CHRIST-CENTERED EXPOSITORY PREACHING

Pastors Conference 2015

The Christ-Centered Perspective

THE BIG IDEA OF A CHRISTIAN BIBLE

A WHOLE BIBLE

Old v. New? or Older v. Newer?

The testaments may not be separated because the Old Testament is incomplete without the New and the New is incomprehensible without the Old (He. 11:11-27).

WHOLE BIBLE (cont.)

One covenant or many? There is one covenant of grace that runs through the Old Testament and New Testament—salvation is by grace alone through faith. Subsequent covenants only add more details (Lk. 24:25-27)

WHOLE BIBLE (cont.)

One people of God or two?

Though God began with the Jews, throughout redemptive history God has grafted any person saved by grace into that one olive tree (Ga. 3:6-9; Ro. 11:17-22; He. 11:13-16)

A WHOLLY CHRISTIAN BIBLE

The central message of the cross unites the Bible as it does all of redemptive history —(Ge. 3:15; Ex. 20; Is. 53; Ha. 2:14; Ac. 2:23-24;1 Co. 1:22-24; Re. 13:8)

WHOLLY CHRISTIAN BIBLE

A message is not biblical unless it is Christ-centered: The Bible does not contain many histories but one history—the one history of God’s constantly advancing revelation, the one history of God’s ever progressive redemptive work. And the various persons named in the Bible have all received their own peculiar place in this one history and have their peculiar meaning for this history. We must, therefore, try to understand all the accounts in their relation with each other, in their coherence with the center of redemptive history, Jesus Christ.

—Holwerda in Sidne Greidanus, Sola Scriptura, 41.

CHRIST CENTERED (cont.)

Organic v. Fragmentary Approach to Scripture The Bible is not made up of disconnected facts, stories and biographies—this approach to Scripture begins with the assumption that every historical text is ultimately Christocentric because it occurs in redemptive history and redemptive history is the history of Christ. —Greidanus, 135

CHRIST-CENTERED

Synthetic v. Atomistic Approach Scripture is not a collection of separate items—this approach to interpreting Scripture has elements that fit together in such a way as to carry its own unique application. The Bible is not a collection of disparate tales, but a progression of thought that makes one ultimate point.

CHRIST-CENTERED Theocentric v. “Jesuscentric” Approach We do not draw distinct lines from a biblical story or event to a specific occurrence in Jesus’ earthly ministry—this approach recognizes that every story in the Bible is a portion of God’s big story which is redemption in Jesus Christ. Every event at every point of redemptive history (whether it is in Exodus or Acts) is about God’s bringing victory over the serpent’s seed through the seed of the woman. “Christ is at work in the flood, in Egypt, at Horeb, in Babylon, in Bethlehem, at Golgotha, at Pentecost, in Rome—always Christ” —Greidanus, 145

CHRIST-CENTERED

Theocentric v. Anthropocentric Approach We do not teach that men and women are merely positive or

negative exemples from which we derive moral lessons. A theocentric approach views men and women as agents in whom God is at work in redemption: “they have a specific task in redemptive history, a specific office, and hence, a specific significance for the appearance of Christ and his work. . . . The Koran, the book of Mormon, and other literature may mention the same person, but only in the Bible do they appear in this context of the great battle initiated by the triune God to redeem his people and to advance his Kingdom till God shall be all and in all.

Sola Scriptura (Greidanus, 147)

THE BIG TEST OF YOUR TEACHING

“IF YOU. . .YOU MIGHT BE A . . .”

God loves us. . . Make your family a priority. . . Jesus exemplifies obedience. . . You must be an evangelist. . . Be holy. . . God forgives. . . You must be baptized by immersion. . .

CHRIST-CENTERED PRACTICE

Expository, Christ-Centered, History

HEROES

HEROES: JOHN BROADUS EXPOSITORY PREACHING

HEROES: ROBERT G. RAYBURN EXPOSITORY PREACHING

HEROES: JOHN SANDERSON CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHING

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HEROES: SIDNEY GREIDANUS CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHING

HEROES: JOHN SANDERSON CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHING

HEROES: BRYAN CHAPELL CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHING

HEROES: DENNIS JOHNSON CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHING

HEROES: HUGHES OLIPHANT OLD HISTORY OF PREACHING

PREACHING: ESSENTIAL FOR PEOPLE

The only safe guide for a man or woman, young or old, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, priest or people is the Bible, the whole Bible, nothing but the Bible.

Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893

HEROES: THABITI ANYABWILE PASTOR-SCHOLAR

HEROES: CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES

HEROES: VODDIE BAUCHAM

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BACKGROUND

DICK LUCAS, RECTOR ST. HELEN’S BISHOPSGATE (1961-1998)

Judah 605 B.C.

Augusta 2014 Habakkuk

HABAKKUK

Who What When Where How

WHO

Name means “embrace” or “caress” Habakkuk was a prophet who prayed boldly Contemporary of Jeremiah, Nahum and

Zephaniah “God is the friend of the honest doubter who

dares to talk to God rather than about him” Achtemeier

WHAT

Only prophecy in which questions and complaints of people are taken to God rather than word of God delivered to the people

Habakkuk questioned the justice of God God answered with long view of redemptive

history Book for sufferers Quoted in Ro. 1:17; Ga. 3:11; He. 10:38

WHEN

625 to 575 B.C. (609-605 B.C.) Saw two significant historical events: fall of

Nineveh to Medes and deportation to Babylon During reigns of Manasseh, Josiah, Jehoahaz,

Jehoiakim

WHERE

Judah (931-586 B.C.) 2 Kings 18-24 (Hezekiah – Jehoiakim)

HOW

Habakkuk learned and sought to teach us that “faith and fact are not always compatible in the world of sense and sight, but that is not the whole world. There is a world of justice that only God fully comprehends. His people must accept by faith what they cannot confirm in fact.” Barker, K. L. (1999).

OUTLINE, OUTLINE, OUTLINE!

OUTLINE BOOK

I Title (1:1) II Habakkuk’s First Complaint (1:2-4) III God’s Answer (1:5-11) IV Habakkuk’s Second Complaint (1:12-2:1) V God’s Answer (2:2-20) VI Habakkuk’s Prayer (3)

EXEGETICAL OUTLINE HABAKKUK 1:2-4

How long? Call for help Cry out “violence”

But you. . . Do not listen Do not save

Why do you? Make me look at injustice Tolerate wrongdoing

[This is true] Destruction, violence,

strife, conflict abound Law is paralyzed Justice never prevails Wicked hem in righteous Justice is perverted

OUTLINE SECTION HABAKKUK 2:2-5

Now you do it! Exegetical Outline Teaching Outline

STUDY

OLD STANDARDS

NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT

New Exegetical

HOMILETICAL

I. BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS

FCF: What is the need exposed? Proposition: What is the supply? What should be

the response? Main Points: Aspects of the supply or aspects of

the response Application Sweeteners

• Introduction • Conclusion • Illustrations

FALLEN CONDITION FOCUS

The FCF is the mutual human condition that contemporary believers share with those to or for whom the text was written that requires the grace of the passage.

PROPOSITION “I am of the conviction no sermon is ready for preaching nor ready for writing out until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as crystal. I find the getting of that sentence the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful labor of my study. To compel oneself to fashion that sentence to dismiss every word that is vague, ragged, ambiguous, to think oneself through to a form of words which defines the theme with scrupulous exactness – this is surely one of the most vital and essential factors in the making of a sermon: and I do not think any sermon ought to be preached or ever written until that sentence has emerged clear and lucid as a cloudless moon.”

BOOT CAMP Develop FCF and organic connection from: 1. Epistle (Ja. 4:1-10; Co. 2:6, 7; 3:1-17) 2. Narrative (Ge. 22:1-19; Ge. 38; 2 Sa. 9; Esther) 3. Prophetic (Jer. 18; Jonah) 4. Poetry (Ps. 22; Ps. 46; Ps. 88; Songs)

FALLEN CONDITION FOCUS 1:2-4

Need = Disappointment: Habakkuk is disappointed that Josiah was killed, that

Jehoiakim should be entrusted with kingship, that the wicked succeed and the righteous are humiliated.

PROPOSITION

Supply: God corrects Habakkuk’s finite perspective and provides an eternal redemptive perspective

Response: Habakkuk worships by faith

Because God is the sovereign redeemer, we must worship by faith

TEACHING OUTLINE

When you view God through disappointment: I. You become angry (1:2a)

II. God becomes distant (1:2b)

III. Life becomes unlivable (1:3-4)