Preaching and Preachers

Preaching and Preachersshall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him inthe spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to thechildren, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just (verses 15­17)·That is an excellent summary of the position of the prophets of theOld Testament. Those men were aware of an afflatuswhich came uponthem; the Spirit took hold of them and they were given a message, andthe power to deliver it. It isthe great characteristic of the prophets, andJohn was the last of the prophets. So we are told about him that hewas endued in this very special way with the Holy Ghost and Hispower to do his work. And when you read the accounts of his ministrythis becomes obvious. He spoke in such a manner that people cameunder powerful conviction. The preaching of John the Baptist convictedeven Pharisees-that is the surest proof of the power of aministry. But John was well aware of the merely preliminary characterof his ministry and always emphasised that it was but preparatory-'Iam not the Christ,' he says. 'One mightier than 1 cometh, the latchetof whose shoes 1 am not worthy to unloose.' '1 indeed baptise you withwater; ... he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire'(Luke 3:15-17). There was something further to come, somethingaltogether greater.Next we must observe what happened in the case of our LordHimself. This is a point which is very often missed. 1 refer to the wayin which the Holy Ghost descended upon Him as He was coming upout of the river Jordan after John the Baptist had baptised Him. TheSpirit came upon Him in the form of a dove. He Himself explainedafterwards what this meant, when He spoke in the Synagogue in Hishome town of Nazareth as recorded in Luke 4:18 if. 'The Spirit of theLord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospelto the poor ... ' What 1 am concerned to emphasise is that He saysthat what had happened to Him there at Jordan was that He wasanointed by the Spirit to preach this Gospel of salvation, 'to preachthe acceptable year of the Lord'.306