Jesus Calls The First Disciples Series

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret (5:1). Commentator William Barclay says, “The famous sheet of water in Galilee is called by three names—the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias and the Lake of Gennesaret. It is thirteen miles long by eight miles wide. It lies in a dip in the earth’s surface and is 680 feet below sea level. That fact gives it an almost tropical climate. Nowadays it is not very populous but in the days of Jesus it had nine townships clustered round its shores, none of fewer than 15,000 people.”

Luke said that the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God. Jesus had come primarily as a preacher, and he was proclaiming to them the word of God.

But, it was difficult for everyone to hear Jesus. So, he looked around him, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat (5:2-3).

Becoming a true disciple of Jesus always begins with listening to Jesus. For the people in that region, it meant going to listen to Jesus on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret.

For us, listening to Jesus means exposure to his words in the Bible. It means that we must study the Bible, on our own and with other believers. It means that we must listen to the reading of God’s word in the worship service. It means that we must listen to sound, faithful preaching of God’s word. The Bible says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

Of course, the person who heard Jesus best was Simon Peter, the owner of the boat. He needed to listen to Jesus. Peter had heard Jesus’ authoritative preaching in the synagogue in Capernaum on a Sabbath day. He had seen Jesus cast the demon out of a man in the synagogue. He had seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law later on that Sabbath day. Then, when the Sabbath day ended, he had seen Jesus heal every person in Capernaum of diseases and demons. Surely, that was enough to make anyone believe that Jesus really was the Messiah, the Son of God and Savior of sinners. And yet, it seems that Peter was not yet a wholehearted follower of Jesus.

We learn an important lesson here. Jesus calls people to follow him wholeheartedly. Sadly, many people listen to Jesus but do not follow him wholeheartedly. They listen to the word of God in sermons or Bible studies, and they say, “That was a great message!” But that is as far as it ever goes.

Listening to the word of God is important. In fact, it is a necessary and essential first step in becoming a true disciple of Jesus. However, it is only the first step. It is useless if that is the only step that is taken by a person.

James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” People who only listen to the word of God and do not practice what the word teaches deceive themselves.