Luke 5
The people crowded around Jesus to hear the Word of God. Nearby at the shore of the lake were two ships with the fishermen there cleaning their nets. The Lord asked Peter to thrust his ship out a little from the land so He could speak to the multitude. He entered Peter's ship and sat down and taught the people on the seashore.
After speaking, the Lord asked Peter to launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a draft. Peter answered, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net... [enclosing] a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake." He called for help, and soon both ships were so filled with fish that they began to sink.
Peter learned at this time what most people never learn: that the whole person is bad. He said, "I am a sinful man, O Lord." He was all sin. What a lesson to learn. Job learned this lesson as well as Peter. The Lord did not depart from Peter, nor did Peter depart from the Lord. Jesus does not speak any more about sin, but grace makes Peter a fisher of men. Peter was told to put down his nets (plural). What would have happened if Peter had put down all of his nets instead of just one?
Leprosy—Uncleanness
A leper, seeing Jesus, fell on his face and said, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." Touching him, Jesus said, "I will: be thou clean." And immediately the leprosy departed from him. The cleansed leper was told to go to the priest for a testimony, and as a result great multitudes came together to hear Jesus and to be healed. Between healings, Jesus went into the wilderness and prayed.
One day when Jesus was teaching, a large company of Pharisees and doctors of the law were sitting by from every town of Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem, "and the power of the Lord was present to heal them." How different an attitude was formed with the poor, the blind and the lame who were healed! A person must feel his need for a Savior to be healed. These elders were Just as much in need as the poor, but they did not feel it.
Levi and a Great Feast
Jesus said to a tax gatherer, Levi, "Follow Me." He arose, left all and followed Jesus. There did not seem to be any outward affliction that needed healing, but the Lord saw what was in the heart of Levi-he was a sinner and needed Jesus.
Levi made a great feast for Jesus in his own house. There was a great company of publicans and others who sat down with Jesus. How near Jesus came to the sinner-to us.
The Pharisees, with the scribes, spoke against the disciples because they ate and drank with publicans and sinners. Jesus answered, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Some asked why the Lord's disciples didn't fast. He answered, "Can ye make the children of the bride-chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?... When the bridegroom shall be taken away from them... then shall they fast."
The Garments and the Wine
A new piece of cloth is not compatible with an old garment, nor old wine with a new wine bottle. Christianity is not agreeable with the traditions of the past. A new character is needed to enter into the new order of grace. New wine will break the old bottles (sheepskins)
and the wine (new Joys) will be spilled. There is no capacity in the old bottles for the new wine (joys) of the kingdom of God. The new wine must be kept in new bottles, then both are preserved-the new joys of a new nature. "No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new; for he saith, The old is better." Are not men slaves to habits?