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He went on one of these pilgrimages and he saw these boxes where people could drop coins in write a name and they would get these certificates of forgiveness the indulgences and and he did take part in climbing up those stairs and praying every step, praying, praying, praying and he saw the the church being built and the elaborateness and the opulence that's being put into this church with the money that is being dropped in these coffers and it seemed wrong, it seemed off, something wasn't right here and there was he returned to Germany and there was a there was a traveling priest Tetzel who I don't know about you have you ever tried to scare someone into believing in God? I haven't and I'm going to say please don't fear, fear is not a way to motivate someone to believe fear is a way to motivate someone into being scared trying to earn something or trying to cover all bases you've heard of fire insurance right and Tetzel would go through in order to get money and he would sell indulgences but he would he would set himself like his hand on fire and he would he would say have you ever burned yourself on a on a hot pan or on a hot coal and and people you know of course have have that image they know what it feels like to burn and and he'd say think of your loved one right now who's burning think of them don't you want to pay to help them get out money money money money and he'd have people pay and kept earning and earning and earning money for the church through fear through these false promises and the more Luther saw these abuses the more it really just was wrong he knew it was wrong and he is studying God's word he is a doctor of theology and continues to dive in to God's word and go through it piece by piece by piece and I don't have my Bible right here where is I'm going to grab the Bible really quick open up to Romans chapter one and I think you have to sing it when you open it Romans chapter one okay um Romans chapter one verse 17 it's on page 133 if you have a pure edition of the Bible for in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith as it is written the one who is righteous will live by faith now Martin Luther had always read that as law that we are righteous we have to be righteous in order to be in faith and as he is seeing corruption in the church and as he is you know diving deeper and deeper and deeper in he realizes that the righteousness is not our righteousness earned it's the righteousness given to us earned by Christ and Christ alone and we have that righteousness by faith in Christ that is the salvation the salvation is faith in Christ by grace in Christ and Christ alone and so he sees these abuses of the church he sees these church leaders gaining for themselves property gaining for themselves power gaining for themselves money and he says this is this is not right this is wrong and so he goes to the castle at Vittenburg and he posts on the door the 95 theses we're gonna study those next week but understand it wasn't a grand gesture it wasn't like getting a parade together and saying all right everyone we're taking a stand and they marched around and they nailed this big thing to the wall it wasn't that it was like posting something to Facebook or to a community calendar like hey guys community fellow brothers and sisters we need to talk about this some things are being done in the name of the Pope some things are being named done in the name of the church and I don't think this is good so we should really talk about as a people we're gonna talk about those next week okay so Adam just shared that there's some irony the bishop that pronounced judgment over Janhus Janhus his body is buried under the place where Luther was ordained and Janhus or Janhus I'm just gonna say Janhus but we all know it's different he was the goof and he spoke of the swan that would come and reform the church and the bishop then was under Martin Luther the swan to brought about the the reformation so that's a really fun fact there you go bring it up at parties okay well we will continue on we're gonna dive into the 95 theses we aren't gonna go through every single one but we are gonna go through some important ones and I will look forward to that next week God bless you Good morning. When the church steps in it's in God's hands but at this time it was the church and it was the church people who were demanding the money and who were paying the money and so this is that start of the schism because that is not the true church and really you can say that indeed this does uphold that when the church intercedes it is in God's hands alone because when the church intercedes through reformers such as Martin Luther it is in God's hands and God's hands bring out the full truth of the gospel. Sixty-two the true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God we're going to end on this one because I am almost out of time here but this is beautiful so beautiful that the true treasure treasure of the church is the holy gospel of the glory and grace of God it's not talking that the treasure of the church is the Basilica it's not talking that the treasure of the church is its clergy the treasure of the church isn't its people the treasure of the church is what the church is built upon which is the grace of Jesus Christ his glory his goodness that is the treasure so we're going to we're going to continue we will probably do a little bit more with the 95 Theses next week just a smidge and more but do you see how these these discussion points they weren't they weren't meant to be zingers they weren't meant for anything other than we need to talk about this the Pope needs to know about this can you believe this is happening we need to discuss this and we'll find that that led to a lot of trouble for Martin Luther and for his cohorts in the Reformation so we will continue with this next week um I think I think next week our topic is the history or the historical significance of the Reformation so we're going to look not only at the significance within the church but then how it really began to shape even the world around it okay I will see you next week and god bless Let's open in prayer. Well it matters we know that one of the things that happened was Luther standing up for God's word and standing up for the truth of both his law and his gospel it really was the push that others needed others who were not happy with the church at large and saw the corruption also in their own countries it really pushed that ability for others who saw the need for reform to bring reform into their own countries into their own cities and so we saw a lot of ripple throughout Europe and then throughout the world where there was a lot of reform so if you think about it we had the church right we had the church then we had the Roman church and the Eastern Orthodox church so we had this split which if you study the Eastern Orthodox church that just like the Roman church turned Protestantism in the oh my goodness with the reformation so there are some ups and downs some bumps and trials within the Eastern Orthodox religion as well and there are splits that happened there as well as so they've got denominations within the church there too so then we so we had those then then within the Western church all of a sudden after the reformation that's where we see a lot of different branches or denominations within the Christian faith start to really take off and others was really interesting there was a study done and it said that it estimates or estimations show that there are more than 200 Christian denominations in the US and a staggering 45,000 globally according to the center for the study of global Christianity so one of I would say one of the problems with coming out of the reformation and the split with so many denominations is that just like anything that is good can go wonky you think about it there are denominational splits throughout history over just arguments nothing theological just an argument and then there are theological arguments also that lead to splits and denominations but there was one one colleague or cohort of mine in seminary who talked about a small town I believe is in Colorado a small town in Colorado that you walk down the street and there's church after church after church after church and how those how those churches came to be was that this family and this church was angry with this family of this church so then they were going to go ahead and start this church and so that entire town was infested with anger churches right so so there can be some issues and and so out of the reformation then you have people like Zwingli in Switzerland who who wants to reform is inspired by Luther and but then he does not like what Luther which Luther is saying no we're basing we're pulling everything all of our theology is coming out of scripture and and so then there's this big split over the Lord's Supper over communion and and and that's where and infant baptism we get a big split out of that and then you've got the anabaptists running out and and coming out of that and so there are a lot of splits in the Christian church that came out of the reformation which was not started with the intention of splitting the church at all it was started with the intention of being unified in scripture but then man gets involved and we go right so so that is how we have so many so many split so many denominations and the reformation really emboldened people and that is it's wonderful but it also has some difficult consequences and and that doesn't take away from the need for the reform it doesn't take away from the power of the reformation and and God's work in it but I think it's important that we see the big picture and and we see what can happen uh when we take over something and so then that leads us to today does the reformation still matter I mean because we have enough denominations we can all almost everyone in the world has access to God's word so does the reformation I mean we're not we're not needing that anymore we're not you know I mean you know are the same benefits the same matters the same uh purpose of the reformation do they does it pertain today yes yes absolutely what came out of the reformation is so important um think of the solace the solace faith alone grace alone word alone if we don't have that in the church that is where we go wonky do and never come back we have to stick and maintain even in our modern church today grace alone faith alone word alone it's vital that we as a Christian people know the word not just know about the word that there is a word but that we know the word looser when he was told to recant um he said unless I am convinced by scripture and plain reason I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils for they have contradicted each other my conscience is captive to the word of God I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe God help me amen we have to go back to God's word over and over and over again it is part of our call as God's sheep to know the shepherd and how do we know the shepherd Jesus tells us my sheep know my voice and we have God's voice speaking to us from his word that is where we know the shepherd and so that word alone that solar scriptura out of the reformation is absolutely vital for us to hold onto the reformation really opened up to us to all of the Christian church the word which is the grace of God it is the holiness of his law and it is the grace of his mercy the promise of life for us and one of the um we'll call it a bugaboo one of the bugaboo's that I have as a pastor as a Christian as a mom as a person with kind of the Christian church at large is that we like it easy we like life easy we like life convenient and so we take that love of convenience that love of easy and we bring it right into our faith lives and we don't invest and I don't mean like a stock market investing right I mean like we don't invest in knowing the truth of God's word and so we'll pick up a book that says this is from a pastor but it's from a pastor who denies the Trinity so that's not a Christian book or we pick up a devotional book that claims these are new words of Jesus Christ but God in various and old ways spoke to people of old by the prophets but now in these last days he has spoken to us by his word that is not this devotional the word is complete in the Bible that we have been given and so we can't exchange the fullness of God's word for for a variety of feel good or self-empowered theology this is where the reformation is so vital for us today and we are all we are all in the sermon today we talk about the the talents that God gives us and and the generosity and and he gives to each of his servants according to their ability we are not all called to the same to the same place right we are not all called if we were all called as preachers then we are all going to be talking over each other right but we are all called as the sheep to know our shepherd and to know him intimately he already knows us intimately and so we are called to know him and called to know him better and we do that by diving in to his word and so so okay so um so what I want us to take out of this study from the reformation I mean it's a great historical study it's fascinating to know how things move shift change um so that's just from a historical perspective that's a fun study to do but it also has a practical study for us or a practical purpose application for us today as Christians we are called to dig in to study to not only know about God but to know God and we do that by digging in by diving in to our bibles and not everything in the Bible is going to be easy to um to discern but we have a long history of church fathers of theologians who will walk with us through those passages we have certain passages in scripture that are difficult but we know that it's there for a reason and that's why we turn to good sound foundational sources we first look to scripture to interpret scripture and then we look to solid theologians to help us to walk with us um pastor eyeball myself Steve David we are here also to walk with you um and as you know I mean I'm more than happy to jump in and study if I don't know something it's fun um we have uh the small catechism what a great place to start the small catechism just very basic explanations very very basic guidance with God's word and with our Christian beliefs we have small groups and there are small groups that are doctrinally founded there are small groups that are um on biblical studies biblical Bible or biblical books we have um different Bible studies for men and women for kids and have you ever heard that the best way to learn is to teach okay so think about someone someone in your life who needs to be taught who can be taught who can you teach because we all have at least one person in our life that need grace alone faith alone word alone and as Christ's disciple that is our call to know our shepherd and then to share it so that his flock continues to grow and be called to him so I hope that you understand the significance of the reformation um not only in history but uh but really in our lives even today and does anyone have any questions or thoughts yes yeah yeah yeah can I explain what we mean by grace alone word alone faith alone so um yes absolutely so so with the early church um in in Catholicism bless you um we had uh it was a matter of I needed to do in order to have righteousness and um and so we are not made righteous and we are not saved by anything that we do but it is only by the grace of God that we are saved it is only by the grace of God that we are called into faith and that faith in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior saves us and so we find that it is through God's word alone that um that we are led that we are taught that we are saved that we are um that we know God and because there were even just in the very first early church with the Apostles there was a um uh uh uh the judyisers who were saying you know yes we are saved by grace saved by faith plus by doing this by doing these works by maintaining these ceremonies by keeping up with this law of the Jewish law this you know this mosaic law does that make sense? okay yes does it make sense now okay good yes so it's not anything we do it's not anything we can do um it is it is God and God alone which is really hard even for us who say face alone grace alone word alone that alone can be a real tricky thing because um we are all about together we are all about how do I get to pitch in um and what do I need to do in order to gain this this or this right so this is emptying ourselves of our pride um emptying ourselves of thinking that we have anything to offer because we don't not in matters of salvation huh no oh goodness we really no we don't so there is so okay so this is getting into um decision theology where there is a synergistic indecision theology there is an idea that there is a synergistic um happening in our salvation that we have a part to play but if we have any part to play at all then why can't we do most of it or all of it there's um the Mormon church teaches that um that we are saved by grace after we've done everything else that we can so that's still a synergistic and and that's a whole different Mormonism is not a Christian non-denomination we can go there another time but um so then but but this is a monogistic salvation that Christ and Christ alone saved us polygianism or semi-pollegianism is um is the idea that that we are born with that little spark of goodness that we can do something um to earn you know or we can participate with God in our salvation but we can't scripture is very clear that we are born as enemies of God we are born with evil in our heart that we are intent on um on I'm trying to be polite about this but it's like um it's like shove off God I mean right that is that is kind of that is how we are born we are born not wanting to seek God we are born blind to God and in his grace and his mercy he calls us through his gospel we hear both his law convicting us showing us our sin and we hear his promise of salvation so God calls us to himself if Eeson says it is not by our own work it's a gift from God we are called to him and so we respond when Lazarus was called out of the tomb of death he didn't have to sit in there covered going I hear Jesus calling me should I get up right no he hears that and I don't I'm honestly not trying to be like snarky at all like he hears that called Lazarus come out Lazarus live by my word by my calling and Lazarus comes out there isn't a choice now once we are called into faith we have choices of matters this side of heaven right but the salvation we do not have a choice in we are called and invited by Christ we don't invite him he has invited us he told his disciples you did not choose me I chose you I have called you and that is the same today it is he who called us yeah yeah right right absolutely so it's it's a reversal of the choice so instead of and I'm hoping I'm going to say this right because I know I got to sort this so instead of like there are some Christian denominations that that say you need to make a choice to follow Jesus and then after that everything becomes under God's will Jesus what shoes should I wear today Jesus what direction should I take at this stop sign right and it's the reverse it's the reverse of that it is I have called you as my child I have made a choice about you you are mine all right I am a Christian which way should I go well this seems right and good to me Lord protect me and you go and it's we have free choice in matters of earthly things this side of heaven this kingdom we have free choice but God has called us so all right I don't know if we have any time for anymore anything else nothing deep okay this has been such a fun study really really fun so I thank you so much for going on a ride through the reformation with me and I'm really excited about pastors numbers class so anyway if you have any other thoughts or questions anything you can always email me and I will eventually get to it all right God bless

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