lure more attractive.

So you can gather more fish. But when it is the Lord doing the work, rather than developing your success seminars and being all puffed up over what's been accomplished, like Peter, you just sort of fall at the knees of Jesus and say, Lord, I'm not worthy.

Depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. Suddenly you're aware of God's work. You're aware of God's power. You're aware of the presence of God. And that is always a humbling experience. No man who has stood in the presence of God can be proud.

Standing in the presence of the Lord, conscious presence of the Lord is always a very humbling experience. Depart from me, Lord, Peter said. I'm a sinful man. And he was astonished. And all those that were with him at the draft of the fishes which they had taken.

And so also was James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, for from now on you're going to catch men. And so when they brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.

The Lord brought them to the peak, to the ultimate of success in their chosen profession, and then called them to leave it, to follow him. Their little ships rowing to shore, weighted down in the water by the load of fish, the dream of every Galilean fisherman.

And from that point of success, the Lord says, from now on you're going to catch men. And they left all and followed Jesus. Now in the other Gospels, they do not give us the background to the call of Peter and John.

And it would appear from the other Gospels that Jesus was just walking by the Sea of Galilee and he saw some fishermen mending their nets. And he said, come, take up your cross and follow me or, you know, come, leave your nets and follow me.

And they dropped their nets and followed Jesus without even knowing him or seeing him. That is not so. These men had already experienced the Lord. They knew the Lord. Jesus wasn't a stranger to them. They knew him.

Now he is calling them to a complete commitment in following him. Now it came to pass when he was in a certain city. Behold, a man was full of leprosy. Who seeing Jesus fell on his face and begged him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.

And he put forth his hand and touched him saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. He's going to give us a list of some of the miracles that Jesus was accomplishing.

Sort of a variety of miracles. The one directing them and catching the fish, sort of a miracle in nature. Now the miracle of the curing of an incurable disease. Leprosy was one of the most dreaded and loathsome diseases in the ancient world.

If a person had leprosy, he was to be ostracized from the community. Nobody could touch him. If they touched him, you would be unclean. Jesus touched him. Now, in another case, when Jesus healed leprosy, did not touch them.

Jesus did not confine himself to a particular pattern in doing his work. And I'm glad for that because we so often are trying to find the formula as though it existed within a formula. Jesus said the wind bloweth where it listeth.

You hear the sound thereof, but you can't really tell from whence it is coming or where it is going. And so is he that is born of the Spirit. God does not confine himself to our patterns, to our methods, to our ways.

In seminary, we had a class in methodology. As always, man is seeking to develop the methods or to learn the methods by which God works. But the interesting thing is that God doesn't work by any particular method.

There are diversities of gifts and diversities of operations. Yet it's the same Lord. So there are different gifts. But even with the same gift, there are different ways by which that gift operates within the individual.

The Holy Spirit dividing to each man severally as he wills. And so he always maintains the control of the method and the work which is to be done. At best, I can only be an instrument through which God does work.

So here we find Jesus touching the man. And the interesting question is if thou wilt, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. So often when we pray, we say, now, Lord, if it is your will. And I'm not putting that down.

I feel that we should. That whether I say it or not is an underlying fact in every prayer that I ever offer to God. I don't want my will to be done above God's. Now, God, you set your will aside because this is what I want you to do, you know.

The purpose of prayer is never the accomplishing of my will. Except as my will has been molded and shaped and conformed to his will. Always the purpose of prayer, the thrust of prayer is the will of God, the accomplishing of the will of God upon the earth.

And we need to remember that. Jesus said, nevertheless, not what I will, but thy will be done. And that was at the end of the prayer after he'd offered his request, then he made that statement. And that's not a bad statement for us to make.

After laying out to God the things that we desire, I think it is always wise to just say, Lord, not what I will, but your will be done. Now, quite often, the Lord is willing to do those things that we desire.

When he said, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus is I'm willing be thou made clean. And he touched him and he was cured of his leprosy immediately. Now, in the case of the 10 lepers that came to Jesus, he didn't touch them and they were healed as they went.

In the case of this fellow, he was healed immediately. Again, diversities of operations. He doesn't always work the same way. Now, the problem that would develop if he worked the same way is that if it didn't happen to me the way it happened to you, then I think, oh, God's not doing it for me.

So God keeps his ways diverse so that when I relate to you what God has done in my life, you you then don't look for my experience that I have with God, but you look for your own personal experience. For God does not pattern himself in his work in our lives.

And he may work in you in a totally different way and your reaction may be completely different than my reaction to the work of God. There is a value to testimony meetings, but there's always a problem with testimony meetings because through testimony meetings so oftentimes we seek then to have a similar experience to someone else.

And the emphasis in the testimony meetings seems always to be experiential or, you know, this is the way I experienced it. This is how God did it for me. This is what God did for me. And then I begin to think, oh, well, God didn't do it for me that way, you know, and there must be something wrong with me because I didn't feel that, you know, I didn't see the lights flashing.

I didn't get the tingling down my spine. I guess maybe, you know, I don't have it because I didn't experience it like someone else. So God keeps working in a variety of ways so that we don't try to pattern God after our methods.

So he was healed immediately. Now Jesus said to him, don't tell anybody, but just go and show yourself to the priest. A marvelous thing about the law of God, the book of Leviticus, is that God in the law provided the way by which a person of an incurable disease could be returned into society and into fellowship in the worship of God when he was cured of the incurable disease.

Now that I really, I like that because God left himself space to work. And this is the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. This is the method by which he is to be restored into the full fellowship of the family.

And yet leprosy is incurable. Even to the present day, leprosy is incurable. It can be arrested and they can be brought to an arrested state now and what they call the Hansen's disease. But it is still incurable and it was incurable then.

And yet God made provision for him to work sovereignly, even in incurable situations. God always left himself that space to put into operation his higher laws that supersede the natural laws as we know them.

So Jesus said, you know, take and follow the law, go show yourself to the priest. And of course, the priest would examine him, would see no white flesh, would see the area where the leprosy was all pink and new flesh.

And so he would set him in a house where he'd have to be for seven days. And then he comes back and shows himself to the priest again. He examines him, doesn't find anything. And then the fellow brings a two doves and the one dove is killed and the blood is poured with water into a basin.

And the second dove is taken and immersed in this bloody water and set free. And the second dove flying off the bloody water dripping off his wings as he takes off is a symbol of the disease being taken from the man and his full restoration now into the community.

Can you imagine, can you imagine the emotions that a leper must have felt when he saw that dove flying away and suddenly he realized that he could be restored completely and fully into society. Here he was hopelessly ostracized because of this loathsome incurable disease.

And yet he always knew God has wrought a work. So Jesus told him, go and do what the law tells you to do. Show yourself to the priest. But Jesus could not hide more and more people were hearing of the miracles that were being accomplished and the crowds were coming and thronging.

And he healed them and they came actually to be healed of their infirmities. Verse 16, and Jesus withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. As we pointed out last week, as we were studying the gospel of Luke or the week before, Jesus, the humanity of Jesus is the thing that Luke points out.

The son of man, the human side. And because this is the particular emphasis of Luke's gospel, Luke makes more mention of the prayer life of Christ than any of the other gospels. Luke gives this insight into the prayer life of Christ.

Jesus’ Prayer Life and the Healing of the Paralytic

And so here again, he shows us, he gives us a little insight into that prayer life of Jesus our Lord. Now, all I can say is that if Jesus, as the son of God, felt the necessity of prayer, who do you think you are that you can get by without prayer?

If he, being the son of God, felt it such a necessary part of his life, surely it ought to be a very necessary and considered to be a very necessary part of all of our lives. Again, the mystery of heaven, I am certain, is that men pray so little.

I'm sure the angels discuss this all the time when they watch and observe us going through all of our calamities, all of our troubles, and they're just waiting to be dispatched to help us. And they watch and we, you know, we get knocked down and bloodied, and we stand up and get knocked over again.

And I'm sure the angels say, well, when is that nut going to call? How long is he going to go on until he cries out for help if he only knew what God has made available to him? The mystery of the prayerlessness of infirmed man.

Now, it came to pass on a certain day as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem. And I like this.

And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Now, Jesus had begun to attract the notice and the attention of a hostile crowd. A crowd. The Pharisees, the doctors of the law. And they were coming all the way from Jerusalem up to the area of the Galilee because they heard of him.

And their purpose of coming was really of being more critical than accepting. Here is a rising movement, a spiritual movement among the people. Now, they have pretty well set themselves in a comfortable position as religious leaders.

Here's a threat to them. They must come up and listen carefully and examine him so that they can contradict him and show where he is at fault and to dispel any idea that this man might truly be of God and possibly the Messiah.

But while they were there, the power of the Lord was present to heal. And behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with palsy. And they sought a means to bring him in and lay him before Jesus.

But when they could not find a way that they might bring him in because of the multitude, they climbed up on the roof and led him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And so you can get the picture.

This Jesus is sitting there in the house and the people are all gathered. The multitude is gathered around. And suddenly there's a noise up on the roof and the tiles are being pulled back and then the ropes.

And here's this guy being let down right in front of Jesus. These guys are ingenious. I admire them. I really do. They're determined. They've got a friend. They want help for him and they're determined to get help.

Now, I'll tell you, those are the kind of buddies you need. And so they come with him to the house, carrying him in his bed. They can't get in. And so, you know, they're not to be stopped. And so they let him down.

And that was, you know, good positioning, really. Let him down right in the front of Jesus. And when he saw their faith, not the faith of the fellow that was let down, the faith of his friends that brought him.

That's great to be surrounded by friends who believe. And he saw their faith. He said to him, man, your sins are forgiven. Now, I imagine the guys up on the roof said, no, no, no, Lord. That's not what we want.

We want him to walk home, you know. So often in their minds, illness was related to sin. You remember when the disciples were with Jesus and they saw the blind man, they said, Lord, who did sin that this man was born blind.

Now they even believed in prenatal sins. While you were in the womb, you could sin. I don't know how, but they believed that you could. So was it his parents or was it him? Did he do some sin in the womb that he was born blind or was it his parents?

And Jesus said, no, no, no. This man, he didn't really answer why he was born blind. He just said that, you know, God may be glorified. I must do the works of God while I'm with you. And he healed the man.

He never told them why the man was born blind. People misinterpret that saying, well, he was born blind for the glory of God to be revealed. No, Jesus just said that he must work to glorify God and thus he healed the man.

He never answered the question, except that he affirmed that neither he nor his parents sinned. He affirmed that it wasn't their sin. But they so often related illnesses to sin, which we haven't really divorced ourselves from that completely yet.

And it's tragic that when we see a person who is suffering, we say, oh, you must have really done something wrong. You know, we were pastoring a church in Tucson years ago, and one of the fellows in the church said he stood up and he said, would you please pray for my wife tonight that God will help her to confess whatever sin she's been committing?

She's been sick for over a month, you know. And so that idea that somehow illness is related to sin is not completely divorced from the minds of people. If illnesses were directly related to sin, none of us would be strong enough to be here tonight.

And it is extremely wrong and extremely cruel to say to a person, well, if you just had enough faith, you'd be all right. I was talking with Johnny Erickson, and she was saying one of the most difficult things about her condition is that there are so many people who feel that they have a special anointing for her healing.

And, you know, these evangelists and whatever who come up and lay hands on her and then say, now stand up, you know, and then sort of say, well, if you only had enough faith, you know, you could get out of that wheelchair.

And that's one of the most difficult problems that she faces with her condition. That's cruel. It makes a hardship on her. She's already in a difficult position, but that only increases the hardship, making a person feel guilty because they're in the condition that they're in, because surely you must have done something wrong or you don't have enough faith to change your condition.

Some of the greatest saints of God have had great physical maladies. And actually, it was the physical malady that created that depth of character and that depth of their walk and relationship with the Lord.

Jesus took care of the most important thing first. You know, it's more important that your sins are forgiven than that you be healed. It's better to go into heaven maimed than to go whole into hell. So Jesus took care of the most important thing, first was the man's sins.

Man, your sins are forgiven. Of course, he was knowing that the Pharisees and all were there watching and listening. He was baiting them. I mean, he just, he was looking for a big blow up, which he got.

And he was deliberately just baiting them. He knew what their response would be. He anticipated it and he was deliberately creating it. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, who is this which speaks blasphemies?

Who can forgive sins, but God alone? Now they were right in their assumption. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus wanted them to make that assumption. They were falling right into his trap. They were wrong in thinking that Jesus was speaking blasphemous.

What Jesus was actually demonstrating to them was that he was God. So in saying, man, your sins are being your sins are forgiven you. He is exercising his divine prerogative of forgiving sins, knowing that only God can forgive sins.

David said unto God, Lord, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this great sin in thy sight. Thus, if sin is against God, then only God can forgive sin. And Jesus was deliberately seeking to get this response and reaction, which he did get.

And then he closed the trap. He said unto them, what are you reasoning in your hearts? What is easier to say your sins are forgiven you or rise up and walk? Well, it would be easier to say your sins are forgiven you.

If you say rise up and what you say, your sins are forgiven. You know who can look in a guy's heart and really see. I mean, you can say that, but how do you know it's really happened? How can you prove that the sins were really forgiven?

How can you prove that your words really have authority? You can't prove it. There's nothing that you can see that can prove the authority of that. However, if you say to a fellow who is lame, rise up and walk.

It's very easy to quickly see how much authority you have in your words. So Jesus said unto them, but you may know that the son of man has the authority upon earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was sick of a palsy, I say unto you, arise, take up your couch and go home.

And immediately he rose up before them. He took up that whereon he was laying and he departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, we've seen some weird things today.

Now Jesus was here demonstrating to them his divinity, doing it in a very clever way, saying first to the man, your sins are forgiven, creating that response. How can you do that? Only God can do that.

Only God has that authority. And thus by showing that his word did have authority by saying, rise up and walk. He is demonstrating to them that he is God. Now, after these things, he went forth and he saw a publican.

Jesus Calls Levi and Receives Sinners

Now a publican was a tax collector. The Roman government assessed an area with a certain assessment and then they auctioned off the job of tax collector and the tax collector only had to pay to the Roman government that assessment.

Anything he could collect above the assessment was his. So they were constantly looking for things to tax, constantly grabbing people and taxing them for many things. Actually, you had to pay a tax just to be alive under the Roman government.

They taxed 10 of the fruit of your crop and 20 of your oil and wine. They had taxes on just about everything. And you think that our government has been shrewd. All they'd have to do is read what the Roman government taxed and we would really be crying even more than we are.

The people in those days classified tax collectors with murderers and thieves. They probably weren't so far off thieves to be sure. In fact, it was extremely rare to find an honest tax collector. They were notoriously crooked.

In fact, there was a monument that was raised. They have found records of a monument extolling a man because he was an honest tax collector. About the only one, I guess, in the Roman Empire, so much so that they made a special monument.

This man, he was an honest tax collector, but that was a rarity indeed. And so the Jews considered tax collectors quizlings because they were really working for the Roman government and they made a law that a tax collector could not enter the synagogue.

I mean, he was a rank center. There's no way he could come into the synagogue ranking him with the murders and the thieves. They would not allow him to worship God in the synagogue. Now here was a tax collector named Levi, and he was sitting at his little custom house where he received his taxes.

And Jesus said unto him, follow me. And he left all rose up and followed him. And Levi had a big feast. Of course, he could afford it in his own house. And there was a great number. He invited all of his tax collector friends to come and listen to Jesus.

All of the publicans, he invited them to gather together and Jesus sat down with them. It's interesting how that when a person comes to a real relationship with Jesus Christ, the first thing they do is they grab their associates to tell them about it.

His associates, the only one who would associate with a tax collector was a tax collector. So in gathering his associates, he had to gather the tax collectors. They only had fellowship with each other.

No one else would fellowship with him. And so he gathered together all of these tax collectors and the scribes and the Pharisees murmured against us. They came to his disciples and they said, why are you eating and drinking with publicans and sinners?

You see a Pharisee. If he came near a tax collector would grab his robe and hold it tight around him because he wouldn't want his robe to flip out and touch a tax collector because they were considered unclean.

And if he did that, he'd have to go home and bathe and change, you know, wash his cloak. And he couldn't go to synagogue for a day because it was unclean. He was unclean because his cloak touched the tax collector.

Now, here is Jesus eating with them. That's even worse in their mind, because when you're eating with someone, you're touching the same bread and you're eating bread that that guy touched. You know, you're eating with these publicans and sinners.

Eating together was identifying with one another in a very intimate way. And Jesus, they were murmuring to the disciples. They were bringing their complaints, but Jesus answered them and said, they that are whole need not the physician, but those that are sick.

I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Jesus went out where they were, met them on their own territory. He ministered to the sick, those who were sick spiritually. I think that oftentimes in the church, we begin to make ourselves sort of sterilized hospitals, and we create almost a sterile environment where if the sinner would come in, he feels so totally uncomfortable because we're all sitting here in our sterile robes of righteousness.

In England, we have a good friend, Jim, who pastors a Calvary Chapel affiliate in the area of, I think it's Bradford. Maybe not. Northern part near Manchester. And Jim's ministry is in the pubs. He goes down to the pubs three or four nights a week and has a tremendous ministry.

They're in the pubs witnessing to the people are getting drunk and he's an outstanding witness for Christ. Oh, he gets a lot of flack from the other ministers in town because he spends so much time in the pub, but he is following the example of the Lord.