Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World: Introduction to the Christ Centred Model of Preaching

Lectured Tim Keller

In order to prepare a good sermon the preacher should be asking:
What does this text tell me about the person and work of Jesus?

In preaching the preacher should be asking the people:
How am I failing to rejoice in and live as if this text is true about who Jesus is?

The preacher should be showing that people are poor due to their lack of faith in Christ.

The aim of every sermon is to experience Christ through the text. You need to get people to adore and enjoy Christ through the text. We shouldn’t preach principles or example to live up to but re-assure people that living a holy life is derived from faith in Christ.

In a lecture the aim is to transfer information.
In a sermon the aim is to be get the listener to worship on the spot.

Three types of questions to evaluate a sermon:
1) Was it a sound sermon? Was Jesus the climax of the text?
2) Was it practical? Was Jesus presented as the solution to spiritual problems?
3) Was there a sense of God? Was Jesus made visible or only talked about?

Three types of emphases in preaching:
1) Doctrinal Preaching
Too much expounding
Hits the intellect and not the heart
Doesn’t lead the hearers to worship

2) Practical Preaching
Hits the will
Doesn’t challenge the mind
It majors on application
The sermon acts like a manual on how to live
Little theology and passion

3) Devotional Preaching (Narrative Preaching)
Goes straight to the emotions
Misses the mind
Lack of theology

The Christ-Centred Model
A Christo-centric model is where Christ is the centre of all these factors. When you show that Christ is the centre of the sermon the aim of the sermon becomes worship and not information giving or life improvement.

Applying this Model to David and Goliath
Chuck Swindoll talks about the faith it takes to pull down giants in your life.
A better way is to say that David points to a greater ancestor like this:
‘David is a federal head. David represents his people. The victory of David is the victory of the people. The people get credit for David’s victory. Christ is a greater David dieing for our sin in our place, you get the victory and the righteousness from His work.
Why are you having problems? Because you haven’t seen that Christ has the victory for you. David is pointing to an attribute of Jesus. Your problem is that you’re not living as if that attribute and victory is true.’

If you ever tell a particular Bible story without fitting it into the main Bible story (the message of Christ) you’re losing the meaning. The sermon then illustrates an example to live up to or a principle to obey rather than an exhortation to live by faith in Christ.

Scripture is about Christ not us. Christ is David in the story; David does not represent us trying to conquer giants. The Bible is not a book about us.