Spirit-Empowered Preaching

Spirit-Empowered Preaching
By Arturo G. Azurdia III
Mentor/Christian Focus. 192 pages . £9.99
ISBN 185792413 4

Directed at preachers, this is a most competent, humbling and forceful book. Arturo Azurdia has been the minister of a growing church in San Francisco for over ten years and here he brings to the reader the fruit of both his study and experience.
Basing his argument on a sound Reformed view of God and of fallen human nature, the burden of his message is of the absolute necessity of the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the purpose of preaching. The book begins by showing us the Spirit as the divine communicator whose great work is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ - not the preacher. Preaching, in its various forms, has always been God's method of bringing salvation. The message of the cross is foolishness to blind, spiritually dead sinners, and only the Spirit can open their eyes and bring life in Christ.
Along the way, the author makes some telling points against gimmicky evangelistic methods. The issue is 'the radical inconsistency between the message of a bloody cross and the slick, sophisticated, Spielberg-like methods of communicating it.' In the Acts, it was the Spirit who empowered the apostles to speak with boldness, clarity and effectiveness.
With this in mind, Mr. Azurdia directs us to three simple but profound principles. First, the preacher must devote himself to a consistent pattern of fervent intercession. Prayer is half a preacher's ministry (Acts 6.4). Second, the preacher must prepare himself by diligent study of the Scriptures. Scripture will equip the man of God for every good work (2 Timothy 3.16-17).
Thirdly, and perhaps this is the most telling point, the preacher must recognise and even revel in his own human inabilities. It is in weakness, not confidence or arrogance, that God's true power is seen (1 Corinthians 2.3-5).
If there is a weakness, in the book, it is where the author seems to set the Spirit over against apologetics - but the Spirit, the great witness, can be an apologist too. But this is a terrific book full of Scripture and Scriptural argument. It overflows with penetrating and encouraging quotations from preachers ancient and modern.
This is not simply a book to be read, but a book for preachers to pray over on their knees.

JEB

Dr John Benton

© Evangelicals Now - December 1998
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Main Articles

• Black life
  A review of white Christian attitudes towards black and other ethnic minorities with the UK with diverse culture and modes of worship
• Open to what?
  The meaning of the term 'evangelical' and the emergence of a new group calling themselves 'open evangelicals'
• Evangelistic worship
  The problems of praise and worship and making it relevant to all - and a review of the SFC (Seeker Friendly Church) Movement
• Who needs it?
  Edited from a lecture on why religion matters and the moral crisis today in a society which rejects the Judaeo-Christian faith
• Has your church got a child protection policy?
  Reprinted guidelines from a child protection statement from Park Evangelical Church at Stoke-on-Trent
• Every Christian a witness? (Bulldog for December)
  A study of witness and the duties of the ordinary believer
• The approach of God
  Vernon Higham tells of his early life and path to faith

Other articles

• What Every Christian Needs To Know
• Online Bible Deluxe CD v. 7.06 - CD-ROM review
• You want to pierce what? Getting a grip on today's family
• Christianity in a Consumer Culture - 177 shades of lipstick - an edited extract from the book Christianity in a Consumer Culture on the effects of consumerism on Christians
• Christmas Sermons - an Exposition of the Magnificat - Bringing down the mighty - an extract from the book Christmas Sermons - an Exposition of the Magnificat
• The Truman Show
• Canterbury Letters to the Future - Ten letters to the archbishop's grandchildren covering the major Christian doctrines
• Bloodline of the Holy Grail - The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed
• Knowing Where We Stand - The Message of John's Epistles
• Elizabeth
• The Hymns of Vernon Higham - A collection of 162 hymns
• Shadows of Scotland - The Story of the Covenanters
• Charles H Spurgeon - The Prince of Preachers
• Get Up and Give - 101 little ways to make a big difference
• Calvin and the Calvinists
• The Relationships Revolution
• Four Men and a Church - The Story of Worthing Tabernacle
• Spirit-Empowered Preaching
• Blame it on the Brain - Distinguishing Chemical Imbalances, Brain Disorders and Disobedience