PREACHING THAT LIFTS THE BAR

Greg Haslam

Acts 18:24-28

Introduction: Even those who are normally least interested in athletics or sports competitions can often muster a high degree of engagement and excitement over tense, major events like the Commonwealth Games or the Olympics. Track and Field events are among the most engaging. Who hasn’t sat engrossed as the High Jump reaches its closing stages and the last handful of competitors ‘slug it out’ for that elusive win and possibly a world record. The bar quivers on its supports as the lithe high-jumper barely clears it on his second attempt, and then the marshals raise it yet another centimetre and everyone grimaces anxiously as the wiry, muscular and impossibly springy athletes are force dot raise their game to seemingly impossible heights. Preachers are called to do the same.

It’s remarkable how much progress preachers can make, after their earliest lame and weak efforts when they first started out, sometimes in their teenage years. One such preacher was Apollos. He had lashings of natural talent – a sharp mind, a poetic imagination, an eloquent gift of the gab, a lawyer’s acuity in argument, a clarity of expression, and an engaging style that took others with him. But here in this brief paragraph is a striking summary of how God ‘raised the bar’ on his abilities and effectiveness in a way that challenges us all to ‘aim for gold’ in this ministry and not settle for ‘bronze’ or worse still, remain content to be merely an ‘also ran’.

There are several elements or ingredients I want to highlight here which I believe are essential to any effective preaching or teaching ministry, if our lives and talents are to make any lasting impact on the lives of others who listen to us. They are exemplified in Apollos in a striking way. Possibly this great Bible teacher was named after the Greek god Apollo, witnessing to the cosmopolitan sympathies of his parents, his roots in both Greek culture, and Jewish faith and religion, were sanctified by God in his calling to become a Christian pastor and teacher. Mythological dictionaries list Apollo as the god of ‘youthful masculine beauty’, the god of ‘music and poetry’ and the god of ‘light and purity’. As an additional function, Apollo had powers of healing which he passed on to his son Aesculapius (Asklepios), the god of Medicine. The preacher and teacher is meant to have all of these qualities, and more. And by the grace of God we can have them all – rugged courage, captivating imagination, lucid understanding and  therapeutic power.

A native of Alexandria in Egypt, the second city of the Roman Empire and the capital of Egypt, with a population of 600,000, it was famed for its magnificent library, university, and as the place where the OT had been translated into Greek as the Septuagint, abbreviated LXX. Apollos grew up in an atmosphere of high learning, rhetorical excellence, deep reverence for the Scriptures, and amid astute theological debate within Judaism and lively interaction  and engagement with sophisticated thinkers among his Greek and Roman contemporaries. All of this reflects in some way the climate in which you and I are called to minister in 21st century Britain today. So what is there to lift our game in the features of Apollos’s preaching abilities? Let me try to highlight them for you.

1. You must, like Apollos, INCREASINGLY KEEP GROWING AND KNOW YOUR STUFF

‘He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures’ (v.24b)

Calvin Miller tells of a preacher friend who often mocks the kind of ignorance of those who shun college or seminary training, or as some would say a ‘cemetery eddikashun’, by praying ‘Lord, make me ignoranter and ignoranter for thy glory!’

The need for preachers does not necessarily constitute either the CALL or the necessary PREPARATION. Billy Graham once said that if he the chance to live his life again, he would have spent far more time in preparation for his lifelong ministry of nearly sixty years. Christ spent 30 years preparing for his short but world-changing ministry of just 3 years; most of us think we can spend just 3 years preparing for a ministry that may last 30 years or more! Many contemporary preachers rarely open a book, have little grasp of the intellectual climate in which they live, and preach out of the bottom of an empty barrel, from a slim stock of stale sermons, which they take with them on every fresh move to a new pastorate every 2-3 years. They have ceased growing, or to increase their learning. Settling with the achievement of a Diploma in Theology or a degree they earned over a decade ago, they never became life-long students with a hunger for truth – something a degree is designed to fire and fuel in us, but which has in many cases failed to do so. Sign on G. P.’s desk ‘It’s what you learn after you think you know it all, that really counts’.

The Psychologist Abraham Maslow said there were 4 levels of learning:

1. Unconscious incompetence – you’re ignorant and don’t know it

2. Conscious incompetence – you don’t know and you know you don’t know

3. Conscious competence – you know it and you know that you know it e.g. passing a driving test

4. Unconscious competence – you know it but don’t think about it anymore e.g. driving your car long after you‘ve passed your driving test.

Good preachers have an ‘unconscious competence’. The Greek word used here in v.24 for ‘learned’ is ‘logios’ – ‘skilled in knowledge, fluent in speech’ – that is, ‘he had much to say and he said it well.’ Empty heads are no real advantage in the preaching ministry, indeed they are a significant disadvantage. Those who teach others must first be taught themselves. Wide reading is essential, for it keeps us fresh, vital, and sharpens our thinking, constantly broadening our horizons and perspectives as we do so. Some preachers only read if there’s nothing else better on the TV. It’s often the case of ‘I read through the Bible at least once every 25 years’ or instead of ‘Every Day With Jesus’, its more like ‘Every Other Day With Jesus’!

All too many Christians are ‘running on Empty’. Their fuel gauge is always teetering on ‘red’. Above all therefore, we need to know the Bible. We need to know the ‘big picture’ flow and connection of the whole of the Bible, as well as becoming familiar with each of its 66 books, their contents, messages, theology and contemporary application i.e. the message of the Bible as a whole, as well as all of its separate parts. C H Spurgeon once said of the writings of his great Baptist forbear John Bunyan the writer of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ and ‘The Holy War’ – ‘You an prick him anywhere, and you’ll find that his very blood is bibline – he is always alluding to or quoting some text of scripture or another.’ It shouldn’t be ‘all scream and no cream’!

Of course, some parts of the Bible don’t yield their secrets easily. You can read 4 or 5 chapters of Leviticus and see only lots of blood, fat, gall bladders and kidneys, and know that your Ox hasn’t gored one of your neighbours recently! But I recall the surprise of reading Gordon Wenham’s magnificent commentary on Leviticus in NICOT, and finding it an intellectual, spiritual and devotional experience of the first order. We are to ‘eat this book’ and as we do so, think over it (meditation), commit ourselves to it (swallow it), assimilate it (digest it thoroughly), and get it into our very system (memorize it) so that it may affect our whole lives (apply it). Leaders are readers, and readers are leaders – it is a simple as that.

2. You must, like Apollos, BE THOROUGHLY CONVERTED YOURSELF

‘He had been instructed in the way of the Lord’ (v.25a)

If you are not sure where you are headed, then you are likely to end up some place else. We are to have experienced the dynamic converting and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit ourselves, and to be some considerable distance on the Way, if we are to take others along the Way with us. An unconverted minister, youth leader or Sunday School teacher is no asset to a church or denomination in its ministry of the Gospel. They may, in fact, prove to be a great liability. It is a case of ‘the blind leading the blind’, and you know what our Lord said would be the outcome of that! I would rather drink from a clean running stream than a polluted stagnant pond.

For too long in Britain, all too many churches and denominations have been poorly led and poorly fed by leaders who somewhere and somehow lost the way, as far as strong biblical understanding and experience are concerned. Many preachers don’t have to turn the lights out in order to be in the dark. The lights went out long ago – sometimes in the Seminary or Theological College. Theological Liberalism has for over 150 years been decimating the churches. It’s time we honestly recognised that this fact lies at the root of our deep malaise in so many denominations. Healthy churches are the result of the ministry of healthy leaders, people who are thoroughly acquainted with the power of God’s word, and of God’s Spirit, themselves, and can help others to experience this also.

The world will only follow a man or woman who knows where he or she is going, and who or what they are really following. Paul asked, ‘If the trumpet does not sound a clear call who will get ready for the battle?’ (I Cor. 14:8) God is looking for a full-blown Christ-centred, Cross-centred and Spirit-filled ministry.

3. You must, like Apollos, BE MARKED BY A PASSIONATE ZEAL

‘And he spoke with great fervour’ (v.25b)

Passionless Christianity is a huge presenting problem for British Christianity. The TV personality and broadcaster Noel Edmonds once said ‘Going to church is the dullest and most boring experience on offer in Britain today.’ Who could argue with him if you visited some churches? And yet here is one antidote to that – Apollos had an inner zeal and enthusiasm for both his subject and his work. The term ‘great fervour’ is a translation of the Greek ‘zeon to pneumati’ – ‘with fervour in the Spirit’. It comes from ‘zeo’ – ‘to boil, be on fire, to seethe with steaming and bubbling heat and passion’.

When this is present within us, it can compensate or make up for many other glaring deficiencies within us. It’s absence cannot be ‘covered’ simply by leaning and eloquence or a smart appearance. Such zeal is a vital factor in touching the hearts and minds of men and women. After all, if you aren’t  excited about what you are saying, who else will be? Coggan ‘When true preaching takes place, the main actor is not the preacher, nor the congregation, but the Holy Spirit.’

John Wesley once offered this sound advice: ‘Get on fire for God and men and women will come and watch you burn!’ And Vance Havner gave his considered opinion that, ‘The best way to revive a church is to first light a fire in the pulpit.’ Andrew Blackwood wrote ‘A good sermon should be at least as exciting as a good ball game.’ We can learn from this, for whether the ball game is at Anfield, Chelsea or Arsenal FC, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Association, cricket at the Oval or a hard fought final at the Superbowl with the Chicago Bears – it is only the anticipation of the spectacle of great excitement that draws so many fans and supporters to these ‘ball games’. Why should coming to church, be the only crowd-puller devoid of tension, emotion, suspense, disturbance and the almost unbearable heights and depths of emotion in the presence of our awesome God as life and death issues are spoken of? Surely it should not be?

You don’t need world-wide fame to be on the front line in the body of Christ, just start right where you are now. Get excited in God. Be full of faith for what can happen. Read yourself full, get yourself clear, fire yourself hot and then let yourself go – then see what happens. There need never be a dull moment, ever again!

4. You must, like Apollos, BE TRUE TO THE MESSAGE OF SCRIPTURE

‘…and he taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.’

Apollos didn’t know everything yet, and was not clear on all that had happened to Jesus, but he displayed forthrightness and integrity in connection with what he did know. He resisted any temptation to edit it, tone it down, modify it, ‘adjust’ it to the times, distort it or ‘abridge’ the truth in some way. We don’t want to serve God in the ‘Bible-lite mega-ghettoes of casseroles and softball.‘ (Calvin Miller), instead our sermons are to ‘rip the doors from closeted communities of user-friendly ‘Christians’ who would like to see their church get bigger without any real reference to knowing God.’ (Miller ‘Preaching’ p.17)

How many thoroughly honest preachers do you know?

We all represent a certain ‘stable’. We all have our personal biases or preferences. Our ‘camp’ may be our denomination, our historic tradition, our theological perspective and preference – Arminian, Calvinist, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Liberal, or Post-conservative Post Evangelical. We can tend to read the Bible with heavily tinted spectacles on. If they are pink or yellow, everything we read comes out pink or yellow.

We learn to subtly subtract or add to scripture, and there are some parts of the Bible we would never consider preaching on at all e.g. What Paul had to say about the roles of men and women in I Tim. 2; Romans 1 and its analysis of homosexuality and lesbianism; the ‘gifts of the Spirit’ in I Cor. 12-14, his advice about marriage and parenting in Eph. 5 and 6, his discussion of money and giving in 2 Cor. 8 and 9, or the Second Coming of Christ in I and II Thessalonians (just read Andrew Perriman’s ‘The Coming of the Son of Man’ – NT Eschatology for the Emerging Church 250 pages of extreme ‘Preterism’ – all the future sucked out of it!)

But surely our calling and mandate is to preach ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.?’ And to so as honestly and with as much integrity as we can muster in our handling of the Word of God? ‘Correctly handling the word of God’ is the only way you and I can receive God’s approval and avoid ever feeling ‘ashamed’, according to Paul’s exhortation to Timothy in II Tim. 2:15. And ultimately, it is the only way we can ‘save’ both ourselves and our hearers’ according to a similar command in I Tim. 4:16 – and that means ‘save’ in the full, holistic, body and soul, time and eternity, this life and the next, eschatological sense of that word – bring to complete wholeness and spiritual maturity in Christ. We are not simply to marry ‘the spirit of the age’ or we may well end up a bereaved widower in the next one!

We are to simply let the lion loose’ not keep it caged and safely behind bars! We are to be accurate in our word studies, faithful in our expositions, direct and fearless in our applications, and full of love for God and for the welfare of our hearers in our motivations. This is what God most blesses, even if it often proves to be so much the worse for our traditions and prejudices – let the Word of God shape both, and not the whim of man!

5. You must, as Apollos was, BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS IN SPEECH

‘He began to speak boldly in the sunagogue.’ (v.26a)

The Greek word ‘parresia’ means ‘complete freedom or openness of speech regardless of the consequences’. This was the characteristic of Peter before the Sanhedrin and Stephen before his murderers, and it is the note most missing in most preachers and preaching today. Only the Holy Spirit himself can give it to us, for He is scared of nothing and of no one – and can help us to feel the same way.

This follows from our previous point. To handle the word of God accurately means we will often say unpopular things in unwelcoming places. We need bold courage to be faithful to God who gave us this word, and to men and women who need to hear it. A prophet has been defined as ‘someone who tells both the world and the church what neither of them wish to hear’! Can you look an audience straight in the eyes and speak the truth lovingly to them without fear?

This is crucial.

It is more dangerous to trifle with God and his word than to bare your chest to a freezing blizzard or play with a rattlesnake or run through a blazing bonfire. We must recover the clean fear of the living God and be liberated from the unclean craven fear of man. As someone once said, ‘He who has been intimate with God cannot be intimidated by men’.

6. You must, like Apollos, REMAIN TEACHABLE AND OPEN TO MORE TRUTH AS GOD SHOWS IT TO YOU

‘Aquila and Priscilla… explained to him the word of God more adequately.’ (v.26)

This wonderful couple – Ananias and Sapphira – made up for the gaps in Apollos’ understanding of the Way, and in his theology. They gave private help to a very public preacher whose ministry was still defective in some ways – which preacher’s isn’t! But instead of publicly rebuking him, they privately instructed him, and Apollos adjusted to what they said. And his defects were ironed out.

Have you ever had to change your mind? I have, many times. When the force of new insights and further truth have forced this upon me, I have often been compelled to adjust my previous opinions on those matters. Sometimes, at great personal cost to my name or reputation. Some adjustments were to do with ‘Eschatology’, some with ‘Ecclesiology’, still others new insights I received into ‘Soteriology’ or later ‘Pneumatology’. The Bible is like an injection mould for hot plastic or molten alloy – it will not adjust to us, but instead, we must adjust to it.

So as Paul says, ‘Don’t be conformed  to this world ( or ‘let the world squeeze you into its mould’, JBP), but rather be transformed by the REMOVAL of your minds’ !? No.’…be transformed by the RENEWAL of your minds.’ (Rom.12:1-2)

However accomplished we are now, we can always become better; however much we think we know now, we can always learn more that is of value to us and our hearers. So many preachers simply stagnate. They plateau and cease growing. Be open and remain teachable. Keep climbing. Learn from the past and discover the value of ‘old books’ as C S Lewis advocated. He once advised, for every new book you read, read an old one. In controversial issues we are to give a franchise to the dead. Twenty centuries of church history cannot be all wrong!

Keep listening. Keep growing. Stretch yourself. Attend conferences, devour books, listen to recorded materials – become more and more both a ‘book worm’ and a ‘tape worm’!

These then, are six directives to help raise the bar on our preaching. Erasmus once said, ‘If it is possible to train elephants to dance, lions to play and leopards to hunt, it should be possible to teach preachers to preach.’ And thankfully, this passage in Acts also outlines for us what may well be the likely results in our lives if we take this model of Apollos seriously.

1. Increasing and new spheres of service are likely to open up for you (v.27) – ‘Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him…’

I believe that only God is the opener of doors in our lives, and that he often both shuts doors men hold open, but can also open doors that men think they have shut to us.

God will enlarge our usefulness, influence and impact, if we are faithful (Luke 16:9-10). And ‘promotion comes neither from the East or the West or from the North or the South, but from the Lord.’ Apollos became a key man in the region of Achaia and particularly in the burgeoning but trouble d church at Corinth. Paul was so grateful for his ministry and the way it complemented his won there – ‘I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but it was God who gave the increase’ (I Cor.3:6) God has no other field for a man who is not faithfully doing God’s work where he is.

2. You will be more and more effective in edifying believers in the church (v.27b) – ‘On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed.’

Preaching does more than make teaching interesting. Preaching exists to create the Kingdom. When it’s done properly, things always happen! Preaching doesn’t just keep us out of trouble for 30-40 minutes or so, preaching has work to do – GREAT work to do! Preaching is rescue work. Preaching is visceral and gripping. Preaching demands a verdict. Preaching changes the world back to what it was meant to be. Let’s not only preach ‘The Sermon on the Mount’, let’s preach ‘The Sermon off the Mount’ – right where they live Teaching biblical truth is one of the best ways to cause Christians to mature in knowledge and experience and to grow the churches they are all a part of. The church experiences quantitative and qualitative growth – it gets bigger and it gets better!

As pastors, we usually get what we preach for in church life. Christians can expand in knowledge, godly character, and in practical ministry and usefulness if we equip them well for their ministry to the Lord and his people.

3. You will be able to defend the truth and refute the errors of competing worldviews and rival opinions (v.28a) – ‘For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate…’

We only get our people for an hour or two at church a week, and television gets them for thirty hours a week. They are being secularized at a rapid rate, and it is hard to detoxify them But preaching can really help to do it. Error needs correcting. Truth is the high-voltage nerve-centre of our faith – let it loose!

We need to be more able to silence critics, confute empty-headed and bleak philosophies, expose ignorance, answer inquiries, and remove stumbling blocks to faith. This is the aspect of public dialogue and instruction we call ‘Apologetics’, and it is still a vital aspect of our work today. Apologetics has been defined as ‘…the vindication of the truth of the Christian philosophy of life over against the various forms of non-Christian worldview and philosophy that stand opposed to it.’ And it is very important we do so.

What is our response to rampant secularism, relativism, pluralism, post-modernism, militant Islam, and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ – to name but a few! Apologetics has profound effects on removing the obstacles we face in bringing people to faith. It helps the church to resist being compromised or assimilated by the dangerous errors of an alien world. It saves us from repeating some of the errors made by previous generations. It bears a direct relationship to the depth and quality of our preaching. It offers the world a more credible account of our belief and world view. It ultimately governs how we behave and act. And anyway, the NT models and demands this activity everywhere.

4. You will be able to bring honour to Christ and lead others to faith in Him (v. 28b) – ‘…proving from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.’

A bumper sticker says ‘I’m having a better time since I’ve given up all hope.’! How we feel about Jesus, is exactly how our people will come to feel too. Nothing will cement their lives to yours, as a passionate preacher, so much as ‘bragging on Jesus’! (Gal. 2:14) Preaching has been defined by John Ruskin as, ‘Thirty minutes to raise the dead!’

© GREG HASLAM

Author Profile

Greg Haslam

Greg Haslam was born and raised in Liverpool.  He is married to Ruth and they have three grown-up sons.  James is a Senior House Officer in Anaesthetics in London (he and his wife Emily also have two daughters).  Andrew is now married to Sie Yan and has finished his MA in Theology and is now on Staff at Westminster Chapel as the 20's Pastor.  Joshua has recently graduated from University College London after studying Philosophy and Economics.

Greg studied Theology and History at Durham University.  After teaching high school he trained for the ministry at the London Theological Seminary before moving to Winchester where he pastored for 21 years until his call to Westminster Chapel, London in March 2002.
 
Greg has travelled widely as a preacher and conference speaker, both in UK and overseas.  He believes strongly in the recovery of strong healthy churches, characterised by a strong and vigorous God-centred focus. This is manifested primarily in a renewed confidence in God’s Word, and a conscious engagement with His Spirit. Such churches bring hope to the world!

He is the author of many articles and six books.  The latest include ‘Preach the Word!’ (Sovereign World), ‘A Radical Encounter with God’ (New Wine Press) ‘Moving in the Prophetic’ (Monarch Books) and ‘The Man Who Man Wrestled With God’ (New Wine Press).  He has also contributed to the recently published Should Christians Embrace Evolution? (IVP).

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