Thanks to my friends at Acts 29 I'm able to share some sessions with you from the Dwell London conference. This is a talk Mark Driscoll gave on how to preach Christ from the entire Bible. You can download the audio, read my notes below, or watch the video right here:




No one has a worse life than a church planter’s wife. Her husband is flat broke. He won’t stop working, but makes no money. And he wants to grow his church by getting her pregnant!

The big idea is this—“It’s about Jesus!” There is always something that churches use to keep people motivated. The only way you will maintain something is if it’s about Jesus. Everything has to be about Jesus, whether it’s counseling or groups or classes or preaching.

Six framing questions to help you in your preparation of sermons:

1. What does Scripture say?
   Does the Greek work? What exactly does it say?
   
   
2. What does this mean, i.e. to the original audience and to us?
   
   
3. How can I make it memorable?
   It can’t just be true—it also has to be easy for people to remember, to stay in their minds. How does one do that? Use doctrine—e.g. providence with Ruth. God orders her affairs. Big theological issues can sometimes be your hook. Or just a word, like grace—e.g. fifteen aspects of grace. Or an emotion. Naomi said, “Call me ‘Mara’ for God has made me bitterness.” If you’re in the book of Psalms you will have to explain "lament"—worshipfully grieving out pain. Or an image, like the throne. Spurgeon was best at taking images and captivating people with the images of the Bible. He said, “Some men preach heaven. I try to take them there!” Or a person,—sometimes the hook can be a character. Hang your sermon on the hook.
   
   
4. The apologetic question—How are people going to resist this?
   Assume they are going to fight it. Anticipate the probable objections and answer them. If you do this, you can’t preach for twenty-five minutes. The longer you preach, the younger the crowd if you are any good at it. Forty-five minutes to an hour plus is what many growing churches do. Classic Puritan preaching included this approach to any possible objections: “Some of you are thinking this . . .” It’s not that you are reading minds, just that there will be objections. Hell, sex, pornography, homosexuality, etc. will all raise objections in people’s minds. This is where you will see an angry response. If you say, “This is just my perspective,” it’s fine, but if you say “This is wrong!” there will be conflict. If they have a good reason you did not consider, then it is easy for them to walk out ignoring you.
   
   
5. The missional application—What does this mean for our community?
   What about our church, our families, our friendships, our city, our town, etc. Live in such a way that the rest of the city sees there is a different way of life—birth, work, sex, death, etc. For example, take sexual sin. It’s not just that you are disobeying, you are hurting the church and you are hurting the mission God has called you to—i.e. you are preaching a false gospel.
   
   
6. The Christological Question—How is Jesus the hero?
   Every single sermon needs to talk about Jesus as the hero. This will train the people to look for Jesus in the Bible. Also, if they don't hear Jesus they will make note of that. It will also quietly train people to be evangelistic. People will naturally bring their friends to church because they know you will always be talking about Jesus.

Jesus said to the Pharisees that they did not love the Word of God because they didn't love him. He is the fulfillment of the Bible. How you can find Jesus? Foreshadowing christophanies in the Old Testament, and the messenger of the Lord who is worshipped. Prefiguring types—e.g. Adam, the priesthood, David, the prophets, sacrifices, shepherds, judges, bread, wine, etc. Also, “Unlike the first Adam, Jesus passed his test in the garden” etc. Do not merely preach moralistically, i.e. there’s good guys and bad guys—do what the good guys do. Teach that in this Book they prefigure Jesus and he is the hero.

We tend to turn Old Testament heroes into super-heroes. They are people saved by grace and are not the heroes. God is the hero. The key is to make sure that it is solely about Jesus. Very few people do this consistently in their preaching.

Titles for God—“Son of man” from Daniel.

The big idea is this. Please tell people about Jesus. Too often people try and get them excited about being missional, etc. But to be honest, the only way to really get them excited is to tell them it is all about Jesus. If it’s about Jesus, it works. Even if you don't have the best building or the best band or the best preacher. The Holy Spirit likes to show up when much is made of Jesus. In some churches the people sing as if they had just been captured by Al Quaida, but the church is growing. Why? Because it’s about Jesus. The Jesus of the Bible.

A lot of things can be done wrong. But you have to do this one thing right. If you do it, it will make up for a lot of things that aren’t done so well. If your family and your church family will love Jesus, everything else will follow. GO AWAY AND LOVE JESUS.

With the permission of Acts 29, I have been sharing videos of the recent Dwell Conference, which took place in London. This video is the second Q and A session and is well worth watching as Driscoll gets typically candid. If you prefer, you can download the audio.

For more information about Acts 29 and other free resources, see their website or the Resurgence blog.

Thanks to the kind permission of the Acts 29 Network, I have been given permission to share a number of sessions from the DWELL London conference online on my blog. Today we begin with the first session, one preached by Mark Driscoll. You can download the audio, read my notes below, or watch the video here:



Mark opened the conference, which was subtitled “Grace for the City,” by looking at the gospel and two of its enemies—religion and idolatry.

The gospel is essential—you have to receive it and continue foreword in it to be saved. Many churches believe the gospel, but don't make it essential. Whatever is most important is what we tell them most frequently. Mark listened to another mega-church pastor's sermon who never mentioned Jesus’ name at all, even in the altar call. When Mark challenged him about this, the pastor explained, “Well, I assume they know this.” Don't assume anything! Church is the bride of Christ. It would be tragic if a man's wife didn't even mention him.

Mark stressed once again that we do not make Jesus relevant. We show people how he is relevant. If you want to have a missional church, talk a lot about Jesus. If people hear you talking about his name all the time, you will find that your people will talk about him, too. If it’s all about Jesus, people are not ashamed of him. The negative reactions are not to the real Jesus, but to negative caricatures they have heard.

Driscoll then moved on to the cross and how it saves us. “I believe in substitutionary atonement because I was reading this book and found it” Jesus was punished in our place. Mark explained that he is aware that a certain UK festival split over arguments on this issue and noted that he has been invited to speak at one festival and not the other. People today say that you can’t say that any more. People will react to you. Mark said he would rather be hated than ignored.

2 Corinthians 5:21: The great exchange. Jesus died, was buried, and was raised. We will also die and rise to be with him, like him, and for him, with the effects of sin removed. We have to tell people about eternal life; then they will know how to live now.

We need to tell both Christians and non-Christians about their idols and teach them how to repent of them. This will help everyone to hate you. Driscoll reminded us that Jesus said, “Woe to you when everyone thinks well of you,” and assured us he was about to fix that.

All sin is idolatry says Luther. Something or someone takes the place of God. Two commandments, and the rest are applications. There is only one God—worship him alone. If Jesus is God and not sex, then you won’t run after pornography and adultery. If Jesus is God, you cannot set your identity and worth in a possession or a promotion or a child.

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH AN IDOLATER?

We all give ourselves to something in worship. We all worship. The only question is—Who or what do we worship? We tend to worship the body—pornography, eating disorders, etc. Some people worship their pets! Success, money, fame, etc. How does idolatry capture us? Idols make promises that are nothing but lies.

What are we most enslaved by? It’s what we love that enslaves us, not what we hate. We can actually worship “good” things, e.g. comfort is good if it simply is left as a good thing. If it becomes the ultimate thing, you won’t be able to serve anyone because they disrupt your comfort. Idols always disappoint—your kids, your wife—they won't satisfy. The idol in Egypt was probably their family. All the other plagues of Egypt are linked by commentators to one of the gods of Egypt. No one seems to link the last one, but the death of the firstborn was probably aimed at the god of family.

Idolatry starts by having a definition of hell and a definition of heaven, and something or someone is put forward as a functional savior. If a twenty year old woman has a definition of hell that is being single, heaven is being married; the boy becomes a functional savior. It can even be a child. “If my child continues to be a drug user, my whole life will have been wasted and useless.” But if Jesus is your Savior, then you will not base your life in that way.

David Powlison: What are you most afraid of? What is the one thing that, if it happens, you will be devastated? What do you long for most passionately? Where do you run for comfort? What do you complain about most? What angers you most? What makes you happiest? How do you explain yourself to other people? What has caused you to be angry with God?

Don't use Jesus to get your real god—that’s idolatry. The deepest treasure must be God. Repentance means turning from idols to God.

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH A RELIGIOUS PERSON?

Most people think that God has already accepted them. “I’m good enough.” Religious people are aware of the law and that they have broken it. This can be people with a legal background or military who understand a chain of command. Religion says, “If you are a good boy, then I will love you, but not until then.” The gospel says that because God loves me, his Spirit enables me to obey. “Son, I want you to know that I absolutely love you no matter what, and because I love you I want to help you grow up to be a good man.”

Religion controls you by making you live in guilt and condemnation and fear. People are falsely told, “Don't leave the church; otherwise God won’t love you.” Fear, not love, control, not worship, are then the tools used by such leaders. Religion is disgusting and must be repented of. God commands all men everywhere to repent and this includes the religious.

Religion sees the world as good people and bad people. Religion can include things like “What version of the Bible is best?”, which political party, whether you drink alcohol, etc. We have different teams that have different combinations and then blog against each other.

Religious people say they love the Bible, but because they add to it they show they don't believe in it at all. The gospel says there are no good people and bad people, just bad people who have or have not repented.

Religion is what you do. Gospel is what Jesus has done. When Jesus said “It is finished,” we were supposed to pay attention. Religious people can also be hypocritical, e.g. the worship leader who thinks he's saved because he works so hard leading worship, but all the time is sleeping with people.

Religion believes that your sanctification justifies you. People are trying to make God love you. Job's buddies were very religious. Effectively they were saying, “Where is the sin? God wants you to be wealthy and to idolize you because God’s people are winners. “Job, you are a loser, so God must punish.”

But not everyone who suffers does so because they are being punished—Jesus was poor, homeless, unmarried, childless, rejected, in pain, and murdered. It wasn't because God was angry with him as an individual. Jesus was not punished for his own sins!

Religion is about me, the gospel is about Jesus. The gospel is about being transparent, humble, and honest. God hates religious people. Religion leads to pride if you are doing well, or to despair if you are doing badly. Proud religious people stay in the church, despairing religious people stay away. The gospel ends in joy. Joy doesn't come from religion, it comes from Jesus.

Christians have a wonderful opportunity to be humble and happy. The gospel is good news. Religion and idolatry are not good news, but Jesus is good news. The Jews were idolatrous and the Greeks were religious. Both groups needed the power of the gospel.

Hear Dave Fairchild, Scott Thomas and Steve Timmis answer questions in this session from the Dwell Conference in London. Once again this is a longer video and so is hosted by Google Video rather than Youtube. You can watch it below or download the audio here. The Q and A spoke a lot about the role of the wife in church leadership.