People of the Reformation

In this Sunday school lesson, Mark Twombly presents an overview of some key figures of the Pre-reformation and Reformation periods: John Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and William Tyndale. Though these men were not perfect, God used them in a powerful way to bring his saving gospel to the world.

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good morning everyone Pastor Dave and Emma are away uh having I think they’re in Florida and hopefully avoiding some of the weather and having a good refreshing time together so I asked if I could fill in for him so we’re going to do a little bit of a fast forward in church history today and do a little bit on the Reformation we’re going to get into more into several sessions on this later on in our series but let me just start with some scripture really I think what you see in the Reformation is the word of God um being active and making it and and taking on um impact in the church and in people’s lives in a way that it hadn’t before kind of a recovery of the word of God so with that in mind I’m just going to read several key scriptures for us to keep in mind that I’m going to pray and we’ll Dive Right In okay Romans 1 16-17 for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith as it is written both the righteous man shall live by faith Ephesians 1 3-12 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us to adoption as Sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved in him we have Redemption through his blood the Forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight he made known to us the mystery of his will according to His Kind intention which he purposed in him with a view to an Administration suitable to the fullness of the times that is the summing up of all things in Christ things in the heavens and things on the earth in him also we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will to the end that we who were the first to Hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory and then finally I’ll read Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 10.

and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formally walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of Disobedience among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh indulging the desires of the Flesh and of the mind and were by Nature children of Wrath even as the rest but God being rich in Mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by Grace you have been saved and raise us up with him and seated us with him in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come he might show The surpassing Riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by Grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not as a result of work so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them it’s wonderful isn’t it the bask in those truths we could just end right now I think we’d probably be doing okay this is the only Perfect part of the lesson right there everything else is going to be substandard to that um with these things in mind and as we look at some key figures of the Reformation let me pray for us father God we praise you for the power of your word which always accomplishes what you intend for it we thank you for the supremacy of Christ who is the word made flesh for us who is to be glorified in all things I pray for us that we would have clarity through our session today and knowing the gospel confidence in its power and boldness and communicating it to those who are far from you thank you for the many examples that have been set for us in history and help us to understand them through the filter of your word and in the power of your spirit amen amen good it’s really interesting um like a lot of American evangelicals I I did not grow up learning much about church history and so I’m a relatively uh a relative newbie to it maybe in the last 15 years or so um and what I find is to God be the glory you have some very flawed characters promoting a very perfect God and so keep that in mind if you study because I’m not going to sugarcoat anything about these guys there were some very very major flaws but God’s word is powerful and effective amen it’s powerful and effective in us as flawed human beings right so um as we go through this I’m going to just emphasize there are the five Solas of the Reformation you might have heard that before the five Solas um it’s uh Sola gratia solafide Solas Christus Sola scriptura and Sola Dale Gloria those are all Latin I’ll give you the the uh the quick Cliffs notes of that right uh Sola gratia by grace alone those verses that we just read really emphasize that so la fide by faith alone right we have Reliance in Christ and no one or nothing else not ourselves not any Institution Solace Christus right we see all those in hymns in Christ in Ephesians he is the center of it all as it says in Romans 11 36 from for from him and through him and to him are all things and then Sola scriptura Jesus as the word of God affirmed the written word of God as sufficient Jesus quoted in Matthew 4 4 from the Old Testament man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and I hope that as Believers you you feel that every day we can’t go that long without getting hungry and I Pray by God’s grace we don’t go that long without the word of God without getting hungry and Desiring it it is our life the scriptures say right and so we come to it with that posture and then solely Dale Gloria right to his great to hit to the praise of him alone and we see things like that no one should boast um God says in the Old Testament Isaiah my glory I will not give to another and Jesus said this in Matthew 5 says why how can you believe when you receive Glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the one and only God and this challenges us to be less self-centered right and more centered on him let’s be honest we’re all kind of committed to our own glory to some extent and God would have us repent of that and focus on his glory alone from him through him to him are all things there’s nothing deficient in him although there is much deficient in US let’s say a few things about institutions and and people um so a little bit of interaction here what would you say to the following objections here’s a first statement the Roman Catholic Church is corrupt but aren’t many Protestant churches and denominations also corrupt I think we need to find a way to answer that right second one is isn’t the church full of Hypocrites and why should we take Christianity seriously this is the first thing that I noticed when I really started to study church history is honestly it’s a mess I think I alluded to that right it’s very messy but God’s purposes are accomplished through all of that we see this even in the Bible don’t we I think of like Jacob and Esau and everybody trying to manipulate the situation to the outcome that they wanted what happened God’s purpose was fulfilled in the midst of all of that and I hope that when we look at this you will see that and again give glory to God Jesus said in Matthew 16 18 I will build my church right he’s the one doing it um we see things like in Ephesians 1 22-23 he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him that’s Christ that’s head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all Paul wrote to uh to Timothy but in case I am delayed this is first Timothy 3 15.

I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God which is the Church of the Living God the pillar and support of the truth these are challenging truths for us because when we think about our church we think about churches in general God said that his church is the fullness of him who fills all in all and it is the pillar and support of the truth this is hard to believe sometimes is it not with flawed human beings I think a couple of things that will help us to to process that is understanding the difference between the visible and the invisible Church anyone heard those terms before so the the visible church is what you see institutions and professing believers some of whom are actual Believers but not all of whom right Jesus talked about the wheat and the tares growing up together looking like Believers and sometimes we’re not going to find out even until the end although I think these last few years have revealed some things about who’s true and who’s not I will say that um but the the invisible church is all believers across all time right and that isn’t always obvious there are pockets of Believers that we don’t even know about in countries that are less well-known that are equally part and to me that’s very exciting we are part of something that’s eternal that Christ will build that crosses all-time geography right um and ethnicities it’s incredible what God has done um so much more I could say about that but one of the things I would say is that um the obvious failability or fallibility of man draws our attention to the Perfection of Christ John Piper wrote a book on on key figures in church history and he describes them this way as faithful flawed and fruitful I think that’s a really really good description and hopefully that describes us one thing I think it’s important to think about is that we are we don’t want to Define ourselves by other people or institutions per se but by Christ uh Paul would put it this way in First Corinthians 3. I think this is an important word for us today it says and I Brethren could not speak to you as the spiritual men but to Men of Flesh as the infants in Christ I gave you milk to drink not solid food for you were not yet able to receive it indeed even now you are not yet able for you are still fleshly for since there is jealousy and strife among you are you not fleshly and are you not walking like Mere Men for when one says I am a Paul and another I am of Apollos are you not Mere Men what then is Apollos and what is Paul servants through whom you believe even as the lord gave opportunity to each one I planted Apollos watered but God was causing the growth so then and hear this neither the one who plants nor the one who Waters is anything but God who causes the growth now he who plants and healed waters are one but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor for we are God’s fellow workers you are God’s field God’s Building why am I sharing this with you as we go into some figures of the Reformation I think it’s because we don’t want to think too highly of them we don’t want to idolize them right and I think there’s a tendency to do that and so we want to be very very careful to make sure that the glory is going to Christ so the focus God is the focus and a church is true to the extent that it not that it defines the truth but that it is defined by God’s truth right that’s that’s a very real difference between for example Roman Catholicism and everything else in Christianity Roman Catholicism that Authority structure says that we we Define the truth no God defines the truth the church is defined by the truth it doesn’t Define the truth Martin Luther said this and I love this quote he said see how much he that is God has been able to accomplish through me though I did no more than pray and preach the word did it all and so that’s our Focus today with that in mind let’s look at some key figures and we’re going to go pretty fast today I’m going to make these slides available there’s a lot more detail in these slides that I will cover today but I’ll make them available to you so we’re going to talk about the seed the flower and the fruit of the Reformation how to begin how was it sustained and what what impact did we see um in in the world today even for those who aren’t Christians the Reformation had an incredible impact on the history of the world in in plain literacy if nothing else right because you had words available in the common vernacular that people could read for themselves and learn and be empowered hugely important so um from a book called church history and plain language I’ll go right here two figures these are the seeds it says two brave souls John Wycliffe an Englishman and John Huss a check dared to suggest that the Christian church was something other than a visible organization on Earth headed by the Pope that was Radical and that could get you killed and it did particularly for Mr Haas and we’ll get into that so John Wycliffe known as the English Zealot or Morning Star of the Reformation uh he uh he was a professor a master of balio college in Oxford uh some of the key historical issues around his time was Earthly Dominion or lordship right how was the right to rule transferred from God to Earthly rulers so what was the place of the church what was the church place of the state and his writings would be very influential even to the founding of the American colonies and in western civilization in terms of sorting that out pretty messy right um he uh he focused on abuses of power within the church and dual papacy there was a time where there were two popes it’s pretty messy right um in 1377 the pope condemned wycliffe’s teaching but took no direct action against him um and then you see things like papal Schism right you have two popes at one time um and then the Archbishop Bishop of Canterbury condemned with wycliffe’s doctrines as heretical and he was silenced from teaching I think one of the things you’ll see here is that cancel culture is nothing new right and these and some of these folks were let’s just say a little bit more than canceled a little bit more than their Twitter accounts you know shut down they were shut down physically right he was known for his commitment to the authority of scripture he produced the first Bible in English um and it was Old English and it was from the Latin so it’s not direct from the original languages but it was the first available Bible in English two key works that he wrote on Divine dominion and on civil Dominion again this whole idea what is the legitimate power of the church what is the legitimate power of the state become a huge issue and for a while and as we’ll see those were one and the same those were one and the same um again he uh he translated the Bible uh from Latin to English and that was punishable by death by the Roman Catholic church but they didn’t uh they didn’t catch up with them to actually do that so he he died in P in his Parish uh following two strokes in 1384.

so his contributions to the church just to summarize the idea of the visible versus The Invisible Church the priesthood of all believers that is every every believer could have direct access to God without an intermediary these were Radical thought we take these things for granted today it was a radical at the time Bible being translated to English and he commissioned some local ministering priests called lollards Lawler’s was not a complimentary term it was to indicate they were very unsophisticated in their language right compared to the elites but they were out bringing the word of God to the common Folk a couple quotes I want to go through all of these Christ is I’m going to look this way because I can’t quite see it up there Christ is truth the pope is the principle of falsehood Christ lived in poverty the pope labors for worldly magnificence Christ refused temporal Dominion the pope seeks it right again focusing on Christ as head of the church and then the authority of scripture the New Testament is full of full Authority and open to the understanding of simple men and to the points that be most needful to Salvation he that keepeth meekness and charity have the true understanding and Perfection of all holy bread for Christ did not write his laws on tables nor on skins of animals but on the hearts of men again we begin to see the egalitarian if you will nature that that the scriptures and access to God were open to all people not just to some people key scriptures that emphasize this right you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for God’s Own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who had transcalled you out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light and again those verses that talk about Christ having first place in everything and being the head of the church you can see at this time what what radical ideas these were this was kind of the original speaking truth to power if you will and very risky let’s move on to John Huss John hussels was a check and the word hus means goose and so we call him the goose who was cooked have you ever that’s kind of an old school expression anyone ever heard that his Goose was cooked right you’re you’re done right you’re in danger if that happened it comes from John Huss and literally happen um he was a professor at the University of Prague and he was a pastor at Bethlehem Chapel um so a couple of key historic events I won’t go through all of these but um you’d see in a kingly alliance between countries that was kind of a thing back then it allowed for the expansion of academic and religious influence between um between England and and czechoslovak what was well then Bohemia this is interesting Bethlehem Chapel was founded and on the walls were paintings contrasting the behavior of popes with Jesus right and you saw some of that contrast in the last quote what a contrast what a contrast it was I think of when Jesus said the first shall be last and last first I’ve come to be your your servant right and when he talks about how worldly leaders lead he said it shall not be this way among you serve not to be served and I was the complete opposite of what people were seeing in their spiritual leaders right um he had a his initial preaching was welcomed well he was he was um exiled and uh there was a strong connection between between him and Wycliffe wycliffe’s writings influence him very much but wycliffe’s works were banned around this time uh the Council of constance I think last was it last week or the week before Pastor Dave went through some of the ecumenical councils after the seventh Council things really went off the rails and so this is number 16.

um it was called to end the papal Schism but it ended up with a third Pope so that didn’t quite accomplish its purpose um it examined the teachings of wickliff and Haas and both were condemned John house was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake um he was he was kept under house arrest for a while and it took took them a while to do it and that’s why that they kind of in the news was has the goose been cooked yet and it took one finally finally he was he was condemned um he was known for his book on the church which was heavily influenced by Wycliffe um and his letters from prison uh and he was died he was burned at the stake at a place called Devil’s place contributions to the church proclaiming Christ as the foundation of the church and soul dispenser of salvation a couple quotes I’ve said that I would not for a chapel for a I’m going to look this way for a chapel full of gold receipt from the truth I know that the truth stands and is mighty forever and abides eternally with whom there is no respect of persons almost holy Christ draw me weak as I am offer thyself for if thou Dost not draw us we cannot follow thee strengthen my spirit that I may be willing if the flesh is weak let my grace precede us come between and follow for without thee we cannot go for thy sake to cruel death give me a Fearless Heart a right Faith a firm hope a perfect love that for thy sake I may lay down my life with patience and joy amen so like many of our forebears he was expecting to die for his faith and prepared for that key scriptures and their salvation no one else for there’s no other name under Heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved acts 4 12. for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ First Corinthians 3 11. and then we see many verses like in Ephesians 2 right that we are a spiritual building with Christ Jesus being the Cornerstone we are a dwelling of God by the spirit not simply a Human Institution with a Christian veneer or a Christian name very very important now I do want to say a few things a few words about divisions and schisms and that is one of the big the big criticisms of the Reformation that isn’t this divisive isn’t this sinful to do this if you look at Jesus High Priestly prayer in John 17 I pray that they would be one as as Jesus would say I pray that my follower will be one just as I’m one with the father right so so what’s going on here right I’ll read these right I didn’t ask on behalf of these alone but for those who also who believe in me through their word that they may all be one even as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me so what was the about to happen in church history through the Reformation was a Great Divide one that actually remains to this day so we ask ourselves was it necessary and was it faithful to Christ’s prayer on the face of it it would seem that it wasn’t I want to just lay out a little bit of of some terminology that I think will help us here the difference between divisions and schisms these actually come from two key verses in the scriptures First Corinthians 1 10 now I exhort you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all agree and that there be no divisions the Greek word of schisma among you right so that the clear instruction against that that is Schism that kind of division is sinful interestingly Paul would say later on in the book in his instructions that include how we celebrate the Lord’s Supper it says for in the first place when you come together as a church I hear that divisions there’s that same word again skisma exists among you and in part I believe it for there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you harrysis the Greek word that’s I think the word heresy is derivative from that so I think what we’re seeing here is that division’s bad right faction’s good what does that mean factions here it says so there should not be divisions but there should be factions to preserve the truth we need to identify who is true who is faithful and who is false I think we’ve learned right through our journey through II Peter as Pastor Bobby has led us false teaching was there from the very beginning and needs to be identified and fought against and this is an example of that and it was really interesting because that false teaching dominated professing Christianity that’s one thing that’s really interesting if you study the concept of false teaching in the New Testament it’s sobering to realize that the majority and I think it’s even true today um it might be a bold statement to say this but the majority of what professes itself as Christian is false teaching and so we need to be very careful and know our Bibles and that’s what our our lesson here is all about there’s a lot I could say about that but encourage you if you haven’t heard the second Peter series uh go back it it spells that out in great detail for us always need to be on guard always in our Bibles right so that we can know false from true I’ll deviate a little bit here for my nose I love what Jesus says in John 10.

he talks about he is the Good Shepherd and he says my sheep hear my voice and he says something really interesting a stranger they simply will not follow because they do not know the voice of strangers so um brothers and sisters we need to know the voice of Our Shepherd and his word really well so that we can distinguish truth or mirror that’s that’s our job okay so there’s a list here divisions and schisms so I would say that while the Reformation was a big one it wasn’t the first one there were there were many many division divisions and schisms most notably when the when the Eastern Church broke off from the western church what we now know is as the Greek or Byzantine church so um again not new not new okay so that was kind of the seed of the Reformation I want to focus in on three characters who I would say were the flower of the Reformation really known more classically as Reformation figures and the first two you would probably expect um I would not be doing my job today if I didn’t mention a Lutheran Calvin William Tyndale you might be a little less familiar with but uh yeah because like exciting exciting story about him um I’ll tell you more about him in just a minute so Martin Luther known as the swan who was not silent and there’s an interesting connection here historical connection between him and how some of you might know about this John Huss said this you may roast the goose but 100 years from now a swan will arise who’s singing you will not be able to silence and that Swan is often regarded as Martin Luther so exactly 102 years later Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church door of Wittenberg I think what you see here is not to exalt these men but that the word of God is Unstoppable throughout history and I hope that gives you hope uh through the dark times even that we’re living in in the times that are getting uh darker and darker I take great hope in seeing what God did through these events Pope Leo the 10th said of Luther a wild boar has invaded my Vineyard what’s wrong with that quote whose Vineyard is it right it’s not the popes as we’ve established it’s Christ’s it’s so you see something very revealing there uh Martin Luther was German uh he was a Roman Catholic priest and then a pastor um historical events around this time the printing press while it had wasn’t invented it was perfected it was actually invented several centuries earlier I think in Asia as I understand it um and so the Gutenberg Bible was printed and so for the first time people could begin to see in in in in Mass what the Bible said for themselves so they could hear something in the Roman Catholic mass go back to their Bibles and say wait a minute right and so you can see why the Roman Catholic Church did not want this to happen and that it was illegal to have the bible translated into a language that you could understand think about that not that we see this today there are not powerful people that want us to be ignorant are there no it’s been happening for a long long time um in on July 2nd 1505 while returning home from a law school he was caught in a lightning storm and hurled To The Ground by lightning and he cried out help me Saint Anne I will become a monk and so he did much to his father’s dismay um interesting history about him with his relationship with his father um in 1507 he was ordained at the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1511 he did a pilgrimage to Rome it was very disillusioned by the things that he saw there and he was converted to True faith in 1515 primarily through Romans 1 17.

understanding the righteous shall live by faith in Octo on October 31 1517 so October 31st isn’t Halloween it’s Reformation day just so we’re really clear on that okay if you want to dress up as Martin Luther I guess that’s probably okay right he nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg outlining the abuses of the Roman Catholic church and boldly proclaiming the building of the church was its people and not its architecture very important as you can expect he was excommunicated by Pope Leo the tenth the died of worms which is an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire that happened and that’s his famous statement that he’s he’s known to have said here I stand I’ll give you that quote in a little bit he was banished and given safe passage to Wartburg Castle under the threat of death um in 1522 he returned um and engaged in a preaching Ministry and at 42 he married a former Catholic nun Katarina fonbora and they would have six children so we have six children so I kind of like that connection that and our love for the word probably are the only things that that we have in common but I do love that I do love that so known again for the 95 Theses bold opposition and it really put a Target on its head it’s really amazing that he wasn’t killed they tried to find him they tried to get him but God protected him um his statement here I stand was in opposition to the Roman Catholic Church’s demand to recant his teachings he would not do it he translated the Bible from the original languages into German which had a huge impact on the German language in the same way that tyndale’s Bible had an impact on the English language we’ll get to Tyndale in a little bit he wrote a book called bondage of the will very influential work some of you’ve read that did commentaries on many books of the Bible um and his home was interesting uh he referred to the home as a school for character and table talk was his teachings around the table at home and that was a big part of his home Rhythm there’s a Ligonier has a magazine called table talk magazine some of you have seen that which is based on this um I can’t sugarcoat it he was known for anti-Semitism toward the end of his life um while he was a defender of the Jewish people earlier in his life his attitude turned with his disappointment in their rejection of Christ just a few words about this anti-Semitism thing in Germany for a long time as you can imagine and he had written a book called against the Jews and or a pamphlet called against the Jews and their atrocities which Hitler used to justify the Holocaust when it came out people didn’t believe that Luther had actually written it because Luther was so revered by the German people but when it was proven that he did and he did this was this gave kind of cover for the Holocaust which is a terrible thing um you know one biographer said that one wishes that the latter years of Luther’s life had never been and so um I can’t sugarcoat that for you but again this is where it’s it’s great not to be Catholic right because our faith and our trust is not in people but it’s in the word of God and I and I think God has designed this men like this with some pretty significant flaws to not glorify them too much but turn our attention to Christ that’s how I would process that and encourage you to do that as well he died at age 62 in Wittenberg Germany contributions to the church right the recovery of the doctrine of salvation by faith alone and not of works again the priesthood of the individual believer that each believer had Direct access to God through Christ trust in the word of God and then focus on the family as the locus of discipleship I’m not going to go through all these quotes but this is a big one here who knows whether it is so in his pilgrimage to Rome he climbed these steps at St John’s later in church um each step you’re supposed to say a certain thing and gain an indulge indulgent Indulgence um or a or a pass a A reduced time in purgatory or salvation for a family member it got to the top of the steps did all he was supposed to do and he cried out who knows whether it is so very very disillusioned um and you can read that quote there um Romans 1 17. that’s really his testimony understanding what it meant that the righteous shall live by faith the righteousness of God terrified him because he thought he had to manufacture it himself and that is a terrifying Prospect but when he realized that the righteous shall live by faith and righteousness is imputed to us through faith in Christ it was then it said it says the doors of Heaven Paradise opened to him beautiful thing um a simple Layman armed with scripture is to be believed above a pope or counsel without it for the sake of scripture we should reject Pope and counsels other quotes here I won’t read them all you can see why he had a Target on his head and of course key verses that fueled Martin Luther we read it earlier right the righteous shall live by faith that is how God’s righteousness is revealed and then Galatians 1 10 for for am I now seeking the favor of man or of God or am I striving to please man if I were still trying to please men I would not be a bond servant of Christ this is a good word for all believers in all generations right what did Jesus say to the Pharisees they loved the approval of man rather than the approval of God so we need to be very very clear about this Jesus said if if they hate you remember that they hated me first this idea and I you know I’ve been I’ve been seeing some things interestingly um I’m not on Facebook a lot uh but there’s uh there’s some things out there about uh uh um social justice and societal change and kind of indicate that well if we just do the right things people will love us what kind of Christianity is that people who are seeking God people whom God is drawing will but the world will not so we need to end this idea of if we just tweak a few things the world will love us yeah that tweaking is abandoning the word of God and then the word then the world will love you let’s not do that okay and now it’s salvation by grace through faith right obviously faith alone faith alone and not by works okay we’re going to pick up the patients a little bit John Calvin um I’ve referred to him as champion of the Sovereign word he was French he was raised in French speaking Geneva Switzerland and he was a professor and a pastor it’s interesting how God drew some men from being in Academia kind of if in a sense in an ivory Tower removed from reality in one sense I’m not trying to this this any of you who are in Academia but made them into pastors to say hey Will these ideas that I’m studying really work with real people in their daily lives it’s an interesting pattern in 1533 Calvin experiences a sudden conversion and flees Paris with some reluctance on his part he was an academic and he was an introvert that’s not his reputation it’s not his reputation he was appointed as professor of Sacred Scriptures by the Geneva city councils again you don’t see a separation of church and state like we have today so it’s a little bit more complex in 1536 he published his first edition of the Institutes of the Christian religion establishing him as the most prominent leader of the Protestant cause he would go through many revisions if you see the the original version of Calvin’s institutes it’s you know I don’t know five six hundred pages and the expanded one the last one is much bigger than that so it continued to expand and grow in 1538 he was banished from Geneva over controversy regarding the power to excommunicate again this this issue of church or state how do they interact who’s who’s the who’s the final Authority um Calvin spent the next three years in Strasbourg France as a pastor to French refugees and during this time he married a widow with two children her name was Ida lab in 1541 he returned to Geneva famous story of uh expository preaching he went up to the pulpit and he picked right up where he left off as if he had never left just committed to walking through the scriptures in the 1540s Geneva was established as the International Center of reformed Christianity his wife died in 1549 and this is the controversy that you often hear about the criticism of um of Calvin with Michael cervedos who was a physician a Spanish physician convicted of heresy for denying the Trinity again back in these days church and state were not separate as we know them today so you could be convicted of a crime by believing or teaching heresy and Michael cervatis was he was burned at the stake in Geneva Calvin did support the conviction as consistent with the Civil laws of Geneva at that time that was the law although he did advocate for a less severe form of death so we can’t sugarcoat that and that’s when you hear people talk about Calvin um or if you say you’re a calvinist do you believe in the doctrine of grace you you know you might hear about this so it happened again doesn’t diminish the truth of what he taught right because the truth did not originate with him originated with God’s word so he’s known for the Institutes of the Christian religion he’s known for ministerial training uh Scottish reformer John Knox called it the most perfect School of Christ that ever was on Earth since the days of the Apostles as you may know if you know anything about John Knox he had to leave Scotland fled for his life and he and um and Calvin crossed paths and he was in that school Calvin is is almost synonymous with reformed Christianity I think you could say he even coined that term we talked about the controversy with Michael cervedis and then his commentaries are many many commentaries on much of the Old and New Testaments and you can get those online for free and um very very very good stuff I having having been having worked through the um uh Calvin’s institutes for years now it’s it’s very um dense reading you don’t want to go fast um and for me it’s the finest writing that I’ve ever read outside of the scriptures it’s not scripture it’s loaded with scripture but it’s I commend it to you if you haven’t taken a look at it so he died at age 55. uh Switzerland probably from overworked he was known for just an incredible work ethic if you ever hear of the phrase of protestant work ethic a lot of it comes from Calvin so contributions to the church recovery of the doc the doctrines of God’s sovereignty predestination and election uh posthumously for Calvinism um when people get into debates about Calvinism I know this was true for me before I really learned what it was I just didn’t understand what it was I’m not sure it’s the best term I prefer the doctrines of Grace but just for some background in terms of where it came from it’s um Calvin didn’t come up with this system right it’s in um it’s it’s in response to the doctrines of Jacobus arminius who studied in Geneva under Visa who was Calvin’s successor the Five Points of Calvinism as they’re called were defined at the Synod in 1619 in response to the five article articles of the Armenian remonstrance so that’s just a little bit of background and reading reading the articles of the monsters reading the Council of Dork um the Senate of the word very edifying if you haven’t read those um and of course his passion was for the glory of God um separation of church and state we’ve talked about that um there’s a recognition that was growing that both church and state were god-given but separate institutions designed by God for different purposes and he’s known for defining the term reformed Christianity a couple quotes here God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness I was immediately inflamed with an intense desire to make progress being by nature of it anti-social and shy I always loved retirement and peace but God has so Whirled me around by various events that he has never let me rest anywhere but in spite of my natural inclination has thrust me into the Limelight and made me get into the game as they say I love how God does that we see this in scripture right it’s not those who exalt themselves generally who God uses it’s not God doesn’t use those people at all right he pushes people who would not really want to do that into a position of discomfort and trust in him and they have great great impact okay I’m Gonna Move Along here I love this one God both directs men’s counsels and excites their wills and regulates their efforts as he pleases this idea that Calvinism teachers that were robots with our choice has nothing to do with it is wrong I would say the best way to describe it is that God doesn’t manipulate our wells per se he changes the heart and the will follows God’s work is much deeper and much more beautiful than um than some sort of robotic will manipulation God works in the heart yeah the predestination of God makes a distinction where nonexistent in respect of Merit if you ask the reason the Apostle gives it for he has said to Moses I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion and what prayer does this mean it is just a clear declaration by the Lord that he finds nothing in men themselves to induce him to show kindness that it is owing entirely to his own mercy and accordingly that their salvation is his own work praise the Lord for that kind of clarity reflecting the teaching of scripture I read Ephesians 1 at the beginning and we see all these phrases he chose us in him before the foundation of the world in love he predestined us to adoption according to the kind intention of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace according to His Kind intention which he purposed in him right having been predestined according to his purpose he works all things after the counsel of his will I find it interesting over the years when someone says do you believe in predestination do you believe in election I think our response is well do you believe in the Bible these are not man-made terms these are in the Bible we need to understand them as God has to find them for us biblically and they’re beautiful things that assault our pride and give glory to him which I think is the whole point of the Gospel First Peter 1 right according to his great Mercy has caused us to be born again we would not have sought him unless he had caused that to happen Okay lastly one of my favorites um I think we’re doing great on time William Tyndale And the tagline I give him is transformed by the word he was a he was a Brit um he was a scholar a translator and an author um some key historical issues and events um the Archbishop of Canterbury forbade the translation of the Bible into English and we saw that a little bit with Wycliffe in 1516 the Greek New Testament was published by Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1519 the law learns we talked about them that the commissioned priests from Wycliffe they were burned at the stake simply for teaching their children The Lord’s Prayer in English burn to the stake for that I Rejoice that even as I say that there are children downstairs being taught the word of God praise God for that he FL he fled to Germany in 1524 fled for his life and he’s known for his English translation of the Greek new testament which was smuggled into England in bales of cloth 1536 the Old Testament translations from Hebrew to the of the pentateuch Joshua through II Chronicles and Jonah so he didn’t get through the whole Old Testament from Hebrew but he got through much of it and then in 1537 the Matthew Bible was printed after its death by John by John Rogers also known as Thomas Matthew completing the translation work which was done started by Tyndale that’s a picture of a a leaf that I have in my office of a 1539 Matthew Tyndale Bible I love this it’s Psalm 27 which is my favorite Psalm and it’s familiar to you right the Lord is my light and my salvation Whom Shall I Fear the Lord is the strength I’ll just read it in King James which is the closest that we have um if I had read the the Tyndale Bible that’s I think Middle English you wouldn’t be able to understand it a little different than Modern English but King James is based on it the Lord is my light and my salvation Whom Shall I Fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid when the wicked even mine enemies and my foes Came Upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell though when hosts shouldn’t Camp against me my heart shall not fear the war should arise against me in this I will be confident think about how precious that scripture was to William Tyndale who gave his life so that we could read this interesting my uh I first got this and I hung it up my office my son Lee um I was telling me telling him a little bit about Tyndale that he was the first first to translate the Bible from the original languages in English he said oh did he get a lot of money doing that I said no son he got killed for doing that right and it was worth it and so uh we should be eternally grateful for men like that um at age 42 in 1536 he was strangled and burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church who hated people to have the word of God in their own language amazing amazing um I I kind of skipped over this but he but he never married um he was single and committed himself fully to the work of translating the scriptures and we are all beneficiaries of it so the Bible in English and martyrdom were his key contributions I love this quote from Tyndale I defy the pope and all his laws if God should spare my life for many years I will cause a boy that drives the plow to know more of the scriptures than you do said that to a Roman Catholic scholar it’s bold right that’s the kind of boldness that we don’t see very often he understood the power of the word of God in an ordinary person’s heart in life made it accessible and we’re all the beneficiaries of that praise the Lord for that a couple more quotes your cause is Christ’s gospel and light that must be fed with the blood of faith this was a letter of his to a friend who was also would be martyred if when we are buffeted for well-doing we suffer patiently and endure that is thankful to God for to that end we are called for Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps who did no sin hereby how we perceived love that he laid down his life for us and therefore we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren let not your body fade if the pain be above your strength remember whatever you shall ask in my name I will give to you and pray to your father in Heaven that he will ease your pain or shorten it amen well it’s while we view what they’ve done is remarkable I don’t know if they actually viewed what they did as remarkable I think they simply viewed it as being faithful they saw a glorified they saw Christ in his glory and they said this is what I do as a follower of Christ Lord open the king of England’s eyes Tyndale said as he was being executed that really reminds you of Christ doesn’t it when he was dying you see Echoes of the character of Christ in these figures so key scriptures here the word of God profitable right all scripture is inspired by God profitable for teaching for a proof for correction for training and righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work right understood from First Peter 1 that we are born again through the living and abiding word of God whereas the gospels would say in the parable of the sower very simply the seed is the word of God let’s never forget that okay a few honorable mentions and a few concluding remarks so other figures there’s many others but I just want to point these out to you uh jorg Zoo England uh he was a champion of Believers baptism John Knox the famous quote give me Scotland or I die fascinating character argula Von grimac was Protestant protestantism’s first female Theologian probably I would say the first published female Theologian every mom who taught their kids the scriptures was a theologian let’s be honest about that uh Katarina Von Bora that’s Martin Luther’s wife she was a nun who became his wife and then I have an anti-hero here Ignatius of Loyola he was a leader of the Counter Reformation we see him as an anti-hero and he was the founder of the order of the Jesuits who I would say have been wreaking havoc ever since if we can be honest fruit of the Reformation boy there’s a lot that I could say here let me just give a few a few comments um defining and clarifying beliefs primarily about salvation Authority the church and Christian Living let me give you a few quotes from from Luther on this which I think are really helpful um this was a little bit a short catechism that Luther did question and answer how is a person saved not by works but by faith in Christ alone where does religious Authority lie not in the visible institution called the Roman church but in the word of God found in the Bible what is the church the whole community of Christian Believers since all our priests before God what is the essence of Christian Living serving God in any useful calling whether ordained or lay and so to this day those who believe such things particularly in salvation by faith through grace alone are anathematized by the Roman Catholic Church anathematized means damned to hell so you and I and and not all of our Catholic friends know this or Believers let’s be honest I’m talking about the official teaching of of the Roman Catholic Church most of my most of my non-believing friends are Roman Catholic and don’t know a lot of this but the official Catholic Doctrine is that we you and I are cursed to help for believing in salvation by grace through faith and that’s both by the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches um uh Greek and Russian Orthodox churches so that’s uh that’s the fruit in the church in the world we have um we have literacy work ethic separation of church and state and abolition of slavery let me just go through these really quickly literacy illiteracy and ignorance as I’ve mentioned before these are tools of totalitarianism through the printing press and Bible translation into the vernacular meaning the common language the common people now have the opportunity to read for themselves and not rely on other people dead or alive in particular Luther’s German translation and tyndale’s English translation had impacts that are felt to this day if you are literate thank the reformers right it just wasn’t happening in fact in a lot of these churches this is why they had the images and the pictures because well they don’t need to read we can just show them these pictures intentionally keeping people ignorant right so literacy is a huge deal work ethic the Protestant work ethic you may have heard that phrase came out of the recognition that Christianity was to be lived out in the world and that all legitimate vocations were expressions of worship to God there weren’t two classes of Christians professional Christians and amateur Christians no we all have a place to serve him in that sense all Christians were professionals the impacts on education and in medicine in particular follow Christianity throughout the world you see the history of Christianity you see the history of education and progress you do you do separation of church and state we mentioned that several times initially through the influences of what Wycliffe and Calvin both of whom distinguished church and state as both god-given but separate Earthly authorities this eventually led to the dismantling of the quote Holy Roman Empire conversion by choice and not by force and freedom of conscience and freedom of religion and then finally we have abolition of slavery biblical Christianity laid the foundation for the abolition of slavery for the first time in human history contrary to what is often asserted today namely that white Christianity essentially created chattel slavery Christians reading their Bibles concluded that shadow slavery was sin and worked actively work to end it both in religious and civil institutions slavery ended because Christians were reading their Bibles and following Christ let’s never forget that praise the Lord a lot more I can say about that some people claim that the Bible justifies it it does not absolutely does not at least not in yeah some that’s a whole other lesson um so what are some applications for us um I’ll suggest a few one is literacy and learning and some of you may know about the bereans that Paul talks about in the book of Acts right these were more noble because they listened to what Paul said and they examine the Scriptures Daily to see if what these things that these things were true right when with literacy comes the responsibility to examine everything by the word of God and was so interesting um as I talked to some of my more hardcore um Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox friends they will say to me that you cannot question the words of a priest or a question well I said what about Paul he asked anyone alive today and he invited being questioned being examined by the word of God and we ought do that and we’re responsible to do that right even anything I’ve said today I probably got some things wrong look at the scriptures right Glory right we want to have the right center to our lives um Copernicus back in the 1400s and the 1500s observed that the planetary system revolved not around the Earth but around the Sun that was revolutionary at the time in the same way God’s people were recognizing that salvation and the church centered around God and not man this is a lesson we must continually return to amen and then control right who is the right master who are we living to please right um You may have heard of a concept in western civilization called the divine right of kings which is really a misinterpretation of Romans 13 which takes the idea that because God has established Authority then authorities can do no wrong it’s not quite it right and so Kings would abuse this by saying it’s right just because I say so the only person who can do that is God so with that dismantled through the Reformation we experience freedom from totalitarianism and recognize that we must obey God rather than men and we need to apply that every day don’t we brothers and sisters this comes up every day okay give you the final quote and then we will we will pray Colossians 2 67. therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude the reason I mentioned this is that the gospel has applications where Alliance every single day really every moment how do we come to faith in Christ how do we come to Christ by repentance and faith how do we live in Christ continual cycle of repentance and faith not that we’re re not that we’re becoming born again again again right but as we’ve received so we walk in Repentance and faith Robert Godfrey put it this way and I’ll end with this quote I think it’s really helpful since we now have a church reformed in the externals of Doctrine worship and government let us always be working to ensure that our hearts and lives are being reformed by the word and the spirit of God with that let me pray for us father I pray above all that our hearts would be captivated by Christ that you would be the center of our thoughts and of our affections that we just can’t keep our eyes off of you learning a value as it says in Hebrews fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and Perfection perfect of our faith beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord right right being transformed in His image may this be our lives that we would explore new depths of repentance and faith in our own lives and that we would grow in discernment and measure All Things by Christ ourselves in your image the church in its fullness the World by your kingdom your Reign and rule over all things in Jesus name amen