The Cross and the Great Commission
Why preaching stands at the center of the church’s mission
If preaching is God’s chosen means of speaking to His people, then the question of content is unavoidable. What is it that God intends to say through the proclamation of His Word?
The answer given consistently by the apostles is not a method, but the announcement of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul makes this explicit when he reminds the Corinthians that while the message of Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, it is nevertheless the power and wisdom of God to those who are called (1 Cor. 1:23–24).
Preaching that omits the cross, regardless of its moral application or rhetorical power, ceases to be Christian preaching because it withholds the very substance through which God has promised to save.
This insistence upon the primacy of the cross in preaching often exposes an impulse within the church, namely, the desire to supplement proclamation with additional techniques, experiences, or even messages. When the message of the cross is perceived as insufficient on its own, ideas that suggest that the gospel is not enough, or that it must be reinforced, begin to emerge.
Practices such as musical accompaniment at the end of the sermon, emotionally charged illustrations, or strategically curated altar calls can begin to function as compensations for a perceived lack in the message itself. To be clear, the issue is not the presence of secondary elements, but the assumption that they bring with them, that the power to produce spiritual results no longer resides fully in the proclaimed Word of the cross.
Paul deliberately resists this temptation, describing his own ministry as marked by weakness, fear, and trembling, so that his preaching would not rest on persuasive words of human wisdom but on the power of God (1 Cor. 2:1–5). In doing so, he draws a sharp line between preaching as an act of faithfulness and preaching as an exercise. The power of preaching does not come from the preacher, or from his style and techniques but from the promise of God to work through the message of Christ crucified.
The Spirit and the Word
The apostolic emphasis on weakness does not imply that preaching is merely verbal. On the contrary, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that the gospel came to them not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit (1 Thes. 1:5). This does not mean that the Spirit works independently of the Word, nor that preaching becomes effective only when accompanied by visible manifestations of power. Rather, it affirms that the Spirit binds Himself to the proclaimed Word, taking what is spoken and applying it to the hearts of those who hear. In this way, preaching functions as the means through which God acts upon His people.
As the Word is proclaimed, the Spirit brings about faith, repentance, and obedience, not by bypassing the message, but by working through it. The transformative power of preaching, therefore, lies not in the emotional force of the sermon or the charisma of the preacher, but in the Spirit’s faithful use of the Word to accomplish God’s purposes.
The preacher announces; the Spirit applies.
Preaching and the Great Commission
When this theology of preaching is brought to bear on the mission of the church, it becomes clear that preaching is not a peripheral activity but stands at the very center of Christ’s commission.
The Great Commission does not authorize the church to devise methods for producing spiritual outcomes, nor does it permit a separation between evangelism and discipleship. Rather, Christ commands His church to make disciples by teaching them to observe all that He has commanded, a task that presupposes the ongoing ministry of the Word.
This unity is made explicit by the apostle Paul, who writes that faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17).
According to Paul’s words in chapter 10, without preaching, there is no hearing of the gospel, and apart from such hearing, the remaining elements of the Commission lose their coherence. Baptism, instruction, and obedience all depend upon the prior and ongoing proclamation of God’s Word, and preaching is the means by which Christ gathers His people, incorporates them into the visible church, and continues to instruct them in the way of faith.
Preaching, therefore, functions as the engine of the Great Commission, not because it is impressive, but because Christ has bound Himself to it. Through the proclaimed Word, Christ continues to speak to His church, exercising His authority and extending His reign. The same Christ who once spoke on earth now speaks from heaven through His Word, calling sinners to Himself and sustaining believers in faith and obedience (Heb. 1:2).
This understanding of preaching frees the church from the restless pursuit of new methods and strategies designed to secure results. Christ has not left His church without a voice, nor has He asked her to innovate her way into faithfulness. He has spoken, and He continues to speak through the means He has appointed. The task of the church, therefore, is not to improve upon Christ’s commission, but to trust it.
Christ Still Speaks
The foolishness of preaching, when viewed in light of the cross and the commission, is revealed to be the wisdom of God at work. What appears weak to human judgment is the very means by which Christ exercises His saving power. Through preaching, sinners are called, saints are sustained, and the church is built, not by human ingenuity, but by Christ’s ongoing speech through His Word.
For this reason, the church need not apologize for preaching, nor hedge its confidence in the ministry of the Word.
Christ still speaks, and He does so through the faithful proclamation of His gospel. Until He returns, the church lives by hearing, and by hearing she believes.
Julius Santiago, Preaching as the Primary Means of Grace (Macclesfield, UK: Broken Wharfe, 2021), 52.
Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018), 30.
Julius J. Kim, Preaching the Whole Counsel of God: Design and Deliver Gospel-Centered Sermons (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2015). 156.