Luke 5 Discussion

Hungry nets fill to breaking, a leper is touched back into community, a paralyzed man walks with forgiven sins, and a tax collector throws a party for grace. We journey through Luke 5 with open Bibles and honest hearts, asking what these moments reveal about us, about God, and about what it means to actually follow Jesus right now. Along the way, we trace how cleansing leads to calling, how authority to forgive is confirmed by power to heal, and why joy—not performance—sits at the center of life with Christ.

We start at the shoreline where Peter’s awe turns into confession. Instead of disqualifying him, Jesus requalifies him: “From now on you’ll fish for people.” That thread runs to the rooftop scene where friends tear through barriers to place a paralyzed man before Jesus. We talk about faith you can see, hearts Jesus can read, and the stunning claim that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Then we sit at Levi’s table and watch grace offend religious expectations, reframing holiness as presence that heals rather than distance that judges.

Finally, we tackle the fasting question. With the bridegroom present, the moment calls for feasting, not mourning. New wine demands new skins—fresh habits, fresh priorities, and a reoriented allegiance where “leaving everything” means Jesus comes first in work, reputation, and plans. Expect practical takeaways on confessing pride, carrying a friend’s “mat,” and sharing the good news in ordinary places like offices, gas stations, and kitchen tables.

If this journey sparks something in you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope today, and leave a review to help others find it. Then take the next step: answer Jesus’ simple, life-changing invitation—follow me.

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Chapters

• 0:10 Framing Luke 5 And Goals
• 0:27 Calling Fishermen And Miraculous Catch
• 0:35 Leper Healed And Priestly Witness
• 0:45 Paralytic Forgiven And Raised
• 1:01 Levi Called And A Feast With Sinners
• 1:04 Why Fasting While The Bridegroom Is Here
• 1:19 Healings As Cleansing And Enabling
• 2:15 Peter’s Awe, Sin, And Jesus’ Call
• 3:01 Faith Seen In Action And Hearts
• 7:05 Nature Of Man And Proper Response
• 9:58 God’s Compassion And New Joy
• 10:37 Application: Allegiance And Mission

Transcript

Pastor Plek: 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter day. Keeps the devil away. Pastor Pleck, along with Pastor Holland. We're going to outline Luke 5, and then we are going to find some observations, some interpretations about the nature of man, the character of God, and finally some application. In Luke 5, verses 1 through 11, we have the calling of the first disciples, which involves a miraculous catch of fish. In verses 12 through 16, we've got the healing of a man with leprosy, and we see Jesus touching and healing him and then instructing him to show himself to the priest as a testimony. Then in verses 17 through 26, the healing of the paralytic, one of my personal favorite stories, where he tells a paralyzed man his sins are forgiven. Everyone freaks out, and then he says, But so that you may believe that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, rise, take up your mat and walk. Then you have the calling of Levi, verses 27 through 32. And then finally, questions about fasting in verses 33 through 39, where we get into the Pharisees and the and John's disciples and the difference with Jesus and his disciples. All right. So where are some observations that just jumped out at you, Holland?

Pastor Holland: 1:19

Okay, first thing that jumps out to me is the two healings that you have the leper and the paralytic.

Pastor Plek: 1:25

Yeah.

Pastor Holland: 1:26

Leprosy was symbolic of like the corruption and pollution of sin. It was like a physical, you know, visible sign of that, um, a symbol of that. And then um being paralyzed is, you know, you're unable to um work, you're unable to serve, you're unable to do these, you know, certain types of things. And so for Jesus to heal these two um people back to back in secession like this, I think is is really neat in showing that Jesus not only cleanses us from sin, but he enables us to serve him. So faith in Jesus brings about salvation for the from the pollution, the corruption. We get freedom from that, but also we're empowered to serve the Lord. Um, the paralytic, you know, is able to freely serve God as he was meant to be.

Pastor Plek: 2:15

All right. What about this amazing, crazy catch of fish? I mean, this is one of those things you go, either it could be folklore, uh, it could be why doesn't he do this more often? Why aren't there more massive catches of fish and him feeding up villages and whatnot? What do you think?

Pastor Holland: 2:32

Well, Jesus, uh, you know, he's able Jesus has done crazier things. That's true, you know. Um, and he's gonna rise from the dead eventually. Um, God spoke the whole world into existence. Um, we have manna from heaven, we have all these other miracles. This is not, you know, the craziest thing. It is really powerful, but I would say that God actually loves and delights in the ordinary way of doing things. So God um is pleased with fishermen having normal catches and feeding their families and doing good business day to day. Those things are actually pleasing to God too. This is something that was a powerful testimony to the divinity of Jesus as he's calling his first disciples.

Pastor Plek: 3:10

And I love Peter's response because it's so real to me. Yes. He goes, Go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. His response wasn't, I'll follow you anywhere. We could get, we could make some money doing fishing uh expeditions. It was leave me alone. And Jesus undeterred says, Ah, don't worry about that. From now on, you'll be making fishers amend. I I thought that was a wild like rejection of Peter's no. It's like I chose you, you don't really have a choice, so we're doing this, uh, which I really appreciate. That Jesus takes us in spite of our disbelief, unwillingness, and our sin.

Pastor Holland: 3:44

Yeah, it it really just it reminds me of when I first became a Christian. Um, and I had I was reading the Bible and I was going, man, Jesus is cool. I want to follow him. And then I get to the Sermon on the Mount, you know, and I feel convicted of sin, and I have that same feeling where I was thinking, man, I want to follow him. He's so awesome. And then the conviction made me feel like he would never take someone like me. Right. Like, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. And I just felt like, man, I Jesus is awesome, but he wouldn't want somebody like me. And thankfully I had a Christian roommate who shared the gospel with me and said that Jesus actually loves sinners. So that was good news.

Pastor Plek: 4:23

That is awesome. I love that story. It's awesome too because not only does Peter say, Go away from the Lord, I'm a sinful man, Jesus then walks up to probably a way worse, in Peter's eyes, guy. Uh Levi, the tax collector and says, Come follow me. And then he says, We're gonna have a dinner party at your house. And all of Levi's buddies show up, and the Pharisees are furious that he is hanging out with sinners and eating and drinking with them because you are not supposed to eat and drink with those who are far from God uh who were rebellious as outwardly as they were. Yeah, that's good. Um, what about um I I do appreciate also um the it says when he saw their faith. And the question I always have is that he saw the friend's faith that brought the paralyzed guy. Yes. Or is he sees their faith meaning the friends and the paralyzed guy? I always in my head I doubt they brought him against his will, you know. They could have. Maybe maybe they're like, maybe the paralyzed guy's like, uh, there's no this Jesus is not working out. Nuh-uh. Like, well, we're just gonna take it right to him. Let's go see what happens. And they believed and brought him and lowered him down, and bam, wild.

Pastor Holland: 5:44

Yeah, I he's gotta be included because you know, verse 20, when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Okay, man, thy sins are forgiven thee. I've got the King James here. So he saw their faith. Their crew and be like, you know what? All right, I'll forgive you. Yeah. I don't know. I think he's included in that. All right, all right. But uh, I I love that I love that he says he saw their faith. How do you see someone's faith?

Pastor Plek: 6:09

Well, he also read the minds of the Pharisees.

Pastor Holland: 6:11

Yeah, true. So is he saying that he just read their mind or their heart, or is he saying through their actions, their faith is made known, made visible?

Pastor Plek: 6:19

It's true, but what if they had deceitful actions? Deceitful. So, for example, the Pharisees were sitting right there, they didn't say anything, they were just thinking in their hearts, negative thoughts. You know, for all a normal person would know, they brought this paralyzed guy to trap Jesus and say, aha, so you can't do it. But they saw their actual faith, and he can read your heart and your mind.

Pastor Holland: 6:42

Okay. I just faith without works is dead, though, right? That is true. So these are the work, would you agree that these are the works of faith? Absolutely, friends. Okay. So Jesus recognized that.

Pastor Plek: 6:51

So it wasn't works without faith.

Pastor Holland: 6:53

It wasn't works without faith, neither was it faith without works.

Pastor Plek: 6:56

Fair enough.

Pastor Holland: 6:56

All right. Have we answered any of the questions, the normal things yet? No observations. That's what I'm saying.

Pastor Plek: 7:01

No, observations still. Um how come Jesus doesn't fast? Why don't the why doesn't he train the disciples in fasting? He just goes like, ah, you guys will get that when you need it.

Pastor Holland: 7:14

Yeah.

Pastor Plek: 7:14

Well, he explains it.

Pastor Holland: 7:16

He's he says uh that um can you KJ? I got KJV with me today, so just bear with me. Can ye make the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? So he he they're not fasting because they're experiencing something that is totally unique and you know, never before happened and unrepeatable until the return of Christ. They're experiencing God in the flesh with them. And because of that very special circumstance, it is not the time to fast.

Pastor Plek: 7:50

Okay.

Pastor Holland: 7:51

Um, that's really that's explaining why his disciples aren't fasting. We know Jesus himself fasted in the wilderness when he was led there by the Spirit. He did. Um, but with his disciples in his public ministry, it was not a ministry marked by fasting.

Pastor Plek: 8:05

But remember in Mark 9, 24, at least in the KJV, I think it says this kind of only comes out with fasting and prayer.

Pastor Holland: 8:10

Yeah.

Pastor Plek: 8:11

Uh or is it the KJV? I can't remember. Anyway, like the Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so that's where I'm like, if he tells them they gotta fast, at some point you gotta say, let me train you. But maybe he's just like, don't eat. That's basically what you do. Yeah. All right. Uh, what are some of the things that uh or sorry, what are some truths or principles about the nature of man that are should come out to you?

Pastor Holland: 8:35

Um we are broken by sin um in our natural selves and in our hearts. You see, you see the the hard-heartedness of the scribes and Pharisees, you see the sickness of paralytic and a leper, and you see the sinfulness of you know the Matthew's friends um who are engaged in these sinful things. So you see all manners of brokenness here um in this chapter.

Pastor Plek: 9:04

Yeah, how about this? Mankind responds to God uh by leaving everything to follow him. I mean, at least that's I guess that we should anyway. That's the proper response. The proper response. But what you see it here with um the disciple or James and um John and Peter and Andrew leave the fishing business after the greatest catch of all time. They leave it all, follow Jesus. And then uh Matthew or Levi work in the tax booth, leaves it all, and follows Jesus. That I guess that's the the proper response of humans is to leave it all behind, to follow them. And that might mean you actually stay in your job, but you still leave it all. Um, I think sometimes that could be a little bit a challenging thing to wrap your head around of what does it mean to leave everything behind? I think it just means like the um your primary responsibility is now first to Jesus. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Pastor Holland: 9:58

Uh what about character of God? Character of God, he he has compassion, he um he forgives sins and he heals um out of a heart of compassion.

Pastor Plek: 10:11

Yeah, good. How about uh God brings transformative joy um through his presence, and he's looking to destroy uh or not destroy, but he it's incompatible with the old ways that people doing religious business were used to. Yeah, that's good. Uh and his compassion was powerful. All right. Well, how about some application then?

Pastor Holland: 10:37

Um, I always like, you know, we're on our uh third gospel now. So this is our third time through um disciples leaving everything to follow Jesus. And every time I read it, I'm just like, man, it's such a good reminder and encouragement that like what you said, like your your allegiance is first and foremost to Jesus. If they're, you know, whatever it costs you, whatever it you know you need to leave behind to give your full allegiance to Jesus, um, he's worthy of it. He's worth it.

Pastor Plek: 11:05

I how about this? A sin to confess. Well, I think there's this would convict me what are some areas of self-reliance or religious pride, like the Pharisees, yeah, who were like judging sinners uh and going like he Jesus is with the wrong people. Yeah, you have the wrong people. And I think there's a tendency in me to go, you have the wrong people.

Pastor Holland: 11:30

Yeah, a couple more. Um, one, catch men, right? Jesus says I'm gonna teach you to catch men and send you out as fishers of men. So um go tell someone about Jesus today. Yeah, the gas station, the restaurant, your coworker, a neighbor, whatever. Just tell somebody about Jesus.

Pastor Plek: 11:44

Or how about even more simply, today, if you're you listening to this maybe for the first time, Jesus says to you, follow me. Oh, yeah. Command obey, follow Jesus. All right, we'll see you next time on a chapter a day.