Let's put ourselves into the 16th century
What was life like what was religious life like?
There was no electricity there was no running water
People never wash their clothes. They live together with animals there was a lot of smell and a lot of dark
The population is recovering after the bubonic plague had really devastated Europe
For most people in the Middle Ages life is brutal and short
Salvation is sort of the reward for enduring that and for keeping the faith
the scriptures were in Latin so it wasn't the language of the common people so only the
Preachers and the pastors were able to read the Word of God
The priest is the one who had the authority
The priest is the one who had the access to God
He had the ability to do the miracle of the mass you were an ordinary
Parishioner you really didn't matter that much
You know back then it was it was really as my young people would say a trip for about 500 years
the medieval world of Germany of France England
Portugal and Spain were ruled by one
Spiritual power and that was the Pope
There was a while when there were two people who claim to be Popes and then a little while when three people claimed to be
Pope each calling the other one
Antichrist each attempting to raise enough money to fight the other and there were questions about
Where the salvation lied which church should I be a part of in order to be saved?
You're always uncertain of your relationship with God and you are told that you should be
uncertain of your relationship with God in
1516 Pope Leo the tenth decides that only he can call a council and only a council can reform the church
Luther comes along and he discovers that
Salvation is a free gift to all who believe and
that you become your own priest before God and you do not need the papacy what you need is a
personal relationship with God
and that
changed everything
It's easy to think that the Reformation happened so many centuries ago it has no relevance to us
But Martin Luther is like the man who threw a stone into the lake
And the ripples went all the way to the shore
And today we are still feeling their effects
People wonder what Martin Luther was like I mean there was nothing in his background to suggest that he was going to become great
He was in many ways an ordinary German boy born in a strict home
Where piety was important the church was important God was important his parents were rather harsh?
He talks about how he was beaten until the blood came even though he had just stolen a nut
My father once sweet me so hard that I ran away. I hated him
Until he finally managed to win me back
His father someone who had worked really hard. He came from a peasant family. He had married
Well his father had these great ambitions for him
He wanted his eldest son to move up on the socio-economic ladder and become a lawyer
They were financially stable enough that they could send Luthor to be educated which of course was key to who he would become
If you go to Germany you can visit the birth house of Luther which is in the town of Iceland
Like many Luther sites his birth house has been preserved as a museum where you can learn more about the man and
Coincidentally it that was the same town in which he died so you can see the birth house and the death house
So even though Luther changed so much of the world a lot of his own life's work took place in a very small area
His father being very harsh
probably influenced Martin Luther's impression of God
Because Luther is going to grow up with a great sense of the divine sovereignty of
Divine holiness and above all divine
Strictness as a pastor I see people
projecting on to God the Father
the absenteeism of their father or the cruelty of their father or the abandonment of their father even though you may come to
Understand grace it always seems as if God is there
Trying to find something that you are doing wrong and ready to punish you as soon as you do it
When July day
Luther was
Returning to his parents house. He was about four miles out when he got caught up in a thunderstorm
He was struck down by lightning, and he called out and said helped me st. Ann and I shall become a monk
And he was true to his vow
If you go to Germany in fact you'll see a marker there that commemorates that important event
He enters into the monastery within two weeks of the lightning storms
This is a breaking point with his father. There's considerable tension the develops
between them over this
In order to keep his vow but also to bring some peace to his soul he enrolled here in the Augustinian monastery
That's where we are today in their first Germany
He partook of all of the advantages of the church hoping that he could redeem himself and make himself worthy of
salvation
Specifically, I'm on the altar here, and it is upon this raid that Luther took his monastic vows
Well, I'm going to demonstrate
The kind of posture that Luther had as he enrolled in this monastery
My polluter was like any one of us when we feel that we have to please God
We overcommit Luther of course went into the strictest
Monastery and when he was there he decided he would do his best and really more than his best
To please a God that he wished he would be able to please but was convinced he could not
the person doesn't understand that it's
grace alone
What they do is they struggle quite a bit no matter how hard he tries and he is the best of the best?
He cannot reach that standard
Men the monastery where he lived the floors are made of cold stone, and he would sleep without blankets to mortify the flesh
He fasted so long that some of his friends thought that he would even die he gives
Everything to that and that he still can't meet the standard
If ever a monk got to heaven by his monkey
It wasn't
We are in the room in the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt
And this is the most authentic of all the rooms here the very room where Luther confessed his sins
endlessly
Sometimes he confessed his sins here six hours at a time and in those days
Confession was not private there were a number of different monks here
And they listened to one another's confessions and when martin luther's stood up to confess he went on and on and on
Luther believed in contrition that it was important that not only that you feel sorry for your sin
But that you also confess
everything
Sins in order to be forgiven had to be confessed for them to be confessed
They had to be remembered if they were not remembered they could not be confessed and if they were not confessed they were not forgiven
He only has peace of mind in that small window of time after he's received absolution for all the sins
He's committed and before he commits the next one because then then he's worried about his salvation again see too many people think
That Jesus started our salvation, but then we have to make the monthly installments
We don't have to do that. Let's visualize Martin Luther in his dilemma and predicament
he begins to confess his sins and his confessors name is Talbot's and
Stupids helps Luther we really need to appreciate in fact
How much Shabbats shaped Luther he pointed to a God of grace?
He was the one who pointed Luther to Christ on the cross focus on the cross
But somehow that does not seem to answer Luther's dilemma
I was myself more than once driven for the very beasts of despair so that I wished I had never been created
Love God. I hated him he
Hated God because God was too strict
His standards were too high how can mortal man stand in the presence of a God like that?
Luther believed that the smallest smidgen of sin would bar him from heaven
Now maybe he might not go directly to hell if he did not commit a mortal sin
But if it was a minor sin a venial sin he would then go to purgatory?
Purgatory doesn't come out of left field it is rooted in the early church
It is rooted in Gregory the Great who developed the concept of a place of refining fire where we're really
improved before we enter into paradise very much like in the Old Testament when we read of the analogy of fire as a
Purifier like gold is refined in the fire
Purgatory is not a place where you go and it's like a waiting room
And there's two doors one into heaven and one into hell
That's not what purgatory is if you're going to hell
You're gonna go to hell and you're not gonna stop at purgatory the amount of time that you spend there
Depends on really how many sins you have accumulated over the course of your life
It was believed that most people who die do not have enough righteousness to go into heaven
So Luther thought that the best that he could possibly expect would be purgatory
One day his confessor stealth had said to him Luther you ought to teach the Bible and
Luther said you know that could be the death of me and come to think of it to some extent it was
And then he read it to just shall live
And the transformation took place
And so whom the Sun sets free is free and not just free free indeed
All the things he had learned all those things were transformed from works to faith
It was death to all of his good works death to all of his achievements when he understood
Through the scriptures that salvation was a free gift
given to those who believe
If you want to understand the Protestant Reformation you must understand the doctrine of faith alone
Sola fidei is the phrase we use it kind of has become one of the hallmarks of the Protestant Reformation
Faith alone is as opposed to
Faith and works works or anything that I do to try to make myself
acceptable to God
Pilgrimages or with prayers or with fasting or with a financial donation
It is not a matter of rituals
It's not a matter of obeying all the rules
It's not even a matter of being sure that you are in fellowship with the church though the church may be
Important people think because they go to church
That makes them a believable look going to church makes you a believer like going into a garage makes you an automobile
It doesn't work that way the law says do this and do that
Grace says it is already done
you cast your scenes from yourself and on to Christ when you firmly believes as his wounds and
Sufferings are your sins to be born and paid for by him
Everything that Luther said preached spoke was had God's grace at the very center
Martin Luther believed that if there was any part of our salvation
That depended on our own participation
In it then none of us could be saved God has to give you the faith in order to believe in God, so
Grace is a gift faith is a gift and justification is gift
He talks a lot about an unfair exchange that happens and in that unfair exchange
Then we inherit everything that he can give to us right and that's eternal life
When Luther discovered that Jesus Christ met all of our requirements for us if we receive it by faith
He said it was as if I walk through the gates of paradise
The burden rolled off his back there was peace that was brought to his soul
Luther was finally a free man
Now he began to proclaim it and there was a little University beginning at that time in Wittenberg
And Luther transferred there and there he taught the Bible
When Luther began to study the Bible he found that there are some things that the church taught that weren't there
and
There came an opportunity when Pope Leo decided that he needed money to finish st.
Peter's Basilica the church sent out
monks to sell indulgences they were indulgence
Sellers I like to look at replicas of various documents here for example is a plenary indulgence
An indulgence is basically a certificate that you receive as an indicator that you have met the requirements
For satisfaction and have been absolved of your sins. Let me put it in contemporary terms
Let's say you want to go out, and sin you would come to me and say pastor. I'm going out Saturday
I'm gonna drop it like it's hot and back it up. I'm gonna make it rain in the club
Talk to a black person. They'll explain it to you, and and you would pay me and I would say okay
You're forgiven of it, and you could go ahead so it was paying
To sin this is a heresy called simony. You can't sell
Spirituality you can't sell blessings except the church was doing it what we're looking at is an indulgence that goes back
500 years so these were circulated, thanks to Gutenberg
Indulgences could now be sold and everyone could come back and say
Here's proof that I'm right with God
Now that was not entirely new that had been done before but there was a new twist in
Order to make sure that the coffers were filled
Indulgences would be sold not only for the living
But also for the dead so if I can give money to the church, and that's a form of penance perhaps
I can give money to the church and
Maybe even do penance for one of my loved ones who's already passed away and reduced their time in purgatory
And that's what Tetzel preached in the various town squares in Germany
Tetzel is very famous very well-known in Europe. He's the most effective indulgence seller
Here's the kind of documents that people would bring to Luther to show him
That they had received full remission of their sins
So he's hearing about his congregants going and buying these indulgences, and he's hearing about how Tetzel is preaching
Indulgences here. Are you hearing but for a few pence?
Your mother and your father who are in purgatory? They would want to be free your dead parents are crying out to you
They're suffering and you are so hard-hearted that you will not give as my fact. They had a saying
that went something like this as soon as
The money in the coffers rained a soul from purgatory and sins will spring
So they even had pities about it in Wittenberg
We saw an indulgence box in a museum there where Luther and Katie used to live and they had
Indulgences for the past the present yes the future for relatives, and that's what made Luther angry
something that's important to keep in mind about Luther is that he's not just a
Theologian he's not just a professor, but he's also a pastor
And
He has a congregation that he cares about and
That's when Luther went to the Wittenberg door famously
nailing on that door 95 theses primarily directed against indulgences
Today we have the privilege of being in Wittenberg Germany
At the famous Wittenberg door back in
1517 on October the 31st Martin Luther came here and nailed his famous 95
Theses to the castle church door right here in Wittenberg
People had this idea that the 95 theses were represented this
manifesto against the Pope but
Martin Luther was not posting a document that said here are 95 reasons why I'm leaving the Catholic Church
That's not what he was doing what Luther is doing is nothing out of the ordinary?
Okay, he is an unknown monk he's at a brand-new
University engaging in theological
Conversation and debate which is his duty as a professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg
It seems to us like the posting of the 95 theses on the door of the chapel
Would have been a radical move
What a lot of people don't know is that the door of the chapel was the bulletin board?
Now of course the door the original door burned in a fire many years ago
But they memorialized the door here, and you can see the 95 theses written in Latin in bronze
written in Latin because Luther thought that these would be debated among the
Intelligencia Luther really was a late medieval Catholic an ordained
Priest and an Augustinian friar he would have preferred to reform the church from within and he was posting
95 things that he thought people should be talking about
When our Lord Jesus Christ said repent he we see entire life as he believed us to be one of
repentance
The very first thesis that he writes is about repentance that the whole life of the believer
Should be one of repentance
When Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the castle church door those 95 statements were primarily directed
against
indulgences
Why thousands if off empty purgatory for the sake a holy love?
So after all he does release countless souls for the sake of sordid money
contributed for the building of a Cathedral
So Luther was attacking these abuses though. He was not entirely opposed to them at that time
What he disagrees with is the economic exploitation?
Of those indulgences that people actually think that by buying something
They will have certain years taken off in purgatory, but he also referred to other abuses
For example in those days there was the merit of the Saints the belief that was that
Some of the saints did more good than they needed to get to heaven the Treasury of the saints is
the the good works of the saints
Gives them a credit balance because they didn't have as many sins as the rest of us
And you could access some of their goodness for yourself if you viewed a relic and if you paid a gift
Relics was another way that you could satisfy your sins a relic was actually a piece of clothing
From some saint of the past perhaps it was a bone that was honored because the person may have been a martyr
It's very well known in the medieval period that there were abuses and corruptions with relics that people were
Manufacturing them that there were false relics so if you had the finger bone of Thomas the Apostle where he touched Jesus's wounds
Maybe maybe you did and maybe you didn't have the actual finger bone of Thomas and there might be several of them floating around when
Luther came up with his idea about justification because of Christ's death on the cross
what he did was to
marginalize
all
different ways in which grace could be
distributed to kind of take those off the table so to speak and put Christ at the very very center of
faith
The Reformation that started here was an event that on its own people would have never thought
That it would bring about the changes that it did it's not until they are
Translated into German and within two weeks. They are all throughout Germany
Luther became a
National sensation pretty much overnight this begins to become more and more of a concern
The reaction from the Catholic hierarchy and then the back-and-forth that ensued ended up in his own
Excommunication and him standing his ground and you know the end result was a split of the body of Christ
What happens from that point on is extraordinary
Perhaps you're listening and you wonder what does this have to do with me?
Well if you're Protestant the reason that your church looks the way in which it does is because of the Reformation
Prior to the Protestant Reformation you had all kind of statues
Again all kinds of relics
In order for us to comprehend that it's faith alone all of these things were done away with
Faith alone says look we don't need any of that and so the way in which we worship today
Was largely directed by what happened 500 years ago
and we also are impacted by the Reformation that began right here in Wittenberg and
Today we are standing where history was made
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Freedom of religion is something that all of us take for granted, but we have to understand that for centuries in Europe
There was no freedom of religion
You were brought up in what is known as?
christened 'm
in europe through centuries
There was this idea that you have to have a unified king
With a religion that he accepts and a law that everyone abides by
So you have King
Faith and law they had to line up
So the idea that you could actually live in a country with a different
Religion and still be a loyal citizen was unthinkable
Now to us. That's difficult to grasp
It would be like when President Kennedy became the president of the United States that all of us would have had to become Catholic
As a result of that you could not deviate from the teachings of the church
if you did you were declared to be a heretic to
Speak against the church it wouldn't take long and you were in trouble
I'm standing beside what is known as the Luther oak of?
Course this tree wasn't here during the days of Martin Luther it's about a hundred and seventy years old
But it's called the Luther oak because it's planted
Approximately where the papal bull was burned on December the 10th?
1520 Pape Leo was very upset with Luther for obvious reasons Luther was failing to recant
So Pope Leo decided that he would write, what was known as a papal bull
that is an official letter and
document of excommunication
Which meant to basically kick them out of the church, and if the church
Excommunicated you your eternal salvation was in complete and utter Jeffrey
But I the Lord a wild boar is a Lucinda vineyard lying
Teachers are rising the dogs are five the Restless evil
against the truth
In Latin the word for lead is bula and when the Pope issued a decree
It was sealed with a lead seal
The document gets its name from the seal the seal is called a bulla so we call the document a bull
It's very interesting because it actually
Has writing and here is an example of the papal seal
And for Luther this not only meant that his soul was destined for eternal damnation
But that the church that he had really sought to reform
Wasn't recognizing his new ideas it took three months before it arrived here in Wittenberg
because in those days
Communication was very slow Luther already knew in advance. What was in it, and he spoke against it very harshly
Luther's books were being burned throughout Germany
So Luther said they're burning my books. I will burn their papal decree
It's obviously a symbolic and public act of
rejection of the Pope's Authority not simply rejection of this particular document, but rejection of the Pope's Authority
Altogether and so this papal bull was taken right here at the Elster Gate, and it was burned
and it is Luther that threw it into the fire and
There was no going back once
The Reformation began Luther entered into a number of different debates, and it always came down to this question
by what authority are you believing the doctrines that you are espousing that was the question and
Of course the authorities from the Catholic Church from the Pope always said that the Pope and a tradition is of equal
authority to the Scriptures we
As Protestants look at it differently we go back to the scriptures
And we do not have a Protestant Pope we don't have someone who is the authority?
To which all of us subscribe so Luther was rooting
Everything that he knew and everything that he believed about God and salvation
in the scriptures
Alone, and that's why sometimes when we speak about the Reformation we use the expression
Sola scriptura
Which is the Scriptures alone as the basis of spiritual and theological Authority?
There former's meant by Sola scriptura not scripture alone in that it is alienated
Any other words of wisdom from the Christian past because if you did you'd have to get rid of the doctrine of the Trinity
While I would argue the doctrine of the Trinity is in Scripture the word Trinity is not in Scripture scripture has a primary
Role it is the primary Authority. It is the final authority on
theological matters
I tell people this all the time when somebody says thus saith the Lord check the Bible to see if the Lord said thus
It is
Sufficient we don't have to go beyond it to try to understand the deep things of God
It's very easy for us to forget that people in previous generations did not have access to the scriptures like we do today
When we look on the internet today?
We can find hundreds of different versions of the Bible in all different languages if you're listening today
And you have a Bible or two you have to go back 500 years, and thank Martin Luther
During Luther's time there were very few people who had Bible's
Most Bibles were in the church and the people listened to the Bible's being read
Maybe there was only one Bible in that whole town
And it was changed to these in the lectern so nobody walked away with it the Bible was
Not in the language of the people
It was actually illegal to translate the Bible into
a language other than Latin what the Catholic Church didn't want people doing was
Interpreting the Bible on their own apart from the community and apart from the tradition
And so they had to depend upon the pastors the priests
Individuals who were learning in order to learn what the Bible even had to say
The idea that the common person should have the scriptures was a seismic shift
And we need to be able to understand something of the past that we might appreciate the present
In January of 1521 Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church by hopefully of the 10
Luther's case as a heretic had to be handed over to the political authorities in order to
Administer the death sentence the emperor charles was newly installed. He was the head of the Holy Roman Empire
He had come from Spain so he was an ardent Catholic
He aided Luther he wanted to kill Luthor
But he knew that if he were to kill Luther without a hearing all the Germans would be angry with him
so he was in a dilemma he decided that he was willing to meet with Luther at forums and
See whether or not this monk wouldn't recant
When Luther left for ORMs he didn't know what the outcome was going to be
And he was going to grapple as he constantly did with a fact of martyrdom
loser
Believed he was going to his death
They put him in the middle the Cardinals were City seated in a row and they put him in the middle
They said we will not discuss these matters without any further
deliberation you must recount
The final word was revoke. Oh revoke. Oh revoke. Oh, that is brother you better get off of that let that alone
Because we'll do a drive-by on you, so one can imagine Luther this
frightened
terrified
Augustinian friar in front of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles v
And Luther makes a statement, which I believe is one of the greatest in all of church history
As a matter of fact I sometimes wonder
What would have happened if Luther had wimped out and Luther makes the famous statement I?
Cannot and I will not
recant
My conscience is taken captive by the Word of God
To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I
Do not accept the authority of Pope's and councils for they contradict each other
then he goes on to say because of my faith in the Word of God I
Will not recant so help me here stea. If if conduct unders
Here I stand I
Can do no other
So help me god. I
Think it's important to remember not just here I stand
But to remember how he refuses he says my conscience is captive to the Word of God
So it's not just my conscience, but it's actually captive to God's Word and in that he really does
Embody what it means to affirm a Sola scriptura?
view
when Luther stood up at the diet of norms in
1521 and
would not recant
You have two reactions on the part of the church of course there was a great deal of anger and a desire to know
How do we kill this man, which is of course what Charles v wanted to do?
But on the other hand there were many people who when they heard about it said yo vole in other words
We are in favor of this. It's about time. He sowed a seed, which eventually
Led to freedom of religion in Europe and we can trace freedom are relieved
In Europe all the way to freedom of religion here in America
it really had its birth when Luther had the courage to stand against the system and to say I
will not
recant
After the diet of worms Luther was a dead man
The Emperor wanted to put him to death but for various reasons didn't
and Luther is on his way homes and
Suddenly men jump out of the ditch they capture him and they taken for the Wartburg castle
We're at the Wartburg castle where Martin Luther spent to 11 months
This is a very historic place, and it's a very busy place
Tourists come here from all over the world
The castle museum is full of many fascinating things to see
But for us the most important displays have to do with Martin Luther the
Man who overcame his wagon and horse they were actually men who were his friends
It was a setup by the elector Frederick because he had sided with Luther
Frederick had arranged for Lutheran to be kidnapped
after he left the deed of worms and to be put into hide me he went into Vaart burg Castleman and
Actually his colleagues didn't even know where he was many wondered what had happened to him and even if he had died
Charles v
Pretty much sentenced him to death and if Luther was found in a territory that didn't protect him anybody could kill him on the spot
So Luther is hiding there in the Wartburg and during that period of time he
Does a number of things the most important of which is in the first eleven weeks?
He translates the entire New Testament
into German from the Greek
Many of the German translations until that time were actually done from the Latin and the Latin was not the best
Translation so basically what they're trying to do is get the best
vernacular Bible translation that they can one that you could trust one that you could use even
eventually to base your theological views on
We are here in the room in the Wartburg castle where Martin Luther
Translated the entire New Testament from the original Greek into German
And you can see here the desk upon which he worked you can see a stove
it is sometimes said that he fought the devil with ink and
some people thought that he
actually threw an inkwell at the devil and tour guides used to rub a little bit of soot on the wall because
They wanted to see where the inkwell landed, but I'm not sure that he threw an inkwell at the devil
He said in his table talks. He fought the devil with ink what he meant is
I fought the devil with the translation of the New Testament
That's the way you fight the devil you give them the Word of God
Luther was a literary genius. He had this incredible feel for the emotional and affective dimension of
biblical language so he used language in a in a very evocative way as well as in a way that was spoken by everyone and
also
Very precise in its technical terms your reader must be able to read God's Word as though it were written yesterday
He says that he wants the common person to be able to understand the scriptures
Whether it's the scrubwoman whether it's the farmer behind the cloud
There are passages dealing with animal sacrifice and so you actually went to a butcher in order to ask the butcher
What kind of terms are used to describe animal parts so Luther was very interested in?
getting a living language into which he could translate his New Testament a
Layman who has description is more than Pope or council without it
It unified all of the different dialects of Germany gave them a common language a common understanding
Now the translation of the old took the rest of his life
Together though the old and the New Testament is going to have a huge impact on Germany
Something like the King James has had on the English language from the point that Luther
introduces the German New Testament we begin to see then the spread of
Vernacular Bibles like Luther's all throughout Europe and with the benefit of the printing press you have really a Bible boom
When you look at the idea of solar script to look at the practical implications of it
I mean first of all we get to carry a Bible we can have as many translations of the Bible as we would like
Whenever we discuss issues or we have concerns. What do we want to know book the chapter first?
That's what we want to know we get up in the morning. I don't know what you do
I have devotions in the morning
I open my Bible further implications of our commitment to Scripture can be seen and even the way we have our
Pulpit in our sanctuary. We're actually standing here in the castle Church in Wittenberg Germany, and it is here where Luther nailed his 95
theses
You can see the pulpit in this church. It is very tall it is very ornate
But there was a theological purpose for the fact that it was as high as it was
What the Reformers were trying to say is that we believe that the preaching of the word of God is?
Above everything else it is above the people it is above all of the activities within the church
We sit under the Word of God, and it's Authority directs our lives
As a pastor, I've seen the Bible change lives
Over and over again if you're watching, and you haven't opened your Bible in a while
Open it because you have the privilege and opportunity of reading God's and love letter to you
Even if it's only a verse a day to keep the devil away you need to get into the Word of God
And to read God's love letter to you
If you are enjoying this special you will love dr. Erwin Lutzer book
Rescuing the gospel to learn more about the Reformation call now eight eight eight nine nine five nine nine five one
Or visit rescuing the gospel org get your copy of rescuing the gospel available now for
$14 when you call eight eight eight nine nine five nine nine five one or at
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It's not just that everyone during medieval times was expected to adhere to the same religion
They had rules as to which church you're going to go to and if your parish was in your area
That's where you went so your freedoms were limited in multiple ways and you were expected to conform
So when you have Lutheranism growing now and whole cities turning toward Lutheranism
Charles v. Had a great dilemma on his hands
What do we do with the Lutheran's and he said this if you are a Lutheran?
Under a Catholic Prince you have to move to where a Lutheran Prince rules
But a Catholic under a Lutheran Prince
He can continue to worship as a Catholic
And as a result of course the Lutheran's protested and they became known as
protesters
Protestants
If Luther had been alive today he'd have given plenty of fodder to the tabloids
Here for example we have the headline
hothead Luther spouts off again
This is the kind of thing that would have dominated
newsstands
Luther was indeed a hothead and he wrote some scathing things about the Jews
An anti-semitism was not his only flaw he wrote some things against the peasants
We cannot minimize his flaws but he is proof that God often uses imperfect people
Even despite his flaws God used him to uncover the gospel
And you and I today are deeply appreciative of his work
On the eve of the Reformation Europe is
organized according to something called the Society of orders and
The the clergy are part of the first order and then the nobility and then you have the common person if you were a priest
You are of the upper echelon
You were very educated area dight in our
Colloquial expression you be called bougie
And they were seen as having a higher standing before God
They were the privileged ones who could speak to God who could communicate God to the regular people the priest would be
Involved in every aspect of a person's life from their baptism all the way to their deathbed
You gave people last rites and of course you had the authority for other sacraments as well
it was you who had the responsibility of listening to confession and then
Deciding what kind of a penalty people would have for their sins
Throughout all of the history of Christianity all the way up until the Reformation it's always been assumed that
salvation is
Mediated through the church
Why is there no salvation outside the church because there are no sacraments outside the church your eternal salvation
was to some extent
in his hands
So if you really wanted to get through to God and offer a prayer
What you did is you would go to your priest and he would pray on your behalf they fought so little of themselves
That they felt they actually needed
intermediaries the
Division between the laity and the priesthood that took place on earth was really now
Transferred also to the saints in heaven the idea that you could
Appeal to a saint in times of need and that that would be persuasive to God and so you pray to them
You now expect that they have special contact with God. They are in God's presence
Catholics believe as Protestants do and as all Christians should that worship belongs to God alone in Jesus Christ
But Martin Luther worried that perhaps in popular devotion
People were treating the Saints as though they were mediator
There is a
special honor that is given to Mary because of her role the the merit that she has earned is a
Special merit in the Treasury of Merit. She is the one through whom
Jesus Christ was incarnate into the world and so without her
There is no incarnation and as the centuries went by
More and more doctrines were added to her
there's some significant labels that are used to describe her as the Queen of Heaven as a
co-redemptrix
even there is an undue and
unnecessary dependence on
somebody that you should not be depending upon all of these things seem to
communicate to the Reformers that Christ was not sufficient a
Revolutionary idea of the Reformation the priesthood of all believers
It was Jesus who was bringing you into God's presence it
Was Jesus who was giving you the kind of access that you thought?
Only a priest had you're a priest. I'm a priest
Everybody's a priest all of us are priest before God if we are true believers
So Luther had this very very expansive notion of priests
For whoever comes out as a water of baptism
Can boast us he is already a?
consecrated priest bishop and pope
What Luther did was to say that?
Before God every single person has the same standing
So he's leveling the spiritual Plainfield and so people begin to realize then that you can have a personal
relationship with Christ
Without all of the rituals you can have the reality
We're in the town Church in Wittenberg the stock kitchen as it is called in German
It is in this church that the gospel was preached in German
Luther preached here hundreds of times and the Reformation had a huge impact and
This is a famous painting of the Lord's Supper
But if you look closely you'll notice that the cup here is being given to Luther Luther has a beard because he visited
Wittenberg after he had been in the Wartburg castle and he grew a beard
So that he would not be recognized so that he could travel incognito
And so he is either giving the cup or receiving the cup from
Cranach the younger the painter who painted himself in the portrait
What would you think if he went into your church and had a picture like this?
of the Apostles
And they were mixed in with people whom you knew perhaps a janitor perhaps a baker
Perhaps a Plowman here's a man who was a painter?
Here's a man who was a printer Maleng 'then who was the associate of whose me is not a priest, but here
He is baptizing a baby somebody who sits next to you in church there they are
participating with the Apostles in the Lord's Supper
Radical idea this of course gave a whole new sense of dignity to the average believer
Now he was important to God as well
And this is female too because remember then it was only males who could become priests
But the Bible says that we are all priests priesthood of all believers
Assumes that we all have a ministry we should all be doing good work
He says God loves to milk cows
But he uses a milkmaid to do it a divine work was anything
That was done for the honor and the glory of God when you change a dirty diaper
And he does say that when you change a dirty diaper you can do that to the glory of God so everybody working together
Forms a society where people can serve each other serve each other's needs by exercising their god-given talent
The Reformation
Exalted human dignity and therefore the significance of this
transformation took religion
From the altar so to speak and have brought it down to the pew to the person who is sitting there
I would say it's
transformative for women in many ways
Because it affirms
What women are doing are things that they can do to the glory of God and of course another change is?
Leadership that comes from the laity, or if you recall remember people just came to church gave their money, and that was it
But now you have the ministering Saints in the body of Christ Reformation says we all
matter
If people ask me where my church is I had to answer
That depends on when you ask
On Sunday, it's in the church building, but at other times
It could be anywhere it might be in an office or in a home
or even on a playground
Our simplest activities can be done for God's glory
God's work is not stuck inside a church building or limited to ministers. It's you and it's me
And for a world that has lost sight of so much
Each believer has a role to play in helping the rest of the world to look up
Well the time for
transformation has begun
You and I have the privilege of taking the Reformation to the next needy
generation our generation
And you can do that when you come to the deep conviction that the Bible is the Word of God
That God in the scriptures has spoken and he has not stuttered
This generation needs people who say my conscience is held captive by the Word of God
Here I stand I cannot do otherwise
When you begin to see that your life
No matter, how unrecognized it is your life as a priest before God
It means that everything that you do has divine
Significance if it's done in the name of Christ and for his glory because we all have the same
access to the Father
most importantly
You can take the Reformation to your generation to your family and to your community
By having the vision of reminding people that we are saved by the righteousness of another
You and I are sinners, and we don't have the righteousness that we need to stand before God, but thankfully
Jesus Christ stands in for us he represents us and
through faith his righteousness
belongs to us
And we have the privilege of saying to a very confused world
That we are able to represent
the good news which actually
transforms hearts
God bless you
If you are enjoying this special you will love dr. Erwin Lutzer spook
Rescuing the gospel to learn more about the Reformation call now eight eight eight nine nine five nine nine five one
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Or at rescuing the gospel dot org
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