Great Christian Biographies with John Piper: Martin Luther, Part 1

The following message is by pastor John Piper. More information from desiring. God is available at www .desiring God dot o RG.

How to Listen to a Biographical Study of Luther

Let me begin with some suggestions about how to listen to this.

Talk as.

Last year I have my manuscript in my hand and we made 200 of them and you may have them free when I'm done and Therefore I would suggest you not try to rigorously be writing things down everything I say.

Well, that's probably not true since I prayed for the gift of prophecy as I began. But almost everything I say will be here and a lot more. I'm striking at least seven pages out of this to fit it into the time so relax.

The way I would listen if I were you is to Open a piece of paper in front of me and and and be listening for the kinds of things you'd like to ask questions about and and That apply to you and hit you and that would make a difference in your ministry.

So don't try to do any systematic note-taking because it's all there. This is a really daunting task, isn't it? You know, it's easy to to take a a man and do a biographical study on him when he's got one biography written about him.

Say Alexander white maybe or somebody. Luther, you know the anniversary of his birth was 1983 the 400th anniversary his 450th anniversary of his death is in two weeks and Dozens of commentaries emerged in the 80s and of course he wrote 60 ,000 pages and.

So to undertake to do what I'm doing here is just ridiculous so I had to narrow down and the topic. I chose that topic that was printed months ago before I read anything and The topic that I'm going to address is Martin Luther at study.

It's very narrow and I will leave out all the things you want to know about Luther but we can talk about those later if you want to. But this has been very refreshing for me. I I hope all of you in your churches set aside a Sunday maybe Reformation Sunday in which you put yourself under the pressure.

I put myself under to do this year after year. To do a biographical study you force yourself to do it and then you do it for your church. I sometimes present these to my church after I've done it for for you and They're always well received so do that.

You won't do it unless you force yourself to do it probably and It will be rich for you as it is for me. Luther discovers the book. My first subheading one of the greatest discoveries of the Reformation Rediscoveries especially of Martin Luther is that the Word of God comes to us in a book?

The Word of God comes to us in a book. In other words Luther grasped the powerful fact that God preserves the experience of salvation and holiness from generation to generation in a book of Revelation not a bishop in Rome and Not in the ecstasies of Thomas Moonser and the Zwickau prophets one of Luther's arch Opponents Sylvester Prierias wrote in response to the 95 theses.

He who does not accept the doctrine of the Church of Rome and pontiff of Rome as an infallible rule of faith. From which the Holy Scriptures to draw their strength and authority is a heretic. In other words the church and the Pope are the Authoritative deposit of salvation and the Word of God and the book is derivative in truth and authority.

And what's new in Luther Obermann Heikl Obermann wrote is the notion of absolute obedience to the scriptures against any authorities. Be they Popes or councils close quote. In other words the saving and Sanctifying authoritative Word of God comes to us in a book 1539.

He's commenting on some 119 he wrote. In this psalm David always says that he will speak think talk hear read day and night and constantly but about nothing else than God's Word and commandments. For God wants to give you his spirit only through the external.

Word.

That phrase became determinative for this message the external word is.

The book.

God wills that his spirit move Through you into you on you only he says the external Word we got to let this hit us. It's external in the sense that it's objective. It's Fixed it's outside ourselves. It is therefore absolutely unchanging.

Neither ecclesiastical hierarchy nor fanatical Ecstasy can replace it or shape it in any way. It is external like God is External. You can take it or leave it, but you can't make it anything other than what it is.

It is a book with letters and words and sentences and paragraphs that you have nothing to do with creating and It will be here when you're gone. It is outside of you. It is absolutely objective and real and external outside of you.

He said in 1545 with resounding forcefulness this year before he died died when he was 62 at it 1546. Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture. And earlier he had said commenting on Genesis the Holy Spirit himself and God the creator of all things is the author of this.

Book.

So the book that he discovered is God's book and one of the Implications that the Word of God comes to us in a book. Is that the theme of this conference is the pastor and his study not the pastor and his seance or the pastor and his intuition or the pastor and his religious Multi-perspectival ism.

The Word of God that saves and sanctifies from generation to generation is preserved in a book and therefore every.

Pastor's work is.

Bookwork.

It is book Work call it reading call it meditation call it reflection call it cogitation call it study Call it exegesis call it what you will. A large and central not to overstate it a large and central part of our work is to wrestle God's meaning from a book and Proclaim it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now Luther knew that people would stumble at this arch.

Conservatism that's arch.

Conservatism. Fixed outside you. Unchanging. No ability to have any influence on the Word of God whatsoever. It is there. That's arch conservatism. He knew that the the responses to this would be troubling.

For example He knew that it would be accused of belittling the Holy Spirit that we minimize and Nullify the work of the Holy Spirit by speaking of the Word of God preserved for us in a book.

Letter.

The book and.

He said in essence Yes, that might happen. One might argue that emphasizing the brightness of the Sun Nullifies the value of the surgeon who gives sight to the eyes. But it isn't true. That glorify the Sun shining at noon day Calls into question the value of the surgeon who enables you to see.

That isn't true. He said in 1520 be assured.

That.

No one will make a doctor of the Holy Scriptures save only the Holy Ghost from heaven. Luther was a great lover of the Holy Spirit.

His.

Exaltation of the book as an external Word did not belittle the spirit. On the contrary. He would say it Elevated the spirits great gift to Christendom 1533. He said the Word of God is the greatest most necessary most important thing in Christendom.

Without the external word we would not know one spirit from the other He said. And the objective Personality of the Holy Spirit himself would be lost in a blur of subjective expressions. Cherishing the book implied to Martin Luther that the Holy Spirit is a beautiful person to be known and worshipped not a buzz to be felt and You would never know him apart from the book.

For the Spirit's sake.

We exalt the book. The second objection. He knew would come is That this is a little more modern though. Both are very modern to the degree that you exalt this. People will say you minimize the incarnate Word Jesus Christ Himself born of a virgin.

Crucified.

Risen reigning. When you exalt a book Luther says that the opposite is true to the degree that the Word of God is disconnected from the objective external word. This book to that degree the Incarnate Word becomes a wax nose in the preference of every generation.

You do not honor or exalt the incarnate Word the historical Jesus By in any way minimizing the external Word. Luther said that the one weapon With which he could rescue the incarnate Word from being sold in the markets of Wittenberg Was the external word.

He drove out the money changers The indulgence sellers with one whip the word the external word. So Christ the historical Jesus is Magnified and glorified and preserved in his excellency. Precisely through saying that the Word of God is preserved for us one way in a book.

It's an amazing Observation. The implications of it are simply stunning. Their world.

Shaking.

So for the sake of the Holy Spirit and his beautiful personhood and the Relationship we can enjoy with him in dynamic fellowship and for the sake of the glory of Jesus Christ who is not anybody's wax nose We and Luther exalt the book.

The book he said.

The Apostles themselves considered it necessary to put the New Testament into Greek and to bind it.

Fast.

To that language. Doubtless in order to preserve it for us safe and sound as in a sacred ark. The implications of this truth that he rediscovered for the pastoral ministry are.

Immense.

We pastors are essentially brokers of the Word of God transmitted in a book. We are brokers of the living Word of God Preserved and transmitted for us in a book. We are fundamentally readers.

Teachers.

Proclaimers of a message in a book. And all of this is for the glory of the incarnate Word and For the indwelling Holy Spirit, but neither the word incarnate Nor the indwelling spirit leads us away from the book which Luther called the external.

Word.

Christ himself. Now mark this Christ himself the living risen Lord Stands forth for worship stands forth for fellowship and Stands forth for obedience in our lives today. From the book That's where he stands forth.

Luther would say preaching is simply the contemporary Release of that fixed external external word into the lives of people for the fellowship of the living Christ. The Spirit of God broods over this book.

Because.

The book is the only place where Christ is.

Clear and the Spirit loves.

Clear pictures of Jesus. The Spirit is in the business of.

Glorifying a.

Finely contoured Christ not a fuzzy.

Hazy.

Mushy Christ and.

Therefore he broods.

Over the pages of the book if you want to walk into the presence of the Spirit in preparation for your message. You put your elbows On either side of the book and you'll be in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now the question I want to ask this morning.

Afternoon is.

What difference did this discovery make in the way he carried on the ministry of the word. And I want to learn with you from Luther how to study in view of this great Reformation Discovery. He was a university professor all of his life and therefore the problem arises in this room that We would tend to say he doesn't know what we deal with.

He's not a pastor so you're. Elevating of him as kind of a model for study is totally irrelevant because we we're not university Professors and I want to answer that objection by just walking with you toward his professorship first Historically.

So you can get a feel for his life and then giving three reasons why he should be listened to in this regard. Born November 10.

1483 in.

Islaben to a copper miner who wanted him so badly to be a Lawyer and he was on his way to being a lawyer now. Heiko Obermann. You'll hear that name very frequently because the two biographies I have used are Here I stand.

Roland Bainton and Heiko Obermann Luther Man between God and the devil. That's all. I didn't read any other bar because I looked in other biographies and look use their indexes Straight through so you're ahead of me if you've read more than two biographies of Luther.

His father Heiko Obermann said we know almost zero from substantiated evidence of his first 18 years. 1502 at the age of 19 he receives a bachelor's degree University of Erfurt 30th in his class out of 57.

Probably owing to the fact that his early education was lousy Obermann surmised January 1505 he receives his Master of Arts same University. He I'm missing a page here it is there it is Was on his way home from law school as you know July 2nd 1505 when a thunderstorm Broke out and he was knocked literally off of his horse by lightning.

And he was so frightened that he cried out help me st. Anne. I will become a monk in other words Since he did not know the safety of the gospel. He took the next best thing which was the safety of the monastery and his.

To his father's utter dismay he kept his vow two weeks later and went to the monastery There and asked to be accepted which he was July 17 1505 at the Augustinian hermit monastery in Erfurt. Now later on he said That was a blatant.

Sin what I did I.

Went against my father's will and I did it out of fear and Then he said but oh how much good the merciful Lord has allowed to come of it. And just a parenthetical encouragement to you reading biography and church history is So hope-giving.

Because you see the providence of God. Overcoming foolish decisions and Some of you are right now in crises because of very stupid decisions that you've made and you are wondering whether there's any future for marriage for parenting for ministry and.

The answer is the sovereignty of God manifest in this ungodly carnal.

Decision.

Martin Luther the sovereignty of God is great enough to do wonders through your stupid decisions. As he did with Martin Luther. It would be now 20 years before he got married. Get married when he was 41.

And I mentioned that because he walked through 41 years of his life as a single Person and dealt with high level drives and Yet wrote about his monastery experience in the monastery. I did not think about women money or possessions instead My heart trembled and fidgeted about whether God would be so his grace on me.

For I had strayed from faith and could not imagine that I had but imagined that I had angered God Whom I in turn had to appease by doing good works. There's absolutely no theological gamesmanship in this man that I can see everything is blood earnest.

Because his whole conscience was at stake. He said if I could believe that God was not angry with me. I Would stand on my head for joy. There's the talk of a man who knows what guilt is and how desperate he is to get right With God.

He was ordained to the priesthood then in 1507 23 years old now two years. He taught philosophy Aristotle moral philosophy, which he always said later was waiting for the real thing. In 1509 the real thing came his beloved counselor and teacher and friend Johannes von Staupitz Admitted him to the Bible Meaning he let him lecture on the Bible 1509 and he began his rigorous earnest study of Scripture in order to lecture October 19 1512 at age 28 he earns his doctorate in theology and now Staupitz calls him to Wittenberg from Erfurt where he's been teaching calls him to Wittenberg to take the chair of Biblical theology which Staupitz had held for 10 years and that chair Martin Luther kept the rest of his life.

He was a university professor of theology from 1512 to 1546 when he died, that's the way he lived and worked. So the question for us pastors is can a professor of theology a Say things and model things about study, which would be useful for us and let me give you three reasons Why we should listen.

Luther as a Preacher of the Word

Number one.

He was more of a preacher than any of us has been or ever will be. Without exception. There were two churches in Wittenberg the town church and the castle church. He was a regular preacher at the town church.

He said if I could today become king or emperor I would not give up my office as a preacher. It's a university professor all his life. I would not give up my office as the preacher. He was driven by a passion to exalt God in the word.

Here's one of his prayers dear Lord Dear Lord God. I want to preach so that you are glorified. I want to speak of you praise you praise your name. Although I probably cannot make it turn out. Well, won't you make it turn out?

Well. Now to feel the force of this commitment to preaching you need to realize that in Wittenberg in those days There were no programs in the church. All they did was worship and preach.

Every day.

Ten o 'clock. No 5 a .m. Sunday morning Sermon on the epistle. 10 a .m. Sunday morning sermon on the gospel Afternoon message on the Old Testament or the Catechism. Monday and Tuesday sermons on the Catechism Wednesday's Matthew Thursdays and Fridays the apostolic letters and Saturday sermons on John.

Every day a sermon in Wittenberg for the years 1512 1546. Now Luther was not the pastor of this church. Johannes Bogen Hagen his friend was the pastor from 1521 to 1558. But Luther preached because he said the people want to hear me and Because his doctorate in theology was viewed by him as a call to teach the Word of God to the whole.

Church.

One of the other commentaries, I mean Biographies that I looked at was by a Walter Levin ish, which said Luther was one of the greatest preachers in the history of Christendom. Between 1510 and 1546 Luther preached approximately 3 ,000 sermons.

For example 1522 he preached 117 sermons. 1523 the next year 137 sermons. 1528 he preached 200 sermons 200 times. 1529 121 sermons. Now do a little math with me. Take those four years and Add them together and then divide them.

And what you come up with is an average of one sermon every two and a half days for those four Years. Fred Musner who wrote a very helpful little book Luther at Luther the preacher. Never a weekend off.

He knows about all that. Never even a week day off. Never any respite at all from preaching teaching private study production writing counseling. So the first link with us and him is that he preached more than you and I will ever preached.

We if you complain about having to get one or two or three sermons ready. Shut your mouth in the face of Martin Luther. Because he preached every other day almost for most of his life.