The David and Goliath sermon is not over when you have shown the congregants how to defeat their giants. It is preaching only when you show them that David, an ideal king, is a type of the truly ideal king who has defeated the ultimate evil on the cross. Consider the theme of Job: “why do bad things happen to good people?” There is nothing wrong with charging the congregation not to curse God and to know that God has a reason for everything even if we don’t see it. This is fine, provided you show them the ultimate theodicy — Christ on the cross.
Even sermons from the NT do not always preach Christ. It is good to preach to take the log out of your own eye before judging others, but how much better to show that Christ is the ultimate judge and there are not logs in his eyes — only a blood soaked one attached to His back. Teach people to be moral and to do right, to love their spouses, to be good parents, to not covet their neighbors goods, but please, in every sermon, show them how all of the Scripture points to Christ.
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A.W. Tozer said “I have suffered through many a dull and tedious sermon, but no sermon is poor or long when the preacher is showing me the beauty of Jesus.” Spurgeon said, “I sometimes wonder that you do not get tired of my preaching, because I do nothing but hammer away on this one nail. With me it is, year after year, ‘None but Jesus! None but Jesus!’”
The problem with “Be good” sermons is that they can be preached in a kingdom hall, a synagogue or even a mosque. We must be different. Our goal is not just to teach Christians to behave well. Our goal is, as Spurgeon said, to hammer that one nail, proclaiming Christ Jesus as the only Son of God, and our only hope for salvation.
Maybe you will do what Dr. Russell Conwell did in his church. On the back of the pulpit, he had inscribed these words: “We would see Jesus.” As leaders of the church, we must preach the whole counsel of God, including the Old Testament, and to preach the message of Paul and all of the apostles — Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:23).
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Jace Broadhurst is teaching this year at Reformed Theological Seminary (VA) and Trinity Theological Seminary (Australia). He is currently a PhD candidate in hermeneutics at Westminster Seminary.
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“Everyone dies, not everyone truly lives”
I. Introduction
a. “Everyone dies, not everyone truly lives” from Braveheart
b. What do you live for? What will you be known for?
II. II Samuel 23 — exposition