Who's Writing Our Sermons?

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." I Corinthians 1:21-25

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." I Corinthians 2:12-13

Paul was very clear on this matter. He did not author this message of Christ and Christ crucified. Not Paul, nor any Jew, nor any Gentile had authored this message which Paul preached. It's too crazy to the world! How ridiculous does it seem to us that God, the master and creator of the universe would be willing to die for a creation that had rejected Him? How many husbands would naturally be inclined to welcome back a wife who had cheated on him multiple times and had never shown much affection for him? Better yet, what if your friend kept taking back a wife who had cheated on him multiple times? What kind of words would you use to describe that friend? Most of the words would have derived from one, "foolish."

Paul's message was so crazy, that it had to have come from God. Paul takes no credit for the message he preached. How can preachers learn from this? By asking the question, "who writes my sermons?" I am finding that far too often there is a tendency for preachers today to fill their sermons with the wisdom of this world. We begin with a need we see in the world and then search for that scripture which helps us to alleviate the pain of that need. We then get caught up in "writing" sermons, chocked full of ideas, stories, and advice.

But preaching is not a religious advice talk. It is not just another form of communication. It is the means by which God has ordained for the truth of the Gospel to be spread. It is by hearing that sinners are saved, it is by the power of the Word that the dead are brought to life. Life is inherent in the words of Christ and if that life is to be had, then it is the words of Christ that must be spoken in our sermons. We need to be sold out on the fact that God is the author of our sermons. He does the writing, we do the preaching. That's how it worked for Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul, Peter, Luther, Spurgeon, and all other faithful ministers of the Word. Where God spoke, they spoke.

So who writes our sermons? Do we spend more time digging for truth in the text or more time thinking of a creative way to explain the text? Is our energy in understanding and applying God's word to our own lives or in figuring out how to captivate people's attention? Are the sermons we preach full of scripture and the power of the cross or are they full of quotations and the power of the laugh? Who is writing your sermons?

Keeping the Word of God and the Spirit of God Together

Another way of putting the same truth is to say that we must keep the Word of God and the Spirit of God together. For apart from the Spirit the Word is dead, while apart from the Word the Spirit is alien. (John R.W. Stott Between Two Worlds, pg 102)

Oh what powerful implications for preaching this has! Far too often we see the caricatures of a boring type of preaching that feels antiquated versus a mindless rambling of "spirit filled" preaching which is nothing more than emotionalism.

The first is practiced every Sunday in a church near you, under the cover of "Bible based" preaching. In reality the Word of God has been robbed of all it's power and authority. In reality, it is not the commandments of God that are being preached but the traditions of men. It is boring, dull, and old, because there is no conviction that the Spirit is alive, that Jesus is alive, that God is active. We sit and wonder, for the few moments before we fall off into thoughts about what wonders lunch will hold for us, what in the world does this sermon have to do anything. It appears, either by the preachers life or his tone or his content, that even he does not believe what he is proclaiming. The Word of God has become devoid of the Spirit of God and it is dead.

However, flip on your television and catch one of the entertaining acts of religious programming. Full of "spirit" and activity, there is no chance that you will fall asleep while watching one of their acts. "But what about all the amazing things they do and how God has blessed them?" What about those things? All they have accomplished is to convince us that this individual who is preaching is quite charismatic and resourceful. But in actuality it has nothing to do with how God has blessed them. Certainly they have a "spirit" but it is one alien to the Spirit of God. And if there is any spirit alien to God's Holy Spirit, I will let you judge for yourself what kind of Spirit that is. I can speak like this because as you listen to these spiritual entertainers you will find a huge gaping hole where God's word ought to be. They might briefly mention a text of scripture, but only as a comma in the sentence of their great words. They will call on the name of Jesus, but I imagine, (as in Acts 19), the demons are saying "Jesus I know, Paul I have heard of, but who are you?" They do not handle the Word of God with any care and therefore practice bad, sick doctrine. And when a doctor handles a patient with bad medicine, they kill them. So, as many of these men claim, they are prophets, just of the false kind. Wolves in sheep's clothing. Aliens to the people of God.

What we are to find is a place where the preacher has come to the Word. Where in it he has found the Words of life and is seeking to have them abundantly. What we are to find is a preacher who relies upon the Spirit of God to do the work of growing the seeds he is planting. What will embolden our churches is a preacher who, like Paul, can say, "Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God." (Acts 20:26-27) Preaching is needed to send forth the glorious Gospel of God's salvation and His saving acts. But the Spirit is the teacher and power by which those things are understood. Without the Spirit, the sermon is dead. Without the Word, the sermon is demonic. But with the Word and with the Spirit, the sermon is the thunder and lightning of God almighty. The Word will penetrate the heart and the Spirit will ignite it like dynamite. That kind of preaching is powerful and effective. When God speaks to us through what He spoke in His Word.

The Holy Conversation of Preaching

Homily (from which we get our area of study, homiletics) is a word at its most basic definition meaning discourse, dialogue, or conversation. This is what preaching is. It is discourse, dialogue, and conversation. But the question needs to be asked, who is engaged in the conversation?

When we encounter a sermon or preach one, we are so often tempted to think that this is a conversation between the preacher and the audience. That is why preachers have so many tricks up their sleeves. In this understanding of preaching, it is my job as the preacher to engage the audience in the hearing of God's word. So I must be charming or condemning, creative or logical, funny or serious, and so on.

As a listener, I expect to be engaged by this preacher. He is to make me think or laugh or bore me or whatever I might expect him to do with our conversation. And not only is there just one of these listeners, but many. They all bring their various expectations and desires to the conversation. Some are broken inside and need to be lifted up, others are joyful and just want to be encouraged, and even others are confused and need answers. What a complicated mess this conversation has quickly become. How is the preacher to know all the needs of his listeners? And when does the listener get their chance to engage in the dialogue? Maybe by text messaging?

Let me suggest this for our thinking. The conversation of preaching is not two way. There is a third party involved. This is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acts as comforter, teacher, guide, and power supply for both the preacher and the audience. When the preacher has spent time with the Holy Spirit, the conversation lines will be open from his side. When the audience has been held captive by the work of the Holy Spirit, then they will be ready to hear the power of the Gospel. Consider the implications of that for our preaching. The Holy Spirit is the force in the room when the preaching begins to speak. It is a power that flows and is felt.

Two things to consider. One, as preachers, are we speaking in the Spirit? Have we opened ourselves up to the power of the Holy Spirit wherever that may lead us? I'm willing to bet that if we did this, we would enter the pulpit with a sense of the "numinous." The awe-inspiring greatness of God. We would find ourselves amazed at what God can do with a sinner like us. Secondly, as an audience, are we listening in the Spirit? Are we prepared to hear the words of God spoken to us? If you feel that power is missing from the preaching in your church, don't immediately blame the preacher. What if he's tapped into the Spirit and you're not? Community is not God, but God is communal. You are involved in this sermon just as much as the preacher by the power of the Holy Spirit. Examine yourself for power outages in your own life.

Wherever preaching lacks power to transform lives, I am almost certain that at least one member of the conversation is not tapped into the Holy Spirit. If only our churches would reconnect with the power of God's Spirit and allow Him to draw us in to Himself, what amazing conversations we might have!

Unction

Over the next few months I will be devoting my space on this blog to writing ideas that come to me concerning my thesis. My thesis, in its current format, states that the influence of a preacher during the sermon over an audience is directly related to the preacher's spiritual authority which is cultivated by their spiritual formation. A shorter way of saying it is that a preacher will only be able to move people as far as they themselves have been moved by God's Holy Spirit.

In my studying on these subjects, I have discovered this really interesting word. Unction. We don't use it much today, if ever. Older english translations used this word rather than anointing in the New Testament texts, (like I John 2:20.) The dictionary defines this word literally as a religious anointing with oil. However, it is the figurative use of this word that particularly caught my eye. The oxford english dictionary defines it figuratively as, "a spiritual influence acting upon a person." What do preachers lack today? They lack unction.

I have heard many well crafted sermons, I may have even spoken one or two. I have read books upon books about the construction of a sermon. I have observed congregations listen to many sermons week after week. What amazes is me is the amount of devotion given to the actual sermon and yet people can sit there unmoved by the ponderings of the preachers. Or they can laugh at jokes and be enamoured with stories, but at the end of the day they have not been transformed into the glory of God. How does this happen? No unction!

Unction comes when preachers have been silent for long periods of time before God. Unction comes when we have been obedient in the secret things. Unction comes when we have loved our wives well, raised our children properly, confessed our sins truthfully, repented of our lies, and prayed for the power of God to move in our lives. Unction, unlike writing a sermon, can not be conjured up. Unction is supplied from on High. Unction is what causes a tiny little flame like the preacher to spark the hearts of the body of Christ to be exposed to the true Light. Unction makes God really, really BIG and the preacher really, really small.

Oh lord give me unction. Give us all this unction, this anointing. Move our preachers to spend less time crafting clever ideas and more time seeking out your power. Help us to be the kind of men that Paul describes in I Thessalonians 1:5, "for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake." Give us the holy anointing that we might preach in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction!

How The Holy Spirit Works In Preaching

I am currently working on a thesis for my masters program. My emphasis is on preaching and how the preacher develops spiritually. But one thing I have become aware of lately in preaching really blows my mind. God uses mere men to allow His Holy Spirit to move among His people.

I'm willing to guess that many of us have heard sermons that left us feeling... well dry. Part of that is our own attitude in coming to hear the word, but most of that stems from the preachers ability to have engaged God that week through the text. Hebrews 13:15 tells us that a sacrifice of praise to God is "the fruit of lips." Fruit is interesting stuff. It only grows out of whatever is planted. So if the preacher has spent time with God, rather has been planted in His word and God has moved him, then the people will benefit from that fruit. Or as Calvin Miller says it, "great preaching grows only from the soil of great lives." Unless the preacher has lived it, he can't communicate it.

So where does that leave us? Pray that your preachers will have the attitude of John the baptizer. He said in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." We will know the Holy Spirit is at work when we can say, "God spoke today." Not "Jason gave a good sermon today," or "my pastor is really motivational." But when we walk away saying, "God was at work," then we know that we have been moved by the Holy Spirit of God. Here is the unbelievable spiritual reality about preaching, God transforms the preacher through His Holy Spirit. The preacher then unleashes that transformation on a group of people. God then connects the Holy Spirit's work in the preacher with the work He is doing among the people. It is the side of preaching that we rarely want to admit, it is Supernatural!

The next time you hear a sermon, pray for that preacher. Pray that they might experience God and be transformed. Pray that the Holy Spirit might work in them and move among His people. Ask God to stir up His Spirit in His people through His words.