^{The Expositors Collective Seminar will be held on April 5-6 at Maranatha Chapel in San Diego. Visit expositorscollective.com for more information. This seminar seeks to present prospective expositors (18-34 years) the opportunity to experience a hybrid course in gospel-centered preaching/teaching.}

You are a living witness

Your story is just that, it is yours. When this simple truth is owned, something causes your story to have incredible power. You are a living witness of the power and ability of Jesus to transform a life. Your unique perspective sheds light on the glory of Jesus in a way that other people need to hear.

GOSPEL-CENTERED LIVING PRECEDES GOSPEL-CENTERED PREACHING.

As you become comfortable with your redemptive story, the more easily people will be able to see the immense glory of Jesus through your life. While admiring other preachers can be helpful, if you try to become them, you will lose credibility with your hearers. Do not be a different person when you are in and out of a teaching role. Be passionate, but express your personal passion for God. Be sincere, using your own voice and sharing your own thoughts. Be yourself, not someone else. Being comfortable in your own skin is gospel-centered living and gospel-centered leading. The heart of the matter is that gospel-centered living comes before gospel-centered preaching.

GOSPEL-CENTERED LIVING BRINGS BALANCE.

Finding our own identity in the forgiveness and justification we have in Christ enables us to share the two sides of this coin authentically with others. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, you are already made righteous, accepted, approved, beloved and adopted as a child of God. Growing in a strong identity in Christ enables preachers to proclaim the gospel with authority and power. Resting in the full approval of God through Jesus produces freedom from seeking the approval of others, enabling you to become the most authentic version of yourself.

FREEDOM IN PREACHING COMES FROM HAVING YOUR IDENTITY SECURE IN CHRIST.

If your highs are too high and your lows are too low after preaching, it is an indication that you are not finding your identity in Jesus, but in your performance or in the approval of others.

As preachers, we have to be personally experiencing the enjoyment of the gospel in our lives, in our minds and in our hearts. Once that is in place, it allows us to stop trying to be somebody we are not, to stop trying to perform and to be ourselves. Each one of us has been uniquely made by our Creator to be His work of art: His poēma (Ephesians 2:10). He delights in what He has made. He wants us to be who He has made us to be, and not somebody else. The more we grow in that area, the better we become at representing the gospel and truly expositing His Word.

Recently, I was honored to take part in the Expositors Collective, a seminar designed to train and mentor young preachers in the skill of expository Bible teaching. My dear friend Mike Neglia taught a session on Christ-centered preaching, which he opened by highlighting the difference between a moralistic sermon and a Christ-centered sermon by first teaching a sample moralistic sermonette on Matthew 26:6-16, followed by me giving a sample Christocentric sermon on the same text. What follows is the transcript of my 10-minute Christ-centered sermon; perhaps it will be helpful for our Bible-teaching readers.

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Matthew 26:6-16:

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

The Text

I would like to invite you to jump in to this story with me. We find ourselves with Jesus on His way to Jerusalem, almost there in Bethany. He is having dinner in the home of Simon the Leper.

Pause for a moment. It is so important as we read through scripture that we do not allow familiarity to rob us of the shock factor. A meal in the home of a leper! Do you remember the Levitical law about lepers? They were unclean; they could not live among anyone other than other lepers, if someone came near them, they would have to shout, “UNCLEAN!”

They were more marginalized than just about anyone in our society. Lepers did not have dinner parties. Yet Jesus and His followers were there at his house, reclining at the table, enjoying dinner. The only way this was possible was if Jesus had already healed Simon and made him clean. Jesus had not only healed Simon, but had brought him from isolation to community once again.

The opening scene of this story is one of redemption! Then we are introduced to an unnamed woman, who we know from John 12 is Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha. Mary comes out while everyone is still at the table holding an alabaster jar. It would have been recognized by those present as the vessel to hold expensive perfume. She walks up to Jesus and the suspicions are confirmed as the overpowering scent of pure nard fills the room when she pours every drop of the oil over Christ’s head.

There is a gasp! That much nard was unfathomably valuable. (Estimated at almost $20K). The response in the room was from shock to outrage with some turning to her in rebuke. “Imagine the poor that could be fed with that much money!” Then Jesus speaks up: “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Jesus affirms her actions, all the while pointing forward to the cross and the Gospel. Then our focus is brought to Judas. Undoubtably, as the treasurer of the group (who we are told was scraping off the top of the purse), Judas was the most offended by the financial foolishness. For him this was the last straw; he had lost faith in this Jesus that he had dedicated the last few years of his life to. He would cut his losses and turn Him over for thirty pieces of silver.

The Application

This is a dramatic story, but what does it teach us? Many things, but today I would like to focus on just three things it shows us about Jesus.

1) Jesus is in the business of redeeming, healing, cleansing and restoring.

As I mentioned, our opening scene sets the tone already for who Jesus is and what HE does. Simon the Leper was brought from isolation to community, from being unclean to being clean, from sick to well, marginalized to accepted. Why? Because He was with Jesus.

This is what Jesus does. We see it in His very mission statement quoting Isaiah 61 in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This is what He has done in many of our lives, and this is what He will do for many more as they turn to Him.

2) Jesus is more valuable than any earthy thing, and Jesus is worthy of our worship.

It is worth noting that Jesus did not rebuke Mary for pouring out her life savings and her financial security on Him in a moment. He did not rebuke her for this act of worshipful adornment. Rather He affirmed her! Why? Because He is the God of creation that is worthy of all honor and glory and praise. Also, because trusting Him is more valuable than anything that this world has to offer!

As He said back in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

3) And finally, though Mary’s sacrifice and offering to Jesus was great, Jesus’ sacrifice and offering for each of us is infinitely greater!

Mary may have poured out her oil for Jesus, but Jesus poured out His very blood for Mary, and for you, and for me. Jesus, instituting the Lord’s supper, took the cup and said, “For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). Mary may have surrendered her earthly riches for Jesus, but Jesus surrendered His heavenly riches for Mary, and for you, and for me.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Mary may have been shamed and rebuked for her apparent foolishness for Jesus, but Jesus was scorned and rejected, mocked, tortured and killed for Mary, for you, and for me. “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

So what should our response to this be?

Should we be like Mary? Yes. But how and why? Because of who Jesus is, and what He has done for you. If Jesus was willing to sacrifice and give so much for you and I, to bring us forgiveness, liberty and hope, it is a small thing to lay down our temporal comfort, possessions or agenda. We love Him because He first loved us.

From the very beginning of Christianity the disciples of Jesus gathered for worship, prayer, community, evangelism, and the reading and teaching of God’s Word. It could be said that all Christians through all ages practice these things, but different groups place different emphasis on the individual parts.

In the Calvary Chapel family of pastors and congregations, reading and teaching the Bible is important. It’s not the only thing we do when we gather, but it is an essential thing. By our understanding of God’s Word, we know how we should do all the other things. We know the importance and practices of worship, prayer, community and evangelism because the Bible tells us of them.

This is something deep in our character, going back to what God did through Pastor Chuck Smith in his early years at Calvary Chapel. Pastor Chuck emphasized the verse-by-verse examination and explanation of the Bible. He practiced and promoted what is called expository teaching or preaching, which works to draw the meaning and emphasis of the teaching from the Bible itself, hoping to let the Scriptures speak for themselves.

Chuck Smith practiced and promoted this, but he certainly did not start it. As God has done many times through history, He simply used Pastor Chuck to renew a focus on the Bible itself. A noted scholar of preaching (Hughes Oliphant Old) said that Chuck Smith was “reviving the systematic exposition of Scripture . . . In our day, he is one of the purest examples of a preacher who follows in the footsteps of Chrysostom, Augustine, Zwingli, and Calvin.”

Our goal is not to merely teach from the Bible as a starting point, but to have the theme and emphasis of our teaching come from the biblical text itself.

The verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter, book-by-book approach to our preaching and teaching work is essential in our Calvary Chapel family. Our goal is not to merely teach from the Bible as a starting point, but to have the theme and emphasis of our teaching come from the biblical text itself.

In this we bring forth the whole counsel of God, letting Jesus work through His Word to build His church. Ideally, we stress the simple and clear teaching of the Bible and are careful with speculation and diversions.

It’s not that topical preaching is forbidden in Calvary Chapel churches. There is a time and a place for preaching on topics rather than through books of the Bible. Yet, the foundation of teaching and preaching ministries in our congregations is solidly built upon the verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter examination and explanation of the Bible. If the foundation is strong, there is no harm in the occasional topical message or series. Still, even when we teach topically, we hope to do it in an expositional manner, drawing our preaching on the Bible itself and not on what we would impose on the text.

Our sincere desire is to, as much as is possible, let the Bible text speak for itself. We don’t exalt the Bible to the place of God; but we do recognize that the Bible is God’s voice, and we hear it with both awe and love. We know that what the Bible says is far more important than the opinion or wisdom of even the best among us. For those reasons we try to give the Bible itself prominence in our teaching and preaching work. We also encourage everyone to read and study the Bible for himself or herself daily, as part of normal Christian discipleship.

Not all of us are great or even good expositors of the Bible, but we humbly ask God for the gifts of wisdom, discipline, and humility necessary to deliver His message to His people and a needy world. We know that Jesus meets His people in and through His Word, and that the work of God’s Word never comes back empty (Isaiah 55:11).