A Redemptive Approach to Preaching

Let's do a real quick rehearsal of where we are in the homolytic's curriculum way back years ago you had prep and Dell and That's where basically I lectured at you on basics of sermon construction and we said it's just kind of like if you're in med school You're getting the anatomy lesson, right? You're getting all the the pieces and the names for all the bones and all that kind of stuff and We acknowledge that there's a lot of Artificiality to that even as we were kind of learning those basic tools But then we moved into elementary practicum and we began to practice using those tools So we all acknowledged each other it was the basics But we tried to make it a little more natural by actually going to the reduced forms remember that we went from those big long Boxy statements of because something is true do something about it principal and application and then we said in Elementary, you know chop those things in half Proposition is just the anchor clause and the main points are the developing clauses or the magnet clauses sounds like prep and Dell again Doesn't it you know just read all those things and we try to make things much shorter and we preach from the epistles only because they're often Kind of linear paragraph and thought you break up the thought into its subsets And it's kind of a good way to start learning how biblical thought develops Now we're in Christ centered and we're way back in prep and Dell I said we're going to talk about structure But we're not going to talk much about the theology of preaching now that we've got structures in place We are ready to do the theology So we're going to have four lectures in which we are dealing with the theology that's behind preaching and Then having lectured on the theology when I'll practice with the theology involved still the reduced form But now going to narratives so this semester we're only preaching from narratives Three-quarters of the Bible are the narratives right the stories of people interacting with people So three-quarters of the Bible we want to be ready to preach that and Ultimately we're heading toward the advanced practicum where there's a little more lecturing But it's going to be on creativity So now that you know, you know what all the paint brushes are and what the color wheel looks like we'll say all right now Mix and match, you know, what's the tool what what's best for your job for your personality for even the style of passage that you're doing So we'll do a whole lot more on creativity and talk about Missional preaching as well preaching cross culturally preaching a postmodern culture preaching to the unchurched So we'll do Missional understanding as well and having lectured on those things will then practice creativity and mission But where we are right now is here. We've got some Structure in place. Hopefully fairly well now. So we're ready to introduce some theology and think how that integrates what we do in the practice of preaching so let's pray and we'll move forward

Father high praise you for these men Who come to give their lives to you what you have shared to them The wonderful glories of the grace of Christ they want to share with others and They've dedicated their lives their resources much time and energy to preparation for such a grand task Would you bless them in that would you enable and equip them by the mercies of your spirit by the wonders of your grace and By the power that you alone can't provide to fulfill the task to what you call them Teach them much of your grace that they will need this semester and beyond to do this work For apart from you they can do nothing Help them we pray may they lean upon you and know the fulfillment of doing so in Jesus name Amen and old story as old as and some Tells of a king Who stood on his balcony one day and looked out and saw his youngest child out gathering flowers The child the king knew was preparing a bouquet for the king himself But as the king watched the child kind of go through the fields he noticed that sometimes the child picked the wrong things a Briar got added to the flowers or a something with thorns in it or a patch of ivy and So the king went to his elder son The younger child's older brother and he said go to my garden pick my flowers and When your youngest sibling comes Take the flowers that he's gathered and put your flowers in its place The elder brother did that Child came presented the new bouquet to the king and The king received the child with joy and the flowers with a deep pleasure The king of course is God We are the child the elder brother Christ The weeds and the briars and the thorns our best works and the flowers from the king's garden Christ's righteousness It's what he does that makes what we do acceptable and pleasing to God and And that's a very simple notion that can be very difficult to preach How is it that you tell people to pick flowers for the king to do what they're supposed to do to please him and At the same time depend on the work of the older brother How do you compel and motivate how do you tell and at the same time instruct to lean on another? If you will that's so much of what we're trying to do in Christ-centered preaching is Reminding people where the best flowers the only ones really acceptable to the king come from If you look at the beginning of the lecture you see the primary goal of this lesson is to see the overarching Plan that is the reason we have constructed sermons according to the design We have followed thus far now just to remind you a little bit of some of those design features We talked early on in prepandale about the principle of a fallen condition focus Thus far we've made second Timothy 316 and 17 a key to understanding any text Purpose if we say what's a text about we don't have to guess the Bible itself tells us all All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction Righteous righteousness that the man of God might be here's the hard word Perfect now. That's the King James that the man of God might be Perfect thoroughly furnished under all good works that word Perfect is the Greek Artios and it Carries with the notion of completeness all scripture is given to complete us and you may remember We said if the Bible is saying that it's given to complete us There's a necessary implication about us. What is it that we are? incomplete we are incomplete and that's in your notes all scripture is it tended to complete us in some way by leading to salvation or advancing sanctification The necessary implication is that we are incomplete we are fallen creatures in a fallen condition and God's Redemptive work in scripture is making us whole in ways we cannot by ourselves from preaching it means We begin to look at people and see Swiss cheese remember they got holes in them. They're incomplete and What we have to discern in preaching is what are we going to say fills the holes as I'm looking at somebody who Incomplete who's not all that God yet intends What will I tell them makes them complete? You work real hard You do the best you can Practice these disciplines be more holy than the next guy Ultimately it will not work if we say what you do is going to fill the holes something else has to fill the holes And understanding that is pushing us to another kind of preaching than what many preachers do Many preachers approach a text with only two thoughts in mind. What can I do from this text? I can tell you right doctrine to believe Or write acts to do Now if that's all I'm saying Here's how you're going to fill the holes you Accept and know this doctrine Or you do this right behavior you have to recognize both of those are actually just forms of human legalism It's what you know or what you do that makes you right with God And even though what you do may be right and what you know might be right You must know that it's not you who make things right with God You can't fill the holes And so when we begin looking at the text kind of moving into this next portion of Christ's inner preaching We have to think of what that theology means for preaching If all that's in my brain is I'm supposed to be feeding these people right doctrine or instructing them in right behavior Something is still missing. There's a hole in our own preaching and we want to discern what that is To follow in your notes after the Swiss cheese effect thus all scripture dealing with this incompleteness and all expository preaching Designed to reflect the meaning of a scriptural passage addresses aspects of humanity's fallen condition Our goal in expounding a text is to determine not only What it says But why it was written and what we spiritually share in common with In common with those four or about whom it was written or the one by whom it was written So I'm looking at the text and saying they got holes in them How are they like us the ones either by whom the text was written or to him was written Thus far recognize we've only discussed the negative to hear that we've only discussed the absence the wrong the hole the fallen condition We've only discussed the negative But if all scripture focuses on some aspect of our fallen condition Why does it do so? Well the answer is clear To supply the warrant and the need for the redemptive elements scripture contains to be applied Thus just as every scripture echoes our incompleteness It is in some manner of course, that's the key phrase. It's in some manner signaling the saviors work which makes us whole Our goal in redemptive preaching is to decipher these signals For until we do so we do not truly understand our text It is possible after all to say all the right Words and send all the wrong signals If you were to get up very early even now in a weekday morning and listen to camel X the CBS affiliate here in town kind of the major radio station If you were there just as they kind of go from you know early morning program Excuse me late night program the early morning program There's always a program that is called the thought for the day. I don't know if you've heard that The thought for the day is given every weekday morning by man named Richard Evans And Richard Evans will say things like fathers Do not exasperate your children The Bible tells you you should not exasperate your children and that word exasperate Actually as a reserve is a word that God reserves for his own anger toward his people when they do not do the things they ought to do And you should not give your children cause for exasperation with you That you would be hypocritical requiring things and then not obeying them themselves yourself Fathers don't exasperate your or I'll say um Employees when you work today You shouldn't just work because your boss is good in kind yeah listen even if he's not The Bible says you should work as unto the Lord It's really him that you're trying to serve Now in my mind's eye I kind of see know lots of Christians as well as other people commuting down highway 40 into the city and you know and and the Christians are all doing the same thing as Richard Evans talks you know what they're doing They're nodding their heads That's right Richard you tell him you tell him you straighten him up. Maybe they'll listen today But there's just a couple of problems with Richard Evans First problem is he's dead He died years ago. This is all recorded and you may remember it's it's it's turned very high up on the reverberation So it sounds almost like it's direct from Sinai remember that you know For others do not you know, it's just really impressive But Richard Evans other problem Is that he is not and never was a Christian Richard Evans was a leader of the Mormon church He was head of a large cult And he said oh wait He's saying so many right things he's giving such wonderful biblical instruction You know the problem is almost never with what Richard Evans says what's the problem What he doesn't say There are certain things that he will never get around to saying if it comes to human performance If it comes to good things that good people ought to do he's on the money every time But there are certain aspects of grace the atonement the sacrifice of Jesus Christ now that will never be mentioned And that's the problem my concern is that so often an evangelical preaching and our preaching We are when it comes to the behaviors even some of the doctrine right on the money But when it comes to our dependence on someone else Someone else's works not gathering our flowers but Depending on the flowers gathered for us by the elder that's just absent from our own messages And the trouble is we're trying to be true to the text The text just said fathers do not exasperate your children and I said fathers do not exasperate your children How could that be wrong? I just said what the text said And to discern why that's wrong We have to keep going forward and that's a page two of your notes We need to talk about the nature of Redemptive preaching which is still going to look at the text But now in ways you might not have thought of some of you practice this others of you it may be somewhat new If you think about the nature of redemptive interpretation of scripture you you might compare it To looking at the scriptures through two different kinds of lenses Now I'm what I'm about to say to you is caricature and I'm going to acknowledge its caricature kind of get the meaning without Pushing the the image too far. Okay one way of looking at a text is looking at it with the magnifying glass Okay, we get down very close to the text and we say what's the tense of that verb What case is that noun? Is that an objective or a subjective genitive? Where was that place and who was artiserccies and we get right down close and we look very much at the details Now listen to me that is a good and necessary thing to do And historically that's what we often think of a systematic exegetical approach to scripture being I look very closely at the details now again. Let me say good and necessary thing to do But there is another way of looking at the text another way of looking at the text would be if you looked at it through a fisheye lens Photographers if you look at something through a fisheye lens. What do you see? You know kiles even showing me that you look at you see the horizons right and

Biblical theology is really the process of looking at the text with the fisheye lens So that you're always forced to look out to the horizons Now, I hope that doesn't sound too intimidating because what you're really saying is you keep looking at the text in its context Why does every heretic have his verse because he takes it out of context right? What what biblical theology is doing another way of looking at the text and coming in very close in detail is saying What's the context of this thing? Yeah? I need to know that exasperation is a term that God reserves for his own anger toward Israel. That's a good thing for me to know But what's the context of that verse? Where does it fit in the larger message? And just to look at your notes here. It's important to see this that Discipline of Bible interpretation that emphasizes the overarching themes That unite all of scripture's particulars is called Biblical theology Biblical theology is not simply asking what truth does this particular passage reveal But how is it related to the whole message of scripture? Got that how is it related to the whole message of scripture primary writer on biblical theology in the last century was your hardest Vos and you read some of us here, but his book biblical theology is addressing These forms of interpretation and he began to identify Standard principles of interpretation that are necessary for biblical theology to be done The first one this is under item b The first he called the progressive principle the progressive principle Said this biblical theology is that branch of exogetical theology now What you what you just had there is savvy politics Okay Biblical theology is that branch of exogetical theology gear hardest boss The first professor of biblical theology at Princeton seminary You had all these new testament exogets old testament exogets already and now there's this guy that comes in For biblical theology Any you know a little suspect what are you going to do that's different than we've done all these years And so Vos kind of with a little bit of savvy begins his inaugural lecture which became the first the preface actually to the book biblical theology said Hey, don't get worried. I'm just doing exegesis. It's all I'm doing. It's just another form of exegesis I'm still looking at what the text says So he just wanted to say I'm I'm still examining the meaning of the text Biblical theology is that branch of exogetical theology Which deals with the process of the self-revelation of God deposited in the Bible that's interesting God is revealing himself. That's what he's doing in the Bible Revelation is a noun of action relating to divine activity Revelation is an historically progressive process a long series of successive acts Now a lot of big words going by but it's just the simple he's saying it gets clearer over time God is revealing himself And it gets clearer over time If you were to put it in his most simple terms you would say when it comes to understanding God's revelation Paul new more than sampson It doesn't mean what sampson knew was wrong But Paul knows more there's been a progression God is progressively revealed more of himself through the course of the scriptural revelation The second principle was the organic principle the organic principle He said the progressive process is organic Revelation may be in seed form Which yields later full growth Accounting for diversity that is the seed may seem different than the full fruit. It may seem different But not true difference Because the earlier aspects of truth are indispensable for understanding the true meanings of the later forms And vice versa The other way of saying it It's all tied together The organic principle it's all tied together In order to understand what comes later you have to understand what came before But by the way you understand what came before Because of what happens later They explain each other Jesus said even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up. Now how do you know what that means Well, because you remember what he's talking about Remember Moses Lidding the people of Israel. They're in the desert. They're tired of Wandering and they're tired of the manna Oh no lord more manna And an emblematic of the poison that is coming from their lips Viper's come And strike them and they're dying and God says to Moses Lift up a serpent This thing that is emblematic of their sin You fashion this serpent of metal and lifted up on a post and tell them to look at it and they'll live You depend on what God provides and you'll live Even despite the venom that's come from you And Jesus said even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness So must the son of man be lifted up which means what you must look to Me to live I'm the answer to your poison I know what Jesus meant because of what happened in Moses time

The brazen serpent explains what Jesus mean but by the way I understand more of what the brazen serpent is about By the way that Jesus uses it The the background of Moses explains what Jesus is talking about but Jesus is explaining what Moses background is about They're explaining each other at the same time Keep going The final principle for a vase was the redemptive principle He said this Revelation is inseparably linked to the activity of redemption now That's important God is not just showing himself to be showing himself right? He's not just saying here's another attribute of go memorize it. Here's another attribute of my nature You're gonna have to take a test. No, he's saying the revelation is inseparably related to redemption What God is revealing about himself is related to redemptive processes So Revelation he says is the interpretation of redemption To see revelation properly we must see it in its redemptive context The context and the content of some revelation may be in seed form as it relates to redemption But it is intricately related to the mature message And is not properly understood or communicated until this relationship is made clear Now that's just absolutely crucial The revelation is intricately related to redemption So anything that God is saying is related to a redemptive message Now of course the hard part is figuring that out in what way is it related to a redemptive message But it's understanding it's not just there for some future test. It's not just we'll receive it for information The revelation is saying something about what God is doing Redemptively Now boss concedes right away. He says he says that revelation as it relates to redemption may just be in seed form It may not appear to be much about redemption. It may just be this little bitty seed message But it's still connected and he's saying you don't really understand the seed until you connect it to its mature form Um on the campus. Let's see if I've still got it I picked up I picked up an acorn

Now if I were to explain to you what this acorn is I could say I found it on the ground And I could say it's kind of pointed on one end and it's got this little cap on the other end And the cap is kind of corrugated and rough and the pointed in is smooth And the cap is darker and the smooth is lighter colored And squirrels gather this in the fall and they eat it in the winter And that's what an acorn is Now I just told you many true things about the acorn But I neglected to tell you about something that you need to know in order to really know what the acorn is about What did I neglect to mention? I didn't it's purpose I didn't mention the oak tree right I if you don't know how this is connected to its mature form I can say many true things about it And you still don't understand what it's really about Here may just be seed Here's another seed if you can imagine in your mind's eye here's another seed This acorn is the commandment You shall not steal Now this commandment occurs in the decalogue Moses gives it The commandment that you shall not steal appears again in the New Testament in Colossians in First Thessalonians Always in the Bible stealing is wrong It's a bad thing The Bible says not only show you not take other people's possessions You shall not take anything that is not your own You shall not even take another person's reputation If it's not yours you have no right to take it Stealings bad Don't do it now. Was there anything untrue that I just said No, it was all true But somehow Paul says in Galatians that the law Was our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ it was our pedagogue the thing that came along to lead us to wait a second It just said don't steal how does that get you to Jesus Well, let's just ask a couple of basic questions First question is if God says do not steal What does that tell me about God if God gives a commandment that I should not steal What does that tell me about the nature of God your turn God says don't steal was that telling about God Ben Say he doesn't steal it's beyond his ethical character to do so Okay, if it's outside of God's character to steal what else do we know about God

Who's he concerned about his people? He's protecting relationships. He's protecting their possessions. He's loving If it's beyond his character to hurt his people Or to have them steal or himself to steal. I also learned something about ultimately God's character. What is it? He is Holy God is holy I understand that from the commandment What do I understand about me from the commandment? You shall not steal you shall not take little things you shall not take big things You're never to take anything that is not your own not even somebody's reputation. You're not to demean other people Stealing's bad don't do it. What do I learn about me That I'm a thief that's exactly right that we're all thieves now listen. Here's a problem God's holy and I'm a thief There's a problem here and I can't fix it The law is telling me that you got a problem and you can't fix it because the God who gave the law Is not going to find your behavior except you can't make your behavior acceptable to him Somehow the God who gave the requirement is going to have to meet the requirement for you Oh The law was our pedagogue to lead us to Christ Now all I did I didn't look at the commandment just saying all right What's what's the tense of the verb and you know what is this in Hebrew and where's the I've got to do all that still But I've got to look at the text in its redemptive context. Why could Paul do that He said wait the message isn't done As God was revealing himself back there through the law He was also leading us to understand something else what he would have to do through Christ Therefore if I'm interpreting that same passage those same laws those same character reference I've got to do the same thing. I've got to say how is that revealing redemptive truth As part of the revelation and context and asking basic questions like what does this tell me about God was this tell me about me Are ways that that will happen Just at the bottom of your notes on page two to finish the thought in the same sense As trying to explain an acorn without mentioning the oak tree We cannot properly explain any aspect of revelation even if we say many true things about it Until we even some way related it to redemption Okay, that's really voss's point It is not enough just to say here's a piece of revelation It's got to be related to redemption because that ultimately is its context in the biblical record. It's got a redemptive context Page three what are the implications of such a redemptive Perspective the first is this that divine provision is necessary for holy living Since all scripture is redemptive revelation addressing our fallen condition that is our inadequacy are in completeness Then we must recognize in some way Every passage points not only to our need of redemption But also to God's provision of our redemption get that Somehow the scripture is not just pointing to our need of redemption, but also to God's provision of our redemption The Bible is not a self-help book

Now I say that easily and I said that in a lecture some years ago and a student then brought me a photocopy of a Recently published Bible. I'm gonna ask Kyle Read me what it says in the subtext the living Bible and then what

You can go oh no they missed something The Bible is not a self-help book even if you have a self-help edition. It's not a self-help book. How do I know that Jesus said John 15 what apart from me you can do Nothing you now that has tremendous implications for our preaching right if all I have said to people is you go out and do it God said don't steal so don't I may not have intended to but I just preached from the self-help edition Because I provided no other means of help. I isolated the message To the text without mentioning its redemptive context And context is all we really just keep pushing for here Number two under implications biblical theology is therefore necessary for proper interpretation If I recognize that holiness requires God's help Then then biblical theology has to come into play that which keeps pointing me toward God's provision for what God is requiring me to do Calvin said it this way and here's a long quote From his sermon on Ephesians 2 he says we must gather that to profit much in the holy scripture We must always resort to our Lord Jesus Christ and cast our eyes upon him Without turning from him at any time You will see a number of people who labor very hard indeed at reading the holy scriptures They do nothing else but turn over the leaves of it do you kind of see the image? They're just turning the leaves they don't really know why they're doing it They're just turning the leaves of it he says and why Because they do not have any particular aim in view they only wonder about Although they've gathered together a number of sentences of all sort yet nothing of value results from them Even so it is with them that labor and reading his holy scriptures and do not know Which is the point they ought to rest on Namely the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ

You believe that all scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit That holy men of God wrote as they were carried along by the Spirit But Jesus tells us in John 14 and 16 what the Holy Spirit's job is. He said the Spirit is to testify of what me He said the Spirit is to testify of me. That's his task So as the Spirit is inspiring the scriptures what you have to say what is his task It is to be revealing the work of God in Christ That's why revelation is inseparably related to the activity of redemption These things are working together that work of the Holy Spirit and why Calvin could say and really Do you all know this? I mean Calvin typically is not thought of as being in the biblical theological movement He's kind of a precursor to it But you see these kinds of sentences these kinds of parapses and man What what a wonderful kind of insight he had why he is so valuable to us He somehow seemed to be able to see That the elements in themselves could not function unless they were related to the redemptive message Little bit later in the semester. I'm going to ask you to read from the institutes Calvin's understanding of the law And remember Calvin is the one who gives the three uses of the law and between Lutherans and Roman Catholics and Calvinists You know, we always talk about the different uses of the law But what sometimes is missed and what I'll try to kind of perk your eyes to see as you go through is how Calvin doesn't just talk about the Three uses of the law he ties all the uses of the law to the revelation of Christ And we hardly ever talk about that piece of Calvin and yet he was he was doing it even as he talked about the uses of the law Not Calvin, but kind of one who says it in a very pithy way is j Adams And I know and you know that you didn't get the words soon enough for this lecture to do the readings ahead of time And so you don't have your paper assignments ready and all that sort of thing Uh, two quick words you just all get F's No No, you don't you won't have to do it but remember it will say in all of your assignments You'll be tested on that material Before September 15 so there will be a An online test that will be available to you and I would suggest you wait till the four lectures are done And then there's a an online test and it will include those readings So even though you will not turn into a reflection paper. I still encourage you to do the readings Um, and your professors will tell you more about that But for the moment just note this this is j Adams one of the readings that would have been for today He writes this it is easy to become Moralistic when preaching now. He's just dealing with that notion of the need for redemptive understanding of the text He says it's easy to become moralistic when preaching he said while there's nothing wrong with preaching morality I mean obviously you don't want to preach the opposite of morality. There's nothing wrong with preaching morality In contrast he says moralism is legalistic Ignores the grace of God and replaces the work of Christ with self Help now it's that ignores the grace of God that I want you to have kind of ringing in your ear. Okay Tell people what to do, but you just ignore the grace of God That's when it becomes moralistic rather than moral He says the problem with this kind of preaching is the lack of recognition that there is no Merit in keeping God's commands Do you know that there's actually no merit in keeping God's commands when you've done all that you should do what is Jesus say you are An unprofitable servant Um, Isaiah tells us our best works are only what But filthy rags There is no merit in keeping God's commands or else Christ's death would not have been necessary Is there blessing in keeping God's commands Surely there is blessing if I am faithful to my spouse there is blessing in keeping God's commands But God does not love me more because I do better than the next guy God loves me because of the work of Christ not the merits of my work Therefore Adam says this If you preach a sermon That would be acceptable to the members of a Jewish synagogue Or a unitarian congregation There is something radically wrong with it Now hear that if you preach a would any Jew be upset if you said don't steal Be faithful to your spouse in a unitarian upset And yet here is Adam saying there's something wrong with this message and the message That it's wrong is revealed by the fact that the Jew and the unitarian are not upset He says this There is something distinctive in a Christian message And what makes it distinctive is the all-prevading presence of a saving and sanctifying Christ Jesus Christ Must be at the heart of every sermon you preach This is just as true of edificational preaching as it is of evangelistic preaching You know, we know we have to mention Jesus on the evangelistic sermons preached once a quarter, right But he's actually saying in the edificational sermons where you're saying here's how to pray better here's how to Be good to your wife or to your neighbor Even in those if Jesus is out of the message apart from him you can do nothing So there has to be this understanding the provision of God as part of the message or it is not even Christian I'll ultimately say here in a few minutes the the problem the messages that are only instructive do these things Is not that they haven't quite reached the threshold of a Christian message, you know, we they're just kind of sub Christian And it quite met the standard yet They're not merely sub Christian They are anti-Christian Every other faith in the world says it's what you do that fixes it spiritually with God Christianity is the one that says you cannot fix it spiritually. That's the uniqueness of the Christian message So to simply say to people do better Do more Straighten up fly right be more disciplined all those messages are not just sub Christian They are actually pushing people away from the Savior to their own self-effort And that is why they're actually contrary to the message of the gospel not just failing to reach its full potential As you uh continue down on page three there This could all just be good theory But you also see number three redemptive interpretation is necessitated by biblical instruction first Corinthians 2 2 Paul said I resolved to make nothing known among you But Jesus Christ and what a good guy he was and how you can be really good if you try

Resolve to make nothing known among you but Jesus Christ and him Christ now that's an amazing we almost want to argue with Paul now. That's not true Paul You talked about worship practices You talked about stewardship you talked about marriage relationship you talked about lots of other things But Jesus and him crucified But apparently in Paul's mind there was always this core there was always this heart this thread That's moving through all the messages In fact, I think you'll begin to see it right even the way the epistles are formed before Paul gets to the marriage instructions What does he say that a man should love his wife as Christ love the Church that there's this thread that you will get the doctrinal instruction which will say god has loved you with an everlasting love through his son Before he will say therefore love one another There's always this redemptive context this Core this heart which is why Paul didn't I don't think feel he was being false in any way to say I wasn't gonna preach anything to you But Jesus Christ and him crucified there is this atomic message this provision of God that is always in view as Paul is preaching He said in this chapter just preceding we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the Gentiles no Jew is upset by saying don't steal No Jew is upset by don't take the Lord's name in vain What what was the stumbling block as he said you are thieves You are adulterers and Christ had to die for you That was the the disturbing message that made the gospel message so much a stumbling block Jesus himself would say such things is described in Luke 2427 The scene is after the resurrection Jesus walking with the disciples the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and there we read beginning with Moses And all the disciples he explained what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself Now for a biblical theologian those alls are all important Beginning with Moses and all the prophets he said what was in all the scriptures concerning himself Now look at the note Since Jesus says all scripture is about him When we try to explain a text without mentioning his redeeming work We neglect to expound the very thing Jesus said the text reveals And that's a rather amazing hermeneutical principle right he says it's about him So if we're explaining the text and fail to relate it to him We fail to say the very thing he said it's about Not to mention Jesus is to fail Well, let's put another way Not to relate the text to Jesus is to fail to say what the text is about Here's where the title of a book can get you in trouble when When people look at the title Christ-centered preaching What they almost always think initially is that what I'm saying and other people like me are saying who are biblical Theologically oriented is you've got to somehow show where every text mentions Jesus You know it I don't get it is he in that camel track or behind that bush over there. Where where are you getting Jesus? And you see that's not the point at all The point is not to force text to mention Jesus It's to identify where the text stands in relation to Jesus Where do the text stand in relation to What God will be accomplishing in his son the Visual representation of this is Matthew 17 the transfiguration Remember Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus in the cloud Moses is representing what The law Elijah's representing The prophets and and here is Jesus they appear with him say this is the culmination This is the climax. This is what this has been about So they come to give testimony of what they represent to him It's all been leading up to it's all been driving toward What he now represents Jesus would tell the Pharisees remember you diligently study the scriptures, but you do not know on what they concur They speak of me That's John 5 39 through 40 Paul would relate or write in Acts 20 is he's giving the summation of his own ministry The Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the gospel of grace That's my task My task is to testify to the gospel of grace The key note at the bottom. Therefore is this these verses and others like them Demonstrate that the term Christ centered is Sonecticky remember what that means the part for the whole Sonecticky the term Christ centered is Sonecticky for all of God's redeeming work that makes us know And depend upon his grace Ultimately provided in Christ a Christ-centered sermon does not attempt to make Jesus appear where the text does not speak of him But rather demonstrates the relation Demonstrates the relation of the text to his person and or work Thus these are also referred to as Redemptive messages or Christ-centered messages Or to me grace-focused messages next page our Goal in Christ-centered preaching is not To make Jesus magically or allegorically appear in every text But rather to demonstrate the redemptive principles The redemptive principles evident in the text That are most fully revealed in Christ-person and or work and are necessary for our growth in Christ-likeness No people will get so concerned because they will say you can't mention Jesus in this sermon because the text doesn't mention him And I say whoa wait a second you live this side of the cross You you were given the biblical theology the biblical record of everything that has led to this point Why if you understand that all those things were leading to him That when you preach from one of those passages that you know was intended to lead that you can't mention him Somehow God is revealing redemptive principles here He's not saying oh Elijah met the enemies of God at the crossroads Crossroads crossroads cross Jesus met our enemy to crossroad You know it was We're talking about we're talking about God somehow is saying I provide For a faithless people through my faithfulness Now ultimately we're gonna see how that's done in Christ but right here I'm just saying Elijah's ministering at time when the people of God have turned away from God And still God is providing his strength in their weakness his faith and their faithlessness There are grace principles on display here So then Christ ultimately completes his mission will understand what that's about So what I'm doing in these grace principles as I'm not looking for wordplay crossroads relates to the cross You know Moses met the women Dars of Jethro at a well and Jesus met a woman at the well We're not doing that. Rahab's cloth was what colored It's red and therefore it symbolizes them Yeah Just say wait God delivered his people when they could not deliver themselves One of those people that he made his own was a prostitute And when all the town fell he rescued her Despite her sin despite her iniquity there was grace toward one totally undeserving I'm not making Jesus blood up here in the red cloth I'm saying here are grace principles on display That will reach their culmination in the ministry of Christ and I understand what he's done by what God has been revealing all along

We will talk much more about how we discern these things next time okay today's message. I hope I'm just trying to say to you It's necessary to see the redemptive Development of scripture. That's all I'm trying to say today It's necessary to see the redemptive message developing in scripture to properly interpret it Next time we're going to talk about how do you do it then a house come next time Just now. I'm trying to say why do this why look at it? Why is it necessary Before we maybe go down the path of forming those redemptive messages Roman numeral forum page 4 just talks about the nature and design of non Redemptive messages just just Learning to recognize what is not going to be faithful To the revelation of God's redemptive and all the scriptures The nature of non-redemptive messages they are inevitably solo bootstrapsa Okay, just you pick yourself up by your own bootstraps. It's your job. You just get going brother Right, it's the solo bootstrapsa message that we're going to try to avoid it can come in various forms You know pick up yourself by your own bootstraps or ten steps to a better fill in the blank Financial futures 10 steps to a better relationship with your neighbor 10 steps to a better marriage with your You know here are 10 things you do to fix something And God's work is just kind of off on the side somewhere It's just what you do according to this verse and this verse and this verse. It's all about you Well, that's the problem. It's not all about you not the scriptural message All these forms of solo bootstrapsa say do this thing or this behavior to get yourself right with God The basic problem again these are not merely sub Christian messages They are anti-Christian messages since no scripture in context and that's the keyword no scripture in context says Just be good and God will be happy You just be good and God will be happy with no scripture says that The thing we do at times is we create this kind of false dichotomy and we have in our minds kind of what separates Christianity is you know there there is legalism On one side of something that's wrong and there is liberalism on the other side of what's wrong And somehow true Christianity is going to be a balance in here of those things But I want you to think about something if you if you said Theologically what does a legalist say will make you right with God What is it what is a legalist say will make you right with God

Your works and in this society for the legalistic side what what kind of works typically are those

don't go to bad movies Uh don't cuss Take your head off in class wear a tie You know I do have you in class this semester I can Like what does a liberal say will make you right with God Truth theological liberal okay, so it's it's care for the poor oppressed Your fellow man, etc Now while these sets of behaviors are very different What I want you to recognize is these are actually the same thing these foldback on themselves This says what you do makes you right with God, and this says what you do makes you right with God. This is just a different set of do's, but the same theology is in play. What I want you to recognize is Christianity can't be found on that scale. It's something else entirely. It is not what you do that fixes things. It must be dependence on what Christ has done. And if you believe that, it profoundly affects your preaching, and what you're willing to say as you preach to think about it in just some very basic terms, the design of non-redemptive messages. What I will call how do you recognize messages that just are not redempted at all, are recognizing these deadly bees. You've heard of the killer bees, these are the deadly bees. Messages that just can be automatically recognized as non-redemptive. Though I will tell you guys I have preached these messages. I teach this material and sometimes I walk down from the pulpit and go, what did I just do? Because it's so easy just to do these profoundly simple behavior-oriented messages. The first form of a deadly bee are bee-like messages. Be like messages. Follow this example. Be like Daniel. Back there to be like Daniel. Be like David. Be like Moses. Or you really want to make people feel bad. Just be like Jesus. Just be like Jesus. Think of how these messages go. We look at a portion of David's life. And we say, you know, he fought the lion and the bear. He walked with God. He wrote tremendous poems praising God. He led God's people. After God's own heart, he showed mercy to Mephibisheth. You know, David was a wonderful guy. You should just be like David. Well, ignore that basheva thing. And ignore that absolute thing. And forget about that thing about numbering the troops at the end of his life. Do you recognize the Bible takes care to tarnish almost every figure? Almost everyone. I mean, I recognize there's a couple of people we don't have much dirt on. But, you know, virtually everybody. You know, the patriarchs were scoundrels. The apostles were cowards. Why do we see such terrible sin in the heroes of the Bible? So we'll say, isn't God great? Isn't his grace marvelous? Were it not for God? David's sin would have toppled a nation. But it was God who said, I will make an eternal kingdom through your line. Despite your great undeserving, would David have said, just be like me? So if David wouldn't say it, we shouldn't either. If you could, I wish you could almost put neon lights around that kind of bold-faced blank in your notes, which simply to say this, God is the hero of every text. God is the hero of every text. Gideon is not the hero. He was an idolater. Abraham was not the hero. He gave away his wife over and over to other men. And his children did the same thing. And yet God preserved and used him. And we're here because God was faithful when he was not. God is the hero of the text. We keep pointing to God's work in men's behalf. Second form of non-redemptive message. Be good messages. These are various forms of save yourself message. Don't drink or smoke or chew or go with the girls that do. Would be the mark of a legalist of the past generation. Sadly, in our current context, you get certain churches who are very much out of evangelical circles pushing nothing but social agendas. It's that message that says discipleship is not faith in Jesus Christ. It is doing what Christ said. And so it used to be the social gospel of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, now being adopted by some evangelicals. What really proves your Christian is you care for the poor more than the next church. You welcome unlovely people more than the next church. And what is the mark of discipleship is not faith in Christ, but the outperformance of other churches with regard to good discipleship. Now, there are typically things that we respect and like, so we kind of admire the message. But it can be just another form of legalism. You be really, really, really good. Even sacrificial good, and you'll be okay with God. And not recognize it's been around before. We've heard the message before. And it is not the one of grace. Hunker down and try harder in any form is not what God in his gospel is proclaiming. The third and maybe most easy to our lips are be disciplined messages. These are all about sanctifying yourself. Pray more. Read your Bible more. Go to church more, especially go to my church more. Just do more and more and more and more and more. Then God will be happy. By the way, how much more will be enough to make God happy? Do you know people like this? They sin and so what do they do to make it up to God? They read their Bible more. They go to church more. They sing songs louder this week in church. They're making it up to God by doing more than they did before. Now listen, repentance truly shows itself in good works. It does. But the good works do not earn God's favor. They are the fruit of those who have been favored. And it's totally counter-instinctive to the way humans function. To say I'm living out of grace not to gain it. It's sometimes as white so difficult to preach. Redemptive messages because it's so counter-intuitive. I want to say you straighten up or God's going to hate you. Instead of saying God loved you before you ever knew Him. While you were His enemy He died for you. Therefore live for Him. It's counter-intuitive. Now I have to be careful here. I just said some fairly stark things. You didn't challenge me even. This Paul ever say, follow my example, be like me. Paul ever say that? Well at least five times. So finish the verse. Follow my example as see it's got a redemptive context. Always, always, always. There will be a redemptive context that we have to remember. Of course be messages are inscription but we always have to identify their context. Now again I wish you could put neon lights on the bottom sentence of this page. Recognize be messages are not wrong in themselves. They are wrong messages by themselves. Catch that? Is it wrong to tell people don't steal? Don't be a thief. Is that wrong? Well in itself that's not wrong. To tell people be holy as God is holy is not wrong in itself. What makes it wrong is by itself if that's all you say. If you don't throw them upon Christ, upon His grace, upon His provision. Let me just be straight with one. Why did people fear grace-oriented messages? The greatest fear among Orthodox Christians is they fear antinomianism. That's their fear. If you do too much of this grace thing people will do whatever they want. Listen. Jesus said, if you love me you will keep my commands. He was not an antinomian. At the same time you said apart from me you can do nothing. The reason to preach grace is not to avoid the commandments. It's to enable obedience to them so that we are saying it's by Him. It's through Him. It's for Him that you would do these things. And it's this compulsion of grace that's actually the power of the Christian message. It's not antinomianism. We're going out. Now I can't say to anybody, be something anymore. No, you can't say that alone. But you must actually, it would be actually terrible for a preacher not to tell people to obey God. I mean, what's wounding we would do to them if we did not take them in a path of holiness. It's to their safekeeping. It's to their good. It's to their glory and blessing and joy to walk with God. But we have to make sure that they don't think they are earning God's favor by doing it. He was walking with them before they ever chose to be His children and do what He chose. Be messages. Last page. Be messages by themselves. Employ that we are able to change our fallen condition by our own efforts. Such messages stated or implied make us no different than unitarians or Muslims or Hindus. If all we're saying is just be a good person. There's no distinctive Christianity in that at all. The demarrads of non-redemptive messages, why they don't help, is first there is no merit in keeping God's commands. Blessing, but no merit. And there are various passages that say that for you, you see Adams and Kuiper. The confession, first paragraph there, out of chapter 16, good works, done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith. But Christian's ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the spirit of Christ. That's why we can't just help people be good and be done. There has to be dependence pushed upon the work of God. Number two. Challenges to holiness without mention of grace, force a human-centered religion. People cannot do what they are told to do apart from Christ's grace. Requirements of holiness by themselves wound people because without provision of divine aid they either will despair of hope or trust in their own righteousness, which is worse by the way. It's a trick question. If you tell people you just be holy, there's only two alternatives. If you tell somebody to be holy, either they think I'll never be holy, I'll never measure up. What's the other alternative? Okay, I'll be holy. And either one is spiritually deadly. Desperation or arrogance are both spiritually deadly. They wound people if we have not mentioned grace. Thus if you wound even unintentionally, you are obligated to heal. We heal by wetting all requirements of holiness to a proper relationship with him who alone can provide holiness. And showing where and how the scripture we are interpreting does the same. Think how Paul does it. Ephesians six. Here Paul is at his most strident. Put on the full arm of God, right? Take out the sword of the spirit. Put on the helmet of salvation. Resist the fiery darks of the doubt. He's speaking with all the strength that can muster. But before it gets into any of that, what does he say? Be strong in the power of his might. His might. If all he had said was, you know, use trunker down and try harder. It would have been foreign to the Christian message. So he says, fight. But you fight with his might. And what we want to say to God's people, what really makes it the joy of the Christian message? I'm going to say fight. Live for him. Buy him. Buy his strength. Buy his wondrous grace, which is revealed in the context of this text as well. Here's the bottom line where we're going to go. When you've preached or when you've counseled or when you've taught to your own child, at some point this person that God has given you to minister to is going to walk out the door away from you. And I hope just in your mind's eye, you kind of say, I just sent them out to do what God requires. With whom do they go? Am I just sending them out with me, myself, and I, in hand? We're going to do it. Or am I sending them out with the Savior? Because if they do not go with the Savior, they go to despair. But if we send them out with the Savior, they go to joy. And the joy of the Lord is our strength. We're going to talk a whole lot about how to do this next time. But as you read the readings, say to yourself, well, if not this, if it's not redemptive, what is the alternative? And I think if you think of it that way, you'll say there can't be any alternative. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. We have to learn how to have the grace of God within the message. And when you do it, there is such joy in your preaching that will be your own power to keep doing it.