Steve Lawson
The expository preaching of John Calvin
Calvin was perhaps the most gifted expositor of God’s Word that the church has known for over 1000 years.
The pulpit was his principal ministry. The heart of his ministry. Of all the many things he was, he was a pastor first.
10 Hallmarks of his preaching:
Biblical in Content: The minister has nothing to say apart from the Word of God. Everything that is not in the Bible is futile and boasting.
Sequential in Flow: One verse to the next. When he was exiled and then returned to Geneva, he walked in the first Sunday and opened his Bible to the exact verse that he left off on three years earlier.
Direct
Extemporaneous in delivery
Exegetical in depth
Familiar in language: “He put the cookies on the bottom shelf”. His preaching was attainable and understandable with minimal jargon and academic language. (I find his commentaries to be very accessible)
Pastoral in tone
Polemic
Evangelistic
God centered in conclusion
As a sign of how brilliant Calvin was. He preached in French, taught academy in Latin and preached extemporaneously from Hebrew and Greek text, translating on the fly.
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