Jesus Calls His First Disciples^(A)

5 One day, as the crowd was pressing in on him to listen to God’s word, Jesus^[a] was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. ² He saw two boats lying on the shore, but the fishermen had stepped out of them and were washing their nets. ³ So Jesus^[b] got into one of the boats (the one that belonged to Simon) and asked him to push out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and began to teach the crowds from the boat.

⁴ When he had finished speaking, he told Simon, “Push out into deep water, and lower your nets for a catch.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we have worked hard all night and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll lower the nets.” ⁶ After the men^[c] had done this, they caught so many fish that the nets began to tear. ⁷ So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats until the boats^[d] began to sink. ⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees and said, “Leave me, Lord! I am a sinful man!”— ⁹ because Simon^[e] and all the people who were with him were amazed at the number of fish they had caught, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons and Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus told Simon, “Stop being afraid. From now on you will be catching people.” ¹¹ So when they brought the boats to shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.^[f]