WEBVTT 00:04.700 --> 00:07.500 Grace to you and peace 00:08.200 --> 00:14.800 this Reformation Day from the one who is, and who was and who is to 00:14.800 --> 00:15.500 come. 00:16.100 --> 00:22.600 And from the seven spirits who are before his throne. The Throne of 00:22.600 --> 00:28.600 Heavens preeminent, witness, the faithful one, the firstborn of the 00:28.600 --> 00:32.000 dead and the ruler of the kings of the Earth. 00:32.700 --> 00:39.100 To the one who loved us and freed us from our sins by his blood and 00:39.100 --> 00:46.800 made us a kingdom. Priests to His God and Father to Him, be the glory 00:47.500 --> 00:55.600 and the power and the ages of the Ages which is to say in the age, that 00:55.600 --> 00:58.700 is to come which in Him 00:59.600 --> 01:00.500 has come. 01:02.800 --> 01:05.099 Beloved brothers and sisters of our Lord 01:05.099 --> 01:06.400 Jesus Christ. 01:08.800 --> 01:09.800 Our hymns 01:11.400 --> 01:15.800 can be difficult to sing, can they not? 01:17.900 --> 01:18.600 Yes. 01:20.100 --> 01:23.300 Difficult like this, morning's hymn. 01:24.900 --> 01:29.100 But not because the hymn is unfamiliar. 01:30.400 --> 01:33.500 Not because it is out of step with the times. 01:34.700 --> 01:41.200 And not because it is otherwise hard to follow or to perform. Instead 01:42.600 --> 01:49.900 this morning's hymn composed not that long ago actually by a former 01:49.900 --> 01:51.800 professor of this institution. 01:53.100 --> 01:55.400 By the remarkable Martin Franzmann. 01:58.100 --> 02:02.800 The hymn is difficult because it speaks such profound truths. 02:05.000 --> 02:10.000 Because it reaches so eloquently, deep down into the troubling 02:10.000 --> 02:11.100 reality 02:12.200 --> 02:18.000 of what it means to be rescued from the depths of our despair. From the 02:18.000 --> 02:25.600 deep dark, disquieting things of this broken, and malevolent world. 02:27.100 --> 02:30.400 Does the hymn move you? 02:31.900 --> 02:36.000 Does it perhaps even overwhelm you? 02:36.700 --> 02:37.600 It's okay. 02:39.200 --> 02:40.200 You're not alone. 02:42.800 --> 02:46.600 After all does not the life that we live in this world all too 02:46.600 --> 02:52.300 often seem, here come some strange words, like a aimeless 02:52.300 --> 02:53.200 moat. 02:55.700 --> 02:59.900 Like a puny seemingly insignificant wind-driven 03:00.000 --> 03:01.700 spec of a thing. 03:04.500 --> 03:11.000 Does this life too often seem like a death word drift from futile 03:11.000 --> 03:11.900 birth? 03:13.500 --> 03:15.000 Like a hall of death. 03:16.300 --> 03:23.600 A house of doom where death has royal scope and room. 03:25.100 --> 03:30.100 Wow, that's a little dark, isn't it? 03:31.900 --> 03:37.100 But once in a while perhaps more often than we sometimes imagine it's 03:37.100 --> 03:43.000 important for us to remember how dark how deeply disturbing it really 03:43.000 --> 03:43.700 is. 03:46.500 --> 03:50.400 Oh, fatal, hell-bent Rebel will. 03:51.700 --> 03:53.700 Oh, prideful spite. 03:55.300 --> 03:57.400 We know who we are. 03:58.800 --> 04:01.000 We know where it is that we live. 04:02.500 --> 04:08.200 For this reason, Jesus speaks in the gospels of the tribulation that 04:08.200 --> 04:09.200 is to come. 04:11.000 --> 04:15.500 That will be both of our making and not of our making. 04:16.800 --> 04:24.000 He speaks of it a lot. In many in various ways, Paul speaks of it too 04:25.100 --> 04:27.800 a lot. And Luther 04:29.200 --> 04:30.900 and the rest of the reformers, 04:32.500 --> 04:33.400 they lived it. 04:34.900 --> 04:36.100 They endured it. 04:37.500 --> 04:40.700 They fought the good fight in opposition to it. 04:41.500 --> 04:42.300 And why? 04:44.800 --> 04:46.500 For the sake of the Gospel. 04:47.800 --> 04:51.500 For the sake of the life, and salvation that is only ours 04:52.600 --> 04:56.000 by means of the sacred word, that must be heard. 04:57.400 --> 04:59.900 That must be kept unadulterated 04:59.900 --> 05:04.100 if it is to be life-giving. That must be recovered 05:04.100 --> 05:10.800 if it has been lost. Defended if assaulted. Preserved, if endangered. 05:11.400 --> 05:15.000 Handed on, lest we forget. 05:16.300 --> 05:21.800 That it may ever and always be rightly heard and steadfastly believed. 05:22.700 --> 05:30.900 For the sacred word that must be heard is our only lifeline in this 05:30.900 --> 05:34.900 world until Jesus comes again. 05:38.100 --> 05:42.300 The last of the Apostles. The Apostle and evangelist St. 05:42.300 --> 05:44.300 John speaks also 05:45.700 --> 05:48.800 of the great tribulation that is to come. 05:49.800 --> 05:57.300 Of what is and will be till Jesus comes again, he too speaks of it a 05:57.300 --> 05:58.100 lot. 05:59.300 --> 05:59.800 To be sure 06:00.100 --> 06:05.900 in his vision on the island of Patmos, how does it go early on? 06:07.300 --> 06:10.400 In his experience of the Seven Seals. 06:11.600 --> 06:15.900 In his fearful experience of the Four Horsemen. 06:17.200 --> 06:18.600 What comes next? 06:20.000 --> 06:20.700 Answer. 06:23.200 --> 06:26.000 First John hears. 06:27.300 --> 06:34.500 First Heaven speaks and John hears of the 144,000. 06:37.200 --> 06:40.400 12,000 of the tribe of Judah. 06:40.900 --> 06:42.800 Notice who comes first? 06:44.000 --> 06:50.900 12,000 of the rock, the tribe of Reuben. 12,000 of the tribe of, Gad 06:51.200 --> 07:01.000 of, Asher, of Naphtali of Manasseh, of, Simeon, of Levi, of Issachar of 07:01.000 --> 07:04.100 Zebulun of Joseph 07:06.100 --> 07:07.300 and Benjamin. 07:09.400 --> 07:11.200 Notice who comes last? 07:13.500 --> 07:14.500 Do the names 07:15.900 --> 07:19.100 and the numbers have meaning? 07:21.200 --> 07:29.200 Heaven speaks and John hears of the Endtime reality of the Israel that 07:29.200 --> 07:31.200 is and ever shall be. 07:33.100 --> 07:34.000 He hears 07:36.000 --> 07:39.400 and then with the hearing comes a seeing. 07:40.900 --> 07:46.300 For then John sees what he has been hearing about. 07:47.400 --> 07:52.900 He sees a great and glorious multitude so great that none can number 07:52.900 --> 07:53.300 it. 07:54.800 --> 07:59.200 Saints past present and future. 07:59.200 --> 08:02.000 He sees ahead of time. 08:03.300 --> 08:04.600 As though, present. 08:05.600 --> 08:08.000 As though, existing even now. 08:09.700 --> 08:10.400 For even 08:10.400 --> 08:14.100 now that is who we too are. 08:15.900 --> 08:18.200 So that is what he sees. 08:19.600 --> 08:24.700 He sees the survivors of the Great Tribulation. 08:26.900 --> 08:29.700 Thou camest to our Hall of death, 08:30.700 --> 08:34.500 Oh Christ to breathe our poisoned air. 08:36.000 --> 08:42.100 To drink for us the dark despair that strangled our reluctant breath. 08:43.600 --> 08:49.700 How beautiful the feet that trod the road that leads us back to God. 08:50.600 --> 08:52.800 How beautiful the feet that ran 08:54.200 --> 08:55.900 to bring the great 08:55.900 --> 08:58.000 Good news to man. 09:00.200 --> 09:08.100 Then I saw declares John an Angel flying directly overhead. Right on top of 09:08.100 --> 09:08.600 me 09:09.600 --> 09:11.000 is what he means. 09:12.100 --> 09:15.000 As if defining me. 09:16.600 --> 09:18.100 Directly overhead 09:18.100 --> 09:22.800 was he with a gospel of the age that is to come. 09:24.200 --> 09:29.200 The gospel to be proclaimed to those who dwell on Earth to every 09:29.200 --> 09:34.500 nation and tribe and language and people. 09:36.300 --> 09:41.100 And the angel cried out with a loud voice saying, fear God 09:42.300 --> 09:43.600 and give him glory. 09:45.300 --> 09:51.400 For the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made Heaven 09:51.400 --> 09:54.300 and Earth the Sea and the Springs of water. 09:55.800 --> 09:57.400 For there is no other way. 10:00.000 --> 10:04.600 Oh, Spirit, who did once restore by church 10:04.600 --> 10:05.900 that it might be 10:05.900 --> 10:12.900 again, the bringer of good news to men breathe on thy cloven Church 10:13.400 --> 10:19.300 once more. That in these gray and latter days 10:20.700 --> 10:23.500 there may be those whose life is praise. 10:24.700 --> 10:28.600 Each life a high doxology to Father, Son. 10:30.000 --> 10:31.000 and unto thee. 10:32.600 --> 10:35.700 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with us 10:35.700 --> 10:36.000 all.