Here's Why All Sermons Should Be Christ Centered - Tim Keller

And you know, there are people who say

you preach everything in the Bible uh

pointing to Jesus and there are other

good men who just don't think that's

right and that you shouldn't preach

Christ from Jacob wrestling with God and

you you should preach about wrestling

with God in prayer or or suffering or

something like that. Honestly, I listen

uh I mean I believe that those good and

sincere men are wrong on the basis of

reading the Bible and understanding

hermeneutics and so on. But part of this

goes back to I I remember uh some years

ago when I sat down with my wife, you

know what it's like on your way home

after the sermon.

You know, first you're hoping she'll

say, "Great sermon, honey. And then she

has then she doesn't say anything so you

fear the worst.

And uh and I remember one day we really

got into it and I said, "Well, let me

ask you a question. How often do you

think it was a great sermon? I mean, how

many you

how many weeks out of the month?" And

she said, "No more than one one in four

or five is what she said." So uh

so we sat down and at one point she's

what she said.

I mean, you know, in general, it's been

a pretty long time, but she said, she

says, you know, for a good part of your

sermon, in fact, all your sermons are

great. They're rational. They're they're

uh uh they're biblical. They're

exogetical, and they show me how I

should live, and they show me what the

what I should believe. But she says,

"Every so often,

suddenly at the end, Jesus shows up. And

when Jesus shows up, suddenly it stops

being a lecture and becomes a sermon to

me. And she says, 'Because when you say

this is what you ought to do, this is

what you ought to do. This is what you

ought to do. She says, 'I know. I know.

Okay, it now I'm a little clearer on it.

I'm a little more guilty about it. Good.

That's fine.

But she says, sometimes you get to the

place where you say, "This is what you

ought to do, but you really probably

can't do it." Oh, but there's one who

did.

And because he did it on our behalf and

in our place,

if we believe in him,

we'll begin to be able to do it too. You

see, but only to the degree that we

understand what he did for us. And she

says, you know, that's different. She

says, so one time out of four or five,

your lecture becomes a sermon when Jesus

shows up. I want to do that. I have

hope. I have hope and I begin to see how

I can do it. And I didn't really

understand but basically even I went to

but now I do and here's the thing your

preaching will never be doxological and

it won't even be central unless it's

christoacentric

here's why if you tell people they need

to be generous and why aren't you being

more generous I happen to know you're

not being generous I mean I've got you

know it's sometimes hard to tell whether

people are you know how how lust in

their hearts is doing from week to week

but you do know about their generosity

from week to week.

But under Why aren't people generous? Is

are they just being sinners? Oh, we

Let's go back to Martin Luther. Let's go

back to the catechism. If you're not

being generous, then you there's

something else going on there, is there

not? You are uh you're saying your

status or your security, which is based

on money, is is way is very important to

you. Or you need to be able to buy

certain clothes and and move in certain

circles and go certain places. human

approval, security. There's there's

idols underneath the lack of generosity.

The money is more than just money. It's

security. It's significance. It's

status. It's it's it's it's more than

you've got to do something to make that

money just money. Then they'll give it

away. How do you do that? You have to

show Jesus Christ as their true wealth.

You have to show them what their idols

are. You got to get to Jesus. And uh as

a result, if you if you don't if you

don't get there, you are going to find

that you're just wailing on people's

wills. You know, you're beating on their

on their uh on their will. See, this

Sincler Ferguson wrote a book that is

almost impossible to find because it was

put out as a little pamphlet by the Proc

Trust in the UK, but the name of it is

Preaching Christ from the Old Testament.

And this is what he says. He says what I

just said a minute ago that he says most

preachers not only don't preach Christ

from the new old testament but they

don't preach it from the new testament

and he says quote the preacher has

looked into the text even in the new

testament principally to find himself

and his congregation not to find Christ

says and you can even do that in the new

testament even in the gospels he says

the sermon therefore is consequently

about the people in the gospels instead

of about the Christ who is that gospel

the more fundamental issue Is this

question?

What is the Bible really about? Is the

Bible basically

about me and what I must do or is it

basically about Jesus and what he has

done? Is the Bible basically about the

objective and the indicative? You know,

and then here's a here's a for example,

that's why he says you do have to be

careful. Hermeneutics is important. You

can't just just you know you can't just

find Jesus in every little you know twig

and uh you there there needs to be a way

in which you are following the

trajectory of the text no matter what

that text is uh to Jesus you have to

show how how Jesus is the ultimate

fulfillment of that particular tra the

trajectory of the text you you've got to

be responsible and yet it's it it's as

Sinclair says it's more than an inst

it's more like an instinct it's not so

much just write hermeneutical principles

it's it's an instinct Do you believe the

Bible's basically about you or basically

about him? Is David and Goliath

basically about you and how you can be

like David and Goliath or basically

about him? The one who really took on

the mate, the only giants that can

really kill us, you see. And so his

victory is imputed to us. Who's it

really about? That's the fundamental

question. And when that happens, then

you start to read the Bible new. You

know, Jesus is the true and better Adam

who passed the test in the garden, his

garden, a much tougher garden, and whose

obedience is imput imputed to us. Jesus

is the true and better Abel, who though

innocently slain, has blood that cries

out not for our condemnation, but for

our quiddle. Jesus is the true and

better Abraham who answered the call of

God to leave all the comfortable and

familiar and go into the world into the

void not knowing whether he went.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who

was not just offered up by his father on

the mount but was truly sacrificed for

us all. While God said to Abraham, "Now

I know you love me because you did not

withhold your son, your only son whom

you love from me." Now we at the foot of

the cross can say to God, "Now we know

that you love me because you did not

withhold your son, your only son, whom

you love, from me."

Jesus is the true and better Jacob, who

wrestled and took the blow of justice we

deserve. So we, like Jacob, only receive

the wounds of grace that wake us up and

discipline us. Jesus is the true and

better Joseph, who is at the right hand

of the king and forgives those who

betrayed and sold him and uses his power

to save them. Jesus is the true and

better Moses who stands in the gap

between the people and the Lord and who

mediates a new covenant. Jesus is the

true and better rock of Moses who struck

with the rod of God's justice now gives

us water in the desert. Jesus is the

true and better Job. He's the truly

innocent sufferer who then intercedes

for and saves his stupid friends.

Is that a type? See, that's not

typology. That's an instinct. Jesus is

the true and better David whose victory

becomes his people's victory though they

never lifted a stone to accomplish it

themselves. Jesus is the true and better

Esther who didn't just risk losing an

earthly palace but lost the ultimate

heavenly one who didn't just risk his

life but gave his life who didn't just

say if I perish I perish when I perish

I'll perish for them to save my people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who

was cast out into the storm so we could

be brought in. He's he's the real

Passover lamb. He's He's the true

temple, the true prophet, the true

priest, the true king, the true

sacrifice, the true lamb, the true

light, the true bread. The Bible's not

about you.

And that's that's an instinct.

And until that shows up in your sermons,

it'll be lectures, not sermons. It won't

be dox logic. It won't be central.