Preaching the Gospel

So the new buzzword among Evangelicals lately is "gospel." I have no fewer than 10 books written in the past year with the title "gospel" in the title. Everything is "gospel-driven" and we hear a lot about "preaching the gospel." While I think that a lot of the stuff is just trying to capitalize off of the newest (old?) buzzword, I like a great deal of what has come out lately and have tried to apply a lot of it to my own ministry.

In particular, I have been attempting for the past few years to integrate preaching the gospel into my sermons in a non-forced way (altar call-esque) way. I have experimented with different ways of integrating the gospel into my sermon but I finally found out a fairly effective method. I want to especially focus on the stage of application in preaching. Truthfully, this is where a lot of preachers struggle. We can expound the text and its nuances like champs but when it comes to connecting it to life, we falter. I know that I personally have wrestled with this issue for a long time. However, what I am sharing here has helped me a lot.

Defining the Gospel

There is a general consensus among most recent literature on the gospel that there are four main elements to it. Though the words change, the four main elements are: creation, the Fall, redemption, and restoration.

Creation reminds us that God created man in his image for his glory as vice-regents to rule his world.

The Fall reminds us that because of Adam's sin we are born with a sin-nature that rebels against God's good purposes in our lives and orients us towards destruction. We are at animosity between God, the land and each other and deserve punishment because of this.

Redemption reminds us that Jesus Christ died on the cross because of our sin. He rose from the dead as the inaugurated king and secured our redemption.

Restoration reminds us that one day God will bring about complete and total restoration and we will live in the New Heavens and New Earth with God and others forever. Things will be perfected.

I have chosen for simplicity sake (and as a helpful mnemonic device) four c-words to sum up the Gospel: creation, crash, cross and consummation (but truthfully, the vocabulary matters little).

Integrating the Gospel in Preaching

Essentially every sermon needs to cover all four of these areas. This might sound limiting but actually, the scope and meaning in each of these words is vast--so vast you could explore them for eternity and not exhaust the ramifications of each element. In theory (and in truth), you should have endless applications at your disposal.

Each area (creation, crash, cross, consummation) asks a particular question and should help you think about your text in different ways.

Creation asks, "What was God's original intention for us?" This question orients us to our past and what could have and should have (and one day will be) our hope.

Crash asks, "What has sin does to God's original intention?" This builds a bridge with your congregation because, truthfully, this is where you are. You are battling your sin nature and you are sinful. So this question orients us to our present.

Cross asks, "What has Christ's death accomplished to reverse the crash?" This question actually also is our present. This is where we can begin glorying in the truly good news.

I want to pause here and reflect how absolutely vast this question is. As a preacher you need to be aware of the many theories of the atonement and appropriate various ones in your preaching. For instance, the Christus Victor model of redemption is an absolutely beautiful picture of how Christ has broken Satan's power over us. Penal substitution is similarly vital in letting people know their sin is truly reprehensible to God. Christus exemplar is a good model as well (provided you don't go into legalism) to remind people how they ought to respond in light of God's redemption for them.

Consummation asks "How does God want the story to end?" The ending is healing, judgment of the wicked, and perfection. This is a future oriented question that helps us lift our eyes off of the present and see things in light of eternity.

So How Do I Preach This?

I have found it helpful to a) work through my text and then b) write out all four stages of the gospel to help me think through the ramifications of what is written. For instance, this Wednesday I am preaching on "Who I am not" in our series on I-Denitity. I am using a curriculum that I find a bit too moralistic for my taste but they give me a good structure from which to preach.

However, I revamped a bit of the sermon. The three points are:
1) The Gospel Frees Us from Focusing on Other's Opinion [Gal. 1:10]
2) The Gospel Frees Us from Focusing on Ourselves [James 4:1-2]
3) The Gospel Frees Us from Focusing on Appearances [1 Sam. 16:7].

Notice a few things. First, this a topic driven sermon and not a full-blown expository sermon. While originally I used to be against this type of sermon and used to think "exegete the hound out of one text" I have shifted my thinking a bit after working with youth. I am still all about exegeting the text but I think it is important to adopt a "systematic theology" approach to preaching too. In other words, it is useful to show people the scope of what God's Word says. Also, it was a technique used by the early church (tying multiple texts together) so I don't think it is inherently wrong.

The key to doing it well though, is tying it all back to the Gospel. For instance, I have a worksheet that I have gone through in preparation for this sermon. It looks like this:

The Gospel Frees Us from Focusing on Other’s Opinions (Galatians 1:10)

Creation—God created us in his image so…
Crash—You (and others) are sinful so…
Cross—Christ’s death and resurrection at the Cross has made you right with God so…
Consummation—You will one day live with God in the New Heavens and New Earth so…

The Gospel Frees Us from Focusing on Ourselves (James 4:1-2)
Creation—God created us in his image so…
Crash—You (and others) are sinful so…
Cross—Christ’s death and resurrection at the Cross has made you right with God so…
Consummation—You will one day live with God in the New Heavens and New Earth so…

The Gospel Frees Us from Focusing on Appearances (1 Sam. 16:7)

Creation—God created us in his image so…
Crash—You (and others) are sinful so…
Cross—Christ’s death and resurrection at the Cross has made you right with God so…
Consummation—You will one day live with God in the New Heavens and New Earth so…

Working my way through each element of this worksheet keeps my thoughts directed on what is truly important and allows me to direct the text back to Christ. It helps give me a clear direction in application and it helps me tie it together well.

Hopefully this helps.