Introductory Considerations
1. "Today is Reformation Sunday." With these four words I may already have lost many of your listening ears. Why do we need to talk about something that happened 400-500 years ago? We don’t want a history lesson or a theological debate.
2. Message of Reformation not a message that began with Martin Luther but with Jesus Christ, the first true reformer. And it is something that is to continue today - in the church and in your hearts.
3. So, rather than go "back to the future" with Michael J. Fox, I invite you to go "forward to the past" with Jesus Christ.
Teaching
A. 2,000 Years Ago
1. Begin our journey with Jesus as He is teaching in the temple court. Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, to try Jesus.
a. Told Him law of Moses said that she was to be stoned. If He agreed, He would have gone against Roman rules that they could carry out death sentence. If not, he would be against law and Moses.
b. They forget fact that they did not present evidence and the guilt man was to be punished as well. They were using law and altering it for their own benefit.
c. Jesus, after some thought, did not argue whether she was guilty or not. Rather he challenged the one without sin to throw the first stone. In other words, all are guilty of sin and we all need forgiveness.
d. We all need to be freed from slavery to sin.
2. Jesus went on to tell who He was. Then, in our passage Jesus speaks to those who profess to believe that He is God. He challenges them as to whether they are truly His disciples.
3. He says to them, He says to the RC church before the Reformation, He says to the church today, and he says to the each one of us: "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (v. 31-2)
a. Not just believe my word, but you hold on to it - you abide or dwell in it.
b. Jesus had asked is any of them were without sin and in vs 21 He tells them they will die in their sin.
c. Jesus says the truth and only the truth will free them from sin and the consequences of sin.
4. They don’t agree because they are descendants of Abraham and people of God.
a. Jesus tells them they are not really Abe’s children - at least not in the faith which Abraham had. They were physical descendants but not spiritual descendants.
b. God has no grandchildren - you are either child of God or not. We can’t say we are because parents are - need to hold on to word for yourself.
c. They were not children of the faith of Abraham because they were either Pharisees or their followers. The Pharisees made their own rules about who was saved from sin.
d. Jewish historian Josephus said "the Pharisees had passed on to the people certain regulations handed down by former generations and not recorded in the law of Moses"
e. They followed external rules but the law was not written on the hearts.
f. Jesus knew they were slaves to sin. Trying to follow rules and traditions does not free us from slavery.
g. To hold on to Christ’s word and to trust in Him with your life sets us free. We are then not slaves but free sons of God - free for ever - for we have a permanent place in the family that no one can take away, not the Pharisees or the church.
5. Jesus came to Reform the church - to remove its faults and abuses. Through its teachings no one was set free, for it did not teach salvation through faith but through works. It judged who was a sinner and who was not
B. 500 Years Ago
1. If we move ahead 1500 years we see the situation was not that different.
2. Martin Luther was struggling with the church which had descended from the apostles. As the Jews had came from Abraham, who had true faith, they descended from apostles who taught salvation through Christ alone. But both had forgotten the simple truth and added their own rules
3. There were three pictures that deeply influenced Luther and made Him see the need for Reform:
a. He did not see a woman caught in adultery as Jesus had.
b. Instead, as a 14 year old, two pictures were impressed on his mind:
i. An altarpiece in a church, showed a boat sailing toward heaven. In the boat were the pope, the cardinals, bishops, monks and priests. The latter were tending oars and sails and were casting ropes to laymen struggling in the water. Some were clinging to ropes while others were drowning. No laymen was in the boat and no clergy in the water. Over the ship, directing its course, was the Holy Spirit.Showed view that laity were utterly dependent on RC clergy for their salvation. Only those declared saved or free by priest was actually saved or free.
ii. Second picture was a living scene. Prince William of Anhalt became a monk and begged the streets for alms. Luther would later write how ashamed he felt of his own life when he saw the man who had been worn down to skin and bones. This helped him to decide to become a monk so he too could renounce the world and assure his own salvation.
b. Third picture Luther saw was a concept.
i. The concept of God as a stern judge who demanded righteousness and was so far removed from man that he could only be approached thru Mary or the saints.
4. The more Luther tried to please God the more he realized he could not do it.
5. He turned to the Word in despair. He read Rom 1:17 - "The righteous will live by faith" and Rom 3:38 "for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law".
a. HE WAS FREED INDEED!
b. These words were a release from His anguish. He was freed from trying to do that which is impossible - freed from sense of guilt, failure, and freed from the terror of sin. Freed from being a slave to sin and freed to be a son of God.
6. With this new discovery he tried to show church its wrongs, but it would not listen. They excommunicated Him and the Protestant church was begun.
7. Luther and other Reformers like Calvin called the church to get back the basics, the Word of God - sola Scripture - the word alone is the rule of faith.
C. Today
1. The problem is not over.
2. Even though we are the people of God we are still sinners and subject to error - whether it be because of pride or our own sin or our desire to explain God’s word better than He did, the church keeps on shifting away from the simple truth.
3. I believe RC church is better today, that there are born-again believers in it. But it still holds that sacraments necessary for salvation, an error that can prevent people from trusting in Christ alone.
4. The problem is even closer to home. Many believers have strayed away from simple truth, we all struggle with keeping proper balance.
5. The Reformers knew that and so they came up with a logo: "Ecclesia reformate semper reformanda est" - "a Reformed church must ever be reforming itself".
6. Our humanness takes that which comes purely from God and we distort it.
7. Most churches would agree we need changes - there are wrongs and problems. In looking up Semper Reformanda on internet, I came up first with group by such a name. I read a speech to the group by man saying changes must include openness to ordaining homosexuals.
8. These people think they are reforming in the spirit of the Reformation. But they are not. Question not about needing change but how we move ahead to make changes.
9. Jesus provides the answer - "the truth will set you free".
10. Over and again we need to go back to God’s word to see where we should be heading. As we stray need correction - need to be brought back to God’s ways and will.
11.See liberalism pulling us away, but need to be careful in our reaction, that we remain in line with God’s word and not to right of it - see word in centre - be aligned to it
12. Problem not just with church but with each one of us.
a. When we first believe we are often in the Word.
b. Then we know it and so we don’t spend as much time in it. Problem is we apply what we know without going back to see what we don’t know or have forgotten.
c. Soon we no longer feel set free by Christ. We are slaves to sinful ways of world or slaves to legalism and falling short as Luther felt.
13. We need to move forward in faith - as church and individuals, to be reformed and renewed. Need to again understand God’s grace and be set free by it.
14. By feeding on truth.
REFERENCES
The Spirit of the Reformed Tradition - Eugene Oosterhaven
The Gospel of John - William Hendrikson
