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Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American
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Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James
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Version of the Bible. Copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian
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ISBN: 978-1-59684-778-1
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Contributing Authors
Mark L. Williams is general overseer of the Church of God.
David M. Griffis is first assistant general overseer of the Church of God.
J. David Stephens is second assistant general overseer of the Church of God.
Wallace J. Sibley is third assistant general overseer of the Church of God.
M. Thomas Propes is secretary-general of the Church of God.
Timothy M. Hill is general director of World Missions for the Church of God.
Alton Garrison is assistant general superintendent of the Assemblies of God.
Hugh Bair is senior pastor of Christian Life Church of God in Baltimore, Maryland.
John A. Lombard Jr. is pastor of the East Cleveland, Tennessee, Church of God and an adjunct professor at
Lee University and the Pentecostal Theological Seminary.
Marty L. Baker is lead pastor of Stevens Creek Church of God in Augusta, Georgia.
David E. Ramírez is field director of the Church of God in Latin America.
Oliver McMahan is vice president of ministry formation and director of the Doctor of Ministry program at
the Pentecostal Theological Seminary.
Janice Claypoole is pastor of the Ark of Mercy Church of God in Winchester, Kentucky.
Thomas Lindberg is senior pastor of the First Assembly of God in Memphis, Tennessee.
Lee Roy Martin is professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary in
Cleveland, Tennessee.
Table of Contents
Contributing Authors
INTRODUCTION: Spirit-Filled Preaching Is Relevant for the Twenty-First Century
1 Spirit-Filled Preaching Is Divinely Empowered
2 Spirit-Filled Preaching Is Christ-Centered
3 Spirit-Filled Preaching Is a Word From the Lord
4 Spirit-Filled Preaching Is Evangelistic
5 Spirit-Filled Preaching Will Have Signs Following
6 Spirit-Filled Preaching Makes Disciples
7 Spirit-Filled Preaching Flows Out of a Spirit Filled Life
8 How to Prepare and Preach Expository Sermons
9 How to Plan a Sermon Series
10 How to Preach to Diverse Cultures
11 How to Preach for Pastoral Care
CONCLUSION: The Uniqueness of Spirit-Filled Preaching
I :
NTRODUCTION
Spirit-Filled Preaching Is Relevant for
the Twenty-First Century
Mark L. Williams
I can forgive a man for a bad sermon, I can forgive the preacher
almost anything if he gives me a sense of God, if he gives me
something for my soul, if he gives me the sense that, though he is
inadequate himself, he is handling something which is very great and
very glorious, if he gives me some dim glimpse of the majesty and the
glory of God, the love of Christ my Savior, and the magnificence of the
gospel. If he does that I am his debtor, and I am profoundly grateful to
him.—Martyn Lloyd-Jones
T
he heartfelt cry of the believer and the secular person alike in the twenty-first
century is for a presentation of truth that will make a profound difference in life.
In spiritual terms, that means a message from someone who knows what the
Bible says and who shares it in the power of the Holy Spirit. The sharp rebuke of
Jesus to the would-be preachers and teachers of His day was, “You are mistaken,
not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt. 22:29). As in His
times, the need of the hour is for preachers who know the Word and who deliver
its eternal and unchanging truths under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
That kind of preaching is relevant and life-changing in today’s world.
The Calling
Jesus, who is the preacher’s example, testified that He was called to preach:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He
has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke
4:18-19).
Meaningful and life-touching preaching comes from the man or woman who
has experienced a divine calling to be the messenger of God.
The Call Assures Certainty
To effectively communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ, a person must have the
assurance of a divine call. The call to preach is not occasioned by heredity,
achieved by developing oratorical skills, nor conveyed by the hands of the
presbytery. The call to preach is born in the heart of God and communicated by
the agency of the Holy Spirit. The testimony of some is that the call even
predates birth. The word of the Lord to Jeremiah explained that he had been
sanctified and ordained to be a prophet from his mother’s womb (Jer. 1:5).
Isaiah, too, wrote, “The Lord has called Me from the womb” (Isa. 49:1). Paul the
apostle said, “It pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and
called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him
among the Gentiles” (Gal. 1:15-16).
Scripture is replete with biographical data of preachers and prophets and how
they came to discover God’s sovereign call. Samuel awakened to his call when
he learned to distinguish between the voice of God and that of Eli. Moses heard
his call during a crisis encounter with God late in life while standing barefoot
before a burning bush. To Isaiah, the call came through a divine revelation of the
Lord in the Temple in the year that King Uzziah died. Paul had an encounter
with the resurrected Christ while journeying on a road to Damascus. Each
calling was unique, but all were divine and directional.
It is the same today. God still calls men and women to the sacred service of
delivering His Word. It comes in various forms and under differing
circumstances; nevertheless, His call is certain and specific. Often the sense of
calling is overwhelming, accompanied by a burden and evidenced by fruit.
The Call Is Personal
How do you know if you are called to preach? For me, the call of God can
best be described as an unmistakable, inescapable, irresistible, inner compulsion
and constraint; a sense of absolute urgency and necessity to preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Scripturally, it is probably best expressed by Paul: “For if I preach
the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is
me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16).
The call of God came to me on Sunday night, November 23, 1983, at the
Conn Center on the Lee University campus. I had transferred to Lee from the
University of Denver as a premed major on an academic scholarship, hoping to
complete my studies, continue to medical school, and become a cardiovascular
surgeon. But God had other plans for me.
On the surface, things were going great for me, but inwardly I was miserable
and dying. That Sunday night in chapel, Lee president Dr. Ray H. Hughes
preached a sermon on Calvary, “What Does the Cross Mean to You?” As the
Holy Spirit brought me face-to-face with the Cross, I saw Jesus in all the glory
of His passion. I saw myself and all my pitiful attempts to direct my own life.
But I also saw a world that was lost and hopelessly dying. In broken repentance I
cried out, “God, why do You need me? You have Ray Hughes, T. L. Lowery,
Billy Graham, Steve Brock, and all those other preachers. I have no talent,
nothing to offer You. But if You will help me to hide Your Word in my heart, I
will go where You want me to go, I will be what You want me to be, I will say
what You want me to say.”
With simplicity and sincerity, I accepted God’s call, and that vivid experience
—as real to me as my conversion—has served as a point of reassurance through
years of ministry.
In my understanding, the call to preach follows a Trinitarian formula: The
authority to preach comes from God the Father (“As the Father has sent Me, I
also send you” [John 20:21]); the message preached is Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord; and the power for preaching is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This
frames a theology of preaching that encompasses the God who speaks, the Son
who saves, and the Spirit who empowers.
The Call Requires Obedience
For me, the apostle Paul is “Exhibit A” for what the preacher ought to be and
do. Both in his own ministry and in his instructions to the young preachers who
learned from him, he kept preaching central. He realized clearly that his
principal task as a messenger of Christ was to present the gospel with the
purpose of winning followers of Christ.
Listen to his heart as he says in Romans 9:2-3: “I have great sorrow and
continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from
Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.” Feel his burden
in 10:1: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
may be saved.” Take note of his approach in 1 Corinthians 9:22: “To the weak I
became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men,
that I might by all means save some.” Hear his intent as he writes to the wealthy
Christian who had a church in his house: “I appeal to you for my son Onesimus,
whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you,
but now is profitable to you and to me. I am sending him back. You therefore
receive him, that is, my own heart” (Philem. 1:10-12). This is the heartbeat of a
God-called preacher who understands the evangelistic dimensions of his
assignment.
He commended preaching to those with whom he ministered. To Titus he
