Dr. Jordan Stone explores the profound distinction between preaching about Christ and preaching Christ Himself. Discover how this essential focus transforms our understanding of gospel ministry and leads to true encounters with the Risen King.
What does it mean to preach Christ?
That central part of gospel ministry is preaching Jesus Christ. So you can think about how this worked out in the Apostle Paul’s ministry as he speaks to various churches, saying to the Colossians him, we proclaim. Or to the Corinthians, we preach Christ. It’s one of the most important things for ministers to understand what it means to preach Christ. We have first to understand that there’s a great difference. It’s a vital distinction even to make. There’s a difference between preaching about Christ and preaching Christ. It’s that latter ideal that is the apostolic pattern of ministry. Him we proclaim, we preach Christ crucified, which, of course, means a couple of different things. But at its most basic level, what it means is we preach Christ’s person, his beauty, his glory, his offices, and his work from all of scripture. And maybe a simple way to think through what it looks like to preach Christ means we consider three things about our labor in declaring the Savior.
A Hermeneutic
The first thing we need to recognize is that preaching Christ is something of a hermeneutic. We know that in the way that even Jesus in Luke chapter 24 takes these disciples, and He takes them through all of the Old Testament scriptures, showing them how He is proclaimed through them. Therefore, much like the Apostles did, as we preach Christ from the Scriptures, we see how He is the fulfillment and the shadows, how He is the long-promised one, the long- of all the type expected one that has finally come to bring in God’s kingdom and secure salvation for his people. Preaching Christ means a hermeneutical approach. At the same time, we want to recognize that preaching to Christ is an instinct. I think this is quite helpful as we live in an age in which we like. Formulas are quick fixes.
Instinctual Reality
What we need to recognize is there’s there’s no formula for preaching Jesus Christ as though if you just kind of get A and B sorted out in your interpretation, then you’re guaranteed to get to the C of preaching Christ. Now, it’s much more of an instinct. It’s much more of recognizing how these patterns work out in the Bible. So it’s a hermeneutic for sure. It’s also an instinctual reality.
An Encounter
The third thing really gets us to, I think, that vital part of preaching Christ. It’s an encounter. When we preach Christ, what the people in our congregations receive is nothing other than an encounter with Jesus Christ, which the Apostle Paul says is no neutral encounter. It’s the smell of life. To some, it’s the stench of death to others. Maybe the simplest way we can talk about this is in chapter two of Ephesians. Paul is speaking to the church in Ephesus. And when speaking about this peace that we now have through the work of Jesus Christ, he says, Christ himself is our peace. And then he says he came and preached peace to you. Now, of course, we want to ask the question, what did Jesus actually ever come and preach at Ephesus? Well, we know he didn’t. But what we do know is that he was present in preaching the gospel through the apostles as they planted the church there in Ephesus, such that the right and proper preaching of Christ from all and scriptures is nothing more than an encounter with the Risen King himself. So that’s when it comes to our preaching ministry. We want to make sure that it’s a properly Christian ministry, that no matter where we find ourselves in God’s Word or the length of the text, we are always heralding he who has come and who will come again.
