Billy Graham: Called to Preach

I hadn't planned to do a portrait paper on Billy Graham. I thought that he was too pedestrian. I wanted to choose a more "exotic" pulpiteer. Then my son gave me a book called Billy Graham; God's Ambassador. This book is a collection of photographs of Billy Graham illustrating his lifelong mission of preaching the Gospel around the world. As I read through the book, I found that I really didn't know much about Billy at all. The hundreds of pictures compelled me to paint this portrait of Billy Graham.

His preaching style - Billy Graham is a pure evangelist. He relates that when he was a young man reading through the book of Ephesians, he realized that he was not called to be a pastor, but an evangelist. He always has been targeted toward one goal - calling each person to make a decision to follow Christ, and to do it today. His preaching style is shaped toward meeting this goal. A typical line in his sermon would be: "Have you ever wondered why God put you on earth, what is the purpose and meaning of life? It is to know Him, and to know His love." Billy never strays far from the path set by the Apostle Paul: "to preach Christ and Him crucified".

Preparation - Billy Graham preaches one single, simple, message: "Come and meet Jesus, that you might be saved". Although every sermon is unique, each sermon is a variation of this theme. He says that he uses from twenty-five to one hundred passages of Scripture with every sermon. At the beginning of his public career, he preached for eight straight weeks in Los Angeles, giving a different sermon every day. His wife, Ruth, says that "he exhausted all of his material and searched desperately for sermon topics. All he could think about was preaching (p 52)." As an evangelist, Billy Graham always knows what his message will be ["Ye must be born again"], his challenge is to continually find new and inventive ways to present this message in such a way that meets the needs of his audience.

Presentation - Billy Graham likes to stand aside and let verses of scripture do the talking for him. He holds up his Bible and encourages people to take its words seriously. He is full of gesture and body movement. His messages are presented with sincerity and simplicity. He presents himself as "one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread". He says humbly that "I am just a spectator watching what God is doing (p 110)." A prototype sermon might be the one he preached in Harryingay, England, in 1954. His opening was "Does God Matter?". His text was John 3:16. His sermon explained that "No sin has ever escaped the eyes of God, but that no sinner has ever escaped the love of God." His closing was "There is only one way back to Him, and it is through Jesus Christ".

His kingdom influence - "Billy Graham has preached the Gospel face-to-face to more than 100 million people on six different continents, in 84 countries of the world, and in all of America's fifty states. His crusades across the globe - in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia, and Africa - have broke stadium attendance records. And with the advent of radio, television, and satellite broadcasts, Billy has reached more than 2 billion people (p 99)." Can anything more be said about his kingdom influence?

I admire Billy Graham mostly for three persons that he did not become. He did not succumb to the three wilderness temptations of spiritual pride, worldly power, or lustful possessions. Billy Graham did not become the founder of a denomination. The Reverend Maurice Wood said of him, "He doesn't want a Graham church. He is more interested in sharing the load than grabbing the limelight (p 22)". He did not become a politician. "Nixon once asked if Billy would be willing to be his running mate for Vice President, and after his election he asked Billy which administration job he would like. Billy looked him in the eye and said 'God called me to preach the Gospel, and I consider that the highest calling the world (p 190)." He did not become a millionaire. "Their answer was for Billy to be paid a salary by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, comparable to the amount received by a pastor of a large church (p 65)". As Billy Graham says it over and over: he has but one passion, to preach the gospel.