Festival of Christ's Nativity - First Sermon - Part 2

Martin Luther preached his first sermon of Christmas 1532 on Christmas Eve using Isaiah 9:1-7 as his text. In that sermon, he briefly summarized the reasons we celebrate Christ’s birth. The following are his major points from that message.

We celebrate this festival, first of all, because of what we confess in the Creed. For it is a great, unspeakable endowment that we have in faith to regard this as God’s consummate wisdom that he, who created heaven and earth, is born of a virgin. …

Second, we also celebrate this festival because of the great good connected with it. … For if God were against and hostile to us, he certainly would not have assumed the poor, wretched human nature into his person. … Therefore, we celebrate this festival, so that we may truly learn to recognize and lay hold on this kinship we have with God and God has with us, and the communion of this grace, comforting ourselves with it and rejoicing over it.

The worldly-wise and Epicureans set no store by such things. … You see, the world never ceases to look upon it as absurd that God became our flesh and blood and was crucified for our sins. … That’s the route the world takes; it pays no attention to preaching and, meanwhile, is absorbed in thinking: We would rather have our belly full of beer, gorge ourselves, and carouse. … Of a truth, that’s the way it might well have been, with the whole world rejoicing and in high spirits because of this birth. The beloved, holy angels respond this way, regard it as a wonderful happening, and never cease being astonished over it. …

He gives this child the greatest and most beautiful names; that should cause us not merely to ponder him as he lies in his mother’s lap, having body, eyes, ears, and members, and looking just like any other human being, but also to see and recognize him as being the true, eternal God. … The prophet, therefore, wants to rouse us, and get us to look properly at this child and recognize who he is.

Ah, Lord God, everyone ought open his hands here, take hold of and joyfully receive this child, whom this mother, the Virgin Mary, bears, suckles, cares for, and tends.

Hopefully, may everyone lay hold on this! I shall say one more thing; God allowed this child to be born for the sake of condemned and lost sinners. Therefore, hold out your hand, lay hold of it, and say, True, I am godless and wicked, there is nothing good in me, nothing but sin, vice, depravity, death, devil, and hellfire; against all this, however, I set this child whom the Virgin Mary has in her lap and at her breast. … I accept this child and set him over against everything I do not have.

Whoever, therefore, wants to be a Christian ought to listen with joy to this preaching and believe that it is true what the prophet says, ‘Unto us a child is born.’

We keep this festival and preach about it in order that we might learn that our labor is not in vain or useless, and that at least for a few people, comfort and joy will follow. Amen.

Festival of Christ's Nativity - First Sermon - Part 1

The opening of Luther’s first sermon celebrating the “Festival of Christ’s Nativity”, preached on Christmas Eve, 1532 at the parish church. After reading Isaiah 9:1-7, Dr. Luther began:

People are presently celebrating the beautiful and delightful festival of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is fitting, indeed, for us to celebrate God’s glorious grace with a truly wonderful festival and to ponder it well, so that the article in which we confess and pray in our Christian faith, “I believe in Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,” may be remembered not just within Christendom, but also that distressed, sorrowful hearts everywhere might find comfort and be strengthened over against the devil and every misfortune.

Thanksgiving

“Luther, admiring the fruitfulness of the season, said: ‘Ah, who gives thanks for such great blessings? Our whole life ought to be nothing else but the praise of God. For what is life, without the praise of God?’”

Amen!

Quote is from page 248 of “Conversations with Luther”, an edited version of “Table Talk”, translated and edited by Preserved Smith and Herbert Percival Gallinger, and published by Keats Publishing in New Canaan, Connecticut, 1979.

Happy 525th Birthday

Martin Luther's father, Hans Luder (as the family name was pronounced in the local dialect), was a peasant, but he did not long remain one. Local inheritance laws specified that family lands passed intact to the youngest son, so Hans was forced to leave Mohra, his home village, before his second son, Martin, was born. Just how he was earning a living in the town of Eisleben when the baby arrived on November 10, 1483, is unknown.

Whatever else might be said of Hans Luder, the young father and husband was a loyal, right-thinking sort of person who could be counted on to do what was the best insofar as he understood it. He therefore acted according to the religious dictates of the time. That very morning, probably a cold and rainy one, he took his infant son to the Church of St. Peter's to have him baptized. He was acting most sensibly in an age when infant mortality ran to 60% or more and everyone feared that an unbaptized child who died might forfeit heaven. Hans Luder followed custom in yet another way on that christening day. Because it was the Feast of St. Martin, he named the baby Martin.

Quoted from pages 31 & 32 of "Luther the Reformer" by James M. Kittelson. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986.

HAPPY 525th BIRTHDAY,

DR. MARTIN!

31 October 1517

October 31, 1517 – Wittenberg

Luther was very conscious of his position and responsibilities as a Doctor of Theology, a university professor and, hence, a theological guardian of the church. So, especially in the light of his newly developing theology, he felt under compulsion to protest. Sensing he was treading on dangerous ground, and after some anxious hesitation, he wrote another set of theses – 95 this time – which he called a Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. On 31 October 1517, he sent these along with a rather timid and respectful letter to Albrecht of Brandenburg himself. On the same day, he wrote along similar lines to his own local bishop, Jerome Schulze in Brandenburg, alerting him to Tetzel’s appearance in his diocese. In a later version of the story, told by his subsequent friend and close colleague, Philipp Melanchthon, Luther also raised the issue for academic debate within the university and beyond, by pinning the theses to the door of the castle or university church in Wittenberg, which served as an academic noticeboard.

Tomlin, Graham. Luther and His World. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002. The quote is from page 71.

Luther and the 2008 Election

In another blog I have written articles on my concerns about this year’s presidential election. I am concerned for my country and especially for the country in which my grandchildren will live. If you read my articles you will quickly see that my concerns are much, much greater if Senator Obama is elected President. I fear greatly for this nation if he wins.

Yet, my hope for the future of this nation does NOT reside in a President McCain administration any more than it does in an Obama one. In either case, the train (our nation) is out of control, racing down the tracks. If McCain wins, I believe some brakes will be applied. If Obama wins, its full steam ahead!

No matter who wins the election, our country will not suddenly become Christian or even godly. No matter who our next President is, the serious problems we face will not go away. The root of our country’s problems is spiritual and requires a spiritual solution. Government is not going to provide that. To put our hope for our nation’s recovery in the hands of either Senator Obama or Senator McCain is a mistake, in fact, it’s sinful.

The Bible is clear on this. Our hope does not rest in the hands of men or government. Psalm 146:3 says “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” The only savior of our nation is the Lord Himself.

Luther appealed to this verse on more than one occasion. In the old 1953 film “Martin Luther”, there is a scene during the Diet of Augsburg where Luther wishes he could be there (he was an outlaw in the eyes of church and state) and is complaining to his wife, Katie, about it. She assures him the German princes will do what is right. He retorts, “Do we put our hope in princes?”

While it is unlikely this scene actually occurred, Luther did not have his hope in the government officials of the day and neither should we. For example, Luther wrote a letter (note the date!) to his old friend, Georg Spalatin, who served as the personal secretary and chaplain of Elector Frederick (the government official). Here is a portion of what Luther said.

November 4, 1520

Salvation! I wonder how it is, my dear Spalatin, that you do not get my letters, for I have written twice and got no answer. I am glad you now see that the Germans’ hopes are in vain, and that you are learning not to trust in princes, and are disregarding the world’s judgment whether it praises or condemns my cause. If the gospel could be promoted or maintained by worldly powers God would not have committed it to fishermen.

No, my dear Spalatin, it is not the work of the princes and high priests of this world to protect the Word of God—therefore I crave no one’s protection, for they would rather require to help one another against the Lord and His Christ.

Let us do our duty and “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” by voting intelligently in this election. But let us keep our hopes for the future firmly rooted in Christ. May we seek His guidance and ask Him to bring about a revival in the land which will result in saved sinners and a restored nation!

Beddome Using Luther: The Seed of the Serpent

As I have shared elsewhere, Benjamin Beddome is one of my favorite Particular Baptists from the 18th century. Beddome (1717-1795) served as pastor of Bourton-on-the-Water for over 50 years as well as wrote several hymns. Recently I purchased a volume containing outline notes he used for several sermons he preached during his ministry.

Since I also admire Martin Luther, I was quite interested in a portion of a Beddome sermon entitled “Sin Offensive Both to God and Men” in which he references Luther, albeit briefly. His text is 1 Thessalonians 2:15 which reads:

Who have killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us: and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

Beddome divides his message into two major points: those who please not God and those who are contrary to all men. Under the latter point, he writes:

Now this character more especially belongs, 1. To the bigoted and superstitious. … 2. To the churlish, fretful, uncharitable; … 3. To the fraudulent and oppressive, the disturbers of the peace, and invaders of the rights of mankind. …

Beddome then concludes his message by addressing the fourth class of men addressed by this text.

4. The context leads me to apply this particularly to persecutors, who “killed the Lord Jesus,” says the apostle, “and their own prophets, and have persecuted us.” The seed of the serpent will still retain its enmity to the seed of the woman, and Cain, as Luther expresses it, will kill Abel to the end of the world. It is the glory of the gospel to turn the lion into a lamb; but where the light of the gospel is not come, nor the power of it felt, the average disposition of the lion still remains.

I am not certain where in Luther Beddome found this reference but I do find it intriguing. “Cain … will kill Abel to the end of the world.” What an awesome illustration concerning sin and the depravity of unregenerate man.

Repeating Lessons

One of the most difficult struggles I have fought as a minister has been my desire to always present something "new", something my audience has never heard or thought of, everytime I teach or preach. Thankfully, God has slowly delivered me from this over the past decade or so. Luther has been one of the means the Lord has used to convict me of my foolishness on this matter. You and I need to hear the "same old doctrine" repeated over and over and over again!

Luther loved the book of Galatians and lectured on it at least 6 times. In 1535 he wrote a forward to lectures he gave on the book in 1531-1532. Note the opening paragraph of his forward.

We have taken it upon ourselves in the Lord's name to lecture on this Epistle of Paul to the Galatians once more. This is not because we want to teach something new or unknown, for by the grace of God Paul is now very well known to you. But it is because, as I often warn you, there is a clear and present danger that the devil may take away from us the pure doctrine of faith and may substitute for it the doctrines of works and of human traditions. It is very necessary, therefore, that this doctrine of faith be continually read and heard in public.

God has given the good doctor great wisdom in these remarks. We need to hear the clear teaching of the Lord again, no matter how many times we have heard it before!

You don't have to be "new" everytime you preach and teach. You simply need to be Scriptural.

On Prayer

Thus if anything is to be done well, it requires the full attention of all one's senses and members, as the proverb says, 'The one who thinks of many things, thinks of nothing and does nothing right.' How much more does prayer call for concentration and singleness of heart if it is to be a good prayer!

Luther, "How One Should Pray, for Peter, the Master Barber", 1535

Why "Luther"?

Why does Luther so fascinate me? I have often asked myself the same question. There are a few reasons that come immediately to mind and I thought I would post some of those reasons here.

I can trace my initial love of Luther to a course I took at the Criswell College (then the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies). The class was an overview of Church History taught by Dr. John Pretlove. When Dr. Pretlove reached the period of the Protestant Reformation, I became extremely interested in the people and events of that time. I took another course with Dr. Pretlove on the Protestant Reformation specifically in which we dealt, in more detail, on the people, places, and theology of the Reformation.

At some point during my Christian walk, I received some wise counsel instructing me to find Christian heroes in history. I was encouraged to study these heroes, emulate their good qualities, and avoid their bad ones. Having developed a natural love of the Protestant Reformation, Luther leaped out as one of my heroes.

Martin Luther is a hero to me because of his stance on the Word of God. To Luther, the Word of God, the teaching of the Bible, had authority over all aspects of one's life. When the church's teaching was contrary to the Word, Luther opted for the Word. When those around him preached and lived contrary to the Word, Luther opted for the Word. As he said at the Diet of Worms in 1521, "my conscience is captive to the Word of God." How I love that characteristic of Martin Luther and have tried to emulate it!

Also, is a hero to me because of his boldness. Here was a man who stood before Catholic leaders as well as political leaders, including the Emperor and would not yield his committment to the Lord and His Word. Here was a man who was under the condemnation of both church and state, an outlaw to both, yet persevered in the Lord's work. Here was a man who faced execution from both the religious and political worlds nevertheless continued to preach God's Word. May I be so bold in the presence of what little persecution I ever experience!

There are other reasons why I admire Luther and other characteristics of the Reformer which I want to emulate in my life. However, there are also some Luther traits that I want to avoid as well. Perhaps I will share some of those in the future.

We Are All Beggars

My intentions for this blog are simple and may be summed up in two words: Martin Luther. "We are all Beggars" will share some of the thoughts expressed by the great reformer. The blog will also spend time discussing various theological issues addressed by Dr. Luther. Furthermore, I will share "tidbits" on Luther from time to time.

Martin Luther captured my imagination years ago and has been one of my Christian heroes for over two decades. I do not agree with everything he did. Nor do I agree with everything he said! But the man was obviously a servant of God, raised up by the Lord at a crucial time in history, and, willingly or not, used to accomplish great things for God's kingdom.

Please be patient as I put this blog site together. "Blogging" is a new experience for me.