Today's message comes from our most popular series called Legacies of Light. Stephen has a new book. Legacies of Light Volume two We're sending that as a gift to those who make a special donation to our ministry during this series. We need your financial support to make this ministry possible, and this new book is our way of saying thank you. I've put a link in the show notes that gives you all the information you need.
Now, here's Steven. This scripture, he would write, took on new meaning and became inexpressibly sweet to me. And this particular text of Paul became to me the gate to heaven. Not the monastery. The gospel.
This doctrine of sola fidei. And Martin then would go on to preach about the authority of scripture, having greater authority than popes and councils, and even he dared to say the church. Itself.
Well, it was Easter Sunday evening, April 5th. 1523 with a brave Merchant and His nephew Uh drove a wagon load of empty fish barrels into the courtyard of a convent. Filled with nuns who were sleeping there in the convent nearby. All of them were asleep, a dozen. We're waiting for the signal, the sound which they heard.
Yeah. And they took off running down the stone hallway of their sleeping quarters, Once outside, they were stuffed inside the barrels. And they made their daring Getaway. A day later, they arrived at the doorstep of a monastery and they were greeted by a former monk. who had helped plan their Escape.
One of those nuns was 24 year old. Katerina von Bora.
Now, I'm going to focus on her, but I need to give you a little background. about her. She was taken to the convent. Following the death of her mother at the tender age of five, We have every indication that Her father didn't really want her, and he paid the lowest fee allowable for entrance. She was handed over to the convent to be raised nine years later, at the age of 16.
She Officially what they called, quote, married Christ. and officially became a nun. Evidently, she took her vows of obedience and chastity. and poverty. Seriously, she joined in with the others in their efforts of self-denial and self-sacrifice and self-deprivation of.
Things like food and sleep, they were considered obstacles to holiness, and so they would deprive themselves of. food in. Sleep she would rise with the other nuns At 2 a.m. Uh for prayers and then again at daybreak. Then throughout the day, their chores would be set aside for praying and readings and singing at 7 a.m., at 9 a.m., at noon, again at 3 p.m.
at uh 5 p.m and finally at 7 p.m. Talking was considered Another distraction from holy living. And as you can imagine, friendships would be hard and difficult. Nearly impossible. to develop Abstaining from Particular foods like meat they believed would enable her to suppress fleshly desires and also contribute to holiness.
And God's Approval. Evidently she Devoted herself to this lifestyle, taking her vows seriously. In fact, the official records from the convent reveal that not one time while she was there. Was there a complaint? Or reprimand.
Ever registered against one Katerina? Von Abora. But during those Years news. Made its way in bits and pieces into those cloistered. Hallways, sermons were smuggled in by way of delivery boys.
During those years, news reached inside that convent. That There was a reformation of sorts taking place outside the walls. There was. uh revolutionary preaching somebody out there was the lightning rod who had chosen to defy The church and tradition preaching things like salvation being a gift from God for anyone who believed, preaching that monasteries and and convents were not a guaranteed pathway to heaven. or holiness.
After all, that preaching reached her ears preaching that forgiveness was not The result of penance or ritual or baptism or sacrament or self- Denial preaching was reaching their ears inside the convent that the path to God was. By faith alone in the sacrifice of God the Son. This was This was revolutionary. Monasteries were being emptied. Oh.
We don't know all the details of what she particularly heard in the convent. We don't know what specific doubts. She struggled with as she attempted to earn Holiness and approval with God. We do know from just a few words. From her own pen, that have been preserved for us, and very little, by the way, of.
has been preserved from her pen. But she quote Prayed. feverishly and diligently in the convent. We don't. Know what those exact feverish and diligent prayers were, we can be fairly confident that one of those feverish and diligent prayer requests.
would have related specifically to that Easter Sunday night when she risked everything about her past and everything about her future. In fact, she was risking heaven itself. By believing this preaching. Of the Reformation.
So at the age of 24, She's one of the 12 that run out of that convent. In fact, the only thing she owns and takes with her is the clothing on her backs. Doesn't even take a pair of shoes, none of them do, so that they can run quietly down the hallway and escape. She climbs into one of those herring. Uh buckets.
And she is driven away. Within 24 hours, she's going to meet. The primary preacher of this radical Reformation movement by the name of Martin Luther.
Now let me say just a word about him. He may be newer to the faith. And you need to know that he, like Katerina, knew very little of family love growing up. His father. Often beat him mercilessly on one occasion to the point of Martin running away for a while.
His mother beat him until he bled for stealing a nut to eat from the dining-room table on one occasion. But he had been out one afternoon, though, preparing for law, and was surprised by a thunderstorm that came so suddenly he had no time to run, lightning crashing everywhere around him. And he prayed to St. Anne that if he would survive that storm, he would leave law and enter the monastery. And he survived.
claimed it was St. Anne who allowed him to live and he kept his word. and joined the monastery becoming Uh a monk. And like Katerina, he became a very diligent Dedicated member of the monastery. In fact, he nearly drove his mentors crazy with his.
with his confessions. He would rarely let up. In fact, on one occasion, he confessed for nearly six hours until his confessor begged for mercy. Asked him to stop. He just couldn't rid himself of his guilt.
And finally, After seven years of this, His mentor, Jan von Stappitz. Put an end to his torment, released him from the monastery, and assigned him to teach at the University of Edinburgh. He moved into a monastery. inhabited by Augustinian monks, it was called the Black Cloister because of the monks' black clothing unique to them. And he began teaching in the university.
It would be his role and responsibility as well to preach several times a week, and he chose to begin preaching through the books of Romans. and Galatians and selected Psalms. And of course, you can't preach through books of the Bible without first. studying them, at least that's the theory. And so he dove in.
And began to study the book of Romans. And over the course of his study, Romans chapter 1 and verse 17 just sort of chased him down. and changed his life forever.
So take your Bible and let's look for a brief moment. or two at that text, Romans chapter one. And we'll back up into verse 16 and get a running start. Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel.
For it that is the gospel. is the power of God for salvation. To everyone who Believes. to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it The righteousness of God is revealed.
From faith to faith. As it is written, The righteous man, the just, shall live by faith. Faith. Not penance. Not self-deprivation.
Not pilgrimages. Not austerity. By Faith. In fact, Luther would later write: although I was an impeccable monk. I knew I stood before God as a sinner.
Troubled in my conscience. I had no confidence that my merit would satisfy God. But through his study Of Romans and Galatians and other passages, and this text as well, he came to understand that this word righteousness. And you can write on the margin of your Bible, righteousness here, this theological, doctrinal truth. Righteousness means right with God.
How does a person become right? with God. He came to understand it was by sola fide. That is Faith alone. And he believed the gospel.
And he would say that this scripture he would write took on new meaning. In fact, all of scripture took on new meaning and became inexpressibly sweet to me. And this particular text. of Paul became to me the gate to heaven. End quote.
Not the monastery. The gospel. This doctrine of sola fidei. And Martin then would go on to preach about the authority of Scripture, having greater authority than popes and councils, and even he dared to say, the church. itself.
Now, obviously, the church wasn't teaching this gospel. It wasn't teaching soul of a day, but he risked everything about his past. And his future. And his heaven. On Solar for Day.
And he would teach it based on the authority of scripture, what he called sola scriptura, that is, the authority of the scriptures alone.
Now if I could fast forward the tape. Here's 40 year old Martin Luther. standing at the doorway of the black cloister. Welcoming a cartful of nuns who are hopping out of fish barrels. Barefoot.
owning nothing but the clothing. On their backs. And he felt a tremendous responsibility. Because he had been preaching, in fact writing that the nunnery should empty. The monastery should empty.
And he wanted to settle them. Fairly quickly, three of them returned to their family homes. They were young. Eight of them he married off. In fact, he was called Martin the Matchmaker.
He would marry them off to monks and priests and friends. And all that was then left Was this one? None without family, we know from history she was effectively disowned. No family, no prospects. This 24-year-old Katerina.
Van Bora. Luther tried to marry her off to a friend of his. that he thought would be a good match. The man showed interest, that courted her for nearly a year, and then, for some strange reason, nobody knows why, ran off and married somebody else. That just jilted her.
Then he well, he knew of another eligible bachelor. Nearby, he thought of a pastor friend of his who had also. Begun his involvement in the Reformation. He was intelligent. He was resourceful.
He'd earned his doctorate in theology. and was faithfully pastoring a church nearby. And most importantly, he was eligible. He seemed to Martin to be the perfect husband for Katerina, with one glaring exception. She didn't like them.
And she let it be known. That she didn't like him. In fact, and Luther was exasperated over this. This nun who evidently had a mind of her own. She sent a note back to him through a mutual friend to tell him to abandon his plans to marry her to this pastor.
And then she did something really startling and unusual. She ended the note by suggesting that if he, Martin, sought her hand, she would not refuse. She essentially proposed to Martin Luther.
So get this picture. By the way, you don't do that. You didn't do that. Here's a now 42-year-old. leader of the Protestant Reformation.
Challenge the structure and theology of the church.
Now it's several years old, it's gaining incredible momentum. He's now written on God's clear design that church leaders. should not be or don't have to be celibate. They can actually be married. In fact, the qualifications for the elder would be that.
Fidelity in marriage would qualify those who were married by their observation before the congregation as being faithful to their wives. He's written about this. He's married all dozens of monks and priests and nuns. He's written widely on the blessing of children and the ideal of God's design through family life. He, by the way, has brazenly and openly ridiculed the church leaders, bishops and cardinals, along with treplet of priests for having their own mistresses.
He's exposing this. He's written extensively on the obvious created nature of God's delight for a man to find a woman and faithfully love her as his wife. But he's never conceived of the thought of marrying. It literally has not entered his mind. He's immersed in writing and preaching.
His life has this growing risk and threat. He assumes as he writes to friends, he's going to die a martyr. At any moment, he's going to die, if not that way, through one of the illnesses that he had. He had several.
Now he's just been proposed to. by a 26-year-old runaway nun. He's stunned. And everybody else is as well. And there's absolutely no way he's going to say yes.
And then he does. He reminded me of old Boaz out there at the threshing floor. Remember? This old bachelor and young Ruth comes along and essentially proposes to him and You know, when he wakes up after feigning, he accepts.
Well, that's Luther, he's shocked. And then he's Smith. Later he'll write that he tongue-in-cheek. He used to tease her. and everybody else.
But he said that he married Katerina to make his father happy, who wanted grandchildren. I think it's a perfectly good reason for young people to get married, by the way, to give us grandchildren.
So I'm all for that. He also wrote that he got married to rile up the Pope. whom he hated. And he said, I married to give the angels reason to laugh. and the devil's reason to weep.
He would write as well that he wanted to practice what he'd been preaching. And what he had been writing about marriage and the home, so that he could become a living demonstration with his wife of the love of Christ. For the church and the church for Christ. But I gotta tell you, if you read the biographies of Of Martin or Katerina, and I've read several. of them.
This is a most unlikely marriage. This marriage has little reason. to survive. What I want to do is kind of rehearse for you. And I've read much more than I could ever give you, but I've sort of boiled it down to three or four principles whereby we, as we are in this study, observing godly believers and finding in their lives things to imitate.
as the apostles encouraged us to do.
So as I kind of boil down 21 years of marriage. Let me give you some principles that are worthy of modeling. And before I give you the first one, let me have you keep in mind, in the 16th century, Nobody had a church leader Who was married? They didn't they didn't have that. If you were a church leader, you were then unmarried.
They didn't see an example of a... of a couple. They didn't see this kind of Of pastor and wife. In fact, Philip Schop, the historian, wrote, that their marriage will become the standard For the Christian family for centuries to come. Nobody'd seen this before.
Principle number one. Let me give these to you fairly quickly. Number one, marriage. is not a matter of compatibility. It's a matter of Commitment.
The truth is they they Barely knew each other when they married. She'd been living with a believing family in town. He'd been courted for nearly a year by a guy that then ran off. They had had few conversations. In the meantime, Martin is living.
the life of a bachelor. In the black cloister. He's immersed in his studies and in his writing. When they marry, he will love books and he will love writing and she will love farming and organizing and Cleaning. And let me emphasize.
Cleaning. By this point in time, the monks had all left being reformed. It was only Martin living in the black cloister. And it was falling into disrepair. An older monk was living in an attached shed out back, and that was.
pretty much it and this house was Filthy. In fact, one of the first things that she does is order two carts. Fulls of lime, and she will whitewash every wall in that monastery. Because it was so. Dirty.
Now, let me tell you this: in a typical marriage of Luther's day, the bride. brought her bed into her new home. It was usually handed down from mother to a daughter. And along with her bed, she would bring Uh feather quilts. that she had made along with embroidered linen.
and pillows and you can see how life's just going to get better here. uh by the presence of a of a bride. But she didn't own any of that. When he met her, she didn't even own a pair of shoes.
So she came with none of that. That Luther later revealed that their wedding night was spent on his bed and he had not changed the rancid straw for over a year. He just hadn't thought about it. There were a lot of things he evidently hadn't thought about. In fact, Luther would later write, there is a lot to get used to in the first year of marriage.
I guess there was. Like changing your bed sheets. That'd be like sleeping on sheets that had been changed for a year.
Some of you guys out there are going, yeah, what's wrong with that? It works for me. He would write, when sitting alone at the table, a married man now thinks, well, before I was alone.
Now there are two of us. Or when he wakes up in bed, he sees a pair of pigtails on his pillow. And they weren't there before.
Well, hello to married life. And all the changes that would come, Luther would write as an older man: marriage does not always run smoothly, but one must be. Committed. And they would demonstrate that. In the most difficult of times that marriage doesn't work.
because you're compatible. or it's easy, but because you are Committed. Number two, let me give you a second principle of marriage worthy of imitating. Marriage is not the pursuit of happiness. It's the pursuit of humility.
Now both Martin and Katerina Well, they loved each other. Love love was part of it. But it wasn't the pursuit based on love of happiness, but humility. They were both strong-willed. Uh opinionated Stubborn and extremely verbal.
They spoke their minds. Luther would later admit the revelation of his own selfishness. After getting married, he would write, good Lord, what a lot of trouble there is in marriage. Adam has made a mess of our nature. And then he would write perceptively: marriage is the school.
For character. Development. See, up until that day, the church was teaching that it was the monastery. That was the school for developing virtue. You sequester away.
You want to get holy? Get away from everybody. Luther did it and he found when he was alone that he was still living with himself. And he would spend six hours confessing his sin. But sequester yourself away and you'll grow and develop in holiness.
Luther will turn all of that now upside down and say, no, no, no, no, no, you want a training ground, you want an education in humility. Marriage. and family.
