‘And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.’ (Acts
4:31)
‘These men began to argue with Stephen, but they
could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.’ (Acts
6:9-10)
When he was filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
Peter, who had previously kept himself locked behind closed doors with the rest
of the disciples out of fear of the Jews (John 20:19), stood up and boldly proclaimed
the gospel to all those who were gathering around. As he preached that day, his Jewish listeners
were convicted in their hearts, with the result that about 3,000 of them received
Jesus as their Messiah and were baptized, bringing the new Christian community into
existence. What was it that made such a
powerful difference in Peter? It
was his baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire.
This baptism causes those who receive it to be anointed
with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
This anointing impregnates the spoken word of God with divine power and
life, making the preaching of God’s truth powerful and effective, and it is
what generates the spiritual results which flow from preaching:
‘The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…’ (Isa.
61:1)
With the anointing, the word of God becomes like
fire in the heart of the preacher, and so when s/he preaches, people are
stirred, drawn and attracted to it:
‘His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut
up in my bones… Is not my word like a
fire?’ (Jer. 20:9, 23:29)
As E.M. Bounds said, the anointing puts God in his word and on his preachers. The word of
God is the sword of the Spirit and it breaks the yoke of bondage to sin (Eph. 6:17,
Isa. 10:27). The anointing causes God’s
word to pervade the conscience of the hearer and to ease open their heart,
searching deeply, revealing, and convicting of sin (cf. Acts 2:37, Heb. 4:12-13). Such inward conviction then brings about confession
of sin and reception of the gospel message, or else it causes resistance to the
message and a consequent hardening of the person’s heart towards the things of God.[1]
So one of the main purposes of the filling and empowering
of the Holy Spirit is so that the proclamation of the gospel and the word of
God can be done with fire, boldness, authority, conviction and effectiveness,
bearing much fruit as a result. This is
what we see in the book of Acts. The
experience of Pentecost filled the early believers, and especially those among
them who preached, with boldness and confidence, and we see the results of
their preaching everywhere in this book.
It took away from them the fear of people, and it gave them inward boldness
to proclaim the gospel message even when they were being persecuted.
In fact, it is true to say that it was their
anointed and bold preaching that brought upon them the persecution which they
intermittently suffered from those who opposed and rejected their message. It was the same for the Eleven, as it was for
Stephen, and as it was later for Paul, Barnabas and Silas (5:17-42, 6:9-7:60,
13:50, 14:19-20, 16:19-24). Pentecost ignited
a spiritual war in this world which has continued to rage ever since, between
the kingdom of God and the dominion of Satan, and the powerful preaching of the
gospel brought these men onto the front line of this warfare. However, instead of retreating and cowering
in a corner through fear, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer
for the name of Christ, and simply carried on preaching regardless (5:4-42, cf.
28:31). They considered suffering and even martyrdom for
the sake of Christ to be an honour.
They could not be stopped, and their message was irresistible! In fact, God affirmed his presence with them,
by often answering their prayers in miraculous and powerful ways (4:23-31,
5:17-20, 12:6-17, 16:25-26).
The inward compulsion and fire of the Holy Spirit
sent these men out everywhere to preach the gospel. They preached to and taught gathered
believers (20:7-12); they preached to the Sanhedrin (7:1-53); they debated publicly
(18:28); they preached in the synagogues (13:5), in the streets (14:8-9), in rented
halls (19:9) and in the market places (17:17). They preached to the Greek philosophers in the
Areopagus (17:22), and to a group of women gathered by a river for prayer
(16:13). They preached when they were put
on trial (chs.24-26), and to visitors in their own rented rooms (28:30-31). In short, they preached wherever there were people
who would listen, and wherever or to whomever God sent them.
Their evangelistic preaching was characterised by
the following major themes: proclamation of the unknown God as living Creator
(to Gentiles: 14:15-17; 17:23-28); Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of God,
and is Lord (using the OT scriptures and to Jews: 2:36; 5:42; 7:2-53;
8:5,30-35; 9:20; 10:36; 13:16-41; 17:2-3; 18:5; 18:28; 28:23); the death, resurrection
and exaltation of Jesus (2:23-24,31-34,36; 3:15; 4:2,10; 5:30-31; 7:56; 10:39-40;
13:29-37; 17:18,31; 26:23); the forgiveness of sins through Jesus (2:38; 5:31;
10:43; 13:38); turning to God in repentance from sin, unbelief and idolatry (3:19;
5:31; 14:15; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20); salvation is found only in Jesus (4:12; 16:31);
the return of Christ (3:20-21); the future resurrection of both the righteous
and the wicked (24:15); the future judgement of all people before Christ (10:42;
17:31), and the kingdom of God (20:25; 28:23,31).
In exactly the same way, one of the fruits of the
empowerment of the Holy Spirit today, particularly in times of revival, is
still the bold, fearless and fruitful preaching of the word of God. Cold-hearted, powerless and unconvincing preaching
does not get anyone converted. What
we need today is the kind of empowered and anointed preaching which characterised
Pentecost, bringing conviction of truth to those who hear. God has raised up many Spirit-filled, anointed
preachers in the history of the Church, especially during times of revival. Moody and Finney (see above) were two very
good examples of this.
Bold, anointed preaching was the conduit which
brought about the many thousands of conversions which took place in the First Great
Awakening of the 1730s – 1740s through the ministries of John Wesley (in England
and Scotland), George Whitefield (in England and what were then the American colonies),
and Daniel Rowlands and Howell Harris (in Wales). Similarly, Dafydd Morgan’s fire-filled preaching
was greatly and fruitfully used by God in the 1858 – 1860 revival in Wales.
Subsequent
to his conversion in May 1738, John Wesley (who was an ordained Anglican
clergyman) began to openly preach about the new birth in Anglican churches. Several months later, on January 1st
1739, he also experienced a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a Fetter
Lane Moravian Society meeting:
‘Mr. Hall, Hinching, Ingham,
Whitefield, Hutching, and my brother Charles were present at our love feast in
Fetter Lane with about 60 of our brethren. About three in the morning, as we were continuing
instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us insomuch that many
cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground.’[2]
The Anglican churches soon closed their doors and
pulpits to Wesley, believing that church membership alone was enough for someone
to be saved. So, in order to reach the
masses with the gospel, Wesley was forced (as was also his contemporary George
Whitefield) to start preaching in the open air to the sometimes very large crowds
that would gather. In this way he began
his itinerant evangelistic ministry in Britain.
Like the apostles in the book of Acts, Wesley went where the unconverted
people were, so he would often preach in the streets, near market-places or in hired
buildings. He did not mince his words, but
preached a clear message of repentance from sin, and he spoke boldly and openly
against the social vices of his day (such as drunkenness, immorality and gambling). Needless to say, many people were converted
through his preaching and the devil got stirred up wherever he went. He was often mocked and slandered, and sometimes
had stones or rotten eggs thrown at him, or he was chased out of town. However, in spite of such opposition, Wesley persevered
in this itinerant evangelistic ministry throughout his lifetime.
He gathered his converts and organised them into
religious societies, discipling them through his well-structured and effective
band/class strategy, and thereby laid the foundations of Methodism in Britain. Through this new movement, God raised up many
Spirit-filled itinerant preachers. In reference
to his own sermons, he would say that he would first set himself on fire, and
then invite the people to come and watch him burn. He would also tell his early Methodist preachers
to either put fire in their sermons, or else throw their sermons in the fire!
Wesley honoured the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit in his ministry. He understood and
accepted that when and where the Holy Spirit is freely working, then there will
be manifestations of his power, and such manifestations were a regular occurrence
in his meetings. As his Journal repeatedly testifies, people would
often shake, tremble, weep, cry out and/or fall prostrate on the floor. Furthermore, he believed in ‘the double cure,’
i.e. he believed in and preached Christ as the Saviour from sin and also as the
Healer of sickness. There were many
cases of physical healing in his ministry, and he would also cast evil spirits
out of people when these manifested.
[1] Bounds, E.M. Power through Prayer, Springdale: Whitaker House, 1982, pp.75-83,
and the public domain pdf copy at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzdGdyZWdvcmlvc2NodXJjaG1pc3Npb25jZW50cmV8Z3g6NmZjNTg5YjBlMzE0NGNjYQ,
accessed 20.06.2020.
[2] Wesley, J. From the entry in his Journal for 1st January 1739.
