"And the Doors of Paradise Swung Open"
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Intro
Intro
The last Sunday of October has traditionally been referred to as Reformation Sunday. It will 500 years, this October 31st that Martin Luther posted 95 thesis on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg Germany.
I do want us to understand, that the reformation
That act started the Protestant Reformation. Please know that the Protestant Reformation was not peaceful. There were wars, economic and political up-heavle all across Europe. Many of the most well-known men of the reformation committed horrible acts, in the name of religion. Let be be perfectly clear, by recognizing reformation Sunday we are in no way celebrating or condoning any of the violent and hateful acts committed in the name of the religion. I do not want anyone to get the wrong idea that we are holding up the reformers as blameless saints. Many of them committed cruel and violent acts.
But what I do want to recognize, is that the some of the most essential doctrines of the Christian faith were recovered. For hundreds of years the gospel , the true gospel was hidden, or even twisted. The authority of scripture was second to church tradition, importance and centrality of Jesus Christ was diminished.
But what I do want to recognize that that dark period in history did lead to the recovery of the most essential doctrines of the faith. The reformation led to a recovery of the authority of Scripture, the person and work of Jesus Christ,
As a a Non-denominational Christ Centered Church, I believe it is important that we as Christ-followers recognize and understand the theological ideas that arose as scripture was examined during that period. Today, I want to examine just one of those points, I want to look Justification by faith alone.
Right away if you hear Justification by Faith alone, and you don’t typically speak in theological terms, or if you do not have experience with theology you may tune out with the mention of this term your eyes may glaze over, and you may fall asleep. But please bear with me, because this is one of the most essential points of the gospel.
Before the reformation, the church, that is the Roman Catholic Church really had a pretty clear handle on sin. They had sin figured out. Sin is pretty basic idea, and many of us have it figured out. We know that sin is going against God.
The Catholic Church at that time, like us today, understood the 10 commandments. They, like us, knew the sermon on the mount, and how Jesus called us to holiness. The sin of man was fairly straightforward and it was easily understood.
The church had all kinds of customs and practices to remind the people of their sinfulness. The physical buildings of the churches, and the institute of the priesthood, were very visual reminders of God’s holiness, and man’s sinfulness.
Huge stone cathedrals, stained glass and confessionals made you feel small, and sinful when entering. Everything about them emphasized how big God was and how small and sinful man was. Priests were literally set-apart from laity living separate and celibate lives. This made clear the divide between holy and common as monasteries and convents dotted the landscape.
It was in one of these monasteries, that a Monk named Martin Luther began to worry, really worry. He knew the 10 commandments, he knew the sermon on the mount, He knew such verses as Deuteronomy 6:5.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
He also knew that a Holy and just God, could not allow sin in his presence. So, when he would measure his life up against God’s standard, he would become riddled with anxiety. He could never measure up to God’s standard, somewhere there was always a piece of his heart that he did not offer fully to God.
He was so rattled and fearful of eternity in hell that he would confess his sins for hours on end. Confessing sins that he committed just the day before. He would leave the confessional, and have a thought that wasn’t completely and totally dedicated to the Lord, with all his mind and all his strength, and he would know that he had somehow slipped farther away from God.
Today, we do our own things to justify ourselves so that we do not fall in the trap of Martin Luther. Some people, and scholars have said that perhaps Martin Luther was mentally ill, and that was why he continued to be in fear of constantly being in sin.
But I don’t think so, I think Martin Luther just understood something, that most people fail to recognize. What he understood is that the Bible refers to hell as an eternity, that means with out end. Jesus said, it is where the worms never dies and the fire never goes out.
Martin Luther understood that a Hoy and righteous God could not be in the presence of sin, and because God’s word over and over again speaks of God being completely just, and punishing wrong doers, that He would fall into that category and would be punished in Hell. If all of us thought about it, we would all have anxiety about our sin.
But that is not the only justifying we do, some of us, look at our neighbor and we say, “Yeah maybe I’ve sinned, but I am not as bad that guy over there” The problem with that approach is that your sin is primarily against God, and whether or not someone else is a greater lawbreaker than you does not make you innocent. For instance if you are driving 40 mph in a 30 mph zone. You still break the law even though someone drives by a 45mph. Your sin is in relation to the law of God, not in proportion to your fellow man. So if we really think about, we would be anxiety ridden.
Sometimes we try and justify ourselves by an imaginary scale of wrongs verses rights. For example, we put all our sins on one side of a scale and then we put the right things we do on the other side of the scale, and in the end we hope that the things we have done right out weigh the things we have done wrong. That does not work either. Let me explain.
There is this old joke that went around when I was younger. Suppose you roll a stop a sign you friend in the passenger seat glares at you, and you turn to him and say, “Oh its ok Ill just stop twice tomorrow.” It’s funny because it does not work that way. If you stop at a stop sign everyday for 10 years, than don’t stop at it once, you have still broken the law. It doesn’t matter how many times you have stopped in the past, It is still a crime.
The Roman Catholic Church, in some similar ways, treated sin that way. Let’s look at .
For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
The romans Catholic Church took the original Greek manuscripts and translated them into Latin, and they were using a Latin translation called the Vulgate. When they translated the greek word for righteousness, they did not have a Latin equivalent so they translated it being made righteous. And what the Catholic Church was trying to do was they were trying to made righteous. Luther was trying to be make himself righteous, through the church of Rome. Everything he tried to do prevented that. Even living in a monastery, and paying indulgences, and doing penance. He knew he was still guilty, no matter what he did the crime had still been committed.
Then Luther went back to the scriptures, this time not the Latin but the Greek, and he looked at again, and what the Latin said being made righteous, Paul actually used a greek word that means to be declared righteous, not made righteous.
When Luther discovered this it changed everything. was saying that In the Gospel, which is by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God is revealed to us. We are declared righteous, not with a righteousness of our own but with the righteousness from Jesus Christ, by faith.
Listen to this quote from theologian R.C. Sproul.
But Luther was looking now at the Greek word that was in the New Testament, not the Latin word. The word dikaios, dikaiosune, which didn’t mean to make righteous, but rather to regard as righteous, to count as righteous, to declare as righteous. And this was the moment of awakening for Luther. He said, “You mean, here Paul is not talking about the righteousness by which God Himself is righteous, but a righteousness that God gives freely by His grace to people who don’t have righteousness of their own.”
And so Luther said, “Woa, you mean the righteousness by which I will be saved, is not mine?” It’s what he called a justitia alienum, an alien righteousness; a righteousness that belongs properly to somebody else. It’s a righteousness that is extra nos, outside of us. Namely, the righteousness of Christ. And Luther said, “When I discovered that, I was born again of the Holy Ghost. And the doors of paradise swung open, and I walked through.”
This justification by faith alone can sometimes be misunderstood. People have called it “fire insurance”. Some people think that you place your faith in Jesus Christ and then you are done, and you live a life just like you lived, but now you are going to heaven. The apostle Paul anticipated that misunderstanding, and in the book of Romans, he adressed it.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
He answers that in the next verse.
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
See the faith that brings about justification is the the very same faith that brings about holiness.
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.
The faith that justifies us, is the very same faith that leads to a life walking with and following Jesus.
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
What must we do to be saved. Repent. Re pent means to turn and go the other way. We were going our own way, we turn and follow Jesus. Let me give you an example of the faith that I am talking about.
If I was to say to you I will pick you up and take you somewhere, at 4:30, you might hear me say it, but that isn’t enough, you may choose to not do anything about it, and say ok great, then you call a cab, and go yourself. People do that with the Gospel all the time. They hear that Jesus died on the cross for thier sins, and rose three days later, and they say fine, and they go about thier life.
The kind of faith that is a repentance, is that you here that I going to pick up at 4:30 and take you somewhere, you cancel the cab you have pre-arranged, you show early and wait, knowing and trusting that I am going to be there, and then when I do arrive you get in the car and head to the destination.
The faith that is that faith that brings you into a righteous standing with God, is a faith that turns you from your sins, and toward Jesus.
DO you see that? The writer of Hebrews used Biblical illustrations to demonstrate the same thing.
By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
It is not a faith plus action. No. You are declared righteous in God’s sight by your faith alone. It is not a faith plus action. But it is a faith that produces action.
So, in my earlier analogy, the moment you decided to go and meet me, and cancel your cab, you are committed to riding with because you have faith that I am going to what I said and meet you there. If you didn’t have faith that I was going to pick you would not have cancelled your ride.
I hope you see the difference.
The moment you place in your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you are declared righteous in God’s sight. When he looks at you he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not you. Now, the things around you. have not yet changed.
If you are involved in a complicated sin, that just doesn’t go away. It has to be dealt with. Your being declared righteous does not mean that those things you are doing wrong are no longer sins, but instead you begin to work on those sins in your life, not on your own abilities anymore, but with faith in Jesus Christ. Not to try and Justify yourself before God,, but to walk in closer fellowship with Him. Because he called you to him, and you realize that He was willing to suffer and die, in your place, for you so that you could be with him.
The journey that begins with justification may be long and at times it will be difficult, but the fact that you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, now means that when things do look dark. When it appears that Jesus is not near you can return to look at the gospel, and in see that The righteousness of God is revealed. You can know that even in your failings, even in the disappointments and failures, that because you are declared righteous by God Almighty, because of the power of of the gospel, you are indeed righteous.
If you have not repented of your sins, If you do not yet know a faith in Our Jesus Christ like the faith that I have been talking about, I urge you today to walk through the open doors of paradise. Repent of your sins. Turn from following your ways, and the ways of the world, and turn and Follow the Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, died, and buried, who rose again three days later in fulfillment of the scriptures so that you may live.
You may begin that step by repenting of your sins in prayer, ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you and tell him you want to follow him, and live your for life him.
I will ask the worship team to come forward, I will pray, and I will leave time for silent prayer so that you may have the opportunity to walk through the open doors of paradise.
For the Glory of God alone.