The Heart of a Deep Preacher

In the age of Instagram, social media, tweets, and personal online platforms, it seems as if the internet holds great power and influence over people’s mindsets. Churches also use media as a way to maximize their influence. Satellite churches have become increasingly common, where fewer preachers may be needed because the church can simply broadcast the message from one main speaker to many different locations.

In a time when our generation experiences more good speakers than deep preachers, the internet and technology seem to be doing much of the work. Good communicators are thriving as they deliver secular ideologies and messages that shape culture. Christians often have a hard time telling whether a person is simply a good communicator or truly a good preacher of God’s Word, partly because deep preachers seem to be rare.

It is amazing to look back at the records from the eighteenth century. According to J. Kent Edwards book, Deep Preaching, during this time, England was in a state of poverty, moral decay, and chaos in the early part of the eighteenth century. Yet there was one man who, without the effects of mass media, traveled from place to place on horseback for field preaching. His name was John Wesley.

According to J. Kent Edwards in his book Deep Preaching, Wesley “is estimated to have journeyed more than 200,000 miles on horseback in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and to have preached some 42,000 sermons.” Wesley had a great impact on England and eventually on the rest of the world. Through his deep preaching and discipleship groups, he brought both spiritual awakening and social reform to the lower and middle classes in England.

Yet Wesley’s influence did not come merely from the number of sermons he preached or the miles he traveled. What gave depth to his preaching was that his own heart had first been touched by the Word of God. He was not simply preaching a truth he had studied; he was preaching a truth that had pierced him, warmed him, and transformed him.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Wesley was someone who had encountered the piercing Word of God, and his preaching carried that same piercing power. Through his ministry, God helped transform eighteenth-century English society.

This week, I had a chance to read Deep Preaching by J. Kent Edwards. The book describes a deep preacher as someone whose heart has been warmed by God’s heart and love. A deep preacher preaches God’s Word from the depth of the heart, not just from the mind. Edwards writes that “the temperature of the preacher’s heart will determine the temperature of their messages.”

A deep preacher is like Wesley, whose heart had been touched by the love and power of God. If Wesley’s heart had never been touched by the transformative power of God’s Word, I do not believe he would have made the great societal impact that he did.

Before Wesley encountered the power of God’s Word in a deeper way, he described in his journal that his heart was cold, dull, and indifferent. However, he also wrote about the well-known moment when, while listening to Luther’s preface to Romans, his heart was suddenly “strangely warmed” by the Word of God.

I love the story of John Wesley. He reminds us of every believer who wants to serve the Lord and carry His message to the nations. We want to save others, but in the end, we discover that we are the ones who still need His saving grace to continue working in our own hearts. We want to give the world a message to hear, but God first invites us to examine the condition of our hearts.

From Wesley’s story, I have learned that the world does not need more communicators whose hearts have not been transformed. When a person’s heart has been transformed by the power of God in His Word, God can use that person as a deep preacher to reach a generation.

Our generation needs to experience the transformative power of the Word of God. Martin Luther once said, “Unless the Word is preached publicly, it slips away. The more it is preached, the more firmly it is retained. Reading it is not as profitable as hearing it, for the live voice teaches, exhorts, defends, and resists the spirit of error. Satan … flees at the speaking of the Word.”

We do not need more good communicators. We need preachers who carry the power of the Word—the Word that pierces the soul and spirit, discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and awakens a generation to God.

References

Benge, Janet, and Geoff Benge. John Wesley: The World, His Parish. Christian Heroes: Then & Now. YWAM Publishing, 2007. Kindle edition.

Edwards, J. Kent. Deep Preaching: Creating Sermons That Go Beyond the Superficial. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2009.

Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works. Quoted in J. Kent Edwards, Deep Preaching: Creating Sermons That Go Beyond the Superficial. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2009.