# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_2016_S71
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

CONVENTION
SERMON • 1

Upon This Rock
M AT T. 1 6 : 1 3 – 2 0

by t he R ev. Dr . Matthew C. Ha rriso n, L C M S Pres id en t
66th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod • July 9, 2016 • Opening Service

“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’
Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are
you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.’ ”

“The Gospel makes one free in all things, subject to
none. The law makes one subject to all. Out of love.”
That book was there, along with 24 others.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.

Luther asked for more time. He was granted a day.
We still have the very notes he scribbled that night as
he got ready for the next day.

My dear brothers on the council, brother pastors,
church workers, friends: What a joy to look out upon
you and see so many, many familiar faces. And this
week we will see many, many more who will become
familiar faces.

Johann Eck pointed to the pile. “Luther, are you
ready to admit that you wrote these books and that
they contain heresy?”
“Yes, they are mine,” Luther said. “But as to whether
they contain heresy, that is a matter of faith and salvation of the soul and it cannot be affirmed or rejected without affecting the Word of God.”

He was brought back at 4 p.m., left waiting until 6 p.m.,
and then called in front of the emperor and the whole

Martin Luther had been into the controversy four
years, almost 500 years ago, when he was called to
confess at Worms. On April 17, 1521, Reichsmarschall
Ulrich von Pappenheim knocked on Luther’s door
and told him that the Diet was waiting—the German
meeting of all the emperor’s people, the emperor, the
kings, the princes, the nobles, they were all waiting to
hear from him. They brought him over to the building
next door and told him they would hear from him at
4 p.m. 4 p.m. came. He was called to wait below for a
few minutes, and then called upstairs.
There was a pile of 25 books that he had written. And
they pointed to the books, which included The Freedom of the Christian Man, for instance, which said,
“Upon This Rock”

U P O N T H I S R O C K • Sermon

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