7.10.2008

Calvin Might Struggle In Today's Church

John Piper gives this excerpt from T.H.L. Parker's biography of John Calvin,

And so we trace him preaching on Sundays with one hundred and eighty-nine sermons on the Acts between 1549 and 1554, a shorter series on some of the Pauline letters between 1554 and 1558, and the sixty-five on the Harmony of the Gospels between 1559 and 1564. During this time the weekdays saw series on Jeremiah and Lamentations (up to 1550), on the Minor Prophets and Daniel (1550-2), the one hundred and seventy-four on Ezekiel (1552-4), the one hundred and fifty-nine on Job (1554-5), the two hundred on Deuteronomy (1555-6), the three hundred and forty-two on Isaiah (1556-9), then one hundred twenty-three on Genesis (1559-61), a short set on Judges (1561), one hundred and seven on 1 Samuel and eighty-seven on 2 Samuel (1561-3) and a set on 1 Kings (1563-4).


189 sermons in Acts. 174 sermons from Ezekiel. 159 sermons from Job. 200 sermons on Deuteronomy. 342 sermons on Isaiah over three years. Calvin may have a hard time pastoring the churches of today that focus sometimes more on the peripheral issues of music, lively childrens programs, and technologically driven sermons instead of the central issues of the Gospel and the Word of God. But I have a feeling the fruit of the former does not last near as long as that of the latter.

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