Sermon Tone Analysis

Storytime

Imagine going into church on Sunday...

You would pay homage to icons of the saints, bowing and kissing their paintings or statues.

Carl & I would be your presiding priests, seen as your conduit to God.

If you wanted God’s blessing and salvation you had to come through us.

We might not even be able to read, we just learned the service incantations off by heart.

The service would be in Latin (which you didn’t understand)

You would only get the bread (wafer) in communion

There would be no real bible teaching.

You may have got a moralistic guilt trip to do better and try harder so you could go to heaven when you die.

Even though you were a Christian from birth, you believed that you had to be really good and build up your good works like a savings account, and if you were good enough you could go to heaven, otherwise you had to go to purgatory until your old sins were purged out.

This was the state of the late medieval church in Europe:

Christians didn’t have access to the Bible in their own language, either orally or in writing.

They thought they had to work or pay their way into heaven.

They didn’t understand the grace of God.

They thought that dead Christians could help them.

Then God raised up a disparate group of people across Europe.

There were a early voices like John Hus, and John Wycliffe, but they were dealt with early.

Then came along Martin Luther.

In 1517 on October 31 he nailed 95 ideas to the public noticeboard - the church door - in Wittenburg, Germany.

These 95 points, or theses, were things that Luther wanted to debate with other people.

He wanted to have a good discussion and get to the bottom of some of his concerns, namely that the church was trying to sell passes into heaven.

Luther had the opportunity to go back to the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, and the more he studied, the more he saw the traditions and teachings of the church that did not align with God’s word.

But most importantly, he saw the Gospel clearly: that we are saved by grace through Jesus Christ, accessed by faith.

There is nothing anyone can do to save themselves or to add anything to their Salvation.

As Luther discovered these things, he had no intention of creating break away church movements, he wanted to work it through, and then see change from within the church.

There were only two main “denominations” there was the Eastern and the Western church.

We now call them the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic church.

There was no real option of other denominations to join when you discovered bad theology!

So Luther was keen to see the truth of Scripture transform the western church.

But alas it was not to be.

Instead he was exiled, and he had no choice but to preach and teach the Scriptures forming a new branch of the church.

What we call today Lutheran.

While Luther was the big name who started this ball rolling, he was soon joined by many others who went back to the Bible to discover the Gospel for themselves.

Soon there were folks all over Europe throwing off the false teaching of Rome and finding joy in a Gospel of Grace in Jesus Christ.

They translated the Bible enabling common people hear and read God’s word for themselves.

Great men lead this movement, studying the scriptures to see how the Church should be reformed in a way that is pleasing to God.

They include men such as John Knox, John Calvin (lots of Johns!), Ulrich Zwingli and Thomas Cranmer.

Although they were violently opposed, they oversaw a return to the scriptures and a revival of faith across Europe, from England & Scotland, to Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.

Unfortunately there was not much ground gained in Spain, France & Italy.

Nevertheless, this change saw massive social, religious and cultural upheaval, and this Reformation is in part responsible for the wealth that most western nations enjoy to this day.

It is because of the reformation that we stand here today with the Bible in our language, and a clear Gospel of Grace through Jesus Christ accessed by faith alone.

Just as the Jews celebrate the recovery of the Jewish from Antiochus Epiphanes, we clebrate the recovery of the Gospel from Rome.

Disclaimer: We’re not here to lambaste the Roman Catholics, although technically they still hold the opposite position on these solas.

That why we’re still the “protestant” church, we are protesting the bad teaching.

In theory if they gave up these positions we could all come back together again.

Until that day, all ecumenical efforts are futile.

It’s about the crux of the Gospel.

Despite this, I’m sure that there are many believers in the Roman Catholic church who are trusting in Jesus alone for salvation, either in ignorance of the doctrine on the books, or in-spite of the official teaching of their church.

We’re not here to try and drag them down, only to proclaim the truth of the Gospel.

Let’s Continue to Pray for the Reformation of the Roman church, as well as the Eastern churches (e.g.

Greek, Russian, Antiochian Orthodox) who hold some similar positions.

We all stand on the same footing of the Apostles Creed, Nicean Creed and Chalecdonian Creed, but we long for the day when Justification by Faith alone in Christ alone is their cry too.

You might say, “Samuel, this is all interesting historical information, but what does it have to do with us?

Well,

It is important to remember the wonderful providence of God and celebrate his gifts to us,

It is important to know our history, so that we do not fall into the same traps again,

and also, many churches even today have departed from the truths we recovered.

it is just as important as ever to know and stick to the true Gospel.

On all sides there are so-called protestant or evangelical churches who undermine or even reject these important truths.

So for the rest of our time together, I want us to briefly review 5 key elements of biblical truth that were recovered through the Reformation.

Even for us today they are important.

They are 5 Keys to Healthy Faith.

5 Keys to Healthy Churches.

These 5 summary statements are called the “5 Solas”.

They are often written in their Latin versions, but don’t worry!

They are very easy to translate.

In fact kids, I want you to see if you can translate each of the 5 Solas into English for me and come show me at the end of the service.

I’ll be giving you the answers, so try to listen out for each translation!

Sola Scriptura

The First Sola is Scripture Alone - Sola Scriptura.

You will see that each of these Solas is about something standing alone.

Each of these 5 things were being mixed with other stuff, so they are to stand alone, in opposition to something else.

In the case of Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone, the Scriptures are our only source of truth from God.

Scripture alone is the only rule of faith and life.

During the Reformation, and even today, the Roman church asserts that although the scriptures are true and without error, and from God, you need to read the Bible in light of Tradition and what the Pope has said.

It is described like a three legged stool, and you need all three to agree on something before it’s considered solid teaching.

While there is great wisdom in considering the insight of church leadership, and what others have said throughout history, if the Word of God has to be interpreted by special people on your behalf, then it basically means you can’t understand God’s word for yourself.

You are at the mercy of other to hear what God says in His word.

What does the Bible say about itself?

Well it doesn’t say you need a special guild of people to verify what God’s word means!

He stands alone from us, and is able to speak clearly by himself!

Here in Paul’s letter to Timothy we see a few things very clearly:

the Scriptures (in this case, he’s only referring to the OT, because the NT wasn’t finished yet!) are able to make a person “wise for salvation” The scriptures can show us what we need to know to be saved.

The scripture comes from God - it is literally inspired by Him.

It is his word to us.

The Bible is for teaching us how we should live, God equips us for good works through His word.

The Bible itself isn’t our source of Salvation, but it points us to the one who is, Jesus!

Not:

Only source of truth.

The scriptures aren’t trying to be a car manual, or science textbook or a forensic historical account of battles, or a guidebook for 20th century geo-politics.

But everything that God says through the Scriptures is true.

Although it is not a parenting manual, the instructions around parenting are good and right and will lead to our flourishing.

Same goes for money, relationships, work, etc. but don’t treat the Bible like something it’s not trying to be.

Everything is clear - “those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the educated, but the uneducated, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.”

WCF 1.7

Understandable without the HS.

We need to HS to illuminate God’s truth so that we can understand and believe.

Fundamentalism - a “proof text” faith.

There are things that are implied, or need to be deduced from scripture.