Category: Expository

“It would be better for him to break his neck going up into the pulpit if he does not take pains to be the first to follow God.”

Calvin, in Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 40

“The qualifications of a preacher, according to Calvin, arise out of this single-minded, single-hearted adherence to Scripture. The first is humility, and that in two senses. Faith, or trust, in Scripture implies submission . . . And what is submitted to inwardly is also treated as sovereign in the pulpit.”

Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 39

“Reason, that necessary guide in things earthly, is out of its depth in the realm of revelation and must submit to the infinite superiority of God’s wisdom.”

Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 38

“Correspondingly, the preacher is the servant of that message. As preacher he is committed completely to the Bible.”

Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 35

“Calvin is saying . . . that God is gracious, that Jesus Christ has made the satisfaction for our sin. But when this message is preached, its reality is present and (how could it therefore be otherwise?) effective . . . The reality was present, however, not through vivid imagination or power of language, but by the working of the Holy Spirit.”

Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 29

“The pulpit is ‘the throne of God, from where he wills to govern our souls.’”

Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 26

“Calvin is not telling the people that must remind themselves that God has spoken in Scripture but that, while listening to a sermon, they must ask themselves whether they are listening to God or a man. If the teaching is faithful to Scripture, then it is God who is speaking.”

Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 24

“It is the humble position of preaching as derivative and subordinate that is precisely its glory.”

Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p 23