Tomorrow marks the 500th anniversary of
the Protestant Reformation.
You may not have known this,
but this is a significant event.
Some people rate this as a top 10 event, top five event,
not just in Christian history, but the history of the world,
how it changed the landscape of the world
and Christianity forever.
So I want to talk about some things that
came out of the Reformation,
and why you should care about this big event.
If you don't know the story,
there was a young monk named Martin Luther.
At 25 years old, he's pretty bright,
they assigned him to teach in the University of Wittenburg.
Then, at the age of 33, he had concerns
about what the church was teaching,
and was it teaching things that were contrary to God's Word?
So he posted on the church doors of Wittenburg,
you can still go there, I would not go this week
because it'll be busy.
But you can still go there today and see,
like, a bulletin board, where he posted
what is known as the "95 Theses."
His intention was not to break up the church.
His intention was not to start his own sect.
His intention was to go back to God's Word
and see what it says.
So what comes from the Reformation?
Why should you care?
If you grew up in a church, or you're part of a church now,
very likely, it's Catholic or Protestant.
And at that point in history, the tree,
the ancestral tree of the church, becomes two branches.
Roman Catholic on one side, and Protestant on the other.
That would include Methodist and Baptist,
non-denominational, Lutheran, Presbyterian.
All of these find their roots way back when
in this Reformation.
So what comes from the Reformation?
It's not just a renewed look at my faith alone.
It's not just getting the Bible into people's hands.
It's not just a new look at how people work and function
and how they can serve God in whatever they do.
The biggest thing
is grace.
God's riches at Christ's expense, grace.
God does everything for us.
I think back to a story 1500 years earlier,
as a man stood before Jesus, and Jesus said,
"Who do you say that I am?"
That man was Peter.
He says, you are the Christ.
You are the son of the living God.
And Jesus' response is this.
We're celebrating a reformation not to celebrate
a human being, let's be very clear.
We're not celebrating even a denomination.
What we're celebrating is Christ.
And I think it's an amazing blessing
that 1500 years before the Reformation,
God, through the Holy Spirit, worked in the heart of Peter
to confess Christ.
In the hearts of all the reformers,
from 1300 to the 1600s, got worked in their hearts
to confess Christ just as he does today in you.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord, as we think about significant events in history,
we think about our own history.
The time that we came to faith,
we think about the time that we have grown up in your Word.
We pray that we always stay true to your Word,
and we're willing to have that same courage of the reformers
as we confess boldly Christ, and we confess boldly grace.
Amen.
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