Katharina Luther, Part 1

This sure he would write took on new meaning became inexpressibly sweet to me, and this particular text of Paul became to me the gate to heaven, not the monastery gospel. This doctrine of Sola the day I remember going to preach about the authority of Scripture having greater authority that Pope said counsel, and even he dared to say the church so Protestant Reformation, but one of the unsung heroes of that same time. Was Luther's wife Katerina, Katerina, lived as a revolutionary role model, not just for the people of her time, but for ours as well. She and Martin established a godly partnership for the gospel and that partnership had a profound impact on their marriage. This is wisdom for the heart Stephen Dave. He is teaching through a series entitled legacies of light as he looks at the biographies of several Christian heroes. Today we meet Katerina well is Easter Sunday evening, April 15 23 Ray merchant and his nephew drove a wagon load of empty barrels into the courtyard of the convent filled with the nuns who were sleeping at a condo nearby that all of them were asleep doesn't were waiting for the signal sound, which they heard 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 dairy getaway. A day later, they arrived at the doorstep of the monastery and they were greeted by a farmer who had helped plan there escape one of those nuns was 24-year-old Katerina von Bora now to focus on her, but I need to get a little background about her. She was taken to the convent following the death of her mother, a tender age of five, with 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's and officially became a nun. Evidently she took her vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty. Seriously, she's joined in with the others in their efforts of self-denial and self sacrificing self deprive patient things like food and sleep.

They were considered obstacles to holiness, and so they would deprive themselves of food additives like you would rise with the other nuns at 2 AM for prayers and then again at daybreak throughout the day. Chores would be set aside for praying and reading and singing at 7 AM at 9 AM at noon and again at 3 PM at 5 PM and finally at 7 PM talking was considered another distraction from holy living. And as you can imagine, friendships would be hard 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 affect the official records from the convent reveal not one time while she was there, was there a complaint or reprimand ever registered against one Katerina von Bora. During those years.

News made its way in bits and pieces into those cloister hallways sermons were smuggled in by way of a delivery boy's during those years. News reached inside that convent that there was a Reformation of sorts taking place outside the walls. There was a revolutionary preaching somebody out there was the lightning rod who is chosen to defy the church and tradition preaching things like salvation.

Being a gift from God, for anyone who believed preaching that monasteries and an convent's were not a guarantee pathway to heaven or holiness, after all the preaching of reached careers preaching that forgiveness was not the result of penitence or ritual or baptism or sacrament self denial preaching was reaching barriers inside the convent that the path to God was by faith alone in the sacrifice of God the son.

This was was revolutionary monasteries were being emptied.

We don't know all the details of what she particularly heard in the convent we we don't know what specific doubts she struggled with. She attempted to earn holiness and approval with God. We do know from just a few words from her own pen that I have been preserved for us and very little. By the way of has been preserved from her pen but she quote traded 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 request would have related specifically for 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 at the age of 24. She's one of the 12 that Ron out of that convent. In fact, the only thing she owns and takes with her is the clothing on our backs doesn't really take a parachute is none of them do, so that they can run quietly down the hallway and escape. She climbs in one of those herring buckets and is driven away within 24 hours. She's given me 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 liked Katerina knew very little of family love growing up. 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 and not to eat from the dining room table. On occasion, but he'd been out one afternoon (for law. I was surprised by thunderstorm that that that came so suddenly had no time to run lightning crashing everywhere around the many prayed to St. and that if he would survive that scar me with a leave law and enter the monastery and he survived claimed it was San Angelo out of the live and he kept his word and joined the monastery becoming among liked 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 out effect on one occasion he confessed for nearly 6 hours until his confessor, begged for mercy as in the stop he just couldn't rid himself of his of his guilt and finally after seven years of this, his mentoring on nonstop. It's put an end to his department released him from the monastery and assign them to teach at the University of Edinburg.

We moved into a monastery inhabited by Augustinian monks. It was called the black cloister because of the mumps black clothing unique to them and 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 Saul and of course you can't preach through books of the Bible without first studying families that the theory and so he does in and began to study the book of Romans and over the course of the study.

Romans chapter 1 and verse 17 just sort of chase them down and changed his life forever.

So take your Bible and look for a brief moment or two at that text, Romans chapter 1 and will back up in the verse 16 and get a running start. Romans chapter 1 in 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 end of the Greek for it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous man the just shall live by faith, not penitence, not self. The preservation not pilgrimage is not austerity by faith that Luther would later write, although I was an impeccable mom I knew I stood before God is a sinner troubled in my conscience. I know confidence that my merit would satisfy God, but through his study of Romans and Galatians and other passages in this text as well begin to understand that this word righteousness, and you can write in the margin. Your Bible righteousness here is theological doctrine of truth, righteousness means right with God. How does a person become more right with God. He came to understand. It was by soul of the day.

That is faith alone, and he believed the gospel and he would say that this Scripture he would write took on new meaning fact all of Scripture took on new meaning and became inexpressibly sweet to me, and this particular text of Paul became to me the dates to heaven." Not the monastery.

The gospel this doctrine of Sola for day environment would gonna preach about the authority of Scripture having greater authority that popes and councils, and even he dared to say the church itself. The lobbies in the church wasn't teaching this gospel wasn't teaching Sullivan David.

He risked everything about his past and his future and his heaven on Sola for day and he would teach it based on the authority of Scripture what he called Sola script Torah that is the authority of the Scriptures alone. Now I can fast-forward the tape.

Here's 40-year-old Martin Luther standing at the doorway of the black cloister welcoming a cart full of nuns who are dropping out of this barracks. Barefoot owning nothing but the clothing on their backs, and he felt a tremendous responsibility because even preaching effect on writing that the nunnery should empty the monastery should empty. He wanted to settle fairly quickly. Three of them returned to their family. They were young, eight of them. He married off effect. He was called Martin the matchmaker he he would marry them off the monks and priests and friend and all that was then.

The last was this 19 without family. We know from history, she was effectively disown no family know. No prospects. This 24-year-old Katerina von 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 for some strange reason, nobody knows why ran off and married somebody else that just jolted her Vinnie. Well you know of another eligible bachelor nearby. He thought the pastor friend of his who would also begun his is involvement of the Reformation. He was intelligent he was resourceful. He turned 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 him and she let it be known that she didn't like. In fact, live and look at was exasperated over this. You know this is not new.

Evidently had a mind of her own that she sent a note back to him through a mutual friend to tell him to abandon his plan to marry her. This pastor and then she did something really startling and unusual. She had the note by suggesting that if he Martin saw her hand. She would not refute. She essentially proposed Martin Luther so get this picture but you don't do that you didn't do that.

Here's a here's it.

Now 42-year-old leader of the Protestant Reformation, challenge the structure theology, the church now several years old. Gaining incredible momentum. He's now written on God's clear design.

The church leaders should not be ordered 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 were married by their observation before the congregation has been faithful to their wives is written about this. He's married all dozens of monks and priests and nuns is written widely on the blessing of the children in the ideal of God's design to family life. He by the way, have brazenly and openly ridicule the church leaders, bishops and cardinals, along with a truckload of praise for having their own mistresses. He's exposing this is written extensively on the obvious creative nature of God's delight. For a man to find all woman and faithfully love her as his wife but he's never conceived of the thought of Mary. It literally is not entered his mind. He's immersed in writing and preaching his life as his growing risks and threats that he assumes the rights of write these gonna die a martyr anything at any moment is die and not that way through one of the illnesses and yet he had several now he's just been proposed to buy a 26-year-old runaway non-stun and everybody else's as well.

And there's no there's absolutely no way he's going to say yes and then he does. He reminded me of old Boaz out there. The threshing floor member is old bachelor and young Ruth comes along and essentially proposes to amend.

You know when he wakes up after fainting.

He accepts well that's Luther shocked and then he's smitten later he'll write Betty tongue-in-cheek. He's the teaser 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 riled up the Pope, whom he hated and he said I married to give the Angels reason the last and the Devils reason to weep.

He would write as well that he wanted to practice what he been preaching and what he been writing about marriage in the home so that he could become a living demonstration with his wife of the love of Christ for the church. The church for Christ. But I gotta tell you, if you read the biographies of of Martin or Katerina Everett several of them. This is a most unlikely marriage. This marriage has little reason to survive what I want to do this is, rehearse for you and I've read much more than I could ever give you but I sort of boiled it down to three or four principles whereby we as we are in the study, observing godly believers in finding in their lives. Things to imitate the apostles, encourage us to do so as I kind boiled out 21 years of marriage. Let me give you some principles that are worthy of modeling and framing a person money money had you keep in mind in the 16th century, nobody had a church leader who was married they didn't stay didn't have that if you are a church leader. You were then unmarried.

They didn't they didn't see an example of a couple, they didn't see this kind of of pastor and wife may affect Philip Shockley historian, wrote that their marriage will become the standard for the Christian family for centuries to come. Nobody seen this before. Principle number one we give these to you very quickly narrowing marriage is not a matter of compatibility. It's a matter of commitment. The truth is they barely knew each other when they marriage is been living with the believing family and Taliban courted for nearly a year by guided then ran off. They had few conversations and in the meantime, Martin is living the life of a bachelor in the black cloister he's he's immersed in his studies and in his is writing when they married. He will love books and he will love writing and she will love farming and organizing and cleaning in the me emphasize cleaning by this point in time the monks had all left being performed. It was only Martin living in the black cloister and was falling in disrepair, an older monk and is living in an attached shed out back and that was pretty much yeah and this house was filthy that one of the first things that she dies his order to cart falls of alignment and she will whitewash every wall in that monastery because it was so dirty now. Anything invested in a typical marriage of Luther's day.

The bride brought her bed into her new home was usually handed down from mother to daughter and along with her bed. She would bring federal quilts that she made along with embroidered linen and pillows and you can see how life is going to get better here by the presence of the bride, but she didn't own any of that when he met her sitting on a parachute so she came with none of 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 are a lot of things he evidently hadn't thought about event Luther would later write. There is a lot to get used to.

In the first year of marriage like this is a change in your bed sheet the billing would sleep in on sheets that been changed for a year. Some you guys if they're going yet was wrong with that. That works for me.

He would write when sitting. No one at the table, a married man now thinks will 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. Hello to married life and all the changes that would come. Luther would write is an older man marriage does not always run smoothly, one must be committed.

They would demonstrate in the most difficult of times. The marriage doesn't work because your compatible or is easy, but because your commitment 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 that both Martin and Katerina. They loved each other love was part of it but it was the pursuit based on love of happiness but humility. They were both strong-willed and 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 merit added has made a mess of our nature, and that he would write perceptively. Marriage is the school for character development. See up until that day church was teaching. That was the monastery that was the school for developing virtue you you sequester what you want to get holy get away from everybody.

Luther doubted he found what he was alone that he was still living with himself, spent six hours confessing sin but sequester yourself away know you know you'll grow and develop in holiness. Luther will turn all of that now upside down and say you wanted training ground you wanted education and humility marriage, family will if God has blessed you with the marriage and family, you know what the Luther's thought was true. Marriage is God's school for teaching you virtue working have to stop right here for today. Stephen's lesson isn't complete. But we don't have time to finish it today will come back at the same time tomorrow and then conclude this lesson on the life of Katerina Luther.

The series that Stephen's been teaching the last several days is entitled legacies of light. This series has been developed into a beautiful hardback book and it would make a great addition to your library of Christian resources. Each chapter highlights the biography of one of these godly men and women we've been studying saints who have made a profound impact on the Christian faith and left a lasting legacy. We can give you more information about this book. Legacies of light.

If you call us today at 86 648 Bible. That's 866-482-4253. Thanks again for joining us today will be back tomorrow with the conclusion to this lesson right here on the list on