Seed of Faith – Cloud of Witnesses – Follow The Leader By Pastor Dave
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3
Dear Faithful Seed Sowers,
I pray that as you take a few moments to read this week’s Seed of Faith, you will come to know and experience the sovereignty and supremacy of God over your life. May you know that you, indeed, have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding you and encouraging you to finish your race.
In the Summer, we started a series on “Follow the Leader! The Great Cloud of Witnesses”. I enjoy reading biographies, especially the biographies about people of faith, people who have made a difference in the church, and in our world. I am always inspired by their faith and courage. Almost every Summer, I take a month and preach on 4 witnesses who followed Christ.
Today we are going to learn about a great witness of the faith: John Calvin. John Calvin is one of the founders of the Reformed faith.
What is Reformed Faith? My wife asked me what reformed faith is. Thousands of pages and books have been written on what the reformed faith is and is not. Reformed faith came from the reformation that was started by Martin Luther in Germany (10-31-1517) and a Swiss man by the name of Ulrich Zwingli. This became know as the Protestant Faith. The word protestant comes from the Latin word “protestari.” Which is a combination of two words “proor” meaning before, and “testari” which means to testify. So Protestant means to go before and stand for (or testify) to your faith.
The Reformed Faith holds certain truths in common with every branch of the Christian church throughout history. The Reformed faith adheres to what are termed “The four great Ecumenical Creeds” of the early church—the Apostles’ Creed and the creeds of Nicea (A.D. 325), Constantinople (381), and Chalcedon (451). With these four creeds, the Reformed Faith holds as fundamental to the very existence of a Christian church, the following doctrines: the Trinity; the eternal and essential deity of Christ; His eternal Sonship; His true humanity, virgin birth by the miraculous action of the Holy Spirit upon the Virgin Mary, atoning death, bodily resurrection, and second coming as the judge of all the earth; and His unique person as God manifested in the flesh. On this last point, the Chalcedon statement has been wholeheartedly received by Reformed churches.
You might also be able to summarize the Reformed Faith on the five “Solas” which were the cry of the reformation:
1) Sola Scriptura — “Scripture alone” is the rule of faith and practice, the only authority for establishing doctrine, the supreme arbiter in all matters of controversy, and its own interpreter (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12).
2) Sola gratia — salvation is “by grace alone,” that is, God confers it as a free gift without works of merit on our part (Ephesians 2:8–10; Titus 3:4–7).
3) Sola fide — salvation is received “by faith alone” (Romans 3:28; 4:3–5).
4) Solo Christo — God’s grace and our faith are “in Christ alone” (John14:6; Acts 4:12; Ephesians 1:7; Romans 5:12–21).
5) Soli Deo gloria—in salvation, as in everything else, all is “to the glory of God alone.
Jesus is the foundation; then the Apostles, then saints like Augustine. Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin are building blocks of our faith. For Calvin, all five “solas” came under the umbrella of God’s sovereignty, supremacy, and majesty.
Without Calvin, we would not have the theological foundation of the reformed faith. There are many denominations and even non-denominational churches that are in the reformed faith.
Calvin gave biblical lectures and preached ten sermons every two weeks—20 sermons a month. To give you something to compare this with: I preach one sermon a week. They tell you in seminary that for every minute of a sermon—you average an hour of study! Calvin prepared five sermons every week!
It’s all I can do to prepare one!
All of Calvin’s messages were an exposition of Scripture—word by word, line by line, Calvin didn’t miss a thing.
In his last will and testament Calvin wrote, “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.”[i]
Who is this man that influenced the reformation of the 16th century and still influences our lives today?
Why is Calvin important to us today?
Calvin’s influence extended beyond the borders of the church. His reformation ideas had an influence on education and politics that are still impacting us today. Calvin’s precision and theological insight have provided all Protestant faiths with a vocabulary for their understanding of God, giving clarity to the doctrines like the ultimate authority of Scripture and justification by faith alone.
What can we thank John Calvin for?
Three things: The authority of Scripture, the inspiration of Scripture and the application of Scripture. These are our three points for today.
AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE
For John Calvin, the authority of Scripture came from the sovereignty of God. Calvin had seen the majesty of God in Scriptures. He said, “We owe to the scriptures the same reverence which we owe to God, because it has proceeded from Him alone, and nothing of man mixed with it.”[i]
The majesty of God is seen through the Word of God. Sit and stay with that first point for just a moment: the majesty of God is seen through the Word of God. What a powerful idea. Do we ever sit with our Bible and ponder that thought? That I am holding the majestic Word of God in my hands? Oh, Lord, impart this reverence into our hearts today.
INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE
In book one, chapter nine of the Institutes, Calvin devoted extensive writing to explaining his thought of the work of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. For Calvin, the Holy Spirit was inseparable from the Word. Calvin puts it this way, “the Lord has so knit together the certainty of his word and his Spirit, that our minds are duly imbued with reverence for the word when the Spirit shining upon it enables us there to behold the face of God; and, on the other hand, we embrace the Spirit with no danger of delusion when we recognize him in his image, that is, in his word.”[ii]
Calvin is saying that we can see the face of God in the Word of God because the Holy Spirit shines upon the Scriptures.
Tomorrow, when you pick up your Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to shine upon the Scriptures so that you can see the face of God. Do you know what Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
In 1987 I made a Cursillo weekend at Epworth Forest in Indiana! During the weekend, I was encouraged to read my Bible. When my wife came home from her weekend, she and I began to read our Bible together. We read 5 Psalms a day, a chapter of Proverbs and then we started on a Gospel. After that, we started on an OT book and a NT book. We sat in the front room of our home and read together from 6—7 am before our day began. We took turns reading a verse at a time. We did that until I attended seminary in 1994; we had 7 years of reading the Bible together. Do you know that every day it felt like we were discovering treasure? Every day the Holy Spirit would illuminate the living word to us. We’d see things, hear things, and read things that we’d never seen before. I can email you a copy of this reading plan. (Billy Graham and Pat Robertson used it.)
Tomorrow when you open your Bible to read, why not pray, “Holy Spirit, I am ready for you to illuminate the word of God to me. Shine your light into my heart. Amen.”
I love that Calvin wrote that the Holy Spirit would shine the face of God straight into our hearts. God’s mercies are new every morning! Great is His faithfulness to let us discover the face of God as we read our bible.
APPLICATION OF SCRIPTURE
Calvin said, “Yet because I know that I am not my own master, I offer my heart as a true sacrifice to the Lord.”[iii]
This became Calvin’s motto, the picture on his emblem and breastplate–a hand holding a heart to God with the inscription, “prompte et sincere — promptly and sincerely.”
SO WHAT?
The SO WHAT question for us this morning is: what will be our last will and testament?
Calvin left us volumes–all centered on this: God is sovereign, the Holy Spirit inspires us to know that God is sovereign, and the Word of God is majestic.
This summer, my wife and three youth from our church were able to attend the ROCK weekend in Illinois. There were over 80 people in attendance: 60 teenagers and 20 adults. Another 150 people came to hear the closing when the youth shared what the weekend means to them. These 22 kids challenged the 200 of us in the pews to see the evidence of their changed lives.
Does the living word of God do that to us? Does it change us? Does it change the way we talk, act, think, live?
I think of Calvin and I think of Jesus.
GOD IS SOVEREIGN!
I think of how Jesus told us, “I’m doing the work of my father.”
I think of how Calvin spent so much time writing—by daylight, by candlelight; filling pages and pages of books! I think of how Calvin told us that the Holy Spirit will inspire us through the Living Word!
I think of how Jesus prayed for us and how he told his disciples—”WAIT HERE—I am sending you my identical twin, the Holy Spirit. He will lead you into all truth! He will tell you what to say!”
I think of how Calvin found the Word of God to be majestic—stately, grand!
I always tell you to put yourself into the story…and then put the story in you. When you open the Bible, find out the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the book you’re reading. Find a place where you can put yourself into the pages. But before you close that book, I pray to God that you will put the story of what you just read into yourself. I pray the Holy Spirit will magnify God’s sovereignty, God’s majesty as you read, and reread, as you open up the LIVING WORD. And then I pray that you are changed. Transformed by the living word of God.
When Jesus was lost—by his parents—and they returned to Jerusalem, do you know where he was? He was in the synagogue listening to God’s Word. When Jesus started His earthly ministry—do you know he read from the Old Testament book of Isaiah in chapter 61 and said, I have fulfilled this passage. Do we get it?
The GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES aren’t great because they were awesome people. They are great because they followed the one and only true leader, Jesus Christ—and in doing so, they understood that this Bible…when read with the influence of the Holy Spirit…will do just that: Isaiah 61…deliver good news to the poor, that broken hearts will heal, that there’s freedom for captives, and release from darkness.
As we spend this time together looking at our great cloud of witnesses, may we be impressed to let the Living Word of God…live in us and change us so that we, like Calvin, become evidence of this changed life?
We are going to pray a dangerous but bold prayer of John Calvin: Lord, we hold our heart in our hand as we give our lives over to the great I AM—promptly and sincerely?
See you Sunday!
God loves you and so do I,
Pastor Dave
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