Charles Spurgeon and the Real Presence of Christ in Preaching

Most Southern Baptist preachers today know the name Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Considered the “Prince of Preachers,” Spurgeon pastored the largest Baptist congregation in London during the Victorian era.¹ His voice thundered out of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and into the world. A hallmark of his homiletic was his emphasis on Christ-centered preaching.² While the Lion of London may not have actually said, “I take my text and make a beeline to the cross,” it does seem to be consistent with Spurgeon’s homiletical hermeneutic.³ This short article elucidates an aspect of Spurgeon’s Christocentric homiletic by exploring his view of Christ’s real presence in proclamation.⁴

Spurgeon on Christ’s Real Presence

Throughout Spurgeon’s sermonic corpus there are various references to Christ’s real presence. In one sermon in particular entitled, “Jesus in Our Midst,” he states, 

The last thing of all is this, Jesus Christ, when he came among his disciples, left certain permanent gifts, which also can be realized by his spiritual presence. One of the most precious gifts he left among them was the realization of his person…Now, it is very desirable that we should all of us realize the actualness of Jesus Christ as God and man, and we can do it this morning if he will come and overshadow us with his presence. There be some of us to whom Christ has been a world more real than ourselves, for we have sometimes scarce known whether we were in the body or out of the body, when he has been near, but we have always known whether he was in the body or out of the body. We have felt as if wife and father and mother were shadows that would pass away, but we have realized the eternal existence of Christ, and known that he could not pass away; and so spiritually we have grasped him more firmly than we have our own kith and kin. The most real thing under heaven to my soul is the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, can you all say that? If you can, then Christ has been present with you this morning.⁵

Spurgeon argues that while Christ is physically located in heaven, by virtue of the Spirit’s work, Jesus is spiritually present among His people. He states, “he [Christ] is present with us by the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, whom the Father has sent in his name. It is by the working of the Spirit of God that Christ’s presence in the church is manifested.”⁶ The mediation of Christ’s presence by the Spirit is not an abstract idea. Christ’s real presence is made a reality by being made one with Christ by the Spirit.⁷ The result of this union is the spiritual mediation of Christ’s real presence to the believer personally and intimately. For Spurgeon, union with Christ is central to the benefits of redemption. It is by understanding the Spirit’s mediatory role of Christ’s presence to those united to Him by faith, that Spurgeon can claim that the ordinances are “truly profitable,” especially, “the preaching of the Word.”⁸

Christ’s Presence in Scripture

In a sermon on Hebrews 4:12, Spurgeon articulates a high view of Scripture. He argues, “As the Christ reveals God, so this Book reveals Christ, and therefore it partakes, as the Word of God, in all the attributes of the Incarnate Word.”⁹ By virtue of Christ’s resurrection, “the Word of God is alive. This is a living Book. This is a mystery which only living men, quickened by the Spirit of God, will fully comprehend.”¹⁰ The Spirit of God works mysteriously to make the Bible effectual to those who hear and read it. “Jesus Christ’s presence is always known by his people by the value and the beauty which they are led to attach to the Scripture at such times. The Bible is one book in the dark and another book in the light.”¹¹ For Spurgeon, the Bible is a means by which the Spirit communicates Jesus’s presence to His people. The “sacred illuminator” reveals Christ in the Word so the eyes of faith sense Christ.¹² There is an inseparable relationship between the Spirit inspired Word and the Exalted Christ. Spurgeon says, “The more light a man has directly from the Spirit the more he prizes the light of the Spirit in the Word, and the more truly he gets into communion with the unseen Christ the more does he delight in the truth as revealed to him in the pages of inspiration. May we know Christ’s presence by that sign and token this morning!”¹³

Christ’s Presence in Preaching

The Spirit mediates Christ’s presence through the Bible. This is why Spurgeon calls preaching the operative Word. He declares, “So the way in which we receive light is by the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Christ himself is the essential Word, and the preaching of Christ Jesus is the operative Word. We receive Christ actually when God’s power goes with God’s Word—then have we light. Hence the necessity of continually preaching the Word of God.”¹⁴ Preaching as the operative Word entails Christ’s real presence. If Christ is not present in preaching by the Spirit, it is not operative. The effectual nature of preaching is grounded in the interrelationship of Scripture, the Spirit, and the faithful minister. “He [Christ] speaks in the word of Scripture…he speaks through his sent servants…he speaks by his Holy Spirit to the hearts of his people.¹⁵ Therefore, in the event of proclamation Christ is truly present.¹⁶

In the sermon, Spiritual Sight and Eternal Life, Spurgeon goes to great lengths to discuss this type of Spirit-empowered-real-presence preaching. He states, 

If anyone—even the feeblest among us—will teach others the truth which he has received from the Holy Spirit, feeling that all power in heaven and earth is given to Christ, and that, therefore, he has sent his servants to preach his gospel to all nations, such a man shall have the presence of Christ, and shall realize it by the power which will rest upon him, and by the results which will follow his testimony. Yes, brethren, Christ is with his people still. The power of Christ is not only up there in heaven, but it is given to him on earth as well; and he clothes with his Spirit those who preach his gospel simply and humbly, and that Spirit breaks men’s hearts, and binds them up again…¹⁷

It is not surprising then that Spurgeon regarded “the preaching of the gospel” as a “continual means of grace.”¹⁸ Grace comes to a believer’s soul through the proclamation of the gospel.¹⁹ He boldly proclaims, “When we trust the preacher, or the preaching, we get nothing; but when we trust in Christ alone, then he makes the preacher, and the preaching, and other means of grace to be the channels of blessing to our souls.”²⁰

Contemporary Implications

For many Southern Baptist preachers, Charles Spurgeon is a model for Christ centered preaching. Yet, do we really comprehend the deep spiritual nature of Spurgeon’s preaching? His rich theology of preaching should encourage us as preachers to consider the implications of Christ’s real presence in our own preaching. Our real, vibrant, and intimate union with Christ should give way to a deeper homiletic. Indeed, we should learn homiletical method. But we must give careful attention to Christ’s real presence in the study, the pulpit, and the pews. Christ’s presence in preaching, according to Spurgeon, is not a mechanical process. He does not “show up” by us saying the right words. Preaching does not work ex opere operato. Rather, Christ is present through the mysterious move of the Spirit working in tandem with the inspired Word. In the end, preaching is God’s deed, not ours. 

The concept of Christ’s real presence in preaching may seem odd to many Southern Baptists. Perhaps it sounds too “sacramental.”²¹ Yet, I think Wymer is correct when he states, “The writings of many Baptist theologians have recognized the human matter of the preaching event as the primary means through which God is active and present in the church and the world, whether or not it has been explicitly named. Most do not thoroughly grapple with the technical aspects of exactly how matter symbolizes and enacts God’s presence and action in preaching.”²² Quite frankly, many of our early English Baptist forebearers had no trouble speaking about preaching in sacramental terms.²³ Nevertheless, Christ is active in the event of proclamation. Christ is also experienced by hearers who through faith sense His presence. Therefore, we should conclude with Stephen Olford when he writes, “Preaching, we should not hesitate to say, has a sacramental character.”²⁴ So brothers, may we sense Christ’s presence and pleasure in our own preaching. 

1. For more information about Spurgeon’s preaching see, Thomas J. Nettles, “Charles Haddon Spurgeon: The Prince of Preachers,” in A Legacy of Preaching: Enlightenment to the Present Day, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 102-124.  ↩︎
2. Greidanus offers a helpful critique of Spurgeon’s Christocentric homiletic. See Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 151–163. ↩︎
3. The Spurgeon Center, “6 Things Spurgeon Didn’t Say,” https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/blog-entries/6-things-spurgeon-didnt-say/ ↩︎
4. Homiletical historian, Hughes Oliphant Old, alludes to this aspect of Spurgeon’s preaching, though he does not go into great detail. See Hughes Oliphant Old, The Modern Age, vol. 6, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2007), 442–443. ↩︎
5. C. H. Spurgeon, “Jesus in Our Midst,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 21 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1875), 526–527. ↩︎
6. C. H. Spurgeon, “The Real Presence, the Great Want of the Church,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 18 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1872), 86. ↩︎
7. C. H. Spurgeon, “Praise for the Gift of Gifts,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 38 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1892), 124. ↩︎
8. Spurgeon, “The Real Presence, the Great Want of the Church,” 86. ↩︎
9. C. H. Spurgeon, “The Word a Sword,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 34 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1888), 110. ↩︎
10. Spurgeon, “The Word a Sword,” 111–112. ↩︎
11. Spurgeon, “Jesus in Our Midst,” 523. ↩︎
12. C. H. Spurgeon, “Intimate Knowledge of the Holy Spirit,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 35 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1889), 137. ↩︎
13. Spurgeon, “Jesus in Our Midst,” 523. ↩︎
14. C. H. Spurgeon, “Light, Natural and Spiritual,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 11 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1865), 640. ↩︎
15. C. H. Spurgeon, “Attention!,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 61 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1915), 8. ↩︎
16. Spurgeon, “Attention!,” 1. ↩︎
17. C. H. Spurgeon, “Spiritual Sight and Eternal Life,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 51 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1905), 450. ↩︎
18. C. H. Spurgeon, “A Memorable Milestone,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 51 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1905), 5. ↩︎
19. C. H. Spurgeon, “Farm Labourers,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 27 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1881), 321. ↩︎
20. C. H. Spurgeon, “The Free-Agency of Christ,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 50 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1904), 346. ↩︎
21. See Haykin’s work on retrieving a healthy Baptist sacramentalism. Michael A. G. Haykin, Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands: Recovering Sacrament in the Baptist Tradition (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2022).  ↩︎
22. Andrew Wymer, “The Word of God ‘Enfleshed Anew’: The Implications of a Latent Baptist Sacramental Sensibility for the Lord’s Supper,” Worship 89, no. 5 (January 1, 2015): 439.   ↩︎
23. These writers, as with Spurgeon, were quick to differ from a Roman Catholic view of sacramentalism.  ↩︎
24. Olford writes, “On the other hand, the sermon is indeed the visible and audible sign of the grace that is given when, to borrow the language of the Epistle to the Hebrews, “the word preached” is “mixed with faith” on the part of those who hear. The pulpit should be seen as a sign of the grace of God standing within the divinely created community of faith the Church.” Stephen F. Olford, “Restoring the Scriptures to Baptist Worship,” Review & Expositor 85, no. 1 (January 1, 1988): 26-27.  ↩︎