Preaching in the Spirit of God

A preacher is a man of God. He is to be considered a servant of Christ (1 Cor 4). He is a steward of the mysteries of God, a minister of good news about the King of kings and His kingdom. A preacher is God’s herald, who comes to proclaim the excellencies of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Pet 2:9). The message of God through the preacher is Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). The preacher proclaims Him.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is considered foolishness to the people of the world (1 Cor 1:18), and it trips up the Jewish people, too. There are many who reject our message, and yet, we who believe, are happy to declare it as the power of God unto salvation (Rom 1:16–17).

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in southern Greece. He had planted this church earlier in his ministry. After the great apostle left, there were divisions. The church had questions, and Paul would answer those questions (1 Cor 5–15). First, he wrote to defend his own ministry, as a missionary preacher and church planter (1 Cor 1–4).

In chapter one, Paul addressed the problem caused by the congregation showing preference to various leaders. He argued for the simplicity of the Gospel ministry. Christian preachers preach Christ. The message is weak in the estimation of the world, but God chose it for this very reason. Another reason for the foolishness of the Gospel pertains to the pride of the preacher. God does not share His glory with another; therefore, the preacher is given a foolish message from God to proclaim. In this way, God displays the glory of the Cross, as the one and only way of redemption for mankind.

In chapter two, Paul showed the power source for the Gospel. First, Paul proclaimed the testimony of God (1 Cor 2:1). When he did, it came to the people of Corinth without superior speech or wisdom. These two attributes were crucial for acceptability, as a rhetorician in the Greek culture of the Roman Empire. Paul was denying any form of delivery or content being from the world of men.

Instead, when it came to content, Paul claimed to have only one message: Jesus Christ (1 Cor 2:2). This was met with a dichotomous response. Some received Paul’s Gospel message, believing, and then being baptized. Some did not receive Paul’s message, and even resisted him to the point of hostility.

Paul reminded the Corinthians about his own emotional state while he ministered to them. Fearing and trembling is caused by the preacher’s predicament. He must stand before people, with a foolish message. It is common for a man of God to be physically, emotionally, financially, and spiritually abused. When people receive the preacher’s message, they may not like what they hear. Instead of humbling themselves before God, they retaliate against the preacher. It is the old adage of “killing the messenger because of the message.”

Fearing and trembling also has a divine side. If Paul was troubled in the presence of those who were to receive his message, then he also feared and trembled at the prospect of being in the presence of the One who sent him. Paul was between a rock, Christ, and a hard place. It made him tremble.

Who is adequate for these things? No one, but Paul told the Corinthians, “But by His doing, you are in Christ Jesus (1 Cor 1:30),” who made us adequate as servants of a new covenant (2 Cor 3:6). How are Christian preachers made adequate for service?

Paul claimed, “both my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power (1 Cor 2:4). Preaching in the Spirit of God is the power tool God uses to get the job of salvation done (Acts 10:42, 44).

Men rely on themselves for their own salvation. They trust in the words and works of themselves and others for right standing with God. People are easily deceived by false doctrines of self-esteem and self-achievement, promulgated by charismatic preachers. These preachers tell the people that God loves everyone. They suggest God has done His part in salvation, and now it is your turn to do something to make your salvation happen.

Paul relied on the Spirit of God to have His own way in every situation. When Paul preached the pure Gospel, because of its foolishness, he was demonstrating his own faith in God’s power to save people. The foolish message brought by the foolish preacher is Almighty God’s way of salvation. This is most remarkable. What is more remarkable is God’s Spirit demonstrating His power to save God’s chosen people using trembling vessels.

There is a reason for God deciding on this method of delivery. People put their faith in all the wrong things. They are trusting in people and things, which will prove to be untrustworthy. A misplaced faith manifests as idolatry. Idolatry is sin.

Authentic Christian faith is granted to the person born again (Phil 1:29). The Holy Spirit has caused us to be born again (1 Pet 1:3). The new life of the Christian springs forth with unmatched power. God is demonstrating His will and His way in salvation.

God is the Savior (Tit 2:13), and there is no other. He needs no help from anyone or anything apart from Himself to accomplish His great work of salvation. He is mighty to save. This is a demonstration of the Spirit to fill the man of God to proclaim the mysteries of God revealed in His Word. This is a demonstration of the Spirit to enable God’s elect to respond to the Gospel call (Acts 16:14). Those appointed to eternal life believe (Acts 13:48) with a faith given to them (Phil 1:29), which is common to all believers (2 Pet 1:1). It is authored by Jesus, and it will be perfected by Him (Heb 12:2).

God the Father has chosen some to salvation before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4–5; 2 Thess 2:13; Rev 13:8; 17:8). He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to execute salvation by dying on the Cross of Calvary (Jn 3:16). They sent the Holy Spirit to indwell the elect at the appointed time of conversion (Rom 8:9, 11). Repentance was granted by grace (Acts 5:31; 11:18); and by grace and through faith, God’s chosen are saved (Eph 2:8–9).

God does not share His glory with another, so when faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ, it is the Holy Spirit opening the ears of the spiritually deaf (Rom 10:17). True preaching invites a demonstration of the Spirit, and God saves His people by imparted faith. Each believer in Jesus Christ stands as a memorial to the power of God unto salvation, a genuine demonstration of the Spirit of God.

For these reasons, we must preach the Word of God. Just as the man of God prays in the Spirit of God, so he preaches in the Spirit of God. Apart from the Spirit of Christ, the preacher can do nothing (Jn 15:5). It is the Spirit that searches the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:10). In the wisdom of God, He has revealed the things pertaining to life in Christ. The revelation of the wisdom of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is life transforming.

With the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16), by way of the indwelling Spirit, the Christian preacher takes the spiritual thoughts and turns them into spiritual words. These are the thoughts of God, known only to the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God, present within the preacher, imparts the thoughts and words of God to all Creation (Mk 16:15). Just as Jesus made the Father known, so we make Christ known in the power of the Spirit.

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14). He has no power to understand things spiritually appraised. Only by means of illumination does a man understand. The Spirit of God graciously accompanies the preaching of God’s Word (Acts 2:38; 10:42, 44). He makes it to be a seed sown in the soul of a man or woman. God gives the increase in faith by the growing of grace and knowledge.

What should the preacher do with this information? First, he must fully rely on the Holy Spirit to accomplish what concerns him (Ps 57:2). Second, he must faithfully preach the Word of truth in season and out of season (2 Tim 4:2). Third, he must not add any gimmicks to the preaching event. It is the Word and the Spirit which go forth to accomplish God’s purpose of salvation (Jn 6:63). There is nothing a preacher can do to make more people be saved than God has ordained. Whatever is done, is done in the power of God, in the wisdom of God. Fourth, he must bear witness to his own observation of God’s demonstration of saving power in the Spirit of Christ. A preacher is an eye-witness to the wonder working power of regeneration. Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul of one appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:48; Eph 2:5; Col 2:13).

In conclusion, we must return from our reliance on technology gadgets and historical gimmicks to help bring people to Christ. It is the Word and the Spirit who do the Father’s bidding in dragging the soul to Jesus Christ (Jn 6:44). The demonstration of the Spirit does not stop at conversion. It continues into sanctification, which is the purifying of one’s Christian life (Rom 15:16; 1 Thess 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2). Because salvation is a wholistic enterprise, we can observe different phases of the Spirit’s operation in the salvation of a soul.

This is one of the most liberating aspects of Christian ministry. God has begun a work, and He will bring it to conclusion (Phil 1:6). This is preaching in the Spirit of God, and it is glorious in His sight.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

May 3, 2021