Preaching a Christ-Centered Gospel

This outline is prepared with the thought of helping national evangelists, particularly, find a simple way of presenting the distinctive truths of the third angel's message, with more emphasis upon Christ than they have perhaps grown accustomed to, with less emphasis upon logic and the proving of a doctrine, important as that may be at times, and with the placing of stronger emphasis upon a spiritual message that will grip the hearts of listeners. Yet we should not minimize the distinctive truths we as a people have been called to preach, nor lose the appeal to public interest from an advertis­ing standpoint. Most of this material has been prepared through several years of study and experimentation, and with a Moslem audience in mind most of the time, though much of it might be adapted to any other kind of audi­ence.

It might be of interest to some to know that one of our indigenous evangelists recently com­pleted a series of meetings based on these prin­ciples in which his audience, composed entirely of Moslems, swelled from twenty-five the first week to two hundred the eighth week, and their mullahs who were present were shouting Arabic "Hallelujahs" to certain of the points that he made—a hitherto unheard-of thing in Pakistan. He told me that one cannot imagine the thrill that it brings until he has experienced it. When he opened a new series of meetings, his Moslem audience requested that he not stop at the close of one month, though the feast of Ramzan would begin before that month was over, but carry on for several months.

Some may question the principle of narra­tive for an educated audience, but experience has shown that even they will appreciate a story in the hands of a capable storyteller. This art this outline makes no attempt to discuss. Hence, we chose to begin this outline with the funda­mental importance of Christ-centered preaching for success as laid down by the Bible stand­ard. We believe this is not debatable.

I. Christ-centered Preaching Essential

1. We are not to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16).
2. Preaching of the cross of Christ is foolishness and a stumbling block to the world, but it is nonetheless the power and wisdom of God unto salvation (1 Cor. 1:18, 23, 24).
3. Determination to know no other kind of preaching save Christ and Him crucified will result in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor. 2:2, 4).
4. No stronger foundation can be laid than this (1 Cor. 3:11).
5. Christ-centered preaching will draw men to Him (John 12:32).
6. The love of Christ will constrain us in our preaching (2 Cor. 5:14).
7. The ministry of reconciliation committed to us is one in which we in Christ's stead are to beseech men to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:18-20).
8. The true ambassador for Christ has it laid upon him as a necessity to preach this way (1 Cor. 9:16).

II. Biblical Narrative a Valuable Aid

1. Words easy to be understood must be spoken (1 Cor. 14:9).
2. Jesus often conveyed truth by means of stories and parables (Mark 4:33, 34; Matt. 13:34-36).

III. Preaching Christ Through Bible Narrative

Before these lessons are divided, it would be well to state that in all these divisions it is not the thought that they are all to be covered in one story or sermon, but rather that each one may be a ser­monic story in itself, with stress upon the theme or lesson suggested. In other words, each point in this outline may itself be the topic of a sermon-story; and there is no limit to the lessons of truth one can teach this way. The narrative approach assumes two things: (1) The listener does not know the story, so details must be told that have a bearing on the lesson one seeks to teach. (2) No attempt at direct proof of truth is necessary—the storyteller is telling what is truth, not dogmatically, but with ready ease, with proof texts not usually supplied or quoted at length, but rather the pertinent parts of a text woven into the story from memory (without supplying the reference). Remember, this is a story. It may also be said here that nowhere through this outline is the endeavor made to arrange these lessons in correct order for telling. That will de­pend upon the local situation in each case. But duplication will not be lost, as it will fix the lessons more firmly in the minds of the audience.

i. Abraham and the Melchizedek priesthood.

j. Abraham and tithing.

LESSONS FROM MOSES

1. Moses and the Word of God. The Arabic names for Moses and Jesus, Kalim-ullah and Kalam-ullah respectively, make it possible to conduct a fine study on Moses as the mouthpiece of God and Jesus as the Word of God (as the two names above signify). Jesus is called in the Qur'an (Koran) "the Word of God," and we might well use that name for Him in a Moslem audience initially rather than the prejudicing "Son of God," as John does in opening his Gospel, and the way can well be set for the giving of the law by Christ through Moses.
2. The prophet like unto Moses—Christ (not Mohammed as Islam teaches, so caution in semantics is in order).
3. Moses and the resurrection.
4. Christ, Moses, and the Law.

IV. The I Am of the burning bush; also Jeho­vah of the pillar of fire and cloud, and the Rock (1 Cor. 10), and used in the right sequence, will help even Christian audiences to clarify "the rock" upon which the church was founded. Christ has always been "the Rock" (Dent. 32:4; Dan. 2:44, 45; Matt. 21:42, 44).

LESSONS FROM THE SANCTUARY

1. The meaning of animal sacrifices premises the death of Christ.
2. The earthly and heavenly sanctuaries.
3. 2300 days, 70 weeks, and the judgment.
4. The work of the priest—type and antitype.
5. Lessons from the furniture and emblems of the sanctuary (quite fitting where Catholic audiences are present, as well, and can be made most Christ centered; in fact, the use of sanctuary lessons sandwiched into other topics as given above aids in Christ-centered preaching in the over-all emphasis of a series). For topical examples: bread, lack of leaven, salt, oil, water, the laver (the wash­ing gives a good basis for a discussion of baptism, though again care must be used among Christians who use this as proof of sprinkling), the altar, incense, candlestick, ark, angels (ministry for salvation as shown by angels on veil and over the ark).
6. God's communication with men as introduced by Urim and Thummim, angels at the altar (as in the case of Zacharias), the Shekinah presence, et cetera, set the stage for the gift of prophecy.
7. LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF DAVID

David is highly thought of among Moslems. The Psalms, or Zabur, are listed in the Qur'an as equal with the Law of Moses. Among the Old Testament prophets David and Moses stand out above all others as far as the Moslem in concerned, with the exception of Abraham (but he stands in a differ­ent relationship inasmuch as he never wrote any Scripture). Therefore, lessons from David may be used effectively. I will here use only one illustra­tion, which has been used successfully, leaving it to the reader to find others. Ibn-i-Daud, or the Son of David, using Matt. 22:42-45, can effectively introduce Christ in His power perspective of hu­manity clothing Deity. There are many other pos­sibilities.

IV. Conclusion

These, and many more, are stories that will hold both the simplest and the most educated audiences, if told as a story, without the argu­mentative intent to prove something. Naturally some of these topics adapt themselves to nar­rative form more readily than do others, and the speaker will find it necessary to tax his ingenu­ity in some instances to make the topic appear as a story. It is not that these topics may not be used otherwise with profit—for well they might —and if one cannot tell a story well, he still might preach a sermon on any one of them and put the truth before his hearers in a new and more Christ-centered way; but we have found the narrative approach to be highly suc­cessful. It has a number of advantages. Fore­most among these is that a story easily grips one's attention, and in listening to a story he is not consciously building up a lot of mental barriers to an argument. There may be ques­tions, but the spirit of caviling will be greatly reduced, and new light may thus penetrate darkened minds. If one wants to question an assertion, he may arrange a personal appoint­ment, and that helps one to get to dealing with individuals without bringing error—in the at­tempt to prove the truth by contrast—to the at­tention of the masses. This method also pro­vides "the corner in the sermon" for children even in evangelistic meetings.

The telling of the story may be either a de­scription of activities or a chronological ar­ranging of events in an interesting way, using, if available, the simplest of visual aids or pic­tures. Lessons from the lives of Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, Elijah, and others are excellent for cer­tain groups and subjects.

The outline above has been presented only as an illustration of the possibilities in present­ing Christ-centered truths through Biblical nar­rative. With this approach we do not believe it necessary to be deep scholars of apostate doc­trines of any group in order to find their weak­nesses, or even their good points, with which to convince them of truth, any more than one would use the counterfeit in currency to dis­cover the genuine. The full knowledge of the genuine will reveal every counterfeit that comes along, but the reverse is not true. However, it is well to be aware of certain differences of un­derstanding over phraseology as used by differ­ent groups to know what will be helpful to them in conveying truth to them in language they un­derstand, and to know what we should avoid be­cause of a difference in connotation. May the Lord bless this outline to the winning of souls for the kingdom of God.