Hello Friends!
Have you ever wondered how Jesus' preaching might come across if He were to address a stadium filled with typical twenty-first-century evangelicals? Because let's be candid: Jesus' style of preaching was nothing at all like most of the popular preaching we hear today - and His style of preaching isn't likely to generate the kind of enthusiastic arm waving and feel-good atmosphere today's Christians typically like to see at their mass meetings and outdoor festivals…
Jesus: Not a Tame Preacher!
What we think of Jesus Christ will thoroughly color how we think about everything else. This is a critical truth in the life of every believer. Our view of Jesus affects the way we view God, the world, ourselves and everyone of our life decisions.
As we consistently see in the Scriptures, the truth mattered more to Jesus than how people felt about it. He wasn't looking for ways to just make people "like" Him; He was calling people who were willing to bow to Him unconditionally as their Lord. He wasn't interested in reinforcing the "common-ground" beliefs where His message overlapped with the Pharisees' worldview. On the contrary, He stressed almost exclusively the points on which He disagreed with them, He never acted as if the best way to turn people away from the damnable heresies of Pharisee-religion was to make His message sound as much as possible like the popular beliefs of the day. Instead, He reiterated again and again the points of doctrine that were most at odds with the controversial wisdom of these Pharisees.
In Matthew 23, Jesus provides a powerful onslaught of rebuke against the religious sins of Israel and her leaders in particular. How supremely significant it is that the One of whom it was said, "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17) made His last public sermon an extended message of condemnation. He used some of the sharpest language ever employed. He called them names. He let loose with waves of condemnation against their hypocrisy, their scripture-twisting and their self-righteousness. He pronounced woe after woe against them. And the expression "woe" was no mild imprecation; it was the strongest conceivable prophetic curse. And you can be certain its meaning was not lost on them.
Survey the current plethora of websites devoted to supplying today's preachers with prefabricated sermon material and you'll get a very clear picture of what constitutes "great preaching" in the minds of most twenty-first-century evangelicals: trendiness; funny anecdotes; slick packaging; clever audio-visual aids; and short, stylish, topical homilies on themes borrowed from pop culture. Favorite subjects include marriage and sex, human relationships, self-improvement, personal success, the pursuit of happiness and anything else that pleases audiences - especially if the topic or sermon title can easily be tied into the latest hit movie, must-watch TV series, or popular song. In the trendiest churches, you are more likely to hear the preacher quote lyrics from Bono and U2 than from David and the Psalms.
One mega-church sponsored a four-part sermon series in which their pastor did a word-by-word exegesis of passages taken from Dr. Seuss books, starting with Horton Hatches the Egg. Unbelievable! The pastor of one of America's five largest churches put a king-sized bed on the platform as a prop while he preached a five-week series on sex. A year or so later, the same church made national headlines by promoting yet another series with a "sex challenge" so blatantly inappropriate that even some in the secular media expressed shock and outrage.
Such shenanigans come under the rubric of relevance in the catalog of contemporary church-growth strategies. Sermons featuring straight Biblical exposition, precise doctrine, difficult truths, or negative-sounding topics are strongly discouraged by virtually all the leading gurus of cultural relevance. And the people filling evangelical pews "love to have it so" (Jeremiah 5:31). "Speak to us smooth things" (Isaiah 30:10) is their constant demand. Teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16) are out. Catering to itchy ears is in (cf. 4:3). No truly clued-in preacher nowadays would think to fill his message with reproof, rebuke, or exhortation (cf. 4:2). Instead, he does his best to suit the felt needs, preoccupations and passions of the audience. Many contemporary pastors of today study pop culture as diligently as the Puritans used to study Scripture. They let congregational opinion polls determine what they should preach, and they are prepared to shift directions quickly if the latest survey tells them their approval ratings are beginning to drop. That, of course, is precisely what Paul told Timothy not to do. "Preach the word!... in season and out of season" (v. 2).
The contemporary craving for shallow sermons that please and entertain is at least partly rooted in the popular myth that Jesus Himself was always likable, agreeable, winsome and at the cutting edge of His culture's fashions. The domesticated, meek-and-mild Savior of today's Sunday-school literature would never knowingly or deliberately offend someone in a sermon - would He? As we see in the Scriptures, even a cursory look at Jesus' preaching ministry reveals a totally different picture. Jesus' sermons usually featured hard truths, harsh words and high-octane controversy. His own disciples complained that His preaching was too hard to hear!
That's why Jesus' preaching heads the list of things that make Him impossible to ignore. No preacher has ever been more bold, prophetic or provocative. No style of public ministry could possibly be more irksome to those who prefer a comfortable religion. Jesus made it impossible for any hearer to walk away indifferent. Some left angry; some were deeply troubled by what He had to say; many had their eyes opened; and many more hardened their hearts against His message. Some became His disciples and other became His adversaries. But no one who listened to Him preach for very long could possibly remain unchanged or apathetic.
We can learn a lot from observing how Jesus dealt with false religion and its purveyors. The boldness with which He assaulted error is very much in short supply today, and the church is suffering for it. Someone who makes a loud profession of faith but constantly fails to live up to it needs to be exposed for his own souls sake. More than that, those who set themselves up as teachers representing the Lord and influencing others while corrupting the truth need to be renounced and refuted. For their sake, for the sake of others who are victimized by their errors, and especially for the glory of Christ, who is Truth incarnate.
If Christ Himself devoted so much of His time and energy during His earthly ministry to the task of confronting and refuting false teachers, surely that must be high on our agenda as well. His style of ministry ought to be the model for ours, and His zeal against false religion ought to fill our hearts and minds as well.
Has Jesus touched your life? Come to Him today. Now is the time to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior!
As we consistently see in the Scriptures, the truth mattered more to Jesus than how people felt about it. He wasn't looking for ways to just make people "like" Him; He was calling people who were willing to bow to Him unconditionally as their Lord. He wasn't interested in reinforcing the "common-ground" beliefs where His message overlapped with the Pharisees' worldview. On the contrary, He stressed almost exclusively the points on which He disagreed with them, He never acted as if the best way to turn people away from the damnable heresies of Pharisee-religion was to make His message sound as much as possible like the popular beliefs of the day. Instead, He reiterated again and again the points of doctrine that were most at odds with the controversial wisdom of these Pharisees.
In Matthew 23, Jesus provides a powerful onslaught of rebuke against the religious sins of Israel and her leaders in particular. How supremely significant it is that the One of whom it was said, "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17) made His last public sermon an extended message of condemnation. He used some of the sharpest language ever employed. He called them names. He let loose with waves of condemnation against their hypocrisy, their scripture-twisting and their self-righteousness. He pronounced woe after woe against them. And the expression "woe" was no mild imprecation; it was the strongest conceivable prophetic curse. And you can be certain its meaning was not lost on them.
Survey the current plethora of websites devoted to supplying today's preachers with prefabricated sermon material and you'll get a very clear picture of what constitutes "great preaching" in the minds of most twenty-first-century evangelicals: trendiness; funny anecdotes; slick packaging; clever audio-visual aids; and short, stylish, topical homilies on themes borrowed from pop culture. Favorite subjects include marriage and sex, human relationships, self-improvement, personal success, the pursuit of happiness and anything else that pleases audiences - especially if the topic or sermon title can easily be tied into the latest hit movie, must-watch TV series, or popular song. In the trendiest churches, you are more likely to hear the preacher quote lyrics from Bono and U2 than from David and the Psalms.
One mega-church sponsored a four-part sermon series in which their pastor did a word-by-word exegesis of passages taken from Dr. Seuss books, starting with Horton Hatches the Egg. Unbelievable! The pastor of one of America's five largest churches put a king-sized bed on the platform as a prop while he preached a five-week series on sex. A year or so later, the same church made national headlines by promoting yet another series with a "sex challenge" so blatantly inappropriate that even some in the secular media expressed shock and outrage.
Such shenanigans come under the rubric of relevance in the catalog of contemporary church-growth strategies. Sermons featuring straight Biblical exposition, precise doctrine, difficult truths, or negative-sounding topics are strongly discouraged by virtually all the leading gurus of cultural relevance. And the people filling evangelical pews "love to have it so" (Jeremiah 5:31). "Speak to us smooth things" (Isaiah 30:10) is their constant demand. Teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16) are out. Catering to itchy ears is in (cf. 4:3). No truly clued-in preacher nowadays would think to fill his message with reproof, rebuke, or exhortation (cf. 4:2). Instead, he does his best to suit the felt needs, preoccupations and passions of the audience. Many contemporary pastors of today study pop culture as diligently as the Puritans used to study Scripture. They let congregational opinion polls determine what they should preach, and they are prepared to shift directions quickly if the latest survey tells them their approval ratings are beginning to drop. That, of course, is precisely what Paul told Timothy not to do. "Preach the word!... in season and out of season" (v. 2).
The contemporary craving for shallow sermons that please and entertain is at least partly rooted in the popular myth that Jesus Himself was always likable, agreeable, winsome and at the cutting edge of His culture's fashions. The domesticated, meek-and-mild Savior of today's Sunday-school literature would never knowingly or deliberately offend someone in a sermon - would He? As we see in the Scriptures, even a cursory look at Jesus' preaching ministry reveals a totally different picture. Jesus' sermons usually featured hard truths, harsh words and high-octane controversy. His own disciples complained that His preaching was too hard to hear!
That's why Jesus' preaching heads the list of things that make Him impossible to ignore. No preacher has ever been more bold, prophetic or provocative. No style of public ministry could possibly be more irksome to those who prefer a comfortable religion. Jesus made it impossible for any hearer to walk away indifferent. Some left angry; some were deeply troubled by what He had to say; many had their eyes opened; and many more hardened their hearts against His message. Some became His disciples and other became His adversaries. But no one who listened to Him preach for very long could possibly remain unchanged or apathetic.
We can learn a lot from observing how Jesus dealt with false religion and its purveyors. The boldness with which He assaulted error is very much in short supply today, and the church is suffering for it. Someone who makes a loud profession of faith but constantly fails to live up to it needs to be exposed for his own souls sake. More than that, those who set themselves up as teachers representing the Lord and influencing others while corrupting the truth need to be renounced and refuted. For their sake, for the sake of others who are victimized by their errors, and especially for the glory of Christ, who is Truth incarnate.
If Christ Himself devoted so much of His time and energy during His earthly ministry to the task of confronting and refuting false teachers, surely that must be high on our agenda as well. His style of ministry ought to be the model for ours, and His zeal against false religion ought to fill our hearts and minds as well.
Has Jesus touched your life? Come to Him today. Now is the time to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior!
"Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation" - 2 Corinthians 6:2
If you have been blessed by this message or have a specific question, prayer request or testimony, please send me a note to: encouragingconcepts@live.com
I love hearing from you. Keep reading Encouraging Concepts!
Blessings!
Shane K. Morin <><
I love hearing from you. Keep reading Encouraging Concepts!
Blessings!
Shane K. Morin <><
Encouraging Concepts
Truth for Today
"Living Life From a Biblical Worldview"
Lighthouse Publications <><
"Dedicated to the Never Ending Search for the Creator's calling within You" (TM)
Lighthouse Publications <><
"Dedicated to the Never Ending Search for the Creator's calling within You" (TM)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.