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The Pentecostal Pulpit of the 21st Century

Pentecostal preaching is not about sermons; it’s about communicating. God’s Word to people in order to inform and change them.

By George O. Wood

We already know what the Pentecostal pulpit of the 21st century looks like, and I’m not talking about whether it’s wood, Plexiglas, a simple lectern, or an ornate work of art. It’s the same pulpit photographed in Acts 2:14-41–the model for all Pentecostal preaching.

The Pentecostal pulpit is built from the materials of preparation, proclamation, and provocation.

PREPARATION–ACTS 2:1

God makes the person before He makes the sermon. The preparation of the preacher takes far longer than the preparation of the sermon. Look at the four stages in Peter’s preparation preceding the sermon that launched the Church.

1. “Then Peter stood up…”1 He had not always done so, neither have you. In the Gospels we find Peter in all sorts of predicaments: sinking (Matthew 14:30), second-guessing (Mark 8:32), sleeping (Mark 14:37), slashing out (John 18:10), slinking away (Mark 14:50) and swearing (Mark 14:71). Would he ever become the “rock” Christ called him to be? (Matthew 16:18).

As He did with Peter, Jesus is at work pulling us to stand up. Before God makes the message, He makes the man or woman.

Peter’s comeback is kin to the story from the 1929 Rose Bowl when Roy Riegels snatched up a fumbled ball in the first half, wheeled about, and ran 75 yards for his own goal line. His teammate finally tackled him 1 foot short of the opposite goal. Riegels was too crestfallen for words.

What strikes me about the story is not the long wrong-way run, but Riegels’ coach started Roy Riegels in the second half. It is reported that Riegels sat in a corner of the locker room, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby. Coach Price came over to him, put his hands on Riegels’ shoulders, and said, “Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over.”

How often the failure of Peter and Riegels describes us. We take the ball and run in the wrong direction. We stumble and fall and are so ashamed of ourselves that we never want to try again. But God comes to us, bends over us, and in the person of Jesus says, “Get up. Go on back. The game is only half over.”

That is the gospel of God’s grace. He uses unworthy people.

Behind every sermon is the life of the preacher. Our messages are fashioned out of the matrix of our own life in Christ. There is no Pentecostal pulpit unless there is first a Pentecostal person to fill it. Our sermons will never be more full of the Spirit than our lives. And we will never stand up unless Jesus pulls us up, unless we also tarry and receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Peter does not stand up to preach out of an empty relationship with God. He’s emerged from 40 thrilling days of meeting the Risen Jesus, 10 days of praying, and a few hours of being overwhelmed in the Spirit. Would that all of us would stand up to preach fresh from such encounters with the living God!

2. “with the Eleven…” Why not stand up by himself? Because the content of his sermon did not contain doctrine unique to himself. All the apostles could have preached the same sermon. In our quest for individualism and distinctive styles, we preachers may neglect the basic themes of the Christian faith and go off on personal revelation side trails.

A well-intentioned fellow pastor once asked me, “What’s the Lord been saying to you lately?” I answered mischievously, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.… Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37,39).

Now there’s nothing wrong with a desire to be fresh in our preaching or to have a distinctive personal style. Let’s just make sure that we keep our content based on the main things and the plain things of Scripture (cf. 2 Peter 1:20,21).

3. “raised his voice…” Pentecostal preachers do that! For Peter, it was a practical matter that required him to speak loudly to be heard by a crowd of thousands. But the raising of the preacher’s voice also represents passion. Pentecostal preachers need to be careful, however, not to confuse tone of voice with anointing. Early Assemblies of God minister Burt McCafferty understood this when he gave “A Few Hints to Preachers” in 1917:

“Do not get excited too soon.… Do not bawl and scream. Too much water stops mill wheels, and too much noise drowns sense. If you have lightning, you can afford to thunder; but do not try to thunder out of an empty cloud.”2

Great advice for 1917 or 1998!

4. “and addressed the crowd.” Peter connected with his audience.

The audience was concerned about the behavior of the 120. So Peter began with what they were interested in, continued with what they needed to know and do, and ended with a decisive call for commitment. Pentecostal preaching is not about sermons; it’s about communicating God’s Word to people in order to inform and change them.

How about you? Do the children and youth in your congregation love to hear you preach? Are you using language and stories that reach them while touching the adults as well? It’s so vital that we desire to preach to our audience rather than simply getting a sermon ready and delivering it (cf. Acts 10:33; Romans 1:11).

PROCLAMATION–ACTS 2:14-35

Francis of Assisi said, “Preach Jesus at all times, and whenever necessary use words.” How we live provides credibility to what we preach. But example alone is not sufficient to communicate clearly all God’s truth. On the Day of Pentecost the apostles brimmed with the experience of the fullness of the Spirit, but the impact on others came as a result of Peter’s sermon. Here’s what we learn from him in regard to Pentecostal proclamation.

Pentecostal proclamation flows out from our own experience with Christ. As the first Pentecostal preacher, Peter began with the experience of the 120: “These men are not drunk as you suppose” (verse 15).

Pentecostals have often been accused of basing theology and preaching on their own experience. That’s not a completely bad indictment. Better to have an experience with God than to lack one. The late English Methodist preacher and author W.E. Sangster once delivered a sermon entitled “Drunk and Mad” based on Acts 2:15; 26:25. Sangster said:

“Consider the record of history. Whenever this fount of living water breaks fresh from the rock, it bestows this glad exuberance. The first Christians were accused of being drunk. The first Franciscans had to be reproved for laughing in church because they were so happy.… The first Methodists stole some of their hymn tunes from operas and set the songs of Zion to dance music. The first Salvationists jumped with joy.…

“It is so easy to hear these stories and feel rather superior. It is not a bit hard to purse the lips and think, if not to say, that exuberance and devotion cannot belong together. They can. Church history is witness. It is when the fires in the individual heart, or in the denomination, are dying down that convention frowns on exuberance, and an air of superiority is affected towards those who cannot restrain the primitive joy.”

Let’s come to the pulpit fresh from an experience with God!

The Church promises joy, peace, love, but is this what people find? Author Jess Moody noted that it’s not the slogans we use nor the name on the church door that sells; it’s the product which determines peoples’ response.3 It’s not the name Pentecost that makes the Pentecostal or the Pentecostal sermon; it’s the reality in the experience that lies behind the name.

Pentecostal proclamation has a sense that this is God’s hour and that God’s day is coming. Peter explained Spirit baptism from the Word, quoting Joel extensively to establish urgency in all Pentecostal preaching: time is short because the Day of the Lord is coming, and this is the hour of the Holy Spirit’s visitation.

Peter preached, as did Joel, truths beyond his own ability to apprehend. He could not have realized that the last days have now stretched onward 20 centuries. We know now that the Pentecostal outpouring was the a.m. of the last days, and the “sun to darkness and the moon to blood” is the p.m. (cf. Acts 2:20). But do we feel the same urgency as did Peter: “God is pouring out His Spirit upon us right now, and He’s about to wrap things up!”

In the present moment, sons and daughters are prophesying; young men are seeing visions; and old men are dreaming dreams. A Pentecostal church will never be speechless, visionless, or dreamless. These are the last days; they are the only days we have. We always live at the end of time. As preachers, do we have a sense that it’s business as usual or that this is God’s hour? Pentecostal preachers must get into the heart of the matter that this is the hour of God’s visitation in their lives, their homes, their churches, their towns.

Pentecostal proclamation is founded upon God’s written Word.

Peter’s sermon is full of Scripture. He explained Pentecost from Joel 2:28-32. He quoted Psalms 16:8-11; 110:1; 132:11 to establish how God fulfilled His promises in raising Jesus from the dead.

No sermon should be preached that is not full of the Bible. When our preaching is powerless and pointless, it’s because we’re not immersed and impregnated by the inspired Word itself.

In a recent large charismatic meeting, the speaker repeatedly told the audience not to question but to accept. Such an approach is not Pentecostal. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter appealed to Scripture to validate the experience of the 120, then again to Scripture to validate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. If we cannot accept Jesus’ work without finding it based on the written Word, how much more should we not accept anything that is not written? The Lord himself resisted the evil one by saying, “It is written.”

The Azusa Street revival unabashedly proclaimed that the sure plumb line of truth was God’s revealed and written Word. Elder Seymour stated: “We are measuring everything by the Word; every experience must measure up with the Bible.” 4

I want to also caution that we must be careful in this hour that we are not worship rich and Word poor. Pentecostal worship is wonderful, but the Holy Spirit never intended it to displace the proclamation of the Word. Preach the Word!

Pentecostal proclamation is centered on Jesus.

Jesus is the heart of Peter’s Pentecost sermon. The bulk of his sermon focused on the Living Word (Acts 2:22-35). Jesus’ life and death (verses 22,23). Peter was unafraid to confront: “You, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” If the gospel is going to be truly preached, it must be preached with truth. We have to risk offending someone. The Holy Spirit is out to reverse the unjust verdict against Jesus.

But confrontation must be tempered by the grace of God: “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.” The Cross belongs to the eternal plan of God. It was not an emergency measure flung out by God when everything else failed. He did not intervene in the Crucifixion, nor prevent the Cross. He wondrously reversed the unjust verdict of men. The Cross is part of the very life of God. My sin required the death of Jesus. I cannot come before a holy God on my own merit.

This message flies in the face of contemporary culture. It is not politically correct. All roads do not lead to God. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (verses 24-32). Based on the historical fact of the Resurrection, Jesus is someone we meet, know, and experience. He is not a figure in a book who lived and died. The last thing you read about any mortal is, “He died.” Not so with Jesus. He died and now lives!

When the disciples preached the centrality of the Resurrection, they argued from experience and validated that experience by Scripture. After the Cross they were broken and bewildered, dreams gone and lives shattered. “We had hoped” said the Emmaus two (Luke 24:21). The Cross had slain their hope but not their love. The Resurrection changed everything.

Pentecostal preachers want to shout, and the shout has content! Don’t you want to shout? He’s risen! He’s alive! Jesus’ exaltation (verses 33-35). Peter tied Jesus’ ministry in heaven with what is now happening on earth. He is the One responsible for what is going on in His church. He is the One pouring out the promised Spirit that He received from His Father.

This pouring out was not a one-time downpour. The literal text of Acts 2:1 says, “And in the filling up of the day of Pentecost.” Pentecost, as a day, refers to the entire period of time from the birth of the Church until the Second Coming. The Day of Pentecost is, therefore, a synonym for the last days. The Day of Pentecost is still filling up because the Spirit in the last days is still being poured out.

And while the Spirit is being poured out on earth, the Lord Jesus has taken His seat in heaven, waiting for the last enemy to be put under His feet.

Let’s preach these great truths about Jesus.

PROVOCATION–ACTS 2:36-41

Provocation means to call forth, to arouse a feeling or an action. The Pentecostal pulpit searches for a response. That’s why we have altar calls.

Preaching can warm the heart and inform the mind, but it must appeal to the will or it falls short of its purpose. It’s never enough to only sway emotion or satisfy intellectual curiosity.

Peter drew his sermon to a close with: “Therefore [every sermon should be blessed by having a therefore] let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (verse 36). Peter passed from explanation to application.

Preaching that presents the lordship of Jesus Christ produces conviction. Numerous times through Acts, the reaction to apostolic preaching was to cry out. Have we lost that response to our preaching? Have we succumbed to a cold and benumbing spirit of boredom, decorum, tedium, and lifelessness?

A sermon that generates applause is a sermon that has convicted no one. Applause says, “I already agree with you”; rather than, “I need to change, to repent.” The crowd at the first Pentecostal sermon did not applaud the preacher, for they were concerned about themselves. They were not pleased; they were pierced. They were not gratified; they were convicted: “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ ” (verse 37).

Pentecostal experience may draw a crowd–a crowd who will be amazed, perplexed, or mocking (cf. verses 12,13)–but Pentecostal preaching makes people cry out to be saved, to be changed. Pentecostal preaching, in the unction and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, “cuts to the heart.” This phrase is used in the New Testament only in verse 37. It is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament passage of Genesis 34:7 when the sons of Jacob discovered their sister Dinah had been raped by Shechem: “They were cut to the heart.” Literally the word means to give a sharp pain associated with anxiety or remorse.

Peter the preacher must have had something to do with the effect. He had just received the Holy Spirit. An inspired doctrine demands an inspired ministry.

The Pentecostal pulpit has a clear answer for what people should do when they are cut to the heart:

• “Repent.” Take responsibility. Quit the blame game. Change your mind.
• “Be baptized in the name of Jesus.” The forgiveness of sins comes with inner and outer obedience, a readiness to publicly identify with the Lord.
• “You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Why? Because God promised. He doesn’t intend believers who weren’t in the original 120 to be second-class citizens.

The first Pentecostal sermon contained an extended altar call: “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation’ ” (verse 40). The King James Version more accurately says “crooked generation.” The Greek word for crooked is skolias meaning to be out of the right path or bent. When a generation is being branded as crooked, it does not mean that everything in it is crooked or that every person is a crook. What it means is that the direction of the generation is crooked, and as a whole it is moving toward death and not life. Its morals, ethics, and beliefs do not line up straight with God’s ways (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9,10).

A modern congregation would expect to hear: “Save this crooked generation.” But the apostolic appeal is: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” Picture a house on fire and someone desperately looking out the second-floor window for rescue. The house is too far gone. It cannot be saved. Don’t waste time trying to save the house. Tell the person to get out, jump into the safety of Christ, and let the old life go.

The Church should be encouraged to be salt and light on society, but we should spend our primary energy getting people out of the burning house.

The altar call was one in which Peter “warned and pleaded.” We may have a mental picture of 3,000 people immediately stepping forward; rather, we should see people as coming in waves. Some began, others started coming, then others, and finally, when the altar call was finished many minutes later, 3,000 had responded.

There’s no telling the long-range implications of one Spirit-filled sermon. Did the church at Rome owe its very origin to this altar call? (note the “visitors from Rome,” verse 10). How can you ever gauge the impact for time and eternity of just one Spirit-anointed sermon?

CONCLUSION

What shall we say then about the Pentecostal pulpit of the 21st century? There will be no Pentecostal pulpit in the 21st century without the same preparation, proclamation, and provocation that marked the pulpit of the first century.

There will be no Pentecostal pulpit:

• if there is no Pentecost,
• if there is not a Pentecostal person in the pulpit,
• unless its message is based on God’s written Word,
• unless its message is centered on Jesus as Lord and Christ,
• unless opportunity is given for people to respond to the message preached.

But if Jesus tarries, there is going to be a Pentecostal pulpit in the 21st century. We know that because He has promised, “I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17, KJV). The choice is ours as to whether we want our own flesh included in that fulfillment.

George O. Wood is the Assemblies of God general secretary, Springfield, Missouri.

ENDNOTES

1. Except where noted, Scripture quotations are from the New International Version.
2. Burt McCafferty, “A Few Hints to Preachers,” The Weekly Evangel, 27 January 1917 (predecessor to the Pentecostal Evangel).
3. Jess Moody, A Drink at Joel’s Place (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1967), 22.
4. Taken from the September 1907 issue of The Apostolic Faith.