Charles Spurgeon tells of a Welsh minister who spoke to a younger minister about his sermon after hearing it. “It was a very poor sermon,” he told the young man. “Will you tell me why you think it a poor sermon?” came the response. “Because,” said the Welsh minister, “there was no Christ in it.” “Well,” said the young man, “Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text.” The exchange continued:
“Don’t you know young man that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherevere it may be, there is a road to London?” “Yes,” said the young man. “Ah!” said the old divine, “and so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business is when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis – Christ. And,” said he, “I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savor of Christ in it.”
– Timothy Keller, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism,67-68
by Ajay Thomas
Ajay lives in Philadelphia with his wife Shainu and their kids Hannah and Micah. He is responsible for preaching and vision as a pastor at Seven Mile Road.