Preaching Theology pt.2

Preaching Christ: The Gospel as Hermeneutical Key

The first important factor in reaching the modern American culture is to make Christ the central focus of every sermon. No matter what text the pastor is preaching from in the Bible, whether it is from the Old Testament or the New, the preacher must show how the text relates to the person or work of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the hermeneutical key. Dennis Johnson said it like this, “By referring to the Gospel as the hermeneutical key I mean that proper interpretation of any part of the Bible requires us to relate it to the person and work of Jesus. ” Everything in the Old Testaments shows the need for a Savior and points forward to the coming of Christ. Everything in the New Testament is looking at the life of Christ or looking back at it. Unbelievers need to be shown their need for the Gospel and how the Gospel answers that need while Christians need to continually be shown how to live life in light of the Gospel. Sidney Greidanus echos this idea in his book, “what both the unbeliever and the believer need to hear in preaching is the Gospel, with its implications for a life lived in confident gratitude in response to amazing grace. ” The unbeliever needs to hear of the mercy and grace of God even though they deserve wrath for sin. They deserve an eternity separated from a holy God because they are sinners but God motivated by His love but mainly for His glory gave us grace in sending His Son who died for our sins and rose from the grave on the third day. Unbelievers need to hear about God's love but do not give them only one side of the coin because you are cheating them out of the relationship with God that is filled with wonder, amazement, and gratitude towards God.

Christians need to be reminded that God calls them to be holy like Him and even though they stumble and fail along the way we should press into God and remember our position in Christ because of the Gospel. I love the illustration that Matt Chandler uses for Christians and sanctification. He says it is like a baby learning to walk and nobody tells the baby that just because it only took two steps and fail down that it failed in learning how to walk. No, we cheer and take pictures and tell all our friends that the baby walked. So why can't we celebrate that like babies learning how to walk, we as Christians are continually learning how to be like Christ in all things.

The Old Testament is full of God's law that pertain from dietary laws to how the ancient Israelites would have a relationship to Him. We find wonderful stories about how God made the world and everything in it. In the Old Testament, we see how sin entered the world and it destroys man's relationship to God. The New Testament is how God answers man's sin problem and still gets the glory due His name. “Nevertheless just as the chief teaching of the New Testament is really the proclamation of grace and peace through the forgiveness of sins in Christ, so the chief teaching of the Old Testament is really the teaching of laws, the showing up of sin, and the demanding of good. ” This is what people need to hear be proclaimed from the pulpits in America, not sermons on how to be healthy, wealthy and happy.

Another thing I believe preachers have failed to do is show people that the Bible and more specifically the Gospel, always require a response. Unbelievers and Christians should be playing tug-a-war in their minds with the sermon the entire service. The prophets in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament always required response from whoever they were engaging. I think about the rich young ruler as an example. He comes to Jesus with a question and Jesus answers him with what is required. The man faces a decision, a crossroads in his life. Is he willing to do what Jesus requires from him? Ultimately as we find out, he was not but Jesus still required a response one way or another from him.“A sermon may initially appeal to the intellect by giving statistics, then move to the deeper level of emotion by telling a story, and aim its conclusion at the spirit or will by direct appeal, pleading for a response to the Gospel. ” So the Gospel is the hermeneutical key to every text that a pastor preaches. The question that every pastor should be answering when examine any text in the Bible is how does this text relate to the person and work of Jesus Christ in either the redemption or sanctification of humanity for God's glory.

Preaching Theology pt. 1

Churches in America have been declining and plateauing for the past couple of decades. What is the problem? We still worship the same loving, all-powerful God and still preach from the same Bible. We had the Conservative Resurgence where recovered our seminaries and pulpits. We still have good preachers and pastors who genuinely love both God and the people they are trying so hard to serve. I do not think the problem is with people, churches, or even denominations. The problem lays in how we are teaching theology because that changes everything. People have to live life differently when they become followers of Christ. They have to look at things differently than they did before and the problem is that both believers and non-Christians are struggling with the theology behind Christianity. The problem is lost people do not want to hear about Christ because modern American culture is pluralistic and relativism. Christianity radically clashes with the worldviews that people have developed living in the United States. Millard Erickson notes some of these characteristics, “Characteristics of culture according to Erickson are egocentricity/anthropocentricity, the desire for immediate satisfaction, egotism/egoism, the idea of mastery of others, and materialism. ” The Bible contradicts these concepts with ideas like focusing on the eternal, humility, and taking care of the less fortunate.

Another problem is Christians do not want to hear about theology or doctrine because they think it is boring or does not apply to them. We have classes for parenting, finances, etc. but how many churches offer theology classes in their education programs on Wednesday nights or Sunday nights? We have made shallow Christians who are ill-equipped to deal with life when it gets hard or answer the tough questions from unbelievers so they shrink back from sharing their faith. I like the way Erickson compares how Christians are choosing which church to attend in modern America versus how they did it in the past. “The point is doctrinal beliefs were considered important in earlier generations. One did not make the choice of church primarily based on the basis of geographical proximity, beauty of building, or quality of program or preaching. ” Churches and pastors need to be teaching doctrine every time the church opens its doors, from the largest group to the 1 on 1 settings. Christians need to see that theology is not boring and that it changes everything.

So we must preach and teach the doctrines of the faith in order to reach the lost and to better equip the saints. Expository preachers get their messages from the Bible and talk about God, teaching people who Christ is and what He is like. Al Mohler says it like this, “preaching is therefore an inescapably theological act. ” If you are preaching verse by verse through the Bible and exegeting the text then you will have to explain the doctrines and the theology that is in the verses and passages as you preach. There is an unwavering faith that all ministers hold “the belief that God has spoken. ” If God has spoken then we must listen to what He has said about Himself and about our lives. If God has spoken then we must stand up in the pulpits week in and week out telling people not what they necessarily want to hear but what they need to hear to understand the Gospel and what it means for their lives, we need to get back to “thus saith the Lord.”

So this series of posts is about how to do just that. How to get back to preaching the Bible from beginning to end as God's grand redemptive story. A biblical theology of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. How to preach the Gospel from every passage in the Bible and how to preach doctrine expositionally. It is the only way to answer the problem that is facing our churches. It is how to help unbelievers come to see their need for Christ and how to show believer that doctrine is not boring but rather will change their entire lives.