Preaching with Power

An appropriate motivation in preaching is to persuade people. The preacher does not just say things with the attitude of “take it or leave it.” He desires to persuade them of the truth of his message; he wants them to see it; he is trying to do something to them, to influence them. He is not just providing a learned discussion on a text; he is certainly not giving a display of his knowledge; he is dealing with the lives of people, and he wants to move them, to take them with him, to lead them to the Truth. That is his whole purpose.

Additional passion will be evident to the degree that the preacher has compassion for those to whom he preaches. When the hearers can sense that the preacher offers them valuable truth because he earnestly desires their ultimate well-being, they

will attend the sermon with increased interest. The discernable compassion of the preacher provides refreshment through the ministry of the Word from one who has a heart for those who hear him preach. This refreshment provided to the hearers enables the hearers to listen with greater interest to the one who is preaching to them. 

Preaching for His Purposes

Certainly a major consideration for the energy of a sermon is the preacher’s personal interest in the truth he will be expounding and, consequently, his desire to preach the sermon. Obviously, if one is about to preach yet without a compelling desire to do so, not only will unction be conspicuously absent but his purpose for preaching this sermon is deficient of divine prerogatives.

Consider these comments from Lloyd-Jones regarding purposeful preaching:

He must impress the people by the fact that he is taken up and absorbed by what he is doing. He is full of matter, and he is anxious to impart this. He is so moved and thrilled by it himself that he wants everybody else to share in this. He is concerned about them; that is why he is preaching to them. He is anxious about them; anxious to help them, anxious to tell them the truth of God. So he does it with energy, with zeal, and with this obvious concern for people. In other words a preacher who seems to be detached from the Truth, and who is just saying a number of things which may be very good and true and excellent in themselves, is not a preacher at all.

But what is it the preacher is absorbed in doing? What purposes possess him if he is to preach with unction?

Paul Scherer’s assessment of a good sermon establishes a well-balanced, multi-faceted criterion for assessing all sermons. He said that a sermon without exposition, with nothing that leads to a clearer understanding of God’s Word, is without its highest sanction. A sermon without doctrine, with nothing that leads to a clearer understanding of the cardinal tenets of the Christian faith, is without foundation. A sermon without the ethical is pointless. A sermon without the pastoral is spiritless. A sermon without the evangelistic is Christless and useless altogether!

Unless a preacher is compelled to preach by the same purposes God has for the preaching of His Word, he cannot preach with unction.

Preaching to His Glory

An expositor’s great opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ is the regular worship services of the church. Even though he may be preaching to the membership of the church, there is never warrant to assume that everyone who hears the message is a Christian. A pastor must edify God’s people; and, as a true shepherd, he must feed the sheep with the Word of God. However, unbelievers do not need to be edified. They need to be saved. Since the only need of unbelievers is a

relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, it means that we must proclaim the gospel if we are to serve them at the point of their need.

There are only two types of people in the world and in the church—believers and unbelievers. God’s Word is the solution for the needs of both. God is glorified as believers are sanctified by the explanation of His Word just as He is glorified as unbelievers are converted by the explanation of the gospel. The man who preaches with unction is one who realizes that his preaching is for God’s glory.

Adapted from How Effective Sermons Begin by Ben Awbrey, published in the Mentor imprint of Christian Focus Publications (http://www.christianfocus.com/) and used with their kind permission.