Luke 5:1-11
This passage should begin with the last verse of the preceding chapter. In Luke 4, we see Jesus in two synagogues. He announces His plans to expand His ministry. In verse 3, we see Jesus sitting down and beginning to teach. Sitting down was the official posture of formal teaching. Jesus was not casually reclining, rather sitting down and teaching intentionally. This represents the formal transition into the teaching of God's Word, but it is no longer contained in the house of worship but it has moved into the wider world beyond.
Almost everything the church does is predicated on the approach that we will do an event in-house and the community is welcome, more or less, to come to us and to do our event with us. From worship to Bible teaching to potluck dinners, even our most outreach-oriented events are, for the most part, held on the campus of our church buildings. Few churches actively go into the community at all. We try harder and harder to get the community to come into our building.
It may have come to the point that we have no way of conceptualizing reaching people beyond an invitation to come to a church event in a church building. The idea of ministry outside of our four walls, especially personally, is a concept completely foreign to many of us. We don't know how to go out and to reach out.
It is worth noting that as Jesus moved away from the synagogue that His influence grew. It is as Jesus ministers in the community at large, not in the synagogue, that we see the masses come to the Lord. We must not let that lesson escape us!
But how? That question needs to be constantly on our minds and hearts.
“Lord, how do we do what You have called us to do apart from the comfortable model of inviting the world to an event in our building? AMEN”
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