Is it a Christ-Centered Sermon? Part Seven
April 11th, 2006What are the alternatives to Christ-centered / gospel-centered sermons? Answering this question is important. It helps shed light not only on the necessity of preaching Christ-centered sermons but also on what makes them savingly and sanctifyingly beautiful. In answer to this question, Tim Keller writes:
Type #1 – On the one hand, there is a “Christ as Example” or ‘moralistic’ sermon that says—“Please try harder or God will be very unhappy!” Type #2 – On the other hand, there is a “Christ as God-of-Gaps” or ‘relativistic’ sermon that says—“We all fall down but God loves us anyway!” (Many people today…smell that “church growth” theory has led us to more ‘relativistic’ sermons in the evangelical world. But are we just to go back to moralistic ones?)
Instead we must do “Christ-as-Savior” or ‘gospel’ sermons. Unlike “Type #2” sermons, they begin with deep, below the surface repentance, not a superficial application of “Jesus loves you anyway.” Unlike “Type #1” sermons, they end with rejoicing, since the thing we must repent of is always a failure to enjoy, delight in, and relish the grace and provision of Christ’s work. So this is how I learned to preach sermons on lying—or on anything else. No matter what the issue, if we call people to “try harder”, we actually push them deeper into slavery, but when we always solve the problem by applying the gospel, then both (a) non-Christians get to hear it every week in multiple perspectives, and (b) Christians get to see how it really works in every aspect of life.
Sum: Only “Christo-centric” preaching can really lead the hearers to true virtue, gospel holiness. Typical preaching only distills “Biblical Principles” which do not see the text in its redemptive-historical context. Thus it is only natural that the application part of such a sermon will tend to merely exhort people to conform to the principles. Only Christo-centric preaching can produce gospel holiness (Preaching the Gospel in a Post-Modern World, 79).
(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)
*Also, check out this blogger’s posts on Gospel-Centered Preaching, here and here.
April 11th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Great Series, Dan! It’s always good for us budding preachers to hear about how to do Gospel-driven Sermons.
April 12th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Type #1 – On the one hand, there is a “Christ as Example” or ‘moralistic’ sermon that says—“Please try harder or God will be very unhappy!”
What I hear is usually a variant of this. In this type of sermon I do hear about what you need to “do”, but then the followup is that God(through the Spirit) will help you do it if you can just “abide” and let Him “flow through you”. Although it sounds like the focus is on God, I still end up feeling like I need to do something at the end of the sermon.
I wonder if you can comment on that and how it fits into what you’ve been talking about.
Thanks!
April 12th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Brian,
Yes, I think that saying “God (through the Spirit) will help you do it if you can just ‘abide’ and let Him ‘flow through you’” is just a variant of Type #1, Christ-as-example-sermon. Now is it true that God will enable us, that we need to ‘abide’? Yes, but is that the gospel? No. Anytime we had our ‘doing’ to the gospel we no longer have the gospel. The gospel is about what God has done to accomplish the totality of our salvation. The gospel is about what God has done not about what I must do.
So, yes, I think your observation is right. I know from experience that is it so easy to veer off to the side. I’ll do it everytime I’m given the opportunity.
Dan
April 13th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Thanks for your thoughts on this Dan. I appreciate you taking the time to reply.