Christ Centered Preaching

Dr. Bryan Chapell will be doing a series of expository sermons on Daniel tomorrow till Thursday. Rev Wong Fong Yang has kindly invited him to do a preaching workshop for some pastors/lay preachers in church today so it was a real treat for newbies like me.

If you are thinking whether you should go, check out this sermon as a model of Christ centered preaching and I bet it would help a great deal in making that decision. Download "God is faithful to His promises and he is merciful - so we can endure (Rom 15:4)" sermon here.

Here is a sampling of what I learnt at the workshop:

What is the only reason that sin has any power in your or my life?

B'cos we love it. Sin attracts and tempts us. That's why we sin even when we know we are not supposed to.

Now, what does that tell us about the agenda of the gospel? The aim of gospel preaching week in, week out is not simply to give people more duty or doctrine (more things to do or believe) but a Compelling Love.

- Love for God with all our being (Matt 23:37)
- Love for Christ (John 15:14 - If you love Me, you will do what I commanded you)

In other words, we do not obey in order to get God's love. God loves us first and shows us grace while we are yet sinners... therefore we obey.

"The imperative is based on the indicative and the order is irreversible" (Ridderbos)

Where does this love come from? We love God because He first loves us (1 John 4:10,19). The nature of his love is such that it is not based on our performance but on His goodness and grace. (Titus 3:4-5)

That's a paradigm shift that changes virtually everything about how we do preaching in church/world. Check out Dr Chapell's free online homiletic classes in the Theological Resource Section of TheAgora.