“What then is preaching?...There is a man standing in the pulpit and speaking, and there, are people sitting in the pews or seats listening. What is happening?...Why does the man stand in that pulpit? What is his object? Why does the church put him there to do this? Why do these people come to listen?...What is this man doing there?....Any true definition of preaching must say that that man is there to deliver the message of God, a message from God to those people...he is ‘an ambassador for Christ.’ That is what he is. He has been sent, he is a commissioned person, and he is standing there as the mouthpiece of God and of Christ to address these people. In other words he is not merely there to talk to them, he is not there to entertain them. He is there to do something to those people; he is there to produce results of various kinds, he is there to influence people. He is not merely to influence a part of them; he is not only to influence their minds, or only their emotions, or merely to bring pressure to bear upon their wills and to induce them to some kind of activity. He is there to deal with the whole person; and his preaching is meant to affect the whole person at the center of life. Preaching should make such a difference to a man who is listening that he is never the same again....Preaching is that which deals with the total person, the hearer becomes involved and knows that he has been dealt wiith and addressed by God through this preacher. Something has taken place in him and in his experience, and it is going to affect the whole of his life.”
Martin Lloyd-Jones, "Preaching and Preachers"
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