This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to
you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Prayer: May the words of my
mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,
our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
The festival of the Reformation is a wonderful occasion in the church year, which we particularly celebrate in the Lutheran church, where we remember those series of events in the 1500s in Europe, and in Germany particularly, where there was a tremendous theological and spiritual revival, the effects of which changed the course of history, and which are still felt today. At the heard of these events was a rediscovery of the Gospel, as the free forgiveness of sins, which was won by Christ alone in his death and resurrection, and bestowed upon lost and condemned sinners completely free for the sake of Christ, which we then receive by faith, apart from any works, contributions or efforts that we make ourselves. As St Paul says: By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, but it is a gift of God, apart from works, so that no one may boast. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
The 31st October was chosen for this commemoration centuries ago, because on this day in the year 1517, Martin Luther, who was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, a monk of the Augustinian order and a professor of theology at the university of Wittenberg in Germany, is reported to have nailed a document to the church door in Wittenberg, his 95 theses. This document was against a certain practice that was alive and well in the Catholic Church of Martin Luther’s day, the selling of indulgences. Although we could talk at great length about what this “selling of indulgences” is, the short version is that it was a certificate issued by the Pope in Rome to cancel the punishments in purgatory for a person’s sins. Purgatory is a Roman Catholic belief, which is not held by other churches, that there is a kind of half-way station between heaven and hell. I won’t go into all the detail now, and I could explain all this much better than I have.
What this meant in history is that this was the beginning of a great controversy where Martin Luther, as a student and teacher of the bible, came into conflict with the Pope in Rome and the Roman Catholic Church as a whole. As a result, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, and many Christians throughout Europe who accepted his teaching as true and right became separate from the Roman Catholic Church, to form the Evangelical church, or as it is commonly called today, the Lutheran Church, or the Church of the Lutheran confession.
Now, on one hand, Martin Luther was a highly significant person in all of this history. On the other hand, the whole Reformation which occurred at this time was not about one man, or the teachings of one man. Rather, this whole event was about a return to the Word of God, in such a way that that the Holy Scriptures once again had pride of place in the church over and against every human word, every human tradition, every word of people, of man, every human idea.
In our Gospel reading today, we hear these wonderful words of Jesus, where he 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. Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten our hearts and minds, as we consider this verse today, and remember the wonderful events that occurred 500 years ago at the time of the Reformation. Amen.
Now, in our sermon today, I’d like to first of all talk about what the Lutheran Reformation was, and what it wasn’t. And then secondly, I’d like to talk about the significance of the things that happened at that time for today.
Firstly, at various times and places, in history, there have been all kinds of revolutions. For example, in 1789, in France, there was the French revolution, where the executed the king of France and all the aristocracy. There was a big revolution in Russia about 100 years ago, where communism came in, and they started the USSR. And people might look back at the time of Luther, and think that it was a kind of revolution. But it wasn’t.
The Reformation was not about revolution, or rebellion. It wasn’t some kind of anti-authoritarian event where all kinds of people wanted to drag down the social structures of the day.
The Reformation did have to do with authority, but it was not against authority. It was simply against false human authority in the church, and on the other hand, a return to the true authority in the church, namely, the Holy Scripture. In the church, wherever the authority of the Word of God is lost, it always means that mere human authority can replace it, because that’s the only other authority that there is.
So, the whole of the Reformation, was essentially a call to repentance, and it is one of the most amazing calls to repentance that has ever occurred in church history. When Martin Luther wrote his 95 theses and put them on the church door in Wittenberg, 504 years ago today, the first thing he wrote was: When our Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’, he meant that the whole of a Christian life should be one of repentance. This document spread like wild-fire throughout Europe at the time, and even reached the desk of the Pope. To think that a document like that made such an impact, with such a strong call to repentance right at the top.
You might remember that in the Scripture, when John the Baptist went out and preached at the River Jordan, he called people to Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When Jesus began his ministry, after his baptism and his temptation in the wilderness, he also said the same thing. The word, ‘repent’, means to turn around, to change one’s mind, or change one’s heart. It has a picture of a person walking in one direction and then turning around going back the other way.
When we are called to repent, what are we called to turn away from? And what are called to turn ourselves to? We are always called to turn away from our sin, and also our sinful mind, our sinful flesh, our sinful heart, our own ideas, our own human opinions, our own solutions. And we are always called to turn back to God, and to his Word, as he has wonderfully and marvellously revealed it in the Holy Scriptures.
And so right at the heart of the Lutheran reformation was a renewal of the Scripture in the life of the church. It was not philosophy that should direct the church, or human reason, or human tradition, or human leaders, such as a Pope. Instead, the Word of God, as it is revealed in the Scripture, should be the thing that directs and guides the church. The Scripture is clear fountain of Israel, the clear light of God which he shines on human darkness, a lamp which shines in a dark place, the light which is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path.
Now, just as that light of Holy Scripture then shone its light on human darkness and sin and evil, so also the Holy Scripture reveals to us how lost and condemned human beings can be saved. Human beings like you and me, who carry around with us our sinful human hearts, and are corrupted in our mind and in our thinking by sin, cannot save ourselves by doing things that are tainted by that same darkness. Only Jesus, the Son of God, can save us, and we can only be saved in the way that he prescribes.
And so, in a world that was full of people performing all kinds of works and deeds in all kinds of attempts to save themselves and make themselves acceptable and pleasing to God, the Gospel came to light. That Gospel is that people cannot save themselves by their own works, by their own efforts, by their own actions, and solutions devised by their own choosing and their own thinking, but by faith in Jesus Christ alone. His death on the cross alone was that wonderful event where the divine righteousness and justice and judgment of God was satisfied, where a full payment was made for each and every sin of the whole entire world, and where he defeated death, the devil and every power of darkness. His resurrection demonstrated to the world that this sacrifice and atonement that he made was acceptable to God the Father, otherwise this all would have meant nothing if Jesus was still dead and in the grave. For us, who believe in him, it means that we have the forgiveness of sins delivered to us and applied to us, not in such a way that we reach all the way back to him, but he actually comes to us. In holy Baptism, what Christ did on the cross all those many years ago is applied to us through water and the Word of God. And in the Lord’s Supper, we receive the wonderful body and blood of Christ as our food for this journey of life, until we reach our heavenly home with Christ in his kingdom. On our part, we simply receive these things freely, as a gift, without paying for them, without earning them, without working for them. We simply trust that God is faithful and that he has done these things and given them to us, and they are ours. This wonderful Gospel message was at the heart and centre of the Reformation, which was so long clouded and shrouded in all kinds of human ideas and philosophies. Still today, in many parts of the world, and even in churches, human ideas still prevail, and the Gospel still remains silent.
But also, sometimes we forget that because the Reformation was a biblical renewal, a rediscovery of the Holy Scripture, it also had an effect on all kinds of other things. So for example, in the Roman Catholic Church back at that time, and still to this day, when it came to the next life, they believed in heaven and hell, but also purgatory. Purgatory was a kind of half way place, where a person worked off the effects of their sins before they could enter heaven. However, at the time of the Reformation, they realised that this was not a teaching of Scripture at all. In fact, in the passage about Lazarus and the rich man, it says that there is a chasm fixed between where Lazarus was in Paradise and where the rich man was in hell, such that no one could cross between. So, another thing that came from the Reformation, was a renewed understanding of heaven and hell. This is extremely important when we come to understand faith, because when Christ calls us to eternal life, he saves us from hell, from the devil, and all of that. He saves us for eternal life in heaven. He doesn’t save us from purgatory, and he doesn’t save us for purgatory, because it doesn’t exist.
Also, the Reformation brought about a renewal in the way we understand prayer. At that time, many people prayed to Mary, and all kinds of different saints. And there were all kinds of different saints that were prayed to for all kinds of different reasons. Some of these reasons were quite superstitious, for example, it you lost something, you might pray to such and such a saint. In some sense, many of the old pagan ideas about prayer, from the old religions of Greece, of ancient Rome, of the ancient Vikings, came back into Christianity. People used to pray to different gods for all kinds of different reasons, just as they do today in Hinduism. However, with the Reformation, came a renewed understanding of prayer, because they rediscovered the teaching about prayer in the Scriptures, that we pray to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone, that we pray in the name of Jesus, and all that kind of thing. Luther summarises much of this in what he taught about the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism.
But also, at that time, many people thought that living a holy life meant that you had to become a monk or a nun, that you had to go on pilgrimages to holy places, and all that kind of things. This brought about an idea that marriage and having family was a kind of dirty thing. However, the Reformation brought to light the fact that Christians, wherever we are placed in our life, whether as a husband, wife, child, or a worker, or a boss, or as a soldier, or as a ruler or leader, or whatever, that we serve God as a holy person in those callings.
So, there are many things that we could talk about that were affected by the rediscovery of the Scripture, and the authority of Scripture. Of course, at the heart and centre of it all was the bringing to light of the Gospel in all of its glory. However, it’s also useful to see where all kinds of other things were impacted, because they often have some impact on how we understand the Gospel. For example, if people believe in purgatory, they often don’t have a need for the Gospel, because they think that at the end of the day, everything will be fine for them because eventually they’ll get out of purgatory, or they despair, because they think they’ll never get out purgatory. Many people who pray to the saints, often do so because they think they are not worthy to pray to Jesus himself. Of course, no one is worthy to pray to Jesus, but through Holy Baptism and through faith, God makes us his beloved child, and he asks us and commands us to pray to him, because of what he has done for us in making us his own. This is all effected by the Gospel too. If people think that living a life as a monk or nun gives us a special kind of holiness, this can also effect the way in which we understand the Gospel. You see, the forgiveness of sins is not given to us because of the austere life we might live, or because we’re married or celibate, or because of the spiritual exercises we choose to take on. It’s given to us freely for Christ’s sake. Of course, we are called to live a holy life, and some people who are single may choose to live a certain kind of life, but it’s not the life that they choose for themselves that saves them.
So let’s come back to Jesus’ words: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. These words of Jesus have a profound significance for us, as it had for Christians at that time, and for Christians today. First of all, Jesus teaches us that those who are truly his disciples are those who abide in his word. The disciples of Jesus are never guaranteed to always be his disciples, unless they abide in the words of Jesus. Jesus does not make us join a particular church who are always guaranteed to keep the word pure. No—we must always keep returning to the Scripture, and letting that clear light of God’s Word hold sway.
People might be attracted to a particular kind of music in the church, to a certain kind of style, to a certain feeling of being new, or to a certain feeling of being old, or to a church being ancient, or a church being really modern, or all kinds of things like that. But none of this makes the church the church. The thing that makes the church is the Word of God and abiding in that word. It is the word of God that makes the church and when people are gathered around that word, there God’s church on earth grows.
However, today, we live in very strange times. Jesus says about his Word: You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. In many parts of the world, in many parts of our country, in many of our towns and cities, in many of our homes and families, the truth is not known, and as a result people are slaves, bound, captive, and are imprisoned. They are slaves to their own selves, to their own sin. And as a result they are not free.
If we want to know the truth, we must go to Jesus Christ and his Word. We know today that there are many people who don’t hold to the truth about all kinds of things. The fact that a lot of people hold to a particular opinion doesn’t make it true. There are many people, for example, that don’t believe in God at all, and who don’t believe he created the world. There are many people who don’t believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. There are many people today who believe in abortion, who don’t believe that a baby in a mother’s womb is a human life worthy of our protection. There are a growing number of people who believe in the transgender philosophy, that sex and gender are completely interchangeable, and that men and women don’t really exist. This is a powerful lie, which is causing great problems especially among young people, and young women especially. There are many people who believe in communism, that people shouldn’t be allowed to own anything, and that everything should be the possession of the state. There are many people who believe in eugenics and transhumanism, that human beings are going to get better and better, and that technology is going to turn us into a kind of super-people. All of these things are lies—powerful, destructive lies—which many people believe. But just because many people believe them doesn’t make them true. Power and numbers is not the same thing as truth.
Rather, Jesus is the Truth. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through him. Jesus will destroy ever lie and error and falsehood in his path. And every lie and error falsehood stands in direct opposition to the Gospel, because every lie is from the evil one, who is the father of lies, and he concocts every lie and falsehood, because the Gospel rescues people from himself. Of course, every lie will be directed against the Gospel.
So when we have the Gospel, what a wonderful gift it is. It is something to rejoice in, but not to brag in, and boast, and be proud, in such a way that we think we are better than the people who don’t have it. No, the people who don’t have the Gospel are living in darkness, the darkness that each and every single person was born in. The Gospel must be kept, held on to, and shared. And every error, every lie, every falsehood, must be deconstructed and destroyed.
So let’s abide in Christ’s Word, so that we may truly be his disciples, so that we may know the truth, and that the truth may set us free. Let’s thank God for the wonderful event that the Reformation was, the wonderful gift of the Gospel that it brought to us through the rediscovery of the Word of God, and also for the wonderful example that is gives to us for our times. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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