The Good Shepherd 2

Chapter 3 of Newbigin’s The Good Shepherd is one of the best chapters I’ve ever read in any book.  It is titled “Preaching Christ,” and in 5 short pages gives a fantastic challenge to those who preach.  A few highlights:

• Flesh is just flesh, but if it is quickened by the Spirit, then it gives life.  Words are just words, but if they are quickened by the Spirit they give life.  The words of Jesus are words that give life.
• (The) life-giving word of God is the power by which the Church lives.  The Church is created and constantly renewed by the word of God.
• We have to preach Christ.  That is really our only business in the pulpit.
• The reason why preaching has a central place in the life of the Christian Church is that the word of God to men is Jesus Christ, and he has to be put before men.  He has to be put before men again and again in his flesh, in the concrete reality of his manhood – his life, his words, his deeds, above all his death and resurrection.  That is our business as preachers.  From whatever part of the Bible we take our text, the business of the sermon is to bring the hearers face to face with Jesus Christ as he really is.
• We have to preach Christ as Savior and as Lord, both as the one who helps and delivers and comforts us, and as the one who has the right to absolute rule over our lives.
• We are called to preach Christ, and preaching Christ means preaching him both as Savior and Lord.  It means that people go out from the church not merely comforted with the assurance that they are saved, and not merely crushed by the unbearable knowledge that they are sinners, but rather re-enlisted in Christ’s army as fighters for the rule of God in this world.  This means that they are liberated from care about their own salvation in order to be totally at his service for the world’s salvation.