Article – Five Lessons for Preachers from the Prince of Preachers by Tom Ascol. Original source Spurgeon is a rare gift of God to the church. His life and labors stand like Mont Blanc over the post-Apostolic landscape of the Christian church.
At the celebration of his fiftieth birthday sixty-six organizations that Spurgeon oversaw were listed, including an orphanage and Pastors’ College. Coupled with his writing and personal work these other enterprises joined to make him one of the busiest men in London. Yet, in and through it all, Spurgeon was a preacher. He gave himself to that work above all else.
As such, he has much to teach preachers today. Following are five lessons I have learned from Spurgeon.
1. Preach Christ
During a season of sickness the South African Dutch Reformed minister read a volume of Spurgeon’s sermons and was greatly helped by them. He concluded that the secret to their power was their clear emphasis on the person of Christ. “The Lord Jesus was to him such an intense, living reality, he believed so in His nearness and presence and the wonderful love with which he loves us, that the hearer felt that he spoke out of living experience of what he had seen and heard…. In the fullest sense of the word, ‘he ceaseth not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ.’”
This was his constant counsel to the students at his Pastors’ College as well as to his fellow laborers in pastoral ministry. To the former he said, “Preach CHRIST always and evermore. He is the whole Gospel. His person, offices, and works must be our one great, all-comprehending theme.” He admonished the latter, “Give the people Christ, and nothing but Christ. Satiate them, even though some of them should say that you also nauseate them with the gospel” Continue reading