Sermon on the Augsburg Confession

Jul 7, 2000 - © Rev. Verlyn Dobberstein (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin)

since his conversion he was forever confessing Christ with his mouth. Whether he was robbed, beaten, or left for dead for the sake of the Gospel, it did not close his mouth from telling others of the Savior. He said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." We think of the disciples who at one time were hiding behind locked doors for fear of persecution but after Pentecost boldly confessed Christ even if it meant suffering martyrdom, dying for their faith. In 1530 at Augsburg, Germany, the Vice-Chancellor Christian Beyer who read the Augsburg Confession certainly was not afraid to confess Christ to others.

This fearless Lutheran layman read the Confession so distinctly and loudly that everyone in the courtyard of the palace could hear it. The men and princes and imperial cities who signed this document also risked facing martyrdom. But they held fast to their belief of salvation in Jesus Christ and were not afraid to confess this in the Augsburg Confession. What about us today? Are we willing to confess with our mouths just as Moses did before Pharaoh in Egypt that God heard the cries of His people in slavery and was going to set them free? Are we like Stephen ready to confess with our mouths that Jesus died and arose again, even if it means being stoned to death? Or are we more like Peter ready to deny the Savior when someone asks us about our Christian faith for fear that we might be ridiculed and rejected? For those times when we have denied our Savior or remained silent we ask for God's forgiveness and that He empower us through the Holy Spirit to follow the confessional examples of those who have gone before us. There is so little confessionalism being given today, to take a stand on God's Word even as Luther did at the Diet of Worms when he said, "Unless you can prove from the Bible that I have made wrong statements, I cannot and I will not take back anything. My conscience is bound by the Word of God. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me." So many today are more concerned about being politically correct. The merger of some church bodies are taking place by downplaying their differences and saying they don't matter. All

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