Exalting Christ: Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World — Part 1

In the 16th century, Nicolas Copernicus proposed the theory that the sun was at the center of the Solar System. It was an epoch event that many regard as the beginning of the modern scientific age. The prevailing “earth-centered” theory had been set forth by Ptolemy about 150 A.D. The difference between the two theories cannot be overstated. The one centers everything around the sun and the other centers everything around the earth. It ignited a controversy that shook the foundations of the academic and religious world of that day.

A Copernican-like controversy is raging in the church today. It centers around a change that totally alters the life and ministry of the church. However, unlike Copernicus’ theory, it is a backward shift, a downward turn. It is a change that takes Christ out of the center and puts man in His place.

I am speaking of the controversy over biblical preaching. It’s a matter of monumental significance. Here is why: True biblical preaching proclaims and exalts Christ. And in doing so, it rightly places Christ at the center of the church’s life and ministry. Nevertheless, many minimize, or outright reject, biblical preaching. One writer states:

I am writing with the assumption that most of you who are reading this book have concluded what I have: preaching doesn’t work … if you know how to listen, you can hear the rumblings that confirm that preaching, as we know it, is a tragically broken endeavor.¹Doug Pagitt, Preaching Re-Imagined, pp. 18-19

Statements such as this indicate a shallow understanding of true biblical preaching. They reveal an absence of any conception of the relationship between the role of preaching and the supremacy of Christ in the church.

The Primacy of Christ-Exalting Preaching

There are many passages of Scripture which declare the primacy of Christ-exalting preaching. Here are just a few. I will enbolden the Christ-centered emphasis.

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21).

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake (2 Corinthians 4:5a).

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ (Romans 16:25a).

 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. … and my message and my preaching were not in pervasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Corinthians 2:1-2, 4).

 In these texts we see the Christ-centeredness of Paul’s preaching. They show that true preaching exalts Christ in His glorious person and work. They emphasize that when Christ is set forth, there is a “demonstration of the Spirit and power” so that sinners are saved, believers are established, and the gospel is advanced in the world.

Underlying true, biblical preaching is the assumption that what people need is Christ. Spurgeon says it well,

Are there rebels present? preach Christ: it will suit them. Are there pardoned sinners present? What is better to melt their hearts than the blood of the Lord Jesus. Are there doubting Christians? What can cheer them better than the name of Christ. Are there strong believers? What is stronger meat than Jesus crucified? Are there learned, polite, intellectual hearers? If they are not satisfied with Christ, they ought to be. Are there poor, ignorant, unlettered men? Jesus Christ is the thing to preach to them–a naked Christ to their simple ears. Jesus Christ is a topic that will keep in all climates. Land in New Zealand in the midst of uncivilized men, move off to another post and stand in the midst of poetical Persia or fickle France, the cross is adapted to all. We need not inquire into the doctrinal opinion of our hearers. If they are high, I am sure Christ will suit them. If they are low, if they be true believers, I am sure Christ Jesus will suit them. No Christians will reject such meat as this; only prepare it, and with a hot heart serve it up on the table, and they will be satisfied and feed to the full.²Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume III, pp.174-175

Christ is what believers and nonbelievers need. He is the deliverer, rescuer, and soul-healer. He is the physician, and we are the sick. When He does His great saving and soul-healing work, He is exalted and glorified, as He alone deserves.

There is really only one alternative to Christ-centered, Christ-exalting preaching. When the main meetings of the church are not centered on Christ, they will be centered on man. I believe this is what is happening. This often is not done intentionally, but in the end this is what takes place. There may be sermons, but the focus subtly shifts to man: his success, his relationships, his needs or whatever else.

In many churches, biblical preaching has been replaced, and with it Christ. And when Christ is replaced, His glorious all-sufficiency, by which He delivers and liberates men, is replaced as well. The one is necessarily bound up with the other. The end result is people are not delivered or helped which means – and this is my whole concern – Christ is not glorified and exalted. The whole matter has to do with the glory and exaltation of Christ.

The Power of Christ-Exalting Preaching

Paul declares the Christ-glorifying, soul-delivering, and life-transforming power of Christ-centered biblical preaching in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, 4:5.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with  unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (3:17-18).

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake (4:5).

Notice Paul’s point: It is when people behold Christ in the mirror of the Word, that the Spirit liberates and transforms. Paul says, “but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. … we all … beholding … the glory of the Lord … are being transformed.”

Notice that all those who behold Him by the Spirit in the Word, are liberated and transformed. The reverse is also true. If Christ is not beheld in the Word, then none are delivered and transformed. This explains why Paul later declares, “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord.” Knowing the power of Christ through the preached Word, Paul could not be diverted from preaching Christ.

The introductory quote on preaching makes the bold assertion that, “you can hear the rumblings that confirm that preaching, as we know it, is a tragically broken endeavor.”

Is biblical preaching a “broken endeavor”? Is true preaching ineffective? Does it no longer work? Of course, it all depends on what we mean by preaching. Passionless, cold-hearted, sterile sermons, even if they contain biblical information, is a false representation of true biblical preaching.

By preaching, I mean an exposition of the Scriptures, centered in Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and proclaimed with an inflamed heart. This is the biblical preaching which is modeled and mandated in Scripture (as in Acts 2:14-39, 14:1-3; and 2 Timothy 4:1-2), and it is the preaching which is advocated and defended here.

So with that in mind we ask the question: Is true biblical preaching ineffective in today’s postmodern world? I am convinced it is not. The Scriptures (and church history as well, I might add) declare that Christ, proclaimed and exalted in the preached Word, is the primary means of God’s culture-impacting power. They affirm that God has ordained that Christ-centered, Christ-exalting, biblical preaching is the primary way that the Spirit’s power is released for the spread of the gospel in the world. Two key passages demonstrate this.

God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:21b-24).

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit. … for they themselves report about us what kind of reception we have with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:5-6, 9).

Paul says, in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, that his preaching was, “in power and in the Holy Spirit.” And he says in verses 6 and 9 that as a result they “received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,” so they “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” God works mightily through Christ-exalting preaching.

In the Corinthian passage, in verse 21 Paul declares that it is by preaching that God was well-pleased, “to save those who believe.” He then states in verse 24 that, “Christ the power and the wisdom of God” is manifested in Spirit-empowered preaching.

Christ-exalting preaching is non-negotiable. It puts Christ at the center of the church’s life, where He rightly belongs. He then becomes the catalyst for the growth of the church and of all the other ministries of the church as well. Did He not say He would build His church? (Matthew 16:18).  The church then impacts the world and the gospel is advanced. Biblical Christ-exalting preaching is the fuel by which Christ sustains the church and spreads the gospel in the world.

My aim is to briefly set forth from 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 and 2:1-5, the case for Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered expository preaching. In turn, I will attempt to show that Christ-exalting preaching is God’s timeless culture-impacting strategy — even for an anti-church, anti-Christian, postmodern world like ours. It is, and always has been, the main element of a Christ-driven, world-impacting church. To Christ alone be all the glory.

The Case for Christ-Exalting, Spirit-Empowered Preaching

God is passionate about the exaltation of His Son. God the Father says to Christ in Isaiah 49:6,

 It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

 The Father is impassioned to see His Son glorified among all the peoples of the earth. He will not rest until His Son is “a light of the nations” and Christ’s “salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

This must be our passion as well. Anything else is “too small a thing.” This Christ-exalting passion is what gripped and drove Paul. In the face of severe opposition Paul says in Acts 13:46-48,

It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.’ When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

Paul was driven by the reality that God’s purpose was to glorify His Son “to the end of the earth.” But Paul also knew it all starts with strong local churches. The church is Christ’s primary agency in the world. It is to be salt and light in its own community and beyond. And it all begins with Spirit-empowered, Christ-exalting preaching.

There is, of course, much more to the ministry of a local church than preaching. But preaching — and therefore Christ in and through the preaching— is what fuels and sustains all these other ministries of a church. In 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, Paul sets forth the case for Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered preaching. He declares that Christ — unveiled, unobscured and placarded before men in the preached Word — has a drawing, attracting, and converting power beyond anything man can, or ever will, come up with to impact a culture.

He labors to drive home only one point: The power and wisdom of God for the advance of the gospel is centered around the exaltation of Christ in preaching. What men may think of preaching Christ, in the end, does not mean a thing. They may scorn it as foolishness or a stumbling block (offensive to the culture?). The fact remains that it is how God’s power and wisdom are released in the world. Paul writes,

But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

The Jews considered preaching a “stumbling block” and the Gentiles “foolishness” but Paul still preached, why? Because it is “the power of God!” Notice, it is not preaching per se that is the power and wisdom of God. It is Christ in the preaching. In verse 24, Paul asserts; “Christ the power of God.” Earlier in verse 21, Paul stated,

For since in the wisdom of the God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

It is by preaching Christ that “God was well-pleased to save those who believe.” In other words, preaching Christ is how God moves with power in the world “to save.” What he calls “The message preached” in verse 21 is, “the gospel” in verse 17, “the Word of the cross” in verse 18, and “Christ crucified” in verse 23. Then he simply says it is “Christ” in verse 24. Finally it is the “testimony of God” and “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” in 2:1-2.

All the way through the passage he emphasizes that proclaiming Christ is the primary way God releases His converting, culture-impacting power. As we saw in verse 21, God was “well-pleased … to save,” in effect, to impact the world this way. Could Paul be any clearer?

There is simply no substitute for preaching Christ. Christ possesses, in His person and work an infinite beauty and glory. He possesses a glory that the Spirit of God is impassioned to exalt and magnify. Jesus said of the Spirit,

He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you (John 16:14-15).

The Spirit’s passion is to exalt and glorify Christ. There is not a more Christ-centered, Christ-exalting person in the universe than the Spirit. The Spirit came into the world for this very purpose.

This is why Paul, later in chapter 2, states that when Christ is preached we can pray for, and expect there to be a “demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5).

2 Corinthians 2:14 through 4:7, is another passage that emphasizes the power of Christ in the gospel. It speaks of how Christ is able to “triumph” (2:14) over darkness and sin. It says that Christ, through the Spirit, renews hearts of stone; so that a person becomes  a “letter of Christ … written … with the Spirit of the living God” (3:3). It says that wherever Christ works in power there is “liberty” (3:17) so that men are freed from the power and bondage of sin. Finally it says, that when Christ is preached God gives sight to the spiritually blind, so men are stunned and gripped by the sight and glory of Christ (4:4-6). Paul declares all of this in the following verses,

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ (2:14).

Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (3:3).

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit is, there is liberty (3:17).

In whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord … For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (4:4-6).

In these verses, we see the apostolic conviction that turned the world upside down. We see first that when Christ is preached there is “triumph” so that sinners bow their knees and receive the gospel (2:14). Second, that Christ works through the Spirit so that enslaved sinners are delivered and find “liberty” (3:17). Third that these same formerly sin-enslaved people are more and more “transformed” (3:18). In short, sin-enslaved people are saved, renewed, liberated, and transformed.

Paul says that because this is true, “we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord” (4:5). He preaches Christ because that is how, by the Spirit’s power, sinners are brought to exclaim that God has “shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6). Paul preaches Christ because he knows “the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Many at Corinth — like many today — were not convinced of this. Therefore, Paul carefully lays out his case that preaching Christ is where the power of the Spirit of God lies. Notice his emphasis on preaching and power throughout the passage,

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void (v. 17).

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (v. 18).

But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (vv. 23-24).

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (v. 25).

And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God (2:4-5).

First notice the repetition of preach and preaching. Then note also the repeated references to “power” (4x) and related terms such as “not made void,” “save,” “wiser,” and “stronger.” It should make one thing clear: Paul was concerned about power and impact. He was concerned about reaching people for the glory of Christ and the spread of the gospel.

Furthermore, it should be obvious by now that the primary source of this power is found in Christ-centered, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered preaching.