by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Those who say that we should “just preach Jesus and avoid all arguments or not try to reason with people from error to truth” are themselves unaware that they are making an argument with far-reaching implications. When Paul preached Jesus, it was always<\/strong> met with controversy. Read through the book of Acts and see if preaching Jesus was ever non-confrontational. Preaching Jesus and His resurrection confronted the error of unbelieving Judaism and sometimes stirred them to hateful opposition (Acts 17:5).<\/p>\n Preaching the resurrected Jesus is itself a presentation of evidence that confronts atheism and materialism. In Athens, this preaching caused some to “mock” (Acts 17:32), and in other places, it caused others to get mad and grit their teeth (Acts 7:54). Preaching Jesus is confrontational.<\/p>\n The very preaching of the resurrection of Jesus is confrontational. It means the death of Jesus on the cross was not for His own sins but for our sins, and that confronts every one of us to the core of our being. When we preach Jesus, we are preaching that sin is real and that everyone is guilty and hell-bound without making a covenant with Jesus and His blood. The apostles were reasoning<\/em> from the evidence of prophetic scripture and the evidence of Jesus’ miracles and the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection to win<\/em> the argument that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God, and defeat the argument that He was not (II Corinthians 5:11; 10:5).<\/p>\n Saying “God” is controversial as far as atheism is concerned. Saying “all have sinned” is controversial to those who deny there is a God and a higher standard than the desire and imagination of man. There is no way to preach Jesus and avoid controversy. If so, Jesus would have shown the way, and His apostles would have shown the way. Instead, Jesus and His apostles show us that the message of the cross and the resurrection is the means of reasoning through all kinds of error to truth and always argue the case of truth against error.<\/p>\n Have you been confronted with the truth of the gospel? Do you understand the power of this message? Have you been persuaded? Not facing the truth may be easier, but it won’t end well! Be thankful for those who care enough to contend earnestly for the faith, for only the truth can set us free (John 8:30-31).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Those who say that we should “just preach Jesus and avoid all arguments or not try to reason with people from error to truth” are themselves unaware that they are making an argument with far-reaching implications. When Paul preached Jesus, it was always met with controversy. Read through the book of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[536],"class_list":["post-81228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42038,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-aim-of-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":81228,"position":0},"title":"The Aim of Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Frank Himmel Churches that are all about numbers gladly alter their activities to accommodate popular demand. While music usually gets special attention, preaching is no less targeted. Perhaps it would be timely to remind us all what God intends preaching to accomplish. Preaching is to Instruct In His wisdom,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/arrow-and-target-203x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":63289,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching-the-crucified-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":81228,"position":1},"title":"Preaching the Crucified Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 13, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Corinthians 1:17-31 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What does it mean to \u201cpreach Christ crucified\u201d? - I Corinthians 1:23 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The message of the cross is the power of God - I Corinthians 1:18 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The message of the cross is God\u2019s means of salvation - I Corinthians 1:21 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Therefore,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25530,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-preach-christ-crucified\/","url_meta":{"origin":81228,"position":2},"title":"We Preach Christ Crucified","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Joe R. Price \u201cWe preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness\u201d (I Corinthians 1:23). Let there be no mistake: Preaching \u201cChrist crucified\u201d is gospel preaching. The \u201cword of the cross\u201d is the power of God to save the lost (I Corinthians 1:18,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/scan0005-14-210x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":86288,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/desensitizing-our-moral-outlook\/","url_meta":{"origin":81228,"position":3},"title":"Desensitizing Our Moral Outlook","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton I remember that early TV entertainment had some moral guidelines. In the 1950s the Dick Van Dyke Show was your average TV viewing. The couple was presented as married, but bedroom scenes were of two separate single beds. Later, in the 1970s, you began to see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69822,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":81228,"position":4},"title":"Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by John Iverson Introduction Even those who have a vague idea of what the Bible teaches know preaching is ordained of God (Titus 1:1-3) Some of the greatest men who have ever lived were proclaimers of God's Word. Noah (II Peter 2:5) Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1:1) Paul (I Timothy 2:7) Jesus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58809,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching-the-grace-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":81228,"position":5},"title":"Preaching the Grace of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton via\u00a0Prove It by the Scriptures A brother made the following comment:\u00a0 \"Grace is one subject one hears very little about in conservative Churches of Christ except it be prefaced by a stern warning of what grace is not.\" I wonder if that statement has been true\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}