Jesus Calls the First Disciples

Luke 5:1–11

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Say or sing the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.         Jesus’ fame had spread. Here was someone who healed diseases and cast out demons. By the lake of Gennesaret, also known as the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Tiberias, a crowd had gathered to hear Him.

2.         The crowd was “pressing in on Him” to the point it was unsafe, so Jesus got into one of two fishing boats, this one was Peter’s, floating nearby. Sitting in the boat, now the event under control, Jesus continued to teach.

3.         After the teaching, Jesus asked Peter to put the boat out into deeper water and let down the fishing nets. Peter retorted that the waters had already been fished with no resulting catch, but he did as Jesus said to do.

4.         A huge bunch of fish were netted, so many that the nets were breaking up and help was needed to drag the catch ashore.

5.         Peter, seeing all of this, which was clearly miraculous, fell down at Jesus’ knees and begged Him to depart from him, and this because Peter knew that he was a guilty sinner and that Jesus was holy, without sin.

6.         Jesus however told Peter not to be afraid and that from then on, he, Peter, would be a fisher of men. This is known as Peter’s call to be an apostle, the first of twelve.

7.         With Peter were James and John Zebedee, their fishing partners. Then not only Peter, but Andrew, James, and John left “everything” and followed Jesus.

The Great Tribulation

In this month’s edition (March 2022) of The Atlantic is an article by Arthur C. Brooks entitled, “The Satisfaction Trap.” (He identifies with both Buddhism and Roman Catholicism.) His focus is on the fact that we are very often disappointed in our place in this crazy world. Despite Brooks’ many successes in life, he confesses that the pleasure of these last but a short time, and then he is plunged back into a kind of sadness about himself and his future. I thought to myself that I wished he knew the peace and rest we have in Jesus.

Consider John 16:33b: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” The first part of the sentence above, 16:33a) is, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.”

Note that I have highlighted the word tribulation. This same word transliterated from the Greek is thlipsos, usually translated as tribulation, yet is found in verse 21 of this same chapter 16, and here it means anguish. It is highly likely that the translators of the ESV and other newer translations were reluctant to use the less dramatic but more accurate word, anguish. 

Anguish, sorrow, pain, suffering, emotional and mental confusion, even clinical depression and more are what we experience in our living despite success and physical and financial well-being. Jesus knew all about this, and He gave us this wonderful verse, now known as John 16:33, so that we would firmly grasp that we can have peace—His peace—despite the anguish we constantly experience in our living.

We do not have to fake being happy. We do not have to constantly seek our personal well-being and pleasure. We can be sad and unhappy as we see the pain and grief all around us and experience it personally, sometimes deeply. But we do not depend on our feelings, which are just going to be there, or the perversion of the world around us; we have something much more. We have the peace of Jesus, a peace He gives to us by His grace, which is the reality that our personal sin is gone, nailed to the cross of Jesus, and that we have been born anew, never to be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, come what may—personally, physically, politically, financially, socially, you name it.

Right along with the tribulation and anguish we have peace, and this peace is not the absence of conflict or the result of depression, but it is an assurance that all our sin is gone, past, present, future, and that our names are written in the Book of Life, which cannot be erased no matter what. Yes, the trouble, the pain, the grief we experience day in and day out—these go with the territory.

Only Jesus overcomes the world, and by “world” is meant all the presence of sin and evil that cascades down upon us. And Jesus knows this far better than we do as all our sin was placed upon Him at Calvary.

We will not be overcome by the world’s anguish and tribulation. We turn our eyes upon Jesus, our living Lord and Savior. In Him alone we rejoice.

Jesus Heals Many & Jesus Preaches in Synagogues

Luke 4:338–44

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.              Leaving the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus visits the home of Simon (Peter) to find that his mother is very ill.

2.              She is miraculously healed so much so that she begins to “serve them.”

3.              When the Sabbath Day closed, about 6pm Saturday evening, people showed up at Simon’s home who were sick with various diseases.

4.              Jesus lays His hands on them and every one of them were healed.

5.              In additions, others who had indwelling demons came to Him and the demons were cast out. The demons knew who Jesus was, “the Son of God.” Jesus did not accept their testimony and did not allow them to speak.

6.              Awaking the next day, a Sunday, Jesus left all and walked into a quiet place, but people searched for Him, found Him, and would not let Him alone.

7.              Jesus, however, took leave of them stating that He must be about the work of preaching “the good news of the kingdom of God” to others.

8.              Jesus continues then to preach in other synagogues.

Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Demon

Luke 4:31–37

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.

1.         Following the rejection at Nazareth, Jesus travels northwest to Capernaum, which is at the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee. And as was His habit, He taught in this town’s synagogue, and He did so with power and authority.

2.         In that synagogue was a man who had a demon in him, and the demon knew who Jesus was.

3.         With a loud voice, perhaps intended to produce fear, the demons, as there were more than one but only one spoke, and the demons knew who Jesus was.

4.         These demons, former angels who had followed Lucifer in his heavenly rebellion, knew Jesus could “destroy” them, meaning, they knew Jesus could cast them out.

5.         Jesus commanded their silence and ordered them to come out, whereupon a short battle ensued with the demons attempted to thwart their rejection by throwing the possessed man down to the ground. It did not work.

6.         Those present in the synagogue were amazed at the power and authority of Jesus. They did not question the reality of demonic spirits, rather, they were well aware of them as did most of the pagan world.

7.         One result of this event was that the word spread of His power and authority. And so it is today.

Jesus Begins His Ministry & Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

Luke 4:14-30

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Look at Isaiah 6:1–4.

1.         Following the wilderness temptation, Jesus heads back to Galilee and news of Him had spread throughout the region. Mark, in chapter 6, tells us Jesus had been teaching in synagogues throughout the region.

2.         As was His habit, Jesus visited His hometown synagogue and was invited to read from the scroll a passage from the prophets. Every Sabbath day service consisted of readings, prayers, hymns, sermons, and teachings. (Our Sunday morning worship service is patterned after that of these ancient Jewish synagogues.)

3.         The passage Jesus read was from Isaiah chapter 61. It is not sure if this had been the exact passage prescribed or if Jesus turned to another section.

4.         The opening piece is about the anointed one, the Christ, whose work it was to proclaim good news to the poor, and from “proclaim” we have our word “evangelize.”

5.         Finishing reading the passage from Isaiah Jesus sits down and announces that this prophesy of Isaiah was right then fulfilled.

6.         Then trouble arose. Afterall Jesus was merely Joseph’s son and Jesus replies that no prophet, one who speaks God’s word, is accepted where he is known.

7.         Jesus then proceeds to remind those present that Elijah was sent to a Gentile woman and Elisha to “cleanse” a non-Gentile named Naaman. These stores are found in 1 Kings and 2 Kings.

8.         Hearing this, the synagogue crowd became angry and attempted to throw Jesus off a cliff, a kind of “stoning” in that day.

9.         Despite this effort, Jesus walked right their midst and left Nazareth. Jesus never returned.