Download Paul Gerhardt Series #2 - St. Paul`s North Mankato

Paul Gerhardt Series #2
Romans 8:31-39
Pastor Roger Knepprath
How many times do you sing a hymn without knowing who wrote it or why he wrote it? I’m afraid I’ve
done that more often than not. And now I wonder what the sense of that is. Seriously, this is like reading a
letter with no date and no signature. This series about Paul Gerhardt has helped me recognize my own need for
growth in this area.
This hymn, “If God himself be for me”, has been a thrill to dig into. It’s easy to see that this hymn is
based on the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 8, verse 31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Please,
recognize neither Paul was posing a question. There are no ifs about this.
God is for you! I know he is for you. I haven’t always been sure of this. I’ve had some bad moments in
my life, moments of sinful doubt. Gerhardt’s story reminds me of one when I was twenty-four years old, the
night before Call Day, when our whole class was called to the seminary chapel for an impromptu meeting.
There we were told nineteen of us would not be receiving calls the next day and . . . I was one of them. I was
furious! I didn’t sleep a wink that night. My thoughts ran wild. These memories came flooding back as I heard
eleven graduates did not receive calls just a couple weeks ago.
Where does a person go for refuge when it feels like the whole world is against him? Here’s where Paul
Gerhardt can help us out. He didn’t just feel like the world was against him. The world, at least a powerful part
of it, was against him. Gerhardt lived his entire life during the 1600’s, went to seminary to become a pastor at
Wittenburg University, the place Martin Luther had once taught. But because the Thirty-Years war was going
on, a war that occurred on German soil, it took him fourteen years to complete his training. After fourteen
years, as compared to my four, Paul received no call. All that time and all that work! He waited another nine
years before a call came. Finally, he became the lead pastor at a prestigious congregation in Berlin.
Sadly, this is only the beginning of this story. If I had had to wait as long as Gerhardt for a church to
serve I would have gotten started just three years ago. How he must have cherished his opportunity to serve as
pastor! But the area in which he served was under the control of an elector, kind of like one of our governors,
who was not Lutheran. Electors were more powerful than our governors. They could control everything, even
what a pastor preached from the pulpit. Elector Fredric William signed an edict that outlawed any preaching
against Reformed teachings. Now it would be against the law for Gerhardt to preach or teach about total
depravity, that we are conceived lost and condemned in our sin; about faith as a gift provided by the Holy Spirit
alone through the Word and sacraments; about objective justification, that Jesus died for all; about the
possibility of losing one’s faith; or about Jesus’ body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. Gerhardt was kicked out
of his church. The public outcry was so great that the Elector gave his position back, but Gerhardt resigned
because he didn’t want anybody to think that he somehow agreed with this edict.
Where did Paul Gerhardt go for refuge? To Romans 8, of course; to Paul’s quote, “For your (Jesus’)
sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” Read with me two verses not
included in our hymnal that clearly verify where Gerhardt went for refuge. “Who clings with resolution To him
whom Satan hates Must look for persecution; For him the burden waits Of mockery, shame, and losses, Heaped
on his blameless head; A thousand plagues and crosses Will be his daily bread. From me this is not hidden, Yet
I am not afraid; I leave my cares, as bidden, To whom my vows were paid. Though life and limb it cost me
And everything I own, Unshaken shall I trust Thee And cleave to Thee alone.”
We can expect enemies when we stand up for the truth that is God’s Word. Satan hates the truth and he
will attack us through those who are his seed. We can face those enemies for the sake of the one who gave up
his only Son to beat our enemy. We can face our enemies for the one who made everything right between us
and God. We can face our enemies for him who is constantly speaking up for us at our Father’s throne. While
those enemies might take our job and our income we have a Father who owns and controls it all. Paul Gerhardt
gave up his position he had worked so hard to obtain and his salary rather than be associated with lies and to
keep anyone from thinking it was in any way safe to live with something other than pure Biblical truth. Satan is
no less of an enemy of the truth today, four hundred years later, and, I dare say, his seed has only increased
since then. What will we give up rather than be associated with lies and to help others recognize the eternal
danger those lies present?
Gerhardt lost more than his job, however. By the time he became a pastor the Thirty-Years war was
over, but the aftermath may have been worse. What followed was a plague that ended the lives of four of his
five children before they reached their first birthdays. Not long before he lost his position at his church his wife
died.
Where does one go for refuge in the face of such catastrophic loss? Again he went to Romans 8. “For I
am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,d neither the present nor the future, nor any
powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”1 How effective can such truth be? After all, they are just words. Oh, but
they are more. They are the tools of the Holy Spirit through which he can literally lift us out of our sorrow.
How else can we explain Gerhardt ending this fifteen verse hymn with these words? “My heart for joy
is springing And can no more be sad, ‘Tis full of mirth and singing, Sees naught but sunshine glad. The Sun
that cheers my spirit Is Jesus Christ, my King; That which I shall inherit Makes me rejoice and sing.” Had I not
shared with you that the man who wrote this verse had suffered the death of five of his immediate family could
you have ever guessed? Friends, it is natural for us to grieve when someone we love dies. But when we
conclude that we will never be happy again and that we have nothing to look forward to we are falling to
devilish lies and his eternal trap. Reading and hearing God’s Word allows us time to bask in Jesus’ love, a love
that sacrificed all for us and our loved ones and won for us eternal paradise. It was so effective for Paul
Gerhardt he writes, “My heart . . . can no more be sad.” When he looked ahead he saw nothing but sunshine
glad. There was something to fill that gaping hole of loss in his heart. Jesus filled it and him to overflowing.
If God is for us? Sometimes I’ve wondered. I realize now that was just me not being for God. His love
and care for me never changed. It’s as sure as that cross held his Son on Calvary. “In him I can be cheerful,
Courageous on my way; In him I am not fearful Of God’s great Judgment Day.” Amen.
d
1
Or nor heavenly rulers
The Holy Bible : New International Version. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ro 8:38-39