Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
In first century Judaism, a system of learning had been developed and had become the normal practice.
There was a system set in place similar to our educational system today except it was a religious education system and not a secular one.
Where as we have elementary school, middle school, and high school, the Jews had Beth Sefer, Beth Talmud, and Beth Midrash.
Nearly all children—both boys and girls from age 5-10—went to Beth Sefer (House of the Book) and learned the Torah.
After this most boys 10-12 went on to Beth Talmud (House of Learning) and learned oral traditions and basic skills in understanding the Torah.
After that, only those who were wealthy or extremely intelligent went on to the Beth Midrash (House of Exposition).
It was here that young men, 13 years or so, would move out of the house of their parents and live with rabbis and learn, not only what the rabbi believed and taught, but also how the rabbi lived.
If a young man was fortunate enough to do this, he would also call his rabbi father.
In the end, the disciple would imitate his rabbi in both his teaching and his living.
When he was ready, he then would be sent out to find disciples of his own.
We even see these phases coming through in the gospel accounts.
When Jesus was 12 years old, he was there with the teachers (Luke never used the word rabbi), asking questions and astounding them with his knowledge.
This was the way of Beth Talmud.
Later in Jesus’s, ministry, he would tell his disciples,
In Matthew 23, Jesus talks about his disciples not to be called rabbi, or taking another father, or even elevating themselves to instructor.
And of course, the last thing Jesus does is send his disciples out to gain new disciples, teaching them to observe all that he has commanded.
So, it seems that Jesus was familiar with and perhaps even followed this sort of custom, though maybe not to its fullest extent, as we see in the text today.
Because what we see today is Jesus’s calling of his first disciples, except they weren’t 13 year olds.
This story revolves around Jesus and Simon and really focuses on Simon in particular.
So what we find today are five details that help us focus Simon Peter’s calling.
The first detail was that Simon was weary.
The second was that Simon was willing.
The third detail was Simon’s windfall.
Then his woefulness.
Finally, we see the details of Simon’s work.
Simon’s Weariness
Simon’s Willingness
Simon’s Windfall
Simon’s Woefulness
Simon’s Work
Simon’s Weariness
The first detail that we see of Simon’s calling is his weariness.
Luke quickly gave the location and circumstance of this encounter that Jesus and Simon had.
It was on Lake GennesaRET, which by the way is also called Lake of ChinneRETH, Sea of Galilee, and Sea of Tiberius in the Bible.
And it happened because the crowds were pressing in on him.
But this was not some unplanned, spontaneous event.
This was the planned calling of Jesus’s first and foremost disciple.
This was a providential encounter.
As a good historian, Luke is only wanting to give the setting here and so he doesn’t want us to worry about what it was that Jesus was teaching the crowd or why they were pressing in on him.
He wants us to focus in on Jesus’s intruding on Simon’s life.
And I use that word intruding purposefully because Simon is weary.
In verse 2, we read that Jesus saw two boats and the fishermen from those boats were washing their nets and find out by verse 5 that the men had been fishing all night long.
But here is Jesus coming up, choosing Simon’s boat, and calling upon Simon to stop washing his nets, to get in his boat, and to put out into the shallow part of the water.
This is so that Jesus could teach the crowds.
Who knows how long that took!
If it was a short five minutes, Jesus could probably have done that on the shore.
Why not have the crowds back up?
Why have Simon stop what he was doing just so that Jesus could teach a pushy crowd?
Instead, Jesus chose to interrupt this weary fisherman who had stayed up all night, who was trying to wash his nets, and then go home to get some sleep.
Have you ever had to stay up all night?
Maybe you worked midnight shift for a while.
Perhaps you spent your night in heated conversation with someone.
Maybe you couldn’t sleep because something was on your mind.
Maybe the baby kept you up all night.
You’re tired.
You just want to get some sleep.
But the phone rings.
You’ve run out of milk for the kids’ breakfast.
The dog chewed up a pillow and there is stuffing everywhere.
Something is keeping you from that cozy, warm bed of yours.
Jesus loves to interrupt us.
Jesus is not shy about intruding into people’s lives.
The funeral procession in Nain, the synagogues of Nazareth and Capernaum, the Samaritan woman at the well, and here Simon’s boat.
But there is always a reason for Jesus’s intrusion.
We only need to look.
Stop and think for a moment.
There were crowds flocking to Jesus.
They wanted to hear the word of God.
They wanted to be healed of their diseases and possessions.
But Jesus flocked to Simon.
It makes sense for us Christians to go after Jesus.
He’s everything we need.
But for him to come after us makes no sense.
We have nothing he needs.
So when Jesus interrupts our lives, let us count it a privilege even if it is inconvenient.
But it didn’t stop with asking Simon to go out a little from shore.
He then told him to go into the deep part of the lake.
And we finally hear from Simon.
Everything he says is important!
We cannot overlook his words in the least.
The word “Master,” is not the same word as “Lord,” that we often think of.
Instead, this word that Luke recorded is found only in Luke.
It’s the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Rabbi.”
Rabbi literally means, “My captain” or “My master.”
We get a glimpse of frustration from Simon.
We get a glimpse of his weariness.
Not only has Jesus interrupted him from completing his work and made him wait while he was teaching others.
But now he has ordered him out in to the deep and to lower the very nets that he and his crew were cleaning!
In the original, the words, “all night” come right after Master because the emphasis was on the length of time.
“All through the night, we toiled.”
But then the word used for “toiled” is the word in which we get our word copious—like someone took copious notes.
They took exhaustive notes.
That’s what Simon was indicating here to Jesus.
“Master, all through the night we worked our fingers to the bone trying to catch something and we got nothing; we’re exhausted.”
Ever been there?
You’ve labored.
You’ve toiled.
You’ve worked yourself until you conceded it was pointless.
Nothing would come of all your efforts.
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