While no 21st Century preacher could dare use the Scripture precisely as Jesus did, he still must use it precisely because Jesus did.  If Jesus, who was the authority behind the biblical text, peppered His discourses, conversations, and sermons with the Bible, how much more should we who are subject to its precepts and mandates rely on it?  Our preaching must be lashed to the Scriptures, not to the latest Christian book that lands on the bestseller list.  Many books are helpful, but only the Bible is eternal and the seed by which the Holy Spirit grants eternal life.

Jesus Preached about Himself Passionately

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Jesus never preached from a manuscript; He preached from His heart.  Whether He was preaching a carefully formed sermon, like the Sermon on the Mount, or giving an impromptu answer to critics, one can still feel the deep feeling and emotion in His words.  One couldn’t very well dispassionately tell an audience that they should cut off a hand or pluck out an eye!  Standing firmly in the tradition of the prophets who had foretold His coming, Jesus delivered His messages with fervor and feeling. 

He was passionate as He wept over Jerusalem and lamented that they had stoned the prophets and now rejected Him.  He was passionate in His very public criticism of the Pharisees.  Not only did he invoke passion, He elicited it.  His preaching made people want to throw Him off a cliff sometimes, and at others they were simply astonished at His preaching. 

I sometimes think that perhaps the greatest sermon Jesus ever preached may not even be recorded in the Scriptures.  As great as the Sermon on the Mount is, I suspect the private exposition that Jesus shared with the two bewildered disciples on the road to Emmaus on that first Easter would at least rival it.  Luke characteristically encapsulates it with one power-packed sentence: “Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about Himself” (Luke 24:27).  In that single summary one sees how Jesus undeniably came preaching Himself.  Jesus’ preached Himself decisively: they would either accept His resurrection or deny it, but they could not remain neutral. His sermon was definitely scriptural as he systematically worked through Moses and all the prophets to show them the truth.  He preached theologically because He placed Himself at the very center of the sermon, showing them how the scriptures testified of Him. He preached ethically, having triumphed over sin in death and the resurrection, never failing to maintain His integrity and holiness. The reaction of the two Emmaus disciples reflects His passion.  “Weren’t our hearts ablaze within us while He was talking to us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32, HCSB).  The only way our preaching can set 21st Century hearts ablaze is if we do just what Jesus did: we must passionately explain what all the Scriptures say about Him!

To the extent that our preaching can mirror these five qualities of Jesus preaching, we can follow his preaching.  To preach decisively, theologically, ethically, scripturally, and passionately is to adopt the aspects of Jesus’ preaching that are normative, that are, in fact, essential to Christian preaching.  But at the center of Jesus’ preaching beats the heart of a self-aware deity, the incarnate Word, the Savior of the Word.  We must preach Jesus because He preached Himself.

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Hershael W. York is Lester Professor of Preaching at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY.