Luke 5

Jesus teaches from Peter's boats, then sends them out to fish.  They catch tons, an obvious miracle.  Jesus calls them to fish for men as His disciples from now on.

Jesus heals a leper and sends him to the temple according to the Law (Leviticus 14).

His popularity is high.  Pharisees and scribes send delegates to check Him out.  Jesus claims the authority to forgive sins and heals a paralytic as a sign of it.

He calls Levi (Matthew) a tax collector to be His disciple.  He throws a party, and the visiting scribes and Pharisees don't like the riff raff.  But Jesus is here to save the riff raff!  They don't like the exuberance of Jesus' group, either.  But you don't put on a somber, pietistic show when the bridegroom arrives.  Standard forms of piety aren't going to fit well when the Messiah comes to His own.

Application

• Reverence results when we see real miracles.
• We should seek to follow God's Word, even in extreme circumstances, like the coming of the Messiah (vss. 14).
• The way we come up with for how to obey God's Word shouldn't become a sacred cow, and may be off base (like frequency of fasting, or separation from "sinners").  But real obedience is required.