The prince of preachers Charles Spurgeon once said, "The best sermons are the sermons which are fullest of Christ. A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution."
The most effective sermons are those that are Christ-centered and gospel-driven. Every sermon and every homily must be sprinkled with the gospel and with the message of God's love through Jesus Christ.
I have learned this to be valuable as a preacher of the Word myself and have seen that God can use me best when I include Jesus as the beginning, middle and end of every sermon.
Many new preachers will struggle with the idea of preaching a salvation message on a weekly basis, thinking that it would become a dull and repetitive message that our congregations will get sick of. I like what my Bible teacher once told me before, "If our congregations get sick of listening about Jesus then we're in serious trouble."
Why is preaching Christ in every sermon necessary and most helpful?
To preach without Christ is to preach an incomplete message
Every believer today now lives in a covenant that includes the finished work of Christ, so to preach anything outside of the grace of God through Jesus's death and resurrection is an incomplete message.
Every word from the Bible preached today, including the old covenant, must now be preached through the lens of Jesus Christ. We do our congregations a great disservice by failing to do so.
To preach without Christ is to preach moralism, not good news
Jesus proclaims in Luke 4:43, "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." We are not called to an alternative purpose. We are to preach nothing but the good news of what Christ has done for and through us.
When we start preaching good advice, we start building pharisees instead of disciples. To build true followers of Christ, we must preach Christ's life, death and resurrection non-stop.
To preach Christ is to preach true power and transformation
According to Francis de Sales, "The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not 'What a lovely sermon,' but 'I will do something!'" As preachers, we desire transformation and empowerment to come upon people.
People will never truly be empowered or transformed unless they are taught Christ and His power. Any other power to change and enable is temporary. Only Christ and His power brings lasting and meaningful change and empowerment.
