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Disclaimer: This is a transcript of Pastor Fenker’s sermon. It was preached from an outline, and the transcript taken automatically from the audio. Please forgive any typographical or formatting errors.

Whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my father who is in heaven.

᛭ INI ᛭

On June 25th, 1537 German princes signed their name to a document. They stood before Charles the 5th Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He had asked them to present the faith being taught in their churches. And so they complied. They listened to the emperor, obeyed the 4th commandment and presented the confession of their faith. They presented what Philip Melancthon had wrote for them in 1530. But it was not Philip Melancthon’s theology, but rather the theology of Martin Luther that was in question. And whether or not his teachings actually lined up with God’s word. That document is the Augsburg confession. And we still hold to it today as Lutherans. 


We hold to the unaltered Augsburg confession. We hold to it as it was presented to Charles V. In 1530. But we still hold to it. Not because it was penned by Philip Melancthon, not because the our forefathers, German forefathers, the princes held to it. Not because it holds the theology of Martin Luther, even though he is the chief teacher of our church. We hold to it because it stands upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. For there is no other foundation which has been laid which is Jesus Christ, our Lord. 


It is, it confesses Christ, and what he means. For you and for me in our salvation, and then also it confesses what love for neighbor looks like as drawn from the divine word. And from Christ’s words, this evening in Matthew chapter 10. What those brave men did. In confessing Christ before emperor. is what we too also should do in our day to confess Christ. And listening to Christ, we see that confessing Christ. is life, and it is health. But it is at the expense of life and limb.

Confessing Christ is part of what it means to be a Christian. Christians confess Christ to the world. To the unbelieving world. We confess Christ against the devil, we confess Christ even against our own flesh. But Christ here draws us to confessing him before the world. Whoever confesses me before men. We should always be ready to have a reasonable defense for the hope that we have in Christ, as Peter tells us in his 1st letter. And when we confess Christ, we are not content to just confess God. Or a designer. Or a higher power. None of these are good enough. We ought to beware of those who would only confess God, whatever that means. No, for us, we confess Christ. That Christ is our great God and Savior, that Jesus is the only God. 


After all, this is why the scriptures are written, that we should believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that believing we would have life in his name. We confess Christ as God. as the eternal son of the Father, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Spirit forever and ever. We confess Christ as Christians. And this includes everything that Christ says. As Christ says in Matthew 28, make disciples, teaching them to cherish all that I have commanded them. And so it is necessary for us Christians to then know what Christ said, if we are to confess him. 
And so we must know, at least the basics, all of us. The Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Christ’s words, in Matthew 28 and Mark 16. His words on the keys in John 20, and the words of institution.


All these things, Christians should know so that we can make the good confession before men. And confessing Christ includes preaching and teaching. And so this is why our congregation, our synod, I as a pastor, still claim to hold to the unaltered Augsburg confession. that we would rightly have the word of God taught in our midst so that faith would abound and love increase. As the Augsburg Confession presented the preaching and teaching of the German churches back then, it still… presents the teaching and the preaching of what is truly… Christian, what is truly Christian. It explains all that we believe, just as it was in Nehemiah’s day, they were explaining the law to the people.


God’s word to the people in the preaching and teaching. so that they could also confess it. So confessing Christ is the Christian life and confessing Christ is life and health. Confessing Christ is life and health, not because of the confessing. But because of who Christ is. Christ is, the one who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate. He said, he was the king, come to save his people. It’s what he was condemned for, Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews, the son of man going, as it was written of him, that he might be giving his life as a ransom for many, even for you. After all, you are worth more. than many sparrows, worth even the precious blood of the Son of God, shed for you and for all your sins. Confessing Christ is life and health to faith, and to behavior.


As Christ says, uh, in verse uh, 24, every, a disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. We are to live and have life as Christ had life. We are to suffer and die and rise as Christ did. We are to put away all the works of darkness and pursue all the good things. that Paul listed in 1st Timothy flee things that are unrighteousness, but rather pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Confessing Christ is not only life and health for this life, how we ought to live in this life, but it is eternal life and eternal health. As Christ says, that he will confess those who confess him before his father in heaven. that they might have life, eternal life, with Christ, and with his father.


Fight a good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, which Christ purchased for you. Confessing Christ is indeed life and health, and we know that this is so also because to not confess him is death, as Christ warns, whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father, who is in heaven. After all, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. After all, Christ says later on in Matthew 10. He who finds his life will lose it, that is, keeping your life so that you don’t have to risk life and limb.


But that is to where we now turn. Confessing Christ is at the expense of life and limb. A student is not greater than his teacher, nor a slave his master, as Christ was put to death, so also the Christian may be. Those German princes risked all. Not only for their sakes, but for their kingdoms, their princedoms, their regions. And after the death of Luther, it proved true. There were persecutions and wars amongst the princes, eventually, even being 30 years of war, all over the truth of the gospel. And we are not greater than Christ. We will be persecuted for our faith. 


They will speak things against us unjustly. And ultimately they can also kill the body. And they really can. But, what does it matter? If you lose life and limb for Christ, what does it matter? that even Christ himself died? Did not Christ himself rise from the dead? He did? And so when we confess Christ, at the expense of life and limb, it doesn’t matter to us. as Christians. As Luther puts it, at the end of a mighty fortress. Take they our life, goods, fame, child, wife. Though these all be gone, our victory has been won, the kingdom ours remaineth. 


Because we fear not only him who can destroy body and soul in hell, but rather we fear him, who is the one who can raise the body on the last day. So it was that all the martyrs went to their deaths throughout the centuries, knowing that Christ will just raise them again. And then they will never die again, even as Christ lives and reigns to all eternity. And he will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him, as Paul says. It is at the expense of life and limb, and not confessing Christ would mean you would preserve life and limb, but to this Christ also says, he who finds his life will lose it.


And he who loses his life for my sake, will find it. And after all, as Christ says elsewhere, what can man gain for his own soul? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world? And forfeit his soul.

CONFESSING CHRIST IS LIFE AND HEALTH AT THE EXPENSE OF LIFE AND LIMB.

Those 7 princes knew this. So did Philip a lengthen. So did Martin Luther. And so have all Christians who believed in Christ. 
We know this to be true. that we can indeed give up life and limb, but we know that our life is not this, or our body, but rather our life is Christ, and we are called to confess him. Confess him as our only God and Savior, the God, who died for our us, for our sins, for the sins of the whole world, who rose again on the last day. Who saves us, makes us his baptism, gives us his body and blood to eat and to drink.


And so we do not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the depths of the sea. Christ is raised, and so we do not, we fear him. We fear our father, who redeems us, body and soul in this death of his son. Who raised his son from the dead. And we fear him, who sends his spirit, on the last day that would reunite our bodies and souls together, that we might have life and health forever, with him. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

᛭ INI ᛭