Proclaiming the Promise
The cardinal errand of preaching Christ alone.
In a recent article for 1517 entitled “Transfiguration Is for Preaching,” Concordia University professor and theologian John T. Pless writes the following:
The preacher himself is not the focus. He is but the mouthpiece of the Lord’s speaking and he can only speak what he has been given to say from the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures. Behind the preacher stands Christ Jesus. Preachers listen to Jesus so that, in turn, they may preach Him, and their congregations may hear the voice of the Good Shepherd from the mouths of their pastors.
These lines come on the heels of a consideration of the Transfiguration when the Lord Jesus radiates in all the blinding brilliance of his glory in front of his innermost disciples (Mark 9:2–8). While Pless’s insights are geared toward preachers preparing sermons commemorating Transfiguration Sunday, clergy and laity alike can benefit by pondering the assertion that “behind the preacher stands Christ.” Even though preachers often feel the pressure to craft wholly original sermons week after week, there is an element to every sermon that is neither novel nor stale but remains perennially fresh — namely, God’s Word of Promise as revealed in the person of Jesus. Accordingly, homiletical innovation pales in comparison to hermeneutical resolve. In other words, nothing can ever come close to consistently proclaiming the good news.
Rightly understood, the preacher stands in the pulpit as nothing but a “mouthpiece” or vicarious voice for the Lord himself. As much as a preacher may craft his sermon with his particular verve, and rightly so, he is bound by God’s Word and Spirit to declare God’s words, not his opinions. After all, as Paul says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Lutheran writer and theologian Jack Kilcrease attests that Jesus promises to be “supernaturally present” through the words of the apostles. “The one who hears you hears me,” says the Lord (Luke 10:16). Accordingly, preachers stand as envoys entrusted with a word by which and through which congregants hear the Lord himself. The opinionated preacher, however, appends his own rhetoric to the annunciation of the gospel, which ultimately makes his sermon a vehicle for his own notoriety rather than the eclipsing glory of the Christ of God. In a post called “Preaching as for the Free,” author and theologian R. Scott Clark supplies further insight by juxtaposing the “gospel preacher” against the “legal preacher.” The latter is swollen by his own assertions, while the former concedes his rhetoric to the redemptive message of Christ alone. Clark writes:
The legal preacher is a domineering preacher. The message of the legal preacher is that he, not Christ, is lord. We must do what he, the legal preacher, says. The legal preacher is not a true minister of Christ insofar as he asserts himself rather than abandoning himself to Christ and to Christ’s law and to Christ’s gospel . . .
The gospel preacher has given himself over to bring the good news of free salvation in Christ, through faith alone, to those held captive by sin and death. The gospel preacher does not impose himself upon the brokenhearted. He heals them. He does not put sinners in additional bondage, he liberates them. He does not add additional locks to the doors. He unlocks them.
The voice of the preacher ought to deliver words that deliver sinners, which is ultimately not within his capacity to accomplish. Instead, as the preacher forgoes personal renown in favor of commending Jesus’s word and work of reconciliation, sinners are made to hear the message that loosens the shackles of sin and death. This is the cardinal errand of the preacher every Sunday.
Grace and peace.
This is so true. Thanks for sharing.