3. Old Testament texts.
One issue that relates to my previous post is that of preaching evangelistically from the Old Testament. I take it for granted that any Old Testament text needs to be read within a biblical-theological (or canonical) context, which means that one’s preaching of an OT text will ultimately point to Christ, one way or another. But in parallel with my thoughts in the previous post, some texts are going to be better for this than others. While the whole OT points to Christ, some texts obviously provide a more direct ‘path’ to Christ than others. I think for an evangelistic talk it would be well advised to go for one of those more direct passages.
Having said that, I think it is very difficult to preach evangelistically from an OT text, and to do it well. Not because the OT doesn’t point to Christ (since it does), but because of the extra leg-work that’s required to handle the text faithfully, and then to show its biblical-theological framework, and then to speak of Christ as saviour and Lord. In fact, I’ve only ever heard one evangelistic talk from the OT that I thought ‘worked’: Ray Galea on Psalm 2, about 9 years ago. I’ve heard other talks that have led me to think, ‘wow that was clever’, which is probably what other preachers who heard the talk thought. But I suspect that many non-Christians who heard the talk thought, ‘what the heck was that about?’.
Posted by Con Campbell
Rick Creighton
Bruce Lowe
Con Campbell
RSS feed - Posts
Subscribe by Email
any suggested models of preachers or sermon samples of those who have done this well?
Hey Con, what do you make of the fact that some of the greatest post-Reformation evangelists (Whitefield, Spurgeon and co.) used the OT as much at the NT in their evangelistic sermons?
That’s an interesting point, Nick. I’ll make a few comments. First, it shows that it can be done well. Second, I wonder how closely their evangelistic sermons correlate to what we would describe as an evangelistic sermon. Third, they were the best preachers of their age, so perhaps not instructive for lesser mortals!
It all looks very good what you’ve got here Con. Thanks!!!
surely part of it is who we’re trying to evangelise. if they’re someone with no biblical knowledge then you may be right; if they’ve had a good foundation but have never accepted Christ, God may well in his grace use a talk from the OT to convict them.
one of the most common questions you tend to get is ‘what’s the other 3/4 of the bible about? how come we never look at that?’ – and if we agree that more often than not the evangelistic talk is just one more part of the journey one may be on to become a Christian, then why not use the OT? is it a matter of not trusting God to work through all scripture?
what did the early church do? did they not preach Christ from all scripture?
i guess my question is whether this is human contra God’s wisdom, or something more fundamental. (apologies for any perceived polemic tone!!!)
Thanks psychodougie. You’re absolutely right that it has to do with who we’re trying to evangelize. Certainly in Australia, a safe assumption is that shared biblical knowledge is almost non-existent among the majority of unchurched people. And I agree, too, that some inquirers want to know about the OT; but is your first opportunity to share Christ with them the best avenue to answer such questions? Maybe it is, but maybe not too.
And yes, the early church peached Christ from all scripture, as I trust we do. But then I’m speaking about evangelistic talks in particular, and in an age that is unlike any that the church has know for millennia.
I think my suggestions certainly fall under the category of human wisdom, and I do not claim any higher authority for them, but as we seek to bring glory to God in evangelism, we must also use the wisdom God has given us to work out how best to connect with those whom we seek to reach.