Theocentric Preaching

Tim Keller from last Sunday’s sermon at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York:

There are two ways to read the Bible. The one way to read the Bible is that it’s basically about you: what you have to do in order to be right with God, in which case you’ll never have a sure and certain hope, because you’ll always know you’re not quite living up. You’ll never be sure about that future.

Or you can read it as all about Jesus. Every single thing is not about what you must do in order to make yourself right with God, but what he has done to make you absolutely right with God. And Jesus Christ is saying, “Unless you can read the Bible right, unless you can understand salvation by grace, you’ll never have a sure and certain hope. But once you understand it’s all about me, Jesus Christ, then you can know that you have peace. You can know that you have this future guaranteed, and you can face anything.”

continued from yesterday

A second human-centered approach is moralistic preaching. This type of emphasizes life application and take-home action steps. Many popular preachers argue that sermons need to be practical and offer clear application points.

While application is essential, preaching that over-emphasizes application can lead to numerous problems. Application points, by themselves, can lead to application fatigue, in which the listener is overwhelmed with more tasks to put on a list that is already full. Our listeners need a vision of God and his gospel that changes every part of their lives, not just more tasks to be completed. To-do lists don’t change souls.

In Scripture, obedience is always a response to the gospel. Application that is not rooted in gospel leads to pride if the listener succeeds, and defeatism if the listener does not. The law does not give us power to obey its commands; we need good news (the gospel), not just good advice. The Bible does contain commands, but these are always applications of the gospel.

Moralism can creep into how-to sermons (e.g. “Four Steps to Better Parenting”), but it can also creep into expositions of a text. For example, preaching the imperatives of Ephesians 4-6 will be moralistic unless we link the imperatives to the gospel described in Ephesians 1-3. God’s gift and his commands (theology and ethics) are always linked.

Moralism can also creep into biographical preaching if we offer characters as examples to emulate. We are sometimes called to emulate their faith (Hebrews 11), but are rarely told to use them as moral examples. Tim Keller describes what happens when we use them this way. “An example - even a great example - can only crush you,” he says. “It’s crushing because it’s an inaccessible standard.” Because of our fallen natures, we cannot simply do what Jesus, or any other great character, did. Even when we encounter great characters, they are examples of faith and of God’s grace.

In any case, most of the characters in the Bible have mixed records at best, and point to God as the real hero of the text. Keller says:

You’re assuming that the message of the Bible is “God blesses and saves those who live morally exemplary lives.” That’s not the message of the Bible. The message of the Bible is that God persistently and continuously gives his grace to people who don’t ask for it, don’t deserve it, and don’t even fully appreciate it after they get it.

Our preaching must root obedience in what God has accomplished in Christ. It is the motive and source of all obedience. Preaching application without gospel is moralistic and fails to transform lives.

tomorrow: a final human-centered approach to preaching

Tim Keller comments on Luke 24:27: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

If you think the Bible is all about you - about what you must do and how you must live and how you have to do everything in order to get the blessing - then of course you don’t need a Messiah who dies for you. All you need is the rules.

But there are two ways and only two ways to read the Bible. You can read the Bible as if it is all about you and what you must do, and what you have to run around doing in order to get the blessing. Or you can read every part of the Bible as all about Him and what He has done for you. Is it all about you or is it all about Him?

The sermon, Literalism: Isn’t the Bible historically unreliable and regressive? (MP3), is available as a free download.

Tim Keller often emphasizes a point that’s often missed. When we think of those who are not in relationship with Christ, we often think of those who live in open rebellion, like the prodigal of Luke 15. But Keller reminds us that the older brother in this story is also lost. We can be lost when we are in open rebellion; we can also be lost when we live the religious life, trusting in our own goodness to save us.

I’ve been listening to an audio version of Pilgrim’s Progress, and I’m surprised at how clearly this theme appears. The main character, Christian, is on his way when he meets Worldly Wiseman. Christian desperately wants his burden removed. Worldly Wiseman suggests an easier way than following Christ. He suggests that Christian goes to the town of “Morality” where he will meet a man named “Legality” who is skilled at curing those who are bothered by sin. This is an easier way, Worldly Wiseman tells him, than following the way of Christ. Morality and civility are offered as substitutes for the real gospel, at a lower cost but (it is promised) the same results.

As Christian heads in that direction, he meets Evangelist, who tells Christian what is wrong with going to the church in Morality:

1. It turns us from the way of Christ;
2. It makes the cross odious to us;
3. It leads to death, not life.

Moralism looks at first like it’s a good substitute for the gospel. It produces good, religious people who go to church and live well. Both Keller and Bunyan remind us, though, of the dangers of taking, or preaching, this path. Morality is never enough. We need the gospel.

Last week I promised to return to the theme of preaching Christ from all of Scripture. I’ve learned a lot from the ministry of Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. His preaching lectures from Gordon-Conwell are extremely helpful. Here’s how Keller preaches Christ from all of Scripture:

The following may actually be four points in a presentation, or they may be treated very quickly as the last point of a sermon. But more generally, this is a foundational outline for the basic moral reasoning and argument that lies at the heart of the application.

The Plot winds up: WHAT YOU MUST DO.

“This is what you have to do! Here is what the text/narrative tells us that we must do or what we must be.” The Plot thickens: WHY YOU CAN’T DO IT.

“But you can’t do it! Here are all the reasons that you will never become like this just by trying very hard.” The Plot resolves: HOW HE DID IT.

“But there’s One who did. Perfectly. Wholly. Jesus the—. He has done this for us, in our place.” The Plot winds down: HOW, THROUGH HIM, YOU CAN DO IT.

“Our failure to do it is due to our functional rejection of what he did. Remembering him frees our heart so we can change like this…”

This isn’t the only way to preach Christ, but the beauty of this approach is that it steps around some of the hermeneutical traps. For more information, you can order Keller’s lectures from Gordon-Conwell.

Update: Resurgence has reposted the entire article that is the source of the above quote.

490 years ago today, a monk with a mallet posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. One of the 95 Theses said this: “62. The true treasure of the church is the Holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God.” In essence, that monk rediscovered and applied the gospel within his context.

It’s just as important for us to rediscover and apply the gospel today, first to ourselves and then in our ministries. Tim Keller puts it this way:

We never “get beyond the gospel” in our Christian life to something more “advanced.” The gospel is not the first “step” in a “stairway” of truths, rather, it is more like the “hub” in a “wheel” of truth. The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s of Christianity, but it is the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom.

We are not justified by the gospel and then sanctified by obedience but the gospel is the way we grow (Gal. 3:1-3) and are renewed (Col 1:6). It is the solution to each problem, the key to each closed door, the power through every barrier (Rom 1:16-17)….

All our problems come from a failure to apply the gospel…

The main problem, then, in the Christian life I that we have not thought out the deep implication of the gospel, we have not “used” the gospel in and on all parts of our life. Richard Lovelace says that most people’s problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel—a failure to grasp and believe it through and through. Luther says (on Gal. 2:14), “The truth of the gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine… Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.” The gospel is not easily comprehended. Paul says that the gospel only does its renewing work in us as we understand it in all its truth. All of us, to some degree live around the truth of the gospel but do not “get” it. So the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual re-discovery of the gospel. A stage of renewal is always the discovery of a new implication or application of the gospel—seeing more of its truth. This is true for either an individual or a church.

So Happy Reformation Day! I pray that our ministries will be characterized by the rediscovery and application of the gospel.

Some Reformation Day resources:

• White Horse Inn’s broadcast on The 490th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation
• The 2007 Reformation Day Symposium at Challies.com