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Bro. Bill Nichols
Okay, I'll begin, and as people filter in, it'll be quite alright. We're going to start in Luke 5, verse 1. I'm going to read it first, about half the chapter. And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake Gennesaret, and he saw two ships standing by the lake.
But the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draw. And Simon answered, said unto him, Master, we have toiled all night, and we have taken nothing.
Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net. And when he had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net break. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come to help them.
And they came, and they filled both ships, so that they began to sink. 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 was astonished, and all that were with him, at the drop of the fish 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 henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought the ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.
And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus, fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and he touched him, saying, I will be thou clean.
And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man, But go, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing accordingly as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all the many blessings that you have given us.
Thank you for giving us this place where we can come together and worship you as we study your holy word. Thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to help us understand what lessons you have in the word for us each and every day that we read it.
And thank you for your Son, which you gave to us to cleanse us from our sins, to preserve us, so that we might live forever in heaven with He and with you. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. So, oh we got a lot more since I closed my eyes.
I closed my eyes again and it was not a function of closing my eyes. It came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake Gennesaret, often called the Sea of Galilee, called by John the Sea of Tiberias.
It's really not a sea. It's really a large freshwater lake. So Luke was more accurate in his description of what it is. It's a lake over 690 feet below sea level. And water runs from it downhill to the Dead Sea.
So the Dead Sea would be even further below sea level. And it serves as the main source of water and commerce for all of Galilee. I'm going to read that passage again and focus on a different part. And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, they're crowding in around him.
You can just imagine how he feels with all the people all around him, swarming around him, trying to get close to him, creating a turmoil and a crush. He saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets.
The fishermen had been fishing all night and were cleaning and preparing their nets for the next night of fishing. And he entered one of the ships, which was Simon's. See, the fishermen were on the shore, but the boats were not, of course.
He entered one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed to him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Because the people were pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he entered one of the ships in order to be able to speak to them and at the same time avoid the crush of the people.
Now, all of you know what an apotheater is? What he did in speaking from the boat was he created a natural apotheater. The combination of Jesus speaking from the ship, the sound bouncing off the water, and the crowd standing on higher ground above created a natural apotheater so that all the people could hear him better.
So everybody could hear him and he wasn't pressed in by the crowd. So he gives his speech, his lesson, his sermon. It doesn't say what Jesus taught, but we know from Matthew's account he taught, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I'm going to go to Matthew and read Matthew's account. It's going to have a couple of slight differences, but not really in substance. It has to do with the perspective of the person that's reporting it and the fact that Luke is getting his second hand from Peter.
Okay, I didn't tell you where to go, did I? Matthew 4 .12. Now when Jesus had heard John was cast into prison, he departed from Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum. And there's several verses that I'm not going to read.
I'm going to skip down to verse 16. The people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and the shadow of death, light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
He's preaching the same sermon, basically, that John the Baptist was preaching. And Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and saw two brethren, Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.
So that was Matthew's account. I read that to get to this. The sermon he is giving is, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And again, that's the same sermon that John was preaching when, well, I'll get to that in a few seconds.
John preached that same sermon, but from a different perspective. Not from he being anybody to be able to do anything about it, but in his reference to one that was coming after him that could. So, in any case, the sermon was, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now when he had left off speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your net for a drop. Now, here's what normally happens. Normally what happens in the night, the fish come near the shore.
And so the fishermen can let down their nets and catch them. When morning comes and it begins to warm up, the fish migrate to deep water. They get out so deep that the nets can't reach them. So what they would do is they'd fish at night, and they'd clean up and prepare during the day for fishing the next night.
That's why Simon and his partners fished at night. And Simon answered, saying unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.
Have you wondered why Simon was so willing to obey Jesus? This is not the first time Simon has seen Jesus. We're going to get to that in a few minutes. And it's, I think, a very important part of this first passage.
What Simon and his brother Andrew were doing, and why they were doing it, and why weren't they somewhere else? Well, we'll get to that. Peter, no doubt, thought Jesus' directive made no sense. They'd fished all night to no avail.
It's well past the time when any fish that might have been there would have left for deep water. But he obeyed anyhow, and for that he'll be rewarded. Verse 6,. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their nets break.
And they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both ships, so that they began to sink. So they caught enough fish to sink two ships.
This was more than an extraordinary catch. It was a miraculous catch. It was in the wrong place. It was at the wrong time of the day to catch any fish. Particularly in a place that they'd fished all night and caught nothing.
Much less to catch enough fish to swamp two boats. Peter knew how extraordinary that was. He knew it was miraculous. So when he saw it, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
Peter immediately recognized that he was in the presence of somebody special. He was in the presence of the Holy One. Well, he already knew that. He already knew who Jesus was. This was not a surprise to him.
But he was stricken with shame over his own sin. And that's not an unusual reaction when a man recognizes that he is in the presence of God. Almost everybody, when they're introduced to an angel or to Jesus, the first thing they recognize is how sinful they are compared to Him.
We tend to want to compare ourselves to other people. And I look around and I say, I'm at least as good as John. And I'm better than Ron. And I'm almost as good as Brother David. We compare ourselves to each other.
But when we compare ourselves to God or to Jesus, there is absolutely no comparison. So it's not unusual when we compare ourselves to God to have this reaction to recognize that we are sinful and filled with shame.
Verse 9,. For he was astonished and all that were with him, both in the boat and on the shore, at the drop of the fishes that they had taken. The remarkable catch of fish was clearly a miracle, astounding all the fishermen in Capernaum, as well as all the multitude that were still standing on the surrounding hills.
Everybody that saw it or heard of it were astounded. And so was James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
Now Jesus, as I told you before, had encountered Peter and Andrew before near Bethevara in the Jordan region where Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist. And Peter may have been a disciple also.
We're not certain about that, but we know for certain that John was a disciple. Not John. Andrew was a disciple. I'm going to read that to you in John 1, chapter 19. I'll begin and we'll get quickly to this account.
John 1, verse 19. And this is the record of John when Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? He was making quite a stir. They wouldn't know he was. And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, What then, art thou Elijah? And he saith, No, I am not. And then they asked, Art thou that prophet? There was a prophet that was prophesied to come before the coming of the Messiah.
And they're asking, Well, are you that prophet? And he answers, No. And so they say unto him, Who art thou that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? So if you're none of these, who are you?
And he says, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. As said the prophet Isaiah, And they which were sent of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not the Christ, nor Elijah, neither the prophet?
And John answered and said, I baptize them with water, but there standeth one among you whom you know not. Right in the midst of them there was a man standing that you don't know. He it is who cometh after me is preferred before me.
Whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloosen. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is the one of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. Now look at verse 31 and see how strange this is. It was strange to me. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest unto Israel.
Therefore I am come baptizing with water. So what is John saying? He was his cousin so he didn't know him. But he knew his cousin. He knew his cousin Jesus. He didn't know that Jesus was the Son of God yet or at some point.
But what John did know was his purpose was to announce the presence of the one that is coming. And John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove. And it abode upon him. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
Now John knows who Jesus, his cousin, really is. Not just Jesus' cousin, a good man. But Jesus, his cousin, who is the Messiah, the Holy One. And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God. So now John knows.
And all that was standing there with him knew. And the next day after John stood and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. So John is now standing with two disciples.
Jesus walks by. John points to him and says, That's the Lamb of God. Well, this is after he knew who he was. See, he knew his cousin, he knew his cousin, Jesus. He did not know his cousin Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah until the dove came down from heaven, lit on him, and stayed on him.
And he announced, This is the Son of God. He knows it now. The next day he stood with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus as he walked along the shore and he says, Behold the Lamb of God. So his two disciples heard him say that, saw who he was pointing to, so they know who he is.
And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. That's when they first met Jesus, these two disciples. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, What seek ye? And they said, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwelleth thou?
And he said, Come and see. And they came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. Now one of the two, not both of them, but one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon and said unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of John.
Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. So this is when Peter gets his new name. Now, what do they do? They follow Jesus a while and then they, I'm sorry, they left John to follow Jesus for a time before they returned to fishing in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee.
Now I've got a couple of questions I want to ask you to reflect along with. We don't necessarily have to answer them. When did Peter and Andrew first meet Jesus? Andrew first saw him when he was walking along the shore.
Peter first saw him and met him when Andrew took him to him. And what did they do? They followed him for a time. Why did they leave? Why did they quit following? I don't know. It was their job to fish.
They don't know they got a better job ahead of them. Not yet. Not yet. But my second question is, why did Jesus let them go? I'm sorry. Why did Jesus let them go? Why did Jesus let them leave? I want to do my questions out of order, the ones I've got kind of laid up, because I want to parallel them better.
I can tell you that in some sense I first met Jesus when I was 13 years old. And all of you guys have a time when you can pinpoint as the time you first met Jesus. What did I do? I kept going to school.
I went to graduate school. I thought I was going to be a physicist, and then I thought I was going to be a basketball coach. And then I thought a lot of things. But sometime way later things happened that I really became not just a person who knew God or who knew Jesus, but a person that followed Jesus.
I didn't follow Jesus when I was in high school. I knew about him. I was a Christian. I think had I died while I was in high school, I would have gone to heaven. But you know what? That wasn't God's plan.
He didn't allow me to die in high school. He didn't allow me to die when I was in college. He didn't allow me to die while I was a basketball coach. He didn't allow me to die when I was a physicist. He hasn't even allowed me to die yet.
He will allow me to die when he allows me to die. Okay, the question I wanted to go for then is, how long did Jesus know that they, Peter and Andrew, were to be his disciples? He always knew. When did they know?
In a few minutes when he tells them. He hadn't told them before. But they knew him. They knew he was the Son of God. They knew he was the Messiah. They knew all about him. He was going to call them, but he hadn't called them yet.
Yes, but that's before. He went into the wilderness to be tempted. He was tempted. When he came out of the wilderness, he went into Capernaum and started preaching. While he was there, he met Andrew and Peter.
They followed him a while. Then they went back to fishing, and he went on to preaching. Then he's coming back at a later time, and things will happen. That's where we are in Luke 5. He has come back. He has gone down to the lake.
There's a crowd of people following him because he's gathered quite a reputation by now. The crush of the people was so bad that he looks out, and he sees these two boats, and he sees Simon. He gets on the boat and Simon with him and says, Put off a little bit so that I can speak to this crowd so they can hear me and so they won't crush me.
He did. Then he asked them to go out at an impractical, improbable time of the day in a place that had been fished over severely all night, nothing to show for it, and they catch two overflowing boatloads of fish.
I'm going to go back and get my other verse for just a second. Now, in verse 10,. And so was James and John the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus says unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
And then verse 11 says,. And when they had brought their ships to land, they didn't stop to clean the fish. It says,. And when they brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. All four, Peter, Andrew, James, and John left two boatloads of fish.
Who got the fish? I don't know. It doesn't make any difference. They left all to follow Jesus. Jesus had called them. There was nothing else that they could do. Because as we know, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me.
And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which sent me, that of all which he hath giveth me I shall lose nothing, but shall raise it up again in the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth upon him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day. We read that passage all the time.
And it came to pass... So now they're called and they're following Jesus, the four of them. And it came to pass when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy. Now this is Luke writing. He didn't say this man had a little skin problem.
He had full-blown Hansen's disease, I think it's what it's called. Full-blown leprosy. He was full of leprosy. Who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
The leper understood that Jesus was able to heal him. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. Immediate and total. It was right away and it was all at once.
Just like Simon's mother-in-law back in chapter 4, when she was healed, went from being in a deep high fever to being able to minister to other people immediately. She was healed immediately with no recuperation time.
Virgil told the group today that his flu left him pretty quickly this week. But it still took a little time to recover, didn't it, Virgil? It didn't happen like instantly you got well and were ready to do all.
In fact, you may not be totally well yet. Immediate and total. And he charged him to tell no man, but to go show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
So what did he do? He said, show yourself to the priest that you're clean. He says, follow the law. What law? The law of Moses, which they're all still under. How long will we be or have we been under the law?
Well, Matthew 5, 17 tells us. Matthew 5, 17. Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I come not to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled.
Has that happened yet? Everything is not finished. Are we under the law now? Not in the sense that we're required. Not according to Paul. Not in the sense that we have to follow all the rules and regulations of this old covenant.
There's a new covenant coming that's better than the old. Now, that doesn't mean that the precepts are not good and valid. They still are. But these folks were still under the law because Jesus had not fulfilled all that He was going to fulfill as a man on the earth yet.
There'll come a time when He does. And then we'll go from the old covenant into the new. But they're in the time of the old covenant still. So anything that Jesus says has got to be understood that He is living in the time of the old covenant.
Verse 15. So what does He tell them to do in 14? He says, He says, Tell no man, but go show thyself to the priest and offer it for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.
But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed. So in spite of the fact that he told the leper not to go tell anybody, but just to go and follow the laws of Moses, it's still, his fame is spreading far and wide.
He's healing people in the sight of people. He is doing miraculous things and they know that. But we've got to remember that Jesus is not relying on His resources as the Son of God, but only on His resources as a man.
Albeit a man indwelt by the Holy Spirit. As we are. But unlike us, as a man who always walked in the Spirit. So Jesus never was a time when He let go of Jesus' hand and walked on His own. There was never a time when He followed His own path.
Every time, everything He did, He was always walking in the Spirit. That's one of the reasons He could do so many things as a man that we can't do. Plus, there's another aspect to this. There are many things that were done in an earlier time to act as a sign, to indicate the reality, the purpose of the speakers.
The apostles and Jesus performed signs so that the Jews who needed a sign might have a sign and would be able to see. Not all did. Okay, any comments or questions? I think that is absolutely interesting.
Yes, it is interesting. The fact that as an infant, before He was born, He recognized Jesus was God. And on the shore of Jordan, He didn't recognize Jesus as God. He probably did recognize Him as His cousin, but not Jesus as God.
Until the dove descended upon Him and lit and stayed. Because... That's right. But then He goes... Well, some still know. Some still know, and we're going to see next half of this chapter. I'm sure He did, Brother David.
I think that's when He was first revealed to the world as the Son of God. That's when He got the authority. That's like when the Spirit descended upon Him. It was a physical dove, but it carried a metaphysical message.
It was the Spirit of God, I think. The Spirit of God in the dove. The dove was indwelt by the Spirit of God for a time. And it's amazing. We're going to see in the next section two groups of people. One group of people came to critique Jesus.
And another group of people came to be healed. And we will see how Jesus treats that. And there's an interesting lesson to that passage as well. That's all I want to do today, unless you've got further questions.
It is. It is in God's time. And God's time has... In our life, it seems like God acts in different steps. Here, here, here. I have three distinctive steps that I recognized before I even knew that there was a Christ.
There was a time after I knew that there was Jesus and I knew that I belonged to Him. And I was 13 years old. And I accepted that. I recognized that. I knew that. But I was still a man, or a boy. And I still didn't follow Him.
Then there was a time when I wandered away. And then there was a time I came back. And then there was a time that I really understood that God had a higher calling for me than to be a basketball coach.
And I don't know how well I do that, but I do know that those stages are stages in my life. And I think there's those stages in everybody's life. There comes a time when you first become aware of Him.
Then there comes a time when you recognize that you're His. And then there's a time when you begin to follow Him. And there will become a time when you'll do nothing but follow Him. See, Andrew and Peter followed Him and then went back fishing.
And then they followed Him. And then Peter wandered away again. And it was only after he was called back after the resurrection that he really became Peter. Until then, he had really been sometimes Peter, but most of the time Simon.
I don't know that after the Spirit descended upon him, he was ever Simon again. I don't know. That would be interesting to research. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank You for this day. And thank You for all the many blessings that You have given us.
Thank You for making Yourself visible to us so that we can see You, so that we can follow You, so that we can follow You constantly and continuously. Bless us and keep us. Let us go through the rest of the service.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.