Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John 8:31-36)
If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Mi wä yɛn kɛ wä nhiam kɛ nhök ruacdä, lapɛ ji̱ kɔaarä pa̱ny. Kä bia thuɔ̱k ŋa̱c, kä bi thuɔ̱k yɛ jakä cieŋ alɔr.
Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
On the 31 October 1517, 494 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg. Four years later in 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated – he was kicked out! -- from the Roman Catholic Church. This was the beginning of the reformation.
And here we are, almost 500 years later, on the other side of the world, as Australian Lutherans gathered together in Gippsland. What do we make of all this?
It’s funny: there are supposed so be something like 75 million Lutherans throughout the world, making it one of the largest Christian denominations. And still, many people in Australia, and especially in Gippsland, have no idea that we exist. It seems as though in Australia, Christians get categorised into one of three categories: Catholic, Anglican or “other”. Sometimes, as Lutherans it can be easy for us to feel as though those three categories are: Catholic, Anglican, and “nobody cares”.
On the other hand, there are many people through Australia that are fed up with Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. And there are plenty of criticisms we would happily agree with.
But it’s amazing, as a pastor, that I have often I hear from people who have converted to the Lutheran church say that it’s exactly what they were looking for. As Lutherans today, we really need to make sure we know what we’re on about. We need to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into the vineyard, because we have a simplicity and a clarity of confession that Australia and the world needs. In the mission fields in places like Africa, many people are studying Lutheran theology and all of a sudden they go “click”: “this makes sense”, “I understand now.” As a church, as a church body, as a parish, as a congregation, as individuals, we need to study very deeply what it means to be Lutheran in a pretty confused world, and also within a pretty confused ecumenical church scene. The world needs us. The world needs us so desperately to find our convictions again. Gippsland needs the Gippsland Lutheran Parish, Warragul and Darnum needs St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Darnum, LaTrobe Valley needs Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon, Sale needs St John’s Lutheran Church Sale, Yarram needs Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram, and Bairnsdale needs Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale, and we should look for ways to let our light shine with the blessing and the strength of God.
But what is the backbone of all of this? What’s the foundation of our church? What’s the foundation of the Lutheran reformation?
In our Gospel reading today we read: “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
Listen to those words again: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
First of all, we hear the word “truth” there, twice, and also the word “truly”.
Many people laugh when they hear the word truth, now. They get together with Pontius Pilate over coffee and they say, “What is truth?”
Now the Lutheran Church has never said that there is no truth in other churches. There are other denominations who say things that are true. In fact, a lot of what other churches say is true. But it’s often the 10% or 20% that is not true that doesn’t make the good stuff useful to people. It’s sometimes that 10% or 20% that still causes people not to be at peace with God, and to stand with confidence in God’s presence, and even to die in peace.
But here’s the thing: Any church that does not believe that what it says is true, the truth, and the fullness of truth, then they have no right to exist and they simply of no use in spreading the Gospel throughout the world.
Because the good news of the Gospel is a truth! It’s a certainty! It’s something that we build out life on. So I’ll say it again: Any church that does not believe that what it says is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth has absolutely no right to exist.
And where is this truth to be found? Jesus says: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
If you abide in my word. Listen to these words and really stick your feet in them for awhile and enjoy them. This will be what makes or breaks the future of our church: it will be our respect and our enjoyment of the word of God. In other words: Read the bible, and enjoy it. Learn it, study it. There are whole countries throughout the world who don’t have bibles. There have been eras of civilisation where a bible cost a year’s wage. And now we have them everywhere. Some people have a small handful at home. You can find them in the drawers of any motel room throughout the country, and at the same time, it is amazing, in fact it is an abomination how ignorant many Australians are of the bible. Don’t fall into the same category! If you don’t read the bible every day, turn over a new leaf and do it.
But if there’s something that is very special about the Lutheran church, especially from its early times, and unfortunately is something that we’re missing now in our current time, is making sure that the words of the bible are understood in their most simple way. We should go to the bible and have the confidence that what it says it means and what it means it says. That doesn’t mean that we will necessarily understand everything in it all at once. That will take sometimes years. But we don’t want to twist the bible to say what we want it to say.
Jesus says: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.
If you abide in my word, if you rest in my word, if you dwell in it, sink your feet into it.
The Lutheran Church has always believed that the Scripture is clear. And so, we can also be certain that what it says is clearer than anything we can say. If we don’t understand, the problem is not with the bible, the problem is with us. And so, the Lutheran Church has always said that it is always a church that believes, teaches and confesses what the bible says.
So Lutherans shouldn’t ask, what does our church teach about such and such. Instead, we should say, what does the Scripture teach? If the church teaches something that the bible doesn’t teach, then we need ourselves: Are we abiding in Jesus’ word? If not, how then can we say that we are truly his disciples?
But there’s one more thing that we need to make sure we do when we read the bible. We need to make sure that we bring our reason into submission to the clear words of Scripture. There are many churches that claim to be biblical churches, but on many points, they explain many passages away with clever arguments.
But our reason, our understanding, needs to be brought into submission to the clear words of Scripture. Even our life experience, and our experience together as a church, not just now but throughout history, needs to be brought in childlike trust to the words of the Scripture.
For example, the Lutheran teaching on sin comes from Genesis 6, where it says: “Every intention of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.”
Now, if we were to examine our own hearts, we wouldn’t necessarily come to this conclusion, that “every intention of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” We might think that we only sin sometimes, or only when we’re awake, or that our intentions are good, or that something’s only bad when we act on it. But we come to the Scripture and say: Holy Spirit, if this is what you teach then we will believe it.
And also, the Lutheran teaching about the Lord’s Supper comes from the simple words: “This is my body”. I often talk to people from other denominations who don’t believe that the Lord’s Supper is actually the body and blood of Christ for us to eat and drink, and believe that it is symbolic or spiritual. But Jesus said it. In fact, it’s one of the few things that is written absolutely clearly four times in the New Testament. We might think in our reason, “of course it can’t be his body”: But we come to the Scripture and say: Holy Spirit, if this is what you teach then we will believe it. Jesus, if you say it’s your body and blood, then I will believe that it’s your body and blood that I come to eat and drink, and nothing less than your body and blood.
Do you see what it means practically and experientially to “abide in Jesus words” and not to abide in our own opinions, our own presuppositions, our own individual ideas?
But I think one of the most important teachings that we have in the Lutheran Church is the teaching of justification by faith alone. This teaching has often been called the “teaching on which the church stands or falls.”
Actually, it’s not so much a teaching, but it’s an action, it’s actually an event, which God performs, which He Himself carries out and does in heaven and applies to us in the church on earth.
Justification works like this:
We are sinners. We have sinned in our thoughts, our words and our actions. We are on trial before God. The law of God accuses us. The Holy Spirit accuses us from the Scriptures. Satan accuses us. Our own conscience accuses us. And in God’s courtroom, before God’s judgment seat, we deserve everything that we should: the anger of God, the punishment of God, death and hell.
But Jesus comes and says: I have died for this person. I have paid for their life with my own blood.
And then God makes his judgment, and says, Because of my own Son, you are forgiven. You are free. You have been paid for. The debt is cancelled. The sentence has been torn up. You are free to go.
Now, on what basis do you believe this, on what basis do you believe that you are actually forgiven?
Do you feel it? Maybe, maybe not. Can you convince yourself that you are forgiven? Maybe, maybe not.
The only basis for you to believe that you are actually forgiven before God’s throne is that the word of God says so, and for no other reason. This is what is means to “abide in Jesus’ words”. That’s what Luther meant when he said: “Here I stand, I can do no other.” He could not bring himself to budge from the simple, clear words of Jesus.
Of course, you won’t like it! You want to be responsible! But you can’t! Your flesh will rebel! This is called temptation, and the greatest temptation is for you to save yourself on some other basis apart from Jesus’ own words.
How do you know that you are saved? You can’t find this out from searching your own heart. The only way you will know it is because God himself will tell you, not in your own mind, but through his word. And it is this simple, clear word of God, a simple clear word that the ministry of the church is called to preach Sunday after Sunday. That’s why we have the absolution: Pastors are called and ordained servants of the word. And they speak the forgiveness of sins, on behalf of our Lord Jesus, and by his command. The bible speak to you about a reality that is so certain, and which you can never know by yourself, and this reality is then proclaimed and spoken to you, over you, from outside of you straight through to the centre of you in the middle of the Holy Christian Church.
Where Jesus’ words are spoken in their clarity, in their simplicity, that’s where disciples are made, that’s where the church is. That’s why we’re here. We’re here because we’re gathered to hear the words of Jesus, which we can’t work out for ourselves and that we can’t hear anywhere else.
And so Jesus says to us today: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. How is it that you say, “You will become free”?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
At the end of the Book of Concord, the book of the Lutheran confessions of faith, it says: “By God’s grace, with intrepid hearts, we are willing to appear before the judgment seat of Christ with this Confession and give an account for it.”
So let’s approach that judgment seat this morning in the Lord’s Supper, with joy and confidence, with this confession in our hearts and on our lips. Let Jesus make you free, let Jesus reveal to you the truth through the Scriptures, through his holy word, and let nothing else make you free, because nothing else will and nothing else can.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, send us your Spirit so that we may trust in your word. If we are tempted, we know that you were tempted first. If we are terrified by death, we know that you died first. But we know that you are alive, and that your words are living and active, and so we can stand in your presence with joy and confidence. Keep us strong and firm in this faith until we die. Amen.
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