Preaching and the Spirit

Dear Editor,

Dave Brennan takes the view that the lack of unction in preaching today is because of cessationism (en January 2024, Letters). I beg to differ with my esteemed brother.

There have been many preachers in the past who preached with great unction, seeing many converts and deeply touching the lives of many believers, who yet held cessationist views.

It is not cessationism per se, but its effect of reducing our emphasis on the Holy Spirit, and therefore our dependence on Him, that may be one of the chief problems. We preachers might pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit’s help in understanding the Scriptures, but how much do we pray for the Holy Spirit to anoint the preaching and speak powerfully to our hearts and those of our hearers? Indeed, wrestling with God.

How much do the congregants pray for Him to speak mightily to them? Do they come to hear with a sense of expectancy? Are we perhaps a little nervous of what the Spirit might say to us?

I think another aspect is a weakness in our expository preaching (and I am as guilty as the rest!). It is good that this kind of preaching is seen as important, but it can easily become little more than a commentary on the passage. There is not enough drilling down in the application – it is too shallow and cursory. We speak to the head, but we don’t spend time really grappling with the heart, impressing on our hearers the vital importance of what the Bible is saying, arguing the case point after point.

Then also, how often in our preaching is the wonder of the glory of God and of Christ displayed to our hearers’ view? Or the comforts of the gospel presented so as to melt our hearts? Or the Lord’s people challenged to sacrificial discipleship or missionary service? Oh, that the Spirit would touch our hearts as preachers!

Too often, I fear, our sermons are more teaching than preaching, and our people come away unmoved.

Yours sincerely,

Colin Grimwood
Grundisburgh

Dear Editor,

A comment on the article about being human by Matthew Mason in the December issue of en. I think Pentecostals have a Biblical insight which evangelicals overlook. Watchman Nee expounds it really well in The Spiritual Man. We are body, soul and spirit. I am an evangelical Anglican, but am grateful to those who understand spiritual reality in Scripture.

Yours sincerely,

Nigel Juckes
By email