Quotes from Spirit Empowered Preaching By Arturo G. Azurdia III

This book is filled with important information for the pastor who desires a more effective preaching ministry.  To fully understand the following quotes, they should be read in context.

“When you preach in the energy of the flesh, you feel exalted and lifted up.  When you preach in the power of the Spirit, you are filled with humble awe at the work of God.” – Martin Lloyd-Jones (front fly page)

“…the preached word will transform lives only as the Spirit uses it.” (front fly page)

As Spurgeon climbed the fifteen steps to the platform of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he repeated with each step, “I believe in the Holy Ghost!” (front fly page)

“If your people would hear God, not just you the preacher, you must bring more to the art of preaching than orthodoxy.” (the anointing of the Holy Spirit)  p. 10

“What kind of preaching is it that causes men and women ‘to feel the overwhelming power of the sheer loveliness and enthrallment of Jesus Christ…?’  It is preaching that emerges from diligent exegesis, to be sure.  But more than that, it is preaching that is infused with power, a vitality that infinitely exceeds the scope of human strength…a vitality that originates from heaven itself.” p. 11, 12

“…the efficacious empowerment of the Spirit of God is indispensable to the ministry of proclamation.”  p. 13

“If Pentecost is not repeated, neither is it retracted…This is the era of the Holy Spirit.” – John Murray,  p. 17

The Christian Counseling Movement – “…even a cursory review of their literature reflects an attempt, whether consciously or unconsciously, to do the work of God apart from the truth and the power of the Spirit of God.” p. 20

“Apart from the Spirit the Bible is opaque; with the Spirit it becomes translucent.” – Donald Bloesch. p. 29

“Piper is right when he says that all genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation.” p. 92

“I see that a man cannot be a faithful, fervent minister until he preaches just for Christ’s sake, until he gives up trying to attract people to himself, and seeks to attract them to Christ.  Lord, give me this.” p. 93

 Spirit Empowered Preaching - 2

 “The scriptures should be read with the aim of finding Christ in them.”  John Calvin, p. 48

“…there is an interpretive question to which every Christian can ask of any ministry purporting to be a work of the Holy Spirit: Does this ministry reveal and glorify Jesus Christ?”  p. 50

“If ever we are to expect the Spirit’s enablement, we must be resolutely wedded to His purpose; to glorify Jesus Christ through the instrumentality of the scriptures.” p. 63

“…preaching was a prominent feature in the ministry methodology of Jesus….” p. 85

“An absence of preaching is often the means now employed to attract people to the assembly on the Lord’s Day.”  p. 86

“Marcel states… ‘Preaching is the central, primary, decisive function of the Church.’  Lloyd – Jones adds, ‘…the decadent periods and eras in the history of the Church have always been those periods when preaching had declined.’”  p. 88

“It must be understood that the preacher does not share, he declares.  This is the reason that small group Bible studies can never replace the preaching of the gospel.”  p. 88

“Christian preaching consciously renounces all dependence upon humanly-devised techniques of persuasion.”  p. 89

“…a preacher ought never to preach in a manner that consciously draws attention to himself.”   p. 91

“Christian preaching demands a holy correspondence between message and method.” p. 91

 “It may be surprising for some to discover that when the Spirit of God powerfully attends the preaching of the word, one of the common indicators is a heightened sense of quiet; not shouts and ecstasies, rather an unnatural silence.” p. 111

“Do you long for the voice of God to be heard when you preach? Then this must be your credo: ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit.’”  p. 112

“Christian preachers must never assume that a mutually exclusive decision needs to be made between painstaking exegesis and reliance upon the Spirit.”  p. 141

“Labor in the preparation for the pulpit, as if our whole success depended on it.  Pray, and depend wholly upon Christ; as feeling, that ‘without him we can do nothing.’”  p.142.

“Seldom does a book arise of which one can say, ‘This should be essential reading for preachers at whatever stage of their ministry!’” Derek Prime, (back cover)

“Piper is right when he says that all genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation.” p. 92

“I see that a man cannot be a faithful, fervent minister until he preaches just for Christ’s sake, until he gives up trying to attract people to himself, and seeks to attract them to Christ.  Lord, give me this.” p. 93

Quotes from The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper

“It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.  A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.”  Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“…the subjective evidence of God’s call to the ministry of the Word (to quote Charles Spurgeon) “is an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work.”

“…if you are a preacher God will hide from you much of the fruit he causes in your ministry.  You will see enough to be assured of his blessing, but not so much as to think you could live without it.  For God aims to exalt himself, not the preacher.”

“…the goal of preaching is the glory of God reflected in the glad submission of the human heart.”

“It horribly skews the meaning of the cross when contemporary prophets of self-esteem say that the cross is a witness to my infinite worth, since God was willing to pay such a high price to get me.  The biblical perspective is that the cross is a witness to the infinite worth of God’s glory, and a witness to the immensity of the sin of my pride.”

“Paul goes on to say that unless the preacher is crucified the preaching is nullified (1 Cor. 1:17).  What we are in preaching is utterly crucial to what we say.  This is why I turn in chapter 3 to the enabling power of the Holy Spirit…”

“How utterly dependent we are on the Holy Spirit in the work of preaching!”

“All genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation.”

“Never allow yourself to feel equal to your work.  If you ever find that spirit growing on you, be afraid.”  Phillips Brooks

“Without this demonstration of Spirit and power in our preaching nothing of any abiding value will be achieved no matter how many people may admire our cogency or enjoy our illustrations or learn from our doctrine.”

“Where the Bible is esteemed as the inspired and inerrant Word of God, preaching can flourish.”

“All Christian preaching should be the exposition and application of biblical texts.”

“We need to get people to open their Bibles and put their finger on the text.  Then we need to quote a piece of our text and explain what it means.”

“How do you preach so that the preaching is a demonstration of God’s power and not your own?”  (You will have to read the book to see the five steps Piper follows)

 Beginning in chapter 4 and going through chapter 7 Piper uses Jonathan Edwards, whose preaching sparked the Great Awakening in America, as a standard for biblical preaching.

Edwards said, “If a minister has light without heat, and entertains his [hearers] with learned discourses, without a savour of the power of godliness, or any appearance of fervency of spirit, and zeal for God and the good of souls, he may gratify itching ears, and fill heads of his people with empty notions; but it will not be very likely to teach their hearts, or save their souls.”

Piper writes with regard to Edward’s seriousness in preaching, “Gravity in preaching is appropriate because preaching is God’s appointed means for the conversion of sinners, the awakening of the church, and the preservation of the saints.”

“God saves people from everlasting ruin through preaching” (I Cor. 1:21).  We must remember that when we preach “the everlasting destiny of sinners hangs in the balance!”

James Denny said, “No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save.”

John Henry Jowett said, “We never reach the innermost room in any man’s soul by the expediencies of the showman….”  And yet many preachers believe they must say something funny.

“Laughter seems to have replaced repentance as the goal of many preachers.”

“Sometimes it seems that levity is the greatest enemy of any true spiritual work being done in the hearers.”

Spurgeon said to his students, “We must conquer – some of us especially – our tendency to levity.  A great distinction exists between holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that general levity, which is a vice.”

“It is a sign of the age that we preachers are far more adept at humor than tears.”

Piper list seven practical suggestions for cultivating gravity and gladness in your preaching.  You will have to read the book to see the seven suggestions that Piper offers – p 60 – 63.

“Fruitful study and fervent prayer live and die together.”  “Cotton Mather’s rule was to stop at the end of every paragraph as he wrote his sermon to pray and examine himself and try to fix on his heart some holy impression of his subject. Without this spirit of constant prayer, we cannot maintain the gravity and gladness that lingers in the vicinity of the throne of Grace.”

“…Edwards did not practice regular pastoral visitation among his people (620 communicants in 1735)”, but he did…. p. 68.

“The essence of Edward’s preaching might be found in ten characteristics,…” p. 81 – 105.