This Sunday marks our annual observance of Reformation Day, the commemoration of the nailing of the 95 Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. 491 years have passed since that occasion, and much has changed in the life of the church. For one thing, there are more Lutherans outside of Europe than inside, due to the booming growth of the Lutheran churches in Africa, and the consistent numbers of the Lutherans in North America. But beyond the Lutheran thing, there’s a more important point to consider on this Reformation Day. And that is the reminder of what we’re celebrating, what the Reformation was all about, and why each age needs to continually be reminded and reformed in its own way.
We aren’t celebrating Luther himself, really. He was a decent chap, for the most part, and one who sure wrote enough. I have a fifty-four-volume collection of some of his writings, a seven-volume collection of some of his sermons, a six-volume collection of yet more of his writings, and even more of his writings are being translated into English. That’s nice and fine and good. But I have a more-than-sneaking suspicion that Luther wouldn’t want us celebrating him. In the introduction to one of the collections of his writings published in his lifetime, he expressed a wish that most of his writings would be forgotten and that instead people would simply treasure God’s Word.
What he would want us to celebrate is the freedom from the power of sin, death, and the devil which we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s worth celebrating. He would want us to celebrate this Gospel, the eternal Gospel which the church is given to proclaim, as our reading from Revelation for today pictures. What the Reformation was all about, is the Gospel, the eternal good news that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, alone saves from sin, that His precious death on the cross is enough to make full satisfaction for all sins and to give eternal life to those who believe.
That’s a simple truth, but one which time and again has become beclouded. In Luther’s day, it was the buying and selling of indulgences which was clouding the Gospel. Indulgences were papers signed by the Pope which lessened your time in purgatory. Purgatory itself cannot be found in the Scriptures. Luther realized that the net effect of the sale of indulgences was to generate money for Rome and cause people to doubt in Christ’s sufficiency. So he nailed the 95 theses on the door, hoping to spark a debate and perhaps put an end to some of the abuses which the church of his day was perpetrating.
But it wasn’t the only time in history that the Gospel has become obscured. Already by 20 years after Jesus’ ascension, there were pious Jews who had become Christian who travelled around from church to church, urging the Gentiles to become Jews first. For, in their minds, since God had made the promises to Abraham, it was essential to join the old covenant first before joining the new covenant. In the midst of this situation Paul found it necessary to write the letter to the Galatians, which, in its first chapter, contains these harsh words:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:6-12 ESV)
A little later again, the apostle John found it necessary to warn people of those who were teaching that Jesus wasn’t really a man but a spirit-being:
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. (2 John 1:7-11 ESV)
And a little later again, the Apostle John, from the island of Patmos, received from the Lord to warn the churches against the Nicolaitans, against Jezebel, against all those who were perverting the truth of Jesus and putting their own opinions or spiritual idea where the Gospel alone ought to be.
Throughout the history of the church, this problem of putting something other than the eternal Gospel in the centre has come up time and again. False teachings about who Jesus is and what He has done have arisen over and over again. The Reformation was certainly not the first time that people needed to be reminded of the eternal Gospel, and it certainly won’t be the last time.
For after the Reformation more new ideas kept coming in, more false teachings, needing to be fought off by the power of the Gospel. Jesus was only a man, some taught. Jesus is just another manifestation of the Father, others taught. Jesus’ death only partly saves you, the rest is up to your holy living, yet others taught. Jesus never rose from the dead, but his disciples only thought he did, still others taught. Once you’re saved, you don’t need to hear the Gospel anymore but only what God wants you to do. All these teachings came, and still come today, from people who claimed to be Christian. Some even by those claiming to be Lutheran.
And so the church is in constant need of being called back to the Scriptures, back to the plain truth of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour of all, who dies on the cross and rises on the third day. As Reformation people in a Reformation church, we need most of all to continue in the Word—hearing the Word proclaimed in the Divine Service, receiving the Word through the means of Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper, reading the Word in Bible studies and at home, always with the simple and clear message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the centre of it all. The eternal gospel needs always to be heard— the clear proclamation that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died and rose again in order to bring all those who trust in Him back into a right relationship with God the Father.
That eternal gospel needs to go out to every nation, tribe, language, and people. The most recent Lutheran Bible Translators newsletter pointed out that their organization is desiring to add five translators to their team over the next seven years, as there are still nations, tribes, languages and people who have not heard, who do not know Jesus.
Indeed, this eternal Gospel needs to go out in our own community. We have been blessed for over a hundred years to be a congregation of the Lutheran church, to have this eternal gospel to proclaim. And now there are new people moving into our communities, some of whom have never heard the pure eternal Gospel of Jesus. There are new challenges of society and culture and economics which we are confronting, all the questions and difficulties which a person can face in this world—for which we have the eternal gospel to proclaim.
The hour of judgment is coming soon. There are millions and billions of people on this planet who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The Lord’s Gospel needs to go forth, and it starts here, in our own hearts and lives, empowered by the Gospel. When Jesus is your Lord and Saviour, it is only right to put and keep Him first in all things. We need to be faithful in hearing His Word and putting the hearing of His Word above all other priorities in our hearts and lives. We need to return daily to the promises of God in Baptism to find there the strength to live as His people. For if the church needs a constant reformation, a constant renewal and return to the pure Gospel, then that renewal needs to start with the people who are the church, those who have been bought by Jesus’ pure and precious body and blood given and shed for us on the cross, given to us to share as His church in the Lord’s Supper as we do this morning.
Yes, the hour of judgment is coming soon for each of us, but it is not something to fear. Instead, let us fear God and give Him all praise and glory, for His Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, sanctified and kept us in the true faith, in the eternal Gospel, just as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives your sins and the sins of all believers. On the last day He will raise you and all the dead, and give eternal life to you and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.
These words from the Catechism should always be on our hearts and minds. For that is the heart of the Gospel we have to proclaim— your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. You are His own! You will live with Him in eternity. That’s the key to reformation, both in Luther’s day and in our own; not programs, not plans, not organizations and structures, but the simple word of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus alone. God grant that we would ever be reformed by His grace, reshaped into the holy people of His eternal kingdom. In Jesus. Amen.
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