EPISODE 27 Luke Chapter5 ”Who Can Be A Disciple Of Jesus” For Share TheWord

Hi, and welcome to Share the Word, the best way to learn your way through the New Testament one chapter at a time. So let's listen in to today's lesson and go a little deeper. Luke chapter 5. Who can be a disciple of Jesus? I've got a sports trivia question for you. Ready?

Who is the smallest player in the National Football League this season? If you're from outside the United States, the National Football League is American football. Well, his name is Deuce Vaughn, and he plays for the Dallas Cowboys, or I mean Cowboys. Sorry, Pittsburgh Steeler fan. But Deuce is a running back who, believe it or not, stands only 5 foot 4 inches tall. That's only 163 or 164 centimeters.

If you're familiar with American football, you're probably thinking, Who in the world invited that guy to be on their team? You'd be surprised. He's become quite a team member and valuable asset. Hold that thought. We'll come back to it. I love all the scenes Luke presents to us in chapter 5.

Will I have time to comment adequately on all of them and still underscore the big idea I want to underscore today? We'll see. I mentioned in our last episode, in passing, the first scene we encounter here in chapter 5 about the miraculous catch of fish. For Simon Peter, this was both a first and last experience he had with Jesus. If you remember, at the end of John's Gospel, after Jesus' resurrection, Peter was so full of self-doubt because of his major failures that he badly needed to be reassured by Jesus of his love and the calling on his life. But in today's lesson, here early in Luke chapter 5, we're at the very outset when Peter is first called to be a disciple.

Jesus had already met this man, remember, we learned this last time, when he was invited to his home in Capernaum because of his mother-in-law's illness. Now a day or two later, Jesus finds this man again at his workplace. Peter was a fisherman. He worked alongside his friends James and John for their father Zebedee, who had a commercial fishing business operating out of Capernaum on Lake Gennesaret. It's usually called in the Bible the Sea of Galilee. This is a nice freshwater lake in northeastern Israel.

If you're interested, they primarily harvested a species very similar to what we call today tilapia. They worked out of small boats that could be rowed with oars that had one mast and a single sail. The boats were about 25 or 30 feet long, so they could hold 12 to 15 people, or on working occasions, six or eight working fishermen. By the way, one of these very boats from the first century was uncovered during a drought in Israel in 1986. As the water of that lake receded, sunken boat was sticking up from the mud. It's in a museum today in Israel.

Google Jesus boat and look at some of the pictures. I'm not saying it's the very boat of Jesus that Peter and he were in that day, but it's from the same time, so it's a very accurate example of the boats that they used at that time. These watermen fished with weighted nets that would be cast out and then drawn in by hand, usually during the night hours when the fish came into shallower water to feed. On this day, Jesus found Peter as he and his co-workers were on the shore of that lake after having fished all night unsuccessfully. They were cleaning and mending their nets to get ready for the next night's try. As usual during Jesus' public ministry in Galilee, people were following him around, usually a lot of people.

There was great curiosity about him. There were messianic expectations building about him. When Jesus appeared at the shore that day with quite a crowd in tow, he stepped into the water and then climbed into Peter's boat. He called out to Peter and said, Take me out away from the shore so I can speak with this crowd. Picture this curious crowd of people. They were pressing in on Jesus like around a celebrity in our day.

So he asked Peter to help him get some space by pushing his boat out into the lake, and Peter agreed to do that. Jesus then sat down in the boat and taught the gathered people, sharing some spiritual truths with them. When he finished, he turned to Peter and said, Hey, let's go fishing. Let's row out into the deeper water and let down these nets. Peter mildly protested that they'd just been out fishing all night without catching anything. He was no doubt thinking, I'm really tired.

There's no offense here, but I'm a fisherman. You're a teacher. This is not the right time of day to fish. But I can see Jesus kind of smile at him as if to say, Come on, do it. Humor me. As I mentioned, these tilapia-type fish were caught in the shallow water and normally at night.

They didn't even have the kind of nets you'd think of for deep water fishing. Nevertheless, Peter complied out of curiosity or maybe just respect for Jesus. Once they were out in the deeper water, they cast out their nets and watched them disappear in the blackness. Suddenly, the ropes in his hands came alive. The nets were filling with huge catch, not something they could even begin to pull up into their boat by themselves. Peter signaled for the others to come out and to help them to bring another boat to help them.

They filled up two of their boats with this enormous catch. Once the pandemonium was over and it sank in what had just occurred, Peter was overwhelmed. He was filled with amazement, almost fear. He bowed down before Jesus and said, Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. He had already seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law with only one word, and now watched him demonstrate authority over the natural world in a way he knew was not just extraordinary, but clearly miraculous.

He knew he was in the presence of someone way beyond him, a man filled with God's power. But Jesus responded to Peter gently, Don't be afraid. From now on you'll be catching people. In the old version, it puts it, From now on you will become a fisher of men. From that day, Peter, James, and John left Zebedee's fishing business and became disciples of Jesus. Remember, disciple means a follower and learner.

Our English word disciple comes from the same root as discipline. It means a disciple was someone who would commit himself to another's training, which is exactly what Peter, James, and John and others did. So what did Jesus mean by, From now on you will be catching people? Here at the outset of his public ministry, Jesus was calling out disciples who he would train for the next three years to become the foundational leaders of the Christian movement. Peter, James, and John, a handful of others, would be those who, once Jesus had finished his redemptive mission, would share the good news about it, win people to faith in Jesus as Savior, and be the foundational leaders of the Christian church. They would become his representatives, acting as missionaries and evangelists all around the Roman world.

This scene here reminds me that in the church I grew up in, when a member shared their faith with someone else who then came to trust and follow Jesus too, they were given a small gold fishhook pin, and they became members of what the pastor called the Fishermen's Club, in reference to what Jesus said here to Peter about catching men. There's really nothing closer to the heart of God. There's really nothing more Christ-like than joining him in fishing for people, to be in the same boat with him catching not fish, but people. We cast our net when we share our faith with others, when a pastor shares the gospel in a sermon, or even when a podcaster tells his listeners why Jesus came, what it means for them, and how they can receive him by faith, as we've been trying to do on Share the Word. Fishers of men.

If you're a believer and you want to be a true disciple of Jesus, it's our calling to share our faith and to seek to win others. Jesus died for the world. The people of the world need to know that and what it means for them. We really have no higher calling than to share with them the gospel, to be fishers of men. The next scene Luke describes for us is Jesus being encountered by a man covered with leprosy, as Luke puts it. This was an infectious and incurable disease at the time.

Leprosy caused worsening skin lesions and ultimately nerve damage. It was passed through droplets in the air, just like COVID-19 in our time. Lepers were kept apart from society because of how contagious that disease was. To contract leprosy was one of the worst imaginable fates in that society. But this poor, diseased, and ostracized man heard that Jesus was passing nearby, and he came out of his isolation, and he fell down before him in desperation. He implored Jesus, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.

You can feel the desperation in his words. He saw this as a long shot, but probably his only shot. He had a chance to see something here from Jesus if he only had the faith. Jesus graciously reached down and touched him. And you hear the collective gasp from the onlookers who were there, covering their faces and keeping a distance from this man. Jesus said, I am willing.

Be cleansed. Luke, a doctor, remember, was fascinated by telling about Jesus' healing miracles. He notes that immediately the leprosy was gone. I mean, the lesions were gone, the swelling, the joint numbness, the stiffness, gone. He was totally whole, as if nothing had ever afflicted him. Jesus then told the man to keep quiet about that healing and to obey the law of Moses by going and showing himself to the priests.

They were the ones who were supposed to examine someone and clear them to rejoin society. This encounter might bring up a couple questions to you. For one, why would Jesus say, Don't go telling everybody about this? That seems kind of odd. But realize Jesus really didn't come to heal everyone's illnesses. He wasn't a super doctor.

That wasn't his primary mission. He healed a lot of people, as we'll see, because he was compassionate, and when someone approached him in faith, as this man did, he could not say no. But I think he also realized that by becoming known far and wide as a healer, or as in John 6 as someone who could feed thousands of people at once miraculously, that is all people would see. That is all people would focus on. And these physical things, as we know, were not his primary mission. Regardless of what Jesus told this man, as you might expect, he was so excited that he'd been healed from this dreaded, incurable disease, he told everybody.

This miracle is actually told about in all three synoptic Gospels. Mark, in his Gospel, notes that because of the man broadcasting what Jesus had done for him, Jesus actually had to leave this area and find a place to get away from the swelling and increasingly demanding multitudes. Too many needs, too many people, demanding too much. As a human, the constant demands on Jesus were just overwhelming and draining. Luke similarly notes here that because of the publicity and the resultant large crowds always following him everywhere, Jesus often slipped away to some remote spot just to have the time and space to get physically and spiritually recharged. Another question you might have is, why would all three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, record this particular healing?

I think the answer is because leprosy was incurable. Spontaneous recoveries did not happen. It was a progressive disease that once contracted, life as you knew it was over. Gradually, more and more of your body became puffy and fibrous and sore. It slowly imposed a death sentence on someone. Luke, as a doctor, knew this very well as someone being immediately and completely cured of leprosy, who was in Luke's words covered with it.

That was inexplicable apart from the power of God. The Old Testament prophets had also written that when the Messiah appeared, he would have the power to do this exact kind of thing, unheard of miracles like open the eyes of the blind, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, impossible things. So the gospel writers don't want us to miss this. Jesus did these impossible things. Ergo, he must have been the Messiah. Oh man, did I really just say ergo?

I hate when people say that, but you get the idea. Jesus repeatedly demonstrated unique authority, the power to do things only God could do. So therefore, what other honest explanation could there be for what they were witnessing from him? Okay, so the answer to my original question is unfortunately no. There is way too much going on in Luke chapter 5 for me to comment on all of it. But keep in mind, both Matthew and Mark's gospel will show us some of these same memorable events, and we will almost certainly cover them then if we pass over them now.

We want to stay to this 20-minute time frame to maintain some consistency in our content, to make it better for you to plan time to listen. But if you do have a burning question that comes up from a chapter we're in that doesn't get answered from that lesson, you can email us at sharethewordpodcast@gmail.com. If it sounds like a serious question, we will do our best to answer you. But there's one more thing I do want to take the time to comment on during our closing minutes today, and it comes from verses 27 to 32, an important truth I don't want us to miss. Luke writes here matter-of-factly. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at a tax booth.

And he said to him, Follow me. And leaving everything, he arose and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast at his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered them, It's not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I haven't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Do you remember at the first scene in this chapter, Simon Peter witnessing the miracle of the catch, immediately realized he was in the presence of someone well beyond him in the presence of the power of God. He fell down before Jesus and cried out, Go away from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. Do you think there's any chance that Jesus didn't know who he was when he went down to the shore looking for him that day? Or when he said, Can I use your boat for a few minutes to get out some distance from this crowd? Or when he said, Follow me, Peter, and I'll make you to become a fisher of men.

Of course Jesus knew who Peter was. And the same is true here with this fellow Levi, who worked for the Roman government as a tax collector. It took a special kind of greed and callousness to do what Levi did, because your countrymen would despise you like no others. It was seen as a betrayal to that nation to collect taxes for their Roman conquerors. You're working for our occupiers, you piece of scum, you. He probably heard that every day.

Tax collectors like Levi were scorned and ostracized in that society. So do you think it was out of ignorance that Jesus decided to drop by Levi's office on this occasion? That he didn't know who this fellow was and how he was viewed by everyone in that town? There's no chance of that. Jesus went there on purpose, and he called Levi to join his band of disciples on purpose. This is again happening in Capernaum, remember.

Jesus has now been in and around this town for at least several days, probably longer. Levi knows what he is about, has probably already heard him teach, probably already witnessed or at least heard about miracles or displays of divine power. He knew some people were whispering, Could this be the promised Messiah? And just maybe by this time, Levi was sort of sick, you know, sick of living life to just accumulate money and being an outcast from society. That's my guess anyway. Because when Levi got the call from Jesus, Come follow me, he was out the door.

He must have told his assistant, Hey, take over for a bit, will you? I'll be back. Maybe I won't be back. Levi was more than ready for a higher calling. He was hungry for whatever Jesus had and whatever he was offering him to become his disciple. He was ready to change the direction and meaning of his life.

So Levi also became Jesus' disciple. That evening, we're told here, he threw a party at his home and invited all the people from his world, not exactly the church crowd, if you know what I mean. And he invited Jesus and his now growing band of disciples, Peter, James, and John, and probably a few others. And Jesus was glad to come to Levi's house, and he enjoyed an evening of relaxation and some good food and drink. Some of the local religious leaders, hearing about that, were scandalized. They arrived there and cornered a few of Jesus' disciples, criticizing, Why does your leader eat with tax collectors and sinners?

That doesn't sound like a question honestly looking for an answer, does it? It was more like an accusation, like, No real man of God would ever do such a thing. Jesus, knowing what was happening, answered them himself, loud enough for everyone to hear, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now please pass me some more of that lamb. It was some of these kinds of interactions that embarrassed and just infuriated many of the religious elite.

But Jesus was always clear about this. He came exactly for us sinners. If you feel you've got it together and are pretty righteous in God's sight, you're not ready for Jesus. Peter knew he was a sinner. Levi knew he was a sinner. Those who are called and decided to follow Jesus did so not because they were better than other people and worthy of Jesus' acceptance.

No, not at all. Those who were called were sinners, and they knew it. They were sinners who knew they needed and were ready for something different, something better. Jesus, just like John the Baptist, was calling people to repentance, which means to be sorry for your sin and to be ready for something better, in a new direction, following God in His ways. Jesus didn't come to save us in our sin, but to save us from our sin. Luke shows us this scene at Levi's house, Jesus reclining at table with the notorious outcasts of that town, and the religious types at the door and peering through the windows in disgust.

He shows us this, I think, to point up this very important lesson: Jesus came for us sinners. If you've been listening to Share the Word and thinking, Man, I'm too messed up to become a follower of Christ. I've done far too many crazy things, too many things that I know are wrong in God's eyes, that He would ever forgive me. He'd never want me on His team. Look at these scenes and think about that little guy named Deuce Vaughn. Peter seemed pretty unlikely for Jesus' team.

That rough waterman, acutely aware of his sinfulness, was sought out by Jesus anyway. Levi was an outcast and despised in his hometown. How in the world could he fit on Jesus' team? Many others like them that we meet on the pages of the Gospels, who seemed very unlikely candidates for Jesus' team. But it was to them that Jesus first came and said, Come, follow me. I want you on my team.

Sinners like you and me, don't be letting the enemy convince you of something different. If you're ready to turn away from wrong and turn your life in a new direction, there's a very capable Savior who is calling out to you today. You there, come follow me. I could use you on my team. Wherever you find yourself right now, you can decide today to turn away from what you realize in your life displeases God, accept the Savior that He sent, and turn your life toward following Jesus. He's calling you.

He's inviting you. He believes in you. He thinks you'd make a great team member. He's reaching out to you in grace and saying, Friend, come follow me. If you're enjoying these commentaries, please help us share the Word by passing along the podcast to your friends and family. There's no better way to learn the content of the New Testament than chapter by chapter.

For more information, visit us at sharetheword.org. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.