I am finishing up preaching through the Gospel According to Mark on Sunday mornings. This of course means that I am now knee deep in the cross of Christ. That which has been anticipated is now, in the narrative, being realized.
In my study I have turned to some of my favorite preachers. Incidentally, most of these guys not only have outstanding hair they also lived hundreds of years ago.
As I sat and read John Calvin on the cross of Christ in The Institutes I was reminded again about truth unchanged. I read Calvin and it was like he had done prep work before a morning meeting over coffee. I sat down, opened up my book, and sipped my coffee as the 16th Century stud from Geneva skillfully painted the corners of the theological plate.
Do you know how much this encouraged my soul?
In all of the clamoring to be relevant, edgy, and fresh I am reminded that the most powerfully relevant truth of the 16th Century is also preeminent today. My great burden each week is to set the glory of Christ before our congregation. This has and will be the burden of preachers in the church until Jesus returns.
Furthermore, I am also encouraged by the fact that it is because these men in previous centuries were so gripped by the gospel that anyone is today. These things get passed down by the sheer grace of God working in space, time, and lives. God continues to play the gospel soundtrack in our pulpits. And it has worked. The gospel flames that sparked the Reformation are still burning today. I feel this in my own life and see it in our church. Similiarly, I remember a prominent pastor answering the question as to how his church grew so fast. His answer, “It’s a secret. We are on the cutting edge of the 16th Century. I preach what Luther and Calvin preached.” This is so refreshing.
What else can I travel back to the 1500’s for and benefit from? Seriously, we spend most of our time in the last few decades, or years even. Here I am going back, way back, and finding myself so richly blessed.
I am instructed then when I turn to the dead guys with fantastic lettuce (hair) and read them. Whether I go to Luther, Calvin, Owen, Flavel, Sibbes, Goodwin, Edwards, Ryle, Whitfield, or Spurgeon…I hear the same song. These guys are faithful, through their writings, to sit down opposite me and preach Christ and him crucified to me as I sip my coffee. What a blessing!
