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The Pharisees where pretty creative people. I know we don’t normally think of them as creative; we have generally been trained to see them as the bad guys–the legalists–and of course they were. But I think they were rather creative folks as well. They managed to take the Old Testament, and the Ten Commandments in particular, and extrapolate from them commands that would address ever behavioural situation. And I think they had to be pretty creative to accomplish that. They had, for example, taken the commandment to remember the Sabbath and created rules for every situation one might conceivably find themselves in on the Sabbath. And so on, and so forth. The result of their efforts is reflected in the Talmud, which seeks to apply the Law to every facet of life. To continue the example of the Sabbath, the Talmud specifies no less than 39 types of work that are prohibited on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, in their creativity, had created Laws to govern every conceivable area of life.

In the last day or two I have listened to about 12-15 sermons online (I’ve been putting off working on my Old Testament essay). I tend to listen to a lot of sermons, usually from preachers I admire and from whom I’m hoping to learn a great deal about preaching. But in the last day I’ve been sampling the preaching at a number of different churches, both in Edinburgh and the US. Most of the sermons I’ve listened to have been from large, influential churches. And I have been struck by two common features in the vast majority of these sermons. The first thing that struck me is the creativity of the preacher. I’ve heard people read a passage and then preach a sermon on a topic that bore little relation to the passage they read (in many cases there was no attempt to base the sermon on a passage; the topic was obviously chosen first). I’m intrigued by the creativity many preachers display in their ability to make points of application.

The second thing that struck me about many of these sermons was that they were entirely law-based. That is to say that they were legalistic. Most of them wouldn’t be readily identifiable as legalistic sermons. They’re entertaining, funny, feel-good type sermons. But when you boil the sermon down to its essence, most of these preachers are just giving people the law. Let me give a couple examples. One pastor, preaching on worship, spent his entire 30 minutes defining worship, then in his conclusion/application essentially said “go and do it”. Another pastor, preaching on money, told his congregation that they have to use their possessions to further God’s kingdom, and when they do so they will be happy that they did. A third pastor, preaching on Caleb in Numbers 13 and 14, said that doing what God wants will mean going against popular opinion, but when we follow God instead of popular opinion, God will reward us. Now, I’m not saying that any of these sermons is heretical; I’m not even saying I really disagree with the main thrust of what is being said. The problem, however, is that each of these sermons only does about a third of the work it should. All of these sermons hold up God’s standard, without ever giving the congregation the resources they need to obey. And so they are essentially doing what the Pharisees did many years ago: they have taken God’s law and applied it very creatively to a ton of different situations. But at the end of the day, all they have done, at the very best, is expound the law.

There are two key elements missing from each of these sermons. While they all expound the law, not a single one of them addressed the issue of human sin. What a strange thing, because the law is all about pointing out human sin. Paul says in Romans 7:7 ‘if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”’ One of the functions of the law is to expose our sin. But these Creative-Law sermons never get to that level. After they have faithfully explained what a particular passage of the Bible requires of the individual, the preacher then needs to explain the nature of the sin that prevents each one of us from doing what is required of us. I need to be told that my infatuation with my self prevents me from worshipping God as I should. I need to be reminded that I’m too concerned with my temporal, fleeting comfort to put my money to better use. And I need to be told that I’m way too caught up in what other people think of me–too concerned with my reputation–to follow God instead of popular opinion. The law exposes sin, but if it is being preached in such a way that my sin is not exposed, then there is something very wrong.

The second thing that is completely absent from these Creative-Law sermons is, shockingly, the Gospel. The Gospel is what makes Christianity different from every other religion and every other worldview. Every way of living has laws, but only Christianity has the Gospel. So the absence of the Gospel from a great many sermons in large evangelical churches is a serious problem. But the Gospel is essential if any sermon is to be a Christian proclamation, instead of a lecture on moralism that could be heard on Oprah, a PTA meeting or the synagogue down the street. Having explained the requirements of the Law, and having exposed the sin that prevents me from obeying the Law, the preacher then needs to show me how the Gospel of Jesus Christ actually enables me to do what God requires. I am enabled to truly worship God when I understand how much God has done for me, even while I was his enemy–I can’t not worship! It’s the only response I can muster. When I see that Jesus, who possessed all the riches that could possibly be imagined–Jesus who was eternally God, and yet he gave up what was his to usher in the Kingdom of God–and to usher me into the Kingdom of God–how can I cling to my possessions? And when I realise that my true self-worth is not in what other people think of me, but in the fact that God has indelibly declared that I am his son, it is no problem for me to follow God instead of popular opinion.

I honestly don’t understand why so much preaching today misses so much. There is a very real connection between the creativity of the Pharisees in extrapolating the Law into every area of life and contemporary preachers who do much the same thing (although they do so in a much friendlier way). There is, however, a small difference between what the Pharisees did and what today’s preachers often do. The Pharisees’ preaching was hard-core. They didn’t water it down or attempt to make it easy to obey in any way. And as a result, they became arrogant, self-righteous jerks, because they thought they had arrived, and everyone else had failed. Modern preachers, however, preach the Law, but they try to make it as accessible as possible. They don’t want people to feel bad about themselves, as they surely will if the law is preached in its fullness. So instead they give little bits of the law–just enough to give us something to work on until next Sunday. The problem is that next Sunday I still won’t have managed to get even that little bit under control, and then I’ll get another piece of the law to work on, and so on and so forth. 52 pieces of the law every year, if I go to church regularly. There’s no way I can keep all that in check. And so we stop trying. One of the incredibly ironic things about the contemporary emphasis on practical preaching is that it is so incredibly impractical. If we get three principles to work on every week, 150 principles a year, we can never even come close to putting them all into practice! And so most of us simply stop trying. Honestly, when was the last time you left church and made a real effort in the following week to put those three principles/steps/guidelines/whatever into practice in your life? The fact is, much modern preaching (almost all the sermons I listened to in the last 2 days) proclaims the Law, but it doesn’t really even do that faithfully. We are getting a watered down, yet very creative (and often entertaining) law, and no Gospel at all.

So, I challenge you to consider this next Sunday. As you leave church, ask yourself if you really heard the Law and if you really heard the Gospel. If you didn’t hear the Law in its fullness, the chances are that you didn’t hear any truly Good News either.

Please understand that I’m not holding myself up as the paragon of preaching. It’s hard work, and I have a lot to learn. But I can say with certainty that I am being faithful in at least attempting to do what I have set forth here as the standard. The fact is that I would be cheating if I didn’t. God’s people are entitled to God’s Word in full. We need the Law to convict us and we need the Gospel to heal us. Anything less is unacceptable. If the preaching you’re hearing isn’t proclaiming the Law and the Gospel, I’d encourage you to talk to the preacher about it. We are fickle creatures and we are prone to forget just how great our saviour is. We need to be reminded every week, and even more often than that, of the depth of our sin, and the greatness of our Saviour.

This entry was posted by Bryce on Tuesday, November 15th, 2005 at 4:20 am. This entry was tagged with Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.