Sermon: Encountering The Holy - Pt. 1 (Luke 5:1-26)

Encountering The Holy – Pt. 1
Sunday, April 19th, 2026
Third Sunday of Easter
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Luke 5:1–26

Prayer

Marvelous are Thy works O Lord, and that our soul knoweth right well, that You Dear Father, should send Your Son into this world, and that the Holy Spirit also should be sent from the Father and the Son, and that in the presence of Your Holiness, we are made holy, our sins are forgiven, our leprosy removed, our vocations changed from the catching of fish, to the catching of human beings for the kingdom of God. Grant that we may now encounter Your Holiness again, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

This morning we begin chapter 5 of Luke’s Gospel. And if you were to look back at chapter 4, I think it would be accurate to say that God gave us a lot of warnings in those sermons. Warnings about the dangers of the devil, the dangers of familiarity with Jesus without love for Jesus, the dangers of living in ignorance and unbelief.

• Recall that Luke 4 began with God warning us about how the devil tempts Christ. And if the devil tempted Christ, he will also tempt those who want to follow Christ. And so we learned from Jesus that the way you overcome temptation is by holding fast to the Word of God.
• After that we were given two cautionary tales of people who do not hold fast to the Word of God. First in Nazareth, then in Capernaum. In Nazareth, Jesus preached one sermon, and then they tried to kill him. In Capernaum, Jesus preaches many sermons for many weeks, and does many miracles, and yet for all that demonstration of divine power, Capernaum also is condemned for unbelief.
  • Jesus will say in Luke 10:14-15, But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.
• So God has given you many solemn warnings in this gospel. Warnings about how easy it is to slide down to hell. Just keep doing your own thing. Just keep pretending. Keep on following that deceitful heart of yours.
  • Jesus says of such people in Matthew 7:13, 21 for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it…Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
• What it is the will of Jesus’ Father in Heaven? It is to believe on the One whom the Father has sent. It says in John 3:36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. In 1 Thessalonians 4:3 Paul says, For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.
  • So putting this all together we learn that by believing in Jesus, God sanctifies us. Faith is beginning and the ongoing means by which God makes you holy as He is Holy.
  • Indeed, that is what Luke highlights for us here in chapter 5. After giving you all those warnings and cautions about unbelief, we finally get to see some real living faith. And so I pray that you have heeded those previous warnings from the Lord, and are now ready to imitate the faithful.
• The theme of Luke 5 (and on into Luke 6) is really: The Holiness of Christ. And here in verses 1-26, Luke gives us three human encounters with The Holy One, and he shows us how Christ’s Holiness transforms and sanctifies those who believe. So with that, let me give you the division of our text, although we’ll only look at verses 1-16 this morning, and the rest next week.

Outline of the Text

• In verses 1-11, we have Fishermen Called to Minister
• In verses 12-16, A Leper is Cleansed to Testify
• In verses 17-26, A Lame Man is Forgiven to Glorify God
  • Fishermen Called, A Leper Cleansed, A Lame Man Forgiven, all from encountering the Holy One with faith.

Verse 1 – Fisherman Are Called to Minister

¹And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,

• Recall Jesus has been preaching on the sabbath in the synagogues of Galilee (Luke 4:44), and now we see that His preaching continues throughout the week in the public square and in the open air. Here he is preaching by the Lake of Gennesaret which is the same body of water that is also called the Sea of Galilee (Matt 4:18, Mark 1:16), and the Sea of Tiberius (John 6:1, 21:1).
  • So that’s where we are, about 100 miles north of Jerusalem, on the shores of Galilee, and it is here that people are clamoring, pressing upon Jesus to hear the word of God from Him.
  • Well, what does Jesus do? We see in verses 2-3 that he finds for himself a pulpit, a place to preach from.

Verses 2-3

²And [he] saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.

³And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.

• Observe here the Simon is working, washing his net. He has toiled all night with his brother Andrew, and his fishing partners James and John, and despite all their work we are told in verse 5 that they have caught nothing. So here we have empty nets, empty ships, tired fishermen, and Christ the Holy One.
• Jesus asks this tired fisherman to do him a favor, “thrust out a little from the land.” And Simon complies. And then for some time, we are not told how long, Jesus sits in that boat and teaches the people. Once he is done, he then turns to Simon and says in effect, “it’s time to go fishing again.”

Verses 4-5

⁴Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

⁵And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

• Observe now the faith of Simon Peter. Simon is tired, he is an experienced fisherman who knows what he’s doing, he’s been following best practices, toiling hard all the night. And yet he is willing to do what Jesus says, why? Simply because Jesus said it.
  • This is really the essence of faith, to believe that God is trustworthy, even when what He says might not initially make much sense.
  • You look at what you have, you look at what you’ve done, and then you say to God, “Nevertheless Lord, because you told me to do this, I will do it.” This is the faith of Simon Peter, and it is a faith that all of you should imitate.
  • Well, what happens next?

Verses 6-11

⁶And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. [more accurately, “began to break”]

⁷And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.

⁸When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

⁹For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken:

¹⁰And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.

¹¹And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

• Notice, Simon trusts Jesus, and the result of that little act of faith is the greatest catch Galilee has ever seen. The catch is so great, the nets are breaking, they need a second ship to haul them all in, and when they do, even the boats begin to flounder.
• And this is the moment, this is the miracle, that Jesus wants the disciples to remember. Whenever they think about how Jesus called them to the ministry, this is the miracle he wants to impress upon their minds.
• Why? Because three and half years from now (although they do not know it yet), they will be the ones thrust out into the deep, casting their nets by preaching the Word, seeking to catch souls. So many souls that they will need fellow apostles, elders and deacons, multiple churches (more boats), to help haul in this draught to heaven’s shores.
  • We read in Acts 2:41 that after Peter’s first sermon on Pentecost, his first casting of the net, Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
    • Talk about a great catch. Imagine trying to organize, shepherd, and disciple 3,000 newly baptized souls! The church in Jerusalem grew from 120 disciples (Acts 1:15) into a mega church overnight. And that’s just the beginning!
    • We are told two chapters later in Acts 4:4, Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
  • So God is going to give these fishermen-turned-Apostles, many thousands of souls to haul in, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. You and I are part of that catch of souls, founded on the Apostles teaching. And so this miracle on the Lake of Gennesaret, is how Jesus is preparing the disciples for the future. He gives them this living analogy between the work of catching fish, and the work of catching souls.
• There are many profound and important lessons in this miracle, let me just give you a few of them.
  • 1. For starters, we learn that evangelism is a lot like fishing. You cast a clean net, you preach the pure Word, you go where Christ tells you to go, and then you leave the outcome to Him.
    • As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6 using a different analogy he says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
    • So we might say, “Simon cast the net, James and John helped haul it in, but God gave the catch.” Evangelism is a lot like fishing.
  • 2. We learn here also the importance of the boat, the visible church, the place from which Christ chose to preach from. Because when there is a catch, when a soul is converted, it needs to be gathered into that boat which is the body of Christ.
    • Otherwise, that fish might try to swim away. There is a reason we say in WCF 25.2, that outside the church “there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.” That is because the church is the place where Christ is present, where Christ is preached, where Christ Himself baptizes and feeds His people. When you are baptized, Paul says, you are baptized into Christ, you are made a member by baptism of His mystical body. And so the church is like a boat, with Christ at the helm, headed for heaven, and he wants the fish to be gathered in.

3. A third lesson we learn is the importance of having co-laborers in the ministry. Evangelism should ideally be a group effort. Simon has Andrew in his boat, and James and John are together in their boat. Later, Jesus will send out the apostles to preach two by two.

• There are of course exceptions to this rule, we might think of John the Baptist, and some of the prophets, but the normal way that Jesus calls and commissions people to evangelize/fish is in pairs or teams working together.
• So we need friendship and companionship with one another in the gospel. We need one another when we launch out into the deep, it is dangerous out there.
  • We need this corporately as a church together with other churches. This is one of the many reasons we are Presbyterians, and not Independent.
  • We also need this on a personal level, when we engage in different ministries. God wants us to labor in love together, and indeed it is by laboring together that deep friendships are often formed.
  • So who you are laboring with? Whose burden are you helping to carry? Not all are called to a formal public ministry like the apostles were, or elders and deacons are, but all are called to serve Christ and to build up His body in the ways that you can, with the gifts God has given you. So who are you laboring with? Who are you encouraging and seeking to bring along with you in your service of Christ? Or, who is already doing a good work, and so you want to learn from them and join them in their labors? Are you seeking them out?
    • Fishing alone might be peaceful, but God wants His people to fish together.
• If you are a Christian, if you are a disciple of Jesus, then God has given you some lake to fish in. So are you casting the net? Do you trust Jesus when he nudges on your heart to share the gospel, or a Word of encouragement, with that family member, or friend, or co-worker, or stranger.
  • For many of us (myself included), those conversations can be intimidating at times. We don’t want to offend people. We don’t want to get into heated arguments. We worry, what if they ask me something I don’t know the answer to. We all have different fears we must overcome. But you do trust Jesus with those fears? Are you willing to say to him, “Nevertheless (I will set my excuses aside), and I will cast the net.” I will make that phone call. I will invite them to church. I will send that message. I will pray for them.
    • God blesses those small acts of faith. God blesses us when we say to Him, “nevertheless.” And one of the blessings is that God changes you in the process. You become more bold, more unashamed of the gospel. Or you discover that you need to learn the gospel better so that you can share the good news with others. You start to get excited about what God is excited about, the kingdom, eternity, the contemplation of divine things. Are you casting the net? Are you washing your nets? Are you asking God, where in this lake do you want me to fish?
  • Some of you are not afraid to share the gospel, you are just worn out and tired. You feel like you have been praying for years for that person’s conversion, you are like Simon, you have toiled all night with nothing to show, you’ve shared the gospel multiple times with them, but still their heart is dead to the truth. That can be a discouraging burden to carry, but you are not alone in that experience. In fact, prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were given that exact burden to carry. To go and preach to a people who, on the whole, would not listen.
    • And so if that’s you, take comfort from this miracle of Jesus. Be encouraged to try again, to know your labors are not in vain. If it feels like you are launching out into the deep, maybe this will be the time God grants a miraculous catch. You cast the net, and leave the outcome to Him.
• 4. A fourth lesson from this scene, is how you should respond to the presence of Christ.
  • How does Simon respond to this miraculous catch? It says, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And does Jesus leave? Does Jesus depart from Simon? No. Jesus draws near and says to him, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
  • Do you see the grace and love in Jesus eyes? Those who know they are great sinners, unworthy to stand in God’s presence, are the very people who God welcomes in and makes worthy to stand.
    • Peter says “Depart,” Jesus says, “Follow me.”
    • You say, “I am unworthy,” God says, “I will come close and make you worth.” And this is how Peter is called to the ministry.
• So have you encountered the holiness of Christ, and found His holiness transformative? Have you ever fell down at Jesus knees, in tears, marveling at His mercy and power and love?
  • Because the thrice Holy God loves to cleanse and purify and purge away your sins, if you will confess your sinfulness.
  • What does the prophet Isaiah say, when he sees the holiness of God? Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts. And what does God do for unclean Isaiah? It says in Isaiah 6:6-7, Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”
  • This is same reality and truth that John teaches us in 1 John 1:9-10, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
  • So have you encountered the holiness of Christ, and confessed to him your sinfulness? Because Jesus loves to forgive your sins.
• Well Simon is the first great example of faith in Christ, and Luke gives us two more examples in the Leper and the Paralytic. And notice what is common in all of these scenes. They fall down before Jesus, or in the Paralytic’s case, he is laid down before Jesus because he cannot get up.
• When a person with faith encounters the Holy God, the proper response is reverence, fear, humility and worship, you fall down before Him and glorify Him. This is how you must learn to approach the Lord.
  • Well, let us now consider the faith of the Leper.

Verses 12-13 – A Leper is Cleansed to Testify

¹²And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

¹³And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

• Notice again, the faith of this leper. He seeks out Jesus, he falls on his face before Jesus, he calls Jesus “Lord,” and he beseeches the Lord for mercy. This is what repentance and faith looks like. And what does Jesus do?
  • He reaches out and touches the untouchable. And rather than contracting any uncleanness from this leper, the leper contracts holiness from Christ. Jesus says, “I am willing, be thou clean.” And the leper is cleansed with a word.
• Recall that to be a leper under the Mosaic law, was to be separated from the people of God and the presence of God. Leprosy was the ultimate sign of ritual impurity. A leper was essentially a walking corpse, the living dead, anyone who touched a leper was as one who touches a dead body (Numbers 5:2).
  • It says in Leviticus 13:45-46, And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; outside the camp shall his habitation be.
  • Not even the prophet Elisha touched a leper to heal him. Instead, he said to Naaman the Syrian, go wash in the Jordan river seven times.
  • Moses did not touch Miriam his sister when she contracted leprosy. She had to wait outside the camp for a week until God removed it.
  • But Jesus is greater than all the prophets, and Jesus touches those who no man ever dared touch, because Jesus has a touch that makes people holy.
• Recall that leprosy is the Old Testamentsign of what the New Testament calls, being dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1),or living according to, or in the flesh (Rom. 7-8).Just as a leper is dead while living, so also is every person spiritually speaking. Just as a leper cannot cleanse himself or make himself holy, so also you cannot cleanse yourself, or make yourself holy. You need someone or something from outside of you to change you. You need the Holy One, the Holy Spirit to touch you and cleanse you, and make You into His temple. And this is exactly what Jesus came to do. He did it for this leper, and will do it for all who look to him for mercy. Jesus says, “I am willing.”
  • Paul describes this reality in Ephesians 2:4-5, But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, [spiritual lepers] hath made us alive together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
  • He says the same in Colossians 2:13, And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
  • Paul says in Romans 7:24-25, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Conclusion

• Do you believe, that apart from Christ, apart from grace, you are a dead man walking? That before you met Jesus, you were full of leprosy. It wasn’t just a little bit here, it was everywhere and it was killing you. Your sin had created barriers between you and God, between you and God’s people.
  • When Genesis 6:5 says, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Your heart says, “That is me, apart from Christ. That was me, before Jesus cleansed me.”
  • Simon said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” and Jesus says “Fear not. From now on you will catch men.”
  • The leper said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And Jesus says, “I am willing, be cleansed.”
• Jesus is willing to cleanse you, forgive you, to call you His own, but you will fall down before Him, confess his Lordship, seek His mercy. And He will change you from the inside out. IN the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.