Acts 21:40 – When he had given his permission to do so, Paul stood on the steps and made a gesture with his hand to the people. When a great silence had fallen, he spoke to them in the Hebrew tongue.

True New Testament preaching is more than eloquence or disseminating good information, it is the display of the power of God. Paul often said that his preaching was not just in words of wisdom but the very demonstration of the power of God. Today’s verse comes from an amazing scene at Paul’s arrest at the temple in Jerusalem. Paul was falsely accused of bringing a gentile into an area of the temple which was totally forbidden. There was a violent tumult that resulted. Paul’s authority and power, rather the authority and power of God, was on full display as Paul quieted the crowd and began to proclaim his testimony. Here is how Barclay describes this scene.

“The (Roman) captain was amazed to hear a cultured Greek accent coming from this man whom the crowd were out to lynch. Somewhere about AD 54, an Egyptian had led a band of desperate men out to the Mount of Olives with a promise that he could make the walls of the city fall down in front of him. The Romans had dealt swiftly and efficiently with his followers; but he himself had escaped, and the captain had thought that Paul was this revolutionary Egyptian come back.….But when Paul stated his credentials, the captain knew that, whatever else Paul was, he was no revolutionary thug; and so he allowed him to speak. When Paul turned to speak, he made a gesture for silence – and, almost miraculously, complete silence fell on that roaring mob. Nothing in all the New Testament so shows the force of Paul’s personality as this silence that he commanded from the mob who would have lynched him. At that moment, the very power of God flowed through him.”

This is what New Testament preaching is, the revealing of the very power of God in words. Preaching is not a talent, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. There are many talented public speakers in pulpits today, there are far fewer anointed with the power to proclaim God’s word. If you want to preach here is what you do. Fill your heart with the written word of God, get filled repeatedly with the Holy Spirit, then put yourself in a position to proclaim the word; a mob will do just fine.