St. Paul’s Sermons 2005

Reformation Sunday - October 30, 2005

Lessons: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

“Here I Stand”

Introduction

April 18, 1521. It was three and a half years since the 95 theses were nailed to the church door. All of Europe had its eyes focused on this upstart monk.

Luther stood before the Emperor. It was a meeting called “the Imperial Diet,” held at the town of Worms, Germany. Luther’s life was in the balance. Many before had been burned at the stake for creating lesser problems for the church and state. He was ordered to recant his teaching and renounce his writings. His words were, "Since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason--I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other--my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen.’ (April 18, 1521)

Today, if Luther were to stand before the American church in 2005, when he stood to speak, what would he say?

I) Justification by Grace Through Faith

At this point, this sermon can go one of two ways- did Luther stand up to straighten out the church or to teach a theological truth? It’s tempting to go with the first. But Luther didn’t set out to fix a broken church.

He set out to teach one central truth: “Justification by grace through faith.” - People are justified to God only by grace through faith. In other words, a person is made right with God, their sins are forgiven and they inherit eternal life only by trusting in Christ.

Doesn’t the whole church believe this today? Didn’t the Reformation fix that? After Vatican II, didn’t even the Roman Catholic church pretty much accept that teaching? It seemed it did, although some later teachings by John Paul II seem to have reversed that agreement.

But certainly, doesn’t that teaching fill the Protestant, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches around the world? Isn’t the whole church based on that teaching and isn’t everything OK today? Doesn’t everybody agree with Luther and Paul? Don’t we all understand that we can’t be saved by works? We won, all is good, and that’s the end of the sermon?

I wish it was so. “Justification by grace through faith” is the core truth of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. It is the core of the church’s teaching. It is the truth that is above every other, and without it the entire truth of Christianity is lost.

Saving people, bringing them back into a relationship with God through Christ is the towering truth. That is the Gospel. It is the 100-story skyscraper truth in a one-story world. Nothing else in the church has any importance compared to that message. Jesus died in your place. Trusting in him your sins are forgiven. There is no other place of forgiveness in the entire universe. That’s what the church is for. That’s all the church is based on.

II) The Church Exists Because...

But in 2005, in the American church, that message is drowned out by so many voices. Even in the evangelical church, it is hidden by so many voices.

“Christianity is about being successful. Come to our church and be successful.”

“Being happy is the great truth. The church is here to make you always happy and content. You will be happy and your family will be happy. The church’s job is to make you happy.”

Many loud voices say, “The church’s job is to fulfill all your needs. Come here for a great program. We’ve got a health club. You can do great dating here and meet lots of fun dating partners. We’ve got a program for every member of your family. You can do Christian aerobics here. We’ve got diet classes. We’ve even got a pastor just for red-haired, left-handed seventh grade boys. It’s all about you and your needs. If you find a better program somewhere else, then you go there, because you’re a religious consumer. The job of our church is to meet your every need. You’re the center.”

Some voices say, “The church exists to make social change. Jesus always took the part of the underdog and underprivileged, so it’s our job to always work for the liberation of the downtrodden. The church exists to be an advocate and helper.”

Still other voices insist, “The church exists to give us helpful ideas how about how to live our daily life, how to act at work, to give you principles for daily living and practical advice about life.”

III) It’s the Gospel

Success, happiness, program, service and common-sense advice- all are good, right? There are many voices out there in the church, implying why the church exists. Few would say their goal has replaced the Gospel. But they market themselves by what they say they exist for.

I am afraid that in 2005 this clutter has lost the central Gospel message in many places. We’ve marketed the church to the needs and wants of people to the point that the Gospel message is once again unclear. Your happiness, success, fulfillment or even life’s work are not the center of the Bible’s teaching. Oddly enough, you’re not the center of the Bible. It’s not all about you. It’s all about what God has done to bring you back to him. Yes, without Christ, you’re away, and you’ve got a problem. You don’t want to spend eternity away from God. This life prepares you for your eternal direction.

Well, how else are we going to get people to come to our church? Don’t we have to have “stuff” to offer them as bait to get them in? Don’t we have to show people why they need us? Don’t we have to compete with all the other churches doing the same? See the slippery slope? These other things aren’t bad, they’re even very good; but when they become the message themselves, the Gospel message gets lost. Certainly there are some large churches with huge programs who boldly and clearly keep the Gospel as the center. But on the great landscape of American Christianity, I’m afraid that the church has consistently offered the world a covenant of providing “stuff,” rather than the life-giving Gospel. When we “sell” the people the “Church” because of what’s in it for them, the Gospel tends to get cluttered up and covered over.

The message is the Gospel. The message is “justification by grace through faith.” “For God so loved the world that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The American church has focused so on marketing we have forgotten that we are each individually people of the message. That’s you and me. We have this story called the Gospel. The Church is a handful of people gathered around the Gospel. When we tell people the story, they come to believe in Jesus. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the preaching of Christ.” That’s how the church functions, how it grows, why it exists. It exists so that its people can tell that story to others.

The church doesn’t even primarily exist to worship. We worship because of what the Gospel has done for us. We worship because we have been made right with God as a gift of grace, through faith. We do service because of what the Gospel has done. We can do service because we have been forgiven and set free to love neighbor. Everything comes from the Gospel.

Conclusion:

That’s what Luther stood up for, looking death in the eye, in the face of the Emperor. That’s why we celebrate Reformation Day. It’s not about old hates; it’s not about who won; it’s not about history. It’s about reclaiming the Gospel as the center of the church.

It’s about the living center of Christianity, which is always in danger of being lost. It’s about why the Christian church exists in 2005. If the message of the Gospel and how it brings us justification is the church’s message, then it’s the true church. To the degree that message gets scrambled, covered up, lost, accreted over- that’s degree to which the church has become false.

It’s about Jesus, who comes to you today. He died for you. He took your sins on the cross. He comes to bring you back into a relationship with God. He’s the only way back. He loves you and he’s died to prove it. That’s the message. That’s why the church exists. That’s where the power comes from. Hearing that message, the Holy Spirit drives that word into your heart and creates faith. That faith is what makes you right with God. God looks at you and no longer sees your sin, because you’ve been covered by the righteousness of Christ by faith.

Invitation, Amen

Reformation Sunday - October 30, 2005

Jeremiah 31:31-34

"The time is coming," declares the LORD,

"when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah.

[32] It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers

when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD.

[33] "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel

after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God, and they will be my people.

[34] No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'

because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD.

"For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Romans 3:19-28

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. [20] Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

[21] But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. [22] This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. [25] God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- [26] he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

[27] Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. [28] For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. John 8:31-36

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. [32] Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

[33] They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

[34] Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. [35] Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. [36] So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:31-36

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. [32] Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

[33] They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"