Kindle Notes & Highlights
Preachers, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
“The work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.”
As the ministry of the word goes, so goes the church.
When God sent His own Son into the world, He called Him to be a preacher (Isa. 49:1–2).
Martin Luther said, “If I could today become king or emperor, I would not give up my office as preacher.”
Luther preacher quote
A Burning Passion to Preach
First, you will feel an overwhelming burden to preach.
A man who has really within him the inspiration of the Holy Ghost calling him to preach, cannot help it—he must preach.
He must preach
A Marked Ability to Teach
Second, God’s call to preach will be discerned by recognizing a Spirit-given ability to make His word clearly known.
This gift to teach will always be accompanied by a desire to study. These two—studying and teaching—always go hand in hand.
These two desires to study and teach are the heads and tails of the same coin. Wherever you find the one, the other will be present.
An Evident Growth in Godliness
Third, a call to preach will be evidenced by your ongoing conformity to Christlikeness.
No one discerns a call to preach while being spiritually lukewarm or entangled in worldly loves.
Discerning the Will of God
When you study His word, different passages of Scripture will capture your heart in new ways. As you pray, you will long for the will of God to be done in your life and will plead with God to reveal the next part of His perfect plan for your life.
The Word and Prayer
The more quiet and attentive you are in His presence, the louder His word will speak to you.
Shortly after his conversion, George Whitefield sought to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. He devoured the works of the Reformers and the Puritans, desiring to obtain a solid doctrinal foundation in the Scriptures.
Whotefiods’s growth devouring books
A Strong Confirmation from Others
If God is setting you apart to the work of preaching, the leaders of your local church should affirm this call upon your life.
Fifth, you can know you are called to preach as you observe spiritual fruit in the lives of others from your ministry.
Charles Spurgeon declared that he could not know for certain he had been called to preach until he saw his first convert.
Spurgeon testified that his aim to win souls to Jesus Christ dominated his ministry for the rest of his days. He asserted that he would rather be the means of saving one soul than the greatest orator on earth, would sooner see the poorest person saved than become the Archbishop of Canterbury, and would rather be the winner of souls than a king in theological debate.11
Soul winning above all things
As you evaluate your call to the ministry, do you see any evidence of someone being brought to personal faith in Jesus Christ?
Sixth, a call to preach usually creates a crisis in the heart. A call to the ministry is realized internally as you experience great internal turbulence.
Seventh, the one called to preach will be providentially ushered into the ministry through opening doors of circumstances.
The younger Knox became so close to Wishart that he became his personal bodyguard. His responsibility was to protect the older preacher with a broadsword against life-threatening dangers from the enemies of the gospel.
John Knox the armor bearer
exposition is being replaced with entertainment. Theology has given way to theatrics. Doctrine has yielded to drama.
solemnly charge you,” are an authoritative command to young Timothy. This verb, diamartyromai, means to make a solemn declaration about the truth of something. It signified an authoritative order issued by a commanding officer to a lower-ranking foot soldier that required the full obedience of the subordinate.
I put this in the Jonah book we’re God calls Jonah into ministry to go to Nineveh.
Paul’s words are stronger, though, than any military order because they are issued as an apostolic command.
Stronger than a military come in, this was a divine command!
How must my thinking be realigned by Scripture? How must I change my behavior to be fully obedient to the word?”
“preach the word,” forms the overarching mandate for Timothy. “Preach,” kēryssō, carries the idea of making an official announcement.
Preach the word define
In New Testament times, the Roman emperor would issue an imperial decree in his palace. He would call for his heralds to come and entrust the decree to them.
The citizens would put down their tools of trade, leave their businesses, and surround the official spokesperson, eager to hear the message.
The herald would raise his voice and issue a public proclamation of the imperial decree.
Gustav Friedrich in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Friedrich writes, “The herald does not express his own views. He is the spokesman for his master. . . . [H]e must keep strictly to the words and orders of his master.”4 It was the herald’s sole duty to deliver the message precisely as it had been given to him. The anticipated response of the people was not to alter what he would announce. His faithfulness in proclaiming the message was to be his sole focus.
The Herald only expresses the will and words of the imperial
preacher needs to always have one finger in the Scripture, always pointing at the text he is preaching. Everything that he says must be coming from this text of Scripture.”5 That is, you must solely preach the word, because when the Bible speaks, God speaks.
Preachers must keep their finger in the text.
Be Always Ready
“Be ready” (ephistēmi) means to be ready to complete a task.
Expose Every Sin
“reprove” his listeners.
Call for Repentance
Rebuke (epitimaō) conveys the idea of expressing strong disapproval. It sounds an alarm that alerts listeners to the painful consequences of sin if they pursue wrong choices.
Exhort the Listeners
This word (parakaleō) means to call someone to come and stand alongside of you, to be at your side in order to receive comfort or counsel.
This exhortation, Paul also told Timothy, is to be done “with great patience.” This word (makrothymai) means, literally, to bear up under provocation without complaint. It can also be translated endurance or perseverance.
As Timothy reproves, rebukes, and exhorts, he must also do so with “instruction” (didachē).
Every preacher must be a theological expositor who teaches “the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3). If
Jude three in the preachers mandate to contend for the faith
Be Sober-Minded
