Gospel Shining Lessons

Opening Questions:

Did we have guests?

Are we prepared to follow up?

Do you have people you are praying will visit? If not how can I help you have this goal and desire?

A short list of denials may help to sharpen the boundaries of our understanding:

From Article: A Gospel-Centered Sermon is a Gospel-Shining Sermon written by David King

It should be denied that preaching is gospel-centered merely because the sermon was based on the Bible. There is a way of preaching the Bible—even verse-by-verse, even the parts about Jesus—that is damning. The priests and Levites were masters of Scripture, yet Jesus rebuked them for having missed its Christocentric witness (John 5:39-40).

It should be denied that preaching is gospel-centered merely because the sermon comforted people with grace. Gospel grace not only comforts but compels. It justifies and sanctifies. It grounds us in indicatives and grows us with imperatives: You are forgiven; now go and sin no more.

It should be denied that preaching is gospel-centered merely because the sermon included a reference to Jesus’ death and resurrection for sinners. Certainly Jesus’ death and resurrection for sinners is the core of the gospel message (1 Cor. 15:1-4). Yet a dutiful summary of that message, as if it were an item on a checklist or an obligatory footnote—surely that is not what we mean by gospel-centered preaching.

What is meant by Gospel-centered?

We should desire for the gospel to be central to our lessons the way the sun is central to our solar system.

In our solar system, everything circles the sun and is brightened and warmed by it. The sun’s enormous mass creates a gravitational pull that holds the entire system together. The sun’s radiant light and heat reaches every object in its orbit.

Questions we can ask as we prepare?

(1) Did the gospel shine like the sun upon the text of the sermon?

Was the main point of the text was seen in clear relation to the saving work of Jesus.

No truly gospel-centered sermon would be met with approval in a synagogue or a mosque.

(2) Did the gospel shine like the sun upon the life of the hearer?

Gospel-centrality shone on both interpretation and application.

People were called to live in response to the gospel.

(3) Did the gospel shine like the sun upon the heart of the teacher?

Where you gripped by the gospel implications of the text?