I’ll confess to being a cautious critic against modern pastors. The implosion of the modern church is largely in part due to a failure on the part of our pastors. A failure to preach and teach boldly from the Bible without being concerned whether the message is popular or “tickles the ears.”

One of my greatest grievances against many pastors is their refusal to properly, biblically, clearly address the moral issues facing people today. One of the most critical is that of abortion.

The average pastor won’t even say the word abortion from the pulpit this year. Any sermon where addressing abortion from a biblical perspective would be appropriate will be glossed over with subtle hints and flowery phrases. But you will not hear hardly a single sermon from an American pulpit during which the pastor declares “abortion is murder.”

This sad reality is compounded when pastors say things like “if you’ve terminated a pregnancy, I don’t want you to feel bad.” Or the equally cringe-worthy excuse for not even broaching the subject: “we focus on the Gospel.” Apparently there’s a whole group of pastors that don’t even know that abortion (murder) is in fact a Gospel issue. Perhaps that’s because abortion advocates have done such a good job of painting the issue as a men vs. women or Republican vs. Democrat issue. The truth is that this is not a political or gender issue, this is a biblical moral issue with deep roots in the Gospel. You cannot support destroying the image of God in another human being and call yourself a Christian. Yep, it’s really that simple. That’s how abortion is tied to the Gospel.

Thankfully, not every pastor is afraid of biblical moral issues. Matt Chandler, one of the most well-known pastors in America boldly addresses the issue from the pulpit annually. What makes his sermons on abortion so powerful is that he doesn’t mince words in calling abortion murder, but he never fails to remind people that Jesus redeems murderers through His grace. See, the Gospel is intimately tied to abortion.

A recent video (posted below – comments start at the 3:50 mark) I came across shares a sample of Chandler’s recent sermon during which he said:

“I need to — with all the boldness that the Holy Spirit will grant to me — tell everyone in this room that abortion is murder. It is the murder of a human being. I’m going to have to say it, I’m going to show it to you in the word, I want to prove it to you with science. … It’s a holocaust like the world has yet to see.”

As if being so bold (and biblically accurate) wasn’t enough, Chandler went on to call out the “murderers” in his own congregation by making it clear that anyone with a role in an abortion is guilty of murder:

“I am no fool: There are murderers among us. And so at the same time that I prophetically, and boldly, and courageously say ‘abortion is murder’ I also need to step into this space knowing that we are guilty of it — many of us are guilty of it. And maybe we weren’t the ones that had the abortion, but maybe we coerced and pressed somebody to have the abortion, or just paid for the abortion.”

I can’t recall ever hearing such a biblically accurate and bold teaching on abortion from a pulpit. Chandler reminds us all that whether you actually had an abortion, or you pressured someone to have an abortion, or you just paid for someone to have an abortion – you are guilty of and a party to murder. But Chandler doesn’t stop there, he reminds us that the sin of murder can be forgiven by the grace of Jesus:

“I need to say to you, listen to me: Where the volume of sin increases, the volume of grace always abounds much more…The grace and mercy of God covers sin.”

And unlike many pastors, Chandler ties abortion to political candidates; reminding Christians that voting for a pro-abortion candidate is, in fact, supporting abortion:

“If we believe that – believer, unbeliever, Christian, not Christian – if we believe that life begins at conception in the womb and science backs us up – and I believe it does – then to vote for someone who actively advocates for the murder of human beings is unconscionable. I just think it’s madness.”

Frankly, we need more pastors willing to be bold and loving in their treatment of biblical moral issues like abortion. We need more churches that would remind people that abortion is murder, but Jesus loves and forgives murderers that come to Him seeking repentance. We need more Christians that would understand that supporting pro-abortion political candidates is supporting abortion.

Watch the videos of Matt Chandler below (Comments start at the 3:50 mark). If the videos don’t appear automatically, please refresh your browser.