Passage: Luke 1:44 & John 3:29

How do you picture John the Baptist? An angry, wilderness character badly in need of a haircut and an updated wardrobe, grasshopper legs in his beard, Rasputin eyes, furious and exaggerated gestures, raving in the desert, scaring children, condemning and threatening with every ranting word. That's the Hollywood version, a caricature, but not the John the Baptist you will find in Scripture.

 Passage: Isaiah 64

 Passage: Jonah 2:9

In the belly of a big fish, deep in the Mediterranean, is a strange place to make plans for thanksgiving, but that's where Jonah was and that's what he did, made plans for thanksgiving while in a whale of a mess.

 Passage: Romans 10:14

The Reformation reclaimed and received the great message of justification by faith. Martin Luther and the reformers preached that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

 Passage: Romans 1:17

Martin Luther considered Justification by Faith to be "the summary of all Christian doctrine" and "the article by which the church stands or falls." We live in dangerous days. We may not need another full-blown reformation, but we certainly need to remember and reemphasize the great Scriptural truths that revived the Church in those days 500 years ago. Let's look at some essential biblical teachings that Luther and others of the Reformation period experienced and proclaimed, truths we still must hold on to today.