Fishers Of Men Series

A couple of questions to start out with:

Who was the first person that Jesus called to be one of the 12 Disciples?

Open your Bibles briefly to John 1:37…..

Now, what was the big Lake or Sea near Nazareth where Jesus grew up?

Of the original 12, how many were fishermen? = at least 7 (John 21:1)

Are there reasons you think why Jesus would start with fishermen?

As we will read today, Jesus took the simple fishermen and made them “Fishers of Men”!

Please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke Chapter 5.

Read along with me Luke 5:1-11……….

What can we learn from v1-3?

Jesus went to one of the ports of the Sea of Galilee where people gathered.

Remember what we noted last week? While on earth, Jesus healed many people but not everyone, of their physical and spiritual illnesses, because His main purpose was to bring the Good News of the eternal Kingdom of God!

And so we note, Jesus continued to teach people about the Good News!

But we now will note that Jesus will call on people to continue to teach the Good News of the Eternal Kingdom of God.

As Believers of Jesus Christ we are part of God’s plan to continue teaching the Good News. Now, we may not be good at it, but the place to start is here: As a Christian, realize that you are part of God’s plan and you are called to teach those around you!

This is really the main application for us from this passage this morning. Remember this daily: As a Christian, you are part of God’s plan and you are called to teach those around you!

We read here in Luke 5 that Jesus called on Simon Peter, James and John, and likely other fishermen to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Disciples are called to follow, learn, and imitate their Teacher. Jesus is till calling disciples today! Do you sense God calling you?

We noted from the Gospel of John that the story here in Luke 5 is not the first time Jesus met with the first disciples. What do we see the disciples doing here in Luke 5:1-3??

As Jesus was teaching the people, the called disciples were doing their secular jobs; they were washing their nets after a full night of fishing! But did you notice what Jesus did in v3? Jesus asked Simon Peter to do something for Him! Disciples of Christ can sometimes be called to drop what they are doing and obey the Lord!

Jesus Christ will call disciples, ask them to follow, but will not force them to obey. But as we can note from the rest of the story, Power and success for God will come through obeying Jesus Christ.

And so, look again at v4-7…...

What was Jesus’ secular job before doing ministry??

We note Peter whining; but before jumping all over him, put your self in Peter’s shoes. Simon Peter was a Professional Fisherman and a carpenter was telling him where to fish? This is like an Accountant telling a Professional Electrician how to wire his house! Jesus, although only trained as a carpenter, told Peter the Professional Fisherman how to fish!

You see, Disciples of Christ can sometimes be asked to do something contrary to what they know! What would you and I have done in Peter’s situation? Peter obeyed Jesus and that was commendable. The Lord Jesus may ask us something contrary to what we know and we must obey; but be warned, because we have the Word of God, Jesus will not ask you anything contrary to the Bible.

But look again at the end of v5……

Now, do you think Peter had a good attitude towards obeying or a bad attitude about obeying Jesus Christ??

We really can not know for sure what Peter’s attitude was at that time. Remember that eve after being discipled by Jesus for 3 years, Peter denied Jesus 3 times! Who’s going to ask Peter when you get to heaven if he had a good or a bad attitude when he obeyed Jesus about fishing?

Yes, Simon Peter could have had a good attitude about obeying Jesus. But look again at v8….. Simon Peter got upset at Jesus!

Because we see this reaction from Peter after experiencing that Jesus was right and knew more than he, isn’t it possible that Peter actually had a bad attitude when he obeyed Jesus? Peter could have said in this tone, “Okay Jesus, if you say so, I’ll let down the nets!” with the thought that he was going to prove Jesus wrong! We’ve all done that haven’t we? We’ll say “Yeah sure I’ll do that, but just see what will happen!”

Now Jesus of course knows people’s hearts. We can get a glimpse of Peter’s heart in this passage can’t we? Again we read from Peter in v9-10a….