Preaching Christ
We do not preach ourselves, but
Jesus Christ as Lord – 2 Corinthians 4:5
People
often think that preaching about Jesus Christ means that the preacher is
proclaiming Jesus as a nice guy, a giver, a healer and a teacher who told great
stories.
But if you listen – really
listen – to everything that Jesus said, He turned a lot of people off. Jesus
told His disciples that many would reject them because they rejected Him.
Families would be torn apart because of Jesus. The disciples would not be
welcomed because of Jesus’ message, so the disciples were instructed to shake
the dust off their feet and leave that town. Jesus’ own cousin, John the
Baptist, was beheaded because of the force of God’s message that He preached.
We need to understand that
Jesus did not enter our world to be a “nice guy.” He came to be our Savior.
Being a Savior means that Jesus had to save us from something. What is that
something? Our sin. In order to be a true Savior, then, means that Jesus – and
His messengers – have to first point out and expose the sin. Then Jesus can
save us from that sin.
Back in the 1500’s, there was a
man by the name of Hugh Latimer. Hugh Latimer was a preacher in England
The problem was this. Latimer
had just finished preaching a sermon. King Henry VIII was in attendance.
Something in his sermon had angered the king so much that the king ordered
Latimer to preach a new sermon for him the next Sunday, but to include an
apology for what he had said the previous Sunday. No one had to tell Latimer
that offending someone like Henry VIII could mean imprisonment or death.
The next Sunday arrived.
Latimer climbed into the pulpit. From there he could see the king, waiting for
his apology. In essence, Latimer began his sermon with these words: “I know I
stand before a king, who is able to take my life. But I also stand before
Christ Jesus, who holds my immortal soul.” And with that, Hugh Latimer
proceeded to preach the same sermon he had preached the week before.
Perhaps you have heard your
pastor hit a raw nerve or two in his sermons. He told you something that your
old sinful self did not want to hear. Maybe it felt like the pastor hit just a
little too close to home.
Remember what the purpose of a
preacher is. His purpose is not to just make you feel good about yourself, to
avoid difficult subjects, to avoid hurting your feelings. Rather, his purpose
is to preach Christ. It is to call sin what Jesus calls sin. Because only then
can Jesus’ message of forgiveness bring real healing for our hurts and real
rescue from our guilt.
This good news of salvation is
paired with the hard words of the Law. You and I have sinned and need to
confess that sin so that we might be forgiven. The words the pastor speaks are
words of Law, but they aren’t hateful words. Often times we hear these words as
hateful because our sinful nature does not like to acknowledge sin.
But God sends faithful
preachers to confront sinners, so they can then acknowledge their sin and find
forgiveness in Jesus Christ who paid for and forgave that sin. Preaching Christ
means preaching all of Him – Law and Gospel. God and His preachers know that it
is better for us to face up to our sins now, so God can take them away now. The
alternative is to wait until life is over and we are standing before the
judgment seat of the Almighty God. No one wants that!
By the way, Hugh Latimer
survived to preach many more sermons.
Preaching all of
Christ,
Pastor Michael Zarling
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