GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 13:11
When the Spirit Speaks
A television news program recently carried a report about a person testifying before a congressional committee. The witness read from pages lying on the table before her; she came to the meeting prepared.
On July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached to a congregation in Enfield, Connecticut. One writer notes that Edwards stood before the congregation with one elbow on the pulpit, held the transcript of his sermon in the other hand, and read “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Historians report that Edwards’ description of sinners suffering everlasting torment in the fires of hell under the judgment of God ignited the First Great Awakening in the eighteenth century. Edwards wrote and edited his sermon, which is still in print today.
When Jesus told his disciples what lay ahead for them, he said, “And when they arrest you, handing you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you will say, but whatever is given to you in that hour, this speak, for you are not the one speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 13:11) Jesus was not advocating what is sometimes referred to as “extemporaneous speaking” or “extemporaneous preaching.” As the writer R.T. France put it, “The promise… is for hard-pressed disciples on trial, not for lazy preachers!”
Speaking to a group of ministers, a pastor recounted being asked to give a five-minute talk at a meeting. He said he worked for two weeks on the presentation. On the other hand, when Polycarp (ca. 69-155 A.D.), the bishop of Smyrna, was on trial for his life before the Roman governor for refusing to offer incense to the Roman emperor, and without time to prepare, relying on the help of the Holy Spirit, he said, “Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me not wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? You threaten me with fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched, but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked.”
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