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My previous article was headlined, “The Hatred of Christocentric Messages in This Generation.” It focused on how many church leaders today have paid less attention to the preaching and teaching about Jesus, but have prioritized motivational messages.
This has led to the birth of many Christians who do not know Jesus Christ or have not sincerely encountered Him to make them the genuine Christians they are expected to be. True Christians are people who are one spirit with Jesus because they are born again and are indwelled by the Spirit of Christ.
This article, therefore, discusses with scriptural references the prioritization of Jesus Christ in the preaching and teachings of the earliest apostles in the first-century. That led to the formation of Christ in the believers in those days (Galatians 4:19).
If today’s ministers really accept the Bible as the Word of God and believe in Jesus as the promised Messiah, then, we must diligently study the Epistles and learn from Paul, Peter, John and the other apostles what they greatly preached and taught about.
For the purpose of brevity, we shall look into the Pauline corpus and the Acts of the Apostles for our study. First, let us take Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church. Here, the apostle said he did not go to Corinth, proclaiming to them the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
The learned apostle understood his assignment and knew the subject of his preaching. Thus, Paul boldly stated: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
The apostle had knowledge about a lot of things. He knew about the Law of Moses, the Jewish traditions, the Pharisees and Sadducees. He also knew about Jewish high priests, kings and governors. Finally, Paul knew about the relevance of money, wealth and success in life.
However, he intentionally closed his eyes and considered the things and people mentioned above as unimportant to him. Those things did not matter to Paul as if they did not exist.
Paul’s greatest attention and concentration was on Jesus Christ. Without the Saviour, he had nothing very important to know and preach to make Him known. Clearly, Paul made a wise ministry decision, considering that Christ alone could and can give eternal life.
Thus, in Colossians 1:28-29, Paul emphasized that, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
Similarly, the apostle in his letter to the Philippian church, stressed the centrality of the preaching of Jesus Christ. In fact, he cared less about the caliber of those who preached about the Lord or their motive. What really excited him was the fact that the Saviour was proclaimed.
“Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice” (Philippians 1:15-18).
True ministers filled with the Spirit of Christ rejoice in the preaching of Jesus Christ. They never hate it, despise it, devalue it, undermine it and neglect it. They understand that the Spirit of Jesus testifies and glorifies Jesus.
However, false ministers do otherwise. They reject the Lord, and accept to preach and teach about money and success. There is nothing wrong with motivating Christian believers to make money or achieve financial success. But Christians are given Jesus Christ as the greatest subject for preaching and teaching. And this uniqueness must be respected and upheld.
That is why the earliest preachers devoted their time and energy to preach about the Lord. They did that by moving from one house to another and from one temple to another.
“And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus” (Acts 5:42).
By James Quansah
