I am planning to change my approach to my Sunday messages.
Since I began speaking in church, I’ve focused on a text, wherever it was in the Bible.
But what I noticed happening was that sometimes, especially in old testament passages, Jesus was brought in as an afterthought.
Recently I forgot my Jesus connection altogether – it was in my notes, but got lost in the presentation – YIKES!
I realized it right after we started singing, so threw it in with the final blessing, but THAT’S NOT GOOD!
Anyway, now I want to bring Jesus, the Word of God in the flesh, front and center!
The Bible is the Word of God, but the Word of God is not the Bible.
In its original sense, the Word of God is the second person of the triune God.
The Father is God as He is in Himself – God over us!
The Word is God as He reveals or communicates Himself with creation – God with us!
And the Spirit is God as He connects Himself with creation – God in us!
We might think of the generator, the cable and the electrical current.
Or the sun, the suns rays, and the warmth we experience.
“For through Christ we have access to the Father by one Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:18)
When the Word became flesh in Jesus, He became the ultimate revelation of God (Hebrews 1:1-2).
In Jesus, we see God, we understand what God is like, what He values and what He expects.
In Jesus we see God’s purpose, God’s power, and God’s presence.
In Jesus we see the way of God and the way to God.
In Jesus we see the will of God in action, the Law fulfilled.
In Jesus we see the justice of God and the mercy of God.
The old covenant was put in place to point the way forward to God’s coming to us in the flesh.
The new covenant is now in place to help us live out of the reality of God’s being with us in the flesh.
The very center of this whole revelation is found in Jesus, the fullness of God in bodily form.
And so we are first and foremost ambassadors for Jesus… not for the Bible.
The Bible contains the God-inspired testimony to the fullness of God in Jesus.
The old testament (Genesis – Malachi) points forward to, and the new testament (Acts- Revelation) builds out from the Gospel center (Matthew-John).
Although it is all inspired, I am coming to think that we need to keep the gospels central in our presentation of the message of God in Jesus.
What this would look like in my preaching is always having a gospel story as the main text of every sermon.
I would always preach from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, using the old testament (Genesis – Malachi) and the new testament (Acts- Revelation) to illuminate these passages.
I would be giving greater weight to the gospels than to the rest of the Bible… or the rest of the Bible would only make sense by the message of the gospels.
I would not ignore or neglect the old covenant or new covenant writings, but I would interpret them in light of the person, the teaching and the actions of Jesus.
My messages would actually look a lot more like lectionary preaching (old testament, psalm, new testament, gospel).
Why would I do this?
First of all, to keep following Jesus front and center in all my preaching.
Secondly, to keep from mixing old covenant legalism in our new covenant calling.
Third, to keep the message of the kingdom front and center ((Paul does not use this language, though he does apply it in the letters he writes).
Fourth, because I believe this best reflects how God has revealed Himself.
Fifth, because the Word of God in the book often takes primacy over the Word of God in Jesus (like the Pharisees, people become worshippers of the book, and miss the person of Jesus).
Sixth, because our message is centered in Jesus, and only through Him can we make sense of the rest of the story!
Seventh, to keep myself from accidentally forgetting the centrality of Jesus.
Eighth, to keep the community of Jesus-followers from forgetting the centrality of Jesus.
So now as I read through Genesis (and the rest of the Bible), I am right away thinking of Jesus connections in the gospels.
At first, some of them may seem stretched, but that’s to be expected, as I am still learning how to do this.
Hmm, and when I talk to others about my faith, I would keep it centered on Jesus.
I would encourage them to start reading one of the gospels first.
Hey, maybe we could reprint Bibles in a new order: first the Gospels as the main text, then the new testament as commentary, and the old testament as appendix.
Then when we hand the Bible to non-Christians, they will get the main point first!
Wow, that’s radical, maybe going too far?
This seems like a big deal to me, but maybe others have always read the Bible like this!
Any thoughts or feedback?
What are the dangers of this kind of Bible-reading or preaching?
I agree that the main point of focus is Jesus, but more so, the fulfillment in Jesus.
Remember back to Jesus on the road to Emmaus – he started relaying the OT to the disciples and showing how the Christ fulfilled them. That was Christ’s first sermon after His ascension.
The OT should not be told as stories with a goal for knowledge purposes only.
The OT is told with the goal of pointing us to Jesus.
The author John Cross wrote the book, The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus (http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=082147&event=CF) – it is an interesting read.
I agree wholeheartedly with you Norm. It has to begin with Jesus. Great evangelists like Billy Graham always began with Jesus. Once we have met Jesus, then it is time to glean and grow through study, digging deep into the history etc. Indeed it has to begin with Jesus for the Bible tells us that Jesus is the way!
Being born and raised in the ‘church’ I can honestly say, my own faith became alive later in life when I met Jesus and discovered a personal relationship with Him – before that, it was just a ‘history’ lesson and honestly, nothing seemed relevant to my life at the present…..
My struggle greatly as a worship leader in the past few years has been that as ‘church’ we lose the centre, the heart of Chsitanity and make it all about external things such as preferences, styles, legalism, agendas, performance all of which lead to emptiness. Worship is about relating to the Triune God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to meet us where we are at, giving and receiving, emptying and filling, wrestling and surrender, equipping, annointing to go out and be the ‘gospel’ (Jesus) to the world.
Truly, I believe it remains a history lesson- the past unless we begin with Jesus – the present!
Norm, I shall be praying that you are listening to the voice of God as He continue to speaks His truth into your heart. Embrace the affirmation that the article ‘Jesus, the epicenter’ is speaking into your questions. There are no co-incedences, only God incidences. I believe this is the basis of Paul’s ministry and teachings of the new testament as he addressed the churches. May the world find Jesus!
Thanks for the comments Twiggy and Alison. I’m going to do some more thinking and praying about this, especially about the method of New Tribes. I do agree that some kind of context is necessary, otherwise many of the allusions and references to the OT in the Gospels won’t make sense. But what holds me back is the thought of people going through the old covenant first, especially now that the REALITY has come. I can see if we are working with Jews, or people familiar with the bible, but for people with no background at all, I am still inclined to start with Jesus – He is compelling enough as He is, then showing some of the background and application afterwards.
I think of a beautiful cathedral. While it is being built, it makes sense to show people the blueprints, the scaffolding, the method of preparing the stone, of making stained glass windows, etc. But once it is built, it doesn’t make sense to show them that stuff first. First give them the tour of the cathedral, let them take in the beauty of the REALITY, then take them to a back room where the building process is explained. Sure they won’t understand the intricasies of the building process, they won’t appreciate all that went it to it, but after they have marvelled at the final product, we can show them the amazing building process as well. But in the end, its not about the scaffolding (the OT), its about the cathedral.
Anyway, great conversation. Will give it some more thought.
The lectionary was a big part of what drew Shawn and me to the Presbyterian and then Anglican churches. I love the way the four passages weave together to create a more complete picture. In fact, the lectionary inspired my first book of short stories, because I wanted to explore in fiction the way that themes are echoed and expanded in various parts of the Bible.
But I totally agree with making Jesus the focus of preaching. Aren’t we Christ-ians, after all, not Biblicists? 🙂
I like the idea of reprinting the Bible in the order you mentioned. The only difficulty is that is how we (seasoned Bible learners) would use the Bible – I ‘m not sure that it would be how a new believer could best benefit from it.
Can you truely know the impact of the fulfillment before you know the background of the promise and the elements in them?….
I know that mission organizations such as New Tribes Mission start at Genesis and teach the tribes all the way through. They concentrate on the themes learned in the Old testament, not just the stories. By the time they reach the gospels the themes come alive and the people see the fulfillment accomplished in Jesus. All the material in the Old Testament point to Jesus and they are able to see WHY they point to Jesus.
Again, it really depends on the need of the reader. For me, I know I would benefit from the refreshing accountability of focusing on Jesus and the work that needs to be done here and now.
But in order to gain God’s perspective and language of the fulfillment in Christ, new believers need to learn from the history lessons first I would think.