Happy Reformation Day Part Two. Friday, of course,
was officially Reformation Day. And so we wanted
to make sure, actually I needed about four weeks
for this subject, but we're doing it in two,
which means, so Adam was right, there's gonna
be a lot of photos, there's gonna be timelines
and maps, and this one may run a little long,
so be gracious with me, but I wanna make sure
we cover this well. Last week we set the stage
for the Scottish Reformation, primarily by talking
about the early martyrs. that were burned at
the stake for their Protestant faith. And today
we're going to take it from there and talk about
the life and the ministry of John Knox. And he
is the man whose boldness and courage really
drove the Reformation in Scotland to its successful
outcome in the year 1560. It is a wonderful story,
studying this man. A story of both successes
and setbacks. A story of ups and downs. And isn't
that life? Things don't always go exactly as
we plan it. You have your ups and downs. But
it was a story of constant battles for the truth
that Knox and others were fighting in that day.
Here's the thing that's really encouraging for
someone like me and maybe for you as well. This
is a story of a very flawed man in John Knox
who God used mightily, just as he did with Martin
Luther, another flawed man. These were not perfect
men, but they were the right men for their day.
And Knox was a man who would stand firm and not
back down. from God's call. And that's what we're
gonna find out today. The verse that kept coming
to my mind as I was working on this this week,
I kept saying, Lord, what passage could I share
with the body this morning? And in addition to
the call to worship from Matthew 10, which we'll
come back to, which is very important, 1 Corinthians
15, 58 came to mind as well. Because I think
this really describes Knox so well. Therefore,
my beloved brothers, be steadfast. Be immovable.
Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing
that your labor is not in vain. And that really
does speak so much to the life of John Knox.
Now, why do we read biographies and why do we
care to listen to sermons about great men and
women in church history? I hope you know the
answer to that question, but let me just spell
it out clearly. We want to see God's sovereign
hand moving. in human history. We want to see
how God has mightily used his servants, raised
up the right people for the right time, and to
use them in supernatural ways. And in the process
of that, guys, we get to understand a little
bit more about our spiritual roots as a church.
Because as I said last Sunday, we are not isolated
from church history. We are a part of the flow
of what God is doing in the history of his body.
So stories of men like Knox should be, to you
and I, very encouraging and very inspiring. And
so I hope his story will bless you this morning.
So let's dive in. Let's start with our main character.
And by the way, let's just say before we go any
further that John Knox had to have had the best
beard in all of church history. I mean, that
is glorious, right? Now, interestingly, much
of Knox's life, his early life, is very much
unknown. And this doesn't surprise us because
this is true of most people. Until they step
on the big stage, a lot of... Their history in
the past just didn't show up in the history books,
and that's true of Knox. We do know that he grew
up in a staunch Roman Catholic family, as everybody
did prior to the Reformation. We know he was
a top -tier student at the University of St.
Andrews, that he earned his degree in the year
1536, and even served briefly as an assistant
professor at his school. We also know that like
all the great reformers, this is something that's
common to all of them, he was ordained into the
Catholic priesthood. He was ordained as a priest
soon after graduating from university. But it
seems that one of the things that turned his
heart towards Protestant ideas, of all things,
was a job that he took tutoring. the sons of
two noble families in Scotland who both happened
to be early Protestants. And though we don't
have details, it seems that there were some things
as he was teaching these two school -age boys,
there were things being spoken of in those homes
that must have rubbed off on him. But the determining
factor in his life was sitting under the teaching
of one particular man. And guys, this is, again,
a story of God's sovereignty. You have no idea.
In your life, when you sit down with somebody
to teach them, to disciple them, what that person
may end up becoming. There was a guy who helped
to form John Knox's thinking. And we don't even
know his name, although I'm going to give it
to you right now. But he's not famous. But he
poured into the life of John Knox. His name was
Thomas Guion. And he had once been a Dominican
friar himself prior to coming to believe in Reformed
doctrine. And by the year 1543, Knox had done
the same. He committed his life to scripture,
to the gospel of grace. But the only details
he really gives us in his writings about how
he came to that was this sublime statement. And
Knox is known for this, the way he speaks. He
writes this. He says, it pleased God to call
me out of the puddle of papistry. That's sort
of the way he spoke and wrote. Two years after
that is when he met George Wishart in 1545. We
talked about him last Sunday. And Knox affixed
himself to Wishart's powerful preaching ministry,
became his disciple, became his close friend.
And it was from Wishart that Knox really saw
firsthand what it looked like to preach with
boldness and to be faithful and courageous in
his convictions. And as I shared last Sunday,
we know that Knox... became his assistant, became
his personal bodyguard because Wisher's life
was always being threatened. So Knox would stand
next to him while he preached with a two -handed
sword held in front of him to ward off any assassins
who would try to kill his friend. But when Wisher
was eventually arrested and burned at the stake
in St. Andrews the following year in 1546, the
mantle of that ministry passed to Knox. He didn't
know it at the time, but it was being passed
to him. Now, I shared the story last Sunday of
how a Protestant militia had taken over the castle
at St. Andrews, and then they asked Knox to come
in and be their pastor and to be their chaplain
and to preach. And in that role, which he hesitated
to do at first, we actually know exactly what
he preached his first sermon on. It was on two
verses from Daniel chapter 7 of all places, and
it was taught in the pulpit of Holy Trinity Parish
Church. on the campus of the University of St.
Andrews. That pulpit from the 16th century is
still in that church today. In fact, here I am
standing in it looking like a dork on the left,
and there I am on the right pretending to do
my Knox pointing my finger. That is John Knox's
pulpit from that many years ago, and it's still
sitting in that same chapel. Now, whether it
was a good sermon or not, we don't know. All
that Knox would say about his first sermon later
was, he said this. Oops, I'm going to come back
to that. He said, St. Andrews was the place where
God first, in public, opened my mouth to his
glory. What a great way to describe your preaching.
Not, hey, that was the first day I got to talk
to the people. No, God opened my mouth to his
own glory. By the way, the other pictures, let
me just go back to those. St. Andrews, if you
go to Scotland, you need to go there. a beautiful
university town. So that's the chapel. That's
the inside of that same chapel where his pulpit
is. That's the campus of the university on the
right. So as you walk through there, you know,
the guide we were with said, yeah, these buildings
are older than your country. I was like, oh,
that's nice. I mean, just absolutely beautiful.
And just, this is the town. You walk down the
street, just, I mean, Christmas card, right,
Grant? If there was snow, it'd be perfect. Just
a beautiful town. Okay, enough of that. So those
who heard Knox preach in those first couple months
were amazed. In fact, it was said by some unknown
observer, they said, others lop off the branches
of the papistry, but Knox strikes at the root
to destroy the whole. He instantly, in just the
first few months, became known for bringing the
thunder. That's why we've called this series
Seeing Thunder. That became his reputation. And
people noted right away, listen, if they burned
Wishart, they're going to burn this guy as well
because he seems to be even more aggressive than
his mentor. And very quickly, he was summoned
to answer for his preaching by the prior general
of the local Augustinian order. And Knox... probably
a little naive at this point in his ministry
career, stormed into this meeting without any
fear whatsoever and to the face of the prior
declared the papacy to be a false office. A false
office saying no man can usurp Christ as head
of the church. And then he went on to attack
the mass as idolatrous and declared that all
Catholic ceremonies go beyond the commands of
scripture and therefore must be stopped. That
was Knox in a nutshell. He never held back. He
brought the thunder. And oftentimes, one of the
things that caused him trouble was he lacked
any sense of tact or diplomacy. But somehow,
God supernaturally protected him from being arrested
at this point, and he began to move on. Now,
I'm going to give you a timeline here throughout
the rest of the message so that you can follow
along on the dates. I mentioned this last week.
In 1547, Knox and his fellow Protestants were
actually captured by the French Navy after they
laid siege to the castle at St. Andrews, and
he found himself... confined to a French ship
as a galley slave. So get this now. For 19 months,
he was chained to an oar with little food in
deplorable conditions. And honestly, without
God's protection, it's a miracle he survived
because many didn't. But that was his punishment
for having rebelled against the authorities in
St. Andrews. Later, a story would emerge, and
I think this is probably true, that the crew
on this ship would often go down into below deck
and just try to convince all these slaves to
conform to the Roman Catholic faith and to pray
to Mary. And of course, Knox would refuse. So
at one point, Knox was taken above deck, and
a statue of Mary was pushed towards him, and
the crew demanded that he kiss the Virgin Mary.
And what did Knox do? He took the statue in his
arms and he threw it overboard. And he said to
the crew, let our lady now save herself. Let
her learn how to swim. John Knox, ladies and
gentlemen. Now on two occasions during those
19 months, he noticed that he was rowing within
sight of the steeple of St. Andrews. And he writes
later that he never surrendered hope that someday
he would get back there and preach again. And
he would. In 1549, God spared Knox's life. He
was actually released from slavery through a
prisoner swap with France. But at that point,
it wasn't safe for him to stay in Scotland. He'd
already created enough enemies. So he began a
life of exile. And this was to mark John Knox's
life. He spent less time in Scotland than he
wanted to and many years away from his homeland.
So in this case, he decided that he would go
to London. He had seen the Church of England.
And yes, Henry VIII had brought a measure of
reform there. But in Knox's opinion, it wasn't
even close to being as reformed as it should
be. So his goal was to bring more reform to the
Anglican Church. And when he came to London,
he was well -received by the Protestants there.
In fact, for the next four years, he would preach
at various locations in England. directed by
the one and only Thomas Cranmer. If you know
your English history, Thomas Cranmer was the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the driving force
behind Reformation in the nation of England.
Cranmer first sent Knox to the northern town
of Berwick, which was just three miles away from
the Scottish border. By the way, it was there
that he met his wife for the first time. Her
name was Marjorie. A year later, he was then
assigned to a parish in the city of Newcastle.
And then in 1551, this is important, he was honored
to be recommended to be one of six royal chaplains
assigned to serve and teach the King of England.
Now, at this point, a few years earlier, Henry
VIII had passed away, and the throne had passed
to his only son. If you know the story of Edward
VI, he came to the throne at the ripe old age
of 14 years old, and he needed teaching, he needed
tutoring. And by all accounts, Edward was a remarkably
smart young man. He was, get this now, he was
thoroughly Protestant in his ideas and able to
articulate what Protestant reform theology was.
And so Knox had high hopes for Edward and high
hopes that he would bring greater reform to England
and that maybe if England got more reformed,
it would spread north up into Scotland. So Knox
came back to London and he taught. the young
prince privately and also preached in his presence.
Knox preached in places like Westminster Abbey.
He preached at Windsor Castle in the presence
of young Edward the King. And Knox was convinced,
although Henry had divorced England from Rome,
that the Church of England was still way too
Catholic. So with Edward, he had a chance to
really shape the young man's mind and to hammer
home all the ways that the Anglican Church needed
to be reformed. And then just to walk that talk,
In the year 1552, Knox was offered an actual
Anglican position as a bishop, the Bishop of
Rochester. And he said, no, thank you, because
the Church of England is not yet reformed enough
for me to join it. And he said, no, thank you.
He said, I will remain just a simple preacher
of God's word. That's what I love about Knox.
He just lived by his principles. But then came
a shocking moment that changed Knox's life drastically,
and this propels him into what I would call the
second stage of his ministry life. In 1553, that
young king, Edward, suddenly died at the age
of 16. And along with him, the hopes of a Protestant
England died as well. 13 days later, the throne
passed to Henry's oldest daughter. So it had
gone to the first son, but now it went to the
oldest daughter, and she was proclaimed Queen
of England. You probably know who she is. Her
name was Mary Tudor. And she was a committed
Roman Catholic. While her younger brother had
been a Protestant, she was a committed Roman
Catholic. So committed, in fact, that her reputation
would go down in history by what moniker? Bloody
Mary, the greatest persecutor of the Protestant
church in that day. She will answer to God for
arresting and executing almost 300 Protestant
reformers in the country of England, including
Thomas Cranmer, by the way, who she put to death
at the Tower of London, as well as famously Hugh
Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, John Bradford, and
Miles Coverdale, and many, many more. So Mary's
ascension to the throne then put Knox in a real
bind. He knew he would be on Mary's hit list.
So weeks after young Edward died, he made the
very difficult decision to flee across the English
Channel and find safety somewhere on the continent.
And again, this was Knox's life. He was often
on the run. He was always facing adversity and
yet always watching to see where God would take
him next. But always, always, always with a constant
eye, I've got to get back to Scotland. Got to
get back to my homeland. But at this point, he
needed to find a place that was safe. So he landed
in Normandy, couldn't stay long because France
wasn't safe for him either. France was a very
Catholic country at the time. But while he was
in Normandy, he wrote a very important work that's
titled Admonition to England. And he sent it
off through secret channels. And this was an
open letter where he pleaded with the English
believers not to go back. to the Roman religion.
Do not fall back. He said, Queen Mary is worse
than a Jezebel. Do not obey her. They must flee
from idolatry by refusing to attend the Catholic
mass. And then he reminded them, if the government
threatens you, don't forget you have a higher
authority than the queen that you will give an
account to. That's the Lord Jesus himself. So
I'll bring up a map here so that you can see
where he went. This great little black and white
map. So the yellow area up there is Scotland.
Leaving France then, so he traveled. So the dots
up there, the orange dot is St. Andrews along
the coast. The blue dot is the capital city of
Edinburgh. The green dot is London, just so that
you can see where England is. So coming across
the English Channel, he lands in France. And
you can see where Normandy is there. And he crosses
the border into Switzerland where he first goes
to Geneva, which is the red dot at the bottom.
It's very close there to the French border. And
there in Geneva, he meets with John Calvin. And
they begin to not only discuss theology, and
can you imagine being a fly on that wall? Calvin
and Knox talking theology, but also talking strategy
as well. Then he went on to Zurich, which is
the yellow dot there, where he met with another
great reformer, Heinrich Bullinger. But then
the news came to him from England that things
were getting so much worse back at home, both
in England and in Scotland. So he sat down, he
wrote two more works to the English church. Here
are the titles of those two works. A Letter to
My Afflicted Brethren in England, and then this
catchy title. A comfortable epistle sent to the
afflicted church of Christ. So you hear his heart
for his suffering people in those titles. Noxton
received an invitation to come to Frankfurt,
Germany because an English -speaking congregation
was forming there. Everybody was fleeing England
because of Bloody Mary. And so some were going
to Frankfurt, Germany. Some 200 Protestants sent
him a note and said, would you come and preach
to us? Would you pastor our church? And so after
getting advice from Calvin, he went to Frankfurt,
which is that pink dot there so that you can
picture where that was. And interestingly, in
Frankfurt, things didn't go well. This was one
of the ministry failures for Knox. Some of the
Protestants there insisted on... having a church
and an order of service that still was very Anglican.
It wasn't reformed enough, and Knox was not going
to have it. In fact, one of the leaders said
to him at one point, our worship should resemble
the face of an English church, to which Knox
responded, no, it should have the face of Christ's
church. And that was his heart. And so by mutual
agreement, Knox left Frankfurt behind, and he
thought for a moment about going back to Geneva,
But in 1555, he took a massive risk. He snuck
back into Scotland. 1555, after much prayer,
he sneaks back into Scotland because he wants
to get a sense of the temperature of the Reformed
Church in his home country. And he's encouraged
to hear that groups of reform -minded believers
were gathering secretly. Now, remember, at this
point, every church was Roman Catholic. You could
not have, it's not like today. You just can't
go plant a Protestant church. Bishops were in
charge of the churches. There is no Protestant
church to attend. So they were meeting secretly
for scripture reading and prayer. They called
these gatherings. privy kirks or private churches.
And it had to be done in secret because, again,
there was somebody in charge of Scotland. We
looked at her last week. Her name is Mary of
Guise. This woman was the regent in charge of
Scotland at the time. So she was in charge. Protestant
ideas were still illegal, and Catholic bishops
were still hunting for heretics. Yet, over the
next few months, Knox moves about the region
very quietly, very stealthily, and he's meeting
with these privy kirks, and he's teaching them,
and he's administering the Lord's Supper. But
finally, Mary of Guise realizes what's going
on. She becomes aware of him, and she summons
him to come to the royal palace to answer for
what he's up to. Now, everybody said there's
no way Knox would go and meet with this woman.
There's no way. She'll arrest him. Everybody
expected him to flee. What do you think Knox
did? No, he announced as publicly as possible,
no, I'm coming to meet with her. I insist on
it because I want to basically preach to her
Reformed doctrine. Again, a little bit naive,
but very, very courageous. Well, upon hearing
this news, the clan leaders in the north of Scotland,
they got fired up by that. And so they gathered
their militias and they said, we will march to
Edinburgh with Knox for that meeting. And as
soon as Mary of Guise found out that he was coming
with actual military power, she withdrew her
summons completely. So Knox stared her down and
won that particular round. And that brings us
then to stage three of his ministry, another
calling from God that would change the direction
of his life. In 1556, a letter came from Geneva
where he had spent some time. And same thing
was happening there. This large English -speaking
congregation was forming in the city of Geneva.
And they also said, will you come? And will you
pastor our church? And will you teach us Reformed
theology? And so again, Knox agonizes. He leaves
Scotland, his homeland, and he goes to Geneva
because he's convinced that this is something
that God has put on his desk and that he needs
to learn more about pastoral ministry from John
Calvin. So he leaves Scotland and goes to Geneva
and learn he does. He stays in Geneva for more
than three years pastoring that congregation.
And if you can imagine sharing chapel time with
John Calvin. There was a time in Geneva where
both John Knox and John Calvin were preaching
every day of the week in the city of Geneva to
all of these reformed -minded people. Knox would
later write that Geneva was this. This is the
quote. He says, it was the most perfect school
of Christ that was ever on the earth since the
days of the apostles. And he wanted to stay.
It was so comfortable, and there was so much
success going on, but his heart is still with
Scotland. And if you can imagine, His time with
Calvin made him even more passionate about Reformed
theology. In fact, he said this later. He said,
what was first sparked in me by George Wishart
was fanned into full blaze by Calvin. And this
congregation in Geneva was not like the one in
Frankfurt. They followed their shepherd. He put
together a fully reformed order of worship following
Calvin's regulative principle, and they followed
him. And it was just this amazing time, the most
peaceful time in Knox's life. Imagine, he's enjoying
ministry success. He's also enjoying married
life. His wife Marjorie gives birth to his first
son there in Geneva, and yet he knew things were
getting worse back home, and it bothered him
tremendously. Queen Mary was continuing to arrest
reformers. And in Scotland, the other Mary, Mary
of Guise, was still in power. And this is getting
worse. She's now negotiating the marriage of
her young daughter to the crown prince of France.
And if that were to come to pass, it would make
Scotland even more Catholic than it was then.
So bad news coming from back home. And in that
moment of anger and frustration, Knox does something
that he later regrets. It's one of his biggest
blunders. He wrote a 45 -page pamphlet. with
this catchy title. Are you ready? The first blast
of the trumpet against the monstrous regime of
women. I mean, he was battling two Marys at the
same time, and they were both awful. This was
bad. In this work, he argued that women were
not designed by God, physically or emotionally,
to rule nations, that it was unnatural. And this
pamphlet would come back to haunt him later.
Later on, he's going to seek help from Queen
Elizabeth of England. And guess what she said?
Uh -uh, I read your pamphlet. So it came back
to haunt him. Even today in Scotland, though
he is recognized as a hero of Scotland, sort
of like our revolutionary figures, he is still
considered the first male chauvinist of Scotland
because of this. So it sort of haunted him even
all these years later. And then something back
home in Scotland happened that really turned
the tide. That you probably would not, if you
were just a casual observer, you would say that's
not a big deal. But it changed everything because
the nobles, the clan leaders of Scotland, finally
got riled up enough to do something about what
was happening in the land. And it has to do with
another martyr of the faith who watered the church
with his blood. Remember, 30 years earlier, the
Archbishop of St. Andrews had burned that young
man, Patrick Hamilton. We looked at that last
week. That was 1528. 30 years later now, 1558,
and there's going to be another important martyr.
And they could not have chose a worse candidate
to put to death. His name was Walter Milne, and
he was 82 years old at the time of his execution.
Can you imagine? This was a guy who'd been a
parish priest in a small Scottish town called
Lunan. But like so many other Protestants, he'd
come to a conviction about Catholic religion.
He had read the Lutheran material coming across
into the land. He had gotten a hold of Tyndale's
English Bible, and he was convinced of Reformed
doctrine. For 20 years in this tiny little parish
church, he quietly and subtly taught Reformed
doctrine. But finally he came to... the alert
of the authorities. And in 1546, he was declared
a heretic and he had to flee for his life. He
spent 12 years outside of Scotland, both in Germany
and then in Switzerland. And when he turned 82,
he thought to himself, I'm going to go back to
Scotland. I want to see my homeland for one last
time. And he came back and he could no longer
go into his church that he had pastored because
it had been turned into a Catholic parish. So
what did he do? 82 years old, he started doing
open air preaching in the fields in the county
where he had served. And people came to hear
him. And guess what? They went out and arrested
him. 82 years old. And they put him in the prison
in St. Andrews and they tortured him and they
demanded he recant his beliefs, which he would
not do. In fact, on the day that he was put on
trial, he was so weak from both age and being
tortured that they had to carry him up into the
seat of the accused. And in front of the assembly
of bishops and abbots and scholars, he was cross
-examined and he was accused of breaking a whole
series of papal laws. And then he was accused,
get this, of preaching in private homes and in
open fields without approval of the bishop for
preaching the gospel. And you know how he responded?
He said, don't forget also preaching on ships.
Because I've done that too. I mean, he literally
just said, yeah, put that in my charge as well.
Which caused the observers that were there that
day to laugh. People saw courage in this very
old man. Perhaps the most damning testimony came
in response to the question about him denying
that the mass was a sacrifice for the sins of
both the living and the dead. He said, oh, no,
no, no. And he said this, this is a quote from
his trial. He said, Christ was once offered on
the cross for the sins of men and will never
be offered again for on that day he ended all
sacrifice. Amen. And when threatened with death
at the stake, he found the strength to stand
up on his own and he looked at his accusers and
this is what he said. This is all on record.
He said, I know I must die once and therefore
as Christ said to Judas, what you do, do quickly.
Ooh. You should know that I will not recant the
truth, for I am not chaff. I will not be blown
away with the wind. And the observers there that
day, the townspeople, were so offended by the
way this godly old man had been treated. They
refused to sell to the authorities the cords
and the tar that were necessary to perform the
execution. The provost of the town who was in
charge of the executions said, I won't do it.
The chamberlain of the archbishop said, same
with me, I will not put this man to death. Eventually,
they found somebody willing to do it. They got
enough cord, and they bound this 82 -year -old
man to the stake, and the fire was kindled beneath
him. And once more, from the fire, Milne found
the supernatural strength to speak to the crowd.
Now, didn't Adam read from Matthew 10 earlier?
What did it say? When they hand you over, Do
not worry about how or what you are to say, for
it will be given to you in that hour what you
are to say. For it is not you who speak, but
it is the spirit of your father who speaks in
you. And that promise came true in the life of
Walter Milne, the last great martyr of the Scottish
Reformation. Here's what he said. Here's what
he declared to the crowd that day. It's long,
but listen. He said, the cause why I suffer this
day is not for any crime laid to my charge. although
I am a miserable sinner before God, but only
for the defense of the faith of Jesus Christ
set forth in the scriptures. Be no more seduced
with the lies of priests, monks, friars, abbots,
bishops, and the rest of the sect of Antichrist,
but depend only upon Jesus Christ and his mercy
that you may be delivered from condemnation.
I praise God that he has called me of his mercy
to seal up his truth with my life, which as I
have received it of him, so willingly I offer
it to his glory. Wow. Wow. That's what we call
a faithful testimony. Knox would later write
that the execution of this godly old man became
a huge scandal across the nation and a new spirit
of revolution. came upon the clan leaders. Now,
while this was going on in Scotland, Knox is
in Geneva still, and he's putting down on paper
another one of his writings on a very controversial
topic. In fact, on a topic that he and Calvin
argued about and disagreed about. And the title
of his work has come down. It's called The Appellation.
That's a shortening of the title. But here was
the main theme. It's not just the right, he said,
but the duty of the people of a nation to resist
and overthrow any ruler who is ungodly and tyrannical,
even with force. To allow an ungodly ruler to
stay in power, he argued, would invite God's
judgment upon that nation. Still controversial
to this day. And then finally, before leaving
Geneva, he wrote his longest work, his most elaborate
work on a subject that he and Calvin 100 % agreed
and talked about all the time. 468 pages on the
subject, a treatise on predestination. Just in
case you were wondering if the Scottish Presbyterians
were reformed, they are. Predestination, 468
pages on election and salvation. Now, that pushes
Knox in the year 1558 into the fourth and final
stage of his ministry life, and mercifully, it
comes about by another death. In that year, Bloody
Mary, Queen of England, died of uterine cancer
at the age of 42. And two months later, her younger
sister came to the throne, who is, of course,
Queen Elizabeth I. And Elizabeth is a Protestant
sympathizer, very different from her sister.
She ascends to the throne of England, and this
is an absolute game changer. Almost immediately,
that English -speaking congregation in Geneva
makes plans to go back home under Elizabeth,
and now Knox Going back to our timeline. Now
decides that with his congregation in flux, it's
time for him also to return to Scotland. And
that's the last time he would ever leave his
homeland. He goes back to Scotland in 1559. Now,
when he arrives, Mary of Guise is still in control.
And her daughter Mary has now married that Prince
of France. And he's already being called the
King of the Scots. So Knox sees a problem coming,
and with her daughter planning to relocate to
Scotland to serve as the queen, Mary of Guise
realizes now's the time to start clamping down
even harder on the Protestant rebels. And remember,
she's got French troops in Scotland to back up
her royal laws. So after landing in Scotland,
Knox goes right past St. Andrews, it's too hot
there, and he goes to the nearby city of Perth,
knowing that he would have strong support in
that city. On his first Sunday, In the city of
Perth, he preaches in open defiance of Mary's
rule. And on that morning, he preaches on the
idolatry of the mass. He preaches against Catholic
images in the churches of Scotland. And because
of the fire of that sermon, and you can probably
anticipate this would happen, many young men,
Protestant young men, began to riot. in the cities
in the county of Fife. And they began attacking
churches. They began tearing down Catholic altars,
pulling down statues and images from the walls
of churches. It created a huge problem. And Knox
was, he didn't condemn it, but he was a little
hesitant to approve it as well. But the fact
is the momentum of the revolution had now begun.
And this would go on for weeks and weeks. Knox
then announced his intention to go to St. Andrews.
to confront the authorities there, and to preach
in that same place where he had been taken as
a slave and promised to get back to, he got back
to it. But when the archbishop was told that
he was coming, this is what he said. He would
welcome Knox with a salute of a dozen muskets.
So what do you think Knox did? He marched to
St. Andrews. Of course he did. This is what he
said to his friends. He said, my life is in the
custody of him whose glory I seek. Therefore,
I cannot fear their boast nor their tyranny that
I would cease from doing my duty when of his
mercy he offers me the occasion. It's a gutsy
dude. And so Knox comes to St. Andrews and guess
what? The authorities back away. And he enters
the pulpit that I showed you earlier and preaches
to the largest gathering the city of St. Andrews
had ever seen. People want to hear what he has
to say. Guess what he preaches on? Jesus cleansing
the temple. I mean, he's not subtle. And he basically
says, this is what you need to do. You need to
throw off the vestiges of papal religion. And
the crowds are so fired up, they ask him to come
back. He preaches for four days straight. And
so many people convert, 21 Catholic priests in
those four days convert to the Protestant faith.
He's making a huge difference. Then he goes on
basically a tour all over the county of Fife
preaching. And this is what he says about this
time. And again, listen to the humility here.
He's not going, look what a great preacher I
am. Here's what he says about this. He says,
the trumpet of God's word sounded all over the
land. We do nothing but go about Jericho, blowing
with trumpets as God gives us strength, hoping
victory by his power alone. John Knox got it.
It wasn't him. It was God working through him
and God working through the word that was changing
lives. Now, Mary of Guise is enraged by all this,
so she sends 2 ,000 of her French soldiers north
to suppress this rebellion, and when they get
up there, they bump into a surprise. The Klan
leaders have come together and raised their own
militia, a larger force than the French came
with. And the French are forced to withdraw.
And then another big break comes. A man by the
name of James Stewart, who was Queen Mary's half
-brother and the Earl of Argyle, declared his
intention to join the rebellion. They had a royal
on their side now. This is a game changer. He
becomes the flag bearer of something called the
Lords of the Congregation, a bunch of powerful
nobles who come together and they make a pact.
to defeat Mary, to drive the French out of Scotland,
and to establish Reformed theology in the land.
And so this army commanded by these lords marches
to St. Andrews, and they tear every vestige of
Catholicism out of the churches. In fact, here's
a picture. We were just there, as you know. See
that little alcove? See all those blank spaces?
Back in the 16th century, they would have been
filled with statues. They all got ripped down.
Part of removing all the images and all the icons
and all the statues that these guys preached
was idolatrous. So within just weeks then, after
taking St. Andrews, they marched south to Edinburgh
and they chased Mary of Guise out of the city.
And they took possession of the castle at Edinburgh.
How many of you guys have been to Edinburgh?
Have you seen the castle? It's one of the most
spectacular buildings you'll ever tour. They
took the fortress. The lords of the congregation,
these clan leaders and their militia, took it
from Mary of Guise. Now, they knew Mary would
respond in some way, so James Stewart was so
smart, he immediately sent word to Queen Elizabeth
in England and said, hey, we need your help.
There's a Protestant thing happening up here.
We need your help. How did Elizabeth respond?
First of all, I don't want to talk to John Knox.
But I will send forces. She sent a fleet of ships
that anchored outside the city of Edinburgh.
She sent a land force that actually attacked
the French troops at the city of Leith. And so
Mary of Guise was now cornered. She had the Scots
on one side. She had the English on the other.
And she was forced to negotiate. And even before
she could negotiate a treaty, she died. God's
mercy. At the age of 44, of Dropsy, which killed
people back in the day. She dies at the age of
44. That is the final blow against Catholicism
in Scotland, at least for the moment. And then
what comes next over a series of weeks is just
one victory after another for the Protestant
faith. John Knox at this point receives his final
call to ministry, the last one he would get for
the last 12 years of his life. He's appointed
minister at St. Giles Church in Edinburgh. That
is the most prestigious pulpit in all of Scotland.
And for those 12 years, he would preach, you
ready? For up to 3 ,000 people a Sunday in an
old, old building. Here's what it looks like.
If you've been there, St. Giles is a spectacular
cathedral. Absolutely spectacular. That's the
outside. And then on the inside, just beautiful.
The ceilings are magnificent. Look at the pipe
organ, musicians. Just absolutely spectacular.
So John Knox begins to preach in this amazing
church. The French lose their will to fight in
Scotland after Mary passes away. So they begin
to withdraw. And then the Scottish Parliament
gathers in Edinburgh and they pass legislation.
Are you ready? Outlawing the Catholic religion
in Scotland. Papal authority is abolished. The
Catholic mass is declared illegal. All the churches
are to be stripped of their idolatrous religious
art so that, this is a quote, only Christ would
be worshipped. Not Mary and not the saints. And
then Parliament asked Knox to form a council
of theologians to put together a confessional
statement of Reformed doctrine. In just four
days, they authored what's called the Scots Confession,
which basically reflected all the things that
he had learned in Switzerland under the teaching
of Calvin. Very reformed. And the Scots Confession
would be the confessional standard of Scotland
for 86 years until it was superseded by what
we read from this morning, the Westminster Confession
of Faith. And then that was followed by a second
request. Knox was asked to draft a document that
would establish the polity or the church structure
of the Church of Scotland. And he wrote something
called the First Book of Discipline, where he
outlined the need for the church to establish
a structure according to Scripture and Scripture
alone. Unheard of at that time. A church polity
just based on Scripture. So among other things,
he laid out the role of elders and the role of
deacons, the congregation's right to elect its
own minister, absolutely revolutionary, and then
the three marks of a true church. Do you know
what they are? The right preaching of the gospel
by the word, the right ordering and practice
of the two sacraments only, baptism and the Lord's
Supper, and three, the necessity of church discipline
for unrepentant sin. All thoroughly biblical,
not according to popes, not according to bishops,
not according to the traditions of men. Absolute
revolution from top to bottom. John Knox, amazing.
Now, that sounds like a wonderful victory, right?
You know every time we do a historical lesson,
there's always a PS, right? Like what happens
next? I actually have two PSs I want to share
with you, so take a deep breath. We're going
to stick with it because this is the important
lesson for us. First, you have to know that what
I just described, that happens in 1560 and it
officially makes Scotland a Protestant nation.
But listen, friends, the fight for biblical truth
never ceases. I cannot say this loud enough.
The enemy doesn't sleep and he never quits, right?
And we drove that home last Sunday, but I want
to say it again. The battle for truth belongs
to every generation. Just when you think you
have it settled, is when it comes under attack
and it can be lost. So we have to stay vigilant.
John Knox still had a dozen years of fighting
ahead of him and it wasn't gonna be easy. And
here's why. Mary of Guise had died, but now her
daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, was coming to
Scotland, thoroughly Catholic. And so the battle
was on once again. Now, so here's the history.
Here's a picture of, her name is Mary Stewart.
She is the daughter of King James V of Scotland
and Mary of Guise, and that made her a dynastic
prize. Through her grandfather, she has a strong
claim to both the English and Scottish thrones.
And so it's interesting, while he was still alive,
Henry VIII tried to make a match with her and
young Edward when they were both kids to promise
them to one another. But Mary of Guise shut it
down because of her French leaning. She did not
want her daughter to marry an English prince.
So Henry was frustrated by this. And in order
to keep Mary, Queen of Scots, safe, she was taken
out of Scotland. She was sent to the French court
in Paris. And she was promised to a French crown
prince. She was raised Catholic in Paris and
promised to Francis II. There's a picture of
him. Francis was 15, and she was 14 at the time,
but they were raised in Paris and raised as Catholics.
Francis became a king the next year, and this
is all during the time when Protestantism is
rising in Scotland, but Francis was a very sickly
young man, and he died at the age of 16. Life
was short back then. Now, here's the thing. So
Mary, her mother has passed away now. She's now
a widow. And so she decides to leave France and
come back to Scotland and go, where's my throne?
She had every right to it. She is royalty. But
guess what? She was not walking in at a position
of power because the country had moved past her.
The country had not had a royal on the throne
for many years. And now they'd also rejected
her religion, Catholicism. The clan leaders and
the parliament of Scotland were basically in
control. So Mary's walking in as a monarch, as
a royal, and they're like, uh -uh, we're not
interested, which is a difficult thing. Now,
Knox is smart. He knows that she can still be
a threat. First of all, she's charming. She's
beautiful. She's young. And people in Europe
love their monarchs, do they not? So he's worried
that something could come of this. Word gets
out that Mary, Queen of Scots, is thinking about
marrying again, and she has her eye on a crown
prince of Spain, the son of King Philip II, another
ultra -Catholic country. If that match happens,
then Scotland is once again under threat. So
the trouble starts early. Mary comes back to
Scotland. Within a week, she demands to celebrate
the Catholic Mass in the city of Edinburgh. And
they do. They allow her to do that because she's
royalty. Well, Knox is furious. And that Sunday
in St. Giles, he thunders against the queen,
thunders against her blasphemous religion. And
the next day, the Privy Council of Scotland declares
that the queen has violated the act of the Reformation
Parliament in 1560. And from this point forward,
cannot do the mass. She's got to uphold the Protestant
faith or be arrested. So this is the big square
off, the divine right of monarchs versus the
law of the land. Who's gonna win? Well, when
Mary hears this, that she's been threatened,
she summons Knox to her royal palace and she
threatens Knox. And guess what he did? He ran
in there to meet with her, of course, right?
He loves the confrontation and he has the first
of four face -to -face confrontations with Mary,
Queen of Scots. And basically the way this goes,
and man, they have a really good transcript of
how this conversation went. Mary begins by charging
Knox with rebellion, fomenting violence against
the crown. And Knox makes it clear. In his opinion,
monarchs need to be resisted if they're ungodly.
And when Mary then declares, I will defend my
Catholic faith with all that I am, you want to
hear what Knox said? You'll love this. He's saying
this to the Queen of Scotland in private. He
says, That was the nice part of the conversation.
There's a conversation later where Now, again,
she's a young lady. She's 18 years old here.
And Knox is a mid -40s guy at this point. There's
a conversation later on they have where he literally
makes her cry to the point where she cannot recover.
And he stands there for an hour watching her
cry. Just stands there waiting. And she never
is able to regain her composure. And her ladies
come in and drag her out, and he leaves. Like,
the guy was unbending. Anyway, so this verbal
battle between these two goes on. The queen breathing
out threats against Knox. Every Sunday, Knox
is railing from St. Giles against the queen and
her Catholicism. She would later go on to say,
she feared the prayers of John Knox more than
all the armies of Europe. She was scared to death
of the guy because he was so unbending. This
went on for six years. And then interestingly,
in 1567, The Scottish nobility rose up and deposed
Mary. She was involved in a criminal conspiracy
to murder somebody and the nobles deposed her
and locked her up. And eventually she broke out
of prison and fled to England and spent the last
19 years in exile in England until what? Does
anybody know how her life ended? Her cousin,
Queen Elizabeth, beheaded her because she was
involved in an assassination plot against Elizabeth.
So she's a super tragic figure. John Knox was
not empathetic. When it was all said and done,
biblical truth won the day. And the preaching
of Knox was the means that God used to win that
victory. Now Knox dies in 1572 at the age of
58. He was just physically worn out from life
and from ministry. We know that on his deathbed,
he asked his wife to read from John chapter 17.
He said, this is where I first cast my anchor.
As a Christian, it was John chapter 17, the high
priestly prayer of Christ. And she read that
chapter to him as he passed away. Now he was
buried in the graveyard just outside of St. Giles.
And if you've been to Scotland today, you know
that that whole area, that old graveyard, was
paved over and turned into a parking lot for
the Scottish Parliament building, which is right
next to St. Giles. And so there's hundreds of
people buried under this parking lot. But only
one spot is marked, and it's John Knox's. So
that's the parking lot. He's in space 23. Which
is amazing. And just as a juxtaposition, we'll
get to this guy next. The guy on the horse there
is King Charles I. And he's an awful, awful man.
But look at the juxtaposition of a braggart who
ends up commissioning a statue of himself. And
John Knox is buried under a parking lot. And
yet, who walks with God today? And yet, who impacted
the world more? There's no question about it.
So by the way, when we were in Scotland, the
guide that was taking us around is a licensed
guide. And as such, he has access to the royal
archives of Scotland, going back into the time
of Knox. And he said, by the way, do you want
to see some pictures? Here's a picture of Knox's
Bible. Actually, that's his Bible on the left.
He requested to hold Knox's Bible at the National
Library in Scotland, and they brought it to him.
They said, here you go. He literally was holding
Knox's Bible. And when he opened it up, there's
Knox's personal writings on the inside. In fact,
here's some zoom in. There's his name. He literally
wrote his name, 1561 John Knox, and like an outline
of a sermon that he was writing. And this is
in the Royal Archives in Scotland even today.
Amazing. Pretty cool. Okay, that's one PS. Second
PS, and I promise I'll be done. I said it last
Sunday, I'm gonna say it again. Reformation is
never a one -time thing. The church not only
has to be reformed, but keep reforming. Always
coming back to the anchor of God's word. Because
again, our spiritual enemy never quits. When
Knox dies in 1572, if you were an outsider, you'd
say, well, look, things are settled. The nation
is Protestant. But within 50 years, everything
changed. After Mary, Queen of Scots, the next
ruler on the throne of Scotland was James VI
of Scotland. James I of England, that's the James
of the King James Bible. He's the next guy. His
son, Charles I, is a real problem. This is Charles
I. He creates a bloody crisis for the Protestant
faith. Charles was a big fan of the divine right
of kings. He believed that he could do as he
pleased as a monarch regardless of the laws of
his own land. And so in 1637, he imposes a new
liturgy on the churches of Scotland, just by
fiat. All the churches in Scotland will have
a new liturgy. This doesn't sit well with the
people. And in fact, there's an amazing story
that goes with this. Sunday, July 23rd, 1637.
Now remember, Knox dies in 1572, so this is 50
years later. A minister at St. Giles Church,
where Knox had preached. stands in the pulpit
and begins to read from Charles' brand new Book
of Common Prayer. But in the ears of the congregation,
as they hear it, they're like, that sounds really
Catholic. And they're not having it. And a famous
Scottish woman by the name of Jenny Geddes, she
wasn't having it. And as the minister is reading,
she stands up, she picks up the stool that she
has, and she throws it at the guy's head. Yeah.
I mean, these people felt strongly about their
religion. And then she yells this in the congregation.
You'll love this. She says, the devil caused
you colic in your stomach, you false thief. Dare
you say the mass in my ear? That's a gutsy woman.
And that kicks off a whole new reformed rebellion.
In fact, when you go to St. Giles today, there
is a copy of her stool. It's sitting there with
a plaque. It's famous. He just started throwing
stuff. Amazing. So another group of nobles then
come together. Listen, this is amazing. And there's
a facsimile of this in St. Giles. They signed
a national covenant literally with their blood.
Literally, you see it. You see the blood on the
manuscript. Signing to pledge their lives to
resist. King Charles and to resist these Anglican
practices in Scotland. And they end up having
to fight actual military wars. They're called
the Bishop's Wars against their own king, King
Charles I. And they win the battles. They actually
force King Charles to come and to give up his
new Anglican liturgy. But then it gets worse.
His son, Charles II, is the most bloody persecutor
of all. Charles II goes well beyond his own father.
He repeals all of the Protestant reforms that
had been set in place in the days of Knox. He
literally puts bishops back in charge of all
the churches in Scotland, pushing out some 400
presbytery ministers out of their churches. And
when these covenanters come together and begin
to hold outdoor worship services because they
can't go back in their churches, guess what he
does? He sends soldiers to start rounding up
anybody who went into the fields to listen to
the gospel being preached. Catch this now. This
is known in Scottish history as the killing time.
And it is their biggest national tragedy. So
catch this now. According to records from the
1700s, and there's a monument to this, 18 ,000
Protestants were rounded up, many of them executed
within a nine -year period under the reign of
Charles II. Let me give you the scope on that
for a second. When we look at the early church
being persecuted by the Roman emperors, this
is three times that many killed in a nine -year
period as the Roman emperors killed in 300 years.
This is the bloodiest persecution that Protestantism
has ever gone through. In Scotland, under a Scottish
king. 18 ,000. In fact, here's the monument to
it. We took a picture of it. To the bodies that
are buried there. Absolutely stunning. Now, good
news. The reign of terror for Charles II would
end in 1688. And it was ended by a strong man
by the name of William of Orange. Anybody know
William of Orange? An amazing guy. He had led
the Protestant revolution in Holland, the Netherlands,
freeing themselves from Catholic Spain. And then
when he looked across the ocean, he said, I see
problems in Scotland. He brought his Dutch army
to the Scottish shores and chased King James
off the throne. And he and his wife, William
and Mary, we have a university named after them,
right? William and Mary became king and queen
of Scotland. in James's place. From that point
forward, 1688 until today, Scotland is a Protestant
nation. But it took the blood of so many people,
you guys, and that's the big PS I want to get
through. There's a cost to this. I know that
we're Americans. We don't have to fight like
that. Are you grateful for that? Would you fight
for it? Would you stand up and fight for it?
Truth can easily be lost, friends. It just takes
one generation. So commit yourself to it. Okay,
what do we say about John Knox as we wrap up?
Well, he's a guy with rough edges, right? A little
bit pugnacious, perhaps, like Luther, but that's
exactly what God needed in that day. He was the
perfect man for that job. He was bold, he was
courageous, he was unbending. One historian puts
it this way. He says, Knox was not a gentle flute.
He was a militant called to awaken a slumbering
nation from its spiritual sleep. And so there's
many examples of Knox angering people with his
style, with his content. He believed that God
had called him to preach the truth and that's
all that mattered. He was like an Old Testament
prophet. He really didn't care what you thought
of him. He was gonna preach the truth. So while
I don't think today that church leaders should
pattern their speech after him, we should definitely
look at how fearless he was. and how courageous
he was. I think he lived with Psalm 56, 11 in
mind. It says this, in God I have put my trust.
I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
May God continue to raise up men like that with
that spirit even today in our church. Amen? Thanks
for your patience with me. It's a great story.
Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your
work through this man. We know, God, that...
Apart from you, John Knox could not have accomplished
anything. None of us can. Lord, as I say every
week in my prayer time, my words have no power
in this place. It's only when your spirit moves
in our hearts and minds that transformation takes
place. So thank you, Lord, for what you're doing,
what you've done in all these hundreds of years
since the time of John Knox, what you're doing
in this church, what you're doing around the
world, Lord, as we continue on this Reformation
week. to lift up Protestant reform doctrine and
say, thank you, Lord, that we've come back to
what scripture says and not to the traditions
of men. Thank you, Lord, for that grace in our
lives. Thank you for this church. We praise you
this morning. In Christ's name, amen.