How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! –Romans 10:14-15.
Truth is urgent. Earnestly and passionately preaching the truth is urgent. Even though it eventually cost Him His life, Jesus urgently and passionately taught the will of His Father in Heaven. Paul urgently and passionately declared the whole counsel of God until his conscience was free from the guilt of the blood of all men.
Passionate, urgent, Spirit-anointed preaching is prophetic …for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy –Revelation 19:10. It is prophetic as it bears witness to the life of Jesus. Upon the choices of mankind hinge the earthly spread of either the kingdom of darkness or the Kingdom of Light. Urgency-filled, passionate preaching furthers the cause of Christ.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God … For … it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe … Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men –1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
Passionate preaching is a forceful factor in identifying that there is no middle ground in Biblical warfare. This passionate preaching stirs the conscience and convicts the heart. It drives the listener to …choose you this day whom ye will serve… –Joshua 24:15. He cannot hang in the deceptive clutches of ambiguous indecision. Passionate preaching urges the faithful to ongoing surrender and awakens the drunken sleeper to repentance. It defines sin, separating it from holiness, thereby compelling a decision.
…Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts –Zechariah 4:6, in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Urgency filled, passionate preaching propels, teaches, convicts, and moves individuals in ways that even urgent personal Bible study, personal devotions, and discipleship cannot. No other form of teaching can effectively replace this God-ordained method of ministry in the churches of Jesus the Christ. God ordains that His work, first done in the heart of the preacher, makes possible the persuasion of men. Such messages clearly define kingdom boundaries and bear upon the listener irresistible accountability. Sovereignty deems that under passionate, Spirit-anointed preaching, the conscience cannot resist accountability. Without revoke and aside from choice, upon the conscience of the hearer is laid either damnation or assurance.
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine –2 Timothy 4:2. Our Anabaptist forefathers believed in the urgency of passionately calling men and women to more than a mere understanding of truth. They called for active faith—obedience. They preached with expectancy, believing that their voices would move people at the core and bring about radical lifestyle changes. They expected their preaching to send men into evangelistic endeavors… even unto death. They expected their influence to move men and women to live under the banner and direction of Jesus’ practical example.
Current preaching styles have trended from Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men… –2 Corinthians 5:11 and …We ought to obey God rather than men –Acts 5:29; to “God understands and feels your pain.” Such is not erroneous, per se, but passionate urgency must fill the preacher’s heart to convince, to convict, and to pierce the darkness of today.
If preachers, sermon after sermon, simply present facts in monotone manners, and speak without passion, they dull the hearers’ conscience. They urge them to lackadaisical living, leaving them unmoved. It sears and hardens. It kills vision and burden. It is a seed bed for apostasy. It heightens satisfaction in hypocritical living. It entrenches complacent legalism into the core of the heart of man.
But if all prophesy [preach], and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth –1 Corinthians 14:24-25.
Conviction never lacks emotion. Neither does Holy Spirit-anointed preaching. Emotionless preaching covertly identifies to listeners that the preacher lacks compelling passion for his own words. Whether a message is encouragement, warning, or doctrine, urgent passion and emotion are urgently imperative.
The secret closet of the preacher must be full of Light… Biblical Light. The “Sword” he bears must first be severely laid to the roots of his own flesh. Indeed, it presses upon his soul until the fire in his bones can no longer be silent and the Lord is honored.
No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier –2 Timothy 2:4. The preacher needs to be intellectually prepared. God must have worked through his personal Bible study and his prayerful preparation. Less preparation is a symbol of a preacher’s own complacency and will be the ruin of his God-appointed accountability. He cannot wield the Sword (Word) of the Lord effectively …to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit… –Hebrews 4:12, unless it happens within his own heart first. The husbandman must first taste and feed on his own fruits. Through such enabling grace, the parishioners will either be spiritually moved to deeper levels of passionate living, or their conscience will be hardened against the Holy Spirit’s convicting influence. Through faith, obedience, and the blood of the Lamb, it defeats willful sin, fiendish demons, sensual flesh, and Satan. Thus, urgent, Spirit-anointed, passionate preaching removes all middle ground while it purifies the church.
