Stand firm on the Gospel! https://soundcloud/tony-pittenger/reformation14 Reformation.14 26 October, 2014 Series A P262, 339:1-3, (373, 349) R261 Matthew 10:16–23 (ESV) 16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. Every now and then people have questions about the illustration on the bulletin cover. We try to print a little explanation but still, you have to know the Bible history, or other history, to make sense of it. Today’s might raise some questions: Who’s the guy with the funny haircut? What’s he pointing at? Who are the other people? What is happening? If you guessed that the man with the funny hair is Martin Luther, you are correct. What he’s pointing at are things that he has written himself. His writings are on display as evidence against him. The man in the background, the one sitting on the chair, is Emperor Charles V. These events took on April 18, 1521 in a place in a German city called Worms. (Vorms is more the way the Germans pronounce it.) Luther had found something that had been…well…something that had essentially been lost for a very long time. He had found…the Bible. Sound’s strange to hear, doesn’t it? It’s not that the Bible didn’t exist, for it did; it’s that most people like you couldn’t read it while most people like Locklair and myself didn’t read it. And so the Bible, the actual things that God has said, had effectively become forgotten or lost. In its place were a whole bunch of man-made ideas; ideas about getting out of Hell and getting into Heaven. These ideas had the stamp of approval from the church. Few people dared question those ideas, few people were able to—or were brave enough—to compare the ideas to the Bible and then stand up and point out the errors. Few people. There were a few. 106 years before this event took place, a Christian named Jan Huss spoke up about the ideas and the errors and the Bible. Jan Huss pointed out some of the errors, he called for corrections to be made…and for his efforts Jan Huss was tied to a stake and burned alive. That was the year 1415. This event took place 106 years later, in 1521. One important difference between 1415 and 1521 was that Europe’s printing press was invented between those two dates (1450). Teens! It’s like the difference between having no internet and cell service and having unlimited data and texts. With service you can tell anyone anything, without service… well…you’re all alone… So the papers Luther is pointing at are writings of his that got copied on a printing press and distributed for anyone and everyone to read. Jan Huss…it was like he lived with no data plan and no cell service…he could have only passed out hand-written statements, he could only have carried the truth of the Bible as far as the sound of his own voice. But in Luther’s day, the Printing Press’s day, it was different. The truth spread like wildfire. So what you’re looking at is a sort of trial, or hearing. Martin Luther shared the truths of the Bible with everyone he could, pointing out errors wherever he could. But now, April, 1521, a trial has been convened to put a stop to him. His writings lay on the table before him. The emperor of Western Europe is looking on and listening, and Luther is asked: Are these writings yours? They are, He answers. Your writings have been judged to be in error, he is told. You are in error. You must retract them. All eyes looked at Luther… If they are in error with the Holy Scriptures, I will gladly retract them, Luther answered. But, if not, if they are in agreement with the Bible and it is the man-made ideas about getting out of Hell and into Heaven that do not agree with the Bible, then I will not—and I cannot—recant/retract. Here I stand. God help me. Here I stand. Where? On the Word of God. Dear Fellow Redeemed, this is what the Reformation is about…about standing on the truth of Holy Scripture alone. No additions. No subtractions. Sin is still sin, defined only by the clear Word of God. The Gospel is only and just the Gospel—that we are saved by grace for Jesus’ sake. Believe this; believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is and that He did what He said He would…believe that and you will be saved. He is very God of very God just as He said. He suffered and died for your sins and rose again for your new life with God. That is what He said and what He did. Believe that. Period. Standing on the truth of Holy Scripture. We cannot spread the Good News to our community if we do not know what the Good News is. We cannot comfort the dying if we do not know what comfort God has. We cannot call out to the lost and we cannot announce God’s grace to the sinner if we do not stand on the truth of Holy Scripture. But, this is not as easy as it may sound, standing on the Word of God alone never will be. Again, look at the illustration. Because Luther refused to teach things which were not Biblical, the government put a price on his head. Anyone who silenced him would be seen as a hero. Jesus warned about this in today’s Reformation-Gospel lesson: Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves…they will deliver you over to courts…you will be dragged before governors and kings…Brother will deliver brother…and the father his child, and children will rise against parents …and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. Because of Him, because of Jesus, the man who wrote these words, Matthew, was speared in east Africa. Mark was dragged to death behind a team of horses because of the truth of Scripture. Paul was beheaded. Jan Huss was burned. Luther was declared a criminal. You will be branded as close-minded, intolerant, and worse. If you lived in Syria or Iraq, you would be hunted and killed by ISIS. But we must remember what Paul says: For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For freedom. Freedom is contrasted with slavery, spiritual slavery. A spiritual slave is someone who must toil their own way out of Hell, reverse their own death, pay for their own sins, and enter Heaven under their own power and will. This is impossible. Praise God, that’s not you for you are forgiven and resurrected and saved by grace. A spiritual slave is someone who is trapped in man-made teachings, man-made ideas, and man-made conclusions. Such are the followers of Islam who do not know that Jesus has died to reunite them with God, who seek to gain converts by threatening them with death. Praise God, you stand firm on the Word of Truth, God’s Word confirmed to be true by the resurrection of Jesus! And such spiritual slavery is our modern culture. While it doesn’t threaten with machetes, it threatens with unpopularity, with the dreadful label of “intolerant”, with the threat of lawsuits. Our modern culture attempts to enslave Christians again by telling them that they can no longer believe in marriage as God instituted it, that we cannot speak about sin, that we cannot hold to Jesus’ words I am the Way and the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me. For freedom Christ has set us free…do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. We would be easy prey for these lies, the lies of the modern world which is so intolerant of the Christian faith, the lies of modern spirituality which offers any other god—even a total absence of God—instead of the one who gave His life for the world. We would be easy prey without this, without God’s Word Stand firm…stand firm…for freedom. You are free. By faith in Christ who died for you, you are free from your sins. By faith in Christ who has risen again you are free from death. By faith in Christ you too are free to be with Him in Heaven. Glory be to Him, to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit. One God, forever and ever. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 20:04:43 +0000
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