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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ005101S
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00:26 Our modern society makes sure that we aren't too hot,
00:30 too cold, too hungry, too thirsty, or too tired. 00:35 So if you are ever too tempted to complain about these things, 00:39 spare a thought for what life was like as a medieval monk 00:44 about 500 years ago. 00:51 A monk's day in the middle ages started between one 00:54 and two a.m. with the ringing of the bells to wake him up 00:58 for the first prayers of the day, the group then would 01:02 sing hymns and recite psalms and prayers. 01:05 Then they were allowed a short nap before the bells rang again 01:10 at sunrise for more prayers and then every three hours 01:15 after that. All the monks joined for prayers 01:18 seven times a day. 01:23 Monks slept on slabs of stone with only straw for padding 01:27 they'd only caused? blankets to keep them warm 01:30 through the freezing European winters, many of them 01:34 used no blankets at all. They weren't allowed to own anything 01:39 except a crucifix and a begging bowl. 01:42 Monks regularly performed rituals designed to test their 01:47 endurance and humility. 01:49 This included fasting, lying in the snow, wearing uncomfortable 01:54 prickly undershirts made of animal hair and even 01:58 beating themselves with whips. 02:00 And if this wasn't bad enough monks were required to work hard 02:05 whenever they weren't praying. 02:07 They had to provide food for the monastery and also to work 02:11 for their communities but why did they put themselves 02:15 through all of that? 02:17 Well, they were searching for something 02:20 and it's still something that all of us are looking for, 02:24 join me as we look at the story of one such monk and how 02:30 he found peace and freedom and how you can find it too. 03:03 I'm here by the Sea of Galilee where Jesus gave us the 03:07 beatitudes, the center of Jesus teachings about 03:11 the kingdom of God is the Sermon on the Mount 03:14 and the very heart of the Sermon on the Mount are the Beatitudes. 03:18 So, if we want to really know what it means to be a follower 03:23 of Jesus and to live as a citizen of the kingdom of God, 03:27 then we must understand Christ's teaching in the Beatitudes. 03:32 But the beatitudes aren't just spiritual principles 03:36 for Christians, they're arguably the body of principles 03:40 that has been most influential in shaping western civilization 03:44 as we know it today. 03:46 The word Beatitude is an old- fashioned religious-sounding 03:51 word that not many people will recognize today, 03:55 it refers to being blissfully happy. 03:58 When Jesus calls people blessed in the Beatitudes that's 04:04 literally what he means, he means that if you display these 04:07 qualities, you will be blissfully happy. 04:10 This is a happiness that belongs only to God and it can come 04:16 only from God. In other words when in your life you display 04:21 Jesus describes in the beatitudes, you will share 04:25 in the joy of heaven here on earth. It's the only way to 04:29 truly live. If you're after hope, inner peace and 04:33 happiness, this is where you'll find it. 04:35 So Jesus sat on a hill here so the crowd could hear him 04:41 and He taught the people the most radical and influential 04:45 set of principles for living that this world has ever heard. 04:49 Among the beatitudes he said this in Matthew 5:6 05:02 like each of the beatitudes there is a great truth hidden 05:06 in this radical contradiction. 05:08 And this great truth can be seen played out in the 05:12 life of a German monk Martin Luther. 05:26 Young Martin was brilliant even as a child so when he was 05:31 only 13 years old, his father sent him to the University 05:36 of Erfurt to study law He proved so skillful at 05:40 public debates that he was given the nickname, 05:43 the philosopher. But behind his many achievements 05:48 Martin was a young man in turmoil that's why he threw 05:53 himself so relentlessly into his studies. 05:56 to try to find peace. He was driven by the fears of 06:01 hell and the wroth of God. 06:03 Martin Luther lacked the assurance of his own salvation 06:08 he desperately wanted to be right with God 06:12 and have God accept him but he knew that he wasn't 06:16 good enough on his own. 06:18 Then in 1505 at the age of 21 his life took a dramatic turn 06:27 he'd been visiting his parents and was on the dirt road 06:31 back to Erfurt when he suddenly found himself in the midst 06:35 of a raging thunderstorm. Suddenly a bolt of lightning 06:40 struck the ground near him in terror, Martin screamed out 06:46 a vow to St. Anne his patron saint, help me, St. Anne 06:52 and I will become a monk. 07:03 This doesn't seem to be a random spur of the moment decision 07:07 he had probably thinking about this for sometime 07:11 so when he has saw that he had survived the storm 07:15 Martin immediately gave away all of his possessions 07:20 left his studies of law and entered the Augustinian 07:24 Order of Erfurt becoming a monk. 07:26 His parents were bitterly disappointed but Martin 07:32 embarked on his monastic life in Wittenberg with great fervor. 07:36 Finally, he thought he would be able to learn to love God 07:41 without fear and find peace with his soul. 07:45 As a monk, Martin focused on and even obsessed about 07:51 his personal sins and worked hard to overcome them. 07:55 He was determined to become good enough for God 08:00 to accept him, he would begin each day in the early hours 08:04 after midnight and then he would try to purify himself 08:09 through a regular routine which included confession, 08:12 silently praying at almost every moment and reading the Bible 08:17 late into the night. 08:19 He was content with only a table and a chair in his unheated room 08:24 he slept without a blanket in the bone-chilling cold of the 08:29 Northern German winter. 08:30 And a penance for his sins, Martin would beat himself 08:35 with a whip and he would fast to the point of emaciation. 08:40 Martin was such a successful man that in 1506 he gained 08:46 full admission to the Augustinian Order. 08:48 Afterward, Luther said: 08:56 But still, he found no peace his conscience told him 09:02 that he was unworthy of heaven because of his sins and 09:05 weaknesses. He wanted to be able to love God fully 09:10 but more and more he was terrified of the wrath of God 09:14 and the more religious he became, the more his terror 09:19 increased, Luther said: 09:32 While in the monastery Martin continued to study 09:35 although now instead of studying law, he studied theology. 09:40 The year after his ordination he began teaching theology 09:45 at the University of Wittenberg where he was also awarded 09:49 two bachelor's degrees. 09:51 A text in the Bible book of Romans that Martin came across 09:56 was Romans 1:17 which says: 10:15 Whenever Luther read this, his eyes were drawn not 10:18 to the word faith but to the word righteous, 10:22 for Luther the text was clear, you had to already be 10:27 righteous or morally upright perfectly good, 10:30 because only the righteous could live by faith. 10:35 Luther remarked: 10:50 Luther could not live by faith, because he knew he wasn't 10:55 righteous, morally correct or perfectly good. 10:58 And so he knew he was under the condemnation of God 11:02 this was at the core of Luther's inner turmoil, he was hungering 11:08 and thirsting for righteousness but he didn't know how to 11:12 find it. Even with all of his good efforts and works 11:16 he knew in his heart that he was still a sinner and full of 11:21 mistakes and sin. 11:22 In the year 1510 Luther made a journey to Rome, 11:31 there he thought he might find the answers to his questions 11:36 that would satisfy the hunger of his soul, but instead Luther 11:42 disturbed by the corruption and lack of spirituality among 11:46 the clergy that he saw there. And being scrupulously 11:51 observant Luther followed the traditional customs of Pilgrims 11:55 in Rome. One of these was climbing the holy stairs 12:00 on his knees, reciting the Lord's Prayer at every step. 12:05 While Luther was doing this, the words of the Apostle Paul 12:10 sounded in his mind. 12:16 He returned to Germany even more troubled than when he left. 12:22 In the attempt to shift his focus away from his troubled 12:26 soul, Luther threw himself into more study in Wittenberg 12:30 where in 1512 he earned his doctorate in theology. 12:34 He went on the become a professor at the university 12:38 there while he was presenting lectures on the sounds in the 12:43 book of Romans, for the first time he began to see God 12:48 in the Bible in a different way, he wrote: 13:18 Although light had dawned in Luther's mind and his hunger 13:21 and thirst for righteousness was being filled by the 13:24 gift of God, he still hadn't lit the spot that launched the 13:29 Protestant Reformation. 13:30 The spot that lit the Reformation was the sale of 13:34 indulgences, these came about because Pope Leo the 10th 13:39 needed to raise funds to rebuild the Basilica of St. Peter's 13:44 in Rome so he sent preachers throughout Europe 13:48 to promote their sale. 13:49 Basically how an indulgence worked was like this 13:54 If you gave the required amount of money to the church, 13:58 or its representative, any and all sins would be forgiven 14:02 for yourself and anyone else nominated living or dead. 14:07 It was a way of buying the righteousness of God 14:12 with money, the very basic form of salvation by works. 14:17 And when the preacher John Tetzel started selling 14:21 indulgences in Wittenberg, Luther objected. 14:25 He objected on the basis that God alone had the power 14:30 to forgive sin. The practice of selling indulgences 14:34 took people's eyes from the true source of righteousness 14:37 which is faith in Christ. 14:39 On October 31, 1517, Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the 14:47 door of the church at Wittenberg and the Protestant 14:50 Reformation began. 14:52 In 1521, Martin Luther was called to an assembly 14:57 really a trial at Worms, Germany there he uttered the famous 15:03 words, 15:29 Martin Luther had finally discovered the true source 15:35 of righteousness, his hunger and his thirst had been filled 15:41 by the righteousness of Christ, received as a free gift 15:45 through faith. His fear of God, his wroth and hell-fire 15:50 was gone, it had been replaced by assurance and peace. 15:56 He finally had peace of mind, he now knew that he was made 16:01 right with God not by what he did, but by what Jesus did. 16:07 He was accepted by God, not because he was good 16:11 but because Jesus was good, all he had to do was 16:16 believe in Jesus and accept Him as his Savior. 16:20 And because his own hunger and thirsting for righteousness 16:25 had been satisfied. Luther was now able to share the message 16:30 of Righteousness by Faith to the world. 16:44 There's nothing worse than feeling hungry is there? 16:47 Fortunately, few of us know what real hunger is 16:52 but Jesus' heroes did, they were subsistence farmers and 16:57 fishermen under tremendous financial pressure from the 17:01 Roman rulers. They knew what it was like to go for a day 17:06 or two without a proper meal, the majority of Jesus' audience 17:11 was never far from starvation and so when Jesus said, 17:18 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst," the people who 17:22 heard Him knew the light- headedness and weakness 17:25 that accompanied hunger. They knew the desperation that 17:30 they felt when they were without food, they knew nausea and 17:34 pain in their stomachs. They knew that to be hungry 17:39 was a terrible thing and to be thirsty was even worse, 17:44 water was the most precious commodity of all for its lack 17:49 would soon be followed by death. 17:51 Just think, we're used to having cold water whenever we like 17:57 the people who heard Jesus didn't have taps with 18:01 running water, the only water they had was what they could 18:05 carry themselves from wells and streams. 18:08 If you were traveling and didn't know the lay of the land, 18:12 dying of thirst was a real risk, this is the kind of hunger 18:17 and this is the kind of thirst of which Jesus was speaking 18:21 It is the hunger that will cause you to starve to death 18:25 and the thirst that will kill you if you don't drink. 18:28 This Beatitude is a challenge to all of us, it asks you 18:35 how much do you really want righteousness? 18:38 Do you want it as much as a starving man who craves food? 18:42 Or a thirsty man cries out for water? First of all, 18:48 what is righteousness? 18:50 Well at its most basic righteous ness is simply right doing, 18:56 a person who is righteous will do the right thing. 18:59 When someone does what is right, we tend to think of them as 19:04 a good person don't we? Most people want to be good people. 19:08 As William Barclay the famous Scottish Bible scholar says. 19:27 But most people don't crave goodness like a man dying of 19:31 thirst craves water, instead what most often happens 19:36 is that people's desire to do what is right is prioritized 19:41 below other desires. For example let's say I want to do the 19:46 right thing and be honest but if I lie and cheat 19:49 I will end up with more money. 19:51 Or let's say I want to do the right thing and admit 19:55 I've done something wrong but if I do other people will think 19:59 less of me, it's usually easy to rationalize away why 20:05 we shouldn't do the right thing and the thing about 20:08 doing the right thing is that it's black and white. 20:12 You can't partially do the right thing, you either do the 20:17 right thing or you don't. It's like being pregnant, 20:20 you can't be half pregnant, so if righteousness means 20:25 always doing what is right, then that's a very high standard 20:30 and you have to do it all the time to maintain it. 20:34 So, who can be a good person? Can anyone? 20:39 Well, Jesus gave us a perspective on this. 20:43 Once a man came running up to Jesus and addressed him as 20:47 "Good Teacher", why do you call me good Jesus answered? 20:52 No one is good except God alone so that leaves all of humanity 20:58 in a real bind doesn't it? Romans 3:23 says it like this. 21:08 But we were all created for goodness that's why people 21:13 instinctively admire what is good. 21:15 We were all created to do the right thing that's why we 21:20 recognize it when we see it and that's why most people 21:24 instinctively desire it for their own lives. 21:27 But here's the thing, only God has perfect goodness 21:32 and because of sin in our lives we don't, righteousness 21:38 is God's alone. In this Beatitude however the blessing 21:43 the perfect happiness isn't for the person who achieves 21:47 perfect righteousness in his or her own life 21:51 and that's encouraging because the blessing is instead 21:55 for the person who recognizes his own hunger and clutches 22:00 at the wonderful goodness of God despite the ups and downs 22:04 of life and despite their own stumbles and failures. 22:07 And that's what is so encour- aging about this Beatitude 22:11 righteousness is all or nothing it can't be partial 22:17 A single selfish thought bought you a copybook, 22:22 in fact, this is emphasized in this original Greek of this 22:25 Beatitude which emphasizes the blessing is for those who 22:30 hunger and thirst for complete righteousness. 22:34 Of course the only one in whom righteousness may be found 22:39 is Jesus, the only source of righteousness. 22:42 He's the only one who can satisfy your hunger and thirst 22:47 for goodness in your life and the only way to be filled 22:51 and satisfied with the righteousness of Jesus 22:54 is through faith in Him. It's a gift, you take hold of it 22:59 by accepting His sacrifice on the cross for you 23:03 and submitting your life to Him. When you do that 23:07 Christ's complete righteousness is credited to your account 23:11 as if it had always been yours. As the Apostle Paul says 23:16 in Ephesians 2:8,9 23:32 The earliest followers of Jesus knew that righteousness was a 23:36 gift that was received through faith, but sadly at the time of 23:44 Martin Luther, the main church taught something else, 23:48 it taught that you could be righteous by performing 23:52 the religious services of the church decreed or by doing 23:57 sufficient good works or simply by giving the church your money. 24:01 So, by the time of Martin Luther there was a huge desperation 24:07 for righteousness and God used Luther's own hunger 24:10 and thirst for righteousness to remind the world 24:13 of the message of God's Righteousness as a free gift. 24:18 The church popularly taught that righteousness was something 24:22 that you did but Luther discovered from the word of God 24:26 that righteousness is something that God has done, 24:30 He accomplished it at Calvary through Jesus Christ 24:34 and now He offers it to you as a gift. 24:38 Over 500 years have passed since Martin Luther 24:42 rediscovered the message of how humanity's hunger 24:45 for righteousness can be truly satisfying and since then 24:50 society has developed in ways so that the meaning of this 24:54 Beatitude has been once again forgotten by most despite our 25:00 modern sophistication and advanced technology 25:03 and even despite the rise of evolution and atheism 25:07 the essence of what it means to be a good human being 25:10 remains. All of us as human beings were created by God 25:16 we all have a desire for goodness in our lives 25:20 but everywhere around us we see the results of evil. 25:25 And within ourselves, we fail to live up to who we ultimately 25:30 want to be and just like in Luther's time the world today 25:35 has no answers. Our hunger and thirst for righteousness 25:39 can be met as an absolutely free gift from God 25:44 when you trust in Jesus. Isn't that amazing, you are then 25:49 counted as righteous before God. 25:54 Are you distressed by the evil in the world? 25:56 Are you disappointed by the failures in your own personal 25:59 life? Are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness? 26:05 If you would like to find out more about God's gift of 26:08 righteousness, then I'd like to recommend the Free gift 26:12 we have for all our Incredible Journey viewers today 26:16 it's the booklet, Martin Luther Man of the Millennium. 26:21 This booklet is our gift to you and is absolutely free 26:25 I guarantee there are no costs or obligations whatsoever. 26:30 So make the most of this wonderful opportunity 26:34 to receive the gift we have for you today. 26:37 Phone or text 0436.333.555 in Australia or 020.422.2042 in 26:48 New Zealand. Or visit our website at TiJ.tv or simply 26:53 scan the QR code on your screen and we'll send you today's 26:57 free offer totally free of charge and with no obligation. 27:01 Write to us at GPO Box 274 Sydney NSW 2001, Australia 27:07 or PO Box 76673 Manukau, Auckland 2241, New Zealand. 27:15 Don't delay, call or text us now. 27:19 If you've enjoyed our journey in the footsteps of Martin Luther 27:27 and his quest for the gift of righteousness, 27:29 that can only be found in Jesus, then be sure to join us again 27:34 next week when we will share another of life's journeys 27:38 together. Until then, let's reach out to Jesus 27:42 and accept the free gift of grace that He offers us. 27:46 Let's pray. 27:49 Dear Heavenly Father, We thank you for the gift of 27:52 righteousness through Jesus, we thank you that you have 27:57 promised to meet every one of our needs and fill us 28:00 with your spirit. Please guide us as we accept the gift 28:04 of salvation along with your promises of peace and assurance 28:08 and follow your leading. In Jesus' name, we pray, 28:13 Amen! |
Revised 2022-05-24