WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

An international Sunday school lesson commentary

For Sunday January 10, 2021

 

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CALLED TO FOLLOW

(The first disciples)

(Luke 5:1-11)

 

   It is said that the earth is full of miracles that are waiting only for the human eye that can see them. JESUS is always waiting for the tired soul who is just one attempt away from the success that can be found in getting to know HIM. In Luke chapter 5, taking up at verse 1, we see JESUS preaching on the shores of the waters of the Sea of Galilee, and great throngs of people pressed toward HIM to hear the Word of GOD.

    The body of water, by which JESUS stood that day, was called by three names according to scripture. It was called “the Sea of Galilee”, “the Sea of Tiberias”, and “the Lake of Gennesaret”, by which it is called here in this passage in the King James Version. As the crowd continued to grow, JESUS turned and saw two empty boats docked at the water’s edge. HE walked over and climbed into one of those boats, which belonged to Simon Peter, a commercial fisherman, and sat down, and continued to teach.

    When JESUS had finished speaking to the crowd, HE turned and instructed Peter to “go out into the deep waters and let down your net and you will catch many fish”. Peter, who was a master fisherman, told JESUS that the fish weren’t biting today, and that “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if YOU say so, we’ll try again” (NLT).

    Peter did as JESUS instructed and took his boat back out into the deep waters and, this time they caught so many fish that they filled the boat completely. Then he called out for his other partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, to bring the other boat, and they filled it up with fish also. In fact, the boats were so full of fish that they were on the verge of sinking, and they struggled to make it back to the shore.

    Although JESUS had already been introduced to some of these disciples earlier, this passage tells us that they did not all immediately come on board with HIM full-time until after this miraculous fishing account had taken place here in verses 4-7. In fact, when Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before JESUS and said, “Oh LORD please leave me, I am too much of a sinner to be around you”.  JESUS then said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” And as soon as they came ashore, Peter, James, and John began to follow JESUS in earnest, full time.

    When Peter fully recognized just who JESUS was, he went from addressing HIM as “master” (as in “superior” or “teacher”) to addressing HIM as “LORD”, as in being “the SON of the LIVING GOD”. And like Peter, when we come to understand who JESUS really is, it also exposes to us, who we really are, flawed individuals who are sorely in need of HIM. JESUS is the only ONE WHO can rescue us from our self-imposed damnation and deliver us into a right relationship of friendship with GOD, our FATHER in Heaven.

    JESUS’ teachings and miracles combined to prove HIS authority from GOD over all the earth, and these expert professional fishers of the sea, eventually became fishers of the men and women who lived on dry land. JESUS taught them how to teach men, to teach men, to teach men …., from generation to generation, for all time.

 

A Sunday school lesson by,

Larry D. Alexander

 

 

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