INI November 2, 2008 Reformation Sunday
Sermon preached by Pastor . . . at Cross of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), 9931 Foley Blvd. NW, Coon Rapids, MN 55433. Please share this with someone else after you have finished. Thank you!
Bible Text—Psalm 119:105, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
October 31, 1517, is the day Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the
There’s so much we can contemplate on a day like today! But what we’d like to do this morning is answer a simple question: Why are we celebrating the Reformation? One of the reasons we commemorate this event in history is because God once again revealed his clear Word for people to read, study and share with others. In language that can be understood by all—even little children—the Bible shares with us everything we need to know to be saved.
Let’s consider for a moment what the situation was like before Luther. The apostles had sent their inspired letters to various churches throughout the Mediterranean world. Since there were no printing presses, these letters that would become the books of the New Testament were copied by hand and shared with others. In the days of the early church, God moved Christians to gather these writings—as well as the writings of the Old Testament—into what we know as the Bible. Since Latin was the official language of the Roman world, a church father by the name of Jerome translated the entire Bible into Latin. For centuries, Jerome’s Vulgate was the most common translation of the Bible available!
But because everything had to be written by hand, copies of the Bible were very expensive. And because few people in the Middle Ages knew Hebrew or Greek or even Latin, Bibles were rare. Normal everyday Christians couldn’t read or study the Bible themselves—they had to depend on what church leaders told them. Unfortunately, the established church way back when taught many things that simply aren’t in the Bible and that actually contradict the Bible. But most people didn’t realize this, because they didn’t have a Bible to study for themselves!
Then, in the early 1500’s, a man by the name of Martin Luther studied to be a priest. Luther became a priest because his conscience was burdened with the guilt of his sins. He knew he deserved God’s eternal punishment. But the remedies his church offered simply didn’t give him any peace. Luther was eventually called to be a professor at the
After coming to an understanding of what the gospel was really all about, Luther just had to get God’s Word into the hands of the people! It was by God’s providence that just before Luther came onto the scene that Johann Guttenberg invented the printing press. No longer did books have to be hand-copied. As a result, the price of a Bible became much more reasonable. Luther translated the New Testament from the original Greek into the German language, the language of his people. He went to great extremes to make sure the Greek of the New Testament, and the Hebrew of the Old Testament, were translated into the way people spoke to one another in their homes and on the street.
Why did Luther go to all this work? Our text for today says: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. The Bible is clear. But how can it be a light and a guide if people can’t understand it? Few of us know Hebrew and Greek. And so we want accurate Bible translations that are faithful to the original languages but that still speak in the way people talk today. That’s also why so much of our pastors’ training is in the Hebrew and Greek languages, so they can share with their people exactly what God says to us in his Word.
The Holy Scriptures, the Bible, God’s Word, is clear. People need to understand exactly what God’s Word says so the light of Jesus’ good news can shine brightly into our hearts and lives. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. We need to realize ourselves that Jesus suffered on the cross to pay for our sins. We need to understand that Christ has covered us with a beautiful robe of righteousness. We need to fathom that Jesus lived the perfect life in our place as our Substitute. Christ’s perfection becomes our own through faith. The Bible as a lamp and a light teaches us all these things.
This is just one of the great blessings of the Reformation and why we celebrate it every year: God’s clear Word has been placed into the hands of regular, everyday people. But ever since the Reformation five hundred years ago, the arch-enemy of the Church has been trying to extinguish the light of the Bible. Satan knows very well the Holy Spirit only works in our hearts through God’s Word—whether it’s spoken or read or remembered, whether its connected to water in baptism or connected to bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. If Satan can make us doubt the clarity or the truthfulness of the Bible, then in effect he has extinguished this lamp and light from God. So the devil comes to Christians in a variety of ways and in many different disguises, and he whispers into our ears just as he did to Eve in the Garden of Eden: “Did God really say?,” Genesis 3:1.
There are three ways Satan especially tries to extinguish the light of Scripture in our time. The first way sounds rather pious. God is so powerful and infinite that his divine thoughts simply cannot be expressed in human language. So what God tells us in the Bible about such things as the creation of the universe are supposedly not really factual but have much deeper meanings than we could ever hope to understand. Well, this approach to the Bible is not really respectful towards God at all, but in effect it’s telling us that God is incapable of talking to us on our level. This approach to the Bible would tell us God’s not great or powerful after all, since he can’t share with us what’s really on his mind. This is just another form of Satan’s insidious temptation: “Did God really say?”
The second attack comes through those who would tell us the Bible doesn’t record for us God’s Word, but only what the early believers thought God’s will was. Such religious teachers would tell us the Bible doesn’t relate actual history, but it’s a record of what the early believers thought had happened. For example, they’d tell you there is really no proof for Jesus’ virgin birth or his miracles or his resurrection. But what we have recorded in the Bible, they claim, is simply a record of what the early believers thought had happened. They claim the Bible is simply a record of the first Christians’ wishful thinking. Again, this is just another form of Satan’s temptation: “Did God really say?”
In the past couple of decades our society has also been bombarded with something called “post-modernism.” Post-modern people don’t recognize any absolute truth. One person’s truth is considered just as valid as another’s. For many in our culture today, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Biblical Christianity are all considered equally valid paths to God.
This post-modern way of thinking has also raised its ugly head within Christian circles. It fits rather nicely with what we call “ecumenism.” For almost a hundred years now the ecumenical movement has tried to tear down the walls of doctrinal differences between church denominations by ignoring those differences and sweeping them under the carpet. They want to bring everyone who call themselves “Christian” under one big umbrella. As a result, differences of teaching become just differences of interpretation. So now, among ecumenicals, when a teaching of the Bible is considered or when a Bible verse or section of Scripture is studied, there’s no such thing anymore as truth or error. Instead, everything just becomes a matter of interpretation. There’s a Lutheran interpretation, a Baptist interpretation, a Catholic interpretation, a Presbyterian interpretation and maybe a few others. This post-modern, ecumenical philosophy has spread like a leaven or a yeast among many Christians in our day. If this is the way it really is, then it’s impossible for God’s Word to be a lamp and a light, because it’s unclear and uncertain. Again, Satan is whispering into the ears of men and women, and so many are falling for it: “Did God really say?”
So why do people say such things about the Bible as we’ve shared in these three examples? Sometimes those who claim the Bible is unclear are just simply unbelievers. In their sinful pride they don’t want to be taught by God, but they want to teach God something. The apostle Paul said of such people: “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel…,” 2 Cor. 4:3, 4.
Disagreements about what the Bible teaches are not caused because the Bible is unclear, but because people like to substitute their own thoughts based on their own human reason. Jesus talked about babies believing in him in Matthew 18:6, and Paul wrote how faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:8,9). “Come on,” people say. “How’s it possible for babies to believe? And how can faith be a gift? Doesn’t it make sense that we need to make a rational decision to accept Christ? Babies can’t do that, and so we’re not going to baptize babies.” Jesus said about his Supper: “Take and eat; this is my body…Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood…,” Matt. 26:26,27. “But that doesn’t make any sense,” people say. “How can Christ’s body and blood be in the bread and wine when he’s in heaven? He must have meant the bread and wine symbolize his body and blood.” That’s not a matter of God’s Word being unclear. It is a matter of people unwilling to accept what God’s Word clearly says. The first two chapters of Genesis record for us how God created the world out of nothing in six days. But many would say: “We know that’s not true. Science tells us this universe evolved after a big bang.” Here’s another one: “We’re saved by grace? You never get anything of value for nothing. There must be something we have to do to earn heaven, even if it’s just a little bit.” It’s not that the Bible is unclear. The Bible is very clear. People do not want to accept what the Bible teaches because it contradicts their human reason, and people by nature, don’t like to be told they’re wrong—especially by God.
Our Bible text for today says: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. But a Bible that lacks clarity simply cannot serve as a guiding lamp on a treacherous path, nor can it serve as a helpful light in the midst of spiritual darkness. Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples,” John 8:31. But how do we know what our Lord’s teaching really is if every interpretation of it is equally valid? We’re told in the very last chapter of the Bible: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city,” Rev. 22:18,19. But how could anyone know if he was adding or subtracting from God’s Word if the Scriptures were not clear? Jesus warns us to watch out for false prophets (Matt. 7:15). He commands us to stay away from those who depart from the teachings of the Bible (Rom. 16:17). Such words of warning, such commands presuppose a Bible that is clear and understandable and to the point. And it is.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. Why are we celebrating the Reformation? God has not placed into our hands the mere interpretation of a man, Martin Luther. Luther may have a lot to teach us in his writings, but he’s not inspired. Nor do we worship him. But by the Reformation God has restored to us his clear Word. Jesus said: “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life,” John 6:63. When you read the Scriptures, when you hear God’s Word, when you study your Bible or when you think about the Bible passages you have memorized, it’s the same as though Jesus himself were standing before you in person in all his holy majesty and it’s as if he were speaking to your heart his words of love. This is why we celebrate the Reformation! Amen.
