Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28; St John 8:31-38
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice, with exultation springing and with united heart and voice and holy rapture singing, proclaim the wonders God has done, how His right arm the vict’ry won. What price our ransom cost Him! (LSB 556:1). For we celebrate this day, with one accord, the great Festival of the Reformation. The 500th anniversary of that momentous event, when Dr Luther nailed (presumably) the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
Now every year there is always the temptation to preach on the man, the history, the legends, the stories, to the neglect and dismissal of the texts of Holy Scripture set before us. And its an alluring temptation, for the stories are incredible, miraculous even. We like to engage in a bit of hagiography when it comes to the man of the moment. But the true is, had it not been Luther, it would have been somebody.
The Church and culture of 16th century medieval Europe were fomenting for change. Luther wasn’t alone in his crisis of conscience created by the Roman Catholic Church, her penitential system and guilt trafficking. He wasn’t alone, but he was our Lord’s man at that moment. But from start to finish, Luther was the first to admit, the Reformation wasn’t about him. It was and is, all about Jesus. Christ for you by grace. Christ for you through faith. Christ for you in the Scriptures.
So, let us, this 500th Anniversary, do as Luther - to the texts! Let us find Christ in them.
The Revelation to St John starts us off. Exiled to the Isle of Patmos, the beloved disciple was given the privilege of seeing a heavenly vision, a prophecy concerning the things which are to come. And as with his Gospel and Epistles, the Evangelist bore witness to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw (Rev 1:2). And after the seven letters to the seven churches, after the scroll and the Lamb, after the seven seals and the 144,000 and the great multitude (which we shall hear next Sunday), after the trumpets and the woman and the dragon, then come the beasts. Two of them.
The second beast with horns as a lamb and the voice of a dragon who exercises the authority of the first beast. An image, an idol, is set up and all bow down and worship the image of the beast and receive his mark; the sign and number of the anti-Trinity, a pretender to the throne of the Lamb. The St Michael hymn by Melanchthon is correct: this is Satan, who seeks to undermine both Church and state. He is subtle and crafty, working behind political governments and even spreading corruption within the Church.
Its easy to correlate this second beast with the Pope, the papacy, and the false teachings of Rome. Luther and the Reformers did. Our Confessions say as much. But what about today? Is it still the case that the Enemy of God and His people is at work in both Church and State? On-demand abortion, re-defining marriage, secular progressivism, a culture that seems to exceedingly decadent that its fall is inevitable. And a church that chases after it! Jettisoning the clear Word of Scripture, rejecting the teaching of the Church catholic. It can’t go on much longer. What if I told you that Luther and the Reformers though the same thing in their age? Five hundred years ago they were convinced the world was so bad that it couldn’t get any worse. The end must be soon! Indeed, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.
But in each age our Lord sends His angel, His messengers, to preach His eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And the one of St John writes tonight - the angel directly overhead, coming at the zenith of time - well, after his death, at his funeral, Johannes Buggenhagen, Luther’s pastor, preached that this was Luther. He was convinced that the Reformer was the messenger of the Lord calling with a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.
It’s not definitive, but it is possible, beloved. For the eternal Gospel, which indeed, Luther preached, is this: Christ Jesus has overcome Satan and his beasts. He has defeated your old evil foe, dealing him a death blow when His own heal was pierced through by the nail. This is the hour of His judgment. For in Christ God has reconciled you to Himself, not counting your trespasses against you, but laying them all on His only Son, making Him into a once-for-all Sin offering. He who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and springs of water, came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. His Gospel proclamation of the full and free forgiveness of all your sins by His shed blood goes out to all the earth.
Which leads us directly to the second reading from St Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome. We know that whatever the Law says, it is God’s living voice speaking to us in His Law, His Ten Commandments, which accuse and condemn us. Stop our mouths of superficial boasting, silence our bragging and chop down any ladders we would attempt to us to climb up to Him. The Law cannot justify. It cannot save. It always accuses and condemns.
St Paul learned this. Luther learned this. You have learned this, both by the Holy Spirit i the school of experience. The ghosts that haunt us are not the ones hanging from trees this time of year. We all have our own Dickensian specters, the wraith in our minds poking at our memories, haunting us with past abuse, wrong decisions, deeds that seemed pleasant but are now recognized as worthless, destructive, evil.
The justice of God demands perfect obedience, perfect righteousness. But the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. The righteousness of God is manifested apart from the Law - although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. The Law says, “Do this,” and its never done. Your conscience cannot give you a moment’s peace. Its not only the beast in Church and State, but the beast within, the old Adam, the sinful flesh, chaffs and rebels against the Law under which it stands condemned. Your guilty conscience knows it. And it seeks relief.
Well here’s the Reformation truth: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
Here is comfort for stricken consciences. Here is solace for Luther; sweet forgiveness in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the Mercy-Seat-Offering whose blood is sprinkled over the Ark and covers the accusations and condemnations of the Law. It silences the fury of the beast and brings peace to troubled harts. You are made right with God through the precious blood and innocent death of the very Son of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, your Righteousness.
And it is this Jesus, this Son who becomes a slave, to free the slaves, who is speaking in our Gospel reading. He is catechizing the Jews who believed in Him. If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. There is so much here we can’t treat it all tonight. But it ties in with the Epistle and the desire for a good conscience.
A conscience that is not yet entirely seared is haunted by past sins. Worst are the besetting sins, the sins we return to like comfort food. These ghosts that haunt us whisper, “You’ll never change. You are my captive and we will continue on this path that leads to destruction.” We grow to love our captors. We get caught up in Stockholm Syndrome with our sins. We sound like the Jews from the text: “We are offspring of Luther and have never been enslaved to anyone!”
Ah how we have practiced and made perfect our sinning! We have become enslaved to our sins, to our captors, to the beast.
And this is the relevancy of the Reformation still today - the freedom to guilty consciences granted not by a fellow slave, but by the Son, the heir of the house, who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a Ransom for many. He who is the Truth sets you free by His imprisonment. He captured in the net of your sins. And He allowed it. He is the God of Abraham, His Offspring and Seed, but allows Himself to be handed over to death. Though He rightly remains in the House forever, this Son, Jesus Christ, left His Father’s house to seek a Bride, to free her from slavery, to purchase and win her with His own blood, to make her beautiful and perfect in His love. By His death He weds Himself to His Church and she remains in the House forever.
You, beloved, as members of His Bride, are slaves who have been ransomed by His Blood, bought at a price, belonging to Christ for time and eternity. This is true freedom. This is the Truth, which is Christ and His Word, that sets you free.
You know, Luther had a lot of fun with this passage. The Greek word for “free” sounds a lot like his name: eleutheroi. If you abide in My Word you will know the Truth and the Truth will make a Lutheran!
But seriously, he would sometimes sign his name, Martinus Lutherus, Martin the Free Man. For here is where he found true freedom. Not in penance. Not in works of the Law. Not in indulgence of the flesh or throwing off the shackles of Medieval Roman Catholicism, but in taking every thought and word and deed captive to the mind of Christ and the authority of His Word. Christ, the Son, has set you free. You are free indeed.
Its easy to get side-tracked this Reformation; to piggy-back on Luther as a radical, a rebel, a medieval revolutionary and liberator. The media is going crazy over all the hype and celebration. Even the Vatican joined in. They released a Luther commemorative stamp today. I guess its okay to put heretics on postage now.
None of these things matter. Add them up. Take them away. Makes no difference. Its all about Christ and His Word. He not only sets you free, in Him you become free. That is, you become children of God, begotten not of blood or flesh or will, but begotten from above by water and Word in Holy Baptism. Begotten by the grace of our Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, justified freely in Him, given His Holy Spirit by which you cry, “Abba, Father!” You are heirs, beloved. Not only of the Reformation, but heirs with Abraham, co-heirs of Christ, children of the same heavenly Father, given to live and remain in His House forever.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice, with exultation springing and with united heart and voice and holy rapture singing, proclaim the wonders God has done, how His right arm the vict’ry won. What price our ransom cost Him! (LSB 556:1). For we celebrate this day, with one accord, the great Festival of the Reformation. The 500th anniversary of that momentous event, when Dr Luther nailed (presumably) the 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg.
Now every year there is always the temptation to preach on the man, the history, the legends, the stories, to the neglect and dismissal of the texts of Holy Scripture set before us. And its an alluring temptation, for the stories are incredible, miraculous even. We like to engage in a bit of hagiography when it comes to the man of the moment. But the true is, had it not been Luther, it would have been somebody.
The Church and culture of 16th century medieval Europe were fomenting for change. Luther wasn’t alone in his crisis of conscience created by the Roman Catholic Church, her penitential system and guilt trafficking. He wasn’t alone, but he was our Lord’s man at that moment. But from start to finish, Luther was the first to admit, the Reformation wasn’t about him. It was and is, all about Jesus. Christ for you by grace. Christ for you through faith. Christ for you in the Scriptures.
So, let us, this 500th Anniversary, do as Luther - to the texts! Let us find Christ in them.
The Revelation to St John starts us off. Exiled to the Isle of Patmos, the beloved disciple was given the privilege of seeing a heavenly vision, a prophecy concerning the things which are to come. And as with his Gospel and Epistles, the Evangelist bore witness to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw (Rev 1:2). And after the seven letters to the seven churches, after the scroll and the Lamb, after the seven seals and the 144,000 and the great multitude (which we shall hear next Sunday), after the trumpets and the woman and the dragon, then come the beasts. Two of them.
The second beast with horns as a lamb and the voice of a dragon who exercises the authority of the first beast. An image, an idol, is set up and all bow down and worship the image of the beast and receive his mark; the sign and number of the anti-Trinity, a pretender to the throne of the Lamb. The St Michael hymn by Melanchthon is correct: this is Satan, who seeks to undermine both Church and state. He is subtle and crafty, working behind political governments and even spreading corruption within the Church.
Its easy to correlate this second beast with the Pope, the papacy, and the false teachings of Rome. Luther and the Reformers did. Our Confessions say as much. But what about today? Is it still the case that the Enemy of God and His people is at work in both Church and State? On-demand abortion, re-defining marriage, secular progressivism, a culture that seems to exceedingly decadent that its fall is inevitable. And a church that chases after it! Jettisoning the clear Word of Scripture, rejecting the teaching of the Church catholic. It can’t go on much longer. What if I told you that Luther and the Reformers though the same thing in their age? Five hundred years ago they were convinced the world was so bad that it couldn’t get any worse. The end must be soon! Indeed, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.
But in each age our Lord sends His angel, His messengers, to preach His eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And the one of St John writes tonight - the angel directly overhead, coming at the zenith of time - well, after his death, at his funeral, Johannes Buggenhagen, Luther’s pastor, preached that this was Luther. He was convinced that the Reformer was the messenger of the Lord calling with a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.
It’s not definitive, but it is possible, beloved. For the eternal Gospel, which indeed, Luther preached, is this: Christ Jesus has overcome Satan and his beasts. He has defeated your old evil foe, dealing him a death blow when His own heal was pierced through by the nail. This is the hour of His judgment. For in Christ God has reconciled you to Himself, not counting your trespasses against you, but laying them all on His only Son, making Him into a once-for-all Sin offering. He who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and springs of water, came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. His Gospel proclamation of the full and free forgiveness of all your sins by His shed blood goes out to all the earth.
Which leads us directly to the second reading from St Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome. We know that whatever the Law says, it is God’s living voice speaking to us in His Law, His Ten Commandments, which accuse and condemn us. Stop our mouths of superficial boasting, silence our bragging and chop down any ladders we would attempt to us to climb up to Him. The Law cannot justify. It cannot save. It always accuses and condemns.
St Paul learned this. Luther learned this. You have learned this, both by the Holy Spirit i the school of experience. The ghosts that haunt us are not the ones hanging from trees this time of year. We all have our own Dickensian specters, the wraith in our minds poking at our memories, haunting us with past abuse, wrong decisions, deeds that seemed pleasant but are now recognized as worthless, destructive, evil.
The justice of God demands perfect obedience, perfect righteousness. But the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. The righteousness of God is manifested apart from the Law - although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. The Law says, “Do this,” and its never done. Your conscience cannot give you a moment’s peace. Its not only the beast in Church and State, but the beast within, the old Adam, the sinful flesh, chaffs and rebels against the Law under which it stands condemned. Your guilty conscience knows it. And it seeks relief.
Well here’s the Reformation truth: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
Here is comfort for stricken consciences. Here is solace for Luther; sweet forgiveness in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, the Mercy-Seat-Offering whose blood is sprinkled over the Ark and covers the accusations and condemnations of the Law. It silences the fury of the beast and brings peace to troubled harts. You are made right with God through the precious blood and innocent death of the very Son of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, your Righteousness.
And it is this Jesus, this Son who becomes a slave, to free the slaves, who is speaking in our Gospel reading. He is catechizing the Jews who believed in Him. If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. There is so much here we can’t treat it all tonight. But it ties in with the Epistle and the desire for a good conscience.
A conscience that is not yet entirely seared is haunted by past sins. Worst are the besetting sins, the sins we return to like comfort food. These ghosts that haunt us whisper, “You’ll never change. You are my captive and we will continue on this path that leads to destruction.” We grow to love our captors. We get caught up in Stockholm Syndrome with our sins. We sound like the Jews from the text: “We are offspring of Luther and have never been enslaved to anyone!”
Ah how we have practiced and made perfect our sinning! We have become enslaved to our sins, to our captors, to the beast.
And this is the relevancy of the Reformation still today - the freedom to guilty consciences granted not by a fellow slave, but by the Son, the heir of the house, who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a Ransom for many. He who is the Truth sets you free by His imprisonment. He captured in the net of your sins. And He allowed it. He is the God of Abraham, His Offspring and Seed, but allows Himself to be handed over to death. Though He rightly remains in the House forever, this Son, Jesus Christ, left His Father’s house to seek a Bride, to free her from slavery, to purchase and win her with His own blood, to make her beautiful and perfect in His love. By His death He weds Himself to His Church and she remains in the House forever.
You, beloved, as members of His Bride, are slaves who have been ransomed by His Blood, bought at a price, belonging to Christ for time and eternity. This is true freedom. This is the Truth, which is Christ and His Word, that sets you free.
You know, Luther had a lot of fun with this passage. The Greek word for “free” sounds a lot like his name: eleutheroi. If you abide in My Word you will know the Truth and the Truth will make a Lutheran!
But seriously, he would sometimes sign his name, Martinus Lutherus, Martin the Free Man. For here is where he found true freedom. Not in penance. Not in works of the Law. Not in indulgence of the flesh or throwing off the shackles of Medieval Roman Catholicism, but in taking every thought and word and deed captive to the mind of Christ and the authority of His Word. Christ, the Son, has set you free. You are free indeed.
Its easy to get side-tracked this Reformation; to piggy-back on Luther as a radical, a rebel, a medieval revolutionary and liberator. The media is going crazy over all the hype and celebration. Even the Vatican joined in. They released a Luther commemorative stamp today. I guess its okay to put heretics on postage now.
None of these things matter. Add them up. Take them away. Makes no difference. Its all about Christ and His Word. He not only sets you free, in Him you become free. That is, you become children of God, begotten not of blood or flesh or will, but begotten from above by water and Word in Holy Baptism. Begotten by the grace of our Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, justified freely in Him, given His Holy Spirit by which you cry, “Abba, Father!” You are heirs, beloved. Not only of the Reformation, but heirs with Abraham, co-heirs of Christ, children of the same heavenly Father, given to live and remain in His House forever.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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