500: Viva Reformare

[Music] [Music] well we're going to pick up exactly where we left off this morning and we spent time taking a look at what are the two words what were those two words the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation okay that was super unenthusiastic the battle that's not how you say a battle cry the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation okay that sounded a little more like a battle cry well done and we're calling today's presentation Vivah data formatting right which means long live the Reformation what I want to try and do today is show you how a church that continues along the trajectory of the Protestant Reformation should look in 2017 now this is a very important year because we are celebrating the 500th year anniversary of what is almost well certainly the most galvanizing and symbolically significant moment in Protestant history Luther was using the worldwide web of 1517 write the printing press freshly available and getting the word out and the word was that he saw a difference between the church and the Bible right the church had as we've talked about had become so deformed in that medieval Dark Ages period that Luther like others that had gone before him began to look at the Bible and said something's not something's not matching up here something doesn't smell right something doesn't look right and the medieval church distancing itself from Scripture becoming increasingly connected and cozy with the state was very far removed from the church that Jesus had established and so Luther posts his protest this takes place in 1517 October 31st 1517 and we hear today right on the heels of the 500 year anniversary now just a few years later after Luther began his protest he believed quite naively that this would be a small matter he thought that that he would raise his protest and people and universities and other priests and and those that were in the various levels of hierarchy within the church that they would hear what he had to say he believed this naively he did not in any way imagine he could not have possibly imagined that he was actually creating a new church or a new denomination he certainly didn't envision himself splitting off he was a devout son of the church he was a faithful Catholic and he was committed to the church but when he posted his theses and the response was first of all the response was fairly muted historians reports that when Pope Leo the tenth was first notified about Luther's theses he called it a monkish squabble and paid no attention to it oh that's just a monkish squabble what Leo the 10th did not consider though was that Luther was tapping in he hid as it were a raw nerve people were were really moved and they were upset and and there were a number of historical and and economic and theological factors that were sort of combining and by the time the church finally started giving it the attention that it certainly deserved it was already like wildfire right and Luther was called in on the carpet shortly after about a year later and he was told you need to recant and you need to step down he refused to do so he wanted to be persuaded from Scripture and the situation just increases just quickly escalates right so that in 1521 Luther was was given the summons to appear in the city of firms and he was to go stand before charles v charles v being the ruler of the holy roman empire and he would stand before charles v that he was going to make his case now there's a lot of historical dynamics going on here they're quite fascinating but one of the dynamics that's important for our purposes here is that that charles was coming to germany Luther was not traveling to Rome right if Luther had gone to Rome to make his appeal and to make his case he almost certainly would not have left alive but something very significant happening Frederick of Saxony who was the elector of the area that Luther was in in the Vidhan burg and its surrounding areas had said no no we're not gonna send Luther to Rome we're not gonna send Luther a long ways away he's a credit to our University he's a credit to Germany and some of the German people many of the German people began to rally around Luther frankly as a kind of celebrity they they saw him is kind of a celebrity when he was May his way to the city of verbs in 1521 he was greeted by masses of people remember that the printing presses knew this idea that that you would have a celebrity or somebody that was famous is a whole new concept he's going from city to city town to town as he's making his way to firms and people are coming out and supporting him in fact what he finally gets to verme is one of the papal legates one of the people that had come as the ambassadors for Pope Leo the tenth who was not there he wrote a letter back that we have historical record of and he wrote a letter back to Pope Leo and he said the place is thronging with people here in the city of worms and he said nine and ten are shouting Luther Luther Luther and the other one is shouting death to the Pope so Luther had touched a nerve and the German people and especially Frederick of Saxony were not willing to turn Luther over to what they were sure would be a certain death if he were to travel to Rome and so he appeared in the city of worms and by historical accounts in fact this picture is only slightly historically accurate because because by historical accounts there were so many people in the room that the only seated person was Charles v everybody was just shoulder so people wanted to hear what's going to happen and for you and I we might look at that and think well that's extraordinary but when you think about it within its historical context it's more than extraordinary it's absolutely stupid revolutionary completely totally revolutionary because what you have is you have one man one person standing on liberty of conscience freedom of conscience and the central truth of sola scriptura he's standing on that over and against this power of church and state that were together and this is all with you and I today take Liberty of conscience and freedom of conscience we take that for granted but in those days this was a whole new way of thinking about reality hey wait a minute especially when you have the elite ruling class and then the the ruled right the peasant ruled that now you have somebody that's standing up to that's objecting to that is like hey no I'm not going to go along with that it was a whole new way of thinking about reality it would not be an overstatement to say that that Luther's protest and all that it symbolizes is the door on which the whole the whole edifice of Western civilization swings a whole new way of thinking about the nature of reality that the one can protest injustice can protest cruelty can protest oppression and can protest falsity so he stood there in front of Charles the fifth and all of he can sort of see them they're gathered there his various advisors Charles the fifth of course was a devout son of the church and they were advising him he's a heretic they laid all of his writings out in front of him and said did you write these things yes I wrote them do you recant do you revoke these writings right when Luther had begun his protests back in 1517 here he is four years later he could not have imagined that he would have had an audience an audience with the Emperor of the world and as he stood there everyone's waiting right everyone's waiting with bated breath to see what will he say well he acquiesced under the pressure will he capitulate under the intensity of the moment in fact on the first day when he was given opportunity to testify he actually did struggle he said I need time to think and so he he excused himself they gave him one day to gather his thoughts I think that the leaders of the church thought he's he's going he's afraid he's fearful and he's gonna recant right but he just needed a day to gather himself to think and he went he spent time in prayer and he spent time rebuking the devil and when he stood the next day he stood with calmness and dignity and poise and the assurance that only scripture can give the assurance that only God can give and as he brought his address to its close he said these words and I just want you to try and imagine that you are one of those people in that crowded room that sweaty hot crowded room and you're listening in to see what will this young monk say will he will he cower will he capitulate will he fold under the pressure and as he brings his as he brings his speech to its close he says these words since your majesty your most serene majesty and your high mightiness require for me a clear simple and precise answer I will give you one and it is this I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the council's because it is clear as the day that they have frequently heard and contradicted each other unless therefore I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by the clearest reasoning unless I am persuaded by means of the passages the passages of Scripture that I have quoted and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the word of God I cannot and will not retract for it is unsafe for a Christian to speak against his conscience I cannot write this idea that just because you threaten me just because I'm fearful just because you you can do things to me like you have done to reformers that have gone before I can't I'm going to stand right here on Sola scriptura don't talk to me about the council's or the Pope's or the Creed's what does scripture say Sola scriptura and you can just imagine you can imagine when Luther has finished that right in fact those weren't actually his last words history says that his last words were here I stand I can do no other may God help me here I stand right here as an individual orienting myself in a posture of hostility to this monolithic entity church and state combined I mean if you've if you've traveled to the Vatican if you have seen the expansive power and influence and art and architecture and all of that that the the the temerity and the audacity for one young monk who just had begun to read scripture in the original languages the Old Testament in the Hebrew the New Testament in the Greek he just had this sense that something in this book is more important than all of that it's more powerful than all of that he said if I'm if I'm forced to make a choice if you're forcing me to choose between my church or scripture I'm gonna choose scripture and I'm gonna stand right here and I can't do anything else may God help me now you and I today we might hear that we might say yeah of course of course I would make a similar stand I believe similarly but for Luther to do it he was on the avant-garde of this way of thinking this way of doing life he was the bellwether he was on the cutting edge of thinking he would say things like this a simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a cow without it that's revolutionary language that's crazy talk when you have a thousand years of medieval deformation to stand up and say that a simple layman a simple cobbler a simple blacksmith a simple tradesman with Scripture is to be more believed than all of the Pope's and all of the councils and all of the Creed's without Scripture that's crazy talk right that is talk that will get you killed and everybody in the room when Luther would have finished his speech would have thought well this is the end we are going to smell some roasting human flesh later today or tomorrow but in fact to everyone's total astonishment because he had the strong support of the German public remember nine out of ten were screaming Luther Luther Luther and the other one was saying death to the Pope right he he walked out and I think that everybody was busy picking they're so busy picking their jaws up off the ground that he just walked out he got on his horse and he started to ride away he started a ride away Frederick of Saxony his protector and the elector of saxony knew that if if the armies of if the armies and the the other individuals that were affiliated with the church could get a hold of Luther it would be it would be over for him in a moment and so Frederick of Saxony wisely kidnapped him kidnapped him and said to those that were kidnapping him don't tell me where you're taking him don't tell me where you're taking him and they took him to a castle in Erfurt I was just actually in that castle recently it was amazing to be there and think this was the very place and Luther went to that castle and he began to translate the New Testament and the Old Testament into the German language just let that settle into your mind right for the first time ever the words of Scripture the ancient Hebrew and the ancient Greek words in the ancient Aramaic words were being written in the language of the German people Luther stayed in the castle there and effort and he translated he grew his beard out and he took on a pseudonym he called himself George did you know that he called himself George and he would go down into town so that he could buy you know things and and shop in the markets but he didn't present himself as Martin Luther he would have been to me he grew out of beard and he went in and he pretended to be a knight named George so he could go milling around in town Nicholas Miller and his book the Reformation and the remnant Nicholas Miller is a world class of story and also just a wonderful human being I had the privilege of being with him on the reach the recent Reformation and the remnant tour that he and I co led together and he wrote a really great book called the Reformation in the remnant and in that book he says Luther's beliefs about Christ about grace and about faith stood on the foundation provided by another doctrine one that allowed him to pierce the medieval facade the doctrine of the supreme authority of Scripture the monks feet were planted firmly on the foundation of Sola scriptura allowing him and others to develop the other Sola doctrines Sola fee they only by faith Sola gratia only by grace Solo Cristo by faith alone by grace alone and by Christ alone so Sola scriptura is the foundational Sola on which all of the others rest right we can begin to talk about only by faith and only by grace and only through Christ and only to the glory of God but we can only have that conversation if we have a starting point right what philosophers would call an epistemological starting point a place that you start from and the church was starting from the position and the place of tradition they said tradition apostolic succession handed down handed down centuries upon centuries and years upon years and all of this accumulating massive church tradition that's where authority resides and Luther had the temerity and others had the audacity to say no we're actually going to choose a different epistemological starting point we're not going to start with the Church's authority we're not going to start with his we're not going to start with history and tradition we're gonna start with Scripture we're gonna start with what the Bible says they actually went back even before the time of the church and they founded these five SOLAS only Scripture only faith only grace only Christ and only to the glory of God and with each one of those it was like a was like a chisel that was you know had a large you know a brick wall that was coming down and with each one of these it just removed a critical section of that wall that would eventually begin to tumble down in the medieval church would be faced with a very difficult situation a situation that Leo the tenth could have never imagined when he was first alerted to Luther's protests there in 1517 and he said he was dismissive of it oh just some little monkish squabble he could have never imagined could have never imagined but I'm gonna tell you something very interesting at the heart of Scripture right scripture is not just the word of God . it is the word of god . but it's also a beautiful wonderful amazing portrait of who god is it's not just a series of propositional truth right scripture tells a story it tells what did i say everyone scripture tells a story and we actually talked about this just this morning in our sabbath school class scripture tells a story it moves through a narrative and the narrative that the narrative that it moves through is this increasing and an incremental revelation of God's character of love at the heart of Scripture is the astounding truth that God is love can someone say Amen in fact if time allowed we could develop how Luther when when he was a monk prior to 1517 he enrolled I think in 1505 so when Luther was a monk he was the most fastidious in fact if Luther were alive today he would almost certainly be diagnosed with if not several at least one or two mental disorders right he had a nut he was a very fit like OCD and and probably even some version of bipolar disorder I mean he was absolutely fascinated by and and frenetic over and he just couldn't get his mind off of his own sinfulness and he just it was just driven by his own sinfulness and it was really amazing he would scrub the floors and he would do all kinds of things he would continually going to confession of sins his mentor there in the in in the monastery a man by the name of Johann van stopp it's supposedly said to him on one occasion when Luther have been confessing his sins day after day after day after day after day after day he finally said to him look stop confessing your sin go commit a sin that's worth hearing because all this stuff you're confessing is boring right I don't want to hear that you didn't do a good job cleaning the latrines or whatever it might be go commit a real sin and then come come and confess it well Luther was so fastidious and so borderline or OCD that johann van stopp it's made a decision that was actually formative transformative for the shape of history he said look we need to take all of this nervous frenetic energy and we need to channel it somewhere and he said you need to go study that you need to go get your doctorate in in the teaching of the Bible and so he sent him away to Vinton burg to go start study the Bible and at first Luther protested he said no no no no I'm not good enough I'm not holy enough I'm too much of a sinner but because when he went into the monastery he had taken a vow of obedience to his mentors when Johan van stopp it said to him you will go you will study and you are going he had to and it was there that he began to open up Scripture and he began to see that God was not this harsh exacting judgmental condemned natori figure that God in Christ was spreading love that there was grace that there was mercy that there was that you could just go straight to God you didn't have to go through layers upon layers of of intermediaries and saints and then finally Mary and then and then Jesus and then he could maybe sneak in a quick word with God no way that there is one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus and these great truths such as the just shall live by faith and the amazing love of God began to flood into his mind not merely as as academic ideas but as game-changing life altering emotional landscape changing realities he was just like well this is the way God is the whole system was built on a picture and a portrait of God that had Luther fleeing in the opposite direction right fleeing in fear fleeing out of judgment fleeing with a strong sense of condemnation but when he was exposed to the good news of the gospel when he was exposed to the great good news that God is love he began to throw off the shackles of all of these accumulated traditions of medieval tradition and the accumulation of all these ideas man-made ideas about what God is now with this in mind as astonishing as this seems just ten years just ten years after Luther nailed his theses in Vinton burg ten years later in 1527 something fascinating happen of Protestants led by a man named Ulrich Zwingli Ulrich Zwingli was to the Swiss what Luther was to the Germans right Zwingli was on his own Reformation 'el track and and they were fascinatingly tracking very similarly even though they didn't have a lot of influence in their early in fact no influence in their early years one to another and Luther was to the Germans what swingley was to the Swiss and in 1527 a group of about 40 or 50 men led by Ulrich Zwingli brought a man by the name of Felix Monts to a river called the LeMat River which runs right through the heart of Zurich Switzerland and they said okay Felix this is your last chance you can repent right now or you can pay the price now one remind you these are Protestants these are Protestants these are reformers these are not roman catholic bishops and priests and popes these are Catholic reformers who are standing ostensibly on Sola scriptura stola fille de sola gratia Sola Deo Gloria and Sola Cristo right he's a Protestant they said Felix this is your chance this is your chance to give up this dangerous heresy and here's an artist's depiction of that very moment and it's actually quite interesting I was just recently there took this photo this is the very spot there's a plaque I'm I'm standing right here on the the bank of the river and there's a plaque under my feet that says this is the place Felix monsta's name is right there now Ulrich Zwingli successor a man by the name of heinrich bullinger reported what happened when he was given this last opportunity to recant and to repent of this dangerous heresy Bullinger writes his mother and brother came to him came to felix and exhorted him to be steadfast and he persevered in his folly even to the end his mom comes out his brother comes out says don't don't give up the faith don't turn back hold true when he was bound upon the pole he was about to be thrown into the river by the executioner he sang with a loud voice into thy hands o Lord I commend my spirit what was Felix monstas day Duras heresy that he was teaching baptism baptism the idea that you could choose as an adult to be baptized what's called believers baptism these people were so adamant about believers baptism that that they came to be called Anabaptists which today we have the Baptist Church that grew out of these radical reformers these antibiotics they said hey wait a minute you're not born into Christianity you're born again into Christianity you're not born into faith as an infant and then baptized with the little sprinkling you are born again into the Christian faith when you as a believer as an intelligent man or woman chooses to follow Jesus elects to follow Jesus ops to follow Jesus and when he refused to recant of this dangerous heresy of believers baptism he was tied to a pole he was rode out into the middle of the LeMat River given one last opportunity to repent and when he refused to repent they tipped him over the side and they said you believe in baptism so strongly here you're gonna get baptized and they baptized him baptized him Protestants killing Protestants so when we talk about this this you know remember the illustration of you know you get obese right the church had become spiritually obese in this this dark deformational period right and it's not like they're just gonna instantaneously arrive at pure apostolic teaching and and and authenticity and purity it's not gonna happen it's not gonna it took them a while to come out of it and one of the things that the church has been historically very slow to let go of is this idea of coercion and manipulation and persecution if you don't agree with me I will make you agree with me and if you don't you better watch out you'd better watch out so today we're gonna talk about vivo at fort of Mater Dei and I'm gonna look at four simple points as we do this four simple points the first one we're going to talk about is the Constantinian shift the post Constantinian world after constantine the great converted to christianity what what happened to christianity in the wake of that event okay number two we're going to talk about the religion of human nature number three control versus freedom and number four right at the close I'll give you ten points as to why 10 points as to how we can be a part of a movement a bible-based Reformation Ulm --nt and not just a mere denomination okay so vive automatic here we go first of all the shape of church history which I've been sort of painting for you with my hands here the church is formed in the wake of the resurrection of Jesus apostolic purity outpouring of the Holy Spirit deformed through the medieval period gets so far removed from Scripture that these cries come HUS and Wickliffe and Luther and Tyndale and others wing Lee and others and so the church begins to slowly incrementally climb its way out over the ensuing centuries that incremental climbing out of that deep medieval pit leads eventually to restoration but there are some historians that say you know what that's altogether too complicated there's no need to talk about four chapters in church history formation deformation Reformation restoration in fact you can divide church history up into two parts you can tell the whole story of the church in two chapters not for you don't need for David you just need two and they divide it up like this they say what you have is pre Constantinian christianity and post Constantinian christianity right you have Christianity before the conversion of Constantine right the the period that's called the Anton Nicene period or the period before the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and then you have the rest from from after the Council of Nicaea after the conversion of Constantine all the way down to the present right down to 2017 2018 2019 2020 they say that is the shape of church history and this is referred to as the Constantinian shift and I want to talk to you about that since Constantine the church has had a confused but often cozy relationship with who with the state we talked about how did the church go through that radical different or that deformational dip and the answer is distant distancing itself from Scripture by embracing traditions number one the accretion and accumulation of traditions and the other one a big one is an increasingly cozy relationship with the state just a quick word on that the reason that the church had to rely on the state is that because it was departing from Scripture it was losing the power of the Holy Spirit want to say that again the reason that the Christian Church had to rely on the power of the state is that in departing from Scripture they were losing the power of the Holy Spirit and they needed the power of the state to do externally what the power of the Spirit was not doing internally in the lives of believers because they weren't connected to God through through Scripture in Christ hainan powerful so this is what the Constantinian shift looks like okay you're shifting right from the pre to the post world from sort of early nation' primitive Christianity to the post Constantinian world and it looks like this from church to Christendom Christendom being a combination of Christianity and Kingdom right so that's a church that's a voluntary organization that you elect to be a part of Christendom is when you are born into the kingdom of Christianity number two from persecuted prior to the conversion of Constantine to persecute or from being a small politically insignificant persecuted minority to being the political powerful and persecuting majority majority from conversion to coercion number four from the spirits power we mentioned this a moment ago to the state's power number five from believers baptism to infant bet are from yep believers baptism to infant baptism that was the sin of Felix Mons and finally number six from convinced about the truth of Scripture and the truth of Jesus and his saving grace and goodness to being a citizen of Christendom so the transition all of this is taking place from pre to post Constantinian in a lot of churches story and say you don't need four chapters you don't need four chapters you can tell that you can tell the story of the whole church in two events the resurrection and the conversion of Constantine the resurrection of Jesus and a t30 one in the conversion of Constantine and 80 312 about 300 years later and that's the story of church history case closed right close the books that's what we're dealing with so that's what we're talking about we discussed the Constantinian shift and I'm going to show you how the Constantinian shift is actually something that's rooted in human nature I want to talk to you about the religion of human nature okay I want to go to a passage in scripture in I'm gonna look at just two quick passages one in Luke 9 another one in math I think it's 25 and then we're gonna make some observations from it and then we're gonna just take a quick survey of Luke chapter 9 okay so I need you to put your thinking caps on with me here okay Luke chapter 9 beginning in verse 51 now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up this is Jesus that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face and as they went they entered a village of the of the Samaritans tell me about the relationship between Jewish people and the Samaritan people in the days of Jesus positive or not so positive yeah antagonistic hostile adversarial okay so Jesus is gonna go here through a city the Samaritans to prepare for him but they did not receive him the Samaritans did not receive Jesus because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem and when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and to consume them just as Elijah did hey hey we know how to solve this problem Jesus we know the Old Testament and these people that have rejected you these people that have not received you do you want us to call down fire and we'll burn all of these people up right they just imagined in their minds I that Jesus would be like it was a great idea the hotter the better right but notice what Jesus says but he turned and rebuked them and he said you do not know what manner of spirit you are of you want to burn up people for rejecting me you want to destroy people to kill people to hurt people for rejecting me that you don't know what spirit you are of the Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to us - can the church say Amen not to destroy but to save here's another passage Matthew chapter 26 we're gonna hold these two passages here in tension they're gonna go back and look at the sweep of Luke 9 I want you to see this then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took him this is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and suddenly one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear Jesus is about to be arrested and this this disciple enthusiastic militaristic disciple says I know just what to do pulls out his sword and is ready to engage in combat to protect the Prince of Peace Jesus cut off the guy's ear wasn't a very good swordsman but Jesus said to him put your sword in its place for all who take the sword will well perish by the sword Jesus says there's an axiomatic logic here if you take the sword out to kill the sword like a mirror will reflect back upon you the sword is not a door that only goes one way it goes both ways if you walk through it in my name then it can walk right back through and you take the sword out to kill someone the sword will kill you and then he says do you not think that I could pray now to my father and he would provide me with more than twelve legions of angels Jesus says do you not think that a violent deliverance is available to me there is a violent deliverance available to me right now but I'm not taking it right because I didn't come to establish the stronger more violent God the better stronger mightier way of doing things put your sword in its place now with that in mind that's one instance and I want to show you how we get there how do we get there in Luke nine that's the very end of Luke nine so just imagine with me here we're moving through Luke nine I'm gonna just quickly walk you through this the very end event the the eighth episode in this section of Luke that we're gonna be looking at here is the Samaritan village where where they reject Jesus and and the disciples James and John alike hey we'll just call down fire and destroy these people but I want you to see how they get there this is very interesting for those of you that are Bible students you'll be familiar with some of these stories if you're not a Bible student that's alright just listen in and you can go back and read it on your own and see the very sequence that gets us to that place okay so beginning in verses 21 and 22 Jesus foretells his death which is like it's a totally earth-shaking but moment for a messiah to be saying I'm going to die because the very definition of a messiah the very thing that the Messiah was coming to do was not to be killed but to himself kill others to kill the pagan nations to kill the Romans to liberate and finally exalt the Jewish nation so when a messiah figure starts talking about being killed you know he's not a messiah it's like talking about which one of the sides of the circle is the longest site you're like well but a circle doesn't have sides yeah but which one is the longest I think we're talking two different languages here you're talking about maybe a square or a rectangle or some other geometrical shape shape I'm talking about alright there's no such thing as a square circle if you have four sides and four right angles that are you know four sides that are equal and four right angles you have a square if you have a geometrical object or a geometrical figure with a single point and every point on the line is equidistant from the center point you're talking about a circle they're mutually exclusive you're either talking about a circle or you're talking about a square you're either talking about somebody who gets killed or you're talking about a messiah but you're not talking about a messiah that gets killed so Jesus starts telling his disciples hey this is gonna be hard for you guys to hear there's gonna be fresh news I got headline breaking news for you here Messiah is going to be killed he then number two invites them to be ready to be killed which is hardly a particular it's not a particularly inviting invitation you have to understand this in its historical context in many of these cities in the Roman Empire crosses or set up outside of those cities to scare you from ever trying to resist or fight against this imperial power of Rome right so the cross was something today we venerate it and we you know put you know pictures of it and all that it's quite it means it's quite nice and virtuous in in that time the cross was horrific it was a symbol of Roman oppression and cruelty and so when Jesus says to his disciples it's like take up your cross and follow me the people are like what on earth is this Messiah talking about number three Jesus then goes up on the mountain and this experience happens called the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus is seen standing with Moses and Elijah it's as if God is saying and Jesus is saying look the things I've just said don't square with what you think a messiah is and what a messiah will do so here's this like this this proof positive this miraculous proof positive that Jesus isn't back - he claims to be right then verse 4 Jesus comes down from the mountain and heals a boy this is how God acts this is how God behaves this is what God does he heals a boy number five Jesus again says fellas I know you just saw me glorified on the mountain trust me on this Messiah is going to go and Messiah is going to be killed number six Jesus then says who among you is the greatest he's now getting at the heart of the religion of human nature who among you is the greatest who's this biggest who's the best who's the strongest who's the smartest because they were disputing among themselves about who would be the greatest when they saw him so bright and shiny an incandescent they were like man I want a seat on the right and I want to see it on the left and they began to argue among themselves number seven the disciples forbid a preacher healing in Jesus name I'm gonna read you that text in just a moment and then finally a Samaritan village rejects Jesus and the disciples offer to bring down fire if you follow the flow of Luke nine what the what the author of the Gospel of Luke is clearly trying to do is lead you to a place where you see organizationally and in a literary context the absurdity of what they're saying Jesus is like I'm gonna die you can take up your cross and you can come and die and I'm gonna die and he comes down and he's hid and then he's then he's rejected by a city of the Samaritans and the immediate response of the disciples who's arguing who's the best who's the most who's the greatest is hey do you want us to call down fire and kill these people now watch this absolutely amazing Luke chapter 9 verse 46 let's read this then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be the greatest and Jesus perceiving the thought of their hearts took a little child and set him by him and said to them whoever receives this little child and my name receives me and whoever receives me receives him who sent me for he who is what least among you will be the greatest now John answered a said master oh we got it we got a story to tell you John speaks up master we saw someone casting out demons in your name we were out running the errands of the Messiah and we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we forbade him because he does not follow us so you're gonna kind of fill the blanks in here a little bit so they're out and they're teaching and they're preaching and they're healing and they see another guy over there that they don't recognize he's teaching and he's preaching and he's healing in the name of Jesus and they're like hey hey you you you you over there teaching and preaching and healing in the name of Jesus you want to come with us and he's like no I'm going this way I'm going another way but thanks for the offer and they're like oh yeah well then I can't say what I want to say right now then be right they tell him off that's what John is reporting this story to Jesus we saw a guy who was teaching and preaching and healing in your name and we offered him to come with us and he said no so we told him off right and John is clearly telling the story expecting a pat on the back a sock on the arm good on you Mike I hope you told him off well good for you way to tell him off right and watch this but jesus said to him do not forbid him for he who is not against us is what is 1 on our side John said there's another translation CEV master we saw a man using your name to force demons out of people but we tried to stop him watch this because he isn't one of us we tried to stop and we tried to shut him up we tried to put it into his ministry because he wasn't one of us I want you to think about this the disciples James and John they see just two options right they see just two options number 1 you are with us and Jesus or number 2 you are not with us and Jesus right that's plain as the noonday Sun those are the options we saw a guy healing and preaching in your name we invited him to come he wouldn't come with us and huge Jesus so we told him off they see only two options either you're with us and Jesus or you are not with us and Jesus but Jesus introduces a totally radical third option he says no no no he is with me but he's not with you hey men is that what he said don't tell him off he that it's not against us is with us he that is not against me is with me the disciples could only see this really binary version of reality either you're with me and Jesus or you are not with me and Jesus and Jesus says there is a third option here there is another option here and that is that they're not with you but they're still with me and I want to tell you friends the religion of human nature is to color everybody outside of the lines it doesn't see things just like we see it that's all do on really big important issues and even on really small issues right the the religion of human nature is really not even about religion it's about human nature it's about taking people and and putting them into camps them and us right and if you believe broadly or or at least in some approximation of what I believe then you can be with me and Jesus because we think that because I've got such a great apprehension of what it means to be with Jesus that if you're with me then you're also with Jesus but what if there's somebody over there that's teaching and preaching and healing and doing something else in the name of God in the name of Jesus but just doesn't come along with you with your church with your denomination with your perspective with your interpretation with your opinion does that mean that they're not with Jesus apparently not apparently there's another option here I want to talk now about control versus freedom this transitions really smoothly into this point about control versus freedom Karlos air back to his book on Reformation says this describing the Inquisition the Inquisition was not born out of the Protestant Reformation but the volume was turned up in response to the Protestant Reformation air says the Inquisition is that essential agent of control agent of control in the Catholic Church the Inquisition became an important aspect of the Catholic Reformation among Protestants the institution assumed a monstrous and menacing character as the embodiment of all that was wrong with the Church of Rome but when all is said and done like it's Protestant counterparts the Inquisition did suppress and punish now notice air is correct here like it's Protestant counterparts that's why we spent a little time talking about Ulrich Zwingli throwing Felix Monson to the river because this was not something that was uniquely or exclusively or proprietarily Catholic to punish somebody else who doesn't see something just the way you see it that's what they wanted to do in the Samaritan village oh but these guys didn't receive Jesus so we'll burn them up that's what they wanted to do with this guy that's the whole flow of Luke 9 to help you see the absurdity of trying to kill or otherwise forbid people who are not just exactly like you are fascinating point here okay so so in response to the Protestant Reformation the Roman Church had an option they could respond and say they could get on their knees and say you know what these are legitimate complaints Hoss and Zwingli and Luther and Tyndale and Wickliffe and others have raised legitimate points and we need to respond we need to but in fact what happened they convened the Council of Trent over a period of about 20 years beginning in 1545 and when they can when they convene the Council of Trent they doubled down on tradition they doubled down on church hierarchy and they they doubled out they basically hardened themselves in their ecclesiastical traditions and perspectives they double down they said we're not backing off and they they launched what is sometimes called a Counter Reformation right so the Protestant Reformation begins to do its work and now the church in response to that the medieval church launches a Reformation to counter the Reformation and a part of that Reformation to counter the Reformation was this tool of control that errors that because the tool of control is what air calls it the Inquisition this monstering monstrous and menacing character as as the embodiment of all that was wrong with the Church of Rome but when all is said and done like it's Protestant counterparts the Inquisition did suppress and punish as well as stifle free expression zero tolerance for freedom of expression was the rule rather than the exception throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries the same could be said for cruelty which all too often Trump's compassion we may wish says err the Catholic historian that it had been different but unfortunately wishful thinking is irrelevant in history the point I want to make here is that this idea that I will punish you or persecute you for not believing what I believe or thinking how I think are saying what I say that's not something that's proprietarily Catholic it belongs to Catholics and Protestants and Muslims and Hindus it belongs to human beings because my sense of rightness gives me some sense in which I'm not just wiser than you smarter than you more enlightening you more infor than you at some level I'm better than you I'm better than you we'll get to that just a second so in general the Reformation emphasized the gospel and freedom while the Catholic response with the Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563 emphasized the church and control and so you have these these - what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object right the gospel begins to be preached and though they didn't get it right the first time swingley and luther and others were themselves feel spiritually obese because they were just beginning to go to the gym they were just beginning to incrementally come out of thick anti-christian darkness as one author has called it right and so so when they find a Felix montz who's advocating something that they regard is dangerous and Anabaptists with this dangerous heresy of believers baptism which would make probably all of us in this room dangerous heretics well what do you do with dangerous heretics you punish them you persecute them and if need be you killed them because that's what you do when people don't see the truth that's what that's what they were trying to do they're in the guard you don't want to see the truth I'll cut your head off oh you don't want to see the truth we'll call down fire oh you don't want to come with us and believe that I'll tell you off I'll tell you off Carlos arigon such was the essence of Catholic reform aimed at the lady as summed up in a single Tridentine decree that means from the Council of Trent and just let this seep into you here worship uniformly instruct thoroughly and police intensely that's the response we're gonna all worship exactly the same we're going to instruct thoroughly on the truth of all of our traditions and these layers upon layers of tradition and the accumulation of ecclesiastical and cultural tradition and then we're gonna police intensely and if we find that any of you are out of line you will be summarily dealt with I don't know how that settles with you but the idea of I don't mind the middle one instruct thoroughly I love to instruct thoroughly in Scripture right but the idea that we're going to worship uniformly everybody has to worship exactly the same we're going to instruct thoroughly and then police into how does that sit with you you feel good about that you want your local church policing you intensely you want your local pastor policing you intensely the local elder policing you intensely that's what happens when you when you've been fed a steady diet of church and state you begin to think that the way the way to get the truth out there is we just have to make people do it whether it's by threat of fire or threat of sword or threat of telling off or threat of drowning and there if we're gonna make people do this but but the presentation today is Aviva therefore modeling what happens if you continue to go to the gym what happens if you continue to lose weight what happens you're not gonna you're not gonna be this job of the hunt type figure forever you're gonna begin to make changes and as those changes begin to be made some really amazing things are going to happen the gospel is not just going to become an idea it's not just gonna become a concept it's gonna become the way we treat people and not just people that agree with us man it's really easy to to treat people that agree with as well didn't Jesus say that he's like you guys you're just like the scribes and the Pharisees the people that greet you in the markets you greet them back and the people that would invite you for dinner you invite them for dinner but what about the people that you don't see eye-to-eye with what about the people that you are totally stand in opposition to on some major matter a few months ago in this very Church these two beautiful people stood here raise your hands if you remember Jerry and Danica they stood in this very Church and gave such a powerful testimony and I'll never forget a part of that testimony when it went something like this they they were telling this beautiful story and the church was saying amen to the degree that this church says Amen and then at one point they said we are not members of your community of faith we're members of a different church we're members of a different denomination but we love the gospel preaching that comes from Pastor David and light-bearer's and I was so happy I was so proud I wanted to tell you guys this from us I was so proud of my local community because the you guys you might not even remember this you said Amen which was astonishing enough and then you clapped you extend at the hand of Christian Fellowship and Christian grace I was down preaching in Tasmania and preaching in Tasmania at a seven adventist camp-meeting and I'll never forget Jerry and Innoko came up to me after one of the meetings they said hey could we can we speak to you hushed tones yeah yeah yeah yeah we're not seventh-day adventists is it okay if we're here I was like security security said of course and and they ended up taking Violetta out and and violet and I out we have this amazing lunch we spent time together and they told us their story of how they were raised in a Dutch Reformed background and how she came to be a believer the story is amazing and I love this Revelation chapter 14 verse 6 then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach those who dwell in the earth to every nation tribe tongue and people let me translate that for you for everybody the message is for everybody the gospel is for everybody the truth is for everybody the Bible is for everybody it's not just for the clergy it's not just for the people that look like you talk like you think like you act like you and worship like you the gospel the good news is bigger than you and I God is not gonna be Wow and amen God the God is not gonna be put in a box he's bigger than that and we need to be bigger than that we don't need to be burning up villages as the Samaritans because they don't go along with what we say let God work God's work in God's own time let God do what only God can do hey men let's hear the words of Jesus you know actually there's a third option here they might not be with you but they're with me every nation tribe I love this one of my favorite things about being a seventh-day Adventist is that seventh-day evidence are very broad-minded in their inclusivity and one of my favorite authors Ellen White one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church just speaks volumes about this inclusivity according to this scripture many of God's people must still be in endtime Babylon and in what religious bodies are the greater part of the followers of Christ now to be found where are the followers of Jesus to be found oh I'm so happy that that this this member of my church this founder of my church doesn't say well in our church because that's really the only place they are found no notice what she says without it's in the various churches professing the Protestant faith where are the people of God they're out there where are the majority that aren't there the majority of the people of God are out there not this individual isolationist us only group as although all the people all the true people are with us and if they're not with us they're sure on their way here she's like no they're they're out there without doubt the majority are there and look at this one among the Catholics there are many who are most conscientious Christians and who walk in all the light that shines upon them and God will work in their behalf so it's not just that they're in the Protestant churches apparently they're also God is working in the Catholic Church too apparently God has people even there ah that's one of my favorite things about being a seventh-day Adventist is this not exclusivity but this radical inclusivity yes scripture but everybody and every denomination is on their own journey with Scripture you're on your own journey with Scripture why should anybody else be different amen I'm on a journey you're on a journey this church is on a journey why shouldn't any other why should we color other churches outside of the lines if we're all headed with Scripture toward Jesus God will sort it out in his own way I love this there are many among the Catholics who live up to the light far better than many who claim to believe Bible truth a great number will be saved from among the Catholics can you say Amen I'm so thrilled that one of the founders of the church that I'm personally a member of was just radical in her inclusivity about the fact that salvation is not something that is proprietarily uniquely our denominations to keep and to dispense it's God's to dispense and the Bible says that he dispenses it freely for God so loved the world Revelation chapter 14 verse 12 here is the patience of the saints here are those that keep the commandments of God and cling to the faith and faithfulness of Jesus and friends if you're in that number your denominational affiliation might be the same as mine or it might be different than mine right but if you're on a journey with Scripture toward Jesus and I'm on a journey with scripture toward Jesus God is gonna sort it out moving our mere denomination I'll leave you with these ten points number one how do we do that how do we transition from a mere denomination to a move number one we believe the best about them number two we don't regard others according to the flesh oh there's Samaritans all right be very careful who you're quick to color outside of the lines Jesus did the fullest gave the fullest revelation of who he was to a Samaritan woman sitting at the well in John chapter four number three focus on God's faithfulness in Christ if God is big enough to save you you've got us big enough to pull you out of the miry pit God is big enough to save somebody else and pull them out of the miry pit focus on God's faithfulness number four build bridges not walls I'll tell you something when it comes to religion and religious controversy the walls build themselves trust me on that you just start having conversations the walls built themselves so work on building bridges and let the walls take care of themselves I'm not talking about compromising on scriptural truth I'm the last person that would advocate compromising scriptural truth so that we can all be unified I'm not suggesting that what I'm saying is is it if you stand on Scripture and somebody else stands on Scripture and you're see things slightly differently the walls will build themselves so what we need to work on is what are the bridges between us what are the points of commonality and I could spend a long time showing you how Jesus and Paul and the other New Testament believers establish points of commonality and let the points of dissimilarity and hostility establish themselves so number four bridges not walls number five a posture of inclusivity not exclusivity I've done my best to paint that for you here today number six les institutionalism more solid biblical teaching and passionate biblical Proclamation can somebody say Amen passionate sweaty Proclamation seven major in the majors minor in the minors this is one of the things that church members struggle with right we've got to keep the big picture big in the little picture little right you got to keep Jesus really big and you got to keep all the rest as details it's not unimportant details nothing in Scripture is unimportant but there's the big picture in the little picture are we together major in the majors minor in the minors jesus said of the religious leaders in his day you guys strain at gnats and swallow camels you're majoring in minors and minoring and majors he says you pay tithes of mint and cumin and Anacin you ought to have done that but you left the other stuff undone you know stuff like love and justice and mercy number eight resist all forms of spirits and religious coercion and manipulation can somebody say Amen whether it's tying somebody to appall and chucking him in a river or threatening to or even intimating or hinting to someone else that because they don't believe what you believe or see things how you see that they're not in a right relationship with God or that they're not saved all forms of religious manipulation and coercion we must jettison last to think this way think I want to be a member of a biblical endtime welcoming Reformation movement not a mere cloistered and exclusive denominationalism amen every one of those words is purposefully chosen biblical yes and time yes we're living at the end of time welcoming it means welcome you're welcome please come Reformation 'el Sola scriptura we don't want to be isolationist and proprietary and parochial we want to have our arms open wide can the church say Amen come on and the number 10 in case you forget everything else that I said in this presentation just remember this part Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus hey if you forget everything else just remember that because friends if Jesus is for everyone then the church should be for everyone the church isn't just for people like me and people like you the church and the message of the church and the message of the gospel is for the world amen let's pray father in heaven the message of the gospel is for the world and right now we just pause to respond Lord I need to let this seep into me this Viva and therefore my ray long live the Reformation may the Reformation not be a static historical entity but may it continue to grow and to go and Father forgive me where I've looked with contempt or hatred or scorn upon those that are not like me who don't see like me think like me act like me talk like me dress like me father help me to be bigger than that help me to see through the eyes of Jesus and we pray all of this in the mighty saving powerful name of Jesus long live the Reformation let everyone say you [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

Views: 2,538

Rating: 4.8297873 out of 5

Keywords: David Asscherick, Viva Reformare, Protestantism, reformation, this week at Kingscliff

Id: EM6H774_NWw

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 04 2018