Bryan Chapell - The Perspective of Christ-Centered Preaching

I'm thankful that I can be with you and with my friend Danny akin as I think about your president akin I think of the old account of the man who was on a hill wearying of the battle and then looked on a distant hill and saw another friends still fighting and I think of Danny akin I think there's a friend who UHN as I looked at his christ-centered exposition of Jude today a friend who is in the same battle for the gospel in all the scriptures and for all the world let me tell you as you may be just wondering who this fella is up here and why he would talk about things like Christ centered exposition why it is important to me my my goal for this lecture today is just to have some definition of what Christ centered preaching is and then because I know those are the issues of debate that are often separated from pastoral ministry on Thursday to talk about why Christ centered exposition not just for a correct interpretation but for the difference it makes in pastoral ministry that is dedicated to spiritual transformation because the two are connected and I want to make sure that we have time in both for today why is Christ centered exposition important to me I'll just start this way when I graduated from seminary I had a great privilege and the privilege was even as a young person I was asked to take the pastor of what was the oldest and the largest of our churches in our region and how do I say this to you young guy right out of seminary asked to take the pastor of the oldest and largest of our churches in our region I thought I was hot stuff I mean look at me young guy this church I'm flying high and I must tell you I flew high for a little bit but had no idea ultimately how hard it was going to be and it wasn't just because I was out of my depth young guy in a large and historic church it was because of what began to happen in that church in our region the main industry was coal mining and with all about six months of my coming to that church the Environmental Protection Agency changed the standards for coal that could be marketed in the United States in our region the coal was soft high sulfur coal and it was ruled illegal to be marketed anymore in the United States within just a few months of my arrival in that community we had quite literally thousands of people out of work in the six counties surrounding our church one mine after another began to close and while there was a social safety net for a lot of those people I must tell you that for a pastor it was hell I mean you can just imagine if if jobs and income are declining very rapidly outside the home you can already imagine what kind of dynamics are rising just as rapidly inside the home and inside the church if jobs and income are declining rapidly what's going on in people's homes stress conflict abuse addiction people will medicate any way they can adultery and depression everywhere like a blanket over the community like a blanket in our church depression everywhere now as I faced a church of people struggling with abuse and adultery addictions and depression because I'd been to seminary I knew exactly what to do you ought to laugh I thought I knew what to do I would open my Bible every week in the pulpit and I would say to people who are struggling with things like addiction these wonderful words stop it now just stop it says right here in the Bible you shall not be drunk on much wine now you just stop it and the Bible says here that you should love your wife as Christ loves the church you may not hit her stop it and those of you struggling with depression rejoice in the Lord always I'll say it again rejoice stop it I said stop it so often I could not stand me anymore I said to my wife one day I did not go to seminary to learn to hurt people but I stand in the pulpit every Sunday and I hurt people and I can't do this anymore and we really did make that call to my wife's parents to say we maybe come to live with you because I don't know what I'm gonna do for a living but I can't do this anymore at something of a low point in that time in my life the Lord brought across my awareness I don't even remember how anymore a book by a man named Sidney great honest who is examining a controversy in the Dutch church a hundred years previous you think how is this gonna help a controversy in the Dutch church a hundred years ago but here was the controversy how do we preach the heroes of the Bible now you've been to Sunday School you know how you preach the heroes of the body you look at somebody like David you know he went up and beat up the lion and the bear and when he was a young man he faced Goliath and Goliath says to him am i a dog that you come against me with a sling and David said you come with sword javelin and fear I come in the name of the Lord and if you have enough faith you can be like David you should just be like David we know how to preach it well except for that chapter about Bathsheba and how he murdered her husband to have her and then raised bad kids and then at the end of his life numbered his troops to claim his own glory rather than give God glory what sin dear Adonis did is he began to examine the heroes of the Bible is slowly and methodically began to demythologize the heroes to D sanitize the sunday-school descriptions and to come up with one very clear understanding it was simply this there's only one true hero in the Bible who is that that is Jesus and as obvious as that may be to me now I will tell you it was revolutionary to me then because what it meant was that Bible is not just full of the sanitized heroes to tell us to be like in fact what the Bible is saying over and over again in a thousand ways is if God could use and bless people as messed up as those in the Bible maybe there's still hope for us and I could look at people who are struggling with addiction and abuse and marriage is breaking up and depression and say to them if God could use those as messed up as those in the Bible maybe they're still hope for you and I began to see a light of Hope come in people's eyes again but it wasn't just those people who needed hope again who else needed to know that God could still use people who had messed up who else needed that message I was not even out of my 20s and I believed that I was a failure and was leaving the ministry and to learn that the Bible that I thought I loved was saying as messed up as you may be and as much of a mess as you may have made God still has a purpose for you it was hope and it was blessing and I discerned this is the gospel not only that I want to preach this is the gospel that is spread from the scriptures from first page to last if we will but learn to see it my goal is to go very quickly today and tell you how do we learn to see it that gospel in all the scriptures if you take the big storyline not news to you but maybe just news how you would use it and you say what is the storyline of the Bible if you draw it out clear enough you start with creation in which God made everything good didn't last very long pretty soon there's a fall in which everything went bad that's not the end of the story you know where it's going way over here at the other end of the consummation of all things God makes everything perfect which by the way is even better than good but what happens in the meantime I mean what is the rest of the biblical record about you recognize from the very beginning God is declaring what he is going to do after all we have way up here after the fall that genesis 3:15 where God as it were declares the theme of the rest of the scriptures God actually addresses Satan and says I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed and he is going to have his heel struck by you Satan but what is he going to do to you Satan he is going to crush your head and that protoevangelium that first gospel is the declaration that it is at this point game on that God is at this point saying I will bring about a redemption of a fallen world and a messed up people and that redemption is thoughtfully going to happen as the seed of the woman comes and by the plan of God will not only crush the head of Satan he will rise and ascend and rule and that is what ultimately is going to lead to the consummation that was promised from the very beginning what God has said is this is not random this is not an occasional moral tale interspersed by a command this is a a purposed progressive intentional unfolding of a message of grace that culminates in the work of Jesus Christ and when we learn to see that we don't read the Bible as a a disconnected collection of Aesop's fables we don't recognize it to be just a bunch of moral propositions that good people follow in order to make themselves acceptable to God rather what we are perceiving is that God has said from the beginning I am coming to the rescue and that understanding that God is coming to the rescue says God is the hero that is operating he is the one who moves over all things to help people achieve his purposes when they were totally incapable or undeserving what it does is it changes the agenda for our preaching if I am actually going to say what the text says if that's my exposition I'm gonna say what the text says then I'm obligated as I always am - remember context is part of the text and the context of all the texts in the biblical record is what Jesus himself declared remember after the resurrection on the road to Emmaus beginning with Moses and all the prophets he revealed what was said in all the scriptures the things what concerning himself now does that mean that every verse mentions Jesus police say no it does not mean that every verse or every chapter mentions Jesus it does mean that there is an unfolding revelation not just to the provision of God's grace but other than assess 'ti of God's grace human fallenness on display which is not its own solution what that means is if all that I do is I approach my preaching as I'm thinking here's my here's my job today I need to make clear to God's people what I think of as the D and the D their duty and/or their doctrine they're my goal today is to increase your competence in biblical doctrine or increase your duty in biblical obligation now I'm not saying those are unnecessary things those are necessary things I will tell you at the same time they are insufficient if my only goal is to increase your competence or to increase your performance if that's my only goal increase your competence or increase your performance who is your Redeemer you are you just have to increase your competence or just to increase your performance now you think oh no no I would never I would never put that down on an exam I know we would never put it down on an exam but it easily comes into our teaching our thinking our way of approaching people in a more famous appendix to a fairly famous books a book rush Dooney has what he talks about as the the Menace of the Sunday School Here I am in Southern Baptists circles talking about the Menace of the Sunday school do you know what rushed in he said was the menace of the Sunday school he said it's it's the sweet sounding and well intended Sunday school teacher who speaks to a girl and says Oh Sally if you're just a good little girl Jesus will love you it sounds so sweet and it is spiritual poison if you are just a good little girl Jesus will love you that is what we would say every other religion in the world teaches you get good enough for your God what do we say Christianity alone teaches not that we would reach to him but what he reached to us God will not love Sally because she's a good little girl her best works are only filthy rags to him jesus said Luke 17 10 when you have done everything that you should do you are still an unworthy servant before God why right if you've done everything that you should do you are now who qualifies there and yet Jesus even if you qualified there he would still not make you acceptable to the holy king of the universe who makes you acceptable to God God does not the perfections of your competence not the perfections of your performance but the perfections of Christ and Christ alone we sing it but somehow escapes our preaching because what we end up doing with good intention is we focus on a text and we look either at the doctrine or the duty that's there and we make the entirety of our message the duty or the doctrine which are necessary which are right which are good but insufficient what has to be added to the equation is what is always added to the equation what is the context of the text where are we in the unfolding message of redemption here's the reality if God is coming to the rescue there has to be a problem what I've identified in my works as a fallen condition focus there is there is some problem that has been dressed if God is coming to the rescue there's an issue that is being addressed people say you can't just talk about grace in every sermon you know that gets old say well you don't say the country is that we can't talk about the law in every sermon that will just get old no you say no there are so many dimensions to our competence in our performance now see there are so many dimensions to the grace of God as his addressing aspects of our fallenness why why is God going through thousands of years to express to us the unfolding plan of his Redemption because we're complicated creatures there are dimensions of fallenness that we have to understand so that we can properly repent and go to a redeemer and and those dimensions of our fallenness help us to understand that that when we look at people we ought to see Swiss cheese I got holes in them there's no temptation taken you but such as is common what does that mean there was a time in my life in which I thought that meant that that if I'm struggling with something I I take encouragement by the fact that somebody out there maybe a lot of people out there are also struggling with that thing I do not believe that's what that verse means anymore 1st Corinthians 10:13 there's no temptation taken you but such as is common which means there is nothing going on out there the seeds of which are not already in here how do I know that's true James said if you've broken one command how many of you actually broken all of them when we look at people we ought to see people who are morally unholy and if they have holes in them in their holiness what is going to fill the holes well you just straighten up you just do better you know more you have doctrine better than the guy down the street you perform better than you did yesterday if what is filling the holes is human competence or human performance you are your Redeemer but you cannot fix yourself any more than a man with dirty hands can clean a white shirt you are not your own Redeemer the reason that God is revealing the fallenness of humanity is because there is an unfolding message of the grace of God that's getting larger and larger and larger and culminating in the person and the work of Christ and if I am perceiving that I begin to understand it is insufficient to tell falling people you just fix yourself you just do better than you did and despite that you have to recognize there are very common ways that we can preach because we're trying to be fair to the text we're trying to say what it says but we end up with remarkably human centered rather than christ-centered messages it happens so simply and with the best of intention let me show you how there are messages that come very readily to us that fail to take into account the context of the text one of those very familiar messages is what I will call be like messages I look at some portion of the biblical text and identify a biblical character and I say you should be like that person now it's very common in evangelical circles you must know that it's actually got a name in the history preaching this is known as biographical preaching okay we look at a person we say you should be like that person now you know there's a problem with David already right got it you know I can't just say be like David but now you know there are good guys in the Bible I mean Abraham no you know there there's somebody you know I mean he he went to the land he did not know to obey the call of God he abandoned father and friends and well if any obeyed the call of God to go the land he did not No and and on that journey he only gave away his wife twice to other men and and then because he did not have patience for the Lord's promise of a child he slept with his wife's maid and then one of all things his wife got upset about that he took his biological son and his mistress and he put them to die in the desert of exposure well maybe he shouldn't be like Abraham either but now Barnabas now that's the New Testament so this this has to be a good guy you know Barnabas was a great encourage or of God's people while his very name means encouragement I mean he took all that extra effort to with courage go with Paul on that early missionary journey you know you should you should be like Barnabas now there there is a problem there too after all ultimately Barnabas had a falling out with Paul on whether John Mark should accompany them on the next missionary journey and he was not an encourage or at all if we will take care not to sanitize the accounts we will recognize that God is teaching us something everybody in the scriptures needs somebody other than themselves to rescue them from themselves it's not enough just to say be like none you have to hear me say it clearly these are not wrong messages in themselves these are not wrong messages in themselves we truly are meant to learn good things from the good character of biblical characters we're also supposed to learn they were not entirely good they were not wholly the biblical characters function like the commandments like the law that is it is necessary to learn what to do as a consequence of their character but it is absolute deadly to base our spiritual status with God on being like them Christ and Christ alone makes us right with God now I will grant you I will grant you that that there are some biblical characters that appear to be entirely good as far as we know right I mean what does it say about Enoch in the Bible anybody remember Enoch walked with God and he was no more and you just can't get much dirt in there I mean that's just all it says he walked with God and he was no more and Caleb and Jonathan I hope you recognize not only that there is not a lot said about these persons lives but even theologically if we were to say they are right before God theologically who enabled that that was God - God was still coming to the rescue simply to look at a biblical character and make the entire message you should just be like that person is not wrong in itself it is wrong by itself if that's the entirety of the message that's where its flaw is not that there are not important things to learn but we are to learn they needed a rescue and if that doesn't work its way into the message we have not understood the context now if you think that is kind of against tradition recognize the next form of messages that become rather deadly because we're just telling people to be something our messages that are entirely be good you should just be good do you think what could be wrong with that you certainly don't want to preach the opposite be bad know what's wrong with be good messages girlscouts are good Boy Scouts are good Christians are good it's good to be good it's bad to be bad so be good your best works only what to God filthy rags when you've done all that you should do your what kind of servant unworthy servant do you recognize even in the church perhaps most people are out there balancing scales well you know I'm not perfect I'm not perfect but you know the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff what if they truly understood your best works go on the wrong side of the scale they actually will bring you into judgment before a holy God there is too much taint of your humanity in your best works to make them acceptable to a holy God and therefore if all I have said in the sermon is be good I lead you to your condemnation because all you have to present to God is your goodness against his holy perfections now believe me I'm not saying be bad I'm not saying this is a wrong message in itself I am NOT saying that I'm saying this is a wrong message can you complete this is a wrong message not in itself but by itself if that is the entirety of the message if I just tell people you just be good what do they think makes them acceptable to God their performance they say well no no no I'm gonna get around to the evangelistic sermon in which I'll make sure it's Christ work and we're gonna do that in let's see five weeks till the evangelistic sermon and then I'll tell them it's Jesus or I'll tell them it's works that they have to do and and you know next week we'll we'll get to Christ you will discern something if you counsel or parent or preach very quickly even when you preach grace people here every relationship in their life is contractual right you do something you get something wet whether you're in business many people in their marriages these days right they don't take out a marriage covenant they take out a marriage contract I will love you as long as you please me and people intuitively hear that in the day and age in which we live in which so many more people live together for a while to find out if you're acceptable to me before I'm going to commit to you it's a contract you prove your acceptance and and then we'll decide whether or not we're going to be and then we'll maintain this marriage as long as we're acceptable to one another whether it's relationships or occupation or business deals what whatever it is it's all contractual and if we only tell people you just be good and God love you for that they actually hear what they believe is right from the Bible you should know it's wrong that that every other way in which the Bible is teaching us is saying this is covenant this is a God who was making a commitment to you on the basis of his mercy when the kindness and mercy of God our Savior appeared he saved us not on the basis of the good works that we have done but according to his mercy not based on what I do not that's not just true of my entry into the kingdom that is true of every day of my life I am right with God based upon his mercy not my goodness my goodness is a response to His grace it is never a purchase of it it is living in love according to the one who has loved me and if the entirety of my message is just be good the human instinct it just takes over and it says oh so that's what that's how that's why God will love me because I got good enough now the good enough sets up the last major problem of what I call these deadly bees that are so common in our preaching the last of the deadly bees is the most common it is the messages that are entirely be more disciplined be more disciplined pray more better higher longer darker closet read your Bible more longer chapters through the Bible in a year plan or three times in a year planner just do more you know you're supposed to read your Bible so get up earlier do it longer do it deeper more research tools just just do more and by the way while you're doing all that go to church more you should go to church more especially you should go to my church more what's wrong with the more messages there is no bottom to that pit how much more how many more filthy rags does he need before he's satisfied know if God is going to be your God because of your performance you will never get there if God is going to love you because you have done enough Bible reading praying going to you will never do enough you you may not be in settings so in my particular setting right now we we are surrounded by Anabaptist communities so that's simple agian and the the true sense is that that you have to do enough to make yourself acceptable to God and so many of the people who come to our church and they begin to hear a message of God's grace is what claims you not not your performance I mean it is such a common story we hear it over and over again people say when I was growing up my mom or dad would send me back to my room for any poor behavior and they said you haven't repented enough yet you haven't cried enough yet you haven't felt bad enough long enough yet in which case what what they had to perceive is even their repentance was going to be measured by their discipline of repentance have I cried enough tears have I felt bad enough long am i miserable enough to really be okay to God listen if if God is being satisfied by your misery what are you implicitly saying about the blood of Christ it is not sufficient I'm not okay with God based on the blood of Christ I am okay with God based upon my human misery you will meet over and over again and your bastards in your counseling sessions and your parenting people who believe that God will not be happy with them until they are miserable enough with themselves that the mark of their orthodoxy the mark of their acceptance is that they are unhappy and sad who after all is it that wants you to try to serve God with a huge burden of guilt upon your back who wants you to serve God with a huge burden of guilt and uh nap happiness who wants you to do that that is Satan that is the accuser of the Brethren because he knows that that if you will just take that load of guilt and shame and keep it or believe you compensate for it by your disciplines that you will remain crushed by your own understanding of a holy God who he is and what he requires there is a grace of God that is unfolding in all the scriptures and we need to understand it so that we will preach with the context that lets us preach all of these things be like be good be more disciplined but as a response to grace not as a way of brokering it not as a way of earning it not as a bribe but as a reception of the bread that we have been given by the grace of God how is that grace of God on display in all the scriptures there are different ways in which this ministry of Christ is being made known and here in a brief chapel period there's no way I can get into all the debates that you know happen about proper ways of doing Christ's endure preaching but quick things no buts nobody disagrees that one way in which Christ is talking about himself being revealed in all the scriptures is there clearly some Old Testament passages that are predictive of the work of Christ I mean that's not hard we understand sometimes Christ gets on the page before he has gotten on earth by the predictions about him that are coming prophecies that occur in the Mosaic books right like Deuteronomy 18 like genesis 3:15 in the historical books like David being promised and eternal and universal kingdom and second Samuel we recognize that there are Messianic Psalms and the wisdom books we we recognize major prophets minor prophets talk about the coming Redeemer there are prophecies throughout the Old Testament that are predicting the coming work of Christ there's a context of God's Redemption that's being unfolded by saying wherever we are in the Old Testament here it's not the final chapter there's someone still coming to fulfill what God said would happen in the protoevangelium the first gospel those are not the debated things what we have to recognize is there's another way in which the Bible in its unfolding is making clear the necessity of the coming Redeemer and that is by passages that are preparatory they are preparing us for the work of Christ now these come in two categories and a real quick thumbnail here some passages are bridges they're bridging our understanding so we have things like prophets priests and kings in the Old Testament why is that important for you because you begin to understand there is a coming one who will be prophet priest and king and we actually described as those things in the New Testament you would not know what they meant if you had not been prepared Christ is our Passover how do you know what that means you've been prepared a bridging of your understanding from the sacrificial systems from the sacrificial animals from that which was insufficient but necessary for the one who is necessary and sufficient you've been prepared well we don't often think about is there are also ways that we are being prepared by dead ends let me do that again by dead ends there are things that do not work in the period of the judges everyone did what everyone did what was right in their own eyes now you need to remember that's the background everyone does what's right in their own eyes how'd that work out for him that don't work how do you know well you know there's this story about Samson and you know when Samson had long hair he was strong and when he had short hair he was weak therefore you should have say it Danny therefore you should I'm sorry certain people can be a little more limited in obeying this command than other people now you know that's not what it means what does it mean why do we have the story of Samson so that you'll be told you know not to marry attractive women so that you'll be told to get long hair I mean why did Samson was very strong he was very clever and that did not save him it does not matter how strong you are it does not matter how clever you are somebody's going to have to rescue you and your people and it's not you you are not your Redeemer and that is true of virtually every judge that we are totally what do you know about Gideon Wow there's a great guy took 300 soldiers up against a hundred and thirty-five thousand Midianites and got a victory now there's somebody you ought to try to be like by the way what did Gideon do with the gold from the victory of the over the hundred and thirty-five thousand Midian what did you do with that gold you're singing on your lips I he made an idol yeah man if only God had known he was gonna do that God knew God knew that Gideon was not his own Redeemer God knew that Gideon was not the Redeemer of his people God knew that Gideon was a dead end that somebody greater than Gideon's somebody else would have to rescue people do you recognize God takes so much time developing a book that is far more Eastern than what we Westerners like we want to say hey just give me a systematics book well you're not a Bible I mean just tell me do we baptize the babies or don't we yeah just yeah well I know you think you know we want to go a-b-c-d conclusion just just do it that way but what the Bible is doing so often is saying you have to understand what doesn't work not your wisdom not your cleverness look I'll give you the law so you can follow it oh you don't follow I'll give you sacrifices oh you don't do them you in fact the priests till your say well you need better priests well okay we'll just do what's right in your own eyes all the judges don't work well I'll give you Kings well that doesn't work either well I give prophets so they tell Kings what to do and then the Kings were real justly one little problem that people kill the prophets you know what what we're gonna need a better law keeper we're gonna do a better sacrifice better priests better prophet better King God spends 1,500 years saying not this not this not this not this not this but this so that when he comes we understand who he is and what he must do he has been revealed to us as as the dead ends are shown to be lifeless without hope but pointing toward the one true hope that is what is being revealed to us sometimes we learn to see it if we will just learn to see that certain passages are reflective and we're not looking for where does it mention Jesus not the point where is it reflecting the gracious nature of God so I begin to understand the God who is coming to the rescue I understand who he is and what he must do so so Elijah you know he comes down the mountain from the great victory over the prophets of bale and Jezebel says I'm gonna get you for killing my priests and what does the great prophet who's just had the great victory what does he do he runs away into the desert to hide you know God I'll just abandon him and forget him but what does God do for the Cowardly prophet he gives him sustenance in the desert that he can neither gain nor earn or provide for himself I like for just to learn a little phrase here so often we will be helped when we're reading the Old Testament by saying how is God providing for people who cannot provide for themselves I'm not trying to make Jesus magically appear you know a book title can get you in trouble Christ centered preaching people think I'm gonna try to make you take out your magic wand or your decoder ring and get Jesus mentioned in every verse of the Bible no way I am saying grace is unfolding in all the Bible God is unfolding how he must provide for people who cannot provide for themselves so that we ultimately you're looking for the culmination of that message there is a pointing to a preparation of a way in which God's grace is being reflected when you food to the hungry when he gives pardon to the sinful when he gives strength to the weary when he gives rest to people who are totally worn out over and over again God is saying this is my nature and by the way this is your nature you are someone who needs God you are irretrievably hopelessly human apart from the hope that is in Christ after all what does Paul say way over here in Romans 15:4 everything that was written in the past I mean what a comprehensive statement everything that was written in the past was written for us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope is the hope in you your performance or your competence no but everything was written that that was written in the past was written for us so that we would have hoped that we would recognize the bridges recognize the dead ends and ultimately we would live in response which means there are also certain passages that are resultant to the work of Jesus Christ when we get to this side of the cross and particularly we recognize all those those New Testament epistles whether it's John or Peter or Paul I mean there's there's kind of a standard pattern you know it what's happening in the first half of the epistles what what universally is happening in the first half of the epistles God is telling us what he has done in Christ now what's the second half of the Epistle how you respond but there is an order there did you hear it you are acting as a result of what Christ has accomplished did you hear that you are acting as a result of what Christ has accomplished as a result of what he has done we live for him now 1 2 3 4 I must tell you the debates and biblical theology are much more complicated than 1 2 3 4 but what I find when I teach various people all the ways in which biblical theology is being done in the current situation I find students kind of ok well that's kind of nice but you know I got a preach this week from this passage and and you're telling me that I got to figure out whether it's predictive or whether it's reflective or resultant yeah goodness and so I'll tell you how I think you can simplify this and do it every time in every passage without feeling that you are sacrificing any of your biblical exegesis and fairness to the text you look at the text and you simply say what is this text telling me about the nature of God who provides Redemption now that that is a fair question of any text in the Bible what does that tell me about God but you know that's not importing the New Testament in the old that is not requiring you to undo the interpretation of the biblical writer you say what does it tell me about God second question what's that text tell me about humanity what does that text tell me about me because there's no temptation taking me but such as is common if I will put on those gospel glasses when I look at any text and so was it telling me about God was it telling me about me I'm going to determine that there's a God who comes to the rescue and there are people who need rescuing that is going to be there is it gonna be the full message of the atonement no it's not gonna be the full message of the atonement so many times but it's going to be a pointer it's gonna be something saying oh there is a God who provides Redemption and there are people who need it and when we see that is the unfolding message it's going to change us what's the response next time we'll talk about it quick way of thinking about it 16:01 Michelangelo Caravaggio paints what becomes one of the most famous and revolutionary paintings of all time the Supper at Emmaus now you remember already what happened on the road to Emmaus Jesus beginning with Moses and all the prophets revealed what was said in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself but the disciples for reasons we don't quite understand to not recognize him until they have supper with him and then Jesus does something remarkably christ-like and they recognize him what does he do he breaks the bread and in the breaking of the bread they say it's him it's the fulfillment of the ages it's the desire of Nations he is the one of whom we have heard all through our history he's here he's now he's come and to paint that moment likes a snapshot Caravaggio breaks all the conventions of the period neither Jesus nor disciples have halos they don't have beards like aristocrats they're they're clean-shaven so they can wash off the sawdust and the fish guts they just look like commoners but but beyond that they are not kind of sitting back and glassy eyed aware oh it's Jesus this is the one long prophesied the one who is our rescue is here they are rising from their seats their muscles taut there they are trying to say we must praise Him one actually tries to reach toward you as the onlooker and pull you into contact with Jesus as if to say if he has come if the grace has been fulfilled we must do something about this we must tell people about this and that is our task to if the grace has come then we declare it for a purpose there's a life to live now and people to tell and we'll talk about that next time father would you teach us of the Wonder and the goodness and the pervasiveness of your grace so when our hearts cry out doesn't care does he love us the unquestioning response of your word and we pray from our own hearts we'll be how dearly has he loved it was a relentless grace help us to know it and proclaim it for the good of your people who would live in the hope that you offer we pray this in Jesus name Amen

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Keywords: Southeastern, Baptist, Theological, Seminary, Chapel, Message, Jesus, Preaching, God, Book, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Gospel, False Teaching, False spirits, Spirit, Danny, expository, Great Commission, Truth, Grace, Love, Discerning, Training, Education

Id: 1PMxS0Q5HVQ

Length: 50min 42sec (3042 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 14 2019