Spirit-Empowered Preaching | 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Scripture

• 1 Corinthians 2:1–5

About this sermon

Every genuine preacher wants his sermons to be consistently characterized by the power of God. Every professing godly listener would say that they want to hear sermons delivered in the power of God. BUT DO WE UNDERSTAND WHAT WE SAY WE DESIRE? I’m afraid that when we hear the phrase “Spirit empowered preaching” we sometimes think in dramatic terms. We think in terms of how they immediately affect us, not in terms of what they permanently produce in us. We think of what we have heard about Jonathan Edwards and the mass conviction that took place under a sermon like “sinners in the hands of an angry God.” We think of what we have heard about George Whitfield and the masses of people who would make their way out to hear the man preach — a man who seemed to speak with the voice of a trumpet and the eloquence of angels. We think of what we have heard about Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and the countless conversions of people who listened to the “Prince of Preachers.” And I do believe those men represent examples of men who preached in a way that demonstrated the Spirit’s power. But what we often miss, is that even when God has made special use of some of His most unique servants, what was accomplished through those servants was often not fully appreciated until after they were gone. Edwards, just 9 years after he preached his most famous sermon, was voted out of his church — July of 1750. Whitefield fared better, but he was not without his critics, nor his controversies. Spurgeon died, in many ways, a heartbroken man due to the disloyalty that he experienced from friends in the Baptist Union, indeed from some of his own family, during the downgrade. WHAT WE MUST NOT MISS WITH EACH OF THOSE MEN, AND OTHERS LIKE THEM, IS THAT THE TRUE SECRET OF THEIR MINISTRIES WAS NOT FOUND IN THEIR EXTRAORDINARY GIFTS. THEIR EFFECTIVENESS WAS EXPLAINED BY SOMETHING THEIR GIFTS COULD HAVE NEVER PRODUCED. “The true explanation of Spurgeon’s ministry, then, is to be found in the person and power of the Holy Spirit. He was himself deeply conscious of this. It was not men’s admiration he wanted, but he was jealous that they should stand in awe of God. ‘God has come unto us, not to exalt us, but to exalt Himself.’” (Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon, 38.) That is what many who say they desire to preach Spirit empowered sermons fail to appreciate, that if our preaching is truly Spirit empowered, it will not result in US BEING EXALTED. We tend to think of Spirit empowered sermons in the terms of PRESENTATION. Fiery sermons. Moving sermons. Emotional sermons. Animated and impassioned sermons. As we will see tonight, the Bible seems to think of Spirit empowered preaching in terms of its FRUIT. Spirit empowered preaching does not EXALT the preacher, it CONSUMES the preacher. NOTE: Godly people will love and appreciate those who faithfully feed them the truth. Indeed, the Scriptures teach us to do that. ESV 1 Thessalonians 5:12 We ask you, brothers, ato respect those who labor among you and bare over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. aBe at peace among yourselves. ESV 1 Timothy 5:17 Let the elders awho rule well be considered worthy of bdouble honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. But the love of a local flock for its pastor, a humble people by worldly standards, is not really the kind of appreciation than sinfully ambitious people crave. And if the preacher is godly, even when his people do love and appreciate him, he is laboring for a higher praise, the praise that comes from God.