Journal: Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal
Volume: RPTJ 05:1 (Fall 2018)
Article: Plain Preaching: Demonstrating the Spirit and His Power
Author: Joel R. Beeke

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RPTJ 5:1 (Fall 2018) p. 7

Plain Preaching: Demonstrating the Spirit and His Power

Joel R. Beeke

President and Professor of Systematic Theology
and Homiletics Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

—1 Corinthians 2:1–5 (KJV)

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

—2 Corinthians 4:1–2 (KJV)

True preaching is God’s brush with which He paints a vivid picture of His Son before the eyes of the soul. By the supernatural grace of the Holy Spirit Christ is not only pictured in the preached word, but also present in the preached word. Spirit-filled, Bible-saturated proclamation brings the hearers into an encounter with Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

The apostle Paul rebuked the Galatian churches, “before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you,” for turning from the truth (Gal. 3:1). The word translated “evidently set forth” (prographō) here means to “write or draw something before the eyes of the public.”1 William Perkins said that in this text we “observe the properties of the ministry of the word”: “The first, that it must be plain, perspicuous, and evident, as if the doctrine were pictured and painted before the eyes of men…. The second property of the ministry of the word is that it must be powerful and lively in operation.”2

Not all preaching is plain and powerful, and Paul knew that well. The apostle set his own preaching in direct contrast to the oratory that commonly entertains this world. On the one hand, the preaching of the apostles exhibited characteristics distinctly fitting to Christ and His ways; on the other, there is preaching that suits this world and its ways. Though the differ...

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