In September, 1541 he was invited back to Geneva. The town council actually accepted Calvin's revision of city laws, but many bitter disputes followed. Calvin sought to bring every citizen under the moral discipline of the church, and naturally there were many who resisted these restrictions, especially when imposed by a foreigner. These frustrations of haggling over political matters led Calvin to seek a new focus.

Perhaps he could do as a preacher what he had failed to do as an ecclesiological policeman. He decided to try to renew people from the inside out, and he set about attaining his aim of a mature church by preaching daily to the people.9 Calvin began to preach to the people of Geneva twice on Sunday and daily during the week. At the week day services Calvin preached series on books of the Bible, chapter by chapter.10

His listeners must have had more stamina than the average modern congregation. On Friday, June 7, 1555, Calvin began a six-week series of preaching on the Ten Commandments, which fell within a larger series on the book of Deuteronomy. He started this series March 20, of that year, and continued preaching daily through Deuteronomy for sixteen months until the following summer, July 1556. A swift calculation reveals over three hundred sermons in this series alone.

Calvin had found an effective agent of change: God's Word in people's hearts. What he failed to do through autocratic leadership, Calvin achieved through biblical exposition and proclamation. His preaching influenced civic life as well as contemporary theological thought. Calvin's labors in the field of action, whether in the pulpit or in municipal affairs or in theological writing, bore a oneness of purpose. As he shifted his emphasis from legislation to proclamation, Calvin seemed to adopt a more narrow focus. Benjamin Farley observes, "The scope of [all] Calvin's labors embodies a deep unity.11 In preaching, Calvin discovered for himself a living bridge to bring together in unity "the scholarly exegete and the spiritual man of action."12

Reverberations

In 1555, during his decalogue sermon series, Calvin saw the collapse of his opponents and the ratification in Geneva of the Consistory's right to ban delinquent members from the church's observance of the Lord's Supper. There was also a renewal that year of the political-theological disputes between Bern and Geneva. He had become a theological force to be reckoned with. He taught all knowledge of God and man is to be found in the Word of God. He taught God can only be known if He chooses to be known. He taught pardon and salvation are possible only through the free working of the grace of God. He taught that before the creation, God chose some of His creatures for salvation, and others for destruction.

For Calvin, the church was supreme. It should not be restricted in any way by the state. He gave greater importance than Luther to the external organization of the church. Calvin regarded only baptism and communion as sacraments. Baptism was the individual's initiation into the new community of Christ. Calvin rejected Zwingli's idea that the sacrament of communion was merely a symbol, but he also warned against a magical belief in the real presence of Christ in the sacrament.13