PREACHING-AUTHORITY
The source of
my authority in this pulpit is not...my wisdom; nor is it a private revelation
granted to me beyond the revelation of Scripture. My words have authority only insofar as they
are the repetition, unfolding and proper application of the words of
Scripture. I have authority only when I
stand under authority. And our corporate
symbol of that truth is the sound of your Bibles opening to the text. My deep conviction about preaching is that a
pastor must show the people that what he is saying was already said or implied
in the Bible. If it cannot be shown it
has no special authority.
The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God, 1 Corinthians
2:1--5, July 13, 1980. www.desiringGod.org, Used by Permission.
[If]
preachers wish to preach with divine authority, they must proclaim this message
of the inspired Scriptures, for the Scriptures alone have divine authority. If
preachers wish to preach with divine authority, they must submit themselves and
echo the Word of God. Preachers are literally to be ministers of the Word.
Sidney Greidanus
Jesus must
have been amazing preacher, because the Scripture tells us that when He
preached people were amazed, which would make Him an amazing preacher. But what was the source of their
amazement? He taught as one who had
authority, not like the scribes and Pharisees.
It is to be feared that we have far too many scribes and Pharisees in
pulpits today. They do not preach with
authority and the people are not amazed - amused, perhaps, but not amazed.
Don Kistler
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 218.
Jesus
preached with authority. Why? Because He had authority! And the preachers of old preached with
authority. They preached, “Thus saith the Lord.” We
have lost that today, I’m afraid. Our preaching reflects it and the lives of
our people reflect it well. They live as if the pastor had no authority, as if
the elders had no authority, and, even more appalling, as if the Word of God
itself had no authority. We have returned to the place of the church in the Old
Testament where “every man did what was right in his own eyes.” It is true
today; every man thinks what is right in his own mind, regardless of what
Scripture or sound exegesis may say otherwise.
Don Kistler
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 219.
We can preach
with authority because Christ has given us that authority. Did He not say, “All authority has been given
to Me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” It wasn’t “teaching them to observe all that
I have suggested to you,” but “all that I have commanded you!”
Don Kistler
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 222.
When the
faithful minister is properly exegeting the Word of
God, it is God Himself who is speaking to His people! Failure to hear the faithful minister is a
failure to hear God Himself! Isn’t that
exactly what Jesus told His disciples?
“If they won’t listen to you, they won’t listen to Me!” That is why we are not to let anyone
disregard us (Titus 2:15), because that would mean that we are letting them
disregard Christ!
Don Kistler
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 223.
If preachers
insist on competing with psychiatrists as counselors, with physicians as
healers, with politicians as statesmen and with philosophers as speculators,
then these specialists have every right to tell them how to preach. If a minister’s message is not based on “Thus
saith the Lord,” then as a sermon it is good for
nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of the specialists in the
department with which it deals.
John Gerstner
The speaker’s
authority does not derive from himself; it derives from the Word. It’s tied to
his faithful presentation of it.
Jonathan Leeman
Reverberation,
Moody Publishers, 2011, p. 119.
There is only
one authority that is the preacher’s authority, and there is only one authority
that undergirds and justifies his teaching ministry, and that is the authority
of the Word of God. This Word is
inerrant, infallible, authoritative, and trustworthy. It is that Word, and that Word alone, that is
our authority; and it is not only the foundation, but the substance, the
content of our teaching and preaching.
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 28.
Can a
self-called man preach with the same authority as a God-called preacher? Can a man whose confidence in the Holy
Scriptures is shaken by personal doubts preach with the authority of the man
whose whole heart, soul and mind are dominated by
conviction concerning the absolute accuracy of the Bible? Can a man whose own conscience rises up in
condemnation of him for some secret sin in his life preach with the same
authority as the man whose conscience condemns him not (I John 3:21-22)?
Richard Owen Roberts
Preaching that Hinders Revival,
Revival Commentary, v. 2, n. 2.
The business
of the preacher is to stick to the passage chosen and to set forth exclusively
what it has to say or suggest, so that the ideas expressed and the principles
enunciated during the course of the sermon plainly come out of the written Word
of God, and have its authority for their support rather than just the opinion
or the enthusiasm of their human expositor.
Alan M. Stibbs
Expounding God's Word, Inter-Varsity Press,
1960, p. 17.
If Jesus, the
sinless and perfect Son of God, limited Himself to speaking nothing during His
incarnation except the truth He received from His Father, how much more should
those who have been called into ministry speak only on the authority of divine
Scripture.
John MacArthur
Titus, Moody, 1996, p. 127.
In our own
day, there is no shortage of preachers who are willing to oblige such
self-centered hearers. By and large, the most popular preaching is
broad-minded, anecdotal, entertaining, ego-building, and, above-all, never
confrontational or dogmatic. It offends no pride, disturbs no conscious, and is
a clear reflection of the humanistic spirit of the age, in which tolerance and
unity at any cost are the supreme virtues.
John MacArthur
Titus, 1996, Moody, p. 130.
The preacher
must put himself out of the way and let God's Word speak through him
unhindered. No matter what his training,
experience, or personal abilities, he has spiritual authority only to the
extent that what he says conforms to God's Word. But as with Jesus' own teaching, when a
minister of God does faithfully proclaim that Word, those who reject his teaching
reject God's truth and are as much accountable for their rejection as if the
Lord had spoken the truth with His own lips.
It is in that way, and only in that way, that a pastor is able to speak
with spiritual authority. It is also in
that way that he is commanded to speak with spiritual authority.
John MacArthur
Titus, Moody, 1996, p. 128.
The authority
of the pastor is derived and declarative. In other words, the pastor has
authority only insofar as what he is saying is faithful to the Message of the
One who has sent him.
Mark Dever and Paul
Alexander
Decision
Making: How to Talk About It, taken from The Deliberate Church, © 2005,
Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p.
191, www.crosswaybooks.org.
You
are not your own; you are a man under orders.
And the One who has drafted you and signed your orders expects that you
carry them out in a manner worthy of Him, and in such a way that His authority
and His kingdom cannot be ignored. Now
go, labor, work, and do your duty well knowing that it is the greatest
privilege under heaven to be in the personal service of the Almighty.
David W. Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus
Publications, 1999, p. 48.
Knowing that
he has been drafted, fitted for ministry, entrusted with a message, and sent
out in the name of the Lord, the minister ought to demonstrate the proper
authority in his every action. It is not
a proud or arrogant authority, nor a tyranny, nor a selfish domination; all of
these would be a singular affront to the One whose commission forms the basis
of his ministry. Rather, it is an
authority that is displayed in adoration of the Lord, humility before the Lord,
boldness for the Lord, and absolute loyalty to the Lord and His truth
David Hegg
Appointed to Preach, Mentor, 1999.
p. 48.