Preach Jesus

[Romans922]

Here is a quote I saw and was wondering what if any thoughts there were about it,

"Dear pastor, please preach Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior from whatever passage you are preaching or please call in sick."

 

[MW]

Here is a quote I saw and was wondering what if any thoughts there were about it,

"Dear pastor, please preach Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior from whatever passage you are preaching or please call in sick."

On the one hand, what is the pastor if he is not an ambassador for Christ praying men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God? He may as well call in sick if he is not going to fulfil the ministry of reconciliation.

On the other hand, there are some folk who have specific formulae for the preaching of Christ, and when certain words and phrases are not used they are ready to say that the gospel was not preached. This only shows a narrow understanding of the message of reconciliation.

 

[Romans922]

I agree Matthew, I was questioning perhaps taking a passage of Scripture that one is preaching on that isn't specifically Jesus crucified/risen (though of course all Scripture points to that) and taking most time not looking at the text but preaching on the Gospel alone.

Or perhaps a certain type of preaching that like that of the so called "Redemptive Historical Preaching" referred to in this post http://www.puritanboard.com/showthread.php/22589-A-Critique-of-Redemptive-Historical-preaching that may tend toward allegory.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

I agree with Matthew and weary of some of the abbreviation of how the message of reconciliation is encompassed under a "get to the Gospel=(justification, indicative) as quickly as possible" approach.

I think a very helpful way to see Christ encompassed in the Scriptures is in His Mediation of the Covenant of Grace and how one can zoom out from any passage to see shadows or fulfillment of that Mediation in all its forms.

I was meditating on the sprinkling of the blood at Sinai for instance and a faithful preacher was pointing out the connection to the Lord's Supper - that the altar was sprinkled as well as the people - connecting them to the place of sacrifice.

I then wondered if some forms of RH/indicative preaching could only see in that passage a "that's a republication of the CoW" and miss some key "Christ the Mediator" themes in that ceremony.

 

[psycheives]

When I read that quote, I immediately think the author is insisting upon some strong form of Redemptive Historical Preaching and a narrow view of the gospel.

 

[Romans922]

When I read that quote, I immediately think the author is insisting upon some strong form of Redemptive Historical Preaching and a narrow view of the gospel.

Would you explain further what you mean?

 

[Toasty]

Here is a quote I saw and was wondering what if any thoughts there were about it,

"Dear pastor, please preach Jesus as the crucified and risen Savior from whatever passage you are preaching or please call in sick."

If a certain text of Scripture does not specifically mention Jesus, how are they supposed to preach Jesus? Would these be good examples of how to preach Jesus even though the text does not specifically mention Jesus?

1. Psalm 139 teaches that God is omniscient and omnipresent. Since God is omniscient and omnipresent, we cannot hide our sin from God. Instead of trying to hide your sin from God, you should confess your sins to God and trust Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

2. Proverbs 16:32 says, "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city." Being moral for morality's sake is not the goal of the Christian life. The motivation for being slow to anger and ruling over your spirit should be to glorify God and to be more like Christ. Self-control is one of the fruit of the Spirit.

3. Judges 2:11-23 teaches that Israel forsook the Lord and committed idolatry. The preacher could talk about sin and God's anger towards sin. The application for us today is to turn to Christ instead of idols.

 

[psycheives]

When I read that quote, I immediately think the author is insisting upon some strong form of Redemptive Historical Preaching and a narrow view of the gospel.

Would you explain further what you mean?

Sure. Some people have certain expectations about what preaching should be like and what they consider "the Gospel," so they sometimes mistakenly assume the pastor was at fault for not preaching Christ, when in fact, he did preach Christ. Two "common" examples immediately come to my mind:

1) Especially Hyper-Redemptive Historical preachers are criticized for taking passages and ignoring the context, setting, application and simply turning every week's sermon into the same thing - "Christ died for your sins." So a member who is used to and expects this sort of Hyper-RH preaching might object to a pastor preaching the text. They will argue "you didn't turn it into a Gospel sermon!" This seems to be a growing trend among listeners.

2) Somewhat related, the current Hyper-Grace Radical Lutheran Law/Gospel preaching is influencing Reformed pastors. So their members come to expect a "narrow Gospel" to be the point of every sermon. So if you preach the passage, the context, setting, law and broad gospel, they will accuse you of not preaching the Gospel. These might be members who tell you "I expect to hear that Christ died for me so I am free every week. I don't want any of that law or application stuff. The Holy Spirit will apply the gospel to our hearts." So these people might accuse a legitimate pastor of not preaching the Gospel. I see this also as a growing trend. Consider a growing number of members are following prominent pastors/teachers who lead many to follow Radical Lutheran theologian Gerhardt Forde.

Hope this helps!