Preaching the Whole Christ: Him We Proclaim — Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

i know what it means and i almost seized it out of dr hughes hands there but that would only have prevented somebody else from winning the prize well we're coming to uh what is i suppose the second main session in our conference together uh chrysostom it was the kind of john the baptist forerunner to the conference and i think i said then i would rather that dr hughes were giving the lecture because he knows far more about chrysostom than i do and i think i can say the same about uh these addresses he knows a good deal more about preaching than i do it's one thing to preach but most preachers don't know what they're doing and it takes a kind of special skill sometimes that's a good thing sometimes not so good and it takes a special skill to have the powers of analysis to speak about preaching but we're coming to the second session and those of you who are here yesterday evening will remember that these addresses this is imposed on me as is the title incidentally and the theme and everything else there is a chiasmic structure to our four sessions together uh beginning with an exposition followed by a lecture followed by a lecture ending with an exposition and i've tried to maintain faithfulness to that chiasmic structure by linking the opening exposition to the opening lecture and then the second lecture to the closing exposition and if at the end of the day you're no wiser then it doesn't really matter very much but the the thesis really is that it is as we get to know christ that we are able to proclaim him and it is as we proclaim christ as crucified that we begin to see the significance of that not only in our proclamation but in our lives as proclaimers of the gospel and i've tried to create a certain kind of unity here by not entirely but more or less exclusively beginning at least from within the teaching of the apostle paul and so i want us for our lecture this morning to turn to set our minds in a an apostolic direction to colossians chapter one and all of you who have looked to the titles would realize that this was as it were the hidden text so colossians chapter 1 verses 24 through 29 now i rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh i'm filling up what is lacking in christ's afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church of which i became a minister according to the stewardship from god that was given to me for you to make the word of god fully known the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints to them god chose to make known how great among the gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery which is christ in you the hope of glory him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in christ for this i toil struggling with all the energy that he powerfully works within me this is really a lecture on a personal pronoun at him we proclaim it's set in a particular context which i won't entirely ignore but it's that statement that i want us to focus our attention on both as a center for our instruction and in some ways a litmus test to examine our own preaching this is the epicenter of paul's ministry and he unlines that by the way in which he he builds up linguistically to the announcement that this is the epicenter of his preaching uh he speaks about a mystery that's been hidden and has now been revealed and the whole way in which he structures this just as a literary form builds up anticipation what is this great centerpiece it is christ in us the hope of glory and since this is the case since this is the fruition of the gospel the indwelling of christ as the hope of seeing the glory of christ and being in the presence of father son holy spirit righteous men made perfect angels archangels cherubim seraphim and therefore because of this hope it is says paul our task to proclaim him and this is a very important passage for us as preachers of the gospel because in in some ways it's the outworking of what paul was taught at the time of his damascus road experience was his destiny that he would preach christ and he would suffer much for the name of christ and he indicates how in his ministry both of these things have become true that he has sought to preach christ him we proclaim but alongside that as part of that as the outworking of that and also the kind of prerequisite of the fruitfulness of that he tells us some of the things that he suffered and he uses of course this very striking expression that he sees his whole life as a filling up in his experience of that which is lacking presumably in his experience not in christ's work of that which is lacking in the outworking of his union with christ as a preacher of the gospel so in a way this is paul's own exposition of the statement that's made about him in acts chapter 9 and verse 15. and it's also a summary of the focus of his ministry he goes through all of these tough experiences he sees the glory of christ in dwelling his people he proclaims him with all the energy that god inspires within him and the goal is to present everyone mature in christ which essentially is paul's alignment in colossians with what he says about god's purpose in romans 8 29 what after all is christian maturity at the end of the day it is nothing other and nothing less than growing into the likeness of jesus christ he understands in his ministry that at the end of the day nothing will last forever in me that has not been transformed into the likeness of god's son that is the goal for which we have been predestined to be like him and that is all that will ever dwell of you and of me in the presence of god what that will mean in the mystery of our differentiations what that will mean as the secret inside of our lives may be turned outside in glory we see through a glass dimly but that this should be the goal of our ministry is certainly the burden of paul's teaching here and it's important for us to grasp it because on the one hand it's only when we grasp it that we will want to preach all of christ that's revealed to us in the scriptures and at the same time it's only when we grasp it that we will preach and pastor the people properly this is a goal of which we may stop short in that sense it's not enough for us to see our ministry of the gospel as teaching doctrine it's vital that we see there is a goal beyond the teaching of doctrine and that is that the teaching of doctrine is the means god has given to us of describing jesus christ and of transforming our people into the likeness of jesus christ and you see this is the significance of preaching isn't it is when when this takes fire in the church and people are thus transformed into the likeness of jesus christ unchurched men and women strangers people who go to churches where christ seems to be absent come among christ's people and they realize that this is an entirely different world this is part of the new creation this is the beginning of eternal normality and the impress of that upon people even people who at first hate what we believe is to close their mouths and to convince them as you remember paul says to the corinthians that truly god is among us but what he says in colossians is by no means an isolated statement in galatians 1 16 he speaks similarly about the beginning of his ministry god set him apart before he was born called me in his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that i might preach him in order that i might preach him and then of course in in more frequently quoted statements first corinthians 1 23 this great statement we preach christ again in chapter 2 verse 2 i decided to know nothing among you except jesus christ and again in second corinthians 1 and verse 19 the son of god jesus christ whom we proclaimed and in a way this lecture is in terms of its appeal is simply an appeal to be a personalist in your preaching that is to say that the epicenter of your preaching and the telos to which all of your preaching tends is not the communication of information but the introduction and description of a person and if we fall short of that we fall short of the apostolic goal in preaching which is as paul says in these different ways with different qualifications to preach jesus christ himself i wouldn't be surprised if among evangelical preachers first corinthians 1 23 or first corinthians 2 2 and 3 have been certainly among the most popular texts to launch a new ministry determined to preach nothing to you know nothing to you except jesus christ and him crucified but those of you who have gone on a little will recognize it's one thing to be able to preach that at the beginning of a ministry paul wasn't preaching that at the beginning of a ministry he was telling them as it were at the end of the ministry that that was what he was determined to do and he knew they knew whether it had been true or not and it really is one thing to say that's what you're going to do it's another thing at the end of a ministry however long or however short to be able to say you know that i was determined to know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified now obviously this didn't mean that paul as it were only preached from passages in the bible that he could go directly to christ from but it did mean that he understood it was christ himself who was the savior christ himself who was the lord and whatever he was preaching wherever he was going then all of his exposition all of his reasoning out of the scripture needed to be held together by jesus christ it's an old logical principle isn't it that it's the end in view that determines everything that you do to get there that's true in terms of logic it's also bound to be true in terms of preaching we begin with the center in christ determined to know nothing among you him we proclaim and i think it may be worthwhile at this point trying a little experiment a thought experiment you can do this by thinking about your friends who preach you can do this thinking about yourself you can do this even although it may be a little odious about the the preachers that you especially admire [Music] and ask this question what is the dominant the evident dominant note in their preaching my preaching their preaching if i were as people used to do in the 19th century if i were able to write what it is like to sit under this preaching what would what would carry the weight the the what is the obvious thing here now granted that we have different backgrounds different contexts we have different burdens and we're all differently wired would it be an exaggeration to say that if it is not jesus and all that comes to us in jesus which of course means not only jesus but trinity and fellowship with god but if if this is not the epicenter of our ministry does that not mean that to that extent we have gone off center in relationship to believing that our preaching is a conveying of the apostolic tradition and i don't listen too much preaching i hear my own minister preach i don't go around sights i don't wander around churches unfortunately it's only at a few conferences that there are other people there to preach but my hermeneutic of suspicion makes me wonder if in fact many of us fall short at this point and if if people were to be asked what was the keynote of our preaching the answer might not be oh it's obvious he is obsessed with preaching jesus christ so whatever our burdens may be i think paul is implicitly urging upon us because he is one who calls us to follow his example urging us as i say to be personalists and to preach jesus christ and i want to try and explore that for a time with us together first of all what what does this mean what's involved in this well let me begin positively just because that's the apostolic way and then negatively and then i'll come back to positively positively i think there is no better description of what this means than the description calvin gives in institute's book three he says to know christ and therefore to preach christ is to preach christ clothed with the gospel to preach christ clothed with the gospel so there you have person and news about that person person at the heart of the proclamation described the garments that he wears described in the gospel but when we describe the garments and i think this is part of the genius of calvin's description when we describe the garments we are describing the garments in order to present the person not simply to describe the garments negatively let me say what i think this does not mean although is sometimes taken to mean this and i say this in a context that i think is a context of long service in this institution but relatively short-lived in the evangelical world in general this is not the same thing as some [Music] think preaching christ from the old testament is now i'm all for preaching christ from the old testament it would be shameful if i weren't but there is a mode of preaching christ from the old testament because that has become such a big thing nobody used to talk about it unless they were westminster seminary professors or dutch until a couple of decades ago now everybody's talking about it and everybody tells you how to do it and multitudes of young ministers and preachers are doing it indeed sometimes their their preaching seems to be dominated by it and as old restless and reformed who is now resting but still reformed let me put it this way jesus is not to be seen simply as the solution to the last problem across in the old testament crossword puzzle so preaching christ in apostolic terms is not showing me how you can get to jesus from anywhere in the old testament that's entirely preliminary preaching christ is once you have got there preaching christ himself and that's a very important principle because the first is educational and instructional it's hermeneutical but it only brings you to the starting line and solution to old testament enigmas never saves us all never sanctifies a saint never brings the church to maturity indeed sometimes it can deceive them into thinking that now they know who jesus christ is it's when you've got there and when you bring to bear upon this the full revelation of jesus christ in the new testament and explore him and proclaim him and present him to me that you understand that the lord jesus is not the solution to an old testament puzzle but he is the person of the son of god incarnate come to redeem us now most of us in this room absolutely love biblical theology we love showing people how to get from the old testament scriptures to jesus but we do need to remember that it's only jesus that died on the cross for us it's not our biblical theology it's not our hermeneutics no matter how much we value them it's not our ability to teach well it's not our love to teach it's not our love to preach it is our love to tell people who jesus really is and the glory of the reformed faith at this point is that in it we are convinced there is so much in scripture by which we may tell jesus we tell people who jesus is and all that jesus has done so that they may see him fully as he is clothed in the gospel well what does this mean then positively well let me point you to two very significant passages for preaching that i think help us to understand what this means positively the first is at the end of 2nd timothy 3 from verse 15 through into chapter 4 verse 3 which i often think is one of the worst chapter breaks in our english bibles because very clearly from the language paul uses about preaching in chapter four he is really saying to timothy you are to preach by doing the things for which god gave you the scriptures for teaching rebuking correcting and training and righteousness and he picks up some of that language when he urges him to preach with teaching and with great patience but often when we look at that passage we we begin of course our eyes are drawn to the statement about the god-breathed character of scripture and we forget what lies immediately preceding it that what paul is concerned about at the end of the day is the way in which the scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in jesus christ and with that foundation therefore the implication is that this is what the god breathed scripture is for this is what the doctrine is for this is what the rebuking is for this is what the correcting is for this is what the equipping is for this is what the preaching is for it's it's crystal centric and this is such an interesting thing because it's it's possible for us to be so enamored of a redemptive historical hermeneutic that shows how to get to christ from the old testament that when we come to the new testament we're actually much less interested in getting to christ even in danger of being more interested in the doctrine than in the savior and that's a mistake the apostle paul from whom most of us have learned most of the theology we know that's the mistake paul never made let me turn to another passage that is is so vital in our preaching and all of us have worked over in luke chapter 24 this great passage about emmaus road preaching um that in a sense has been rediscovered you know outside of church road and grand rapids in this recovery of redemptive historical preaching and being being able to point to christ rather than simply being exemplary or moralistic in our preaching and we're all familiar with the chief emphasis of of luke 24 verses 26 and 27 these two on the immersed road the lord jesus drawing near and jesus saying was it not necessary the christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself now that's that's a question to put down on your on your little card for the panel excluding me okay the others have to answer that question what does what does this mean um we shouldn't assume it's all together perspicuous exactly what it means it doesn't mean that no matter where you are in the old testament in every verse you've got to find a way to jesus what does it mean what was he doing i mean he didn't have the time to go through every passage in the old testament so what was he doing and then of course there's the later event which is is perhaps not so much emphasized that he appears in the room and he does the same thing again and he shows them from moses and the prophets and the psalms that they they must be fulfilled because they point to him and to his death and resurrection to the forgiveness of sins and to the proclaiming of his name to all the nations and and those those two passages tend to those two texts tend to dominate our thinking about this passage but there's something else in this passage i think we should notice because that is not the only thing that happened on the road to emmaus nor is it the only thing that happened among the disciples in the evening and so i want you to notice two other statements that we find in this connection the first of them you'll notice i think is that these words are accompanied in 2415 by this statement this happened because jesus himself drew near that's very important it was because jesus himself drew near and there's almost an exact repetition of that in 2436 later on in the day jesus himself stood among them and the result of that chapter 24 32 our hearts were burning this is not something that happens after jesus goes this is something they describe as happening to both of them when jesus was with them in the way and then of course later on as jesus opens the scriptures to them their minds are opened and so if we if we're going to take this as a kind of model for what it means to preach in a crystal-centric way i think we mustn't lose sight of the fact that as it were woven into the hermeneutic that jesus uses i remember how spurgeon puts it um now spurgeon in his preaching sometimes went down some very interesting roads to get there but by god's grace he got there which was a great thing uh who who i think he records how somebody said to him when he was a young preacher that there is a road to london from every hamlet in england and there is a road from every passage in the old testament to the fulfillment in christ but that's not the only thing that happens here and i think we've really it's so important for ourselves in our preaching that we notice this that along with hermeneutic there is presence and because there is presence there is both the opening of the mind and the burning of the heart and that isn't produced by hermeneutics or is it hermeneutic on their or its own is it and that's the great thing in preaching that christ who is preached is also present some of you know the name of john brown of haddington who is a postchrysostom scottish theologian and david hume sometimes listened to john brown of haddington and david hume of all people said he preached as though jesus christ were standing at his shoulder and brothers we need to we need to understand that is the that's the apostolic combination the hermeneutic and the presence and i think this dovetails with several statements that are made in the new testament that that give us an insight into what paul thought was happening when he preached uh you know when would you have loved to being a fly in the wall listening the conversations between paul and luke you know did did luke ever tell paul you'll never believe what i just discovered i've got this great story that's going to go into the end of my gospel about about these two people hey on the day of the resurrection and what happened afterwards but certainly this is characteristic of paul hermeneutic that is to say way of interpreting scripture in order to point to christ but with that the presence of christ and i'm thinking especially of what he says in romans 10. um now i think i'm on pretty safe ground saying this but you remember his comments on romans 10 everyone who calls in the name of the lord will be saved that's 10 13. how are they to call on him and in the esv on him in whom they have not believed how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard i personally believe those exegetes and translators are right who translate this not how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard but how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard whom they have never had and i think that's very significant it's not only significant exegetically it's it's true to life isn't it i mean some of us in the room probably had hundreds of sermons and then one day we had him i i've never forgotten at a conference meeting a a young man who told me he'd been converted listening to uh uh a cassette tape of a sermon i couldn't remember i'd preached and as i went out of the the room as it turned out his father was standing at the the exit and he said i saw you were talking to my son did he tell you his story i said he did he said i said you must be so encouraged he said did he tell you the whole story i said what do you mean he said we had this bundle of cassettes in the laundry room he was he was in the wilderness he came in one night apparently and for some reason he picked up the top one and it was your sermon he listened to it every single night for a whole month and the last time he listened to it he was converted now i mean mentally i'm thinking i know sometimes my sermons are abstrused but um so what's the explanation the explanation is somewhere along the line he was hearing another voice he was understanding what bonner meant when he said i heard the voice of jesus say and that's true to experience isn't it now even even if there's some question because clearly the translators of the esv are not completely convinced at that point by the exegetes who take that view turn in your mind at least if not in your bible to ephesians chapter 2. ephesians chapter 2 paul gives us this great description of what christ has done to break down the middle wall of partition and to create one new man and reconcile us both to god in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility and he's so paul here that it's you know you're just you're struggling to to keep all the tightness of the powerful logic in place that it's so easy to miss the significance of what follows because what he says in verse 17 notice follows what christ has done on the cross and it includes the ephesians as well as paul himself and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near well when did jesus visit ephesus it's the obvious question isn't it and the obvious and surely certain answer is he visited ephesus when paul visited ephesus when paul was preaching and so both from romans 10 and from ephesians 2 and maybe even more clearly from ephesians 2 we we have got this great pauline picture he's just phoning in to confirm my exegesis of romans 10 i'm sure we've got this pauline picture of what jesus himself says in john 10. that one day those who are his sheep hear his voice and we understand that at the end of the day that's that's part of the existential difference between teaching to educate the mind and preaching which brings people into the presence of christ because in the preaching they hear the voice of christ the preacher and i you know um i i am no teacher of preaching believe me and i i'm not much of a model for preachers because i have certain idiosyncrasies i recognize and my daughter is a psychiatrist and has told me i'm not normal okay so let me get that out there but you know one of the most helpful things to me in in a life of preaching has been to come to see that the ongoing prophetic ministry of jesus christ is not simply through the giving of the scriptures once and for all it's through the proclamation of the scriptures wherever his name is praised that by the holy spirit in our preaching jesus himself becomes the preacher and brothers it's because of that that such strange things happen in our preaching you've all preached sermons where you're kind of desolate because the the passage may be focusing on people's sins and you're there as it were perkins like ripping up their conscience and then you spot old mrs smith whose husband died six months ago and you die inside you just die inside and then mrs smith shakes your hand at the door and she says to thank you that was exactly what i needed and part of you says you know she's she's not able to concentrate but but mark this if in our preaching jesus himself is doing the preaching by his holy spirit then he is the one old mrs smith saw and he no matter from where in scripture he emerges if he is doing the preaching he is able to save to the uttermost all those who come to god through him and that's what mrs smith needs she needs jesus and his presence and this is the this is part of what dr lloyd jones used to call the romance of preaching isn't it that you have absolutely no idea that this is going on but if you if you understand what it means to proclaim him and you realize that he is the one who is doing the proclaiming then you develop an expectation that things beyond your powers beyond even your expectations will take place under the ministry of the word and there's a second lesson here that at least to me it's been very helpful and for a variety of reasons it came it came to me early on i think partly because well you know what sunday light night can be like it can be glorious or it can be a nightmare you know what it's like not to want to go to the door but to want the pulpit to swallow you up because you feel you've made such a mess and i wonder if sometimes having made such a mess you've you've managed to force yourself to to go and listen to the recording which is like the fourth sacrament of the reformed church these days the recording so that when somebody doesn't stick one of these things on you you're not going to record what i'm going to say help what's become of us but you can listen to the recording you think that was this clear as crystal so what was going on and i don't know when it dawned on me but it dawned on me if the lord jesus wants to use me in the proclamation of his glory then the first person he's got to deal with through that proclamation is not them but me and that led to this conclusion that no one sits under my preaching of the word which is his preaching of the word then me and you know i think that's a great thing for us to learn um i remember being in a panel when the question was to who's preaching do you listen and i kind of boldly said among my seniors and betters well since in the nature of the case i happen to be the preacher in the church i listened to my own preaching most and one of these senior statesmen who was also a friend kind of kind of looked at me and amazed me said you listen to the recordings well no i don't listen to the recordings is that i'm under that ministry even while i'm engaged in that ministry and that that should set the tenor actually i think that it does something especially if your preaching is to the same people the same congregation it does something to our preaching it re it it it prevents our preaching from becoming our own uh importance even our own ability something that makes me shiver when someone communicates to me they have mastered the text because the real point of the ministry of the word of god is not to display i've mastered the text but the text has mastered me and it's mastering me while i preach it well secondly i know you're lost but that was what is involved in preaching christ secondly let me return to this issue just to press the point home of the centrality of this preaching of christ because as i said last night you know this is the one drum beat of these four sessions that we preach christ himself i i mentioned i on monday night it seems a year ago but i mentioned on monday night the great uh english detective father brown who solved crimes by committing them in his heart and therefore moved from the nature of the crime to the nature of the heart that committed the crime to the identity of the person who had committed the crime kind of rivaling him in my view as a great english detective although he was actually belgian is the great theologian hercule poirot a creation of agatha christie who clearly was not a woman of the great intelligence of gk chesterton or the literary brilliance but they're just something about erkyo pero especially for those of you who uh who watch crime it's almost all i watch is crime read theology watch crime great preparation for pastoral ministry i have watched every single one of david sushee's uh hercule paros and in the in the one called the clocks there are two crimes run together one is espionage and the one is just plain greed and murder but there's a body that gets kind of mixed up in the middle that makes it look as though there is one issue here and so erco puerto is standing with the scotland yard detective and of course in in those days every scotland yard detective is as thick as two planks and he turns to the detective because there's this body and the and there's no identity there's nothing on him and farrow says i do not think it is so important who he is but who he is and then he walks out the room and so the the thickest two playing scotland yard detective is sinner it does not matter who he is but who he is and you know when i when i'd switched that off i i thought to myself you know i i think there's there's something there for us as preachers i mean he didn't mean that as a total antithesis i'm not saying it it doesn't matter who he is the really important thing is who he is that is not simply being able to identify him put it this way not simply being able to get from somewhere in the old testament to jesus the messiah as the solution but who he is as that messiah and this i think is the reason why in in paul's writings he frequently comes back simply to this emphasis that what he wants to preach is christ but it's not only a pauline emphasis in a sense the gospels are held together by this question aren't they who is he who is he and and none more clearly than mark early on distilling of the storm who is he and then jesus himself who do people say that i really am and then the the question are you the christ and then the centurion this is the son of god and and take just for one illustration from that's the apostles philip in the ethiopian eunuch he's reading in the scroll of isaiah and there are these beautiful words philip gets up into the chariot and he he preaches jesus to him he doesn't say now ethiopian you're not the first thing you need is some lessons in hermeneutics here he talks to him about who jesus really is and take a very obvious illustration of this in the what those of you who are uh episcopalians perhaps or know something of the liturgical tradition may know as the comfortable words of our lord jesus christ in matthew 11 28 to 30. father thank you lord of heaven and earth you've hidden these things and wise and understanding revealed them to babes such as your gracious will incidentally if you have if you have people in your congregation who find the doctrine of distinguishing election difficult it's a great thing to say to them well let's look at what jesus thought about that and turn them to the words that they know very well that follow but they've usually ignored the words that precede and then on the basis of that to people who say i could not believe that and then preach the gospel to be able to say well that was no problem to jesus so come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest now i think this is a terrific illustration of the way in which our christocentric hermeneutic in handling the old testament sheds light on what jesus is saying because rest is a kind of theological theme right the way through the old testament from the restlessness that was produced by the fall to genesis 5 the hope that noah's parents had that he might be the one who would bring rest which is why they called him noah to the kind of geographical rest into which god was bringing his people through the exodus all as it were as a geographical concrete portrayal of the rest they really need but did not find in the land and so there is this kind of redemptive historical weight to jesus saying come to me and i will give you rest that's who he is he is the one in whom rest is to be found but that's not where it ends jesus is not simply the solution to the shadow lands of the old testament but jesus is able to give rest to you who are burdened or heavy-laden and this can be yours by coming to him so this is a kind of amazing little passage because in a way the doctrine of divine election discrimination the doctrine of the fulfillment of scripture in jesus christ the pattern of the restlessness that's produced by sin and the promise of rest that's given by god fulfilled in jesus christ there there is something of the beauty of our redemptive historical hermeneutic but it leads to jesus himself to jesus himself and if one were to say let me show you how this rest is brought by jesus because jesus the one luke 9 23 who creates the true and final exodus and so jesus is the fulfillment of the promise it's simply to see jesus as the end product of solving the old testament puzzle and that's only the beginning the the goal is to show him clothed in the garments of the gospel as the one who is all sufficient to meet all of the needs of all of those who come to god through him and you find the same thing in paul he begins romans in this way he he speaks about this as we've seen in first corinthians second corinthians in galatians 3 haven't you often wondered exactly what do you mean paul when when you say oh you foolish galatians who has bewitched you because you are those before whom jesus christ himself has been placarded what on earth did that mean have you ever been in a situation i think of one particular situation when i was sitting right in front of a man whom i greatly respected and admired and i actually thought jesus was walking off the page of the bible and standing right in front of me because he was pointing me to christ but more gloriously christ was pointing me to christ and this is this is the this is the beauty of the ministry of the holy spirit it's not just that that i'm able to say with the old worthies about my preaching i offered them christ it's that i'm also able to say that in that preaching christ himself offered them christ and there's so much more could be said about that but let me turn finally in these last few minutes to a third point so where are we first of all what is involved in preaching him second the centrality of such preaching of christ and now thirdly let me suggest three litmus tests for ourselves in relationship to preaching christ now these are three out of a hundred and uh confessedly they may be completely personal utterly idiosyncratic but out of the many litmus tests that we may use these are certainly i think helpful to us the first is this how much of the gospels features in my preaching i don't mean by that how often do i preach on the gospels although i think that's an important question i mean how much do the gospels feature in my preaching that is to say how much in my preaching is there of the jesus who is known to us through the 33 years of his life here on earth almost exclusively through the gospels it would be it would be it would be tragic for us and i guess in some ways it might be one of the temptations for some of us in our theological education that that we because i've had many friends who have told me i love preaching paul i find these narratives difficult to preach and secretly i've thought not that i do any better but secretly i know you find them difficult to preach because you preach them as though paul had written them how much of the jesus who is presented to us in the gospels features in my preaching so that i'm able to say now as he comes to us clothed in the gospel that this is what he is like second question and behind this question uh is a concern that we despise the early fathers of the church because their theology is so intricate and we don't realize that theology is so intricate because they loved christ so much how many you fizzing mad if somebody misdescribes your beloved wife not a matter of indifference it doesn't make us fizzing mad if people don't really show any interest in the details of who jesus is so the second litmus test is how valuable do i find in my preaching my knowledge of christology now now what do i mean by that well just let me throw out a few things how big is it in my preaching that he is one person in two natures and that those two natures are never confused or mixed or separated but united in the one person how significant in my preaching is the humanity of jesus are my people totally astonished because they've never heard before that jesus grew in favor with god the father because their view of jesus is he couldn't possibly have grown in favor with god the father or how difficult do they find it that when the angel in luke's gospel comes to comfort jesus and strengthen him jesus actually goes and prays more earnestly and so here there's a whole issue of expressing the humanity of jesus how significant in my preaching is my people understanding his twofold state or his threefold office or to to to use another illustration from hebrews 9 his threefold appearing uh that he has appeared to put away sin that he is appearing in the presence of the father that he will appear at the end of time all of those categories that especially as i come to know christ better through my study of his word and as he walks off the page to me so many marvelous garments in which i may present him clothed to say to the people this is who he is that he is the promised seed who was heel crushed that he was the son of man who has come to restore all that was lost in adam that he is the suffering servant that he is the son and the reconciler those are not those are not categories to be left in your notes on the person of christ those are garments that help you to as it were flesh out the sheer multifaceted magnificence and multivalent power of jesus christ to be a savior of sinners and then my third litmus test and with this we're done is this do i preach jesus christ in the light of hebrews 13 verse 8 now hebrews 13 verse 8 is jesus christ the same yesterday today and forever that should not be elided into saying jesus christ is eternal that is saying he is the same today and will be forever as he was yesterday and yesterday specifically in hebrews 13 is our yesterday that is to say the days of his incarnation this is something at least in my own reading that has has been most clearly and helpfully expanded by hugh martin the 19th century scottish theologian in his book i think now known as the abiding presence but originally known as christ presence in the gospel history and it's a work of tremendous significance i think for this reason because it gives us a key to presenting jesus christ to people who in our subculture have often been taught to read the gospels with this question in mind about every incident where am i in this incident there's a case up the street up the tree at the blind beggars where am i you are the blind beggar at your zacchaeus up the tree instead of asking the question who is jesus in this gospel narrative because you ain't in this gospel narrative it was zacchaeus who was up the tree and even if your name is zach he was a different zack or nicodemus or who or whoever and often our people's eyes are drawn away from christ to themselves and in a way they can be imprisoned within themselves when they need to be brought out of themselves to see all that jesus christ is and the point that martin makes and i think is part of the point of hebrews 13 because hebrews itself does this so marvelously it's to say very simply all that jesus christ is here in this passage to this person that is what he still is that is who he still is for you and when people see that when people see him then we know that all will be well well there's so much more to say about this uh even if you don't know anything about preaching there seems to be so much more to say but our time is gone let's pray our heavenly father thank you that we are here together as brothers in christ who long to grow in our knowledge of the lord jesus in our understanding of who he is in our ability to proclaim him in our desire with our people to grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord jesus christ and we pray as we have these hours together of reflection and fellowship some of us now at the end of the day be able to travel home together with with beloved brothers we pray that you would enable us to stir one another up that as your servants in this time in all of the places where you have set us we may more and more have a desire and an ability to preach jesus christ to our people we pray this in his name amen

Channel: Westminster Theological Seminary

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Length: 64min 59sec (3899 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 23 2020