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.