Calvin on Preaching
By Andy Young
It should be no surprise that for John Calvin, the great Genevan Reformer, the Word of God and preaching formed central pillars in the recovery of Biblical religion in his day. As part of a recovery of Biblical worship they were vital to Reform, vital to Church life, and vital to evangelism. These were far from theoretical subjects for Calvin. He preached every day on alternate weeks and twice on Sundays, all for over an hour at a time, and lectured three times a week on theology. He also led the Friday Bible study, along with fulfilling his other duties. In addition, we know he preached lectio continua through books of the Bible steeping his congregation in the thought of the biblical authors. He took only his Hebrew and Greek into the pulpit, although he very rarely used the actual words of the original languages in his sermons, preferring to explain them carefully in the vernacular. He preached without notes and actively dissuaded Ministers from using a full script, as he was concerned that preaching be lively and with free course. At the same time, he prepared his sermons thoroughly and was never satisfied with simply explaining the text, often making direct and immediate applications to the whole gamut of Christian experience.
We would do well in our own time to learn from Calvin’s theology and pastoral care. We would also do well to recover the message, method and means of preaching, as Calvin understood them.
The Message of Preaching
Calvin understood preaching to be nothing less than God’s voice. He referred to the pulpit as the “throne of God” from which he called and summoned men. This arose out of his understanding of Scripture as the Word of God combined with his conviction that preaching is to expound that same Word. Although Calvin understood preaching to be subordinate to Scripture as the ultimate authority, inasmuch as it declared what Scripture revealed, it was “God speaking by the mouth of a man.” The message of preaching was simply to be based upon, and reflect the contours, content, and character of, Scripture, so that God’s voice could be clearly heard.
Preaching was then for Calvin nothing less than an encounter with God - a divine accommodation to our weakness in order that we may know his presence. It is even more than this – it is sacramental in nature as a sign of God’s presence: “Just as Christ is present at the Supper spiritually, that is, by the working of the Holy Spirit, so he is present in the preaching spiritually, that is by the working of the Holy Spirit.” (T.H.L. Parker)
The Method of Preaching
Preaching requires preachers, and for Calvin the medium of the man was essential. He was to be a servant of the Word, a scholar in the Word, and single-minded in his devotion to the Word. T. H. L. Parker has identified four qualifications of a preacher according to Calvin. These are humility, obedience, courage and authority. The latter is an authority not in the preacher himself, but in the message that he proclaims. Calvin utilized two illustrations to describe the method of preaching. The first is of a school where the preacher communicates to the congregation what he has first been taught from God in Scripture. The second is of an ambassador where the preacher delivers a message whose source is God himself. Whilst the first emphasises teaching, and the second declaration, both were used by Calvin to highlight revelation. Preaching was God revealing himself through the preached word of the preacher.
The Means of Preaching
Faithful yet dry preaching, and true yet boring sermons, were contradictions in terms for Calvin. Preaching was to contain careful exegesis of Scripture, but it was also to be bold and even vehement. It was to be like a needle prick. A forceful and violent wake up call. A quote from Calvin will serve to illustrate this. In a sermon on 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Calvin explains and applies the meaning of Paul when he states that Scripture is profitable for correction. Calvin applies this to preaching:
“When a father sees his children going badly astray, he will not be content just to say to them, “What are you up to, my children?” That would be neither right nor good. He will say, “Unhappy creatures! Have I brought you up, have I provided for you until now, only for you to pay me back like this? … Go, wretch! You deserve to be in the hangman’s hands … Must I nourish such scum in my house?”
Related to this is Calvin’s expectation that preaching would be powerful and effective. As a means of grace he believed God, by the working of the Holy Spirit, used preaching as an event at which he communicated his grace. He had every confidence that preaching was the primary way in which God called sinners to repentance and grew his people in Christ’s likeness. As such preaching offered Christ, promised Christ and assured Christ. As Pamela Ann Moeller has so succinctly stated: “In preaching we deal not with conversation about Christ, but the real, or true presence of Christ.”
There is so much more to be said about preaching in general, and Calvin’s view of preaching specifically. Perhaps more than ever we need to pray for a recovery of this view of preaching. More, we need a recovery of the practice of this kind of preaching – in the pulpit and in the pew.
This is based on a part of a paper given at the 2017 Westminster Conference entitled “Calvin – Worship & Preaching”
For more on Calvin and preaching see here:
Calvin’s Preaching by T.H.L.Parker
Lifting hearts to the Lord: Worship with John Calvin in Sixteenth-Century Geneva by Karin Maag
Calvin’s Doxology: Worship in the 1559 Institutes with a view to Contemporary Worship Renewal by Pamela Ann Moeller
Tributes to John Calvin, ed. David W. Hall
Worshipping with Calvin: Recovering the Historic Ministry and Worship of Reformed Protestantism by Terry L. Johnson
