“The Bible affirms the key role that preaching plays in developing the Bride of Christ. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul instructed his protégé’ to, “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” 2 Timothy 4:2.
Preaching is mentioned throughout the New Testament. It was a major occupation of Christ. In Luke chapter four, Christ quoted from Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed” Luke 4:18. Our Lord did just that; He did it better than anyone in history. The crowds prove that. Five thousand men would follow Him to hear His preaching, without worry of how they would eat. Paul was passionate about preaching. In the introduction to the book of Romans he describes how intensely he wanted to preach. “That is why I am so eager to also preach the gospel to you who are at Rome” Romans 1:15. The very next verse says it all. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” Romans 1:16. Paul’s eagerness to preach came from his ambitious view of what the gospel could accomplish. God would use Paul to reshape the known world through his preaching.
Paul explained the power of his preaching. He wrote, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith may not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” 1 Corinthians 2:4. Two promising points are made in this text. First, good preaching is not the result of a superior education or even tremendous communication skills. Paul said his preaching did not contain wise or persuasive words. Second, all have the ability for powerful preaching. Powerful preaching comes about as a result of the indwelling Spirit of God. That indwelling becomes evident through the power of every word said.
Christ said that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him in His preaching. Paul said that his preaching was a manifestation of the power of Spirit of the Lord. From the scriptures we learn that God’s men are instructed to be prepared. Always be prepared to preach a message of the gospel of Christ that is empowered by God’s Spirit. This is Biblical preaching.
I don’t have a specific sermon that I preach, I preach as the Spirit gives to me, or focus on the area concerned to identify their specific needs, pray, and allow the Lord to use me to develop a sermon that will impact them and bring about a change, rebuke, encourage, and empowered unto every good work.”
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