mgpcpastor's blog

Yesterday ‘J’ (a colleague whom I have never met) left a Facebook comment stating that he had been told that “he keeps on going on about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins”. Apparently ‘Js’ preaching always seems to reference Jesus dying on the cross for people’s sins.
‘J’ received quite a number of comments affirming the idea that if this is a problem then it is a problem that should be shared by every Christian preacher.
In the comment thread, I contributed the thought that a companion to this sort of observation is a desire for ‘practical’ preaching. Another contributor mentioned that others will ask for ‘meatier’ or ‘deeper’ material that Christ’s atoning work.

A few observations:
I know ‘Js’ congregation as a group of folk who honored the Scriptures and the Gospel in the bad old days when those sorts of tendencies were not at all popular in Presbyterian circles.
Secondly, I can understand a concern that ‘J’ articulated about not wanting to preach the same sermon every week. Like the children in Sunday School who learn that the safe option is to answer every question to which they don’t know the answer with the reply ‘Jesus’, a preacher could insert a reference to the Gospel every Sermon without doing so at a point in his exposition where the text demanded it.
If the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms reveal Jesus, and the New Testament is written to tell us about God’s fulfillment of His saving purpose in the life, death and resurrection power of Jesus, then every Christian sermon must reference Jesus and the effects of His work in some way.
The preacher’s task is to draw out and demonstrate how the text references the saving work of God through Jesus. Sometimes the text will contain a promise that is fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus. Another time the text will demonstrate an aspect of our fallen condition which only the work of Jesus can liberate us from. Another time the text will indicate something about our life and being which only the liberating and cleansing power of the Gospel can make possible.
The Scriptures of the Bible point to our need of salvation, reveal the way of salvation and detail the life of salvation; and all three of those dimensions depend completely on the cross.
As preachers we have to demonstrate the inspired, organic and legitimate presence of these themes so that those who hear will be able to understand that they are there and that we are not simply adding the Gospel message to fulfill a formula or meet an expectation. “We now interrupt this week’s sermon to bring you a word about our sponsor…”
The call to Gospel dependence in order to truly respond to any biblical text must depend on the Holy Spirit working through the text alone. But preachers are the means by which the text is laid open before the people, and that laid open text is the means through which the Spirit works.

This is important because Gospel centeredness can disappear very quickly.
The Gospel can be assumed and preaching degenerates into what is called ‘moralistic therapeutic deism’, which, in summary, uses the Bible to teach what I could characterise as ‘God’s top tips for you to live a good and happy life which is pleasing to both you and Him.’
The Gospel can be sidelined subtly or overtly. Responses to preached messages will usually be appealed for with the muted tones of a keyboard or organ playing over the last quarter of the sermon. In the wider circles of Christianity of which I am aware I know of people responding to calls to come forward for prayer and blessing, or invitations to seek deliverance from their life circumstances, later described as ‘salvations’ or ‘commitments’.
If preachers clearly identify the Gospel center of their text and carefully show it to their hearers, then over time, and with the Spirit’s working they’ll come to know the absolute necessity of the Gospel to be present in every Sermon they hear.