When
I was in seminary, my preaching professor, Dr. David Jussley, was a stickler
for what he liked in a sermon. He wanted
a concise introduction that caught the attention of the listeners, he wanted 3
or 4 points of exposition of the text that were repeated often, and he wanted a
conclusion that always pointed to the cross.
Now, these weren’t unreasonable or even impractical expectations, but
sometimes it was a struggle to confine ourselves to such a rigorous
structure. Many of my classmates either
worked at or attended FPC Jackson, where Dr. Ligon Duncan was the senior
pastor. Now Dr. Duncan is for my money
one of the finest preachers that we have in the world today, much less the
Presbyterian Church. However, Dr. Duncan
doesn’t really follow the model of introduction, points, and conclusion. He begins to, and after telling his
congregation that there were 4 points to his sermon, he would cover 3 of them,
only to bring up his fourth point a few weeks later when dealing with a
different text. We would often ask Dr.
Jussley about his opinions on Dr. Duncan’s preaching and he would never tell
us. Then, as we were all preparing to
graduate and Dr. Jussley was soon to begin retirement, he finally broke down
and spoke about Dr. Duncan’s preaching.
We were all thinking that he was just going to berate this man who was held
in such high regards amongst fellow pastors.
However, Dr. Jussley simply said, “We you learn to preach like Ligon
Duncan, you can get away with breaking any rule you want to, so who am I to
criticize his preaching?”
Ever
since Peter preached this sermon here at Pentecost, it has been the model of
what a sermon should look like. Pastors,
like myself, have spent time learning how to preach by following the model of
prominent preachers before us. Well,
there is really no more prominent preacher in the Christian faith than the
first one, Peter. You see, this is the
first sermon preached after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. It has been studied and studied and dissected
and really looked at from every single angle possible. Now, many folks look at this text and say
that it’s a wonderful sermon, but there’s really nothing that we can learn from
it. However, I would like to suggest a
different outlook on this sermon. Yes,
it is a sermon. In fact, it’s the
greatest sermon ever (or at least the most effective), but that’s not all it
is. After all, a sermon is just a
one-way conversation about Scripture and about God. The principles about what makes up a great
sermon and great conversation about God are very similar, the only thing that is
different is the structure. In other
words, the elements and components are the same for sermons and
conversations. So, the same principles
that we see in Peter’s sermon are the same principles that we all ought to have
in our presentations and conversations about the gospel. So as we look through this sermon, I want all
of us to keep in mind the importance of all of these elements with respect to
our witnessing and evangelism.
When
I look at Peter’s sermon, I see a few key elements. The first thing I see is that it is full of
Scripture. We find that Peter quoted the
prophet Joel as well as quoting David twice from the Psalms. I mentioned a few weeks ago that the apostles
most likely devoted themselves to a time of Old Testament study when seeking guidance
over their next move. Peter used that
time of study to help him develop his sermon to not just be his thoughts, but
to have evidence from the very books that those in Jerusalem held sacred. I was on a mission trip a few years ago with
a friend of mine and we were talking about memorizing verses of Scripture. I mentioned to him that as long as I had
Google, I really didn’t want to waste a lot of time on memorizing all that
versification. He very quickly and
loving, yet sternly as well, corrected my thinking. He told me how in his 20 years of ministry
that nothing was more helpful to his preaching, counseling, evangelizing, and
general Christian conversation than memorizing Scripture and where exactly it
is found in the Bible. I must admit that
as time has passed and I have grown in my thinking and matured in my ministry,
those words spoken to me that day were exactly right and are some of the most
valuable instructions that have been given to me. The same holds true for our conversations
with others. There is almost nothing
more valuable than being able to precisely proclaims the truths that we
confess, and what better place to take those truths from that Scripture itself.
Another
thing that we see about Peter’s sermon is that it is Christ-centered. Now, if we are faithful to Scripture and
don’t vary from what we find there, then this is sort of just a part two of
being rooted in Scripture. However,
there is always that need for how what we find applies to Christ. As I mentioned earlier, my seminary professor
would always make us close with pointing to the cross. His reasoning for this was often given to us
in the form of an analogy. You see, he
was dog person. He would often say that
giving a sermon and not specifically pointing to Christ was like taking a dog
outside and not teaching him what he was supposed to do out there. Sure, he may pick up on using the bathroom by
himself, but he also may learn to dig, chew, or any other number of bad habits. In other words, sure, some folks may make the
connection between that particular text and Christ, but there are some who may
not. The only way to be certain that
those bad habits don’t form is for you to make the connections yourself. So, in our conversation about God, we have to
make the connections between what we read and how we are to react or what we
are to think in light of that. We are to
connect Scripture and Christ with whomever it is we are talking to instead of
leaving it up to them to make the connection.
Thirdly, we are to be fearless in our
speaking. This is one that I fear we are
failing at miserably in our society today.
We find ourselves in a world that is so afraid of offending, that we
have allowed the Christian message to lose its bite in some circles. Whether it be shying away from certain topics
because it causes debate or that we just don’t want to offend someone, we have
lost that sense of fearlessness when it comes to the gospel. We have allowed the potential consequences of
our actions to deter us from what we ought to be doing and saying. My kids know that there is a consequence for
their incorrect actions. However, when
something comes up that they really want, many times they completely ignored
the consequences and just go for it. To
them, the reward very much outweighs the risk.
Shouldn’t we have that same mindset and attitude when it comes to our
faith? Should we really shy away from
speaking the truth about our faith because we are afraid of the judgment and
consequences that might come our way? Or
should we say not what we want to say, but what we need to say? Shouldn’t we speak the truth? The Apostle Paul, writing to the church in
Ephesus says that we should grow in Christ and our knowledge of God, “so
that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried
about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful
schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in
love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” (Ephesians 4:14-15). We are to speak the truth with love and
without fear, but we must speak the truth.
When we proclaim Scripture to someone else, we don’t do so because we
offend them. When we engage ourselves in
Christian conversation, our goal ought not be to shame them (or at least it
shouldn’t be). No, our goal is to speak
the truth to them because we love them and we want the best for them. For those who have not heard the gospel, it
is as if we possess the answer to ever question they have. How could we ever keep that a secret? How could we ever be fearful of speaking the
truth to another person whom we care about?
As
we bring this look at Peter’s sermon to a close, I want to remind you of one
thing. The results that we see from this
sermon (people being cut to their hearts, their wanting to know what to do, and
some 3,000 conversions), it’s not all Peter’s doing. Yes Peter had a great message that was rooted
in Scripture, Christ-centered, and delivered fearlessly. However, it was the power of God through the
Holy Spirit that cause all of those folks gathered there to turn their lives to
Christ and fix their eyes upon Jesus.
However, this account ought to serve as a great reminder and warning for
us all. For us to be our most effective
and thusly be the most effective instrument for Christ that we can be, we must
arm ourselves with the proper tools. We
must devote ourselves to God’s Word, and we must prepare ourselves to speak
without fear. Now, I can’t promise you
that you will see some 3,000 people come to Christ as a result of this, but
think about the impact that you can have if just one person comes to see Jesus
through your efforts. I can promise you
that it is an amazing feeling, knowing that God used you to help give sight to
the blind. Amazing things can happen
when we proclaim God’s Word, proclaim Christ, and do so without fear. I don’t want to sound like I’m a magician or
that Christianity and magic are in any way related, but stand back and prepare
to be amazed at the wonderful and glorious things that God will do through all
of us when we equip ourselves adequately for our service of Him. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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