Most Certainly True

Matthew 28 verses 16 - 20

Romans 10 verses 5 -15

We are the heirs or the spiritual descendents of the eleven disciples

or apostles,

who witnessed Jesus' death

and His resurrection,

and spent over 5 weeks with Him

before He ascended into heaven

where He is seated at the right hand of the Father.

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We are the heirs or the spiritual descendents of the apostles

and the rest of the 120 Christians,

who were gathered in that upper room in Jerusalem

on the Day of Pentecost

when the Holy Spirit came down upon them in the form of wind

and tongues of fire

and filled them with ‘dunamis’

giving birth to what is now called the Christian Church.

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Along with all the other Christians who have ever lived

and who live around the world today,

we are believers in the Triune God,

One God in Three Persons,

Whom we address as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

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We do not worship Allah, or Ganesha or Shiva, or Mars or Venus,

or Woden or Thor;

we do not believe that faith in Gautama the Buddha

or Guru Nanak or Muhammad,

can result in eternal salvation

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We confess the beliefs listed in the ancient Creeds,

that there is only One God, the divine trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit;

and that God's only-begotten Son Jesus Christ

who died on the cross and rose again on the third day,

is our Saviour and Lord;

and that it is the Holy Spirit Who brings us to God’s grace,

not any knowledge, or merit, or money, or attribute of ours

and this is the message that in Matthew 28 v. 20

Jesus told His disciples to preach

until the very end of the age.

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To all these things, Martin Luther employed the phrase:

‘This is most certainly true’

and that is our confession also.

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According to the Book of Genesis, God created the world;

it did not just happen as an accident.

If there was a ‘Big Bang’, then God caused it to happen

on the 1st day.

Nothing has ever happened unless He made it happen.

To this, we also say: ‘This is most certainly true’.

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According to Genesis 1 verse 26

God made man in His image

and in His likeness;

and man was created to rule over God’s created things,

the physical environment, the fish of the sea and the birds of the air,

over the livestock, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

We are not evolved apes;

monkeys who gradually dominated other animals

through a process called ‘Survival of the fittest’.

We are essentially different from all other life forms

in that we have spirits,

which will either spend eternity with God

or spend eternity in damnation;

no animal has anything to look forward to, or fear,

on the Day of Judgement.

To this, we also say: ‘This is most certainly true’.

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According to the closing verses of Matthew’s Gospel

Jesus told His disciples to go and preach the Good News of salvation,

the forgiveness of sin, the availability of eternal life,

to those who could never earn or merit it by their own devices.

To this also, we go on record as saying: ‘This is most certainly true’.

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In Acts chapter 2 we have an account of Peter on the Day of Pentecost

preaching to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks,

that the man they had put to death by nailing Him to the cross,

was none other than the Son of God,

Who was willing to die to bring about the forgiveness of sins,

and Who God raised from the dead.

To this also, we say: ‘This is most certainly true’.

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Martin Luther was a sincere and godly man

and from what I have studied about him,

it appears that he would never teach or preach something

that he could not say was ‘most certainly true’.

Luther struggled and struggled with his Catholic faith

based on the teachings of the popes,

until as a Professor of Theology

he sat down and studied Romans 1.

In it he read that in the Gospel righteousness comes from God - by faith.

but the Catholic Church was teaching people that only the purchase of an indulgence could free souls from God’s wrath.

The very thought of obtaining salvation by purchasing a piece of paper

was appalling to him,

so he wrote the 95 Theses in rebuttal of this practice

and nailed it to the Castle Door of the Wittenberg Church

on October 31, 1517.

This questioning of the Pope’s authority

to sell indulgences and free people from spiritual torment in Purgatory,

resulted in Papal and Imperial attempts to silence Luther, permanently!

Under Church law and the law of the Holy Roman Empire,