I believe the strength of this definition is its comprehensiveness regarding the Spirit’s role in preaching.   First, the Spirit’s role in expository preaching is made explicit (as opposed to implicit or assumed) and highlights the multifaceted ministries of the Holy Spirit revealed in Scripture.  Second, the Spirit’s ministry in preaching is intentionally identified in the following six ways: (1) the inspiration of the text, (2) the illumination of the preacher, (3) the conviction of the truthfulness of the message, (4) the anointing or empowerment of the preacher, (5) the Spirit’s Christological witness, and (6) Spirit-filled living.  Third, the definition incorporates the theological categories of Word and Spirit by combining the dynamic element in preaching (Spirit) with the inspired text (Word).  Fourth, the definition is scripturally sound and grounded in a biblical theology of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13; 1 Cor. 2: 4-13; Gal 5:16, 22; 2 Tim 3:16). Fifth, the definition maintains the Christological emphasis of the Spirit’s witness to Christ.  Sixth, the definition’s termination point is practical obedience in Spirit-filled living (audience-focused) as opposed to simply communicating truth (preacher-focused).  

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THE HOLY SPIRIT AND ILLUMINATION

Evangelicals have dedicated entire volumes to defending the inspiration of Scripture.  Yet how many times do we find the equally important doctrine of the illumination of the Holy Spirit expounded upon?  A survey of the literature reveals that we really do not even know where to put a discussion on the illumination of the Holy Spirit – does it belong in a book on systematics, pneumatology, preaching, hermeneutics, evangelism, or teaching methodology?  This confusion reminds us that any approach to the Spirit’s involvement in preaching must be interdisciplinary because the Holy Spirit overlaps in so many areas of study.  The Holy Spirit brings together systematic and biblical theology, biblical studies, hermeneutics, and evangelism and unites those areas in homiletics. 

The illumination of the Holy Spirit in the preacher’s study is essential to powerful, expository preaching in the pulpit.  Since our sinful and depraved minds are being renewed in the truth day by day (Romans 12:2), we need the help and light the Holy Spirit gives us to see and feel the heat, passion, and power of the text and the urgency with which we must apply it!  Listen to Calvin on the beauty of the Spirit’s quickening in the life of a believer:

Therefore, as we can never come to Christ, unless we are drawn by the Spirit of God, so when we are drawn, we are raised both in mind and in heart above the reach of our own understanding. For illuminated by him, the soul receives, as it were, new eyes for the contemplation of heavenly mysteries, by the splendor of which it was never before dazzled. And thus the human intellect, irradiated by the light of the Holy Spirit, then begins to relish those things which pertain to the kingdom of God, for which before it had not the smallest taste.  (Calvin, Institutes, vol. I book 3, 34).