Your old
men shall dream dreams…
Yesterday, on the internet I
heard an old man preach. I was listening
to a series of conference addresses and clicked on the next link. I normally only listen to those addresses,
but for some reason of all the fourteen sessions this one alone had no audio
only available, so I pressed on the button to start the video.
I saw an old man. I have no idea of his age but as he referred
later to being a preacher for seventy years that must sure place him in his mid
to late eighties. He did not look
physically robust and I confess that initially my temptation was to click off
and go on to the other speakers such as Paul Washer, Steve Lawson or Voddie
Baucham, big names that I knew, men in
their prime, men who would have something solid and inspiring to say. Perhaps the old man was only there as a
polite gesture to a senior evangelical figure, “Give him a slot, it will show
how broad we are and non-ageist.”
I did not recognise his name, but
that is probably more due to my Scottish parochialism than his right to be
recognised.
But I did not switch him off – I’m
always uncomfortable with that. I would
never finish a book that I started but did not like, but I think preachers are
different. If I have started to listen,
I usually, with few exceptions, persevere, for even a one talent preacher if he
is faithful to the Word can be used by the Lord to bring blessing. (Besides, we don’t do this for live preaching
- walk out if it is not as celebrated a preacher as we were expecting.)
I’m glad I listened, for despite his
age this was no one talent preacher but a man who had power and passion in his
message. And the message itself had solid and challenging content: faith is no
mere mental assent, but a heart commitment to Christ as Saviour and Lord that
always exhibits its reality in subsequent obedience. I was blessed and challenged.
I happened to be speaking to a
ministerial friend the day before. He was
saddened by the lack of that very power and passion in some preachers, even
some of the younger generation. It is so
easy for preaching to become a pulpit essay or lecture, a presentation of the
truth but without powerful persuasion.
It addresses the mind, but even though there are also words spoken to
the heart it does not really touch the heart.
How can any Reformed evangelical
preach a dull and dreary message? I once heard a respected Reformed Baptist say
of someone’s preaching, “He could not preach his way out of a paper bag.” He
paused and then corrected himself, “No, not even out of a web paper bag!”
Now passion can be shown in
different ways. We have all heard the adage
“Start low, go slow, rise high, strike fire.” I have enjoyed preachers like Lloyd
Jones, Al Martin and John De Witt who exemplified this as their message moved
through “logic on fire” to a crescendo of holy passion. But if there is such a
thing as passionless passion, a passion that is there but exhibited in a
gentle, slow and focussed manner that is almost conversational, then I have
also known powerful preachers who were like that; Dick Lucas comes to
mind. The point is not how we
demonstrate that passion, but the fact that it is there, that you can sense the
preacher totally believes what they are proclaiming and wants you to totally
believe it and act upon it.
If I have half the passion of
that old man when I am his age then I would count it a blessing:
Listen: Richard Owen Roberts,
Session 4
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