Sermons on Ephesians (John Calvin)

Calvin’s sermons on Ephesian, preached on Sundays at Geneva in 1558-59, when he was 49 years of age, were first printed in French in 1562, then in English in 1577. These treasured sermons on Ephesians have long been one of the rarest of all the Reformer’s works and merited the comment of C. H. Spurgeon, a century ago, ‘The sermons are priceless.’

The fact that this was the first publication of an entire series of Calvin’s sermons in the twentieth century underlines the comparative neglect with which this aspect of the reformer’s work has been treated. Yet Calvin was, first and foremost, a preacher—preaching customarily ten times in each fortnight—and his sermons not only moulded the citizens of Geneva and the many refugees who gathered in the capital of the Reformation, they were also read from Poland to Scotland. In Elizabethan England, Calvin’s sermons were published on a massive scale, and there, as in the rest of Europe, the Genevan pulpit method—that is, simple explanation of the text followed by exhortation and penetrating application to the conscience—became the hallmark of Reformed preaching. Thus these sermons are of historic importance.

Because Calvin was ‘the first great modern preacher,’ this material is basic to the history of preaching. For most readers, however, the sermons will be read and prized for their sheer spiritual helpfulness. It was not without reason that this material lay beside the bed of John Knox as he lay dying.