31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. 33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Ha!1 What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. 36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” 37 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
Jesus Heals Many
38 And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.
40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
Jesus Preaches in Synagogues
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.2
Jesus Calls the First Disciples
5:1 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, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 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. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 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. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that 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 be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”311 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Footnotes
[1]4:34Or Leave us alone [2]4:44Some manuscripts Galilee [3]5:10The Greek word anthropoi refers here to both men and women
31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. 33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Ha!1 What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. 36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” 37 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
Jesus Heals Many
38 And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.
40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
Jesus Preaches in Synagogues
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.2
Jesus Calls the First Disciples
5:1 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, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 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. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 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. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that 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 be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”311 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Footnotes
[1]4:34Or Leave us alone [2]4:44Some manuscripts Galilee [3]5:10The Greek word anthropoi refers here to both men and women
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
Invite you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 4. Gospel of Luke chapter 4. We've been going through the gospel of Luke for a number of weeks now. Last week, we looked at Jesus's first recorded sermon. 1 in which he preached from Isaiah 61, which was a prophecy about the Messiah.
Joel Brooks:
A prophecy about the kingdom of God. And then Jesus made that extraordinary claim, if you remember. He he he rolled back up the scroll. He handed it to the attendant and every eye was on him. And Jesus said, today this has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of that ancient prophecy. He claimed to be the Messiah. He's the one who will proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, liberty to the oppressed. And now, Luke, what he's going going to do is for the next few chapters, show that Jesus actually backs up his words. Jesus actually does those things that he just preached about.
Joel Brooks:
And we're gonna begin reading in Luke 4 verse 31. And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, For his word possessed authority, and in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, What have you to do with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God.
Joel Brooks:
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, be silent and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst and came out of him, having done him no harm, they were all amazed and said to one another, what is this word? For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out of him. And reports about him went into every place in the surrounding region. And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house.
Joel Brooks:
Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she rose and began to serve them. Now the sun was setting, and all those who who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons also came out, many out of many, crying, you are the Son of God.
Joel Brooks:
But he rebuked them, would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Christ. And when it was day he departed and went into a desolate place, and the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said to them, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns as well. For I was sent for this purpose. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Joel Brooks:
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 2 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 them 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. 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.
Joel Brooks:
They signaled to their partners and other boats to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man, oh lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish 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.
Joel Brooks:
From now on, you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Pray with me. Lord, we ask that you would come through the power of your spirit, lord, that you would speak. We need to hear from you.
Joel Brooks:
People here don't need to hear from me, my words are death Lord, but your words are life, and we need life. This church needs life. So I ask that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, let your words remain, and may they change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. Last week, Jesus, he preached at his hometown, and they rejected him, and so he he he took off, and he went to Capernaum where he also goes into a local synagogue, and once again he begins preaching. But this time, there's a much different reaction. The people are astonished, they're welcoming, they're receiving. Nobody tries to throw him off a cliff.
Joel Brooks:
They want him to stay. They're astonished because Jesus actually spoke as one with authority. You see, he didn't have to quote other rabbis. He didn't have to do all these citations of of why he was correct. Jesus was a master of the law.
Joel Brooks:
He spoke as one who was a master. One who wrote the law, who knew its inner workings. And the people were astonished at this. They were not used to this. They were used to their sermons being like research papers, and what you just went and said, so and so rabbi said this, and so and so rabbi said this, and Jesus didn't do any of that.
Joel Brooks:
He would say things like, you've heard it said unto you, you shouldn't commit adultery. But I say to you, that if a woman or if a man lust after a woman and his he has already committed adultery in his own heart, Jesus would appeal to himself as the supreme authority, and it blew them away. And Jesus, he had the power to back up these words. One of the times he's he's preaching in the synagogue and a demon, a demon possessed man screams out. It actually but there's this this is unclean demon screaming out.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus puts an end to it. You need to understand that this wasn't just some kind of superstitious people who saw demons behind every tree, or behind every rock, or you know, behind every sickness. If that's what you think, you gotta you gotta throw that out. They didn't think that at all. Demonic possession, they saw as being very rare.
Joel Brooks:
There's not one instance of exorcism in the old testament. Not one. This was not something that was dominant in the in the Jewish mindset here, and so what's happening here is very uncommon. What's going on is Jesus is causing this huge spiritual disturbance. His mere presence is, and things are happening.
Joel Brooks:
A demon crying out in the service thing would be just like if one of you cried out, being possessed in a service now. It would have the same kind of reaction, you would be terrified, you'd all look around, you'd all be in shock. I mean, some of you are scared if the person next to you raises her hands in worship. I mean, I can't even imagine if somebody were to get up scream, you'd be terrified. This demon cries out, What have you to do with us?
Joel Brooks:
Which is an idiomatic phrase just meaning, why are you bothering us? Why are you bothering us? Have you come here to destroy us? I know who you are. You're the holy one of God.
Joel Brooks:
Now it's interesting, I was going through Jewish exorcisms because on the rare rare occasion that, in that day that they would come across a demon possessed man, they would call rabbis, they would call priests to exorcise this demons and to get it out of this person, and there was elaborate rituals. They would go through these long incantations, they would they would, they would long prayers, they would do holy water. One of the ones I read, it was quite funny, they would put a ring under the possessed person's nose, they would make them eat from this magic root, and they would put a bowl of water next to it, and they would say this incantation, and there would supposedly be a splash in the water as the demon jumped out and went into the water. And so, you read all these stories and you think, well, it's what these people were expecting if a possessed person got up. Jesus doesn't do any of that.
Joel Brooks:
I mean Jesus, He goes, will you shut up and get out? That's it. Shut up, get out. Just like that, the demon left, and left the man unharmed. Before the demon decided, if you come here to destroy us, and he's talking about me, him him and the person he has possessed because they detached the 2 often meant death.
Joel Brooks:
They come here to destroy us, and Jesus like, no, shut and get out. The person's healed. Completely healed. And so if you think back to that sermon on Isaiah 61, the part about setting captives free, you can check. Yes, Jesus sets captives free.
Joel Brooks:
Sets people who've been in bondage to the devil. After this, Jesus goes to Simon's house, and I'm sure he's tired and he is wore out. On Sunday evenings, when when I'm done with church and I finally get home, I'm exhausted. Anything that you guys, if you come up to me afterwards and you talk, it's great. I won't remember it.
Joel Brooks:
I enjoy talking to you but I'm not gonna remember our conversation. If you, if we make a lunch appointment, if you don't see me pull out it a day timer, write it now, it's not gonna happen. I will not remember. Some of you are like, absolutely, I know. Because I'm exhausted, and and my mind, I'm just emotionally and physically mentally tired.
Joel Brooks:
And Jesus, I'm sure, after after teaching, he goes back to Simon's house but he sees a need. Simon's mother-in-law is sick and he goes, and it says, he rebukes the fever. That word rebuke is just what he did to the demon, no different. Rebukes and it leaves. Once again, Isaiah 61 is being fulfilled, people are being healed, and you can't keep something like this quiet.
Joel Brooks:
Soon everybody with a backache, toothache, earache, cancer, paralysis, everybody in the entire town is now coming to Jesus, and He heals them all. But He heals them in a very unique way. Look at verse 40 again. Says, now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And so Jesus, he doesn't just heal them, he lays his hands on them and he heals them.
Joel Brooks:
This is completely unique to Jesus. There's no record in the old testament of any prophet ever laying hands on anybody to heal them. There's no record in Judaism of anybody laying hands on anybody to heal them. And Jesus didn't have to do it this way. Jesus was the first person to lay hands on somebody and to heal them.
Joel Brooks:
That's very intentional. And Luke wants to make a point to pull this out. I'm sure Luke the physician is is is really zeroing in on this because it shows a lot about the character and the heart of our God. Here we see the Son of God coming to earth, Not just to heal, He's not just the great physician, but He's our father. And so He reaches out and He holds each person.
Joel Brooks:
Each person comes to him, I mean he could've just walked into the town and said, be healed, and he doesn't do that. Instead he has each person comes to me, he looks them in the eye, he reaches out and he puts his hands on each person. The creator of the universe, the one who holds the stars in his hands, reaches out and puts his hands on each person and heals them. It should blow you away. This is a very relational God.
Joel Brooks:
A God who loves us intimately. And this is why when, you know, the bible tells us that one day God's gonna come and He's gonna wipe away every tear from our eye, It doesn't say he's just gonna remove pain, but it gets very personal. Yes, all pain, death is gonna be gone, and then God is going to come, reach, and wipe. Because that's the kind of God he is. Very personal, very intimate, loves us dearly.
Joel Brooks:
And I think Jesus is modeling something for his children as well here. He's modeling something for us. You know, it's good and it's right for us to help people, but often I think people in the church can help people without love. We can help people without actually loving people. We can we can write a check, give it to, you know, local ministry, local charity.
Joel Brooks:
That's great. It's good. It's needed, And we do that, but there's really very little love in it. There's no personal presence. The the gospel is not really communicated to this person.
Joel Brooks:
Or we could go in there there could be a person on the street, you know, asking for money and, You know, if usually, we just try to get away as fast as possible, but you know, even if we decide to help, usually it's, you know, you pull out your wallet, you give them a dollar, you don't look them in the eye, just kind of give it and move on. And you helped. But Jesus would stop and He'd reach out and He'd touch. And I think what Jesus would have us do in a situation like that, if a person to you in need, as you stop and you look the person in the eye, as a fellow human, as another person who's created in the image of God, look them in the eye, asking God, How can I help? How can I give?
Joel Brooks:
Making an act of worship, communicate the gospel and love with a person. You don't just give and give away, you can help and be unloving, we are to help while loving, be loving, being loving. People should feel Christ, not feel shunned when we help them. Once again, we see Jesus fulfilling his mission in Isaiah 61. Now Jesus is gonna try to get people to come and to join him in his mission.
Joel Brooks:
Chapter 5, he calls people to join him, and it's really interesting the type of people that Jesus chooses. Now all rabbis had disciples. They all had disciples, and and and a disciple for rabbi would have to be the cream of the crop. A rabbi would only pick a educated person, one who had really shown themselves to be very astute theologically already. One who had already showed good potential.
Joel Brooks:
And Jesus, in all of his fame, I mean imagine him after healing everybody, saying, I'm now going to pick a disciple. He could have had whoever he wanted. He could have gone to any seminary and any university. He could have gone anywhere and chosen people and said, will you be my disciple? And they would have jumped at it.
Joel Brooks:
Let's look at who Jesus chooses to help change the world. Luke tells us that on one occasion, Jesus was teaching and people were pressing all around him. It's getting hard to teach. So he he sees a boat, and he he hops in the boat and it's Simons. He says, can we kick back a little bit.
Joel Brooks:
And so now he's got a buffer and this this natural podium, and so this boat becomes his pulpit, and he preaches. It's no accident that he got in Simon's boat. This is all part of his call. When Jesus is done teaching, he tells Simon, he says, put out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch. Often wonder when he when he said this, if this would he would know this was going to be the slogan for at least a 1000 youth camps, like put out into the deep.
Joel Brooks:
This command is ridiculous for a lot of reasons. For starters, Simon grew up fishing. He, he knows fishing. He knows the ins and out of the lake. He knows where the fish like to hide.
Joel Brooks:
He knows every I mean he could do all the fisherman knots. He knows all about fishing. And although he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, even he knows that midday, you don't go out and you don't go fishing. But here we have this former carpenter, now a rabbi, he's giving fishing advice. Actually, he's not giving advice.
Joel Brooks:
Notice he's not even asking. It's important to notice this, Jesus doesn't say, why don't you do this? No, he actually commands Peter. He commands Peter. Says, go out into the deep.
Joel Brooks:
And when he says, let down your nets, that let down your nets is a second person plural, meaning he's now addressing the whole crew. He's saying, and you all put out your nets. Peter, take us out. You all put out your nets. He is giving them a command.
Joel Brooks:
I'm sure they're all looking at Peter going, what do we do? This is a big command. I mean, Peter's gonna have to go back to shore. He's gonna, you know, he he was drying all the nets. He's gonna have to load up the £1,000 worth of nets because he was a deep sea fisherman, and that's how that's how they would how much the nets weigh.
Joel Brooks:
So he would have to load up the £1,000 of nets, go way out into the deep. They would have to gradually let out these nets as they went into a enormous circle, and then have to pull it all in for what he thought was a fruitless effort, only to then go back to land, bring back the nets out, let them all dry. This is an all afternoon chore that Jesus is asking. Don't think Jesus is saying, hey, just kind of toss that little net off to the side. That's not it.
Joel Brooks:
This was a huge demand for a very exhausted person. At first, Peter's a little hesitant. He just kind of gently reminds Jesus, you know, we have labored all night. The appropriate time to fish. There were none, but because you told me we'll go.
Joel Brooks:
Seeing that Jesus now is the master. Jesus is the commander, and so he humbles himself before Jesus. He takes an order even though he's the one used to giving the orders, and he does all of this with about this much faith, that much. He doesn't think anything's gonna happen. That's it, but it was enough.
Joel Brooks:
God can use people who give up control, people who humble themselves, people who are wore out, just tired, and people who have about this much faith. He can use those people for his glory. When they go out there and they let down their nets, they are immediately hit with the catch of a lifetime. It says that so many fish swarmed in, that the ropes begin to fray, and they're on the verge of breaking. So Peter calls the other boat and says, come on.
Joel Brooks:
Come come by. We need help to haul in this huge amount of fish. And so they row over and they help, and both boats are filled with fish to the point where they're all about to sink. And when Simon Peter sees this, he looks at Jesus and he goes and he falls on his knees, and remember, there's fish all in this boat, and he just gets down on his knees in front of Jesus among all the fish, and he says depart from me. Depart from me.
Joel Brooks:
I'm a sinful man. And now seeing the greatness of the Lord, seeing the greatness of anything has 2 effects on people. 2 effects. One, it makes you want to strive for such greatness. You see greatness and you want to be great, it makes you want to strive for.
Joel Brooks:
But if it's real greatness, you're also aware that you will never ever achieve it. You want to strive for it, but you know you'll never achieve it. I can remember when I was in high school, I used to love to play basketball and and one time I went to the Omni in Atlanta when it was still around to see Dominique Wilkins play basketball. He was one of my heroes and I wanted to see him live. And so I got good seats, and this guy could jump up and take a quarter off the top of a backboard, and he could jump up and he would jump through the roof and I was in absolute awe.
Joel Brooks:
This was greatness. And when I got back I was both, man I was inspired. Man, I'm going to work harder. I'm going to work on my hops, get the pumps, I'm gonna do all those things, and you know, you just watch out. And at the same time I was like, my gosh, I will never.
Joel Brooks:
I will never do that. I was both inspired and I was crushed at the same time. Imagine Peter, been a fisherman his whole life and here also Jesus is like, hey just toss it out there and boom, catch of a lifetime. He's both inspired and He's crushed in front of such a man. Because the true beauty of the Lord, it also, He is beauty but His beauty shows your sinfulness.
Joel Brooks:
Shows your wretchedness. It terrifies you when you see beauty because you realize you are not beautiful. Peter's terrified. Absolutely terrified. This isn't like one of those, you know, touched by an angel moments, and where people meet god and or like one of those little Hallmark cards.
Joel Brooks:
It's it's not like that. You meet god, there there there's this beauty and there's this terror. Jesus tells Peter to not be afraid. From now on, you'll be catching men. Now Peter just caught the catch of a lifetime.
Joel Brooks:
He just reached the absolute height of his professional career. He's risen to the top at this moment. He has never seen so much wealth in front of him, that is now his, and it's wealth that God had given him, and he walks away from all of it, without hesitation. What we're seeing here is the cost of discipleship. The total cost of discipleship.
Joel Brooks:
Everything God has given us, our families, our homes, our spouses, our children, our jobs, everything. We lay down at the feet of the one who calls us. It's his. We'll follow him wherever he leads. Let me ask you, do you think Peter, you know at Pentecost, after experiencing tongues of fire resting upon him and and Peter rushes out of that room like he's lit on fire and he preaches, and 2,000 people come to know the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
Do you think at that moment he is thinking, man I wish I was still fishing? Gosh, I gave up a lot. Or or a couple of chapters later in acts 4 when when he's just released, from in prison, and he goes out and he preaches and 5,000 people come to know the Lord. Do you think that he's dwelling on all that he gave up? I'm sure he's thinking back to his initial calling and in that multitude of fish and Jesus saying, hey, you know what?
Joel Brooks:
You're gonna catch this in men. But he realized that his calling now is so much greater than the pathetic dreams he once held. They cannot compare. The task of that God has given each one of us is greater than than whatever petty dream that he once held on to. So much greater.
Joel Brooks:
This has given us the greatest task in the world. We are fishers of men. We catch people. It doesn't mean like we, you know, sneak up behind in a tree, you know, put a bag over a person's head and I catch them, you know, we we we share the gospel, we bring people into the kingdom. We don't drop tracks, you know, that look like $20 bills, and try to catch people that way, you know, some poor guys walking by and he's like, all right, got dinner, and he's like, crap.
Joel Brooks:
And he just sees, you know, 2 cliffs with a cross bridging the gap between the 2, and he's trying to figure out what it means. I don't know if anybody who's been saved that way. Maybe maybe there has been. Yeah. I I grew up hearing this story abused so many so many times in the church I was at.
Joel Brooks:
You know that my pastor, he would say, you know the church, or we got to find as a church, we got to find the hook, we got to find the lure, we got to bring people in. Got to get the hook and the lure, we got to bring people in. We got to find a way to attract people. And so many times I'd always hear about how the church is supposed to attract people. We're supposed to attract them in.
Joel Brooks:
By doing whatever. It's a bunch of crap. It really is, it's a bunch of crap. Don't be fooled. Do not reduce your calling to something so pathetic as that, which is what it is.
Joel Brooks:
The church does not need gimmicks to bring people to Jesus or to catch people. What the church needs is humble obedience. What the church needs is to understand the gospel and to actually preach the gospel which is our net. That's why Jesus is what he's doing is he's acting out a parable. There's a reason he preached from a boat.
Joel Brooks:
And he preached from a boat to the masses to bring him in. He's telling Peter, This is what you're going to do. You preach the word, that's your net. And when you preach that, I don't care about your ability. Do you think your ability got you these fish?
Joel Brooks:
No. But because you were humbly obedient, you caught them. And when we take the word that God has given us, and we get out there and we preach and we're humbly obedient, and we work hard at it, we toil at it, and we give our efforts to the Lord, He honors that and He brings in the fish. He saves the souls, not us. Don't ever think that you have to get your words just right.
Joel Brooks:
That your timing, you know, when you present the gospel, it's gotta be, oh, it's gotta be just perfect, and deliveries gotta be perfect, or it's not gonna work. No, I gotta get cast right just the right place. It's not how you were saved. I mean, do you really think you were saved because somebody gave the perfect delivery to you? Just the right timing?
Joel Brooks:
Just the right attraction? You're saved because of the power of God. You heard the gospel, God through the Holy Spirit opened up your heart to receive it because somebody was obedient enough to share it with you. That's our calling. And don't ever think that God cannot use somebody like you.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus chose an uneducated blue collar worker, rough around the edges to be the rock of the church. Rock of the church. He'll use whatever weaknesses you have or whatever pathetic strengths you have for his glory. My prayer for us as a church is that we would be people who, who understand the greatness of our calling, that we've been given the greatest task in the world. It's simply to throw out the nets of the gospel and allow God to win souls.
Joel Brooks:
Pray with me. Lord, we thank you for your word. I pray that you bring clarity, conviction, healing. We see in Peter that you do preach good news to the poor, those who humble themselves before you. I pray that be true of us.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. The next time we we looked at this a couple of months ago, the next time we see Peter in a boat fishing was actually after the crucifixion, and after the resurrection. Almost exact same scenario, except Jesus is not in the boat. He's he's out in the land and he calls out, hey Peter, cast out your nets on this side. Peter does, once again, gets this enormous catch, but this time he doesn't say, depart from me.
Joel Brooks:
I'm a sinner. He doesn't say that. Even though he had just denied Jesus 3 times, and said he actually jumps in the water fully clothed, and he starts swimming to Jesus as fast as he can. It's because he understands what we're about to celebrate. He understood the cross.
Joel Brooks:
That yes, he was worse than he could have ever imagined before, but he was also loved and accepted more than he could have ever dreamed. The gospel enables us to embrace both of those, which is what we celebrate here.