The Power of the Simply Preached Gospel of Jesus Christ

The first academic level book as a I read as part of my 2015 reading plan was Michael Rydelnik's The Messianic Hope.  Admittedly, I was predisposed to agree with Rydelnik's argument - that the Old Testament is primarily a Messianic collection of writings designed to reveal Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel, and Savior of people from every tribe, tongue, and race.  I am grateful for men like David Hallett and Mark Blair who taught me to read the Bible this way, and was actually surprised to learn that so few evangelical scholars read the Old Testament texts as Messianic.  

Most of the book was typically dry academic writing.  I don't say that in a negative way. Rydelnik was showing in chapter after chapter that the Old Testament predicted the Messiah's coming and the New Testament revealed him to be Jesus of Nazareth.  So when I say dry I don't mean uninteresting or boring, just that he primarily deals with facts and exegesis.  Surprisingly, he concludes the book with a personal story that moved me to tears sitting in my office during my Friday lunch break.  A few minutes later I reread the chapter, and tears flowed again.  

Rydelnik recalls an experience as a 16 year old recent convert to Christianity.  He is Jewish, and had become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah.  A large number of Jewish students in his Brooklyn high school were also believers in Jesus.  The leader of the school's Hebrew club invited a local Jewish graduate student to argue that Jesus was not the Messiah.  

On the day of the presentation Rydelnik listened, then at the conclusion of the presentation he stood up and asked about Old Testament text after Old Testament text that he believed pointed forward to Jesus as Messiah.  The speaker, who I believe is Dennis Prager based on the information given by Rydelnik, effortlessly deflected every text that Rydelnik brought up.  

For decades Rydelnik wished he had been more prepared, and wished he could have another opportunity to debate the speaker.  One day he was in California to give a presentation to a Messianic church.  A man who looked familiar began talking to him, and after some time Rydelnik came to realize that the man had been his high school music teacher.  The music teacher recounted his conversion this way:

The reason this moved me so is that I've been battling discouragement recently.  I take what the Bible says about preaching the word in season and out of season very seriously.  But when you preach/teach the word week after week and see virtually no fruit it's easy to become discouraged. The times when preaching the word are out of season are not much fun.

With Rydelnik's story I was reminded of the power of the simply preached gospel of Jesus Christ.  He was a sixteen year old kid who didn't speak with the authority or charisma of an incredibly gifted young man, and one who has gone on to make a career out of talking.  Yet, his simple insistence that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah planted a seed in his music teacher's heart. It took some time, but that seed eventually blossomed into saving faith.  

It's sad that the modern church flocks to gifted speakers who talk about anything but Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins.  Honestly, it can be discouraging for those who faithfully preach the word to see those who do not draw large audiences and build huge churches.  It's frustrating when I know that I could build a bigger young adults ministry if I would stop preaching the word and instead talk about relationships, money, and career advice.  It's been proven time and again that if you talk about such things, people will come. I wouldn't be faithful to my King if I do so though, and I would be building a following for myself. It wouldn't be Jesus building his church.

I was reminded last week that there truly is power in the preached word.  I was also reminded that a lack of visible, immediate fruit doesn't mean that Jesus is not calling His sheep to Himself.  

It was a timely reminder as I prepare to preach an outreach event next week.  As I began preparations I've battled doubts.  There's a part of me that says, "They won't want to hear the gospel.  Why bother?"  So why bother?  Because King Jesus have given me a message to speak, and I don't have the right to change it. Because the power is in the gospel, not in me.  Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.  Because regardless of what people want to hear, what they need to hear is the gospel.

Maybe the message won't be well received.  Maybe I'll never be invited back.  Maybe I won't see any response to the message at all next Tuesday.

None of that matters.  What matters is that I faithfully proclaim Jesus as Lord and call on people to repent and believe, just as Jesus and the Apostles did.  That's all that matters for all of us who belong to Christ.  And we don't stop just because we don't see immediate results.  We sow the seeds, God causes them to take root and produce fruit.

Selfie Sermons

Earlier this week I attended a Christmas performance at a local school, and the school had invited a local pastor to deliver a message.  The pastor began, as is pretty standard when speaking to an unfamiliar gathering, with an introduction in which he said, "Since I am a handsome man, I am already married." 

In the moment I didn't think too much of it, other than it being a really poor effort at humor.  Some people are funny, some are not, and when the not funny people try to be funny it usually doesn't end well.  It became funny to me though, when a few seconds later he showed a picture of Narcissus staring at his reflection and began to describe narcissism.  Then it became even funnier when he transitioned from narcissism to talking about how he had been invited to preach in the United Arab Emirates all expenses paid, had visited the world's only seven star hotel, and had seen the world's tallest building.  The point of telling about the trip to UAE was that when he was at the tallest building in the world he saw lots of people taking selfies.

Now, I don't know this man's heart, but it really seemed to me like he was silently screaming, "Look at me! I get invited to preach in exotic places! I've seen expensive hotels! I'm somebody important! Look at me, look at me, look at me!"  I can't go to Starbucks without seeing a girl or group of girls taking selfies (full disclosure: I go to Starbucks often and regularly post pictures of the ways my name is misspelled on my Starbucks cup).  The story about traveling to UAE seemed completely unnecessary, particularly after introducing the concept of narcissism, if his objective was talking about people taking selfies.

In that moment it struck me that a lot of the sermons I've listened to recently are essentially verbal selfies, or what I'm going to start calling selfie sermons.  

I listen to probably ten or more whole or partial sermons every week.  The one positive of living in a city where it takes one or two hours to travel anywhere is that I have lots of time to listen to sermons and podcasts while I'm going around town.  I intentionally listen to both good and bad sermons, for there is much to learn from both.  One of the chief characteristics of the bad sermons is that the preacher preaches himself rather than Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins.  

The standard practice in the typical American evangelical church today seems to be for the pastor to begin with a story about himself, maybe read a few verses of Scripture, then give a list of principles that the listeners need to follow, using stories about himself to illustrate every point.

Like people usually take selfies when they look their best or when they're doing something they want to boast about, the stories the preacher shares are carefully crafted to make himself the hero and the example to be followed.  Of course the preachers will occasionally throw in a story about a time they failed or did something stupid to show how human they are, but even then the attention is on the preacher, and he's still only sharing what he chooses to share.  He's still presenting the image of himself that he wants people to see.

Last month I attended a meeting where a different preacher began by saying that all three of his children prayed to receive Christ at a young age because he prayed for them and didn't allow them to take communion until they professed faith.  He explicitly said they came to faith because he did those things.  Then he proceeded to tell his family's story.  His son later turned from the faith and lived in open rebellion against God.  The same son was then diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  He and his wife clung to an out-of-context Bible verse believing that he would live.  The son was miraculously cured through an experimental treatment and later came back to the faith.  His closing message was that the women in the audience who have wayward or sick children should keep praying for their children because God keeps his promises.

The entire message was about himself.  He made himself the hero.  He made himself the example.  He even attempted to make his experiences normative for all believers, as in, "Do what I did and you'll get the same results."  

It would have been a dereliction of duty for a pastor to deliver that message to an audience of all Christians.  The great tragedy of this particular meeting was that there was a Hindu woman in attendance who openly stated before the meeting that she wasn't a Christian.  And in what could have been the only time in her life that she'll sit and listen to a Christian preacher speak, she heard not about Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for sins, that forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available if she would only repent and believe. No, she heard about the life of the preacher.  

The instruction for pastors in Scripture is clear - we are to preach Christ.  We do not preach ourselves, we preach Christ and him crucified.  We are to deliver of first importance, as Paul did in Corinth, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.  We preach Christ from all the Scriptures.  The namesake of this blog is Luke 24 where Jesus himself said that the Scriptures are about him.  

Can I challenge you, dear readers, to do something?  Listen to your pastor's sermons over the next few weeks and ask yourself this question: Is he preaching Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins or preaching himself?  Am I learning more about Jesus or more about the pastor?  

Here's the thing - your pastor is a sinner.  Just like you he's a great sinner in need of a great Savior, and Jesus is that Savior.  There's a time and a place for you to learn about your pastor's life (and hopefully you're in a church where you can actually spend time with your pastor).  The sermon time is not that time.  The sermon is the time for him to proclaim Christ.  If your pastor is preaching himself, please leave and find a church where the pastor will be faithful to his role as an under-shepherd of Christ.  

We ought not give narcissists an opportunity to promote themselves with selfie sermons. Nothing less than your soul and the souls of those around is at stake.