Scripture 2 Kings 22-23
THE REFORMATION
THE
Reformation began 504 years ago today Oct 31, 1517 when Martin Luther wrote 95
statements about corrections that should be made within the Catholic Church and
he posted (or nailed them) to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
It's
fascinating that what eventually took pace was called the Protestant Reformation,
which was his intent, but a reformation never happened. He wanted to reform the
Catholic church, primarily in regard to the selling of indulgences - preying on
people's ignorance to give money to the church. Previous reformers stood
against something they saw as wrong but Luther instead wanted change for what
was right - key to Luther’s intended reform of the church: Scripture alone
is authoritative (sola
scriptura) and justification is
by faith (sola fide), not by works. Instead of reform, Luther was excommunicated,
and the Lutheran Church was born. In the same time period were other reformers;
John Calvin (Presbyterian) Menno Simons (Mennonite Church) Jacob Hutter
(Hutterites - like the Amish) and Conrad Grebel (called an anabaptists becoming
the forerunner of the Baptists)
Because
what took place was so widespread and changed the face of Christianity forever, it is easy to see why this event
(and all that took place after) is known as THE Reformation.
Unlike the long lasting "THE" reformation, there have been many reformations that have had great impact but where a beginning and ending are more visible.
1)
John the Baptist - Prepare a way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
2)
Jehu - Under false pretenses, assembled all
those who worshipped Baal then had them all slaughtered and had the beams of
the house of Ball turned into an outhouse.
3)
Jacob - So Jacob said to his household and to
all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and
purify yourselves and change your garments
4) Josiah is HIStory for us to primarily see today.
When Josiah became king, Israel was at it's worse ever. It could be compared to the people of Israel when Moses came down from the mountain and the people had so easily stopped following the one true God to make a calf out of gold to worship. Only now it was way worse, and Josiah is considered the second Moses. Josiah reigned for 31 years, from 640 to 609 BC - After He became king when he was 8 years old when his father, King Amon died. His father and grandfather King Manasseh both did evil in the eyes of the Lord and left the worship of the one true God of their fathers and practiced idol worship.
2 Kings 22-23 - Josiah
did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, not turning aside to the right or
to the left. When he was 26, King Josiah began repairs on the temple. The High
Priest discovered the book of the law in the temple and had it read to Josiah.
When the
king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. Great is
the Lord's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the
words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written
there concerning us."
23 Then the
king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 He went up to the
temple of the Lord with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests
and the prophets — all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in
their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found
in the temple of the Lord. 3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed the
covenant in the presence of the Lord-to follow the Lord and keep his commands,
with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant
written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.
Hence, "a reformation" began.
4 The king
ordered the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles
made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside
Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. He
did away with the pagan priests. He took the Asherah pole from the temple of
the Lord to the Kidron Valley and burned it there. He ground it to powder and
scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. He also tore down the
quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the Lord
and where women did weaving for Asherah.
Josiah broke down the shrines
at the gates.
He desecrated Topheth, so no
one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech. He
removed the horses and burned the chariots that kings had dedicated to the sun.
He pulled down the altars the
kings of Judah had erected and smashed them to pieces in the Kidron Valley. The
king also desecrated the high places that were built for Ashtoreth the vile
goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the
detestable god of the people of Ammon. Josiah
smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites
with human bones.
Josiah had the bones removed
from tombs and burned on the altar to defile it.
The king asked, "What is
that tombstone I see?"
The men of the city said,
"It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced
against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it."
"Leave it alone," he
said. "Don't let anyone disturb his bones."
Just as he had done at Bethel,
Josiah removed and defiled all the shrines at the high places that the kings of
Israel had built in the towns of Samaria that had provoked the Lord to anger.
20 Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and
burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
The king gave this order to
all the people: "Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is
written in this Book of the Covenant." Not since the days of the judges
who led Israel, nor throughout the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of
Judah, had any such Passover been observed. But in the eighteenth year of King
Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid
of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other
detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. Neither before nor after Josiah
was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did — with all his heart
and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law
of Moses.
A reformation was short lived,
and God still brought destruction on Judah, but Josiah remained faithful till
he was killed in battle.
31 Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his grandfathers had done. Pharaoh Neco put him in chains and made Eliakim (renamed Jehoiakim) son of Josiah king. Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years. And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his grandfather's had done.
Was Josiah's
hard work worth it? YES YES YES! He was faithful to the Lord through prayer and
by the book of the law. In the midst of all the evil done by God's people, there
was a moment of reformation.
In the bible
there are many times of reformation and throughout church history, not only THE
reformation of the 16th century but "The Great Awakenings"
of the 18th century and the Jesus Movement in from the late 60's to
the early 80's.
The
great Awakenings were a response to declining church attendance, apathy, and
secular thoughts replacing those of the church. Jonathan Edwards and George
Whitefield are the great preachers of the 1st great Awakening -
whitefield preaching with a tremble and volume.
The major themes are still vital
today:
All people are
born sinners
Sin without
salvation will send a person to hell
All people
can be saved if they confess their sins to God, seek forgiveness & accept
God’s grace
All people can
have a direct and emotional connection with God
Religion shouldn’t be formal and institutionalized, but rather casual and personal
The
Jesus movement is the era when I came to faith in Christ. The Jesus movement
was a mainstream alternative to the charismatic movement. It's entire focus was
about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Being during the
babyboom era the youth culture in churches was vibrant with mission trips,
street evangelism, outdoor week long concerts and busting at the seems church
camps.
Why would God want a new reformation, great awakening, or Jesus movement to begin? Because for too many years, the world has seen the church and Christians in general as a group of people shooting blanks - overpromising and underdelivering. How can that change, with individuals who are willing to get serious about prayer and living (first Studying) God's Word and allowing the Holy Spirit to direct our lives and our mission.
ILLUSTRATION: Roy Robertson was a soldier at Pearl
Harbor in 1941: 'My ship, the West Virginia, docked at Pearl Harbor on the
evening of December 6, 1941. A couple of the fellows and I left the ship that
night and attended a Bible study. About fifteen sailors sat in a circle on the
floor. The leader asked us to each recite our favorite Scripture verse. In turn
each sailor shared a verse and briefly commented on it.
I sat there in terror. I couldn't
recall a single verse. I grew up in a Christian home, went to church three
times a week, but ... I couldn't recall a single verse. Finally, I remembered
one verse - John 3:16. I silently rehearsed it in my mind. The spotlight of
attention grew closer as each sailor took his turn. It was up to the fellow
next to me. He recited John 3:16. He took my verse! As he commented on it I sat
there in stunned humiliation. In a few moments everyone would know that I could
not recall from memory even a single verse. Later that night I went to bed
thinking, "Robertson, you're a fake."
At 7:55 the next morning I was
awakened by the ship alarm ordering us to battle stations. 360 planes of the
Japanese Imperial Fleet were attacking our ship and the other military
installations. My crew and I raced to our machine gun emplacement, but all we
had was practice ammunition. So for the first fifteen minutes of the two-hour
battle, we only fired blanks hoping to scare the Japanese airplanes.
As I stood there firing fake
ammunition I thought, "Robertson, this is how your whole life has been -
firing blanks for Christ." I made up my mind as Japanese bullets slammed
into our ship, "If I escape with my life, I will get serious about
following Jesus."
Roy Robertson did get serious. He
became the first missionary of "The Navigators" and did a lot of work
with Billy Graham as well.
CONCLUSION: A reformation in the world begins with
a reformation in America which begins with a reformation in the churches which
begins with a reformation in your church which begins with a reformation in
your family which begins with a reformation in YOU!
Joshua
24:14-16 "Now fear the Lord and
serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped
beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord
seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will
serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods
of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household,
we will serve the Lord."
16 Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to
forsake the Lord to serve other gods! Every reformation, including THE
Reformation begin with two essential ingredients, the Bible and prayer.
Romans 12:1-2
(MSG) So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday,
ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life —
and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the
best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture
that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God.
You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from
you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging
you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops
well-formed (reformed) maturity in you.
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