Daily EncouragementSample

This chapter is something of a preacher’s guide. There is a moving picture of Paul coming “in weakness and fear, and with much trembling,” with a message which had at its centre not the wisdom of men, but “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” and then proclaiming it “with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”

This is the norm for Christian preaching. The attitude of the preacher and the essence of his message should be like Paul’s and he should expect to receive the same heavenly power. “Preaching may be perfect art,” says Samuel Chadwick, “and [yet be] poles away from a [Christian gospel message]. The power of preaching is in the demonstration of the Spirit.” “The mystery of spiritual anointing we know” writes Spurgeon, “but we cannot tell to others what it is. Unction is a thing you cannot manufacture, in itself priceless, and beyond measure needful if you would edify believers and bring sinners to Christ.” Such power exalts the Lord, not the preacher. “I heard a little fair man and he showed me the loveliness of Christ,” was the testimony of a merchant who once heard Samuel Rutherford preach.

This is a high standard of ministry - we cannot attain to it. True, but “power belongs to God” (Ps. 62:11, RSV), and we can receive it in the secret place of prayer. This is one of the reasons why the preacher must give himself to prayer as well as to the ministry of the word.