Luke chapter 5 has an important message of faith in it. As I
learned this in church today, I believe this is a message that needs to go out
into the world. There are mainly three things we can learn from faith in the
first eleven verses of Luke 5. But first, what is faith? I believe the best
definition of faith is Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Simply put, faith is believing in
what we do not see. Here are the three things:
1. Faith brings confidence:
Verses 1-7: So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear
the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats standing by the lake; but
the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then He got into one of the boats, which was
Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and
taught the multitudes from the boat. When He had stopped
speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 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.” And when they had done this, they caught a
great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So 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.
So we have Jesus, before He even had His twelve disciples, teaching these multitudes, and then Jesus told Simon Peter to cast His net into the sea. But Peter said, Lord we have been fishing all night and have caught nothing. Jesus was asking Peter to have faith. Peter did not have to go. He propbally wanted to take a nap after staying up all night. But he instead trusted Jesus and look what happened, they caught so much fish that they filled both boats so much that they began to sink. Peter’s faith in Jesus brought confidence. But look what Peter says after this:
2. Faith is convicting:
Verse 8-9: 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 which they had
taken;
Peter
admitted that he was sinful. Once we realize how great our God is and that he
came to save us, we admit how sinful we are and we cannot bear to stand in God’s
presence because of how filthy we are in Gods sight. No matter how good of a
person you might be, as Isaiah 64:6a says, “But we are all like an unclean
thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags...” All the good we can
try to do to impress God or try to get to heaven are filthy rags before His
sight. Peters faith convicted him to admit he was a sinner. But look what Jesus
said to Him.
3. Faith is contagious
Verse
10: and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were
partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch
men.”
Jesus
calls them to be His disciple and to not be a fishermen but a fisher of men. I
believe this is all of our calling, to go and make disciples and fulfill the
Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20: “ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been
given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all
the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.” We are called to go make disciples. I believe this has been a
lost but key principle in the Christian world. We are called to not only share
the Gospel with people but to disciple them.
Finally I would like to leave you with this last thought:
Verse 11: So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and
followed Him.
These four people forsook all
and followed Christ, are we denying ourselves, picking up our cross and
following Christ. They had been given everything, two boatfuls of fish. They
could have said, “Thanks a lot Jesus” and left, but no, they forsook it all.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who
live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Everything
we had was crucified with Christ and now I leave you with this question: Are we
Living out our faith? Faith in Christ is not only a choice we have to make, but
a life style we are called to live.
Five Smooth Stones
Romans 12:1-2
