I have only been a pastor now for three or so years. In these years I have taught almost every week in one form or another. It has been only recently that I have had preaching opportunities on a weekly basis. However, I have found myself, on occasion, a bit sluggish in preparation. I have various means of kicking myself into gear, but am always happy to find new tools for prodding. I was recently refreshed with a providential reminder as to the reality of divine superintendence to the heralded word:
knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; 5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; (1 Thes. 1.4-5)
You’ll notice here that Paul is engulfed in persistent and passionate thanksgiving to God for the Thessalonian saints evidence of being true believers. In fact, Paul is confidently thanking God for his divine choice of them. What is his measuring stick? The believers’ reception of the word of God.
Notice what he says: The words that they spoke to the Thessalonians were not delivered merely by a human courier, rather they were supernaturally attended and therefore completely and powerfully successful!
Put yourself in Paul’s shoes for a minute. He and his associates have been preaching. They use words. They speak the truth of God to these people. And what happens? There is a powerful divine attendance of these words! God is incarnated in his preaching! The Holy Spirit attends the preaching and produces full conviction in the hearers. And frankly, this is the only way full conviction will ever occur.
Too many pastors suffer from the devastating and demonic notion of church growth via glitz, gimmicks, and gabbing. Men are paralyzed by the ‘favorable’ responses of attendees. Seasons of ‘success’ or ‘failure’ cause many men to resort to pragmatic and calculating methodologies to achieve their bottom line goals. But on the other hand you have the beloved Apostle. He does not measure ‘success’ or ‘failure’ based upon what he could do but what God has done!
Think of Paul’s response when people demonstrate genuine evidences of divine grace. He praises God and he petitions heaven for more grace (1.1-2). God gets the glory for this powerful display of grace. This should be contrasted to the pastor’s deadly tendency to either congratulate or disqualify himself based upon results.
I love Paul’s sensitivity to the Holy Spirit in his preaching and ministry. The fact that God is indeed alive and that he still attends to the preaching of his word with such powerful displays, causes me to get greedy for such grace…I want to see him moving and working. I want to see him repeatedly work with such fresh power.
This text challenges me and encourages me in so many ways. I have made a list of questions to ask myself as someone who regularly teaches the Bible with the expressed goal of God being glorified through the reception of truth in such a way as this. I share this in view of this helping others who do the same.
How much time do I spend asking God to powerfully attend to my preaching?
What does it say about my real end goal when I do not ask for and anticipate such power?!
What does a lack of prayer on this indicate about what I truly believe about my abilities? What about God’s?
How quick am I to give God credit (like Paul) when God seems to attend my preaching with such divine aid?
Why do I feel sluggish? Is it because I have forgotten that God is indeed alive and he attends to preaching with power?
Do I ask God to bring such powerful divine conviction in my own life?
Do I see a connection between the eternal choice of God to call and grow his children and my time in the pulpit?
It is good to prayerfully petition for and anticipate divine power in our preaching. I have made this more of a priority in recent months and my prayers sometimes scare me (I think I sound a little more charismatic than I may be comfortable with in public). But at the end of the day, what in the world are we doing and why are we doing it if we are not eagerly panting after the gracious divine attendance in our preaching? What can we do?
As a result of the fact that God is alive and he does powerfully attend to preaching with his Holy Spirit we can and should be motivated not only to study and preach but also to pray with a certain gritty gutsy-ness that longs for God’s power to be manifested through the preached word.
(book recommendation in light of this topic: Spirit Empowered Preaching (my review)
