In this video, we explore Luke 5:1-11, where Jesus calls his first disciples. Pastors Clint and Michael walk through the story and highlight some key lessons we can learn from it. We see how Jesus uses a miraculous catch of fish to demonstrate his power and authority, and how Simon Peter responds with humility and faith. We also learn about the importance of obedience, trust, and surrender in following Jesus. Whether you’re a seasoned Christian or just curious about the Bible, this video offers valuable insights and inspiration for your spiritual journey.
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Transcript
00:00:01:01 – 00:00:24:03
Clint Loveall
Hey, friends. Welcome back. Thanks for closing out the week with us. Just a quick reminder as we get started here. We will be here Monday and Tuesday of next week. Then on a break for the rest of the week, pick up the following Tuesday and hope you can be with us. Today, we find ourself moving into the fifth chapter of Luke’s gospel.
00:00:24:28 – 00:00:51:58
Clint Loveall
And again, a fairly common flow to the story, particularly in Matthew, Mark and Luke. We have a relatively similar pattern of events, but kind of the same general chronology that changes significantly in John. But in these three gospels, we get the same kinds of stories at the same rough time, and here we move into a story. I think people are familiar with the idea of Jesus calling disciples.
00:00:51:59 – 00:01:20:12
Clint Loveall
So on the front end of his ministry, Jesus gathering around himself, those primarily men that we’re aware of that will be part of the inner circle and be a part of his ministry. On through the rest of his life. So we have Luke’s version of that today. We’ll read it and then we’ll stop and talk about it. Once, while Jesus was standing beside the Lake of Nazareth and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the Word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake.
00:01:20:13 – 00:01:39:09
Clint Loveall
The fisherman had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a ways from shore. Then he sat down and he taught the crowds from the boat. When he finished speaking, he said to Simon, put down into the deep water and let down your net for a catch.
00:01:39:43 – 00:01:56:27
Clint Loveall
Simon answered, Master, we worked all night long and have caught nothing. But if you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done this, they caught so many fish that the nets began to break, so they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so that each began to sink.
00:01:56:54 – 00:02:18:49
Clint Loveall
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus knees and said, Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man, for he and all who were with him were amazed that the catch a fish that they taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.
00:02:18:50 – 00:02:47:42
Clint Loveall
From now on you will be catching people. When they had brought their boats to shore. They left everything and followed him. I think of probably a familiar story, a dramatic story, as in this case, there is this miraculous catch a fish that accompanies the story. We also simplify the connection between Simon, James and John so that we take what are multiple calls stories in sort of another context.
00:02:47:42 – 00:03:30:01
Clint Loveall
And we we have them told here briefly as one single story. And this wonderful line, probably most of us learned it. You follow me and you will be Catchers of Men. The translation here says, you will now fish be you be catching people. But this is a significant I think one of the things, Michael, we can kind of read over in this is the incredible impact Jesus has on these men who in the course of an afternoon, in one case, James in John’s case, leave their family business, their income and sign on and they make unlikely students.
00:03:30:01 – 00:04:02:51
Clint Loveall
And I suppose you could argue that maybe Jesus is an unlikely rabbi. I think, you know, that’s probably less true. But they weren’t on anyone’s short list of to recruit. And yet something about Jesus here again, I think we see implied the kind of presence that Jesus has that with a couple of words. Obviously, in this case, also a miraculous catch a fish, but that he makes such an impact on these men that they rode ashore, left everything and followed him.
00:04:02:51 – 00:04:06:07
Clint Loveall
That’s a remarkable moment in the story.
00:04:07:37 – 00:04:39:52
Michael Gewecke
I think one of the interesting ways that Luke tells a story is by emphasizing how on necessary much of these components are. I think if you look here, the way that he teases out the beginning, once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Good Nazareth, just as if there was a time not that Jesus was actively seeking disciples, not that Jesus woke up that day, decide it was time to identify the best and most well equipped men for this task.
00:04:39:54 – 00:04:59:11
Michael Gewecke
No, it is as he was going while he was standing by the lake. And then you have these fishermen who are there. You don’t just move directly to the miracle story. The one of those boats belonging to Simon is the one that’s going to house him. That Jesus is going to teach from it. As the crowds continue to press upon him.
00:04:59:11 – 00:05:22:30
Michael Gewecke
That Luke and theme that we’ve already seen up until this point, and then know this, the next step of faith that’s required when Jesus speaks to Simon the next time put out the deep water, let down your nets for a catch. And it’s a beautiful moment, an opportunity for Simon to respond in faith, to respond with confidence in the word of this teacher.
00:05:22:30 – 00:05:48:23
Michael Gewecke
And he does so to his credit. And the result of this is so significant. We’re told in verse seven that the boats begin to sink. And so when now Simon Peter, as his name in the text, sees it, he falls at Jesus’s knees. And no, this kind of this is the first time in Luke we’ve seen the word sinner or sinful go away from me, Lord, for I’m a sinful man.
00:05:48:25 – 00:06:13:28
Michael Gewecke
There is both a statement in this text of Simon Peter’s faith. The willingness to allow a teacher in the boat to keep that instrument of commerce from getting fish right. There’s a kind of sacrifice in that. But then the trust in Jesus to go out and to do what Jesus says, even though as a professional fisherman, he likely doesn’t believe that to have any effect.
00:06:13:28 – 00:06:38:36
Michael Gewecke
And then when he sees the result of what happened, that Jesus, his word, he’s moved to confess himself a sinner and, you know, it might be tempting for us to ask some questions like, Well, what did he have in mind? What was he confessing to Jesus? And Luke has no interest in sharing those details. It’s just, I think, a wonderful moment when Jesus calls disciples to himself.
00:06:38:54 – 00:07:02:31
Michael Gewecke
Like you said, Clint, they’re not likely to be the team that the highest choice for leadership training material. And yet Jesus has chosen them. They’ve responded in faith, they’ve sacrificed something of themselves in that practice. And then when they see the revelation of what Jesus is capable of, and even in some ways we’re going to find a small way he’s moved.
00:07:02:31 – 00:07:18:21
Michael Gewecke
Peter is moved to confession. He’s moved to tell the truth about himself in the face of the presence of this man, Jesus. And that is, I think, an amazing sort of qualification for a disciple, someone who is willing to have these aspects in their life, in their faith.
00:07:19:49 – 00:07:47:02
Clint Loveall
I think it’s interesting that we do get some new language here. The idea of a sinful man, the idea that Peter Boughs throws himself at Jesus feet, which in the gospels is always an act of humility and adoration, sometimes fear, which leads us then to get a kind of restatement of some things we’ve already seen. You know, do not be afraid.
00:07:47:02 – 00:08:22:58
Clint Loveall
We’ve saw that many times in the Christmas story and and here we have that that affirmation. We have that invitation for Simon. Sometimes I think we’re rightly so. I think we’re interested in the disciples. They go on to do some wonderful things. They have fascinating question marks that hang over them so much about them we don’t know. I think one of the interesting things in the story tends to be that they’re less in some sense they’re less chosen for who they are than who Jesus is.
00:08:22:58 – 00:08:48:48
Clint Loveall
And they’re not chosen because they represent sort of the best of the best. They’re not, you know, they’re not the top of the pile. There are people that Jesus sees something in and and that doesn’t mean they’re ready. They have this long training period. You know, even throughout the early part of the Book of Acts, which again, Luke knows well, having written it, they’re still growing.
00:08:48:48 – 00:09:21:32
Clint Loveall
They’re still in need of the filling of the Holy Spirit to help them preach and teach. And and there is this equipping journey that that I think hangs over the story of the disciples. And I think, you know, this is such an interesting start. And I think it really becomes a metaphor for the way that many of us meet Jesus, that we find ourselves convinced that we’re in the presence of the Holy One.
00:09:21:57 – 00:09:52:39
Clint Loveall
And our only real our only real response is one of humility, one of confession and one of admission, perhaps one of fear. And then we hear again the invitation Do not be afraid. You have a new life. They have a new livelihood. They have a new mission, a new calling in life. Now they will always be fishermen, but from now on they will, in addition, be disciples.
00:09:52:39 – 00:10:15:54
Clint Loveall
And I think, you know, that’s a remarkable moment in the story. Luke gives us this moment as a sign, I think, of pointing us in some way past the disciples to our own discipleship, to our own call stories, and to our own mission as we seek to follow Jesus. You know, again, this isn’t this doesn’t just belong to Luke.
00:10:15:54 – 00:10:21:27
Clint Loveall
These stories are in various gospels, but in each of them, I think they help point us in a direction.
00:10:21:46 – 00:10:46:13
Michael Gewecke
I think it’s so multilayered because on one hand, the reader of this knows this to be true, that not only did those disciples become catchers of people, but they did so at the same kind of level that they caught fish that day. I mean, the boats were nearly sinking. They were so full of the catch that they had.
00:10:46:13 – 00:11:04:57
Michael Gewecke
And we know that that’s true because those who have found the faith know that it’s been handed on. It’s been passed on from one generation to the next, that at some point we too, saw the compelling nature of the gospel. And that wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for these disciples who are willing to trust their lives to Jesus.
00:11:04:57 – 00:11:29:22
Michael Gewecke
And I also think it’s fascinating that we see in this story that the person who catch catches the fish that day. Really, obviously, that these fishermen are putting in the nets and they’re doing the work to try to pull these fish in. But it’s Jesus who knows? It’s Jesus who calls them out. It’s Jesus who, in effect, makes this catch possible.
00:11:29:22 – 00:11:51:32
Michael Gewecke
It’s his authority, his power, the miracle working nature of who he is as the son of God. And so the same for these men who will now be catching people. They’re not going to succeed by their own wit or by their own golden tongue or by their own charisma. They’re going to succeed by the same power of Jesus Christ alive and working at them.
00:11:51:32 – 00:12:23:11
Michael Gewecke
It in many ways, I think, helps us learn that Evangel wisdom, which is simply sharing good news, that the work of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ is actually empowered by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that it’s not something that is undertaken by human effort. It’s not something that’s accomplished because of our own power or ability. I think Luke has something to teach us about our own discipleship, has something to teach us about the nature of evangelism and recognizing it’s Jesus’s work and our own.
00:12:23:13 – 00:12:38:27
Michael Gewecke
I think it may just seem like a call story, and it certainly is that. But I think it’s multilayered in its intention and in its teaching. I think it has an instructive element buried within that, the different layers of this text.
00:12:38:49 – 00:13:06:18
Clint Loveall
I think one aspect of that, Michael, is that it’s particularly this last line is particularly compelling from Luke. They left everything and followed him. The idea we’ll see this, we’ll see this again and again in Luke, the idea and again, not exclusive to Luke, but it’s important to Luke, the idea that to follow Jesus there is generally something that needs left behind.
00:13:06:18 – 00:13:34:51
Clint Loveall
That one has to hold their possessions and their wealth and even their livelihood in a very loose grip. Because as one seeks to follow Jesus, those things can be detriments and can be anchors that hold us back and sometimes have to be discarded. And Luke is going to have a lot to say about money and possessions. He doesn’t sermonizing it here, but in giving us the detail, I think we see something that matters to Luke.
00:13:34:51 – 00:14:03:16
Clint Loveall
And again, not the only one who says something like this, but when Luke says it, I think it rings it. There’s a resonance with what what else Luke will say about it. And if that doesn’t make sense, I think it will. As we continue to work our way through this gospel and as that theme unfolds. But here it is to say it matters to Luke that these earliest disciples left everything and followed him.
00:14:03:16 – 00:14:10:58
Clint Loveall
And that’s not the last time we’ll see something like that from a person who does or doesn’t choose to follow Jesus in the same way.
00:14:11:29 – 00:14:50:00
Michael Gewecke
You know, one of the aspects of this story that might not immediately be clear also is that in the gospel, in the different gospel tellings of this story, this lake is a significant place because it’s a place where Jewish people and Gentile people are mixing and they’re doing commerce together. And there’s even some talk historically about how Peter himself may have had a a business in which he had some interesting dealings to make things work and make things add up.
00:14:50:00 – 00:15:20:56
Michael Gewecke
This is sort of a church tradition aspect and if you take that, I think it’s fascinating that this story is punctuated by all these themes we’ve already seen in Luke. The Crowd is the group that brings Jesus to this place. Jesus is teaching them. You’re in a place where the rough and tumble are doing business and doing work, and Jesus calls them out of that work into an entirely different kind of work, work that they’re not prepared for, work that they’re not particularly interested in.
00:15:20:56 – 00:15:54:45
Michael Gewecke
By any account in the text. And yet when they encounter this man, it’s irresistible. There’s no other choice for them when they encounter who he is and therefore what follows when he calls them to go fishing, when they see the result of that command, they are left with no other choice but to become his disciples, to follow him and leave behind the business, leave behind the tray, leave behind all of the things that we we really wouldn’t blame them for wanting to hold on to and to trust their future in.
00:15:55:01 – 00:16:23:09
Michael Gewecke
And yet they’re willing to hold that loosely. And maybe we 21st century is certainly western many of us middle class people may struggle to hear the radical kind of nature of leaving that behind and moving in face into this entirely new arena, simply at the word and at the the proof, the revelation of that man. Jesus Christ. I think this is a remarkable story.
00:16:23:29 – 00:16:45:15
Michael Gewecke
It’s a it’s a place where these men experienced a complete reversal in their life. Everything up to that point is changed in this encounter. And I do think that that has something to teach us about our own experience of Jesus Christ, that it should change something in us when we meet Jesus and we see that lived out in this text.
00:16:45:37 – 00:17:18:21
Clint Loveall
Think if you boil this down from a kind of devotional perspective, Michael, you have a man who encounters Jesus. Jesus asks something that the man thinks doesn’t make sense. The man is overwhelmed by the knowledge of who Jesus is and humbly confesses his own sin and his own unworthiness. You have this idea of deep water, and then you have this idea that when Jesus calls it does mean doing something new.
00:17:18:41 – 00:17:44:38
Clint Loveall
But it probably means leaving behind some of the old. And I think if you if you talked about this passage in those terms, though, some of it may seem dated or challenging to us in in those broad general terms, I think this passage makes a lot of sense for the faith life that most of us have experienced. Jesus takes us into deep waters when we’ve failed.
00:17:45:37 – 00:18:03:45
Clint Loveall
We bow before him and then he says, Follow me. But that’s going to mean leaving some things behind. And that’s part of the struggle of discipleship. And I think, you know, as sort of a paradigm of that, this this is really remarkably accurate.
00:18:03:45 – 00:18:25:37
Michael Gewecke
I think friends, I certainly hope that we all experience that invitation as we record this. We’re in the midst of Holy week and certainly pray that this might be a season in which you to have that encounter with the risen Christ, even if it does call you to leave some things behind. We look forward to continuing the study with you next week, Monday, as we’ll continue here in verse 12.
00:18:26:07 – 00:18:27:39
Michael Gewecke
Until then, be blessed.
00:18:28:13 – 00:18:37:21
Clint Loveall
Have a great Easter, everyone.