Not a jot or tittle needs to be added to what He has done in order to make it effective. The Church of God has been commissioned to continue the work. For example, there can be little doubt that Paul had many mistaken notions about many things but when he taught as an Apostle in the Spirit's power, he was infallible -- or rather the Spirit, who taught through him was infallible and the consequent teaching was infallible -- as infallible as God Himself. The teaching that the “ Spirit of the Lord God coming upon ” those who preach the gospel is the same as the “ Baptism of the Spirit ” the Apostles experienced during their ministry. xxiii.2, R. V., "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was upon my tongue." xii.29). It is sometimes said that Paul taught in his early ministry that the Lord would return during his lifetime, and that in this he was, of course, mistaken. Sometimes there is a certain reaction; a certain operation of God’s Spirit on our spirit produces a result, and that result opens the way for still larger results. Do we use the Word through which He operates, and thus give Him a chance to answer our prayers? But that there is only one way of coming into possession of Christ, and all that He has wrought for our salvation, is also clearly revealed. In the body of Christ, we each have a part to play for the common good of the body of Christ. It is impossible to draw positive lines of distinction between the successive steps of the Holy Spirit’s work in men’s hearts. The utterances of the Apostles and the prophets were the Word of God. It may have come with the thunders of Sinai, but the heart of it was always the message of mercy. The dying thief on the cross, who in penitence and faith, clung to Christ in his extremity, received that which not only healed the wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores of his moral and spiritual life; but gave him that adornment of the inner life without which no one can stand approved before the throne of God. The first step is a call to the spiritually dead. Another Person than themselves was thinking and speaking and they were seeking to comprehend what He said. The work of the Spirit in the world may surprise you. In all ages, from the time our first parents banished themselves from God’s garden, God has been having this call proclaimed. Holy Spirit works in the lives of believers to renew, sanctify, and make us holy. The Holy Spirit is the agent of this revelation. In 2 Sam. The necessity of this work, and the steps in its progress are the points under which our thoughts will be grouped. He gives this as a proof that the inspiration of the prophet does not differ from the inspiration of the artist or architect, but in doing this, he loses sight of the fact that the tabernacle was to be built after the "pattern shown to Moses in the Mount" (Ex. Not in the least. x.15, 16, "Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. In man’s original state of integrity he unquestionably lived in the sphere of faith, his whole life was a life of faith, of receptive dependence on God; but when sin came faith died. The Bible contains truth that men had never discovered before the Bible stated it. We further believe that the Holy Spirit, as is the case with the other members of the family of the Deity, has a particular work to perform, especially with respect to the carrying out of the plan whereby the children of men are to be saved. We read in 2 Peter i.21, R. V., "For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." The work of the Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity in the plan of salvation. Here again we are told that the utterance of God's prophet was the word of God. Everywhere, in past and present times, the world has been full of people eagerly alive to the opportunities which the world affords, pleasure and gain; but averse, wholly dead, to the things of God. The revelation made to the prophets was independent of their own thinking. They ministered chiefly to the chosen people, but the message was not confined to them. Some in the church see the Spirit as the dispenser of spectacular gifts. No doubt there are incalculable treasures of gold hidden in the recesses of the earth. A community of God’s children is established. Jane Williams. The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Early Church – Sermon outline by Kevin Cauley on the task of the Holy Spirit in the primitive church. “Gracious Spirit! So that it can be said of us, as of the Ephesians: “Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord” (5:8). The Holy Spirit’s passion is to see the gospel proclaimed to all people. Never has there been, never will there be another. The first faint, flickering consciousness of sin; the first dimly seen vision of Jesus as a Saviour; the first faint heartbeat of a desire to be rid of the darkness and to live in the light; this is the beginning of enlightenment. It was His word that was upon the prophet's tongue. Both the Old Testament and New Testament acquaint us with the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The natural man is blind, deaf and dumb to spiritual things, and this includes faith. The result of this life of ever growing faith and knowledge will be a life brought more and more into conformity to the pattern Christ has set before us in word and example. Some will not make it. 3:28). And as He went about on earth He was constantly inviting, urging men to come to Him that He might enrich them by the bestowal of His blessings. 3. Even Christian people, or those professedly so, give abundant evidence of the natural incapacity of the unaided human heart for the things of the Spirit. Hereby indicating something of their conception of the nature and the character of the operations, of their god. Luke was one of the followers of the apostles and was closed to Paul. Faith is not only the means whereby man passes through the portal into the kingdom of grace, faith is itself a gift of grace. So with our Christian life. With this call there always goes what is often called a prevenient grace; the deadness, the inertness, the positive attitude of repulsion is, for the time being at least, removed. We Christians believe that there is a God one of the persons of which Being is properly called the Holy Spirit. Only the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Baptism of the Holy Spirit The Apostles were already indwelt with the Holy Spirit before Pentecost. 11:6). We might call this an enlightment. To the superficial student, the doctrine of verbal inspiration may appear questionable or even absurd; any regenerated and Spirit-taught man, who ponders the words of the Scripture day after day and year after year, will become convinced that the wisdom of God is in the very words, as well as in the thought which the words endeavour to convey. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things….” (John 14:26). There is also the account of the Holy Spirit forbidding Paul to go to Asia to preach the gospel. And His work for man’s salvation was complete. Text taken from John 14:26. Holy Spirit in Apostles and Prophets, and his work in other men, often refer to the fact that the Bible says that Bezaleel was to be "filled with the Spirit of God" to devise the work of the Tabernacle, as a proof that the inspiration of the prophet does not differ from the inspiration of the artist I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.". We read in Heb. The answer to this is very simple. Nothing more is needed. When thus borne along by the Holy Spirit it was God who was speaking and not the prophet. The Divine origin of nature shines forth more clearly in the use of a microscope as we see the perfection of form and adaptation of means to end of the minutest particles of matter. Since my earliest days in Christ I have been fascinated by the Holy Spirit. Salvation full and free has been prepared by Christ, is found in Him, and received with Him. There is nothing in the Bible more inspired than the tabernacle, and if the Destructive Critics would study it more, they would give up their ingenious but untenable theories as to the composite structure of the Pentateuch. We believe that He is the third person of the holy Trinity, that He is co-equal with the Father and the Son in all that makes each of these persons God. Stephen Unthank. In what way can we speak of an absolute necessity of the Spirit’s work? In Jesus the world was privileged to see the glory of God’s grace as well as His truth. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord; but by the Holy Ghost. But this call is never wholly in vain. 1 Cor. If we could not account at all for this fact, it would have but little weight against the explicit statement of God's Word with any one who is humble enough and wise enough to recognize that there are a great many things which he cannot account for at all which could be easily accounted for if he knew more. In what way can we speak of an absolute necessity of the Spirit’s work? The doctrine is becoming very common and very popular in our day that the work of the Holy Spirit in preachers and teachers and in ordinary believers, illuminating them and guiding them into the truth and opening their minds to understand the Word of God is the same in kind and differs only in degree from the work of the Holy Spirit in prophets and apostles. It was not their own thought, but His. In a similar way God says in 1 Thess. Do all speak with tongues? There is not one of the most distinctive and precious doctrines taught in the Bible that men have ever discovered apart from the Bible. Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit. Let’s be as clear as possible: Peter had … It was not mere architecture. And after each new accession, the plaintive announcement went forth, “and yet there is room.” And that there might be no shadow of doubt as to the inclusiveness of His invitation, He says: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”. In spite of all that God the Holy Spirit has done for them, and is still striving to do in them, how weak, often, is our faith, how lethargic is our spiritual life; how slothful we are in doing the Spirit’s work. There is an episode where He spoke to the church at Antioch to separate Saul and Barnabas for the ministry. How Did the Holy Spirit Speak to the Apostles? And a faint and faltering vision of the good things offered him. Jesus had repeatedly told the disciples that He was going to die and be raised from the dead, but th… The Seventy Disciples and Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ are those Whom our Saviour chose in addition to the Twelve and sent forth unto the work of preaching. The Work of Apostles This is the great commission given to us by Christ, spread the Good News to all nations, and Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Of the seventy or so occurrences of the … It is not an acquisition to be purchased at any price. The folly of all this is evident when we bear in mind that the revelation of God transcends human reasoning, and that any consciousness that is not the product of the study and absorption of Bible truth is not really a Christian consciousness. Many do not like to make it. 12:3. “And ye would not” is the lament which even wounded omnipotence must often make. and to walk on the ragged edge of the precipice where lurk the deadly perils? We read in 1 Cor. Just a little patient study of God’s holy Word, just a little observation with grace enlightened eyes, will suffice to make this point clear. If this laying hold of Christ is real it will suffice to save, for it is not the strength of the grasp, but the object grasped, which saves. The capacity for faith is in every human soul, but it is not self-generated or developed, as are the faculties of the mind. Love Divine!Let Thy light within me shine;All my guilty fears remove;Fill me with Thy heav’nly love. Today on Groundwork, let's discuss the meaning packed into these two simple lines and exactly what we're professing belief in when we recite them. Brethren, these are no abstract, speculative truths of which we are treating; they are vital to the Christian life, vital as the rain and the sunshine are to vegetable life. He kept constantly urging his servants to renewed exertions in their efforts to find other guests. This work of calling the children of men into God’s kingdom is still going on. Do we yield to His gracious solicitations? And in one way or another, it was always percolating out to the farthest confines of the races of men. 5. This is the only way to growth in grace. This is the reason Jesus says: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God (St. John 3:3, 5). And this work He does in the person of the Holy Spirit. The steps in the progress of the Holy Spirit’s work in bringing men into sonship and heirship in the Kingdom of God is the next point to which we will give our attention. In the Bible we have the record of what he taught as an Apostle. This may have been due to their slowness to believe all that the prophets had spoken, especially the truths related to Messiah’s suffering (Luke 24:25-26). The Holy Spirit as “Helper” did the work of revelation, making known to … The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the day of the Pentecost is described by the Evangelist Luke in the opening chapters of his book of the “Acts of the Apostles.” God decided to make this event a turning point in world history. After Jesus ascended to Heaven His Apostles, together with Mary and other members of the original Christian Church, continued to pray together until the feast of Pentecost when, in accordance with Jesus' promise, "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. But Paul never taught anywhere that the Lord would return in his lifetime. The book of Acts is called Acts of the Apostles but more aptly it is the work of the Holy Spirit working through the apostles. The Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts . Is there an implication in this statement to the effect that Christ’s work for our salvation is in any way lacking? Luke is the most illuminating gospel writer on the topic of the Holy Spirit. In the many Bibles that I have read and worn out, I have marked with a red pen countless references to the Holy Spirit in both the Old and New Testaments. In comparison with the unutterable darkness which prevailed before it would not be without justification; but it is enlightenment only as the mastery of the alphabet opens the way to the great field of literature. Of this we shall have more to say later, but let us remember that it is written that those, and those only, who “are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God (Rom. It was made to them by the Spirit of Christ which was in them. These who are only embittered and hardened withdraw, or appear only to oppose; those who are attracted, who begin to recognize in what God offers in His message that which fits to the needs of their souls, come out more and more decidedly on God’s side. Even those people who never heard of God’s inspired Revelation of Himself believe in a supreme, overruling Being. As he was still living when he wrote the words, he naturally and properly did not include himself with those who had already fallen asleep in speaking of the Lord's return. As a result, there is soon a separation of elements. But some one may ask, "If the Holy Spirit is the author of the words of Scripture, how do we account for variations in style and diction? The presence of the Holy Spirit leads to holy forgetfulness. 8:7). As we will see later in this lesson, only God can have the power of the Most High. 2. “But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. Take the parallels of Luke and Acts and discern the work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the relationship of Jesus Christ's work. The spread of the gospel is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. When He said, “I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst,” it was the strongest kind of an invitation to men to come and find in Him all their souls needed. Are we anxious to have Him? And this leading has special reference here to the Christian life. Wherever God’s Word is preached forces are set into operation, forces of attraction or repulsion. To request a printable copy [PDF] send an email to: editor@lutheranlibrary.org with the title of this post. The accuracy, precision and inerrancy of the exact words used is amazing. Just as the Holy Spirit raised Christ from the dead, the Holy Spirit will give eternal life to believers in Christ. 1. It contains truth that men never could have discovered if left to themselves. It is true he says in 1 Thess. We read in Eph. Jesus sends His disciples into the world to witness under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Without this work no one can be saved. They are truths which have to do with the genesis of the Christian life, but they are not only for our Christian childhood, but vital yet for the ripest Christian manhood and womanhood. All, let it be constantly borne in mind, the result of the operation of the Spirit of God, brought to bear on the minds and hearts of men through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, and the administration of the Divinely ordained sacraments. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; …” The Lord knew that the disciples were not ready at that point to bear all that He could teach them. It is made possible for the one to whom the call comes to accept. When Jesus came He was Himself the clearest call God had ever given the children of men to come to Him. This is the reason Jesus says, through the Apostle, “No man can say, say believingly, with an appropriating faith, “that Jesus is the Lord, but by the holy Ghost.” The perfect salvation in Christ Jesus awaits us, but the organ of appropriation is wanting. The fact that the Bible does contain truth that man never had discovered we know not merely because it is so stated in the Scriptures, but we know it also as a matter of fact. In the parable of the wedding feast He shows how deeply grieved He is at the empty seats. The prophet was simply the mouth by which the Holy Spirit spoke. There has been a good deal of confusion about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. And to this end He sends forth His call. This lesson talks about the Holy Spirit's divinity, his full membership in the Godhead. And with the Holy Spirit’s teaching there comes the power to accept what is taught. Just as fully God as the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is unseen, yet very active, empowering individual believers and the Church alike. Are all workers of miracles? The work of the Holy Spirit is to give spiritual gifts for the church’s edification. Throughout all ages Jesus stands at the portal of that narrow way which leads to heaven, and says: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” He has made complete satisfaction for our sins. There is the possibility at least of his asking, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? There are many who tell us to-day that we should test the statements of Scripture by the conclusions of human reasoning or by the "Christian consciousness." xxiii.2, we read, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue." This moment has traditionally been called the birthday of the Church. A change of a word, or letter, or a tense, or case, or number, in many instances would land us into contradiction or untruth, but taking the words exactly as written, difficulties disappear and truth shines forth. It produced works with evidences (Acts 4:14-17, 5:14-16) c. It empowered the believers to witness (Acts 4:19-20). It considers his personhood, noting that the Holy Spirit is a true person and not simply a divine force. Everything everywhere in human life substantiates the Scripture teaching that man is by nature spiritually dead, that a new life must be begotten in him. Jesus Christ Himself is the one perfect manifestation in history of the complete work of the Holy Spirit in man. Clearly then, the prophet was simply an instrument in the hands of another, as the Spirit of God carried him along, so he spoke. No one, without the help of the Holy Spirit, can say that Jesus is the Christ; but with his help all can say it, and He wants to help every one to say it. 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