"
What kind of preaching is this? He does not say, "foolish
preaching," but the foolishness of such a way as that of
preaching. Certainly, it is not the moral essay, or the
intellectual, or semi-intellectual, kind of preaching that is
most generally heard throughout the world to-day, that is to save
men; for thousands of such sermons move and convert no one: nor
is it a mere noisy declamation called a sermon--noisy because
empty of all earnest thought and true feeling; but it must be the
kind of which Peter speaks when he writes of "them that preached
the Gospel ... with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven" (1
Peter i. 12).
No man is equipped to rightly preach the Gospel, and undertake
the spiritual oversight and instruction of souls, till he has
been anointed with the Holy Ghost.
The disciples had been led to Jesus by John the Baptist, whose
mighty preaching laid a deep and broad foundation for their
spiritual education, and then for three years they had listened
to both the public and private teachings of Jesus; they had been
"eye-witnesses of His glory," of His life and death and
resurrection, and yet He commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem,
and wait for the Holy Spirit. He was to fit them for their
ministry. And if they, trained and taught by the Master Himself,
had need of the Holy Spirit to enable them to preach and testify
with wisdom and power, how much more do you and I need His
presence!
Without Him they could do nothing.
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