How to Preach with Authority — E.A. Johnston

Preaching with the Authority of the Holy Spirit

Well, we are in session two of Revival Institutes on how to preach the gospel, and today we're going to tackle how to preach the gospel with authority. I'll never forget sitting in a seminary classroom listening to a preaching professor as he went on and on about the importance of elocution and voice projection and eye contact and projecting our personality.

And when he paused to catch his breath, a hand went up to ask a question. The student asked, I hear what you're saying today, doctor, but tell us. When I study historical revival and I read about a man like Jonathan Edwards, how his entire congregations fell under conviction of sin, I see that when he preached, he preached with authority because he preached in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Historical Revival and the Difference Authority Makes

What do you have to say to that? Well, all eyes were on the professor who made a face and answered with disdain in his voice as he said, young man, you are no Jonathan Edwards. Well, that may have been true, but that young man knew a whole lot more about preaching than that arrogant seminary professor did.

What separates the man from the boys is seen in one word, authority. Let me try to explain it with a true story that I witnessed. I was sitting on the front row of one of the biggest megachurches in the Southern Baptist Convention watching a Christmas program.

It was more of a theatrical experience than a church experience because the pastor had hired a Broadway director to come stage the show. During the program, one of the deacons of the church was dressed up like a former pastor of that famous church, and he read part of one of the old boy's sermons.

Well, he must have done his homework because he sounded just like him, and he was dressed in a white linen suit, and as he read that sermon and acted the part, he sounded just like that old preacher he was portraying.

He read that sermon with such conviction and such authority that the entire audience was glued to our seats, and we hung on every word as he spoke with a voice of authority. As soon as he was finished, he backed out, and the current pastor of that church strolled onto the stage.

His visible appearance was in stark contrast to what we had just witnessed. This pastor was sloppily dressed in blue jeans, with his shirt tail out, and his hair rumpled, and his cuffs rolled back as he casually strutted around the platform, addressing his congregation like he would address some deacons in the hallway.

It was a conversational tone, and in that casual attitude, he quoted John 3 .16. Or should I say he misquoted it, because he had to re-say it once again. And what I witnessed that night was the most singular thing that's missing from our modern pulpit of our day, and that's the missing voice of authority.

The Shift from a God-Centered Gospel to Humanism

Nobody takes the church seriously anymore, because the church doesn't take herself seriously to begin with. The church wants to be liked. The church wants to be accepted. The church wants to be entertaining and enjoyable.

So the church changed its message and methods. It went from a God-centered message to a man-centered message. The old gospel proclaimed the attributes of God, and the glory of God, and the sinfulness of man, and the salvation of souls.

The new gospel speaks of the elevation of man, which is humanism, and it promotes the happiness of man from a man-centered gospel. And consequently, pulpits lack authority, and just as dramatically as that deacon dressed up like that old pastor preached a God-centered sermon, and the modern pastor in his blue jeans expounded the happiness of man, but we must go deeper than that, just deeper than the way we dress, and deeper than the way we behave in the pulpit.

Holiness, Consecration, and the Power Behind Transformative Preaching

We must preach with a power that can only come from above. The voice of authority comes from an anointing of the Holy Spirit. In our personal lives, we must be empty of ego and self. J. Siddle Baxter used to say, How can a man, full of himself, preach the Christ who emptied himself?

Well obviously he cannot. Many of the preachers that I have heard just like to talk about themselves. Instead of preaching the old gospel, they'll just tell funny stories, and old-style jokes, and dialogue for a while, in an effort to keep your attention.

But the problem with this is there is no transformation in the lives of their hearers. They leave church the same way they came in, unchanged. The reason why men like Jonathan Edwards preach with such power is that they were holy men who were wholly consecrated to God in their personal lives.

They were clean and clear channels that God could flow through in an unobstructed way with his living waters as a means of blessings to others. I'll never forget listening to Dr. Stephen F. Olford preach.

He preached with an authority from on high, from an anointing of the Holy Spirit. His preaching was so transformational because his personal life was spotless in a life of consecration to God. He was a holy man of God, and when you heard him preach, he moved you.

The first time I sat under his preaching, I felt like an orange that was being peeled layer after layer, was peeled away until all that was left to me was the seeds, and then he crushed those seeds. My life was turned upside down under his preaching.

Learning from Classic Sermons and the Puritans

He changed the entire direction of my life. He ended up becoming my homiletical mentor, and he personally taught me how to preach the gospel with authority. I would suggest, friends, taking the time to read sermons from the 19th and 18th century, and then when you do that, go study the Puritans.

Read all you can, and you will soon discern that today's preaching pales in comparison to what true preaching should be. In fact, we don't even preach today. We merely teach. Teaching informs. Preaching transforms.

With this ends our session today. We will begin session three tomorrow.