Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 22:3 (Fall 2018)
Article: Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Response to Daniel Block, Elliott Johnson, and Vern Poythress
Author: Aubrey Sequeira

SBJT 22:3 (Fall 2018) p. 181

Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Response to Daniel Block, Elliott Johnson, and Vern Poythress

Aubrey Sequeira

Aubrey Sequeira is Associate Pastor at the Evangelical Community Church of Abu Dhabi and a professor of Bible and Theology at the Gulf Training Center in Dubai. He earned his PhD in Biblical Theology and Old Testament from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky where his focus was on the NT use of the OT in the book of Hebrews.

Introduction

As a pastor of a large international evangelical church in the Middle East, I find it impossible to understate the primacy and centrality of faithful expository preaching in the life and worship of God’s people. It is through the faithful and regular preaching of the Scriptures that the Lord gathers his redeemed from every tribe, tongue, and nation; unites them as his covenant people; feeds and nurtures them into maturity; and equips them for ministry and witness. Given the centrality of preaching for the life of God’s church, it is imperative for Christ’s under-shepherds to know what the task of expository preaching entails—what does it mean to declare the “whole counsel of God?” In particular, what does it mean to proclaim the “whole counsel of God” when preaching the Old Testament (OT)? The discussion on preaching Christ from the OT is not merely an academic

SBJT 22:3 (Fall 2018) p. 182

debate. Rather, it is an issue at the heart of pastoral ministry that deeply affects the health of local churches globally.

At the outset it might be helpful to identify my own hermeneutical and homiletical posture: I am a practitioner of what Vern Poythress refers to as “classical Christocentric preaching.”1 I believe that it is imperative for preachers of the new covenant to herald the Lord of the covenant, proclaiming Jesus Christ and his saving work from the Scriptures in the power of the Spirit, so that God’s covenant people behold the glory of their Savior and experience his grace and power unto salvation. In my view, to preach any text of Scripture without showing how it sheds light on the person and work of Jesus Christ is to fail in our task as Christian shepherds. At the same time, to proclaim the person and work of Christ without submission to the Spirit-inspired and authoritative text of Scripture is also a misdemeanor. Rather, as Edmund Clowney put it, we must recognize the “authority, urgency, and relevancy of preaching Christ from the Scriptures.”2 It is incumbent upon preachers to show how the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the central message of the whole Bible an...