Luke 5:4-11
4 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon,
"Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." 5 But
Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and
caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net."
On this occasion in Luke 5, Jesus is preaching to the multitude
that is pressing upon Him. He sees two boats nearby, one of which is Simon
Peter’s, so He gets into it and goes out a little way from the shore and
continues His message (vv. 1-3). After Jesus finished speaking, He said to Peter,
"Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." First
it was, “Put out a little…”. Next it was, “Launch out into the deep…”.
Now it was, “Let down your nets”. What an interesting progression we see
here. This is often the way the Lord works in our lives.
Peter might have been thinking, “This is going to be embarrassing.
Jesus knows nothing about fishing, and I’ve just washed my nets and this great
crowd on the shore is watching us. They probably going to think, “What in the
world are you doing, trying to catch fish in the daytime.” But it was Jesus speaking,
so Peter responds with partial obedience. “Nevertheless, at Your Word I will
let down the net”. Did you also notice
that Peter called Jesus Master?
The word translated "Master" (Luke 5:5) is used
only by Luke and it has a variety of meanings, all of which speak of authority:
chief commander, magistrate, governor of a city, and president of a college.
Peter was willing to submit to the authority of Jesus, even though he did not
understand all that the Lord was doing. I believe Jesus was teaching Peter a
lesson he would never forget. Peter was in the process of acknowledging and making
Jesus the Lord of his life. And Peter needed to understand that Jesus is Lord
of all, or He is not Lord at all.
I believe there are two major callings of the Lord upon our
lives. The first call is to salvation. To become a believer in Jesus and trust
Him as our Savior to forgive us our sins. That happened to Peter in John 1,
when Andrew, his brother brought him to Jesus at the baptism. But now there is
another calling we experience after we get saved and that is the calling to
discipleship. To follow Jesus, surrendering our all to Him and become a partner
with Him is catching men, women, boys and girls for the kingdom.
That is what Romans 12:1-2 is about: “I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 speaks to this too: “For by grace you
have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we
should walk in them.” We have not been saved just to sit and enjoy the Christian
life, but we have been called also to labor for Jesus catching men for the
kingdom!
Despite what our family and friends and the crowd might
think we have to make a choice to either obey or disobey the call of Jesus on
our lives. Despite our failures in the past, we only need to know that if Jesus
asked us to do something, He will empower us and make a way for us to
accomplish it. We should not let the past hinder the present. Like Peter, we
should make a fresh start on the authority of Jesus.
What is the Lord Jesus speaking to you about today? Despite
what you might feel or think, will you say, “Nevertheless, at Your Word, I
will!”
God bless!
