Calling of the Disciples - Luke 5:1-11

The Story in a Nutshell

The story continues…

One day Jesus was preaching to large crowds on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  There were so many people that Jesus needed more room.  Jesus saw an empty fishing boat at the water’s edge, stepped into it, and asked the boat’s owner, Simon, to push him out into the water where he sat in the boat and preached.  Now there was room for everyone.

When Jesus finished preaching, he returned to shoe and got out.  Then Jesus told Simon to take the boat to deep water, let down his nets, and he would catch a lot of fish.

Simon replied, “Master, my partners and I tried that all last night and we didn’t catch anything.  But, if you say so, we’ll try it again.”  Before Simon knew it the nets were so full of fish that they began to tear.  Simon called his partners for another boat to come out and help.  Soon the boats were so full of fish that they were on the verge of sinking.  All the fishermen – Simon, James and John (the sons of Zebedee) – were amazed.

Suddenly, Simon realized what had happened.  He fell to his knees in front of Jesus and asked Jesus to go away.  He said, I am a great sinner and you shouldn’t be around me.”

Jesus told Simon, “Don’t worry.  From now on you will be fishing for men.”

And with that, Simon, James, and John left everything they owned and followed Jesus.

To be continued…

What did you learn from the story?

If you want to gain a full understanding of the complete story, and for help in answering some of the questions below, you may want to have the following items as additional resources:  a Bible, a dictionary, and a Bible commentary on the Book of Luke(optional).

1. Where was Jesus preaching?
2. What do you think Jesus was preaching about?
3. What was the problem with the crowd?
4. How did Jesus solve the problem?
5. What did Jesus do after he finished preaching?
6. What was Simon’s response?
7. What happened when Simon let his nest down?
8. What began to happen with the nets?
9. How did Simon solve that problem?
10. What was the next problem?
11. What did Simon suddenly realize?
12. What did Simon ask Jesus to do?
13. What did Jesus tell Simon?
14. When Simon, James, and John returned to shore, what did they do?
15. What did you learn about God, Jesus, and people from the story?

Have questions about God, Jesus, and the Bible? An excellent source for answers to your questions is gotquestions.org. Check it out. gotquestions.org.

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