A Brick in the Valley

Yesterday, I posted that we should be praying for fires when the Word is preached in our local churches (see here). 

Below are more quotes on unction or Spirit empowered boldness and clarity.

“We are not inspired as the apostles were, but the Spirit of inspiration illumines our minds and grants unction to our lips as we, too, seek to combine spiritual truths with spiritual words.” Edmund Clowney[1]

“It appears to me that in the Bible, it is the message that is anointed by God as much as the messenger. Unction seems to live in God-given messages, as fire dwells in lava. The fire is in the message and the warning to the preacher is not to let it cool. Unction is not so much poured out as lifted up and delivered . . .when we faithfully reiterate Scripture, when our exposition exhales what the Lord has breathed into it, when our hearts are impassioned with Bible truth and our characters are refined by its heat, there is unction.” Lee Eclov[2]

“What is preaching? Logic on fire! Eloquent reason! Are these contradictions? Of they are not. Reason concerning this Truth ought to be mightily eloquent, as you see it in the case of the Apostle Paul and others. It is theology on fire. And a theology which does not take fire, I maintain, is a defective theology.”[3] David Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

“What is [unction]? It is the Holy Spirit falling upon the preacher in a special manner. It is an access of power. It is God giving power, and enabling, through the Spirit, to the preacher in order that he may do this work in a manner that lifts it up beyond the efforts and endeavours of man to a position in which the preacher is being used by the Spirit and becomes the channel through whom the Spirit works.” David Martyn Lloyd-Jones.[4]

[1] Edmund P. Clowney and Gerald Lewis Bray, The Church, Contours of Christian Theology (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 251.

[2] Lee Eclov, "How Does Unction Function?," in The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching, ed. Haddon Robinson and Craig Brian Larson (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 82, 84.

[3] D. Martyn LLoyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1972), 97.

[4] Ibid., 305.

One of the marks of biblical preaching should be unction or Spirit enabled boldness and clarity.  Or, as Lloyd-Jones more vividly stated, biblical preaching should be “logic on fire.”

Below is an excerpt from something I am currently writing.

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Biblical preaching should be “fired!” That is, preachers should proclaim the Word with a special unction or boldness. The word “unction” may not be familiar to you. Where preaching is concerned, it refers to, “a Spirit-empowered boldness that enables us to proclaim the Gospel with boldness, clarity and power.[1] Lee Eclov summarizes it this way:

Unction means the anointing of the Holy Spirit on a sermon so that something holy and powerful is added to the message that no preacher can generate, know matter how great his skills. Lee Eclov.[2]

Unction was Paul’s goal when he preached. In giving prayer requests to the Ephesians, he asked for prayer in the following way.

. . . and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak (Ephesians 6:19-20, emphasis added).

When Paul asks for prayer that he would be “bold,” he isn’t talking about the absence of fear. We know from elsewhere in Scripture that there were times when he felt fear. He wrote to the Corinthians:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5, ESV).

Paul says, “I was scared. But, it didn’t matter that I had weakness and fear and trembling.” Nor was it of concern to Paul that his words weren’t brilliant in terms of a human assessment. Paul’s preaching was life changing because he had unction: a Spirit empowered boldness that changed the lives of receptive listeners. This Spirit empowered unction allowed Paul to preach the Word not only boldly, but also understandably and clearly.

A great example of preaching with unction or boldness is found in Acts 4. Here the Greek word for “boldness” that Paul used in Ephesians 6:19-20 appears twice. Peter and John pray for unction or as it is translated here, “boldness.”

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:29-31, ESV, emphasis added).

Whatever people felt in Acts 4, nobody grumbled about boredom or complained that the sermon was irrelevant. Working powerfully in their midst, the Holy Spirit gave remarkable unity and response (Acts 4:32 ff).

Returning to Paul’s prayer request to the Ephesians, he requested prayer support that he would have this “unction” or boldness so that he could make known the mystery of the Gospel. The Gospel is a “mystery” in the sense that it can only be understood through the work of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with His Word. In Christ, the full plan of salvation can be clearly understood. Paul points to this in 1 Corinthians.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:12-14, ESV).

The Bible and history describe many examples of powerful responses when God’s Word is preached. In Acts 4 when the Word is preached with boldness or “unction,” we read, “… great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:33).” The last word in Acts about the Apostle Paul was that he continued preaching the Word with all boldness. Again we could substitute “unction.” In a sense, Luke doesn’t end the book of Acts. He wants the reader to know that the story of the spread of the Word through the preaching is still being written.

[1] John H. Armstrong, True Revival (Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 2001), 139.

[2] Eclov, "How Does Unction Function?," 81.

One of the first steps to a recovering of authentic Christian preaching is to stop saying, “I prefer expository preaching.” Rather, we should define exactly what we mean when we say “preach.” What we mean is, very simply, reading the text and explaining it—reproving, rebuking, exhorting, and patiently teaching directly from the text of Scripture. If you are not doing that, then you are not preaching. Mohler, 42.

If you are a Brick, would you come by my study for prayer at 8:30 tomorrow?

I often plead with people in our church to come pray with me before the morning services.  The reason is that in my own strength I might as well seek to part the Red Sea or raise the dead as preach successfully.  Unless the Holy Spirit illuminates the Word when I preach, then it is nothing more than a human production.

Arturo Azurdia summarizes:

People are brought to faith in Jesus Christ not because a preacher happens to be exceptionally dynamic one Sunday morning, or because he finishes his sermon with a spell-binding story.  Rather, in a mysterious work that is both sovereign in expression and divine in origin the power of God unites with the proclamation of the word of God and produces effects that are in keeping with the purposes of God.  It is the effectual teaching ministry of the Spirit of truth, without which the Bible will never be anything more than a book in a drawer in a room at a hotel.

Pray for me, whenever I open my mouth to preach, that words would be given to me that I might, “boldly proclaim they mystery of the gospel.”  Ephesians 6:19-20.

A good quote for pastors to consider on Sunday and every other day of the week.

A preacher whose chief power is not in studious prayer is, to that extent, a man who does not know his business.  A stringent ethic would say he is in danger of becoming a quack.

“As far as I know, there has never been an age that has not produced fairy tales.  It doesn’t seem to matter what is going on at the time.  It can be a time of war or peace, of feast or famine.  It can be Calvin’s Geneva or Calvin Coolidge’s U.S.A. . . .Frederick Buechner.”

Fairy tails end well. Famously so. You know the clichés: “fairy tale ending” and “happily ever after.” Jack chops down the bean stock. A prince wakes Snow White with a kiss. Dorothy realizes that the end of the rainbow was in Kansas all along.

But, if “fairy tale ending” is a cliché because “they all lived happily ever after,” fairy tale beginnings are an all together different matter. Fairy tales open deep in the woods. No sooner has the storyteller said, “Once upon a time,” than the cyclone heads for Kansas or the wicked step sisters begin tormenting Cinderella. Indeed, the principle aim of the first couple of pages of a fairy tale is to instill something just short of terror in the child listening. Picture the horrific difficulties your average fairy tale protagonist faces. Little Red Riding Hood’s invalid grandmother lives on the other side of a wolf infested forest. A troll lurks under the bridge the three billy goats gruff need to cross if they are to avoid slowly starving. Lacking GPS, Hansel and Gretel implement a flawed method for finding their way home, and it is their bad fortune to do so a stone’s throw from the cottage of a witch who eats children, but only after boiling them first.

Predictably, some suggest we tell a bland version where the Big Bad Wolf only chases the first two little pigs. I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying what they’re selling. What a colorless land our children would visit, if for fear of thorns in the beginning, we never shared the thrill of good news at the end.

Insurmountable odds and grave danger make fairy tales work. My little girl pleads with me to read her fairy tales, no matter how scared she may get. Sometimes, she even hides under the blanket. But, she has never left before “happily ever after.” She stays because she is rightly convinced that, however wicked the step mother may be, the story will end well. There is, the promise that things will get better and that, as Buechner says, in fairy tales, “happiness is inevitable and endless.” And, though she couldn’t put it in words, intuitively, Mary Beth understands that the light at the end of a fairy tale will shine all the brighter for having started so deep in the forest.

If, as Buechner has pointed out, there has never been an age that didn’t appreciate fairy tales, surely it is because they resonate with something true, however dark the woods may be.

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.(2 Co 4:16-18)."

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Some of the wisest thoughts I have heard on conflict were from C.J. Mahaney.  Indeed, I included this quote in Unpacking Forgiveness. 

In fact, it is with great confidence that I can predict: You will face relational conflict in your future. Not only your distant future, but your immediate future. . . For as sinners living in a fallen world, conflict is inevitable and in fact, is heading your way right now. You can count on it.

If you go over to Reformation 21, you can read this article.

Or, click here to him sharing similar thoughts in 7.5 minutes.

One of our central values as a local church is the preaching of the Word.  The Bible teaches that the proclamation of the Word is God’s appointed means (2 Timothy 4:1) for building up God’s people (Ephesians 4:11-13, Titus 1:3).

The goal for our local church is to increasingly value biblical preaching.  One of our most immediate goals is to demonstrate our commitment to preaching by seeing a group of men consistently pray with me before the sermon.

There is a great deal to be learned by the below article by Al Mohler.

Al Mohler:

Preaching has fallen on hard times. So suggests a report out of Durham University’s College of Preachers. The British university’s CODEC research center, which aims to explore “the interfaces between the Bible, the digital environment and contemporary culture,” conducted the study to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the College of Preachers. The report is not very encouraging.

As Ruth Gledhill of The Times [London] reports, “Sermons, history shows, can be among the most revolutionary forms of human speech. From John Calvin to Billy Graham, preaching has had the power to topple princes, to set nation against nation, to inspire campaigners to change the world and impel people to begin life anew.”

Indeed, preaching is the central act of Christian worship, but its great aim reaches far above merely changing the world. The preaching of the Word of God is the chief means by which God conforms Christians to the image of Christ. Rightly understood, true Christian preaching is not aimed only at this earthly life, but is the means whereby God prepares his people for eternity.

Yet, you wouldn’t know this if you judged the importance of preaching by its place in many of today’s congregations. Gledhill observes, “In many churches this most vibrant of moments has withered to little more than 20 minutes of tired droning that serves only to pad out the gap between hymns and lunch.”

More here.

One of the most important ways you can serve your local church is by praying for the preaching of the Word.  Here is a note I recently sent to a number of men in our church.

Guys:
I wanted to share with you a special item of praise.

If you had asked me to rate yesterday’s sermon relative to my other sermons (I never try and compare myself to others per se), I would have said it was solid.  I thought I preached the point that flowed out of the text – - that sin gives way to sin and that we need to know we not only reap what we sow, but we also sow what we reap.

I was in know way tempted to think, that was some incredible sermon.  Far from it.

But, what has been interesting to see is how God has used it in the lives of our church.  I received feedback from multiple people that it was a real encouragement.  I was in a home last night praying with a couple and they commented.  Jamie received an email today from someone who was encouraged and is making some important decisions.

Of course, God only knows why some sermons are especially blessed, but I believe a key part of what sermon was your prayer support. I believe several of you were praying in a special way.  Shawn came by and prayed before church with me and I was conscious of how the Spirit was working.  Even while we were there praying together, I was aware of it.

Let’s keep praying.  If we are really on our knees (either literally or figuratively), and we preach and teach the Word, then we can COUNT on God to do a powerful work.
Titus 2:11-14,
Chris.

How much are you really praying about the challenges you face in life?

Going through my Scripture memory system today (see these posts), I came across this verse that I started memorizing on September 3, 1993.

So, he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbebel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”  Zechariah 4:6

I have repeated this verse hundreds of times – - maybe even getting close to a thousand – - but, I still have problems remembering that ultimately my preaching or efforts in any other area of life will not succeed apart from God’s help.

So, consider the biggest struggle you currently face. 

1. Are you consistently praying about this area?  I recommend that you start a prayer journal in which you journal your prayers.  Also, be sure and pray with other believers.  When was the last time you were on your knees praying with others?  It is not enough to “go it alone.”
2. Are you memorizing relevant Scripture? God works powerfully through His Word.  When God speaks, the Red Sea parts.  Wear a rut in your mind with the truth of God’s Word and you will be amazed at the results.

Make a point to quote this truth one way or another 3 times in the next 24 hours.  Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit  . . .