We’ve all heard so much about Martin Luther. I’ve even read his biography entitled “Here I Stand” by Bainton, also published by Hendrickson Publishers, and enjoyed it. What I had not done, however, is read any of his sermons. I’m glad to possess this book so I can get a feel of Luther for myself. Plus sermons for the Christmas season are always a blessing for sermon ideas or devotional reading.

The book begins with a fine preface that gives a biographic overview of Luther. It’s extremely serviceable if you need to brush up on Luther before you get started reading the sermons. From there the sermons are designed to correspond with the first, second, third, and fourth Sunday of Advent followed by two sermons specifically for Christmas Day.

In the first sermon Luther takes us to Matthew 21:1-9 and the Triumphal Entry of Christ. The goal, I believe, is to make us remember the why of Advent, or the why of Christ’s coming to us. Over the course of the sermon, Luther explains the mistaken views some Jews had over the Messiah. It’s in this sermon you will find that his sermons were quite long (100 points in 32 pages). Still, there’s a lot of content.

His second sermon takes us to Luke 21:25-36 where he draws out the comfort Christians can take from the signs of the Day of Judgment. The third one considers Matthew 11:2-10 and looks at how Jesus answers John’s question on if He was the Messiah they were looking for, or should they look for another. This text could, in my judgement, be used more for Advent than the previous one. The fourth sermon looks at John 1:19-28 and is something of a sequel to the last one in examining John the Baptist’s confession of Christ.

The last two sermons are Christmas messages expounding Luke 2:1-4 and John 1:1-14 respectively. There are many things to ponder in his look at Luke 2, though I could not accept them all. Still, it’s well worth reading. The last one is a perfect Christmas text rarely preached on Christmas. It is THE text of the Incarnation and Luther does well making much of Christ in it.

Beyond being an asset at Christmas time, this book is a great place to sample Luther. With two good reasons like that, I’d recommend you get this book!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.