In Jesus Holy Name October 28, 2007
Text: Romans 1:17, 3:20-22 Redeemer
“One Man’s Pen Changed The World”
A Jesuit priest in the 16th century complained, “Luther has damned more souls with his hymns than with all his sermons.” Few people have read his pulpit sermons, but his sermons continue through hymns which are sung every Sunday throughout the world.”
Luther restored the gift of song to people in their own language. He has been called the father of congregational song. Prior to Luther, for over 1,000 years only the clergy and monks sang in worship, the people did not. Luther opposed what we today call “spectator worship”. Luther, himself, wrote 37 hymns. One of his hymns “Out of the Depths I Cry to You” so impressed Bach that he used it as the basis for his cantata, No. 131. (quotes are from Christianity Today, October 21, 1983 p. 18,19)
Luther himself supervised the publication of 6 hymnals between 1525 and 1545. He said, “…… He who believes the gospel can not be quiet about it …… you must gladly and willingly sing and speak …… if not it shows that he does not believe.”
Luther translated the entire N.T. from Greek into the German language in ten months in 1522. 5,000 copies were sold the first month. His translation forever changed his country’s language, literature and dramatic arts. Over 3,000 original letters survive. He wrote two catechisms; one for parents, the other for pastors and teachers. He wrote the Augsburg Confessions with his friend Philip Melanchthon and together they started the Protestant Lutheran schools. He was also a full-time Professor at Wittenberg University. The Reformation dates from October 31, 1517 when Luther nailed 95 theses to the Castle Church door, in Wittenberg, Germany.
There were two ultimate questions of life for Luther; “How can I, as an individual, be assured of forgiveness of sins and thus be at peace with God?” How can I be sure that heaven is my eternal destiny?
These are still the two questions men and women are asking in the American culture. Charles Coben, in his book “The Body” writes: From the beginning, civilized Western thought and civilization have been built on the existence of objective truth. The prevailing intellectual consensus was rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Greco-Roman ideas which explained the universe, humanity and the purpose of life.
Whether we believed in God or not, this consensus gave birth to the form and substance of science, art, music, commerce that assured a positive environment for political and ethical discourse.” How the Western world is under the influence of Eastern mysticism and secularism where there is no absolute truth. Severed from an absolute truth we are lost in the cosmos, like the Starship Enterprise, we are adrift in time and space.
Pilate asked Jesus: “What is Truth?” Jesus answered, “I Am The Truth.” “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Pilate had ears but he did not hear. He thought, like many in our culture, he would find truth looking in the mirror.
R.C. Sproul wrote: “Modern man is betting his life that this is it, and that there is no judgment and that there is no eternity.” How about you? The Phil Donahue culture seeks to rule the day and the night. Donahueites always say, “do whatever is right for you, be faithful to what is true for you. No one else has the right to tell you what to do. Who are we to object if this is what you want to do?” The only thing left is unbridled tolerance. Believe me, it is a scary thing to ride an unbridled horse at full speed. That’s our culture where ideas have no consequences.
A close friend shared with me the following story. A car dealer in Turlock,
Ca. in recent years has become a Christian. Throughout his life, he and his wife had nothing to do with Christianity. Their children are now raised and have families of their own. At the present time his wife wants nothing to do with Church and Christianity. At a recent Thanksgiving dinner when all the family (children and grandchildren) were gathered he asked the following question. “If you believe in absolute truth please raise your hand.” He was the only one to raise his hand. “How sad….for I have done this to my own family.” “I enabled them to grow up without knowing there is absolute truth and now they too feel that Christianity is not important.” All he can now do is pray for them and witness to them…. how sad he feels.
People know it. Intuitively they no longer believe God is dead. Yet people feel adrift. Living life without ultimate answers for how they might obtain forgiveness and eternal life. We know that people around us are spiritually hungry. They seek to connect with God through crystals, dabble in a blend of America Hinduism where you are reincarnated. (But never into an animal!!!) But most people we know simply believe that God is good! And in their mirror they see a good person. They then convince themselves that a good God would not reject their effort to keep the commandments the best they could ……
Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden was to convince Adam and Eve that they by their own skill and ability could become like God knowing good and evil.
The Pharisees who constantly challenged Jesus believed that they could save themselves by obedience to the laws of the Old Testament, which God had given to the children of Israel. They were so convinced that they created more laws to help them keep the ten commandments. The Jewish Rabbis said that the O.T. law was “the light”, “The Living Bread”, the “Living Water”. Jesus said “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” I am the living water. He who comes to me will thirst no more.” He died on the cross to make it so. His blood shed on the cross was the perfect sacrifice.
(at this point I have an insert from Crossways International, from lesson 6 Romans of a man looking over a cliff, death is at the bottom and on the other side is God…the question..How do I get to be with God? The next slide shows the individual making their own bridge the ten commandments or (?) Only the final bridge, the cross, allows one to cross safely to be with God.)
“For God made Jesus who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might be righteous, holy, forgiven in God’s sight.” For it was God himself, the ultimate reality who answered the first ultimate question with which Luther struggled ……”How can I be assured of forgiveness of sins and have peace with God?” God, himself brought back to himself all things on earth or in heaven by making peace through the blood of Christ shed on the cross. By faith we can stand before The Creator of the Universe, holy and without blemish, free from accusation if we hold on to our faith in Jesus. (Colossians)
READ Romans 1:17
“……a righteousness from God is revealed in the gospel, the righteous shall live by faith.” “A righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known to which the O.T. law and prophets testify this righteousness from God comes by faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” Luther’s burden, his fear of death – all flew out the window and his mind and soul and body were set free.
The major problem Luther faced in the 16th Century was that the Roman Catholic Church had fallen into the cultural trap of the Pharisees. They began to sell indulgences. People knew they wanted peace with God. They wanted eternal security. But without the Word of God they were adrift and lost in the cosmos. Luther protested the sale of indulgences, the practice of buying your forgiveness with gold or silver.
“The Word of God did it all.” Luther proclaimed: the sinner is justified before God by faith, not by works of righteousness nor purchased by gold and silver – but only by the blood of Jesus, God himself in human flesh who rose from the grave.
The torrent of words pouring from Luther’s lips and pen changed Europe, enabled the Holy Spirit to change the hearts of people who were spiritually lost and without hope before a holy God.
On April 17th, 1521, late afternoon, in a room filled with princes, nobles, clergy, doctors of law and the Emperor, Charles The V, the 37 year old monk, named Martin Luther, defended his writings and theological position. At the Diet of Worms he was asked two questions. Were these his books? And, was he ready to revoke the heresies they contained? To the first he replied, “: They were his.” The second required time to consider.
At 6 pm the following day in a torch-lit room, Luther apologized for the vehemence of his attacks but he could not deny that Rome’s canon law had enslaved the body and soul of Christians. He concluded, “Unless proved wrong by scripture and plain reason …. my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and will not recant. God help me. Amen.” “Here I stand.”
Other business took over and the edict to ban Luther in the empire was issued on May 20, 1521, long after Luther had departed home and to the Wartburg Castle.
Yes, we live in a culture that proclaims the truth is not absolute. Paul writes, “A time will come when men will not put up with sound teaching. Instead, they will gather teachers who will say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from truth and turn aside to myths.
God has provided the answers to the ultimate questions…. Can I have peace with God and have my sins forgiven? Where will I spend eternity beyond death on this earth?
The answer… Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. For there is no other name given under heaven by which we can be saved.
