The death of Christ, two thousand years before your existence, bought christ’s presence in you today. Proclaiming Christ means making all the implications of reality bought by the blood of Christ by keeping you gloriously clear and beautiful.
The texts dealing with how to experience this living Christ, and how to be transformed by him into the specific attitudes and behaviors of life, are in the Bible not to send us directly to the cross. The cross is in the Bible to send us, directly in these texts and discover the wonders of obedient life bought by blood in Christ. This is not done by treating these texts quickly and superficially before abandoning them in the name of the preaching of the crucified Christ.
- I propose an alternative to those who think that: preaching christ.
- Means making a nod to the text and then moving on to the main interest by ending each sermon with a repetition of what Christ did on the cross.
- Don’t I think that’s what?Does preaching Christ mean week after week in the preacher’s work among God’s people gathered together.
- I say this for several reasons.
First, there are secondary reasons: (1) This type of preaching tends to stifle people’s expectations with a predictable homiletic path. (2) Tends to treat real words and phrases and text logic as if they have less meaning, giving the impression that they have it. it does not need to be treated with care and depth, but only as preparations to “grow. “Christ crucified. (3) This tends to train people to make mistakes in reading the Bible, diminishing the rigor and fervor with which they meditate on the same words of Scripture. (4) It tends to weaken the seriousness of biblical imperatives in the way Christian life is lived. , inserting the substitute atonement at critical times, when the emphasis should be placed on the urgency of obedience.
But here is the main reason for my concern about this way of understanding “preaching Christ”. I said earlier that I am trying to offer an alternative to a way of “preaching Christ” that superficially deals with the details of the text and then moves on. We move on to the actual question, ending with a repetition of what Christ did on the cross. But I ask: what did Christ do on the cross regarding the reality of the text of this particular sermon? Take 1Pierre 4. 7? 9, for example:
“Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be judicious and sober in your prayers. But above all, have an intense love for each other, because love covers a multitude of sins. Are you mutually hospitable, without whispering?”
What did Christ do on the cross in relation to the reality of this text?Is he dead by sinners so that this text on self-control, pride, love, hospitality, and whispering will remain in the Bible simply to remind us that he died for sinners?Or did he die for sinners precisely to make this text possible, in all its incredible specificity, for the redeemed?He died for us so that when we got to this text, we would immerse ourselves in the details of this kind of life purchased. For blood and how to live it? When Peter says that Christ “brought our sins into his body, to the wood, that we, who have died of sins, may live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24), he meant: “Glory to the power of the cross, and to God’s method by the cross, to empower Christians to do what the biblical texts call them to do?”
When we preach 1Pedro 4. 7-9, our mindset should be: make some general comments about the details and then “Go directly to the cross”. This prayer comes from a quote attributed (by hundreds of people) to Charles Spurgeon: “I take my text and go straight to the cross. “As far as I know, no one has quoted where Spurgeon said that, and those who know Spurgeon best don’t seem to be able to prove that he said that. But the quote was used to cultivate a preaching that discouraged.
Of course, the quote itself is not necessarily misleading, just as Paul is not when he says he knows nothing but the crucified Christ, but the quote can certainly deceive preachers. So let’s go back to my question: When we read and preach 1Pedro 4. 7-9, our mindset should be to make some general comments and then go directly to the repetition of Jesus’ death and resurrection, with one?Great crescendo?That Christ died for our sins?Is this the preaching of Christ’s unsonable riches?? (Ephesians 3. 8) Does that mean when we preach 1Pedro 4. 7?9?
I don’t think so. In fact, I believe that the mentality upsets the cross and the realities revealed in the scriptures, what did Christ do on the cross in relation to the reality of this text?He bought the Christian life described and ordained in this text. Let me repeat this: when Christ died for us on the cross, He obtained for us the glory of obedience imbued by Christ in 1 Peter 4:7-9. The realities revealed and demanded in this text do not exist because of the cross. The cross exists because of these realities!
Such is the glory of the cross! The cross leads to this kind of love life, not the other way around. The cross bought this, did Christ die for it? That is, we, with all our forgiven sins, could enjoy the presence and power of Christ by living while working in us, in our dominion of ourselves, our pride, our love, and our hospitality, without muttering. Is life miraculous? The glory of the full piety of Christ who died to bring us.
So the main reason for his rejection of preaching?A direct path to the cross? (as we have described) is that the glory of the cross diminishes, but many think they are doing the exact opposite. Do they think the cross gets bigger by bringing the sermon to one?Grow? Every week with a celebration of substitute atonement. This is not the way to show much of the glory of the cross. Make sure the congregation knows the largest event in detail. in the history of the world?death and resurrection of Jesus. Then spend most of your time preaching the glorious achievements of the cross, which fill the pages of Scripture.
And what we’ve seen is that all that’s useful in the Bible?every blessing, every gift, every promise, every warning of grace, every useful glimpse of God’s glory in every sermon?Is it because of the cross?Every undeserved benefit, every grace, expressed in any text anywhere in the Bible, including the Old Testament (whether a revealed beauty or ugliness, a warning, or a promise) is a purchased grace. by blood? (Romans 3:25; 2 Corinthians 1:20).
The shortest route of the Bible is the other way around. Christ died so that we could leave the cross directly by the Resurrection, by the shedding of the Holy Spirit in the deliverance of the scriptures, by the miracle bought by the blood of the new birth, by the mystery of Christ in you, hope. of glory, for the beauties of the exalted Christ that instill self-control, sober spirit, love, and hospitality, without murmurings.
This means that if you want to glorify the cross in your preaching, make a beautiful demonstration of the wonders of self-control, the rare beauties and benefits of wisdom, the beauty of the suffering of brotherly love, the powerful graces in the work of practice. hospitality and rareza. de a person who never whispers. And create a constant and joyful awareness in your people of that in each of them?The vision of all truth, the taste of all glory, and obedience to every commandment?It is a gift of the Exalted Christ that was bought by blood.
A good tree produces good fruits. Christ died for your body – the church was the tree where these beautiful and delicious fruits grow, we will magnify the triumph of his sacrifice if we make a small journey in each text towards the concrete, detailed and specific realities that the text really deals with, and how they are and how they happen by the power of the Spirit, triggered by the blood of Jesus . . . Jesus did not die so that a thousand-page Bible could be written describing only Calvary. He went to Calvary so that a thousand glories could be described in the Bible so that we could see, experience, and show them through a crucified life.
Let me try to put it another way. I wrote a book entitled “God is the Gospel: A Treatise on God’s Love as an Offering of Himself. “Here is the key to what I say about preaching and the cross: “For Christ also died, once, for sins, for the righteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Forgiveness, imputed justice, escape from divine wrath, rescue from hell, resurrection of the body, eternal life. . . are glorious achievements of the crucified Christ. But aren’t they the main gift of God’s love, they are not the final gift that Jesus bought with his blood. It’s all the means, not the end. The goal is to see God in all his beauty and enjoy a personal friendship with him, to tune in to his likeness in all forms that maximize our pleasure and the reflection of his greatness. Christ died mainly for it.
All the scriptures were written to promote this experience with God, every revelation of his character and his way of acting, every description of Christ, every word he uttered, every rebuke of our sins, every promise of his grace, every practical commandment to walk in love and holiness, every warning against injustice, all these means are bought in blood so that we can walk in joyful communion with God. That’s why Jesus died.
So, preaching to the crucified Christ, as Paul suggested in 1 Corinthians 2. 2 and Galatians 6. 14, is not turning each sermon into a message that culminates in the repetition of atonement, but that every word and clause and logical connection in the text must be seriously and carefully treated to show how Christ is “crucified, resurrected, and present by the Spirit” strengthens and shapes the new way of life described in the text.
?Exaltation of the exhibition?is a book built on the basis of two previous titles:?In Peculiar Glory, and “Supernatural Reading of the Bible. ” In it, John Piper aims to demonstrate that the purpose of the sermon is not only to explain the text, but also to arouse praise by being, in itself, an expression of worship of God.
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