Giving Christ the Place of Honor

In CHRISTIANITY TODAY an article of mine in the June 8, 1959, issue dealt with the current fashion of giving Christ a subordinate place in our sermons. Many evangelicals talk more about Moses or David than about God; Peter or Paul than about Christ; or about men and women now in church more than the Holy Spirit. Any of us can see that this is a misrepresentation of the facts of the Bible. How can a preacher, therefore, give the Lord Jesus the kind of priority that the New Testament gives him? This question also applies to the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit.

The suggestions that follow make clear what I did as a pastor. With some changes, these principles would guide the lay teacher of an adult class, especially if he taught the Bible as it was written, book by book. There is, in fact, much to be said for following some sort of church year (cf. the Hebrew year in Lev. 23). The suggestion here relates to pulpit work, not to other parts of public worship. As Phillips Brooks used to say, autumn is the springtime of the ecclesiastical year. Even in the best-planned churches there is likely to be a period of transition in midsummer, and a quickening of zeal with the coming of September.

TIME OF BEGINNINGS

At this time of new beginnings, I should preach a sermon about the meaning of a man’s religion as “A Deepening Friendship with God” (Gen. 5:24). Toward the end of the message I should tell the people that I planned for a while to preach from Genesis, and ask them to help me by reading in their homes certain portions of this first book in the Bible. Every Lord’s Day the list of readings would appear prominently in the bulletin or calendar. In the readings I should ask them to look for what each portion shows about “The Covenant God in the Home” (Gen. 17:7), and to remember that all this had much to do with God’s way of preparing for the coming of Christ through that home under the Covenant.

Later sermons in the fall would deal with such subjects as “The Gospel in the Rainbow” (Gen. 9:13); “The God of a Founding Father” (Gen. 18:19); “The God of an Average Man” (Isaac—Exod. 3:6); “The God of a Tricky Man” (Jacob—Exod. 3:6); and “The God of a Forgiving Brother” (Gen. 45:5, 8). In choosing the passages for sermonic treatment, a man would give the preference to those that concern the heart needs of the home people; for example, meeting temptation by remaining loyal to God (Gen. 39:9c), or at election time, voting with a view to the guidance of the Lord (Gen. 41:38b). Such messages prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas, and also for his entrance into our hearts today. This kind of preaching tends to negate the charge of Paul Tillich that many evangelicals neglect or ignore the first Person of the Trinity. Alas, we likewise make far too little of the Holy Spirit.

After sermons about God as he makes himself known through Holy Writ, the people should be ready for a sermon about “The Genesis of the Gospel” (John 1:1). Here again the pastor may request the hearers to keep reading a Bible book. In each successive paragraph of St. John he should ask them to look for truth as it concerns the Lord Jesus, but always with reference to a person or persons who at heart are much like the lay readers now. If this opening sermon came two Sundays before Christmas, then the next one could deal with “The Gospel of the Incarnation” (John 1:14), stressing what this Bible truth should mean to busy men and women now. Such pulpit emphasis on what lies back of Christmas should help to redeem Christ’s birthday from increasing commercialism.

SEASON OF HARVEST

Week after week there would be morning sermons from the noblest of all Bible books. I believe it is the noblest because it tells us most about the Deity of the Lord Jesus (20:31), and also because it shows us his practical dealings with men and women much like ourselves. Among the four Gospels, this one is the most personal and the most precious —if we keep Christ at the center of every scene where he appears. In the latter part of the opening chapter, for instance, we note the case studies about “Introducing a Young Man to Christ” (1:41 ff.). What an opportunity to promote man-to-man evangelism during the harvest season of the Christian year!

In the second chapter, the opening paragraph would lend itself to human interest details about Oriental wedding customs, the Virgin Mary, the size of the waterpots, and other persons and things. But surely the passage was written to show the personality of our Lord! This being so, his name and his presence ought to dominate the sermon from beginning to end. To preach this way requires far more ability and much more care than describing the facts about the original setting of our Lord’s first miracle. Hence, one may choose as the key verse of the paragraph the words that tell what it all means in the eyes of God (2:11).

In his book, The Preacher and His Sermon (1922), J. Paterson Smyth of Ireland relates a conversation with a thoughtful layman whose opinions about sermons the minister valued highly. “What would you expect,” he asked, “if you were told of a certain preacher’s subject next Sunday that he was going to preach Christ?” At once came the reply: “I should expect a rather stupid sermon” (p. 82). Hence, it may seem that a minister faces a dilemma: Which is worse, to dishonor Christ by making the facts about him seem stupid, or by practically ignoring him so as to talk about Bible human beings like ourselves?

TOWERING OVER MEN

Fortunately, the facts in the case are not so simple as these statements make them seem. Any man who loves the Lord and knows the Book should be able to present the Lord Jesus in such a way as to represent him as the most interesting Person of all persons. In all the throng that assembled for the marriage at Cana, the center of interest was Jesus. The minister who would correctly interpret what took place there must do more than use historical imagination. Somehow every man who enters the pulpit ought to preach largely in present tenses. If he cannot make the Lord Jesus interesting and vital to his listeners, he should keep silent until he learns how to preach.

In order to preach the right way, a young minister may have to change his habits of thinking and study. Perhaps he has grown to manhood and has been educated in an age when learned theologians think and talk more about man than about God, and when many lay folk seem to be more concerned about their nerves and their peace of mind than about Christ as Healer. According to Pitirim A. Sorokin, sociologist at Harvard, we have been the victims of “a sensate civilization.” Even our preaching and Bible teaching have become secularized and humanized. All the while the saving power, the cleansing power, the transforming power rests with him whose hands once were pierced and who is living now, tender to sympathize, mighty to save.

Before a man dares to preach much about the Christ of the Fourth Gospel, he ought to live with this book for a number of months. In case of difficulty he should consult a first-class exegetical commentary such as that of B. F. Westcott (preferably the one on the Greek Testament and that of J. H. Bernard (I.C.C.). But the main stress ought to fall on reading the Bible book itself, as it was written, and on dealing with each paragraph as a unit. Before a man leaves any such literary unit, he should be able to understand what it teaches about Christ in relation to other persons. Then he should put down in black and white the motif, or central teaching of the paragraph, in terms of Christ.

With such a habit of Christ-centered thinking, it will become natural to prepare sermons that stress what the Gospel stresses. In the earlier chapters a minister may become so concerned about the Lord’s presence at a marriage feast, or at a newly-made grave (chap. 11), that he does not leave time for what the Gospels stress most of all, namely, the events leading up to the death of Christ as our Redeemer and King. Here again, present-day emphasis falls more often on the “Jesus of history” than on the Lamb of God as the divine Sacrifice for the sin of the world (1:29). To preach through this Gospel without saying much about Calvary would be like having a Passion Play at Oberammergau if the action stopped with Palm Sunday.

In dealing with a passage about the Cross, a minister ought to make clear that every person or thing in view has to do with Him. According to chapter 12, certain Greeks said to one of his friends, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” These words frequently appear on the minister’s side of many pulpits. Laymen want to hear about Christ. But they want the Christ of today to seem as attractive and relevant to their needs now as he was to those seekers after God long ago. According to the sacred record, when those men came to him, they learned of his attractiveness and relevance in terms of the Cross (vv. 24, 32).

I was preaching once in the Gospel of St. John and came to this golden verse: “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die” (12:32, 33). I strove to interpret these words in the light of their setting. For some reason that sermon did not “jell.” Then I made a discovery of a sort which my grandmother would have taken as a matter of common sense. I was trying to make everything relate to “The Magnetic Cross,” whereas the Lord speaks about himself as having the power, with the Cross as the magnet.

This text begins with the Christ of St. John. The subject, repeated for emphasis, calls attention to the Christ of the Gospel. “I” means the One who alone can be the power of God. The end of the “drawing” is to him who is the Lord of glory. In the heart of this golden text, as in John 3:16, lies the truth about the Cross as the magnet through which he wins, saves, and transforms men today even as he did with those Greeks long ago. If anyone asks why some of us favor “textual preaching,” the answer ought to seem obvious. We believe that these words are inspired of God and imbued with saving power, and that we mortals can never “improve” on them. When a text points to Christ, we ought to preach Christ. Apart from him as the personal power of God, what could the Cross mean but a rough, bloody log on which other men had died in sin?

APPROACHING THE SERMON

Thus it is that the effectiveness and the joy of preaching depend in part on the minister’s care and skill in dealing with the facts in view. I stress another point, which is the habit of giving every Gospel sermon a Christian name. Why so? For many reasons. First, a sermon topic ought to be accurate. If the message is about Christ, why not say so? Again, many who come to church wish to hear about Christ. Those who do not so desire need him all the more. Furthermore, the right sort of topic helps to guide and restrain the minister in all his preparation, and it helps to guide and encourage the hearer as he follows the stages of a sermon about being “With Christ at a Wedding Feast,” or about “The Christ Who Attracts Men.”

The topic of a sermon may never appear in print until it stands out in the weekly bulletin. However, a pastor may not feel ready to write out a message, or deliver it from an outline, unless he has in view a clear, concise topical statement of what he wishes to say. Ideally, such a “form of sound words” embodies both the divine and the human, in this order. “How Christ Deals with an Honest Doubter” (20:29) is an example. The biblical facts of the sermon would come from the paragraph, but the discussion would be mainly in terms of how Christ deals with such an earnest young man today.

The introduction ought also to be distinctly Christian. After 30 minutes of Christ-centered worship, a man stands up to preach. According to modern custom, he has to begin with the people where they are. But where are they? Are they not in church, thinking about Christ? Since the Bible-believing minister looks on his text as more important than any other part of the message, he begins with its words. Then without any palaver he may immediately state his topic as the interpretation of his text. If he were preaching away from home, where people had seldom heard Christ-centered sermons, he might have to win their attention by leading up to his subject. At home, if he waits long enough before repeating his text and topic, he will undoubtedly have the undivided attention of everyone in church. Therefore, why not begin with something directly about Christ? According to good psychology, a public speaker puts first what he deems most important. And if he puts it first, he can often repeat it later for effectiveness.

CHRIST AND THE MESSAGE

In every stage of a sermon about Christ, he ought to dominate. For example, in preaching about Christ at a marriage, there may be three main parts, all centering about him, with the discussion in terms of the present, showing the appeal of Christ’s human interests, his social sympathies, and his transforming power. These things relate to the fact that because of the miracle at the wedding at Cana the disciples believed on him as they seem never to have believed before. And, as in all Christian experience, when they came to know him better, they loved him more and became more like him.

In preaching about the Magnetic Christ, the text (12:32) may lead to a Robertsonian sermon with its two contrasting truths: first, the power of Christ to attract strong men; second, the secret of his power to transform men. With main headings like these, every subhead and every successive paragraph may well be about him. If any part calls for illustration, that too may be about his dealing with persons like the Greeks. As a rule, we have too many illustrations, but never enough about Christ in human experience.

If any account of Jesus seems to suggest a lack of absorbing human interest, the fault lies with our telling of it. Really, Jesus of Nazareth is the most interesting, attractive, and impressive Figure in history. In sermon after sermon, he shows his drawing powder in a different fashion. The element of endless variety and increasing appeal comes through stressing each time the distinctive truth in the Bible passage at hand. This sort of pulpit work calls for ability and much intellectual labor; but when a man preaches Christ as he appears in the Bible and as he stands ready to meet human needs today the rewards are great.

To honor Christ in the pulpit, therefore, may mean to preach during the autumn about God in Genesis or in Samuel; to preach during the winter season about Christ in one of the Gospels; to preach after Easter about the Holy Spirit or the living Christ (this is not the same) in Acts or one of the major Epistles; and to preach during the summer about the work of the Triune God in human experience, or about finding God in favorite Psalms. In short, the way to honor Christ is to set forth what the Bible teaches of the God who alone can meet the needs of sinful men. This is what hearers want; or let us say that whether they want it or not, this is what they all need and what the Lord wishes them to hear when they come to church.

As for the effect of such preaching, that must rest in the hands of God. He has promised that his Word shall not return to him void (Isa. 55:10, 11). In my own experience as a pastor I found that the most blessed in-gathering I ever witnessed came after a succession of Christ-centered messages from the book of John. All through that winter “harvest season of the Church,” those that were genuinely spiritual kept praying for souls and engaging in personal work. For a while they seemed not to be winning for Christ more persons than at other times. But they persisted in the reading of this Gospel which they loved, because in it they found most about the Christ of God.

At last there came a change. One morning I preached on one of the Johannine passages about the Deity of Christ. Thus began a series of heart-warming experiences like those of the disciples at Pentecost. That sort of blessing does not depend on having a great preacher or hearing great orations. It does depend on having a great God and in giving good sermons about our great God. A good sermon means one that does untold good by honoring the Christ of St. John. Let every ministerial reader resolve that the Lord Jesus will repeatedly have the right of way in the pulpit and in every part of any sermon from the Bible about him as Redeemer and Lord.

Andrew W. Blackwood is Professor Emeritus of Princeton Theological Seminary and is at the present time engaged in writing. Author of many books, he has served most recently as compiler and editor of Evangelical Sermons of Today.

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