Let's face it, believers want to hear something new every Sunday, and for preachers and pastors it can be tempting to try and jazz up their sermons with something other than Jesus Christ. But do we have to abandon Christ-centered preaching to stay fresh?
1 Corinthians 1:23-25 says, "but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
Preaching Christ has always challenged mindsets, and in a time where people want to be tickled in the ear, God looks to build preachers and exhorters who will pierce the heart. The great revival after the Pentecost where three thousand souls were added to the church did not happen because people were entertained. It happened because Christ was preached.
In Acts 2:36, Peter declared to the crowd who had witnessed the baptism of the Holy Spirit, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." And people responded powerfully in verse 37, "Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
Today, when people preach at your congregation, do they respond with a cut heart and a desire to take action for God? Or do they simply cry during the altar call only to return to their old lives ten minutes after they put their make-up back on?
To preach Christ has always and will always be the most powerful part of Christian ministry. There is no other name and no other power that is more powerful than the name of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, and one way we gain access to both is to preach Christ.
Nowadays, pastors could be tempted to turn to nice sob stories or conversely, pharisaical messages that tell people what to do without understanding the heart. Even worse, they could end up teaching the current news without any mention of the good news. Christ must be first, centre and last in every message because He is the only way to fix the fallen condition of man and of this world.
As believers, let us pray therefore for a fresh influx of good news preaching that points to Christ and not good advice preaching that points to good works. It's what today's preachers need to declare and what the upcoming preachers of tomorrow need to be built up in.
Paul says in Ephesians 3:8, "To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
