On Preaching
Wisdom on the Preaching of the Word
On Preaching:
“Preaching the Word is the primary task of the Church, the primary task of the leaders of the Church… and we must not allow anything to deflect us from this, however good the cause, however great the need.”
“What is preaching? Logic on fire! Preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. A true understanding and experience of the Truth must lead to this.” (M. Lloyd-Jones)
On Divine Anointing:
“Prayer, much prayer, is the price of preaching unction; prayer, much prayer, is the one, sole condition of keeping this unction. Without unceasing prayer the unction never comes to the preacher.” (E. M. Bounds)
“Because of the inward fire that refuses to die down, the preacher will certainly be emotionally engaged as he speaks. He will speak the King’s word in the King’s name, but he will not want to do so without experiencing the Kings’s presence and blessing. There is a dimension in preaching that we dare not overlook. Preaching requires supernatural authority.” (Stuart Olyott)
On Holy Listening:
“How do you and I help? By steady prayer for the preacher, to be sure. But there is something even more vital: holy listening… we deliberately take on a spirit of teachability. As the sacrament of the Word is being administered, we are in an inward posture of kneeling, of receiving. We are all the time listening for the kol Yahweh, the voice of the Lord. We listen with the mind, and we listen with the heart. All of the time we are examining our lives and breathing prayers of acceptance and application.” (Richard Foster)
On the Gospel:
“The fact is that the authentic Gospel of the New Testament remains extremely offensive to human pride, and nobody who preaches it faithfully can expect to escape at least some degree of opposition.” (John Stott)
“If my preaching of the cross is not an offense to the natural man, I am misrepresenting it.” (M. Lloyd-Jones)
On Courage:
“There is an urgent need for courageous preachers in the pulpits of the word today, like the apostles in the early church who ‘were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31, cf. 13). (John Stott)