FOR CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHING ISSUE 161 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 FROM THE EDITOR TABLE OF CONTENTS FAITHFUL, CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHERS NEEDED! CHRIST-CENTERED DEAD OR ALIVE! PREACHING As a minister of the gospel, Sadly, there is a dearth of preaching in there is no subject that interests our day. Many are the pulpits which me more than the preaching have been severely afflicted and inflicted by this terminal disease. We do not lack FROM THE EDITOR 3 of God’s Word. I am not just “preachers” capable of giving interesting interested in a “fanciful” talks, moral advice or motivational PREACHING CHRisT FROM ALL THE SCRIPTURes Dennis E. Johnson 5 manner, but I am captivated speeches. There are plenty of those 12 BROTHERS, TRAIN UP THE NEXT GENERATION Mike Bullmore by this subject because it sums around – everywhere you turn! But POINTING TO CHRis: EZRA 7:1-10 Bryan D. Estelle 16 up God’s call upon my life this faithful, Christ-centered preachers! Oh, no! Those are scarce! Only a few of them THE IMPORTANCE OF PREACHING Robert Godfrey 20 side of heaven. are still standing! I think the sign below OUTSOURCING OUR JOB DesCRIPTION? W Michael Horton 22 needs to be hang on just about every But it’s not just preaching in general 28 church door today. HIM WE PROCLAIM Massimo Lorenzini that interests me. Rather it is Christ CONGREGATIONAL DETAILS 32 who is to be the Grand Theme and William Still in his book entitled, The Subject of all faithful preaching! I am Work of the Pastor writes: ”…If the hope not only called to preach. I am called to of the world is Christ, it is Christ in all “preach Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. the Scriptures, and that hope can only 1:23). ”…We do not preach ourselves, be fulfilled by men pouring out the riches but Jesus Christ as Lord…” 2 Cor. 4:5). of Christ’s saving grace upon the Lord’s All true preaching is Christ-centered, people through the Scriptures” (p. 93). and all Christ-centered preaching is true preaching. There are no two ways Why then is there such a dearth of about it! Those who are committed to faithful, Christ-centered preaching in our the faithful exposition of Scripture will day? Well, that’s a very good question. necessarily preach Christ because all of Many reasons can be given as to why this ISSUE the Scriptures testify about Him (Luke is the case. But one thing is for certain, 24:25-27,44-48; John 5:39). 161 there has been a great loss of confidence 2 3 FAITHFUL, CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHERS NEEDED! DEAD OR ALIVE! FEATURED ARTICLE PREACHING CHRIST FROM in Scriptures among both preachers and Secondly, pray for your pastors that by hearers as Alistair Begg points out in his God’s grace and the working of God’s ALL THE SCRIPTURES book, Preaching for God’s Glory (pages Holy Spirit they may be kept faithful and 18-19): true to their calling. In my view, that by Dennis E. Johnson, Ph.D. The absence of expository preaching is the best way to keep your ministers is directly related to an erosion of accountable before God and their confidence in the authority of and congregations. sufficiency of Scripture. At the beginning of the nineteenth the battle Thirdly, pray for me also that whenever lines were drawn against the forces of I open my mouth, words may be given Should we preach Christ WHY PREACH CHRIST FROM ALL liberalism. Liberals were challenging me so that I will fearlessly make known every time we enter the pulpit, THE SCRIPTURES? the miraculous, questioning the divine, the mystery of the gospel…that I may whether our text is in Mark or Why must we preach Christ from all the and opposing the historicity of the New proclaim it clearly and boldly, as I should Romans, Judges or Proverbs Testament documents. Evangelicals (see Ephesians 6:19-20; Colossians 4:3-4). Scriptures? First, Jesus taught his disciples weathered that storm, and empty or Nahum? Doesn’t such a that the whole Old Testament testifies to liberal churches testify to the futility of Thank you! focus run the risk of twisting him. Teaching them after his resurrection, the liberal quest for a demythologized the meaning of individual Jesus said that all three sections of the Christ. But today the battle is more passages, or of homogenizing Hebrew canon—the Law of Moses, the subtle. The Scriptures are neglected the Bible’s rich diversity into a Prophets (including the history in the and debased and are used only as a books of Samuel and Kings, as well as single and repetitive theme? springboard for all kinds of “talks” later prophets’ preaching, indictments and that are far removed from genuine predictions), and the Writings (with the These are honest reservations. Let me biblical exposition…There is little, if Psalms at their head)—foretold his death, respond by addressing two issues: (a) why any, sense of either the preacher or the resurrection, ascension, outpouring of the every Christian preacher—and especially congregation bowing under the majestic Spirit, and forgiveness to believers of all those of us who embrace Reformed authority of God’s written Word. nations (Luke 24:25-27, 44-47; see John covenant theology—must show our hearers 5:46). how every text connects to Christ, the I couldn’t agree more! Let me end by mediator of the new covenant; and then asking you to do three things in light of The way that the inspired authors of the (b) how we can preach Christ from every what I have shared here: New Testament interpret Old Testament passage in the Old and New Testaments, passages shows that they took very and do so with integrity that displays both First, pray with me that the Lord will seriously Jesus’ insistence that the ancient the uniqueness of each text and its proper raise up a new generation of preachers Scriptures given to Israel were all about place in the biblical tapestry that displays who will not be afraid or ashamed to himself. In 1 Corinthians 10, for example, the glory and grace of God in Jesus his Son. preach the “whole counsel of God” and Paul rehearses the sad history of Israel’s point people to the Lord Jesus Christ in idolatry and immorality in the wilderness, every sermon. despite the fact that God had rescued them 4 5 PREACHING CHRIST FROM ALL THE SCRIPTURES PREACHING CHRIST FROM ALL THE SCRIPTURES miraculously through the Red Sea, guided Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). From his the transformation of lives. We are well us to the purifying power of his Holy Spirit, them gloriously by the cloud of his glory, imprisonment in Rome he summed up not aware that the forgiveness can take place by which we begin to “walk in newness of and nourished them with manna given by only his own but also other Christians’ only on the basis of Christ’s innocent life,” finding our pleasure now in becoming his Spirit and water gushing from the Rock. message as “preaching Christ” (Phil. 1:15- sacrifice on the cross, his bearing the pleasing to our Redeemer, reflecting his Israel’s destruction for such treachery was 18). He told the Colossian believers about penalty that God’s righteous wrath rightly purity and love (Rom. 6:1-14). Just as “written down for our instruction, on whom his privileged responsibility to make God’s imposes for our covenant treachery. But Moses’ face “absorbed” and then reflected the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11). word fully known, unveiling the mystery it is equally true that it is only through God’s splendor from his audience with And those events were written not simply that God had kept hidden for centuries, Christ—his substitutionary death, his the Creator on Mount Sinai, so our hearts to be sober warning examples (though that Christ was now, at last, revealing mighty resurrection, his life-imparting Holy are changed to display the beauty of his they were that); but also because salvation his glory among the Gentiles. Christ was Spirit—that our corrupt and crooked hearts holiness as we all, with unveiled faces, through the sea by the cloud of God’s the one whom Paul proclaimed in his can be changed, rescued from God-defying behold the glory of Christ through the presence was a preview of the salvation exhortation and his teaching, since his aim and self-destructive appetites and set on preaching of the good news of his grace symbolized in Christian baptism (10:2), was to present everyone perfect in Christ a course toward God-glorifying love and (2 Cor. 3:18). Paul sums up the message and because the Rock that bore the blow (Col. 1:24-28). Paul could also assert that purity. by which believers remove the corrupt of God’s rod (which Israelites deserved) in his extended ministry in Ephesus he passions and practices they inherited as and released life-giving water was actually had presented the whole counsel of God, God’s law, of course, reveals his own holy fallen children of fallen Adam and clothe a signal that pointed to Christ himself everything that would benefit his listeners character and discloses the standards themselves, instead, with the renewed (10:4). Peter also insists that the message spiritually (Acts 20:20, 27); and no doubt by which he assesses our hearts and our image of God “in true righteousness delivered by the ancient prophets was not such comprehensive instruction was his conduct as the creatures uniquely made and holiness” in the concise expression: so much to serve their own generation, but goal wherever time and God’s providence in his image.