I still remember attending a funeral for the mother of a member and wondering if the pastor knew what he was supposed to be doing up there. He was throwing out disconnected episodes and memories of the poor woman. He was trying to figure out a point, if any, to his message. He offered a little Scripture here and there without exclamation. Most sadly, he didn’t clearly and overwhelmingly point to Jesus’ death and resurrection as the answer to sin and death, let alone grief and mourning!
It felt like he didn’t know why he was up there. He was throwing up darts, hoping something he said would stick. If he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to say, what about the people gathered?!
While funerals are the saddest example of preachers not preaching Christ, I have witnessed plenty of everyday Sundays where the person standing in front of the crowd didn’t understand why he was there in the first place. Preach Christ and Him crucified!
You can preach about the Ten Commandments, David and Goliath, and how to love your neighbor or creation, but if you don’t direct it to Christ on the cross, you have not only properly taught that lesson but robbed the people of the whole point! You can offer up life lessons, cute vignettes of your childhood, and national headlines, but if it doesn’t lead to Jesus, who completely wipes away sin and gives eternal life, you should sit down. You are only heaping up coals upon your hearer’s heads.
Different church bodies define the goal of preaching in various ways. Some don’t care about Scripture at all and instead focus on the environment, domestic policies, etc. Others teach the Bible every Sunday, and the people know all the stories and even memorize Bible verses. But there is only one ultimate goal of preaching, though there may very well be subsidiary ones: repent and believe the good news of Jesus Christ.
Jesus says it clearly in John 6. I am the bread of life. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. All of Scripture points to and finds its completeness in Christ. Preaching Christ and Him crucified is why the preacher is up there; it’s why the Church exists in this world. His death and resurrection alone are what give the guilty comfort and fearful peace.
If this is not the daily message of the guy up in front, he should be asked to step down because he doesn’t know why he is up there in the first place.
