If the desire of the Father, the work of the Spirit, and the purpose of Scripture is to herald Jesus, then so it must be for the faithful preacher.
If the Son’s great and eternal goal is to win for Himself a bride, then His heralds must woo for Him. They are like Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24, commissioned to find a bride for His master’s son. Only when we take our eyes off ourselves and herald Him will we truly glorify God. But when we do that, we may be sure that our preaching will always be evangelistic and, at the same time, always edifying to the saints.
When Paul wrote of his imploring as an ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20), he clearly saw a role greater than that of a schoolteacher whose only job was to revise theological grammar. He did not merely give people information about Christ; he gave them Christ. Before the eyes of His people, Jesus Christ was placarded so that they might come to Him, set their affections on Him, and trust Him. Through Paul’s preaching, people encountered the risen Christ Himself.
Just as the Father sends forth Christ for the redemption of the world, so preachers must send Him forth so that people wonder, love, trust, and adore Him. Just as Christ’s great and eternal purpose is to win for Himself a bride, so preachers must, as it were, woo for Christ. The Puritan minister Richard Sibbes put it like this: ‘It is the end of our calling to sue for a marriage between Christ and every soul. We are the friends of the bride, to bring the church to Him; and the friends of the church, to bring Christ to them.’[1] Just as the Spirit bears witness to Him, and not the mere concept of Him, so must we.
If people are to cherish and treasure Christ, they cannot merely be told that He is good, true, and beautiful. They must be shown, so that they taste and see. He is, after all, truth itself, goodness itself, and beauty itself, and He is not faithfully proclaimed unless He is shown to be such.
Yet, showing is a much more challenging proposition for the preacher, for a sermon that shows cannot be aimlessly trotted out, nor can it come from a preacher who is not himself enjoying and adoring Christ. For those reasons, we preachers settle all too easily for telling. A classic giveaway is the sort of rhetorical questions you often hear from the pulpit: ‘Isn’t that a wonderful truth?’; ‘Isn’t Christ glorious?’ Such questions sound pious, but in reality, they are just statements about how the preacher wants us to feel. Instead of showing how Christ is glorious and wonderful so that we feel it, the preacher is leaving the people to do the work of discovering it for themselves.
Showing is not just a challenge for the sermon itself; it involves the inner life of the preacher. For while a spiritually dry preacher may speak of Christ, if he does not himself enjoy Christ, he will not be able to present Him as enjoyable.
Perhaps an example will help. Below are Charles Spurgeon’s last-ever words from the pulpit, dated June 7, 1891. As you read them, don’t worry about (or think of copying) Spurgeon’s own personal style. Notice instead how he holds out the person of Christ not as an idea, but as one to be adored. And notice how he does not merely tell us about Christ’s graciousness: he makes us feel it for ourselves.
‘Every man must serve somebody: we have no choice as to that fact. Those who have no master are slaves to themselves. Depend upon it, you will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Saviour. You will find sin, self, Satan, and the world to be hard masters; but if you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like among the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in him. … His service is life, peace, joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day! Amen.’ [2]
Preachers, lift up Christ, for when He is lifted up, He will draw all people to Himself (John 12:32).
Michael Reeves (PhD, King’s College, London) is President of Union, leading its Publishing, School, Research and Mission ministries. He teaches regularly worldwide and is the author of numerous books includ-ing Gospel People, Evangelical Pharisees, and Preaching.
