Preaching and Preachers

Preaching and PreachersTestament, you get exactly the same thing. He tells these chosen menthat they are primarily to be 'witnesses unto Me'. That is to be theirfirst great task. He is going to give them other powers, but their mainbusiness is to be witnesses unto Him. And it is therefore interesting toobserve that immediately these men are filled with the Holy Spirit onthe Day of Pentecost they begin to preach. Peter preaches and expoundsand explains the Truth to the people at Jerusalem. What isthis phenomenon that had just happened and had produced such achange in the disciples? That question can only be answered bypreaching; so you get the sermon recorded in the latter portion of thesecond chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.And when you go to the third chapter of Acts you find the samething again. Peter and John heal this man at the Beautiful Gate of theTemple, and that creates excitement and interest. The people thinkthese are miracle workers and that they are going to get great benefitsout of them; but Peter again preaches and corrects them, and immediatelydraws their attention, as it were, from the miracle that he.andJohn had just worked to the great truth concerning Christ and Hissalvation, which is so infinitely more important. The Apostles alwaysbring out this emphasis.And again in the fourth chapter of Acts-lam taking this in detailbecause this is the origin of the Church, this was what she actuallydid at the beginning. She was commissioned, sent out to preach andteach, and this is the thing that she proceeded to do. 'They spoke withboldness'. What the authorities were anxious to do above everythingelse was to stop these men teaching and preaching. They alwayscriticise that much more than they do the miracles; it was the preachingand the teaching in this 'Name' that annoyed them. And the replyof the Apostles is, 'We cannot but speak of the things which we haveseen and heard'. This was the thing that made them speak, they couldnot help themselves; they were conscious of the great constraint thatwas upon them.But, and in many ways the most interesting statement of all, Isometimes think in this connection, is one that is found in the sixth22