Baptised with Heavenly Power, Philip H. Eveson

Baptised  with Heavenly Power:

The Holy Spirit in the Teaching and Experience

of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

by Philip H. Eveson

Mentor/Christian Focus, 2025, 421pp

Last November my wife and I visited Cardiff to watch the Wales v South Africa rugby match at the Principality Stadium. It was raining quite heavily that day, so we decided to do a bit of window shopping before the game. We wandered around various departments in the John Lewis store and then headed into St. David's centre, which was thronged with Christmas shoppers. Sarah spotted some familiar faces in the crowd. It was Philip and Jenny Eveson accompanied by one of their grandchildren. 

I first became acquainted with the author and his wife when I was a student what was then the London Theological Seminary (now simply London Seminary), from 1988-90. Mr Eveson was not only Resident Tutor at the seminary at the time, he was also pastor of Kensit Evangelical Church, of which I became a member. The seminary was founded by D.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones in 1977. His influence still loomed large when I studied there. 

We stopped to chat and Philip mentioned he had written a book that was being prepared for publication. This book. He was kind enough to have a review copy sent to me. The author was personally acquainted with Lloyd-Jones and had heard him preach on numerous occasions. I hadn't even heard of the famous preacher until after I was converted (circa 1984), and by then he had died (1981). However, I came across some his books as a young believer and read them avidly. As I recall the first Lloyd-Jones title I read was Prove All Things, followed by Joy Unspeakable. As I was beginning to feel the first stirrings of a call to pastoral ministry a lay-pastor friend lent me a copy of Preaching and Preachers. 

By the time I arrived at seminary I had read most of Lloyd-Jones's multi-volume expositions of Romans and Ephesians. Although it wasn't until later that the final volumes in the Romans series were published. What impressed me about Lloyd-Jones's writings was his strong emphasis on biblical doctrine, wedded to a deeply experiential thrust. He defined preaching as 'theology on fire', which sounded good to me. It wasn't until I arrived at the seminary that I discovered that Lloyd-Jones's teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit was the cause of some controversy. Influential leaders such as John Stott, Donald Macleod and Peter Masters were quite critical of some of Lloyd-Jones's writings. Some detractors even accused him of being a 'crypto-Pentecostal', or 'Reformed-Charismatic'. 

It seems that there are still some misgivings about aspects of Lloyd-Jones's teaching on the work of the Holy Spirit. Eveson writes in part to correct these misapprehensions, but he goes beyond answering critics to offer a constructive account of what Lloyd-Jones had to say on key elements of the Spirit's work. He does this in the opening chapters by locating the preacher in the context of the Reformed tradition, especially that of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists of the Evangelical Revival. As the label suggests leaders such as Daniel Rowland and William Williams were solidly Reformed in their doctrine, but they had also experienced an outpouring of the Spirit that enabled them to preach with great power. They urged their converts to seek full assurance of salvation through the witness of the Spirit. 

It wasn't unusual for an older generation of Reformed writers to understand New Testament terms such as 'baptism with the Holy Spirit' or 'sealing of the Spirit' to denote a special empowering of the Spirit to give boldness in preaching and assurance of salvation. Lloyd-Jones drew upon this aspect of the tradition in articulating his views. In fact, his exposition of the sealing of the Spirit in Ephesians 1:13 and the witness of the Spirit in Romans 8:15-16 draws heavily on the work of the Puritan Thomas Goodwin. 

Eveson gives close attention to Lloyd-Jones's handling of the biblical materials on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Chapters are devoted to the baptism, sealing and filling of the Holy Spirit. The writer interacts with critics of Lloyd-Jones's views. He is honest enough to point out that the preacher didn't always express himself consistently. In some sermons Pentecost is seen as the 'birthday of the church' that constituted her the one body of Christ, in others he distances himself from that position. Whatever may be thought of some of the details of Lloyd-Jones's expositions, it seems evident that the New Testament holds out the promise that since Pentecost a greater fullness of the Spirit may be sought and experienced by believers. Preachers are in need of the Spirit's empowering presence in their ministries. Believers may be filled with the Spirit, granting them assurance of salvation and inexpressible joy in the Lord.  

There has been a widespread recovery of expository preaching in Evangelical Churches in the United Kingdom. That is welcome, of course, but in practice what passes for 'expository preaching' can on occasion be reduced to an explanation of the meaning of a Bible passage, with a few words of application thrown in. A sermon may even be nicely structured and well-illustrated, but the element of 'theology on fire' may be conspicuous by its absence. Eveson provides a helpful corrective to this tendency in a number of chapters devoted to Lloyd-Jones's teaching on the relationship between word and Spirit in preaching. 

Preachers must proclaim the truth of Scripture faithfully and accurately, but they also need to  experience something of the wonder of that truth in their own hearts and lives. Eveson draws upon Lloyd-Jones's testimony to his own spiritual trials and experiences of God to help explain what made his preaching ministry so compelling. While it is true that the Spirit is always at work whenever the word of God is proclaimed, the Spirit's power may be more or less evident, both upon the preacher and also in he lives of those who hear the truth. Having only just been filled with the Sprit at Pentecost, the early church prayed that the Lord would 'grant your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness' (Acts 4:29). The Lord answered their prayers by filling the people afresh with the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31). The contemporary church urgently needs a fresh outpouring of the Spirit in all his fulness and Christ-exalting power. That is what will make the 'Quiet Revival' we are hearing so much about a 'Great Awakening'. 

Well, it was good to renew fellowship with the Evesons that rainy afternoon in Cardiff. I'm grateful for the review copy of Baptised with Heavenly Power. It's a powerful reminder of some vital truths. For my summer project at the seminary I wrote a essay on 'The Sealing of the Spirit'. I drew upon the writings of D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones, Thomas Goodwin and others in seeking to understand the meaning of Paul's words in Ephesians 1:13. Graham Harrison, lecturer in Christian Doctrine at the seminary oversaw my project. In his remarks on the essay, Harrison commented, 'Remember, there is always more with God'. That, in essence, is the burden of this book.