Preaching something close to the gospel is not preaching the gospel, Hershael York cautioned during his message at the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference.
“We dare not be content to be close to the gospel — and to tolerate something that sounds a lot like it but is not that,” said York, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, during his Nov. 11 message.
Preaching from 1 Corinthians 2, York noted that the gospel compels us to take it to others — beyond our comfort zone — but we must remember it’s not about us or about how good a preacher we are.
“We know God does not save anybody because of our rhetorical skill,” he said. “I’ve never argued anybody into the Kingdom of God. I have never debated anyone into salvation. Sometimes we think that. Boy, if I could just be eloquent enough or smart enough. … But if we could do that, then the burden would be entirely on us.”
Key ingredient
York noted the key is we must make sure we are preaching a “crucified Christ.”
“Why does Jesus have to be crucified? Can’t we just preach a God who loves humanity? Can’t we just preach the incarnation? Must we preach the sufferings of Christ?” York asked. “When we preach a crucified Christ, we’ve got to answer questions about the sinfulness of man because it’s the sinfulness of humanity that puts Jesus on that cross. We’ve got to answer questions about the holiness of God because it’s the righteousness of God that demands judgment on sin.”
He added, “We preach a crucified Christ, a Messiah, God’s anointed who came with the very intention of going to that cross, that the Creator and Sustainer of this universe, the One who upholds it all with the Word of His power entered time, contorted Himself into a human body and bearing all the sins of His people offered one sacrifice for sins forever and sat down at the right hand of God. That is the crucified Christ we preach.”
‘The lens through which we look’
York noted, “The cross is the lens through which we look at everything in this world.” It makes sense of the toughest questions we may have.
“It’s the cross that helps us understand gender, sexuality, marriage, politics, social justice, feeding the hungry, caring for the poor,” he said. “It’s the cross that compels us in our mission, the way our churches carry out their business. It’s the cross that’s expansive. It dominates every area of life.”
All the things we think make a great church are nothing if they are empty and without a crucified Christ.
“We can dress up our preaching with all kinds of smoke and mirrors. We can have fog machines. We can have the best bands in town. We can have the best greeters,” he noted, “but if we’re not preaching Christ and Him crucified, we’re empty. And you’ll never see a demonstration of the Spirit’s power preaching anything else. You can build a crowd for a while, but only the Lord builds His church.”
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