“Semper reformanda.” Always reforming. That rallying cry hung like a banner over the Protestant Reformation. It reminds us that the work of reforming the church of God according to the work of God is an ongoing work. There is no reformation that “gets it right” and leaves things forever perfect. Well, there’s that reformation that happens when the Son of God appears and ushers in His everlasting kingdom of perfection. But until then, hopefully, we are always being reformed by God’s Word.
We rightly rejoice in the recovery of the gospel during the Reformation. The removal of traditions and superstitions made it possible to once again hear the voice of God in the Good News of His Son. With the advent of the printing press and the sending of missionaries the gospel went forth in fresh power.
But the recovery of the precepts of the gospel is not the same thing as the recovery of the preaching of the gospel. I’m no scholar of Reformation era preachers, but what I have read seems heavy with polemics and doctrine—all of which was necessary. But even when I read sermons from the era, it feels as if the gospel is largely assumed in the preaching.
It’s not until the revivals of the mid-1700s in the preaching of the Whitefields and Wesleys that it seems gospel precepts meet gospel preaching in a way that directly addresses the lost. Perhaps that’s why we call such preaching “revivalistic.”
As we mark the celebration of the Protestant Reformation and cast an eye at the need for all God’s churches to always be reformed by the Word of God, it seems we need a reformation in gospel preaching. I’m not trying to be controversial or overly critical. So let me tell you why I’ve come to that conclusion.
Up until a year or so ago, I listened to very little preaching outside my fellow preachers at FBC Grand Cayman or hearing guys at conferences. I just didn’t have a lot of time in my daily routine of counseling, meetings, preparing to teach and so on. But hearing Tony Carter talk of how much he listens to others really challenged me. So I set a goal to begin by listening to ten sermons from ten known expositors. I developed a little grid that included things like which testament of scripture the sermon came from, which text, whether topical or expositional, several questions about how they applied the text and several questions about how they preached the gospel.
Again, these were all men known to be expositors of the Scriptures. By the time I’d listened to ten sermons from five men on my list, one thing was really clear: These men all believed the gospel and frequently alluded to the gospel, but they rarely specifically addressed unbelievers in their churches and explained the gospel from their context. In fact, of the 50 sermons I listened to, only three times did I hear a clear declaration of the gospel and a call to repentance and faith from the text being expounded. I could count many other allusions to the gospel, but only three instances of proclamation. I’m certain all these men intend to preach the gospel. But it’s sad to suggest that a person not yet a Christian and unfamiliar with the gospel might not have enough clear gospel proclamation to understand and respond to the gospel.
I don’t know how you feel reading that, but that rocked me. Even if the next five preachers preach the gospel from every text every time, we’d still only be at 50 percent!
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SOURCE: The Front Porch
Thabiti Anyabwile
