This week we celebrate Reformation Day, October 31st, the day Martin Luther boldly banged his 95 theses on the church door with nails and a hammer, October 31, 1517. Of course, he more likely glued the document with poster paste and he probably left the decoupage to an assistant actually. So theatrics or not, the date marks the ignition of what would grow into the Protestant Reformation.

Last time in episode 1387, we looked at whether or not we should read dead white guys or are they now irrelevant. And as we enter our way closer to Reformation Day this year, we take a look at the legacy of a reformer, John Calvin. And to do it, I will share a clip from Pastor John's 1997 biography on John Calvin and his role in shaping the Reformation and our reformed tradition as we know it today.

Here's what Pastor John had to say. His view of Scripture, which defined the remainder of his ministry, was very high. He said, "We owe to the Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God because it proceeded from him alone and has nothing of man mixed with it." His own experience had taught him, "The highest proof of the Scripture derives in general from the fact that God in person speaks in it." Those were the incontrovertible truths for John Calvin.

The Scriptures were the voice of God. God vindicates God by bringing us to life by his majestic witness. We see him in his Scriptures and he and they then become authoritative immediately for our lives and what kind of life is born for Calvin. It was a life of invincible constancy in the exposition of Scripture.

Tracts, institutes, commentaries, commentaries on every New Testament book except Revelation, numerous Old Testament books, but all of it, all of it, including these two books here, is exposition of Scripture. Dillenberger says Calvin assumed that his whole theological labor was the exposition of Scripture. He wrote at the end of his life, "I have endeavored both in my sermons and also in my writings and commentaries to preach the Word purely and chastely and faithfully to interpret his sacred Scriptures." Everything was exposition of Scripture.

That was the kind of ministry that was unleashed by his experience. And preaching then became the main vehicle. Calvin's preaching was of one kind and it never, ever changed. It was sequential, expository preaching through book after book after book. On Sunday morning he always took New Testament, afternoon New Testament, sometimes a Psalm on Sunday, during the week three times, always Old Testament.

There are only fewer than half a dozen instances where he broke pattern for any church year event. So, Don Whitney, if you wonder what to do on Christmas, preach on Deuteronomy 29-23 or whatever happens to be next. That's what Calvin did. Every Easter, every Christmas he plowed right on through with fewer than half a dozen exceptions.

Now, to give you an idea, picture this. It's August 25, 1549 and he begins a series of messages on the book of Acts. We know this because that was the first time when he had a stenographer who was taking down his sermons. He preached totally without notes and without anything, straight from the Greek and straight from the Hebrew, right there in front of him.

He begins Acts on August 25, 1549. He ends Acts on Sunday morning in March, 1554. So, from 49 to 54 he's preaching on Acts, straight through. And then, after that, he picks up Thessalonians, 46 sermons, Corinthians, 186 sermons, Pastorals, 86 sermons, Galatians, 43 sermons, Ephesians, 48 sermons, until May of 1558 when he has to quit for half a year because he's sick.

As you can well imagine, he might be with the relentless schedule that he's kept. He begins then in 1559, the harmony of the Gospels and he dies while he's doing it in 1564. Now, during that time, during the week, he's preaching 159 sermons on Job, 200 on Deuteronomy, 353 on Isaiah, 123 on Genesis and so on.

The numbers are phenomenal. The point is, this is no accident. He chose to do this. Here's the story that I love that shows how completely self-conscious he is in this. On Easter Day, 1538, he's banished out of Geneva that first time, remember? He's been preaching for about a year.

He's banished for three years to minister in Strasbourg. They call him back. He comes back in September 1541 and walks into the pulpit and picks up at the next verse. And he comments on the fact that he wanted them to know that it was just an interlude in his exposition of the Word of God.

Why? Why that kind of preaching? Luther didn't do that. Luther preached the Gospel and the Epistle. Spurgeon didn't do that. Shamon Spurgeon, maybe or maybe not. Why did he do it this way? Three possible reasons. Number one, Calvin believed the lamp of the Word had gone out in Europe.

The Word had been taken away. Here's what he said. He's confessing his own sin to the Lord. He says, "Thy Word, which ought to have shone on all thy people like a lamp, was taken away or at least suppressed as to us. And now, O Lord, what remains to a wretch like me but earnestly to supplicate thee not to judge according to my deserts that fearful abandonment of thy Word from which in thy wondrous goodness thou hast delivered me?" So you feel in his conversion the horror he felt.

He saw by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit the majesty of God revealed in the Word and he looked across the church and he said, "What a fearful abandonment of the holy precious Word." And his whole life then became, "I am going to lay this Word out every day for the rest of my life.

It is so precious." That's reason number one. Number two, THL Parker says, "Calvin had a horror of those who preached their own ideas in the pulpit." Oh, we need that horror today. He says, "When we enter the pulpit, it is not so that we may bring our own dreams and fancies with us." So evidently he believed that the best safeguard against bringing my fancies into the pulpit is to systematically work my way through God's ordered, inspired, majesty revealing Word.

Finally, the third reason brings us full circle back to the majesty of God in the Word. He really believed that when the Word was faithfully exposited, God in His majesty stood forth in the congregation. Listen to this great exhortation to you from Calvin. "Let the pastors boldly dare all things by the Word of God.

Let them constrain all the power, glory, excellence of the Word to give place to and to obey the divine majesty of this Word. Let them enjoin every one by it from the highest to the lowest. Let them edify the body of Christ. Let them devastate Satan's reign. Let them pasture the sheep, kill the wolves, instruct, exhort the rebellious.

Let them bind and loose thunder and lightning if necessary, but let them do all according to the Word of God." In other words, the key phrase there is the divine majesty of His Word. Calvin believed that if his goal in life was to illustrate the glory of God, and if the glory of God is uniquely and self-authenticatingly revealed in the Word of God, then the full display of the Word would be the fullest display of the glory.

I think that's the way he reasoned. And my own personal conviction when I ask myself the question, "Can it be done any other way besides preaching? How about just teaching with an overhead? How about small group discussions? How about lectures? How about books? How about computer CDs sent to China?" What's to become of preaching?

And this is my conviction. I don't know what Calvin would say, but I'm a preacher and I have to believe in what I'm doing. And so I want to know why I am so drawn to do it. And I believe the answer is nothing will ever replace preaching. The reason I believe that preaching uniquely, not teaching per se, not reading the Bible per se, but preaching to the congregation over a text will always be there is because God means for Himself in the fullness of His glory to be extolled and glorified and honored and cherished.

And something about that event of worship beckons for more than analysis. It beckons for more than explanation. It beckons for expository exaltation. That's what I like to call it. Preaching is the worshipful moment over the Word. It is expository exaltation. And wherever God-centeredness is alive, wherever the supremacy of God reigns in the hearts of a people, something inside will say, "Oh, pastor, do more for us than explain it to us.

Love it over us. Cherish it over us. Taste it over us. Revel in it over us. Exalt in it over us because we need to see it come alive and burn in you." And that is what is called preaching. Amazing legacy. What a rich tradition we share in the Reformation owing to this man, John Calvin and his ministry from the pulpit.

For the full message, see DesiringGod.org and look for the title, The Divine Majesty of the Word, John Calvin, the Man and His Preaching, recorded at the 1997 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors. And thank you to all the Calvinist preachers out there listening along. Be sure to follow us by subscribing to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app or in YouTube.

Next time, we're going to look at the challenges Christians face who have to work on Sundays sometimes. Of course, for the first three centuries of the church, pretty much every Christian had to work on Sunday. So what about doctors, nurses, and first responders who work on Sundays today? What advice would Pastor John have for them?

That's next time. I'm your host Tony Rehnke. We'll see you on Friday. 1 The Bible, in the New Testament, is a revelation of the Lord's message. In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message. In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message.

In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message. In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message. In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message. In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message.

In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message. In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message. In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation of the Lord's message. In the New Testament, the Bible is a revelation