Christ-centered preaching is the source of hope, comfort, and life for the regenerated believer. Those touched by the love of God desire above all to hear faithful preaching which directs them to their mediator and savior, Jesus Christ. By the 16th century, the Roman Catholic church had removed this source of comfort and encouragement from the saints. Empty relics and complex liturgies replaced the personal, powerful preaching of the Word.
In Martin Luther's zeal to make Christ central in all things, Christ was brought back into the worship service. Christ was not brought back in through a cold crucifix on a wall, but in the power and warmth of the faithful preaching of the Scriptures.
Luther's conviction was that all Scripture had been given for the sake of Christ, in order that He might be made known and glorified. In Christ alone Scripture and worship find its meaning. Christ is the substance of Scripture. If Christ is known, then everything else in the Scriptures becomes plain and able to be understood. Luther saw every passage in the Bible, whether in the Old or New Testament, to point to Christ.
Christ is God's grace, mercy, righteousness, truth, wisdom power, comfort, and salvation given us of God without any merit. Christ is the salvation of the church. Christ must not only be proclaimed, but Christ must be heard in and through the preaching.
During the years prior to the Reformation there was a void of Christ-centered preaching. Tragically, that void is again evident in our day.
Im appealing for a return to the primacy of preaching Christ in our churches and pulpits and not to be seduced into popular contemporiness that is more concerned with entertaining than it is with preaching.
