CALLED TO SIGNIFICANCE
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: LUKE 5:1-11
Lesson 6 January 9, 2021
Key verse
And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear; from now on you will be catching men”.
Luke 5: 10
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
Some children and young people grow with the wrong idea that they are unimportant, ordinary people doing ordinary things and that is all that they can do. God the Father sees them differently however. He tells those that believe in Him that they are not ordinary people, that He loves them, that they are part of His beloved family and that they should not underestimate their position in this world and their position in the kingdom of God.
We are studying today about the experience that some fishermen had with the Lord Jesus Christ. They too thought that they were just ordinary people who were not so important in the world. But Jesus thought differently about them and He called them to be His great disciples who would change the entire world and lead many people into eternal life.
Now remember that these fishermen were regarded as uncultured and not so educated people who could only do hard and rough work. The sophisticated people and their religious and political leaders of Israel looked down on people like that and did not regard them as being of much value, even though they depended on them for food.
But the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ does not look on people the way that snobbish people in the world look at people. His values are completely different from the values of the people in the world.
One day Jesus had to preach to a big, big crowd of people and they came so close to Him and pressed on Him so much that He had no room to even stand up and speak and so He had to ask a fisherman called Simon Peter to let Him use Peter’s boat so He could sit in the boat and speak to the people.
Peter agreed to help Jesus for he thought very highly of Jesus, for Jesus before this had healed his wife’s mother from a bad sickness.
After Jesus had finished his teaching to the people Jesus told Peter and his fellow fishermen to take the boats out into the deep part of the lake named Gennesaret and let their nets down. Peter didn’t think that this would catch a lot of fish for he and his fellow fishermen had just finished fishing all night and they had caught nothing. Their nets were empty.
But though he was a little skeptical that this casting their nets out into the Lake again would catch anything, he obeyed Jesus. He did not expect to get a special blessing. Peter and his friends were expert fisherman and they knew that it made no sense to fish in the hot sun for in any case fish would not come to the surface anyway at that time.
But even though fishermen were noted for their quick temper and their ability to work hard and they were proud that they knew their job, Jesus still gave them instructions as to how to fish even though Jesus Himself was not a fisherman.
Their obedience brought an unexpected blessing to them. The lesson is that if you obey Jesus and what He says you too will get an unexpected blessing which will be a great and fabulous blessing.
When Peter and his friends obeyed Jesus and they went out into the lake again and let down their nets into the water so many big fish went into their nets that their nets begun to break and Peter and his friends had to rush and get others to help them gather the fish. Even with this in dialogue of fish that they caught started breaking everybody’s nets, Peter and his friends were absolutely astounded and amazed.
Note that God was very generous to Peter and his friends because they had obeyed Jesus. Remember too that when you obey Jesus God will be very generous to you and you will enjoy your life better and better.
When Peter saw what had happened he realized that Jesus was not an ordinary person and he fell down on his knees before Jesus and told Jesus that he recognized that he was so sinful that Jesus should not come near to him. But Jesus comforted him and told him that it was fine but he should leave a lot of fishing equipment for the use of the rest of his family and he and his friends should come and become disciples following Jesus and learning from Him. Jesus said that instead of catching fish they should preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to people and that would in a sense catch them and bring them to Jesus. Their preaching would lead to a great salvation for a great deal of people.
Jesus used this incident to show Peter and his friends that if they obeyed Jesus and followed Him they would do very well and be extremely successful in getting a lot of people to come to believe in Jesus. Jesus had chosen them and some other men to be disciples and they would afterwards be called Apostles. Jesus would teach them and they would be able to teach us to follow what Jesus wanted us to learn.
The Apostles therefore are special people and they were the ones who taught us a lot about Jesus and about God the Father.
We should listen to them and only to them. They were especially called and appointed by Jesus. They are the only ones who knew the truth and could teach the truth. So remember that we should obey God
and what the Apostles teach.
God is generous. He will give us much more that we even asked for and more than what we deserve. God likes to give a lot, what we call abundantly.
So just remember that you are not just an ordinary person in the sight of God. Once you come to Him He will shower you with love and abundance.
We repeat that Jesus calls you to significance, to do a great work for Him. He has a job and a mission for you and you should not be afraid for He is always there to look after you. He has all power and authority and nobody can stop Jesus from doing what He is doing through you. You might be afraid like Peter for you know that you have committed all kinds of sins, but remember that Jesus will clean you up and forgive you of all your sins, save you, and make you into a great person in the Kingdom of God.