Luke 5:10

And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, In our exposition of Matthew 4:18, we have shown, as it appears to us, that this was quite a different occasion from that, and consequently that the calling of the disciples there and here recorded were different callings. This one, as we take it, was neither their first call, recorded in John 1:35; nor their second, recorded in Matthew 4:18; but their third and last before their appointment to the apostleship. These calls are to be viewed as progressive stages in their preparation for the great work before them, and something similar is observable in the providential p...

Luke 5:10._For afterwards thou shalt catch men. _The words of Matthew are, _I will make you fishers of men; _and those of Mark are, _I will cause that you may become fishers of men. _They teach us, that Peter, and the other three, were not only gathered by Christ to be his disciples, but were made apostles, or, at least, chosen with a view to the apostleship. It is, therefore, not merely a general call to faith, but a special call to a particular office, that is here described. The duties of instruction, I do admit, are not yet enjoined upon them; but still it is to prepare them for being instructors, (340) that Christ receives and admits them into his family. This ought to be carefully weighed; for all are not commanded to leave their parents and their former occupation, and literally (341) to follow Chri

1-11 When Christ had done preaching, he told Peter to apply to the business of his calling. Time spent on week days in public exercises of religion, need be but little hinderance in time, and may be great furtherance to us in temper of mind, as to our worldly business. With what cheerfulness may we go about the duties of our calling, when we have been with God, and thus have our worldly employments sanctified to us by the word and prayer! Though they had taken nothing, yet Christ told them to let down their nets again. We must not abruptly quit our callings because we have not the success in them we desire. We are likely to speed well, when we follow the guidance of Christ's word. The draught of fishes was by a miracle. We must all, like Peter, own ourselves to be sinful men, therefore Jesus Christ might justly depart from us. But we must beseech him that he would not depart; for woe un...

Verse Luke 5:10. _THOU SHALT CATCH MEN._] ανθρωπους εση ζωγρων, _Thou_ _shalt catch men alive_; this is the proper signification of the word. _Fear not_: these discoveries of God tend to _life_, not to _death_; and ye shall become the instruments of _life_ and _salvation_ to a lost world. _These_ fish are taken to be _killed_ and fed on; but those who are converted under your ministry shall be preserved unto _eternal life_. Matthew 4:18, c., where this subject is considered more at large....

FEAR NOT - He calmed their fears. With mildness and tenderness he stilled all their troubled feelings, and to their surprise announced that henceforward they should be appointed as heralds of salvation. FROM HENCEFORTH - Hereafter. SHALT CATCH MEN - Thou shalt be a minister of the gospel, and thy business shall be to win people to the truth that they may be saved....

EXPOSITION When St. Luke compiled his Gospel, many of the circumstances connected with the early relations of the leaders of Christianity with their Founder were so well known, and had been so often repeated, that it seemed unnecessary to rehearse them afresh; hence to us the seeming abruptness of the introduction of Simon (Peter), James, and John in the scene now about to be related. In the preceding, the healing of Simon's wife's mother of a great fever is related without any explanation, as though Simon Peter's connection with the Lord was a fact too well known to require any comment or explanation. The association of Jesus and these chosen men seems to have commenced as follows: Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew (sons of Jona), John and James (the sons of Zebedee and Salome), belonged to fisher families dwelling on the banks of the Lake of Gennesaret. They seemed to have been fas...

AND SO WAS ALSO JAMES AND JOHN, THE SONS OF ZEBEDEE,.... Who were in the other ship, and had been beckoned to them to come and help them, and did come, and were witnesses of the miracle: WHICH WERE PARTNERS WITH SIMON; were sharers with him in loss and gain in the fishing trade; these were equally astonished at the miracle, as Simon and his brother, and the men that were in the boat with them, where Jesus was: AND JESUS SAID UNTO SIMON; who was at his knees, and expressed his dread of his majesty, and the consternation of mind he was in particularly: FEAR NOT; do not be afraid of me, I shall do thee no harm, nor shall the boats sink, or any damage come to any person, or to the vessels, nor be so much amazed and affrighted, at the multitude of the fish taken: FROM HENCEFORTH THOU SHALT CATCH MEN; alive, as the word signifies, or "unto life", as the Syriac and Persic versions render it...

Luke 5:1. _And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets._ Before folding them up, as if they intended to do no more with them just then, as they had been working all night in vain. Luke 5:3. _And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land._ It is very difficult to speak effectively when the people come too close to the speaker; and, sometimes, a little inconvenience like that may interfere with the flow of the speaker's thoughts and words. Even the Saviour seems to have felt that he needed a little breathing space between himself an

CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The Miraculous Drought of Fishes. (Luke 5:1)_ 2. The Leper Healed. (Luke 5:12) 3. The Paralytic Healed. (Luke 5:17) 4. The Call of Matthew and the Feast (Luke 5:27) 5. The Scribes and Pharisees Answered (Luke 5:30) 6. The Parable of the Garment and the Bottle. (Luke 5:36 .) Luke 5:1 Two miraculous draughts of fishes are found in the Gospels. The one he

THE CALL OF THE FIRST DISCIPLES (_cf._ Mark 1:16 *, Matthew 4:18 *). The eager crowds that attend Jesus show His need of assistants. The simpler story of Mk. and Mt. is here replaced by one which introduces a miraculous catch of fish. The similarity with John 21 leads us to think that Lk. (who has no Galilean appearances of the Risen Jesus) may have used that incident here. Nor is it difficult to discern symbolism in the story; the deep water is the Gentile world, but Peter, though the preaching of the Gospel to the Jews had been a failure, is reluctant to enter on a wider mission (_cf._ Acts 11:1). The concentration of the narrative on Peter (James and John are only just mentioned, Andrew not at all), may be due to th