2006 Ligonier Conference: Jesus, the Head of the Church

• subject that’s been assigned to me jesus christ the head of the church is a very very serious subject and i’m pretty confident that just off the top it might appear to you to be somewhat benign somewhat ho-hum certainly we all know that jesus christ is the head of the church so maybe we need to uh maybe we need to look at history a little bit and find out just how benign this is or isn’t throughout history i i can honestly say there have been some some notable servants of the lord whose name was john and i’m happy to bear the name although i’m quite certain i don’t belong in the
• ranks of many who do one is john huss john huss was and is well known and loved by many who know reformation history he was a bohemian northeast croatia area and he was a pre-reformation reformer he was actually born to peasant parents in hassanic now modern croatia at 20 years of age he shortened his name to hus which means the goose that nickname stuck so firmly did it stick that 100 years or so later martin luther referred to huss as at his martyrdom the goose being cooked the day for the cooking of the goose was actually july 6 14
• 15. he was taken to the cathedral in prague he was dressed in his priestly clothing and then when he arrived in public view he was stripped of all his priestly garments one garment at a time he was then tied to the stake at which point his biographers say he prayed lord jesus it is for you that i patiently endure this cruel death have mercy on my enemies he was heard reciting the psalms as the flames engulfed him his executioners were so desirous of ridding the earth of every bit of this man that they actually scooped up his ashes and tossed them into a lake so
• that nothing of john huss would ever remain those who revered him however collected bits of dirt on the spot where he died and took them back to bohemia for a memorial early in his monastic career martin luther was rummaging through stacks in a library and he came across a volume of sermons by john huss he wrote this i was overwhelmed with astonishment i could not understand for what cause they had hurt so great a man who explained the scriptures with so much gravity and skill end quote in fact luther looked to us
• as a hero because huss taught and practiced biblical doctrines that later became crucial to the reformation and also was hostile to the church regarding indulgences why did they execute if he was as noble as he was what brought about this slaughter this murder little biography he decided at an early age to become a priest because you were guaranteed a decent living and coming from abject poverty this was a good option for him and so he entered the priesthood he was a bright enough guy that once he got into the priesthood he got a bachelor’s degree a master’s degree and
• a doctorate and he was then ordained in 1401 he became the preacher in prague at the bethlehem chapel which seated 3 000 people he determined to preach in the language of the people and not in latin which set him apart and made him very attractive to the people he was influenced by the writings of wycliffe and when he preached he actually discussed the bible desiring to hold he said to believe and to assert whatever is contained in them as long as i have breath in me end quote eventually he was forbidden to preach
• he was excommunicated but they couldn’t get him out of the pulpit so he just kept preaching in the same bethlehem chapel the longer he preached the more heavily he leaned on the bible which he proclaimed unequivocally is the final authority powers that be in the church however past an edict that no citizen could receive holy communion no citizen could be buried on church grounds as long as huss kept preaching so to spare the people he stopped and in 1412 he retired to the countryside where he taught and wrote feverishly