Luke 5:1-3
Every Pulpit is a fishing boat
- Introduction
- 1-3 A boat by the lake
Introduction
As all of you are well aware, the chapter divisions and verse numbering were all added at a much later date and not a part of the writer’s original manuscript. Their purpose in adding the chapter and verse divisions was to make it easier for the future readers to find and remember the texts that we study.
While I have no problem with the division given this chapter as it relates to the previous, I do think that the 44th verse of the 4th chapter ought to be read at the start of our study into the 5th chapter as I believe that it is intended to start this chapter instead of concluding the previous one. So I would prefer this chapter to start with, “And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.” Followed by, “So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the Word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret” (also known as the Sea of Galilee).
Luke is clearly still focused upon the power and authority of the Word of God as taught by Jesus, but there is a clear difference, a contrast, found in chapter five when compared with chapter four. The contrast is not the activity of teaching the Word of God but rather it is found in the location of the teaching both geographically as the 44th verse states that Jesus did so in synagogues then we find Jesus still engaged in the activity of teaching only now in the 1st verse He is doing so by the Sea of Galilee. But the contrast is also between the great crowds to that of individuals, from corporate teaching to individuals done personally.
I believe that in the 5th chapter Luke wants to emphasize that Jesus’ teaching although powerful and authoritative never lacked the personal and specific touch that appealed to individuals. This is important as it relates to the Greek mindset and supernatural power as it is often associated with grand displays, but such grand displays often bypass the individual personal needs of humanity, and Luke wants his readers to understand that this was NOT the case with Christ. We are given this view in the 5th chapter as Jesus will meet personally with four specific individuals all of which will cause the Pharisees to issue two complaints to Jesus about those that were following Jesus in verses 30-39 and those complaints are indirectly related to the personal nature of His ministry of the Word.
- 1-11 Jesus and Peter (failure of commitment)
- 12-16 Jesus and a Leper (hopeless situation)
- 17-26 Jesus and a Paralytic (lack of personal mobility)
- 27-29 Jesus and Levi (Matthew) the tax collector (social outcast)
- 30-39 Scribes and Pharisees two complaints against Jesus’ ministry…you are hanging around the wrong people (too personal) and you aren’t religious enough.
My general observation is how personal Jesus’ teaching was even when it was given to large crowds. We are prone to think in terms of the size and grandeur things and the larger they are the more effective they are. Yet what I see in the 5th chapter is that Jesus always seemed interested in the individual even when teaching the crowds that gathered. Jesus’ teaching style was such that a person could have been in a crowd but still felt as though they were alone in a quiet room with Him. In the modern church I’m afraid that the teaching is more often than not aimed at the multitude to develop a large following and popularity instead of the individual and perhaps it’s for this reason that most modern teaching reaches neither. Transformational teaching is that quality that causes each and every person that hears it to experience Jesus’ presence and truth in such a way that they think that He was speaking to them individually and personally.
Vs. 1-3 A boat by the lake
Vs. 1 It is always a great moment in a person’s life when they experience the call of God upon their life and these 11 verses record such a call upon Peter’s as well as the two brothers who were the sons of Zebedee, namely James and John. In this case Luke reveals the occasion of this which includes the location as well as the event that surrounded the call. With regards to the location, Luke tells us that it was upon the lake called Gennesaret which is another name for the Sea of Tiberias also the same body of water as the Sea of Galilee. This body of water is not very large as it is around 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. Geographically it lies in a dip in the earth service which places it a 680 feet below sea level and creates both a tropical climate as well as a lake very prone to sudden and extreme weather conditions and storms. We are also told that a great crowd had gathered so much so that they were pressing into Jesus so that He had need to commandeer a boat in which there were two near Him.
I love how J. Vernon McGee refers to this section when He quipped, “Every pulpit is a fishing boat, a place to give out the Word of God and attempt to catch fish (men).” And in this case although Jesus was teaching by the Sea and a great multitude was all about Him, His message was aimed at a fisherman named Peter. Though fisherman were not thought of as a good ground for disciples Jesus viewed them very differently.
- These commercial fisherman that fished the Sea of Galilee had to have great courage and daring to navigate the lake.
- They needed to great patience and determination to fish along the seashore from a boat.
- They need to work together well with others as they used nets to fish with which required multiple fisherman to be successful.
- They had to be efficient and faithful in the tasks at hand as fishing wasn’t determined by luck but by faith and skill, faith that the Lord would direct them to the right spot and skill once they were at the right sport to haul in the catch.
- According to John 21:1-3 there may have been as many as 7 of the 12 that were commercial fisherman. Peter said to the 7 other disciples gathered by the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection and prior to the ascension when Jesus met them there, “I’m going fishing! They all said we are going with you also.”
Vs. 2-3 Some wrongly assume that this a part of the synoptic gospels and the call of Peter, James and John on the Sea of Galilee is the same encounter that is also found in Matthew 4:20 and Mark 1:16-20. Before I show you why that is not the case in the text let’s go back and trace Jesus’ encounters Peter prior to this event before us as the two of them had met and knew each other well.
- Their first meeting is found near the time of Jesus’ baptism in John 1:29-42. It is here that we read that John the Baptist saw Jesus along the Jordan river as he was baptizing and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Then we are told in verse 1:35 that the next day that John the Baptist stood with two of his disciples and again Jesus was near them as John the Baptist said again, “Behold the Lamb of God.” And this must have been understood as an invitation as the two disciples left following John the Baptist and began following Jesus we are told in 1:37. We know the identification of one of those disciples was Andrew, Peter’s brother (1:40), and it is believed that 2nd disciple present that day was the apostle John. It is either later that day or the next that Andrew finds his brother Simon and tells him that they have “found the Messiah” and when Simon comes to meet Jesus where Jesus says, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas.” Literally verse 42 reads, He looked down into Peter and said, “You are….then He said….You shall be”. Our Lord peers down into what Peter was at that moment and says, “I know who you are, ah but I also know what you shall be.” Jesus saw Simon He said, “I know you; you are shifting sand (Simon) but I also know what you will be, Peter the rock”. Jesus knew that Simon was a person “easily influenced by what others are saying and doing around him.” Ah but Jesus didn’t stop with what Peter was, instead, He saw what he would become, an anchor, a rock, a steadying influence for all around him. From this time forward Peter was part of those numbered among Jesus’ followers, but the early part of their discipleship was not a constant following as later they would become part of the 12.
- The second encounter and the one that is often confused with this one before us in Luke 5:1-11 is found in Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20. Both Matthew and Mark record the same encounter as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, and it could be the reason that Luke chooses a different name for the Sea of Galilee calling it the lake called Gennesaret as to distinguish these two encounters. The differences are very evident for the Bible student: Both Matthew and Mark first describe Jesus seeing the activity of the two brothers Simon and Andrew as they were engaged in “casting a net into the sea”. When compared to Luke’s different account, Jesus is by the Sea of Galilee as the above story but in Matthew and Mark there is no mention of a great multitude that Jesus was teaching that pressed into Him. Neither is there any immediate mention of the two brothers engaged in fishing upon the lake and instead Luke says that what Jesus’ saw was two empty boats near the shore, and the fishermen were gone as they were involved elsewhere in washing their nets. This fact in the narrative indicates a different time of day as well as a different day as fishing was done in the evening near the shore and washing nets was done near mid-day to take advantage of the drying sun. Biblical fishing nets were primarily made fromlinen or flax fibers. They had to be carefully cleaned and dried after each use to prevent them from rotting. These are two different stories that have the similarity of location as well as people involved but are nonetheless very different. I have no doubt that the fishermen were close by as Jesus engages Peter in a conversation. And Peter goes back to the boat they had left the night before after fishing without success, verse 5. The washing of nets had followed the night of failure and that is a key part of the story.
- The third encounter is one that we noticed in Luke chapter 4:38-39 and clearly this story indicates that Jesus and Peter had a relationship as He went to Simon’s house.
The chronology of Peter and Jesus’ relationship as it relates to Luke 5:1-11 is best understood when you look at Matthew and Mark as the four fishermen are called in which is linked with Jesus first year of ministry whereas the event of Luke 5:1-11 is associated with the 2ndyear of ministry.
There is no mention of Jesus rebuking Peter for still being employed as a fisherman a year or so after Jesus called in Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20 but clearly this fact changes our understanding of the passage as well as the calling upon Peter. They had left their fishing nets to go when Jesus had first called them a year prior, but they had gone back to those same boats when they ought to have been empty as Jesus had found them that day. They had gone back to their vocation at the expense of their calling and as we note in verse 5 they had “toiled all night and caught nothing!” It is then in the story that Jesus came by engaged in their calling by teaching the multitude by the shore of Galilee, and what does Jesus do? Well He quietly commandeers Peter’s boat and invites him to join Him. There is a great parallel between what Jesus does for Peter and the miracle of the gathering of fish as both required the same three things one with fish and the other with people:
- Both must see what others won’t see, fish in the daylight hours in deep water where there shouldn’t be any and a Rock when everyone including Peter only saw shifting sand.
- Both require us to continue when others will quit. They had parked their boats near the shore and were washing their nets and letting them dry because they had failed. Peter had quit on himself, but Jesus wasn’t quitting on him.
- Both require us to do what others believe is impossible cause that which is unfruitful to become fruitful! Jesus had told Peter to launch out into the deep and let down the nets, plural. But Peter was obedient only partially at Jesus’ word as he went out into the deep but only let out one net. This shows us that the problem from Peter’s perspective wasn’t Jesus but what He had to work with namely Peter and why he responds the way he does in verse 8 saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man”.
We will take up the remainder of these 11 verses next week and you can read ahead from
verse 4-11 where we will notice:
- 4-7 Nets of obedience
- 8-11 From failure to follower