The Miracles of Jesus
Luke 5:1-22
The miracles of Jesus were primarily to demonstrate His power over His creation. When Jesus did miracles, He demonstrated that He had power over the wind and the waves, over demons and disease, over blindness and deafness. He had power over life, even to the point of resurrection.
All the miracles that we read in the Gospels are miracles that were done to demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ, the long-anticipated Messiah who had come to his own people. The miracles were signs to the people who observed them saying, “This is the Son of God.”
The miraculous fishing expedition which we will consider today is a miracle with a message. The message is that each Christian is called to follow the Lord as a dedicated follower, or a disciple of Jesus Christ.
The story begins with Jesus teaching by the Sea of Galilee (or in some translations, The Lake of Gennesaret). The crowd was pushing in so close to Jesus that he got into a fishing boat and put out a little ways from the shore so that He could teach the people. Now I want you to see how Jesus deals with his disciples, or His followers. Jesus turned to Simon and he asked him to push his boat out into the shallow waters. Oh dear friend, Jesus can be a gentle master if you listen to Him! He did not immediately challenge Simon to go out into the deep water; He challenged him to put out a little from the shore.
Then notice with me that Jesus began to teach the disciples. Once Jesus has your attention, once He has your obedience and you push out into the shallow water, He will teach you lessons. I don’t know what Jesus taught the people. We do not have His message preserved for us in this passage. But I do know this: Jesus had to teach them lessons in the shallow water that would prepare them for a journey into the deep waters.
1. The Disciples Caught on to the Lord’s Instruction
a. The first thing that the disciples do is to respond to their Master’s instructions. Peter knew a lot about fishing, but he was learning about discipleship. After Jesus had finished teaching, he instructed Simon Peter, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
b. One of the first things that we learn from this story is that it is not necessary to fully understand God’s instructions in order to obey them. It is obvious that Peter did not understand what Jesus wanted him to do, but he obeyed nonetheless. Even though they had fished all night without catching a single fish, they went out into the deep water and let down their nets. Against reason, against experience, against precedent—against everything human, they obeyed what Jesus asked them to do.
c. I would say that about ten percent of the time I find myself in situations like Peter did—not understanding what God is asking me to do. Most of the time I think I see where the Lord is directing me and why. But it’s those times when it’s not clear that I have to live in the disciple’s mode of obedience: “Lord I’m doing this because I’m the disciple and You’re the Master. I trust that You know what I need to do.”
d. That happens to me as a pastor just as it does to you—sometimes in large vocational areas I’ve had to walk purely on the basis of obedience, not understanding at all what God is doing.
e. But that is the essence of discipleship. That is the heart of reading the Bible and attending church. Not to get a good set of notes or to sing some nice songs. It is to cultivate a lifestyle of walking in obedience to Jesus Christ as a disciple.
2. The Disciples Caught a Vision of What God Can Do
a. When the disciples obeyed Jesus and let down their nets, they found themselves in the middle of a miracle. They suddenly realized just what Jesus was capable of doing. Their concept of Him as the Messiah took a quantum leap forward. They learned that the commandments of God are the enablements of God as well.
b. As fisherman, they knew that at night the fish schooled in toward the shore and near the surface, which is why they fished at night. When the day came and the sun heated the surface of the water, the fish would go back out into the lake into the deeper, cooler waters—deeper than any net could reach..
c. Jesus told them, “You’ve fished all night where the fish are supposed to be, and you caught nothing. Now it’s day, so go into the middle of the lake and fish near the surface with your nets where the fish aren’t supposed to be—and watch what happens.”
d. As I think of the years of blood sweat and tears that have gone into building Bridgeway, I bet there have been occasions when someone has said, “Master, we’ve worked hard…”
e. Do you know it is possible to be busy in ministry without doing God’s business? It is possible to be driven by your own vision for the way things should be, but it is far better to be driven by a vision of God.
f. They obeyed and they caught more fish than they ever thought possible. Disciples of Jesus learn that God is able to do abundantly more than our rational minds could ever hope for or even imagine.
g. So they disciples obeyed God and they caught a vision of what God can do. The disciples must have been amazed and this must have given them confidence to trust Him for even greater things. They learned that Jesus could do anything that needed to be done, and that they could trust Him.
3. The Disciples Caught the Excitement that Obedience Brings
a. Some people in this day and age look at discipleship in the first century and think that it is rather boring. But I don’t know one deeply committed disciple of Christ who is bored. I know some who are overworked and in need of some rest, but I don’t know any that are bored.
b. I have always been a member of a church that was actively involved in missions. Over the years I have always noticed that when missionaries came home for stateside assignment or furlough, you could always sense that it was out a sense of obligation, or duty to their church or their denomination, and not out of a sense of deep desire.
c. They know that their children need a break. They know that they will have a chance to see loved ones. They know that they will get much needed medical treatment. But their hearts are back on the mission field. Instead of longing to stay, they long to get back to the mission field.
d. They can’t wait to get their hands to the plow again.
e. Does that sound like boredom to you? Disciples of Jesus know that they are involved in the most exciting task in the world—advancing the kingdom of God into the darkest corners of the planet. And following Jesus? Can you think of two days in the four Gospels that were ever the same? Waking up each morning with the prospect of following Jesus is lots of things, but boring is not one of them.
f. Think about the disciples in the setting of this miracle. They followed Jesus out into the deep and caught so many fish that their nets were tearing and both boats where sinking. What a way to grow in your relationship with your new master. They’d just begun to follow Jesus and already they were going into “deep water.” They got the picture immediately that it was going to be exciting—an adventure. The most exciting thing you can do in this world is to go into deep water with Jesus.
g. Trout fishing in Chittenango Creek. While I was still in high school, I went fly fishing for trout in the Chittenango Creek just below the Chittenango Falls. It was April 3rd or 4th , just a few days after the April 1st opening day for trout season. The water was raging and absolutely freezing from the runoff of the winter snow.
h. I set up on the shore and was about ready to begin to flash my carefully selected artificial lymph out into the center of the stream when one of the men I was fishing with plunked down some enormous pieces of rubber next to me. I could tell he was a real fisherman, because he wore a vest and a hat that had all kinds of shiny sharp things stuck to it.
i. He said, “Put these on, and I’ll show you where the real action is.” I put on the large pieces of rubber that I later learned where called “waders” and began to walk with him out into the deep water.
j. He said, “See those big rocks? The rainbow trout like to hide right behind them. Just cast your fly slightly upstream, and then let it float down past the rocks and you get some action.”
k. The water was raging all around me. I almost had to lean back against the water to be kept from being swept downstream. The water was cold even through the big rubber things. That is where the action was. Life would not have been exciting on the bank as it was in the deep water.
l. Are you willing to go with Jesus into the deep water? Are you willing to get off the bank and get into the action?
4. The Disciples Caught a Glimpse of the Glory of God
a. When the disciples reached the shore with their great catch of fish, they did a “strange” thing (strange in the eyes of the world.) Instead of throwing a party and celebrating the catch, instead of rushing off to market to see how much they could sell the fish for, instead of lighting up the charcoal grill and having a feast, Peter fell down on his knees and confessed his sinfulness.
b. Peter Got it. He realized he was in the presence of God. No one else except for God could have done what he just saw happen. He was not ashamed to give God the glory he was due.
c. That’s what happens when you believe God for a miracle, and God moves to perform the miracle, and in so doing you receive a glimpse of the Glory of God.
d. Peter got it and he could not stand on his feet.
e. Peter is not the only person in Scripture to act this way in the presence of God. It seems God has to show everyone He plans to use that they cannot rely upon themselves, that they have to see their insufficiency in the presence of His sufficiency.
f. Think about Moses. After 40 years living as a shepherd, God appears to him in a burning bush to prepare him to go and set free the captive Isrealites. Acts 7 says that Moses trembled with fear in the presence of God and he did not dare even look at the Glory of God.
g. Or consider Gideon. God calls Gideon, “a mighty man of valor” while he’s hiding in the threshing floor from the marauding Midianites. Gideon is totally confused that God would want to use him to deliver Israel. He had to see himself as weak before he could be strong.
h. And how about Job. At the end of his terrible experience, Job confessed that he finally saw God for who He really is. And Job repented in dust and ashes.
i. Isaiah said, “Woe is me…I am a man of unclean lips…For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah saw himself for who he was when he saw God for who God is.
j. There were others—Jeremiah, David, Paul. Every disciple God uses has to go through a process of seeing their unworthiness in order to appreciate God’s worthiness.
k. Now that the disciples had seen God’s worthiness, it was time for them to be dedicated to God’s work. “Do not be afraid, from now on you will catch men.” The lifelong assignment for every disciple of Jesus is to become a fisher of men—to be used by the Holy Spirit to draw others to Jesus Christ.
l. People automatically get sweaty palms when this subject is raised since they think that they are going to have to become commando’s going door to door capturing souls for God’s Army. Listen, you don’t have to go witnessing…you are witnessing! Every Christian is either a bad witness or a good witness for Christ. God simply wants you to be filled with His Spirit so He can direct you to manifest the life of Christ in your life and in so doing attract others to the Cross.
m. If you are really following Him, God will make you a fisher of men. So, the question is, “Are you following Jesus closely enough?”
n. Look at the last thing Luke says in our passage. “They left behind everything they had and followed Jesus.” They walked away from their boats and their nets and their fish and they decided to become fishers of men.
o. That’s how a rough a tumble bunch of fishermen became disciples and later apostles. They saw who God was and who they were; they learned what God can do, and what they could do when they followed God.
p. They learned to rely on God and they accepted their assignment.
5. The Disciples Caught on to the Lord’s Instruction
6. The Disciples Caught a Vision of What God Can Do
a. Eliminated the need for a DOT permit, a sewer permit, a smaller detention pond than previously proposed, a vastly improved quote on the soccer field replacement
7. The Disciples Caught the Excitement that Obedience Brings
8. The Disciples Caught a Glimpse of the Glory of God
