Luke 5: 1 – 11
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; 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. 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 people from the boat. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 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.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; 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. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which 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 fear, from now on you will be catching men.” When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.
How about a nice Bible story today? This is like being in vacation Bible school just hearing the marvelous stories about our dear Jesus. You know, there is something to be said for just sitting and listening to stories about Jesus. It is a very simple approach to “church” but one which bears great fruit. Read the story or better still ask for a volunteer to read the story and then just let people express what was significant to them in the story. Here we are merely facilitators and Jesus gets to teach and minister.
If you asked me to tell what I found most noteworthy in the story today it would be that Jesus did not use Simon’s boat without offering a blessing in return. Peter (Simon) didn’t ask Jesus for payment. Jesus just blessed him; a blessing for a blessing. That preached louder than anything Jesus could say. Notice Simon Peter’s reaction. He understood that the grace and power of God had entered his space.
Jesus got four disciples that day, James and John, Peter and Andrew, Peter’s brother. In that beginning was the core of Jesus’ team. Some might call the fishing expedition “the meeting after the meeting.” It wasn’t just what Jesus said while sitting in the boat but what he showed afterwards. Remarkably, Luke does not tell us what Jesus said but he recounts the fishing trip and the great haul that resulted therefrom. Very interesting!
I invite you to go to our blogsite and tell us what jumped out at you from this story.
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