The Morning Star Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW

Transcription

1 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 1 The Morning Star Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW In the north of England, about halfway between Leeds and Newcastle in North Yorkshire, is the little village of Hipswell. It s an unremarkable place as far as English villages go bucolic, surrounded by beautiful countryside. It s slow, it s peaceful...nothing you wouldn t expect to see in an English village. But there s something that sets little Hipswell apart. It s the home of one of the most remarkable men in all of history, certainly in terms of his contribution to British society and his role in Christianity. In Hipswell long ago, a fire began burning that would eventually burn so bright it would illuminate all of England, and by extension, the entire world. John Wycliffe was born here or hereabouts. His family most likely hailed from the area known as Wycliffe, about half an hour north of here on the River Tees. And from this unlikely place of origin, John Wycliffe went on to become known as the Morning Star of the Reformation an advocate for the rights of the people, a denouncer of the abuses in the church, a defender of the king of England and a fearless preacher of God s Word. Wycliffe s greatest contribution to the world is that he put the Word of God into the hands of the people a people who didn t have the Word of God and who were held in tradition and superstition. If you ve ever held a Bible in your hands, if you ve ever treasured the precious promises found in the Word of God, and if your heart has ever been warmed by the beauty of Scripture, you ll probably find it hard to imagine a society where God s Word is not welcomed. But 14th century England was a different world. John Wycliffe was born in around 1328 that s shortly after the death of Marco Polo. The king at the time was Edward III, who came to the throne when he was just 15 years of age. England was locked in some bitter disputes. This was just after the time of

2 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 2 William Wallace Braveheart around the time of Robert the Bruce and wars with Scotland and France raged during Wycliffe s early life. Then in the middle of the 14th century, the Black Death struck England, killing somewhere between a third to a half of England s population. Members of the peasant class at the time were essentially slaves, and the influence of the ruling church was enormous. The Catholic Church essentially controlled the country, and by later in the 14th century, the pope was receiving five times as much gold from the government of England as was the king. And when it came to the teaching of God s Word...well, the people were living in superstition and fear, as priests as well as traveling monks and friars kept the people in spiritual darkness. It was a common practice for these monks to sell pardon for sins. As a result, they often lived a luxurious life, fleecing the flock instead of teaching the flock. The monks were barely less ignorant of the things of Heaven than the people were, and the people were kept in spiritual darkness. But out of the darkness that was 14th century England, God caused a bright light to shine. The Morning Star of the Reformation brought light to a nation and truth to the world and from England, John Wycliffe s teachings would shine light into the hearts of men and women everywhere. John Wycliffe was a revolutionary. And what John Wycliffe gave the world still speaks to us today. When Wycliffe arrived here as a student at Oxford, the university was already 150 years old. When he came here, there were 30,000 students. By the time the Black Death had done its work, there were only 10,000. And it was while he was a student at Oxford that John Wycliffe started to develop as a champion of the Word of God. John Wycliffe studied here at Balliol College, which was founded in Five Balliol students have gone on to win the Nobel Prize the most of any of Oxford s colleges as have seven faculty members. Three British prime ministers studied here, including Edward Heath and Harold McMillan, London s Lord Mayor, Boris Johnson, as well as authors Aldous Huxley and Graham Greene, and curiously the noted atheist Richard Dawkins also studied here. Wycliffe was a brilliant student, and studied not only philosophy and civil law, but church law as well. He became known as the Flower of Oxford owing to his academic excellence. And it was here at Balliol in Oxford that John Wycliffe began to study the Bible.

3 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 3 In those days, the Word of God was only written in the ancient languages and while the uneducated masses couldn t access or understand the Word of God, scholars, in some cases, could. Wycliffe found in the Bible clear evidence demonstrating that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus Christ is the only hope for the sinner. He wrote these words: Trust wholly in Christ; rely altogether on His sufferings; beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by His righteousness. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. And he came to the conclusion that confession to a priest was not necessary. Privy confession made to priests...is not needful, he wrote, but brought in late by the Fiend: for Christ used it not, nor any of His apostles after Him. While early in his career at Oxford these thoughts did not become issues for John Wycliffe, his study of the Word of God soon set him on a collision course with the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated not only British life and religion, but also British politics as well. At the time, the papacy controlled both the church and the state in England. Many church leaders were fabulously wealthy and acted essentially as lords over the nation. Growing up, Wycliffe likely thought little of this, but exposure to the Bible caused him to think carefully. As a child, what he learned of religion wouldn t have been much better than myths and stories and moral lessons. The clergy themselves were not generally noted for their piety, and Wycliffe realized there was a serious blight on society that was going to have to be confronted...the swarms of friars, men who belonged to religious orders and depended on the charity of the population to survive. Now, while the general principle of the orders of the friars seems harmless men who were devoted to living lives of poverty and devoted to helping the poor Wycliffe realized that these men were a drain on society. They were a corrupting influence. They were idle, and rather than helping people, they spent their time getting and gaining and living riotous lives. The pope had given the friars the authority to hear confessions and to grant pardon for sins. This unbiblical system could only be corrupted and it was. The worst sinners were absolved of their sins for sums of money, while the friars continued to invent stories and legends and tales so they could further manipulate the ignorant masses. This further strengthened the hold of the ruling church. Ignorant people can t find answers when they don t even know what questions to ask. Being told that all you had to do to go to Heaven was to acknowledge the supremacy of the pope,

4 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 4 give money to the friars and adore the saints, didn t cause people to rely on Jesus or to be interested in genuine conversion. Who needed any of that when you could buy your way into Heaven? Now, John Wycliffe wasn t the first to notice or to protest the corruptions of the friars, but he would be the one to do the most to curb their excesses. Wycliffe understood that what the people needed was the Word of God. This was the one thing that could free them from the tyranny of the friars. It would liberate them from popes and from purgatory and from purchase for pardon. But how in the world could he get the Word of God into the hands of the people? Wycliffe knew what the Bible meant when it said in Psalm 119:130: The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. What the people needed was God s Word. So John Wycliffe took the Word of God to the people. He preached to them publicly in places such as St Paul s Cross, in the church out here in St Paul s Cathedral in London. Now, this is not the same St Paul s as stood when John Wycliffe was here this is the new model, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in But it was here in the churchyard at St. Paul s Cathedral, at St. Paul s Cross, that John Wycliffe publicly preached God s Word. A plaque commemorates the very spot where he stood and preached. His preaching had a dramatic effect on those who heard. It wasn t the pointless prattle of the friars; it was the pure Word of God. Those who listened knew that they were listening to something of divine origin. But how would the Bible get into the hands of the people? Wycliffe had an idea. It was a bold idea. It was an idea that would change England forever. After becoming the Master at Balliol College in Oxford, Wycliffe pursued his theological studies, eventually becoming a Doctor of Divinity. And not only was he relentless in his condemnation of the practices of the mendicant friars, but Wycliffe believed strongly that the church had no business receiving tribute money from a sovereign government. In the year 1365, Pope Urban V demanded that England submit entirely to the authority of the Church of Rome which would be an admission that the pope was the legitimate sovereign of England. John Wycliffe was strenuous in his opposition to the Roman Church exercising power over the English crown. Add to that his Bible teachings that collided with the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and Wycliffe became to be viewed as more than a thorn in the flesh of the Church of Rome. By the time he became the rector of the church in Lutterworth, Wycliffe was considered to be a heretic. Which was not surprising after all, Wycliffe had

5 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 5 begun to teach that the pope of Rome was the antichrist of the Bible. He even claimed the pope was the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Things have changed a little since John Wycliffe came here to petition Parliament to remove all of the wealth of the church and bring it under the power of the crown. The Parliament buildings you see today weren t here in the 14th century. The Palace of Westminster as Parliament is known was built in the 19th century. And Big Ben is just over 150 years old. Westminster Abbey was standing when Wycliffe came here to Parliament in fact, Richard II, the king who was reigning when Wycliffe died, is buried in there, but there was no Buckingham Palace, or much that you d recognize in London today. It was a very different place. In 1377, John Wycliffe came here to address Parliament with regard to the pope s claims to have authority over England. John Wycliffe led the movement to turn back the demands of Rome, and in fact, he called upon Parliament to reform the relationship between church and state. And that was truly historic. Wycliffe told Parliament that the national resources were for the nation, and not for a foreign power like the church of Rome. He said that Rome was wealthy enough already, and that if anyone should be entitled to the type of taxes that Rome was demanding, it ought be the government and not the church, especially at a time when England was trying to finance a war a very expensive war against France. And Wycliffe believed that the people really needed to be able to read and study and interpret the Scriptures for themselves. But how were they ever going to be able to do that? Wycliffe incurred the wrath of the church. He had been teaching that the friars were a blight on society. He taught and wrote that priests had no authority to forgive sins. And he was strenuously opposed to the sale of indulgences, when people would buy forgiveness, when the monks would sell the pardon of God. It is plain to me that our prelates in granting indulgences do commonly blaspheme the wisdom of God, he said. Related to this, he said, Private confession was not ordered by Christ and was not used by the apostles. He taught that the mass was blasphemous and that the eucharist the communion wafer was not really the actual body of Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church taught teaches that when the bread and wine are consecrated, they

6 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 6 become the true body and the true blood of Jesus. Wycliffe s understanding was different. The bread while becoming by virtue of Christ s words the body of Christ does not cease to be bread, he stated. And Rome was not happy. In fact, even some of Wycliffe s defenders urged him to turn down the volume, but by now he was committed to speaking against what he believed to be the inconsistencies of the church. Wycliffe was eventually kicked out of Oxford which had been pressured by the church to have nothing to do with him. After speaking to Parliament, he was summoned to a church trial here at Lambeth Palace the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and just across the river from Parliament buildings but his enemies were unable to silence him. The Morning Star would continue to shine for truth. He returned here to his parish in Lutterworth. His poor priests the Lollards were sent by Wycliffe to preach the gospel all over England, and truth began to flourish where error and superstition had been so powerful. Wycliffe not only preached, but he wrote prodigiously in an effort to share the Word of God and its liberating power with as many people as possible. From this now very historic building, John Wycliffe ministered to the world. His influence was felt, obviously, here in England, but it was Wycliffe s ideas that influenced another great early reformer, John Huss, in what is now the Czech Republic. The Queen of England, in Wycliffe s later years, was Anne of Bohemia, which is where Huss was from. Oxford students from Bohemia took Wycliffe s ideas back to their homeland, where they were shared by Huss and had a major impact in Europe. But Wycliffe s work was suddenly stopped. Just short of his 60th birthday, John Wycliffe came down with an illness that appeared as though it was going to take his life. The monks were jubilant. They came here to Lutterworth and they gathered around what they thought was Wycliffe s deathbed, and they said to him, You have death on your lips. Retract now in our presence all the things that you have said to our hurt. Wycliffe raised himself up from his bed and he said, I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the friars. The monks hurried out, and Wycliffe recovered and went to work on the project that would have the greatest influence of anything that he had ever done in England.

7 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 7 With the help of some close friends, John Wycliffe went to work on translating the Bible into the language of the day. The one who had been known as the Gospel Doctor committed himself to sharing that Gospel with as many people as he possibly could. John Wycliffe s dream was that everybody in England would have the opportunity to read the Scriptures in their own language. Still a couple of hundred of years before the invention of the printing press, it was here in Lutterworth that John Wycliffe translated the Bible from Latin into English. The Scriptures were copied slowly by hand. There were some people who were able to buy an entire copy of the Bible while others were able to secure just a portion. But John Wycliffe s dream was being realized. The Word of God was making its way into the hands of the people. It was still going to be some years before laws were passed that would ban the production of or the possession of the Bible. And the Scriptures were distributed widely. While England was fighting battles on various fronts, one of the greatest victories in her history was realized when the Word of God was translated and made available in the English language to the people of England. Long after John Wycliffe was dead, the establishment church had to reckon with a force that was far more powerful than he ever was. People began to learn the great principles of Scripture. The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding... (Psalm 119:130 NKJV) Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4 NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God... (2 Timothy 3:16 NKJV) Principles that are the foundation of biblical Christianity were heard by the masses for the first time throughout England. While it is true that not all of John Wycliffe s teachings were perfect, and while the Reformation wouldn t take hold for some time yet, the foundation for the Reformation was laid in England and throughout Europe by John Wycliffe, the Morning Star of the Reformation. And here in St. Mary s Church where John Wycliffe was the pastor many hundreds of years ago, in the pews of this church today are English language Bibles, and anybody who picks up one of these Bibles and leafs through its pages owes a great debt to John Wycliffe, without whom biblical Christianity and Christianity itself would have unfolded in a rather different fashion. At his third trial, John Wycliffe met his accusers with these words: With whom, think you, are you contending? With an old man on the brink of the grave? No! he said with Truth Truth that is stronger than you, and will overcome you.

8 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 8 John Wycliffe died of natural causes at about the age of 66, in the year At the Council of Constance in Germany in the early 1400s the papacy decreed that Wycliffe s remains should be exhumed and his bones burnt, and his ashes were then cast into the River Swift near Lutterworth. A writer later penned these words: Thus the brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; and they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine which now is dispersed the world over. One man dedicated to the proposition that the Word of God could make the difference in a person s life, John Wycliffe was a man who experienced the power of the Word of God. He experienced it in his life and he saw what the Word of God could do in the lives of others. You know, I d like to offer you the opportunity to experience God s Word in your life. Friend, what are you doing about the Word of God? Does the Word of God own you? Has it impacted you? Has it set you free like the thousands and the millions who are set free through the Word of God by the work of John Wycliffe and those who followed after him? Your Father God, your creator and originator, is also the God of the future. In His ability to tell us what is still ahead, God reminds us of His sovereignty and power over all things. To help us to trust Him, God has provided amazing evidence of His reliability, and the reliability of His Word. OFFER Today I'd like to send you a booklet that demonstrates how God foretold world events with absolute accuracy thousands of years in advance. This booklet is called "Can God Be Trusted, and it's absolutely free. Just call 1 (800) , and ask for "Can God Be Trusted." If the lines are busy, please do keep on trying. Or you can write to us at It Is Written, Box 6, Chattanooga, TN 37401, we'll mail a free copy to your address in North America. It Is Written is a faith-based ministry, and your support makes it possible for us to share God's good news with the world. Your tax-deductible gift can be sent to the address on your screen, or through our website at itiswritten.com. Thank you for your continued prayerful support. Again our toll free number is (800) and our web address is: itiswritten.com

9 It Is Written Script: 1386 The Morning Star Page 9 I d like to pray for you today that God s word would truly bring his presence and his power into your life. PRAYER Father in Heaven, at this almost sacred spot, where the ashes of one of your faithful reformers, one of your faithful servants, were cast, at this spot I pray. I pray that we would experience the power of your Word. I pray that the Word of God and its great promises, the great principles of Scripture, would be the foundation upon which our lives are based. I pray that we would experience reformation in our lives that which comes through the power and the presence of your Word and through Jesus Christ living his life in us. Let that be, so I pray, and I thank you, in Jesus name, Amen. It Is Written PO Box 6, Chattanooga, TN USA Tel: Fax: