Deo Gloria
Sermon for October 19, 2025
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Luke 5:1-11
Theme: Christ Through Us!
Can you believe what Jesus said? Really—can you believe it? No, not the part where he told Peter to put out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch. I mean that was amazing enough. Obviously Jesus knew a lot about the Scriptures. He knew them inside and out and understood them better than anyone they knew. And he was an amazing teacher too. He could teach God’s Word like nobody they had ever heard—with such power and insight and relevance to everyday life. But what did Jesus know about fishing? He wasn’t a fisherman. Peter was a fisherman. He had been fishing all his life. Peter knew that the best time to fish was at night when the fish came up into the shallow water. Nobody goes fishing in the middle of the day out in the deep water. What Jesus was telling Peter went against everything Peter knew about fishing. It didn’t make any sense at all.
But he still did it, didn’t he? Even though what Jesus was saying didn’t make any sense, Peter still did it. “But because you say so, I will let down the nets”(v. 5). Maybe Peter remembered what had happened at the wedding at Cana when Jesus told the servants to fill six stone water jars with water and then serve some to the people at the banquet. That didn’t make any sense, but it turned out to be some of the best wine they had ever had. Or maybe he remembered how Jesus had healed his mother-in-law, how he simply rebuked her fever and she got better. I’d like to see your doctor try that next time you take one of your sick children to his office. Peter had learned that when Jesus speaks, you better listen, even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, because amazing things can happen.
And something amazing did. When he and the others in the boat let down their nets, they caught so many fish that they could hardly pull the nets back in. They caught so many fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they filled both boats so full of fish that they both began to sink. Peter had never seen anything like it. In all his years of fishing he had never caught fish like this. This was the catch of lifetime.
And notice Peter’s reaction. Luke tells us that he fell down in front of Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”(v. 8) Peter was amazed at this miraculous catch of fish. He was astonished. He could hardly believe his eyes. How in the world could something like this happen? You weren’t supposed to catch fish in the deep water in the middle of the day. And they had just caught more fish than they had ever caught before. How could that happen? The answer was obvious: It couldn’t, except for Jesus—except that Jesus made it happen. And all at once it dawned on Peter again who Jesus really was. It hit him like a ton of bricks and knocked him down to his knees. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Lord and Master of the universe. Jesus is the Lord of all and Ruler of all, the one who guides and directs our world and universe according to his good pleasure. Jesus is the mighty One, the awesome One, the holy and righteous Son of God. And he was a sinner, an unworthy sinner, someone who had no business standing in the presence of God. “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.”
Isaiah reacted the same way, didn’t he, when the Lord appeared to him in the temple and called him to be a prophet? When he saw the Lord seated on his throne in all his glory, he exclaimed, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty”(Isaiah 6:5). Peter too had seen the King, the Lord and Master of the universe. He was standing right there in front of him. “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.”
We feel the same way, don’t we? Here we are standing in the presence of God today. This is his house, and he is here with us. That’s what Jesus said, right? “Where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them”(Matthew 18:20). In a little while many of us will come forward and stand in front of the Lord’s altar where we will receive along with the bread and wine, our Savior’s very own body and blood. Yes, we too are standing in the presence of God, the holy God, the mighty God, the King of heaven and earth. And we too feel very unworthy. Like Peter, we too are sinners; sinful men and sinful women; people who often have ignored God’s holy Word; people who often have looked at what Jesus says as stupid or foolish, like Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about; people who often have disobeyed God’s Word and failed to follow what he said. We are sinful people, unworthy people, people who don’t deserve to stand in the presence of God now and certainly don’t deserve to live in the presence of God one day in heaven.
But that’s why Jesus came, isn’t it? He came into this world of ours to save sinful people like Peter, to save sinful people like you and me. And that’s why he gave his life on Calvary’s cross: to pay the penalty for all our sins so that we might be forgiven, so that all of our sins might be washed away and we might stand in his presence now as his holy, precious, dearly loved children and that we might live in his presence forever in heaven.
So notice what Jesus says to Peter: “Don’t be afraid”(v. 10). Though Peter had good reason to be afraid because of his own sinfulness, Jesus says, “Don’t be. Don’t be afraid.” He says the same to you and me. Though we have good reason to be afraid because of our own sinfulness, he says, “Don’t be afraid.” Yes, he is the Lord Almighty, the King of heaven and earth. But he is so much more. He is our Savior, the one who loved us so much that he laid down his life for us so that we might be his both now and forever. “Don’t be afraid.”
And then comes the most amazing thing of all, at least to me it’s the most amazing. Jesus said to Peter: “…from now on you will catch men”(v. 10). “Peter, I have a new job for you. I don’t want you to catch fish anymore. I want you to work for me. I want you to catch people for me. I want you to help bring people into my kingdom so they too can have forgiveness for their sins and peace for their souls, so they too can live with me forever in heaven.” To me that is truly amazing! God wants to use a sinner like Peter? God wants someone like Peter to work for him? God wants to use Peter to help build his church and bring more people into his kingdom so they can be saved? Indeed he does, which also means he wants to use people like you and me.
He wouldn’t have to. God could use angels to accomplish his work, but he doesn’t. He could use eagles and lions and elephants and dolphins, but he doesn’t. Instead he uses people to do his work, to share his love, to build his church, to extend his kingdom, to save more people.
You know, I knew that truth. I knew that God uses people to accomplish his work, but do you know when it really hit me, when it really just smacked me upside the head? When I was called to serve a mission congregation in Cambridge, MN. When you serve a mission church with only 80 or 90 members and every week you only see about half of those people because only half come to church, it becomes rather obvious pretty quickly that you need every single person, that everyone needs to be involved. You can’t rely on others to do the things that need to be done, because there isn’t anybody else. You can’t say, “I’m not going to teach Sunday School this year,” because there isn’t anybody else. You can’t say, “I’m not going to serve on the Board of Elders or the Council,” because there isn’t anybody else. You can’t say, “I’m not going to help with cleaning the church. I’ll let someone else do that,” because there isn’t anybody else. Everybody needs to pitch in and help out with doing the things that need to be done, because there isn’t anybody else to do them. In a way, I wish everyone could have that experience. I wish everyone here could be part of a mission church for a while. It really helps you appreciate how God uses people, how he uses you and how he uses me, to do his work.
But the same is true at home, right? How does God do his work of providing for and caring for and loving our family members? I mean he could cause a chicken to fly into your house every night around supper time and land on your table and say, “Eat me,” but he doesn’t. Instead he uses you and me to work hard and earn money so we can buy food at the store and then prepare that food so we have something to eat for supper. God could send an angel to help your children with their homework and teach them right from wrong, but he doesn’t. Instead he uses you and me to help our children with their homework and teach them right from wrong. He could send a wise, old owl to teach our children about the Bible and about Jesus their Savior and his love for them, but he doesn’t. Instead he uses you and me to teach our children about the Bible and about Jesus their Savior and his forgiveness and his love. He gives us that honor and that privilege of working for him to do his work around the home and be a blessing to our family.
The same is true here at church. God could send a bunch of doves to preach the sermon and teach the children in Sunday School and to teach the children in our day school, but he doesn’t. Instead he uses you and me. He gives us that honor and that privilege. God could use a bunch of horses to do the cleaning and mow the lawn and do the repairs and serve the coffee and cookies and donuts, but he doesn’t. Instead he uses you and me. He gives us that honor and that privilege. God could send monkeys to tell your neighbor about Jesus or to invite that co-worker of yours to church or to visit that shut-in or to comfort that friend who recently lost a loved one, but he doesn’t. Instead he uses you and me. He gives us the honor and privilege of working for him and doing his work and building his church.
And the same is true of our synod. God used many different pastors and teachers and lay members over the past 175 years. He used people like your parents and grandparents and great grandparents to help our synod grow and expand over the years. I remember my grandpa telling me once how in his younger days, he sold ice cream on the streets of New Ulm to help support Dr. Martin Luther College and its ministry of training future pastors and teachers. And the same thing will be true in the future, especially as we seek to achieve the goals laid out in the 10-year strategic plan adopted by our synod this past summer. Who is going to be doing those things? Who is going to support that work and help carry it out? That’s you and me, because that’s how God works. He calls us to serve. He calls us to teach. He calls us to share his Word. He calls us to care. He calls us to pray. He calls us to give and support and encourage and help. He gives us the honor and the privilege of working for him and carrying out his work here in Belle Plaine and around the world. That is how Christ does his work of caring for people and saving lost souls. He does his work through us. Amen.