This week I surveyed the New Testament verses where the three primary Greek words translated “preach” or “proclaim” occur. I looked for the object of the verbs, i.e. what was preached. It was a vivid reminder for me of the centrality of Christ and the gospel in the New Testament.
What I had just studied was further reinforced for me when I ran across these comments in my daily RSS reading later the same day (from Pastor DeYoung),
After wrestling with the nature of preaching for 25 years, T. David Gordon (Why Johnny Can’t Preach) has concluded that the content of Christian preaching should be the person, character, and work of Christ.
Kind of makes sense. Of course, preaching will included moral exhortation, but it is never appropriate, says Gordon, “for one word of moral counsel ever to proceed from a Christian pulpit that is not clearly, in its context, redemptive. That is, even when the faithful exposition of particular texts require some explanation of aspects of our behavior, it is always to be done in a manner that the hearer perceives such commended behavior to be itself a matter of being rescued from the power of sin through the grace of Christ” (70-71).
So much for all our “relevant” messages helping us live more fulfilled lives. So much for emergent kingdom rhetoric that fails to mention the mercy of the King. So much for more than a few of my sermons over the years.
Gordon sees four alternatives to this type of gospel preaching:
- Moralism
- How-To
- Introspection
- Social Gospel / Culture War
That is, instead of preaching Christ crucified and the grace of God, we end up preaching “be better” or “here are three steps to being better” or “are you really a Christian?” or “we need to do more to fight the bad guys out there.”
It’s not that we can’t do any of this as preachers — Gordon says there is a place for three of the four (everything but the how-to) — but “the pulpit is almost never the place to do this” (91).
What must predominate in our preaching is the person, character, and work of Christ. And everything else should manifestly flow from these things.
Don’t leave the congregation wondering where grace come in to play. Don’t make them assume you are rooting this application in the person and work of Christ. Connect the glorious dots for them.
Here’s the original posting.
