A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’” (John 8:31–32). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! From the beginning of the Reformation, Lutherans have taken God’s Word seriously. After being excommunicated for heresy and threatened with death in 1521, Martin Luther appeared at the Diet of Worms, and refused to recant of his writings, stating, “I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. God help me. Amen.” [i] Fifty years later, a new generation of Lutheran pastors declared to the world: “By God’s grace, with intrepid hearts, we are willing to appear before the judgment seat of Christ with this Con...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Look at the picture of Luther’s seal on the cover of your bulletin. You’ll see three Latin phrases: Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, and Sola Fide . Ironic, isn’t it? A movement that resulted in the liturgy and the Bible in our own language rather than Latin is remembered by Latin phrases. The Reformation rested upon three fundamental principles: 1.    Our salvation is entirely a gift of grace from God and not our own doing. 2.    We receive that grace through faith and not by any works we might do. 3.    The sole norm and rule of all doctrine is the Holy Scriptures. Although the word sola means “alone,” the three solas that follow are never alone! They are interconnected and woven together. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Scripture alone. To these solas , many writers have added another: Solus Christus , “through Christ alone.” Many ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In addition to being the day in which six of our parish confirmands publicly confess the faith and the other spiritual gifts that were given them in Baptism, today commemorates Martin Luther’s initiation of the Reformation on October 31, 1517. What began as an invitation for academic debate over the abusive doctrine of indulgences, soon became a call for the return to God’s Word as the sole authority for the Church’s doctrine and life. Scriptures clearly teaches that a sinner’s only hope in life or death is that Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection are enough to save them. Solely by virtue of Christ’s substitutionary life and death, are sinners declared righteous before their holy God. Luther and the other reformers had to fight, some to the death, to preach this Gospel to Christ’s Church. Today our confirmands will make a vow to do similarly if necessary. They will be...