Eternal Reformation is in the Eternal Gospel :: Revelation 14:6-7
Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, [with] an eternal gospel to proclaim to those sitting upon the earth, and upon all the nations and tribes and languages and people. And he said with a great voice, “Fear God and give to him glory because the hour of his judgment has come; Worship him who made the heavens and the earth and sea and the springs of water.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, why you are here today?
Do you remember why you came?
Are you here simply out of habit? Or do you recognize something else at play?
What is it that brought you to _____ Lutheran Church?
Maybe you haven’t formally asked yourself these questions lately, but it is a good thing to do from time to time. These are some of the questions Luther would have asked himself before starting the Reformation some 505 years ago. Although our observance of the Reformation in this service is really one of the more minor festivals of the church year, today we recognize it is one of the most important events in our lives because ...
THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS GIVEN TO HEAR THE ETERNAL GOSPEL AGAIN
This is our theme.
I.
Do you remember what the Gospel is? I’ve been asking my adult and youth classes this question now for months. What I keep learning is how quickly we all forget what it is and how to express it. Too often we forget why God gave us his Divine Service. Too often we make it about what we are doing.
Martin Luther discovered this truth. The result sparked a Christian Reformation that has changed the world and God’s bride, the Church forever. Forget your indulgences, Luther wrote. Forget your efforts to be righteous. Forget yourself. We cannot buy the forgiveness of sins. We can’t work out our salvation. We cannot make a decision for Christ. But we can be confident of our salvation.
God has justified us ... that is, he has declared us innocent of sin.
God has justified us ... that is, he has delivered the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ.
God has justified us solely on the account of life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. And no man can take that away from you. God has become one with you in baptism, uniting you with himself in the death and resurrection of Christ. God has declared the forgiveness of your sins through the proclamation of his Eternal Gospel. God delivers the forgiveness of sins through his body and blood given to you in the Lord’s Supper. And now on account of all this, you have eternal life. That’s a snapshot of the Eternal Gospel.
II.
Luther discovered that the church had stopped hearing this Eternal Gospel and had turned to another Gospel, as Saint Paul framed it for the Galatians. He discovered that the church had fallen away from the eternal Gospel and turned inward toward themselves. They turned away by introducing the heresy of works-righteousness, a doctrine of many churches that declares a man must do something to be saved ... that a man can thoroughly confess his sin ... that a man can make a decision for Christ ... that a man can be good enough to earn a place in heaven ... that a man can pray hard enough and long enough ... that a man can find God while floating his boat or sitting in his tree stand ... that man can find God through the clarity of his observations or the consistency of his logic.
Sadly, too often we do the same thing. There are denominations all around us that are still teaching you can buy the forgiveness of sins, that you can make yourself holy, that Jesus was just a good guy with a good word about good living, that you shouldn’t take the Bible too literally, that Christians will be healthy and wealthy if they just have faith, that you are a good Christian if you just come to church.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, repent every one of you in the name of Jesus.
You cannot come to church often enough ... you cannot make yourself holy enough ... you cannot plan out good works that are pleasing in the sight of God ... and you cannot buy your way out of a humanly-devised and non-scriptural place called purgatory. You cannot find favor with God. You cannot even find God. He finds you in Christ.
III.
This is why we need an eternal reformation. This is why we need to hear the eternal Gospel.
The Gospel never talks about our merits. It never makes demands of you. It never talks about the decisions we need to make. It never denies the forgiveness of sins to our brothers and sisters in Christ simply because we don’t think we need it ourselves today.
This is what Luther began discovering as he composed his Ninety-Five Theses before tacking them to the Church Door on October 31, 1517. He heard the eternal Gospel that has been proclaimed since that day in the Garden when man thought too much. He heard the Lord saying, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jer 31:34).
This is God’s promise to you ... voiced by the prophet Jeremiah. But it is the same Gospel promise ... the eternal promise ... a promise God can’t change and won’t change. This promise is what Luther discovered. As Paul reminds us today in Romans, we have been justified freely by [God’s] grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness (Rm 3:24-25).
This is the Eternal Gospel we need to hear.
And that is what Saint John saw and heard in his vision recorded in Revelation. John saw the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus, standing in victory over sin. John heard the Saints rejoicing with him, singing a new song about how sin had been forgiven. John saw an angel flying overhead ... heralding this eternal Gospel, the Good News that transcends all times and places ... the Gospel proclaimed to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.
The grace of the Lord Jesus is with you ... now and forever.
IV.
At first glance, the angel’s message calling us to fear and worship God because the hour of his judgment has come (v 7) doesn’t sound much like gospel, the Good News that brings joy and peace and comfort for weary souls who have been enslaved by sin. Instead, it sounds only like somber news of law and judgment.
But this is in fact great news for you! It is eternal Gospel!
This is the Good News that flows from the reality that God has executed his judgment against all sin upon our Lord Jesus instead of us. God poured out his wrath upon his only Son, the Lamb of God. God condemned sin and is casting it into the depths of the sea ... all on account of Jesus.
He who knew no sin ... Jesus ... became sin for you. Our Lamb of God was sacrificed for your sin and was raised for your justification. God then gave you a white robe of righteousness in baptism, and called you forth to celebrate with him at his feast of forgiveness in which all the saints and angels and all the company of heaven rejoices eternally.
This is in the background of John’s vision, which shows us that reverential fear comes from learning this truth of God through the proclamation of his Word (Dt 4:1). This reverential fear of God is an essential part of contrition over sin and repentance (Acts 2:37) and it leads into the forgiveness of sins we are celebrating today (Acts 9:31). We should always celebrate this reality. It is good news, the eternal Gospel.
We can then give glory to God in and through Jesus Christ. With eternal joy in the eternal Gospel, we can then seek him out at the Divine Service, where God gathers his people around the font of living water, enabling all of us to remember our baptism and receiving first absolution and finally the body and blood of our Lord Jesus given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. All of these means of grace work together.
So come as often as you can. Long for his Divine Service in which the eternal Gospel is proclaimed. When you abide in this word of Christ, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (Jn 8:32). It will strengthen and nourish your faith in his truth that his Means of Grace work for your good and God’s glory.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, our own Lutheran Confessions remind us clearly how the Divine Service is part and parcel of the Eternal Gospel. And we who attend this service receive the gift of God. As Christ says, for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life (Jn 6:40).
Having heard, therefore, the Gospel, let us then respond with our thanksgiving, our praise, and our prayers and go forth as angels, proclaimers, announcers, and heralds of the good news God is doing here ... in Jesus’ name.
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