As noted last month, in his preaching John Calvin began at the beginning of a book and expounded it passage by passage, clause by clause, sermon after sermon, until he came to the end.
Then he started on another book. This way of preaching was not unique to Calvin in the Reformation. Others like Huldrych Zwingli had used it. And, well before them, some of the early Christian preachers, like John Chrysostom, had preached in this way.
The sermon shape
Calvin never intruded his learning into his sermons. In fact, his learning is so well hidden that one might hear him preach for a month without suspecting that he had read any book other than the Bible. But he did prepare, and it was three-fold.
First, he read what others had written on the particular text of his sermon. He thus established the catholic (i.e. in the sense of universal) interpretation. Calvin’s thought was steeped in the church’s reflection on Scripture. He not only read his fellow-Reformers (though we know that he made great use of Martin Bucer’s commentaries), but also Early Christian authors like Augustine. Of course, there were times when he differed from his predecessors. But, as he stated on one occasion: ‘When … we depart from the views of our predecessors, we are not to be stimulated by any passion for innovation, … necessity alone is to compel us, and we are to have no other object than that of doing good.’
Second, he would consider the teaching contained in his text and how he should present it in a clear and easily remembered manner. Clarity, perspicuity, and brevity were key marks of his preaching. In fact, his sermons rarely exceeded 45 minutes in length.
Third, he gave much thought on how to apply the text of his sermon to the life of his people. He sought to discern what lessons it contained for them, and how best he might drive it home to their consciences.
Finally, it is fascinating that Calvin preached without notes. When he went into the pulpit he did so with his memory stored with his sermon, its divisions and its emphases. And what we have of his sermons we owe to the labours of his secretary Denis Raguenier, (whom we met last month).
Word and Spirit
Calvin was very conscious that, while preaching was central to the Reformation, the Scriptures by themselves were not the ultimate cause of the time of refreshing the church was enjoying in his day. There had to be more than an intellectual understanding of what the Bible said. There had to be submission to, and acceptance of, the divine revelation set forth in it, and this took place only through the enlightenment of men and women’s hearts and minds by the sovereign action of God’s Holy Spirit.
Inner witness
The Bible was the means whereby God revealed his will to men, but it was the Spirit who made this revelation efficacious. As Calvin put it in his Institutes: the ‘words [of Scripture] will not be given complete acknowledgment in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inner witness of the Spirit.’
On the other hand, as Otto Grundler, long-time Professor at Western Michigan University, has rightly noted, for Calvin, ‘the Word is the instrument by which the Lord dispenses the illumination of his Spirit to believers.’ This is extremely important for Christians in our day as they think about and seek to experience genuine spirituality. There can be no genuine spirituality apart from God’s Holy Word.
