The Cost Of Following Jesus Series

When you and I come to faith in Jesus Christ, we do so from a variety of different circumstances. Some are younger (I was 5). Some are older - I know a woman who was in her late 80s when she came to faith. Some have lived simple lives, others have lived rather rambunctiously. Some have come with some religious context and others with no concept of God at all. And yet when we do finally follow Jesus, we find that there are several truths common to all of us.

As we continue our study in the book of Luke, we turn the page to chapter 5 as we get to observe Jesus calling one of His disciples - Simon - who is also called Peter. The situation of Simons calling was very unique to him specifically but common to all of us principally.

If you have your Bibles, open them to Luke 5. We’ll be considering the first 11 verses.

We got briefly introduced to Simon last week as Jesus was ministering in Capernaum and healed is mother-in-law (if in fact this is the same person - I believe it is).

Luke 5:1–11 ESV

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But 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 and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus does some amazing things in this process of calling Simon to be one of His disciples. In this context, I think there are a lot of similarities between what Simon experienced and what we experience. No, most of us are not fishermen or people of the sea, but I do think there are some things that we can acknowledge and understand, both as people who may be investigating faith and as those who have believed for many years. Wherever we are in this process, we have room to grow.

So, as Simon begins this relationship with Jesus, we can learn first of all that…

Following Jesus...

...is based on His teaching (1-3)

Let’s look again at these first few verses:

Luke 5:1–3 ESV

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

It seems like Luke is not so concerned with laying out an exact chronological timeline, instead, he is laying out a narrative for his initial audience, Theophilus, and for us in order to provide some assurance of what we have come to know and believe (1:4).

So, on the heals of discussing Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum, Luke pulls an instance where Jesus is likely close to Capernaum, by the Sea of Gennesaret, which is also known as the Sea of Galilee.

Here, there are so many people who are eager to hear from Jesus. In fact, did you notice how Luke phrases that? They wanted to hear “the word of God.” Now, Jesus likely did not have a bible or a scroll handy, so when he is teaching, he is doing so extemporaneously. It kind of makes me wonder, did they believe He was the Son of God or simply believe that He was teaching God’s word? No matter, they wanted what Jesus had and they wanted to get close to Him.