Sermon Tone Analysis

Chris Preaching

“O God, give me Scotland or I die.”

Those are the immortal words of John Knox.

His desire to see Scotland know Jesus and so know the Father was intense.

His passion in life was to proclaim the glory of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ no matter who may be in power or what may happen to him physically.

Knox’s life was filled with adventure and sorrow.

Yet through it all and in it all his eye was like a laser focused on God’s magnanimous beauty.

All he could think about was and all he wanted to do was to lift up the name and lead others to exalt in God.

Thomas Carlyle said about Knox that he was,

a most surprising individual to have kindled all Scotland, within a few years, almost within a few months, into perhaps the noblest flame of sacred human zeal and brave determination to believe only what is found completely unbelievable, and to defy the whole world and the devil at its back, in unsubduable defense of the same.[1]

There is no question that the Scripture that epitomizes John Knox is .

So we are going to dive into this passage showing that like Knox our every move must be about the glory of God.

Knox’s Early Life

John Knox was nothing special.

He was a regular guy.

When we think of the other reformers, we find that they may have had family who were aristocrats or lawyers.

They tended to be well to do.

Not John Knox.

John Knox was born into poverty.

He had nothing going for him.

In fact, we aren’t quite sure when he was born.

Originally it was thought that he was born around 1505, but it would seem that he was actually born just before the Reformation got under way, maybe 2 years prior to Luther’s nailing of the 95 Theses.

If anyone saw how Knox was born and how he grew up there would have been little hope that he would amount to anything special at all.

But as Paul wrote, “Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth,” (, HCSB).

Knox wasn’t born into nobility.

As a boy he went to school, but no one is quite sure where it was.

At some point he entered into the University of St. Andrews.

While Knox was definitely scrappy, he wasn’t very big or very tall.

He was a towering 5 feet 2 inches tall.

Later one we will show how he went up against Mary, Queen of Scots face to face, though it wasn’t quite face to face when he was 5’2” and Mary was 6 feet tall!

Paul wanted the people of Corinth to see that they do not need to be “someone” to be someone.

God uses the “nobodies” to be somebodies.

Abraham was a pagan in a land of pagans.

No one had heard of him until God called him.

Moses was a shepherd out in Midian when God called him.

He actually made him a nobody before making him a somebody.

David was a shepherd boy and not even considered kingly.

The rule is that God uses people who are not what we would consider anyone special to do his work.

He uses the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.

It is often that people look at their lives and think that God could never use them.

The truth is that you are the very one that God desires to use.

He wants the poor.

He wants the uneducated.

He wants the trampled.

He want those who have thoroughly messed up their lives.

John Knox was willing and desirous to be used by God and so God used him.

But that doesn’t mean that Knox was always comfortable doing what God had called him to do.

Wouldn’t you say, Matt?

Matt Preaching

Absolutely.

He was not what the world would want to listen to.

It is exactly as says:

The foolish Knox

Unfinished degree

Unfinished degree

During the 16th century, people only wanted to listen to three groups: the rich, the famous, and the smart.

If you weren’t born in nobility, if you didn’t have a lot of money, if you didn’t have a high formal education, you were seen as foolish.

A commoner.

John Knox was none of these things.

Not only was he part of no nobility, but we don’t know when he was born!

He had a meager upbringing.

He never even finished his education.

From the world’s perspective, nothing important could come from him.

Hesitant preacher

He did not rush into preaching, either.

Early in his life, he taught young children as a tutor in a castle.

Soon he began to lecture on the gospel of John.

Before long these lectures became sermons.

But when people began to call on him to preach to the entire castle, he refused.

Refusing to take no for an answer, one of the men told Knox:

“In the name of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of these that presently call you by my mouth, I charge you that you refuse not this holy vocation, but that you have regard to the glory of God, the increase of Christ’s kingdom, and the edification of your brethren . . . that you take upon you the public office and charge of preaching, even as you look to avoid God’s heavy displeasure, and desire that he should multiply his graces with you.”

John Knox responded by breaking out into tears and running away.

Not a high measure of confidence.

But eventually John did accept the call.

Excerpt From: Douglas Bond.

“The Mighty Weakness of John Knox.” iBooks.

Untimely letter

Another situation where John Knox acted foolishly was concerning a letter that he sent.

So, during the reign of the woman we know today as Bloody Mary, John Knox wrote a letter to the Queen, telling her that women shouldn’t be rulers.

Knox was a bit brash, so he sent this letter to her as an attack, after Mary killed many of John’s friends.

Problem is, shortly after John Knox sends the letter, Catholic Bloody Mary dies.

In her place comes her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth I.

It was not Mary, but Elizabeth who receives the angry letter.

Let’s just say that John Knox and Queen Elizabeth I do not hit it off on the right foot.

In the world’s eyes, John Knox is foolish.

He is weak.

The strong God

And yet, what does Paul say? “God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”

Scotland did not think much of a man of humble beginnings, who literally ran from the call to preach.

Who wrote foolish letters.

And yet, God made John Knox something.

God working in people’s lives is not just a “Bible-times” thing.

It happened with William Tyndale.

It happened with Ulrich Zwingli.

It happened with John Knox.

It can happen with us.

Revival in Perth and beyond

What God did with John Knox was an extraordinary revival.

It was incredible.

Douglas Bond, who wrote The Mighty Weakness of John Knox, said of the revival occasioned by Knox’s preaching: