Luke 5:1-11 Sermon for March 15, 2026

“As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, he was standing by Lake Gennesaret. He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. (1-3) When he had finished, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ (4) ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.’ (5) When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. (6-7) When Simon Peter say this, he fell at Jesus’s knee and said, ‘Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!’ For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners. (8-10) ‘Don’t be afraid,’ Jesus told Simon. ‘From now on you will be catching people.’ Then they brought the boats to land, left everything and followed him.” (11) This is an incredible picture of God’s total sovereignty. In other words, it’s a picture that perfectly illustrates the utter inability for you and I to do absolutely anything on our own. Here, you see that Jesus calls, Jesus reveals, Jesus saves, and Jesus sends. And, it is my intent tonight to walk us through this passage in a way that shows how it is that Jesus does all that He does on His own accord and for His own glory. The crowds are pressing in to hear the Word of God. Jesus sees two boats at the edge of the lake, gets into one of them, pushes a bit out from land to sea, sits down and begins teaching the people who are there. Again, Jesus is speaking the Word of God as the Son of God. Again, there is an utter most importance of the Word of God being preached; of the Word of God going out because it is the Word of God that will draw mankind to the necessary ways in which he must be saved. Henry Smith, an English clergyman of the 1500s once said, “We should set the Word of God always before us like a rule and believe nothing but that which it teaches, love nothing but that which it prescribes, hate nothing but that which it forbids, and do nothing but that which it commands.” The Word of God goes out and awakens faith in people. This is an important teaching for us. I want to draw us to a passage in the Book of Ezekiel. It actually might be one that you’re familiar with. It’s Ezekiel 37 and it talks about the Valley of Dry Bones. Let me begin reading it for you. “The hand of the Lod was on me, and he brought me out by his Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of dry bones. He led me all around them. There were a great many of them on the surface of the valley, and they were very dry. Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I replied, ‘Lord God, only you know.’ He said to me, ‘Prophesy concerning these bones and says to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord God says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live. I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you so that you come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” (1-6) Let me pause right there really quick. In this passage, we read, “Hear the word of the Lord.” In this passage we see that God will cause breath to enter you. In this passage, we see that you will come to life. In this passage we see that when all of this happens, then you will know what? “I am the Lord.” This is important to grasp onto. Turn with me to Ephesians 2:1, which says this: And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Why am I bringing attention to these other verses? Because apart from Jesus, we are the dry, dead bones in the valley. We are dead in our trespasses. And it is the Word of God that goes forth and awakens in us faith. It simply cannot be done any other way. If I should code in the hospital and doctors are doing all they can to bring me back, guess what cooperation I give them? Absolutely nothing. I lay lifeless. I lay there at the mercy of the one who does chest compressions. You and I, apart from Jesus, lay at the mercy of God who is able and willing to bring us to life. My friends, this is a fundamental teaching of Scripture saturated everywhere and we must cling to it. And remember this in that Ezekial passage where it says in verse 6: “Then you will know that I am the Lord.” It’s always about Jesus. If I should preach a powerful message and someone comes to life in Christ, it is not my preaching abilities that did that. It is Jesus alone that did that. That someone comes to life so that “you will know that Jesus is Lord.” It isn’t about me. This is why I must preach the Word of God and do very little with stories. Stories are ok to bring home a point, but I must believe that the Word of God, the Bible, is enough to bring dead bones in the valley to life. So, I’ll say this: we absolutely must be careful in how we present the Gospel. There must be not spectacle to it. There must be no manipulation to it. There must be no distractions to it. There must be no sugar coating it. There must be no subtracting or adding to it. We are living in a time where churches are driven by numbers. We need an exponential number of hands raised, cards filled out, baptisms performed or many churches feel they’ve failed. No, we must reject that tactic. We must trust that God’s Word is sufficient. I get weary when a church reports that hundreds of people gave their lives to Jesus. Believe me, I want to see as many souls saved, but to say that hundreds gave their lives to Jesus and a majority have ‘fallen’ away or rejected the bride of Christ is ludicrous. If one has been redeemed, one cannot lost that redemption. John 6:44 says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:39 says, “This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.” We must be careful in not manipulating the heart strings of people with fancy music, powerful oracles, and majestic displays of props. Alright, so, we saw that Jesus gets in the boat and teaches. His Word goes out. And then we see a command from Jesus to Simon Peter to put out into deep water and let down the nets. Of course, Simon is scratching his head a bit because they’ve been doing this as professionals all night long and no catch was made. But, Jesus, if you say so, we will do so. What happens next? Their nets become so full, that they begin to tear! So much so that they signal for help. So much fish came into the boat that the boats, notice the plurality, began to sink! Let’s pause really quick. Let’s not miss something here. This isn’t just a story here. There is a purpose behind all of this. What you and I are incapable of, Jesus is capable of. So, in other words, Christ sovereignly accomplishes what you and I cannot. We’ve already talked a bit about this earlier, but it is worth repeating because, yet again, we are reminded in this passage that human will cannot only get us so far. And this goes for everything. For some reason, we as humans feel the need to prove ourselves. And we constantly fail. How many of us have gone through just crap in life and have come to the realization that we are absolutely failing apart from Jesus? We say things like, “I need Jesus to take this one on for me.” When in reality, you need Jesus to take everything on for you. Even your own status and accomplishments in life can be taken away in an instant. You and I have zero control over everything. Now, here’s is a beautiful picture that come next. The boats are on the verge of sinking and Simon Peter falls at the knees of Jesus and says, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” He’s convicted of his own brokenness. This is really important here. The closer you get to Jesus, the more you are convicted of your own sin. So a believer who lives however he feels is either deeply quenching the Holy Spirit or isn’t a believer at all. I think we are seeing that all over the place today. People love the idea of the Bible, but won’t submit to it. People love the idea of Christ but won’t submit to Him. People love conservatism but not with Christ in it. My worry today is the number of self-professed Christians who only love Jesus as a friend. But Jesus is Lord. Jesus is holy. Jesus is God. And we think that Jesus will casually look the other way when it comes to our sin because Jesus is all love, completely twisting the definition of love. Whenever I open up the Word of God, I am deeply convicted and compelled to obedience. Whenever I ask the Lord to search me and know me, I quickly realize that I am a wretched man and only the righteousness of Jesus on me makes me right with God. It’s why we need to be careful in saying, “Follow your heart” or “My heart is telling me such and such.” No! Run away from that garbage. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable- who can understand it?” I’m being serious here. You’re heart is not something you should submit to. Your heart is f ickle. Your heart is here one moment and there the next. Your heart wants to love your neighbor one moment and absolutely crush them the next. This is why the Word of God matters and why we need to submit to it. Let’s continue into our last portion of the passage. Responding to Peter’s falling at his knees and recognizing how wretched of a man he is, Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid.” He then says, “From now on you will be catching people.” Peter doesn’t need to be afraid because the call of Jesus is rooted in grace, not on Peter’s f ickle merit. Thank God things don’t hinge on our merit! You and I are so incapable of being consistent in our merit. One day we’re singing songs to the Lord and full of joy and the next day we’re struggling not to strangle someone in the Dunkin Donuts line. And what Jesus says here to Peter is that he will be fishers of men. This is a commission for all believers that when Jesus has saved you, we have an obligation to follow Him in true discipleship. We have an obligation to make Jesus and His mission for us a priority. And what’s His priority? Well, get in the Word every day and find out. My friends, this short passage in Luke is a beautiful one that perfectly highlights the unshakeable hope we have in Jesus. It shows us that it is a futile attempt to think we’ve got things under our control. We don’t. Submit to the sovereignty of Jesus. And plus, why wouldn’t we want to anyways? And now, I leave you with something St. Patrick once wrote: “The Lord opened the understanding of my unbelieving heart, so that I should recall my sins.”