Review: Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles
Apparently extempore, these sermons were delivered in course, in Geneva from the summer of 1549 to the New Year of 1551. Indeed the series went on over the next few years until the Acts of the Apostles was preached through. Only these forty-four sermons survive in this transcribed form, however. The aim is expository, not in a modern sense, but the effect, at least on this reader is exhortory. There is much of interest here, but Calvin’s repetitive, at times ludicrously exaggerated and sometimes scurrilous attacks on what he calls ‘The Papacy’ are painful. What kept his congregation seemingly spell-bound? Perhaps that is lost in translation.
This review was first published on GoodBookReviews.org.uk. This site was closed as of March 2019.
Latest Articles
Developing the Hide of a Rhinoceros January 21, 2026
This article first appeared at The Australian Presbyterian and is featured in Issue 749 of the Banner of Truth Magazine (February 2026). Somewhere, Stuart Briscoe has commented that three attributes of a pastor are needed: ‘The mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros.’ The last attribute seems […]
Commentaries and the ‘Unction Test’
— Iain H. Murray
January 13, 2026
In January 1996, Iain H. Murray gave an address at The Bethlehem Conference for Pastors (Minneappolis, U. S. A.) entitled ‘The Preacher and Books.’ The excerpt below is from a section in which Rev. Murray asks how a preacher is to determine which books (and particularly commentaries in this case) he should devote time to […]