I've written past posts and preached a lot about the Christianity that is so Christ-less. It is not a pleasure to discuss such things because it shows that something is drastically wrong with the Lord's church as I've come to observe and participate in it. Much of what masquerades as preaching in the church is Christ-less and would get a hearty applause from just about every self-help, man-centered, humanistic and false religion that exists. I do not desire nor revel in the fact that the church is so anemic (at best) or apostate (at worst). Nevertheless, we must discuss some of the things that have gone amiss so that we may take proper steps to insure the church's health and longevity although I have full confidence that the Lord will build His church.
One of the reasons that I believe the church is so sickly is because pastors, while acknowledging the metanarrative of Scripture, fail to keep the main storyline the centerpiece of all their preaching.
A narrative is a story. A meta-narrative is a grand story. And you would have to be willfully blind or totally pragmatic to not preach from Scripture each week the metanarrative of Christ and the redemption He brings for the glory of God. From Genesis to Revelation, the metanarrative is about the covenant that God makes with His true people through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament foreshadows and paints the picture of this sacrifice for the sins of many and the coming judgment of those who fall outside of God's covenant. The synoptic gospels tell us of the sinless life of Christ, His preaching, His calling of the sheep home, His sacrifice for His sheep and His resurrection. What follows the gospels is how the church, as God's covenant people are to live a life to the glory of the One who gave them His righteousness and took their sin. And the Scriptures end with the book of Revelation in which we see the consumation of our salvation and the eternal reign of our Savior fellowshiping with His people. This is one grand story...one metanarrative.
Now preaching that fails to take this into account will often make a huge disconnect between the "principles for living" and the gospel itself. It's as if Christ and His gospel was an entirely separate issue and once you come to faith in Christ all you need is principles for living. Nothing could be further from the truth. The way we relate to each other and the way we relate to God is all grounded in the big story. And if Scripture calls us to "do" anything, it calls us to live gospel-driven lives not purpose-driven lives. That is one serious fault in the whole purpose-driven philosophy...it's not scriptural. While the Holy Spirit leads us by the Word, the gospel of Christ drives everything...our living, our thinking, our emotions, our priorities, our time, our worship, our fellowship, our evangelism...but most importantly our preaching. (In essence, being led by the Spirit is being driven by the gospel.) If we do not gave gospel-centered, cross-focused, Christ-exalting sermons then our sermons fail at keeping the metanarrative central. And if that be the case, then there is no power in the preaching and no life in the pew.
From cover to cover the Bible is one massive story. And to pull Scripture out of it's context and use it for anything other than telling the big story is to not be faithful to the message of the One who told us the story. Think about it! God gave us a story because He wants us to know something. If we aren't faithful to preaching that story each week, can we really say that we're preaching the message of God?
And so the real benefit of metanarrative preaching is that wherever you are in Scripture you are attempting to communicate exactly what God communicated to us: God is holy...man is sinful...Christ came to save us from God's wrath...repent and believe...now go and display the glory of God because God loves His perfect glory and image which was shown perfectly in Christ, was marred in us, but is being restored by the triune God!
This is what expositional preaching is. This is what metanarrative preaching is. This is what it means to be faithful to the text. The message of the passage is the point of the text and the point of your sermon. But you can't possible know the meaning and message of a particular text if you rip it out of the big story. You may say some things that are true in the text. You may not say anything necessarily false at all. BUT you will fail to preach the bigger meaning and show how a particular passage fits in the grand scheme of God's metanarrative. And that is why so much preaching is Christ-less and inoffensive. Those who are supposed to be rightly dividing the Word are not. And a good portion of churches and Christians have forsaken the main story line of Scripture because their pastors have forgotten to faithfully and consistently preach the metanarrative each week.
Pastor, it may not be pragmatic. It may not yield a large attendance. It may not put you in the top 50 most influential pastors of America list. But you will feed the sheep and you will be faithful to what God has called you to!
Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord? Then feed His sheep! Your main task is not to plan events, organize, create cool graphics, advertise or take neighborhood surveys to find out why the unregenerate hate God and His people. You task is not to reprimand the sheep for not feeding themselves. Remember that God gave pastors and teachers and evangelists to edify and build up the church. And a church will not be healthy if the main teaching times are about self improvement. Your attendance numbers are not the true indicator of the vitality of your church. Your preaching is. The church will be healthy and vibrant when they realize that our God omnipotent reigns from Genesis to Revelation.
Serve your church well and preach the metanarrative each week. Keep Christ the focus. Your people will grow. In time the beauty and glory of Christ will infect them so much that they are compelled to tell others of Christ. You won't need an evangelism program to reach the masses...the church will be THE program. But why should they tell others of a Christ they are not enamored with. Metanarrative preaching will equip your people to witness and it will elevate their worship to proper levels. It will increase their love for one another. It will help them to properly interpret Scripture so that when they hear a false teacher they can spot him immediately. If faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ and if God guards our eternal salvation through faith, then it stands to reason that metanarrative preaching will also ensure the perseverance and preservation of the saints.
This is not a small issue. This is life or death. And that is why not many should be desire to be teachers of the Word. I challenge any pastor out there: stop preaching the typical "how-to" sermons and start preaching Christ. Don't take your cues from the pastor who has a mega-church and assume that because his church is large he's doing the right thing. Instead, keep it simple. Go to Scripture with the metanarrative in mind and ask, "how does this fit into the big story." Then have at it. Take joy in hearing the salvation story from wherever you are preaching from. Help your people to exult in Christ. Bring the lost to salvation. If you want to have a "seeker-friendly" service, then you can not be a nicer friend or preacher than to preach Christ to them each week from both Testaments. Stop worrying about whether the music is stylistically pleasing, the events are cool enough, the candles are lit, the smoke is blowing, the coffee is brewing. You are not an entertainer or man-pleaser. You are the mouth-piece of God Almighty. You are a modern-day prophet, not the ringmaster.
Remember, you do have to stand before the Lord one day and give account. Make sure you have been faithful. Joyfully and passionatley declare THE story.
One of the reasons that I believe the church is so sickly is because pastors, while acknowledging the metanarrative of Scripture, fail to keep the main storyline the centerpiece of all their preaching.
A narrative is a story. A meta-narrative is a grand story. And you would have to be willfully blind or totally pragmatic to not preach from Scripture each week the metanarrative of Christ and the redemption He brings for the glory of God. From Genesis to Revelation, the metanarrative is about the covenant that God makes with His true people through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament foreshadows and paints the picture of this sacrifice for the sins of many and the coming judgment of those who fall outside of God's covenant. The synoptic gospels tell us of the sinless life of Christ, His preaching, His calling of the sheep home, His sacrifice for His sheep and His resurrection. What follows the gospels is how the church, as God's covenant people are to live a life to the glory of the One who gave them His righteousness and took their sin. And the Scriptures end with the book of Revelation in which we see the consumation of our salvation and the eternal reign of our Savior fellowshiping with His people. This is one grand story...one metanarrative.
Now preaching that fails to take this into account will often make a huge disconnect between the "principles for living" and the gospel itself. It's as if Christ and His gospel was an entirely separate issue and once you come to faith in Christ all you need is principles for living. Nothing could be further from the truth. The way we relate to each other and the way we relate to God is all grounded in the big story. And if Scripture calls us to "do" anything, it calls us to live gospel-driven lives not purpose-driven lives. That is one serious fault in the whole purpose-driven philosophy...it's not scriptural. While the Holy Spirit leads us by the Word, the gospel of Christ drives everything...our living, our thinking, our emotions, our priorities, our time, our worship, our fellowship, our evangelism...but most importantly our preaching. (In essence, being led by the Spirit is being driven by the gospel.) If we do not gave gospel-centered, cross-focused, Christ-exalting sermons then our sermons fail at keeping the metanarrative central. And if that be the case, then there is no power in the preaching and no life in the pew.
From cover to cover the Bible is one massive story. And to pull Scripture out of it's context and use it for anything other than telling the big story is to not be faithful to the message of the One who told us the story. Think about it! God gave us a story because He wants us to know something. If we aren't faithful to preaching that story each week, can we really say that we're preaching the message of God?
And so the real benefit of metanarrative preaching is that wherever you are in Scripture you are attempting to communicate exactly what God communicated to us: God is holy...man is sinful...Christ came to save us from God's wrath...repent and believe...now go and display the glory of God because God loves His perfect glory and image which was shown perfectly in Christ, was marred in us, but is being restored by the triune God!
This is what expositional preaching is. This is what metanarrative preaching is. This is what it means to be faithful to the text. The message of the passage is the point of the text and the point of your sermon. But you can't possible know the meaning and message of a particular text if you rip it out of the big story. You may say some things that are true in the text. You may not say anything necessarily false at all. BUT you will fail to preach the bigger meaning and show how a particular passage fits in the grand scheme of God's metanarrative. And that is why so much preaching is Christ-less and inoffensive. Those who are supposed to be rightly dividing the Word are not. And a good portion of churches and Christians have forsaken the main story line of Scripture because their pastors have forgotten to faithfully and consistently preach the metanarrative each week.
Pastor, it may not be pragmatic. It may not yield a large attendance. It may not put you in the top 50 most influential pastors of America list. But you will feed the sheep and you will be faithful to what God has called you to!
Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord? Do you love the Lord? Then feed His sheep! Your main task is not to plan events, organize, create cool graphics, advertise or take neighborhood surveys to find out why the unregenerate hate God and His people. You task is not to reprimand the sheep for not feeding themselves. Remember that God gave pastors and teachers and evangelists to edify and build up the church. And a church will not be healthy if the main teaching times are about self improvement. Your attendance numbers are not the true indicator of the vitality of your church. Your preaching is. The church will be healthy and vibrant when they realize that our God omnipotent reigns from Genesis to Revelation.
Serve your church well and preach the metanarrative each week. Keep Christ the focus. Your people will grow. In time the beauty and glory of Christ will infect them so much that they are compelled to tell others of Christ. You won't need an evangelism program to reach the masses...the church will be THE program. But why should they tell others of a Christ they are not enamored with. Metanarrative preaching will equip your people to witness and it will elevate their worship to proper levels. It will increase their love for one another. It will help them to properly interpret Scripture so that when they hear a false teacher they can spot him immediately. If faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ and if God guards our eternal salvation through faith, then it stands to reason that metanarrative preaching will also ensure the perseverance and preservation of the saints.
This is not a small issue. This is life or death. And that is why not many should be desire to be teachers of the Word. I challenge any pastor out there: stop preaching the typical "how-to" sermons and start preaching Christ. Don't take your cues from the pastor who has a mega-church and assume that because his church is large he's doing the right thing. Instead, keep it simple. Go to Scripture with the metanarrative in mind and ask, "how does this fit into the big story." Then have at it. Take joy in hearing the salvation story from wherever you are preaching from. Help your people to exult in Christ. Bring the lost to salvation. If you want to have a "seeker-friendly" service, then you can not be a nicer friend or preacher than to preach Christ to them each week from both Testaments. Stop worrying about whether the music is stylistically pleasing, the events are cool enough, the candles are lit, the smoke is blowing, the coffee is brewing. You are not an entertainer or man-pleaser. You are the mouth-piece of God Almighty. You are a modern-day prophet, not the ringmaster.
Remember, you do have to stand before the Lord one day and give account. Make sure you have been faithful. Joyfully and passionatley declare THE story.
1 comment:
Good stuff man. Context is king.
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