Where Was The Gospel?
Monday, June 29th, 2009I was blessed with a sermon yesterday which reminded me why we do what we do here at NRP. It took me back to the feelings which stirred us to put this website and store together in the first place.
Based on comments I’ve received directly by different people, I suspect the kind of sermon I heard yesterday is very common, and sadly may actually be considered a ‘good’ one by those who have been damaged by the church in some way.
What am I talking about? The sermon I heard yesterday started with Luke 15:7-10:
“I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
I gave room, as is my wont, for plenty of foibles – especially considering that the pastor was a guest preacher standing in for the church’s pastor – but began to hone in on it when I started hearing about “choosing Jesus” and “letting Him into my heart”. Those are big red flags for me because they’re not consistent with Scripture. I came to my faith in Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit…
“no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.”
- 1 Corinthians 12:3
…and credit can be given to no one else, especially not me. It would be accurate to say that my faith was given to me – in spite of me.
Finally, the main body of the sermon oozed around the concept of me getting busy in my faith, going out and rounding up people for Jesus (my paraphrasing, not the pastor’s). If you know the kind of theology we hold to here at NRP, and the kinds of things we talk about, I doubt anyone would think we weren’t willing to be on the ‘front lines’, as it were, working to pronounce the Christian doctrines of the Reformation to which we adhere.
But I came to a thought as I realized the Gospel was simply not going to be present in the sermon I was hearing. “We should have just stayed home.” And while that’s true in respect to hearing the Gospel (this week was an ‘off week’ regarding communion, being served only on the first and third Sundays of the month) and we could have easily done some study at home as a family and heard MUCH more of the Gospel than we heard at church, not long afterward I remember thinking, “This has been a gift and a blessing.”
That is, I got a reminder of the kind of preaching that too many people are subjected to every week. Growing up with my father, I would never tolerate that sort of preaching for very long. I come to church to hear about Christ crucified for my sins. I certainly do expect to hear a pastor hammer on the law, that condemnation in Scripture of my thoughts and deeds revealing me to be the deeply sinful being I am, but following that the message should then change.
After having my sins brought to the fore in all their painful clarity, the pastor should then spend much more time explaining the thing I don’t hear anywhere else – the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what He did to save me from eternal damnation because I couldn’t do it for myself.
Yesterday that element, the Gospel, was missing. I got to hear about my actions affecting a change which allows God to ‘find me’. And I got to hear how I should be behaving as a Christian – the implicit message being, if I continue to sin like I did before allowing God to find me, I’ll be lost again. I will have strayed from God after having done the important actions which allowed Him to find me in the first place.
I must note here, too, how thankful I am at times like this to be able to worship in a church with a liturgical service. This is exactly the kind of situation in which the liturgy protects the parishioners from a pastor who may not get it right. Due to the liturgy, I still get to confess my sins and have them absolved and hear the grace of God given to me for Christ’s sake.
The thought of so many people regularly suffering under such self-focused preaching, thinking that they’re hearing what they should be hearing – Christ and Him crucified for their redemption – is just painful to me. What I wouldn’t give to be able to have them hear the glory of the Gospel with no watering down whatsoever! This is what Dr. Rosenbladt refers to as “200-proof Gospel”.
Truly, I am spoiled. I was raised in a household in which I was immersed in 200-proof Gospel. I grew up around regular conversations consisting of stuff like what Dr. Rosenbladt discusses in “The Gospel For Those Broken By The Church”. I wish many, many more people had that same opportunity.
And so, here we are. Somewhere along the line, we decided NRP was something we simply had to do. Clearly we’re not a church, we’re a for-profit Christian educational resource, and strive to be one of the best. And our passion for an unwavering laser-like focus on the cross and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is something which we pray we will never lose. And hopefully, if we’re doing our job right, the result will be a source which you can consistently count on to teach you about the Gospel. There are too few such sources out there, especially among us Lutherans. And I’m sad to say that too many churches aren’t delivering it, either.
I hope you don’t mind this long rant, but I had to say something after what I heard yesterday. Many folks are in my thoughts and prayers after yesterday’s sermon.
May you and yours get to hear the Gospel of Christ crucified for your sins each and every week. And if you can’t get it in church, I hope you find some online resources to allow you to hear it through those means. Never stop looking for a church where you can hear the law preached in all its fury and then the Gospel in all its sweetness. Online resources will never be a replacement for such a church. But if the Gospel is simply not being preached at a church near you which you can attend even if it means driving an hour to get there, at least God has made sure that you can hear it through the internet. Take advantage of it.
And I pray that you’re very soon blessed with a church which relentlessly preaches Christ crucified week-in and week-out.
By Ted RFear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. – Luke 12:32
Ted,
Good post, having come out of that stuff not all that long ago and been searching for a good Gospel church, we found one a solid LCMS church (we take our first communion after several weeks of catechism this Sunday), for a long time I still recall what that felt like. Especially after I discovered there was such a thing as “200 proof” Gospel, the real hell is when you don’t know that and you think you are actually hearing the “gospel”. That’s when it terrorizes your soul.
I told my wife the other day, and meant it, “If for some reason we find ourselves in another situation in which this church falls apart completely and loses the Gospel we will drive half a day or more if only once a month to the nearest solid Lutheran church.” I said, “You have to recall that back in the day before good roads and cars, when people went to church in this country often over ‘cow trails’ hours from out in the wilderness to church…we’ve become a little spoiled in the idea of ‘nearness’ to a church.” That being said it may not be doable for all folks to drive like that if necessary.
Better to hear the Gospel once a month 200, 300 miles away than the opposite down the street. I say that because here in the south, in KY, one can literally throw a stone and never miss hitting a church building of some kind or another. None of which preach the Gospel, at least in my pretty extensive church search history.
It is very sad, as you say, what we know people are hearing every Sunday. I’ve family members in my own family that have been driven out of the church for this kind of moralistic preaching. They’ve become so jilted by it that they won’t even give another church a chance. Here’s the part that is the toughest I’ve discovered coming from a strong SB and Methodist family background (this comes from family experience to not just theory): most non-Lutheran protestant churches, especially in the Baptist realm, have so well taught against any liturgical forms, so everything is “anti-catholic”, “if it even smells liturgical it is therefore catholic” – that is/was so deeply ingrained in us that they never give it a hearing in a Lutheran church. Even my own first reaction in a LCMS church was intuitively, “hey what’s this all about, awful RC like”. And I was a functional atheist/agnostic for most of my years in spite of my SB background, so I was “more neutral” about it than most like my wife who were steeped in this “anti-rome/liturgy” life all their life. AND I was pretty prepared for it having read Luther and Lutheran doctrine for some years – the anti-Rome/liturgy “feeling” or “sense” is that deeply ingrained due to the teachings.
Having been taught through it, though, we love it…it is so Gospel rich!
Anyway, just some thoughts. Sorry you had to hear a sermon like that I know what it feels like having heard that a LOT in my former denomination.
Yours,
Larry
I even hear sermons like that when we sometimes have a sub. pastor when our pastor is on vacation or something. (and I’m in a Lutheran church)
It really does make one thankful for the strong Word of law and gospel.
I pray that everyone would have a chance to hear good, sound, law/gospel preaching on a regular basis.
I agree with you 1000%
I’m glad I found you on Twitter and now your page.