Pentecostal Preaching, Part 2

Peter stepped into the God-given moment. Through faith in Christ, he and John had healed a lame man who came daily to the temple to beg for alms. The incident caused a great stir and Peter preached to the gathered crowd. While the circumstance of the sermon was different than the first he had preached, the content reflected the same commitments: it was biblically driven, had Christ as its subject, was courageous in its pronouncements, and called for the people listening to be intellectually honest (see previous post). It was solid pentecostal preaching. There is an additional component to pentecostal preaching, however, that shows up in these seminal sermons: the call for repentance.

What is repentance? In the words of one commentator, it’s a “spiritual about face.” This definition is helpful. Peter is bold to point out to his listeners that they had conspired and “denied the Holy and Righteous One . . . and killed the Author of life.” The first thing, therefore, that the crowd needed to repent of was their antipathy toward Jesus. No longer could they regard him as they had. The categories they had placed Jesus in that allowed them to dismiss him as a charlatan had to be renounced. His divine messiahship had been vindicated in the phenomena that were taking place and a “spiritual about face” was called for.

So, added to the characteristics of what constitutes pentecostal preaching is the call for repentance. But it’s important to note the order of repentance that Peter summons. The first thing that anyone needs to do is abandon their condemning conceptions of Christ. This is primary, for it’s only when a person in is union with the “Author of life” that calls for moral reformation make any sense. To repent of moral failures but not be brought into fellowship with Christ accomplishes no eternal good. A cleaned up pagan is in no better position before God than a thoroughly debauched one. What unbelievers need to do is “repent and be baptized . . . in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of [their] sins.” 

Though it might seem self-evident, Christ needs to be kept front and center as we bear witness to him. It’s Jesus that people need to know. Once that is settled, calls to live in a manner that is pleasing to God can follow.

Removing Obstacles to the Gospel

If anyone would know how difficult it is to carry out the missionary enterprise, it would be the Apostle Paul. His efforts met resistance from the onset. This is not to say that he didn't have success at persuading people of their need for Jesus, but it wasn’t an easy sell. More than once he suffered persecution for doing nothing more than preaching the “good news.” Obviously, not everyone found the news good.

People are not readily disposed to being told that, unless they take by faith the gift of Christ’s righteousness, they are destined for hell. Their current belief system, confidence in their own goodness, or any one, or combination, of other such hindrances, make hearing the message about Jesus’ saving work a seemingly insurmountable mountain.

Paul appears to have understood this and made every effort to remove unnecessary impediments to having the gospel heard. We need to take our cue from him. The two most important factors (of many important factors) are the preconceptions of the one we are trying to persuade and our love for that one. The other’s preconceptions will cause them to hear what you are saying through the filter of their current understanding of things. As the gospel presents a very different view of existence than what we naturally come to, if you do not try to anticipate what the other might already be thinking, your words are not likely to be heard. Also, if we have not love for the other, the kind of love that motivated Paul, and caused Jesus to grieve when he looked upon the crowd and saw them as sheep without a shepherd, he or she will detect our disdain. A sure ear stopper!

The missionary enterprise is not an easy one. It must be said, therefore, that it requires the power of the Holy Spirit to attend our bearing witness, certainly in the heart and mind of the other, but also in our own. For, by the grace of God, “we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4).