In Jesus Holy Name October 27, 2019
Text: Romans 3:21-24 Redeemer
“Reformation: Finding Peace with God”
What a great event last night. Good food. Great music. Fun fellowship. Great beer. I always tell my Calvinist friends I’m so glad I’m a Lutheran. Why? Because I don’t have to prove heaven is my home by producing good deeds to verify that my faith is true …. Oh! and I can drink beer! My Baptist friends don’t. Or at least they are not supposed too!
Reformation Sunday is here again. Two years past the 500th anniversary we are still celebrating the action of an obscure monk from Germany who challenged the Roman Catholic Church to reconsider their theological practices.
Someone once wrote: “He changed the world, but that wasn’t his intent.
He thought he was starting a theological debate.
Instead, he ignited a revolution.
When A&E compiled a list of the 100 most important people of the millennium, Luther came in #3, behind Johann Gutenberg and Isaac Newton, and just ahead of Charles Darwin and William Shakespeare.
What made this otherwise obscure monk from Germany so important? It happened because of what he did on October 31, 1517, when he nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
As a professor of theology, Luther, like many professors simply wanted a debate about certain practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Nailing his thoughts to the church door would be like posting an article on the Internet. He expected some pushback from his colleagues and perhaps some lively discussion. But he had no idea what was about to happen.
Luther’s bold act launched the Protestant Reformation and changed our understanding of God’s grace. He wrote the Small and Large Catechism. He wrote hymns and liturgies for worship. Some believe he started schools for children.
He created the first Christmas program for children and there is the legend that he brought a fir tree into his home creating the first Christmas tree. He translated the bible into the language of the people. Thanks to Gutenberg’s printing press thousands of bibles and tracts were printed.
We know he changed how the culture views “vocation”.
Martin Luther didn't always see things so clearly. Martin Luther joined a monastery in 1505 when he was 21 years old. The monks began their day between 1-2 AM. They started with prayer and singing, followed by a time of meditation, followed by another time of prayer and perhaps another time of singing. Later they would have breakfast and then they would have morning prayers. Then they would work all morning.
After lunch came another time of prayer and singing followed by a brief nap. Then came more prayers and singing and meditation and the sacraments. After the evening meal, they would have prayer again, and later in the evening they finally went to bed.
Martin Luther followed that rigorous life because he, like millions of people today, was looking for peace with God. He was looking for a way to have his sins forgiven. He wanted to be justified and made right with the God of the Universe.
In the deepest sense, he joined the monastery to save his soul.
In the Middle Ages for over 1000 years people were taught that if you wanted to be closer to God and help earn your way into heaven then the best way to do that was to be a priest, nun or monk. Throughout your day you were immersed in the bible, worship, prayer and work. For years Martin Luther was a good monk in the Augustinian monastery. He followed the rituals and kept the grueling schedule. He believed that by following the rules of the church, he would eventually gain admission to heaven. But his soul was not satisfied.
Luther began teaching at the University of Wittenberg and in 1512 earned his Doctor of Theology. He lectured on the Book of Romans between 1515 and 1516. His study of Romans set his heart free. For Luther the “religious” quest to please God was over. There was no need to work to earn salvation any more. “God has taken care of my salvation..” he wrote. (Read Romans 3:20-25a)
The “Reformation” rests on: Grace alone. Faith alone. Scripture alone. Luther’s understanding of the bible also challenged 1000 years of how people viewed their work. Your job, even “if you are a maid milking cows”, Luther said, “is no less valuable in God’s eyes than a life spent in prayer or church work. Your work is an opportunity to serve your neighbor and serve God.” This was a radical as translating the bible for culture.
Luther said: God could have decided to populate the earth by creating each new person from the dust of the earth, as He did Adam. Instead, He chose to create new life through the vocation of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. God calls people into families. Through the love and care of the parents God extends His love and care for children…This said Luther is a work pleasing to God…more than a life spent in prayer or at the monastery. ( “God At Work” Gene Vieth p 14)
“The fast food worker, the Inventor; the office secretary, the scientist, the accountant, the musician all are used by God to bless and serve His people and His creation. For the Reformers the work of priests and nuns and monks did not have a special claim on God’s favor.” God’s grace was for all equally. Good works were not the key that opened Heaven’s door but good works, no matter your job, are used by God through each of us, to bless our neighbor. This was a radical 1000 year shift in culture.
Most people then and now seek God in mystical experiences, spectacular miracles, and extraordinary acts they must do. Since the Reformation, the mundane activities that take up most of our lives, going to work, taking the kids to soccer and basketball, and volley ball practice, picking up a few things at the store, going to church are hiding places for God to reveal Himself to others thru you.
Luther simply wanted to debate and change the destructive errors and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The most egregious was the sale of Indulgences… the opportunity to buy your forgiveness with money. Well, He did call Pope Leo X the Anit-Christ…because of all the political payoffs… which did not go over well. Three years later, in June of 1520, Pope Leo X condemned 41 of Luther’s 95 Theses. Luther publicly burned the papal bull and refused to recant. On January 3, 1521 he was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
Rev. John Piper calls the event of the Reformation the most explosive, hard hitting, controversial, liberating, grace saturated, salvation clarifying Christ exalting gospel advancing moment in history, based on Luther’s understanding of God’s grace as he lectured on Galatians and Romans.
First, we human beings are spiritually dead because our broken commandments that have separated us from God and one another. We can’t build a bridge to God on our own. We must be born again by the Holy Spirit. That was the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, in the Gospel of John, chapter 3. Nicodemus, like many Americans today thought that the keeping of the commandments, plus his Jewish family heritage was enough. Jesus said no…. one must come to faith by the Holy Spirit.
The same problem resurfaced during the Middle Ages. Everyone knew that broken commandments would keep you out of heaven…. It was not much of a rational leap to then create ways to earn God’s love. Good works joining a monastery, or paying money were suggestions ……… but did not offer peace with God.
As people who have broken God’s commandments, we know that we are going to be punished. We need some way to have God’s wrath turned away. Nicodemus thought his good works and his Jewish connection to Abraham would do it. Luther thought that being a monk would do it. Then the papal decree of indulgences suggested that as “soon as the coin in the coffer clinks the soul from purgatory would fly free.” Then Luther read Romans 3 and his view of God changed.
All our broken commandments were nailed to the cross of Jesus when he died in our place. Now by faith we have peace with God. God brings people to faith through the work of the Holy Spirit when individuals or pastors proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost.
Read Romans 5:1-6
The word “justify” means “to declare righteous.” The term comes from the courtroom of the first century. As a trial drew to a close, the judge, having heard all the evidence, would pronounce his verdict. To justify a person meant to declare that they were not guilty in the eyes of the law.
There is another way to understand the term. If you have a computer, you probably know what it means to have justified margins. A “justified” margin is one which is absolutely straight from top to bottom. The computer arranges the words and spaces so that all the lines end up at exactly the same place. In that sense to justify means “to make straight that which would otherwise be crooked.”
God has provided the answer to the ultimate questions of life. 1) Can I have peace with God and have my sins forgiven? 2) 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. For we are justified for God gives to each believer His righteousness through faith in Jesus.
As we conclude our sermon series through the book of Ephesians Paul reminds us to put on the full armor of God. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” Ephesians 6:13).
This is a fighter’s verse. You can hear the sound of combat when you read it. You can sense the smoke and gunfire of desperate battle, of soldiers rushing to the front lines, and at the end of the verse, you can hear the sound of victory.
Satan is active because society has rejected God and embraced evil in radical ways. When evil abounds, you may be certain that Satan is having a field day. Bubeck in his book called Overcoming the Adversary. Writes: the widespread use of pornography, open Satanic worship, widespread drug and alcohol abuse, and sexual immorality all tolerated by the public including the legalized killing of the unborn and the sweeping redefinition of marriage tells you that Satan has been unleashed. Sin has always been with us, and Satan has always been active, but in the 21st-century, we are seeing the results of a culture openly rejecting God and his Word. Paul reminds us: to put on:
Belt of truth. Breastplate of righteousness. Shoes of the gospel of peace. Shield of faith. Helmet of salvation. Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
End with Luther’s morning prayer. (in bulletin)
