As you listen to a preacher for any length of time, you will hear a constant theme or a reoccurring emphasis that continues to resurface over time. This common focus of a preacher spotlights an ongoing goal in his ministry. For instance, if you listen to any health, wealth, and prosperity preacher it’s very likely that you will hear something mentioned about money sooner rather than later. Other preachers are known for their focus on eschatology or politics, and those themes seem to accent every sermon they preach. For Jesus, the central theme that he was focused upon was the good news of salvation. 

The world is very much interested in Jesus so long as he isn’t very preachy. This is obvious from the popular show “The Chosen” that has recently captured the attention of the secular sphere. “We were somewhat resistant. I thought it would be cheesy or preachy,” said Carlos Crestana. But by episode 5, he said, “We were all in. We told all our friends.’1
When it comes to preaching, it goes without saying that preaching has fallen upon hard times. Many local churches today would like to substitute the pulpit and bold preaching for something more gentle and palatable. What do we know about Jesus’ preaching? An honest survey of the preaching of Jesus reveals that his preaching was both theologically rich and extremely practical. When we compare modern preaching methods to Jesus, we find that today’s pulpit is shallow and unbalanced. Far too often preaching aims at being immediately practical while neglecting biblical theology. We can learn much from Jesus’ preaching ministry.
Jesus and His Prophetic Preaching
In the Old Testament, the Prophet Moses is perhaps the most respected of all the prophets because of his work in delivering the law to the people and leading them out of the bondage of Egypt. In his ministry he literally spoke to God “face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11). One of the great prophecies of Moses was when he pointed the people to the dawning of a day when a prophet would arise who was greater than himself who must be obeyed (Deut 18).
Many Orthodox Jews believe this text in Deuteronomy refers to Joshua, the son of Nun.2
 The religion of Islam teaches that the passage in Deuteronomy 18 is referring to the prophet Muhammed (AD 570–632). In Moses’ day, he was providing the details regarding the rituals and regulations for both the daily affairs in the market and the worship practices of Israel. He then points them to the prophet who would one day arise—this great Prophet who would lead the people.
Deuteronomy, a book that means the repeating of the law, ends with these words:
And there has not yet arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face, in regard to all the signs and wonders which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land, and in regard to all the mighty power and in regard to all the great terror which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.3
Not just any prophet could fulfill the prophecy of Moses. This figure that Moses foretells would be a special prophet unlike the great prophets of Israel’s history. Ultimately, Deuteronomy 18 is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, as the divine Son (John 1:1, 18) enjoyed perfect unbroken communion with God the Father (Matt 11:27; John 10:15). In Jesus’ earthly ministry, he put on display his deity as he healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear again (Is 35:5).
Jesus fulfilled the office of prophet as he predicted his own death, burial, and resurrection. In fact, he did it on multiple occasions (Mark 10:32-34). The first prophecy of Jesus regarding his death is detailed in Matthew 16:21–23 (see also Mark 8:31–32, and Luke 9:21–22). Immediately following the miracle of Jesus feeding the multitudes, he said that the “Son of Man must suffer many things” (Mark 8:31); be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes; be killed; and be raised again.
No other religious leader has been able to conquer death. Jesus not only predicted his death and resurrection, but after his bodily resurrection he appeared to hundreds of people over a period of 40 days to prove his deity. He is truly the Prophet greater than Moses.
The Power of Jesus’ Preaching
Within popular evangelical circles, preaching has been replaced with concerts and short snippy religious “TED-Talks” in the name of Jesus rather than the power of Jesus. I can recall walking through the exhibit hall of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2019 and seeing magicians exhibiting their evangelism ministries that employ magic tricks to capture the attention of children while pointing them to Jesus. It’s common to see ministries devoted to power lifting and other tricks while preaching is minimized.
When J.I. Packer was a student in 1948-49, he would travel across the city of London to hear D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preach on Sunday evenings. The testimony of what Packer experienced in those days is critically important to the study of preaching. He said that he had “never heard such preaching.” It came to him “with the force of electric shock, bringing to at least one of his listeners more of a sense of God than any other man” he had known.4
Packer wasn’t referencing the Welshman’s thick accent. He was pointing to the powerful expositions that put on display the grand truths of Scripture with passionate declaration. It was D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones who once described preaching as “logic on fire.” In many churches, people need to be awakened from their state of lethargy as they sit under the trance of political speeches, comedy barn routines, and all manner of sloppy sermonettes that misuse the name of Jesus. The flame is missing from the pulpit.
Today many people view Jesus as a soft ecumenical religious leader who seeks to accommodate the culture and avoid any offense as he maintains a kind and gentle disposition. That’s a terribly deficient view of Jesus. If we want to know Jesus, we must know him as he is revealed to us in the pages of Scripture.
In Mark 8:27-30, we find the popular passage where Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ of God. However, as we read that passage, one thing that should stand out to us was the answer to the first question: “Who do people say that I am?”
Read More
Related Posts:

The only way one will savingly turn to receive the resurrected and ascended Christ is if the Holy Spirit grants increase to the work of the cross as explicated in the context of God’s revealed remedy for man’s dire dilemma. Accordingly, we need an apologetic methodology that upholds the self-attesting word of God so that we might skillfully undress the deceitfulness of sin and defend the righteous demands of God through the hope of the gospel. After exposing the futility of unbelief, our desire for the unbeliever is that he might attend and submit to the claims of Christ as it comes to us from the very voice of God in Scripture.

Induction, the basis for all scientific inference, presupposes the uniformity of nature, which is to say it operates under the expectation that the future will be like the past. From a Christian perspective, it is ordinary providence that explains how the scientific method is possible. Therefore, to argue for the miracle of the resurrection according to evidence and human experience is foolishness (Proverbs 26:4). Resurrection is a phenomenon that contemplates an exchange of ordinary providence for the miraculous, which pertains to God working without, above, or against the ordinary (WCF 5.3).
The resurrection of Christ from the dead is contra-uniform. It does not comport with experience. Our experience is that people die and are not raised three days later. Also, we have all met plenty of liars and those deceived into embracing false beliefs (even dying for false beliefs!) but nobody living has ever observed a single resurrection of the body. Given the uniformity of nature coupled with personal experience without remainder, a more probable explanation for the empty tomb is a hoax put on by liars rather than a miracle put on by God. (The same reasoning applies to the virgin birth.)
Since scientific inference consists of making generalizations based upon specific observations, the principle of induction isn’t terribly useful in trying to draw rational inferences about the miraculous. That is why we do not come to know the Savior lives by examining evidence according to an alleged neutral posture, for the un-exegeted facts do not lead us to the conclusion that Christ is risen. So, at the very least, Christians should not argue evidentially for the resurrection lest we deceive the lost by implying that we ourselves know Christ lives based upon evidence upon which our saving faith does not rest. Besides, even if one were to become persuaded that Jesus probably rose from the dead, saving faith entails believing what is revealed in the Word based upon the authority of God himself speaking therein (WCF 14.2). Moreover, on what authority should one embrace not just the resurrection of Christ but, also, its soteriological significance coupled with the gospel truths that Jesus is both Christ and Lord? In a word, when does God’s voice in Scripture become authoritative in biblically informed evangelism?
True believers have heard from God. As it is written:
[Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven”  Matthew 16:15-17
An improper (yet popular) use of evidence:
In that misogynistic culture, women were regarded as second-rate eyewitnesses. If the Gospels are pious fiction, why would the narrators invent inferior witnesses rather than more culturally credible witnesses?
That argument gets a bit of traction around Easter. One rejoinder is the narrators weren’t clever enough to recognize that they were inventing inferior witnesses. Another is that the narrators were extremely clever and did recognize that they were inventing inferior witnesses! After calculating the risk of using seemingly inferior witnesses, the narrators concluded that there is significant persuasive force in using such witnesses. The logic being, if inferior witnesses would not likely be invented intentionally, then people might naturally conclude the inferior witnesses were not invented and, therefore, are all the more credible. (I’m sure I must have seen such reverse psychology on a Columbo episode.)
Law-Gospel – the KISS method for fellow sinners:
When well-meaning Christians remove the extraordinary claim of the resurrection from its salvific context, the resurrection is anything but credible. Yet, the resurrection is sufficiently explanatory within the context of things we know by nature and are awakened to by the Holy Spirit working in conjunction with Scripture. Namely, God’s wrath abides upon all men and God is patient, merciful and loving toward sinners. In the context of man’s plight and God’s character, the preaching of the cross can be apprehended as not just credible but the very wisdom of God. Only the gospel can reconcile mercy, grace and love with alienation, justice and wrath. Revelation, not autonomous reason, is profound!
Our full persuasion of the resurrection unto knowledge of the truth is revelatory and law-gospel centric. The good news of John 3:16 is intelligible only in the context of the bad news of Romans 1:18-20 and Romans 3:10-20. The former presupposes the latter. Sinners come to know their Savior lives not by being offered a savior who might have come back from the dead. Rather, sinners come to a saving knowledge of Christ when awakened to the unmistakably authoritative gospel reality of God’s remedy for uncleanness and unrighteousness.
Read More
Related Posts:

My depression is a thing that exists. Therefore, God is using it to conform me more to the image of Christ, to conform believers around me more to the image of Christ, to potentially bring other elect members of the kingdom to the point of faith so that they become more like Jesus, and in some mad way to do something or other for people I have never met but who in God’s infinite and intricately weaved tapestry of history and circumstance, are somehow affected for their good too and they will become more like Jesus through it.

Somebody asked me yesterday whether I thought my getting depression was part of God’s plan. I thought that was a really interesting question and thought I would share my view on that here. If you can’t be bothered to read past this sentence, the short answer is, yes I do.
Here is the thing, I believe God is ultimately sovereign. He is sovereign over all things. There is not a single thing, in the whole of creation, that does not happen without God’s permission to do so. The Bible is unequivocal about God’s total and complete sovereignty.
If that is true, then simply the fact that I have depression means that it is, in some way, part of God’s plan. If God is sovereign over all things (and he is), then there isn’t anything that happens that is not part of his plan. Even his decision not to act, not to intervene, is a sovereign decision. If God chooses not to stop something that he could otherwise stop, he must be allowing it for his greater purposes. If God is sovereign over all things, there is nothing that happens that he could not stop and nothing that doesn’t happen that he could have chosen to make happen. Everything that does happen, happens because God either actively causes it or sovereignly permits it. It is as the Bible says, he is the one who ‘works all things according to the counsel of his will’.
The issue is, when it comes to stuff like depression, the inevitable question is: do you think God is happy that you’re ill? The short answer is, no. I don’t think God is any happier at the thought of me being ill than he is at the thought of people sinning. This inevitably leads to a follow up question, then why doesn’t he stop it?
The answer is that God orders his priorities. The Bible tells us, for example, that God does not wish for any to perish, but longs for all people to be saved. At the same time, we know that not everyone is saved. How do we account for this? Philosophers, at this point, like to posit the principle of sufficient reason. God wants all people to be saved, but he has a sufficient reason to allow them not to be. Depending on your particular theological bent, you will offer different answers as to what that sufficient reason is. But it is no different to us saying I would like to save £200 every month, but I would also like to buy a load of stuff too. One of those priorities tends to trump the other, meaning that though I would like both, I order my priorities, which is why my bank account is less full than I might otherwise like it to be. Similarly, God orders his priorities such that, though he may want all to be saved, he has higher priorities that mean all are not in actuality saved.
So, where does that leave us when it comes to my depression? It is certainly something that happened in actuality, so I consider it part of God’s plan. Does God want me to have depression? I don’t think he is pleased at the thought of me being sick. Nevertheless, that it has happened tells me he has some greater purpose in allowing it to happen. But, let’s be honest, we all want to know what that greater purpose is.
As a Reformed believer, I think God orders all things so that he will receive maximal glory. So, God’s highest priority is his own glory. What this means is that God has setup the world so that the world as it is – out of every possible world he might have created – brings him the greatest glory.
I cannot explain how each and every thing works ultimately to the praise and glory of God. I can have a guess at how some things – even some pretty heinous things – might ultimately work to his glory. But I am ultimately only guessing. I can highlight how some objectively terrible things definitely work to his glory because the Bible expressly tells us so. The cross of Jesus Christ – which was a gross injustice of the highest order and severe suffering of the very worst kind – was the very means by which God glorified himself most. It was his means of salvation for his people, the means of glorifying Christ, the means of becoming both just and justifier. Through something so heinous, God was ultimately glorified. But I must admit I can’t explain how every terrible thing that ever happens works to God’s glory that way. I trust what God’s word says, that such things will brings him more glory in the end than if it hadn’t happened at all, and I can have my guesses about what some of that might be, but that is all they are likely to be.

Related Posts: