The most countercultural thing you can do today is to repent and believe in the gospel and teach your children to do the same. This reason is this—the true gospel doesn’t just save souls; it rearranges your whole life. That’s what happened during the Protestant Reformation, and it’s happening again now. When God’s Word is restored to its proper authority and repentance is real, wonderful things happen in the family, as He turns the hearts of fathers to their children, restores homes, and builds a new generation of dedicated believers. 

 

Sermon: https://churchandfamilylife.com/sermons/69084580b8dda47046643f69

Today we're going to be talking about family reformation in the Protestant Reformation and now two texts of scripture. Jesus says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Malachi 4.6, he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. So we just celebrated Reformation Week, the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his ninety-five theses on the church door in Wittenberg. The very first thesis of his ninety-five was focused on repentance.

Luther wrote, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. He challenged a church that translated the word metanoia or repentance to mean penance. And the church really had lost the gospel. And Luther and Calvin were in the process of reclaiming the truth about repentance, that salvation is not as a result of works that we perform, but a heart turned toward God by the grace of God. And the word repent means the changing of the mind and the turning around of the heart.

So what happened during the Protestant Reformation was the Word of God was restored to its proper authority. And it wasn't long after that, that not only was the doctrine of salvation restored, but the doctrine of the family was restored. And The Reformation went to the dinner table. It went to the bedroom. It went to every part of family life.

And fathers turned their hearts toward their children and children to their fathers. That's what Malachi said would be a manifestation of the gospel coming through the Lord Jesus. Marriages were transformed, homes were transformed, and the power of the gospel reformed the family, just like it did Salvation by grace alone. The gospel doesn't just save souls, it rearranges your whole life. It comes into your home and rearranges the furniture.

And so, just as God reformed family life, In Geneva, He's reforming family life today. And there really is a new generation rising. Our fathers are turning their hearts towards their children. Mothers are embracing the beauty of femininity and home life and having children. Churches are returning to biblical order and all you have to do is look around.

Look at how many children you now find in many churches in the worship of God. How many young parents are embracing the doctrine of being fruitful and multiply, and they wanna have kids. And look around at the church's recovering sound doctrine. When scripture is sufficient, when repentance is real, when Jesus Christ has the preeminence, really wonderful things happen, and they happen in your family, and God turns the hearts, he restores homes, he ends up building a new generation. This is the power of the gospel everywhere.

And in the Reformation, it was the gospel via the sufficiency of scripture that transformed family life in Reformation Europe, and he's doing it today. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Scripture applied as a production of Church and Family Life. Visit churchandfamilylife.com for more resources.