Great Christian Biographies with John Piper: John Calvin, Part 3

1536 France gives a temporary amnesty to all these guys who ran away Calvin goes back for a few months to settle his accounts get his brother

Anton and Marie and he leaves forever never to return But something awesome happens.

You all know this story, but oh, is it important historically is so important He says

I'm off to Strasbourg. I know what I'm wired to do I'm gonna go there and be safe secure comfortable and easy and write books to defend the gospel till I die someday in ease in Strasbourg Well, there happens to be a war going on between Charles five and Francis one and the troops are moving on the road between Paris and Strasbourg and so he takes a dearth a detour through Geneva Detour ha he says it's exactly the same as and And behold

Caesar Augustus declared Attacks, why well just to get a virgin for Nazareth to Bethlehem.

That's why That that's why these that's why these

Troops were in the way to get Calvin to Geneva don't doubt that one minute

Of course at 10 ,000 other things God was doing just like you know Why you came to this conference or why we why we held this conference so that a maid over the holiday in would be saved

That's why So that a van driver would hear the gospel That's why and 10 ,000 other reasons nobody ever thought of we're here that God's doing

Okay He goes to Geneva one night William Farrell firebrand of the

Reformation in Geneva finds out that he's there And he comes to him and this is what happened.

Let's let Calvin give us the words this time Farrell who burned with an extraordinary zeal to advance the gospel

Immediately learned that my heart was set on devoting myself to private studies for which

I wished To keep myself free from all other pursuits and finding that he he gained nothing by entreaties he proceeded to utter an

Imprecation that God would curse my retirement and The tranquility of my studies which

I sought if I should withdraw and refuse to give assistance in Geneva When the necessity was so urgent by this

Imprecation I was so stricken with terror that I desisted from my journey

Which I had taken so I told you he believed in submission This happened again later on So the course of his life is forever turned by this providence of going through Geneva and 48 volumes later of books and tracts and sermons and commentaries and letters we thank

God for this providence He took up his responsibilities as professor of sacred scriptures first in Geneva in 1536

And then in four months he became the pastor one of the pastors of st. Peter's or st. Pierre's however you want to say it in Geneva it was one of three parishes there were 10 ,000 people in the city

So you can see how roughly it was divided up 3 ,000 people or so He'd be responsible for with the other pastors there and then lo and behold because he and Farrell are such hotheads and firebrands and believe in the gospel in the church and The City Council isn't that far along he and Farrell get banished out of the city

April 1538 and He is relieved.

Oh done with that city because it was nothing but trouble any way wanted to die a thousand deaths

He said remember I told you last night at the banquet how he wanted to die every day And so he's glad now he's off to Strasbourg and lo and behold

Martin Busser Who's ministering to the poor French refugees in?

Where is he Strasbourg? Yeah, you Cal went to Basel night strut

Booster comes to get him and Here's what Calvin wrote that most excellent servant of Christ Martin Busser employing a similar kind of remonstrance to Farrell and Protestation as that which

Farrell had recourse to before drew me back Drew me to the new station

Alarmed by the example of Jonah Which he sat before me. I still continued in the work of teaching a meaning

I went with him and became professor of New Testament there and became the pastor of 500

French refugees for the next Three years of his life now probably the most important thing About those three years in Strasbourg before he goes back to Geneva is maybe the

Romans commentary Maybe the second edition of the Institute's but it's probably it alert his wife

She was an Anabaptist believe it or not He had no truck for the Anabaptist at all and she married one and her husband

Jean died and He married her in August 6 to 15 40 and she had two children and the daughter came along with them back to Geneva and eventually broke

Calvin's heart because she got involved in an affair and They were married then for nine years

More about that in just a minute May 1st 1541 the

City Council changes his mind. We've really blown it because we sent away John Calvin William Farrell Let's get him back.

And so he agonizes through this decision again, and he goes back and Stays there for the rest of his life, which is not very long 23 more years and he dies when he's 54

Years old you keep your bow strong like he did and you won't live beyond 54 probably

Tuesday September 13 1541 he entered Geneva for the second time to serve that church until he died

His first son is born July 28 42 he dies in two weeks and two other children die in childbirth and then

She never recovers and nine years later, I'd let Calvin dies and he never remarries

So there's this season of great heartache in his life. All of his children die. His wife dies.

He never remarries he writes to Vera You know, well how tender or rather soft my mind is had not a powerful self -control been given to me

That's an understatement had not a powerful self -control been given to me I could not have borne up so long truly.

Mine is no common source of grief I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life of One who had it been so ordained would have willingly shared not only my poverty, but even my death

During her life. She was the faithful helper of my ministry From her I never experienced the slightest hindrance.

She was never troublesome to me Throughout the whole course of her illness But was more anxious about her children than herself as I feared these private worries might upset her to no purpose

I took occasion three days before she died to mention that I would not fail in discharging my duty towards her children

He never remarried and oh, it is good that he did not Because the life he then led would have been a disappointment to any woman

Listen to this summary of it From Culloden who was a contemporary Calvin for did not

Spare himself at All he wrote working far beyond what his power and regard for his health could stand

He preached commonly every day for one week in two and twice every

Sunday or a total of ten times every fortnight Every week he lectured three times in theology

He was at the consistory on the appointed day and made all the remonstrances

Every Friday at the Bible study what he added after the leader had made his declaration was almost a lecture

He never failed in visiting the sick in private warning and counsel and the rest of the numberless matters arising out of the ordinary

Exercise of his ministry, but besides these ordinary tasks he had great care for believers in France Both in teaching them and exhorting and counseling them and consoling them by letters

When they were being persecuted and also in interceding for them yet All that did not prevent him from going on working at his special study and composing many splendid and useful

Books Wolfgang Musculus called him a bow always strung to his great destruction

Culloden said For many years with a single meal a day.

He never took anything between two meals His reason was that the weakness of his stomach and his migraine headaches could only be controlled

He found out by Experiment through continual abstinence

But on the other hand, he was apparently very careless of his health working night and day scarcely without a break scarcely without Sleep and to show how driven the man was

He wrote to Philae in 1546 apart from the sermons and the lectures now

We read it all apart from the sermons and the lectures There is a month gone by in which

I have scarce done anything in such wise I am almost ashamed to live this useless life

Now he's talking 20 sermons and 12 lectures in that month

To get a clear picture of his ironed constancy through it all on behalf of the

Majesty of God We need to hear about his sicknesses just a little bit just briefly here

He wrote to his physicians when he was 53 years old I'm 51 so I can resonate what that age would be like and Described his colic his spitting of blood his ague his gout in the feet

He's excruciating suffering from hemorrhoids and worst of all he says the kidney stones quote

They gave me such exquisite pain at length Not without the most painful strainings.

I ejected a calculus Which in some degree mitigated my sufferings, but such was the size of it that it lacerated the urinary canal and a copious

Discharge of blood followed the hemorrhage could only be arrested by an injection of milk through the syringe you know,

I have a separate paper here that I I Wrote on along the way called the barbarity of the age of John Calvin because I thought

I was gonna talk about Michael Cervetus and you're all waiting for me to get there and I'm not gonna say a word about it until you ask me about it and the question answer time

But the barbarity of this age You got a feel from quotes like that We can come back to that later.

Not only the physical sufferings, but the the threats to his life were just unbelievable. Just imagine

Francis the first and King Charles and there in Winona, Minnesota They 50 miles away or so and within a half an hour

They can be here and this is what he wrote to Melanchthon whence you may conclude

He said that we have not only exile to fear But all the most cruel varieties of death are impending over us for in the cause of religion

They will set no bounds to their barbarity That's why Saul wanted his armor bearer to kill him

Calvin knew what would come if the army did what it could do and he ministered under that kind of pressure

Not only that he was surrounded by enemies. They shot muskets over his house at night The mobs would shout out you come out of there.

We're throwing you in the river tomorrow morning on your way to the Lord's house the

Libertines were his Biggest ache probably they were the contemporary

Corinthians who boasted in their Immorality in every city in Europe in those days men had mistresses.

It was regulated in Geneva You can only have one Mistress and that's the town that he came to and years after he had been preaching there

These Libertines had now gotten into the church and discovered some neat Pauline ways to justify the communion of Saints which meant wife -sharing for the

Libertines in his church and So they caused endless grief for him and not just in the way you might think but in very severe life -threatening ways

Let me tell you one little story here to show you the commitment to the majesty of Christ and the crisis that he faced week after week in this city the

City Council in Calvin's view had no

Jurisdiction over excommunication Calvin was the great deliverer of the church from state control

Believe it or not the consistory of elders and pastors

Excommunicated. Well, the crisis came when this bear told yay fellow was a Libertine was

Excommunicated for his sexual immorality by the consistory of the Church of st Peter's and he appeals his case to the

City Council and they overturn it and Say he can go to communion

Calvin says He writes a letter to Vera.

I Took an oath that I had resolved rather to meet death Then profane so shamefully the

Holy Supper of the Lord My ministry is abandoned if I suffer the authority of the consistory to be trampled upon and Extend the supper of Christ to open scoffers.

I should rather die a hundred times Then subject Christ to such foul mockery, so here comes the

Sunday morning and Beto yay, not only has himself but many

Libertines with him in the congregation and Calvin knows they're there and he knows the

City Council is watching and the whole Genevan Reformation Probably is at stake in 1553 so here's the report taken from Bisa who wrote the first Biography quoted in I forget what book

I got it from This the sermon had been preached the prayers had been offered and Calvin descended from the pulpit to take his place beside the elements at the communion table

The bread and wine were duly consecrated by him and he was not ready to Distribute he was now ready to distribute them to the communicants then on a sudden a

Rush was begun by the troublers in Israel in the direction of the communion table

Calvin flung his arms around the sacramental vessels as if to protect them from sacrilege

While he while his voice rang out through the building these hands you may crush

These arms you may lop off my life. You may take my blood is yours

You may shed it but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profane and dishonor the table of my

God and after this says Bisa The sacred ordinance was celebrated with a profound silence

And under solemn awe all Present felt as if the deity himself had been visible

Among them now the point of that in all of this talk about his sufferings physically his threats politically is simply to illustrate his

Unwavering allegiance to the majesty of Christ in the word in the table against all odds and I believe

That the experience that he had with God's majesty in the scriptures yielded this

Constancy there had been a supernatural inward testimony to the majesty of God in scripture

He could not escape it and this word was therefore God's Word and now he would live for this

God in this word all his life no matter what now To see how much time

I should take here and decide what to do here I'll try to wrap it up in a few more minutes

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 quote 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 tracks 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 experienced and preaching then became the main

Vehicle and meal. I'm not sure how to pronounce this French name do marriage you or Do murder or whatever

Americans say if he read it He's the main biographer six volumes on the 400 anniversary of John Calvin standing in his own pulpit in Geneva wrote

That is the Calvin who seems to me to be the real and authentic Calvin the one who explains all others

Calvin the preacher of Geneva molding by his words the spirit of the reformed of the 16th century

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 25th 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 25th 1549. He ends acts on Sunday morning in March 1554

So some 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 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 called him back. He comes back in September 1541 and walks into the pulpit and picks up at the next verse

And he 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? I'm closing now with these last three answers very short answers to the question.

Why that kind of preaching? Luther didn't do that Luther preached the gospel and the epistle

Spurgeon didn't do that Shame on 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 shown on all thy people like a lamp was

Taken away or at least suppressed as to us and now

Oh 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 the harbor 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 preach their own ideas in the pulpit.

Oh, we need that horror today he says when

Kevin 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

It 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 everyone 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 and struck 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 -authenticating

Lee 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 asked 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 and 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

Exult in it over us because we need to see it come alive and burn in you and that is what it's called preaching

Father I thank you so much for the help that John Calvin has been to me and for many

Make no claim of his perfection and I surely make no claims of Infallibility in this message and ask that you would balance it now with all that You need to be for these brothers here in their preaching

Balance it out with all that. I haven't said that needs to be said and Make us faithful to this glorious word and to your majesty in Jesus name.

Amen Thank you for listening to this message by John Piper pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not charge for those copies or Alter the content in any way without permission.

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