Psalm 138 (antiphonal; v.5)
1 Corinthians 14:12b-20
Luke 5:1-11
Hymn of the day - LSB 398 Hail to the Lord's anointed
O Lord, keep your family the Church continually in the true faith that, relying on the hope of Your heavenly grace, we may ever be defended by Your mighty power;
O God, you know that we cannot withstand the dangers, which surround us. Strengthen us in body and spirit so that with your help, we may be able to overcome the weakness that our sins have brought upon us.
Isaiah 6:1-11
Isaiah chapter six is one of the grand chapters of the Old Testament. Here we have the call of Isaiah to be a prophet of God. Isaiah did not necessarily want to accept his call. He felt he was unqualified. He knew that he was a sinner and that he would be sent to a sinful nation who would not want to listen to him. What was he to do? God forgave his sin and used him in a mighty way. Can God use you to do His bidding? Of course, He can. No matter what "sin" might be prohibiting you, God in Christ has forgiven you to do His work for Him.
1 Corinthians 14:12-20
We continue in a series of readings dealing with the activity of the Holy Spirit. The role of the Holy Spirit is to edify and build up the body of Christ known as the church. The church will grow not by human means, by cunning ways, by programs, or building structures. The kingdom comes and grows by the Holy Spirit actively working in the lives of people. The Spirit comes through those means of grace that God has given us. May we call upon the Spirit to build us up to be His church.
Luke 5:1-11
In this season of Epiphany, we recall a series of first things. We have witnessed Jesus' first miracle; we have heard His first sermon. Now we see His first disciple called into active service. Peter is an interesting sort of fellow. He speaks first and questions later.
He is bold in faith at one moment and timid the next. Peter is a lot like us today. He had his own questions and fears. He had sickness in his family. He worked long hours trying to run a business. When Jesus called Peter, he responded.
The Savior used common ordinary people like you and me to be His followers. What is it that God is calling you to do? May we take the example of Peter and faithfully follow when we are asked to go.
In this week’s Gospel Jesus says to Peter, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Spoken in the context of a great and miraculous draught of fish, this will become the work of Christ’s Church—catching men.
Imagine you are a fish, and suddenly you are caught in a net. A terrible fate awaits you…at least terrible for a fish if indeed it could think in such terms. You are quickly taken from your comfortable watery realm, removed into an unknown waterless world where you cannot breathe, carried into a world in which you cannot move and thus cannot escape, in which you will soon be heartlessly butchered and eaten. Who would want to be thus whisked into such a world of helplessness and death?
Now imagine that the worlds are reversed. You are actually living in a world where you cannot breathe, where your surroundings are utterly polluted with misery, where you are unable to do anything to extricate yourself, where there is violence and death within and without. A net now descends, lowered by a benevolent Being, and you are drawn out of your breathless, helpless, violent and dying realm. The net gently brings you into a world where you can breathe, even though you have never known what this is like; where you are able to move freely, even though you have never known this before; where you are treated with love and kindness, even though you have never really realized this before; where, though it seems impossible, you will not die forever, but you will live into eternity.
You have been caught in the net of Christ, the net cast by Christ through His Church. You have been brought into the kingdom of God, a realm that has never even been imagined by sinful man, a realm that gives one meaning and purpose.
Is there such a net and a kingdom to which we can be caught and carried? Indeed! This is why the Son of God became flesh, becoming, as it were, a fish in a helpless and violent realm; that, coming from heaven, He would be caught in mankind’s net of mischief, misery and malevolence. And being thus caught in this nasty net He would be mercilessly murdered, made breathless, and be caught and carried into the realm of the dead. This fabulous fish, the Lord Jesus Christ, would burst forth from the heretofore never escaped realm of the dead. No net or realm could hold Him.
Unbeknownst to the world, both His death and His resurrection were His purpose and goal, for from these He would create not only the saving net of the Gospel, but the wondrous realm into which people can be caught and carried.
The net of the Gospel has a wondrously woven warp and woof. The nailing of Jesus to the cross, like the nailing of a fish to a board to be scaled and butchered, becomes the warp of the net of the Gospel, for at the cross the mischief, malevolence and all sins of man were atoned for. And His glorious resurrection, guaranteeing justification and life eternal, becomes the woof of this net. So powerfully are these two acts of Jesus woven together that this net is rendered unbreakable and capable of catching and carrying millions out of this veil of tears. This Gospel net has now become the power of God unto salvation. It is the net of the Word of Christ’s death and resurrection, the net that can and does catch and carry fallen fishy people into the realm created by Christ’s two awesome acts.
This net is continually cast by the Church of Christ. As people, out of the depths of their law-exposed sin cry to God, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” The Lord commands His Church, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch,” with the result that such penitents are lovingly caught and carried via this watery net work into His holy ark, the Church. In the Church we are in Christ’s realm, His kingdom. Even before we enter heaven the Gospel net has caught and carried us into a kingdom in which we can breathe, having been given breath by the Holy Spirit.
We are caught and carried into the realm of the freely flowing forgiveness and the inseparable love of God, a realm created and founded on this death and resurrection of Jesus. And we know that this kingdom will merge with the eternal kingdom—a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness and peace shall dwell forever. – Daniel J. Brege
Luke 5:1-11
Jesus Call His First Disciples
Luke 5:1
Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ τὸν ὄχλον ἐπικεῖσθαι αὐτῷ καὶ ἀκούειν τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ἑστὼς παρὰ τὴν λίμνην Γεννησαρὲτ,
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret
Luke 5:2
καὶ εἶδεν δύο πλοῖα ἑστῶτα παρὰ τὴν λίμνην, οἱ δὲ ἁλιεῖς ἀπ’ αὐτῶν ἀποβάντες ἔπλυνον τὰ δίκτυα.
and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Luke 5:3
ἐμβὰς δὲ εἰς ἓν τῶν πλοίων, ὃ ἦν Σίμωνος, ἠρώτησεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἐπαναγαγεῖν ὀλίγον, καθίσας δὲ ἐκ τοῦ πλοίου ἐδίδασκεν τοὺς ὄχλους.
Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
Luke 5:4
ὡς δὲ ἐπαύσατο λαλῶν, εἶπεν πρὸς τὸν Σίμωνα· Ἐπανάγαγε εἰς τὸ βάθος καὶ χαλάσατε τὰ δίκτυα ὑμῶν εἰς ἄγραν.
And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
Luke 5:5
καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς Σίμων εἶπεν· Ἐπιστάτα, δι’ ὅλης νυκτὸς κοπιάσαντες οὐδὲν ἐλάβομεν, ἐπὶ δὲ τῷ ῥήματί σου χαλάσω τὰ δίκτυα.
And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
Luke 5:6
καὶ τοῦτο ποιήσαντες συνέκλεισαν πλῆθος ἰχθύων πολύ, διερρήσσετο δὲ τὰ δίκτυα αὐτῶν.
And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.
Luke 5:7
καὶ κατένευσαν τοῖς μετόχοις ἐν τῷ ἑτέρῳ πλοίῳ τοῦ ἐλθόντας συλλαβέσθαι αὐτοῖς· καὶ ἦλθον, καὶ ἔπλησαν ἀμφότερα τὰ πλοῖα ὥστε βυθίζεσθαι αὐτά.
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.
Luke 5:8
ἰδὼν δὲ Σίμων Πέτρος προσέπεσεν τοῖς γόνασιν Ἰησοῦ λέγων· Ἔξελθε ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι ἀνὴρ ἁμαρτωλός εἰμι, κύριε·
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Luke 5:9
θάμβος γὰρ περιέσχεν αὐτὸν καὶ πάντας τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τῇ ἄγρᾳ τῶν ἰχθύων ὧν συνέλαβον,
For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken,
Luke 5:10
ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Ἰάκωβον καὶ Ἰωάννην υἱοὺς Ζεβεδαίου, οἳ ἦσαν κοινωνοὶ τῷ Σίμωνι. καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς τὸν Σίμωνα ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Μὴ φοβοῦ· ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀνθρώπους ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν.
and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.
The Greek word ἀνθρώπους anthropoi refers here to both men and women
Luke 5:11
καὶ καταγαγόντες τὰ πλοῖα ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἀφέντες [p]πάντα ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ.
And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Sources:
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software
ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
