Luke 6:20-23

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20 Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. 23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. ~ Luke 6:20-23


Luke 6:20-49 records the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew's gospel account, we are given more words of the Lord Jesus than what we have here from Luke. Now, Luke provides a more shorter version of the sermon, though it follows exactly the same pattern. In today's text, we are given a shortened version of the beatitudes. In it is provided a description of the process of a changed heart.

In v.20 we read, “Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” The world and all its thinking is exactly opposite the truth. The word “blessed” used here by the Lord Jesus means “most favored.”

Matthew puts it this way, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Poverty in itself is not a blessing. He’s not talking about material poverty.  He’s not talking about economics. God doesn’t bless people just because they’re poor. He’s talking about spiritual poverty. 

We are all broken! But, do we own that brokenness. These poor in spirit understand their bankrupt condition before God. The most wonderful thing about our sinfulness is that it makes us so desperate that all we want is real. We understand that we have absolutely no resources with which to buy God’s favor. We understand that salvation is not by works, good deeds, righteous acts, ceremonies, rituals, religious thoughts, feelings.

The remainder of v.20 reads, “For yours is the Kingdom of God.” We become heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, possessors of everything in His Kingdom, including eternal life, forgiveness, grace, mercy, joy, hope, security, comfort, peace, love, righteousness, all that is ours. 

In the future millennial reign of Christ, we will reign in the earthy Kingdom of Christ for a thousand years. And beyond that, we will enjoy all of the riches of the eternal Kingdom in the new heaven and the new earth. The millennial and eternity are yet to come, but the Kingdom is ours now.

In the beginning of v.21 we read, “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” This hunger is a product of our spiritual poverty. It is our desperation that creates in us an intense desire for righteousness. Out of spiritual bankruptcy, we conclude, "I am a beggar and I can not earn my salvation, but I hunger for righteousness or a right relationship with God.” 

So the blessed are those who have a consuming longing for a relationship with God. We want to be right with God. We want fellowship with God. We want eternal life.

The promise of this hunger is that “you will be satisfied.”  Satisfied means to be fulfilled. The idea is to be completely satiated with God, His way of thinking and His way of living.

According to the remainder of v.21, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” Saddened by our condition  of spiritual bankruptcy and the absence of righteousness, we weep. This hopeless condition produces an earnestness in us with reference to God. Humility is the product and this is laughable. This is the laughter of the forgiven. This is the laughter of the unburdened. This is the laughter of the free.  

In v.22 we read, “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” People do not like, they even hate what they do not understand. And so, since we reflect the presence of the Lord Jesus through our broken lives, those in the grips of the enemy hate us. 

It is our brokenness that prepares us for a personal relationship with God and others. We naturally think that we will not have a relationship with God until we are better. But this is not true. Our relationship with God begins when we invite Him into our lives. 

In reality, all of us are incomplete, we all need God to function, and it is this admitting that we need help and receiving the free gift from Him that changes everything. This enables us to love ourselves for the broken people we are. And, once we have received God's presence into our lives, we are enabled to love others for the broken and flawed people that they are. 

Accepting our own spiritual brokenness and dependency upon God is essential to participating in this beautiful reciprocal gift that we call life. 

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Luke 6:12-19

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12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. ~ Luke 6:12-19

Although the religious leaders are increasingly wanting to kill the Lord Jesus, in Luke 6:12, we read, "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." The Lord Jesus was feeling the heat of His coming death. It is less than two years away and He will be executed, and after His execution He will rise from the dead. It is very instructive, given the context, the Lord Jesus spent the night in prayer. He did this regularly because He was dependent upon the presence and the power of His Father.

It is no different for you and me. We are at our best when we are most aware that we are utterly dependent upon Him for our lives and ministry. Most believe we are at our best when we seem to be sinning less. That is not reality, give up on that idea. No, we are at our best when we are most aware of Him in our lives. He is the key to it all.

On the heels of spending the whole night in prayer, the Lord Jesus chooses twelve key men who will carry out the ministry of the proclamation of His gospel after He has ascended to the Father. The lesson? When making decisions, we must be ardent in seeking the face of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus chose common men to be His disciples. Four of them were fishermen. One of them was a tax collector.  One of them was money hungry who turned out to be a betrayer.  We don't know the occupations of the rest of them, but they were common folk.

The reality of the moment drove the Lord Jesus into the mountains to pray to God all night. And the Lord obviously directs the Lord Jesus to choose the twelve. E.M. Bounds once said, "Prayer makes a godly man, and puts within him the mind of Christ, the mind of humility, of self-surrender, of service, of pity, and of prayer. If we really pray, we will become more like God, or else we will quit praying."

If you are like me, you struggle with whether your prayers are effective, until we recognize that the success of our prayer life is not in the one praying them but in the one answering them. The prayers of the Lord Jesus were all perfectly consistent with the mind and will of God for He Himself was also God.  And therein do we see again the incredible mystery of His humanity and His deity brought together.

In v.13 we read, "When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles."

In ancient times, both in the Greek culture and the Jewish culture when there was a prominent rabbi or a prominent orator, prominent philosopher, prominent teacher, they would attract people. In those days they would follow him around and typically they were itinerant teachers who went from place to place and taught the way that the Lord Jesus did and they would collect followers.

So, He calls all the disciples together, in v.13 the Lord Jesus chose twelve among many, perhaps as many as five hundred followers.

At the end of the book of Revelation we have a description of heaven and we have a description of the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy city. According to Revelation 21:12-14, this city has around it a high wall, great and high wall, twelve gates and on the top of the gates is written the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. You have the children of Jacob, the twelve sons of Jacob that identify the twelve tribes and all their names are on the tops of the gates.

In v.14, and the wall of the city, apparently at the same point, had twelve foundation stones and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Not only are they going to reign in the Millennial Kingdom, but they're going to be immortalized eternally in the foundation. Their name is going to be emblazoned in the gold foundations of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, forever and ever and ever. 

In v.13 we read, "...and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles." The Greek verb used here means "to send." These are sent ones. “Apostle” identifyies the twelve as the official representatives of the Lord Jesus.

Mark 3 records this same event and he adds, "And He appointed twelve that they might be with Him." There is a two-step process here before they could be sent out to preach. It was absolutely critical that they be with the Lord Jesus before they were sent out. This was critical to their training.  

It isn't until Luke 9 that the Lord Jesus calls the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. He literally delegated to them His miracle power. The next step, He gives them miracle power, power to cast out demons. And the last step, He will send them out. 

Up to this point, the Lord Jesus was speaking to huge crowds but now that He has identified the twelve, He will teach them more exclusively and they will go out to preach the gospel and then come back. 

Luke mentions the twelve six times in his gospel and about thirty times in the book of Acts because their role is so central not only to the ministry of the gospel, but also to the founding of the church as he records it in the book of Acts.

Speaking of the twelve in Acts 4 the people said about them, they are uneducated and unskilled. But the people also said, in the same passage, it was obvious they had been with Jesus. They had been with the Lord Jesus and they had His message, His presence and His power. 

Courage rules when we are close to God and fear rules when we are distant from God. Spend enough time with the Lord Jesus and His presence will begin to take over our lives to the point that others recognize Him through us.

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Luke 6:6-11

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6 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. ~ Luke 6:6-11

In Luke 6 the conflict between the teachings of the Lord Jesus and those of the Jewish religious leaders continues. The relentless commitment of the Lord Jesus to the truth continues. The Jewish religious leaders, on the other hand, had made Judaism into a religion where they taught that we can earn God's favor through our good choices. At the heart of this was the observance of the Sabbath.

The Lord Jesus did not observe the Sabbath as the Jewish religious leaders did. He observed the Sabbath in the way He intended it to be observed form the beginning. And, He saw the Sabbath observance of the Jewish religious leaders as unbiblical, and the focal point of their false religion.

The principle of rest behind the fourth command gives us an opportunity to be restored in our bodies, souls and spirits. There really aren't a lot of things we are not supposed to do on the Sabbath but work. God meant the Sabbath as a time for restoration, recreation, worship, and fellowship.

But the Rabbis through the centuries had embellished that simple command of rest with all kinds of rituals, regulations  and laws. In fact, they had made it the worst day of the week. Most, in that day, viewed the Sabbath as the most difficult and most wearying day of the week because the religious leaders had added to it so many prescriptions that had to be observed.

In v.6-11 we see that the Lord Jesus paid absolutely no attention to the rules, rituals, and regulations of the Jewish religious leaders. In John 5:18 John writes, "For this cause the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him because He was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God."

The combination of supposed Sabbath violation and calling Himself Lord and God infuriated the religious leaders and led to His execution. This, of course, played right into the hand of the Lord Jesus because He came to earth to redeem mankind through His cross.

In Luke 6:6 we read, "It came about on another Sabbath." Here, again, Luke is tracing the movements of the Lord Jesus on another Sabbath because this was the primary way He challenged the religion of the Jewish religious leaders.

At this point, the Lord Jesus is probably still in Galilee. As indicated in v.6, He is teaching in the synagogue the gospel, the good news that the poor, the prisoner, the blind, and the oppressed could be forgiven and set free from all their guilt and shame. This freedom yields a meaningful life through a personal relationship with God and the hope of eternal life.

At the end of v.6, we read, "And a man was there whose right hand was shriveled." Luke is the only Gospel writer who identifies the man's right hand. The word "shriveled" describes a hand that had atrophied from paralysis.

In v.7 we read, "The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath." The religious leaders missed the true identity of the Lord Jesus because they were watching Him with no objectivity. They did this because they, at some point, had begun defining themselves and their world for themselves. Had they followed God's definitions, they would have known the Lord Jesus as Messiah from the get go.

In v.8 we read, "But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there." The Lord Jesus always knows what is in the mind of all people because He's God and He has omniscience.

At this point the Lord Jesus stops teaching, having read the minds of the religious leaders, and He said to the man with the withered hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." This was a man who wasn't on the brink of death, he could have waited till the next day, Sunday, but the Lord Jesus seized the moment to rattle the cage of the hard hearted on hand. This man was an object lesson to the paralyzed hearts of the religious.

Then the Lord Jesus said to the religious leaders in v.9, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" The Lord Jesus always asks the question that can't be answered. The religious leaders can't answer the question. If they say, "It's lawful to help someone," then they would affirm that the Lord Jesus could heal the man and He wouldn't violate the Sabbath and they've got no accusation because they've just given Him official authorization.

On the other hand, if they say, "Well no, it's lawful to do evil and destroy somebody," they have just revealed their merciless, wicked hearts and they can't do that either. The Lord Jesus pretty much made a career out of asking them questions they could never answer. Either they had to affirm Jesus, or condemn themselves.

In v.10, the Lord Jesus heals the man after asking him to stretch out his hand. And, in v.11 the religious leaders embrace their paralysis even more. Their's was a rules based religion, and the Lord Jesus is trying to get them to see that with God, the relationship is the goal. Not at the expense of the truth, but His goal is always to reach the paralyzed heart of the sinner trapped by the faulty definitions of the evil one.

When we get legalistic about the law, in our zeal to obey God, we sometimes blindly accomplish exactly the opposite of what God intends. When we start focusing on the law, we miss the people that the law was supposed to help. You see, the law was never intended to be an end in itself, the law was only given as a guideline to help show love to God and to one another.

Christianity is not about our our ability to measure up to the law, it's about our intimacy with God and with one another. Once we get that right, we begin to realize that we can live with our imperfections, flaws, and brokenness because God lives with these in us. These are the things that go into the ingredients of spirituality. 
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Luke 6:1-5

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1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. 2 Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 3 Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 5 Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” ~ Luke 6:1-5


When God gave the Ten Commandments, He needed only five English words to condemn adultery; four to denounce thievery and murder.  But when He came to the topic of rest, HE SAID THIS ...


“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath Day of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servants, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day…” (Exodus 20:8-11).

Luke 6 gets to the heart of the growing conflict between the Jewish religious leaders and the Lord Jesus. At the heart of it surrounds the Sabbath, because Judaism's anchor was the Sabbath observance.

In our text for today, the Lord Jesus is addressing the self-righteousness of these religious leaders. Their actions were perpetuating the idea that we can earn our salvation by our good works, particularly observance of the regulations of the Sabbath. They taught that if we do all the Sabbath stuff, we will have earned our righteousness.

The religious leaders were wrong about the Sabbath and THE LORD Jesus was concerned about the truth. Through His actions in today's text, He was forcing people to choose between the truth and the spiritual pride and self-righteousness of the religious leaders. 

In v.1 we read, "One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.” 

The fourth of the Ten Commandments is the observance of the Sabbath. On this day we are told to take a day off, refresh your body, refresh your spirit, refresh your soul. Although God rested from His creation on the seventh day in Genesis, He didn't command man to do that until the law of Moses.  

The Pharisees had added a list of some 39 principle works to the law which were forbidden on the Sabbath, including ordinary household chores and the healing of the sick. You could not carry a bed, even if you had just been healed by Jesus and he asked you to pick up your bed and walk (John 5). Rubbing grain between one's hands was considered work. According to rabbinic tradition, "picking" and "rubbing" were tantamount to reaping, threshing, winnowing and preparing food, and thus a capital offense punishable by stoning. Thus, the Sabbath had become a burden, creating fear in the people's hearts. 

The command to observe the Sabbath was ceremonial, not moral and thus it is not repeated in the New Testament because it wasn't a part of moral law. 

It is wise to take a day off, and recuperate. But along the line, the Jews began to look for ways that they could earn their salvation with God by filling that day with all kinds of rules and regulations. This is the reason there was such conflict between the teachings of the religious and the teachings of God.

God gave the Sabbath to be a day of rest, but the religious leaders made it a day that is a burden. This is why the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29, "28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

In today's text we learn "the Lord Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels." Harvest was near, the fields were full of grain. The fields were laid out in long narrow strips and between them, between the rows, were paths and that's how people went places.

In v.2, we read, "Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" The religious leaders were desperate to find the Lord Jesus guilty of sin.

In v.3 the Lord Jesus responded by saying, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?"

In Leviticus 24:5-9 God gave guidelines for the tabernacle. God wanted in the tabernacle a golden table. And on the golden table was the showbread, a reminder of the fact that God is our provider. Every week the old bread that was removed and was eaten only by the priests because it has been consecrated to God.

According to 1 Samuel 21:1-6 David is being chased by Saul and he is running for his life from a place called Gibeah. He's got a few guys with him. They come down to a place called Nob which is a mile outside Jerusalem where the tabernacle was located. David gets down there and he and his men are hungry. David goes to the tabernacle and asks the priest for the five loaves of bread. And, the priest gave him consecrated bread.

The message of mercy and compassion is far more important than ceremony and ritual. In fact, in Jesus' day, the whole Sabbath system had become oppressive, lacking compassion, grace, and kindness.  

David was allowed to violate a divine law to fulfill the truest law of mercy. Certainly Jesus and His disciples could supersede a human law to fulfill the true law of mercy.  

We read in v.5: "Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." The Lord Jesus is the author and great interpreter of God's law because He is it's fulfillment in every way.

In Mark 2:27 the Lord Jesus tells us, "Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man." We weren't designed to somehow conform to some impossible rules, but rather we are designed for relationship with God. This was the point of the Law. The Sabbath day was made for our benefit, for our blessing, joy, fulfillment, and rest.

The late Mike Yaconelli had some great words on the subject of the rest. He said, “Rest is a decision we make. Rest is choosing to do nothing when we have too much to do, slowing down when we feel pressure to go faster, stopping instead of starting. Rest is listening to our weariness and responding to our tiredness, not to what is making us tired. Rest is what happens when we say one simple word: "No!" Rest is the ultimate humiliation because in order to rest, we must admit we are not necessary, that the world can get along without us, that God's work does not depend on us. Once we understand how unnecessary we are, only then might we find the right reasons to say yes. Only then might we find the right reasons to decide to be with Jesus instead of working for him. Only then might we have the courage to take a nap with Jesus.”

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Luke 5:33-39

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33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” 34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” 36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” ~ Luke 5:33-39

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of forgiveness through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, is unique. It is incompatible with any and all other religious belief. It stands alone. Grace is God's idea, the God of the Bible, that is. The idea that the Christian gospel can mix with or blend with any other religious system in any way is absolutely wrong. 

This is clear in our text for today and it explains why there was such an ongoing conflict between the religious leaders of Judaism and the Lord Jesus. The hostility from the religious leaders was based upon the fact that Jesus came with a gospel that totally replaced the religion of Judaism.

The religious leaders were self-righteous. This erroneous posture caused them to disassociate themselves from all people that they deemed unclean. They didn't soil themselves by going into a Gentile house or hanging around with tax collectors, and prostitutes. The Lord Jesus, on the other hand, associated with them all the time. He was known as "the friend of sinners and tax collectors,” “the friend of drunkards," because those were the kind of people He came to redeem.

In v.33 we read, "They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." 

The religious leaders were questioning the spirituality of the followers of the Lord Jesus. They wrongly equated spirituality with the good that a human can do.

The religious leaders espoused a routine of prayers and fasting which were of their own invention. Only one time in the entire Old Testament does God command fasting. It is found in Leviticus 16:29-31. And, the fasting was a fasting of sorrow over their sin. At some point, the Jews decided that fasting was spiritual, so they invented routine fasts and prayers. These were not commanded by God.

According to v.34, the Lord Jesus said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?" Weddings often lasted seven days. And, fasting was out of place at a wedding. Fasting was linked with sorrowful prayer, and it was to be done on the Day of Atonement, and it was an expression of sorrow over sin. It was out of place.

It would have been completely ridiculous for Jesus' disciples to fast and mourn when the long-awaited Messiah was in their presence. And again He just shows how completely out of touch the religious leaders were with reality. 

Then the Lord Jesus adds in v.35, "But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast." For the disciples of the Lord Jesus, in the very near future the joy was going to end because the bridegroom was to be taken from them. This is the first reference we have in Luke's gospel by the Lord Jesus to His death.

We read in v.36-39, "36 He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” 

The Lord Jesus came to provide us with a complete break from religion, or man's attempts to earn the favor of God. In order to get His point across, the Lord Jesus uses these illustrations of the patch and the wineskins. Through these illustration found here in v.34-39 He is saying, "The Gospel of Grace is not compatible with what you Jews had made of Judaism. And for those who aren't willing to come out of their false religions to the gospel, there is no hope."

The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the good news that there is hope for even the worst of sinners. This is His guarantee of forgiveness, His guarantee of reconciliation and His guarantee of holiness and wholeness. Let the hungry and the thirsty come. Let anyone who desires the gift of life receive it without a price.

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Luke 5:27-32

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27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, 28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. 30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” ~ Luke 5:27-32

No one can enter into the kingdom of God without a recognition of our sinfulness.  This concept of Original Sin was foreign to the Jewish establishment at the time of the Lord Jesus. The day the Lord Jesus went into the synagogue He read  Isaiah 61:1-2a, He announced He was the long-awaited Messiah. 

And the people sitting in that synagogue that day were offended. They did not accept the assessment of their condition by the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not acknowledge that they were the poor, prisoners, blind, oppressed, and spiritually bankrupt. Admitting Original Sin is our starting block to entering into a personal relationship with God.

As indicated by our text today, the Lord Jesus didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. There is no salvation, no forgiveness of sin, no eternal life for anybody who thinks he's righteous in and of himself. As a result, the Lord Jesus' ministry was most accessed by the poor, by the prisoners, by the blind, and by the broken. These who had access to acceptance before God understood their true condition and subsequent need for the Savior.

In v.27, we are introduced to a Tax Collector named Levi. He was a crook of the worst kind. This dishonest tax collector is also known as Matthew which means "gift of YHWH." This is the Matthew who penned the first gospel, the first book of the New Testament.

In all four gospels, not one statement from Matthew is recorded. Nothing that Matthew said was ever recorded in the gospels. He only mentions himself twice; once in this incident when he names himself, telling the story about his conversion, and one other time in Matthew 10:3 when he includes his name among the list of the apostles.

Tax Collectors were the lowest of the low. Rome ruled the world and Israel was an occupied country. The Romans established taxation for their occupied countries and they established a certain tax amount for Galilee. Taxes were collected by Tax Collectors and then given to Herod Antipas who then paid it to Rome. And, these Tax Collectors were the scum of society back then. 

Herod Antipas sold tax franchises to the highest bidder. Tax collecting was a very lucrative business and, if one didn't mind lying, cheating, stealing and abusing people, one would make bank. These Tax Collectors were considered traitors, because they abused their own people, extorting money from them, and giving that money to the Roman Gentiles.

Somewhere along the line, Matthew sold his birthright, bartered away his heritage and his reputation and any social place at all and perhaps dishonored his family and anybody and everybody who knew him and sentenced himself to a life of association with thugs by buying a tax franchise.

The Roman government established an amount at the end of the year to be paid. Anything beyond that, the Tax Collector would keep. There were fixed taxes, there were poll taxes, there were duties of all kinds. All of these kinds of taxes left room for larceny and extortion and exploitation. And then when someone could not pay their taxes, loan agents would loan the needed money at 50 percent interest or more. And if someone didn't pay, they were in great trouble with the most powerful in the land.

The Jewish people hated the Tax Collectors who were considered to be unclean animals.  They were not allowed in a synagogue. In addition, they were forbidden to give testimony in a court of law because they were known to be liars. These Jewish traitors were some of the most hated people in Israel.

Matthew, according to v.27 was "sitting at his tax booth." He may well have been the most hated man in Capernaum, but the Lord Jesus saw him. The word "saw," means to gaze intently.  He didn't just glance at Matthew, He fixed His eyes on him and God had a divine appointment with him. 

In addition, according to v.27, the Lord Jesus said to Matthew, "Follow Me." Notice He didn't say to him, "If you can kind of clean up your act, you can be a part of my group." No, the Lord Jesus saw into Matthew's heart and saw that he knew he was wretched.

In v.28 we read, "and Levi got up, left everything and followed him." He recognized his need and he understood the risk. He walked away from a very lucrative career, never to be recovered again. The Lord Jesus calls him to follow and immediately he does. Unlike the paralytic who sought the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus sought Matthew. 

In v.29 we read, "Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them." Having experienced meaning in life through God's forgiveness, Matthew gathered around him everybody that he knew in his world and introduced them to the Lord Jesus. He throws a big party. This is what happens when we move from the darkness to the light. Now that we see reality, that we have gone from death to life, we want to be a part of the rescue mission that so many around us need.

So, Matthew is there in the new joy of his conversion, the disciples are there, and then all the scum of the world. According to v.30, "But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" That day the Lord Jesus was ultimately and finally outed by the religious leaders. He was not welcomed in the elite group of supposed representatives of God.

The religious leaders were shocked, they were outraged that Jesus and His disciples would associate with this crowd. They were the moral majority. They were void of grace, they were void of God and salvation. The religious leaders were void of the heart of God because they had never presented their hearts to God.

Having overheard the complaints of the hard-hearted religious leaders, the Lord Jesus said in v.31-32, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." By their own admission these religious leaders were the sickest of the sick, but they were unaware of this reality. The heart of the gospel is this: God came to rescue sinners. The religious community hated the Lord Jesus for this. They did not understand that the law of God was given to convince us of our need for God's help. In order to be a recipient of the Good News, we must be first convinced of the Bad News that we are sick and in need of a Savior.

The only way anyone finds salvation is when God shows up in our lives and He calls us to place our faith in Him and we follow suit. If we look around identifying other sinners as worse than we, we are missing the point. The Lord Jesus came to call sinners to repentance from self dependence to God dependence. Like the religious leaders, we can not earn God's favor through our goodness.

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Luke 5:21-26

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21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.” ~ Luke 5:21-26

When the Lord Jesus said to the paralytic man, "Yours sins are forgiven," in v.21, a theological battle broke out. Rabbinical theology taught that all physical infirmities were signs of divine displeasure and came as a punishment from God for specific sins. Since God was the one displeased with sin, and the one who had punished this paralytic because of sin, then only God Himself could forgive his sin. Thus, the "religious leaders" accused the Lord Jesus of blasphemy.

In v.22, we read, "Jesus knew what they were thinking," giving clear indication He could read their minds. This underscores the fact that He knows all things. In fact, He knows everything there is to know about you and me, even things we do not know about ourselves. And, He knows the combinations that are useful to unlock our imprisoned souls, souls that have been severely damaged by the fallenness of this world.

In v.23, we read, "Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?" One would think it would be easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven," for this simple reason: the forgiveness of sin, you can't see. It's all inward. Anybody could say, "Your sins are forgiven." 

Forgiveness is an invisible action. The Lord Jesus healed the man visibly to prove that his invisible act of forgiving sins was legitimate. It is hard to conceive of how the Lord Jesus could blaspheme God in one moment and then heal with God’s power in the next. His healing demonstrated that He had authority from God to do both.

In reality, it was far easier for Jesus to heal the man than it was to forgive him. Forgiveness of sins before a just and holy God is a far more significant than any physical miracle. To heal the man’s body took a simple command; to forgive the man’s sins required Jesus’ blood. The first was done in the house of friends; the second on a hill with thieves. One took a word; the other took His life. 

The Lord Jesus knew the cost of grace. He knew the price of forgiveness. But He offered it anyway. Love broke His heart for mankind. The same face that invited the paralytic invites all of us who have known brokenness in some fashion. And, on that day the Paralytic heard, "Your sins are forgiven," the Lord Jesus was tuning His vocal chords for us to hear and be defined by those most sacred of words for ourselves. 

Only the Lord Jesus is able to forgive the sins that keep us physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually crippled. Only He is able to give us the courage to take up our mats and walk, setting us free from guilt and shame. Setting the man free from his physical abnormalities was one thing, but deliverance from the prisons of the soul is quite another.

You see, God's choice to remove our sin from our ledger has much farther reach in our lives than being healed physically. It has to do with us experiencing Him and His holiness. And, everything God wants for us can be summed up in one word, wholeness.

Since we live in a broken world, we all have wounded hearts. These “heart wounds” are caused by real or perceived instances of cruelty, personal trauma, lack of love and other experiences that have wounded the core of our being. These wounds directly affect our spiritual lives and make us far more susceptible to sin.

For example, people who were verbally abused by a parent often have issues with authority figures. They will likely struggle with areas of sin involving disagreements and anger. This issue isn’t necessarily evidence of a lack of holiness, but rather a lack of “heart wholeness.” If the verbally abused heart wound is healed, the disagreements and anger will subside, allowing the person to grow in God's holiness.

Until we faced this lack of wholeness in our souls and allow God to heal it, we will be stalled in our spiritual progress. Our habitual sins will not disappear through sheer will-power. No. We have to go to the root of our problems, our souls. The application of God's holiness to our souls involves learning to love ourselves as He loves us. We mustn't be defined by our puny definitions of this life. This is most difficult because we have long been defined by the hated wounds that have long kept us in bondage and have defined us in such a way that we are paralyzed.

It is tempting to spend all of our time helping other people and it is easy to feel guilty about taking care of ourselves. But this unbalanced approach to Christianity can make us lose sight of the love of God who has totally accepted us through the cross of the Lord Jesus. In fact, the love of God for us and ministry are linked: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In the early years of my relationship with God, I had learned that living a life of holiness meant refraining from any act or behavior considered unholy or unrighteous. This limited perspective of holiness overlooks a powerful reality about wholeness. To expect pious behavior externally from a person who isn’t becoming whole internally is like expecting the Paralytic to walk without Jesus' pronouncement. It won’t happen.

God’s process of making us whole is His guarantee that wholeness will follow. Right doing was never more important to God than right being. God’s plan for us is wholeness which will always be the product of His realized holiness in our lives. God’s goal for you and me is that we see the version of us that is defined by the application of His Son to us in every way. Knowing that we are positionally perfect in His eyes through His Son, we are enabled to confront the demons within and choose to allow God to chase them away and begin and continue the process of being defined by Him.

Finally, the focal point of our text for today is v.25-26, "25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today." God does all that He does in our lives so that we will ultimately be defined by Him on a moment by moment basis.

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Luke 5:17-20

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17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” ~ Luke 5:17-20

For all of the people who had followed the Lord Jesus to date, they wanted His miracles more than the message. They wanted His works more than the word. And, when the Lord Jesus spoke of the requirement of eating His flesh and drinking His blood for salvation, they were disgusted and they turned away.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is: God will forgive all our sins through His Son's finished work on the cross if we turn away from self-dependence to God-dependence. Forgiveness is the single most important benefit that God can provide because it debilitates that which separates us from Him. Forgiveness is the door to all blessing. 

Now, since the Lord Jesus is forgiving sin, He is indirectly claiming to be God because only God can forgive sin. This is what tripped the religious leaders up. They just could not fathom that God became a regular man from Galilee. The lack of human status caused them to lack the ability to see the humble God come to save His creation.

In v.17, we read, "One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick." 

Matthew identifies this story happened in Capernaum in Galilee. And, it happened right after the Lord Jesus had returned from land of the Gadarenes where He delivered the man from the demons, and sent them into a herd of pigs. So, this is fairly early in the ministry of the Lord Jesus and His primary message is forgiveness. 

Now, the religious leaders were looking for the opportunity to discredit the Lord Jesus and get rid of Him. They tried to kill Him in Nazareth just before He read Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue. According to v.17 of our text, "And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick." 

In v.18 we read, "Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus." Mark tells us there were four men who brought the paralyzed man to the Lord Jesus. And, the man couldn’t walk. He couldn’t stand. His limbs were bent and his body twisted. A waist-high world walked past as he sat and watched. And ... he was totally dependent on others. This is a good thing, as we shall see later.

This man had a form of paralysis which very well may have been caused by a venereal disease. People who were in this condition were generally left out of society. They weren't like lepers in that they had a highly communicable disease and so they were allowed into society but they were stigmatized. This man bore a social stigma that would have alienated him, made him somewhat of an outcast. And people tended to think that people like he were like that because of some sin.

This man's four friends wanted their friend to be healed, but the man's greatest need was forgiveness. The man needed forgiveness and along with the forgiveness, of course, would come the healing. Good for him, the Lord Jesus could see beyond his physical needs to his spiritual need.

The four friends of this man tried to bring him in and set him in front of Jesus, but they had no handicap access. So, these concerned friends devised a plan to lower him through the roof of the house where the Lord Jesus was teaching that day. Imagine being the owner of that home.

According to v.19, "When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus." Most of the houses were one-story houses. This was probably a big house built out of sticks and mud. Spanning the walls were beams that were set below the height of the walls so that they would create a short wall and a roof and then the roof would act as a patio. The beams would cross and then in between the beams would be a combination of sticks and mud that would be put in there. 

Luke tells us they got up on the roof and they let their paralyzed friend down through the tiles. The word for "tile" is keramos, from which we get our word ceramic. The four men calculated where the Lord Jesus was teaching in the house and all of a sudden tiles start coming off above the Lord Jesus. And the next thing they know, down through the hole comes this man, through the tiles with his stretcher right in the center in front of Jesus. 

In v.20 we read, "When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven." The Lord Jesus knew exactly what was in that man's heart. Here was a poor, dependent, and oppressed victim of his own sinful desires. He was the perfect candidate for forgiveness. It wasn't the faith of the four guys that saved the man that day. It was his faith. I'm sure the faith of his friends impressed the Lord Jesus. They all had faith, but no one is ever saved because of someone else's faith.  His faith was more than just ordinary faith. His was a strong, insistent, persistent and  dismantling faith. His was unstoppable faith, overcoming all barriers, all barricades, all obstacles. His strong faith was the result of being so dependent in his need.

The Lord Jesus healed people with no faith and sometimes He healed people with little faith. And, of course, He sometimes healed people with great faith. But this was not a healing. This was salvation. The Lord Jesus saved this man from his sin. A must for this salvation was this man's faith. And, the object of that faith is the key here. Everyone has faith, but the key is who is our faith in?

Did you notice that no one made of the Lord Jesus a request? The man is lying there in his paralyzed condition before the Lord Jesus who looks right at him and said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you." This is written in the pluperfect tense in the Greek, meaning this was a permanent condition. Literally, the Lord Jesus told this hopeless man, "Your sins are and always will be forgiven."

No one's ever forgiven apart from faith. The Lord Jesus saw into this man's heart, and He saw a longing to be forgiven. He saw this man's wretched spiritual condition and said, "Your sins are dismissed permanently." And, this is what He does for everyone who cries out to Him.

The wretched are forgiven and the self-righteous are not. Forgiveness is the most important thing God can do for us, far more than physical healing. God effortlessly parted the Red Sea, but it took nothing less than the death of His Son to achieve the forgiveness of our sins. And the results this renders to our souls? ... Well, that is the topic for tomorrow's blog.

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Luke 5:12-16

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12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. ~ Luke 5:12-16

Imagine you have a beautiful wife and two adorable little children. Life is normal and good, even though nothing in your life is perfect. Then, one day you come home from a long day at work and you notice a small sore that has developed on your hand. In time, this sore develops into the serious condition known as leprosy.

Leprosy is a death sentence. And the process of dying by leprosy is worse than dying itself. In most cases, the body rots to pieces while the Leper continues to live. Although the physical ravages of leprosy are bad, the social, mental and emotional damage it causes is even worse.

Leprosy begins with pain in certain areas of the body. Numbness follows. Soon the skin develops spots and then loses its original color. It becomes scaly. As the sickness progresses, the thickened spots become dirty sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply. The skin, especially around the eyes and ears, begins to bunch, with deep furrows between the swellings, so that the face of the afflicted individual begins to resemble that of a lion. Fingers drop off or are absorbed. Toes are affected similarly. Eyebrows and eyelashes drop off. 

In Numbers 5:2, we read, "If you find anybody with leprosy, put him out of the camp." Lepers were confined to the outskirts of town. They were quarantined from those whom they loved and who loved them. In v.12 of our text, we learn he "was covered with leprosy." This man had leprosy in its maximum form. He had been stricken with this disease for quite some time. As a result, he had no connection with anybody in society who wasn't a leper. He could have been stoned for violating the quarantines that surrounded leprosy, but he ran the risk to get to the Lord Jesus.

Anyone with leprosy was stamped as "unclean." According to Leviticus 13, "the leper remained unclean all the days in which he has the infection." He was ordered to live alone, outside the camp, away from those who were themselves not diseased. And, the Leper was required to yell out "unclean, unclean," when anyone would come near them.

One day, according to v.12, this Leper learns of a man who has the ability to heal. He goes to Him and starts shouting, “Unclean! Unclean! Stay away from me! I have leprosy! Unclean!” Even as the disciples draw back, the Lord Jesus invited the man's physical presence. “Unclean!” the man shouts louder. But, the Lord Jesus kept coming. “Doesn’t He know the law?” the man thought to himself. “If the Lord Jesus gets any closer, He will become unclean Himself.” 

Then the Lord Jesus gets close enough to look the man in his eyes. And the man sees something he has never before seen in another human being. He doesn’t see disdain. He sees concern. He doesn’t see fear. He sees sympathy. He doesn’t see rejection. He sees love.

“When he saw the Lord Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." The leper begged the Lord Jesus to heal him. This was more than a prayer. This man was not halfhearted in his request because he was on his last leg. This desperate man challenges my prayer life. Desperate people do desperate things.

This leper doesn’t turn to one of the disciples. He doesn’t turn to another leper. He doesn’t even turn to the priest. He knows that none of them can help him. He turns to the Lord Jesus. "Falling on his face this man begged the Lord Jesus to make him clean." This man is pleading for his life. He has endured shame and alienation. He is worn out, at the end of his rope and desperate for relief.

How many years had it been since someone had hugged this man? How many years, do you think, had it been since this man had been touched? He couldn’t even pet a dog without it being killed. The Lord Jesus knows this and so He put out His hand and touched him. He could have healed this man with just a word. He could have healed him from a great distance, without a word and without any touch. But, the Lord Jesus knows that this leper needs love just as much if not more than he needs healing. 

According to v.13, "Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him."  The Lord Jesus saw this man's desperation, urgency, and faith. As a result, He healed him.  

Contrary to Leviticus 5:3, which says "never touch a leper," "the Lord Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man." The Lord Jesus not only healed him with a touch, He not only communicated compassion to him, He also made a connection with the man. "And immediately the leprosy left him." He was given a new life where he once thought was hopeless.

According to v.14, we read, "Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." The Lord Jesus tells the Leper not to tell anyone. He did this because He didn't want people attracted to Him just because He could heal them physically. He wanted them to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

So when this man shows up cleansed and healed at the priest’s doorstep, this priest would have known that something amazing had just taken place in his town. Possibly this was the very priest who had pronounced the man unclean years earlier. And now here he was again, but this time he is whole and healed. 

But, look what happened in v.15. "Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses." The people didn’t really want to give glory to God. They only wanted to be healed. Very few today want to feed on the Word of God, but we will gladly take a free meal. 

In v.16, we read, "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Notice the Lord Jesus embraces loneliness. Perhaps He has traded places with the Leper in a way. The Lord Jesus is in the process of being the one "who knew no sin, yet, the one who became sin so that you and I could become the righteousness of God in Him." 

Have you come to the place where you are exhausted and you have exhausted everything in this life to discover the Lord Jesus is your only answer? Have you been touched by Him? If so, He wants to teach you to become a fisher of men, and the first step in that is learning to love all people, learning to touch the untouchable.

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Luke 5:7-11

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7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. ~ Luke 5:7-11

Peter starts to pull the net in, and he can’t even handle it, it is so full of fish. He yells to James and John and they come out to help him. They end up filling up two whole boats full of fish. The Lord Jesus blew Peter's mind by demonstrating His power over something that Peter thought he knew more about than Jesus.

In much the same way He works in our lives, the Lord Jesus reveals a little bit more of Himself each day and we, like Peter, are slowly going deeper into fellowship with the Lord. He is truly the Lord of everything, including that which we think we are experts about.

Peter has seen other miracles, but this miracle is personal, because it’s about fish. He had spent his lifetime studying fishology. We often think we are better at running our lives than the Lord. We get upset with Him when He doesn't give us our desired definition of life, only to discover His is far better. We often say, "I prayed about it but the Lord didn't answer." Oh, He answered! He just was not in line with our prayers. 

In response to this miracle, the eyes of Peter are opened and we find him flat on his face in front of the Lord Jesus, saying, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.”

Throughout Scripture, when God reveals Himself to people, the response is that we end up on our faces. The person who is growing in arrogance is not growing in a personal relationship with the Lord. I think of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1-5. He goes into the temple, and God gives him a vision of Himself. Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up, and winged seraphs flying above Him, worshiping. Isaiah ends up flat on his face: “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips.” 

According to v.10, the Lord Jesus then said, "Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people." In every instance in Scripture when God pulls back the veil and asks people into His presence, He says, “Do not fear.”

The theme of fear is important in Luke’s gospel. Seven different times Luke records some revelation of the majesty and power of God after which God speaks in some way and says, “Do not fear.” The first is when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and called her to be the one who would carry the Son of God in her womb. He looked at Mary and said, “Do not be afraid....” (Luke 1:30.) Next, on the Judean hillside, the shepherds were blown away by the angelic chorus and announcement of Christ’s birth, terrified by the overwhelming majesty of God, and God’s voice came out: “Do not be afraid....” (Luke 2:10.) And there are five other times in the gospel of Luke when His invitation of grace simply says, “Do not fear,” including this incident in Peter’s life. 

There is always a progression in God’s revelation of Himself to us. It has to be the way, otherwise, we would not be able to handle it. We must keep in mind, this is a process. It does not happen over night, and God is not in a hurry. God graciously continues to give us more and more revelation of Himself, and a deeper understanding of Him, that we might obey Him at an increasingly deeper level.

This is why the Lord Jesus said to Peter at the end of v.10: “from now on you will fish for people.”  In the same way the Lord Jesus filled those nets beyond comprehension with fish, He is saying to Peter, “If you will follow me and trust me, you will be someone through whom I will continue to bring in the harvest of souls, catch the people that I’m going to put into your life. I’m going to do what I promised to do. You can trust me to accomplish it.”

According to v.11, "So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him." Obedience is responding to the revelation the Lord gives us. It’s our starting point as His friends who follow Him. What we do is follow some pattern that we think is the right way for a Christian, and we end up fulfilling someone else's call. 

Now, granted, there are things that all Christians ought to and ought not to do as followers of Christ. But when that’s our focus, we end up getting trapped into robotically following our ideas instead of His. I have found, His way is always more radical than mine, and subsequently more exciting. 

Finally, in v.11, Peter and his buds “pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” I'd say our number one god is "comfort." We like the easy life. This is not and will not be the case with the Lord Jesus. His idea is an adventure. It is exciting and it is scary, but it is worth it. To see Him do His thing through our lives is the greatest thing ever. And, who knows, we may be tackled by several in heaven when we get there because God used us to help them get there.

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