October 29, 2017 Reformation 500 Sermon

To Reform is to Form Again

The Luther Rose with notes

Central to the Christian life is faith in Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). The BLACK CROSS declares: “God made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Corinthians 5:21).

This is set against the background of a RED HEART indicating that Jesus shed His blood out of His great love for you and all sinners. And it is not only Jesus’ heart, but the Father’s own heart. Jesus is “the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the exact image of His own nature” (Hebrews 1:3).

Flowering from the Father’s love in Christ Jesus, is the WHITE ROSE indicating that you have been washed clean and made white “in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). By Christ’s atonement you have “neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, but are holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).

The GREEN PETALS remind us that the life given by the Holy Spirit “grows in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 1:21). For the Living God now lives in you by the Holy Spirit of Christ, so that “the life I now live, I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20).

The rose is set against the backdrop of HEAVENLY BLUE because we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13); and “being justified by His grace, we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).

All this is RINGED IN GOLD because “according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Crosstalk: Reformation 500 - It's Still About Jesus

On the last day of this month the world will be observing the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany.

This was not an unusual event. Wittenberg was a University town, and the door of the church was the town bulletin board. As a professor, Luther was merely posting a notice about a public debate that he wanted to have.

As history unfolded, this simple act set off a chain reaction that would change the world. Ever since, Luther has been known as “the Reformer.” But on that day, he didn’t think of himself as a reformer, but simply as a pastor. He didn’t want to change the world, but just to help clear up some confusion for his students and members of his parish.

That’s the way God works. Usually, our grandiose plans to change the world fizzle. But when we aren’t looking to change the world, just humbly hoping just to change ourselves, God moves mountains. That’s why we should never be frightened at the world’s overwhelming evils.

“We are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world” (Ephesians 6:12). True, this is all too powerful for us. But Satan is not too powerful for Jesus.

The blasphemies of our time will not be defeated by stepping up our game to fight them. But neither should they cower us into silence. While we have no power of our own, the simple Word of God can, and will, defeat even the strongest lie.

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, is a hymn that Luther wrote which has become a sort of anthem of the Reformation. The profound words of its third verse teach us a calm resolve, even in the face of the most frightful and satanic opposition.

“Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us. We tremble not. We fear no ill. They shall not overpower us. This world’s prince may still scowl fierce, as he will, he can harm us none. He’s judged. The deed is done. One little word can fell him.”

The last words of this stanza point to the reason we can be so calm. It’s not because we are strong enough to take on Satan. It’s because Jesus is. More than that, it’s because Jesus has put all of His divine power into the simple Word of God.

Since the Word of God is the only effective power against the devil’s lies, Satan can only win if we don’t speak God’s word. That’s why he fights so furiously to silence it.

Sometimes he fights openly by threatening Christians and churches with death, persecution, legal trouble, or unpopularity if they speak it. Other times he fights secretly by tempting Christians and churches to substitute the wisdom of man for the Word of God. In either case, we are quickly overwhelmed.

All this Luther summed up in the second stanza.

“With might of ours can naught be done. Soon were our loss effected. But for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected. Ask ye, ‘Who is this?’ Jesus Christ it is, of Sabaoth Lord, and there’s none other God. He holds the field forever.”

The Reformation was about Jesus. It was never about personal freedom, or conscience, or political rights, etc., etc. It was about a bold and confident trust in the simple Word of God, who has become a Man for us. It is still about Jesus.

Freetown, Sierra Leone Disaster

Rev. Lawrence Kamanda

Dr. Hein has received word from one of our students, Rev. Lawrence Kamanda (Grace Lutheran Church, Freetown).

Concerning the devastation of the recent mudslides and flooding in Freetown, last Monday, August 14th. Members in all of the Lutheran Churches in Freetown were affected. 325 members have lost their homes, 16 members have lost their lives; and one congregation experienced 8 members’ deaths.

Donated funds will be handled by appropriate officials of the LC-MS Disaster Response to make sure the funds are responsibly handled and go directly to those individuals and families affected by the disaster for whatever they need: for temporary shelter, food, clothing, and medical supplied. etc.




Please remember these saints in your prayers, and consider a donation on the web site below. You may earmark it for mudslide relief.

Operation Pastoral Education West Africa (Where Pastor Lange taught last September)
LCMS Disaster Response

CrossTalk: The Sun Was Darkened

The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion speak of a three-hour period of darkness while Jesus hung on the cross. St. Luke writes, “It was about the sixth hour (noon), and darkness was over the whole land until the ninth hour (3:00pm), while the sun’s light failed.” (23:44-45).

At first, this sounds like a solar eclipse. But you should notice that several details don’t fit an eclipse. For one, the total eclipse will only last for two and a half minutes. That’s a far cry from the three hours described in the Gospel. Even the partial phase will last for less than the three hours.

Even more telling, eclipses happen because the moon is in the sky during the day-time, and was back-lit by the sun. We call this the “new moon” phase, and it is opposite of the “full moon” phase, when the moon is in the night sky, and is front-lit by the sun. These two phases of the moon occur about 15 days apart. They cannot happen on the same day.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was crucified during the feast of the Passover, which always occurred at the full moon of the Jewish month of Nissan. In other words, it is utterly impossible for an eclipse to occur during the Passover festival because the moon is on the wrong side of the world to block out the sun.

All of this leads us to realize that whatever happened to the sun’s light during Christ’s crucifixion cannot be explained as a solar eclipse. It must have been something else that caused “the sun’s light to fail.”

Outside of the Bible, in 52 AD, a pagan Roman historian also seems to have seen and written about the crucifixion darkness. We don’t have this book anymore (at least we haven’t found it yet). But the later historian, Africanus, apparently had it in hand when he wrote, “Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away the darkness [at Jesus’ death] as an eclipse of the sun—unreasonably as it seems to me.”

Even though Thallus didn’t know enough astronomy and history to rule out an eclipse, he couldn’t deny the darkness that his eyes saw. Africanus also quoted a Greek historian, Phlegon, who witnessed the same darkness.

“In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e., AD 33) there was ‘the greatest eclipse of the sun’ and that ‘it became night in the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.’”

Note that Phlegon connects the darkness with a great earthquake. The coincidence of these two events matches the Bible’s account perfectly. “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” (Matthew 27:51).

Notice, too, that Phlegon seems to be writing from Bithynia, which is about a thousand miles north of Jerusalem. No eclipse could explain that. The moon is simply not large enough to cause a swath of total darkness a thousand miles wide.

This raises a question about how large was the area that was darkened on Good Friday. It seems clear that it was more than just Jerusalem and Judea, but also Rome, Athens, and Nicaea. Is it possible that the darkness covered the entire earth? We have not yet found any historical sources saying so, but the possibility is certainly there.

What is, however, certain and beyond all doubt is that Jesus’ suffering and death covers all the earth. His cross is the true light of the world, the source of true illumination to every tribe and tongue and place and time.

Whatever we see by the light of the cross, we see more clearly and more brightly than we can ever see by the light of the sun. “I am the light of the world. He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Judge Ruth Neely Appeals to the Supreme Court

Issues Etc. radio interview: An Appeal to the Supreme Court by a Wyoming Judge Removed for Her Beliefs on Homosexual Marriage – Pr. Jonathan Lange, 8/17/17

Peer Pressure and Faith in College:

Six Tips to Immerse Yourself in Campus Church Life

As a Christian and a student at a liberal, secular university, I can say that the peer pressure to conform to non-Christian beliefs and values is staggering. The general atmosphere that surrounds many colleges and universities in the US is the belief that a student, no matter their background, should attend college with an open mind to new ideas. This seems great; on the outside, an open mind is presented as a belief that could only lead to an improved lifestyle. However, this belief leads some Christians to innocently question why they believe what they do, and then to a stronger, more assertive reason not to believe the same thing they did when they first came to college.

It begins as soon as you get to the dorms. Making friends can be difficult. You’re at a new school, and you might not know anyone there. Unfortunately, it is especially difficult when the majority of students seem to be participating in activities that you were told were wrong: underage drinking, drugs, and sexual activity—right in the room, down the hall, or on the floor where you live. They also invite you to participate, and no one is there to tell you it’s wrong anymore. What’s the harm? More than the fact that two-thirds of the activities mentioned above are illegal, (and that they also go against God’s law), it can affect your school performance. You’re at school to learn, and partying the nights away with friends can lead to extremely unproductive semesters. I’ve known people who have had to drop out of school because of this.

Beside the new friends you make, there’s the ever-present idea that what your parents believed was old fashioned, counterintuitive, and hateful. Being a Christian often means disagreeing with the common views on campus, such as social or political views, or controversial topics such as same-sex marriage and abortion. Speaking against those topics can lead to many heated arguments—and the loss of “friends.” It seems as if open discussion is only encouraged when you agree with the socially acceptable viewpoints.The important thing to remember is that disagreements are never going to be easy, and you’re not going to please everyone.

1 Peter 2:9 says, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” God calls us to proclaim his Word! Just because you’ve now moved away from home and no one is there to push you to attend church doesn’t mean your own self-discipline should slip. Believe me, it’s just as easy to skip class as it is to skip out on church on Sunday mornings. Many campuses, or the surrounding cities or towns, will have a Lutheran church that you should be able to join. In fact, look for a church home at www.lcms.org/LCMSU. Here are six tips you can try to immerse yourself in the campus church life:

1. Go to Bible studies during the week.
2. Attend mid-week events, such as social activities with other students.
3. Complete service activities with your church group at the local food banks or shelters.
4. Take a weekend to go to a conference or listen to a speaker to strengthen your faith.
5. Volunteer your time at the campus church center—help with whatever tasks that may need to be done!
6. Join a leadership group or committee to help with service projects, funding, and outreach.

If your campus church doesn’t have some of the suggestions listed above, talk with your pastor about how you can help your church become more involved.

    Leaving the faith isn’t an instant change.  It starts gradually...

Leaving the faith isn’t an instant change. It starts gradually; it may start with your new friends’ snide remarks and activities. Perhaps, as you go to class, you may notice that some of the professors you look up to don’t agree with Christianity, and you may wonder if you’ve been wrong this whole time. You might decide to skip church one week because of a big test on Monday, and then at the end of the semester you look back having never entered the sanctuary.

Don’t let peer pressure or the effects of college affect your faith. If you find that you’re struggling to maintain a consistent Christian mindset, call your parents or your pastor back home. Join a Lutheran campus ministry and become involved. I know it can be difficult, but keep up the faith in college. Don’t let the devil tempt you with short-term results and dead-end promises. Remember also that you are a child of God, and that you will always find forgiveness in Christ. Stand up for what you believe in. Let Jesus be your light, and seek Him in all that you do.

Charlea Schueler

Charlea Schueler is an intern at Concordia Publishing House. She attends Illinois State University where she is double majoring in Public Relations and Music. In her free time, Charlea enjoys playing her violin, reading, and creative writing.

Reposted from The CPH Blog: The Word Endures