Is Jesus in Your Heart?
Luke 5:1-11
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
Luke 5:1 Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2 and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the 1people from the boat. 4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” 6 When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 7 so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.” 11 When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
Unfortunately, if you were baptized as an infant, you lost the opportunity to feel Jesus come into your heart through the sacrament of baptism. However, if you went through the sacrament of confirmation in the church, then you got to declare to the church into the world your love for Jesus. If you haven’t been baptized or confirmed, you can always do this in the church if you love Jesus.
Thinking about this narrative in Luke’s gospel, chapter 5 verses 1 to 11, we see Jesus called his first three disciples to come follow him. There’s a lot of dialogue that’s missing from the narrative and it’s the author’s intention to allow that dialogue to be missing. In doing this, he allows Jesus to come into your life in several ways. The miracle Jesus performed amazed Simon, James, and John. They caught so many fish that their nets almost tore. Earlier that evening, they couldn't catch anything at all.
Fishers would engage in fishing during the very early mornings, usually before dawn. After that, it was very difficult to catch any fish in the sea of Galilee. In the narrative, morning came, and the men caught nothing. Jesus walked up to the shoreline, stepped into the boat and taught not only the men that were on the boat but also the people that followed him and that were at the shoreline. There are several examples of where Jesus liked to preach from a boat just off the sea.
After he finished teaching, he instructed Simon to take the boat out to the usual fishing areas and told him to cast out his nets. Simon said to Jesus, but we’ve already tried fishing in this area and there’s nothing here to be caught. Jesus told him to do it, anyway. And when they brought the nets in, they caught a tremendous number of fish. This was the miracle, or perhaps you want to call it a sign that Peter James and John needed to experience for them to come to understand who Jesus was. It’s going to take a little while in the gospel of Luke for them to fully understand that Jesus was the divine Messiah sent by God.
Jesus was to give the three men a new vocation, and that was to become fishers of men. The Dead Sea Scrolls actually contain information about the metaphor of being a fisher of people. The Dead Sea Scrolls were of the Bible and commentary that was created by a group called the Essenes back in Jesus' day. The scrolls were discovered in 1948 and are now available in just about every language on the planet. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, it says that fishing for people was a metaphor that was used to gather people for judgment in the Hebrew Scripture and this idea of gathering people for judgment fits into John the Baptist’s mission. The idea was to collect people and give them the opportunity to ask for forgiveness for their sins before it was too late. If one dies before repenting for one’s sins, the chances are the final judgment from God will not be in their favor.
Simon says to Jesus that he was a sinful man, and he did not deserve this forgiveness from the sin that Jesus was offering. Simon did not fully understand how repentance and forgiveness from God worked until Jesus made it very clear to him what was happening.
Every person can receive forgiveness for sin if they repent and pray for it. That statement can be hard to accept sometimes because there are some people who were so horrible in life that they should not be forgiven. Wait a minute, that’s a human judgment that we are going to make if you agree with what I just said. We are not the judges of people of what happens to them after this lifetime. Therefore, if you think of the evilest people in history, do they have a chance for redemption? I’m going to leave that question with you because there are arguments on both sides of the coin that worked really well. There are some evil people from history I hope I don’t see in heaven. However, we must remember it’s God’s decision who stays in heaven and who goes to hell. That is and always will be a tough subject to broach.
At one church I was appointed to, I met a man who was around 40 years old and was married for about 15 years and was very upset because they couldn’t have any children. No matter how hard they try, they just could not conceive a child. They went to medical doctors; they went to fertility clinics and there were just no positive results. When I met him, he told me it was God punishing him for sins that he had committed in his youth that prevented him and his wife from conceiving a child.
I said to that man if you asked for forgiveness and repented of your sin and believe in the healing and saving power of Jesus Christ, then it is not your sin that stopping conception to happen. It must be something else biological. There is no shame that this couple could not conceive a child. In their case perhaps it was God who wanted them to save an orphan child instead. And I did offer that as an idea for them that God may want them to take a different approach to children. Today I do not know if they followed my thoughts on the subject or not. I hope that this man finally did except that no matter what sin he performed in his youth that through his prayer and belief in the savings power of Jesus Christ that he was forgiven for whatever that sin might have been.
It says in the book of Revelation that Jesus is standing at the door of our hearts and is knocking and is waiting for us to come in. However, in the gospel of Luke it appears that Jesus came into the lives of Peter, James and John without their asking. Perhaps they were asking for Jesus to enter their lives and not even knew it. Jesus was not that well-known at that period. However, Peter said that he was a sinner and did not feel he deserved forgiveness therefore, he was not looking for the Messiah to come save him. Jesus knew that Simon was going to become one of the strongest apostles that he was going to have, and he knew he needed to know that God had forgiven him for his sins.
If you have not led Jesus into your heart, then you should allow him to open that door. If you think because of the sins of your past that you are not worthy of forgiveness by Jesus, know you are coming from a false assumption. Jesus took Simon, who claimed to be a sinner and turned him into a saint. Jesus could do that to anyone of us.
We have to come to him with an open heart and ask him to forgive us for the sins of our lives and then try to live as best we can, emulating Jesus' love for God and for neighbor. It is an individual decision whether you’re going to come to Jesus or not. But also know that Jesus is looking for you. John Wesley called that prevenient grace. What that means is that the Holy Spirit is looking for people who have not come to know Jesus and will help open that door so that Jesus can enter their heart. Those of us who know Jesus as Lord and Savior know he will always be there to help. So, if you haven’t come to accept Jesus and yet now is a great time to do it. For those of us who have we can help non-believers to find Jesus.
