The preacher may be a scholar, a pastor, an administrator, an ecclesiastical statesman, a scintillating orator, a social reformer. He is nothing unless he is a man of the Spirit. (William Barclay)

If there is no power, that is not preaching. (Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

No amount of preaching, no matter how orthodox it may be, no amount of mere study of the Word will regenerate unless the Holy Spirit works. It is He and He alone who makes a man a new creature. (R. A. Torrey)

Where is God’s Power?

A city full of churches

Great preachers, lettered men,

Grand music, choirs and organs;

If all these failed, what then?

Good workers, eager, earnest,

Who labor hour by hour:

But where oh my brother,

Is God’s Almighty power?

It is the Holy Spirit,

That quickeneth the soul.

God will not take man–worship,

Nor bow to man’s control.

No human innovation,

No skill or worldly art,

Can give a true repentance,

Or break the sinner’s heart.

Great God, revive us truly!

And keep us every day;

That men may all acknowledge,

We live just as we pray.

The Lord’s hand is not shortened,

He still delights to bless,

If we depart form evil

And all our sins confess.

We live in a changing world where pluralism, consumerism, materialism, and postmodernism are prevalent. Truth becomes relative. Religion no longer becomes as important as it used to be. The inconvenient truth is that preaching has become more professional (the vocabulary “calling” appears not to be emphasized) and emphasis is placed on transactional rather than transformative outcomes. Preachers of today are highly qualified with credentials such as a DMin, ThD, and PhD. However, these do not necessarily translate into effective or transformational life-changing preaching.

The Problems with Contemporary Preaching

The assessment of Martyn Lloyd-Jones concerning the state of preaching in the twentieth century is still the same in the twenty-first century.

I am convinced that the main trouble with most of us and with the church in general is that we seem to have forgotten the presence of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit. We have become so formal with everything, so set, so organized, all in the control of man—and have forgotten this evidence, the power and the glory of the Spirit and the sanctity and the holiness. (Lloyd Jones)

You can have a highly educated, cultured ministry, but it will be useless without this power. You can have men who speak and expound learnedly, and do many other things, but, if, this power is not present, it will end in nothing better than entertainment.

Sermons don’t seem to impact people nowadays as much as in the past. Lives are not being changed in spite of listening to sermon after sermon each Sunday. “Sermons are words, words, words.” (Fred Craddock) Preaching seems innocuous and makes little difference in the lives of the listeners. The aim of preaching is to effect changes in the lives of the listeners but they appear not to do so. Why? Reid asked a relevant question: “Preaching is supposed to be God’s supreme saving activity, why does this activity appear powerless?” (Clyde Reid)

Contemporary preaching by and large lacks unction. Perhaps some of the reasons for unctionless preaching includes commercialised preaching, cheapening of the gospel, and self–centred preaching. Some laity complain that preachers appear to be churchy, preachy, starchy, and stuffy. In the words of Michael Tucker, “Preaching must pump his heart until he lives and breathes his message. The message will hound him, drive him, and even explode within him. So great will be the desire to preach that he will find it difficult to wait for the time to deliver the message of God.”

Lamentably, what is missing is the word POWER. The type of preaching required today is pneumatic preaching, that is, preaching in the power of the pneuma (Spirit). This raises the question, “Why?”

The answer is lack of power because of marginalization of the Holy Spirit. Sadly, this is what is missing in today’s churches. Attending today’s churches is like going to a movie where we are moved to tears by the film but after the movie it is all forgotten. For some it is like attending a rock concert where you shout, dance, and respond but afterwards you are back to your old self.

The greatest need of today’s preacher is to have fire in our preaching. To preach with power is to preach with fire. With such power our preaching will be intense and passionate and impassioned coupled with holy passion and consuming zeal because the stakes are high. Like the prophet Jeremiah we would say, “Whenever I said, ‘I shall not call it to mind or speak in his name again,’ then his word became imprisoned within me like a fire burning in my heart. I was weary with holding it under, and could endure no more” (Jer. 20:17). As Chadwick remarked, “Destitute of Fire, nothing else counts; possessing Fire, nothing else really matters.” The question that was asked in ancient times is also relevant for today: “Where is the God of Elijah?”

That spiritual or homiletical power/fire is called anointing or unction and it comes from the Holy Spirit. The need for power in preaching is an undisputable fact. How can we preach with unction? How can we preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and power? We must be clothed with it from on high. That power to preach has been called by different names such as anointing, unction, and “plus” of the Spirit. This kind of preaching is described in Scripture:

And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 2:4)

For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. (1 Thess. 1:5)

Surprisingly, the work of the Holy Spirit is also most neglected in many if not most of the preaching books. At most he is being smuggled in via the backdoor in one of the chapters. For the sermons to come alive, the Spirit of God must energise them. You need the Holy Spirit. It may even in preaching books, they may even contain a seed of life but it cannot germinate life. It is a tragedy for us to go to the pulpit without unction. Trying to preach the Word of God using merely human effort without unction is like trying to drive a car without petrol and attempting to blow up a dam without any dynamite. Our eloquence in preaching may thrill and enthral the congregation. Our sermon may glow and sparkle and impress the crowd. Our personality may exude charm, which draws the people, but there will be no transformation of lives without divine endorsement.

Tragically speaking, technology and techniques have been overemphasized at the expense of divine empowerment. It is not our talent, technique, or technology that changes life. Neither is it some special method of delivery but the ministry of the Holy Spirit with the Holy Scripture through human agency that changes lives. Similarly, Luccock hit the nail on the head when he opined, “The preacher who depends upon his wits, either real or imaginary, on tricks or verbal novelties, or child’s play of exploding little homiletical firecrackers, has really filed a petition in bankruptcy a herald of God.” (Halford Luccock)

In preaching, a proper place must be given back to the Holy Spirit in our preaching or else preaching will not effect changes or impact lives. We preach because we want to see results. We preach because we believe we can make a difference in people’s lives. We preach because we believe it is one of God’s ordained methods to communicate his word. The conviction of sin, the conversion of sinners, and the conformity of saints to God’s Word depends on the work of the Holy Spirit. Unless and until we factor in the Holy Spirit, preaching simply becomes a vehicle for conveying knowledge rather than changing lives.

A Scan on the word ‘Power’

A concordance scan on the word power reveals that it occurs more than 276 times in the Bible. I will briefly highlight what the Bible teaches about power. This is very clear in the Scripture. “One thing God has spoken, two things I have learnt: ‘Power belongs to God’ and ‘Unfailing love is yours, Lord’” (Ps. 62:11); “With God are wisdom and power, to him belongs counsel and understanding” (Job 12:13); “Wealth and honour come from your rule over all; might and power are of your disposing; yours it is to give power and strength to all” (1 Chron. 29:12). God displays his power over his enemies (Exod. 9:16; 14:31; 32:11; Deut. 8:17; 34:12).

In rebuking the Sadducees, Jesus said, “How far you are from the truth! You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God!” (Mark 12:24). Concerning the origin and the source of power, Paul said, “There is no question of our having sufficient power in ourselves: we cannot claim anything as our own. The power we have comes from God; it is he who has empowered us as ministers of a new covenant” (2 Cor. 3:5–6). “Finally, find your strength in the Lord, in his mighty power” (Eph. 6:10).

Paul affirmed that in his preaching ministry he “will venture to speak only of what Christ has done through me to bring the gentiles into allegiance, by word and deed, by the power of signs and portents, and by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:18–19). His preaching was characterised by words that “did not sway you with clever arguments; it carried conviction by spiritual power so that your faith might be built not on human wisdom but on the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:4–5). Interestingly, the earlier verse states, “I came before you in weakness, in fear, in great trepidation” (v. 3). Paul also said, “The power we have comes from God; it is he who has empowered us as ministers of a new covenant” (2 Cor. 3:5–6). Added to that, “when we brought you the gospel we did not bring it in mere words but in the power of the Holy Spirit and with strong conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5). The reason being “the kingdom of God is not a matter of words, but of power” (1 Cor. 4:20).

Peter said, “Now they have been openly announced to you through preachers who brought you the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven” (1 Pet. 1:12). Paul and Peter could not have accomplished what they did without power from above and within.

The disciples were asked to wait before going out to minister (Luke 24:48–49; Acts 1:4, 8). Christ himself before beginning his ministry had to have power (Acts 10:38). How much more we who claim to be his ministers?

Why is power desperately needed in past as well as present preaching? Many reasons can be given such as the hardness of human heart, lostness of humanity, we are not wrestling with flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12), opposition to truth (cf. 2 Tim. 3:8), kind of society we live in, the work of the enemy (1 Pet. 5:8), and others. Homiletically speaking, this power is called unction or anointing.