One of the main objectives of this blog is to encourage preaching that is gospel-centered. Because of this emphasis I am occassionally asked, “What does a gospel-centered sermon look like?” Those who have asked me this question are often already convinced of the necessity of preaching from a gospel-centered perspective, but how this kind of sermon should actually look in practice is still not clear to them. So, below you’ll find a link to a sermon I recently preached that is an attempt to preach a gospel-centered sermon on the baptism and temptation of Christ (Matthew 3:13-4:11). My emphasis is not on the illustrative value of this section of narrative. Rather, it’s on how this baptism and temptation narrative fits within the unfolding of salvific history.

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Vicarious Humanity

P.S. the first couple minutes of the sermon were not recorded. A written version of the missing introduction is below.

P.P.S. If you want to expose yourself to sermons that are consistently and beautifully gospel-centered, listen to Tim Keller. I agree with Mark Lauterbach when he says, “No one, and I mean no one, preaches Gospel saturated messages better than Tim Keller. Buy his sermons and see how the Gospel is everywhere in the Bible.”

Sermon Introduction:

I have the privilege of teaching 18-19 year old young people an introductory course on Bible study. Teaching freshman in this particular area is one of the most exciting things that I do. One of the areas where I have to work extremely hard to correct their thinking is in how they approach biblical narrative. Every freshman who has entered my classroom the past year and half has treated all biblical narrative texts as if there primary purpose is to be illustrative. There seems to be this underlying conviction that biblical narrative is primarily for exemplary value. In other words, they all seem to assume that the primary intention of the biblical writers is to give us examples to follow or not to follow to aide us in navigating life. So what I spend a considerable amount of class time doing is demonstrating that biblical narrative is primarily historical rather than illustrative.

What do I mean by historical narrative? By that I mean that biblical narrative is primarily about what God has done within space and time to accomplish redemption. It is not primarily about illustrating how we should live within space and time. Biblical narrative is primarily about God’s entrance into history to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The reason is spend so much time arguing that biblical narrative is historical rather than illustrative is because when our dominant focus is on the illustrative value of the text, the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to lose its central place in our thinking and living. And when preachers primarily preach narrative as illustrative material, the gospel subtly loses its centrality functionally in the life and practice of the church.

As long as we live on this side of glorification, we will always be tempted to interpret biblical narrative as illustrative rather than historical. So what I would like to do this morning is look at a text, half of which is too often thought of as illustrative rather than an historical account of God’s activity within history to accomplish redemption.

Matthew 3:13-4:1 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. [14] John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” [15] But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. [16] And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” [4:1] Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.