October 18 2024

Friday October 18

“Nevertheless At Your Word I Will”

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." 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 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. 8 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 which they had taken; 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." 11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

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!