The Preacher’s Task
The preacher has the important task of preaching the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the commission that the apostle Paul gave to Timothy and all preachers when he wrote, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). In the present day there are many ways that sermons are delivered, but how many of them are Spirit-empowered sermons? The lack of true Spirit-empowered preaching may be the reason that there are so many unhealthy, lukewarm churches. Nineteenth Century Methodist pastor E.M. Bounds wrote several books on prayer, one particularly directed to pastors and their preaching titled, Power Through Prayer. In this book, he describes three different types of preachers: the lecturer, the actor, and the Spirit-filled man.
The Lecturer
There are those preachers who preach sermons with sound doctrine and highly technical exposition, but lifelessly. Bounds calls this, “preaching that kills.” He bemoans this kind of preaching because even though the truth is presented, it gives little to no power or life because it’s delivered as a lecture rather than the life-giving message that it is. The Word of God is always the message of life and hope, and it must be presented this way every time a pastor steps into the pulpit (John 10:10). Bounds goes so far as to say that this “lecture preaching” is more devoid of life than a secular presentation on true things in the world.
When people hear a lecture on history, literature, or science they don’t expect it to be life-giving, but are merely there to learn new information. On the contrary, when people go to a church to hear preaching, they are searching for the answers to life’s biggest questions. When the Word is preached lifelessly, it sends the message that the answers are not there. While it is true that the truth of the Word of God doesn’t come back void (Isaiah 55:11), Bounds is correct that this preaching kills in many ways. Jesus’ preaching was qualitatively different from the academic lecturers of his day. As Matthew commented, “He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:29). The scribes were lifeless academics. They are like those that many seminaries produce today, but this is the opposite of the life with which Jesus preached and those who have followed in his steps.
The Actor
Then there are those who preach in such a way that their sermons appear to have life, but the example of the preacher does not line up with his preaching. This is the second category that Bounds mentions. This is the person who relies on his own abilities rather than the Spirit. They rely on man’s wisdom rather than God’s power (1 Corinthians 2:1). Their doctrine might even be correct, but the oration and orator are the focus and not the Lord. Whenever people talk about the man far more than the message, this might be evidence that this man is a great actor but the Spirit is not working powerfully through him.
One telltale sign is who this person is in private. Does he come alive on stage to act or is he the same person, full of the Spirit, in his everyday life? The pulpit is the continuation of this consistency. American pulpits are flooded with men who act, often those who are often platformed at big conferences. But the sad reality is they are actors, and the Spirit’s power is not truly coming from their pulpit. There may be energy in the room because they’re a dynamic speaker, but vibrant preaching doesn’t mean Spirit-filled. Just like the dry, lecturing preaching, this preaching may be doctrinally sound, but its effectiveness will be greatly limited because it is not done in the Spirit’s power.
The Spirit Empowered Man
Boundst then describes the man who truly is preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. As the Apostle Paul wrote, For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:2-5). Bounds calls this “Divine unction.” This is the power of God where the Holy Spirit is truly working through a man who preaches. Bounds stresses that the man God will use is one who humbles himself. He calls him a “crucified man” who depends upon the Lord.
Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones was once asked how he knew he was preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. He said that He was, “aware of his sin, hopeless, and helpless.” He was stating that, unlike the man who relied on his own abilities, the Spirit-empowered man is one who relies on the Lord for his power. The one who has the Spirit meditates on the word and prays for the Lord to give understanding. He then prays for the Lord to use the message in the hearer’s lives. This is the kind of preaching that leads to transformed lives and builds strong churches full of life.
The Spirit’s True Work vs. The Counterfeit
In Pastor Jeff Kliewer’s book, Fan Into Flame, he takes on one more group of people who talk more about the Spirit than any other, but their understanding of the power of the Spirit in the preacher is a counterfeit. Kliewer addresses the mysticism of the charismatic movement. Those in this category preach shallow, mystical sermons that somehow pass as “Spirit led.”
Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones is one whose preaching was called “logic on fire.” Kliewer contrasts Jones’s preaching with this pretender preaching: “Jones was a brilliant expositor of the text. He knew how to follow the logic of the Author’s mind, thinking God’s thoughts after Him. He also knew how to deliver the message powerfully.” A great example of this early in the book of Acts was Stephen. He was a man who was described as being “full of the Spirit.” The evidence of Stephen’s logic on fire is the way Stephen disputed (Acts 6:8-10) and the way he preached (Acts 7:1-53), which led to his death (Acts 7:54-60). All believers need wisdom and the Spirit, especially preachers who bring the word of God to His people (Acts 13:50-52).
Paul’s Logic on Fire
The apostle Paul is a great example of someone who also possessed “logic on fire.” As Kliewer writes, “Logic and Spirit are not opposed to one another. Rather, Luke emphasized again and again (Acts 9:17, 13:2, 13:9, 16:6, 19:21, 21:11, 28:25) the importance of the Spirit in the life of Paul. God prepared Paul’s logical mind under the tutelage of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), but all that logic needed to be baptized with fire (Acts 9:17).” Paul’s logic on fire can be seen in many ways, including his preaching in the book of Acts and all of his letters, especially the book of Romans.
Even with all the evidence of Paul’s ministry, many charismatics interpret his writing of 1 Corinthians 12:8 mystically as if “utterances of wisdom and knowledge” are not “intensely logical.” Paul sets out in 1 Corinthians to protect the church from foolishness and chaos (1 Corinthians 14:31-33). The chaos of much of the charismatic movement is not the Spirit’s power on display, but disorder with off-the-charts emotion that passes as spirituality. But the Spirit’s power is shown through the clear and passionate preaching and teaching of God’s word. As Kliewer writes, “The real problem, then, is in the reader who doesn’t connect logic and fire the way Luke does in the book of Acts… The utterance of wisdom (1 Corinthians 12:8a) should be understood as powerful preaching that makes penetrating application to real life.” The Spirit-empowered preacher not only preaches the Word but brings the Bible to bear on the times in which he lives as Paul and the greats of old did. People leave impacted and inspired to live for the Lord.
Logic on Fire in Church History
Martin Lloyd Jones would not have understood this mystical disconnect from logic as “logic on fire.” As Kliewer writes, “The utterance of knowledge was not disconnected from their logic, but quite the opposite, it was a spiritual fire that fueled their logical powers.” Commenting on the great line of British preachers: John Knox, John Owen, Matthew Henry, John Gill, Charles Spurgeon, and Martin Lloyd Jones, Kliewer writes, “These men attained knowledge by the endurance of long hours of difficult work, especially in the text of God’s Word. They broadened their understandings of God’s world by reading broadly across many different disciplines.”
Kliewer also mentions John Macarthur as a modern-day example: “John Macarthur is our generation’s best example of a preacher with logic on fire. He was a hard-working student-athlete before he was flung out of a car, sending him skidding down the road. The slide on the asphalt burnt the skin off his backside, leaving him incapacitated for months. During that time, after this life-changing accident, John MacArthur began to devote all his logic and work ethic to the right handling of God’s Word (2 Timothy 2:15). Years of study, both before and after the accident, gave us MacArthur’s logic on fire.” There are also many other preachers that most have never heard of that follow in the line of faithful men who preach in power. But what they all have in common is a passion to study, pray, and passionately preach the Word.
Peter Prioritizes the Preaching Gift
The apostle Peter writes on the Spirit’s power in preaching in his first letter: As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies. Kliewer notes that the only time that Peter discusses spiritual gifts preaching is forefront of his mind: “Most discussions about spiritual gifts say little about the Sunday morning sermon. But I don’t think that this neglect is in keeping with Peter’s thinking. Speaking gifts are the first thing Peter addresses. He knows a church without a pulpit, like the Quakers, has no chance of surviving. But a church that has logic on fire in the pulpit on Sunday mornings has one of the most essential spiritual gifts.”
Men the Church Needs
understanding that God the Father and the Lord Jesus are looking on as one preaches. And as one preaches, heaven and hell hang in the balance (2 Timothy 4:1-2). As Kliewer writes, “It sounds awkward to people in this culture, influenced as we are by postmodernism, but when Paul told Timothy to ‘fan into flame the gift of God’ (2 Timothy 1:6), he wasn’t calling on him to drum up some mystical spirituality divested from the logical operations of his mind. Rather, fanning into flame the preaching gift in which he was expected to operate as the pastor of the church of Ephesus actually meant something more akin to ‘hitting the books.’ Paul was telling Timothy to keep the candle on his desk burning. Read Moses. Read Joshua. Read David. Read Isaiah. Paul was expecting Timothy to rightly handle the word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
But many want their ears to be tickled – the very thing that Paul condemns (2 Timothy 4:3). Many want feelings over the truth and to be entertained. But the faithful preacher will press on preaching the truth of God’s word where some will hear (2 Timothy 4:3-5). This preacher is the one who truly sees God at work in his church and through those on the outside who hear his preaching. The preacher’s responsibility is to speak with sincerity in the power of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:4; 2 Corinthians 2:17). This only comes through hard work and reliance upon God. Churches need a Spirit-empowered preacher, not a lecturer, an actor, or a charismatic pretender. Anything less dishonors the Lord and hurts the church, which so desperately needs to hear from God to be transformed by His Spirit.
