Hello, and welcome to this
message from Calvary Church. We're excited to welcome
our special guest Eric Metaxas, best
selling author and host of the nationally
syndicated radio program The Eric Metaxas Show. We pray this message
strengthens your relationship with the Lord. If it does, let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
the ministry of Calvary Church financially, you can
give online securely at calvaryabq.org/give. In the message Martin Luther-- the man who rediscovered
God and changed the world-- Eric shares about
Luther's life as this year marks the 500th year
anniversary of the start of the Reformation. Now please open your
Bible as he begins. You all have something
very special here. I think you probably know that. But I want you to know
I live in New York City, and when I see what God is
doing around this country-- and the faith and the bodies
that comprise the body-- it is just a joy. I just love being here. I've been astounded as
I've been signing books. A lot of people come
up to me and say, I listen to your radio program. And this is the
first time, ever, that I have spoken
anywhere around the country where so many people say, I
listen to your radio program, so it's obviously on
at like a decent hour where you can listen to it. But I promise you
that it thrills me that there are folks
listening because you know, you always wonder-- when you're a
writer or whatever-- is anybody out there
appreciating this and it means so much to me. So, thank you. And if you aren't
listening, shame on you. Shame. Can you imagine? I'm here to deliver
a message of shame. No, just the opposite. Well, thank you, Pastor
Skip, for letting me speak to your flock here. It's just a great honor. There's so much I want to say. I guess I want to tell you
a little about my story before I leap into
the Luther story. In a nutshell, my mom and
dad came over from Europe in the 50s. My dad came from Greece. My mom came from Germany. They met in an English class in
New York City and got married. And if you're raised Greek
and German, I gotta say this-- that means you will
be raised Greek. You get that? I don't get it, but
it's just like one of those-- it's like rock,
paper, scissors-- and Greeks just crush other ethnicities. There's nothing else. There's nothing else. It's like we're lucky. You know, if you're
not Greek, you're lucky that they let you
talk to them because they know they're the best. It's the best ethnicity. They just know. So-- and if you ask them,
they'll tell you so. And if you don't ask
them they'll tell you. So, it's annoying. But I was raised in the
Greek Orthodox Church. Every single Sunday we went. I was an altar boy
and the whole thing. But like a lot of people
who are raised in-- I would say ethnic or cultural
church environments-- a lot of times it's about the
ethnicity and the culture. So even though it
was wonderful-- the Greek community was
a wonderful community-- I didn't get the guts. I didn't get the gospel. I didn't know how to pray. I didn't know the Scripture. I didn't know if what we
believe is really true, or if it's just what
we say, or whatever. And I think a lot
of people grow up in the church you kind of
have that sense, right? Like you're not really
asking the questions-- maybe you shouldn't ask the question. Next thing you know you're
out in the wide world and you're going to
college, or whatever it is. And I went to Yale
University, which is a very secular environment-- extremely secular. A lot of colleges, of course,
are extremely secular, and they're basically
at this point half nuts. So think twice about
sending your kids to one of these places. They're insane-- they don't
care about truth anymore because they don't
believe in truth. And so they're so-- they're so lost,
and they don't dare ask the real questions of
like, why am I on this planet? Is there a God? Is there meaning in life? Those are the
questions that have to form the basis of any
actual education, all right? Unless you're going
to trade schools. You want to talk
about education. Those are the questions. But they're afraid to
ask those questions. So I went to Yale
University, and they are tremendously secular. Now you understand,
they started out as an extraordinarily serious
Christian school in 1701. And they've only been
really been preaching heresy for like 200
plus years, so we've got to give them grace. You know, anybody could screw
up for a couple of centuries, right? They're going to
bounce back any second. But the point is
that when you go into an environment like that
and you've not been prepared, and you're not sure
what you believe-- that's not good. And most kids, I
would say, are going to go to colleges like that. I went to college. I just didn't know-- I don't know what I believe. I'm not anti-God,
but I'm not sure. I just don't know. Well, if you don't
know, they're going to tell you what to believe. What to believe is
that we evolved out of the primordial soup
through random mutations. There is no God. Life has no meaning, and
try not to kill yourself when you think about it. Right? It's really encouraging. So it's kind of wild when
you think about the fact that they don't have answers. They don't know what
it is to even ask-- dare to ask those questions. And I think they basically
think like, we're just not going to go there. So here's what you do-- study hard, get a good
job, and you know, you work really hard
for a few decades, and then it'll all be over. They just don't think
about those questions. Don't think about the fact
that there's no good or evil. It's just something that
you impose, that meaning-- that life is meaningless. Don't think about it. Try not to think about it. Well-- so you distract
yourself with a good job for a few decades. But I was an English major. I wanted to be a writer. As you can guess, I
did not get a good job. Correct. I just floated and
drifted, and if you float and drift after college,
you know what happens-- you end up moving back
in with your parents. Which is exactly-- there's no
way you're going to avoid that. And that's what happened to me. My parents were not pleased
to see their son return from this fine education
that they broke their backs to provide for me. And I think they're wondering,
what is the problem exactly? We didn't get to go to college,
so what is your problem again? You went to Yale. Tell us-- what can
we do for you here? How do you like
your eggs cooked? I mean-- I was lost, folks. I was really lost. And the bottom line is-- I had been convinced
that there is no answer to the big questions of life. That no one can know. That if you're really
educated, you're smart enough to know only silly
people actually expect answers. Well, the good news
is that I was wrong. The good news is that the Lord
visited me-- sent a friend to share his faith with me. And then one night
visited me in a dream where He made it clear
that Jesus is Lord. And I just completely
accepted Him. Now, if you want to-- I write about it
in my book Miracles but there's a short
video on my website. Just go to EricMetaxas.com,
and there's a great video made by the folks
at I Am Second-- some of you may know that ministry. They've got amazing-- I mean if you watch my video-- keep watching. There's great
videos-- celebrities telling their stories
of coming to faith. But I tell my story. Just go to-- it's just my name-- EricMetaxas.com. But the Lord spoke to me
in a dream in a way that completely blew my mind-- changed my life
forever overnight. And I always like to say that I
was unconscious at the time, so how much credit can I
get for that, right? How much credit do you
get for coming to faith? I hope you understand
the answer is zero. Zero. Nada. Any Spanish speakers
in the group? I just think-- I
know I could tell. I am in Albuquerque. Anybody tell me where
Albuquerque came from? The name Albuquerque--
do we know? Where's it come from? Spain. Spain? There's an Albuquerque in Spain? "Al-bu-quer-kay?" [LAUGHS] "Al-bu-care-kay?" [LAUGHS] Gesundheit. [LAUGHS] So-- I-- I-- I have no idea
what I was saying. What was I saying? So the point is that the
Lord saved me dramatically. Now, it doesn't
matter how He does it. The matter is that He
wants you to know Him. And once I knew Him,
my whole life changed-- which is exactly what's
supposed to happen. It's like suddenly you see
things in color, you know? And I said, Lord, take
control of my life. Take control of my career. And the Lord really did. And it was very hard. It doesn't-- the Lord doesn't
promise us a rose garden, right? It doesn't mean everything's
going to be easy. But He promises us His presence
in the midst of difficulty. He promises us His presence
and His love and faith in the midst of trials. And folks, that's
the only way to fly. That is the only way to get
through this tough life. Life is tough. If you haven't
experienced difficulties, it's just because you're young. Life is tough, but it's OK
because the Lord is with us. And when I see people
complaining about this or that, I want to beg them-- have you tried giving
everything to Jesus of Nazareth? Have you tried that? Because let me tell you what-- it's not like it
might work for you. It's not like it's a nice idea. This is the truth
of the universe, and you can't escape it. And if you reject it-- what a pity, because
you were born to walk with Him
through this life. And so the Lord
took over my life and he took me on
this strange career where I worked for
my hero Chuck Colson. I did work for Veggie Tales. I did very little
for Veggie Tales. I just want to tell you-- I don't want to give
you the impression like I invented Bob the
Tomato or something like that. But I was privileged
to work for them. I'm the voice of the
narrator on the Esther video. Yeah? You like-- you like Esther? Now the narrator in the Esther
video-- you all understand I got to break it down for you. It's a vegetable universe. So the narrator-- I
was the narrator-- you don't see the
narrator, but you know the narrator must be
some kind of vegetable. Now it's kind of weird
because I was the narrator, but I don't know what
kind of vegetable I was. And I believe if you would
pray maybe the Lord will reveal to you what kind of vegetable
I was because I still haven't gotten that in prayer. I think there's some
secrets in blocking me from hearing the answer. I believe it's broccoli
rabe, but I do not yet know, and I'm struggling with that. But so somehow I
got the privilege of doing something
goofy, like being the voice of the narrator
on one of the videos, and I got to write half
of Lyle the Kindly Viking. I wrote the Hamlet
omelet parody. [LAUGHS] Yeah, you think that's funny. Well, it's intentionally funny. But I got to do some fun stuff
for them, and I got to know-- behind the scenes,
show business is weird. Because you get the impression
from watching Veggie Tales like Bob the Tomato is like
this happy Christian tomato, you know? But I just want to tell
you behind the scenes it's kind of dark, man. Like-- you get to know
him, and you realize he's a bitter
chain-smoking agnostic. But the lights come on and he
becomes this happy Christian. That is a lie. I just want you to
know-- pray for Bob, because he's
struggling right now. That's also a lie. That's not true. But it was such a joy
to get to do that. Now, if anybody asked
me 15 years ago, do you think you'll ever write
biographies in your life-- I knew I wanted to write books. I always knew I
wanted to write books, but I was like, Lord lead me. And the Lord led me to write
a biography about William Wilberforce, but it
was never my intention. I never wanted to
write a biography. I always say I'm far too
self-centered to want to spend two years thinking
about some other person in depth. Why, right? But the Lord led me to do that. And the book on
William Wilberforce is one of the happiest
stories in the history of the world-- how God used
one man to change his culture. If you think there's
no hope for America-- you read the story of
William Wilberforce, and you will see that God, if
He has some willing servants, He can do anything. He can do anything. And He calls each of us to live
for Him the way Wilberforce lived for Him-- no exceptions. He's not saying, I want
you to be a great person like Wilberforce. I want you to be a
great person like you. He loves you as much as He
loves Wilberforce or Luther or anybody. Do you really believe that? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Imagine if I said, well
because it's not true. You're not as great as they are. In God's economy, we
are all totally equal. 100% equal. And the Lord says,
whatever I've given you I want you to use
it to My glory, and you will see what
I will do through you. And what I will do through
you touches eternity. It's infinite. You can't compare
yourself to these people. But the Lord gives us
these examples from history to inspire us, and
they should inspire us. And Wilberforce-- that story
is incredibly inspiring. I mean, I write about
stuff in the book that-- the movie just talks
about the politics, but the rest of the
story is unbelievable, as you know-- his whole story. So I wrote that
book, and then I was convinced to write
another biography. And I thought the
only person I could write about who rises to
the level of Wilberforce is Dietrich Bonhoeffer-- a man who, because of
his faith in Jesus, stood up to the Nazis. I remember when
I first got saved I heard the story of
Bonhoeffer, and I said, what? I have never heard
this story of a man in the middle of
Nazi Germany who stood up against Hitler because
of his faith in Jesus Christ, and who spoke up for the Jews
because of his faith in Jesus. The whole world should
know that story. Shouldn't they know that? But they don't tend
to know these stories. Well, by the grace
of the Lord, I get to tell some of these
stories and get them out there. And the Wilberforce book,
you know, it was OK, but the Bonhoeffer
book opened my career. A lot of people read that book
that had never heard of me. Whenever I got invited to
speak at the National Prayer Breakfast with some of you-- that video is also
at my website. And then you know-- just-- these
things are privileges folks. No-- nobody-- I could never dream
that I get to do this except by the grace of
God, and it's an honor. But after the Wilberforce-- I'm sorry, after the
Bonhoeffer book-- I was sure I would not
write another biography just because it was tough. It was tough. I mean it's-- I think sometimes people
have this idea of writing, like, oh you go to
a cabin on the lake and you just kinda
stare at the pines and like, great thoughts
kind of come out, you know, onto the paper while
you're drinking your coffee. And it's not true. Writing is hard work. Many times-- and I'm
not at all joking-- I would much rather go
to the dentist than face a day of writing. And you laugh, but I
have a very good dentist. So I'm telling you-- I'm not even kidding. Writing can be agony. But the Lord has used it,
but I really didn't expect to write another book on-- a biography. And I wrote a book
called If You Can Keep It which is all about America
and American liberty because I have a passion
to communicate that we, as Americans, need
to understand what it means to be an American. We have not taught that
for about 40 years. I did not get that in school. If we don't teach that
to the next generation, it's over folks. The joy that we
have, even to share the gospel-- these freedoms
that we take for granted, we should not take for granted. So I wrote that book. I wrote a book on miracles. But, at some point, I had a
couple of friends twisting my arm, saying, Eric, the 500th
anniversary of the Reformation is coming up. The 500th anniversary. And I thought, eh, I don't care. I didn't go to seminary. I'm not like big into
this kind of stuff. And they said, you
don't understand-- this is a big deal. 2017 is going to be a big deal. You are the guy to write
the book on Martin Luther. And I said, well thank you
very much but no thank you. And they kept coming at
me and explaining to me, you don't understand the
significance of Luther, and you need to tell the world
of the significance of Luther-- that what he did was not
some theological thing. It ended up bringing the
gospel into the world. So that everything that
we take for granted-- all these freedoms and democracy
and all this stuff-- came through Luther. He opened the door to the
future, and that's a fact. And as I looked into it, I began
seeing more and more-- wow, his influence was shocking,
and I didn't know that. As usual. I didn't know these things,
and I suddenly get into it, and I think, where have
I been all my life? And now that I know this, I
want to make all my friends feel dumb for not knowing it, right? You know how that is. Well, in a way. But in another way, I was like,
now I want to tell everybody, you've got to know this. This is huge. I would say Luther's the most
influential man in 2000 years, apart from Jesus. There's no doubt that God used
this very flawed man to open a door to all of these things. And so I was really
convinced that this is a gigantically important story. But then I got to see that
the details of this story are hilarious and
very entertaining. And after writing a
book on Bonhoeffer, which is not exactly
hilarious and entertaining-- would you agree? Shame on you. But you're right. You can't write a book about
the Holocaust and the Nazis where your hero-- the young hero-- was
killed at the end. That's not like fun,
but it's important. But really, that took
so much out of me. I said I want to
write a story that is entertaining and fun and funny. And this story-- this
character of Luther-- is so wild, that it's
very entertaining. And so I can say
that to recommend it to you that it's just a
kind of an amazing story. And if you just tell
the story, especially tell the funny parts, trust me-- it's just amazing. It's crazy. And of course, you
learn about history. So I was convinced to write
it, and of course, I wrote it. And what I discovered
is many, many things. First of all, I
discovered that a lot of the stuff that you hear about
Luther is not exactly true. It didn't happen the way
you hear that it happened. And it's a cool thing to get
to put things right, you know? When you hear about this and
this, and you look into it, and you say, well,
that's not exactly right. I need to clarify this. I want to clarify
this for posterity so that future generations
know exactly what we can know. Right? But to tell you the story very
briefly, Luther was born in-- I forget. He was born on November
10th, but the year in which he was born
we actually don't know. We believe-- we're sure--
that it's 1482, 1483, or 1484. I'm pretty sure it's
1483, but no one really knows, including
his own mother, who was nearby when it took place. You get that? Good. Good. Mature crowd. So we actually don't-- that's
kind of weird, but it's true. But he's born on November 10th. On November 11th, they take
him to church and baptize him, because the whole point was-- if you're not baptized,
you'll go to hell forever. Right? So you might want to speed
up the baptismal process-- kind of important. So they baptized him on
November 11th-- which was St. Martin's Day-- and they named him
Martin after the saint for whom the day was named. So, Luther was raised in a
fairly well-to-do family. Now there's all these myths
you hear that he grew up in-- he always said, I am
the son of a poor miner and I come from peasant stock. He was kind of blowing smoke
the way politicians do. They want to try
to tell you they come from these humble roots. But the reality is his
roots were not that humble. He was exaggerating
a little bit. His father was not a poor miner. His father was an ambitious
successful businessman in the mining business. Now, he owned four smelt works. In the mining-- these
were-- he was a businessman. So Luther was raised
with some money, and they weren't
wealthy or nobility, but he had everything. They lived in a big house. Archeology was done--
and all this stuff-- I love finding new stuff,
because again-- people said, we've heard this
story a million times. What can you tell us new? Well, what's new
is in 2003 and 2008 they did all this archeology
at his childhood home, and they discovered
that his childhood home was three times as big as
they had thought for 500 years. So he was raised in not
exactly the lap of luxury, but this was not
a peasant's home. He went to the finest schools. His father, being an
ambitious businessman, wanted his brilliant son
to go to the best schools, and to go to the university,
study law, and then come home to Mansfeld and
work in the family business. They needed a brilliant
lawyer to work with them and they put him on this path. They could never go to college,
so they said, it's on you. So the problem is that Luther
grew up at a time when, as I said, with the baptism-- salvation and the fear
of Hell was so real that while he is away from
home, at these schools, he's meeting people and
experiencing things. And I think more than
if he'd been at home, he's thinking about
eternal matters. Now his parents were Christians,
but I think that wherever he was that he had
the freedom, as being a very sensitive brilliant
young man, to be thinking about this stuff. And I think it
was eating at him. And by the time he goes to
law school he's 22 years old. His father sacrificed
everything. I think things come to a head. And he has heard of
some people dying, and on their
deathbed saying, you know I wish I hadn't
done this or that. I wish I'd gone
into a monastery. I wish I had given everything
to God because now I'm facing eternity and I'm scared. Because in those
days, they didn't see God as a loving father, or
they didn't think about Jesus as our loving brother-- elder brother in the
faith who died for us. They thought of God
almost exclusively as a fearsome unpleasant
judge, almost licking His lips to cast you into Hell. Well, we know that's the Devil. That is not God, OK? God is doing anything He can
including dying on the cross-- the only thing that
he did in history-- to save us. But Luther was not
living in a world where that was being preached
or thought about very much. So by the time he
gets to law school he's like, I don't
know what to do. I don't know what to do. And he decides to go
into the monastery. It's a kind of a
crazy story, involves a thunderstorm and a horse-- and you're going to have to
read about it, but it's nuts. And the bottom line is this was
against his father's wishes. But he said I cannot
take a chance. He was scared of
obeying his father and going to Hell forever. And so he does this against
his father's wishes. And he gets into the
monastery, and what happens in the monastery? Well-- he realizes
that, if I have to earn Heaven, which was
the basic way of thinking, that means I have got
to pray constantly. I've got to fast constantly. I've got to deny
myself every pleasure. I have to confess every
sinful thought, otherwise, any sinful thought
can drag me to Hell unless I confess it to a priest. Not to God-- to a priest,
who'll officially absolve me. And if he doesn't officially
absolve me, I go to Hell. So, if you're a sensitive
soul, and you take this very seriously, you
will not be happy. And so he was miserable trying
to please God-- trying to earn his way into the favor of God. We all know that if you try to
earn your way into the favor of God, you're nuts. You will never earn your
way into the favor of God. You are by definition
a Hell-bound sinner separated from God
by an infinite gulf that you can never cross. You can never bridge. If you try, you will fail. Now if you know that-- that's good because
it means that you say, well it's hopeless. I guess I'm going to
have to ask God for help. I can't do it. The moment you realize
that is the moment you can be saved because you
realize, Lord I can't do it. Help me. And the Lord says, well
I've been waiting for that. And I literally died to help
you, and I'm dying to help you, and I will help you. And he brings us
into His presence, carries us the infinite
distance, bridges the Gulf. And that's the good
news of Jesus Christ. We can't do it. He knows we can't do it. The devil knows we can't
do it, and God says, I volunteer to do it for you. Now if you say, well Lord, let
me just help a little bit-- that's really stupid. That's like a guy says, OK,
there's an infinite debt, and you say, let me just
get a little part of that. And he says well, no, the Lord
has covered the infinite debt-- and the tip-- so there's
nothing you can do. And you say, well-- but I
just want to offer my-- well, a billion added to
infinity equals infinity. You've added nothing. Once you understand
you can't do anything to earn your way into
the presence of God-- to earn the love of God-- you have wisdom. Because you realize
God says, I love you so much now that for you to try
to earn my love is insulting. I literally died for you, now,
in the worst sinful condition you're in. I love you with
an infinite love. Now, if you don't believe
that, you are going to say, I've got to do something. I've got to do something. So Luther spends his
life praying and fasting and confessing like
a maniac, driving his father confessor insane. The father confessor,
Johannes von Staupitz, is a figure in the book-- wonderful man. Very much a father
figure to Luther, trying to-- seeing what
Luther's going through. How he's tortured and brilliant
and passionate and intense. And he sees that he's
not finding peace. And he says to him,
do you hate God, or you think God hates you? God loves you. But Luther could not get this. So he would come
in, and he thought, I've got to confess every sin. And he would
confess things like, on Tuesday I prayed for five
hours, and at the end of it, I had a flicker of pride for
having prayed for five hours. And that flicker of pride
will pull me into Hell, so I confess it. And you can imagine von
Staupitz like rolling his eyes and thinking, I am tired. Do you mind? We've been here for hours. Bring me something--
he actually says, I quote all this in
the book, he actually says to Luther, only half
joking, bring me a serious sin. Bring me adultery or murder
or otherwise get out. I'm a busy man. Luther was just
driving him insane with every random thought. Confessing, confessing. And he understood
that Luther is never going to find peace this way. He's trying to earn
the peace of God, and if you try that,
folks, you will fail. And Luther was failing. So Luther had another idea. He said since this
is not working, I wonder if some
place in the Bible there is the key-- the golden
key-- that I'm looking for. The cure for what ails me. Now, people had not
read the Bible up to this point for
many, many centuries. Obviously, the
printing press was not invented until the
1450s, and Luther's at the monastery in
1505, so having Bibles was not a normal thing. And the Catholic church of
that day did not have Bibles, and they didn't read the Bible. They would use the Bible as
a text to create commentaries on the Bible. So you would study
the commentaries, and you'd study commentaries
on the commentaries. But actually studying
the Bible was not done. The Bible had been
translated by Jerome-- St. Jerome-- 1,200 years
earlier into Latin, and they had the Latin
Vulgate, and that was the official church
translation in Latin. Well, Luther was
living in a time, and I go into this in the
book-- this idea of humanism, this intellectual trend
was coming out where-- because of the fall of
Constantinople in 1453, all these Greek
scholars had come out, and suddenly they
were revivifying the ancient languages. And people began to read ancient
texts, including the Bible, in the original language. So Luther jumps
on this and starts studying the actual
Bible, digging into it like a man looking for the
cure to a fatal disease, saying, if I don't
find it I will die. And Luther felt,
if I don't find it, I will die the second death. I will never be in
the presence of God. I need to find it. And so he obsessively reads
through the Scriptures. Now he was a super
brilliant Bible reader. And he dug and dug, and he
taught Bible at the University. And at some point, around
1517, he comes on the big text that we identify with Luther. He reads Romans 1:17-- he reads this verse that he'd
never really understood before. It says "For in the gospel
the righteousness of God is revealed as it is written 'The
just shall live by faith.'" And it finally strikes him,
I've been doing it all wrong. It is only by faith that
I can apprehend God. And by faith, I
get the free gift of the righteousness of God. I can't become righteous
on my own, it's useless. But God, who is
holy and righteous, gives me the free gift-- the gospel, the good
news-- is that he gives it to me as a gift. I mean imagine somebody
gives you a gift, and you go, hey let me just give
you $5 for that. That's insulting, is it not? It's insulting. He understands this
is a gift from God. The love of God and the
righteousness of God are given to me, and all I need
to do is believe that-- and the word says it-- and it's imputed to
me as righteousness. I am free. I am saved. Game over. I don't need to climb and claw
and work and pray, I'm saved. It's over. And then when you
appreciate that gift and you apprehend it by
faith, you accept the gift-- now you can do all
kinds of good works. But it's-- the motivation is
gratitude to the God who gave you this free gift. It's not trying
to earn His love. You say, I can't earn His
love, He gave it to me. I'm already bathed in his love. But now that I know that,
I want to bless Him. I want to love people with
the love with which He has loved me. I want to help the poor. I want to feed the hungry. I want to do every
good thing out of the joy and the gratitude
of this free gift of grace which I have apprehended
only by faith. Wow. This changes Luther's
life, obviously. It changes everything. He understands that he
was in dead religion. Even Christianity can
be dead religion-- where you think there's
something I've got to do, there's something
I've got to do. There is nothing you
can ever do except accept the love and the gift
of grace and righteousness that God gives to you. All you can do is that and
when you accept the gift, you're home free. Folks, that's the good news. Now, what-- amen. Now imagine living in a
world where nobody gets this. Imagine living in a world
where nobody gets this. They have-- because of
tradition over centuries-- built this up where
it's sort of about do this, and don't do this,
and do this, and don't do this. There's a lot of Christians
today living like that, and I'm not talking
about Catholics. I'm talking about good people
who have a false idea of this. All you think about is
how they're sinners. They're sinners. They forgot about that. Yeah, God knows them. The devil knows that. They know that. And God took care of it. If you forgot that
He took care of it, you're forgetting the
most important part. We can be trapped in
dead religion and living in fear and fear and fear. It's a free gift. But once Luther experiences
this, and he sees other things, the famous moment-- the reason
we celebrate 500 years this month, in fact in
nine days from today-- is that it's the day he nails
the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg Cathedral. That's the moment. And it's related-- but not that
directly related-- basically, on a sort of side issue, Luther
notices that in the Catholic church at this time, they're
doing this thing where they preach indulgences where
people are throwing money into the coffers of the church
and buying these certificates-- kind of
get-out-of-jail-free cards-- and it was creating this kind
of corrupt, cynical world. And Luther said, as a priest,
this is not good for the flock. This is not good for the sheep. As a theologian, I need to tell
my superiors what is going on. Now, this is related to the
works / righteousness stuff that I was just talking
about, but it starts out with the specific
thing of indulgences. And Luther does not shake
his fist at the church, and you know-- we get
this image of him, which I hope I clear
all this up in my book-- we have all these mythical
ideas about Luther. He was a humble monk,
a humble man of God, wanting to say in the
humblest way to his superiors, we have a problem. We need to examine this problem. So why don't we have
a theological debate? That's what we theologians
do in the university. So, in Latin, I'll write
up these 95 Theses, I'll post it on the church
door-- which, by the way, was only the local
bulletin board. He wasn't trying to be
like a big shot by saying, I'm going to put it
on the church door. The church door was
the bulletin board. Once you realize that, it
doesn't seem so heroic, right? It's kind of like sneaking
down to the laundry room and tacking something up. It had all the heroic
quality of that-- he's just putting it
on the bulletin board. But, in retrospect, we act
like it was this brave moment. It was not. But, in retrospect,
we realize that when he did that it
blew everything up. It led to trouble. People said, who does he think
he is, criticizing indulgences? And they threw mud at him,
and he threw some mud back. He defended himself, and it
turned into a conflagration that consumed all of Europe. This humble monk
never intended that. He never intended to break
away from the church. This was the only
church he knew. He never intended to
start another church. Never. But because of the
way things blew up-- more and more
Luther was attacked. He tries to defend himself. In defending himself, he
says more dramatic things, and it just got out of control. And eventually, in
1521, at the grotesquely named Diet of Worms-- remember that from high school? The diet of-- I don't mean the food,
I'm talking about the-- it was on the test. If there was anything
about Luther on the test it was the phrase
"Diet of Worms," right? Worms-- Worms was
a city in Germany, and Luther was called to
go to the city of Worms to face the music. The pope had sent
a representative. The Holy Roman Empire
was represented by the emperor, Charles,
and all of the nobles, and they're there to hear
this man defend himself. Four years into this
insanity-- where the whole world is talking about
these ideas, and this is not, as I said, intentional
on Luther's part-- he felt himself dragged
into this controversy. So, suddenly he's there,
and they say to him-- because they're trying
to crush this dissent-- things have gotten out of hand. And they're trying to say
to him, excuse me, shut up. Right? Not excuse me, what
did you mean by that? How can we help you? It's excuse me, you-- shut up. Recant what you said, and
we'll let you walk out of here. But if you don't, you
will be taken to Rome and burned at the stake. So Luther has an
opportunity to walk away. And it reminds me of my
friend Chuck Colson-- I write about him in
my book Seven Men. He was given a plea
bargain at Watergate, and they basically said
to him, look, look, look-- you want to
avoid jail time. You've got teenage kids, you
don't want to do jail time. Just sign on this. Just say you did these
things that you didn't do. But you do that, and
you walk out of here. Take the deal, Chuck. You're nuts not
to take the deal. Sign it. And he said, I have a problem-- I'm a Christian. I can't do that. And Luther was in
the same position. He said, I understand
that all I have to do is say, I recant
everything I've said-- sorry, won't happen again--
and I walk out of here. But he felt compelled
by God, not to do that. He felt compelled
by God to demand of them that they show him
where he had made a mistake. He said, if I'm wrong, I
don't want to paper this over. Show me where I screwed up. Show me, and of course,
I will recant and repent. But you have to show me
from the Scriptures-- what did I get wrong? They didn't do that. They said, are these your books? Yes or no? Yes. Do you recant what you've
written in these books? Yes or no? He said, how can I
recant what I've written? I've written many good
things in these books. Show me what it is
that I've gotten wrong. Show me. They weren't going to do that. They wanted just
to say, shut up-- bow before the authority of
the church and everything will be fine. And he says, I can't do that. And the famous line is "Here
I stand, I can do no other." You want me to recant. Unless you show me
from the Scriptures-- here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen. He cast himself on
the mercy of the Lord. Now that's a good
thing to do, folks-- because we serve a merciful
God, and if somebody wants to burn you at the stake
or behead you, that is nothing. That is nothing. Serving God and being
in His presence forever and ever and ever-- if you
have a hint of what that is, nothing in this world
can compare to it. Luther did not fear what
they could do to him. He said, I fear God. I fear the truth. I want to represent
what is true. What about all those
people depending on me? God's going to hold
me responsible. All those people-- I have to speak the truth. So he spoke the
truth, and this is one of the watersheds in
the history of the world, and again-- it's why I wanted
to write this book-- when you appreciate what happened in
that room, it is mind-blowing. Now, he was not killed,
and that's complicated. I won't go into it because
we don't have the time, but his local prince contrives
to have him secretly kidnapped, and that is where
the story gets crazy. He's kidnapped. He goes-- he wears a disguise,
all kinds of crazy stuff happens, which I won't go into. But I will tell you
that he survives. And as a result of
that, the gospel was allowed out of its cage
into the world in a way that it had never been before. And this is not to say that
the gospel didn't exist before Luther, God forbid. But it had been sort of
hidden and forgotten. Luther rediscovers it in
a way that he brings it into the world, not just
so that we can get saved, but so that we who get saved
can then take that gospel and do every good thing
imaginable in the world in gratitude to
the God of mercy. So bringing the good
news to people who haven't heard the good news-- bringing food to those
who have no food-- doing all those
things, the gospel frees us to bring justice
and truth and life. Slavery would never
have been abolished in the United States of America,
if not for born-again Jesus freaks who believed we're all
created in the image of God. Where do you think
the idea came from? Secular people? Church people? Born-again Jesus freaks who
believed in the word of God said slavery is an
abomination, and we don't care what has been going
on for thousands of years. It needs to end. That is the gospel of Jesus
Christ freed into history. And the gospel of Jesus
Christ, like the leaven that-- it leavens
the whole lump. It goes through and
through and through and it doesn't end
until the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Earth kiss,
and history ends and we're in the presence of God forever. That's what the gospel
is supposed to do. And so, folks, we get
to be a part of that. And there's nothing more
extraordinary than the idea that we would get to be a
part of what God is doing. He loves you so
much that he invites you to be a part of what
he is doing in history. Luther is a huge
piece of that, and I have to tell you if he had not
had the courage and the faith to stand when he stood-- I have no idea how it
would have gone down. But the Lord calls each of us
to stand in our small circles stand with the joy
and the peace of God and what he can do
through you is infinite. It will touch eternity
if you give it to Him. Let me pray. Father God, we love you. We praise you. We thank you for the good
news of Jesus Christ, which we do not
deserve, but which you in your infinite
mercy and grace and love have given to your children
whom you love so much. You died for every one of us. Lord give us the gift of
faith to appreciate that, to accept it, to live it out
in every moment of our lives, with every calorie of
energy, with every penny, with everything we
have every second to live in gratitude to
you for what you have done. We declare you King of
kings and Lord of lords, we love you, Jesus. Use us and our
generation to your glory. Amen. Thank you for joining
us for this teaching by our special
guest Eric Metaxas. If this message impacted
you, we'd love to know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
