Paul the apostle laid no claim to eloquence. But he had one rule to measure sermons: when Christ was preached, he rejoiced (Phil. 1:18). Paul lived Christ, and he preached Christ. “I determined,” he said, “not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
When that apostolic single-mindedness is lost, the soul goes out of preaching. Sermons must be more than relevant: they must be Christian. Even biblical learning is not enough if the scholar can only ask from the pulpit, “Of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?” (Acts 8:34).
Christ rebuked as fools those who were slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets had spoken. As he interpreted from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself, he set their hearts on fire.
The minister’s task is to preach the Word of the Lord so as to reveal the Lord of the Word.
Preaching The Word Of The Lord
Those who take one-sided approaches to the Bible do not see it as the Word of the Lord, filled with movement and power. Some approach the Bible as an inspirational sourcebook, a golden casket where gems of truth are stored. Indeed, they might prefer a box of golden text cards, free of non-inspirational genealogies and grisly murders.
Others come looking for maxims of morality. Proverbs are much to their taste, as are lives of the saints. But again come the difficulties: not only the sins of the saints and their dubious deeds, but victories that do not seem to be at all exemplary to us—Samuel hewing Agag to pieces before the Lord, for example, or Samson pulling down the galleries of the temple of Dagon.
Still others come to the Bible with more orderly minds. They are seeking for proof texts to demonstrate the system of doctrine the Bible contains. Their one regret is that the Bible seems so disorganized. A Bible dictionary is much more convenient. Now that the theological results of God’s long work of revelation can be tabulated, a handy summary of doctrine is far more useful a text than Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—especially Leviticus!
It is not what those who take these approaches see that is at fault. It is what they miss. The Bible is full of golden texts of inspiration, maxims of morality, outlines of sound doctrine. Yet the Word of the Lord is not structured by any one of these motifs. What does determine the form of the Bible is its nature as the Word of the Lord. The testimony of Jesus explains both the structure of the Scripture and its content. It could be said that what distinguishes the Bible is its historical form; yet it is not history that determines the Word of God. To the contrary, the Word of God determines history. The power of God’s word of promise accounts for the historical form of the Bible, and that word centers on the coming Lord.
Our verbal smog obscures the concept of the power of God’s Word. Words are cheap. Thousands of them are unread on the newspaper in which we wrap the garbage, and we numbly ignore the ceaseless open-ended chatter of modern broadcasting. The Bible does not look at words in that way. Even a man’s word should be faithful and meaningful, for God will call him to account for every idle word. And what of the word of God? God speaks with sovereign, creative power: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.… For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Ps. 33:6, 9).
God’s word of promise is his word of power spoken in the future tense. God intervenes in the garden to confront Satan’s serpent: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). God’s word does not merely predict the triumph of redemption. It determines it: “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
Because a span of time intervenes between the word of promise and the deed of realization, the word itself gains new importance. The span is the time of faith, and the word of God is accounted sure by those who do not see the fulfillment. The call of Abraham is a call of promise to a pilgrimage of faith, and Abraham is repeatedly proved with respect to his trust in the word of God. Abraham is called to believe not only without evidence but even against evidence. The word of promise becomes impossible, so that for both Abraham and Sarah it is laughable. Sarah to have a son—at her age! Why cannot the Lord be reasonable—“O that Ishmael might live before thee!” (Gen. 17:18).
To the laughter of Sarah’s unbelief, the angel of the Lord replies, “Is any word too wonderful for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14). That assurance was repeated to Mary when the ultimate miracle fulfilled the primal promise (Luke 1:37). God names the child of the promise “Laughter,” for the laugh of unbelief is turned to the laugh of joyful faith. So did Abraham rejoice to see Christ’s day, and he saw it and was glad (John 8:56).
The word of God’s promise, while yet unfulfilled, sets the fixed goal that gives meaning to history. Man is called by God’s promise to wait and labor in the hope of faith. History is more than the cycles of nature or a journey through the empty wilderness to death. It is the time during which God watches over his word to perform it (Jer. 1:11, 12). To this day the secularized culture of the West carries a dynamic concept of history borrowed from the hope of God’s promise.
The span of promise requires the written Word of God. God will remember his word of promise, and he summons his people to bear witness to its reality. The words of God’s covenant are written with his finger on tablets of stone after the pattern of ancient royal treaties. God goes on record in a written memorial by which his faithfulness as Lord and Israel’s unfaithfulness as servant will be judged (Ex. 32:15, 16; 34:27–29; Deut. 31:24–26).
God’s word of promise fixes seasons of redemptive history. Had God spoken only the final promise, the lamp of faith would surely have flickered out during the long ages of delay. But God granted provisional fulfillments to point to the final reality. Isaac was given to Abraham long before the true Beloved Son came; David entered Jerusalem long before the Heir of the promise ascended God’s holy hill.
Yet the manifold promises of God are yea and amen in one Man. Their variety is not chaotic but organic. The seasons of redemption unfold toward the fullness of time. The sabbatical system of the sacred calendar moved from the seventh day to the seventh month, the seventh year, and finally, after seven sevens, to the fiftieth year of Jubilee; so also God promised to usher in the acceptable year of the Lord, the jubilee of his salvation (Isa. 61:2; Lev. 25; Luke 4:18, 19). The prophets transfigure the language of promise as they speak of God’s work in the latter days. So total will be his restoration that it will become a renewal of heaven and earth as God reveals all the treasures of his will (Jer. 33:2; Isa. 40:5; 55:11). Such blessings can come only as God himself comes to dwell with his people. The promise of God points to the presence of God. God who came down on Sinai in promise will come to Bethlehem in fulfillment.
Preaching The Lord Of The Word
We are pointed therefore by the whole structure of the Word of the Lord to him who is the Lord of the Word.
The Lord will come. He appears amidst the rejoicing of his creation to set up his kingdom on earth (Ps. 46:5–10; 98:7–9). In a second exodus he leads forth his sheep as their Redeemer-Shepherd-King (Isa. 10:26; 35:1–10; 40:3, 10, 11) and summons the nations to his salvation.
For this work of salvation, God must be the Saviour. Only the work of God can fulfill the word of God. He has promised too much for Moses or Joshua, David or Elijah to perform. “The Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one …” (Isa. 40:5, 10). Only God’s power can deliver and only his mercy can redeem. There are dread indications in the Old Testament that God redeems his sinful people at his own expense. God takes the awe-filled oath of the covenant (Gen. 15), provides the sacrifice when the offering of the son of the promise is demanded (Gen. 22), and stands upon the rock that is smitten (Ex. 17). Salvation is of the Lord.
If the Lord comes, the Servant of the Lord must also come. The covenant has two sides: the Lord must come to renew the covenant, the Servant must come to fulfill the covenant. The task of Israel’s calling will be filled by one called from the womb to be God’s Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to be a light to the Gentiles, God’s salvation to the end of the earth (Isa. 49:1–6). As the obedient Son and the righteous sufferer, he will make atonement for the sins of “the many” (Isa. 53). He is the divine Messiah, Immanuel, God with us.
The full and free way in which the New Testament attributes the realization of these promises to the coming of Jesus Christ as Lord and Servant should open our eyes to the scope of the witness of Scripture to him. He is Lord, God the only-begotten (John 1:18), the Divine Word become flesh (v. 14). It is he that will save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21), for he is the Saviour (Luke 2:11). His words and deeds realize the Jubilee; they reveal the authority of the Lord. His miracles of cleansing are signs of the removal of the covenant curse (Ex. 15:26; Deut. 28:60; 32:39; Lev. 14; Luke 17:14), and of the healing of salvation (Isa. 57:15–19). The confession of Thomas sums up the witness of the apostles: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Even in suffering he is king (John 18:37; 19:19), and the lifting up of the cross begins an exaltation that carries him to the throne of glory (John 12:31–33) in resurrection triumph. He is the Servant, too, yet not in contradiction of his Lordship, for he is a royal Servant, whose sufferings are self-chosen with sovereign dignity and who conquers through death. The glorified Servant (Acts 3:13) is the glorious Lord (Heb. 1:5–8). The Lord of the Covenant has come to his people; the Servant of the Covenant has ascended to his Father.
Do we need to be reminded of how totally the New Testament centers on Christ? Begin to read any book in it, from the first (“the book of the generation of Jesus Christ …,” Matt. 1:1) to the last (“the Revelation of Jesus Christ …,” Rev. 1:1). The New Testament emphatically claims that this same centrality of Christ applies to the Old Testament. Jesus’ interpretation after the resurrection expounded “in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Peter affirms that Christ’s coming was promised by Moses and that “all the prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days” (Acts 3:24). Paul’s preaching was that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” and has “been raised on the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3, 4).
Where is Christ to be found in the Old Testament? Not merely in the relatively few passages that explicitly speak of the coming Messiah but in the whole Old Testament message. The Old Testament is about the covenant Lord and his mercies to his people. Christ is the Lord of the covenant, gathering his people in the latter days. The Old Testament is about Israel; but Christ is the true Israel, the son called out of Egypt, the Remnant shoot out of the roots of David (Isa. 49:3–7; 10:34–11:1). The Old Testament is about Moses and the prophets, Aaron and the priests, David and the kings. Christ is the true Anointed, the Prophet like unto Moses, the Priest after the royal order of Melchisedec, David’s Son and Lord.
What is revealed in the Gospel is what was promised in the Old Testament Scriptures (Rom. 1:1–3). The great “now” of salvation is the realization of the fullness of times (2 Cor. 6:2; 2 Tim. 1:10; Col. 1:26; Gal. 4:4). Only when we see the inner connection leading to the climax of redemptive history can we appreciate the New Testament’s use of the Old. Whether it is Matthew’s reference to Christ in the text, “out of Egypt did I call my Son” (Matt. 2:15, cf. Hos. 11:1); or the allusion to Scripture given by John in describing Christ’s thirst on the cross (John 19:28, cf. Ps. 69:21); or Paul’s application of “my people” to the Gentiles (Rom. 9:25, cf. Hos. 2:23); or the remarkable application of the Psalms to Christ in the first chapter of Hebrews—all the understanding of the Old Testament Scriptures is grounded in the organic unity of the revelation of him who knew the end from the beginning and set the seasons in his own authority until the appointed time.
To perceive this focus of the Scriptures on Christ as the Lord and the Servant is not to yield to impoverishment but to gain enrichment. Precisely in Christ does the trinitarian revelation reach its glorious fullness, for in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Apart from Christ, the Father’s glory cannot be seen (John 14:9). Will you look away from Jesus Christ to see the Father? Or will you find the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
In Christ we have the Spirit too. The Spirit of God is also the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). The Spirit is sent in Christ’s name (John 14:26); he reveals the things of Christ (John 16:13–15); and in him Christ is present (John 14:18, 23; Rom. 8:9, 10). The Spirit is not a poor substitute for the presence of the risen Christ but a full and glorious form of his presence. The disciples were taught to desire his going away, so that the Spirit might come (John 16:7).
Christocentric preaching, then, is also trinitarian preaching. It is no accident that the revelation of the Trinity is manifested as Christ is manifested. The hour that comes and now is when the Father is worshiped in the Spirit is the hour when Jesus Christ declares, “I that speak unto thee am he” (John 4:26).
To preach the Word of the Lord and the Lord of the Word is one task. There is one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all; the unity of our one faith is in the knowledge of the Son of God (Eph. 4:4–16). To judge that the Bible speaks sometimes of God, sometimes of God’s people, and therefore only sometimes of Christ is to leave out of account the fullness of him that filleth all in all. When we declare that all the Scriptures witness to Christ, we are neither adopting a partial perspective nor imposing the conviction of faith on an alien Old Testament religion. We are confessing the Word of the Lord.
The Word of the Lord describes Samson not as an ancient superman but as a judge of Israel whom the Spirit used as a single champion to deliver the people of God. His role anticipates the work of Christ; in spite of his quenching of the Spirit he manifests the Redeemer who is bound and delivered to the enemy but who triumphs even in death. The zeal of Samuel in executing Agag at God’s command anticipates the zeal of the last Judge, who cleansed the temple with a scourge but himself bore the scourging to cleanse forever the people of God, and who will come again bearing the sword of eternal judgment.
Where the Lord is present in judgment or salvation, there the presence of the Lord Incarnate is anticipated; where the servant is manifested in obedience or disobedience, there the calling of the true Servant is foreshadowed; where words of promise and acts of redemption reveal God’s saving plan, there the consummation of revelation and redemption is prepared for.
Until you have seen a text illumined not only from without but from within by the light of Christ, you are not yet ready to proclaim it to the Church or the world. This preaching hems you in to Christ’s fullness, limits you to all the riches of the wisdom of God, narrows your thought to the mind of Christ, and restricts your vision to one light of the eye, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Concede wider ranges to those who want to wander in trackless places; let them be conformed to the passing patterns of preaching, non-preaching, or anti-preaching. But determine with Paul to preach Christ. No more, no less.
