Martin Luther: An Excursion in Church History

[Music] 493 years ago on Halloween October thirty-first which was a Wednesday some of you are calculating and doing the math that would be 1517 a very important Halloween and tragically very few people in Christianity are even aware that this date has such an important impact on our lives if there's something to celebrate today it is a Halloween it's a Halloween 493 years ago so I'm going to take you back in time 493 years or so October's came and went Halloween's came and went on the countryside and a province the province of Saxony the seasons were coming and going the skyline was changing from the green to the fall colors crisp air whole mindset of the plague that had ravaged what we now call Germany was dissipating and the minds of the people were on their goods that they had harvested from the end of the year a certain man named Frederick the wise he was the elector of saxony of that area very interesting because he plays a dual role in history but he established a university there a little university not very well known at the time just a fledgling place called Wittenberg University and his dream don't think it was too benevolent that he wanted to establish a university in this town his idea was that the young minds of this small town by the way this particular area I'm referring to had somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 residents they would all go for their education to Leipzig or effort and he was watching the young brilliant minds slip out of that region so he established this University began it was not too much and it was in his residence proper so the actual church itself of the university and the university itself were staged in his castle he was a prince now it's somewhat interesting because if you follow the timeline of what I'm describing to you we could very well pinpoint this as a specific time that will be should be remembered often forgotten but this place this town I'm describing at noon day October 31st 1517 it would be nothing for the townspeople to see a 33 year old monk with tortured tonsured head that's that doughnut shape they shaved the top here and they just looked bald in the day but actually shaved that area tonsured head monk's robe coming down to the center of the city with a folio paper in hand the advent of the printing press had already hit Germany and it would be nothing to see a monk at noonday walking through the town square there was at the end of town an Augustinian monastery so it was commonplace to see monks coming and going by the way the town wasn't very big I think it was nine tents something under not even a good distance for a town nowadays it wouldn't even qualify very very small but this monk making his way down with a folio size printed paper in hand with some Latin riding on it wouldn't have disturbed the multitudes for it was the eve of All Saints Day and pilgrims came from all over to this small town on the eve of what we call Halloween the eve it would be nothing to see monks coming and going but this particular day has something that as I said most churches if we went outside of this building today and when inquiry there'd be very few who would give an answer as to why this is important 409 three years ago October 31st 1517 most of you here have been exposed to the history of the Bible and you full well know that this Day marks the day that a young monk 33 years old by the name of Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door church door at Wittenberg and began what essentially we call the Reformation but there's a lot of misconceptions about this particular day many people think this monk who some read and see as a demon quickly penned these 95 points to post them and spa a public debate but in fact there's just no way that you could conclude that when you read his history this had been brewing an undercurrent for many many years the only way to best understand why this day in history is important for churches everywhere is to go back behind that date and look a little bit at the life of Martin Luther now I seldom I don't think I've ever come to the pulpit without my Bible today I am Bible list and in fact I brought many books but I don't have a Bible I didn't need one it's the one Sunday I chose to tell you why I'm a Protestant it is the one Sunday I chose to mark a date where we don't celebrate many dates in this church we celebrate Jesus every single day but it's the day where I chose to share why not only is martin luther an important figure for church history and anyone who has interest but to clear up a lot of what goes on today because as many have asked me to participate in attacking other people who are not heralding and lifting up the banner of jesus christ but yet call themselves a church or ministry and to that i just have to look to martin luther and at least understand here is a man who at the beginning of his journey didn't start out and in fact never in 10 to form another church to bring division such as it did and in many ways to develop theologically concepts that today are still so muddled within the church world that one can only look back to Martin Luther and say thank God that God raised up a man to at least try and realign the church from its terrible sideways stepping the 95 thesis was 95 points really not aimed as a public debate remember this church door at Wittenberg was considered the town bulletin board a lot of people have conjured ideas that he ran up quickly and nailed it so no one would see and then ran away in fact one movie depicts him like that running to the door nailing it and running away but that's not at all the way it happened the church door was where people would put things for the ecclesiastical and academic wall to come and behold and that ninety-five theses being posted on that door at Wittenberg was done in a calm fashion it wasn't done to spar anything but disputation and discussion specifically on the topic of indulgences being sold and there's a lot of again a lot of people who don't understand why this has huge ramifications for us today the church back then in Luther's day was a church that was much well not too far away from what the church at large has become today an industry where people accept back in Martin Luther's day they had an excuse they did not have the written word in front of them the written word was only in Latin the scriptures and these scriptures were held tightly by the papacy or the clergy and the layperson you didn't get a Bible you just did what the priest told you to do why this is important why is October 31st 15:17 important and the 95 thesis because Martin Luther chose this particular day it wasn't some I think I'll go nail my thesis to the door today he chose it deliberately let me tell you why Frederick the wise at least you're gonna leave here today and you at home we're gonna at least if you tune off you will at least know this that this church is founded on stream extreme foundations of history and not some new doctrine that we have to contend with this is contending for the faith you should know why you are Protestant why you are Christian and why you stand in the Church of Jesus Christ today and if you don't know that hopefully somewhere you'll get enlightened the church cannot continue in the ignorant state and I don't speak of this church but churches at large in the ignorant state that they are in which stupefies me having said that Martin Luther did not choose willy-nilly October 31st it was the day of pilgrimages it was the day when even though I just said to you the town had perhaps 2500 people at best people came from surrounding villages and they would line up to come in to the castle where Frederick the wise one of seven electors he was the elector of saxony would have a grand presentation of his relics now please lest you get too holy and you want a good definition of what well let's see what we can call them we'll call them up you ever see Ripley's Believe It or Not you ever go there you ever go to Ripley's Believe It or Not it's a combination of Ripley's Believe It or Not and PT Barnum's freakshow and even good Catholics we'll have to acknowledge that for if you lined up on that day to see the holy relics you could see a mummified thumb of Saint Anne you could see some of the bush of the burning bush that Moses bailed you could see some thorns that were in the crown of Jesus Christ our Lord you could also see some straw that was from the manger apparently where Christ was born and so the list continues and people would stream through to see these relics and they would pay of course admission but most importantly they lined up for a papal indulgences and that piece of paper as you bought and paid for it relieved you of your temporal sins the ones you confessed at least to the priest because three three three things were required within Catholicism that you confess your sins to the priest that you have or do acts of contrition or penance and satisfaction which is works and you obtain these papal indulgences so people lined up they came from all over now as I tried to put this into a time line I thought you know Martin Luther was just like the Apostle Paul do you remember how the Apostle Paul waited he said he was going to tarry until Pentecost he knew he was going to wait for the largest crowds as he was going to travel and be on his way Martin Luther did the same thing he posted that ninety-five theses although it was not for the layperson he posted it on the day when the most eyeballs would see this thesis the only problem is by the way that poor Martin his his whole tactic was to have a dissipation on the Catholic Church's concept of self the selling of indulgences do you know that there were no takers no one responded to dispute with him in fact it was kind of a subject of disinterest but little did he know that that day when he posted his thesis that someone had taken it it was written in Latin it was printed taking the thesis and printed it into German it began to be distributed everywhere until little did he know it wasn't that was not the reason he did it but it became a topic of interest that within two years all would be talking about but before I can talk about that day we need to go back a little bit and yes I'm doing church history with you today so I'm you're saying oh well I talk but this is necessary it's one of those things that won't you're not gonna leave here spinning to the rafters and saying rah feel good but you're going to leave here knowing something your pastor is very much one of the things that I hold dearly to other than the study of the Word of God is church history and I see great lessons to be learned if we would just keep our eyes fixed on what happened in the past it doesn't mean that we will not have future errors but it certainly gives us a good indicator of what not to do what won't work lest you get too harsh on Frederick the wise by the way because he did you know he was the presenter of relics and collector of money lest you be too harsh on him he is the one who was the most powerful defender of Martin Luther at a time when Martin Luther needed someone in a position beyond just clergy high seated official Frederick the wise came to Luther's defense now having said all this why does Halloween get tied into all this how was the tie was it just a date no you see and I always have to look at this as strange as it is because I can never remember which Pope did what because there's so many things that they all done that's good English ah alright Pope Gregory the first 592 604 that's kind of a short term as popes go he was the one that took the opinion of purgatory and elevated it to church dogma and this is important because even today people will discuss and ask questions about purgatory and it must be at least must be observed that this was an opinion and it was an opinion based on poor hermeneutical understanding of the Scriptures did you just say a pope could poorly not understand that's correct keep in mind that most of the scriptures that were available to Pope's through the ages primarily were in the Latin tongue and depending on which Pope sat depending on that depended on also his understanding of the Latin language don't think that like today everyone is schooled and learned it's just not so that's not the way it was now scriptures for example such as Matthew 5 25 and 26 you know the passage in Matthew's Gospel where it says you know if you have aught against your brother go and agree with him leave your gift at the altar go and agree with him quickly unless the adversary come throw you into prison and you know that scripture some of it was based on that some of it was based on the concepts of burning eternal burning from other scriptures I've listed them all but I think it's a effort in futility and not necessary to point them out but purgatory obviously is tied into Halloween very tightly because of the All Saints and All Souls Day celebration because All Souls Day was the celebration for prayers and mass said for the dead therefore if you understood what purgatory was which was apparently according to Catholic tradition if you died in Christ and died serving as a faithful servant it didn't matter if you served faithfully enough you still had a place where if you had not done enough satisfaction in your lifetime purgatory and purgatory was a lot for all by the way from the word I've been talking about which is to cleanse in the greek the word of purgatory word from the latin but unfortunately like I said hermeneutical II it wasn't well understood and this concept was propagated now listen whether the Jews believed and people say well let's go back because the Jewish people believed when a soul dies when a person dies they sit for seven days and say prayers are they responsible is the Catholic Church responsible the only thing I'd say is the people responsible are the ones who lend themself to an opinion of a man without understanding what it is to be in Christ and the finished work at Calvary which doesn't require as the Apostle Paul understood in Romans eight in Christ there is therefore now no altima condemnation therefore how could it be that when a soul departs it must go through some cleansing process stop right there cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching purgatory meant that if people could come with the reality that all of these things they were required to do of the church wasn't sufficient they could buy they could pay for a papal certificate saying forgiven ah alright make the money machine go too bad they didn't have the Bible and the Scriptures which declared let no man make merchandise of you but no one was reading the scriptures because not only were they not available just yet in the tongue of the common man but man the clergy just held on so tightly to that dear and beloved Holy Writ that God forbid the layperson should get a hold of it and really understand and read for themselves so enter the life of Martin Luther born November 10th 1483 in Eisen Levin 120 miles southwest of modern Berlin didn't have to staggering a childhood went to a boys school from very far away from his home so he was a climate 'add - being away from home but there's some staggering things about Martin Luther you should know by the age of 13 he had received his baccalaureate and his Masters of Arts smart kid actually I don't think there was internet back in the day there were no video games there were no comic books you know life's pretty boring you the study here you go out and work oh I'll study it's a good way to get kids to go to school but at the age of 13 studied law at the University of Erfurt he earned his degrees their starting point and as the story goes which everybody seems to know is he made these long long walks 50 plus miles every now and then to go home and it was on his way on one of these long walks as the sky turn ominous and there was a thunder and lightning strike in front of him that he fell to the ground he said the reports say he screamed out Saint dan help me I will become a monk what a great vow to make in the middle of a storm like in other words if you'll save me I'll devote my life to you and as history clearly shows Martin Luther did indeed survive the storm and fulfilled his vow now his friends tried to talk him out of it Martin you sure you want to become a monk but he did what he said he would do and entered into the Augustinian monastery they had many choices this is what's so bizarre there were so many choices why this one and can you imagine that put it in modern terms that is going to pay for young Luther's law future law career hey dad I'm going to be a monk great kid of course when he entered the monastery his dad wrote him a few at least one choice letter kind of telling him he was out of his paternal grace and not in favor anymore of his father but that changed a little bit Martin Luther says if anyone could have earned heaven by the life of a monk it was I he did everything he fasted he praised left on cold floors he beat himself that was the custom practice to flagellate oneself and something that drove his superior absolutely crazy his confessions you know there's a great story in one of these in fact I got to read it to you because it's so good and supposedly he would confess sometimes for six hours 20 times a day great this is from here I stand Baynton these are all people who chronicled the life of Martin Luther Luther endeavoured unremittingly to avail himself to mercy without confession he testified the devil would have devoured him long ago he confessed frequently often daily for as long as six hours on a single occasion every sin in order to be absolved had to be confessed therefore the soul must be searched and the memory ransacked and motors probed this terrible thing I mean he just would come and every day and every day and finally the one who had to hear his confession said man God is not angry with you you are angry with God you know there's some really funny stuff about his his life is a monk but in the course of time Luther was frustrated because he didn't he was going through all the religious rituals and hear me out there's underneath all what I'm telling you today there's a warning to those people who come to church looking for the rituals the trappings of religiosity you know I'm giving you a history lesson but underneath it all I wish I wish I could tell you my soul my innermost being cries at what I see being labeled worship that people no longer desire to reach into the Word of God and cling to that which the Apostle Paul called the unsearchable riches this quarry that can ever be mined enough but have chosen to look away to the more profitable things the things that are earthly the things that may bring a little bit of pleasure in the here and now so underneath all of this great history lesson there's a warning to those if you'll hear it Martin Luther had the wisdom and the knowledge to know certainly I'm not getting any relief from all the confession and all of the ritualistic patterns I'm going through surely there must be something more and the grace of God was being frustrated in part because when he would read the scriptures he read about the wrath of God and he couldn't understand how a God who had dispensed wrath upon his people how he could be merciful to him because he knew that no good dwelt in here no matter what he did to try and follow with the order that was prescribed to him so in 15 10 15 and 11 somewhere in that period now he's taking theology at Orford University of Erfurt and travels to Rome upon seeing this remember all this is happening in Germany so upon seeing the city he makes this great Proclamation holy Rome beloved Rome upon seeing the city now if you've ever traveled to Rome I have to admit there's that there's an awe I don't care of what faith you are and what you believe there is an all to see a skyline studded with domes and crosses and just the grandeur of it all and I imagine it has not changed much from Martin Luther's day except for that grand Basilica the grand grand grand Basilica perhaps but on official business he had made a pilgrimage to Rome and was so interesting about this pilgrimage is what he saw this is where I identify with Martin Luther there's so many reasons to identify with him but when he got to Rome he was expecting to see the splendor of the holy city the epicentre of the Church of God with holiness and people who were righteous and good roaming the streets but instead his eyes saw prostitutes lining street corners that hasn't changed much he saw people conducting themselves in the masses where masses were being performed one such I believe it was a monk or priest standing beside him performing a mass telling told him hurry up hurry up there are other people waiting hurry the masks come on hurry up others would drink a little bit of something before doing the mass so there was drunken stupor just everything that he saw left him in a state of sorrow and very disappointed at this epicenter the religious epicenter of the time he was going to make a pilgrimage through what is called pilots court or the Lateran Palace the stairs there are 28 stairs to climb you're forbidden to climb them on your feet you must climb them on your knees and on each stair you must say a prayer and the right prayer by the way these are the stairs purportedly that our Lord Jesus Christ climb they're no longer visible to the eye they are boarded up because grooms go on their knees and kiss every place they wanted to protect these stairs they're now boarded up but people still make this pilgrimage up these stairs and I'd say parenthetically if there's a finger to blame for this veneration look to Constantine's mother Helena because she brought most of these relics into the church after Constantine's conversion she was the one that brought a lot of the relics that are venerated today still from the 300s still but this is where history gets a little confusing there's so many different writers of Martin Luther's history some say he got to the top in the 28th stair and asked himself what am i doing this hasn't quieted my spirit at all others report that he got halfway through climbing the stairs on his knees and a scripture had come to his mind the just shall live by faith there are many there are a few different stories to this and I'm not going to tell you that any one of them needs to be adhere to except that when he left Rome he left with an understanding that these rituals did not appease his conscience remove his guilt or bring him any closer to God now lest you think I'm simply talking about the Catholic Church today I speak for all churches who engage in this absolute ritualistic and every denomination is guilty by the way I'm not going to tell you this just one I think every single person has to come to what the Apostle Paul declared in Galatians when he said if I seek to please man I should not be the apostle the spokesperson the up-front sent one for Jesus Christ too much of Christianity today is spent trying to either get the masses into current contemporary worship which everybody is now doing or high church and I have nothing against any of these concepts as long as it's recognized that Jesus Christ hanging on the cross 2,000 plus years ago didn't say if you'll perform these acts he said if you'll have faith on me if you'll trust me I will save you deliver you the hope is not in the things performed it's in the thing that was performed and finished and this is something that agonizes me every single day as I'm confronted with the reality that were no more delivered in this day and age than these back in Martin Luther's day his return caused him to seek the advice of his then vicar general stupas who would have to hear his confessions who was a longtime friend and confidant and it was stoppers that said Martin Luther it's time for you to go earn your theology degree at Wittenberg and at the same time although reluctantly Martin Luther entered into the University at Wittenberg and began his both studies and theological degree for this was going to be required for him to take a teaching post at Wittenberg now I'm taking you behind the 95 thesis were still remember in five in 1512 we are still five years away from him riding itemizing and posting so far I've taken you through at least a couple of years behind that and we haven't seen a real swell of anything develop except for this as Martin Luther began to read the scriptures and study them for it was necessary I must read you this I was prepared to read you many things but I must read you at least one thing that is said of Martin Luther when he took his he took his oath here we go he took his oath for his doctorate and his off goes like this October 18 1512 I swear to defend the event evangelical truth with all my might he was made a biblical doctor and not a doctor sentences and was this call to devote himself to the study of the Bible and not to that of human traditions he then pledged himself by Noth as he himself relates to his well beloved and holy scriptures he promised to preach them faithfully to teach them with purity to study them all of his life and to defend them both in disputation and in writing against all false teachers so so far as God should give him ability that should be the vow of every person who steps into the pulpit not required by the way to obtain a certificate from a university if that's what pleases you and if that's what you're led to do do it certificate is only issued by men for men but the reality of pledging an oath to present the scriptures and to lift up the truth which was Martin Luther's oath now find it quite interesting that it was during his lectures and studies at the University of Wittenberg in 15 13 15 14 when he began to teach through songs and Romans that clarity came to him out of his studies primarily through Romans 1:17 to understand what it meant see we don't have any problem with discussing Romans 1:16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel the good news I'm not ashamed of that it's the dynamite it's the power not ashamed of that but yet it seems in Martin Luther's mine there had to be some realm of discrepancy here and what about this justice of God now you'll know another reason why I happened to hold Martin Luther and high esteem because he took the time as he was a German speaker he also took the time to study Greek and he was already well entrenched with Hebrew - at least discern and make some differences in his studies and forgive me I will tell you the names as I refer back to them of the books I always give credit Martin Luther Peter Baine lld vol 1 and I want you to hear what is said about Martin Luther's understanding about penance on this hinges much of our Christianity today on this ask any person what it means to repent on this is what Martin Luther began to have clarity Luther goes on to say that when he turned from the latin bennett idea penance or penance or to the Vulgate which he's just referring to to metanoia the original greek he derived from it a new and exquisite confirmation of the position that repentance is a spiritual affair a thing of the mind and disposition the greek word could not possibly mean a piling up of penitential performances but must imply to begin with a change in the affections the mind and even today wherever I go and speak I encounter the same thing when I speak of Jesus first message repent people automatically think an act of contrition sorrow but Jesus words were to change your mind and to make a turn from your way to following him it was the word of all others adapted to express transition and transformation of soul a change like that symbolized by Abraham's journey at God's bidding from the land of his birth into that which he was appointed to go he goes on to talk and describe more but that single-handedly the understanding of certain principles which today if we stay in the Latin tradition and stay ignorant to the writing meaning and essence of the New Testament within the Greek language frame we hinder and frustrate God's purposes for our lives somebody said why be so angry why are Protestants always angry well I don't know why you're angry I don't hate Catholics I have a lot of friends and a lot of clergy people who I'm by necessity having to associate with and my attitude is only this no why you believe what you believe if you're a Jew then no why you're a Jew don't say I'm a Jew because I was born into a family of Judaism and therefore I'm a Jew own what you believe in and stand by it and quit being so willy nilly about everything that you're afraid to take a stance on anything it was during his lectures and I have a quote here where he understood Romans 1:17 at last after meditating all day and all night but the mercy of God I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God namely by faith I felt entirely born-again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open by it by this time in Luther's life the church is now no longer an institution with a toehold on the believer but something is stirring and changing and listen what we haven't yet even reached the nailing of the thesis and look at all of the things that are going on but let me get to there let me get to that point by 1517 and if the record reads correctly that would be 12 years of being a monk being a priest being ordained studying all the things that Martin Luther had done in his life for 12 years this was the culmination of a turning point to dispute simply to dispute this question of indulgences the sale of indulgences now I find it kind of funny and I've got to weave a little bit of this in because there's humor and everything Frederick the wise would not let the most famed John Tetzel who was the most famous we'll call him carnival barker seller of indulgences par excellence extraordinaire would not let him come to Wittenberg it was verboten and you know why not because Frederick the wise was worried that he would come and deliver a better sermon that would have people come money money because if John Tetzel came those would come and hear his sermons would be charged of course to line up to buy their indulgences quickly what is the saying you know the saying what is it a coffer coin in the coffer house the saying go you don't know it's something something likened to as the coin reaches the coffer a soul from purgatory Springs it's a it rhymes I'm sure but that was his famous saying it's okay special to special dispensation for you back there it is decreed professor so Tessa was not allowed to come to Wittenberg because Frederick the wise who was wise he knew if Tessa came he wouldn't get the money so he was not allowed to come to the area that particular village but he was in an adjacent town preaching and some of the terrible things that he would preach on which today if you heard these sermons today would not only mortify you but it would probably if you had straight hair I would curl your hair he would say things like you know if you're not reaching to free your loved ones who are crying out right now they're trying out to be liberated and sprung from purgatory and you can do that today oh wait a minute that's religious TV today no no no no talk of purgatory just paying paying Oh not paying save I guess you earn interest on your money nowadays but anyway however it goes it was Hallows Eve or Halloween in the adjacent town where John Tetzel was preaching his famous sermons Martin Luther had heard this and he brought his own sermon the day he preached which was All Saints Day the day of November 1st and Frederick the wise was very irritated that Martin Luther would speak against indulgences this is the beginning and the undergirding of the 95 theses being nailed to the door now you know as I said there were no takers no one came to dispute how tragic but there was an undercurrent of people after this day of nailing the thesis and two years had passed now I've leaped over that day that famous October 31st 1517 to 1519 Martin Luther is standing in a grand auditorium at Leipzig University and great dispute a shion's among scholars laypeople people who in general wanted to know about this concept and these 95 points that seemed so not so revolutionary but quite relevant to the day if you travel through Martin Luther's lifetime you'll see he was up for the debates he was up to give an answer for his faith by 15 20 21 he is summoned to die to the diet of worms in Germany where he must appear and he thinks it's just going to be another great day of disputation of his theology and little does he know that Charles the fifth the Holy Roman Emperor of the day is calling him to a trial now I took the luxury of finding the best most concise and I'm not going to read you the whole thing it lasted for a while never mind but this is probably the gold standard of church history history of Christian Church vol 7 by shaft and so it begins like this Luther arrived in worms on Tuesday morning April 16 1521 at 10 o'clock shortly before early dinner in an open carriage with his Wittenberg companions dressed in his monastic gown the watchman on the tower of the Cathedral announced the arrival of the procession by blowing the horn and thousands of people gathered to see the heretic see again I read this and I think to myself as I stand and I have nothing else to offer you except the Word of God well somebody say that of me will somebody say well she's not going with the contemporary style of worship or she's not adhering to the the days it's got to be more modern it's got to be more acceptable will I be labeled that too or any person who stands for Christ will they be labeled that too fact there's a quite there's a very poignant quote by Martin Luther and he talks about the two words that people least want to be associated with when it comes to Christianity and Christ despised and rejected who's willing to stand the people Liggett reports this factor omen adds that Luther looked around with the eyes of a demon hmm wonder who was chronicling that history yes all right and the day after his arrival in the afternoon at 4 o'clock Luther was led by the Imperial marshal and all of the quarters for this big circus pilgrimage avoiding the impassable crowds to the halt of the diet in the Bishop's Palace where the Emperor and and his brother Ferdinand resided he was admitted at 6 o'clock he stood there poor monk rustic manners yet genuine genuine here and confessor with the fire and genius enthusiasm flashing from his eyes and the expression of intense earnestness and thoughtfulness on his face before brilliant assembly he had never seen before this is kind of terrible two questions are put to him both in Latin and in German by an official first whether he acknowledged the books that laid before him on a bench there were 25 in number were they his own next whether he would retract them one of Luther's colleagues an advocate who stood beside him demanded that the titles of those books be read it like you know you're gonna if you're gonna go hang you better put it all out there that's exactly says read them all this was done among them some such inoffensive and purely devotional books as an exposition of the Lord's Prayer and of the Psalms but he was going to be tried as a heretic Luther was apparently over awed by the August assembly nervously excited unprepared for summary condemnation without an examination that's just the way it worked that day reports regarding Luther it says he entered as a heretical fool laughing and despondent which is not the case those are the Catholic reporters it all depends from which side of the fence you're sitting on I guess on the same evening Luther after this whole display Luther took hold of himself and he wrote to a friend and he said I shall not retract one iota so Christ help me on Thursday the 18th of April Luther appeared a second and last time before the diet it was the greatest day in life now again he's asked some questions but the gist of all this is would he recant would he withdraw and if he would these 25 or so books which included just some of his summary works would he recant and then he could easily just throw them into the fire they could be burned and he could move on but he would not which is part of the problem again what I say today there's a lot of cowardice in Christianity with the advent of the internet it has allowed many people to stay in a place where they never have to act accountable to anything they can hide behind the garments cloaked as the Internet and never have to face the reality of Christ's presence in their life Martin Luther he divided the books up into three classes and he says the following books which simply set forth Evangelic all truths professed alike by friend and foe books against the corruption and abuses of the papacy which vexed and martyred the conscience books against his Popish opponents and so forth and you must remember now he is going to be prepared he's going to be compared to heretics like Wickliffe and Haas at this trial because only heretics like Wickliffe and house would have denounced and denied such a place as purgatory or the sale of indulgences or the order of transubstantiation the order of the mass for the dead now I could go on and I could probably give you a sampling of some of the most poignant things of Martin Luther's life I think I've covered them all I think I've covered them in a broad spectrum Martin Luther leaves the diet of worms obviously knowing that he was facing death it looked like Frederick the wise you remember him mr. relic par excellence he arranges this great highway if you want to call it kidnapping takes Luther away to a castle at Wartburg and Luther is there held not even knowing he really I think probably truth be known if we read closely to what Luther says he would have probably preferred to face the lion's den and go out and a blaze of glory but God had a different plan and it is in that castle Wartburg that the greatest contribution to Christianity is made the translation of the Bible from Latin and the Erasmus Greek translation which became the basis of the Textus Receptus into the German common tongue so that the German common person could read the Bible for themselves and Luther later on will be heard saying that the common man armed with the Holy Scriptures is more powerful than any Pope or any council now I jumped over Luther's grand statement of the diet of worms because after he's done talking at the diet of worms there's this famous line I can do no other so help me God here I stand but it would be many years after that of standing even though that was maybe the toughest point there'd be many years of standing and staying firm in what he heralded up as the right decision to lift up again anew and afresh these things that were being covered over or warped or twisted by the Catholic Church so it's kind of interesting the Bible has been translated Luther he lives a pretty nice not that long of a life he lives to about 63 and interestingly enough part of his 95 thesis the beginning of which and I'm not gonna read all 95 points to you but the beginning of these the first runs as follows when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ says repent he means that the whole life on Earth of those who believe in him shall be an unlimited repentance it was crucial and still is today you know getting correcting back what has gone astray for most of Christianity believes that if you walk down to an altar and confess your sins and repent at the altar that that is the the ignition the starter fluid the battery charge that gets you going and that lets you drive all the way newsflash it's not a battery starter or a quick charge it's the charge that keeps you walking in him your life long your life long battery connector that you must stay connected do in order to have his life flowing through you not just a one-stop shopping event down at the altar so Martin Luther understood that and understood by the sale of indulgences the common person was being robbed of understanding Christ paid it all at Calvary there is no unfinished business there is no unfinished work when it comes to our salvation and the words lifted up by faith alone we're saved by faith alone now of course Luther had many other contributions that I think are noteworthy including the fact that it was now permissible for some in the priesthood to marry and take wives that became permissible certain things that had no relevancy but I must just point this one thing out it was by no means Martin Luther's intent to start a new branch of Christianity all he wanted to do this whole time was reform what he had seen something that started off good go wrong and he wanted to bring it back to the center every preacher in a pulpit today in America should be saying the same thing let me bring back to front and center what is right and necessary for the salvation of men and women in Jesus Christ now it's quite interesting that Martin Luther's life very short nothing very glamorous he had an illness and at the age of 63 he dies but I think it's quite important to note that he he dies 15:46 and his body is sent to else but to that castle at Wittenberg where he was at least buried for a time I think they dug up his body afterwards to check that his bones were still there but he was buried there and I thought it interesting that where the real Reformation started really for a few years even though the nailing in 1517 October 31st 1517 that begun there was a silent period until all the people would hear the cause of Martin Luther to reform and I thought it ironic that the same place where silence began the Reformation silence closed the door on Martin Luther's life as they laid his body to rest at the castle Wittenberg and interestingly enough today the church world is still extremely divided on Martin Luther's accomplishments whether some view him as a demon and others as a savior of the Christian faith all I wanted to point out is it's as necessary to say we can be so familiar with these celebrations they are I guess called kids will be going out into the streets tonight and trick-or-treating and you parents I'm sure are inspecting your children's goodies but please don't forget why October 31st 493 years later this is an important date we can get so caught up in the world events we forget about church history this date should be a celebration and I seldom have days that we mark many churches in America will celebrate Reformation Sunday there should be a celebration for Christians everywhere celebrating the fact that we have by God's grace and by the many reformers we have his word we have his word in our own language we're not having to go through rituals that make no sense that bear no meaning on our lives will be no more saved if you crawl on your knees or if you venerate something Jesus said it clearly when he said the traditions of man you have made void the Word of God by your traditions what a sad sad thing but what a great great day four hundred and ninety three years later that there may be some with that same spirit coming to say you are saved by faith let no one as Galatians says let no one be which you let no one lead you astray with some new wind of doctrine or sowing some new exercise that they tell you you must do this in order to be saved but stand fast in the faith that you receive you stay and remain the house of faith that's what gets God's attention that's what gets you started that's what takes you and I home I'd like to read in closing something quite profound a mighty fortress is our God a bulwark never failing our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing for our ancient foe does seek to work us whoa his craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equal that's the first line to Martin Luther's a mighty fortress is our God we don't perform high church here and we don't have rituals and we don't elevate people but I thought what a great way to celebrate this day at least in my eyes to get a new focus and hopefully for some of you who are listening for the first time that you'll be inspired to go read some of church history and recognize a lot of people paved the way for us to be standing here today and freely proclaiming the gospel message and I just want to read one last I wrote the scripture down because it's probably the most poignant thing out of Ecclesiastes that I could think of to put the capstone on today Ecclesiastes 10:15 the labor of the foolish warious every one of them because he knoweth not how to go to the city you surely know the way to the city it's through faith alone in Jesus Christ that's my message and next week we'll jump back in with some other things contending for the faith that we so proudly do here good day folks you've been watching me pastor Melissa Scott live from Glendale California at faith Center if you would like to attend the service with us Sunday morning at 11 a.m. simply call

Channel: Pastor Melissa Scott, Ph.D.

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Keywords: Pastor Melissa Scott, Pastor Scott, pastor melissa scott exposed, Faith Center, faith center church, faith center glendale, martin luther, protestant reformation, ninety-five theses, 95 theses, wittenberg (german city), martin luther reformation, church history, bible history, halloween, reformation day, selling indulgences, 1517, in the year 1517, indulgences for forgiveness of sins, threatened excommunication, pope leo X, corruption of the roman catholic church, preist

Id: ZXJJkUKWiCo

Length: 58min 2sec (3482 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 31 2018