Preaching Christ From the Old Testament

What did you find in the book that would help you preach Christ from the Old Testament?

Chapter One:

Greidanus does an incredible job of not only giving the do’s on how to preach Christ and do it from the Old Testament, but goes as far as explaining the don’ts as well. He shows how the New Testament church in its apostolic preaching had already done this type of preaching. Greidanus gives the reasons behind the meaning of “preaching Christ,” but also tells and gives examples of what preaching Christ does not mean. Sometimes I think it is better to start off by telling people the way you don’t want things to happen, so that they know exactly what you do want to happen. From the person and work of Christ he gives a clear example of the reason for preaching Christ, specifically from the Old Testament. Near the end of the chapter, after giving his reasons on why to preach Christ, Greidanus gives the reasons for why people in today’s culture lack the preaching of Christ from the Old Testament.

Chapter Two:

Greidanus’s reasons on why we are not preaching give great help on keeping the focus pointed towards Christ and not man. Here he shows a way of not just mentioning Christ to make the messages Christ-centered, but actually showing Christ from the Scriptures. What helped me most from this chapter was a way of looking at what God is doing in Scripture and not merely at the work against man. Also he shows the way the Old Testament is often looked at and how it should be seen as the link of Christ bringing the oneness to the story of redemption. Christ is the same all throughout Scripture. Lastly, Greidanus goes deeper than the first chapter in explaining a fuller explanation of Christ.

Chapter Three:

This chapter was helpful because Greidanus showed a biblical view of the way messages should be preached. It is not to be preached with new methods, ways, or other approaches that might lead to another way of study. He deals with all of today’s movements and their beliefs that preaching ought to be from their perspectives; Greidanus shows the correct view of interpretation of the message throughout Scripture. I personally liked the fact that Greidanus goes back throughout history and the early church fathers and looks at the way they viewed Scripture. Giving allegorical and typological views and their different ways of viewing Scripture help one see the do’s and do not’s once again like he has already so many times done throughout his writings. Showing the short comings really made me think of how many people in today’s Reformed Theology branch have sometimes gone too far in their typology of the Scriptures.

Chapter Four:

In this chapter Greidanus starts off by explaining Luther’s hermeneutical method and its principle of sola scriptura. He goes on to explain Luther’s contrast of law and gospel. Once again he not only shows the upside of Luther’s view on interpretation, but the downside as well. He also reviews Calvin and his hermeneutical method dealing with all the areas in which Calvin would look at Scripture. He does this as well with Charles Spurgeon and Wilhelm Vischer. Personally my favorite is how he explains how Calvin would preach a text after many ways of studying it.

Chapter Five:

This chapter may show the major lacking theme of American Evangelical churches today. The lack of preaching Christ from the Old Testament is not because they lack knowledge of it, but how to do it. He shows exactly how to do this properly and how to exalt God in all of his glory by first preaching Christ. It is helpful to learn this when dealing with today’s culture which lacks this in so many ways. He does this in a way that does not separate individual stories or books, but makes everything fit together in the work and redemption of Christ.

Chapter Six:

Here Greidanus revels and shows how to use his method: the Christocentric method. This is a huge help in understanding a text in not only its individual story but in a whole of all of the stories. Looking at each individual story, message, and text and then putting them in the plan of God in His story of redemption presents the Old Testament as a clear picture and shows Scripture in a whole new correct lens. The best part of this chapter is his proper job in explaining typology and how to do it correctly. The end examples are key to helping see how this is done as well.

Chapter Seven:

Starting off he gives ten ways to lead you in making the right Christocentric sermon from viewing the Scriptures. He gives several examples and how to do this from Genesis. This chapter is most useful to preachers and their ways or means that they don’t understand for making a Christ-centered sermon, or coming about one. With these proper steps of viewing the Scripture in light of the entire major theme of the Bible, pastors or anyone in study, will be helped in coming to correct God honoring sermons or speeches.

Chapter Eight:

Here examples are given from Gen. 6, Ex. 15, 17, and Num. 19. These examples are ways of showing how this study would look and not look. He tries to clarify this method of studying Scripture. He uses these to go through their proper views like: redemptive history, fulfillments, typology, analogy, themes, New Testament, and looking at how to compare it with other passages. Examining the Scriptures through this lens seems hard to do but after reading Greidanus you can’t wait to get your first Old Testament text to work your way through and use all these study tools to search Scripture deeper, finding much more meat in all of the story that consists throughout all of the Bible.

What did you find to be unhelpful and even a negative influence upon the preaching of Christ from the Old Testament?

This might be a little nick picky. I found it hard after six chapters full of how to preach Christ-centered sermons, to then begin in the seventh chapter with his “ten steps from Old Testament text to Christocentric sermons.” His first step is to select a text from the congregational needs. Maybe this is why I am not, nor do I plan ever to be a shepherd of the Lord’s people. But I do find it very hard to sit down and look for a text to fit the needs of the hearers of the Word. I also find this mindset contrary to his view on Scripture. If one wants to keep Christ first in the sermon, then there should be no reason why to pick a text for the hearer. The influence of this then tends to lead me to believe that the preacher would then meet the needs of his people. I understand in some areas how this can be, but I do not preach the gospel for man’s sake, nor would I ever preach the gospel with my focus on the needs of the hearers. He says, “When church bells ring on Easter Sunday, people need to hear a word from the Lord about the resurrection.” To which I’d say, “Shouldn’t they hear the cross preached every week?!” I just do not see from my view how anyone could explain Christ-centered hermeneutics but then when coming to prepare a message, go to a man-centered way of thinking. I am by no means a preacher or a pastor nor do I have many of the skills to speak as a pastor would. I may be off on this area, but am willing to hear other opinions.

Greidanus mentions to make special sermons for the church year like Christmas, Easter, and the day of Pentecost. I would much rather teach the Scriptures and wait to see how the Lord’s plan will be carried out. Then shortly after this point he says, “Before selecting a text, we should decide which particular need should be addressed in this sermon.” This makes me wonder if in any way he is trying to say that we need to focus on the points and areas we must preach to our hearers before looking at what the Scriptures say. This would also make me believe that he will have assumptions of what “he wants to say” before he ever comes to the text and may allude to something different than what will be in the text. Lastly he states that this process will help us create sermons that are relevant from beginning to end. In no means would I disagree that we should be relevant to today’s church. I actually believe this is one of the largest problems in America. Preachers get behind their pulpit and preach about something that happened 25, 40, and even 50 years ago in culture, which has nothing to do with the man in the pew. It almost seems that the pastor wants to do something to keep the hearer awake or try to appeal to him. The gospel stands alone; the gospel flies alone. The gospel plays a one man band and needs nothing but itself to appeal to the hearer of it. I think that the point Greidanus is trying to make is just not as necessary as he makes it. It seems to defeat the purpose of Christ-centeredness.