Yes sir, all of those things sound appealing. After all, you would be a fool to argue that Jesus is not the center of everything that we do! These phrases are not really the problem. The problem is that they have hijacked them with unbiblical philosophies! Here is what they really are saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- We want vague enough messages so as not to hurt anyone\u2019s feelings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- We certainly will not focus on telling you how to live (music, dress, sinful lifestyles, etc.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Every teaching in the Bible other than Salvation and the Basic Feel-Good parts are non-essential and legalistic (ironically, they usually have no problem teaching on giving!).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Then of course they make sure to dumbfound you with their go-to verse: \u00a0I Corinthians 2:2 \u201cFor I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.\u201d \u201cYou see! All that matters is preaching Jesus. It worked for Paul!\u201d Says this \u201cJPJ\u201d crowd. So what is wrong with their philosophy? I am going to show us a Biblical approach to counter each one of the unbiblical assessments we stated earlier. I hope they will be a blessing to you! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Approach #1 (We Don\u2019t Do Doctrine, It Is Divisive)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Doctrine means \u201cteaching\u201d. That means ANYTHING you teach on in the Bible is Doctrine! To teach on Jesus is to teach on doctrine! Doctrine is not divisive, but the Word of God will divide! I won\u2019t run with the \u201cJPJ\u201d crowd if they don\u2019t believe in the Virgin Birth, Vicarious Suffering, and Victorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Need I reiterate that these are doctrines!).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- I am unapologetically an Independent, Fundamental Baptist! I realize that anyone can be saved, but that will not move me from being who I am! Don\u2019t listen to those who want you to drop certain identifications in order to reach more people! <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- I once heard Pastor Bruce Goddard say \u201cIf you don\u2019t know who you are and where you came from, you are like a cork bobbing on the ocean of the religious experience.\u201d <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- When Unbiblical philosophies are mentioned (like Calvinism, Works Based Salvation, Falling From Grace, etc), being a student of Bible doctrine will keep you in line!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Romans 16:17 tells us to mark and avoid those who teach things contrary to Bible DOCTRINE!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Approach #2 (We aren\u2019t going to focus on anything but Just Preaching Jesus)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- John 1:1 \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u201d John 1:14 \u201cand the Word was made flesh…\u201d Jesus is the Bible and the Bible is Jesus! Therefore, every part of the Bible that you teach is Just Preaching Jesus! By the way, do a quick study on some of the things Jesus preached on \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The go-to verse of I Corinthians 2:2 has nothing to do with avoiding the \u201ccontroversial\u201d areas of scripture. Paul is simply reminding the Corinthians that when he first got there he could do nothing else but preach about Christ because all the other parts of the Bible were not going to matter to them until they grasped Biblical salvation! He explains this with the rest of the chapter, declaring that the natural man cannot receive the things of God, but only those who have been given the mind of Christ!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The \u201cJPJ\u201d people truthfully do not just preach on Jesus. Instead, they use this as a cover to defend the lack of Biblical Preaching on anything they would consider \u201cUnloving.\u201d <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Approach #3 (We are a Christ-Centered Ministry)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- We are commanded to \u201cPreach the Word.\u201d And that \u201cAll Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:\u201d (II Tim 4:2 and 3:16)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Mark this crowd and avoid them! They need to defend their \u201cJust preaching Jesus\u201d by using a very weak facade of spirituality. Don\u2019t fall for it! Young preacher, don\u2019t ever be ashamed to Preach the Entire Word of God! Don\u2019t ever be ashamed to be an Independent Fundamental Baptist! By the way, you had better be a Student of the Word or these guys will influence you. Keep serving the King of Kings! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/james-young.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPastor James Young
Living Hope Baptist Church | Jasper, IN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an era of Biblical Apostasy, a young preacher must be very careful when navigating the \u201cJust Preach Jesus\u201d crowd. They say a lot of spiritual things, and I must admit that at a surface glance their terminology appears to be defensible. After all, who could argue with someone who just preaches Jesus, right?\u00a0I want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"no-sidebar-narrow","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"0","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_food_recipe":[],"enable_food_recipe":"0","food_recipe_title":"","food_recipe_description":"","food_recipe_serve":"","food_recipe_time":"","food_recipe_prep":"","food_recipe_level":"","food_recipe_keywords":"","food_recipe_category":"","food_recipe_cuisine":"","food_recipe_yield":"","food_recipe_calories":"","enable_print_recipe":"0","ingredient":[{"item":""}],"instruction":"","jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_podcast_option":{"enable_podcast":"0","podcast_duration":"","upload":""},"jnews_podcast_series":null,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"jnews-series":[],"class_list":["post-3562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-4-the-yp"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/just-preach-Jesus-1024x683.jpg","blog_images":{"medium":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/just-preach-Jesus-300x200.jpg","large":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/just-preach-Jesus-1024x683.jpg"},"ams_acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3805,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions\/3805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3562"},{"taxonomy":"jnews-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yplife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fjnews-series&post=3562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- We are commanded to \u201cPreach the Word.\u201d And that \u201cAll Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:\u201d (II Tim 4:2 and 3:16)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n