CHRISTIANEDUCATIONANDPASTORS
The Making of a Minister by Dr. Vance Havner
situation into an opportunity fo r testimony. Beyond all this, however, we have set before us in this sermon the model minister. All that goes into the making o f a true preacher o f the Gospel is wrapped up in this mighty message. Paul begins with his own personal testimony and thus we have first, THE MAN. When God gets ready to make a preacher, He begins with the man. What kind o f man? A changed man, a transformed man. Paul was going the wrong way with a vengeance when he encountered Jesus Christ on the Damascus road. Now it is not necessary that one be stricken down by a blinding light but there must be “ an original experience o f Jesus Christ.” Too many are living on a second-hand experience.
ul ’ s address before A grippa is a model in more ways than one. It is a model sermon. It is a model defense. It is a model in psychology. It is a model o f how a Christian gentleman should act on trial. It is a model illustration o f our Saviour’s w ord s: “ Ye shall be brought before governors and kings fo r my sake, fo r a testimony against them and the Gentiles; but when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak : fo r it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit o f your Father which speaketh in you” (Matt. 10 :18-20 ). I do not know what else Paul would have said had he not been interrupted by Festus. But even there we have an example o f how to turn every
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JUNE, 1967
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