A Christ-centered, cross-focused Sermon Diagnostic
From Challies.com: “Todd Wilken, of the radio program Issues, Etc., often evaluates the sermons of popular preachers on his broadcasts…He evaluates the sermons on the following three criteria:
1. How often is Jesus mentioned? For his purposes, a simple tally will suffice.
2. Is Jesus the subject of the verbs? Is Jesus the one who acts, or are you?
3. What are the verbs? What has Jesus done and what is He doing?
I find this a fair, though basic, framework to evaluate a sermon.”
Part 1. Listen. How often is “Jesus” mentioned in the sermon? (not “God”, “Lord”, etc.) A simple tally will do. This will tell you one thing. If Jesus is not mentioned you know almost for sure that the sermon isn’t about Jesus. This doesn’t mean that if He is mentioned the sermon’s about Him. If He is not mentioned, it tells us that the sermon was about someone else. It can hardly be considered a Christ-centered, cross-focused proclamation of the Good News of Christ if Jesus doesn’t get mentioned.
Part 2. If Jesus is mentioned, is Jesus the subject of the verbs? Who is driving the verbs when Jesus gets mentioned? Is He the subject (the one who is doing the verbs) or is He the object (the one being acted on). Or is Jesus shuffled off to some third category of grammatical nowhereland where you are not quite sure what role He plays at all in the verbs. “This is what we do for Jesus, this is what we say about Jesus.” This is preaching the Christian rather than the Christ.
Then, and only then, can you go to:
Part 3. If Jesus is mentioned, and he is the subject of the verbs,what are the verbs? (be careful to distinguish between “Jesus wants to help you.” or “Jesus empowers you.” or “Jesus inspires you.” or “motivates you”, or “is your power source” FROM “Jesus has lived for you.”, “has obeyed the Father for you”, “has suffered, bled, and died for you”, and “has risen again for you”. The latter is how the Scripture presents it.
Then ask: Does the Scripture teach that Jesus does in fact do the verbs in part 3?
That’s it. This diagnostic does not solve all sermon related problems, but it is a test that will tell you if you are listening to a Christian sermon.
You can download an archive of Todd’s show “A Christ-Centered, Cross-Focused Sermon” in MP3: Hour 1 (starting halfway through) and Hour 2 (entire hour).
Some other considerations while listening to a sermon:
What does the pastor present as our problem?
What does the pastor present as the solution to our problem? (Is it the cross?)
This is a great way to tell if a message is “Christ Centered”, but the majority of scripture does not mention the word “Jesus”: does this mean a pastor should simply throw out that portion of scripture so he can conform to this simplistic framework? NO.
What is vital in a sermon is that it is Biblically grounded. Period. Do we need to focus on Christ? Yes. Does every message need to be about the cross? Maybe in an evangelic service – but what about all the rest of the bible (and the rest of the New Testament – much of the bible is focused on the life of the believer and his responsibility as a Christian.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
-2 Timothy 3:16-17
As a church we need to remember that All scripture is good for teaching, and not get so focused on the “Red letter” portion that we miss the rest of scripture that is equally important. Lets just preach the Word: nothing more, nothing less.
I am always somewhat repulsed by this sort of over-simplification of preaching, but at the same time believers need to be sure their pastors are teaching Biblically grounded material.
“Preach the word of God. Be persistent, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.”
-2 Timothy 4: 1 – 2 (NLT)
Doesn’t all of the Old Testament point toward Christ and his Cross? And doesn’t all of the New Testament point backward to Christ and his Cross? Perhaps that is the question.
Yes, the framework is “simplistic” because it is presented that way in Scripture. The original post might make sense in light of this following quote:
“The Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod (LCMS), along with certain other Lutheran Church Bodies, also teaches the doctrine of the distinction between God’s “Law” and God’s “Gospel.” The Missouri Synod believes that the Holy Scriptures contain only two teachings — the Law and the Gospel. The Law is all those parts of the Bible that provide commands and instructions, which the LCMS believes are impossible to completely obey. Therefore, the Law is a statement of God’s wrath, judgement, and damnation. The Gospel, on the other hand, is the portions of Scripture that promise free salvation from God, even to sinners. The law always condemns, the Gospel always promises. Both the Law and the Gospel are gifts from God. Both are necessary. The [primary] function of the law is to show a person their sinful nature and drive them to the Gospel, where the forgiveness of sin is promised for the sake of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The LCMS insists that both the Old and the New Testament teach both Law and Gospel. The Old Testament, therefore, is valuable to Christians. Its teachings point forward in time to the Cross of Christ in the same way that the New Testament points backward in time to the Cross. This vital LCMS doctrine was most famously summarized by C. F. W. Walther in his book, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel.” -Wikipedia.org
This is still a bit of a new teaching to me as a pentacostal, yet I am trying to understand it and so far cannot find a reason to doubt this “framework” as solidly Biblical. Thus, sermons (“evangelic” or not)without a clear distinction between Law and Gospel (and therefore Christ and his Cross as the centerpoint)seem to be missing the point of scripture and the message of Christianity.