Reformation Big Idea of the Series: Reformation celebrates the 500-year anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of the Ninety-five Theses (October 31, 1517) on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Each week of this five-week series highlights a different theme that emerged from the resulting Protestant Reformation. The Five Solas (Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria) work together to emphasize the importance of God’s grace as the foundation of our right relationship with Him, directly confronting the corrupted medieval theology of the time. Beginning with the solidarity of Scripture, this series discusses the question of faith versus works, the finished ministry of Christ, the priesthood of all believers, and the ultimate goal of God’s glory. Week 1 Reformation Topic: Sola Scriptura ("Scripture Alone") Text: 2 Timothy 3:10-17; 2 Peter 3:14-18 Big Idea of the Message: The Bible is our final authority—above any other traditions or teachings—in matters of faith and conduct. It is our personal responsibility to know what it says. Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1.   The Protestant Reformation marked a dramatic shift in medieval theology by emphasizing the foundational idea of “Sola Scriptura.” With Catholic abuses prevailing, the Reformers’ declaration of the authority of the Bible marked a sharp divergence from the teachings of the church during that time. The Bible is our highest authority. No tradition or papal opinion weighs more than God’s Word. No longer could priests and corrupt church leaders create their own rules and regulations over an ignorant congregation who had no access to the Holy Word of God for themselves. The Bible was acknowledged as the ultimate and final guide over all of the

Christian life: the main source for preaching and for theology, the marker for leadership and practice within the church, and the available authority for the daily life of all people.

2.   We cannot conclusively prove the holiness of Scripture nor why we must consider it as authoritative over our lives. We can support its legitimacy with historical data, its effectiveness and wisdom with evidence from not only historical events but also our own experiences. But its holiness as God’s breathed-out message for humanity—that belief is by faith. Faith that is confirmed by the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. As soon as someone rejects the holiness, the authority, of the Bible, they will soon wander from the true message of the Gospel, as history has proven time and again (e. g., the corruption of Catholic preaching pre-Reformation). As both Paul and Peter warn in the above passages, there are many who, out of their ignorance, evil motives, or error mishandle God’s Word, and there are many who are lead astray by them because of their own biblical illiteracy. It is our responsibility, therefore, to be trained and corrected by the message of God as He depicts in the Bible so we do not “fall from our own steadfastness” (2 Pet. 3:17).

3.   The following link leads to a helpful article on the Reformation. At the bottom of the page there is an embedded video (watch until about 5:20) that beautifully depicts the influence the revelation of Scripture’s authority had on Reformer John Calvin and on us today: http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-reformation-trick-or-treat. Maybe you can encourage your congregation that you, unlike Calvin, will not subject them to 200 sermons from the book of Deuteronomy!

4.   Perhaps, like many believers pre-Reformation, we aren't able to base our theology on the Bible because we don't know for ourselves what it says. Explain and make available a daily reading plan for your church.

5.   Have someone from your congregation share a testimony of how reading the Bible for him/herself changed his/her life.

Week 2 Reformation Topic: Sola Gratia ("Grace Alone") Text: Romans 3:21-31 Big Idea of the Message: While sin fractured our relationship with God, we have been made right once and for all by God’s grace. Grace, unmerited favor, is a free gift from God to us through Jesus Christ, and isn’t the result of anything we’ve done. Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1.   “It is essential to the heart of the Gospel to insist that God declares us to be just or righteous not on the basis of our actual condition of righteousness or holiness, but rather on the basis of Christ’s perfect

righteousness, which he thinks of as belonging to us. This was the heart of the difference between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism at the Reformation. Protestantism since the time of Martin Luther has insisted that justification [right relationship with God] does not change us internally and it is not a declaration based in any way on the goodness that we have in ourselves [as the Roman Catholic church believed]…That is what Martin Luther so clearly saw and that is what gave such motivation to the Reformation. When the good news of the Gospel truly became the good news of totally free salvation in Jesus Christ, then it spread like wildfire throughout the civilized world. But this was simply a recovery of the original gospel, which declares, ‘The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 6:23), and insists that ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1),” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 727-729).

2.   “If salvation is by the gift of God, apart from human doing, then we can be saved now. We do not have to wait until we reach some high level of attainment or pass some undetermined future test. Many people think in these terms, because they know that their lives and actions are far from what they should be now and they keep striving. But this means—I am sure you can see it—that salvation can never be a present experience but is something always in the future. It is something such persons hope to attain, though they are afraid they may not. It is only in Christianity that this future element moves into the present. And the reason it can is that salvation is not based on our ability to accumulate acceptable merits with God, but rather on what God has already done for us. When Jesus said on the cross, ‘It is finished,’ he meant what he said,” (James Montgomery Boice, Romans Vol. 1, 353).

3.   “I was in a restaurant having lunch and it came time to pay the bill. I asked the waiter to come over and bring me the bill. He left only to come back a few minutes later and declare that I had no bill. He told me that somebody else in the restaurant had picked up the tab. Now, I would have been a fool to sit there and argue with the waiter. I would have been a fool to not accept the gift. All I could do was say thank you. I showed gratitude for a price that had already been paid. God wants us to accept His gift. He has paid our tab. Some people are fools because they refuse to accept God’s free gift. The price of salvation has already been paid and God’s Son has picked up the tab,” (Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations). Be sure to offer an opportunity for people to respond and receive this free gift of salvation during your service this week.

4.   Some of us may struggle with having true confidence that we will be treated as a beloved son or daughter by God. The good news of salvation is not just for heaven; it’s for our lives now. We can know without a shadow of a doubt that not only does God save us because of Jesus, but He loves (and even likes) us because of Jesus, too. God feels about us

the same way He feels about His beloved Son. He wants to be around us, to know and be known by us. This is amazing grace!

5.   “Sola Gratia meant grace at the start, grace to the end, grace in the middle, grace without fail, grace without mixture, grace without addition, grace that allows no boasting, grace that precludes all glorying but in the Lord. All false concepts of grace would seek to eliminate at least one of these clauses, but the biblical Gospel stands firm. Unless Grace alone is understood in this manner, man will always have some room for boasting,” (John Samson, “Sola Gratia—Grace Alone,” 5 May 2009, Reformation Theology Website, accessed 20 July 2016, <http://www.reformationtheology.com/2009/05/sola_gratia_grace_alone_1.php>).

6.   Paul describes here the free gift of saving grace with works that follow as a fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation: “Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” (Ephesians 2:7-10, The Message)

Week 3 Reformation Topic: Sola Fide and Sola Christus ("Faith Alone" and "Christ Alone") Text: Galatians 2:15-21 Big Idea: Justification, right relationship with God, is based on what Jesus accomplished for us. In order to receive the benefits of Jesus’ work, we must place our faith in Him—nothing more and nothing less. Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1.   During this time, much of the Catholic church embraced a salvation of works. Not only did many teach that baptism and other sacraments were necessary for salvation, but numerous Catholic leaders were also selling indulgences—pardons from a priest for specific sins. Want to do some serious sinning tomorrow? No problem! Just buy your indulgences ahead of time and then God will have to forgive you! The Reformers’ view of the New Testament rejected this perversion by declaring that justification is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Right standing with God, they said, cannot be bought, earned, or sold. It comes from believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

2.   “Martin Luther’s great concern was to teach that salvation depends on faith alone, not faith plus works. But if baptism and participating in the other sacraments are necessary for salvation because they are necessary for receiving saving grace, then salvation really is based on faith plus works…The Roman Catholic argument that baptism is necessary for salvation is very similar to the argument of Paul’s opponents in Galatia who said that circumcision was necessary for salvation. Paul…speaks very severely to those who attempt to add any form of obedience as a requirement for justification: ‘You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace’ (Gal. 3:10). Therefore, we must conclude that no work is necessary for salvation.” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 973).

3.   A story on law versus faith: “When I got home, I found [my son] outside, with his face all covered with dirt. ‘I can’t take you to the park that way, Willie.’ ‘Why, papa? You said you would take me.’ ‘Ah, but I can’t; you’re all over mud. I couldn’t be seen with such a dirty little boy.’ ‘Why, I’se clean, papa; mama washed me.’ ‘Well, you’ve gotten dirty again.’ But he began to cry, and I could not convince him that he was dirty. ‘I’se clean; mamma washed me!’ he cried. Do you think I argued with him? No. I just took him up in my arms, and carried him into the house, and showed him his face in the mirror. He would not take my word for it; but one look at the mirror was enough; he saw it for himself. He didn’t say he wasn’t dirty after that! Now, the mirror showed him that his face was dirty—but I did not take him to the mirror to wash it; of course not. Yet that is just what thousands of people do. The law is the mirror to see ourselves in, to show us how vile and worthless we are in the sight of God; but they take the law and try to wash themselves with it, instead of being washed in the blood of the Lamb,” (D. L. Moody, Ed. John W. Reed, 1100 Illustrations from the Ministry of D. L. Moody).

4.   When people asked Jesus, “What shall we do that we may work the works of God?” He simply said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:28-29). Some of us may find ourselves anxious, wondering if we are doing enough for God. But we can rest in knowing the most important thing is believing Him. When we believe with a whole heart, it is our joy to participate in what God is doing around us; we don’t have to strive to try to please Him. Faith pleases God (Hebrews 11:6).

5.   “Two things should be said about faith. First, faith is not a good work. It is necessary, essential. But it is not a good work. In fact, it is not a work at all. Faith is God’s gift, as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 2:8-9…Second, although faith is the means of our justification, it is also the only means. Luther expressed this by the words sola fide (“by faith alone”)…Clearly, if faith is not a good work but only receiving what God has done for us and freely offers to us, then it is by faith alone that we can be justified, all other

acts or works being excluded by definition. The only means by which any person can ever be justified is by believing God and receiving what He offers” (James Montgomery Boyce, Romans Vol. 2, 937).

Week 4 Reformation Topic: The Priesthood of All Believers Text: 1 Peter 2:4-9 Big Idea of the Message: God’s presence is accessible to all believers because we are part of God’s family. We, as a holy priesthood, are able to draw near to and serve Him because of the finished work of Jesus. Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1.   The Roman Catholic Church maintained control over people by trying to limit their personal access to God. It was only through a priest that people could hear or understand the Scriptures, confess sin, and be forgiven. According to Catholic theology, the priest became the only means by which one could experience God. If you didn’t please the priest (and/or the government with which the priest collaborated), then you were cut off from the Church and, therefore, from God Himself. The Reformers maintained the Biblical stance that Jesus is the only High Priest we need to have access to the Father, and His finished work makes each of us priests, able to enter into God’s Presence ourselves.

2.   An important note to keep in mind in reading this passage is that Peter is alluding back to the Old Testament Temple where God’s presence was located, that is, limited to the Holy of Holies behind the curtain, a holy place entered into only by one person (the high priest) only one day a year. It is in this context that Peter is talking about a new spiritual house made up of living stones, people, in whom God’s Spirit dwells. “In the temple at Jerusalem, the priesthood appointed to minister there, and to offer sacrifices, constituted an essential part of the arrangement. It was important, therefore, to show that this was not overlooked in the spiritual temple that God was raising. Accordingly, the apostle says that this is amply provided for, by constituting ‘the whole body of Christians’ to be in fact a priesthood. Everyone is engaged in offering acceptable sacrifice to God. The business is not entrusted to a particular class to be known as priests; there is not a particular portion to whom the name is to be especially given; but every Christian is in fact a priest, and is engaged in offering an acceptable sacrifice to God. See Romans 1:6: ‘And hath made us: kings and priests unto God.’ The Great High Priest in this service is the Lord Jesus Christ, (see the Epistle to the Hebrews, passim) but besides him there is no one who sustains this office, except as it is borne by all the Christian members,” (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, http://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_peter/2-5.htm).

3.   This scene from the movie The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc is a good illustration of the Catholic view of confessing sin and receiving forgiveness only through a priest: http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/the-messenger/everyday-confessions?play=1.

4.   If we have been in a protestant church for long, we may not have any trouble praying, confessing, even reading the Bible without the pastor or minister there to help us. But what other responsibilities do all Christians share that we tend to leave to the “professionals”? For example, how many people have you personally shared the Gospel with in the last year?

5.   Each of us are missionaries. We’ve been given an opportunity by God to ministry—to be priests—in our homes, schools, and areas of work. Do we take this job seriously, or decide to leave the tough job of evangelism to pastors?

Week 5 Reformation Topic: Soli Deo Gloria ("To God alone be the glory") Text: 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 Big Idea of the Message: God is glorified—recognized as praiseworthy and magnificent—through us when He saves us based on His grace. God is also glorified through us every day when we live for Him. Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1.   The Reformers understood that God’s glory—the magnificent worth of His holiness and beauty—is the ultimate goal of all of God’s actions and creation; therefore, God’s glory should be the primary concern of His people as well. Because salvation is a gift of God based on his free grace through faith in Jesus, only God can receive the honor for our being saved. His glory is the end result.

2.   In this text, Paul is trying to clear up some confusion among the Corinthian church members about eating food that has been sacrificed to idols. His solution: do everything for God’s glory. Think of what would please God and then think of the good of those around you that they might be saved, also to God’s glory (v. 33)!

3.   This story illustrates one famous musician’s desire to give God all of the glory for his incredible gift: http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-95/to-glory-of-god-al…).

4.   Many people mistakenly think that God is only glorified in the religious part of their lives. But this separation of the spiritual from the natural is a false one: we are spiritual beings living in a spiritual kingdom, regardless of where we are or what we are doing. Brother Lawrence wrote of this realization of giving God glory and experiencing His nearness in everyday activities like washing dishes in the book The Practice of the Presence of

God where he says, “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.” What is one area in your every day life where you tend to forget God is receiving glory?

5.   Consider closing your service this week by singing acapella (just voices) as a congregation the simple chorus, “Glorify Thy Name.” Here is a video link in case you don’t know the song by heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QltVKW6wXdo.

6.   This topic also speaks to the sacredness of our everyday work—even if we’re not ministers. “While medieval clergy often made it a habit of separating the sacred from the secular in a distorted, two-tiered model—citing ministerial work as holy and everything else as not—a new wave of [Reformation] thinkers sought to find some sort of sanctification of ordinary life…Philosopher James K. A. Smith describes it like this: ‘Domestic life is affirmed as a sphere of grace. It’s not just priests and nuns who are “religious;” the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker can also undertake their mundane, “this-worldly” tasks with a sense of devotion and worship.’ Or, in the words of the Apostle Paul, ‘So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’…In the Christian faith, every vocation holds the potential to turn the dull drabness of life into a kaleidoscope of color. Everything one does, regardless of prestige, can be an act of love and worship before God.” (Source)

7.   Pose this question to your audience: Do you treat your job, as meaningless as you might think it to be, as holy work unto God?