2011 5-8 Jesus-Power-Over-Nature-Luke-5-1-11

“JESUS’ POWER OVER NATURE”
LUKE 5:1-11

I. Introduction
“It’s always in the last place you look.” Whether you’ve misplaced the book you’ve been reading, your cell phone, your car keys, or anything else, some “helpful” person will always be there to remind you that you’ll find it “in the last place you look.”

Have you noticed that those people are never wrong? Of course you always find it in the last place you look! The last time you misplaced something and then found it again you didn’t keep looking for it, did you? You didn’t say to yourself, “I’m sure glad I found it but I better keep searching because I haven’t looked in the last place yet.”

Conversely, if you remembered where your book, phone, or keys were and retrieved them there would be no need to keep searching for them anywhere else, would there? You would already have been to “the last place.” And your helpful friend would have been proven right yet again – “It’s always in the last place you look.”

It’s like that with Jesus as well. In the popular culture today it’s common practice to be searching for the “historic Jesus” or the “real Jesus.” Such terms are virtually always metaphors for someone other than the Jesus presented to us in the pages of Scripture, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of the living God. There seems to be no end to the books, television documentaries, lectures, and seminars led by eminent scholars, who pour out volumes of so-called newfound truth about the historic Jesus of Nazareth.

But these people aren’t believers. That is patently obvious because believers know where to search for the truth about Jesus Christ. We look in the Bible and we always find Him there, don’t we? Not only does the Bible present us with the last word about Jesus, it’s the last place anyone ever has to look for Him.

But the authors, television producers, and scholars who are searching for the “historic” or “real” Jesus will never find Him because they refuse to look in that last place. And so they come to a wide variety of conclusions, all of which have one thing in common.

The naysayers always deny Jesus’ deity. They insist He was just a man, an ordinary per-son. They say He wasn’t divine and there was nothing supernatural about Him. They say that whoever Jesus was, He couldn’t possibly have been what Bible-believing Christians say He is. The naysayers all agree that Jesus could not have been God in human flesh. They say that’s just too incredible.

So they continue their vain search in all the places where Jesus will not be found, and they refuse to look for Him in the one place where He will be found, in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. Just like a lost set of keys, He’s always in the last place they look. But sadly they never look there and so, of course, they never find Him.
They never find Him because their presuppositions will not allow for it. Let me give you one example. Rudolf Bultmann was a twentieth century NT critic. He did not believe in the supernatural or the divinity of Christ. Therefore, based on those two presuppositions, he concluded that Jesus’ miracles were impossible and His claims to be God were frivo-lous. Even though he was raised in a strict German Lutheran home, Bultmann became the epitome of the liberal-minded and unbelieving theologian.

Among such theologians today Bultmann is revered for his work in “demythologizing” the life of Christ. He said this:
“It is impossible to (replicate) a past world picture by sheer resolve, especially a mythical world picture, now that all of our thinking is irrevocably formed by science. A blind acceptance of NT mythology would be simply arbitrary…”

If that’s where your search for Jesus begins, I guarantee you’ll never find Him. More recently those who have founded The Jesus Seminar have arrogantly reinvented our Lord and Savior to make Him fit into their unbelieving mold. They actually get together once a year to vote on which of Jesus’ works and sayings are authentic. Since they believe next to nothing the Bible says, they have molded a Jesus who is virtually unrecognizable from the one we read about in Scripture.

The Jesus Seminar has concluded that Jesus was an itinerant Jewish sage and faith healer who preached liberation from injustice. They say He was merely a mortal man born of human parents. They say He performed no miracles. They say He neither died as a sub-stitute for sinners, nor rose bodily from the dead. Finally, they conclude the sightings of a risen Jesus were nothing more than the hallucinations of some of his disciples, not actual physical encounters.

Every year The Jesus Seminar reconvenes and these supposedly brilliant religious scho-lars come together again to vote to see what they think of Jesus’ words and deeds. They will continue searching for the “real Jesus.” What do you think? Will they find Him?
*2 Timothy 3:1-7
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.
6 for among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Look again at vv. 5, 7. Those who refuse to acknowledge the truths of Scripture deny God’s power, but they’re “always learning.” They search and they search, and the only thing they don’t find is the truth, because they refuse to search for the keys in right place.
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II. Text
Luke’s gospel is the longest of the four but you don’t need to be too far into it before the real Jesus is clearly seen by anyone who is serious about finding Him. In Jesus Christ all the power and authority of God is visible. When Philip asked Jesus to show him God the Father, He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” (John 14:9)

Three weeks ago we saw that Jesus is God in His power and authority over demons and evil. Two weeks ago we saw that Jesus is God in His power and authority over death and the grave. Last week we saw that Jesus is God in His power and authority over sickness and disease. Today we’ll see that Jesus is God in His power and authority over nature. And we’ll see three beautiful examples of how you and I are to respond to Him.
*Luke 5:1-11 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
1 Now it came about that while the multitude were pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret;
2 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.
3 And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s (Peter’s), and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the multitudes from the boat.
4 And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 And Simon answered and said, “Master, we have worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your bidding I will let down the nets.”
6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish; and their nets began to break;
7 and 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.
8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “De-
part from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken;
10 and so also 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.”
11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and
followed Him.

We do not know how much time elapsed between Luke 4:44 and Luke 5:1. However, we know that Jesus was still in the region of Galilee and still somewhere near Capernaum on the northern coast of the lake of Gennesaret (the Sea of Galilee).

This was not a sparsely populated area. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing in the last half of the first century, estimated that there were at least three million people in Galilee during the time Jesus ministered there. He was healing people and casting out demons, so you can imagine the size of the crowds that were coming to Him.
*Luke 5:1-3
1 Now it came about that while the multitude were pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret;
2 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.
3 And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s (Peter’s), and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the multitudes from the boat.

To give you some perspective here Lake Geneva is about seven miles long and two miles wide at its widest point. The Sea of Galilee is about thirteen miles long and eight miles wide (twice as long and four times as wide). Lake Geneva is about 140 feet deep, but the Sea of Galilee plunges to depths of over 700 feet. At least twenty-two species of fish inhabit Galilee’s waters so it’s easy to see why fishing was such an important part of the region.

In v. 1 it says that Jesus was speaking the Word of God to them. When you and I hear that today we tend to think of someone reading, preaching, or teaching the Bible. But that wasn’t the case here. Jesus was literally speaking God’s words to them. The impact must have been tremendous.
Matthew 7:28-29 (describing the peoples’ reaction to the Sermon on the Mount)
28 The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at His teaching;
29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

So the crowds pressed around Him and as vv. 2-3 tell us, Jesus got into one of the two fishing boats that were beached nearby. He asked its owner, Peter, to push the boat into shallow water near the shore so that Jesus could preach from there. The other boat most likely belonged to the two brothers, James and John. These three fishermen would ulti-mately become Jesus’ inner circle, the disciples who would become closest to Him.

Jesus spoke God’s Word from Peter’s fishing boat that day. J. Vernon McGee used to say that every pulpit should be a “fishing boat.” His point was that every pulpit should be a place from which the Word of God goes out for the express purpose of catching souls. Jesus did say, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
*Luke 5:4-5
4 And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 And Simon answered and said, “Master, we have worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your bidding I will let down the nets.”

Galilean fisherman usually plied their trade at night. In the morning they would come ashore, dry and repair their nets, and prepare their boats for the coming night’s work. Can you imagine the kind of thoughts that must have gone through Peter’s mind when Jesus told him to go fishing again? “What is He saying? He may be an experienced car-penter but I’m the professional fisherman.” Or, “Does He not know that you can’t fish this lake in the middle of the day?”

In v. 5 Peter begins to protest but then he catches himself. He gives in to Jesus’ wishes. And why not? He had already seen some of the amazing things Jesus had done. Not the least of which was the recent healing of Peter’s own mother-in-law in his own home. So he calls Jesus “master,” a term of respect which can mean either “teacher” or “comman-der” and he essentially says, “Because You are telling me, I will do it.”

Now earlier I said that this morning’s passage contained three beautiful examples of how you and I should respond to Jesus. Here’s the first example. “Because Jesus is the one commanding us, we are to obey.” That is as simple a truth as we could ever learn. And yet, could anything be more profound or have more lasting benefits? I don’t think so.

I know how easy it is to put yourself in Peter’s sandals. “Jesus, I don’t understand this. It flies in the face of conventional wisdom. It makes no sense to me. Besides, chances are pretty good that some of my friends and colleagues may even laugh at me. But…You are special. I believe You. I trust You. And because of that, I will do what You say.”

Now in Peter’s case that meant this: “Let’s go fishing!” But what does it mean to you today? Take a moment to ask yourself what Jesus Christ has asked you to do that you don’t fully understand, defies conventional wisdom, or simply makes no sense to you?

Well, in the next two verses Jesus is about to display not only His power and authority over nature, but His omniscience and omnipotence as well.
*Luke 5:6-7
6 And when they had done this (let down the nets), they enclosed a great quan-tity of fish; and their nets began to break;
7 and 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.

Just hours before there had been no fish at all. Now there are so many fish that their sheer weight is overcoming the nets and beginning to tear them.
Now there are so many fish that Peter’s boat is in danger of being swamped. Now there are so many fish that they need to call for help. Just hours before there had been no fish at all. Now there are so many, and their weight is so great, that both Peter’s and James’ and John’s boats begin to sink.

What is happening here? Jesus is again demonstrating who He is. He knows where the fish are and He knows where they will be at that exact moment. The cynic may ask, “Oh yeah, how does He know that?” The answer is easy. He is directing them to be there! In earthly human terms that is incredible. However, in heavenly divine terms it is normal.
After all, Paul describes Jesus’ deity to the church at Colossae.
*Colossians 1:15-17
15 And (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created by Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

In v. 17 the word “before,” needs some explanation. It comes from the Greek “prŏ.” It can be translated “before,” as it is here, or “above.” It can refer to either time or posi-tion. In this case it refers to both. It says two things. First, it says Jesus existed before time began, and second, it says He is preeminent over and above all things.

In v. 15 the word “first-born” needs some explanation as well. In this case the Greek word is “prōtŏtŏkŏs.” It goes further than “prŏ.” It is the superlative degree of the word and when the NT applies “prōtŏtŏkŏs” to Jesus, it also speaks of His personal preexist-tence. He is not only the One who will live forever in eternity future, but He is the One who has lived forever in eternity past. That’s what Colossians 1:15-17 is telling us.

So with all of that, why would anyone be surprised that the eternal preeminent Creator of everything that exists, the One who is in ultimate control over every aspect of His crea-tion, and the One who “upholds all things by the word of His power,” as Hebrews 1:3 says – why would anyone be surprised that Jesus directed those fish into Peter’s nets?

In this one incident we see not only Jesus’ knowledge of where the fish will be, but we see His power to get them there. Not only does Jesus know what will happen, He makes it happen. Omniscience and Omnipotence! Peter reacts and responds to all of this and we see the second example in this morning’s passage of how you and I should react and respond to Jesus. At first Peter’s reaction may seem somewhat strange. But I ask you, “What other reaction could there be when looking into the face of deity?”
*Luke 5:8
8 But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “De-
part from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

But now things are different. Peter had known that Jesus was “special.”
There’s no question about that. He had seen Him heal his mother-in-law and had most likely seen a number of Jesus’ other miracles as well. So Peter obviously had great admiration and respect for Jesus. He even addressed Him as “master” back in v. 5.

Do you remember those great old Warner Brothers cartoons where Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck were always working on new ways to frustrate Elmer Fudd? Or the ones where Wile E. Coyote would get wild ideas as to how to finally catch the Road-Runner? A light bulb would go on above their heads and they had the answer. “That’s it! I’ve got it!”

In v. 8 Peter falls at Jesus’ feet. Now he uses the word “Lord.” The “light bulb has come on.” Jesus is more than a commander or a teacher. He is Lord and now Peter knows it. This word “Lord,” is important. We need to get the full impact of what Peter is saying. It’s the Greek “Kúrios,” the equivalent of the Hebrew “Adonai,” which speaks of God’s absolute mastery over all, and our need to submit ourselves to Him.

Frankly, this is one of my favorite verses in Luke’s entire gospel because it always makes me think of my own reaction the moment God opened my spiritual eyes in the middle of the night on January 9, 1973. For many months before that I had been, like Peter, impressed with Jesus. I had been, like Peter, warming up to the idea of getting close to Jesus and hearing what He had to say. However, I had not yet seen the reality of who He was…until that moment when “my light bulb came on.”

Consider Peter’s response and reaction to Jesus. What does he do? He falls at His feet and calls Him “Lord.” Is that your response and reaction to the realization of who Jesus Christ is? Do you understand that that must be your response and reaction as well?

You see, when we compare ourselves to other people we usually feel pretty good about what we are. But in God’s presence we recognize our sin. Peter recognized Jesus as God in human flesh and in that light he saw himself for what he was. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” Think of it this way. “I am in the presence of holiness and I do not belong here because I am not holy.” Remember Isaiah?
*Isaiah 6:1-5
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord (Adonai; Kúrios) sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And he called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Peter was looking into the eyes of the King, the Lord of hosts. He saw Him in a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. Isaiah saw Him sitting on His throne. I saw Him on a cold January night when He opened my eyes. It matters not where you see Him. It matters that you do see Him. Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” (John 14:9) When you see Him you’ll recognize Him, and, just as importantly, you’ll recog-nize yourself. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

But the wonderful thing is this: It is only when you recognize Him that He promises He will not depart from you. He will stay, and bit by bit, day by day, He’ll make you more like Himself. (back to Luke 5)
*Luke 5:9-10
9 For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken;
10 and so also 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.”

Peter wasn’t the only man in the boats who was amazed. (“Amazement” could be translated “dumbfounded.”) Luke probably only mentions Peter, James, and John by name because they alone, of all those in the boats, would become three of Jesus’ apostles.

By the way, a sinful man should tremble in the presence of a holy God, should he not? More than sixty years later the same apostle John, just before he wrote The Revelation, would tremble in the presence of the glorified Jesus.
Revelation 1:17-18a
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He laid His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,
18a and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.”

Such is the comfort God gives His children. So in Luke 5:10 Jesus comforts Peter the same way. “Do not fear…” I’ll paraphrase the rest. “You’ll not be fishing for fish any-more, Peter. From now on you’ll be working for Me, fishing for men.”

And so we come to the last verse. It’s here where we see the third and final example of how you and I are to respond to Jesus.
*Luke 5:11
11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

They left everything and followed Him. Think about this. Don’t take it lightly. These fishermen had just had the biggest catch of their lives. More than that, it was the biggest catch any of them would have ever seen. It was something to savor, to enjoy. It was like a “two-out-two-strike-grand-slam homerun” in the bottom of the ninth to win the seventh game of the World Series.
But, “…they left everything and followed (Jesus).” Don’t you kind of wish that v. 11 would give us a few more details? Did they leave that very moment or did they maybe wait until the next morning? What became of all those fish? What became of the profit from all those fish? What became of their boats? What did those who were married (like Peter) say to their wives? What about their children? What about all of those details that you and I would concern ourselves with in such a situation?

I suspect Luke leaves all of that out so you and I might focus on the main thing – leaving the old life behind and following after Christ. Do you think for a moment that Jesus didn’t care about the fishermen’s families, their wives and their children? Do you think for a moment that Jesus didn’t care about their catch, or even about their boats?

Back in the 1970’s William Hendriksen wrote an extensive and in-depth commentary on the Gospel of Luke. Listen to his take on v. 11.
“What became of the fish? Were they simply left to rot? Certainly not. He who was going to see to it that broken pieces of food were gathered (from feeding the five thousand) would never have allowed that to happen. If Zebedee himself (James’ and John’s father) was still alive, he could take charge. Besides, there were hired men. The rich supply had been intended by the Lord, we may be sure, as food for many. A portion could be sold. Some could be given to the poor. The families of the fishermen could be supplied.

“But why such an enormous provision? The thought occurs that God – Jesus, if one prefers – furnished such an immense quantity in order to rid the disciples of any worry about their families, as if to say, ‘Will not He who just now blessed you so abundantly continue to care for you?’”

On that day these men stood at the very top of their profession. It was then that Jesus called them. They put their faith and their trust in Him, turned their backs on the world they knew, and followed Him. There’s an application in there somewhere, isn’t there?
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III. Conclusion
Will you, like Peter, James, and John, leave your past and commit your future to Jesus? This morning we’ve seen three specific responses and reactions to the truth of just who Jesus Christ really is, and now we know what we are to do.
• First, we are to obey Him, even if it doesn’t make sense to us.
• Second, we are to humble ourselves before Him and call Him “Lord.”
• Third, we are to lay aside our claims on this world and follow Him.

Are you searching for Jesus in all the wrong places? Look for Him in the Bible. You’ll recognize Him by His power and authority over demons, over death, over disease, and over nature itself. The Bible is the last place you’ll ever need to search for Him because you’ll find Him there every time you look.
~ Pray ~