Jesus Christ was a Christ Centered Preacher

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. I rarely, well, I rarely edit the shows, but I rarely have a second take. If I�m 10 minutes in and then flub, then I just keep going.

If I�m 10 seconds in and flub, then I start over. So I just started over, but no one will ever hear unless somehow you can get this little data that�s on my Marantz Professional Solid State Recorder, MPD620.

Some people have asked, �What equipment do I use And let�s see, the microphone is the MXV63M, that�s what that�s called. I have a Marantz Recorder that I just told you about. There�s a Comrex BrickLink that you don�t need.

There�s an Innkeeper call-in thing that you don�t need. And the mixing soundboard is 120-VLZ3 Premium Mic Line Mixer. It�s about nine years old, that�s when we started the show. You can email me info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Don�t forget, Israel 2021, mid-February, hopefully with an extension to Roma. And we�re going to go have some ricotta gelato and some espresso, hopefully, Lord willing. And I�m planning to take my wife for our anniversary, our 31st anniversary is coming up next year.

And since I was out of town for the 30th, I had to make it up to her because anniversaries are a covenant of works. So hopefully we�ll be in Rome next year. You�re not invited to that one, you�re invited to the one in February 2021.

I feel pretty good today, I just got a shot, a cortisone shot in my shoulder, a bad rotator cuff tore a little bit a couple years ago and finally had to go in for the needle. Well, anyway, enough of that.

The show today is basically a reminder to teach not just the Bible, but to teach Jesus while you�re teaching the Bible. I�m after Christ-centered Bible teaching, Christ-centered junior church teaching, Christ-centered family worship, Christ-centered preaching Sunday morning, Sunday night.

If you open the Bible, you ought to preach Christ Jesus. And it doesn�t mean every verse means the same thing. Of course, we realize how everything is fulfilled in Jesus. We realize Luke 24, John 5, these things bear witness of Jesus.

And I just want to remind you that while the world via TED Talks and the evangelical world at large, probably not your church if you�re listening, but probably a friend�s church, wants to hear sermons about happier marriages.

How do you take care of your finances? What about your job? I have a whole list of things that I found online, becoming better parents. How do you get more time for yourself? How do you feel better about yourself?

It might even have been in a Michael Horton book, What Would Jesus Say to Madonna? I don�t mind practical things that are discussed like that, and sometimes even rightly they can be preached, Ephesians 5, but even there it�s tied to Christ loving the church and then husbands loving your wives.

I�m concerned that evangelical pastors and liberals alike don�t talk about, don�t preach about the Lord Jesus Christ. And, dare I say, is it because they don�t fill sanctuaries or movie theater pews, whatever they call those seats?

The subject of every sermon must be the Lord Jesus Christ to be a Christian sermon. Some time ago, David Wells described a very scary, awful, horrendous scenario. For a moment, think about this problem of Christ not being a focal point in the church, or the focal point in the church, in relation to the abduction, kidnapping of a child.

This problem of Christ missing as the focal point in the church today is not like the abduction of a child who is happily playing at one minute at home, then is no longer to be found the next. No one has abducted Christ in this sense.

The disappearance is closer to what happens in homes where the children are ignored and to all intents and purposes, abandoned. They remain in the home, but they have no place in the family. So it is with Christ in the church.

He remains on the edges of evangelical life, but has been dislodged from its center. Wells wrote that back in 1994. How much worse, how worse is it today? It's awful today compared to even then, 15 short years ago.

T. Hoekstra said, a sermon without Christ is no sermon. Robert Rayburn said, Christ is the only king of your studies, but homiletics is the queen. Graham Goldsworthy, who writes books that you ought to read, can I talk?

Can I preach a Christian sermon without mentioning Jesus? And then Eric Alexander, a Scottish theologian pastor who is retired, he was at St. George's Tron in Glasgow, I think Ferguson took over for him for a short time.

Eric Alexander said, superficial views of the work of Christ produce superficial Christian lives. Therefore, dear mom, dear dad, dear Sunday school teacher, dear VBS teacher, dear preacher, dear rest home evangelist, dear street preacher, I want to make sure that you talk about Jesus.

That's an odd thought, I know. I don't care. If you're opening up the Proverbs, eventually, I think you should end up talking about Jesus. And there are ways to do it. Maybe that'll be a different show.

You've heard me over the years talk about that. Let's take it from a different angle. True or false? Jesus was a Christ-centered preacher. Oh, this is a good title for a sermon. Jesus was Christ-centered.

I have to write that down. His own preaching was Christocentric, Christotelic. I don't really care what redemptive historical Christotelic, Christological format you subscribe to, but his preaching was Christocentric, Bond said.

He claimed chief place for honor and worship. Without Jesus the person, the preaching of Jesus would have been useless or valueless. In himself must be found the justification for his preaching. That's what Bond said, James, no, Albert Richmond Bond in The Master Preacher, 1910.

Listen to what another theologian said, William Cleaver Wilkinson. The one feature in Christ's preaching that might seem to offer an aspect of originality consists in this, that the ultimate subject and object of his preaching was himself.

I want you to be a preacher of Christ Jesus, and I'm just letting you know and reminding you that Jesus preached himself. Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what rest.

He, Jesus, was a Christ-centered preacher. He talked about himself as prophet. He talked to himself about himself as priest and king. Do these words sound familiar to you? I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.

Does this sound familiar to you? I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door.

If anyone enters through me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Those are all the words of Jesus. They are the words of Jesus. They're not all the words of Jesus, but all those words are Jesus's words. John 6, I'm just trying to go by memory now, John 6, John 8, John 10, John 11, John 14, John 15.

And Paul, guess what? He followed his Lord's example. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5, for we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. Now Jesus can preach himself. We can't preach ourselves. We can, but it's a sad, sappy show.

And the preacher who preached to the Hebrews, what we call the epistle to the Hebrews, preached Christ chapter by chapter by chapter by chapter. I challenge you to find a chapter that Jesus isn't talked about, and you might say, well, what about 11?

The faith, by the way, there is faith in the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Hebrews is a Christ-centered book. Hebrews is the only sermon we have in the New Testament that is written to an established church, established church.

You have sermons, of course, by our least truncated sermons from Paul and Peter in the book of Acts. Maybe you think some other New Testament book is a sermon. I don't know, but this is chapter 13, verse 22.

This is sermonic. This is supposed to be listened to. As you know, I love Sinclair Ferguson, and consider this quote in the book of Hebrews. Consider this quote and the sermons you listen to. Consider this quote and think about how you teach the Bible.

And here's the good news. No matter where you are theologically, homiletically, how you preach and what your philosophy of that is, if I could get you to talk about Jesus more, would that be a bad thing?

Christian? Is that an awful request? If you assume Jesus in the gospel in this generation, the next generation, you're going to lose it. I am quite surprised. Often, we will ask junior high kids and high school kids here, college kids, and even adults, what's the gospel?

And by the way, when we ask them certain words, what's reconciliation, propitiation, redemption, I'm very, very pleased to watch the young ones here grow in their theological acumen. I'm thankful for that.

But I'm also, on the flip side, surprised that they can hear about Jesus from the Sunday school teachers, from their parents, from the pulpit, every week, every day. And then when asked what the gospel is, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, consider the Sinclair Ferguson quote and the book of Hebrews and who you listen to on the internet.

Quote, is it obvious to me and of engrossing concern that the chief focus, the dominant note in the sermons I preach or hear is Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Or is the dominant emphasis and perhaps the greatest energies of the preacher focused somewhere else, perhaps on how to overcome sin or how to live the Christian life or on the benefits to be received from the gospel, all are legitimate emphasis in their place.

But that place is never center stage. The same question can be asked more starkly in our techno-sermon age, when many Christians listen not only to their preaching of their own church, but to their favorite preachers in the contemporary galaxy.

Is the dominant theme, the lasting impression, the most natural word association in relation to the preaching I hear Christ Jesus and Him crucified or something else? Without wanting to denigrate the value many experience from listening to sermons on the wide web, words of caution are surely in order here.

Am I fully aware of the emphasis to which I'm allowing myself to be exposed? Is it a Christ full emphasis? Pregnant pause. I'm now 59 years old. Most of the time after I'm awake, ambulatory, stretched out the back a little bit, I don't usually feel 59.

I guess it's a gradual decline. So I don't, it's not like I had a 30 year old body and then I woke up with a 59 year old body and go, wow, that's, that's different. That's decay. I try to keep in shape.

I try to eat well. I try to, I don't know what I try to do. Anyway, I, one of the reasons why I like to work out and keep in shape because I have a lot to do and I, I, I need to use my mind. And so if my mind is in a body, uh, that's out of shape, then it's hard for me to keep going.

So I try to, I think I can work harder than maybe like a 40 year old who's out of shape. Well anyway, all that, all that to say, I know, I know what you're going to say that bodily exercise profiteth a little.

Yes, that's true. But it does profit a little, it doesn't profit negative profits a little. Plus I redeemed the time and I work out as I go anyway, that's the wrong view of redeeming the time. You should get an evangelical white lies.

There's a chapter on that. Maybe you can find out about it. But I'm 59 years old and I've come to the fact, I've come to the conclusion. I know I didn't talk about Jesus enough early on in my ministry.

John Newton, who wrote an amazing grace, wrote to another pastor, he's 65. Here's what he said. The older I grow, the more I am drawn to preach much concerning the person, the atonement, the glory of the Savior and influences of the Holy Spirit.

There are other truths important in their places, but unless beheld through the medium of the cross, they have but a faint effect. The gospel is about Jesus and therefore be resolved to talk about Jesus every time you open up your Bible.

Moms, dads, junior church, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ in Him crucified. Make it deliberate. Make it a resolve. Make it purpose filled, purposeful. Now if you're not going to do this, then what's going to happen?

Something else will be talked about because people at church expect a sermon. People at junior church expect a sermonette. People at VBS expect a little talk, right? Whatever they call it in Christianese for the talk.

What does an unbeliever call the talk? People are expecting a sermon. They're expecting a homily. They're expecting a word. They're expecting an exhortation. And therefore, just say to yourself after you've done your study, after you've worked through Daniel 1 and who Daniel was and everything else, telescope back a little bit.

I just pushed myself away from the table, sometimes literally, and think big picture. And how does this passage fit in the swath of redemptive history? There's one author of scripture, capital A, the Holy Spirit.

And he's writing out through 66 books of the Bible, shadows, types, fulfillment, and all kinds of other things. Well, somebody's just trying to call me and I don't know who would. I have to just push the button.

If you don't talk about Jesus and He's not in the center, then what's going to happen? Then maybe the focus isn't going to be on Jesus. The focus is going to be on the preacher or the focus is going to be on the congregation in a way that's not meant it to be.

Even when you talk about election or depravity, we need to have people think that Jesus is at the center. And in light of this, it is much easier now for me to then say, like Zinzendorf said, preach Christ, die, and be forgotten.

I mean, all the scurrying around. I've written six books. Well, there's a bunch of other stuff I've written. So let's just say you put them all together, seven. I still have to do the Colossians thing for us with Johnson.

That's there. It's not really my book, per se. Why? Why did I write all those? Well, I could give you all the answers. I could tell you that day one said if you write a book on preaching in eight weeks, we'll hand it out to the Shepherds Conference, to all the attendees there, 3 ,000 of them in 2007, whenever it was.

That's how this all started. I'll blame day one. And you can tell when you read that book, it was written in eight weeks. I think there's some valuable things in there, but I'd like to rewrite it, but I don't have time.

And then you go, oh, what about the next book and the next book and blah, blah, blah. There are different reasons for those. But I know, and I hate to admit it, I know underneath some of that, I'd like to be known.

I want to be respected. I want to be invited to big conferences. I'm still waiting for those calls. But celebrity, Christian celebrityism, I don't really know much about it. Just faintly, but you're on a flight and somebody says something to you, recognizes you, or you're in a Starbucks.

Those only happened to me two times. One's at a Starbucks, one's there, and it was my son. It plays with your mind. And therefore, it's just better to talk about Jesus. Nobody has to know us. Sometimes that's why I wonder, do I even keep doing the show?

Because I've talked a lot over the years, and I think many of you are encouraged, so I want to keep doing the show. But what's underlying it? And I have to crucify and stomp and resist this desire to want to be known, this ambition, this vain ambition that I want to be known.

I thought my whole ministry was supposed to be proclaiming Jesus and making Him known and to make much of Him. So I get to make much of me while I'm making much of Him. How does that all work? That's crazy.

I make much of me because I've made much of Jesus. I thought John the Baptist had it right. He is going to increase, and that means I've got to decrease. I'm just the errand boy. I'm the nobody. I'm privileged to be the herald.

I'm very, very thankful. But why do I do all these things? It's crazy. Maybe part of it's cancer. Part of it's getting old. Part of it is I tried to do the whole Christian celebrity thing and realized it never will work for me.

I never make it. So stop while you're behind. Now the funny thing is, I just say, you know, I like to travel in the sense I like to, once I'm there, I have fun, and it's fun to go with my kids and family.

We've had so many great memories traveling, eating off dollar menus, you know, in Germany and stuff. It's just been great. I think they've had a good childhood regarding that, so there are great memories to be had.

But now, you know, every year I go to the Shepherds Conference in the past thinking, okay, somebody's going to invite me to come and speak, and I'm going to do this, that, and the other, and blah, blah, blah.

And now it's, if I go to the Shepherds Conference this March, and I probably will because I have three kids who are in Los Angeles, and I'll probably bring my wife out this year so we can just hang out.

I'm not going to walk around going, I hope somebody meets me or finds me or recognizes me and asks me to come and speak. It's so freeing. I want to be known by making Jesus known. Something's wrong there.

Something's wrong there. The book of Hebrews, even from the very beginning, it's about Jesus. Every time he's reading a psalm in chapter 1, it's about Jesus. Every time he's thinking about Moses, oh, Jesus is better.

And frankly, if Jesus is better than angels and prophets and Moses and Aaron, do you think he's better than me? Do you think he's better than you? So we can make much of Jesus, and ought to, on a regular basis.

This is my introductory plea today on No Compromise Radio. Even instead of talking about election and free will or lack thereof or perseverance of the saints or limited atonement, let's try to drive the talk, the conversation back to the person who gives us those benefits.

Sometimes I think we separate the benefits of Jesus and Jesus himself, the person. I know I do that. Maybe I'm just the only weird one that struggles with self-righteousness, pride, wanting to be known, wanting to look good, wanting to get to the top of it all.

What am I doing? Separating Jesus from his benefits? Separating, you know, I don't know. I'm not trying to be harsh. I'm not trying to be mean. Actually, if you listen to the old no-cos, you'll realize that there's room for improvement with everybody.

As John Gershner said, there's room for de-improvement for everybody as well. My point is simply, Hebrews is a Christ-centered book. It's the sermon of all sermons in terms of epistles. You ought to be Christ-centered as well.

He doesn't say preach this way, but this is how you should preach. He doesn't say do a VBS this way, but this is how you should do it. There are five warnings in the first ten chapters, and there are twelve chapters of just who Jesus is, and in light of that, some concluding exhortations in chapter 13 with a doxology about Jesus.

It is a Christ-centered book. When I teach my men here at the church or at seminaries or training centers, or I'll be in Saskatoon soon, you better talk about Jesus if you're going to get up and preach in front of me if I'm the professor, because that's what I insist upon, because that is the model of Jesus, the model of Paul, the model of Peter, and what we see in the book of Hebrews.

My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.