Today Jesus is teaching the multitudes from Peter’s boat. When He finishes teaching, Jesus tells Peter to cast the fishing nets and He performs a miracle by filling the nets. Peter is so overwhelmed by the power of Christ that he falls at His knees and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
This is a common response when man encounters God bc God’s holiness and our sinfulness are both magnified. But Jesus came to give His life for us so that we can be declared righteous and commissioned for the work of the Lord. So Jesus tells Peter, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” He means that God is going to use this fisherman in a mighty way to draw others to Him. We will see the Lord develop Peter over time into a great disciple maker bc the God of Peter is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. He is also the same God of anyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Lord will constantly be at work in our lives; growing us to be more like Him and equipping us for the work of the Kingdom.
Jesus further reveals His power when a paralyzed man is lowered from a roof into the home where He is teaching. Jesus tells the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.” 🤔 The people were probably thinking that telling him he could now walk would have made him happier. Jesus does later tell the man that he can walk and the man gets up and walks out of that home. However, Jesus knows we have a need far greater than physical healing. We need to be restored to Jesus’s Father, the Lord, and that is why He is here!
The scribes question Jesus in their thoughts. They think, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Jesus, knowing all thoughts and intentions of everyone, responds to them. Jesus explains that He said the paralytic’s sins were forgiven out loud instead of just saying he was healed so “that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.”
Jesus goes on to eat with Matthew, a despised tax collector, and other sinners, which the uptight scribes and Pharisees frown upon. Jesus tells them, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
So the sinners eat and drink with Jesus (the bride-groom) while He is here on earth “But the days will come when the bride-groom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”
Keep reading.
(Luke 5:1-11, Mark 1:40-45, Matthew 8:1-4, Luke 5:12-16, Mark 2:1-12, Matthew 9:1-8, Luke 5:17-26, Mark 2:13-17, Matthew 9:9-13, Luke 5:27-32, Mark 2:18-22, Matthew 9:14-17, Luke 5:33-39)
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Chronological Bible in Layman's Terms 